Computer Lab without Walls

Internet Safety in our World

2012-01-15T07:08:00.000-08:00

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

2012-01-05T06:55:00.000-08:00

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!

2011-12-31T11:21:00.000-08:00

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

2011-12-22T06:39:00.000-08:00

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

2011-12-07T08:18:00.001-08:00

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

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

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

Eric Lawson has been teaching for 12 years. He has previously taught 3rd grade in Kennebunkbefore taking on the job of Technology Integration Specialist for the elementary schools here inYork. 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 theblog, "Computer Lab Without Walls", and offers extra curricular courses integrating technologythrough the York Parks and Recreation Department and Adult Education Programs.

Game-Based Learning

2011-11-28T06:37:00.001-08:00

In this edition of the December eNewsletter, I have included some great resources and links for bringing Game-Based Learning into the classroom. How is Game-Based Learning being used in your classroom or school?

A World Without Power

2011-11-08T08:31:00.001-08:00

During the Halloween weekend, the east coast got pounded with it's first big Noreaster of the season. Living in Maine, I have grown accustom to the long winters, but starting in October is a bit ridiculous even for our standards. At my house we only lost power for about 27 hours, but many people around us and certainly in southern New Hampshire lost it for almost an entire week. It got me to thinking...

We truly have started to become completely dependent on technology and the ease of accessibility anywhere at any time. I was thinking to myself, that I really had to mail in my assignment on Saturday before the storm hit, because my town of Wells, Maine has become a ghost town now that the tourist and "leaf peepers" season is officially over. It would have taken me 30 minutes to drive to a coffee shop with free Wi-Fi.

A colleague and I were discussing that the future of the military will probably no longer be investing so highly in explosives but rather in new technologies like Pulses and Pinches. These are like mini generators that when activated, will actually take out an area completely so that there is no power. The scene from "Ocean's 11" where they are ready to rob Andy Garcia's casino comes rushing back to my mind.

We were fortunate enough to have power back on at school on Monday when we returned, but it took 3.5 hours for the IT department to get our network and Internet connection back online. I truly felt useless at school in those hours and couldn't even access my calendar to see whom I needed to postpone our meeting with as it was locked up in our network.

eNewsletter November

2011-11-08T08:29:00.000-08:00

In this month's edition of my eNewsletter, I dive a little deeper into the Apple iOS update and what it means in an educational setting.

21st Century Team

2011-10-18T07:13:00.000-07:00

The York School Department has established a 21st Century district team. This team is a compilation of different administrators, tech. integrators, and a variety of classroom teachers that span the entire K-12 perspective from all of the schools within our district. Members were asked to apply for the position in the spring of 2009 and the Superintendent of Schools, Director of Technology and Curriculum Coordinator met to establish the team and coordinate the first introductory meeting in the fall of 2010. In our first year, we really tried to establish what 21st century skills look like for York teachers, and every member was given an iPad by the district to play and learn more about how mobile technologies can promote problem solving and 21st century skills on the go. It took the entire year really to establish our mission. We met once a month during the school year, to understand our goals and to really identify what we wanted to do in order to help move education in York into the present and hope to look towards the future.

This has been a real frustration for many members, as things were discussed and sorted out, but rarely was a true decision made by the team at any given meeting. We all wanted to move forward, but were not sure that the group, as a whole, knew how or could agree on what it was that needed to be done in order to do that. Unlike other district teams that I have been on, within this district and in others, there was no real target to shoot for or goals/steps to check off as they were completed. We were treading in open water. There were certainly some resources that have helped pave the way, or shed a little light towards a distant end of a tunnel, but it was tough to take a step without knowing where we wanted to go in the first place. For this reason it has been a slow process.

This year's goals for the team are to create windows of how teachers and students within our district are already using 21st century skills in-and-out of the classroom. Hopefully with these examples published, other teachers, community members, administrators and school board members will understand what it is that we are looking for and trying to achieve. It's a good first step anyway. Another big goal for the team this year is to plan out a full day teacher inservice centered around 21st century skills. This presents an interesting issue and potential problem. In the past, this inservice day has been designed around technology as a whole, and in more recent years, technology as it integrates within everyone's curriculum. Inservice days are always met with mixed emotions by the staff. Time is always an issue in education and giving a teacher some time without students can truly be beneficial if the day is planned out correctly. In the past few years, teachers have not seen these inservice days as planned out to help them, but rather as one more thing on their plate that caused stress and anxiety. Technology integration, in my eyes, should not be counted as "one more thing" as in many cases it is already happening all over the place, but I do see how one can be concerned with a new set of skills that are needed in order to manipulate the technologies to fully engage students and bring about higher quality of work and thinking. I'm just afraid that a day labeled, "21st Century Skills", even though we are 11 years into the 21st century already, will be looked at as just one more thing to add to the overcrowded teachers' plates. So how do we create a day, centered around 21st century skills that will be met by teachers with excitement and a sense that it can be accomplished without adding too much? It's a daunting task for sure, and one that I fear may take a lot more meetings then we have time for. Do you have any ideas, or have you created something like that in your district?

The third and final goal for our group this year is to create a base line online professional development course for all educators within our district that clearly label how York would like to continue with 21st century skills, and provide opportunities to the learner to research, examine, play and reflect on web 2.0, mobile, and other technology tools that can enhance the teaching experience and therefore the learning of each and every student that walks through the doors within the York School Department. I've taken several online courses, as I am finishing up my masters degree in the Technology in Education program at Lesley University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, however, many of the classes are setup in modules in which we were asked to research how a task could be used in class, read examples of potential outcomes, create a product or task for our students to try out and then reflect on the outcomes. These are all good practices, but each tool that I have used was the focus of the task. Teaching technology tools are great, but in order to promote 21st century skills and also hopefully only have each staff member take the course once within their tenure here in York, we will need to make it more of a theory and methods course. Heck, the way technology changes and improves, by the time the teacher taking course learns how to Tweet, we may have a better way to communicate in a similar way. I'm reminded of how I felt when I heard the Flip camera was no longer going to be manufactured after spending 4 professional development days with staff showing them how to use the technology and import the footage into a video editing software program in order to publish their masterpieces to the web. Again this will be a difficult task. Has anyone out there created a baseline class for either tech. integration or 21st century for education staff?

Our Latest Arrival

2011-10-05T07:47:00.000-07:00

I'm sitting in the window seat of our hospital room looking out over the city of Portland as the clouds make way for the sun, while my wife and new arrival, Elsa Grace, are both napping. Of course I checked-in and uploaded a picture on Facebook already. It's times like these that I'm not only thankful for my life and loved ones around me, but the wonderful ways that technology can keep friends and family close together. I don't have to excuse myself from the room every time I want to talk to everyone on "our call list", I can just jump online with my iPhone and tell the world about our new bundle of joy. There is some debate amongst my generation and older, that much like the tag line, "video killed the radio star", the text message will kill human interaction and communication as well. This has been a subject I have been very frustrated with in the past as many people seem to abuse the technology and forget the biggest part, communication and human interaction. There are certainly times and places for these technologies and I have witnessed it first hand this week as I was able to update my Facebook and Twitter accounts to tell my friends and family world wide how my wife and baby are doing. I still had a short list of immediate family on the call list, and certainly gave time to express my true emotions over the phone and as they stop by our room to visit too though. I think that is the biggest and most important part of these new technologies. It has been a huge time savor and wonderful way to communicate in a speedy amount of time of our happy news, but I think it is always a good idea to have a balance too.It's true about all technology and how we integrate it within our educational practice and within our lives. As a technology integration specialist, I am constantly finding ways and being asked to think creatively about how technology can be infused within a lesson, unit or activity. It's almost impossible for me to think of a lesson without some component of technology being used now, even if it is on the lower level of technology use, but I am always reflecting on the lesson and asking if the amount of technology used transformed or gave the lesson a higher quality or not. I would never use technology just to make sure it is in there, but only if it made the lesson better.

On this beautiful fall day in Maine I'm reminded why I live in this great state. Now I can't wait to get back home with my beautiful wife and baby to share our new life together! Everyone can see how proud and happy I am of this moment. Isn't technology a wonderful thing?

The Fall Preview

2011-09-26T07:16:00.000-07:00

As many of you know, I create an eNewsletter each month for the staff members in my district. In this month's eNewsletter I take a real hard look at 21st Century Skills. Here is a snippet of my article. You can also click for the full eNewsletter for October.No doubt the message is loud and clear by now. 21st century skills are more then just buzz words. It isn’t going to be going away any time soon. In fact, people have been talking about this for more then 12 years now. A shift in education is happening, although it may be slower then many people had hoped or anticipated. Whether you have seen Sir Ken Robinson’s speech adapted by RSA Animate on his views for a need to shift the educational paradigm, or you have merely heard about it at faculty meetings, college courses, conferences, or even webinars, it has hopefully reached you at some point.So what are 21st Century Skills? We hear about them all the time, but why haven’t they just been defined and presented as curriculum goals or state standards by now for goodness sake? Well, they aren’t the easiest to completely define. It’s like taking a look into the future, although we are currently more then a decade into the 21st century, these skills are defined as those needed by the students of today to be successful within the world of tomorrow. This can present a few problems. How can we predict today what life will be like in 10, 15 or even 20 years? True, some things will not have changed too drastically by then, but unless you live under a rock, you have realized that technology has played a huge part in our lives over the past 10 years and continually evolves making life easier and more manageable. I mean the iPad that I received last fall is already way outdated!There are some great resources though for catching a glimpse into what 21st Century Skills look like and how they can be taught to our students of today. Web sites such as; The Partnership for 21st Century Skills has set up the framework towards skills needed to achieve success and be problem solvers for the world of tomorrow. Instead of set skills as we were used to in our educational experience, the skills are defined as ways to promote higher order thinking so that students can adapt to the ever changing ways of our world.21st Century Skills aren’t all about the technology though. Technology will play a huge part in our shift in education, but it has been a huge part of our lives outside of school as well, so that makes sense. It’s true, technology will be used for many of the things we do, but it is just the tool, or conduit, towards the real learning. 21st Century Skills are more then just the latest technology trends. They are skills needed to be successful problem solvers and citizens of the future.The International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE), defines these skills for students as; 1. Creativity and Innovation, 2. Communication and Collaboration, 3. Research and Information Fluency,4. Critical Thinking, Problem Solving, and Decision Making, 5. Digital Citizenship, and 6. Technology Operations and Concepts. The shift is already here, but we certainly need innovation leaders and risk takers to help educate students with this new shift in education. These people cannot be afraid to learn something new, even if that is from one of their own students. 21st Century leaders and educators must grasp this idea and promote real world thinking and problem solving. The world of tomorrow is closer then you may think!

