This weeks collections reflect on what Sid shared about our kids being online.

The entire Kaiser Family Foundation Report, Webcast of Report and other materials

A chart on the breakdown from the Kaiser Family Foundation Study
http://slides.kff.org/chart.aspx?ch=1351

Documentary Video on Profiles of Generation M2 (5:12 Minutes)
http://www.kff.org/entmedia/hr012010video.cfm

5th and 6th Graders have been working with me on a project called Six Words to Describe Your Online Life. Illustrate it with the pencil if you want. The project is based on the http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/digitalnation/participate PBS Digital Nation 6 Words on a Digital Life

Six Words on My Online Life
http://damiddle.ed.voicethread.com/share/826742/

I Need My Teachers to Learn Video by Kevin Honeycutt who will be at the NCTIES conference March 3-5 (http://www.ncties.org/conference/index.html)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3CIh7FWv4UA

Technorati Tags: education, learning, LotW

Now, working in a Middle School like I do, I never have a problem with sassing. I am loving what SaaSing is doing for our school. We use Moodle as our Interactive Learning Environment platform. This has allowed us to mandate that all teachers use Moodle for their courses from grade 5-12. We have some grade 1-4 teachers piloting it this year as well since they see the benefits. The adoption of Moodle has impacted everyone connected to our learning community.

• Teachers have courses with a multitude of resources to draw on from year to year. Once a course is built, it can be reset each year and added to include new tools or resources. In fact some teachers leave and new teachers inherit the last teacher’s course full of content which serves as a solid platform to begin their new career.

• Students have aggregation taking place when ever they log in to Moodle. All of their current course are listed and available. Heck we even developed a Durham Academy Mobile iPhone/iPod Touch App so student could get quick access to their courses. It “only” allows them to read text, link to websites, listen to audio, or watch videos.

• Parents have quick access (much like the DA Mobile App) via our QuickLook. Parents use their students PowerSchool Number and have access to all Moodle courses.

With Moodle in place we are now able to build upon this platform in other ways. This is where additional SaaS comes into play. VoiceThread put out a Moodle filter that allows us to embed them into our Moodle courses. This has allowed for teachers and students to easily utilize this technology from wherever they are in the world.
Here is a sample VoiceThread we are working on as part of our CyberSafety and Digital Citizenship course with 5th and 6th grade students. Join in if you would like.

Our next forays are with Mindmeister for online, collaborative mind mapping and Google Docs with Moodle Single Sign on. While this is still a work in progress, I plan to see it through as the benefits to the students will be huge. Checkout MoodleRooms (Log in Required) for some documentation as that is where this picture is from. We will no doubt block Gmail and Chat but leave the rest open.

I see a huge benefit to SaaS as we can eliminate the issues of platforms, software application types, and not having a strong school – home connection. So I say, go ahead and SaaS me!

Technorati Tags: class2.0, education, learning, Moodle, voicethread

Each year the 8th grade students must take a Computer Competency Exam to demonstrate they are competent users of technology. In the past this has involved using Word, PowerPoint, and Excel. Last year the students also took a 21st Century Skills Assessment at Atomic Learning They did fairly poorly as they were ill prepared. I ended up not counting those scores. Instead, the bulk of the exam centered around the students following a series of tutorials and then uploading the completed product via our Moodle course. I attempted to create more of a portfolio concept as students were encouraged to upload additional artifacts that demonstrated their competency. Many uploaded podcasts we made in History and English classes. I was hopeful that the portfolio would spread to 6th and 7th grade assembling a collection so that by time the end of 8th grade rolled around, students had a strong portfolio illustrating that not only had they mastered software, but also were adept and comfortable with tools and skills of a 21st Century learner.

My idea was dealt a set back when the school decided to no longer install Microsoft Office but instead use OpenOffice and Pages. I was not opposed to the change as I used the savings to purchase a cart of iPod Touches. It did mean the Moodle course I created with linked tutorials was of no use.

Now I am trying to re-write the course/exam again keeping with the portfolio design and am finding it hard to keep my motivation. I plan to use Google Docs even though we did not follow through as a school and implement our own Google Apps for Education. I know most students have a Google account so we can get to the Documents. G-mail and Chat are blocked on campus as students must use FirstClass at school.

Anyway, I was making headway with design and inspiration, and then I found this video on the Atomic Learning Blog. My motivation changed from reworking the course/exam to writing this post.

As I finish this post, students in the lab next door are peer reviewing classmates podcasts done in their 6th Grade History course. How to connect the learning of all students?

Technorati Tags: class2.0, education, learning

In 2006 when I moved to the Middle School from the Lower School I requested a door to be installed where a shelf had been. I wanted the door because it would allow easier access to the printers and computers. It also allowed students to not have to interrupt a class if they needed to come in and use a computer. The request got lost in the queue, but over winter break, it was installed and has created quite the buzz. Most often I am asked if it was always there or if the shelfs were hiding it? The second most asked question is why? It only takes a minute for the person asking that question to realize the benefits.

Nice information, but why a blog post? Think about this small change that took 3.5 years to complete. I see a metaphor in how we often like to take the units we teach and put them on a shelf so we have them the next time. We do this for often more then 3.5 years. What would happen if each year we took one less unit from the tired and true shelf and instead opened a door to try something new? Comments I have heard about the door are: It looks so different, I love how I can now get my printing without disturbing a class. I would never print to those printers before.

