Ed Tech Axis

Ipad Apps

2012-01-10T09:04:00.000-05:00

As I think I have stated before, my school is moving towards implementing ipads in the K-2 hallway. That means I get to start exploring possible apps. This list from Tech and Learning is a great resource if you're looking for them. The comments also provide more resources. Thanks to Vicki Windman. I'm digging down now...

image credit: http://www.everystockphoto.com/photo.php?imageId=5778933&searchId=09401fded433c34709fd1f1872728162&npos=2

New Projects: Busy as Little Bees

2012-01-06T14:04:00.003-05:00

What am I doing? Busy as a bee. I thought I'd just share some recent projects and tools we are using:

Preschool: We visit PBSkids Games section. Not exactly ground breaking, I know.

Kindergarten: They just started learning about patterns so we visit the National Library of Virtual Manipulatives and complete their various patterning activities.

First Grade: They're learning about money/making change/selling items so we use Jump Start First Grade, The Money Challenge and The Lemonade Stand to reinforce those skills.

Second Grade: We just finished a several week unit using Scratch programming to create animations of the bean plant life cycle. Here is an example of one. Now, we are beginning Martin Luther King Jr timelines using Timeline Maker or SumoPaint (the kids choose).

Third Grade: They just finished a Microsoft Word unit (not terribly exciting) and are now beginning keyboarding. We use Type to Learn 3 and some old school keyboarding drills as well. I even have a very old word processor I show them and give them a chance to try out!

Fourth Grade: They just finished a copyright unit that I designed and described here. Now they are starting a keyboarding unit of practice.

Fifth Grade: These students just created blogs for the book Kokopelli's Flute. Each student chose a character from the book and composed one blog post per chapter as if they were keeping a journal. They were graded on creativity (did they use a song or poem instead of just text?) and communication skill. They were also graded on their commenting skills with other kids...they had to comment on at least 10 other blogs. We used Kidblog. They're set to private at this point. So we can't share here. Now they are using Masher to create short travel videos for South Africa. It's our very first time using this tool and I'm nervous. Our tools in this year have not always gone well (Glogster shut down mid project, MyFakewall functioned horribly, Nota had glitches). Kidblog was awesome so I'm hoping for another score.

Little Bird Tale

2011-12-16T08:35:00.000-05:00

This year, our first graders used Little Bird Tales to make digital e-books on the Wampanoag Indians. They learned about these Native Americans in their class and they reported on their studied by using this free drawing, writing and recording tool. Here is one particularly hilarious report...make sure your audio is turned on.

Click to view my tale.

Copyright Video--Pretty Accessible and funny too

2011-11-22T08:23:00.003-05:00

Nota

2011-11-18T08:49:00.001-05:00

My fifth graders voted this the very best digital poster in their class. We made these Nota-pages using Notaland. Each student highlighted what they viewed as important moments in technological history. Pong was one! My only complaint about Nota is that they are not easy to print and "sharing" does not always work correctly. I think there are problems with the flash updates related to the software.

My Fakewall is a Pain in the Rear

2011-11-01T13:41:00.000-05:00

My fifth graders tried creating fake Facebook pages for American Colonists today using My Fakewall. It has been lauded as a great Web 2.0 tool in many blogs like Free Tech for Teachers, Pursuit of Technology Integration Happiness and Teach2Connect, so I figured I'd give it a try. Not only did the login page take FOREVER to load, but once we logged in and created accounts, we could not create new pages. If we were successful at creating a page--we had perhaps two or three--we could then not upload pictures. We tried several different file types and on several different computers. It's a part of my life as a tech teacher, an early adopter at that, to experience bugs with Beta products, cost increases with free tools and even the occasional demise of a tool. However, there were so many problems with this tool that it almost rendered my classtime moot. I had them research facts and images for the characters in case the site is up and running next week. For now I deem this tool: A Pain in the Rear.

Easy Collaborative Web Tools Session at AIMS

2011-10-31T09:28:00.001-05:00

At the AIMS conference today, I am attending a session with Chip Chase. Here is his site with links to the tools.

Easy Innovations: Web Tech Tools in the Classroom (Part 1) on Prezi

Awash in Inspirational Videos

2011-10-27T20:18:00.001-05:00

I remember the first inspirational education-related video I ever saw: Did You Know (version one). Chills, I had chills watching it. I thought, and felt in every cell of my body, "Yes! This is TRUTH!" Since that time, I have watched many, many educational videos meant to inspire and inform. There are those that have become iconic, such as the college classroom sign-holders in the "A Vision of Students Today" and the RSA-designed "Changing Education Paradigms" featuring Sir Ken Robinson. Today, I came across another one. A blog post from Jenny Luca mentioned "Obvious To You, Amazing to Others" by Derek Sivers. I didn't get chills, but it may be because I have seen so many of these. It's still pretty awesome:

Character Trading Cards for First Grade

2011-10-20T12:15:00.000-05:00

ReadWriteThink has to be one of the absolute best resources for early literacy I have ever used. Today in class, our first graders made Character Trading Cards. In order to make the cards, they had to answer a series of questions about the character such as "How do they feel at the beginning of the story?", "What is their problem?" and "What is their goal?" At the end, the printed cards can be cut out, but we just posted them on the wall as is. It seriously challenges them to think and to draw conclusions so make sure they understand the story's plotlines well! The only struggles we had were when students did not remember facts, like the setting or the character's physical attributes.

I have also used their Story Map with first graders as well as the Plot Diagram.

Cool New Tools and Time to Try Them

2011-10-18T14:32:00.000-05:00

A colleague and I are offering a Web Tools workshop that introduces five new Web 2.0 tools and gives participants time to try the tools. I selected them because they cover a range of grade levels and subject areas and I have tried them out personally. Our tools:
SoundCloud, which is a podcasting/recording tool. Completely free and embeddable.
Prezi, an alternative to PowerPoint or other slideshow creators.
Little Bird Tales, a digital storytelling tool designed for the youngest learners, complete with built-in sound and drawing tools.
Museum Box, where users can "build up an argument or description of an event, person or historical period by placing items in a virtual box."
Lucidchart, an online diagram and flowchart software program which is incredibly powerful, yet simple.

Mystery State Project

2011-10-18T14:19:00.000-05:00

Today, I was catching up on my ISED listserv digests and came across a link from Jayme Johnson over at the Village school. She recommended the Mystery State Skype Project. I LOVE IT! In this innovative Skype project, students sign up to meet with another class to guess which state they are from. Each class comes up with clues to share at the first meeting. From the site:

"Have your students come up with at least 10 great clues about your state ranging from easy to hard. Make sure to stress to your students that the clues need to be fact based and well researched. You want to make sure you include topography. Great beginning clues would be who the Governor is or showing a picture of the state capitol."

It's a bit late to be signing up, so get on the ball!

What the What, Glogster!?!

2011-10-11T12:33:00.002-05:00

My fifth graders have been using Glogster to create digital posters. Each chose an important moment in history and was going to highlight facts about that event as well as explain its importance. Today when we went to login to complete the project we received this screen below.

The kids could not access their projects and I had to think very quick on my feet. We made a quick turn and used Nota for the day and I'll have them write an evaluation comparing the two tools for homework. But still! What the what, Glogster? No notice? The students were on the site as late as yesterday!?!

Computer Use vs Television Viewing in Toddlers

2011-10-10T20:00:00.000-05:00

I'm a parent now, and even before I had kids I was always lecturing everyone around on how horrible television was for kids--especially babies, toddlers and preschoolers. The eye-rolls and clearing of the throats did not stop me, I kept on talking about statistics like:

Number of minutes per week that parents spend in meaningful conversation with their children: 3.5

Number of minutes per week that the average child watches television: 1,680

Number of murders seen on TV by the time an average child finishes elementary school: 8,000

Number of violent acts seen on TV by age 18: 200,000

Number of 30-second TV commercials seen in a year by an average child: 20,000

(Stats from Calif. State Univ: http://www.csun.edu/science/health/docs/tv&health.html)

Now that I have a bouncing baby boy, I still have yet to change my mind. I do have friends whose babies are watching crap like Yo Gabba Gabba (I know, I'm inviting a storm of protests here). I read the chapter in Nurture Shock that explains that so-called Educational Programming actually teaches bullying in a more subtle and hurtful kind of way! Go sell crazy somewhere else, I tell them. We don't watch television at all and will not do so, even for a little, until he is two years old. And then, I'm still not sure. However, that doesn't mean that I eschew all technology. In fact, my 10 month old is already becoming adept at using my iPhone. We have several apps on there just for him. Things like Koi Pond, Peekaboo Barn and Doodle Kids. He will have an iPad for his 1 year birthday present.

So, how do I justify allowing "screen time" of that nature? Well, I think it's about interactivity. He is not the passive viewer in this case. He is active, controls what he sees and for how long. He is not subject to advertisements or violence or sex. I think touch-screen "screen time" is a whole different world than Web 1.0 one-way passivity. There isn't a whole lot of research that differentiates for this new medium, but I am really looking forward to seeing it. I predict it will show very different results.

Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/12738795@N00/5216468922/sizes/m/in/photostream/

Why Blogs are Better than Tweets...For Me

2011-10-06T09:33:00.000-05:00

Yesterday, I attended our first PLP webinar. It was kind of a recap of our first meeting, actually, with discussions about 21st Century Learning. The focus was upon obstacles and changes that must occur in order for "learning" to happen now. During the discussion, I lamented that I have felt out of touch with my family and friends on Facebook because I was investing time into Twitter. Same for my blogs. Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach encouraged me to start a discussion in the Community Hub for the group (a Ning) on the topic and so I did. Susan Carter Morgan helped me to process why it is that I like blogs better than Twitter--most blog posts allow for a longer length to explain what the link is about. That way, I can decide by reading a few sentences if I want to follow the link and explore. On Twitter, it's kind of a "I'm feeling Lucky" button (on Google's Search Engine) ALL THE TIME. Who has time for that? Yes, I have found items of use on Twitter. My fave find are the Famigo Family Apps for iPad. But I'm still deciding how I'm going to use Twitter in the long run.

