The Tech Corner

Blended Learning Could Hit or Miss

2011-02-18T10:04:00.003-05:00

How do you define blended learning? Michael B. Horn and Heather Clayton Staker describe blended learning as “any time a student learns at least in part at a supervised brick-and-mortar location away from home and at least in part through online delivery with some element of student control over time, place, path, and/or pace.” What – did I read that right, “with some element of student control over time, place, path, and/or pace?” Students in charge of their learning, is this possible?

Yes, but . . . if all we do is add some online learning into the current model of education and let students set their own pace will students receive any better education than they do now? Probably not. The current system was built around the factory system and the school year is shorter than many other countries. Students are measured in seat time and calendar years not on individual learning and mastery of concepts.

To help school districts incorporate blended learning models that leads to better outcomes for students let’s look at “six “district clusters” or models, of blended learning” from this article:

Face-to-Face Driver – the teacher would use online learning on a case-by-case basis to supplement and/or for remediation.
Rotation – students would rotate between online learning, one-to-one, self-paced and traditional face-to-face instruction.
Flex – students learn mainly online with teachers providing on-site support as needed through tutoring or small group sessions.
Online Lab – students use an online platform for the entire course within the school building while taking other traditional courses.
Self-Blend – students take one or more online courses in addition to their traditional schooling.
Online Driver – online courses with online teacher delivering all curricula and students not necessarily in a school building.

When blended learning works students receive a personalized pedagogy that allows for working at his/her own pace with more students begin successful. Blended learning provides the opportunity for schools to require fewer, more specialized teachers and would use building space more efficiently. With so many veteran teachers retiring and new teachers so tech savvy blended learning could solve staffing issues and close achievement gaps for many students.

Good blended learning “models should allow for innovation across curriculum, culture, teaching, intervention, professional development, and leadership development.” But there are still obstacles to overcome. One main obstacle is the “historically inhospitable” climate of public K-12 educational systems and their resistance to change. The report created by Michael B. Horn and Heather Clayton Staker outlines what needs to happen for blended learning to be successful:

Integrated systems that support the seamless assimilation of online content from different sources. Various LMS need to sync well with other LMS to provide online products to all students.
High-quality, dynamic content aligned to state standards needs to be developed.
Analytics – analyze student outcomes
Automation
Enhanced student motivation through applications that engage students in the learning process

In order for education technology companies to provide affordable, quality online content policy makers need to create a better framework for blended learning models that provides individualized learning for all students. If school districts are allowed to create new schools with more flexibility then transformation to a successful blended learning environment for all students could be achieved.

To read the entire article from eSchool News:
http://www.eschoolnews.com/2011/02/10/report-blended-learning-could-hit-or-miss/

Personalize Learning with Online Tools

2011-02-17T14:39:00.001-05:00

There are lots of ways that teachers differentiate learning and personalize learning for their students? How do you personalize learning in your classroom? Do you use any online tools?

Let’s look at a several fun, online tools that can be used in your classroom.

Story Jumper - http://www.storyjumper.com/ Free

Build books from scratch or choose from one of the free templates.

Story Bird - http://storybird.com/ Free

Collaborative storytelling where students can read a book, play them like games, or send them like greeting cards.

Glogster - http://edu.glogster.com/ Free

Teachers and students can create interactive posters to express their creativity or share knowledge and ideas.

To help you find other exciting ideas to personalize learning in your classroom take a look at “10 Technology Enhanced Alternatives to Book Reports”
http://theapple.monster.com/benefits/articles/8529-10-technology-enhanced-alternatives-to-book-reports

If you’ve never checked out Sue LeBeau’s site I recommend that you browse through her "Tools for Teachers" at:
http://www.suelebeau.com/freetools.htm

Educational Gadgets

2011-02-08T14:08:00.000-05:00

Need some new ideas to motivate your students? There are lots of gadgets available for teachers to enhance the learning experience for all students. What’s a gadget? They are free, online tools that make teaching easier. Here's a list of several websites worth checking out for free gadgets:

Education World
http://www.educationworld.com/a_tech/tech/tech249.shtml

Kathy Schrock’s Digital Gadgets
http://school.discoveryeducation.com/schrockguide/gadgets.html

Online Web Gadgets
http://onlinewebgadgets.com/gadget_education.html

Let’s look at a few gadgets listed at Education World

MotivatorStudents create a motivational-style poster or teachers can use the posters in handouts or multimedia presentations.
http://bighugelabs.com/motivator.php
MindomoCollaborative mind mapping for projects, tutorials, problem solving or presentations
http://www.mindomo.com/
Maps of War
Interactive maps that can show several thousand years of history in about 90 seconds
http://www.mapsofwar.com/

Check out the Gadget Archive listed in Education World to find gadgets for your students.
http://www.educationworld.com/a_tech/archives/gadget_tips.shtml

There's an App for that

2011-02-08T12:13:00.000-05:00

Does your school system allow you to use iPhones, iPads or iPods in your school? If so, then you may be interested in these apps that can be used in the learning process. The recent issue of eSchoolNews has provided a list of apps that can “automate current classroom processes or present new ways to learn.”

Free Apps

Word Lens

Translates signage from one language to another through the camera applicatio

Blackboard Molecules

Students can enroll into classes or organizations and download posted assignments from instructors

Today in History

Features a list of notable events in history and important figures students can use for trivia quizzes or facts of the day

Math Ref Free

This free version of Math Ref offers 600 formulas, figures, tips and examples that students can use as a formula study guide or to view graphs of different equations

Apps for a small fee

P183 Graphing Calculator Cost $0.99

Features more than 100 math functions and is a clone of the TI-83
Students can use as a calculator to input data and make graphs or matrices

Star Walk Cost $2.99

Features an astral telescope for guided tours of the night sky or to find the location of astral objects

Cram Cost $3.99

Teachers and students can create flashcards for standardized tests, exams or study materials

eCLicker Cost $9.99

Can be used in place of CPS, Activotes or Senteos in the classroom

How can you use iPhones, iPads and iPods in your classroom? Or how can your students use these apps at home to help them learn and achieve?

Making Digital Learning Easier

2011-01-11T13:19:00.001-05:00

Much has been written on how to improve education in the United States. One improvement suggested is to offer students a blended learning environment which I wrote about last November - ED: Blended Learning Helps Boost Achievement. From this post Susan Patrick, president and CEO of the International Association for K-12 Online Learning stated, “the advantage of online or blended learning over face-to-face instruction alone ‘is the combination of rich student-teacher-peer communication and interactions that are both asynchronous and synchronous, better utilizing the precious resource of time during, and outside, the school day to maximize learning--and personalize it in a way never before possible.’”

In the latest issue of eSchool News, January 2011 I read about the "10 Elements of High-Quality Digital Learning". The Digital Learning Council (DLC) led by two former governors, Bob Wise of West Virginia and Jed Bush of Florida, want to see two barriers removed form digital learning: the school funding formulas and seat-time requirements. In December 2010 the DLC released a blueprint of how digital learning can transform education and Wise stated that "students today are living in a digital age, and they are learning digitally everywhere except for school."

Susan Patrick believes that education can be improved by using blended learning to provide live teaching "and a variety of technological tool, including online learning, to educate students." Lisa Gillis, project director of DLC states, students can ... learn at their own pace, and the curriculum can adapt on a lesson-by-lesson basis" because students can be assessed as they finish each lesson and not progress until ataining mastery.

The DLC introduced these "10 Elements of High Quality Digital Learning."

Student Eligibility: All students are digital learners.
Student Access: All students have access to high-quality digital content and online courses.
Personalized Learning: All students can customize their education using digital content through an approved provider.
Advancement: Students progree based on demonstrated competency, instead of rigid seat-time requirements.
Content: Digital content, instructional materials, and online and blended learning courses are high quality.
Instruction: Digital instruction and teachers are high quality.
Providers: All students have access to multiple, high-quality providers.
Assessment and Accountability: Student learning is the metric for evaluating quality of content and instruction.
Funding: Funding creates incentives for performance and innovation.
Delivery: Infrastructure supports digital learning.

To read the entire article please go to:
http://www.eschoolnews.com/current-issue/

To learn more about the Digital Learning Council please go to:
http://www.digitallearningnow.com/

To read the complete Elements of Digital Learning please go to:
http://www.digitallearningnow.com/?page_id=20

2010-12-09T08:42:00.000-05:00

Image from http://phet.colorado.edu/

The National Science Foundation and the O’Donnell Foundation has given grants totaling $2.5 million to PhET Interactive Simulation Project to design 35 online simulations specifically for middle grade science education. The simulations will demonstrate how scientific concepts apply in real world scenarios. Once the simulations are created they will be available free to all science class students to enhance the curriculum.

According to Kathy Perkins, director of the PhET project, during middle school students “either get excited by science or turned off” and a goal of the project is to “make science classes both more effective and more fun.” The simulations will allow students to take the lead in conducting science experiments and help students visualize complex phenomena. Teachers can use the simulations in a variety of learning environments from class lectures, collaborative lab work to individual assignments for the students.

PhET was founded at the University of Colorado at Boulder in 2002 for college and high school science courses and in an effort to improve STEM education at all levels these new simulations will target middle grade students to improve math and science education. Another benefit to the PhET simulations is the reduced costs in expensive materials and lab equipment for schools while providing a nonthreatening learning environment for the students.

The simulations can be run from online or downloaded to the computer, CD or USB. What a great way for students to learn. Instead of only watching or being involved in a lab experiment once, taking notes and trying to remember everything that happened the students can now replay the simulation over and over gaining knowledge and insight. Each simulation includes the main topics covered, content vocabulary, learning goals, teaching ideas, software requirements, and a choice of language translations.

To read this article:
http://thejournal.com/articles/2010/12/03/online-project-receives-2.5-million-grant-to-aid-middle-school-science.aspx

To visit the project site:
http://phet.colorado.edu/en/about

To view the library of simulations:
http://phet.colorado.edu/en/simulations/category/new

Designing Competency-Based Pathways for Next Generation Learners

2010-12-06T10:47:00.001-05:00

I recently read a report from iNACOL on designing competency based pathways for K-12 education. Many parts of this report could be incorportated by teachers into their classrooms now. Although I will not cover the entire report I wanted to highlight the three design principles from this report.

Susan Patrick and Chris Sturgis just released a report giving details of what competency-based pathways means for the next generation of learners and “provides an understanding of K-12 education policies and practices for implementing student-centered learning.” According to the report the “challenge is to design competency-based pathways so that the pathways replace the time-based system with a set of practices that propel students toward mastery of college and career-ready skills.” There are three design principles of Competency-based Pathways.

First Design Principle
Students Advance upon Mastery

The report defines student mastery in the following ways:

Once students can demonstrate what they have learned by applying specific skills and content they are ready to advance to more advanced work. Students do not learn at the same time at the same level and this first design principle is based on this premise. Regardless of age, when a student demonstrates mastery they are ready to move ahead. In the United Kingdom this type of learning is called “organizing education around ‘stage not age.’”
Students need to be challenged but not overwhelmed by the level of required coursework. Students need to be active, engaged learners progressing at their own pace.
Students should demonstrate mastery of key concepts and skills through multiple demonstrations of learning.
All students need to achieve at an “A” or “B” level. If not, the student should “redo” and “try again” until key concepts and skills are learned. This means that students will complete courses at different times and not necessarily at the end of a semester or school year.
For students to demonstrate mastery and earn course credits teachers will need to create standards of proficiency for courses.

To meet the needs of all students and create learning options for all students teachers will need to provide a variety of learning experiences for students with online learning, student-centric, and competency based approaches. At the same time we need to make sure that students have 21st century skills for a global economy – critical thinking, problem-solving, communication, collaboration, creativity and innovation. To ensure 21st century readiness for all students teachers will need to make sure that all students are mastering key concepts and skills by demonstrating in multiple ways what they have learned. What have your students mastered in your class?

Second Design Principle
Explicit and Measurable Learning Objectives That Empower Students

Courses should be designed into measurable learning objectives with students taking responsibility for their learning thereby increasing student engagement and motivation.

Teachers should become facilitators and coaches guiding the students. Teachers should provide a broad range of instructional practices – student-centric, online and competency-based focused on formative assessments.
Learning becomes modular with students mastering learning objectives providing students with a sense of progress and accomplishment.
Students should have access to formal and informal learning opportunities inside and outside of the classroom. Students should have access to digital content and be provided with mentors as needed.

Third Design Principle
Assessment Is Meaningful and a Positive Learning Experience for Students

Formative assessments should be student-centered and aligned to the learning objectives with students receiving immediate feedback when the assessment occurs. By providing immediate feedback students should be encouraged to return to difficult concepts and skills until mastery is achieved in each module. I think there are lots of teachers who go over a test to talk about items that students missed but I’m not sure how much reteaching is really happening in classrooms today.

There should be a strong emphasis on formative assessment that drives instruction. Schools should have learning management systems integrated with information management systems so teachers can see where students are struggling to better design learning objectives. These systems can also help principals identify where teachers are having difficulty teaching certain concepts.
What is mastery and proficiency? Teachers need to understand what proficiency will be for specific learning objectives and what competencies need to be mastered for course completion.
Can students demonstrate proficiency through multiple demonstrations of learning? Students should be assessed and show proficiency through formative assessments, digital learning tools, performance-based assessments, presentations, and peer-to-peer instruction.
Students should only progress with they have demonstrated A or B level work. Grades can be categorized in these levels:

An “A” would mean mastery or high performance
A “B” would mean proficient
A “C” would mean novice or still working towards proficiency
Any grade lower that a “C” means the student will continue to work until they can demonstrate mastery.

Once a student completes a course and demonstrates proficiency they may be assessed for Advanced Placement (AP) courses. This should be offered throughout the school year instead of once a year so students can move immediately to a higher level of studies. This means that when students are allowed to work at their own pace and not move on until mastery is achieved teachers will have students completing courses at different times throughout the school year so advanced placement tests should be offered throughout the year.

From these principles the first change I see is the need for teachers to only accept student mastery before allowing students to advance to new learning objectives. Students need to work at their pace and be given multiple ways to learn from online learning, student-centric, and competency based approaches.

Do teachers understand the learning styles of their students?

Visual * Auditory * Tactile / Kinesthetic

Teachers will need to understand multiple intelligences and the seven different ways students use to demonstrate intellectual ability:

Visual/Spatial Intelligence – tend to think in pictures and need to create mental images to retain information
Verbal/Linguistic Intelligence – highly developed auditory skills and tend to think in words rather than pictures
Logical/Mathematical Intelligence – ability to use reason, logic and numbers making connections between pieces of information
Bodily/Kinesthetic Intelligence – express themselves through movement and have a good sense of balance and eye-hand coordination
Musical/Rhythmic Intelligence – tend to think in sounds, rhythms and patterns and are extremely sensitive to environmental sounds
Interpersonal Intelligence – tend to see things from the other person’s point of view and are great organizers
Intrapersonal Intelligence – tend to self-reflect and recognize their own strengths and weaknessess

Howard Garner, Multiple Intelligences
http://www.infed.org/thinkers/gardner.htm

The second big change I perceive will be changing from teacher-led classes to the teacher becoming a facilitator and coach to the students guiding them through learning experiences using printed content, digital content and various technologies. I think many teachers still feel if they are not providing all the information in the correct sequential order that students will not learn.

The third big change I see is resistance from teachers to allow students to complete courses at their pace at various times throughout the school year. If a student completes all 2nd grade math competencies by November then will the student begin 3rd grade math competencies in December? I realize this creates more work for the teacher but the student could go to a 3rd grade class for math. I can see in an online course where collaboration between students may suffer if there are only a few students in the course all working at their pace but the online instructor will need to maintain participation, focusing and guiding discussions, providing feedback and keeping students motivated.

The fourth change will be in providing teachers the materials, technology and skills to teach in multiple ways and not just reteach the same material in the same way. Many teachers will need training and support to differentiate instruction and make these changes.
From this report I wanted to focus on teaching strategies that teachers could do now in their classrooms:

student mastery
being facilitators and coaching students
providing meaningful assessments with immediate feedback

Everyone agrees that the overall achievement of US students needs to improve and this report from iNACOL provides one idea of how to redesign education so that it works for all students.

To read the entire report please click on the link below:
http://www.inacol.org/research/bookstore/detail.php?id=20.

Next Generation Learning

2010-12-03T11:29:00.002-05:00

Next Generation Learning is the concept of using technology to develop learning models and personalized education pathways. Currently in the United States nearly 30 percent of students don’t complete high school and only 42 percent of students graduate from college with a bachelor’s degree. How will we address the learning styles and needs of the next generation of students?

The publication Next Generation Learning was produced by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. “The foundation has invested $5 billion in programs and partnerships in the United States to address” the challenges faced by our education system and lack of qualified workers that is impacting our economy. The foundation supports the Common Core State Standards Initiative that has produced a set of standards for states to follow for language arts and math skills that students need to learn to be successful in college. Based on these core standards the foundation is investing “in the development of instructional materials that align with those standards” and “assessment tools that provide real-time feedback to students and teachers.”

The goal of developing innovative learning models and personalized pathways is to provide “access to high-quality, relevant and engaging content in a variety of forms” to all students. The elements of the next generation learning model include:

Effective assessment tools that align with college preparation standards and clear postsecondary learning objectives
Engaging digital content
Algorithms and match student needs with content and delivery methods
Technology-enable professional development tools
Learning management platforms that integrate and deliver these components

Technology-based solutions can be a cost-effective way to provide effective learning solutions for schools across the nation in this time of tight school budgets.

Next Generation Learning Challenges is a nonprofit partnership that aims to “improve college readiness and college completion through the use of technology and digital media.” The main objectives are:

To encourage more investment in technology-enabled solutions that improve the quality of learning and student outcomes for low-income students
To support a portfolio of solutions that demonstrate evidence of success
To encourage large institutions to partner with innovators to support adoption of their solutions
To establish a network of collective learning among innovators and adopters

The Next Generation Learning Challenges is led by EDUCAUSE in partnership with the League for Innovation in the Community College, iNACOL the International Association for K-12 Online Learning the Council for Chief State School Officers, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation with other funders. It is the belief of these organizations that providing the intelligent use of technology in combination with new emerging evidence-based models of teaching and learning will improve college readiness and college graduation rates in the United States providing a workforce of qualified employees.

To read this publication please go to:
http://www.gatesfoundation.org/postsecondaryeducation/Documents/nextgenlearning.pdf

To learn more about the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation please go to:
http://www.gatesfoundation.org/

Technology Fun in December

2010-11-29T11:01:00.006-05:00

Image from Crayola.com

Many times some of the most fun that students can have is with colored pencils, crayons, markers, paper and glue. I enjoy reading the monthly Crayola newsletter to see the list of projects and craft ideas. This month as I read thru the list I started thinking of how many of these projects students and teachers could create with available technology.

The first one that caught my eye was taking old CDs and turning them into ornaments. Instead of students painting over the CDs, create a double circle template in Word or a double circle template in Publisher. Let students use the drawing tools, adding shapes and colors to each circle on the page, print and glue to both sides of the CD. Students and teachers can create all kinds of cards and projects with Publisher, uploading pictures and adding their own creative touch.

There is lots of coloring pages, crafts and educational ideas at Crayola. Teachers should check out the resources provided by Crayola: lesson plans, art tips and techniques, Crayola Dream Makers, success guides, parents & teachers as partners, certificate maker and color science. Dream Makers is a guide that provides fun and creativity to standards-based learning lessons for Language Arts, Social Studies, Mathematics, and Science. Currently Dream Makers is not available for North Carolina Standards but the free sample guides will show a subject area lesson complete with objectives, background information, resources, assessment and suggestions to extend the lesson.

Crayola continues to build lesson plans for all ages. If you haven’t looked at the lesson plans in a while here’s a list of available lesson plans by grade levels.

Grades K-3 695 lessons
Grades 4-6 929 lessons
Grades 7-12 452 lessons
Special Needs students - 355 lessons

To check out all resources for educators please go to:
http://www.crayola.com/educators/index.cfm?n_id=5

Inquiry-Based Projects for the Classroom

2010-11-23T08:09:00.000-05:00

Inquiry-based projects provide students with authentic science experiences. Here are some suggestions for creating and using inquiry-based projects with your students.

Action-Reaction blog – is it real or fake? Guided inquiry and student-centered learning to foster the development of critical thinking skills. Students may collaborate, be self-directed, communicate and analyze through inquiry-based projects. http://fnoschese.wordpress.com/
Connecting News with National Science Education Standards blog encourages middle school teachers to use current science events as teaching opportunities. http://expertvoices.nsdl.org/connectingnews/
Quantum Progress blog building metacognition curriculum for physics classes.

Project – Measuring the earth with Skype and a stick http://quantumprogress.wordpress.com/2010/09/26/measuring-the-earth-with-skype-and-a-stick/

Snapshot Science provides ideas and resources for biology, chemistry and physics teachers. http://snapshotscience.co.uk/
WCYDWT – Science blog provides a collection of rich media that teachers can use as starting points for classroom inquiry. http://wcydwt.posterous.com/

To see all suggested websites please go to Edutopia:
http://www.edutopia.org/blog/standards-based-science-inquiry

How to turn current events into Real-World Projects

2010-11-19T08:53:00.002-05:00

Teachers have been looking for ways to do more than talk about current events in class by finding ways to apply science and math to real-world situations. But “how do you plan for academically rigorous projects that are ‘ripped from the headlines’?”

Here are some suggestions from the article.

Think about creating a project where your students take the role of the problem solvers, designing a rescue within a certain amount of time. Use the rescue of the 33 trapped Chilean mine workers as an example. Have students think about what they would need to know about human biology and conditions to sustain life Include knowledge about geology and what experts they would need to create a plan to rescue the miners.

The Learning Network has a lesson for students to create a multimedia project focusing on universal themes. http://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/10/15/chile-y-el-mundo-connecting-the-chilean-miners-story-with-universal-themes/

To bring real life events closer to students teachers are implementing projects where students discuss and see events thru other students who live at the effected site, such as the Gulf oil spill in Louisiana.

