technology – Page 6 – Pernille Ripp

Technology Usage Parent Letter and Consent Form

June 30, 2011 Pernille Ripp

Classroom (Photo credit: James F Clay)

Internet safety and education is always at the forefront of my mind when I work with technology in the classroom. It is therefore important for me to have my parents have an understanding and some control over their child’s work and image as it relates to usage and access.

Here is the link to purchase the whole letter and below is what part of the document looks like.

A Letter on Technology in Mrs. Ripp’s Room

Technology serves a major function in this classroom to collaborate and connect with students across the globe. Safety and proper usage of the chosen technology is therefore vital for this classroom to be successful in its implementation. This letter is intended to inform and expand on the most common types of technology that will be integrated throughout the year, as well as serve as a consent form. Please note that the District Acceptable Use Policy for Technology is upheld and discussed throughout the year as well.

° Flip Video Cameras: Students use video cameras throughout the year to capture their learning and for presentations. I also use the cameras to capture specific student work to be published on our classroom website (www.mrsripp.blogspot.com).
° Digital Cameras: Students and I take pictures of our projects and students at work. These images are often used for publication on our website and once in a while are included in presentations I conduct to teach other educators.

Preview:

Dear Parent or Guardian,
Throughout the school year, I may include photographs, videos, or work of individual students or student group activities on our classroom website (www.mrsripp.blogspot.com), on my professional website (www.mrspripp.blogspot.com), and occasionally in presentations for other educators. Any student and/or their school work will be identified by first name only. No last names will be mentioned.

Please mark any of the choices below and return to school:

_____ Yes, I give permission to photograph, videotape, or audio record my child. I also give permission to display my child’s school work including class pictures.

____ Please do not publish my child’s photograph on the classroom website or any other Internet page.

being a teacher, New Adventure, Student, technology

So You Want to Integrate Technology – Now What?

June 25, 2011 Pernille Ripp

Technology Is Not Technology (Photo credit: lgb06)

I have been given a new label this year, I am now the “techy teacher.” This label brings many odd and interesting conversations with it, most often involving how to integrate technology into a classroom. So for all of those just getting started, who perhaps are ready to move beyond use computers as research engines and typewriters, here is a little advice from someone who has been there:

Decide on time. Ask yourself, and be honest, how much time do you really want to spend on technology in your day? If the answer is as little as possible then perhaps this is not the year. If the answer is some, then do read on.
Figure out the “Why.” What are you aiming to do with the technology? What are the goals for integration? Is it to connet with others then Skype or blogging might be a great thing to learn about. Is it to give students different project options then perhaps Animoto or Glogster are your venues. Is it to give yourself more professional development then Twitter is a must.
Do your research. Reach out to others (through Twitter perhaps) and ask them what they use. Google your needs, look at reviews, and then decide whether it is a good fit for you or not. There are so many websites and blogs out there that do all the work for you, Richard Byrne’s Free Technology for Teachers is a great place to begin!
Chose a few. While there are so many things out there technologically speaking it is best to choose a few to focus on. I thought I was going to integrate many things the last year and it honestly just got too time consuming. So align the technology with your goal (see number 2) and get ready to mess with it, and…
Play. Technology needs to be pretty self-explanatory and I better be able to figure it out within a short amount of time. If it is something I am showing/using with my students then I better have it figured out within 5 minutes or so. If it is for my own personal use, I give it 30 minutes but after that, no thanks. Play with it, walk through it as your students will and learn a little about it. Often this gets me more excited to use it.
Again – how will you use it? Now that you have decided on what to use, ask again whether this will work for your educational goal. I love the idea of VoiceThread but found it too cumbersome for the presentation format so I went a different route. Just because it is technology does not mean it is helpful.
Stick with it. The first couple of times I introduced new technology to my students I was a little bit apprehensive, after all, these were 4th graders I was asking to do the work. And yet, they got it. The beauty of technology integration also is that if one students gets it then they can also help you teach it to others.
Embrace failure. Go into this adventure knowing that things will break, signals will fail, and computers will crash. Have a back up plan in mind that still accomplishes the same goal. We have had missed Skype opportunities, blocked websites and overall disasters on our hands, but always managed to laugh about it and move on. Don’t waste your time lamenting lost technology.
Be courageous. So what if you are the only one at your school trying this out; be the one who tries new things. No one at my school was blogging before I started and now all of the 5th grade tried it as well. You never know who will be inspired by you trying something out.
Make it worthwhile. I do not believe in tech for tech’s sake. I only use it to further our learning goals and to broaden my students’ horizon, so use it in the right sense. Students will respond and be engaged if they understand and see the genuine purpose, they will quickly lose interest if it does not further your purpose. Remember technology is not always the answer to every lesson, sometimes whipping out paper and pen can produce the same (and sometimes better) results. So make sure you use it when it fits, not because you feel you have to.

