tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23231402022441585562024-03-12T19:36:23.994-04:00Teacher Tech MusingsFollow me as I explore technology and education in my role of Educational Technology Integration for Hopkinton Public Schools.John Padulahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05163978848723885019noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2323140202244158556.post-62122768506026488432013-07-29T10:00:00.000-04:002013-07-29T10:15:25.677-04:00EdCamps - A New Force in Professional Development?<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Imagine a force so powerful that it can compel 60 educators
from around <st1:state w:st="on">Massachusetts</st1:state> to willingly give up
a sunny day in July and converge on downtown <st1:place w:st="on">Boston</st1:place> for an all-day professional
development session….</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">You’ve most likely just encountered an ‘EdCamp'..!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I reported in <a href="http://bit.ly/18vQiZn" target="_blank">another post</a> on the overall theory
and structure of an EdCamp:</span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 27.0pt; margin-right: .5in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify; text-justify: inter-ideograph;">
<i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">An
EdCamp is a relatively new style of professional development where the
presenters are often ordinary classroom teachers. There isn’t one presenter explaining one
topic, there are several sessions going on in different conference rooms at the
same time, each session on a topic chosen by the presenter. Thus, no agenda, or conference schedule, is
defined ahead of time. In fact, an
EdCamp is often referred to as an “unconference”..!<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">An
EdCamp venue provides meeting spaces with lots of break out rooms, and a blank
wall where participants post what topics they want to present (or discuss) at a
given time and in a given break out room.
You, the eager educator, look at this on-the-fly agenda on the morning
of the EdCamp, decide what you want to learn, then go to that break out room
and become part of the discussion – if you wish.</span><o:p></o:p></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I attended my first EdCamp – EdCamp Boston – in May and
became a believer before the first hour had passed. The energy level in the room was charged and
every session I attended was a winner.
The July EdCamp (<a href="http://edcampblc.wikispaces.com/" target="_blank">EdCampBLC</a> – for <i>Building Learning Communities</i>), was held at the Park Plaza Hotel
in downtown <st1:place w:st="on">Boston</st1:place>. Given my experiences in May, I had high
expectations for EdCampBLC – and I’m pleased to say I was *not* disappointed!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">EdCampBLC was organized by a small, but energetic group of
educators: Tracy Sockalosky, Sean Sweeney, Jeremy Angoff and Brian Hammel. Once the introductions were completed,
available times and room names were arranged in a grid on one of the
walls. As attendees decided on a
discussion/presentation, they just grabbed a piece of paper, wrote a brief
blurb about their topic and taped it to the wall, thus claiming one of the
rooms for their own! </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">
When all slots on the board were filled, the organizers of EdCampBLC
transcribed the entire agenda into a <a href="https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AgQ-Vc7avTPYdGkxVUk5V2RDUkQwVEJzLWpOa2FtOFE&usp=sharing" target="_blank">GoogleDoc </a>that we could access throughout
the day from our devices. The final
agenda looked like this: </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><br /></span>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiF2mTbwE5uWiBsyZgoPFRikSlybny_syA294gju4rMvWZRUaQNTxBhOUG_HiQ68lBiA6h2Kmx8x1vcLyN9Q-WvqzT9bOjUBehyphenhyphenIHH0ScUeitKTd0BkbPw3g4M3noQkjn8hebz3orO3v5M/s1600/EdCampBLC+2013+Schedule.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="216" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiF2mTbwE5uWiBsyZgoPFRikSlybny_syA294gju4rMvWZRUaQNTxBhOUG_HiQ68lBiA6h2Kmx8x1vcLyN9Q-WvqzT9bOjUBehyphenhyphenIHH0ScUeitKTd0BkbPw3g4M3noQkjn8hebz3orO3v5M/s400/EdCampBLC+2013+Schedule.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">EdCampBLC Agenda</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><br /></span>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Because meeting room space was at a premium at the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">Park</st1:placetype> <st1:placetype w:st="on">Plaza</st1:placetype></st1:place>,
this EdCamp featured four meeting areas, and two of these were at opposite ends
of one large ballroom. If you look
closely, you’ll notice I took the plunge and signed up for a presentation. That’s me, @PadulaJohn – my Twitter handle,
in the Clarendon room for Session 2 – but more on that later…!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">After reviewing all the sessions, I had time for two (not
counting the one I planned):</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">-
What is transformative? 1:1? Chromebooks? iPads?
