Category: 3.2 Diffusion of Innovations

3.2.1 Identify strategies for the diffusion, adoption, and dissemination of innovations in learning communities.

3.2.2* Publicize the value of school library media programs within the school, community, and local school district.

Math & Science Learning Activities

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Good science methodology involves conducting tests and making observations.  In the screencasts below I explore how simulations, virtual manipulative, and a virtual world can be used as learning activities.

Virtual World–Second Life

I’ve long been interested in virtual worlds, who wouldn’t want to explore without paying for gas, hotels, flights, etc., so I took this opportunity to spend a little more time getting my feet wet in Second Life.  I was impressed with resources and activities found on Genome Island; I found scavenger hunts, interactive experiments like the mixallamas gene game, links to outside resources, and really cool virtual simulations like the 3D cell.

I found Second Life exciting and genuinely had the sense of being an explorer, however I did spend as much time experimenting with my avatar’s moves as I did exploring.  Second Life seems like a neat tool for a teacher who is experienced with the Second Life landscape.  Click on the photos to come on a tour with my avatar or click here.

Interactive Science Simulations

Interactive Science Simulations are interactive, research-based simulations of physical phenomena from the PhET™ project at the University of Colorado.  These simulations allow students to play with variables in science and then observe different outcomes as those variables change.  These simulations can be used for all grades either as an inquiry-based exploration or as a guided exploration.  For a quick tour and to hear my thoughts on one of these simulations, click the photo, or click here.

National Library of Virtual Manipulative

The National Library of Virtual Manipulative (NLVM) contains around 100 virtual manipulative that address concepts in numbers & operations, algebra, geometry, measurement, and data & probability.  These manipulative virtually mimic many classroom manipulative like geoblocks, cuisnes rods, beakers, and rules.  A teacher/parent section describes how each tool supports national math standards.  These tools can be used to practice concepts, explore prior learned with new variables.  I recommend that students use of these tools are guided by critical thinking questions.

The NLVM states, “Learning and understanding mathematics, at every level, requires student engagement. Mathematics is not, as has been said, a spectator sport. Too much of current instruction fails to actively involve students. One way to address the problem is through the use of manipulatives, physical objects that help students visualize relationships and applications.”

Click the photo above to take a quick virtual tour, or click here.

Hello from the EdTech Department

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Hello from your new instructional technology coach.  I’m looking forward to working with the teachers of Chatham County.  As I see it, my responsibility is to collaborate with you to plan, locate resources, and meet professional and student learning goals.  My favorite technology tools make teaching more organized, engaging, and enjoyable.   To kick things off this year, I’ve prepared a couple of activities for us to get to know each other and explore some of the resources you may want to include in your teaching.

Sometimes the best way to learn how to help people just comes down to asking them.  So to get an idea of what we can do to help you best, please take the Technology Use Survey.  This survey was created using Google Docs (soon to be Google Drive), a powerful free tool that can change the way you run your classroom.  These tools can allow students access their documents on any computer, collaborate, schedule events, create presentations and more.  If you’re not familiar with Google docs, let us know in the  survey.

If you’re not familiar with Pinterest, today is your day.  Pinterest is a digital bulletin board where people collect and share ideas from hair styles to history.  To get familiar with Pinterest, explore the resources I’ve gathered for you.  Once you see how Pinterest can be used, you’ll create an account and start your own board.  To wrap up, share the link to your board in the comment section and let me know what you thought of this first adventure together.

If you would like a more in-depth preview on how to use Pinterest, check out this video.

To-Do List

  1. Get to know me on my Nice to Meet You! board.
  2. Scan the article “37 Ways Teachers Should Use Pinterest.”
  3. Create a Pinterest account.
  4. Read Erin Paynter’s blog Pinterest In Education and choose three boards to follow from her recommendations.
  5. Create your own board to help you in the classroom.
  6. Copy the link to your board and paste it in the comment section here.

