I have been planning with a second grade teacher to get her started in using the SmartBoard that just had been installed in her classroom.

She let me know that she was working on maps skills and wanted an activity to be able to reinforce and assess student understanding of cardinal directions.

I showed her how to add written directions of drawing an island on the SmartBoard and add certain features to the island, such as a mountain range, a river and a lake. Since we are talking about 2nd graders she suggested to add pirates, princesses, dolphins and a treasure too.

Here is the notebook file to download.

A few days ago, I ran into Screenr, a great little screencasting tool, that allows you to record an up to 5 minute screencast video, post a tweet with a link, plus the ability to embed the video later on in your blog (see below). In case you are reading this post from within a RSS reader, you might have to click yourself through to the blog in order to see the screencast clip.

Why do we so often encounter defensiveness among teachers?

Defensiveness

• about the way they have been teaching for years the same subject, the same book, the same curriculum, the same tests, the same way…
• towards someone who is willing and ready to help them plan, co-teach, model, mentor, coach…
• about “doing” computers
• when listening to the difference between computers (in general), IT, networking, Help Desk and what “educational technology” means…
• against experimenting with something new where we don’t know the outcome yet ….but isn’t that the definition of experimenting?)
• against wanting to participate..becoming involved

Defensive (adj) is defined on Dictionary.com as:

Excessively concerned with guarding against the real or imagined threat of criticism, injury to one’s ego, or exposure of one’s shortcomings.

Mmmhh…

Is it an illusion that one can bring about the shift towards 21st century teaching & learning and integrating technology in our schools with:

• a smile
• a good attitude
• by being helpful and supportive
• “knowing your stuff”
• having a generally nice personality

That does not seem to be “enough”.

“In a person who is open to experience each stimulus is freely relayed through the nervous system, without being distorted by any process of defensiveness.”
Carl Rogers

We are not the only ones asking ourselves these questions:

Why are teachers so defensive and what can we do about it?

Steven McLeod on Dangerously Irrelevant blogged “What they say vs What they hear“:

Educators’ reflexive defensiveness is a fact of life in most school organizations and is a challenge for leaders who are trying to move their schools in new directions.

He quotes Sue King who blogged on Leader Talk. Her “I said…they heard” rings so familiar:

I have said, “We must be explicit about what we want students to know, understand and be able to do.”

What some heard was, “You are not doing a good job.”

I have said, “We will be more effective [if] we collaborate and work together to figure out how to best meet the needs of our students.”

What some heard was, “You are not doing a good job.”

I have said, “The responsibilities of public education have changed; we can learn together how to be successful in this new environment.”

What some heard was, “You are not doing a good job.”

I have said, “I believe in the ability of teachers to reach and teach ALL children.”

What some heard was, “You are not doing a good job.”

” Improving the planning and teaching of Mathematics by Reflecting on Research”  by Lauren Hoffman & Daniel Brahier

…can be a worthwhile experience as teachers compare the general findings of the research with what they typically do in their own classroom. Instead of viewing the results defensively, educators have an excellent opportunity to constructively improve their teaching performance through reflection on practice.

This quote implies that defensiveness seems to be also used as a mechanism for not having to reflect and and guarding against having to implement changes and adjustments of their teaching practice if necessary.

Corey Bunje Bower asks the same question on her blog “Thoughts on Education Policy”  Why do teachers get so defensive?

Although the post tries to approach the question and answer from the general criticism towards “bad versus good teaching” and not towards the defensiveness against technology integration aspect , nonetheless it points out the extremely personal nature of teaching as one of the reasons for defensiveness.

[...]teaching is a very personal pursuit. It requires a lot of an individual. Many people who go into teaching devote more than just time and energy into their teaching — it’s more than just a job to them. [...] For many teachers, however, their job is personal. And criticism of the way they do their jobs is seen as criticism of them as people. And nobody takes kindly to that.

How can we as  “Change Agent Wannabes” work with the defensiveness of educators?

• Do we need to take them as that is just the way it is in education?
• Only work with the willing (non defensive) ones?
• Focus on breaking down the defensive wall if we ever want to really be effective and shift our schools and education?
• Focus on building trust?
• How do we encourage dialogue?
• Make sure that we have the courage and passion to address individual defensive teachers and not make a “blanket” statement, plan or decision for everyone?

Having written a few days ago about What is in a Field Trip?, it was time to put the theory to practice.

Gail Lovely ‘ s quote about “framing a field trip” resonated with me

framing the event in learning before and after – & give them something to do while there!

