Wednesday, June 19, 2013

Technology EdCamp Summary

On June 4th, NorthVanPAC in conjunction with the School District, hosted a Technology EdCamp for parents to help us gain a better understanding of how technology is used in schools by teachers to help students learn.

What we saw were numerous interesting uses of technology. From the use of blogging and writing tools to help communicate with students. The use of various creative tools, such as movie making and recording tools  to enable students to produce stories and documentaries on their learning. And finally to direct teaching aids that helped the students investigate different topics, such as math and science.

There were a wide variety of tools presented and each teacher had many different examples of different tools that they found helpful in their particular classrooms.

What was most interesting to me were the uses of creative tools, things like the use of MineCraft to present a discussion of architecture, or the use of animation tools by students to present different subjects. The ability to provide students with many different ways of interacting with their learning was very interesting and it is encouraging to see teachers incorporating this sort of creativity and flexibility into their classrooms.

The EdCamp Ended with an App Smackdown. Using an Airplay server to enable multiple ipads to connect to and show content on a large screen several different teachers were able to in quick succession queue up and demonstrate different ipad apps on the big screen for all to see. It was interesting to see the huge variety of apps they recommended but also to demonstrate how these tools can be used to discuss different ideas in the classroom.

Overall the feedback on the event, at which 32 parents attended, was that it was a very useful event and  we are hoping to be able to collaborate on more of these events next year.



After the meeting, Paul Clarke from Brooksbank Elementary shared their list of recommended Apps with us.


 1st Priority Apps:
Pages
Keynote
iMovie
Comic Life
Starfall ABCs
Dictionary
PDF Expert
Explain Everything
Calculator
Toontastic
Timer
Garageband

2nd Priority Apps:
Long Div
Long Mult
100s Board
Tens Frame
Bugs & Buttons
Subitising
Friends of 10
Measurement HD
Story Wheel
Glow Coloring
Scribble Math
Times Tables

3rd Priority Apps:
Brushes
Mathboard
Pocketphonic
National Geographic World Atlas
Number Line
Silly Sentences
Rocket Math
Geometry 4 Kids
ABC Shape Puzzle
Little Patterns
Seasons!
Frames
Chess
Dino Diggers
2D/3D Sorting
My Story-Book Maker 4 Kids
iThoughts HD
Parkmath HD
Brushes
Mathboard
Art Rage

Free Apps:
Skype
Chirp
Twitter
Evernote
ABC Lite
Visual Poet
Doodle Buddy
Math Bug Lite
Puppet Pals
4 In A Row
Sorting 1
Sorting 2
Eyewitness (Guardian)
Edmodo

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