Tech Talk: What's Happening at Episcopal Collegiate?

Allowing students to connect and collaborate with their peers is a vital part of their education.  Many Web 2.0 developers understand this importance and it is a basic feature of their tools.  The interactive image creator, Thinglink is no exception.  Using this tool, students can take any digital image and instantly make it interactive by tagging the image with an array of media.  This can include: audio, video, websites, documents, etc.  If it provides a URL link then it can be tagged to a Thinglink image.

The project highlighted below show the versatility that Thinglink provides.

The interactive images were created by Tandy Cobb's 12th grade English classes.  During their study of The Once and Future King, each student chose a knight.  The students researched their knight and created a multimedia project which could include a podcast (SoundCloud), wiki (Wikispaces), blog (Blogger), Prezi, or video.  The completed projects were compiled using Thinglink to create an interactive roundtable.  By clicking on a knight, the students could learn about each of the knights of the roundtable.



Projects like this is just one example of how Thinglink could be used in the classroom.  The tool also provides a "remix" feature that allows students to copy an image that has already been created.  Therefore, a teacher could set up an image with questions "tagged" throughout portions of the image.  The students could then "remix" the image and provide the correct answers.

Tech Talk: Why our students should learn how to code?

In a world that is racing for the newest and most innovative technologies, the United States currently ranks as one of its leaders. To remain in top standing it is important that tomorrows leaders are provided with the opportunities and resources to surpass previous generations. One way Episcopal Collegiate is doing this is through teaching our students how to code. Brandon Griggs' recent CNN article: Gates, Zuckerberg: Kids, learn to code speaks to the need for more coding programs in schools. So, using an amazing piece of software called Scratch (developed by MIT) our 2nd, 3rd and 4th graders have started to design programs that encourage systems thinking, problem solving, and how to build and test logical code statements. As complicated as this may sound, Scratch is designed to be both fun and appropriate for students in grades K-12. Before the break students coded a cute dog to trot back and forth, bark, and interact with a flying parrot named Polly who can talk. Students can then upload their interactive designs on Scratch.mit.edu to share with their community. Please take a look at what our students built on Scratch: Rover and Polly. We are always working hard to ensure our learners aren't just consumers of technology, but also producers with it.

What's Happening at Episcopal Collegiate?

Joy Schultz's, Media Arts classes are finding new ways to collect and display their work with digital portfolios.  These portfolios allow the students to collect their work in a central location for student and teacher viewing and commentary.  Edcanvas, the Web 2.0 tool that Ms. Schultz's has chosen to use allows the students to upload their work to a "canvas."  Once their work is uploaded, students as well as Ms. Schultz can comment on the work and offer suggestions for improvement.Check out one of their canvas by following the link below: 

Media Arts Edcanvas 

Tech Talk: What's Happening at Episcopal Collegiate?

Trading Places  

It has been said that if you can teach someone else a concept then you have a true understanding of the material.  Christy Stine put this into practice last week as her sixth students became the teacher. The students were placed into small groups and given the task of creating a video that teaches a math lesson.  They were given the opportunity to use their imagination when designing the video as well as the technology they would use for production.  They chose video production apps, flip cameras, and software such as iMovie and MovieMaker to create their lessons.  Please follow the links below to view some of these lessons.  

Dr. Pi 

Chef Subtrina 

Math Saves the World 

Tech Talk: What is Discovery Imagination?

Our third grade Destination Imagination team competed this past Saturday at the Northern Regional Destination Imagination competition with this short movie that they filmed, edited, and scored all by themselves. As they collected food items for the Ronald McDonald House, they documented their efforts by filming on an iPad with a program called iMotionHD. Using iMotion, they collected a series of time-lapsed, still-framed photographs, which they compiled into a film using a style called stop-motion. After collecting their shots, students edited their film using Pinnacle Studios video editing software, and added their own choice of music to score the film. Throughout this process, students sought out resources and overcame a plethora of technical difficulties. After mastering the challenges of downloading issues, video compatibility, and a heated debate over using Britney Spears or Jordin Sparks songs, they had a finished product to be proud of. Using their carefully crafted movie, our team landed third place at the Regional Competition, and will continue to compete at State in April! This Tech Talk is authored by Kathleen House, Episcopal Collegiate's Lower School DI coach.

Episcopal Collegiate Mystery Skype

Click on the colored tabs to see details, photos, and videos of how Mystery Skype works.
View Mystery Skype in a larger map

Tech Talk: What is Global Thinking?

