Our Last Post

First of all, thank you all so much for participating in this year's Learn & Earn! I hope there have been a few things that have sparked your interest and inspired your use of technology. In fact, for this week's clock hours, I'd love to hear what you think was the most useful post (or posts) for you. After perusing past posts, come back here and tell us what you liked most.

Also, as a special treat, I'm accepting late work. :) If you'd like to go back and comment on weeks that you missed, feel free. Please do so by the end of next week.

Finally, if it's not on your calendar yet, you had better put it there--the  10Tech Summer Conference is around the corner: June 25-27. Registration will open soon!

Social Bookmarking--a New Tool

Social bookmarking--the name for a variety of web 2.0 tools that allow you to collect and share your favorite websites--has been around for a while, with Delicious and Diigo leading the pack. Both of these sites have evolved quite a bit since their debut several years ago. Now there's Pearltrees. My colleague Christine used it just the other day to create a collection of websites she will have teachers explore next week. Below you see an example from their site that shows how someone used it to create a collection of resources for the Common Core Standards.

Take a look and give it a try. (Or, if you prefer, try out Diigo or Delcious.) (In all cases you'll have to create an account.) I think social bookmarking has application both as a teacher productivity tool AND as a way to share sites with students. What do you think?

Go.Tahoma!

If you recall, back in February, I ran a post about our Go.Tahoma project which will provide Google accounts under our own Go.Tahoma domain for all secondary students and staff beginning next fall. Since then, several pioneering teachers have volunteered (themselves and their students) to help us make sure everything is working as it should this spring. So far Walt and I have successfully introduced Go.Tahoma accounts to about two or three teachers (and their students) in each seconary building. This means you may have some students in your classes who have accounts now and are using the apps to complete school assignments and projects.

Are Google Docs new to you? Watch this video for a two-minute introduction:

All students and staff will have access to these tools next fall, but why wait? You're in the Earn and Learn class, so you can explore now. If you've been a regular contributor to this blog, I will send you your login information in an email. If you haven't been commenting, but have been reading and want to get your information now, send me an email and I'll send you your information. The login information I send you will allow you to sign in and start experimenting with Google docs, spreadsheets, presentations, forms, sites, and calendar. Your students will not have access until next fall unless they are in a pioneering teacher's class.

Once you get your account information, follow the directions and sign in. You'll see that I shared a document with you. This is one of the great features of Google's collaborative documents--they are collaborative and are easily shared. When you open that document, you'll see that I started a list of ways collaborative documents could be used in the classroom. Please add your own idea (or two) to the list.

(Note: Google docs save automatically, so just log off when you're done. Also, because this is a collaborative document that we will all share, you'll be able to see everyone's ideas in one place. AND, because the document lives on Google's servers (not your computer or the school's network) you'll have access to the document anytime (and from anywhere) you sign in with your Go.Tahoma account.)

For this week's clock hours, you should do two things:

1. Contribute to the collaborative document as described above.
2. Come back here and provide some feedback (comments, questions, celebrations, etc.) about your experience using you Go.Tahoma account. 

Completing both of these tasks will count as two weeks' worth of work to make up for one of the two weeks I was on hiatus.  Again, thank you for that!

Get Ready to Flip for a New(ish) Model of Teaching

Welcome back to the Learn and Earn and thank you for letting me take that brief hiatus. Today's topic is one that you may have heard of, but may not know much about. We're talking about "flipping" your classroom. This idea has been around for a few years, and now it's really starting to get a lot of attention thanks to things like the Khan Academy.

The basic idea behind a flipped classroom is that by swapping what often traditionally happens (lecture) in the classroom with what traditionally happens as home (homework, projects, etc.), teachers can improve student learning, engagement, and increase the rigor in their classrooms and at the same time, save time. Let's start with a quick (2 minutes) introduction:


Sure, there's a little technology involved, but if you have a white board in your classroom and a laptop with a camera (which you do), you could get started flipping your classroom right away. (Not to mention that you also have an instructional technology coach (me) who would help you get started.) But, first, let's learn a bit more about it.

The Friday Institute for Educational Innovation offers several short videos on the topic. There are two short videos embeded on this page. Watch them to build your background knowledge about this topic. NOTE: One of the things I like is how these two teachers use minimal technology to achieve the "flip." Sure you can get fancier, but their approach of one-take videos and use of a white board makes it much more accessible.

