Technology is the one subject being taught in school where the students have the possibility of knowing more than their teachers.
And that scares us.
Can you imagine being a history teacher and suddenly a student puts up their hand, "Mr. Flick, I think that you have your facts wrong about the Civil War."? And if it did happen you would start to re-think your career choice. In all other school subjects there are very defined roles as who is the teacher and who is the student -- something that doesn't exist in teaching the world of school technology.
I get corrected by my students all the time, and thanks to years of therapy, I am finally able to accept it.
As a tech teacher you must always be ready to let one of your student take over and become the teacher, which means you become the student. We can learn so much from our students if we just learn to work with it and not against it.
Case in point: the other day I had to ask a group of 4th grade students; "The Flip video camera is stuck and won't turn off, what's the deal?" Sure enough a student who personally owns one tells me that I unplugged it too soon from my computer and I need to take out the batteries to reset it. Problem solved.
So check your pride at the door and start team teaching with your students -- trust me, you'll like it.
There are some that might argue that students will naturally acquire 21st Century Skills since they are surrounded by so much technology in their daily lives. Why do we need to spend so much money on bringing technology into our schools?
That would be the same as saying that since a student has a paper and pencil he will naturally acquire math skills like algebra or writing skills like poetry.
This is the paradox of school technology and 21st Century Skills.
Just because a student might have a computer at home, it doesn't mean that they know how to truly use it. They lack the necessary skills.
And if his teachers do not have the proper tools and training, they cannot teach the skills.
Teachers cannot teach 21st Century Skills without tools.
Tools like interactive whiteboards, netbooks, cameras, flip videos, etc.
Modern technology doesn't replace teachers, it makes them more important than ever.
Most of the students I teach were all born in the 21st Century, they are truly digital natives, they know no other world that this. They cannot remember a world without the Internet or iPods.
We are all just tourists in their world.
So there you have it:
JUST BECAUSE STUDENTS HAVE TOOLS, IT DOESN'T MEAN THEY HAVE THE SKILLS.
and
TEACHERS CANNOT TEACH THE SKILLS WITHOUT THE TOOLS.
As teachers, we do not need to contribute to the sea of ugly websites, the Internet has already enough of them.
Let's face it, we are not graphic artists or web designers, we are teachers. So let's stop pretending that we know how to make websites and leave all the fancy stuff to the professionals.
Years ago when I was teaching web design in high school I would spend a lot of time with my students reviewing what made web sites not only functional but also good to look at. I would then conclude my lesson by allowing students to make the ugliest websites possible -- break every rule we just talked about and make an ugly website. It was a helpful exercise to get my students to get all of the ugliness out of their systems; so they would have animated logos, funky backgrounds with hard to read text, you name it -- if it was tacky they used it. With the ugliness out of their systems we would then start to build beautiful websites. The had learned the lesson.
But some teachers haven't learned this lesson.
As teachers we sometimes get sucked in by all that we can do on a website...
We add cute little animations.
Strange backgrounds.
Every page looks different.
We even put music in the background.
ENOUGH!
I tell teachers to just go to a free website creation website called Weebly, there are plenty of these kinds of websites so just pick one, and make a classroom website with one of their templates.
Schazam! Instant beautiful website.
A second grade teacher recently sent me an email telling me how happy she was to have a good looking website and blog by using Weebly. Here is a link to her website and you can see how nice it is to see a classroom website that is organized and nice looking.
When the idea of students using flash drives (or thumb drives, or USB drives, or whatever you want to call them) first occurred to me I thought "This is going to be great! No more troubles with students taking files to and from the school to their home computers."
This year every student came to school with their own flash drive...
Oh, how wrong I was!
Although my idea was great, the practice of this idea was horrible.
Have you ever had to deal with any of these situations?
1) Student: Mr. Flickinger have you seen my flash drive? It has my report on it and I need to print it out and turn it in. Me: Does your report live anywhere else but on your flash drive? Student: No.
2) Student: Does a flash drive still work if it has been through the washer and dryer?
3) Student: Mr. Flickinger my flash drive doesn't work any more. Me: What are these marks? Student: Oh yeah, my dog chewed on it a bit. Me: Are you kidding me, you are trying the ol' THE DOG ATE MY HOMEWORK line?
By trying to solve one problem with technology, in this case a simple flash drive, I created an even bigger one. Welcome to the world of a tech integration specialist.
Hello everyone and welcome to this “Watch First” video for SchoolTechnology.Org - and this is the Tech Integration Workshop. My name is Brad Flickinger and I work as a Tech teacher here in Colorado, as well as a Tech Integration Specialist. I get to go all throughout the US and Canada helping schools and school Districts embed and incorporate technology skills as well as 21st Century skills into their curriculum.
Now, where you are at right now is by Blog. It is a result of the work that I do when I work with teachers and Districts; of all the little ideas that I get - things that work, things that don’t work - I have decided to start recording it, mostly in a video Blog format.
And what you are part of right now is this Tech Integration Workshop where, when I have worked with Districts, they have said, “Hey, could you bundle that all together and tell us exactly what steps you do?” So I was able to write it all down, and I got the twelve Steps all figured out - and this is what I do every time I go work with school Districts. And that is where you are at right now, is by Blog that has all this information on it.
Now, you should be the person for your building or your District that is in charge of technology. And these people go by lots of different names: Mediatech Specialist, Tech Integration Specialist, Building Tech Coordinator - all these different things - but basically it all comes down to the same thing: you are in charge of the technology for both either your building or for your District.
Now, you might be a teacher or an administrator sneaking into this course - and that’s great! So you will get a lot out of this workshop as well - but it really is meant for those people that are kind of the “go-to” people when it comes to technology for schools.
