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These are the slides for today’s presentation at the NCTIES Conference. Examples of how both teachers and students have used these tools are included. The full set of notes and resources from this session are available on the wiki. Thanks to everyone that attended, participated, tweeted, shared resources and ideas, etc.
I’m enjoying the North Carolina Technology in Education Society’s 2010 Conference in Raleigh, NC. I’m excited about being one of the featured speakers and having opportunities to work with and learn from classroom teachers, media specialists, administrators, and more.
Today I’ll be sharing a pre-conference workshop on Multiple Representations of Understanding through Digital Media. This energetic session will demonstrate that with freely available digital technologies students can demonstrate their understanding of course content in multiple ways (images, audio, video, presentations, artwork, and more). Each student’s end product (learning artifact) allows them to personally self-express their understanding/mastery of the content/skills. Although teachers may not be comfortable using all of today’s technology it is important to consider allowing students to use it to communicate their understanding as they are often more naturally able to more fully express themselves with digital media. The PowerPoint presentation is below and the full workshop notes are available on my wiki. Note that the links and logos in the PowerPoint presentation are clickable.
Reaching All Learners:
The event for forward-thinking education and IT leaders
Monday, February 8, 2010
9:00 AM – 2:30 PM
The University of Memphis, FedEx Institute of Technology
At this interactive event, you will have the opportunity to experience a digital learning environment first hand and see how Apple technologies can help you meet the diverse needs of today’s learners, including those with special education and language literacy needs.
Who Should Attend?
This event is designed to host leadership teams from your school district or private institution: Superintendents, Curriculum Supervisors, Board of Education members, Special Education Directors, Title I Directors, and Education Information Technology professionals.
Full details and registration is here.
Educators, what are some strategies for connecting the classroom with the outside world?
NOTE: I’d like to share responses in an upcoming workshop/presentation and on my blog and wiki. You can submit your ideas using the form below, share your text/audio/video reply in the Comments section of this post or respond via Twitter, Plurk or on your blog using the tag #thruwalls. You can also view the compiled database of suggested strategies on my wiki, Learning Telecollaboratively.
Share this post using http://tr.im/104.
Conversation tag: #thruwalls
GUEST BLOGGER
Scott Rogers
Part of the ongoing 1 Thing series.
When teachers start teaching with technology (and I do mean really teaching with technology), the first thing they better do is to “strap up their seatbelts and pull it tight”, because they are getting ready to go on the ride of their lives. Teaching with technology is a ride. You will find yourself trudging up the hill at times thinking you will never get to the top, yet at other times you will be flying down the hill wondering when you are ever going to reach the bottom.
Approximately 14 years ago, I along with several other science and math teachers from area schools took part in a 1 year workshop that met for 4 weeks over 2 summers and then once per month or so during school talking exclusively about technology in the classroom. The workshop entitled “Tech Tools” provided a launching pad for my use of technology in my Physical Science and Physics classroom. It especially introduced me to the use of Vernier technologies in the classroom. Upon completion of the workshop, I returned to school determined to figure out a way to put Vernier probeware
My students were exposed to excellent lab situations. I set up many of my labs as inquiry labs before Inquiry-Based Learning became “the thing.” I thought so anyway. The labs were always set up so as to have a “guide to the right answer.” I have since come to realize that true inquiry will result in a lot of wrong answers and that students learn as much from wrong answers as they do from right answers. With End of Course tests, I always argued that we just do not have time for wrong answers. Although it is a somewhat valid argument, I have done a much better job of letting my students get wrong answers as long as they are learning from them.
For my entire teaching career, if my students weren’t in the middle of a lab, they were in their seats and I was at my overhead projector. I loved lecturing and actually still do. I would walk around the room occasionally, but for the most part I could be found at the front of the room with my students staring at me as we went through a lesson. Last year to aid in classroom management, I along with the other physical science teachers bought a wireless mouse for our laptops, created PowerPoint
Summer 2008 came along and after all those years of thinking I was a technology guru, I was treated to a week of Impact Training (named so because of a large technology grant our school system received). I finally got to tighten my seatbelt as I was about to spend a week with a group of educators who knew more about technology that I could ever imagine. We learned about podcasting. We learned about PowerPoint games (test reviews will never be the same again). We learned about Qwizdom (handheld response systems which can be used in conjunction with PowerPoints or used with their own software). We learned about Webquests (what a remarkable idea, students using the internet for learning while in the classroom). We learned that there was more than one type of multimedia presentation students could use to present research: Glogster, MovieMaker, and Audacity just to name a few. At first glance, it may seem like teaching would be easier when you are not standing up front at all times, but this semester has probably been one of the hardest of my career.
