While listening to Dr. Terry Holliday, Commissioner of Education in KY, last week at Leadership Kentucky, I was so glad to hear him and others discuss cursive handwriting. He explained to the group of KY business leaders, educators, bankers, and more, that the reason we, humans, started to use cursive handwriting was because of the quill and ink. If you were using a quill to write, and picked up the quill between each letter, you'd end up with a mess, thus making cursive a more attractive alternative.
When was the last time you used a quill and ink well to write?
As I continued to reflect on this, I began to change my mind on a previous stance (just like our politicians, I'm a flip-flopper) that it is important for the mental and cultural development of our students to teach cursive writing.
Should we not rather be teaching our students have to type on little glass screens? I know that not everyone is using touch screen devices, but at some point in the future, this will be the case (Meet George Jetson...ba-ba-da). Why do some people continue to harp about the fact that we are not teaching cursive handwriting to students, when that is preparing them for absolutely nothing.
We as teachers need to take the future into account for what we are teaching our students. What will help them in 10-20-30 years? As the various inspirational videos (just check out YouTube) say, and I'm paraphrasing, "we are preparing our students for jobs that don't yet exist". Let's get with the program and get students using more and more devices, wireless internet, and cloud services. This is where we are now. Who knows where we will be going (that is, if the Mayan's are incorrect).
Saturday, August 25, 2012
Using Google Voice to Assess Students
I've talked recently with several colleagues about how I use google voice in my classroom to assess my students' speaking skills in German. I remember back in German 1 when I was a student in high school, and (even though my German education was a bit unconventional - with Distance Learning), we still had to take quite a bit of time out of our scheduled class for speaking practice with the teacher (or tutor in our case). When I started observing more and more German classrooms as an undergraduate student, I saw this more and more. The teacher would give the class an assignment that would last the entire period, he/she would stand in the hallway (by the door), and call students one by one out to give their speaking quiz. It was such nerve racking for the students to have to perform on the spot with the teacher towering over them with his/her clip board. If they said "Ich bist Lucas" the teacher would start scribbling down marks that the student did not have control over the verb "sein" and could not correctly conjugate the verb.
I've found a solution.
Google Voice is a free service offered by the fine folks of Google. Users create a telephone number and can set up their voice mail system. For teachers, I recommend linking the telephone number to your school's main office (so that all "prank" calls go there instead of to your email - more tracking available on that side). Absolutely select "do not accept blocked calls" and you definitely need to link the account to your school email address.
By linking the number to your school email address, you are able to have all voicemails (as mp3 files) and text messages come directly through the school server (therefore it is being tracked and logged to protect you and your students).
You need to have permission from the parents (in some situations) for the student to use their phone during the school day, and most definitely need to have "approval" by your school administrators.
I generally will ask the students to spend their designated homework time planning what they are going to say during the quiz (usually it is a verbal response to a prompt). Sometimes, it is best to assess spontaneous speaking too. After explaining the ground rules to the students, I ask them to get out their cell phones, go find a place in the hallway that is quiet and away from other students, call my google voice number, leave a voice message with their response to the prompt. Then my blackberry starts buzzing with all of their responses.
Something that usually would take an entire class period (to assess 30-35 students), now can take 3 minutes to get done during the day. This does allow for less class time to be "wasted" and keeps students engaged. It also allows the teacher to grade the speaking skills on their own time (during planning, before or after school, or on the weekend - see previous post on weekends...), thus giving them more time to listen, and re-listen to each student's skills to more accurately assess them.
I'm sure there are 3 million other ways to do this, but this is what works for me. Let me know if you give it a try or need help with setting it up!
I've found a solution.
Google Voice is a free service offered by the fine folks of Google. Users create a telephone number and can set up their voice mail system. For teachers, I recommend linking the telephone number to your school's main office (so that all "prank" calls go there instead of to your email - more tracking available on that side). Absolutely select "do not accept blocked calls" and you definitely need to link the account to your school email address.
By linking the number to your school email address, you are able to have all voicemails (as mp3 files) and text messages come directly through the school server (therefore it is being tracked and logged to protect you and your students).
You need to have permission from the parents (in some situations) for the student to use their phone during the school day, and most definitely need to have "approval" by your school administrators.
I generally will ask the students to spend their designated homework time planning what they are going to say during the quiz (usually it is a verbal response to a prompt). Sometimes, it is best to assess spontaneous speaking too. After explaining the ground rules to the students, I ask them to get out their cell phones, go find a place in the hallway that is quiet and away from other students, call my google voice number, leave a voice message with their response to the prompt. Then my blackberry starts buzzing with all of their responses.
Something that usually would take an entire class period (to assess 30-35 students), now can take 3 minutes to get done during the day. This does allow for less class time to be "wasted" and keeps students engaged. It also allows the teacher to grade the speaking skills on their own time (during planning, before or after school, or on the weekend - see previous post on weekends...), thus giving them more time to listen, and re-listen to each student's skills to more accurately assess them.
I'm sure there are 3 million other ways to do this, but this is what works for me. Let me know if you give it a try or need help with setting it up!
Everybody's Working on the Weekend
Firstly let me apologize for not being a good steward of my blogging. Having had a rather "busy" summer, then the start of the school year, plus graduating Georgetown College (with my MA in Education with endorsement in Instructional Computer Technology), receiving the Deans Honor Award, planning a trip to Savannah, St. Petersburg (FL), South Africa (again), and Germany (with 30+ students). Shew. So here I am - just working on the weekend right?
I've been reflecting on the tune (by Loverboy in 1981) and its lyrics a bit this weekend, as, in reality, we are all so connected to everything these days, there aren't such things as weekends anymore. Many of us tend to always have work that needs to be done on the weekend, but I'm talking about those of you who don't necessarily have to work on Saturday and Sunday. With iPhones, BlackBerries, iPad, laptops, digital/satellite TV, and more, we are still constantly receiving and processing information, thus not actually giving us a relaxing break.
I cannot help but think about what a weekend should be (to the normal human). On average, people work 40 hours a week, then have two days off. Those two days should be left for family time, time to work around the house, time for religion, time for yourself, etc. With all of our buzzing and glowing devices, tweets and posts, calls and text messages, we truly aren't taking weekends "off" these days. Those of us in the education world know this well.
After teaching 5 classes a day, the last thing I want to do is continue working; therefore I sometimes save my extra work (grading, planning, etc.) for the weekend (not counting my extra duties). Because of the current state of technology, I can work more efficiently from home (on grading, planning, etc.) than I can from my school. I am just as connected (if not more), and can be a bit more relaxed in my own comfort zone. I really don't mind this.
Technology, as great as it is, has a hold on weekends. I'm not saying it's a bad thing, but I encourage everyone to take a techno break (at least for a few hours) on a weekend (whenever that may be). Take a break from the tweeting, texting, facebooking, etc. Technology has it's place, but we cannot forget basic peace and quiet in our lives too. I look forward to taking my own advice (maybe) and turning off the phone, the iPad and the MacBook, and just having a bit of peace and quite.
I've been reflecting on the tune (by Loverboy in 1981) and its lyrics a bit this weekend, as, in reality, we are all so connected to everything these days, there aren't such things as weekends anymore. Many of us tend to always have work that needs to be done on the weekend, but I'm talking about those of you who don't necessarily have to work on Saturday and Sunday. With iPhones, BlackBerries, iPad, laptops, digital/satellite TV, and more, we are still constantly receiving and processing information, thus not actually giving us a relaxing break.