Educators in the New Digital Age–Getting Started

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I’m looking forward to my new job as an instructional technology coach for my school district.  My classroom experience has me thinking about how we, as coaches, will measure our progress and how we will set benchmarks.  I’m working on creating a survey for teachers based on the ISTE National Education Technology Standards for Teachers.  These standards cover how technology is used to enhance collaboration, digital-age learning experiences, digital citizenship, and digital work/learning environments.  While I work on the survey, below is a list of some resources that are helping me synthesize how great tools can translate to great teaching.

Resources

Creating Video Blogs-Multimedia In the Classroom

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This was an exercise in creating a video blog entry.  I decided rather than use my computer’s camera or my cell phone, that I would create a presentation and use screen capture software to record it.  This decision was made primarily because I wanted an opportunity to try using the free screen capture software Jing.  While Jing is pretty easy to use, I found that the screen capture slowed the pace of the presentation when playing back, especially for the movies I embeded in the power point.  I curious to know how this issue can be addressed.  I also found that in order to share I needed to sign up for a trial version of Screencast.  If this is in fact the only way to share, then it’s not likely Jing, which allows you to shoot videos under 5 minutes will be my go to software.  Other M.E.T. candidates used iMovie (Mac) , Voicethread (designed for collaborative presentations), webcams, and Camtasia for this assignment.

I’m still working on how to embed the video from Screencast. In the meantime here’s a link.

Multimedia Integration In the Classroom

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The following are a collection of videos to help teachers see what technology integration looks like in the classroom and how it is transforming the learning process. Please be aware the Ted Talk videos do not have a stop play button so you will need to exit out of the site when they finished.

What Technology Integration Looks Like In Elementary School

Meet the faculty at Forest Lake Elementary in Columbia, SC. Starting as techno- novices, they now use customizable software, interactive whiteboards, digital cameras, and more to tailor lessons to the individual needs of diverse students. To see more exciting reports from our Schools that Work series, please visit our website: http://www.edutopia.org/stw-differentiated-instruction-south-carolina

What Technology Integration Looks Like in High School

The DNA of Learning: Teens Tackle Animal Poaching Through Genetics

Eleventh-grade biotechnology students use DNA barcoding to help save endangered African wildlife.

 

Twelfth grade students use Google docs to collaborate on a group science paper. They use scholarly research searches, power point, video and sound clips, blogs, and ScyncronEyes to broadcast to other students computer screens.

Technology Integration with Google Drive

Team Teaching: Two Teachers, Three Subjects, One Project

A pair of educators are sanguine about their art, biology, and multimedia program.

Teaching Kids Real Math With Computers

Conrad Wolfram who runs the mathematical lab and research division behind cutting-edge knowledge engine Wolfram Alpha make an argument teaching real world math in school and leaving computation to computers.

What Technology Integration Looks Like In the Abroad

The Child-Driven Education

Education scientist Sugata Mitra tackles one of the greatest problems of education — the best teachers and schools don’t exist where they’re needed most. In a series of real-life experiments from New Delhi to South Africa to Italy, he gave kids self-supervised access to the web and saw results that could revolutionize how we think about teaching.

Technology Innovation in Slums

Charles Leadbeater, a researcher with the think tank Demos in London, looks at effective education innovation in slums around the world.

What Could A One-to-One Education Look Like?

Electronic TextBooks
Envision electronic textbooks the way Apple sees them.

Technology Integration from CaseNEX on Vimeo.

The 100-Student Classroom

In the fall of 2011 Peter Norvig taught a class with Sebastian Thrun on artificial intelligence at Stanford attended by 175 students in situ — and over 100,000 via an interactive webcast. He shares what he learned about teaching to a global classroom.

Building Bridges with Parents

A Lake Forest Elementary parent demonstrates how technology is keeping her connected with her child’s learning.

What About Games In Education?
How Games Play into Educaiton

We’re bringing gameplay into more aspects of our lives, spending countless hours — and real money — exploring virtual worlds for imaginary treasures. Why? As Tom Chatfield shows, games are perfectly tuned to dole out rewards that engage the brain and keep us questing for more.

Sasha Barab on New-Media Engagement

A professor of learning sciences at Indiana University explains how new-media literacies are creating new opportunities for student participation.

Lesson Plan

This plan is meant to accompany the Building Bridges with Parents video.