First Two Weeks of School

2011-09-14T06:44:00.000-07:00

As we are half way through our second week of school I have reflected on how different the beginning of the school year feels from that of 5 or 6 years ago to me. Of course, 5 years ago I was teaching 3rd grade and had a very enthusiastic group of 20-8 and 9 year olds in my own classroom space, so it would naturally feel different since as a tech integrator I am not blessed with my own classroom and students. So besides the physical space, and responsibility for my "own" students, what are the big differences you ask? I guess now more then ever I feel that the first few weeks are used for feeling out students and staff. These two weeks have always been overwhelming for many teachers, but I have certainly seen an increased stress level and high anxiety issues within the past 5 years as well. State and national mandated testing, Routes to Intervention and finding better ways to "group" students based on ability levels yet keep a heterogeneous community within a classroom has become a constant struggle for the beginning of the year.In our district, we test students using the NWEA and CPAA computer based test both in the fall and the spring.(The CPAA test is given 6 times per year. Two for each trimester.) It is therefore important, especially in the eyes of administrators within our district, to test early in the year so that teachers and students see the maximum growth throughout each year. Of course this makes our district "look good" when compared to that of other districts within our state. As a classroom teacher I loved this type of testing as it only took up about an hour of our day, the tests were individualized for each and every student, and scores gave immediate feedback to both the students and teachers. I still appreciate this style of testing due to the speed of feedback and the data that can be collected quite quickly, but I have to question how much information is too much? Researchers and people that love to make decisions based upon data will tell you that there is no such thing. I would tend to agree with that philosophy in theory, however, when do students have a chance to learn without feeling like their performance is being collected in this data bank that will ultimately mold their future and "class rank"?I remember loving going back to school in the elementary grades, but the approach was much different. Instead of testing, testing and more testing, we were given discovery time, and explorations. Of course the usual rules, expectations and books were "handed" out as well, but there was a real feel of community as we got to meet our new classmates and teachers through interactive lessons and discussions. The first few weeks were dedicated to community building and working as a team throughout the year. Again, this has not changed in theory within our district. In fact, one of our elementary schools holds the motto T.E.A.M.; Together Everyone Achieves More, and students remind students of this motto each and every morning after the pledge, but in reality there isn't time to build a true team in the first two weeks any more. Students are rushed to the lab for national standardized testing, then pulled out of the classroom for RtI or special education testing, and then rushed to the cafe to eat and outside for recess. By the time they are back into the classroom curriculum programs have already started in order to get through the material before the end of the year. It's no wonder anxiety levels are at an all time high, and teachers are too stressed to attend professional development courses in the fall.So the first two weeks of school are coming to a close and I have assisted in setting up tests, troubleshot all kinds of technology malfunctions and issues, and met with teachers to discuss what would be the best tools to display a typical day within their classroom for open house and parent orientation since that is right around the corner. I have not spent a single minute planning professional development courses, creating a tech tip of the week video tutorial, or sitting down with a teacher for some one-to-one help to revamp their website. I'm not complaining, but I do feel at this rate we are going to have teachers burn out of our profession and students liking coming back to school in the fall less and less in the future. Maybe we need to take a step back for a second and allow the first few weeks of school to become a discovery and community building atmosphere again and hold off on all of the testing. Ultimately, we are trying to infuse the love of life long learning into each and every student that walks off the bus and into our school doors aren't we? I'm not sure I would have gotten to where I am today if I had been tested so much especially in those early weeks of school. What do you think?

Sandbox in the Lab Observation

2011-08-19T08:51:00.000-07:00

Throughout the summer tech. integration camps that I have offered this year, I have allowed the students some free time to play around with what I had just taught them as well as given them some free time each week to "show me" something new. Naturally as you would expect, Internet free games, music, TV on the Internet and of course social networking has been the options of choice for the kids in my camps.

During the last week of camp, filming and editing our movie didn't always require all of the students at one time, so there were times when the students had free time at their computers. I have learned more about Club Penguin then I ever really cared to, but I have to admit I have learned a few things from the kids. From an entrepreneur's standpoint, I could easily open up an Internet cafe for kids called Club Penguin and make millions. These students would have spent all 4.5 hours of each day's camp playing these games and interacting on screen, as well as in person within the room with their classmates.

At first, this made me nervous knowing that too much of anything is not good, and I certainly did not want to create some video zombies either. It was funny though to watch the students interact with one another, combine efforts in virtual worlds by playing games, and even discussing moral issues with online environments and working to promote good netiquette while playing games within Club Penguin's social network. It took me a couple of days of observation to realize that they were really wrapped up in 21st century skills. They were collaborating, working face-to-face and virtually solving problems, and creating new games within the online space.

By the time these students enter the work force, we can only predict what their jobs will entail, but I have a feeling that many of the things that they learned during these free periods of time will prove to be very beneficial for becoming life long learners and problem solvers within the 21st century. Had this been a regular school lesson session, I doubt that many teachers, including myself, would have given them this much free time in order to observe this behavior. It makes me realize that we are too programmed sometimes when it comes to creating lessons for the computer lab.

Often I witness teachers in the computer lab that instruct students on basic skills within a program to ultimately present a research topic in a meaningful way. However, in most cases many of the presentations end up looking very similar, if not identical, due to the fact that in order to get through the lessons in the allotted time, teachers are forced to share a single step and then have students follow this step exactly on their own machines. Initial and basic skills probably have to be taught this way, or in a similar way through tutorials, videos or walk throughs, but does this really promote 21st century skills and problem solving strategies?

The answer, in my opinion, is not exactly. Open ended, service learning and project based learning with multimedia offer much more for the student, and require higher order thinking skills. These types of projects take up a lot of time, and require lots of planning which is probably why they are often ignored or skipped, but in my mind would be well worth the time and experience. If teachers have not experienced this before it can be very overwhelming, but I would urge you to at least try one of these projects with your class. It may seem to take way too long, and chances are the first time around will take an eternity, but I guarantee the outcomes will be well worth the time and efforts.

If you don't believe me, just give your students some "sandbox" time in the computer lab for your first class trip to the lab the next time and just quietly observe the students' behaviors and interests. It could be the most influential experience in getting to really know your students right off the bat. It certainly will tell you more then test scores within the cum folder.

Lights, Camera, Action!

2011-08-19T06:35:00.000-07:00

This is our last week of technology integration summer camp, and our theme this week is Movie Making. The kids have been busy making animations in GoAnimate4Schools.com and GoAnimate.com. I still have not found a good way to download the video so that I can include their animations on the DVD that they will take home. It appears that you can upload some of your animations to YouTube.com with a "Plus Account" which would enable you to download the video as well. However, a "Plus Account" is extra money each month and not the best option for students in a week long themed summer camp. I have embedded a few of the student animations below.

Our major project this week has been in creating a movie with everyone in the group included. Since we only have the week to create, film, edit, and publish the film itself, we often look for available scripts that other authors have already created. During the school year, I would certainly have the students rework something that they have written for an assignment, or during writer's workshop, for our script, but with such a short timeline "stealing" a script speeds up the process and helps to make the week more successful. This session we grabbed a script from Aaron Shepard's Reader's Theater page, and a picture book that he has written called, The Legend of Lightning Larry. Lightning Larry is a cowboy that rides into the town of Brimstone and changes the old west down forever. Instead of shooting bullets, Larry's gun shoots bolts of light that makes everyone a better person.

We spent the first two days reviewing the script, storyboarding our scenes, gathering costumes and putting up the set (green rolls of paper helped immensely), and practicing our lines. Day three was used to film the entire movie. The storyboards proved to be a huge help, since two of the scenes took place at the Cottonmouth Saloon, and with the help of these plans we were able to shoot the movie out of sequence, but ultimately saving a great deal of time. Marco Torres, the guru of student films, once referred to the importance of storyboards by saying, "It's much easier to take an eraser to a blueprint then it is to take an axe to a foundation." I couldn't agree more!

Thursday we spent the entire day in the computer lab editing our project in iMovie. I had visited 1880 Town in South Dakota a few summers ago on a trip across the northern part of the United States to visit as many national parks as I could, and we were able to use a lot of the pictures from this tourist attraction for our movie to replace the green screen backgrounds.

Friday we reviewed the movie for the last time and added the final touches to voice overs, sound and visual effects. It was time to burn our film to DVD and share it to YouTube for the whole world to see and comment on. Take a look at our student film, The Legend of Lightning Larry below. Keep in mind the students did everything on this project except for the script itself. We would love to hear your reactions and feedback, so please post your comments after viewing the movie.

Paul's Talking Burger and Soda Animation, "I Got an F on My Test"
GoAnimate.com: f by sharks182

Like it? Create your own at GoAnimate.com. It's free and fun!

Timothy's Pirate Animation, "Oh God!"
GoAnimate.com: oh god by tfitzgerald

Like it? Create your own at GoAnimate.com. It's free and fun!

Quenton's Animal Animation, "I'm Cool You're Not"

GoAnimate.com: Im cool you are not by qconvery

Like it? Create your own at GoAnimate.com. It's free and fun!

Eric's Jungle Animation, "An Elephant that Doesn't Eat Peanuts"
GoAnimate.com: An Elephant that Doesn't Like Peanuts by lawsonlabs

Like it? Create your own at GoAnimate.com. It's free and fun!

The Legend of Lightning Larry story by Aaron Shepard

eMagination Week

2011-08-09T17:40:00.000-07:00

This week is a blended learning camp with a number of different multimedia types. During eMagination week at tech. integration summer camp, we have been creating our own video games using Gamestarmechanic.com, creating cartoons with Goanimate4schools.com and publishing our own comic books using Comic Life. This is always a fun week for me to teach as many of the elements between these three projects are similar, yet there are enough differences that it doesn't seem boring to spend 4 hours in the lab creating and developing their masterpieces.