Not only can student talk and share pictures from the site but students can discuss the “psychological, economic, and ecological dimensions of the crisis.”
Does your school use Skype, webcams or pen pals to reach students around the world?
Voices on the Gulf provides a blog forum for students to discuss ongoing issues related to the Gulf coast - http://www.voicesonthegulf.org/
Project-Based Learning Camp provided by Edutopia provides a toolkit real world projects using various software programs: Delicious, Twitter, Wallwisher - http://www.edutopia.org/project-based-learning-summer-camp

Look at real-life events where students live, such as water shortages, forest fires, water pollution and how polluted or dwindling resources affect their lives, the eco system and what that means for the future. Have students create multimedia presentations to present to the community or to run on local TV cable.
Students may also want to take part in service projects where they live or to provide help to victims in other countries.

Here’s an outline of projects from schools in the Washington area where students researched problems and designed solutions using science, art and technology. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/02/AR2010020203425.html

Here’s a list of resources for teachers and students to use when developing service-learning or community service projects.

National Service-Learning Clearinghouse - http://www.servicelearning.org/disaster_response
Do Something promotes youth action within their communities. Students can be involved by receiving mobile volunteer alerts, posting a video, adding comments to discussion forums, setting up a DoSomething club or volunteering. http://www.dosomething.org/whatsyourthing/Disaster+Response+And+Relief/Disaster+Preparedness

To read the entire article from Edutopia please go to:
http://www.edutopia.org/blog/real-world-projects-news-events-suzie-boss

Ten Tips for Personalized Learning via Technology

2010-11-08T09:54:00.002-05:00

How is technology being used in the classroom for more effective teaching, differentiated instruction and to meet the needs of every student in the school? This article outlines how one elementary school uses technology. Each classroom in the school has an interactive whiteboard, eight computers and access to digital cameras, flip cameras, remote-response clickers and PDAs.

Here are some tips from the teachers on how they use this technology with their students.

Deliver instruction through multiple forms of media

Teachers access instructional videos, audio clips, animations, instructional games and other available online resources.

Gather and use immediate feedback on students’ understanding

Teachers use remote-response clickers with practice questions to see where to customize subsequent lessons to meet the needs of all students.

Give students options

Using digital media students are allowed to show learning through a variety of media tools.

Automate basic-skills practice

Teachers use Study Island and EducationCity to identify weaknesses in student skills and then assign lessons according to the students’ needs.

Practice independent work skills

Teachers have procedures so students know how to use the technology and what to do if they have a question.

Create a weekly “must-do” and “may do” list

Teachers provide a list of personalized “must-do” tasks that all students need to complete and a list of “may-do” tasks that students may choose from so all students always have something to do.

Pretest students’ knowledge before each unit

Teachers assess prior knowledge and tailor lessons to each child’s needs.

Be flexible when plans go awry

Teachers model good problem-solving behaviors and involve students in devising alternative approaches when technology isn’t available or not working.

Let students drive

Teachers let students lead the lesson at the whiteboards giving them the opportunity to capitalize on their skills.

Share the work of creating differentiated lessons

Teachers work together to plan units of study with activities to meet the needs of all students.

From this list of ideas think of ways to use technology to provide differentiated instruction, feedback and choices for all of your students? Also, how are you using technology to assist in planning with other teachers?

To read the entire Edutopia article:
http://www.edutopia.org/stw-differentiated-instruction-ten-key-lessons

Web2.0 Science Tools

2010-11-08T08:37:00.001-05:00

Now that we have started the second nine-weeks of school I thought it would be helpful to offer some useful resources in science for middle and high school teachers. This is just a short overview of the many sites included in this site. To view all the resources please go to:
http://www.guide2digitallearning.com/professional_development/web_2_0_science_tools

General Science

Google Earth – use Google Earth to fly to places around the world. Check out the Showcase of tours and videos or the Gallery of images.

http://www.google.com/earth/index.html

Google Earth Lessons

http://gelessons.com/lessons/

Science NetLinks – resources for K-12 science, standards-based Internet experiences for students. Check out the Lessons, Tools, Resources and Benchmarks.

http://sciencenetlinks.com/index.php

Anatomy

Get Body Smart – an online textbook about human anatomy and physiology. The site currently covers nine subject areas.

http://www.getbodysmart.com/

Science & Nature: Interactive games to better understand the human anatomy

http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/humanbody/body/index_interactivebody.shtml

Astronomy & Space

Hubblesite – explore astronomy from the Hubble, gallery of images, recent discoveries, and learning resources.

http://hubblesite.org/

There are also resources for the following areas in science:

Kids’ Space Sites
Biology
Chemistry
Earth Science
Physics

"Race to the Top" Winners Were Announced Today

2010-08-24T15:06:00.004-04:00

North Carolina is a Winner !!!

According to CNN the District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, and Rhode Island are all to receive a portion of the $3.4 billion remaining in the "Race to the Top" fund for education. The second round of competition began with 35 states applying and in July 19 states were listed as finalists. Each finalist sent representatives to Washington in August to present their case, according to CNN.

What did each state have to do to qualify for "Race to the Top"? Each state had to present a plan of school reforms in four main areas:

Turning around low performing schools
Adopting college and career ready standard
Effective teachers and principals
Using data systems to support student achievement

So how will $3.4 billion be divided between the states? There is a limit how much money each state can receive based on the student population and North Carolina will receive $400 million. For North Carolina the "Race to the Top" money will be overseen by Dr. Harrison and the State Board, and Superintendent Atkinson will be responsible for implementing the approved program according to Governor Bev Perdue's press release.

The link below gives the breakdown of money for each state:
http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/campaign-k-12/2010/08/announcements_coming_on_race_t.html

Other related links

Charlotte WCNC.com

http://www.wcnc.com/news/local/NC-to-share-435-billion-in-Race-to-the-Top-education-grant-101383384.html

North Carolina Race to the Top Website

http://racetothetop.nc.gov/

Race to the Top Announcement from President Obama

http://www.ed.gov/blog/2009/07/president-obama-secretary-duncan-announce-race-to-the-top/

Governor Bev Perdue's Press Release

http://www.governor09.nc.gov/NewsItems/PressReleaseDetail.aspx?newsItemID=1310&utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

ActivExpressions - Handheld Formative Assessments

2010-08-12T10:14:00.000-04:00

Student Response Systems (SRS) will be used in many classrooms this fall as a tool for assessment and to boost student participation. But what if you’re the student who knows the material and can easily answer the questions? You have to wait till everyone answers the question before the teachers moves on to the next question and that's time that could be used in a better way.

Promethean has developed a solution to this problem and has unveiled a new version of software that will take the SRS technology to a new level. The company calls it “real-time personalized intervention.” Basically the new technology will send a question directly to each students ActivExpression “clicker” device. The student will answer the question and immediately get a new question with no waiting time. The system can also hone in on each student’s abilities and deliver personalized questions that target certain abilities.

The new software will give teachers the ability to do handheld formative assessment in real time that adapts to the pace of each student according to Tony Cann, Promethean Director. Teachers are able to track the progress of each student, send questions to each student’s ActivExpression and allow students to work at their own pace. After each test teachers can review the responses to see strengths and weaknesses in the class to see areas to be reviewed and content that has been mastered.

Tony Cann says the system is capable of delivering 15,000 to 20,000 self-paced questions per minute and the software is a free upgrade for current ActivExpression users. This should be a great software upgrade for teachers who use the ActivExpressions.

To learn more about ActivExpressions go to:
http://www.prometheanworld.com/server.php?show=nav.16332
http://www.prometheanworld.com/server.php?show=nav.15997

To read this article from eSchoolnews go to:
http://www.eschoolnews.com/2010/08/04/technology-takes-formative-assessment-to-a-whole-new-level/

Image from Promethean
http://www.prometheanworld.com/server.php?show=nav.16

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Brainstorming and Mind Mapping

2010-08-06T15:56:00.000-04:00

Lots of teachers use brainstorming as a way for students to share ideas and possible solutions to a problem. Always define the problem to make sure students clearly understand the problem. Make sure all ideas are written down.

There are four basic rules to brainstorming:

Focus on quantity – the greater number of ideas produced generates a greater chance of producing an effective solution.
Withhold criticism – focus on extending ideas and suspending judgment.
Welcome unusual ideas – help students to look at ideas from different perspectives and not make assumptions.
Combine and improve ideas – help students to combine ideas to form a single better idea.

Mind Mapping Steps:

Once all brainstormed ideas have been written down students will move to mind mapping. At this point students should begin identifying relationships between the ideas and key points by drawing lines, arrows, or using colors.
Students should begin finding contrasts/similarities, cause/effect relationships. These ideas can be written down beside the linking lines.
Students will use the map to arrange all the items into a logical order.

Here are some free tools for Brainstorming and Mind Mapping

Slick Plan – create sitemaps and flow charts

http://www.slickplan.com/

Thinklinkr – fully collaborative outliner

http://thinklinkr.com/

Webspiration coming this fall – map ideas and organize outlines – subscription

http://www.webspiration.com/

Kidspiration and Inspiration software are used in our school system for all K-12 students.
Diagrammr – create and share diagrams by writing sentences

http://www.diagrammr.com/

Imagination Cubed – draw mind maps online, can be used with whiteboards

http://www.imaginationcubed.com/

Edistorm – real time mind mapping and sticky notes

http://www.edistorm.com/

Education Eye – brainstorming with a search engine

http://www.educationeye.org.uk/

Mind42 – collaborative mind mapping

http://mind42.com/

Mindmeister – mind mapping that can be embedded into a site

http://www.mindmeister.com/

Mindomo – detailed mind mapping site with web 2.0 features

http://www.mindomo.com/

As teachers begin creating fall lesson plans check out these sites for ways to incorporate technology into brainstorming and mind mapping with your students.

To read this article please go to Tech&Learning:
http://www.techlearning.com/blogs/31158

Transforming Education

2010-07-20T14:42:00.001-04:00

Technology enabled classrooms should have self-directed learners and teachers who can manage their classrooms. Every child learns differently and children should be allowed to learn at their own pace. If we expect students to learn how to solve problems, collaborate and communicate then we need a new way for them to learn through the use of technology. To prepare for the 21st century learning must take place inside and outside the classroom using technology to improve the learning outcomes for all students.

Students need to be self-directed learners who “select, manage, and assess their own learning activities” and are given the freedom to pursue learning “at any time, in any place, through any means, at any age.” Teachers would “emphasize skills, processes and systems instead of content coverage and tests.” So how can this be done?

The article listed three essentials:

Learning must move from teacher-centered to student-centered – this isn’t a new concept in education but how many teachers really know what this means and how to accomplish this in the classroom?
Students must take charge of their own learning – again not a new concept, but how many students want to be in charge of their own learning? How do we create an environment where students want to be involved learners?
Assessments must be formative and summative – formative assessments provide feedback to the students by addressing learning gaps showing teachers where to re-teach concepts. Summative assessments show the proficiency level reached by the student.

The article outlined four ideas.

Create – teacher created multimedia lessons – hands on, collaborative learning activities
Teach – keep students focused on the lesson and learning
Learn – allow students time to collaborate, interact with the materials and create meaning from the lesson
Assess – formative assessments giving students feedback throughout the lesson – re-teaching and providing additional materials as needed

One of the best ways for teachers to accomplish these goals is through classroom-management system software but what if your school district doesn’t use a classroom-management system? Teachers could begin by building more student-centered activities through project-based learning. As I read through the following list it was easy to see the similarities.

Project-Based Learning outline from Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project-based_learning

Organized around an open-ended Driving Question or Challenge – (Create)
Creates a need to know essential content and skills – (Teach)
Requires inquiry to learn and/or create something new – (Learn)
Requires critical thinking, problem solving, collaboration, and various forms of communication – (Learn)
Allows some degree of student voice and choice – (Learn)
Incorporates feedback and revision – (Assess)
Results in a publicly presented product or performance – (Assess)

I compared this list to a recent posting I wrote about project-based learning. Here are the steps as outlined from Edutopia. http://www.edutopia.org/maine-project-learning-six-steps-planning

Six Steps for Planning a Successful Project

Develop a compelling topic that covers state standards - (Create)
Develop or design a comprehensive final product that each student will have a role in creating - (Create & Learn)
Involve professional organizations and professionals from the community to connect the academic study with the real world - (Teach & Learn)
Identify and organize the major learning resources (Teach & Learn)
Coordinate calendars and allow enough time for each component to be done well - (Learn)
Plan a final experience or culminating event - (Assess)

You can find lots of information about project-based learning, problem-based learning and inquiry-based learning on the internet. To help teachers find ways to transform education, build 21st century skills and prepare all students for the future take a look at these links.

Project-Based Learning Links
Project-Based Learning for the 21st Century- http://www.bie.org/
Project-Based Learning from Edutopia - http://www.edutopia.org/project-based-learning
Project-Based Learning - http://pbl-online.org/
Problem-Based Learning - http://livebinders.com/play/play/19470
Build Project-Based Learning Checklists and Evaluations - http://pblchecklist.4teachers.org/checklist.shtml

To read the article Transforming Education:
http://newbay.ebookhost.net/tl/smart/2/ebook/1/index.php?e=46&user_id=22907&flash=10.53

Robot Technology

2010-07-12T15:49:00.002-04:00

In Los Angeles a young boy with autism is learning to mimic the moves of a robot. Around the world computer scientists are developing robots that can engage people, teaching simple skills, household tasks, vocabulary words and imitation. Researchers are also looking at robotics as instructors for foreign language or for developmental problems such as autism.

South Korea is using hundreds of robots as teacher aides in the classroom. According to Patricia Kuhl, co-director of the Institute for Learning and Brain Sciences, “with the right kind of technology at a critical period in a child’s development, they (robots) could supplement learning in the classroom.”

In one study children with autism spent thirty minutes with a robot when programmed to be socially engaging and another thirty minutes when the robot was programmed to behave randomly. When programmed to be socially engaging the children spent more time directly interacting with the robot. What does this tell us? When the robot acted more human the children responded better to the robot.

Timing the robot’s responses was also very important. If the robot responded too fast or too slow to the child this disrupted the interaction between them so the physical rhythm of the robot is crucial. When the robot was able to bob or shake in rhythm with an autistic child, the child would be less fearful to engage with the robot. “Simple mimicry seems to build a kind of trust, and increase sociability”, said Anjana Bhat, an assistant professor in the department of education.

For robots to be truly effective guides with children, robots will have to learn from students. According to Andrea Thomaz, assistant professor of interactive computing at Georgia Tech, if ”scientists could equip a machine to understand the nonverbal cues that signal “I’m confused” or “I have a question” — giving it some ability to monitor how its lesson is being received” then the robot could accumulate knowledge through experience.

Researchers would like to find ways that “robots can learn to learn, on their own and without instruction.” Then can a robot be programmed to be “responsive to the needs of a class, even an individual child.”

Not sure if a robot could replace a teacher, what do you think?
To learn more about the robots mentioned in this posting please check out the links below.

RUBI the robot: - http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/news/article/18319
CosmoBot - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosmobot
Asimo Robot - http://asimo.honda.com/
Bandit robot - http://robotics.usc.edu/~kheldman/
Nao robot - http://www.aldebaran-robotics.com/en
South Korea robots - http://www.plasticpals.com/?p=21283

To read this article please click on one of the links below:
http://www.eschoolnews.com/2010/07/12/students-meet-your-new-teacher-mr-robot/ http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/11/science/11robots.html?_r=2&emc=eta1

Images from Bandit Robot, CosmoBot Robot and Nao Robot sites.

Students Design World Fixing Solutions

2010-07-08T12:38:00.002-04:00

Have you heard about Imagine Cup, the student technology competition? The competition was developed by Microsoft to encourage young people to use their imaginations, their passion and creativity to design technology innovations that can make a difference in the world today.

Each team is challenged to come up with solutions that improve health, reduce poverty or boost literacy based on the UN Millennium Goals. To learn more about the United Nations Millennium Development Goals - http://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/

The competition hopes to inspire more students to become interested in technical careers and prepare them for future careers. To view some of this year’s finalist videos click on the link and select a country - http://www.msstudentlounge.com/studentrally/tabid/81/Default.aspx

The competition categories are: Software Design, Embedded Development, Game Design, Digital Media and IT Challenge. To read about each teams’ projects - http://imaginecup.com/Competition/Finalists.aspx

Although this is a global competition how can you inspire your students to become passionate about learning and making a difference in the world? What project-based activities could you do with your students next school year? Do you want to design a student-centered project from scratch or find project-based activities online? Here’s some help with available project-based ideas from the internet –

Computing Technology for Math Excellence - http://www.ct4me.net/math_projects.htm
Internet4Classrooms: Project Sites - http://www.internet4classrooms.com/project.htm
Mrs. O’s House: Projects - http://www.mrsoshouse.com/pbl/pblin.html
Youth Learn: Inquiry Based Project -
http://www.youthlearn.org/learning/planning/lesson-planning/how-inquiry/how-inquiry
Project-based activities in Math & Science -
http://www.squidoo.com/project-based-activities

There are many other sites on the internet that guide teachers in developing project-based activities and many sites that offer examples of project-based activities. This summer is a great time to revamp your lesson plans and incorporate project-based activities throughout the school year.

To learn more about Imagine Cup - http://imaginecup.com/
To view videos from Imagine Cup 2010 -
http://www.eschoolnews.tv/MN/Mnp/eSchoolNews/eSchoolNews.aspx

Project-Based Learning

2010-07-01T08:58:00.003-04:00

I recently came across two articles and three videos dealing with project learning from Edutopia. We all know that students need to be engaged learners and project-based learning is not a new concept for teachers but many teachers may not fully understand how to create a meaningful project that includes all content areas. The video examples showcased a learning expedition where students and teachers spent up to a semester working on a learning project.

The first article “Six Steps for Planning a Successful Project” provides the steps and examples of how to create a project from beginning to final product. The next article “Five Questions to Ask Before You Start a Project” posed questions the teachers should consider to make sure there are enough resources and examples to make the project meaningful for all students.

Each of the videos detailed a project the students worked on and presented to parents and the community. The projects involved community resources, teachers from universities and experts in various fields. The learning expeditions were real for the students who interviewed people, took pictures in the community and presented the projects from their perspectives and point of view.

Here are the videos:

Anatomy of a Project: “Soil Superheroes” includes links to additional resources, teacher planning guide, and samples of student comic strips.
Anatomy of a Project: “Give Me Shelter” includes samples of student work, links to additional resources, teacher planning guide and assessment forms.
Anatomy of a Project: Kinetic Conundrum” doesn’t include any additional resources.

It’s important for teachers to remember that these learning expeditions can be tailored to fit the time and resources available in their communities. A learning project doesn’t have to include an entire grade level of teachers; a well-planned project could be carried out by a couple of teachers. Also, think about including technology resources such as Skype and available free software that could be utilized for the project. Students need to learn from real-world situations; students need to learn how to explore, problem-solve, collaborate and work as a team; teachers need to know how to use technology as a tool to change the nature of learning; and students who participate in learning expeditions will turn into investigators, problem-solvers, scientists, writers, artists, multimedia experts, presenters and communicators.

One guiding principle was prevalent throughout the articles and videos - after designing the learning project the teachers went through every step of the project, investigating, collaborating, designing and presenting a final product to the group. The teachers learned how to scaffold the tasks and learning of new skills so the students would be successful each step of the way through the learning expedition. This was a key factor in the success of the project – teachers taking the time to work through the learning project and completing a final product because what looks great on paper in reality may not work.

To read the articles and view the videos please go to Edutopia:
http://www.edutopia.org/maine-project-learning-how-to-plan-a-project

Next Gen Learning Challenges

2010-06-23T15:14:00.001-04:00

iNACOL is partnering with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to boost college readiness and college graduation rates. The project will “provide grants to innovators, build evidence of what works, and foster an engaged community of professionals committed to helping students and young adults prepare for college and successfully complete their postsecondary educations.”

The project will launch with a six-week Request for Comments period where people can share their knowledge and comments on the issues of helping students prepare and complete college. The conversations will discuss these challenges:

Visit the Next Gen Learning Challenges website at www.nextgenlearning.com to learn about college readiness and completion in the United States
Contribute research, resources, and perspectives on the four challenges
Contribute ideas for future challenges, the next of which will focus on secondary education
Engage in discussion forums targeting key questions
Explore the challenges with your colleagues through workshops

Partners in the Next Gen Learning Challenges are:

Gates Foundation
EDUCAUSE
League for Innovation in the Community College
International Association for K-12 Online Learning
Council of Chief State School Officers
William and Flora Hewlett Foundation

Later this summer the Next Gen Learning Challenges will solicit grant proposals for:

Deploying open core courseware
Deepening learner engagement through interactive, online technologies
Scaling blended learning
Mobilizing learning analytics

iNACOL and the Next Gen Learning Challenges believes that “technology can be a key tool for making learning more flexible, engaging, and affordable.”

To learn more about the Next Gen Learning Challenges go to:
http://www.nextgenlearning.com/

Updated Google Internet Searching

2010-06-21T08:41:00.003-04:00

In the recent issue of eSchoolNews I read a short article about Google Tunes Up It’s Internet Search Results. On the left of any search results people can find tools for reshuffling and filtering search results into specific categories. According to Google the changes were designed to encourage people to use Google’s search engine more frequently.

So here’s an example – I did a search for “Gulf of Mexico oil spill” and got about 27,000 results. My choices were listed under Everything and Any Time. It was easy to filter the search in Google by the categories and by the time frame posted. Photos and videos could easily be viewed in threes or all at one time. This would be a great tool for teachers and students to be able to select the type of media to view information and the time posted to either see the progressive history of a story or to read the most current posting.

To compare I did a search for “Gulf of Mexico oil spill" in Yahoo and I got 143,000,000 results that could be filtered by news source, photos, video or Twitter. The photos could be viewed three at a time using the scroll arrow or viewed by pages. Last I did the same search in Bing receiving 13,000 results. The results could be filtered by News About, Images Of, Related Searches or Search History. Bing brought up all images on one page which took some time to load. But the images could be filtered by size, layout, color, style, and people. The one feature I really liked in Bing was the ability to mouse over each video thumbnail to preview the video.

So depending on your needs each search engine offers choices for teachers and students.

