Some themes from this year’s reading:
Autonomy, Motivation, Purpose
The Elephant and the Rider
- Heath Brothers, Switch: How to Change Things When Change is Tough
Goal, Rules, Feedback, Voluntary Participation = Hard Fun
- Jane McGonigal, Reality is Broken: What Games Make us Better
Powerful ideas here. Figuring out how to use them to improve school. How about you?
Filed under On My Mind, The New Story
Fred Bartels posted this great video about the future of the eBook to our NYCIST listserv this morning:
A must listen for those interested in the future of the eBook.
Filed under iPad
Today is Tech 5 we discussed how to learn new skills on your own. We looked at a completed Excel Spreadsheet that showed the average words per minute on 11/19/2010 and 1/10/2011 for the section.
Students came up with the following suggestions to learn something on their own:
We discussed how it’s often hard to figure out how to do something because you need the vocabulary of the software/program to find what you need to learn to do.
Here is the vocabulary to complete this assignment:
Many times, having someone show you these skills is the easiest way to learn them, but knowing where to go to figure them out is important as well.
The assignment for next week is to watch the following videos on excel. We’ll be completing the spreadsheet at the beginning of class.
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How do you learn a new skill? I like to find experts, but also appreciate finding tutorials online. I believe that learning is shifting to be a more independent process in this connected world. An important skill for us to teach our students.
Filed under Lesson Plan
The goal of this lesson is to give students awareness of what it means to have a digital footprint.
Ask the students, “What is a digital footprint?”
Definitions include:
Digital Footprint on Wikipedia
Pew Internet & American Life Research on Digital Footprints
I then show this video:
I then ask them to think for a minute about their digital footprint and then lead a short discussion around the following questions:
At this point, I ask them students to take out their footprints (see link above) and list the accounts the have online: websites, social networks, phones they text with, video games they play online, etc.
Once they have done this for 5 minutes, I have them enter this data into our homework submission site. This is good data to start conversations about Internet safety in the future.
How do you teach about Digital Footprints?
Filed under Education, Lesson Plan
We’re writing a iPad roll out simulation right now and as we go, we’re coming upon lots of interesting questions.
Here’s the scenario:
* Rolling out 50 iPads in the Fall of 2011 with the goal: To use the iPad for as many textbooks and for note taking while exploring educational apps
I’m posted our questions and the answers that I just ran through in the document below. Please add/edit as you wish. Looking forward to seeing where this goes.
Filed under 1:1, 21st Century, iPad
Each year the amount of email receive and send seems to increase. I spend a lot of time thinking about how to efficiently work through email so I’m using my time most efficiently. Here’s the system that I’m using now. It’s mostly borrowed from the inbox zero system that David Allen recommends in Getting Things Done.
Folder Setup:
First, you need these few folders:
When you receive a message, first ask, “What is this?” and then, “What is the next action on this?”
You will find quickly that your best friend is the delete key. If there is an action on the email and you can do it in under 2 minutes, get it done. If not, put it in Next Actions.
Here’s how you use the rest of these folders:
Archives –> I received an email from a teacher that I might want to search for and use as a resource someday, but I don’t need it right now – or – I have an action that is complete, but I want to keep holding on to it.
Next Actions –> Your inbox should not be the folder you are working from as you can quickly become distracted by new messages. If you get a message that will take more than 2 minutes to complete, just put it in Next Actions until you finish processing your inbox. Then work form Next Actions.
Waiting For –> This is an advanced folder. If you’re working on a project or delegate a task to someone, put the email in your waiting for folder so you know you are waiting for a response.
That’s it for now. I’ve found these techniques helpful. I still struggle to manage all of my email, but having a system keeps me honest about the amount of time it takes to process email and if I have too much on my plate at any one time.
Oh, last thing… For adults, if you get 100 emails a day, you probably want to block out 1 – 1.5 hours each day to get through them. No small percentage of your day should be used managing email.
Filed under GTD
Here are two videos that I’ve recently produced of our faculty who are experimenting with iPads:
Science Faculty Member David Allen on the iPad as and eTextbook
Drama Department Chair Bill Sweeney on using the iPad in his Classroom
This afternoon I ran a session on Integrating Technology into your Pre-K – 3rd Grade Classroom. I ran through a few examples of how we use technology for communication and in the classroom at Collegiate ,and then reviewed some of the great iPad apps I’ve been testing out. Thanks to all of the participants for your great questions/comments. Below are my slides and links to resources that we discussed. Please post questions in the comments!
Point 1: Build a Personal Learning Network
Join the Independent School Educator’s NING
or Join Twitter and follow these elementary school educators or these curriculum coordinators.
Point 2: Communication: Newsletter
Use a Content Management System – We use Whipplehill’s Community Groups to build a newsletter with photos and news stories for your parents.
Point 3: Use a blog to communicate or have your students write and publish information
Get a free blog at Edublogs, WordPress.com, or Blogger. Even easier options available at Posterous.cohttp://posterous.com or Tumblr.com.
Post videos at vimeo.com and embed them in your blog.
Point 4: Geography: Use Google Earth to show your students the world!
Point 5: Problem Solving: Scratch
Scratch is a free program that is an excellent introduction to programming for students. You can tell stories, create games or work on challenges with your students. Here’s a great site to start learning scratch.
Point 6: Communicate with Video
Create videos that show students gaining mastery of jumping, playing or teaching another student a skill they have learned. Post these videos at Vimeo and embed them on your blog. You can use a flip video camera (I recommend putting them on tripods)
Point 7: The iPad
We looked at the following apps:
Thanks to @melhutch and @inixon for their support on this presentation!
What did I miss? What are your questions?
What is your favorite resource for Lower School Technology Integration?
Filed under Presentations, Professional Development
We had Dr. Angela Duckworth in for a professional development day two years ago. Here’s a video where she describes her concept of grit. If Dr. Duckworth is correct in her concept of grit, what would you change to help your students develop more grit?
Filed under Education, Learning, Psychology
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Two resources to take a look at to further your ideas about how the iPad may be used in school:
Blog Post: How the iPad might be used in a current student’s day.
Filed under 21st Century Teaching
