Saturday, December 06, 2003
Hi Ladies,
While we were winding down from our work during 4th grade prep period, Lisa noticed the Kid Pix icon on the newly burned desktops and asked about it. That sparked a LOT of interest in the group and a request for a demo lesson with students.
Shortly after that I introduced the software to Janine and the reaction was predictable. Another request for a demo lesson.
You folks are seeing curricular applications right off the bat, so let's focus on how we can use the software to its maximum benefit. I won't say it's a mistake, but the first tendency is to introduce the software to the students with the objective of getting them to learn the basics. The gradually build up to more focused curricular objectives.
While there is nothing terribly wrong with this approach, it doesn't make an immediate curricular or real world connection. It's much better to have a curricular goal in mind and a set of objectives for students to achieve. If they have a challenging task to accomplish, that would be difficult or impossible without technology and then you introduce the technology as a tool for allowing the to do the job they will begin viewing the computer as a powerful, helpful tool, that can be used to solve problems, not just something that is neat of fun.
So how do we do this? Well, as I was sitting in on one of the classes I heard that you were going to see Cat in the Hat. Now I know that before you go and after you return, you will be tying that to the curriculum with reading and writing activities, and this is a perfect spot to use Kid Pix in a whole series of activities that spans the range of Bloom's Taxonomy.
This is not something that comes together quickly or easily until you have the technical skills and experience in creating these kinds of activities, but hey, that's what I'm here for. If you all like the idea, this could be our first big project and with your help and a little luck, we can make it one that helps prepare students for the state test.
I'll be sending you more information before this Thursday and if you like the idea we can use the periods to learn Kid Pix, plan for the activities, learn some of the technical "magic" that I did to prepare template material for the kids to use.
Sound good? I hope so.
See you Thursday.
While we were winding down from our work during 4th grade prep period, Lisa noticed the Kid Pix icon on the newly burned desktops and asked about it. That sparked a LOT of interest in the group and a request for a demo lesson with students.
Shortly after that I introduced the software to Janine and the reaction was predictable. Another request for a demo lesson.
You folks are seeing curricular applications right off the bat, so let's focus on how we can use the software to its maximum benefit. I won't say it's a mistake, but the first tendency is to introduce the software to the students with the objective of getting them to learn the basics. The gradually build up to more focused curricular objectives.
While there is nothing terribly wrong with this approach, it doesn't make an immediate curricular or real world connection. It's much better to have a curricular goal in mind and a set of objectives for students to achieve. If they have a challenging task to accomplish, that would be difficult or impossible without technology and then you introduce the technology as a tool for allowing the to do the job they will begin viewing the computer as a powerful, helpful tool, that can be used to solve problems, not just something that is neat of fun.
So how do we do this? Well, as I was sitting in on one of the classes I heard that you were going to see Cat in the Hat. Now I know that before you go and after you return, you will be tying that to the curriculum with reading and writing activities, and this is a perfect spot to use Kid Pix in a whole series of activities that spans the range of Bloom's Taxonomy.
This is not something that comes together quickly or easily until you have the technical skills and experience in creating these kinds of activities, but hey, that's what I'm here for. If you all like the idea, this could be our first big project and with your help and a little luck, we can make it one that helps prepare students for the state test.
I'll be sending you more information before this Thursday and if you like the idea we can use the periods to learn Kid Pix, plan for the activities, learn some of the technical "magic" that I did to prepare template material for the kids to use.
Sound good? I hope so.
See you Thursday.
Hi Ladies,
This past Thursday was very productive. I was able to load and demo the software to transfer files from the AlphaSmarts directly to any application that will accept text. I still have to experiment with beaming to the Palms and hotsyncing, but I can't do that with my Palm, because I do some special syncing to the Internet that would be a problem with the AlphaSmarts.
During prep periods we have more practice creating activities with 3DWriter and the sending them to the web site via FTP. The whole process is new, but before you know it, it will be second nature.
Take Care,
Art
This past Thursday was very productive. I was able to load and demo the software to transfer files from the AlphaSmarts directly to any application that will accept text. I still have to experiment with beaming to the Palms and hotsyncing, but I can't do that with my Palm, because I do some special syncing to the Internet that would be a problem with the AlphaSmarts.
During prep periods we have more practice creating activities with 3DWriter and the sending them to the web site via FTP. The whole process is new, but before you know it, it will be second nature.
Take Care,
Art
