Suzanne's Ed Tech Reflections

In previous posts I have written about iPad and iPod apps and their alignment to Bloom's Taxonomy and November’s Digital Learning Farm. There are several ed techers out there that have created charts showing these alignments. Another project based inquiry model is the 5 E’s: engage, explore, explain, elaborate, and evaluate. On her TL Under Construction blog, Teacher Librarian Cathy Hainstock has developed a chart aligning iPad/iPhone apps to each of the 5 E levels. She details her thinking during the creation of the chart and you can download a pdf version  from her blog: Click here . Another tool to assist us in using our apps to best support student learning. Thanks Cathy! Check out these sites to learn more about the 5 E’: http://waww.miamisci.org/ph/lpintro5e.html http://www.nasa.gov/audience/foreducators/nasaeclips/5eteachingmodels/index.html http://faculty.mwsu.edu/west/maryann.coe/coe/inquire/inquiry.htm

Well, it's time to hit the road and head to San Diego for the 2012 ISTE (International Society for Technology in Education) Conference. This is the annual international education technology conference where thousands of people from across the globe attend to learn and share about education technology in our schools. I am excited about 5 days of learning from and with other educators and learning about new tools and best practices for technology integration. Hoping to share lots of ideas with all of our iAchieve teachers!

Alan November is an international leader who promotes improving teaching and learning and is a strong supporter of education technology. He has written several books (some of my favorites!) and presents and lectures at conferences across the country. A couple of years ago he came up with the concept of the Digital Learning Farm. He talks about a time when farming was an essential part of the American landscape and students contributed to the growth and success of the family farms. They had very specific jobs and were essential to the survival of their family. As society became industrialized, the work of children turned to schoolwork and they played a more passive role in society. Mr. November feels that as our society becomes more and more globalized it is imperative that students once again become strong contributors, especially within their learning communities. He promotes utilizing six jobs in the learning community that can accomplish this: ·       Tutorial

A couple of weeks ago, Robyn and I did a presentation at the Southeastern Arizona Teacher Academy (SEATA) in Thatcher, AZ. This is an annual conference/academy held by the Graham and Greenlee Educational Service Agencies to provide professional development to interested teachers. We were invited to present specifically on using iPods and iPads to enhance reading fluency and comprehension. That is one of our specialties! In order to make our presentation interactive, we took a set of iPods loaded with many of the apps we use for reading including Voice Memos and K12 Timed Reading. Some of the attendees had never used iPods or iPads before and were truly mesmerized by them. We shared information about Project iAchieve and showed some video of students using the iPods. And then the fun began! Using the same type of lesson format we do with students, attendees learned how to create an oral reading fluency recording on the iPods using Voice Memos. After recording they l