Learning+About+Technology+Resources

=** “Learning About Technology” Resources **=

On this page, you will find a list of resources that are focused primarily on informing educators about new technology.

 * __Title__**: The Innovative Educator
 * __Link__**: []
 * __Contributed by__**: Cristina Stratton
 * __Description__**: This is an award-winning education blog written by author and educator, Lisa Nielsen. Ms. Nielsen created this blog to teach others about how to “harness the power of technology for learning”, and use the power of social media to provide a voice to educators and students. This blog supports learning in real and innovative ways that will better prepare students for success. Lisa Nielsen created this blog to enable herself to share information, ideas, and resources with other innovative educators as well as a community interested in educating innovatively. Ms. Nielsen promotes ideas on her blog concerning passion-based learning and embracing technology in 21st century teaching. She also is a proponent of integrating technologies, such as cell phones, into the education process, rather than “blaming or banning” these devices. I have very much enjoyed reading this blog thus far, and have been introduced to new and effective ways to engage students in learning with technology.
 * __Type of Resources__**: This is a blog that focuses on sharing innovative ideas about learning. This blog has a companion [|social network], wiki, and [|Twitter feed] designed to support and reinforce its contents.
 * __Utility__**: This blog site is extremely beneficial for keeping teachers up-to-date with the latest and greatest technology trends. It is updated daily, and there is always something new to learn or discuss. The only problem I have found is that it is difficult to scroll up and down to read previous or next blog posts. The site seems like it takes some time to load, but once it does, the plethora of information is worth all the wait!
 * __Rating__**: [[image:star.jpg width="24" height="23"]][[image:star.jpg width="24" height="23"]][[image:star.jpg width="24" height="23"]][[image:star.jpg width="24" height="23"]][[image:star.jpg width="24" height="23"]]


 * __Title__**: Ed Tech Central: Admin
 * __Link__**: []
 * __Contributed by__**: Christie Gauer
 * __Description__**: This blog provides information for teachers about using technology in the classroom. Blog posts are categorized into topics. The topics are listed alphabetically on the right hand side. If there is a topic, you want to learn more about, you click on the hyperlink. If you want to search a certain topic, you can type it into the search box on the top of the page.
 * __Type of Resources__**: This blog has described different technologies that teachers can use in a classroom. It gives helpful hints about software such as Microsoft Office. It also gives information about how to use these different technologies in the classroom.
 * __Utility__**: This website included helpful information for a teacher integrating technology in the classroom. However, majority of the posts were considered “Uncategorized.” Therefore, it was hard to pinpoint the information you needed by using the hyperlinked key words.
 * __Rating__**: [[image:star.jpg width="24" height="23"]][[image:star.jpg width="24" height="23"]][[image:star.jpg width="24" height="23"]][[image:star.jpg width="24" height="23"]]


 * __Title__**: The Education Technology Blog: Johnathan Wylie
 * __Link__**: []
 * __Contributed by__**: Christie Gauer
 * __Description__**: This blog helps teachers integrate technology into the classroom. It is an innovative educational blog targeting teachers in grades K-12. It provides free technology tools for educators. It provides descriptions and instructions for educators. It also has videos and pictures to enhance the experience.
 * __Type of Resources__**: This blog is updated and current. In more recent posts, it focuses on apple products and softwares such as iPads, iPhoto, and iBooks. It gives helpful hints for these resources and shares what is available. It has a variety of free websites, resources, and applications for iPads that are helpful for educators.
 * __Utility__**: This resource is up-to-date with the newest technologies. The most recent posts have been about Macintosh products. I am a fan of Apple products, but I do not have access to them at my school.
 * __Rating__**:[[image:star.jpg width="24" height="23"]][[image:star.jpg width="24" height="23"]][[image:star.jpg width="24" height="23"]][[image:star.jpg width="24" height="23"]][[image:star.jpg width="24" height="23"]]


 * __Title__**: The Whiteboard Blog: Supporting Technology in the Classroom
 * __Link__**: []
 * __Contributed by__**: Whitney Pastorial
 * __Description__**: This blog is maintained by Danny Nicholson who trains teachers on the use interactive whiteboards such as Promethean boards or SMART boards. Danny updates his blog to show various ways to use these forms of technology effectively in the classroom. He also advertises his business as a consult in educational technology, but is mainly communicating helpful tips and hints for using SMART boards and Promethean boards in the classroom.
 * __Type of Resources__**: There are many resources on the website related to using interactive whiteboards in the classroom ranging from free lesson ideas, activities, and games to links to downloadable files and other websites he has found useful on interactive white boards.
 * __Utility__**: This website is easy to use and explore. Blog entries are tagged and organized according by the type of resource and subject making it easy to find relevant information and resources.
 * __Rating__**: [[image:star.jpg width="24" height="23"]][[image:star.jpg width="24" height="23"]][[image:star.jpg width="24" height="23"]][[image:star.jpg width="24" height="23"]][[image:star.jpg width="24" height="23"]]