To read the article from eSchoolnews go to:

http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/eschoolmedia/ecampus_201006/#/50

Image from Google Internet Search

Online Safety Report Discourages Scare Tactics

2010-06-10T15:36:00.001-04:00

School’s out and thousands of students have a much deserved rest from school but how will these students spend their time online this summer? A federal online safety task force found that students who spend a large amount of time with social networking sites, text messaging and other ways to communicate are not influenced by scare tactics for Internet safety. The task force determined that educating students about appropriate online behavior and digital media use will enable students to evaluate potential online risks through digital citizenship and media literacy.

The Online Safety and Technology Working Group (OSTWG), created by the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, recommends creating a web-based clearinghouse of online safety education research and establishing industry best practices for effective internet safety education program.

The group pointed out that “the statistical probability of a young person being physically assaulted by an adult who they first met online is extremely low.” The Berkman Center Internet Safety Technical Task Force found that cases of adult –to-child sexual encounters on social networks usually involved teens who were aware that they were meeting an adult male while cyber bullying can start as early as second grade. Unfortunately many parents and teachers don’t sufficiently know how to teach digital citizenship to students.

With summer here, many students will spend hours online in social networking sites and on the internet. Without understanding the risks, many students will be on their own this summer to figure out the ethics, social norms, and civil behaviors that lead to good citizenship and internet safety according to the OSTWG. Parents need to know what sort of content and information will be accessible to students when they are online. So get involved, check out what students are doing online, ask questions about who they are meeting in social networking sites and talk to them about internet safety and cyber bullying.

To read the entire article from eSchoolNews go to:
http://www.eschoolnews.com/2010/06/07/online-safety-report-discourages-scare-tactics/?

To learn more about the Online Safety and Technology Working Group (OSTWG) go to:
http://techliberation.com/2009/06/04/online-safety-technology-working-group-ostwg-is-underway/

To read the report Youth Safety on a Living Internet please go to:
http://www.ntia.doc.gov/reports/2010/OSTWG_Final_Report_060410.pdf

To learn about the Nine Elements of Digital Citizenships go to:
http://www.digitalcitizenship.net/Nine_Elements.html

Using Movie Maker with Your Students

2010-06-07T10:08:00.005-04:00

How often do you use Movie Maker with your students? There are some great ways to use Movie Maker as part of a lesson presentation or as projects for your students. Here is a list of ideas taken from the Digital Learning Environments News - May 2010 edition:
http://www.guide2digitallearning.com/professional_development/
how_make_lessons_memorable_movie

Six Ways to Use Movies with Your Students

Create a timeline that moves

Present a succession of historical events in a photo slide show with music from that period.

Make your movie morph

For science class, present the stages of development in the life of a butterfly. Create a photo slide show with images you grab from bing.com.

Demonstrate things you can’t bring to class

Videotape feeding time for lions or gorillas at the zoo. Or capture the physics at play in a local skate park with still photos or video.

Share the classics in a fresher way

Shoot video of various students reciting a phrase or two from a Shakespearean sonnet. String them together in a movie, and suddenly all eyes are on the screen. The whole class hangs on every famous word.

Try a different angle for math

For math class, share all the ways that angles appear in everyday life, from a city skyscraper to the painted lines in the school parking lot to the countless angles at play on a pool table.

Start a lively debate

Frame a debate topic by sharing the pros and cons of an issue with photos.

Here are some other great ideas for including Movie Maker in lessons and projects for your students:

Movie Maker Lessons & Movie Maker Worksheets by Lesson Planet
http://www.lessonplanet.com/search?keywords=movie+maker&rating=3

Techno Kids – Camp Technology Project
http://www.technokids.com/computer-curriculum/camp/movie-maker-
lesson-plans-technoproducer.aspx

Scholastic.com
http://www.scholastic.com/dreamincolor/digitalstorytelling/pdfs/
Target_DS_Lesson4.pdf

Pixar University's Randy Nelson on Learning and Working in the Collaborative Age

2010-06-01T13:52:00.009-04:00

A lot has been written about 21st Century Skills and jobs of the future but how do schools prepare students for jobs that don't exist yet and give students the needed skills for these job? I recently saw this video from Edutopia by Randy Nelson, Dean of Pixar University.

In this video Mr. Nelson explains what skills future employees will need and what schools must do to prepare students for new models in the workplace.

The following is an outline from the video.
Use improv as a mechanisim to help with collaboration. There are two core principles of improv.

Accept every offer - if you don't accept the offer it goes no where
Make your partner look good - always try to make your partner look good, not bad

It's called Plusing - take a piece of work and don't judge it - say, "here's where I'm starting, what can I do with this?"
How do I plus this?
How do I accept the offer and make my partner look good?

How can students be ready for innovative jobs with innovative companies? How can these innovative companies find someone who has a depth of knowledge that is able to do the job? Many innovative companies will look for people who have seen failure and figured out how to turn it into something positive rather than those people who have avoided failure. The core skill of innovators is error recovery not failure avoidance.

Some predictors that innovative companies will look for:

Depth - Proof of a portfolio verses the promise of a resume. Students who are high achievers in school usually are high achievers in the workplace.
Breadth - people who are extremely broad - people who are more interested in the job and learning than they are interesting - people who want to know what you know.
Communication that involves translation - willing to work on communication as a destination, not a source, being able to communicate to your audience effectively. People with a broad range of experiences can effectively communicate to several audiences.
Collaboration means amplification - connecting a group of people who are listening to each other; interested in each other; bringing separate depths to the problem; and bringing breadth that gives them interest in the entire solution. Collaboration allows people to communicate on multiple different levels - verbally, in writing, in feeling, in acting, in pictures, and helps them find the most articulate way to get the point across to a broad range of people so every person in the group can pull together.

Schools have an untapped resource in their students. Schools need to find ways to help students build leadership skills, problem-solving skills, collaboration skills and effective communication skills. Students also need to be given the opportunity and guidance to learn how to turn failure into something positive. All students need to be challenged to achieve mastery at school to become high achievers in their future careers.

To view the entire video:
http://www.edutopia.org/randy-nelson-school-to-career-video

Image from:
http://web.lincoln.k12.mi.us/Buildings/Hs/nuzzo/web0809/Pixar.jpg
http://web.lincoln.k12.mi.us/Buildings/Hs/nuzzo/web0809/pxindex.htm

Ten winners snag $1.7M total in digital competition

2010-05-27T14:54:00.002-04:00

The MacArthur Foundation grants fund projects is an annual competition to inspire and find new ways to use digital media to support learning. This is the third year of the competition and 10 projects are selected each year sharing $1.7 million dollars. The article stated that the competition was announced in collaboration with President Obama’s “Educate to Innovate” initiative, challenging designers, inventors, entrepreneurs, and researchers to create education technology “learning labs” for the 21st century, with digital environments that promote building and tinkering in new and innovative ways.

The winners will use games, mobile phone applications, virtual worlds, and social networks to advance learning in the 21st century, the foundation said. Today’s students interact with other students around the world online, in social networks and video games and according to Connie Yowell, the foundation’s director “the competition helps them to identify and nurture the creation of learning environments that are relevant for kids today and will prepare them for a 21st-century workforce.”

Some of this year’s winners:

Click! The Online Spy School: Engaging girls in STEM activities, peer networking and gaming

Combines social networking with a virtual laboratory for teen girls featuring a fictional spy school

ECOBUGS

This game is for learners ages 7 to 11, that encourage their interest in the environment as they explore their surroundings to create, collect, and monitor the health of virtual “bug” species

Fab@School: A digital Fabrication Laboratory for the Classroom

Introduces K-12 students to the power of mathematical analysis and modeling, digital fabrication, and engineering by encouraging imaginative and collaborative experimentation, invention, design, and creation.

Hole-in-the-Wall: Activity Based e-learning for Improving Elementary Education in India

The e-learning bridges the digital divide by reaching underserved youth in the developing world by installing over 700 internet enabled public Playground Learning Stations across India, Bhutan, Cambodia and Africa. The games promote experiential learning mapped to the prescribed primary curriculum across various subjects.

Mobile Action Lab: Programming Apps for Collaborative Community Change

These labs network emerging entrepreneurs, social change agents, and top technologist with Oakland-based youth participants who propose, develop, and market online and mobile apps.

Conservation Connection: From the West Side to the West Pacific

This project engaged American youth from the West Side of Chicago and Fijian youth in the West Pacific in stewardship of Fijian coral reefs through direct involvement in the scientific process

MetroVoice: About/IN/

Youth in Los Angeles collaborate to write and produce videos and TV screen banners that explore aspects of their families, blocks, streets, and neighborhoods. These messages are then transmitted on TV screens on LA Metro buses transforming the buses into mobile learning labs.

Nox No More: Connecting travel logs with simulation, gaming and environmental education

This online gave personalizes environmental education by linking learning to a player’s personal life to illustrate the positive impact of simple, everyday choices to save the planet from carbon emissions by providing the analysis of potential fuel savings by alternative transportation choices

To access the winners of this year’s competition and the past two years please go to:
http://www.macfound.org/atf/cf/%7Bb0386ce3-8b29-4162-8098-e466fb856794%7D/INFO-DMLCOMP.PDF

One of last year’s winners was Scratch & Share: Collaborating with Youth to Develop the Next Generation of Creative Software that won the BEST IN CLASS: Design. This winner created Scratch & Share as a way to enlist youth and teen online community members as active development partners, and allows them to share projects across mobile platforms, to integrate them into social media including Facebook and Twitter, and to remix them more seamlessly. This school year our school system introduced Scratch to our students and I was able to watch one fourth grade class using Scratch to create interactive characters. The teacher said the students really enjoyed working with the program. I look forward to hearing from the teacher next school year as the students continue to work with Scratch creating interactive stories, games, music and art.

To read the entire article:
http://www.eschoolnews.com/2010/05/21/ten-winners-snag-1-7m-total-in-digital-competition/

To learn more about Scratch:
http://scratch.mit.edu/

Have you heard about TweenTribune?

2010-05-25T09:45:00.002-04:00

TweenTribune is a news site for tweens (ages 8-14) that posts daily news stories from a tween’s perspective. The stories are chosen by tweens who work with professional journalists. The tweens can also submit links to stories they would like to share and well as comment on any posted story. The site makes it easy for tweens to find current news stories, some off-beat stories and promotes the habit of reading and being well-informed.

Tweens are not required to submit any personal information and a login is not required for tweens to submit stories or post comments to stories. All comments are moderated and TweenTribune complies with the COPPA - the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act - as outlined by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).

Here’s a list of the topics tweens can choose from:

So how does this work?
Teachers create an account and register their classroom, then, the students sign up. Once the class begins using TweenTribune the site automatically generates the following pages:

The stories your class has commented upon
Individual comments by each student, on his or her own page
All comments by your students, in one report that can be sorted by students’ names, comments, or dates
Teachers can moderate, edit, or delete student comments before they’re published

Teachers can also print individual reports showing the comments posted to the news stories. Teachers can also comment on the student’s writing, analysis, or critical thinking. TweenTribune also has a Teacher’s Lounge where teachers can share ideas and lesson plans with other teachers around the world. There’s also a Top Ten Lesson Plans section for teachers.

As summer approaches I encourage teachers to check out this site, especially the Top Ten Lesson Plans to find ways to allow students to interact online with the news, and have forum-like discussions with other tweens from around the world. One teacher commented that she had found classes from Australia, Japan, Canada and Taiwan.

To check out the site:
http://tweentribune.com/frontpage

Top 6 Technologies for the Next 5 Years

2010-05-21T16:13:00.005-04:00

According to researchers from the 2010 Horizon Report K-12 Edition, cloud computing and gaming are among the six technologies that will have a major positive impact on K-12 education in the next few years. The article outlines key technology areas for the next five years has been broken down into technologies that will have an impact in the near futures, technologies in the early stages of adoption, and technologies that are further out.

Cloud computing and collaborative environments will have a significant impact on education. In the next two to three years game-based learning and mobile technologies will foster collaboration and engage students more deeply in the learning process. According to the article in the next four to five years augmented reality and discovery-based learning will have an impact on education. Augmented reality is the convergence of various media tools and mobile applications to create “a portable tool for discovery-based learning, enhancing the information available to students when visiting historical locations, doing field work, interacting with real-world objects, and paging through books.”

But there were challenges identified as critical –

Inadequate digital media literacy training for teachers
Out of date learning materials and teaching practices
Lack of agreement on how education should evolve, despite widespread agreement that change is needed
A failure of education institutions to adapt to informal education, online education, and home-based learning
Lack of support or acknowledgement of the forms of learning that usually occur outside the classroom

Many schools have provided more computers, interactive boards, software applications and opportunities for students to enroll in online courses and within the regular school day teachers need to provide learning through real life experiences because students need to see the connections between the world, their lives and the school. Outside of the regular school day students are finding online resources, practicing skills using games and interacting with their peers through social networks. Students shouldn’t have to power down when they enter the school and not be able to communicate with the outside world.

To read the entire article written by David Nagel:
http://thejournal.com/articles/2010/04/13/6-technologies-that-will-shape-education.aspx

To read the 2010 Horizon Report K-12 Edition:
http://www.nmc.org/publications/2010-horizon-k12-report

Using videoconferencing to connect your class to the world

2010-05-19T10:58:00.005-04:00

Video conferencing can be used to engage students in learning, build cultural understanding, learn from experts and reach homebound students. Here are several examples.

Connecting Students to Build Cultural Understanding
Teachers assist students in creating a list of questions to ask from any content area to build a better cultural understanding and build relationships with students from other countries. Students can learn about the history of that country, cultural foods, climate, religion, celebrations, language, school and other information from the country.
Check out the innovative project Michael Kaechele did with his 7th grade students using Skype: http://langwitches.org/blog/2010/02/12/becoming-the-experts/

Students Learn from Experts
Skype provides the Skype an Author Network for teachers to select an author to speak about their book with students. - http://skypeanauthor.wetpaint.com/
This is a great way to get students involved in reading and be able to ask questions about the book. Another great way to use Skype is to connect to leading experts in the field of science, technology, engineering or math to build interest and knowledge in STEM fields. Here is the link to a blog site that includes the Karl Fish video conference about Transparent Algebra with a group of students - http://thefischbowl.blogspot.com/search/label/skype

Think about the community colleges, universities and companies in your area that employ experts in many fields that would be of interest to your students.

Reaching Homebound Students
If the teacher’s classroom has a webcam and computer, and a homebound student has a computer and webcam then the student could be involved with the classroom as much as possible seeing, questioning and participating along with the other students.
How about the student or teacher who is traveling during the school year? Certainly sharing the sites and information about another country would be exciting for the students.

Rules for Videoconferencing
What rules do you need to follow for your school district in regards to using videoconferencing? Here are a few rules to think about before getting started.

What rules—if any—does your school or district already have in place for videoconferencing?

Synchronous video conference may take more bandwidth than your school can handle. Check with the technology staff first.

What rules — if any — does your district have for inviting guest speakers into your classroom?

What procedures do you need to follow before guest speakers may present to your students?

What videoconferencing application are you planning on using?

Here are a few suggestions

Tinychat - http://tinychat.com/
Skype - http://www.skype.com/intl/en-us/home
Google Video Chat - http://www.google.com/chat/video
Dim Dim - http://www.dimdim.com/

What other skills do your students need to learn in order to make videoconferencing a productive learning experience?

Pre-planning and preparing your students before the video conference is important. Consider these ideas:

Possible handout of do’s and don’ts with regard to questions, how they present themselves on camera, use of only first names, etc.
Formulate a list of questions with the students that will be used during the conference to keep the conversation focused.
How will be possible answers the students receive from the guest speaker change the way students thought about an issue or the work they are doing?
How will students report what they’ve learned?

How will you go about finding partners to work with?

Just knowing there are thousands of teachers who would like to connect with other classrooms should encourage teachers to think about using videoconferencing as part of their lessons. Teachers need to decide on the learning outcomes from the video conference when considering a guest speaker.

To help students better understand the challenges from third world countries think about South America, Africa or Southeast Asia.
To help students better understand the differences in life and cultures think about capitalist or socialist country, possibly Europe.

Where do you look for guest speakers and videoconferencing information?

Skype in Schools - http://skypeinschools.pbworks.com/
ePals - http://www.epals.com/
International Education and Resource Network - http://iearn.org/ This “is the world's largest non-profit global network that enables teachers and youth to use the Internet and other technologies to collaborate on projects that enhance learning and make a difference in the world.”
iEARN Project Collaboration Center - http://media.iearn.org/projects
Muse – social utility that connects teachers with Internet 2-enabled technologies and educators in your region three states, universities and schools. Hosted by University of Pennsylvania - http://www.magpi.org/Community/K12-Education

Internet2 Common Site Coordinators - http://commons.internet2.edu/sitecoordinators.html

CILC – Center for Interactive Learning & Collaboration has a video conferencing directory - http://cilc.org/c/education/directories.aspx
Texan Connect – videoconferencing from Texas - http://www.connect2texas.net/
North Carolina Information Technology Services - http://www.ncih.net/
Video network sites - http://www.ncih.net/operation/ds1sites.html
North Carolina Distance Learning Association - http://www.usdla-nc.org/
Outreach Specialist, Distance Learning, NCSSM, Carol Stern – stern@ncssm.edu
Berrien County School, Michigan

Video Conference Programs - http://www.remc11.k12.mi.us/dl/fieldtrips.htm
Internet Projects and Virtual Field Trips - http://www.remc11.k12.mi.us/bcisd/classres/projtrip.htm

To read the entire article from LeanNC by Bill Ferrite, please go to:
http://www.learnnc.org/lp/pages/6559?ref=blog

Skype and Video Conferencing

2010-05-18T11:29:00.002-04:00

I recently read the article, Web Conferencing Finds Elementary School Niche by Ian Quillen and wondered why more teachers didn’t include Skype in their lesson planning. So I began to look for Skype resources for teachers by beginning with a link from this article.

Web Chat Challenge - http://www.breweredu.org/node/295
The teacher used Skype to stay in touch with a student who moved to another state. Skype has grown into a great learning experience for her students. Since this initial experience the teacher has set up meetings with other third grade students in all fifty states. The students keep a journal of what they learn and place stickers by each state visited on a map. Besides learning about the similarities and differences between their state and the visited state, students are also learning about time zones, how to communicate through technology, networking and teamwork skills according to Cherrie MacInnes, the teacher.

Skype an Author Network. http://skypeanauthor.wetpaint.com/
This site provides directions for teachers and librarians and for the authors. Teachers can look through the list of authors, select an author and preview a session from the author. The site offers a discussion forum, photos and videos. This is a great site for teachers and librarians to check out.

Skype - The Big Blog - http://blogs.skype.com/en/ and https://support.skype.com/
Good site to learn about Skype, how to download and setup Skype for your classroom.

The Fire Roars, Our Skype Concert-
http://mustech.net/2008/08/27/the-fire-roars-our-skype-concert
During a Travis Wells’s Spring Instrumental Concert three composers from the pieces being performed talked with the performers, conductor and audience. What a great way to connect students to the composers.

Also take a look at the resources we have listed from our wiki site:
http://wsfcs.pbworks.com/Skype-in-Schools

And the parent asks, “What did you learn on Skype today?”
http://blogs.skype.com/play/education/
This site provides several great reasons for using Skype in the classroom including a boy recovering from leukemia who attends class everyday from home using Skype.

Over the summer is a great time to find other schools interested in using Skype. Check out this Skype directory of interested schools in the United States.
http://skypeinschools.pbworks.com/Directory

Students can now connect with others around the world, explain and show what they’ve learned and/or Skype a musical performance to other students. Bringing the world to every child in every class through Skype is an exciting way to learn.

E-Learning: Synchronous vs. Asynchronous

2010-05-11T14:54:00.006-04:00

What are the advantages of anytime, anywhere learning over a fixed time for a class? I recently read an article from Education Week written by Ian Quillen that looks at the benefits of synchronous and asynchronous learning.

Here are the main points about Synchronous e-learning

Problem-Solving - depending on the subject, such as math and science, having immediate feedback could benefit the students. According to Christa Ehmann Powers, the vice president of education at Smarthinking, a Washington - based online-tutoring service, certain subjects are more relatable and appropriate for synchronous work.
Discussion Flow - the teacher may be needed as an active mediator and when students are hesitant to speak out in class the teacher can keep the discussion on track and moving. According to Myk Garn, the associate director of the educational technology cooperative of the Atlanta-based Southern Regional Education Board, a skillful instructor needs to insert themselves into the asynchronous discussion.
Younger Students - when students lack keyboard skills they could benefit from synchronous instruction in a webinar format according to John Watson, the primary author of Keeping Pace With K-12 Online Learning, a study from the Evergreen Education Group, a consulting group based in Evergreen, Colo.
Teacher Access - teachers can provide one-on-one access for students before, during and after school hours by video, online chat, texting or email.
Standardized Testing - many virtual courses require standardized testing and to maintain a test's integrity a synchronous online format is best.
Clubs and Socialization - many clubs and organizations that are offered at a school can be offered through real-time online meetings.
Synchronous Archives - a video lecture, live chat or webniar can be archived for all students to access.

Here are the main points about Asynchronous e-learning

More Time - students can access the course at anytime and spend as much time as needed to master the course material. Teachers and students engaged in discussion may continue the discussion after the class ends through an online forum. The class day is no longer depended on the school bell according to Liz Pape, the president and chief executive officer of the Virtual High School Global Consortium, based in Maynard, Mass.
Critical Thinking - since writing can be personal, the asynchronous setting may be best and the student must take more ownership in the work. The asynchronous setting also gives students more time to think critically before responding.
How Students Live - students have social lives through texting, Fackbook, online chats and e-mail chains which means students want to access information and answers anytime from anywhere. Teachers are able to give feedback and tutorial help through text messages, the phone or an audio online format.
Less is More - online instructors are usually proactive in communicating with the students to better understand their needs and are better able to keep students on task.
Global Standard Time - having students from other countries enrolled in a course brings a new prespective to discussions especially on world issues, geography and history. The problem is finding a common time for synchronous instruction.
Asynchronous Doesn't Mean Slow - the difference between synchronous and asynchronous communicatioin is less today because of the new communication platforms that students and teachers use and the availability of computers at school and in the home.

