#edtech #edchat #elearning #elemchat
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Like many of you, I spend my summers revamping my lessons so that I am ready for the upcoming school year. This is especially true when it comes to teaching technology — what was fresh and cool one year becomes outdated and un-cool the next. So I woke up this morning wanting to update my Audacity training (Audacity if a voice recording program), but after an hour of racking my brain for ideas on how my make a cool Audacity project it dawned on me to check to see what Atomic Learning (AL) had.
You see, I knew that Atomic Learning would have tutorials on how to use Audacity, but what I really wanted was a project. So I logged into AL and I noticed that one of the search criterias was for “projects,” so I clicked search and sure enough there was a project for Audacity called “What does Sound Look Like.”
I looked it over and it was perfect, just what I was looking for. Here is what the project description says:
We’ll begin by importing audio into Audacity. We’ll explore the audio waveform and identify drum beats and instrument attacks in the amplitude, as well as take a quick look at the relationship between frequency and pitch. Then, we’ll cut silence out of the song, fade it out, and crossfade it with another song. Finally, we’ll find a 4-measure loop, remove it from the song, and save the new song as a WAV file.
So I checked that off my list and moved on to my next summer project — cleaning the garage! I wonder if they have a project for that?
- Brad Flickinger, Bethke Elementary School
#edtech #elearning #podstock2011
“I never been in Kansas,” I thought to myself as I crossed the border from Colorado into Kansas. I was making the pilgrimage to Podstock, an edtech conference that I had never been to in hopes of inspiration and ideas to take back to my school in Colorado. The outside temperature gauge on my dash kept creeping up as I got closer to Wichita, 104… 105… 106… “How hot is it in Kansas?” was my thought as I pulled into my hotel.
Picking up an "order."
Walking into the small convention center in the “old town” part of Wichita was like coming home, the organizers welcomed me like a long lost friend. Which is why I prefer smaller edtech conventions to the big ones. The “theme” of this years Podstock was “50′s Diner.” I stepped up to the VW bus replica and they took my name as if I was in a diner and they slid my order to the back of the bus. Soon I heard a “bing” from a short-order cook’s bell and I was handed my order (registration info and swag) in a white paper bag.
From this first moment to the last — Podstock was amazing!
Here are my five big take-aways from this great conference:
1. Through Failure Comes Success – Often times we try to protect our students from failure, which can rob them of an incredible learning opportunity. We must find ways to allow our students to fail in controlled environments that can teach them to think creatively for solutions.
2. Learning Maps Vs. Lesson Plans – Lesson plans cannot keep up with some of the new methods of teaching and learning, instead we need to think of learning maps. Maps that allows students to go off in different directions but still know where the end destination is.
3. Edmodo is Awesome – My first session I attended was on Edmodo and 15 minutes into it I had decided that my whole trip out to Podstock was worth it. I had seen Edmodo before, but this presenter did such a good job in showing all the ways it can work in a school that I found myself mentally checking off in my head all the problems that Edmodo would solve for me this coming school year.
4. Project Based Learning Rules – I recommitted myself to teach more PBL style when I saw what other teachers were doing in their classrooms. I have alway believed in PBL, so I have spent the last few days working on and improving some of my projects to be better. Podstock was the kick in the rear I needed to keep me going in the right direction.
5. Building a Personal Learning Network is Critical to Teaching Success – The people who attended Podstock are one big family. I have expanded my PLN with these wonderful people that will help me be a better teacher by providing support, ideas and inspiration. A teacher without a PLN is really fighting a battle alone, together we are way better than by ourselves.
So there you have it, my big take-aways from Podstock 2011. Now excuse me while I go and work on my new lesson maps for the coming school year.
- Brad Flickinger, Bethke Elementary School
#edtech #edchat #elemchat #podstock2011
I just uploaded a new episode of Elementary Tech Teacher’s Journal.
Episode Number 34 for the week of July 25, 2011
What’s the Deal with QR Codes?
Show Notes
In today’s episode I explain what QR or Quick Response Codes are and how they can be used in education. Here is one that leads back to this blog.
www.SchoolTechnology.org QR Code
http://www.bradflickinger.com/Brad_Flickinger/Podcast/Podcast.html
This week’s episode is sponsored by Atomic Learning.
#edtech #edchat #elemchat #podstock2011
I just uploaded a new episode of Elementary Tech Teacher’s Journal.
