EdTech Avenue

Great article from THE Journal online – free publication for educators!
http://thejournal.com/articles/2010/01/20/14-technologies-educators-should-watch-in-2010.aspx

FANTASTIC short blogposting about skills vs tools – FANTASTIC graphic there, too!
http://www.techlearning.com/blogs/26916

I am looking into setting up an RSS feed. Can anyone give me any tips?

notes from a short workshop earlier this week. Some tools I did not know about, but will be utilizing some. Anyone out there using interactive whiteboards? If so, what do you recommend for a school if they have opportunity to purchase one. Should it go to an empty room and have teachers come to it, go in a lucky teacher room, or lastly, the computer lab?

this workshop: demonstrate technology to aid and encourage collaboration with colleagues and students, and to try out the learner response systems and other solutions-oriented interactive white board products from FirstTech. South Central Service Cooperative http://www.mnscsc.org/ November 16, 2009
Presenters:

Mary Hillmann, mhillmann@mnscsc.org

Pat Branstad, pbranstad@mnscsc.org

&

FirstTech- http://www.firsttech.com/ – Promethean whiteboard, demo- John Hyde

What: Doodle

Where: http://www.doodle.com/

Why: online scheduling (meetings), make choices

Other: only the creator needs to have a doodle acct. Easy to set up.

What: eFolio

Where: http://www.efoliominnesota.com/

Why: free

Other: changing to version 2.

What: Google Docs

Where: www.google.com

Why: create, edit, share online. FREE

Other; Anyplace anywhere. Great help

What: WikiSpaces

Where: www.wikispaces.com

Why: communicate, collaborate

Other: great example http://edorigami.wikispaces.com/

What: social bookmarking

Where: http://delicious.com/

Why: cause you can’t always remember your bookmarks, or take them with you.

Other: I don’t utilize this feature to its advantage – still have way too many bookmarks.

What: Flickr

Where: www.flickr.com/

Why: online sharing of photos.

Other:

What: Screencast-o-matic

Where: http://www.screencast-o-matic.com/

Why: FREE, small video file size

Other: this is a GREAT, FREE screen capture tool. When you need to make a QUICK tutorial. No user acct needed.

What: Jing

Where: http://www.jingproject.com/

Why: screen capture/video, free

Other: need user acct. Have not explored this yet.

What: Thinkfinity

Where: http://www.thinkfinity.org/

Why: lesson plans, educational resources

Other:

What: Children’s Digital Library

Where: http://en.childrenslibrary.org/

Why: free online access to digital library of outstanding children’s book from around the world; promote toerance and understanding of cultural differences, provide all children with access to literature in their mother tongue.

Other: free

What: Wordle

Where: http://www.wordle.net/

Why: visually display what you are REALLY saying.

Other: your words take shape. Use with an interactive whiteboard – such as kindergarteners being able to find words from their word wall and move.

What: Blabberize

Where: http://blabberize.com/

Why:

Other: ok, don’t understand purpose of this one…even though have seen before….

Guidelines for what is required of teachers / parents / website owners in the age of COPPA.

http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/consumer/tech/tec10.pdf

This looks pretty cool!

This wiki is designed to be a repository for lessons and other resources. It’s a little like what we tried to do with our curriculum.

http://eduwikius.wikispaces.com/

Howdy,

We’re doing a little more with wikis, but not all teachers know quite how to work with them to get the most out of students.  This article is helpful.

http://thejournal.com/Articles/2009/10/07/More-Challenges-with-Wikis-4-Ways-To-Move-Students-from-Passive-to-Active.aspx?Page=3&p=1

Presenters are using a student response system first to poll the audience.  This is engaging the audience and keeping attention focused while also transfering content information.  Hmmm… what we should be doing in our classrooms?  Yes!!  Resources and more information at http://conferenceconnection2009.edublogs.org/.

These are NETS (standards) for Teachers.  Refer to the ISTE website for more information. These standards are broken into 4 stages in the rubric scale: Beginning > Developing > Proficient > Transformative.

Standard 1: Facilitate and Inspire Student Learning and Creativity; Performance Indicator A: promote, support and model creative and innovative thinking and inventiveness.  In this example, a teacher is at this beginning level of this standard and show us a tool that will move them to the developing level.

