This is a very insightful article...don't let the title turn you off, though. This is actually from an interview he did a few months back--he didn't choose the title. He even wrote about that choice of the title in his own blog 2cWorth.
Anyway, here is the article about using technology for information and learning:
http://www.interfacemagazine.co.nz/articles.cfm?c_id=21&id=262
Saturday, October 24, 2009
Friday, October 23, 2009
Week 11 Oct. 19- Oct. 23
This week was loaded with meetings. On Monday, we started off learning about our ESC's move to a new building. It was quite interesting, I learned a great deal. It's an exciting time.
Tuesday and Wednesday we had Jeff from learning.com here. He showed us how learning.com works as well as we spent some time aligning our curriculum to their product.
As a district we are putting this program out first at Clark and Sunnyside. This is a great program because there are directed lessons in these units, as well as games and skill builders. It is easy to set up and easy to run and navigate through.
This week also had a bunch of the same stuff. Trouble shooting, going out and talking with teachers about technology, and also issues I have no control over :) This job continues to evolve. It gets more and more exciting all the time. I hope with all the budget concerns, they continue to see the value of this position and what we bring to the teachers in our buildings. We have definitely seen the shift in teaching styles with this technology integration. We are beginning to see the shift we have been looking for.
Tuesday and Wednesday we had Jeff from learning.com here. He showed us how learning.com works as well as we spent some time aligning our curriculum to their product.
As a district we are putting this program out first at Clark and Sunnyside. This is a great program because there are directed lessons in these units, as well as games and skill builders. It is easy to set up and easy to run and navigate through.
This week also had a bunch of the same stuff. Trouble shooting, going out and talking with teachers about technology, and also issues I have no control over :) This job continues to evolve. It gets more and more exciting all the time. I hope with all the budget concerns, they continue to see the value of this position and what we bring to the teachers in our buildings. We have definitely seen the shift in teaching styles with this technology integration. We are beginning to see the shift we have been looking for.
A Little of This and That
That just about describes this week of Instructional Coaching. Monday was my very first Professional Development that I personally planned for as an instructional coach. The topic was on the basics of using the Flip camera as well as classroom applications. Fortunately, I had to address the PowerPoint issue last week (see previous blog), so I was prepared for that. Some had the Flip Ultra, and others had the Flip Mino--which I would highly recommend purchasing the Mino because it can be charged through the USB, while the Ultra goes through batteries like candy. (Unless you buy the rechargeable batteries from Flip which cost $24.99) So, the cost is ultimately about equal. Layne did show me some of the features of the iPod Nano (which also records video) and stores music, pictures & records voice. I think I like that even better.
Tuesday and Wednesday was spent with Jeff from Learning.com reviewing their products (which we have purchased) and how we can map this into our language arts & media curriculum. Compared to our current Plato product, I prefer this much better. It is more user-friendly and has so many different components in a web-based format. I recall thinking on Tuesday, if I was still in the classroom, I'd totally create all my plans in their "My Curriculum" section. The ability to differentiate with this is there as well.
I worked on a "lesson plan" for next Monday's Professional Development involving teacher web pages. My goal was to create a PD session that modeled everything we are asking for in our own teachers: infuse our technology, strong content knowledge, rounded out with differentiated instruction & sound pedagogy.
Friday brought me back into the classroom & I must say I love the engagement with those first graders. We worked on Plato Focus in the lab. Amazing how tech-savvy those little babes are! Even more amazing was watching them interact with Emma Reedwell (the teacher on their monitors). They were counting syllables, words in sentences, and engaging in lessons that reinforce basic phonemic awareness. Good stuff.
Tuesday and Wednesday was spent with Jeff from Learning.com reviewing their products (which we have purchased) and how we can map this into our language arts & media curriculum. Compared to our current Plato product, I prefer this much better. It is more user-friendly and has so many different components in a web-based format. I recall thinking on Tuesday, if I was still in the classroom, I'd totally create all my plans in their "My Curriculum" section. The ability to differentiate with this is there as well.
