Content and technology

Okay. If your job is like mine, you have to teach content through using technology! Lucky us! Now, lets brainstorm some cool projects we can do that incorporate the latest technololgy while teaching core subject material (math, reading, social studies, science).

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Permalink Reply by Stacy Strickland on August 5, 2007 at 2:43pm

Thanks. This provides a little more focus for me, anyway. The more I look around, the more overwhelmed I become at all the possibilities, and I don't want to overwhelm others because it will turn them off. I am really excited about working to incorporate all of this and would like to do the podcasting definately this year with some of my classes. I think Moodle will take more time, but will be a great assett as we continue to expand our technology plan. . . thanks for your help. I'm sure I will have more questions as I approach the administration about it and our IT guys!

Permalink Reply by Anne Pemberton on November 10, 2009 at 7:16am

Jeffrey,

The way to address students with various learning styles is to find/create content that addresses the various intelligences - or at least a broad range of them.

If you are using a video, also provide a script of the video. If you are using audio, make available a page of the text. If you are providing lots of pictures, also include descriptions of what is in the pictures. Be sure to include interactive resources as well as "sit and watch" resources. Quizzes made in Hot Potato or in Flash can fulfill the interactive need - especially when the are called games instead of quizzes. Make some lesson resources that require discovery of the information rather than just presenting it straight up. These could be a list of links to explore, or just a list of keywords to google to find the information. Be sure to check what comes up on google so that the first couple of links contain what you want the kids to discover. The web is the most versatile teaching tool ever available. Don't stuff everything into one box and expect all kids to be dazzled by it. Create variety, preferably for each unit of content.

Permalink Reply by Randy Rivers on July 29, 2007 at 1:19pm

I'm designing a course titled 21st Century Skills for as a junior high school exploratory class in 2007-2008. I'm attaching a file with my initial outline. I'd love to have input and suggestions.

Attachments:

21stCenturySkillsSyllabus.doc, 54 KB
21st CenturyLessons.doc, 42 KB

Permalink Reply by Katie Mathews on July 29, 2007 at 2:42pm

Overall, it seems like you include a variety in your teaching....which is GREAT. Also, I like how the syllabus is organized and easy for the students to interpret your class expectations and what the class is all about. I admire your ability to already have your lessons planned out. In my job, I teach the technology skills through whatever content the core teachers on my team want me to teach, administer assessments, etc... I would LOVE to be able to plan ahead as you have done.

Permalink Reply by SusanTsairi on July 30, 2007 at 4:40pm

I work in elementary school in Israel. This year I will be tech teacher/coordinator which I think is quite similar to connect/technology. Classes will come to the computer lab once a week with their teachers in order to continue working on their curriculum. I know that in 5th and 6th grades this will be EFL, and luckily I will be working with a wonderful teacher who is also eager to collaborate and implement technology, however I have no idea what the subjects/topics will be in grades 1-4 which means that apart from some introductory lessons on basic use of the computer and internet safety etc, I will only be able to start planning at the beginning of the school year -frustrating - but then at least it's giving me a lot of time to stock up on new tools and technology and meet interesting people on classroom20.

Permalink Reply by Katie Mathews on July 30, 2007 at 5:09pm

Yes, your job sounds familiar. :) What type of lessons are you preparing for your older kids to cover internet safety, keyboarding, etc... This is my first year and I need ideas! :)

Permalink Reply by SusanTsairi on August 3, 2007 at 9:25am

Teaching keyboarding is problematic here as the kids only reach the computer room once a week. Until now we haven't dealt with it at all in school. Food for thought on my part.

Internet safety, there are so many resources on the internet you could try doing a delicious search for internetsafety or internet_safety.

PBS has an interactive "driving licence"
There are videos and much more.
You might find some ideas in the replies to this forum discussion

I have found that no matter what we have done so far - the students tend to take it with a pinch of salt. What I plan to do this year is involve the parents more. Possibly have a couple of lessons where I invite the parents to participate together with their children while we learn how to use, and set up rules for using the school forums, email, (social network if I manage to find one suitable in Hebrew).

On the whole parents here dont take much interest in what their children are doing on the internet - I think it is imperative to change that attitude.

Permalink Reply by Nathan Hutchings on July 30, 2007 at 7:27pm

Hi Kate
I am also a specialist Technology teacher from year2 2 to Year 10. I work with Colin. Colin is our Moodle engineer/Teacher and I share the task of developing learning content with Colin. I have only recently been using web 2 things link delicious, face book and blogs. However in the past I have developed websites for industry and worked overseas early 2000. I think delicious is a really great tool and I would like to here your ideas about how this tool could be used in the class room.

Permalink Reply by JoNelle on July 30, 2007 at 11:40pm

Kati,
This will be a great place to share ideas - thanks! I am the technology teacher/mentor in an elementary school grades k-5. One of very favorite projects incorporates science/geography/cultures/languge arts/and technology. It takes a few weeks, but well worth the effort. We use websites, Inspiration, KidPix, Word, and Powerpoint. This year I plan to incorporate web20 tools for collaborating. Actually some aspects are different each year.
Although this is with 4th graders (10 yr olds), the same approach can be done with other grades. I begin planning a project with particular core standards in mind and integrate technology. This link will take you to more details. Myths and Contellations
We also created a video about using graphic organizers for prewriting phase.
"Get Graphic to Get Writing" posted on this site.

Permalink Reply by Katie Mathews on July 31, 2007 at 7:33am

Thanks for your great ideas! Our school does not have GM, but I looked into it, and it looks like a really useful tool! I really want to set up a website that has a link to a blog or journal so that my students can do some journaling each day. Do you know how to do this, or where I would start? Also, is there a way to do it so that I can set up a seperate journal for each students or at least a personal discussion for each class? I do not want it to be seen to the public...you know what I mean? Sorry if I am confusing!

Permalink Reply by JoNelle on July 31, 2007 at 8:08pm

It sounds like you want to set up a blog. Blogging will be new for me this year, but I set up a few to see how they work and compare. I hope others will chime in with experienced advice:)
Go to this one it is established and http://areallydifferentplace.org/
These are just the introductions for mine- set for beginning of school. All are free.
http://isurffer.edublogs.org/
http://ghesblog.blogspot.com/

wikispaces:
https://gheswiki.wikispaces.com/ (see if you can add something to this page - anything, I am just testing it out now)
http://classblogmeister.com/ is what I will try first for blogging with students. Several teachers in this network use all of the above mentioned places.
Lots of info here: http://supportblogging.com/Starting+to+Blog

Permalink Reply by JoNelle on July 31, 2007 at 12:05am

If you use Graph Master or do graphing we do a presidents project. Of course some of you may not do presidents, but Graph Master has many other topics with database sets. I really like Excel, but our district purchased GM and I found it to be very instructive for students ( it is designed for grades 4-8).

I want to see if we can create graphs/share data within wikis - does anyone know? This year I would like students to try collaborating with someone in a different class - I teach all eight 5th grade classes in our school. If this works, I'd like to try another graphing project with classes outside of our school.

Charts, tables and graphs cut across every subject, so technology needs to be a big part of creating and analyzing.