When you think about it an e-mail is asynchronous communication and instant messaging is synchronous communication. What truly makes the difference in synchronous and asynchronous learning is the attentiveness of the teacher and the students rather than the method of instruction , that dictates the time lapse, according to Mr. Watson.

To read the entire article from iNACOL please go to:

http://www.edweek.org/media/educationweek_e-learning_2010_specialreport.pdf

Keeping Your Classroom C.R.I.S.P.

2010-05-05T11:33:00.001-04:00

As we are nearing the end of another school year many teachers may be wondering how to keep students focused in the classroom until the last day of class. Let me highlight an article I recently read entitled Keeping Your Classroom C.R.I.S.P.

Here are five things teachers can do to promote learning – Contextualize, Review, Iterate, Summarize and Preview. Let’s look at each one.

Contextualize
Instead of beginning class with “Today we’re going to,” think about ways to provide a focal point from the lesson “Today we’re going to 1), 2), and how students will accomplish the lesson. From this opening statement teachers could provide additional information on the concept to be taught, or engage students in a mini-lecture. The idea is to help students build a knowledge base and transferable skills in that subject.

Review
Once students have grasp the new knowledge begin linking the lesson to previous lessons to help students build a broader knowledge base in a subject. Students learn and retain more when those knowledge connections are made and then expanded.

Iterate
During the lesson teachers should continually emphasize the fundamental concepts the lesson is built around. By asking students to reiterate the lesson, or the steps within the lesson, students will build deeper learning experience. It’s also helpful for teachers to design assessments to reflect this approach instead of just multiple-choice or fill-in-the-blank type tests.

Summarize
Teachers need to stop within the lesson to allow time for students to summarize the main points of the lesson. Taking time to summarize during the lesson helps students to see how each point of the lesson builds the overall concept being taught.

Preview
Before ending the lesson for the day teachers should take time to preview what students will learn the following day guiding students to read ahead to look for specific points that will be covered the next day. This continues to help students bridge previous learned material with the lesson for the next day.

The C.R.I.S.P. approach will provide better organization, unity and flow to the lesson. This approach also helps students have a better grasp on how each part of the lesson becomes part of the whole concept begin taught by providing better understanding and retention.

To read the entire article please go to:
http://www3.humboldt.edu/celt/tips/keeping_your_classroom_c.r.i.s.p/

Preparing Young Children for a Lifetime of Learning

2010-04-30T15:49:00.004-04:00

This free eBook details how teachers can deliver meaningful lessons for all types of learners by using the SMART Table interactive learning center. Many studies have shown that early childhood education is the key to academic success and teachers need to help prepare children for a lifetime of learning. As stated in the eBook from the National Association of Elementary School Principals the key principles of a high-quality early-education program are:

Supportive interactions between teachers and students;
Physically and emotionally safe, supportive and engaging learning environments;
Language development, literacy, mathematics, science, creative arts, physical health and development, and social and emotional development;
Meaningful learning for the individual child; and
A culture of authentic assessment and continuous learning that pays attention to all aspects of children’s development.

The eBook outlines:

The Universal Design for Learning (UDL)
The Skills Early Learners Must Develop to Succeed
How the SMART Table Can Assist Teachers in Encouraging These Skills in Young Learners

The SMART Table allows groups of students to explore, move objects, sort items, solve math problems and manipulate images with their hands providing engaging learning experiences for the students. Teachers can also create activities with videos, images and audio files for non-readers. The table comes with a collection of eight applications that teachers can customize to better meet the needs of their students. The SMART Exchange also provides additional applications and ready-made lesson activities for the SMART Table.

The eBook also provides additional information about the SMART Table at:
http://www/. www.smarttech.com/table

Sponsored by SMART – Tech & Learning eBooks
http://newbay.ebookhost.net/tl/smart/1/

Click here to register for a free account
http://techlearning.com/Registration

After creating an account access the eBook from the link below:
http://newbay.ebookhost.net/tl/smart/1/index.php?e=44&open=1

The Learning Power of Digital Storytelling

2010-04-30T14:53:00.003-04:00

I recently downloaded a copy of Tell a Story, Become a Lifelong Learner from Microsoft Education. Within this guide it states that there are many educational benefits for teachers to use digital storytelling learning projects with their students. Teachers who have used digital storytelling note that student grades improve and students are more likely to do homework and engage in classwork. Digital storytelling also helps students develop technology skills and can inspire them to be lifelong learners. When students are given the opportunity to create digital stories students are inspired to dig deeper into the subject and communicate what they learn in a creative way.

Here is a list of the educational benefits that prepare students for success in the 21st century:

Encourage research
Fosters critical thinking skills
Encourage students to write and to work at becoming better writers
Gives students a voice
Tells a personal narrative
Helps students retain knowledge longer
Enhances learning by encouraging students to communicate effectively
Helps students make a connection between the classroom and the outside world
Encourages creativity
Works well with portfolio assessments
Promotes digital literacy

Another benefit of digital storytelling is that all six 2007 National Education Technology Standards (NETS) are addressed:

Creativity and innovation
Communication and collaboration
Research and information fluency
Critical thinking, problem-solving, and decision-making
Digital citizenship
Technology operations and concepts

The guide shares examples of digital stories created by students, a suggested outline of how to create a great digital story and a list of resources for teachers. The guide also helps teachers decide which tools are best suited for their students by outlining how Powerpoint, PhotoStory and Movie Makes could be used to help students research, create and share digital stories.

To download a copy of Tell a Story, Become a Lifelong Learner from Microsoft Education please click on the link below.
http://www.microsoft.com/education/teachers/guides/digital_storytelling.aspx

Image from the Tell a Story, Become a Lifelong Learner - Microsoft Education page 3.

New video game academy won't be child's play

2010-04-26T20:50:00.004-04:00

I read an interesting article from ASCD Smartbrief this week. The Fort Bend Independent School District will open a new Academy of Game Design and Development for students to study video games through 2D and 3D animation, graphics, conceptual art, lighting and sound mixing beginning this fall. Certainly some parents are skeptical but educators believe that these courses will help students prepare for future careers and engage at-risk students who may otherwise drop out of school.

Many college students are exposed to simulations and video games as training tools. Some video game designers may work on a game one year and the next year work on a military simulation for the government. Giving students the opportunity to learn about video game design while still in high school will give them an advantage for future careers in game design. The article states that last year alone $20.2 billion was spent on video games which doesn’t include Web-based games, smart phone applications and simulations created for government and businesses.

Rodney Gibbs, an Austin-based game developer, sees game design as a natural evolution of computer science and the shift in education as a reflection of student interest in visual arts and digital media. There are so many interactive, educational games available for students today I can only wonder what new and exciting video games will be available in the future for all students.

To read the entire article please go to:
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/6973739.html

Image from: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15309615/from/ET/

Kerpoof

2010-04-12T21:20:00.000-04:00

Kerpoof was shown at the NCTIES conference during the session 10 Web2.0 Tools to Engage Your Students on a SMART Board by Mary Ann Sansonetti.

By using the Kerpoof Animation Studio or Picture Maker students can make pictures, movies, stories, use a doodle pad, or make cards. The site includes tutorials, tips & tricks, a kid’s FAQ and a teacher’s FAQ.

In the teachers section there’s a downloadable fourteen page teacher’s guide that outlines the activity carousel and the community gallery. Teachers will also find lesson plans in the guide and ideas on how to use Kerpoof to meet ISTE National Educational Technology standards.

In just a few minutes I made a simple movie with two characters and background music. It’s a fun and easy site that students can use to show their imaginations in a creative way. To learn more about Kerpoof go to: http://www.kerpoof.com/

Xtimelines

2010-03-25T11:08:00.001-04:00

Xtimelines was shown at one of the session at the NCTIES conference. Xtimeline is a free web-based timeline for teachers and students. Take a look at this Xtimeline for Romeo and Juliet: http://www.xtimeline.com/timeline/Romeo-and-Juliet-timeline

Notice that students can choose to see the timeline as links to information or as more detailed information, as shown below, by changing the icon link in the upper right corner. Students use the scroll bar at the bottom to scroll through the timeline. The timelines can be printed with permission, but teachers and students can easily use Xtimelines on the web.

Xtimelines can be explored by categories, by keyword searches, or by lists.

To check out Xtimelines go to: http://xtimelines.com/

Image from xtimeline.com

NCTIES Conference in Raleigh, North Carolina: March 3-5, 2010

2010-03-10T08:20:00.002-05:00

I attended the NCTIES (North Carolina Technology in Education Society) conference in Raleigh this past week. I enjoyed several of the sessions, met some great people and now I want to take time to go through my notes and learn more about several Web 2.0 tools that I previewed. In the coming weeks I want to blog about some of these tools and how they can benefit teaching and enhance learning for all students.

For now I have outlined the sessions I attended in my wiki workspace. Please look over my outline and check out the other wiki pages posted within NCTIES 2010.

meStudying: Algebra I

2010-03-03T13:15:00.005-05:00

Just released January 7, 2010, meStudying is an app for your iPhone or iTouch. meStudying: Algebra I allows students to choose a topic and interact with questions on their iPhones or iTouch to help them learn Algebra I, practice and prepare for tests. meStudying is brought to students by Florida Virtual Schools, one of the leaders in k-12 virtual education.

Some of the features:

Covers the entire scope of Algebra I
Includes over 300 Algebra I questions
Immediate feedback
Detailed explanations
Review all questions or only the ones answered incorrectly
Sort by algebraic topic or FLVS Algebra I course module
Integrated reference guide
Easy navigation
Score tracking
Orientation locking

The app, meStudying: Algebra I is only $4.99 and was designed by gWhiz - affordable, mobile productivity and learning tools. Go to the iTunes store or to http://www.gwhizmobile.com to learn more about this app.

Image from iTunes Apps

Virtual Education for all Students - Are you a "Gifted Gatekeeper"?

2010-03-02T12:08:00.009-05:00

Dr. Bryan Setser, Chief Executive Officer of North Carolina Virtual Public Schools and Learn and Earn, was in Washington, DC last week at the Virtual K-12 Public Schools Forum that focused on students with disabilities. According to Dr. Setser one theme became apparent during the forum – some educational leaders are “gifted gatekeepers” who continue to "learn by doing", "pilot", and ultimately just take risks if there may be a chance to reach a kid a different way while other “gatekeepers” "hem and haw" over policy and procedure while kids are denied services to virtual education.

After reading this blog post, see if you can answer this question concerning online learning for all students - What kind of "gate keepers" do you have in your school and in your district?

There were seven key themes that emerged from this forum that could be called “gifted gatekeeper” strategies to make virtual opportunities for students in North Carolina with disabilities.

Theme #1: Personnel Quality and Preparation

Need for professional development
Need for teaching standards that specifically address the unique challenges of providing education within a virtual environment, and specifically special education and related services within this environment
Need for training of appropriate personnel (including parents) in accessible technology and assistive technology

Theme #2: Accessibility for Students with Disabilities

Ensuring that the relationships among the state education agency (SEA), local education agencies (LEAs), and virtual schools do not result in students with disabilities being denied admission and enact policies to ensure this is not the case
Ensuring accessibility of virtual curriculum to students with disabilities
Ensuring flexibility of virtual curriculum (i.e., ability to be modified/adapted for students with disabilities)
Ensuring that software developers are creating software, digital content and e-learning accessible to students with various physical and learning disabilities

Theme #3: Accountability

Ensuring quality of virtual special education instruction and related services, and effectiveness/appropriateness of a virtual environment for serving students with disabilities
Regulation and monitoring of virtual schools and providers
Difficulty in monitoring students progress

Theme #4: IEP Issues

Roles and responsibilities in implementing the IEP
Need for defining appropriately the intensity of services
How is placement of a child with a disability into a virtual school, as opposed to another educational setting, handled
Challenge of providing inclusive services within a virtual classroom environment
How can virtual therapies best be provided to students with disabilities

Theme #5: Roles and Responsibilities

Who is responsible for what within various virtual school contexts
Identifying who is responsible for AT set up, training and support of everyone involved or working with the student, including the family
Identifying the parents’ role in the virtual delivery of special education
Creating mechanisms for communication between those who set up the IEP and the virtual school
Roles and responsibilities in implementing the IEP
Working with 3rd party providers to develop accessible courses and coursework

Theme #6: Financial Issues

Determining how virtual schools are reimbursed for the costs of serving students with disabilities
Inadequate funding to provide what students with disabilities require
Logistics and costs involved with transporting children to obtain related services

Theme #7: Attitudes and Expectations Regarding Virtual Special Education

Misconceptions about delivery of special education and related services
Reasons why parents/families choose virtual schools for their children with disabilities
Skepticism about quality of virtual instruction in general, and concerns that a virtual model is not responsive to special education students' needs
Lack of a basic understanding of the organizational structures within which virtual schools exist.

Within the article were several links which I will list below:

United States Office of Special Education Programs - http://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/osers/osep/index.html
North Carolina Virtual Public Schools - http://www.ncvps.org/
North Carolina Learn and Earn - http://www.nclearnandearn.gov/.
NCVPS Go Live for Professional Development http://sites.google.com/site/ncvpsgolive/
Special Ed and related services - http://www.sreb.org/
Online Learning standards - http://www.inacol.org/
The Virtual School Bus - http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/12/education/12bus.html
How to improve enrollment in NCVPS - http://www.thevlc.org/
Virtual Therapies - http://www.wimba.com/ and http://www.teleplace.com/

If you would like to speak to someone about North Carolina Virtual Public Schools and how to better meet the needs of your online students please contact:

Dr. Bryan Setser - bryan.setser@ncpublicschools.gov
Don Lourcey - don.lourcey@ncpublicschools.gov
David Edwards - david.edwards@ncpublicschools.gov

To read the entire article please go to:
http://www.thevlc.org/2010/03/directors-series-are-you-gifted.html

Building an Online Writing Toolkit

2010-02-23T13:35:00.004-05:00

Beth Goodwin, a special ed consulatant and Cheryl Oakes did a presentation in January 2010, about how to blend the resources of Web 2.0 with the needs of their students. They took their idea from Karen Janowski and Joyce Valenza who created the UDL Tech Toolkit. The Universal Design for Learning states that to promote learning for all students, teachers need to use these three methods:

Representation
Engagement
Expression

Beth and Cheryl took ideas from UDL and created Writingtools4all to look at how the read-write web resources could help students become more independent writers. Teachers can create specific toolkits for use with their students and students can create toolkits to meet specific needs they have in writing. Since the resources Beth and Cheryl use for the toolkit are free, students would be able to use the toolkit at home or school.

Students can certainly build their own toolkits allowing them to differentiate for their needs or collaborate with other students while working on projects. By having access to these free tools at home students will extend their learning beyond the regular school day.

Here is a list of free tools that teachers and students can use to create toolkits:

Photopeach- use images in a presentation, project or concept.
Wordle – can capture vocabulary in a book, for pre-teaching and comprehension.
What kind of learner are you? – students can find their learning style.
Find a book at your Lexile – students check their Lexile reading level choices.
Mad Libs – students can create their own Mad Libs.
Library of Congress – great source of information for students and teachers.
Ask.com – good place to begin a research project.
Citation Machine – students learn to cite their sources.
Graphic Organizers – place to find graphic organizers.
Visual Thesaurus – place to look up words and see the word in a visual thinking map.
Awesome adjectives and Sensory words – a guide to grammar, punctuation and style.
Spell Checker – Spell Checker also helps students check grammar and use a thesaurus.
Create your own checklist – create a personalized editing checklist.
Listen to your work – the site will read text to the student.

What resources can you add to help students build an Online Writing Toolkit?
Here are a few resources that students at WSFCS have access to:

NetTrekker – safe search engine that has read aloud and a section on writing.
Curriculum Pathways – the Writing Reviser will analyze a student’s writing and provides information on how to construct a paper.

To read the entire article:
http://www.techlearning.com/blogs/27632

eSN Special Report: Convergent Education

2010-02-15T13:34:00.004-05:00

When students are multitasking are they learning? As an educator what do you think? According to Barbara Kurshan, students are leaning the way we work in the business space and she gives this example:

While visiting a friend’s home she observed several middle grades students who were on the computer, texting on mobile phones and on Facebook. When she asked the students what they were doing, they replied, “Studying.” The students had been given a problem set and they were collaborating on how to find the answer by working together and reaching out to their friends.

Students today learn in formal settings (school) and informally (within their communities, online and other ways). Unfortunately, linear teaching with just a textbook and teaching to the test has caused an increase in dropout rates. By not allowing students to use social networks or mobile devices, many students feel that a public school education is less relevant and meaningful to their lives. Students are bored and disengaged in a traditional lecture environment. Caleb Schutz, president of the Jason Project, found in a recent survey that sixty-six percent of today’s students are bored in class and a major problem science teachers’ face is a lack of motivation among students to learn science.

Keith Krueger, chief executive officer of the Consortium for School Networking, sees the problem with students becoming bored and disengaged increasing in middle and high school students who feel that school is a prison where they have to power down when they enter school and prepare for a traditional lecture environment. One problem is the existing school system infrastructure with pacing guides that dictate what teachers will do, according to Schutz. But pacing guides are a guideline that teachers follow. Technology and other resources can certainly be infused into the curriculum and pacing guides. The Jason Project is one example of developing multimedia science curricula providing teachers the tools and resources to improve science teaching.

But there are trends in innovative technology that is beginning to make changes in education called convergent education. What is convergent education? According to Gregg W. Downey, editor of eSchool News, convergent education features diverse learning opportunities delivered via multiple media platforms combined with field trips (virtual or real), live streaming video, interactive archived video, educational gaming, student collaboration, animation, celebrity lectures and adventures, project-based instruction with student-managed data, virtual demonstrations and experiments, continuous monitoring of student engagement and learner satisfaction, and classic, in-the-classroom instruction.

This convergent-education, which is a series of developments aided by technology, is changing education and the way we teach. One trend is the availability of educational content for teachers and students. Much of this content is free and includes, audio, video, simulations and games making learning more fun and interactive. Distance and online learning is providing opportunities for students to take courses outside of the traditional setting. Another trend is the use of Blogs, Wikis and Skype as collaborative tools and the use of mobile devices.

Today’s students don’t need to just memorize facts they need to engage in critical problem-solving and critical thinking to better understand the content being taught. Teaching needs to be differentiated to better meet the needs of the students. Larry Sanger, the co-founder of Wikipedia, has a new educational site called WatchKnow.org, a directory of educational videos for students that teachers can access to better differentiate instruction. Another way teachers can differentiate instruction is to know their students better and their learning approach. Cheryl Lemke, CEO of the Metiri Group, thinks that teachers who do interest inventories with their students are better able to know which teaching approach to use with students to better differentiate the instruction for all students.

The world has changed and education needs to change. School systems and teachers need to look at ways to engage students by using online resources and technology to excite and motivate student learning creating a convergent-education for all students.

To read the entire article go to:
http://www.eschoolnews.com/2010/01/01/esn-special-report-convergent-education/

Free Videos Explore the Science behind the Olympics

2010-02-01T13:01:00.000-05:00

NBC Learn, an educational part of NBC news has teamed up with the National Science Foundation to produce a 16-part video series on the science behind the Olympic Games. Some of the scientific principles explored in this video series are:

How does angular momentum help figure skater Rachael Flatt achieve the perfect triple toe loop?
How does elastic collision allow three-time Olympic hockey player Julie Chu to convert a game-winning slapshot?
How do Newton’s Three Laws of Motion propel short track speed skater J.R. Celski to the finish line?

The athlete’s movements are captured by a high-speed camera called the Phantom Cam that captures up to 1,500 frames per second which allows students to see frame-by-frame illustrations of Newton’s Three Laws of Motion.

The videos illustrate how scientific principles apply to competitive sports. The series is narrated by Lester Holt, and is available free of charge to educators on the NBC Learn website.

NBC Learn - http://www.nbclearn.com/portal/site/learn
Olympic Games 16-part videos - http://www.nbclearn.com/portal/site/learn

What a great way to bring real-world experiences into the classroom to bring science to life for the students.

To read the entire article, please go to:
http://www.eschoolnews.com/2010/01/24/free-videos-explore-the-science-behind-the-olympics/

The Jason Project Update

2010-01-21T16:19:00.022-05:00

Wow - what a difference a year makes.
I blogged about the Jason Project last year and decided to revisit the site to see what progress had been made. My original post was entitled Ocean Explorer Brings Undersea Science to Life where students at Internet2 connected schools would be able to view the remote camera images from the sea floor and listen to live conversations among the scientists.

Fast forward to January 2010 and let’s check out the site. It’s called Jason Science and you will need to create a free account to have access to everything in the site.

Let’s take a quick tour. Here is an image outlining the teachers tools availabe. Teachers can use the Jason Lesson Plans and they can customize those lessons to better fit the needs of their students.

Currently three curriculums have been created for the Jason Project – Monster Storms, weather curriculum, Resilient Planet, ecology curriculum and Infinite Potential, energy curriculum. Each lesson has a syllabus, five lessons and a final project for the students. Teachers can download the curriculums or use the online curriculum. A new geology curriculum will be released later this year. There are also 3-D games, roller coaster creator, lab kits, and professional development for teachers.

The philosophy behind the Jason Project is to immerse students in challenging, real-world situations where students are mentored by scientists from NASA, NOAA, the U.S. Department of Energy and the National Geographic Society.

The Jason Project was founded in 1989 and was redesigned in 2007 to include a new curriculum of educational games, videos, live interactivity and social networking that has won five national technology awards. All of the Jason offerings are classroom ready and fully scalable and aligned to national and state standards.

To check out the Jason Science site please go to:

http://www.jason.org/public/whatis/start.aspx

Create an account and get started.

Images and information from:

http://www.jason.org/public/whatis/start.aspx

Video Games Take Bigger Role in Education

2010-01-07T13:23:00.004-05:00

Children today grow up playing lots of video games. To get students interested in world cultures, molecular biology and space, educators are partnering with game developers and scientist to create interactive games for students.

