Week 7: Learning inHand

As usual, great models to bring technology into the classroom with tools students are familiar with outside of the classroom. The ability to use, create and have students make their own apps as well as potentially leverage a product they already own and are comfortable with, seems like a great solution to build engagement and increased learning for them. What fourth grader wouldn't want an excuse to bring their iPod Touch to school, and use it in the classroom?


So I understand all the advantages and what students and educators can accomplish with technology in the classroom, and I raised the usual question to myself... How can I get this in my school for my students? My answer is grants, and donations. We need to find a way to get the funding for these tools in our school, and that is where my research needs to start. Once I find a substantial list of resources, my next step is to socialize and publish these resources to my staff. If our school is proactive in getting the latest technology, we've got to make a breakthrough and get something to start with, right?

I have realized that there is a level of frustration I feel when I watching the innovations in education and our district is struggling with the same battles year after year, more pink slips, less funding, increased class rooms as well as out-dated and very limited accessibility to state-of-the-art equipment.

There are lots of benefits to iPads, iPods and OpenSource technologies for both students and educators. As an administrator and as a parent, I want my students and children to have the ability to access these tool and start using them to bring learning to life, especially as Brian Crosby does in his classroom.

That being said, as a school we can start small and share any tools we get, such as iPads, but we will need to be creative in how we share them and build upon our technology library. We also need to find ways to take advantage of what we have in our classroom today and push the boundaries with the use of open source and free tools, such as we watch this week in Brian Crosby's TEDxDenverEd talk. I don't think my school is specifically ready to support the tools Tony Vincent shows in the iHand videos, but we can set it as a big picture goal to reach.

Week 7: Project Based Learning and Technology

The first thoughts that come to mind watching Brian Crosby's TEDxDenverEd - Back to the Future, that is simple, free and collaborative! Crosby seamlessly integrated everyday technology Wiki, Blog, Flickr, editing software and cross-collaboration with Skype. The software that facilitated these lessons where free, social and common technologies students should become familiar with, if they are not already. With the project based learning at the core of his lesson, Crosby is able to keep the students engaged and focused to achieve a successful lesson - the class learned and wants to continue learning!

Project based learning with technology has a multitude of benefits for the lesson, the student and the teacher. With this model you can create immediate engagement with your class, and bring reading, writing, science, social studies, and math together in a way that the students do not even realize the amount of learning they have done!

The most challenging aspect of this style of teaching/learning environment is assessing and highlighting that the students have learned what is necessary for success on standardized test, such as the NECAPs.  It would be great if we could create a Project that had a rubric aligned to the NECAP assessment and the ability to grade/align the core standardized testing fundamentals to the project based learning curriculum, and this wiki shows that there are some districts and educators who are already attempting this in the classrooms.

In relation to the NECAP and the struggles the Manchester School District continues to have with bringing technology to the classroom, the state wants to move all testing to an online format but can not because our city is not able to facilitate this for the entire district, this recent Union Leader news article highlights what we are struggling with and how constrained the entire district is with lack of funding and outdated technology. As usual, I think about the technology we are learning about and its uses, then wonder if Manchester will ever be able to accommodate these innovations within the classroom.

Week 6, Podcast: Northwest Elementary School Million Word Challenge Celebration

This podcast was taken during our Million Word Challenge Celebration. It is our elementary school singing "Gotta Keep Reading" to kick off our Million Word Challenge Celebration. Every student that participated, successfully read 20 books each month of the school year. Enjoy!