EdTech Avenue

My laptop battery ran out during the session, so I waited to post until I had transcribed all my notes. 

There were no presenter resources for this session, but as I was waiting for the session to start, Jessica Pater approached me from the Georgia Tech Research Institute.  This program publishes grant and funding resources once a month (?) at http://http://www.f3program.org.  You can contact her at Jessica.Pater@gtri.gatech.edu for more information.

My notes on the session follow:

Keys to Great Grants

• Integrated program elements
• Aligned components (what’s going on in your district, city, state? how will the funding support this?)
• High quality and continuous improvement, professional development, evaluation
• Tied to high standards
• Innovation
• Coordination of resources
• Program ties to local needs
• Buy-in

Volunteer to be a grant reader to see what happens on the other side of the door.

People who have money are looking for strategic people to give it to.  How can I showcase my work in a different way than others?

We often think about buying “stuff” but funders need to see demonstration of that stuff being supported by professional development and continuous improvement after the funding is complete.

You only have to earn the last grant, not be the first and best.

Evaluation process is key - no one will give money if there is no proof of it making a difference.  Evaluate EVERY component, not just pieces.  For every piece that is left out, your place on the list will drop.

You’re not going to get a grant to do what you’re already supposed to be doing.  It must be an innovative program.  This might be slightly different in private schools where funding is not necessarily supported by the operating budget as it is in public schools.

Motivate funders with programs they will want to talk about and promote, something they will be proud to fund.  Remind them of the tax write-off.

Community data such as a survey of computers and internet in homes will give sample information for the digital divide in your community.  Library usage patterns are also helpful.  These will show how the proposal can contribute to the economic stability of the community.

Questions Reviewers Ask When Reviewing Proposals

1. Does the proposal tie into the school’s overall plan?
   –team effort, support within the school
2. How will technology be used?
   –team’s vision for how technology will be USED to improve student learning
3. Will the proposal impact student learning?
   –team’s plan to improve student learning BEYOND THE NORM
4. How will desired outcomes be developed?
   –describe SPECIFIC indicators, how curriculum development might change; must be measurable and tied to standards
5. Does this initiative have the potential to be replicated or ourtreached to a larger community?
   –be prepared with a way to do this!
   –how it might have a more far-reaching impact
6. Does the proposal tap creativity in tapping other resources already available in the community?
   –library, women’s shelter, tutoring program
   –must be INNOVATIVE
7. Is the budget clearly defined?
   –make a case why private funding should be used
   –funders will not support what should be already supported by the school, district, state or federal government
8. Who will benefit from this initiative?
   –be very clear about this
   –it’s ALWAYS about the kids!
9. How well does this proposal replicate what the grant funder is looking for?
   –how well do you know the funder, know the corporation/organization funding the grant?  learn about them and their goals and make it work to your benefit; make it personal
10. How committed are you?
    –they want to see your passion in this proposal
    –they want to be your PARTNER

A Grantwriter Should Be A:

• Gambler: taking chances that what you produce will hit a jackpot somewhere
• Masochist: resubmitting proposals after being rejected over and over again
• Diplomat: standing by quietly supportive, encouraging the grant team to “re-think” and “re-work” the proposal over and over again
• Squirrel: savign every article about grants and every scrap of paper on which notes are written just in case they might be useful someday
• Inventor: always seeking news ways to solve the age-old problem of fundraising
• Rhinoceros: be tough so rejections “bounce off your hide”
• Magician: crafting a proposal that appears to meet EVERY requirement of the RFP and just what the funder asks for
• Butcher: always cutting the proposal making it more and more concise and to the point; give a copy to someone unrelated to your work to get an objective viewpoint - can they understand what you want?
• Financial Wizard: stretching every dollar, doing more with less and garnering matching funds from every imaginable source
• Night Owl: requiring little sleep to work non-stop to meet numerous deadlines - NEVER miss one!  Pad your schedule by 2 weeks to avoid missing deadlines.
• Party Animal: always prepared to celebrate receiving a grant

**Do NOT change formatting to fit your needs - failure to comply with formatting and other requirements put forth by the grantee could disqualify your proposal.

**Don’t even START before being able to draw a line between what you’re doing and what students will be able to do.

Persistence pays off!

Share websites not already on www.cpsb.org/scripts/abshire/grants.asp

www.schoolgrants.org
–Bring Home the Bacon listserve ($30)
–Index of Sample Proposals

www.quinlan.com

www.eschoolnews.org/erc/funding

Presenter website: http://web.mac.com/artu/iWeb/maestrotools/Home.html
Wiki: http://eduese.pbwiki.com/ 

I have a 1 MB connection this morning, so I hope blogging will update correctly.  I’ve been keeping backups, copying text before I save just in case…

There are many resources listed and referenced in this session according to the NECC program - I’ve copied this information to the bottom of this post for easier accessibility. 

