I work in one richest cities in America, though you might not know it if you stepped into one of our schools at the end of the school year. That’s because we still haven’t figured out air conditioning for all our public school students. This recent NYTimes article  addresses the long-time issue which was also covered 16 years prior in this NYTimes article.  Back then Randi Weingarten who served as the president for the United Federation of Teachers said, "It's inhuman to subject kids and adults to schooling in this kind of heat. If this doesn't convince people that we need to air-condition schools, then I don't know what will.''Weingarten is right when it comes to summer school, and today, the education department says they are committed to ensuring all summer school classes have air conditioning. However, during the regular school year, when temps are on the rise, it might just be a good time for students to rise up and out of their seats and learn in a city with some of the most amazing resources available to humankind. As Elliot Washor suggests in his book, "Leaving to Learn" is a good thing. Get out of the school and into one of the most vibrant cities in the world.Explore. Live. Learn.  I want more »

One of the most exciting things I found at #ISTE2015 was a school bus transformed into a technology learning studio. The bus is operated by Estella who at age 79 is a self-identified "Gadget Gal." She loves technology and gadgets so much, she wanted to bring them to others in her community who might not have access to computers and the internet. So, she drew up her dream on a piece of paper and put the word out that she was looking for folks to help her bring this to life. She found volunteers, donors, and invested much of her own retirement funds on the project.That was eight years ago.  Below is a picture of Estella in her bus today. I want more »

Guest Post by Jacob Gutnicki All too often the benefits of close captioning in instruction are largely ignored. Many people believe that this only benefits students who are hard of hearing, deaf, or have a language deficit. This could not be further from the truth. Close captioning can also help students with various cognitive disabilities, English Language Learners, developing readers, as well as all learners. Furthermore, presenting information in multiple ways can help address the diverse needs of learners in the classroom and engage students on multiple levels. For example, close captioning can be used as a study aid, can expose students to public speaking, and can be used to teach students various writing genres. Additionally, the use of captioned or subtitled media can be a great tool for teachers looking to differentiate classroom instruction. This is because many struggling readers avoid text, and have minimal exposure to print. To this end, close captioning can provide students with additional exposure to print when they watch a video at home and at school.I want more »

After using the ASUS Chromebook Flip C100 I’m left with just two questions: 1) Why doesn’t every school provide one for every student? The Chromebook Flip would save schools money and provide a more effective learning tool then 20th century alternatives. No more paper, no more books. No more calculators, rulers, or lots of other costly items either when you have a Chromebook. It comes in at under $300 a year and lasts for three years.  This means for $100 a year you have outfitted your students with all the supply (singular intentional) they need. And, it’s not just a replacement for traditional supplies. Instead, it provides the functionality of traditional devices and it is also a powerful creation tool that enables them to collaborate and connect with the world.  I want more »

At our recent NYC Schools Technology Summit, many participants were using our hashtag #NYCSchoolsTech in Twitter, Instagram, and other social media sites for the first time. Doing so enabled them to discover the following benefits of placing a simple "#" before a carefully chosen descriptor of "NYCSchoolsTech." Being in touch with the buzz that was being generated via the attendees.Enabling attendees to have conversation with a network of people who shared interests about what they were seeing and hearing.Providing participants with an additional level of excitement both at the actual event and in the online community.  Serving as a tool to capture and memorize the day right from those in attendance. Bringing a community together and strengthening relationships. You can see a recap of the day's Tweets as well as analytics below.2015 School Technology Summit - OverviewClick the link above to view.I want more »

In the "old" days, I used to love the creative things Web page creators came up with on April 1st. The items were always clever and easily understood to be spoofs.However, with the changes in technology moving so fast in the last few years, I found myself, while doing real work on April 1, trying to decide if the information I was viewing was true or not! It was kinda scary that I could not tell. Are the spoofs getting better? Or is technology changing so fast that I will believe anything?However, people still continue to amaze me with their creativity on April 1. Here are a few of my favorites from the day.(Link)(Link)(Link)(Link)Visit Kathy's Web pages: Kathy Schrock's Home Page Kathy Schrock's Guide for Educators

