Carlson’s Corner

I must admit that I was not excited about the “home play” assignment that required me to explore “outside” blogs.  I truly felt it was just busy work for me and something I was only doing to fulfill my class requirement. I decided I would try to find some blogs about scrapbooking.  I was pleasantly surprised at what I found.  Three sites of interest I found were: blog.wantingwhatyouhave.com/2008/11/organized-scrapbooking-on-budget.html,

scrapbookingbaby.net/ , scrapbookingquotesblog.com.  As I explored I found various tips on organization, layout ideas and some great quotes.  I also read about another website called Smile Box and thought it sounded interesting, so I checked it out.  After viewing a few projects created on Smile Box I was hooked, I created a digital scrapbook and sent it to family members.  I was so excited that I joined and have since created 3 additional projects.  I have also shared the site with several friends.  Needless to say, I have found value in blogging, but I can also see how much time it can monopolize.  With all that is out there 24/7 it can be difficult to balance the “real” world with the Web 2.0 world.  After all, it is much more fun to participate in conversations about hobbies than to do the wash or clean the house.

After our last session, I experimented with screen casting and Survey Monkey.  I found both to be valuable tools. First, I experimented with screen casting using screencast-o-matic.  I created 2 screencasts which I hope to offer to staff, once I can figure how to save them as a file that can be attached to a web page.  The first screencast demonstrated the steps staff can take to access network folders from home using their Outlook account. The second walked staff through how to schedule appointments with peer coach by accessing his/her calendar on Outlook. I hope to continue to work with screencasting and create a quick resource where staff members can look to find tech related answers to FAQS.  I just have to figure out how to save files that my computer can open and read.

I also experimented with Survey Monkey this month.  Following our last staff development day, a Survey Monkey survey was sent to staff asking for feedback on various aspects of the staff development sessions that were offered.  Since I did one of the presentations on SMART Toolkit, I helped with the survey and had the opportunity to view the results.  It was so nice to be able to view a compilation of each question and all comments in one document.  I can see great value in utilizing Survey Monkey.  The results are compiled for you, trends can be immediately seen and all the information is in one place.  I hope to utilize Survey Monkey throughout the year to gather data on the Q-Comp program and receive feedback from staff.

Today as I was post-conferencing with one of the counselors we were discussing some of the factors that cause students to seek schedule changes.  This has become a huge problem and is causing some classes to be overloaded and others to be dropped.  After our discussion it was apparent that one proactive measure that could be taken to reduce the number of schedule changes was to better educate students about each class.  We talked about teachers explaining their classes, but the logistics during advisory was impossible.  Then we discussed the possibility of a podcast or video cast that could be shown on the SMART boards during advisory and put on the school web page for students and parents to view at home. After looking into it further, I realized that the HS didn’t have a web cam, so I wrote a grant for one web cam for each building in the district.  I will find out in December if I receive the grant.

During a post-observation one of the teachers suggested having me write out directions on how to get to the library of SMART lessons that are free to download on the SMART Technology page.  I decided I would create a screencast of the process to share with staff.

The first integration activity I have attempted was blogging.  I created my blog (as you can see) and I have mentioned the idea of using blogs with a few teachers as a way to promote discussion, writing and high level thinking skills.  One of the teachers is a level 5 language teacher at the high school level.  Her overall goal for her students was to USE French!  I shared what a blog was and explained to her how students could use a class blog to engage in formulating sentences, expressing them in writing and reading what others said in French.  She agreed that it would be a way to achieve her goal outside of class.

During a post-conference discussion with a middle school history teacher it became apparent that he really wanted the students to work on formulating answers in a coherent manner.  He mentioned that he would love to spend more time posing, modeling and having students practice open response questions, but had too much content he needed to cover.  I mentioned blogging as a way to achieve this goal and he was very excited. 

After my conversations with these teachers, I talked with one of our district technology integration specialists about blogs in our district.  She mentioned a new class blogging site she was going to look into.  We are going to discuss it more on Monday, after she previews the site.  I am hoping that we can offer trainings for teachers on how to use the site, if it seems to fit our schools’ policies. I am eager to implement some things I have learned about and get teachers and kids excited and engaged through the use of technology.

