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ClassKick Supports Effective Feedback in the Classroom

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Susan Grover, professor of English at Brigham Young University, is a proponent of transformational technology integration, however, she cautions, “In contemplating the future of educational technology, I question the role technology can and should play in the classroom. Educational specialists tell us that learning through experience is highly effective and that technology will facilitate this teaching method. But how can I more effectively use technology to provide experiential learning opportunities for my students?” (Grover, 2006). We as educators are consumers of technology for our students and must build a mental framework of technology being a mode of expression in learning rather than “just another thing” or as a novel gimmick.  However, having technological resources and access does not guarantee of quality learning experiences enriched by being able to communicate to an audience in another country, another classroom, or in another language. What about being able to...
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Augmented Reality & Growing Humans in a Modern Classroom

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Recently I attended the regional conference for TCEA (Texas Computer Education Association) in Austin, Texas, and the air was rich with new tools, new approaches to marrying tools ("mash-ups") for new outcomes, and how futurists see new tools emerging in all avenues of our lives.   I found myself eagerly scanning my program for cutting-edge ideas and thinkers. I found that something called "Mixed Reality" was emerging...a blend of virtual reality and augmented reality...was a major strand in the conference, with a compelling group of speakers and presenters who were from the computer industry, advertising, medicine, and education!  I knew what virtual reality was, but what about augmented reality? I'd only seen it in advertising. Was it really growing in popularity and not a fad?  So how does a compelling, very highly engaging technology support classroom learning? In connecting our students to being able to see beyond what they see, which is w...
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Virtual Reality: How can CoSpaces empower your students?

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In my last post, I talked about the excitement surrounding the use of virtual reality tools in the classroom to make content-design more engaging.  The real-world application of these tools is growing, including that of changing medical and social treatments as we age. We looked at it from the perspective of the instructor utilizing the technology in the classroom, but what about our students who wish to create a virtual experience to share? Enter, CoSpaces, a web-based application whose user-interface is friendly, easy-to-use, and works with any web-enabled device. Students are able to use CoSpaces to interact with their world and bring the world into the classroom:   https://cospaces.io/  Want to see what students are creating? Our students readily participate in new experiences, and the opportunity to create virtual experiences that express their own identity and connect with the world beyond their classroom is deeply rooted in real-world applications. The...
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Philosophy & the Thinker: How Can I Use Virtual Reality in the Classroom?

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Just ten years ago if you said "virtual reality" to a student (really, even to your colleagues), they might have responded with their best stab at what they could remember from a Philosophy class. Little did anyone really know (even the programmers) that teachers would jump at the opportunity to include what equated to "stepping into the machine" a la "Tron" in order to experience things previously unavailable to our classrooms.  http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/ancient/explore-ancient-egypt.html The popularity of virtual reality as a medium and a mode has exploded for entertainment (think video games and short movies), for travel (Yes! You CAN take your kids to the pyramids of Egypt or even to time travel to 17th century colonial period society!), medicine (Want to know how to travel the bloodstream as a corpuscle?), and for reimagining their surroundings in ways that enable them to communicate their identities and ideas.  Museums are now buil...
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It's Been a While...

A lot has happened since we last saw each other. Don't be mad. I've been working on another blog. Yes, I know, I left you out here for a bit on your own, but life changed so much! I'm in graduate school now, and believe it or not, I was encouraged to come back to this venue to explore new tools, new experiences, and how life keeps changing (Imagine!) I'm excited, as there is a whole new audience, I think, and better facets to this blog of mine that may not have existed when I created it in, what...2008? It's nine years after this inception, and I think six years since my last post, so let's get this new phase of the adventure started! We are not just 21st Century Teachers; we are 21st Century Explorers of the Mind. Love it. Let's do this. V :)
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To What Far Shores Do Our Eyes Fall...

Look at what life does sometimes...pulls us from some shores and pushes us into others we cannot have anticipated would find us moored there. When I began this blog, I was in my own classroom and working with my own students and my own experiments in technology and learning. Since then, I have moved to the position of Literacy Coach with my school district and been working in ELAR, Math, Science, and History classrooms. If anyone thought that all of the content matter learning in college wouldn't come in handy after specializing in our chosen fields, they were WRONG! I am about to complete my second year as a Literacy Coach, and "Boy, are my arms tired!" (Ok, so if you're not laughing, I will explain.) By that I mean, I have been so busy and moving so much to be in so many places that I feel like I should have the ability to fly! People used to ask me, "So what is your favorite part of what you do?" Aside from the obvious of working with students and...
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All Signs Now Point To Go...

We have success! The mic works now and Audacity and the mic see each other! I confirmed with playback and now all I have to do is post the podcast...Thank you to all who offered to help! Persistence can be a wonderful thing... On to the uploading phase of this little odyssey... V : )
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