The students arrive at 8:00am and I usually take about 15 - 20 minutes covering a quick mini lesson for creating video games, gaining extra characters, and developing a "true story" within a video game. Gamestarmechanic makes this very easy and fun for the students. Most of the time I have to stop them to take a break outside as they probably would play all day long.

After about an hour's worth of work we take a short recess break outside to stretch our legs and play a few games and have some snack. After all, sitting in front of a computer screen for 4 straight hours, even with students from the digital revolution, is too much time!

After coming in from our break, I once again share a quick 15 - 20 minute mini-lesson on creating animations, adding voice overs, sound tracks, or creating complex actions between characters. Then the students get another hour to play with the program and discover what they can create. The best part about teaching this course is the "sandbox" time that the students explore with on their own. I get to walk around and observe how, and what, the students discover on their own, and answer unique questions that they have on a case-by-case basis. The best is when a student figures out something new and shares it with his/her classmates right there on the spot. That to me is the true meaning of learning, and why I love teaching these summer camps.

We take another short break outside and end with one more mini-lesson about using Comic Life, creating a Simpson character, layering using iWorks instant alpha, or finding ways to add backgrounds to our colorful comic books. The students then end with an hour to write, edit and publish their comics. Some export their comics to web pages, and others prefer to print them in color and take home a hard copy of their masterpiece.

Student Web Pages

2011-08-05T17:40:00.000-07:00

This week for tech. integration camp we have four very enthusiastic students that are entering 6th grade in the fall. They have never created their very own web page before, so they were excited to try new things and share some of the fun things that they have seen on the web.

I first introduced the students to Apple's iWeb program which makes creating and editing web pages a snap. Everything is drag and drop, and what you see is what you get. In other words, there is no html programming or java script editing to do. In fact, you can embed html snippets, interactive maps, videos from YouTube or even their own web cam to add to the web with a simple drag and drop from the widgets menu of iWeb's program.

The students started with pictures they found from the web that they liked or enjoyed. Eventually they learned about YouTube additions and each added a video to their web page as well. Many students brought in cameras, phones and even a Nintendo DS with pictures and stop-motion animation films loaded on them that they wanted to transfer onto their web pages.

I only met with these students for two hours a day during the week, so it was more of a discovery and play type of session, and I have to admit that not all of the items are what I would have allowed if I were teaching this lesson in a school classroom, but it was interesting to see what the students wanted to add to their web pages and the things they picked up so quickly while they "played around" with their web page designs and formats.

A couple of web 2.0 tools that the students found particularly interesting to add to their web pages were Fotobabble.com and Blabberize.com. Fotobabble allows the user to record an audio recording to any digital image that they upload to the web site. This is a great tool for younger elementary students that want to comment on a picture, but lack the speedy typing skills or spelling skills to really reflect their ideas or opinions on the photo. Blabberize is a little different. It's the JibJab of mashing photos and audio. In other words, you can create a "mouth" that moves similar to the characters on JibJab or SouthPark. In other words, the site allows you to create virtual paper puppets that move their mouth as you talk into your computers microphone.

I would certainly use iWeb, or Weebly.com if you do not own a Mac, for student created projects that could be presented in a web page format. This would be a great tool for students to present information that they found in researching a particular topic, helping out their community through a service learning project, or for a book review or talk. I have helped students create web pages in the past for their Flat Stanley projects as the pictures from the visitors, interactive maps, and even a few videos were easily represented in a web page format for everyone to see.

Here is the link to the four student created web pages if you want to take a look at the finished product; StudentPages

Base Camp to Summit; Geocaching for Kids

2011-07-29T05:32:00.000-07:00

This week our theme at summer tech. camp is geocaching for kids. It's an introductory course to GPS units, some orienteering, and overall good fun outdoors. Most importantly it's using technology to integrate some family fun activities and still get outside when the weather is gorgeous here in Maine. This week, I have 7 students ages 8-10 that love all things technology. Most of them use technology in the forms of cameras, video games, and iPods, but have never tried geocaching.

On Monday we explored how GPS units work by watching a short video on Brainpop and then going outside onto the school's playground to use the digital compass to locate 4 film canisters that I had hidden earlier that morning. We then came back to the lab to watch the tutorial video on geocaching.com to learn about the sport and how to get started. There is a cache hidden behind our school that a group of students and I setup a few years ago in our after school geocaching club called, "School House Rocks Box". It's a metal lunchbox that is hidden in the woods behind our school. It's perfect for an introduction since it's large enough to stow away small trinkets and prizes, and the path to it is very easy to manage as well. We also use this cache to start our Virtual Flat Stanley's on their treks around the world!

On Tuesday we had found that there was a cache about 3/4 of a mile down the road at our town's public library called, "Read, Read, Read". The students learned how to input the coordinates on this one into their GPS units and packed up for a short hike. They were pleased to see some good prizes in this cache to trade with, and couldn't wait to hide one themselves. When we arrived back to school we took a walk back out into the woods and marked areas with the GPS units of good hiding places for a new cache. We then played a geodash game.

Geodash
I have modified this game a little bit to help with learning about marking and finding, and also to get the kids to see both sides of this game. Each pair of students are given a GPS unit and a film canister. They must hide the film canister and then mark it with their GPS unit. I usually have two groups go to the front of the school building, and two groups go to the back so that they cannot see each other hide their "cache". We then meet back in a middle spot and exchange GPS units. Now each pair of students have a another group's GPS unit and must find the "cache" that they just hid. It's a little bit of geocaching and a race all thrown into one.

On Wednesday we had one more to find that was within walking distance of the school called, "Quack Quack". We saw a path behind the school that looked to go in the right direction, so we armed ourselves with lots of bug spray, marked our original spot in case we got lost out there, and headed off into the woods. There were a few overgrown portions of the path in which we got scraped by some pricker bushes at times, but we eventually made our way past the other elementary school and onto the road near where the cache was hidden. This was a much longer hike and it took us an hour and 40 minutes to complete the round trip trek.

Thursday the students were dropped off at the base of our local "Mountain" (it's more of a hill) Mount Agamenticus. There is a smaller cache called, "Kim's Eye View" that looks over a cliff not far from the access road that we found first, and then there is a multi-cache on the grounds of the park itself called, "Vernal Cache". I had introduced the concept of a multi-cache to the students on Monday, but they hadn't seen one yet. For this cache, the coordinates take you to the first waypoint. This waypoint is well hidden, but gives the final coordinates to the cache itself which is much further away. These can be a lot of fun especially if they are cleverly hidden and contain clues to find the next cache and not just the coordinates themselves. I have found a few in conservation areas that made you think and answer trivia questions with numbers in order to find the correct coordinates for the final cache. These are the ones I am most proud of when I sign the log at the cache site and respond online at geocaching.com to get credit for my find.

It was an absolutely beautiful day on Mount Agamenticus. The highs were only in the low 80's and the sun and hawks were out. The summit lodge was also open with all of the nature exhibits to let us look at while we were up there as well, and I asked parents to pick up their kids at the top so that they could see the exhibits as well. This is definitely one of my favorite camps to run, and something I wish we could work more into the school curriculum too!

TrailGuru Map of our Treks
Monday School House Rocks Box Trek
Tuesday Read, Read, Read Trek
Wednesday Quack Quack Trek
Thursday Kim's Eye View/Vernal Pool Multi on Mt. A. Trek

It's a Bug's Life

2011-07-21T07:10:00.001-07:00

For the third week of summer camp, I had four enthusiastic and full of energy 5 and 6 year olds. The theme for the week was, "It's a Bug's Life". This week we hunted around the school for insects, bugs of all types, and things that would look different to a bug since they are so small. We checked out the gardens, the flower beds, the playground, the back field and even went for a stroll into the woods one day. We found lots of different species of bugs and plants that would look very different to a bug. We then brought them back in our bug boxes and took a closer look at them under the ProScope Microscope attached to the computer. We recorded video of the live bugs and took pictures of the bugs that didn't move very much. We used these pictures to create a digital audio riddle book using the close up images for the riddles and a regular sized picture for the answers to the riddles. The students really enjoyed collected bugs and going out on our scavenger hunts, but they also enjoyed created the book in Keynote and burning it to a disk so that their whole family could enjoy what they had found. I have published the audio book to YouTube, and you can preview it below as well.

Movie Making Camp

2011-07-15T11:25:00.000-07:00

It always impresses me how a group of students can work together and collaborate on a storyboard, script, filming sequence and editing decisions. This week at summer Movie Making Camp we had 8 students that ranged in age from 8 - 13. Now most of the time students at these age levels don't even want to be associated with one another, well except for the 8 year old that wants to "play with his older friends all the time." I admit there were certainly some very silent times outside planning, and in the lab where the students went to their respective corner staring into the glare of their single monitor with headphones on. However, without even being pushed into it, since after all it's only summer camp, they came together to film, edit and produce a collaborative movie.

Hollywood won't be knocking on our doors any time soon, but we certainly learned a lot about the capabilities of iMovie '11 and how to use green screen and picture-in-a-picture techniques. It also taught us to better plan and to think about costumes when using these techniques in the future. Both boys in one scene wore blue outfits and we really wanted to use a blue screen to make the art work come to life since the green screen was used for the backdrop. We had to problem solve and used picture-in-a-picture as a special effect instead. Not as polished as our 12 year old chief editor Abbi would say, but it will do for the time we have here. She was right! It will have to do for the time we had this one week to plan, film and produce our movie, The Legend of Slappy Hooper an American Tall Tale by Aaron Shepard.

Comic Books and Movie Making

2011-07-10T07:56:00.000-07:00

Our second week of summer tech. camps is about to kick off. I'm really excited about this one as I get to work with the elementary PE teacher, my long time friend since high school. This week's theme is Comic Books and Movie Making. I love this combination, not because I want the kids to make a movie about comic book heroes as the rest of Hollywood is doing these days, but because it gets students to focus on the planning of making movies and good digital story telling strategies. We use a lot of different technologies to plan, create, edit and publish these Comic Books and Movies. This week's camp runs Mon. - Fri. from 8:00am - 2:30pm. We have a great group of 8 kids that are eager to learn about how to create movie magic and glossy comic book pages. The combination is perfect! Marco Torres once said, "It is much easier to take an eraser to a blueprint, then it is to take a pick ax to a foundation." In other words, planning is the key building block to a successful project. I use comic books to teach about storyboarding with making movies and digital storytelling.