Image credit: http://bit.ly/pdxl3P

Plunging into the River Twitter

2011-09-26T13:25:00.000-05:00

I've said it before, I'll say it again: I hate Twitter. The reason why has more to do with who I am, rather than some essential truth about Twitter. It has been said that Twitter is a river of information and that you should not try to swallow everything that comes downriver (to kill the metaphor). You should just, as Will Richardson said today, "dip your toe in" and come up with whatever you find to be of value and then shut the valve. I'm not too good at doing that. I like to do things beginning to end. The middle, the unfinished, frightens me. That's just a personality trait. There is no way I can be done tweeting. I can never read all the tweets. At least in my RSS reader, I can read all the new blog posts and be "done." So, already, the PLP is actually challenging me, because one of my tasks is to join Twitter and follow someone. So, I'm doing it. I'm not liking it but I'm sure that'll be different by the next time I post. When will I ever find the time?!?!

Quote of the Day

2011-09-26T09:05:00.000-05:00

"If we're asking questions that can be answered by pulling a phone out of our pocket (via internet or talk), why are we asking those questions?"--Will Richardson, PLP

PLP Kickoff Day One

2011-09-26T08:18:00.001-05:00

Here we are, our team of six, at the Powerful Learning Practice (PLP) Cohort kickoff. We're at Garrison Forest School in the Lower School library. Here's the keynote by Will Richardson. We're being told, we get to pick and choose our interests, that we don't have to participate in lessons we don't feel we need. We get to be learners first and foremost. I feel like that most of the time, so letting go of being the "leader" or the "teacher" isn't a challenge for me at all. It seems like my job requires me to be learning almost every minute of every day.

"Lean into your discomfort. Say hello to it." That's what they are telling us. I do hope that I feel some discomfort. It sounds terrible to say, but I have not felt truly uncomfortable learning a new tech tool in a while. That means I am definitely not challenging myself enough. So, I'll look forward to saying hi.

So far, the thing I'm most looking forward to is the asynchronous communication piece. We'll have a Ning for our group and I've always discovered the best ideas in the virtual learning communities.

Image Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/fenris117/4536603725/sizes/s/in/photostream/

Powerful Learning Practice Cohort

2011-09-20T10:19:00.000-05:00

This year, six colleagues and I are participating in a year-long professional development course called "Powerful Learning Practice." It's a mostly on-line experience with two days of face-to-face with other local colleagues from our AIMS community. The promise is that it will feature "job-embedded, blended instruction in the use of classroom technology." Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach and Will Richardson are the company owners, and a friend who teaches at Garrison Forest sold me on the program at this year's ISTE Conference. She said, "It changed my life." I really like this woman, so I believe her. We shall see.

The free, open-to-all "pregame" of activities started this week. That means that we receive a daily email with a series of tasks to complete. These are like "23 Things" in nature. For instance, one task is to watch a whole bunch of Web 2.0 videos like "Did You Know?" and "The Networked Student." Then, to make comments upon them. Luckily, they are updated versions from the originals so I'm not repeating things I have seen 15 times. Next day's task is to create a blog post. I think I'm ahead of this game.

Wolfram Alpha Webinar

2011-09-15T18:34:00.001-05:00

It's Thursday night and I have exactly one hour between putting my son to bed and heading to a neighbor's house to babysit for her as a part of our cul-de-sac's babysitting co-op. During that one hour, I am attending a Wolfram Alpha webinar on using their tool in the classroom. I've learned that it's really a computational tool, and not a search engine. That means that it kind of "thinks" or computes the results rather than just reporting back a list of Web sites where text occurs! For example, if you type in "distance between Texas and Sydney Australia" you will get an actual computed result. I will be encouraging my science teachers to use their tool for their students' research on elements, on space and stars, and nutritional data. It is relevant to any subject, actually. If you type in "current president", Wolfram Alpha recognizes what the word "current" means and then presents information relevant to your country!

Once you have computed the data you need, you can export it as a PDF, email or blog it, post it to social media sites and more. It can even generate QR codes! You can print a QR code on your homework sheet that the students can use with their smartphones later that night. I'm trying to decide if QR codes are anything other than marketing--they could be "the next big thing"--but that's another blog post.

What's a drawback? When I introduce this tool to my math teachers (again--I learned about it two years ago), they are going to say, "It tells them the answer! They will stop doing the work and just copy, rather than thinking." I asked the webinar leader this question and the answer was, "If you share the tool with the caveat that there is still a test coming and if they only copy, rather than using it as a tool to understand, they will not do well." That's a tough sell. But it is true, and another way that we could teach our students to take responsibility for their own learning.

There was a session on widgets that I had to miss because I ran out of time.

They have a section of their site for education where there are various presentation and faculty training tools I plan to use.

Free Media Literacy Resources from FTC

2011-09-06T09:36:00.001-05:00

I'm usually pretty wary about "free resources" from the government. They tend to be outdated and out of touch with reality, in general. These resources I found at this summer's ISTE conference are different. They are free, of course, but also useful.

First, Admongo is an online game that teaches critical thinking skills about advertising. It's not terribly long and the graphics are actually neat. It requires students to figure out "Who is responsible for the ad?," "What is the ad actually saying?" and "What does the ad want me to do?"

Also in the same vein is "You are Here," a virtual mall where students learn to be better consumers. They play games related to privacy, frauds and scams and more.

Finally, there are free printed materials you can order in bulk entitled "NetCetera: Chatting With Kids About Being Online" and "Heads Up," which is a guide for kids themselves. The overall kit, called a "Community Outreach Toolkit" includes everything you'd need to do a presentation. Visit bulkorder.ftc.gov to order them all. And they are available in Spanish as well.

Our taxdollars at work!

Media Use for Parents

2011-08-11T09:00:00.000-05:00

Last night, I gave a presentation at the PEP program in Kensington on developing a household approach to Media Use for younger kids, aged 6-14. From my perspective it went generally well, but not as well as I would have liked. I know when I feel "on point" but I felt a bit scattered and I feel it came through in the presentation. A clear throughline, a clear theme is critical when delivering content of such magnitude. It's too easy to throw out facts and a bunch of anecdotes without actually giving parents anything to walk away with. I always want them to leave with a message in mind and a clear plan of action. Can you tell I am Type A? Last night, I did not leave feeling as if everyone got that POA.

There was a good question raised that I must ponder, really think hard about: Now that computing is ubiquitous and pervasive, how can you restrict usage by using things like filters? Even if you as a parent are sitting with the child and helping them process that information they see (another one of my messages), you can't always be there. How can you possibly require computers in public spaces--one of the key messages I send to parents of younger kids--when things like their iPod Touch and other devices can access Internet. No iPods or iPads in their rooms? How realistic is that? I answered that a guideline should be set and that they will likely no abide that guideline completely, but as long as you set the guideline and explain why it is being set, the intention is clear to the child that you have boundaries on the issue--that THEY should have boundaries on the issue. But I'm not completely satisfied with that answer and seek to come up with a better one.

Having said that, I promised I would post the presentation here, and so I have:

Open publication - Free publishing

Bridging the Axis

2011-08-04T08:14:00.002-05:00

A guest post from Lindsey Wright, one on the very topic we are considering at my school, Bring Your Own Technology.

As a general rule, schools frown on students using their own technology in the classroom. If a child brings his or her laptop to school or uses the calculator function on a smartphone, the end result is often confiscation of the device and a phone call home. However, with a host of school-friendly software options available, some institutions are embracing the “bring your own technology” (BYOT) mantra as a way to bridge the educational axis between school and home. If students are able to interact with technology in a learning capacity both in and out of the classroom, it is possible for learning to increase and student success to skyrocket. The trick, then, is in convincing schools that BYOT options are not only safe for students, but beneficial to both student and teacher as they facilitate the learning process. To this end, it’s important to look at what the latest research says about BYOT and to examine the free educational software options that can be embraced to enhance student learning in the BYOT classroom.

What the Research Says
The idea that computers, whether they assist a student in taking online classes or are integrated into a traditional classroom setting, can have a positive impact on student achievement is nothing new. According to a study by the U.S. Department of Education, appropriate use of technology in the classroom has numerous positive benefits. It is recognized to increase both student motivation and self-esteem, helps them develop technical skills essential to the job market, and encourages students to attempt tasks that require higher-order skills — and succeed at them. In short, education that uses classroom technology in meaningful ways creates students who are confident learners and purveyors of information. That these same benefits would translate to the home is not much of a leap.

The primary problem with technology that students carry with them to and from school is availability of funds to purchase it. School districts across the country are facing budgetary shortfalls, and there are far more schools competing for technology grants than there are grants to go around. As the teacher blog “Classroom Technology — Where Does the Funding Come From?” illustrates, having laptops available for a class of students is expensive, running on average $15,000 for single class. If that number is changed to reflect the need to give every student in the school or in a particular grade a laptop so that they can carry their computers home with them each day, the cost goes up astronomically. Smartphones, which have many of the same benefits as laptops, aren’t as expensive but still come with a pretty hefty price tag. Therefore, when funds are scarce and most grant-based funding comes with strings attached, the BYOT option seems a viable alternative.

BYOT Programs in Action
One of the biggest concerns the educators face when schools implement BYOT programs is that of control. How can educators control what the students access and how they use it? If smartphones are in use, how can the teacher prevent students from texting during class? The answer is currently being explored in the Forest Hills School District in Cincinnati. According to Cary Harrod, instructional technology specialist for Forest Hills, at the beginning of January 2011 all seventh grade students in the district were allowed to bring their own laptop, netbook, or tablet PC for use during the school day. To help ensure classroom control and student safety are maintained, the district has launched a “parent voice group” to ensure parental participation and awareness. Professional development has also helped educators learn how to utilize technology in the classroom and monitor its safe usage. Finally, students participate in seminars alongside parents and teachers designed to help them learn how to learn, which gives them a way to own their learning and understand the role technology plays in the learning process.

Likewise, the district has prepared to meet another nearly universal concern of educators when a BYOT program is implemented: compatibility. When students are each bringing their own technology, there is concern that not every student will have the same technology features. Some might write documents in Notepad, others in Word, and still others in Google docs. If the choices for basic word processing software are numerous, consider how overwhelming the choices for other software functions (such as spreadsheets or graphing) might be. To counteract this, teachers are trained to instruct students in basic principles rather than in specific programs. Students are trusted to be knowledgeable enough about technology to work the programs on their own computers.

Finally, Forest Hills has surmounted the most perplexing difficulty of the BYOT innovation: that of students unable to afford the technology. For these students who would otherwise be left out, Forest Hills has begun soliciting donations from organizations and individuals. They are seeking both new and used laptops, netbooks, and tablet PCs so that each student has an equal opportunity to learn in a technologically facilitated environment.

