Digital Competence

I found this graphic depicting the "Digitally Competent Teacher" on The Daily Genius.

It's not bad, but I wonder if, today, it's good enough to just be digitally competent?  Honestly, I find that the best teachers are truly lifelong learners and if you are really learning today, using all of the tools that technology offers, you must be at least "digitally agile."

Flip Quiz....not bad!

While creating game show-like test reviews for the classroom doesn't really fit the definition of "innovative," I recognize that this type of activity can mix things up a bit and novelty is a close cousin to innovation.  Therefore, I'd like to introduce you to FlipQuiz.  http://flipquiz.me

J. Jenkins' Teaching Thoughts: Class size: Can it Impact Learning?

J. Jenkins' Teaching Thoughts: Class size: Can it Impact Learning?: Class size:   Can it Impact Learning? By Jill Jenkins             According to a recent article in the Salt Lake City Tribune , Jud...

Of course, we all know a school that has solved these problems!

Three Fun Web-Based Applications

Today, I showed you three web-based applications that you can use with your classes.  Here is the recap:

Voki
Voki is an avatar creator that you can customize and then have him/her/it speak.  Then you can email your Voki or embed it into blogs, websites, Facebook and Powerpoint. 
Here is a sample of one I created in about 3 minutes.

Here's how to create a Voki:

This link will take you to a database of lesson plans with suggestions about how to use Voki in your courses.


  Devolver Movie Maker: This application allows you (or your students) to create animated movies very quickly. Here's the sample that we did today: (click the link)

http://www.dvolver.com/live/movies-1021446

 

Here's how to create one:

 

 

Finally, we also looked at one of my favorites:  Voice Thread Check it out!



You can check out this link for some excellent suggestions about ways to use VoiceThread in your classroom.


If you'd like help with using any of these applications, please do not hesitate to come see me.  I'd also love to hear how you have used any of them in your classroom.  Just leave a comment!

"A" is for AGILE

"A" is for agile....

 Dictionary.com defines agility as:  Quick, well coordinated, marked by an ability to think quickly, mentally acute or aware.  Antonyms of "agile" are:  awkward, sluggish & lethargic.

A recent article in Edudemic defined the most important characteristics of modern learners.  They indicate that agility with technology is one of the most critical skills for any learner (including educators).  For them, agility is defined as adapting our learning to leverage the power of technology, but also being agile enough to stop using that technology if it is proving not as useful as first hoped. 

The dog in the picture above is demonstrating his agility by being able to react quickly to changes and roadblocks in the course, while still maintaining forward progress (The second photo is there because I found it humorous).  If he were running a straight course, there would be no need to be agile.  Being fast would suffice.

I have held a number of technology leadership roles.  In fact, these roles seem to find me.  However, I am not a "techy."  What I am is (what I now understand as) agile with technology.  I know just enough about broad categories of technologies and how they work to be quick to "leverage existing technology" when needed and quick to use my current level of knowledge as a scaffold when I must learn new technologies.   I don't care about the code behind the technologies or about all of the back-end necessities when creating networks (I'll leave that to the "techies").  Instead, I know the value of technology as a tool (and the inevitability and ubiquity of it) and use it to make what I do faster, smarter or more creative.  This means I have to also be aware of what is out there in order to meet those goals.

Our students need to be agile with technology as well.  Their future managers are counting on it.  Therefore, as educators, we must demonstrate agility with technology and make sure that we provide opportunities for our students to develop those "muscles" in our classrooms.

As the technology integration leader at some of my campuses, I was often asked, "When are we going to stop learning new stuff and just perfect what we already have?"  The answer is "NEVER."  Just like the dog cannot be awkwrad, sluggish or lethargic and go around the twists and turns in his course, or worse, sit down and refuse to run the course, we cannot ever stop seeking and learning new technologies at least well enough to be able to continue learning and leveraging the latest technological tools in our daily lives and in our classrooms.

Interesting Thought

Today, a presenter at the ISTE conference was talking about why we should have students do video projects.  He said, "When students do work that other students will see, they want it to be really good. When they do work that only I will see, they want it to be good enough."

What if RVW Woke UP?

Most of us are familiar with the children's story of Rip VanWinkle and his 100 year sleep.  Well, apparently someone somewhere said that if RVW was real, and if he awoke today, schools would be one of the few places that he would recognize.  "Surely not," I scoffed, "Not the very places that are tasked with being microcosms of society and preparing children for their places in those societies!"  So, I went to the trusty internet and I searched images of 20th century classrooms.  Here is what I found:

Yikes, do you see what I see?   I think I saw these classrooms recently.  No wonder RVW fell asleep!

We've all heard the soundbites around the skills that 21st Century instruction should hone:  Collaboration, communication, critical thinking, problem solving, creativity, media literacy, leveraging technologies as tools.....etc.  But what does a true 21st century classroom look like, sound like, feel like?  So I went back to the trusty internet and asked for images of the innovative 21st classroom model.  Oddly enough, I could find lots of posters outlining the skills and diagrams of prototypes, but almost nothing real.  Here's what Google brought up after my query.  Are these 21st century classrooms?

Nope...this is really just more of the same of what we saw above:  "Sage on the Stage", passive learners in orderly rows...etc. 

Nope...cool furniture, but still the same kind of learning...

Nope...kids are using laptops, but are they collaborating, communicating, problem solving or creating?  Hard to say...

These photos came closer to my vision of the 21st Century classroom housing 21st century teaching and learning.  When you look at them, can you imagine students are engaged in the types of activities that would hone those 21st century skills?

Hmmmm, could be...I see multiple technologies and collaboration.  Where's that Sage?

Yep!  Does this mean that anyplace can be a classroom?

Yep!  No passive learners here!  No one is even sitting!

Yep!  I know....dream on!

Hmmm, that teacher looks pretty comfortable off to the side while the kids work!



Here's my favorite:

Kids in collaborative groups...students up using innovative wall space to solve problems or demonstrate "stuff,"  lots of active learning.  After looking closely at this picture, close your eyes and imagine what this classroom might sound like.

What's your vision for the 21st century classroom?  21st century teaching?  21st century students?  If Rip Van Winkle woke up today, would he recognize your classroom?