Karen Blumberg

Technology is special.

5th graders at @The_School are "outsourcing" their Greek 3-D temple designs!

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There's an awesome project happening in two of the 5th grade classrooms at The School at Columbia University right now. To supplement their study of Ancient Greece, Dena Rothstein and Heather Lortie, are having their students collaborate with students from The Marymount School across Central Park on the Upper East Side. (The School is located on the Upper West Side...) Both groups are designing 3D Greek temples using Tinkercad and sharing their online files with a group at the other school to tweak, customize, and ultimately build ("print") in our 3D printers. The humor of us being able to say that we are literally outsourcing to the East is not lost on us.

Teachers supporting this collaboration at The School are Heather, Dena, Greg Benedis-Grab (@gbenedisgrab), and Don Buckley (@donbuckley) with a lot of support from Cristina Martinez (@finlaycm) and a little support from me. On the UES of the park, Jaymes Dec (@jaymesdec) and Lesa Wang oversee Marymount's particpation in the project. Jaymes designed the new Fab Lab at Marymount, and he just spoke at TEDxNYED last month.

Today, the groups communicated "long distance" and "real time" using Google Video Chat. (Cristina Martinez turned on the Chat feature for students just for this project and just for a few days. Usually, this feature is disabled.) I moved about checking on all of the groups. At one point, I observed four kids (two in front of me and two on the screen) discuss their designs and even use a secondary laptop facing the camera to visibly demonstrate how to use Tinkercad to make a triangular hole to decorate the roof of a temple. I thought that was awesome. :)

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Just had our first Tweetup at @The_School! Lots of teachers and administrators in attendance. :)

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We just had our first Tweetup at The School at Columbia University. (I was totally inspired by the iPad App Shares that Gina Marcel (@fpgina) initiated this year.) For about 45 minutes after school today, teachers and administrators joined together to talk about how we can/do use Twitter to build a PLN (be it a Personal or Professional Learning Network) and collaborate, share, learn with others.

My 3 immediate goals were for attendees to share:
1. How to find people to follow
2. What "chats" to join
3. How to use a hashtag

I showed Jerry Blumengarten's (@cybraryman1) ridiculously comprehensive list of educational chat hashtags: http://www.cybraryman.com/chats.html

In attendance today were:
Kathryn Kaiser (@110kaiser), Primary Division Head (K-2)
Kevin Fittinghoff (@kfittinghoff), Intermediate Division Head (3-5)
Belinda Nicholson, Middle Division Head (6-8)
Don Buckley (@donbuckley), Director of Innovation
Cristina Martinez (@cmfinlay), Server Manager Extraordinaire
Karen Blumberg (@SpecialKRB), Technology Integrator (5-8)
Stacy Bolton, Director of Communications
Nadine Renazile (@infobirdie), Librarian (5-8)
Nancy Wong (@scampnyc), Math Liasion (K-2)
Joyce Tsang (@jyc_nyc), Kindergarten Teacher
Catherine Georges (@CatherinGeorges), 7th Grade Social Studies Teacher
Clarisa Leal (@leal_cm), Spanish Teacher (multi-grade)
Talia Gonzalez (@TaliaGonzalez2), Spanish Teacher (multi-grade)

Based on the success of today's gathering, Don (my boss) suggested holding another share in two weeks. :)

Education Think Tank hosted by @DellEdu today. #domoreedu

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Google Doc from Education Think Tank
Livestream/photos from Education Think Tank
Eventbrite description of Education Think Tank
#DoMoreEdu Twitter hashtag

So, it was a great experience to be at a roundtable with many people I know and respect from the education world. I felt conspicuous as one of the few teachers in the room (and from an independent school no less). I also felt like a rabble-rouser, as I stated early-ish that in my opinion technology is really about engineering and robotics and programming, whereas much of what we were discussing was social media usage and new media literacies. (Just last week, I presented about this at PNAIS, citing Henry Jenkins's new media literacy skills...)

However, everyone in the room understood that students need access to a plethora of devices and online resources, teachers need to be enabled to promote sound technology integration, and school leaders need to offer opportunities for collaboration and effective professional development while marketing their best practices/successes for a wider audience. Below are the topics touched upon today:

  •  How can technology serve to transform teaching and learning? When we say “educational transformation”, what does that mean and how do we get there?
  •  How do we increase access to technology and make it a priority in Districts to maximize learning?  Are 1:1 environments attainable?  If so how? Where does equity fit in?
  • What does personalized learning look like and how can it be established? How do we move Districts, educators, and other stakeholders to embrace this concept both in and out of school?
  • What is, or should be, the role of social media in education/the classroom and how can it be utilized for professional development?
  • How do we engage school leaders in a conversation about the important role of technology and social media in education?  How do administrators support innovation in the age of accountability?

At the risk of leaving anyone out, present around the table today were: @NMHS_Principal (moderator), @tomwhitby, @InnovativeEdu, @adambellow, @Edu_Traveler (a parent at @The_School), @kenroyal, @drbpchinni, @erikendress, @timeoutdad, @agarry22, @kishizuka, @kjarrett, @MichLampinen, @teach2connect, @snowwhiteatdell, @paulallison, @susanmcp1 , @PMicheleGlaze, and @SpecialKRB (me).

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