KKUATeach

 It’s time for another Cool Tool review. This week I’m going to give my opinion of the Kahoot! app and hopefully give some insightful thoughts on how it can be used effectively in a classroom setting. (Wherever you see the Kahoot! or K! logos, I got them from the Kahoot! website. They make these available for download for anybody that wants to use them in an article.) Let’s get started! WHAT IS Kahoot! ? In a nutshell, Kahoot! is an application that allows teachers to create formative assessments and present them to the class in a game show format. Those are my words. Of course, the company that developed and distributes the app has fancier words. They call it “ a free game-based learning platform for teachers of awesome, classroom superheroes and all learners. ” I guess that’s the difference between an engineering background like mine and the marketing background of whoever wrote that copy.  PLEASE START WITH THE BASICS  HOW DO I GET IT?...

GeoGebra – A Cool Tool for Math Educators GeoGebra (geometry and algebra, get it? If not, you probably shouldn’t waste your time reading the rest) is a neat little program to help students learn and explore math – what could be better? What can you do with GeoGebra you ask? Well, some of the functionality in the tool include: ·          Graphing Calculator (2 and 3 dimensions) ·          Probability Calculator ·          Spreadsheet tool ·          Dynamic Geography Construction and Calculations I have been using the tool just a little in a Geometry class I’m currently taking and it has proven very useful for making geographic constructions to solve problems and create sketches to use in other programs (like word processing). HOW DO I GET IT? There are several ways to use the tool, but the all...

Hello again. The topic in tech class this week is about legal issues, ethics and responsibilities around use of copyrighted material. I’m not sure why or how, but this has always been a hot topic for me. A close friend of mine once commented on my 1970’s Catholic school education and the fact that one of my jobs through high school and college was baseball umpire to imply that my world may be a little less gray than other peoples. That may have something to do with it, but whatever the case, this issue is always something I try to be aware of. The first two questions I was asked to reflect on is a teacher’s responsibility in knowing, following and instructing the copyright laws. This is a bit of an easy one for me, since it is everybody’s responsibility to know and follow these. As educators, we need to ensure we model appropriate behavior for our school community by properly using and citing our sources. Since much of what we will be using can fall under Fair Use, I think we sho...

So, the discussion this week is about Open Learning. There is a lot to think about with this subject. Without a doubt, there is much we can gain from Open Education (OE) and Open Education Resources (OER’s). The potential for spreading knowledge through MOOC’s is almost mindboggling. Dr. Alec Couros gives a cool example of his MOOC in the video shown to my tech class (but, you can only see this if your in our class).  Dr. David Wiley does a very good job of extolling the value of Open Education in his TEDx Talk from 2010 . In this talk, he makes compelling arguments that education should be open, even that it must be open. He does a much better job of explaining how education is open be definition. I’d encourage you to listen to his talk. This video posted by Nadia Mireles makes a superb point – everybody has a right to education, but some don’t have the opportunity to exercise that right. OE and OER’s can make an almost unimaginable difference in the lives of people that ...

Post Two - Let's See How This Works So, let’s talk about sharing. I’ve been trying to figure out my thoughts about this topic for a couple days now. In tech class last week, we watched a video presented by Dean Shareski on what he claims is our “Moral Imperative” to share. Not knowing Mr. Shareski, I have no idea what his intentions were, but I know that I got a bit ticked off. My first thought was “how dare you speak to me about morals,” since you don’t know me, my world view or my moral code. Besides that, what gives you the right to pass moral judgment on me about what I do? I’m not much into the Judeo-Christian beliefs, but I’m pretty sure there’s a few things in there about “judge not lest ye be judged” and the like. Then I calmed down, a bit. I still was ticked though, because he seems to be saying that the only way to share is in the world online social media. While this is an amazing tool, I think he is doing a disservice to some by implying if you don’t jump into...

Let me introduce myself. I’m Kevin. I’ve spent a bit over 25 years working as an engineering in manufacturing. I was burned out and when I fell into a reorganization, my wife encouraged me to go to school to become a teacher. So that’s why I’m here. My wife and I have two sons, both in college. They were both three sport athletes in high school, so much of our time was spent with those activities. Now that the evenings are free again, I’m getting back into being a sports official as a way to stay connected to at least one sport I enjoyed. So, for this blog entry I am supposed to reflect on social media and give my thoughts. I find this to be a very uncomfortable task. My distress comes from a few different areas. First and foremost, I’m not the type of person that writes things quickly. I stew over my thoughts and work very hard to craft my writings in a manner that conveys my ideas and follows grammatical norms. When my name is connected to a work that is permanent and public (li...