New Beginnings

With a new school year fastly appropriating it is time to begin the planning process for your
 classroom and how you plan to use technology. In my next few entries I will be sharing technology that I intend to use in my NEW kindergarten class. Yes! Kindergarten,  I am excited to bring technology to these digital natives, knoing that most of the work is going to fall on me in the area if planning, management,  and effectiveness of use.

If you have any ideas to share please do, I woukd greatly appreciate them!

Use Your Summer to help You Plan you Technology Intergration

I know that summer is the time that teachers take a break from writing lesson plans and use thise tim to focus on their personal needs.

However this is also a great time to plan how you will use technology.  This the time to look up the pricing of new equipment,  learn to use a technology you already have better, or recreate a plan to get funding for additional technology.

Although it is summer,  you can create accounts at Adoptaclassroom or Donors Choose to create projects for next school. You can savevthese projects rather than publish them, so that you will recieve the materials when you need them. You may also need to edit the projects prior to publishing due to grade or class size.

Share any ideas you have for the summer Vacation!

Technology and Inventory

Inventory is a tedious task that is necessary for schools to complete on a yearly basis. Why? Because a count of what is in the building is needed to ensure that funds are sent appropriately. With the funding concerns of schools today, knowing what you have, what you need, and how to bridge the gap between the two.

Being a tech savy educator is difficult when you find negligence of any form. Your tolerance gets tested at many levels. Please!!! Stay strong in you efforts to make at your school or district. Technology is a new field in education and the diffusion of technology moves at various rates. Continue to be a catalyst in the feild: one classroom,  one co-worker, one grade level at a time, one school, or district.

Stay strong and fight the tech battle

My Technology Specialist Comrades

Integrating Technology into a Fables lesson

Over the course of a the past two weeks, I have been working with my 2nd grade students on a language arts lesson that I wanted to use our technology standards too. So, I took the writing components of the lesson and extended the lesson to incorporate technology as the finished product. The result of these lessons were: students wrote a fable, students illustrated their fable, students recorded their fable (technology), and students typed their fable their fable.

As a surprise to the students I am compiling their work to create a classroom Fables movie. This movie will be used to demonstrate to other teachers especially primary grade teachers that technology can be used in their classroom.

At this time I am unable to share the movie with the public because we are checking county protocol for personal presentation. I soon as I have permission I will gladly share this wonderful experience with you.

Ring in the new year

It has been a long time since I've blogged, but I have decided to ring in this year with consist blogging about technology and lessons I am learning in my classroom using technology. Take this journey with me. I plan to share with you every month at least.

Happy Tech-ing in the new year

Red Queens

When I went through the process of deciding how I would obtain the movie Blade; I thought about the following: (1) how can I get the movie quickly and (2) finding the movie without having to go out of my way to get it. This resulted in me renting the movie via a digital download.
DVD's are becoming obsolete, however the need for recorded entertainment remains. Thus providing growth for digital downloads and rentals or on demand experiences. The evolution from DVD's to digital access to media is a red queens event. I say this because digital media is the adaptation of DVD's. This adaption will allow rented, downloadable,or on demand access to media that was previously only available on DVD.

In McLuchan's tetrad, I would place DVD's in the rekindling/retrieves section of the tetrad because new technology has taken away the need of the hardware but the desire and need for the sevice is relevant. Digital media would be placed in the enhancment section of the tetrad because this technology builds upon the technology of the DVD's. It takes the development of the internet and streaming abilites and repackages the media found on DVD's to the format of these technologies.

Disruptive Technology

A disruptive technology is defined as an innovation that improves a product or service in ways that the market does not expect (Langson Energy, 2012). Second life is a disruptive technology because it has taken the technologies of the internet, avatars, distant learning, and virtual worlds; and combined them to create a new age learning environment. Thornburg (2009) explained disruptive technologies as completely new tools that change how things are done, and are not gradual extensions of older technologies. Disruptive technologies bring about the changes that come with little or no warning. Second life challenges the need for brick and mortar classrooms that would reduce the need or use of a multitude of other technologies such as the Promethean board.  With the rapid changes in technology and the ability to use cameras on both computers and mobile devices Second Life may also be on the verge of being replaced by Google+ Hangout. Members can communicate, view each other, and share material such as videos and articles with the group.  Google+ does not limit individuals to the use of their computer it can be utilized via mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets.

With all the challenges that education faces Second Life and Google+ provide additional avenues to provide education to students of all age groups. In the state of Georgia there are some online state approve K-12 education providers such as K12.com and Georgia Cyber Academy. These are new ways the state is looking to provide education for students outside of the traditional classroom setting. Second Life and Google+ can help online providers of education find additional ways to communicate and share with students.  I look forward to what new technologies are to come.

References:

Irodriguezetc. (2009, October 29). Second Life as a Disruptive Technology in Education. Retrieved from The Next Step in Education: http://lrodriguezetc.wordpress.com/2009/10/29/second-life-as-a-disruptive-technology-in-education/

Langson Energy. (2012, July 20). Gas Pressure to Green Engery. Retrieved from Disruptive Technology Zone: http://www.langsonenergy.com/faqs-2/what-is-disruptive-technology

Nuthall, K. (2008, January 20). US: A Disruptive Technology Arrives. Retrieved from Univeristy World News: http://www.universityworldnews.com/article.php?story=20080117162121373

Solis, B. (2012, April 16). Disruptive Technology and How to Compete for the Future. Retrieved from BrianSolis.com: http://www.briansolis.com/2012/04/disruptive-technology-and-how-to-compete-for-the-future/

Tyan, D. (2008, March 19). The 10 Most Disruptive Technology Combinations. Retrieved from PCWorld: http://www.pcworld.com/article/143474-5/the_10_most_disruptive_technology_combinations.html

Thornburg, D. (2009). Evolutionary technology Vodcast: In Laureate Education, Inc. Emerging and future technology.