Tech Integration Workshop – Step 11: Gather a Body of Evidence
Note: Do not do this lesson until you have watched the Watch First video.
Once you have watched the video please complete this step in the Workshop Checklist.
Return to the Table of Contents for the Technology Integration Workshop.
Resources:
Updates to these videos:
Transcription of Videos:
Lesson & Action Guide
Hello once again and welcome back to the Tech Integration Workshop here at SchoolTechnology.Org. My name is Brad Flickinger, and welcome to Step 11 of our 12-Step series here – and it is called “Gather a Body of Evidence.”
Now, as we have talked in the past, back in the first couple of Steps, we use a K-T-E-C System, so K is for Knowing, T is for Training, E is for Embedding – and now we are finally at C, which means to Check on the work that has been done. And this is what this is all about: A body of evidence is all those little pieces you put together that PROVES your teachers and your students have 21st Century Skills in your Building. And that is what it is all about – that body of evidence.
Because remember, for the most part – I mean, it is starting to get a little more popular out there – but for the most part none of the skills that you have taught these students will show up on a standardized State or National test.
Now, 21st Century Skills are being added to a lot of State testing. But for right now, like in my State of Colorado, everything I have taught them about podcasting, and creativity, and collaboration – all those things like that – would just not show up in a normal standardized test. So you need to have a different way of collecting the data.
And really we said 21st Century Skills deserves 21st Century assessment – and so we get little artifacts; digital artifacts are what you are looking for.
So we want to celebrate the successes of the students. So students that were shy are now suddenly doing podcasts, or movies – those types of things; that had a hard time in other academic areas can excel in animation and… you know, it just… So you want to find all those moments when the whole system is working and students are having a great time, teachers are having a great time, and you want to celebrate those with either an evening of showing things off, or an assembly – whatever – but find a way to celebrate the successes in your Building.
And of course I don’t mind putting in a little bit of a competition and awards. Now I spread out my awards; so for example when we make a documentary, we have “Overall Best Documentary,” we have “Best Cinematography,” “Best Sound…” So we have different categories so that there are different winners in there. And it is not like we are trying to give a blue ribbon to everybody for participating because I don’t think that is authentic.
But I think if someone really has exceptional, let’s say, cinematography; how they film everything is so beautiful, see you can use that the next year when you show the upcoming students, and say, “Now, why did this one win Best Cinematography? Why did this one win Best Sound?” And all the kids are like “Oh, you know, because we can understand everything that’s being said, and the sound track’s not too loud…” All those things you collect, all those things – and of course these students walk home with an award for doing something really, really good on a project.
And so we have competitions in my schools with all these digital artifacts, and then we have little awards; and we just get simple trophies and those types of things to give out.
Now, you can see I crossed out here this whole idea of “Audience of One.” And that is because these kids work hard to produce all these things and now it is time to put them out there for the world to see, in a SAFE way. So you don’t want to be putting their full name and address and those types of things.
But your school website should have some type of an area where you show off the best of student work. So you show all the best web shows and podcasts and documentaries and animations and all those things; best writing, best photos… those types of things all should go in some type of Showcase so that these kids can get home and realize their aunt and uncles can come to see it; everybody in the WORLD can come to see it – and they just LOVE that idea of being open to the whole world. And it is great that way.
And also it is really important to gather what I am calling “Best of” examples – again going back to the awards that are given out for like cinematography and sound and stuff.
But think of it from a teacher’s point of view, not a student’s point of view. So if you have a teacher working on a great digital product, you want to get like the BEST example from the school so when NEW teachers come in, they can go online and see, “Oh! THAT’S what it means when we were going to do an animation about cell structure!” because you are showing them the best possible one there is. Don’t show them the cheesy ones – show them the really GOOD stuff, so that the teacher goes, “Okay, we are going to use clay, and we’re going to do it this way; and we’re going to take photos, and it is going to end up being an animation.” They will get it once they can see those “Best of” examples.
And I also like to survey my students with just a simple little survey, just asking how much they enjoyed these projects, what could we do better, what could we do different; what would they do if they were in our shoes – those types of things.
Because, you know, when I gather them all up and look at them over the summer, when I make all the changes to the curriculum and to the ideas, it’s good to look at them with, well, you know, you have got to kind of weigh it out for how much weight you might put on a student survey because sometimes they might be very opinionated in one way or another; just because student doesn’t like to write they might go, you know, “Way too much writing.” Now, that doesn’t really play out.
