Challenges… The Current Way to Engage Educators

I’ve been seeing and participating in a lot of Challenges lately. From Edublogs, SMART, & ThingLink I’ve had a chance to think outside the box and review creative ways other educators are using tools. So I helped develop the idea of a challenge to my district’s technology integration team. We’ve launched the Tweet 10 Challenge.

We kicked it off with the Esurance commercial embedded below. Utilizing ThingLink, I created the image above with various ‘touches’. Each day the teachers were asked to complete a task which would introduce them to the features of Twitter. Each task included a YouTube video tutorial I created using SnagIt. At the end of the week, they received a digital badge for completing the challenge as well as a sticker (because we all love stickers!). I felt it was quite successful. Teachers were signing up to Twitter and using the hastag #wwprsd. Over the week we had in excess of 160 tweets and I believe about 60 individuals identified as Twitter users.

Also, if you are interested in STEAM, take a look at ThingLink’s monthly challenges. The first three dealt with Life Science, Physical Science, and Earth & Space. I didn’t have the opportunity to be selected as a winner; I submitted one on Space. But I’m hoping I win the next one on Technology & Engineering. I have two (Parts of an iPad & Favorite Math Apps) in the running for first prize, $200 Amazon Gift Card.

Have you organized a Teacher Challenge, if so I would love to know about it in the comments.

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