As Episcopal Collegiate works to re-imaging learning with technology we are exploring how to think globally. Technology affords us the opportunity to reach out to a global community and interact with students both nationally and internationally. One way to communicate beyond our walls is for our students to blog or create interactive websites that share their learning experiences. Another way is by directly contacting other classrooms and students with messaging and streaming technologies. This week some of our 3rd grade classes are using Skype to reach out to students in the United States to play "Mystery Skype". Skype is a live streaming video service that allows each class to see and hear one another on a large screen. With mystery Skype each class has a series of questions to ask the other to determine which state they are from. Questions like "Do you have any oceans or major bodies of water that border your state?", and "What are some significant physical features (land forms) in your state?" After taking careful notes on each question each group deduces which state the other is from. Live sessions with other schools create lasting experiences that make learning more effective and a lot of fun. It also provides our students with different perspectives and ideas on locations and events around the world. This encourages our students to think globally. Please visit our Mystery Skype Google Map that records the classes and locations we've visited each week. We hope to grow this map to include every state in our beautiful country, and then expand it to record our experiences abroad.

Tech Talk: What's Happening at Episcopal Collegiate?

The Importance of Student Choice 

With the development of web 2.0 tools and software programs teachers have the opportunity to allow for student choice in production and presentation formats that was not possible in the past.  This allows students to develop the skills to use many different tools, as well as the ability to make decisions on how material is presented most effectively. During their study of Great Expectations, the students created a "life map" using a variety of these tools.  

Will Baker:  Time Toast Digital Timeline 

Aly Broadnaz: Prezi Timeline 

Nash Jordan: Power Point Timeline

Davis Kohler: Popplet Timeline 

Making Writing Personal 

Ms. White's seventh grade writing class learned how to use Prezi to develop a imaginative presentation.  The students were told to imagine that they would be given two weeks off of school to visit any place they wanted to in the world.  The catch was that they had to convince the school administration that their trip would benefit their education!  The students researched and prepared their Prezi, and then made their presentations on Wednesday.  

Presley Fletcher

Spencer Walsh 

Tech Talk: What's Happening at Episcopal Collegiate?

Ms. Pettibone's 6th grade Spanish students applied their writing and speaking skills this week by creating a digital pop-up book using Zooburst.  The students began by writing a script and then building their pop-up book complete with text, images, and voice recordings.  

Check some of their amazing work!   

Gabrielle Rancifer

Thomas Allen

Celia Kreth

Tech Talk: How is touch technology making a difference?

Our Lower School currently has a cart of 20 iPad 3's that are being shared by teachers from Pre-K3 to 1st grade, so you can imagine they are heavily used.  One app that is very popular with many grades is ShowMe.  As an example, Mrs. Keener's class use the iPads with an AppleTV to demonstrate how letter combinations make sounds in words.  Here is one of her students mapping the word "Shame". 

There are many skills happening at once as our learner draws each letter, sounds out each part, and narrates why letters make certain sounds.  With ShowMe tablet technology is superior to an interactive whiteboard, because with it, every student gets a chance to "go up to the board". Learning is personalized to each student and following every word map, they get to publish to AppleTV for the class to see.  Pre-K students enjoy Monkey Preschool Lunchbox and Monkey Math where they are challenged with fun activities that stimulate memory, spatial recognition, identify patterns and series, understand shape and size, and apply simple math.  The Monkey series also provides fun rewards as incentives to do more activities.  Kindergärtners use Hungry Fish to learn addition, Fun Rhyming to identify sounds and shapes with iPad technology using three of our five senses to engage students in bright, colorful, and animated activities.  Our science specialist, Mrs. Bridges, has been donated ten new iPads that her students will use to explore our solar system using Solar Walk, and interact with dinosaurs using National Geographic's Dinopedia.  Each of her students will be also using iMotion to record stop-motion videos of simple machines to draw conclusions on how laws of physics and motion apply to Lego machines built in class.  Reflecting on my re-imagining learning Tech Talk, how we are using touch technology with our early learners fits the idea of doing more with technology that just digitizing the classroom.  We are using technology in new ways to help our young people develop for a digital world filled with wireless touch devices.

Tech Talk: How do we learn best?

"What I hear, I forget. What I see, I remember. What I do, I understand." Xunzi (340 - 245 BC) This Confucian scholar makes a strong point that when it comes to learning, hearing is not as good as seeing, seeing is not as good as experience, and true learning is only evident when experience produces an action. This week our FIRST Lego League Robotics team put their learning to action as they demonstrated at the President Clinton Library in front of 160 Cedar Ridge middle school students. It was an outstanding presentation held in the Great Hall where team members ran the projection screen, directed guests, and took over the microphone to explain how they solved this year's Senior Solutions challenge with applied science and technology.


