EPC 512: 21st Century Teaching and Learning with Technology Class

Course Number: EPC 512
Course Title: 21st Century Teaching and Learning with Technology
Class #: 14604
Dates: October 3, 31; November 14; December 5, 12, 2009
Times: 8:30-4:30
Location: USM Portland Campus
Faculty: Alice Barr, Yarmouth School Department
Credit: Three (3) Inservice Graduate Credits
Registration Form: Click Here (pdf) or call (207) 780-5055

In our technology-driven, globally diverse world, students are consuming and producing many forms of electronic media. How do we develop teaching strategies for the 21st Century classroom given changing ideas about literacy? This course is designed for K-12 educators looking to integrate an array of current digital technology skills with core academic subjects. The state of Maine has joined the National Partnership for 21st Century Skills (see http://www.21stcenturyskills.org) and advocates the infusion of these skills into K-12 learning.

We need a few more in this class to make it a go. Please join us!

Top 100 Tools for Learning 2009

This list came out just as I finished up with classes for the summer. I am thinking about how I might use them with teachers in the fall. What’s the purpose of your project, now pick the tool.

How would you use this list?

What’s interesting is that I only knew three of the 151 international learning professionals that chose the tools, which means there all sorts of new educators to connect with.

What’s Your favorite tool and why?

Summer Technology for Teachers

The school district I work in offers a three credit course to teachers each summer with a follow up in the fall. This June we started with 16 teachers. It was a great test run for our Google Education domain. Thanks to our student helpers who are indespensible!

Student Technology Showcase

Cheryl Oakes and I made the trek up to Newport, Maine to see Kern and Keith Kelley and their student technology showcase. What an amazing group of students and teachers, it was so impressive! Cheryl wrote about our day at her blog. Thanks Cheryl!

Education Courses at USM using Technology

If you are interested in taking graduate education courses in using technology in the classroom at The University of Southern Maine this summer, here is a listing of the courses being offered:

Summer 2009
• EPB 599 Digital Storytelling
• EPC 511 Learning to Use Podcasting and Vodcasting for Teaching and Learning
• EPC 500 The Read/Write Web in the Classroom
• EPC 508 Technology Integration for the Classroom Teacher: Mac
• EPB 510 Technology Integration for the Classroom Teacher: Windows
Fall 2009
• EPC 512 21st Century Teaching and Learning with Technology
• EPB 599 Digital Storytelling
Spring 2010
• EPC 511 Learning to Use Podcasting and Vodcasting for Teaching and Learning
• EPC 500 The Read/Write Web in the Classroom

You can download the brochure: technologyflyer

The iSchool Initiative

Thanks to Wes Fryer for posting this interesting project. It’s a student initiated movement  to get iPod touches into schools, called the iSchool Initiative. Check out the video. Travis makes a pretty compelling case! He even gives other students the tools to meet with their principal. There are some interesting ideas and I think as more tools are developed, the iPod touch might be a viable device for school. Good Luck Travis and friends!

Read Like Your Hair’s on Fire!

Lee Kolbert has a great blogpost, Building a Summer Reading List. She asked her learning network to recommend books for educators to read over the summer. She compliled the list and the result is quite wonderful! And can be found here: Read Like Your Hair’s on Fire: An Educator’s Reading List. What a terrific way to get feedback and input. Thanks so much Lee!

Earth Day 2009

Matt Montagne, Jeff Lebow, Doug Symington, Lisa Durff, and many others manned Earthbridges for a 24 hour Earthday webcast. I helped Thomas Copper and Dr. Holly Martin from The Walkers School broadcast their 5th graders who are sharing their work about taking water samples and collecting data at Nose’s Creek. I was very impressed by these fifth graders and how they behave like such scientists. They share their data at Walker Water World . I’ll post the broadcast and the archives when they become available.

I attended the sessions when Sheila’s students were finishing up and then Linda George’s were starting. Both groups were eloquent and well spoken. Hard to believe they are so young. We are lucky to have kids that care about our planet!

If you’ve ever wondered….

how the State of Maine has been able to implement and support a 1:1 laptop initiative, listen to this podcast. Jeff Mao from the Department of Education is interviewed by Drs. Scott McLeod (Iowa State U.), Jon Becker (Virginia Commonwealth U.), David Quinn (U. Florida), and Jayson Richardson (UNC-Wilmington). Their podcast, Four guys talking about education, technology, leadership, K-12 schools, and/or higher education is available at BlogTalkRadio.

Twitter: Please help identify yourself!

In these days of the push-pull of privacy vs public social networking, I sympathize with newbies who want to get on board and use new technology, but are a bit timid when putting out their information online. Twitter is one of those tools and I think the purpose of filling out the profile is so that people can see what you’re about. As Twitter grows in popularity, I am finding it harder to manage who to follow. Kevin Jarrett twittered yesterday about filling out your profile information and reading A Teacher’s Guide to Twitter.

This was follwed by a Tweet later from ijohnpederson

Today Richard Byrne tweeted about the Twitter ABC’s. I find it so helpful to see the profile and a link to your work is even more helpful.

So please, I would love to follow you… but if I don’t know you by name or you don’t have a bio, I most likely won’t follow you. Thanks for your help. And if you are interested in seeing who’s in my network, here’s a map.

There are some amazing people to follow. I have learned so much from the folks in this network, I encourage everyone to jump in!