Reading is Fundamental (RIF)

Do you remember RIF? I have to admit I totally forgot about it until I saw them listed in the vendor section at NECC. I went over to visit with them and I was really impressed with their resources.

Their free website has tons of resources. It is aimed primarily at the elementary grades. There is an Educator section, as well as a Parent section, and a section for Kids. They also even have a Bilingual section.

In the Educator section, you will find "Writers' Block" where your class can join other classes in writing a story. They also have animated Read-Along stories. In addition they have contests, web resources, lesson plans and articles. They even have downloads and printable planning guides.

For the children, they have a section called Reading Planet, where the kids can do activities (like illustrate a story), play games, review books,browse book lists and write stories. There is also a free Reading Planet Club that kids can join which allows them to create a web page, join contests and get a birthday card. To join the club kids under 13 have to use a parent/teacher email.

The Parent section allows parents to look for reading ideas and activities by age level. They also have printable resources and calendars with reading activities.

If you need any literacy ideas or materials I recommend this site. I also think the section for students has enough pictures (and read aloud with speakers) that it could be used fairly independently depending on the reading level and activity.

Founded in 1966, RIF is the oldest and largest children's and family nonprofit literacy organization in the United States. RIF’s highest priority is reaching underserved children from birth to age 8.

Online Lessons: As Diverse as the American Mind!

Kim mentioned she was looking for free resources - this is a reprint of my post for eSchool News. The resources that this site provides are outstanding and free!

Looking for student-ready, project-based lessons for students in grades 3-8? Need 24/7 access to the lessons and the content? No budget? Then the Adventure of the American Mind (AAM) program has great news for you – they can provide all of this to you for free!

The AAM Online Education Program (www.aamonline.org) has online lessons using digitized content from the Library of Congress that students can work on independently. Each lesson has a video preview and a lesson guide, as well as, supplemental materials for teacher use. In addition, lessons feature Microsoft Office technical tutorials and academic tutorials.

The Adventures of the American Mind program began in 1999 as a professional development to prepare K-12 teachers to integrate digital resources from the Library of Congress’ website (www.loc.gov). It began as one program in western North Carolina and has expanded to seven states with 27 programs!

The AAM program offers workshops, graduate courses, online professional development and faculty education, in addition to the online student lessons. Workshops are conducted at the school - using the technology resources available at the school. The workshops are grounded in adult learning theory and are practical in nature. By meeting the teachers and the schools at their technology levels the program ensures success.

The AAM program is designed around 3 Levels of Integration. The presenters’ shared several examples of lessons created by teachers at all three levels and even shared with us lessons created using digital content from the Library of Congress by the teachers’ students! The lessons were high quality and very well done. Some were even award winners!

I was impressed with the presenters’ enthusiasm and passion for the AAM program. I think their practical, success-oriented approach to professional development builds teachers confidence and comfort level with technology. This program offers a way for teachers to learn how to integrate technology at various levels and the support the teachers need when trying a new teaching style.

Locate an AAM partner near you www.aamprogram.org/introduction/aam_partners.aspx

A Place Called (Virtual) School: The Promise of K-12 Online Learning

This was fantastic - definitely a highlight of my conference! It was a panel discussion and I quickly realized that I really like the panel format. It was very interactive – with the panel participants talking with one another and it allowed a lot of time for Q & A. Over the last 5 years, one of the fastest growing trends in education is online schools. This panel was full of pioneers who have all had tremendous success implementing state-wide online schools.

Maribel Sevilla from ISTE Research and Evaluation was the Chair. The presenters were William Thomas from Southern Regional Education Board; Melinda Maddox of Alabama Department of Education; Matthew Wicks from the Illinois Virtual School; Robert Currie from the Michigan Virtual School; and Pam Birtolo of the Florida Virtual School. Each presenter spoke for about 5-10 minutes and then at the end we were able to ask questions. This was very well attended with standing room only.

Mr. Thomas (SREB) spoke about the considerations for planning state virtual schools. They have seen “skyrocketing” growth in virtual schooling across the country as educators search for ways to improve education. In addition, there has been a lot of success in students taking online classes. One of the biggest advantages online schools offer students is a wider variety of courses than their local school can offer. Mr. Thomas spoke emphatically about the need for quality with cost control.

Ms. Maddox addressed the importance of having state department and legislative support to back a virtual school. Their program is called ACCESS Distance Learning (Alabama Connecting Classrooms, Educators, and Students Statewide) and it was created by the Alabama Department of Education in October 2005. It provides the infrastructure needed for online education and it also provides the courses and teachers. The aim is to provide access to AP courses; additional courses; and remediation courses that are not offered in their schools. Currently there are 12 pilot schools which offer both asynchronous and synchronous online classes.

Mr. Wicks is from Illinois Virtual High School which has been in existence for 5 years. IVHS offers curriculum to all regular and alternative education students – the goal being equity of access. Mr. Wicks emphasized the ability of online schools and courses to meet students individualized learning needs. He encouraged us all to throw away preconceived notions of what type of student is successful in an online environment. Online teaching methods have improved and it is possible to reach a wide variety of learners online.
Michigan Virtual High School has been in existence for 6 years – since 1999 - and is supported financially by the state. Mr. Currie stated that there are over 7000 enrollments for this fall. In addition, they also offer a variety of test preparation courses that are not included in the general enrollment numbers. Since 1999, Michigan has been investigating what it means to be a 21st Century student.

Michigan is the first state to require students to have taken at least one online course as part of graduation requirements. Starting in the fall, all incoming 8th graders will be required to have an online course experience in order to graduate. Mr. Currie emphasized that online learning can be for every student and can meet the individualized needs of every learner with proper online teaching and facilitation.

Ms. Birtolo from Florida Virtual School began by agreeing with Mr. Currie and Mr. Wicks – online classes are for every student. The Florida Virtual School (FLVS) is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year. In the fall, they will have over 50,000 students (grades 6-12) enrolled in their courses. They have 476 teachers. FLVS contributes their success to student-centered learning and high quality teachers. In student surveys, FLVS has found over and over that students find the connection with the teacher to be the best part of their online experience. For students, it is not about the technology or taking classes online – it is about the relationship they have with their teacher.

This session allowed for a long session of Q & A. Some topics that came up during this time included:
1. Scalability – the online school program must be able to scale up to allow for large numbers of students. They discusses how often paperwork processes are the biggest hindrance to scalability. It is important to be sure your processes are not a barrier for students who want to take online classes.
2. 11 states have virtual schools by legislative actions.
3. No virtual school offers a diploma – the diploma comes from the local school district.
4. Funding is – and will continue to be – a huge issue in online schools. Online schools cannot become more expensive than traditional schools. Currently, there is little leadership at the federal level for online school funding.
5. Quality of teaching and teacher accountability. Most of these programs have high standards for hiring and maintain a strong training program.
6. Course ownership and intellectual property is more of an issue in college courses than in K-12 online schools. Right now the model is that schools create the content for online courses themselves, or they buy the course from a 3rd party like an online school. The school decides whether they will have their own teachers facilitate the course or use a teacher from the online school.
7. Home-schooled students often utilize online schools to take one or two courses – similar to students in the districts.
The final note that all the presenters wanted to make was to again emphasize that online classes are not for a certain “type” of student. Do not pre-judge students and exclude students based on an old profile of a successful online student. Online courses are engaging and individualized – students have a strong relationship with their teacher and often receive more one-on-one help than in a traditional face-to-face class.

