Flipped Classrooms

Flipped classrooms are the new classroom models of the 21st century. What is a flipped classroom? A flipped classroom is a team effort between the teacher and the student. In a flipped classroom a student will have the chance to work collaboratively through problems with the guidance of their teachers and peers during school hours. There are no more lectures in class only activities to see what the student learned the night before. Lectures can be listened to at home this way students can take their time learning. If students can learn at their own pace they are guaranteed to remember more of the material they learn. They have the chance to rewind the lecture and listen to it as many times as they need in order to understand it. Then in the classroom they can ask as many questions to become proficient in that topic. 

To learn more about flipped classrooms visit this website: http://www.knewton.com/flipped-classroom/

MeeGenius!

My previous post was about how young children are using iPads more and more each day. This is the first step in being proactive! MeeGenius is a free app that teachers and parents can download on their iPad or iPhone. It comes with 6 starter books: The Field Mouse and the Town Mouse, Rapunzel, The Ant and the Grasshopper, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,  Pinocchio, and Jack and the Beanstalk. When you click on the book, it has the option to either read it yourself, or it has an audio children can listen to while the words are highlighted! 

If a child is in the waiting room at a doctors office, jump start this app, plug in your headphones and let the magic begin! Your child will be occupied and educated at the same time.

You can also buy more books in the bookstore. The priciest book is about $5.00 and the lowest price is .99, but you can read them as many times as you'd like. Remember when you had your favorite book and that was the only thing you wanted to read. With this app your favorite children's book will be available any time, day or night. 

There is also a Bookclub option! When you invite other friends who have this app to your book club, you can share the book that you enjoy, and they can share their most favored books as well. 

One other wonderful aspect of this app is the "Author Challenge."This part of the app is for regular people who want to be authors! They have the opportunity to send in their book and ultimately have it published :) 

Try MeeGenius today! You won't be disappointed!

Diapers and iPads

I cannot say it enough, technology is all around us 24/7. I don't know about you, but when I go out anywhere, wether it's a restaurant, the doctors office, the gym, and just about everywhere you can think of, small children are on their parents iPhone/iPad playing games and using the Internet to keep themselves occupied.

Unfortunately, we cannot get away from technology and you can't always change parenting. Since we cannot get away from technology, lets be proactive and use apps that will educate our young children. iPad apps when used appropriately can increase a persons intelligence and keep them updated with current events. If you have a MAC computer, you can actually download apps and test them out before you download them on your iPad or iPhone. I found this incredibly useful! 

How young is too young to be using an iPad?

Glogster EDU

Glogster is one of the coolest Web 2.0 tools a teacher can use in the classroom. It is basically a presentation in virtual form! It is not just a regular boring Power Point and it's everything but boring. Glogster allows students to insert a Power Point, You tube videos, any other videos, pictures, recordings, post it notes, cartoons, and many more. In this case, technology and Web 2.0 is quite nifty. Teachers, instead of assigning the same poster board presentation for a research project, give Glogster a chance. Your students will have their Glogster account forever and they can watch their creative minds grow! Glogster is much better than buying a poster board that gets thrown away right after you are graded. The best part about this tool is that it is Elementary student friendly!

When you first sign up for Glogster you will see this screen:

When teachers sign up for the teacher account they can also keep track of their students's projects as well as their own. Glogster even has this thing called the Glogpedia Library where teachers and students can go into to get some ideas on how to set up their own Glogster. This website even has tutorials on the bottom of the page to direct you in the right direction. If you click on the link below, you will experience your first Glogster! Forget blogging get Glogging, sign up today!

http://jjennings13.edu.glogster.com/conflict-within-when-the-going-gets-tough-the-tough-get-going/?=glogpedia-source

Research Update: Survey Stats

Before I begin, I'd like you to take a second and think about the quote below and what it means to you. Do you agree with this statement? 