The students will first learn how to use Comic Life and all of it's features to create their very own Comic Book. Illustrations can come from anywhere. They can be drawn in an illustration program such as Kidpix, Tuxpaint, Clicker Paint, etc. or even free hand drawn and scanned in. Other students may decide to use Photobooth to create comic like drawings of themselves or toys that they bring in to tell their comic stories. We will learn the differences between speech bubbles and transition text to tell the story in a comic book. This is just foreshadowing to our storyboarding techniques that we will use to create our class movie as well.

For movie making, I usually start with a video that I created with the tech. ed. at my old district called, How to Make a Movie. This teaches the basic steps to digital storytelling for elementary students in a humorous way. (For more information and resources on digital storytelling view our team taught web page on digital storytelling from our ACTEM presentation in Augusta, Maine in October 2010.)

I have used Brainpop's videos as well to help illustrate the steps in movie making, especially when talking about at the professional level. The students and I then scour the Internet for a story to use, as creating one itself could take weeks by itself. If I were to teach this project within the classroom, I would certainly prefer the students to develop a story they had written in language arts and create a digital story out of it, but as I only have 5 shortened days with them it is much better to rely on other resources. For this reason, I have found that Aaron Shepard's Reader's Theater web page works great for creating elementary movies. In fact, last summer we used his story, "The Boy Who Wanted the Willies" to create our summer movie and it worked out great. (See video below)

After our initial group processing and planning, we often use Kidspiration for the brainstorming, Comic Life or a storyboard template that Pages '11 offers to create the scenes in order on the walls of the lab, we discuss which roles each student wants. The students work on creating lists for their costumes, props and immediately start reading the script to memorize their lines. Each day, I teach a a mini course on filming, green screen techniques and movie magic. I find that by doing this, and explaining how other movies were made, it allows the students to become the real problem solvers when it comes to filming their own movie.

For example, last year we needed a scene in which a student walks up to the gates of a castle. Immediately the students said we could use the green screen. Then one student said, "Well I actually have a toy castle at home that works. Couldn't we film it with stop-motion animation to make it look like the drawbridge really works?" That just got the discussion rolling. From there we filmed the castle against a green screen and after 6 attempts we came out with the finished product in which a student walks towards the castle against the black of night as the draw bridge slowly lowers. (I have added all the steps on how the students did this in the previously mentioned digital storytelling link from above if you are curious how the students solved this problem.)

Aha moments like this, and true problem solving is what I miss the most about teaching in my own classroom, but as long as I can still offer enriching programs during the summer months and after school during the year, I will be happy.

We then edit the entire film using iMovie '11 with advanced tools checked in the preferences menu to use picture-in-a-picture and green screen techniques. (I purchased my green screen, a green cloth, on eBay for $2). After all of the voice overs, music, sound effects and video effects have been added, we burn a DVD copy that the students can create the cover art for so that they can bring it home and share with their family and friends. I also show them the process of uploading the video to a Web 2.0 resource such as Vimeo.com or YouTube.com so that family and friends far away, as well as the rest of the world, can view their finished product. They truly feel like movie stars when the whole thing is finished!

Life Long Learners Don't Take the Summer Off

2011-07-05T19:46:00.000-07:00

Today I started my 8 week summer work schedule. I rolled into school around 7:45am today to pick up 4 GPS units and a couple of laptops before heading over to the playground to see four eager students awaiting the start of camp. It seems like I just left school for the year as the students and staff celebrated the last day of school only a week ago, but in the blink of an eye the classroom shifted to a more relaxed setting and the students came in with all the enthusiasm in the world to enter a new learning environment ready to absorb as much as possible. I couldn't be happier!

I myself will admit that I may have bit off more then I can chew this summer, but with a baby on the way having a little extra cash flow is a good idea, and besides the thing I miss most about not having my own classroom anymore is in getting to know the students better. So here I am primed and ready for four hours with four students each morning designing and creating animations, cartoons and comics for the week as well as getting outdoors to stretch the legs using GPS units to play games closely related to geocaching. (In the afternoon this summer I will be helping the IT staff move everything over to our new servers in preparation for our district Wide Area Network. In the late afternoon and evenings I will be tutoring adults with iPads, laptops and other types of technology needs.)

Of course, as things would have it, I walked into the lab with the students shortly after a quick outdoor geocaching warm-up activity and the Internet was down due to switching servers and problems early on. Time to punt! I had the students login locally to our network iMacs in our computer lab and we used the programs Comic Life, Photobooth, and Hyperstudio 5 to create comics, cartoons and animated stories. The four boys were fantastic and loved the programs. These creative minds not only explored the programs on their own, but quickly became collaborators with one another's stories and animations adding an extra voice over or sound effect for each other.

At the end of morning we watched all four stories and gave feedback to one another. This is the step that I often see skipped in lessons in elementary school, especially when using a lot of technology or teaching within the lab. I understand why this happens, time or an overwhelming feeling to finish the project make it nearly impossible to get everything in, but after seeing what I saw today, and have seen many times over, the observation, critical evaluation and reflection sessions are some of the best teachable moments out there. Plus, this gives students a chance to learn while doing. Too often we evaluate when it's too late to make changes. Do students really learn this way? Not really in my eyes. They see this as a grade given by the teacher, but not as something to improve on since they were not given the chance to fail at something and respond with a solution to the problem.

These mini evaluation sessions, both self-reflection and peer reflection, yields some of the best quality of work in my observations over my 11 years as an elementary educator. This is the basis and quality evidence shown in many case studies for student portfolios and student-led conferences. I know that I will once again push to have more chances for students to share, collaborate and reflect on one another's work. I will also surely push for ePortfolios this year and look for teachers to pilot some of these projects.

Enrichment Day at VES

2011-05-31T10:26:00.000-07:00

For one afternoon students at Village Elementary School (grades K - 2) chose special mini-courses that interested them outside of the regular curriculum. We were encouraged by our Horizon's teacher (pc for Gifted and Talented these days) to teach something out of the box and something that the students wouldn't normally expect you to do. The male PE teacher, a good friend of mine since high school, and I have a love for good food and cooking. Certainly something the students wouldn't expect from the two of us. Nor do most of the staff for that matter, so we chose to teach a course on French cooking. Using the Disney movie Ratatouille, and the cookbook by Thomas Keller inspired by the movie, we created a French cheese fondue for the students. Armed with plastic knives and skewers, the students watched part of the movie, and created one of the best cheese fondues I have ever tasted before. It's truly great to see students outside of the regular environment of school. We setup our fondue stations in the teacher's lounge, and the students were very excited to learn a new skill.

Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.

eNewsletter June

2011-05-31T10:17:00.000-07:00

The summer edition of the eNewsletter for teachers is out. In this month's issue, I focus on backing up your files. This is especially essential for educators in Maine as they must turn in their MLTI laptop to be reimaged by their IT department this summer. There are tips and tricks for backing up your files locally to your school's server or your own pen/external hard drive, as well as backing up your files to the cloud. There are many more tips for backing up things like bookmarks in Safari and Firefox, your iMovie files, iWeb domain file, and even your Sticky notes on the Tech Tip of the Week web site as well.

New Blog/Resource

2011-05-12T05:53:00.000-07:00

The iDevices, or "Game Changers", as they have been called has inspired me to create a web page dedicated to implementing these devices into the classroom to enhance lessons and instruction in our schools. The district that I work in has seen these changes first hand with a few pilot programs this year using the iPads. Next year's budget will increase these pilots as we plan to purchase another 15 tablets. As these mobile devices take over our world, and we all know the kids will learn on them faster than we can catch up, it is important to develop a PLN of professions with tried and true practices for these devices and apps. For this reason, I have started a blog/resource page called iDevices in Our Schools. I'm hoping that this resource will grow as my own PLN helps to contribute ideas, resources, videos, and reflections on how they are using these types of technologies within their own classrooms. Any input would be great!

eNewsletter May

2011-04-29T06:53:00.000-07:00

The latest edition of the eNewsletter is out. In the May edition of the eNewsletter I have included some great new links and resources for project based learning with multimedia and creating exciting new lessons to get your students excited, inspired and motivated down this home stretch of the school year. I have also included some great articles on technology integration that you can use your classroom. Please do not hesitate to ask for help too. Cheers!

Enrichment Day

2011-04-28T09:34:00.000-07:00

Each year, our Horizon's teacher (our new PC term for Gifted and Talented), organizes a fun filled afternoon of mini-enrichment courses for the kids in our elementary schools to choose from. Teachers, middle school and high school students, and community members come into our school and offer their expertise and lead a group of elementary students for an hour and a half in their interest areas. This year we had courses that ranged from cooking dog biscuits for your favorite four legged friend, to playing the drums and guitar, to hiking techniques and science experiments at home. There were gardeners, fly fish tiers, golfers, and scrap bookers too. The students got to pick their top 5 choices and were divided into their respective groups for the afternoon.

I can't say enough about events like this one. To see children in a different setting other than in class is truly a special occasion and one that should be shared by all teaching staff all over the world. As a technology integrator, I miss the opportunities that I had had as a classroom teacher to connect with students on a one-to-one level and discuss their social lives as well as just their educational career within the confines of the classroom walls. I miss heading out to the ballpark to watch a student clobber a fastball into the outfield, or play their favorite concerto at their piano recital. A day like enrichment day, although it's only an hour and a half long, offers a quick insight into the true character of each and every child.

There were 20 kids that came out to learn about a golf swing with myself and our school custodian that moonlights at a local golf and ski sports shop. We taught them the basic grip and mechanics of the golf swing, and even let them use the back playground as a driving range. The students then divided up into groups and played a short 9-hole course that I had set up around the back field and even kept score on score cards that were designed in the computer lab. (We had to tie math into the event some how!)

All of the students loved the activity. Some were disappointed, and even frustrated at times, over their lack of confidence and ability to strike the ball with mastery, but that is the actual point of the day. Students that excel in the classroom didn't always master the activity for enrichment day and learned a hard lesson that sometimes extra practice is required to master a skill. Other students, and in my class in particular, that do not always excel in the classroom realized they could succeed in something new and unrelated to typical school activities and found a new love for a hobby that they hadn't tried before.

