Summer EdTech Challenge #12: Student show offs

Welcome to the Summer EdTech Challenge! Summertime is a wonderful time to be a teacher! It's the perfect time to recharge your batteries, catch up on trends in education, read for pleasure, and learn new things. How about taking the opportunity to learn new tech skills or try out new tools and strategies?

Each Monday this summer I'll post a simple tech challenge, something you can do between dips in the pool and binge watching your favorite TV show. These challenges are practical, easy to implement ideas to help you develop your tech skills and start next year off on the right technology foot!

I am a firm believer in giving students choices when it comes to presenting what they know. For many years it seemed that teachers had students create PowerPoints as a way of sharing information. But there are so many options available today that provide a much better experience in creating and presenting. Many of these tools are free, work cross platform, and sync across websites and mobile devices.

I've blogged about many tools and have many favorites. Some tools are linear in nature, just like PowerPoint, while others allow the user to choose the order they consume the information. When we provide students with a variety of tools, they can pick the tool they like best for the task at hand. Some might prefer the visuals of Haiku Deck, while others want to make a quick video in PowToon or iMovie.

The table below provide links to my 9 favorite apps for student presentations. Some links will take you to my reviews, where available. The review may be just for the iPad app, but most also have a website that can be used on desktops, laptops, and Chromebooks. Other links will take you to other websites with more information. This list is by no means definitive - I'm still learning about great tools myself! You may want to check out Student Presentations: Moving Beyond PowerPoint for some other ideas and resources.

Linear
Haiku Deck	Google Slides	Prezi
Visual
ThingLink	Spark Page	Smore
Video
Spark Video	iMovie	PowToon

Your EdTech Challenge this week is to pick a presentation app, learn about it, and pick one of your learning activities where students will use that app. You are not limited to these 9 apps - let me know if you find another great one! Don't forget to come back to this post and let me know what app you picked and how your students will use it.

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My technology integration goals for a new school year

This school year I will be transitioning into a 4th grade classroom after about 15 years as a digital coach. Prior to my work as a digital coach I taught 4th grade for eight years. Over the course of my travels from school to school as a digital coach, I've met a lot of awesome teachers doing a lot of awesome things with their students. I've worked with many of them and explored many digital tools. Now I'm ready for my own classroom!

I'll be team teaching with a reading coach who will focus on ELA. I will teach math, science, and social studies for the other half of the day. Naturally I've done a lot of reflecting this summer on what I want to do with my students. I've thought long and hard about how I envision using technology as a tools to help my students. I've come up with this list that I don't feel I can compromise on. None of these digital tools or opportunities was available when I was in the classroom before, so I look forward to seeing what my students and I can accomplish with them.

Mystery Skype - I'm so excited to have my own class this year where I can do as many Mystery Skypes as I want! My goal is to Skype with all 50 states.

Global Learning - I've signed up to participate in Adventure16 and I want to investigate projects at Digital Explorer to find something for my students to participate in. I realize our social studies focus in 4th grade is Nevada, but I strongly feel that students should become global citizens as well. My goal is to find a global project we can team up with someone to work on and then find something local as well.

Interactive Notebooks - I'll be using Interactive Math Notebooks, but I want to explore adding a digital component with the goal of being a full digital interactive notebook next school year. Ideas I have are to use augmented reality with the printed version (links to demonstration videos, digital manipulatives and tools, etc) and explore something like Google Slides for full on digital notebooks next year.

iPad tools - I know I'll have at least 7-8 iPads in my room, but I hope to have a complete cart. Regardless, a few apps I want to have students use are Book Creator to create math books either as a digital portfolio or skill/unit based evidence of their learning. Explain Everything would be the perfect companion app for this project.

GAFE - students have full access to Google Apps for Education, so we'll be taking full advantage of those tools, including Google Classroom.

Blogging - I'm a strong believer in blogging so my students will definitely be using blogging as a way to reflect on their learning. I'll continue this blog with a focus on digital tools I discover and how we are using them in our class. Our class website will also have a blog as the home page to keep parents informed of our work.

Remind - speaking of keeping parents informed, I also plan on using Remind on a regular basis. I was on the parent end of it this summer with a non-school related event my kids were involved in and I absolutely loved it!

Websites - there are several websites that will be woven into our class work: XtraMath for math fact mastery, explore typing.com to increase keyboarding skills, GoNoodle for those important brain breaks, and EdPuzzle to hold them accountable for videos we see.

