Digital Blooms!  Getting started with technology

This five hour mini course has been designed by educators for educators.  You will learn new and exciting ways to challenge and engage your classes in 21^st century fashion.  We have explored the “why, what, and how” of 21^st century technology in the classrooms.   Hope you enjoy!    

Getting started with Technology

Rage against the Machine!

"Teaching will become a job, not a profession. Young people will typically spend a year or two as teachers, then move on to other, more rewarding careers. Federal and state policy will promote online learning, and computers will replace teaches. Online class sizes will reach 1:100, even 1:200; the job of monitoring the screens will be outsourced, creating large economies for state budgets."

I have some fundamental disagreements with this passage above, most notably, the idea that young people will move on to more rewarding careers.  I disagree because personally there aren’t too many careers out there that would/will give me more fulfillment than teaching.  It is the main reason I’ve worked so hard to become a teacher.  I graduated college without an education degree and worked several years in different fields.  I left bigger paychecks because I enjoy working with students and helping others.  I have an appreciation for learning and sharing with others and frankly, I’d be hard pressed to find a better career than this one. 

            Now don’t get me wrong, technology is here to stay I know that and I’m okay with it.  I know that technology will shift our roles in education, but I find it hard to believe that we the teachers will be replaced.  I do agree we could see the day where online learning becomes big and some classes are into the hundreds of students with one professor in charge.  That being said, where I find this hitting the hardest is beyond secondary level education. I still believe most of our kindergarten through 12^th grade schools and classrooms will have teachers working in them.  However, let me elaborate on a statement I mentioned earlier, that our roles as teachers will change. 

Just as our world is changing so too are our classrooms.  Gone are the days when a teacher can stand in front of twenty students and talk at them for fifty minutes.  Schools are being asked to do just as much, if not more, with less.  Challenging schools to do better is not a bad thing.  Making standardized test scores the end all bench marks, is.  And turning education into a competitive corporate dog eat dog world doesn’t end well.  At least not for the lesser half (and let’s be honest when I say lesser half I mean 60+% of the population).  We’ve got to change this trend.  Our founding fathers told the mother country we wanted to have this country stand on life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.  The pursuit of happiness starts with an education.  There is too much knowledge at our finger tips anymore for us not to bring it into the classrooms.  The technology boom of the internet has helped make our standard core subjects come to life.  There are so many media outlets for students to learn, create, and share with that the 21^st century classrooms have changed from a teacher centered set up to a student centered class.  I hear it said “teachers are becoming more like classroom managers as appose to classroom dictators like they had been.”  And so we as teachers will work with the new tools of the 21^st century and help the next generation find their way.

          Teach

            verb (used with object)

          1. to impart knowledge of or skill in; give instruction in: She        teaches mathematics.

          2. to impart knowledge or skill to; give instruction to: He teaches            a large class.

Please note that even with the latest and greatest technological gadgets without someone to help give instructions on how to use them or what to use them for, we do not learn.  You can’t get to higher education or even higher level critical thinking without learning basic knowledge and understanding.  But even beyond the obvious, let me make a simple truth I stand by; people need people.  I believe that it is imperative to human health, both mentally and physically to have social interaction.  Teachers do so much more than teach skills.  A teacher provides advice on both educational and personal matters; they monitor and mediate peer interaction, and teach life skills such as conflict resolution.  Technological devices are great tools or aids but there is no need for any of them if there isn’t anyone to share them with.  I know our educational system is changing with technology as it should, but if we think we can take personal/human connection out of it, our education will not be preparing our students for the world they live in. 

Why we teach.

When Gamers Learn!

Sim City is what some call an oldie but a goodie.  I spent Saturday on a journey back into my childhood playing what is now called Sim City Classic.  As the name of the game suggests, players build and design a city.  As you may know there have been multiple new additions and even cross-reference games, however I prefer to stick to the original.  The player can build a town with several zones such as residential, commercial, and industrial.  One can change the tax rate, build a power plant, build transportation systems (auto or train) and take many other actions, in order to enhance the city.  The game can take a long time to play.  I forgot how intricate the game can be, and found it much harder to sit and play like I use to. 

I choose Sim City because this game is a great example and was discussed multiple times in the module readings.  Even at school this week I found Sim City is familiar to even the current school age children (of course, they play the newer versions).  I had no idea my students today would love playing it even though it’s almost thirty years old. 

One of the main reasons I picked Sim City is because it really brings many mathematic concepts to life for the students.  The spacing and visual understandings of how to make sure there is enough room for buildings and roads.  Seeing the implications of working with a budget, taxes, and cost of creating new (in this case shopping, homes, and factories), how the player working with math to calculate what can be done and how to better society while doing it. 