What do you think? What questions does this raise for you? Do you see application for your classroom? Why or why not? Interested in some extra credit? Then, why not give it a try yourself? Like I said, I'd be happy to help you get started. Just let me know!

Spring--A Time to Reflect and Grow

It's spring and we're on the verge of spring break. Perhaps, like me, you're looking at doing some yard work, tending your garden in some way--seeing what needs dividing, what needs moved, where you need a new plant, etc. Thus, I thought this week we'd do some similar reflection with our tech "gardens." I'm not providing you with anything new to consider this week, but rather, asking you to do one of the following, then come back here and tell us what you did. And, of course, have a great spring break!

1. Revisit some of the tools and ideas we've covered in Learn and Earn. Identify one that you have implemented and tell us how its use is playing out in your classroom.
2. Revisit some of the tools and ideas we've covered in Learn and Earn. Identify one that you were particularly intrigued by, but haven't really had the chance yet to truly investigate or use, then spend some time doing just that. Come back here and tell us about it.
3. Identify something tech and learning related (that you didn't learn about in Learn and Earn) that you think has had a positive effect on your work and/or student learning. Tell us about it.
4. Identify something tech related that you think could have a positive impact on your work and student learning but that you haven't tried yet (for whatever reason). Why do you think it would be a good thing? What are the roadblocks keeping you from trying it?

So, there, you have it--choose one of the above, then get outside and tend your real garden. :)

Sign Up for SignUp Genius

A friend in another district turned me on to this site that lets you create an easy way for students or parents (or any group, really) to sign up for things like presentation times, conferences, volunteer activities--even potlucks! I played around with it a little bit yesterday, and it, indeed, was pretty simple to set up.

The only thing you really need to think about is how people will access the sign up list. In the end, I selected "Public Anonymous" for my test so that people wouldn't have to create an account with SignUp Genius in order to sign up for my event. However, the advantage of having an account is getting a reminder a couple days in advance of the event.

If you want, visit the test site I made for parent conferences. You can even sign up if you want.

What do you think? Try using this the next time you want students to sign up for in-class presentations or to help organize your club's next event. I think it shows promise and I encourage you to share how you imagine it could make your job a little easier.

Happy Thursday!

Now There's One More Reason to Love TED

This week I want to thank Kristin Edlund for turning me onto TED's ("Ideas Worth Sharing")  new venture: TED-Ed (Lessons Worth Sharing).

First, some background for those of you who don't know what TED Talks are:

TED is a nonprofit devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from three worlds: Technology, Entertainment, Design. Since then its scope has become ever broader. Along with two annual conferences -- the TED Conference in Long Beach and Palm Springs each spring, and the TEDGlobal conference in Edinburgh UK each summer -- TED includes the award-winning TEDTalks video site, the Open Translation Project and TED Conversations, the inspiring TED Fellows and TEDx programs, and the annual TED Prize. (from the TED website: http://www.ted.com/pages/about)

Those who know me know that given the opportunity I will go on and on about TED Talks. (Is this an opportunity? I think it is.) I love them. I listen to them at the gym, I watch them while I make dinner, I make my friends watch them after I make them dinner. If I were still in the classroom I would make them a regular feature of my classroom. (Oh, wait! I did do that!--as part of the blended learning class I taught this fall at the high school, a regular assignment was watching, commenting on, and sharing TED Talks. Kids loved them!) I know there are a few teachers who share one talk a week with students and then they discuss it or respond in some other way. One of my favorite ways to have students respond to a TED Talk is to ask them What questions would you ask the speaker? then I have students do some research and see if they can find the answers themselves.

Now, for TED-ed:

TED-Ed's mission is to capture and amplify the voices of great educators around the world. We do this by pairing extraordinary educators with talented animators to produce a new library of curiosity-igniting videos. A new site, which will launch in early April 2012, will feature these new TED-Ed Originals as well as some powerful new learning tools. (from the TED-Ed website: http://education.ted.com/)

Even though the site hasn't officially launched yet,  you can check out the TED-Ed YouTube channel they've started. I watched a really interesting demonstration of how the brain works using a cockroach's leg.

What do you think? After watching the introduction video above and checking out some of their sample videos, come back here and offer your two cents' worth. Did you find something you could use in your classroom? Or, do you have a suggestion for a lesson? I think linking great lessons/talks with great animation is a super-terrific-fantastic idea. You?