Professional Development Meets Iron Chef

June 16, 2010Mark FijorLeave a comment

Traditional professional development has often been centered around teaching software and or tech integration methods. One of the problems we have found with this, is that once the training is complete, it is very hard for teachers to find practical uses for what they learned, or they have a hard time recalling all of the information. So we feel that one way to help this problem is not train on specific applications, but rather show a variety of different applications and focus more on larger concepts. For example, in a digital storytelling class, I might focus more on the process and then demo several applications that could accomplish this concept, rather than just teaching iMovie as a means of digital storytelling. We then follow with support in the buildings with various technology personnel.

Celebrating 5 years of YouTube in classrooms

May 23, 2010Mark Fijor2 Comments

I went over to a friend’s house the other week for dinner. When I got there, I saw something that amazed me. At the kitchen table, there was his three year old son, on a MacBook, watching YouTube videos. It seems that his son figured out that clips from all of his favorite cartoons were online at his disposal. I asked the father where he had learned how often he does this, and he replied we can’t get him off of there, he’ll be at it for an hour.

Thinking Different about iPods

May 3, 2010Mark FijorLeave a comment

In my school district, we have been lucky enough to receive iPod touches, either by purchasing or by grants. Since the iPod touch first came out, there have always been questions as to how close to a computer does it really come. The argument is that while it can do basic internet functions like surfing, email, and research it was nothing like a computer because it couldn’t perform many of the multi-media tasks that we need and does not possess a physical keyboard. More on that later.

With 7 elementary schools in my district, each has embraced the iPods in their own way. Some of the schools have them checked out on a regular basis where as some are checked out sparingly. My job is to find ways to use them.

Defining Student Engagement with Technology

April 10, 2010Mark Fijor25 Comments

It’s easy to walk into a traditional classroom and measure engagement. Depending on how you defined engagement, you could find several different ways to determine if students are engaged in the learning process. During classroom lectures, you could simply look to see how many students raised their hands and participated in the discussion or whether or not the students were on task. Student engagement could also be viewed by the level of academic challenge for the students, or their ability to actively collaborate with other students and the teacher. Nevertheless, over the last two decades there has been significant growth in the awareness of and the ability to assess student engagement.

The iPad- A future in the cloud

April 4, 2010Mark FijorLeave a comment

When it was announced that the iPad would be available on April 3, I thought to myself “what a perfect birthday gift after 3 years of waiting.” Needless to say, I got the iPad as a birthday gift for myself yesterday, and I’ve yet to have buyer’s remorse.

For the last three years, I have been trying to find a way to use iPods and iPhones in education. I’ve always believed that we are moving towards mobile content as the future of education, and since the introduction of the iPod I have been waiting for the rumored “tablet” to finally bridge the gap between the limitations of the iPods and the overkill of a laptop.

In a K-8 setting, I have often argued that students and teachers alike seldom use laptops (in our case MacBooks) to their fullest capabilities. That doesn’t necessarily mean that laptops are bad, or are not used. It’s just to say that when I’ve surveyed our staff and students to see what they use laptops for in the classrooms, the most popular responses have always been research, websites, and word-processing/presentations. Teachers responded that they liked using the laptops because they were portable, and students could use them in the classroom. An answer like that seems like a “no-brainer.”

Digital Natives and the Teachers of Today

March 2, 2010Mark Fijor1 Comment

While we are a decade in to the 21st century, I find it interesting that we are still talking about 21st century learning as it is something far in the distance. Although this is may not come as a news flash, the fact of the matter is that we are in the 21st century, and like it our not, our students and teachers must adapt.

In our district, we have had discussions for the last three years about categorizing our students as digital natives and what that really means. We have had countless speakers come and talk in our district about how vastly different students of today are compared to when most of our staff was in school. And while I do find there to be a good deal of truth to some of those ideas, I wanted to look at how students and teachers are similar rather than different.

I consider myself a digital native, and I have difficulty connecting with staff when trying to provide professional development to those who are not as tech savvy. I have to take a step back and realize that they are trying to learn something that they don’t have a great deal of background knowledge on or concepts they are not familiar with.

This is where I have begun to see the greatest connection between digital natives and digital immigrants. They are both learners. While teachers need to learn how to use these technology tools, students also have a need and desire to learn more about how to use them as well. I was asked to work with students on creating a video that showed technology and the type of students we have for a school board presentation, and this is what the students came up with:

21st Century Students from Mark Fijor on Vimeo.

TransADMINiformers

August 24, 2009Mark FijorLeave a comment

This week we had an amazing opportunity to provide technology professional development to all of our district’s administrators. While the group does receive periodic training for technology, the tone of the day was much different than the typical training.

Our district has invested a lot of time and money into technology. We have invited speakers from other districts to talk to teachers and administrators, and have made sure that our staff is aware of the technology available to them. However, we have also felt that we are beyond just being exposed to the technology. In order to take the next step with the technology, we would need to begin to look at how we use the technology and using it to transform learning and productivity.

The training consisted of each admin getting to use an iPod touch with the challenge of modeling the tech to their staffs. Rather than teaching applications, or how to, much in the way we would want to work with kids, we allowed them to play and learn on their own. In providing them this opportunity, many of the admin found things on their own, and could share with the group. Ultimately they found things that we as trainers hadn’t known. This is a powerful way to expose people, especially children, to technology.

Augmented Reality in the Classroom

August 24, 2009Mark FijorLeave a comment

I have always been a fan of using the iPod touch or alternatives to laptops in the classroom. One of the challenges has been finding legitimate academic uses for these tools in the classroom.

Last week, I saw a video on YouTube that really got me thinking about the future potential of these devices, not just as novelties, but as truly transformational tools for education.

The concept of augmented reality is not a new one. Essentially this technology takes virtual information provided by software, and utilize real-life images and video. What makes this kind of app appealing is the fact that it is able to do this in real-time, and it uses the GPS in the iPhone to find your location.

While this video shows an example of public transportation, I wondered how could something like this be used in the classroom. That’s when I began to get excited. What if this technology could be in the classroom within the next year (assuming Apple puts a camera into the next iPod)?

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