Topics and Trends in Tech Integration (November newsletter article)

Topics and Trends in Tech Integration

By Katie Morrow, ESU 8

The following are current technology integration projects and practices that ESU 8 schools have been busy with recently. Remember that the invitation is always open if you see something from this list that you would like to try in your classroom. Contact us at ESU 8 and we would love to help get something planned in your school!

• Digital book creation: A digital book is so much more than a book. Rather it is a container/organizer for all kinds of learning! Use a digital book as an investigation journal, a portfolio, a class collection of pages on a larger topic, or even a way to document a school event. Publish and share with the world without wasting any printer ink!
• Creative media production: Whether a quick project like the greenscreen “Wormhole Challenge” or a class project like content area student-produced videos, students can practice interview skills, speaking skills, editing and creativity. Videos are a universal way to share what is being learned in the classroom with the rest of the world!
• VR and AR: Virtual and augmented reality can bring content to life. Students can experience apps to take them places they couldn’t normally go: for example the inside of body systems or underneath the ocean floor. Also possible is students creating their own VR and AR creations with tools such as Google's Tour Creator, AR Makr app, or Blippar.
• Digital resources for research: Utilize World Book online, Learn 360, or Virtual Field Trips to connect your class with first rate global resources- all with virtually no cost. Avoid simply going on a Google search and use higher quality resources for whatever your next educational project may be.
• Blended Learning and PBL: Here’s a framework or a learning methodology to make your next project more student directed. Student agency empowers learners to be responsible for choices impacting their productivity and understanding of content. Make your next unit more personalized by blending in some project based learning or station rotation experiences.  
• Gamify with assessment tools: Use technology for your next classroom review session and make learning fun! There are so many readily available formative assessment tools that you can choose a new one each unit so students don’t grow tired of any of them. Even some traditional tools have new features, so ask about ways to gamify that next class review session. 
• Learning Management System tools like Canvas or Google Classroom: The easiest way to take technology integration to the next level in your classroom is to employ a system of content delivery and student interaction. Even Apple Classroom has updates to make their newest technology more manageable for all. Work with us to uncover ways your LMS can allow for more productive learning environments. 
• Coding: Expose students to computational thinking by integrating some analog "intro to coding” activities. Or give them time to explore Swift Playgrounds on iPad or the code.org website. Or bring the Sphero programmable robots to your school for a coding kick-off activity. Once you get kids hooked, the sky is the limit for their future!

For additional ideas and examples from ESU 8 schools recently, be sure to check out my Instructional Tech at ESU 8 blog at: https://esu8tech.blogspot.com  

"The Important Thing" about Augmented Reality

The important thing about augmented reality is that it is a great way to merge digital and analog student-created content. It is true that with the free app Blippar, it is simple enough for third graders to use. It offers great options for a student publishing project, and will likely response many positive reactions from your entire learning community. But the important thing about augmented reality is that it is a great way to merge digital and analog student-created content.

Many may recognize this text pattern from Margaret Wise Brown's The Important Book. Recently this text was used as the basis for a third grade project in Mrs. Pistulka's reading class while learning about their local community history.

Katie Morrow from ESU 8 worked with the class to assemble the pages students wrote and the illustrations they created into a book modeled after “The Important Book” by Margaret Wise Brown. Then we made the pages “come alive” through augmented reality. Basically, if you download the free Blippar app on your smart phone, and enter our localized "code", then you can scan the pages of the book and videos will “pop up” where the students teach you even more!

Here are the steps completed in the process:

1. Mrs. Pistulka encourages her reading class to learn about community history in creative ways. First students learned about O'Neill's past by interviewing a local historian and viewing past projects.
2. Second, students selected a key person who has had an impact on our community of O’Neill. Each 3rd grader researched their "Important Person” and took notes. 
3. They then wrote their narratives for the pages of the book, modeled after Margaret Wise Brown’s The Important Book.
4. Next, students decided on an additional fact or interesting tidbit to share out loud in their video.
5. Mrs. Morrow helped us film in front of a greenscreen that we borrowed from the Eagle Eye News crew.
6. Each student created an illustration to go with our page and hand-wrote our “Important Book" text onto a template page. 
7. Mrs. Morrow took photos of all our pages and uploaded them to BlippBuilder hub to make them come alive with Augmented Reality (AR).
8. Finally, Mrs. Pistulka sent our book off to be printed so we could share our creation with others!

And here is the end result:

on iBooks (free for anyone with a Mac or iPad to download and try out)

The Important Book of O’Neill, Nebraska

and physical books printed through Blurb.com (approximately $6 for each economy color, soft-bound  trade book).