Digital Learning Today

Welcome to the TeacherCast Podcast. In this episode, Jeff sits down with Dr. Corinne Hyde, a fantastic professor at USC Rossier School of Education and an amazing educator to have a very candid discussion about Digital Literacy. In this interview, we touch on every topic from Social Media use to working with teachers who may be afraid of stepping out of the box in their classroom.

Dr. Corinne Hyde is an Associate Teaching Professor of Clinical Education at the USC Rossier School of Education. Her areas of expertise include Educational Leadership, Elementary Education, Educational Psychology and Instructional Technology.

Hyde has a wide variety of experience in the field of education, including classroom teaching, special education, community education, and educational administration. She currently resides in St. Gabriel, Louisiana (near Baton Rouge) and was the first full-time faculty member in the online Master of Arts in Teaching program to be fully off-site, teaching through the MAT online program’s virtual campus. Hyde is currently researching student engagement in virtual classrooms and best practices in synchronous online pedagogy.

She received both her Doctor of Education in Educational Leadership with a concentration in Educational Psychology and her Master of Science in Education in Educational Psychology and Instructional Technology from the USC Rossier School of Education. She also received a Bachelor of Arts in Elementary Education from the University of Central Florida.

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The USC Rossier School of Education strives to prepare educators who achieve positive learning outcomes across a range of settings. To better serve our students, we offer a number of our graduate programs in an online format. These innovative programs are designed and taught by the same renowned USC faculty members who teach on-campus, and take advantage of a state-of-the-art online learning platform to blend live, face-to-face online classes, dynamic self-paced coursework and field-based experiences. Learn more about our online degree programs by visiting rossieronline.usc.edu.

• https://rossieronline.usc.edu/pinterest-for-educators/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/USCTeacher

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RossieratUSC

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/uscteacher

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/uscteacher/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/uscrossieronline

Jeff sits down with author Marnie Howard to discuss her new educational books called The BuzzyLuvz and how moms and dads worldwide are teaching great behavior skills to their students with the help of some little bees.

“Kindness is essential in our world today and must be reinforced during the early stages of childhood. As a former elementary school substitute teacher, I have launched a Children’s Kindness Campaign starting with my six-book series BuzzyLuvz®: Practice Kindness. This series includes Be Helpful, Be Generous, Be Polite, Be Loving, Be Positive, and Be Thankful; all brought to life by whimsical, colorful bees.  These books are currently being sold on Amazon.com in both Paperback and Kindle formats.

You are certainly aware that bullying has become an even more important issue in the United States today, as our society is witnessing an unprecedented amount of violence and deaths in our schools. BuzzyLuvz® is working to resolve this issue by focusing on the root of the problem: our children’s core values. I believe that kindness is the solution to bullying. Much of the feedback I have received from parents and educators is that we need more books and programs such as BuzzyLuvz® in our school systems today. My BuzzyLuvz® book series is being very well received and I am grateful to be able to share it with you.”

The flutter of a bee’s wings will create a flood of kindness that can be felt in schools and homes across the world.

Links of interest

• https://www.facebook.com/BuzzyLuvz
• https://www.pinterest.com/BuzzyLuvz/
• https://www.instagram.com/buzzyluvz/
• https://twitter.com/BuzzyLuvz

Marnie Howard currently resides in New York, NY and is actively involved in several children's charitable organizations such as Big Brothers Big Sisters of America, Project Sunshine, and Little Lighthouse Foundation.

In addition to her elementary school substitute teaching experience, Marnie Howard has twenty years of sales and marketing expertise in the advertising, pharmaceutical, and real estate industries. She is the author of the book Giving is Living: 101 Ways to Practice Effortless Generosity (released 2009) published by Hatherleigh Press and distributed by Random House.

Originally from Colorado and have lived in Denver, Dallas, Miami, Los Angeles, New York, and traveled to over two dozen countries, gives her a unique global perspective on kindness in the world we live in today.

Jeff sits down with educator, author, and Apple Distinguished Educator Monica Burns to discuss her book Deeper Learning with QR Codes and Augmented Reality.

