U Tech Tips » Tod Baker http://www.utechtips.com Articles, Tips, Screencasts, and Tutorials for Educators Wed, 17 Mar 2010 00:32:10 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 en hourly 1 Hyperlinked Writing is The Most Powerful Writing http://www.utechtips.com/hyperlinked-writing-is-the-most-powerful-writing/ http://www.utechtips.com/hyperlinked-writing-is-the-most-powerful-writing/#comments Sat, 31 Oct 2009 05:24:17 +0000 Tod Baker http://www.utechtips.com/hyperlinked-writing-is-the-most-powerful-writing/ Hyperlinked writing or notebook writing — which one do students spend more time on?

Photo by Sancho Papa.
Cross posted on Watch Your Bobber.
It was just a side comment in Wesley Fryer’s Wordpress Saves Lives podcast earlier this week, “Hyperlinked writing is the most powerful writing.” But I’ve been riveted by this idea since I heard Wesley [...]

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]]> http://www.utechtips.com/hyperlinked-writing-is-the-most-powerful-writing/feed/ 6 Technology for goin’ hero http://www.utechtips.com/technology-for-goin-hero/ http://www.utechtips.com/technology-for-goin-hero/#comments Sat, 26 Sep 2009 00:00:45 +0000 Tod Baker http://www.utechtips.com/?p=1746 If teachers are not careful and deliberate, technology tends to be used as a getting things done tool. That’s good but not good enough.

Photo by woodleywonderworks.
Teachers and students need to use technology to learn and do the things they could not without technology. My six-year-old’s favorite protector of Earth, Ben Tennyson, gets it right. He [...]

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]]> http://www.utechtips.com/technology-for-goin-hero/feed/ 4 AUP Driven by Vision not Protection http://www.utechtips.com/aup-driven-by-vision-not-protection/ http://www.utechtips.com/aup-driven-by-vision-not-protection/#comments Fri, 31 Jul 2009 14:47:57 +0000 Tod Baker http://www.utechtips.com/?p=1632 Note: Originally posted on Watch Your Bobber.
Here is my draft of an Acceptable Use Policy (AUP) for our elementary school. I’m eager to share it with our school community because I like the way it portrays the way we approach teaching and learning. I hope it shines light on our vision.

I hope it does not [...]

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]]> http://www.utechtips.com/aup-driven-by-vision-not-protection/feed/ 11 Creating Learning Communities in the Classroom and Online http://www.utechtips.com/creating-learning-communities-in-the-classroom-and-online/ http://www.utechtips.com/creating-learning-communities-in-the-classroom-and-online/#comments Thu, 19 Mar 2009 11:55:34 +0000 Tod Baker http://www.utechtips.com/?p=1400 Can learning communities in the classroom find similar success online?
Yesterday, I saw how two teachers at IST, Sam and Chad, create learning communities with their grade 4 students. They invited a group of teachers from BISS, Rego, TIS, and IST to attend their upcoming EARCOS Teachers’ Conference 2009 workshop presentation here at IST.

It is common [...]

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]]> http://www.utechtips.com/creating-learning-communities-in-the-classroom-and-online/feed/ 6 Using Email to Support Collaboration, Learning, and Productivity http://www.utechtips.com/email-2/ http://www.utechtips.com/email-2/#comments Mon, 02 Mar 2009 00:50:31 +0000 Tod Baker http://www.utechtips.com/?p=1356 mailboxes, originally uploaded by dcJohn.
Last week my inbox was hit with a handful of poorly written Help me! messages from students who lost things like an Mp3 player, a goalkeeper glove, and an electronic dictionary. It’s challenging enough to effectively manage the messages in my inbox without it functioning as a student lost and found [...]

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]]> http://www.utechtips.com/email-2/feed/ 0 Make Them Laugh While They Give You Money http://www.utechtips.com/make-them-laugh-while-they-give-you-money/ http://www.utechtips.com/make-them-laugh-while-they-give-you-money/#comments Wed, 12 Nov 2008 22:29:52 +0000 Tod Baker http://www.utechtips.com/?p=1069 [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zeaEczMry_4[/youtube]
You want to make them laugh while they give you their money. This is Andy Dorn’s approach. For IST’s latest Community and Service project, a Movember fundraiser for students in our sister school in Tibet, he created this promo video and shared it with our school community during both the elementary and secondary school assemblies, [...]

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]]> http://www.utechtips.com/make-them-laugh-while-they-give-you-money/feed/ 2 Not Another Paper and Pencil Committee http://www.utechtips.com/not-another-paper-and-pencil-committee/ http://www.utechtips.com/not-another-paper-and-pencil-committee/#comments Sun, 02 Nov 2008 23:59:38 +0000 Tod Baker http://www.utechtips.com/?p=1046 Yesterday, in his keynote address at the EARCOS Administrator’s Conference, Alan November reminded me of a shift that I have been struggling with. He argued that our discussions about teaching and learning need to focus on literacy not technology. And about technology committees, he asked “Do we form paper and pencil committees?”
I am a member [...]

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]]> http://www.utechtips.com/not-another-paper-and-pencil-committee/feed/ 6 Email is a GTD Tool, That’s All http://www.utechtips.com/email/ http://www.utechtips.com/email/#comments Wed, 10 Sep 2008 21:46:47 +0000 Tod Baker http://www.utechtips.com/?p=866 Last Friday night. End of first week of school with students. Out on the patio celebrating. Waiting for our Indian food home delivery to arrive, an argument breaks out over the proper improper use of email at school.
My stand on email

no screeds (Save those big ideas for meetings.)
no spam (Yes, I’m in your address book. [...]

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]]> http://www.utechtips.com/email/feed/ 1 Website Will Change our School Community http://www.utechtips.com/website-will-change-our-school-community/ http://www.utechtips.com/website-will-change-our-school-community/#comments Sun, 24 Aug 2008 01:18:23 +0000 Tod Baker http://www.utechtips.com/?p=812 Just developing a website feels just like dating — together all the time but, you know, you can walk away when you want to. Now going live with that website feels like, you know, getting married — it’s a commitment. I have been coordinating the development of our new school website and yesterday I realized [...]

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]]> http://www.utechtips.com/website-will-change-our-school-community/feed/ 5 Tagging in Beijing and the Fail Whale: The Power of Open Content http://www.utechtips.com/tagging-in-beijing-and-the-fail-whale-the-power-of-open-content/ http://www.utechtips.com/tagging-in-beijing-and-the-fail-whale-the-power-of-open-content/#comments Sat, 19 Jul 2008 19:38:09 +0000 Tod Baker http://www.utechtips.com/?p=779 Why should we put our work on the Web? Give it a Creative Commons license so people can share it and remix it? Why? What’s the use? Attribution? What for?
I’ve struggled with questions like these for years. Whether asking myself or responding to a colleague, my answers struggled to establish the value of sharing creative [...]

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