Using Google Apps, you can create a form, that

• collects feedback
• creates a sign up sheet
• brainstorms ideas
• collects homework answers
• gets input on the latest process/building change

You don’t have to wait until your organization officially adopts Google Apps, you can use your own Google account to do the job.

In these rapidly changing times, sometimes just creating a way for people to submit ideas, give feedback, or measure response feeds our web 2.0 need. These don’t have to be created by outside organizations, they can be done by the people within your group today. Thoughtfully, yet without 5 meetings to plan the plan.

Classrooms are the same way, kids like to be asked, and listened to. This doesn’t always have to happen in class it can happen outside of class – offer up time for everyone to think about it, or offer up ideas quietly. Although, sometimes the thoughtfully written feedback is the most powerful.

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.

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.

Wow.

It doesn’t take much, and the improvement happens.

We are doing something I don’t see as that hard, yet it is really changing the experience for kids, making the learning more accessible.

Things you need:

•  interactive whiteboard (we use Smartboards)
• a screen capture program (we use Jing)
• a microphone
• a short topic / skill to teach
• a way to publish (Moodle)

We put these things together and create short (3 – 5 minute) examples, explanations of concepts. Completing the square in Algebra II, chemistry problems, writing a good intro paragraph, the kids think they are watching the whole lecture, but really it is just a highlight reel.

I use Jing to create answers to questions that occur in my online class, when a teacher asks me how to do something specific on a computer, to show how to import kids into the clicker software, etc.

More than thrilled with the ease, the speed at which teachers adopt and bend it to fit their need. I just wish I had more time to get out and share it with people.  I do see this as a way to bridge the achievement gap. If you do it, let me know, I’d love to share videos. We are posting on iTunes (slowly), search EPHS.

Using Jing to do a screen capture
Smartboard to allow you to write on the screen
Moodle to distribute the files

The classroom really changes, technology makes the impact on student achievement we thought it should when we started this venture

Conference Description

Marc Johnson brings up a really really good point.

School districts that are blocking You Tube are missing Obama’s information, being published ONLY on You Tube. There seems to be more and more information that is published on you tube only. Yes, I realize the crap that is shared, yet can’t we move past it and see the good instead?

Thinking about how this might work for a classroom teacher,

• connecting what the kids are reading with a word cloud
• what people are writing about online,
• what the textbook section is about…
• what other vocab is included that might be a challenge for students…
• priming
• review
• word cloud their paper as the cover sheet

I read this article about Colin Powell

and created this:

Now I realize that kids are more than just hyper-connected.

Yet, sometimes it feels like we make them out to be more than they really are…kids with tools that we didn’t have growing up.  They stay / get connected to people in different ways than we did at that age, not confined by geography but by having their tools charged. ( How many times have they told you their cell phone wasn’t charged as an excuse for not being able to connect with you? )

Yes, their world at 17 is different than mine at 17. I was showing a kid the wiring /server closet this morning, and he called it the command center of the school. I guess I won’t share with the principal that he doesn’t view the principal’s office as the command center. When I was 17, the wiring / server closet would have been where we went if the Russians bombed the school. Now it is where we retreat, to review the video, when something bad happens. Worlds change.

Presentation Files and Notes from The Minnesota E-Learning Summit

How would 21st Century Learners react if they were able to complete assessments, participate in class discussions, get notes from the class they missed this morning, view the video shared in class – all at home 24/7. Blending online learning with traditional courses changes our roles as teachers. How do teachers adjust their courses and how quickly can a system integrate this change? Eden Prairie High School, a large suburban high school, implemented Moodle, an Open Source online learning environment, at the beginning of the 2007-2008 school year. See how it has impacted classroom instruction, professional development, class time, support, and the student experience.