Blogs on Technology Integration

"How is your family? Whoa! What's that on your head? Is that a wig?" "Give her a mustache!" "Great pirate!" "What did you eat for your Thanksgiving feast? Nice hat!" Between the guffaws and belly laughs caused by the add-on features of Google Hangouts, we had a great family conversation and got to see my brother's family, and my son and daughters and their families spread out all over the United States.

If you are tired of PowerPoint and Keynote, it's easy to change up your normal routine. As much as I love these presentation tools, it's important to keep my audience engaged, and often a quick deviation from the usual is the perfect trick.

There are so many fantastic free iPad apps that are great for the classroom. Whether you have access to a single iPad that you use to create presentations for your students, or your students are creating their own presentations in a 1:1 classroom, you'll want to add these to your must-have list!

I have a 45-minute commute to Knapp Elementary School each morning. Aside from sipping on my coffee, I'll tune into Philly sports radio, some Mumford & Sons or maybe even some local news. However, in December, my commute took a more reflective turn when I discovered an edu-podcast called #EdChat Radio that is now helping me think deeper in a quiet space away from the presence of students, teachers, parents and community members. As an educator and learner, making time to reflect on where your learning community is hitting or missing the mark is invaluable.

One of the best and most important approaches to take in handling media use among children is for families to sit down together and create a family media agreement.

The virtue of this approach is that it enlists all stakeholders in a conversation and empowers and invites kids and parents to think about what they do with media, when they are on media, how they engage with media and how often they use media at home.