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Posts Tagged ‘collaborate’

Map Your Passionate Learning for 2013

Posted by Kathy Adkins on December 14th, 2012 No Comments

It is not too early to think about 2013 and how you want to grow and learn to move forward. Listing your thoughts and ideas are great but a better approach would be a graphic organizer. A graphic organizer lets you structure the information and arrange important aspects into a pattern. This allows you to view important ideas in isolation and see how some are related and connected. A graphic organizer helps you stay focused on the task and the visual representation makes it easier to remember once displayed front and center. Whatever method you use, map a plan with learning goals for the new year. Allow young learners an opportunity to brainstorm and share what they want to learn in the coming year. These visual representations may share patterns that can lead to group collaboration and increased ownership of their learning. Will you make choice a integral part of your learning map in 2013?

Five for Friday – Graphic Organizers

Popplet is an awesome online web graphic organizer that will allow five free maps with their free plan. The IOS app is a little pricey at $4.99. For more ideas visit their blog or check out 8+ Ways to use Popplet.

Exploratree is a free web resource where you can access a library of ready-made interactive thinking guides, print them, edit them or make your own. You can share them and work on them in groups too.

MindMeister is a great online brainstorming tool. You must register but once you register you can sync your maps from your iPad to your desktop with their free app.

Realtime Board is an online collaborative board that can be public or private. Find out more about Realtime Board from Richard Byrne at Free Technology for Teachers.

Idea Sketch(IOS app) is a graphic organizer, which converts your graphic organizer to a text outline or vice versa. Diagrams and outlines can easily be emailed or saved in photos.

Image above created from Kidspiration using Lettering Delights Pop School Alphabet  and saving as a .gif. Inspiration Lite (from the creators of Kidspiration) is a free IOS app.

 

 

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Collaboration – The Big C – Do Not Wait!

Posted by Kathy Adkins on September 7th, 2012 2 Comments

Collaboration is one of the 4C’s that propels our district’s 21st century vision of learning along with Creativity, Critical Thinking and Communication. Collaboration is the big C that embraces the others and makes them stronger. Learners love to connect and share their knowledge in the classroom with each other and their desire to experience and share beyond walls is obvious. As they think, communicate and create collaboratively, the learning becomes larger. I am reminded of one collaborative project with first grade students, Hands Around the World, and how we worked to squeeze this project into the end of the year. It was a huge learning process for all learners including myself. Why should we wait to the end of the year when we have many resources and digital learning tools such as Edmodo and Wikispaces? Connect with a project or begin your own and collaboratively share your learners’ knowledge with others. Do not wait!

Five for Friday – Global Collaborative Connections

A great place to start is The Global Classroom Project, where teachers and students share on the global stage. Their wikispace shares ways to follow via twitter and facebook. Be sure to check out the Craze Crazes, under What’s Happening?

Projects by Jen, from Jen Wagner (creator of Wordle of the Day) provides projects for K-6 grades throughout the school year. OREO 2012 is a simple project for young learners and provides a wealth of resources to celebrate the 100th birthday of the OREO. Registration is now open with project lasting Sept. 17 – Oct. 12. Follow Jen Wagner on twitter @jenwagner.

Journey North offers collaborative sharing throughout the year. Currently Hummingbird Migration is being observed and reported weekly. Journey North now has an app to report sightings.

The Center for Innovation in Engineering and Science Education, CIESE, offers many ongoing and collaborative projects inspired by real time data.

Flat Stanley is a project that has truly embraced all ages. Be sure to check out current news and check the free IOS mobile app.

 

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Passionately Hooked

Posted by Kathy Adkins on August 31st, 2012 No Comments

Over the past four weeks, my role as lead mentor has given me the opportunity to visit 17 new instructional technology staff member at 16 schools. What a great feeling to see their excitement and passion as they begin their new roles as media specialists and instructional technology staff.   What really rocked was the opportunity for all new staff to come together to collaborate with their mentors. To begin the collaborative planning session, The Voice of the Active Learner, was shared. This powerful video was a hook to open conversation and remind all of our roles in supporting educators, new and veteran, as they engage instruction in ways students want to learn in their digital world. The noise of collaborative sharing in the room was loud and only confirmed the need for more space and time for connections. How will you keep all learners passionately hooked this school year?

Starfish – An Inspirational Message for All Teachers

Five For Friday – Video Resources to Hook Learning

Ted -Ed is a great source for inspirational and educational videos.

All Things Science aggregates by topics with channels and is searchable.

GREEN tv  is a site dedicated to environmental videos.

We Solve for X is a Google project launched earlier this year to encourage critical thinking toward solutions.

YouTube can be searchable by educational topics. Truly Amazing YouTube Tools is a livebinder with lots of fun YouTube tools as well as more alternatives.

