HJ's Motley Miscellanea

Not to worry....I'm still around!

2012-01-10T09:33:00.000-08:00

Guess what? I'm still here! Yes, I know that my most recent post is from eons ago but -- what can I say? -- I've been busy.

What's on my mind, you ask? Well, I'm intrigued with a new (to me) service/site called Eyejot. I haven't used it yet to communicate with my students but it sure makes it simple to post a quick webcam video and almost instantly send it out via e-mail to whomever on a subject of interest or import. No dedicate client or app necessary on the recipient's end. Video is housed by Eyejot and the vid is viewed in the browser. Seems both cool & something with potential in the vidworld we live in.

NCCE 2010 - Seattle -- Day 4

2010-03-05T11:58:00.000-08:00

First session was called "Beyond Cool.....Does It Work????". Presenter was Dan Matthews who is Instructional Technology Coordinator in Yakima. There was also a video feed by Dr. Janet Spybrook, a professor at Central Washington University. This was an instance of a workshop title giving an impression (to me) not borne out by the content. I looked at this title and thought, "One of the challenges in adopting technology, especially as we explore new tools and make decisions about curricular integration, is to not be seduced by the 'Wow! Factor' that is often near-irresistible when new things come along, especially if they're accompanied by hype. I know I'm as prone to fall for the hype as anyone. This session looked like it would offer some guidance on gaining a kind of healthy skepticism about the ingredients to look for in the "new" or hyped stuff so you waste less time falling for the now-it's-here-now-it's-gone.

Although there was an element of this incorporated by Mr. Matthews & Dr. Spybrook, the upshot of their presentation was really quite a bit more focused on mathematical analysis of databases measuring how various tools (like interactive white boards, for instance) are used. Not really useless information but quite a bit more narrowly focused and database-analysis-heavy for what I was looking for.

The next session boded well. I've attended previous presentations by Patrick Crispen at other conferences and he didn't disappoint then. He didn't disappoint today either. He presented on the subject: "A Random Walk through Cyberspace: Patrick Crispen’s Completely Updated Collection of Truly Useful–and Not So Useful—Websites and Web 2.0 Tools" In this hour he took us through a variety of helpful (and also fun & entertaining) sites ranging from a site that will give you your upload/download speeds of your Internet connection you're using to Instant Chan (try it, if you dare!!!!). It was well worth the 60 minutes we spent with Mr. Crispen. Now it was time to grab a quick lunch.

Partly because of how effective this session was, I decided to go ahead and return to another session of Mr. C's, this one called: "The State of the Craft: What’s New—and What’s Next—in Ed Tech, Consumer Electronics, and More". From his standpoint, the following are things "out there" that have the potential to be game-changers: solid state drives, electronic ink, liquid crystal displays, the iPad (or the Microsoft Courier, an upcoming eReader/tablet hardware combo), 4G networks, portable devices that are always on with very fast connections, voice control of devices, "hardware agnostic" clickers (polleverywhere.com), augmented reality (e.g. GE's "Plug Into the SmartGrid"), and personal learning networks (PLNs), among others. His main point was that the way in which we interact with computers will fundamentally change....perhaps sooner than we think. And, to my frustration, he did not give us a rock-solid answer to this question....which I would LOVE TO KNOW!!! That question is: How do you keep up with it all?????

The final part of my Friday I spent jotting down some notes from the previous three days and then taking my first look through the vendor exhibits. I took a fairly leisurely stroll through the many booths there although I can't say any particular product jumped out at me and said, "I'm the next cool [and useful!] thing! Buy me!!"

While I would have to admit having come away from NCCE 2010 with few things I could characterize as "seismic", attending these four days of NCCE 2010 a most worthwhile four days of exploration, finding new things, and looking ahead. Without wanting to sound immodest, I got some satisfaction noting the number of tools I've incorporated into my teaching that are still being touted as having true value in the world of 21st century teaching and learning. Just to rattle off a few of those things mentioned in these past few days: Ning, Wordle, SchoolTube, Photoshop.com, Glogster, Scrapblog, Google Docs, Audacity, TED....... A little affirmation is good, too. :-)

I appreciate the support from the school that made my attendance at NCCE 2010 possible.

NCCE 2010 -- Seattle -- Day 3

2010-03-05T11:57:00.000-08:00

Session I -- Your Personal Magic Shop: 50 Ways to Use Discovery Education Streaming
The scheduled presenter was Hall Davidson but he apparently had to leave on a red-eye last night and Lindsay Hopkins, another Discovery Education Educator was there in his place.
She did the best she could to pinch hit for Hall. Discovery Education does indeed appear to be filled with a great deal of content with a big chunk of it coming (no surprise here) from the Discovery Channel and Network. Video, songs (450 "educational songs", .mp3 format, fully editable), sound effects (a ton), and images (over 20,000).
She also went on to talk about some non-Discovery sites such as Wordle and Blabberize among others.

Next came the keynote talk by Philippe Cousteau. Once again, a connection here is with Discovery Education. Philippe Cousteau. I believe his actual "position" with Discovery is: Animal Planet Chief Ocean Correspondent. It may go without saying that Mr. Cousteau is very charismatic and an extremely effective speaker. With his oceanic "calling card" it will also come as no surprise that his talk had an environmental focus with a great emphasis on how everything is so inter-connected. He clearly looked at all of us in the room and said that it's our responsibility to bring a strong awareness of the environment and the global responsibility to shepherd our Earth's future wisely. Another point he drove home is how everything we do is a choice, whether asking for "paper or plastic" at the supermarket or taking public transit instead of the car. I am not doing his talk justice here but I'll just reiterate that Mr. Cousteau was a terrific speaker and his talk was very well received.

(By the way, remembering that the theme of this year's NCCE was "Capture the Magic of Teaching and Learning", the warm-up act prior to Mr. Cousteau's keynote was an appearance by an honest-to-goodness magician. Unfortunately I've forgotten his name but he was very good!)

After lunch, I had my second three-hour workshop. The presenter was Jeff Miller. His topic was "Right-clicks, Tips & Tricks for Office 2007". I would have to admit being somewhat skeptical -- going into it -- that there could possibly be that many clicks/tricks/tips to occupy that much time. But, although there were a few "dry" spots, the number of things he showed us was 1) quite numerous, 2) appeared to offer many advantages of greater speed & efficiency, and 3) some were kinda amazing, as in "you can do *that* with a keyboard combo or right-click?" Jeff also provided a level of documentation that was both thorough and easy to understand and navigate. Plus he provided both a printed and electronic versions of all materials. He made it clear that these materials could freely be shared (with attribution, of course). Way too many tips/tricks to list here, but it was definitely worth the time.

NCCE 2010 -- Seattle -- Day 2

2010-03-05T11:56:00.000-08:00

The main activity today was a gathering of IT and Administrators. The featured speaker was Hall Davidson. I've seen/heard Mr. Davidson once before and looked forward to this session. I was not disappointed. He remains the dynamic speaker I remember and he shared with us much information that was food for thought.

One aspect of his work more emphasized this time around than before is his connection with Discovery Education. He is one of the Discovery Educators on the Discovery Education Team. Given that Hall has this connection with Discovery Education and the biases that may go along with that connection, a number of the resources he showed us were, indeed, quite impressive. One outgrowth, therefore, of hearing his talk is my intention to delve more deeply into what Discovery Education may be able to offer my students and colleagues.

In no particular order, some of the other tools or ideas he touched on included:

1)iTunes University -- a resource used by a growing number of schools & university to post/offer coursework for students around the globe
2) The 3M Young Scientists Challenge
3) Polleverywhere.com -- giving and taking polls using your cellphone/smartphone to text answers......giving those in the "clicker" business something to have nightmares about!
4) Google Translate -- this service is getting better and better -- it's still free -- and the selection of languages keep growing, too.
5) Google Voice -- another free Google service changing the way we manage our phones and phone numbers
6) UStream.tv -- judging from the response from others in the room, I need to look into this one!
7) Discovery Education -- their home page......also something to delve into in the near future
8) Edmodo -- for teachers interested in a tool like Twitter but want a tool with more educational focus
9) .....and others

One of his pronouncements that he (I think) intentionally wanted to voice and see our reaction was regarding cellphones. He briefly recounted how most schools ban or tightly control their use at school. His advice: Let Them In! Have kids take polls using them. Have kids watch videos using them. Have kids surf the Web using them.

And -- no surprise here -- Hall invited us all to........follow him on Twitter!!! :-)

Following the presentation, we were able to roam around the room and hear mini-presenations about open source resources, check out the Amazon Kindle eReader, creating your own personal learning network, and a table with some netbooks and iTouch to try out (I brought my own iTouch).

NCCE 2010 -- Seattle -- Day 1

2010-03-02T11:55:00.000-08:00

I have attended other, though not all, past NCCE Conventions. Although this event has some of the "crowd" feeling that most of these large professional gatherings, I've come away from a number of previous NCCE gatherings feeling that the time spent was quite worthwhile. I hope that will be the case again in 2010.

