It’s no secret that Apple held its World Wide Developers’ Conference in California today. Among the impressive lineup of hardware and software updates revealed was a relatively small feature added to iOS6 that will have teachers dancing in the streets.
All Apple mobile devices, when upgraded to iOS6, will sport a new Single App mode. It’s a very simple feature that, when activated, removes home button functionality. This essentially turns the iPhone or iPad into a single app device, hence the name.
The educational applications for Single App mode are widespread. Without having to hover, teachers can rest assured that students are actually using the math app and not surfing the Web via Safari. Ambitious classes can use the devices to administer tests and quizzes confidently because the temptation to use other apps or the Internet to cheat is removed. In younger grades, accidental touches of the home button will no longer interrupt usage, and teachers will not have to fear inadvertent trips to the App Store.
Single App mode is a pretty minor thing to come out of WWDC 2012, but it is one that will resonate with teachers.
A pumpkin grown by Tim and Susan Mathison,Napa, California, has smashed the record for its mammoth size. The giant pumpkin weighed in at 2032 pounds! Grown in 105 days, the pumpkin surpassed the 2012 record pumpkin of 20089 pounds. Photograph from http://napavalleyregister.com.jpg)
Pretend you are a pumpkin sitting on a front porch on...
Teaching elementary students, as young as first grade, to research is no easy task. It requires enormous patience, persistence, and a belief in your students.
Training children to be young researchers provides them with all kinds of skills, which will help them succeed in college and the workplace.
Research skills have found their own place in the national Common Core English Language Arts standards, which requires students to conduct short and sustained research projects....
One of the greatest challenges that the education community faces in implementing the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) initiative is ensuring that the education workforce is ready to help students succeed under these new, higher standards.
Facing this challenge requires providing the current workforce with high-quality professional learning opportunities, something we talk about a great deal at the national level. But it also...
Researchers from Brigham Young University have found that people who mention suicide in their Twitter posts are likely to attempt the act in real life.
What seems like an obvious conclusion is being interpreted as evidence that teens use the social media platform for more than just posturing. Rather, in many cases, teens take...
" Go big or go home. Because it's true. What do you have to lose?"
Actress Eliza Dushku
This school year, I implemented a school wide enrichment cluster program---and boy, did I learn a lot.
Anytime, you roll a program out to the entire school population, you better be ready for some things to go wrong. In fact, after I expanded this enrichment program, the problems seemed to grow exponentially.
The good news is that the benefits to students and the...
A teenage broadcaster is in trouble with his school after using a phrase borrowed from a popular video game while calling a middle-school football game.
The Sandusky (Ohio) Register reports that the unnamed boy was serving as the play-by-play talent during the broadcast...