Paralyzed By Technology #edchat

As I have worked with teachers over the years, I have come across one common problem that many teachers deal with when looking at technology. It's this idea that all new tech tools must be integrated immediately or they have failed as a teacher. As they look over the long list of available tools, they become paralyzed because they are overwhelmed.

I always make sure to tell all educators that technology is about baby steps. As "techy" teacher, it appears that I have used every tool to the full extent from the very first day I started using the Internet. What teachers do not see are the many many tools I have used incorrectly or the tools that just didn't fit my instructional style. There is a vast wasteland littered with remains of programs that I was excited about, tried, and then realized were not for me or my students. I learned to focus on what was working and use it well.

After some time with a tool and feeling like I have mastered it, I would explore a new tool. I took baby steps with all of the tools I have ever used. At the end of the year, I evaluate the tools and decide if it will stick around. Either way, I look to add a new one for the start of the next school year.

As a connected educator, I see tons of great new tools shared on a regular basis and I have to fight the urge to try and use them immediately. If I want to do it right, I need to take my time, learn how to use a tool and think out who it fits into my classroom.

Friar Laurence said it best in Romeo and Juliet "Wisely and slow; they stumble that run fast"

I encourage teachers out there to find one new tool to explore, have fun trying it out in class and then reflect on its use at the end of the year. When you are done, look for another one for the next school year. Over time, teachers will no longer be paralyzed by technology and will become the "techy" teacher in their building.  

Flickr for Homework?

I was walking around my classroom the other day and noticed some kids looking through pictures on the an iPhone. They were pictures of the weekend and were just shots of kids being kids. The phone was passed around from kids to kids and they were laughing and making comments. I didn't think much of it at the time, but I started to think about using pictures in my class. Pictures are worth a 1,000 words they say and that is perfect for an English Class. Below is an idea I have for incorporating digital photography into my class. Please leave your thoughts on my idea and any way you think it could be tweaked, improved, etc.

I have used photo essays in my class before and the kids always get a kick out of them. I have had kids create a poster board with quotes from "Walden" and corresponding pictures they would take of nature. They would take the pictures and decorate their poster board and bring it to class. I hang some in my room and it's a fun assignment overall. However, what if I could create a large collection of photos with my students and have them comment on the pictures and the quotes accompanying them?

My idea consists of creating a class Flickr account and allowing students to upload their photos and descriptions. Students could then view all of the photos and comment on the work of other students. If I give the students enough time to work on the project, about 1 week, they should have plenty of time to take and upload pictures to the site. Once the images are on Flickr, I could do many different things with them. I could take them and make  photo mosaic using Big Huge Labs and post it to the class website for everyone to see. Here is an example of a mosaic from a Spring trip I took with @JenniferPro to Rome.

I would love to give a photo assignment to my students after reading To Kill a Mockingbird or Romeo and Juliet. After spending some time discussing the themes of the stories, I could have the students recreate scenes from the story that represent the themes we have discussed. Class discussions could be held with the focus on the the pictures and how they represent the themes. Lively debate would occur as kids analyze the shots taken by other students. They could acquire a deeper understanding of the themes as they work with them in a different way. No longer would they be stuck expressing theme in essay form alone.

I think this is just another weapon to add to my arsenal as I try to connect kids to literature. As I typed this post up, I realized that I could also have the students take the pictures and post them to a Glog and they could share them with the class. I think both of these ideas would be cool and I plan to explore both of them next year.

Feel free to tell me what you think of this idea and how you might improve or tweak it.

Student Created Web2.0 Projects - Catcher in the Rye

Here are some great examples of student work I've been bragging about for the past few days. I tweeted some yesterday, but these were too good to live in Twitterland alone. The students have been great at posting on the presenters personal Wallwisher. It keeps them focused and the presenter has a great collection of comments to review later that day. The entire project is working very well and can be used with any content area. Take a look at the different projects and let me know what you think and I will pass them on to the students.

Here is one great example of a Blabberize created by a student.



Here is a cool project that used GoAnimate!

GoAnimate.com: Catcher in the Rye by Giggles415

Like it? Create your own at GoAnimate.com. It's free and fun!

Here is a Puppet Show by two students. Just goofy good times.


Here is a very cool blog a student created. It's a site selling The Catcher in the Rye T-shirts. The best part about this project is that she actually made the shirts and gave them to me. Free swag always gets you a good grade! :-)

Here are just a few examples of what my students can do. There is another one I can't put up yet that is amazing. A student tooks clips from the movie Stand By Me and linked it up to the story line of The Catcher in the Rye. It was just good stuff. He used Tubechop.com and it worked very well. Please leave a comment if you liked something or have a suggestion to improve the lesson. I'm always open to becoming a better teacher and making lesson stronger for the kids. I'll have some more projects later in the week. Thanks for stopping.

