NJ Tech Teacher Musings

Saved by Free Open Source Software

2008-08-19T13:21:00.003-04:00

Receiving the 20 HP Tablet PCs (model 2710p) will be amazing for our school. I'm not sure what I would have done seven years ago when I first started teaching. We keep our hardware and software up-to-date through state funds. Purchasing 20 copies of Microsoft Office and KidPix would have eaten up a lot of the funds.

Free Open Source to the Rescue
As a record for the future, I am listing the software that I have downloaded for the first foray into Windows at the school. I am sure some software will be a hit and some will be removed or replaced.

OpenOffice: This will be our suite of tools for word processing (Writer), spreadsheet (Calc), and presentations (Impress). It will also provide me with database software (Base). I have not taught databases at all to any grade and it will give me a reason to do so. It also comes with drawing software (Draw) and a math equation editor (Math). I am hopeful that it will work so well that I never need to purchase MS Office again.

TuxPaint: I really love KidPix and I may have enough copies in house to install it on the tablets, but I'm going to start with TuxPaint. It is similar in many ways. It will be interesting to see how the students react to this piece of software.

Gimp: Gimp is my tool of choice on the iMac for several years. It is a complex program that allows my students to have access to Photoshop-type tools. We have used it to create GIF animations, too.

Google Earth: This program is quickly becoming a "must have" for so many different projects.I only scratched the surface introducing the program last year. I had a Make Way for Ducklings lesson for the younger students. My older students identified the locations of the schools that we collaborated with. I have not even begun to calculate distances with the students or create KMZ files. Any discipline could include Google Earth for student learning.

Google Sketchup: I added this program for the future. I've heard several teachers talking in various forums about using this 3-D modeling software. Students as young as the fourth grade have had success. I'll certainly try to give the students experience with the software this year.

Firefox: This is my browser of choice. I used to use Internet Explorer on the Mac. Microsoft stopped developing new versions for OS X, so I moved on to Firefox and never looked back. I liked it better than the old version of Safari. Now that we will be on multiple platforms, I have the luxury of using the same browser on all of the machines.

NVU: This program is a web authoring system. I lost my web server space about a year ago, but before that I used this program to give the students experience creating web pages. It is pretty simple to use.

Windows Movie Maker: We have been enjoying movie making in computer class. The tablet has a built-in web cam. The prize package includes two digital video cameras. Many teachers pointed me to this program. It is available as a part of Windows XP Service Pack 2.It doesn't look as robust as iMovie, but it will certainly do the job.

Windows Photostory: This is another highly recommended program. It looks like it will give me iPhoto type capabilities. You can take photos, add special effects, and soundtracks to create photo stories.

Audacity: We create podcasts in computer class. I think there is a lot of power in having students condense and restate what they have learned through a podcast. In the absence of Garageband, we will use Audacity with the LAME converter to create audio files for podcasts. It is a free audio editor and recorded that I have used personally with great success. The students will have no program with this program.

Scratch: This is a great little tool to teach object oriented programming to students. I used it with grades five through eight last year. I will be trying it out with some of the lower grades this year. It is very easy to use and has some features that make it similar to the Logo programming language.

TuxType: This program will be useful to help students practice their typing skills. There are a number of games to help hold their interest. I haven't had success running the program under OS X, but it works fine on Windows.

IrfanView and Picasa : Additional image viewers, should I need more than I have listed above.

Some other general software that was recommended for the install includes Windows Media Player, VLC Media Player, and Quicktime so that I can view all types of different media on the Internet. As a last minute thought, I am loading Adobe Acrobat Reader.

Finally, I had Microsoft PowerToys for Windows XP Tablet PC Edition recommended to me. It has a set of tools and games for the tablet. It will take time to see what the students find most useful. Among the tools are several different art-type programs, a calculator, dictionary, physics illustrator, games, writing practice, and font generating tools.

Where Do I Go From Here?
I am sending the tablet back to CDW/G where they will take an image from the machine and replicate it on 19 more machines. I should probably purchase imaging software with this year's budget for the future. I can't wait to start using the software with the students and see where we take the school. I know I will look back in two or three years with gratitude for this opportunity.

Image Citation:
My own image from my NJ Tech Teacher photostream:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/11249246@N04/2706814274/in/set-72157601439024372/

Prepping the New School Year

2008-08-18T23:56:00.004-04:00

This summer is almost over. With two weeks to the start of school, I'm beginning to reflect on last year's start and begin thinking about the changes I will have to make for the new year.

A Wiki Lesson Keeper
One of the best tools I started using for myself was Wikispaces. I decided to choose one program to focus on and tried my best to write up each KidPix lesson. I didn't do too bad. I just flipped through my lesson plan and see that I have about nine lessons between Kindergarten and third grade to finish up.

This year, I intend to do the same for Word and PowerPoint. Every year I do different projects. There is a core set of skills that I work on for each group and some projects the students enjoy so I do them each year.

The Biggest Changes
For me, the biggest changes will include learning how to integrate the new equipment into the curriculum. In my next post, I plan to write about all the open source software that I've installed on the new Windows tablet PCs. The students have to be independent with the tablets so they can become the teacher of their teachers. We'll have to work on the Open Office Writer program. I really haven't spent much time on it, but it should work fine as a Word substitute. If it doesn't, I'll purchase paper licenses for the tablets in the 2009-2010 school year. I want to learn to use the Promethean board to its potential. I know there will be a learning curve.

More, More, More
I have MediaBlender and Kidspiration installed in the lab. We barely scratched the surface of those programs. I used to have a lot of fun using HyperStudio with the fourth through eighth grade. When I could no longer install OS 9 on the new computers, I purchased MediaBlender. It really does not work smoothly on the older iMacs. I know there is a new version of HyperStudio, but I'm not going to spend funds with MediaBlender a fine replacement. Now that I have half of the room filled with the newer flat screen iMacs, I will be able to resurrect the multimedia work that I used to do. Kidspiration is a great program. I want to upgrade to the newer version and have to see how that will work out with the state funds - a job I have to work on next week.

