I’m in Worcester, MA today at a MassCue conference talking about RSS in education, getting ready to listen to Jamie McKenzie’s keynote. Last night I had the chance to chat with a couple of technology integrators from the area, and the talk was all about blogs, podcasts, Moodle and the like. What a difference from just a few short months ago. The best part is that there seems to be a real desire on the part of teachers to learn about the ways in which the tools can be used to enhance what they do in the classroom. Again, maybe I’m looking for it, but I could feel more of that noticeable shift in the conversations…
Hi Will –
It was great meeting you at MassCue in Worcester last week! I bought your book and several copies for my high school library. I read it once and I am going to go back and read again. So much great information and so much I have to learn.
Your RSS session inspired me last week to push more technology items out to my staff. Friday we had a professional development day, Nicole (integration teacher from Nashua) and I co-delivered training on several topics.
It is so great collaborating with another integration person. Our two high schools are sharing lessons and projects. My staff seems to enjoy hearing about technology projects that other school are implementing.
We had several sessions, all about 20-30 minutes!
1. RSS (bloglines and pulling into their SharePoint teacher sites)
2. Tablet (making math screencasts with the SmartBoard recorder. I used Tim Fahlbergs site as a kick off http://www.coolschooltools.com/TimFahlbergMovies.html and then had the teachers make their own! I acutally talked with Tim last week, he shared so much information and has done so much with his whiteboard movies. We love the tablet, all teachers should have one!
3. Using Audacity (world language teachers. Very cool lessons and plan to move towards podcasting!
4. NetTrekker DI – what a great tool for teachers! Our district PD theme is Differentiated Instruction!
The day was a blast and teachers want more!
There is a definite shift this year due to the tablets and online portals. All of this is so exciting!
By the way, we decide yesterday to signup for Alan November’ Building Online Learning Communties in Boston! Need to learn more!
Thanks again for the inspiration!
Mary Marotta