But you should look for trends though. So if all of them are saying, “Oh, the project was just way too long,” you go, “Well, okay, let’s not do a five-minute documentary – let’s do a three-minute documentary. Those types of things are what you are looking for.
And most importantly, when my teachers go back and take the self-assessment that is on Atomic Learning, this is what I am really looking for, is them to come to me and say, “Mr. Flick, look at where we’re at now.” And you know, I don’t have access to what their information is, but they voluntarily bring it to me and say, “Look at what has happened to ME! I had no idea what a Wiki was..” or a blog – all these things. And now their classroom is doing all these things and they can show their results from their self-assessment, and they are very happy with it.
And number one is that the STUDENTS are very happy with being able to acquire 21st Century Skills. So THEIR self-assessment is way up, that they take on Atomic Learning.
So suddenly, you know, we are seeing these big, huge leaps in one or two years of students now having great 21s Century Skills. And THAT is what it is all about.
So gather all this body of evidence – because in Step 12 we are going to talk about making just those minor improvements that you need to do to it.
Tech Integration Workshop – Step 10: Continual Professional Development
Note: Do not do this lesson until you have watched the Watch First video.
Once you have watched the video please complete this step in the Workshop Checklist.
Return to the Table of Contents for the Technology Integration Workshop.
Resources:
Updates to these videos:
Transcription of Videos:
Lesson & Action Guide
Hello everyone. Welcome back to the Tech Integration Workshop here at SchoolTechnology.Org. My name is Brad Flickinger – and welcome to Step 10 which is “Continual Professional Development.”
This one is going to be another one of the combo videos where we are going to have the lesson as well as the action guide kind of put together all in one. And you will especially see that near the end of the Steps here, just because so much at the beginning was based on action; there is so much work to do; where now it is more just inspirational-type stuff. I am going to show you what I am doing and then you can just replicate that in your own school. So this is what we are going to get here. There is only one vide on this one here.
Alright, so what I want to start off with is just giving you a taste of the professional development that I offer in my school. And I offer about anywhere from twenty-five to thirty just topics that go on all the time. And these kind of change from year to year, but most of them stay the same. And you will get an idea what they are, and if you have worked with teachers you will agree with what you see here.
And they are in no particular order – but these are what I offer my Building. And again, they can come Tuesdays before school, Wednesdays after school; I can meet with them one-on-one during planning times – all those things, so that they have these ready to go.
So the first of course being district email. Because new teachers that move into our district, they need to know how to use the district email because we do so much of our correspondence through that. So we have a quick little course on how to use our web-based district email and that goes pretty quick.
Now the other thing I really go for right at the beginning is how to use our Atomic Learning subscription, because SO much of the professional development they might want is on Atomic Learning.
So if they want to learn how to do a podcast they can go to the Workshop there. If they want to learn how to do a Wiki; Workshop. If they wan to do… you know, all those types of things. Blogging; go see the blogging workshop.
So it just saves up so much of my time that I don’t have to sit there and meet one-on-one with all these teachers to cover the same subject. Now there are some things that obviously are not covered by the Atomic Learning subscription, like my district email. So I have to do that one-on-one. And other things, though, I send them right into here. Especially the “How to find an answer to a Tech question” – so that they can solve their own problems very quickly and easily. So that works out great that way.
We spend a lot of time to make sure that our teachers understand, know and embed 21st Century Skills. And we do that with a lot of mixture of different things. We want to make sure that there are 21st Century Skills being taught all the time in their classes.
We spend time on making sure that they have a nice classroom website that is informative and fresh and current and not getting stale. We want it always to be updated all the time. So we work on how a classroom website should be, as well as being able to use Google Docs.
For most of this I send them right back into Atomic Learning but there are a few things that are particular to our Building and how we share things within our Google Docs. And they need to know how to get in, use it, share it, print it – all those types of things. And that is what we cover in a couple of quick lessons.
We have SMART boards in our classrooms; they are a type of interactive whiteboard. So of course they need to know how to use the technology that comes in their classroom. So we have some SMART board basics as well as advanced things – so how to REALLY use their interactive whiteboard effectively in their classroom.
We REALLY like using Google Earth at our schools. So anyone new coming into our Building who doesn’t understand how to use Google Earth, we give them a nice little refresher course on this, and again then send them back into Atomic Learning for some more particular “How to use it in the classroom;” how to use Google Earth that way.