Our third graders go on an annual field trip that drives them around the city of Jacksonville, Florida. They learn from a tour guide on the bus about historical places, buildings and about architecture.

How to FRAME this field trip, so it does not become an isolated few hours of being outside the school building for the students?

I created a Google Earth Flight map that included all the landmarks, students would visit on their tour around Jacksonville. Each stop is marked with a Placemarker, that has a pop up balloon with further information.

Here is what I did:

Create a folder in Google Earth BEFORE you create placemarks in that folder. Right click on “My Places”, then choose “Add” and click “Folders”. Name your folder.

Then enter all stops for the tour as placemarks in Google Earth. Type the address in the “Fly to” Search box and click on the placemark icon to place it on the map.

Once you add the placemark, another window pops up and you are able to enter a title, description and an icon among other things.

I chose to make the balloons a little fancier by adding an image of the landmark or building. In order to get the image, I took a screen shot from Google Maps’ StreetView, then uploaded these images. Make sure you know the URL of each image, since you will need it for the HTML code.  When there was no street view available, I went to Flickr and did a search for the address or building (most of them historic), then contacted the owner of the image to ask permission to use it in an educational setting. Permission was granted every time.

Here is the code I used. You can tweak it with your own information:

<table width=450>

<tr><td colspan=2 bgcolor=darkblue><font size=5 color=white>Old YMCA Building</font></td></tr>

<tr><td>

<img src=”http://www.sjeds.com/projects/jax-tour/stop17.png” width=250> <br><font size=1>407 North Laura Street</font>

</td>

<td>

<!——-Do not edit above this line —————————————–>

<b>Did you Know?:</b><br>

The building had a swimming pook in the basement.

<p>

<b>Activities:</b><br>

How many meters is this building away from the Jacksonville Landing?

<!——– Do not edit below this line —————————————>

<p></td></tr></table><font color=white>

Credit to original placemark code goes to Jim Holland and Susan Anderson from Curriculum Magic. I attending one of their session at TCEA in Texas.

If you already have created your placemarks, you can edit them by right clicking on the placemark (on the map or in the “Places” list)

Each placemark has a “Did you know” tidbit information about its particular building or landmark and an “Activity” for students to do.

The curriculum integration the classroom teachers chose was for math (shapes and measurements). So activites ranged from:

• Identifying shapes
• Counting shapes
• Measuring circumference of a shape
• Measuring parking lots, roof tops, distances to other locations (in yards, feet, meters, kilometers, etc.)
• Addition

When it is time for students to explore Jacksonville virtually, they will have 3D buildings and Borders and Labels checked off on their “Layers”. Make sure to have them do this first, so they do not get distracted with too many added placemarks.

Jacksonville has several 3D buildings available in Google Earth, especially in the downtown area. Some of the activities require the students to actually zoom in and around a building in order to answer the questions.

Next Step:

Actually go on the field trip!

• Do you think students will have a different mind set when on their excursion?
• Do you think they will be more engaged and able to connect to WHAT they are seeing to WHAT they have explored in Google Earth?

Last Step:

What to do when students return from the field trip?

• Reflect
• Make further connections to content studied in the classroom
• Edit Google Earth with more activities, tidbits of information and questions for students who will do this field trip the following year

Download:

• Jacksonville Tour kmz file (will open up in Google Earth, if installed on your computer)
• Jacksonville Tour ( pdf file)
  Stops with address, Did you know? and Activities
• Framing a field trip in Google Earth How- to-Guide (pdf file)

I believe that we need to teach our students to be able to extract information from a variety of sources. They do not only need to be able to read text, but they also need to be able to:

• extract
• comprehend
• evaluate
• summarize
• re-use
• re-mix

information from other forms of media. They also need to be able to choose, use and be comfortable with a variety of tools to help them accomplish just that.

As we are continuing our journey Around the World with 80 Schools, I am delegating more and more of the documentation of our connections to students, trying to give them practice and reflection time.

Ideas how to let students work on summarizing and reflecting:

1. Oral recount of what we, as a group,  have learned during the Skype conference
2. Individually filling out of index cards with key points during skyping
3. Individuals taking digital images
4. Individuals recording video footage
5. Chrissy Hellyer in Thailand assigns her students to comment on her blog post about the connection made.

I decided to try integrate another tool after our last Skype connection with Nathan Toft’s 5th grade class from Canada. 6tgh graders were invited to a private chat room after we finished speaking with Nathan’s class.