This semester has also been one of the most rewarding. My students are having fun. They enjoy class more than ever. There are still times they find themselves in their seats listening to me talk, but it will never again be a 1 ½ hour lecture. We break up lessons with Qwizdoms. We stop and look at different situations on the Internet. We work on multimedia presentations. We work on Gizmos from Explorelearning.com. As a teacher, you will not find yourself at your desk. You will be all over the place helping students, pointing students in the right direction, getting them back on task, etc. What a pleasure when you see a student finally ”get” a concept on their own and want to share that knowledge with the person sitting next to them.
Probably one of the greatest challenges, but also one of the most gratifying challenges is the ability to collaborate with other disciplines within the school. I spent 3 weeks working with an Advanced Functioning and Modeling math class studying roller coasters. It was an extremely tough 3 weeks, but quite possibly the most worthwhile 3 weeks of my entire teaching career. Our classes learned every possible physics concept as they applied to roller coasters on their own and applied those concepts as they built their own roller coaster with Legos. The students were able to Model data they gathered as a part of the math curriculum. I would never have dreamed this big 6 months ago. Before it was all said and done, our classes had completed a Roller Coaster Webquest designed by the math teacher and myself, they had gathered data using Vernier LabQuests, they modeled the data graphically, they built roller coasters they designed on their own with very little parameters, they created videos of their design/build and posted them to the school website and learned a lot about team work and thinking on their own along the way. What I discovered during this 3 week lesson was that using real technologies in the classroom takes much more work up front. I would hate to guess the number of hours put in prepping this lesson, but as I discovered it was time well spent. The lesson is still on my computer. I am ready to tweak the lesson and use it again next semester.
Teaching with technology is hard. It is hard on the teacher for all the reasons people throw out there for not wanting to do it. It doesn’t always work as planned. There will be times your lesson will not work at all. The Internet will go down at times. The students will try and check their personal email during class time. With only 2 years to go before retirement, why should I learn something brand new? I will tell you why, because our students deserve it!!! 21st Century Skills require the use of technology for a reason. It is not the way of the future; it is the way of the present. Using technology in the correct manner will add to your teaching and will also improve your students learning!!!!
So strap up and get ready for the ride of your teaching career, regardless of how far along you already are on your particular ride.
Example
See Scott’s Biotechnology Webquest
About the Author
Scott Rodgers has been teaching and A. L. Brown High School for 18 years. He is the co-share of the science department and currently teaches physics, physical science and project-based science. Scott is the proud father of 4 children who love teaching him about new technologies.
Here’s a creative entry in the Interactive Classroom Makeover Contest.
“Viva La Vida” is a parody of the Coldplay music video by the same name. “Live the Life” fits this video well as it talks about ways to live the life with technology. Created by Miss Janelle Keune’s 7th and 8th graders, around 100 students were involved in some aspect of it’s creation from writing, filming, choreographing, mixing the audio, editing, and acting. We were very excited to be able to use back-up music from our own 7th and 8th grade orchestra, directed by Mrs. Jennifer Larson. This video embodies the ways in which technology can impact learning, through improved test scores, better comprehension, a more engaging classroom, and an overall excitement for school. We hope you enjoy “Viva La Vida”. (Source)
After receiving more than 200 entries the finalists in the 2009 Interactive Classroom Makeover Contest have been announced. One classroom from each of the three categories will receive a digital makeover worth over $30,000.
Learn more about the contest and rules and cast your votes by Noon EST on December 4, 2009.
The Instructional Design and Technology program at The University of Memphis is pleased to offer FREE workshops on Apple tools and applications. These will be conducted by Tim Matheny, a Senior System Engineer with Apple. Seating is limited and registration is required…but these top-notch workshops are FREE.
Use the links below to discover additional information and register.
Tuesday, November 10
First Session: iLife ‘09 and MobileMe
Register for This Session
Time: 4:00 – 5:45,
Place: Room 310, Ball Hall
Second Session, Apple Show and Tell (Quick demos of Leopard, iWorks, iTunesU, etc.)
Register for This Session
Time: 6:00 – 8:00
Place: Room 310, Ball Hall
Wednesday, November 11
First Session: Mobile Learning (iPhones, App Store, Apps for School, etc.)
Register for This Session
Time: 4:00 – 5:45
Place: Room 310 Ball Hall
Second Session, Digital Video
Register for This Session
Time: 6:00 – 8:30
Place: Room 310, Ball Hall
Thursday, November 12
One Session, Enhanced Podcasting
Register for This Session
Time: 6:30 – 8:30
Place: Room 310, Ball Hall
SimplyBox is a free service that allows you to visually capture any part of a web page. As you collect items that you captured, you organize them in boxes. You can then share these items or boxes with friends, colleagues, … the world. The result is: efficient and visual collaboration around content. They call it “content networking.” (Source)
Overview
Research
Student Collaboration
Connecting Beyond the Classroom
News Notes Shared Reader