I can (seemingly) find anything I want to on YouTube! I find myself searching YouTube for things that come up in general conversation the same way I do with the Internet Movie Database (IMDB). Having "primary source" information when having a discussion about old television shows, segments on Sesame Street that one remembers, or old footage of a favorite rock band is great! (And this is in addition to the huge number of educational videos to be found there, too.)Here is today's sequence of events that led to YouTube and continued to amaze me as to its breadth....1. Talking about the NCAA Final Four championship game with two colleagues.2. Continued the discussion about the women's Final Four game tonight.(My son is a UConn student and a rabid fan and is in St. Louis for the game.)3. He had told me, if UConn men had made the Final Four, that Dale, the "blue and white" guy, was going to try to get back and forth between the women's and the men's games.4. My colleagues and I then moved on to conversations about other famous "painted" people, most notably the Tin Man and Wicked Witch in the Wizard of Oz.5. We discussed how scared we were when Margaret Hamilton would come out as the witch, and one colleague remembered watching an interview with her on Mr. Rogers. She remembered how kind and gentle Ms. Hamilton was during the interview, and how she tried to humanize the witch to make the character less scary for children.6. One quick search, and I had the clip to show her.YouTube rocks! (And why is it blocked in so many schools?)Visit Kathy's Web pages: Kathy Schrock's Home Page Kathy Schrock's Guide for Educators

I just download a new application from the iPhone app store called Coupon Sherpa which defines itself as an "in-store coupon application for the iPhone."You simply browse for a store or restaurant by category or check the alphabetical list for your favorites. Most coupons show up with barcodes that can be scanned in at the register when checking out. (Others lead you to the offer on the vendor's Web site.) As of this posting, there are 178 coupons in 111 stores in Coupon Sherpa, including many major retailers.The app is only $1.99, but, in celebration of Earth Day, and to highlight one of Coupon Sherpa's goals "to reduce the amount of paper that is wasted by printing coupons", the application is free until this Friday, April 29. (But well-worth the cost of the app anytime!)I cannot wait to try it out later today when I go shopping. It will be interesting to see how handing the iPhone to the cashier will go over, but I think they had better get used to it!Visit Kathy's Web pages: Kathy Schrock's Home Page Kathy Schrock's Guide for Educators

During the past month or so, I have realized people are beginning to use Twitter as their main form of communication. I am a regular Twitter user and follower, but do not keep it open on my desktop all day. I use it how it is intended to be used-- to post quick items of interest or respond with a short message to someone seeking help on a topic. And I think carefully before I answer, to determine whether the response is only useful for the questioner (and DM the answer) or if others might also benefit from the answer (and reply with the @questioner). I try not to clutter up the list with responses that are meaningless to most others. That is part of the Twetiquette (Twitter etiquette).(Addendum: I was not implying above that people should not post "meaningless" (read "fun") items to Twitter. What I was referring to is the practice of replying to a post via an @username on the list when the actual answer only makes sense to the person who asked the question. It often does not make sense when one sees only an answer.)I am starting to receive some of the reference questions I receive regularly from educators via Twitter. The direct messages from Twitter show up in my email inbox, and I then have to go open my Twitter client, locate the DM, and respond to the questioner.It is easy to ask a question in 140 characters, but not so easy to answer with anything meaningful in that number of characters. So, I wind up DM'ing three or four separate messages to the questioner, including having to shorten a URL or two in the Twitter messages.Twitter is not the place for that kind of communication, in my opinion. If you have a question that you want answered which you know will require me to search the Web and do some research, please don't send it via Twitter.I am easy enough to find on the Web, and, if you don't have it, here is my email address: kathy@kathyschrock.netI am always glad to help, but not always in 140-character bursts!  Visit Kathy's Web pages: Kathy Schrock's Home Page Kathy Schrock's Guide for Educators

I have spent quite a bit of time with Wolfram Alpha today. It is going to be interesting to introduce this to teachers and students. The user really needs to think about the appropriate time to choose this tool for information.I suggest you spend a bit of time on the examples page. As you click through the examples, there is a description of the type of search that can be conducted in the search box based on the topic you have chosen. This is a great way to help users to learn the most appropriate use of the tool and the proper syntax for searches.I have discovered a couple of really cool features about Wolfram Alpha. First, at least on the Mac side, in both Firefox and Safari, a student can simply drag any of the information boxes off of the WA site and the item winds up as a GIF on their computer desktop. It can easily be inserted in a project. (Even all the tables wind up being GIFS!) The student can then add the citation information needed for the GIF they are using.Secondly, all of the source information (both Web-based and print) consulted for that topic is included as a link at the bottom of the results page to both allow for further research and for determining the reliability and credibility of the results. I so love this!!!Images source:http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=icosahedron  Visit Kathy's Web pages: Kathy Schrock's Home Page Kathy Schrock's Guide for Educators