I chose TinyChat.com as the service, because it is:

• web based
• no registration required
• private, unless you share the URL
• possibility to download chat content
• once you close it, the chat room and its content cease to exist

Before we got started, we had a short review of a previously taught internet safety lesson.

• Don’t give out personal information
• Don’t believe everything you see or hear online
• EVERYTHING you say/type/upload/ is online FOREVER, others can copy/save/forward it to ANYONE (yes, even your grandmother!)
• Understand what cyberbullying is and how to recognize and prevent it. Don’t be a bully, don’t be a victim!

I reinforced the concept that chat rooms are even a step further ahead on the scale of places that you should be extra careful with. Don’t go there alone. We advocate to our students to ALWAYS take a buddy with you (we are talking about 11 year old students). At their age, they should not even go to a random chat room. I compared it to going alone at night downtown in the spirit “Let me see who I can meet and talk to there”.

I created the chatroom, then linked it on our blog. Here were the directions before they entered our chat room:

1. Sign into the chatroom with your first name only
2. Text messaging Acronyms are ok
3. No talking, we are communicating only through the chat room
4. Summarize what we heard and learned from our Skype connection with  Canada
5. Be polite, don’t say anything you would not say in our school environment

Once you are ready to finish the chat, make sure you save your chat log. Once you close your browser window or exit out of the chat room, you will loose everything.

You have 4 choices of how to save the chat log:

Reflection of  using a chat room with students:

• Students were VERY excited about going into a chat environment. It seems that that holds some sort of fascination…. the forbidden fruit… Everyone was alert.
• They figured out quickly how to send private messages (without being shown how). BTW, the private messages are NOT included in your chat log. That could be an issue.
• Even though we repeatedly reminded students that the chat was not a social occasion, but there to collaboratively work to summarize what we learned from our Skype call, it took students a while to get the “giggles” out and focus.
• It is a skill to be able to read AND follow along in a chat window.
• It is a skill to learn to be “part” of a chat. Some students only “threw” out sentences, but did not read or respond to others
• GREAT typing practice

Here is the chat lines from students (Their names have been removed). I bolded the text that had something to do with the Skype conference. Notice how it took them a while to start focusing. This was the first time for many to be in an online chat environment. I think they did pretty well! As with any other skill, they will get better with practice.

