Mission Statement

The mission of the Hope College Education Department’s Student Technology Team is to promote and aid in the implementation of technology to enhance teaching and learning with education faculty and students as well as local school districts.

Tech Tidbits for the Fall of 2014

Hope College Education Department Technology Team Volume 10

Tech Team Happenings

The Education Department Technology Team has been busy at work over the course of the semester. From chalk and wire sessions and reviewing student teaching portfolios to working with local school districts and getting acceptance letters from the MACUL Conference this upcoming spring, we are excited about the projects that we have been working on and the direction of the Tech Team! We had a great turn out at our Chalk and Wire sessions, where a number of the tech team members were there to assist the incoming education students. Rachel Lundstrom and Sara Krzak led the sessions but had assistance from Zoe, Holly, Erin, Mikayla, Hannah, Aimee, Abby, and Kate. Reviewing student teaching portfolios was one of the other projects that the Tech Team was involved with over the semester, where the upcoming student teachers had their portfolios reviewed by retired administrators, education professors and supervisors, and tech team members in small groups. The Tech Team is also proud to announce one new member for the fall of 2014, Holly Wierenga. Holly, a sophomore here at Hope, is an English education major. We also welcomed Aimee Hoffman, who is a secondary Spanish education major and an English education minor. The Tech Team is looking forward to their future contributions to the team! For more details on what the Tech Team has been doing throughout the semester, check out the sections below. Enjoy!

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MACUL Conference 2015

Technology In Local School Districts

Collaboration with Holland Christian High School The Tech Team has had an on-going collaboration with Holland Christian High School,

which continued this semester. Instead of a large project, Sarah Krzak, Erin Rhodes, Mikayla Freyling and Holly Brinker have paired up with individual teachers to provide support, specifically aiding the teacher’s instruction. One of the special education teachers has been provided with a plethora of iPad apps that could be used in her classroom. A Bible teacher was in need of a few online learning activities that could enhance his bible class. Khan Academy, Kahoot quizzes, Dropbox, and Google-based drives were a few of the suggestions that had been made for him to use. Holland Christian's secondary homeschool coordinator asked for some help in the technology field in general, as one of her concerns was that homeschooled students do not have the same access to technology as the students who attend the high school. Our Tech Team members gave the homeschool coordinator a few different ideas to help her feel confident enough with various forms of technology so that she can pass on her knowledge to the homeschool programs. One of the Tech Team goals is to provide support to local school districts, so we are looking to provide more and more support to not only Holland Christian but also to other districts in the future.

Once again, several members of the Tech Team, along with Professor Cherup and Professor Donk, will be attending the 2015 Michigan Association for Computer Users in Learning (MACUL) conference at the COBO Center in Detroit. While there, they will have the opportunity to attend a variety of breakout sessions on multiple aspects of technology use in education. It is a wonderful opportunity to learn about current technology use and network with others who are just as interested. Not only will we have members attending, but we have three proposals that have been accepted for presentation sessions. Holly Brinker and Susan Cherup will be presenting on what is called a Literacy Lifeboat. The Lifeboat is a device that has several different reading and writing technologies on it, that are all UDL, along with research they have gathered and found. When all is said and done, they hope to have applications, personal research, research found from other sources, videos, and presentations they have made on the devices. Specifics on what the presentation will be about will come in the Spring Tech Tidbits. Brady Van Malsen will be presenting a session called "What's in a Game?” Brady will be examining how video games, in their structure/mechanics/characteristics, offer insight into meaningful learning. Using both theoretical and scientific perspectives, the plan is to plant the seed of a new literacy in viewers' minds and challenge them to be mindful of their teaching as it relates to gaming. Rachel Lundstrom, Sarah Krzak and education professor Tony Donk, will be presenting the other proposal. Their topic deals with given the increasing presence of iPads in schools, it is essential to understand how to maximize their potential. While many teachers are familiar with some of the growing number of apps available for instructional purposes, fewer are realizing the potential for other uses of iPads in their classrooms. This session will urge educators to consider “Thinking Outside the App” and discover the other resources and opportunities for learning that iPad technology can provide.

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ISTE Portfolios in Ed. 220 and Ed. 225 In January of 2014 the Education Department approved a pilot program to provide incoming education students with more exposure to the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) Standards in preparation for their final student teaching portfolios. As we had mentioned in the Spring 2014 Tech Tidbits, Ed. 220 students were to create an ISTE section within their Chalk and Wire portfolio. The program is now in its second phase of installation, where Ed. 225 students have been included in creating an ISTE Standard section in their Chalk and Wire Portfolio.

