Saturday, March 13, 2010

Tech Integration Workshop - Step 5: The K-T-E-C System

Note: Do not do this lesson until you have watched the Watch First video.


Lesson Video:



Action Guide Video:







Once you have watched both videos please complete this step in the Workshop Checklist.

Return to the Table of Contents for the Technology Integration Workshop.


Resources:
http://groups.google.com/group/school-technology-workshop
http://www.eschoolnews.com/
http://www.techlearning.com/
http://www.thejournal.com/

Updates to these videos:
Please also subscribe to THE Journal magazine using the link above.

Transcription of Videos

The Lesson

Hello everyone, and welcome to Step 5, which is the K-T-E-C System that I use when integrating technology into schools.  My name is Brad Flickinger, with SchoolTechnology.Org.

Alright, let’s get into to.  So here it is, my little acronym that I use:  K-T-E-C.  And this is what it stands for:  you have got to Know the skills; then you Train    the skills; then you Embed the skills; and then of course you Check the skills - or K-T-E-C.

And that is what I use every day that I work with schools and work with teachers on getting 21st century skills into schools so that students and teachers can have them.
So let’s explain each one, and we will show you how it all works here.  So, the first one really is Knowing the skills - and that is what you are doing RIGHT NOW.    And you have got to remember, the K-T-E-C System is in the point of view of a Tech Integration Specialist, or Building Technology person, or Media Tech Specialist - whatever you might go by - but basically you are the go-to person in your school for bringing tech skills in.  So this is from your perspective; this is not from a teacher’s perspective.

So the first thing you have really got to do is you have got to Know the 21st century skills.   You have got to be the expert in your building and in your school - because no-one else will be.

So if we are talking about Podcasting, like in this photo right here, you have got to have made Podcasts; you have got to know about Podcasts.  You have got to be the one person who really understands this technology.

Alright, so that is Knowing the skill:  you have got to know the skills.  And we are going to go through this Workshop, and when you are done, you are going to know these skills.  So it is going to be great!

And next is you Train the skills.  So we work with teachers, and we help the teachers to gain their 21st century skills, and so that they are able to understand and use them every day.  So we train them; and that training comes in a myriad of different ways.  I will show you in the upcoming lessons the thirty steps that I use to get teachers to have tech skills, those types of things - but basically I find any way I can:  I model-teach, I co-teach, I teach for them; and they just watch for a couple of lessons; you know, whatever it takes so that they feel comfortable in gaining these skills.

And then of course we sit down together, and we work as sometimes a grade-level team; sometimes as a bunch of English teachers - whatever it might be - and we Embed those skills into the Curriculum.  And it gets to be so ingrained, I guess, in everything that we do, that it starts to embed itself into every lesson almost.  Every teacher is thinking, “Okay, how can I add some collaboration in this lesson? How can I make this more creative?” - those types of things.  And they really start to bring all of those digital artifacts out of the students - and it is fantastic!

And then of course the “C” part of the K-T-E-C System is Check the skills.  This is the assessment side of it; you have got to go and take a look at what the students are producing, and know what they have. So if they are producing blogs, then you know that they have been blogging and they have been working on all those skills; so you have got to really go look for the artifacts.  And that is Checking the skills; because then you know that they have actually embedded them and they are working.  So that is the “C” part.

Now, I want you to think back to the first couple of Steps that we have done together.  And remember what we said about students? And that is we know that students have 21st century skills by the digital artifacts they produce.

So we went around about that; we watched the little video that the Sixth-Graders did about helping out the family in China; they were able to raise money and buy a water buffalo there.  So I mean, it is just amazing things. And we are able to know that they had the skills because we could see it in the digital artifacts that they were producing.
But now that can also apply to teachers, alright?  We know that teachers have 21st century skills by the digital artifacts they produce.  So following my K-T-E-C System, that is how I get teachers to also have the skills.

And it is not like we sit down and, you know, talk about each one, one by one; really we talk about the digital products; going, “Well shouldn’t we do this? And shouldn’t we do that?”  And by the time they are done, they have these wonderful skills.
So let’s play another game.  So we used to do this with the student project; but let’s play this with the teacher’s project.  And this is an enhanced Podcast - so mostly you listen to it, but the little photo in the middle will change from time to time; and here on the side are the five NET Standards - or the National Education Technology Standards - for teachers.  And then here are all the things that this teacher is talking about doing with her students.  So let’s go ahead and listen to that.