The aspect I have really noticed, not only this week, but throughout this whole semester is how much this generation of students really thrives with new media.  I totally understand why we would name them digital natives because it’s almost like they are wired to be more attracted to or pay closer attention to a video screen than the person standing right in front of them.  So it’s become very apparent we as educators need to do two things.  First, we need to make sure our lesson plans are top notch, engaging, and meaningful.  Second, we need to find ways to work game-based learning into our curriculum or school day.  One of the best ways to use game-based learning is during RTI or homeroom.  Allowing students to play games gives them a break yet if you pick the right games their minds continue to work.  

A guide for 5th and 6th grade Math gamers

My first ever playlist on Mentor Mob!

Pencil Me In

I must admit, the cover of Pencil Me In kind of threw me off.  I was not expecting to be reading an early 1900’s fictional story.  The cover looks so modern and clean.  Spencer did a good job of a metaphorical parallel, how teachers might have felt during the educational transition of the early 20^th century technologies being introduced and where we are today, with moving into modern technology of computers and personal hand-held devices.  I was questioning a few times during my read as to how realistically philosophical, not only the main character was, but also some of the random people he would run into and have conversations with.  That being said, I appreciated Spencer’s parallel implying that technology can be a good thing but it’s not a replacement of teachers or their lessons.  What I enjoyed most from this story was the different personal reactions/interactions of his characters and their dealings with the new technology and working with through it.

Obviously the pen pal curriculums were the 1900’s version of social media.  The problem I had with this parallel to today’s Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube is how different these two types of media are.  Pen pals have the educational advantage of time, making this form much more educational friendly.  Teachers can edit over letters and make sure their student’s spelling, punctuation, and grammar are correct.  The problem with our modern day social media is that it started outside of education as a fun less formal activity, for the most part.  New text language has been created for the digital age, and unless we as educators are willing to start accepting; LOL, CUL8R, BRB, etc. these formats are fighting an uphill battle in our classrooms.  Where I see Spencer’s comparison of computers to pencils and feel some of his characters frustrations, I see my own struggle with some of our game-based learning tools to teacher lead instructions.  Some of our students catch on with games so well yet they miss the next level thinking with them.  So while they might score better on their tests and exams they struggle with understanding how step one connects to step two and so on.  These students find enjoyment in learning “on their own” so I guess I’m noticing there needs to be more development with some of the educational game-based learning software.  But, this is a topic for a different day.

By the end of the book I saw a man that was struggling, in the character Tom Johnson.  He wanted technology and at the same time, by the end he wanted his one room school house with his Aristotle like teacher.  He had been able to reflect on the good, the bad, and the ugly of modern technology.  I personally enjoyed the read if for no other reason than it made me feel normal.  I felt I wasn’t the only one struggling with all this new technology yet wanting so badly to be a good educator.  I think if I were to recommend this book to others it would be for the teachers or administrators who are in the in-between of wanting the newest technological aid and yet not sure how to handle it.  That being said, I think it helped me stay interested in new technology realizing that it’s not an easy thing for everyone to master.   

Knowing the hectic schedules and the amount of work required just to keep everything up to date and follow curriculums as is, how do educators find high-quality upgrades to technology, which seems to be constantly changing? I called up a friend of my from a neighboring school district who is a media specialist for his school and asked him how he does it.  The answer, I discovered, is that you have to try them out and talk about them.  This wasn’t exactly the answer I was hoping for because again, who has to time to do that?  He did go on and tell how last summer before school started he and his principal put together an App Party.  The principal sent all the teachers the invite and they had a pretty good turn out with about twenty teachers meeting up over at the principal’s house.  They brought the school’s new iPad lab and spent a couple of hours working together, looking and reviewing different apps.  He acknowledged some spent more time talking than researching, but he got more research done in two hours with help from everyone then he ever would have by himself.  Plus, the teachers’ researched thinking, “How can this app work for my curriculum?” So the apps they put money into are ones he knew would be money well spent.  I thought it was a great idea. His teacher’s also appreciated it, knowing their input was important.  There is a down side, however.  Most apps don’t give you a free trial and the reviews can be misleading sometimes.  Plus, I’m a strong advocate for making technology enhance your curriculum and not change your curriculum.  With that in mind, the sad reality is right now you really need to just bite the bullet and spend some money testing out different apps to see if they are worth buying for the whole school.

