EdTech Avenue

Our first technology standards writing session was a success!  We had 14 participants and got quite a bit accomplished.  Below are links to what we have put together so far (still in early stages).  We started with the ISTE NETS for Students 2007 version and put the ISTE student profiles in what we felt were more realistic and simple terms.  We have also started to compile resources for various activities that fit different standards.  We broke into three grade-level groups: K-2, 3-5, 6-8.  Unfortunately, we didn’t have any representatives at the high school level.  THANK YOU to all those who attended and worked so hard, and thank you to Mary Kane for your support.

Grades K-2

Grades 3-5

Grades 6-8

We are planning on meeting again in place of our regular January tech meeting.  Watch your email or contact me for more information!

Thanks to the TIES conference my questions about eDiscovery have been cleared. If you have any info to add please comment.

What I found out: The eDiscovery laws were passed by the Supreme Court of the US in December 2006. This law states that all school districts need to have an archive of email and instant message (IM) conversations.  They left how long this information needs to be archived to the states. Minnesota requires email (with attachments) and IM conversations be kept for 3 years.To read about relevant information for eDiscovery laws go to: ediscoverylaw.com. To see a full PDF file on Minnesota’s laws go to Click Here.

Private Schools: You may be asking, we’re a private school do we still have to comply? Private schools were specifically addressed in the group discussion. It was stated that since private school teachers are still public officials the private school system would need to comply.

What to do? As a group there were a few ideas on what to do being discussed.
- The first option was to sit and wait. There were a few schools that are going to wait and see what happens to another school in an eDiscovery case. At this time there is little enforcement of the eDiscovery law. On top of that court cases involving the eDiscovery law are not wide spread.  They would then implement a solution based on a court ruling. This may not work for you if you’re the first eDiscovery case in Minnesota.
- The second option was to purchase an in-house message archiver. Message archivers can be purchased from most resellers (CDWG and Cadan Computers carry them). A Barracuda Archiver with 1 year of maintenance and updates will run you about $6,000. There are also software archivers that reside on your mail server. These options include the GFI mail archiver. The GFI mail archiver sells for about $2,000 and has a reoccurring annual maintenance fee.
- The final option was to use an online service to archive messages. Gaggle.net will archive messages off of many email systems (including Exchange server and gmail) for around $7 per email box. This covers the collection of new data and keeping it for 1 year. To keep emails for more than 1 year you will need to pay an extra $2 per box. As you can see Gaggle.net would be $7 for the 1st year, $9 for the 2nd, $11 for the 3rd year per email address. Rumor has it that gmail has an option to archive in it’s apps for education but I am not officially aware of anything.

An added bonus? This burden of having to archive emails may have an added bonus for it. You can look at it as having an added, real-time email backup system. If your email server crashes chances are good that you will have even your most recent emails saved in an archiver (with the exception of GFI’s archiver since it resides on the mail server). You can restore the lost email using your email archiver.

This 1/2 day training was VERY helpful to me. The 3 hours went past in 10 Minutes. If you ever get a chance to take her class DO IT!

http://anicholson.edublogs.org/ties-workshop/

Cool Tools!

http://garrisonsites.blogspot.com/

BLOG ON! SOCIAL NETWORKING IN AN ELEMENTARY CLASSROOM - Jay Monson

http://wiki.ties.k12.mn.us/073

Classroom Blogging - BlogMeister: Write On!  (Michael’s also used BlogMeister)

Commoncraft.com – Blogs, Wikis, Social Networking in Plain English (nice place to explain it all-especially to adults)

CLASSROOM BLOG

Student Requirements

-Used daily or multiple times a week w/students

-Usual writing process (pre-write, rough draft, edit, rewrite, publish)

-Writing sent to teacher for approval – same amount of time as paper/pencil

Starting out: Obtain teacher code from David Warlick to set up blog, Initial set-up time of 1/2 hr – can spend MUCH more time to set it up

CLASSROOM WIKI

Uses wikispaces.com /   http://monsonclassroom.wikispaces.com

Student Requirements

-Used monthly or more with students

-Use paper/pencil writing process

-Works w/6+1 Traits 

Teacher Requirements

Create an account; 30 minutes to set up; 15 minutes commitment to check weekly

Select responsible, tech savvy student to help!