being a teacher, punishment, technology

How Not to Integrate Technology

April 29, 2011 Pernille Ripp

After reading this wacky post “Encouraging Teachers to use Technology” I had to respond with a hearty congratulations! After all, this article highlights many of the things we so diligently try to avoid when introducing anything unknown to people; rewards, punishment, fear. So let’s think about it for a moment; how could you make sure that no one wants to ever integrate technology:

Outdated equipment – with scrunched school budgets and schools falling into disrepair, this is a common culprit. Who wants to use technology when the computer looks like an extra from the original 90210? Well some people make do and even do great things but to get more people to truly integrate you may have to invest a little bit of money.
Listening sessions only on how to use it. Teachers love to talk and boy when explaining technology and how cool it is, we can get rather winded. How about letting people try it, after all, my 2 year old didn’t ask for a manual with my iPad, she simply pushed some buttons and now she is pretty adept and very eager.
Forcing people to use technology. Nothing like a good punishment session if you don’t integrate technology. I know how stubborn I am and even if something seems really amazing, if you tell me I have to put it in my classroom most of the time I will resent it. Call me stupid but this resistance may be part of human nature.
Telling people how cool it is that this one teacher is using technology. This is another variation on the forcing people to use it. Sure that teacher may be doing some really cool things with it, but that doesn’t mean others need to. In fact, I think the more you tell others about all the cool things, the more some people will resist. It is all in the delivery of the message.
Not asking the people. This happens all the time, there is extra money and someone smart spends it all on new technology without asking the people who are going to use it whether it is wanted or not. Surprise, here’s another thing you didn’t want. Often teachers would love more technology in their classroom, perhaps just not the same as what other people want. I for one don’t particularly want a Smartboard but waive some iPads in front of me and I will be forever grateful. Ask your recipients, give them ownership, and it will be much more welcomed.

So to not be to negative, here are my suggestions for how to encourage more technology use:

Lead the way through informal conversations. I love tech and I spend a lot of time searching out new things for my students and yet I don’t tell a lot of people about it. Why? Because they may not be interested, however, if someone shows a little bit of interest, I will gladly show, talk, and teach them about it. This way it is their choice to learn not me burdening them.
Give us time. More tech means more time needed to investigate and play. This year my school received 8 new Flip’s from the PTO and it wasn’t until we had time to play with them through a PD session that they started getting used. Don’t just tell people about it, show them and let them do the doing.
Have your students be teachers. My students are the best proof of good tech usage and they will gladly show you just how cool something is (vice versa they will tell me when something sucks). They have turned into the best ambassadors for why teachers should integrate tech into their classroom and for that I am ever grateful. Give them a voice and watch them find an audience.
Emphasize integration, not tech for tech’s sake. I don’t have student computers in my classroom so that my students can type their papers on them, that is just an added benefit. Rather these computers are our research stations, connection makers, and overall learning centrals. We use them when it feels natural or when it is necessary, not because we have to, but because they fit into what we are doing.

What am I missing? How does great tech integration get encouraged in your schools?

learning, students, technology, tools

The Tools We Use (and Those We Don’t)

March 4, 2011 Pernille Ripp

Photo courtesy of I Can Read

As I get ready to write my second set of report cards, I realize 2/3’s of the year has passed and I have some very technology savvy 4th graders. And by savvy I mean critical, knowledgeable, and demanding tech users. So what has stood the test of time in our classroom and what has died a silent death:

Some Favorites:

Kidblog – hands down the most useful tool we have integrated this year. Through this blogging platform we have reached out to more than 20 countries around the world, have had an intimate view of the revolution in Egypt and created an ongoing writing portfolio. I cannot believe something like this is free.
Animoto – a tool favored by my students to present video or still pictures as a way to give an inside view of our days and of our doings.
Flip Camera’s – Our fantastic PTO donated 8 new cameras to our school through the Digital Wish buy 1 get 1 fee program and we have one permanently on loan in our room. Students have created grammar videos, learning snapshots and just documented really cool things.
Glogster – some of my students have the glogster bug, begging to create projects using this medium, and one even created his own glog Christmas contest. They have gotten more creative, and better at citing through this site.
Google Suite – well duh, most might say, but my students have become very savvy Google users, taking initiative to search for life cycle of the crayfish when our crayfish exhibited some peculiar behaviors, as well as creating Google maps of students they speak to, and that is just the tip of the iceberg.
Skype – oh yes, we skype and as the year progresses we do it more and more often. From a quick check in with my husband (just to see what he is doing, they say) to classrooms around the world, we are bringing the world into our room. Interested in skyping with us – let me know!
Wordle – ahh, yes we love our word cloud generator. This tool has been used from everything to research, overused words, to poems about parents. This free tool is pretty amazing.
Twitter – while my students are not on Twitter, this social phenomenon colors much of our every day learning. From finding out about World Math Day to the Global Read Aloud Project, what I gain from Twitter is invaluable.