Today's NCCE activity was a 3-hour workshop called: Photoshop.com -- Online Photo Editing. Trainer/Facilitator was Joe Dockery. The focus of this workshop was to showcase what image-editing tools & resources are available through this free online website (http://www.photoshop.com). Aside from the very big advantage of this resource being free (offers 2GB of storage with the free account: more storage capacity can be purchased), a big huge plus to editing using Photoshop.com is that everyone accesses it via a browser. Therefore it doesn't matter what operating system you're using. You have online access & a browser? You're in! There is even an app available for the iPhone/iTouch and the Android phone.

This OS-independent factor is a significant "deal maker" in my situation where I have students with Windows laptops and others with Mac laptops. Finding software at a reasonable price (or, better, free) which is dual-platform is doable but often has other complications. Not so with Photoshop.com. The interface you work with on a Windows machine is exactly the same as on a Mac. This is GREAT!

Joe is an effective trainer and this was a rewarding session. As it happens, after signing up for Joe's workshop some weeks back, I came to the image-editing unit in my Laptop Prep class. Since having read about his session made me aware of Photoshop.com's existence, I went ahead and tried many of its features before NCCE came along. I chose to create a separate Photoshop.com site for each of my five sections and the site worked beautifully for the type of image-editing exercises we needed to do.

For the primary editing assignment, I supplied a wide variety of images (about 240) and uploaded them to each section's Photoshop.com site. After editing an original image, each student saved their own version. They assembled an album of all their edited pictures which we embedded as slideshows at our Laptop Prep Ning site (http://lmsprep0910.ning.com; you must join to access).

Is Photoshop.com a replacement for Photoshop? Or even Photoshop Elements? Not really. But it offers a lot for certain kinds of digital image projects. It worked out great for me and my kids!

2010 Is Right Around The Corner

2009-12-26T19:37:00.000-08:00

No great insight, there, I would agree. Still, the new year is just about upon us. As so many will say (and really mean), 2009 has sped by.

Here's to a great 2010!

Best Wishes to All!

We Chose The Moon

2009-08-07T15:14:00.000-07:00

Last month many of us marked the 40th anniversary of Apollo 11's successful mission to the moon which included, of course, the first humans to step off onto its surface. On cable and network TV, not to mention newspapers (online and in print), there were many stories marking this achievement.

One site that I've found especially fascinating -- with its combination of high quality graphics and animation plus archival video and pictures from the mission and the training that preceded it -- is We Choose The Moon.

One unusual aspect of this site is that the entire mission is available, stage by stage. In other words, you can re-live this amazing mission in real time. Or you can start at any of the 11 stages of the mission.

And to think lift-off was back on July 16, 1969. Incredible!

PNAIS 2009 TechShare Conference -- Day Three

2009-07-16T14:07:00.000-07:00

Session 1 -- Educator Track

Structuring an Online Conversation: The Why Not?

Presenter: Richard Kassissieh (Catlin Gabel School)

The focal point of Richard’s presentation was the video Skype conversation he showed us (on video) of an instructive and powerful online conversation between students in his classrooms at Catlin Gabel and a group of students in the Gaza Strip.

Watching and listening to these young people grapple with other cultures and listen to each other with such patience and effort to understand the unfamiliar or to revise previous assumptions about others, was, in itself, inspiring. It was a very good demonstration of the power inherent in some online tools in truly bringing us together as a global community.

Final Session -- Educator Track

Building Projects Around Common Goals & Lesson Plan Development

Presenters: Richard Kassissieh (Catlin Gabel School) and Jimi Robinson (Evergreen School)

Richard and Jimi challenged us to take a topic in our groups at each table (there were five tables) and, in this small group, come up with a plan and strategy for bringing that topic to our students or into a curriculum we were involved in. The subject that arose at our table was ways of using video in the classroom and tools that make video accessible and useful, ranging from which cameras to use to methods of distributing/sharing student video projects (i.e. SchoolTube, TeacherTube).

As the final session of the conference, there was also some time spent on thank yous and farewells.

.....and adieu

As I found in my previous participation in TechShare conferences, my time at the 2009 version was well-spent. I’m grateful that PNAIS offers this kind of professional development opportunity. One difference for me at this conference was the fact that I was one of the presenters. I’m glad that the presentation that Lillian and I did was pretty well-received. It was a very useful exercise and I learned a great deal in putting together the presentation and actually making the presentation in front of these TechShare colleagues.

I’m glad to have had the opportunity to attend this conference and I appreciate the support the school has given to make this possible.

PNAIS 2009 TechShare Conference -- Day Two

2009-07-15T14:03:00.000-07:00

Session 1 -- All Attendees

Developing Best Practices around Digital Citizenship

Presenter: Jimi Robinson (Evergreen School)

Using the ISTE definition as a starting point (“Digital citizenship can be defined as the norms of behavior with regard to technology use.”), Jimi took us through the highlights of a presentation he uses on this subject. Other subjects he helped us explore included what specific behaviors constitute digital citizenship, the notions of digital etiquette and netiquette, what responsibilities fall to technology leaders, informational literacy, as well as copyright/fair use and the Creative Commons initiative.

We spent some time reflecting on the question of Internet Safety including some of the findings of the Internet Safety Technical Task Force and their report, Enhancing Child Safety and Online Technologies (from the Berkman Center for Internet and Society, Harvard University). We took a look at some of the important central findings posed by this report with respect to what parents can use to keep minors safe on the Internet (e.g. technology can play a role but cannot be the sole input to improved safety for minors online; the most effective technology solution is likely to be a combination of technologies, etc.).

The message in this session for me was all of us in schools can do much more to inform ourselves, along with parents and students, on the issues surrounding Internet safety. More than an opportunity to further inform ourselves, perhaps we are obligated to do this.

Session 2 -- Educator Track

Tech Training for Teachers: A Technologist’s and Librarian’s Story

Presenters: Lillian Godreau, Harold Johanson (Lakeside School)

This was the presentation that Lillian and I put together to talk about, reflect on, and gather suggestions for tech training for teachers.

Our focus was to tell our “story” of the TechTalk Thursday series we put together during the ’08-’09 school year. Through the mechanism of a PowerPoint presentation, we explored the issues we faced and the challenges in trying to come up with an effective (and, we hope, well-attended) series of technology trainings that would bring new tech tools and practices to the teachers in our building. We shared some of the content we presented and the things we thought worked well and the things we plan on tweaking for next year.

Our “story” seemed to be well-received and, in the discussion/Q&A period, we did get some useful suggestions and reflections based on what others at the session had tried at the respective schools.

Session 3 -- Educator Track

Web 2.0: Embracing the Monster

Presenter: Cheryl Wolotira (Northwest School)

The subtitle of her presentation was: Social Media in Schools. Cheryl did an effective job of showing us the many, many tools available (that fall within her definition of Web 2.0). She began by talking about wikis, blogs, social networks, RSS, IM, and the notion of personal learning networks (PLN).

This latter concept is quite intriguing. The idea is that, with the wealth (or, better yet, torrent) of online information from which one can choose every day, it can be useful to think about what places one uses on a regular basis to sort through the deluge. We all develop habits of finding the information that we think we need to know. Knowing those specific sources/tools you come to rely on can be helpful in analyzing what information is of value to you. Being aware of your PLN may help you let go of sources that end up not repaying your time and attention and moving on to better sources. Reflecting on this whole notion of a PLN seems to have potential in some of my work at the Middle School in the coming year.

I was glad to see that Cheryl took time to point out some of the potential down- and upsides of this informational onslaught, not only on adults but also on kids. Three downsides she talked about: a) inappropriate content; b) the distraction factor; and c) potential for cheating. Upsides included: a) like-minded people can readily share and communicate; b) communication is easy and quick; c) collaboration, collaboration, collaboration; and d) none of us is as smart as all of us.

In addition, Cheryl highlighted the following specific tools:

Wordle -- http://www.wordle.net/
Eyeplorer -- http://eyeplorer.com/show/
VoiceThread -- http://voicethread.com/#home
Animoto -- http://animoto.com/
Tidyread -- http://www.tidyread.com/
Free Tech 4 Teachers -- http://www.freetech4teachers.com/

Session 4 -- Educator Track

Video Chroma Keying

Presenter: Ethan Delavan (Seattle Country Day School)

Ethan gave us a demonstration (with a partial hands-on component) where he set up a green-screen, lights, and video camera to demonstrate the relative ease in video taping people in a technique that allows one to make those people appear to be various places on the globe though the subjects were actually taped in a studio and the pictures were overlaid on the green-screen area.

The technique is used routinely by TV weatherpeople. In schools, chroma key can be a useful technique for placing students in places without having them actually having to travel there for a wide variety of video projects and presentations.

PNAIS 2009 TechShare Conference -- Day One

2009-07-14T13:52:00.000-07:00

Session 1 – All Attendees

Global Education

Presenters: Vicki Butler (SAAS) along with other members of the TechShare planning committee

Vicki started us off thinking about the ways in which the integration of technology can enhance involving our students in the issues of the world we live in. We watched a PowerPoint presentation she used to help identify the issues.