Welcome Nica students to my first Podcast. 
Mr. Smith, our Principal, has issued a challenge to all the teachers in the school; and you know how I love a challenge - so I am going to pass it on to you!  


First of all, we have a lot of work to do to get ready for our trip to Nicaragua in November; and I want to congratulate all of you for your great work.  We had a huge success with our Battle of the Bands; we raised almost $3,000 so we are well on our way to being able to go to Nicaragua.


Alright students, the first thing I need you to do is to go to our classroom Ning - you have been there many times - and at the top you are going to see a new link.  That new link is going to take you directly to our Twitter (my Twitter) Account.   I need you to subscribe to that; because if there are changes that are going on, all summer long, that is how I am going to stay in contact with you.  


Alright, Blue, Green, Orange team - listen up!  


Blue team, I need you to start collaborating and working together using your Google Docs Account - remember, that is under the Google folder.  And I need you to be talking amongst yourselves and collaborating on some working documents, about how we could contact some business officials in Nicaragua about giving laptop donations so that we can use those while we are in Nicaragua.


Green group, you are going to be collaborating using your Google Docs Account about Jane, and about how we are going to be able to, when we are in San Juan del Sur, support the local fundraiser.


And finally the Orange group, you need to be working together and creating some emails within the Google Docs Account that we will email out to the local businesses here and talk to businesses about donating their used laptops, so that we can bring those laptops down to us, to Nicaragua.


Alright teams: just a reminder on how to collaborate.  The team leader’s role and responsibility is to create a new document and to invite all the other members within that team, and me as well, so that we can all work together on that document.


If you need a reminder on all these instructions, don’t forget that they are in our Ning under the Google folder.  And if you need any photos to jazz up your documents that you are going to be working on, don’t forget we have photos from the Nicaragua ’08 trip; and that is within the Photos folder.


Your last summer project will be to finish the “Three Cups of Tea” book that you all received before school let out.  What you will need to do is at the end of each Chapter choose one of the four questions that are posted; and I want you to either record a video reply with your phones and upload it to the Ning; or if you would prefer to write your answer you can do so within the “Three Cups of Tea” Wiki within our Classroom Ning.


Don’t forget students that the August 1st deadline is looming and we are going to meet and beat Mr. Smith’s tech challenge for teachers that he has issued to me.  We can do it guys!  Let’s get it done and get ready for our travels in November!

How do you like that?  I mean, that’s her first Podcast!  I mean, sure, there are a couple of words mispronounced and things - but look, she did it!  And look at the incredible things that she is modeling to her students!  And that she was able to learn, just by sitting down and working with the Tech Integrations Specialist; you know, they worked with how to do Twitter, and how to set up Google Docs, and the photos, and the Nings and all those things.  And a lot of it she was able just to learn on her own, because of course we use things like Atomic Learning or any type of online learning like that - and so she was kind of able to follow at her own pace; got it set up.
Now, her Principal did give her challenge, saying, “You need to have this done by a certain date”, but it is amazing that this teacher is able to do these things.  And imagine being a student in her class!  I mean, how fun it is that you teacher is Twittering, or Tweeting, to you, and that you can go to the classroom Ning and you can actually give your responses to some of these questions from the “Three Cups of Tea” by just being able to use your video phone and then sending in your answers that way.

This is what we are talking about!  So over the next few Steps we are going to be building this, and building this, and showing you how to do it.  So please go down to the Action Guide.  Let’s get to work.

My ten minutes is almost up on this video, so I will see you down in the Action Guide.


The Action Guide

Welcome to the Action Guide for Step 5.  Alright, so we have been working really hard at getting our school ready to have 21st century skills and to have embedded technology into the lessons.  And a lot of this is just preparing us to be able to meet with Administration, start meeting with the teachers; and really making us experts in the idea of tech integration.

And I know it has been a lot of work; so I know up until now you have subscribed to a lot of things, you have looked at Nings and Podcasts and such.  But also if you worked really hard on the last Step, you should have the skills that your students should be graduating with out of your school, as well as the skills your teachers should have as far as 21st century skills, or really “tech skills”.  And so you should have those really defined.

And then you should have also come up with a list of what you wanted the digital artifacts to be for each grade-level, or maybe each subject, so that you have got that ready to go as well.

And now it is time to really figure out those artifacts and how to embed those in.  And so let’s talk about the Action Guide here for Step 5 - because now you know all about my K-T-E-C System that I use, of Knowing those skills first, then Training them to a teacher, then Embedding them in the Curriculum, and then Checking to see how they look and how they work.

