Collaboration: Enjoying the Art of Powerpoint

I can imagine that many of us feel it is impossible to keep up with all of the new technologies out there. I know for a fact I am having difficulty trying to stay on the "cutting edge", if there is even such a thing anymore. Everyday, the blog tech crunch posts anywhere from ten to twenty new post, discussing new ideas and technologies hitting the cyberspace. It’s enough to make your head spin. Couple the technology initiative currently underway in our district with the thoughtful education initiative, and we begin to recognize time is quickly becoming the greatest commodity in our professional development. Therefore, I have a suggestion; collaboration. I admit, this is not a new concept; however, professional collaboration is becoming much more readily accessible due in large part to several power tools now available on the internet. Our community of practice wiki is an example and alone can become the very hub of professional growth in the district, if we as a staff are willing to make this a part of our individual professional learning.

So how can we as a staff understand the power of collaboration and begin to leverage what is available on the internet. I thought it would behoove readers to start with a collaborative platform on the internet called slide share. Slide share is a free online community, where individuals join, download, and post powerpoint presentations. Imagine, you are searching for a quick presentation on Life on the Ocean 500 Years Ago and you search slide share. Low and behold, after a couple clicks, you have in front of you a down loadable presentation that can be customized. Such platforms are not merely used by teachers either. Students can save powerpoints online and share them with the class, or the world. Take a look at this global warming presentation posted by several students this past summer. On the day of this post, more than 1600 individuals viewed this presentation, and it was produced by our very own students.

Joining is simple:

1. click on the sign-up link at the top right hand corner of the slideshare.net site.

2. fill in the proper fields with the appropriate information.

3. hit enter and you are now a member of one of the most powerful multimedia collaboration groups out there.

Enjoy!

Let's Try Cartoons

Everyone loves the Sunday comics. I can remember back to my childhood, on those cold winter days, during the weekly family pilgrimage to visit grandmother after Sunday church, how reading the Peanuts, Garfield, Dagwood, Family Circus, and Prince Valiant would pass the time. These days, I have to wrestle the comics from my three children and our dog. Mind you, I read the comics to revel in the nostalgia of my youth more than anything else.

As a young man in high school, I have fond memories of many lectures that began with a comic strip from the previous Sunday paper. As a classroom teacher, I see the same practice used by colleagues to this very day. Recently, I found a neat little cartoon strip creator called ToonDoo. I cannot help but think of the incredible potential this has in the classroom. As educators look to continuously increase the student voice in class, I am finding technology can become the greatest accelerate for that idea. Imagine, instead of a teacher utilizing a comic that coincidentially ties into the topic of the day, why not have the students produce a comic strip of their own, as a form of assessment, as a hook for a discussion, as a means to reinforce content, or as a start for some piece of writing.

As usual, I grabbed one of my technology guinea pigs, my children, and try out my idea. My oldest daughter who is currently in fifth grade, loves to tell stories, but has had very little opportunity to develop a visual story board. I sat her down in front of the computer, asked her what she learned that day in class, gave her the website, and let her go. Without any directions as to how the program works, she was able to produce a three frame comic strip on the concept of supply and demand, in under 60 minutes. "You gotta love them net-geners"!

Imagine an entire class producing comics for each other, reinforcing concepts and ideas learned in class that day. Think of the rich possibilities with writing math, and science. Imagine, students developing their own publishing contests, developing a criteria for student judging, putting together a "how to manual", the possibilities are endless.

The nice thing about this technology is, "it's FREE"! It is also very user friendly, with click and drag construction. Simply review the backgrounds, the characters, and get going.

Wax-On, Wax-Off

Last night while performing the nightly parental juggling of homework, baths, and reading, my second daughter asked if she could play Webkinz. I really do not have a problem with my children playing Webkinz, provided they limit their time to 20 - 30 minutes, and it does not become an issue with their siblings. It does force the player into decision making and problem solving and I feel it is worth their time. Unfortunately for her, my oldest daughter was already playing. With her the indomitable spirit like "Molly Brown", my second oldest daughter's eyes lite up and she asked, "can we play some math games on your computer?" As proud as any nerdly father, whose child just figured out a rubric cube, I looked down at my little cherub, patted her head, and said "of course". Now mind you, she had played a flashcard game the previous day on the a-plus math site, and enjoyed the simplicity of its interactivity. I thought it was time to test another site called cool math 4 kids. Jackpot!!! Cool math 4 kids is not unlike many math sites out there, except, it has a terrific game called lemonade stand.

The goal in this game will be to make as much money as you can within 30 days. To do this, you've decided to open your own business -- a Lemonade Stand! You'll have complete control over almost every part of your business, including pricing, quality control, inventory control, and purchasing supplies. You'll also have to deal with the weather, which can be unpredictable, which will play a big part when customers are deciding whether or not to buy your product.
Other factors which will make or break your business is the price you charge and customer's satisfaction. As you sell your product, people will decide whether or not they like it, and how much they like or dislike it. As time goes on, they'll start to tell their friends, neighbors, and relatives (hence, your 'popularity'). Sell a good product for a good price, and you'll build business over time; overcharge for inferior products, and you'll be out of business sooner than you'd think.

As I sat and watch my second grade daughter pick up on the process and concept of this game, I was reminded of a very famous scene from the 1984 movie The Karate Kid, where the main character Danny Larruso (Ralph Macchio) was told by Mr. Miyagi (Pat Morita) to wax a car using clockwise motions to apply the wax, and counter-clockwise motions to remove the wax. After hours of waxing, he confronted Mr. Miyagi about was educated on how waxing a car was teaching him martial arts. The Lemonade Stand was like waxing the car. My daughter played the game for 25 minutes and completed the entire 30 day simulation. In the end, she actually lost money, but it gave me an opportunity to watch how my daughter learns. She was completely engaged by the experential nature of the task, continuously asking questions and making decisions. On one particular day during the simulation, the weather was 59 degrees with over cast. I commented, "phew, its pretty cold, what do you think?" She immediately responded, "people were not going to be very thirsty on such a bad day." I helped her understand that when people want to buy something, they usually call that demand, and when you want to sell lemonade, you call that supply. She slowly began to pick up an elementary understanding of supply and demand. She was learning economics and all she knew was she was playing a game (Wax-on, Wax-off).

I then began to think of how such a game could become a wonderful part of a classroom math or economics lesson at any level. Imagine, teams of students begin the simulation and blog about their teams decision making process. Maybe teams blog about why they choose the price, the quantity of supplies, or the ingredients? Then, students could create a graph, and plot the demand curves and the supply curves. Students could read each others blogs and make comments or suggestions from their own experiences. Furthermore, the class could create a wiki, and begin to collaborate as a class, identifying the 10, or 20, or 50 best ways to make money selling lemonade. Teams could construct a "how to book" for lemonade stands. Finally, teams of students could present their findings to a class, simulating a presentation to a ficticous board of directors. The possibilities for such fun is endless.