#edtech #edchat #elemchat
I just uploaded a new episode of Elementary Tech Teacher’s Journal.
Episode Number 15 for the week of April 25, 2011 (This week’s episode was recorded and edited on an iPad 2 using Garageband with an iRig Mic.)
“Teaching Tech to First Graders.”
http://www.bradflickinger.com/Brad_Flickinger/Podcast/Podcast.html
This week’s episode is sponsored by Atomic Learning.
#elemchat #edtech #edchat #elearning
The other day I had dinner with a fellow educator and we naturally started to talk about technology integration in the classroom (of course), so I shared a story about my daughter and Wikipedia.
The last week my daughter came home and explained to me about a game she and her classmates play on their smartphones when they are bored in school. They call them “Wikipedia Races,” they like to use Wikipedia because it is banned by most teachers at her school so they feel a bit like rebels by using this “outlawed” website – evil Wikipedia.
The game goes like this; someone names two terms that are totally unrelated and then they race to see how they can use Wikipedia to get from one term the other the quickest, kind of like using six-degrees of separation but with terms instead of people.
Here is the one that she gave me: Turtles and Photosynthesis
What the? Turtles have nothing to do with photosynthesis!
Then she showed me how she won this round just that afternoon.
She looked up turtles in Wikipedia. Then under culture she found that a turtle is used on the Cayman Island’s coat of arms. So she went to Cayman Island, then to scuba diving, then to oxygen and finally to photosynthesis. Voila!
She said that they love playing this at school – weird, I know.
This reminded me of the scene from Jurassic Park when they realized that the female-only population of dinosaurs were somehow reproducing. “Nature will find a way – Nature always finds a way.”
Our students want to use technology to do their school work, and if we don’t let them, they will still find a way to use it. So rather than trying to make our entire population of teachers tech-savvy, maybe we just need to step aside and let the students just do it.
Case in point:
I wanted my 4th grade students to learn how to make video games.
I know nothing about making video games.
So I let them watch some video tutorials on Atomic Learning to get the basics on how to use the free application called Scratch and before I knew it, they were making video games. That’s “Step Aside Teaching.” If you don’t know how to do something with technology, just step aside and let the students teach themselves.
By the way, I now know how to use Scratch because my students have also taught me while they were learning themselves. So check your ego at the door and learn a little from your students.
#edtech #edchat #elemchat
I just uploaded a new episode of Elementary Tech Teacher’s Journal.
Episode Number 14 for the week of April 18, 2011 (This week’s episode was recorded and edited on an iPad 2 using Garageband with an iRig Mic.)
“Teaching Tech to Kindergarteners.”
http://www.bradflickinger.com/Brad_Flickinger/Podcast/Podcast.html
This week’s episode is sponsored by Atomic Learning.
#elemchat #edchat #edtech #elearning
Last Friday I hosted a local TV show that featured seventh grade students talking about how they use their iPads for school work. We started to show each other apps and such that we could do with our iPads (both the original iPad and the iPad 2) and before we knew it the hour was up and I was freaking out.
The first thing that amazed me was how natural it was for these young students to use this device. The actual iPad became invisible as they used it like a toolbox to look for different tools to help them with their school projects.
I would like to share a few of those ideas here:
Research: Hands down, you can’t beat every student having the Internet on their desks. These students could not be stumped, within seconds they could find out everything about anything. They also had other apps that were specific to an area of research. (World Atlas, Google Earth, CongressPro and This Day to name a few.)
Science: We had a great time showing off the amazing apps like SkyView, Star Walk and Solar Walk, but then we started to use SPARKvue to see how you could data log the actions of the iPad using it’s built in sensors. And finally, of course, we looked at the amazing “The Elements” app to take a peek of what textbooks are gong to be like in the future.
Books: Okay, there are the standard e-book type of books that you can read using iBooks, Kindle or Google Books apps on the iPad, but then there are the books that are apps. We looked at Dr. Seuss, and other titles that are unbelievably cool – interactive and fun to read.
