Be A Kid Again

1. Do a cartwheel.
2. Sing into your hairbrush.
3. Walk barefoot in wet grass.
4. Play a song you like really loud, over and over.
5. Dot all your “i”’s with smiley faces.
6. Read the funnies. Throw the rest of the paper away.
7. Dunk your cookies.
8. Play a game where you make up the rules as you go along.
9. Step carefully over sidewalk cracks.
10. Change into some play clothes.
11. Try to get someone to trade you a better sandwich.
12. Eat ice cream for breakfast.
13. Kiss a frog, just in case.
14. Blow the wrapper off a straw.
15. Have someone read you a story.
16. Find some pretty stones and save them.
17. Wear your favorite shirt with you favorite pants even if they don’t match.
18. Take a running jump over a big puddle.
19. Get someone to buy you something you really don’t need.
20. Hide your vegetables under your napkin.
21. Stay up past your bedtime.
22. Eat dessert first.
23. Fuss a little, then take a nap.
24. Wear red gym shoes.
25. Put way too much sugar on your cereal.
26. Make cool screeching noises every time you turn a corner.
27. Giggle a lot for no reason.
28. Give yourself a gold star for everything you do today.

Just as a teaser, here is one of the videos on education which is very relevant to where our education system needs to go.

Picture of a Poppy, The Menin Gate, Ypres

This was/is exactly what I think about Twitter. Now, the author did become a fan of twitter after having used it and listed their reasons and now there is wiffiti; a sort of cross between a wiki and a twitter. However, I still do not understand what the fuss is. Who has the time to do this? I don’t get to my computer enough during the school day to keep a Twitter going effectively. I have a hard enough time keeping my personal blog and my classblog going let alone get home to my wife after planning, etc to have some quality time.  Having other educators commenting on your thoughts of the moment and sharing their thoughts is appealing. In our classrooms all day, it is sometimes hard to have conversations with other teachers that really reaches deep into the core of teaching and learning. So, having a group of educators at your fingertips you can follow and converse with is appealing. However, I believe that it is missing the meaningfulness of actual interactions that are longer than the instant, quick response twittering enables. Don’t we want to develop deeper understandings of what it means to educate and be an educator? Can we have those types of conversations in the small amount twittering allows us? Or are we moving more into what seems to be the domain of media where everything needs to be in quick soundbytes of information? Don’t we want to teach our students to reflect and develop deeper understandings? Can these be done using twitter? Me personally, I would rather spend the time trying to interact with other educators through e-mail, wiki’s or blogs.

The other thing I wonder about Twitter is how do we bring in the other educators who have just as much expertise and information to share but don’t want to be bombarded with constant messages. It’s too distracting. Sometimes I wonder if what we do as educational technologists is not so much bring ideas and learning together but increasingly seperate ourselves from those who don’t have as much skill with technology thus creating this division. I don’t think Twitter as a tool as to bring the two groups together.

Anyway, that’s my thought. I would love to be convinced otherwise. Maybe somebody out there can convince me.

So I thought I would start a topic and see if we can build it. As they say . . . If you build it, they will come!

So here it is . . . Why I am a Educational Technologist!  I will start it off and give the ending. I would love for us to compile a list of reasons why, though technology integration is frustrating and challenging at times, we keep at it in our schools. Your thoughts can be thoughtful, provocative, inspiring, hopeful, challenging or tongue and cheek. As they come in I will keep updating the list so everyone can see it grow!

Here we go!

Why I am a Educational Technology Teacher!

I want to empower my students!!!

I can plug in a computer, projector, tv, etc!

…….

But most of all, I am a teacher working and striving to help all my students reach their potential!!

Let’s get this out there and build this list!!!!!!

The video is originally from the Digital Ethnology site which also adds the explanation of where their statistics came from.

What are your thoughts? Let’s have a conversation!

As it is Edtech Thursday, I am going to highlight a web 2.0 tool that you can use in the classroom. Now, you might be saying that most of the tools I have been highlighting might be a little light and fluffy in that they are not really heavyweight resources. In my mind, heavyweight resources include things like wikipages, moodles, eluminate, etc. We may get to those. However, there are only so many hours in a day and some of these types of web 2.0 tools can be huge and intimidating for teachers who are looking for something that they can just start using in the classroom. I want to help teachers to find a way to ease into the web 2.0 world with their students; to give them a taste of what is out there and the possibilities. My own learning curve in the use of technology in the classroom has been one of exploration; not being formally taught a tool. This is the key I think. Not waiting around for a workshop. Pick something a work with it. Become comfortable with the tool and find the myriad of ways it can enrich your students’ learning. A tool like “voicethreads” can be used in so many ways that you could just use that all year. You could start with teacher led use and gradually get to the point where students are creating their own voicethreads without help from you. Wouldn’t that be powerful? And that’s just one tool! This is how to get teachers on board with bringing in technology. Helping them to focus one trying one thing. I think though that teachers look at everything out there and get scared or turned off. “I can’t possibly catch up so why start?” If we help others to see all the possibilities, then help them focus on trying just one thing, maybe we can close that gap between where we are and where our students are.

