Author Archives: Monty Jones

About Monty Jones

Currently the Director of Technology for the School of Education at Virginia Commonwealth University, as well as a doctoral student in the Instructional Technology department at the University of Virginia’s Curry School of Education. Prior to my work at Virginia Commonwealth University, I served as a graduate research fellow at the University of Virginia’s Center for Technology and Teacher Education.

The Tech Tuesday Newsletter 5/15/12

iPad Apps So I started sharing some of my favorite apps with you guys earlier in the year (such as Evernote and Dropbox), I then moved into sharing some web sites that categorize apps for easier searching. It really was only a matter of … Continue reading

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The Tech Tuesday Newsletter

1 instructor, 2760 students There is an instructor at Va. Tech named John Boyer who does this. I think I might have mentioned him in another weekly newsletter as he also gets famous Nobel Prize winners (Myanmar’s pro-democracy leader, Aung … Continue reading

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The Tech Tuesday Newsletter 5/1/12

App Inventor I know a lot of us are using iPhones and iPads, and I mentioned a few weeks ago some possible solutions for making your own apps. But there is another mobile operating system out there, it’s called android, … Continue reading

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The Tech Tuesday Newsletter 4/24/12

iPad Apps It’s funny really, I thought when I started this newsletter I would once in awhile talk about an iPad app I thought was good. But as it turns out there are so many good ones, what is more … Continue reading

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The Tech Tuesday Newsletter 4/17/12

iPad Faculty Learning Community Last week was a busy one as many faculty were finishing up their CTE iPad proposals. The Teaching and Learning department is convening today to discuss iPad usage in their department. It seems as though iPad-mania … Continue reading

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The Tech Tuesday Newsletter 4/10/12

VCU Moving to Gmail I know most of you have already heard but VCU is changing their email platform to gmail very soon. I have been getting a lot of emails about this, and wanted to provide everyone with a … Continue reading

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The Tech Tuesday Newletter 4/3/12

VCU Tech Fair Today! VCU Technology Services along with the VCU libraries is sponsoring a Tech Fair today in the Student commons, in the Richmond Salons from 9 am till 2 pm. Representatives from Atomic Learning, Blackboard, Apple, Dell and others will … Continue reading

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The Tech Tuesday Newsletter 3/27/12

VCU iPad Pilot Project The Center for Teaching Excellence (CTE) is currently accepting proposals from faculty for a new iPad initiative. The proposals are due April13th. CTE will not only provide a classroom set (up to 20) of iPads, but will … Continue reading

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The Tech Tuesday Newsletter 3/20/2012

Single District Virtual Ed Programs Apparently, this is the fastest growing sector of virtual learning in the US in 2011.This article does a good job describing the need and current environment for these programs. I know Chesterfield County has a … Continue reading

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The Tech Tuesday Newsletter 3/13/12

Why Every University does not need a MOOC Now, I am not saying VCU shouldn’t explore this, but this article, sent to me by Michael Huffman raises some interesting points. In it, it points out a new model (new to me … Continue reading

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The Tech Tuesday Newsletter 3/6/12

Early Elementary Education includes almost no science This blog post from Daniel Willingham discusses two reports about science instruction in early elementary education. The two reports are older, (2005 and 2002) but I was kind of shocked by the findings. … Continue reading

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The Tech Tuesday Newsletter 2/28/12

Atomic Learning The University has recently purchased a subscription to Atomic Learning (following our lead, of course), and you can now log in with your eId and password. From now on simply go to  go.vcu.edu/atomiclearning and log in. From there you will be directed … Continue reading

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The Tech Tuesday Newsletter 2/21

Finally! i recently recieved some feedback on these weekly newsletters. Here is an excerpt (printed with permission) from an email from Dr. Mulloy in the Department of Special Education and Disability Policy: ********* do people ever respond to your newsletter commentaries? I … Continue reading

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The Tech Tuesday Newsletter 2/14

MITx (has begun) Registration for the first MITx course started Monday (Feb 13th), and for this pilot run, credentialing is free. In the January 10th newsletter, I reported on MITx, which is MIT’s (Mass. Institute for Tech) new venture where they … Continue reading

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The Tech Tuesday Newsletter

MITx (kind of a big deal) In the January 10th newsletter, I told you guys about MITx, which is MIT’s (Mass. Institute for Tech) new venture where they provide online course material for free, and even award a certificate for … Continue reading

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The Tech Tuesday Newsletter 1/31/12

Tracking Scholarly Impact Online I think emerging technologies such as Spotify can be useful beyond letting you listen to almost any CD ever made. It could also provide a better way to track who is listening to what, and pay artists accordingly. … Continue reading

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The Tech Tuesday Newsletter 01/24/12

Big Big Big Week for Apple with iBooks 2.0 and more Unless you live under a rock i am sure you have already heard about Apple’s new iBooks 2.0, which is their foray into the textbook market. Their big announcement however … Continue reading

