Virtual Sandbox Time

Give a kid a chance to play, and they may just teach us something!

It still amazes me how young children can pick up new technologies, like Apple’s iPad, and begin to manipulate objects on the screen without too much direction. Children certainly share an excitement for playing around with something new, and learning what they can do with it. They simply have no fear of failure. In fact, I have never heard an elementary student say, “But I’m afraid I might break it.” Where do some adults lose that curiosity? Or gain a fear of failure or feel frustration with trying something new?

Kids are just naturally great at discovering and exploring new things. Whether it was a sandbox or water table from our youth, or a mobile tablet for today’s children, trying something new is exciting and fun! Unfortunately, this play time doesn’t always translate in the educational setting. 

Due to time constraints, program directives, or adults’ comfort levels, activities and lessons using technology can become very programatic. By that I mean children are often asked to perform similar, if not exactly the same, tasks as they just observed an adult doing, otherwise known as listen and mimic (copy/paste method). Although this technique can be useful at times to teach basic tech skills, children really need to feel successful on their own. The only way a student truly learns is when they are asked to problem solve somewhat on their own, or through collaborative groups of their peers. These learned skills will stick with a child much longer, and derive more meaning, than any copy and paste activity provides.

Don’t get me wrong, certain skills such as citizenship, group work behavior and expectations, problem solving strategies, and basic skills and background knowledge of the curriculum content and the technology being used needs to be taught. This is especially true in the early elementary grades as a base knowledge, however, open ended projects, presentations, or exploration in which a student can choose the tool they use can be highly beneficial. Playing around with something new, or finding ways to express their findings in a unique way can build upon 21st century skills and promote life-long adaptable learning. A skill that all students will need to know in order to be successful in their lives.

Technology settings are often focused on a single user. One child sitting at a computer, tablet, or other form of technology working on an individual project. Instead, let children get up browse around to see what their peers are doing, allow them to ask critical questions, and find new and inventive ways to use a tool to present, create, communicate and publish their work for feedback. Give them the opportunity to try something new and to fail without feeling defeated. They need to learn from their mistakes, and find ways to work around them. We need to encourage our children to play and explore in the physical and virtual sandbox, but also to reflect and present their findings to adults and their peers. They will become better problem solvers as they build their toolkit for the future.

eNewsletter, Tech Tips, and Trouble Shooting Oh My!

I am swamped with writing blogs, create and publishing video tutorials for Tech Tips, organizing a Trouble Shooting group at both elementary schools in York, all while finishing up my masters and trying to maintain my regular day-to-day duties as a technology integration specialist. I apologize for the brief blog post, but every now and then it's a good idea to update readers on the other projects that are going on as well.

The latest edition of the eNewsletter for February is published. My main article is all about the balancing act educators go through every day in trying to embed enriching technology into their lessons. How much is too much? Balance has always been the key, and I offer some good strategies to keep that moto. There are also some wonderful web sites for teachers and students to check out, and my new iPad app of the month is another great interactive story. I hope you enjoy!

Each week I broadcast a Tech Tip of the Week over our CTV live in the school on a morning during the week before class begins. This way teachers can stay in their classrooms in the morning while they are getting ready for the school day and still learn a quick tip that they can use in class or in the lab using technology. At my web site above, I archive all of the Tech Tips so that teachers can revisit them as the need arises.

I have started a new Trouble Shooting and Problem Solving group in the mornings at both elementary schools as well. This group meets in the lab once a week before the student day begins to analyze a scenario or issue that often comes up with teachers in the computer lab, and finds ways to troubleshoot or work around these issues. I add the scenario and our potential problem solving strategies to a blog so that others can add comments or reply to problems that we cannot work out. It's just a start, but we would love global feedback as well.

Lastly, I have been asked more then ever to publish videos online for teachers to share students' projects, broadcasts, presentations and successes. For this reason, my YouTube Channel has grown immensely in the last year.

Of course I do not expect you to follow all of these resources. It's hard enough for me to keep up with them and I'm the author of each! If, however, you would like reminders of new updates to each of these blogs, posts, uploads, or publishes, you can check out my Mobile App, which will send you reminders for each of these areas as they are updated, and also lets you follow me on Twitter.