I cannot help but think about what a weekend should be (to the normal human). On average, people work 40 hours a week, then have two days off. Those two days should be left for family time, time to work around the house, time for religion, time for yourself, etc. With all of our buzzing and glowing devices, tweets and posts, calls and text messages, we truly aren't taking weekends "off" these days. Those of us in the education world know this well.
After teaching 5 classes a day, the last thing I want to do is continue working; therefore I sometimes save my extra work (grading, planning, etc.) for the weekend (not counting my extra duties). Because of the current state of technology, I can work more efficiently from home (on grading, planning, etc.) than I can from my school. I am just as connected (if not more), and can be a bit more relaxed in my own comfort zone. I really don't mind this.
Technology, as great as it is, has a hold on weekends. I'm not saying it's a bad thing, but I encourage everyone to take a techno break (at least for a few hours) on a weekend (whenever that may be). Take a break from the tweeting, texting, facebooking, etc. Technology has it's place, but we cannot forget basic peace and quiet in our lives too. I look forward to taking my own advice (maybe) and turning off the phone, the iPad and the MacBook, and just having a bit of peace and quite.
Monday, June 11, 2012
Scott County Technology Jubilee 2012
Scott County Technology Jubilee 2012
On June 12, 2012, I'm presenting at Royal Spring Middle School at the 2012 Scott County Technology Jubilee sponsored by Scott County Schools. I am so excited to be able to present on Social Networking and Micro-Blogging (which I need to do more of). If you can't make it out to Scott County tomorrow morning at 8:50AM - check out my presentation (it's rather bone dry, I don't like to type everything - makes it too boring).
Follow the conference on twitter using #sctj12.
Thanks!
Lucas
On June 12, 2012, I'm presenting at Royal Spring Middle School at the 2012 Scott County Technology Jubilee sponsored by Scott County Schools. I am so excited to be able to present on Social Networking and Micro-Blogging (which I need to do more of). If you can't make it out to Scott County tomorrow morning at 8:50AM - check out my presentation (it's rather bone dry, I don't like to type everything - makes it too boring).
Follow the conference on twitter using #sctj12.
Thanks!
Lucas
Tuesday, May 15, 2012
Scott County Tech Jubilee - June 12, 2012
I'll be presenting at 8:50AM - Social Networking and Microblogging - please consider registering to come - should be a great time, and lots of great educators sharing their ideas and techniques!
Scott County Technology Jubilee
Tuesday, June 12 at Royal Spring Middle School
Click HERE to register
* Registration is required ~ attendees and presenters
See the attached 2012 Technology Jubilee matrix of sessions.
Presentation booklet with presenter names and detailed session descriptions coming soon!
Feel free to share this opportunity with your instructional aides/para-professionals and administrative staff.PD and EILA Credit will be provided.
Click HERE to view and download the Full Conference Presentation Booklet (coming soon).
TWEET with us!
Use #SCTJ12 to Tweet your comments during the Technology Jubilee!
Use #SCTJ12 to Tweet your comments during the Technology Jubilee!
Thursday, April 5, 2012
Reflection
A Reflection on
Independent Study – Georgetown College – SP2012
Lucas M. Gravitt
Lucas M. Gravitt
As I was
deciding on which technology elective to take this spring, I am so very glad
that no class being offered interested me.
Not to say that Georgetown College does not offer good classes, but I
truly was not interested in any being offered during this semester. After working with Dr. Andrea Peach, I
designed this independent study course to explore the use of mobile devices in
the classroom, evaluate applications currently designed, and to learn how to
design my own application. It was a fun
time indeed.
As I began
on my journey (as I called it frequently on my blog site), I was excited to
research and find articles pertaining to the topics in which I was
interested. After scouring over probably
30 articles, I had found 12 that made sense for me to write a reaction blog
post about. This really gave me an idea
of where the world of technology in education was, where it has been, and where
it is going. Having posted my reactions
and reviews on the blog (and subsequently on Twitter and Facebook), I was quite
excited to see that there were more than a few people reading my posts and
enjoying what I had to say. To date, I
have had nearly 300 viewers on my blog, from nine different countries (in North
America, Europe, Asia, and Australia).
One thing I learned during the process was completely not predicted; with
social media, one can truly be connected with the world.
After
attending the KySTE conference in Louisville in March, I was reinvigorated in
my quest of app development. Having
attended several great sessions of apps, use of iPods/iPhones/iPads in the
classroom, I came away with a greater awareness of the power of technology. One session in particular spoke volumes to
me: Build Your Own App. Even though the
presenter had some technology glitches, she shared a variety of methods of how
one can create their own app, and discussed how to go through the process of
becoming an Apple Developer to be able to place your app on the marketplace (I’m
at that stage now). I am forever
grateful for the experience and I highly recommend this conference to any
teacher or administrator.
As I began
to make my app, after reading about XCode and other app coding wares, I
realized that without several hours each day, I needed to find a nice template
to help my design. I chose to use
ibuildapp.com to help me on this process.
I played around with graphics some, decided exactly what it was that I
wanted to present, and then started making it happen. It is so much easier than you would
expect. As I tried to link some things
from my classroom website, I found that our district and school’s website is by
no means mobile friendly. I plan to
enter into discussions with our tech-gurus to discuss the implementation of a
mobile friendly website.
As I have
designed lukasedtech (my blog portal where my work is posted) to be a platform
from which I will launch my consulting firm, I am more than thankful for all of
the support from instructional technology people around the world. I have been asked to start writing for
kyedtech blog, have made contacts in Europe, and in conversations with someone
to perhaps begin working in developing Africa as broadband access and device
availability is expanding. The
possibilities are endless and I am thankful that this class enabled me to
discover and learn content in which I was most interested.
From this
point on, the lukasedtech blog will be used solely for promotion and consulting
as I continue to expand my skills and begin to change the world of
instructional technology. I look forward to giving presentations at local, regional, and national conferences - and hope to be able to continue to better education through the use of technology. Thank you.
My First App
Please check out my first app - I used www.ibuildapp.com for my first app development template - working now to upload the app to the App Store and distribute to students, parents, and administrators...
http://ibuildapp.com/projects.php?action=info&projectid=185623
http://ibuildapp.com/projects.php?action=info&projectid=185623
Article Review 12
Article Review 12
http://mrspripp.blogspot.com/2012/03/stop-telling-me-technology-engages.html
Yes please Mrs. Pripp! I am so glad that teachers are starting to stand up and say comments like these! It absolutely is not the device or tool that engages, it is indeed the content. My students elect to take German because they want to learn German, not because they want to play with tech tools. If they want to play with tech tools, they take other classes in the school/district. If districts around the country are continuing to make these purchases, we as teachers must take the tools/devices and make the most of them. I think it is all about how we can integrate the technology into our curriculum and we should never focus on the tool as part of our curriculum (unless, of course, that is our curriculum).
How can we use technolgoy to make our curriculum more engaging? I believe it's all part of teacher planning and creativity.
http://mrspripp.blogspot.com/2012/03/stop-telling-me-technology-engages.html
Yes please Mrs. Pripp! I am so glad that teachers are starting to stand up and say comments like these! It absolutely is not the device or tool that engages, it is indeed the content. My students elect to take German because they want to learn German, not because they want to play with tech tools. If they want to play with tech tools, they take other classes in the school/district. If districts around the country are continuing to make these purchases, we as teachers must take the tools/devices and make the most of them. I think it is all about how we can integrate the technology into our curriculum and we should never focus on the tool as part of our curriculum (unless, of course, that is our curriculum).
