A Really Cool Cat...Teacher

For my final podcast, I again chose a link from Edutopia, I just love the visual component!  This one was titled: Harness your Students Digital Smarts. Here we meet Vicky Davis, a technology teacher from Camilla, GA, a really rural area. Vicky Davis is the recipient of the 2008 Edublog award for "Best Teacher Blog in the World." Her blog can be found at CoolCatTeacher.

In the video we see high school students using the technology that they are very comfortable with in the classroom such as cell phones, iPod Touches and computers. She states that every child can learn, but with only paper and only pencils, only a certain type of child can succeed. Her teaching focuses on:

• how to learn new software
• learning how to learn
• how to blog effectively
• how to collaborate effectively 
• being comfortable with any kind of technology.

She and her friend Julie Lindsay (who is in Qatar) started the global collaborative project Digi Teen, where students from around the world learn about digital citizenship.

This teacher has taken a school from rural Georgia and has connected it to the world. I think that is pretty cool.  It is teachers like Vicky Davis that are pioneering the way for integrating technology into our schools.

The Geo-Literacy Project

Yet again the folks at Edutopia have wowed me with an interesting video podcast. In this episode titled The Geo-Literacy Project, I entered Ms. LaMar's third grade classroom at Tolenas Elementary School in Fairfield, California. In this video, we saw the students using technology such as video cameras, computers, digital cameras and things that I don't even know the name of to capture what life was like 100-200 years ago on Rush Ranch in California! These 3rd graders are helping to preserve the documentation of a dying trade: blacksmithing.


Ms. LaMar's students have taken several fieldtrips to Rush Ranch and have shared their findings online with classrooms all over the country through the Geo-Literacy Project.  All of the content on the site came from "self directed inquiry" by these 3rd graders. They have collaborated with both high school students and local historians to create the website.


Their teacher, Ms. LaMar, believes that by studying local history students can taste the joy of lifelong learning. Now, who's hungry??

Happy Birthday Edublogs

In this episode, Chris Betcher from The Virtual Staffroom interviews James Farmer, the creator of Edublogs, on its 2nd birthday. To celebrate this momentous occasion, Chris and James Skyped each other and we get to listen in on their conversation! Edublogs was created as a way to get as many teachers blogging as possible. In very short time, Edublogs was becoming the premier blogging site for teachers.


Edublogs was created by an Englishman who has been living in Australia. When Chris asked him what percentage of Australian teachers use edublogs, he said less than 25%. He then said that 75% of the users come from the US and Canada. Interesting. I keep reading that other countries have teachers who embrace technology more than American teachers. While this may be true in some senses, it is not the case with blogging.


James then spoke about how Edublogs has the latest cutting edge features that teachers want. It also improves communication between students, teachers and parents. There have been ESL blogs to help students who are learning the English language. He also said it was good for students to have their own blogs because it promotes creativity, identity and is empowering. 


As an adult student who is new to blogging, I can vouch for that!

My New Name...

Ok so I really did NOT like my super generic blog name (remember it?? - Sue's Tech Blog) So I just had to come up with something different. For a little while it was Tic Tac Tech, but that just didn't seem right either. Now Im excited about my new name...it reminds me of little mouthfuls of techy stuff.

Yep, I think I'm all into this new blog thingy. Maybe too much. Maybe I just need to go to bed - good night all!

Walton Ag-Tech School

The third podcast I watched (it was a video as well) was created by Kevin Honeycutt and is titled Rural 21st Century Learning. This was by far my favorite of the three! In it Kevin interviews the Principal of Walton 21st Century Rural Life Center, a charter school in Newton Kansas.

This school is so cool!  It is an Ag-Tech school, meaning agriculture and technology. It is in the middle of America's bread basket. This school is all about project-based learning. Each classroom has a farm family that adopts them and they go out to those farms and have meaningful, relevant hands on lessons that incorporate both the sciences and math. Classrooms are outfitted with SmartBoards, Elmos and laptops. The school has a Weather Bug that is connected to the local news station so that students can get real-time information. Here is a link to a video made by the school that explains what they have to offer to their students.