Internet Safety in our World

Parents and teachers often say, "Technology is moving so fast, I cannot keep up. My children, or students, know more about them then I do. How can I possibly make sure they are safe online, unless I take some of their access, or privileges away from them?"


I hear this issue all the time. Is it really the technologies, and the accessibility to these technologies that are the problem, or is it a lack of supervision and guidance from educators and adults that are comfortable with what these technologies can provide that is the real issue? We have similar issues in our district. In fact, an art lab at our high school was fully decked out with brand new iMacs and students snuck in and had video chats, and shot pictures of themselves in provocative and even nude poses, however they were "smart" in that they never showed their faces. Since the students could not be identified, the iMac's web cam was taped up and then eventually disabled. I argue that these students will now just find another outlet to explore either within the high school again, or at somebody's house. 

The issue to me isn't that the access to these technologies are there, but rather there was not an educator there to supervise and make sure students were using the technologies to make good choices in their interactions and education. I have to have this same conversation every year at our parent Internet Safety talks in which many of our community parents believe that as long as the web site search starts on a school page, they are filtered at home. I have to always explain that our filters only work within our buildings, and when they are at home they are on their filter, if one exists.

I was at a conference once in which the issue of Internet safety in our schools was brought up and the speaker used this as a metaphor. When we were kids, we would leave our houses and walk down to the neighborhood playground or park. Some of us used the equipment as they were meant to be played with, and others used this area to get into mischief. Now, parents do not trust their children to leave the house by themselves, as the world is too dangerous. They feel that they are much more safe sitting in their room, right within the house. However, that room is equipped with cable TV and a computer or mobile device hooked up to the Internet. As soon as a child decides to enter a chat room, or other forum, they have entered the same park we used to go to in which each user can see this area as something different. The problem with this new picture is that this park could include a million people world wide and it isn't as obvious to distinguish between character and friend or foe as it was in the physical park we used to play in. Is this area really safer unsupervised by their parents then actually leaving the house without adult supervision and walking down to the community park? I would have to disagree.

Unless teachers and parents have ample amount of time, the desire, and guidance to try out all of these technologies, they will never catch up or surpass their children, or students, in technology expertise. That is not really the issue though. Supervision and balance is the key. It's great that students are willing to experiment and try new things, however, the one thing they may lack that adults and teachers can provide, despite their technology abilities or savvy, is how to make good ethical choices when using these technologies. Just because an adult does not fully understand how a webcam, video conferencing software, or chat room operates, does not mean that they could not sit down with their child and provide some guidance on how to act ethically online. In this model, both people become teachers and learners. The child shares their knowledge of the technology tool, while the adult shares ethical reasoning and making good choices. Together they both will learn, and the relationship and trust between the two will become stronger. 

(Photo courtesy of jenliddy.wordpress.com)

It's also important to provide balance. Adults need to carve out some time in their day to share experiences with their children or students. Take the time to see what children are interested in and do online, and provide common family areas in the house where the computer can be located and not behind closed doors. Then take some time to interact offline. Whether it be a family game night, with an old fashioned board game, or a stroll in a physical park, or sharing a meal in a restaurant. Kids need good role models, and their observations and actions generally reflect what they have witnessed both online and off. Sometimes, however, they have to realize that the online world, although filled with virtual meeting places and fake identities, does not mean that human interactions between one another should be any different then that of the real world. After all, a person's true character comes out when they are alone behind closed doors. Some students feel that when they are online in their bedrooms they are in this place, even though the Internet has actually opened up it's doors to the world.

Project 365 and Project 52

For Christmas this year, Santa brought me a new iPhone 4S. I love it! It is so much faster then my older iPhone 3G and the High Definition camera is great. With this new tool, I have decided to commit myself to two year long projects this year as a New Year's resolution to hone my photography and filming skills.