Finally...
I have to plan out new bulletin boards. I know I'm going to concentrate on the ideas of Creative Commons and copyright. We did a fair bit of work on copyright, plagiarism, and fair use in the sixth, seventh, and eighth grades last year. Maybe I'll have copyright on the right side bulletin board and copyleft on the left side bulletin board with "big C" and "little cc". That would still leave me with a huge strip bulletin board above the blackboards.

For those getting ready to head back to school - have a great year!

Image Citation:
"Back to school." Avolore's photostream. 2006 Aug 2. 2008 Aug 18.
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/66/204934333_7738d2e5a9.jpg?v=0

New Wireless Lab

2008-07-27T07:11:00.008-04:00

On July 21st, Discovery Education posted the winners of the CDW-G and Discovery Education "Win a Wireless Lab" Sweepstakes. I had the amazing experience to have been chosen for one of the five labs.

Back in mid-June, I was looking for applications for an HP Tablet PC. I've spent the better part of four weeks getting the first tablet ready. It is a Compaq 2710p. I'm almost finished loading the software - all open source. I am so grateful to be able to easily equip the machines with free open source software. It would have been unimaginable to afford Microsoft Office for 20 PCs all at once.

This is going to be an amazing change for our building. Right now, all the K-8 classrooms have three Apple desktop machines with Internet access. We also have six iBooks that can be loaned out. The wireless lab comes with a mobile cart. It will be housed on the second floor of the building. Now, an entire class can be working in the same classroom. With a full load of classes, the 16 desktops and 6 laptops in my computer lab/ classroom are often in use. It can be hard to schedule time for an entire class. The biggest change is that the tablets will be running Windows XP. I'm getting ready to learn what it means to need virus protection.

We have also received a document camera. I am pretty close to having refined my message to the teachers to gather interest in the AVerMedia CP130. I love how we will be able to take and annotate any 3D image. It will also be fun to explore creating movies of students manipulating items under the camera's lens.

We will be extending our collection of digital still camera with two Sony Cyber-shot DSC-S750 cameras and two Sony Handycam DCR-HC62 video cameras. There are times when the three cameras we own are being used around the building at the same time. This will give us even more flexibility. I have always wanted to be able to created and edit movies with the students. We've been learning over the last two years by using the 8 iMac machines that have a built-in iSight camera. Now we can be untethered with the Handycams. I loved the Teach Jeff Spanish videos. We'll have to see what we can do. I would also like to record the students presenting their PowerPoint presentations. They will be able to analyze their ums and likes while they talk.

Another item I have had on my wish list for years is the Promethean Activboard. Thanks to the sweepstakes, I will have one in my room. It is on a wheeled stand so it can be moved anywhere on the first floor. There is going to be a big learning curve to use it, but I want to design as many lessons as possible to get the students up to the board and working. In this way, when we get a second board for the second floor, I will have a team of students to help the teachers find their way. There is also a set of Activote devices to be integrated into the class.

The prize package is rounded out with three wireless access points, an Epson computer projector, an HP color laser printer, and a Discovery Education grant. We will be able to have a years worth of Discovery streaming and money for several DVDs that the teachers have been wanting to purchase. As the year goes on, I will look forward to joining my local DEN. I only hear good things about the Discovery Educator Network.

As I learn, I will be posting information over the course of the year. I'm so excited and so grateful. I can't say enough about how helpful and caring the staff at both CDW-G and Discovery Education have been. The bottom line: when you hear about the next Win a Wireless Lab promotion, click over and submit your entry. It will change your world in a wonderful way!

Image Citiation:
Schyberg, Jorgen. "Promethean Activote After The Growth Hormone Treatment." mrjorgen's photostream. 2007 Jan 16. 2008 Jul 27.
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/126/359846164_e84cfcfb8b.jpg?v=0

Google Custom Search Eye-Opener

2008-07-22T09:33:00.011-04:00

We all have more resources than we realized! Follow along to see how you can get even more out of your del.icio.us and/or Diigo accounts.

Summer Podcast Series
I've been listening to several podcasts over the summer. Last night, I listened to Alan November at BLC08 via Bob Sprankle's Bit by Bit podcast. The title is Teaching Zack Webliteracy. I've been hearing people talk about Alan November and BLC over the last year, so I decided to take time to listen to the podcast. The presentation covers a lot of ground. Along the way, it re-pointed me to Google Custom Search engines.

Google Custom Search Engines
Google now allows anyone to create a custom search engine. I've been thinking about them as a better way to help students find information on the Internet. The basic idea is that you can build a list of websites that you value. Those websites sit under and umbrella of one name. Instead of going to a standard search engine, you can look through your custom search engine. I did it this morning and the first test search sent me here to my blog to share what I've seen.

The Plus and Minus of Social Bookmarks
I have used delicious in three different situations: for my students, for the faculty in my building, and for a training session I do with public school teachers in an alternate route to certification course. It is superior in providing an electronic source list for these individuals. The downfall that I am seeing is that since I am the person creating the list, it works for me. For a social bookmark to work well, I think the person using it really needs to be the person generating it.

For example: My students are outstanding from K-8 if I tell them go to the eighth grade links and click on the link that says "Wiki Research Wrap-Up Survey". They seem to have a much harder time if I say go back to the copyright wiki. Invariably, they ask which one and I'll tell them it's on the second page of links, the title is "Seventh and Eighth Grade Wiki Project". I'm not complaining. It is much better than before. I know have a list of all the links we used in the 2007-2008 school year. I will add to the links for years to come.

How Can I Improve Things
I am planning on sending a survey out to the teachers in the alternate route class in the next couple of weeks. I am curious to see how many of them ever went back to the delicious account I created for the class.

I'm also not sure how many of the teachers in the building tried our delicious account over the summer after I spent three hours with them the last day of school.