I worked on a "lesson plan" for next Monday's Professional Development involving teacher web pages. My goal was to create a PD session that modeled everything we are asking for in our own teachers: infuse our technology, strong content knowledge, rounded out with differentiated instruction & sound pedagogy.
Friday brought me back into the classroom & I must say I love the engagement with those first graders. We worked on Plato Focus in the lab. Amazing how tech-savvy those little babes are! Even more amazing was watching them interact with Emma Reedwell (the teacher on their monitors). They were counting syllables, words in sentences, and engaging in lessons that reinforce basic phonemic awareness. Good stuff.
Friday, October 16, 2009
One Thing On My Mind
Well, I'm back after two days of ITEC conference & two days of illness and I have just one thing on my mind...David Warlick's Keynote Address. His main focus was on "Literacy & Learning in the 21st Century," and how lack of information is certainly not an issue any longer. Students need to know how to sort through the never-ending deluge of information to be smart consumers. They need to have the ability to "mine" the information fields and be able to search out and discern reputable information. He noted that WikiPedia often takes an educational hit because of the nature of a wiki---anyone can edit it. It often posts warnings that material may be biased or incomplete, yet how often do text books post that warning?
We are now in an age in education which we are preparing learners for a future we can hardly imagine. It is not like that of our "factory" past. As educators, we need to adjust our very pedagogy. What worked 25, 10, or even 5 years ago is in the past. Warlick states we should not teach from our pasts, but for the future of our learners. We are now in an era where if a child cannot figure how to advance to the next level in a video game, the answers are only a mouse click away. Warlick even cites a personal example where he was in the middle of our country, looking at an unmarked pyramid & was wondering what it was...so he tweeted on Twitter. From across the globe, in Austrailia, an answer came back. The gal on the opposite side of the world saw his tweet, Googled the information, and tweeted him within a matter of minutes. Not only do we have this world of information at our fingertips, we can now harness it and direct it to come to us through things such as RSS feeds, iGoogle, Twitter, etc...
As we prepare the Sioux City Community School District with the 21st Century Classroom equipment, I think having David Warlick speak to our troops is vital to the success of this project. Equipment is just equipment. Just as overhead lighting is now ubiquitous, so must the "tech. stuff." This equipment is not the magic bullet...our wonderful educators are, and I am so very lucky to be able to work along side them in this endeavor.
http://davidwarlick.com/wordpress/?page_id=2
http://davidwarlick.com/2cents/
We are now in an age in education which we are preparing learners for a future we can hardly imagine. It is not like that of our "factory" past. As educators, we need to adjust our very pedagogy. What worked 25, 10, or even 5 years ago is in the past. Warlick states we should not teach from our pasts, but for the future of our learners. We are now in an era where if a child cannot figure how to advance to the next level in a video game, the answers are only a mouse click away. Warlick even cites a personal example where he was in the middle of our country, looking at an unmarked pyramid & was wondering what it was...so he tweeted on Twitter. From across the globe, in Austrailia, an answer came back. The gal on the opposite side of the world saw his tweet, Googled the information, and tweeted him within a matter of minutes. Not only do we have this world of information at our fingertips, we can now harness it and direct it to come to us through things such as RSS feeds, iGoogle, Twitter, etc...
As we prepare the Sioux City Community School District with the 21st Century Classroom equipment, I think having David Warlick speak to our troops is vital to the success of this project. Equipment is just equipment. Just as overhead lighting is now ubiquitous, so must the "tech. stuff." This equipment is not the magic bullet...our wonderful educators are, and I am so very lucky to be able to work along side them in this endeavor.
http://davidwarlick.com/wordpress/?page_id=2
http://davidwarlick.com/2cents/
Week 10 Oct. 12- Oct. 16
I'm back..... I didn't have the chance to blog last week because I wasn't at work. My wife gave birth to daughter number 3, so I figured it was a reasonable explanation as to why I wasn't at work. But man alive, coming back to work after taking a week off stinks. Emails to catch up on, appointments to move around, meetings that popped up, but most of all, just getting back in the swing of what is going on.
