Through trial and error, Mike connected a video expansion card to his Macintosh and created a video special effects graphic generator. He established a connection between the Macintosh computers video/ audio outputs to a VCR tape deck and generated rudimentary title text, and animated graphics. The special effects was recorded through a playback of the first VCR to a second VCR. A section of his first documentary using this method entitled "The Flower that Shattered the Stone," sung by Olivia Newton John, can be seen on the above. This was the first generation attempt of what would become known, in the not so distant future, as iMovie.
|
|
Technology education was also at the forefront of his administrative efforts. The central purpose for creating the technology education program was to expose students to 21st Century skills while providing real life work related applications. The program was visited by State Superintendent Dr. Roy Peters who validated in a news release that, "This technology education program has a reputation for being one of the best in the state." In the spring of 1994 the program was awarded the state's Program of Excellence in Technology Education.
|
Classrooms Without WallsIn the video to the left entitled "Classrooms without Walls" are narrated excerpts from the Mike's vision essay on classroom use of technology. The video was created in 2006 to promote virtual learning opportunities for students. The video is again edited in July of 2010 to promote his Podstock presentation on "Designing Highly Engaging Digital Lessons." He also began to experiment with the use of avatars in the design of interactive lessons. You can view some of these creations at Avatars on Capzles.
|
|
Designing Digital LessonsIncluding working with the development of the districts infrastructure, and implementing a student management system, Mike King became involved in various ways to integrate technology into the classroom. Starting in the fall of 2006, in anticipation of the district-wide implementation of interactive whiteboards, Mike went beyond offering classes to his media specialists and nearly 500 teachers on how to integrate technology in the classroom and design interactive lessons. He also called on at-risk students, enrolled in the district’s alternative high school, to help teachers make the most of their new whiteboards, especially by incorporating various forms of digital media when using them and created a new concept called media kits.
|
|
Operation Freedom CallIn October of 2005 Mike King developed ties with Freedom Calls network, a not-for-profit group that organizes teleconferences for soldiers overseas. He established links between community families at home over a satellite network that the foundation had set up under authority of the Secretary of the Army. The video call were free connections through the Internet and Freedom Calls Satellite Network to Iraq. In the video to the left the Watkins family is given an opportunity to visit with their father in Iraq as it was reported by fox news.
|
|
Digital StorytellingDuring the fall of that year Mike King teamed with Wesley Fryer to create the Oklahoma Digital Centennial Project which later became “Celebrate Oklahoma Voices” (See Participant Responses). On October 8, 2007 he post his first vodcast on the Classroom 2.0 Ning site promoting the Oklahoma Digital Centennial Project. The ODCP provided a three day workshop for teachers on the use of digital tools to create digital stories to preserving Oklahoma's history. To the right is Mike's first digital story which was written, narrated and produced by him for the Oklahoma Digital Centennial Project.
|
|
Social networking was well on its way as Mike started his first independent blog in December of 2007 entitled The Digital Sandbox which to this day, continues to promote technology integration in the classroom. In 2007 Mike began researching and writing on Web 2.0 applications in the classroom. He developed a short video on the definitions associated with Web 2.0 and uploaded it to Teacher Tube. Within the first week the video is featured and receives over 500 views. To date the video has been viewed over 31,400 times. Over the next four years Mike produced over 45 educational short videos for integrating technology into the classroom.
|
|
In the fall of 2008, Mike designed the Halliburton Project for gifted students at Dodge City Middle School. The purpose for the project is to allow students to explore the latest technology tools and solutions available to help them build knowledge of 21st Century learning. The project provides multiple examples of media-rich projects, and allows students to experience the world of podcasting, vodcasting, blogs, wikis, web 2.0, digital storytelling, and Google Earth KML files.
|
|
In his second year at the school he began a SMART board initiative. Within a two year period, over 85% of the classrooms at the school have SMART Boards, wireless access points installed, classroom responders distributed and every teacher with a laptop. In 2009 he launched Cardinal Spaces, a school work wiki where teachers could post and review information on school operations. The School wiki included methods for tier interventions, mastery checks, PLC meetings, the posting of curriculum goal statements, and communicated team decision items based on data retrieval. The site statistics during the first year and a half sky rocketed to a staggering 34,000 hits.
|
|
The Conceptual AgeBetween 2009 and 2011 Mike worked to develop three education technology integration models. Each of the models is built around his original 1995 foundational model of standard based instructional delivery systems. The foundational model of 1995 fosters the idea that students should be exposed to technology using core standards of learning through thematic units that support authentic assessments.
The first model "The Conceptual Model" incorporates Daniel Pink’s conceptual suppositions into six separate traits, each trait being applied in conjunction with one or the other or as a separate element. The conceptual model is procured through the relevance of digital tools as they are applied to one of the following six traits:
|
The New Alexandrian'sThe third model under development is based on the flipped classroom concept. These ideas of facilitated learning are projected in a 1995 video created by Mike King to harness the ideas of the conceptual age. In the video entitled “Teaching in the Conceptual Age” demonstrates the four necessary characteristics of classrooms in the future as they differ from the industrial age classrooms of the past.
|
|
Mike King states, "In the third model of facilitated classrooms, the creation of digital content through eBooks and application of mobile learning within the flipped classroom, will drive new ideas in future cultures of learners." These ideas are based on what he calls the "New Alexandrians."
Portions of the eBook can be found in web form at Flipping Your Classroom. A full edition of the eBook should be posted on line prior to his next presentation on March 2, 2011 at the Mid-America Association for Computers in Education. |
|