How to make RSA Animate style videos with your class… Here is a post on how to make RSA style videos with half the work and time, and with a lot less tech experience needed. And another post on RSA-lite style videos. If you like the idea in this post, then you might also enjoy my other post 24 Assessments that Don’t Suck. Nothing fancy in this post, just the nuts and bolts of how to make an RSA Animate style video with your class! This is also one of those posts that is so long that there is simply not enough time in my life to go back and edit and revise it…so you get what you get and please don’t get upset. What is an RSA Animate style video? Let’s start with the most popular one: And the one most popular with educators: If you want to start at the end and see a student’s final product before getting to the steps involved in making them, pause and watch an example of one of the final videos below before reading on: This is a unit that was built from the beginning to end with an RSA Animate style video. So let’s start there… Day 2-Drawings
Alan November: How Teachers and Tech Can Let Students Take Control For many educators, helping students direct their own learning is a priority. Educator and author Alan November, who has been talking about ways to get students to own their learning for years, draws on his experiences as a teacher, principal and education consultant to tell stories about some of the ideas he sees as integral to education. November joined Steve Hargadon in a discussion of his new book Who Owns the Learning: Preparing Students for Success in the Digital Age, stressing the importance of global collaboration and the role of technology in making it all possible. Here are a few highlights from their discussion. School often means rules and regulations that can seem unrelated to the broader goals of education. Students are told to sit down, be still, show up at specific times, and demonstrate knowledge in ways that have nothing to do with the real world. The lesson from this, he said, is to “teach students how to solve any problem, a general problem solving approach. Related
Web tools from tony v A Smackdown and More A couple of weeks ago, I received a surprising, but very pleasant, direct message on Twitter that went something like this, “Going to be in Surrey in a couple of weeks… want to get together?” Umm… Yeah! Absolutely! The message was from Dean Shareski! Dean expressed interest in doing something in a classroom with kids and maybe doing something after school with educators around the district. Grade 3 teacher, Diana Williams, was very excited and took the idea and ran with it – literally. Dean Shareski and Austin Dolan (from Discovery Education) came and we all had a great time! After further assisting Diana with the technical aspects of putting the video together – taking out the green screen and adding Discovery Education photos in the background, Dean was then ready for his after-school event – a Smackdown! Now, when Dean discussed hosting a Smackdown at Bear Creek, I was a little curious. Heather Blacker (@heatherblacker) from Winnipeg was our first visitor via Google Hangout.
Our Skype Adventures: Creating Connected Learners in a Global Classroom The familiar sound comes through our computer speakers, and instantly my 4th grade classroom comes alive. “Is it him?” “Can I talk first?” “Can we turn off the lights?” “Can I move so I can see?” It’s a Skype call from a student in my class who moved to Hawaii at the end of April. Skype became a new and exciting way to learn in my classroom this year. I was hooked… We continued to share and learn using Skype as we participated in the Global Read Aloud. The students actually wrote their own comprehension questions to ask the other class, and then discussed their interpretations and feelings about the story. When the opportunity arose to Skype with a celebrity for Anti-Bullying Month, I got on board! Our further Skype adventures… In February, I saw a tweet from Twitter friend Paula Naugle in Louisiana. Another Twitter friend, Jan Wells, “called” the other day. Skype is a magic window… Skype enables students to connect, collaborate, and communicate with students across the globe. About the author
Top 10 Technology Blogs for Education Education, as with all aspects of culture, is greatly impacted by the forward progress of technology. Several technology blogs for education are maintained by well-known individuals in the field of secondary and postsecondary education. These technology blogs address technological developments as these innovations relate to education. 1. The Innovative Educator is a blog created and maintained by author Lisa Neilsen. 2. Free Technology 4 Teachers is a blog that introduces teachers to free web-based applications, such as YouTube. 3. Michael Zimmer, a specialist in the field of technology integration in secondary education, produces this blog. 4. Bit by Bit is a blog created and maintained by Elementary School Technology Integrator, Bob Sprankle. 5. For those teachers who utilize Moodle for creating interactive tests and material for the classroom, Around the Corner is a useful blog resource. 6. Noted e-learning expert, Steve Wheeler, maintains the Learning with “e’s” blog. 8. 9. 10.