It’s essential that students be provided with every opportunity to learn and develop new skills, and integrating technology into the classroom is great way to do exactly that. Technology, when used both at home and in the classroom to facilitate learning, is a powerful tool. For students, BYOT options provide a chance to use this tool without being fettered by school budget constraints. By bringing their own technology, students will learn how to use their personal devices in new ways and develop an appreciation for what they can do with just a bit of technical assistance. Most importantly, the divide between school and home, the educational axis, will be bridged, allowing learning to become part of the student’s daily life.

The 2010 Social Networking Map

2011-06-30T10:15:00.002-05:00

I used to use the old version of this map in my parent presentations. I have one coming up this summer and I'm psyched to see the new version:

The 2010 Social Networking Map

Infographics BYOL Session at ISTE

2011-06-28T10:33:00.001-05:00

Today, I am at the ISTE conference in Philadephia, attending a session on Infographics. I have already blogged about my excitement to attend this session, so you can imagine my surprise that as I sit here, Kathy Schrock is not leading it. Hmm...I guess I will figure it out later. Instead, this post will be composed of my notes. Here is the Google Page set up for the session. So, according to the nice lady next to me, Kathy Schrock's infographics session was YESTERDAY and this is yet another one. Oh. This one is led by Jane Krauss (a project based learning specialist) and Diana Laufenberg.

There are a LOT of iPads here, a whole bunch of sleek tablets. I'm plunking away on my eeePC netbook trying not to feel like the poor kid in my dollar store sneakers.

They start off here with a Minard Map from 1869, showing Napolean's Russian battles. It's supposedly one of the first infographics ever, especially showing the juxtaposition of data. The next infographic asks us to figure out which mountain in Utah would be best for an expert and then to add data to the existing graphic.

Next, they play David McCandless's TED Talk on "The Beauty of Visualization of Information."

Here was an example shown of an amazingly good infographic from The Guardian showing protests in the Middle East: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/interactive/2011/mar/22/middle-east-protest-interactive-timeline as well as this one about privacy settings on Facebook over time: http://www.mattmckeon.com/facebook-privacy/

My seatmate went to Kathy Schrock's Infographics session yesterday and says that she gave this advice: Start with viewing and dissecting them first. Then ask what could you change to make it better or to add to enhance the graphic?

Project Ideas:
- Make an Flowchart infographic of a government function, like the Greencard application process.
- Use a base graphic showing US Immigration numbers showing spikes and drops and then assign creation of a graphic showing what predicted flow may happen in the next couple years.

Tools they showed--there are more tools on the links page at the top of this post:
Many Eyes from IBM
LucidChart

Overall, this was a good session. I like how it was hands-on. I'm not sure that I got much out of it that I would not have found on my own but it was certainly dedicated time to explore.

Infographics, My New Obsession

2011-06-02T11:52:00.001-05:00

I don't know how YOU stay energized and focused in a field as mercurial and transformative as Ed Tech, but one way I do it is to find a focus. For a while I was focused on Web 2.0 tools, and for a while on programming. Now, I've decided it's infographics. What are infographics? Well, I saw that ISTE 2011 features a BYOL(laptop) session on Infographics and thought to myself, "Self, that's the way education is going--synthesis of data into a visual communication piece." I immediately signed up for the session and found out later that it is being led by Kathy Schrock. That's pretty neat, too. She has already erected a page/site for the conference with tons of information and links on the topic.

According to the "Anatomy of an Infographic" site, each infographic has these important parts:

1.Visual
◦Color Coding
◦Graphics
◦Reference Icons

2.Content
◦Time Frames
◦Statistics
◦References

3.Knowledge
◦Facts
◦Deductions

I'll attend the session and post here how it went.

Infographic source: http://opengecko.com/geckoview/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/time-online1.jpg

New Social Studies Interactives: Mission US and Life Without the Bill of Rights

2011-05-27T08:11:00.003-05:00

This Spring, our fifth graders are introduced to the American Revolution in their Social Studies classes. They even have an overnight trip to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Each year, I do my best to help integrate technology into their studies and I am really excited about two new online tools, both discovered thanks to Learning and Leading with Technology.

Mission US is a free, online role playing game in which students act as either loyalists or patriots in 1770 Boston, Massachusetts. They act as apprentices and interact with locals, being asked to choose sides as tensions rise. Our fifth graders ADORED this activity. They were constantly getting up to go visit each others' characters and discuss what should be done. Teachers can even manage classes and track student progress through the game. Students can play at home if the teacher sets it up that way--and our students certainly did. There is a classroom guide with ideas for multimedia projects and other classroom activities. I knew it was a hit when the Social Studies teacher said that the kids were bringing up connections in his class, a la "Oh, like in Mission US!"

The next resource is "Life Without The Bill of Rights" from the Bill of Rights Institute. In this free click-and-explore game, students imagine what life might be like if there were no, say, freedom of speech in America. It's not anywhere near as engaging as Mission US since the kids cannot make choices, but it is a graphic representation to which they can connect, something that may be difficult when just reading about, say "freedom to petition." It clarifies some of the more nebulous rights.

I'll be using these again next year.

New Leadership, New Directions

2011-05-20T07:17:00.003-05:00

Our small independent school is going to be helmed by a a new Head next year...again...for the second time in two years. With it brings new technology direction and an opportunity for me to check myself. Do I want to keep the technology program pointed in the direction it is currently going? I moved around a lot as a kid and my unconventional mother encouraged me to change my name at each school. Yes, really. I've been Ali, Alecia, Annie, Lisa, Allison and Alisha. So, do I want our program to keep moving towards 1-to-1 with laptops? I've been tooting that horn for a while but recently I have been rethinking that. This summer's Philly ISTE conference may shed some light on future directions in tech, but my gut instinct tells me that touch tablet computing, a la the iPad (not necessarily that particular one), is going to change a lot. Of course, we hear that all the time: this is the next big game changer. But in this case, I think it may be true.

The instinctive nature of the iPad and its operating system makes technology so much more accessible and eliminates the need to spend so much time teaching HOW to use the apps. Kids are instead just USING them right away. Yes, there is a lot to be desired in the way of the iPad being an input device, but that's coming. App development is happening more quickly than we can keep track. So, with this new leadership, I think I am going to seek a new direction and turn our ship a little bit. I'll focus, as usual, on faculty development, but from a hardware point of view, I'll exhort a BYOT model. We shall see how this is received.

Changing Education Paradigms

2011-03-04T14:56:00.000-05:00

Storybird Collaborative Storywriting

2011-02-18T08:35:00.002-05:00

Hello all. This morning, as my nanny is taking care of my son for the first day, and he's wailing because he doesn't know where mommy is (I'm in the basement), I am checking out some Web 2.0 tools for everyone. Trying not to cry and go upstairs, that is.

The tool is called Storybird. It's a web-based tool (no software) and of course it's free. This tool lets kids make short, simple stories that can actually be collaborated upon with others. Two or more people can make one together and take turns adding text and inserting pictures. It's a great way to get kids to work collaboratively on a sequential story, having to add elements that make sense.

Another great use would be for older students (say, fourth grade) to create a story about a scientific process in a way that explains it to younger kids that may study the same topic at an easier level. Say the Kindergarteners usually study animals in winter environments. The fourth graders study endangered species. The older students create a storybird for the Kindergarteners to read!Third grade could do the same with a solar system unit, when Kindergarteners learn about space transportation.

Take the video tour on Storybird.

There are also many, many more collaborative Web 2.0 tools suggested by the Technology and Learning article "Top Web Tools for Enhancing Collaboration" from November 2010.

Texting in the Modern Age

2011-02-15T07:27:00.003-05:00

There's a reason why I have not posted since November. No, I'm not one of the blogs that goes the way of the dinosaur after a while, like so many do. My reason weighs about fifteen pounds and is learning how to roll over about now. I foolishly thought I would keep up with my reader, my posts, my tech magazines while I was on maternity leave. Ha! What I did do, however, was become intimately familiar with why kids text. It was a mystery to me before, how a kid could text so very much. I have a plan that allows 1500 texts per month and before I had a baby, I used about 200 per month on the high side. Last month, I used 960. Wow. How did this happen?

We have a dog that likes to bark. So when my husband comes home from work for lunch or at the end of the day, he texts me to tell me so in case our son is sleeping and I need to take the dog out of the room with us. Otherwise, he WILL wake the baby. It has happened. Momma bear almost served the dog for dinner a few days, she was so angry. There's also "can you bring me a pear?" while I'm breastfeeding and cannot yell down the stairs to ask for one. There's also naptime, during which my son requires me to be in the room (I know, I'm working on it). I can text my friends and family to keep in touch during this quiet time, but I can't call. Photos and videos can be uploaded to Facebook via my iPhone quite easily during naptime. Grammy and Grandpa can be a part of our lives on a semi-daily basis, although they live far away.

So all of this is to say that the Ed-Tech-Axis, for which this blog is named, is now somewhat less mysterious to me. Of course, there are still many ways that I need to learn how to marry home use of technology with school use, but I certainly understand my students a lot better in this regard. And once again, I find myself very grateful to live in an age where iPhones and other smart technologies exist. I suppose in the olden days, I would have just put the dog outside permanently!

image credit: http://textthings.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/texting2.jpg

Blogs and Wikis Update

2010-11-02T13:51:00.002-05:00

Fifth Graders had some fun experimenting on their own with the new blog and wiki tools referenced in the previous blog post. Most of them like the blog a lot better than the wiki, but I think that's because it's so easy to comment upon each others' work, and the interface of the blog is so much more straightforward. It's like Steve Krug said so many years ago, "Don't make me think!" I have put the groups into several different teams and next week they will actually build their debate pages. For homework, they will comment upon one another's pages and then we'll vote to see whose page is most convincing from an argument/design point of view. Here's what we have so far: http://kidblog.org/FifthGradeTech2/bermandry/debating-the-trail-of-tears/ and http://kidblog.org/FifthGradeTech2/.

Technology for Beginning Teachers

2010-10-16T06:31:00.003-05:00

This week, a colleague and I begin teaching technology basics to a small group of area teachers in a "Beginning Teacher Institute" offered by Independent Education (formerly AISGW). There are only a few sessions and our task was to figure out what beginning teachers need to focus upon the most in their first year of teaching. We set up a grou.ps page to introduce the idea of developing a PLN and are posting our first day's lecture there. For the first time, I'm using Issuu instead of Slideshare. So far I'm impressed:

Open publication - Free publishing

New Blog and Wiki Tools for Kids

2010-10-05T12:20:00.007-05:00

In October, fifth graders are doing an experiential, hands-on group project to learn about blogs and wikis. I've used quite a few standard blog and wiki tools, but wanted to see what the Webworld had to offer in the way of new kid-friendly blogs and wikis. I was not disappointed to learn about two new ones: Pikiwiki and Kidblog.