Ah, using ePals: Now we love it when our classrooms connect with other classrooms all across the country and all across the world; and they can Skype to each other, and just exchange emails, comment on each other’s blogs. And so teachers need to know how to get into ePals, how to search for another classroom and how to communicate using the ePals platform.
Now, again, every one of our classrooms comes with a document camera so teachers have got to know how to use their document camera in their classroom. And it’s funny because when people first come in and they maybe have not used a document camera before – a new teacher – they are like, “Oh, do I really want to have this?” And then you check back in two months later, after they have been trained, and they are like, “Oh no, this is the BEST thing I have ever had in my classroom!” They just LOVE document cameras!
And also our classrooms come with a sound system that have both a wireless mic and then a landured mic that goes on them; and they need to know how to use that system effectively so that when they play a video off their computer, that it plays through the whole sound system; or put a DVD in and it plays through it, as well as the microphones in the room. So they need to have an understanding of that.
And then also we share what we think are the best websites for – depending on what Grade you are talking about or what subject – but, you know, Math websites, Social Studies. You know, if you are studying all about Columbus; “Well here is a great website…” – and so we keep track of that on a bookmark, social bookmarking-type website so that we all know and share what the best websites are. So we don’t have to reinvent the wheel every time we start taking out a subject every year.
And now let’s kind of finish off with this one here. And many of you are sitting back going, “Okay, those are some really great things – but how do you get teachers to do it? How do you get teachers to show up and to take these things?
Well, I am really fortunate in being in a fantastic school where the teachers just WANT to do it. But I have been in other schools where it has been like pulling teeth sometimes, to get teachers to come and take professional development when it comes to technology.
And so I have a little one-word answer for you here – and that is “Bribe!” And when I work with administrators, we all agree that money is going to be spent on technology in a Building. All the time. Even if you are broke right now, I mean, money does come. Technology money comes the way of buildings and schools all the time. And it might take a couple of years – but essentially you get it.
And then what we tell administrators is, “Since you are going to have it, you spend it where it is going to be used.” And you know it is going go be used if someone is taking professional development. So it is kind of a bribe. But let’s see you take all these classes. Well of course, when it comes time to buy a classroom set of flip video cameras, well they are going to go to YOU because you have proven that you use 21st Century Skills and you have done all the other things, and you have a classroom website. And you need this kind of stuff. And that goes for all the kinds of things like document cameras and SMART boards and all those kinds of things – put the resources where they will be used.
This isn’t about spreading it out evenly among all the people. If you have got people that are refusing to learn technology, then you just can’t be dumping technology in their classroom. And I would rather use a carrot than a stick; so it is just great that when administrators come in and they already planned for the future, and they know that they want to get let’s say a digital camera for every classroom, so they can do that. And then they might say, “Okay, once you have built your classroom website, and that’s up and running and you have had it going for three months, and I can see that your blog is always up-to-date, then you will get a digital camera. Because then you can use it to add more photos to your classroom website.”
So make sure the bribes tie in with what you want to do there. I wish there was an easier way that I could do it for you – but that is how I have done it in the past.
So that is kind of a review of the continual professional development that goes on in my building week after week, month after month during the school year, so that they are always staying on top of this. And they might take a course like on Google Docs with me in the beginning of the year, and then they might again take a couple of refresher classes on Atomic Learning just before they need to teach a lesson – those kinds of things. So it really is interesting to see how it all comes together.
Read MoreTechnology Integration Workshop – Step 9: Embed Digital Artifacts in Lessons
Note: Do not do this lesson until you have watched the Watch First video.
Lesson Video:
Action Guide Video:
Once you have watched both videos please complete this step in the Workshop Checklist.
Resources:
Technology Integration Worksheet
AtomicLearning.com
Updates to these videos:
Transcription of Videos
Lesson
Welcome back everyone to the Tech Integration Workshop here at SchoolTechnology.Org. My name is Brad Flickinger, and this is Step 9 – Embed Digital Artifacts into Lessons.
Now, since the beginning we have been working on my K-T-E-C System that I use all the time with my teachers in the buildings that I work with; and that is you Know 21st Century Schools; then T is for Train them; E is for Embed them, and then C is for Check on them.
So finally we are at the “Embed” phase where we are going to embed 21st Century skills into the lessons all around us.