Soon we were invited to break up in groups and accomplish a couple goals. One was somewhat practical in that organizers had brought with a clutch of video cameras (most were Flip) and wanted us to have our own opportunity to have some “hands on” experience using this video technology. A second goal was to use those video cameras to record images or scenes that, in our small group’s view, somehow identified the global connection we saw in the things around us.

These exercises were a nice way to bring focus to the group on our coming days together since many of us had spent a significant chunk of the day traveling by car to get to Welches.

Session 2 -- Educator Track

SmartBoard Presentation and Demo

Presenter: Jimi Robinson (Evergreen School)

Jimi had brought a portable SmartBoard to the conference and used it for his presentation.
This, admittedly, was pretty much all review for me. However, based on the amount of energy and interest displayed by others in this session, there apparently are a number of people still unacquainted with SmartBoards.

There was also brief mention of some alternate hardware (i.e. Mimio, Promethean Activboards) which were used by some of the other attendees in their schools.

PNAIS 2009 TechShare Conference -- Introduction

2009-07-13T13:50:00.001-07:00

This year’s TechShare Conference (sometimes referred to by organizers as an “un-conference” to suggest its relative informality and friendly spirit) was held at a resort in Oregon. Alla B , Lillian G, and I carpooled from Seattle to Welches, OR. The conference sessions started at 2 p.m. on Sunday, June 28.
As has been true in other TechShare get-togethers, an attempt was made to offer a thread of subjects to appeal to two of the primary groups who attend these conferences: educators and network and/or technology administrators. My plan was to attend those sessions with an educational focus.

Our National Parks

2009-06-26T08:50:00.001-07:00

I hate to start out any post by saying something like.....the older I get the more I appreciate.....but when it comes to our system of National Parks here in the United States, I would have to say that I am growing more and more appreciative to those who made the effort and took the time to bring about this set of national treasures.

A Ken Burns PBS series called: The National Parks: America's Best Idea will air in September, 2009. Click here to visit this great website.

Fremont Solstice Parade 2009

2009-06-21T10:56:00.000-07:00

I simply can't help putting up at least one thing about the 2009 version of the Solstice Parade in dear Center-Of-The-Known-Universe Fremont. Saw some of it live and in person yesterday and was once again smiling big time most of the day just from the palpable fun and enjoyment on the part of the many, many, many Seattleites there. Click here for some photos (thanks to the Seattle P-I)

Earth Day 2009

2009-04-22T10:30:00.000-07:00

What better way to mark another Earth Day than to visit a site like Encyclopedia of the Earth. Their goal is to be "a new electronic reference about the Earth, its natural environments, and their interaction with society."

What a wonderful resource!

Trying Windows Live

2009-04-09T20:44:00.001-07:00

I’ve just downloaded and begun experimenting with the various components of Windows Live. This bundle of programs – including Mail, Messenger, Writer (which I’m using now to post this to my blog), Movie Maker [beta], and more – that will apparently be part of the upcoming version of Windows, Windows 7.

Fun to give things a whirl!!!

My First Post About Banking

2009-04-02T09:48:00.000-07:00

As of today no one can any longer say that I never posted about a banking system, let alone the one in Switzerland.

I've had some fun (and learned a thing or two) at the HowStuffWorks site. Here's their "how" on how the Swiss banking system works.

For Fans of Mark Twain

2009-03-31T10:28:00.000-07:00

Guess what? He has an official website and it looks both interesting and funny (his memorable quips, for example). Well worth an amble into the world of Twain.

Click here.

Protecting the Liberty Bell

2009-01-24T09:02:00.000-08:00

If there's any enduring symbol of the founding of the United States and the freedoms that we value, it's the Liberty Bell.

The National Science Foundation has this website which documents the efforts being made to protect this important part of our heritage.

You'll learn something!

We Have A New President!!

2009-01-20T10:56:00.000-08:00

What a great day! One place to read about what just happened is here.

Photos from Life Magazine

2008-12-02T13:56:00.000-08:00

Google and Life Magazine have teamed up to make available decades worth of photos in Life Magazine's collection. One place said that many of these photos have previously not been available. I'm dating myself, I know, but I remember the days when a Life Magazine rack was right there next to the grocery counter checkout line.

Well, checkout this photo collection here.

Amazing Molecular Animations

2008-10-17T09:27:00.000-07:00

The site is called Molecular Movies and, boy, does it have cool animations. You'll get hooked just by watching the one on clonal selection and antibody production in the human immune system. Amazing doesn't cover it! Wow!

Click here to go to Molecular Movies.

Presidential and Vice Presidential Debates 2008

2008-10-02T11:00:00.000-07:00

Tonight is the long-awaited Vice Presidential Debate with Senator Joseph Biden and Alaska Governor Sarah Palin.

MSNBC has a site dedicated to the series of Presidential and Vice Presidential Debates. A lot of interesting information, including earlier examples of presidential candidates debating each other.

Click here to visit MSNBC's Presidential Debate site.

How Do You Spell That?

2008-09-20T10:53:00.000-07:00

Over the years, I've heard some references to previous attempts, organized and not-so-organized, to reform (or simplify) spelling in English. What I had no idea of is the number of reform movements out there that have put together systems for re-doing the whole approach to spelling and pronuncitation in English.

Click here to go to a page that lists a number of specific spelling reforms that have been made. If you start delving down into some of these you'll be amazed at the detail and differences in approach taken by various reforms.

Frank Lloyd Wright Designed Gas Station

2008-09-15T10:43:00.000-07:00

Yes, Frank Lloyd Wright did design a gas station in addition to all the magnificent homes and office buildings he created. This station is located in Cloquet, Minnesota.

Minnesota Public Radio did a story about it. Click here to read and listen. The gas station is celebrating its 50 anniversary this year (2008).

School Supplies

2008-08-28T14:13:00.000-07:00

This is the time of year when we're all thinking about the start of another school year. And what's on the minds of all students? School supplies.

One constant in all the years I was in school in my 3-ring binder or Pee Chee (remember those Pee Chees??) was the ever-reliable pencil.

If you've ever wondered who made all those pencils -- and how many companies still make them -- take a visit to Bob Truby's Brandname Pencils site. Fascinating!

Why Write?

2008-08-21T11:56:00.000-07:00

That question seems particularly apropos for a blog, don't you think. Well, a lot of interesting answers to that question are available at a site by the British Library as part of their Learning website.

Check out Why Write?

Online Videos For Students and Educators

2008-07-03T13:09:00.000-07:00

One of the many discoveries from my time at Tom Daccord's Web 2.0 workshop last month was SchoolTube. We were discussing Web 2.0 tools such as YouTube but were weighing the up- and downsides of using such a "public" resource, one where we all have seen the most amazing and useful video but where we also realize much debatable or absolutely inappropriate content is accessible to one and all (which includes our students).

TeacherTube was mentioned, of course. But I had never heard of SchoolTube, which was described as a place where students can post video (not to worry, the content is also monitored and subject to moderation by educators and site administrators).

In case you hadn't heard of SchoolTube, now you have. As an enticement, I offer a sample below which I thought was very well done. SchoolTube seems like a "keeper" site.

Web 2.0 Workshop with Tom Daccord -- Day 3

2008-06-26T22:10:00.000-07:00

Tom started our final day with a mini-demo of Skype. He doesn’t necessarily use Skype a lot with his students, but as a tool (also free) that allows direct, real-time communication and collaboration to pretty much anyone who can access an online computer that has a microphone and/or built-in camera. Fire up Skype, dial the Skype-capable person at the other end and chat away! I suspect we’re already using Skype here at Lakeside with our GSL trips. But the potential for teachers or students talking directly with fellow scholars all over the world with a tool like Skype is pretty exciting.

Tom used Skype to call Patrick Woessner. He talked to us about social-networking tools. The focus was on two specific social-networking sites: Twitter and del.icio.us. Twitter provides a way for people to let other people know what they’re doing. Not only can you leave notes about what you’re doing, but you can ask to follow other people who are signed up with Twitter. By following other people on Twitter, you get to receive their “twitters” which keeps you apprised of what they’re thinking about or doing. I had heard of Twitter before this conference – it seems like one of the current buzzwords – but I had never taken a look at it. I decided to join and right away subscribed to the postings of a number of Twitter folks who are connected with educational technology (including Tom and some of the folks listed above). I’ll be interested to see where the twitterings take me.

del.icio.us is a website where one can store, tag, and provide access to lists of URLs. Because URLs you store in del.icio.us are online, it allows users to access their personal collection of URLs (bookmarks) with any computer that offers online access and a browser. Beyond simply listing URLs one wants to keep, del.icio.us invites the user to “tag” each site with multiple one-word descriptors (i.e. biology, useful, humor, instructional, grammar, podcast, tutorials, Web 2.0, etc.). One’s entire URL collection is organized with these descriptors so that by clicking on, say, “Web 2.0”, all the URLs that were tagged as Web 2.0 will be listed. It’s also possible to attach a lengthier description to each URL stored on del.icio.us. All of the above is handy enough, but an additional thing del.icio.us offers is an indication of how many other people have listed each URL in a person’s collection. So every URL indicates how many other del.icio.us members have chosen to save the same URL. The thinking here is that, by social networking people’s bookmarks, the more people who store and tag the same URL, the more likely that that particular site will prove to be especially useful…..right? In del.icio.us it’s also possible to view other user’s entire collection of stored URLs (bookmarks), as long as the user allows her/his collection to be shared. This can give one insight into where other people are finding useful information. With del.icio.us it’s not so much the ability to store bookmarks -- though that’s really handy -- it’s the sharing of sites and information that can be so powerful in learning and research.

