Ed Technology What Next?

What a great week!  My brain looks and feels a little like this:

 My EdTech Popplet

Reproduced by permission of the publisher, © 2012 by tpack.org

Now, what will we DO next?  After seeing everyone's final presentation, the answer clearly will be very different and personal for all of us.  We were exposed to the same ideas, but given choices of what to explore and connect to further, we were given some answers to questions, but were free to ask and seek answers to our own, we were introduced to new applications and website tools, but played with what we wished, we collaborated in our learning,  we experienced struggles and discovered ways to overcome them.  We were given a final project but were able to choose its form, purpose, and which tools in which to build it. The projects were personally rewarding, purposeful and had our complete focus and engagement.  We shared, reflected, and learned from others .  I feel like we didn't just learn about Educational Technology, but experienced the Total Package or TPACK.

I am so excited to finally have my site finished and ready to go this fall!  I think it will allow for better and current communication with my parents and students and in ways that I couldn't have imagined before.   It is so exciting to be able to give my students and parents a resource for review and learning by linking "mini-lesson" videos via screen casting - it used to be just a "wish I could" dream to an "easy to do" reality.  Being able to share student and class work consistently will be easier than ever with Seesaw.  This idea was not even on my radar until this week!  I have always shared pictures via email and the only opportunity to share actual student products interactively was during parent-teacher conferences.  Students will be able to drop things into their virtual portfolios from about anywhere (thinking Google docs!) Now students will be able to share their reflections on their work with their parents as well.  Having it all recorded throughout the year will also be useful for students, parents and myself in order to see the growth that occurs over time.  I am also excited to be able to Blog on the site as well and this will be a great way to share stories, pictures, etc.  The website is kind of a "one-stop shop."  It was amazing I was able to do all of it free!

Learning from the final projects:
Matt's collection, organization, and examples of all the applications and web tools will be useful to so many.  It can be somewhat overwhelming to go through all of the available tools in order find the right one(s) and his compilation will help get the job done.  It was really interesting to see education from his perspective as a principal in a remote area of Alaska.  I would be interested to see the role technology will play in his endeavor to increase the graduation rate.

Debbie's web page and course set up is sure going to be a hit.  I was really impressed that she was able to put together a semester's worth of college coursework together in just 5 days!  The questions, concepts, ideas, and subject matter she gathered and learned from this class, gives me ideas on how to spread some Edtech love to my teammates or staff perhaps in short sessions during staff or team meetings.

Who am I kidding?  Alicia's unit on movie making, especially the examples would be handy to have.
What a great way to be reminded of what each technology tool is capable of and how they can be used to further learning or demonstrate an understanding of a concept.  I wonder if she would share other unit examples and applications?

J.J.'s project gave me a great idea about the possibilities of a classroom blog during my differentiated reading class.  It is important to me to be able to give work surrounding assigned reading while keeping student accountable, but also allow students to freely express and share what they are choosing to read.  It would be a great way to give and get book recommendations from each other.  Much like J.J. I think that I will need to shop and play around to find the just right tool to do this.  Possibly another application for Seesaw?   I loved the way J.J.'s project evolved and changed from 1.0 to 2/2.0.  That is such a true story when you are trying to find the right tool!  I don't know how many times I have signed up for something and to later find it wasn't a good fit or not as user-friendly as I had hoped!

Katt really knows her Seesaw (and much more!)  She helped me so much to figure out the little nuances and capabilities it has.  Seeing how she was using it gave the inspiration to use it in those ways too.  It was so nice to see things from her perspective as a person who is so close to the GenZ generation.  Seasoned teachers may know their pedagogy and content, but when she hits the classroom, she will be intuitively applying technology with her students.  It's so important that teachers of all experiences feel comfortable enough to collaborate and share with each other.  I have learned so many things from the preservice teachers that I have worked with.

It was a great week!  Thank you, Laurie and Guy!
Thank you, Matt, Debbie, Alicia, J.J., and Katt!

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