EdTech Avenue

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I am hopeful these will download for you. Let me know of success or failure. Should we have a new category of ’standards’?

I am feeling energized after yesterday’s meeting!

We have completed most of our Learnia tests now, save a few absent students. It actually went pretty well, if I had to give an overall opinion. But I’m starting this conversation about what could be done better and what tips and tricks others used to survive the sessions.

Overview
I made sure all student lab workstations were equipped with the proper add-ins/plug-ins needed for the testing, and I went through and enabled pop-ups for the student Learnia site ahead of time. We used Internet Explorer v.7 at Blessed Trinity.

I created cards for the students with their Site Code, Student ID/Username and Password. I used index cards and just pasted a regular mailing label on which I had printed the information using mail merge and a spreadsheet. The “test tickets” printed on the Learnia site are virtually useless - you really can’t use them more than once (even if you laminate them first, I learned last year), and they’re hard to store in those little strips. Each teacher got a set of student cards for each group they teach.

I also created a resource binder for each of my teachers. These binders contained:

• A list of their students with passwords,
• A copy of the instructions for tests they will administer,
• A full printed copy of the test (without answers), so they could make their own copies if giving the test in written form,
• Sample answer sheets to use if giving the test in written form, and
• Math reference sheets (for math teachers only).

This seemed to help them to know exactly what their responsibility was as test administrators and keeps all of their information in one place. My plan is collect the binders at the end of the year so they can be updated if necessary for next year’s teachers.

Scheduling the tests wasn’t nearly the hassle I expected. I had the teachers schedule their own time and was available to help for at least their first testing period. After that, they could request my help if they wanted it. Once students were logged on (more difficult with the 3rd and 4th graders), things went very smoothly, and most teachers did not need my help. Some teachers scheduled an additional time in the lab to teach students just how to log on to the site. Being their first time, I thought this was very beneficial as far as time efficiency was concerned. In future years, perhaps only the 3rd grade would need to do this, since most other students will be familiar with the process. Some teachers broke the tests up into multiple class periods and others used time from other classes to complete the tests in one sitting.

Issues and Questions
There are still some issues with the administrator instructions. Many of the specific instructions are incorrect (such as the existence of a highlight tool?). I found that to be confusing for the teachers and students, and in some cases the teachers went “off-script” to give instructions, which is not ideal for a standardized test.

Students (especially the younger ones) could benefit from a better zoom tool to make the text bigger. At younger reading levels, the students are used to larger text. The zoom tool, while helpful on the first reading passage, does not allow you to use it for the other passages, and it manipulates the screen in a way that prevents the user from being able to scroll properly.

Join the Conversation
Are other schools or teachers having similar experiences and issues? Please add to the conversation with your comments, good and bad, about your Learnia experience! I have also asked my teachers to add their comments here.

What are other schools doing for the mid-year testing? Is anyone using more than one ClassLinks test? If you are using only one, which one?

With Creative Commons licensing, many more photos and images are available to download for educational purposes than ever before. But Pics4Learning (offered by Tech4Learning) screens photos and makes sure they are appropriate for educational venues of all sorts. You can even contribute some of your own images! This is a terrific site for teachers to use when they want a one-stop site for finding images for student projects. They have categories and a search function to find just the photo you want. I would imagine as this site becomes more well-known, we can expect the library to grow and grow.

Do you know of any other good sites for images or audio for education?

I am sending the following in an email to our teachers this week. I want to encourage them to not take off their thinking caps for the entire summer, just as they send out a summer reading list for students with the same intent. My hope is that they return in the fall with some fresh ideas for integrating technology as a means for creative assessment and that they use the time they have in the summer to really delve in and explore some of today’s great technologies and idea-sharing media.

• Find one educational blogger whose posts you consider valid and relevant to your teaching. Read on average at least 1 post a week, and be prepared to share what you have found during workshop week in the fall.
• Go to TeacherTube.com and find one video you could either use in one of your classes or replicate as a student project.
• Come up with one multimedia project you could use to enhance your curriculum in some way. This project could involve digital photos, music, movie clips, slides, clay animation, drawings, podcasts…
• Come up with one project in your class where you could use a blog with students. You post something and have them respond, give comments, reactions, reflections…
• Look into the following educational technology trends and buzz-words and prepare to talk about them and how they might impact not only your teaching but the learning of our students:
  • Wiki
  • Blog
  • Podcast, Webcast
  • Ning
  • Web 2.0, School 2.0
  • RSS, Aggregator, Feed
  • Streaming
  • Skype
  • Twitter, Meebo
  • Chat, Instant Message
  • Del.icio.us
• Complete the following regarding technology:
  • The one thing I wish I had in my classroom is __________.
  • One activity I wish I could do with my students is __________.
  • Technology would be easier to use in my classes if __________.

