Did You Know? Shift Happens 2.0, by Karl Fisch

I am reposting this video prepared by Karl Fisch. It was designed to start a discussion and I post it here to ask the question: Where are we in our technological world? Where have we been and where are we going? What IS best practice?

Here it is....WAIT for it!....It's Coming....first day of School!! Almost upon us...

The first day of school is sliding up fast. I have talked to a number of my colleagues. they are either already at school preparing or have their head in the sand, avoiding the start of a new school year. Today, I tried to think of the top things that would help the new teacher prepare for the first week of school. These are listed below. Do you have any to add? Feel free.


So what are your top 5 things to do to prepare your classroom?

Do you have a substitute book put together?

Does anyone have a knock-em-dead parent letter?

Who has a web site to share with the newbie teachers?

Summertime: Who is making plans for school to start?

Summer is traditionally a time away from planning and even thinking about planning for school. But with all the free time, it is a prime time to explore new ideas, maybe remember ideas you have had but not acted on or had time to work them up. How many of us are doing any summer planning?

Is anyone exploring Web 2.o tools? If so, can you share ideas or tell about any good programs you like? I do have some plans that are in the works. At ISTE, I learned more about VoiceThread, blogging, and podcasting. I built a VoiceThread and posted it on my other blog, it's called: podcast blog. I am hoping to incorporate blogging, backchat or back channeling, and VoiceThread as a means of driving student discussion and as a new way to have students do class presentations, instead of the old stand at the front of the room and read the screen.

Does anyone know a quick and easy way to upload audio to blogs in blogger?

NCWIT Award for Aspirations in Computing

Go here for information on preparing your application: http://www.ncwit.org/pdf/PreparingYourAppl.pdf

How do we incorporate technology in the classroom?

Three questions for the day:
1. What challenges and obstacles have you found in using technology in the classroom?
2. How did you overcome them?
3. What great program have you found that you would like to share with us?

Collaboration

What will the classroom look and function like in 15 years, for that matter in 10 years? Kids today are being prepared for today's jobs, although the jobs they will have access to have yet to be created. Kids are more technologically savvy than their teachers. So how do we plan to meet their needs?

And how can we use the technology available to us to challenge and engage kids? Learning is something that kids do, not something that is done to them!

What do YOU do with Web 2.0 tools? What does your classroom look like?