I signed on to Google Reader this morning and clicked on the more menu item at the top of the page, and then clicked even more (see image on the right). This brought me to a massive page of Google offerings. I was looking for the link under Explore and Innovate titled Custom Search.

How Hard Is It?
It was really easy to create the custom search. After choosing the Create a Custom Search Engine button, I filled in a form detailing the name I wanted to give the search engine and the list of links to search. I have 63 links in my Saint Michael Teachers del.icio.us account. In a second tab, I opened delicious, right clicked on each link, and selected Copy Link Location from the pop up menu. Returning to the first tab, I right clicked and pasted the link in the sites to search box.

How Wonderful Is It?
Once the search was created, I typed in the following query: "lesson plan" "Google Earth". Here are my results!

These are results I do not have in my delicious links for Google Earth! I am amazed, and astounded, and look forward to testing it out further.

The Final Touch
The original URL looks like this:
http://www.google.com/coop/cse?cx=014795919024616124011:4lsrq16cch0
I went to MOO URL and gave it a name: searchsms.
I can now give out the following to the teachers: http://www.moourl.com/searchsms which will stand for Search Saint Michael School. It ties it into a nice package.

Have you done anything with custom search? Have you written any blog posts about it? I'd like to know more about how others are using this tool.

Image Citation:
"iPod gathering." nikitac's photostream. 2005 Oct 28. 2008 Jul 22.
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/30/56898961_fa5b5d2f30.jpg?v=0

Connecting Google Reader and Classroom20.com

2008-07-14T22:32:00.003-04:00

It's time to celebrate the one year anniversary of my blog! On July 15, 2007 I opened shop, as it were. What a better way to celebrate than to share an idea that came up in conversation today.

What Web 2.0 Tool Would You Show First
I came in to Twitter today and saw a question from Chad Lehman asking about first web 2.0 tools for new teachers. My answer was that Classroom20.com is a great tool. I think it alone can be overwhelming for anyone new to the idea of collaborating online. I mentioned in passing that if I like a particular forum topic I've taken to copying its URL into Google Reader so that I can easily keep up with where the discussion goes.

Steps That Make It Happen
I signed back on to Twitter later in the evening an saw a question from Chad. He liked the idea and asked if I had steps written down to accomplish the task. Here is the way I use Classroom20.com to get the most out of the forums.

When I join a Ning group, such as Classroom 2.0, I click on the Forum tab then highlight the URL (for example: http://www.classroom20.com/forum)
I copy and paste the URL into the Add Subscription link on my Google Reader page.
When I see a question that interests me in my reader, I click the link and go directly to that question over on the ning. In this case, classroom20.
I can read the entire question, respond if I have more information, and decide if I would like to have easy access to any other responses.
I copy the entire URL of the forum question and paste it into Google Reader. Now anytime someone answer the question I can scan through the response.

Saved-to-Date
A few questions have caught my eye over time. One question relates to using a projector in the classroom. A second question asks for suggestions on using Scratch with the seventh grade. A third question asks for suggestions on using name plates in computer class. In each case, I was curious to see the results that would be generated.

The next time you see a forum topic in a ning that catches your interest, copy and paste the message URL into your reader. It will look something like this: http://www.classroom20.com/forum/topic/show?id=649749%3ATopic%3A160798. It's become one of the ways I make the most of the time I take from my family to participate in teacher communities online. One year into the blogging process I can promise that the effort I make is worth every moment.

Image Citation:
Sohlström, Britt-Marie. "Birthday One year old - no puppy any more." YIvas' photostream. 2007 Sep 2. 2008 Jul 14.
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1074/1304642463_060c31dbe8.jpg?v=0

Refining a Message

2008-07-09T18:39:00.011-04:00

How can you make a pitch for technology and make the message stick? This question has been burning in my mind as I work with some new equipment over the summer. Along the way, I found the book Made to Stick by Chip Heath and Dan Heath.

AVerMedia Document Camera/ Visualizer
One of the new pieces of equipment is a document camera. Up until recently, I hadn't heard much about these products. When the AVerMedia CP130 arrived at our school at the close of the 2007-2008 year, I wasn't certain who might choose to use it but I saw a lot of potential. Back in the "old days" when I was in grammar school, the nuns used opaque projectors (see image) to resize drawings. I had forgotten about them until I saw our art teacher using one to project some lettering on the wall of the cafeteria. The document camera is the same in concept with the added feature of being able to capture the image as a JPEG or a movie. I've managed to collect a few ideas in delicious already.

Selling the Idea to Our Faculty
My initial plan was to take five minutes at the faculty meeting and have everyone make a cootie catcher by following my hands via the document projector. I was going to equate it with an overhead projector that does not require a transparent object. I would then let everyone know they could come back to my room to take a closer look.

Made to Stick
The book has been leading me through six steps. These steps have the potential to make the idea of using the document projector in the classroom survive the five minute demo. The idea should not only survive, but I should end up with a much better presentation. Once the idea survives the demonstration, the teachers should be more likely to consider using the equipment as a part of a classroom lesson.

The Main Points
I am currently reading and thinking through the fifth of six points. The main concepts are that an idea needs to have:

a simple message
an unexpected attention getter
a concrete example
a believable idea
something that will cause people to care about the idea
a story to get people to act on the idea

I have been capturing my thought process showing the change from my initial instinct through my final presentation plan. If you are trying to "sell" an addition or modification of an idea this book is for you! Take time to get the book from your local library or bookstore. I believe it will give you some new tools. It might also remind you of advise you have heard before. In the end, you will have a much stronger presentation.

Image Citation:
"Progress? The trees don't think so." obscuracamerareferen ca's photostream. 2006 Oct 9. 2008 Jul 9.
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/98/264635283_73e7101319.jpg?v=0

Ever Heard of Freecycle

2008-07-05T13:54:00.006-04:00

Freecycle can help you help others. Teachers have been some of my best "customers" over the years. As I get ready to put some items up on Freecycle, I thought I'd outline the process for those of you who may not know about this website.

