Connections: Technology and Education

Chromebooks, Chromebooks everywhere Chromebooks.

2012-01-04T23:10:00.001-05:00

Look what arrived today. 676 Samsung Chromebooks. Now we are just waiting for the carts to arrive so we can deliver the devices to the teachers. Now the real work begins.

Year of the Chromebook!

2012-01-02T20:05:00.001-05:00

2012 will be the year of the Chromebook. In the next 2 weeks our school will be receiving 25 classroom sets of the Samsung Chromebooks. Over 700 devices and 25 carts. Stay tuned and follow the adventure.

Resources and Interesting Readings from the Past Week.

2011-03-05T09:27:00.005-05:00

Some of the more interesting reads and resources from the past week. Jon Stewart Message for Teachers. The Daily Show - Crisis in Dairyland - Message for Teachers Tags: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook Resources: Ten Marks: A program that is designed to help your students with their math. The content is tied to state standards. Image Chart

The Journey Begins: Cell Phones in the Classroom

2011-02-14T13:54:00.001-05:00

Our district has recently started a cell phone pilot program with some of our teachers and students. My role in this pilot is really two fold. As the ITS, I lend support to the teachers, and as a US History teacher I get to try out some of the applications and ideas in my class. Here are few of the tools we are using and some of the ways they are being used. Poll Everywhere: Allows the teacher

From Columbia to Colombia

2011-02-12T15:34:00.000-05:00

I have been working with Rhonda Nieto(Spanish Teacher) and Alicia Lewis the Secondary Level 2010 AATP Teacher of the year from our World Languages Department on a project to connect students from Blythewood High School to students in Cali, Colombia SA. We meet via Skype with Fabian Tejada and Carolina Cabezas to discuss some of the logistics of the program this past week. The goal of the

QR Codes in the classroom

2011-02-08T06:47:00.001-05:00

There has been a lot of talk lately on twitter and in my blog reader about the use of QR codes in the classroom. I think in general there are some good uses for them in the class but to what extent? Right now I think the use of the QR Codes is somewhat limiting. As more and more schools begin to allow the use of cell phones in classes, the use of QR codes will increase. Angie Hill a Chemistry

YouTube Tools for your Class

2010-08-24T22:14:00.001-04:00

If you show YouTube videos in your class or use them for presentations here are some helpful YouTube tools. SafeShare.TV will remove distractions and offensive material found around YouTube videos. Youtube video before SafeShare.TV YouTube video after SafeShare.TV TubeChop Allows you to select only the portion of the video you want to show. TubeChop will create a new url and

Current Events in the History Class.

2010-08-22T13:15:00.001-04:00

Should we include current events in our history classes? I think so, and I think we should do it in a prominent way. It seems that we focus so much on historical content in our classes that we neglect to emphasis current events. In most classes I have observed, current events are usually addressed maybe once a week. Typically students are required to find a current event article they are

Technology Tools for Social Studies Teachers

2010-07-06T15:52:00.000-04:00

I recently did a work shop for some of the Social Studies teachers in our School District. We had a whole day to share resources and talk about ways they could use some of these tools in their classroom. Here is the list of some of the tools I shared. Wordle, WordSift and Tagxedo are all tools for generating "word clouds". Each tool works a little differently and each has their different

Thoughts from my Reading

2010-06-28T07:59:00.001-04:00

I started reading Reinventing Project-Based Learning: Your Field Guide to Real-World Projects in the Digital Age by Suzie Boss and Jane Krauss. I'm looking forward to learning new ideas and strategies as I read this book. The idea of incorporating PBL is a little more exciting to me as the availability of tech resources continues to increase at our school. I know its possible to have meaningfu

An Open Letter to Educators from Dan Brown

2010-03-12T14:13:00.005-05:00

An interesting take on what has happened to education over the years. Are we ready to make the changes necessary? Can education change and adapt to the new "revolution"?

Items I've Gleaned from my PLN 2/17

2010-02-17T18:01:00.001-05:00

Things shared by members of my in Diigo, Twitter, and my RSS feed. How to Use Google Reader: Video Series from @eHow. -get professional tips and advice on using web-based aggregators for reading Atom or RSS feeds while you're online or offline in this free instructional video series. Thinkature Real time collaboration for the Web. Similar to Etherpad. Unprofound Offers Royalty-Free, Public

Facebook and Educators...Be Careful!

2010-02-16T21:47:00.001-05:00

I saw in the paper this morning; "Teacher may lose job after derogatory comments about her students on Facebook" and I thought not again. It seems as if teachers are always getting in trouble over Facebook. I know that's not the case, but sometimes it just seems that way. How ironic the story came out on the day I was scheduled to talk with teachers about Facebook. I thought with the story

Items I Gleaned from my PLN 2/15

2010-02-15T20:52:00.000-05:00

Things shared by others in Diigo, Twitter, and my RSS feed. Social Studies Skills Tutor: This site provides tutorials to help students learn some of the skills required to be successful in a Social Studies class. Digizen.org A site from the United Kingdom focusing on helping teens understand the importance of good digital citizenship. Site focuses on Social Networking sites and Cyberbullying

Creating an On-Line class. What is the best way?