The Federation of American Scientist (FAS) and Escape Hatch Entertainment created “Immune Attack” for 7th – 12th grade students to explore the microscopic world of immune system proteins and cells. According to the game developer students need to save a patient suffering from a bacterial infection as they learn about cellular biology and molecular science. Tad Raudman, a science instructor at University Preparatory School, thinks that if the games are designed to be engaging, exciting and competitive then the games can be tailored for educational purposes.

The (FAS), UCLA's Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative and the Walters Art Museum created “Discover Babylon” for 8 to 12 year olds to explore Mesopotamia in world culture using library and museum objects.

January 18, 2010, is the release date for “MoonBase Alpha” from ARA/Virtual Heroes, a downloadable prototype game that was developed with NASA engineers and astronauts to teach STEM (Science, Technology Engineer and Math) to students. “MoonBase Alpha” is a predecessor to a new multiplayer online game called, "Astronaut: Moon, Mars & Beyond," that will be released later this year. The goal of “Astronaut: Moon, Mars & Beyond,” is to provide an immersive platform that will have multiple curriculum modules for teachers to incorporate gaming into science, technology, engineering and math for school and to home according to Jan Heneghan, founder and CEO of ARA/Virtual Heroes.

Why such interest in educational gaming? Currently there are approximately 55.7 million children between the ages of two and seventeen that are gamers. That’s 82% of the children in the United States. The goal is to create educational, interactive experiences to more actively engage students in the learning process. According to Tad Raudman, only “10 percent of lifetime learning happens in the formal educational setting” so if students are playing games several hours a week think about the overall learning outcomes and benefits to students who are playing educational games.

To read the entire article go to:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20091210/lf_nm_life/us_videogames_education
Image from:
http://www.ubergizmo.com/15/archives/2007/09/decent_grades_gets_you_games.html

Do you write more or type more?

2009-12-17T15:53:00.003-05:00

Here's an interesting article I read today. Since students spend more time using computers, cell phones and texting how often do students actually write with pencil and paper except for school? Becuase of the use of technology in school how much time should teachers spend teaching cursive writing?

I remember spending a portion of every school day doing practice cursive writing, flowing letters neatly scripted to each line of the paper. Many of us took pride in our cursive skills as if flowing cursive writing was a right of passage from little kid work to big kid work in school. But todays' students are spending less time writing and more time texting.

By December 2008 110 billion text messages had been sent by cell phones. I wonder how many letters were written on paper, poems composed in a notebook and thoughts from the heart were written in a diary in 2008? Where does writing fit into the curriculum for today's students? In some school districts teachers embed handwriting into writing for other subjects, according to Kathleen Reddy-Butkovich, curriculum coordinator for English language art in Plymouth-Canton Community Schools. Instead of taking time to do practice writing students write to complete subject assignments.

What do you think? How often do you write with pencil and paper compared to using word processing or texting? How important is penmanship in today's schools and in society? Certainly we all need to be able to sign our names but how many of us sign our name in print? How many of us sign our names in cursive and does it really matter?

Here's another thought - if you send thank you notes to people who give you presents at Christmas will you send a hand-written note or will you send them a text or email? Surely I wasn't the only child who hand wrote thank you notes to all my relatives who gave me presents for Christmas and my birthday?

How should writing be taught in schools today and should cursive writing still be taught?

To read the entire article please go to:
Schools Adjust How Writing is Taught in Text Age
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20091216/NEWS05/912160379/1001/NEWS/Schools-adjust-how-writing-is-taught-in-text-age&template=fullarticle

Image taken from the article (SUSAN TUSA/Detroit Free Press)

Top 100 Tools for Learning 2009

2009-12-11T14:46:00.007-05:00

Jane Hart, Social Learning Consultant at Centre for Learning & Performance Technologies (www.C4LPT.co.uk), has created a Slideshare presentation called Top 100 Tools for Learning 2009. As you look through this list, how many of these tools are you using with your students. Seventy-seven of these tools are free and can be used to enhance student learning and interactivity with the curriculum content being taught.

Top 100 Tools for Learning 2009

View more documents from Jane Hart.

Getting Girls Engaged in Digital-Game Design

2009-11-30T13:53:00.003-05:00

Do middle school students spend too much time playing digital games? If so, is there any value in what they are doing within those games? There is a push to have all students, especially girls, to be more interested in STEM fields of study (science, technoloyg, engineering and math). During the middle school years it's important to expose students to STEM careers as these students begin thinking about future careers and the classes they will need to take in high school.

Girls and boys approach computers from different perspectives - boys enjoy being competitive and girls typically enjoy interacting with the characters and the environment of the game. To meet this need "requires a much more sophisticated technology that has only been possible in recent years to create those kinds of games", according to Cornelia Brunner, the deputy director of the Center for Children and Technology at the Newton, Mass.-based Education Development Center.

Karen Peterson, the executive director of the Lynwood, Wash.-based Puget Sound Center for Teaching, Learning, and Technology, states, “The gaming industry understands that they need to attract girls and women. Games and the virtual world can be a really great hook for getting girls excited about STEM careers.”

How can teachers differentiate their instruction to better meet the diverse interests of boys and girls?

Strategies for Girls from Education.com
http://www.education.com/magazine/article/best-teaching-strategies-girls/

Collaborative groups encourage girls to be leaders during instructional time.
Provide a more face-to-face nurturing environment rather than a shoulder-to-shoulder environment found in a coed or boys' room.
Consider comfortable seating - bean bag chairs or sofas.
Challenge girls as much as the boys.
Include the context surrounding the curriculum - who, what, why, when, where.
Tie the lesson to real world situations.
Encourage girls to ask questions in class.
Provide opportunities for role-playing within the curriclum.
Create a learning environment of openness and and understanding to encourage girls to take risks and be more willing to answer questions.

Strategies for Boys from Education.com
http://www.education.com/magazine/article/best-teaching-strategies-boys/

Move around the room - front to back and side to side.
Teach with a strong, loud, tone of voice.
Frequently interrupt the lesson to directly ask questions of students.
Provide clear instructions.
Find non-fiction literature with strong main characters.
Provide opportunitites to move and be flexible within the classroom.
Use games or models to engage them in a serious conference.
Use team competitions in academics.
Remember that feeling-based questions are uncomfortable for boys.

To read the entire article please go to Digital Directions and read Getting Girls Engaged in Digital-Game Design.
http://www.edweek.org/dd/articles/2009/10/21/01girlgames.h03.html

To learn more about companies and schools who are making games for girls check out:
Universe Quest from the Hands On University Project
http://www.universequest.com/

Games for Entertainment and Learning Lab
http://gel.msu.edu/

Her Interactive
http://herinteractive.com/

ED: Blended Learning Helps Boost Achievement

2009-11-17T14:16:00.002-05:00

How is online instruction transforming education today? There are online learning programs that provide credit recovery, enrichment opportunities and core curriculum classes for students. Online learning also provides an alternative for students who do not like the traditional school environment.

A study conducted by SRI International found that online learning at the post-secondary level was more effective than face-to-face classes. Researchers also found that “blended learning needs to be more effective than conventional face-to-face instruction to justify the additional time and costs it entails.” The researchers also found that when students were given control of their interaction with the online environment and when students were prompted to reflect on what they learned, this did enhance the online learning outcomes.

Susan Patrick, president and CEO of the International Association for K-12 Online Learning states, “the advantage of online or blended learning over face-to-face instruction alone ‘is the combination of rich student-teacher-peer communication and interactions that are both asynchronous and synchronous, better utilizing the precious resource of time during, and outside, the school day to maximize learning--and personalize it in a way never before possible.’”

Why does this blended model work best? The blended model possesses the factors that exemplify good teaching because of the, “increased interactions between students and teachers, increased depth of rigor and exploration into content, customized learning to meet the students exactly where they are in learning the lessons, better use of data to inform instruction, and providing additional student support to help personalize instruction by the teacher” according to Patrick.

To learn more about blended learning visit the International Association for K-12 Online Learning at http://www.inacol.org/research/promisingpractices/NACOL_PP-BlendedLearning-lr.pdf.

To read the entire ED: Blended Learning Helps Boost Achievement article please go to: http://www.eschoolnews.com/resources/online-learning-1/online-learning-articles/index.cfm?rc=1&i=59695

E-Learning’s Gender Factor

2009-11-03T20:45:00.002-05:00

We all know it’s important to differentiate instruction to better meet the needs of all students but how can this be done in an online environment Do we need to consider how to differentiate online learning environments for gender?

This month in Digital Directions Michelle R. Davis looks at how to differentiate instruction and increase relevance to gain kids’ interest and desire to learn. One research study in 2005 concluded that when given a choice girls chose to work collaboratively and were interested in partnerships on computers while boys wanted to work individually and wanted to compete. Girls in middle grades used the computer more for socialization and working on homework while boys played games and looked for entertainment.

Kelly King, the co-author of Strategies for Teaching Boys and Girls: Elementary Level states that online courses for boys should include games, simulations, videos, be competitive with information presented in small chunks spread throughout the lesson. An online course for girls would include more information at the start of the lesson and collaboration would be stressed.

But not all boys are competitive and not all girls want to collaborate with other girls. So how can online courses meet the needs of all students? The key is customizing and differentiating instruction. Students today want to customize their music and TV viewing so students should be given a variety of ways to experience online classes and a variety of subject matters to learn, making sure all students are exposed to common core knowledge, according to Tom Carroll.

So as we look for ways to provide more digital content within the curriculum let’s look for ways to customize the digital content to make the learning environment successful for all students.

To read the entire article please go to Digital Directions:
http://www.edweek.org/dd/articles/2009/10/21/01e-gender.h03.html

Strong Communication is Key to Successful Online Learning

2009-10-18T20:57:00.002-04:00

How can teachers in an online environment ensure successful communication? There are four skills that every online teacher must have.

An effective online teacher must be able to facilitate interaction and act as a motivator, guide, mentor and listener to the students.
An effective online teacher needs to be responsive to student and parent questions by maintaining open communication.
An effective online teacher must know web-based technologies that provide collaborative learning for the students.
An effective online teacher must be knowledgeable in synchronous and asynchronous instruction.

In addition to the above skills iNACOL also looked at what communication practices and policies help to make a successful online school. The report focused on three types of communication:

Communication between teachers and students.
Communication between teachers and parents.
Communication between students.

It is best for online teachers to have multiple ways to share information with parents and students since not all parents have access to technology. The iNACOL article found that:

Online teachers need to be multifaceted, facilitating instruction through synchronous and asynchronous technology. Teachers need to also provide tutoring to students, lead discussions, and evaluate student activities.
Online teachers need to utilize online communication, email and phone calls as needed.

To read the entire article from iNACOL please go to http://www.inacol.org/forum
Strong Communication is Key to Successful Online Learning
Posted October 6, 2009, by Allison Powell at iNACOL

It’s Time to Get Serious about Creativity in the Classroom

2009-10-12T07:59:00.000-04:00

Freedom within a structure – what does that mean to you? How about making an assignment clear and focused, while allowing students the freedom to decide how to accomplish the task. That’s how an art teacher describes art as a creative place to develop creative minds.

When we ask students to learn long division the students are taught to follow certain steps that will help them understand how to arrive at the correct answer. That’s replication. When students are shown how to weave paper to make designs many students will replicate exactly what was shown. Students need some traditional learning to build valuable foundation skills and students need to develop creative minds.

According to the article one way to nurture and develop real creativity is to ask students to use their new skills to accomplish an assigned, more complex task and to allow students to be creative in the application of the new skills. Find ways that will allow all diverse learners to be successful. Structure assignments to allow students the freedom to be innovative and creative then watch what students will produce.

How can you develop creative minds in your class? What technology could your students use to think outside the box to complete more complex tasks and apply new skills?

To read the entire article please go to Edutopia:
http://www.edutopia.org/freedom-structure-balance-classroom

Can Retiring Boomers Transform Schools?

2009-10-05T11:00:00.002-04:00

Teachers who retire from STEM fields could be placed in “learning teams” with classroom teachers to bring real-life lessons into the classroom instruction and give teachers some valuable support. That is the idea behind the National Commission on Teaching and America's Future (NCTAF), to create powerful, learning environments for students.

With a workforce of 78 billion baby boomers who are healthy and well-accomplished NCTAF suggests pairing strong professionals in STEM fields with classroom teachers to create strong learning experiences for the students.

According to NCTAF there are three forces driving change in education:

New Learning Age
o Students need to develop skills in creativity and communication to be successful in a globally, integrated learning culture.
Open Learning Economy
o Many network learning opportunities are available for teachers and students that can provide user-driven and user-created content.
Growing Number of Young Educators Learning the Profession
o Many teachers in the first three to five years of teaching leave the profession because they feel unprepared, alone and unsupported. Other professional fields offer more opportunities for growth, to work in teams and collaborate.

NCTAF is looking for states that are adopting this 21st century strategy to be effective models for other states to follow. Think about the knowledge that STEM retirees have that could be combined with the fresh ideas and technology knowledge of our new teachers to see the possibilities of providing enhanced, real-world lessons to the students.

To read the entire article from eSchool News please go to:
http://www.eschoolnews.com/news/top-news/?i=59818

Edutopia: Ten Top Tips for Teaching with New Media

2009-09-28T09:08:00.009-04:00

Free resource from Edutopia

Here is a tips list from Edutopia on ways to make the most of the latest technologies and how to bring new media into the classroom. This is a list of practical ways to prepare students for 21st century success.

Break the Digital Ice
a. Scavenger hunts, name games, and other introductory activities help teachers and students get acquainted so they can start building a positive learning community. Give this important classroom tradition a 21st-century makeover by integrating digital tools.
Find Your Classroom Experts
a. Early in the school year, survey your students to find out about their digital smarts. You can take advantage of their technical know-how in the classroom, too, if you know where to look for help
Get Off to a Good Start
a. Spend some time on self-management strategies now, and your investment will pay off all year long. A wide array of Web tools can help students get better at managing their own learning.
Think Globally
a. By using online resources and new media tools for connecting, you will help your students see themselves as global citizens. One of the fastest ways to expand your students’ horizon is simply to connect your class with students who live somewhere else in the world.
Find What You Need
a. Instead of digging into your own wallet, take advantage of online tools and community resources to find what you need—for nothing. One of the best-known programs is DonorsChoose.org (donorschoose.org), Public school teachers post a specific request on the Web site. Citizen philanthropists choose which requests they want to fund. Kids follow up with thank-you notes. What gets funded? Everything from musical instruments to picture books to classroom technology.
Make Meaning from Word Clouds
a. Encourage lively conversation about words with the help of tools that turn text into visual displays. Wordle (wordle.net) is a free tool that turns a block of text, or simply a list of words, into a cloud pattern. Teachers across subject areas and grade levels are finding good uses for this simple-to-use tool. For example, as a prereading activity, you might use Wordle to highlight key vocabulary.
Work Better, Together
a. Collaboration is a skill your students will need for the future. To help them work better together today, try using collaborative workspaces in the classroom. Google Docs, part of the Google for Educators toolkit (google.com/educators /tools.html), is one example of a secure, online place for managing work in progress. Once you help your students set up free accounts, they’ll be able to access their spreadsheets, documents, and presentations anytime, from any connected computer.
Open a Back Channel
a. Creating a back channel is one strategy for inviting everyone into the conversation. Think of a back channel as a private chat room just for your classroom. Using an instant-messaging tool like iChat or Twitter for microblogging (twitter.com), students can pose questions, make observations while watching a video or student presentation, or share a dissenting viewpoint.
Make It Visual
a. From document cameras to projectors to interactive whiteboards, these technologies make it easier than ever to use visuals to inspire curiosity, generate brainstorming, and engage diverse learners. Across grade levels and subject areas, good visuals help students build background knowledge as they tackle new concepts. You can use images to set the stage for a story set in a remote place or a far-away time. Primary sources from the vast Library of Congress (loc.gov/teachers) archives, for instance, help students “see” the time period for a story set during World War I.
Use the Buddy System
a. Teachers can take advantage of a variety of communication tools to share ideas and strategies with colleagues.
b. Classroom 2.0 (www.classroom20.com) appeals to both new users of Web 2.0 tools and more experienced practitioners. It’s a good place to throw out a question and get some quick answers.
c. social-bookmarking tools like Delicious (delicious.com) enable you to organize, comment on, and share noteworthy resources.

To receive this free resource from Edutopia please sign up for the free e-newsletters at
http://www.edutopia.org/edutopia/enews

How to Keep Kids Engaged in Class

2009-09-23T13:40:00.004-04:00

Many times teachers are looking for ways to help students focus and stay on task. Here is a list of ten smart ways to increase classroom participation with a short example for each.

Start class with a mind warm-up
a. Ask students to find the mistakes planted in material written on the board.
Use movement to get students focused
a. Have students join in simple choreographed physical movement.
Teach students how to collaborate before expecting success
a. Prior to an activity, create a teamwork rubric with students that reviews descriptions of desired norms and behaviors.
Use quickwrites when you want quiet time and student reflection
a. Have students do short journal-writing assignments to calm down.
Run a tight ship when giving instructions
a. Before speaking to the class, require (1) total silence, (2) complete attention, and (3) all five eyeballs on you (two eyes on their face, two eyes on their knees, and the eyeball on their heart).
Use a fairness cup to keep students thinking
a. As part of classroom management, the teacher should create a supportive environment, where students are encouraged to take risks without fear of being put down or teased, then its easier to use your fairness cup.
Use signaling to allow everyone to answer your question
a. To ensure that all students are actively thinking, regularly ask questions that every student must prepare at least one answer -- letting them know you expect an answer.
Use minimal supervision tasks to squeeze dead time out of regular routines
a. While passing out papers, ask students to do a quickwrite or to pair up and quiz each other on vocabulary words.
Mix up your teaching styles
a. To keep students involved and on their toes, try to move from teacher-centered learning to student-centered active learning, and vice versa.
Create teamwork tactics that emphasize accountability
a. By insisting that students "ask three before me," you make it clear that they are expected to seek assistance from all members of their team before they turn to you.

To gain more insight into these tips please read the entire article at Edutopia:http://www.edutopia.org/classroom-student-participation-tips

The Rise of Digital Textbooks

2009-09-14T07:48:00.003-04:00

Is your school district ready for digital textbooks as part of 21st century learning? eSchool News looked at school districts who shared their motivations for a digital textbook program.

Since many textbook companies already provide electronic content along with supplemental and remediation content California is compiling a list of free, open digital textbooks that meet state-approved standards and will be available to high school math and science classes this fall. Just having computers in the classrooms isn’t enough; it’s how those computers are being utilized to enhance the learning for all students, empowering them with new skills.

The cost of purchasing textbooks has continued to rise and because the world is growing and changing as such a rapid pace many textbooks have outdated information by the time schools received them, not to mention the weight of some textbooks. Digital textbooks would cost less and could be easily updated through a single download of new information to the computers. Just as the world around our students is continually growing and changing so should the information digital textbooks would provide to the students. Schools wouldn’t have to wait till the next textbook adoption to provide current, real-world information to all students.

Marion County Public Schools in Florida decided to use digital textbooks as part of a three-year technology plan to provide wireless network access to all secondary schools. The school district also felt that digital texts will help keep the information current. As the world and information changes the digital textbooks could be updated quickly by downloading new information.

To read the entire article please go to eSchool News at:http://www.eschoolnews.com/news/top-news/index.cfm?i=59876

Eight Ways to Use School Wikis

2009-07-27T16:06:00.006-04:00

With school just around the corner teachers are beginning to plan for next school year. One way that teachers can increase collaboration among their students is to use Wikis. Wikispaces can also be used to store digital materials, screencasts, presentations, PDFs and other content. Wikis are also a great way for teachers to collaborate and share within a school or school district. Let’s look at the eight ways to use wikis in your school.

Decrease disruptions of instructional time
a. Instead of everyone listening to all the announcements for an entire school, teachers can read over the principal created wiki and read only the announcements that apply to their students.
Make meetings more efficient
a. Team meetings and planning can be collaborated thru a wiki
b. Each team can have their own team meeting page on the wiki site
Collaborate on important documents
a. Wikis are a great place to create, revise, and update the school education plan
Enhance professional development
a. All materials needed for professional development workshops can be housed in a wiki for the school
b. Discussions can be created for each professional development workshops for teachers to extend their learning of the materials
Share and collaborate on curriculum maps
a. Teachers can collaborate and plan out their curriculum maps by subject, grade level or by school thru a wiki
Save trees and time
a. Many documents for the school can be housed in a wiki and teachers can access from the wiki printing only what they need
A portal for all your lessons
a. All lessons for a particular subject can be uploaded to a wiki where teachers can discuss, create and collaborate on the lesson plans throughout the school year
How to get started
a. Go to http://pbworks.com to learn more about creating a wiki for yourself, other teachers or for your school
b. Do a search for Educational Wikis on the internet to see all the ways schools, teachers and students are using wikis

Article from Tech & Learning July 21, 2009
Eight Ways to Use School Wikis by Lisa Nielsen
http://www.techlearning.com/article/22064

The Morning Announcements

2009-07-27T08:59:00.010-04:00

Do you remember morning announcements when you were in school? Not very exciting but times have changed with audio and video communication technologies. Many schools have learning stations, interactive boards, on-demand resources and Kiosk viewers in the halls. With all of this technology what is the best way to do the morning announcements?

Let’s look at three examples –

Formal Model
Some schools use a journalistic organizational approach with news meetings where the group discusses past, present and future stories for the morning announcements. The teachers who work with these students usually have a strong journalistic background. These high school students are producers, directors, reporters and anchors who were trained in middle schools. Many of these schools have production studios with students learning skills that can transfer to television and journalism jobs.

Informal Model
Each student has a job and usually rotates through the jobs to learn each position. Rather than a journalistic model these students produce a more expressive, democratic model. Students collect news from various sources including the Internet and present a more personal style to the morning news. These schools usually have a designated place to broadcast each morning using the computer, some type of camera and they show videos clips from earlier events. Somewhat scripted but certainly open to creativity and flexibility.

Morning Announcements as “Local News”
At some schools morning announcements are a unique blend of local news by students for students keeping them informed. It’s a presentation that meets the needs for that day. Throughout the school year many students will be involved with the morning news learning how to speak to the camera and present information to the school. These segments can be recorded that morning and presented as a short clip along with the principal's morning announcements for that day. Short, impromptu segments videoed by the teacher or other students for the next day's announcements.