Learning can come from any where and every where! As educators we need to realize this and strive to think outside of the box and teach from all different angles in order to reach each and every child. I sure learned a lot from the enrichment day and I didn't even get a chance to attend a course. I can only imagine what the rest of the group learned in their choices.

Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.

iPads, iPhones and iPod Touches as AT in the Classroom

2011-03-30T08:30:00.000-07:00

This is my first published article in Tech&Learning Magazine.

iPads, iPhones and iPod Touches as AT in the Classroom

April eNewsletter

2011-03-30T08:28:00.000-07:00

In this month's eNewsletter, I offer some advice on building your very own Professional Learning Network (PLN). Much like PLCs, a PLN allows you to create, collaborated and gain feedback any time and any where. Instead of meeting with your department, team, or grade level locally, a global education team is formed online so that you can enhance your lessons, projects and units. I have also attached some great articles on creating lessons and builiding PLN's with technology. Below are some great links to help you get started as well.

Twitter Commands Blog
http://cantondog.com/128/top-7-twitter-commands-everyone-should-know/
How Web-based Tools Change Teaching and Learning
Free ebook at http://newbay.ebookhost.net/dle/hpintel/3/index.php
Classroom Video: Tools and Strategies to Engage Students in Learning
Free ebook at http://newbay.ebookhost.net/tl/sony/1/index.php
Web 2.0 Tools Website
http://sdst.libguides.com/newtools
Privately Share Videos for Portfolios
http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2011/03/3-ways-to-privately-share-videos.html

Cloud Computing

2011-03-03T10:31:00.001-08:00

The latest edition of the eNewsletter is out. In this month, cloud computing is the hot topic. What are the pros and cons of creating, publishing, and backing up to web accounts?

eNewsletter February

2011-01-27T11:36:00.000-08:00

In the latest edition of the eNewsletter, I have included National Education Technology Standards for Students (NETS-S), Teachers (NETS-T) and Administrators (NETS-A) to discuss the importance of these standards in moving our district forward with technology integration. Included are some great resources and web links to sites that offer projects, lessons and ideas to integrate technology and promote 21st century skills and future problem solvers.

iPads, iTouches, and iPhones as AT

2011-01-07T10:20:00.000-08:00

Introduction

The recent release of Apple’s iPad has opened up some great new ideas and creative paths for teachers looking for assistive technologies (AT) for their classroom. Tactile learners, and digital natives alike, love the opportunity to use these handheld devices to learn about core curriculum standards within the classroom. “iPod touch and iPhone use a high-resolution Multi-Touch screen, ideal for those who have difficulty using a traditional keyboard and mouse.” (http://www.apple.com/education/special-education/) The iTunes app. store has even showcased a special tab for special education apps. available as AT for students with learning disabilities. The app store often offers these same apps for the iPod Touch and iPhone. These tablets and handheld devices can be used in many different ways, and even offer communication tools for students with autism.

Applications (apps)

Applications for handheld devices are becoming more and more popular in education. Many teachers are starting to use these apps. on handheld devices to promote reading fluency and comprehension, communication skills, and other core curriculum concepts. There are so many apps to choose from, it sometimes gets overwhelming when searching for one that best fits the lesson or the individual learner. I have a few recommendations for apps that can be used as AT within the classroom on all three devices.

TapToTalk is a free app. that uses symbols to help students form sentences. Students with verbal issues, or who cannot speak at all, can use this app. to communicate with their teacher and peers. The free gallery offers phrases about feelings and every day statements such as, “I feel happy” or, “I need to go to the bathroom.” Additional galleries for forming sentences can be downloaded from the company’s website as well including manipulating symbols or pictures to reflect the student’s, individual teacher’s or daily routines. This has been a great feature for one of our students with autism in fifth grade. He used to use a Vantage Vanguard touch box and is very familiar with touching symbols to form sentences. Having the ability to import pictures of his teachers and peers in his class has been a huge advantage in his communications, as he used to have to type in the names of these people before with his touch box.

A more robust program for communicating for students with autism is Proloquo2Go. This app. costs $189.99, however, compared to the cost of paying for software and equipment such as a text-to-speech touch box, the money could be well worth it. The application uses SymbolStix Symbols to help students communicate. Sentences are formed and the tablet or handheld device will read the text out loud. “Proloquo2Go has been helping individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), cerebral palsy, down syndrome, developmental disabilities, ALS, traumatic brain injury, aphasia, apraxia, and more.” (http://www.proloquo2go.com/About/article/ipad)

Text-to-speech, and speech-to-text apps. are also available on the iPad, iPod Touch, and iPhone. Dragon Dictation is a tool used to dictate speech and format the spoken word into text. Students who have trouble with gross and/or fine motor skills can use this app. to communicate effectively in text, without having to write or type. These text notes can then be easily shared via Facebook, Twitter and email. The copy/paste feature allows the user to transform the text into any other application they may need to add to as well. Personally, I have only used this a few times with students, but I have found that this app is a wonderful alternative to texting. I can speak into the iPhone using this app and convert it to a text message faster then typing on the smaller keyboard.

Text-to-speech options are available for many apps. including iBooks. A student can pick out a book from the shelf and simply hold their finger on a word, and the word will be read out loud to the student. A dictionary feature also allows students to look up the meaning of the word, and they may also wish to add a note to review later that bookmarks the word on the page. Audio options are available for all of these features. I worked with a second grader who was struggling with reading, and the text-to-speech feature and dictionary option helped him?? get through the struggles of not understanding a sentence enough to comprehend the key elements of the story. Two months into the school year, this same student was leaving sticky notes for the teacher within the application connecting the story to personal experiences. Clearly this student had grown leaps and bounds due to this technology.

There are many apps. from the iTunes store geared towards English Language Learners (ELL) as well. Apps. are available for translation between languages, and ELL students can benefit from apps. that offer language building skills and promote reading and speaking fluency as well. I have seen an emerging English reader use iTalk Lite, a free voice recorder app. in a first grade classroom. The student read into the microphone on the teacher’s iPhone to record his voice. A synchronization program, also free from the developer’s website, allowed the teacher to grab a copy of the recording onto the laptop as well. A CD was burned for the student to take home, after his best recorded reading, to listen to and practice with fluency. This is also a great way for the student to showcase their successes, or model inflection and fluency to future struggling students. This opens up all kinds of opportunities for teachers to create audio directions, alternative text books, and fluency practice lessons for students that require it.

Apple’s iPhone 3GS now comes standard with accessible navigation software to help people with disabilities experience everything it has to offer. “The iPods and iPhone also feature spoken menu technology that blind and low-vision students can use to easily find a song or playlist.” Apple is truly making an effort to allow everyone to fully access all of these handheld devices’ features. “With iPod touch and iPhone, students can easily activate Mono Audio and access useful applications developed especially to enhance these media players for the deaf and hard-of-hearing.” (http://www.apple.com/education/special-education/)

Conclusion

Our school district has placed 20 iPod Touches and 15 iPads into next year’s budget as a way to pilot some programs within our school and develop strong AT programs. These devices can definitely provide learning for everyone, but are certainly great resources when it comes to assistive technologies.

Tech New Year's Resolutions

2010-12-21T06:50:00.000-08:00

As an elementary educator in the 21st century, it is becoming more and more important to embed technology into lesson plans, activities, units, and every day tasks for both myself and my students. Technology is constantly evolving, and if I ignore it even for a little bit, I may be left behind. It can certainly be overwhelming, but I vow to keep my head above water and be the life preserver for anyone feeling like they cannot keep up. Whether this be students (not likely) or staff members that need a little help in moving forward and to not just feel comfortable treading water any more.

Taking a leap of faith can be overwhelming, so taking a few smaller steps can be very rewarding. This year I have made a list of some things that we can all do to help incorporate more technology into our own environment and into our classrooms. Everybody loves lists so I created my top ten ideas for increased technology use in education, but do not feel like you have to check off each item in the new year. These are merely suggestions for enhancing your classroom lessons and student motivation. Try one step at a time, and in no particular order.

1. Subscribe to an educators blog and vow to read it at least once per week. I have built into my schedule now a time to read my subscription blogs and time to write a blog as well. Here are a couple of great blogs to read for education. (www.speedofcreativity.org, www.ilearntechnology.com, and www.freetech4teachers.com)

2. Download Skype and connect with another classroom somewhere on Earth. I highly recommend joining Skype in the Classroom to help in making connections with other classrooms.

3. Create a Twitter or Facebook account and start your professional learning network (PLN) and start collaborating with educators around the world.

4. Attend a free webinar and learn something new for free and from the comfort of your own home.

5. Investigate a new handheld device and find a few ways to use them in the classroom. Allow your students to become the investigators and evaluators for the apps too!

6. Start a blog, wiki, threaded discussion or a web page that is interactive with your students. You'd be surprised how much students will participate in classroom discussions away from the regular classroom.

7. Publish a video, podcast or photo set to an Internet site to share. Don't forget to comment on somebody else's published work while you are there too!

8. Enroll in an online class, or start your own online class with your students.

9. Design a unit with project based learning with multimedia for your classroom. This sounds like a lot, and I won't lie, it is a big step. It is truly worth it though if the time to plan and setup is used effectively. In the first year, don't be afraid to have students come up with the project, help in planning and creating a rubric for a finished product. It's your first year, take baby steps, and then as a whole class (students included) tweak the steps along the way.

10. Read a book about technology in education. Better yet, download an ebook to your favorite mobile device and incorporate two ideas from the book into your classroom. Don't forget to reflect on this with your peers, PLN, or on your web page or blog!

Tech Tip of the Week

2010-12-06T09:51:00.000-08:00

In an effort to help bridge the gaps in teacher's understanding and basic skills, I have started an initiative this year that allows for a quick reference to a new skill each week. I create, or borrow, a video tutorial that explains a quick tech tip (no longer then two and a half minutes) and I broadcast it through the school television system in the morning just before the students arrive. This gives teachers a quick tip that they can use immediately, and allows them to continue what they are doing in their own classroom to prep for the rest of the day while listening in.

I first created a webpage using iWeb to create a tech tip of the week online repository. I used the blog template to encourage subscribers as well. Here I add one tip per week from YouTube, or TeacherTube, that either I have submitted or that I have found from another educator that is relevant to something the teachers asked for help with. I also added my email address to the site, so that teachers could email me with suggestions for future tips. Of course, on YouTube and TeacherTube, there is also a place for comments so that educators can chime in and leave feedback for the tip or for future tips.

