TUESDAY SESSIONSLosing Your Digital Accent—Will Richardson http://weblogged.wikispaces.com
- Skype—Jeff Utecht in Shanghai
- Has a chat feature
- Can conference in 10 people at a time
- Also has video capabilities (only uses open bandwidth so video may not be good when there’s ton of traffic)
- $12 a year for ability to call regular phones
- Jeff is using: blogs, school-wide YouTube, wikis
- Google Docs
- Blogs—Vox (more multimedia oriented); Technorati (search for blogs to read)
- Del.icio.us—http://del.icio.us/willrich (Book: Small Pieces Loosely Joined, Everything is Miscellaneous)
- Picnik—PhotoShop lite online, free, integrates with Flickr
- Flickr—Post photos and create albums online
- Freemind—not a web tool, mind mapping tool, free download, makes content maps
- not suggested at this session, but it was at another workshop that I went to (and I think a presenter did a session on it at NCaect): open source concept mapping at http://cmap.ihmc.us/download/ really easy to use!!
- Second Life—ISTE group and island
Curing Your Student Email Headaches—Gagglenet
- Blocked word list (batches too like gun-kill-punch together, you can make your own sets of weighted word lists, including suicide, cyberbullying, etc.), blocked address list, anti-porn scanner, they’re also working on cyberbullying
- Can restrict to class, school, district, etc.
- Highest CIPA rating
- Web 2.0 interface-looks like Outlook
- Has a translator (filter does work even if a kid translates email to another language)
- Will read out to students (voice)
- If they try to send an email with inappropriate content, they will see a red box saying their message has been blocked—email goes straight to administrator’s account. The administrator will receive an email with the blocked content.
- Chat rooms—can view chat logs at any time
- If students delete emails, they stay in the deleted folder for 30 days
- Project ideas: teacher requires them to write 3 emails a week-she goes in to grade one of them randomly; send out assignments and have them send their answers back; math problem of the week; send out writing assignment to one kid and have them send their work to another student who will add/edit (collaborating)
- Message boards: Math Help board (have a kid who is really good be the one who checks the board instead of the teacher); Historical character “Ask Benjamin Franklin”
- Gaggle Blogs: Teachers have a lot of control (can moderate comments and posts)
Podcast, Vodcast, Screencast Nation—Will Richardson
- Podcast
- http://ccmixter.org —free podcast music files
- http://www.podomatic.com —Free publishing for podcasts, can’t edit or upload created ones (like from audacity)
- Vodcast
- Create a movie in MovieMaker, if you have a web cam you can record straight into YouTube
- Screencast
- Live screen capture with music/voice over.
- Windows Media Encoder (Tried it and it works beautifully!!! You can record yourself talking over the screencast at the same time)—free download at http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/forpros/encoder/default.mspx
- SMART recorder -- can record straight from SMART software
The Art and Technique of Wikis—David Warlick http://landmark-project.com
- Warlick's Online Handouts for all Sessions -- http://davidwarlick.com/wordpress/
- Help for Teachers (wiki created by Warlick) -- http://www.wikispaces.com/help+Teachers
- Wiki—public and editable web page (David’s wiki password: teacher) David invites us to come and edit his online handouts
- “*” in front of words make a bulleted list
- “#” in front of words make a numbered list
- “[[ and ]]” makes the word “hot” as new wiki
- Cool Cat Teacher Blog —Great example of a teacher using wikis with her kids, kids are writing their own textbook through the wikis
- How to get started?
- Use a wiki Farm (Wikispaces.com, PBWiki.com, seedwiki.com )
- You can also download wiki software engine (mediawiki.org [more difficult to learn], pmwiki.org )
- Teacher signup on wikispaces—allows you to set up as many “spaces” as you want
- Difference between a wiki and a blog: a blog is for publishing and interactive conversations; a wiki is for collaborating on a document
- Can insert videos from YouTube and pictures (can even resize pics)
http://freeplaymusic.com for free music (DUH)
http://ccmixter.org to load and change music
http://sound.com to find various sounds (some apparently obnoxious, middle school boy type sounds)
Audio Booktalks and Creating Lifelong Readers
Website - http://core.ecu.edu/itconsult/sunr/Pitt%20County%20Schools%20and%20ECU/Email cjohnson@pitt.k12.nc.us to set up an account
I have a CD of resources, but haven’t gotten a chance to check it out yet. Will
share with anyone interested in this project.
(presentation is supposed to be on a podcast although the speaker had innumerable
technical problems)
Materials: items to do audio recordings
Recommends Sansa MP3 players
Recommends Logitech microphones and headphones
Bought external hard drives to store the audio book talks.