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle
This is a theme many in the United States hear over and over again. The US Environmental Protection Agency has a website that outlines some thoughts on the reduce, reuse, recycle theme. It's not just the US, either. I read an article stating the Italian government declared an emergency due to the poor upkeep of Pompeii. People are leaving mattresses and refrigerator's behind.

Is It Another eBay?
Freecycle is not like eBay. There is not one main site; although, you can click on freecycle.org to find your local group. No money changes hands. As their tag line states, you are helping to "change the world one gift at a time".

My Group
My local group operates through a Yahoo group. Once I joined, I was able to place items that are free for the taking. I've passed on used, but still good, children's clothes. I've given away old pieces of technology that are obsolete to me, but useful to others. Mostly, I give away items. A few times I've picked up books and once a bowling pin that caught my husband's eye.

Then What?
Once I place the notice of an item, I wait to see who is interested. For some items, I'll get multiple responses. My group suggests that you do not necessarily give it to the first responder, but wait a bit and see who seems to have the bigger need. Once I choose the recipient, I'll contact them via email and set up a pick up date/ time.

Does It Always Work Out Well?
I've never had a bad experience. I sometimes get frustrated. I will tell a person that the item is out on the front rail and they will not come on the appointed day. Mostly, I never end up even meeting the person. I place the item in a bag on the front railing and it is gone before I know it. In the long run, I enjoy Freecycle because most of what I need to get rid of has past its use for me but is not broken, damaged, or worthless. I'm helping the landfill stay a bit emptier. I'm giving someone something they need. I'm feeling freer because I'm not bogged down with clutter.

Give it a try and you might develop a new habit to help the planet.

Image Citation:
"Christmas gifts on Flickr." Brungrrl's photostream. 2007 Dec 3. 2008 Jul 5.
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2109/2084326518_e4828bb388.jpg?v=0

RSS for Blogger Link Backs

2008-07-01T10:12:00.008-04:00

I just spent a few minutes, or fifteen, trying to figure out how to get a better look at link backs to my blog into my reader. A link back lets a blogger know when someone else has found their blog content useful enough to include a "link back to" their own post.

For Example
I wrote a post about the 31 Day Comment Challenge ending on May 31. Vicki Davis kindly included a link back to that post. I knew about it for two reasons: first, she mentioned in her comment on that post that she was planning on including a link to the post; second, it got picked up via Technorati. You might want to read Sue Waters' blog post "Why Does Technorati Mock Me" for some insight into that website. There is another example of a link back. I'm sending you over to Sue's blog rather than reinventing the wheel.

Why I Started Down This Path
My original intention was to go to my reader and see what was being blogged in respect to NECC onsite reflections. When I opened my reader, I noticed that I had some comments to my blog. A while back, Cathy Nelson was bemoaning the fact that she couldn't subscribe to comments from the School Library Journal and many bloggers in her reader. I ended up following a comment from Vicki Davis to her blog to copy and paste the code to display my comments in an RSS feed. That was trick in itself.

How To: Comment RSS in Blogger
I ended up going to my Layout tab. I added a Page Element and titled it Subscribe. Gave it a name: My Feed for Comments and pasted in this code: http://njtechteacher.blogspot.com/feeds/comments/default/ that I copied from Vicki's comment subscription button. Of course, I needed to change coolcatteacher to njtechteacher.

How About Link Backs?
Between writing this post and the initial fifteen minutes of searching, it comes down to this: Blogger has a bullet item at the bottom of the help on link backs that gives the following instructions:

Go to the Google Blog Search website
Type link:your-blog-here.blogspot.com in the search box replacing your-blog-here with your blog id (such as njtechteacher)
You can then copy and paste the url directly intro your reader.

Now back to my regularly scheduled initial plan ... reading NECC reflections.

Image Citation:
Desirae. "Liquid Links." ~Dezz~'s photostream. 2008 Jun 7. 2008 Jul 1.
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3016/2560241604_d4f1ce17e5.jpg?v=0

NECC Remote

2008-06-30T18:08:00.002-04:00

The NECC conversations are going on in San Antonio, Texas this week. I was unable to make the trip, but through the magic of the Internet I've been able to attend in a virtual sense.

How Do I Find Out What's Going On?
There are a number of different websites online that were set up in advance to help both those people on-site and those online to keep up with the information flow. The first site that has helped me is the NECClive wiki's Live Information page. There are a number of people who are using Ustream to show video streams of presentation that they are attending. They must have permission in advance.

The Full Sessions I've Attended
I have been able to listen in on and chat at Konrad Glogowski's session on Blogging. He spoke very clearly on the lessons he has learned in blogging with his students. I stumbled upon Derrall Garrison streaming a speed demo this afternoon. I was at the entire session at EduBloggerCon held by several folks called the Web 2.0 Smackdown. If you follow the link you can view the pre-recorded Ustream.

The Ustream Collection
I now have several Ustreams that I can wander through to see if anything is streaming. They include:
Will Richardson's http://www.ustream.tv/channel/weblogg-ed-tv
Derrall Garrison's http://www.ustream.tv/channel/team-force-teacher-feed
Jeff Utecht's http://www.ustream.tv/channel/u-tech-tv

There are now several more listed on the NECClive wiki. I'd also be remiss if I didn't mention EdStreamTV. This is where I initially found some video from EduBloggerCon.

The Live Blogs
I had the opportunity to live blog when I attended the conference in Princeton a while back. This past weekend, I spent some time with Alice Barr's Live Blog at the Web 2.0 Smackdown. Today I read Kristen Hokanson's Live Blog after the fact from a presentation she attended given by David Jakes and Dean Shareski about making PowerPoint more visual with students. It was titled The Power of PowerPoint. Her writing was a quick read with many useful tips.