Pikiwiki I discovered through the Technology on a Shoestring blog. According to their site, Pikiwiki "enables the everyday user to effortlessly create and share media rich web pages, using only a web browser, just you and your private group, or with the world." It's drag-and-drop functionality, and GUI (graphical user interface) make it ideal for kid use. The best part is that teachers can create an account, complete with class-specific groups, and add users all in about 10 minutes. I did it while the fifth graders were surfing the net trying to find out what the difference between blogs and wikis might be. Pikiwiki will be one of two options from which the students can use to create a debate-space for arguments pro-and con-Native American "relocation" a la the 1830s.

Kidblog.org is specifically designed for elementary and middle school users. I learned about it via a simple Google Search. They are set up by CLASS and email addresses are NOT required for students--a really big plus. All you do is either enter users one-by-one and enter passwords, or create a simple Excel (CSV) file with that info to bulk upload. That took me even less time than creating accounts for Pikiwiki. Teacher can control all commenting and moderate as much or as little as he or she prefers. Privacy is also controlled--they are all set by default to private, but guest accounts.passwords for parents, etc, are easily created. It is completely AD-FREE.

And of course, both of these tools are...magic words....FREE. I'll document the progress made as we continue with the projects.

Forget PowerPoint! Use These!

2010-09-24T07:08:00.004-05:00

Here's a great overview of some tools that you can use to present content that doesn't involve bullet points on a slide. It's called "A New Way To Lecture" and it was put together by Michael Zimmer. Thanks to Kathy Schrock's weekly "Help for Busy School Teachers" for bringing it to my attention. I shall definitely use this both with my own faculty and with the Independent School's Beginning Teacher Institute technology lessons I will offer beginning soon.

Open publication - Free publishing - More education

Free Educational Software List/Description

2010-09-14T07:59:00.003-05:00

Just reposting the "Free Classroom Software" page that Thane Terrill posted on his "Technology on a Shoestring" blog. What's neat about this list is that it's categorized by subject and all are applicable to education. Idea: Have my students in 5th grade choose one to research, review and then submit the review to a content-area teachers here in our school. Love it so far!!

Mission US: US History Role Playing Game

2010-09-08T08:08:00.002-05:00

Just read as well about Mission U.S., a new interactive adventure game online that puts students in the shoes of a 14 year old, in 1770s Boston. According to the site, students must choose between Loyalists vs. Patriots by the end of the game. Ideal for grades 5-8. The teacher page has a neat video explaining how best to use it in the classroom as well as curriculum guide. I have a strong feeling that it's not going to be free forever!

Evaluations for Digital Projects

2010-09-08T07:14:00.004-05:00

As Understanding By Design, and backwards planning teaches us, the goals and assessments should be the point from which we start when designing curriculum. Although I do not follow this exclusively, I do think it's a good practice and one of the areas in which I feel most challenged is grading. Admittedly, I don't grade as rigorously as I would like. This is the result of many different reasons, not just laziness. However one of the reasons is that I've never had it made as straightforward a process as I recently discovered it COULD be: The September/October 2010 Learning and Leading with Technology featured an article about this topic entitled "Where's the Beef?: Adding Rigor to Student Digital Projects." The author, Bernajean Porter, cites the NCREL "Nine Scoring Traits for Digital Projects." Each scoring guide is divided into two parts that make total sense: content and craftsmanship. Perfecto! It's exactly the combination I seek in all the projects I design for students.

The article goes over other important facets of project design but I got the most out of the scoring traits. I'll be trying these out immediately for sure.

23 Things for Professional Development in 2010-2011

2010-08-30T09:16:00.003-05:00

We're back!! This summer, I was so incredibly bored and yet I did not take the time to accomplish anything career-wise. It was a conscious choice to unplug, remove myself from "the stream" for the entire summer and really feel disconnectedness. Well, I did. It wasn't really very fun, but I am pregnant and soon to be so busy that I can't remember what boredom felt like. Perhaps after this summer, I won't mind the frenetic pace of the coming days. One of the ways in which my school will be compensating for my absence is independently-paced professional development in technology. Most of us have heard of the 43 Things goal setting community. We are doing a version of that, 23 Things. I took the School Library Learning version and tweaked it for our purposes. They based theirs on the Helene Blowers Learning 2.0 version. I love the idea that it's self-paced and independent. Where I differ from some others at my school is the notion that each teacher's should be tracked on a spreadsheet. Maybe I just object to the tedium of the tracking process and get over myself. But I think my real issue is the babysitting issue. If it were a group of students in my class, would I track their progress or just look at the overall whole? Probably just the overall finished products and projects. Maybe that's not data-driven enough, too vague. Perhaps it's because I want to gift my fellow teachers with an experience over which they feel ownership. If someone is looking over their shoulders and ticking off marks, does that feel feel like their own project? Then again, if I was an English Teacher, I'd want to see rough drafts and outlines to mark progress and make suggestions. Like Wikipedia, I'd like the community to police itself. That's probably too Utopian. Someone's got to dream!

Mixed Ink: Does it work?

2010-08-04T12:57:00.004-05:00

I read about Mixed Ink in the March/April Learning and Leading with Technology. Now, I've TRIED to use several real-time document sharing tools, such as Skrbl. I led an interesting fifth grade technology class one day in which we were all brainstorming ideas for a potential project with our partner class in Turkey. It did not go well. The site was overwhelmed with so many folks trying to log in at the same time so it was very slow and the entries went right on top of one another. It wasn't a disaster, but it didn't work the way I wanted it to. Mixed Ink supposedly does this better. It's like a google doc but more streamlined for collaborations between multiple parties. No invitations needed. What's different is that the group "rates" the best edits and the very best "version" is the one that is featured. It's free, but if you get the educator version, you get it ad-free and password protected. Otherwise it's very public. I'll letcha know how it works. Has anyone tried it?

Tech Savvy Parenting Presentation

2010-05-05T09:38:00.003-05:00

Last week, I met with a lively and engaging group of parents at the Lab School, Baltimore for a parent education session. I talked about my own particular approach to technology and parenting. I love presenting to parent groups because there is often so much fear when they come in the room and you can literally see a relaxation occur during the meeting...when they leave they look as if their step is lighter. It's all a matter of reminding them that this is a parenting issue just like any other--they don't have to learn all about every new technology tool out there in order to have and maintain boundaries in their home surrounding these issues. The PowerPoint below doesn't really say much because I'm shifting away from "bullet points" to illustrative images, but maybe it's worth a look-see.

Tech Savvy Parenting

View more presentations from bermandry.

Facebook Heads Connected to CIA?

2010-04-11T12:43:00.003-05:00

While completing research for a presentation I am giving parents/students on Tuesday evening about using Facebook's Privacy features, I came across this youtube video. On the one hand, there are very little-to-no references to back up the claims. On the other hand, if it's even a bit true, I'm not surprised and am thinking even more carefully about what and how I post. Can't escape big brother, but you can be in his sighlines, or the peripheral vision.

NECC 2009 Channel

2010-03-15T10:09:00.002-05:00

Just found out in the March/April Learning and Leading with Technology that the NECC has created "ISTEvision." This channel features recordings of several of the sessions and keynotes, some samples of digital storytelling, student voices and more. Under the "Features" channel, I'm watching "Bricks and Mortar Are Detrimental to the Future of Education" as I type this post. I'm so glad that I have the chance to see these, since I was unable to attend this year.

Rant: Global Collaborations Tar/Glue/Taffy

2010-03-08T09:58:00.005-05:00

I have the understanding, on an intellectual level, that it's not a good idea to blog when you're upset or frustrated. Sometimes, things come out emotionally, and perhaps the lack of equanimity encourages one to say things she later regrets. Equanimity be darned: Global Partnerships are freaking hard!! I'm of the school of thought that your state of mind determines much of the outcomes of various situations. Positivity and stick-to-itiveness comprise the backbones of my approach to life and work. So, it irks me to the core when things don't work the way I'd planned due to circumstances beyond my control.

Case in point: I'm a Global Partnerships Director. Sounds good. I aid schools in developing collaborative, web-based partnerships with partner schools in developing nations. The American schools often start by visiting the overseas schools and performing a service project. It is then our hope that schools will want to continue that relationship, and expand it. A teacher either volunteers or is assigned by administration to participate in the partnership. My job is to help with curriculum ideas and keep the projects on track, time-wise and quality-wise.

Herein lies the rub: I never dreamed it would be so hard to get people to keep talking to one another. Class schedules, daily schedules, vacation schedules, time zones, language differences, standardized testing, extra-curricular components--all of these things impede even the best of intentions for my participating teachers. I even have one teacher that would dedicate ALL of her time to this partnership and we can't get the OTHER end of her partnership to collaborate because of, well, all of the aforementioned. This is discouraging for her, discouraging for me. When I started this job, I had big dreams of "CHALLENGE-BASED" experiences for students. They would grapple with a serious global issue and ponder solutions with a partner class. There are inklings, true, of this happening, but only inklings. My boss tells me that's because what we're doing is hard. Is it really that hard? I feel as if I am perpetually stuck in glue or taffy, making occasional steps forward but at great effort. What's that they say, nothing easy was ever worth doing? Cliche. Doesn't help right now.

If I step back and take a deep breath, I am sure it is a microcosmic model of the difficulty of global partnerships at an international level. Intention is perhaps not all that is necessary--which is a tough pill for me to swallow. I'll keep plugging away because that is my modus operandi. In the meantime, I feel better to have ranted a bit.

Creative Commons Image License: Justin Marty

New Look

2010-02-25T10:03:00.002-05:00

Hi all. Decided it was time for a fresh look here on the Ed Tech Axis. Found this template for free, THANK YOU, at Blogger Templates. This "Freelance" template was uploaded by someone whose account has been suspended (!) so I can't thank them personally, whoever they are. I love it.

Collaborative Writing: Etherpad

2010-02-25T09:36:00.003-05:00

Our fifth grade teacher is starting a Poetry Unit this week and is looking for some ideas for ways to innovate. I thought of this new tool I just read about in February's Tech & Learning Magazine: Etherpad. In the article, "8 Free and Easy Ways to Begin Educating Innovatively" they feature this "group writing" tool. As a part of my keyboarding unit, I always run a "round robin writing" day, which is like a combination of musical chairs and choose your own adventure stories. Kind of. Students start at their own desks and write a title to a story. Just a title. Then, they move clockwise around the room to the next desk and sit down, read the title, and they have two minutes to type the beginning to that story. After two minutes, we switch again and the students change the color of their writing (so I can tell who wrote what) and continue what the person before them started. Since our periods are only 45 minutes long, we only get to switch about 10 times. But that's 45 minutes straight of keyboarding and creative writing.