What are your thoughts? What tool helped you become more of a user of these technology in the classroom? What helped other teachers in your school get to that Aha! moment in the integration of educational technology?

Maybe I am rambling. I know I didn’t get to an actual tool today. But we hear so much about these tools from gurus like Kevin Honeycutt and David Warlick and why we need to get them into the classroom. But teachers in the trenches are saying, “Great, wonderful, but I just have too much on my plate. I can’t fit that in. I wouldn’t know where to start. That looks great but it’s for more tech-savvy people than me.” And it goes on. No one is answering the question, “How can I fit that fit into my day to day curriculum considering what I have to do now, not what we hope the future will bring to education?”

Let’s have a conversation!

One of the neat experiences I had recently, was the chance to walk through my old elementary. Every summer, when I went back to Nova Scotia, I would go past the old school and wonder whether it had changed at all inside. Of course, being summer, I couldn’t get in there unless I broke a few windows, which, in the end, would defeat a few purposes. However, this time, I was able to go to the school and get a tour from the principal who graciously gave up some of her time to show me around. It was an amazing experience. If you ever have the chance, take the time to do this. Walking around the school, waves of memories washed over me. Before, I knew what the word nostalgia meant but walking through the school, it became more than a word. I wanted to go back and sit in the classroom, the fall changing the leaves of the chestnut leaves outside, waiting eagerly for the fall fair where our class would be going on a field trip. Quite a bit had changed (and it certainly seemed a lot smaller!) but there were still things that were unchanged from when I had been a student there.

Despite having to go for other reasons, sadder ones, this was a highlight for me and something I’ll remember for a long time.

Well, for starters, I was very excited to hear about the great deal from Microsoft. If you haven’t heard yet, for 64 dollars, you can download the Ultimate edition of Microsoft Office 2007. The whole sh-bang!!! As with anything like this, there is a catch! You have to be a University student. Thankfully I am still working on my Masters this year.

What would have really been great though, is if this had been extended to High School students. For once, I wish that schools and students would be given a break and provided with the tools they need at a reasonable cost that we can all afford. For schools to shell out 899 dollars for a copy of Office Ultimate is too much to ask. Some of you would say though that not only can you get smaller editions of Office for a lower cost, you can also get site licenses for a discount. While this may be true, it is still a huge expense for a school division. After that huge purchase, there isn’t a whole lot left in the technology account for other tols that also maybe beneficial.

Yes, there is Openoffice and other free tools. I have used them and they are good. However, when Office is the standard and is well supported both with templates, clip-art, etc, isn’t that what we should be using with students? Openoffice is just not as slick and supported. There is no support other than user groups. It appeals to the more savvy computer users out there, including me, who does not want to pay the exorbitant costs that Microsoft charges. Appealing to the common teacher is different. Few teachers are going to want to try Openoffice when they are used to using Microsoft and like the ability to integrate the extras without fussing around.

I know that whole school divisions couldn’t use this deal practically even if they could. However, I think it is a good first step and I will enjoy using my new Office. Giving in to Microsoft? Maybe, but I am a teacher. I will use any tool I think will help and if I can get a deal, I’m going to take it!

As promised I have developed a week schedule of things that I will include here on my blog. I will also be adding a class blog but that will be later and after I have some time to plan it. Here is the schedule:

• Monday: Photo Monday – Every Monday I will post a picture of mine. Maybe it’s a little self serving and immodest but if your going to take pictures, you should display them right? And not just put them in a box.
• Tuesday: Haiku/Poem day – Either a poem of my own or one I have found and love! I think poetry is great and think that we should all write more poetry. And Haiku’s are just plain fun!
• Wednesday: Ed site – On Wednesday, I’ll highlight a website that I think teachers should know about and might help bringing technology into the class.
• Thursday: Technology in the class – This may be more for me but I thought I would continue looking around for ideas on how to integrate the many new (and old) technologies into the class. Sometimes, with all the new sites and web 2.0 tools out there, ideas get lost or forgotten. This may help me more but I wanted to get down and reflect on how to integrate these tools into the classroom especially at a lower elementary level which seems sometimes to get left out of the mix when people talk about integrate web 2.0 tools in the classroom. People tend to highlight more uses for the upper grades (junior high and up). It’s time to bring down to our level. Power to the Elementary!!!!
• Friday: Friday Reflection – Fridays will be reflection day as I think about the blogs, sites, school happenings, etc.

And that is my first Friday Reflection! Have a great weekend!!!