2010-02-14T17:29:00.003-05:00

I have been collaborating with a teacher in our district as she puts together an online Psychology course. We've had many discussions about the best way to put the course together that would keep the students actively engaged.We haven't really come up with an idea of the perfect on line class. But what we both know is; putting together an on-line course is very time consuming. Probably more so

Word Clouds and Vocabulary Tools

2010-02-04T18:02:00.005-05:00

I have recently been playing around with some tools looking at text and words. Here's a Google Presentation on three great resources that can be helpful to students. Wordle, WordSift, Word It Out and EasyDefine.

Gadgets from 2009

2009-12-21T23:50:00.002-05:00

This year was a great year for gadgets.The first gadget I bought was not for me but for my wife. We bought an Acer netbook, she loves it. I took it with me to the opening night of NECC2009, but I felt like it was too dificult to type on. I did like the netbook enough to buy my daughter one for her 12th birthday.The second gadget was a Flip camera. I got this for work. I like having it handy

Can Education Meet the Demands of a New Age?

2009-08-30T10:50:00.008-04:00

I came across this video again the other day and it got me thinking.What are we really doing as educators to meet the challenges and demands of the 21st Century?Are we going to be able to implement 21st Century skills into our classrooms in the standards and content driven environment we are working in now? Does the fact that we are still talking about "implementing" and "teaching" these skills

The New School Year: A "Do Over" , a "Mulligan"

2009-08-16T06:30:00.008-04:00

I always like the beginning of the school year. Teachers and administrators are typically happier and friendlier. Coming back fresh from some R&R everyone is a little more optimistic about what the year holds. Teachers are talking about the new ideas and strategies they want to try to implement into their classes. Everything is good in the world! But is it?Going into my 10th year of teaching

The Virtual Learning Environment: The Opportunity for Active Learning

2009-08-11T07:00:00.004-04:00

This summer I've had the opportunity to participate in numerous online PD sessions as well as going to NECC 2009 for some face to face learning. I realized that I've become a huge fan of the virtual conference, webinar, and other live (and archived) online professional development opportunities that are now readily available on the web. These online professional development sessions provide

Create Video Playlists and Embed Them Anywhere | Embedr

2009-07-24T08:12:00.004-04:00

What a great resource. When I first saw Embedr, I thought this would be great, teachers could create a playlist of videos and share them with their students. The playlist can be embeded on the teacher's webpage, blog, wiki, BlackBoard or any other site. So far I have used it with Teacher Tube and Youtube videos and have had no problems.Here is a playlist I have started. Build your own

A break from the web!

2009-07-20T18:22:00.005-04:00

Last week I went on vacation with the family. We spent 5 days at Yogi Bear's Jellystone Camp Resort in Natural Bridge Virginia. We had a great time, great weather and ate a lot of great food.We took our laptops, because we had a free wifi connection. I figured I could stay connected and keep up with everything. However the connection at the campsite was slow or non-existent so the laptops

Re-Thinking my Teaching

2009-07-10T05:14:00.007-04:00

As the new school year approaches (the summer is flying by way too fast) I am starting to gear up for my class. As a full time Instructional Tech Specialist, I do not have to teach a class, but I do enjoy keeping the connection with the students. I think it helps having this connection when I work with teachers integrating technology into their classrooms. However; one thing that I have noticed

Alan November at Summer ITS Workshop.

2009-06-12T08:50:00.005-04:00

Below are my notes from the 2009 ITS Summer Workshop session with Alan November.Alan November

Text to Movie: How would you use this in the classroom?

2009-03-22T20:31:00.007-04:00

Came across a movie making site the other day; Xtranormal is a text to movie site. If you can type a script you can make a movie. I was curious about how this could be used in the classroom. Check it out and let me know what you think. Post your ideas here or go to the google form and share your ideas.

Just Wondering. . .

2009-03-08T12:47:00.004-04:00

I saw this chart or a similar one the other day on Twitter and it made me wonder. . .If the top three least effective methods of learning retention are Lecture, Reading, and Audio-Visual; then why are these three the most often used teaching methods?

What I Pulled from Twitter Today 2/16

2009-02-16T20:45:00.003-05:00

Just some of the stuff I pulled from Twitter today...Thanks for everything!Visual Storytelling ToolNew York Times Article "Industry Pitch that Smartphones Belong in the Classroom"Podcast Creation for early elementaryArticles "Teaching How to Learn" and "Living and Learning with New Media"From TED "100 Websites you Should Know About and Use"SnagFilms.com is a website where you can watch

Facebook as an Educational Tool?

2009-02-14T18:14:00.009-05:00