Plickers - our school has CPS Responders but I don't really like them. I'm going to use Plickers instead, which I think will give me a lot more flexibility and power with my formative assessments.

Presentation tools - I am big on teaching students proper presentation skills and giving them a variety of tools to demonstrate their learning. I also can't stand PowerPoints, so instead we'll learn how to use powerful tools like ThingLink, Haiku Deck, and Adobe Spark.

Video making - I will have a green screen station set up in the corner for students to create videos to demonstrate knowledge and learning. I'll have Do Ink's Greenscreen to integrate with the other video and picture apps.

Augmented Reality - I mentioned using AR with interactive notebooks, but I really want to explore using AR in a variety of other scenarios as well. I'll need to explore a few apps and see real case uses in the classroom.

Whew! Now that I look back at that list I see a lot of fun this year! I don't think I've bitten off too much, because a lot of this will integrate well with our curriculum. I always love to see real use examples from other classrooms. Please share your ideas and tech integration goals with me in the comments below!

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Virtual Reality Museum Tour

Mabble Hoggard Elementary School has a Nevada History museum maintained by their Gifted And Talented Education (G.A.T.E.) students. It has displays on the Nevada Test Site, early Native Americans, mining, and other artifacts related to Nevada's early history. G.A.T.E. students give tours to other classes as they learn about Nevada's early history. The museum has been a Hoggard fixture for many years and is very popular.

The G.A.T.E. teacher and I worked together to add a little bit of virtual reality to the experience. She worked with the students to develop a script for each of the displays. Students researched information for the displays and synthesized the information into a 2-3 minute script they would act out.

I met with them to show how to use the Aurasma app to put together the virtual reality displays. Aurasma is a very easy app to use. The first step was to film their scripts. We used the camera app on the iPads to capture and save the videos to the camera roll. I then showed them how to bring the footage into iMovie where students edited out their mistakes and made their final videos.

In Aurasma the first step is to capture the image, or trigger. The app uses the camera to capture the object you want to trigger the video to play. It has a nice bar at the top to help you decide if the image you are capturing is unique enough to cause a trigger.

The next step is choose the video you want to overlay on the trigger image. You can capture your video at this point, select one from the Aurasma library, or choose one that is already saved on the device. Since the students had already created their videos using iMovie this was the option they used, tapping Upload and choosing the video from the camera roll.

The next screen allows you to position the video relative to the trigger image. The video can appear to the side or on top of the trigger image. The students preferred the later option because it makes the image appear to come to life.

The final step is name the aurasma and upload it to the Aurasma servers so others can access it.

 
Now when visitors come to the school museum they can use their own device or a borrowed iPad, launch Aurasma and scan the displays. When the app recognizes a trigger it automatically plays the video associated with it. You can see the white dots in the image below as the app scans to see if it recognizes anything.

Because Aurasma will recognize the trigger images anywhere, not just the live image in the museum, you can check out the virtual reality projects right here. Download the free Aurasma app, create a free account, and follow HoggardGATE. Scan any of the images below to check out the virtual reality displays!

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Maker Movement: Bring it on!

image from Mrs. Wideen's blog

The Maker Movement seems to be all the rage in education. I've read about it in my Twitter feed and seen many articles about it in Feedly. I've always been drawn to the philosophy of "learning by doing". It drives my teaching and presenting. I feel that hands on lessons and workshops are far more beneficial than "sit and get". I get the Maker Movement and I'm glad to see it happening!

For the past 4 months I've been on my own little maker movement quest. It all started with my daughter's dresser. The drawers kept falling out of the dresser. I tried repairing it, but it's a cheap particle board, so what really can be done? Being a man I figured I could build one for her with my own hands in a couple of weeks. After all, my dad was a wood worker so it must be in the blood somehow, right?

During the months of February and March I researched and planned. I found a design she liked, but didn't like the assembly method, so I decided to build it using a more "fine furniture" type method. Summer break was coming up and I knew I could dedicate hours on end each day to build the dresser and would have it done in no time. Well, 2 weeks turned in to a month, then two months, then a summer time project, then "It'll be done by next week", and finally "I am determined to finish this by her birthday!"  

I am proud to say that I put in the last screw 15 minutes prior to leaving the house to celebrate her birthday on September 30. My 2 week project was finally done after four months.

Along the way I learned quite a bit. I had no experience designing and building anything more complex than a toolbox for some Cub Scouts - and I had to look that up in the book first! Here's an incomplete list of things I had to learn about as I went through the process.

