Edina Digital Age Learning

Ben Friesen moderated this session with a group students, made up mostly of the Hopkins "Genius Team," fielding questions that Minnesota Google Summit attendees had for students.  The first question was what technology coming out was the most interesting to them. Here were their responses: Subtext Google Buddy iMovie Google Glass x2 Netflix Nearpod iMotion Here are some of the questions and their answers... Which tool do you prefer?   Despite the slide, there was a mixture of student response regarding which tool they prefer. They gave good rationale for which tool worked for them, but iPads seemed to win the day. Do you like positions of leadership in your school?  Yes, but not when their friends stop talking to them 'cause they're using Snapchat and don't want to get caught! What has been your favorite use of technology in the classroom? Students seem to really like Nearpod for comparing note and staying engaged in class. Yout...

Eric Simmons, Technology Director in New Ulm, Minnesota shared some suggested applications to add on to Google Drive .  When you are in Google Drive, you can select, Add more Apps now when creating a document in Drive to enhance your experience. The great thing is, that once you create something with the new application, it saves to your Drive account for easy access and sharing. The first he shared, was Pixlr Editor , a great online photo editing tool. Concept Board is an app that is a Web based White Board that can be shared like a Google Doc. It's easy to share and allow easy annotation. Great for large group collaboration right from the student's seat! I see some great benefits, but might also allow for mischief with anonymous posts. Floor Planner has some nice design capabilities and is free if you do 1 project per month. WeVideo is a great tool for collaborative video editing. Simmons demonstrated how you can record on the fly or upload vide...

Molly Schroeder welcomed participants to the Minnesota Google Summit , talking about some of the philosophies of Google that we can take to with us into the classroom. Launch early and iterate.  Providing "permissionless innovation!"  We all should be in beta Jim Sill , a Google Certified Teacher and Apple Distinguished Educator, kicked off the conference talking about "The World of Wild and Reckless Creativity." He talked first about growing up in the '80s, with MTV and Madonna, and "living in a material world." What world do we live in today? We live in a Twitter World #thisisnotasubtweet We live in an Instagram World  #selfies (There's a limitation...how many toilets show up?) There is a lot of self-branding, whether people know it or not! We live in a YouTube World  (Over 1 Billion views of Gagnam Style!) We live in a GoPro World   Then he asked the audience, " What World Do You Live In? " Here are some of t...

This fall, Stanford University hosted a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) called, " Designing a New Learning Environment. " Lead by Dr. Paul Kim, the course invited participants to interact globally to design learning environments  of the future. I saw a post from, Brendan Murphy , a former grad school colleague, and thought that it might be a good learning opportunity paired with the Secondary Academic program study that Edina Schools has been working on. I forwarded this on to our Teaching and Learning Coordinator, Randy Smasal, who then contacted Stanford. Smasal wondered if Dr. Kim would like to use our district as a case study for groups to consider as a design project. Ultimately a couple of groups developed projects based around Edina , and we are working to incorporate some of their ideas.  Additional projects from the course can be found  here . When Smasal shared this with building leaders, our high school principal, Bruce Locklear , and assistant principa...

Continuing my reflection on the learning that has happened this year, I would like to share a story on how one teacher found an opportunity to collaborate globally and gave her students a great learning experience. Over winter break, Valley View 8th Grade Social Studies and French Immersion teacher, Irmgard Farah visited Costa Rica. While there, she took a trip to the the Children's Eternal Rainforest in Monteverde . While there, she learned of the " Friends of the Rainforest " project and how classrooms around the world had donated to help with land purchase, land protection, educational programs and guided travel opportunities. On her way home, Irmgard wondered if her students would be interested participating in a fundraising project for the rainforest. She thought it would also be a great opportunity to incorporate service learning strategies for her students, and thought it would also tie nicely to her curriculum if she could make a connection with another Frenc...

Photos courtesy of Tim Berndt and Susan Brott This past Saturday, we hosted the 2013 Technology and Learning Showcase, an opportunity for our staff and students to share some of the great learning happening this past year in our district. Over 200 students, parents and community members and staff from other districts attended the event. This year's showcase featured the work of many of our staff who took part in our iSquared Integration Initiative , an effort to unleash student passion for learning and empower great teaching through grants for technology in classrooms. The staff taking part in the initiative committed to ongoing training throughout the year in use of the devices they would be using in their classroom.  In addition, other staff and students chose to take part, including students in our eLearning2 initiative , Project Lead the Way students from Edina High School, and 8th graders who had participated in a Language Arts Book Trailer contest, as well as document...

A few weeks ago, while watching the Masters golf tournament, I couldn't help but notice Exxon commercials touting their support for the Common Core standards . It's interesting that people from the left ,  the center , and  the right ,  have lambasted the Common Core, stating that it will move us away from progressive, student centered learning, contain too much detail and will micro-manage the teaching profession, and dumb down the curriculum respectively.  I find it interesting that Exxon spent millions of dollars promoting their support of the Common Core, and other initiatives. My skeptical nature makes me want to follow the money. Perhaps they are getting into the publishing business, or more likely are diverting our attention from the latest toxic spill .  Personally, I'm not sure whether a standard core curriculum is just a way to make money for publishers, or could ultimately level the playing field by making sure ALL students have a h...