OMG! This is so FUN!

You simply have to try this text to movie site called Xtranormal! It is FREE, fun, and I can just see my middle school students getting as hooked as I am.

Getting an account and learning the ropes was so easy. Give it a try and let me know when you have a text-to-movie I can watch!

Education--Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow!

This You Tube video will give you something to speculate (my sixth grade students would be proud...that is a vocabulary word this week!) about, although it is not entirely dissimilar to other information we have discussed in our LEED Technology blogs.

Watch Education Today and Tomorrow and see what you think!

Technology in the Real World!

I have spent most of this week in the courtroom...on jury duty for an armed robbery case. Talk about stressful! I'd rather be in my classroom with my 110 middleschoolers any day.

However, the experience gave me one more reason to appreciate technology. The district attorney used the LCD projector to show us some pictures of evidence. Very good for those of us who needed to visually see these items. Then, in his closing arguments, he used the projector with power point slides outlining the various elements we were to consider during deliberation. Very effective! We were hearing what he said, reading it, and viewing the outlined elements...really helped me understand what I was to consider.

Of course, I was amazed to see the judge with his laptop open the entire time (we jurors wondered if he was playing Solitaire!)...the clerk of court used her computer to document throughout the proceedings, and the DA used his laptop the entire time.

Now, I will go back to my middleschoolers and discuss with them another way in which I have experienced tech in the real world, whether it is using a computer to fill out an application at Target, to using tech to check out someone at a local restaurant, to documenting a doctor's order at the hospital....tech is really out there in the real world!

Your Opinions Wanted!

A colleague and I wrote a grant last year and obtained about $50,000 worth of technology---30 laptops and a cart. This has been a wonderful asset to our middle school students. Last week, as I introduced writing to 110 sixth graders (who have had very little experience with writing since their writing test in 4th grade)...I "sweetened the pot" by rolling the laptop cart into the classroom. Talk about motivating!!!! We finished up on Friday, but the kids came in this week asking if they were going to get to write any this week.....okay, maybe the writing itself is not what they wanted, but hey, I will take motivation in any form at this point! Especially when it comes to middle schoolers and writing! Just wanted to share a positive experience related to technology in my classroom :)


Okay, so all in our LEED class seem to agree that technology is captivating for our students, and that teachers must be knowledgeable and capable when it comes to tech saviness.

What about principal/leaders? Should the principal (and/or AP) be held to the same tech accountability as the teachers in the building? I have known a principal who pushed the teachers to use tech, but did not know how to create a simple PowerPoint (did not even really know how to do all the things he needed to with his email account...AP helped him).
Since so many of my LEED peers want to be principals or APs one day, thought it would interesting to hear your opinions on this! Let's Blog 'bout it!

Playing the Devil's Advocate

Granted, the vast majority of us in our LEED 6820 class are pro-technology. And, to be honest, I am on the same bandwagon as everyone else---tooting the praises of educators' use of tech, personally and professionally. Yet, here I am playing devil's advocate with some negative thoughts about our dear friend technology.

As I have been surfing the net, looking at various sites and articles related to technology and education, I began to ask myself, "What are some negatives to this boom in students' use of tech?"

For one, I have found that the surgeon general has related child obesity to inactivity, some of which is directly related to computer usage (along with tv and video games)...and it appears much of this time is also spent in some form of social isolation. Oh, kids are texting, chatting, warring with each other on online games. But, they are losing out on the positive experiences associated with playing, talking, arguing, competing (etc) with peers face-to-face.

I wondered about social development and computer use. Should the use of computer and other tech replace good ole' person-to-person socialization? For me, no, it should not. However, I must preface this with the admission that by nature, I am a social creature (ask any of my coworkers!). Before teaching, I was a therapist with a mental health agency for ten years, and our effectiveness was based on a person to person type of service. So, here, I am thinking that students would definitely need their teacher, guidance counselor, bus driver, etc (or some other living, breathing creature) to help them develop socially and emotionally. Humans need humans, right? We cannot be replace, right? We are imperative, right? Well...according to Promoting Social and Emotional Learning: Guidelines for Educators by Maurice Elias, computer labs equipped with problem-solving software are great resources for students. When a student experiences a problem at school, he/she is allowed to go to the computer lab and independently work out the problem through use of a computer program. Hmmm....I will have to think about this a little more. Guess I am "old school" and think adolescents' interpersonal problems need a personal touch.

On our LEED blog, someone joked that students would not need a live teacher (or very few live "anybodies" for that matter) in the future....this site really brought that thought home to me! Do computer labs/programs like this actually take away from some of the social/emotional development of children and adolescents? Can such technology replace the human contact needed to promote social/emotional development?

Personally, I readily admit, that I hope technology never goes so far as to replace human contact!