Holy Crud! Apps: We edited a movie in iMovie – on an iPad 2. Then we recorded a podcast using Garageband, took and edited a few photos and then placed them in a report using the word processing app Pages.
My mind was spinning at the end. I am so jealous of these students and the opportunities they have sitting right in front of them and from what I have now seen – I think that most of them are going to take full advantage of it.
But now what do we do as teachers for this upcoming iPad generation?
iPad training tutorials (60+ videos) at Atomic Learning.
#edtech #edchat #elemchat
I just uploaded a new episode of The Elementary Tech Teacher’s Journal.
Episode Number 13 for the week of April 11, 2011 (This week’s episode was recorded and edited on an iPad 2 using Garageband.)
“The Power of Student-Made Tech Examples.”
http://www.bradflickinger.com/Brad_Flickinger/Podcast/Podcast.html
This week’s episode is sponsored by Atomic Learning.
#edchat #elearning #edtech
How much longer are districts going continue to blog Facebook?
Now I am not saying that you open it up to the students, although that wouldn’t half-bad, but at least the teachers should be allowed on Facebook. Last week I was talking to a high school math teacher that was concerned about communicating with her students – things like homework assignments and chapters to study. She explained that she meticulously kept her classroom webpage up to date, but her students never went there. “I only get about 3 visitors a day,” she explained. “And I teach over 100 kids a week.” When I suggested that she make a fan page for herself on Facebook, she replied that her school district has a strict policy against that and suggested that she could be fired for doing so.
Image via CrunchBase
Really? Fired?
Unfortunately she is not alone. Many districts feel this way about social media. I believe it is because they do not understand how to correctly use it. So let me explain a few points about how to properly use Facebook as a teacher.
First, I am not talking about “friending” all of your students to your personal Facebook account. That would be creepy. Your students would see every update you make and you would see all of there’s. What I am talking about is making a “fan” page for yourself, a special type of Facebook account that your students would simply “like” and then every time you make an update to that account, like adding a homework assignment, all of your students would see it on their own Facebook accounts. It is a one-way communication – you don’t see their updates.
Second, go where your students are. Students check their Facebook accounts multiple times a day, I know because I have a 16 year old daughter. Trust me; they would see your updates. At my school we have a Facebook account and the parents love it. We post all sorts of updates; book fairs, concerts, registration reminders, etc. It has been one of the best ways to get information to our parents. To see what this looks like check my school’s Facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Timnath-CO/Bethke-Elementary-School/141914602496111 (of course you can only do this if it isn’t blocked!)
Third, be careful what you post. Your teacher or school fan page should be strictly business, nothing personal. No photos!
Fourth, be careful not to abuse this privilege. Many administrators worry that if they unblock Facebook that teachers will waste time always checking in on it. This is a very real concern, but this is more of a “don’t throw the baby out with the bath water” type of problem. Teacher who want to waste time online already do. They shop, check their email a 100 times a day, plan their vacations, etc. This type of problem is with the teacher, not Facebook.
In conclusion, let’s try to work with our districts and try to get them to carefully go down the path to social media. Beg for a trial-period to test things out and then see what happens. In business they say to go where the people are to make money, in education let’s go where are students are. So if that is Facebook, then let’s do it.
For more information on using Facebook as an educator see the workshop by Heather Slee; ”Facebook for Educators” on Atomic Learning.
#edtech #edchat #elemchat
I just uploaded a new episode of The Elementary Tech Teacher’s Journal.
Episode Number 12 for the week of April 4, 2011 (This week’s episode was recorded and edited on an iPad 2 using Garageband.)
“Teaching Tech Skills before Creativity.”
http://www.bradflickinger.com/Brad_Flickinger/Podcast/Podcast.html
This week’s episode is sponsored by Atomic Learning.
