In a Game of PPT, SmartBoard, Paper.....

...paper always win.


Today I have to rant. I'm going to rant about technology. You have been warned.

Courtesy of Motivated Networker

Over the past year as the Digital Literacy lead, I've done my best to investigate and try all sorts of new digital tools in the classroom. My students have been my guinea pigs as I try new things.


But the one tool I have tried to leave locked in the storage room is the Smart Board.


In the spirit of equity, I decided to do my best to give the Smart Board a chance to prove its usefulness in the secondary classroom. A few weeks ago, I spent 3 hours working with our CRT learning the in's and out's of designing a lesson in Smart Notebook. And I left with all sorts of good ideas on how to use the Smart Board in my class.

Courtesy of Teachable Moments

Then I searched high and low and found a Smart Board on wheels (locked in a storage room) that could be used.


And now the lesson. Okay. Open Smart Notebook on my computer. Stare at the blank screen. Watch the cursor flash. Check Twitter. Back to Smart Notebook. Watch the cursor flash. Check Facebook. 


*Sigh*


Surely someone else has already designed a lesson on DNA replication for the Smart Board?


Of course! I'll just Google "DNA replication smart notebook". Done. Here it is.


Okay. Now let's get ready to teach.


The Smart Board does not roll nicely into my science lab--those pesky lab benches get in the way. So I booked rm. 117 and spent 40 min getting the Smart Board set up, played 'whack-a-mole' a few times to calibrate the board, and ran the lesson to make sure everything would work.


Bell rings. Students show up. So does another class. Double booked computer lab? No, I forgot to actually book the computer lab.

Unhook computer. Unhook LCD. Unhook Smart Board. Roll everything down the hall with 25 students following me sadly back to my classroom.


Set up everything. Play 'whack-a-mole' again. Realize that I can't actually USE the Smart Board--the lab benches are in the way. Get students to move desks. Set up everything. Play 'whack-a-mole' again. 


25 minutes lost to 'technical difficulties'. 


No worries. I have a great class who has learned to roll with the punches. I start teaching. There are notes, animations and activities embedded into this Smart Board lesson. The students get to touch the board.


They are engaged in the lesson. Success!


And then one (and then another, and another) says "I don't get it. How does DNA replicate?".


*silence*


I looked  at the Smart Board. It stares blankly at me. I stared back. 

Courtesy of Teachable Moments

And then I grabbed a stack of orange and blue paper. I gave each student one piece of paper and asked them to write the letter A, T, C or G on it. 


We went outside. We became DNA. We replicated. We understood DNA replication.


PPT vs. Smart Board vs. Paper.


Paper WINS!!


The moral of this story: Try something new. It may not work, but you won't know until you try. Always have a back up plan.

Twitter in the Classroom

I know. I know. You are thinking to yourself "There is no way I would use Twitter in the classroom! What a distraction!"


And I used to think that. I couldn't imagine what I would use Twitter for on a personal level, let alone in the classroom or in a professional context.


But, alas, I have been converted.


I started using Twitter about a year ago. I 'tweeted' about cakes. I followed other people who liked cakes. That was me dipping my toe into the cold lake of the Twitter-sphere.


No, I'm not the kind of person to jump blindly into a freezing cold lake in May hoping that it won't stop my breath. I ease in.....


...and that's just what I did with Twitter.


Tweeting about cakes was great. Then I openend a second 'profesional' account (@caseydaleman) and started following other educators who were interested in digital technology in education. I learned more from these educators than any 'lunch n' learn' I've ever been to. And most tweets had links to great articles, videos and sites to support my integration of technology into my classroom.


....and then I jumped. I jumped head first into the inky-blackness of the cold Lake Twitter. And it was so amazing!!


I first used Twitter with my grade 10 science class last semester. The reception was luke-warm. Some students loved it. Some didn't. I emailed all the parents and let them know that we were using Twitter to investigate leading medical research in Canada and explained that they were more than welcome to 'follow' along.


Semester 2. Take 2.

Right now, I am using it with my Grade 12 Biology class. Each student created a Twitter account with a "dr" name and created their own profile role-playing as a junior geneticist at Trudeau Hospital. For the entire unit, I have asked them to post a 'tweet' a day, on a variety of thought provoking, discussion-inspiring topics in molecular genetics.


And they follow me (@drcaseydaleman), and I follow them, and they follow each other. They tweet in the evening. They tweet in the morning.


They tweet during class.


I know. I know. How can they be paying attention when they are tweeting during class.


They aren't always. And that's okay.


Because this is what one of my students tweeted to us during class.

This is the link that he sent: Subway Science

A whistle-stop journey through modern science.

I would never have found this in a million hours lost in the Internet. And it is completely related to what we were doing in class. His tweet was on topic, interactive and a great resource that was just shared with all 54 of my students. Instantly.


Amazing.


So check out what my students are tweeting about today. Look on the left side of the screen. There is our Twitter feed. In real time.

GapMinder

Sure, statistics can be fun. I think.

My last memory of statistics is of first year statistics at McMaster University, where 500 students crammed into TOGO120 and copied overhead notes (that were fully justified and all in CAPS) for 1 hour--3 times a week.

And then we all trudged back to rez to input data into MINITAB.


If only it was more interactive.

If only we had the Internet.

Oh. We do now.

Enter GapMinder. Data visualization at its finest. It's interactive. It's customizable. It allows students to SEE what many of us can't while staring at spreadsheets of numbers.

Check it out.

There are over 400 data indicators to choose from. The curriculum connections are endless....math; geography; environmental science; history; careers etc. 

Or for random knowledge acquisition...

...like the number of bad teeth in children as a function of income per person.

Not sure how to use it in the classroom? Check out this quick video...