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Cross post from silvanameneghini.com Augmented Reality allows you to expand the experience of the real world with information, video, sound, GPS data, and so on. If well utilized, it can be much more than just another cool tech thing... You will see below an example of how Augmented Reality was used to expand the experience of visitors to our school's Art Exhibit. Students in Mrs Carpenter class had to reflect on and verbalize their artistic choices, an augmented reality layer was created for viewers of the exhibit. In the process, students were excited about sharing with an authentic audience and had to really recall and reflect.  It created a hyperlinked reality that enabled amplification of the viewers' learning experience that was much more engaging than text.   By pointing a tablet or smartphone at a painting, through the viewing lens of Aurasma App , visitors could learn about the artist that influenced the work and techniques that were applied. Through Aurasma, an "

Mr Youssef 's Brazilian Social Studies 9 class is learning about the first urban society that was developed in the Portuguese America. For this purpose, students have to analyze the urban characteristics of the main 17th Century cities of Minas Gerais, in order to identify whether the Portuguese colonists forced a urban pattern. The students have been on a school trip to those cities earlier in the year, so this activity is a follow up of the trip. Google Earth was chosen as a means to support such urban analysis, looking at different types of buildings and urban characteristics, including street design. In class, students learned the rationale behind their Google Earth activity looking through the SAMR model lens, as shown below. The class activity was at the Modification level. Substitution At this level, students could use a Google Map to individually draw/highlight street patterns and buildings. Substitution happens through a transfer from a paper map to an online map. Augmenta

The idea of taking visual notes is spreading on the Internet. Sunny Brown has called it the Doodle Revolution , and it is supported by brain research that highlights the importance of images in learning. Students in International Relations, with Ms LaFrance, have been assigned different articles for reading and becoming experts on.  In order to share and contribute to the learning of others, students will produce Visual Notes in RSA animation or screencasting format. Ideas for applications for laptop and iPads are given at the Visual Thinking page within the HS Academic Tech Support site. Students were introduced to visual note taking strategies through a  MODIFICATION  level activity (SAMR Model by Rueben Puentedura). So instead of the traditional approach, students were actively engaged while the video was played in class, by collaboratively creating a Google Spreadsheet with main keywords from the video. Each student or group of students typed keywords in one column of the spread

This is a cross post from Moving Up the SAMR Model . Ms Ange in Grade 9 Integrated Math I, has taken the challenge of having student create individual blogfolios to reflect on their math learning. As all students in Grade 9 have already created a Google Site Digital Portfolio that is being used in English and Visual Arts, so the students were taught how to link their Math blogfolio directly from the ePortfolio site under "Mathemathics". In this way, all their learning reflections are connected to a central hub. The challenge in a blogfolio is to create appropriate "labels" that will allow retrieval of posts according to learning goals. The thoughtful creation and use of labels is a great support to reflection, which is a Modification stage on the SAMR model. In the figure below you will see stages in the use of blogs for learning in Math. Those stages are described in more detailed below with emphasis on "Modification", which is the example described on th

In PE 10, Ms Arcenas' class is taking the learning outside of the classroom and also outside of the "Unit" by recording fitness workout every week along the entire school year. Students will reflect on their own fitness plan and also on how it should be adjusted to provide the desired results and support other activities like basketball or soccer practice. In order to make this record viable, students will enter the weekly workout on a Google Form that feeds a spreadsheet where they will collect all the information to be used as a basis for reflection and review. The images below show how the Form looks like on a cellphone, and how the filled out spreadsheet looks like. Such use of cellphones to enter fitness data is interpreted at the Augmentation stage of the SAMR model. This is because the cellphone offers clear advantages to paper record. It allows better organization and more importantly, it allows easy record on the spot, avoiding imprecise recording at a later time

This is a cross post from ePortfolios Development Spirals . Today we had a great meeting with the Brazilian Studies Department where Geoff and Jennifer Carpenter shared their experience with ePortfolios. Their presentation can be seen at Digital Portfolio Workshop , where the Reflect page was particularly emphasized. Other teachers in the audience have already started publishing student work in different formats like showcase portfolio webpages, student product page in a class site or even class blogs. Middle School has in fact started a focus on Blogfolios and 5th Grade students are creating blog posts with labels based on Graded's Core Values.  So in order to provide some context for ePortfolio experiences already happening and possibilities for growth, I created and shared the following Infographic describing ePortfolio development spirals as seen from different perspectives. Silvia Tolisano and Jennifer Peterson, representing Middle and Elementary School Academic Technology we