While browsing through tweets from my PLN the other day, I discovered a link to a site of free teacher training videos created by Russell Stannard.
21st Century education has be characterized by an explosion of new technologies ripe for use in the classroom. However, the rate at which these technologies are introduced and increased demands on time and budget often mean that training for these tools is scanty or non-existent. Teacher adoption of new technologies can be severely hindered by inadequate training, so finding a site dedicated to (more…)
Wouldn’t it be great if there were a free, easy-to-use tool that would allow you to create an online schedule of assignments for your students, serve as a turn-in point for those assignments, and let you have discussions with your classes? Guess what! There is. Nicenet’s Internet Classroom Assistant (ICA) site does all of that and a bit more. The ICA has been around for 10 years now, and provides many features commonly seen in expensive commercial packages.
A teacher is able to create an online presence for each of their classes and create an assignment calendar (with reminders) for their students. These assignments can then be turned in via the ICA. The ICA also gives the (more…)
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My school is celebrating Lutheran School week this week, which is a week earlier than most schools. We are doing this since we will be on trimester break the next two weeks. We have a week full of fun days.
Yesterday we had an all school singing in Church. Today is Color Day: each class has a different color they are suppose to wear, I got stuck with purple. I have only one shirt that has purple on it. I am not a purple wearing person really. Tonight is our History Fair. Tomorrow is Mixed-Up, Crazy day and we have breakfast for lunch. Wednesday is Dress Up Chapel Day, wear your best. We are also celebrating our 2nd grade teacher 50th birthday, that should be fun. On Thursday we are having Pajama and Stuff Animal Day. Thursday is also promotion day where the students go into their classroom for next year and then we finish the day off with a school spelling bee. Friday is Sports Day and will be doing Jump Rope for Heart. It is always a fun time to promote our School and Lutheran Schools across the Nation. WE LOVE OUR LUTHERAN SCHOOLS.
Next week I am visiting a school in Michigan that has extended a call to me for principal and I get to partake in their National Lutheran School Week. I am excited
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Here are links to the recorded sessions at the 2nd 21st Century Lutheran Education Conference conducted by Guild authors.
THURSDAY 02/25/10 – 4:00-5:00pm
What Are You Doing?
Kathy Maske
Altamont Lutheran Interparish School
Link to recorded session: https://corsica.cuw.edu/p41048649/
“In our schools today, education is changing. We have more technology than we know what to do with. Our Lutheran schools have the opportunity now more than ever to utilize the same technologies as other schools do via the Internet. There has been an explosion in online, collaborative networking in the last 5 years or so with the introduction of MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, Plurk and other social networking sites. What happens when we utilize these tools in our professional development? Continuous online learning! We now have tools that we, as Lutheran Educators, can use to collaborate with other educators continuously. Whether you are seasoned at networking or are just beginning, sharing is valuable for all.”
THURSDAY 02/25/10 – 5:00-6:00pm
Podcast My Class Fast
Daniel Burk
Grace Lutheran Lancaster, CA
Link to recorded session: https://corsica.cuw.edu/p59231468/
“Teachers are afraid to try something new. Podcast is something that any class and any teacher can utilize in their classroom. We will go step-by-step how easy it is to record and publish a Podcast for your class.”
FRIDAY 02/26/10 – 11:00-12:00 noon
Personal Learning Networks and You
Jeremy Biddle
CUW Ed Tech Cohort/Lutheran Educators’ Guild
Link to recording: https://corsica.cuw.edu/p73822927/
“Personal Learning Networks [PLNs] are a solution for one of 21st Century education’s most difficult problems: keeping informed of emerging technologies and learning how to utilize them in our classrooms. PLNs tap into the vast array of freely available information via traditional sources (books, newspapers, etc.) and emerging ones (blogs, Twitter, etc.). A PLN, states Dr. Daniel R. Tobin, is a group of people who can guide your learning, point you to learning opportunities, answer your questions, and give you the benefit of their own knowledge and experience. This presentation will provide a starting point for educators to implement their own PLNs. The audience will be provided with a brief presentation on PLNs and their usefulness, suggestions of software to use (along with tutorials/demonstrations of their use), and a categorized list of sources for individual educators to use in beginning their own PLN. The list of sources will be posted online, with the ability for an educator to make their own additions to share.”
