Week 3: You're #1 with Teachers First

Great ideas and comments last week--check them out if you haven't already! I hope some of you may choose to create an assignment like this for your students. If you do, let me know--I'd love to help you do some of the pre-planning and thinking. Brooke commented that now she needed to learn how to make the videos. I really believe students, when shown examples, can figure something like this out. We don't have to be the experts (thank goodness!). But we do have to help students learn how to learn and provide clear rubrics that spell out the expectations. That doesn't mean they won't need help, stumble as they go, etc. but I think we need to embrace that and make it part of the assignment. Okay, enough of that . . . on to this week's topic.

New Web 2.0 tools and digital resources come online every day. Many of these tools and resources offer intriguing possibilities for teachers in our district who want to leverage technology to meet one or more of the components of Classroom 10. Others are simply Classroom 1 and 5 content and activities dressed up in digital attire. In order to avoid the trap of using technology for technology’s sake, savvy teachers need to make thoughtful choices about which tools and resources they want to use with their students.

Some teachers read blogs like Free Technology for Teachers and Moving at the Speed of Creativity to find out about new tools. Another resource is the TeachersFirst website. This site “is a rich collection of lessons, units, and web resources designed to save teachers time by delivering just what they need in a practical, user-friendly, and ad-free format. [They offer their] own professional and classroom-ready content along with thousands of reviewed web resources, including practical ideas for classroom use and safe classroom use of Web 2.0. Busy teachers, parents, and students can find resources using our subject/grade level search, keyword search, or extensive menus.”

One feature of TeachersFirst that I particularly like is their weekly email that contains a link to the featured sites of the week. When I click on this link each week I can quickly scan through the dozen or so sites, each listed with a brief description including grade-level appropriateness, and select which ones I want to investigate further.

This Week's Assignment
This week spend some time at TeachersFirst. Sign up for their weekly email or just search for tools/resources by grade-level and subject area. Get a taste of the featured sites for this week. Poke around and find one tool or resource that is intriguing to you. But don’t fall into the “technology for technology’s sake” trap. Find a tool or resource that could be used to meet a Classroom 10 learning goal in your classroom.

Have fun exploring, then come back here, and post your find (include the link to the site) explaining how it could be used to meet a Classroom 10 learning goal. (Don't worry--keep it simple, you're not writing a lesson plan here, you're just sharing an idea.)

Week 2--Simple: More Complicated Than It Seems

Wow! What a great response! There are nearly 50 of you taking this class (and over on the Elementary version, there's another 50). Way to be a life-long learner! If you haven't checked out people's comments from last week, you should take a quick look at the huge variety of participants' backgrounds and interests. We've got a great group. One clarification, some of you indicated that you thought you would be learning about blogging in this class. Indeed, you will learn a little bit about blogging since we're using one. But while there will be at least one or two posts specifically related to blogging, our real goal is to expose you to a whole variety of tech tools and resources. So, in that vein, let's get started with this week's topic.

Last week I mentioned the folks at Common Craft and their Plain English videos. One of the things I find so intriguing about their product (simple explanations) is that the technology they use to make their videos has been around for decades. Twenty years ago, if you had some dry erase markers, a white board, paper, scissors, and a video camera (and a clever mind, of course), you too could have made similar videos.

However, it’s only in the last few years that you could have so easily created a market for your product. Social media like YouTube, Twitter, and blogs allow content like that offered by Common Craft to be shared both effortlessly and quickly. Indeed, the world our students will live and work in is rapidly changing. Someone with a good idea and an internet connection can start a business, find an audience, and/or collaborate with others from around the world.

This week I’d like you to do two things:

1. Visit the Common Craft site and do some self-directed learning. Want to know more about Twitter? Watch Twitter in Plain English. Want to really understand how the Electoral College works? Watch Electing a U.S. President in Plain English. Or, perhaps you’re new to social networking—check out Protecting Reputations Online in Plain English.

2. Consider how the simple explanations that Common Craft produce actually require some fairly high-level thinking. In order to produce a simple explanation for a general audience one needs to have a thorough understanding of the concept and the ability to tease out its essential components, an understanding of people’s background knowledge, possible misconceptions, etc. Sounds like complex thinking to me.

Now for your prompt: How might you capitalize on the thinking required to make such videos? What possibilities exist in your class for students to demonstrate their understanding of a concept by making a “plain English” video? Share a concept from your content area that you could ask students to demonstrate in this manner. Then, identify one criteria you would want to include in a rubric if you were actually going to assign and grade a project like this. (Essentially, I'm asking you to offer characteristics of what makes a good "plain English" explanation.)

Welcome to the Secondary 10Tech Learn and Earn Class!

Welcome, everyone!

Over the course of the next 12 weeks (excluding breaks, of course), I'll be sharing a variety of technology tools and resources with you. I'll be using this blogging format to post a new "lesson" each week (on Tuesdays). Along with reading and following the directions in each week's post, I'll prompt you to offer a comment related to that week's lesson.

Since we're using a blog for this class, this week's lesson is intended to help you become familiar with how blogs work. Begin by watching this short video from the geniuses (I think) at Common Craft:


If you liked the way the Common Craft folks explain things, check out their other Explainations in Plain English; you'll be glad you did. (I particularly like Zombies in Plain English, but I digress.)

As mentioned in the video, one of the perks of blogging is the community it creates. One way we'll be taking advatage of that feature is through commenting. Commenting on a blog is easy. Simply look for the comment link at the bottom of a post. Click on it to leave your comment. After you've typed in your comment, you will be asked to identify yourself. For our purposes it is important that you DO NOT identify yourself as "Anonymous." Either create and use a Google account that idetifies you accurrately (if your username is iluvsoccer72, we won't know who you are) or select the Name/URL option and type in your name.

So there you have it! This week's lesson is nearly complete. But before we're done, you need to post a comment. Since we're just getting started I'd like your comment to introduce yourself. Include why you're taking this class and what you're hoping to learn.  If you have any questions, feel free to ask them.

Just a reminder, comments are due by Monday morning, 8:00 a.m. Have a great week!