(1:38 pm)  yo yo my name is bobby joe
(1:38 pm)  So do we summerize what we did?
(1:38 pm)  lol
(1:38 pm)  the skpe was cool
(1:38 pm)  hola
(1:38 pm) – hey…..ive typed hi like 20 times
(1:38 pm)  shh…
(1:38 pm)  Hi peeps
(1:38 pm)  shh……
(1:38 pm)  lol hi kt
(1:38 pm)  bob saget
(1:38 pm)  yo
(1:38 pm) – hahaha
(1:38 pm) – don’t feel bad i type even slower
(1:38 pm) – lol
(1:38 pm) – who
(1:38 pm) – what
(1:38 pm) – lol
(1:38 pm) – how was the skype
(1:38 pm) – when
(1:38 pm) – where
(1:38 pm)  – sweet
(1:38 pm) – this is histarical!!
(1:38 pm) - I thought the girl with the red hair was a good talker person
(1:38 pm) – and how
(1:39 pm) – when did you get your degree/
(1:39 pm) – hey katie
(1:39 pm) – i type really slow slower than all of you
(1:39 pm) – lol
(1:39 pm) – i type sooooooo slow
(1:39 pm) – i can smell mama citas cooking
(1:39 pm) - I had a feeling they’d say pizza, isn’t that what they all sail, Mrs. Tolisano?
(1:39 pm) – wat??
(1:39 pm) – lol
(1:39 pm) – lol
(1:39 pm) – lol
(1:39 pm) – i think were having baked beans
(1:39 pm) – rotf
(1:39 pm) – lol
(1:39 pm) – Cut the cheese
(1:39 pm) – so random!
(1:39 pm) – i feel really silly because i’m typing to the person right next to me
(1:39 pm) – and maybe somke burgers
(1:40 pm)- they were good speakers
(1:40 pm) – ya deffinetly
(1:40 pm) – ur right!!
(1:40 pm) – what
(1:40 pm) – how did u like the skipe ?
(1:40 pm) – how was the skype
(1:40 pm) – I liked it
(1:40 pm)  – what is the conversation
(1:40 pm) – i did too
(1:40 pm) – i think they should have been more organized
(1:40 pm) – i liked the skype….. it was really cool
(1:40 pm) – Hi
(1:40 pm) – I did to
(1:40 pm) – i wonder how big there school is?
(1:40 pm) – it was
(1:40 pm) stop saying hi
(1:40 pm) – skypaping is so fun
(1:41 pm) – probably big
(1:41 pm) – hi matt u want to talk
(1:41 pm) – did you like the canadians
(1:41 pm) – i cant believe they dont have a cafateria
(1:41 pm) – i thoguht it was weird how they didnt have a cafetria
(1:41 pm) – kt i dont think they understud you!
(1:41 pm) – well the skype cofersation took longer than we thought and they sdidnt hav a caferteia
(1:41 pm) – those canadian kids had alot to say
(1:41 pm) – i liked the trophy they got from there blog!!!!
(1:41 pm) – i know
(1:41 pm) – me to
(1:41 pm) – i know it big
(1:41 pm) – ik
(1:41 pm) – it was plastic
(1:41 pm) – didn’t they ask what we had comming up?
(1:41 pm) – I don’t like the cafateria
(1:41 pm) – and they had a video podcasrt
(1:41 pm) – it looked like it was metal
(1:41 pm) – that trophy was so great
(1:41 pm) – Podcast trophy!
(1:42 pm) – I like there school
(1:42 pm) – The tropie was for the blog
(1:42 pm) – why do u think they don’t have aa cafiteria
(1:42 pm) – i cant believe they don’t buy lunch? is the expenses 2 much?  is canadian money worth more or less than a $
(1:42 pm) – they alsoa hav a podcast and a trofie for it!!
(1:42 pm) – thats cool that they have a blog and video podcast
(1:42 pm) – We should have asked if they liked canadian bacon
(1:42 pm) – i kan talk faste
(1:42 pm) – I cant believe they half to bring their lunch every day
(1:42 pm) – i cant wait to see the blog
(1:42 pm) – I like
(1:42 pm) – My brother’s school didn’t have a cafatiria
(1:42 pm) – ya
(1:42 pm) – i wanna see there blog 2
(1:42 pm) – wow
(1:42 pm) – same
(1:42 pm) – their podcast was called “Portable Radio”
(1:42 pm) – I like shiny trophs
(1:42 pm) – i know
(1:42 pm) – i wonder if they have micdonalds
(1:42 pm) – me 2
(1:42 pm) – the trophy they got from having the best webchat in the world is really cool
(1:42 pm) – I wonder if they play any sports
(1:42 pm) – this was cool i thought they wound speak candiean
(1:43 pm) – no you don’t
(1:43 pm) – ya
(1:43 pm) – I forgot too
(1:43 pm) – I just knew it was a podcast
(1:43 pm) – i felt bad because we didnt say as much stuff about our school and they said a lot about theirs
(1:43 pm) – the trophy was won 4 the best podcaast in the world
(1:43 pm) – I wonder how good there podcast was :p
(1:43 pm) – yall type to fast
(1:43 pm) – there class was huge!!!!!
(1:43 pm) – was their class size 31??
(1:43 pm) – The podcast was pretty great
(1:43 pm) – they also interveiwd a famous dude from canada
(1:43 pm) – me too
(1:43 pm) – they had two korian kids E. and J.
(1:43 pm) – ya it was huge 32 or 31 kids
(1:44 pm) – they intviewed a 12 year old 4 making shows and only 3 kids got to meet him
(1:44 pm) – lol
(1:44 pm) – I like there podcast name very simple
(1:44 pm) – They also had a big class
(1:44 pm) – they both wore glasses
(1:44 pm) – yeah i cxant believ they have 31 people when we only have 14
(1:44 pm) – yes very big
(1:44 pm) – WOw
(1:44 pm) -  the girl
(1:44 pm) – rofl
(1:44 pm) – from korea
(1:44 pm) – I also like the teachers name
(1:44 pm) – i felt really small when they said 31
(1:44 pm) – My uncle is working in the CFL and maybe he could visit them
(1:44 pm) – thur class is mor than trise our classses size
(1:44 pm) – lol
(1:44 pm) – i know
(1:44 pm) – i wish i could see the blog
(1:44 pm) – THE TEACHERS name was nathan
(1:45 pm) – What was the teacher’s name? I forgot..
(1:45 pm) – yes daniel cook
(1:45 pm) – danniel coook
(1:45 pm) – oh
(1:45 pm) – they interveiwed daniel cook on the local radio show
(1:45 pm) – We also sould have asked if they had mouse in their backyard
(1:45 pm) -  I wonder wich Korea the 2 kids came from
(1:45 pm) – daniel cook daniel cook daniel cook
(1:45 pm) – I think Canada is a long way from florida
(1:45 pm) – oh yeah me 2
(1:45 pm) – ya
(1:45 pm) – i bet all the kids are sad that E. and J. are going back to koria
(1:45 pm) – i want 2 be on the podcast
(1:45 pm) – ya
(1:45 pm) – u think?:()
(1:45 pm) – you spelt korea ronge
(1:45 pm) – Daniel Cook is a kid from disney chanell
(1:45 pm) – wrong
(1:46 pm) – yeah 3 kids interveiwed cook, right?
(1:46 pm) – it looked like they attacked J…..or was it E.
(1:46 pm) – what
(1:46 pm) – we should make a podcast
(1:46 pm) – probley
(1:46 pm) – ya
(1:46 pm) – yeah
(1:46 pm) – Serouisly
(1:46 pm) – I think they pulled in J.
(1:46 pm) – Dainel cook wasn’t his teacher his name was mr.toft
(1:46 pm) – they look like sister dont u think so
(1:46 pm) – that would be a lot of fun!!!!!
(1:46 pm) – yes
(1:46 pm) – we could get famous
(1:46 pm) – u guys type fast
(1:46 pm) – please
(1:46 pm) – yes we do
(1:46 pm) – who was the one who kept waving 2 us
(1:46 pm) – their bteachers name is mr. toft
(1:46 pm) – I know it wasn’t cook, I couldn’t remember
(1:46 pm) – it was taft
(1:46 pm) – I don’t think i could pack my lunch every day!!!
(1:46 pm) – mr.toft
(1:46 pm) – People stop
(1:47 pm) – he was african canadian
(1:47 pm) – Mr Toft?
(1:47 pm) – no he wqasent
(1:47 pm) – I wish i got to interview mr. cook
(1:47 pm) – me 2
(1:47 pm) – i feel realy good about typin