The NECC Ning, Chatterous, Mogulus
I have not gone to the Ning, too much, but it is out there with photos, forums, and a whole lot more. There was a humongous chat going on in a Chatterous room Saturday courtesy of Bud the Teacher. He was also streaming at http://www.mogulus.com/budtheteacher. That's been pretty quiet today, too.

Do I Feel Like I'm Participating
I do. At both the Web 2.0 Smackdown and the speed demo, I was tagging the sites being described in delicious. If you'd like to see all the sites from the Smackdown - go to http://del.icio.us/njtechteacher/web2_smackdown. I only stumbled upon the speed demo, but for those links, go to http://del.icio.us/njtechteacher/speed_demo.

Do I Feel Like I'm Missing Out
Nothing will replace the camaraderie of meeting people in person, but I'm not missing out. I've spent a lot of time with my two sons playing Life and Monopoly. I've had a nice walk with my husband. I've taken care of some clean-up in my classroom. I'm enjoying the summer pace of life. Next year, NECC is in Washington, DC. I'll be there and I'm looking forward to it! So for now whether I Twitter, Plurk, use Ustream, Chatterous, or Mogolus I'm participating and enjoying the conference in my own way. This post is a useful way to keep track of all that I've found so far.

Glogowski, Konrad. "the teachandlearn retreat is ready for NECC!" teachandlearn's photostream. 23 June 2008. 30 June 2008.
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3222/2606229622_bd2585653d.jpg?v=0

K12 Online Conference 2008

2008-06-29T18:27:00.002-04:00

The countdown has begun to the K12 Online Conference 2008. If you have never seen the offerings, jump on over to the K12 Online Conference 2007 schedule or the 2006 schedule.

It is a set of audio and/or video presentations on various topics relevant to Kindergarten through grade twelve educators created by educators. It is free. The materials continue to be archived and hosted so you can take advantage of the programs now.

Been There ... Done That
It might be time to consider writing a proposal for a prevention of your own. Think back over the course of the year. What do you have to share with the world? The theme is Amplifying Possibilities with four strands: Getting Started, Kicking It Up a Notch, Prove It, and Leading the Change.

The Deadline
The deadline has been extended to July 11, 2008 at midnight GMT. If you were thinking about submitting a proposal, but you thought the deadline had passed, you have another opportunity.

The Way I Learned Has Changed

2008-06-20T12:10:00.002-04:00

This week, I received an HP Tablet PC. I was just thinking about the difference between how I learned to use a Mac six years ago and what I've been doing this week.

Some Things Never Change
I have to put my hands on the tools. I'm trying to think about why I am good at what I do. At the same time, I wonder why some people find it more difficult. Part of the equation is that I like to play. When I learned that I was going to be teaching using Macs, my first question was: when can I bring one home to play? I am excited about using the tablet. When it arrived on Wednesday, the first thing I wanted to do was open it and find out how it works.

My Use of the Web Has Changed
Six years ago, I knew enough that there had to be training, tutorials, and articles online about using Macs to teach K-8 students. I don't know why - maybe the lack of a laptop and wireless Internet - but I printed reams of paper. I felt really guilty about throwing the paper out, too. I had a binder for each group of students I'd be teaching.

Now I have my social bookingmarking sites: delicious and Diigo. Now I don't have to worry about forgetting a useful site and I have a backup of my links at two different locations. I use Diigo to be a part of groups of educators. I use delicious for its simplicity. I believe I am learning along the way that a delicious account makes very little sense unless it is your own. I have now taught four different groups of adults about integrating technology in education. I'm not too sure about how intuitive either system is unless you create, tag, and maintain your own site. Does anyone have any feelings about this either way?

My Connections With Others Has Changed
The best I could do with the Mac was speak with the previous two teachers at the school. The other day, I asked my Twitter network for suggestions on open source software to put on the tablets and received a great set of ideas. Some I use all the time on the Mac and they would have been natural additions. Some were Windows applications. Even though we have two Windows desktops at home, I use games and Quicken on them for the most part. I am also being exposed to other people's bookmarks and have been saving blogs, podcasts, and other items related to tablets. I am receiving so many ideas.

Leading the Charge
I'm looking forward to my reflections here in a year. It's going to be an undeniable opportunity having a wireless lab full of 20 tablet PCs in the building. I am fully focused on gathering momentum in the school for the technology to spread out of the computer lab and past simple Internet research, Word documents and printouts.

Image Citation:
A photo of my lab back in November from my Flickr account.
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2192/1989094839_c75c192a5d.jpg?v=0

Handout Wordle

2008-06-16T21:15:00.004-04:00

I've been seeing the Wordle website being thrown back and forth on Twitter and in blogs recently. Now that it is the end of school, I've decided to check it out with a handout I gave to teachers at a training session this past Friday.I think I stressed what I intended: web connections and moving through Bloom's levels in projects.

Intro to the Read/Write Web
The class was based on the information I provided to some New Jersey teachers who are working toward their teacher certification. The gentleman who runs the alternate route course was very specific in saying that I should assume a certain comfort level with technology from those folks.

The teachers in my school have a different levels of comfort. They all have computers in the class, but our preschool classrooms do not yet have Internet access. The preschool classes also use older, donated machines.

Much as I did back in February, I did manage to have everyone take a survey. Before starting, I showed them the Middle Ages Tech Support video to remind them that all technology was new and scary at some point. Everyone used a wiki to brainstorm ideas for using technology. They took a look at the Wikis in Plain English video as a big picture of why people use wikis.

Again, similar to February, I took the teachers on a tour of the K12 Online Conference. I spoke again about Liz Kolb's Cell Phones as Classroom Tools presentation, Silvia Tolisano's Travel Through Space and Time, and Brian Crosby's Obstacles to Opportunities presentation. I really choked up talking about Brian's presentation. My sister didn't survive leukemia, and would have really loved to have attended class virtually. His story makes my heart full.

