Last year Carroll Community School District entered into an agreement with Kuglin Consulting to provide ten days of technology training in five two-day training sessions. In order to build capacity throughout the district a leadership team was formed consisting of teachers and principals from each building, and me, the district superintendent. This past week the team finished days seven and eight. If you are the adventurous type and like to learn or experiment with instructional technology I encourage you to try some of the tools I discuss in this blog post.
During sessions seven and eight the team learned several new tools to add to the instructional toolbox. The first tool I want to share with you is SymbalooEDU. Symabloo is a visual bookmark organizer that allows internet users to have their favorite websites at their fingertips. Symbaloo gives the appearance that the websites are apps on your computer screen. This application prevents a person from having to type a long url into the web browser or making a mistake while typing. Setting up a Symbaloo account is free and quite easy. Click on this link to view a short You Tube video on getting started using Symbaloo.
The second tool I would like to introduce is called Mozilla Popcorn Maker. Popcorn Maker allows the user to insert text, pop-ups, tweets, interactive maps, etc. into either You Tube videos or self made videos. Here is an example of a video from Popcorn Maker's website. This video is my first trial with using Popcorn Maker. This technology can make videos used in the classroom much more interactive and engaging. Popcorn Maker is relatively new technology.
While anti-technology individuals may view these tools as educational toys, I would argue the tools can assist educators in enhancing their lessons to engage the learners in their classrooms. I strongly encourage tech savey educators to experiment or as I like to say "play" with these new 21st century tools to improve student performance.
Thursday, November 1, 2012
Sunday, October 21, 2012
Give Them a Device and Let Them Go!
Adams Elementary Goes 1:1 With iPads
The beginning of the 2012 - 2013 school year Adams Elementary entered into a 1:1 iPad initiative where each and every fourth and fifth grade student and teacher received their own iPad. Most classrooms are equipped with a LCD projector and Apple TV. Students are allowed to take the iPads home as long as they do not misuse the iPads.
The iPad initiative gained traction after a cadre of fourth and fifth teachers attended the Midwest Google Conference in the Wisconsin Dells. The teachers made a proposal to the building principal, the district technology coordinator, and myself. We all were supportive of the idea with one cavat - because of other building and district initiatives, neither the technology director, principal, nor myself would take the lead on implementation of the iPad initiative. These teacher leaders would need to get buy-in from other teachers in the building with this project. After meeting with their peers, the staff agreed to to move forward with the initiative. I asked the cadre of teacher leaders to make a presentation to the Carroll Board of Education. Click here to view the presentation. After listening to the presentation and hearing the passion from the teachers, the board didn't hesitate to approve the 1:1 iPad initiative.
The summer months were busy with ordering the iPads, apps, and professional development. Within the first two weeks of school starting, parents and students were required to attend an orientation meeting to review expectations. After reading chapter one of Teaching With the Tools Kids Really Use by Susan Brooks-Young (2010), I been wondering if the $100,000 plus the district spent on this initiative was a wise expenditure.
After an interesting event that happened to me last week in the fourth grade hallway of Adams Elementary, I no longer have any doubt the expenditure was well worth the investment. As students were entering the building I was out and about greeting them. One of the fourth grade teachers asked a student to show me an iMovie she had made of her class. What is interesting about the this was the student had absolutely NO instruction on how to use iMovie. I was impressed that she was able to add text and music to her movie. This was a nine year old student taking an electronic device and experimenting while she created a movie with an application she never used or seen before. Aren't these the students we are striving for in the 21st century? Why are nine year olds so eager to try these new technologies and some adults act like they may get the plague or some other type of disease? Are the adults using these digital natives (students) effectively in order to learn some of the new literacies that are required?
I am attempting to get the iMovie made by the student. If/when I do I will add it to my post!
The iPad initiative gained traction after a cadre of fourth and fifth teachers attended the Midwest Google Conference in the Wisconsin Dells. The teachers made a proposal to the building principal, the district technology coordinator, and myself. We all were supportive of the idea with one cavat - because of other building and district initiatives, neither the technology director, principal, nor myself would take the lead on implementation of the iPad initiative. These teacher leaders would need to get buy-in from other teachers in the building with this project. After meeting with their peers, the staff agreed to to move forward with the initiative. I asked the cadre of teacher leaders to make a presentation to the Carroll Board of Education. Click here to view the presentation. After listening to the presentation and hearing the passion from the teachers, the board didn't hesitate to approve the 1:1 iPad initiative.
The summer months were busy with ordering the iPads, apps, and professional development. Within the first two weeks of school starting, parents and students were required to attend an orientation meeting to review expectations. After reading chapter one of Teaching With the Tools Kids Really Use by Susan Brooks-Young (2010), I been wondering if the $100,000 plus the district spent on this initiative was a wise expenditure.
After an interesting event that happened to me last week in the fourth grade hallway of Adams Elementary, I no longer have any doubt the expenditure was well worth the investment. As students were entering the building I was out and about greeting them. One of the fourth grade teachers asked a student to show me an iMovie she had made of her class. What is interesting about the this was the student had absolutely NO instruction on how to use iMovie. I was impressed that she was able to add text and music to her movie. This was a nine year old student taking an electronic device and experimenting while she created a movie with an application she never used or seen before. Aren't these the students we are striving for in the 21st century? Why are nine year olds so eager to try these new technologies and some adults act like they may get the plague or some other type of disease? Are the adults using these digital natives (students) effectively in order to learn some of the new literacies that are required?
I am attempting to get the iMovie made by the student. If/when I do I will add it to my post!
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