Technology in Education: Notes from the Closet

Originally written for LTC blog during #Media Literacy Week 2018 How many advertisements do you come across in one day- ten, fifty, hundreds, thousands? Some sources say we encounter 4,000–5,000 ads a day all trying to persuade us to do something, believe something or buy something (while making money for their shareholders). We may not be consciously aware of seeing these ads, nor are our students who are exposed to the same content we are on a daily basis. Are students equipped to recognize when they are being manipulated? Probably not. Media literacy is a skill, not a topic. It is the responsibility of every educator; in every subject, in every school. The goal of teaching media literacy is to educate our students on how to question what they see. Media literacy has dozens of “subtopics” that can be explored year-round in your classroom. This post shares some fun media facts, concepts, and resources to get you started. Media Literacy “Fun Facts” Media is not good or bad; it ...

My Media Literacy presentation for ISTE 18's Ed Tech Coaches Playground

Last week I had the pleasure of presenting at the Illinois Computing Educator’s annual conference.  ICE 2013 was a fantastic conference with a great vibe (and I'm not just saying that because I'm on the planning committee).  One of the best parts about it, outside of being with phenomenal like-minded educators, is that so many of them are willing to share their talent.  There were over 250+ presentations given (and that was just during the general conference, not including the two days prior full of workhsops).   Presenters were willing to share their materials on ICE’s wiki:  http://www.icewiki.info   making content available to folks that couldn’t attend their session.  That’s just classy. My presentation was on Media Literacy. Media Literacy includes our interactions with media and the messages we take away from it. Its our ability to access, analyze, evaluate and create media messages (language that is found throughout  C...

Welcome Back!  I hope everyone had a nice Fall Intersession break!  I did.  I traveled to Riviera Maya, Mexico.  The weather was really warm!  We saw lots of animals including quatis!  Here are a few pictures I took:   This week marks the first week of the 2nd Quarter.  This quarter fourth grade joins Technology Lab.  Welcome 4th grade!  Here's an introduction to the lab this year: Kindergarten: Although the kindergarten students still haven't grown tired of ABCYA.com and Starfall.com its time to add a new website to the mix.  This quarter we will add in ABCMouse.com where the students will get a chance to work on some basic skills.  ABCMouse is a website that is subscription based but is currently free to public schools.  Its curriculum contains 6 levels for preschool and kindergarten students.  We're excited to give it a try! 1st-2nd Grade: This week is Halloween!!  We'll continue to pr...

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K-3rd Grade : We are still working on our mouse skills this first quarter.  All primary grades have been introduced to LetterBubbles and are progressing.  Second grade seems to enjoy it the most!  A reminder that LetterBubbles seems to prefer the Chrome browser. In the meantime students are very comfortable navigating through ABCya and Starfall .  Some of the primary teachers have opened free StudyLadder accounts.  The students seem to really enjoy the site so I am encouraging more of the teachers to do the same. Third grade continues to begin their lab time by focusing on non-fiction text through KidBiz3000 .  Ms. Robinson has taken the time to set up Sumdog accounts for her class.  Sumdog is a math gaming site that allows students to play against their classmates!  This is the first time I've heard of the site so I'll be experiencing it right along with the students.  We also will continue to work on basic Microsoft Word skills ...

Kindergarten-3rd Grade: As we continue practicing our mouse skills using ABCYA.com and Starfall.com  we will also keep practicing how to cut and paste objects and change the font , size , and color of our names in Microsoft Word.  Last week we used a "living and non-living things" template provided by the awesome author of this website .  This week we are brushing up on our lady bug addition and subtraction!  Here's an example: Students in various classrooms in grades 1-3 are beginning to work in Studyladder.com .  Studyladder allows teachers to set up free accounts for each of their students to practice math and literacy skills.  There are activities available for 10 subjects as well as resources for teachers including print materials and tutorials.  Student activity can be tracked for progress.  While I am providing guidance and time for Studyladder in lab, the teachers set up their own classroom accounts so they can monitor what skil...

image screen shot from ABC 7 news This week Chicago Public School teachers went on strike for the first time in 25 years.  I participated in the strike by joining my colleagues in front of our school to have our voices heard.  I also participated in two of the organized rallies.  The responses we saw in front of the school and on the viaduct over the Eisenhower Expressway were overwhelmingly positive.  That being said there were also a few motorist who chose to express to us they were unhappy with the situation. The strike is a great example to use to explain media literacy.  I encountered radio ads that chose to focus on only the unkind aspects of the strike that were portrayed in the newspaper instead of both sides.  The Mayor chose to use "repetition" in every speech he gave.  He also left out some facts when referring to other Union agreements (remember no one tells us the whole story). As I've stated to you on several occasions the g...

Happy Short Week!  I hope everyone had an awesome Labor Day! Kindergarten-1st grade : Kindergarten and first grade are acclimating nicely to technology lab!  We are continuing to work on our mouse skills using games on ABCYA.com .  Students enter lab and review the basic parts of the computer. We are getting really good at turning on the monitor, launching Internet Explorer, and typing in ABCYA.com on our own or with help from our neighbor next to us!  This group will be ready to move on soon to some new educational websites. NETS Standards addressed: 6a: Understand and use technology systems 6b. Select and use applications effectively and productively 2nd-3rd grade : Third grade continues to begin their lab experience each visit with time spent on KidBiz3000.com to strengthen their nonfiction comprehension skills. Second and third grade students will focus on some basic word processing skills.  Students will work this week to change font colors an...

Technology Lab is a little off skew this week! There are B.O.Y. (Beginning of Year) assessment requirements for CPS that must be met.  This week 1st, 4th, and 7th grade classrooms took the REACH  Beginning of Year Performance Task Assessments.  These paper and pencil tests were given to one classroom in each of the above grades to gauge their technology knowledge to date. Other classrooms had lab time interrupted to complete their NWEA M.A.P. (measures of academic progress) assessments.  With that in mind, Kindergarten-2nd grade students will practice mouse skills after testing this week in lab via ABCYA.com . 3rd-8th Grades Students that didn't have disrupted lab time this week began looking at Media Literacy.  Media literacy is something that every 21st century student needs.  This week is just a brief introduction to the concept.  The follow websites acted as reference for my presentation: http://www.cmp.ucr.edu/education/programs/digitalstud...