After the Skype conversation, Tom moved into a sort of gadget phase, showing us some hardware that is on his radar.

First came the FlipVideo camera. We have actually FlipVideo camcorders at my school this past spring for a 7th grade English script-writing/movie-making project. Therefore, I have some sense of the Flip’s many strengths and some of its possible downsides, at least based on our experience. However, one can’t escape the handiness factor: the small size, no-more-DV-tape-hassles to deal with, and pretty rugged construction.

Next he showed us a Kindle (an eReader from Amazon). I believe Tom indicated that he doesn’t use the Kindle in class so much but does use it for some of his reading and/or studying, particularly in his travels.

The last item in today’s hardware show-and-tell was an iPod. It sounded to me like they have class-sets of iPods at Nobles and the school equips each with a microphone (such as the Griffin iTalk Pro [around $50]). He shared some imaginative uses of the iPod such as a language teacher hanging pictures/paintings in the hallway, having verbal descriptions recorded (in the foreign language) on the iPod, and students having to listen to the description and match it with the picture they see before them. Clearly iPods are not only handy in storing songs or simply used for entertainment, but can have many uses in the classroom.

Returning to online Web 2.0 resources, Tom next showed us VoiceThread, another free tool. This one allows a picture (or multiples to form a slide show) to be uploaded. Then commentary, instructions, or whatever you wish can be added to accompany the visuals. Then others can be invited to view and listen to a VoiceThread and, if they so choose, record their own response, observation, or comment. VoiceThread collects all the comments for each “thread” and each user can listen to the comments of all the other contributors to the VoiceThread. One obvious use for a VoiceThread might be in art courses, where samples of an artist’s work make up the slideshow. Students are then asked to view each painting and record their personal observations about each work and listen to the comments by their classmates. Historical pictures could prompt VoiceThread discussions in History. It would be pretty easy to produce a how-to tutorial with a series of screenshots for technology. And so on. VoiceThreads can even be imbedded in a blog making it easy for people who view a person’s blog to access content such as a VoiceThread.

From here, Tom moved us on to a GarageBand tutorial. GarageBand is a Mac application, part of the iLife suite that comes as a bundle of applications when you buy a Mac (so, in a sense, it’s free, too). I had access to an iMac in the lab we were using for the workshop, so I followed along with the tutorial. However, at my school, we are essentially a Windows OS site only. Unfortunately, there is no comparable tool in Windows. So, while not a tool I can readily use in my school situation, it was very interesting to get an idea of what GarageBand can do. Tom took us through the steps to create a podcast using GarageBand. In addition to recording our narration, GarageBand makes it incredibly easy to add music and various effects. Unlike producing a podcast using Audacity, adding the soundtrack is easy to do with the built-in sound tracks that come with GarageBand. And it’s important to note that the music/sounds that GarageBand can provide are copyright-free. Therefore, there are no worries about checking for permission to use the music or searching around online for public domain music, as you need to do if you’re wanting a soundtrack for the podcast you’re producing using an application like Audacity. Audacity is a great (free) sound editor, but it doesn’t come with any music of its own. Tom pointed out how to configure iTunes to convert incoming files to .mp3, which means it’s very easy to produce a podcast in GarageBand and listen to it in something like iTunes.

For those of us who are PC users, Tom next gave us a short tutorial on Audacity showing the relative ease of recording and editing. He pointed out some of the useful tools when producing podcasts, such as adding silence, but the emphasis was the fact that Audacity (yet another free application) is pretty easy to use if not as versatile (in Tom’s opinion, at least) as GarageBand.

By now our last day of the workshop was nearing its end. Tom returned to some topics from earlier in the sessions and a few additional new ones.

He reminded us about Classroom 2.0 which built as a Ning. I’m not quite sure I fully understand what a Ning is but I know that it apparently allows people to create online social networks of their own around areas or subjects of interest. This is certainly intriguing and I will want to explore what a Ning has to offer soon.

Tom showed us Bubbl.us and Gliffy which can be thought of as alternatives to Inspiration. In both cases there is a free version available.

A social-networking, research, and bookmark site called Diigo made a brief appearance. Though we did not devote much time to Diigo in our waning minutes, I think this will be something well worth revisiting.

Tom started winding down with another brief “check this out”……this time for Google Earth. I’ve heard quite a few references to Google Earth already and know that this amazing resource is prime territory for my further exploration.

To some extent, the last three days are a blur. As I re-read and reflect on what we did and where we “went” (online, of course!), there is so much we’ve been exposed to and explored thanks to this workshop. Tom Daccord is a gifted and very effective teacher. I’ve not read his and Mr. Reich’s book cover to cover yet but I have read through sections. I’m not quite ready to pronounce Best Ideas for Teaching with Technology the educational technology book of the year yet but I must say that my initial impression is that this book is filled with ideas, strategies, websites, and lesson plan ideas that pass the “this will work” teacher test. Plus I find the book to be written in such a way to get me to think of my own take on how to use the tools they write about. In other words, it stimulates new thinking about teaching, learning, and curriculum. What more could one ask for?

I count myself lucky to have been able to attend Tom Daccord’s Web 2.0 workshop. As I’ve already noted, Tom is a very effective presenter. This workshop was very well-organized; Tom thought-through carefully what he wanted to cover and how best to do it (workshop agenda available here). It was a great three days at the Noble & Greenough School under Tom Daccord’s tutelage. I learned a lot!!

People of interest mentioned by Tom during the workshop whose writing and thinking about educational technology is worth tracking:
• Ben Schneiderman
• Daniel H. Pink
• Kathy Schrock
• Will Richardson
• Andy Carvin
• Nancy Willard
• Patrick Woessner

Sites we used or were introduced to in this workshop:

Wikispaces -- http://www.wikispaces.com/ -- free wiki sites. Registration required but otherwise free for educators(and no ads).
Flat Classroom Project -- http://flatclassroomproject.wikispaces.com/ -- a Wikispaces wiki founded by Vicki Davis (Westwood Schools, USA) and Julie Lindsay (Qatar Academy, Qatar). To quote from their site: “One of the main goals of the project is to 'flatten' or lower the classroom walls so that instead of each class working isolated and alone, 2 or more classes are joined virtually to become one large classroom. This will be done through the Internet through Wikispaces and Ning.”
EdTechTeacher.org -- http://edtechteacher.org/index.html -- a new online initiative by Tom Daccord and Justin Reich and dedicated to helping teachers use technology in their teaching with lesson plans, publications, workshops, and much more
Blogger -- http://www.blogger.com/ -- free blogs from Blogger (owned by Google; requires Google account)
Tumblr -- http://www.tumblr.com -- free “tumblelogs” which are “short form blogs” -- Tumblr says “if a blog is a journal, then a Tumblelog is a scrapbook”
Google Page Creator -- http://pages.google.com/ -- free web page editor and website creator (owned by Google; requires Google account)
Classroom 2.0 -- http://www.classroom20.com/ -- “the social networking site for those interested in Web 2.0 and collaborative technologies in education”
YouTube -- http://www.youtube.com -- a repository for millions of videos available online anywhere anytime on all possible subjects (not all of which are appropriate) but there are a number of treasures here!
TeacherTube -- http://www.teachertube.com -- a site dedicated to sharing instructional video with an online community (content screened for appropriateness and pulled if deemed inappropriate)
SchoolTube -- http://www.schooltube.com/ -- to quote their site: “SchoolTube provides students and educators a safe, world class, and FREE media sharing website that is nationally endorsed by premier education associations.” Content is monitored and approved before posting.
PageFlakes -- http://www.pageflakes.com/ -- a “mash up”….in other words, a site where you can assemble on one web page content and updates from an array of websites covering news, sports, entertainment, technology, etc.
iGoogle -- http://www.google.com/ig -- offers similar “mash up” type format as PageFlakes (owned by Google; requires Google account)
Odeo -- http://odeo.com/ -- an online directory and search destination website for RSS syndicated audio & video which also has tools so that users can create, record, and share podcasts with a simple interface.
Gcast -- http://www.gcast.com/ -- offers free tools to create podcast
iTunes -- http://www.apple.com/itunes/ -- client for accessing multi-media, including subscribing to podcasts
Skype -- http://www.skype.com/ -- a program making it possible to make calls between online computers
Twitter -- http://twitter.com/ -- a service that allows people to communicate and follow other subscribers to Twitter
del.icio.us -- http://del.icio.us/ -- online bookmark/URL storage with options to tag, add descriptions, view other members’ bookmark collections
VoiceThread -- http://voicethread.com/#home -- create a thread from pictures, documents, or videos; comment on thread; share thread online
GarageBand -- http://www.apple.com/ilife/garageband/ -- part of Apple’s iLife suite, a program that can create soundtracks and record podcasts (and more)
Audacity -- http://audacity.sourceforge.net/ -- free audio editor with quite a few features; available for Windows, Mac, and Linux
Ning -- http://www.ning.com -- a resource to create online social networks focused on particular subjects of interest (see Classroom 2.0 above which is an example of a Ning)
Bubbl.us -- http://bubbl.us -- a free online site offering brainstorming and mind-mapping tools (a possible alternative to Inspiration)
Gliffy -- http://www.gliffy.com -- an online site offering mind-mapping and design (i.e. floor plans) tools -- free and for-pay-subscription options
Diigo -- http://www.diigo.com -- a bookmark organizer and research tool, which also offers social networking with many options for sharing content and collaboration

