Posts made in January, 2011

New Podcast Episode Uploaded

Posted by Brad Flickinger on Jan 30, 2011 in school technology | 0 comments

#edtech #edchat

I just uploaded a new episode of The Elementary Tech Teacher’s Journal.

http://www.bradflickinger.com/Brad_Flickinger/Podcast/Podcast.html

What’s For Breakfast? Atomic Learning Project

Posted by Brad Flickinger on Jan 27, 2011 in school technology | 0 comments

#edtech #edchat #elearning

Today I would like to tell you about an incredible project I did with my 5th grade students last year. Like many of you, I was struggling to find great tech projects that are full of 21st Century Skills, to solve this I turned to Atomic Learning. Soon I was searching through their ready-made lessons that are full of 21st Century Skills. It wasn’t long before I found a project that was age and tech appropriate for my students.

The project was called “What’s for breakfast?” and here is the description from the Atomic Learning website:

This project promotes health literacy and supports awareness of global health issues, through the exploration of how to make sound nutritional choices about the foods we eat for breakfast. The example project shown here was created using Excel 2007; however, any spreadsheet application would work just as well. We will be creating a spreadsheet to track and compare three breakfast menus. We will begin by searching for and evaluating Web resources about nutrition. After we input nutritional data into our spreadsheet, we will compare the nutritional value of different choices through the use of graphs and charts.

Student sharing data from "What's for Breakfast?"

New Podcast: Elementary Tech Teacher’s Journal

Posted by Brad Flickinger on Jan 23, 2011 in school technology | 0 comments

#edtech #edchat

I just uploaded a new episode of my Elementary Tech Teacher’s Journal podcast.

Episode 2

http://www.bradflickinger.com/Brad_Flickinger/Podcast/Entries/2011/1/24_Episode_002.html

New Podcast: Elementary Tech Teacher’s Journal

Posted by Brad Flickinger on Jan 17, 2011 in school technology | 0 comments

#edtech #edchat

I just uploaded a new episode of my Elementary Tech Teacher’s Journal podcast.

http://www.bradflickinger.com/Brad_Flickinger/Podcast/Entries/2011/1/17_Episode_001.html

Enjoy!

Building my Personal Learning Network PLN Part 1

Posted by Brad Flickinger on Jan 9, 2011 in school technology | 1 comment

#edtech #edchat

I have been hearing the ideas about building your own PLN for the past year and even though I have most of the parts already in place, I think that it is high time for me to get serious about doing it up right.

Step 1: Understand exactly what a PLN is.

A PLN or Personal Learning Network is really a collection of online and offline resources that you will use on a usual basis to make you better at whatever you do. Since I am a tech teacher, my PLN will be resources that will make me a better tech teacher.

Step 2: Start with Twitter.

I don’t know why I started with Twitter, but to me making room in my hectic schedule to read 140 characters is a lot easier that finding time to read a book on edtech.

I have had a twitter account for years, but if you don’t have one, or you have no idea what twitter is, a good place to start is the video below. When I searched Atomic Learning I found 57 video tutorials about Twitter — so you have no excuse not to set up a Twitter account.

Once you have Twitter you now need some people to follow. After using the search function for edtech and school technology to find some people to follow, I clicked the follow link on the people I liked and thought could help build my PLN. If you want to see who I am following, just click the link below.

Brad Flickinger’s Twitter Account

The next thing I did was to set up some twitter searches for the hashtags (#) that people from my list where using as a sort of keyword for subjects that might help me as well. I found these hashtags to follow on Twitter.

• #edtech
• #edchat
• #elearning
• #elemchat

Now I can follow Tweats about these subjects for my PLN without following individual people. Following these hashtags really gives me a “feel” for what is happening in the world of edtech — this keeps me up-to-date. I use a program called TweetDeck to keep it all straight on my laptop. For example, right now while writing this blog post; Twitter is buzzing about tablet computers and teaching — cool!

Already now that I am a little more organized, I feel like my PLN is starting to look better. The last thing I did was to schedule a little time three times a week to check in on Twitter and see what is happening. I feel smarter already.

Check out Part 2 in a few days.

Related articles

• Twitter as PLN (twowritingteachers.wordpress.com)
• My Personal Learning Network is the most awesomest thing ever!! (elearnspace.org)
• Developing and Deepening your PLN with Twitter – Hashtags For Educators (newtrierlibrary.blogspot.com)
• The Power of the PLN – Getting Started (List 1) (citrushightechnology.com)