What the heck is ISTE Quest 2012?
#edtech #iste12 #istequest12
Do you dare join the ISTE Quest?
Last week at TIE Colorado I tried a social media game as part of some research I am doing for this blog. I used Twitter as the platform but unfortunately we had changed over to using Edmodo for the conference and no one was really using Twitter. TIE Colorado was the testing ground and I did learn a lot from that dry run and the few people that participated. Now that ISTE 2012 is finally here I hope to find out even more about how teachers can use social media to have fun while they learn new tech skills with ISTE Quest 2012.
Here is what my Posterous website says it is…
This year’s ISTE Quest is a social media game that is a mixture of The Amazing Race, a scavenger hunt, a flash mob and Improv Comedy.
With that said, join the quest and see just how much fun you can have with social media and learning.
- Brad Flickinger, Tech Teacher, Bethke Elementary School
Atomic Learning now Offers Certificates of Completion
#edtech
In our world of education, most teachers continue to educate themselves so that they can keep up on the ever-changing life as educators. Some things we get a little credit for and others we just do quietly behind the scenes. So it is nice when a company comes along and gives us a little credit where credit is done. Atomic Learning now offers Certificates of Completion for some of their courses.
Here is a link to a video that explains it:
http://www.atomiclearning.com/k12/movie/90567/play_window?type=Tutorial&sid=2218
Here is a quote from their blog:
Atomic Learning now offers Certificates of Completion for individuals completing a full tutorial series or training assignment.
Each certificate provides a summary of the time an individual has dedicated to self-improvement and is a great tool to:
- Track Professional Development Hours
- Build a Skills Portfolio
- Create an Evidence of Learning Repository
- Earn Recognition Among Peers
Learn more about Certificates of Completion in this overview video. And, don’t miss your chance to win a $500 Amazon.com gift card! Check out the details of this exciting contest for certificates earned between February 15 – March 15, 2012 on this flyer.
- Brad Flickinger, Tech Teacher, Bethke Elementary School
Read MoreYoung Students Can’t (you fill in the blank)
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I get at least one of these excuses when I am working with schools while trying to get more tech projects incorporated into the academic planning…
Young students can’t blog.
Young students can’t podcast.
Young students can’t make movies.
etc. etc. etc.
The truth is they can.
But does this mean that we throw the idea of doing age-appropriate lessons out the window? No, of course not. We do not ask a second grader to blog the same way that we would ask a high school senior, but they both can blog.
When I first started to do movie making with my elementary students, many of my colleagues thought I was crazy. And perhaps I was, but I at least wanted to give it a try. So I started with the idea of how could I make movie making age-appropriate for my young students? And how could I do it with just a few pieces of inexpensive equipment?
I only had a Flip video camera for my first elementary student-made movie. So I knew right then that I would be restricted with the type of filming they could do. The Flip had no zoom lens or external microphone jack, so they would have to just move the camera a lot to get the shots that we wanted, especially knowing that the built-in mic was only good for a few feet. We also had a simple light kit that was made with reflectors that we got from our local home improvement store. That was it for equipment.
The next thing I did was to sit down with the students to get the outline for the movie. The students had been studying dramatic writing so they knew all about how to tell a good story with a beginning, a middle and an end. Since we knew the limitation of our equipment we decided on a few rules:
1) It had to be shot in the school. We had no money to go somewhere else to shoot.
2) Any dialogue would have to be done using a close-up shot so that our audio would be good.
3) All the shots would have to be simple, static shots. We would avoid panning or tilting the camera.
Soon we had our movie outline and script, so we were now able to start shooting. We broke the script down into a shot list and from there we started to shoot. One of the funny things that we didn’t see coming was that the actors had to remember to where the same clothes every Wednesday so that the shots would match.
We shot Wednesdays after school for about 5 weeks. In the end we had over an hour of footage for our seven minute movie. Editing took a little work; as it turns out, young students want to keep everything — they don’t want to edit anything out. The solution was to allow them to make a blooper reel. This allowed them to put the very best parts in the movie and then all the mess-ups and mistakes were for the blooper reel. The students were only allowed to use simple transitions and a few effects, so after another two weeks of editing we were done.
Both the students and myself were amazed at how well the movie turned out.
Dude! Where’s my pencil? http://www.youtube.com/user/bethkeelementary#p/u/0/9TEBqs7kX2k
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New Podcast: Episode #52 The Elementary Tech Teacher’s Journal
#edtech #edchat
My comentary on my blog post “Harnessing the Power of Autonomy.”
Cool Atomic Learning iPad Trick
#edchat #edtech
I just stopped by the Atomic Learning blog and I read this post on how to turn the Atomic Learning website into an app on my iPad. Sweet!
http://blogs.atomiclearning.com/ask-al-answer-wheres-al-app
Now I have a fast and handy way to access AL. I think that I will use this as the “tech tip” at this week’s staff meeting.
- Brad Flickinger, Bethke Elementary
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