Tokbox

Looking for something other than Skype and a litle bit easier? I learned of this site through a 2nd grade Fieldstone teacher, Ms Dubois. Tokbox appears to be an easy way to video chat as you only need an internet connection and a webcam. This free online service allows you to connect with up to 20 people and does not require a download.

Ms DuBois hopes to have her students record a Mother's Day message and share them via email. As a parent myself, I treasure some of the recording my children's teachers have shared. It brightens my day and gives me something to discuss with my children relevant to their school day. Maybe you willuse Tokbox to brighten someone's day? If you find another use for Tokbox, please share in the comment section below.

Google takes over the world!

That may be how you feel in a few years as Google seems to create more and more free tools for people to use. Here at STMA, we hope to be taking advantage of Google's generosity as many of Google's tools are very useful for the education world. This blog you are reading is provided free and may generate online discussions between the classroom and the world. You might be reading this blog as it is embedded into the STMA Tech Integration site which is hosted by Google Sites, another free tool provided by google.

Other tools soon to be integrated by STMA students and staff might be Gmail and Google Docs. Gmail is a free email service which will work with our databases to create free email accounts for students to use. An example student address may be joe.student@mystma.com. Google Docs provides an online version of popular office tasks like word processing, spreadsheet calculating, and slide show presenting. But, these tools are incredibley collaborative and interactive. Google Docs puts the 2 in Web 2.0!

Watch out for much more to come from Google!

Machines and Software

I find it interesting that Daniel Pink wrote this book with business people in mind instead of the educator. However, he was the Keynote speaker to many teachers at the TIES conference last fall (link to his speech password is Keynote08)and was very well recieved by all of the teachers.

As a technology integration person, I was very interested in Pink's statement "Machines replaced our back and software replaces our brain." His reference's to Kasparov vs the computer and easy tax software emphasizes this point. I have personal experiences to share when we meet that will add to this. So, how does this change education? With information literally at our fingertips and computing power doubling every second, what skills do we need to address in our classroom? How do we make those adjustments?

... their future, not our past.

As a tech integration specialist, I love this line, "We need to educate students for their future, not our past." I interpret this to mean that we need to take advantage of technology to 'grab' students. I have taught technology to all levels and students always seem to be excited about their project. So, I believe projects utilizing technology motivate and excite students, but do they teach?

How exactly do we prepare them for their future? My kindergarten daughter might retire around the year 2070. What types of careers will she have available to her? The latest version of the Did You Know 2.0 video states that we are currently educating students to use technology that hasn't been invented yet and to solve problems that aren't even problems yet! It also states that the top 10 In Demand jobs of 2010 were not jobs in 2004. What are the top 10 jobs for 2010? What careers are forming right now that will be in demand for 2015?



So... how can we be sure we are truly preparing them for THEIR future?

Animoto Video

This is an example of a video created at animoto.com This site easily helps you make quick videos from your digital pictures. It's so easy, a caveman can do it!

Blogging at STMA

Great! You read my e-mail and clicked on the link! We can continue our discussion on how to use blogging in the classroom on this blog. In fact, I will ask you some questions and you can respond to them. You will be able to see your response (and hopefully other responses) by clicking on the comment link below this message.

So... here are my burning questions for you... Did you like the sample blog I sent you in the e-mail? Do you think blogging will work at STMA? What are your opinions on child safety and blogging?

Please feel free to ask your own questions for others to respond to.

Note, this blog is hosted by blogger.com The sample blog is hosted by classblogmeister.com This site doesn't have some of the security features that classblogmeister has, but you will get an idea of how a blog allows people to communicate.

Blogger a great tool for classroom use

Okay STMA techie teachers.... What is a blog and how can I use it in my classroom? Well, in short, a blog is a nickname for a web log. Teachers can use it as an online forum for discussion of classroom topics. A unique aspect of a blog is that it invites the world to join in on your discussion! Hey, if you are talking about the holocaust, you might get someone's perspective from Germany, or someone who has visited a concentration camp. If your class is covering endangered species, maybe someone will respond to you blog about the recovery of the Minnesota Timberwolf? If you are not ready for the world's input, you can limit it to just your students.

Just as importantly, communicating on the internet is something that today's students are very familiar with, which should increase motivation. Here is an example of how a blog might work in a typical English class....

The teacher might post a question about the leadership styles of Jack and Ralph in the novel "Lord of the Flies" to the class in the classroom blog. Students can then access the blog from home or any computer lab at school and post their opinions or comments. A discussion will soon follow as students will reply to other students postings. Don't worry... the teacher can moderate all of the comments before they are actually posted so nobodies feelings will be hurt. This moderating of comments is done very easily in the teacher's school e-mail.

If you are worried about internet security and child privacy concerns, this can all be done anonymously if the students use a nickname, username, or a number code assigned by the teacher. There is really no way an outsider can contact anybody participating in the blog discussion.

There are many blog hosts available on the internet. This blog is hosted by Blogger.com which is owned by Google. It is very user friendly and looks like it has all the features a teacher would like to use. There might be better hosts, if you look for them. But, at this point, I would recommend Blogger.com