Teacher Technology Skill Evaluation

Hello All!
Vincy mentioned at the last meeting she was looking for an assessment tool to use with her teachers. I dug around my folders and found some resources that may be of use.

Rubrics for Teachers & Students NETS:
http://www.ncrel.org/tech/nets/rubrics.htm

Core Technologies Competencies & Skills
http://www.ncrel.org/sdrs/areas/issues/methods/technlgy/te10lk13.htm

Technology in my Life Assessment
http://fromnowon.org/FNOMay93.html
This is older but a more personalized approach.

Assessing Teacher Technology Projects
http://ldt.stanford.edu/~tacyt/projectrubric.html

Teacher Technology Assessment Rubric
http://www.compstrategies.com/staffdevelopment/cue/rubric.htm

Utah Technology Awareness Rubrics
http://www.uen.org/cgi-bin/websql/utahlink/UTAPdomains.hts

ProfilerPro (http://profilerpro.com/)
"ProfilerPRO allows for the evaluation of knowledge, attitude, and skill based on simple surveys implemented via the World Wide Web. Group members can share knowledge and promote collaboration based on responses to skills-based survey items. Use ProfilerPRO to strengthen your school's, district's, or other educational group's ability to share expertise and grow as an organization."

Sample of Online Tech Assessment Survey
http://www.sun-associates.com/eval/samples/samplesurv.html
From: http://www.edtechevaluation.com/

An Educator's Guide to Evaluating The Use of Technology in Schools and Classrooms
http://www.ed.gov/pubs/EdTechGuide/index.html
Self-Evaluation Survey from 1998
http://www.ed.gov/pubs/EdTechGuide/appc-7.html

Hope maybe they can be of some help or get you going in the right direction!

SimSchool

I checked out a product called SimSchool (http://simschool.org) which is a simulation for teachers. It was created through funding from the Preparing Tomorrows Teachers to Use Technology (PT3) project. The idea is to allow teachers to practice differentiated instruction, lesson planning and classroom management in a safe learning environment.
Each student in the class has a profile with their personality and learning style. The teacher has to talk with the students and match assignments to learning styles. The student outcomes depend on the teacher interaction and lesson plans. Through repeated experience teachers can build teaching strategies.
The simulation is free – all you have to do is register. After you finish a simulation you can download a class report and individual student reports. The simulation can be saved and accessed later. There is an enhanced version that can be purchased - $12/year for premium access.
I tried it out a little and it was engaging, the premium version allows you to create a larger class and designate specific learning styles and personalities to a student. I think it would be a great tool to use to re-create a class situation that did not go well, or try out some new strategies. I definitely wished we had something like this before I started student teaching!

21st Century Information Fluency

I also went to a poster session called 21st Century Information Fluency: Assessing Students' Knowledge and Skills. This is a project I have read about before but I knew they were coming out with some new curriculum for teachers and librarians so I wanted to check them out. It is a project of the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy (IMSA) to help educators and students use digital resources more effectively, efficiently and ethically.
Their website (http://21cif.imsa.edu/) has resources, a search wizard and tutorials for Digital Information Fluency. In August, they released their first Full Circle Resource Kit which has interactive activities for students, ready to use curriculum and assessment tools. Each Full Circle will feature a core competency for Digital Information Fluency. Also on their website they have a lesson database where teachers can access and share lessons and materials.
Even though the project originates from Illinois the content is free and open to all. I was very impressed with the material and I feel it addresses an important need for both teachers and students. Effective searching and digital literacy skills are not often offered to our teachers and we need to teach our students. The materials and resources available from IMSA are top of the line. I encourage everyone to make sure their librarians are aware of the site.

Video for Learning

I went to a poster session called Creating a Free, Online Library of Video Resources for Everyone. I met Rushton Hurley, who is a former teacher and principal, who created Next Vista for Learning. Next Vista is a free, online video library with work using the Creative Commons license. The advantage is that all videos are made by students and teachers. The great part of it is that the videos can be downloaded therefore not requiring the bandwidth of a streaming video. I spoke with Rushton for a while and spoke with him about the challenges of providing streaming content to students. He said he is looking for people to add videos. All content will be prescreened by educators. When we spoke, Rushton was focusing on three library collections: Light Bulbs; Global Views; and Seeing Service.
The Light Bulbs section includes videos where a teacher or student is presenting a content topic in an engaging, fun way. The videos are to be short focusing on a single module. For instance, he has a video of a math instructor teaching mean, mode and median. The goal is to be short clips that a teacher can use to supplement their instruction or use for a lesson introduction or summary. The goal for students is to allow them to have the content presented in another way and that is available to them outside of the classroom.
The Global Views section includes videos that feature students presenting other cultures and other countries. The videos can be used to generate discussions and allow students to showcase their work. The Global Views video library collection aims to help prepare students to be global citizens.
The Seeing Service video library collection includes videos highlighting the good work students are doing in their communities. The videos can be used for discussions, to generate project ideas or even part of a project requirement. It is a great way for students to inspire one another.
I was impressed with Rushton and the Next Vista project. He truly believes we need to incorporate more visual learning to engage our students. He also believes that with the wide variety of tools available students and teachers can create quality videos. Rushton sees the Next Vista website as an open source alternative to expensive, commercial sites. He believes that together students and teachers can offer the same quality content as vendors. He hopes to have a collection together and online for the fall, by NECC 2007 his goal is to provide access to 200 student and teacher made videos.
Personally, I think it is a great idea and if you are creating videos at all then to check out this site and contribute videos. Who knows more what is needed to teach students – video producers or teachers and students? If you have some videos to contribute I strongly recommend adding them to this online collection.

Digital Illuminations: Virtual Adventures Workshop

Digital Illuminations: Virtual Adventures Workshop

I wanted to put a link back to my post from NECC last year about my workshop with Annette Lamb and Larry Johnson. Fantastic resources!

Vincy's Resources from NECC

Vincy created a great Filamentality site with links to all the resources she collected from sessions at NECC. Here's a link to Vincy's site.

NECC 2006

Thanks for doing this, Vincy!

Jimmy Wales of Wikipedia

On Andy Carvin's blog, Andy Carvin's Waste of Bandwidth, in his podcast section, he has a podcast that is a recording of a presentation made by Jimmy Wales, one of the founders of Wikipedia, made at the Wikimania Conference. I listened to this and it was very interesting. Here's a link to Andy's entry for this:

Podcast of Jimmy Wales Talk at Wikimania
Scroll down to the August 4th entry

Here's a link to the podcast itself. It's a rather large file so it may take a few minutes to download.

Answers.com

Are you looking for a student-safe information engine? Then Answers.com may be your answer! Answers.com calls itself “the world’s largest encyclodictionalmanacapedia.” It has over 3 million answers from brand-name publishers, as well as their own editorial staff answers. The site offers useful answers in a variety of categories like health, business, history, science and many more.

Each search comes up with a dictionary facts, definitions and translations. Dictionaries, thesauruses, encyclopedia listings, and external links are among the resources that Answers.com provides on a search. In addition, there is a citation generator so students (and teachers!) can correctly cite their resources.

Answers.com also has a feature – 1-Click Answers – which can be downloaded. It allows any word in any program to be clicked for a pop-up window with an answer tip. There is also a teacher center where they offer a movie and lesson plans called Mission Possible: Successful Online Research.