Website for creating your own sounds (we did this during the presentation in three
Tracks) - http://www.ccmixter.org/
ECU is helping with this project. She hopes to go national and get many to
contribute book talks. We listened to 3rd graders giving talks about books
that they had read. Theory is that kids will listen to a booktalk and then be
able to grab a specific book from the media center and actually read it
rather than bring it back unread because they didn’t like it!”
Uses Audacity – a decoder is on the disk I received – have to map the dll
Web Accessibility 101 (Coming Soon)
Using Microsoft SharePoint to Build and Maintain Electronic Portfolios
- This is an application that comes with Microsoft Office, so we should all have it somewhere
- The presenter showed a portfolio that included the "most basic" ePortfolios (basically a print portfolio with text only turned into something like a word file) to the more sophisticated things you can do like add pictures, links, etc...
- It seems like a really NEAT program and I'd like to figure out how to access it and play around with it
Adventure of the American Mind
- This was about using primary sources and the Library of Congress website
- Visit www.aamonline.org
- Each lesson follows a prescribed "cycle" that introduces students to the sources, has them gather data, then guides them to create a final product of some kind. Some sample lesson topics include: The Culture of Roanoke Island, The Horses of Shackleford Banks, and Lewis and Clark The Revealing of America. It seems that there are LOTS of opportunities for Social Studies teachers, and some lessons that are very specific to NC History.
- They are also in the process of developing a way to create one's own online lessons, but you have to email them for the website because they are still testing it. The lesson maker website is: www.aamonline.org/lessonmaker.htm and I believe you need to email: lessons@ercwc.org to access it.
ABCs of Technology Integration
- The story of how Lenior County Schools very cheaply purchased some technology equipment and integrated it.
- I was particularly interested in their use of GPS and Geocaching. THey mentioned a DPI website that has geochaching lessons on it.
- They handed out a CD which I haven't had a chance to look at yet, but, they said it included lessons they'd done and useful websites. I can copy it.
Podcasting
Useful sites from this session:
www.gcast.com - You can get a free account and use a toll free number to record podcasts. He did a short one during the session and it was up on the website within about 3 minutes. Pretty cool.
www.clickcaster.com - Another free podcasting site. Haven't checked it out yet....
WEDNESDAY SESSIONS
- Professional Development in a 3-D World
- This session was all about Second Life--a 3-D world where you walk and fly around as an avatar. You can chat with people and instant message with them. There is a Second Life for adults and a Teen Second Life for kids under 18. Adults can't get into Teen SL without going through an extensive application process and background check.
- (LISA'S NOTE: Acacia Dixon was in this session and she and I were very excited about presenting a proposal to DPI so they might try to get an "island" for NC teachers to collaborate and do professional development in.)
- Some links and tips:
- Good overview: read this article in Edutopia, "The School of Second Life" http://www.edutopia.org/php/article.php?id=Art_1709
- Logging on: http://www.secondlife.com -- Download Second Life software (free); SL allows for basic memberships at no cost; click on join now to begin the process
- The first place you will go is Help Island where you will have to complete 4 brief tutorials before you are allowed to go to the mainland of Second Life. Take your time to explore here and learn as much as you can because once you leave Help Island, you can not return.
- Once you leave Help Island, here are some landmarks to visit: Talis Cybrary City - Info Island, Cybrary City (187, 27, 545)
- Reviews of landmarks: http://secondseeker.com
- Second Life Education Wiki: http://www.simteach.com/wiki/index.php?title=Second_Life_Education_Wiki
- For those who want to use Second Life with teens: http://www.simteach.com/wiki/index.php?title=Second Life:_Educators Working with _Teens
- Take it to the Net: Computer Literacy (Computer Skills Test)
- Go visit Gaston County Schools web site if you've never been: http://www.gaston.k12.nc.us/departments/techinstr/CST/comp_skills_test.htm They have lots of stuff in NCDesk format!! They also have lesson ideas with handouts and answer keys. They are also adding pre and post tests that are online and which simulate the NCDesk environment. Pretty cool!
- Easy Tech--Web-based subscription site where your kids can go through tutorials and lessons which include auditory and visual and interactive stuff. $11 a student though and they include a Spanish version
- Learning.com is also another web-based subscription site that does online test aligned with the NC curriculum $1500 county setup fee, plus $5 per student to test twice a year (fall/spring) or once for $3.