Below are my top apps:

Brainpop

5^th and 6^th graders are still very much kids.  And kids love to learn, but it helps for them to be tricked into learning sometimes.  That’s what I love about Brainpop.  My students get on Brainpop, watch the videos, and then want to take the quiz to show how well they listened.  Brainpop covers a lot of different topics and subjects like: science, social studies, English, mathematics, arts and music, health and even technology.  A lot of schools I know use it, and while it can’t teach our students everything it’s a great tool to spark interest and go over certain topics.

                      NASA

The NASA app is probably the most subject specific app for my school I will write about today.  Our sixth grade science curriculum has a big unit on space and the solar system.  Several of our teachers have created large projects and the students this year have loved using the ipads for the NASA app.  This app has all kinds of information about the planets and objects in our solar system, hundreds of images from NASA and some awesome NASA Videos.  Our Media Specialist told me in all the classes she has, she has noticed the students who are working with the iPads and this app are so much more focused than the student’s working at the PC’s.  The hands-on features the iPad apps provide dramatically increase student interests.

                   Book Creator

Book Creator is an app for your iPad that helps you create an eBook.  There are two main tools in the app that I’ve worked with.  The first is for text and the second is for images.  The students have fun even with the text because they can manipulate the font, size, and formatting on the page.   My school has used this app a couple times this year with our students during research projects as a format for them to present their findings.  Both science and social studies classes have used it and I fell the students really enjoy the way this app helps organize and clean up their work turning it into a project they really enjoy presenting.

           Stack the States

Stack the States has been voted Best Kids App for iPad! - 2010 Best App Ever Awards.  This app is a great tool for my students for studying.  The down side to this app (as is the case for many apps) is it’s great for the students as a review/study aid on materials they already have learned in class.  It’s not an app that develops creativity or teaches new or more information.  Still, I put this app in my top app list because sometimes as teachers you need to have stuff available for students if they ever have down time or need a break.  Our special education department loves this app because there are often times when our students aren’t doing well in the classroom yet we can give them a “break” by letting them play on an app like Stack the States and they are still learning/reviewing.

               iMovie

iMovie is a video making/editing app.  Students love working with iMovie.  Students can record movies, edit the video clips, add titles, and add music. Not to mention transitions such as fade-in, fade-out, and slides.  This is probably the one app were I can clearly see how my students are digital natives, because there have been several times this year when I’ve had to ask them, “How did you do that?”  The only problem I see right now is having the time to fit iMovie into your curriculum.  We’ve used it several times this year for our morning announcements that we broadcast through our school’s television channel.

       Evernote

This app is in my top list, but not because I’ve worked a lot with it.  To be honest, this app is not an app that our school has available for everyone.  However, there are two students who have IEP’s that allowed them to receive services such as their own iPad and Evernote has been a key tool for them to take notes and better organize themselves.  We are not sure if these two students will show great leaps on their Istep test results, but we have seen improvement in their everyday classroom work and behavior.  So much to the point we have not needed to be nearly as hands on with them this year compared to last year.  Evernote might not be for everybody, but I would definitely recommend it for students who can get it.  

               Math Fractions

This last app I felt I needed to be on here primarily because I co-teach 6^th grade math.  There is nothing mind blowing to this app.  Students learn with hands-on exercises, interactive demonstrations, and by answering simple multiple choice questions.  But why I put this app on my list is because sometimes students need to hear the information from someone (or something) other than the teacher.  It’s amazing to me watching some of these students look at you like you were speaking Japanese and then go to the iPad and play around on Math Fractions for ten minutes and a light bulbs turns on.   

Web 2.0 Tools for My Classroom

It is difficult to think about the huge array of available technology as a special education teacher in an intermediate school setting. This is because one of our students' main struggles is with basic educational tools such as reading and writing, math, and critical thinking skills. We spend the majority of time working on hand writing skills to improve and be legible before worrying about typing skills through digital devices. I know technology is becoming more and more prevalent but I think everyone would agree our next generation still needs to be able to write with a pencil or pen and have others be able to understand and read what they are writing. Nevertheless, technology is changing the landscape of education and everyone in the field needs to be looking for ways to work with the digital natives that are coming into our classrooms. Plus with the development of the internet, there are more tools to aid our students than ever before. So when thinking about how I would go about selecting the technologies for my classroom, first I wanted to make sure I picked web applications that would be standards of the internet and looked to avoid fad websites. The other thing I took into consideration was where my students are in their educational journeys. In 5^th and 6^th grade we're still doing a lot of taking in information and understanding knowledge and how to apply it. I feel each one of the handpicked tools selected can play a pivotal role in the curriculum and education of the students I am servicing.