Whatever style your school chooses it’s important for teachers to spend time teaching students how to create and present the morning news building their skills, confidence and understanding of how to use technology to create a presentation that best serves the school community. This is one way that schools and teachers can incorporate technology into the morning news and create opportunities for students to be involved in the learning process of creating and producing short informational presentations.

Article title: Morning Announcements – Reflections on a Timeless K-12 Ritual written by Michael Schoonmaker:
http://www.school-video-news.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=490:morning-announcements-reflections-on-a-timeless-k-12-ritual&catid=24:concepts&Itemid=39

From School Video News: http://www.school-video-news.com/ the For Teachers section.

10 Ways to Become More Tech Savvy This Summer

2009-07-16T16:15:00.012-04:00

Have fun checking out each of these tools and think about how you could integrate these tools into your lessons.

Create a Video Vault
a. Use Miro 2.0 (free open source HD video player and video podcast player) to select videos to use with classroom lessons. Save videos to a flash drive and you’re ready to content specific videos to your students.
b. http://www.getmiro.com/index2.php

Using Photos
a. Use Big Huge Labs to do fun things to photos, such as make posters or magazine covers.
b. http://bighugelabs.com/

Creating Comics
a. Turn pictures into a comic book by using Comic Life software or create storybooks or picture albums.
b. http://plasq.com/downloads

Create a Wiki
a. Wikis are a great place to organize, collaborate and share information with your students and staff. Try using PBWorks.
b. http://pbworks.com/

Form a Questionnaire
a. To help students understand content more deeply teachers need to question students. Try using SurveyMonkey to create professional online surveys for your students or staff.
b. http://www.surveymonkey.com/

Share Snapshots
a. Teachers can start a project within the school, district, or across the US by sharing images and information through Picasa, a free photo editing software from Google. Teachers can create photo web albums to share and students can enjoy adding pictures to the web albums.
b. http://picasa.google.com/

Survey a Situation
a. By using Google Maps check our various locations your students will study this fall thru novels, social studies or historical events.
b. http://maps.google.com/

Cache In
a. Geocaching can be a great way for your students to find places they are studying. Geocaching uses a global-position-receiver that makes latitude and longitude come to life for your students.
b. http://www.geocaching.com/

Know the News
a. How great would it be for your students to read front page news items from around the world? To help students better understand the global economy think about using Newseum, an interactive online museum.
b. http://www.newseum.org/

Listen Up
a. Have you ever wanted to set up a series of stories or poems for your students? By using Lit2Go teachers can select from free audio collections of public domain books to download for your students. Collections can be browsed by author, title, or database and can be downloaded as a PDF so students can read along while listening to the stories.
b. http://etc.usf.edu/lit2go/

Take some time to browse through these great resources and think of all the ways these resources will motivate your students to be active, engaged learners.

Article from Edutopia The George Lucas Foundation – July 10, 2009: http://www.edutopia.org/tech-savvy-summer
Image from Microsoft Clip Art

The UN's World Digital Library

2009-07-09T14:20:00.014-04:00

Four years ago James Billlington, U.S. Librarian of Congress wanted to share cultural and educational data from the Library of Congress with anyone who had access to the Internet. On April 21, 2009, UNESCO (United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization) and the Library of Congress unveiled the World Digital Library, a collection of 1,200 high-resolution digitized files that allows users to zoom in on ancient documents and archival photographs.

Resources may be searched by keywords, time period, place, type of item and the institution that contributed the data. Descriptions are given for the materials in seven languages while the documents are shown in their original languages. Currently there are books, journals, documents, photographs, audio and videos. There are currently 457 maps in the World Digital Library and I hope there are plans to continue adding cultural and educational data to this digital library.

Students and teachers can find interesting items like the first printed edition of a 16th-century Japanese novel called The Tale of Genji; a journal by Ferdinand Magellan kept from his voyage around the world; a panoramic view of Constantinople; to an early recording of Marseillaise, the national anthem of France.

To check out the new World Digital Library please click here or go to: http://www.wdl.org/en/

There are many ways that teachers and students could utilize this information to make learning more engaging and real world.

Article from Time Magazine April 22, 2009
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1892916,00.html

Image from the World Digital Library

http://www.wdl.org/en/item/105/

Global Competition: U.S. Students vs. International Peers

2009-07-08T14:24:00.004-04:00

The U.S. has been leading a movement of discussion about the importance of educational technology and 21st Century Skills that all students need. But several countries are doing a better job of preparing students with technology skills which means that US schools could fall behind other countries in using educational technology to improve K-12 schools.

Australia, Britain, China and South Korea have launched plans to make sure students will know how to effectively use technology for learning and work. Developing countries such as India are making financial commitments to ensure that technology skills are taught in schools.

What makes the difference between U.S. students and international students? According to the article U.S. students know how to use cellphones, computer applications and multimedia equipment but they are not being taught to think critically about what they present, how to analyze content or how to employ tools for specific tasks and problems. Students are not receiving consistent, engaging, comprehensive instruction in how to apply technologies to the kinds of assignments given in schools or the workplace.

According to Donald G. Knezek schools need to instill critical thinking, analytical and technology skills as well as creativity, collaboration and communication into the curriculum. According to the article many states in the US have become more deliberate in infusing technology into the curriculum since the No Child Left Behind Act but states have been left to figure out how to reach this goal. How can schools help students gain “technology literacy”? How can schools engage students to use technology for more than Web research or as a presentation tool?

Here are several sources of information for teachers:
ISTE’s Educational Technology Standards for Students
http://www.iste.org/Content/NavigationMenu/NETS/ForStudents/NETS_for_Students.htm

Partnership for 21st Century Skills – Framework for 21st Century Learning
http://www.21stcenturyskills.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=254&Itemid=120

Intel Education Programs and Resources
http://www.intel.com/education/technologyliteracy/

Benefits of Technology Literacy Projects
http://download.intel.com/education/common/en/resources/technologyliteracy/teach/Overview_Benefits_Technology_Literacy.pdf

Teachers: Content Literacy
http://www.literacymatters.org/tech/intro.htm

Article from Digital Directions - June 16, 2009http://www.edweek.org/dd/articles/2009/06/17/04global.h02.html

Online School for Girls Launches This Fall

2009-06-24T15:30:00.008-04:00

This will be the first ever online school in secondary education for girls. The online school was developed by a consortium of independent all-girls’ schools.

The four private schools that will offer the pilot courses next school year are: Harpeth Hall School located in Nashville, Tennessee, a 5th – 12th grade college preparatory school; Holton-Arms School located in Bethesda, Maryland, a 3rd – 12th grade college preparatory school; Laurel School located in Cleveland, Ohio, a K – 12th grade college preparatory school; and Westover School located in Middlebury, Connecticut, a selective boarding school for 9th – 12 grade girls.

Currently 44 states have some type of virtual secondary schools but none of these virtual schools specifically address the educational needs of girls. Ann Pollins, President of the National Coalition of Girls’ Schools stated, “We believe that girls inhabit online spaces differently than boys and that this initiative can combine a powerful, transformative online learning environment for girls with a high-quality, twenty-first century academic experience.”

The Online School will offer two pilot courses this fall with four additional courses being offered spring semester of 2009-2010 school year. The Online School will focus on several key principles based on current research on how girls learn best: emphasizing connections among participants; incorporating collaboration into the learning experience; inspiring and rewarding creativity; and engaging in real-world problems and applications.

In the future the Online School will provide an online education that is flexible, affordable and accessible to a diverse, worldwide student base including students who need a flexible school schedule, students who are home schooled, or students who need opportunities for challenging and/or unique coursework.

To read the complete article from Harpeth Hall School:
https://www.harpethhall.org/podium/default.aspx?t=204&nid=538755

To read the complete article from Nashville Business Journal
http://www.bizjournals.com/nashville/stories/2009/06/22/daily10.html

Image from Microsoft Clip Art

Online Games for Learning

2009-06-16T16:02:00.009-04:00

Online games have been described as casual games, serious games and advergames but to teachers and parents what do these labels mean?

Casual Games
Casual Games are designed for entertainment. Some casual games are preloaded on computers such as Solitaire while other casual games are downloaded. Learning can occur but mostly casual games are for fun.

Serious Games
Serious games are designed for learning. Simulations, military training, corporate education, health care are just a few ways games are designed for learning. It’s easy to find educational games on the internet from pre-school to university level. Serious games are categorized by genre, complexity, and platforms building maturity and learning.

Serious games focus on specific learning outcomes that can be measured. But do these serious games really promote learning? When the game design is focused on learning outcomes, then learning is possible. According to Mary Jo Dondlinger a game that motivates players to spend time on tasks mastering the skills of the game, is time spent stimulating learning outcomes. Even some casual games like EVE Online can produce real learning outcomes. One player from EVE Online stated that once he had managed a virtual corporation that spanned a universe he could easily manage a real corporation.

Computer games with 3D graphics are being used in the workplace, for recruitment, to improve communication and train employees at all levels. The military trains soldiers using “virtually real” environments where soldiers build teams and prepare personnel for specific missions. One of the most popular games online today is America’s Army.

Advergames
Advergames are a combination of casual and serious games and have been used as a form of marketing for movies and television shows. Advergames are sometimes the most visited section of brand websites promoting repeated traffic and reinforcing the brand.

But what does this mean for education in public schools?
A virtual learning environment needs to encourage content exploration, be learner-centered and individualized. Our digital native students prefer to:

Receive information quickly
Multitask
View pictures and videos
Interact and network with others
Receive instant gratification and rewards
Learn information that is relevant, useful and fun

Digital learners today need online learning that is stimulating and develops critical skills. Once successful program is DiDA Delivered, a diploma program in IT skills for secondary students in the UK. To check out the site please click here: http://www.dida-delivered.org/
The curriculum for this program includes 4,000 learning objects and 300 serious games and teachers can develop their own content to add to the learning environment. DiDA looks similar to Second Life and Active Worlds.

Considering that children ages 8-18 spend at least 50 minutes per day playing video games education needs to provide stimulating, learning environments where students acquire 21st century skills necessary for today’s workforce. To do this learning designers and game designers need to work together to provide a more engaging and effective learning environment for all students incorporating social networking, and other Web 2.0 technologies.

To learn more about online games for learning please read the entire article Serious Games: Online Games for Learning at: http://www.adobe.com/products/director/pdfs/serious_games_wp_1107.pdf

Who are the Virtual Students in Your Class?

2009-06-03T16:00:00.010-04:00

Here is an interesting article to think about. As face-2-face teachers we all have ways to encourage class participation, behavior and time on task but how does this work in an online class? Who are the other students in an online class when students are enrolled from across the state or around the world?

Meet Jane Malan, a thirty-something part-time school teacher interested in languages. Jane was given the duty of being the second facilitator in an online class contributing to theoretical and technical assignments, and at times giving advice to students in the course. Jane seemed to know how to model collaborative behaviors the students could follow and she regularly participated in the “social” posts. I guess some would say she was the model student, or was she?

Jane Malan was placed in the online course to start discussions among the students, encourage others to stay with the course, and to participate in all discussions including the social posts. I imagine the other students liked her but Jane wasn’t real. Jane was a “ghost student” created by the instructor of the course and Jane was controlled by the instructor.

At the end of the course the instructor revealed Jane’s identity. The instructor wanted to answer two questions by “infusing” Jane into the course:

How does a virtual student enhance online community?
How do students feel about the ethical issues of instructor’s hiding and then disclosing the identity of a virtual student?

I’ve taken online courses and I began to wonder if any of the other students in those past courses were “ghost students” and how would I know? My next thought was why did the instructor feel she had to create a ghost student for the course? The instructor called her Methical Jane, the combination of mythical and ethical created to improve students’ online learning success. The instructor rationalized that if an online course had ineffective facilitation or lack of communication the students’ success and performance would be lower. Also a controlling instructor could weaken online communication and lower students’ success.

I do not see the rationale behind the instructor choosing to create Jane Malan and there is definitely an ethical issue of trust between the instructor and the students. Considering that students should follow proper netiquette when posting to an online class the instructor should already have the ability to monitor forums, blogs, assignments and other postings. So why be a ghost student?

If the instructor is worried about the quality and quantity of collaboration and communication between the students then the instructor needs to be better trained and prepared to teach online without resorting to “ghost students” selectively placed in a class. Another ethical issue would be the idea that an instructor could become a “ghost student” in a colleague’s course. For what reason? To spy? To take information from a colleague’s course to use in their course? To find a way to defame the colleague and/or their teaching practices?

This study raised a lot of ethical questions for me. More than I can ask in one short blog posting. So I invite you to read the entire study and the short summary article to see what ethical questions you have and to ask that you share your thoughts on the issue of “ghost students” in an online course?

To read the entire student please go to:
Methical Jane: Perspectives on an Undisclosed Virtual Student
http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol12/issue4/nagel.html

To read a summary article outlining the study please go to:
Chronicle of Higher Education
http://chronicle.com/free/v55/i38/38a01001.htm?utm_source=at&utm_medium=en

10 Most Dangerous Things Users Do Online

2009-06-01T15:24:00.007-04:00

I recently listened to “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” by Stieg Larsson. One of the characters was Lisbeth Salalander who was a computer hacker and quite good. She was able to completely take over a person’s computer, follow a trail of money, find bank codes and was able to transfer money from the bad guys’ accounts to new personal accounts she set up. I began to wonder if I was doing all I could to protect my computer from being hacked or becoming a victim of identity theft?

We’ve all heard that you shouldn’t give out too much information on the Internet so I thought with summer vacation fast approaching it would be a good time to remind people how to stay safe on the Internet.

When you think about all the people who will be on vacation this summer with lots of free time you know some of those people will be looking at ways to hack into computers or take part in identity thief. Just type in “computer hacking” or “how to steal someone’s identity” and see how many results you get.

Here is a list of the ten most dangerous things users do online from School CIO dated May 29, 2009: http://schoolcio.com/ShowArticle/932

Clicking on email attachments from unknown senders
a. Email attachments are still the easiest way to contract viruses on your computer.
Installing unauthorized applications.
a. If you can buy and download a software application for $19.95 that sells for much more you’re probably not getting a bargain and the application may have hidden malware or Trojan viruses.
Turning off or disabling automated security tools
a. Even though some security tools may slow down the performance of your computer it’s not a good idea to ignore security updates or just turn off the firewall. This opens up your computer for attacks from malware or viruses.
Opening HTML or plain-text messages from unknown senders
a. HTML text and images may be infected with spyware. Other HTML files may contain Java Scripts or macros that allow an unknown person to gain control of your computer turning the computer into a botnet zombie.
b. A botnet zombie also known as a zombie army is a group of Internet computers that have been set up to forward transmissions, spams and/or viruses to other computers on the Internet without the owners knowledge. Basically your computer becomes a computer robot or “bot” for the originator who gains control of your computer.
Surfing gambling, porn or other legally-risky sites
a. Most workplaces restrict Internet access to risky sites through content filters. Your home computer doesn’t have the same level of filters and restricted access and many of these legally-risky sites put your computer at risk. When you visit these risky sites a cookie is placed in your computer. That cookie can trigger pop-ups to start appearing when you’re on the Internet – pop-ups of inappropriate advertisements. Systematically deleting the cookies on your computer will help.
Giving out passwords, tokens or smart cards
a. You may have to use a smart card or security token at work but how do you keep your password from family and friends? Simple – don’t give it out. A family member or friend may decide to “look around” and you could become a victim of identity theft.
Random surfing of unknown, untrusted sites
a. Surfing unknown sites can make your computer vulnerable to adware and spams because hackers like to crack into browser securities, One way to protect your computer would be to surf with active content disabled.
Attaching to an unknown, untrustworthy WiFi network
a. Sitting at a quiet restaurant using a free WiFi connection may be a nice respite this summer but what about the guy in the next booth who may be hacking into your laptop using that same free WiFi network?
b. Be aware that wireless cards that use Wireless Access Protocol (WAP) are easy for hackers to get your username and password.
Filling out Web scripts, forms or registration pages
a. A lot of sites today use some type of security such as SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) to provide security when making purchases or giving out sensitive information so if you’re not sure a website is secure call the company and speak to a representative before giving out personal information. Also look for websites that begin with https which are more secure.
Participating in chat rooms or social networking sites
a. One of the biggest problems with social networks is the amount of information someone can learn about you by simply searching. Hackers can find out where you work, your business partners, names of family members, where you live and even when you plan to take a vacation. Even using a “closed circle” won’t keep out people who are looking for information so be careful how much information you share in a chat room or social network.

Creating Cities of the Future

2009-05-22T09:37:00.009-04:00

Remember the movie WALL-E? Everyone was evacuated from Earth to live on a fully automated luxury spaceship to spend five years on a cruise in space while the earth was cleaned up by an army of robots - WALL-E (Waste Allocation Load Lifter Earth Class). But in the movie the earth is still covered in trash seven hundred years later. Could this really happen? Can man build a spaceship that could sustain life in outer space for seven hundred years?

Children watch cartoons and movies with elaborate futuristic worlds all the time. What if you asked students to create a new city for the future? Where would students choose to build a city? What would the city be like? How would the city be built? Would students create a city where everything could be easily controlled by computers? What would students include in their cities – housing, food, schools, entertainment, and jobs? Lots of questions.

Do you think only cartoons and movies have futuristic worlds? Let’s look at The Seasteading Institute: http://www.seasteading.org/
In February the Seasteading Institute announced a contest for architects, engineers, students and hobbyists to design a seastead, a permanent, stationary structure that is specifically designed for long-term living in a marine environment. Participants were given a patented 3-D model of a seasteading platform to create an architectural design. The winners were announced May 18, 2009.

Check out these winning designs:
http://seasteading.org/design-contest-winners#overall

How can teachers bring real-world projects like this to their students? What software could teachers use to help students create future cities and worlds? How about Google SketchUp?

http://sketchup.google.com/product/gsu.html
Students can create 3D models and share them with their friends. There are Training Videos, a warehouse of models that people have created to give students ideas, and a section that covers a list of features. Teachers can access the K-12 SketchUp for Educators section to learn about the free version and the Pro version.
http://sketchup.google.com/industries/education.html

Teachers and students can begin with the self-paced tutorials to learn the concepts of modeling with SketchUp from Google. Check out this Introduction to SketchUp:
http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/details?mid=901231215767ef7a545172f70efed474&prevstart=0
Other tutorials are located here:
http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/cldetails?mid=36e1fa0d054a15eecc725c514c21d975&prevstart=0

To help you get started check out the 3D Vinci site for K-12 ideas using SketchUp.
http://3dvinci.net/?gclid=CM2gi7qE0JoCFQWfnAodDiIL3Q

Google image found at: http://sketchup.google.com/

Advanced Thinking in Digital Storytelling

2009-05-19T15:36:00.004-04:00

The Creative Educator Spring 2009
http://thecreativeeducator.com/

The foundation of any digital story begins with a good story, one with a point of view, a dramatic question, and emotional content. Bringing the story to life for the reader through the words of the story should be more important that all the transitions, visual and audio effects, background music and text styles that the students can add to the digital story. As an example of visual effect, instead of writing “He was walking down the street,” the student may choose verbs and adjectives to describe how a character was walking down the street, “With his head held high and slightly cocked to the side, teeth clenched, and shoulders back he strutted down the street like he owned the town” draws the reader into the story allowing the reader to be a more active participant.

Once a story is mapped out on a storyboard the students will be able to decide which technology tool will best add the effects, transitions and sounds to best bring their stories to life. If the students are using still images to illustrate their stories, panning and zooming can add a certain impact and dynamic feel to the story. But transitions can be a problem. Help students understand there should be a reason for using transitions to tell the story, not distract from the story. A great story could be lost to the viewer because the students crammed all the effects they could into the finished product. Just because they knew how to add all those effects doesn’t mean that those effects added anything to the story. Students need to learn that less is more.

So what about the background music? Does the story need music to give a dramatic impact to the story? The background music should set the tone, add to the pacing of the story and augment the emotional content of the story, not distract from the story. Let the students’ own voice personalize the story and also help students to decide what sounds, soundtracks, or sound effects can best enhance their stories.

The main focus in digital storytelling should be the writing experience with the technology as a tool to enhance and bring the story to life. There are many tools that students can use:
Audacity for podcasting the story
PhotoStory 3 to enhance the story with images and music
Movie Maker to add images, video and music to the story
Voice Thread to allow other students to add their comments to the story and the images
PowerPoint presentations

To read the entire article please goes to http://thecreativeeducator.com/ Spring 2009 edition of the magazine.

Virtually Restored Egyptian Temple

2009-05-19T15:30:00.004-04:00

Students who are studying Egypt and the Ancient Temple of Karnak can now virtually visit the temple. Thanks to the University of California, at Los Angeles team who created the “Digital Karnak” students can visit a three-dimensional 69- acre site that’s filled with temples, gateways, obelisks and 100 sphinxes dating back to 1951 B.C. to 31 B.C.

Similar virtual sites have been created by this team – Rome Coliseum, Roman Forum and Pompeii’s Villa of the Mysteries. These virtual models can be seen through Google Earth. To read the complete article pleas go to:
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/2009-04-22-temple-karnak_N.htm

So let’s look at Digital Karnak with Google Earth. Teachers and students will download the link to the desktop of the computer and once Google Earth is launched the file should appear in the left sidebar. No special hardware or software is needed. Begin by clicking on this link:
http://dlib.etc.ucla.edu/projects/Karnak/google_earth.

Students will be able to trace the development of the temple from the Middle Kingdom (1950 BCE) through the Greco-Roman Period (31 BCE). The model shows the chronological change in the temple as it was being built.

To access the Digital Karnak click here: http://dlib.etc.ucla.edu/projects/Karnak/ Once you have arrived select from one of the following sections to begin your adventure.
1. Time Map
2. Experience Karnak
3. Browse Archive
4. Google Earth

There is also a large gallery of pictures at the Temple Complex Overview link found on the Digital Karnak page. What a great way to have your students take a field trip !!!