20 Free and Fun Ways To Curate Web Content Do you suffer from info overload? Is your RSS reader bursting at the seams? Have your bookmarks gone bonkers? Like that alliteration? Me neither. so they turn to curation tools. Pocket (Formerly Read It Later) First, let’s start off with my newfound favorite curation tool. Pinterest The uber-popular social network / social bookmarking / time sucking website is a great way for anyone who wants to organize their online travels. Diigo Diigo is very popular with the world of education. BagTheWeb Sorta like Pinterest, you can create ‘bags’ instead of ‘boards.’ PearlTrees PearlTrees is an increasingly popular tool that has a killer feature: even better organization structure of your curated content. Bundlr Bundlr is not as well known as the other contenders above but it’s worth knowing about. Storify Awesome site for younger classrooms. StumbleUpon A well-known but not widely-understood service. Twitter You may be saying ‘ Twitter isn’t a curation tool Jeff, you’re a dummy.’ Other Favorites
New Player/Editor Features are Live! The new features listed below are now up on the LiveBinders site. But I forgot to mention one of the new features in my previous post. You can now add collaborators from inside the binder. Just click on the “Add” pull down in the upper right corner of the binder. 1. 2. 3. We are switching our rating system over to “useful” instead of using the star rating system. A big thanks to those of you in our community who suggested these enhancements. If you are teaching classes on LiveBinders, feel free to contact us at any time to find out what changes are in the works. Like this: Like Loading...
12 Tech Tools That Will Transform The Way You Teach! In a Simple K12 blog post titled “17 Signs Your Classroom is Behind the Times” they provide a list of things that characterize a classroom that has fallen behind. Number 16 lists a variety of technology tools that every educator should know about. As I read the list, I realized that although many teachers are interested in and excited about technology integration, they are too busy to explore all the new technology tools available online. This blog post is dedicated to all of the overworked teachers who just don’t have the time to seek out this information. I have provided brief explanations, links to and pictures of the tools mentioned by Simple K12 (and a couple of my favorites). I hope this makes it more manageable for teachers to pick and choose which tools they want to use. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. [Note: StoryJumper is another online digital storybook maker worth checking out!] 8. 9. 10. 11. 12.
Connecting School and Home: 360-Degree Communication Too Big to Know The Internet knows no boundaries. That's why parents need to set limits for their kids. This year's group of fifth grade students (now entering the stream of 'tweendom and preparing to step into the potentially perilous middle school years of sixth-to-eighth grade) was born in 2001. School-to-Parent Communication Schools have taken on a more significant, all-consuming role in helping parents find the right language to communicate with children, especially in the digital realm. Here are starting points for schools to communicate to parents: Start early, when your child is in third or fourth grade. Testing the System What happens when your child commits a transgression online? Keep calm.Maintain an even tone of voice.Honor the mistake. Parents need to hear consistent, safe messages from schools. Be patient and have faith with the process. The 360-degree communication loop between home and school is key to ensure healthy growth for middle school students and parents.
Teacher’s Trial by Tech – Staff Engagement Success? There’s no doubt about it, the iPad is a desirable product. Now the new staff have one it is clear excitement and enthusiasm abound. Despite initial resistance and concern, staff have already asked for increased support and content. This is a short post to highlight anything we have learned over the past three months relating to staff engagement. Recommended approach Allow staff to see iPad’s in use with students over a long period of timeMake it a voluntary trialTarget students for training and allow staff to catch up as they see fitOffer support as often as possible and again ensure it is voluntaryHave an email support dedicated to helping with use (encourages email on iPad)Email ‘how to’ links for desired functionality and appsBuild up a bank of resources to help with understanding pedagogy and implications – Evernote really helped hereRemember the device is not intuitive if there has been no exposure to touchscreen technology. Lesson’s Learned Like this: Like Loading...