Technology and Learning: Which do you really focus on?

We all say that technology is a tool to support education.

Yet we say “We are podcasting about fractions.” In that sentence fractions is not the subject nor main action, podcasting is.

What about “We’re doing PowerPoint presentations about countries.” They are doing PowerPoint, not countries.

Let change our speech so that our words reflect that technology is not a tool, not an end to itself, and not the major focus of what we do in the classroom

“We are learning to convert fractions through podcasting.”

“We are studying the differences in countries through the use of PowerPoint.”

Let’s show others that we are focused on student learning and not technology.

 

© Harry Grover Tuttle, 2007

 

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Effective technology-Each Technology at Different Thinking Level- NECC

I gave a session at NECC on Wed. on “Assessing how a school’s academic priorities are supported by technology.” Based on many observations of schools, I’ve come to believe that 70% of all school technology-infused activities are neither focused on state standards or state assessments nor are they effective uses of technology.

Many teachers use multiple technologies in a project. Do the teachers use each technology to raise the thinking level of the project or do they use each technology on the same level of thinking. For example, in a project of analyzing the health of a stream if a teacher has students use digital camera, PowerPoint and Podcasts during the project, does each technology serve as a step to the next ladder of higher learning or are all technologies used at the same level such as comprehension? A teacher can start with digital images for comprehension, have a compare and contrast PowerPoint, and an evaluation done in a podcast.

Do you increase students’ level of thinking through each technology use in the same project/unit?

 

© Harry Grover Tuttle, 2007

 

 

Being Global Communicators -NECC

Many years ago, I started my teaching career as a Spanish teacher. Communication was my focus as was the culture of the Hispanic world.

Alan November at NECC on Wed advocated that our students communicate and work with people in other locations. In addition, he stressed that our students have to develop global perspectives on issues. I was amazed that although he talked about helping our students to develop other perspectives, he used English only resources. If we are going to be global, then we have to begin to use another language.

My students used email to correspond in Spanish and to develop projects with students in Hispanic countries. They learned the views of Spanish speaking people (from Spain and Latin America) as well as the cultural values of these people. Were I teaching Spanish today, I would have my students interact through multiple technologies with Spanish speaking people.

How do your students become global citizens through technology?

 

© Harry Grover Tuttle, 2007

 

Podcasts: Science education or technology focus?

Do you believe that technology is to support education?

Do you really believe it?

Listen to a student

“I created a planet podcast. It took four days (1 for content, 1 for planning the podcast and 2 days in the lab). Each of us created a podcast about the planets or other parts of the galaxy. We created and posted them. I did not listen to any other students’ podcasts.”

I listened to his podcast. It contain the same facts found in any science book or encyclopedia.

Was this a lesson in Science standards or in technology? 25% of the time was on the content and 75% was on the technology.

Did the teacher focus on academics or on technology? What do you focus on?

© Harry Grover Tuttle, 2007

YOUTUBE TYPE PROGRAMS NECC

YouTube Type Programs

 

YouTube

http://www.youtube.com

 

Google Video

http://video.google.com/?tab=wv

 

AOL.Video

http://video.aol.com/

 

Yahoo Video

http://video.yahoo.com/

 

TeacherTube

http://www.teachertube.com/

 

 

YouTube in the Classroom

YouTube Classroom Video Collaboration

https://eduwithtechn.wordpress.com/2007/05/21/youtube-classroom-video-collaboration/

 

YouTube Classroom Use When Blocked By School Filter

https://eduwithtechn.wordpress.com/2007/05/25/youtube-classroom-use-when-blocked-by-school-filter/

 

YouTube Instructional Video Creation from a Digital Camera

https://eduwithtechn.wordpress.com/2007/05/22/youtube-instructional-video-creation-from-a-digital-camera/

 

YouTube Video Creation From Camera Still Pictures

https://eduwithtechn.wordpress.com/2007/05/23/youtube-video-creation-from-camera-still-pictures/

 

YouTube Stuff- Tagging it so Others Can Find it

https://eduwithtechn.wordpress.com/2007/05/24/youtube-stuff-tagging-it-so-others-can-find-it/

 

YouTube Educational Videos or Just Comic Videos

https://eduwithtechn.wordpress.com/2007/05/26/youtube-educational-videos-or-just-comic-videos/

 

YouTube Instructional Videos- Let’s Improve Them!

