Atomic Learning announced the early availability of the new Atomic TechCore solution at the ASCD Conference on Saturday in Philadelphia, PA. The Atomic TechCore solution was developed in response to district needs to address the technology components embedded in the Common Core State Standards.

Several states have not yet adopted the Common Core standards, but all students will be influenced through textbook changes, professional development planning and shared curriculum resources. For the first time, an eighth grade student in Tennessee will be required to learn the same curriculum as a student in California, Wisconsin, or Florida.

The Gazette of Eastern Iowa recently had an excellent article: “Adoption of technology in education is slow and uneven.” Three primary challenges were highlighted, including the lack of strategy, funding woes and resistance.

The struggle was simply stated by a senior at one Iowa school:

Before school, Adam Canady will check the weather using his iPhone. After school, he’ll use a computer to do homework. During school, however, those devices are often put away.

While some of the 18-year-old senior’s classes at Iowa City West High School incorporate technology, it’s a lot less prevalent than in his life outside school.

Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, VA has recently partnered with Atomic Learning to provide online training in conjunction with the campus’ migration to Blackboard 9.1 software implementation next spring. Through this partnership, VCU can smoothly integrate Atomic Learning tutorials with the direct linking feature to provide campus-wide training in one convenient online location.

Colleen Bishop, Virginia Commonwealth University’s Director of Learning Systems says, “By partnering with Atomic Learning, we are able to provide access to Blackboard tutorials and support, while extending the reach of our helpIT Center and askIT Knowledge Base.”

Atomic Learning will provide online software training, support and integration resources to simplify technology use campus-wide for VCU. In addition to Blackboard training, both instructors and students will be empowered with 24/7 access to training on over 205 applications and over 50 assistive technology programs relevant to campus and individual technology needs and goals.

You won't believe your your eyes when you see the incredible technology projects that are being done with elementary students. This energetic presentation is full of ideas that will not only inspire you but also blow you away! In fact, what you see might make you want to stand up and shout, “There’s no way that 9 year-olds did that!”

CS1046 - Unbelievable Tech Projects with Elementary Students by Brad Flickinger
10:00 am - 11:00 am -- Wednesday, January 25, 2012 | Room: S230D

Listen to the archived discussion about improving student learning through teacher technology integration training with Scott Elliot, President of SEG Measurement and Kathy Schroeder, Director of Marketing with Atomic Learning on Education Talk Radio.

Share how you lead by using technology in education. Enter yourself, or a colleague, in Tech & Learning's 24th annual Leader of the Year Program.

Tech & Learning is once again honoring K-12 administrators, technology coordinators, and teachers who use technology in innovative ways to help teachers teach and help students learn. You're invited to share your teaching, training, and managing success stories with their judges.

Judges choose one finalist for each of the following four categories: teacher, technology specialist, technology coordinator, and administrator. One of these finalists is chosen as the Top Winner. Each of the four finalists will win prizes, gain national recognition and be profiled in T&L's 2011 December Awards Issue.

The Google+™ project will show you how to get started -- invite people and create circles, upload photos and video, share information, and encourage students to connect and communicate online with you and with their fellow classmates.

And, if you have a presentation coming up, you don’t want to miss the Effective Presentation Design workshop. Learn the dos and don’ts of presentation design to keep your audience compelled and focused on you for your next presentation.

Learn how to create and edit PDF files with rich media included, share information more securely, gather feedback more efficiently, and much more with the Acrobat X Pro training.

More content recently added to the site includes:

Acrobat X Pro Training (PC)

Adobe CS5.5 – What’s New? Training (PC)

Check out these stats! Improve your students' classroom experience by integrating Twitter into your curriculum. Not sure how to use Twitter? Atomic Learning can help, view this tutorial series to get started.

Via: OnlineEducation.net

Atomic Learning users can now find a collection of existing training specifically related to effective online teaching and learning in one location through a new series of spotlights on technology professional development topics. As online and blended learning courses have become more prevalent, the differences between online and face-to-face instruction have come to the forefront. Effective online teaching and learning requires building knowledge of online tools and becoming comfortable with technology—whether participating in training, integration in the classroom, or providing feedback.