How can we use technolgoy to make our curriculum more engaging? I believe it's all part of teacher planning and creativity.
Video Article Review 11
Video Article Review 11
http://youtu.be/ENyzcXRPeeI
I was very impressed with Mr. Marmon's presentation at Stanford University about how to build an iPhone App [that doesn't suck]. This does go somewhat over my head (not being a programer by trade), but I find the video incredibly useful from step 1 until publishing to the app store. I think this will become a bit more realistic for me after I finish my first app, and perhaps venture into learning more about app development, but for there here and now, I'll stick to basic and easy to attempt to get it all figured out. As a teacher, I do not believe I have the time, nor mental energy, to actually get an app off the ground as this would be a major undertaking. I could see, however, the marketablity of being able to do this, or at least help people get to this direction (I'm thinking curriculum maps, Common Core Standards, etc...). Thanks Mr. Marmon for your presentation!
http://youtu.be/ENyzcXRPeeI
I was very impressed with Mr. Marmon's presentation at Stanford University about how to build an iPhone App [that doesn't suck]. This does go somewhat over my head (not being a programer by trade), but I find the video incredibly useful from step 1 until publishing to the app store. I think this will become a bit more realistic for me after I finish my first app, and perhaps venture into learning more about app development, but for there here and now, I'll stick to basic and easy to attempt to get it all figured out. As a teacher, I do not believe I have the time, nor mental energy, to actually get an app off the ground as this would be a major undertaking. I could see, however, the marketablity of being able to do this, or at least help people get to this direction (I'm thinking curriculum maps, Common Core Standards, etc...). Thanks Mr. Marmon for your presentation!
Article Review 10
Article Review 10
http://ipad.appfinders.com/best-ipad-code-editors/
I app-solutely love this "article". As I've been working to develop my app, I have used my laptop to do so...but of course there's a way to do it on my iPad! I haven't downloaded any of these yet, but you bet I'm going to just now. Being able to update, edit, or design apps on the go really makes Apple's iPad a fun thing (not that I didn't love Gregory the iPad already). One must naturally know how to work with XCode (confusing stuff I find), but this list provides you with a nice variety of ways to be more productive.
http://ipad.appfinders.com/best-ipad-code-editors/
I app-solutely love this "article". As I've been working to develop my app, I have used my laptop to do so...but of course there's a way to do it on my iPad! I haven't downloaded any of these yet, but you bet I'm going to just now. Being able to update, edit, or design apps on the go really makes Apple's iPad a fun thing (not that I didn't love Gregory the iPad already). One must naturally know how to work with XCode (confusing stuff I find), but this list provides you with a nice variety of ways to be more productive.
Article Review 9
Article Review 9
http://speckyboy.com/2012/03/23/guidelines-to-follow-when-building-for-the-app-store-ios-android/
These basic guidelines are a great resource when beginning the app building process, some of which I hadn't thought about quite yet (and I'm already in app building process). Just like proper classroom instructional design - one should work backwards it seems. First think of what the end product you want - super big picture, then work backwards to see what you need to get you to that point. I think on app #2, I will work more this way - but as I've just gotten my feet wet a bit, and am using some templates to help me along, I'm already getting some ideas for the next great app! Perhaps...
http://speckyboy.com/2012/03/23/guidelines-to-follow-when-building-for-the-app-store-ios-android/
These basic guidelines are a great resource when beginning the app building process, some of which I hadn't thought about quite yet (and I'm already in app building process). Just like proper classroom instructional design - one should work backwards it seems. First think of what the end product you want - super big picture, then work backwards to see what you need to get you to that point. I think on app #2, I will work more this way - but as I've just gotten my feet wet a bit, and am using some templates to help me along, I'm already getting some ideas for the next great app! Perhaps...
101 Web2.0 Tools for Teachers
101 Web2.0 Tools for Teachers
http://web20education.bo.lt/6o6pa
I'm not doing a complete review on all 101 of these great resources - but I wanted to share the link anyway (I think I found on twitter from one of the folks I follow) - huge resource here. Let me know if there's anything you want me to discuss on this site.
Thanks!
http://web20education.bo.lt/6o6pa
I'm not doing a complete review on all 101 of these great resources - but I wanted to share the link anyway (I think I found on twitter from one of the folks I follow) - huge resource here. Let me know if there's anything you want me to discuss on this site.
Thanks!
Article Review 8
Article Review 8
http://www.cnn.com/2012/03/21/tech/web/kids-tech-education/index.html
This article acurately portrays the biggest issue, in my opinion, plaguing our country. The amount of children having various technology devices and access is alarming. I am a huge supporter of technology in the classroom, recently discovered BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) and 1-to-1 programs at schools. With the access to the web, students have the world at their fingertips. But where, how, and who is teaching these children how to act on the web? For me, I always am very clear about classroom ettiquite while using deviced in my classroom, but I'm affraid that as soon as the student leaves the room, they are tweeting angrily at another student, or cussing about Mr. Gravitt's class, etc. We often see in modern education the parents saying, "it's the teacher's job to teach my child everything" and on the opposite site, us teachers saying, "gosh, why don't these parents teach there kids a thing?" Yes, it's true, teachers do "teach" more than content. We teach proper behavior, politeness, and other life skills (even in German class I try to get the students to speak properly - particularly in the foods unit, when at McDonalds, rather than saying "gimme a nummer 1" perhaps one could say "I would like..." or "May I please order..." - this helps them with the German modal auxilary verbs.).
I know we, by state law, are required to instruct about internet safety - some schools do it differently, but it seems like we show a video, and teachers talk about it, but we must begin to teach deeper digital citizenship as the article states. For example, when working with students in the computer lab, or in classroom with our iPods, I often have founds students translating an entire sentence on Google Translate. Nothing against Google Translate, but I would rather my students create their own language. I would much prefer them to say something completely wrong in German than to produce something from a translation website. They do, however, get confused regarding the use on an online dictionary (my preference is www.leo.org). I think at this point they are well aware that they are not to use a translation site, but where in their mind is it ever ok to use someone else's work and claim it as their own?
Parents need to be more involved with their children's access to the web. If they don't have time to monitor it all, then they must not buy the phone, the data plan, etc, for their child. Period. I do think, as the article suggests, that colleges and universities, and local community centers, can do a better job to promote internet safety classes for parents. It is true, some parents don't even know how to use the devices, much less patrol what their child is doing with them. This does seem to fall on parental responsibilities though, not the school.
I feel that we as educators can begin to incorporate more and more web ettiquite into our classrooms daily, so that our students can grow to become digital citizens of the highest. We can do our part, in conjunction with parents, but ultimately it is the student who must recognize the importance of using the web appropriately.
http://www.cnn.com/2012/03/21/tech/web/kids-tech-education/index.html
This article acurately portrays the biggest issue, in my opinion, plaguing our country. The amount of children having various technology devices and access is alarming. I am a huge supporter of technology in the classroom, recently discovered BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) and 1-to-1 programs at schools. With the access to the web, students have the world at their fingertips. But where, how, and who is teaching these children how to act on the web? For me, I always am very clear about classroom ettiquite while using deviced in my classroom, but I'm affraid that as soon as the student leaves the room, they are tweeting angrily at another student, or cussing about Mr. Gravitt's class, etc. We often see in modern education the parents saying, "it's the teacher's job to teach my child everything" and on the opposite site, us teachers saying, "gosh, why don't these parents teach there kids a thing?" Yes, it's true, teachers do "teach" more than content. We teach proper behavior, politeness, and other life skills (even in German class I try to get the students to speak properly - particularly in the foods unit, when at McDonalds, rather than saying "gimme a nummer 1" perhaps one could say "I would like..." or "May I please order..." - this helps them with the German modal auxilary verbs.).
I know we, by state law, are required to instruct about internet safety - some schools do it differently, but it seems like we show a video, and teachers talk about it, but we must begin to teach deeper digital citizenship as the article states. For example, when working with students in the computer lab, or in classroom with our iPods, I often have founds students translating an entire sentence on Google Translate. Nothing against Google Translate, but I would rather my students create their own language. I would much prefer them to say something completely wrong in German than to produce something from a translation website. They do, however, get confused regarding the use on an online dictionary (my preference is www.leo.org). I think at this point they are well aware that they are not to use a translation site, but where in their mind is it ever ok to use someone else's work and claim it as their own?
Parents need to be more involved with their children's access to the web. If they don't have time to monitor it all, then they must not buy the phone, the data plan, etc, for their child. Period. I do think, as the article suggests, that colleges and universities, and local community centers, can do a better job to promote internet safety classes for parents. It is true, some parents don't even know how to use the devices, much less patrol what their child is doing with them. This does seem to fall on parental responsibilities though, not the school.
I feel that we as educators can begin to incorporate more and more web ettiquite into our classrooms daily, so that our students can grow to become digital citizens of the highest. We can do our part, in conjunction with parents, but ultimately it is the student who must recognize the importance of using the web appropriately.
Saturday, March 17, 2012
KySTE2012 Review
Even though I had planned to review 12 articles for my IS class, I've decided a full review of my experience at KySTE2012 would be adequately a "review". I attended KySTE2012 for all personal reasons - I wanted to find the sessions that I could directly benefit from, either as a topic I have ignored for years (such as Kinect in the Classroom...read more later...I think I've rightfully ignored it). Following will be a recap of the session I attended - my general thoughts on the topic, presenter, and implication for use in the classroom...
Infinite Campus
What can be said dear friends? It's something we've all learned to love (they did tell us at school in the beginning that we will hate it at first, but love it later, and I have to agree with that). I enjoyed hearing from the IC representatives - both very knowledgeable about KY's use of the program. I look forward to seeing some of the enhancements, the apps they are developing for teachers to use, the assignment submission feature, and I was thrilled to hear that the information is encrypted as it is shared from a personal device. Shew. I was a bit underwhelmed when I asked rather specific questions about issues I had with IC and it was kind of blown off. If only IC would be a bit more open to talking to working teachers about their product. I would honestly say that 95% of my colleagues would never submit a work ticket for something that they find annoying or awkward on IC. The time I did submit a work ticket, they "fixed" the problem but really made it worse (copying assignments from one section in one school to another sections in another school - why can't I copy to multiple sections at once! And why does the due date never show up?). In German we call that Schlimmverbessern (better something for the worse). As the IC Teacher Coach at my school, I felt I should attend. I did enjoy hearing of the cool new things, but IC, really, let's focus on making better what we already have before rolling out something new.
Tech PD with Leanna Prater (Fayette County Public Schools)
Having taught many tech professional development sessions for my school, district, and state world language association, I felt it important to attend this session. Even though I feel that I am a decent tech pd presenter, there's always room for improvement. I was intriegued by Mrs. Prater's introduction with the true colors test - that 35% of all people at "gold" or "orange", 56% of teachers are "gold", 88% of administrators are "gold", but 63% of our at risk students are "orange". Problem. I never thought about people's learning styles much as I planned PD, but I should have! The essential question "Does PD challenge the way teachers teach, or how students learn?" really caught my eye. One must always have this in ones head when planning PD! By using the 5E Model (engage, exploration, explain, extend, and evaluate), I think I can now plan better PDs for teachers. I also must share Mrs. Prater's last quote, "focus should never be on the tools, but rather the instruction." This is so true! Thanks Leanna Prater for sharing this!
BYOD (Bring your own devices)
This was offered by a principal and tech resource teacher from Bowling Green City Schools in KY - these guys are great characters and are rather entertaining. I felt that this session was quite a bit more of a "what great apps and tools can you use" than how to implement a BYOD policy, even though I got a ton of info out of this session! It does seem that one must have the administrative support and technology support to begin to even do these types of things, but as long as teachers are asking for it, teachers will get it (mainly referred to wifi and bandwidth, pay raises...probably not in this lifetime).
iPad in Classroom
I really enjoyed this session - the ladies (I feel stupid for not remember who they were or where they were from) presented a huge amount of great apps that a teacher can easily use in class to aid instruction. I was a bit miffed that it seemed to focus on what teachers can use, versus what students can use, but I still learned a lot. Because not every student has an iPad in our school, I guess I shouldn't have really expected to get too much out of it. I do, however, really look forward to playing around with ePub to create a book. Fun stuff.
Create your own app
Now this was a session meant for me - particularly as I am finishing my Independent Study course at Georgetown College (and subsequently my MA with Endorsement in Instructional Technology). Even though people can build an app from scratch, there seems to be a grown number of websites with templates with which one can create an app. We did have some tech glitches in the presentation (it was funny to see people drop like flies as the minutes went by to fix the wifi connection for the presenter - I guess some people set a timer for "after X number of minutes of the presenter fiddling with the wifi connection, I WILL LEAVE". Get over yourself. I loved the looks of ibuildapp.com and thoroughly look forward to continuing work with it. This really gave me the jump start I needed to get my app rolling - and gave me some things to think about to. Thank you app builder lady!
Evernote
Cool app - not sure I'll go paperless, but worth looking at. The best thing I got from this session was "slide rocket" - the presentation tool the presenters used to present. Way cool - can't wait to use it soon. Check it out.
Kinect
Waste of time.
Clickers
As I recently have acquired a clicker system, I wanted to attend a session on them. In my 5 years of teaching, I have successfully avoided using these things, but I think I may be perhaps a bit more willing to use them. The instant results/formative assessment component was absolutely great. I wasn't took happy that the session only focused on one style of clickers - but I've got enough ideas and will start using my new system soon. Stay tuned!
KySTE2012 was a great experience for me - money well spent - I highly recommend to any teacher or administrator (and tech person naturally) to attend this conference - it's obvious that folks in Kentucky care about technology in the classroom - there are many great people out there working to help integrate our new tools in classrooms to keep students engaged. Way to go KY!
Infinite Campus
What can be said dear friends? It's something we've all learned to love (they did tell us at school in the beginning that we will hate it at first, but love it later, and I have to agree with that). I enjoyed hearing from the IC representatives - both very knowledgeable about KY's use of the program. I look forward to seeing some of the enhancements, the apps they are developing for teachers to use, the assignment submission feature, and I was thrilled to hear that the information is encrypted as it is shared from a personal device. Shew. I was a bit underwhelmed when I asked rather specific questions about issues I had with IC and it was kind of blown off. If only IC would be a bit more open to talking to working teachers about their product. I would honestly say that 95% of my colleagues would never submit a work ticket for something that they find annoying or awkward on IC. The time I did submit a work ticket, they "fixed" the problem but really made it worse (copying assignments from one section in one school to another sections in another school - why can't I copy to multiple sections at once! And why does the due date never show up?). In German we call that Schlimmverbessern (better something for the worse). As the IC Teacher Coach at my school, I felt I should attend. I did enjoy hearing of the cool new things, but IC, really, let's focus on making better what we already have before rolling out something new.
Tech PD with Leanna Prater (Fayette County Public Schools)
Having taught many tech professional development sessions for my school, district, and state world language association, I felt it important to attend this session. Even though I feel that I am a decent tech pd presenter, there's always room for improvement. I was intriegued by Mrs. Prater's introduction with the true colors test - that 35% of all people at "gold" or "orange", 56% of teachers are "gold", 88% of administrators are "gold", but 63% of our at risk students are "orange". Problem. I never thought about people's learning styles much as I planned PD, but I should have! The essential question "Does PD challenge the way teachers teach, or how students learn?" really caught my eye. One must always have this in ones head when planning PD! By using the 5E Model (engage, exploration, explain, extend, and evaluate), I think I can now plan better PDs for teachers. I also must share Mrs. Prater's last quote, "focus should never be on the tools, but rather the instruction." This is so true! Thanks Leanna Prater for sharing this!
BYOD (Bring your own devices)
This was offered by a principal and tech resource teacher from Bowling Green City Schools in KY - these guys are great characters and are rather entertaining. I felt that this session was quite a bit more of a "what great apps and tools can you use" than how to implement a BYOD policy, even though I got a ton of info out of this session! It does seem that one must have the administrative support and technology support to begin to even do these types of things, but as long as teachers are asking for it, teachers will get it (mainly referred to wifi and bandwidth, pay raises...probably not in this lifetime).
iPad in Classroom
I really enjoyed this session - the ladies (I feel stupid for not remember who they were or where they were from) presented a huge amount of great apps that a teacher can easily use in class to aid instruction. I was a bit miffed that it seemed to focus on what teachers can use, versus what students can use, but I still learned a lot. Because not every student has an iPad in our school, I guess I shouldn't have really expected to get too much out of it. I do, however, really look forward to playing around with ePub to create a book. Fun stuff.
Create your own app
Now this was a session meant for me - particularly as I am finishing my Independent Study course at Georgetown College (and subsequently my MA with Endorsement in Instructional Technology). Even though people can build an app from scratch, there seems to be a grown number of websites with templates with which one can create an app. We did have some tech glitches in the presentation (it was funny to see people drop like flies as the minutes went by to fix the wifi connection for the presenter - I guess some people set a timer for "after X number of minutes of the presenter fiddling with the wifi connection, I WILL LEAVE". Get over yourself. I loved the looks of ibuildapp.com and thoroughly look forward to continuing work with it. This really gave me the jump start I needed to get my app rolling - and gave me some things to think about to. Thank you app builder lady!
Evernote
Cool app - not sure I'll go paperless, but worth looking at. The best thing I got from this session was "slide rocket" - the presentation tool the presenters used to present. Way cool - can't wait to use it soon. Check it out.
Kinect
Waste of time.
Clickers
As I recently have acquired a clicker system, I wanted to attend a session on them. In my 5 years of teaching, I have successfully avoided using these things, but I think I may be perhaps a bit more willing to use them. The instant results/formative assessment component was absolutely great. I wasn't took happy that the session only focused on one style of clickers - but I've got enough ideas and will start using my new system soon. Stay tuned!
KySTE2012 was a great experience for me - money well spent - I highly recommend to any teacher or administrator (and tech person naturally) to attend this conference - it's obvious that folks in Kentucky care about technology in the classroom - there are many great people out there working to help integrate our new tools in classrooms to keep students engaged. Way to go KY!
Friday, March 9, 2012
KySTE2012
KySTE Conference 2012 notes coming soon. For complete and blunt reflections, thoughts, and other good things, please check back soon! Progress on my app development independent study is going well, and has been enhanced by attending this conference, and more and more consulting ideas are ready for implementation.
Monday, February 20, 2012
Article Review 7
Article Review 7
http://blog.reyjunco.com/will-itextbooks-increase-student-engagement-not-really
The article by Dr. Junco really is quite interesting. I greatly appreciate the discussion on engagement versus cool. I think that other teachers (and perhaps administrators) feel that my inclusion of various technology techniques in my classroom is engaging, and some of it may be, but is it the technology itself that makes the student desire to learn? I think not. I do, however, believe that how the teacher approaches the lesson, or activity, can help shape the students' engagement of said activity. I couldn't help but think about the coolness of an entire class of students using a German textbook on an iPad in my class. Way cool! But in reality, the students would still be reading a textbook. Just the fact that you change the way they read it, it's still not very engaging. How about using an iPad to communicate with students in Germany? Now that can be engaging (if approached correctly). Is it the iPad that makes the engagement, or is it the activity?
I think educators need to spend more time devoted to planning more creative and engaging projects for students to complete rather than try to figure out how to teach the same lessons they've taught for years but incorporating some cool techno trick. Converting all of your overheads to PowerPoint presentations is probably a good thing, but no more engaging. Review quiz material by playing Jeopardy is probably incredibly engaging for student who are used to review quiz material by reading their notes, but let's start thinking more big picture. What will excite the students enough to want to do something with their learned knowledge or skills? In the world language model, how do our students perform in the target language? It's great that they can memorize 3 zillion vocab words, but can they order a coke in Shanghai?
http://blog.reyjunco.com/will-itextbooks-increase-student-engagement-not-really
The article by Dr. Junco really is quite interesting. I greatly appreciate the discussion on engagement versus cool. I think that other teachers (and perhaps administrators) feel that my inclusion of various technology techniques in my classroom is engaging, and some of it may be, but is it the technology itself that makes the student desire to learn? I think not. I do, however, believe that how the teacher approaches the lesson, or activity, can help shape the students' engagement of said activity. I couldn't help but think about the coolness of an entire class of students using a German textbook on an iPad in my class. Way cool! But in reality, the students would still be reading a textbook. Just the fact that you change the way they read it, it's still not very engaging. How about using an iPad to communicate with students in Germany? Now that can be engaging (if approached correctly). Is it the iPad that makes the engagement, or is it the activity?
I think educators need to spend more time devoted to planning more creative and engaging projects for students to complete rather than try to figure out how to teach the same lessons they've taught for years but incorporating some cool techno trick. Converting all of your overheads to PowerPoint presentations is probably a good thing, but no more engaging. Review quiz material by playing Jeopardy is probably incredibly engaging for student who are used to review quiz material by reading their notes, but let's start thinking more big picture. What will excite the students enough to want to do something with their learned knowledge or skills? In the world language model, how do our students perform in the target language? It's great that they can memorize 3 zillion vocab words, but can they order a coke in Shanghai?
Article Review 6
Article Review 6
http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9217885/Your_next_job_Mobile_app_developer_?taxonomyId=11&pageNumber=1
This article will make you say "wow". When we think of the modern 2012 America - we think of the high rates of unemployment, the seemingly endless amounts of local and national debt, and on the education front, we see our lovely little students with their smartphones and other devices. A quick aside - I absolutely love it when I bust a student in class with a cell phone. Now it's true, in German class, we utilize cell phones sometimes as an instructional tool, but 95% of the time, they need to be put away. So when we - for example - watch a video...the lights go down...the students all seem to be vibrantly engages in the German whatever we are watching. Then, like a meteor blazing down from outer space, someone lights up like the Griswold's on Christmas Eve ("Joy to the worrrllld"). Then they wonder how I catch them with the phones and say "Wow Mr. Gravitt, you're like a cell phone Nazi!" No. I am no cell phone Nazi - I just notice it when all of a sudden Johnny's entire torso and face lights up as he's looking under his desk. Doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure that one out (Ok, no offense to you rocket scientists out there - I know you're not the only ones who are "smart"). Back to the article...