https://eduwithtechn.wordpress.com/2007/05/30/youtube-instructional-videos-lets-improve-them/

 

© Harry Grover Tuttle, 2007

 

 

 

 

Flickr Resources for NECC

Flickr

Flickr
http://www.flickr.com

Creative Commons License (Free to use in the classroom) Shows photos that can be used by students and teachers as long as they give credit to the authors

http://flickr.com/creativecommons/by-nc-2.0/

 

FlickrLeech—see all of today’s thumbnails

http://www.flickrleech.net/

 

 

Topical and Tag Sorting

Flickstorm sorts by topic rather quickly

http://www.zoo-m.com/flickr-storm/

 

Airtight Interactive –See other tagging connections

http://www.airtightinteractive.com/projects/related_tag_browser/app/

Tagnautica shows the associated tags and images

http://www.quasimondo.com/tagnautica.php

 

 

Geography

Often teachers want to have pictures of a certain location for their classes. The tools built around Flickr provide easy access to geographically based photos. Bring the world into your class and take your students into the world outside the classroom through using Flickr!

Woophy Geotagged flickr
http://www.woophy.com/map/index.php

 

FlickrMap locates flickr pictures on a world map
http://www.flickrmap.com/

 

Loc.alize.us – Search for an image in the world
http://loc.alize.us/#/geo:0,0,2,k/

 

Mappr Type in a tag and see on the US map where the most recent photos on that tag are located
http://www.mappr.com/mappr.phtml?

 

Educational Uses:

Add Bubbles to a Picture or Series of Pictures/ See Archives

http://www.pimpampum.net/bubblr/

 

Captioner– Add a speech bubble to an image

http://shadydentist.com/captioner/index.php

 

Spell out words with Flickr pictures
http://metaatem.net/words

 

Guess the common tag-Fastr
http://randomchaos.com/games/fastr/

 

Matchr- Match images with the same tag

http://photomesh.cs.northwestern.edu/matchr/puzzle.php

 

Demonstrate meaning of a word

http://www.wordmingle.com/

 

Phasr- Type in a phrase and see a picture for each word. Can change the image.

http://www.pimpampum.net/phrasr/

There are some phrases in the archives.

 

Fillustrator – type in a phrase and see a picture for each word. Can change the images.

http://www.imagine-it.org/flickr/flillustrator.htm

 

Visual Dictionary – can pick topic and year

http://steeev.f2o.org/flickr/time.php

 

 

 

SlideShows

 

Down pictures for a slideshow

http://flickrslideshow.fateback.com/

 

Flickstorm sorts by topic rather quickly

http://www.zoo-m.com/flickr-storm/

 

Flickr Large SlideShow– Online Slide Show (large or default)

http://www.tinou.com/flickrslideshow.jsp

 

Online Slide Show select tag

http://bighugelabs.com/flickr/slideshow.php

 

 

 

 

 

 

Flickr Resources – Groups Within Flickr

5 sentence minimum stories

http://www.flickr.com/groups/stories/

 

Classroom displays

http://www.flickr.com/groups/classrmdisplays/

 

Flickr in Educ group

http://www.flickr.com/groups/flickredu/

 

Your ideas for using Flickr in your classroom?

 

© Harry Grover Tuttle, 2007

 

 

 

 

Drowning or Nurturing Technology-Infused Learning

Atlanta is hot! How do people keep their flowers so beautiful? They water them.

I’m wondering how we water our students? Does what we give them provide them with enough to grow on? Do we drown them in non-critical aspects? Will they wilt once they leave the unit since we have not water them down to their roots?

Do we nurture them by creating 1-3 minute podcasts or imovies that pose difficult problems to solve such as reducing cafeteria pollution or selecting playground equipment and figuring out how to position them in an small elementary school playground?

Do we nurture them by having them compare their results with students in a distant location via videoconferencing? Or with a playground architect?

Do we nurture them by embedding short PowerPoint state-assessment practice tutorials and practice into each unit? Do we put these tutorials on the web so the students can review them at any time.

Do our PowerPoints drown them with screen after screen of text?

Do we drown them by having them go web surfing do WebQuests without asking them in-depth or comprehensive questions about their new learning?

Do the students drown in a week long technology-infused activity that is based on the subject area material that they learned the first day?

Does your technology use nurture or drown the students?

 

© Harry Grover Tuttle, 2007

 

 

Effective Student Learning System with Technology

 

I’m in Atlanta for the NECC conference. I am impressed with the public transportation system, a quick and efficient way to get to a location in Atlanta. Each stop is clearly marked.