 * __Title__**: Inside Higher Education: Teaching With Technology
 * __Link__**: [|http://www.insidehighered.com]
 * __Contributed by__**: Scott Martin
 * __Description__**: The purpose of this site is to give educators in higher education an opportunity to not only blog about their experiences but also to gather resources on technological topics. While this is not simply a blog, there are a ton of opportunities to learn about many current topics in education. The problem? This site is very advanced, and would not be suitable for use in any elementary or middle school classroom. Many of the articles are certainly worthwhile, but they are geared towards college level learners.
 * __Type of Resources__**:
 * __Utility__**: This site has an absolute abundance of resources and is easily navigable. There are many contributors which make this site very diverse as well. The problem? Most of the resources are geared towards college students, and are not completely useful in our classrooms. I like this resource, a lot actually. However, we must dig through to see any relevant information to our classrooms, and that can be difficult with the amount of information and complexity of this site.
 * __Rating__**:[[image:star.jpg width="24" height="23"]][[image:star.jpg width="24" height="23"]][[image:star.jpg width="24" height="23"]]


 * __Title__**: Ozge Karaoglu's Blog About teaching, learning, reflecting and being a 21st century learner & teacher
 * __Link__**:[| http://ozgekaraoglu.edublogs.org/]
 * __Contributed by__**: Megan Craft
 * __Description__**: This is a great blog which highlights different webtools. It often does this by having a letter of the day, although there are not posts everyday. There are a lot of links to the different tools! There is also a list of other blogs the author is following on the sidebar with interesting topics. A wealth of ideas are shared in this site.
 * __Type of Resources__**: blog with a wealth of tools to use right now
 * __Utility__**: using technology in the classroom now
 * __Rating__**: [[image:star.jpg width="23" height="23"]][[image:star.jpg width="24" height="23"]][[image:star.jpg width="24" height="23"]][[image:star.jpg width="24" height="23"]][[image:star.jpg width="24" height="23"]]


 * __Title__**: The Power of Educational Technology: Created by Liz B. Davis
 * __Link__**: []
 * __Contributed by__**: Jacquelyn Caliente
 * __Description__**: This resource “[demonstrates] the power of technology to transform learning, energize communities and [inspires] innovative thinking” (Davis, 2011). Liz B. Davis questions whether the students of yester-years are proficient in the technology of the business world. The members comment on such questions and issues. The initial posts are interesting and responsive; however, more insightfulness could definitely be added to the discussion. Visit this site and contribute your ideas and views! This could turn into quite a sight!
 * __Type of Resources__**: This recourse is geared towards teaching professionals, everyday people, and perhaps students and business leaders.
 * __Utility__**: Navigating and posting on this site is free. It is a bit of a hassle to publish a post, but well worth it. There are various links to other interesting and relevant topics, located on the left hand side of the site. The author also provides a “Blogroll”, which I visited a few that I thought would be interesting. Definitely a must!
 * __Rating__**: [[image:star.jpg width="24" height="23"]][[image:star.jpg width="24" height="23"]][[image:star.jpg width="24" height="23"]][[image:star.jpg width="24" height="23"]][[image:star.jpg width="24" height="23"]]


 * __Title__**: When Tech Met Ed…
 * __Link__**: [|http://when-tech-met-ed.blogspot.com/2012/01/ibooks-2-textbooks-ibooks-author-and.html#comment-form]
 * __Contributed by__**: Jacquelyn Caliente
 * __Description__**: Provides a list and video presentation of Apple’s new educational releases. This web resource explains the use of different technologies such as iBooks 2, Textbooks, iBooks Author, and iTunes U Initial Impressions. The video shows these programs in action.
 * __Type of Resources__**: This resource is for teaching professionals and even parents and students.
 * __Utility__**: Links to other blogs about popular Technology such as Apple, Google, and Apps in education are available to navigate. This site may be picky about what they publish, which could be a good thing or a bad thing. My post was never published for whatever reason. Poor maintenance or ineffective post?
 * __Rating__**:[[image:star.jpg width="23" height="23"]][[image:star.jpg width="24" height="23"]][[image:star.jpg width="24" height="23"]][[image:star.jpg width="24" height="23"]]