I often get asked how I learned what I know about technology. That is not a simple question to answer as there are so many different avenues I use to learn about new technologies or how to use older technologies in newer ways. I think of the Beatles song "With a Little Help From My Friends". Now, not all the lyrics support my process but the "help from my friends' part definitely is. "My friends" are the people in my Personal Learning Network, my PLN.
I use a few different sites to connect with others interested in how to use technology to improve teaching and learning. The most effective one for me right now is Linked In Groups. I have joined three groups: International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE), Technology Integration in Education (TIE), and Wisconsin Educational Media and Technology Association (WEMTA). These three groups provide me with answers to questions I post as well as allows me to learn from others' postings and questions. If you have not already joined these groups, I suggest you give them a try. Create yourself an account at Linked In, join these groups, and start adding colleagues into your professional circle.
Another way that I learn about ed tech tools is to search sites like Slideshare and Prezi to find presentations created by others. Often times, there are wonderful presentations posted there that make it easy for me to quickly scroll through the presentation, stopping only at the points where I will learn something new.
YouTube is another great place to search for tutorials and presentations to learn about any new ed tech tools. Create an account for yourself and you can save favorites as well as subscribe to "channels". These channels are created by individuals or organizations and are gold mines for learning about ed tech. For instance, if you subscribe to Google Apps channel, you can get an email each time a new video is uploaded. The same is true for TED talks and many other great YouTube channels. Check out Michael Welsh's video on Reinventing Education. It took me two minutes to find this on YouTube.
At times, I use Twitter to find information, although, I have to admit that it is less productive for me. I use Tweet Deck to easily see others' tweets as well as to follow specific hashtags such as #edtech. I also contribute by tweeting things I find on the Internet as well as retweeting posts that I think others will find valuable.
While these tools are not the only tools I use to learn on my own "with a little help from my friends", these are some of the key ones. Look for a future post about how to use Google Reader to stay on top of the blogs you want to read the most.
We are hearing more and more about the "flipped classroom" lately. As I started hearing this in various places, I thought I better learn about this new innovation! Of course, I don't want to miss out on a great teaching and learning strategy that uses technology, right? Well, unless I am missing something big here, I don't think the "flipped classroom" is very innovative at all for an elementary classroom....unless you are still teaching with lectures. I do, however, think there may be some uses of a modified version of this for elementary.
According to Jackie Gerstein, the flipped classroom should be part of a bigger model as shown above. The "flipped" part is in the asynchronous individual sections for "what" and "so what". It is not just students watching lectures, but they are responding and sharing their insights in what they learned. You will also notice in her model, that there are hands on activities and project based learning. I like how she has blended the pedagogies and used the aspects of hands on projects during class while the more traditional teaching and reflecting are done outside of class. This makes sense to me because it has the teacher working with the students during the time when they will need the most guidance...during the hands-on activities and project based learning.
John R. Sowash, on The Electric Educator Blog, explains how he had been using "reverse instruction" or "flipped classroom" for his anatomy and physiology class. As he notes, he does a lot of lectures in this course so this shift in pedagogy made sense for how he currently teaches his class. While he is pleased with his new pedagogy, is that the model of education we really want in the 21st century? He has recorded the lectures for viewing at home and now kids do the "homework" in class with his help. While this might be an improvement to classic traditional instruction, is this really where we want to get to? How about revising the course more to include some problem based learning? He does do a great job of sharing tips and tricks for making the "flipped classroom" work. Again, this is a secondary class that typically used a lot of lectures as the main mode of instruction. Check out his You Tube video on skin and body membranes.
By using this model, John has figured out a way to save the precious class time for guiding his students. I do think this is an improvement over traditional instruction, but I would really like to see this morphed into the model Jackie has explained. By using the "flipped classroom" for delivering content and reflecting on learning, class time can be freed up for doing problem based learning.
While I know I have more to learn about this model of teaching, I do think it may work in a modified way in elementary. For example, I know that when I preteach the math lesson to my special education students for 10 minutes just prior to math class, they are better able to learn during the math instruction in the classroom. While the math class is mostly hands on work including team work, manipulatives, and figuring things out together, there are vocabulary words and prerequisite skills that help students prepare for the lesson. I plan to experiment with using a modified "flipped classroom" model where the students watch the prelesson skills in a video either just prior to class or at home the night before. If that works, it would be great to have the students watch the videos at home the night before. It would allow me to keep them in their regular classroom for those 10 minutes OR it would allow me to use those 10 minutes to catch them up on other math skills that they are lacking.
When we plan our problem based learning unit for this year, I want to see if there are places within the unit where we could use the "flipped classroom" concept for some direct teaching and student reflections. This would free up class time for students to work in groups on their solution.
I would love to hear from other elementary teachers who are attempting a "flipped classroom" model. Please share what you are using this strategy for and how it is working for you.
Symbaloo is a quick, easy way to organize your weblinks. It is free and you can share your Symbaloo mixes with others. Basically, Symbaloo is a grid where you place your "buttons" for your web resources. They have a grid that you can get started with. You can delete buttons, add buttons, and edit how the buttons look.
For elementary students, I really like how you can add an image to a button so it is easier for them to find it. Here is the start of mine.
Once I make it publicly available, I can post the link on our class website. I can easily share it through Facebook and Twitter. I can also add it as an app on our Joli Cloud for the netbooks in the room. I still have to find out if this would also work on an iOS or Droid-based tablet. You can also add it as an app in Google Chrome. If you can use it in so many ways, this may be a great way to get links out in a BYOD classroom.
I use a few different sites to connect with others interested in how to use technology to improve teaching and learning. The most effective one for me right now is Linked In Groups. I have joined three groups: International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE), Technology Integration in Education (TIE), and Wisconsin Educational Media and Technology Association (WEMTA). These three groups provide me with answers to questions I post as well as allows me to learn from others' postings and questions. If you have not already joined these groups, I suggest you give them a try. Create yourself an account at Linked In, join these groups, and start adding colleagues into your professional circle.