So, what does all this have to do with Etherpad? I had this idea that the teacher could create perhaps five or six rooms and give students in groups those URLS. The students could each interactively, in real-time, write a poem together. The teacher could assign a topic for the poem or it could be an open subject.

Then, perhaps 10 minutes of class could be the editing time and instead of writing the students must collectively edit their poem. Finally, the poems are shared. Of course, there would have to be some pre-teaching on certain elements that must be included: maybe the poem has to rhyme or use iambic pentameter. Whatever. You get the idea.

We'll see if she will go for the idea.

Replacement for Surf Swell Island

2010-02-17T09:30:00.004-05:00

For several years, I had used Disney's Surf Swell Island as a fun way to introduce second graders to the basic concepts of Internet Safety. However, Disney has discontinued the site. So, I have been looking for replacements to use. This morning, I found some really cute ones:

1. Safety Land (by AT&T)--A similar "adventure" feel to the Disney site, with a printable certificate at the end. I like it so far and will try it today with them.

2. Netsmartz Kids Games--Although there are some games on the page that are largely useless, there are a couple about Passwords, Inbox Management, Privacy and more that are cute.

3. PBS Kids "Rules of the Road"--Get your surfing license. This covers a lot of different things like copyright, what comprises a Web address and more. It would be a good summative game.

Frontline's Digital Nation

2010-02-16T10:12:00.000-05:00

So far, I have watched about a half an hour of Frontline's Digital Nation story and am not much shocked by what has been covered. Although it's still "sensationalized"--the whole section on Korea's internet addiction wasn't really that useful, I thought it important that the average joe (who watches PBS) hear that he or she can't really multitask as well as he or she thinks. More commentary to come.

Fellow Maryland Blogger Alert!

2010-02-13T10:19:00.002-05:00

Hello friends! I'm thrilled to say that a fellow Maryland ed-tech teacher has started his own blog. Theo Shatagin's blog can be found here: http://theoshatagin.blogspot.com/ Is anyone else out there in the Maryland world blogging about ed-tech? Send me a message!

Prezi

2010-02-02T08:48:00.004-05:00

The Free Technology for Teachers Blog, he highlighted a new Web 2.0 "presentation" tool called Prezi. They are now offering free accounts for Educators and students. At first, I ignored it because it seemed kind of gimmicky. It's a visual presentation that gets rid of the slide concept and uses a widescreen boardspace instead. You use the size of text to indicate relevance and relationship of ideas. You can embed documents/images, draw arrows, etc. There are different styles of backgrounds and a presentation can be set to "autoplay" by indicating the path the "animaton" should follow when play is clicked. I have recently been tasked to outline the navigation structure of the World Leadership School's Web site (including revisions). I was just going to use Excel, but decided to give Prezi a try instead. Here are the results. I am not sure it's useful...but then I am a very linear thinker, so it might not seem so to me, but might seem great to some other kind of thinker. What do YOU think?

Coolest New Web Tools

2010-01-13T10:34:00.004-05:00

Next week, Sarah Thomas and I will be holding a workshop at our school entitled "Cool New Tools and Time to Try Them." Here's the description:

In this hands-on workshop, teachers will learn about the newest Web 2.0 tools
available for classroom use and will have time to experience them hands-on.
Ideal for classroom teachers of all grades, or technology teachers. Some of the
interesting tools we'll try include Skrbl, Twiddla, FotoFlexer, Sumo, Letterpop
and more.

The tools we are introducing include:

Skrbl: http://www.skrbl.com/ online collaboration tool
Tokbox: http://www.tokbox.com/ Videoconferencing
Dvolver: http://www.dvolver.com/live/moviemaker.html Movie Maker
Podomatic: http://www.podomatic.com/featured Podcast Creator
FotoFlexer: http://fotoflexer.com/ Image Editor
Sumo: http://www.sumopaint.com/home/ Online Drawing and Editing
Letterpop: http://letterpop.com/ Online Newsletters and Presentations
Animoto: http://animoto.com/ Slideshow Tool
Aviary: http://aviary.com/ Advanced Imaging Tool

The Children of Cyberspace: Old Fogies By Their 20s

2010-01-11T14:00:00.005-05:00

Great article in the New York Times about a new generation gap created by even newer technologies: The Children of Cyberspace: Old Fogies by Their 20s. Greatest insight: "My friend’s 3-year-old, for example, has become so accustomed to her father’s multitouch iPhone screen that she approaches laptops by swiping her fingers across the screen, expecting a reaction." Imagine how low-tech school is going to seem to her!

Image: Oksana Badrak

Hanging Out, Messing Around and Geeking Out

2009-12-14T13:39:00.002-05:00

The title of my blog, Ed Tech Axis, came from the struggle I feel it is to help students & teachers integrate their personal use of technology with their educational uses. Students who have no idea how to format a Word document might have the most pimped-out My Space page on the planet, complete with CSS editing. Teachers who can't live without their Blackberry can't figure out how to use a wiki. So, it is with much excitement that I post about a book that has just been published. I read about it on Dana Boyd's "Apophenia" blog:

"Conventional wisdom about young people's use of digital technology often equates generational identity with technology identity: today's teens seem constantly plugged in to video games, social networks sites, and text messaging. Yet there is little actual research that investigates the intricate dynamics of youth's social and recreational use of digital media. "Hanging Out, Messing Around, and Geeking Out" fills this gap, reporting on an ambitious three-year ethnographic investigation into how young people are living and learning with new media in varied settings—at home, in after school programs, and in online spaces."

You can even get it in downloadable PDF. Review to follow.

DVolver

2009-12-11T18:52:00.002-05:00

This evening, my husband and are going to see a play, but I had about 20 minutes to spend playing around before we leave. He's making Glog (Swedish Spiced Wine) for a holiday party. I thought I'd play with some of the tools that Russell Stannard at the University of Newcastle in the UK lists on his site. I found out about his site thanks to Kathy Schrock's Educator's Guide. One of the tools he links to is Dvolver. Here is the lamest video ever made with the "Movie Maker" tool below. Hollywood might not come knocking, but I can think of some great uses for it:

1. Language learning via dialogue composition.

2. Sequence of events writing for younger students.

3. Illustration of a scientific principle (explaining how photosynthesis happens, etc.)

What else?

Cloud Computing

2009-12-10T10:13:00.003-05:00

Every now and then I recognize a pattern. In the information feed that is my mind-space, I'll notice that I've heard more than one conversation or more than one reference to a concept and then the interest is piqued enough to warrant research. I'm sure we're all like that. This week the pattern called my attention to Cloud Computing.

If you don't know, cloud computing "relies on applications and file storage that reside on a network--either a local area network, a district intranet, or the Internet itself." Nothing resides on a hard drive, it's all accessed and saved virtually. It's not like this is a new concept. I've heard it bandied about by techie-types for the last 5 years or so. When a CIO on my school's board mentioned it at a technology meeting the other day, I let it pass because, well, I'd expect something like that out of him. It wasn't until my boss at World Leadership School mentioned it that I perked up. My boss is certainly not a Luddite by any stretch. However, he's not exactly on the cusp of new technologies. He was excited by the idea that cloud computing might be the great equalizer for the developing nations with which we work. Not 3 days later, the most recent Learning and Leading with Technology comes out and "lo and behold" there's a cloud computing article in there. Okay, ETHER, I get it. I always knew that it was coming. I just didn't know it was HERE until just now.Creative Commons Image: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cloud_computing.jpg#file

Failure to Communicate: Profile Facts

2009-11-17T14:40:00.004-05:00

Today in my fifth grade class, I tried to help them grapple with the realities of truth and fiction on online profiles. We sat in a circle and discussed, in an open ended fashion, whether or not you should use facts that are real or facts that are fake. In the end, the class was victim to my own teaching! It turns out that they really believed me back in second grade, third grade, etc. that they are never to share their real name, their birth dates, their addresses and their sports team names. However, they somehow generalized that to believe you should never share anything real about yourself. I can't help but feel I have failed them. Part of it is that there is no clear answer. I think they got the message that people do lie on their profiles in order to make themselves look better. They also got the message that some information is unsafe to share. But I'm not sure if I didn't teach them all it's okay to lie online. Oh my goodness, what have I done? I better work on this.

Image used with permission from: http://www.flickr.com/photos/digitalpotato/2714653723/

Notawiki: Update

2009-11-02T11:57:00.003-05:00

I've been using Notawiki for a new partnership project for World Leadership School between Groton School, American School in Marrakech, and Welham Boys and Girls School in Dehradun, India. Our project focuses upon geometry in art and architecture between three different countries/cultures. The primary mode of sharing project outcomes will be the wiki and I was so excited at the streamlined and graphic interfact offered by notawiki.

Here are some lessons learned:
1. It gets hung up sometimes. For no clear reason, it will not load pages in the "notebook" (what they call a site) when linked together. The only solution I have come across is to close the browser entirely (not just the page--that doesn't work.) This is annoying.

2. Their integration of youtube videos is amazingly seamless. I created a screencast using Camstudio (my first time using this tool) and uploaded it to youtube. From there, I searched for it in the embedded notawiki searchbox for youtube and voila! It appeared instantly.

3. I can't figure out how to embed other Widgets. I emailed the staff, but no response yet.

4. One of the awesome features is that you don't "SAVE" the pages. They are autosaved. Here's the tricky part of that. Let's say you drop in two text boxes. One is the title of the page and one is navigation with links to other pages. If you UNTHINKINGLY position the navigation box slightly above the title box, then the autosave function will rename the page with the text in whatever box is highest on the page. This makes it MIGHTY tricky to try to link pages to one another in the "link" box because it's not obvious what the page name is. EASY Solution: Put the title box highest on the page. Note to notawiki makers: This would make a great FAQ question.

5. Next week, we'll be trying out the highly touted feature that many users can update at the same time. Please, please live up to the hype!

21st Century Schooling According to Alfie Kohn

2009-10-28T08:30:00.003-05:00

Ben Rimes, over at the Tech Savvy Educator, posted a link to an article about 21st Century Education and and a silly graphic making fun of the title "21st Century Tool". It *is* pretty funny, but the required reading he included for the post is the more salient part. When “21st-Century Schooling”Just Isn’t Good Enough: A Modest Proposal by Alfie Kohn examines what is really behind the drive for this new "brand." Good for introspection and self-examination.

