Tags
class dojo, classroom, Facebook, flappy bird, google, learning, learning management system, MOOC, PD, social networking, staff, teaching, technology, teenager, Twitter
Technology is ubiquitous!Being part of the revolution is key for every teenager and they want to be Constantly connected. Its the fear of missing out on the “current thing”, that gets everyone hooked onto it! Again, trends do not last as long as they used to before. Facebook, apparently is for older people now and the number of new teenagers joining is on the decline. Snapchat and other services are still holding on! How about flappy bird? How did it become so popular? How did a game which was made over 2nights and no complex graphics or coding make it so big? Currently its raking in $50k in ad revenues a day! My senior tech students are like, “sir how do we make an app like that?”
Big questions being posed are : when there is google, why do we need teachers? not forgetting there are MOOC’s (acronym for Massive Open Online Courses) these days so do students still need to go to school? Its a good phrase to get the debate started and we all know the impact, a school has on a students personality and attitude not forgetting, fulfilling their academic and social needs. Starting today, every alternate monday the staff at my school have a technology PD after school. The main idea is to update all staff with the latest teaching techniques and all the “HooHaa” over social networking, unknown to most staff who are only used to the usual sites like Facebook and twitter! A Whole lot of new apps are around and kicking which could be used effectively in teaching and learning. Today I learnt about an interesting software called “Class Dojo” (classdojo.com). Its like a light version of a learning management software which provides real time updates to student behaviours to staff and students (and parents )! It has a demo class for teachers to test its feasibility. I would strongly advice this software for junior and intermediate school students!
this was my excerpt from the staff PD this afternoon.For more detailed info follow: http://www.eodysseyblog.wordpress.com / follow Philippa(the presenter) at @AKeenReader