Apps? BYOT? Google?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">-
Implementing and managing ChromeBooks and iPads.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">For me, the first session, “What is transformative?” was so
indicative of a classic EdCamp session.
About a dozen people gathered in a room and the conversation was
initially led by Jeremy Angoff. We began
by trying to define exactly what ‘transformative’ meant and what was being
transformed. As we talked, Jeremy
created a <a href="http://ounce.it/ECBLCS1" target="_blank">GoogleDoc</a></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">,
projected it on the wall, and posted the link, so participants could share
their thoughts in real time as we moved forward.</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As the meeting rolled along, I was struck by several
things. First, once Jeremy delivered his
opening words, others quickly chimed in with their own thoughts, questions and
caveats. If you walked into the room 10
minutes after we started, I think you would have been hard pressed to pick out
who was ‘in charge’ of the entire meeting, as no one person really dominated
the conversation. I had my own ideas on
what our conversation about ‘transformative’ was going to center around
(technology in the hands of students), but many had extensions on this and a
variety of other things to consider: </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">
-
the SAMR model of rolling out technology (watch
for a blog post on that very soon!)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">-
the need for truly realistic expectations</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">-
how some are reluctant to embrace technology </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-indent: -0.25in;">(Dan Riles described teachers who were reluctant to embrace technology in the
clasroom ‘Tech Vulnerable’, which I loved!)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">-
whether technology would help teachers create
intrinsically motivating projects </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">-
the need to reach ALL learners (low, medium and
gifted)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Those are just some of the ideas that stuck with me long
after we left. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It was a thought-provoking hour that raised many important
points. As we were wrapping up, I really
liked the way Jeremy paused and gave anyone who hadn’t been heard the chance to
say something. Many of those who were in
more of an observing role did make some points and were able to have their
opinions added to the dialogue. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The time *flew* by (when have you ever said that in a PD
session??) and before you knew it, it was time to move to the next
session. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">[By the way: if you were waiting to hear our lofty answer to
“What is transformative?” – sorry, we never got there! As tempting as it might be to try and wrap
this up in a tidy sound bite, it is an incredibly vast and complicated
issue. I was just happy to be part of
the conversation!]</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Session 2 was entitled “Using Schoology to collaboratively
build a US History course” – and it was moderated by me! Actually, the entire idea of utilizing crowd
sourcing to gather resources for a US History course was the brainchild of Nate
Everett (@thalesdream). Nate presented
this at an EdCamp session in May, but could not be at this EdCamp. Since the theme of our EdCamp was ‘building
learning communities’, I felt this was a perfect topic, so I volunteered to
give the same type of overview. There
was a break between session 1 and session 2, so I eagerly awaited the flood of
participants. I had my laptop, some
handouts, a few notes and a big sign indicating what the session topic
was. Time creeped toward 11:15 and I was
scanning the door, watching folks walk by, pause…and then walk on! By 11:20, there I was - staring at my
projector – still waiting…! Suddenly,
the idea for a new session came into my mind “What if you scheduled an EdCamp
session and nobody came?”….As I was about to pack up my stuff, I heard a voice
– not exactly ‘calling out from the wilderness’, but close. One lone participant stuck her head in and
said “Is this the session on Schoology?” and I answered “It is now!” We had reached the necessary quorum –
two! </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Sara Krakauer (@globetwisting) introduced herself and I
quickly went through my (Nate’s) overview.
Basically, Nate created a course using Schoology and grants interested
teachers admin access to the course. The
idea is to get dedicated teachers to donate their resources (lesson plans,
primary sources, assessments, etc.) to this site. Teachers would then have access to a wide
array of material and could pick and choose what they needed for their
particular circumstances. Sara was kind
enough to listen to the idea and had a few questions. Since nobody else had any questions, it
looked this was going to be the fastest EdCamp session on record. However, Sara was nice enough to explain a
little about herself and discuss what she was doing. I was blown away with her initiatives of
global citizenship and the model she created to get her students more involved
in 21<sup>st</sup> century learning. If
you want to learn more, please see her massive blog, <i><a href="http://innovationonearth.com/" target="_blank">Innovation On Earth</a></i>
. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Sara explained that she was getting ready to present her
learning model to Fulbright Scholars at the State Department! She walked me through some ideas for her
presentation and we talked over different ways she could use her time with
these outstanding educators. In the end
– in typical EdCamp fashion - I learned more from her than she did from my
Schoology overview. It was a pleasure
meeting her and getting to know more about what she is doing in her
classroom. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">[Note to self – and anyone planning an EdCamp session: Try
to pick a session slot that is NOT at the same time as a popular topic. In my case, the Schoology session was at the
same time as a session on curation. I
heard later that most of the EdCamp attendees were in that one session..!]</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">After lunch, I had time for one more session and I chose
“Implementing and Managing ChromeBooks and iPads”. Currently, my school only has MacBooks – but
I would imagine these two devices will probably be the most commonly deployed
over the next five years. As someone
working toward their license in Instructional Technology, I could see myself
becoming involved in managing these tech tools and I wanted to hear what others
had to say about this. The conversation
was, again, very interesting, with 10-12 participants raising questions and
discussing issues over managing these devices.