Many of you have heard of Project 365, and I have had the app on my phone pretty much since I had purchased the older 3G, however, I never made it past two pictures on the yearly calendar. Well, with the new camera in the iPhone 4S, and our brand new daughter at home (now 3 months), it seems like a perfect match for this project. My plan is to take a picture of Elsa, our baby girl, next to a window each day for the Project 365. At the end, I would like to create a YouTube video of her growth throughout the year as the seasons change out the window. Hopefully I can share this project with my daughter when she is old enough to appreciate it. It's a long road, but so far I am 5 for 5.

This picture was taken before Project 365 started on January 1st.

My other year long goal is to work on my filming skills. I have always been a fan of the movies, and as a young boy I used my father's old video camera to make small movies using my sister's Barbie dolls, or my Lego sets in a stop motion scene, or reenacted fun scenes with my friends out in our backyard. Well, now that I am equipped with an HD camera in my pocket on the new iPhone 4S, I plan to create mini clips each week to better my skills in filming and play around with some apps for special effects. I think this task would be impossible, unless I quit my day job, to publish each day to YouTube, however, once a week seems manageable to me so I will call it Project 52.

This is a clip I created with a 5th grade student using the app "Action Movie" on the iPhone and a green screen to complete the backdrop.

My intent with these two year long projects is to hone my own skills, but to also use these as models to inspire other educators in and out of my district, as well as students to take learning beyond the classroom. I'm certainly not a professional photographer or filmographer, but it's important to share my trials and tribulations with students to showcase that it takes time and practice to get good at something. It's important that educators and schools allow students to try something and fail once or twice before they are expected to master something. This is something that seems to be escaping us in public education, and I fear that true learning, through real hands-on experimentation, may decrease in our curriculum unless we do something about it.

Reflection on Project 365 and Project 52

My first personal reflections of the project are that this will take a great deal of effort and time, but I believe it is worth it. In my Project 365 theme, I realized that I don't always get home in time to "see" the weather outside the window, and therefore you cannot see what it looks like in Maine at this time of year, however, daylight and time change may be something I will use to reinforce and skirt my problem. (Also, there is no snow on the ground right now to see in Southern Maine anyhow.)

On my clip above for my Project 52 entry, I realize that we need a bigger green screen. I would love to convert one of our double wide trailers "parked" outside of the school as an extended classroom into a production studio and paint the entire inside chroma key green for student projects. That way we wouldn't have to figure out where to hang the old green cloth, or find more green poster paper. I'll keep working though. After all, I have 365 days to better my skills. Cheers!

eNewsletter and Happy New Year!

It's that time of year again, where everyone reflects on the past year and sets goals, or New Year's resolutions, to better themselves for the upcoming year. As a technology integration specialist, and a member of our district's 21st Century Team, my work this year has been focused on what I can do to help inspire, promote and assist other educators to dive into creating and administering enriching lessons that ask students to solve problems using 21st century skills.

I have to admit there has been a lot of talk about theory and planning for what we can do in the upcoming year, but ultimately our district team, like many others across our nation, have regurgitated 21st century skills to our peers, but have not really defined the purpose for implementing this important task on our teachers.

My biggest goal for this upcoming year, is to model 21st century skills by creating, collaborating, solving complex or open ended problems, and publishing these ideas and strategies to a global audience. Why? Well, because there has been enough talk in mind. It's time to actually put this plan into action. I may crash and burn, but at least I will have practiced what I preach. After all, there is a problem on the table here; How do we prepare our students of today for jobs and careers of the future? There is no set answer, so I will offer one or more solutions and allow my online profession learning network to comment and offer feedback. My hopes are to inspire others to take the lead with me, and jump head first into a new educational paradigm.

My final class for my master's degree is an introductory course on teaching online for grades K-12. Curriculum has always been a passion of mine, and the ability to infuse and embed technology to enhance the lesson has always been something I strongly valued. That's how I fell upon the job of an integration specialist for a school district focused on grades K-4. I also feel that project based learning, game based learning, and creativity can provide an education for our students better than any programmed curriculum or standardized testing that the local district, state or nation believe provides the best assessment of learning strategies and student comprehension.

In my latest eNewsletter, I reflect on the past year a bit, but look towards the future and offer some insight into my goals for the coming year, and what I believe will truly prepare our students for what may lie ahead for them in their own careers. Please feel free to comment and offer feedback. Where is your district headed towards infusing 21st century skills across the curriculum?

