So, I found a nifty manual detailing how to do a bunch of cool stuff with LOGO. Also, I found some sort of graphics design program that came with a nifty 5 1/4″ floppy disk. Tehe. I should put up some pics to give all the kids of the 80’s a nice flashback.
As I am getting ready to introduce Scratch to teachers tomorrow, I’ve been trying to come up with some ways to express my feelings on the subject of students using technology to make things vs. teachers using technology to teach things. I stumbled upon this blog post today (ah, serendipity) by Paul Bogush, and it really hits the nail on the head.
Technology is not the answer to the problems facing the educational system. When it is placed in the hands of traditional teachers in an average school it reinforces the institution. Spending $4000 in that type of school on a Smartboard will just stunningly reinforce a unit that has no concept, no goals, no connection to the kids life, and is not authentic, problem based, or performance based. Moving to 1:1 laptops will improve teaching, it just won’t improve student learning. It is not about what kids are doing or what is being done to them, it’s about what they are making and creating. It is not the “answer” to why my kids leave at the end of the year ready to build a better future.
Read more of Dear Administrator,
Something he said really stood out to me. “Technology is just tool. If you give a tool chest to someone who can’t build a house, they are still not going to be able to build a house.” So, if any of you teachers from Tech Camp are reading this, here is why I think this applies. Scratch is an amazing tool for creation, but if you don’t put time into getting to know the program and guiding the kids to get a good grasp on it, Scratch will just be another “neat” program you’ve glazed. Likewise, think about the opportunities in your classroom that you give your students to create and invent and find new ways of thinking–without technology. Then, imagnine Scratch can be an amplifier for these creative opportunities. The Scratch website has a motto: Imagine-Program-Share. Imagine is something students should be doing in your classroom regardless of technology. Scratch, through the programming and sharing, gives a technology oriented path to solving problems and creating things that kids imagine.
Mitchell Resnick, director of the Lifelong Kindergarten Group at MIT’s Media Lab, the group behind Scratch, talked in a similar vein in an Edutopia article:
Underlying traditional kindergarten activities is a spiraling learning process in which children imagine what they want to do, create a project based on their ideas (using blocks, finger paint, or other materials), play with their creations, share their ideas and creations with others, and reflect on their experiences — all of which leads them to imagine new ideas and new projects. This iterative learning process is ideal preparation for today’s fast-changing society, in which people must continually come up with innovative solutions to unexpected situations in their lives.
Read the complete article, Kindergarten is the Model for Lifelong Learning
If you notice, only one of the six NETS for students addresses technology operations and concepts. The rest are all about using those basic skills to produce though critical thinking, problem solving, creativity, innovation, collaboration, etc.
So, contemplate your role as a teacher. Tech Camp has been a blur of “use this” and “check this out” sessions, but ultimately, who should all this technology be for? The students. Give it to them. Mold your creative, thought-provoking, and deep project work with it. Let the students create.
For Tech Camp…
Adding text to your widget sidebars is fairly simple. You can also format it using html tags.
- From dashboard>design>widgets, choose to add a text widget to your sidebar.
- Click “edit.”
- Add a title for the text widget if you choose, such as “Disclaimer” or “Welcome.” It all depends on the content you want to add.
- Add your text into the box and double-check.
- To format text, you can put it between html tags.
Example html tags
BOLD: <b>this is an example</b>
UNDERLINE: <u>this is an example</u>
ITALIC: <i>this is an example</i>
CENTER: <p align=”center”>add your text here</p>
Using more than one tag requires that you nest tags. For example, centered and bold would look like this:
<p align=”center”><b>this is an example</b></p>
Other html tags you might want to know:
paragraph: <p></p>
break or return: <br>
link: <a href=”http://…”>link name</a>
link that opens in new window: <a href=”http://…” target=”_blank”>link name</a>
image: <img src=”http://…”>
image link: <a href=”http://url to link to”><img src=”http://url of image”></a>
More html help is available at Quackit.
I discovered this site a while ago, and had only mentioned to our CLUE teachers as I thought this would be a great addition to one of their annual projects. Today, during Wanda Woodruff’s podcasting session at Tech Camp, I thought about this great website again.
Meetmeatthecorner.org is a site for students to view virtual field trips and/or upload their own video virtual field trips. The site states their purpose as this:
MEET ME AT THE CORNER, Virtual Field Trips for Kids, is a dynamic, interactive site, which encourages individual expression and participation through video submissions from children worldwide. Through these video pod casts we hope to create a community of children, who learn the art of self-expression and storytelling through video.
In the beginning, the video pod casts highlighted the people, events and history of New York City. As this site grows through children’s submissions, we hope to highlight the people and events of other towns, cities and nations. To date we have video podcasts from California, Colorado, North Carolina, Texas, and Maryland. We are always open to the people and events in your corner of the world.
There are so many possibilities here, as Memphis has so much interesting landmarks and history. Consider using this as part of a project. Notice, no one from Tennessee has participated yet.
Trevor Owens of ISTE Games and Simulations SIG has developed a resource called Playing History. Here he is compiling reviews and links to interactive games based on historical events and concepts. It’s got a quick navigational front page with recently added games, a game search, and a handy tag cloud with links to games.
My favorite thing I have found so far, on a personal note, is a link to the Virtual Apple 2 Oregon Trail. Yes, it is an Apple 2 emulator that lets you play the good old Oregon Trail us kids of the 80’s will remember fondly. RIP Pepparony and Chease, dead of typhoid. You will be missed. But now, I am going out to hunt some buffalo and see if I can trade something for another wagon wheel…
