EdTechTalk

We are delighted to introduce you to Travis Powell on this episode of Teachers Teaching Teachers. Travis is a member of the Oregon Writing Project, and he teaches at a unique school that he co-founded, the Child’s Way Charter School in Oregon.

We met Travis at a gaming workshop at the National Writing Project’s annual meeting in November and at a NWP Maker workshop.

Here’s what Travis says about his school and his work there:

The charter is in its fifth year of operation. The charter's mission is to create environments that allow the students to explore and discover their strengths and weaknesses in their educational development. We have an emphasis on the implementation of technology. I am a co-founder of the charter and my role was and is the implementation of some of the theories on education put forth by Gardner, Glasser, Dewy, Maslow & Payne ... I serve a low SES population of 24 students ranging in grades from 9th -12th. Each student has a laptop with internet access along with ipad touches on loan form CATE, center for advanced technology in education, out of the University of Oregon.

The class has done some short videos on our ning.

www.cwcharter.ning.com

The ning showcases some of their individual and group projects. In "Problems have Solutions" the students learned what it takes to solve the Cube and then construct a machine to solve the cube. Another project is "Solar Hydrogen" part II.

My goal is to get the students to realize the potential. Be able to read, write, think abstractly (mathematics), apply the scientific method, and communicate effectively at a college level by the time they leave the charter. In tandem, develop a four year plan post high school (two-year, four-year college, vocational, ...) with clear objectives with feedback on accomplishing those steps....

Enjoy!

Click Read more to see a copy of the chat that was happening during the webcast.

Last year, shortly after participating in a 3-week Summer Advanced Institute at the New York City Writing Project, our guest on this podcast, Charlie Freij helped found the East Brooklyn Community High School, Canarsie, NYC, USA.

His students have been using Youth Voices more and more. If you are interested to have your students on Youth Voices — or curious — you should enjoy this podcast.

Check out Charlie’s students’ work here. We’ll also got an update on his school’s program to include online classes.

Click Read more to see a copy of the chat that was happening during the webcast.

On our first Echo in 2011 for the K12 Online Conference Susan van Gelder and Jose Rodriguez welcome Tony Vincent with his presentation Project Based Learning in Hand from K12 Online Conference 2010 in the Kicking up a notch Strand.  Tony has so much to share both regarding PBL and the use of handhelds. He also shared how he made the presentation.  So much to learn from him.

http://k12onlineconference.org/?p=645

Link to Text Chat

January 23, 2011

(podcast uploaded from an airplane ... a first for EdTechTalk?)

Regular hosts: Dave, Jen, John

Guest hosts:

•  Richard Schwier (yay!) -> follow at http://twitter.com/schwier ... Rick Schwier is a professor of educational technology and design at the University of Saskatchewan -> see http://schwier.ca
•  Zac Chase --> follow at http://twitter.com/mrchase ... Zac Chase is an English teacher at Science Leadership Academy in Philadelphia. He blogs at http://autodizactic.com

This week's topics of conversation: