One to One iPad in Millis, MA Schools

Today my Masters in Education class had the privilege of hearing Grace Magley, Director of Technology at Millis, Ma Schools.  Grace is spearheading a one-to-one ipad initiative, where all 8th graders enrolled in Millis Middle School received a school owned iPad.   Thus far, the initiative has gone very well.  Learn a little more about their project by visiting the following website and viewing the video!


http://www.millisps.org/services/edtech/1to1

Prezi

I have definitely enjoyed this past Social Media class, though it was definitely a challenging course for me!  Prezi is the last tool that I have chose to do for our last 'Tool Review'.  My Prezi entitled 'Ojections to Technology in Education'  features quotes from long ago objecting to such technological innovations as paper, pencils, pens and calculators!  I plan to use this Prezi at the beginning of a future 'Terry's Tech Tips' presentation about social media.  I think it will set the right tone for some open mindedness, which is very 'out there' for the teachers at Swallow Union.  I did have trouble getting this Prezi to loop, the one tool I couldn't find while searching.  If anyone knows how, I would love to know!

Initially, I anticipated creating this Prezi might be difficult.  Several members of my cohort who love new tools did not give positive feedback.  I can see how Prezi would be a difficult tool if you didn't take the time to watch the tutorials.  It wasn't that difficult.  But, I seem to have adapted to the very linear mindset of the power point program.  Prezi is not linear, so it requires a different perspective.  I do think it is a good tool, particularly for storytelling.

Objections to Technology in Education on Prezi

MESPA Practice Blog: Wallwisher

MESPA Practice Blog: Wallwisher: "Just decided to check out wall wisher from last class. I think it is a really cool tool. I want to experiment if anyone happens to read this..."

Diigo - I get why you need it!

I don't think of myself as an early adopter. My first question when I see a new tool is 'How can I use this?'   But, once I see a purpose for a tool, I  get excited, and I use it.   When I first saw Diigo, I  wrote myself a mental note, and told a 4th Grade teacher at school about this tool.  She is very active in finding websites, and bookmarks everything.  When I first approached her, she said, "But I have all my bookmarks organized.  Why would I want to use this tool?"  To which I responded, "What about when you are working at home?  What about when you are in a meeting?  Wouldn't it be nice to have access  no matter where you are?"  I saw the light bulb come on, and I had definitely piqued her interest!  But, I wasn't really thinking of using it for myself.  My school website is the  keeper of websites I use!

I am currently enrolled in a Social Media class, working toward Certification/Masters.  Twitter is one of the online tools we need to experiment with.  After some initial troubleshooting, I installed TweetDeck, and participated in the #edchat discussion this past Tuesday night about Social Media.  As my classmates had indicated, TweetDeck is a far superior tool to use when following Tweets.  I found several intriguing websites/blogs that were shared during this session.  One involved a history class utilizing the 'Choose you own Adventure' feature recently released in YouTube.   One involved upgrades to/advanced Google searches.  Of course, I didn't have time to share these sites with individuals I wanted to, so I closed my browser with the 'Save and Quit' feature.  Wednesday I didn't have time to follow up, but used my computer.  I forgot to 'Save and Quit', and now that I have time, no websites!  Tuesday is so old in Twitter!  I signed up for Diigo, and was able (after some time) to locate my websites of interest.  If only I had done that Tuesday night!  Now they are safely saved, and ready for me to use.  I also noticed that Diigo has a 'Read Later' feature you can click on when entering the website.  This would be a great feature to use when you have spare time, or if you have a Smart Phone and are waiting in line!

Assessment in a Web 2.0 World

I enjoyed listening to the podcast about Assessing Student Learning in a Web 2.0 World very much.   I have not listened to a lot of podcasts, as my visual learning style prefers visual media.  However, I think podcasts drive the conversation to a very ‘big picture’ level’.   Lack of visuals does not support a data driven conversation.  That was actually quite refreshing!

The podcast featured panelists from Hamilton College, Colgate University, and Carlton College.  As the discussion began, a panel member strongly urged any teacher or professor to work through any technology assignment, actually creating a project. They would anticipate issues and learning curves the students will face, plus create a model project to share with students!

The panel spent a lot of time discussing issues assessing and evaluating technology outcomes.  They discussed the difficulty assessing student understanding of   material when the accompanying project was flawed.  The panel expressed different teacher viewpoints.  Some teachers grade the entire project, others only care that the project demonstrated understanding, though the project itself might be flawed.  The panel pointed out the difficulty in separating academic understanding and project understanding.  If we think about it, this basic issue has existed for a long time, though we have had the time to formulate structured answers.  If a student turns in an essay, do we assess the essay based on content only, or do we care about grammar, spelling, and punctuation?  Because we are early in the learning curve for these types of projects, the panel felt that both professors and students need support and training in areas they might not currently have:  visual and spatial literacy.  I was very interested in the thought process that a student’s core curriculum should include basic visual skills.  I thought the idea of professors collaborating across disciplines to support a project was really interesting.  (Ex:  Biology professor and drama professor where students need to produce a film as an assignment outcome.) 

Last, I was glad to hear the panel say that sometimes learning is hard, and that student have to do the work necessary to understand the material.  I thought some of the last comments were most important.  The panel was discussing assessment, and how important it was to have clear goals for the future.  Their insistence that people understand pedagogy was an important part in creating meaningful assessments, and made complete sense to me. Planning the type of assessment gave you the ability to select the tools are relevant.  I felt this was incredibly important to the future success of the students.

Kidspiration Follow Up

I blogged a few weeks ago about using iMovie to create a video with a student using Kispiration to help her write.  I thought you might enjoy seeing the products of her writing endeavors.  I am attaching a PDF file of her planning, initial writing, and final creation, a great Weather Myth!

Kidspiration Work

My very first quiz! Quia was a great tool!

As an elementary Computer Lab teacher, I have never really given tests.  I have created projects where students have to follow directions in Word, and output demonstrates their command of certain tools.  I have used my new favorite website http://www.mygreatmaps.com/ to have students label, color, and add a legend to maps of topics they are studying (13 Colonies, the world).  Students have taken BrainPop quizzes.  Because I don't grade, they are not a big part of my curriculum. 

I am currently working with an 8th Grade English Language Arts class at a Middle School in my district.   The classroom teacher asked me to make up a quiz on topics we had covered so far.  The class had been talking about judging websites, proper citation of research resources, efficient google searches, and correct outlining format.  So, I signed up for a 30 day subscription to Quia.com.  While I did not take the time to create a class (120 students for one quiz didn't seem efficient), I did create the quiz and administer it.  The quiz feature was very easy to use and flexible, allowing a lot of different types of questions.  Essay questions were allowed, and the 'dashboard' for the teacher allowed grading the essay questions either by question or by student. Your students can take the quiz online, and it will be automatically graded (other than essay response questions) and recorded in the grade book!   The online grade book feature looked phenomenal! Here is the quiz I administered!

http://www.quia.com/quiz/3055057.html

I plan to take advantage of the other activities you can create in Quia before my subscription runs out!