Showing Blabberize – where you can take a photo of the person or animal (or anything), set where the mouth is, and make it “talk” with your voice!

Standard 2: Design and Develop Digital-Age Learning Experiences and Assessments; Performance Indicator C: customize and personalize learning activities to address students’ diverse learning styles, working strategies, and abilities using digital tools and resources. Teacher at the developing stage can move to the Proficient stage (facilitate learning, use specific strategies).

Showing their blog at edublogs.org, tour of WordPress blog.

Standard 4: Promote and Model Digital Citizenship and Responsibility; Performance Indicator B: address the diverse needs of all learners by using learner-centered strategies providing equitable access to appropriate digital tools and resources.

Showing the free tool “voki” (available from their website above).  Chose a character (or import a picture) and background, give it a voice by text-to-voice, record using a microphone, call in, or upload an mp3. Kids can communicate what they know very quickly and easily.

Standard 3: Model Digital-Age Work and Learning; Performance Indicator A: demonstrate fluency in technology systems and the transfer of current knowledge to new technologies and situations. Teacher moving from beginning to developing stage (plan, manage and facilitate).

Showing Wikispaces for Educators.

The are going WAY too fast.

Standard 5: Engage in Professional Growth and Leadership; Performance Indicator D: contribute to the effectiveness, vitality, and self-renewal of the teaching profession and of their school and community. Teacher can move from developing stage to proficient (actively contribute, sharing promising practices).

Showing Elluminate. One online virtual classroom, discussion board, whiteboard, document sharing, audio/video, and more. Free for up to three people at a time. We can extend our community and our learning.

Back to Standard 3: Model Digital-Age Work and Learning; Performance Indicator B: collaborate with students, peers, parents, and community members using digital tools and resources to support student success and innovation.

Move from beginning stage… Edublogs are good for beginning stage. Add Blabberize to that, making it interactive, and you are moving to the developing stage. Add to that the voki element, allowing for even more customization and creativity moves to the proficient stage. Blabberize is not as interactive – voki allows for comments on the element while Blabberize has to be embedded in a comment-friendly place. Move to transformative by putting that all into an Elluminate classroom with kids collaborating together across time and space, even just showing one classroom’s work to another.

They are talking now about the “Awareness Scale.”  I’m not sure from this if it’s something that is available through ISTE on the rubric scale or if it’s something they’ve come up with.  It is being described as where to start with teachers who are not yet in the “active” phase of the standards put forth by ISTE.  These are discussions that should be happening with teachers who are not yet even to the beginning stages of integrating technology in a meaningful way.  There is a good slide in their preso that shows this scale as it compares to the NETS scale.  The presenter is willing to answer questions via email, available on the link above.

Karen is the Technology Coordinator at a school the same size as mine – 320 students.  Tux Paint is an Open Source software package – completely free.

“It’s not about the Tech, it’s about the Teach.”

Over 80 languages available – can be changed easily in the configuration for students needing alternate languages.

It’s a paint program, so images once placed can not be moved or manipulated – only erased.

Great selection of stamps, shapes, colors and variations of all – much like KidPix but free.

http://nets4students.wetpaint.com/ is Karen’s website.  She is a participant in the Johns Hopkins University certificate program mentioned in my earlier post about new NETS and resources.

Templates can be created and shared over a network.

Karen has a Wiki on her site also, with some basic instructions and tips.

Students are sometimes confused when they see the text (Aa) tool and look for the rest of the letters. Karen teaches them that it means you are using the Alphabet and will need to use the keyboard.

Base file type for Tux Paint “Starter” (template) is PNG.  Templates need to be saved as a PNG and make it transparent.  There’s a free program on her Wiki you can use for that.  GiMP can also be used.  Files are also saved as a PNG from TuxPaint to be used outside of the program and inserted, etc.

A separate page off of Karen’s wiki has curriculum ideas – too many to list here!

Simple clicking creates a slideshow of any selected TuxPaint images… wow!  This could be used for very simple animations with older students.

Hiding at the right of the color palette is a link to the wider array of colors.

Fill “bucket” is under the Magic tools.

This was a terrific session!

I chose this session for more personal than professional reasons.  I do read Wes Fryer’s blog fairly regularly and have an interest in how he has included his children in his learning and sharing community throughout his professional blog and now this “family learning blog,” and I wanted to learn more.

