apk x8

I can announce as of today, I am a completely converted E-Book reader. I haven’t purchased a book in physical form in over five months. For someone who historically purchased four to five books a month, that is a significant change, and I’m sure it makes book publishers nervous.What’s really interesting about my whole e-book experience is that I remember distinctly saying when someone suggested I...

One of the ways school leaders can model 21st century teaching and learning is by engaging with their staff in the use of 21st century tools. One category of tools that is quite easy for administrators to implement is communication and collaboration tools. There are quite a few communication and collaboration tools available, but here’s two that I have used with the staff and my school and some ideas...

Keeping parents informed has become rather easy in the 21st century. There are all kinds of tools for educators can use. I’ve personally tried blogs, wikis, and specifically designed web pages, but the bottom line is you just have to find what works best for your parents. My parents are email users. I have told them that the best way to contact me is through email, so they often use that first. It...

Like Evernote, Diigo is one of those powerful Web applications with a myriad of features. With a premium account, the versatility of this Web tool expands even more. The question of the day for me is this: What can Diigo do for me as an administrator? I have seen various resources on the Internet describing its classroom uses, but how are those features useful in my role as an administrator?Recently,...

How many times have classroom teachers pondered statements like, “If my students engaged in learning like they do video games…”  Lots of teachers have decided that learning can't resemble video games and to try to do so cheapens the content. But there are a growing number of researchers out there beginning to earnestly ask the question, "Is it possible to design learning to resemble video games?"...

When I talk with other educators and administrators, I still encounter quite a bit of skepticism about the educational and professional potential of this social media device. Usually, that skepticism centers around the belief regarding its ability to have any kind of impact on an educator professionally. Many wonder, “How can anything enlightening or educational come from posting 140 character messages...

Every so often someone comes along with one of those tech ideas that rise above other tech ideas. Dropbox is one of those ideas. Dropbox has become a regular part of my routine as school principal. I continue to find ways to stretch its uses. Here’s five good ways to use this cloud storage tool as a teacher and administrator.Set up a faculty-staff forms and documents filing cabinet. Using Dropbox’s...

Recently, I received a email from someone in response to my post The 21st Principal's Top 10 Web Tools for Administrators asking me to be more specific on how I use each of these tools. Here’s a bit more explanation on how I use Evernote. Evernote serves mainly as "an information collection tool",” though I use it as well for task management by placing my To-Do Lists there. I started out by creating...

The Education Commission of the States (ECS), an organization whose stated mission is "to help states develop effective policy and practice for public education by providing data, research, analysis, and leadership" has released  a report entitled "More on Pay-for-Performance." In that report it describes Pay-for-Performance models, and it reviews the current research regarding pay-for-performance...

If you're looking for some tools to put into your digital, administrative toolbox, or if you're looking for Web tools to teach to an administrator, here's my top ten that I use during the course of my job as a school administrator.Evernote: I've posted about this one many times, but it often is the first application I open in the morning. As I've said before, I use it to create my Weekly To-Do List...

David Shenk entitled Chapter 8 of his best-selling book, The Genius in All of Us, "How to Ruin (Or Inspire) a Kid."  In that chapter, Shenk offers advice to parents for fostering and guiding excellence in their children. He argues that the potential for creativity is "built into our brains" and that excellence is not something you either have or don't have. It is rather something within...

There are two Web 2.0 products I have found reason enough to purchase beyond the freemium versions: Evernote and Diigo. Both of these products figure prominently in my daily activities as a high school administrator. They are often two Web tools I open first thing every morning in preparation for my school day as a principal. Here's some of the ways I use each of these products in the course of my...

In this post, I am going to be honest. I once promoted Droid 2 Phones, but I've lived to regret it. Almost a year ago, I purchased a Droid 2 phone. I've been happy with the Android operating systems and the apps I use, but I found using a Motorola Droid phone to be major disaster. It's so unreliable, I would not recommend it or any other Motorola product at this point.  Here's three reasons why...

"To be a successful leader in the 21st century, school leaders need to be open to change, know how to manage change, and be risk takers," writes Lynne Schrum and Barbara Levin in their book Leading 21st Century Schools: Harnessing Technology for Engagement and Achievement. But being open to change means being comfortable with change. Knowing how to manage change means having the knowledge and skills...

Most of us are well aware that our students all have brains that are wired quite differently. The idea that students all learn the same way and that their brains can take in learning the same way is an assumption of a 20th century factory model of education whose time of demise has come. According to John Medina, in his book Brain Rules: 12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home, and...

Ian Jukes, Ted McCain, and Lee Crockett write in their book Understanding the Digital Generation, "Schools have not recognized the changes that have occurred in the world around them and have continued to teach as if it were 1980." In the spirit of David Letterman, here's my "Top 10 Signs Your Schools Caught in a Time Warp." A list for school administrators.1.  Your school policies work harder...