Image from Google Earth and the Digital Karnak: http://dlib.etc.ucla.edu/projects/Karnak/google_earth

Technology Integration

2009-05-19T15:27:00.008-04:00

In March of last year Edutopia published an article on technology integration. Several points were made from the article:

Effective technology integration is achieved when its use supports curricular goals. It must support four key components of learning:
o active engagement
o participation in groups
o frequent interaction and feedback
o connection to real-world experts
Technology integration is achieved when the use of technology is routine.
Learning through projects while equipped with technology tools allows students to be intellectually challenged while providing them with a realistic snapshot of what the modern office looks like.
Through projects, students acquire and refine their analysis and problem-solving skills as they work individually and in teams to find, process, and synthesize information they've found online.

The goal is to effectively integrate technology into subject areas by allowing teachers to grow into roles as advisers, content experts, and coaches to the students. Technology should help to make teaching and learning more meaningful and fun.

Fast forward to April 2009, how are we using technology in the schools today? Take a look at this video from one high school in Gulfport, Mississippi.

Video Source: http://www.edutopia.org/technology-integration-overview-video

What is your school doing to integrate technology into your curriculum?

To read the entire article:
Why Integrate Technology into the Curriculum?: The Reasons Are Many
http://www.edutopia.org/technology-integration-introduction

To learn more about what works in public education please go to:
Edutopia - The George Lucas Educational Foundation
http://www.edutopia.org/harrison-central-high-school

3 Challenges to Wiki Use in Instruction

2009-05-19T15:23:00.009-04:00

The April edition of The Journal posted an article that dealt with the benefits and instructional uses of wikis to engage students. A wiki should promote evaluating, synthesizing, elaborating, analyzing, problem solving, decision making, knowledge, base construction, argumentation/justification and learning communities according to Wake Forest University.

So how can teachers use wikis to ensure higher levels of engagement with students? Three challenges were presented.

Creating meaningful assignments: a wiki assignment should be collaborative with all students participating to complete the assignment. The process and outcome should depend on the collaborative success of the students. Some examples would be –
a. The assignment is open and not closed
b. The assignment requires participation
c. The assignment uses the participation to move forward
Grade Value for Constructed Input: a student’s grade should reflect their active participation within the wiki as well as the final product. Some examples would be –
a. Working with and building on existing information
b. Inputting new information
c. Synthesis of ideas and relevant use
Collective knowledge use: learning takes place for the students when they are able to apply what they have learned in some meaningful way. Some examples would be –
a. Non-complex problems
b. Preset solutions
c. Inadequate time allowed for the recess

Wikis can provide an effective way for students to engage in higher-level thinking skills through collaborative learning. Teachers will need to plan carefully when and how to use wikis encouraging students to explore content, discover new information and work together towards a solution and/or final product. By using a problem-based approach students should acquire the skills needed for higher-level processing skills and complex problem solving skills.

To read the full article please go to: http://www.thejournal.com/articles/24206_1
Article written by Ruth Reynard: "3 Challenges to Wiki Use in Instruction," T.H.E. Journal, 4/1/2009, http://www.thejournal.com/articles/24206

Technology Empowers Differentiated Instruction

2009-05-19T15:18:00.007-04:00

Technology offers a great potential to help students and prepare them with 21st century skills but how does that same technology help teachers differentiate instruction for all students? In January of this year ISTE provided several examples of classroom projects that helped students learn while keeping them engaged.

Certainly students enjoy school better and learn more with they are being taught in ways that respond to their readiness levels, interests, and learning profiles. Teachers can better meet these needs by changing four elements of their instruction: content, process, product, and learning environment. Teachers can differentiate their instruction by changing some of their instructional strategies, management strategies and including software applications, video streaming, the Internet and other technology resources. Differentiated Instruction should include digital-age literacy, inventive thinking, effective communication, and high productivity which should lead to better student achievement.

One way teachers can better understand their students is to do an interest inventory, survey, observations or interviews. You can check out Survey Monkey at: http://www.surveymonkey.com,
Free Online Surveys at http://www.freeonlinesurveys.com
Zoomerang at http://www.zoomerang.com.

Differentiated Strategies

Tic-tac-toe board of activities where students choose to demonstrate their understanding of a topic by making a choice from the board. To learn more about tic-tac-toe boards go to http://daretodifferentiate.wikispaces.com/Choice+Boards.
I-Search – students work individually or in pairs using the internet and other research tools to investigate a topic of interest. A couple of examples:
a. I-Search Unit – http://www2.edc.org/fsc/mih/i-search.html1
b. I-Search Curriculum Unit – http://www.literacymatters.org/content/isearch/intro.htm
c. Webbe template and storyboard – http://www.everythingdi.net/docs/webbetemplateJan152009.pdf
WebQuests - students work collaboratively using web research tools to investigate a teacher-designed topic of interest. Examples:
a. WebQuest page – http://webquest.org
b. Pre-Writing a Webquest – http://tommarch.com/learn-ing/prewrite.php
c. WebQuest Maker – http://www.teach-nology.com/web_tools/web_quests/
R.A.F.T.T. – this strategy integrates reading and writing in a non-traditional way with students creating a product that illustrates their understanding.
a. R.A.F.T.T. stands for:
i. Role – the role of the character
ii. Audience – audience for the product
iii. Format – the way a student choose to show their understanding
iv. Topic – the final product: who, what, when where, how
v. Technology – software application used by the student
b. What is R.A.F.T.T. – http://olc.spsd.sk.ca/DE/PD/instr/strats/raft/
Jigsaw – students are assigned a subtopic of a particular topic of study within a group. Students research their subtopic and then “jigsaw” with other subtopic experts from the other groups to produce information about the subtopic. Once complete the student returns to the original or “home” group to share their knowledge. The home groups can build a wiki to share the information learned.

For more information about differentiating instruction using technology go to http://everything-di.blogspot.com.

Ocean Explorer Brings Undersea Science to Life

2009-05-19T15:17:00.003-04:00

Robert Ballard founder of the JASON Project

The JASON Project connects students with explorers during live sea expeditions to motivate and excite students about science. It’s called “telepresence” technology that enables an unmanned robot submarine to stay in the ocean 24-7. If a robot submarine finds a major discovery – maybe a lost city or sunken ship - experts in the scientific fields can be at a command center within 20 minutes, remotely controlling the submarine and its cameras. Through a live production studio students will be able to experience these breakthroughs.

How is this possible? Fiber-optic cables will transmit video feeds from cameras on the robot submarines to a command center at the University of Rhode Island’s Institute for Archaeological Oceanography. Other command centers are being built at 11 other oceanography institutes across the country which are linked through the ultra high-speed Internet2. National Geographic is spending $11 million to help build the live production studio.

Students at Internet2 connected schools will be able to view the remote camera images from the sea floor and listen to live conversations among the scientists. Rhode Island middle schools are connected to Internet2 and the district is building remote command centers in the school libraries. With this access the students will be able to see firsthand the explorations and be able to remotely control the submarines. How cool is that?

According the Robert Ballard the reason for targeting the JASON Project to middle graders was simple – he wants the future stars to be scientists and educators and if students aren’t interested in science by eighth grade he doesn’t think they will become interested in the upper grades.

To learn more about the JASON Project go to: http://www.jason.org/public/home.aspx

How will YOU see the future? How will OTHERS see you in the future?

2009-04-01T16:25:00.012-04:00

When my father was ill in 2003 the doctors gave him a disposable pill-sized camera to swallow that would record pictures from inside. I was fascinated by the camera and I really wanted to see how this camera worked and how the pictures would be downloaded from the camera, but my father wouldn’t let me touch the camera, he just swallowed it with a huge glass of water. So much for my curiosity.

Fast forward to today. Rob Spence, a documentary filmmaker who lost one of his eyes due to a childhood injury, now wants to replace his prosthetic eye with a high-tech wireless web-connected video camera. He calls himself Eyeborg. His current prosthetic eye is not an orb but a soft material that sits on a peg that was surgically implanted inside the opening. Right now there is a team of people working to make him an eye camera with a miniature lenses and a wireless transmitter. Once the team can make a powerless solution and a wireless solution for the eye camera Rob will have a bionic eye.

How will this eye camera affect the future of optical robotics? One member of the team thinks this camera will lay the groundwork for curing blindness. Could someone who is blind be able to see again using ocular technology? Others on the team think this will give people the ability to record everything they see and experience.

Please watch the video for this amazing eye camera ocular technology.
http://watch.spacecast.com/the-circuit/current/january-2009/#clip128282
http://watch.spacecast.com/the-circuit/current/january-2009/

Please visit the Eyeborg Project website for more details.
http://www.eyeborgblog.com/

Eye image from Microsoft clipart
Disposable camera image from Google Images
Eye Camera screenshot from Spacecast video

A Foundational Structure for Learning

2009-04-01T16:19:00.009-04:00

David Warlick spoke about the “Native Information Experience” for digital learners at the NCTIES conference last week in Raleigh, NC. He spoke about how school leaders and teachers are finding ways to implement learning 2.0 with their students.

David spoke about the eight characteristics of networked and digital information experiences that teachers need to bring to their classrooms from observing the outside-the-classroom informational experiences that defines the unique networked, digital, information culture of today’s students.

These eight “Native Information Experiences:

Are responsive – authentic, personal experiences of sending out and receiving responses from others. Receiving responses from others being the payback for the students.
Measures Accomplishments – by the audience and comments from their friends.
Values Safely Make Mistakes – students learn by failing; they will keep doing something until its right.
Demands Personal Investment – students invest a lot of cumulative time in their informational experiences.
Values Personal Experience and Identity – students need to be part of a social group, sharing and learning from others.
Rewards with Audience and Attention – audiences have to be earned. Rewards for the students come from having other see what they are doing. One site was mentioned concerning rewards and audiences – Fan Fiction where students write and add chapters to an online story. http://www.fanfiction.net/
Provokes Communication – through technology students carry their friends with them all the time always communicating.
Are Fueled by Questions – many students are not afraid to ask questions

Understanding the informational experiences of our students will help schools and teachers achieve learning 2.0 in their classrooms – having students create, communicate, collaborate, problem-solve, and be engaged learners will cultivate new learning experiences. Teachers need to use the many web 2.0 tools that are available – wikis, blogs, Flickr, ePals, RSS feeds, social bookmarks, social networks, VoiceThread, Audacity, PhotoStory 3, Movie Maker, Animoto and others to enrich the learning experiences of all students.

So You Want to Teach Online

2009-03-01T17:26:00.021-05:00

What steps should you take to change face-2-face
course content to online content?

First you will need to know what course management system (CMS) your school system is using. Is your school system using Moodle, Blackboard or WebCT? Take time to learn the features of the CMS, the interactive components, the gradebook and decide what features would work best for your course content. If there are features missing that you would like to use, then look for free Web 2.0 tools such as Flickr, Google Blogger, Webpaint, VoiceThread or other free online tools.

The modules of the CMS form the navigational structure of the course so make sure to know the layout of the CMS your school system will be using. Now begin to organize your course content into the modules. To make this easy use a concept mapping tool such as Inspiration, Microsoft Word or just map out the course with pencil and paper. Make sure each module of the online course focuses on the goals and objectives of the curriculum. There are three areas the course should be organized around – course materials, discussions and assignments/activities. Make sure to include completion times for each course task to help students plan time to complete all work.

Let’s look at each area:
Course Materials. Course materials can be web sites, video clips, PowerPoint presentations, podcasts, online articles or lecture notes. Remember to find ways to differentiate the instruction to meet the needs of all students.

Discussions. A discussion board is one of the primary tools for connecting with the students to see how well they understand key concepts of the course. Make sure discussion questions require students to engage in higher-order thinking. Also, think of ways to use the discussion board to motivate the class and remember that teachable moments will occur in the discussion board. Use a detailed scoring rubric for the discussion board so students know the expectations required for postings.

Assignments/Activities. Think about listing all assignments, due dates and scoring rubrics in a downloadable document to help students stay organized and to make sure they understand expectations. Make sure students know the file formats accepted for posting assignments. Instructors should not have to spend a lot of time trying to open student assignments from various software applications. Think about using a Frequently Asked Questions forum where students can ask questions about the course and assignments.

Once the content modules are created and organized, decide how many modules to make available to students at a time. Post modules weekly to prevent students from jumping ahead while allowing students time to post missed assignments from the past weeks. It’s also helpful to make sure students have a complete understanding of the past modules before working on future modules.

Whether posting complete courses or supplemental materials online for a face-2-face course, instructors will need to know the technology skills of the students. Instructors can prepare a student information sheet listing the necessary technology skills for the students. Make sure to outline all course expectations for the students letting them know that online courses usually need more time than face-2-face courses. Even though online courses are accessible 24 hours a day, students need to know they should expect responses to assignments and other postings within a time period set by the instructor.

If your school system offers online courses and/or online supplemental materials it would be helpful for students to complete an orientation to familiarize them with the online course software and the navigational structure of online courses. As students work through the online materials always look for ways to improve the course, making note of what worked well and what changes are needed. At the end of the online course provide students with a course evaluation to help decide if the online course met the objectives for the course.

Once an instructor decides to remake a face-2-face course to an online course there are many helpful resources. Here are just a few resources.

The Technology Source: Creating Online Courses http://technologysource.org/article/creating_online_courses/
Moodle Community: http://moodle.org/
E-Learn Magazine: The Reluntant Professor http://www.elearnmag.org/subpage.cfm?section=case_studies&article=41-1
Blackboard Tips: 10 Easy Steps to Creating Your Online Course http://med.uth.tmc.edu/administration/edu_programs/ep/blackboard/text/10ezSteps.pdf
Leading & Learning with Technology: Turning Face-to-Face Content inot Meaningful Online Courses http://www.learningandleading-digital.com/learning_leading/200902/

To Moodle or Not to Moodle?

2009-02-24T14:21:00.008-05:00

Since I am learning about Moodle and building a Moodle site for our school district I thought I would explore Moodle sites this week. Moodle was developed as free open-source e-learning software that helps people create online courses for students and adults. So how are other people using Moodle outside of public school or college education?

Here is a short list of some of the interesting sites I found in the United States at: http://moodle.org/sites

Learn to Speak the French Language Online for Free: http://learnfrench.elanguageschool.net/ This site listed 10 languages that people could learn for free online. So how’s your Dutch?
Adoption Education Classes: http://www.adoptioneducationclasses.com/classroom/ This site was created for those interested in adoption.
After Hours Electrical CEUs: http://course.electceu.com/ This site requires payment but think of the advantages to earning a certification and a better paying job while still working.
Adult Caregiver Training: http://caregivermanagerceus.com/moodle/login/index.php This site is for people who care for others.
Free Online Games: http://ahshornets.moodle.com/ Hadn’t thought about hosting online games through the Moodle software.
Pharmacy Training: http://pharmacylessons.com/ Pharmacy technical training and continuing education.
Aircraft Technical Computerized Service Professionals: http://www.atcspro.com/index.html This is a new site that opened January 2009 for Boeing aircraft training.

And last but not least I couldn't resist including this site:

After School Hackers: https://www.ashprogram.com/ – OK, I know what you’re thinking and so did I at first, but this is actually a site for school-aged children to learn computer programming. This site is for a specific school district so I wasn’t able to log in as a guest but what a great idea – fun learning for students after school.

There are over 10,000 registered Moodle sites just in the United States so this is just a small sampling of the various ways that people are using Moodle. Realize that most of these sites require a person to log in which means creating a Moodle account. Just because you may already have a Moodle account for a course or school district doesn’t mean you can automatically log into another site. But you can continue to use the same username, email address and password for each Moodle account you create.

We should all be lifelong learners and the Internet along with Moodle is creating many online learning opportunities for people.

Low Tech Meets High Tech

2009-02-18T10:10:00.010-05:00

Stop motion animation is a process where someone creates an armatured, poseable puppet that is brought to life in a movie by slowly moving the puppet in small increments and filming one frame of film per increment. Sound’s hard doesn’t it and a little boring.

But there are several excellent films that have been created by using armatured, poseable puppets. Two films were produced by Tim Burton, Nightmare Before Christmas in 1993 and Corpse Bride in 2005. Recently Coraline was released as a new 3-D stop motion animation movie based on a Neil Gaiman novella.

So why use stop motion animation? It takes years to produce a movie, lots of building miniature sets, and lots of puppet parts. For Jack Skellington’s face there were at least 25 different heads each with a different facial expression. The small scene sets have to be created in detail and filmed from every angle. Some of you may wonder why people would work for several years just to produce one movie. People like Tim Burton do this type of work because they have a passion for animation and ways to bring animation to life. Every child has had a doll, animal or toy that they brought to life in their mind everyday when they played. Disney has brought many animated characters to life in movies for children and adults to enjoy.

Today the low tech aspect of creating poseable puppets or spending hours drawing animated characters has blended with high tech computer graphics and digital medias to produce visually entertaining 3-D movies like Coraline and Shrek.

So what does all this mean for students today? In North Carolina there are two good film schools for students. The University of North Carolina at Wilmington has a film studies program that prepares students for careers in film production. This program is the third largest film production center in the United States, which is also a part of EUE/Screen Gems Studios, the largest film studio outside of Hollywood. The University of North Carolina School of the Arts also has a School of Filmmaking which prepares students for careers in traditional film production and digital medias.

For students in Forsyth County, Reynolds High School will be offering a new “Arts for Academics” program this fall that will teach animation. The three courses are:

Animation – to introduce students to the many types and techniques of animation
Introduction to Art / Foundations (Art One) – to provide an overview and emphasis on the elements and principles of art and design.
Electronic Media – to show students how the computer may be used as an art making tool through programs such as Photoshop, Illustrator and Flash.

Any student can learn about stop motion animation through websites like

Clay Animator that teaches about clay animation and stop motion animation. Students can learn about the art and science of creating, animating, and editing clay and stop motion animation projects. The website also demonstrates the stop motion animation techniques by using interactive tutorials, lessons, pictures and videos and the site offers a list of suggested animation software. Check it out the dancing figure at http://www.clayanimator.com/english/character_motion.html.

Images found at Clay Animator: http://www.clayanimator.com

Black History Month

2009-02-05T10:02:00.017-05:00

February is Black History Month and many teachers incorporate lessons and activities about Black History Month into their curriculums. So I thought this week I would provide a list of sites for teachers, students and parents. Some sites may be familiar and some sites may be new to you so enjoy browsing through this list of twenty sites.

.

Design a Postage Stamp
http://www.kid-at-art.com/htdoc/lesson43.html
Underground Railroad – National Geographic – interactive
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/railroad/
LearnNC
http://www.learnnc.org/search?area=&phrase=black+history+month
NC WiseOwl
http://www.ncwiseowl.org/
SAS in Schools – Curriculum Pathways
http://www.sascurriculumpathways.com/ProductEntrance/Login/login.jsp
A to Z Teacher Stuff
http://www.atozteacherstuff.com/Themes/Black_History/index.shtml
The Teacher’s Corner
http://www.theteacherscorner.net/seasonal/black-history-month/index.htm

Time Magazine for Kids
http://www.timeforkids.com/TFK/bhm/
History Channel
http://www.history.com/minisites/blackhistory/
Hot Chalk’s Lesson Plan page
http://www.lessonplanspage.com/BlackHistoryMonth.htm
Education World
http://www.educationworld.com/a_lesson/lesson221.shtml
Yahoo Kids!
http://kids.yahoo.com/directory/Around-the-World/Countries/United-States/Cultures-and-Traditions/African-American/History
Scholastic Teacher Resources
http://www2.scholastic.com/browse/search?query=black+history+month
Teacher Planet
http://www.teacherplanet.com/resource/blackhistory.php

Discovery Education Classroom Resources
http://www.sites4teachers.com/links/redirect.php?url=http://school.discovery.com/clipart/clip/mlk.html
CNNiN – Interactive
http://www.cnn.com/EVENTS/black_history/index.html
Sue LeBeau
http://www.suelebeau.com/blackhistory.htm
Biography.com
http://www.biography.com/blackhistory/
NBC News - iCue.com
http://www.icue.com/portal/site/iCue/welcomepage
PBS Teachers
http://www.pbs.org/teachers/search/results.html?q=slavery&num=100

Images for this blog were found at the following sites:
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j4/cnrward/Ethnic/BlackHistoryCollage.jpg
http://www.isoe-online.com/blackHistoryCollage.gif
http://www.hull.ac.uk/wise/Activities/outreach/black_history_month/black_history_month_stamps.jpg

Retooling Schools to Meet 21st Century Education

2009-02-02T16:14:00.007-05:00

In September a report was published about Retooling Instruction or US schools will fail. The report basically stated that for the US to be globally competitive, attract industries and create jobs, schools in the US needed to recognize that 21st century skills were critical to the workplace. Unfortunately while the global economy has been changing schools have been focusing on closing the achievement gap and not on the demand for advanced skills from students.

The 21st century skills needed is critical thinking and judgment, complex problem solving, creative thinking, collaboration and communication skills. With these skills students will be able to see a problem and find ways to solve problems, handle responsibility and contribute to productivity and innovation. Students K-12 need 21st century skills. To do this schools need to move beyond assessing science, reading, and math to including 21st century skills to better prepare citizens to work and compete in a 21st century economy.

How do schools ensure that students graduate with all of these skills? I looked to the Partnership for 21stCentury Skills for information. They have created a framework for 21st Century learning that outline the skills, knowledge and expertise that students should master to succeed at work and in life.

What some educators may not know is that in 2005 the governor of North Carolina launched the nation’s first Center for 21st Century Skills to improve North Carolina’s education system. Through North Carolina Virtual Public Schools students across the state can take online courses for high school credit. But what can teachers do in their classrooms today to better prepare students with 21st Century Skills to meet the needs and demands of a competitive global economy?

First teachers can learn more what their district and state are doing to increase the use of technology in the schools and teachers can read through the Framework for 21st Century Learning developed by the Partnership for 21st Century Skills.

