Trick my Truck

There was a great article in the June/July Issue of "Leading and Learning with Technology" by Rena Shifflet and Cheri Toledo called "Extreme Makeover" where they give examples of ways to "renovate" old activities.

As readers of my blog know, I believe that technology tools are useful only if they serve to make you more efficient, more engaging, more thoughtful, more prolific, or allow for greater collaboration that what you are currently using now for instruction. Rather than a "makeover" to use another TV analogy, it is sort of like "Trick My Truck" where people add pieces to their vehicles to represent their style and to individualize it.

Let's take that approach to some classroom activities:

Learning Activity	Traditional Method	Trick My Truck
Reflective Writing	Journals, notes to teacher, exit cards	Blogs (individual or class) Wikis Collaborative Documents with Comments (like Google Docs)
Question and Response	Ask a question, raise a hand response, turn to your partner and share	Clicker Systems Cell Phone Clicker Systems Google Presentations with the Question Prompts
Note taking	Teachers writes notes on board or overhead. Students copy into notebooks	Teacher puts notes on Board, student takes digital photos Jott.com (cell phone notes) Teacher posts main notes in online graphic organizer (gliffy.com) or wiki and students add onto notes
Research	Go to computer lab and do a Google Search on the topic, get 1.7 million hits or go to Wikipedia	Create a Google Custom Search Engine with teacher chosen pre-screened sites.

Rather than everyone doing the same thing, "trick out" what works for you to make individual learning experiences for your students.