Jeff Utecht – Educator, Consultant, Author
Posts tagged education
Using Search Stories to Teach Search Skills
Aug 13th
Last year one of the best ads released during the SuperBowl was this simple ad by Google
Shortly after the release of this video Google asked you to make your own search stories.
Simply go to http://www.youtube.com/searchstories and start creating your story.
What a great way to teach students search skills.
Give students and start and end point. For example in 3rd Grade I might give students: Rocks and Volcanos. Start with Rocks and create a search story that gets you to end your search story with how Rocks and Volcanos are related.
Or in High School how about finding a connection between two random books: The Odyssey and More >
A New School Year Begins!
Aug 8th
Tomorrow marks the start of a new school year. My job title might have changed but the focus remains the same. How do we prepare student for today’s digital world?
I had a chance last week to introduce myself to the high school staff. It happened to be right after a discussion on cell phones in the classroom. A discussion that our new Dean of Students Dennis Harter gave loud and clear. Tell kids to turn them off, or use them for learning.
During his introduction to the high school I counted no less than three cell phones going off. Teachers who hate having More >
Blogs as Web-Based Portfolios PDF
Jun 4th
The 2009-2010 school year ended for me early today and I’m just wrapping up a few loose ends before I head into vacation mode for the summer. I did want to release the Free PDF of the Web-Based Portfolio series I’ve been working on for the past couple of months. I’ve taken the four blog posts and put them into this PDF that you can download and use if you would like.
If this topic is interesting to you, I encourage you to join me at my ISTE 2010 Workshop that I’ll be doing on this exact topic (just a few spots More >
Blogs as Web-Based Portfolios Part 4
May 31st
(Part 4 of 4 on a series of blog posts to be made into a free PDF. Your feedback, ideas and thoughts are critical! Part 1, Part 2 & Part 3)
Making your WBP an Open Platform for Learning The two major benefits of having a Web-Based Portfolio are:
1) They are accessible from any Internet enabled device2) The ability to share knowledge and information with a wider audience
It is point number 2 that I feel WBP holds the most impact on students and their learning. When students have an audience that extends beyond the walls of their classroom something happens. Their writing, their More >
Blogs as Web-Based Portfolios Video
May 19th
Chad Bates my IT Director sent me this great video today. What I love is many of the points I’ve been making in my series of blog posts on blogs as Web-Based Portfolios (1, 2 and 3) come through in this video. It always makes me feel good when I see that others are thinking along the same lines as I am. In Part 3 I talk about the different systems schools can use. This school has gone with option 3 and it seems to be working well for them. Some great suggestions here on how to make your Web-Based Portfolio system work!
Blogs as Web-Based Portfolios Part 3
May 18th
Part 3 of a series of blog posts to be made into a free PDF. Your feedback, ideas and thoughts are critical! Part 1 & Part 2)
Options for a WBP Blogging System There are three different ways you can build a WBP Blogging system for your school. Each option has both positive and negative factors to consider. In the end a conversation with the educational technology people in your building will help to decide what is the best system for you to adopt.Option 1: Self-hosted SystemThe best system by far is to set up a self-hosted blogging system on your own school More >
Software for 2010-2011
May 6th
It’s that time of year again as last week we started working on our student computer image for the 10-11 school year here at ISB. Trying to find the best software for students is always difficult as there are so many things to consider.
That’s what makes the Educational Software Wiki a great place to start when looking for what software you should consider for next school year.
I encourage you to have a look and if you know of a piece of software that isn’t on the list, help others out by adding it. Simply click the “EasyEdit” button and fill in More >
Blogs as Web-Based Portfolios Part 2
May 3rd
(Part 2 of a series of blog posts to be made into a free PDF. Your feedback, ideas and thoughts are critical! Part 1)
Finding the right Web-Based Portfolio Container Web-Based Portfolios (WBP) can come in all shapes and sizes. There are literally hundreds of programs and ways you can create a WBP. The issue then becomes which way is the right way? That I believe, needs to be determined on a school-by-school or district-by-district basis.
The most important idea to keep in mind when choosing a WBP is the flexibility it allows you in embedding content from other parts of the More >