The Free-To-Paid Apps Problem

2009-10-27T07:44:00.003-05:00

My colleague Sarah shared a new link with me yesterday on Google chat. She does that often because she reads a lot of blogs and twitters, and likes to share the same way I do, because that's how we learn. But I digress. The link she sent me was for a new "text-to-movie maker" called Xtranormal. I followed her link and checked the app out and it does indeed look pretty fantastic. It is a download, instead of web-based, which I suppose is neither here nor there. The Web site is very professional looking and the product itself seems slick and well-made. Maybe too well made. The "download" button is marked with a big, screaming BETA stamp. Immediately, I messaged her back that I wagered they'd be no longer free within a matter of months. That is a response of a wounded tech user, I realized almost immediately.

Although I do understand the process of alpha testing and beta testing a free product that will eventually be a paid product, the part I abhor is when the early-adopters are then penalized by losing rights to use the product for free. Yack Pack comes to mind. A few years ago, I was ALL ABOUT this product. I used it in my classroom for myriad projects and only about a year later, they went to a paid format. My school does not have a bursting budget. My organization doesn't either. We can't just add in expenses as they pop up. I think that if I have invested in the product from the start, they should honor that investment by allowing the early users to continue to use it for free. Voicethread is another example of a product that was completely free before, but has moved to fee-based if you want to use it on a class-wide basis. To be fair, they do still offer FREE individual accounts and FREE educator accounts. I use the heck out of mine and I'm so grateful for that option.

I might try Xtranormal out and I might fall in love with it. But what are the chances that I'll not be able to use it next year, after I've added projects to my curriculum based on the tool? Maybe this is all the lament of the side of me that resists change. Yes, I'm an early adopter but once I've adopted it, I hold on tight. Maybe the problem is mine.

Photo used with Creative Commons Permission: A Magill

Blog Action Day: Climate Change

2009-10-15T07:01:00.002-05:00

Everybody raise your hands in the air, and wave 'em like you just don't care! It's Blog Action Day 2009! This is an effort to bring attention to a given issue by asking bloggers to focus on a specific topic. This year's topic is climate change, which is e-a-s-y for me to blog about, given my new job. The World Leadership School's primary function is to educate students on the various issues they will soon face and encourage them to grapple with possible solutions to those problems. Climate change is the focus of many of our trips to places like Belize, Costa Rica and Kenya. My job is to help schools create year-round relationships with schools *in* those countries that are most affected by climate change.

Students at my school traveled to Belize last year to learn about climate change, but they also worked with students at the school they visited beforehand. Here is our class blog. We're going back this year and the plan is Postcards for Profits (the students came up with that one). We donated laptops to the school last year, and this year, the school is holding a contest for all grades for the best images that represent Belize. Belizean students are using MS Paint to create these images, and the winning images will be emailed to us, so we can create postcards and greeting cards from them. We'll then sell those at our school, but also they can be shipped down to the village's "market" (a small fruit stand) to sell for more profits for the village. What's best about this idea is that the kids came up with it themselves through a special "Marketplace of Ideas" activity.

Actually, what's best about this idea is that students came up with it all on their own, and are implementing it all on their own. That's how to empower a student to solve important problems! Go us! (Pat on back complete).

Computers for Peace--Captology

2009-10-08T09:24:00.002-05:00

Thanks to a profile note on Matt Montagne's Skype page, I learned about Stanford's captology department. According to the site, "Captology is the study of computers as persuasive technologies. This includes the design, research, and analysis of interactive computing products created for the purpose of changing people's attitudes or behaviors." They're convinced that technology can be used to forge peace. On October 27th, they are hosting an event in Palo Alto, California called Peace Dot, that "will show how innovators are creating empathy and harmony in the world. It will show how we're making progress toward peace in concrete, measurable ways." I could go for some of that right now.

Nota New Wiki! Yes! A New Wiki!

2009-09-22T11:47:00.003-05:00

The August 2009 Issue of Tech & Learning had a Top Tweets section...so I'm kind of lurking in Twitterville without having to actually tweet, I guess. The question was "What's your favorite app?" The usual suspects are featured: voicethread, wordpress, voki, moodle. But in that list there was one new tool and I *think* I like it. Notaland is a new wiki tool that has a much more graphical interface. Students will respond to being able to make it look different than all the other wikis out there. Of course, it's free, as per usual for my criteria. Other neat features: It links automatically to the flickr copyright free images database, and you can tilt/size all those pics onscreen--something some other wikis don't allow. You can then embed those pages on another blog and whatnot. The picture here is me playing around. Neat, huh? I mean, lame right now, but it'll be pretty cool once useful and definitely looks like a different kind of wiki page.

What Is Plagairism? Cartoons

2009-09-21T09:05:00.006-05:00

Rutgers University has produced some really informative, yet entertaining short cartoons explaining plagairism in plain english. They might be a good starting point for conversations about the topic. Suitable for grades 5 and up.

Also, Northern Kentucky University has made some "role playing" type videos and even instructor interviews as well:
http://creativethinking.nku.edu/lessons/films.php

New Ventures and Twiddla Team WhiteBoarding

2009-08-28T08:40:00.004-05:00

The start of this school year is different for me in two significant ways: first, I will only be teaching technology part time at my school and second, I am now the Global Partnerships Director for the World Leadership School. This transition has been a year in the making, with some trepidation but mostly excitement. My role at the World Leadership School was one I basically imagined, molded and then reshaped with the founder of the organization. They offer service-based student travel experiences to developing nations, and needed someone to help them expand their trips into year-long programs. We would of course use technology to accomplish that goal. So far, we have just the right number of schools participating in this, our first year.

I've been working for a bit over a month and I've had more Skype meetings than I can count, compared curriculum for partner classes, evaluated technological capabilities for possible sites overseas, led an inservice for a huge group of teachers and jet-setted in and out of schools within a day. I'm busy, a bit tired, but still excited about everything.

This morning, I'm conferencing with a teacher in India who is partnered with his colleague back here in the States, a 9th grade Geometry teacher. We will be deciding if a wiki is the best possible organizational structure for collaboration or perhaps some other tool. But what I'm most excited about is the tool Twiddla. It's a "team whiteboarding tool" that allows you not only to share a screen and upload documents (which you can then edit together), but you can also use the screen like a shared whiteboard. Perfect for math, right? There are even built-in shapes and graph "paper" for the screen. Of course, it's free, because that's me: miss spendthrift. Try it out yourself!

Open Source Teaching Project

2009-08-25T09:27:00.003-05:00

The June/July 2009 issue of T.H.E. Journal featured an article highlighting a new site: the "Open Source Teaching Project." According to their page:

1. We recruit people to share lessons learned about life, careers, culture, and academics.
2. We apply social media as a seamless tool for teaching, managing, and collaborating with others.

Essentially, they are a community of experts who agree to discourse with students on particular subjects...direct access to expert information. You can schedule a class interview or watch a video of a previously filmed interview. Participants range from Nobel Laureates in Medicine and Physics to the president of the Global Fund for Women and the founder of "How Stuff Works."

WolframAlpha

2009-08-17T13:36:00.003-05:00

Although my husband assures me that I'm out of the loop, and that WolframAlpha has been out for at least six months or so, I've only recently discovered the new tool and I'm wowed. This self-described "computational knowledge engine" is a kind of numbers-facts database that also calculates things as well. So for instance, if you type in Cusco, Peru, you will be given facts about the population, maps, even things like the average temperature historically. Other bloggers have referred to it as the Google Killer. You can see a demo of what the new tool can do here: http://www.wolframalpha.com/screencast/introducingwolframalpha.html
image: chattahbox.com/.../05/wolfram_alpha_logo.jpg

Global Ed Programs Presentation

2009-08-12T12:43:00.001-05:00

Global Education Programs

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Statistics About Global Education

2009-08-03T12:22:00.004-05:00

Next week, I'll be presenting a keynote at a school in Nashville, TN about Global Education. Their school has made a commitment to expanding global programs and has engaged my services (via the World Leadership School) to aid them in that endeavor. When preparing a new presentation, I always like to include facts and research proving how it might be beneficial--that appeals to the science-minded and fact-minded among us. While looking into this, I discovered an interesting Pew Internet and American Life research study (such a fantastic resource) called "The Strength of Internet Ties." This study compares, among other things, how much help people felt they had available to them in making important decisions. The finding was that those who had a larger network of "significant" contacts (not core contacts) online felt better able to make that decision. This was largely because a) they had better access to "experts" and b) because they had a wider range of feedback. I think this will be an interesting addition to highlight in the presentation as a way to show how giving our children access to "experts" will enable them to make better decisions. More to come during the week as I prepare.
Image credit: www.urlwire.com/news/uw-pew.jpg

All Atwitter for Twiddla

2009-06-15T14:02:00.005-05:00

This month, I start a new job. I'm really elated about this new job, as idealist-type folks like myself are wont to do. I'm still teaching technology next year, but only part time. The other part of my time, I'll be consulting with US and international schools on distance learning. Basically, teaching folks how to use cool Web 2.0 tools to connect and collaborate on projects. In an effort to be the very best I can be, I'm checking out a bunch of new tools (thus the last, like, four posts) and I have another new crush. This time, it's Twiddla. According to their own site you can:
"Mark up websites, graphics, and photos, or start brainstorming on a blank canvas. Browse the web with your friends or make that conference call more productive than ever. No plug-ins, downloads, or firewall voodoo - it's all here, ready to go when you are. Browser-agnostic, user-friendly."

I have tried it out with a colleague who I had asked to help me edit a lesson plan. All I had to do was click a SINGLE button that says "start a meeting" and send my colleague an invitation. She joined me in about 10 seconds and bam! we were editing the document and chatting about it as well in real-time audio.

Later, by clicking My Account (which I don't even recall creating--wait, is that scary?) I was able to see a TRANSCRIPT of the whole gosh darn event!! I'll say it again: It's a crush but it could be true love. This could be the tool of which I've been dreaming that will allow our students in developing nations to collaboratively develop projects and presentations. We shall see.