• Blog ClassTechTips.com
• Twitter @ClassTechTips
• Facebook.com/ClassTechTips
• Pinterest.com/ClassTechTips

Monica Burns is an Curriculum and EdTech Consultant, Apple Distinguished Educator and Founder of ClassTechTips.com. As an educator, Monica was part of her school’s Federal Magnet Funding leadership team and was a vocal advocate for bringing 1:1 technology into her 5th grade classroom. During her tenure as an educator, Monica used iPads to create engaging, differentiated learning experience to meet the unique needs of her students. Realizing the power of tech tools in the classroom, Monica started ClassTechTips.com to provide a resource for educators and administrators on implementing EdTech in the classroom.

Since starting ClassTechTips.com, Monica has presented to teachers, administrators and tech enthusiasts at numerous national and international conferences including SXSWedu, ISTE, and EduTECH. She is a webinar host for SimpleK12 and a regular contributor to Edutopia and Channel One News. Monica is the author of Deeper Learning with QR Codes and Augmented Reality: A Scannable Solution for Your Classroom (Corwin, 2016).

Monica visits school across the country to work with PreK-12 teachers to make technology integration exciting and accessible. She also provides support to organizations using technology to reach children and families in need. In addition to being named an Apple Distinguished Educator in 2013, Monica is an Amazon Education Teacher Innovator, Book Creator Ambassador and Nearpod Pionear for her use of engaging creation and formative assessment tools. Monica is a graduate of the University of Delaware and Hunter College, and is currently pursuing a Doctorate in Global Education Leadership at Lamar University.

Her mission is to help educators place the task before the app and promote deeper learning with technology. You can follow Monica on Twitter @ClassTechTips or visit her blog at ClassTechTips.com.

Recap is a free video response and reflection app developed by the makers of Swivl. It gives teachers and parents insight into students’ learning and progress by introducing video as a quick, simple and everyday tool to collect student data. Recap provides evidence of student thinking, improves formative assessment, and supports personalized learning. Sign up at www.letsrecap.com!

• www.letsrecap.com
• www.swivl.com
• Download on iTunes
• https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/recap-video-response-reflection/id1067461524?mt=8
• @RecapThat
• Find Recap on Facebook
• Find Recap on Pinterest

• Commercial: https://vimeo.com/153864626
• Tutorial: https://vimeo.com/159384850

Krysta Curtis is a Sr. Product Manager at Swivl – the makers of the professional development robot that can be found in over 20,000 schools worldwide. As Project Lead for Recap, the new student video response and reflection app, she has held conversations with hundreds of educators who’ve been instrumental in guiding the product’s development. Krysta has 10 years of design leadership experience spanning the education, game and toy industries including three years at design innovation firm, IDEO.

Recorded in 2016

Jeff sits down with Travis and Anthony from mcSquares, a dynamic new edtech tool that brings personalized non-tech learning back into the classrooms.

mcSquares are personal, handheld whiteboards that easily snap together on a wall to create a larger, collaborative system that is infinitely flexible and completely customizable.

• www.mcsquares.com
• www.mcsquares.com/youtube
• www.mcsquares.com/facebook
• Twitter: @mc_squares
• Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/mcsquares

• Anthony:
•   Along with founding 7 different successful companies and holding multiple patents, Anthony has held leadership positions in creative direction, feature film post-production, technological architecture, advertising production, enterprise product development, computer aided design, hospitality management, and physical product manufacturing.
• Most notably, Anthony founded the large, Denver-based consulting firm, EffectiveUI, the world’s first and leading user experience and digital product development firm. EffectiveUI is responsible for the creation of hundreds of award-winning digital products for many of the world’s most recognizable brands. O’Reilly publish a book based exclusively on our philosophies and practices, titled “Effective UI: The Art of Building Great User Experiences in Software”His most recent start-up, mc squares, was born from lessons learned in running brainstorming workshops within fortune 100 conference rooms. The company has just come out of 2 years of product R&D and has released its first iteration in a long line of collaboration systems.
• Travis:
• Travis' is a UNC Chapel Hill Alum with a masters in education from UNC Charlotte. His formal career started in education where he taught for 2 years as a Teach For America Corps Member in North Carolina. Following this experience, Travis became the HR Manager for a rapidly growing network of non profit charter schools in Colorado. Since then, he has led implementation projects as an independent consultant for Denver Public Schools and learned a lot about individualized learning in the classroom. When he's not geeking out about the newest uses of technology, he can usually be found with a cup of coffee in his hand hanging out with his wife, two kids, and two dogs in Boulder, Colorado, where every day feels like a vacation watching the sun set and rise (and more often than not, the snow fall!) over the gorgeous Rocky Mountains.

