Future Classrooms

This article presents an interesting, forward-thinking yet practical vision of what future classrooms should/will look like. Of course, it includes a quote from perpetual doubter Larry Cuban, but I think his always-negative vision of technology integration helps innovators remember that realities are different from our aspirations and we need to scale back our rhetoric a bit in order to reach wider audiences.

The International Tech Race

Digital Directions has published an interesting article that I've been thinking about lately. I guess I just really haven't been thinking about technology skills as a competitive area, though my husband, a software engineer, certainly does. But it is a good reminder that technology skill is part of NCLB and of the important role of technology in 21st Century Skills, particularly problem-solving and creativity.

I **hope** that I am sharing this perspective of technology with my students. I teach them certain products and have them create certain products, but I also endeavor to talk about the changing nature of technology and the real power behind it. I defined technology in my dissertation as "any tool or collection of tools" and, believe me, I caught some flack for that! But I do not limit my vision of "technology" to "things that can be plugged in" as some folks do. I feel strongly that technologies are simply tools that we can use to solve problems. So, in reality, teachers are always using technology. The key is choosing the right technology for the job. As teachers, we need to use effective tools to convey information and encourage students to engage with content. In turn, our students need to learn how to use and choose technologies that will meet their needs.

Perhaps this is where America can show its strength in the tech race. We have always been a nation of innovators. We are known for our creativity. So, our pedagogy and standards should encourage the development of creativity and innovation in the selection and use of technologies to solve problems.

Twitter in the Classroom

For those of you who doubt the efficacy of Twitter in the classroom, Tech & Learning has posted a list of 25 ways to use it. I think I will try #6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 14, 17, 18, 19, 20, and 25. There is also a list of 9 reasons to use Twitter. As an admitted Twitter skeptic, I'm starting to believe...

On a similar vein, there's another article about effective uses of Wordle. I think this could be a really good tool for helping students see whether they're really writing about what they think they're writing about. Makes cool graphics for logos, t-shirts, etc., too.

And here's an article on creating Web 2.0 flashcards. I particularly like the options offered by StudyStack. I'll have to recommend this one for my Ed Psych students. All teachers should be aware of this technology. Students can go online and find existing study stacks or create their own custom stacks. Then they can review them online as flashcards or even play a variety of games with them or they can print them or download them to a handheld device.

Good stuff!

Bloom's Taxonomy for the Digital Age

Bloom's Taxonomy has now been expanded to include digital activities. Read the article on Tech & Learning. This should help my students as they create their Tables of Specification. It should also help me and my technology teacher colleagues to consider which tasks we are having our students complete and why.

Tech for Running

Thanks to my running friend for this link that should be of particular interest to my Physical Education majors and anyone who, like me, enjoys running a bit too much. This Gadgetwise column in the NYT talks about playlists that you can download for training as well as tools that you can use to help you choose music that will be most beneficial as you train. For example, a utility for Macs called Tangerine will analyze the beats per minute of the songs in your iTunes library, thus enabling you to choose songs for a certain running pace. Physical Education teachers and athletic coaches could also create playlists for their students' workouts. This is definitely something that I am going to have to try out. That is, I'll try it out if I ever buck up and get my own iPod instead of using my daughter's!

Iran follow-up

A follow-up to my earlier post: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31411475/ns/technology_and_science-tech_and_gadgets/

Makes me appreciate freedom of speech and other "luxuries" that I enjoy. I really take Internet use and the ability to use Web 2.0 to speak my mind for granted. Perhaps I should start using this luxury to do something truly worthwhile...

The Power of Twitter

Here is a testament to the power and utility of web 2.0 technologies like Twitter and Facebook: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31387533/ns/technology_and_science-tech_and_gadgets/. These technologies have given oppressed people in Iran the opportunity to speak out and communicate with the world. What a great resource for History students to be able to learn about the history that is being made right now. It is also an inspiration to the rest of us that everyone has something to say and now there are avenues for us to say it with.

Dabbleboard

My husband found this very cool online collaborative whiteboard utility. Could be very cool for working through things together (math problems, for example) and then saving the final product.

FETC 2010

The announcement for FETC 2010 just came out. May be a good conference to attend this year!

http://fetc.org/

Blogger on iGoogle

I just added a gadget that allows me to post directly to my blog from my iGoogle page. Doc Waters showed it in our TTIX presentation yesterday and I was inspired. The one I've chosen allows me to choose any of my blogs to post to and then type my post directly in iGoogle, making it much easier to keep up on everything.

Whale Education

The Onion's take on school funding and quality. Very entertaining!


In The Know: Are Our Children Learning Enough About Whales?

Digital Cameras and Picasa

One of my favorite tools to use in the classroom is a digital camera. Not only can I take pictures of students and activities, but I can also have the students use the cameras to document their own learning. They can take pictures of the steps and results of an experiment, examples of concepts we're discussing in class, etc. Here's a link to 1001 uses for digital cameras in the classroom for more ideas.

When it comes to buying a camera for classroom use, I recommend making your decision on three factors:

1. Ease of use - I don't have time in class to worry about which mode the camera is set on. I just want to point and shoot. Additionally, I may want my junior high school students to use the camera for a project and I don't want them messing with a bunch of features. Therefore, I'm first and foremost going to look for a camera that is very easy to use.

2. Picture Quality - The higher the number of megapixels, the better. These have come WAY up in the last few years. For example, the cameras our department purchased a few years ago are only 5 megapixels while the one I bought this Christmas is 8. Both are the same brand of point-and-shoot. Bigger megapixels means better pictures, so get the highest number that you can afford.

3. Price - As a teacher, price is always a consideration. If you are really interested in having digital cameras in your classroom, look for grants to help you out. There are several in small amounts for things just like this. For my money, The Canon PowerShot is the best deal. It is easy to use, has high megapixels, and just works really well. But you may find that you prefer something else.

To edit and store the pictures you take, you have several options. For Mac users, you have iPhoto already installed. This is a simple, very basic photo editing and storage program, but you can do some very cool things with it including identifying people in pictures for later recognition and sorting. Picasa is a similar tool that can be downloaded for free for the PC and, now, for Mac. Again, we can sort and store pictures as well as do some basic edits. Neither of these programs offers the editing power of something like Photoshop, but they are sufficient for the basic user. The coolest thing about Picasa is that it also has a Web Albums feature, enabling you to upload your pictures to the Internet for storage and viewing. You can then invite people to come and see the pictures you have uploaded. You can also embed these photo slideshows on your blog, class website, etc. Of course, this integration works especially well with Google Sites and Blogger as Picasa is also a Google product.

So there's a little bit about digital cameras and Picasa. Grab a camera, get creative, and enjoy!