Integrating 5 Cloud Based Tools Into Your Teaching Practice

Kim Pepler

Secondary Science Teacher at Learn@Home 8-12

2nd year Graduate Student in Online Teaching and Learning at VIU

Why Choose to Use a Cloud Based Tool?

The Push …

School has become incredibly boring.

Image source http://paradisaicallife.files.wordpress.com/2013/08/class-is-boring.jpg

The Science…According to Michael Fullan and Katelyn Donnelly in Alive in the Swamp Assessing Digital Innovations in Education (May 2013)…

“Results indicate that 95 per cent of students in Kindergarten are enthusiastic about school but this steadily declines and bottoms out at 37 per cent in Grade 9. Part and parcel of this, teachers are increasingly alienated. Satisfaction is plummeting amongst the teaching force; and those wanting to leave the profession are approaching one in three in the US. Students and teachers are psychologically and literally being pushed out of school.”

The Pull …“Rapidly expanding digital innovations … (are) resulting in an exciting but undisciplined explosion of innovations and opportunities. New platforms are being built specifically for education, the amount of global digital information created and shared is growing at an increasing rate and has increased ninefold over the last five years. The internet is becoming a powerful access portal and content is increasingly an open and free commodity.

If teaching is to remain relevant in the 21st century it will have to leverage these new technologies for use across the system… and it starts with YOU!

Image source http://www.poster-street.com/templates/large/poster-street-th-010.jpg

So how do we get started?

Filters…

Filters allow teachers to distinguish relatively quickly between a tool that will be useful and one that will not.

What Should They be Based On?

“The future will belong not to those who focus on the technology alone but to those who place it in (a) wider context and see it as one element of a wider system transformation.” Sir Michael Barber, May 2013

https://cdn2.iconfinder.com/data/icons/color-svg-cloud-icons/512/cloud_filter-512.png

Fullen and Donnelly (2013) suggest the following four criteria that new learning systems must meet:

1. Irresistibly engaging for students and teachers.2. elegantly easy to adapt and use.3. ubiquitous access to technology 24/7.4. steeped in real life problem solving.

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Z05kV66g6Jg/Ul2dJXF9NPI/AAAAAAAABYI/6oPVE0vC53w/s1600/Time%2Bfor%2Bchange.jpg

Problem 1: How can you tell if a tool is irresistibly engaging for students and teachers?

TOOL 1: GOOGLE FOR EDUCATION

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1mlCipDTc8GNRGQUslB4WtUtaVym6yQgRQawe3QpgF7U/edit

http://www.dodigital.co.uk/education/files/2012/06/Google-Apps-For-Education.jpg

TOOL 2: PINTEREST

http://edudemic.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/pinterest-logo.jpg

http://www.pinterest.com/kimpepler/

How do we decide what is most important to us as teachers?

Teacher Know Thyself…

Key Points of My Personal Philosophy of Living, Teaching and Learning are…

• I am a humanist. • I believe in the educational theories of

constructivism/connectivism.• I believe that active learning is the most profound.• I believe in the power of socially networked

learners/people to construct new understandings for themselves and others.

• I believe I can make a difference.

http://craigwehrle.edublogs.org/files/2009/10/WehrleC_ETEC511_PhiloshophyOfEdTech-What-are-the-key-components-of-my-philosophy-of-education-1024x729.jpg

How do we decide what is most important for our students?

I need a pedagogically sound reason to use the technology in the first place.

• Wow factor is not enough! • I choose tools for my students that build

confidence, mastery and/or autonomy in my learners,• Put the focus on the student not the teacher• Allow the learner to showcase their work as well as see

and comment on the work of their peers• Allow learners to work together dynamically in an online

environment.

How can you tell if a tool is elegantly easy to adapt and use?

TOOL 3:TedED

http://images.fastcompany.com/upload/inline-ted-ed-video-interactive-young-crowd.jpg

http://ed.ted.com/

TOOL 4: POWTOON

http://www.powtoon.com/edu-home/

One of my explainer videos created using Powtoon…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4to2uie9cIM

Why don’t you try it?

Does the tool support curricular outcomes? Is it relevant?

TOOL 5: WEEBLY FOR EDUCATION

Image from http://onceateacher.files.wordpress.com/2009/02/weebly_apple2.png?w=500&h=103

http://disruptinghomeostasis.weebly.com/

“As in all revolutions, opportunities and problems present themselves in equal measure.” (Fullen, 2013)

What are some of the barriers to implementing technology in your classroom?

Barriers

• students skill level with technology• hardware • solid internet connections• cost • parent permission• safety concerns

Thank You

http://annamariaprzybysz.pl