Education and Technology

This YouTube video has some interesting points that I talked about in my last post.

Pay Attention:

Technorati tags: Educational Technology, Technology, k12 Education

Every school year most administrations come up with a theme for the year. This year our theme is “Under Construction”.

When I saw the construction motif, I thought about all the construction that has taken place over the summer. A new Chiller room and AC unit, new carpet in some of the wings, new paint in one building, security cameras and the installation of 32 more ActivBoards. These things were needed as the school was built in 1958 and hasn’t had a remodel in many years. But what does this construction have to do with teaching? Well, we have to continually add to, remodel, fine tune our students as they grow. We also have to do the same with the curriculum and the tools we use to teach with.

What also stood out as the Principal talked about our students being under construction was that each grade level is a foundation for the next. When a student moves from grade to the next they are not a finished product, instead they have been molded, remodeled and fine tuned for that grade level. They have been molded to be ready for the next grade to add more to the foundation.

The same has to be done to the technology. ActivBoards have been added, teachers have been trained to use them. We need to start using the tools that the children are using at home, the iPod, blogs, wiki’s and other interactive tools. How many students do you have that have a MySpace account, or use Facebook, or have an iPod? How many have a Wii or a playstation or even an xbox? Did you know that you can use the ActivBoard as an interactive tool that the students already understand and are interested in because it lets them join in, touch and make their own choices just like that Wii, playstation or xbox.

Kids are smarter than we give them credit for. Use what they use in their everyday life and they will surprise you. Use the tools that lets them learn what we need them to learn. Maybe that’s the way we need to look at the construction. Build on what’s there, add that coat of paint with something they can connect to.

“Under Construction”, that’s what we all are.

Technorati tags: K12 Education, Educational Technology, Education

Welcome…..

I’ve been writing Education & Technology for about a year. In the last few months I’ve been working on moving my blog to my own hosted domain. With the preparation and seeing that the school year is about to begin Monday morning the 20th I thought now was a good time to take the plunge.

I’m looking forward to writing some great things in this school year. We have a lot of things going on here at Brentwood Elementary, one of which is a Wiki for our new Science lab. I’ll be blogging about that in the near future. Some other things that we will be working on are an online school newsletter, a lesson plan wiki, teacher blogs and the use of the ActivBoards in all classrooms.

Keep watching more to come soon!

Technorati tags: Educational Technology, Education, k12 Education

This caught my eye while I was reading my RSS feeds today.

Ever noticed what a pain in the butt it is to teach teachers? They gab, chatter, giggle, and do everything for which they give students detentions. I’m sitting in training for our new SIS and, fortunately, I only have to handle the technical pieces of the training. Some poor sap from the SIS vendor has to actually teach these big kids. Of course, I’m a teacher myself, so I’m guilty, too. It’s really remarkable, though, just what awful students we are.

I think it’s especially bad trying to train teachers on technology issues since so many of them are not only clueless but disinterested in ed tech.

Source: » Why is it so hard to train teachers? | Education IT | ZDNet.com

I have to disagree with this to a point. Here’s why as I pointed out, in less detail, in my comment on the blog….

If you support a teacher, they will use the technology. We are now teaching the teachers to use ActivBoards, moving them toward a center of learning with it. Once they get over the initial shock they love it. Of course we give them a lot of support between the ITC and myself we even spend time in a class with them to help them through. When they have a problem, I’m there in minutes to help.

That’s why a teacher will learn, we’ve given them support after training. They don’t feel like a new way to teach has been thrown at them, told “here it is, here is how you use it, now go use it” and they are left to flounder with the technology.

It’s a paradox, they gab, chatter and do email the first time you train them. But then you support them and they return that support with open ears, while paying attention the next time you need to train them on something new. Of course another benefit of this approach is that when they know you will support them they will start asking more questions about other pieces of technology they already have that they haven’t been using because they know you will be there to support them and teach them.

Technorati tags: Promethean, ActivBoard, Education, Educational Technology