Ed Tech Podcast for SD Teachers Episode 32: Opportunities to Get More Technology in Your Classroom

Have you ever wondered if there are any opportunities out there where you can apply and be awarded money for technology items in your classroom. Of course it isn't easy or guaranteed to get money or technology for your classroom, but it can be well worth it. Here are links to the opportunities that I discuss in the podcast episode:

• Ed Tech Team Grants - https://www.edtechteam.com/grant/
• Donors Choose - http://www.donorschoose.org/
• Adopt a Classroom - http://www.adoptaclassroom.org/
• Digital Wish - http://www.digitalwish.com/dw/digitalwish/grant_awards - Receive additional support for a 1:1 classroom.
• Toshiba America Foundation - http://www.toshiba.com/taf/
• Best Buy - ttps://corporate.bestbuy.com/community-grants-page/
• RGK foundation - http://rgkfoundation.org/public/guidelines - Through principal/superintendent only. 
• Entertainment Software Association - http://www.esafoundation.org/challenge-grant.asp
• Teachers Count - http://www.teacherscount.org/grants/ - List of different grants available. 

Also, don't forget about opportunities that may be available through your local school district and through your state department of education. 

EdTech for SD Teachers Podcast - Episode 26: What's my Motivation for Learning?

This week, I discuss a model of intrinsic motivation and how the proper use of technology can support intrinsic motivation for learning. Here are the four main elements of the taxonomy of intrinsic motivations:

• Control
• Challenge 
• Curiousity
• Contextualization

Reference:

Malone, T. W., & Lepper, M. R. (1987). Making learning fun: A taxonomy of intrinsic motivations for learning. In R. E. Snow & J. F. Marshall (Eds.), Aptitude, learning, and instruction (Vol. 3, pp. 223–253). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

EdTech for SD Teachers Podcast - Episode 25: Advancing Technology for Learning using the SAMR Model

This week, My students discuss four different technologies and how they might be used on the four different levels of the SAMR model.  Here are the four levels of the SAMR model:

• Substitution
• Augmentation
• Modification
• Redefinition

Here are the four different tools:

• Webex
• Google Drive
• Google Hangouts
• Tizmos

Teachers Must Understand Technology Affordances to be Effective

When using technology for learning or for designing a project-based learning experience, a teacher needs to understand the affordances of various technological tools and resources. This post is an excerpt from my textbook, Educational Technology for Teachers.

A general definition of affordances is “the […] properties of the thing, primarily those fundamental properties that determine just how the thing could possibly be used (Norman, 2002, p. 9).” To clarify, affordances are the things that a particular tool or technology can do well. For instance, a word processing application allows the user to efficiently write a paper or letter. It offers many features that assist in this process including the possibility to write, edit, check spelling and do many more activities. These are the affordances of a word processing application. A presentation software application has many affordances that allow the user to easily create a visual presentation. These affordances might include functions that allow you to apply a theme, add new slides, insert title and slide text, and save and share a presentation.

High-quality learning experiences will often take advantage of the affordances of whatever technologies are used. The opposite is also true. Low-quality learning experiences often do not take advantage of the affordances of technologies.

So, teachers must understand technology affordances to be effective!

EdTech for SD Teachers Podcast - Episode 17: What Technologies are Coming to Education?

This week, I discuss the New Media Consortium's Horizon Report. This report outlines 6 new technologies that will be adopted in K-12 education over the next several years. Here are the technologies discussed:

Bring your own device

Cloud computing

Games and Gamification

Learning Analytics

The Internet of Things

Wearable Technologies

Here's a link to the New Media Consortium's Horizon Report for K-12 Education

EdTech for SD Teachers Podcast - Episode 16: Technology for Keeping Track of Students in ICU

This week, Josh Jensen and I discuss some technology solutions for intensive care units (ICU) in schools. Also, we share some unique projects that Josh implemented in a social study classroom.

Here are a few links to some of the things we talked about:

Audacity - http://audacity.sourceforge.net/ 

GIMP - http://www.gimp.org/

Educational Technology for SD Teachers Podcast - Episode 9: At the AECT International Convention

This week, I recap my conference experience at the 2014 AECT International Convention in Jacksonville Florida. It was a fun week and a great experience.

Here are links to more information about the presentations and items featured in the podcast:

http://www.iste.org/standards
http://tinyurl.com/m7gmryj 
Fake David Wiley: https://twitter.com/FakeDavidWiley

Make Your own Class Website for Free: Video Tutorials and Recommended Websites

In the past, creating a website was an activity limited to only those who had specialized hypertext markup language (HTML) and cascading style sheets (CSS) programming skills. Now, a variety of easy-to-use applications are provided free to help those without specialized knowledge to create websites. This page is an excerpt from my recently published book, Educational Technology for Teachers.


Perhaps the most common type of website in education is the class website. Teachers use class websites to serve a variety of educational functions, from keeping in touch with parents and students about class activities, to chronicling activities completed in the classroom. Class websites might feature many different items including the following:

• Assignments and homework 
• Class news and announcements 
• Pictures and text describing recent classroom activities 
• Links to supplemental learning resources 
• Personal information about the teacher, including a resume 
• Class rules 
• Supply lists 
• Class calendars and schedules 

A variety of online tools allow users to easily create a website for free. Some recommended tools include Weebly, Wix and Google Sites. Google Sites and Wix are featured in my book because both are popular, free and simple. To see how to use Google Sites and Wix to setup a free class website, go to chapter 3 of my book and watch the instructional videos. Chapter 3 is free to access. You'll learn how to setup, create content and add pages to your own free website.

