Ratkacher Station

Friday, April 17, 2015

#EdTech: Clearly Articulating Learning Goals

Utilizing your Moodle course or creating a Google Site are just two ways you can keep your students ahead with clearly articulating learning goals.

Excerpt From: Sonny Magana & Robert J. Marzano. “Enhancing the Art & Science of Teaching With Technology.” iBooks. https://itun.es/us/SuDCU.l

Wednesday, April 15, 2015

Technology vs Technology Integration

Excerpt From: Sonny Magana & Robert J. Marzano. “Enhancing the Art & Science of Teaching With Technology.” iBooks. https://itun.es/us/SuDCU.l

Created using canva.com

Dr. Marzano and his team from this book took a look at both positive, negative and neutral views of whether technology is making an impact on learning or whether it is being used at a "trojan horse" for policy reform. I think this quote sums it all up; at least the second part of this.

This is Technology Integration.

Tuesday, April 14, 2015

Students Unable to Send Email?

I often have students coming to me with the problem of not being able to email out. Have you see this? Most of the time I soon discover that it is not the issue of being able to email out, but the students who come to me are trying to email attachments that are much greater than in size 25MB. Most email providers, like Gmail, can not email attachments any greater than 25MB.

A huge plus to having a 1to1 program at our schools is the ability to be able to create content other than a text document. Users can utilize their creativity and use video, photo, audio, animation and other products of content creation to demonstrate their learning. The problem that can happen is that this gorgeous content creation can get really heavy, size-wise - especially video. A multiple amount of photos in a document can drive the file's size well above 25MB, making it difficult to email to teachers.

What's the solution?

Every single user in our school district, grades 6-12, have a Google account, and along with that account they have unlimited storage in their Google Drive. Each student's Google Drive should be their go-to file cabinet or digital locker with which they initially store and share all of their content. Google Drive's sharing ability is the same as email. Once a student exports their project and uploads it to their Google Drive on their iPad (or another computer), they can share that created content to anyone. The recipient receives an email notifying them of the shared content awaiting their acceptance.

Teach your students to make their Google Drive their main place for storing their digital content, and their main place for sharing that digital content.

I hope that was helpful.