• SketchUp software to design the dresser
• what wood was best for a dresser (I settled on poplar)
• what joints to use
• how to assemble the entire thing together
• all about routers, which I had never used before
• how to join two boards together to make one wide one
• the different grits of sandpaper and when to use them
• how to paint (types of paint, brushes, sanding between layers)
• how to apply polyurethane

I learned so much during this process. By coincidence I even used some of the math my daughter was learning about in her high school geometry class - and I pointed that out to her.

When the process was finally done, when I put the last bolt in to hold the mirror in place, the feeling of accomplishment and satisfaction was worth it! I had made something! I had spent time and effort and time on something that now stood before me. I had used my brain to solve puzzles, fix problems, analyze, synthesize, and learn how to do from scratch. It was functional, it looked good, and I had made it!

What does this have to do with educational technology? Plenty. This is an example of what I feel technology in education should be used for - for students to create, demonstrate and showing learning. Wouldn't it be great if students could show the same enthusiasm for learning? Have the same feeling of accomplishment? The same experiences of critical thinking and problem solving?

I've seen a disturbing trend in the last few years that has really bothered me. It seems that more and more schools are acquiring technology in order to put students in front of it in the hopes of "closing the achievement gap". Schools purchase programs such as ST Math, Ascend Math, Read 180, Compass Learning, etc and put kids in front of a computer and expect the program to teach them. More and more those students seem to be the ones who are achieving poorly in school and have to suffer through this. We are expecting the computer to do the teaching instead of the teacher.

Most schools I work with have iPads, anywhere from a 1:1 environment to multiple carts to share among classrooms. I've consulted at several schools to help determine apps to use on the iPads. Usually when I look at what's already on the iPads I see a lot of apps with questionable educational value. I don't feel iPads should be used to "entertain" a student with games. I've written about my app selection criteria before and my recommendations boil down to any app that students can use to create with or show their learning.

I welcome the MakerEd movement in education. I hope it gains some serious traction and doesn't become the latest fade that's cast to the side. This is exactly what technology is for. It is to be used as a tool by students where they can create, explore, and show their learning.

I don't want to be asked What can my students play on the iPad?, What are some educational websites where I can send my students?, or Can you teach my students how to make a PowerPoint? Instead, I want to be asked:

• How can I get my students to write more?
• How can my students demonstrate <this concept> to me?
• How can my students explain the process they went through to do X?
• How can my students share what they've learned?

Bring on the Maker Movement! I'm ready for it! I'm not a master wood worker by any stretch of the imagination. But my daughter can now store her clothes in a dresser that works!

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Student Centered Coaching: My Takeaways

This week I participated in a 2 day Student Centered Coaching conference by Diane Sweeney hosted by CCSD. The Digital Learning Coaches joined the instructional coaches from the district to learn about coaching practices that help impact student learning.

Unfortunately, a lot of the content of the conference didn't seemed geared towards my role as a technology coach. There were a few good nuggets of information that helped me to refine my coaching role. But the models presented won't work with my job, mostly because I work with eight different schools so my times on campus are not frequent enough.

Here are my big takeaways from the conference.

Coaching is not about "fixing" people.

My role as a coach is not to do "deficit coaching" where I approach the teacher as if they had problems or faults that I need to fix. I shouldn't come in with my pre-defined agenda and try to shoehorn the teacher into that. Instead, I need to listen more to what the teacher is asking help for and guide the discussion towards the student goals associated with that (see below). My role is not to fix anything, but instead to meet teachers where ever they are at and help them improve their craft.

Student Goals

My coaching efforts need to be centered more on specific goals for student learning, rather than on trying to "fix" a teacher. I find that many times I am asked to model a specific iPad app or teach the students how to use a certain program. Often teachers say they want to learn more about using their interactive whiteboards, not realizing what the boards can actually do to change their pedagogy.

My biggest takeaway is that I need to focus my coaching with that teacher on student goals instead. In other words I should ask the teacher what their goals are for learning that app, what do they want the students to accomplish? I love this focus and believe it will help refine and give purpose to my coaching visits.

Redefine the Coaching Cycle

There was a fair amount of discussion about the coaching cycle. With traditional instructional coaches who are at 1 or 2 schools, they can meet with teachers on a regular and frequent basis. At the conference they participated in an activity to define how they would use a 4-6 week coaching cycle.