Episode Number 33 (special episode from Podstock 2011)
“Day Two of Podstock 2011″
Show Notes
Here is my summary of Day Two of Podstock 2011 in Wichita, Kansas.
- we did a flashmob and the farmer’s market
- I gave my presentation
- I learned a ton from the other sessions (lots of ideas to take back to my classroom)
- we went to Exploration Place and had a fun time
- we took in the Mosley Street Melodrama
http://www.bradflickinger.com/Brad_Flickinger/Podcast/Podcast.html
This week’s episode is sponsored by Atomic Learning.
#edtech #podstock2011 #elemchat
My presentation “Unbelievable Elementary Tech Projects” will be Webcasted this morning at 9 AM (Central).
See you there!
- Brad Flickinger, Bethke Elementary School
#edtech #edchat #elemchat #podstock2011
I just uploaded a new episode of Elementary Tech Teacher’s Journal.
Episode Number 32 (special episode from Podstock 2011
“Day One of Podstock 2011″
Show Notes
Here is my summary of Day One of Podstock 2011 in Wichita, Kansas. (Registration, the keynote, morning classes, the afternoon un-conference and the evening party).
http://www.bradflickinger.com/Brad_Flickinger/Podcast/Podcast.html
This week’s episode is sponsored by Atomic Learning.
#edtech #edchat #podstock
Check out the outside temp: 109!
This morning we left our cozy and cool home in Northern Colorado to drive across the state and into our neighboring state of Kansas to attend the annual Podstock conference that starts tomorrow. As we drove and the sun began to get higher in the sky the mercury started to rise higher and higher. By the time we got to Wichita my car’s outside temperature read 109!
Nine hours later we were in Wichita and seeing how low we could get our hotel room’s AC to go. Later, when the sun had gone down, we cruised around “Old Town” Wichita — what a great looking place, we can’t wait to explore it tomorrow.
This is my first time at Podstock and I am looking forward to meeting new edtech heads and geeks. I’ll keep you posted on what happens.
- Brad Flickinger, Bekthe Elementary School
#edchat #elearning
I have started to post a lot of photos on my Flickr account. In fact, I just had to upgrade to a pro account because I just passed the limit for a free account. Most of my photos have to with elementary students using technology, which has got me thinking about the world of “creative commons,” which is a licensing tag that your photos have in Flickr.So the first thing that popped into my head was, “What the heck is creative commons?”
The next thing that popped in my head was, “I wonder if Atomic Learning has something on it?”
Within a few minutes I was watching the videos in the Creative Commons Workshop. It answered all my questions and I was soon back in Flickr applying the correct creative commons tag to all of my photos. Nice!
Brad Flickinger’s Flickr Photostream
- Brad Flickinger, Bethke Elementary School
#edtech #edchat #elemchat #podstock
I just uploaded a new episode of Elementary Tech Teacher’s Journal.
Episode Number 31 for the week of July 18, 2011
“Heading to Podstock”
Show Notes
I am so excited to go to Podstock this year. I have been practicing on my iPad so I can play in the iBand. I am also reworking most of my tech lessons to be more differentiated.
http://www.bradflickinger.com/Brad_Flickinger/Podcast/Podcast.html
This week’s episode is sponsored by Atomic Learning.
#edtech #elemchat #edchat #legorobotics
You cannot have a great First LEGO League (FLL) team without some great parent volunteers. There is just way too much work for one coach to do. So the first thing you need to do when you put together your team is to find out what each family is going to bring to the table, every family needs to contribute something. So I make a sign up sheet that has the following categories:
Co-Coach: I need another adult at every meeting, someone to help supervise and make sure that things get done. So if I need to work with two students on getting the robot to pick up an item, the other parent can have the rest of the team and work on the research project. So I have a list of all the weeks and parents can sign up to co-coach.
Snacks: Since most of team practice after school, I make a parent in charge of snacks. They bring something for the kids to munch on before we start our meeting. This is a great one for parents who do not have the time to devote to being a co-coach, they can just buy or make some great snacks and just drop them off at the school.
Hats: Our local qualifying competition already provides us with t-shirts, we usually put a parent in charge of our hats — something that really makes us stand out. This parent works with our team to design and make cool hats for us to wear at the competition.
Support: This parent works with our team to develop posters, cheers and chants to motivate our team during competition.
So to get the help I need I have these positions posted at the first meeting, once they are filled things just take care of themselves — don’t ever try to do it by yourself. USE YOUR PARENTS!