We also decided to send home an e-mail to the parents:

During our Tech Connect Class on Tuesday, your child’s class had the opportunity to Skype with an elementary school from Ottawa, Canada. After we had finished our video conference, Mrs. Tolisano followed up a previously taught Internet Safety lesson and engaged them in a safety conversation especially focusing on chat rooms, which several of the students in the class were already familiar with. Students were then invited to a private online chat room. This chat room was closed, only accessible to our students and moderated by Mrs. Tolisano.

Once the class was over, the chat room ceased to exist in cyberspace. The intent of the lesson was not only to open up the conversation about internet safety, but also give a platform where, as a class, students collaboratively were able to summarize and discuss their experience about the Skype call.  On Tuesday, students had the opportunity to not only connect internationally with other children, but practiced how to act in a controlled online environment with their classmates.

I was asked by my principal to think BIG. What would a technology rich school look like?  My first thought was to correct the title of the assignment. Not a “technology rich”, but a technology integration rich” school. I wanted the emphasis shifted from technology (which is often set equal to hardware) to integration and LEARNING!!!

I started brainstorming with my colleague Paige M. about what the essential components would be. This is the list we came up with…. if money were no object… (the hardware is in addition to what our school currently already has in place)

Technology Integration Rich School

1. Hardware
2. Support
3. Programs
4. Accountability

Hardware

• 1:1 laptops students for older grades
• Alphasmart class sets for younger grades
• Tablet Laptops for faculty
• LCD Projectors
• SmartBoards in every classroom
• Wireless access across the school
• Ipod lab
• Digital Camera Class sets
• Flip Camera class sets
• Wii Fit and Sport

Support

• IT Support
• Curriculum Integration
• Professional Development Trainer

Projects/Programs:

• 21st Century Skills
  • Communicate
    • Literacy
  • Collaborate
    • Global Awareness
    • Geographic Literacy
  • Connect
  • Create
• Professional Development
  • Creation and support of your own Personal Learning Network
  • monthly workshops
  • international conferences
  • Monthly/Weekly planning time (substitutes)

Accountability

• Student Assessment
• Teacher Evaluation
• Reflection
• Lesson Plan Sharing
• Presentations

I also threw out the question of “What are components of a technology integration rich school to my twitter network and received the following answers.

@cwebbtech added the component of “Stakeholders” which I felt is an important addition to the components list. Who are the stakeholders in a technology integration rich school?

Stakeholders

1. Students
2. Teachers
3. Administration
4. Parents
5. Community

What are your thoughs? What would you add or take away, if you were to devise a plan to create and run a technology integration rich school?

