Edgaged

Once upon a time... This post makes me nostalgic of my early days as a technology coach at East Noble School Corporation . We had just adopted iPads as our device of choice to put in the hands of every student. Lots of cool apps were coming out that allowed you to create cool recordings and flashy videos. Whenever a student accessed an app that required microphone or camera access, the iPad would pop up with a box. These boxes caused some panic as students would deny access to their camera or microphone left and right. This brought these fun technology projects to a screeching halt. So I quickly made a video to send out to staff so that they can go into the settings and fix the problem if a student made such mistake.  Now that I'm in a Chromebook school district ( MSD of Steuben County ), we are having the same issue. Students don't do it on purpose. When a box pops up on the screen, they aren't actually reading what it has to say. Instead, they take their chances...

January 2017 Update Google recently updated Google Classroom  with a feature that has been much needed. One of the most common questions I get when training teachers on Google Classroom is what to do about differentiated/personalized instruction. In the past, I've recommended to those teachers that if they want to differentiate they will either need to create separate classrooms for each group or use a consistent title for the assignments when dealing with groups of students. The problem with that theory is that groups are often ever changing. As teachers continue to assess, students will continue to shift around in learning experiences/expectations. Within the last year, the edition of topics helped with that issue as the teacher could then at least categorize posts. The students could then click on the topic in order to see only the stream of what pertained to their group. Regardless, Classroom didn't seem to be the friendliest to the differentiated teacher.  Wi...

Creation is Key Amy Heavin, Principal at Ryan Park Elementary, had a vision. She has been inspired to build a maker-space for the staff and students. She wants to cultivate thinkers and problem solvers. She's building a creative culture within her school. This process started during the 2015-2016 school year as Amy has quite a few fun tools available for her students to try. Kids are programming Spheros, building with Legos, and creating contraptions with Little Bits. Before this year started, Amy contacted me about another tool she added to her collection; she purchased a Polar 3D . 3D printing has been around for quite some time, but here in more recent years, it has become extremely affordable. She purchased the Polar 3D mainly because it was in her price range and those that had purchased it had pretty good reviews. Ultimately, she was looking to provide students with the experience of being able to create solutions to problems. The Polar 3D provides a ...