Tech Talk

Ciào!

2009-04-25T14:20:00.001-04:00

Last post using my opetechtalk url---on to www.marierush.blogspot.com !
Hope to see you there!

Earth Day Resources

2009-04-21T08:26:00.003-04:00

I have been scouring my Twitter universe for great sites that pertain to Earth Day. Most of them are posted here, but some of them require more than a 140 character description. Earth Day – a time to teach your class about our environment and how to preserve our planet, is such a global (pardon the pun) opportunity for education.

Going without shoes to represent the need for shoes for children around the world, social media and it's impact on the fight against malaria, recycling efforts, global warming and climate change---wow! I think we need an Earth year, or possibly an Earth life, which now as I typed it made perfect sense.

I hope your Earth Day provides you with opportunities to not only teach your students, but learn from them. This will be their Earth.

Schoolhouse Rock

2009-04-20T09:31:00.002-04:00

Rocks!

Skype, and a Reunion

2009-04-15T18:23:00.004-04:00

Image via Wikipedia

So, today, it finally happened. I had been dreaming about connecting my kids and teachers with the outside world, and I did it today, in the greatest way! I had Ms. Donna Hicks Skyped in from her duty in Iraq. She is a 6th grade teacher in our little school, and she has been missed.

This is the first of many interactions I hope to share with my students and faculty. The sixth grade is discussing potential careers, and so I am setting up a series of calls where the children can ask real people in real places in real professions how it really is. If you have a cool profession, or know someone who does, please, please contact me here or here . If they don't have a video camera, that's fine, we can do an audio chat. I'd like to figure out how to get a variety of professions--and usually when I set out to figure something out, I end up somewhere new, so I'll see where this leads. I have the 6th graders at 9:00 am EST.

In the meantime, thanks to Donna Hicks for being the catalyst for new types of learning for our students and teachers. What she didn't see in the webcam were the glistening eyes of caring, from afar!

Okay, How Cool is This? World, Please Meet VoiceThread.

2009-04-10T10:34:00.001-04:00

If You Give a a

2009-04-02T11:38:00.002-04:00

What a wonderful activity, and so visually stimulating and thought provoking. I love it when teachers take the reins and do things just one step better than they did last time! If I remember correctly, this was the first time this teacher put a VoiceThread together. Enjoy!

Wonderful Tribute to Our Troops

2009-03-26T13:19:00.002-04:00

Patriotic Video from Melanie Holtsman on Vimeo.

Some Thoughts, by Guest Blogger, Kyle Hutzler

2009-03-20T10:15:00.007-04:00

First, allow me to thank Mrs. Marie Rush for the opportunity to offer some brief thoughts on technology and education. Even as a so-called "digital native," I find myself awestruck every time that the Internet unites me with someone who shares similar passions or ideas.

Many of you, I am sure, are familiar with the quotation from Thomas Edison to the effect that movies would come to replace textbooks (and by implication teachers), as you are with the similar claims made about radios, television, and the Internet.1 Let me say unequivocally that while I believe in technology's promise in education, there is no computer program, no podcast, no book that I would not willingly replace with a great teacher. Technology enables learning, but it does not teach.

Technology in Primary Schools

I remember in the first and second grade that a woman by the name of Madame Boyd would come to our classes every two weeks or so to teach a brief lesson in French. Of course, by the time she came again two weeks later, very little was retained. I credit her, however, with instilling in me a love for foreign languages - one that I began to pursue in earnest in middle school with Spanish and now, independently, French.

When I set out to teach myself French two years ago as a challenge, I was intimidated to learn by audio podcast because I am not much of an auditory learner. Shortly after I began - and made the mistake of buying an Idiot's Guide to the language - I learned that my local library offered online access to the Rosetta Stone language learning software. And so began an effort to devote fifteen minutes a day to learning French. Alongside this program are two exciting online services - livemocha and babbel - that offer a community of speakers to chat with (although so far I have only done so in Spanish) and vocabulary exercises. And, of course, I have two really good books - a beginner's reader and a grammar workbok. I have made enough progress over the past two years that after talking with the French professor, she is more than willing to allow me to sit for the French I and II finals this year if I would like.