When you look at an article like this and realize how many jobs exist in the mobile app development sector, it kind of makes you sick. I understand, as indicated in the article, that many of these jobs aren't necessarily full-time app development team positions, but even for the consultants out there - TONS OF WORK TO BE DONE! It makes me eager to begin my journey on app development - and with some html, java and other fun coding work under my belt, I look forward to jumping in full force.
I do believe, as the article says, that more business and organizations will be developing apps over the course of the next few years. Not sure the mega big or super high tech companies, but smaller companies will be developing apps to help stay fresh and compete with their competitors. I couldn't help but think of my new bank (I just switched banks - long story - and I shall not be naming the institution either). When you see commercials on TV and online that boast (for example) the new Bank of America app, and the Schwab app, don't you wish that your bank had that too? I sure as heck do. I believe this is going to be a trend that we see continuing - more smaller, local entities developing apps to compete with the larger companies. We all always want the newest, latest, and greatest "thing" to show off to our friends, or to make our life seem easier. Can we accomplish this with locally owned businesses? I think it sounds like a nice challenge to me.
Enough rambling for now - interesting stuff for sure.
http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9217885/Your_next_job_Mobile_app_developer_?taxonomyId=11&pageNumber=1
This article will make you say "wow". When we think of the modern 2012 America - we think of the high rates of unemployment, the seemingly endless amounts of local and national debt, and on the education front, we see our lovely little students with their smartphones and other devices. A quick aside - I absolutely love it when I bust a student in class with a cell phone. Now it's true, in German class, we utilize cell phones sometimes as an instructional tool, but 95% of the time, they need to be put away. So when we - for example - watch a video...the lights go down...the students all seem to be vibrantly engages in the German whatever we are watching. Then, like a meteor blazing down from outer space, someone lights up like the Griswold's on Christmas Eve ("Joy to the worrrllld"). Then they wonder how I catch them with the phones and say "Wow Mr. Gravitt, you're like a cell phone Nazi!" No. I am no cell phone Nazi - I just notice it when all of a sudden Johnny's entire torso and face lights up as he's looking under his desk. Doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure that one out (Ok, no offense to you rocket scientists out there - I know you're not the only ones who are "smart"). Back to the article...
When you look at an article like this and realize how many jobs exist in the mobile app development sector, it kind of makes you sick. I understand, as indicated in the article, that many of these jobs aren't necessarily full-time app development team positions, but even for the consultants out there - TONS OF WORK TO BE DONE! It makes me eager to begin my journey on app development - and with some html, java and other fun coding work under my belt, I look forward to jumping in full force.
I do believe, as the article says, that more business and organizations will be developing apps over the course of the next few years. Not sure the mega big or super high tech companies, but smaller companies will be developing apps to help stay fresh and compete with their competitors. I couldn't help but think of my new bank (I just switched banks - long story - and I shall not be naming the institution either). When you see commercials on TV and online that boast (for example) the new Bank of America app, and the Schwab app, don't you wish that your bank had that too? I sure as heck do. I believe this is going to be a trend that we see continuing - more smaller, local entities developing apps to compete with the larger companies. We all always want the newest, latest, and greatest "thing" to show off to our friends, or to make our life seem easier. Can we accomplish this with locally owned businesses? I think it sounds like a nice challenge to me.
Enough rambling for now - interesting stuff for sure.
Saturday, February 18, 2012
Article Review 5
Article Review 5
http://gigaom.com/2012/02/06/jetblue-iphone-app-website-redesign/
Even though this article is a bit short, it really hits on some major topics, regardless of the company. The idea that more and more companies (and the federal government, schools, etc) are realizing the effectiveness of apps, mobile versions of websites, and integration with social media, is causing quite a buzz right now. As more companies are investing more money in web marketing, there is a boom happening in the mobile sector. This is probably not a bad plan as much more users are connected to the web, either on the go or at home. As social media continues to grow, I think more people are getting on board with the fact that they need to use this to their advantage - integrating their social media with the sites they like to use, read, etc. At this point in time, if you are a business or an organization (or a teacher) and you have a web presence, you must also ensure there is a mobile version of your site, and integrate Facebook, Twitter, or more. This is how people communicate today, especially students, so we must capitalize on this to get the most bang for out buck.
http://gigaom.com/2012/02/06/jetblue-iphone-app-website-redesign/
Even though this article is a bit short, it really hits on some major topics, regardless of the company. The idea that more and more companies (and the federal government, schools, etc) are realizing the effectiveness of apps, mobile versions of websites, and integration with social media, is causing quite a buzz right now. As more companies are investing more money in web marketing, there is a boom happening in the mobile sector. This is probably not a bad plan as much more users are connected to the web, either on the go or at home. As social media continues to grow, I think more people are getting on board with the fact that they need to use this to their advantage - integrating their social media with the sites they like to use, read, etc. At this point in time, if you are a business or an organization (or a teacher) and you have a web presence, you must also ensure there is a mobile version of your site, and integrate Facebook, Twitter, or more. This is how people communicate today, especially students, so we must capitalize on this to get the most bang for out buck.
Article Review 4
Article Review 4
http://www.eschoolnews.com/2011/01/07/10-of-the-best-apps-for-education/
As I continue on my quest of determining what is the best type of app to create, I found this article to be very interesting in identifying the top ten educational apps. Here, I will provide my opinion on all ten of the apps reviewed. I downloaded the free apps, and read otherreviews on the pay apps (yes, im cheap). Here we go...
Word Lens - as a language teacher, I have already played around with this app before. The concept is fantastico, but the execution is horrid. I had played around some with the Spanish version, and found if you have a rock solid hand, it would seem to jumble the words into what appeared to be Spanish. If the font of the original text was not standard, it wouldn't work, or if your hand moved ever so slightly, it would kind of go haywire. Like the concept, just not the app for me.
Molecules - love love love this app. I can only imagine how useful this can be for science teachers. For student to be able to see up close, and manipulate difference structures - great! I didn't notice any glaring problems, but I am far from a science teacher (it possible had all incorrect info, but I can't speak on that. It seems legit to me).
Blackboard - great mobile interface for this service. Of course, one must be utilizing blackboard already to use this for courses. Working in the high school setting, and also finishing my MA, I see more and more people, who used Blackboard, now using Moodle or other sites to share their content (or manage online classes). It would be fun to have an online "blackboard like" app that teachers and students could use with already having a previous relationship (with one of ese sites). Hum...ideas are coming.
Today in History - fabulous. There are always neat things that have happened on virtually every day. This provides students the opportunity to stay on top of the info. Being a world traveler and global citizen, I wonder how one would request more info from other regions of the world (more German history for example). Over this is great.
Math Ref Free - shouldn't students have these formulas in the notes and/or textbooks? This seems like a nice resource, but almost redundant to me. The practicality of this app for a high school student just doesn't seem there to me. Perhaps a math major at university, but 600 formulas? Seems like a lot. Make sure you upgrade to get 700 more formulas!
PI83 Graphing Calculator - oh to be a math student in the 21st century! What I could have done with that $70 I spent on that massive TI83 thing...talking about good deal, buy this, use this, every high school student should love this. And their parents too! I'm sure there could be something wrong with this app, but the idea is great, and I can't see how anyone would be upset with this.