Other Tools:

RSS/Atom feeds -- can subscribe through browsers, programs such as Outlook 2007, or sites such as Bloglines
Flip Video Camcorders -- http://www.theflip.com/ -- highly portable, easy-to-use hand-held camcorder that stores video on memory card not DV tape
Kindle -- http://www.amazon.com/Kindle-Amazons-Wireless-Reading-Device/dp/B000FI73MA -- hand-held eReader from Amazon
iPod -- http://www.apple.com/ipodclassic/ -- highly portable, highly popular personal stereo player -- can also record with microphone accessory such as Griffin iTalk Pro -- http://www.griffintechnology.com/products/italkpro

Web 2.0 Workshop with Tom Daccord -- Day 2

2008-06-25T20:39:00.000-07:00

Today began as a continuation of work-time on our blogs.

Next we explored website creation and updating. The tool Tom chose to show us and have us use was Google Page Creator. We got acquainted with the Site Manager and the Page Creator interface. Formatting pages, adding pages, and otherwise assembling a website using Page Creator is quite easy. With tools like Google Page Creator, deciding to do an assignment or project where students would each create their own website could hardly be easier. Obviously, long-gone are the days when, if you wanted to design and get online a website of your own, you’d have to spend major dollars on programs like Dreamweaver. Google Page Creator is free (you do have to create a Google Account but that’s free, too) and design templates make page creation easy. Dreamweaver still does the fancy stuff but it’s quite likely that something like Page Creator will be quite sufficient for student assignments. After all, our focus is going to be on the content more than the design anyway. It was very useful getting a chance to have our own experience using this tool.

It may unnecessary to bring this up again but all the Web 2.0 tools we’ve been using so far are free, their user interface is generally straight-forward, functional, and easy to use. Most offer WYSIWYG (what-you-see-is-what-you-get) formatting. and have social networking and collaborative tools built in.

RSS and RSS aggregators were a topic that came up again. Tom featured Bloglines and Google Reader and showed how to add feeds to both. I pointed out to the group that Outlook 2007 has built-in capability to subscribe to RSS feeds. They are accessible in the Outlook Folder List. It’s very handy.

Our next type of tool we looked at is referred to as a mash-up. Tom showed us PageFlakes and how to add news, widgets/gadgets, calendars, and other content to a PageFlake page. All a mash-up is is a web page that displays content chosen by the user. With a mash-up you are able to see, at a glance, news headlines, weather summaries, and an array of up-to-the-minute content in short, headline form. This makes it easy to skip the material of little or no interest and to click on the content where you want to see the full story. Another workshop participant and I pointed out that iGoogle is also a mash-up. Since many of us are using a number of Google tools (Gmail, Blogger, Google Page Creator, Google Docs, etc.), we thought people might consider exploring iGoogle, too, in addition to PageFlakes.

We next took a dip into podcasting. Tom seems to be a strong advocate of podcasting and showed us the ease of creating one – on the fly! – in our workshop. He recorded our responses to a question he posed, passing around his cellphone. He uploaded it to a service called Gcast and, within minutes, we were listening to it as a podcast on Gcast and/or iTunes. That whole process was indeed pretty amazing and Tom made it look super easy. He said that he has used such a cellphone podcast in his history classes for a quick discussion topic or an impromptu quiz.

This was another stimulating and productive day.

Web 2.0 Workshop with Tom Daccord -- Day 1

2008-06-24T19:03:00.000-07:00

As people arrived for Day 1, our first task was to find a place to sit in the computer lab. As we got ourselves situated, our presenter, Tom Daccord, came around to introduce himself and handed each of us a complimentary (and signed) copy of his new book, Best Ideas for Teaching with Technology – A Practical Guide for Teachers by Teachers (co-written with Justin Reich; just published this month by M.E. Sharpe).
The formal session began soon thereafter with introductions all around. Participants were mostly teachers and came from places near (Dedham, MA) and far (Toronto, North Carolina, Seattle, and India [!]).
Tom began our three-day workshop on Web 2.0 with a PowerPoint presentation setting forth reasons why the so-called “Web 2.0” tools are so important in our curricula and classrooms. According to Tom, Web 2.0 sites and tools are:
• interactive and intuitive
• facilitate collaboration
• free or low cost
• accessible from anywhere
• varied privacy options
• files hosted on Web
• can embed multimedia

Whereas the first stage of the web’s existence (Web 1.0) was a break-through in so many ways, particularly in its potential to connect people through a vast online network, the content that we accessed was almost always created by someone else. The content could be of great interest and be quite useful, but it was typically “read only.” That is to say, the content we found online was written by someone else (the “expert”). Again, it was a tremendous increase in accessing information for research and study but users did not interact with the “expert” or have a way to add their own perspectives let alone corrections/updates. We users received information but adding our own content was not that easy.
The hallmark of Web 2.0 is that the web has become a two-way street. We users can still access an incredible treasure trove of information but, with Web 2.0, we can also add, correct, and share our own contributions to the wealth of information and knowledge online. With blogs, wikis, and social networking sites easily available, sharing one’s own ideas is easy. Plugging into other people’s thinking and research is also far easier. There has been an explosion of multi-media (video, audio, graphics) readily accessible from any connected computer. The power made possible by collaboration and other forms of social networking across the web – in terms of enhancing teaching and learning – would be difficult to overstate.
As noted above, the low- or no-cost nature of most Web 2.0 tools, the easy-to-use interface of most of these sites and programs, plus the fact that the information is housed online (we don’t have to carry the content around on our computers and we can access it from anywhere) are additional major factors in empowering pretty much everybody in being a presence online, if they so choose. Of course, not every tool is appropriate or useful in our teaching, but there are many Web 2.0 tools that offer much to us as educators.
Some authors/thinkers that Tom recommended today include:
• Ben Schneiderman -- Leonardo's Laptop: Human Needs and the New Computing Technologies
• Daniel H. Pink -- A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future
• Will Richardson -- Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms
• Andy Carvin -- PBS Learning Now blog and website: http://www.pbs.org/teachers/learning.now/
• Kathy Schrock -- her educator’s guide website is now part of the Discovery Education web presence: http://school.discoveryeducation.com/schrockguide/
Tom recommended the Classroom 2.0 website as a prime example of the teaching and learning potential of Web 2.0: http://www.classroom20.com/
Our focus on this, Day 1, was blogs, wikis, and web pages. We began by creating a wiki using Wikispaces, creating and linking new pages, editing, tracking history, etc. Tom had already created a Wikispaces site devoted to this workshop (view here) which he had us use for some of the practice using the discussion tool of a wiki. On our own sites, he showed us how to include multi-media such as audio or video. The power of a wiki is that it offers all users the opportunity to add to the content, including making corrections and updates. So, unlike Web 1.0’s reliance on individual experts to assemble and error-check content (one might say the “Encyclopedia Britannica approach”), wikis offer the collective expertise of all the users coming to the site. Of course, this type of tool also raises the question of learning to double-check sources; just because a website says it’s so doesn’t necessarily make it so, especially in the case of a wiki. However, comparisons of factual mistakes in a non-collaborative source such as online encyclopedias and a collaborative one such as Wikipedia have found little significant difference in the authority and veracity of one over the other (news story here).
Our time doing wiki site creation also included discussion about sources of video with the inevitable misgivings about YouTube and the advocacy of TeacherTube and SchoolTube (the latter a site where students can post work and one I had not heard of before -- content is approved before it is posted).
After a very brief look at Tumblr, which is a sort of short-form blog creation tool, Tom had us use Blogger to create our own blog. Tom went through the steps for setting up a blog, posting to it, setting up the profile and the various formatting settings available. Tom also introduced RSS/Atom feeds. We talked about the kinds of assignments for which a blog might be useful, particularly with the comment feature.
Time flew by pretty fast and it was time for Day 1 to end. We had a good time.

Evening postscript: I'm calling this a good omen! Went to the restaurant adjacent to the hotel this evening. It's an Asian restaurant called Bamboo. Dinner was pretty good but the big payoff after this first day of workshop was the fortune I got in my fortune cookie: "The skills you have gathered will one day come in handy." I do think this first day was great, so it's great to know that it's all going to be worth it!