 

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Enabled, Engaged and Empowered with BYOT

Posted by Kathy Adkins on February 17th, 2012 No Comments

High school seniors share song lyrics using Wiffiti to compare and contrast poetic elements as a ticket in the door to begin today’s AP Literature lesson. Elbow partners in US History create WWI collages on different aspects of the war using PicWall, Tubo Collage or other app on their mobile devices. Sixth graders use their personal devices to research and then create collaborative Glogster presentations on specific Greek Mythology topics before reading The Lightning Thief. Fifth grade students use their mobile devices to find answers to questions created by classmates competing in the Stock Market Game and Skype to share with another class in a different school. Fourth graders research for answers to questions that were brought up during science lab and share back with Picto-chat. These were just a few of the observations via our district’s recent BYOT Tour and a visit to one of our high schools for BYOT professional development session. Are these learners enabled, engaged and empowered, the 3 e’s from Project Tomorrow 2010? Yes, we are witnessing the value of mobile devices for leveraging learning in our classrooms. Mobile devices are not evident in every classroom in our district but more and more educators are taking steps to embrace BYOT. Learn more about Forsyth County’s BYOT initiative and listen to the district’s Chief Technology and Information Officer, Bailey Mitchell as he shares the 1:1 program and Making BYOD Work.

A Few For Friday – Lesson Resources for BYOT

Mobile and Technology-Enhanced Community Building Activities from Dr. Jackie Gerstein, shares a wealth of activities to build a community of learners. A recent post at his User Generated Education shares several communication activities on mobile devices. Follow Dr. Jackie Gerstein @JackieGerstein

From Toy to Tool: Cell Phones in Learning from Liz Kolb provides many conversations and resources on integrating cells phones in the curriculum. Kolb shares many lesson ideas including Summarizing by Text Messaging Shakespeare using Wiffiti at Scholastic. Follow Liz Kolb @lkolb.

BYOT Network – 5 Ways to Learn with Nintendo DSi from Forsyth County’s Dr. Tim Clark, provides ways to use one of the most popular devices in the elementary setting. Dr. Clark states as educators and parents we must be willing to learn alongside our students/children to discover the potential for Nintendo DSi as well as other mobile learning devices. Follow Dr. Tim Clark @BYOTNetwork

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A Penny For Your Thoughts – Socrative

Posted by Kathy Adkins on January 13th, 2012 No Comments

At a recent session with our newest Instructional Technology Staff, each selected a penny from a cup for two purposes. One was to buy a penny for their thoughts to share mid year reflections and the other as a simple raffle ticket for small prizes. Everyone loves to be a winner. To gather their thoughts, Socrative, was used to engage responses using their mobile devices that included iPads and iPhones. Socrative is a free student response system that empowers teachers to engage their classrooms through a series of educational exercises and games via smartphones, laptops, and tablets. In this case it was used as an icebreaker to gather information from colleagues. The five short answer questions were simple with a twist of fun.

  • What color are you today and pair your color with an adjective?
  • If you woke up in the morning as an animal, what would you be?
  • What is rocking your work world today?
  • What’s one work related skill you would like to develop?
  • If an alien landed tomorrow and gave you a superpower, what would it be?

As an icebreaker for the session, the quiz opened the door for more reflective conversation and collaboration. Socrative, is a great response system and used by many educators in our district. Learn more about Socrative and ideas for classroom integration at Socrative Garden as well as follow on Twitter @socrative.  Register instantly as an educator at t.socrative.com and see how easily you can gather information for assessment or reflection. Will you gather a penny for their thoughts and seek mid year reflections from your learners?

A Few For Friday – Ice Breakers for Anytime

Ice Breaker Questions for Kids is a great list of questions for quick response or as writing prompts.

Ice Breakers for Small Groups is packed with lots of ideas and activities. How could these be used to engage learning?

40 Ice Breakers and Other Warm -Ups provides a variety of ways to build community and impact learning.

Photo Courtesy of morgueFile - A Public Image Archive

 

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Sharing and Sustaining Creativity

Posted by Kathy Adkins on October 21st, 2011 No Comments

What an incredible week of collaboration and sharing ways to engage learners and sustain momentum in using technology effectively. In one session new instructional technology staff shared methods to engage reluctant educators and then inspire them to spread the word on how they used new technologies with their peers. Once these staff member implemented new ideas, it was suggested they share their knowledge with others in professional development meetings or webinars. Peer to peer sharing and learning together reinforces future possibilities of effective uses of technology in the classrooms.

In another collaborative session, members of Tech4Learning shared their new product, K12Share, a secure online hosting platform to showcase student work created with Pixie (Creativity Software) and Share (Web Authoring Tool). Students love to share their products and creativity, which K12Share can easily support.  Tech4Learning has been providing great tools that engage, create and share ideas and their online resources support their products to sustain creativity.