Demonstrations of learning are also happening inside the walls of our Lower School as our 2nd - 4th graders use 3D modeling software to design animated scenes about geometric shapes and solids. Sketchup is an exciting program that students love to use to better understand the relationships between concepts like prisms and pyramids. After identifying basic shapes and their properties our learners then extrude 2D shapes to 3D solids to experience the behaviors associated with this transformation. Here's a short video I shared with teachers illustrating how Sketchup can help our students understand geometric principles.

What's Happening at Episcopal?

What are Google Forms?

If you have never tried any of the Google Drive apps you are missing out! Not only does Google Drive allow you to create documents, presentations, and spreadsheets that are all saved to the "cloud" and collaborative in nature, it also provides a Form app.  With the Google Drive Form, you can collect a variety of information such as teacher evaluations, t-shirt or ticket orders for your club or organization, a quick check for mastery of a concept in your content area, and RSVP's just to name a few.  The possibilities are endless!  The best part about the Google Form app is that it collects the data for you in a spreadsheet, and also allows for charts and graphs to be created from the data.  Teachers, there is even a way to conduct a quiz using a Google Form and digitally grade the responses.  

On Wednesday, February 6 a tech session on Google Forms will be offered to all teachers at 3:45 pm, but if you would like to see how to create and use Google Forms you can watch the video below for a quick overview.  

Katie Robinson 

What's Happening at Episcopal?

The ninth grade English classes have concluded their college research project, and presented their completed websites in class on Tuesday and Wednesday.  Learn more about the various colleges and universities by clicking on the links below: 

2nd Period  

Megan Bellfield/NYU 

Maddie Burke/Harvard

Sarah Maxwell/Clemeson 

Jack Hudelson/Pepperdine 

Samuel Sutton/University of Georgia

Nash Jordan/Davidson College 

Ayanna Worsham/USC

Chelsea Flowers/Stanford 

Mitch Ross/University of Virginia 

Will Baker/Kenyon College 

Blake Russell/United States Navel Academy 

Jess Murphy/Vanderbilt 

Aly Broadnax/Baker University 

Nick Hopkins/LSU 

4th Period  

Davis Kohler/University of North Carolina Chapel Hill 

Grace Ann Bourdreaux/University of Pennsylvania 

Adam Hall/Brigham Young University 

Madeline Tabor/TCU 

Will Stebbins/Washington University at St. Louis 

Kelsey Claybrook/Purdue University 

Braylon Smith/University of South Carolina 

Arin Jemerson/Auburn University 

Susan Tucker/Tulane University 

Gus Powers/Washington and Lee University 

Justin Robinson/Wake Forest University 

Webb Williams/Baylor 

Adam Jackson/Princeton 

Yumi Ha/Berkeley 

Cogan Wade/Johns Hopkins University 

Abby Graham/Georgetown University 

5th Period 

Zachary Angel/Alabama 

Harris Bethel/University of Oklahoma 

Kristen Orsi/Middlebury College 

Emily Franks/Texas A&M 

Grace Quinn/Lyon College 

Mattie Thornton/College of William and Mary 

Arianna Kiael/Darmouth College 

Sally Barnes/Ole Miss 

Gracie Kreth/Columbia University 

Margaux Mourot/SMU 

Kennedy Dijimpe/California Institute of the Arts 

Sydney Morgan/Duke University 

Adrianne Ownings/Yale University 

Pamela Rogers/The University of Colorado Boulder 

7th Period  

Haylee Greer/College of Charleston 

Henry Owens/Rhodes College  

Will Conyer/Indiana University 

Anna Culpepper/Savannah College of Art and Design 

Cole Hartsell/Notre Dame 

Anna Toepfer/University of Washington 

Kiva Hanson/Furman University 

Ladell Tyler/UCLA 

Becca Zolten/Northwestern University 

KR Galloway/Warren Wilson College 

Kelvin Robinson/University of Oregon 

Annie Ellzey/University of Missouri 

Alyssa Davis/Rice University 

Allie Freeman/University of Miami 

Skye Rippentrop/University of Ohio

Tech Talk: How should we be using technology?