My notes from the session follow, with some interspersed comments from me in italics:

Effective Pedagogy: (books) How People Learn and Literacy, Technology, and Diversity

Technology Tools for ELLs should:

• Develop deep UNDERSTANDING of concepts, ideas and learning
• Provide AUTHENTIC opportunities to communicate and problem-solve
• RELATE to pre-exisiting knowledge and experiences
• Provide CHALLENGING learning opportunities
• Enable students and teachers to COLLABORATE
• Reinforce a positive IDENTITY

Big Ideas

• ELLs shold be both media consumers and media producers
• ELLs should produce and publish
• You already have what you need

Improved Sense of Self > Academic Achievement > Digital Media Production > Electronic Publishing > Positive Feedback > Improved Sense of Self…

Produce

• Narrative and Informational Videos
• Books (can be inexpensive to print now)
• Comics (ComicLife)
• Journals, Blogs
• Radio Shows
• Interviews

Publish

• Podcasting
• Blogs
• RSS
• Wikis
• Skype
• Lulu.com (publisher, virtually free)

Gaggle.net has translate feature and one that will read selected text to you.

Internet Archive (archive.org) has public domain videos students can edit and use to create their own content.

Camstudio.org has free tool for recording audio with screencast
Jodx.com (?) is free tool for converting audio to iPod format

UnitedStreaming - use script of narration in Teacher’s Guide (in Related Materials) to allow students to follow along reading while listening

Give them a reason to practice their English - record their own audio

Video by teacher in Houston ISD: ESL = English with Sound and Light.  Had students create a list of adjectives to describe themselves and records them.  He encourages them to use their voices, gestures and facial expresions to clarify.  GREAT effects, and really seems to engage the students and give them a personal ownership in their work and increased self image.  Another video shows students doing activities with a narrator (student) asking what the student did.  You need to answer out loud, then the narrator tells the answer with text.  This is an instructional video to help students learn the activities and practice verbs.  These videos are not published, but Arturo says you can probably email the teacher (Michael Shea) for a copy of the DVDs.  Occasionally they are published on the Reagan H.S. website.  A higher-end video editor is used for this project, but lower-end tools would work to get started.

Digital images available on UnitedStreaming for use in projects (but not for publishing on the web).  Pics4Learning is another good source for free images.  iPhoto has a book-maker feature (StoryBook) to create a bound hardcover or paperback book with photos and text.  Linter.com (?) also has tools for creating books.  MyPublisher.com is a PC version where you can create books - upload and they print or you can print yourself.

ComicLife is a comic book builder that is motivating and fun for kids.  There is now a Windows version as well as the Mac version that’s been around a while.  Teachers use to teach dialog - everything in the bubble needs to be in quotation marks.  Can also create a QuickTime movies from this.  Newer Macs (last year or so, the Intel-based Macs) include ComicLife software.

Graphic Organizers are another great tool (Inspiration/Kidspiration) for ELL students to learn concepts and connections.

Digital audio can be created easily by students, and this is a good opportunity for ELL students to record their own voices practicing their English.  Radio WillowWeb is a “radio” internet audio site for and by kids.  PCs and Macs have recording capabilities built-in, but other free tools are available.  Audacity is a free tool for Mac and PC.  iPod microphones are also a great took for portable recording (Belkin ToonTalk is recommended), but it does drain battery fast.  Podcasts are also good for practicing and enhancing lessons - enhanced podcasts include pictures and text!  One quote from a teacher: In our middle schools, they’re given 20 vocabulary words to learn, and they were learning 40 percent.  With the use of iPods and podcasts, learning has increased to 95 percent.

Robert Chavez, Harris Elementary, Austin ISD: Identity Text video.  When student is speaking Spanish as narrator, subtitles show English.  Photos and video of personal descriptors.  Email Arturo for a copy of the video.

Referenced Web Links (copied from NECC online program)

Digital Video
iMovie: http://www.apple.com/education/imovie/
Movie Maker: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/moviemaker/getstarted/default.mspx
iPod in Education: http://www.apple.com/education/ipod/
Video - The Letter: http://homepage.mac.com/dbranam1/iMovieTheater19.html

Digital Images
iPhoto (Mac): http://www.apple.com/support/iphoto/
Photo Story (PC): http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/digitalphotography/photostory/default.mspx
Websites to publish your photo books:
http://www.sharedink.com/
http://www.mypublisher.com
http://www.blurb.com/
http://www.lulu.com/
Inspiration: http://www.inspiration.com/
Comic Life (only for Mac): www.plasq.com
Comic Book Creator (only for PC): http://www.mycomicbookcreator.com

