Universal Design For Learning- Harvard Summer Institute Links

TechPsych blog link to the Universal Design for Learning summer institute. You will find links to good "how-to" information for implementing UDL in educational settings.

TechPsych: New technology, psychology, and education blog

I've created a new blog, open to posts and comments. The following is from the first post:

The TechPsych blog..... is primarily for school psychologists, educational technologists, school counselors, special education teachers, transition/school to work coordinators,curriculum specialists, and others who are interested in discussing how technology can be more effectively used in schools and other environments.

A primary focus of this blog will be sharing "how to", "what works" and "lessons learned" in several overlapping areas- the topics below are only suggestions:

• The use of technology to facilitate and promote school-wide intervention and prevention planning (academic, behavior, social skills) for all students, using a collaborative, multidisciplinary approach.
  
• The use of technology to facilitate needs assessment, individual and larger group progress monitoring, data analysis, to ensure "data-driven" decision-making processes.
  
• The use of technology for group interventions, including counseling, study skills, social skills and support/coping skills groups.
  
• The use of technology for collaboration and communication among colleagues, more specifically school-based problem solving teams, intervention/assistance teams, curriculum teams, etc.
• The use of technology to promote family/school communication, family involvement, parent education, distance learning opportunities, etc.
  
• Research-into-practice: This is an important component!
  

If you are working at a university, or if you are a graduate student, and you are doing some research in the schools that involves technology and something related to intervention, prevention, etc., this is the place to share your experiences and resources.

NECC: Video Games as Constructivist Learning Environments

For those of you interested in games and learning:

This is a link to a post by Josh Thomas (Topics Education) about Mark Wagner's presentation at NECC on the topic of video games and constructivist learning environments. More information about Mark Wagner can be found at EdTechLife.

Bill Mackenty's Ed. Tech. "How-to" and Games and Education Links, Edutopia, and FunBrain

Bill Mackenty is an educational technologist and teacher. His Games and Education site/blog provides good links, resources, and ideas, for those of you interested in this topic. Bill also has great "how-two" educational technology links. Share them with your colleagues!

Another resource is the FunBrain website. This site is a repository of learning games for students in grades K-8. The teacher resources page includes links to curriculum guides and McREL standards. There is also a parent resource page.

Keep up with news about engaged learning by subscribing to the newsletters from Edutopia. An article and short video about high school students studying animation with the support of professional animators through video-conferencing was recently added to the site.