WVSKPhillips Domain

I’m actually pointing you to another blog today, but the post that I want you to read is very powerful. It’s something that if you are reading blogs already, it probably doesn’t apply to you – but we all have colleagues that would fit the description of “technologically illiterate” perfectly.

I want you to read that post and consider sharing it with your faculty and peers to use it as a discussion starter. Don’t use it in an accusatory, finger-pointing sort of way. Just start some dialog and see where it goes.

“Is it okay to be a technologically illiterate teacher?”

If you would like another post to read and use a video to begin conversations in your school, check out the “Did you know 2.0? – shift happens” presentation. The actual video is a fairly long download, so make sure you have it saved before you need it and don’t try to stream it. They have a wiki set up to continue discussions online with your global peers.

Shift Happens wiki

Once you have some good talks with your peers, direct them to these blogs & wikis (mine included of course!) and set them free to begin their own technological journey.

Have you ever seen something as cool as Voicethread? This site offers free membership, with some mild limitations, but to upgrade to the Pro version is only $29/year which is imminently “do-able” if you decide that you want more voice threads available.

Basically this is a site that allows viewers to record their thoughts about whatever you post for them to look at. If you give them a picture to use as a writing prompt, the students can record their though verbally with only the use of a microphone! Or if you don’t have microphones, they can type in their responses. Viewers can listen/read all other submissions too!

To check out some inspiration for the classroom, click on the tab that says “classroom” and then click the box labeled bell work.

Talk about great feedback and a reinforcement tool students can use to recall what they learned about a particular diagram or issue. I am excited about this!

Here is the VoiceThread that i created quickly using a few pictures from our latest vacation.

How many times while teaching algebra have you used your hands when trying to illustrate balancing an equation while solving it? Well, flap those hands no longer – check out the virtual balance beam on the National Library of Virtual Manipulatives! Hook this baby up with a data projector and you have the whole class’s attention! Have a student that needs extra reinforcement of this concept? Set them down at a computer and let them work through a few examples.

This site has over a dozen different java based applets which demonstrate concepts from probability to functions. The game Towers of Hanoi is also available here which asks the player to move disks from one peg to another in as few moves as possible, remembering that one cannot stack a larger disk on top of a smaller disk. It’s harder than you think!

Looking for other math topics? Here is the main chart that you can peruse. They are divided by grade level and mathematical concepts. These are also just plain fun to play with!