We also discussed the differences (and there are many) between managing
ChromeBooks versus iPads. From the notes
I took, it sounded like <st1:place w:st="on">Casper</st1:place>
by <a href="http://www.jamfsoftware.com/products/casper-suite" target="_blank">JAMF Software</a> was the hands-down winner for strong iPad management software. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In the end, though, the big story that everyone will
remember from this session came from Jarred Haas (@JarredHaas), a middle school
teacher in <st1:city w:st="on">Peabody</st1:city>. Jarred was interested in ways to “better
physically manage our iPads.” Jarred
explained that his school has one cart of iPads for almost 1500 students. There are no elevators in this school, so
custodians *carry* the cart up and down the stairs to teachers’ rooms,
depending upon when they have signed up for the cart..! As the participant next to me replied, “Just
when you think you have it rough…!”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There was a last round of sessions, and the standard
“smackdown” session where attendees share what they learned from their day of
presentations. Unfortunately, I had
other commitments, so that was the end of my EdCamp experience. Even with the few sessions I took part in,
the knowledge I gained and the new contacts I made will be resources I will go
back to in the weeks and months to come.
</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I hope you’ll consider an EdCamp in the near future – in
fact my next one is only a few weeks away – <a href="http://edcampcapecod.weebly.com/" target="_blank">EdCampCapeCod</a> will be held on August 12 in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Sandwich</st1:city>,
<st1:state w:st="on">MA</st1:state></st1:place> and I’ve already
registered! </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Give it a try – I think you will be amazed!</span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS Mincho"; mso-fareast-language: JA;"><br /></span>JohnPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00552135216325430470noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2323140202244158556.post-63964689872764683092013-07-18T23:03:00.000-04:002013-07-23T20:00:30.878-04:00Web App to manage Common Core Standards<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I've been sending around the link to this Common Core widget for over a year. I figured it was about time I started using it myself!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">To the <b>far right</b>, is a widget that provides all the Common Core standards for Math and ELA - just by clicking and drilling down into the appropriate standard. There's also an embedded version - depending on what you prefer.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This is brought to you via <a href="http://www.masteryconnect.com/" target="_blank">MasteryConnect</a>. If you like it, <a href="http://www.masteryconnect.com/learn-more/core-app.html" target="_blank">grab one for yourself</a>!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<br />
<div id="_MC_ccapp_widget">
<script src="http://www.masteryconnect.com/learn-more/cmsjs/widget.js"></script></div>
JohnPhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00552135216325430470noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2323140202244158556.post-66882744402137667762012-10-28T22:50:00.000-04:002012-10-28T22:50:05.696-04:00Technology as a Tool for CollaborationI wanted this entry to focus less on some 'cool tool' and more on the idea that technology in and of itself can be an instrument for bringing educators together.<br />
<br />
I've seen so many posts that have some variant of "<i>Use [some cool tool] </i><latest tool="tool"><i>to spice up your lessons</i>" - almost suggesting that it is the tool that does the teaching and not the teacher. </latest>Technology - (in its simplest form, just the internet!) - is bringing educators together and linking classrooms in ways that are continuing to evolve daily.<br />
<br />
The power and speed with which educators can come together hit home for me recently, while I was in the middle of my unit on Voting and Elections. As a Civics teacher for eighth graders in Boston, I want to leverage the excitement and energy of this year's presidential election. On the other hand, I am dealing with students who aren't really close to voting age. Making all this real and authentic is the order of the day.<br />
<br />
In my daily review of Twitter, and more specifically, the outstanding Social Studies educators who drive #sschat, I came across two entries that got my attention. The first was from Dr. Andrea Pleau (<a href="https://twitter.com/TeachPleau">@TeachPleau</a>) of Rhode Island. She reminded everyone of the <a href="http://www.nationalmockelection.org/">National Mock Student Election</a>. I had heard of this, but never gave it a serious look. This year I did, and I was overwhelmed by what I found. This group does an outstanding and very professional job of 'registering' voters and generating ballots. I signed my class up and let them know what was in store for them. The excitement this generated was immediate and real! I am looking forward to having them login and 'vote' next week as if they were at the polls.<br />