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WordPress Resources

VCU Technology Services Help Page (start here) Atomic Learning Site (ask instructor for user id and password)

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The Tech Tuesday Newsletter 01/17/12

They did pretty well with the whole iPod, iPhone, iPad thing……… Apple is making a big announcement on Thursday, and sources say they will be introducing textbooks optimized for the iPad that allow for interaction with the content and partnership with publishers. … Continue reading

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The Tech Tuesday Newsletter 01/10/12

My blog, WordPress, etc. Each week after I send these newsletters out, i post them to my blog. I added a tag cloud to the site which will make it easier to find previous topics. I use WordPress to do this, as well as act … Continue reading

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The Tech Tuesday Newsletter 12/13

Teach Kids about Social Media! colleges are now using applicant’s public profile data in sites like Facebook in admissions decisions. I think this underscores the fact that educators have a responsibility to TEACH students about appropriate etiquette on social media … Continue reading

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The Tech Tuesday Newsletter 12/6

Twitter Twitter is kind of like FaceBook’s little brother; these days every company, including my dry cleaner has a twitter account. This week I came across several articles about twitter. One article illustrated twitter benefits for educators, another profiles a professor using twitter in … Continue reading

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The Tech Tuesday Newsletter 11/29

Stanford University High School? That’s right! Stanford University now offers an online high school. Just as distance learning has blurred the lines between classroom and online education, the lines between K12 and higher ed are beginning to get a bit murkey as … Continue reading

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The Tech Tuesday Newsletter 11/22

Consider privacy when using online resources I often talk about how we need to open up a lot of what we do here to the public. It creates an authentic experience for our students, it can build a community of … Continue reading

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The Tech Tuesday Newsletter 11/15

Great article on the disconnect between education research and practice Teachers, researchers, and policymakers inhabit different worlds. The values each prize, the incentives they respond to, and their daily work situations differ. Consequently, what each considers important in their respective world prompts the … Continue reading

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The Tech Tuesday Newsletter 11/8

iPads I think iPads are great. I think they represent the next wave of technological devices. We are buying them up here in the School of Ed. Now the question is….how can they be used for teaching? I don’t have, … Continue reading

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The Tech Tuesday Newsletter 11/01/11

Atlas.ti It was brough to my attention (thank you Terry Carter) that the version of Atlas.ti we have is two versions behind. We got it straightened out and now have the most recent version. Atlas.ti is qualitative research software, it … Continue reading

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The Tech Tuesday Newsletter 10/25/11

BlackBoard opens up There has been a growing movement toward open-education in the last couple of years. Harvard and MIT both offer free open courses online. One of things that has possibly been holding this movement back a bit was, well, Blackboard. It is … Continue reading

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The Tech Tuesday Newsletter 10/18/11

NEW OPERATING SYSTEM FOR iPADS and iPHONES IS AVAILABLE!!!!: This is the type of stuff tech geeks get all excited about. So, last week Apple released iOS 5, which is the fifth major release of their operating system for iPhones and … Continue reading

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The Tech Tuesday Newsletter 10/11/11

Promethean Training TODAY: I have the representative from Promethean coming today for the entire day. She will be arriving and setting up in room 3090, and will be available for walk-in help from 11 to 3. Feel free to send … Continue reading

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The Tech Tuesday Newsletter 10/4/11

Everyone is buying iPads right now. Tips on apps I use: Faculty are buying more and more iPads every week. So I just wanted to share a few more apps I have found to be be valuable. I have already … Continue reading

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Tech Tuesdays Weekly Email 09/26/11

If you have an iPad, stop what you are doing now, and download this free app There is an app out right now which allows you to create free eBooks on your iPad. It is called Composer. It is free. I … Continue reading

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Tech Tuesdays Weekly Email 9/20/11

I’m not sure about this either….. ….but I ran across this article about an application that allows students in your class to use their cell phones to interact with you and your presentation. I am a big proponent of the clickers … Continue reading

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Tech Tuesdays Weekly Email 9/13/11

Welcome Are you interested in technology? If so, you may be interested in joining the SOE Technology Advisory Comittee. This committee will work to provided direction to the school in regards to how technology is utilized. It is my hope we … Continue reading

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Resources for Prometheon/Smart Training

download ActivInspire (free 60 day upgrade to professional and then it goes to personal edition): http://support.prometheanplanet.com/server.php?show=nav.19251&changeCountry=United+States     Promethean Planet Training: http://www.prometheanplanet.com/en/professional-development/   Atomic Learning Training (Both Promethean and SMART) : http://www.atomiclearning.com/highed/   Download SMART Notebook: http://smarttech.com/us/Support/Browse+Support/Download+Software SMART training: http://www.smarttech.com/us/Resources/Training

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Tech Tuesdays Weekly Email 9/6/11

Welcome In speaking with faculty members here at the School of Education, one identified technology need was a way for faculty members to learn about new and emerging technologies relevant to them. To address this I have created a weekly … Continue reading

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