Now, to be able to really kind of explain that I want to show you the lessons that come out of my Elementary School. At first you might be thinking, “Yes, but I teach at a High School or a Middle School.” Well kind of use it as a platform for where you might be able to go. So if I can do it at Elementary school, surely you can do deeper, stronger, more at Middle and High School levels. It is just to give you an idea of what is happening here.
So here is the system or the schedule that I follow, all the way from kindergarten to Fifth Grade – and I will explain each one of them to you.
Essentially these are not fixed. They can change from year to year, depending on what the technological needs of our students are. So let’s start at kindergarten. So in Kindergarten they start by really learning how to use a computer properly, which means really using, knowing how to use their mouse to click, to drag, to select – those types of things. So we do a LOT of digital drawing with them.
And in this case they are doing an alphabet and they are writing out… they are on the letter C. So this is really early in the stage of being able to do this book.
So you can see he has got a car, a cookie and a cake. And here is another shot of a different student here. And they are REALLY getting good at how to use the mouse. Their mousing skills are clicking, and changing colors, and all those things – fantastic! These kids, by the time they are done kindergarten, have got the skills.
Which moves us into First Grade, where we start using documents; Microsoft Word – they can type text, select text, change it, move it around – all those types of things. By the time they are done First Grade they can do INCREDIBLE things with documents. So much so that look at this guy here – he’s relaxing a little bit there with his document all done!
But we felt, as a school, that being able to manipulate news documents is one of these skills for academics, and as far as the rest of their life too. So we start off REALLY young for them to be able to be familiar with using a word processor.
From there, in Second Grade they get really good at being able to make presentations or slide shows. So in this case they are working on an insect slide show. And being able to stand in front of their peers or classmates, and present that information.
And you will notice this one doesn’t have bullet points on it; this one is really using imagery really well. We are not teaching kids to stand up in front of their classmates and read all the bullet points that are on the slide show. No, they have got to be able to PRESENT great information – and they get really good at that in Second Grade – because they do it for the rest of their life, basically.
In Third Grade the students work on a book; an actual tangible book that we get printed out. So they work on… of course this is REALLY tied in to their classroom; all of these things are – you know, the insects, the letters, the alphabet – all those things are tied back to their classroom. In this case they talk about everything they learn all throughout the year. They make different chapters in their book and then finally, in the spring, we print that all up. So that is what they work on here.
So you can see that it has been great that they had the experience with both the slide show and the word processor to come back on for their book project here.
Fourth Grade they do their own podcast; so they do all the research, the writing, the sound effects – all those things; the recording of it and editing, so that everyone comes out of there with a podcast. And there is a LOT of work goes into this. You talk about the 21st Century Skill of researching information fluency – they do a LOT of that in Fourth Grade. So they can get that all done. And of course they are making documents and doing all those things.
So here they are recording their podcasts out in the Media Center.
And then finally, in Fifth Grade, each student makes their own documentary about a subject. So, again, it is a lot of research, a lot of writing, a lot of the planning; you know, it is months of the planning work before they ever really get to the stage where they are shooting the video here in the classroom, and those types of things. And they will narrate their documentary and do all those great types of things.
So that gives you a kind of a glimpse of what is happening in my building. And it comes down to these three Steps that I use. So first off (oh, I like that sound effect there – that little effect of it coming across there) we pick a lesson. And that is what we kind of did in Step 8; you look at all the different lessons there and you pick a lesson.
And then we complete a work sheet. And then the Action Guide part to this Lesson, this Lesson 9, you will see that worksheet and you will see how I work through it with the teachers.
And then three, it is kind of teach and repeat. So we just pick the lesson, do the worksheet, teach and repeat. And we just go through that three-step recipe that is GREAT for embedding 21st Century Skills into your lessons.
So I will see you in the Action Guide part and we will talk about how YOU are going to do it.
Action Guide
Alright, welcome to the Action Guide for Step 9 for “Embedding Digital Artifacts into Lessons.
Now, here I am; I am in the actual worksheet that I use when I brainstorm with teachers. I will have a link to this in the Resource Section on this page here. But let’s just zoom in and take a look at what we have got here.
So here I am; I have X’d out the teacher’s name here – but this is for Fifth Grade; Social Studies is the subject matter we are on for last year. And they have already gone through the Introduction of 21st Century Skills where I sit down with them and I show them things, and they have also watched certain videos on Atomic Learning. So they understand what 21st Century Skills are.
