Teacher Tech Talk

I first wrote about the “flipped” classroom model here back in June. Since then I keep hearing more and more success stories about this instructional practice. CNN’s “Schools of Thought” blog recently featured a post by a principal of an under-performing high school near Detroit that saw dramatic gains in test scores as a result of the flipped model. Watch the video below to get an overview of what they did, then read Clintondale High School principal Greg Green’s CNN post in which he shares details and answers readers questions about flipped classrooms.

What do you think? Worth trying here in Madison? What have you got to lose?

If you’ve already tried it, please share your experience by replying below.

So this Wednesday February 1, 2012 marks the first ever nationally recognized Digital Learning Day! The first time I heard about this I thought, Of course…, surprised it hadn’t existed before this year. So what is it, exactly? Digital Learning Day is the culmination of a year-long national awareness campaign to encourage innovative teaching and learning through digital media and technology that engages students and provides them with a rich, personalized learning experience. Digital learning is defined as:

“…any instructional practice that is effectively using technology to strengthen the student learning experience. Digital learning encompasses a wide spectrum of tools and practice, including using online and formative assessment, increasing focus and quality of teaching resources and time, online content and courses, applications of technology in the classroom and school building, adaptive software for students with special needs, learning platforms, participating in professional communities of practice, providing access to high level and challenging content and instruction, and many other advancements technology provides to teaching and learning.”

You can recognize Digital Learning Day in a number of ways by simply trying one new thing with technology. It could be using a feature in Finalsite that you’ve never tried, like uploading a resource file, facilitating a class blog or discussion board, or conducting an online quiz. Or it could mean “flipping” your class with online instructional videos to teach a new concept–something I previously blogged about here, and something teachers right here in Madison are already trying with great success.

The official Digital Learning Day website has excellent resources and toolkits to help teachers get started. And, of course, I am always willing to help see your vision through. Don’t forget that you have great resources in your building, too, whether it’s the library media specialists, computer lab paras, or your colleagues who tend to be quick to embrace technology as a teaching tool. So start talking to each other and leave a comment below about what you might do to celebrate digital learning.

In case you missed it, Apple held a special event last week that focused on education where they announced two new major initiatives:  iBooks 2 — their reinvention of textbooks into interactive, digital learning tools for the iPad, and  iBooks Author — the software that makes it possible for anyone to make these stunning, interactive, multimedia books. Apple also announced that digital textbooks from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, McGraw-Hill and Pearson — the publishers that account for 90% of the textbook market — will be available on iBooks 2 for $15 each.

The general consensus seems to be that last week’s announcements will shape the future of education and the way we think and learn. But many are already pointing out some of the downsides to last week’s announcements. Namely, the fact that these amazing learning tools can only be created and consumed in an Apple-only environment, which places a hefty financial burden on educational institutions.

Check out the video and linked article above, and let me know what you think. Is this really a game-changer for education, in the same way iTunes changed the music industry? Or is the iPads-for-everyone world Apple envisions unrealistic when so many school districts are still strapped for cash? Leave your comments below.

To view the Apple Education Event Keynote video in its entirety, click here.

When teachers give students the opportunity to show what they’ve learned through a PowerPoint presentation, the most enjoyable part comes at the end of the project when students share their work with the whole group. Unfortunately, this is often the most cumbersome part for a variety of reasons: compatibility issues due to different versions of PowerPoint, trouble downloading student work from a Finalsite Dropbox, students forgetting the flash drive they saved the project to, missing media files, the list goes on.

If you’ve ever experienced any of the above issues, then you should definitely check out SlideShare–a website that was  recently voted amongst the World’s Top 10 tools for education & eLearning. So what is it? It’s the world’s largest online community for sharing presentations. Basically anyone with a free SlideShare account can upload a presentation to the site and access it from any computer that has an Internet connection. SlideShare even has a mobile version of their site, so you can access uploaded presentations from a smartphone! And besides presentations, SlideShare also supports documents, PDFs, videos and webinars. So if you’re students upload their presentations to SlideShare and provide you with links and/or keywords for them, you’ll have no problem accessing them from your computer at home or at school. It’s also a good learning tool that allows you to browse presentations other people have shared with the world, and evaluate the quality or veracity of their contents.

Here’s a list of the different file types SlideShare supports, as well as some other features:

Supported Formats:
Presentations: PDF, ppt, pps, pptx, ppsx, pot, potx (Powerpoint); odp (OpenOffice); key, zip (Apple Keynote).
Documents: PDF, doc, docx, rtf (MSOffice); odt, ods (OpenOffice); Apple iWork Pages, txt, csv
Video: Pretty much all the usual formats, except WMV.

Other features:
Upload presentations publicly or privately (PRO version needed for private uploads)
Download presentations on any topic and reuse or remix
Embed on blogs, websites, company intranets
Embed YouTube videos inside SlideShare presentations

Of course, to sign up for a free version you must register with an e-mail address–something you cannot require students to do–and be aware of the fact that uploaded presentations will be available for the whole world to see. So make sure that your students understand this and caution them against including any personal information in their presentations.

Go ahead and check out the presentation embedded below. It’s one of my own that I created with Apple’s Keynote software.

The Turning Foundation (a group consisting of Samsung, Turning Technologies, and BrainPOP) has recently announced their Winter 2012 Classroom Improvement Technology Grant and are now accepting applications.

10 winners will be awarded the following effective and engaging teaching tools:

Okay, so I’m not so sure how effective and engaging the tablet is if you only have one in your class (learning station, maybe?), but it would still be pretty cool to have one. And the other two have indeed been proven to be worthwhile (though kind of pricey) tools here in Madison.

Grant applications close February 15, and awards will be announced on February 24. The application looks pretty simple and straight-forward, and only classroom teachers can apply.

More details and the application can be found here. Good luck!

When I came across Xtranormal, an online animated movie creator, I immediately thought of our elementary school teachers.  It’s an online movie making tool that allows users to create dialogue and movements for animated characters with a pretty vast library of characters and settings to chose from. I’m not suggesting that secondary teachers couldn’t find good use of it with their students, but the sheer number of students secondary teachers teach makes for a pretty hefty financial investment. It’s free to try, but then costs around $20 per month for a single elementary school class, about $50-60 per month for a secondary teacher.

The great thing about this product is that it’s inherently fun to create the movies and control the characters. But, more importantly, the educational uses are practically limitless.

Watch the video below, created by yours truly, and decide for yourself.  Then check out this getting started guide for educators.

Introducing Xtranormal
by: mkiefer18

By far, my favorite feature of the new version of Word in Office 2010 is its ability to convert Word documents to PDF files.  Why is this such a big deal to me?  This about this: When is the last time you ever downloaded a Word document from any legitimate website? Hopefully never, and there’s a simple reason why: not everyone has Microsoft Word installed on their home PC, and you would need it to open a Word document downloaded from the web. However, everyone has a PDF reader on their computer. This is why product manuals, the menu from that new restaurant you’re thinking of checking out, or your monthly cable bill is posted as a PDF file…every computer can read and display it. This is not to say that posting Word docs to your Finalsite web page last year was a bad idea…until Word 2010 came around, you didn’t really have a choice.  But now you do.

Watch this video tutorial to see how easy it is to convert a Word doc to PDF, and then post it to your web page…