How do you share and sustain engaged learning? Five for Friday shares how Tech4Learning supports and sustains creativity for all learners.

Five For Friday – All About Tech4Learning

Tech4Learning shares their products with 30 day trial periods and offers volume pricing. Download Pixie 3 and Share to not only see the ease of use of these two applications but the power to engage learners.

Join Tech4Learning Connect community and see how other educators and collaborating and sharing information. Check out Scott Loomis by searching in the members field. The blogs and forums provide some ideas to share with your peers.

Connect with Creative Educator to research articles and gather ideas. You can narrow and search topics such as project based learning and digital storytelling to reach your interests. Sign up for print or electronic delivery of their seasonal magazine.

Join the Trading Post to download activities by keyword, content area, grade level and or subject area to use with Tech4Learning products. You can upload and share your awesome ideas.

Follow Tech4Learning on Twitter @Tech4Learning and Like on facebook for ideas to sustain your growth and that of your team. Check out what PLSN means on a recent facebook post. Do you think S has something to do with sharing?

Extra for Friday – Icon Creator
Quirco – iPhone, iPod and iPad Icon Generator. You can create a simple shape in Pixie and save it to use with this generator. Several sizes are created and can easily be saved.

 

 

 

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Webinar Week – DIY

Posted by Kathy Adkins on September 23rd, 2011 No Comments

Lettering from http://www.letteringdelights.com/

Do you make time to DIY(Do It Yourself) for yourself? As lifelong learners we have to schedule opportunities for learning and DIY to learn something new. This week’s personal DIY activity involved attending and participating in online webinars plus learning the tools and components to host webinars using Eluminate Live – Blackboard Collaborate. The main focus on learning was how to effectively use the tools to deliver and engage participants. Yes, it was about the tools in the application and yes, it was also learning about the learners, the pedagogy, and resources from the community. Isn’t that how we want learners to learn with technology?  Read more at an excellent post by Jackie Gerstein, Ed. D.(@jackiegerstein) – It really is about the technology and… it is not about the technology. What will you learn in the coming weeks? Will you DIY?

Four for Friday – Upcoming Webinars and Two Tools

Special Saturday “Day of Learning” - September 24 from SimpleK12 offers six different 30 minute sessions from Online Activities for Younger Children to The Google+ Guide for Educators. Check out more of their webinars for the coming weeks at Simple K12 Teacher Learning Community.

Learn it in Five was recently shared by Richard Byrme, Free Technology for Teachers. Be sure to check out the Digital Learning Strategies Blog for ideas. Create your own learn it in five or ten using one of the free tools below.

Big Marker is a free service for meetings and unlimited web conferences. Read more at Big Marker at Free Technology for Teachers and check out its many features.

JoinMe is another free service that offers screen sharing. View this short video tutorial to see how easy you can use Join Me. Attend a join me session on your IOS mobile device using the free app.

DIY Graphic above created with words using the free Try Me Now feature at LetteringDelights.com.

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Building Community for all Learners

Posted by Kathy Adkins on September 16th, 2011 No Comments

One team of our district’s instructional technology staff is participating in a year long professional development course to build and develop strategies for the district’s BYOT (Bring Your Own Technology) initiative. The course, Engage Me With IT – BYOT, partners these educators with teachers in their buildings to develop and implement instructional strategies in utilizing mobile devices students bring to the classroom.

At a recent session, there was such an engagement buzz in the room which reflected a strong community was being built. These educators collaborated by posting lessons and reflections in our learning management system. They brainstormed hurdles and sucesses with the online tool corkboard.me and built a list of management strategies in a goodle doc. They were given time to collaborate and design lessons to implement in their buildings. During the day there was so much engagement and learning occurring it was very difficult to halt the momentum and move to the next part of the session. What stood out was this framework of learning is how learning should be in today’s classroom. Through design for collaboration and input from learners, community was built and the day was a success. How do you build community for your learners?

Thank you to our ITS team of rock stars for a a great day of learning. Here is a great link from Edudemic with an awesome video message – An Incredible Way to Teach!

A Few For Friday – Tools for BYOT

Corkboard.me is a very simple web app that allows you to post sticky notes. No registration is required. You are given a url which can be shared with your community. View a short video at Lifehacker.

Primary Wall is another online sticky that doesn’t require registration unless you want to format.

Lino It is another very user friendly sticky note + canvas that is user friendly on mobile devices! You do have to register but then you have a dashboard of all your canvases. Lino is a free app for IOS devices.

Primary Pad and TypeWith.me are two favorites that have been very successful in the classrooms. Teachers and students can collaborate in real time.

Google Docs rock but educators need to remember that usage should be for 13 years and older. Check out more at Google Docs for Educators.

