EdTech Avenue

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!

Research Study

We need to have a better awareness on how to educate on cyberbullying.  Graduate students in counseling and education came together in this project.  Cyberbullying “refers to bullying via electronic communications tools.”

Seven Types

1. Flaming
2. Harassment
3. Denigration
4. Cyberstalking
5. Impersonation or Masquerading
6. Outing or Trickery
7. Exclusion

Trends
Age: increases in elementary years, peaks in middle school, declines in high school
Gender: girls more likely to be online and cyberbully

Broadband Data Improvement Act in 2008 included Title II “Protecting Children in the 21st Century Act.”

Phase I: Adapted previous survey by Li (2006, 2007).  More than half were aware of someone being cyberbullied most were not reported to an adult.  Slightly more boys than girls were both bullies and being bullied, most happened outside of school, over half were not reported, and situations typically happened on average about 4 times.

Phase II:  Focus Groups to further inform survey data, explore the student views and experiences to collect information to use in creating scenarios.  Found commonalities and put in three categories – Reactions, Knowledge, and Coping.  Results said most cyberbullying would take place between the student and someone they know, and most were due to a misunderstanding.  The most common answer for who they would talk to about it was the school counselor, also stating that they felt more adults need to be educated about cyberbullying.

Phase III: Virtual Scenarios fully “acted out” using avatars in Second Life, based on phases I and II: (1) Gossip Goes Virtual and (2) Mark Visits the School Counselor.  Students watched the scenarios and offered feedback.

Recommendations for parents: understand what it is, educate children, be aware, be involved.

Resources:

• CyberSmart Curriculum
• NetSmartz
• iSafe

Showing video of Second Life Scenario, “Mark Visits the School Counselor.”

Q&A
Second Life was used for the video scenarios to link the technology and counseling worlds, this seemed the easiest place to do this in a place that is away from the true counseling and reporting of cyberbullying in person to make it more comfortable for students.

More scenarios are hoped to be added later.

The scripting process for the video scenario used words from students in the focus group sessions. They reviewed feedback from the focus groups and used data and phrasing spoken by the students to create the scenario.

Focus Groups were recorded using digital audio and transcribed later.

MovieTeacher46.com has a list of movies where bullying takes place to use as a discussion starter.

Lisa Whitaker has a school board member that wants them to run on Linux.  Any thoughts? 

The school board member writes:

I have been looking into Linux and think we could do some travelling carts for pretty cheap. Or if not carts we could have some computers in the classroom. Linux runs well on old computers (Windows 98 or the Mac equivalent), which could be pretty cheap to get our hands on from places that are upgrading, and then you can run all sorts of free programs – word processing, etc. If you put Wine on the computer, it will emulate Windows and you can run many (not all) old software CDs. That would allow teachers to do keyboarding and art and math facts, etc. on the computers.  There is a guy on my work listserv who runs his whole law office using Linux, free software, and internet-based programs.

It might be something to look into for the future. Do you know much about Linux, or have you heard of any schools using it? We probably couldn’t do podcasts and things, but it might be a solution for the younger grades, which could free up tech room space for the older grades.

This post was requested by Lisa Whitaker.  Please see below and join the conversation!

I heard recently that not all features on Smartboards work with a Mac but I can’t find anything so far that shows me that.

Our librarian passed this onto me: http://www.edugeek.net/forums/hardware/14847-any-school-using-interwrite-pads-bluetooth.html

I found this free Promethean viewer at Promethean Planet. You have to register but that is free as well: http://www.prometheanplanet.com/server.php?show=nav.15853&ua_siteLoginRequired=1

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?!

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?

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.