As a DLC I work at 8 different schools, secondary and elementary, and see teachers only once every 2 weeks. Obviously that kind of coaching cycle would not work. I decided that rather than having a time-based coaching cycle, I should have a skills based coaching cycle. The beginning of the coaching cycle might be where I teach a tool to a teacher. As we meet, we look at how that can be used to enhance or change their lessons, slowly working it into the teacher's pedagogy.

Another approach might be to look at what standards or student outcomes the teacher wants and work backwards from there. For example, if a teacher wants to increase student writing I can introduce blogging as a way to do that. Our meetings can then be focused on how to accomplish that, perhaps introducing the tools and concepts first, then modeling it, and then turning it over to the teacher as part of her regular instruction.

I would love to hear from other technology coaches to understand how the coaching model works for them. Our situation in this district seems unique in that we have so many schools to cover. If anyone has experience coaching at so many schools, I would love to hear how you do it!

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Student Presentations: Moving Beyond PowerPoint

Last week I presented at the Clark County School District Blended Learning Mini-Conference at Valley HS. My session was on Student Presentations: Moving Beyond PowerPoint. When I signed up to present at the conference I hadn't planned on this topic, but when it came up I realized that it was just right for me!

I have a strong aversion to PowerPoint, mostly because presentations are designed so poorly with it. I've sat through enough presentations where the presenter put too many words on a slide, used text and graphic animations that are unnecessary and distracting, or just looked amateurish. There are a number of digital tools out there that can help make presentations more engaging to watch.

My goal with the session was two-fold: help teachers understand the need to teach students proper presentations skills (after all, it doesn't matter what tool you use if still don't present in an effective way) and share alternatives that can easily be used to create effective presentations.

The Haiku Deck used for the presentation is embedded below or you can view it here side-by-side with my notes.


Student Presentations - Created with Haiku Deck, presentation software that inspires

I gave participants a one page version of the points I made.

I also created and shared a chart listing all of the digital tools I shared. The chart lists information about each tool so teachers can make informed decisions about what tools to try out.

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Digital Publishing Made Easy Webinar

Earlier this week I co-presented a webinar on digital publishing for K-12 teachers. My fellow presenters and I discussed why digital publishing is important in today's education. We then shared a few tools that can be used by students for digital publishing. We focused on iPads because of their flexibility and variety of tools. We also focused on web tools for those schools that don't have access to iPads.

The anchor standards from the Nevada Academic Content Standards for writing states:

Use technology, including the Internet, to produce and publish writing and to interact and collaborate with others.

In kindergarten it starts out very simple.

With guidance and support from adults, explore 6. a variety of digital tools to produce and publish writing, including in collaboration with peers.

As you move up the writing strand it becomes more complex in the secondary grades.

Use technology, including the Internet, to produce and publish writing and present the relationships between information and ideas efficiently as well as to interact and collaborate with others.

From just those simple standards we can see how important digital publishing is. It allows for student creativity, engages students more than paper and pencil assignments, and provides for an authentic environment and audience.

A playback of the one hour webinar is available at this link or by clicking the picture below.

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iPad apps

In a previous post, I wrote about a few creativity apps that should be included on iPads for student use. During the last few weeks I've helped several schools prepare their iPads for the new school year. I thought it was time to revisit this list and add a few more apps. My criteria when choosing apps are that they allow for creativity and can be used across subjects and grade levels.

Most of the apps are free, but some are paid apps. Schools many times forget to set aside funds to purchase apps. Sure, there are a lot of great and useful free apps, but schools need to be willing to pay developers for their time and effort when they create useful apps. Apple's Volume Purchasing Program lets schools get multiple copies at a discounted rate. 

Here is my list of go to apps, in no particular order.

Edmodo - our district uses the Edmodo platform extensively. Edmodo should be installed everywhere so students can make posts and complete assignments and quizzes.

Kidblog - if your students are into blogging at all (and they should be!) then Kidblog is an excellent platform. The iPad app makes it easy to post and comment on classroom blogs.

Explain Everything - this is a paid app, but well worth the money. It is a screencasting and interactive whiteboard app that lets students narrate, annotate, and share their learning. Educreations still remains a good choice if your looking for a free app.

Popplet Lite - this is a great brainstorming app for students. Students can create a mind map using text, pictures, and video. The lite version only allows one popplet, but the paid version allows unlimited popplets plus online sharing.

Trading Cards - students can create virtual trading cards on any subject: people, places, objects, events, and vocabulary words.

Dropbox/Google Drive - these are essential for sharing student work. Secondary students can use their own accounts while elementary classrooms can set up a classroom account.

