ctrl+z

Well this post comes a little late considering the conference ended on Thursday, but I’m just getting to this so here we are.  I had a nice time at the North Carolina Educational Technology Conference, both presenting and participating.  Here comes the brain dump.

Wednesday opened with Jim Moulton, author of Computers Can, Computers Can’t.  He touched on lots of different places of technology integration.  I took some notes during the presentation but a lot of them don’t make sense to me at the moment.  That’s why I should have done this much earlier.

One of the things that stuck with me was the way he used the term “screenagers”.  The generation we are teaching today is very screen-oriented; from early childhood they are being both entertained and educated by the television or the computer.  We have to teach these children a different way than we taught the generations before them.  When we said that, it was almost obvious, but it is something that I rarely think about.

Even though students are getting lots of screentime, it isn’t always meaningful.  We have to teach children that it isn’t the stuff on the screen that’s important, but the relationships established with the people we interact with online that is important.  Networking, collaborating…those are the things that will prepare these students for life and work in the 21st century.

As a side note, Moulton showed us how to use a point-and-shoot camera as a document camera–just use an RCA-miniUSB cable and plug into the projector.  Why didn’t I think of that?!

I attended other sessions about the use of video games in the classroom.  Jeff Ertzberger gave what I thought was the most useful information of the day.  He raises a good point; students are spending time on video games outside of class, so why don’t teachers use this as a vehicle for learning?  He’s not advocating the use of violent commercial games, he develops review game templates that students and teachers can customize using PowerPoint, Excel, and Word.  Students are engaged when playing games even when they are content-related.  I’m going to try some of his templates next week.  Here’s where you can get them.

I visited the exhibit hall and didn’t see a whole lot I could use or afford.  There were two bright spots though.  One was Ignite Learning which was selling a brick of their software for about $2,000.  Seeing the software in action, I was excited about the possibilities for my classroom, but the price tag is a little more than prohibitive for a meager classroom teacher.  I would have to write a grant for that one.

The other thing that caught my eye in the exhibit hall was the Computrac booth.  Computrac recently bought out RM Education and the company will be expanding very soon, but for now the exciting item for me was the Easiteach Dance Mat. I’m a die-hard fan of Dance Dance Revolution, and although this game is nothing like that, I could see those students who need to get up and move getting interested in reviewing content.  Software and dance mat were $299, which is much more budget-friendly.  I’m probably going to order one before the new year.

Thursday was presentation day for me.  Worked with Dan Froelich to present Skype in Schools the first hour.  The session went well and we got lots of new contacts for our skype accounts (they are contacting us to get hands-on experience with the software before using it with students).  My skype name is trance324 and Dan’s is danfroelich217 if anyone else would like help with skype.

For the second hour, I presented Podcasting 101: The First Year.  My partner for that one is Barb Thorson, a fellow Teacher Academy trainer and super person.  The session was well-received and generated lots of questions about publishing student work on the internet.  I hope the participants were pointed in the direction of starting their own podcasts.  Both presentations, along with other presentations from the conference done by the North Carolina Teacher Academy, can be found here.

I learned a lot at NCETC this year, and I hope that I can use some of it in my classroom this year.  I’ll post about my use of video games sometime in the future.

This year my family decided not to travel for Thanksgiving because we were just too tired.  We did invite some other family members to visit here, but they couldn’t make it (probably for the same reasons).  My husband, daughter Zoey (toddler), and I were going to have a quiet Thanksgiving; just the three of us.

Since we didn’t have any guests who would have been expecting turkey, we choose to do something different.  After thinking of foods that we rarely eat, we decided on lobster.  Live lobster.  Considering that I was a vegetarian as recently as 2 years ago, that was a little weird.

My husband pointed out the obvious–that neither one of us had ever cooked a live lobster and had no idea what the heck we were doing.  I hissed at him for raining on my parade, but had to concede he was right.  After looking through all my cookbooks, I didn’t find anything that was helpful enough to a lobster rookie like me (none of them even had pictures).