So, the Action Item is really, “Okay, let’s get into reading!”  So, the first reading assignment - and go ahead and start using all the books that you have bought; you know, really they are great things to have on the shelf as a resource for you to open up and to get ideas from - but really, let’s go into this one here:  so “21st Century Skills”.  And I want you to read, for the next time that we get together, the entire first part of it:  so the Prologue, the Introduction - those types of things; as well as Part 1.  So it looks to me like it is going to take you into the 40s, so fortyish pages I would like you to read before we get together in the next Step.  And it is really going to help us so we can all “talk the same talk” and be kind of on the same page when it comes to 21st century skills.  So that is really your reading assignment for this next Step.

I also want you to continue listening and watching weekly Podcasts.  Now I set aside every Thursday morning, for about 90 minutes, as my planning period in my school, to really learn all this stuff and to go out there and see what is out on the Web, and to participate in some podcasts and Nings and such.

So you really need to set aside some time as well.  So go out there, make sure you are following the podcasts, you are listening to them; you are reading and contributing to the two Nings that you should be a part of, as well as those blogs that you bookmarked from the last Step - you should be following those every week.

So, you know, I check in on “Dangerously Irrelevant” once a week; and I read some blogs that he is doing, and some of those other ones.  I just take a look at them and see what is going on out there in tech, so that I, as the Tech Integration Specialist, I kind of know what is going on out there.  So that is why it is really so important.  So I want you to keep doing that.

And then also I want you now to join this Community that I am a part of.  So you have already made your Google Account; so you have your Google Docs and we are going to start using your Google Docs - but now that you have that general Google Account, you can go ahead and join my Google group.

So in here, on the Web, on our website you can just go ahead and click under “Resources” here, the Google groups here; and that will take you right to the School Technology Workshop Google Group.  So just go ahead and ask for a membership into that; and I will approve them within 24-48 hours.  And I want you to join in and be a part of that.

So you see I have just barely created it - because I have got a whopping “one member”; that’s me! But this is where we are going to be able to exchange information about this workshop; you will be able to post questions, I can answer them; fellow colleagues can answer them - those type of things.  So this is a really great place for us to get together and to do those things.  So, let me go ahead and back up there.  Alright.  So join that group.

And then I also want you to start subscribing to a couple of magazines:  so          “e-School News” is the first one - let me click on that link.  And somewhere on here is going to be a little… oh there it is, right here; a nice red “Subscribe” button.  So go ahead and click on the “Subscribe”.  And you should probably get a free subscription; I get one free - I think anybody who is really in tech and in education gets one free.  But this one should be coming to your desk once a month so you can see what is new out there as far as technology for schools.

So that is “e-School News”.  So you just go ahead and click your title, where you work; and then continue and go through and fill out the little form.  And it will show up in about six weeks; you will start getting that on a monthly basis.

So let’s back up again to our Action Items.  And then the last one here is I want you to subscribe to “Tech and Learning” Magazine - a fantastic magazine on the things that are happening with technology in schools as well.  Let me just see here where there is a free… there we go - “Free Issue” right down there.  So you find the button for a free issue; you click on it and you go fill out their form as well.  And again, you should probably be eligible for a free subscription to “Tech and Learning” Magazine.

So if you don’t already have these, I ask you that you go out there, get them, so that you have those coming into your life as well - so you have blogs, and Nings, and podcasts and magazines.  And I don’t mean to inundate your life with education technology - but you really need to have these types of things coming into your world so that you understand the “latest and greatest.”

And it is not that we are chasing that tail, of having the cutting-edge technology; but we need to, when we work with our Administration and our teachers, we need to know what is out there.  So when they might bring up a new thing like, “Well, I hear kids can now use a hologram off their watches” and you are like, “Oh yes, you know I was just reading about that!” You know - something like that.

So that is really your assignments for this time around.  You are going to see in the next few Steps us starting to put things together; especially when you start meeting with the Administration and the teachers, because you have already got your plans for what you want for skills, what you want for artifacts - and now that is all going to come together.

So we are going to talk about that first part of the 21st century skills book in the next Step.  So, enjoy - and have fun!  You know, learn all this great stuff, and get passionate about it!  I love these kinds of things!  And my whole family thinks I’m the biggest geek that walks around the earth!  So join me in all that!  Oh yes - and make sure to join my Google Group so we can kind of work together that way.

Alright, take care, and have a good time with this Step.

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