I followed this with Darren Draper's Pay Attention video. It appears that no one had seen it before. I asked them to talk with each other about it during the video, if it struck them to do so. I had them do a Think-Pair-Share afterwards. I need to become more adept at getting people talking afterward. No one seemed to want to volunteer comments afterwards.

Moving Up Through Bloom's Taxonomy
This is where I stepped away from February's class pattern. I would have liked to moved on to showing them other new tools, but instead spoke with them about how I use technology in the classroom to move the students up Bloom's Taxonomy.

I spotlighted several projects and tried to demonstrate how I attempted to engage students in reflection, analysis, and creation. I showed them the Monster Project, the Math Discussion Mental Math and Weight Voicethreads, and the Sixth Grade Population Density movie.

When They Left...
They took home a double-sided two-page handout, a del.icio.us account with all the links plus more, and the knowledge that we have agreed to take time after 1/2-day meetings for technology training. I know they felt like they were hit with a tidal wave of information. For those who choose, they are armed with enough information to begin their own exploration of teacher connections online.

Professional Development Meme

2008-06-14T21:48:00.007-04:00

I was tagged by Andrea over at the EdTech Workshop blog for this Summer Professional Development meme. Started by Clif at Clif's Notes, I've given myself some time to think about three goals for the summer. His original directions are below.

The Goals
1. Learn to search EBSCO for current information on the Presidential election in preparation for introducing the concept to, at least, grades six to eight.
2. Learn to use the HP Tablet PC that I will be receiving some time next week and determine the software that I will use on the tablet.
3. Learn to use Discovery streaming Plus in anticipating of having it available in the school next year.

The Commitment
I am planning on writing about my progress throughout the summer, but no later than mid-September.

The Tag
Eight is a lot of people to tag in a meme. I will do my best. If meme tags are not your thing, just pass on it. If you were already tagged, just smile. I'll get back to all your blogs and see what your plans are for the summer.

Patti at A Second Grade Teacher's Blog
Nadine at Life Long Learning Blog
Linda at Nitsche Notes Blog
Dan at geek.teacher Blog
Anne at Tech Savvy Teacher Blog
Diane at Nexus Blog
Kimberly at Mrs. Vance Goes To School Blog
Caroline at Ed Tech Trek Blog

Now I have to go get busy!

Directions

Summer can be a great time for professional development. It is an opportunity to learn more about a topic, read a particular work or the works of a particular author, beef up an existing unit of instruction, advance one’s technical skills, work on that advanced degree or certification, pick up a new hobby, and finish many of the other items on our ever-growing To Do Lists. Let’s make Summer 2008 a time when we actually get to accomplish a few of those things and enjoy the thrill of marking them off our lists.

The Rules

Pick 3 professional development goals and commit to achieving them this summer.
For the purposes of this activity the end of summer will be Labor Day (09/01/08).
Post the above directions along with your 3 goals on your blog.
Title your post Professional Development Meme and link back/trackback to http://clifmims.com/blog/archives/353.
Use the following tag/ keyword/ category on your post: pdmeme.
Tag 8 others to participate in the meme.
Achieve your goals and "develop professionally."
Commit to sharing your results on your blog during early or mid-September.

Image Citation
Torres, Marco Antonio. "BLC07_037." torres21's photostream. 2007 Jul 17. 2008 Jun 14.
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1418/842400349_09bedf0cd1.jpg?v=0

I <3 Computers and Math

2008-06-10T18:39:00.004-04:00

One of my favorite things to see in my room is a student pick up a piece of chalk and leave a message like the image to the right behind.

My students and I worked very hard on many projects. Some were oldies but goodies that I do from year to year. Others were new and never tried before at my school. I'm getting ready to do a meme on professional development planned for the summer. Before I do, I wanted to reflect on this past year.

Math Class
I managed to get further in the chapters than last year. That's always a good thing. I had more students grasp the concept of multiplying and dividing fractions and mixed numbers, too.

This year, I pushed to do a few new bits on the technology integration side. I used David Warlick's fine Classblogmeister product to create a place of reflection for the students. We managed to use the site to contain research for decimal division and rounding.

On the upside: Most of the students managed to make the posts from home or during recess in the computer lab.
On the downside: We became involved in creating a movie about population density and I didn't assign any more questions for homework. As a result, there haven't been any posts to the blog in 2008.

We used Voicethread to capture images of items the students weighed on a digital scale. I created questions and had the students answer them as comments.

On the upside: The project became a joint project with Shaun in New Brunswick, Canada. We ended up commenting on his student's Mental Math Voicethread and they commented on ours. We had a Skype call between the two classes, too. It was a first for my students and I.
On the downside: A couple of students didn't get to weighing and photographing items. We had school canceled today due to heat when we were supposed to have a second Skype call. We end classes on Thursday and the other school is on a field day tomorrow, so it may not work out.

We created a movie using the iSight cameras built into our iMacs. The students needed more clarification on what population density was, why some numbers were so low, and why some numbers were so high. They made music in Garageband and voted via SurveyMonkey for the intro song and the closing credits song.

On the upside: It became a nice computer class project. I'd estimate that it took about six 42-minute periods to create. It will be something they can look back on.
On the downside: I'm not sure that all the students "get" population density, yet. Not all students returned permission slips, so I had to edit in some images and text to the presentation to replace the missing students. I made sure to save the movies as .mov files and my SMS Computer Podcasts page on Podomatic insists on changing them to .mp4. Right now I'm uploading to Teachertube to see what happens. I might end up uploading to Youtube as well.

For the second year in a row, I had the students create metric music songs to demonstrate what they knew about length, mass, and capacity in metric measures.

On the upside: It is a great project around Christmas to keep the students focused on math. The quality was better than last year because I gave better directions. We had the blog to store all the songs.
On the downside: It was better than last year, but there are still some knowledge gaps in metric measurement concepts.