Great Youtube Editing Tool: Tube Chop

Here is a great site for teachers that want to show some youtube videos but might only want to show certain selections. Tubechop is a website that lets you take any youtube clip and chop it down to size. It is very simple to use and does not take very long. Just select the video you want, select the portion you want to watch and click the chop button. You will be given a link or a code to embed into a website. Below you will find a chopped version of The Ghostbusters Music Video by Ray Parker Jr. The orginal clip has an extra minute at the end that I don't need to see, so I chopped it out. Take a look at the video.

For those that like to show video of interviews or clips from movies, this is a great way to condense that information. No longer will you have to waste class time searching for the right part of the clip you want to show. You can set it up ahead of time and post on your website for kids to use safely.

- @TheNerdyTeacher

Scribble Maps = Geography Fun!

A few teachers from my PLN suggested that I take a look at Scribble Maps. I cannot thank them enough for encouraging me to look around. If you are familiar with Google Maps, this will not be a problem for you to use. The website uses Google Maps and allows you to draw on the map you have focused on. You can draw by hand, create circles or boxes, create text and even add images. This is a great way to use the SmartBoards in the classroom. Take a look at my example. You can save them for later editing or you can save them as JPEG's so you can add them to other documents like this:

Here is one I just did of my High School. It only took me 5 Minutes to draw, save and upload this picture.

You can do all sorts of things with this program. They have Terrain Maps, Satellite Maps and Hybrid Maps that you can use for different lessons. I know many teachers are always looking for different ways to incorporate their SmartBoards into their lesson plans and I think this is a good tool to use with the students. This could also be used in other classes as well. In English, I could see using this to show the students where the story is taking place and adding my own visuals to the map. Perhaps a map showing East and West Egg and adding different pictures from The Great Gatsby so the students can see where the story takes place. You have as many options as you can think of with this cool tool. Take a few minutes and take this tool for a test drive. You might be surprised at the different ways you come up with to use this in your classroom.

- @TheNerdyTeacher

Dropbox: A Must For All Teachers

One of the biggest problems I have dealt with a a teacher is the inability to access information from my work computer when I'm at home or files on my home computer when I'm at work. I'm constantly emailing documents I create in one place so I can work on them more or use them in another place. Another way to transfer information is to use the Flash Drive. Sometimes I would forget it at home or leave it at work. I know I have talked to other teachers and they have said access to school files from home would be great. Well, I don't think the school will be opening up their servers to teachers anytime soon. Dropbox is the answer to all of our file sharing problems.

I've heard some of the teachers in my PLN talk about Dropbox, but I really didn't think twice about it.  Crawling around the web the other day, I stumbled upon Dropbox and finally decided to give it a look. I'm angry at myself for waiting this long to investigate. The days of Flash Drives and Emailing documents are over. All of my school documents are only a few clicks away. Below is a video you should watch to give you the ins and outs of the system. below I will give you some of the key points that have me excited and some thoughts about how I could use it in the classroom.

 

I hope you liked what you saw. Once you jump on their website, they have another great video walking users through the Dropbox process. Here are some of the things that really got me excited about using Dropbox as a teacher.

• I no longer have to worry about transferring documents from one computer to another. If I create a test at home, I only need to save it to the Dropbox Folder. Once I get to school, I only need to log-in to Dropbox.com to download the document and use in class. 
• Sharing is easier. We have shared folders in the district, but many of us do not use them for one reason or another. Most of what I do is created at home. Once I create it there, I email to school, make copies and that's that. With Dropbox, I can create folders for each unit I tech and share them with the teachers in my Department from the luxury of my home computer. There is no need for extra steps. Once a folder is shared with other people, they will be able to access it whenever they want. Again, teachers are no longer chained to their computer in the classroom and that is a huge plus. 
• I can create folders for work and for personal use. Sometimes I want to share a bunch of pictures from a trip. I can place the pictures in the folder and share it with family and friends. Too often, pictures are all over the internet for people to see, but this can allow people to actually keep copies of pictures taken at events. 
• iPhone access! I downloaded the Dropbox app and can have access to all of the same documents on my phone that I would see on the computer. I can double check to see what documents I have access to from anywhere in the world. If I decide to make a document accessible to the public, I do not have to wait to get to a computer to do so. I can also take pictures from my camera and post them in the shared folder. On a trip, family and friends could view pictures as I take them instead of having to wait until I get home to upload them to a site like Flickr. 
• I can share individual files with anyone I want. If I really don't want someone to look at my entire folder, I can store the document (Word Doc, Picture, Song, etc) in a public file and it will create a special URL link I can send to anyone I choose. Click here for an example.

The last point is very exciting to me. In theory, I could create public folders for each of my classes and share documents with my students from any computer I want. hey could be assignments, news articles, pictures, etc. Not only that, student could share documents with me through a public folder. This could be the last step in my attempt to create a paperless classroom. Now, any assignment I want, can be turned in to a public folder for me to grade. I'm sure there will be bugs to work out, but this could be a valuable tool as teachers look for ways to make important class information available to students no matter where they are. 

Lastly, Dropbox is not for teachers only. Any person that uses multiple computers will find this helpful. Think about the times yo have wanted to work on a document, but it was on the "other" computer. With Dropbox, those problems are now gone.

- @TheNerdyTeacher