Digital Natives?

Today I had the honor of presenting Audacity (open-source audio recording software) to students attending an area HS computer fair. To my surprise the majority of the students had not heard of podcasts. As my presentations concluded I had extra time so I thought I would open up the discussion to web2.0 tools. As I began to talk of blogs and wikis I got many blank stares. With everything I have been reading and discovering within the last 9 months, students have been referred to as "digital natives." Suddenly I realized that I had to back up and punt. For most of the students I was speaking a foreign language.

This helps to clarify and intensify, for me, the need to address 21st century learning and NOT to make assumptions. Many of my teachers are discovering that they need to teach basic computer skills before they can begin to use the computer as a learning tool. Perhaps the digital divide was larger than I thought!

I am truly curious... is anyone discovering this, or is our situation in northeast PA unique. (We are quite rural and many families are still on dial-up internet.)

Dangers of Skype

This cannot be tweeted because there is no way to condense it to 140 characters. So think of this as a long tweet and a warning.

Tonight I was teaching a class to other teachers. We were learning to create wikis and exploring Discovery Education Streaming. I decided to break things up a bit and started a skype chat with my friend behind me. We were playing with various new skype icons and were complaining about sitting so long.

I got up to go help someone with a download and my friend called me back to the computer. All of a sudden, under my login, I read, "Aren't you guys supposed to be in class?" I did not type it. No one in the room got up, went to my computer and typed it. AHHHHHH

We waited for another response. nothing Finally my friend got an idea, she types back into the chat and asks if this is my husband. It was and then he continued to antagonize us.

The warning for all skypers out there.... never leave your home computer logged into skype when you are not home! You never know what will happen. The only saving grace is I had just shut the projector off!

Blabberize

I have been trying to come up with a solution to this issue:

Some parents don't grant permission for their child's photo to be online. (Which I totally respect.)

So, how do you still include that child in activities online?

Blabberize allows you to upload an image, create a mouth, and record voice. The mouth then moves as the recording is played back.

Hmmmm, a child could draw a picture of him/herself, draw the mouth, and record their own voice.

Think of the possibilities. If you are recording your students doing an activity, like a book review, this child could now participate.

Click here to see what I mean.

JOTT helps Multitaskers!

Have you ever been driving when you suddenly had a brainstorm or an important thought? Instead of digging for a napkin or scrap paper, now you can JOTT. Let me explain. A few weeks ago so friends starting chatting about "JOTT." Further exploration let me to this website.

I signed up for a free account. Verified my email. Verified my cell phone. In about 5 minutes I was set. I call JOTT from my cell, speak my message, and JOTT transcribes it to text and emails it to me. I could also set up other email addresses and have JOTT send messages to others.

Now, if only JOTT could just read my mind and take out the trash! ;-)

PETE & C 2008

I just spent four days immersed in conversations and presentations pertaining to educational technology integration. I learned as much from talking to my personal learning network as I did from the sessions I attended.



*Had the opportunity to meet with the other coaches in my region to set up a regional sharing day for our teachers.

*Participated in a Skype backchannel which helped to cement what I was learning while collaborating and sharing with others.

*Participated in live blogging during a Keynote presentation.

*Connected fact to face with many other Keystone Technology Integrators (whom I met this summer at the Summit). The way the Summit works... former Keystones come back and work with the new Keystones. So I not only got to visit with other 2007 Keystones, but former Keystones who have greatly impacted my life.

*Attended workshops and sessions to enhance my understanding of technology integration.

*Presented to others "Web2.0 Tools Go Elementary"

For more information on the sessions at PETE&C, check out this wiki started by CFF Coach Michelle Krill. Throughout the conference, and after, many of us collaborated by adding content to it.

http://reportingback.wikispaces.com

What technology will my child see in his lifetime?

A conversation with my father sparked this post. Today Dad was introduced to the Nintendo wii bowling game. For those unfamiliar with the system, a player straps a remote to her/his wrist and then becomes an active player in virtual sports. The remote serves as a tennis racket, a golf club, a bat... or with some add ons, boxing gloves, steering wheels.... the list goes on! A sensor bar on or below the tv "reads" the player's movements. So, using the remote, my dad was bowling in our living room.



Do you remember this??? The old Atari that allowed us to play games like Pitfall and Pong.

And this???













With each new entertainment or computer system that came into our home I can remember thinking...."this is so cool! It can't get better than this!" and with each advancing system the images became clearer and more vibrant, more engaging, more user friendly, more entertaining! I wonder what is coming next. In the 80s I would never have been able to wrap my head around the concept of a virtual environment, like Second Life, or the virtual gaming of the Nintendo wii! What technology will my child see in his lifetime?

From records, 8 tracks, cassettes, and CDs to mp3s and ipods.... what is next?

I can't even imagine, but I can't wait to find out! What do you think??

BTW, images are from wikipedia.

Juggling 21st Century Skills and PSSAs

Teachers face many challenges. The world is a rapidly changing place (understatement) and we sometimes find ourselves scrambling to keep the pace. I've been devouring books lately, audio and print, and have been really intrigued by the comparisons between 20th and 21st century skills. The above diagram outlines the skills I am referring to and is linked to its source which gives more detailed information.

NCLB has brought about state level standards and testing which require attention as well! As I sit in trainings about these skills, some wonder how teachers are to incorporate these 21st century skills in light of the testing. I do not see these as separate. Let me explain, using third grade as my example.

For me the standards set the curriculum but not HOW I teach. Therefor I can create lessons which encourage cooperation, collaboration, higher level thinking, and technology as I address the standards. Last quarter my students were to learning about ecosystems in Science. Rather than just read the book, complete the worksheets and activities, and recite the information back on a test..... we used a wiki.

On this webpage (Wiki) I placed links to sites dealing with the various ecosystems we were studying so each ecosystem had about 4 sites. This way my students were using the internet as a research tool. In small teams students had to explore the sites in order to be able to report back plant and animal life, as well as climate of their ecosystem. All notes were kept in an inspiration template. Each group created a poster of their ecosystem and "taught" us about their ecosystem. This was a mini jigsaw activity.

I was exploring with voicethread at the time and did not have parent permissions for students to participate, so I created a voicethread as a study guide for them. The next time I do this activity I will still have students create posters, but we will scan them. The scanned images would be used to make a class voicethread.

Ah, yes, PSSAs.... the test I used was written in multiple choice format so that students learn how to take that type of test. Grades, yes... I used students' work on the project and the test for determining a grade.

I know we get overwhelmed, but there are ways to address the curriculum by using 21st century skills. I feel that is important because these are the skills that our students will need in the world. If you made it this far, thanks! Here is a spot where a group of us are talking about teaching these skills.