Mobile Technology and Social Media

Social Media has a strong foothold in school districts. Most districts have their own Facebook pages. (Liberty, NKC, Parkhill, GVSD) Since March 201 in Missouri each school district is required to have its own Facebook Policy. Social Media goes far beyond one source. Educators are creating their own PLN (Personal Learning Network) with tangible social networking tools like Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, TeacherSquare, Edutopia, Edcamp KC, Pinterest and other platforms that allow teachers to connect to share resources and expertise.



If you would like a suggestion, Kyle Pace is an awesome KC educator to follow as you begin to build your own network. Educational Twitter Hashtags.

Another resource I would highley suggest is Edudemic. It is “a global community designed to keep educators, administrators, and everyone up to date on what is happening in the world of education and technology. It pulls from more than 100 different online educational resources to inform and connect the world of technology and education” (About Edudemic). The site contains news, ideas for mobile learning, best classroom practices and more. To get started using Edudemic… Go to http://edudemic.com/. You do not need to register or subscribe you can start reading directly from their website. You can follow their posts on Facebook, Google+, Twitter, Pinterest, RSS Feed or you can subscribe to their Daily Digest that is delivered to your email. See their article on the impact of social media in education today.


This info-graphic on Innovative Educator outlines how social media is used by recruiters.


Technology is becoming more and more mobile from laptops to tablets to smartphones. Your students have had to dummy down when the come to school but those times are changing. Many local schools are adopting a One to One policy or expanding the BYOT (Bring Your Own Technology) policies. This Christmas the hottest gift is the tablet. Discussion: How does equity come into play with district policies and procedures?

Info-graphic

Ipad Apps- Livebinder

90 Best IOS Apps

Edudemic's 88 best apps


Do smartphones improve student achievement?


44 ways to use smartphones in the classroom.


QR Codes and Mobile Learning (abbreviated from Quick Response Code) A QR code consists of black modules (square dots) arranged in a square grid on a white background, which can be read by an imaging device. I generated the following code in seconds at using the QR Generator Website.


What do you need to read a QR Code? There are free readers (Bar Scanners) in Google Play and in I-Tunes Store. You can even add 100 characters of voice using QR Voice.net.

Ways to Use a QR Code
Self Assessments- with the answers hidden in the QR Code
Flash Cards
Make your bulletin board or wall display interactive
Routing to the exact sites you want to students to use for research
Advertise School Events
Business Cards
Calendar Events
Scavenger Hunts

Kathy Schrock has a comprehensive list for more QR Resources.

Check out how this student used a QR code and received over $20,000.00.


It is my hope this course has given you ideas and insights into ways you can infuse technology into your classroom or other careers.

The assignment this week was to complete your personal educational blogs. Please post the url for each of your blogs in the comment section below this post. Click here to see the scoring guide for the blog.

What's All the Google About?

Work smarter with Gmail and Google Apps



This image was created using Google Drawing. Open Google, click on Create, then on Drawing. Students can work collaboratively to create their own mind-maps. Students can also create a poster using Google's Picasa. The beauty of Google is they do not have to work at the same time. They can share their work with other "hours" or to work on at home or even with someone on the other side of the country.



Inside Google Search
Advanced Search in Google: Click on Search Tools on the top right-hand side of the page This will allow you to search by; reading level, copyright free images, safety and language.
Other ways to refine your Google search:
- word search for chocolate, but NOT cake ex) chocolate -cake
+ word find exact words ex) +chocolate cake
“set of words” -search for exact set of words, quotes, or phrases ex) “chocolate cake”


Google Goggles is an app that lets you search with a picture.

Manage meetings with Calendar
Google Calendar makes scheduling meetings easy with shared calendars. You’ll get invites and reminders and can even join a scheduled video meeting right from your inbox.


Use Google Drive to send large files
Send huge files in Gmail (up to 10GB) using Google Drive. Plus files stored in Drive stay up-to-date automatically so everyone has the most recent version and can access them from anywhere.


