Presented by Ryan Schaaf of Howard County. The last time I attended a session on using games in education I was under whelmed, but I think that was more from the presenter than the subject. I am cautiously optimistic. First paper handout I’ve seen this conference. Printed PowerPoint slides. “Let’s start with your Door Prize! … I left it at home.” It was cards for a contest for a game called “Legend of Zork.” In games the teacher is the guide and students learn through…Continue Reading “#MSET Session 4: Digital Game-Based Learning in the Classroom”
Presented by Roxanne Dean & Linda Jones, both from Baltimore County. Honestly, could anyone who knows me expect me to attend any other session? It’s Art! It’s Technology! This is what I do. Demonstrating Voicethread used to teach a lesson on drawing a human face. “At this point they haven’t thrown me out.” Said RE: How many Voicethread pages she has. 5th graders drew self portraits then turned them into contour line drawings and learned about Andy Worhol. “Why do you think we need to…Continue Reading “#MSET Session 2: Integration Technology & Art in a Lesson Study”
Presented by Diane Boarman, Howard County This is possibly one of the smallest rooms I’ve ever been in, and there are few if any empty chairs. Meanwhile the walls are doing little to block out the noise of convention center staff moving things around. Nevertheless, the show must go on. Created her first animation using Layers in Photoshop, but her school didn’t have Photoshop. Switched to placing images in PowerPoint. Suggests PlayDoh for claymation. If the lesson takes a while the PlayDoh can dry out,…Continue Reading “#MSET 2010 Session 1: 411: Easy Animation for Time-starved Classrooms on a Shoestring Budget”
Today an email started floating around amongst various fellow employees of my school district. It contained a link to a particular YouTube video along with the caption “This video needs to be shown to teachers!” I thought it was worth tweeting, and apparently I think it’s worth a blog post as well because here we are. On the surface it’s a very upbeat video. “I can do this!” “You can do this!” The part that’s left out is the part that belongs to the viewer….Continue Reading “What are you doing?”
This post has been brewing for a while. What’s finally gotten me to write it down is the recent spread of compromised Twitter accounts. Teachers – DEN Stars and more – are falling for phishing scams because they don’t recognize the warning signs. If this post prevents just one person from having an account compromised, I will consider it worth writing. Definition Phishing involves tricking people into lowering their guard and giving up something. It could be a Twitter account info or your online bank…Continue Reading “Don’t Be A Phish”
I’m at a Clay Animation training session sponsored by my employer. I’ve done stop motion animation before, but not with Frames. I’m really liking Frames. My previous animations have all been compiled in iMovie or (against my will) MovieMaker. Those programs work, and are often pre-installed on computers, but Frames was designed specifically for stop-motion animation. Most of the concerns I had going in were resolved in an “Oh, so it can do that” way, followed by an “Oh, you mean it can also do…Continue Reading “Playing with Frames”
So I submitted a proposal for this year’s MICCA MSET conference, and since I’m under the delusion that I might actually have my proposal accepted I’m researching even more web based tools that could be used to enhance classroom instruction. This is one of them. I withhold my opinion on it until I’ve had a chance to kick the tires a bit, and I’d like your help with that if possible. So go ahead. Ask me anything.
Start Monday. (Woohoo!) Use no textbooks. Textbooks, especially ones about technology, seem like they’re out of date before they’re shipped. Avoid handouts whenever possible. Papers have an annoying habit of getting lost, “lost,” or simply ignored. Also, I’ve never seen a school copier go more than 4 weeks without having a spectacular meltdown. Handouts have their uses, but I refuse to be one of the teachers staring at a copier exuding the magic blue smoke 5 minutes before class and wondering what I’ll do now…Continue Reading “Things to do at the new job:”
Made some origami for his kids a few years back, actually… In any case, here he is speaking in front of the U.S. House of Representatives. Scott Kinney, Vice President at Discovery Education, at a hearing regarding the Future of Learning: How Technology is Transforming Public Schools on June 16, 2009.
I’m one of those teachers who will respond to the word “mines” by asking “Gold or silver?” and the question “Can I go to the bathroom?” with “I don’t know, can you?” Yeah, you can say I’m a stickler about some things. It’s genetic, I think. Just try ending a sentence with a preposition when my sister’s around. I’m critical about this because one of the things we teach in school (according to our curriculum, at least) is how to communicate well. People who speak…Continue Reading “On Language”