Upon returning home from EdJEWCon, we are starting to get our hands a little dirty… in fact this is the first blog post I have ever written!!!

Blogging:  Our Middle School Teacher started a blog, and will inspire other teachers to follow suit…. We are also figuring out how to supplement our Word Press website with Word Press blogging capability to support Elana’s efforts. 

Strategic Upgrades – a proof of concept:  Inspired by the QR Codes on the artwork at MJGDS, we figured out to add depth to a few science fair poster boards.  We experimented with a few types of media (mp3, m4a, and mov), all of which worked.  Proving many theories that we heard at EdJEWCon right, the technology was very easy to use (even for me), but it’s the content and the skills that are so important to create a quality product.  This, however, was a proof of concept to test the viability.

• Using an iPhone and Google Voice, we recorded 3 children delivering their science fair “elevator pitch.” 
• We stored the files in the media section of our website
• Using http://qrcode.kaywa.com/ we generated QR Codes for the media files – 2 audio and 1 video
• We printed the QR Codes and, using a glue stick, pasted them on to the science fair boards.
• This morning we demonstrated how this strategic upgrade brought a new level of depth to the final piece, but also engaged my kids in a way that was exciting and inspiring!

Telling the Story: As luck would have it, next week we have a Board meeting, a faculty meeting and a community meeting… at all 3 events we plan to share our experiences with these stakeholders and get everyone excited about these new concepts and ideas we are beginning to embrace.