This semester, the technology team began working with Educ. 220 and Educ. 225 students in developing their online ISTE portfolios. Tech Team members Rachel Lundstrom and Sarah Krzak led a meeting to demonstrate the use of Vimeo to Educ. 220 students and assisted them in uploading video clips of their metaphor presentation to their ISTE portfolios. Additionally, students from Ed. 225 sections are utilizing two of their classroom assignments to satisfy two ISTE standards on their portfolios as well. Technology Team members Aimee Hoffman, Ashley Vlasak, Abby LaBarge, and Hannah Bauersfeld are working closely with Susan Cherup to evaluate the students’ ISTE submissions and find ways to further implement this new portfolio into the education program. With the heightening demand for technology skills in the classroom, the Tech Team is assisting Hope students in developing ISTE portfolios that adequately display their technological proficiency.

What’s Your Tizzy?

This fall, the Tech Team had the opportunity to hear a presentation by some of our fellow Hope Students, Macall Smith, Jessica Granger, and Brandon Flood, about their new social media app called “Tizzy”. This app is a social polling that allows users to get opinions from their friends by posting two photos side-by-side and then posing a question of their “tizzy”. The Tizzy crew came to talk to the Tech Team about possible educational uses for their new app. The team was able to learn about the app as well as discuss possible uses for Tizzy in the field of education. The Tech Team had a great time collaborating with the Tizzy crew and is looking forward to more opportunities of working together in the future.

Recognizing Pat Griffin

The Tech Team wanted to take an opportunity to recognize Pat Griffin, Hope College’s Director of the Early Childhood Education Program. She has been one of the pioneers at Hope College for implementing technology into the classroom. She has focused most of her attention on the use of iPad apps. For literacy, she has done research on Alphabet Fun, Nursery Rhymes, and The Ladybug. She has explored Critter Math 2, Count, Sort and Match, and Math Tree for mathematics. Pat has also done research on creative apps, focusing mainly on Drawing Pad and Sound Box. The Tech Team would like to thank Pat for everything she has done with the implementation of technology into the classroom.

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Google Glass Project

This semester, Sydney Bryer was selected to experiment with the Google Glass and used it for a week and a half, gathering information for CIT and the Tech Team. The big question of the project was “What do you do with it?” Sydney experimented with the Google Glass and found a few different uses. One was Evernote, where she was able to dictate notes via Glass and then sync that directly to Evernote account. Sydney also found a use for foreign language flash cards. She found a program called Duolingo, which has Glassware (program for the Google Glass) where she was able to review vocab flashcards for a collection of languages. Sydney also investigated with videos and pictures. She found that she was able to easily post to Youtube, Facebook, and even email them to people. The Google Glass can also read news articles to you from a few different sources. Unfortunately, she found that a subscription was needed for any of the news sources to access them. Overall, Sydney found that the Google Glass was not too difficult to figure out how to use, but she mentioned that it takes time to get used to the software. Her biggest challenge was figuring out what to do with it. Sydney will focus her new research on possible uses in oral assessments.

A Farewell to our Wonderful Seniors

Unfortunately, we have to say goodbye to three of our tech team members as they graduate this December, moving on to the real world! Kate Bauer and Brady Van Malsen have been valued Tech Team members since they started. Brady joined the team in the spring of 2012. Like any good techie, he floundered around for a bit, observing veteran techies, picking up odd jobs, attending every conference he could, and searching for his niche. He jumped on the iPad bandwagon and found expertise in Evernote and Twitter. He presented alongside fellow techie Jencen Smith and Professor VanDuinen at eCornucopia 2013 on Twitter. Brady raised questions that led to a restructuring of the progression of the NETS (now ISTE) standards in the Hope Education Department curriculum. A small team formed to lend insight into this process and help introduce education students to the role of technology in education at an early stage in their training. Brady continued to attend conference after conference searching for inspiration and gadgets to play with. He is set to present at MACUL 2015 a session called "What's in a Game?" examining parallels between video games and education. He'd like to thank the tech team, past and present, for providing opportunities, sharing discoveries, and offering friendship. Kate also joined the tech team in the spring of 2012. Although she was new to the Mac world, she began researching iPad uses and apps with a small group of techies for Hamilton Community Schools. She continued to work with iPads, helping teachers, faculty, and students utilize these devices. Kate also had the opportunity to be a co-director of the technology team with Ashley (Blauwkamp) Golin for the ‘13-’14 school year. In her final semester, Kate stepped down, working on small projects and managing the tech team’s tool box. Kate is beyond thankful for the many opportunities and connections she has had through tech team. From presenting at the MACUL ‘13 conference to teaching Chalk and Wire to laughing with her fellow techies, Tech Team experiences have honestly been some of her best at Hope. The Tech Team could not thank them enough for all the work both of them put into the team. They will surely be missed!

In Conclusion: The Hope College Education Department Technology Team had a great semester! We are looking forward to working with the education department, as well as members of our community in the coming semesters. Check out our website for more information on the tech team by clicking on the link below. If you have any questions or need help, you can contact us by emailing the education technology team at edtechteam@hope.edu or check out our website at http://hopeedtech.weebly.com/.