On the deluxe homepage there is 4 tabs – Highlights; In the News; On This Day; and Say What? The Highlights section has a birthday – whether it be a person; movie, book, etc. The In the News section has today’s news headlines. On This Day lists historic events –with links – and birthdays. The Say What? tab has an unusual word that people have been looking up on Answers.com. Below the tabs is a blufr and spelling bee where they have an unusual question and you guess whether it is true or a bluff – then once you enter your guess the correct answer pops up. The spelling bee is a multiple choice of a vocabulary word and proper spelling.

Answers.com allows teachers and students to have the most up to date information on a subject. In addition, there is a French version of Answers.com – where everything is done in French and there is also the ability to translate all search results into 14 different languages.

While I was at NECC, I visited the Answers.com booth in the Exhibit Hall. I was very impressed with their material and they said that since the content is pre-selected it is a safe search. If something inappropriate does get through, notify Answers.com and it will be resolved as quickly as possible. I highly recommend Answers.com as a safe search engine for students.

Open Technologies: What They Mean for You and Your Students

This was a concurent session at NECC by Jim Hirsch, Plano Independent School District. I didn't attend his session but I just listened to his podcast and he did a very good job of explaining what options to consider when investigating the use of open source applications and content in an educational setting. You can get a copy of his presentation as well as hundreds of other links about open source and licensing and more at this site - Open Technology Resources.

Michael presented a great intro to this topic at one of our meetings last spring. This is a great addition to that with lots of resources and support links.

I highly recommend you listen to the podcast of Jim Hirsch's session as well. You can find it by going to the iTunes Music Store and then searching for NECC. That will bring up the NECC podcasts and you can download all of them or just selected ones into iTunes (which is a free download from the Apple website and is cross platform for both PC and Mac). All these podcasts are free.

iPod Stories for kids

Hi All! I came across this cute site, Storynory, that is a feed subscription for kids. You can also download the stories from the website. The cool thing is you can decide which ones you want to download for the students. It may be something some of your teachers, parents or libraries are interested in.

Leading from the Edge: Moving Forward without Falling Off

I just listened to the podcast of this session from NECC, Leading from the Edge: Moving Forward without Falling Off , by Chris O'Neal from the University of West Virginia (July 5th). He has some really good advice for technology leaders to help get people on board and moving forward with you, teachers, adminstrators, board members, and so on. Some of what he talks about isn't 100% relevant to the types of jobs we have, but a great deal of it is. I highly recommend you listen to it.

On the NECC conference website he has a link to his presentation also. He gives permission for people to use all of his resources, including his presentation.

This is a case of "I would never (and didn't) have thought I was interested in going to a session like this one" but it really was full of useful information for me. I'm so glad it was podcast so I got a second chance to listen!

Interesting NECC Podcasts

I just listened to 2 very short podcasts from the NECC podcasts. One is called, "From the Escalator" and the other is called, "Man on the Street." Both are hosted by Ryan Panchadsaram. You can find these both by going to iTunes and searching the podcasts for NECC. Or you can find these (and all the NECC session podcasts) by clicking here.

Here's the description from From the Escalator

In the spirit of podcasts, we decided to try something new at NECC 2006, we call it “From the NECC Escalator.” It takes 45 seconds to go from the first floor to the second and that’s all interviews have to have to answer why they are here at NECC. Come join us as we take a ride with attendees, vendors, and Apple’s Vice President of Education, John Couch.

I really liked this format and I think these are both kind of unique ideas for creating a podcast at an event like NECC. I think I'm going to try to use the format for some podcasting in my district.

Guidelines for Educational Revolutionaries (1-7)

I've been listening to some podcasts I lost track of in the last few weeks of June and the beginning of July while I was finishing the school year and getting ready and then going to NECC. If you have never listened to Wesley Fryer's blog and podcasts at Moving at the Speed of Creativity, I highly recommend you give him a read and/or a listen.

Wesley has done a series of podcasts on "Guidelines for Educational Revolutionaries" and I think that part 2 in this series really connects to what I was reflecting on in my post below of July 6th, SIGTC Membership Breakfast. He gives what started out as 14 Guidelines for Revolutionaries but has now expanded to include 16 guidelines. He explains these guidelines more fully in his blog and in his podcast, but here is the list:

1. Make time in the classroom for activities that matter: Tasks that are authentically “educative.”
2. Focus on level 2 (transformative) technology use.
3. Seek and celebrate incremental victories.
4. Promote conversations and messy assessment.
5. Embrace reasoned risk taking, along with trial and error / discovery learning.
6. Celebrate failure! Adapt and learn, teach, model and use the “failure bow.”
7. Seek leaders who support this vision, and support further development of administrative technology leadership vision.
8. Be patient and have faith. Changing is coming, but the process often seems too slow to visionaries.
9. Resilience and persistence will win the day more than short-term enthusiasm.
10. Seek novel, safe experiences that invite curiosity and stretch existing perceptions.
11. Feed dreams and imagination: For yourself and your students.
12. Be flexible and adaptable. (Live in a truly flexible frame.)
13. Use the language of teaching and learning, more than the language of technology.
14. Maintain a spirit of humility and servanthood to others, never an attitude of arrogance or exasperation.
15. Seek edification and renewal locally and globally, through F2F conversations and the edublogosphere.
16. Be courageous: instructionally and ethically. Remember Margaret Mead’s quotation: “A small group of thoughtful people could change the world. Indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”

I think that his #3 guideline, "Seek and celebrate incremental victories," really hit home with me and brought me back to gain some perspective on the challenges I was reflecting on in my previous post. In the podcast he says that we have to remember that "pioneers" are just that. They are not the majority. He draws an analogy to the early westward moving pioneers in our country saying that we didn't have 50% or more of our citizens taking the plunge and moving westward. It was a relatively small number of people who did that, it was the country's "disruptive time," and it took a long time before it was regarded as less of a risk and the majority began to follow. However, without those pioneers who were willing to take an enormous risk and give up all that was comfortable to move westward, the rest of the country never would have followed.

So, I'm going to keep plugging along, remembering to celebrate incremental steps forward, and try to have faith that we will move through this disruptive time and eventually more and more people will join us.

Tabula Digita

I went to a session which was a panel discussion on digital content. The session was fantastic and everyone made real valid points. I was very impressed with one panelist, Ntiedo Etuk (NT), who is the Chief Executive Officer at Tabula Digita.

For those of you at the closing session will remember that they announced that next year at NECC there would be a gaming tournament. They showed a movie previewing the game - one of the taglines was "Learn math or die trying." It is a very interactive game focusing on algebra. The game is from Tabula Digita called Dimenxion. There is a demo version on their site.

Of course they have had a challenge integrating into the school systems so have been focusing on after school programs to introduce their game. They do have some research data from a summer program in addition to some white papers on games and learning.

I noticed that Marc Prensky will be the keynote speaker at the NYSCATE Summer Leadership Summit. If you saw Marc Prensky last year at NECC, you know that he is a promoter of game-based learning in education. Games for learning is a really hot topic in education right now.

Check out Dimenxion and share it with your teachers and students - who knows maybe the tournament champion will be from one of our schools!

IVC at NECC 2006

I meant to blog 1000 times at the NECC conference – but I kept running out of time! So now that I am settling back into work, I wanted to share a few things about my learning experiences.

I was able to meet up with my friend Carol – who I met in an online course about videoconferencing taught by Janine Lim. We also ran into Janine a few times and even got mentioned in her blog!

