Friday, April 9, 2010

Weekly Byte 4.9.10

Enhancing the Art and Science of Teaching with Technology
Good webinar from this week's PDE Conference. Debra Pickering, Senior Scholar from the Marzano Research Lab, gives an interesting session. Her basic premise is that technology will enhance classroom learning when paired with sound instructional practices. She focuses on using interactive whiteboards and student response systems to focus students on the learning goals, improve student engagement, understanding and retention, and provide feedback for instructional planning. Key point, what happens after the the assessments are in, what are we doing to intervene and make sure all students learned what they were supposed to learn. The video is long but if you scroll down the page you can pick which parts you would like to watch, saving you some time.
This link provides access to the video and a pdf of her presentation notes.

Technology Tool of the Week
Finally I have found a way to download a YouTube video that works here at FR. The ones I have shared in the past now don't work. From my readings I have learned that YouTube doesn't like these websites providing easy ways for people to download their videos so when one pops up, like Kick, You Tube then works to shut them down. So the new way should work for you at school or home at least for now.
First, you have to download YouTube Downloader.
Once that downloads to your computer you now can go to YouTube and find your video.
Once you find your video you can go to where you saved the YouTube Downloader, open it and the URL for the video will pop up in the downloader. Then just click OK and it will start to download. It is really very easy. If you need help please just let me know.

Another way that you can download YouTube video from home, if you use Firefox, is to download the YouTube downloader add-on. This will then give you a button in YouTube that will say "Download video". It will give you the option of downloading in whatever format you choose right to your computer. This will NOT work at FR. If you would like to use this one and cannot figure it out please let me know.

Thought of the Day
Check out this blog post from Seth Godin's blog. It is titled "Rights and Responsibilities". This would be a great post to share with your students about taking responsibility before arguing for your rights. Good stuff!

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