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Alex Selkirk, Co-Founder Founded:  November, 2012 Ponder is an interesting tool that helps readers engage with text online in a variety of ways.  Readers can document their thinking as they read as well as pose questions for other readers.  It functions as an extension, so it can sit on top of virtually every website.  …

Social Assurity with Alan Katzman Founded:  September, 2013 Social Assurity is being featured in the midst of my series on digital citizenship.  We can no longer try to scare kids into being safe online.  We must educate them about best practices in social media and online behavior.  It is not enough just to educate the…

A few weeks ago now, I hosted the first ever #DigCitSummitEDU, and we had approximately 300 students gathered for the live event, and several more teachers and students participated in the event online.  Coach D was the morning keynote speaker, and he set the stage for getting students to think about their online behaviors, and…

Frienedy with Janel Maitland Founded:  April, 2015 Frienedy is a social platform that prides themselves in being safe, private, and connected.  In the show, the founder speaks to how the platform is different than Facebook groups, and she does a great job of explaining why some social is successful in a closed environment.  It is…

If you are the lucky one who has the responsibility of posting to your classroom, school, or district Facebook page, you likely spend time wondering what the heck to post.  You might even wake up in a cold sweat wondering if you posted anything the previous day or beating yourself up because you didn’t post…

This is part 3 of a 4 part Facebook for Schools series.  In part 1, I discussed the ways to engage with Facebook for your school (personal pages, groups, and pages).  Part 2 was all about who can post and when to post.  Today, I’m going to talk about how to use your analytics to…

Sara Vollbrecht, Co-Founder Founded:  January 2016 Get in on the ground floor of this new app.  Special education teachers are very familiar with their binder that has every child's IEP and progress monitoring data in it, but My Day Web App makes the binder unnecessary.  All you need to have all that info in your…

Central to personalized learning is learner agency, but what exactly is learner agency?  According to Chris Kennedy, Superintendent of Schools in West Vancouver, British Columbia says, “Learner agencey is characterized by a pedagogy that builds on the passions of learners and also has real world relevance.  We are seeing numerous examples of this in our…

Noelle Millholt, Co-Founder Get Speakaboos FREE for 3 Months!https://www.speakaboos.com/codeenter Melissa Emler as the code! Founded:  2013 Speakaboos is the first early learning product to be featured On The Vendor Floor, and it is outstanding.  Early literacy is the most important piece of the puzzle when it comes to closing the gaps.  The product boasts an…

In the first show of the Facebook For School Leaders series, I shared with you the three ways to engage in Facebook.  Most familiar was probably the personal timeline and news feed.  This is where you connect with your family and friends and maybe the Pages from some of your favorite brands or celebrities.  I…

Ryan Patenaude, Co-Founder Founded:  2010 FEV Tutor is the first tutoring solution I've been made aware of that works collaboratively with teachers, principals, parents, and students to support the learning.  Most of the time when I think about tutors, I think about parents being desperate to support their child and often that comes with bashing…The post FEV Tutor: An option for Districts appeared first on Melissa Emler.

Using social media, and Facebook specifically, in schools has gone from taboo to necessary in a very short amount of time, and the truth is most school leaders are not trained on how to “do social”.  This post aims to support school leaders as you try to embrace social media to tell your school’s story.…The post Facebook For School Leaders appeared first on Melissa Emler.

Today I had the pleasure of chatting with Bob Dillion (@ideaguy42) about Bright Bytes.  He is now serving as the Director of the Research Institute at Bright Bytes where he gets to work on the mission to improve the way the world learns. Bright Bytes Mission The mission of the organization and every person inside of…The post Bright Bytes with Bob Dillon appeared first on Melissa Emler.

Life got in the way this week, so this post is not about connecting educators and entrepreneurs in conversations that enhance learning.  This is about my life and my family.  This is to heal my heart.  More to come next week… The Eulogy My heart is heavy as I stand here.  My heart is beating…The post Life Got In The Way — Love you Uncle Jon appeared first on Melissa Emler.

Personalize Learning, LLC is owned by co-founders Kathleen McClaskey and Barbara Bray.  These women are creating a lot of buzz around personalized learning, and I'm am so glad to have connected with Kathleen for this show.  I am a huge proponent of personalized learning, and I have been one since long before there was a…The post Personalize Learning with Kathleen McClaskey appeared first on Melissa Emler.

The 2016 Listener Survey results are in. I did the 2016 Listener Survey to find out what you thought of the show.  I was very pleases to have over 70 people respond to the survey, and I learned a lot! Doing this podcast fills my heart with joy!  I love connecting educators and entrepreneurs in…The post Survey Results Are In appeared first on Melissa Emler.

While reading Most Likely To Succeed by Ted Dintersmith and Tony Wagner, I stopped mid sentence and sent him a tweet.  “I’m loving your book @dintesmith. It is fantastic.” The book was inspiring me with every word.  Through a series of follow-up tweets, Ted agreed to be on the show, and I’m in the process of…The post Most Likely to Succeed with Ted Dintersmith appeared first on Melissa Emler.

I give you a bit of a sneak peak in today’s show of the conversation I had with Ted Dintersmith about his book and documentary both titled Most Likely To Succeed.   Check back Tuesday for the full show!   In the meantime, check out the website http://mltsfilm.org/ watch his TED talk   and buy…The post Ted Dintersmith introduces Most Likely To Succeed appeared first on Melissa Emler.

Startup culture is fascinating to me.  Jeff Hemmett nurtured my love of startups in our conversation about creating school cultures to be more like startups.  We discussed the importance of teaching the design thinking process in classrooms and schools because employing the design process in solving problems leads to a much better end result. Startup…The post Startup Culture with Jeff Hemmett appeared first on Melissa Emler.

I read George Couros’ book Innovator’s Mindset, and it kept me up at night.  It was startling or disturbing, but it honestly robbed me of sleep for three nights.  I would read, and put it down, but then… My mind would race! We could do this and then this would happen and then we would…The post Innovator’s Mindset by George Couros appeared first on Melissa Emler.