June, July, and August (Techlearning blog)

The summer months mean many things to teachers. Rest, renewal, curriculum work, vacation, and spending time with family-the list is long. Summer also provides the rare opportunity for time for professional growth. So, with that in mind, how will you take advantage of June, July and August to improve your understanding of instructional technology?

Besides taking a technology course, what can you do over the upcoming three months to increase your understanding of the application of technology to learning? In this post, I present a number of simple steps to jumpstart your technology use for the upcoming 2006-07 school year. Some of the suggestions target Web 2.0 technologies, some don't. And if the Web 2.0 stuff is blocked at school, I'd learn it anyway, so when the time comes (and it will) to have a discussion of the value of these tools in schools, there will be a well-informed advocate present.

Read the 7 Things series from Educause Learning Initiative (ELI), including Google Jockeying, blogs, wikis, social bookmarking, podcasting and vodcasting, among the 14 topics.

Begin reading blog entries to get a feel how blogs are written, and how communication can take place via blogs. A list of exceptional educational technology blogs can be found at my site, JOL.org.

Spend 15 minutes on rainy afternoons watching LiveMarks, the live del.icio.us feed. In that 15 minutes, pick out 3 posts that you are interested in, and use other 15 minutes sessions to explore them.

Set up a personal portal page at Pageflakes, which can be private, shared or public. Be sure to check out the available "flakes."

Purchase and learn how to use a USB flash drive.

Go to Wikipedia.org. Read several articles. Determine how those articles were produced. Does this concern you? And what happens when (it probably already has)students start using this content?

Start storing your favorite Web sites on del.icio.us.

Learn how to build an online activity at my Web site, myprojectpages. Start with a curriculum page, or try a CurriculumQuest, or a VisualQuest (a description of the activity types can be found here). Tutorials can be found at the site, as well as a description of building online curriculum.

In my opinion, the ability to ask a great question separates great teachers from good teachers. Take the time to learn how to write an essential question.

Read how you can rethink your assessment of students.

Visit examples of student blogs and get a feel for student blogging. David Warlick's Classblogmeister.com is a good place to begin.

Read The enGauge 21st Century Skills to get a perspective on what students should know and be able to do.

Learn Photostory 3 or iMovie. Use my tutorial for learning Photostory 3. iMovie users can find a tutorial here. Or better yet, try online storytelling at digitalstoryteller.org, courtesy of the University of Virginia.

Learn about RSS.

If you are an administrator, read these two very good books: The Principal as Technology Leader by Theodore Creighton (no, it doesn't have to be an oxymoron), and Using Technology Wisely: The Keys to Success in Schools by Harold Wenglinsky. Both books were recommended to me by my good friend, Ray Rehberg of District 203 in Naperville, Illinois.

Begin developing a Personal Learning Environment, which combines RSS feeds from blogs, wikis, del.icio.us and Flickr. Go here to find out how.

Go beyond Google. Learn a9, Soople, Vivisimo or any of the other great search tools that are available, and that you can share with your students next year. Get more information from my search page.

Take a bunch of pictures with that digital camera you got for Christmas. Start a Flickr account to share your pictures, or try Bubbleshare or Tabblo, and subscribe to Photojojo to get more creative ideas about how to use your photography.

Humans are hard-wired for visuals. Start exploring the concept of visual literacy and learn how to use visuals in your teaching here.

So...

Take the opportunity of time to improve your understanding of how technology can impact the education of your students. Take some small steps to ramp up your abilities.

In my opinion, great teachers are made in the summer.

Great things are done by a series of small things brought together...
Vincent Van Gogh