Essential Google Drive Skills for Teachers

As Butler prepares to transition to Canvas, our new learning management system, one skill we all need to brush up on is how to utilize Google Drive.  Google Docs are stored on Google Drive and are easily embedded into Canvas. Not only are they easily embedded, but a Google document that is used in several different locations within Canvas only needs to be updated once in the Google document and is "auto-magically" updated everywhere.  Here is a great article entitled, "Five Essential Google Drive Skills for Teachers" that will help us all get started using Google Drive.

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33 Digital Skills for 21st century Teachers

What are you going to learn (or relearn) this new year?
Meg sent this link from this marvelous website Educational Technology & Mobile Learning
She thought it would be a keeper and I hope you agree.
Not only does the author provide a list of the skills, he provides links to empower teachers to develop those skills.
Besides being a terrific resource, I believe it further emphasizes the notion that technology is not just for computer 'experts' or an option you can choose to ignore, but a set of skills that is not optional, and worthy of learning to use well in very specific ways. Furthermore, our attitude towards these skills is as important as the competent use of them when it comes to our students.

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Butler Online Advent Calendar

Butler Online is celebrating Advent with 25 days of tech tips for you to try out and use! In addition, we have added a comment each day about unique and fun features of Canvas to get our instructors a little "sneak peak" of the new LMS. Enjoy!

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Project Based Learning Versus "Doing Projects"

Are you wanting to create a Project Based Learning activity in your course but want to make sure it doesn't fall into the category of just another project?  I found a helpful chart on Amy Mayer's blog that breaks down the differences between Project Based Learning and "Doing Projects".  It is downloadable to your Google Drive account.

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I've FLIPPED 4 UDL!

As I read through a magazine with the words "FLIP IT" on the cover, I got so excited about the concepts inside, that I had to share! You've probably heard about "flipping your classroom", but if not, take a few minutes and check into it. There's a ton of information but here are a few sites I liked:

• http://www.thedailyriff.com/articles/the-flipped-class-conversation-689.php
• http://janediner.blogspot.com/2012/05/udl-science-and-flipping.html
• http://www.emergingedtech.com/2011/09/7-stories-from-educators-about-teaching-in-the-flipped-classroom/

In a nutshell, teachers have discovered that students are often more engaged, more active, and learn more in a flipped classroom environment than in a traditional one. By having students watch videos, read articles, or study on their own time, they can use classroom time for things like group projects, discussions, experiments, or practice work. Imagine actually being able to help them with the math problem they were stuck on?! Or watching them work it out with a peer?!


And the super cool part of this concept? It totally embraces UDL (Universal Design for Learning)! Many of our students need a little more time to process or digest the information, or watch the video/read the material/etc. multiple times, taking as much time as they need. How great is that?  If you decide you're ready to FLIP, let us know! We'd be happy to help and cheer you on!

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Online Resources for YOU!

80 Online Tools, References, and Resources

We all know that teachers are always looking for tools, references, and resources for classrooms. Well, here's 80 "must see" trial, free, and paid websites recommended by Edutopia community members. Keep this list in your back pocket! It might come in handy. (The list is not ranked and listed in any order.) =)

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Bill Cosby

Isn't it sometimes hard to build rapport with your face to face students? Isn't it even harder to build rapport with online students?

I can still remember one of my favorite professors in grad school (I'm not too old but old enough to start forgetting!). He knew all of our names and he always told stories from his past positions. This was a business class, so his stories were relevant to the material and we could see how the concepts we were studying were actually being used in the real world. I was working at IBM at the time, and his stories about an outdated, ineffective culture mesmerized me, as I could relate.

Are you building rapport with your students? Are you using your instructor notes to relate stories about your own experiences with the subject matter? Garr Reynolds asserts that storytelling is one of the best ways to relate to an audience, and he says that Bill Cosby (a.k.a. Cliff Huxtable) is one of the best at this.

Watch Bill Cosby in action and see if you agree. You may not be as funny as Mr. Cosby, but even a short story, maybe presented in a podcast, would make your instructor notes more interesting!

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Spice Up your Math Class

I just came across Using the Internet to Spice Up your Math Class, a great resource for teaching Math in the college classroom. The site is a mind map with links to oodles of resources (how do you like that technical terminology?). Just click the +sign on any of the labels to expand the content. Hope you find something useful here.

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InfoWhelm and Information Fluency

This is a pretty interesting video about the sheer volume of information in our world today, how it is growing exponentially and what this means to our students and to us, as educators.
Angela Maiers stated at a recent conference that students no longer need quick answers; they have Google in their pocket! They need to be incredible question askers and translators. “The world’s language is not a five paragraph essay. It comes in the form of images, music, art, and heartfelt emotion.”
We must teach kids how to be worthy of being listened to.

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A Timely Reminder

Think about this before you drive! Thanks for the reminder, Meg.

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They Need their Teachers to Learn

This video has a great message for all of us. We must be lifelong learners as well as our students.

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Getting an Education on the Internet

NPR Getting an Education on the Internet.

In this NPR recording, Kevin Carey discusses the next generation of online education. Carey is the policy director for Education Center, an education sector think tank in Washington. The website explains, "In a tight job market, a college degree has become even more valuable. But not everyone has the time or the money to spend four years in a dorm for a brand name BA. So, thousands of Americans are logging onto Web seminars and taking Internet classes instead."

Thanks to Meg for suggesting this podcast session.

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