Education & Technology

Perfect together! Discussing how to educate children where they play & learn so you can teach the next generation.

Two New for Language Arts

March 26, 2008 by · No Comments · Two Ideas for Language Arts

As technology educators we are always confronted with the issue of trying to get faculty to try a new idea. Well, I found a few products that were enthusiastically received by Language Arts teachers and I would love to share them with you.

The first is Visual Thesaurus. Sometimes when students are assigned to write an essay, it is so hard for them to find the right word. The Visual Thesaurus is a fun alternative to “look it up”. The kids love it. What you do is type in a word and then this really cool animated array opens up and allows you to continue clicking until you find the work you like. On one side of the window it displays for you which of the words is a noun, adverb, adjective, etc. You can share your word lists, and they even have a 14 day free trial.

When I sent it to the faculty to try it out they were so enthusiastic they wanted to buy it NOW. What a great tool. Check it out!

Criterion is a Web-based instructional tool that allows students to submit essays for immediate
evaluation, including a holistic score and annotated diagnostic feedback on their grammar, usage,
mechanics, style, and organization and development. About a half million elementary, middle, high school and college students across the United States and around the world have used the Criterion service, according to Technology & Learning which awarded the software in 2005.

Our teachers started using this recently and I have to tell you the response from the students is inspiring. As I watched this program be deployed in a sixth grade classroom I saw something that I don’t think would have happened any other way. The students approached this program as if it were a computer game. They were trying to score higher on their essays by making quick adjustments to see if they could raise their scores. They were very focused and disappointed when what would appear to be a simple solution did not result in a higher score and sometimes resulted in a lower one.

I sort of hated to be the one to explain that this wasn’t a contest and getting a higher score was independent of how quickly you achieved that result. Soon I saw my Need for Speed enthusiasts settle back in their seats and really focus on raising their score by using imagination and creative writing.

These are two great examples of good infusion of technology in education.

NJECC Conference at Montclair State University

March 21, 2008 by · No Comments · How do your student's learn?

My head is still spinning! I just came from the NJECC conference over the past three days. I have been in EdTech for more than 15 years and I still learn more every day. This conference gave me ideas for new podcasts with my students, a working knowledge of how to use Google Apps in the classroom, offering my students a place to do real “higher order” thinking at yourtake.org, setting up an online class in Moodle and of course there is nothing like sharing ideas with colleagues and learning how they do things.

This always leaves me thinking about how I can incorporate this into my curriculum and what, if anything more can I do to stimulate my students and advance their learning beyond the traditional, played out paper and pen.

I was listening to reports of the Auto Show and was smiling as I heard them say, the age of the Jetsons has arrived – a car that flies for about 1,000 miles! As more hovercraft are built do you imagine that people will say, you must drive the old fashioned car – even if it is bulkier, slower, more demaning? Educators insist on forcing kids to do things the “way we have always” done things. Why? Nothing innovative ever came from redundancy.

Letting our students learn and grow in the manner that suits them is scary for some teachers. There is nothing to fear from learning. Kids walk around our schools with mini computers attached to their hips, let’s have them use them! You could have a contest in your classroom – ask your students to compete – who can get this information fastest – send a text message to someone in your phone that lives out of this state. Ask them: what time is it? what is your favorite color? what is the weather like where you are? Have them graph their answers including the time it took to get them. Then create a chart…then…well the list goes on.

It is time for us to start thinking outside the box and really noticing where our students are and what they are doing everyday that is building information in their think tanks. 1:1 initiative was handled mostly through Verizon, Cingular and ATT. Let’s take advantage of this in our classrooms.

What’s delicious?

January 13, 2008 by · No Comments · Uncategorized

Social Bookmarking is a very useful tool for teachers. It allows us all to select and mark with tags those websites we find helpful. Then, since it is social, we can share what we find with others. This is great because sometimes you want to find a site and, well, Google’s results can be overwhelming even for the best Boolean users. So, you can log into your favorite Social Bookmarking site ( del.icio.us or furl.net)and see what other people have found by using the tags that match your search. Watch this quick video to get a better understanding of social bookmarking.

Social Bookmarking

January 13, 2008 by · No Comments · social bookmarking, Uncategorized

Social Bookmarking is a very useful tool for teachers. It allows us all to select and mark with tags those websites we find helpful. Then, since it is social, we can share what we find with others. This is great because sometimes you want to find a site and, well, Google’s results can be overwhelming even for the best Boolean users. So, you can log into your favorite Social Bookmarking site ( del.icio.us or furl.net)and see what other people have found by using the tags that match your search. Watch this quick video to get a better understanding of social bookmarking.

Geography Awareness Week

December 30, 2007 by · No Comments · Geography Awareness Week

Attention Social Studies Teachers!
Even if you missed this year’s Geography Awareness Week, you can still check out the great information available to you at “Geography in Action!”hosted by National Geographic. This year the focus was on Asia, last year Africa. So if your lesson plans include these continents, or you would like to add this to your repertoire, check it out.

