David Lee EdTech

In this session I was unable to find out the presenter’s name, but I do know she was associated with PCaRD, a teaching model that provides guidelines for teachers to integrate games into student-center pedagogies. These games can be used for instruction, student learning, and assessment.  The PCaRD model consists of four steps: Play, Curricular Activity, Discussion, and Reflection. These steps require inquiry, communication, expression, and construction from the students who experience the game-based learning model.  The presenter listed the different role a teacher must take for the PCaRD learning model: To create naturalistic game-playing environment To observe students’ game play To develop cases based on students game play experience , big questions of the subject-area to bridge students pedagogical and school knowledge To develop prompts & prompts & questions that allow students to articulate the social, affective, cognitive and motivational nature to facilitate a lar...

Out of all the student projects, I thought Ottawa Hills High School’s School of Business, Leadership & Entrepreneurship  had a project that was unique and had a significant value to the students who performed the task. According to the school’s website , the tenth through twelfth grade students who attend the school work on their leadership, communication, marketing, and business managing skills in an authentic learning environment. The school appointed two teams to design and market a water product. Students also created advertisements, slogans, and commercials that tried to influence their potential audiences. During the whole project development students were taught entrepreneurial skills, problem-solving and decision-making. This project gave the students to opportunity to be creative, and see what goes on in a business setting.  I hope to duplicate this project with my 5th graders next year. I hope to have guest speakers teach (via Google Hangouts) my students on th...

I finished the Even More Google Geekiness: ISTE 2012 session with  Chris Fitzgerald Walsh 30 minutes. He mentioned how videos can be uploaded into and played with Google Drive. I just tried it and it is amazing! He was right, you have a personal and private YouTube channel for yourself. You can even share the video to others! Click here to see how I did it.   

This session featured Chris Fitzgerald Walsh presenting some new Google features that could be used in education. I have to admit that I went to at least four sessions that I thought were incredibly useless. These sessions presented technology tools and information that have been used by teachers for quite a while now (many people walked out in the middle of these sessions). So it was refreshing to attend a session where the vast majority of the audience learned a couple of new things.  There was a lot of information he provided, but luckily he created and shared a Google document that contains all of it. Here is a list of topics you touched on: Document Management  Downloading documents as ZIP files Research Tool in Documents Translate documents into different languages Create nonlinear question/answer assessments with Forms  Google Drive Video (private YouTube video collection) Shorten your Google URL with  http://goo.gl/   Google Docs Template Gallery Google Sites customization, e...

I got a sneak peak of Microsoft’s new Windows 8 at the Microsoft Experience Center. The center provided phones, tablets, and desktop computers that had the operating system, which is believed to be released at the end of the year. The video preview I watched before made the OS look very complicated, but after using it is quite intuitive.  You have the option to switch from the desktop to the famous tile interface . Simply move your cursor to the bottom left corner to go the tile interface, and move your cursor to the top left to select the desktop. If you move the cursor to the left, you can transition to different applications.  What I did not like about the Windows 8 Preview was the Microsoft App Store. The selection of apps for education were few. Even for popular categories, such as entertainment, games, and social media, were insignificant as well. However, I was told by a representative that more apps will be announced during the release of Windows 8. I think the tablet ver...

Here is a picture of the Google booth in the exhibit hall that provided visitors short tutorials on how Google Apps and Chromebooks can be used to help teachers effectively deliver instruction, organize student work, and have students use them to express their knowledge and skills.  The Google booth also were giving out free  A Google a Day books.  A Google a Day is a search-engine trivia game where Google asks questions that you need to answer through Google Search, which will lead you to the ultimate answer. According to the book, this 50 minute activity helps develop student online research skills.  The picture about shows a question on the right with a hint if the students are having trouble with the question. The next page provides an answer, and background information that could lead to classroom discussion. If you are interested in lesson plans or live-training videos on online searching, please visit  g.co/searchedu .  For Korea International School teachers, a Google booth r...

Ben Smith and Jared Mader created the  EdTechInnovators website to provide teachers a resource for integrating technology effectively into classrooms. This session did not mention many apps, but presented two models that can be used to implement apps into activities and curriculum.  This  Designing Creative Activities graphic organizer guides teachers in developing activities that integrate technology tools that promotes creativity of their learners. Teachers can first present directions for the activity through multiple canvases. Then teachers can provide one or numerous tools that students can use to create their products. The EdTechInnovators believe that the instruction of the creative process needs to be indefinite, allowing learners to be more innovate and imaginative. I think this concept would be great for middle and high school students, but I have found that elementary students need more structure when they utilize technology tools in my computer lab.  The Integrating Techn...