I wonder how we provide our students with a quick and effective system to get to their learning. How often do we teach students information that they have learned in previous grades? Do we pre-test our students? We can manually correct the pre-tests, use the quiz part of course ware programs, or use a free online survey program. Do we modify our lesson plans when we see the results of the pre-test so we are providing new learning?

I wonder how we scaffold our lessons so that students thoroughly learn the initial material and then we help them climb up to the higher levels of thinking? Do we use targeted technology activities that focus on higher and higher level thinking? Or do all of our technology-infused activities remain at the same level of thinking?

I wonder how we let our students know their progress? Do we use a grading program or course ware that allows students access to their grades at any time? Do we use grading program or course ware that allows us to rate the students’ progress in the standards and that the students can access any time?

How quick and effective is your learning system for your students?

 

© Harry Grover Tuttle, 2007

 

 

Making learners better learners with verified student profiles

I met someone who is a semi-professional photographer. She does not just see a flower, she sees the flower’s story. She looks beyond the outer surface flower to find out the inner real-story of the flower.

I thought about the students I have had. Yes, I knew whether they did their homework, their scores on tests and quizzes, what their handwriting looked like, and how quickly they finished an in class assignment. However, I knew little about them as learners. I did not know their academic strengthens: Were they better at writing poetry or narratives? Did they needed to take notes as they listened to information or could they just remember it? What strategies did they use when they had to write an essay? How did they organize information for a report? I wished I had developed a learner profile so that I could better help my students.

If students completed an online learner profile (even just a word processed document) and we could check their ideas about how they learn with how they actually learn in our classes, we could help each student to be a better learner. We could build on their actual strengthens and improve on those that do not seem to be working. We could add our responses to the students’ word processed document ( category- their response) and talk with them about how to be better learners. Without successful learning strategies our students can not improve in their subject area learning.

 

© Harry Grover Tuttle, 2007

 

Making YouTube Videos From the Digital Camera- Lessons Learned

Usually you can take a movie directly from your digital camera and upload it directly to YouTube type programs. Check on how your camera save movies. The formats of .mov/ .avi work fine.

The following will make your YouTube movie work better:
Have strong solid content
Storyboard what the camera will see and hear
Practice it several times
Have a visual or an oral introduction to the topic
Have all your props ready and in their correct order
Use close ups whenever possible to focus on the objects or actions
Have a solid color non-distracting background
Avoid background noises
Speak loudly and clearly
Keep all actions focused on the learning standard, not on comic relief
Keep the camera movement steady even if you are moving the camera
If your first try does not work, do it again. It is easier to reshoot than to edit it.
Learn from your mistakes and make each video better.
Have each group in the class make an instructional video about the topic

What have your learned from doing a YouTube type video?

© Harry Grover Tuttle, 2007

Reading in the 21st Century

I wonder what “reading” means for the 21st century. Does it mean

Getting information from images, graphs and charts, as well as text?

Skimming for links on webpages as well as reading left to right word for word? (I’m sure students read more online than they do offline.)

Following webpage links to more in-depth information about the topic?

Writing down sticky-note comments on the electronic text as a person reads it and those comments are available for others to see?

Questioning the author through emails, blogs, and videoconferencing?

Blogging or videoconferencing with others about the meaning of the text? (Book clubs/literature circles online)

Comparing other sources of the same information such as looking at the same news story from newspapers of several countries?

Writing information to a WIKI about other stories with the same theme, location, or problem?

Getting cultural information that helps in the understanding of the reading material from a person in that country? What would a person from Colombia tell about Hernando Téllez’ “Just Lather, That’s All”?

Reading 50% or more of non-fiction?

Decoding text messages?

Determining the authenticity of the reading material?

Being able to build or do something as a result of reading instructions?

© Harry Grover Tuttle, 2007

70% Not Focused/Not Efficient Technology Integration

I would guess that 70% of all technology-infused learning experiences are not focused on a specific standard component or do not use technology effectively.

A teacher who has her students produce autobiographies using digital camera and word progress or software is certainly doing English Language Arts but probably the teacher is not focusing on the particular skills that are needed for the state ELA assessment. When two librarians videoconference and read a book to each other’s group, they are not focused on the state ELA assessment unless they ask meaningful questions about the books.

