Intuition in the Classroom

The following is my presentation from the Illinois Computing Educators' Conference from February 2011.

The Social Network: Its Place in our Schools

This is my presentation about Social Networking in schools. It is meant to be a conversation about the ideas, limits and the boundaries of using SN tools in the classroom.  I presented this at IETC in Springfield, IL on November 19th, 2010.  Being in Prezi format, it's image heavy, so it's not all "spelled out" for the average reader. If you have questions about it, feel free to comment and let me know!  - DR

Adapt and Adopt: Strategies for Teacher Buy-In

Here's the embed for my presentation about gaining teacher adoption of technology use in schools.  Enjoy! It's image heavy, but if you'd like me to explain it to you, leave me a comment!  I presented this at IETC in Springfield on November 18th, 2010.
http://prezi.com/bfqwqoghalff/adapt-and-adopt-strategies-for-teacher-buy-in/

Adapt and Adopt: Strategies for Teacher Buy-In on Prezi

YouTube in the Classroom

This week I presented at ICE- Indiana. I previously shared a screencast of my YouTube in the Classroom video. Here is the full presentation for which that screencast was based. It's been a week full of YouTube! I met a handful of educators eager to push to get YouTube unblocked at their schools, or at least managed with filters a little better. There was a lot of good discussion around the benefits of the educational content available on YouTube and the possibility of creating content and controlling the experience for students. It was all good to hear.

This was also the first time I used Prezi. It was a bit of a learning curve (it takes time!), but I was pleased with the final outcome. I was hoping that the resolution on some of the images was a little better- it seemed Prezi reduces the image quality a bit. Enjoy!

You-tilizing YouTube in the Classroom

This week I'll be presenting at the Indiana Computing Educators Conference in Indianapolis, IN on 10/15/2010. I'll be presenting a session entitled You-tilizing YouTube in the Classroom. Here is a handy-dandy tutorial I created for that, on how to use YouTube safely with your students.  Enjoy!

It's About Process! Streamline Teaching Strategies with Google Apps!

This is my presentation on using Google Apps with some of your favorite age-old teaching strategies!

Link: http://docs.google.com/present/edit?id=0AWWzaaRnYL0HZGNmZzliNjZfMzgzNjk5c25tczY&hl=en

Teach More! Manage Less! Learning Management in the Cloud

This is my presentation on learning management resources for the ICE 2010 conference.

Google Apps for the Class- Fun With Images in Google Presentations

This very short version of Google Apps for the Class shows off a couple of neat things that you can do with adding images to Google Presentations.


Animated Gifs: Did you know that you can input animated gifs into a Google Presentation? Well, I personally didn't even know that websites used animated gifs anymore, but here's a whole bunch of holiday themed gifs!
http://www.webdeveloper.com/animations/Holiday.html 

Incremental Reveal: Presentations never had a lot of capabilities for animating your slides, but it does allow you to slowly reveal images in a presentation. Have fun!

Google Apps for the Class: Using Google Presentations

If you've never used Google Presentations before, here's a handy tutorial to get you started!

Google Apps for Education: A Primer

Here the presentation from IETC, 12:45pm session. Thanks for stopping by!

Mathcasting with Thrill and Video

This is one of my presentations for the Illinois Education Technology Conference.
November 20th, 2009.

What can you learn from your first year in a 1:1?

I've always been a reflective teacher- reflective on my practice, reflective on the tools that I used. This presentation is, I hope, helpful to anyone who uses Web 2.0 tools in their classroom. I was thrown to the wolves in my first year as a tech teacher, and I had to figure out a lot on my own. The projects I highlight in this presentation reflect a teacher who continually strives to find the right tools for the right process.

Google Apps for Education and the Teacher's Process

Do these steps look familiar? 

As teachers, we all use Gagne's steps, for the most part, but what I've found is most teachers may not even remember where these steps came from, me included, until recently: American Educational Psychologist Robert Gagne.

Gagne's steps were based around the Information Processing theory, where the goal was to maximize retention of knowledge (most likely- rote knowledge).

While I don't believe treating the learner like a machine (computer) is a very helpful metaphor, project-based learning and Understanding by Design models of instructional design have fashioned the Nine Steps to their liking.

The Nine Steps still work- for good lesson plan organization, and can be used for higher-order learning as well.

I've found that the Google Apps for Ed environment allows the Nine Steps to really flourish and take on a new life of their own. This presentation was given on October 3rd, 2009 at the ICE-chip Mini-Conference and explores how Google Apps transforms the teacher's educational process into the digital world.



