Poor Practice in Tech Implementation
Always look for the "Why" in tech use. Just because it's a cool-sounding tech project doesn't mean it effective. Email came up. Christy brought up that staff often uses email inappropriately. Reply All can be a real pain. Use of social media by staff and community brings new levels of forced transparency. Brian "Information is going to be shared-how do we get ahead of it?" Fantastic question in my humble opinion.Social media became the big topic. Students are using this to assemble to causes and advocate against school discipline issues. Becky talked about not knowing how to handle issues like these before they happen. Can we have a proactive policy?
Bobby brought up the "low-tech use of high tech tools." This points to needing more time to focus on professional development surrounding tech. We had so many cool tools shown to us yesterday. There are so many ways to show teachers how to implement tech.
Rob made a very nice summative statement. He talked about how quickly tech has changed and how that has impacted young people. He advocated that school is the place to teach kids to be tech current. The teachers need to be the example. If they are not being the example, there will be repercussions. The teachers won't be in the loop, and that would be a natural consequence.
Great discussion!
Teaching Channel
This site is cool. I spent some time learning how to teach music which is weakness of mine, but I need to make it a strength since I built the recording studio. I will definitely be using this site again.Flipped Professional Development
This is an exciting concept. Giving teachers freedom to explore and create PD for each other and giving them the tools and support to do so would be good for staff morale and be easier to measure and have artifacts of progress. Teachers have been super low on morale with constant media spankings and messages from the district admin that feel demeaning. This lets teachers be professionals while gaining new tech skills that interest them.Also, districts now have to measure teacher progress. These are artifacts that are actually meaningful and can be used to show teacher progress. Something that people aren't looking at in professional development is whether or not the development is real or superficial. Currently, professional development tends to be superficial. Districts mandate that you show a % of growth in some area by using a test. Teachers throw this together when they can because its just a mundane chore. This makes it meaningful!
That's definitely winning, but not like Charlie Sheen. Becoming a Googlite
with G. Doug Bundy
Google tools that I never knew about:
Google Drive (you can translate it! What?)
Google Scholar
Google Custom Search
Wikistream- Shows all Wikipedia activity
Brain Research
John Medina-Brain research. "Memorize and then improvise." Current classrooms are counterproductive to how our brains learn.
Jane McGonigal- game-based learning. "Crowd-sourcing." Using games to get a mass collaboration of people who think in all sorts of ways.
Student Source
Students create standard-based resource collections. I have wanted to make something like this for high school students who are interested in becoming teachers. Letting students create curriculum that interests them while still adhering to standards. Lots o' learning possible there.
I like the Crowd-sourcing games that were shown. Looks fun!
Reflection:
All I can say is wow. I just can't believe all of the ways tech is changing education and streamlining processes. I was floored by how easy it was to translate documents. I really like the idea of sharing documents among a class for class-critique. So many options, so little time. This makes me want our laptop cart every day! Man o man!
Just a final follow-up on videos as story telling devices. I saw this during the summer and I loved it. This kid is a Youtube celebrity and to see that he had problems and overcame them is quite powerful!
I want to do a similar type of project with a film class this year. Enjoy!
Wow..big day, yes? Lots to chew on and consider. G does a GREAT job of inspiring, informing, teaching and yes, entertaining. I love it every time he comes to the class. I learn something new...more than one thing, too!
ReplyDeleteI, too, was overwhelmed with the excitement and grandiosity of the possibilities that lie ahead. I am confident that you will find incredibly creative ways to incorporate tech into your practice. I love the photos you include in your blog post. One of my goals will have to include learning how to do that quickly...I could probably figure it out (I mean, I did it once, but...), but it's not seamless enough for me to do that and still focus on the information being shared. I am inspired by you, sir...your enthusiasm is wonderful! Thanks for sharing with me yesterday about your children...they sound incredible!
ReplyDeleteThe video is fun!
ReplyDeleteThe personal-device use question isn't.
I am thinking that the allow devices/don't allow devices conversation is going to be a lot more complicated than I originally thought. A complete ban is impossible. Any effort toward a complete ban will turn all of the staff into ban-enforcers (ban-enforcers are not nurturing learning-enablers,) and anything short of a ban leaves us open to the consequences of kids with devices: inappropriate pics, social media bullying, cheating by texting, chaotic misinformation in the case of a serious emergency, class disruption with ringtones, buzzes and under-the-desk texting. It's not an easy-fix.
The social media issue is not going away any time soon. I liked it when someone shared that 'pencils are a distraction too'. We just have to manage the use of social media by teaching our students responsible use.
ReplyDeleteIn my school, the kids are well ahead of the adults in terms of skill in using mobile devices. Due to our small size, we have the luxury of enforcing either a ban or an individual plan for the use of them. I've seen what looks like almost addiction/craving/withdrawal behaviors on the part of kids when their device use is curtailed or managed. For us, it's more a matter of cultivating and teaching appropriate and therapeutic use, but the kids are only on board if our efforts with them are cooperative and genuine.
ReplyDeleteHey Jared and all!
ReplyDeleteOn the subject of social media and tech use with kids, you might be interested in this TED talk by Amber Case... Pretty interesting stuff!
http://www.ted.com/talks/amber_case_we_are_all_cyborgs_now.html