TechTimes Blog
Writings from Dr. John Hendron, director of innovation & strategy
RSS
  • Home
  • 2014-15 Tech PD Signup
  • About John
  • iOS Apps Request
  • iPad Pilot at GES

students

Feb 5 2015

Taking Control

As educators, we sometimes bat around terms like “student-centered” when we are talking about learning and teaching in the classroom. A recent article by Katrina Schwartz features some of the ideas by Alan November that may make this term and this idea, more clear.

I wanted to pull a few out as we explore the concept of students taking control of their learning.

  1. “November says that instant feedback trend should be embraced as a powerful learning tool.” Instant feedback, the author points out, is something built into video games, but also activities an engineer might engage in, such as writing a compute program. By extension, tools we can use to give feedback during a quiz are better than a quiz that just tallies up a score at the end. We need to find tools and methods that provide students quick, and if possible, continuous feedback loops.
  2. “The benefit of technology is that is has opened the door on the scope of global problems that students can involve themselves with, making their problem solving skills immediately relevant and encouraging self-direction.” This reminds me of the challenge-based learning model espoused by Apple several years ago, out of their ADE community. It certainly resonates with a number of our G21 projects.
  3. “Have students lost the ability to define the question?” I love stopping to ask students what they are doing, or better yet, “what are you learning right now?” There is such a satisfying feeling when a student can say “Right now, I’m trying to figure out…” or “We’re studying…” It’s clear with these types of responses that students are owning the learning process a little bit more. The next step is directing them how to ask big questions, embracing an inquiry-based approach to learning, so that conversations might be “I don’t know how this works, but I’d like to know (this) and (that)… gimme a second, and let me what I can find…” It’s teaching question-creating but also how to leverage the internet to course-correct their thinking, too.
  4. Role forming should take place. “One way to replicate that ownership now is to give students classroom jobs, allowing them to contribute something powerful to the classroom dynamic.” You see this most often in the context of a project-based approach, where students learn their role within the larger group, developing a mindset around working collaboratively. But there’s no reason, following November, why this concept cannot be expanded to an entire classroom or even a school.

More of November’s idea’s are found here.

By John Hendron • Learning for Teachers • • Tags: november, students

May 28 2013

Leadership Characteristics

I recently came across this article (via @gcouros) on the 5 Characteristics of a Leader. First thing I did, as a netizen, was to scan the thing and look for the important parts. I’ll save you the trouble:

  1. The ability to communicate;
  2. Consistency;
  3. Being Responsible;
  4. Confidence;
  5. Have passion.

So then I asked myself, Am I a leader? Do I have these traits? But let’s take these arguably “safe” traits of leadership from a different angle. Are we saying goodbye this week to students in our schools (or classes) who:

  1. Have a strong ability to communicate? How are they at public speaking? Creating compelling media? Writing? Emoting through music, art, and dance? Finding their own “internal” voice?
  2. Practicing skills for consistency. Are our students able to do things consistently? It’s a real skill. I know from my years of music lessons that to be able to play passages consistently took real practice.
  3. Demonstrate responsibility? I mean this in two ways: responsible in their own actions (good behavior), but also on a more global scale… they look out for others, exhibit an understanding of their place in their community and their world?
  4. Are confident learners? This one might be hard for some – it means they like learning – they are confident about what they know, but more so about a confidence in figuring out what they want to know and having at least some success with that.
  5. Demonstrate a passion, or at the least, some curiosity? This one can require a lot of support from outside of school to be automatic. But if we know the kids we have, we ought to be able to figure out some of the things that get them motivated. The key here is their own ability to channel their motivation in positive, automatic ways. Identifying your passions comes first, but this can be a long process. It requires the openness and freedom to explore, discover, and question assumptions about how things work. And then we have to have the opportunities for that curiosity to develop into a passion. And while noble, this shouldn’t be our end-result. As Hurford writes: “Passion fuels drive, drive gets things done, and people respect those who can accomplish whatever task it put in front of them.”

The development of leadership is important for everyone, including our students.

By John Hendron • General News • • Tags: leadership, students

Sep 2 2010

Net Shares for Students

I made this video to demonstrate how students can store files on a shared file server at Goochland High School and Middle School when they are using laptops.