I attended a Birds-of-a-Feather session hosted by Scott Merrick (Snacks 4 the Brain) and Joan Roehre. It was a real thrill for me because I got to meet Scott and I have been reading his work for so long it was like meeting one of my idols. The session focused on desktop videoconferencing and they showed us a tool called iVisit. It is a desktop videoconferencing solution. It has the capabilities for multiple people and locations to conference together. It really has a lot of potential as a cost-effective alternative to room conferencing systems. We also looked at SightSpeed which is a video calling tool for desktops and the Polycom Communicator speaker to use with Skype for enhancing audio on computer calls.

I also attended the 1st Annual SIGIVC (Special Interest Group Interactive Video Conferencing) business meeting. It was exciting for me because last year, at my first NECC, I was able to sign the charter and here we are already having our 1st annual meeting! Our SIG decided to break off into 4 sections (based on survey input we collected earlier in the year) – Communications; Professional Development; Research and Technology. I joined the Research group alongside of Allen Greenberg of Wainhouse Research! Again, a total honor since each Wainhouse Research Bulletin and Forum are my lifeblood to the IVC industry.

I blogged on 3 sessions for eSchool News – They were:
Online Lessons: As Diverse as American Minds!
21st Century Education: A Blended Learning Environment
Experience HyperMirror Videoconferencing!

I really wanted to be able to attend more IVC showcases – but the ones I did were fantastic!

I attended Enhancing Visual Thinking Strategies and Promoting Acceptance through Videoconferencing which was actually a project done from the Mohawk RIC! This was absolutely fantastic. It was a cross-curricular project where students from South Jefferson Central School videoconferenced with students in France. The students created self-portraits, videos and worked on collaborative websites together. In addition, the project was shared with 25 future teachers at SUNY Oswego where they could see the impact and results of global project. The work the students did was fantastic and they also had opportunities to discuss current events like the Parisian Riots.

I also attended K20Connections: Virtual Field Trips between University Research and Pre-College Classrooms. Quyen Arana from the K20 Connections center at the University of Oklahoma created a mobile videoconferencing unit - fitted with a wireless bridge – which he used with scientists and researchers in the lab environment. The scientists and researchers were able to bring the videoconferencing unit into their labs, show the students around and answer questions. To show us an example we were taken on a tour of the Super Computer Lab at the University of Oklahoma. The researcher in charge of the Super Computer enthusiastically explained all sorts of aspects of the machine. The goal of this type of project would be to increase student interest in Math, Science and Technology while linking them with local universities. It was a terrific example of learning from an expert and seeing their enthusiasm for their life’s work!

Another IVC Showcase I attended was K2K Connections and Collaborations: Get Your Project and Partner Here! – hosted by Joan Roehre. It was a take off on speed dating, where we all partnered up for about 3 minutes discussed some collaboration ideas we had and made connections with new people and schools. I feel even luckier since Carol was at the same session so she and I were able to double-up on our resources!

Throughout the conference I met so many people who want to make connections with our schools – either through videoconferencing, blogging, collaborative websites and/or podcasting! I feel like the conference did a fantastic job on showcasing the power of kid2kid (or class2class) collaborations.

I have a lot of ideas for the upcoming school year – so start recruiting your teachers!

Copyright and Ethical Issues: Avoiding the Copyright Police

Click on the title above to read the story I wrote for eSchool News Online about this session. All of the resources for this session are also available on the NECC website. If the link on the eSchool News article doesn't work for you, try these links below.

Barnett_Policy4printer.pdf (Short version of policy to post at each copy machine)
Barnett_Copyright2.ppt (Copyright Presentation)
Barnett_CopyrightEthics.pdf (Avoiding the Copyright Cops: Copyright and Other Ethical Issues)
Barnett_CopyrightPolicy.QuickGuide.pdf (A Quick Guide to Copyright Policy)

All of these materials are shared with permission for educational use.

A One Hour Tour: Navigating Primary Source Materials on the Internet

Click on the title above to go to the story I wrote about this session for eSchool News Online. It was a very informative session packed full of information. The article on eSchool News has URLs to Kathy Schrock's resources for this presentation as well.

Digital Natives: Transform Learning through One-to-One Computing

Click the title above to go to my story at eSchool News Online about this session. They had some interesting differences in their one-to-one project that makes it a bit unique from other one-to-one initiatives.

Eduscapes

I've now taken 2 half-day, hands-on workshops from Annette Lamb and Larry Johnson. Yesterday I took one called, Flash in a Flash: Practical Applications Across the Curriculum, and today I took, Extreme Website Makeover: Javascript, CSS, and Multimedia. Both were excellent hands-on workshops and Annette and Larry did an wonderful job of providing support for approximately 30 people in each session, which is no small feat! Although I have had previous experience with both topics, I learned new things, was reminded of things I had forgotten about, got new tips and skills that will help to make me more successful as I use these tools.

I mentioned in both my posting below on the Flash in a Flash workshop and in my podcast discussion of this workshop, that Annette and Larry provide numerous resources on their website to support the content of these classes. Click on the workshop titles in the paragraph above to go to the respective pages for these workshops on their site.

After thinking about and reflecting on the topics discussed at the SIGTC Membership Breakfast this morning, it occured to me that Annette and Larry are great examples of the changing landscape of information.

• They freely share all the content from all of their online courses, workshops, presentations, etc. on their website for the whole world to access. They aren't trying to control who has access to this information. Information without a container. How many professors or teachers do you know that let anyone, anywhere access their course content at anytime without any restrictions? You don't need a password, you don't even need to have attended a workshop or to have registered for or to have taken a course. It's all right there for you to use anyway.
  

• They live the idea of anytime, anywhere content creation and access. They work for Indiana University but they don't teach on campus. Annette says, "if the students don't need to come to the campus to take the class, why should the instructor come onto the campus to teach the class?" They teach online from a motorhome with a satallite dish on the top, that could be anywhere in the US.

What a wonderful example of "the new story," as David Warlick put it!

SIGTC Membership Breakfast

The Role of Technology Leadership in a Changing Educational Landscape

Panelists

• John Hendron – Instructional Technologist, Freelance Designer
• Thor Prichard – President/CEO of Clarity Innovations
• Will Richardson – blogger, author, educator
• Tony Vincent – Educational Consultant
• David Warlick – Consultant, Educator, Author
  

The breakfast meeting began with a panel discussion facilitated by Ted Sakshaug. This was an excellent discussion on a variety of Web 2.0 related topics. The use of del.icio.us for social bookmarking and tagging bookmarks was demonstrated. We were also introduced to the wiki that SIGTC has begun as a place for all of us to contribute and collaborate on content. Details of what people said during the panel discussion can be found on the SIGTC Knowledge Wiki. In small groups we all got a chance to use these tools to begin to add content. I think this is a great opportunity to use and model the things this group was talking about today.

