Day #3

Tuesday June 29, 2010

Today I headed down to the conference at 9:30am. I started the day by going to a few more vendors. I sat in on a demonstration of the new Adobe 5 suite. There are great updates! You can easily get rid of a character in a picture and move items in a picture with a few simple clicks! Man…wish I had that for Photoshop class!

I watched a presentation on an online database that a school can purchase to belong to called limelight. It is a great database with an item bank for each of the four core subjects from grades 2-12. A teacher can log in and create assessments using the item bank. (Great for common assessments) You can also use responders, bubble sheets or online assessments when the students take the actual assessment. I really like this program!

I stopped by Google to see what they were showing off. They were showing the use of Google docs, etc. (The things we use!)
I couldn’t spend too much time with the vendors since I had class from 12:30-7:00.

My class today was on Leading Effective Technology Integration in Schools by Jo Williamson, Ph. D. from Kennesaw State University in Georgia. She teaches Masters students in technology leadership.
The following are my notes that I took while we were there. Some highlights, etc that I though were important.

Main Questions to ask Yourself:
What kind of technology use do we want to see in our schools? Why? How can we make it happen?

Our Tasks (with Technology for today)
Define “Next Steps” technology use
Identifying it for practice
Practice coaching for it
Practice designing it
Practice selecting resources to encourage it
Establish a way to share resources

“Teachers should have an IEP to show where they are with Technology and what they need assistance with!”

Interesting Facts: 25% of youth are disengaged. 6% have a embarrassing picture posted online. ½ of all black and native American students do not graduate.

Preferences of Digital Age Learners
Generate Original Content
Communicate with Others
Express Themselves
Pursue their own interests
Access to tools that they have outside of school inside of school
Challenge
Caring, personal environments

Engagement
Students should be involved in worthy intellectual effort
Wiggins, G. 2006 UBD

Understanding
To think critically, deeply, and insightfully about a topic or discipline—as an expert in the field is able to do.
Wiggins, G. 2006 UBD

Asked Jo—What is you view on the use of Twitter in Elementary School?
Her response: I think there are ways to make it work effectively. Students should not use their names as their screen name. You have to convince your IT department to unlock it. Show them how you can make it work.


Click Here to see a great way to assess technology projects and the levels of technology used. The projects should always be at a level 4 or above.

When trying to get teachers to do full and strong technology based learning projects, start with only one per year. Maybe add a second. But, wait until they are strong and feeling successful until you add more.

Four Types of Websites
1) Reference (Learn About)
2) Games, Simulations, and “Discovery Learning”
3) Next-Steps Projects
a. Authentic Publishing Opportunities
b. Contextualized for Classroom
c. Indicators of EL
4) Cool Tools
a. Tools that aren’t contextualized, but have potential to support the creation of original, publishable “Next Step” projects

Great Website with a list of sites that foster strong technology use and collaboration. Feel free to browse the sites to find great ones to use!

A great site I got from today's presentation is Poll Everywhere. You can create questions that your students can answer online, text with their cell phones and even tweet from twitter. Its free to sign up!!!! I think if I posted a question each day and allowed my students to use their cell phone to respond they would all jump to do the assignment.

I was expecting something different out of today's workshop. She did give us a good website with great resources of websites to use, but she didn't really go into how to use technology to reach high levels of learning. She showed us examples of work that students had done, but did not go into how they did it or what software they used.

Tomorrow is the last day of the conference. I have not visited even half of the vendors in the conference hall. I plan to spend some more time tomorrow checking them out!