You Might Be A Geeky Teacher if You Attended EdCamp Denver on a Saturday!

EdCamp UnConference!

Michelle, Janis, Kim, Laura and Christina at EdCamp!

You might be a Geeky Teacher if you attended an EdCamp in your area.  We went to our first EdCamp Un-Conference on Saturday!  It was an interesting way to bring together rock star educators who are using technology and 21st Century Learning in their teaching.  You all gather together in one location, put up a subject on the big board that you are willing to teach or want to know more about.  Then, you move from session to session and share what you know or ask questions of people who share their expertise.  It was an amazing experience.  We seldom get time to round table discuss with like minded people from other districts and schools.  We led a session on rolling out a BYOD or 1:1 program in your building.  I was very interested in people who were using maker spaces and Makey Makey.

Here is the google doc with all of our resources and discussions.  When people are in the sessions, they add to their document and the resources are then available to everyone.

 I was really interested in the Minecraft session.  They suggested that we go to Minecraft.edu and purchase a server space for $41.  I plan to have my 4th graders create a Colorado Historical location in their Minecraft sever space.  They did a demonstration with the large land on the bit screen in the front of the room and then everyone in the room can work on their house or small location in the land and see it adding in real time on the big screen.  I really think our kids will love this and will have to spend time with primary sources and research to make sure that they get their structures right!

We even got to try out Google Glasses!  Amazing!  The sides of the glasses are a touch pad and allow you to move from screen to screen and see a computer screen and information inside of the glasses!  I felt like Jordie on Star Trek!  Augmented Reality!

We enjoyed the SLAM Session with new ideas for web 2.0 tools and Apps.  There are some great applications for teaching with these tools!

You Might Be a Geeky Teacher if Your Classroom or School is Going BYOD or 1:1

Our school has started down the yellow brick road toward BYOD.  We have found some interesting resources along the way and are working to have engaging training with our staff and convincing conversations with our parents.  We started with a flipped classroom model and sent information in the form of a Google Presentation to our staff before a whole staff vote about whether or not we should go BYOD.  This helped our staff to have time to review resources, think about pros and cons and to be ready to ask questions and finally to vote!  It is important to use professional development and meeting times to model good instruction and transformative practices.  Have you thought about flipping your professional development or faculty meetings?  

We created a student use agreement and had district IT and the Legal department finalize it.  We want to have parents and students take ownership of the security and set up of their devices to make sure that they stay up-to-date and ready for school.  Liability, insurance and security issues are addressed in this agreement.  We voted as a staff and the majority voted to move forward.  We are now working to design professional development and convince our parents that this is the best move for our kids.  We sent out a survey asking for information from our parents.   Our next steps involve informing out parents and then presenting at a PTA meeting.  We are going to flip our presentation to PTA by sending out this presentation before the meeting and then demonstrating a lesson at the PTA meeting using devices that parents bring to the meeting.  One of the most convincing stories about how BYOD looks in and transforms a classroom comes from my home state of Idaho.  CBS showed a documentary entitled TEACH that included a class in Kuna, Idaho that received a grant to convert the classroom to a BYOD and work with KHAN Academy.  The teacher was reluctant but as the year went on, she realized that this model transformed her teaching.  She was worried about being replaced but found that this teaching style is how teaching should look.  Take a look at her story.  

BYOD in Idaho

BYOD?

My school is contemplating an introduction into the world of BYOD.  I came across this article that includes numerous resources to help with that decision.  Budgets are forcing us to consider options like this in order to provide opportunities for kids to utilize technology.  What do you think?  Click on this link to read more about and access 20 BYOD Resources for 21st Century Schools!