I then attach my laptop to our CTV box via our DVD/VCR player using the camera 1 input. I have a VGA adapter that allows video out from my MacBook Pro either through the digital adapter or s-video, and a "Y" cable that connects to my headphone jack to send the audio from my laptop to the DVD/VCR player. This way I do not use up all of our DVDs in the school, and yet I can still play them through the CTV system. To check out my tech. tips of the week, just visit; http://www.yorkschools.org/~elawson/teachers/techtip

Universal Design for Learning and Book Builder

2010-12-06T09:40:00.000-08:00

For a master's project, I chose to research and evaluate the CAST UDL Book Builder online tool. Book Builder was developed with support from the Massachusetts Department of Special Education, NEC Foundation of America, The John W. Alden Trust, and The Pinkerton Foundation. (http://bookbuilder.cast.org/) This online resource and tool allows users to read books from public libraries, or model books created by other users to the website. These books are very helpful to younger readers, and also readers with visual and/or other reading learning disabilities. Each book comes with a text-to-speech tool, translator for other languages (usually Spanish only) and helpful cartoon coaches that can help a struggling reader, or a first time user to the site to navigate through the digital audio books. I found these coaches to be very helpful upon my first visit, as I wasn’t sure which buttons to hit in order to try everything out. They remind me of the little cartoon drawings in the Map Champs books for kids that help guide third graders through their exploration of the Earth through maps.(http://www.nystromnet.com/index.cfm?fa=Products.product&CATEGORY_ID=3&CHILD_ID=381&PRODUCT_ID=637)

The website is very user friendly, and the data base for searching content online is easy to follow and to use. Within the database you can search by date published, title, author, illustrator, genre, content area, school group, grade level, average rating, and by key words. Each book can also be rated and there is an area to leave a comment to the database and to the creators of the book. This makes it very easy to browse through the database to find a book that is just right for your student(s).

Along with libraries and model books, you can sign up for a free account to create your very own book. This is a great way to get all of your students to create digital books, and to also offer assistive technologies to students that may need the text-to-speech or translation features for stronger comprehension. “Assistive technology has historically been considered part of service delivery for children with special needs. However, the emphasis of universal design for learning in the creation of accessible and effective curriculum- based instruction can support the educational needs of ail learners.” (Gavigan, 2009)

This resource is an excellent way for students with learning disabilities to better understand the text that everyone is reading in class. The website can be accessed from a computer or a mobile device such as Apple’s (http://www.apple.com) iPad or iPod touch as it does not require Flash (http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/otherversions/) in order to read the ebooks.

This tool may have started with an intended audience, targeting ELL students or students with physical or reading learning disabilities, but this tool could be used for all students. Introducing this tool to students before a project could yield some interesting presentations that could last a lifetime. Imagine proposing a project based learning with multimedia project within your classroom with an open ended way to present. Some groups may want to construct a physical product or representation, others may want to embed more technology into it and create slideshows, or multimedia stacks, and others may want to create a visual representation that can be used in years to come that would benefit all students no matter their skill level or abilities. Book Builder could definitely transform a product into a wonderful teaching tool for the future, and best of all, the students would create it themselves. “When educators plan and support instruction using universal design for learning, there is the expectation that a wide range of learning styles and abilities be served in the classroom.” (Gavigan, 2009)

Book Builder is truly a web 2.0 tool as students can read, but also create and publish their work to this resource. These books can then be read and shared with students all over the world. Comments and edits can be made to build skills in communication and writing with voice or to an intended audience as well. Universal Design for Learning, or UDL, offers students many different routes to take in order to find their best learning style, and to experiment with different formats of learning and presenting to find greater success. An open ended project expands upon this idea and offers students a chance to think outside the box and perform in their most comfortable setting, and with ideas and programs they are more familiar with or more interested in.

Book Builder could be used by teachers too. It is often difficult to teach all of our children with the same text book any more, due to learning disabilities of various types. Modifications and adjustments for each individual student can be a daunting task, however, when done correctly, the students will benefit and succeed at a much higher rate, and the resource can be used in future years to come. Teachers could certainly reword texts and/or create more student friendly versions to apply to all of their learners in class, and help to individualize the content to meet each student’s need. King-Sears states, “Taking a UDL approach to textbook usage, these weakly designed features are redesigned before instruction is delivered, so that key facts are targeted and relationships among them are determined.” (2009) A text book could be reworked to drive home key points to students in a manner of different ways using Book Builder to help students with learning disabilities.

The technology should not be the only focus, however. In the terms of reworking text books to meet the individual needs of students, Book Builder is just the tool and not the means by which teachers create resources for all learners. “Equitable use of instructional materials can be achieved via technology, such as digital texts for students with LD. However, when the instructional material is a textbook that is not well designed in terms of how its content is organized, depicted, and sequenced, pedagogical features that increase the content's accessibility for many learners become the focus.” (King-Sears, 2009) A teacher must be skilled in UDL design and implementation in order to create these resources for each individual child. Book Builder allows a skilled professional to not only model, but to also create books to individualize instruction and promote UDL within their classroom.

In conclusion, I found that CAST UDL Book Builder was an extremely valuable tool that is easy to understand and navigate, not only for teachers, but for students as well. I could see using this for ELL, physical and learning disabled children in reading, and for creating presentations in project based learning with multimedia projects for all students. This resource offers many valuable tips on teaching with UDL and offers model books and lessons for teachers. I will certainly bookmark this site and share it with my colleagues for projects in the future.

Resources

Gavigan, K. & Kurtts, S. (2009).. AT, UD, and Thee: Using assistive technology and Universal Design for Learning in 21st century media centers. Library Media Connection, 27(4), 54-56. Retrieved June 21, 2010 from Academic Search Premier

King-Sears, M. (2009). Universal design for learning: technology and pedagogy.. Learning Disability Quarterly, 32(4), 199-201. Retrieved June 21, 2010 from Academic Search Premier

Massachusetts Department of Elementary & Secondary Education, NEC Foundation of America, The John W. Alden Trust, and The Pinkerton Foundation (2006). CAST UDL Book Builder. Retrieved from http:bookbuilder.cast.org/ on December 1, 2010.

Video Conferencing and Breaking Down our Classroom Walls

2010-11-15T10:43:00.000-08:00

Applications like Skype, and instant messengers have made the world a smaller place. Global collaboration seems to be a goal, or an initiative, in almost every new report that I have read in the past five years. The district I currently work for in fact has taken on the task of writing their new three year tech. goals plan. Taking into consideration ISTE standards and the National Tech. Plan that was released in November of this year, global collaboration is a 21st century skill that every child should be engaged in. Therefore, it will probably make our list of goals as well, however, I am not seeing a lot of this in the classroom yet.

So what are the hurdles? What keeps teachers from expanding their walls, and reaching out to a larger audience? Is it a safety issue? Is it fear of the unknown?

In many conversations that I have had with teachers, it seems to be a combination of all of these things. Time is always a good argument too! There is never enough time, and after watching the Harry Potter weekend on the Family Channel network this past weekend, I only wish I had one of those time turners that Hermione uses to attend her double class sessions.

Learning new trends in technology does take time, but doesn't everything else we value in life? If learning our math facts takes time, but is still worth it, then isn't learning how to video conference and hold a real conversation face-to-face (albeit it is a virtual face-to-face meeting) equally as important?

In the real world, the students of today will need to know certain skills, have a foundation of background knowledge, and be able to problem solve. These aren't really different then what a good teacher faces every day today, but taking the time to share these with our students seems to be a big time consumer.

Setting up an account on Skype, or any other social network for that matter, can take a little bit of time, however, the time it takes will reap the benefits exponentially if it is done carefully. A Professional Learning Network is really only as good as it's contributors, and therefore a conference also relies heavily on it's counterparts. I mean, you can add friends, follow anyone you want, and certainly video chat with anyone you want. Heck, chatroulette.com gave us that perspective, but that wasn't exactly what we had in mind. Where then can you find a network of other classrooms, great teachers, students willing to learn about other cultures, and collaborative minds waiting to work on a project together?

I came across a tweet and a wonderful blog post about Skype Education by Richard Byrne that pointed me down the path that was exactly what I had been looking for all these years. My light at the end of the tunnel, my pack mule headed into the canyon of global collaboration, and a wonderful resource to connect with professionals and enthusiastic learners all over the world. The hard part is done. The time has just been cut immensely. There are no more hurdles, in fact we are in the home stretch now. It's just a manner of holding that carrot out in front of my colleagues and getting them to bite at the opportunity. Okay, so there still may be some hesitation, but I see great things in our future. Although, I always do, it's getting my peers to jump on board.

Blogging in the Elementary Classroom

2010-11-02T07:02:00.000-07:00

A blog, or web log, is a great way to get students interested in writing. A blog is a published piece of writing that is added episodically to a web space. Students now have the ability to post anything and everything they want to the web, however, posting quality work is always encouraged.

As educators, we can enhance learning through blogs. Imagine that you assign your students to read a particular book and reflect on personal experiences that may have a connection to this book and post this to a blog. This assignment doesn’t seem very different then those of 20 - 25 years ago, however, the students’ audience has just grown exponentially! Instead of handing in a piece of paper, or their log book, to the teacher, their classmates, parents, community members, and virtually any reader in the world can read and comment on their reflection. Wouldn’t it be great if the author of the book himself responded to your students’ reflections? Well that can happen with blogs.

There is some fear when using anything on the Internet about student safety and predators just waiting for students to jump online. Well, I’m not going to lie there is some truth to that, however, when taking the time to plan and create a quality blog site for students there is minimal fears involved. That being said, it is important to not close down the blog and make it too safe, as this will limit the global audience back down to just the classroom. A blog should really expand the walls of a classroom and include a larger audience and culture.

It is important to set a few guidelines with your students. I would recommend seeking out a few movies to start with, such as Blogs in Plain English, or Brainpop’s video on Blogs. Then it is a great idea to involve your students in the conversation of what types of things should be posted. You may also want to review your district’s Acceptable Use Policy (AUP), and publishing permissions. I often suggest only using initials with students or just first names. I also never include actual pictures of the students as the name appearing with the picture isn’t a great idea. You will also want to set the incoming comments to be managed and approved or denied, to make sure no inappropriate comments are posted to your students’ blogs.