My job, as I see it, is to open doors for teachers and students to try new learning tools and methods.

Come on in through whatever door you want to use, but please leave your shelf behind when you come.

Technorati Tags: class2.0, education, learning

Thought I would give a few this week to tide you over winter break:

1. Web Tools 4u2 Use is a collection of online tools, information and other resources from two librarians.

http://webtools4u2use.wikispaces.com/Webtools4U2Use

2. Wolfram|Alpha Step by Step Math shows the power of both the web site and the iPhone/iPod Touch application (App is on the iPod Cart’s Touches) Wolfram|Alpha’s long-term goal is to make all systematic knowledge immediately computable and accessible to everyone.

http://blog.wolframalpha.com/2009/12/01/step-by-step-math/

3. YouTube Video by a student at Gustavus Adolphus College on how to use Moodle Assignments called Steps toward a Paperless School. While we are not there yet, some of the things she talks about with students being metered is starting to happen at the US and will come to the MS at some point to cut down on waste.

http://teachertech.blog.gustavus.edu/2009/12/11/steps-toward-a-paperless-classroom/

Enjoy the break and I hope that these links give you great ideas for how to integrate new learning tools into your classes in 2010.

Technorati Tags: education, learning, LotW

Our school is again looking to scope out what students learn related to technology skills from PreK – 12. Over six years ago I wrote a comprehensive scope and sequence that was based on ISTE NETS and Mountain Brook School . I do not want to repeat the same script of when and where a student learns what as I believe that technology changes too quickly and that the pigeon hole you put yourself into limits your thinking and teaching. Technology skills are needed when they are needed. While we can map a course so we are on chartered waters, the wind will blow us in directions we can not predict. We must pack accordingly.

For instance, today I once again introduced the iTouch to a class. The goal was to have them use the Dictionary App to look up some spelling words and write down a definition, parts of speech in a Moodle Online Text Assignment. The goal was to have students use a small device to interact with our school’s Interactive Learning Environment. As we started, students got their worksheet and many started to record the definitions on the worksheet as that is how they usually do it. No big issue as that is how the wind blew them today. I adjusted the lesson to have them listen to the word in the Dictionary app as that is something that no paper dictionary can do. The other parts of the online assignment were to use other Touch Apps as it relates to English. (SAT Vocab, Blanks, Word Warp, and others).

How do I write a scope and sequence to include a device that did not exist before September 5, 2007? What will be released in 2010? The technology took 2 years to get into the school and would a scope and sequence keep the next tool out for two years while we study the educational use? Good questions and I will keep chewing on them.

Now, to the whole lost and found title. Another question that comes up is when students should be able to do skill X where X is any skill that the teacher wants to have the student know before they go to the lab or that I think they should know based on the afore mentioned ISTE NETS. I mentioned this to Dr. Sid DuPont our interim director and he pulled out his desk drawers to reveal items found that students have lost over the school year. Why get hung up in when they should know something as they need to know it when they need to know it just like teachers and administrators.

Not Official Lost site as these items were left in the Computer Labs the last two weeks.
One of our holding areas – note we have a plan B

We loose stuff all the time and middle school students loose things at a faster rate since they are, well, in middle school. We have a system for collecting the lost and found items although truth be told most things are lost permanently as the students just do without or I suspect the parents buy new ones.

Will a scope and sequence be the lost or the found part of a similar equation? Or will it only be my time that is lost when I could really be working on finding the time to work with teachers to infuse their teaching with new tools. Is my answer obvious?

Technorati Tags: education

I have begun to share a link of the week with the Middle School faculty. Last week I shared http://images.google.com/hosted/life which showcases a lot of wonderful images from Life Magazine. I had planned to share Wolfram|Alpha this week but changed my mind after reading Meredith Stewart’s tweet. I read the news last week about EtherPad/AppJet being purchased. I had never used the product but had heard of it and new that folks loved it. Once again it is the back story that interests me and others it seems.

This is what I shared instead:

I had a different one selected for this week, but after following the link(s) and remembering all of the meetings I attended in the Lower School to discuss similar “children/learners” I thought this one would be a better choice. I teared up a bit as I wonder about my role in helping or hindering learners like Aaron. I do not believe making a bucket of money determines anything other then the size of a person’s bank account, however our society does reward innovation this way.

The technology that Aaron is behind may not make sense to you at this time, but it will to our students.

http://aaroniba.net/

For background information, go to this site: http://bengrey.com/blog/2009/12/the-best-about-me-page-youll-ever-see/

I do wonder why a person would post the psych evaluation. One answer that seems to make sense to me is because of the pain it caused and the energy it took to survive. I have read the book by Sir Ken Robinson and others that talk about teacher perceptions and power.

Technorati Tags: class2.0, learning

This link came to me just now from Meredith Stewart’s Twitter feed. I had a different one selected for this week, but after following the link(s) and remembering all of the meetings I attended in the Lower School to discuss similar “children/learners” I thought this one would be a better choice. I teared up a bit as I wonder about my role in helping or hindering learners like Aaron. I do not believe making a bucket of money determines anything other then the size of a person’s bank account, however our society does reward innovation this way.

The technology that Aaron is behind may not make sense to you at this time, but it will in time.

http://aaroniba.net/

For background information, go to this site: http://bengrey.com/blog/2009/12/the-best-about-me-page-youll-ever-see/

Technorati Tags: education, learning, LotW