Students Use Tech to Learn

I had a teacher in my office a couple days ago wondering how to share his PowerPoint presentations with students in a better way than just standing in front of the class and delivering or just passing around a USB drive. He has a classroom website, so the solution was to load the presentations in Google Docs, share them out, and then link them to his website. It made it so easy for students to access the PowerPoint tutorials, for independent use in the classroom, as well as for access from home for those who have Internet access.

I had a conversation yesterday with the second year teacher that I mentor about the web sites that his eighth grade students are making. He's hoping that by the time they are through, they will be a kind of portfolio for them. We also visited about how he makes sure that students know that when they use technology to present to a group, there are choices, including PowerPoint, Google presentation, and Prezi. He knows that it's usually wrong to assign a student a particular tech product when the product is merely a tool for learning.

I worked with a science teacher a few days ago as he got students logged into our Google Apps domain, so they could collaborate on Google Docs.

I met with a group of staff members at the elementary school yesterday to visit about their plans for reinforcing and expanding the learning of their teachers when it comes to the technologies they have available in their building for student use. Their focus on blogging as a way for students to improve their writing is exciting. The options it opens up for collaboration and learning outside the walls of the classroom is remarkable. The fact that they shared their student technology use with the parents who came to parent night last night makes my heart sing!

I saw a trouble ticket for one of my techs go by asking for access to Rosetta Stone in a different lab than where the students are currently using it, because it would be more convenient for the adult learners that are coming into the building after hours.

When I requested that teachers send me some examples of student use of technology in their classrooms, one PLC shared their Google spreadsheet with me, where they personally track their student technology use!

I will be sharing more specifics of student technology use as teachers send me their reports. I'm just so proud of the work our teachers are doing with technology. There's no doubt that our teachers are taking very seriously the use of technology to increase student learning.

Is it really free?

I just spent the last three hours getting two "free" computers loaded up with software that will work with our domain in our classrooms. That software will cost over $100. Despite the fact that the computers are brand new, they have only the typical specs of today's netbooks, even though they are full size computers. Let's just say, in my humble opinion: "Free is not always free, and free is not always worth it."

The key, I think, is minimum specs and to standardize, standardize, standardize. I always ask what do you want to do with the equipment and do we already have something that will do that?

Technology for Learning

Things have been so busy in the Storm Lake Community School District Technology Department that I haven't blogged in two months. Wow! I think the first entry better be the upgrades we made over the summer.  

• Brand new wireless at the High School, capable of supporting wireless devices for every student and employee in the building
•  Four new mobile labs of thirty laptops each, two for the High School and two for the Elementary School
• Thirteen new Smart Boards, scattered in all four district buildings, many of which include brand new short throw projectors
• Many new document cameras
• Several printers for those without easy access to district copiers
• Laptops for every High School teacher and every teacher at East making meetings, professional development, and work outside the district hugely more accessible--We will be moving towards laptops for teachers in all district buildings as the teachers' work stations age out and need replaced.
• Updates and reimages of most of our district's almost 900 computers, work which is continuing even after school has started. That's a lot of computers!
• More wireless access at East Early Childhood and at the Middle School
• Network setup for MAP testing, now at the High School, the Middle School, and the Elementary School
• Several data projectors added and several replaced
• Two iPads for use in Elementary School Special Education

There could be more. That's off the top of my head. In addition, we did extensive professional development for educational technology. Those with new Smart Boards have held several sessions, formal and informal. The Middle School brought in McCrel for technology integration training for all their teachers. The Elementary school had a learning group that worked on web sites. The High School has held a couple training sessions to help teachers make full use of their new laptops. We've continued to train teachers in the use of Google Apps, both for themselves and for their students. Today the Elementary teachers are Skyping with an AEA person who will help them with their student blogging that they are expanding this school year.

In addition, the teachers who attended several training sessions through the AEA last year to become teacher technology leaders have been leading training and helping their fellow teachers in less formal more one on one ways to integrate technology into their classrooms.