And some that seemed fun and then not so much:

Edmodo – this very cool social interaction site took off like wild fire and then died out with my students. At first, they loved speaking to each other through the site from home and then they simply got bored. Now, I think our last update was 2 weeks ago.
VoiceThread – I know of many educators that successfully implement this in their curriculum, but in my classroom, it wasn’t wort it. Perhaps it was because we didn’t have a paid for account and so it was rather limited usage or perhaps I didn’t give it enough of a chance, whatever the case, it has been months since we used it.
Voki – yes I know there is a Voki for education as well, and while my students loved creating avatars of their friends, saving and uploading them was cumbersome and time consuming.
ToonDoo – again, I do not have an educator account for this, which means I cannot provide the safe environment that I need for my students, however, students did do a test run and while some loved it, most found it ineffective and that they could do the same work by hand much easier.

What am I missing out on? What do you love in your classroom? What did you give up on? Share, share, share.

internet safety, technology

Why the Internet is Like the Mall

January 1, 2011July 24, 2013 Pernille Ripp

Image from here

Another cross posting from my other blog, this one has taken on a life of its own, with others putting their own spin on it. When we discuss internet safety, it is vital that we are able to relate it to students’ lives, so that they can understand that being behind a computer does not mean that they are protected. While I am not in the business of scaring students, there are plenty of other ways that can happen, we can stress the importance of proper behavior. And thus this lesson came about; linking the internet to going to the mall.

I believe in the importance of honest conversation with the kids, where they supply the answers, rather than me hitting them over the head with it. I simply started out this lesson by writing the words “Internet Safety” on my whiteboard and turned to the kids. They volunteered what these words meant to them and then I ventured into the mall analogy; so what would they do to stay safe at the mall if their parents dropped them off?

Some of the students answers were

That they would not talk to strangers
Give anyone their information if approached
Go only to the place they were supposed to
And they wold go straight there, rather than take detours or stop at other places
They wouldn’t give their money to strangers

By having the students provide the safety rules, taken from their own memory of rules drilled into their heads by their formidable parents, they connected real life danger with things that can happen on the internet. Sometimes students think they are safe on the net, as we all know, and this brought the responsibility home for them.

So as we continue learning proper safety and etiquette, we will keep referring back to the mall analogy, for example, would you walk up to a friend and tell them their outfit was ugly when talking about how to comment? Today was one of those moments where I was able to make students understand something they have to learn in this day and age. A lesson not just meant for 4th graders or 5th graders but hopefully something they will keep in the back of their minds when they go on the internet themselves, or maybe even next time they go to the mall. Once again today I realized how huge my responsibility is for these kids and how glad I am to be their teacher.

choices, Social studies, Student-centered, technology, Wisconsin

Wisconsin’s Early Explorers on Facebook

January 1, 2011 Pernille Ripp

My overarching theme for this year has been student-centered learning, so putting the focus back on students rather than me talking them through the learning. So as I prepped social studies over the break, I realized that I could not just tell my students about the first explorers in Wisconsin; they had to research it and present. But how to do this without it being another research project with a report attached?

We have just finished a formidable Native American research unit, discussed here, where students took full control of their own learning. As said by my students, this proved to be one of the best experiences for them this year, so I knew there had to be control relinquished to them. I also have very set perimeters for the project because it does have to fit into the information presented in the chapter in social studies book. So students will be creating two separate projects.

The first project will be a simple read and share event, in which the students have been placed into teams (no more than 3 kids) and they will read a sub-section of general information about the Native American tribes in Wisconsin. This mini-project will take one lesson (45 min) for reading and writing (they are learning to not copy others’ words) and one lesson for presentation. By ripping half the chapter apart, students will have to take more control of their learning as they engage in active listening during presentations, and practicing their own public speaking skills.

The second project is the actual research of various historical figures prominent in the exploration of Wisconsin. There are 12 different prominent explorers that the students should learn about. I will therefore go through the time line of the exploration years to provide them with an overview of the time, and then set them off to research. I have checked out netbooks for them to do their research on, however, students can choose to use them or not. Other student choices include:

Who their learning partner should be?
Who they would like to research (I ask them to pick 3 and then pick sticks and assign)?
How are they going to research?

I find the “how” is just as important as the “who”, because in 4th grade, we are just learning how to do actual research. Students have not had a lot of practice and are so used to the teacher printing out various sources, or creating a livebinder. By having a classroom discussion on various forms of research, we are once again handing over the responsibility (and thinking) to the students, so you are facilitating rather than leading.

Students will be asked to present all of their information via the fantastic Facebook Template that has been circulating on Twitter. However, I will be asking them to draw it out by hand rather than on the computer. The reason is two-fold; we have some very artistic students that need an outlet, and we have limited access to computers. So in the end, we will have some fantastic Facebook templates adorning our classroom walls. Timeline will be discussed and determined by the students as well but I foresee about one week’s worth of time is needed.

As for grading, students will be evaluating themselves, and we will discuss what they loved, had difficulty with, and how they would improve upon it. No formal grade will be assigned, as is my style, but students will be asked to read and comment on each other’s work as well, as part of the learning process.

In progress:
I have been meeting with my students and some need a little bit more scaffolding, so I created this direction sheet for them to use. That way they can check off when they find the needed information or if they need to make something up they can.