Collaborate on documents
Get email alerts when someone comments on your shared document in Docs and Slides. To respond to the comment, just reply to the email. Sample Document

Google Forms;
Slide show on how to create a form for students to drop the url of their assignment.


Our sample form:


Google Presentation
Templates created by Susan Oxnevad ready for classroom use. Research Template- Vocabulary Template

We have spent quite a bit of time on apps for the upper grades, but here is a primary idea. Sydney's Class.


The new Google Maps

Google Voice

Richard Bryne is a Google Certified Instruction and he has assembled a wonderful FREE guide for Google Apps.

Things to Consider - Using Google Docs

Use FOLDERS - this will help you organize. Check out the difference between "Owned by me" and "Shared with me" as eventually you will have a lot of docs and you will need to find them quickly. You can upload pre-existing Office documents and work on them instantly
Don't be afraid to try! Google HELP - is your FRIEND! When students want to share with the entire class - have them share it with YOU and then you can drag and drop that file onto a shared folder with the classroom, refresh the browser, and voile it will be available to all students.


Peter's Geoguessr Make a guess- notice it keeps a running score.

Your assignment this week is to complete an example of Susan's Google Presentation Template.Share the example with Janice at teach4teach@gmail.com. Time may permit us to get the majority of this completed in class. The presentation will have a title slide, video slide, information/research slide, image slide, and a drawing.

Virtual Field Trips

These multimedia-rich sites include video, audio, panoramic views, and live webcams. Take your class on a trip to the White House, a museum, zoo or experience the 7 Wonders of the World. You can even embark on a journey through the galaxy with Google Sky! Missouri locations include our state capitol, the governor’s mansion, the St. Louis Zoo, and the town of Weston. Be sure to check out the last link which will show you how to create your own virtual tour. Use the following list of virtual field trips. Your assignment this week will be to write a reflection on one of the following resources. Some things to think about when writing your reflection: How does the use of this technology help to increase learning-- Will the technology be embedded in the big question(s) for this lesson or is it an add-on to the lesson--What are the critical factors that must be addressed when determining the use of this resource? Be sure to include the URL for the resource you are using.

Plimoth Plantation the Thanksgiving virtual field trip!

Google Lit Trips are free, downloadable files that mark the journeys of characters from famous literature on the surface of Google Earth. At each location along the journey, there are place marks with pop-up windows containing a variety of resources including relevant media, thought-provoking discussion starters, and links to supplementary information about “real world” references made in that particular portion of the story.

10 outstanding digital field trips from Edudemic

Scholastic's categorized list of virtual trips.

Scholastic's virtual field trip to Ellis Island

Scholastic's tour of the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History

Inside the White House is an interactive tour.

Seven Wonders of the World from Panoramas.

Last fall Google announced that it had a team setting out to capture "street view"
imagery of trails through the Grand Canyon.The first batch of that imagery has
been released. You can now explore more than 75 miles of trails in the Grand
Canyon in Street View. Click here to watch the youtube video of the Canyon.
What a wonderful way to teach about America's landscape!


I am afraid of heights and have avoided the Grand Canyon for that reason but now I can join with the rest of you by clicking here to start my explorations and experience the panoramic views! Earth Google lets you see a dated view of other areas around the globe. Google for Educators will provide you with helpful resources. Geocaching is very popular right now if you want to create your own geography scavenger hunt.

Google Sky Travel the sky and view the position of planets, explore constellations and distant galaxies.


Take a virtual tour of the Louvre to experience a 360-degree panoramic view of many of the museum’s halls. This link to Google Art Projects lets you view over 1000 works from 17 acclaimed art museums in the world at this link. You can virtually walk the aisle of the museums and see works like Van Gough’s “The Bedroom”.

Augmented Reality makes it possible to see these landmarks, and more, using Google Earth in 3-D. Augmented Reality requires a webcam, browser add-on, and a printout provided by the AR Sights website.

NASA's Quest a multimedia application developed to support student and user exploration of areas on Earth that have been identified as analog sites to regions on Mars. or travel to the Moon in Earth.

BizEd Virtual Field Trips

Edheads is a favorite of teachers and students. These sessions are animated but depict real life.

