MP3 Players in the Classroom

Now I'm sitting (literally- on the floor, it's crowded!) in Broadway C with presenters Michael Jones and Zack Gilbert to listen to their presentation on MP3 use in the classroom. It's no surprise that this small piece of technology is the most widely available piece of technology we all have access to. Here are my notes on the presentation:

• Jigsaw media
• Podcast reviews
• Presenter from Bloomington Junior High School- mentioned one of my favorite techies- @mochagirl and how awesome she is.
• Always preview content, labeled “clean” doesn’t mean appropriate.
• They used prezi.com for their presentation.
• Creating content- speeches, podcast, service projects
• Excellent handouts- it’s a book!
• They use audacity or garageband
• Voice digital recorders that plug into USB- monaural- have to record in stereo to hear out of both speakers.
• In their district of almost 55% low income, 95% of his kids have an mp3 player of some kind.
• More kids have access to this over cell phones- it’s the number one piece of technology that we have access to- can create a paperless classroom.
• Wow! They created their own audio tours, uploaded it to itunes and now the community can download it! What a great REAL-learning project!
•  grammargirl- I've listened to her podcasts before, great!
  
• Lit 2 go

Posted via email from Teacher Tracks (The Posterous)

Illinois Computing Educator's Conference 2010- Here we go!

After battling a scary snow storm last night we are here in St. Charles, Illinois at the 2010 Illinois Computing Educator's Conference! A sugary donut and a cup of tea later, I'm sitting here in the keynote presentation listening to Mario Armstrong (Armstrong Media), a media personality and inspiration to educational technology. Here are my notes from his presentation "Classrooms of the Future":

@marioarmstrong
www.marioarmstrong.com

• Seoul, Korea has the fasted internet speed?
• Urban Video Game Acaedmy- he started this, students build video games through the knowledge of science and technology- cool!
• Tech, Tech, Boom! techtechboom.com
• problem solving should be the emphasis of education
• we need to have digitally literate students
• Check out http://scratch.mit.edu
• "We need a national broadband policy." ~Absolutely!
  
• Suggestions for using Skype in the classroom:

  ·         2^nd grade interviewd bat expert

  ·         Develop a well defined objective

  ·         http://skypeintheclassroom.wordpress.com

• Many of his examples for educational tech are with elementary students, we need to stop thinking that little tykes can't handle it!
• mobile is cheap and accessible, why aren't we using it more?!
• we need to work in baby steps; this is hard to do when we we are so excited but feel thwarted when we are told we can't.
• check out Zero G flights Northrop Grumman Foundation- I remember hearing about this, space and Kelly don't mix!
• keep blogs updated :) (I need to do better on that!)
• "The difference between having an audience and having a community is which way you face the chairs" ~@cbragron
• This presentation is being streamed with Ustream- I need to check this out.
• Skype is such an easy way to add tech to the one computer classroom- I'm wondering if our school has web cameras in the tech center we can check out.
• "Be on demand.", students should be "drinking out of the firehouse....make sure your water is in the hose....." nice analogy.
• check out livescribe- pen that's a computer.
• unbelievable classroom: Chesapeake High School in Baltimore- augmented reality and virtual learning environments.
• accelaglove, translating sign language to actual speech- whoa!
• http://one-economy.com
• http://thebeehive.org
• tutor.com
• his final thought- how can school's implement a similar idea like Google's 20% rule? Amazing things have come out of that rule- so how can we have our own google time? good question......
  

Posted via email from Teacher Tracks (The Posterous)

Sign of the (Bing) Times

Despite the fact that students in our schools aren't allowed to do "blind" searches on Google, they still know how (and frequently do when teachers aren't watching). "Just Google it." is a phrase I often hear my students saying to each other when they come across anything they don't understand. (This phrase might make some educators scoff, but it really doesn't bother me in the least. I do the same thing so how can I judge?)

This afternoon however, I was chatting with one of my favorite "Twilighter" sixth graders; about Twilight themed tennis shoes. "Really?" I was skeptical. His response: "Yeah, just Bing it."

Bing it?!

What happened to our beloved "Google it?!"  I kind of just looked at him a minute in astonishment, at first because he knew what Bing was, and second because- wow, is it really a sign of the times that Bing is replacing Google?

I usually only use Bing when I can't seem to find what I want with a first (albeit lazy) Google search. Is Bing more student friendly? Perhaps I'll have to test it out more...

(image: Illustration by Dave Wheeler for @TIME )

Posted via email from Teacher Tracks (The Posterous)

Moodle Sign

Click here to download:

moodle sign.pub (147 KB)

Here is a Moodle sign for the Pekin Moodle site, perfect to print & hang in your classroom.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Posted via email from Teacher Tracks (The Blog)

Reading Strategy Labels

Download now or preview on posterous

Good Reader strategy labels.doc (39 KB)

These were created by Michelle Fogal at Wilson Intermediate School and are reproduced here with permission. These are great tool for students to self reflect on their reading strategies.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

Posted via email from Teacher Tracks