Technology Medley

Aren’t new beginnings wonderful? I think that one of the best things about the education field is the opportunity to begin fresh each year, leaving behind those things that didn’t quite work and improving on those that did.

This year, I would like to work with every classroom teacher at least once, and hopefully more than that, either in the computer lab or using the laptops. We have several terrific programs that the students can use to create their own projects on the computers. Let me help you develop some projects that will enhance your curriculum and increase student learning. I will be contacting you as the year progresses to set up times for us to collaborate, unless you contact me first!

As we begin this school year, please consider how you can increase your use of technology in your classroom. You all have wonderful ideas, but if you need something to get you started, here are a few suggestions:

1. Create a class blog in Classblogmeister. Even the very young children can manage this with a little assistance. Students enjoy writing for real world audiences, and they love to read and comment on each others’ blogs. You could assign topics, or let them use their blogs for journal writing during your lab time.
2. Create a VoiceThread. Take digital pictures (or let the children take pictures) and upload them to this site. Then have the children leave comments on the pictures, either explaining the picture or leaving a comment.
3. Create a digital story. Upload pictures into PhotoStory and let the students record the story as each picture is shown. PhotoStory is already on all of our computers. This would be an awesome follow-up to a field trip or other major event.
4. Have your students work in MaxShow or PowerPoint to create their own slideshows showing what they have learned during a particular unit. Then let them share their presentations with the class.

What other ideas do you have for this school year? How will you prepare your students for their lives in the 21st century?

Who is in your Personal Learning Network? Who do you share with? Talk to? Learn from? Collaborate with? Most classroom teachers will probably first think of the other folks in your grade level in your building, and perhaps other local teachers who teach the same grade level or subject.

Have you ever considered using the internet to extend your learning, not just by researching but by contact with other professionals? There are currently two very popular sites being used by technology educators, librarians, and numerous classroom teachers to create Personal Learning Networks. Each site restricts a post to 140 characters. Each site allows you to choose who you follow so you can build a network of people with similar interests to yours. Each site allows you to search for specific people or for general terms such as “teacher” so you can read posts of interest to you.

The most well known of the two sites is Twitter. You may have heard of it asking “What are you doing?” and people type in frivolous items such as “I’m eating a bologna sandwich.” However, the educational community has transformed it into something completely different. They ask for and share ideas, suggestions, and comments. I’ve been amazed at how many new web tools I have been introduced to by people that I follow on Twitter. It’s rare that I’ve asked a question that has not been answered within just a few minutes.

The second site is Plurk. This is quite similar to Twitter, but the topics become more conversational. Where Twitter tends to offer somewhat random comments, Plurk allows users to respond to questions and comments within a conversation and see other responses as well. It takes a bit more time to get used to the format, but I find that I prefer the threaded conversations in Plurk.

Feel free to follow me in either program. I’m elemtech on both. (Tina Coffey is elemitrt. Check her out while you’re there!) You can also see who we follow (mostly ed tech folks) and choose to follow them out also.

Let me know if you need help learning to navigate these cool new tools! It’s amazing to establish a network of educators from all over the world

Time for another fun video from YouTube! This video is a parody showing the introduction of the book at a time when only scrolls had been used. I’m not sure what language is being spoken, but there are English subtitles.

There is a learning curve involved with anything new, and everything was once new, even the book! I believe that every single teacher in my schools used something in technology last year that was new to you, and you did it with great success. Don’t be afraid to try new things, and please, never hesitate to ask for help. Consider me your modern day (medieval) helpdesk.

Here’s a really cute video that was produced for a competition sponsored by Interwrite. We need to continue encouraging children, but girls and boys, to use technology as much as possible, even at young ages.

Turn your speakers on and enjoy the video!

I came across the following video a couple of weeks ago, and Melanie Smith, reading teacher at South Salem, shared it with me again after seeing it at the VSRA conference. It’s only 4 minutes long and definitely provides plenty of food for thought.

I completely understand how difficult it can be to provide students with the types of technologies referred to in the video with the current emphasis on SOLs and NCLB. By working together, we can provide students with more opportunities to show what they have learned by creating their own digital projects such as podcasts, digital stories, blogs, and slideshows.

Tina and I hope to create a similar video using Salem elementary students that we will share with you next fall. It will be very interesting to see how our students’ comments compare with those of the students in the YouTube video above.

Happy New Year! Like most folks, I am thinking about setting new goals for the coming year, or at least for the remainder of this school year. First and foremost, I plan to post articles here more regularly. The time between Thanksgiving and Christmas was filled with exciting things happening in classrooms at both schools, and I just didn’t have any extra time! However, I promise to do better. So, here are a few goals I have set for myself:

1. Post an article here at least once each week, hopefully even more often.
2. Create a database of activities that will assist classroom teachers in planning lessons using the laptops and the computer lab with the software that we have available in both schools.
3. Strive to ensure that every student has the opportunity to use the laptops in their classroom at least once before the end of the school year. (This includes kindergarten!)

So, what are your goals for using technology in 2008? I’ll list a few suggestions to help you get started:

1. Bring the laptop cart into your classroom. Invite me in to assist you and the students the first time or two, until you are comfortable with them. You will be amazed at how quickly the students learn to use the touchpad!
2. Learn to use a piece of software in the computer lab that you haven’t used before, such as TimeLiner, Scholastic Keys, or Kidspiration. I have handouts for most the the programs we own, and I’ll be happy to send one your way.
3. Have your students create something of their very own on the computers and save their projects to the K drive. That way, we can plan a way to combine and share their projects on the school web site.
4. Be adventurous! Begin your own blog, or set up student blogs using ClassBlogmeister.
5. Take lots of digital pictures. Upload them to a photo sharing site, and send the site address to folks with whom you would like to share the pictures. You can also share your pictures through a class website or blog.
6. Have students write their own newscasts and record them to use as podcasts.

I hope you see something here that is of interest to you! Please let me know how I can help you use technology as we work together to prepare the children for their future.

In David Warlick’s keynote address for the K12 Online Conference, he states

I was probably the last generation who could look at his father and believe that he is seeing his own future……For the first time in history, we are preparing our children for a future that we cannot clearly describe, and this has profound implications on education, on what and how we teach.

Wow! That’s definitely food for thought. The class of 2020 entered Kindergarten this year. What types of jobs will they be preparing for when they enter college? What types of devices will they be using to communicate with each other  and to educate themselves? How different from ours will their lives be as adults? Can you even begin to imagine?

Here is a updated version of the “Did You Know” video by Karl Fisch that some of you have seen before.  This video  provides some enlightening information about how quickly our world is changing….well worth watching when you have a chance.

Download Did You Know