Willy Wonka would approve of a visit to Hershey's Chocolate Factory.

Each year, The Jason Project, the granddaddy of online exploration, offers a new scientific expedition designed to engage and educate students and provide professional development for teachers.

Smithsonian Museum of Natural History: Follow the blue arrow and tour the museum.

Smithsonian National Zoological Park: Use the links to view animals at the Smithsonian Zoo; includes a flamingo, tiger, and elephant.

Oxford University Museum of Natural History Join this tour to see an extensive collection of zoology, entomology, geology and mineralogy. Be sure to check out their 40 ft Tyrannosaurus Rex!

The Human Body Take a virtual tour of the human body by exploring the different parts. This site includes interactive activities with the tour.


Weston Missouri Click on the panoramic images to explore this town just north of Kansas City, Missouri. If you teach ab out Missouri's history or government, you can travel virtually to our

Governor’s Mansion in Jefferson City.

Tramline: This site has MANY different virtual field trips provided by Tramline; including one about dinosaurs, baking bread, geographical regions, and more.


If these tours are not exactly what you are looking for to support your curriculum, then you can create your own virtual field trip. This resource is a tutorial to guide you through the process.


WebCams and be another wonderful way to bring to world to your classroom.

30 Cool Educational Webcams

KC Zoo Cam

Eagle Cam- We took the network down during End of Course testing with so many classrooms viewing this live camera.

Bring the experts into your classroom with video conferencing.

Interactive Whiteboards

This week we will be discussing the use of an interactive whiteboard, IWB, in the classroom. You will have hands-on practice with a SMARTboard. Interactive whiteboards have been proven to promote student engagement and foster content area learning in a constructivist, learner-centered classroom. Positive correlations have also been shown with special needs students and IWBs. As we discussed in class, there are multiple vendors who distribute interactive whiteboards, as well as, new short throw projectors that turns any whiteboard into an interactive board. However, the use of an IWB does not in itself ensure success and should not be the only tool in a teacher's digital arsenal. The majority of DESE's standards and the Common Core require our students to assimilate what the teacher introduces on the whiteboard into their real life experiences, collaboration, research and presentations.

Your assignment this week is to select a lesson, either from SMART Exchange or from the following resources. In the comment section of this post, supply the URL for the lesson, give a brief overview of the notebook/lesson, and how you will use it to enhance instruction.

Youtube channel for SMART

SMARTboard video tutorials

Livebinder with a plethora of SMART resources.

Center School District's SMART Notebooks

I4C, Internet 4 The Classroom, whiteboard resources I love this site for all their digital resources. They are categorized with an easy to navigate format.

Whiteboard Tools for Math

PBS Whiteboard Resources

Graphic Organizers

Graphic organizers help learners categorize and organize their thoughts.Most graphic organizers form a powerful visual picture of information and allow the mind 'to see patterns and relationships. They can be as simple as a KWL, a T-chart, the storyboards you used for your movies or as complex as a mathematically relationship. We will look at a few of my favorite resources.

The Learning Curve has over 3 dozen graphic organizers. In their collection you will find PDFs for things like "Think, Pair, Share" and "Who, What, When, Where, Why" activities. You'll also find templates for designing stories and interviews.

Free printable graphic organizers from Eduplace.

10 Terrific Mind Mapping Tools- Assembled by Richard Byrne

Padlet, formerly know as wallwishers, is a user friendly, interactive mind-mapping

Created with Padlet

Read Write Think has a nice assortment of graphic organizers embedded within their lesson plans.

Popplet is an interactive organizer for younger kids.

High school teachers like Creately, but it is not free.
You may also like Bubbl.us. It has been around for years as a proven resource.

Your SMART software also has notebooks and interactive flash templates that will create personalized resources such as; cause and effect, timelines, Venn Diagrams, etc.

Finally we should not leave out the graphic organizer Coggle. The name says it all-you can use your Google account to Coggle.