So the digital artifacts: From those previous Steps that we have done earlier on in this workshop; you know, that YOU picked the digital artifacts. YOU are the expert on 21st Century Skills, so YOU picked the artifacts. So in this case my Fifth Grade students made documentary films. And so we have got that.
So this teacher here, she had a lesson that she called “Understanding the Causes of the American Revolution.” That is what she wanted me to kind of take on in my Computer Class.
So we have an Objective here; and then the Summary. What we are going to do is replace the final test and report that she used to do (kind of a science fair-type thing); we are going to do it with the documentary. So this is going to be a longer-type project.
Let me just scroll down a little bit here. So here is my 21st Century Skills Brainstorming. So we sat down and we just said, “Okay, Creativity and Innovation – what are we doing to do there?” Well, we have got to write script; they have got to do it in the perspective of the story. So there will be sets and costumes and things; very creative, very innovate – great!
Communication, collaboration: they are going to work in teams; they are in change roles, they have got Google Docs so they can be at home and they can still collaborate on items.
Digital Citizenship, Research and Information Fluency – you can see all these things. And we started to type in; we just used this as a “Fill in the blank worksheet.” You know, she was giving me ideas, I had ideas – and we just kind of put it in there.
And then we decided, “Well who is going to do what here? Roles and Responsibility.” Well, the Principal is going to present the Award at the Premier, so we have got her to do that. And the Media Tech; I am going to take care of the research skills, all the computer lab time for script writing, editing and that kind of thing. We have a District Tech person that is going to come in and make sure that we have all of the up-to-date… that our flip video cameras all sync in and everything. So we are going to check on that.
And the teacher is going to teach the lessons, like they have always done. But I am in the background; I have got the support happening in my computer lab for a lot of the work time. So teaching kind of happens with the teacher, but in the work, the assignment stuff happens with me.
And then our Librarian is going to have books on display for check-out, all about the American Revolution.
So we looked into some needs that we might have for this. We have got some training for the teacher, training for the students; hardware, we’ve got all that… software – got it. Prerequisite skills for our students – we’ve got all that. And, yes, I think everything… we have got the Rubric; we sat down and worked on a rubric together and got all that taken care of.
And we are scheduled and we are ready to do it! And we have got a basic schedule to how it all works out. So that is what my worksheet looks like. And by the time you’re done, you have got a 21st Century embedded lesson. It’s ready to go! It’s got the skills all embedded in it!
Now, I know you might be thinking, “But my teacher doesn’t know how to do a documentary /doesn’t know how to do podcast / doesn’t know how to use PowerPoint – those type of things.” Well, I hate to kind of be … keep going back to the same thing; but you know, I use Atomic Learning for all that thing.
So here I am logged into Atomic Learning. And let’s say you are in First Grade in my Building, which is where we use word processing. So, okay, I am just going to go here in the Application area and I am just going to find Microsoft Word. Go down here… it might be under “Word” or it might be under “Microsoft.” There we go. Word. Go into there. And then what versions of Word? Well, we’ve got 2003 in my Building. And we are only PC in my Building. So we go there. So I think that is all I am going to do. So I am going to find all the tutorials for Word 2003.
And there we go! There they are! And we open that up. So we’ve got Intermediate, Intro, Advanced and Newsletter, Workshop, Members. There they all are. So we go “Introduction.” Look at ALL these Intro videos! Now there’s fifty videos in here on the Introduction to Microsoft Word 2003.
It’s all ready to go! They just need to figure what they want to do and how they are going to do it. The students log into here, the students follow this. It saves you time.
And I keep going back to this: You want to save time – this is the thing you need to have here, is Atomic Learning. It is one of the BEST things I have found for my work as a Tech Integration Specialist.
So that is how you get all the skills to both your students and your teachers, as well as yourself. So when you are ready to take that on… and when I said “Documentary,” there is a whole movie-making guide in here on how to make movies; there is all the stuff for podcasting as well as how to use Audacity or Garage Band – whichever one you are going to use for your podcasting. That is all in here, step-by-step on how to do it.
And let’s take a quick look at what these are; let’s go in the “Using the Task Pane.” It is only forty seconds there.
“Another feature in Word is the Task Pane. To turn the Task Pane on you can click…”
There you go! That’s my Word right there, ready to go!