On a personal note…My youngest son hates to read. At his school he is required (7th grade) to read a book a month and it is grueling to find something he is interested in reading. Over the course of his school career we have tried every basketball title on the AR list, he never finishes them. Recently, we found a 6th grade book that has only 36 pages…it was a hit. That was the criteria – the number of pages. So, the other day while doing research for one of the teachers in my school I came across an interview with Christopher Paul Curtis about his book, “Bud, not Buddy”. My son watched the whole interview and asked me to take him to the library to get the book. Score one for technology!

So if you are having trouble engaging students about a book…or if you would like to further interest them in authors, please direct your attention to the Author presentation list at the Library of Congress’, National Book Festival

Twitter Technology

December 29, 2007 by · No Comments · Twitter technology

Staying up to date with what is going on in Technology and integrating that into education is a full time, round-the-clock, kind of job. I have a Twitter

The The Impotence of Proofreading

November 4, 2007 by · No Comments · education

Climb Every Mountain

October 23, 2007 by · No Comments · conquer fear, What is a mom to do?

I went rock climbing today. Real rock climbing, not one of those indoor wall things (what is that about anyway?). My friends and I went to New Paltz and visited Mohonk Mountain. Now if you clicked on the link and got a view of the hotel/resort located you will be fooled like I was when I looked around.

When we arrived I said, “Oh, not rock climbing, she (it was my friend’s idea) meant leisurely walking along paths near rocks! Thank God!”. You see, for me, roughing it is staying at a Holiday Inn instead of a Hyatt. Raised in the city, I don’t really do “country” very well and so while I thought rock climbing might be fun, I secretly wished she meant sitting at the bottom of the mountain, drink in hand, watching others climbing rocks.

As we walked along that beautiful lake we saw a sign that said: Labyrinth Very Dangerous! That should have been the tip off. Rarely do you see a sign like, “Brooklyn Battery Tunnel, Very Dangerous”. You should see that sign, the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel is no place for the weak of heart, but you don’t see that sign. You know why, for all of it’s faults – the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel is not very dangerous. This labyrinth is very dangerous.

This ought to give you an idea of what I mean.

I love my friend and I trust her, so I went into the labyrinth anyway. After a short crying jag at the beginning because I was overcome with terror. I completed the task. I wouldn’t crawl up the “lemon squeeze” at the end. I grunted, lifted my own body weight (no small accomplishment) and scraped my way through it, but, I finished. I made it through the labyrinth!

A Little Humor

October 19, 2007 by · No Comments · The Mommy Marathon

What happens?

September 29, 2007 by · No Comments · What is a mom to do?

If a mommy doesn’t answer the phone? Does anyone else hear it?
If a mommy won’t do the laundry? Does the pile continue to grow?
What happens if the mommies go on strike?

Try and imagine a day when kids come home from school or practice, drop their stuff on the floor by the door and shout, “What’s for dinner?” and there is no answer. Imagine at first no one will notice. Then, maybe as they meander into the kitchen they might call down to the laundry room once more screeching, “What’s for dinner?” or an older child might go as far as to say, “You haven’t started dinner yet?” Still the retorts go unanswered and yet the television goes on and food is brought in front of the TV (since no one is watching). As the clock ticks onward, soon the questions will start, “Where’s mom?” “Hey, have you seen mom?”

“Mom, where are you? I’m hungry!” They might begin to search the immediate area. One child will pick up the phone to call her cell phone. They get the answering machine… panic begins to set in – who will make dinner?

A wiser (not by much) child might add, “Call Dad.” They will hear, “He’s at work!”

Ah, yes, work. This is a sacrosanct location which can never be intruded upon by something as mundane as a phone call and questions as banal as where’s mom. We cannot disturb dad with something as silly as, “Can I have a ride? Can I have some money? What’s for dinner? Do I have to do my science homework?”

No – these are questions that are saved for mom. By the way, just so we’re clear here, those questions can be posed to mom at any time – work, sleep, even toilet time is not as well protected as dad’s work time. For that matter, dad’s toilet time is pretty special too! But, I digress.

The search will continue until one child says to the others, “Hey, I think I see mom. She is standing in front of the house and she is holding a sign. You must’ve walked right past her!”

“Me! You walked past her too!”

“Did not!”

“Did too!”

“MOM!” They run out the door to find their mother looking like the poster child for women’s suffrage in front of their house. Without so much as a pause to inquire what she might be doing, they begin…

“Where were you?”
“We were looking all over for you?”
“Do you think your funny hanging around in front of the house, you’re embarrassing me!” (teenager)
“Mom, I’m hungry! Are you going to make dinner?”
“Matt pushed me.”
“Did not.”
“Did too.”
“Did not.”
“Did too.”

The noblest of suffragettes could not have withstood such masterful negotiators. You see, the reason we don’t go on strike is because the people we are striking against have an arsenal of secret weapons that we can not withstand. We love them and WANT to be disturbed by them.

So every time I think, that’s it…I’m not doing this anymore. One of my brood will call me from what I am doing for a ride and they will say it without realizing that there is that thing in their voice, that little twinge that really is saying – take care of me, I need you.

What else is there? So…

If mommy doesn’t answer the phone – they call back.
If mommy doesn’t do the wash – they go shopping.
If mommy goes on strike – they seek her out like heat seeking missiles and strike right for the heart.