Class site spices up Smart Board lessons

I recently presented a workshop on web-based insruction at a private school in Ohio.  Some of the teachers use Smart Boards, and they wanted to know how the class web site might augment their use of the Smart Board. I leaped at this question like a hungry lion pouncing on its prey.  The web-based classroom [...]

K-12 Technology Carnival

Welcome to the April 7, 2008, first edition of the k-12 technology carnival. The past year has been a remarkable evolution of web-based instruction and technology use in my classroom. It has led to the creation of the Notes from the Paperless Classroom blog and a new workshop called, The Paperless Classroom. Additionally, it has [...]

Will iPhone Shortage Lower Price?

I want an iPhone. Okay, I know this doesn’t immediately smack of an education blog topic, but there actually is a connection, if you’ll just bear with me. Since it first hit the market, I have thought the iPhone is the coolest technology going. In fact, I can’t wait for it to hit laptops or [...]

STEM Encouraging Teachers to Integrate Technology into the Classroom

Recent results from STEM, an organization dedicated to improving science, technology, engineering and math, indicate that teacher colleges are beginning to see the value of integrating technology into the classroom and are now teaching their students how to effectively use computer applications to teach science and math lessons. Check out an interesting article on the [...]

Big Brother Teacher is Watching

I like to joke with my students that I’m always watching them. . . in cyberspace. When they’re on my classroom website, I know it. They change a misspelled word on a paper, I know what word they changed and when they did it — right down to the minute. “That’s pretty creepy,” they always [...]

Integrating Assessment Tools

We have several online assessment programs that we use at my school. We use Study Island, which is more of a math games application, Compass Learning and Achievement Series. If you have a web-based, virtual classroom, you should pin these programs to your menu, so your students come here first (remember, you always want students [...]

Could Ramona Encourage Creation of the First Cyber Teacher?

So I ran into Ramona, the virtual person who likes to talk, over at KurzweilAi, and this robotic Chatty Kathy got me to thinking. What if we could incorporate something like Ramona into the classroom? Hmm, a virtual me. I do love the idea of the virtual classroom, but I’m not sure I’m ready to [...]

Blog Makes Fun Addition to Virtual Classroom

As a blogger, I’m always looking for ways to blog more often (I just love that the word, “blog,” can be used as so many different parts of speech). Now, I’ve found a way to use the school blog efficiently in my virtual, paperless classroom, which gives me a chance to keep my students informed, [...]

Make Your Class Site a Home Base for Students

When you make good use of your virtual, paperless classroom, it will become a home base online for your students. In other words, they will be used to logging into your site, no matter where they’re going from there. For example, we use a testing program called, Achievement Series. Now, I can get my students [...]

Web-based instruction seminar coming to Cleveland

The Paperless Classroom is coming to Cleveland on May 10th, 2008. If you want to build a virtual classroom, complete with individual, secure student websites, a common classroom area, with daily activities, a message board and much, much more, check out The Paperless Classroom at the Holiday Inn on Saturday, May 10th. You can bring [...]