I was about to give up, but then I remembered something I once heard Will Richardson say at a technology training session…YouTube can teach you how to do anything. Of course!  Why didn’t I think of that before!  Not only would I have pictures, I would have my own personal teachers taking me step-by-step from getting the buggers into the pot without being pinched to cracking the sucker open and getting at the good stuff.  I must have watched 6 videos before I was confident enough to announce that Battle Lobster was on for Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving morning–Matt bought the live lobsters around noontime.  I was ready.  I handled those monsters like a champ.  You wouldn’t even have guessed it was my first time.  In no time we had a fantastic lobster dinner, thanks to YouTube.

Now THAT’s web 2.0!

I’ve neglected this blog long enough, but I promise you that I haven’t been idle in regards to 21st century classroom tools.  I have spent the weekend at the North Carolina Teacher Academy and have had the privilege of working with Howard Pitler and Will Richardson, two widely respected and knowledgable advocates of teaching students to use technology effectively.  Now that I’m home, I’m trying to come up with a battle plan for how to implement as many of these web 2.0 tools as possible without making my head (and, subsequently, the heads of my students) explode.

First order of business: playing with Jing.  A free download that allows you to create screencasts and share them almost instantly.  I know there is something I can have my kids do with this.  Has anyone had success with this in the classroom?  What have your students done with it?

The school year has settled in, and our class has been very busy.  I, along with another teacher, share a class of 46 fourth and fifth graders.  The students are extremely creative and energetic.  This is not a group that will tolerate a classroom with only paper/pencil interactions.

Our kids have a variety of interests.  It’s the perfect group to experiment with technology.  They like to try new things and can appreciate experiences that enhance the regular curriculum.  I have started trying to integrate blogs and video podcasts into our classroom.  I am, so far, pleased with the results.

There are a few students who like to write.  One student in particular is very much into poetry and short essays.  Saige is the kind of kid who looks for extra writing assignments, occasionally making up her own just for fun.  When she would finish a piece of writing, I would let her type it and post it on our class forum online.  Then I decided to set up a blog for her through edublogs (which was incredibly easy).  She is super excited to have her own website, and other students are becoming motivated to write so they may have their own blog too.  It’s causing quite a buzz in our classroom.

The video podcasts are fun.  My original idea was to have the students create an online database of video math tutorials.  Students would choose a math topic that they were comfortable with, write a script explaining the concept, run rehearsals, and shoot a short video on the topic.  If any student were to need a quick refresher on a topic, they would simply reference the database and watch a video made by their peers.

This has turned into a very exciting project.  Since it is completely optional, the students who are involved are 100% commited to a quality product.  I have had all sorts of students interested–not just the gifted.  In fact, one of the podcasts done by special education students was responsible for teaching a gifted student how to properly do a math concept she had been doing incorrectly all along.  That is powerful learning.

I am excited to see where these projects lead.  I feel like great things can happen this year.

By the way, I am applying for a Bright Ideas grant for innovative teaching strategies.  I’m hoping to score a MacBook for the school so the kids can edit their own media.  Wish me luck.

During last school year, I used math playground as a center for my students during independent learning time.  The students enjoyed the games, but also used the problem solving section heavily to prepare for testing.  The site used voicethread to explain the solutions to the problems while working the problem out (probably doodling on a tablet PC).  The kids really loved working along with the voicethread; it was like having a personal tutor.

So this got me really excited about using voicethread in the classroom.  I am exploring some ways to implement voicethread into some projects this year.  We have Interwrite and a Smartboard, but no tablet PCs.  I would like kids to create their own voicethreads explaining a math concept they have mastered or working a word problem step-by-step.  I would then like to archive the voicethreads (or at least create a list of links to them) so when students are having trouble with a concept that has already been taught, they can view the voicethread about it that was created by one of their peers.

I’d be interested in feedback from anyone who has been successful with voicethread or has tried anything like this.  I’d also like to talk about some ways to use voicethread in other subject areas.  I’ll update soon on my progress with setting this up.