Tuesday, July 31, 2012

The Nerdy Teacher: The Epic @Evernote Experiment #edchat @EvernoteSchools

The Nerdy Teacher: The Epic @Evernote Experiment #edchat @EvernoteSchools

In poking around the world of Edubloggers, this caught my eye since I just learned about Evernote. I'm not sure at this point even what to write about this post. My head is spinning.

Randomly organized responses:

This is being done in a high-school setting. The teacher fielded a question about whether students have their own devices/access to the Internet; most do. I'm wondering whether it is a reasonable assumption to think that high-school students are more likely to have laptops, iPhones, etc. than middle-school students, which is the age group I would like to teach. In other words, are there more reasonable uses of technology in the classroom with older students?

I think it's worth gathering data on the extent to which students utilize resources made available to them electronically. In the comments, there is discussion of this. One teacher says she can't get students to look at resources on a class Web site unless they can earn credit for doing so. While The Nerdy Teacher acknowledges this is a problem with both students and parents, his response is that, at the high-school level, it is his responsibility to make resources available and students responsibility to utilize them. Does the way resources are delivered change that?

It's reassuring to see how the teacher heading up this "experiment" is willing to share and support other teachers by answering questions, etc. That type of collaboration makes me more inclined to believe I could be successful with my own experiments with technology in the classroom. (Disclaimer: Just as with Evernote, where there is a free version and a paid version, I noted that The Nerdy Teacher, in addition to providing excellent information on his blog for free, does consulting.)

Although it was brought up in the comments, I'm not clear on whether students are incurring costs (having to purchase the paid version of Evernote).

Like I said, my head is kind of spinning.

Is this the future?
Or is this already outdated in terms of what teaching with technology will look like by the time I have my own classroom?
Do I have to embrace this or not have a future in teaching?

1 comment:

  1. Hi - TNT is a Metro Detroiter who organizes EdCamp Detroit each spring. He does work in a school that has one of the state's highest median incomes, if not the highest, if that gives you some context for the paid version piece. He also had a class set of iPads last year, which facilitates access via the Evernote app. One thing to keep in mind -- that we will talk about more this fall -- is that if you have middle school as your destination, your students will fall somewhat awkwardly on either side of the CIPA "age 13" rule, which basically gave many web companies the nudge to legally protect themselves by limiting membership to those ages 13 and up.

    To your last question, no. You do not have to embrace any particular tool to have a future in teaching. More on this offline if you want ... :)

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