Rubric for Graphic Organizer

This week, create a graphic organizer using one of our resources. Use the snipping tool or a print screen to capture the image and send it to Janice Uptegrove. You should also be working on your blogs. Here is a copy of the blog rubric. I will be happy to review what you have completed and give you any suggestions or help. Blogs are due Dec. 3rd and will be shared in class that day!

SMART Exchange Link.
Animoto Link.
Pixabay - great resource for copyright free images.
DHMO Hoax

How To Create Your Own Youtube Channel

Creating and Making a Private Youtube Channel

HD video is difficult to share and transport. File sizes can be in excess of 4-8 gigabytes, making transfers extremely difficult without having paid dropbox accounts, or access to blu-ray/flash that you want to snail mail.

One way around this is to use youtube's streaming service. This allows you to...

1) Uploading a video to a public/private viewing audience.
2) Share the video with any prospective clients/colleagues without complicated systems
3) Embed the video in a website or blog, to share with a wide audience.
4) Gain instant internet fame and popularity, soarring to endless riches.*

To get started with this process, you will need to create a youtube account. Since Google own youtube and all of you have a gmail account- you have already completed the first step.

Create a Youtube Account
http://support.google.com/youtube/bin/static.py?hl=en&page=guide.cs&guide=1646810

If you plan on sharing this account with other individuals in your lab, It is recommended you create a unique gmail account, and linking the youtube account to that unique file. That way you don't expose your personal passwords or information to others.

Create a Channel

Google's How To Guide

Once you have a channel created, you can begin uploading videos to it. You can do this either directly, using youtubes built in uploader, or use a program such as imovie (OS X), or windows movie maker (Windows 7) to convert and upload your AVCHD videos.

After uploading the video, make sure it's set to private (unless you want everyone in the world to be able to see it). Then you can share it with up to 50 individuals by emailing them a direct link.

Sharing a Private Video
http://support.google.com/youtube/bin/answer.py?hl=en-GB&answer=157177

At any later time you can make the video public, if you want others to have access to it as well.

The process may seem overwhelming at first, but once you go through all the steps once, it's very efficient and easy to move more and more videos online. It's literally just a few clicks in Windows movie maker!

Common Youtube Help Questions

Clickers & Student Response Systems

Turning Technologies- Melanie
SMART Senteo
Promethean's Active 'Expressions-

Classroom Video


Your district does not have clickers- Try Poll Everywhere



Choose one of the articles in this link and write a brief reflection on the use of student response systems in the classroom.Your reflection should reference the article you read and how you may be able to use them in your area of focus. Reflections should be mailed to teach4teach@gmail.com by November 14th.

On-Line Research

Consider the source, the author, and if the data has been updated recently, but remember anyone can buy a domain name and the data may or may not be reliable.

.com = commercial

.gov = government

.org = organization

.edu = education

.net = network

.mil = military

Common Craft- Website Evaluation or BrainPop

The 5Ws of a website/resource by Kathy Schrock 
Graphic organizer for research evaluation

15 Lessons from Edudemic to teach students how to conduct online research. These lessons are matched to the Common Core.

Let's take a look at the White House!

What clues did you see on the fake sites?

How could you use this site,  Snopes , to help your students understand misinformation?

Credible (Safe) Resources:

Safe Searches- use Google's Sweet Search

Mid-Continent Library on-line Resources

Online dictionaries

Wordsmyth

Visual dictionary

Infovisual

Atlas

Wikimapia

Flashearth

Atlapedia

Worldatlas

Citation guide

Bibme:

Search Engines
Quintura- Shows related tags for further research
Kartoo- a meta search engine which takes results from other search engines

Click here for this week's assignment.

 

Webquests and Project Based Learning

What is a webquest?

A WebQuest is an inquiry-oriented lesson format in which most or all the information that learners work with comes from the web. These can be created using various programs, including a simple word processing document that includes links to websites.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Webquest


All webquests have 5 parts:

• Introduction
• Task
• Process
• Resources
• Evaluation
• Conclusion

They provide a scaffolding of learning with:

       resource links
       a compelling problem or task
       templates for student products
       guidance on cognitive and social skills

The model was developed by Bernie Dodge at San Diego State University in February, 1995.

