Today’s students were born digital but those responsible for their education were not. Youngsters arrive at school in tune with the social context and experience the Web offers. Children thrive when teachers find ways to educate them in a more flexible, hypertext manner. This space focuses on development of and support for teachers in their use of technology as they cultivate 21st century content knowledge and skills in their students.
Educon 2.2 has come and gone, but I certainly have not forgotten it. I had intended on posting my reflections in a more timely manner, a few things over the past few weeks have kept me from finishing this post. So while I'm a little behind the other Educon attendees who posted reflections, I still think that it is worthwhile finish this post and to contribute my thoughts and take-aways back to the community. Thanks to all those I was able to meet and learn with in Philadelphia.
Take-Away #1: Students own the event.
From the moment Kim and I walked into the doors of Science Leadership Academy until the time we left, I was impressed with how students were the center of the event. Dressed in their white lab coats, we were greeted at the registration table and escorted around the building to tour the school facilities. Along the way, our gracious hosts gave us a first-person account of the ins and outs of SLA. They started by providing us with a thorough overview of the core values that guide the learning at SLA. Students were extremely articulate in explaining the admission process, describing the types of classes they are taking, the schedule that they follow, the assessment methods they're involved with and what they like most about attending SLA.
Liven up learning by using simple tools like iPods and blogging applications. Students independently use iPods to learn new material, review important concepts, and extend learning. Students use communication and collaborative skills as they create blogs that engage and empower them to integrate technology skills as they become 21st Century learners.
Below are my notes (click Read More), in tweet format, from their very informative session. Thanks for sharing Jennifer and Carol!
I've been attending the Midwest Educational Technology Conference in St. Charles, Missouri, for the past two days. One of the highlights of my trip the METC 2010 has been having the opportunity to meet Scott Meech in person for the first time. I first began to communicate virtually with Scott through the I Education App Review (IEAR) community that he founded. Dedicated to exploring the educational value of iPhone and iPod Touch applications in the classroom, IEAR has a growing online community that has a lot of great conversations going on. I provided more details about the benefits of IEAR in a previous post.
Earlier this morning, Scott gave a spotlight presentation at METC where he talked about the IEAR community and highlighted a number of apps that he feels have strong educational potential for classroom use. From the conference planner:
The potential for mobile learning devices such as Apple's iPhone and iTouch devices are very high. This presentation will take a closer look at the educational possibilities of these devices for students, teachers and administrators. We will focus on the work being done through the online community "I Educational Apps Review." This community is focused on helping school personnel to effectively and safely use these devices for their personal and educational productivity. Apple's "Application Store" has thousands of educational applications and yet, are they really educational? We will walk through some fantastic applications and their potential with schools. Additionally, we will discuss issues surounding these devices such as how to effectively implement these devices with students in classrooms to the highlighting of concrete lessons.
I was honored that Scott asked me to speak for a couple of minutes about the importance of the IEAR community and I took the opportnity to urge people attending METC 2010 to join the conversation. I was able to Ustream the presentation and it can be viewed below. Scott shared a ton of great resources during his time and I'd encourage all educators who are interested in using the iPhone or iPod Touch in their classroom to take the time to view his presentation. Thanks, Scott!
Overall Educational Value: B
The application is most suited to provide a skill and drill approach to memorizing vocabulary, math facts and other learning content. It also provides learners with the opportunity to:
learn “bite sized” pieces of relevant information at a time
receive immediate feedback on results
test knowledge in any subject using custom card set integration with Google Docs
My youngest son, Aiden, is two and a half years old and seems to be devloping a real interest in the iPod Touch. While this is most likely because he watches his mom and dad use mobile devices on a daily basis, his interest really made me consider if and how the iPod Touch and the apps available for it could be used to support early learning.
There are approximately 6000 educational apps available in the iTunes store, so I have been trying to spend some time each day investigating, experimenting and analyzing an educational app. To further explore my research questions, I also decided to follow the example of Piaget and use my own children as a research subjects, so I downloaded a few apps, synced them to my iPod Touch and set Aiden loose.
In the coming months, I plan to continue working with Aiden and various iPhone apps. I'll be collecting data, video documenting his learning experiences and trying to determine what place, if any, these apps have in the early childhood classroom. In some cases, I'll review the apps and contribute them to I Education App Review. To kick this little project off, I thought I'd share a few of the early videos I've collected.
I reviewed the Wheels on the Bus and Word Magic iPhone apps for the I Education Apps Review community back in April. Each review consisted of a written component and a supplemental video review to show the app in action. One thing that I was never quite satisfied with was the technique I had to use to capture video of the iPhone app in use. To complete the first two app reviews, I resorted to mounting my video camera to a modified tripod that allowed me to capture video from directly above my iPod Touch. This method was less than ideal as it was very difficult to attain the proper lighting so that the screen was always clearly visible.
This weekend, I sat down to write, record and edit a long overdue IEAR review, but I just couldn't seem to produce video of the iPod screen that was high-quality enough to use. After nearly an hour of frustration, I decided there had to be a better way to create video of an iPhone app in use. That's when I turned to Google and YouTube. I started with a Google search of the terms "iPhone screen capture." Jackpot. The search results provided a plethora of website and video tutorials.
"Sexting" (sex + texting) is the act of sending sexually provocative or explicit photos electronically, most often between mobile devices such as cell phones. While college age young students are most likely the largest demographic to engage in “sexting”, teens between the ages of 13 -18 may be the fastest growing demographic. This rather recent emergence of sexting by adolescents has caught most school administrators off guard, and across the country, school boards and their legal counsel are scrambling to craft appropriate policy responses.
Mr. Single presently focuses his practice on general school law representation. Mr. Single is a member of the American Bar Association, Ohio State Bar Association, Cuyahoga County Bar Association, Cleveland Bar Association, and the Ohio Council of School Board Attorneys.
Pepple & Waggoner Ltd., is a Cleveland based law firm which handles a broad assortment of school law matters for Ohio's school boards.
In this podcast, Gregg and I discuss some general background information regarding sexting, talk about a few of the most well known sexting cases in Ohio and across the U.S. and also address the issue of sexting from a student and parent perspective.
Today an email landed in my Inbox from the good folks at eTech Ohio that I thought I should share. "Free PD to Go from eTech Ohio," was the advertisement in the Subject line of the communication. Formerly Ohio SchoolNet, eTech Ohio is the organization that serves as the main hub of all things educational technology in Ohio. From the eTech About Us page:
As a state agency, eTech Ohio is dedicated to enhancing learning by developing programs and using best practices to serve learning organizations while acquiring, integrating and sustaining educational technology.
It is our mission to provide the leadership and support that promotes access to and use of all forms of educational technology needed to advance the education and accelerate the learning of the citizens of Ohio.