We are in our second year of integrating technology. We moved from isolated and parallel “computer classes” to co-teaching with subject area teachers. THEIR curriculum drives what we teach, introduce, and reinforce in the computer lab. I am available full time (my colleague Paige M. part time)  to our faculty to plan, co-teach, and lead professional development opportunities for faculty, staff and administration. We emphasize our ability to :

• co-plan
• co-teach
• co-assess
• co-reflect
• co-learn

After 1 1/2 years of introducing and working as the “Technology-Everything” person at the school, I am reflecting on the successes and pitfalls of our model. While I was searching for appropriate visuals to support this blog post, it crystallized itself that in reality technology integration is similar….to baking bread.

Baking bread or my reflections on integrating technology.

If you desire to bake good bread, you will need to start out with a  good recipe. To get a good recipe, you may choose to use a good cookbook and/or learn from someone that has a lot of experience in baking and is willing to share. Make sure that you have all the ingredients and resources that you need. Make sure you have the required time to dedicate to seeing the bake process through. You are in trouble if you figure out half way through the process that you are missing the flour or that you will not be at home, when it is time to take the bread out of the oven.

So, the scenario is set…

As the technology integration facilitator, not the computer teacher or the babysitting service, you are to:

• assemble all the ingredients
• the utensils
• know the procedures
• have the right feeling for the mix- is a pinch of this or a spoonful of that missing?
• be able to time each step of the way just right- know when to push ahead or when to allow time to let the dough rise

Most of the subject areas at school are separated by classroom, by class period, even by teachers ( in upper level at elementary school). If each subject area is restricted within its shell, than no knowledge or learning can spill out, connect with or through.

I see it as part of my work to crack the shells of each subject area open and let the content flow through technology In order to create we need to pull from all of our knowledge, not just the area of a particular period we are currently in. I need to make sure that I remember that grade levels might not have it clear how the skills they teach “fit into the big pictures”. They might not have it clear how they pick up where other grade levels or subject areas have left off and how they are the stepping stools for the “yet to come” learning.

So, all the shells are cracked open, the content areas are touching each other, they are all combined in a great big bowl, yet they are still separated by  a thin skin from the others. This thin skin could be:

• individual preference
• scheduling issues
• territorialism
• the way things have always been done
• fear
• inexperience
• lack of self-confidence

It “seems” to be so organized, each subject area knowledge has its own place, assessed seperatly, everything seems in order and everybody content. What kind of learning is going on or missing if knowledge is separated?

It is time to mix ingredients. Flour or aka technology integration by co-planning and co-teaching is being added.

First it looks like that nothing is blending together. The flour, egg white and yolk don’t mix naturally at all. We need to bring in some tools that will make the process easier:

• Professional Development
  • One on one
  • Just in time
  • Small group
  • School wide
  • Conferences
  • Mentoring
  • How- to Guides
  • Screencasts
• Co-teaching
  • Co-planning
  • Tech Support in the classroom
• Accountability
  • Teacher technology evaluations
• Minimize technology related frustrations
  • Hardware, software, internet connections that work

Not every tool will work as expected. Sometimes we have to be innovative and flexible in order to blend all the ingredients. Depending on the situation some more ingredients might be necessary to create the perfect dough. A little bit of salt here, a little bit of professional development there.

A lot of hard work is involved in kneading the ingredients in becoming smooth dough. While kneading the dough over and over again, keep in mind:

• student learning
• relationships among and with colleagues
• overall school philosophy and atmosphere
• leadership
• technology comfort levels
• assessing
• reflecting
• re-evaluating
• patience
• patience
• patience

Sometimes the most perfectly formed dough, needs to undergo revisions again, there might be air bubbles, there might be pockets of flour. The doug needs to be flattened in order start
over again and giving it a new shape.

You will get the feel of what dough should feel like. Nobody can really teach you that. You know it when you get it

Next comes the feel for timing.

• time to push for more change
• time to support without overwhelming
• time to hold back and let teachers rise on their own

So, when is it time to put the dough in the oven?

• When is it time to require your teachers to integrate technology?
• When are they ready to take off the training wheels?

Image by sarako

When the bread is ready to come out of the oven, make sure to take the time to share with the hungry!

Third Grade studied endangered and threatened animals of Florida in their science curriculum. TechConnect, together with the classroom teachers planned to take this unit to the 21st century and have students, not only research facts, but become experts in their assigned animals and make a difference by share their knowledge with others. They were to learn about their animal and then produce a podcast episode. These episodes will be available to listen to and download for their iPods.