Google Wave: The Future of Email

2009-06-15T10:02:00.002-05:00

Wouldn't it be great if I could see into the future with some quartz crystal ball or tea leaves? Fortunately for me, all I needed today was YouTube. The video link came from GoWeb 2.0, which is a visual web-apps index. I saw this video below, which captures a Google presentation to developers at a conference. They are highlighting and previewing their new email service called Google Wave. It really does change the way that communication happens. Check it out:

Doodle Meeting Scheduler

2009-06-11T12:16:00.003-05:00

For those of us who must frequently schedule meetings with folks outside our organization, it can be challenging to try to schedule a meeting amongst a variety of people with varying schedules. This month, I've been tinkering with a new tool called Doodle. I'm not sure about the name, because it suggests a drawing or sketching tool, right? Well, it is actually a meeting scheduler. This free tool allows the user to enter in a range of possible dates and times and then "poll" invitees as to which ones would work for them. Once everyone has responded, the tool will then show where the intersections in availability exist. I used it just this week to schedule a meeting and it worked like a charm without 15 emails back and forth with phrases like "what about an hour later?" The folks you invite to respond to the poll don't even have to register! The only thing you have to think hard about is time zones...I'm not sure Doodle accounts for that. Last but not least, Doodle does offer an Outlook plugin so you can sync meetings set using Doodle with your Outlook calendar and a mobile plugin for your phone. And voila! Pretty darn neat.

Incredibots

2009-05-26T14:26:00.004-05:00

Today, I asked one of my favorite students--the one who speaks out of turn constantly and yet makes me laugh every day--what he does for fun on the computer. He showed me Incredibots...and boy am I glad I asked. This real-life computer robot physics simulator is so very powerful. And he does this for fun! You can use a preselected robot, or create your own by selecting shapes, then adding joints, thrusters at various intersections and try to complete a number of preset missions. Thanks JW!

Sketchcast

2009-05-21T14:12:00.002-05:00

Thanks to the Featured Slideshare category "Education" on Slideshare, I found out about Sketchcast today. The "Web 2.0: Tools to Inspire" presentation had quite a few cool and interesting new toys. I liked sketchcast best because I can see some uses for it on our global ed/collaborative wikis. You can show math problems being solved in real-time, including audio, as well as draw diagrams of geographic elements, like how the headwaters in Belize empty into the ocean. I'm sure I could think of a bunch more ways to use it, can't you? Here's a sample:

How Our Kids Are Using the Internet in 2009

2009-05-19T15:51:00.000-05:00

How Our Kids Are Using the Internet in 2009

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Internet Safety Workshop Resources

2009-05-18T13:53:00.006-05:00

I'm presenting another Internet safety workshop for parents at the Parent Encouragement Program (PEP) in Kensington this week. The presentation is for middle school parents. Here are the handouts/resources I'll be using:

1. The Risks of Facebook (CBS-6 WTVR News Segment) Highlights the security features available on Facebook.
2. Just How Bad Is Facebook For You? (BBC News, May 5 2009) Refutes the news articles stating that facebook users' grades tend to be lower.
3. Easing the e-Teasing (Presentation by Judy S. Freeman, March 17, 2009) Helping parents understand cyberbullying and how to distinguish it from traditional bullying.
4. Text Unto Others... (by Matt Villano, T.H.E. Journal, September '08) Teaching basic principles of good citizenship.
5. Pew Internet and American Life Project (Various Statistics)
6. Facebook for Parents web site
7. WebwiseKids web site, with interactive content for helping parents and kids make smart choices.
8. Charlotte's WebPage (by Lowell Monke, Sept 2005) A manifesto on children and the role technology should play in their lives.

BBC's Me and My Movie

2009-05-13T07:59:00.002-05:00

Just came across the BBC "Me and My Movie" site, which walks kids through a highly interactive and engaging process of making a movie. There are movie-tutorials for everything from adding lighting and filters, to storyboarding. My second graders are making mini animal movies and I think this might be a great way to gently ease them in...

Facebook Doesn't Make You Stupid

2009-05-07T12:32:00.001-05:00

A Northwestern University study has found that logging into Facebook does not, in fact, make you stupid. The Chicago Sun Times says so:
http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/1563318,facebook-study-social-network-050709.article

PBS Activity Packs---Innovation

2009-05-06T08:27:00.007-05:00

DIY Space Exploration Podcasts

2009-05-06T08:05:00.008-05:00

NASA is now offering Do-It-Yourself Podcast Kits online. From the site:

Are you looking for a new approach to engage your students in science, technology, engineering and mathematics? NASA's Do-It-Yourself Podcast activity sets the stage for students to host a show that features astronauts training for missions, doing experiments in space or demonstrating equipment. We'll provide a set of audio and video clips along with photos and information about a space-related topic. You and your students may choose as many items as you want to include in your project and download them to your computer. Students may use the information we provide or conduct their own research to write a script for an audio or video production.

There's also an accompanying blog for help: http://blogs.nasa.gov/cm/blog/diyPodcastBlog.
Image credit: http://www.nasa.gov/audience/foreducators/diypodcast/index.html

Global Education on a Dime (Redux)

2009-05-05T14:02:00.004-05:00

I keep a stack of paper magazines and journals. Sometimes I get a chance to read them in between classes, but more often they sit in a pile, mocking me. "You're falling behind in content knowledge! You're missing the boat on the next important thing!" Of course, I follow my blogs and feeds but there's something about paper I like. Often, I'll read about half the magazine and bookmark it, promising to come back to it only an hour or two later. Then, about six months later, I'll come back to it.

Today, I came back to a very old issue of Edutopia--Feb/March 2008. In that issue, they feature an article "Global Education on a Dime." There are copious links for tools and projects that are free or low cost for today's plummeting budgets. Ironically, Edutopia is no longer free, but the online article is still there.

The related article and video, "What Does the World Is Flat Mean for Education?" and "A Night in the Global Village: Role-Playing Life in Poverty" are also good.

Google Earth and Novels

2009-04-28T11:25:00.004-05:00

In the March/April issue of Learning and Leading with Technology, there was a great article called Traveling the Novel. Two teachers at Harpeth Hall School in Nashville put together a step-by-step guide to how they use Google Earth to enrich their literature studies in English classes. The article specifically discusses their projects for The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini and one on the Iditarod. These seem a lot like Google Earth Lit Trips, but with the added dimension of requiring students to post quotes/photos and other responses directly on the .kmz file. I've sent the teachers an email asking how they evaluate success on the project and I hope to hear back from them. In the meantime, their wiki "Harpeth Hall Uses Google Earth" has links to the Google Earth files they have already created. Incidentally, they also include directions for using Google Earth!
Image source: http://historytech.files.wordpress.com/2009/03/sam-is-dead.png

A New Online Master's Degree Program

2009-04-21T07:51:00.002-05:00

In the past, I have shied away from Educational Technology master's degree programs mostly because I felt that I had so much familiarity with the offered coursework, I would be just "legitimizing" my own knowledge with an expensive piece of paper. This week, I read about a new program, one about which I could get excited: An Instructional Media master's degree comprised of 10 online courses with topics like Digital Storytelling, Digital Media in the Classroom, and Using Technology to Support Creativity. Wilkes University and Discovery Education have teamed up to offer the program and although I have given it only a cursory glance so far, I'm definitely going to look into it further.

Belize Trip Featured in Paper

2009-04-21T07:48:00.002-05:00

The trip our students took to Belize (the one described on this wiki) was featured in our local paper last week. The article, "Taking the Classroom to Central America" appeared on April 15th, and I'm so proud of how the students focused upon how *we* benefited from the experience as well.

How the Web Was Won

2009-04-02T08:01:00.002-05:00

In an old (July 2008) issue of Vanity Fair, I recently learned about a feature--an oral history--of how the Internet evolved. "How the Web Was Won" is great because it's straight out of these pioneers' mouths, a digital storytelling in fact. Thanks to Jeff Utecht's Thinking Stick blog that referenced the Vanity Fair article in his Networked Thinking post.

Technology Tools for the Future: Teachers vs Kids Perspective

2009-04-02T07:33:00.006-05:00

Project Tomorrow sponsors Speak Up, which is a "national research project that surveys K-12 students, teachers, parents and administrators." One of the questions asked recently was "Imagine you are designing the ultimate school. Which of these tools would have the most positive impact on learning?" The results of this survey were tallied and reported in the March 2008 T.H.E Journal. Which areas showed the most disparity between teachers and students?

- 25 % of teachers feel that Digital Media Tools like video and audio would have the most positive impact on learning. The students in grades 6-8 rated it 50% and grades 9-12 53%.

- 24% of teachers feel that Online Textbooks would have the most positive impact on learning. The students in grades 6-8 rated it 47% and grades 9-12 49%.

- 21% of teachers feel that Document Cameras would have the most positive impact on learning. The students in grades 6-8 rated it 42% and grades 9-12 38%.

-- 15% of teachers feel that Computer Projection Devices would have the most positive impact on learning. The students in grades 6-8 rated it 47% and grades 9-12 48%.

There are quite a few more that show the same disparities. The numbers for parents and administrators are wildly varying. What do I think this reveals?

- A basic lack of understanding of the potential benefits for some groups.
- A possible fascination with "toys" for some groups.
- A fear that moving towards online classes may fundamentally change educators' jobs.
- A resistance to change (this one's a duh because of course we as humans are resistant to change.)

The most important thing that it reveals, however, is the sea-change in which we are all dog-paddling. Teachers, students and administrators alike are grappling with the possibilities these new technologies offer and perhaps the only "true thing" upon which we can rely in the future is that new technologies will likely keep on coming our way and we'll never get to stop taking surveys like this again.
Image credit: www.marcumsmith.com

Skype in Schools Project

2009-04-01T07:47:00.004-05:00

Thanks to Lucy Gray's March 28 weekly blog post featuring things that have "caught her eye," I learned about the Skype in Schools wiki. It's an Educational Directory of projects and classes interested in using Skype to communicate. List yourself or find a partner!

The Electronic Wasteland/60 Minutes

2009-03-31T10:32:00.002-05:00

On November 9, 2008, CBS featured a story about "recycling" electronic waste, that is actually channeled from the US into China. It describes "one of the most toxic places on Earth," where the "blood of children is laced with lead." "The Electronics Wasteland" news segment reveals that so-called recyclers are actually shipping e-waste overseas and mined for precious metals. T.H.E. Journal features some links for certified ethical recycling if you want to make sure you're recycling properly: http://www.thejournal.com/articles/24101_6 . There's also an interesting article there called "The Dirt on E-Waste" by Dian Schaffhauser.