Out Classroom Wiki monsonclassroom.wikispaces.com

-Different questions for world-wide audience

Our Classroom Bookmarks

Uses Delicious.com/monsonclassroom

Out Classroom Bookmarks: Jay Monson’s Bookmarks

Our Classroom Photos – http://flickr.com/photos/monsonclassroom

District policy: opt-out policy?

Uses iPhone to take classroom photos of working kids – uses it to wrap up a unit and use as a review     No identifiers other than the year, upload smallest size possible, lock down photos from being downloaded

Podcasting

*Weekly phenology observations w/John Latimer from KAXE radio

*Audio versions of kids’ writing

*Other audio-based learning opportunities from around the world

*Google Calendars-uses it for scope & sequence

*Library Thing.com  (online library of books they’re reading)

*Voice Thread

Flashy stuff and meaningful stuff out there

Obstacles

*CIPA Internet Filter

*Knowledge and Tech support

*Tech staff

*Computer access

Negatives of Social Networking: inappropriate use (give ownership and raises level of responsibility), inappropriate postings

Positives: global awareness, tech bluence, just a browser, increased appropriate use of social networking tools, mostly free!

Collaborates well w/ISTE NETS

Future of Social Networking

-Need to be able to communicate their creativity ideas & slutions

-Need to use it?

-Use it with or without us?!

Web 2.0 & Widgets http://wiki.ties.k12.mn.us/053

Ann Nicholson – Cedar Rapids, IA 

Blog Tools:  BlogMeister, Blogger, more

Wiki Tools: WetPaint, PBWiki, WikiSpaces

Social Networking & Tagging: Delicious, Diigo, Wordle

Presentations and Picture Sharing: Flidkr (Yahoo), Picasa Web (Google), Slideshare (upload PowerPoint, etc), VoiceThread, myPlick (search for Letter C!)

Collaborative Documents: Google Docs, Zoho-chat, Windows Live

Writeboard, My Webspiration-Inspiration online (Beta), Skrbl, Skype, Animoto - http://education.animoto.com/

Google Form – survey that goes right into Google spreadsheet

Use blog/wiki to pull together separate blog/wiki/collaboration tools!

Widgets: small html code – can imbed into Blog/Wiki, etc

Embedding Widgets: look for html code in Web2.0 tools that can be embedded 

ProProfs – create quizzes

Flickr-can annotate on top of photos

ThinkQuest   http://wiki.ties.k12.mn.us/030

Presenters from R-AV-E: Tony - Technology teacher@? STEM school , admins 120 students or so; Michelle – 5th gr teacher @ Diamond Path; admins 25 her own students

www.thinkquest.org sponsored by Oracle

Think.com and ThinkQuest are together – 2-3 days to register

-Need to demonstrate that you are an accredited school

Think.com levels – Administrator / Classroom teachers / students

It generates a uname/password handout to give kids directly

Can lock it down so outsiders can’t get in 

Can put in vacation settings – login warning is no one logsin over 14 days

Has a “Review content” function which will delete from the student’s page if you as Admin delete their content – requires student to review a quiz before getting into 

*An intro to appropriate way to use a social-networking site

Students are very careful about what they post-do NOT want to lose access

Sections on cyberbullying, netiquette, safety, etc

Students create their own page for just themselves

All other pages are academic!

Can upload files, multi-media, pictures, write text, IM-Admin&teachers can see EVERYTHING! Can delete, flag, etc.

Easy to upload photos – can add a question for a poll, can make a list a websites, can create a K/W/L chart, can create a project w/pages

If anyone is looking for a good spelling website check out spellingcity.com. Teachers who register for a free account at this website can pre-type and save word lists for their students. You can also access other word lists such as Christmas vocabulary etc. If you prefer students can type in their own word lists to use for a single session. The website is divided into 3 parts: learning the word, testing, and play games. The teachers at my school have also used this website to teach students vocabulary for subjects such as social studies and science. We have used it with students from grade one on up. The real hook is that the kids love doing it and don’t realize how much they are learning!