Not exactly two things I’d put together right away.

Yet, they have the same technology need right now.  Imagine how hard it is to get 35 kids around a sewing machine, and show them how to tread a bobbin. Imagine doing biology lab demonstration with small pieces.

Enter the Flip video camera. Both teachers are using the Flip to record the demonstration they would normally give in class, submit it to our podcast server and then show it during class, on a big screen (or smartboard). They are able to stop, rewind, point out (all big in front of class) discuss, answer questions without being tied to a little bobbin….that 27 kids can’t see anyways.

We take it a step further. Publish to the podcast server.

The enriched biology students watch the video at home, discuss things before the lab, and then get to work. The sewing students have iTouch in class, when they get stuck with a step, grab an iTouch, watch the process – listen to the directions – correct their process and move forward. Stopping to ask the teacher questions that can’t be answered via video. Freeing up the teacher to help kids who are really behind & struggling. Everyone is calmer and happier, because everyone is learning! (without having to wait)…

Try it sometime, video the demostration, share it online if you have that ability. Or, use ours, they are out there for everyone!

I’m wondering when it is we start teaching electronic calendar management. First I suppose we teach ourselves, then start sharing it with our students. Google allows for multiple calendar creation, making it nice to have the subscribed calendar for PeeWee Hockey -just add events to my virtual life. At work we are moving towards a Google Calendar for each class that we teach, having the students subscribe to the calendars so they end up in one place.

calendar

I suppose this works better when the information comes to the device in your pocket. I know all the phones text, and I wonder how many of them would (or do) calendar if we asked them.

It is great to see people adopt this strategy, even if people then write the events down in a paper thing that goes into the backpack. It will sure make it easier for the crack-berry generation get a sense of what is happening with those teenagers (who hardly speak out loud anymore). It also speaks to my need for every kid to have a digital device that is small enough to fit in a bag..think netbook, iTouch, iPad. I can’t wait for us to be connected to the information so the learning can be about what to do with it, not recite it back to me.

I know we are close, it just isn’t there.

Yet.

Sometimes we make things just too complicated for ourselves. If you can get a hold of video cameras for your students (old, new, whatever) give them a non-editing assignment. Go old school, edit in the camera.

Given 30 minutes and a video camera, – create a one minute public service announcement regarding the dangers of smoking, doing homework, joining the science club, advertisement for the book you’ve been reading in class. No editing, just multiple shot opportunities. Editing can be the death of video, make it just one easy shot without the edits. Students make more video and are forced to be more creative on the fly without the aid of advanced computer skills.

We used to do this all the time, before video went digital. The editing process is great, it is also a big time vacuum. Force the kids to live without delete, it is a good exercise for everyone. They’ll think you are retro. Which today, apparently is cool.

Think back to before iPods. Remember? How many of you had an mp3 player?? Didn’t the invention of the iPod create an industry, change an industry? It doesn’t mean you HAVE to purchase an iPod, just that most of your music is digital.

I firmly believe that the iPad will do the same revolutionary change to textbooks and books in general. Imagine how great it will be to go into iTunes U, download your book and have up to date text . audio . video . interactive assessments on your device within minutes. The price of the textbook goes down as the publishers no longer have to print, rather use dashcode to create apps out of the already online content. If there are textbook publishers out there, contact me, I’m more than willing to be the beta site for this to happen at the high school level.

Lots of people are writing about what is missing from the device. I don’t think that really matters, things will change, Apple will add features. We’ll figure out why they left off a feature, and LOVE that they did. Yes, I’ve had some of the Apple kool-aide. But really, who doesn’t think they change the way we …

The revolution has started, I’m ready to participate.

~powered by Google. Tools for Every School Part 4

We are doing it. Seems like everyone else on the block has, or is making the move.

Starting with students, and the optional document usage and storage for staff. I do believe this is a game changer, field leveler for kids. If everyone has access to the same software from whatever web connected computer – isn’t that better than 5 different versions of different word processing software?

I do think that to make it work you need to start with staff, using things that they already do professionally.

Meeting notes – have a couple people taking notes at those dept meetings, then make them viewable by the whole staff, great place to teach how / when to Insert – Comment

Agendas – why shouldn’t everyone have the ability to add to the agenda before the meeting starts?

Shared Docs – helps people start controlling who sees what, and who can edit

The great thing about Google Apps, you can use it, without waiting for your district to get the cloud set up. Make the change for your students, now, share the success and get the change for everyone later!

Last year we installed a podcast server using Apple’s OSX server and Podcast Producer. Wow.

