Learning in the Lou

Here is an article from Monica Burns about using QR codes in the classroom . This post lists 5 very powerful ways to use these codes in the classroom today.  I think the idea of quickly accessing information is vital to making the most of precious classroom time. Take a look at this inspirational post.  It will take many 4.5 minutes to read. Let us know what you think.

Saw this in a school today and I had to share it.  I don't know the origin of these posters but they are posted in some common areas.

Here is my wonderful device.  I do many things on it and I think it can make calls.  I don't think of this as a cell phone.  I am not exactly sure what it is.  Mini computer?  The Android of Awesome?  Just two working titles I have right now. What about these devices in the hands of the students?  Do you see them walking around with something similar?  Is there a way to use them in the classroom? Yes. 44 ways to be exact. 44 Better Ways To Use Smartphones In The Classroom This post showed me a number of ways that I have never really thought about. Examples: Use the device to peer edit.  (Remember it isn't about what you like.  Maybe you would not be comfortable using the small screen but they are.  I think each kid may write a small novel every day with all the texting, messaging and posting on FB.) Poll the students using Socrative .  Socrative is a smart student response system that empowers teach...

I occasionally listen to music in my classroom, sometimes content related and sometimes as just background music while the students are working.  About a year ago my brother introduced me to Audiogalaxy which has changed the way I listen to my music library. He’s extremely  knowledgeable  about music applications and gave me permission to post his comments. Here they are: Audiogalaxy is a digital music player (similar to itunes) that scans all the music folders on your home computer. The program can play back all the songs through the website AudioGalaxy.com . Itunes has features such as “Home Sharing” where you can stream anything in itunes on your computer – music, photos, videos, etc to your mobile device (iphone, Ipad, Apple TV) but that is confined only to your home network. The thing that separates Audiogalaxy from the pack is the ability to stream all of your music from your home computer to your mobile device app anywhere with a 3G or Wifi connection. So where...

Did you know students can upload pictures from their devices directly to your flickr account?  This is so powerful because students are able to collaborate on a group project, share their images, and make learning connections outside of the classroom.   Check out this lesson from Scholastic on collecting biological phenomena in everyday life.  Want to give it a try?  Here are 3 simple steps.  Step 1:  Create a flickr account. http://www.flickr.com/ Step 2: Enable mobile device upload to your account. You can upload photos to Flickr from your camera using your unique email upload address.  Set it up here . When you upload photos via email, the subject line is used as the title of your photo, and the body of the email is used as the description. Step 3:  Share unique e-mail address with students.

Pretty sure you have heard that before.  Sometimes it can be difficult to prove why you need to know something in the future. Here is a short video I showed my kids.  It is only about four minutes but I stopped it often so we could discuss what was being discussed. The video is from TED. I wish there were videos like this when I was learning math.  I never understood how math was used in the real world.  I now understand that math makes most everything in the world work. What do you think? How might you use this in your classroom? Note: I showed this video to my own kids.  They are only 6 and 8.

I watched this video and stopped in my tracks. What if... we had signs like this for our students? this one sign made the difference? that sign was the only encouraging thing you saw all day? I found this video on twitter.  Here is the original source .