The big idea that I took away from our October meeting was that technology is truly an integral part of our students’ lives and if we don’t start changing our methods of assessment and instruction, we are doing our students an injustice.  Not only is it our jobs to expose students to skills that they will need as 21 century workers, but we are also obligated to engaging them and make learning meaningful and enjoyable.  By asking them to integrate ideas and technology skills while allowing them to express themselves in a medium they are comfortable using, we can accomplish these objectives. 

The more we discussed, the more it became evident that the challenges of integrating technology are usually those of the teacher, not the student.  Because teachers often don’t feel 100% comfortable with new technologies (me included), they feel it will be too difficult for students.  The fact is students often need very little direct instruction when it comes to technology. I recently witnessed two teachers explaining how to use SMART Notebook 10 software to their 7^th grade classes.  They spent 17-20 minutes explaining the basics of Notebook 10 and the students eagerly went to work creating their own lessons.  They had a few questions as they worked, but watching them discuss, problem solve and work collaboratively was remarkable.  Not only were they demonstrating what they knew about math, but they were also working as a team, learning a new technology and problem solving.  They were actively engaged for 2 days as they worked, and then were able to share what they learned with their peers. On the other hand, I have done several trainings with teachers on SMART Notebook 10.  I have spent 6 hours with some, and they still felt overwhelmed and not ready to use it in class.  I think the difference is that many teachers need to feel 100% comfortable using most of the features of an application before using it and students just need a basic understanding and they will try it.  I am betting that if teachers had a very basic understanding of a technology they wanted to integrate; students could do the explaining and be the tech expert for that project. Teachers might even survey their students and have them rate how comfortable they are using technologies the teacher may want to incorporate into lessons.  This would help teachers gage the amount of instruction time needed and if there were several students that could be experts.

The second obstacle that we discussed teachers may struggle with in integration is assessment.  I too had questions about this.  Then I saw some examples that teachers had created and the rubric creators on Rubistar and decided it wasn’t so difficult that it outweighed the benefits.  Once I stepped back and thought about the additional learning objectives that were met through integration, I was hooked!  I can’t wait to talk more with Gina about how she sets up, explains and assesses her lessons.

As we progress through this class, I am discovering that my biggest obstacle was not knowing the new technologies that are available and never having an opportunity to see real ways teachers were integrating them into their classrooms.  If you have a project you have used involving integration of web 2.0 technologies, please share them.  I would love to see your explanation sheet, rubric and products that students created.  Please enlighten me!

Since I am a Peer Coach this year and I don’t have my own classroom, I foresee myself learning about what is available in the Web 2.0 realm, so I can then share integration ideas with the middle school and high school teachers I coach.  I can also offer time to help them try some of the new tools and refer them to the tech integration specialists in our district if they would like help as they develop or implement a new lesson.

The barriers I see are the fact that I can only offer, but can’t force other teachers to implement anything I suggest.  My goal is simply to see what is going on in classrooms when I observe and then after seeing the class, their goals and the methods of teaching they use, I can hopefully match individual teachers with a tool that will accomplish the same goal in a new way. Hopefully I can sprinkle some new web 2.0 tools into the secondary schools in our district. 

I don’t think the students at the secondary level will need much training, but the teachers will be the ones who are apprehensive.  I have noticed that the students can receive 10 minutes of training on a new technology and figure it out.  They are willing to play and make mistakes without feeling frustrated or silly.  This flexibility is extremely helpful when trying new things.  If students come to class prepared with the knowledge and content they will need, the technology should not hinder, but enhance the project.

I would love to hear ways you are using some ideas from E2T2 in your classroom.

 I am a TOSA in a School District in Minnesota. I am participating in an E2T2 grant that allows me to lean more about emerging technologies and their applications in the classroom. This is my first assignment, as well as my first attempt at blogging. I hope to take all the knowledge I acquire in this experience back to the teachers I coach in our district, so they can integrate these technologies into their classrooms. If you have any suggestions for ways you use blogs to enhance student learning and promote higher level thinking, please share.