Day of Learning #2

Today I participated in my second day of learning at Simple K12!  I find these sessions so inspiring and informative--I can hardly stand it!  I have come to know who the presenters are and am able to recognize their voices--as seen at the ITSC conference when I heard Catlin Tucker speak during one of my worksessions.  How weird is that to see someone you have heard speak from a distance for a couple months now?!?!


Anyway, today I attended six webinars:

1. 10 Ideas for Using Mobile Devices Offline to Motivate Learners
2. 3 Student-driven Projects: Using a Blended Learning Model
3. 10 Techie Tools for Teachers (FREE!)
4. Making a Difference for Our Most Struggling Readers
5. Web Tool Smackdown: February 2012
6. Reaching Out to Make Global Connections

Once again these seminars seem to mimic what I heard at the ITSC conference, reconfirming the idea that we are helping to lead this change in culture within our region.  I can see that the valley has been working on it for a couple years now, but for rural Oregon we really aren't that far behind.  And in many ways we are well ahead of our prediscessors.  I just wish I was in the classroom to try out all the neat stuff I am learning.  Perhaps the only problem is that there are so many different resources that do the same thing it is hard to choose which tool to use.  I love that I am not only learning about iPad apps that we can use, but matching web 2.0 tools as well.  Once I finally do get back in a classroom I will have a very rich resource for both tools depending on what I have a that point.  Either way, my children will move into the 21st century and I hope that they don't have to "power down" when they walk in my door!  


Interestingly enough this is drastically affecting not only how I approach technology in the classroom as a substitute, but also with my own kids.  First, I actually decided to try this out at school in a high school math class--rather than being a strict rule follower (this particular teacher isn't at all that I substituted for) I decided to explain to the students that as long as the phones were on their desk and they were using them responsibly--i.e. as a calculator, I wouldn't make a big deal of it.  But if they convert or participating in something other than mathematics I would ask them to put the phone away or I would take it away.  Interestingly enough right away a girl decided to test the waters by texting.  I asked her to put it away because she chose to use it inappropriately for this class.  She very politely put it away and went back to work without any issues for the remainder of class.  I have to admit that I actually didn't leave that day hating it!  IT was actually kind of fun working with these kids when the discipline issues and policing was not a factor.


Meanwhile at home I am consciously making observations of my own kids to see what learning will look like for them and how I will adjust my own classroom to meet their needs.  I am particularly intersted in my three year old since she is really starting to become a gamer and able to manipulate controls and keyboards very confidently.  Why just yesterday she was watching a movie, playing on her big brother's DS and talking to me.  I asked if I could turn off the movie and she said she was watching it.  I had a hard time understanding how she could do all three of these things at once but after questioning her...I realized she really was doing all three!  Wow!  Asking her to "power down" even at three is weird...she is almost boried.  Next thing I know she is playing make believe with her dolls and they are making cell phone calls and using a toy cell phone to be a photographer!  I find it interesting that she feels that she can be a professional photographer with her cell phone...when I was growing up we would have never thought to do this with a phone....  Boy, things are changing--can I keep up?


So, what did I learn today?   
Session 1:  In the first webinar we learned about several ways to use mobile devices offline.  Mainly taking advantage of the cameras, camcorders, production apps, and Cloud devices like Evernote.  This was the first webinar I have attended that didn't praise the merits of Dropbox!  Instead Evernote was the answer to everything.  Obvisously this educator uses ios devices (many apps described) so this seems to be her answer to storing, sharing, and moving content.  Also, many of the apps are ones WMS is currently using or ones I have heard of repeatedly, but here are a few new ones I thought I would post:

• Audio Boo--like Splice for digital storytelling
• DocWrite
• Mindblowing
• Posterous--free blogging site
• Be Funky
• PS Express

Usergenerationeducation.wordpress.com  check out this site to see other ideas from Shelly Terrell.

Session 2:  What I took away from this session is that she is basically using an increase student inquiry instruction approach in her classroom.  She starts out more teacher directed modeling how she wants students to ggain independence, then by the end of the year they are developing their own inquiry projects...and she is an HS English teacher.  I went to her blog and can't find the lessons she talked about (Elizabethan England, Environmental Sustainability, and Voting).  She said if we tweet her or email her she would be more than willing to share!    @CTuckerEnglish  Be sure to gather this info!

Session 3:  New tools include:

• wix.com--flash based website creator
• weebly.com--website creator; also an educator version
• bibme--use for making bibliographies
• flubaroo--another quizzing site
• googleartproject.com--virtual musuem tours
• fotobabble--make mouth on a picture talk
• voki--talking avatars; check out lesson plan area

Session 4:  This was a powerful webinar...although directed at struggling reading students...it makes sense for all students.  Check out the resources on this Scoopit!  Although a ton of new resources (not all free) the ones I took away the most were that all search engines like Google Chrome, Safari, Firefox offer settings that can limit the amount of distractions around articles when viewing...like in Safari in the web address bar you just hit "Reader" and all the distractions disappear--all you have is the article.  Also, using things like Dragon Dictation and Ginger will provide poor writers a means to communicate their thoughts as well as help them develop their writing.  This is something I want to recommend to our special ed teacher since there is one student in particular that can't spell or organize his thoughts at all and since in high school is in need of a tool that can help him be successful in the real world.  I wonder if this would help him in English...it seems like it would allow him to worry more about his thoughts and organization rather than struggling to spell or correct every other word (literally--it is painful for him and his teachers).  Why wouldn't we give him this tool?  Are we doing him a disservice?  Can we empower him to feel confident and build his self-worth throw the application of a single tool?  Free tool to boot?  Seems foolish to continue to build walls that he has to tear down only to find that we have built another one for him to chizzle his way through.

After reading this another thought has struck me...wouldn't it be interesting to write a book about my experiences through this process and how it will affect my teaching in the future.  I like my other book I have started but "stories from the outside" is looking promising.  It is such a great opportunity to be able to walk into classrooms and work with students and make observations as an outsider...sure is a different perspective.  Just a thought.  Sorry about the tangent!

Another digital story telling tool I thought would be interesting to explore is Zooburst--allows you to create 3D popup books.  Also, Aurasma--allow you to turn pictures into QR codes...so you scan a picture rather than the barcode!  Interesting twist on book reports or such.

Session 5:  SMACK DOWN--a lot of the same tools as I hear all over the place...new ones:

• educreations--tutorial creation website
• blabberize.com--simplier version of Voki
• typingweb.com--awesome tools for teaching and monitoring keyboarding...can create a class.  I will be doing this for my own children!  We all need to work on it.
• thatquiz.org and classmarker.com--another quizing site; can create question and assessment data base to 
• use forever
• wifitti--allows students to text answers to what?  Don't know...need to investigate

Session 6:  Much like Silivia's presentation at ITSC.  They both ended up praising the ability of twitter to build a network and reach out to others through email accounts.  Then following up with global classroom communications and authors through Skype!  They just can't talk it up enough!  I really need to investigate this more and see if I can help Gail develop some of this.  Also, be sure to check out the education resources through education.skype.com.  Check Langwitches for more information.  

Alright...that's it for today.  I need to finish one calendar page before bed.  Not sure I will make it.  We shall see!  Have a great weekend.