Q: What Cool Tech Tool Should We Start with? A: None.
No tool or strategy, regardless of whether it is high tech or an engaging activity, is ever the right place to start planning a lesson.
Revamping a Webquest
…as students began working, we noticed that all they had to do is google the exact question and the search returned the work of students who had done the webquest before and had published their answers online. Were they cheating? I’m not so sure. After all, we were asking them to search for answers online–and that’s exactly what they did. Were they cheating themselves in the long run? That’s more likely. But not because they were finding answers…
Bryant’s Online “My Learning Plan”: Year 2
Over the next couple weeks, students will begin creating pages on Mahara, Dearborn’s ePortfolio system. These MLP pages will include their NWEA scores, their academic goals for all of the core areas and extended core, and their personal goals. And each team of teachers is currently thinking of ways to help students showcase even more of who they are using these pages.
Calling it Learning When it Isn’t
Simply putting technology in the hands of our students is not magically going to increase achievement. Neither is having them go through the motions of all the other strategies we try to employ. Just being “engaged” doesn’t mean a student is being enriched.
Go [Digital] Eagles!
This year, I’ve been working with an amazing team of sixth grade ELA teachers at Bryant Middle School to make the transition to implementing My Learning Plan on a digital platform using Mahara. Previously, the team was introduced to Mahara and some of the possibilities. Today, we met to discuss the required elements of student pages…
Good with Technology
[et_pb_section bb_built=”1″ admin_label=”section”][et_pb_row admin_label=”row”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text” background_layout=”light” text_orientation=”left” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”] Here’s another one of my analogies for you: Being “good with technology” : integrating technology :: being good at cursive : writing ability The fact of the matter is that most people in the professional world are “good with technology”. It’s pretty much a given…
The Path of Least Resistance Around Our Pedagogy
I used to tell people that 80% of my job was finding creative ways to prevent kids from cheating. That was a bit of an exaggeration, but that’s how it feels sometimes, doesn’t it? We want kids to internalize their learning. We want them to be good, conscientious pupils, just like we were. We want them to forgo all of the modern conveniences–cell phones, the internet, Google–and just learn it for themselves like we did.
Cool Tech Tool: Google Docs Revision History Analytics
Many teachers who have used Google Docs with their students have taken advantage of the Revision History tool, which allows you to see specific changes made to the document by various editors. To get a better picture of how much members of a group are contributing to a document, there’s a cool tool called Revision…
Effective Peer Assessment that Transcends Technology
[et_pb_section bb_built=”1″ admin_label=”section”][et_pb_row admin_label=”row”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text”] Over the past two years, several teachers in Dearborn have been integrating technology to help their students engage in effective peer- and self-assessment. Utilizing the Moodle Workshop module, students have assessed their own work and that of their peers with accountability–accountability for their own work, as well as for their assessment…
The Best Curator in the Room
“To select, organize, and present, typically using professional or expert knowledge.” That’s Google’s definition of the word curate–a 14th century term that comes from the Latin word curare, which means to care. And who really does? Well, teachers do. For centuries, teachers have taken great care to search and select the right materials, organize the information into…
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