Star Walk - I've checked out similar apps and have always been unimpressed. This seems like a better situation (reminder, I have not purchased the pay apps - only actually trying the free ones - cheap...cheap graduate student). If someone really likes to star gaze and identify every constellation they see, I think this seems like a good app for that. Rather than lugging around a constellation guide book (which you can't read in the dark anyway), makes great sense to me to use a mobile device (backlit) to do this. Happy gazing!
Cram - ok, I must actually download this one and try it out. The idea of the teacher being able to create materials and then share them with students is brilliant! Particularly for a foreign language, I'm always worried that my students will misspell a word, or learn the wrong gender for a noun as they are studying, then they have a learned mistake in their collection of words...not good! This way, I can verify that their flashcards actually are 100% correct before they begin to use them. Yes please.
Essay Grader - really? Are we teachers that pressed for time? I don't like this idea at all. If A teacher wants to assign an essay, they need to be prepared to invest time in the essays themselves. Yes, it's true, grading essays is tough, but in reality, it it your personalized rfeedback that makes the student stronger. Why are we trying to give canned comments on students' individual work. How about the students just start giving us canned essays? If the teacher is using "essay grader" then I think the students need an app called essay writer. Not fair huh? (sorry essay grader creator, I just feel that this is taking the lazy approach for something that need more respect)
eClicker - yes yes and yes. I just inherited an actual clicker system to use in my classroom, but this is a fantastic use of technology. If every student has an iDevice - this can be great for sure. It gives a bit of pressure, and gives the teacher immediate feedback on the formative assessment (and can also be summative) so that the teacher can change their instruction as needed. Love it.
http://www.eschoolnews.com/2011/01/07/10-of-the-best-apps-for-education/
As I continue on my quest of determining what is the best type of app to create, I found this article to be very interesting in identifying the top ten educational apps. Here, I will provide my opinion on all ten of the apps reviewed. I downloaded the free apps, and read otherreviews on the pay apps (yes, im cheap). Here we go...
Word Lens - as a language teacher, I have already played around with this app before. The concept is fantastico, but the execution is horrid. I had played around some with the Spanish version, and found if you have a rock solid hand, it would seem to jumble the words into what appeared to be Spanish. If the font of the original text was not standard, it wouldn't work, or if your hand moved ever so slightly, it would kind of go haywire. Like the concept, just not the app for me.
Molecules - love love love this app. I can only imagine how useful this can be for science teachers. For student to be able to see up close, and manipulate difference structures - great! I didn't notice any glaring problems, but I am far from a science teacher (it possible had all incorrect info, but I can't speak on that. It seems legit to me).
Blackboard - great mobile interface for this service. Of course, one must be utilizing blackboard already to use this for courses. Working in the high school setting, and also finishing my MA, I see more and more people, who used Blackboard, now using Moodle or other sites to share their content (or manage online classes). It would be fun to have an online "blackboard like" app that teachers and students could use with already having a previous relationship (with one of ese sites). Hum...ideas are coming.
Today in History - fabulous. There are always neat things that have happened on virtually every day. This provides students the opportunity to stay on top of the info. Being a world traveler and global citizen, I wonder how one would request more info from other regions of the world (more German history for example). Over this is great.
Math Ref Free - shouldn't students have these formulas in the notes and/or textbooks? This seems like a nice resource, but almost redundant to me. The practicality of this app for a high school student just doesn't seem there to me. Perhaps a math major at university, but 600 formulas? Seems like a lot. Make sure you upgrade to get 700 more formulas!
PI83 Graphing Calculator - oh to be a math student in the 21st century! What I could have done with that $70 I spent on that massive TI83 thing...talking about good deal, buy this, use this, every high school student should love this. And their parents too! I'm sure there could be something wrong with this app, but the idea is great, and I can't see how anyone would be upset with this.
Star Walk - I've checked out similar apps and have always been unimpressed. This seems like a better situation (reminder, I have not purchased the pay apps - only actually trying the free ones - cheap...cheap graduate student). If someone really likes to star gaze and identify every constellation they see, I think this seems like a good app for that. Rather than lugging around a constellation guide book (which you can't read in the dark anyway), makes great sense to me to use a mobile device (backlit) to do this. Happy gazing!
Cram - ok, I must actually download this one and try it out. The idea of the teacher being able to create materials and then share them with students is brilliant! Particularly for a foreign language, I'm always worried that my students will misspell a word, or learn the wrong gender for a noun as they are studying, then they have a learned mistake in their collection of words...not good! This way, I can verify that their flashcards actually are 100% correct before they begin to use them. Yes please.
Essay Grader - really? Are we teachers that pressed for time? I don't like this idea at all. If A teacher wants to assign an essay, they need to be prepared to invest time in the essays themselves. Yes, it's true, grading essays is tough, but in reality, it it your personalized rfeedback that makes the student stronger. Why are we trying to give canned comments on students' individual work. How about the students just start giving us canned essays? If the teacher is using "essay grader" then I think the students need an app called essay writer. Not fair huh? (sorry essay grader creator, I just feel that this is taking the lazy approach for something that need more respect)
eClicker - yes yes and yes. I just inherited an actual clicker system to use in my classroom, but this is a fantastic use of technology. If every student has an iDevice - this can be great for sure. It gives a bit of pressure, and gives the teacher immediate feedback on the formative assessment (and can also be summative) so that the teacher can change their instruction as needed. Love it.
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
Article Review 3
Article Review 3
http://www.edweek.org/dd/articles/2011/02/09/02apps.h04.html
I find this article quite useful for my journey of app development. As my head has been spinning to figure out just exactly what type of app I want to create, this hit me at a great time (not to mention it is a snow day). As Ian Quillan indicates, there is a broad range of educational apps, but very few that actually can function in a classroom. The teacher-student feedback in more important than I think many people are letting on to here, and you can't replace the human element. How do I know that my students are engaged when we are engaging in conversation in German? Well, if they respond to my prompts or questions accurately, if their grammar and sentence structure is on cue, and body language. If they are engaging in conversation through a mobile app, I may not know at all if they actually are meeting my targets. I think it's all about how the teacher monitors the use of these devices in classrooms. It is the teachers responsibility to ensure students are on task and engaged.
There are many ways this can be done. Some have been presented in this article, such as LanSchool Technologies, that help teachers monitor what's going on, but I think this can be done without the use of more tricky software (no offense LanSchool - honestly I am not familiar with your software). For example, I utilize a document camera and have students share what they are doing, what they find, etc. to the rest of the class. This not only highlights that student's work, but also ensures they stay on task, as they are never sure when they may be called up to the document camera.
As the author clearly states, we should not look toward apps or other new technologies to "fix" or to replace tradition instruction. Let's face it, most of us also learning in school via "traditional" education and we've turned out fine (ok, maybe not fine, but decent). Let's look toward using these technologies, mobile devices, and mobile applications to enhance that which we are already doing in the classroom. We shouldn't try to replace our normal classroom techniques (unless, of course, they are not successful), but rather make them better. A good friend has always said to me, "you don't want to teach your first year 27 times (currently the amount of years worked it takes to retire in Kentucky...not that I'm counting, but I'm down to 22 years and a few months...3 to be exact), but rather make each year different by gradually improving on your methods and techniques." This is where technology comes into play.
http://www.edweek.org/dd/articles/2011/02/09/02apps.h04.html
I find this article quite useful for my journey of app development. As my head has been spinning to figure out just exactly what type of app I want to create, this hit me at a great time (not to mention it is a snow day). As Ian Quillan indicates, there is a broad range of educational apps, but very few that actually can function in a classroom. The teacher-student feedback in more important than I think many people are letting on to here, and you can't replace the human element. How do I know that my students are engaged when we are engaging in conversation in German? Well, if they respond to my prompts or questions accurately, if their grammar and sentence structure is on cue, and body language. If they are engaging in conversation through a mobile app, I may not know at all if they actually are meeting my targets. I think it's all about how the teacher monitors the use of these devices in classrooms. It is the teachers responsibility to ensure students are on task and engaged.
