Fortune Cookie Recipe

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Enjoy!

Technology Quotes

Once a new technology rolls over you, if you're not part of the steamroller, you're part of the road. -Stewart Brand

The most exciting breakthroughs of the 21st century will not occur because of technology but because of an expanding concept of what it means to be human. - John Naisbitt

It is the framework which changes with each new technology and not just the picture within the frame. - Marshall McLuhan

Whereas knights of old wore armor of plate, the modern knights of the air wear the invisible but magic armor of confidence in technology. - Mike Spick

Never before in history has innovation offered promise of so much to so many in so short a time. - Bill Gates

Why shouldn't we give our teachers a license to obtain software, all software, any software, for nothing? Does anyone demand a licensing fee, each time a child is taught the alphabet? - William Gibson

Computers are like bikinis. They save people a lot of guesswork. -Sam Ewing

After the idea, there is plenty of time to learn the technology. -James Dyson

Science and technology multiply around us. To an increasing extent they dictate the languages in which we speak and think. Either we use those languages, or we remain mute. -J G Ballard

Never let a computer know you're in a hurry. - Anonymous

If we teach today as we taught yesterday, we rob our children of tomorrow. - John Dewey

Do not confine your children to your own learning, for they were born in another time. -Chinese Proverb

Any teacher that can be replaced by a computer deserves to be. -David Thornburg

History will say, “They had WHAT tools? And they did WHAT with them?” - John Davitt

The technology itself is not transformative. It’s the school, the pedagogy, that is transformative. - Tanya Byron

The illiterate of the 21st century won't be those who can't read and write but those who can't learn, unlearn and relearn. - Alvin Toffler

You must be the change you want to see in the world. -Gandhi

Little Kids, Big Possibilities

This podcast by Kelly Hines highlighted some of the web 2.0 tools that are available for use with elementary age students - MY little peeps! I'm happy to say that, after participating in this class, I'm already familiar with some of the tools, but others were new to me and I've already played around with some of them.

One such new-to-me tool was Wallwisher.com. I particularly liked the element of sorting kids' sticky notes in various ways to show common thinking or simply as a means of data representation. That was a nice cross-curriculum feature that reinforces what kids are learning in science and math.

Though I was already familiar with Wordle, Kelly Hines' additional suggestions for use were wonderful. Though I've had students generate Wordles, I've not used previously constructed Wordles to elicit student predictions or foster deductive reasoning. I can see copying the text from classroom books or from student writing and generating a Wordle from it, then having the students see if they can figure out the main idea of the piece.

The comic creators mentioned , like Comics.com, were entirely new to me. Though I've not yet had a chance to noodle around on those sites, I'm looking forward to doing so and already see possible applications for my first graders with sequencing. The idea of playing around with cartoons is inherently attractive to the elementary school child and it's wonderful to be able to slip in learning when they don't even realize you're doing it!

For my students, Edmodo looks interesting for the survey-building capabilities. Young children love to "vote" on things and then see that data displayed graphically. Again, I'm looking forward to poking around more on this site, learning the tool, and bringing it to my teaching.