What an incredible opportunity to not only learn about each animal, but also to work on:

• Research skills
• Sound editing software
• Speaking and communication skills
• Oral fluency
• Copyright issues
• Information literacy
• Storytelling skills

The project was divided into several different pieces.

1. Students were assigned one endangered or threatened animal from Florida and given research question.
   1. Describe your animal’s habitat (Where he lives? What he eats?)
   2. Why is your animal endangered or threatened?
2. Teachers previewed and selected a limited number of links that students were to get their information from. These links were posted to the teacher’s blog.
3. Draw their animal using a drawing program (KidPix)
4. Introduction and “play time” in Sound Editing program (Audacity)
5. Voice recording of facts. Editing, re-recording, paying attention to expression, articulation, captivation, persuasion
6. Inserting and editing music as background
7. Creating an “intro” and “outro” for the podcast as a group

Here is a screenshot of the sound editing software and the project of one of the students. They learned to record, pause, edit clips, move tracks, import audio files. They are getting really good at “reading” their own voices too.

Listen in to their class episodes on Endangered and Threatened Animals in the State of Florida/USA

All of our teachers are administrators of their own wordpress blog (hosted on our domain) As part of our monthly workshops, the past week “Embedding Media on Your Blog” was offered.

The definition of “embedding” is :

To enclose snugly or firmly.
To cause to be an integral part of a surrounding whole

In the world of our classroom blogs that means to insert an image, a slideshow, audio or video, so it can easily be viewed as part of your post.

There are many third party websites, that allow you to upload images and then easily embed them into YOUR classroom blog by copying and pasting special code that they provide to you. You can also upload and embed audio and video files directly. The blog software will automatically use a special player that plays directly inside your post without the need for the visitor to download the file.

Here is an overview that was shared with faculty members. You might find the following links helpful yourself or are able to pass it on to your staff as well.

Images (jpeg file)

Smilebox

Bubbleshare

Photoshow

Slide

• Embed code for my space
• Tweak code: delete after </object> to remove buttons that allow to click through

Voicethread

• In your VoiceThread click on menu>embed> then copy the code
• Go to your blog
• Create a new post
• Click on the HTML tab
• Paste (CTRL-V) the code into the text box

Audio (mp3 file)

• Audacity
• Once created, upload to blog by clicking on “Add Audio”
• Once uploaded, highlight the URL and copy it (CTRL-C)
• Type in your blog post [audio:your_mp3_file.mp3 . After you type in “[audio:” then paste the URL you have copied (CTRL-V), don’t forget to type the closing bracket. We use the Audio Player WordPress Plugin
• Publish your post and you should see the audio player in your post

Movies (.wmv file)

Windows Movie Maker

• Upload the .wmv file by clicking on “add Media” and browsing
• Copy the URL (CTRL-C)
• Click on the “Insert/edit embedded media” button on the second row of the toolbar
• Paste the URL
• Enter dimensions 400×400
• Under the advanced tab-uncheck “Auto Play”
• You will see a yellow box inserted in the blog text box. Once you publish, you will be able to watch the movie

Photostory

Animoto

• get embed code (push pin icon)
• copy-paste in blog post on the HTML tab

Presentations

Google Presentation

• Upload the PowerPoint presentation to Google Docs
• Share
• Embed
• Copy code-
• Paste in blog post on the html tab

Slideshare

• On your blog- add media
• browse for the file on your computer
• upload

Remember

• Use your school account email when signing up for any third party site. Do not use that account for personal projects
• Do not upload students’ personal information or pictures that display their names
• When embedding media in your blog:
  • Type any text on the visual tab
  • Then paste the embed code on the HTML tab

It has been 2 years, since I was in the classroom teaching Spanish to elementary school students. I am often asked  if I miss it. I do miss having classes on my own, where I am the one who can decide on a project and see it through from beginning to end. Do I still feel like that I am continuing to contribute to my students’ Spanish language skills as a Technology Integration Facilitator? YES!

As the Spanish teacher, I felt that not only the language itself was important to teach to my students, but also global awareness and specifically Hispanic culture were part of my job. My philosophy was:

• Being able to communicate is one of the primary goals of the world language classroom.
• Collaborate with others by being sensitive and aware of cultural differences
• Presenting opportunities in order to make connections to help my students understand the value, advantages and necessity of learning another language are always a priority.
• Teaching creatively to engage my students is a must, especially when being considered a “resource” teacher, not part of the core subjects.
• Allowing students to be creative in order to take the language out of the textbook and make it real to them in common situations.

Is it becoming obvious yet where I am going with this?

