Things to Think About While Flipping, Helping Out, and Hanging Out

Check out this Infographic on Flipped Classrooms

Well, it is a busy time of year! Seniors are applying to colleges, juniors are ramping up for the SAT's and teachers are being approached with requests for letters of recommendation. 

Good times. 

This week there have been two really interesting sources in the news regarding student web practices, digital citizenship and college admission. 

The first, They Loved Your G.P.A. Then They Saw Your Tweets, is from the New York Times and shares insights about how colleges are mining social media to find out more about the character of applicants. It could make for a good article of the week. The second, 12 Things Students Should Never Do On Social Media, offers more food for thought and fleshes out a larger picture of risky student online activity. Both are interesting reads.

On a completely separate note, a few folks in the high school are working on integrating flipped models of instruction in our classrooms. We are exploring the use of instructional videos and thinking about the ways we ask students to use our time both in and out of school. If you are interested in reviewing this concept or learning a bit more about the flipped model, Knewton just published a handy infographic which sums it up nicely and offers more things to consider. 

In other news this week Google announced a new initiative called Google Helpouts. This program aims to put people within a quick video conference to find tutoring in finance, cooking, carpentry, and pretty much anything you can think of. Truthfully, I am not sure what the implications are for classroom use. Is it a new platform where teachers like you and I can offer assistance to the masses and add a little income after school? Is it a model to explore for providing extra remedial to students through Helpouts' cousin, Google Hangouts? I'm not too sure and as the program is in its nascent stages it is too early to tell. But here's a quick review of the program from CNET if you want to catch the wave before the swell. 

Finally, the district technology committee will be meeting this Thursday to discuss parameters of "technology take home" and "bring your own device" policies. If you would like to weigh in on this matter shoot me an email as your thoughts can help inform our discussion. 

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This is reposted from the technology integration blog, Connect(ed) School, that I have created for my position as high school technology integrator. For past posts please visit the site over at www.connectedschool.blogspot.com.