I created some study casts with audio and a matching video set with slides at the beginning of the year to help students review for tests and quizzes.

On the upside: I did it and a student or two looked at them.
On the downside: I was not able to get all the students to see them. One father told his daughter it was because the files were .mp4 and not .mov or .mp3. I never took the time to fully figure it out. I would try again, though.

Computer Class
There is a world of reflection that I will do later in the week about computer class. With grades Kindergarten to eight to reflect on, I'll save it for a different post. I do love computers and math, myself!

Podcasting Practicalities

2008-06-03T17:48:00.006-04:00

I've been learning, over the course of the year, how to get podcasts together in a most expeditious and usable-for-students manner. I am not sure how practical all the steps are, but it seems to be what works best for me. Use the steps or suggest changes, I'm open to making the process more streamlined.

Garageband '08
I use Garageband since it is a very easy product for my students and I. I have taught grades four through eight how to use Garageband this year and they love it.

Once the recording is complete and I edit it for little mistakes, I am ready to export it as an AIF file. Why, you ask? Because I found a program called Levelator. It levels out the audio from one speaker to the next in a podcast.

Some students speak soft, others loud, so this evens everything out. The Levelator requires a WAV or AIF file, so this extra step becomes necessary.

Levelator
It couldn't be a simplier program to use. Drag and drop a file onto the interface's little black rectangle and it places a new file with a .output extension in the folder with your original file.

Open the File in iTunes
I open the file in iTunes and get ready to jump through another hoop. This one involves choosing the file and selecting from the menu Advanced - Convert Selection to AAC. This gives me a .m4a file. I ran into headaches with this earlier in the year when I was creating math review podcasts for my students. Not every student could play that file type at home. So... on to the next hoop.

Upload the file to Zamzar and Convert
It seem like everyone can play .mp3 files. I use Zamzar because it is free and quick. I do use the website a fair amount, so I did make a donation to them a while back. I also received a very nice thank you email from them. I find my .m4a file on my hard drive, choose to convert to .mp3 and supply my email address. A short while later, a link appears to my new .mp3 file. It disappears in one day, so I try to complete this step when I'm not pressed for time.

Upload the File to Podomatic
I'm in the clear at this point. I started a Podomatic account earlier this year. Again, free is good. I have 500MB of storage and I'm only at about 12% capacity after a year's worth of work. I am contemplating going pro for the better statistics and ad-free page.

When I started the account, I created an RSS feed to the page. My students can access all the podcasts by typing SMS Computer at the iTunes store.

For Those Without iTunes
With the end firmly in site, I make a link to the podcasts on my classroom wiki. I have a link to the classroom wiki on my Schoolnotes page. The students are usually very good at finding the Schoolnotes page since almost every teacher keeps one for homework assignments.

So There You Have It
A lot of steps, that may seem redundant, but it is working for me. I also end up with three ways that the students can find the files.

Any thoughts?

Image Citation
Chan, Kelly. "iPod gathering." nikitac's photostream. 2005 Oct 28. 2008 June 2.
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/30/56898961_fa5b5d2f30.jpg?v=0

Voicethread's Nod to Education

2008-06-02T17:48:00.006-04:00

I received the following newsletter in my email the other day:

Hello VoiceThreaders,

In this newsletter we've got a special offer, an article in Edutopia, and a look at the new export feature.

Get the summer free! If you're thinking about starting a class or school subscription on Ed.VoiceThread, our secure K-12 network, now is the time. Any class or school subscription that begins before June 30th will be extended through August 31st of 2009. That means the rest of this school year and the summer are free if you start now. Visit our K-12 pricing page for more info.

Edutopia

VoiceThread was recently featured on Edutopia.org. The article highlights what educators and students already love about VoiceThread - that student enthusiasm for the tool fosters more prolific and thoughtful participation in classroom discussions. Bill Ferriter, a North Carolina educator and blogger found that VoiceThread gives his 6th grade students new opportunities to engage with social studies curriculum, breaking learning barriers like timidity, boredom, or one way teacher-student communication. In a recent assignment on conflict in Darfur, Ferriter noticed, "Because it's so motivating to the kids already, they're willing to do those bits of writing I could probably never get them to do in class." Read more on Edutopia.

Archival Exports

You can now export VoiceThreads! Any class or student VoiceThread can be exported to a movie that can be burned onto a DVD or shared offline with parents. All educators can order archival exports at 50% off, $10 for 10 exports. All annual class subscriptions include 30 exports, while schools get one for each user account.

In other exciting news, VoiceThread was a winner on CNET's Webware 100 contest! We are quite sure it was because of our educators. We really appreciate the support you've given us and we plan to continue innovating based on your feedback. Thanks again!

Sincerely,

The VoiceThread Team

p.s. We've had some great feedback about VoiceThread being used by Special Education educators and have had requests by parents and educators for more information. If you have experience or advice that you think would be valuable to share, please tell us in this discussion in our forum. Thanks very much.

On re-reading the letter, I realize you have to purchase a classroom subscription for $60. Back in March I had written with hope that Voicethread would be able to provide educators with the ability to have free downloads of Voicethreads. 30 downloads are more than ample for the work I do with my students.

I still wish that the company would run a promotion to allow educators to sign up for a free for the year classroom account if you sign up for the account before June 30. But, now I know that I can have 30 downloads included in the price.

Comment Challenge Tasks

2008-05-31T12:12:00.006-04:00

The 31 Day Comment Challenge has some interesting tasks. Some of the tasks I have completed are things I tend to do in my regular practice. Other tasks have stretched my thinking.

Ask a Question in a Blog Comment (Day Four)
This is something I tend to do as I read blogs and post comments. Blog comments fall into three categories for me: I respond with my feelings on a post, I write to congratulate someone on something they are doing, I am uncertain about what was written about and I leave a question. The use of Cocomment and co.mment both help me see when people respond. This had not always been my practice. It was, looking back, more of a hit and run process.

