Thursday, February 12, 2004
You've heard me say dozens of time that when it comes to using technology, we need to look at the curriculum and see how technology can help us rather than saying how can I use this or that piece of technology in the curriculum. Another way of saying that is that technology use should be driven by need. When that happens, technology is being use the best way.
There were two recent incidents that really showcase that idea. The first resulted in the creation of the Discussion Forums. Brook had a curricular need. She was working with response journals and lugging home 40 each week. She wanted a more efficient way to handle the situation. Out of that need came the forums. They surpass the hand written journals in many ways. For the teacher, convenience is the most obvious. For the student, the fun and motivation is the big draw. Not as obvious is the fact that the compilation of all the student work online provides artifacts for teachers and evaluators that document growth in a way that would be much harder to see with paper an pencil. It has the added bonus of extending the school day and making a home-school connection with students who have Internet access at home. All of this is just the beginning, because the communication right now is teacher to student. As the students grow, we will be tapping into student to student and the collaborative aspects of the software.
The other incident happened just today and it not only illustrated need driven technology use, it demonstrated to me in a very graphic way just how far you have come since we started in Sept.
Janine had been doing poetry writing with students and she wanted a way for students to be able to manipulate word to write a poem. She didn't want anyting fancy, just a way to create word on uniform sized pieces of paper that the kids could cut out and manipulate. She had tried in Word, but was having a problem. I suggested Excel. I showed here how to size the cells, set the font size, and center the words.
That was during the last few minutes of her prep period. At that point I had to go meet with Marilyn. When I got back, every student was in their seat with a whole bunch of cut out words that they were manipulating to create poems. When they had them done, they transcribed them to paper and then went over to the computers to add them to the poetry area of the discussion forum.
Once again, there was a curricular need. In this a little just in time mentoring was all Janine needed. The skills she had developed previously took over and she accomplished in a matter of minutes something that would have taken a great deal more time had technology not been there to fulfill the need.
But, to me that's not the best part. I don't know whether you remember a piece of software that I showed you during our first workshop in October. It was called HotPotato. You had already had a lot and I think that might have put some of you on overload and in retrospect, it was way too early for me to be introducing it to you.
One of the things you can do with it is to create words, word groups, or sentence fragments that students can manipulate on the screen to form sentences, based on what you might be covering. ie, punctuation, capitalization, verbs, etc. They can then have the computer check their work.
After watching Janine in action, it reminded me of that function. I downloaded it and put it on her computer. When she came back from lunch, I told her that I had done it, showed here one example, and pointed her to the built in tutorial. Had I done that to any of you in September, I think I would have been greeted by a blank stare. That was far from the case here. I could see the wheels turning and was confident that she would dig into the program on her own. I think I did get a little stare, but it was saying, "Well I did have some free time planned for this weekend, but I'm going to have to play with this new tool instead."
As with any new technology tool, there might be a road block, but that's why I'm here. The tiny road block I see would be the one that involves getting what she creates from the computer to the StarW site, but that's a hurtle that's easily traversed. I can hardly wait to see what she comes up with, because it make quizzes, crossword puzzles and more. (No pressure, Janine)
Take care,
Art
There were two recent incidents that really showcase that idea. The first resulted in the creation of the Discussion Forums. Brook had a curricular need. She was working with response journals and lugging home 40 each week. She wanted a more efficient way to handle the situation. Out of that need came the forums. They surpass the hand written journals in many ways. For the teacher, convenience is the most obvious. For the student, the fun and motivation is the big draw. Not as obvious is the fact that the compilation of all the student work online provides artifacts for teachers and evaluators that document growth in a way that would be much harder to see with paper an pencil. It has the added bonus of extending the school day and making a home-school connection with students who have Internet access at home. All of this is just the beginning, because the communication right now is teacher to student. As the students grow, we will be tapping into student to student and the collaborative aspects of the software.
The other incident happened just today and it not only illustrated need driven technology use, it demonstrated to me in a very graphic way just how far you have come since we started in Sept.