Alright, so that concludes the Action Guide thing. So meet with your teachers and fill up these worksheets so that you are ready. Get it all scheduled into their teaching schedules so that you have got this ready to go!
Read MoreTech Integration Workshop – Step 8: Gather Lesson Ideas
Note: Do not do this lesson until you have watched the Watch First video.
Once you have watched the video please complete this step in the Workshop Checklist.
Return to the Table of Contents for the Technology Integration Workshop.
Resources:
Updates to these videos:
Transcription of Videos:
Lesson & Action Guide
Hello everyone, and welcome finally to Step 8 which is “Gather Lesson Ideas” of the Tech Integration Workshop here at SchoolTechnology.Org. My name is Brad Flickinger – and let’s get right into it!
But before I do, this is kind of a bit of a hybrid type lesson because I am going to put together the lesson part and the assignment part all into one mix-up right here. And you will see why – because I will talk a little bit about what I do, and then I’ll talk a little about what you should do. And it only kind of works for this Step. You’ll get an idea what we’re doing here!
Alright! First part I want to REALLY get clear here is PLEASE do not work in isolation when it comes to you and the technology for your building and integration, and 21st Century Skills. It will drive you crazy, okay? Don’t try to be a little “island of technology in the sea of your school!” You want to DEFINITELY work with your teachers!
So what I do is I put aside some time, to be able to come into their classrooms, help them out a little bit, work with their students, work with them, talk to them about what they are covering and how they like to teach things. It gives you that connection so that in Step 9 when you go to embed these 21st Century Skills into the lessons you will get their style, you will get their kids.
And that only happens by going in and interacting with the teacher AND the students to see what is going on. And you will be surprised – because you will be like, “Oh, I really kind of see this different style here. That would be really good for my projects I want to do with presentation software,” or “Oh, I see these kids are really like this – and that would be great when I want to incorporate spreadsheets into it.” Maybe you are covering the Math department and you want to go in and see the things there, and you can go see and, “Oh, we can do graphs, we can do charts…” – all those great things.
So, interact with your teachers and observe what is going on in their classrooms. And make sure – well actually probably don’t call it an “observation” because that sounds very “Administrator-ish!” – just tell them you want to come by and see what is going on.
And what I like to see is how the students actually interact back with the teachers, and get a feel for what they are capable of. Because sometimes, if you just see them in the computer lab, they are only doing one type of thing and you don’t really see what they are capable of. And you can say, “You know what? I can really push these little Third Graders to do bigger and better things because I have seen what they have done in their classroom.” Those types of things you will learn.
And once you have done those observations, then it is time, like I do, I sit down with my teachers one-on-one to kind of discuss what I want to do, as the Tech person, and what they have. And usually at the time they bring out their curriculum map for the whole year; they lay it out and say, “Well is this is what I cover in August, and September and October…” – so you get an idea.
And you can point to something and say, “Okay, here I see that you teach about Russia, right here. Well that is about the time I want to be able to teach the students how to use podcasting AND Google Earth – so how about I take some of that from you and I do like the Geography section, and then they can do some of the History of Russia, those types of things. We will make it into a podcast, and I can get that back to you and you can grade that and maybe we can replace this little Quiz area right here?”
And then you’re working together! That’s perfect! That is how you can take some workload from them and at the same time you get that classroom connection that you so desperately need because, I mean, if you just teach them podcasting without the classroom connection, there is not really any BANG behind it, and there is certainly not even the grading and those type of things – where THIS finally the kids get it because it is coming at them from all these different angles and it has purpose behind it. And teaching without purpose behind it is USELESS. So put some purpose behind it.
And then I also like to work with the whole Department. So I might meet with the Third Grade team or the English Department or Math Department in the older Grades, so that you get an idea and can say, “Oh, you’re covering Math. Okay, I can work into my spreadsheets these types of things during this month here…”
And then you get that nice little mingling. Because you are going to need this type of information for Step 9.
So watch your teachers; meet with your teachers – and then what you are going to be surprised is how great it all comes together when you have done all these Steps because, you know, here are some students with their teacher going, “Hey look! We’re studying the Renaissance. We’ll check out our Renaissance Blog that we did in Computer class that matches what you’re doing in here! And here’s some Artwork here, and here’s our comments on the Renaissance Art. And here’s our comments on Leonardo da Vinci; and here’s a blog about him…” All those things.