At the start of reading and commenting on edublogs, I didn’t realize that people would respond in their blog. I thought they would visit my blog and leave responses. I thought that was why most blogs requested your website when you comment. I didn't know that it was so people could click on your name and visit your blog. I’m sure I received answers in my early days of commenting on blogs that I missed.

The biggest challenge of those two comment tracking programs is that unless I’m logged onto my laptop that I bring back and forth from school or the desktop at home, I miss the capabilities of those programs. The other night, I was working at school backing up photos from the last six years. I left the laptop at home since I had returned in the evening. I went to read a post by Chris and left a comment. I didn’t want to load either commenting program on the school’s desktop machine. Now I have to go back and see if he had any response to my comment.

Note: While writing this post, I realized that I can go back and click the Track co.mments link in my bookmarks toolbar. The ability to track comments after they are made is a plus for the co.mments tool. CoComments seems to require being activated as a part of the comment process.

Engage Another Commenter in Discussion (Day 6)
This was a natural extension of one of my comments this week. Christy wrote a post addressing learning opportunities for teachers during the summer. Kelly left a comment:

My question, how do we get all those teachers and administrators who don’t even know where the church is, to enter and at least listen to the choir? What will we need to do to draw them in? Where will we get the needed time and exposure to put forth our ideas? I would really like to see things move along but how do we reach those who really need to hear the message?

I responded to his questions with my own thoughts. I must admit I see addressing entries as “@blog commenter” as a Twitter carryover. I tend to address everyone in comments in a manner that is more like a salutation in a letter. Here is how I responded to Christy and Kelly:

Christy:
I really like the list you put together. I’ll be working with the teachers in my building in a couple of weeks and I’m going to add it to the resources I’ll be pointing to.

The summer is a great time to recharge our batteries and visit new ideas. I have read, or am in the process of reading, the first three books on your list.

Kelly:
We all need to make the difference one person at a time. I’ve spoken with three different groups of people at our local alternate route to teacher certification program back in February. I plan on sending those who gave me their email address a follow up note as a reminder of what’s available. I also plan on asking them what they may have tried since February.

In my building, I’m will be showing the projects that our students created and collaborated on. People have to make the choice to grow. They also need exposure to new ideas to make that choice.

It takes time to learn and grow our personal lesson plans that we use with our students. It may take showing people opportunities over and over again until they are willing to try something new themselves. I know you’ve been at this a lot longer than Christy and I, so the process might seem painfully slow. The message is getting out there one teacher at a time.

Ann

Three Things I’ve Learned (Day 7)
I will wrap up this post with some lessons learned. I know that I do much better on the challenges that are not a big stretch.

So far, I’ve been completing the tasks that are easy, no-brainers. I guess that’s human nature. Summer break is coming and there will be plenty of time to find posts I disagree with, posts in a different niche, and posts in a different language.

Reading and commenting on posts is very natural to me. It doesn’t carry over into the rest of the Internet yet. Two examples are commenting on Flickr images and leaving comments on what I see as articles appearing on major websites. I’m hoping by the end of the challenge that I will be more likely to respond to others about their photos. In reference to commenting on major websites, I’m thinking about a recent Edutopia poll. I found it odd that they thought someones entry of “dangerously irrelevant” was a comment on a person’s feeling about reading a blog instead of the blog Dangerously Irrelevant. I was surprised to see two blogs: Cool Cat Teacher and Two Cents Worth along side the blogging platform, Edublogs. My first instinct was to drop a comment about it over on Twitter. Darren left a Twitter message that he responded in the comment area of the Edutopia page. When I went to see what he wrote, I found that several people commented below the article AND the article changed based on the feedback. I never think to look further than articles and polls.

I enjoy leaving comments on blog posts and really like when the blog author takes a moment to respond back to my comment.

Onward and forward to more comment challenge tasks.

Image Citation:
Christine Martell of VisualsSpeak.

Simplifying Incoming Information

2008-05-28T17:03:00.005-04:00

In my new mode of trying to simplify how I work with my very prolific network, I have come to use a new-to-me service. It's called Pipes: Twitter link monitor. I have seen references to "pipes" on and off for a while now, but never looked into it. It was pointed out to me in a comment to my last post by Sue Waters.

Getting Started
The set up is simple. Type your Twitter id into the input box, click the Run Pipe button, and get your results. I was surprised that I was able to run the utility with my Twitter ID since I have it set up as a protected account.

The important extra step is to click on the drop down list on the right side of the results window next to the orange RSS icon that says "More options". It is here that you will be able to choose "Get as RSS".

Copy the URL from the top of the screen into your reader and you will now receive a stream of links from those you are following in Twitter in your reader.

Isn't This More Information Overload?
While it may seem like I'm just adding more on my plate, it really is streamlining the process of the learning I accomplish over on Twitter. I have found a couple of items that would have passed me by otherwise.

Here's an Example
Last night, I was getting ready to prepare my last Kindergarten lesson of the year. I wanted to discuss the importance of going places safely online which is a Cybersmart lesson for the K-1 crowd. Usually I walk the students through two of the suggested websites, but I wanted something different.

I tweet popped up from @mscofino: Elementary/Primary teachers check this out: http://lookybook.com/ Interactive e-books for free! Thanks to @jmedved for the tip!

The URL sounded interesting. I was curious and clicked on over. It's a wonderful site full of books that can be clicked on and read online. The children enjoyed the website. I think it gave a better example website than the others I used to go to. I would have missed a great site without the RSS feed.

So What?
I've said on several occasions that I can't be on Twitter all the time, or worried about missing things that come down the river of information. This still holds true, but now I will be more likely to come across websites that may give me an improved lesson plan.

From my last post about my oversubscribed reader, I learned that there are plenty of people out there who want to stay informed and are trying to simplify life. This is worth the five minutes it takes to set up. You might want to give it a try. After all, you can always unsubscribe the item from your reader if it doesn't work for you.