Simply stated the 21st century skills are:

Accountability and Adaptability – set and expect students to meet high standards in the classroom and teach students to set standards and goals for themselves.
Communication Skills – students need to be able to read, write and understand multimedia communication in a variety of forms.
Creativity and Intellectual Curiosity – help students develop, implement and communicate new ideas to others, being open and responsive to other perspectives.
Critical Thinking and Systems Thinking – exercise sound reasoning and understanding with your students to make complex choices, and help students understand the interconnections among systems.
Information and Media Literacy Skills – help students to analyze, access, manage, integrate, evaluate and create information in a variety of forms and media.
Interpersonal and Collaborative Skills – help students develop teamwork and leadership skills, helping them adapt to various roles and responsibilities. Students need to learn how to work productively with others, respecting diverse perspectives.
Problem Identification, Formulation and Solution – teach students how to frame, analyze and solve problems.
Self-Direction – help students learn how to monitor their understanding and learning needs, locating resources, and transferring learning from one domain to another.
Social Responsibility – help students to act responsibly keeping in mind the community at large, to demonstrate ethical behavior in personal and school contexts.

How many of these skills could be targeted in your classroom? Students learn more and retain better what they have learned when they are actively engaged in the learning process. We all need to work together to find ways to incorporate these 21st century skills in our classrooms everyday.

Bloom’s Digital Taxonomy

2009-01-30T15:03:00.009-05:00

Most educators have heard of Bloom’s Taxonomy and how he proposed that learning fit into one of three psychological domains – cognitive, affective and psychomotor.
Bloom’s Taxonomy moves from lower order thinking skills to high order thinking skills. The original taxonomy categories were:

Knowledge
Comprehension
Application
Analysis
Synthesis
Evaluation

Then in 2001 a revised taxonomy was developed by Lorin Anderson and D Krathwohl which listed the categories as:

Remembering
Understanding
Applying
Analyzing
Evaluating
Creating

Recently I found an article about Bloom’s Taxonomy in the digital world from an educator named Andrew Churches. Briefly outlined, this is how Andrew sees teachers using technology with the revised taxonomy in the digital world.

Remembering – retrieval of information
Digital World – bulleting to mark key words, bookmark websites, social bookmarking or Googling

Understanding – interpreting, summarizing, paraphrasing, comparing
Digital World – refining basic searches, Blog journaling, Twittering, categorizing, commenting / annotating files

Applying – implementing using information and executing tasks
Digital World – initiating a program, operating / manipulating hardware and applications, gaming technology, uploading and sharing of materials on sites such as Flickr, editing Twitters or blog journals

Analyzing – comparing, organizing, structuring and integrating
Digital World – mash ups (several data sources melded into single usable information), links within documents and webpages, validating information found on the web, making judgments about found information, tagging, meta-tagging

Evaluating – hypothesizing, critiquing, experimenting, judging, testing and monitoring
Digital World – blog commenting and reflecting, posting threaded discussions, moderating blogs, effective collaboration that involves evaluating the strengths and abilities of participants, evaluating the contributions other make, testing is a key component: analyze the purpose of a tool or process, analyze and evaluate data sources and make judgments

Creating – designing, constructing, planning, producing, inventing, devising and making
Digital World – Programming, filming, animating, videocasting, podcasting, mixing and remixing to create unique products, directing and producing, publishing, video blogging and building, compiling mash ups and at the highest level creating a program application or developing a game

This is an excellent article to assist teachers as they implement these digital tools into their curriculums. Included in Andrew Churches’ article are more detailed examples for each category and scoring rubrics.

Check out these links:
Bloom’s Revised Taxonomy - http://coe.sdsu.edu/eet/Articles/bloomrev/index.htm
Bloom’s Taxonomy and the Digital World - http://www.openeducation.net/2008/04/11/blooms-taxonomy-and-the-digital-world/
Bloom’s Digital Taxonomy (PDF) http://edorigami.wikispaces.com/file/view/bloom%27s+Digital+taxonomy+v2.12.pdf

10 Ways to Boost Learning

2009-01-30T14:54:00.009-05:00

In my last blog I wrote about the seven skills that students desperately need by the time they graduate from high school. I also wrote about employers who need employees who can think and be able to see a problem and come up with a way to fix that problem. We as educators need to teach 21st century skills to students finding ways to assess those skills through performance measures. We need to find ways to teach today’s multi-tasking students who need visual stimulation and constant contact with their friends. But knowing that we need to be reaching out to our students in a more creative, productive way using technology is not enough. How do teachers and schools do this?

I’ll start by listing those seven survival skills again:
1. Problem-solving and critical thinking
2. Collaboration across networks and leading by influence
3. Agility and adaptability
4. Initiative and entrepreneurship
5. Effective written and oral communication
6. Accessing and analyzing information
7. Curiosity and imagination

As I thought about those survival skills I began to think about what part of those skills some students may already possess and how we could build from what students already know. Let’s see, problem-solving – OK if you can’t set up your new cell phone and are tired of reading the manual just give it to one of your students. They will set up your cell phone in 10 minutes flat. How’d they do that? They are not afraid of technology, they are not afraid of trying different things and they will sit and work on something until they figure it out. Problem-solving, simple right? Yea, right. It was easy for them. So students do possess some problem-solving skills. How can we build on that tenacity to help students refine and expand their problem-solving skills?

Collaborating across networks – do students collaborate? You bet, everyday. They work together building Facebook and My Space sites, they form bonds of friendship from texting their many friends everyday and join forces as a team for many of their video games. I continue to read about companies that are using video games for educational purposes. Can we as educators build on the collaborative skills our students already possess? Sure we can.

I don’t need to go through the rest of the list because by now you’re thinking about the students you work with everyday and seeing the skills they already possess. This led me to an article that outlined 10 ways to boost learning with technology. No one would disagree that we have a crisis in education today. In spite of the resources and money used for education students continue to fall behind students in other countries.

The State Educational Technology Directors Association (SETDA) came up with an action plan with ten recommendations for national, state and local education leaders:

Ensure that technology tools and resources are used continuously and seamlessly for instruction, collaboration, and assessment.
Expose all students (pre-K through 12th grade) to STEM fields and careers - Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM).
Make ongoing, sustainable professional development available to all teachers.
Use virtual learning opportunities for teachers to further their professional development, such as through online communities and education portals.
Incorporate innovative, consistent, and timely assessments into daily instruction.
Strengthen the home-school connection by using technology to communicate with parents on student progress.
Provide the necessary resources so that every community has the infrastructure to support learning with technology, including assessments and virtual learning.
Obtain societal support for education that uses technology from all stakeholders – students, parents, teachers, state and district administrators, business leaders, legislators, and local community members.
Provide federal leadership to support states and districts regarding technology’s role in school reform by passing the ATTAIN Act, the Achievement Through Technology and Innovation Act.
Increase available funding for the e-Rate so that schools can acquire telecommunication services, internet access, internal connections, and maintenance of those connections.

This is a comprehensive list that covers what all school systems, communities and districts should be doing. As I think about what our school system is doing in technology I know we are ahead of other school systems in the state with our use of technology. How does your school compare to other schools in the district where you live? Across your state? Can we do more with the technology resources we currently have? I think so and it’s up to all of us to learn new technology skills and strive to teach the content while reaching out to our students in a more creative, productive way using technology and helping all students gain 21st century skills.

Seven Skills Students Desperately Need

2009-01-30T14:52:00.003-05:00

Recently eSchoolNews had an article by Tony Wagner about the seven skills that students desperately need to acquire before graduating high school. Several groups have been offering advice as to how federal policy makers and state and local education leaders can transform education and help students obtain 21st century skills through technology.

One misconception is the fact that a lot of people think the skills that students need for the workforce and the skills needed to be good citizens are two separate things, but they’re not. Students who become successful in the global workforce will also be successful people at life. Employers want people who can ask good questions and people who can engage others in thoughtful conversations.

Employers know that technology changes so fast that they are not concerned if their employees know the latest version of software when hired, they want employees who know how to think. Teaching to the test is not helping the future workforce achieve success in the job market. The future workforce needs to be able to see a problem and come up with a way to fix the problem and not wait for the employer to tell them how to fix a problem. If students are not taught how to think beyond multiple choice answers and to find solutions to problems then the future employees for America will not be able to compete with the global market.

Many teachers who feel pressured to cover a lot of material to teach to the tests are not allowing students the time needed to search and work through problems, finding the answers on their own. The pressure is to cover “x” amount of material in so many days and prepare the students to take a standardized test. Many students today who graduate high school don’t have the skills to make it in college or the workforce.

The article states that education needs to move from content standards to performance standards and that education stakeholders need to think of ways to start assessing 21st-century skills. I think teachers need to teach the content and allow students to show what they have learned through performance standards. We need to design assessments that measure the performance and 21st century skills of the students. Many students who are bright are being turned off from AP classes and other accelerated programs because of all the testing. Students should be encouraged to study subjects they love but many times the subjects they love require too much testing which turns them away from the more challenging courses.

Today’s students are multi-taskers, who like visually stimulating websites, who want to be in constant contact with their friends who also use Web 2.0 tools and they enjoy working in collaboration with their peers. What we as educators need to do is find a way to motivate them to learn using Web 2.0 tools and the technology already provided by the school or through the technology the students use every day. Just going to the computer lab to type up a paper is not using technology. We need to teach our content while reaching out to our students in a more creative, productive way using the technology the students are using.

Here are the seven survival skills that students need by the time they graduate from high school:
1. Problem-solving and critical thinking
2. Collaboration across networks and leading by influence
3. Agility and adaptability
4. Initiative and entrepreneurship
5. Effective written and oral communication
6. Accessing and analyzing information
7. Curiosity and imagination

I agree with Tom Wagner’s quote from the article –
“We are making [Adequate Yearly Progress] at the expense of failing our kids at life. Something has to change.”

Website to access the complete article –
http://www.eschoolnews.com/news/top-news/?i=56127

What is the River City Project?

2009-01-30T14:44:00.009-05:00

River City is an interactive computer simulation for middle grades science students to assist them in learning scientific inquiry and 21st century skills. River City looks like a videogame but the content for the game was developed from the National Science Education Standards and the National Educational Technology Standards. River City is funded by the National Science Foundation.
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Basically River City is a MUVE (Multi-User Virtual Environment) that enables many students to access the virtual worlds simultaneously, communicate with other students through instant messaging and to interact with digital artifacts.

This is a view of the four areas of the interface for the students taken from the River City website:

Students travel back in time to address 19th century problems that are based on historical, sociological and geographical conditions in a town called River City. The city’s citizens are falling ill and the students must work together to help the town understand why the citizens are becoming ill. Students work in small research teams to look for causes of the illnesses, form and test hypotheses, develop controlled experiments to test their hypotheses, and then make recommendations based on the data they collect. This is all done in an online environment.

The River City Project is supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation which provides access to the simulation, provides the curricular materials, professional development and assistance free of charge to the schools. The River City Project mainly works with middle grades science teachers but they have also worked with social studies, math and language arts teachers.

River City is a 17-hour curriculum that students will begin by taking a pretest and a research conference at the end of the unit. The curriculum is designed to replace existing science lessons. The curriculum is interdisciplinary covering ecology, health, biology, chemistry, earth science and history. Students will explore three diseases and learn how the diseases are spread and how the human interactions will the diseases affect the people and city. Students are given situations to identify problems, investigate the problem, and determine the multiple underlying causes for the diseases. Screen shot from River City.

How do teachers determine if River City is right for their students? Check out the section on “Is River City Right for You?”

Also several videos have been created to help teachers better understand River City. The videos may be viewed in Quicktime or Realplayer. Here is the link to the River City videos: http://muve.gse.harvard.edu/rivercityproject/view/rc_videos.html

Images for this blog were found at:
http://muve.gse.harvard.edu/rivercityproject/index.html
http://muve.gse.harvard.edu/rivercityproject/view/rc_views_interface.htm
http://muve.gse.harvard.edu/rivercityproject/join/right_for_you.htm

Desktop Widgets

2009-01-30T13:55:00.010-05:00

A couple weeks ago I posted a blog about Kettering University and two items the instructors used with their students were of interest to me – Widgets and River City. I was not familiar with desktop widgets so I decided to learn more about desktop Widgets and share the information in this blog.

A desktop Widget is a stand-alone, task-oriented application with a web browser running the applications. The purpose of the desktop Widget is to provide services to the user with the user choosing what to place in the Widget.

There are quite a few Widgets to choose from:

Dashboard Widgets from Apple Macintosh
Microsoft Gadgets in Windows Vista and in Windows Live system
gDesklets, Adesklets, and Screenlets for Linux systems
Google Web Toolkit
Yahoo! Widgets
Klips in Klipfolio
Opera Widgets - will need to download the Opera Browser
Mobile widgets such as webwag, Zumobi, Mywidz, Plusmo, and Widsets
Adobe AIR

There are other types of widgets which can be easily found by searching on the Internet but which Widget is right for you? Basically Widgets are small bundles of software that let users choose graphics and information that sits on the desktop of the computer or a mobile phone. The more you search on the internet the more Widget sites you will find.

I downloaded the Yahoo Widgets and added a few widgets. I chose iTunes Remote, Nu Jongg and Calvin & Hobbs Fetcher. When I selected the iTunes Remote icon it opened iTunes on my computer and the Mini Player appeared because the last setting I had for iTunes was the Mini Player. Without the Mini Player previously selected iTunes Remote will open the iTunes program on your computer. From the main iTunes program you can select a particular CD or make certain settings and then minimize the iTunes program and use the iTunes Remote icon. The iTunes Remote icon is on the left and the Mini Player icon is on the right. The main difference between the two is the ability to open the program from the Mini Player to choose CDs and/or settings which cannot be done with the iTunes Remote.

The Yahoo Widget can sit on the desktop with all icons showing or collapsed down to one Widget and there is an option to hide the Widget. When the Widget is hidden one can easily scroll over the edge of the hidden Widget and it will appear again to easily select an item. Once an item is selected the Widget will again be hidden. I find that to be a nice feature. That way the Widget isn’t covering up any other icons on the desktop screen. Another feature I found nice was the ability to shade the desktop for better viewing of a particular Widget.

Collapsed Widget with one icon showing

Partial view of the opened Widget

I know that I have only scratched the surface for all the uses and capabilities of Widgets so to help in your research of widgets I have hyperlinked the Widgets listed above.

SMART Table

2009-01-30T13:48:00.007-05:00

Coming Soon – The Smart Table Interactive Learning Center

The table is designed for students pre-school thru sixth grade. Students can create, explore and have collaborative hands-on activities. The table is a multiuser, multitouch table that enables small group learning and collaboration. Students can move from whole class interactive activities on the whiteboard to small group activities at the table. Up to six students can touch the screen at the same time and the activities are designed to encourage collaboration. Students can select or move objects, draw and/or write on the screen simultaneously. The SMART Table uses Digital Vision Touch technology which enables the multiuser and multitouch capabilities.

Teachers can choose from a wide-variety of ready-made lesson activities or they can customize the activities to suit their lessons. Educators who are interested in developing multimedia content for the SMART Table can become a non-commercial member with free access to SMART development tools to create content for the SMART Board products. Free Membership

The table contains a customized PC and projection system that is turned on with a single button. There is a built in 27” screen that can read simultaneous input from an unlimited number of fingers or pen tools. The table measures 29” wide and 25” high and comes with a standard set of interactive learning applications, interactive lesson activities and educational games. The table will also support the SMART Notebook software through the SMART Table toolkit that runs on the teacher’s computer. Through the toolkit teachers can create and/or customize lesson activities and then load the content to the table using a USB key.

Some of the features:

Audio Support
Object scaling support and object rotation support
Wide range of images and backgrounds to make activities more engaging
Precise touch control
No calibration – ready to use out of the box

SMART Table video on TeacherTube
The table will be available in spring 2009 (sometime January – March). The table cost $8,000 and will be available to order in December 2008. To learn more about the SMART Table go to the SMART website – SMART Table.

Kettering Professional Cooperative Education Program

2009-01-30T13:43:00.006-05:00

Kettering University provides an education for Generation M – the multi-tasker, media, multi-modal, multi-nodal student. Kettering offers a co-op academic program for grades 8th - 11th, thirteen science, business and engineering majors and a graduate program. The programs offer a range of opportunities for students interested in going into a Science, Technology, Engineering or Math field. To apply student must have completed Algebra I and II, Geometry, one semester of Trigonometry, two lab sciences (one must be Physics or Chemistry), three years of English, and Calculus or Pre-Calculus. AP and IB coursework are also accepted.

Students must complete a core curriculum consisting of history, social science, English and literature. All courses require students to practice their written and oral communication skills. Students must take their core courses throughout each year helping to expand the student’s cognitive abilities and experiences. Students will learn about communication, ethics, leadership and social organization through their work experience. The final core course entitled Senior Seminar: Leadership, Ethics and Contemporary Issues engage students to discuss the core issues of leadership and ethics while drawing from their academic and work experience.

Because students need variety in their education many tools are used in the courses:

Simulations
Social Bookmarking (Delicious)
BigThink.com
National Geographic
YouTube
Edhead.org (medical simulations)
Education Arcade
Immune Attack (for Biology)
Widgets
River City

There are three main goals for the Cooperative Education Program

To develop a strong and positive correlation between a student's academic program at the school and the educational experience with his or her employer;
To provide educational experiences that orient and integrate the student into a productive professional role at the employer organization; and
To develop positive work-related habits and characteristics in a student.

Students may take courses through Distance Learning opportunities or at one of 130 Learning Centers in North America, Europe and Asia. Students have contact with their professors through telephone, voice-mail, e-mail, fax, Internet bulletin boards and chat rooms. All instructors have office hours.

Kettering University serves as a liaison between the employer, the student and the University. Kettering will identify student candidates, suggest students for co-op positions and facilitate the interview arrangements between the student and the employer. Kettering University also works with the employers concerning appropriate co-op wages and benefits for the students and counsels the students on career goals helping to match the student’s skills with the employer’s needs. Kettering University continues to work with the student and the employer to develop work plans for the student upon graduation so when a student graduates he/she already has a job that they are trained to do.

During the senior year students do a Senior Thesis Project where two co-op work terms are dedicated to completing a major project for the employer. The student and the employer identify a company-oriented problem and the Kettering faculty advisor approved the project. The student may focus the project on a product or a system of the company. When the thesis project is completed the report is evaluated by the employer and the Kettering faculty advisor. Once the thesis is approved, it is bound and sent to the employer. The student has an integrative experience that combines the University curriculum and work experience into a real world professional project for the employer. Upon graduation the employer has a well-trained, dedicated employee with the knowledge to complete the project for the employer.

Kettering University has been ranked one of the top five colleges for Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering (IME) and continues to be ranked in the Top Twenty in the nation according to the 2009 edition of "America's Best Colleges Guide” as one of America’s premier technological colleges. Many Kettering graduates are admitted into top graduate schools such as Harvard, MIT and Stanford.

For students interested in working in a specific career area while attending college there are many co-op programs available throughout the United States. To learn more about Kettering University go to the Kettering University website: http://www.kettering.edu/

Ambient-Learning.com Project

2009-01-30T13:36:00.008-05:00

What if you could learn anything, anytime and anywhere? How about being provided information tailored to your interest and needs? What would be the business potential of context-sensitive information being provided to the consumer?

Many people recognize the personal and social benefits of lifelong learning but because of family commitments and lack of time very few people pursue lifelong learning. The Ambient-Learning Project looked at those obstacles to lifelong learning and decided their main objective would be to provide easy-to-use eLearning services providing people anytime, anywhere access that was personalized with high quality learning content. In order to validate the marketability of the Ambient Learning service four European regions were chosen – Italy, Germany, Greece and the UK.

Here is a basic outline of the project taken from the Ambient-Learning Project: http://www.ambientlearning.net/ambient/download/Files/AMBIENT_LEARNING_FINAL_REPORT.pdf
Users created a profile and chose areas of interests centered on their work or areas of interests. Any information available that pertained to those interests was made available to the user. Here’s an example – the user is in their office reading a document but doesn’t have time to finish, the user can request an audio version of that document. The user can then access the audio version of that document through a Smartphone, MP3-compatible device or mobile phone and continue the document as they are driving or moving about. Upon returning to the office the user will again access the document online and can now add notes to the document.

This is just a basic overview of the project and the possibilities for eLearning and lifelong learning for adults. At the end of the project users were given a questionnaire and one of the responses was: “E-Learning is the wrong term to sell the system . . . Personalized Management Information System is better.”

As the content and delivery of education changes I found myself thinking about all the possibilities and ways students will be learning in the future. Personalized Education for all students, all interests and all needs – provided anytime, anywhere, in written, visual and audio formats - is this possible? As I do an online search for 21st Century Learning, technology in education, eSchool News online, George Lucas Educational Foundation (Edutopia) or E-Learning for kids and many other sites I find some of the possibilities for how students are learning now and will be learning in the future. I think it’s an exciting time in technology and education and I’m glad to be a part of this future for all students and education.

To read more about the Ambient-Learning Project to see how the future of information can be tailored and personalized check out their site: http://www.ambientlearning.net/ambient/.

Wisconsin eSchool Network

2009-01-30T13:33:00.004-05:00

“Just in Time” Professional Development Model

During the Virtual School Symposium in Phoenix, Arizona Wisconsin eSchool Network provided a session on designing professional development that provided learning opportunities that would engage an educator’s creative and reflective capacities in ways that would strengthen their teaching practice by changing the way teachers think and teach.

Some of the tools mentioned for collaboration were Elluminate Live!, Basecamp, and Google Docs.

Elluminate Live! allows a user to have conversations over the Internet that supports a multiple platforms and low-bandwidth connectivity providing real-time online interaction and collaboration.
Basecamp is a client project management tool that keeps information centralized from an easy accessible location for everyone involved in a particular project.
Google Docs is a free, web-based word processor, spreadsheet, presentations and form application offered by Google. Users can create and edit document online while collaborating in real-time with other users. Documents can be shared, opened and edited by multiple users at the same time.

One of the tools for authoring mentioned was Lectora.

Lectora – authoring software available for creating and delivering interactive multimedia content such as web-based courses.

The Wisconsin eSchool Network provides online, face-2-face and hybrid workshops with interactivity that are lightly facilitated, independent study opportunities for teacher. The Just in Time model was designed by Wisconsin to further meet the needs of staff development to prepare teachers to teach online courses.