Goodreads/Biblionasium - Goodreads requires an email address and is more suited for secondary schools. Biblionasium can be used at any grade level, but has a more primary (and limited) look at feel, so it's great for elementary schools. Both are excellent tools for students to share books they are reading, write reviews, and discover new books.

Snapguide - with this app students can easily create how to guides on a variety of interests and subjects (document the steps to solve a math task).

Haiku Deck - this is my favorite alternative to PowerPoints. Students can create visually rich presentations with a limited amount of text. Because of the text limits it forces students to really know their material when presenting.

Prezi - this is another good alternative to PowerPoints. Using the iPad app students can create, edit, and share presentations they've started from the website.

Qrafter - if you use QR codes in your classroom you need a really good QR reader on your devices!

audioBoom - give your students a voice - they have a lot to say! This app is an easy way for students to share their thoughts and express themselves. There are a ton of ways to use this app in the classroom.

Pic Collage - unleash student creativity with photos, stickers, frames, text, backgrounds, and free form cutouts. Students can easily document learning with this engaging tool. There are hundreds of ideas on the internet for using Pic Collage in the classroom. 

Skitch - This drawing app allows you to take a photo or screenshot and draw directly on it. Students can use arrows, shapes, and text annotations to demonstrate learning or to enhance an assignment. 

Tellagami - students combine voice, photos, character customization, and a little bit of their personality to communicate in a way that's never been possible. A paid Edu version lets you use it in your classroom without in-app purchases.

iMovie - if a picture is worth a thousand words, then what is a video worth? iMovie is free for iPads purchased after Sept. 2013, but it's still worth the price for existing users. Video is a very powerful medium for students and iMovie makes it easy to use!

Page/Numbers/Keynote - Apple's word process, spreadsheet, and presentation apps are a must. They are easy to use, intuitive, and easy to integrate in any classroom. They are also free for iPads purchased after Sept. 2013.

I'm always eager to hear about other apps that let students unleash their inner creativity and can be used in almost any curriculum. If you know of another great app, let me know in the comments!

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Global projects for your students

The ISTE Standards for Students include many opportunities for students to work collaboratively to support and contribute to learning.

Communication and collaboration
Students use digital media and environments to communicate and work collaboratively, including at a distance, to support individual learning and contribute to the learning of others.

1. Interact, collaborate, and publish with peers, experts, or others employing a variety of digital environments and media
2. Communicate information and ideas effectively to multiple audiences using a variety of media and formats
3. Develop cultural understanding and global awareness by engaging with learners of other cultures
4. Contribute to project teams to produce original works or solve problems

I love involving students in global projects where they have opportunities to collaborate with other other students to contribute to a common cause. Many of these global projects require teachers to sign up early in order to make those connections. It may be the end of this school year, but it's time to start thinking about these projects for next year. Take some time to check them out and sign up your class!

Global Read Aloud

I worked with several classes this year on the Global Read Aloud. It was a great experience communicating with other students to hear their thoughts on a common book. It was neat to know that other classes shared a love for reading and found commonality in a great book. This year's Global Read Aloud is structured a little different, but it still promises to be a great opportunity for anyone involved. Choose a book to read, connect with a class, and discover a common love for great books! Sign up as soon as you can - the official project start date is Oct. 6, 2014.

Save Our Rhinos

This project was started by a teacher in Capetown, South Africa after watching some rhinos during a vacation in 2012. Realizing the enormity of the problem of poaching, she launched this project to bring awareness to the plight of rhinos - calling it the Save Our Rhinos project. Classes can sign up to host a traveling rhino (much like a Flat Stanley project) and complete a few other activities to promote awareness of the endangered rhinos. The project is scheduled to be completed by December 2014, so be sure to sign up before space runs out!

The Global Classroom Project

Started in 2011 by two teachers on opposite sides of the globe, The Global Classroom Project is a rich resource for finding new ways to connect, share, learn and collaborate globally. You can find all kinds of projects to collaborate on with classrooms in over 35 countries. You can check out a variety of projects from the current year and start making connections.

Mystery Skype

Mystery Skyping is probably me new favorite activity. I tried it for the first time this year and was blown away by how engaged the students were. I've scheduled several more Mystery Skypes before the end of this school year. I've heard about classes Skyping with all 50 states and many countries around the world. That's a goal I want to have for next year: Skyping with all 50 states!