Blogs could also be a great way for students to keep an electronic portfolio of their work throughout the year. Imagine publishing products such as illustrations, slideshows, Keynote presentations, and films like public service announcements or commercials to a blog and have the students reflect on their own work after they present their product. This not only adds higher order thinking to your projects, but publishes student work and reflections to a larger audience. Now relatives, friends, peers and just about anyone can view these wonderful digital products and comment on the student's work too.

Anyone can blog, and anyone can post any form of media these days. It's important to plan and think about what is being posted first. Rich content that showcases high quality work is worth sharing with the world. A few sentences about something that was done in class will probably only be read by a select audience. Take the time with your students to plan out what a classroom blog should look and feel like, and if each student should play an integral part in the blog too. It's often a good idea to include the students in the conversation about what is appropriate and high quality content to publish, and possibly even form rubrics for this material and reflection. What will your class blog about?

Mr. Lawson's eNewsletter for November is all about blogging. Check it out here.

Flat Stanley Gets an Upgrade

2010-10-27T07:13:00.000-07:00

Most people have heard of the book, Flat Stanley by Jeff Brown, or at least have been part of the journey. Heck, now there is the Flat Stanley online project, and yes there is even an "app. for that". Fourth graders at Coastal Ridge Elementary School have been participating in a Flat Stanley project for quite some time now. The students trace themselves on giant pieces of paper and create their flat self. They then get into contact with family and friends world wide and send their flat self on a trip to discover life in a different area of our world. Family members, friends, and others send back these flat students with pictures, stories and postcards to help students understand the different cultures, people and trends in these areas.

Last year, the fourth grade team decided to upgrade their Flat Stanley project and add an Internet component to it. The students learned about the sport of geocaching with help from the tech. integrator, Eric Lawson. Geocaching is a treasure hunting game played all over the world using handheld GPS units instead of treasure maps. Small containers are hidden throughout the world by fellow geocachers, and a description and clues to the whereabouts are then posted online at www.geocaching.com. Most caches are hidden by the longitude and latitude coordinates of the container, but some can have more riddles, clues or even waypoints to find before getting to the treasure. By plugging in these coordinates, the GPS unit can get a geocacher pretty close to the hidden container. It's just up to the finder to then spot the container. There is a great introductory video about geocaching on the website for more information.

Snowboard Duck Travel Bug

Geocache containers often contain trinkets, or school supplies, that fellow geocachers will trade for when they find a cache. There are also travel bugs located in some caches, which aren't meant to be kept, but rather moved along to yet another geocache trying to fulfill its travel mission. The 4th graders at CRES thought it would be a great idea to create a class travel bug and track its movement across the globe like their Flat Stanley characters. Some classrooms have even created their own student web pages to share their travels and the new cultures, people, and spots they have visited. They are very excited to see where both, their flat selfs and classroom travel bugs, take them this year. To check out a few from last year visit Miss Switzer's Class web site.

Online Global Collaboration

2010-10-13T07:23:00.000-07:00

ISTE shares in it's NETS-S and NETS-T standards that staff and students should learn the skills to collaborate online with different people across the globe. This offers global collaboration, but also gives a different perspective to a project. Even though the benefits for this project highly out weigh the setup time and preparation, it is a difficult concept for teachers to fully grasp in my district. It's certainly a shift in thinking by extending the classroom walls out to the globe. Some staff members are just not ready for this shift, and some are scared of the possible problems that may arise in creating and delivering a unit such as this one.

I recently jumped in to an online conference with my Personal Learning Network (PLN), the Seedlings, with the guest speaker, Cherrie MacInnes, a 3rd Grade teacher from Brewer, Maine. Her classroom project started as an online video conference between a few classrooms across Maine and turned out to be a national project. She made headlines when her class was able to Skype with classrooms from each of the 50 United States. Listening to her speak about the project, and the enthusiasm that the students had towards learning from their peers in different parts of the country, was outstanding! This is exactly why ISTE has encouraged online collaboration and video conferencing in their standards for students and staff. Personally, I don't know what I would do as a tech. integrator without my online PLN's and the ability to collaborate online with other tech. integrators across the state, country and world.

Online projects are becoming more and more popular with lead tech. savvy teachers and 21st century innovators. You just have to start with a quick Google search to see what I mean, but there are still those that are reluctant to put the time in to plan a collaborative online project. Project based learning with multimedia is not a new concept. It's been around since the early 90's, however, in the last 5 years the Internet has grown and allowed any user to become a publisher (Web 2.0). Ten years ago, when I first started teaching in my third grade classroom, I did not anticipate that students would have their own web presence, web pages, or post pictures, videos and podcasts for the whole world to view straight from their phones. For the most part, that was still up to the tech. staff to organize these files, or a web master to publish work in the classroom to a web resource. Kids are doing it on their own, and it is up to educators to instruct them and guide them to use these outlets for high quality educational purposes. We can either grab a hold of this and expand our classroom walls, or sit back and allow kids to play on their own. The latter scares me a bit though, as kids don't always know what the right decisions are when they are completely independent.

This past Sunday, I participated in a wonderful online collaborative project, One Day on Earth. If you haven't checked out the web site yet for One Day on Earth, it's worth the trip. There are trailers and explanations of the project, as well as video uploads to browse. The thought behind One Day on Earth, was to have cameras and people tell stories from every country on all 7 continents on one particular day, 10.10.10. These pictures, mobile uploads and high definition films will be mashed up and archived on the web site, and a select few will be combined to create a global documentary about our One Day on Earth on October 10th, 2010.

Living on the east coast here in southern Maine, I jumped at the chance to participate, and thought that filming the sunrise at the beach would be inspiring and calming. My video, Sunrise at Wells Beach, has been uploaded to Vimeo and YouTube as well as the One Day on Earth web site. I also took pictures with my iPhone and created an Animoto slideshow as well. As a classroom teacher, I would have loved to have had my students participate in this project. In addition to my film experience, I have met a lot of great educators, innovators, and filmers from all of the world. It was a truly amazing experience for me, and I hope that I can share my journey with this project and inspire others to jump on board with online collaborative projects as well.

iPhone Apps for Teachers

2010-09-08T06:48:00.000-07:00

I'm still looking for that all-in-one app. for teachers that allows you to take attendance, the lunch count, email, collect observable behaviors, and can act as a planner and grade book. As far as I can tell, no such app. exists yet! If I knew a thing or two about programming, I would take on the challenge myself. The closest thing I have found is TeacherToolOne, which is a program designed in Germany. It has some great features and functions, but is not really intended for teachers in the primary and secondary schools. Don't get me wrong, it's a huge hit over seas, but it doesn't quite do the things elementary teachers need it to do in order to make it the top downloaded app. by teachers.

So this poses the question, with all of the great apps. out there for education, what are your top 10 apps. for teachers? I know which ones I use as a technology integration specialist, but I'm guessing most teachers wouldn't have the time or need for all of these apps. The iTunes store now has a special section for teachers called "Apps for School". You can get there by clicking on the app. store icon from your iPhone and then click on featured apps. Scroll to the bottom of this list and you can find "Apps for School".

There is a grading app. for earlier education as well, that's not that bad and for a price of $7.99 it's not too bad for a teacher's pocket either, however, if you already have a grading system in place, it won't sync these two programs. There are plenty of apps. to help students though with math and reading. Everything from audio books and interactive games from Dr. Seuss, to flash cards and quizzes to keep the brain stimulated. I'm guessing most teachers do not have iPod touches in their classrooms, and the thought of giving up their own iPhone for student use, isn't quite there yet due to the price tag on these handhelds.

Here are my top 10 apps. for elementary teachers:

1. First Class
I can make sure I never miss an email, and I can tell a student when a parent notifies me of changes to the pick-up or bus plan for the end of the day.

2. iTalk Lite
It's like having a pocket recorder ready when ever a situation arises to create a podcast. The program is free for the computer as well, and easily blue tooth syncs from one to the other.

3. iCamcorder
I love the Flip video cameras and digital cameras for field trips and classroom events that you want to capture, but I always forget to sign them out of the library or bring mine in from home. Having an app on the phone just makes it handy in case something worth capturing is happening right now.

4. Keynote Remote
I often use my SMART Board to introduce a lesson, however, I have learned this piece of technology works much better when the students are in front of it, and not myself. This 99 cent app. allows me to control the slideshow from any where in the classroom as I walk around and monitor the students' understanding.

5. Twitterific
The easiest way to consult, enhance, reflect, and collaborate with other professionals in a short amount of time. I'm blown away with how quickly I can get a response from other great teachers.

6. The Weather Channel
It may sound funny, but a big part of morning meeting and the routine is having a weather person. It's much easier to have a student look at this app. then having to login to a computer, or disrupt the morning message on the SMART Board to get the weather forecast for the day.

7. Brainpop
Earbuds and an iPhone are great if one child needs a quiet activity, or missed a Brainpop video from a previous lesson.

8. Pandora
My students often ask for soft music while they work on independent projects or writing. The iPhone speaker is just loud enough when the room is silent to be heard by all. It also has a plethora of styles to choose from and can open their eyes, and ears, to new songs from around the world.

9. Calendar
This one comes free with the iPhone, but I don't know what I did without it. I used to carry a small calendar with me to remind me of meetings, calling home, and quick lesson plan ideas, but the built in notification just adds so much more. The sync feature to iCal on the computer is quite handy as well.

10. Dictionary
It is so much easier to look up the meaning of a word with this app. then the standard Webster's hard cover. It also has voice pronunciations to help students read the word out loud.

What are your favorites?

Classroom Blogs

2010-05-11T05:51:00.000-07:00

Today in the computer lab Mrs. Foster's Class, from Coastal Ridge Elementary School, will be learning about blogs and starting their very own student blogs. The blogs will be used to publish student writing and poetry, but could also be used as a way to communicate and reflect on other students' work. To practice we will start here.

What will you include in your very own blog? Click on the comment button below my blog entry. You can sign in as anonymous, but don't forget to include your first name or initials in your comment so I know who wrote it. Remember, it's never a good idea to use your full name. I look forward to hearing from all of you.

