MICCA Tuesday Posted 26 April

I went to three sessions at MICCA on Tuesday and bought two books (that I'll probably look at once knowing me). I also talked to some vendors. I still want one of the little laptops. They can hold more and do more than my school laptop and have web cameras built in. But I digress...

The first workshop I went to was Pixie 2 for Comic Strips, Tent Folds, and Trading Cards. I was drawn to this one because of the comic book idea. The presenters, a computer teacher from Baltimore County and a rep from Tech4Learning took turns explaining different ways the Pixie software was used from lessons for Kindergarten to Grade 5. Each one had a differnt Pixie application and an assessment of what was learned built into the activity. Pixie appeals to me more than Kidspiration because it seems more user friendly. Plus, it has links to online materials not found on the CD-ROM.

I next went to the Voicethread presentation done by a technology specialist from Cecil County. She's only been using it for a year. I was hoping to get a clearer picture of the capabilities of Voicethread, since I really couldn't pay attention when we were trained (nor could I hear if I recorded anything when we practiced that part at school). There was one activity that she showed us where a teacher found many triangle images and posted them. It was called a triangel scavenger hunt and the students identified the type of triange it was by commenting vocally or using text. She also talked about this being a Widget. One thing I got out of this was that a person only used 3 images with a longer voiceover and it was powerful . I'm thinking that my Abe Lincoln thing doesn't have to be super long. I can do the first four vidoes and a copy of primary source visual material and get the same impact. It will fit better on the site. John had suggested I do it in chunks anyway, so this is a good solution.

The last one I went to was presented by two Virginia teachers. They were comparing 20th century teachers and learners with 21st century teachers and learners. They aslo thought about classroom jobs. Many classrooms have paper passers, board washers, etc. Why not give the students jobs where they are becoming a different kind of learning community? New job one, SCRIBE. This student takes notes for the week for the class. They can be written long hand, put on graphic organizers, photographed, scanned, or put directly on the computer. All students will get access to the information by the end of the week. The notes need to be communicated clearl.
Job 2, RESEARCHER. This person looks up anything intersting that was brought up in class, finds answers to questions posted for the week, and shares it with the class and opens it up for discussion. TUTORIAL DESIGNER is Job 3. This person teaches other students "How To" do something. There could be a video of how to make a bar graph or step by step directions with photos of how to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. The point is, it is a peer teaching a peer. The benifits to this kind of learning leads to many higher order thinking skills because the person teaching, must create a lesson for a peer to understand. They are analyzing and sythesizing the material. I found this workshop to be a real eye opener.

I think that we a STEP team and Kim and Maddie, should find time over the next two weeks to sit down after school one day and just talk about the sessions we went to and what we liked or didn't like. We are in this to share what we learned.