Friday, December 13, 2013
Tech Tips of the Week
I have posted quite a few tech tips posts this week on my other site. My goal is to find tools that will help the specific teachers in my building and I do try to stay away from tools that may be too complex or costly to use effectively in the classroom. My goal is to add 3-5 posts a week and I definitely went beyond that this week. I typically create a tutorial video to help show the basics. These posts are not an end product but something to get people started either thinking about the possibilities of a tool and to get started. I am lucky in that I get time to work with teachers so I can help them get beyond the basics if they want. The following links will take you to my other site where you will see more information.
Thursday, December 12, 2013
Choice, Choice, Choice!
One of the biggest tips I give to people when using technology in the classroom is to give your students choices. Choices on how they work in the classroom, choices on what they create and even choices on how they are assessed. By giving choices we are allowing students a greater chance to own their learning. If we decide how they are going to do everything, they will feel like a passenger instead of the driver they need to be.
For example, I was recently in a classroom where the teacher wanted their students to create a concept map. They did not tell their students what tool to use, they suggested a few but as long as the students were able to get the concept map to them, any tool would work. The students quickly went to work and even discussed options with each other. A lot of people may have used the same tool, but many students were using something different because that tool worked best for them or they enjoyed using that tool more than the others. They were more engaged with that lesson because they had some control over it than they would been otherwise if everything was dictated for them.
Sometimes a specific tool needs to be used for a task at hand but there are so many times that an activity can be completed using any one of a variety of tools. As the teacher, you do not need to be the expert of all of the tools, but be there to help them as they work. You can focus on the content while they are focusing on the application. If we are really striving for a student-centered classroom and focus, then we need to make sure we give the students some control over how they are learning. If you give them options and open things up, you will be surprised how much better things can get.
For example, I was recently in a classroom where the teacher wanted their students to create a concept map. They did not tell their students what tool to use, they suggested a few but as long as the students were able to get the concept map to them, any tool would work. The students quickly went to work and even discussed options with each other. A lot of people may have used the same tool, but many students were using something different because that tool worked best for them or they enjoyed using that tool more than the others. They were more engaged with that lesson because they had some control over it than they would been otherwise if everything was dictated for them.
Sometimes a specific tool needs to be used for a task at hand but there are so many times that an activity can be completed using any one of a variety of tools. As the teacher, you do not need to be the expert of all of the tools, but be there to help them as they work. You can focus on the content while they are focusing on the application. If we are really striving for a student-centered classroom and focus, then we need to make sure we give the students some control over how they are learning. If you give them options and open things up, you will be surprised how much better things can get.
Tuesday, December 10, 2013
Focus on the Students!
I have a whiteboard in my office where I write out ideas and post the important stuff that I need to be focused on. I have always done this, when I was a teacher and even when I was a student. In college I wouldn't have been able to pass my upper level physics classes if it wasn't for the large whiteboard in my room. In my new role as Technology Integrationist, I have a much different focus than I have had in the past, or do I?
I came into this year thinking about the teachers and the needs that they would have as we transition into this new environment where every student has a laptop. I spent three years previously at a school where I was there before and during the 1:1 implementation. I knew the issues that teachers would have and some things that would work and some that would not in helping the teachers. The first couple editions of my whiteboard had a focus on the teachers, that is where I thought my focus was supposed to be. But as I kept looking at this board I just had this feeling that I was missing something. I would erase some things, rewrite others, add a little here and there, but something felt missing.
This morning I saw a graphic that discussed the differences between using technology and technology integration. (link to graphic) In the top third of the graphic it starts to talk about the technology use, whether it is by the teachers or is it by the students. True technology integration is when the technology is there for the students to use, not just the teachers. That was it, I needed to add one more thing to my board to at least make it work better. The focus has to be on the students.
Well, the big focus has to be on the students but in order to get that focus, we also need to help the teachers so that we can focus on the students. One issue many people find in their 1:1 implementation is that you run into cases where some teachers are afraid to use the technology or allow the technology to be used by students because they do not have a high confidence in their abilities with the technology. Their lack of confidence in the technology or their ability with the technology causes the teachers to ignore the opportunities for learning that can happen by students when the students are using the technology.
Our goal should always be focused on student learning, but we also have to remember that there are a lot of variables that affect student learning so we need to be aware of all of them. In order to have an effective learning environment, we need to make sure our teachers feel comfortable using the technology with the students and allowing the students to use technology in ways that best fit them. We need to make sure we give our students the options they need in order to learn best and the options they want in order to express that learning. Technology can help us do so much in the classroom but if our focus is not on student learning, then even the best technology becomes obsolete instantly.
I came into this year thinking about the teachers and the needs that they would have as we transition into this new environment where every student has a laptop. I spent three years previously at a school where I was there before and during the 1:1 implementation. I knew the issues that teachers would have and some things that would work and some that would not in helping the teachers. The first couple editions of my whiteboard had a focus on the teachers, that is where I thought my focus was supposed to be. But as I kept looking at this board I just had this feeling that I was missing something. I would erase some things, rewrite others, add a little here and there, but something felt missing.
This morning I saw a graphic that discussed the differences between using technology and technology integration. (link to graphic) In the top third of the graphic it starts to talk about the technology use, whether it is by the teachers or is it by the students. True technology integration is when the technology is there for the students to use, not just the teachers. That was it, I needed to add one more thing to my board to at least make it work better. The focus has to be on the students.
(extra note = the Goals/Standards are from http://www.edtechchallenge.com/)
Well, the big focus has to be on the students but in order to get that focus, we also need to help the teachers so that we can focus on the students. One issue many people find in their 1:1 implementation is that you run into cases where some teachers are afraid to use the technology or allow the technology to be used by students because they do not have a high confidence in their abilities with the technology. Their lack of confidence in the technology or their ability with the technology causes the teachers to ignore the opportunities for learning that can happen by students when the students are using the technology.
Our goal should always be focused on student learning, but we also have to remember that there are a lot of variables that affect student learning so we need to be aware of all of them. In order to have an effective learning environment, we need to make sure our teachers feel comfortable using the technology with the students and allowing the students to use technology in ways that best fit them. We need to make sure we give our students the options they need in order to learn best and the options they want in order to express that learning. Technology can help us do so much in the classroom but if our focus is not on student learning, then even the best technology becomes obsolete instantly.
Monday, December 9, 2013
Scrible - Annotate Websites
There are often times when we find a website with information on it that we want to share with others. Instead of just giving them the website to look at, we now have tools that allow us to annotate that page and use highlighting or notes to add our own content to that site. Scribe is a simple tool that allows you to easily annotate a website and then share that site with others. If there is an article you want to share with students or other teachers, this tool will allow you to easily add to that article and then share it out. Watch the video for more information.
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