Issue link: http://osercommunicationsgroup.uberflip.com/i/137888
Wednesday, June 26, 2013 Ed Tech Show Daily 21 including group discussions and videos, and by breaking up the process into simple, manageable steps. One school district user in Eagle, Colo. concurred with other schools using the program, describing it as "…very hands-on and studentfriendly…It made my students' learning increase and misunderstandings decrease." Britannica's Curriculum Specialist Sara Torpey, a former teacher, understands the value of a teaching approach that reveals misconceptions. "This uncovering, paired with the strong text and multimedia evidence within each Pathways lesson, allows students to discover the correct concept and work their way towards 'Ah! Now that makes more sense!'" Pathways: Science supports Common Core Standards by exposing students to rigorous, nonfiction reading content and encouraging them to research, write, communicate, think critically, and use technology. In addition to this alignment, teachers find that Pathways: Science supports the Next Generation Science Standards and integrates easily with other classroom resources that are being used to teach middle school science. Pathways: Science is creating a lot of excitement among middle school science teachers in Arkansas, which purchased a state-wide subscription, the Okaloosa County and Sumter County schools in Florida, and Wake County Schools in North Carolina, just to name a few. Calling it "an excellent curricular support service for the middle school," Internet@Schools gave the program four stars and recommended it for the classroom. A free lesson and more information can be found at info.eb.com/science. leading adaptive technology to arrive on the tablet. The program captures every decision a student makes while working in the program and adjusts the student's learning path appropriately, providing millions of individualized learning paths, each one tailored to a student's unique needs. For schools executing a tablet strategy in the 2013-2014 academic year, DreamBox Learning Math for iPad will be available to play a key part in students' academic success. "We have closely tracked the adop- tion of tablet strategies in school districts nationwide through our relationships with administrators and teachers who have served as our compass in bringing DreamBox Learning Math to the iPad," said DreamBox President and CEO Jessie Woolley-Wilson. "Our mission is to provide teachers with the best eLearning technology for every student on the most viable platforms, ensuring success in the classroom." DreamBox Learning Math for iPad will also empower teachers by delivering real-time data that can be used to create effective lesson plans and fine-tune work groups for both off- and on-line instruction in blended learning environments. This detailed reporting is gathered based on upwards of 50,000 pieces of informa- tion per student, per hour, collected and analyzed by the DreamBox Intelligent Adaptive Learning engine. DreamBox Learning is currently used in classrooms throughout the U.S. and Canada as part of forward-thinking, blended learning strategies aimed at closing the achievement gap for all students. The program has received more than 30 industry awards – most recently two prestigious CODiE honors for "Best Mathematics Instructional Solution" and "Best PK-12 Personalized Learning Solution." COMMON CORE: FORCING US INTO THE FUTURE, SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT NETWORK EASES THE WAY the information. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.WHST.6-8.6 Use technology, including the Internet, to publish writing and present relationships between information and ideas. BRITANNICA'S INTERACTIVE PATHWAY TO LEARNING SCIENCE Why is it warmer in the summer? Why does a feather fall more slowly than a baseball? How can we see in the dark? Students in grades six through eight take a hands-on approach to finding and understanding answers to these questions with Pathways: Science, new from Britannica Digital Learning. This online supplemental resource supports the science curriculum, with nearly 100 classroom-ready lessons. Its three-step, inquiry-based framework targets commonly held misconceptions to help students gain a true understanding of topics ranging from matter, force and motion, energy, light and sound to living systems, heredity and evolution, the environment, earth systems, and the universe. How does Pathways: Science work? A scaffolded, KWL approach uses a number of graphic organizers to actively guide students' learning. Starting with a "probe" question, such as, "What will happen if you drop a tennis ball and a baseball at the same time, from the same height," they explore prior knowledge, investigate a topic, evaluate data, and develop conclusions. The probe question uncovers student ideas about a concept and encourages class discussion. Next, students formulate hypotheses and consider what evidence they will need to evaluate each hypothesis, then collect data in support of their hypotheses using articles, illustrations, and video located just a click away within Pathways: Science. Class discussion and quizzes check students' understanding. Educators know very well that misconceptions formed early on can become challenging obstacles to learning in middle school. Pathways: Science tackles these misconceptions in engaging ways, DREAMBOX LEARNING MATH TO LAUNCH ON IPAD THIS FALL DreamBox Learning has announced that a version of its award-winning DreamBox Learning Math program is currently under development for the iPad and scheduled for release in fall 2013. Targeting PreK-5, DreamBox Learning Math has been called a 'game changer' for its Intelligent Adaptive Learning technology that delivers an unprecedented level of personalized and highly motivating instruction for students at all learning levels. Educators throughout North America are anxiously awaiting the market- By Cameron Pipkin Improvement Network of School I went to school in the 1980s. Those were simpler times, when a hundred teachers shared a single film projector and few complained. I don't have to tell you that the world has changed since the days of the community AV lab, and I certainly don't have to tell you that our students have changed as well. What remains to be seen, and what leaders in this country have spent the last decade wondering about, is whether teachers can have success using "post film projector" technology. Until recently, these questions of "can" and "will" that surrounded technology in the classroom were some of the most relevant in education―however, as of 2011 and the adoption of the Common Core Standards, things have changed. With a single, sweeping motion, the era of the tech-free classroom has gone the way of the Dodo. Under Common Core Standards, almost every teacher in America will be required to adopt digital technology into their classroom lessons, one way or another. While the majority of the Common Core Standards are technology agnostic, there are about a dozen or so that set explicitly tech-centered learning targets for students. They include standards in almost every discipline: History and Social Studies CCSS.ELA Literacy Integrate visual information (e.g., in charts, graphs, photographs, videos, or maps) with other information in print and digital texts. English Language Arts C C S S . E L A - L i t e r a c y. C C R A . S L . 5 Make strategic use of digital media and visual displays of data to express information and enhance understanding of presentations. CCSS ELA-Literacy.CCRRA.W.8 Gather relevant information from multiple print and digital sources, assess the credibility of each source, and integrate Writing Across Curriculum C C S S . E L A - L i t e r a c y. W H S T. 6 - 8 . 8 Gather information from multiple print and digital sources, using search terms effectively; assess the credibility of each source. Math CCSS.Math.Practice.MP5 Use Appropriate Tools Strategically: Mathematically proficient students consider the available tools [including] a computer algebra system, or dynamic geometry software [and] identify relevant external mathematical resources, such as digital content located on a website, to deepen their understanding of concepts. CCSS.Math.Content.7.G.A.2 Draw (freehand, with ruler and protractor, and with technology) geometric shapes with given conditions. CCSS.Math.Content.8.EE.A.4 Perform operations with numbers expressed in scientific notation[…]interpret scientific notation that has been generated by technology. For more information, visit www.info.eb.com, call 800-621-3900 or email contact@eb.com or stop by booth 9200 at ISTE. For more information, or to schedule a demo, call 877-451-7845, visit www.dreambox.com/ipad or stop by booth 3261 at ISTE. The Common Core is intimidating enough, and for those of us who have yet to make the jump into technology-centered lesson planning, this will be quite a change. But there's good news: there are excellent resources available that walk teachers step-by-step through Common Core implementation, and show them how to use technology effectively in the classrooms. Some of the best of these resources have been created by private enterprise, like the company I work for: School Improvement Network. We've created thousands of instructional tools to help teachers at any phase of their career, and even we've been surprised at the dramatic changes brought on in the classrooms that use our resources. For teachers struggling to implement technology required in the Common Core, the products we offer can be a lifesavers. Find out more by visiting us at www.schoolimprovement.com, or stop by booth 12104 at ISTE.