Likewise, when a class spends five days on doing a podcast about a battle in the US Civil War, they are not focusing on the state assessment (DBQs). They could do a quick Inspiration comparison chart about the war and learn just as much. The technology does not support the real learning purpose. In addition, when a class has a blog in which students talk about the story they have read, they may be missing the individual analysis that could be done just as easily through word processing. The word processing is more similar to what they will do on their state assessment.

How well does your technology use support the state standards as expressed on the state assessment?

© Harry Grover Tuttle, 2007

Professional Development NECC Workshops- “Hands on” or “Brains On”

I’m finalizing my presentations for NECC (2 workshops and 1 session). Conducting a workshop is an interesting game. People want to learn new information. They want to practice it. However, they often do not want to spend time in workshops which focus more on developing new thinking skills involving technology than on the actual “technology.” I tend to give “brains on” workshops instead of “hands on” workshops. I always build in time for people to think about the new skill such as using Flickr and to plan how to integrate it into their classroom. Yet at this most critical time, the actual implementation of the skill, is when many participants zone out or leave. Usually I build in time to for them to share their implementation ideas with another participants so that they can get feedback. Participants often do not want feedback.

If I show them sites all during workshops, they are happy. However, when I stop and ask them to seriously think about how they will use this technology to improve student learning, I find their interest descending quickly.

Do we want our students to be “show and tell” or “show and think”? Do we think about the hard questions about technology use so that we use the technology in a way that truly benefits our students learning? Or do we just want to learn the technology?

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Transfer of Learning: Thorough and Diverse

A critical condition before students can transfer their learning is that they they understand the material thorough and in-depth and that they can apply their learning in diverse conditions. If students have not mastered the initial skill, then they will not be able to transfer it to another situation.

Have your students learned subject area information in a comprehensive and in-depth (Application or higher of Bloom’s levels)? Do they know more than surface information ( the mere facts about an event or situation)? Can your Modern Language students do more than list the vocabulary words for shopping? Can they create spontaneous conversations about various shopping situations? Can your Social Studies students do more than list the generals in the US Civil War? Can they compare the reasons for the US Civil War to other Civil Wars? Can they compare the results of the US Civil War to other Civil Wars?

Do we use technology to help the students to learn our subject area thoroughly and indepth and in diverse ways. Social Studies teachers can easily find information on other civil wars for the students to compare the US Civil War to. They can talk with students in one of these countries through email or videoconferencing (Skype or bigger videconferencing systems.

Help your students to be able to transfer their learning so that their learning is not pigeoned-holed but applicable to many other learning situations.

© Harry Grover Tuttle, 2007

Transfer of Learning: Low-Road or High Road with Technology

How often can students use what we have taught them beyond our classroom? How will this learning transfer to future learning situations?

We know our subject area is important and the topic we are teaching is critical. The essential question is how useful is this learning to the students’ future learnings/decisions? Life requires us to apply what we have learned to new situations.

Do we use technology to help students memorize information (low-road transfer) or to search for connections (high-road transfer)? For students to be successful in low-road transfer, the situation has to be almost identical to the original and only requires a very specific response. Jeopardy Social Studies games prepare students to repeat specific facts.

For students to be successful in high-road transfer, students have to be able to abstract and use information in very different situations. Social Studies Simulations require students to apply information in a broader context.

Do you have your students take the low-road or the high-road with technology?

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State Assessments, Rubric Scoring, and Technology

The NY State English Regents (state assessment) has a six point rubric. If I co-graded with a low scoring teacher, a student could get a 3 when I gave the student a 4. If I co-graded with a high scoring teacher, the same student could get a 5 when I gave a 4. A two point variance on a six point scale negates the whole rubric.

Likewise, one year the department chair informed us that we were grading to tough so that we should go to the higher score for any student. Now students that would have gotten a score of 4 got a score of 5.

No matter how we help students to write better for the state assessment through technology, their scores on the state assessment are dependent on other conditions.

Likewise, if we have students word process their writing during class like they will do in the world outside of school, and then have them handwrite their essays, there is a very different process involved. Handwriting takes away the brainstorming, quick editing, spell checking, and moving around of text that word processing allows. Handwriting an essay is much harder and more academic than real world writing.

What examples do you have of how your state assessment prevents students from doing technology-infused real-life activities with your subject area ?

