Ready, Aim...LAUNCH!

I had a lot of fun watching a Social Studies teacher bring her class outside to the school courtyard to test the effectiveness of the trebuchets they had designed and built themselves.  Although this is an activity you would normally expect in a science class (or even wood shop!), it helped the students appreciate the topic of using catapults (or trebuchets) during medieval attacks on castles or fortresses!

Expert Views on "What Makes Great Teaching?"

The Guardian has published an article written by Sarah Marsh and Kate Hodge titled "What Makes Great Teaching? Expert Views" describing the results of a study which reviewed 200 pieces of research on what makes great teaching. The two most important elements of great teaching practices were the quality of instruction and how well a teacher knew their subject.

Some of the topics discussed in the article included:

• the merits of overly praising children in the classroom
• damaging beliefs about effective pedagogy
• investing in professional development for teachers
• the receptivity of teachers to research evidence
• the need to clarify expectations of good teaching practices

Overall, the study mentioned in this article concluded, among other things, that conventional approaches to teaching seemed to be the most effective. Do you agree with that conclusion, or is it more complicated than that?

Happy Halloween from the FVHS Media Center staff!

Wait until they invent Bing Binoculars!

The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) and the National Association of Theater Owners (NATO...wait...doesn't that stand for something else?) has effectively banned the use of Google Glass and other similar wearable technology devices from movie theaters across the country.

This is done to prevent the possibility of Google Glass wearers from recording a movie during a showing and then bootlegging it digitally on the internet or otherwise.  Of course, a Google Glass' recording capacity is a max of 30 minutes, and the battery would surely give out long before the end of the movie.  However, this is seen as a preemptive measure because of the eventual improvement of such devices.  

Now if only they could find a way to ban moviegoers from constantly staring at their smartphone during a movie showing.  The glows coming from them remind me of flat rectangular lighthouses reaching into the darkness.

Edutopia has posted a "Digital Citizenship Resource Roundup" has released a one-stop shopping list of resources dealing with a slew of digital citizenship topics, including: 

• Internet Safety and Cyberbullying
• Digital Responsibility
• Media & Digital Literacy

There are also a variety of other resources related to digital citizenship listed in this article.

If Teachers Were Treated like Sports Stars...

Courtesy of BuzzFeedYellow...

Article: Why Educators should spend 15 minutes a day on social media

CenterDigitalEd.com has published an article written by Tanya Roscoria titled "Why Educators Should Spend 15 Minutes a Day on Social Media".  She explains that most teachers don't spend time on social media for professional purposes due to a lack of placing a priority on it.  Roscoria asserts that by spending a minimum of 15 minutes a day on social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Google+ can help teachers discover lesson ideas, strategies, and methods using technology (or in general) that can help improve their instructional performance.  

Investing time in social media sites for professional growth can serve as an informal type of professional development and build professional learning networks between educators close together and from a distance.  It can serve as an efficient source of lesson ideas as well as inspiration for classroom activities you conduct yourself.  

Digital Citizenship can be learned by students and teachers

The website Edsurge has posted an article concerning the importance of teachers and students learning about digital citizenship.  Titled "Why Digital Citizenship is an opportunity for students and educators to learn together",details how adults often fall into the trap of becoming too open with their social media posts on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and more.  These habits can be learned by children as well, causing them to share way more and less indiscriminately because they don't know proper "Netiquette".

The website Flocabulary has created a rap video citing 10 rules for how to (and how not to) behave online, titled "Think Before You Post".  This video could serve as an excellent discussion-starter when teaching students about how to be a responsible digital citizen.

Tech Tidbit: ProfessorWord.com

This week's "Tech Tidbit" video focuses on ProfessorWord.com, a bookmark toolbar add-on that identifies SAT or ACT vocabulary words on any given website or news article.  It is free to install and activate.

This tool can be used by Language Arts students on the high school level, but could also serve as a vocabulary builder for older elementary school and middle school students.

The Wake County Public Schools Instructional Technology department has put together a one-stop shopping wiki that contains digital resources for a wide array of purposes, including Internet Safety, Learning Models, Literature & Writing, Educational Blogs, SmartBoard resources, Google Apps, eInstruction, and much more.  It is called Enhanced Education Through Technology (EETT).

Created by Kristy Meyrick, this resource also provides a list of digital resources categorized by function.  Teachers who are looking for a quick list of reliable web resources for any number of instructional purposes in the classroom would find this wiki invaluable.  

It can be found by clicking HERE.

My Instructional Technology website

I maintain and regularly update an Instructional Technology website for the purpose of cataloging links and resources that are useful for the teachers and students of the schools that I serve.  On the front page I have my work calendar embedded so teachers know where I am working on a daily basis.

I have also archived a number of instructional "how-to" videos that I created that demonstrate how to use a number of web tools.

http://russellsmith1972.wix.com/russellsmithtech

Introduction

Welcome to my introductory post on my new instructional technology blog!  My name is Russell Smith, and I am an Instructional Technology Facilitator for Wake County Schools in North Carolina.  I currently serve at two schools: Carpenter Elementary School in Cary, NC; and Fuquay-Varina High School in Fuquay-Varina, NC.  

My purpose for this blog is to update it on a regular basis with posts containing news, links, and opinions on topics relevant to the field of instructional technology.  I hope that this blog becomes a resource for the teachers at both of my schools to refer to on an ongoing basis.