Teaching technology without a curriculum (am I just nuts)? - Classroom 2.02024-03-28T22:49:31Zhttps://www.classroom20.com/forum/topics/649749:Topic:66244?commentId=649749%3AComment%3A67309&feed=yes&xn_auth=noKelley,
The animation videos…tag:www.classroom20.com,2007-12-10:649749:Comment:872492007-12-10T21:59:31.309ZStudica Skillshttps://www.classroom20.com/profile/StudicaSkills
Kelley,<br />
<br />
The animation videos are excellent!<br />
Your students would do wonderfully in the Skills competitions. The programs you use definitely figure into the competitions - I'd love to see them rewarded for their work!
Kelley,<br />
<br />
The animation videos are excellent!<br />
Your students would do wonderfully in the Skills competitions. The programs you use definitely figure into the competitions - I'd love to see them rewarded for their work! Shawn - you've already gotten…tag:www.classroom20.com,2007-12-10:649749:Comment:872312007-12-10T21:42:59.567ZStudica Skillshttps://www.classroom20.com/profile/StudicaSkills
Shawn - you've already gotten a ton of great ideas from some of the successful (and innovative!) educators here. I want to commend you on keeping such an open mind and trying to set a precedent with your lack of structured curriculum. Keeping yourself open means you've got a lot of flexibility, and new opportunities are always popping up, so there is some great potential for you!<br />
<br />
If you've already been convinced to have your students make videos, then you might want to submit them into our…
Shawn - you've already gotten a ton of great ideas from some of the successful (and innovative!) educators here. I want to commend you on keeping such an open mind and trying to set a precedent with your lack of structured curriculum. Keeping yourself open means you've got a lot of flexibility, and new opportunities are always popping up, so there is some great potential for you!<br />
<br />
If you've already been convinced to have your students make videos, then you might want to submit them into our competitions, which are free, and could lead to software and/or cash prizes for your classroom. The generic competitions allow you to use the software of your choice for editing/production, but also have a look at the Powerpoint competitions!<br />
<br />
We have a middle school teacher in Amherst, NY, who has been registering his students in the Studica Skills competitions for three years, and he's won more than $5000 in software and prizes for his classroom. Certainly if you're looking to broaden your resources, here's a great opportunity for you!<br />
<br />
And don't be intimidated by some of the things you might see on the main page - if you have a look at the full competition overview <a href="http://www.studica.com/skills/competition_list.cfm">here</a>), and I encourage you to have a peek at the submissions from Amherst Middle School here:<br />
<a href="http://www.studica.com/skills/index_school.cfm?institution=Amherst%20Middle%20School">Amherst's entries</a> to give you an idea. Some of the simplest messages are the most effective, and these students are very passionate about what they do!<br />
<br />
If you are interested at all, let me know, and I'll hook you up with some freebies (I send out free teacher's kits to anyone interested, whether they participate or not)! edubuntu is a great os for lo…tag:www.classroom20.com,2007-12-02:649749:Comment:835942007-12-02T04:42:21.695ZAdam Provosthttps://www.classroom20.com/profile/Adam
edubuntu is a great os for low power workstations and free. Heading into blogs, wikis and others use the power of the web and are less machine intensive and great collaborative tools for publishing for oyu and the kids. Google docs saves local installs and allows students and their parents to see data from home and collaborate on it. Getting parents to log in and see student work ? Novel idea ; ) Not all the hardware need match either. Getting kids to take ownership rather than heading into the…
edubuntu is a great os for low power workstations and free. Heading into blogs, wikis and others use the power of the web and are less machine intensive and great collaborative tools for publishing for oyu and the kids. Google docs saves local installs and allows students and their parents to see data from home and collaborate on it. Getting parents to log in and see student work ? Novel idea ; ) Not all the hardware need match either. Getting kids to take ownership rather than heading into the lock down, secure approach is as simple as honest conversation sometimes. Getting kids to rebuild machines that are broken creates a sense of ownership. Have a few old machines setup as hot swaps. Get those kiddos using Google.com/ig aggregate. The school can hook into 'Google for Domains'... free email, hosted by Google under the school domain name. No kidding.<br />
<br />
Many people like concept mappers for younger grades like Inspiration or the free version called FreeMind. There's an online one too now that looks fairly slick called MindDomo. Audacity, Gimp, Paint.net TuxPaint,<br />
<a href="http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/ebooks">http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/ebooks</a>, online photo edting tools at fauxto. The Scratch program from MIT is worth a good look too. Teaches programming skill in a great, intuitive interface. Sketchup and Google Earth... great stuff and totally free.<br />
