Heading West - the non-tech way?

I dropped in on Rondinelli's 8th Grade Social Studies to see their mini-plays (melo-dramas) about taming the west. Each group of three or four students had to create a mini-production about life in "pioneer" times. Among the groups were the 49ers, Mountain Men, Pioneer Women, Mormons, you get the idea.


While the productions were decidedly not high-tech I think it made perfect sense to me that they were so. Given that there was no technology like we have back in the day the students faithfully created productions that were educational and engaging. It seemed that one way to bring the audience into the story was to have them be the sound-effects when needed. The audience was queued for the needed sound effect and it made for an enjoyable time and kept us engaged in the story.

While I'm not a historian I vaguely remember that this was one way that melodramas were made - having the audience be active members by creating the sound effects.

Now the students did quite likely use technology - computers, the internet, WWW, printers, etcetera to create their production and acquire the knowledge and background for their story, but their actual production was all non-tech. Sure the students could have used voicethread, photostory or some other digital application, but that would have taken away from the melodramatic effect of being involved in the actual play for the audience.

I guess that the point I am making is that what is important is the content and engagement - how one teacher delivers it may be different than another.

Livescribe Pulse Pen

Our librarian Carolyn Mast came across a neat product while looking through one of her periodicals. The product is the Pulse Pen made by Livescribe. This pen has a built-in audio recorder and infrared camera.

Using paper you can download from their site for free (or you can buy it too) you can record your audio along with notes you take on paper. Then later you can click anywhere on the notes you took and playback what was being said. It's great for note-taking or lectures. If you like you may also download and share the notes/audio on the web.

We used it in Sue Lloyd's Language Arts class to tie into the student discussion that was supposed to happen afterwards as homework. Students were assigned to comment on topics that their peers introduced in class that day. They were to make posts on the teacher's weblog regarding the discussion. They could listen to the actual discussion if they needed additional detail. Here's the link to the classroom discussion. It's sort of like a built-in podcosting device with real-time note taking added on.

Online learning

In ESchool news today an article was released about online learning. Now online learning is available in most colleges and universities. There are a few high shcools offering online classes too. Did you know that Heritage High School offers an online physics course that students in remote parts of Colorado "attend"?

What if all instruction for secondary schools was done on-line? What if your classes were offered online? How would you adapt your teaching style to it?

(You may read the first page of this article without registering, but to read the remainder you'll need to register - it's free).

Another note: The article mentions Digital Equipment Corporation in the article. In my past life as an IT director and 'techie' I used their products extensively. I loved the old VAX/VMS Operating System architecture. It helped to make me a logical thinker!

Wordle used in Language Arts

I've seem some teachers find novel uses of Wordle. Wordle can be a great tool for anyone to use. It's free and easy to use. Here are Euclid we have used Wordle to compare literature, analyze presidential speeches or just find out more about yourself or your own writing style.


You'll enjoy this post from a LA teacher at AHS.

SMARTBoard Hardware Help

Carol and I created a blog a few years ago to contain helpful posts to typical problems that occur with smartboards and projectors from time to time.

Have a look here if you run into a smart board problem.

Math and Girls

I listen to Science Friday and enjoy the lively discussions led by Ira Flatow. On September 21st, 2007 he hosted a discussion with women mathematicians. There's an interview with Danica McKellar - author and actress; a story of how young women from the US competed in China and came away from gold, silver and bronze medals; and other compelling conversations regarding the US crisis in educating our young.

What I found particularly interesting was the spirited conversation with his first guest Danica McKellar. You might remember her as "Winnie" from the TV show "The Wonder Years". Well, now she has majored in Math at UCLA and published a book: Math Doesn't Suck: How to Survive Middle-School Math Without Losing Your Mind or Breaking a Nail

To listen to the recorded broadcast using WIndows Media Player click here.

Click here to go to the specific ScienceFriday page where you can:

• Listen to the original radiocast - click one of the audio players in the Archived Audio box off to the right of the page.
• Link to Amazon and order Danica's book.
• Find links to other Math resources.
• Learn more about the guests.

Please comment on this post with your thoughts and feelings. This blog is open to all and does not require a login.

PLCs - Digital Style

It's been awhile since I posted to our blog. So here's the first one for the year.

This link points to a podcast, powerpoint slides and other resources. It talks about building your personal network, professional learning communities and the changes we are experiencing in our fast-paced lives. There are a lot of resources here.

http://www.speedofcreativity.org/2007/08/30/podcast186-building-professional-learning-communities-with-educators-using-digital-tools/

Hope you enjoy it.