I believe that there are three critical technologies that should be embraced by educators in the new year  The first one is to create a personal learning network (PLN) online by joining social networks such as Twitter and sharing resources.  The second is to create a social network for your classroom.  Back in September I wrote about the social networking site Edmodo, which turned out be one of the most transformational technology activities I did with my students last year.  You can check out that post here.  The third and final tool that I believe is foundational to any 21^st century classroom is screencasting.   Screencasting is a method of recording the actions of your computer along with an audio track of your voice explaining what you are showing on the screen.  I have been screencasting for a couple of years now, and found it to be a great way to show students how to do something on the computer.  I would often use a screencast before taking my students to the lab, so that they could see what we were going to do in the lab.  Here's an example: .  I would upload my screencasts to a YouTube channel (www.youtube.com/mrtalmadge) which then automatically showed up in an embedded player on my class website (www.mrtalmadge.com).  It was really nice in the lab because the students could be working at their computers and they could refer to my screencast if they couldn’t remember how to accomplish the task.  Essentially, it allowed me to “replicate” myself so that I could give more personal attention to those students who needed it while the other more capable students could refer to the screencast if they needed assistance. 

However, using screencasting to create tutorials is just the beginning.  The most powerful use of screencasting occurs when you allow your students to create their own casts.  Isn’t that the case with most technology?  It’s about allowing the students to be creative and use technology to show what they know and can do.    I’ll never forget the buzz in the lab as my students began recording themselves (and rerecording themselves again and again).  One student must have redone his screencast 20 times because he wanted it to be just right.  That is the beauty of screencasting, you can have as many chances as you need until the quality of your presentation is what you want it to be.  Of course, there is some prep work involved.  As the teacher you still have to provide your students with some structure, such as a planning tool for them to script out what they want to say, as well as teaching them the “how to’s” of the specific web application that you choose to use. 

For my project last year, I chose to use http://screencastomatic.com.  In fact, if you look at the bottom of their home page, you can see where the creator of the site has included one of my student’s projects as an example to illustrate the uses of screencasting.   Here's the one that is included: .  I was very excited when I noticed this a few weeks ago! One of the main reason I chose screencastomatic was that it allows you to create a “channel” on the site so that you can give the students the link to the channel and they can simply record their presentation right onto the channel page so that you've got a list organized chronologically.  You can check out all of my students work on the channel here.

There are many screencasting tools available to use for fee online (screentoaster, screenr and jing are three that come to mind right now) as well as other more costly traditional software programs (Camtasia comes to mind).  But it’s not so much about which program or app you choose to use, just that you try it out, both as a teaching/presentation tool and as a learning tool for students. 

 How about you? Do you have other ideas about technology tools teachers should try in the new year? How have you used screencasting in the classroom?  Do you have a screencasting program that you prefer over another?  If so, why?

If you want to engage your students with technology, one of the things you might consider is using an online comic strip creator, such as www.bitstripsforschools.com or www.pixton.com.  One of the teachers I work with as a technology coach decided she wanted to go for it and from what I can tell, it was worth the effort!  Read on to hear from Constance Logan, an 8^th grade teacher at Snoqualmie Middle School, as she describes her experience using Pixton comics with her language arts classes.

“Usually a chapter summary is met with a collective student groan.  Not so much if the chapter summary is a comic strip and even better if that comic strip can be produced digitally.  For my first foray into high-tech I had my class do a chapter summary of our class novel in a nifty little program called Pixton.  Of course I was nervous.  After all, usually teachers are the fountain of knowledge and my fountain is at best a slow trickle.  But after stepping back, I realized that I don’t have to know everything (or even very much);  the students ended up figuring the program out for themselves and using one another as expert sources.  It was a blast.  The students reread the chapters carefully, they planned out their strips, they executed the panels on the software, and they reflected on the outcome.   After the whole shebang, we did a reflection and what came out of it was a trifecta of learning-the students learned how to write a summary, how to do a close read, and perhaps most importantly how to solve a problem on their own.  And that last one seems increasingly important as we move from manufacturing into creative markets.  The program is fairly intuitive and very engaging and provides a much needed counterpoint to endless drill and kill worksheets.  I am all thumbs when it comes to the keyboard, so my thumbs up really means something for Pixton.”

Nice work, Connie.  I so appreciate your willingness to take a risk and try something new!  Do any of you out there have a thought about using comic strips in the classroom?  Have you used Bitsrips for Schools?  Have you used Pixton? What are your thoughts?  Feel free to add your comments.

I was out at Twin Falls Yesterday and witnessed more great examples of how teachers are using technology.  I am so impressed by the way our teachers  in the Snoqualmie Valley Schools are applying what they learned during the Summer Learning Academy and Tech Kick off Day. 

Example 1:  Kidblog

I met with four 7^th grade teachers—Judy Beal, Dawn Frearson, Sara June Treadwell and Shawn Lawrence—who were wanting help with setting up blogs for each student  in class.  I showed them how easy it is to export a class roster to excel and then upload that to kidblog.org.  In the process they were discussing how they would implement blogging in their classes. Questions I heard were: “How should we explain this to our students?” and “What should their first post be about?” It was awesome to see them collaborating so closely!  I took a picture and recorded some audio that you might find interesting.

Example 2:  Wallwisher and Wordle

Three 8^th grade teachers—Janet Munson, Susan Cooper and Emily Rourke—were thrilled about a lesson they had taught using technology.  For home work they had the students do a group brainstorm using a Wallwisher (www.wallwisher.com) web page describing what Americans value.  The next day in class they looked at all the ideas and put them in a Wordle (www.wordle.net)  to get a visual representation of which ideas were more common than others. 

Way to go TFMS staff members!  I wonder how they’ll continue to integrate these web 2.0  collaboration and visual techniques into future lessons?