Edina Digital Age Learning

Congratulations to Dean Dahl, 6th grade Reading teacher at South View and Jon Zetah, 3rd grade teacher at Cornelia on being named the 2008 Edina TIES Exceptional Educators for technology integration!

Osseo, Minnesota Technology Director Tim Wilson spoke at TIES to a packed house on emerging technologies. He began by reminding us about exponential growth. It grows slowly at first, but then takes off. Sometimes we don't understand what's happening until it's too late! In 1965 Gordon Moore, the co-founder of Intel, said that "the number of circuits on a computer chip will double every two years." In 10 years, we've gone from the pentium chip to the Atom chip, which is the size of a grain of rice! In 1998 there were 8 million transistors on a chip. Now there are 820 million! If we are teaching math standards, understanding Exponential growth should be one of them! So what do the next 10 years hold? If Moore's law holds true, the chips of 2018 will have 25,600 million transistors!!! If this is true, all of the ways that technology has changed in the last 10 years will be infinitesmal compared to what's happening. The computing power of the iMac of 1998 ...

Penny Springer , chemistry instructor at Prior Lake High School demonstrated Atomsmith software for "classroom molecular exploration. " Penny and I taught about 6 years ago at McGuire Middle School in Lakeville . She gave an overview of the software, by starting with a gas lab model. The software has a model window on the left, and experiments, instructions, and formative worksheets on the right. The worksheets add a level of accountablility that she likes. In the simulations, you can adjust gas type, model type, preasure, temperature and size of the space the molecules. She ran a simulation with water, and you could see the hydrogen bonds form as the temperature decreased. She currently teaches general chemistry, and with the software she is able to help the students visualize molecular structure and modify it quickley to teach specific points. She pointed to research that showed "students learn and retain more through the use of text, and pictures/annimations, especial...

Teachers who spent the last year learning about Tech Integration through TIES shared some of the methods of integration that they worked with the last year. Teachers in Bloomington, Northfield, Hinkley and St. Michael collaborated on this project. Podcasting -Garageband, Audacity, mixcraft -a way to record -place to host (TIES Urban Planet has this capability) -gabcast.com, gcast.com-use our phone to create (Can’t re-edit and add sound tracks) Why? Access to new technology-Student Engagement! New way to present Authentic audience Learningathand.com, willowweb are examples of sites that have good ideas. VideoConferencing Making connections Collaboration Sharing Used Google Docs to share and collaborate with a classroom in Alaska. They also used Google Documents to collaborate on their presentation. Wiki's They recommended Wikispaces.com and PBwiki.com for wikis. JING Project Jing allows you to capture images, record video, and share. I have used that on this wiki here . Voicethrea...

Keith Rysoski, Superintendent of Stillwater Area Public schools talked in his session about "Thinking out of the Box". Teachers need to facilitate the learning, but we put them into a box that makes it difficult. If we want them to think outside of the box, we need to get them out of the box. He used a video of an amoeba to illustrate that students are constantly learning and changing. We should be asking kids questions like: Why is it moving, why does it change, what if we shown a light on it or dropped saltwater on it? Instead, we ask them to draw and label the parts, then assess them and are satisfied. He asks buisiness leaders what skills students will need to have to be successful in 2021, the year this year's Kindergarteners will graduate? What is technology- He brought out a microscope to illustrate that technology appears in many different ways. Just look at the phones kids have today ! He said that if you want to start a one to one program, just to have a one to ...

Hey everyone Claude Sigmund here. Long time reader, first time poster for Mikes Blog.... I really love Pink. His book is sort of window into the world and what we need to do to teach towards it. Remember the video " Shift Happens " Pink takes that video and talks about the concepts contained within that video. The economic, social and human consequeses that we face on a daily basis. He helps us understand that creativity is not just art. That decisionmaking and problemsolving is a kind of creativity. Science is creative... but not how it is presented or often taught. How do we change the standard way of thought. How do we teach for our future... not for the present? A book worth reading and a conversation worth having. Cheers

The first breakout session I attended was on Teaching with Tablet PC's , by Tami Brass from the St. Paul Academy and Summit School . The Toshiba M700 is what they use for staff and students. The school has been using tablets w/teachers for 4 years. They use carts for grade 6, piloting for students at grade 7, and at grade 8 and up have traditional PC's. She used "One Note" to ink on the screen. It is part of the Office 2007 suite, or for roughly $15 per machine individually. The reasons for tablets: A Whiteboard in your briefcase Inking Office and printable documents Reduce printing and paper use. Take advantage of specialized applications and features. She demonstrated presentations, music, flash cards with " Ink Flashcards ", Scratch , Sketch-Up , Art Rage for science projects, Snip for screen capture, and Inspiration. With all staff and students on tablets, they have been able to go paperless, and by using One Note, they stay organized and don't los...

Daniel Pink was the keynote speaker at this years TIES Technology Conference . Creative Minds Collaborating for a Web 3.0 World is the title of this year's conference. I had heard Pink speak at the University of Minnesota last spring in a conversational setting , and was interested to hear a more direct message and whether he had any new things to share. He started by talking about "What makes a Good Speech?" Brevity Levity Repetition! He said the repitition comes from a teacher he had 30 years ago, Mrs. Path, who said, "Repetition is an effective form of emphasis!" She told him over, and over and over! His focus today was on education and the economy. While not an educational expert, he said that his ability to focus on systems gives him . The purpose of education in America is not to deliver employees to buisiness, it's about helping kids reach their potential, civic responsibility, and well informed citizens. We must win that argument if we want to do we...

Yesterday, Sara Swenson , Edina High School Librarian (She prefers that term!) shared the following video with me via e-mail that she found on an NCTE Web s ite . I thought that the video crystallized for me the potential for educational technology integration, 21st Century learning and learning beyond the classroom walls. It is something we are working on with our Community of Practice . That isn't to say that there won't be road blocks to navigate, or crevasses to traverse! We know they exist now! I was intrigued to see the teacher's role defined in such creative ways!! When people ask you what you do for a living, do you respond as "teacher", "educator", "instructor", facilitator", or are you a "Connected Learning Incubator" or are you still "Keeper of All Knowledge Which Is Good?" Hmmm ... Then this morning, I checked my Twitter feed and Will Richardson had posted about a conference on the Future of Education ...

I have been reading Discovery Educator Steve Dembo's "Teach42" blog for the past year and following his updates on Twitter . He is a former kindergarten teacher turned "passionate" education technology advocate and I consider him to be part of my "personal learning network!" Last month, he set out on an ambitious project titled " 30 Days to Being a Better Blogger ". The idea originated last year with Darren Rouse at Problogger .com , but was not necessarily focused on educational blogging. Dembo's project was geared for educators, and I am going through the steps on this blog to show it's potential. He has added a wiki page here , and encourages educators to sign up for the challenge. While the idea was to do everything in November, the site will remain up and can be done at any time. I have gone through the list of 30 tips (You'll note many changes have occured on this site!) and have included below some that I think would be...