Navta Associates

Frustrated by Facebook’s new terrible photo uploader? Want to share hi-res photos with your Facebook friends? I’ve discovered a new Facebook app called Dojo. Not only can you share hi-res photos, but you can apply filters to them, decorate them with stickers, and make a free-form collage of a bunch of photos. It’s so cool!

Kids are becoming more and more tech-savvy. Take one look at the library of projects (over 7,000) created by students who participated in a ThinkQuest competition.

Students today operate in an environment that is on-demand and interactive. Delivery media include a wide variety of tools such as the Internet, video iPods, mobile phones, Wiis, Nintendo DS, MySpace, YouTube, live and reality-based television, etc. Educators can adapt to this language, embedding new technologies and social networking opportunities in their curriculum.

We can see what excites and engages kids in their everyday lives—why not use the same tools in education?

It’s not a matter of making time for technology, it’s a matter of
making technology part of the fabric of your life.

Many times teachers say that they would have to take time away from something else in order to use more technology in their classrooms. If that’s the case, then they are using the wrong technology. The best tools can help us do our work better, faster, more efficiently, more effectively, etc. There is so much great software and hardware available today that with a bit of research it’s possible to find an ideal combination for any given task. A learning curve may be needed, but time spent learning and figuring out the best way to do things is often rewarded many times over by efficiencies gained later on.

Sometimes little adjustments need to be made along the way to keep the efficiency quotient high. Once I started Twittering (I’m NikkiNavta on Twitter), updating my Facebook status seemed redundant. One quick glance around Twitter and I found the setting to automatically update both status lines at the same time, from Twitter.

Consider the scenario of a roomful of teachers listening to a riveting presentation of some topic that will help them in their classroom. Most of the teachers would likely be scribbling away, taking notes furiously while the speaker was talking. Afterwards, the air is electrified with new ideas. The teachers all stand up and walk out of the lecture hall, clutching their notebooks, each individual set of notes all headed in separate directions. Instead, consider what would happen if the lecture notes were made available online by the presenter. The teachers could be more “present” during the live action, without the pressure to capture the notes. Afterwards, when teachers access the lecture notes online (posted in a Web 2.0 environment), they can make comments, share ideas, and all become part of collaborating and expanding on the groundwork that had been laid. There are many e-tools that could be utliized to enhance this scenario even further, but even at a fairly basic level, it provides one compelling reason to embrace technology.

Image via Wikipedia

In a recent article in Edutopia, Suzie Boss gave a few really good ideas for helping to work around the overprotective content filters in place in many schools and districts. Many of the Web 2.0 social networking sites, in particular, are inaccessible. Of course, those are the ones that contain some rich content and are favorites of kids, especially middle-schoolers and older.

Four of her primary recommendations are:
• Befriend the Keymaster: don’t be afraid to find the right tech person and ask for help
• Innovate in Safe Places: utilize tools that have Web 2.0 characteristics, but are contained within your school’s internal network
•  Teach Kids Good Digital Citizenship: educate kids about good and bad information, and provide supervision, not inane filters
• Advocate for Access: help give kids equal access, and allow different kinds of online experiences