Technology Workshop -- Web 2.0 -- Tom Daccord -- Boston, MA

2008-06-23T12:23:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow is the first day of a three-day workshop I'm attending on what has come to be referred to as "Web 2.0" tools. The presenter is Tom Daccord and the sessions are being held at Noble & Greenough School in Dedham, MA.

The flight to Boston's Logan Airport was pretty smooth, although the weather in Boston itself was a little stormy, so our approach to landing was bumpy.....not scary exactly.....but a little stressful.

Some Preliminary Thinking About Independence

2008-06-19T13:49:00.000-07:00

In case you're interested in brushing up on the Fourth of July -- and our nation's celebration of independence -- here's a site from the federal government. Click here to revisit some of our history as we approach the national holiday!

The "Greening" of the Automotive Industry

2008-06-12T12:50:00.000-07:00

Popular Mechanics has a collection of articles which they purport to show developments in the automotive world in developing more "green" cars. Let's hope it's working!!! Click here for the article.

Spring Re-awakening

2008-05-04T11:44:00.000-07:00

One of the more colorful and beautiful events each spring is the re-emergence of butterflies and moths. Caterpillars are a reality one also has to face each spring and they are -- pretty much to a worm -- u-g-l-y.

But the Butterflies and (some) Moths are splendiferous to behold! There is a website out there that is great. Pictures, life cycle facts, maps of where each species lives, and so on.

Visit Butterflies and Moths of North America.

West Side Story

2008-04-04T13:36:00.000-07:00

Although I wish I could claim to have done a production of West Side Story in my career in music and musicals, I can't make such a boast. But what an amazing work for the theatre and for the world of music.

An online exhibition is up right now at the Library of Congress. You can see documents from the gestation of the show by all its creators -- Leonard Bernstein, Arthur Laurent, Jerome Robbins -- along with photographs of the production, audition notes prior to casting, and on and on.

Check out West Side Story -- Birth of a Classic

The New Five-er

2008-03-25T08:45:00.000-07:00

Not that I get a chance to hold onto many of these, but the U.S. Treasury Department has released the newly re-designed $5 bill. I ran across this page which describes and shows the various features of this new design and thought you might be interested.

NCCE -- Northwest Council for Computer Education -- February 25-29, 2008

2008-03-03T14:20:00.000-08:00

NCCE Journal 2008

Day 1 – Tuesday – February 26, 2008

Session 1 – Workshop

Adobe Photoshop Elements in the Classroom
Presenter: Joe Dockery -- Mt. Si High School dockeryj@snoqualmie.k12.wa.us

After briefly introducing himself, Mr. Dockery gave an overview of his plan for this workshop on Photoshop Elements. Our primary activity was going to be following a series of tutorials that he recorded (using Camtasia) to edit and otherwise manipulate graphics he has on the disk he gave us. He frequently interrupted our individual work to respond to questions or other issues that people discovered as they went through the tutorials.

One of the first things I noticed – naturally! – is that this session is going to be using a new version of Photoshop Elements. Our school image has Photoshop Elements 5 and at the workshop we’re working in version 6. Sometimes I wish they would not keep producing new versions of stuff!

Mr. Dockery started us off with the tool of Photoshop Elements called the Organizer. He put a great deal of emphasis on the importance of taking the time to put tags on pictures. For grouping and finding specific shots, tags can speed up that process greatly. This is especially important as one’s photo collection grows and grows and grows. You can always view all your pictures but tags can narrow your search a lot and save time.

He also had us spend time in the Editor. The Editor is the place in Photoshop where you go to make the changes/enhancements/conversions/special effects/etc. to pictures.

Examples of some of the tasks we did included adding labels (arrows and text fields), resizing, merging multiple images, grouping, and creating a web gallery. I ran short on time to complete all the tutorials. Fortunately, Mr. Dockery’s disk also includes all the tutorials, so I’ll be able to catch up later.

Session 2 – Workshop

Introduction to Adobe Premiere Pro
Presenter: Joe Dockery -- Mt. Si High School dockeryj@snoqualmie.k12.wa.us

Mr. Dockery’s method was similar here as in the earlier Photoshop Elements workshop. He began with an introduction to Premiere and gave an overview of the plan for the coming three hours. We again had a DVD with his tutorials and with an array of source video for use in Premiere. The goal he gave us was to produce a treatment of this video about a particular car that made effective use of the clips he provided.

Using these supplied clips, we were to assemble the various exterior and interior shots into a movie (not unlike a commercial for this car due to the nature of the footage). He also supplied us with an audio file we could use as a soundtrack. These clips were great and it was fun putting together something that looked so professional! That soundtrack was cool, too.

In addition to combining and editing clips, we were asked to add transitions and shown how to add text to clips, create titles, as well as options for exporting the finished project as a movie.

As in the Photoshop workshop, there’s more tutorials to do and, in the case of Premiere, I also want to come back to re-do some of the ones that I went through once but need another time or two to really sink in.

Day 2 – Wednesday – February 27, 2008

[I was at school in the morning since my only session downtown today did not start until the afternoon.]

Session 1 – Workshop

Classroom Documentaries with Adobe Premiere Elements 3.0
Presenter: Joe Dockery -- Mt. Si High School dockeryj@snoqualmie.k12.wa.us

The example that Mr. Dockery used to illustrate the power that he has found in having kids make classroom documentaries is an actual documentary that students at Mt. Si High School put together in support of a food bank in their area. He showed it to us and it is, indeed, a polished and effective use of video. Watching this student project was very good way to demonstrate how much impact videos done by students can have.

Mr. Dockery’s DVD included many resources to view sample classroom documentaries, using and making Public Service Announcements, and oral histories. He also had links to sites where one can find easily licensed or free music.

He pointed out that, through PSESD, there are a number of high quality courses available in technology. He especially wanted to point out that Adobe has a special set up with PSESD to offer “T3” trainings of some of their software (such as Premiere & Photoshop) for extremely reasonable tuition…..like $10 for a six-hour class! Something to look into!

And, at the end, I didn’t win the drawing for a free copy of Premiere Elements, but I did win a t-shirt!

Day 3 – Thursday – February 28, 2008

Session 1 – Concurrent Session

Simply del.icio.us Learning
Presenter: Elise Mueller -- Larrabee Elementary School -- emueller@bham.wednet.edu

This session was in overflow mode by the time I arrived. I did manage to find a seat and get my laptop out (this was one of the NCCE sessions where attendees were asked to bring their laptop). Ms. Mueller was showing her del.icio.us bookmark collection. She emphasized the importance of tagging the bookmarks you put up there as a way of narrowing and filtering bookmarks when it comes time to use your del.icio.us account for the resources you’ve collected. The tags will group those bookmarks with similar or related content and they also allow you to avoid having to scroll through long lists that will no doubt build up over time as one continues to find new sites worthy of hanging on to.

del.icio.us/forelise2
del.icio.us/larrabee345

A teacher of 5^th graders, Elise maintains that a social bookmarking site such as del.icio.us can be very helpful with her students and parents, giving her a way to share information using her tagged bookmarks with both groups. Her kids go to the larrabee345 account (not her own), the content of which is carefully overseen.

The obvious advantage is the fact that these collected bookmarks and the resources they represent are available to all the students and parents who know the name of the site (Larrabee345). Apparently, kids and parents are allowed to add to the site, so they know the “easy to remember” password to get into the site, too.

I would have liked to see and hear more about how she uses del.icio.us (i.e. specific scenarios or examples) and less just showing us all the del.icio.us listings, their tags, and how to sort and otherwise group them. There was more than enough switching back and forth between forelise2 & larrabee345. It was great hearing about the support and enthusiasm of the parents and other teachers but more examples of “real life” classroom teaching and learning using del.icio.us and examples of how kids and families at Larrabee are using del.icio.us as a learning tool would have been even better.

As much fun as it was to be able to log onto del.icio.us ourselves, it also meant that those of us in the room collectively spent time exploring del.icio.us and less time either hearing how Ms. Mueller uses it for her classes or other people in the crowd find useful about del.icio.us in terms of learning and teaching.

Keynote Speaker – Thursday, February 28 – 9:45 a.m.

“Engage Me or Enrage Me – Educating Today’s Learners”
Speaker: Marc Prensky -- marcprensky.com

Mr. Prensky began – after the opening humor and ice-breakers – by posing the question to the entire audience, asking them to finish the statement: “My Biggest Concern as an Educator Is…….” We were supposed to write out our response and hand the slip of paper to someone collecting them. Unfortunately, no further reference was made to the audience response to this question.

According to Mr. Pensky, our biggest challenge is not only to keep up with the change going all around us, but to keep up with the pace of change (is that a distinction without difference?). Not surprisingly, he maintains that we are not keeping up with the kids (the learners) we find in our classrooms. We are supposed to connect kids with the world around them, but far too many teachers are still in their “digital immigrant” mode and losing contact (not to mention the attention) of the “digital natives” in the classroom. Our students are bored, bored, bored.