The use of iPads in the classroom has been an experiment this school year, but Little Falls district officials and teachers say it has gone so well, they’ve decided to purchase an additional 1,450 of the tablet computers for next year. iPads will be in the hands of all students in grades 5-12. Read more.

Your teachers are trained on technology. Now what?

Trish Panknin, Director of Career and Technical Education at Tuloso-Midway ISD in Texas, has been working to keep her teachers up to speed with technology for a number of years, and now she's focusing on integration.

Download this case study to learn how Tuloso-Midway's innovative technology camp is motivating teachers—and impacting long-term student success.

iPads are making their way through the Little Falls School District and beginning next school year, every fifth- through 12th- grade student in the district will be equipped with one.

The Little Falls School Board recently unanimously approved the Project Resources to Engage All Learners or Project REAL for short, which includes purchasing 1,450 iPads.

Superintendent Curt Tryggestad said Project REAL is just not about the iPads, but it’s a project that uses educational opportunities through advanced digital technology to help students prepare for their future. Read more.

Read related post.

Trish Panknin, Director of Information Services at Tuloso-Midway ISD in Corpus Christi, Texas shared with us her Atomic Learning story when we caught up with her last week at the TCEA Annual Convention. An extra special thanks to Trish for her TCEA session on iCamp where attendees learned how she incorporates Atomic Learning into her technology camp to take teachers beyond the "how to" stage to the "integration" stage.

Educators in the state of Texas now have an opportunity to learn how to use emerging technologies and apply them to the classroom while earning Continuing Professional Education (CPE) requirements. Atomic Learning has recently been approved as a provider by the Texas State Board of Education enabling staff in districts that have a subscription to earn CPE credits for tutorials they view from Atomic Learning’s vast library of tutorials.

In addition, any districts who committed to the Texas Steps Up Initiative are invited to further expand their professional development efforts with Atomic Learning. This funding gives educators an opportunity to have access to the vast library of tutorials and tech integration projects from Atomic Learning. And, the content is aligned with the updated TEKS standards as well as Common Core standards, based on Academic Benchmarks' review.

Visit Atomic Learning at TCEA, booth #1445.

Little Falls Superintendent Curt Tryggestad and Mark Diehl, the district's technology coordinator share how having iPads in the hands of students helps get the students more involved in their learning. Read more.

Join this free Webinar to hear how Diane Johnson’s students at Seven Springs Middle School are integrating technology knowledge gained from Atomic Learning to serve their peers.

All students at Seven Springs Middle School in Pasco County, FL benefit from the lessons taught in Diane Johnson’s iMedia class, not just her students. In this Learn and Serve class, students learn how to use all of the applications in the iLife Suite, plus Comic Life.  By applying concepts from Atomic Learning tutorials, students prepare comics demonstrating a rule or procedure for a teacher’s classroom or prepare an intro for the school’s daily news program, empowering their learning to touch all students.

Technology Integration with a District-Wide Purpose in Pasco County

Thursday, January 20, 2011
2:00 PM - 3:00 PM CST

Looking for technology integration with a district-wide impact? Join this free Webinar to hear how Diane Johnson’s students at Seven Springs Middle School are integrating technology knowledge gained from Atomic Learning to serve their peers.

All students at Seven Springs Middle School in Pasco County, FL benefit from the lessons taught in Diane Johnson’s iMedia class, not just her students. In this Learn and Serve class, students learn how to use all of the applications in the iLife Suite, plus Comic Life.  By applying concepts from Atomic Learning tutorials, students prepare comics demonstrating a rule or procedure for a teacher’s classroom or prepare an intro for the school’s daily news program, empowering their learning to touch all students.

Technology Integration with a District-Wide Purpose in Pasco County

What tech lessons have you tried that have failed miserably? Sometimes a small spark of inspiration can go a long way. A slight tweak in your method could make all the difference in the lesson's success.

Brad Flickinger shares his frustration and how he found guidance from Atomic Learning while teaching a 5th grade lesson on blogging in his recent post entitled “My Student Blogging Needs a Makeover”.  “…tech projects rarely work the first time you try them,” Flickinger said. “DO NOT GIVE UP. Fix what is wrong and try again.” Read more about Flickinger's experience here.

