A recent article in ISTE's Learning and Leading magazine entitled “Stop, Drop, and Roll” discusses Standard 5 of the NETS for Coaches, focusing on digital citizenship. We are especially fond of the author, former ISTE Board of Director member, Kara Gann, now a member of the Atomic Learning family. Kara has over 26 years in public education and is passionate about ed tech. Here are some thoughts from the article worth sharing:

As recently posted on the techlearning.com website, Funds For Learning has released results from its national 2012 Survey of E-rate Applicants. The results indicate a continued reliance on E-rate funding. Approximately 90 percent of respondents indicate that E-rate funding is critical to their success, but only 30 percent believe the program is adequately funded.

Not sure you're ready to use social media in your classroom? Check out this infographic from edudemic.com, designed by Online Colleges which gives you some tips and tricks.

Atomic Learning can help too, the Global Collaboration spotlight helps you and your students get connected, or start with this Web 2.0 workshop.

Atomic Learning has expanded its training collection to include a Spotlight on internet safety, as well as several new training series.

The Keeping Kids Safe Online Spotlight provides professional development for educators and helps students learn how to navigate the Internet safely, in addition to helping administrators meet E-rate requirements of the Children’s Internet Protection Act (CIPA) and the Protecting Children in the 21st Century Act.  The training can be found at: http://www.atomiclearning.com/k12/spotlight/Keeping-Kids-Safe-Online.

Other training added to the Atomic Learning library includes Edmodo and Evernote, both exclusive to the new Atomic Mobilize solution.

The following training series have also been added to the Atomic Learning training library:
 

Are you wondering why your staff isn't using your Atomic Learning access? Or are you a teacher with access to Atomic Learning but you don't know how to where to start? Learn from your peers, start a monthly or quarterly newsletter to share with your team highlighting all the new features of Atomic Learning along with tips for using technology in the classroom. You can even include usage stats to show how you and your peers are utilizing your technology resource!

Need more inspiration? Take a look at what our friends at Fort Bend ISD in Texas are using to get the word out to their team here!

Atomic Learning recently added new content to the online professional development suite which includes a new assistive technology project called “Name Activity – Overlay Maker 3”.

The Assistive Tech collection has also grown to include Stages Assessment Software – Stage 6 tutorials. The expanded library further supports the Accessible Instruction Spotlight which helps educators understand the requirements to provide accessible materials and assistive technology under IDEA, understand how to meet those requirements as it relates to classroom materials, practice creating documents and forms that are accessible to students using assistive technology, and build awareness of the barriers assistive technology can help students overcome.

Here's an alternative video format for those who can't access YouTube to see our Supporting Accessible Instruction Spotlight introduction video.

Here's an alternative video format for those who can't access YouTube to see our Engaging with Interactive Whiteboards Spotlight introduction video.

Here's an alternative video format for those who can't access YouTube to see our Moving Toward an Accessible Campus Spotlight introduction video.

Online collaboration tools like Blogs, wikis, Linkedin^®, Twitter™, and Facebook^® open doors for us to interact and be more social in the ways we use the Internet. Educators in all areas can benefit by infusing some or all of these technologies in their learning environments. The new Collaborating with a Global Community Spotlight helps educators identify how teachers and students can connect themselves to a global community, reflect on the best global project(s) to introduce into the classroom and plan the necessary steps for implementing a project.

Spotlights provide a structured training path around important topics related to 21^st Century Skills and Technology Integration. The path allows teachers to quickly:

We recently introduced Training Spotlight pages which showcase a collection of existing training specifically related to emerging topics. Each Spotlight organizes training initiatives for users to best achieve results to impact student achievement and professional development efforts.

The structured training path allows teachers to quickly build their understanding of a topic, practice the topic through projects, and after directly integrating the concepts and practices in their classroom. Educators can then reflect on how to apply the concepts in their classroom to get all students actively engaged in learning.

Training Spotlights help show teachers that technology is not a completely new thing they need to learn and use but that it can be a part of their everyday curriculum that brings new energy to teaching and learning.

Take a look at the Effective Online Teaching and Learning Spotlight here.

Here's an alternative video format for those who can't access YouTube to see our Creating-Engaging-Presentations Spotlight introduction video.

Here's an alternative video format for those who can't access YouTube to see our Storytelling in the Classroom Spotlight introduction.

Here's an alternative video format for those who can't access YouTube to see our Collaborating with a Global Community Spotlight introduction video.

Here's an alternative video format for those who can't access YouTube to see our Evaluating Web Resources Spotlight introduction video.

After teachers have identified the workshops for delivering online instruction, the next step is applying the concept to their curriculum. Atomic Learning makes this easy with Tech Integration and 21st Century Skills projects which include:

• Step-by-step tutorials that walk you through the projects
• Project Activity Guides
• All the resources needed to recreate the example projects

Put the Effective Online Teaching & Learning concept into practice with these classroom projects:

Cyberbully? No Way, Not Me
Internet Safety: Be Aware
Internet Safety & Social Networking

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. To assist you in building confidence with technology, Atomic Learning has gathered a list of resources to get you started.

Build your understanding with these workshops:

Effective Online Discussions Workshop
Creating an Online Course Workshop
Being an Effective Online Student Workshop

Here's an alternative video format for those who can't access YouTube to see our Effective Online Teaching Spotlight introduction.