By John Hendron • Resource of Interest • • Tags: laptops, students

Aug 24 2010

Google Apps for Students – Part 2

If you want to use Google Apps with your students, you must watch the two videos – the first one is posted here.

Why do I want to use Google Docs with my students? What are the benefits?

  1. You can easily share content between yourself and students without using paper.
  2. Students who have Internet access at home can access their documents without using a flash drive, or with worry about file incompatibilities.
  3. You can have students engage in discussions and collaborative notetaking with GoogleWave.
  4. You can build a class website and students can contribute to it (Google Sites).
  5. Students do not need to be as cognizant of where they have saved documents – they’re all in Google Docs.
  6. You can share a class calendar and you can hold students responsible for maintaining their own calendars.

What are the drawbacks?

  1. Students can communicate with one another through a Doc, through Wave, or through a spreadsheet. It’s like a live iChat.
  2. You’ll likely want laptops more often now since Google Docs is so powerful!

Where can I learn more?

  • Google Apps Overview
  • Google Group for Educators

By John Hendron • Learning for Teachers • • Tags: google, students

Aug 24 2010

Google Apps for Students – Part 1

If you want to use Google Apps with your students, you must watch the two videos – the first one is posted here.

What is Google Apps?

We are now providing Google Accounts (without e-mail) to students here in Goochland. The services we plan to offer for the 2010-11 SY include:

  • Google Calendar
  • Google Wave
  • Google Docs (Word Processing, spreadsheet, presentations, and forms)
  • Google Sites
  • Google Moderator

There are a few things to keep in mind when you take students into the Google environment.

  1. Students must keep their credentials private.
  2. You may be the first teacher taking your students into the Google environment, so you will need to give them their logins and passwords. You will also need to set the ground rules for using Google.
  3. Google’s collaborative environment means students can easily share content with one another – which you may not want for a typical type of project. Set clear guidelines for when using their Google account is okay, and when it is not.
  4. In order for students to share documents, they will need to share with you within their Google Domain. This is different than the domain we use with staff. To get to the student domain, visit: http://docs.goochlandschools.org/
  5. While we are not giving e-mail accounts to students, they have a “psuedo” e-mail address. It’s their username@goochlandschools.org. They need to know this when they try to share documents with one another.

By John Hendron • Learning for Teachers • • Tags: google, students

Jul 27 2008

Gratitude

As someone in the technology department, we get our share of gripes, but we also get praise. It’s wonderful when someone acknowledges you for your hard work. After going to the VSTE ITRT conference (referenced earlier), I can say with certainty that we are very fortunate for what we have in Goochland. Even more so, we’re fortunate for the folks we have doing the work they do. They’re truly are among the best in the Commonwealth, if not beyond.

But gratitude is even richer when it comes from our students. I recently came across this post from a student who likes what we’ve been up to over the summer. Yes, we have new blogs, we have a new version of Moodle that’s rolling out, updated images for student machines (sorry, still at Tiger), and hopefully before September, a new website. Not to mention all the behind-the-scenes things like updated PowerSchool, a community response system, and upgrade connectivity at our outlying elementary schools.

Summer is always a busy time for technology.

By John Hendron • General News • • Tags: gratitude, students, summer, technology

About this blog…

This is the blog of John Hendron, Ed.D., director of innovation & strategy for Goochland County Public Schools. Through this blog I share information for teachers, administrators and families dealing with learning and teaching with technology.

You can contact me via e-mail! I look forward to hearing from you.

John Hendron Goochland Schools

Blogroll

  • Bea Leiderman – ITRT
  • Bruce Watson – Director of CTE
  • Connected Principals
  • G21 Framework
  • Goochland Leadership Blog
  • Peter Gretz, Assistant Superintendent
  • Rushton's Resources
  • Steve Geyer – Assistant Superintendent
  • Tom DeWeerd – Director of Technology
  • WordPress Planet
  • Zoe Parrish, ITRT

Tags

1:1 apps blog blogging blogs change citizenship classes conference copyright digital elementary engagement ethics g21 ges google images innovation instruction iOS ipad ipads iPod learning math pbl pd pedagogy podcast podcasting presentation promethean research schoology science scratch social students summer training twitter video VSTE wiki
© TechTimes Blog 2021
Powered by WordPress • Themify WordPress Themes. A Goochland County Public Schools blog