Technology in the Middle
School Classroom....
Plotting a course
Lisa Read
August 2009

IRP-less in BC
Well, there is no IRP for Middle School IT, AFAIK
Unless you count the Grade 8-10 (1996) and/or the
Grade 11-12 (2003)
Seems to me that Technology has undergone a lot of
change since 1996...
Incidentally, what is Middle School?

Middle School Configuration
Grade 5,6,7
Grade 6,7,8
Grade 7,8,9
Grade K-7 and Grade 8-12

Come to that, what is
Technology?
Strong Bad knows....

Anyway....back to the topic
Incidentally, PowerPoint presentation should NOT make
up the majority of your IT program

This is OK
It’s KeyNote.

What do we need?
Consider a plan for a Grade 7 Information Technology
course.
Working backwards from the Grade 8 IRP Learning
Objectives (er.....from 1996)

And now, an excerpt
It is expected that the student shall:
identify information technology tools used to access information
protect information using information technology tools
enter information accurately using appropriate keyboarding techniques and software that allows for the
storage, retrieval, and editing of material
demonstrate the ability to formulate questions and to use a variety of sources and tools to access, capture,
and store information
use appropriate information technology terminology
evaluate a variety of input and output device
demonstrate the ability to install software
describe and practise appropriate safety procedures when working with information technology tools
apply a variety of troubleshooting techniques related to information technology
demonstrate an awareness of the impact of information technology tools on society
identify careers and occupations that use information technology

Which boils down to:
Foundations
Processes
Presentation

Presentation
DOES NOT JUST
MEAN POWER
POINT!!!

Sorry for shouting
really

Ask yourself...what would
Lisa do?
There are as many course designs are there are
students, but here is what I do:
What is Technology?
Ergonomics
Ethics
Graphic Design
Language/Code
Efficient Internet/Keyboard short cuts
Presentation-names/collages/Fireworks/Flash
Media Literacy

“What does Font mean?”
Here is a site that tells you more about baselines,
descenders and serifs than you ever thought possible.
The basics of Typography

Create your own font
http://www.fontcapture.com/
Allows you to capture your own
handwriting and convert it to a digital font
You just need a printer and a scanner

Software I must have:
Apple iLife suite
Adobe CS3 (or, of course, CS4)
Comic Life

Software I could run a
program without:
Apple iLife
Adobe CS3 (or 4)
Comic Life

As long as there is a Web,
there is a Way
A plethora of Web 2.0 tools at your Finger Tips.

For example: Glogster

Wordle

BeFunky

Don’t have an advanced
Draw program?
Try Tiny Designer

A Whole Collection of Good
Things
Techy Tips for Non Techies

Want a simpler photo-
editor?
Try “Tuxpi”. All you need is one good photo:

This is my one good photo:

And this is how I Tuxpi’d it:

Feeling narcissistic and
Time-Travelly?
Try Yearbook Yourself

A neat Morphing tool
A little clunky to use, but very cool technology
Face of the Future

Start with a “normal” picture
Use the app to zoom in, set the eye
and mouth markers....and transform!
Different ages, ethnicities or genders

Use Face of the Future to become a Masterpiece
Modigliani Botticelli Manga
Or a different animal
altogether:

Many more Mashables here:
13 Fantastic and Fun Image Generators

Wait, what about
keyboarding?
notsomuch

But first, it’s time for An
Activity
OMG PWNIES!!!!
You will see a collection of Acronyms around the room.
How many can you decode?
What about the L33t phrases?
Why is this important? Well, it’s not, especially, unless
you want to understand how to communicate with the
natives (the Digital Natives, that is)

Hang on...what’s the deal
with Keyboarding?
Seriously?
OK
fff jjj ddd kkk sss lll aaa ;;;

Cross Curricular
Design class pages (in Moodle, or Blogs, or Wikis)
SMARTboard/Notepad projects
Character Blogs or Discussion groups
Illustrations (Fireworks/Kerpoof)
Retellings: Pod casting, Flash, Comic Life
Research (of course)

Speaking of Kerpoof
Nice little app.
Kids can easily create their own stories, or retell stories
Limited editing=limited time-loss
Kerpoof

The Teaching Lab
It is a TEACHING Lab
Lock it down-- this is a TEACHING LAB
Do you have a bookable lab, roving carts, or stations in
the Library? If so, then the TEACHING lab is for
TEACHING
Assign chairs to stations, set the rules in force Day 1.
Lock it down.

Teaching Lab Wish List
Remote Desk Top
Projector and Screen or white board
Groups Folders-- hand in/hand out
A Management Plan--seating? lighting? Free Time??

Oodles of Moodle
Example: Grade 9
Grade 8
Grade 7
Math 8

More Moodling--screen
shots

Play Time or Talk Time?
Flip a coin?

The Slide before the Last
A few more resources, more for theory and philosophy. Ponder at your leisure....(or
is that pwnder?)
Top 11 things to know about technology
Collection of Canadian education blogs
Interesting collection of “Social Media” contests
Good article on a “hacker”. Scary.
A sobering article about a cyber bully/hacker
Ten Photoshop disasters. This would be great for a Media Literacy assignment
Probably the most important site on this page. 100 things you should have already
seen on the Internet...

Check out Louis CK....
“Technology is wasted on a generation
of spoiled idiots.”

Thank you!
Lisa Read
lread@sd79.bc.ca
Twitter: LisaRead
Blog: http://readlisaread.edublogs.org/