Digital Audio
Audacity (free audio recorder for Mac and PC): http://audacity.sourceforge.net/
iTunes (Mac and PC): http://www.apple.com/itunes/
Garageband (Mac only music and podcast tool): http://www.apple.com/ilife/garageband/

Podcasts
Breaking News English: http://www.breakingnewsenglish.com/
English as a Second Language Podcast: http://www.eslpod.com/website/index.php
Digital Chalk: http://www.digitalchalkworksheets.com/
Rolling R’s (Middle School Spanish Lessons): http://rollingrs.com/

ELL Web Resources
Colorin Colorado (ESL resources from PBS) http://colorincolorado.org/
Space Place (Math and Science for kids in English and Spanish): http://spaceplace.jpl.nasa.gov/sp/kids/
HPRTEC (Rubistar and Casa Notes): http://hprtec.org/
Pics4Learning (free safe images) http://www.pics4learning.com/
Venatanas al Universo (Math and Science for kids in English and Spanish, leveled): http://www.windows.ucar.edu/spanish.html

Web 2.0
The Clem (Class weblog): http://visitmyclass.com/blogs/burnett05/default.aspx
Goochland High School (Teacher weblogs): http://www.glnd.k12.va.us/gateway/go/ghs/teachers
Skype (free computer to computer calls anywhere in the world): http://www.skype.com
Edublogs (free weblog site for teachers): http://www.edublogs.org
Wikispaces (free collaborative website builder): http://www.wikispaces.com/site/for/teachers

Below are my notes from the session by Thom Dunks & Kelly Wade:

Software used: uPortal for building site.  Open Source Java-based software.  They have 2 Java programmers helping with the coding.  Caution - might not be able to use uPortal without a Java programmer.

This session is not about vision or writing code, it’s about pragmatics.  Looking at a tool as a sample of what audience may want to implement.  They have a 4-person team working on their sites.  This session will be more classroom-based.

Thom is director of Technology Services (12 in department) for the district, has background on school sites.

Why an Educational Portal?
Research projects - most students will start with Google, but will it truly give us access to information the way they need it?  Students may have the ability to decipher information from web addresses (.com, .edu, .org).  Portal can also include subscription services such as UnitedStreaming for videos and many other options that would not be available on a general Google search.  Thom gave example of Google search for Martin Luther King Jr., finding sites that seemed to be appropriate but one you get into and find it’s a white supremecy site!  This is not the kind of information we want our students to have to sift through for information.  Instead of this, teachers can add a bookmark for their students when necessary for projects.

Portals centralize resources for both schools and community.

Tour of Santa Cruz portal
Good list of resources available and more information is posted on the NECC session listing.  Login is available for free viewing of the Santa Cruz portal until the end of September, 2007.

Entire site is single-access, meaning one login gets users in to all services, with only a couple of exceptions (NetTrekker, Gaggle, and RxNetWriter).

Curriculum Resources tab includes services such as UnitedStreaming, DigitalMath and NASA.  Some are free, some are paid subscriptions.

Research and Reference tab links to Grolier’s Encyclopedia, Dictionary, and links to free pictures, texts and AP multimedia resources.

Teacher Resources tab is mostly California-based information, but the idea is to give teachers a resource for using technology and other standards information, etc.

Administrator Resources tab for administrators also good for technology leaders with links to ISTE and information about CARET.  TICAL link also has many great tools and resources.

Parent Resources includes internet safety information, homework help links, and special needs information.

Funny “cat-herding” movie commercial for EDS. 

Stage 2 will be students will have their own tab with information about courses, homework, and other information.  They will use a regional server through the portal to Moodle.  They originally used Blackboard but it was cost-prohibitive, so they’ve chosen Moodle as an Open Source solution.

Stage 3 is devotion to build professional learning opportunities: RSS, blogging, etc.

Q & A

Are you monitoring use?  The tool is still in early stages, but they can see use by school right now.  They use informal discussion to assess teacher use.

39,000 students - databases acquired from schools, use password generator to create logins for all students, but each site has its own manager of the database for that school?

Librarians & Media Specialists have their own logins to maintain their own bookmarks.

Q: Talking about students “using teacher passwords” to access bookmarks.  How does this work?  A: Teacher logins are private, but they maintain bookmarks under a main “password’ that students can use, directly linked to the students’ logins.

NOT a heavily encrypted password site, so should not be linking SIS or webmail passwords to this portal.

I recently was asked by a friend and colleague if I had an advice for first-timers to NECC.  I came up with a list that I thought I would post, since it might help others as well.  Only a few more days before we travel to NECC for what I believe to be the best ed tech conference around!

General
Know what you want to get from the conference before you go.  I recommend focusing on just one or two topics.  This conference is extremely large and can be overwhelming if you try to concentrate on more than just a couple of topics.

