The School Technology Podcast

While up in Canada this past weekend I met up with an old friend (a fellow edtech geek) and we started talking about school technology, of course. After spending hours talking about everything from iPads to student music videos we decided that what we needed was a podcast about all these cool things we were talking about.

So I put the word out on a couple of Nings that I am a member of, asking for people who wanted to be panelists and discuss the world of educational technology. I got back a great response and I have put together some great shows ideas that we will record each Sunday night for the next couple of months.

My goal is to produce a podcast that is about 20 minutes long and has people from all over talking about fresh ideas and news regarding the different technology that we use in our schools -- success stories mostly, but we will talk about some things that haven't works as well.

If you have any ideas for subjects that we could talk about or if you would like to be a panelist, just email me.

Please come back Monday and listen to our first school technology podcast.

Blogging from the top of the Rockies

Last November my wife took a group of middle school students to Nicaragua to do some service work, she also took my 13-year-old son. During the weeks that they were gone I would check the school's website for any update as to what they were doing. I must of checked in on them at least 5 times a day. It was great to see photos and read the blog about their adventures.

This week it was my turn to return the favor...

This week I went along with the annual field trip into the mountains of Colorado to teach our 5th grade students about ecology and outdoor living. Every day I would blog about what we were doing and I would upload some photos. I thought a few parents would find this fun to follow along. Little did I know how they would respond.

Here is the math: we took 46 students, which means 46 families could possibly read the blog, if they each checked in 5 times a day that would be 230 "hits" to my blog per day. When I got home and checked my blog's stats I had over 900 hits a day!

What does this mean? Parents want to be connected to their kids -- they loved being able to check in and see that they were up to. I think the fact that we got over a foot of snow dumped on us (in May) helped because they just wanted to know that we were okay. Using a school technology like a blog allows us to be connected in a valuable and important way to the families of our students.

Check out my Classroom Blog to see for yourself.

The evils of the Audience of One

I have been ranting about the evils of the "audience of one" for a few years now, but in case you haven't heard about this I shall explain...

Often students are asked to do great projects that are only seen by their teacher or as I call it: the audience of one. Sure they might take it home to show their parents but the students of the 21st Century want so much more.

A lot of the project that are done at my school are posted online. This changes everything. When student realize that the world might see their work, they really step up their game. Some might say that I am crazy for posting the work of elementary students online, but I am not, in fact I am just the opposite. I take the online safety of my students very seriously and I balance that with the student's need to be creators of web content. We constantly review our web safety guidelines as we work on digital projects and in return I get the most amazing results. As you know from previous blogs, we have over 2000 subscribers on iTunes of our daily podcast.

The other night we hosted a red carpet night at the school where we showcased all of the digital video work using different school technology that is done at our school. Projects like claymation, animation, web-shows and our 5th grade movie. Not only were our parents blown away by the incredible work of our students but I think the students were really amazed at what impact their work could have on an audience. They made people laugh, cry and take notice. Something magical happens when a crowd does a standing ovation to something that the student was a part of.

So please, with every chance you get, give your students a larger audience for their projects than just you and your classroom -- you'll be surprised at what you get back.

The iPad in Schools - Week 4

I have finally started to read books on my iPad. The first book I bought was The Element by Ken Robinson, a brilliant book about students and creativity.

First off, buying the book was a breeze. I went to the iBooks bookstore, browsed around for a few minutes, then downloaded samples of about six or seven books. I read the samples and then decided on the book I just mentioned. It took about 10 seconds for it to download.

Reading on the iPad is beautiful to say the least. The screen is clean and sharp, however it sucks in bright daylight. You can adjust the size of the type as well as the screen brightness to find the settings that you like the best.

I have tried to read "ebooks" on my laptop and I have hated it every time. But there is something completely different about reading on an iPad, it is hard say, but it just feels more natural.

The iPad also has a feature that allows me to highlight and bookmark text (see photo above), now if it could just let me dog-ear some pages it would be perfect.

Students are going to love reading on the iPad, truly a piece of school technology to keep your eye on over the next few months. Imagine a student with hundreds of books and textbooks in their iPads that they can access and search at anytime, it is going to be great.

My Quest for Free School Technology Software

This summer I am going to reevaluate every piece or our current school technology software looking for any that I can replace with free online Web 2.0. Everything from animation to drawing applications.

Here is an example: up until last year we paid a hefty fee to use the Microsoft Office product line, applications like Word, Excel and Powerpoint in our school. But now we use Google Docs -- a free online version similar to the before mentioned apps.

I have a feeling that Google Docs is just the beginning...

Apparently I am not the only one thinking about this. (CNET New Article)