Technology! EDGR 625

Tuesday: 8/7/18


Today was a busy day! I leaned how to use WeVideo, I made a silly little clip- not edited much at all,
just playing around. Here is the link - Silly Bike Video

Let's see what else: I chose my tool for Speed Geeking- Glogster
I put my google map together for my scenario
I read chapter 2-4 in Amplify
I used twitter some more
We spent an hour on hour of code
We chatted about the readings from last night



While reading I found some great links for further reading about using tech in the classroom. Chapter 4 was the most interesting to me. It talked about, explained and gave mini lessons for introducing tech into the classroom. I had never really thought about doing this. Last year we started the year of with a few google tools lessons so that my students would be able to use the tools and apps they needed to. I think this may be a good way to start off our year.

I really like technology and love having it in the classroom. For me taking it from substitution and augmentation over the line to modification and redefinition are the key.

My last item for tonight was learning about TweetDeck to follow #tags. That is pretty cool.


Monday: 8/6/18

This is how I felt when my day started.

Today was the first day of our tech class. It was nice to see some my cohort again. I wouldn't day I had total new learning today. I would say that some ideas that I have read, studied, and talked about with other teachers resurfaced. Maybe the most important being that as teachers we need to do what we know is best and expand our teaching tools to include technology in different ways. For some of us we want to use more technology but need help getting over that line in the SAMR model to modification and redefinition. I would say for me the tech that I have added to my teaching is substitution and augmentation.

When I think about why I have not stepped over the line, if I am being honest, it is because it is more work for me to start with. It would mean redesigning lessons and learning new things myself to teach the students. Overall I have no problem with this, I often redesign lesson to a point, but this is a little more in depth. I need to make the time to investigate new learning activities for my students that would lend themselves to technology.

I have taken the step to introduce project based learning at an early stage, I need to step it up a bit. I am not worried about loosening my control, I am just worried that the students will not learn what they need to. I need to work on guiding them to stay on track yet have autonomy with their work.

At one point today a few of us either set up a twitter or tweaked the one we have. A conversation began about why we were being asked to start a Twitter account. Some people did not want to have a web presence, others were not sure how it pertained to class. Many years ago I was sent to a Rubicon conference, Rubicon is a lesson planning tool that our district was trying to implement. I was sent to the conference so that I could become a teacher leader in my school. As part of the conference we were asked to start a twitter account and participate in conversations that the conference had. Since than I have not used it too much. I do however see the benefit of being able to connect with others and follow feeds that are of interest to us. In a time when everyone is busy that is a lot to be said for social media, we can converse with people from all over the world at any time of the day or night. So, to answer the question: How can we continue using twitter to expand our PLN? We can connect and follow users that can offer us resources in areas that we need help with. As well we can share resources with others that we find helpful.

Today I found this link for PLN through Edutopia, though I would share. I will tweet the link also.

PLN