There are many ways this can be done. Some have been presented in this article, such as LanSchool Technologies, that help teachers monitor what's going on, but I think this can be done without the use of more tricky software (no offense LanSchool - honestly I am not familiar with your software). For example, I utilize a document camera and have students share what they are doing, what they find, etc. to the rest of the class. This not only highlights that student's work, but also ensures they stay on task, as they are never sure when they may be called up to the document camera.
As the author clearly states, we should not look toward apps or other new technologies to "fix" or to replace tradition instruction. Let's face it, most of us also learning in school via "traditional" education and we've turned out fine (ok, maybe not fine, but decent). Let's look toward using these technologies, mobile devices, and mobile applications to enhance that which we are already doing in the classroom. We shouldn't try to replace our normal classroom techniques (unless, of course, they are not successful), but rather make them better. A good friend has always said to me, "you don't want to teach your first year 27 times (currently the amount of years worked it takes to retire in Kentucky...not that I'm counting, but I'm down to 22 years and a few months...3 to be exact), but rather make each year different by gradually improving on your methods and techniques." This is where technology comes into play.
Article Review 2
Article Review 2
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/piyush-mangukiya/mobile-apps-education_b_1250582.html
After reading this article, I feel a bit more empowered (I guess it's a balance eih?). As Mr. Mangukiya suggests, more and more schools are moving away from the traditional idea of school, and coming closer to a mobile, online, digital structure. The possibilities with iTunes U and digital textbooks are endless. From the practicality standpoint, the age old question, what do we do about students who don't have access at home? We cannot assume everyone will have access, and we cannot expect those without access to "go to the public library" or "come before or after school to the library" (both phrases I've used before, and quickly realized they are not options sometimes).
I do feel that a world where students all have mobile devises (iPads or other), zero textbooks, and paperless assignments will be a fun place. After spending a day (or it might have been two) learning about all of the cool new apps (2 years ago) that existed for our use, I thought, "Wow, how cool will it be to "beam" the homework assignment to the students or have the student click a QR code to download the worksheet!" Yes, very cool indeed. But if any of you have actually spent time in a classroom (and I'm talking actually teaching, not just observing), you'd quickly realize that when using any technology, there is always something that will fail, always students who just can't get it, and always the unique time constraints of a teacher (students signing in/out for the day, sick students, disabled students, etc).
In all honesty, I love the possibilities of what out 21st Century advances can do for us in the classroom. The excitement of something new is inspiring, but we all must temper this with practical execution. How can this really work in an average classroom?
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/piyush-mangukiya/mobile-apps-education_b_1250582.html
After reading this article, I feel a bit more empowered (I guess it's a balance eih?). As Mr. Mangukiya suggests, more and more schools are moving away from the traditional idea of school, and coming closer to a mobile, online, digital structure. The possibilities with iTunes U and digital textbooks are endless. From the practicality standpoint, the age old question, what do we do about students who don't have access at home? We cannot assume everyone will have access, and we cannot expect those without access to "go to the public library" or "come before or after school to the library" (both phrases I've used before, and quickly realized they are not options sometimes).
I do feel that a world where students all have mobile devises (iPads or other), zero textbooks, and paperless assignments will be a fun place. After spending a day (or it might have been two) learning about all of the cool new apps (2 years ago) that existed for our use, I thought, "Wow, how cool will it be to "beam" the homework assignment to the students or have the student click a QR code to download the worksheet!" Yes, very cool indeed. But if any of you have actually spent time in a classroom (and I'm talking actually teaching, not just observing), you'd quickly realize that when using any technology, there is always something that will fail, always students who just can't get it, and always the unique time constraints of a teacher (students signing in/out for the day, sick students, disabled students, etc).
In all honesty, I love the possibilities of what out 21st Century advances can do for us in the classroom. The excitement of something new is inspiring, but we all must temper this with practical execution. How can this really work in an average classroom?
Article Review 1
Article Review 1
http://www.hackeducation.com/2011/02/17/mobile-phones-educational-apps-and-the-digital-divide/
This article, written by Audrey Watters in 2011, really has me thinking! As I designed this independent study course, I wanted to discover the benefits and drawback of educational use of apps, and design my own, but as the author indicates, only 27% of mobile devise owners actually own smart phones. This statistic drastically reduces in minority populations, and global populations. Is it actually practical to create an app? As Ms. Watters suggests, would it not be better to design a great website that can be easily accessible on any web browser? I greatly appreciate her use of the term "shiny app syndrome" as I feel I too am victim of this mindset.
Even though this article has made me think a bit (which is probably a good thing), I am proceeding with my voyage of app discovery and development. Being a classroom teacher for five years, I recognize the important of "shiny" and "new" in the classroom. Even though my students do not all own person devices, we have a set a iPod touches and wifi available to us as needed. The students ask all the time, "Mr. Gravitt, when can we use the iPods again?" I like to keep it that way - something the students want to use. It creates a desire to use these devices to learn.
Yes, it is true, websites need to be a bit more user friendly (hence why I decided on creating a site on blogger versus other sites - I wanted the built in mobility), but for the education world, shouldn't we be happy with students being excited to do something? Sometimes we need "shiny" and "new" to keep our classroom environments working in harmony. Particularly in a non-core content course (like German), we're got to include these things to keep our subject up to date and relevant to the students and what they perceive to be cool.
http://www.hackeducation.com/2011/02/17/mobile-phones-educational-apps-and-the-digital-divide/
This article, written by Audrey Watters in 2011, really has me thinking! As I designed this independent study course, I wanted to discover the benefits and drawback of educational use of apps, and design my own, but as the author indicates, only 27% of mobile devise owners actually own smart phones. This statistic drastically reduces in minority populations, and global populations. Is it actually practical to create an app? As Ms. Watters suggests, would it not be better to design a great website that can be easily accessible on any web browser? I greatly appreciate her use of the term "shiny app syndrome" as I feel I too am victim of this mindset.
Even though this article has made me think a bit (which is probably a good thing), I am proceeding with my voyage of app discovery and development. Being a classroom teacher for five years, I recognize the important of "shiny" and "new" in the classroom. Even though my students do not all own person devices, we have a set a iPod touches and wifi available to us as needed. The students ask all the time, "Mr. Gravitt, when can we use the iPods again?" I like to keep it that way - something the students want to use. It creates a desire to use these devices to learn.
Yes, it is true, websites need to be a bit more user friendly (hence why I decided on creating a site on blogger versus other sites - I wanted the built in mobility), but for the education world, shouldn't we be happy with students being excited to do something? Sometimes we need "shiny" and "new" to keep our classroom environments working in harmony. Particularly in a non-core content course (like German), we're got to include these things to keep our subject up to date and relevant to the students and what they perceive to be cool.
Monday, February 6, 2012
Thanks for Visiting
Thank you for visiting LukasEdTech - this site is currently under construction - please check back for more content. You can contact the blog owner at lucas.gravitt@gmail.com.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)