I may be setting myself up for disappointment here, but I don’t think so. I believe that the incredible staff with whom I work will come through. If just one or two teachers come back with a great idea, that energy will spark a flame that I can feed throughout the year!

A program is being offered for elementary schools to examine the “Perils and Potential of Media and Technology in Catholic Education” by NCEA, Boston College and the U.S. Conference of Bishops. It sounds like an interesting program but overlaps with NECC so I can’t get there (I would LOVE to - loved Boston last time I was there).

If you are planning to go, would you be willing to share your experiences here on EdTech Avenue? The conference is from June 21-23, 2007, in Boston, MA.

I have been working on a near-zero budget for a couple of years now.  Before that, we were blessed with grant money from Best Buy Corporate that allowed us to improve our one working computer lab and install two more - one mobile.  I used that money as frugally as I could, purchasing refurbished computers from an organization called Minnesota Computers for Schools.  They were “good enough,” but I told our administrators that, while these machines will get us up and running on limited funds, they will need to be replaced sooner than if we would buy new.  I also stated that what is really essential is that we get technology upgrades into our school operating budget so we can replace equipment on a reasonable cycle.  We are now two years A.B.B. (After Best Buy), and we are in desperate need of updates to not just one area but three.  While purchasing refurbished machines works, it is almost twice the work each year to install and support, and the end financial cost is actually higher.
I am not working with techno-phobic administrators.  They realize the importance of technology in the lives of our students, but there is simply no money.  This year I submitted a technology plan to the state in hopes of eligibility for E-Rate funds, but what I’m hearing in the blogosphere is that these types of funding programs are fading.

The biggest challenge for Spellings is that her rhetoric doesn’t coincide with her actions. She says that underfunding of technology in schools is a big problem, but the Department’s failure to fund the federal Enhancing Education Through Technology (EETT) program gives her statements no credibility. The federal Technology Innovation Challenge Grant program, the Technology Literacy Challenge Fund, the Preparing Tomorrow’s Teachers to Use Technology (PT3) program, the Community Technology Centers, and the Regional Technology in Education Consortia – they are all gone. The only thing left is EETT, and now the feds have proposed zeroing out that budget yet again.

To say that this scares me as far as my job is concerned is certainly an understatement.  For those of us in the private sector, I can only think the funding is even less accessible.  I hope we can get some federal help and that my hours and hours of composing a four-year technology play are not in vain.

I hope I can convince my administrators of the urgency with which we must now seek out funds to budget for technology for school operations.  I will continue the crusade!

I was prompted by my reading today of Wesley Fryer’s Needed leadership qualities post. I am still catching up on some archives, and while many articles have been bookmarked for viewing and reflecting later, this one spoke to me immediately, especially after having read Scott Mcleod’s What makes administrators effective technology leaders? post from last week. I am always looking for ideas about how to become a better leader in my field, and these articles were definitely food for thought.

I think the biggest question is where the leadership is coming from.  It’s fairly evident that it must come from more than one person to really implement systemic change.  While I am the main driving force behind integration implementations and strategies at my school, I would not be nearly as effective without the support I get from my principal and veteran teachers.  Meeting resistance from them would make my job miserable.  I think there are probably many different leadership models that work, depending on the personalities of the people in those situations.  We in smaller K-8 schools have a wide range of responsibilities, job descriptions and authority, so what works for me might not work for someone in the next school.

My process is working so far, and as I’ve mentioned in previous posts, I was taken off-line slightly last year and we lost some momentum.  Before that I was making great progress with a combination of group training and individual help (that was after I realized I couldn’t start everyone at the same level; a similar situation was described here by Scott Elias).  I tried to find where teachers could first replace an existing task with one that uses technology, and they responded well and took off on their own adding enhancements to the lessons.  I also implemented electronic grading software, making them “have to” use technology for their own organization.  Amazingly, the teachers who were most resistant are the ones who can’t live without it today!  This year we’ve started to make up some ground, and I have a handful of teachers who are eager to plan projects for next year.  Many teachers still use technology because they have to, but slowly and steadily the number is growing of teachers who WANT to use it and see the value in creative assessment and student ownership of a technology-produced project.  Having this new network of ideas and shared situations in the edublogosphere has really helped to re-energize me in regards to being an integration guide for our teachers.

