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Chris Lehmann at the Guggenheim at yesterday's announcement from Apple The world is buzzing with the Apple announcements about their move into eTextbooks. As I listened to Leo LaPorte and Sarah Lane's podcast about the announcement in the car coming home from the basketball game last night, my son said, "Mom, don't just listen to what people are saying, but try it out yourself." Of course, he's right. I haven't had a lot of time but let's rundown the facts as I know them today and as I played with these tools. Just remember, that there are some great things but there is also a whole lot of commercialism in these new apps and ebooks for education. iBooks 2 This is an upgrade to the iBooks you already have. Update the app. Here is my live blog of my first experience with an interactive iBook, maybe it will save you some time. I downloaded the Beatle's Yellow Submarine Interactive book and it took 7 minutes to download. Expect intera...

The fact is that most students will be writing web content as part of their future careers and academic pursuits and understanding the unique nature of writing for the web is vital. Westwood continues to lead and innovate in all areas of social media in schools. We're very proud of Deana Rogers and Betty Shiver and all they are doing in this area. Vicki Davis.   The Kindle Kids Corner is now on Facebook for those who want to follow the book reviews being written by our middle school and elementary school. So far, we have the sixth grade writing reviews for the renowed Stephen Windwalker's Kids Kindle blog. Using inkjet money, Boston Butt money, and donations as well as a donation from Windwalker - we now have five Kindles (3 in service and 2 ordered.) If you are on Facebook you can "like" this page and get the reviews sent to your wall when they post. Kindle Kids Blog http://kids.kindlenationdaily.com Kindle Kids Facebook Page: http://www.facebook....

Some rights reserved by Xelcise Mrs. Betty Shiver, Westwood's curriculum director and I been working on this project with Stephen Windwalker , the Kindle Nation Daily ebook guru. (See eBook Revolution where I recommended his blog.) We "met" sometime in February through an email. He writes my "go to" blog for free ebooks and reviews. Those of you who follow me know that first (like Julie Lindsay and I did with Flat Classroom ) we start SMALL and work out the issues and plan for scalability and then move to add a few more before we move to large-scale scalability. (i.e. 800 kids on a wiki project like we do w/ Flat Classroom.)  I expect this will be the same. So, follow the blog ( http://kids.kindlenationdaily.com ) and send it to your friends and librarians. For now, I encourage you to have your students post their own review of the book as a comment or ask questions of the students who wrote the review. Let's get the conversation between kids, libr...

Behind the scenes, ebooks are gaining steam. I gave the assigned book for my marketing class and had a student ask me if she "is allowed to get it on her kindle."  We have at least 10 students with them and many more who want them. The literature teacher today told me that she was concerned about students keeping up but that one student used it for the Great Gatsby today with no problem keeping up and she was pleased. She's thinking about using Kindle on her ipad and marking her highlights and then using the Kindle on her PC to show on the board her notes and highlights instead of having to read them out. Another reason: Free "stuff" Over 130 free books from Kaplan for a limited time! Perusing my favorite "kindle freebie" blog, Kindle Nation Daily , I found tons of free educational books out today from classroom management to grammar to some killer Kaplan study guides for about every test and subject. There is also one for kids looking at going ...

Google eBookstore is now live. I see a James Patterson Book, the Gift in the top left hand corner. As well as Patricia Cornwell . I see three free ebooks - somehow not sure how they came in. Also, top selling books show as well. It is automatically linked to my Google account.(Something I'm not sure I like.) How do you read on Google ebooks? It tells you there are several ways to read books from the Google ebookstore: android, iphone, ipad, itouch, the web, and for Nook and Sony with the Amazon Kindle strangely absent. The CNN article points out that Google books have actual page numbers, versus the Kindle's location number which actually marks the exact point where one make a mark. The same article goes on to say that Google takes 30-48% of the purchase price into their coffers. It also says that small booksellers can have their own stores within this space which is pretty interesting. I can't help myself: Love the Kindle To me, the more games in town the b...

