Taking It to the Next Step Along With TPACK

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The reading teacher in me has been quiet and is ready to come back out ….

While reading is a great way to help a child grow in vocabulary and imagination, it is what you DO with what is read that really encourages and supports critical and creative thinking skills!

Technology can be used in many ways to support and encourage the many things that can be done with reading ....

Here are a few ideas of activities that can be used to support higher order thinking skills:Make a collage which might be found hanging in the bedroom of one of the characters and write a brief explanation of each item selected.

• Write diary entries that one of the characters might have written during the course of the story.
• Write a poem or a song that expresses one or more of the characters’ feelings.
• Create a piece of original artwork that interprets one of the themes in the book.
• Write and perform an original skit based on the book.
• Write letters that two of the characters might have written to one another about what was happening in their lives.
• Create an original board game based on the book.
• Write and record an original news broadcast about the events in the book.
• Draw a timeline of the book, complete with illustrations and commentaries about each event on the timeline.
• Create a cause-and-effect continuum of how and why the main character changes as a result of the events and situations that occur.

Did you notice the differentiation embedded in these activities? 

Children would be able to utilize their strengths to demonstrate their learning …

Choice could even be involved if you gave an assignment similar to this one:

• Choose a book (online or from the bookcase)
• Read the story
• Select and complete the activity that most appeals to you and/or best fits the story you read
• Explain why you chose the activity and how you completed it 

With the added explanation part, you are jumping into that metacognition area … asking children to really think about their thinking!

That is taking it to the next step!

You can look at the WSFCS TPACK Activity Guides to see possible technology tools that can be used for activities like this!

Click on a area and then you can find possible activities in the table along with suggested resources to use!

The Beginning of Mobile Learning Communities

What does a classroom look like when every kid has a technology device in their hand?  What can be done in that class?  How do we manage a class such as this?  Is it effective?  Does pedagogy change?  Is a tablet or a laptop more effective?  All of these questions and more is what we hope to discover in our 1:1 laptop/tablet pilot!

This is an exciting time in education because we are moving away from the traditional classroom of teachers and students to a community of learners.  With this paradigm shift comes many shifts in education.  The teacher is now a facilitator and a learner.  The students learn from each other and also facilitate their own learning.  Pedagogy shifts from recalling and remembering facts to evaluating, analyzing and applying content to their own lives.  Students and facilitators are no longer confined to the 4 walls.   Their community now includes 7 continents and a few planets.

Feel free to join us in our adventure of creating this environment for our students.  Join us as we climb to the higher elevations of Bloom's. Join us as our students soar to limits unknown.  We look forward to sharing our ah has and uh ohs.  We also would love for you to join our community and sharing tips or best practices you have experienced in your classroom.  I am so excited to learn this year with our community of learners.  You can follow the community's blog at www.wscommunityoflearners.blogspot.com

Free Electronic Field Trip

Visit Colonial Williamsburg website where teachers and students can find out more information about colonial times. There are videos, podcasts, blogs, etc. Find out if Thomas Jefferson's ideas about education are still valid today by viewing his blog. Read recipes from the colonial era at "History is Served". There is also a Kids Zone with games and activities. There are many more activities for teachers and students to find at Colonial Williamsburg.

Last year, Colonial Williamsburg offered a free electronic field trip to teachers. They are offering another free electronic field trip for September 1 - 30, 2012 (next school year), just in time for election year. It is called "The Will of the People". Teachers can register for this field trip now and plan for next fall. The field trip has information about the negative campaigns from Thomas Jefferson's time. I think that this field trip would fit in well with our upcoming election. When was the last time (if ever) that we have not heard our candidates spreading negative campaign messages? By registering, teachers will be able to view streaming videos, lesson plans, online activities, and a teacher guide.

This electronic field trip fit very nicely into our TPACK (Technology, Pedagogy, and Content Knowledge) model that we are using. A previous blog post on TPACK can be found here. In the Social Studies Activity Types, there is a section on "Experience a Field Trip". This also ties into the Information and Technology Essential Standards (ITES) of Access and Gather Information. As I scrolled down our Social Studies Activity Types, I also found several other activities that "The Will of the People" will fit into. For example "Sequence Information" which meets the Organize Information standard for ITES; or,"Discuss" which meets Organize Information and communicate Information. There are a lot more activity types that this electronic field trip will go with also. ITES for K-5 can be found here; 6-8 here; and 9-12 here.

Why not check out the Colonial Williamsburg website and register for "The Will of the People" free electronic field trip. I think it will be very interesting.

Image: 'Jefferson? Williamsburg' http://www.flickr.com/photos/67958110@N00/4665575366

TPACK And The Common Core Webinar

This Saturday at Noon I will be a guest of the Classroom 2.0 Show where I will be talking about the relationship between the Common Core and TPACK. If you haven't heard a lot about TPACK or you want to learn more about it, this is a very fun format to join in the learning.

It will take place online, in a Blackboard Collaborate room. It's totally free and if you can't make it, it will be archived.

To join go here on Saturday morning.

Speaking of archives, if you haven't checked out the Classroom 2.0 Show Archives you are missing out. What a great place to find loads of great webinars and educations topics. Recent topics include:

Parent Engagement
Livebinders
Becoming A Connected Educator
Gifted Education

That doesn't even begin to scratch the surface of what is available in the archive. Each show has the rebroadcast, links, resources and so much more. You can spend hours and hours learning there.

I hope you can join me Saturday afternoon!

The Technology Integration Answer (Well Almost...)

Earlier this year our group adopted the TPACK model of technology integration. Basically, it takes the approach that planning for technology integration shouldn't be an event. It should be something that adds to what we are already doing. Through the use of Activity Types, teachers can take the activities they are already doing and match them up with appropiate technologies that may or may not work, depending on the context of learning.

You can view this presentation to learn more.

According to the feedback we have gotten from the folks who have embraced it has been overwhelmingly positive. Being able to take the content (which is king by the way) and the activities we always use or want to use with our kids and matching them up easily with the technology has made it much simpler to plan. And the Activity Types Sheets are great to keep in the plan book so they are always there.

Recently I came across something that you can also use to make technology integration easier for you and your staff. The Technology Integration Matrix uses examples for subject area and grade level to attempt to show how technology integration can work in any type of environment.

There are actually 2 that you can take a look at.

The first is the original from The Florida Center For Instructional Technology at the University of South Florida.

The other is an adaption from Northern Arizona University.

(You will want to visit each of the sites where these live because both matrices are interactive.)

Down the left hand side of each is the learning environment. Active, collaborative, goal centered are just a few. Across the top are the levels of integration, moving from entry to transformational, left to right. So you match up where you feel you are. Maybe you are a newbie. Maybe you have kids using technology (rather than passively engaging with it) and you are at the entry level. Go to that box, find your grade level and subject area to get examples of technology integration. Remember these are just examples to show you how it would work. Adaption is always recommended.

As you progress you move up the integration level and as your learning environment changes the types of integration change as well.

You will notice that this is just for lessons where kids are actively engaged with using technology. There is nothing here for the teacher presenting material or using technology singularly. Technology integration is about getting kids out of their seats and working hands-on with the technology to create products.

So between using the TPACK model of planning and the Technology Integration Matrix, using technology in the classroom doesn't have to be a mystery. It can be something that is pretty easy to plan for and do.