Please share your strategies, what works and what doesn’t, and maybe we can all gain a new perspective as we look to planning for the 2007-08 school year!  Are you a part of the hiring process and/or evaluation process for teachers?  Are you the main decision-maker for technology purchases?  Do your teachers respond to group classes and/or individual training?  How do you handle resistant teachers and/or administrators in your school?

I’m new to the blogosphere as of about October of this year.  I have found a wealth of information out there and have just recently started to use Google Reader to organize it all.  I had been just adding blogs to my Google Personalized Homepage, but I found that to be not nearly as efficient.  With Google Reader I can star items I want to be able to reference later rather than having to bookmark pages in my browser.

My biggest problem right now is - how do I catch up?  How do I weed through all the archives of these great articles and posts about trends in Educational Technology?  Where (or) do I stop?  Where is the most important place for me to spend my precious time?

My personality is such that I don’t want to leave anything unread, but I know everyone will deal with this differently.  I have found that I can’t start with the oldest and work my way to today.  I’m simply too eager to see what is out there that is current - I have to see today’s news, well, today.  But I also don’t want to miss out on what was happening while I was outside the blogosphere, even though much of it is obsolete now.  The points of view of the blogs I’m reading may still have impact on me, even for posts written over a year ago.

I can’t imagine I’m alone in this dilemma as teachers begin their journey to School 2.0 via Web 2.0.  Any advice for us novices?

Ok, so we at Blessed Trinity own our domain.  And we host our own website.  And we host our own email.  But after a slew of interesting issues, I am considering giving up my control and moving to Google.

Issue number ONE: Our web server needs to be replaced.  My options are (1) purchase a new server to host our website - cost approximately $2000 once the software and antivirus and security are all installed, not to mention client access licenses, a steep learning curve and a lot of time, OR (2) use Google Apps for Your Domain or www.catholic-church.org or any number of free or very low-cost hosts to host our website for way less than $2000.  Google Apps would even let us publish a public school calendar.  Hmm, more time saved.

Issue number TWO: Our email server has been a hassle since we bought it.  I fought with it by myself to figure out how to migrate from Exchange Server 5.5 to Exchange 2000 Server without losing any messages or calendar items - no easy task for even the brightest of IT professionals.  Then add the antivirus hassles, and then spam, which probably takes up 5% of my time weekly and still doesn’t block what it should and blocks what it shouldn’t.  We can’t afford that fancy-dancy antispam hardware!  My options are (1) keep messing with it, try to figure out the whole DST issue and how to get calendars throughout our organization to sync up right and continue to pay subscription fees for clients, antivirus and antispam that is way overpriced for what they do, OR (2) use Google Apps for Your Domain to host our email - cost approximately, um, $0.  Now that’s a learning curve I’d be happy to travel.

There are certainly transition issues that need to be considered, which is why I haven’t already made the move.  Administration is hesitant (as am I) to make a big change in the middle of the school year.  Our subscriptions are paid through the school year, so what is in place IS already paid for.  But for the future?  I think we have to make the move.  With fewer than 50 email accounts, does it really make sense that it takes my time away from technology integration meetings and working with teachers to have our email a little more controlled?  Heck, I’m sure Google can find things as easily as I could, and at the very least it is using their time, not mine.

If you have a similar size organization and have made the switch or are considering it, or if you have other services that you use, please leave a comment and share with us.

I recently made a suggestion that we publish our teachers’ school photos, which are conveniently provided to us on CD from LifeTouch, with the staff directory page of our website.  I had mixed reviews from our staff after designing the page with photos.  Most teachers liked the page but made no mention of the general idea.  Others, those who are a bit more techno-savvy, objected to the idea.  Their reasoning was that if pictures are made readily available on the internet, we subject ourselves to possible mis-use of the photos on such sites as MySpace and other personal web spaces.  While I am not naive enough to think that our students would not think to do such a thing, it saddens me that the majority of people visiting our site will lose out on the personal touch the photos present.  I also would have liked the idea that for marketing and recruiting purposes, prospective families would be able to put a face with all the paperwork and other information they receive about our school.

For now, we do not publish photos on our web site, for the protection of our students and teachers.  What do you do on your school website?