Links that were used in this presentation:

1. Gaining Attention: 
1. Google Presentation Sample, Simple Machines: http://docs.google.com/present/edit?id=0AWWzaaRnYL0HZGNmZzliNjZfMjYxY2Z6dHdnY3E&hl=en
2. Describe the Goal/ Objective
1. Google Presentation Sample: Researching the Land, 3rd Slide in: http://docs.google.com/present/edit?id=0AUKY528tgMv_ZGR3MnZxeF82N2Y1Y2oyYmN6&hl=en
3. Stimulate Prior Knowledge:
1. Anticipation Quiz Form Sample: http://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?hl=en&formkey=dDVBZ2trdUxVc0tMNWUwU1JvSjRyUlE6MA..
4. Present New Content: 
1.  Google Presentation Sample: Researching the Land, 6th Slide in: http://docs.google.com/present/edit?id=0AUKY528tgMv_ZGR3MnZxeF82N2Y1Y2oyYmN6&hl=en
2. Text Coding with Doug Buehl, Google Books
5. Provide Guidance
1. Tutorials: Using Google Video and You Tube to embed tutorials in a Presentation: 
1. Citing Creative Commons image tutorial: http://docs.google.com/present/edit?id=0AWWzaaRnYL0HZGNmZzliNjZfMjY0ZnRyOXJiZHE&hl=en
2. Using other teacher and student tutorials as guidance: http://docs.google.com/present/edit?id=0AWWzaaRnYL0HZGNmZzliNjZfMjY1Zzc4aGc2NTY&hl=en
6. Elicit Performance
7. Provide Feedback
1. Love Letter Video embedded in Google Presentation:http://docs.google.com/present/edit?id=0AWWzaaRnYL0HZGNmZzliNjZfMjY2Z2t0d2g0amQ&hl=en
8. Assess Performance:
1. Digital Scantron Form: http://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?hl=en&formkey=dEpwNm40NmtQb3RKeVJiLUpXQ29nV2c6MA
9. Enhance Retention

Extra links:
Google Apps for Ed
My RTI data form example


Thanks to http://www.e-learningguru.com/articles/art3_3.htm  for the nine-steps image. 

Using a Free LMS: A Case Study for Edu20.org

I've always been a big fan of the Learning Management System. While getting my Masters, I used Blackboard, and later, Livetext. I know that Moodle is gaining popularity. I've seen it, and I'm keeping an eye out for it. I've been using a free web-hosted LMS called Edu20.org for the past year. It has satisfied my needs in many ways. It also has some flaws, and I'll detail those here as well.

This article is not intended to be an endorsement of Edu20.org. I'd like simply to offer the pros and cons of such a tool and it's place in Web 2.0 and in the classroom as it stands now.

The Overview:
Edu20.org is a free LMS, and by free, I mean that it does not cost the user one penny to host your class content. That is not true of Blackboard and even to use Moodle, you must use your own server space which may cost a district extra dollars. First impressions are that it's a fun, interesting place to host your stuff. Here's a look at the front page:


As you can see, it's a simple front page, with soft playful colors, and an engaging interface. Once students log in, they immediately see their avatar and some basic information about them, like how many points they earned (I've never used this) and how many friends they have.


Edu20 is more than just a LMS. It's a educational social network. It can connect students all over the world. Interestingly, since this is only my first year using this, I've rarely exploited the social aspect of the site. I find that it's pretty easy to get the kids signed up for my class- took less than a class period. Once they are in they can find their class content by navigating the top tabs:

All they have to do is click "learn," and, depending on how many classes they are enrolled for, they will have a list of their classes. They will click on that and then be taken to their class content. It is all organized in a playful, professional tab system.

In their class below they have a plethora of tools before them. Resources, lessons, students, forums, assignments, collaboration (which includes a simple wiki, a personal blog, an optional chat room, a very good debate function, and groups), a feed reader, and classroom policies.
All in all, it doesn't take most students very long to learn how to navigate the system as long as you use things consistently. I've discovered that many students who used the system in fall, now have come back for the spring and have not forgotten how to get in.

To take you on a more thorough tour of Edu20.org, I've created this screencast below. I try to draw a line down the middle, show you the positives and negatives, and be realistic and objective. I had to split it into two parts. Part 1 is below. Part II will be added shortly.

Let me just ask you one question after seeing and reading this:

Do you believe that the future of the Internet is web-hosted services?

And by "hosted" I mean available to everyone, any time and anywhere. This can be somewhat of a philosophical question, and I'd love to hear those ideas.