As an illustration of the pace of change (apparently pointing to the ease of access to online information), Mr. Prensky had everyone in the hall turn on their cellphones and do a web search for a certain person. People were to attempt to answer via an online search on their cellphone and identify this person and note his major accomplishment. Not having a cellphone with web access, I was unable to perform the search. Plenty found the right answer using their phone but the exercise seemed a bit pointless.

The methodology of far too many teachers – according to Mr. Prensky – is the “old paradigm”: teaching kids. What we must do, in this digital age, is move to a “new paradigm”: kids teaching themselves (with guidance, he hastens to add).

While I strongly agree that the day of “stand and deliver” teaching in a lecture modality is gone, gone, gone (and good riddance), I had a little difficulty accepting the totality of Mr. Pensky’s message of bored kids and pedantic and unimaginative teachers. Sure, I know we have the teachers only going through the motions, but the process of learning and of teaching is far more complex and calls for creativity, especially on the part of teachers. But much of a teacher’s success comes from how the infuse their classroom style with their personal energy, imagination, and creativity. My experience has taught me that the manifestation of great teaching, therefore, comes in many guises and styles. One size of teaching method does not fit all and that unimaginative teaching using technology is as deadly as unimaginative teaching without technology.

Teaching and learning are indeed active, lively pursuits but they also demand patience, persistence, reflection, and social interest.

Session 2 – Concurrent session

Copyright Wisdom When Using Music in Multimedia for Education
Presenter: Barry Britt -- a rep from Soundzabound -- barryb@soundzabound.com
http://www.soundzabound.com

This was not my first choice for this time slot, but there was no room at my first choice. I was half-expecting an hour of promotion for Soundzabound since the organization was clearly identified as a resource for teachers of “royalty-free music for schools” and Mr. Britt works for Soundzabound. What better potential customer base for their product!

Somewhat to my surprise, then, Mr. Britt spent most of his time keeping the discussion more focused on using music while respecting copyright, not really giving any explicit plugs to his employer. He invited us to describe some scenarios and presented some of his own. Although not intending to give us a scare, he did cite a couple specific instances where RIAA lawyers had taken districts to court and forced schools to settle copyright disputes with fines (typically settled out of court, according to Mr. Britt).

One point he made is that organizations like RIAA are beginning to target individuals and not just entities…..corporations, school districts, universities, and so on.

His handout included a number of links:

United States Copyright Office: http://www.copyright.gov
School Law Article regarding WARNING by RIAA: http://www.nsba.org
Free Information sponsored by RIAA: http://www.music-rules.com
Fair Use Guidelines for Education: http://www.utsystem.edu
Q & A regarding copyright: http://www.digitalvideoediting.com
Music United for Strong Internet Copyright (MUSIC): http://www.musicunited.org
US Dept of Justice/Computer Crime and Intellectual Property: http://www.cybercrime.gov
Recording Industry Association of America: http://www.riaa.com/

Session 3 – Concurrent Session

Did You Say Free? Images, Lesson Plans, and Management Tools
Presenter: Joseph Machado -- a rep from Tech4Learning, Inc. -- jmachado@tech4learning.com

As we talk to our students about copyright, I’m always on the lookout for copyright-free content for our kids to use. Mr. Machado’s presentation was focused on products his company offers many of which, fortunately are, indeed, free. Some of them also appeared to be pretty useful.

He began at Recipes4Success which offers lessons plans and various software tutorials (offered in three levels of complexity for younger to older kids). Other free tools include a rubric maker, a graphic organizer maker, and a citation maker.

He next took us to Pics4Learning which he claimed offers 25,000 images. This is a trove worth revisiting.

The over-arching company that offers these resources is Tech4Learning. As I said, I came away fairly impressed with what is offered by these three sites. I want to come back and do more in-depth exploring.

Tech4Learning -- http://www.tech4learning.com/
Recipes4Success -- http://www.recipes4success.com/
Pics4Learning -- http://www.pics4learning.com/

Day 4 – Friday – February 29, 2008

Session 1 – Concurrent Session

Google 201: Advanced Googology
Presenter: Patrick Crispen -- http://www.netsquirrel.com/ --

Mr. Crispen is a lively and effective presenter. His subject for this session was tips to improve the quality and effectiveness of the searches one gets from Google. He began by offering an explanation (simplified) on how Google works. He emphasized that Google is a phrase-based search. I understood that to mean that Google looks for the search terms you type as they appear in “real” English rather than random placements in paragraphs. I’m not sure I’ve completely absorbed the implications of this in terms of effectiveness of a search engine, but Mr. Crispen was emphatic about the importance of us understanding the Google is a “phrase-based” search engine.

Next, Google measures adjacency or how closely the search terms appear together or near each other. The more and closer the adjacency (is that a real word?), the better.

Finally, the number of occurrences of each search term is measured as a “weight” on as each searched page is ranked.

But, of all the factors influencing how search results are ranked – after the phrase search, adjacency, and weight have been calculated – the Page Rank assigned to the page by Google is a very important factor. Page Rank is a measurement of how many pages link to the page in question. The rationale is that the importance of a web page is related to the number of other pages that link to it. So, pages with a high Page Rank are going to appear higher up in the results you get when you perform a Google search. While a website’s Page Rank is constantly being calculated and reassessed, the actual Page Rank is assigned by Google and not assigned by your search.

Some specific tips he gave include: 1) don’t bother using quotation around phrases; Google automatically searches by phrases, so it’s not necessary to quote; 2) many of us taught that putting a plus sign in front of a word guarantees its inclusion. The plus sign does do that but, the way Google performs searches, it’s not necessary to use the plus; 3) the minus sign – which excludes particular words from searches, can be useful; 4) combining plusses and minuses can sometimes yield improved results.

Mr. Crispen went on to demonstrate how this works in actual searches which, of course, provides tips on how to perform more effective searches.

Session 2 – Concurrent Session

Patrick Crispen’s Complete and Total Waste of Time
Presenter: Patrick Crispen -- http://www.netsquirrel.com/ --

This session – again with Patrick Crispen – was sort of a “guilty pleasure”. I figured a session of more light-hearted content might be a nice breather. And, truth to tell, some of what Mr. Crispen chose to show us in this session was fun (and funny). Some of the sites even had potential relevance for use in the classroom! But, by no means, did they all. This session was a nice break from the routine.

Session 3 – Concurrent Session

Copyright & Technology: Dilemmas for Students and Teachers
Presenter: Tony Jongejan
Western Washington Univ/Instructional Technology -- tony.jongejan@wwu.edu

Mr. Jongejan’s focus was not as much on music as the multimedia copyright session of yesterday. He tried to cover a variety of content and the issues, including the limits required in Fair Use. He presented at least four scenarios and each time polled us in the audience whether we thought the action described was legal, illegal, or unclear because more clarifying information was needed.

One of Mr. Jongejan’s priorities was thinking about how (or if) our students think about copyright, the extent to which they understand the whole concept, and the importance for us, as teachers, to educate and model compliance. He maintained that students don’t understand copyright. Why is that? They don’t understand copyright largely because they’ve grown up in a period where “borrowing” stuff (whether with copy machines or copy/paste of digital content) is so easy. I agree that technology has made copying other people’s creative content easier than ever. I still do puzzle over the reason why it seems like many folks – students and adults – seem not to care. Maybe it’s always been true. I haven’t fully come to an answer for myself except that we do have to educate and model the right thing to do whether or not copyright infringement is worse now than 20 years.

Mr. Jongejan believes that students don’t “get” how copying stuff impacts the artist, author, or other creator when creator’s content is copied without compensation. I’ve also found that many people I talk to about copyright don’t realize much of the underpinning of copyright law is to protect the financial interests of the creator. Somehow people seem surprised that it’s “about the money.” Mr. Jongejan reminded us all that, as much as we can affect student compliance and awareness at school, there’s the whole realm of what happens in the home that we can’t control. What role do parents play in talking to their kids about an ethical issue such as copyright? What modeling is coming from the parents on this issue?

One question he posed to us at the session took me by surprise was: Is Copyright Obsolete? His own answer was neither yes nor no, but Mr. Jongejan clearly feels that our society is going to be struggling with how to respect the creative output of others while operating in a world of instant access and worldwide distribution of content.

Summary

As is almost always the case, after returning from a series of workshops and presentations, I came away from NCCE feeling a bit overwhelmed with the amount of material and knowledge out there that offers great potential. Trying to filter through the stuff that’s really helpful and leaving aside the material that is fascinating but not as useful is such a great challenge. It’s also invigorating and energizing. We often talk about technology as an area where great change is a constant. Well, going to a conference such as NCCE is a real life reminder of the massive amount of information out there and the myriad of tools available. It can be a bit hectic to try and keep up, but it’s a very rewarding race to run!

I Can Has Cheezburger

2008-03-02T15:08:00.001-08:00

I just have to get this site up here. Not time to add much text, but I don't want to forget.......I Can Has Cheezburger!!

Blogged with Flock

Award-winning programs for 2007....and many are free

2008-01-05T10:24:00.000-08:00

Check out this list from PC World of their 15 top-notch award-winning programs for 2007. I haven't tried them all but intend to work my way through them one-by-one.