Image via CrunchBase We're really seeing the rise of the niche bloggers in education.  Those people who know how to do a specific task and do it very well.  Such is the blog, Edukindle - my "go to" place for anything about using the Amazon Kindle in Schools. The EduKindle Blog I point this out, because the three most recent posts are well worth reading: Buying Your Kindles Using a Purchase Order Getting 80 Kindles Ready for Kids Kindle Phone Home: Getting 80 Kindles Ready for Kids, Part 2 After reading these posts, it is very obvious how extremely messy it is to get Kindles (or any ereader) in the hands of our students.  You might say, "But who will go to all that trouble?" The answer is:    Leaders, that's who. This is the messy side of innovation -- the front end where everything isn't worked out quite yet.  Where we have to communicate, innovate, and try to tame order of a process meant for consumers that is being adapted for education...

Spent some time today answering questions from Dr. Garcia's class about teaching.  Below are some of the questions and links to the blogs of the students that asked them. Please consider going to the blogs below and leaving your own thoughts. Inspiring conversation shows the power of our new interconnected world so bring these educators in with your thoughts and conversation! All of the students are listed on their wiki and I'll try to get to all of the conversations, but am not sure I'll be able to.  Would you help me? Dr. Garcia is also posting a summary and I'll definitely respond to that as well. Thank you. These students were asked to reflect upon the edutopia video of my classroom that they filmed last year. Maureen C asks: "Did you face any challenges in your teaching practices? For example, were there any times that students had trouble figuring out a task on their own and "shut down" instead of feeling empowered to learn more?...

Hemp is part of the cannabis family.  No matter that it is extremely useful as a replacement for cotton that does not require pesticides or herbicides. I found this interesting comment on why growing Hemp is banned in the USA: "Then, in 1948, marijuana became a restricted substance. Although hemp is from the same plant family  as marijuana, congress exempted industrial hemp growers from this law. I guess they didn’t see a reason to lock up one family member, just because the other family member could cause some trouble. However, the Federal Bureau of Narcotics lumped all cannabis together and the DEA continues to do so today. It’s not known for sure why hemp was lumped together with cannabis, since you can’t get “high” from hemp. But, according to the 1985 book, The Emporer Wears No Clothes , the author Jack Herer states that DuPont played a key role in the criminalization of hemp. By stopping the growth of hemp, DuPont would have a monopoly on produ...

Up here in the mountains, I've pretty much been off the grid, except now, my Amazon Kindle, near and dear to my heart is ON the grid. I got the coveted 2.5 upgrade two days a go and since then have linked it to my Twitter account. This means that I can highlight pieces of a book and then tweet it out.  While it is not linked to my Amazon affiliate program (the only program I use for any revenue to cover the costs of this blog) it is really a cool tool. The biggest enhancements in this upgrade are: Collections - My books are now organized by collection which rotate by what I've read most recently. It is great because the books within the collection also are listed in order by what has been read most recently. Also, books can be put in multiple collections.  This is great for separating things out as I have everything from my reading material to those hefty PowerSchool manuals on my kindle. It just makes reading much easier. Wish #1: I wish I could put books in a collection...

I wrote this in India after visiting the Akanksha schools that are working with children in Mumbai's slums doing more with tiny notebooks and paper than I could ever dream. My view of volunteerism and donating completely changed. Here was my response. Flat Cat                                                              I've                                                              seen...

Apps - Hannah Rose Knows ebooks are moving massively to the iPad, iTouch and beyond. This is an example of a series for preschoolers which has words AND will read it to you. (Dual encoding is a proven way to improve comprehension.) tags : education , learning , innovation Cool Cat Teacher Blog: The Eight Lessons of Change Members of CUE in California are discussing this older post from 2006 about the lessons of change. I loved reading this because so much has happened since this time and yet I still agree with what I said in this! tags : education , learning , change , innovation Posted from Diigo . The rest of my favorite links are here.

Their robot didn't have a soul.  All the bells and whistles were there - wires connected, embellishments added.  However, this group just wouldn't learn how to program.  What was I going to do? Sure, one reason we used the Lego Mindstorms was because the Lego's were so unbelievably engaging, particularly for those bodily-kinesthetic learners who often had ADHD.  (Lecture and they're lost but engage their hands and they're all over it.) This group used their hands but just wouldn't use their heads. How was I going to pull them into understanding the fundamentals of programming when they thought the cute purple feather across Mr. Morgan's google eyes were the finishing touch? As I turned their creation over after school and compared it to the other three bots, I saw something. Artistry. Good Engineering. So, as I thought about what I could do, I considered what motivated these three boys.  Only one week from "getting out" of ...