My iPad finally arrived and I couldn’t be more excited. Sure it is cool and new, but what really gets me is what it could mean for education. Let me explain…
Digital Books: This past January when I was flying to Florida to speak at FETC I sat next to a man who had a Kindle. We started to talk about technology and he showed me the 112 books that he had loaded on his digital book reader. He let me hold it and I was amazed. 112 books in something so light. I couldn’t help but think how heavy the six books were in my carry-on that was shoved above my head. “Yeah, but I love to highlight, scribble in the margin and dog-ear my pages (a librarian’s worst nightmare).” I explained to him. He then showed me how he could do all that. But the most amazing part is what he said next. “The one thing you can’t do with a paper book is search the text. I can search my whole library in seconds.” He was right, imagine the day when our students have every library book pre-loaded onto their iPads! No waiting to check out a book, no two weeks to return it, it is just there for the student to use any time they want.
Educational Apps: Although I have only had my iPad for less than 24-hours, my 13-year old son has already taken it over and has filled it with great apps: graphing calculator, spelling test, math prompts, a periodic table that really cool. There are thousands and thousands of great edu-apps.
No More Back Packs: Have you seen the size of the back packs that students take to school? They are huge and heavy, full of text books, notebooks, and library books. In a few years they will just have an iPad, no need for a locker or a back pack, everything will be in their iPad.
What an exciting time to be involved with school technology!
Recently my 5th grade students finished their blogging project about the Renaissance.
After meeting with the 5th grade team earlier in the year we decided that we wanted more from the unit on the Renaissance than just a test. We wanted to incorporate not only 21st Century Skills but also 21st Century Assessment.
To ensure that the students would be safe online with their blogs, they were only allowed to use their student ID numbers instead of names since all of these students are only in elementary school. The students very quickly learned each others ID numbers when commenting on the classroom blogs. “Hey 48392, this is 38291, I really liked the photo you used of Leonardo da Vinici’s Mona Lisa, it was nice and clear.“
We were very surprised at how quickly the students picked up the art of blogging like making new posts, adding photos and images, commenting on other’s blogs, etc.
What the students enjoyed was the fact that they had made a blog that was being read by many people instead of just their teacher (like most projects). When we got our first comment from someone in Australia students really stepped up the quality of their work.
It is just amazing that our students are growing up in a time where they have a voice that they can literally share with the entire world.
Last fall I was introduced to Scratch, a programming application made by the beautiful minds at MIT. I was very excited about what Scratch might mean for my students because of it simple, yet powerful interface. So last month I set my fourth grade students free on it. The challenge: to make a video game. My students were practically shell-shocked with the assignment: “We get to make a video game?”
Step 1: Since I did not know how to use Scratch, I sent my students to the website: LearnScratch.org which taught them most everything they needed to know about programming with Scratch with easy to follow screencast tutorials.
Step 2: Give them the impossible task of making their own video game.
Step 3: Stand back and be amazed.
These young students now have the programming bug, they are starting to “get” the world that is around them. They don’t look at their iPod Touches apps the same way. In fact, I had one student show me a game that she had made in Scratch that was just like the app on my iPod Touch. Which is why I added Step 4…
Step 4: Share any future video game royalties with Mr. Flick.
If you want to see examples of student made video games using Scratch, just check out the gallery on their website.
The other day I asked one of my 5th grade students to take some photos of a project that we were all working on together.
The photos I got back were… how shall I say this… not good.
I thought that these so called “Digital Natives” were experts in these types of things. But if truth be told they are not. Which is why I have come up with this new line: Owning tools does not mean that you have the skills to use them.
Case in point:
Most YouTube videos.
Most Facebook photos.
Etc.
Get the point?
A student might have an iPod Touch in their pocket but it doesn’t mean that they know how to truly use it. Sure, he might be an expert at some games, but I am talking about truly being able to use it.
That is where we as teachers step in. We teach digital natives how to effectively use the technology tools that are all around them.
But there is a catch…
To be able to teach these skills we need the tools. For example; after seeing the horrible photos that my young student took I taught him and all his classmates how to take a good photo. They picked up on it quickly (as I knew they would) and were soon taking exceptional photos, probably better than most of their parents. But I could not have done any of this without the tools, which in this case were the seven digital cameras I have in my computer lab.
Teachers need tools to be able to teach 21st Century Skills!
Since I am an elementary tech teacher I do things differently than my middle and high school counterparts.
For example, a few weeks ago I was interviewed on a TV program about students and 21st Century Skills. I was part of a panel of tech teachers representing all ages of students. During one segment we started to talk about students doing video work in the classroom. The moderator asked me at what age do I teach my students video work. I explained that I started with the basics of videography in the third grade.
