Are We Preparing Our Students for the World in Which They Will Live and Learn?

Mathew Johnson an Educator from Pennsylvania created "When I Grow Up". This short video asks the question of educators worldwide: "Are we preparing our students for the world they will live and learn?"

I believe there are pockets of educators who have realized that we've got to re-think how we educate our students. These educators get the idea that our students are "powering down" to come to school. I'm hopeful that our district will soon realize that we have to take a look at just how we create engaging learning environments for our students.
New research from the Metri Group states that multimedia can improve learning .
We can't continue to wish away the "technology" use in the classrooms.
And look at this...there may be hope after all: The Consortium for School Networking (CoSN) is "launching a new leadership initiative aimed at giving superintendents the tools and resources they need to understand the transformative role of educational technology, as well as to lay out a blueprint for technology leadership and action."
Empowering the 21^st Century Superintendent, aims at providing district leaders with the skills they need to lead effective ed-tech programs, strengthen school district leadership and communication, infuse 21^st-century skills into the curriculum, create engaging learning environments, support professional development, and improve assessment.
Maybe our students will stand a chance of competing in this "Flat World!"

Diana

Student Internet Safety : What's your approach?

After having a conversation about student internet use and safety with my Innovative Educators during our last Blogs and Wikis training I came across this timely blog entry from Vinnie Vrotny.
Vrotny suggests that we stop teaching our students using negative messages of what not to do on the internet, but instead teach them how to think about the consequences of their actions.
Vrontny has recognized that our students are active in all aspects of the web from social networks, gaming to YouTube and beyond. He proposes that we ask them a series of questions that have the potential to make our students "think before they post."

Vrotny's questions:

If people were to Google you, what conclusions would they make?

From observing your on-line communication, what kind of person would they believe you are? What type of thinker are you? What skills do they think that you have?

From looking at your digital self, would people think that you are full of creativity or are you a copy-cat, mimicking the works of others without any new original thought?

What do you do if your work is being misappropriated? What if you discover that there are images of you on other’s sites which are unflattering or potentially damaging?

What's your approach to teaching your students about their safety and presence on the internet?

For the whole blog entry go to Changing my Tune - Internet Safety for Students

Diana Kenney

Innovative Educator's VoiceThread Project

Roxanne Clement, one of our district's techno-innovator Media Specialists recently created a VoiceThread interactive project with her students to celebrate Dr. Seuss's birthday.

Let me know if you and your students have created an innovative technology project! I'd love to showcase it here!

Diana Kenney :)

Embedding...Really Embedding Video in PowerPoint

Engaging students in their own learning is not only powerful but just good teaching. Why not spice up those flat PPT's by embedding video segments into your presentation.
Watch how your students become instantly engaged in the learning process...
Try it, I think you'll like it!
:) Diana Kenney

The Effects of IM Can't Be All That Bad!

Kimber, Jeff Utecht's from Shanghai, China create this Gloster poster! See what this 14 year old has to say about the effects of IM (Instant Messaging) on America's youth!

Internet GEMS from CUE (Computer Using Educators Conference)

I'm back from an accelerating trip to the 30th annual CUE Conference. There is so much to share that I will just bullet the GEMS below. Let me know if you plan on using any of them! ENJOY!

• Visible Body: The Google Earth of the human body! You must launch in Internet Explorer.

• Scratch: A new programming language (developed by MIT) that makes it easy to create your own interactive stories, animations, games, music, and art -- and share your creations on the web. Students will learn important mathematical and computational ideas, while also gaining a deeper understanding of the process of design.

• ToonDoo: Create your own comic strips, Publish, Share & Discuss

• Animoto: The coolest new technology out there! Create your own movies.The heart of Animoto is its newly developed Cinematic Artificial Intelligence technology that thinks like an actual director and editor. It analyzes and combines user-selected images and music with the same sophisticated post-production skills & techniques that are used in television and film.

• FreeRice: Is the sister site of the world poverty site, Poverty.com. Build your vocabulary and feed the poor at the same time.

• I Learn You Learn We Learn: The focus of this wiki is to provide resources about contemporary technology tools that could make a difference in the way we educate our students.
  

• The Math Worksheet Site: With The Math Worksheet Site you can create an endless supply of printable math worksheets.

• Free Stock Photos: Free photography for personal or commercial use.
  

I'll be adding more resources regularly. So keep checking in!

Diana Kenney

Create Your Own Cyber-bookshelf with Lookybook

Mill Valley illustrator Craig Frazier has released a beta version of his children's book site, www.lookybook.com. Lookybook helps educators and parents make informed consumer choices about picture books by allowing users to "click" through illustrated pages and peruse a title in its entirety.
Books are listed by author and illustrator as well as by subject. The latter category is quite extensive with links to titles about living things, concepts, holidays, issues and behavior, academic subjects and cultural diversity.
Idea: Create a class bookshelf. Lookybook is interactive allowing readers to leave comments.