Digital Learning Spotlight

The annual TCEA conference is happening this week in Austin. It's by far the BEST conference I've ever attended. 8,000 educators packed together in the Austin Convention Center seeking a common goal: how can we best serve our students?

I'm a little bummed about not attending this year, but thanks to Twitter, I'll be able to keep up with some of what's going on in Austin. Click HERE for 20 Twitter accounts that are worth following. (I'm using Tweetdeck to follow the hashtags #TCEA and #TCEA18).

_________________________________________________

Digital Learning Spotlight

Sometimes we get so busy "doing" that we don't have time to stop and reflect on what's actually happening.

So this week, instead of offering more tech tips, I'd like to share some BISD stories of teachers leveraging digital technologies to transform learning and to increase collaboration on their campuses. These stories are just the tip of the iceberg! There's a lot of good stuff happening in BISD! 

1. Several teachers are using their document cameras and Chromebooks to support learning. At BHS, Coach Dumont records tutorials for her high school math students, and Mrs. Barnet and Mrs. Scharnhorst are collaborating in a Science Lab classroom to record labs. These videos go a long way to support learning for students who are not in class or who have been assigned to AEP. At the elementary level, videos are great ways to show parents how to support their students at home. The tool webcamera.io works fabulously with our Chromebooks and document cameras, and the videos are easily linked in Google Classroom. Sphere Lite, which is available in the Chrome Web Store, also works well as does recording on a mobile device and uploading videos directly to the Google Drive app.

2. Mrs. Verstuyft is using her Curriculum Google Classroom to support teachers at BHS. She frequently posts articles, videos, and discussion questions to offer BHS teachers the opportunity to collaborate on ways to engage students in deeper thinking and to support TEKS and College and Career Readiness Skills across the curriculum. This week she showcased Flipgrid to introduce the agenda for the curriculum meeting. Google Classroom is a great collaboration tool for teams, departments, and even multi-campus groups. 

3. Speaking of Flipgrid...Mrs. Simon at BMS used Flipgrid last week to offer her students the opportunity to reflect on a science lab. This week, the 8th graders in Ms. Bagwell's and Mrs. Lonsberry's classes are using Flipgrid to reflect on the life of a Civil War soldier. Grids can be moderated so videos don't show up in the class feed until the teacher approves them, and they're a quick way to offer students the opportunity to think more deeply and to reflect on their learning. 

4. Thinking about flipping your classroom? Mrs. Holland at Alkek flipped her first grade classroom this week using videos for direct instruction in place of a direct teach. In her own words, "Because my kids were engaged in the lesson I was able to actively monitor my students, redirect and stop and offer additional support for those who needed it!"

Flipping a classroom is about more than using technology. It's about rethinking space and time with our students. This two-minute Edutopia video offers a great overview.

And this ASCD publication offers a good explanation of why/why not to flip. 

5. Miss Frost at Hill Country Elementary recently set up a classroom for Epic Books. Her first graders are able to navigate to Epic on the Kindle, select a fiction or nonfiction ebook or audiobook, and read alone or with a friend. Emerging readers can access read-to-me books for support. Epic Books offers on-demand access to thousands of books to extend curriculum and to engage students in independent reading.



Thanks for sharing how you are using digital technologies to transform learning. Keep those emails coming!