I do a lot of incredible video work with students in fourth and fifth grade so I need my students to have a general understanding of videography by the time they come into fourth grade. By the time my students finish the “Flip Video Boot Camp” they are taking better video than their parents.
We do not do anything with green screens or any fancy editing, just basic video work — I save the hard stuff for when they go to middle and high school.
I am constantly amazed at what students can do with their 21st Century Skills if we just give them a chance and the tools (like a $120 Flip video camera).
If you would like to see some of student work from my school visit: http://www.hightechelementaryschool.com
I am currently reading the book 21st Century Skills and I would like to comment about something I read in Chapter 5.
There is a section in Chapter five that starts off: “Diverse work teams, scattered around the globe and connected by technology, are becoming the norm for 21st century work.”
Some people are reluctant at first to accept this, but people change…
Last week my brother Mike called me about a frustration he was having when working with a programmer for a website project that he was doing. This programmer just needed to fix a few bugs in some Flash code on a photographer’s website that my brother hosts. My brother thought it was something that would take just a couple of hours at most. But week after week he kept getting the run-around and now he didn’t know what to do.
I told him to fire his US programmer and find someone in India. “That’s too far away, how can I manage it?” he asked. I told him that it was easy and to use an in-between company like oDesk or Elance. He was reluctant at first but then dove into the deep end.
He registered with a company (in this case oDesk.com), posted his job, reviewed a few of the hundreds of applicants that wanted to work for him. Picked a qualified person from some strange european country that I can’t even pronounce and hired him to do the job. He managed the work through a slick interface that allows him to see the work progress as his person works on the project.
The next day he opened his email to see the completed programming and a bill for less than one hour of work: $7.41 (my brother had set the limit at three hours).
Wow, guess who just went down the rabbit hole?
“Holy Crud!” My brother exclaimed to me on my phone this morning. “Do you know what this will mean to my company and the backlog of work that I need to get done?”
I think he posted five more jobs this morning.
I would like to repeat what I just read…
“Diverse work teams, scattered around the globe and connected by technology, are becoming the norm for 21st century work.”
What does this mean for the students of today?
Get used to working online with colleagues all across our planet — your future depends on it.
As teachers, we do not need to contribute to the sea of ugly websites, the Internet has already enough of them.
Welcome to an easy to follow online professional development (PD) workshop for school media and technology specialists (and if you are not one, you will be by the end of this workshop). This is an online step-by-step guide to help you develop your own School Technology Plan that you can complete at your own pace. Please start with the “Watch First” lesson…
Table of Contents – Online Video Blog Lessons:
Watch First
Step 1: The Big Picture
Step 2: You Must Take the Lead
Step 3: Watch Out for Speed Bumps
Step 4: Determine Grade-Level Artifacts
Step 5: The K-T-E-C System
Step 6: Get Buy-In from Administration
Step 7: Present the School Technology Plan
Step 8: Gather Lesson Ideas
Step 9: Embed Digital Artifacts into Lessons
Step 10: Continual Professional Development
Step 11: Gather a Body Evidence
Step 12: Make Improvements
Watch Last
Printables:
Pre/Post Assessment
Workshop Checklist
When the idea of students using flash drives (or thumb drives, or USB drives, or whatever you want to call them) first occurred to me I thought “This is going to be great! No more troubles with students taking files to and from the school to their home computers.”
This year every student came to school with their own flash drive…
Oh, how wrong I was!
Although my idea was great, the practice of this idea was horrible.
Have you ever had to deal with any of these situations?
1) Student: Mr. Flickinger have you seen my flash drive? It has my report on it and I need to print it out and turn it in. Me: Does your report live anywhere else but on your flash drive? Student: No.
2) Student: Does a flash drive still work if it has been through the washer and dryer?
3) Student: Mr. Flickinger my flash drive doesn’t work any more. Me: What are these marks? Student: Oh yeah, my dog chewed on it a bit. Me: Are you kidding me, you are trying the ol’ THE DOG ATE MY HOMEWORK line?
By trying to solve one problem with technology, in this case a simple flash drive, I created an even bigger one. Welcome to the world of a tech integration specialist.
Many visitors to my blog have asked me questions about the Tech Integration Workshop, I would like to spend a few minutes answering some of the most asked questions…
Question #1: Who is this workshop for? The workshop is for anyone who is in charge of educational technology for their school or district.
Question #2: How long will the workshop take? Most people take about six months to complete the workshop. You set your own pace and schedule.
Question #3: What do I get out of the workshop? By the time you are done the workshop you will be an expert on technology integration and embedding 21st Century Skills into lessons. You will also have a School Technology Plan up and running.
Question #4: How much does the workshop cost? Although the workshop is free, I do recommend different books and products to buy, plan on spending a couple of hundred dollars on books and supplies just to get started.