Panel Discussion
First each panel member tried to kind of define what kinds of technologies, what skills, what components are a part of what we call Web 2.0.
Comments included:

• The new shaping of information
• Information without containers
• The new literacies and the need to consciously teach students and teachers how to use these
• The presence of very authentic audiences
• The ease of publishing allows us to focus more on the content than on the tools themselves
• There is a change in the relationship between individuals and institutions. Institutions are no longer the controllers of information.
• For the first time students have a place to put there knowledge in a permanent database.
• There is great power in the ability to publish
• There is also great power in the immediacy of publishing and we need to figure out how to leverage this power/potential for education
  

Ted posed the question . . .
How do we handle the fears of teachers about covering content, boundaries and roles so that they will use these Web 2.0 tools?
Comments included:

• Students need models of responsible blogging. Teachers have a responsibility to use and model these things appropriately for students.
• There is a conception that social tools cause problems. They don’t. They allow a great transparency into the real lives of students and we should be learning from this.
• When publishing to the web, there is great power and learning opportunity in the use of voice and other elements of the traits of writing.
• Kids understand the power of this communication better than adults do, and they are using it. We need to take the opportunity to actively teach skills, ethical and responsible use. We aren’t going to stop them from using these tools so we should take advantage of the teachable moments rather than imagining that we can just block it all and keep it all out of schools.
• When this publishing and communication becomes a conversation, responsibility multiplies. We need to define and describe ethical use of information and this must be an integral part of literacy instruction.
  

Ted asked the panelists . . .
to describe what types of technology they see coming along other than blogs and Wikis.
Comments included:

• The increasing presence of web based applications rather than applications that must be downloaded and installed on the client computer.
• The web is becoming a platform and a personal learning space
• Content is dynamic
• Teachers know a finite number (maybe 5 or 6) of applications and how to use them. However, 5 to 7 new applications are appearing on the web every week. Must invest in helping teachers figure out how to put it all together. Kids already know how to put it together.
• The power of RSS (Real Simple Syndication) to pull it all together and aggregate it in one place.
  

Personal Reflection

This was an excellent discussion and a nice way to summarize a very complex topic. None of this information was new to me. I’ve been listening to the podcasts and presentations and reading the blogs of all of these panelists for some time. I understand these things, am trying to use them, and integrate these things into my life and my teaching and learning. I feel a responsibility to use these technologies with students as well. I think as educators, if we don’t take advantage of the technologies that are a way of life to our students, we are missing the boat completely and increasing rather than decreasing the disconnect students see between real life and school.

However, I find it a great challenge to get teachers to invest in even looking at these technologies, let alone understand their power and use them in meaningful ways to enhance teaching and learning. In fact, I’ve met other educational technology “specialists” who have never even heard of the term, Web 2.0 and are unaware of many of the technologies we talked about today and how to use them. If people who should be technology leaders don’t bite, how can I get classroom teachers to? I am sometimes overwhelmed by how far away the horizon is and am at a loss as to how to move people toward it, before it’s a completely new horizon!

Podcasting and Podcatching for the Absolute Beginner

Presenters
Ted Lai – Apple Distinguished Educator
David Warlick
Tim Wilson
Larry Anderson - Director/Founder - National Center for Technology Planning
Lucy Gray – Apple Distinguished Educator

Although I'm not an "absolute beginner" in the world of podcasting, I really wanted to attend this session for 2 reasons.

1. I know there are still bits and pieces of helpful information about podcasting that I don't know and sessions like this help to fill in those gaps and help to expand my knowledge and make it more global.

2. Many teachers in my district are becoming interested in podcasting with their students. Several have already dabbled in it a bit and more are asking me about it every day. As an instructional technology specialist its my job to teach and support these teachers and students, to help get them started, and to help troubleshoot and keep things moving along. I was hoping this session would help me organize how to present podcasting to "absolute beginners."

I won on both counts. This was an excellent session that did just what I was hoping it would do for me. In fact, it was even worth sitting on the floor for it, which I had to do and don't do very well.

Additionally, David Warlick set up a wiki page for the session information, outline and handouts and invited us all to participate in the wiki by posting our notes there.

Podcasting and Podcatching for the Absolute Beginner Wiki

Notes pages of the participants

Here are my notes in outline form as to what was covered. This will help serve as a way for me to organize training and support in my district.

What is it?

• Audio that you can subscribe to
• Time shifted (narrowcasting)
• Can be downloaded to a player but doesn’t have to be
• 20 minutes is a good length (average commuting time)
• not platform specific
• democratization

History

• Began in 2004
• Adam Curry and Dave Winer
• “podcasting” term coined in 2004
• about 60,000 podcasts in iTunes directory today

Vocabulary

• XML
• Aggregator
• Syndication

How the simple technology works

• David demonstrated the back end of his blog, or at least tried to 2 Cents Worth
• “Entirely unimpressive” click, write, submit - It's that simple
  
• only difference between blog and podcast is one is text and other is audio file
• drag XML chicklet to iTunes to subscribe

Podcatching – software

• iTunes
• iPodder
• iPodder X
• Playpod
• Poddum Feeder
• Etc.

Lucy demonstrated using iTunes to find and download podcasts

• still need to have access to a server to host your files

Ideas for using podcasting in education

• Next stage of publishing
• Gather content to enhance learning
• Provide school and classroom updates
• Find or produce “Sightseeing” tours
• Dramatize or re-enact key moments in history, science, literature, etc.
• Communication tool between home and school
• Produce radio shows with Reader’s theater
• Design professional development

Examples shared

• Radio Willow Web – Tony Vincent
• Tech Savvy Girls – 5 year old (Ted's daughter)
  
• Ask an Astronomer – video – produced by NASA and free
  

Equipment

• Something to record with
• Apple iPod with Griffin iTalk
• iRiver
• Olympus digital recorders ($90) has built in USB cords
• M Audio Micro Trak – records on Compact Flash card ($300)
  

• Microphones
• Can find lots on eBay
• Podcast Rigs .com (link in wiki to this)
• Q 1 U by Samson ($49 with a tripod)
  

• Mixer
  

Software (for creating)

• Garageband - really the simplest and Larry rates as the best
• says if you are a PC district it's still better to get 1 Mac to use for podcasting
• gave quick demo

• QuickTime Broadcaster
• Audacity
• Amadeus (Mac only software)
  
• Mixcast Live
• iTunes (not for recording but for compressing and converting files
• Podcast Maker

Flash in a Flash

I attended my first hands-on workshop at NECC today, Flash in a Flash: Practical Applications Across the Curriculum. The presenters were Annette Lamb and Larry Johnson.

I’m usually overwhelmed by Flash. I’ve had a smattering of instruction during a web design graduate class. I’ve bought several books and downloaded how-tos from the web, but somehow I’m still overwhelmed by this program. I do use it to some extent and I know how to do a very few things with it that I use on my website. I really feel like I need a whole course in Flash in order to improve my skills to a level where I really feel comfortable with this program. I knew this workshop would be “a quicky” but figured that any opportunity I have to take some instruction in Flash is an opportunity I should take advantage of.

Today’s workshop was good. It was amazing how fast the time flew by! It wasn’t anything to new for me, but it was a good refresher for beginning skills. The instructors were very knowledgeable and they have a wonderful website with a wealth of materials that I know will be helpful to me. Their website, Eduscapes, has information about all of their courses, and a page specifically for Flash. I think this might have been better as a full day workshop, especially for people with little previous experience with Flash, but I think the website will be helpful as a follow-up for everyone.

Annette and Larry also provided links to many examples of things that can be done with Flash. I think this is helpful also. I liked that they included high end kinds of things, but also some examples of beginner projects as well. There was a neat canoe map of a creek and when you mouse over either a road or a town marker on the creek, a window with the name pops up and clicking on it opens a window with a photo and links to more info. Another was a kind of a slide show about Harriet Tubman. It allowed a standard click through slideshow-type mode but also a “quick version” that was a self-playing animated movie of sorts. Both of these had interactive components, but seemed fairly easy projects to do and things I’d like to try by myself and maybe also with students and teachers.

