Posted by: Mary Alice Anderson on: February 12, 2012
Not the trail that Lewis and Clark traveled, but the memorable computer game. Ask a group of adults about their first memories of computers; often they mention Oregon Trail. Some recall the original Apple II green and black version; others a CD-ROM (WOW) or networked version. My current online students brought up Oregon Trail in [...]
Posted by: Mary Alice Anderson on: December 14, 2011
It’s Personal! Transforming Pedagogy with Technology was the theme of this year’s very well attended annual TIES technology conference. As always I came home with new resources and ideas to incorporate in online courses. Web Tools for Grades 4-8 In-Depth Inquiry captured my attention; two teachers shared easy to implement ideas such as using Todaysmeet.com [...]
Posted by: Mary Alice Anderson on: November 28, 2011
“Mary Alice can take care of the e-newsletter; she has the tech skills.” The skills I have acquired continue to be valuable in so many ways — creating e-newsletters or databases, helping others, teaching online classes and working on education related projects. It’s all relative! There is always someone who knows more than [...]
Posted by: Mary Alice Anderson on: September 26, 2011
” Mary Alice can do the e-newsletter; she has the tech skills; She got us all using Google Docs. “ It’s fun to be recognized for my tech skills and glad to put them to use in many ways. But. . . .it’s all relative! Someone always knows and can do more than us; someone [...]
Posted by: Mary Alice Anderson on: September 13, 2011
As the school year begin a media specialist posted a request for help on LM_Net.* I know [we] used to be able to set up free accounts to databases such as EBSCO and must admit, I just never seemed to get around to taking care of this . . . Are any databases still available [...]
Posted by: Mary Alice Anderson on: September 12, 2011
A university student’s eyes lit up when I said I taught a course for teachers on using primary sources in the classroom! I learned about them in high school; I’m glad I did; my university professors expect us to know how to find them and use them for research. I wish we had used them [...]
Posted by: Mary Alice Anderson on: August 7, 2011
. . . The links I wanted my students to use were dead. We went back to the classroom and didn’t use the lab that day. It’s new, but “old” and familiar story. It never hurts to double check to make sure everything is in working order, even if your students are using resources you [...]
Posted by: Mary Alice Anderson on: May 5, 2011
Why are media specialists still closing media centers at the end of the year for inventory? Automation systems and better yet — hand held PDA’s make it an unnecessary and outdated practice. What message does this send to students who want to read? What message does it send to decision makers who are eliminating media [...]
Posted by: Mary Alice Anderson on: February 12, 2011
Primary sources are all around us. They are our documents, letters, emails, home videos, ticket stubs, airplane tickets, greeting cards, legal documents, receipts and so much more that we generate or acquire on a daily basis. I see photos and old menus on display in restaurants, old medical records displayed in the local hospital, spice [...]
Posted by: Mary Alice Anderson on: February 5, 2011
Is there renewed attention to the limited use of technology in the classroom? Just after I shared my concern eSchool News published news of discussions between superintendents and ed-tech directors about how to ensure that technology is integrated in the classroom. The discussions were part of a webinar sponsored by the Consortium for School [...]
Posted by: Mary Alice Anderson on: January 31, 2011
There are lots of wonderful things happening but. . . .the topic that doesn’t go away is concern about the limited number of technology based, authentic learning activities offered to students. The Nov/Dec 2010 issue of EdTechMag (edtechmag.com) from CDWG explains the situation in a brief article about a survey of 1000 teachers and students. [...]