Everybody gets connected – and THAT’S what you are looking for.
So do those things for Step 8, like I said: Watch your teachers, meet with your teachers. And then in Step 9 we will be able to put all those ideas together. And try to get any bits and pieces of information you can, like their curriculum maps and those types of things so that for Step 9 you are well ready to go on.
Thank you very much!
Read MoreISTE 2010 Denver – Edtech Geeks Unite!
This summer ISTE’s annual conference will be practically in my own backyard — Denver, Colorado (it used to be called NECC if your are confused).
This is the event to be at if you are into technology and education.
There will be tons of workshops on everything you could possibly imagine and even a few that you never thought were possible. Thousands of people just like you an me are at one location for three magical days. You will finally not feel alone in your struggles with school technology integration. (It’s okay to wipe away a tear now.)
One of my favorite parts of the conference is to see all the exhibitors — to see the latest and greatest in education technology. I usually get my best ideas from talking to the many vendors. Last year I got interested in Atomic Learning and LEGO WeDO from the demonstrations I saw the conference when it was in Washington, D.C. I have already started my list of exhibitors I want to see this year.
I always return from these conferences with my edtech-batteries recharged and ready for another year of teaching and integrating school technology. The ISTE annual conference is probably the singular most important event I do for my career as a teacher.
So you can see why I got excited when Atomic Learning asked me to speak at their booth on Monday and Tuesday on integrating 21st Century Skills and on teaching with netbooks and iPads, now I get to be able to share my ideas with the attendees (a chance to pay back for all the ideas I steal each year). So stop by if you get a chance, you’ll finally get to meet the man behind the blog.
See you next month.
Read MoreTech Integration Workshop – Watch First
Pre/Post Assessment (Google Docs Form)
Workshop Checklist (Google Docs Document)
Technology Integration Workshop Main Page (Table of Contents)
Transcription of this video:
Hello everyone and welcome to this “Watch First” video for SchoolTechnology.Org – and this is the Tech Integration Workshop. My name is Brad Flickinger and I work as a Tech teacher here in Colorado, as well as a Tech Integration Specialist. I get to go all throughout the US and Canada helping schools and school Districts embed and incorporate technology skills as well as 21st Century skills into their curriculum.
Now, where you are at right now is by Blog. It is a result of the work that I do when I work with teachers and Districts; of all the little ideas that I get – things that work, things that don’t work – I have decided to start recording it, mostly in a video Blog format.
And what you are part of right now is this Tech Integration Workshop where, when I have worked with Districts, they have said, “Hey, could you bundle that all together and tell us exactly what steps you do?” So I was able to write it all down, and I got the twelve Steps all figured out – and this is what I do every time I go work with school Districts. And that is where you are at right now, is by Blog that has all this information on it.
Now, you should be the person for your building or your District that is in charge of technology. And these people go by lots of different names: Mediatech Specialist, Tech Integration Specialist, Building Tech Coordinator – all these different things – but basically it all comes down to the same thing: you are in charge of the technology for both either your building or for your District.
Now, you might be a teacher or an administrator sneaking into this course – and that’s great! So you will get a lot out of this workshop as well – but it really is meant for those people that are kind of the “go-to” people when it comes to technology for schools.
Now, the first thing you should really do is bookmark or follow this Blog. If you already have a Google account you can just click the “Follow Blog” button – but really you need to know where this is so you can come back and check back on it often. So, that is Item number one.
Item number two is set up a time and a reminder – so put a post-it note on your screen or something – to come back here a few days from now or a week from now, so you can keep going through the course.
The Workshop is twelve steps long; so you will want to set up time to be able to work on it every week.
Now, some people, when they see all the different Steps in this Workshop, they think “Ah, you know, I just really need to go to Step Eight, or do Step Three”. You know what? Try not to cheat, okay; don’t cheat with this. Just start with Step One and do all those Steps, or the Action Items, that I tell you in each Step because I build upon them from Step to Step.
And in Step Eight I am going to be referring to things that we have done in the previous seven Steps. So some of this might be a review for some of you – and others it might be totally new ideas.
So, I work really quick through it; these are short little videos that I do – but try your best not to cheat. You will get much more out of the Program if you just follow it along.