- Free Microsoft Office Tools for the Classroom
- Download Classroom Tools from http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=634A9212-8162-4485-996E-6E525EB4A369
- Download Learning Essentials from http://www.microsoft.com/education/productresources.mspx
- Classroom Tools is basically a bunch of different templates
- Learning Essentials is like a cool add-on that makes it easy for teachers to learn how to better use Office software and then to create nice products; just go try it and you'll see it what it can do
- Introducing Non-F2F Learning: Using FREE Web Tools for Online Collaboration
- http://www.campfirenow.com -- Real-time group chats and file sharing; saves archives for later reference
- http://www.classchatter.com -- Create class websites, complete with assignments posted, student blogs, messaging capability; no e-mail needed to register
- http://www.debugmode.com/wink -- Create and record tutorials and presentations
- http://www.edublogs.org -- Create blogs for student use (LISA'S NOTE: edublogs does not block spam and some of it can be pretty darn nasty! I would use wordpress.com)
- http://www.gaggle.net -- Create student e-mail accounts; store files; create and use message boards and chat rooms
- http://www.imaginationcubed.com -- Sponsored by GE; draw pictures and invite friends to draw with you
- http://www.learnerblogs.org -- Create blogs, complete with organized strands; read and comment on others' blogs (LISA'S NOTE: not sure how safe this would be and how much control the teacher would have over them; should you use http://classblogmeister.com instead?)
- http://www.wikispaces.com -- Create web page that can be added to and edited by others
- http://www.writeboard.com -- Create web-based text documents that can be shared and edited, while archiving old versions and comparing strategies (LISA'S NOTE: like Google Docs but safer?? Not sure)
- Great Gadgets with Leslie Fisher (Ruamie's notes) (Amy M. too)
- Windows: Snagit $39 http://www.snagit.com
- Mac OSX Snapz $49 http://www.ambrosiasoftware.com
- Consolidate your IM apps. into one: Windows: Trillian http://ceruleanstudios.com (free for basic version, $25 for pro version) Mac: Adium www.adiumx.com
- Font folder: Windows (XP) Mac (OSX) Price $99 http://www.fontreserve.com
- Photo Organization: PC and Mac: http://www.iview-multimedia.com $49 basic $199 Pro
- iPod accessories: http://www.everythingipod.com or http://www.belkin.com
- Palm laser keyboard:http://www.canesta.com
- USB based phone charger: http://www.keyspan.com
- Remote presenter $75: http://www.keyspan.com
- Portable, renewable power source that draws energy from the sun $99: http://www.solio.com
- Magellan RoadMate GPS: http://www.magellangps.com
- What the font--Used to find or identify font names and you can download the font for a minimal price at myfonts.com--has moved to http://www.linotype.com/5/fontfinder.html?PHPSESSID=46da55e2e9d139673c9834d42f54cd0a
- Lexar Image Rescuery Card--$29 from lexar.com--Recovers Lost or Corrupted Images from a Memory Card (any brand)
- Cmap - Free Concept Mapping program downloadable from the web. It is like Inspiration, but free, and involves collaborative options where students can synchronously work on a single map. http://kevoliver.com/pdf/ncaect.pdf for his presentation and interesting research results. http://cmap.ihmc.us to download the program
- Podcasting from NC State - http://wolfcast.ncsu.edu Educast is the school of education's podcast, and they have a podcast on how to podcast!
- Jeopardy theme song audio clip http:themes.wavethemes.net/themg-a.htm This site also contains lots of other theme songs useful for games, etc. Demo included use of this theme for final Jeopardy question on PowerPoint.
Digital Images Tell the Story- presenters website http://mysite.verizon.net/resryxat/
- Print book ideas using digital photos- Partner a kindergarten class with an older class and make great books for beginning kindergarten "procedures"
- Older student will take the pictures as younger student "models'
Book ideas:
- Going through the lunch line to get a lunch
- Washing hands in the bathroom
- Walking in line down the hall
- Checking out books in the media center
- ESL translation books on many topics
- colors
- numbers
- alphabet
shapes
Zoo Quest with GPS- presenter
- The presentation was about a trip to the zoo but could be used in our county with a trip to the aquarium, Fort Macon, or anywhere that information can be gathered. The presenter first went to the zoo and gathered coordinates for specific places prior to the field trip. When students arrived at the zoo they had to find the location using the coordinates given and then gather specific facts or answer a specific question from the informational signs at that spot. Imagine that they had to read those informational signs. She shared that the kids had a blast and were ready for another trip.
- Suggestions for 4th grade NC History use GPS's to find monuments/buildings during Raleigh field trip.
- Suggestions for 3rd grade field trip to Beaufort use GPS's to find certain grave markers in cemetary, locate buildings on the grounds
- Easter egg hunts to find the eggs- lots of quick activities could be placed in the eggs to answer questions as the eggs are found.
- More ideas centered around books in the classroom were given-
- Polar Express-
- Students traveled to the North Pole (a pole in the ground on the school campus), once they reached the North Pole they gathered facts about the North Pole she had placed in a stocking attached to the pole.
- One location had the bell hidden and once they found it each child got to keep a bell.