For this week’s Web 2.0 Weekly feature, I’m going to recommend that all of our readers, followers, and friends attend the 2nd Annual Online Conference on 21st Century Lutheran Education being held by Concordia University, Wisconsin. The conference is Thursday, February 25th and Friday, February 26th from 9AM to 6PM CST each day.
Three of the Guild’s authors will be presenting this year:
02/25/10 – 4:00-5:00pm
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Recently, I was reading a journal article written by Jay Pfaffman for my graduate class in Instructional Design. In this article, Pfaffman (2008) asserted that Free/Open Source Software (FOSS) applications can meet many of the needs of a high school science classroom (p. 25).
Pfaffman (2008) stated that the FOSS movement began with Richard Stallman writing the GNU Manifesto. The purpose of FOSS is to provide software that is based on the principle of freedom, not just cost. This freedom comes from being given access to the software’s source code, the files used to create it. Doing so allows users to not only use the program, but also to study it, change it, and even improve it (p. 26).
Pfaffman (2008) also argued that “FOSS promotes social justice in that it provides free software to end users and an efficient means to develop software for programmers” (p. 26). Since FOSS is freely (more…)
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As I was contemplating what to write about next, my mind is a little fried with other thoughts, I asked my PLN on twitter. Dennis Grice mentioned I should commented on Ten commandments of school tech support.
I enjoyed the list immensely! I did think how could I fit this to Lutheran Education, since many of us are our own Tech Guys or IT guys. So I came up with my own list. (more…)
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For this week’s Web 2.0 Weekly feature, we’re taking a walk on the wild side. I’m sure all of use have heard of National Geographic, most likely through their magazine, maps, and maybe their television programming. However, National Geographic also has a very rich online presence.
Part of that online experience is a tool called Wildlife Filmmaker. This online tool allows the user to create a short wildlife film using provided video clips, sounds, and music. The user can also create and add their (more…)
This was the scene one Tuesday morning last week as I began to teach Music. Ironic? I didn’t even notice where I had set my Blackberry at first. When I turned to pick up my phone, there was the scene. Past and Present. And not even a past that was that long ago. It started my mind racing with thoughts of technology and how far we’ve come. I am the oldest child in my family, born in 1979. We had a phone similar to the one seen on the left. However, now I don’t even have a landline in my house! I can still remember having a black and white TV. Our family didn’t actually get a color TV until the mid 80’s. It’s crazy to even think about now. The first computer our family had was purchased in the 90’s. And Internet…can you say “Dial-up”? This is virtually unheard of now.
So, as the title of my post states- “Are we getting anywhere?” In teaching? Well, are we? I would say yes when it comes to the technologies that are available. We have so much at our fingertips, literally! But are we using the technologies to get anywhere? I sometimes struggle with this. There are so many websites, devices, software and hardware choices to choose from that it is hard to know what can be of the most benefit to our students.
There are new things to learn, new technologies to try, and students who crave the interaction with these technologies. They crave engaging learning and interactions.
“It takes time to learn new technologies”
“I have enough to worry about”
“I don’t think I would use it”
So, I ask again- Are we getting anywhere?
Integrating technology isn’t about using technology to teach. It’s about engaging our students. It’s about changing something in the way we teach. Instead of reading about the people in Russia, we can talk to them via Skype. Why not engage the students in fractions via You Tube. It means taking our teaching to the next level.
Does this require some work? Yes! When we decided we would be educators, we committed ourselves to life long learning. And if you didn’t, well…maybe you should take a second look at what you are doing with your life! It is part of the calling of being in education. There’s learning involved. What I am writing is probably not a shock to anyone. However, there aren’t too many who may say it out loud.
Looking back a the photo above, I can tell you that both phones will get us in touch with the people we try to contact. The old ways of engaging students versus the new ways of technology- both ways will get the information across. Are we getting anywhere? Yes, slowly. However, how we get to where we are going is up to us!
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DO YOU KNOW WHAT 21CLE stands for?
It stands for 21st Century Lutheran Education. 21CLE is an online conference in its 2nd year. There are speakers across the map. All the presenters love Lutheran Schools and Educators and want to improve Lutheran Schools and Education.
Want to know what the great thing is? (more…)
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