BYOD- one of the top 10 Ed Tech stories of 2011

This year, BYOD landed amongst the top 10 stories in Ed Tech for 2011, according to eSchool News.

As our first semester with BYOD comes to a close, I find it interesting to look at others perspectives on this trend, which is helping districts across the country save money on technology equipment.

You can find the eSchool news summary of the topic at http://www.eschoolnews.com/2011/12/15/the-10-biggest-ed-tech-stories-of-2011/10/?

It talks about the classroom management issue as well as other struggles that teachers and districts face when implementing this new paradigm. Also intereesting in this article is that it sites results from the Project Speak Up Survey, which we are asking our staff, students, parents, and administrators to take this year (see an earlier blog post)

For the entire top ten list, from the beginning, check out eSchool News!

And for our district BYOD handbook, click on the link below the image!

http://www.friscoisd.org/ly/departments/technology/documents/FISD_BYODCommunication_001.pdf

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Flipping Your Classroom

Classroom Flipping is a hot topic these days, and it is a really cool concept. The idea is this, instead of teaching a lesson at school, and sending kids home to practice by doing homework exercises, you do the opposite. You send the kids home to watch a lesson (usually a video, screen recording or tutorial) and then the kids come to class to do the practice exercises. This completely changes the way a classroom looks. Instead of seeing teachers in front of the classroom lecturing, you see teachers walking around and helping students on a more individualized basis.

Teachers can create lessons for students in may ways. Here in Frisco, we have screen capture software that will record your voice and actions. Interwrite does that for us (there is an earlier blog post on this, or your facilitator can help you with that. Mobi is not required to use the Interwrite software. Even PowerPoint lets you record narration to go with your slides. There are also lots of lessons already out on the Internet somewhere. Khan Academy has a ton of great math lesson for example. Links to videos or lessons can bye easily put in Moodle or your classroom web site. Lessons can also be embedded in these vehicles for easy student access.

You could have your students go out and view a lesson on a specific concept, and have them take notes at home. When the students get to class, you could check their notes to ensure they met their responsibility. Then, you could extend the lesson by having them answer questions or work on a project during class time.

Parents like this idea too. For one thing, you are taking parents "off the hook" because they don't feel the need to understand all the concepts their kids are learning in school in order to help them with their homework. In fact, parents can watch the videos or tutorials or lessons with their kids, so they can learn also, without the pressure of helping with application.

Another benefit to this teaching style is that kids can re-watch any lesson at any time. If they struggled with a concept, they can go back and watch again and again. Kids that are absent? No problem! All their lessons are online. In addition, this kind of teaching allows you to really differentiate your instruction. That seems a little strange to say since all kids have the same video to watch. But since class time is now spent helping individual students with their problems, it is easy to remediate and give students that one-on-one time that they are sop desperately needing,

Want more info on how this works? Check out this article or search for "The Flipped Classroom" on Google. You won't believe how much information you will find!

http://www.thedailyriff.com/articles/how-the-flipped-classroom-is-radically-transforming-learning-536.php


Created by Knewton and Column Five Media

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Google Stock Photos

One of the things that has, in the past, made Google Docs a little more of a challenge to use, has been the lack of a clipart feature. We have become so dependent upon clipart that it is difficult to reconcile the fact that we must go out on the web and find our own images for insertion into our documents.

Enter Google Stock Photo! Now, if you open a document and choose to insert an image, one of your choices is to choose an image from Google Stock Photo. In the image above, I searched for the term "baby" (I guess I have babies on the brain!) and found lots of cute results.

No longer are you completely dependent upon finding your own imagery for your site, blog, or document! Knowing Google, this repository will only continue to grow. Being web based, and not a static software package, Google could update the photos in this at any time.

I love the possibilities this affords!

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Google: Now a Graphing Calculator!

You may or may not be aware, but Google is more than a search engine. There are lots of interesting things that can happen in Google if you know how to word your query. For example, you can track a package by entering UPS, Fedex or USPS package tracking numbers into the search box. Enter something like 10.5 cm in inches and Google will do the conversion. 


And, in the past, if you treated the search box like a calculator screen, it would give you the answer!


But now Google has taken it a step further and added the graphing calculator functionality. Here is a screenshot of three graphs I plotted at once.

Pretty neat! Oh, and did you like all that other stuff you can use Google search for? For more on cool search features of Google: check here!

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Facebook- a place in the classroom?

Many educators have strong opinions with regards to Facebook. Either they fall in the "Don't Do IT" camp or they embrace it wholeheartedly. Whichever your stance, you should check out the list of 5 Best Practices for Teachers from Mashable.

By the way, did you know that there are FISD related Facebook pages out there?
There is a page for Pioneer Heritage Middle School, and a page for FriscoISD Libraries to name just a couple. The advanced Marketing students at CTE have also created a Facebook page as part of their ad campaign to end cyberbullying.

Have you ever considered using Facebook in class? Well, it is blocked by our filters, but a little creativity goes a long way here. Why not make a fake Facebook page? Make a page for a historical figure, a famous artist or musician, or a character from a book. See your campus facilitator if you are interested in doing a project like these. We have templates already created that you can use, for both PPT and Google Presentations! There is also a website now called "Fakebook" where you can create a fake page online! Find it here. 

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