Now, the first thing you should really do is bookmark or follow this Blog. If you already have a Google account you can just click the “Follow Blog” button - but really you need to know where this is so you can come back and check back on it often. So, that is Item number one.
Item number two is set up a time and a reminder - so put a post-it note on your screen or something - to come back here a few days from now or a week from now, so you can keep going through the course.
The Workshop is twelve steps long; so you will want to set up time to be able to work on it every week.
Now, some people, when they see all the different Steps in this Workshop, they think “Ah, you know, I just really need to go to Step Eight, or do Step Three”. You know what? Try not to cheat, okay; don’t cheat with this. Just start with Step One and do all those Steps, or the Action Items, that I tell you in each Step because I build upon them from Step to Step.
And in Step Eight I am going to be referring to things that we have done in the previous seven Steps. So some of this might be a review for some of you - and others it might be totally new ideas.
So, I work really quick through it; these are short little videos that I do - but try your best not to cheat. You will get much more out of the Program if you just follow it along.
And some people ask me, they are like, “Brad, how long is this going to take?” And they see twelve Steps and they think, “Ah, twelve weeks I can get this done.” Well, the reality is that some Steps take very little time at all; you know, you have got to order a couple of books, join a few Nings - it might take you an hour.
Other Steps are going to take you weeks and maybe even a month or two to do: a Step like “Meeting with Teachings and Embedding Technology into Curriculum” - that could take a lot of time.
So for the whole course, if you can put in a couple of hours a week you should probably get through this in six to seven months, after getting through all these Steps. But at the end it is going to be great because you are going to have all this technology embedded and incorporated into your schools.
Now, I am going to just assume that you have got great tech skills because on my Steps I am just going to say things like, “Download and install iTunes on your computer.” Well, you know, I am not going to take you… hold your hand and tell you every little button you need to click on - you are going to, obviously, know how to do those types of things. So I am not going to waste your time.
Now, the reality is that you can’t really get through this Program without spending some money; so I hope you have got some professional development money or some building budget money that you can spend on the books that I recommend, the subscriptions that I recommend - those types of things. It is not money for me - it is money for these things that you need to have to make you a great Tech Integration Specialist; because, like any course that you take at University, you need to have curriculum; you need books, you need those types of things. And I am going to be recommending those.
Now, also that goes hand-in-hand with the fact that I am very opinionated when it comes to school technology and 21st Century skills. So I am going to tell you exact brands that I use when it comes to hardware and software; product names, Wikis that I use, books that I read - so and I am very opinionated. And you are going to get that throughout this whole course. And try to follow along; try to get exactly what I tell you to do, because I have been testing it in the schools that I have worked with and in my own school every day.
So, you know work around that. And I am sorry if I offend some of you, and I am sorry if I say I don’t like products that you maybe love - and we can maybe talk about that later in the feedback slide that comes up. But that is the reality. I am going to be recommending actual products for you to buy.
And now, since we are talking about school technology, technology changes! So under each Lesson should be a little area that says “Updates to this Video”; and I will put in there, if I have changed my mind on a Wiki that maybe you should be subscribing to, or there is a new something that comes along like a new Podcast; I will just put it down there. So check that. And then if it gets to be too much, I might just re-record the Screencast or the presentation about that. But always check for changes because things happen - especially in technology.
Now, this is also the “funnest”, since you can watch me in high-def and I have recorded these and uploaded them to YouTube and they are available in 720p. So go ahead and change that if you want to. Now, I didn’t do this so you could just, you know, count the hairs on my beard or something! But really I know that some people use this for professional development to go up in front of a group of six or seven building Tech people, and so they will put it up on the screen. And so this is nice - so you are not going to see it all pixilated and blurry but you can actually watch it in high-def up on a big screen. So that is why I have really done it. But if you are just watching it on your computer, the 360p is just fine.
Now, you will need, obviously, a computer, broadband internet; headphones are a really good idea since most of this is done with a video Blog, so you can listen to me privately; and, you know, probably a notebook, and obviously maybe a folder in your bi-documents called the “Tech Integration Workshop” - just so you can download PDFs and keep things organized in that way. So you need to set things up on your end.
And if you come across anything that you would like to see included in this Workshop, go ahead and send me an email; just right there on my Profile side of this Blog has the contact information. And you can send me your ideas as well as feedbacks, and your opinions on what I am doing. And if there are any typos or anything like that, send it back to me. The quality of this work is very, very important to me. So please participate and give me feedback on any of your ideas that you have.
Alright, now we are down to the last two slides. So, down below this video is a link to a pre-assessment; it is a short little pre-assessment. So go ahead and take that pre-assessment. And it is kind of where your tech skills are as far as tech integration. And then when we are done the twelve courses, the twelve Steps, then you will take the post-assessment; it is so that you can just see growth. And it is private, it is just for you - so go ahead and take it and file it away - but it just gives you an idea to think about as we move through this course.
And then the last thing - and this is THE most important thing - is download that PDF that has the checklist for this course, so that you can follow along from Step to Step and make sure that you are getting every point done. That is the only way this works; is you have got to go through this and make sure that you accomplish every one of the Action Items and you learn every one of those points that are under the “understanding” part; that you understand these different concepts and those types of things.
So go ahead and download that; print it and get ready to come back. And, hey - let’s right now go off to Step One and let’s get started!
So, once again, my name is Brad Flickinger and this is my Blog, SchoolTechnology.Org - and I will see you in Step One!
Not only do I work the greatest job in the world as technology teacher, I also get to work with schools and districts all across the country on improving technology education as tech integration specialist.
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