New Technologies, New Country

2009-03-27T11:16:00.002-05:00

This last week, I was in Belize on a World Leadership School trip. Our school sent 14 middle school students, along with myself and two other teachers, to study Climate Change and perform a service project in this tiny Central American country. Our service project was to raise enough money to provide five laptops for a small school in La Democracia, Belize District. According to BTL, Belize's only telecom provider, they will provide free internet service to any school that can prove it has at least five computers. So, that was our aim. Also while we were there, we taught the students how to use the software installed, and completed short video projects. You can view the completed projects and read a semi-daily journal of our experiences on the trip Wiki. My most proud moments:
1. Realizing that the parents were "camped out" in front of the wiki back at home, waiting for our students to blog each night.
2. Listening to our students ruminate on what it will take to make a difference in the climate change phenomenon, and coming to the conclusion, all on their own, that values have to change.
3. Watching Belizean students who have never used computers before jump right in with both feet and take control of the mouse!
4. Hearing the Standard 5 & 6 classroom teacher Mrs. Pech say that her heart was overflowing with gratitude because of what she knows this will bring her students.

Boolified!

2009-03-11T14:31:00.004-05:00

We did try out the Boolify Search engine I blogged about here and the results are in. At first glance, students are grasping boolean logic in a way they never have before! Check it out:

Image-Based Learning= Cave Drawings?

2009-03-06T12:37:00.005-05:00

For the last eight years I have been teaching technology, I've noticed that children seem to learn easiest from visual tools. They sit up and listen when a point is illustrated by a photo or by a short video clip. They love interactive games. This is likely no big revelation to most people in the field. However, I got to thinking the other day that this may be a regression of sorts: our prehistoric cave drawings returning as the choice medium of communication. Reading text is harder, there is decoding and meaning-making involved that simple image recognition does not involve to quite the same degree. That's not to say that decoding images is facile, I just mean that construing meaning from text is more difficult. I am reminded of social philosopher Marshall McLuhan's warnings that we are devolving back into a "global village" mentality, in which the image is the primary mode of communication--overcoming years of self-imposed text-based book learning, which is challenging for the human brain.

So, in appealing to these more instinctual meaning-making modes for human beings, are we appealing to the easiest way to make meaning? Are we dumbing kids down? The rational side to me says: "Of course, Alecia, everything requires balance and moderation." There are few teachers advocating exclusively image-based instruction. It should be only one modality of many. But STILL! Is it true that we are offering a little bit of candy with the broccoli bits when we utilize image-based teaching techniques? Sure, a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down, but are our kids beginning to prefer a more primitive image based mode of comprehension? And if they are, is that bad? I'm not saying it is, but I'm thinking about it.
Image: http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3511/3205302773_9b242326b5.jpg

Wildlife Filmmaker

2009-03-03T13:00:00.002-05:00

National Geographic is offering a Wildlife Filmmaker using their stock film clips, music and even sound effects. The format is very similar to Windows Movie Maker and iMovie, so it's like training wheels for students just about to learn these tools. This would be ideal for younger students, grades K-2 or maybe you could stretch it to grade 3. I read about it in Learning and Leading with Technology's Dec/Jan 08-09 issue and tried it out with the Kindergarteners who learn about animals in native habitats. Downside: you can't download the clips. You can save them with a numeric code, but no letters. At best you can get a URL to share with parents and it's not clear how long they'll be available for viewing. Upside: These videos turn out looking quite professional and can be done in two 45 minute periods.

Image: ilearntechnology.com

Boolean Searches

2009-02-23T13:36:00.003-05:00

Each year, I do my best to teach the idea of boolean logic to third graders. Their wee eight year old minds have a tough time getting the notion of "and" but "not" as it applies to keywords. Ben Rimes, over at the Tech Savvy Educator posted about the Boolify Project using Boolify.org. It's a visually depicted search engine...using puzzle pieces. I'm a firm believer in using illustrations, graphics and analogies in teaching so this fits the bill perfectly. We're set to begin search engines this week, so it's perfect timing!
Image - http://www.boolify.org/images/boolify_logo.jpg

That's Not Cool!

2009-02-20T10:36:00.004-05:00

Thanks to a MICCA Newsletter, I learned about That's Not Cool! Over at ThatsNotCool.com teens can watch videos about privacy, send text messages or callout cards letting someone know that a cyberboundary has been crossed, and my favorite area of the site, visit a discussion area about various issues. In the Talk It Out section, people can read about other people's experiences with cyberbullying via Text, Pictures, IM, Social Networking, etc and can respond to one another. I'm approaching my middle school administration about focusing a lesson around this site. Here's one of the callout cards that can be posted to facebook or texted or used as a desktop background:

Should You "Friend" Your Kids?

2009-02-20T08:19:00.002-05:00

Common Sense Media is hosting an interesting thread for parents called "Should You Friend Your Kid on Facebook?" Parents from all sides of the debate are definitely weighing in and it makes for an interesting discussion.

Distance Learning for Teachers

2009-02-19T15:28:00.006-05:00

We have an inservice planned in March and one of the activities we'll do is participate in some kind of distance learning experience. Some of our teachers have already dipped their toes into the "online course" pool, but this is a way for the whole faculty to check out the resources available for professional development outside of the traditional top-down model. I have created a page on our professional development wiki with some resources for them and I'm reposting them here for ya'll. You're welcome to use them freely:

One of the biggest trends we see in education is the development of Distance Learning. This means, the learner is not situated in a traditional classroom, with a teacher or even with other students. Most of the time, the learner is in front of a computer, sometimes learning interactively at the same time as a group of other students. Other times, they are all learning ASYNCHRONOUSLY...at their own pace and in their own time.

Today, we will experience Distance Learning on our own. This requires the learner to be intrinsically motivated, because there is no one requiring you to make eye contact or look interested! You can often even skip to the parts that interest you!

Learner.Org (Annenberg Media)
Learner.org http://www.learner.org/ This site offers professional development across the curriculum. This is CONTENT SPECIFIC, not HOW TO TEACH. You can browse topics by grade and subject area. You will have to create a login, but after that the courses are free. You will be unable to complete most courses in their entirety, but can definitely learn a few things in our time allotted. If you're so inclined, you can even earn graduate credit!

Discovery Education
There is a new site called "Teacher Survival Central" http://www.discoveryeducation.com/survival/ that offers a lot in the way of new lesson ideas in video format. You can also view some of the professional development videos offered on the Discovery Education (Streaming) Web site here: http://streaming.discoveryeducation.com/professionalDevelopment/index.cfm Categories include:

Teaching Tips

Best Practices

Interactive Training (a good one!)

Project Demonstrations

Discovery Education Network.

Teacher Tube
This site hosts hundreds of videos related to teaching various subjects. Some you can use to learn from, some you can share with your classes. Check out the most viewed links, top rated, and featured videos on the home page. http://teachertube.com/

Video On Demand/Podcasts/Handouts from National Conferences
National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS) Video Clips from General Conference Speakers http://www.nais.org/ac/ac.cfm?ItemNumber=149398&sn.ItemNumber=149439 And then individual speaker highlights here: http://www.nais.org/ac/eventdoc.cfm? ItemNumber=149909&sn.ItemNumber=149439&tn.ItemNumber=149910
NAIS 2008 Conference Handouts
Over 150 handouts from one-hour workshops and three-hour workshops are currently posted. http://www.nais.org/ac/eventdoc.cfm?ItemNumber=149399&sn.ItemNumber=149439&tn.ItemNumber=149511

National Educational Computing Conference 2008
You can view videos of various workshops and presentations at this year's conference. It's like you were there! http://center.uoregon.edu/ISTE/NECC2008/program/video_on_demand.php

Image credit: HB's Photostream on Flickr (http://www.flickr.com/photos/84861681@N00/)

FlickrStorm

2009-02-18T16:06:00.003-05:00

Kathy Schrock over at Discovery School recently sent out a newsletter letting folks know about FlickrStorm. It's a site that allows you to search Flickr images by copyright. This is hugely useful because my students sometimes search for images to use in videos and digital storytelling, etc, and spend a great deal of time sifting for ones that are available for use. This ensures that everything they see is usable! Plus, it gives us another real-world segue into the copyright discussion, an issue that can seem so vague for students.

Teacher Suspended in Facebook Incident

2009-02-17T15:45:00.003-05:00

Okay, admittedly this is old news, but I'm only hearing it now. Apparently, a teacher in a public school posted a comment to her Facebook page, thinking her profile was set to private, when in fact it was public. I'm guessing she wasn't a technology teacher. Or maybe I'm hoping she's not. At any rate, she was suspended. I read about it in T.H.E. Journal article "Suspended Teacher In Facebook Incident Ignites Debate." Of course there is some responsibility on the teacher's part for learning how to use a tool before posting sensitive information. But on the other hand, I think this is a perfect illustration of how our students fall into these same kinds of situations. They are not taught at school the correct ways to keep their information private, these subjects are taboo, and the Web sites blocked out. That kind of thinking produces adults who make mistakes like this one! My school blocks these sites out, but that's because of school policy, not my policy. I try my best to teach the students about it anyway through demonstration. I'm just not sure how much responsibility lies with the parents. Wouldn't you say most of it? Or no?

Positive Feedback Loop Revised

2009-02-11T15:43:00.005-05:00

At our faculty meeting yesterday, I shared my diagram for what I thought created a positive feedback loop in technology programs in schools, probably specific to independent schools. The teachers were able to help me fill in the parts I had left out: professional development, long and short range planning and and peer modeling. It seems like we have covered most things. What do you think?

VideoConference Projects Database

2009-02-06T15:06:00.002-05:00

On Classroom 2.0 Ning, I just learned about Collaborations Around the Planet, which "is a social networking tool for educational videoconferencing built into the new Read Around the Planet registration system." I haven't had a chance to dig around in the projects registry yet, but it is highly praised by our peers in the "How Are You Using VideoConferencing" forum....

What Dictates Success?

2009-02-06T14:53:00.004-05:00

Our school's long range technology plan is almost complete. A part of this planning process is meeting with similarly-sized and resourced schools to determine where our own resources are going as compared to others'. It has been an interesting process and got me thinking about what makes for a successful technology department. I tend to think in pictures, so I created these images of what I think is a positive feedback loop and what makes a negative feedback loop. However, I am quite sure they are incomplete or too simplistic. What am I missing?

ClassBrain

2009-01-23T12:40:00.002-05:00

ClassBrain is a web site that has an educational games page I just adore, especially for Math teachers. There are strategy games, brain teasers and of course word-based games but the best ones are for practicing coordinates in the Math Section and my first graders love Da Numba. Maybe that's just because they like the name of it so much. They say it over and over like a prehistoric chant: Da Numba, Da Numba, Da Numba. Nevermind that they're using their BRAINS...or in this case the ClassBrain.