<br />
A second, and equally powerful voting idea came from Krissy Venosdale (<a href="https://twitter.com/ktvee">@ktvee</a>) of Hillsboro, Missouri. Krissy is an elementary teacher who wanted to show her class the power of voting. She sent out a Tweet asking for classes to sign up for her voting project - <a href="http://greatdaytolearn.com/kidvote/">KIDVOTE</a>. Krissy created ballots that can be printed and distributed to students on election day. A Google Doc she created will hold the 'returns'. Teachers will hand out the ballots and either update the Google Doc with their results or email Krissy the final totals. What started out as a simple request has grown to, by her estimate, over 31,000 students signed up for this amazing event! I can't imagine the excitement that her students will feel, knowing that they have triggered this much activity across the US.<br />
<br />
There's something truly inspiring and empowering about coming up with a great idea and watching it grow to something that is global in scope. It makes you feel like you are teaching the world, not just your tiny corner of it.<br />
<br />
All you have to do is ask...!<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgq8UQ4B_KWe0hV_SkTMTS7WNBfkjbWMm4jn8nvhZiW1ZsUsGttj51gAA0q65x840gp8TINgnjisI5nDuWXivvD6QjjLV-Ljd6rGZGpE4qdmVVP6PzALeB1UXeK7CXPZDxZ-tsDl3_ljsk/s1600/VotingBadges.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="152" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgq8UQ4B_KWe0hV_SkTMTS7WNBfkjbWMm4jn8nvhZiW1ZsUsGttj51gAA0q65x840gp8TINgnjisI5nDuWXivvD6QjjLV-Ljd6rGZGpE4qdmVVP6PzALeB1UXeK7CXPZDxZ-tsDl3_ljsk/s320/VotingBadges.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
<br />John Padulahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05163978848723885019noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2323140202244158556.post-5109086383100959362012-07-04T02:41:00.005-04:002012-07-05T21:33:07.419-04:00Experimenting with ThinglinkOnce again, I got an interesting tech tip from my #sschat Twitter feed. <a href="https://twitter.com/#!/gregkulowiec">Greg Kulowiec</a>, one of the deans of #sschat and the person who <b>blew me away</b> with his <a href="http://thwt.org/">Teaching History with Technology</a> class, recommended a site called <a href="http://www.thinglink.com">Thinglink</a>. Here, you can upload images from a variety of sources, then embed (or 'tag') the image with hyperlinks. The examples from their site looked so interesting, I decided to give it a try.<br />
<br />
To make it easy for me, I decided to take an image from one of my favorite lessons, the Boston Massacre. In this lesson, we examine Paul Revere's famous engraving of the Boston Massacre, or as he named it, <i>The Bloody Massacre perpetrated in King Street.</i> Students study the image and note 10 things they noticed - the more interesting the better. Then, we examine a news story written at the time of the event and do a compare-and-contrast between the written account and Revere's image. We find at least three things that don't match and three things that do match. Students have a great time with this, as they have a hard time believing that the written account and the image do NOT match in so many ways. This leads us into an AWESOME conversation about purpose, bias, and the power of images.<br />
<br />
I took some of the match/do not match items that students came up with and created <b>FIVE</b> embedded links within this image. Can you find them all?<br />
<br />
<img src="http://s1.thingpic.com/images/9K/GAEdmvipN8CFnD1R58Pr.jpeg" width="500" class="alwaysThinglink"/><script charset="utf-8" src="//www.thinglink.com/jse/embed.js#276951951436939266"></script><br />
<br />
<u><b>Impressions</b></u>: <br />
Once I uploaded my image into Thinglink, I just clicked 'Edit image' and the picture gets placed in a simple to use editor. Clicking anywhere on the image makes a tag appear. <br />
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Thinglink made it VERY easy to embed my jazzed up image into this blog post by generating a nice block of embed code that I simply cut-and-paste into this write up. SO easy!<br />
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This has great potential!<br />
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<u><b>Uses</b></u>: <br />
To start, I kept it simple and used straight text tags - just to see how it looked. Then, my mind really starting thinking about what I could do with the full range of functionality they have to offer. Here's just a FEW:<br />
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- <u>Posing questions that students need to answer</u> <br />
<i>(e.g. 'What is the soldier on the far right doing?')</i><br />
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- <u>Adding a sound clip of the event</u>:<br />
