Crucial Thought Rss

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Chris selected as K12OnlineConference keynote speaker Each year the K12OnlineConference provides tremendous professional development for free, and entirely online. This year, they have selected me as one of their keynote speakers. I am thrilled to have been chosen and look forward to participating in the conversation. Read the full post announcing all the keynote speakers here.

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Two quick links on Cognitive Load Theory I've been fielding lots of questions lately about Cognitive Load Theory. Here are two quick links that may be useful. First is an article talking about the practical implications of CLT on the design of learning. The second are some "recent" (as of 2003) developments regarding CLT. Happy reading! Update: I clarified the second...

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Practical advice on kids and Android app development After hearing about my students' success developing an Android app, I've gotten several emails asking for more details as to how I practically worked with my kids. Here are some pointers that I offered to the first person that emailed me, perhaps they are of some use to you. Please note that your mileage may vary. It's ok to not be...

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Publishing an App Inventor app to the Android Market As I mentioned earlier, my students and I published an Android app to the Android Market. See those links for more information on the background. This post is decidedly technical. First, once we finished the coding process, we packaged the app for to download to the computer. This is an option in App Inventor. This downloaded an .apk file....

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Designing and publishing an Android app with kids This post is designed to provide some context around how/why we decided to build this app. The more technical details of the code and how we published it will come in a future post. My students and I recently completed and published an Android app, and here's how we did it. First, the genesis for this goes back to a question I asked...

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Feb

11

Poscards Galore (more postcards for my daughter)

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Today proved fruitful as I wandered into the mail room! Not only did I notice them setting up a tasty PTO luncheon for teachers (yum later on!) I saw FOUR postcards in my box!

The first is from South Bend, Indiana. Thanks everyone in South Bend at St. Joseph!

Then there were three more from Cheryl Lykowski! Thanks so much Global Explorers! We’re going to listen to your podcast about Michigan!

I couldn’t believe there was a bridge that’s 5 miles long!

And I’ve always heard Michigan was shaped like a hand…

Thanks so much you all!

Chris

Feb

07

Postcards from New York

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A special thanks to Lisa Parisi who had kids make hand-drawn postcards for my daughter’s kindergarten class!

One is tough to see, but it’s of Long Island Beach, NY and the second os from Manhattan.

As some of you know, I’ll have my first ever visit to NY in March for AERA. I’ve flown into JFK but that doesn’t count.

Thanks, South Paris Collaborative!

Feb

04

Postcards – more arrivals

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Here are two more postcards that I received recently. Thanks so much for sending them!

This one came from the incomparable Brian Grenier in El Paso, Texas!

and this one came all the way from Mt. Vernon, Washington and the wonderul Martha Thornburgh!

Woo hoo! Lots of postcards! Thanks, you all!

Chris

Jan

31

Postcards from A Vare Elementary in Philadelphia

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Thanks so much to the A. Vare Elementary folks in Philadelphia! They sent us THREE postcards about Philadelphia! I’ll take these to my daughter’s class tomorrow morning! They will be so excited!

Here are scans, the front of one and the front and back of the second two (the first one had teacher’s names on it and I didn’t want to publically broadcast it without permission…)

Aren’t they awesome! Thanks so much!!

Jan

29

Postcards have begun to arrive

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The postcards for my daughter’s kindergarten class have begun to arrive!

Exactly a week ago today I posted a request to the network asking for postcards. I also sent it out via Twitter and immediately I got a few responses.

Well, the fruits of that request are flowing in, as I received two postcards today!

One is from the incomparable Chrissy H from New Zealand…

The other is from the wonderful Kat Saton from Virginia!

Thank you to both these wonderful folks for sending my little girl’s class these postcards! I’ll deliver them this afternoon to the school.

Jan

22

Postcards from around the world

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Would you be willing to send me a postcard?

My daughter’s kindergarten class started a little project where they made a gingerbread man and were asked to send it to someone far away and ask that person to send back a postcard.

That got me to thinking, what if I digitally “sent” the gingerbread man and asked folks in my network to send a postcard my way? That could be interesting…

So, here is my 5 year-old daughter’s gingerbread man!

Would you consider sending us a postcard? Yes, it needs to be received through US mail…

It’s funny because they were only intending for folks in the USA to respond, and that is evidenced from the fact that their wall map is only of the US! Interesting how US-centric our classrooms are, isn’t it?!

So, anyone willing to send my little girl a postcard for her class? Here are the only requirements..

1. It needs to be a photo postcard reflecting where you live.

2. It needs to be sent through the mail.

That’s it! These kindergartners would love to hear from you all! Will you help? Leave a comment with a valid email address and I will send you the address…




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