I can't help but juxtapose this experience with that I encountered in elementary school when we made our way in single file lines each day to the computer lab for thirty minutes of practice in reading and math. Today, I can't help but think of that time as wasted - nothing more than doing worksheets on a screen - and imagine what it would have been like if my classmates and I were able to have begun immersing ourselves in a foreign language at 7 or 8 years old.

As we think about technology in education, we must be very honest with ourselves about the potential value added. I question the value-added of a touch-screen Smartboard in every class - but I praise the schools who are offering courses and opportunities unavailable in their own schools to their students through virtual learning programs. Let's not invest in technology that promises marginal improvements - but in the services that fill gaps in what a school is able to provide on its own.

Data-driven Learning

The ability to enhance diagnostic awareness and measure performance trends is one of the top reasons why teachers embrace technology in the classroom. I argue that a respect for data-driven learning should be no different for students as well. My school has invested in a digital library of AP tests for students to practice with. What my peers and I have often valued most is the program's ability to break your results into categories, allowing us to determine our individual strengths and weaknesses. This is incredibly valuable as we now approach our last, feverish month of review before the AP test. Given an awareness of our areas of weakness, we're able to make judgments

Don't be Afraid to Think

In February, the Washington Post ran an article on the impact that text messaging is having in the office, the schoolhouse, and at home.2 What struck me most was a recommendation by a professor at George Mason University to his colleagues to limit their sentences to no more than eight words. An earlier, highly-recommended piece by Caleb Crain in the New Yorker on the end of long-form reading quotes a professor who laments over the incoherent snippets of thought that her students are content to call essays.

I encourage you to stand firm against this devolution and continue to embrace complex thinking in your classrooms. Apologists for video games rightly note that the complexity of objectives, short and long-term planning, relationship management and coalition building rival many real-world experiences. The challenge, however, is how do we translate the skills developed in a virtual environment to the classroom? How do we teach students to harness their intuitive understanding of the complexities in a video game and clearly and logically present a real-world issue with a similar degree of complexity on paper? It starts with understanding that there are some thoughts too profound and too complex to fit into a tweet - and that that is a good thing.
Let's not accept technology as an excuse for lowering standards - or capitulate to the criticism that schools that ask their students to read and to write frequently and with discipline are somehow courting irrelevance. Schools cannot lose the war for high-level thinking.

I close with two thoughts: One, let us remember that technology is only as powerful as the people who harness it. And two, let us never embrace technology solely to make learning "cool" when we have failed to first make learning "work" without it.

1. Future Hype: The Myths of Technology Change. Bob Seidensticker. p103. about what days and for what subjects we should be staying after school. Efficient review "clinics" (arguably the most individualized instruction we experience all year) means that we as students stay engaged and aren't overwhelmed. What's most exciting is that these judgments are being made by the students themselves, not the teachers, giving students an opportunity to be stakeholders in their education.
2. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/21/ AR2009022101863_pf.html
3. See Steven Johnson's Everything Bad Is Good for You as one example.

This 16 Year Old is Amazing...

2009-03-15T14:05:00.000-04:00

http://www.americaneducationpaper.blogspot.com/

I have invited Kyle Hutzler to drop in and let us know what technologies he feels are imperitive for today's students. I found him on Facebook, and I hope he is able to comment!

*update...he will visit! Thanks Kyle!

A New Generation of Learners

2009-03-14T12:17:00.000-04:00

I think I am the "in-between" generation--somewhere between the typewriter and the iPhone. I am desperately trying to learn new technologies, and to understand how they relate to what teachers need to support learning. I'm having an Etherpad conversation with some folks at my school, and it always comes down to time. Time that we have committed elsewhere, for learning that was taught from the teacher to the students. One delivery method, very linear. Lots of paper, lots of handwriting.