Kathy Schrock's revised graphic of Bloom's Taxonomy shows the "Cogs of Cognition" are entwined.  Project based learning and webquests take our learners beyond a basic understanding and enhance higher order thinking.

Webquest Examples

Bernie Dodge's site

Zunal is a free service that walks you through the process of creating a web quest. It also has a matrix to search for a plethora of webquests that other teachers have created.

Kathy Schrock's Authentic Learning:

EMINTS Webquests made by teachers.

Best of the WebQuests

In project based learning the teacher becomes the facilitator.  Training in the medical profession  is a good example of this type of learning.  Project Lead The Way , a STEM based curriculum is another wonderful example.   

In the news this morning, Battle of the Brains would also be project based and have the real world component.   Students are competing for $50,000 for their school and to have their entry be the next exhibit at Science City. 

A few of my old projects:  Orphan Trains and  Survivor Webquest and Australia Connection

Use of Media in The Classroom

“Children today are completely comfortable with the visual bombardment of simultaneous images, text, and sounds because, for them, such experiences provide relevant and compelling experiences that can convey more information in a few seconds than can be communicated by reading an entire book. Moreover, these new media are not just designed for passive viewing, because passive viewing just doesn’t cut it. This generation no longer wants just to be the audience; they want to be the actors. They expect, want, and need interactive information, interactive resources, interactive communications, and relevant, real-life experiences. ”
http://www.committedsardine.com

Digital Natives are used to receiving information really fast!
Digital Natives
– like to parallel process and multi-task
– prefer their graphics before their text rather than the opposite
– prefer random access (like hypertext)
– thrive on instant gratification and frequent rewards
– prefer games to “serious” work.

Today’s average college grads have spent:
– over 10,000 hours playing video games
– over 20,000 hours watching TV
– over 200,000 emails and instant messages sent and received
– over 10,000 hours talking on digital cell phones
– over 500,000 commercials
– less than 5,000 hours of their lives reading



Media Tips
-Start small. Find one movie, song, or news source and incorporate it into your class. Expand once you are comfortable.
-Provide a clear link between what you want your students to learn and the media. Care must be taken provide the proper learning context.
-It takes time to integrate media effectively into a course. This is not edutainment, it is the conscious use of media to enable students to learn more.
-Use the subtitles feature for visual media. This is especially useful in focusing student attention on the words being said.
-Be prepared. Technology does not work 100% of the time so have a back-up plan. If the media equipment does not work, go to plan B and continue on with your class without missing a beat.
-Evaluate student understanding. Students respond to incentives. If you require them to write a reaction paper, take a quiz, or place questions on your exams that relate to the media content they will pay more attention and learn more in the process.
-Stay legal.

PBS Learning Media- FREE for teachers

Brain Pop, Brain Pop Jr. and Brain Pop ESL : Only parts of this resource are free.

Study Jams- Scholastic: FREE for any user.

Learn 360 : This is a PBS resource and your district will need to subscribe to it.

Common Sense Media: Another excellent free resource.

Khan Academy: A wonderful free resource

NeoK12: Free educational videos and lessons

Teacher Tube: Free- viewable in most districts

You Tube:You can create your own youtube channel or one for your district or department. You can even set the channel up to be private.Zamzar: -this site will allow you to download and convert media files to a file that your district's server will support. Have you ever seen a video clip on YouTube and seen inappropriate ads, or comments posted? Perhaps the related videos on the right-hand side of the screen displayed a clip that your students should not be viewing. This link will fix that problem. View Pure

Watch Know and Learn: Free resource

Discovery Education: formerly United Streaming and Safari Montage. Paid district resources.

Growing Up Mobile

Brain Breaks are very popular in the primary grades and a positive way to energize a group after lunch or relax and calm a class.

Wonderopolis is another great resource teachers are using during transitional times.

Scoring Guide for your media reflection.

How To Edit Your Blogger "About Me" Profile.

Once you are on the "profile" page there will be a red edit button. Click the red button and fill in the text boxes.