Edina Digital Age Learning

  Some rights reserved   by   JB London There has been a lot of press both locally and nationally ,and punditry pro and con lately around "flipping" instruction. "Flipping" is when you create video of your lecture or a demonstration that you would normally do in class, and then post the video for students to watch as homework at home. Proponents point out that this then allows the teacher to either complete activities that normally would be done as homework in class with the support of the teacher, or it allows for hands on activities to take place in the classroom with facilitation from the teacher.  Teachers may create their own videos, or rely on prepackaged video from publishing companies or others. Some believe that Sal Khan, creator of the " Khan Academy ," is their favorite teacher , and some question the accolades . This past summer, Scott McLeod convened an expert panel to debate the issue. For those thinking of flipping, or flipping well,...

Today's offering is a guest post, by South View Middle School Art teacher, John Kraus. John and I have participated on a couple of Communities of Practice over the years, and today, when he sent out this as an e-mail to staff, I asked if he wouldn't mind if I shared it with a wider audience. John graciously agreed! You can learn more about his Web presence here , and/or view his blog here or follow him on Twitter . It has been a couple of weeks since I have wasted your time and filled school server space with an email rant.   What is the purpose of having a website for every class and teacher? Why do it, how does it work, who cares? Do I need to learn to do it myself – shouldn’t I be trained? I think if you are a professional in our society you need a good Web presence. To create an effective Web presence you must know your target audience for all the different Web tools – I think Webpages are not really just for students – we have Moodle for them.  And parents can alw...