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.