3-2-1 Final Exam

3 New Things I Learned:

• How to Use Moodle:  While I didn't learn how to create anything in Moodle, I learned how to navigate Moodle as a "user."  I have never used Moodle, but I can see how this could be a very useful tool as a teacher and an administrator.  
• WallWisher:  This was a really neat Web 2.0 tool that was presented.  This would be a great to use as a teacher for collaboration in the classroom, but also as an administrator for gather feedback from the faculty.  
• Animoto:  This is a great tool for creating videos.  This is something I will use personally and professionally. 

2 Things I Have Used:  

• LiveBinder:  I LOVE LiveBinder.  With the MARS Grant, I have been posting documents on the Intranet for the teachers to access after our training sessions.  However, many teachers do not feel comfortable with the format of the Intranet.  They complained that our folder was hard to find and it wasn't easily accessible.  So, I used LiveBinder for our grant documents.  The teachers have been VERY complimentary of this format!  MARS LiveBinder
• Jing:  I am really excited about the possibilities of Jing.   I recorded a short video on how to use the "capture" tool on Workspace for a teacher to follow-up on a meeting.  The video worked well.  However, I do have some issues when the video gets closer to five months, but I hope to get this one figured out a little better soon!  

1 Thing I Will Use as an Administrator:

• Podcasting:  I think Podcasts would be a great way to get information out to the faculty on specific topics.     

What my kids look like in real life....

While the picture I posted in the last post was a great picture, it doesn't capture the true essence of our life.  So, I wanted to share a glimpse of how they usually act.

Merry Christmas from Our Family to Yours! 

Student Choice: Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas from Our Family to Yours!

 

BYOD and Mobile Learning

I think there are some great advantages to mobile learning and the use of mobile devices in the classrooms.  However, I also feel there are many obstacles to overcome in making it a success.  Below is an excerpt from a web article on this topic that covers several key questions.  The one thing to remember in all of this is, it isn't going away.  BYOD is the way of the future...
Source: http://1to1schools.net/2012/04/byod-questions-to-consider/

In order for BYOD to work well there must be a strong part­ner­ship between admin­is­tra­tion, Board mem­bers, teach­ers, tech­nol­ogy, stu­dents, and par­ents. Every­one is going to be impacted by 1-to-1 no mat­ter how it is imple­mented, whether BYOD or a stan­dard hard­ware plat­form either pro­vided or spec­i­fied by the school or dis­trict. But with BYOD it’s likely you are going to see some push­back from tech­nol­ogy peo­ple because of the com­plex­ity, change, work, plan­ning and resources required. So here are some ques­tions to consider:

• Have you vis­ited a BYOD school or district?
• If not a team with rep­re­sen­ta­tive stake­hold­ers should do so armed with lots of questions
• Are you already using Google or Zoho or some cloud solution?
• With­out cloud apps BYOD is going to be nearly impos­si­ble to imple­ment in a mean­ing­ful way
• You need the entire school/district com­mu­nity to be able to com­mu­ni­cate, pub­lish, present and share centrally
• How will you define BYOD?
• Will there be a min­i­mum device or specification?
• Will smart­phones be one of the devices?
• How’s your net­work — is it ready for
• Wifi every­where with mul­ti­ple roam­ing wire­less devices
• Cen­tral­ized data secu­rity (Bar­racuda, Light­speed, etc.)
• How will you address logistics?
• Will stu­dents be charged with keep­ing their devices charged, ready and safe/secure?
• Will you have “loaner” devices?
• Will devices be locked up somewhere/somehow dur­ing lunch, tests, sports?
• How’s your curriculum?
• Are teach­ers already used to assign­ments in Google and in using online social media tools so that stu­dent work is already free of hard­ware require­ments — and hap­pen­ing in “the cloud”?
• How’s your dig­i­tal cit­i­zen­ship education?
• Do stu­dents already know how to keep a respect­ful appro­pri­ate dig­i­tal footprint?
• In my book I talk about L.A.R.K. — tech­nol­ogy use by stu­dents should be L — Legal, A — Appro­pri­ate, R — Respon­si­ble, K — Kind
• How’s your com­mu­ni­ca­tion chan­nel with par­ents, students?
• If the device is pur­chased, main­tained, repaired and man­aged by par­ents and stu­dents, it’s going to be impor­tant to com­mu­ni­cate often and well
• How’s your budget?
• Unless you have planned fully for the changes of BYOD you might be blind­sided by some upgrades or unex­pected costs so make sure to ask these ques­tions when you are vis­it­ing BYOD schools

There are ter­rific schools that have been BYOD for years, The Harker School in San Jose comes to mind for instance. Many peo­ple I respect have been writ­ing about BYOD includ­ing William Stites who posted this blog post for Edu­ca­tional Col­lab­o­ra­tors early this year, Lisa Nielsen who wrote about debunk­ing BYOD for T.H.E. Jour­nal and a recent arti­cle in Dis­trict Admin­is­tra­tor starts with a quote from Lucy Gray who I respect very much — this entire arti­cle by the way is an impor­tant read. The Lap­top Insti­tute which is highly rec­om­mended will have threads this sum­mer in Mem­phis on BYOD.

BYOD can be a solu­tion if you do your plan­ning and home­work and try to fig­ure out up front exactly what you’re get­ting into and plan care­fully. You’ll want to be ready to rethink your net­work as not being about enabling a few mod­els of spe­cific con­trol­lable devices but instead as a path­way to the cloud where your school/district-wide learn­ing com­mu­nity resides.

- Pamela Livingston

Student Choice: A few of my favorites

Here are a two of my favorite funny commercials...

Digital Citizenship

It is important to teach our students to be responsible and productive citizens, but it is equally important to carry this teaching into the digital world.   A lack of personal connection when communicating through email, social websites, and other networking sources gives many a false security to do and say things they would never do or say in person.  This video is a great example of why teaching digital citizenship is important.  I'll admit...it is a little creepy, but the message is good.

iPads in the Special Education Classoom

I think iPads/talents are excellent devices for any classroom.  However, In a special education classroom they can serve as more than just a learning tool.  These devices have the ability to help students with communication needs become ale to communicate more effectively.  iPads are now being used by many children and adults who have difficulties with communication.  Autism can effect the ability to communicate and the following article highlights a specific case where iPads have been an effective device for a child who has autism.  I think iPads make a great addition to any classroom!
http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2011/03/09/can-apple-ipad-cure-autism/