What I love about this school is how engaged the kids are. It seems that they are really into meaningful learning. The teachers and kids seem eager to be there and the school also seems to have strong family values. I was so interested in this school that I googled it for more information. This is the kind of place that I would love to work at!

Welcome to the Digital Generation

For my second podcast, I chose to watch/listen to a selection from Edutopia's Technology Integration Series. I really liked the video feed on this one, it really helped to hold my interest since I am a visual learner. The title was 2009 - A Digital Odyssey. The video begins with music from The Space Odyssey (nice touch) and is in black and white, it shows bored students who are falling asleep while their teacher is lecturing about space while writing on an old-fashioned chalkboard. Teacher gets frustrated and after smacking the eraser on the ledge of the board a few times he throws it up into the air, the video turns to color and we see the students lifting their eyes upwards with outstretched hands - looked like they were worshiping to me... however they were not worshiping, they were welcoming the downpour of laptops, cell phones and iPods into their eager little hands. Hmmm.


We then see the evolution of technology starting in 1989 with SimCity all the way to 2009 with a netbook. This made me think of the beginning of Star Wars when the history was scrolling across the screen. Here are some of the memorable quotes from the podcast. "Technology is more than a tool, it is an essential of everyday life that frames their (students) worldview." "There is more to their world than playing with cool gadgets, this is about engagement, self directed learning, creativity and empowerment." "Digital life is a good thing...its going to help kids create, meet people, explore, compose and express themselves. It give them the most powerful tools than the've ever had in any generation in history."


Honestly, this podcast kind of frustrated me. Even though I am in support of using technology in classrooms that was not the point of this podcast. We saw kids saying things like "my iPod is my entire life" and "I text more than I call people, like, no one calls anyone anymore". I am seriously worried that, as the narrator said, "technology is framing this generations worldview." Yes, the podcast did show some great things that kids are doing with technology like helping kids in Haiti through a website, just about all of the children I know are busy playing on their gaming systems and think nothing of the violence and related evils that they rely on as their entertainment.


It is very true that this generation has the most power than any generation before, and because of that power available to them, I believe that it is of highest importance that we teach our young people how to use that power responsibly. We need to build into their character so that they do not abuse the power that is at their fingertips. We also need to be strong examples in their life. As adults we need to model balance, that is something I strive for everyday.

Whiteboards Everywhere!

G'Day Mates!  The first podcast that I listened to was through The Virtual Staffroom  - Conversations with teachers about technology in the classroom.  I was listening in on Chris Betcher as he was at the 4th annual Interactive Whiteboard Conference in beautiful Gold Coast, Australia.  In this podcast, we follow along as Chris Betcher interviewed delegates and we listened in as he had a video conference with Ben Hazzard of Canada. Aside from Chris having an amazing Australian accent, it was very interesting to listen to!


This was a big conference in Australia that attracted educators and vendors from as far away as Hong Kong, New Zealand and Christmas Island.  There were about 450 people in attendance and they were able to choose from an astounding 116 sessions to attend.  All of the people that he interviewed were very interested in incorporating technology such as SmartBoards into their classrooms. Some of the comments that stuck out to me were as follows: "Professional Development is needed when a school decides to purchase Interactive WhiteBoards (IBW). We don't want to invest all this money and then have teachers who are too afraid to use them. We need to train our teachers."  The Director of Immanuel College, which hosted the conference, stated that IBW's are in use in all of their primary classrooms and most of their secondary classrooms. He said that in the primary grades, IBW's are used interactively as opposed to secondary where they are mostly used to lecture.  He would like to see all of the students, both primary and secondary using them interactively because it is so much more engaging.


The last part of this podcast was happening during one of the sessions where Chris was Skyping as a videoconference with Ben Hazzard, Canada's own IWB guru. For me the highlight of this part was the idea that students could Skype with another classroom across the world and be able to talk in real time.


The use of IWB's is changing the face of the classroom, and it seems that the teachers who embrace this technology will be the teachers who will be able to make the greatest impact with 21st century students. I am really looking forward to using one in my future classroom.