Using technology is NOT more engaging.
No matter the medium, we must design for student engagement. Technology does not create engagement, your lesson design does. While anything new may energize students for a short period of time, there is no substitute for designing high-quality lessons.
http://alicekeeler.com/2016/07/05/google-classroom-not-jump-deep-end/
Making the shift to digital is NOT about doing what you’ve always done in a digital format. Digital allows us to rethink our tasks.
“When students can access information, I can talk less.”
How the class functions should be different when students have access to devices. First, students no longer need to wait for you to know what to do. Students walk in the door, go to Google Classroom and get to work.
http://alicekeeler.com/2016/07/05/google-classroom-not-jump-deep-end/
When moving to digital tools it is a mindset shift. Our first question should not be “how do I take all my stuff I have and put it online?” Instead,
http://alicekeeler.com/2016/06/28/collaborative-google-slides/
Change is slow,
Change is hard,
Change is messy.
We will get it wrong and things won't work.
And yet, great success begins with small steps!It is far, far easier to rely on tools and methods we know. Expect more from our students.
Prepare, prepare, prepare, prepare, and execute! Change the expectations! Reflect upon and consider the path and the outcome . . .Change the energy level! wash, rinse, repeat . . . plan, teach, assess, reflect, repeat . . . |
Sunday, September 18, 2016
It takes more than technology
Tuesday, September 6, 2016
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If using technology is going to impact student learning, the task has to change.
— Alice Keeler (@alicekeeler) September 5, 2016
from Twitter https://twitter.com/MrLloyd025
September 06, 2016 at 07:09PM
via IFTTT
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We skipped syllabus and rules and started intro to #coding on #firstdayofschool https://t.co/7urWWs7dgu #7thGrade http://pic.twitter.com/Z9ABryConM
— Computer Guy (@MrLloyd025) September 6, 2016
from Twitter https://twitter.com/MrLloyd025
September 06, 2016 at 06:04PM
via IFTTT
New year - New adventures!
In addition to a full scale overhaul of the traditional library with major weeding and re-cataloging to improve student accessibility, we are introducing one-to-one Chromebooks at 6th and 7th grade, and I was asked at the last minute to teach a series of ten week courses to 7th graders.
Library stuff and one-to-one later. Course curriculum request was to include some keyboarding and whatever good stuff I'd like to teach them. WOW! It didn't take much research to learn that today's seventh graders are not excited about keyboarding class and that with few exceptions, without opportunity to use keyboarding on task students' find personally appealing, it tends to be ineffective. (Sorry I didn't save links to all articles but they are fairly easy to find if you are looking.)
So what to teach?
I've spent too much time learning about and promoting non-traditional lessons and projects to fall into a traditional research project to teach library skills and practice keyboarding. Our ELA teachers and even some of our SS and science teachers help me with that. Now Genius Hour is something that I could get excited about, but not sure I want ten weeks of seventh grade Genius Hour . . .
CODING! We have no business or digital technology teachers in the district. Seventh graders are the perfect age for an exploratory class in computer programming! The goal would be to teach some computational thinking and ability to break a problem down to develop simple algorithm solutions. I know absolutely nothing about computer science or coding! This should be a cinch!
Three days of research into keyboarding and intro to coding programs and I am practically a pro (at research, not keyboarding or coding.) I have decided that my first major goal is to have students animate their names to include on cover page of the Google Sites websites I also plan to have them create. Problem is, the name animation exercise I found on Scratch seems way too difficult. Next week . . .
Day one: Shortened schedule to make time for afternoon assembly. Seventeen of twenty students on roster came to class. We got all but one logged in to computers and into Google Chrome. Logging in to Code.org is simple with a Google account. They had to be convinced it was okay to tell the truth about their ages. Sad that their first instinct is to pretend (lie) that they are at least 13.
They followed instructions to join my class but their instincts again to skip tutorial video at beginning of the Classic Maze, Hour of Code project that I chose as a starting point for them. The roar of confusion was almost deafening - and yet amusing. We turned our monitors off to watch the intro video together as a class. They couldn't get monitors back on fast enough and away they went!
Day one of school, with shortened classes, and the class of 2022 has already started to build code! I can't wait until tomorrow!
Library stuff and one-to-one later. Course curriculum request was to include some keyboarding and whatever good stuff I'd like to teach them. WOW! It didn't take much research to learn that today's seventh graders are not excited about keyboarding class and that with few exceptions, without opportunity to use keyboarding on task students' find personally appealing, it tends to be ineffective. (Sorry I didn't save links to all articles but they are fairly easy to find if you are looking.)
So what to teach?
I've spent too much time learning about and promoting non-traditional lessons and projects to fall into a traditional research project to teach library skills and practice keyboarding. Our ELA teachers and even some of our SS and science teachers help me with that. Now Genius Hour is something that I could get excited about, but not sure I want ten weeks of seventh grade Genius Hour . . .
CODING! We have no business or digital technology teachers in the district. Seventh graders are the perfect age for an exploratory class in computer programming! The goal would be to teach some computational thinking and ability to break a problem down to develop simple algorithm solutions. I know absolutely nothing about computer science or coding! This should be a cinch!
Three days of research into keyboarding and intro to coding programs and I am practically a pro (at research, not keyboarding or coding.) I have decided that my first major goal is to have students animate their names to include on cover page of the Google Sites websites I also plan to have them create. Problem is, the name animation exercise I found on Scratch seems way too difficult. Next week . . .
Day one: Shortened schedule to make time for afternoon assembly. Seventeen of twenty students on roster came to class. We got all but one logged in to computers and into Google Chrome. Logging in to Code.org is simple with a Google account. They had to be convinced it was okay to tell the truth about their ages. Sad that their first instinct is to pretend (lie) that they are at least 13.
They followed instructions to join my class but their instincts again to skip tutorial video at beginning of the Classic Maze, Hour of Code project that I chose as a starting point for them. The roar of confusion was almost deafening - and yet amusing. We turned our monitors off to watch the intro video together as a class. They couldn't get monitors back on fast enough and away they went!
Day one of school, with shortened classes, and the class of 2022 has already started to build code! I can't wait until tomorrow!
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