Edmonds Digital Learning

With the move to Chromebooks, teachers have lost access to many of their trusted multimedia tools, like Movie Maker, Photostory, and Audacity.  When attempting to create engaging, real-world projects for students, such as podcasting, this can be barrier. Thankfully, there are many developers bringing multimedia tools to the web. Bandlab For those familiar with GarageBand, Bandlab with feel very intuitive, giving users the ability to build multi-track audio projects from captured audio (recorded via the computer's microphone) and built-in synthesized instruments. Students making podcasts can edit and manipulate multiple audio sources, perfect for assembling interviews or multi-person stories.  For added professionalism, students can also compose their own music. It's incredibly easy to use, and integrates directly with students' Google accounts, so it all works seamlessly in the cloud.  For aspiring podcasters, it even offers a platform on which to publish ...

Anyone who is still pondering how technology can be used in visual arts should spend 5 minutes in an art class at Alderwood Middle School.  Since her arrival, teacher Amy Barnes has transformed the curriculum using 1:1 Chromebooks, giving students more choice and control over their learning, and giving classic techniques a techno-spin. While learning single-point perspective, students use an online tutorial program to help them review techniques that they have learned in class, as well as push themselves by attempting new and individual challenges given to them by the program.  By end, each student has mastered the concept, and produced an original design for a room. Once their initial designs are complete, the students use Planner 5D on their Chromebooks to translate that design to a 3D computer-aided-design environment.  Students I spoke to said that this helped them to find mistakes in their original drawings (e.g. when an object was too short, o...

Shark Tank inspired science project engages students with an innovative challenge. How can energy produced by lightening be captured and used? In October, “Sharks” attacked an 8th grade science class at Meadowdale Middle for the 2nd Annual Shark Tank Challenge.  Parents, school staff, and administrators took on the role of “shark” investors as students presented their ideas to the panel. As one student stated, “we have done research projects before, but never anything where we had to come up with the idea and other people grill you with questions..., especially adults.” The students in Stephen Howard's 8th grade science class learned more than simply how energy works and impacts the world. They embarked on a journey to apply their knowledge in a useful way. Howard’s Shark Tank project embodies the important 21st Century Learning skills of collaboration, communication, creativity, imagination, critical thinking, and problem solving as it relates to the science curr...