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<img src="http://s4.thingpic.com/images/Nq/vc3RjpJvpqVZAW3rvARy.jpeg" width="500" class="alwaysThinglink"/><script charset="utf-8" src="//www.thinglink.com/jse/embed.js#277596384251609089"></script><br />
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- <u>Adding depth/clarity to confusing/unusual items in an image - and offering extra credit if students dig a little deeper!</u>:<br />
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<img src="http://s1.thingpic.com/images/Rc/XpnLKKHsVMbSPhJqu4mq.jpeg" width="500" class="alwaysThinglink"/><script charset="utf-8" src="//www.thinglink.com/jse/embed.js#277596605299818497"></script><br />
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- <u>Turning an image into a jumping off point for a research project</u>:<br />
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<img src="http://s1.thingpic.com/images/PA/8zKGdwnFTRtgeHQGKzg4.jpeg" width="500" class="alwaysThinglink"/><script charset="utf-8" src="//www.thinglink.com/jse/embed.js#277596739853090817"></script><br />
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Thinglink also offers color options for the tags you embed. If these became a standard tool in your bag of multimedia offerings, I could see color-coding tags so that (for example):<br />
- blue = basic information<br />
- green = 'learn more'<br />
- red = extra credit, etc...<br />
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I am sure there are so many more ways to use this. Feel free to comment and add your own ideas!John Padulahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05163978848723885019noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2323140202244158556.post-69894346034103371592012-02-19T20:59:00.000-05:002012-02-19T20:59:12.951-05:00Cool tools without exemplars may be like a project without a rubricThis is a long overdue post about some of the basics of using technology in the classroom. A lot of this came about as I was trading thoughts with <a href="http://www.twitter.com/ballardam">Amanda Ballard</a>, a middle school social studies teacher in Owensboro, Kentucky. <br />
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Amanda was wrapping up a revolutionary war project, where students were asked to create a wiki to show arguments for/against colonial rebellion. She shared some of the successes and struggles with the project. <br />
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From our email exchanges, I realized how careful we have to be as educators when we try to introduce a technology piece into a lesson/unit. For many of us, we are subjected to a new textbook, or even revised standards, so we are often in a state of upgrading/modifying/enhancing on a very frequent basis. It might be tempting to see technology as another tool in our bag that we might "slip in". Yes, we hope to jazz up the students, but we truly want them to be using the tools and methodologies of today. Why not a wiki to show colonial rebellion - better than a Pro-Con T-chart...!!!<br />
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When we do any project-based activity, it's fair to say that exemplars go a long way toward letting students see what we will be expecting from them. If we budget our time correctly, walking students through exemplars (good, bad and ugly!) gives them a chance to ask questions and gives us a chance to point out some specifics in depth of information, style and presentation. However, I rarely see any mention of exemplars when teachers talk about technology-based projects. We assume students are 'tech-savvy' and can immediately translate our concepts of a wiki, blog posting or facebook page into reality. <br />
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It got me thinking that we have so many how-to sites to help us learn HOW to use some new tool, but no way to easily round up samples for students to review. Maybe we should start thinking about putting out the call for student exemplars. We could create an exemplar website and have pages of links that teachers can go to when we start a project......? <br />
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We're busy putting together our own PLNs (which is great) - we need to make sure we tap into that and provide students with authentic instances of this technology.John Padulahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05163978848723885019noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2323140202244158556.post-88755953303483392112011-12-04T02:54:00.006-05:002012-07-04T02:55:10.844-04:00Animoto?In case you haven't seen the FLOOD of messages on the #sschat Twitter feed, NCSS (National Council of Social Studies) held their 2011 conference this weekend in Washington D.C. Among the many presenters were a number of the "heavy-twitters" from SSCHAT.<br />
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<a href="http://www.twitter.com/Ron_Peck">Ron Peck</a> was kind enough to post <a href="http://t.co/o11yzSHd">a link to his presentation</a> about <i>Video in the Classroom</i>. It gives a great overview of Common Craft video formats as well as Animoto. Ron also posted <a href="http://t.co/0tryJ82B">an amazing set of links</a> that I spent hours pouring over. I knew nothing about either technology, so I decided to take a look.<br />
