The Next Big Innovator Could be You!

This week, my group used our discussion leader status to sneak in a "fun" question - What do you wish you could do with technology?
The answers we got were innovative and amazing.  Some of the things already exist, some have not yet been created. I do think that is how most inventions start - with a person who is frustrated by an inability to accomplish something quickly and easily.
Now, with the availability of so many app builders, we can all contribute our little bit to the world.  Code.org introduced me to the MIT App Inventor that was much easier to get started with than the original one I found at the Android Developer Site.  I'm sure the second one has more flexibility and options than the first - but the MIT one comes with an easy to understand tutorial. Mashable has a list of 5 app building options that seem fine at first glance - I will have to update this when I've had more time to "play."
Our ideas do not have to be earthshaking.  Small changes make our lives more efficient and us more effective.

So perhaps boring is actually good. “The most successful ed tech companies among students, teachers and institutions often get ignored by the mainstream media due to a misplaced focus on ‘world-changing innovation’ instead of effectiveness,” said StudyBlue CEO Becky Splitt. (Gannes, 2014)

So, here's to us and our students - the innovators of tomorrow. All because we say, "That darn technology, I wish I could....."

Gannes, L. (2014).  In Education Technology, Startups With Big Impact Tend to Be Rather Simple. Retrieved from http://recode.net/2014/02/28/in-education-technology-startups-with-big-impact-tend-to-be-rather-simple/

Removing temptation rather than teaching restraint

Today, my Google News Ed Tech RSS feed threw me food for thought.  A father found  out his son downloaded Grand Theft Auto to his school laptop and had been using proxy sites to circumvent the school content filter and visit social networking sites.
The father's solution?  Ban the internet at school. For high school students.
The internet is attractive.  Computer screens suck student attention away from a teacher.  In a perfect world I would have my lessons structured so well that the students are lead by their own curiosity to discover nuggets of wisdom for themselves.  In this flawed world, I have the student close their laptops or I turn off the daisy chain of monitor power cords whenever I need to model an activity.
But banning the internet altogether? There has go to be a better way.
At the Maryland Google in Education summit last June, I go to hear Holly Clark speak.  She had a very interesting perspective.  She feels that the reason that students rebel against Acceptable Usage Policies and other such rules is because these rules are dictated to them - the students have no choice and are told what to do and what not to do.  She feels

Digital citizenship is not a one time discussion. It is an ongoing process that needs to be taught to all grade levels and to all stakeholders. The problem is that things are changing so rapidly that it is difficult for everyone to keep up to date with the trends.  Everyone has to be educated and develop an understanding of the role digital citizenship plays in our everyday lives. There is so much that goes into being a digital citizen; from taking photos of others to knowing when it is appropriate to share something online. (Clark, 2013)

Clark suggests that the students have a voice in the AUP.  If the students have a role in reasoning out why these rules should be in place, the students might be more likely to follow these rules. Clark is also of the opinion that schools should not use content filters, but, instead, should teach the student how to search smart and how to deal with inappropriate items when they appear.  I see her point on giving the students a voice, but am not completely sold on doing away with the content filter.  Enough sneaks past our best efforts to allow us to teach students how to handle issues without making it an every day occurrence.

I have noticed though, that the students at my school who are the ones who are guilty of the worst transgressions tend to have the parents who say, "Well, you should not have allowed my child to....."  The students who get caught in mild transgressions have parents who talk to their child about their behavior.  There is only so much a school can do. We encourage kids to be smart and innovative.  If we don't (with the parents' help) teach them to also be honest, conscientious and responsible, that innovation will be used in ways that will be less than admirable.

Everybody's a teacher...

There is nothing kids like better than showing off what they know. What better way to do that than through tutorials created by them!

The following is a guest post by  Kelly Wroblewski, a High School Math Teacher, written on the "ShowMe" blog

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Some of our students use the Khan Academy website as a resource to supplement in-class instruction, but some topics were either unavailable or were not tailored to our courses or textbooks. Mr. Kiker and I determined we could use the ShowMe app to create videos similar to those found on the Khan Academy website, but specific to our courses at Austin High. Rather than having students hear their teachers yet again in video, we decided to design a project where the students create the instructional materials. Since we were implementing this project towards the end of the school year, it provided the opportunity for students to review for the upcoming state exam or reflect upon a specific topic from the school year, depending on the needs for that course.

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She makes a great point that the students were creating materials for future classes that did not exist before and were reviewing and gaining a deeper understanding of the concepts in the process.

The following is in a website format, but the students are required to watch and comment on each others' videos.

http://www.carlisleschools.org/webpages/wolfer/videos.cfm?subpage=897997

Middle school students get in on the action as well:
The http://www.mathtrain.com/ website includes class links, a blog and a link to a student created video tutorial site http://mathtrain.tv/.

I have already started having my 8th graders create various technology video tutorials using Quicktime's screencasting tools and iMovie or GarageBand.  My original thought was to create a website this summer with all of these video, but I think I need to expand that to include a blog for students to share their knowledge with others!

Dictating a Blog

my first post for this blog is an experiment. I am attempting to write my photo blog postwith the speech to text app on my phone.as you can tell some of the words don't come out quite right. return returnand I can't seem to figure out how to make a

except of course when I attempted to use the word new paragraph.  since this is an experiment designed to help students who might not be able to type on their own I have renamed my blog  .the title comes from a quotation that is attributed 2 I'm Stein.the previous should have read Albert Einstein.the quotation have to do with the fact that if you expect a fish to climb a tree the fish will live its life thinking its stupid. According to the quote investigatorthis does not come from Albert Einstein but rather from an allegory buy an education author:who wrote in the late 18 hundreds. I still adore the quotation. I often tell my students that some of them won't be good at computers, but it doesn't matter because they are good at other things. I use this quotation to explain myself.  I do explain to them know that sometimes I will need them to climb that tree.  we talked about building them little environmental suits so that they can climb the tree.

Once when I was discussing this, a student looked at me and said couldn't we just plant the tree under water.  and this is why we need to listen to our students.

** Typed notation: I decided not to edit this when I was done. For those of you working with older student with educational challenges - would this get them far enough so that they could edit and make it readable?  For those of you working with younger students - would this be readable without editing?
The website for the Quote Investigator is http://quoteinvestigator.com/2013/04/06/fish-climb/ (This particular article is quite interesting - all about teaching children in a way they can learn.)