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Welcome to
"Extend, Enhance, and
Facilitate"!
How to find things quickly on
the site when you don't know where they are:
This site continues to expand faster than we intended. I'm working on a
site map as a present to a friend. May I suggest that the fastest way
to locate something on our site in the meantime is to use Google?
Bring up Google. Where you normally type in your search term, you're
going to do something a little different. Type in your search terms
such as QTI2 +how-to and then leave one space. Type "site:" (without
the quotation marks) followed immediately (no spaces) by
www.jmadden.info
You'll be amazed at what you can find! This trick works with any
website.
Here are
some new
pages that have been posted since the last update:
Here's
our general philosophy
This
website is intended as a way to share ideas with fellow
educators and engage in an on-going conversation about the ways in
which technology can extend, enhance, and facilitate learning.
For those who have heard us present anytime during the last two
decades, this mantra will be familiar as we have always challenged
our students and listeners to focus on how technology can accomplish
those goals.
As
educators in the classroom, and now at the university
level, our focus has been to explore the ways in which the integration
of technology can change the learning environment. On-going requests
for
information and resources has resulted in the creation of this website
as a vehicle to share what we have learned, and what we are learning,
as we work with fellow teachers and students of all ages.
For
the last few years, we have had an increasing interest in
the use of multimedia in the classroom. We believe strongly that while
the Internet is an invaluable resource (we're using it now!), we
also need to prepare our students to communicate in the broadband
environment that will be widely available. If we focus only on
those elements that can comfortably squeeze through the limitations
of a 56K modem, we're removing an immense array of options from
our students. Consequently, you'll find that many of the tools and
resources at this site focus on multimedia.
As
educators who have spent most of their professional lives
working in areas with multiple challenges and very limited resources,
we also have a strong focus on exploring how existing technology,
especially software, can be used in more than one way. We are
constantly asking how the end-product of one package can be used with
another. We can honestly tell you that we have even surprised some of
the software creators!
We
must point out that we are well-familiar with working on
limited budgets. You'll find that the tools and items we use are
relatively inexpensive. Almost all of them will also be quick to learn
and implement in the classroom. As educators, we never had much in the
way of time or money and the habits of maximizing existing resources
are always with us.
We've
used hundreds of software programs over the years, but
only intend to focus on a narrow few at this website. The reason for
this is that we are currently looking at those tools that go across
gender, age levels, curriculum areas, ability levels, and which, at the
same time, challenge students to think. Tools that can be used in
multiple ways by a variety of students and teachers are
ultimately going to have more impact and be more cost-effective.
Thank
you for joining us and we hope you'll find something of
use now that you've stopped by.
-
Jane & Michael Madden
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