Edina Digital Age Learning

Yesterday, I had two instances where I had to be the "Fun Police," in my role as Digital Learning Specialist. It is not a role that I rellish, as philosophically, I want our staff and students to have an authentic experience as possible and utilize tools that may be of benefit to their learning. However there are times, when for safety or due to missuse of a tool, I have to put on the hat and shades... Case #1 The first instance was when I got a request for a group of 5th grade students to use Prezi as a presentation tool. Now Prezi may not be as popular as it was a few years ago, and some folks wish they had kept their "Classic" tools and format , but it still offers a nice way to make non-linear presentations. However, for elementary educators, there is another component that makes Prezi problematic: their Terms of Service .  Given this restriction, unless the student has been held back 3 years, odds are the 5th graders will not be able to use Prezi for their p...

Students in KC West's Mass Media course at Edina High School took a quiz recently to see "How Millennial" they were. They used the Pew Research Center assessment answering 14 questions on how they access and consume information. KC is teaching this course in a " blended " format, and has great reflections on that aspect on her blog . KC's work on blended learning is a great example of what's working in public education. After taking the quiz, she had them create a Prezi presentation to share how they consume media. It was interesting to see how they consume their news, music, and entertainment. Some were very "millennial," tweeting, texting , blogging, reading on Kindle's and iPads , while others were not. Here are a few examples of how the students see themselves: How millennial am I? on Prezi Millennial Generation on Prezi It was interesting to hear the students present. Some talked about how they read books on their Kindle and iP...