Consumption vs. Creation

How does your school use technology?  How do you integrate technology in your classroom?

I recently read this post, in which the author spent a bit of time on my soapbox.  As I see it, there are three ways technology can be used in schools.  Today I read this post about a fellow tech integrator who is just plain struggling to bring technology into his lessons in an effective way.

The more I research best practices in technology integration the more I get frustrated.  When I read other people's blogs or tweets, there is a lot of talk about how computers are going to revolutionize the education system.  The advent of the iPad raised this talk to a whole new level... so it would seem.

I just went to the App Store and hit the "Education" category.  Top six results sorted by relevance were... Color Mix HD (Fairy Princess), Color Mix HD (Dinosaur), If you're happy and you know it, Monkey Preschool Lunchbox, Math Puppy - Bingo Challenge, and Timmy's Preschool Adventure.  Raise your hand if any of those title get you excited to go to school tomorrow.  Next, I merely typed "Math" into the search window.  My top six results were mainly drill and practice apps. Math, Math (R), Motion Math: Hungry Fish, My Math Flash Cards App, and Motion Math Zoom are all some form of drill and practice.  I'm pretty sure that my school didn't spend thousands of dollars so my students can learn their math facts.  My mom spent a buck or two on index cards and few minutes to write it all down for me to learn my facts.

I was intrigued by the first result though.  It's called... Math..  (No, that double period is not a typo.  The name of the app is Math., and the other period is the end of the sentence.)  I installed it on my iPad, and it looks good. They work you through concepts step by step and have video accompaniment too.  Not a bad thing... but still a consumer product.

I may have rambled a bit getting to this point, by I do have a point.

My research is turning up two distinct categories.
1.  It's all focused on consumption products. I'm not poo-pooing consumption, but do we teach higher level thinking through these products?  Kids spend most of their life consuming technology: TV, video games, and music.  Do we need to overload them in school too?  Do we need iPads to do what my mom did with index cards when I was 10?
2.  "These computers are going to change everything!"... but very little practical application to go along with it.  There is a large group of educators out there who are itching to change the educational system and rightly see these electronics as the means to get there.  We all know that these tools can do something special we could not dream of when we were kids, but very few are giving practical suggestions of how to get there.

This summer I got my first iPad and started in on Twitter.  It wasn't long before I found @coolcatteacher and @thenerdyteacher.  I love following them because they give practical suggestions of what they are doing in class and how they integrate technology.  However, they teach high school, and I'm in upper elementary.  I'm still struggling to find someone in my grade level who is using these tools to do cool things (creation tools, not consumption tools).

So, here's my promise.  I'm going to keep plugging away.  I'm going to find ways for my students to create using iPads, and I'm going to post those projects here. If you or a friend are on a similar quest to use project based learning and creation apps in the upper elementary classroom, please send them my way.  I would love a buddy to bounce ideas off of. Imagine what we could do collaborating together.  If you stumble across this post and you realize that we're barking up the same tree, please send me your blog address, twitter handle, or facebook friend request.

I originally wrote this post over a week ago and stopped since it sounded so obnoxiously cocky.  I went back today and deleted whole paragraphs and tweaked a few things.  Please don't read this and think that I'm promoting myself or what I'm doing.  I'm just showing my frustrations and struggles to find what I'm looking for out there.  Instead of this blog being self-promotion, I'm getting my voice out there trying to find some sense of community so we can learn and grow together.

Thanks for listening to me ramble.  I'm not even sure if I ended where I started with the title, but I feel better now.  

 @kylepace

Tech Integrators - December 8, 2011

I am sitting in the Philadelphia International Airport awaiting a flight home after a funeral, so I have some time for blogging.

My first thought is about my iPad, my music, and the Internet here in the airport. Every time I bring up Safari, my iTunes cuts out. So I turned on Pandora. Same thing. Now I'm listening to Muzak. Ugh!

Here is an article about what to do before you unleash a 1:1 program on your middle schoolers. The #1 thing? Email training. Interesting. I think my students are being trained on Office right now, so we're a bit off the radar here. I know that in one of my wiki projects I had to put the kabash on goofball emails as teachers and parents had to read them. Craziness. Here's the link. http://tericeschneider.com/?p=11

This article is about 10 months old. Ancient for this discussion, but it has good questions to comsider before you get into a program. A lot of it is for administrators and the IT department not the teachers, but there are some good thoughts for classroom teachers as well. Are you teaching in project-based environment or are you still the lecture-style teacher. If you are putting machines in there hands, you have to be prepared to give up some control.
http://ipadeducators.ning.com/profiles/blogs/preparing-your-school-for-an

Do you use Twitter as a teaching tool? I have a hard time allowing my 10- to 12-year old students get ahold of Twitter. I must still be a bit old fashioned. However, this article gives reasons to ponder it.
http://www.teachhub.com/twitter-classroom-discussion

I'm a gmail guy. I really think a third of my life is run by Google, and another third is run by Apple. This article helps us guide the way to meld the two together. I need to do this.
http://lifehacker.com/5859854/

If you're not following the Nerdy Teacher, then start now. Here is his list of 5 most needed apps in school. What would you put on your list?
http://www.thenerdyteacher.com/2011/11/in-next-few-days-i-will-be-rolling-out.html?utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=twitterfeed

Technology Integrators (#1)

I plan on creating a post once a week talking about the world of technology integration.  As I spend time researching and learning new things, I'll post summaries and links in my post and put it out there for everyone to learn.  Of course, in today's world, what I learn today could be old news next week, but we'll give it a go.

While I was reading about this I discovered paper.li, a site that automatically creates a newspaper based on what you are following on Twitter.  I filtered out the stuff about my favorite musicians and athletes and landed with this.  Tell me what you think?  It changes each day.  So, bookmark, subscribe to it, and check back often.
http://paper.li/Cncdky/1320172334

Cool Cat Teacher is an amazing teacher/integrator.  Read her Daily Paper at http://coolcatteacher.visibli.com/share/erWxdC.

How can you stop lecturing and start students doing projects that promote learning instead?
http://www.edutopia.org/stw-maine-project-based-learning-replication-tips

Here is an article on why you should join Twitter too. Let's face it.  With today's Internet, we're all networking more and more.  Twitter is a place where today's educational technology integrators are meeting.  Read more at http://paper.li/shurrey/1292300532?utm_source=subscription&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=paper_sub.

Speaking of networking, here is an article talking gathering together teachers, administrators, and students to work together to create a technology plan that can work.  It also mentions the need for using such social networks as Facebook and Twitter in the regular classroom.
http://innovativeedu.visibli.com/share/CJK52f

How are you using technology in your classroom?  There are three models you can choose from: doing old things in old ways, doing old things in new ways, or doing new things in new ways.  Guess how the author thinks you should be doing things.
http://www.edutopia.org/adopt-and-adapt

Technology integration in elementary school?  Can we use blogging, video penpalling, and podcasts to help the kids learn.  I mean.... the kids doing these things, not necessarily the teacher.  See how one school district in South Carolina is doing this effectively.
http://www.edutopia.org/stw-differentiated-instruction-technology-integration

Let's end with a question.  What are your thoughts on this tweet I just read?
"Kids are not only consuming information, they are producing it. And our classrooms need to reflect that. (ClaudiaCostin)

Thanks for reading.  Let me know what you want me to cover, and I'll try to find it.