© Harry Grover Tuttle, 2007

Web 2.0, Social Networking, and Students’ Learning

WEB 2.0

The big buz is Web 2.0 and social networking. I think that we need to redefine social networking to focus on student learning. “Social” does not necessarily imply academic learning. “Networking” does not necessarily imply academic learning. Students social network now when they IM, Skype, use social bookmarking, etc. The question is what academic learning they are doing. I know that almost none of my sons’ IMing was about education!

How will we have our students use these tools to improve their academic learning? It is up to us to structure their learning so that they can use social networking networks to grow academically. Let’s encourage their collaboration in higher-level thinking projects!

What Web 2.0 social networking do you have your students do to grow in their subject area learning?

© Harry Grover Tuttle, 2007

Document Camera Research and A Version of an Opaque Projector

According to The Journal June 2007, the document camera is the new hot technology. For you younger teachers, this technology in a bulker form existed many many many years ago. It was called an opaque projector. Teachers could put an object, a picture, an article, or a book on it and it would project the object to a huge size. We used it for a myriad of classroom activities from science comparisons to looking at students’ writing. I found a 1964 article on the opaque projector “The opaque projector as used in a kindergarten and first grade”

Do we have information on what the advantages and disadvantage of the opaque project were in class? Do we have “best practices” for using the opaque projector? Or we are starting from scratch in our use of the document camera? If so, why? I thought we were in the age of “scientific-based research”? Why do we get “hype” and not research? Why cannot we instantly start to use the document camera for greater student learning instead of going through the trail and tribulation stage?

 

© Harry Grover Tuttle, 2007

 

 

Improve Students’ Inference Reading with PowerPoint

Here are a few ways to use PowerPoint type programs to improve students’ inference reading.

* Show students a Flickr or Google picture with the question words next to it. The question of When will probably be an inference question since they will have to figure out the season, the time of day, etc. Do for several pictures until everyone can answer the inference questions for a passage.

* Students write inference questions about a short displayed passage (a paragraph). They can start with using synonyms for the words already in the passage. The boy goes to the store. Where did the youth go?

* Students go up to the Smartboard and circle the critical words in the projected passage question and then circle the corresponding words in the passage.

*Students see two side by side newspaper articles about the same topic. They circle the words that show the author’s bias – red for the left side article and green for the right side article.

How do you improve students’ inference reading with PowerPoint type programs?

© Harry Grover Tuttle, 2007

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Modifying Technology-Infused Activities to be Standards-Based and Assessed

As I look back at some of my lesson plans I realize that I was English-focused or literature-focused and not standards focused. My students did many projects/activities that fit their multiple intelligence about the general literature but these projects/activities were not focused on the state English standards.

For example, I had them do Internet research and create posters/PowerPoints about Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men for these topics:
California in the 30s
Soledad, California
Farming in the 30s
Barley
Migrant workers
Working papers
Films in the 30s
They were learning about the time period of the literature but there is no state assessment question on time periods.

However,
If I changed the assignment to compare John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men to one of these pieces of literature that we have already read in a poster/PowerPoint essay
Amy Tan’s Joy Luck Club
Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Angela Johnson’s Toning the Sweep
Cervantes’ Don Quixote
Then they would be practice state assessment questions. They would be using technology in a way that lead to standards and to state assessments.

How do you help your students reach the standards and the specific state assessments for those standards through technology?

© Harry Grover Tuttle, 2007

Improving Reading Comprehension Through PowerPoint

Teachers can improve their students’ literal reading through common technology such as PowerPoint like programs.

 

* Show a picture and have the students take turns asking and answering Who. Where, When, What, and Why questions about the picture.

* Haven them read a short projected passage and the orally answer Who, Where, When, What about the passage.

* Project a passage from PowerPoint on a Smartboard and have students circle the literal answers to questions about the passage.

* Have students read a short passage and then select the corresponding picture from four possible Flickr or Google choices.

How do you improve students’ reading comprehension through PowerPoint type programs?

 

© Harry Grover Tuttle, 2007

 

Improving Reading Vocabulary Through PowerPoint

Here are a few ways in which you can improve students’ reading vocabulary skills through PowerPoint

* Have a listing of the sight words that the students are to know and read

* Show words or pictures and have students pick which one does not rhyme (bee, tree, three, moon)

* Create a class story about the school and have pictures to match each sentence. “This is Alan’s desk.”