Recorded in 2016

While getting students interested in math can be a challenge for teachers, TenMarks has found a fun – and timely – way to get kids buzzing about numbers. Drawing on students’ interest in sports and the excitement of the annual March Madness basketball tournament, the Math Madness contest is a great way to get kids genuinely excited about math! Through a little friendly competition, students have fun, win prizes and gain mastery in math. However, it’s not just about the cool prizes. Participating in Math Madness will spur student motivation and engagement like never before, resulting in significantly improved math confidence. Best of all, there’s no reason to worry about students struggling while competing on their own during Math Madness. TenMarks assignments provide individualized practice through a variety of tools such as hints and videos, all of which are designed to help students persevere and ultimately master challenging math problems. The Math Madness contest, now in its fifth year, has helped thousands of students strengthen their math skills. In 2015, students answered millions of questions with over 84 percent accuracy! Math Madness has amazing prizes such as Amazon Gift Cards and Amazon Fire Tablets that’ll help motivate students in the beginning. However, a week into the madness and you’ll see an enthusiasm for math you never saw coming!

Developed under the leadership of Amazon Education and TenMarks, “With Math I Can” challenges the nation’s more than three million teachers and their students to take the pledge to replace the notion of “I’m not good at math” with “I am working to get better at math” by embracing a “growth mindset,” the belief that abilities and intelligence can be developed, which leads to an increased focus on the process of learning rather than the outcome. Supporters of the “With Math I Can” movement include Stanford University Professor of Mathematics Education Jo Boaler, Character Lab, Common Sense Education, National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM), Stanford University’s Project for Education Research that Scales (PERTS), ClassDoJo, ASCD, and Teaching Channel. Teachers and students can learn more, watch a video, access resources, and take the pledge at www.withmathican.org.

• https://www.tenmarks.com/math-madness
•  http://blog.tenmarks.com/2016/03/its-not-just-about-winning-prizes-unexpected-benefits-of-math-madness.html
• Twitter (@WithMathICan) – https://twitter.com/WithMathICan
• Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/WithMathICan

• https://www.tenmarks.com/prepare-instruct

Meera Vaidyanathan is an education leader who is passionate about integrating technology into education to bring innovation to the student learning experience. At TenMarks, Meera oversees the development of curriculum products and leads the effort to ensure that TenMarks delivers solutions that place the teacher at the center of instruction and provide students with work that is personalized to their individual learning pathways. Throughout her career in the education industry, Meera has held several leadership roles in content and product management, business development, and marketing.

Prior to TenMarks, Meera served as the VP of Content and Product Management at HotChalk where she led HotChalk’s growth and development strategy for K-12. In her roles at CK-12, McGraw-Hill Education, Oxford University Press, and Princeton University Press, Meera spearheaded the acquisition and creation of content for a wide range of K-12 educational materials and encyclopedias (online and print). She has an MBA from Temple University and an MA in Anthropology from the University of Connecticut.

Recorded in 2016

Jeff sits down with Matt Niemitz from Adobe Education to discuss Adobe Education Exchange, a free resource for teachers to learn how to enhance their curriculum using Adobe solutions.

The Adobe Education Exchange helps ignite creativity in classrooms worldwide by connecting educators through free professional development opportunities, teaching materials, and peer-to-peer collaboration.

• Adobe Education Exchange: https://edex.adobe.com
• Twitter: @AdobeEdu
• Matt on Twitter: @MattNiemitz
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AdobeEdEx

Matt Niemitz founded and is the Product Lead for the Adobe Education Exchange, Adobe’s first community learning and sharing platform that connects 270,000+ members worldwide. Over 5 years, members have learned from 200+ MOOCs & workshops, shared 10,000+ teaching materials & discussions, and earned 7,000,000+ points and badges. Previously, Matt oversaw Education curriculum development at Adobe. He also helped launch the education program at the Consortium for Ocean Leadership, reimagining how technology and earth science overlap in the classroom. Matt studied Geology at the College of William and Mary and holds an Ed.M. in Education Technology from the Graduate School of Education at Harvard University.