To start, I wanted to keep two programs that Riverside already uses. Scholastic software is a program that offers several different academic applications each student has access to once they log into their student account through any school computer. We use multiple products from Scholastic: READ180, SYSTEM44, SRI, Reading Counts, FastMath, and Study Jams. All of these programs deal with comprehension (assessment) and remediation to bring students up to grade level standards. The assessments Scholastic has are ones our special education department uses to determine classroom placement and what kind of interventions we will use for our students. The other advantage from our teacher's perspective is the data collection Scholastic offers on all programs, which is incredibly helpful and user friendly. The other web tool Riverside uses is Angel Learning Management Suite (LMS). Our staff uses Angel LMS to create Virtual Learning Environments for online learning but also even simpler tasks such as online assignment postings and notifications for upcoming tests or quizzes. Students are given an electronic portfolio of their digital work. These accounts are also there for the parents to check in on how their student is preforming in their classes. Angel helps our school connect teachers to students and their guardians and that's a huge asset for us. A third program that I feel is an excellent web resource is Google Docs. It is a great web-based office program that is offered free through Google. It allows students to create and edit documents online while collaborating with other students. What is nice about it is you can blend spreadsheet with Microsoft (MS) Word document work. For my classroom this would come in very handy for writing papers because here students could write from both school and from home without having to worry about losing their work from place to place. Next, Prezi and PowerPoint are both web tools that help students put presentations together. Prezi is the "new kid on the block" so to speak. But really there are several differences between the two that make them both useful. PowerPoint typically is more text driven, where Prezi has a much greater visual impact. Prezi also allows you to see a topic wind down a craniological path and yet in the next turn it can visually pull back and show you a big picture structure to a topic because the presentation is on one page. MS PowerPoint is a slideshow presentation that is an application which has a few more tools but needs to be saved to a zip drive or a student's account. Prezi is a free online tool which works well for the students who have a hard time holding on to things from home to school and back and forth. Another great resource is Wikipedia, which is a free, web-based, collaborative, encyclopedia. The pro to this web tool is how user friendly it can be to read and break down topics. The con is that because it's a collaborative website there are times when things are written that are not accurate. This is getting better and they are getting better and better at monitoring and insuring what is being written has a reliable resource to it, but it's still not perfect. Nevertheless, I feel students can easily find quick, relevant facts on a lot of educational topics from George Washington to Ratio. When I think back to the beginning of the web 2.0 era I think Google. I know Yahoo and AOL were technically here first and they all started the change together, but Google changed the game. So this is why I have chosen Google Search as one of the web tools for my classroom. Google Search is the most used search engine of the internet and can be immensely helpful when researching a topic. The downside of Google is the results are sometimes only as good as the search term and depending on if the word has synonyms or connoted meanings, can bring about some unwanted results. The next web tool I wanted our students to work with is Evernote. Evernote has two types, Evernote Premium which is a paid version, or the more restricted, yet free version. At Riverside we would be fine using the free version. What this web tool provides is help with note taking. A lot of my students struggle quite a bit with organization and neatness. This tool can help create nice clean written notes and sort the notes in files for better storage keeping. Another advantage and one of the other aspects Evernote brings to the table is a better way of being "Green." We as a school try and be as eco-friendly as we can; recycling and saving paper wherever possible. Evernote allows our students to keep their notes digitally and not have to use a bunch of paper or note cards for note taking. One of the final resources I've selected is Wordle, which is a web tool that creates tag clouds. Tag clouds are visual representations for text data, typically used to depict keyword words from a topic. It's usually several keywords with each word being depicted by different fonts and/or colors depending on how relevant the word is. A classic example we already have built into our curriculum for 5^th graders is a map. Cites, states, and towns are labeled in different colors and sizes. It's a different type of tag cloud than what we will create from Wordle but this unit is a great lead-in for our students to learn how to create from Wordle. From there our students can build Wordles for multiple subjects when needed. Youtube was my last selection. Not because it's not a good tool, but primarily because so much other non-educational stuff can be found on it there are times when it can be distracting not only for the students but the school staff too. However, videos are a great way to bring topics alive. For example we just read a compare and contrast story about baseball and cricket. Youtube has several good videos showing cricket and all I had to do was type in "how to play cricket." Within several minutes my students now have a much better understanding of what they are reading and how to better compare and contrast the two sports.

All these web tools can be very useful even for my special education department at the intermediate school. Obviously some of these tools will be used more than others. But each new generation is becoming more and more technologically advanced and schools need to aid our students so that technology becomes a useful educational tool, much more than just a place to play games or communicate with friends.