Janine had been doing poetry writing with students and she wanted a way for students to be able to manipulate word to write a poem. She didn't want anyting fancy, just a way to create word on uniform sized pieces of paper that the kids could cut out and manipulate. She had tried in Word, but was having a problem. I suggested Excel. I showed here how to size the cells, set the font size, and center the words.
That was during the last few minutes of her prep period. At that point I had to go meet with Marilyn. When I got back, every student was in their seat with a whole bunch of cut out words that they were manipulating to create poems. When they had them done, they transcribed them to paper and then went over to the computers to add them to the poetry area of the discussion forum.
Once again, there was a curricular need. In this a little just in time mentoring was all Janine needed. The skills she had developed previously took over and she accomplished in a matter of minutes something that would have taken a great deal more time had technology not been there to fulfill the need.
But, to me that's not the best part. I don't know whether you remember a piece of software that I showed you during our first workshop in October. It was called HotPotato. You had already had a lot and I think that might have put some of you on overload and in retrospect, it was way too early for me to be introducing it to you.
One of the things you can do with it is to create words, word groups, or sentence fragments that students can manipulate on the screen to form sentences, based on what you might be covering. ie, punctuation, capitalization, verbs, etc. They can then have the computer check their work.
After watching Janine in action, it reminded me of that function. I downloaded it and put it on her computer. When she came back from lunch, I told her that I had done it, showed here one example, and pointed her to the built in tutorial. Had I done that to any of you in September, I think I would have been greeted by a blank stare. That was far from the case here. I could see the wheels turning and was confident that she would dig into the program on her own. I think I did get a little stare, but it was saying, "Well I did have some free time planned for this weekend, but I'm going to have to play with this new tool instead."
As with any new technology tool, there might be a road block, but that's why I'm here. The tiny road block I see would be the one that involves getting what she creates from the computer to the StarW site, but that's a hurtle that's easily traversed. I can hardly wait to see what she comes up with, because it make quizzes, crossword puzzles and more. (No pressure, Janine
Take care,
Art
Sunday, February 08, 2004
A participant in one of my workshops clued me into this site. I just had a chance to explore it a little. If you folks do anything with mythology, this site is an absolute must. It's specifically designed for ages 6-12. Not only is the be best mythology site I've come across, I would classify it as one of my top ten sites on any topic. Try the Flash version, but if you have a problem you can try the HTML version.
http://www.wingedsandals.com
Art
http://www.wingedsandals.com
Art
Hi Ladies,
I'm back from Austin. It one way it feels like I was gone forever, but it also seems like I just left yesterday.
Anyway, I'll be in Thurs. primarily to observe what you are doing to prep for the ASK4 and to see how we can use technology to make the prep seamless next year. Of course I'll be there for whatever questions or problems you may have.
While I was in Texas, I had lunch with Bonnie Thurber, the coordinator for Northwestern University's Collaboratory program. I worked with Bonnie and the Collaboratory last year in a major project. I had contacted her earlier about StarW with the idea that we might be using the Collaboratory next year to run a project or two. (I'll discuss that more with you at a later date.)
When I spoke to her a week or two before the conference, I gave her the URL of the StarW site. When we met for lunch she told me that she was totally amazed at how much you folks had accomplished in such a short time. Be proud of what you are doing and when things get a little frustrating, realize that it is because you are pushing the envelope and moving outside your comfort zone. That's how we grow!
I'm back from Austin. It one way it feels like I was gone forever, but it also seems like I just left yesterday.
Anyway, I'll be in Thurs. primarily to observe what you are doing to prep for the ASK4 and to see how we can use technology to make the prep seamless next year. Of course I'll be there for whatever questions or problems you may have.
While I was in Texas, I had lunch with Bonnie Thurber, the coordinator for Northwestern University's Collaboratory program. I worked with Bonnie and the Collaboratory last year in a major project. I had contacted her earlier about StarW with the idea that we might be using the Collaboratory next year to run a project or two. (I'll discuss that more with you at a later date.)
When I spoke to her a week or two before the conference, I gave her the URL of the StarW site. When we met for lunch she told me that she was totally amazed at how much you folks had accomplished in such a short time. Be proud of what you are doing and when things get a little frustrating, realize that it is because you are pushing the envelope and moving outside your comfort zone. That's how we grow!