Educational Technology Textbooks Must Be Different

I have taught undergraduate educational technology classes for teacher candidates for over three years now, and I have reviewed many different textbooks to see if they are worthy to be used in my classes. Most of these textbooks cost a fortune and none provided the level of interaction that I want to see in my classes. So I went on teaching without a textbook and just pulled in readings from different sources for the class. 

In my searching, I knew that a textbook on educational technology cannot be just like any other textbook. We teach about the future of teaching and learning in the Information Age. We talk about classrooms in which every student has a tablet computer. We share about the possibility of futuristic interactive digital textbooks that include videos, activities, slideshows, quizzes and more. But we do this all without using an interactive digital textbook as an example! Instead, paper-based textbooks do their best to tell students about the more advanced technologies out there, or worse, they hide their obsolescence by avoiding the topic of interactive digital textbooks altogether. 

So over a year ago, I decided to author my own educational technology textbook for undergraduate classes. Now it is out! Educational Technology for Teachers is the first ever multiplatform interactive digital textbook on educational technology and yes, there are videos, slideshows, visual stories, image tutorials, sample projects and quizzes built in to this interactive digital textbook. As mentioned in a previous post, I used Inkling Habitat to author the book. This book will not just tell, but show my students how to use technologies for teaching. Check it out and let me know what you think!

Social Media is the Weapon? - Lessons from Columbine

Last week at Northern State University where I work, Darrell Scott came to present about Rachel's Challenge. His daughter, Rachel Scott was the first person killed in 1999 at Columbine High School when two boys opened fire on her as she ate lunch outside. Darrell's speech to congress later that year was not about the need for gun control, which was a surprise to many. His speech was about the need for kindness and compassion. 

Rachel was one of those people who deliberately reached out to those who were different from her, new to school, lonely, or picked on. Darrell remembers his daughters legacy by encouraging others to share the type of kindness and compassion that Rachel shared. This is the only way that violence in schools can really be stopped. Rachel's challenge is to create a positive culture change in schools with kindness and compassion. Studies have shown that this program, when taught in schools, has been quite successful in helping improve faculty-student relationships and reduce negative behaviors such as bullying, and alcohol and drug use. 

Of course, I am interested in how things relate to educational technology as I work to prepare my own students to deal with technology issues in the classroom. I don't know everything about what happens online between middle and high school students, but there are a few things I do know. I know that social media sites have been used as a weapon to belittle, make fun of, and hurt those who are different. I know that youth (and immature adults) say things online that they would never say in person. I know that I lose a lot of faith in humanity every time I read the comments on YouTube videos. However, I also know that social media can be used for very positive, kind, and compassionate communication, and also for high-quality learning. 

Online, people often feel like they are more anonymous, and can say and do what they want without the same consequences as a face to face interaction. But this is not true, there are real consequences. Just as Darrell Scott advocated kindness and compassion instead of gun control, I think we need to specifically advocate kindness and compassion online, not the wholesale blocking of specific social media websites. Social media sites have great potential to support learning, so let's keep the sites open, but teach our students to use kindness and compassion. It just might save somebody's life! 

Perhaps you have some experience teaching students to use kindness in social media, how have you taught this in your class? 

I Didn't use iBooks Author to Create my Interactive Digital Textbook

After months of hard work, blood, sweat and tears (well, not all of those), I have finally submitted a new interactive digital textbook for publication. I didn't use the popular iBooks Author by Apple to create this digital textbook.

Right now you are thinking, "but wait, iBooks Author is made by Apple, and Apple is cool, right?" Apple is cool, but Apple is not multiplatform, and this makes all the difference in my world. My textbook is on educational technology, and when it is ready, I intend for it to be read by my own university students (and students at other universities) on any device. I want all of the interactive elements to function on a Windows laptop, Android-based mobile device, Apple computer, Linux desktop, and yes, an iPad. How many of these devices would work with a textbook developed using iBooks Author? Only the iPad (and no, not the Apple computer).

When I started out writing my textbook, I looked into many different platforms for publishing an interactive digital textbook. I looked into iBooks Author, but I realized that anything I created with iBooks Author would only work on the iPad. It was simply not going to work for me to ask all of my students to buy iPads when some had Android tablets, Windows computers, Apple computers, etc. already. Ethically, I couldn't justify requiring students to buy a certain type of device in order to succeed in class.

So I looked a bit deeper into the options for publishing interactive digital textbooks and found only a few alternatives that were truly multiplatform and interactive, one of which was Inkling Habitat. Habitat offers a multiplatform experience so that students on Android, Windows, Mac, Linux, iPad, and whatever else can access and interact with my digital textbook. When my textbook comes out, it will be available on whatever device through Habitat.

Because Habitat has worked well for me, I am presenting a workshop at this year's AECT International convention on how to create your own interactive digital textbook and I already have a good number of people enrolled. I am looking forward to the experience! Check out Habitat at https://www.inkling.com/habitat/. And get ready for the first ever multiplatform interactive digital textbook on Educational Technology for Teachers, coming soon!