Wednesday, March 15, 2017

A little parting gift...

Here are a few things that I wanted to share with you before you return to your schools.

1. This site will stay up!
The reason we used this site is so that you can continue to use this as a resource when you go back to your schools. Please feel free to keep the link and use it with your colleagues and students. If you would like to become an author of this site, please send me a message and you can continue to evolve it and use it as a learning repository.

2. Keep it simple
Adding any bit of technology to a classroom can be quite an ordeal. Take small simple steps, but have a solid plan as to how each step will take you closer to a grander goal. Here are just some things to think about before you even get started in the classroom:

  • Figure out the process of getting programmes or apps installed on your devices first. This may actually involve a lot of people and what you want to do is to document the process so that you can streamline it because you'll probably be doing this more than once.
  • Figure out the logistics -  Who will maintain the devices, keep them charged, stored and ready to use? Just getting devices into your classroom or moving devices for another class can be quite a chore if you don't have a system for this. If your school doesn't have a system, you should definitely work to create one.
  • Be kind to your colleagues - Give them time to get used to the apps and give them time to work on using apps on their own. Just like in our class, do a quick demonstration and a task for your colleagues to do. Then show them where they can get the resources and give them a while to work on their own or in groups. After say a week, ask everyone to come back and show what they're able to do. If you invite others to come and watch the presentations, you'll be amazed to see what gets done.
  • Test your infrastructure first - So much is new and not many know how to set up everything, you'll have to test the Wi-Fi to see if certain apps work in your school or if your computers can use the apps that we've worked on like Padlet or Edpuzzle. These things can be easily done with a few devices and a little time. It's so much easier to manage that disaster than with 32 students with devices that don't work.
  • Keep your first steps simple and realistic - Sometimes what you students need to learn is how to hold, share and cover the iPads when you ask them to. That's fine. Don't feel like you have to start tackling learning objective from the beginning. 
3. Stay informed 
As we all know, there's so much that's changing in technology and no one knows it all. However, when we get together and we share what we know, we both win.
What can you give away and still keep?  -- An idea
How are you going to stay informed about what's going on in the world of e-Learning (EdTech)?

4.  How are you going to continue to develop your skills?



5. Here's a little help from me to you



Presentation Day

Today we will be presenting our plans that we will bring back to our schools. The object is to make our plan feasible and practical for others who have not taken our course. We want to change not only what they do in the classroom, but change how they think about teaching their lessons.

Here is a link to the presentations

Your task as the audience:

Watch the presentations with a critical eye. We know how easy it is to tell someone what to do, but how do we get them to want to do it

Your task is to rate the presentations and plans of the other groups and put them in order of most likely to be implemented to the least likely. After you have ranked each group, analyse why you believe the top ranked plan will be successful. Come up with at least 4 key features that you believe will help others want to implement their plan/ integrate technology into English lessons.

Once you have summarised your key features, Post a Seesaw video explaining what you think are key features to motivate people to want to integrate technology into the classroom.

Tuesday, March 7, 2017

Final Assessment - Materials and Presentation

Here is a link to the guidelines to help you with your final assessment for this course.

Effective eResources in the Primary Classroom -  PDP Final Assessment

Our schedule for the next few days will be:

  • Wednesday 8/3/17 - Workshop to amend our presentations; Sterling's feedback will be given to each group individually
  • Thursday 9/3/17 - You will have a different class in the morning session.
  • Wednesday 15/3/17 - Presentations begin
  • Thursday 16/3/17 - Finish presentations, SETs? and in-class writing to finish your final writing task


Narration for Google Slides? Wow! [Tutorial]


Shake Up Learning has an excellent tutorial to show you how to add narration to Google Slides just like with PowerPoint.

Take a look at their article: How to Make the Most of Student Video Projects with G Suite | GTTribe Episode 7

Quizizz


Give Quizizz a try:

go to this link: join.quizizz.com

Paste in this code to start your quiz: 144081

WebQuest: Presentations and Evaluations






Each group will present their WebQuest and show what it is and how it works.


Each group will give feedback on 2 other groups. Please take notes and after each group has presented their work each group will work to give collective feedback.

Here is the link to the WebQuest Evaluation Form. Each group will submit one form to two groups.


  • Open the link 
  • Save it to your own Google Drive. 
  • Share it with your group 
  • Complete it together
  • Paste the view & comment link to your group's feedback to the WebQuest Submission Page