Technology Times
December 8, 2014
Thanks
I would like to share any new initiatives that you are implementing at your schools with the other ITF's. Please feel free to email me any items that you are willing to share with others.
Thanks again for all that you do!!!
CCS Employees Chosen to Present at NCTIES
Michael Trump - Technology Facilitator at NWHS will be presenting:
To Google..and BEYOND! Hidden Resources, Tools and Secrets within the Google-verse.
When thinking about using Google in the classroom, do you think of playing with Legos? Building skeletons? Floating in space? If not, those are just a couple of many little-known resources that reside within the Google-verse that you're going to want to explore in this fast-paced sharing session! These hidden resources, tools and secrets will be presented with an emphasis on their integration into today's Blended 21st Century classrooms for all grades and subjects. Jump on board the Google spaceship and hang on tight...3....2....1...
Camella Herrin and Sherry Harris ITF's at Rocky River Elementary School and Bethel Elementary School will be presenting Augmented Reality with Aurasma.
Jennifer Jenkins - CCS Staff Development Coordinator and Patti Freeman - Instructional Technology Coordinator will present:
District, School, and Teacher Websites That Engage the Community
How does your district engage families, students and the community? How do you communicate important news, events, new programs and curriculum updates to all of your audiences? We found engagement success online – through our website and content management system. Find out how our online forms and surveys, teacher pages and curriculum resources helped shape, build and strengthen our communication with families and the community.
Congratulations to ALL!!
December 11th - December 19th
Did you know that in today’s economy, computing jobs outnumber students
graduating into the field by 3-to-1? And, computer science is foundational for every industry today. Yet 90% of schools don’t teach it.
At Harrisburg Elementary, we are trying to change that. That’s why our entire school is joining in on the largest learning event in history: The Hour of Code, during Computer Science Education Week (Dec. 8-14). Last year, 15 million students tried computer science in one week. This year, we're joining students worldwide to reach 100 million students!
I'm writing to invite you to take part in our Hour of Code event. It will take place on December 11th-19th, in our Problem Based Learning Lab, and will make a strong statement that Cabarrus County Schools are ready to teach our students critical 21st century skills. We want to ensure that our students are on the forefront of creating technology of the future--not just consuming it. If you would like to know more details on our event, please see the attached information. I hope you can make it! Please reply and let me know the day you may come, so I will be available to greet you!
Thursday, Dec 11, 2014, 09:00 PM
Harrisburg Elementary School, Stallings Road, Harrisburg, NC, United States
Helping Parents Buy the Right Kinds of Technology for Their Children
(Originally titled “A Buying Guide for Parents”)
In this Educational Leadership article, Doug Johnson, who serves as technology director in a Minnesota district, suggests that schools planning to have students use laptops, tablets, and smartphones as part of the learning process should send detailed specifications to parents. This might be especially helpful as families gear up to give children technology items as Christmas presents. Johnson believes the most important items on a school list should be:
- The kinds of learning tasks students will be asked to do with their personal device;
- The systems with which students’ devices need to be compatible;
- The power and capabilities that will be necessary to perform instructional tasks.
Johnson also suggests letting parents know where they can get access to technology if they are not able to purchase the recommended devices. For example, in his area, an organization called PCs for People www.pcsforpeople.com provides computer equipment to qualifying households.
“A Buying Guide for Parents” by Doug Johnson in Educational Leadership, November 2014 (Vol. 72, #3, p. 86-87), http://bit.ly/1FGHOO0; Johnson is at doug0077@gmail.com.
8 TED Talks to foster creativity
8 TED Talks to foster creativity
1. How art, technology and design inform creative leaders
John Maeda, former President of the Rhode Island School of Design, delivers a funny and charming talk that spans a lifetime of work in art, design and technology, concluding with a picture of creative leadership in the future. Watch for demos of Maeda’s earliest work — and even a computer made of people.
2. How simple ideas lead to scientific discoveries
Adam Savage walks through two spectacular examples of profound scientific discoveries that came from simple, creative methods anyone could have followed — Eratosthenes’ calculation of the Earth’s circumference around 200 BC and Hippolyte Fizeau’s measurement of the speed of light in 1849.
3. Be an opportunity maker
We all want to use our talents to create something meaningful with our lives. But how to get started? (And … what if you’re shy?) Writer Kare Anderson shares her own story of chronic shyness, and how she opened up her world by helping other people use their own talents and passions.
4. What fear can teach us
Imagine you’re a shipwrecked sailor adrift in the enormous Pacific. You can choose one of three directions and save yourself and your shipmates — but each choice comes with a fearful consequence too. How do you choose? In telling the story of the whaleship Essex, novelist Karen Thompson Walker shows how fear propels imagination, as it forces us to imagine the possible futures and how to cope with them.
5. Smart failure for a fast-changing world
The world is changing much more rapidly than most people realize, says business educator Eddie Obeng — and creative output cannot keep up. In this spirited talk, he highlights three important changes we should understand for better productivity, and calls for a stronger culture of “smart failure.”
6. How to build your creative confidence
Is your school or workplace divided into “creatives” versus practical people? Yet surely, David Kelley suggests, creativity is not the domain of only a chosen few. Telling stories from his legendary design career and his own life, he offers ways to build the confidence to create… (From The Design Studio session at TED2012, guest-curated by Chee Pearlman and David Rockwell.)
7. Why work doesn’t happen at work
Jason Fried has a radical theory of working: that the office isn’t a good place to do it. In his talk, he lays out the main problems (call them the M&Ms) and offers three suggestions to make work work. (Filmed at TEDxMidWest.)
8. JK Rowling: The fringe benefits of failure
At her Harvard commencement speech, “Harry Potter” author JK Rowling offers some powerful, heartening advice to dreamers and overachievers, including one hard-won lesson that she deems “worth more than any qualification I ever earned.”
Hour of Code at Central Cabarrus High School
CCHS celebrated the Hour of Code today! Ashley Short shared some pictures fo the students pre/post assessment data! Take a look!
https://www.smore.com/bnjcg