When you check in you’ll get a pouch for your name tag that you have to wear everywhere.  You also get some “ticket”-type contact cards.  Tear apart the cards and slip them in your pouch so you have something to hand out to people who want to contact you.  If you have business cards, keep a few of those in your pouch as well.

Sessions
Sessions about Web 2.0, blogging, podcasting, 1-to-1, and any other newer topic will be PACKED, so if you really want to see the session, get a seat early.

Be prepared with more than one session (in rooms close together) in case your first choice is a bust.

Look up presenter information before you go.  Sometimes you’ll see that a presenter has posted virtually their entire presentation online and you could use your time to go to another session instead.  This is not to say posted information can replace every session, but if you are looking mainly for resources, this might be a good solution for some topics.

Beware of sessions sponsored by companies like software and services, those are sometimes more commercials than informative sessions.

See if any of the bloggers you follow will be presenting.  Even though those are likely to be very popular and crowded, it’s nice to see the person behind the blog.

Exhibits
Unless you are an exhibit-groupie or want to see something specific, take a half day and breeze through the exhibit hall fast.  Yes, there’s lots of free stuff, but you can waste an entire day or more in there if you aren’t focused.

Food/Beverage
The snack breaks near or in the exhibit halls have really long lines, so unless you’re starving or really like the “free food” deal, I’d save the time and bring a snack with you.  If you were smart or lucky enough to be in a hotel with a fridge, get some snacks or breakfast items to keep in your room and throw into your bag for the day.

Make time in your schedule to experience some of the local restaurants.  Ask some of the local residents (many of the volunteers will be from Atlanta) what restaurants can’t be missed by a visitor.  Grab a group of colleagues or new friends to join you!

Clothing
Although I’m sure it will be hot in Atlanta, the conference centers in my experience are cool, so if you get chilled easily, make sure you have a sweater or sweatshirt in your bag for the sessions.  Walking shoes, not sandles for your days.  Ladies, you might want a change of clothes for evening events, but nothing is too fancy.  Did I mention walking shoes?

Follow Me
I’ll be blogging the conference and my sessions, so make sure to check back here often!  I’ll be posting my tentative schedule by Friday.  I have to sort through my planner and the many sessions I want to attend to create a realistic schedule I might be able to follow.

Have more suggestions?  Add them in the comments!

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!

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?

And it’s practical, too!

I’ve been feverishly trying to catch up on the blogosphere and finding lots of great tools I’ve missed out on being stuck back in Web 1.0.  Thank you to Scott Elias of Do I Dare Disturb the Universe for recommending Picnik, a web-based photo editing program that I am hoping and praying will take off, stick around, AND remain FREE.

I will be the first to admit, I was skeptical.  I mean really, a WEB-based photo editor?  How can that be decent?  But folks, it is.  I used it for my personal blog just to test it out and see the functionality of the Flickr connection, and I am happy.  It works splendidly.  I held a digital photo training for teachers today and was anxious to recommend it and show it off - they loved it!  It has the features and user-friendliness of iPhoto and then some, with fun advanced creatives (some of the cool ones will be with a paid version only).

Just register for free, open a photo, and basic tools are available to you: crop, resize, rotate, exposure, colors, sharpen, red-eye, etc.  Click the Creative Tools tab to really have some fun!  Then save your file to your computer or directly to a Flickr account, complete with tags, descriptions, private/public settings, and even the ability to add photos to existing sets (can’t create new ones yet).  I can edit photos from my computer or directly from my Flickr account.  And there’s website tools and widgets I haven’t even touched yet.

I can imagine terrific applications for myself - I’m on someone else’s or a library computer that doesn’t have a photo editing program, I just took some photos that I want to upload and blog about… no problem now!  I can see tons of educational applications for this too, and the kicker is the cost - $0.00.  Unbelievable.  Let’s support this software and keep it available!

Below are photos I edited with Picnik in minutes, although I reduced the size of each one equally to display them better (the high quality resolution of my camera makes them too big for this use).  The original is on the left, edited photo on the right:

 
 
 

As I was working on the resource page for EdTechAvenue.com, I realized that probably the best way to compile a page of resources - ones that are actually helpful - is to ask what other technology coordinators are using on a regular basis.  My current search is for sources on online safety.  This is an issue I’m sure all schools are concentrating on as our digital natives are becoming more active on the internet.  There is a wealth of information out there, but some sites are geared towards a target audience while others are all-inclusive.  Have you used their tutorials, activities, guidelines, in your curriculum?  With what age students?  Have you seen results of success?  How do students respond?  If you have information you are willing to share with other technology coordinators, please register and post your comments!  Or, if you have publications you have created and would be willing to share, maybe for parent meetings or seminars, please email me.