Califone Blog

Part of a continuing series of Califone guest bloggers.

Helen and I have talked about Futaba in our podcasts. It’s a great way to gamify student skill mastery with the assistance of a few headsets. A few days ago, two of my tech club kids and my lab aide created sets for PreK games in the app. Right now there aren’t many ready sets in the app for preschoolers. Creating sets and games was pretty easy. (more…)

Most educators and schools are working with restricted budgets; so stretching the technology dollar is a high priority. Many schools are fortunate to have iPads, but there are more schools with one iPad per classroom than those who have an iPad for every student. (more…)

In our last post on blended learning we focused on the basic definitions and drivers for this new instructional model. Essentially it is an “ideal” blend of both face-to-face instruction and student-directed online learning that takes place at home and at least part of the time in a supervised environment in a building away from home. (more…)

Califone announced a new headphone will be included with its Personal CD Player. (more…)

Quick – can you think of a classroom technology that’s still in use more than 50 years after it was first introduced? (more…)

Shifting furniture designs, architectural layouts of classrooms and the emergence of BYOD programs all offer new and differing perspectives towards teaching students.

Classroom layouts and BYOD programs are comparatively new within the realm of teaching. Certainly teaching styles shouldn’t be immune to evolving either, and technology has played a pronounced role in facilitating a shift. From a student’s perspective, some could argue that since handheld devices are more natural to digital natives, there’d be an intrinsic willingness  to hold one and participate in the lesson at hand. What are the implications for teaching and teachers themselves as more digital natives begin leading classes in addition to just sitting in them? So have these changes helped teaching or facilitated student learning? (more…)

Part of the underlying structure of the Common Core Standards is the intent to move students from the lower thinking skills to higher order thinking skills, or HOTS, at the top of Bloom’s Taxonomy: analysis, synthesis and evaluation.

Creating podcasts requires the use of all three of the HOTS. This process and the end result – the podcast itself – also fulfill one of the requirements of the Common Core Speaking and Listening skills. Here is the Grade 5 standard: (more…)

Mobile learning was one of the most anticipated themes at this year’s ISTE annual conference. As educators from all over the United States and the rest of the world came to San Diego, conversations included grade-level specific questions to ensuring the hearing of children was adequately protected. (more…)