Technology through Time

One of the things we have learned in managing the 1-to-1 is sometimes it is better ot move towards an update rather than avoid it. Here is an article that is posted in our ITTunes about ios7 Tips and Tricks for iOS7 So what is new about iOS 7 besides the way it looks? Change can be hard, but you may find that you like the new features once you give them a try. Lets start with the biggest changes, which include the missing search screen and how to now close apps.  Upon updating to iOS 7 you may panic because of these missing features, but do not worry they are both still available. To reach the search dock, you must now drag your finger from the center of the home screen down and the search drawer will drop down. If you would like to close an app, you double click the home button and swipe up on the app to close it. Smaller additional changes include the fact that folders are now expandable and can contain many apps. You must scroll from right to left to ...

Allen said that most parents come to understand that a computer is a neutral object — it all depends on how students use it. A personal computer and smartphone are not to be taken lightly, and he said, “Mistakes have to happen, but patterns of mistakes are no longer mistakes, but habits.” This is a fantastic quote from Holly Korbey's article, Teaching Respect and Responsibility — Even to Digital Natives It presents a much better way to teach kids about digital citizenship by thinking about positive behaviors in general not specifically to do with the technology. Furthermore these are things that kids in general need to learn, and have a chance to experience, even if it means crashing and burning.

I was just reading an article from Mr. Maters' blog about simulations in the classroom  and I thought this would be a great idea for language arts and tech. The students could be reading a novel and could simulate possible scenarios for different endings in the story.  Students could use blogs or discussion boards for sharing how their version of the scenario would end, and or present it from iPads using haiku deck to tell their story.  Another thought would be to use simulations for discussion of nonfiction text and discuss the effects and outcomes of certain events. Again students could use their iPads or computers not just for research, but for sharing their arguments digitally. 

There are lots of great resources for learning to use Noodle tools, but here is a challenge for you. 1. Create a Noodle Tools account  with the North Star Borough School District 2. Create a new Project. 3. Join your account with your Teacher's DropBox 4. Search for sources that would help you answer the question, what famous person are you most like? 5. Use the LibGuides for your school to help you search. 6. Once you find a source, click on Bibliography in your Dashboard. 7. Add your source. 8. Create a notecard with information from the source. 9. Drag the Notecard into your outline. 10. Export your Bibliography. 11. Export your Outline. Good luck, and use your help sheet.

We have been busy creating image collages with Art students using Sketchbook Pro on iPads. Students are generating lists of things that are about them and using pictures to represent them. We will be using this class word cloud to create a class collage. Extensions for this can be using them for Stories and tracking common words or vocabulary to learn more about a story as it moves through time.