Flat Stanley Project

Last night, at our district school board meeting, three 4th grade students, their teacher, and our building principal presented their Virtual Flat Stanley projects to our community via public access television. Every year our 4th graders at Coastal Ridge Elementary School send out a flat version of themselves to family, friends and friends-of-friends all over the world hoping to get a feel for the cultural that their flat versions of themselves will "see" while they are visiting. It's truly amazing to see their enthusiastic faces when packages arrive via snail mail to the school full of photos, brochures, and souvenirs from lands afar accompanied by their folded up flat self.

As adults we have taken for granted receiving mail through the postal service as we have grown up with that form of communication, and probably do not really care if we receive it via a mailbox or in our email inbox any more. Well, unless it's a package. We all love getting packages in the mail. The kids, on the other hand, do not have much experience with writing and receiving actual tangible letters and packages in the mail any more, and their eyes just light up when something comes to the school addressed to them. It's like Christmas morning to them!

After opening their packages and sharing with the rest of their classmates all about their flat selves' visit to lands beyond our little community, they start converting everything to digital format. Photos are scanned in, brochures, posters and souvenirs are captured via a document camera or webcam. The students in Miss Switzer's class then compile all of their digital artifacts and create mini web pages using Apple's iWeb to share what they have learned through their 2D portrayal's travels. This is exactly what the students were presenting to our school board and community last night. The students did a fabulous job and their web pages, each individual unique, are on display for the whole world to see. This is a wonderful project, and everyone in Miss Switzer's class should feel very proud of their accomplishments!

Check out all of the students' web pages on Miss Switzer's Flat Stanley Project page.

Holiday Wish Lists

In my latest eNewsletter for December to the staff at both Village Elementary School and Coastal Ridge Elementary School, I mentioned how "game changers", like Apple's iPad 2, are revolutionizing how students are learning in our elementary classrooms. You only have to look as far as the Auburn School District in Auburn, Maine, which hosted an international conference during the Thanksgiving week, to see how these technologies are enhancing education. The school district allowed educators from all over the world to observe how tablets and other technologies are being used in their elementary classrooms to inspire and engage all students. Visitors were welcomed into classrooms and attended conferences after school hours to learn first hand from teachers and students how these technologies have changed the face of education in their district. Online streams, blogs and Tweets were presented by educators and students to members watching online as well. Students are learning through designated applications that focus on particular skills or problem solving strategies, and finding that Game-Based Learning is fun and engaging.


Game-Based Learning is not a new concept. The Everyday Math program really opened my eyes to this form of teaching style when the school district I used to work for adopted the program in 2002. Instead of rote math facts done over-and-over again to promote mastery, games were created and played to practice math facts and computations that were inspiring, engaging and exciting to the students. I learned first-hand as a third grade teacher that students were picking up on these skills much faster with game play then using more traditional methods of work sheets and practice papers. With the overly popular iOS devices in classrooms, iPads and iPods can be used to allow students to work on particular skills by playing games. Games also provide solid feedback to the child and a raw score to the educator, or parent, as another form of data of the students’ learning.


Game-Based Learning can take a bit of time to research which are the best apps for your child, but in the long-run can truly be the catalyst that engages all of your learners at your house and individualizes their educational path to meet their individual needs. As gift lists are being created for the holidays, and smart phones are being upgraded, remember that your child could benefit from educational Game-Based Learning at home too! I am hoping that the big guy will upgrade my iPhone this year, and in return I will transform my old iPhone 3G into an iPod for my little girl full of preschool and baby genius apps for the upcoming year. I can't wait to start family game night at my house with a balance of electronic and non-electronic games.


Eric Lawson has been teaching for 12 years. He has previously taught 3rd grade in Kennebunk before taking on the job of Technology Integration Specialist for the elementary schools here in York. He has been published in eSchool News, Tech&Learning Magazine and Learning and Leading with Technology Magazine for technology integrated projects and ideas. He is the author of the blog, "Computer Lab Without Walls", and offers extra curricular courses integrating technology through the York Parks and Recreation Department and Adult Education Programs.