<br />
Give the kids as much ownership / ability to contribute and things will take off. Being honest with them and challenging them to take off against some odds will go a long way. Great post. Best of luck to you. Hi Shawn,
Yes, your enthusia…tag:www.classroom20.com,2007-11-30:649749:Comment:828102007-11-30T04:52:46.707ZEdwin Wargohttps://www.classroom20.com/profile/ewargo
Hi Shawn,<br />
<br />
Yes, your enthusiasm is contagious!<br />
<br />
One of the things that I love about Classroom 2.0 are the lessons and ideas that are cultivated and grown out of the collaboration made possible by a network like this. In this and many other instances, the discussion - even though I may have been passive - articulates an idea or concept that has been floating around but won't seem to gel - even, something in hindsight, that may be simple. It's usually after a discussion like this that the…
Hi Shawn,<br />
<br />
Yes, your enthusiasm is contagious!<br />
<br />
One of the things that I love about Classroom 2.0 are the lessons and ideas that are cultivated and grown out of the collaboration made possible by a network like this. In this and many other instances, the discussion - even though I may have been passive - articulates an idea or concept that has been floating around but won't seem to gel - even, something in hindsight, that may be simple. It's usually after a discussion like this that the proverbial light bulb goes on that allows the gears to start turning for me. Without a network like NING and Classroom 2.0, it may taken days, months, or even years longer.<br />
<br />
So thanks for sharing your questions and experiences...and keep us posted.<br />
<br />
Edwin They could make help videos f…tag:www.classroom20.com,2007-11-30:649749:Comment:827942007-11-30T03:31:46.170ZSylvia Martinezhttps://www.classroom20.com/profile/smartinez
They could <a href="http://blog.genyes.com/index.php/2007/04/27/rss-in-plain-english-ideas-for-student-made-help-videos/">make help videos for other classes</a>, too. Teaching is learning.
They could <a href="http://blog.genyes.com/index.php/2007/04/27/rss-in-plain-english-ideas-for-student-made-help-videos/">make help videos for other classes</a>, too. Teaching is learning. The kids were amazed by the "…tag:www.classroom20.com,2007-11-30:649749:Comment:827862007-11-30T03:20:52.000ZShawn Jacksonhttps://www.classroom20.com/profile/newODCS
The kids were amazed by the "Did you know" video now I want to show them that they can do it. any success stories of students trying to do what we are trying to do? let me know if you come accoss any.
The kids were amazed by the "Did you know" video now I want to show them that they can do it. any success stories of students trying to do what we are trying to do? let me know if you come accoss any. Your enthusiasm is contagious…tag:www.classroom20.com,2007-11-30:649749:Comment:827842007-11-30T03:18:22.106ZSylvia Martinezhttps://www.classroom20.com/profile/smartinez
Your enthusiasm is contagious. I'm sitting here grinning.
Your enthusiasm is contagious. I'm sitting here grinning. WOW!!!! PROJECT BASED LEARNIN…tag:www.classroom20.com,2007-11-30:649749:Comment:827632007-11-30T02:52:29.084ZShawn Jacksonhttps://www.classroom20.com/profile/newODCS
WOW!!!! PROJECT BASED LEARNING ROCKS. We had our first project based lesson and I don't know why we teach any other way. I had to make them leave the class room they were so involved. AND GET THIS, this was the first time EVER not one child asked me "Mr. Jackson can we have free time and go on the internet before the end of class?" It's like a constant chant I here over and over and over all during computer class I have nightmares about it. Anyway, these kids worked until I forced them out of…
WOW!!!! PROJECT BASED LEARNING ROCKS. We had our first project based lesson and I don't know why we teach any other way. I had to make them leave the class room they were so involved. AND GET THIS, this was the first time EVER not one child asked me "Mr. Jackson can we have free time and go on the internet before the end of class?" It's like a constant chant I here over and over and over all during computer class I have nightmares about it. Anyway, these kids worked until I forced them out of the class.<br />
So I'm sure you want to know well did they learn any thing? When class started I showed them how to use the help in word 2003. A few weeks prior we learnded internet search techniques (finding filetype:, intitle:, using "", and a few others.) The week before we looked at the "DID YOU KNOW" video ---THANKS Sylvia Martinez --- You guys can look it up on you tube. As a class, we discussed it and began talking about how to get their parents involed. Our goal is to produce a letter that they can give to there parents. The core was to start networking, find out who can help us and if not do they know someone who can.<br />
The first assignment was<br />
1. Break up into groups of 3 or 4, and list your names and grade below.<br />
a. ____________________________________<br />
b. _____________________________________<br />
c. _____________________________________<br />
d. _____________________________________<br />
2. Each of you will choose a job to fulfill. All of you will give input on the letter.<br />