• Communicate
• Collaborate
• Connect
• Create

World Language teachers ARE teaching 21st century skills. Through web 2.0 tools it is easier, available and more affordable than ever before to bring the world, your language’s culture and people to your students. Technology is a World Language teacher’s best friend and ally.

As part of my Masters in Instructional Technology, Langwitches: The magic of Learning Languages through Technology was born in 2005. I started posting projects that would benefit the world language learner.

• digital recipes
• digital movies
• digital images
• webquests
• blogging
• distance learning
• puzzles
• podcast
• iPods

In 2006, I presented at the K-12 Online Conference iPods-iSpeak-iSing-iListen-iLearn

iPods and other MP3 players have revolutionized the way kids listen to and purchase their music. They are quickly entering the classrooms as a teaching and learning tool as well. The foreign language classroom can especially benefit from the possibilities the iPod opens up, such as podcasting, video capabilities, and audio recordings. The popularity of such devices directly effects students’ engagement in the learning process.Teachers will learn about ideas and ways they can easily create and distribute pronunciation guides, audio books, lectures, notes, and much more for their students.

A lot has changed since 2005/2006. If I were a World Language teacher in the classroom, what would I do differently today, ? I would continue to reinforce 21st century skills for my students. Some of the tools that I would use are different though.

• Communicate (Skype, blogs, VoiceThread)
• Collaborate (Skype, Google Docs, Mixbook, wikis)
• Connect (Skype, blogs, VoiceThread)
• Create (podcast, vidcast, online portfolios)

Seeing the impact the Skype Video Conferences has had these past few months on our elementary school students is encouraging. The easiness and normality Kindergarten kids use their Spanish to sing, play, listen and talk to other Kindergarteners in Lima, Peru is exhilerating and hopeful that we are on the right path.

We are hopeful that we are able to prepare those kids for a world where they will talk, work and collaborate with people around the world on a daily basis. This collaboration requires cultural awareness, language ability AND sensitivity as well as a global network.

Technology is just another language. Both of them fit together like Pizza and Empanadas, Peanut Butter and Jelly or Nutella with Pancakes. Pick the one that culturally seems to makes the most sense to you. 

Photo Credit:

Nutella by DTC Master Crew
Pizza & Empanadas by ricardo.martins
Peanut Butter & Jelly by iirraa

This year the teachers at my school are taking off with video productions. This is mostly due to the 5 Flip Cameras we have available for checkout, every teacher having a classroom digital camera with video clip capabilities and the rise in their comfort level of using programs such as Microsoft MovieMaker and PhotoStory.

Film School for Video Podcasters
by Mathew Needleman

Mathew Needleman’s presentation caught my eye. I am excited to learn how I can help make movies more than

Glorified PowerPoints

So , how will we go beyond the aspect of dealing with using the tool alone and focus on teaching our students to:

Think critically, analyze media and become storytellers

While storyboarding think of:

• Shot Selection
  • vary shots, sometimes far away, sometimes close up shots, higher angle, low angle
  • Give every shot meaning
• Composition
  • Rule of thirds

Mathew brings up a very interesting questions to ponder:

Our students receive most of their information from movies, TV, iPods, YouTube… they are not reading as much books …so why are we teaching them 90% of the time to read and comprehend text in school?

Traditional text reading skills are necessary and important (of course), but we can’t overlook and ignore that we need to teach them how to decode, analyze and comprehend the media message they are confronted with on a day to day basis. I completely agree with Mathew! How can we not teach all types of media skills in school and apparently focus most of our attention of the interpretation of traditional text media, mostly in book and worksheet format.

The thought provoking video of Anthropology teacher Michael Wesh on YouTube came to mind while I was pondering about this question: Why are we continuing to teach that way most of the time?

Mathew suggests that by teaching movie production, including decision making skills about shots and composition, we are making our students aware how others are using them to make a point. He talks about kids having to learn to understand the media messages that are being thrown at them.  Critical thinking evolves out of figuring out why other have chosen to use certain shots and compositions to make their point and why.

It is a way of getting into media, inside out, deconstructing by constructing it. The same way we use writing to teach reading comprehension, we use video production to teach media literacy.

Mathew moves on to recommend equipment and some more technical details to consider when making movies in the classroom.

Sound:

• external unidirectional microphone
• microphone positioned close to your students

Video Camera

• get a mini DV, not a DVD burning or a Hard disk camcorder
• make sure it has a microphone input

Lighting

• halogen lights
• two Lights on stands (ideally three) to avoid harsh shadows
• don’t point them right at the actor

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