Atomic Learning’s 21st Century Professional Development and Tech Integration Solution has been named a New Product winner of the 2010 Tech & Learning Awards of Excellence.

Tech & Learning magazine today named 78 education technology products as winners in its prestigious 28-year-old recognition program. A panel of more than 30 educators, who tested more than 140 entries, chose the winners.

A must-read resource providing valuable insights and ideas to create an effective technology integration program. This ebook investigates the challenges to effectively using technology in the classroom and discusses key points of an effective technology integration program.

Here's an excerpt from the Preface by Tim Holt: 

Don Johnston, software developer and advocate for students with special needs, recently released a video entitled "The Case Against Assistive Technology." The video challenges educators to think differently about reading and writing accommodations in the everyday classroom. How will it change your classroom?

Podcasts can be a great way to integrate technology into your classroom and further engage your students. Check out how Brad Flickinger uses Atomic Learning to create podcasts in his school in his recent blog post.

Teaching is a profession where you have to constantly adapt and adapt on your feet, so hitting technology roadblocks should be handled no different.  Use your Technology Specialist to your advantage to learn from technology stumbles, and continue to try something new.

By trying new things, you’ll not only grow your own knowledge, but broaden the knowledge of your students. This blog post from Edutopia speaks to this point; weather the frustrations and persevere with successful technology integration in your classroom.

Do you find yourself challenged with integrating technology into your classroom?  Atomic Learning makes it easy – providing hundreds of pre-designed projects you can add to your curriculum. And, most of the projects can be easily modified and adapted to fit your class and present your topic of choice. Here are a few samples to get you started.

Escape From the Rainforest – Microsoft Word application

The National Zoo needs your help! All the animals from the rainforest exhibit have escaped. It is up to you to research information about the missing animals and prepare a WANTED poster to ensure the safe return of all the animals.

Students begin by recording and organizing information about their animal in a Word document. Then they’ll create a poster in another Word document, using drawing and text tools. They will be incorporating text, clip art, and WordArt into the poster to present the information about their animal in a visually appealing way.

A new, comprehensive PD solution is now available to help educators achieve their ultimate goal of positively impacting student achievement in the classroom. To complement the extensive technology training and tech integration projects already available to subscribers through its website, Atomic Learning adds these high-impact courses facilitated by live instructors.

Washington, D.C. (June 8, 2010) - The Education Division of the Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA) announces the release of its most recent report on the K-12 and postsecondary education technology markets - officially titled the SIIA Trends Report for Education Technology.

Authored by various members of the education industry, the report highlights industry shifts and emerging trends as they relate to five main topics: K-12 learning management systems, postsecondary learning management systems, online learning, state of the states, and mobile computing.

"The purpose of this report was to identify the opportunities, challenges and potential areas for growth in K-12 and higher education institutions with regards to education technology.  We aimed to find where technology has the greatest impact and where it can provide the most prolific benefits moving forward," said Karen Billings, vice president of SIIA's Education Division.

Read the rest of this article

Greetings once again from the higher education team here at Atomic Learning! We have been putting our heads together to try to bring you the latest and greatest ideas on how you can use Atomic Learning on your campus.

1. As a help desk extension - is your help desk only open limited hours? Is your help desk staff sometimes overloaded, especially when upgrading applications like Microsoft Office? With a site license you can direct your users to Atomic Learning for tutorials on how to perform specific functions when your help desk is not available, or during busy times of the year!

2. Faculty Training - some faculty and staff members in your organization are great at keeping up on technology and integrating it into the classroom. Others are overwhelmed while budget cuts keep them running from class to class. Atomic Learning a great tool to keep your faculty updated on technology they use everyday - whether it's a tutorial on how to add a course link in your LMS, or how to schedule an appointment on their Outlook calendars!

Click here to register for this FREE event

In order for students to have 21st century skills to succeed and compete in today's global workplace, districts first need to develop those skills in their teachers. How do you build a professional development program that creates a solid understanding of the skills and develop the ability to integrate them into the classroom?

Join us as a panel from Lincoln Public Schools shares best practices and collaboration between departments to create a successful training and staff development program to help their teachers – and students – succeed with 21st century learning.

Read about the presenters