Going Green

2010-04-05T10:29:00.001-07:00

The shift in technology integration has proven to be very valuable to learning, but it has also been valuable to the Earth. I have observed many computer lab lessons in the past in which the students worked very hard on a product such as a picture, document, slide show, etc. Just before the class ended the teacher said, "Okay, time is just about up. Everyone stop what you are doing and click save and print." How much paper did we waste with these lessons? I can only imagine. Well, the number was ridiculous when we looked at our spending on color prints in one year in York. It was such a high price, that we have stopped color printing all together for the rest of the school year. This took place shortly after the winter holiday break. Of course, there were some arguments and frustrations, but this initiative has really inspired teachers to look towards new forms of multimedia products. It has forced many teachers to publish web sites, develop project based learning with multimedia and enter the world of Web 2.0.

Projects created in the lab are now appearing on web sites across the globe. Early elementary students are creating single slides for class slide shows using programs like Clicker Paint, Kidpix and Hyperstudio 5. They are blogging about their writing and books they have read in class. Second graders are creating biographies using Comic Life, Time Liner XE and Keynote. Third and fourth graders are using GPS in the classroom to learn about places on the Earth and even entering the world of geocaching to create virtual Flat Stanley travel bugs that are currently traveling all over the globe.

Of course our communication has changed too! The office no longer sends home folders full of packets and announcements. Instead every flyer, announcement or brochure is published to the school web site and email reminders are sent to parents across the district. Podcasts, online radio shows, and live broadcast news programs are recorded right here in our elementary school buildings, and published on our web sites for the entire local and global communities.

Our fourth graders have even researching renewable energies and created public service announcements using digital video cameras and iMovie. Last year students entered the Maine Recycles Commercial Contest, and submitted short PSAs to persuade community members to recycle. All of these videos can be seen on our "Going Green" web page.

This shift hasn't just happened in our computer labs, however. Recent field trips have been video taped or recorded as a podcast with student interviews and reflections too. The students also observed that we were throwing away too much trash in the lunch room as well. This observation, along with a great deal of research, promoted the soil production project at Coastal Ridge Elementary School. Each pod, or group of 4 classrooms, now have worm bins outside their doors. There are also a couple worm bins in the lunch room. These worm bins are used to break down biodegradable trash with the help of some hungry worms, and produces very fertile soil. Our hope is to build a greenhouse outside of the school this summer and plant vegetables to help make our school lunch program more sustainable.

Something as simple as cutting down on printing out projects has truly inspired a revolution here in York. The students have found new enthusiasm and a real world connection with many of these projects. There is also a great sense of pride not only in the finished products, but also in knowing they are helping their community. What types of "green" projects have you been working on in your schools?

Social Networking

2009-09-24T10:30:00.001-07:00

Should social networking be allowed in our public schools? Can they be used in meaningful ways in education? If a teacher has a Facebook page, should they "friend" their own students? What if the page was only setup for educational purposes?

Summer Activities

2009-06-08T10:46:00.001-07:00

This summer I am taking a master's course from Lesley University on designing curriculum with state and national technology standards integrated into them. I am also hoping to be working for a company that travels to different summer rec. camps around the area to teach children about solving real world problems using technology. At the end of August, I will be helping to organize a summer technology camp for the teachers in York. We will start off with a giant treasure hunt all around York using GPS units. What do you plan to do this summer?

Comic Life Biographies

2009-04-04T06:41:00.001-07:00

Second grade at Village Elementary School have been busy researching famous people from the United States to complete a biography report. As a wrap-up project this year two classes, Mrs. Moody's class and Mrs. Audet's class decided to create a comic of their famous character. Using Plasq's Comic Life, the students pulled pictures from their research into a project and made the characters come to life with speech and thought bubbles describing their most famous events. A slideshow of the students' work is available online at www.yorkschools.org/~elawson. Check out the great work these students did on this project.

Testing, Testing, Testing

2009-04-04T06:38:00.000-07:00

The students at both Village Elementary School and Coastal Ridge Elementary School have been busy in the labs and in our mobile lab (laptops set up in a portable classroom) taking standardized testing on the computers. Students Kindergarten through second grade are busy taking the CPAA tests to test their reading and math skills, while the students in third and fourth grade are busy taking the second edition of the NWEA tests to test their reading, language usage and math skills. Scores from the fall will be compared to the new scores this spring to evaluate student improvement over the school year.

School Web Sites

2009-03-13T05:29:00.000-07:00

The new school web sites are up and running. I didn't love the template that I had to work with, but the information is clear and I believe it is easy to navigate through the entire site as well. I am getting excited to see more and more teachers taking the opportunity to update their own web pages and create new online interactive content with their students. I have always been a firm believer in creating quality content first and publishing second rather than the opposite way around. You can view the Village Elementary School web page at www.yorkschools.org/ves and the Coastal Ridge Elementary School web site at www.yorkschools.org/cres

February Break

2009-02-24T06:48:00.000-08:00

We had a great February break here in Maine. It was nice weather at the beginning of the week and then we got three snow storms towards the end of the week. In fact, we had a two hour delay on Monday (our return day) due to 8 more inches of snow over night.

We are back to school now and several new projects have started in the computer labs at both VES and CRES. Below is a list of grade level projects that the students will be working on over the next couple of weeks. I have been working closely with Mrs. Kaknes' class to develop and edit renewable energy commercials for a service learning project. These commercials will be played during our monthly CRES News Broadcast and will also be shown on the web page and our local access television channel.

Computer Lab topics at Village Elementary include;

Kindergarten - Creating 100 squares using Kidpix

First Grade - Office Scott will be in to talk to the kids about Safety and the Red E. Fox Program

Second Grade - Is continuing their projects on word work using Kidspiration 3

Computer Lab topics at Coast Ridge include;

Second Grade - Word Work and Math Practice using EM Games and Kidspiration

Third Grade - Maine animal projects and service learning Keynote presentations

Fourth Grade - Simple Machines using Ed Heads and Energy Videos

Web Pages

2009-02-10T08:12:00.000-08:00

For the past two weeks I have been put in charge of creating the new web pages for both elementary schools that I work for here in York, Maine. Creating web pages is nothing new to me. In fact, I had to create a web page in college to prove my computer literacy for teaching. Of course the technology has changed a great deal since then. Since that time I have created 6 web pages for teaching, social networking and one business. I have to admit that I prefer building web pages that are more personal to me, or at least a project in which I have the focus on the direction of the page layout.

In creating the two pages for Village Elementary School and Coastal Ridge Elementary School, I have found a few bumps along the way. The first is the software used to create the pages. Given a template, I was supposed to create a web page for each school that matched the other schools in the district in style, but still conveyed the message of an elementary school. I found that to be a harder task than I originally had thought. There isn't the complete freedom using our First Class email software to create web pages, and the style cannot change too drastically after a template has been created either.

The other bump that I had anticipated was working with an entire staff to come up with a web page that reflected everything that we do here at the elementary schools. I knew there would be a lot of information and links to add, but I did not realize that ideas and focus would be so far spread within the same staff. I have asked for advice and received some great feedback, but often the ideas conflict with one or another. This has made it challenging to construct the web page in a timely manner.

The web pages are supposed to be published by the end of this month, so even writing this blog has taken some time away from finishing the pages. I supposed part of my February break will be used to finish this task before our deadline.

My advice to anyone that would like to create their own web page is to look around the web and get some ideas and then to story board how you would like the web page to look in style and organization and how to display your content. That would certainly have helped me before I had begun this task.

And the Winner Is...

2009-02-05T09:39:00.001-08:00

Many students participated in the Comic Life challenge and did a fantastic job. Some students used computer programs, while others drew their comics. Great job to all of you that entered the contest. You are all winners. I have placed a slide show of the comics that students submitted on my web page. You can view it http://www.yorkschools.org/~elawson/?OpenItemURL = S00E52C70

Snow Day

2009-01-28T05:03:00.000-08:00

Well, it's another big winter and Maine, so we are at home with another snow day. The students are wrapping up their Comic Challenge projects. I will review these and post a slide show on my website as soon as these are edited and ready for the web.

On another note, we have had a few classes join Blogger.com. I would like to recognize Mr. Harris, Ms. Switzer and Mrs. Kaknes' classes for joining the Web 2.0 and starting a class blog. The students have been very excited to start these projects. I have seen some extended learning first hand as students from Ms. Switzer's class have started online conversations from outside of the classroom. Great work!

Creating Your Own Blog

2009-01-26T09:03:00.000-08:00

It's fast and simple to create your own blog. You can sign up for a free account here on Blogger.com. First think of what you would write about? Would you be able to write something new on your topic each week? Each day? Who would you like to hear from in your blog?

If you make your blog interesting, you may get readers and comments from all over the world. Make sure you ask your parents before you sign up and then let me know what your blog address is, so that I can link it and follow your blog.

Blogging

2009-01-15T05:38:00.000-08:00

Today a 4th grade class will be responding to their friend in Paris, France via a blog. They will also setup their very own classroom blog to report out to the world what they are learning. As part of the blog, the students will also be writing newspaper articles and broadcast a live news show for the school. This news broadcast will be available on the web shortly after production on January 30th. Check back to see what this class has been working on.

Comic Life Challenge

2009-01-08T05:33:00.000-08:00

As I thought we did have a snow day yesterday, so school was closed for the day and nobody came into the computer lab.

This month I have setup a challenge for the students. Previously, I had created two comics a month; Where in the World is Mr. Lawson? and The Adventures of Mr. Lawson. The first comic was a geography lesson for the students where I presented clues to a country I had visited. The students tried to figure out which country it was and either emailed or wrote a note to me with their guess. The Adventures of Mr. Lawson talked about the time of year and introduced staff members within the elementary schools to explain more about their programs. The challenge to the students is to create their own comic. A winner from each grade level will be chosen and posted on the web page. Good luck to all the students!

Travel Blog

2009-01-06T07:52:00.000-08:00

I have created one blog before on my trip across the United States this summer with my sister. We took US route 90 for most of the trip, but found time to stop along the way from Boston to Seattle. Check it out at; http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/Lawson

First Blog

2009-01-06T07:46:00.000-08:00

Today I am just setting up the blog. The students are back in school here in York, but snow is in the forecast for tomorrow. We'll have to wait and see if we are in session tomorrow or not.