Earlier this week I discovered an excellent TEDx talk titled: Re-imagining Learning by Richard Culatta

This video identifies to three challenges traditional education systems face, and how technology re-imagined can help personalize our student's learning experiences.  As an advocate of student-centered education this approach to learning is very exciting and we are working toward this model every day.  Edmodo has been an excellent vehicle of personalized education at Episcopal Collegiate, where teachers and students are able to collaborate on topics and projects that extend beyond the walls of a classroom.  Students are excitedly building their own learning spaces by designing Internet site libraries and will be storing their grade-level masterworks in an eportfolio using Edmodo Backpack.  The second TEDx talk I enjoyed is called:Kids Should Learn Programming As Well As Reading And Writing by Mitch Resnick.

 I've been following Mitch's work with MIT's Lifelong Kindergarten Group for a few years and am currently working toward his vision of lifelong learning through programming.  His talk identifies misconceptions of digital fluency.  Just because we think our students are 'digital natives' doesn't mean they are actually fluent with technology.  Dr. Resnick makes the point that our children are experts at interacting with technology but not so much so with creating or expressing themselves with technology.  "It's almost as if they can read but not write with new technologies".  As a solution Dr. Resnick has pioneered a program called Scratch with MIT, that uses interactive programming blocks to encourage computational thinking, abstraction, problem solving, sequential and parallel processing and systems thinking.  Last year I briefly introduced Scratch to 2nd, 3rd, 4th graders who responded with resounding enthusiasm.  I would like to expand the use of Scratch this year for students to use in all the traditional disciplines they study.  It is important that we help our young people express themselves and develop modern habits of mind, through writing with new technologies.  Please take a moment to watch these two TEDx talks and let me know what you think.

Tech Talk: What is Information Literacy?

As adults many of us grew up in a world of paper and limited access to information.  Our children are growing up in what author David Shenk coins a "Data Smog", where digital information aggressively permeates almost every aspect of their young lives.  It is essential that we help our young people develop strong information literacy habits so they can navigate through this smog.  Currently our 2nd, 3rd, and 4th grade students are learning how to find, retrieve, organize, analyze and effectively disseminate the information they encounter as they do various research projects.  The 2nd graders are investigating famous African Americans, while the 3rd grade is preparing to research a variety of animals, and the 4th grade are studying the Southeast region of the United States.  Each grade will learn how to use efficient browser language to find specifically what they need, how to retrieve and organize the sites they find in their Edmodo Backpack, and discriminate reliable from unreliable information sources.  We are also extending our keyboarding program to the 4th and 3rd grades where they will practice proper keyboarding techniques every day in class and at home using Typing Master.  Please contact me if you have any questions.

What's Happening at Episcopal Collegiate?

Going Paperless?  

The idea of a completely paperless classroom is still foreign to many educators and students, but with the emergence of various digital resources creating a paperless classroom is easier than one might think.  Jo Stoltz and her senior level Statistics class is leading the way into the paperless world here at Episcopal.  When students entered class the first day and were pulling out notebooks and binders, Ms. Stoltz was able to say, "Your laptop is your notebook!"   

How is Ms. Stoltz creating a paperless classroom?  After careful planning and consideration of the most effective tools she chose Evernote and Edmodo, both of which have been written about on this blog by myself and colleague Christian Rogers.  

Evernote has become Ms. Stoltz and the students digital notebook. Via Evernote, Ms. Stoltz creates unit notebooks that she shares with her students.  By sharing these notebooks students have access to their course schedule, notes, and other materials within their Evernote account that will supplement their learning.  How will students take notes and turn in homework ?  In the same way that Ms. Stoltz can share a notebook with her students they can also share notebooks with her.  Each student has created a "homework" and "notes" notebook that they have shared with Ms. Stoltz.  When they take notes or complete an assignment she can immediately access their notebook to grade and make comments.  

Edmodo is being used as the class LMS (Learning Management System).  By creating a digital classroom via Edmodo, students can take quizzes, complete assignments and activities, and participate in class discussion. Via Edmodo they can create a true classroom community by sharing not only their thoughts and ideas, but resources they find helpful in their studies as well as having instant access to their teacher and fellow students when questions arise. 

Gone are the days in which a student has to have their notebook and textbook to complete work outside of the class period.  Both of these resources are accessible on all mobile devices and feature apps that can be downloaded for free. Allowing the student the freedom to complete course work anywhere at anytime.  

I am excited to talk with Ms. Stoltz and the students at the end of the semester.  I feel certain they will have loved their journey into the paperless classroom.  


Katie Robinson