* Show students a word and have them write all words associated with that word and group those words. For sports, students might list hockey, baseball, ticket, glove, hot dog, and hoop

* Have students identify vocabulary by topic – show them pictures of ten occupations

* Show a Flickr or Google picture with many details such as a street scene, a restaurant scene or a kitchen and have them identify all the critical words from the picture.

* Teach student root, prefixes, and suffixes through interactive PowerPoint with word groups such as bicycle, biplane bifocals

How do you improve students’ reading vocabulary through PowerPoint?

© Harry Grover Tuttle, 2007

 

 

Videoconferencing: Outside the Four Walls of the Classroom

 

I’m proofing a book chapter on videoconferencing that I wrote in Nov. As I re-read it, I am amazed about how little videoconferencing is actually used in the P-12 area. I know of a school district where every school has one or two videoconferencing carts. Yet,this year there has been only a handful of conferences in the whole district.

Why do teachers not want to videoconferences with others? Why do they not want to use the expertise of other teachers? Why do they not want to be the expert for others? Why do they not want their students to learn from students in other locations? Why do they not want their students to act globally?

In one school, I demonstrated videoconferencing with two live videoconferences that related directly to their English Language Arts curriculum. Has anyone used it? No!

Videoconferencing is one of the easiest technologies to use- dial their IP and connect. Probably teachers do not using it since it is an outside-the-class approach. The four walls of the classroom are visibly blown away by videoconferences. A class can just as easily videoconference with another school in the district as a classroom on the other side of the globe. A teacher’s book knowledge confronts real world knowledge.

How have you used videoconferencing this year?

 

© Harry Grover Tuttle, 2007

 

Time for Technology:Getting Teachers Interested

Frequently when I talk with English teachers, I hear that they do not have time for technology. However, they do have time for the students to:

Produce many drawings about the story
Put on a play/skit about the story
Watch a long movie about the story
Do several word-searches about the story
Complete elaborate study guides about the story

They do have the time; they do not have the desire to use technology.

Do we as learning specialists (technology integrators) help them to see:
How it will benefit their students?
How will it motivate the students
How it will benefit them (What’s in it for me?) Saving time and not have to reproduce the same thing usually rank as some of the highest reasons for teachers using technology.

How do you convince teachers technology is worth their time?

© Harry Grover Tuttle, 2007

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The Commercialization of Education: Who/What is in Control?

I wonder if classroom teachers are allowed to have a thought. More and more districts are buying big packages to solve their Math, ELA, etc. problem. These packages dictate how the teachers are to do Math and ELA: put the students on the computer for 30 minutes a day; or rotate students through these stations and do these activities. I observed learning and technology in a school where the teachers did not teach Math because the computer package did it for them. After sitting with students and having them think aloud as they did the package, I quickly realized that teachers should be teaching Math.

Do commercial packages compliment or surplant teachers? Why do districts hire qualified teachers if they buy packages that do Math for them? Why do districts bother with curriculum development and professional development if they buy curriculum packages? I know of several teachers who are retiring because they feel that they are no longer required to teach but just to computer sit their students!

© Harry Grover Tuttle, 2007

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Interesting Subject Area Introduction Through Technology

I have been trying to rent out a house but when people walk in and see the old flower wallpaper, they literally turn around and leave. (Yes, I’m getting it painted.) I wonder how many students would turn around and leave the class after our introduction to the topic if they could. Or how many do mentality fall asleep?

How do we engage them in the topic in a deep manner through technology? Do we …….

Present contrasting Google or Flickr images of the topic?

Show part of a sequence of events taken by our digital camera?

Show modern day applications of the concept from the Web and ask the students to figure out how theywas done?

Arrange for an expert to ask the students probing questions via videoconferencing?

Show them a video (YouTube or UnitedStreaming) involving the topic?

Once we have their attention and their curiosity, then they will be thoughtfully engaged in the learning. Can we afford not to use technology?

How do you engage them in the introduction of the topic through technology?

© Harry Grover Tuttle, 2007

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Diversity, Multiculturalism, Racism and Technology

Multiculturalism, Diversity, and Racism. We cannot go back and fix the past but we can work on creating a society that promotes the positive relationship of people of all races, gender, economic status, geographic location, educational status, language, religion, and physical conditions through technology.

Here’s a few activities:

Videoconference with a class in another country. I did a videoconference about the math of daily life with students in France and my students said “They are not French; they look like us.”

Do collaborative Internet projects. Compare the results of your school lunch recycling with students in other countries.