I'm sure I'm leaving things out. That's what happens when you don't blog for two months! On the other hand, I just couldn't be prouder of the work that administration, teachers, and staff are doing to make sure that our students are using technology tools for learning. It's not easy to get groups started with student email or Google Apps or working on projects online. However, as we move forward with these instructional strategies, we see students becoming better versed in logging in, where to go, what to use, and how to use it. It's great to see the collaboration between staff and students and between students themselves.

It's a great time to be a Tornado. I promise to blog more regularly!

Sportsmanship

In a softball season where victories have been measured in managing to get through all seven innings without getting 10 or 12 runned, in hitting the cutoff man, in catching the fly ball in the outfield, in a successful double play, in knocking the ball down in the infield, in pitching over and over and over again when your fielders aren't backing you up very well, or in a particularly good individual hit, it's hugely apparent how hurtful and inappropriate public fan disagreement with the umpires is. I don't care if you think a call was completely wrong. It does no one any good to berate the umpire. Hats off to the umpire who confronted the unsportsmanlike conduct of the man in the crowd last night. The truth of the matter is that umpires are a part of the game, and like the team members, are doing the best they can to be accurate. It is not the job of the fans to second guess those calls at the time they are made. It's part of the game, folks.

Hats off to Lily, Ashley, Shelby, Megan, Alanna, Alyssa, Maggie, Katie, Annabelle, Brenna, Emily, and Haylee. You girls have shown us what true sportsmanship and loyalty to one's school looks like. When we adults were teetering on the edge of calling off softball for the year, this group of mostly inexperienced girls continued to go to open gyms and let us know that they were willing to compete under the Tornado Green and White no matter what the wins and losses would look like. Hats off to your two game wins! Hats off especially, though, to your tenacity, your hard work, your undying spirit, and your love of the game. We adults could take a lesson. Good luck at Regional play this weekend!

Last Day of 10-11 School Year

It's so hard to believe that the school year is officially over today. I guess the adage "Time flies when you're having fun" applies! What a year we've had with lots of new technology equipment, an abundance of in-house educational technology professional development, several EdTech conferences attended by lots of district teachers, and the continuation of collaboration between teachers not only within our own district but collaboration with others out of the district. It's no longer acceptable to rely on textbooks that can be outdated before they're even shipped or to continue with instructional strategies that were acceptable thirty years ago. Teachers have a responsibility to stay on the cutting edge of technologies that are available in the district and to use them effectively with their students to increase learning.

I'll say it again, it's easy to take new technology and use it to present to one's class. What's difficult is to take new technologies and put them in the hands of students to give them control over their own learning. That's a paradigm shift for many teachers, and I'm proud to say we're getting there in our district. Bring on school year 11-12!

God Bless the Teachers

As I think about this talented group of teachers who are retiring from SLCSD this year, I think of all the teachers I've had over the course of my life. I think of all the teachers in my extended family, both those who are still teaching and those who have also retired. What a special group of people teachers are. Underpaid, undervalued, often blamed for things beyond their control, they continue on, fearlessly knowing that what they are doing is important for individual students surely, but also for the future of our world. I am who I am today because of my teachers and so are you. Thank a teacher today!

TED Talks Filter Bubbles

I love TED talks! The most interesting topics are discussed:

http://www.ted.com/talks

The one I listened to today concerns what Eli Pariser calls "Filter Bubbles." Did you realize that when you search for something on the web, it is personalized for you? For example, Amazon knows what you've looked at before and what you've purchased, and it shows you things that you might be interested in based on that. Facebook, Netflix, and the Huffington Post do, too. What these sites "know" about you determines what you will see when you search on them. Did you know the same goes for Google? If two of us search for the same thing on Google, using the same words, we will not get the same results. The results will be based on what Google "knows" about each of us. This is remarkable to me.

What this TED talk points out is that those who are writing the algorithms for the Internet have to reconsider these "filter bubbles" that they create for us, these personalized search results. Take a look at his TED talk. It's only nine minutes long:



The ramifications of this for education are so huge. Students searching for information but only seeing the information that agrees with things they've accessed in the past. Teachers searching for information and not digging deep enough to find what they really need. Any of us travelers looking for current news about a place but seeing a bunch of travel links.

Wow! This is one of many important concepts we owe it to our students to teach them. Who knew?