So, I think I’ll go back and spend more time with their website, beginning with their “Basics” tutorial and then moving on from there. and my other books and tutorials this summer and see if I can continue to try to reach a state of comfort with Flash!

More Google Tools

I just learned that Google has 2 specialized search engines:

Google Shakespeare - Find and search of Shakespeare's plays; and
Google US Government - Search for information across a large number of U.S. federal, state, and local government sites.

They may be a helpful resource to your teachers and students!

Blogging and Podcasting at NECC 06

Our blog and our podcast pages are now listed on the NECC Website on the Blogging and Podcasting page. I'm excited about the possibility of others finding us and joining in our conversations via comments.

Hitchhikr - Totally Cool!

Now this is really cool! David Warlick has created a site called, Hitchhikr, which is a gathering place for information from conferences. Steve Dembo talks about it on his blog, Teach42 . It's a conference aggregator. You can go to this one site and find all the blogs, podcasts, and photos that people are posting about a conference. Anyone can submitt a conference, add tags, fix erroneous tags, and so on, once you have registered with the site. It's another way to attend a conference without actually going to it.

David Warlick gives a great overview of it on his blog, 2 Cents Worth, Announcing hitchhikr.com , and he also has some information about it on his Connect Learning podcast, Episode 63. If you look through everyone's comments, you'll notice that it's still a little glitchy, but it's brand new and will take a little time to get it running smoothly. And he's counting on the input from the community to help him find ways to improve it as well.

Of course, NECC 2006 is one of the conferences it's watching!

Teaching Educational Games

George Siemens referenced this wiki on Educational Games in his June 17th elearnspace blog. I only just began to explore it and it seems fantastic!

Selections of Arabic, Persian, and Ottoman Calligraphy

I received a notice from GlobalSchoolNet about this new web presentation on the Library of Congress website.

"During the late 1920's, early 1930's, and 1990's the Library of Congress acquired a large collection of Arabic script calligraphy sheets. Almost all of the Library's calligraphy sheets came by way of Mr. Kirkor Minassian of New York and Paris. The remaining sheets were acquired by the Library's Field Office in Islamabad, Pakistan, with permission from the Pakistani government.
Calligraphy was a skill to be mastered, and it was used to express religious sentiment and many other aspects of personal and cultural life.
Calligraphic art developed gradually over the centuries, and has been the subject of numerous studies analyzing its role in the faith, culture, and art of Arabic, Persian, and Turkish speaking lands. "

It is interesting and may be something your teachers could utilize in their classes.

Google Sketchup

This has nothing to do with NECC, but I just learned about Google Sketchup. It's an easy to use 3D drawing program that is free from Google. They just now released a Mac version as well.

Here's what Google has to say about it:

Google SketchUp (free) is an easy-to-learn 3D modeling program that enables you to explore the world in 3D. With just a few simple tools, you can create 3D models of houses, sheds, decks, home additions, woodworking projects - even space ships. And once you've built your models, you can place them in Google Earth, post them to the 3D Warehouse, or print hard copies.
Google SketchUp is free for personal use. No registration is required.

Here's a link to some more information on it and some tutorials as well. Learning More About Sketchup

It sounds pretty cool. I think I'll have to play with it in my spare moments this summer.

Spreadsheet of Our Schedules

Ted, thanks again for making that spreadsheet of everyone's schedule. That was such a good idea. It is so helpful to see what each of us is planning to go to. That's a great conference tip for teams of people going together to a conference as big as NECC.

Alternatives to NECC Concurrent Sessions

Hi All! In planning my NECC conference schedule and looking at the spread sheet, I just wanted to point out that in addition to the concurrent sessions there are Research Paper Lectures & Round Tables that are happening too. Nevermind the Poster Sessions and Student Showcases!

In addition to all of that - several videoconference content providers show previews of their content. Many of these are usually $50-$100 to preview, so it is a good chance to check those out too. They all appear to be in SDCC 24C and they are on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday and seem to start on the hour. I am going to try and see as many as I can so I can preview new IVC options for us next year - but don't hesitate to check it out as well!

I am getting so excited!

Conference Hints and Tips

Here's an oldie but a goody that I published last year but decided to repost in case this would help anyone.

This is a great idea I picked up from other conference attendees and this is useful no matter what conference you are attending. There are usually LOTS of vendor booths where you can enter a drawing, get a free gift, or leave information for future contacts and so on. It can be a real pain to stand there and fill out forms.

INSTEAD - Make labels ahead of time with your contact info on it and then you can just slap it on the vendor's form and you're good to go. I just took my business card (which I make and print myself anyway) and adapted it to fit onto a 1 1/3" x 4" label and printed several sheets. I also printed up some regular business cards to take along as well.

Above is a sample label. I used Avery 8162 Address Labels. For the sample screen shot above, I changed the phone numbers and e-mail address to "protect the innocent."

Blogging and Podcasting from NECC

Donna, Michael and I plan to blog and to podcast from NECC. I think we will be using this blog for things that are pure text blogs. We will be using a different site to post podcasts with audio, maybe some video, and some images.

The podcast site is still under development. Here's a link to the site:
Adventures in Educational Podcasting. This is my main site. On that page you'll find a link to my school podcasts as well as to our NECC 2006 Podcasts page.

We'd love to have everyone contribute comments and ideas to all of these things. If you are going to NECC, please join us for podcasting. We plan to meet at the end of each day and share about whatever "knocked our socks off" that day. We'll put links and such in the show notes for each podcast.

If you aren't attending NECC, it will be a great way for you to join in the learning if you listen, read, and post comments. We are hoping that this will be a great way to collaborate and to keep the learning going.

Also, I've submitted our blog site and our podcasting site to NECC for inclusion on the NECC web site. We are promised that sometime before the conference the links will be up on the web.

NECC 2006 Planning

In making my plans for NECC, I realized I have a couple of topics that I want to focus on and then I was thinking we all probably do. Maybe instead of trying to go to a variety of subjects we could each focus on one or two and then share information.

I am interested in videoconferencing and I would like to see some of the previews from content providers and they are almost all scheduled at the same time as concurrent sessions. I also want to focus on online learning and blended learning. My other interests are knowledge management and mobile learning.

I am attending 2 workshops -
Thursday Morning: Designing Effective Projects: Creating Curriculum for Engaged Learning.
Friday Afternoon: Planning and Delivering Online Instruction to Engage Learners: Practical Suggestions

I am planning to attend DeWitt Jones, but I cannot attend the One-to-One Computing keynote because I will be at a workshop. I hope other will plan to go because that is a very interesting topic!

One thing I noticed is that all of the Birds-of-a-Feather are scheduled together. There is a videoconferencing group and since I belong to that SIG I will probably attend that - although I am extremely interested in the Web 2.0: Effects and Potential; How Do We Build 21st Century Skills?; and Games and Simulations BOAF groups.

I am interested in finding out others' focus and what they will be attending so we can make sure we gather all the information we want and need!

Computers in Libraries

Hi All!
Remember when I mentioned that Jane and Karen went to Washington DC to participate in the national conference - Computers in Libraries? Well, they have really been working on putting all of their content together and this week debuted a wiki with the materials and their experiences from the conference. One of the speakers they were inspired by, Joyce Valenza, mentioned their wiki in her blog!
Is the world flat or what?!? Take a look they have some fantastic information and tons of resources!
Donna

Summer Reading List

The student summer 2006 reading edition of the Innovative Teaching Newsletter is out!
Also, teachers can fill out reading recommendations for colleagues (send in by 5/26/06) and there will be a teacher summer reading list in June!
Can you believe we are already planning for summer?!?!

