Web 2.0 Technologies for Elementary and Middle School Classrooms

03/04/2010 | 3 Comments |

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.

View more presentations from Clif Mims.

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Multiple Representations of Understanding through Digital Media

03/03/2010 | No Comments |

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.


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Integrating Computer Games

02/27/2010 | No Comments |

Creating game-based learning environments or experiences using commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) games is becoming an increasingly tenable, valuable, and popular instructional method. COTS games are computer or video games created for entertainment purposes. A few popular examples are SimCity, Age of Empires, ZooTycoon, and Railroad Tycoon.

My good friend Dennis Charsky invited me to co-author Integrating Commercial off-the-Shelf Video Games into School Curriculum. Ten suggestions to help educators effectively integrate COTS games are shared in this research article. Below is an overview along with a few notes from this publication.


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NCTIES Conference

02/25/2010 | No Comments |

I’m looking forward to being part of the North Carolina Technology in Education Society’s 2010 Conference in Raleigh, NC on March 3-5, 2010. 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. On Wednesday (03/03/2010) I’ll be sharing a pre-conference workshop on Multiple Representations of Understanding through Digital Media. Thursday and Friday mornings I’ll be leading interactive demonstrations and discussions about Web 2.0 tools and personal learning networks (PLNs) in the classroom.

I’m looking forward to meeting many of my friends from my blog, Twitter, Plurk, etc. in Raleigh!


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Professional Development Partnership with MASE

01/27/2010 | 1 Comment |

I taught a professional development workshop this afternoon in which we kicked-off an ongoing conversation about Instructional Design in the Digital Age. This was the first workshop in a two year project with the Memphis Academy of Science and Engineering — a 6th-12th grade charter school with a high school 1:1 laptop program. The primary goal of this on-going project is to enhance learning and increase student motivation throughout the school. Instructional design (data-driven decision making, lesson planning, team/ grade level/ departmental planning, curriculum mapping/ alignment, scope and sequencing, and more) and technology integration (especially free Web 2.0 tools) will be key components of the workshops and instructional coaching this spring semester and during the summer (I’ll share more about this in my next post).

I enjoyed the entire event. The faculty actively engaged in the discussions and activities and helped me better understand some of the ways that they’d like to grow and improve over the course of this project. The were friendly, respectful and receptive. Many expressed eagerness to learn particular technologies that they already desire to integrate in their classes.

I am PUMPED about beginning this partnership!


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Publishing to AudioBoo from a Web Browser

01/21/2010 | No Comments |

Our kids and I have a lot of fun with AudioBoo. AudioBoo is a service that makes podcasting and audio blogging a snap and can positively impact your classroom (See previous posts1, 2, 3 and 4). Although the service has previously pretty much been limited to iPhone users it is now available to everyone. Here’s a screencast demonstrating how to use their recently released BrowserBoo feature which makes it possible to record to AudioBoo through any web browser.

Here’s the sample Boo that I created during the screencast above.

Listen!

You can browse through my AudioBoo profile page to look through many other examples of boos that the kids and I have published.

I strongly encourage all teachers to take a look at AudioBoo. Whether or not you choose to use it as a teacher I believe there are students in your classroom that would enjoy using it and benefit from engaging this learning modality.

Sign-up for your AudioBoo account, friend me and other educators, and begin enjoying the valuable contributions this can bring you and your students.


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Free Apple Seminar for Educators

01/19/2010 | 1 Comment |

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.


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I Need My Teachers To Learn 2.0

01/06/2010 | No Comments |


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Planning District-Wide Technology Professional Development

12/09/2009 | Comments Off |

Brenda McCombs, Drew Polly, Clif Mims and ALBHS Science Department
2009 Midsouth Technology Conference

We’ll be sharing information about the Impacting Kannapolis Program today at the MidSouth Technology Conference (MSTC). This program is in its 2nd year of funding through the IMPACT Technology Grant sponsored by the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction. My involvement with this program consists of providing several weeks of professional development in instructional design and technology integration each summer.

This presentation will describe the approaches to designing and implementing district-wide professional development in a high-need, Title I school district. The workshop will share approaches to supporting teacher learning and teacher leaders, and also highlight technologies and projects that have been used in schools.

NOTE: Visit the collaborative wiki page for this presentation at Learning Telecollaboratively for additional information and resources. Photos from this presentation are available at Lifestreaming from My iPhone (my Posterous).

View more presentations from Clif Mims.

Conference Tag: #mstc09


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Connecting the Classroom and Outside World (Feedback Requested)

12/08/2009 | Comments Off |

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


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