First, let me say that I was pleasantly surprised at the number of views that my previous post received. Most of my other posts have under 100 views but this last one had over 1500 views. Hopefully my ideas and thoughts are helpful to others, that is why I am trying to blog in the first place.
I have had a couple of weeks to play with and do research about my Raspberry Pi. I have tried installing different programs and systems onto SD cards to use with the Pi. I had success with the emulator program using some open source files but ran into issues that required a powered usb hub. I also had many times where I wanted to stop my current activity and try something new. I am still interested in creating an internet controlled garage door opener that includes a camera so I can see if my garage is open or not. I also ran into problems when other pieces of hardware were needed that I did not have. For some reason I no longer owned a usb keyboard, apparently I have gone wireless as much as possible over the years. I also got distracted by other things like spending time with my family and trying to stay warm in this bitter cold.
While I wait for some parts to come in so that I can try some further things which hopefully I will detail what I have done, it is nice to reflect again on how this relates to the learning process that we strive to have in our classrooms. I ran into failure points but I did not let that stop me. I created some successes but they were not the end points but just points along the path. I learned from others using digital tools like Twitter and YouTube. I enjoyed the learning and am still excited for the next stage.
Isn't this what we want to see in our classroom? Will what I learned stick with me a lot longer than just if I read about it or listened to someone else talk about it? At any point did I need a worksheet to help me learn? What if I got graded on this at various points, like when I ran into failure but eventually found my way to success?
More ideas, thoughts and results are yet to come but I hope that what I have written so far helps create discussions about what is happening in our classrooms.
Tuesday, January 7, 2014
Monday, December 16, 2013
Joy of Learning - My Raspberry Pi Journey
My wife and I exchanged Christmas gifts early this year and I will have to say that she won. It isn't a competition but she definitely got me something that I wasn't expecting and definitely something I am going to enjoy. She got me a Raspberry Pi kit. For those that do not know what a Raspberry Pi is, it is a small and cheap computer that can be used in a ton of hobby projects or anything else where you want to use where you need a computer.
The reason why I am posting about this on my education blog is that it directly relates to the joy of learning. I love technology, more importantly I love playing around and trying new things with technology. I love constantly learning how to do something new using that new knowledge in an effective way. I am definitely not someone who can code a computer program but I am someone who doesn't mind learning about it and is always up for a challenge.
The Raspberry Pi is like an open-ended project that I have been assigned. But instead of dreading doing it, I am very excited and have so many options to start. Whatever direction I choose to go will mean that much more to me because I chose to go that direction. I do not have to worry about choosing a path that might get denied because the specific task that I undertake is not as important as the learning that I will achieve.
I also know that I do not have to be an expert, those people already exist and I can learn from them. There are countless websites, blogs and YouTube videos out there made by people who have already done what I am about to do. I can learn from their mistakes, use their knowledge and experiences to make my experience better and more effective. If I get stuck, I know there are tons of social networks that I can use to get the help that I need. I am not alone in my learning even though I will be building it by myself.
I am also ok with failure. The nice thing about the Raspberry Pi is that it is cheap enough that even if I destroy the whole computer, I am only out $35. I am not afraid to try something new or to fail and then learn from those mistakes. I also know that if I start down a path that does not enthrall me, I still have the option to change my mind. No matter what, I have the openness to learn however I want and I know that no matter what I do, I will have learned something and I will definitely enjoy it.
I also know that my learning will be more effective if I share it with others. I will probably do more blog posts about this as the year goes on as I truly think that we can use so many different experiences to help us reflect on our teaching and the learning that happens, or doesn't happen, in our classrooms.
This whole experience can be a great reflection on the teaching and learning that can occur in the classroom. How many times do our students get to do what I am doing? How can our classroom be designed in order to encourage activities like this? How can technology help us create this environment? How can we help our students learn how they can use digital tools and social media to improve their learning and make it more effective? How can we help our students be more reflective of their own learning journey?
Right now the top projects include an old school video game cabinet, an internet capable garage door opener with a camera system to tell if the door is open or not (similar to the one shown in the video below), a home security system that is activated by motion and will text me updates, a tele-presence device to allow me to interact with more people from afar or even some weird game like system that can use motors to animate something in relation to something students do in order to get more interested in coding and developing computer programs.
All I know is that I am already excited and the journey is just beginning. Don't you wish our students felt this way everyday?
(image from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raspberry_Pi)
The reason why I am posting about this on my education blog is that it directly relates to the joy of learning. I love technology, more importantly I love playing around and trying new things with technology. I love constantly learning how to do something new using that new knowledge in an effective way. I am definitely not someone who can code a computer program but I am someone who doesn't mind learning about it and is always up for a challenge.
The Raspberry Pi is like an open-ended project that I have been assigned. But instead of dreading doing it, I am very excited and have so many options to start. Whatever direction I choose to go will mean that much more to me because I chose to go that direction. I do not have to worry about choosing a path that might get denied because the specific task that I undertake is not as important as the learning that I will achieve.
I also know that I do not have to be an expert, those people already exist and I can learn from them. There are countless websites, blogs and YouTube videos out there made by people who have already done what I am about to do. I can learn from their mistakes, use their knowledge and experiences to make my experience better and more effective. If I get stuck, I know there are tons of social networks that I can use to get the help that I need. I am not alone in my learning even though I will be building it by myself.
I am also ok with failure. The nice thing about the Raspberry Pi is that it is cheap enough that even if I destroy the whole computer, I am only out $35. I am not afraid to try something new or to fail and then learn from those mistakes. I also know that if I start down a path that does not enthrall me, I still have the option to change my mind. No matter what, I have the openness to learn however I want and I know that no matter what I do, I will have learned something and I will definitely enjoy it.
I also know that my learning will be more effective if I share it with others. I will probably do more blog posts about this as the year goes on as I truly think that we can use so many different experiences to help us reflect on our teaching and the learning that happens, or doesn't happen, in our classrooms.
This whole experience can be a great reflection on the teaching and learning that can occur in the classroom. How many times do our students get to do what I am doing? How can our classroom be designed in order to encourage activities like this? How can technology help us create this environment? How can we help our students learn how they can use digital tools and social media to improve their learning and make it more effective? How can we help our students be more reflective of their own learning journey?
Right now the top projects include an old school video game cabinet, an internet capable garage door opener with a camera system to tell if the door is open or not (similar to the one shown in the video below), a home security system that is activated by motion and will text me updates, a tele-presence device to allow me to interact with more people from afar or even some weird game like system that can use motors to animate something in relation to something students do in order to get more interested in coding and developing computer programs.
All I know is that I am already excited and the journey is just beginning. Don't you wish our students felt this way everyday?
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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