What is it? Learning the skills to teach these NDM (new digital media) skills. It’s about self-study, self-direction, independent learning infused with collaboration.

Now, I might be going out on a limb here, but it is true. There simply isn't enough time to catch up and keep up with technology. There never will be. So, what do we do?

I say we come out of our comfort zone and give it a go. As awkward as it may feel, the children are counting on us to be their guidance. Fumbling or not, we can make a difference.

The children don't need perfection, they need direction. NDM is here for now. Let's just do it.

Save the Words

2009-03-13T11:46:00.000-04:00

What a fabulous vocabulary resource!

The Eye Generation

2009-03-13T08:50:00.001-04:00

Johanna Riddle - Engaging the Eye Generation from Melanie Holtsman on Vimeo

Twitter Treats

2009-03-12T11:46:00.000-04:00

I uncovered two great resources today via Twitter:

http://twitter4teachers.pbwiki.com/

This is a list of all the teachers using Twitter and sharing lessons and teaching methods from around the world.

Here is another—

100 Helpful Web Tools for Every Kind of Learner

http://linkyy.com/m

(I shortened the URL with Kathy Schrock's sons' new gizmo, LYNKYY so it wasn’t so scary!)

Preschool Technology

2009-03-11T09:54:00.000-04:00

http://kideoplayer.com/

Love this for the tiny ones...

Tweets out to Twitter Friends

2009-03-10T14:11:00.000-04:00

These people teach me every day. Literally...I have a question, I get an answer--from somewhere around the world. These folks are tireless in their mission to keep children engaged in learning the "new" way...and have visions we can only dream of! Thanks my new Twitter friends!

Get your twitter mosaic here.

Shout Out to Melanie Holtsman

2009-02-27T11:50:00.000-05:00

I love this gal. She is smart, funny, quick and fabulously sarcastic. She is also someone who takes technology and runs with it. She is the Digital Literacy Coach at Chet's Creek Elementary School, and a good friend who teaches me endlessly through her blogs and connections. She has been the bridge for me from my stint as stay at home mom/ consultant to my current role as obsessive-about-learning-through-technology. Geek, whatever, it's all good. Anyhoo, if you want to keep up with her, and therefore keep up with a comet, or a rising star, go here . Thanks, my friend!

I'm officially addicted to learning...

2009-02-27T10:32:00.000-05:00

about learning.

There, I said it. Now you know why I have dark circles under my eyes and why I always seem to be doing SOMETHING. I am never still, and I am exhausted, but I can't stop!

This site has free images-- generally a tough thing to come across. I don't know how much money I have spent on stock images, but I am sure I could drive a nicer car if I had the money back. Anyhoo...drumroll...

www.morguefile.com

From the site: The term "morgue file" is popular in the newspaper business to describe the file that holds past issues flats. The purpose of this site is to provide free image reference material for use in all creative pursuits. This is the world wide web's morguefile.

More Cool Things

2009-02-26T14:23:00.000-05:00

Yes, more cool things! This means kids in the media center and kids in the classroom can be working on the same activity (possibly research) and it all comes together on the virtual notepad.This looks like a great tool. This is free.

http://etherpad.com/

Here are some ideas how it can be used in the classrooms. (taken from various sources...thank you!)

Using it with Guided Reading groups, where maybe 5-6 kids are reading the same book. Instead of having a group meeting where we all start discussing what the kids read, we begin by having the students all write their thoughts on Etherpad and begin responding to each other. Then, in our meeting, we already know the basics and can move right into the more in-depth issues where perhaps the group was not in agreement. We get more out of our in-class reading sessions as a result.