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<a href="http://www.commoncraft.com">Common Craft</a> seems like an awesome style of video. Their bare-bones characters and 'animation' (which consists of literally dragging paper images on and off the screen) make the end product look very home-spun and simplistic, but powerful at the same time. The sample video, <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ok_VQ8I7g6I">Electing a U.S. President (in Plain English)</a>, is a great example of Common Craft at its finest. <br />
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On the flip-side, there was also a link to a 'behind the scenes' video that shows <a href="http://www.google.com/url?q=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DFgIE9aQly9k%26feature%3Dplayer_embedded">one class' experience creating a Common Craft video</a>. I almost passed this one by, but when I saw it was from Paul Bogush, I took note. (I'm a huge fan of Paul and his <a href="http://blogush.edublogs.org/">excellent blog</a>). This video put Common Craft-ing in a different light for me. The planning, creation and execution of all those zillion little moves - all to tell a 2-3 minute story - seemed like a big hurdle for me and my students to leap. <br />
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Then, I started down the <a href="http://animoto.com">Animoto </a>path. Now, this was something that seemed a bit more manageable for me in the classroom. Once I had an idea for what I wanted to capture (in this case, it was the recent flooding in Thailand), it turned out to be very simple. (To be honest - the hardest thing was settling on a soundtrack!)..<br />
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Anyway, after finding a few pictures and converting my moldy WMA file to MP3, this video took me all of 3 minutes to create:<br />
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<object id="vp1prPNR" width="432" height="240" classid="clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000"><param name="movie" value="http://static.animoto.com/swf/w.swf?w=swf/vp1&e=1322983616&f=prPNRxpkusSuEUrtCI7j4w&d=66&m=a&r=240p&volume=100&start_res=240p&i=m&options="></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed id="vp1prPNR" src="http://static.animoto.com/swf/w.swf?w=swf/vp1&e=1322983616&f=prPNRxpkusSuEUrtCI7j4w&d=66&m=a&r=240p&volume=100&start_res=240p&i=m&options=" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="432" height="240"></embed></object><br />
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I am going to ask around and get some feedback from teachers using Common Craft videos. (I'm not giving up yet!)... In the meantime, I'm going to start thinking about "Animoto-izing" a few future assessments.<br />
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Thanks for the creative shot in the arm, Ron!!John Padulahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05163978848723885019noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2323140202244158556.post-53051288945351055422011-10-19T12:52:00.002-04:002011-10-19T22:38:44.464-04:00My attempts to use WallWisher...Richard Byrne at (<a href="http://www.freetech4teachers.com">FreeTech4Teachers</a>) recommended a webservice called WallWisher. It is a way to do online sticky notes.<br />
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I decided to try it out and "build" my first curriculum unit for Ancient Civilizations.<br />
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Once I got the hang of it, it was pretty easy to use. The 140-character limit was a bit tough to take, BUT it made me think about what I wanted to say (and not just blast out some long narrative.<br />
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Here's what I came up with: <a href="http://www.wallwisher.com/wall/AncientCiv-Unit1#.Tp7MiLT0-6I.blogger"> Unit 1 - Early Humans+Mesopotamia by Mr_Padula</a>John Padulahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05163978848723885019noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2323140202244158556.post-89205708528370693122011-08-01T13:41:00.003-04:002011-12-07T15:52:22.747-05:00Welcome to my blog!This is my <strong>FIRST</strong> attempt at a blog, so I hope all the time and effort is worth it!<br />
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I hope to keep track of my journey toward integrating technology with History/Social Studies in my classroom. Currently, I teach grades 6, 7 and 8 at the <span style="color: blue;"><em><strong>Lyndon Pilot School</strong></em></span> in Boston, Massachusetts.<br />
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If you want basic teacher-ish information about History classes at the Lyndon School, you can visit my Wiki at <a href="http://lyndonhistory678.wikispaces.com/">lyndonhistory678.wikispaces.com</a>John Padulahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05163978848723885019noreply@blogger.com0