And some people ask me, they are like, “Brad, how long is this going to take?” And they see twelve Steps and they think, “Ah, twelve weeks I can get this done.” Well, the reality is that some Steps take very little time at all; you know, you have got to order a couple of books, join a few Nings – it might take you an hour.
Other Steps are going to take you weeks and maybe even a month or two to do: a Step like “Meeting with Teachings and Embedding Technology into Curriculum” – that could take a lot of time.
So for the whole course, if you can put in a couple of hours a week you should probably get through this in six to seven months, after getting through all these Steps. But at the end it is going to be great because you are going to have all this technology embedded and incorporated into your schools.
Now, I am going to just assume that you have got great tech skills because on my Steps I am just going to say things like, “Download and install iTunes on your computer.” Well, you know, I am not going to take you… hold your hand and tell you every little button you need to click on – you are going to, obviously, know how to do those types of things. So I am not going to waste your time.
Now, the reality is that you can’t really get through this Program without spending some money; so I hope you have got some professional development money or some building budget money that you can spend on the books that I recommend, the subscriptions that I recommend – those types of things. It is not money for me – it is money for these things that you need to have to make you a great Tech Integration Specialist; because, like any course that you take at University, you need to have curriculum; you need books, you need those types of things. And I am going to be recommending those.
Now, also that goes hand-in-hand with the fact that I am very opinionated when it comes to school technology and 21st Century skills. So I am going to tell you exact brands that I use when it comes to hardware and software; product names, Wikis that I use, books that I read – so and I am very opinionated. And you are going to get that throughout this whole course. And try to follow along; try to get exactly what I tell you to do, because I have been testing it in the schools that I have worked with and in my own school every day.
So, you know work around that. And I am sorry if I offend some of you, and I am sorry if I say I don’t like products that you maybe love – and we can maybe talk about that later in the feedback slide that comes up. But that is the reality. I am going to be recommending actual products for you to buy.
And now, since we are talking about school technology, technology changes! So under each Lesson should be a little area that says “Updates to this Video”; and I will put in there, if I have changed my mind on a Wiki that maybe you should be subscribing to, or there is a new something that comes along like a new Podcast; I will just put it down there. So check that. And then if it gets to be too much, I might just re-record the Screencast or the presentation about that. But always check for changes because things happen – especially in technology.
Now, this is also the “funnest”, since you can watch me in high-def and I have recorded these and uploaded them to YouTube and they are available in 720p. So go ahead and change that if you want to. Now, I didn’t do this so you could just, you know, count the hairs on my beard or something! But really I know that some people use this for professional development to go up in front of a group of six or seven building Tech people, and so they will put it up on the screen. And so this is nice – so you are not going to see it all pixilated and blurry but you can actually watch it in high-def up on a big screen. So that is why I have really done it. But if you are just watching it on your computer, the 360p is just fine.
Now, you will need, obviously, a computer, broadband internet; headphones are a really good idea since most of this is done with a video Blog, so you can listen to me privately; and, you know, probably a notebook, and obviously maybe a folder in your bi-documents called the “Tech Integration Workshop” – just so you can download PDFs and keep things organized in that way. So you need to set things up on your end.
And if you come across anything that you would like to see included in this Workshop, go ahead and send me an email; just right there on my Profile side of this Blog has the contact information. And you can send me your ideas as well as feedbacks, and your opinions on what I am doing. And if there are any typos or anything like that, send it back to me. The quality of this work is very, very important to me. So please participate and give me feedback on any of your ideas that you have.
Alright, now we are down to the last two slides. So, down below this video is a link to a pre-assessment; it is a short little pre-assessment. So go ahead and take that pre-assessment. And it is kind of where your tech skills are as far as tech integration. And then when we are done the twelve courses, the twelve Steps, then you will take the post-assessment; it is so that you can just see growth. And it is private, it is just for you – so go ahead and take it and file it away – but it just gives you an idea to think about as we move through this course.
And then the last thing – and this is THE most important thing – is download that PDF that has the checklist for this course, so that you can follow along from Step to Step and make sure that you are getting every point done. That is the only way this works; is you have got to go through this and make sure that you accomplish every one of the Action Items and you learn every one of those points that are under the “understanding” part; that you understand these different concepts and those types of things.
So go ahead and download that; print it and get ready to come back. And, hey – let’s right now go off to Step One and let’s get started!
So, once again, my name is Brad Flickinger and this is my Blog, SchoolTechnology.Org – and I will see you in Step One!
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