I spent some good time this week trying to figure out the elementary web sites. How can we improve them?? How can we make this easier to use?? Our solution..... looking at different companies. We need something that is more user friendly. Teachers time is valuable and don't need to be wasting it updating a website that takes 5 steps to complete a process that should take 2 steps.
Also this week, we received our new CPS Pulse response system. So far I like them a lot and are very easy to use. I hope they are more durable than the previous type we had.
Unfortunately at times this week I ran myself in 2 directions at once and had to bail on a couple of appointments. Teresa I will make it up I promise!!!
I spent some good time this week trying to figure out the elementary web sites. How can we improve them?? How can we make this easier to use?? Our solution..... looking at different companies. We need something that is more user friendly. Teachers time is valuable and don't need to be wasting it updating a website that takes 5 steps to complete a process that should take 2 steps.
Also this week, we received our new CPS Pulse response system. So far I like them a lot and are very easy to use. I hope they are more durable than the previous type we had.
Unfortunately at times this week I ran myself in 2 directions at once and had to bail on a couple of appointments. Teresa I will make it up I promise!!!
Friday, October 9, 2009
Where There's a Will...
...there's a way when you are dealing with technology--at least that has been my experience. While passing through my office, Layne mentioned that the Flip videos are not working with PowerPoint. Sure enough, dragging a Flip video into PowerPoint, or even going to Insert>Movie>From File, didn't work. Help files on Microsoft.com indicated that if a video plays in Windows Media Player, it will work in PowerPoint. Unfortunately this wasn't the case when dealing with the Flip .avi files.
Of course, that was enough to pique my curiosity. After trying several ideas with no results, I was in the middle of writing a help ticket to the Flip Product Support site, when I remembered that Flip allows videos to be posted on FaceBook & MySpace--which means a different file conversion. Ah Ha! That was my last hope...but I didn't close that help ticket yet. Sure enough, it worked. I happily exited the help request and shared my triumph with Layne. Now Layne, being the creative thinker he is, used our Interwrite Workspace to record a tutorial on this whole process. I experimented with my own tutorial and posted it on YouTube...Click Here to Watch.
A main focus of this week, however, was training teachers on the new SOCS Teacher Pages. This is a really a user-friendly template system which allowes teachers to create their own site within our Sioux City Community School's site. After my first meeting, I realized we really needed a couple graphic organizers & handouts. So I created those--which were a big help. For the most part I am very pleased with this program, with one minor objection. Once a teacher logs into Socs and clicks on My Teacher Pages, it automatically creates 27 templates that are ready to go. The problem occurs when a teacher decides to edit their profile--maybe changing their name or fixing a typo. Socs then creates a duplicate set of templates under the new change. With 54 templates available, a teacher must be very careful to choose the correct name, or the Teacher Page will not appear. And sometimes when CAREFULLY choosing the correct name, it doesn't appear. I need to contact SOCS about this, but for right now, I'm clearing them out & re-adding them as a new user. Moral of that story...carefully type in the correct user name & don't change it.
Finally, I am heading off to the ITEC conference this weekend. I am so excited about this & will post what I learn next week!
Of course, that was enough to pique my curiosity. After trying several ideas with no results, I was in the middle of writing a help ticket to the Flip Product Support site, when I remembered that Flip allows videos to be posted on FaceBook & MySpace--which means a different file conversion. Ah Ha! That was my last hope...but I didn't close that help ticket yet. Sure enough, it worked. I happily exited the help request and shared my triumph with Layne. Now Layne, being the creative thinker he is, used our Interwrite Workspace to record a tutorial on this whole process. I experimented with my own tutorial and posted it on YouTube...Click Here to Watch.