Photos from Engage Me With IT – BYOT Session

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Go Out On A Limb – Take Risks and Support Others

Posted by Kathy Adkins on August 26th, 2011 No Comments

This tree climber goes out on a limb most everyday regardless of the risks and hazards of the occupation. Do you take risks? As educators we are surrounded with more and more tools and ways to implement instruction. Now more than ever we have to take risks and try new ways to engage the digital learners.

In a recent post by UK educator, Martin Burrett(@ICTmagic) shares ideas for classroom teachers to go beyond the traditional and try new ideas. Try IT this year, Ten Techie Things to Try This Year embraces social media, collaborative learning and creativity using technology. What would  you add to the list? Try something new on this list or grab an idea from below and schedule time to go out on a limb to support new learners in your community!

“Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far it is possible to go.” – T.S. Eliot

“Go out on a limb. That’s where the fruit is.” – Jimmy Carter

Friday Flash – Five Ways to Support Others

Top 50 School Technology Blogs – Build your Professional Learning Network by following top leaders and sharing their knowledge with your personal learning community. Grab new ideas from these pioneers and collaborate with a first year teacher to design new learning adventures. Empower these new educators to take risks. You will be there to support them!

GaETC, Georgia Educational Technology Conference – Seek permission to leave the building to attend GaETC on November 2-4, 2011 or another professional conference. Kathy Schrock, Alan November and Tony Vincent are just a few of the leading experts that will inspire you to go out on the limb at GaETC. Submit a proposal to present is open until September 6. After attending conference collaborate with a colleague to implement new ideas.

epals Global Community and Skype in the Classroom – Schedule a time to connect a classroom in your building with a classroom in another country with epals Global Community. Check out the National Geographic collaborative projects as well as member projects. Collaborate with the teacher and provide opportunities to connect the classrooms via Skype in the Classroom.

Collaborize Classroom – Collaborate and share with a colleague this free site that compliments learning and encourages discussion. Primarypad as well as typewith.me are other tools for online discussion. Allow students to pair and share when classrooms are large. Take the risk to try a new tool.

Delicious and Diigo - Make time to save Internet sites of interest using tags with relevant key words to share with the learning community. Share your account with others and encourage them to create accounts. Go out on a limb and create a group account for team members to share resources needed throughout the year. Together is better!

App Resources

Pulse News – Pulse is a free news reading app for the IOS as well as Android. You can easily define the app with your favorite blogs or social media sites. You can even add this site to your news stream

Diigo for iPad – Free

Skype for IOS - Skype for Android – Free

Photo courtesy of irewired and Big Huge Labs – Bobby out on a limb removing limbs one by one from decayed tree. Thanks for taking the risk Bobby!

 

 

 

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Finish Strong – No Coasting Allowed

Posted by Kathy Adkins on May 6th, 2011 No Comments

Larry Ferlazzo recently tweeted (@larryferlazzo) and shared his article at Education Week-Teacher, “Finishing the School Year Strong.” Highlighting Daniel Kahneman (Ted Talks) and his research on experience and memory, Ferlazzo shares the Peak/End Rule, where we judge our experiences on how they were at their peak and how they ended. “From this perspective he states, “what occurs in the final weeks of our classes will have a huge influence on how students feel about—and make future decisions related to—learning, schooling and the subject you are teaching.” He offers many ideas to guide students on the idea of finishing strong as well as ways for teachers to remain energized to the end.  Memories/Peaks have been made this school year and with only a few weeks left there are opportunities for a strong finish. Will you finish strong and make lasting memories? No coasting allowed!

Popeye Image Inserted into Toondoo

Few for Friday -
End the Year With a Bang!

Learning Up to the Very Last Minute – Scholastic shares many ideas such as creating a big production, the “What We Know” Math Show. Students brainstorm math concepts and create an innovative way to share and teach to other students. How you present this production and choices for creativity and innovation will determine if this makes a memory.

Wind up Learning and the Year Winds Down – Education Place provides many ideas that can be learner driven with technology infusion. Read and find out about “final exam” project and A Penny for Luck.

We know it is not about the tool but the instruction, however stay energized by introducing your students to ToonDoo and let them create comics that share their learning peaks and memories of the school year. ToonDoo’s Wiki is a resource for help as well as the Teachers’ Guide to Toondoo. Toondoo will provide accounts for students without e-mail addresses by following directions here.

App Resources – Two Story Tellers – Two Comic Creators

Sonic Pics - A great way to create short custom slideshows to share knowledge learned. ($2.99)

Blurb Mobile – A quick way to create short media stories. You do have to have location services on in settings. (free)

Comic Touch Lite – Create comic balloons and captions on photos. (free)

Strip Designer – Use photos from your photo album or camera roll to create personal comics. ($.2.99)

Photo Courtesy Thisisit2

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