- Students had a snowball fight outside using styrofoam balls
- They had hot chocolate after finding all of the locations
- Suessville-
- Dr. Seuss books were hidden around the campus. Students used the GPS to locate the books.
- Students read the books for looking for information once they were found.
Online Tools for Schools from NCSU http://ced.ncsu.edu/onlinetools/ Contains varied links for almost any discipline. The Education Junction link, for example, includes lesson plans, homework help, professional journals, etc. Organized by content area. There's also a LabWrite site for helping students improve lab report writing, literacy junction, online technology tutorials, etc.
Visual literacy links -- www.flickr.com, www.google.com, www.freefoto.com, NASA Connect www.quest.arc.nasa.gov/ltc/special/connect/ , www.educatebetter.org .
Free domain creation available at http://pages.google.com . Cheap sites include http://www.1and1.com at $5.99 per year and http://www.google.com/a for $10 per year. They said the google site allowed you to create and use mailing lists, but I didn't check it out.
BRING IT HOME 24/7 - Podcasts
Alamance Burlington School System uses TechTalk live to communicate 24/7
PURPOSE: To reach out to the entire community and show/tell how technology is being used by the students. Also to share how parents and the community can use technology at home
USES:
- ·Meetings – they don’t have to go to central office
- Newsletter each month
- Technicians get into the fun – create podcasts, teach shortcuts
- Teach parents about NCWiseOwl, LearnNC and other great resources to access from home
- Help students/parents with homework etc. (when parents are in over their heads with certain courses
- Staff Development
- Share information that used to be in principals’ meetings – they come to meetings with prior knowledge – can discuss more effectively
- ·Share student projects, etc.
WHY this method?
- More efficient use of time for everyone concerned – not having to be present at the actual meeting
- ·Create them on their own time
- No travel time to factor in – avoid conflicts
- Can listen to podcast on way to another meeting
- Can archive so is always available
HOW?
- Got grant money to purchase best possible high end stuff –digital camcorder Panasonic 8 ccd; couple of pole lights to control light –
- Set up the multimedia studio corner in their office (these were county people, I think)
- Software - Visual Communicator put out by Serious Magic and now Adobe;
- green screen used on background was about $250 (Podcasts in i-movie with camera and microphone - in podcast format is very small – made a quick time version for full quality
- Plug in for iMovie – morphed from picture to picture
- Each podcast starts with the same logo - keep a sense of community and togetherness
- County’s Blog is on wordpress.com - Word press lets you set a homepage on your blog - then can give parent/community instructions on how to interact with them
- Use central office server for storing this – completed files sent here (able to be edited)
CONTENT includes:
- Step by step using Destiny to find a book
- College Foundation – they sent a rep to county office – the rep wrote the script
- Bobby Hobgood will help with a LearnNC one – he will take care of the script
- Chose an article from their newsletter to let parents comment on items
- Step by step on how to use ncwise owl – tells parents/students to see your school for the passwords
SPREAD THE NEWS – they just began in September 2006
- Issue an iPod to certain people – present podcasts in community meetings
- Having a technology fair next week – have several stations where the podcasts will be set up for parents to view
- Newspaper articles
- Local radio show – talked about technology
CONNECTIONS TO THEM
- Newsletter: http://abss.k12.nc.us Go to - Most Requested – Technology & Media
- Podcasts http://webcast.abss.k12.nc.us
- Blog http://absstechtalk.wordpress.com
- Every teachers’ website has a discussion board on it
- They are working with School Fusion who will be incorporating more and more
CAUTIONS
- ©Teachers really have to be careful with copyright –go through © with teachers – still a constant battle
- Generic music – School Fusion - Garage Band and Audacity – Teach folks to create their own
Free Throws (Cheryl's notes)
Free Software to download from the web.
http://www.nationalmathbee.org/
Batter Up! An educational math game.
Helps your children learn letters, numbers, simple math, and reading. Multilingual, freeware. Minisebran
Exercises for toddlers. NEW! Multilingual, freeware
Free geography software. Learn about countries, states, flags, cities and capitals all over the world!http://www.crocodile-clips.com/
To help with teaching the first principles of electricity, we've made Crocodile Clips Elementary, for Windows and Macintosh. It's based on the mathematically accurate simulation engine from Crocodile Physics and Crocodile Technology, which are worldwide in middle and high schools.
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/RayLec/lettersa.htm
Ray’s Letters and Numbers
Fun to use educational software for children aged 3-6. A great way to teach the alphabet, numbers, counting, simple spelling, keyboard skills and much more.
Find, organize and share your photos. Picasa is a free software download from Google
http://earth.google.com/download-earth.html
Google Earth Combines the power of Google Search with satellite imagery, maps, terrain and 3D buildings to put the world's geographic information at your fingertips.