We are a 95% PC district, and the podcast producer doesn’t care. We can submit audio / video files to the server from a web page. Combine this with Jing, a $15 screen capture software and teachers can teach anywhere / anytime.

Many districts use the OSX server to manage accounts and such, so all they would have to do is turn on the Podcast Producer service!

Right now, we are creating 5 minute (or less) videos that show people how to do things in Moodle, graph a parabola, answer questions about an assignment, listen to the paragraph spoken in French. There is a great correlation between watching video and success in class, so we are doing it as much as possible!

http://podcast.edenpr.org/

Jing from jingproject.com created by the people that make Camtasia have created a really inexpensive piece of software that helps you make screen captures. The ability to record into a movie what steps you go thru to post a web page, enlarge columns in a spreadsheet, read an email attachment, rename a file saves me a ton of time explaining. Now I can SHOW the steps and talk thru them like I’m sitting with you at the computer. You can pause me, rewind me, play me again and again. Just helping with software questions, this app is worth the $15 I spent on it.

Now, think about having the ability to record what you are writing / doing on a smartboard. Watch and Listen to the teacher complete the square, diagram a sentence, read and explain the french sentence in English. This is the BIG MONEY app. Now as the teacher, am anywhere I need to be to help the kids at anytime of the day or night. When I’m off at a meeting, the sub now plays the snippets of me. I’ll say that again, now when I’m off LEARNING how to be a better teacher, the sub plays the snippets of me. This doesn’t replace me, it doesn’t hold their attention everyday, nor is a one directional lecture always the best, but it is better than the English major trying to teach graphing a parabola.

I’ve tried different apps, and keep coming back to Jing. Go, pick a screen capture tool, start creating short instructional videos for your kids, then share them on say…Moodle. Watch what happens when you run out of time doing homework problems, and they start saying, just Jing it. “Not everyone needs you to go over this problem, so could you Jing it for me?”

Next up: Podcast Server from Apple. Once you have one teacher who makes 200 videos for her class, and this idea catches on like wildfire, you need something more than just Moodle. I’ll explain more in the next post.

I worry about todays generation, ok maybe all of us today. We don’t always have the ability to be private, and many of our successes (and failures) are going to be google-able. Seth Godin wrote a really nice post about how to handle the age of google. Creating a long tail so that even if the first 3 things that return on a search for yourself are “bad” then the next 10 are interesting or at least a little positive. I like the approach, don’t run from it, embrace it.

If you have a name like Jennifer Nelson, you can just hide in the multitude of jnelson’s out in the world. Or, you can try to become a little unique and answer to Jenn Nelson, only to find that other of us have adopted that same strategy. Maybe I’ll get pinned with someone else’s success instead of their drinking binge.

Talking to kids about what they post and what they don’t, is kind of like talking to them about driving. You don’t really know what happens when they leave your sight, until someone in the community sees them in your unique car. Maybe being Googled is something like that, having someone else see your child in your car out in the world.  I did call a friend recently when her son posted something a little too, wrong, (for age 9) on Facebook.  Yes, she’s doing all the right things with him on Facebook, she controls who his friends are, watches what he posts, manages his privacy levels etc. Exposing him at this age to the environment that he’ll grow up in, is a good idea. Having him delete a silly post is also wise.

At this age, his silly post is: I Hate School.

Much better than the binge drinking picture, hopefully he’ll learn the lesson before it can haunt him into job interviews.

There are a couple tools that every teacher / student should have access to in order to deliver / experience the 21st Century Education. I spoke about this at the TIES 2009 Conference in December and the more I think about it, the more important I think they are to education today.

Projector / Internet /Interactive Whiteboard in the Classroom

I’d add to this an interactive whiteboard, but bare minimum you need a way to project and create a visual classroom. This idea / requirement isn’t new so I’m not going to spend much time talking about it.

Moodle

If you have a way to collect and organize the electronic information for your students, everyone is better off. Moodle creates that extra layer of classroom tooling that makes it better than a web site. From a systemic perspective, you have a really great way of sharing materials between teachers. It spread like wildfire in my school, because the early adopters could give others what they’d created. Better than some of the social networking / web 2.0 tools out there as we can package and share between classrooms and schools. I like the idea of Ning, but it really isn’t the complete classroom tool that Moodle is for everyone.

Over the next couple days I’ll add to the list and probably talk more about the power of each tool (IWB, Moodle, Google Apps, itouch, Podcast Server, Screen Capture Software). Let me know what you think, and what 6 are on your list.