My Yard Counts

Hi All! For some reason I thought this project started in May, but it really started in April -

It is a bird count organized by Cornell Ornithology - where you can count the birds from your backyard - or schoolyard - and enter the number into an online database. They even have an online bird guide database to help you identify the type of birds you see!

They recommend a minimum of 10 counts, however, if you are more interested in a smaller project or using the database you can do so at eBird - a project with Cornell Ornithology Lab and the Audubon Society. You create an account and then you can add your bird count observations. Then you can create a personalized database or use other entries.

Donna

MySpace makes a Blog Post

Today's post on the Learning is Messy blog has an interesting entry. Is preventing kids from using MySpace.com really protecting them?

It seems to me that the arguments we face today about preventing/protecting kids from sites is the same as the age-old sex education battle.

• Does teaching students about responsible sex cause students to have more sex? Does teaching abstinence prevent students from having sex?
• Does teaching students internet safety skills allow students to be exploited on the internet? Does blocking sites from them prevent them from going to them?

I do not think there is an easy answer, but the discussion is important. One thing I do agree with - Learning IS Messy!

Wired Safety

Mike hooked me up with this site - he saw them testifying in front of Congress about internet safety. Not only do they have educator resources - but resources for parents as well. They also have a page of safe sites.

It seems to be a great resource - but I have not gotten through all of it - there is a ton of information. Maybe it can help you out!

NYSCATE Regional Conferences

NYSCATE has posted podcasts and PowerPoints, videos and other files from the presentations done at it's two regional conferences this spring. What a great way to attend without having actually gone! And it doesn't cost a thing to access the presentations this way. You might want to check these out.

NYSCATE Southern-Tier Conference - Binghampton, NY - Alan November, Keynote

NYSCATE Hudson Valley Conference - Wappingers Falls, NY - Will Richardson, Keynote

There Are No Shortcuts

I highly recommend you listen to this podcast, There Are No Shortcuts. This is a very inspiring look at education by a 5th grade teacher in Los Angelos, Rafe Esquith. The podcast is a recording of a presentation he and some of his students did at the Texas Computer Education Assocation’s annual conference on February 10, 2006. The podcast was recorded and posted by Wesley Fryer on his site, Moving at the Speed of Creativity (I highly recommend his site as well.) In this presentation Mr. Esquith talks about technology in the classroom, but in very different ways. He uses technology very much integrated into real life experience and skills to reach students in an LA elementary school with over 2,000 students, K-5, where more than 90% of them are below the poverty level and speak English as a second language. However, he doesn't focus soley on technology use either. What he has done with his students is incredible. And he doesn't use technology in the ways we are used to hearing about. It's listening to teachers like this that makes me long for a class of my own again.

Some Health Links

Hi All! I was exploring some links and found a few really good websites related to Health Sciences.

Online Exhibit of the Heart
This online exhibit is multimedia with sections to the website:

• Things to Do - Interactives that can be done on the site.
• Things to See - Videos, x-rays, and images of the heart.
• Things to Learn - Teacher resources, activities and glossary.
• Places to Go - Links to online resources.
• Things to Hear - Listen to heartbeats.

Internet Stroke Center with information about Stroke Research and Clinical Care.

Human Body & Mind from the BBC with lots of multimedia and interactive games with facts about the body and mind.

The Arizona Health Institute has podcasts - both video and audio - to educate patients (and the general public) on procedures and healthy lifestyles. Dr. Wheatley, the creator, realized when listening to his ipod what a great tool this would be for patient education. He provides ipod in the waiting room for people to use before and after appointments. The article is here.

VOD: The Brain (Thanks George!)

Health Videoconferences:

Vanderbilt Science Outreach has videoconferences that can be scheduled and that are also archived. In addition, they hold podcasts Snacks 4 the Brain with a corresponding blog! For teachers there is even downloadable lessons!

Cooperating School Districts where my friend from class works have a videoconference series - Adventures in Medicine and Science, with St. Louis University.

The Liberty Science Center offers a series on the Human Body.

COSI has a surgical suite series of videoconferences and even a 2 hour autopsy.

If you know of others, please feel free to add them in here! Donna

WikiVille

Here's a cool idea I came across. This wiki for kids was recently started in the UK but the idea is for kids from all over the world to add information about their schools and their towns. So far, there are no schools in New York who have added information. Maybe we could get the ball rolling!

Welcome to WikiVille 21st Century students building a world-story of life in their home towns.

Has your town been WikiVilled yet?

For every place in WikiVille there'll be stories & stuff about

• school life from the day-to-day to hopes & dreams

• home life from jobs & chores to happy places & things that could be better

• about the past as well as the future

PLUS WikiVille:Community Portal projects help needed

More on Earth Day

Earth Day is April 22nd. I had mentioned a few resources in the Spring post, but here are a few more!

Environmental Timeline

Online Environmental Links

BrainPOP offers free online movies on topics related to Earth Day throughout the month of April.
The movie titles include Earth (April 1-9), Global Warming (April 10-16), Recycling (April 17-23) and Earth's Atmosphere (April 24-30).
To view the films, go to http://www.brainpop.com/ and click on the featured movie.

eMints: Earth Day Resources

Earthday.gov

The Wilderness Society Earth Day

US ARMY Environmental Center

Earth Day Network

Earth Day Lesson from National Geographic Xpeditions

TeacherNet Earth Day ChatBoard

Hope these help! Please feel free to post others! Donna

Computers in Libraries 2006

I noticed that a lot of people were referencing the Pew Internet Life Study recently and it turns out Mr. Lee Rainie was a presenter at the Computers in Libraries conference this past week in Washington DC. A few people have been liveblogging (and regular blogging) on the conference.

Here is a blog that many people have linked to in reference to Mr. Rainie's presentation.
Thinking Out Loud - Mermaid - The Intenet: Enhancing Digital Work and Play

Here are other blogs with the CIL2006 tag. CIL2006 Tecnorati Tags (You can tell they are librarians - they pre-defined the tag - I don't know if it was an underground or official movement - But definitely a great idea for conferences!)

CIL2006 Unofficial Wiki

Karen & Jane from Library Services at BOCES attended. Maybe we can ask them to blog here or let us link to wherever they blogged!

Here is some information found in the Pew Study. If you want more information, here is the report.

Chat Lingo Explained

Hi All!
Kim Komando just published this column on Cyber Lingo on March 24th. It has some good information and some links to gather more information. It is designed for parents, but it applies to education as well.
Donna

A Dance With the Butterflies

A Dance With the Butterflies
I found this Spring Project and wanted to add it to the spring list!

Boing Boing: New bill: Cyber Safety For Kids Act of 2006

Boing Boing: New bill: Cyber Safety For Kids Act of 2006
I am a little behind in going through my blogs and emails, but one of the librarians sent me this Friday!
Pretty interesting no matter what side of the issue you are on!

Cyber Safety

Hi Team! I know we have been passing around the topic of internet safety lately and I came across a few more resources.

The Consortium for School Networking has two sites - an old one and a new one. The old one has a toolkit that seems pretty helpful. The new one has a broader focus - not just cyber safety but security of data as well.

Play it Cybersafe has curriculum for elementary and middle school students on copyright issues and illegal software copying, downloading, and distributing content.

The FBI has a site for internet safety for children.

CyberSmart has a free curriculum for use in teaching K-8 internet safety.