On Wednesday, June 12th, 2013 I was asked to find the mean and mode for numbers 9-23 of the survey. So far 19 teachers have completed the survey! Below you can find my new stats:

Question 9
How would you rate your overall enthusiasm for using educational technology?   
Median: Somewhat High
Mode: 8 Somewhat High and 8 Very High

Question 10
How would you rate your overall comfort in using educational technology?   
Median: Proficient
Mode: 7 Proficient and 7 Advanced

Question 11
How would you rate your overall mastery and skill in using educational technology?   
Median: Proficient 
Mode: 8 Advanced

Question 12
Of the time you spend teaching in the classroom, approximately what percentage is spent using educational technology. [answer between 1 and 100 %]
Median: 60%
Mode: 5--> 60%

Question 13
Do you have any formal education in the area of computer science, IT, or educational technology? (if yes please describe it in the box below, if no write no)  
Median: No 
Mode: 10 No

Question 14
Rate the encouragement and support that your school administration gives for technology integration in classroom teaching:
Median: Support
Mode: 13 Support

Question 15
Does your school have a long-term technology development plan in place? 
Median: No
Mode: 10 No

Question 16
At my school, teachers and staff members are willing to embrace the use of new technologies. 
Median: Agree
Mode: 14 Agree

Question 17
My school has an effective IT helpdesk (technology support center or staff) 
Median: Agree
Mode: 13 Agree

Question 18
I believe most technology would do little to improve my ability to teach
Median: Disagree
Mode: 9 Strongly Disagree

Question 19
I feel Technology is unreliable
Median: Disagree
Mode: 9 Disagree

Question 20
Technology has changed the way that I teach 
Median: Agree
Mode: 14 Agree

Question 21
I think I am a better teacher with educational technology
Median: Agree
Mode: 11 Agree 

Question 22
I think electronic media will replace printed text in the near future 
Median: Agree 
Mode: 15 Strongly Agree 

Question 23
I believe technology has powerful positive impact on teaching and learning
Median: Agree
Mode: 12 Agree

Statistics 101

Early this morning, my advisors and I had a conference call over skype (using Web 2.0 technology) to talk about how our research is developing and what we are doing with the data. 

Skype conference call

I have taken a class last semester that forced me make graphs and collect data in Microsoft Excel. Little did I know that there was so much more to putting numbers into a graph. Microsoft Excel is good for starters, but I will learn how to use Xpss on Friday! Xpss is a more professional software for statistical analysis. I am very excited to expand my technological palate and make a parallel between Excel and Xpss.

Excel

xpss

When you are dealing with data similar to what I am collecting, you have to think about the difference between qualitative and quantitative. Qualitative data is observed but not measured, it also deals with descriptions. An example of qualitative data could be colors. Quantitative data can be measured, and it deals with numbers.  An example of quantitative data could be a group of adults ages. 

Now that we have a mutual understanding of qualitative and quantitative data, there are three major characteristics of a single variable that we tend to look at. Those characteristics are the distribution, the central tendency, and the dispersion. To the average person these terms look a bit foreign and outlandish. The distribution is an arrangement of values of a variable showing their observed or frequent occurrence. Central tendency is an estimate of the center of a distribution of values. There are three subcategories attached to central tendency and they are the famous mean, median, and mode. Lets review mean, median, and mode quickly so that we can get the elephant out of the room. Mean is the average, median is the number in the middle, and mode is the number that occurs the most. The third major characteristic of a variable is the dispersion. The dispersion measures how the various elements behave such as a location, and it usually coincides with the mean as well as range.  

We are up to 17 teachers who have taken the survey! Stay tuned for more data updates :)

Can Technology Change Education

"When we change our thinking. We can change the solution"

To watch Raj Dhingra, please look at the link below

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0s_M6xKxNc

To engage students in new technology, Turkey decided to run a program called Firefly mobile learning. The truck visits the school, the students jump into the truck, and there they will find rows of computers, comfortable chairs to sit in, and tech support on the tip of their finger tips. Everyone wants technology now a days but it seems to be rather expensive for school districts to purchase. "You can dream big and make a big impact and not have a lot of money. You can achieve a lot with a small amount of money if you know how to spend it."

Many teachers have the hunger for "Tech Candy." They believe that technology will fix everything. The thing is, technology will not fix everything unless it is used properly. If the teacher engages in blended learning then they will make the best of themselves as well as the technology. The students will work together due to the new learning, and they will become more engaged because technology is rather interesting. 

So to answer my question from before, can technology change education...Yes it can! Do you personally think technology can change education?