Jeff sits down with Eric Schweikardt of Modular Robotics to talk about STEM education in today's classrooms. Learn how your students can learn programming skills through Modular Robotics interlocking Cubelets to create amazing robotic projects.

Modular Robotics is home to more than 50 people who design, engineer and manufacture tiny robots. Every day, we work to build robot construction systems for kids because we believe that toys shape the way children think about the world. Our goal is to create remarkable fun play experiences that impart an intuitive understanding of complex systems and design thinking. Our team is comprised of engineers, software developers production specialists and operators.

• Website: www.modrobotics.com
• Blog: www.modrobotics.com/blog
• Twitter: @modrobotics
• Facebook:www.facebook.com/modrobotics
• YouTube: www.youtube.com/modrobotics

Eric Schweikardt is a designer of tools, robots, architecture and software. He develops concurrent and distributed physical systems with the intention of understanding more about the natural world through model-building. He designed and built roBlocks, a modular robotic construction kit, and is working on evolutionary algorithms for automated design.

Eric finished his PhD in Computational Design in 2008 from Carnegie Mellon University, and is now a visiting scientist at the Cornell Computational Synthesis Laboratory in Ithaca, New York. He studied architecture at the University of Colorado at Boulder and returned there to teach digital modeling and animation. He founded the Allegory Design Group, a web development studio specializing in 3D user interfaces, and worked as a consultant creating architectural renderings and animation for Michael Tavel Architects, Hobbs Design, Wolff Lyon Architects and DKahn Studio.

Eric’s undergraduate research was concerned with pen-based interfaces and the apparent divide between sketching and design development in architecture. This work resulted in Digital Clay, a program that interprets a designer’s isometric (3D) sketches as digital models. Eric has presented work at conferences on Human Computer Interaction (ICMI, TEI), Computer-Aided Design (ACADIA), and Intelligent Toys (DIGITAL).

Have you ever wondered what an Apple Distinguished School looks like? Have you ever thought about rolling out a successful 1:1 initiative across thousands of students and teachers? In this episode of the TeacherCast Podcast, Jeff sits down with Ross Cooper to discuss TL2020, a State of the Art, 21st Century vision for the Salisbury Twp. School District that not only is turning heads worldwide, but chasing the lives of students as they become college and career ready.

Teaching and Learning 2020 (TL2020) is an initiative of the Salisbury Township School District located in Allentown, PA. TL2020 is the next phase in the development of teaching and learning that started in our district with TL2014. TL2020 builds on our successes at transforming teaching and learning through technology. The initiative offers increased learning opportunities by providing a personal computing device for each student (1:1), Kindergarten through Grade 12.

• Kindergarten and Grade 1 – iPad Mini – available in school
• Grade 2 – Grade 5 – Macbook Pro – available in school
• Grade 6 – Grade 12 – Macbook Pro – available in school and at home

TL2020.org is the primary communication tool for teachers, students, parents and community about all things TL2020! Links to documents, forms and important information about digital devices for students and parents/guardians appear across the top of the page. Look for fresh content about student work and TL2020 news to appear on the main page.

TL2020 has as its stated goals:

• Transformed teaching and learning, guided by the SAMR framework as measured by classroom walkthroughs, observations, surveys and other sources.
• Increased occurrences of higher level thinking, guided by Webb’s Depths of Knowledge (DOK) as measured by classroom walkthroughs, observations, surveys and other sources.
• Increased opportunities for all students to benefit from online and blended learning opportunities in all content areas including courses/content developed by Salisbury staff.
• Increase opportunities for all students to develop and practice literacies that provide readiness for college and career in our interconnected world.

• Salisbury School District
• Website
• TL2020
• Twitter
• Ross Cooper
• Website
• Twitter
• Facebook

Ross Cooper is currently the Supervisor of Instructional Practice K-12 in the Salisbury Township School District (1:1 MacBook/iPad) in Allentown, Pennsylvania.He is an Apple Distinguished Educator and a Google Certified Teacher.