And of course... The Looney Tunes Teach Internet Safety!

Hope some of these can be of value! Donna

Journey North Monarch Butterfly

Hi All! Just a couple online resources for you as spring approaches...

Journey North is back online with lessons and maps for your students. In addition to the Monarch Butterfly, Tulip Gardens, Whooping Crane, Bald Eagle, Humming Bird, Grey Whale, Robins and Songbirds are all offered as options to track and follow this spring. Each topic has maps, lessons, activities and booklets for the students (and teachers).

Sea Turtle Migration tracked by satellite.

Sutton Avian Research Center has a Bald Eagle Nest Cam with babies in the nest to watch. There are snapshots to use as well.

Don't forget the Peregrine Falcons at Kodak! The webcams are on and there are teacher and student materials available.

April 22-30th is National Wildlife Week. The NWF has a site with books and activities for students for the celebration.

The Cornell Lab of Ornithology has an Urban Birds Study which has some videos and activities. Not everything is free at their site, but there is a lot that is for creating bird watching lessons this spring!

Online School Yard and Class Room Investigation Projects

A couple other online projects that are taking registrations:
Bucket Buddies (any grade)
Square of Life (any grade)

Staring soon:
3/27 The Global Water Sampling Project (grades 9-12)
3/27 Take a Dip (any grade)
4/3 Human Genetics (grades 6-12)
4/17 The Global Sun Project (any grade)

Don't Forget Earth Day April 22nd!
Join the Earth Day Groceries Project.
Downloadable Earth Day Coloring Book.
Earth Science Picture of the Day.
EPA Environmental Kids Club.

And a cool site I bumped into today: If These Walls Could Talk. An interactive and visually compelling website, the Atlanta History Center provides some answers to those questions by looking at four historic homes around that fine Southern city. This would be a cool project to do for Rochester or even the towns of the schools!

Enjoy! Donna

Ed Tech Day in Ithaca

Several of us attended Ed Tech Day in Ithaca, NY. I'd like to share 1 really cool thing I learned about. Maybe others of you already knew about this, but I didn't. It's called, "Producer" and it combines a movie and a PowerPoint. Although the download title says that it's for PowerPoint 2003, the guy from Microsoft said it works with PowerPoint XP also. It allows you to have video playing in one, small window and then sychronize PowerPoint slides to it in a larger window to add more information. It's a free download at this link.

Producer for Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2003
Here's how Microsoft describes it:

Use Microsoft Producer 2003 for Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2003 to capture and synchronize audio, video, slides, and images, then preview and publish a rich media presentation virtually anywhere for viewing in a Web browser.

If you would like to see what it can look like, CLICK HERE to see a demo, or click on the picture above.

They gave a demo at the session I was in and it is incredibly easy to use. I'm thinking of using it to create some online tutorials for things.

Blogging Tools

Hi! I was doing a little blogging research and I came accross these 2 blog services.
Learner Blogs
Edublogs
I looked them over and set up a couple of trial blogs. It seems like these are good tools for teachers because there is an option to be able to monitor all comments prior to posting. Both also allow the author to add people to approved posters. They are also free.

I know everyone has been happy with Blogmeister - but just in case you need a couple of more tools.

NECC 2006

I thought it might be nice for us to share which workshops and/or concurrent sessions we are thinking about or planning to attend at NECC in San Diego. Below are the sessions I currently have in my planner. On Thursday, 7/6, in the 3:30-4:30 time block, I currently have 4 things. Obviously I'm going to have to choose 1 at some point. Maybe if someone else is planning to go to one or more of these, that will make my decision easier. Each title below is a link, in case you want to read more about the session. I've already seen Dewitt Jones several times, so I'm not going to go to that keynote, although his work is good.

Tuesday, July 4

8:30-11:30 - Flash in a Flash: Practical Applications across the Curriculum
7:00-9:00 - 4th of July Party and Opening Reception

Wednesday, July 5

8:30-9:30 - Beyond Cyber Safety Awareness: Practical Internet Safety Education that Works
10:00-11:00 - Podcasting and Podcatching for the Absolute Beginner
12:30-3:30 - Extreme Web Site Makeover: Javascript, CSS, and Multimedia
4:45-5:45 - Exhibit Hall Reception

Thursday, July 6

8:30-9:45 - One Laptop Per Child - Keynote - Nicholas Negroponte
9:45-10:15 - Continental Breakfast in the Exhibit Hall
11:00-12:00 - A One Hour Tour: Navigating Primary Sources on the Internet
12:30-1:30 - Computer Ethics: The Dark Side
2:00-3:00 - Copyright and Ethical Issues: Avoiding the Copyright Police
3:30-4:30 - I need to choose 1 of the following things that I'm considering:
Maximizing Your Cookies: Leading Geeks in Education
Favorite Learning Resources: Students and Teachers Share Where and Why
Visual Learning and Generation M
A Web of Connections: Why the Read/Write Web Changes Everything
7:00-9:00 - Thursday Night Social

Friday, July 7

10:00-11:00 - Creating a Kids' Creative Commons Using Local History Resources
12:30-3:30 - Podcasting 101: The Essential Tools for Creating Educational Podcasts

My gosh! I'm tired already, just looking at all of this, but really excited at the same time!!! I'm looking forward to seeing what everyone else is thinking about taking.

Maybe we should also designate a date and time to meet, maybe for dinner somewhere, include our families or whatever.

Podcasting and Language Arts

I came across the following podcasts by students that are interesting illustrations of podcasts that enhance Language Arts instruction. Obviously the reading, writing, listening and speaking involved in creating a podcast support ELA instruction, but these 2 episodes go one step further. You might want to take a listen.

Room 208 - 3rd/4th gradeLiterature Circles
Listen to the podcast here

Radio WillowWeb - 5th grade - Defining the 6 Traits of Writing

Olympic Venues on Google Earth

I just discovered something kind of cool today. You can add a layer in the "My Places" section of Google Earth that shows all the Olympic Winter Games Venues. Just click on the title above to go to Google Earth Home. Near the top of that page is the link to click on to download this feature.

When you have this downloaded, and you have it on your screen, you will see it in the "Places" section on the left-hand side of your screen marked as a "Temporary Place." To keep it permanently, click on the "OlympicVenues.kmz" and then go to Edit > Save to My Places. That will keep it in your My Places folder permanently.

Also, if you mouse over the venues on the map, you'll see a yellow box around them. Click and it will open more info and links to related info.

AND . . . They have now released Google Earth for Macs, so everyone can play now. I just downloaded it and it works great!

Boy, I wish I had known about this BEFORE vacation!

Wiki Follow-Up

As a follow-up to Tadge's post on wikis . . .

There is an article today in eSchool News Online.

Wikis Test Students' Research Skills
'Information literacy' is key in dealing with online sources
By Roger Riddell, Online Editor, eSchool News

"Wikipedia and other reference sites that allow users to submit and edit content themselves are creating new challenges for educators. Experts say the rise of these kinds of web sites underscores the need for educators to teach students strong information-literacy skills."

And a sidebar in the article . . .

Study: Wikipedia as accurate as Britannica--at least on science
Nature conducted a side-by-side comparison of articles in covering a broad swath of the scientific spectrum

There is even a photo of Jimmy Wales, the founder of Wikipedia (in case you were wondering what he looks like). Thought you might be interested in taking a look.

It would be great if some of our science educator blog members would comment on this too. I'm interested to see what you think about the article above on the accuracy of Wikipedia on science topics.