Adventure '14

This a global cultural project scheduled to take place in November 2014. For one day this year you can take your class on a worldwide adventure with 275+ Schools from 30 Nations without leaving your classroom! Thousands of children across the globe would like your class to join them on possibly the world's biggest virtual cultural exchange!  Using a webcam and projector you'll meet children from across the world, get to know a little about where they are from, and work with them on a global project! More information and sign up can be found at the Adventure '14 webpage.

There are many other ways to collaborate globally. What have you tried in your classroom? What other projects can students get involved with? Let me know in the comments below!

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Adventures in student blogs and comments

I worked with a 2nd grade class today to get started on their blogs. We had been using a class login to make simple blog posts about what was happening each day. Students took turns writing the daily blog post. This gave them experience with the blogging format. Today we unleashed them to write their own individual blogs.

Before we started with individual blogs, I wanted students to have a good understanding of how to comment on each other's posts. Using an idea I read about from Pernille Ripp, Paper Blogs: A Lesson In Commenting On Student Blogs, Ms. Schrimpf, the classroom teacher, had the students write out an initial blog post on paper. I then talked with the students about what makes good comments: asking questions, sharing experiences, using details. I then gave each student a pad of Post-It notes and had them rotate around the class, writing their comments on the Post-It and then placing it on the paper "blog".

During this time the student engagement was 100%! There was total silence while the students were totally focused on reading their blog posts and writing their comments. 

After about 15 minutes the students came back to their own paper blog and answered any questions that someone may have asked. I put a few blogs and their comments on the document camera as we talked more about what makes a good comment and how students could have a "conversation" on their blog.

In the afternoon we went to the computer lab where students received their Kidblog login and made their first blog post. They were also allowed to comment on their classmates blogs. We only had 50 minutes for this part, but, again, there was 100% engagement!

Hopefully we can continue with this activity as students create more blog posts, either as a center rotation or as a homework assignment. Their initial enthusiasm and engagement is certainly exciting to watch!

ISTE NET-S Standards

• 2.a Interact, collaborate, and publish with peers, experts, or others employing a variety of digital environments and media
• 2.b Communicate information and ideas effectively to multiple audiences using a variety of media and formats

Resources

• 10 Tips for Introducing Blogging into Your Classroom
• Student Blogging Resources To Get You Started
• 10 Easy Steps to Teach Writing through Blogging

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Student Led Technology Family Learning Night

For the past several years Triggs ES has hosted a Technology Family Learning Night where parents and students could have hands-on time with the school technology. We've tried to make it a learning experience, but it usually turned out to just be a teacher facilitated play time with technology. This year we decided to approach it differently and model the night after a traditional hands-on technology conference - with students leading the sessions instead of the teachers!

We have a teacher from each grade level (K-5) on our technology team, and each one agreed to help their students master a particular iPad app or computer program. We settled on Toontastic, Haiku Deck, Educreations, and Book Creator on the iPads, and Prezi and Comic Life on the computers. Students spent time from the beginning of the school year working with these programs for classroom projects and really got to know them. Certain students were then asked to be the presenters during the sessions of our Technology Family Learning Night.

Our goals for the night were: give students the opportunity to be leaders in their sessions, showcase school technology and how it's used in the classroom, and give parents hands-on opportunities with apps and programs they can use with their own devices at home.

As families arrived for the night they were assigned a group and given a schedule to follow. Sessions were 15 minutes long with 5 minutes to rotate. Each room had 10-12 iPads, and the student-presenter's iPad was connected to the projector so they could display the app they were teaching about. Parents were also notified that they could bring in personal devices with the apps already loaded if they wanted. Student-presenters then demoed how to use the apps while families followed along on their iPads. We also gave parents a one page tutorial on each of the apps.

Here are the student presenters in action:

Kindergarten students led a session on using Toontastic for narrative writing.

1st Graders taught families how to use Book Creator to write a story about Jack and Jill.

2nd Grade students demoed Haiku Deck for sharing info on apples.

3rd Grade students led sessions on teaching math with Educreations.

4th graders used the computer lab to teach Comic Life and extreme sports.

5th graders showed off their mastery of Prezi.

Our GATE (Gifted And Talented Education) teacher also set up a STARLAB where students could explore the solar system. She had her students record information about the solar system and played the audio as part of the experience. Families were able to use this as one of their sessions.

The STARLab set up on our stage.

I don't think there's any better way of showing off technology than to have the students teaching what they know!

I'd love to hear how other schools have organized student led workshops. Sound off in the comments if I didn't give enough details!

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