A main focus of this week, however, was training teachers on the new SOCS Teacher Pages. This is a really a user-friendly template system which allowes teachers to create their own site within our Sioux City Community School's site. After my first meeting, I realized we really needed a couple graphic organizers & handouts. So I created those--which were a big help. For the most part I am very pleased with this program, with one minor objection. Once a teacher logs into Socs and clicks on My Teacher Pages, it automatically creates 27 templates that are ready to go. The problem occurs when a teacher decides to edit their profile--maybe changing their name or fixing a typo. Socs then creates a duplicate set of templates under the new change. With 54 templates available, a teacher must be very careful to choose the correct name, or the Teacher Page will not appear. And sometimes when CAREFULLY choosing the correct name, it doesn't appear. I need to contact SOCS about this, but for right now, I'm clearing them out & re-adding them as a new user. Moral of that story...carefully type in the correct user name & don't change it.
Finally, I am heading off to the ITEC conference this weekend. I am so excited about this & will post what I learn next week!
Friday, October 2, 2009
Week 8 Sept. 28th-Oct. 2nd
Once again this week flew by. This week was a week in which no two days were the same. On Monday, I started off my week by walking through some classrooms and observing what technology was in use and how it was used. I find it really fun popping in to classes that I have helped in the past to see the growth with technology. Also on Monday, we had out first coaches meeting with Mary Jo. We discussed things that we have been doing so far and the importance of relationships, as well as discussed a way to document everything we are doing in the classroom.
On Tuesday, I had a very busy day out and about. I went to a first grade room at Nodland and discussed technology with the teacher, I went to East middle and helped trouble shoot CPS responders with a couple teachers, I stopped by Whittier and sat down with the principal to discuss technology in her building and where she wants to go with it, I went to Irving and trained Mr. Koch in SOCS, and finally I spent some time at Roosevelt working through some issues with Mrs. Bigbee. We got her squared away and her technology is good to go. Sorry for the run on sentence, I was busy!!!!
On Wednesday I went to Unity and trained a teacher in PLATO. We set up classes, assigned assignments and set up for me to come back on Friday during lab time to help out and teach the kids PLATO. I also had some training of my own in PLATO Focus, I need to buckle down and learn that....
This Thursday was my first ever CADRE. I am part of Sunnyside/Nodland. I had a good time meeting new faces and trying to help them out in anyway I could. I feel awkward giving them advice until I learn more about how they do business. Great connections though.
Finally on Friday, I started out my day going to Whittier to talk their principal and a BLT member about a NING that I built for them. They decided they wanted a way to share information, thoughts, and ideas on a NING. So I built one and showed them how to use it. I look forward to seeing how it is being used. I also spent some time Friday playing with equipment and learning more about why things happen the way they happen. I finished Friday co-teaching PLATO at Unity in Ms. Flewelling's room.
On Tuesday, I had a very busy day out and about. I went to a first grade room at Nodland and discussed technology with the teacher, I went to East middle and helped trouble shoot CPS responders with a couple teachers, I stopped by Whittier and sat down with the principal to discuss technology in her building and where she wants to go with it, I went to Irving and trained Mr. Koch in SOCS, and finally I spent some time at Roosevelt working through some issues with Mrs. Bigbee. We got her squared away and her technology is good to go. Sorry for the run on sentence, I was busy!!!!
On Wednesday I went to Unity and trained a teacher in PLATO. We set up classes, assigned assignments and set up for me to come back on Friday during lab time to help out and teach the kids PLATO. I also had some training of my own in PLATO Focus, I need to buckle down and learn that....
This Thursday was my first ever CADRE. I am part of Sunnyside/Nodland. I had a good time meeting new faces and trying to help them out in anyway I could. I feel awkward giving them advice until I learn more about how they do business. Great connections though.
Finally on Friday, I started out my day going to Whittier to talk their principal and a BLT member about a NING that I built for them. They decided they wanted a way to share information, thoughts, and ideas on a NING. So I built one and showed them how to use it. I look forward to seeing how it is being used. I also spent some time Friday playing with equipment and learning more about why things happen the way they happen. I finished Friday co-teaching PLATO at Unity in Ms. Flewelling's room.
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