a. Researcher, this person will have to lookup things on the internet or in microsoft word help. If your team doesn't know how to do it you put your research skills to work and figure it out.<br />
i. _________________________________<br />
b. This person will do the typingand work close with the designer.<br />
i. _________________________________<br />
c. Designer, this person will have to decide what style the letter will be in and if or not to add clip art ect.<br />
i. ___________________________________<br />
d. 2nd researcher if needed looked up statistics on the benefits of computers in the class room and whatever else researcher 1 coulnd get to.<br />
i. ___________________________________<br />
3. Explain how you contributed to the team effort.<br />
a. Researcher 1 what did you lookup on the internet or in Microsoft word help? How did you use this information?<br />
<br />
b. Designer what did you add to improve your letter (photos, clipart, or templates)? Where did you find it? And why did you choose it?<br />
<br />
c. Typist was spell check helpful? How helpful where the changes your designer made? What did you learn form your researchers?<br />
<br />
4. Explain how you contributed to the team effort.<br />
a. Researcher 2 what did you lookup on the internet or in Microsoft word help?After the "DID YOU KNOW" video We had came up with a general outline that had to be in the parent letter. So everyone on the team had to contribute some extra information to add into the letter and present it to the typist.<br />
<br />
The first 5 or 10 min of class they asked me how do I do this or how do I do that. And I just directed them to there researcher. They taught themselves intermedate and advanced word skills in the process. Next week before we get started, each team will select someone to reteach a few skills they learned in Word. I will keep u posted please give me any advise you may have. The ship has sailed from here we sink or swim. Thanks guys for all of your help Delete Comment First of all, let me put your…tag:www.classroom20.com,2007-11-17:649749:Comment:768502007-11-17T02:40:04.220ZAnne Pembertonhttps://www.classroom20.com/profile/AnnePemberton
First of all, let me put your mind at rest. You are not nuts. Your 5th and 6th graders can use Word, Powerpoint, and Excel to help collect donations to update your lab. You may want to add publisher to your list of software tools, if you want them to create flyers and other print materials to advertise the need.<br />
<br />
I have taught data entry in excel to 1st graders, and 2nd graders were able to make powerpoint presentations. Even the Kindergarters could use Word. No, they couldn't use it like an…
First of all, let me put your mind at rest. You are not nuts. Your 5th and 6th graders can use Word, Powerpoint, and Excel to help collect donations to update your lab. You may want to add publisher to your list of software tools, if you want them to create flyers and other print materials to advertise the need.<br />
<br />
I have taught data entry in excel to 1st graders, and 2nd graders were able to make powerpoint presentations. Even the Kindergarters could use Word. No, they couldn't use it like an adult would, but they could do some simple things that made them feel really special.<br />
<br />
One way to start, would be to make a list of businesses and organizations who will see the presentation. Put it in columns in excel so that it can be merged into a document in word or publisher.<br />
<br />
When the kids make the presentation to take to the businesses and organizations (don't forget churches), show them how to use every bit of powerpoint. Let them choose backgrounds, letter colors, insert clip art, and add sounds. Let them razzle and dazzle.<br />
<br />
If you start out in your inner circle, you will want to make a print presentation to go home to parents and grandparents. This could be a card, designed in Publisher or in word, (in word, a flyer would be easier). Each child could design their own and then choose which card they wish to send home - their own or someone else's....<br />
<br />
When you do the spreadsheets to show how much is needed and how much has been collected, be sure that you show the kids how to insert a graph or chart into the spreadsheet. As usual, look for all the bells and whistles, such as changing the colors in the graph instead of just showing the shades of gray or hashmarks. You may want to take printouts of the excel worksheets along on the presentation and let people look at the products the kids have already mastered. It will set their wheels to spinning.<br />
<br />
Consider making a "master" presentation with all the pertinant information in it, and then tailor it to each business or organization that you take it to. For churches, you may want to emphasize the Christian purposes of the school, for businesses and business organizations, you may want to emphasize the "preparing for work" aspects of what the kids are learning. If you can get a spot on the program of academic oriented organizations (retired teachers, alumni groups, etc), emphasize the academic learning involved.<br />
<br />
Good luck!!! Thanks got it--now I can keep…tag:www.classroom20.com,2007-11-15:649749:Comment:757782007-11-15T01:12:22.322ZNancy Boschhttps://www.classroom20.com/profile/nbosch
Thanks got it--now I can keep tabs on what you are up to.
Thanks got it--now I can keep tabs on what you are up to.