Do email projects (modern day “pen-pals”) with another class to discuss your views on a topic such as Freedom. What freedoms do you both enjoy.

Show students what a city/village from another country looks like through the use of images from Flickr or Google. “Those buildings are taller than any in our city.” “What are their huts?” Likewise, showing people from another area doing similar things to what we do (eating, playing, studying, riding bikes, etc) creates a positive emotional link.

Have students read newspapers from other countries to get the perspective of those people. Help them become aware that there are two or more sides to any story/event.

The more our students virtually interact with students and people in other parts of the state, country, and world, they more we help create an inclusive world.

PS. Do not forget various parts of your district that may have different values, economic status, occupations, etc. We had media presentations from our very rich section of the district and from the rural farm section of our district. It was a culturally enriching time for all.

What technology-infused activities have you done that promote positive relationships among various groupings of people?

© Harry Grover Tuttle, 2007

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Digital Camera: Low Tech For High Learning

Low tech gives very high learning results. Teachers do not have to have a room full of tech gizmos to have great technology-infused learning. Whenever I hear teachers say, “I cannot do that because I don’t have xyz technology,” I emphasize what they do have and what they can do with what they have. We need to be “do-ers” and not “blockers.”

A digital camera is a universal technology that can be used in any subject area. A digital camera is fairly inexpensive, a $99 5 megapixel digital camera is more than adequate for the classroom. Digital cameras appeal to the millenial generation of sight and sound. Students can operate digital cameras with little or no instruction. If the camera has a built in megapixel sizes, many classroom pictures can be taken at lower megapixels and moved directly into other programs with no memory-reduction manipulation program.

Digital cameras can be used in any subject. Here’s a few examples:

Math – show math applied to real life such as construction; show various manipulates that add up to the same total; and demonstrate difficult concepts like add negatives

English- visualize the emotion in a poem; show the steps in a process; use as part of a persuasion speech;

Science – show the key parts of a lab; explain a science concept; see the details of plants

Social Studies – have images of the ethnic diversity of the community; show the pro and con of a debate issue; show the changes in an event.

Students can move these images into a PowerPoint slideshow; create an e-movie program; print out and add captions; make up instruction manuals; produce persuasive posters; create timelines; make history galleries; etc.

How have your students used a digital camera in your classroom?

© Harry Grover Tuttle, 2007

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Multi-dimensional Students Helped By Technology

I like to take photographs of flowers and plants. I look at the flower from many different directions (top, side, bottom), at the lighting, and whether the flower looks better by itself or with other flowers. The flower looks different at midday than at sunset.

I wonder how many dimensions we know about our students. How do we keep track of the information that we learn about the student? Do we have a spreadsheet or database of information? Do we have a three ring notebook in which we record info? The technology version allows us to sort information quickly.

Once we know the dimensions, how do we use them to help the student? Do we find technology resources that match the students’ dimensions?

What dimensions of each student have you identified? How have you helped the students to be better learners through technology?

© Harry Grover Tuttle, 2007

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Learning Time Increased by Technology

As I have observed many classes this year, I am amazed at how much time is spent in low level learning tasks such as word searches, puzzles, doing handouts, coloring (high school level), making dioramas, creating posters, producing factual PowerPoints, web-surfing for facts, making imovies of non-important information, and creating podcasts. What if we had used that time for higher level learning activities?

Let’s say that during a unit of three weeks (15 days), four days are spent in lower-level activities of knowledge and comprehension (my guess is that most days are really spent in lower level activities in many classrooms). If we change it so that we spend two of those four days in higher level thinking activities of application, analysis, synthesis and evaluation, we would be doubling or tripling what the students understood about the topic. They would be learning more in-depth and with more comprehension. If there is time for 12 15 day units (180 instructional days) and if we do higher level learning for 2 days for each of the 12 units, we will have gained 24 days (or three weeks) of higher level learning. We are doubling or tripling the learning value for the same amount of time. We will have virtually added almost five school weeks to the students’ learning without ever changing the time of the school day or the school year. If we increase to three days of higher level learning for each of those 12 units, we would be up to 36 learning days (over 7 school weeks). Students would have learned the material to a greater depth and in a more comprehensive manner due to the higher level thinking learning.

How have you used technology to engage students in higher level thinking about your subject area standards? How have your doubled or tripled their learning in the same physical time that you used to spend in lower level learning?

© Harry Grover Tuttle, 2007

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