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Spreecasting: A new frontier in online learning?
Two months ago, I didn’t know anything about spreecast.com. My indefatigable ed tech mentor, Leigh Graves Wolf (who is generally awesome and knows a lot of stuff about a lot of things) sent me a tweet from the SXSWEdu Conference in Austin, TX in March. It went something like this: @mshagerman check out spreecast.com Use…
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Wallwisher: How Would You Use it in Your Teaching?
One of the reasons I love to teach teachers is that they’re always introducing me to new tools that support learning and instruction. My student Katy Jain just introduced me to WallWisher. I love it. It’s an interactive post-it board for ideas. Free. No login required. And it works. Here’s how Katy used it. She…
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What does authentic learning look like? A Lego man in space, that’s what.
For an example of what real, authentic learning looks like, I share this article from the Toronto Star about two teenage boys who designed, from scratch, a weather balloon that a) transported a Lego man into space b) was equipped with Canon cameras that took photos of the Lego man’s voyage every 20 seconds and…
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How Google Maps Ruined the Surprise
My husband celebrated a BIG birthday recently and to mark the happy occasion, I decided to invite our closest friends to a special, surprise dinner at our favourite hometown restaurant. The plan followed the classic surprise party paradigm. On the five-hour drive back to our hometown from where we currently live, I casually suggested a…
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TPACK App QuickFire at MAET ROUEN
This morning, I asked the year 1 MAET Rouen students to do the following: 1) pick a free educational app to explore 2) download it 3) use a digital mind-mapping application to unpack the technological pedagogical and content knowledge they would use to integrate this app effectively in their classroom. I did it too and…
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How do I use Hootcourse to support participation in my classroom?
http://hootcourse.com/course/1437/g6i2tuhtirin4h6/?type=mini Yesterday, I helped to lead a professional development day with teachers at Ruth Fox Elementary School in North Branch, MI. The MSU PD Team, lead by Doug Hartman, has been working with the teachers at Ruth Fox for a year and a half to support their strategic integration of technology in their pedagogical practice.…
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Screencasting in College History Courses?
My husband teaches history at a small liberal arts college in Michigan. The education students receive there is, in my view, absolutely exemplary. Professors are completely dedicated to undergraduate teaching (in stark contrast to the recent critique offered by Richard Arum and Josipa Roksa on the abysmal state of undergraduate learning nation-wide; NPR Story). The…
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How are digital tools shaping family literacy?
Last week in my adolescent literacy development seminar, we discussed issues and literature related to family literacies. Toward the end of class, our professor, Doug Hartman, cited a landmark study by Victoria Purcell-Gates ( at UBC in Language and Literacy Education where I completed my M.A.) that focused on three kinds of texts in the…
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As teachers learn to develop TPACK, what do their learning progressions look like?
Question: As teachers learn to develop TPCK and a TPCK mindset, what does their learning progression look like? Answer: It depends. For the past year, I’ve had the privilege to work with a team of colleagues from MSU that has been exploring this question. Our work has grown out of a professional development session that,…
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How should we be assessing online learning in K-12?
Question: How should we be assessing online learning in K-12? Answer: I’m currently teaching an online Master’s course called “Teaching K-12 online”. It’s a bit like a play within a play and it’s pushing me to think about best practices. This week, I’m grading students’ plans to create an online course module and when it…