Supporting handouts at http://handouts.wesfryer.com/familylearningblog.

Ok, this is already right up my alley, and the session hasn’t even started yet!  Wes is on a video chat with his daughter Sarah, who is staying with her grandparents.  She will participate in the presentation today.

Wes is using free resource “Poll Everywhere” to take a poll of the use of blogs in schools of the attendees.  http://poll4.com

Showing picture of the fmaily together in a room – almost everyone is on a computer or device of some kind – looks a lot like what happens at my house.  Because they are so connected, it allows them to be more connected as a family as well.  “Nokia: Go Play – 4th Screen” video (YouTube).

Free website called “Contxts” used to distribute contact information, links, etc.

It’s about internet safety – we have to prepare kids for the unfiltered world wide web.  Screen time and other issues are constantly changing with technology.  These screens can connect us.  His kids are reading and watching movies on their mobile devices instead of our “traditional” methods of delivery.

Sarah is now introducing herself and telling us about her activities.  She likes gymnastics and likes to swim; she is going into 4th grade.  She started a show on the internet – an international cooking show (separate Wiki page as well as on the blog AND edublogs.tv)!  The last episode was on banana bread.  She was inspired to be a chef by her mom and grandmother cook (and dad).  She also learned about cooking on TV.  She wanted to do that – put the steps in order and show it.  They recorded it and she edited in iMovie.  She logs into their blog on her own and can add pictures “and stuff.”  She wrote about gymnastics, a poll and a SMARTboard picture this month.  She doesn’t write on her own every week, but Wes encourages her to…

What: http://fur.ly/1rj (free site to shorten multiple URLs into one) to show various posts on the blog.

• Post 1: Daughter is reading what she wrote as an “audioBoo.”  Can map your location – brings up issue of security and privacy – know what you are publishing.
• Post 2: Essay written for school now shared with family.  Evidence of learning and profile item for end of 5th grade.
• Post 3: Sarah’s cooking show post.  She’s used skills like creating music for the background in Garage Band and iMovie to edit and make some steps go at a faster speed.
• Post 4: Teachable moments come up – this one was a comment that was actually spam – teaching a child about why that comment might be dangerous.  The web address in the comment did not resolve, and the IP address of the person’s IP address.
• Post 5: Video from their trip to the medieval festival just after his daughter’s first ride on a camel – value of catching this excitement in the moment instead of later after it’s subsided.
• Post 6: Mother’s Day podcasts.  We need personal connections to technology use before we can get to the higher learning of integration.  He went into his 3rd grader’s class and asked 10 questions of the students, and posted the digitally recorded, no-edit, podcasts.  Inflection, enthusiasm and energy can’t be captured in a hand-written card, no matter how cute.
• Post 7: Talking about the Chilean Pudu at the zoo.
• Post 8: Webspiration character map of Jackie Kennedy Onassis by Sarah.
• Post 9: Book review by Wes’s son.  No hang-ups about mis-spellings, etc., just get them writing. (That would be hard for me.)
• Post 10: A drawing by Wes’s daughter – digital photos of the drawing.  Archives their work, could even add audio.
• Post 11: Podcast (with script transcript) about the glory of being the “snack leader” in preschool.  This is a kind of a spoof, but adorable!  He shared this with the teacher (an opportunity to show them the usefulness and ease of creating and sharing of audio).
• Post 12: Some posts are assignments – 12 ideas shared here.
• Post 13: Book podcast via Ustream by another family (Dawn Decker).  Opportunity to see what they saw (the video), and he was able to see comments from others and changed his understanding of what his learning is and how it affects others.

Edify these kids in their own interests and passions.  It’s fun!  These grandparents have a bigger and clearer window into the lives of their grandchildren.

What do they use?  What can you use?

• WordPress or Blogger
• AudioBoo
• GEOgraffiti (create a story that goes with a place) “Voice Mark the World”
• Plugins are listed on his website (Twitter Tools will post to Twitter when posting to the blog)

Here’s the wave, will you surf, swim or block the waves?  Swimming is dangerous because dangerous things can happen.  But how did you learn to swim?  Did a teacher tell you how or did you get in the pool to learn?  There are life jackets, lifeguards, rules, boundaries… just like out on the web.  Discuss and teach through USING these tools with your children.  You can moderate and block or allow and teach… or anything in between.