I was facilitating a workshop session where teachers were creating a lesson plan from scratch. At the beginning, on person was typing everything into a Word document. Other teachers were making suggestions and recommendations but the typist had a hard time keeping up with the process. I quickly created a new "pad" and sent the URL to all the teachers in the session. After they got to the site, they all were able to edit the document, make additions, and generate a well-structured lesson plan that they could all take with them. In this situation, not only did EtherPad help the process move faster, but it also gave everyone an opportunity to collaborate, and consequently, design a better lesson.

Student can use the tool to work on collaborative writing project.

Students can partner with other students in locations around the world use the site to generate / create documents products independent of physical location.

Students can invite subject matter experts to work with them on projects.

Another amazing tool for digital storytelling—
http://education.animoto.com/
It is free. Yes free. The sky is the limit when we can use these tools to engage our students!

Okay, Two Du Jour's! Jing

2009-02-09T20:47:00.001-05:00

A must have to create tutorials on just about anything! (It is what I used to capture a previous post about how to set up a blog.)

http://www.jing.com/

Educational Tool Du Jour: VoiceThread

2009-02-09T20:37:00.000-05:00

My school district has this blocked right now, but it is my hope to get it unblocked so we can use this amazing tool for collaboration. It is basically a free online tool which allows teachers to lead a discussion and then have various means of commenting, via the web, in real time. The teacher is the administrator and can set parameters and filter commenting. A true Web 2.0 tool.

http://www.voicethread.com/

In Case You Were Wondering...

2009-02-08T08:24:00.000-05:00

My name is Marie, and I am a teacher by heart and by trade. I taught 3rd grade, then fell into Kindergarten for 12 years. I am a self-taught techno geek, and find it fairly addictive to learn new things on the computer. Early on, if you asked me what kind of computer I had, I would have said a shade of biege, almost taupe-y. I figured out web design, and did that at the school level, then trained high school students at the Shultz Center for Education. I worked at the Florida DOE as a consultant for a few years, then moved to the wonderland of the Florida Center for Reading Research. I had two beautiful daughters who happened to be born on the same day, and now they are 5 and off in Kindergarten on their own. Now my education begins again, as I learn to teach, and teach to learn. Educational Technology Teacher--This is gonna be fun!

What is a Blog and How Can I Use One?

2009-02-06T18:10:00.000-05:00

What is a Blog?

The word weblog is derived from the words “web” (referring to the World Wide Web) and “log” (meaning to write or record). The term weblog is commonly shortened to just “blog”, and refers to web-based publications, or postings, on an author’s blog site.

From an educational standpoint, blogs provide a means for administrators, teachers, and students to read, reflect, write, and comment on their own, and others’ writings. In its simplest form, blogging is about reading and writing. Blogging is about communication!

1. Use blogs to increase student motivation.
2. Use blogs to increase reading and writing skills.
3. Use blogs as an interactive collaborative tool.
4. Use blogs to help build social networks.

Social networks may sound daunting, but really, it means connecting with others who share the same passions and interests.

2 Minutes to Set up a Class or Personal Blog

2009-02-06T17:34:00.000-05:00

http://www.screencast.com/users/marierush/folders/Jing/media/ff12d15c-a240-44d8-ac94-1740b3888c9c

This is a quick screen capture of how I did it! It is free, and easy, and in my next post, I'll explain how you can use it for your classroom!

Here is another link...I don't think my friend Melanie will care!

http://sites.google.com/site/geekitupnow/Home/blogger

I'm going back to teaching!

2009-02-06T16:55:00.001-05:00

My love for all things children and all things technology have merged! I'm the new Instructional Technology long term sub at Orange Park Elementary School in Orange Park, Florida, and I am thrilled! It is my hope to spark an interest in all things geeky in both children and adults. I'll be blogging about blogging, and software, and websites and applications, and Facebooking, and Skypeing, building Wiki's and Twittering...and if you don't know what any of these things are, come along...we'll figure it out together. Ah, the future is here! I can't wait for the jouney!