Not only do they seem like some great programs, but, if I read things correctly, most are f-r-e-e!

Way cool!

Welcome 2008!

2008-01-01T09:19:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year to One and All!!!!

John Adams -- Founding Father

2007-12-20T09:16:00.000-08:00

In my not too distant past, I had a little time to delve into a biography of John Adams. What an amazing guy, and his wife, Abigail, was no less amazing!

The Boston Library has a wonderful online library dedicated to John Adams, with many handwritten documents from his life.

I strongly recommend the John Adams Library!

A Periodic Post

2007-11-21T08:47:00.000-08:00

I know, dear Reader, you're saying.....what else is new? Like when's the last time you posted to your own blog, HJ? Months ago.

Okay, okay. I'll try to get better about it!

So, in that spirit, I want to share a website I've discovered that presents an array of information about the periodic table that we all studied in science class.

This site presents the information in a way that seems ideal for kids (and grown-ups, too). I liked the way the site is organized and how the background and introductory information is written. And the interactive game where you have to identify elements by their components (electrons, neutrons, protons) is very well done. Great site and learning resource!!

Annenberg Media, Learner.org -- Interactives, The Periodic Table

PNAIS Tech Share Conference 2007

2007-06-30T10:25:00.000-07:00

Held at the Sleeping Lady Conference Center just outside of downtown Leavenworth, Washington, the PNAIS Tech Share Conference took place June 27-29, 2007. This was my second tech "share" event having attended last year's first-ever get-together (that one was held at IslandWood Conference Center on Bainbridge Island, Washington.

This year's event proved to be rewarding, as was last year's. Here follows my summary of what I saw and learned.

Day One

Megasession 1

Is Social Software Changing Everything?

Presenters: Richard Kississieh (Catlin Gabel) & Tom Frizelle (Overlake)

Richard began this first “megasession” with an introduction to a site he created just for this conference. He touted the tool “Drupal” (http://drupal.org/about) which I haven’t yet looked into in detail, but I believe Richard described it as something like Moodle but (in his estimation) better. Not only was this site to serve as a record of attendees’ experiences and observations while here (if they chose to share them online), but it is also incorporates one of the central characteristics of Web 2.0 applications: users access and interact with data, and have the ability to add their own original content to what is already there. Web 2.0 was to be a central theme of this conference.

The PNAIS site Richard set up for this Tech Share Conference using Drupal is at:

http://pnaistech.org/drupal/

He gave us an “in class” survey to complete and then turned his focus to the following examples of social software:

wikis
blogs
podcasts
student-oriented sites

If Web 1.0 is seen as a static resource – one visits a site and accesses the information made available there – in Web 2.0, one can access all the incredible breadth of information available and, in addition, interact with that information to add, change, or otherwise update what is already there (i.e. a Wiki) or to post new information, opinions, or perspective in the media of your choice (i.e. written blogs, audio or video podcasts). The ways in which these tools can build connections between people and assure that we can all access the best of many minds collaborating is increasingly amazing the more one thinks about it!

Megasession 2

Introduction to Web 2.0

Presenter: Cheryl Wolotira (Northwest School)

Cheryl opened her presentation with a video available via YouTube called “The Machine Is Us”. I had seen this once before. It’s a clever demo of how information can be and is manipulated by people starting with pencil & paper (and eraser) but moving to the far more flexible and instantaneous way to transform text with the computer, mouse, software, and the human brain.

The question posed by Cheryl was: Why should Web 2.0 matter to us (as teachers)? Her answer: Because it matters to our kids (our students). “It’s where the kids live.”

She went on to talk or demonstrate the following:

podcasts
v-casting
social network sites
blogging
wikis
video conferencing

Cheryl noted that, even as software tools evolve and change, the hardware we use is also in the process of being transformed. As an example, she showed as a FlipVideo camera (http://www.theflip.com/). Available in 30-minute & in a 60-minute versions, the FlipVideo camera is a one-piece video camera able to record video with the press of a button onto flash memory (no tape). To download the video, just connect the FlipVideo camera to a computer via its built-in USB connector (no cables!) and it’s done. Apparently the camera also comes with basic editing software. She did not go through an entire sequence but it did look easy as can be. The cameras are also quite reasonably priced and widely available (she got hers at Costco). Cheryl invited us to think back to what digital video cameras used to be and how “user friendly” and less expensive this hardware is getting. It’s another indication of the doors that are opening to teaching and learning options not readily available before.

As far as podcasting is concerned, Cheryl talked about the wide availability of easy-to-use and reasonably-priced digital voice recorders. Using Audacity (free audio editing software) and educational sites offering distribution networks, doing podcasting in the classroom is also becoming easier.

Web 2.0 also offers us Issues to wrestle with. From Cheryl’s standpoint, we, as educators, must keep ourselves and our students informed about:

Internet safety
copyright/fair use
reliability of content

Cheryl did not spend a great deal of time on these issues. Clearly each could be a workshop in and of itself. Still, I think her point was to make sure that mention was made of these areas where we need to be fully informed and prepared to teach (and reach) our students.

Day Two

Breakout Session #1 (Teacher Track)

Using Moodle and SharePoint

Presenter: John Newsom (Lakeside)

John’s session gave us an overview of Moodle and provided all an opportunity to set up a practice Moodle site on a temporary server he provided. We used session time to work on our Moodle experiments. John indicated that 2007-2008 would be a trial year for classroom/teacher use of Moodle at Lakeside.

Once I was able to create a site for next year’s 7^th grade Laptop Prep class, I spent time learning how to add/remove modules and begin trying to plan and organize how I might construct a Prep Moodle site.

Certainly still in the planning stages, I plan to keep modifying and adding to what I was able to start at the conference

Breakout Session #2 (Teacher Track)

Using Web 2.0 Tools

Presenter: Cheryl Wolotira (Northwest School)

Cheryl invited us to visit a set of links on the very recently activated site she has set up for teachers at The Northwest School. She and her school went with a service called SWIFT – which costs only $500/year. SWIFT provides easy web page creation and hosting for all teacher sites. Page templates are provided making assembling and maintaining a website quite doable for the typical teacher (she believes). Cheryl pointed us to her site (below). In particular she had us go through her list of Links since so many of them relate to Web 2.0 sites and resources.

http://teachers.northwestschool.org/nws/cwolotira/index.php

Links include:

Interactive Web

Blogspots - Great blog site for those new to blogging.
bubl.us - Online and collaborative mindmapping and brainstorming.
de.licio.us - Collect, tag and annotate your favorite websites
Education Webcast Network - David Warlick's podcast site
iTunes - Find educational podcasts, how-tos, or post your own or your student's podcasts.
Learn Out Loud - Podcasts and Audio Books, many of the free! Great site to look for audio, and educational podcasts. Think about this for students that have difficulty reading or need other ways to process written information.
Second Life - Virtual reality world. Create an alter ego for yourself and then have a look at what educational institutions are doing! Think distance learning in a virtual world.
stu.dicio.us - Collaborative tools for students. Take notes, create schedules and calendars, share your work with group partners.
TeacherTube - Teacher-created v-casts on all sorts of topics including specific lessons for students, tutorials and social commentary.
Wikispaces - Create a wiki for yourself or others to use. Educational institutions can get the premium account for free.

Professional Development

2 cents worth - David Warlick's entertaining and very informative blog about the state of education and educational technology today.
Digital Directions - A new online journal from Education Week on what's new, what's exciting and what's workin in educational technology.
Landmark for Schools - Links to all sorts of useful sites for students and teachers.
Read/Write Web - An article from Read/Write Web outlining all sorts of interactive web applications.

Social networks

Facebook - This probably doesn't need much explanation but think of the possibilities for collaboration!
Flikr - Upload, tag and create using your photographs.
Furl - Save links and pages you find on the internet.

Another tool Cheryl talked about (although we didn’t spend much session time on it but it does look worthwhile for further looking at) is Classroom 2.0 (http://classroom20.ning.com/).

Day Three

Breakout Session #1 (Teacher Track)

Putting It All Together: Rebuild, Remodel, or Rethink

Presenter: Cheryl Wolotira (Northwest School)

Cheryl announced to us that her intent for this session was summarized by the first four words of the session’s title…..putting it all together. We were all set about to work on whatever we had with us that we started while here at the conference. My time was spent mostly helping two of our Middle School teachers, who were also at this session. Their focus was on following up on the beginning they had made in setting up Moodle sites for their foreign language classes. I got a little done on mine, too, but most of my time at this session was helping others.

Breakout Session #2 (Teacher Track)

Copyright ≠ The Right to Copy

Presenters: Eric Stratton (UPA) and Kristen West (UPA, unable to attend)

Eric presented a PowerPoint and a .pdf handout that he along with Kristen West (Coordinator of Academic Technology at UPA, who was not present), covering many, many websites covering copyright and fair use along with tools for finding royalty-free and public domain items. The discussion also included the increasingly higher profile and attention being given movements such as Creative Commons where content creators can attach less stringent copyright protections onto their intellectual property.

As many in this session acknowledged, raising awareness copyright law, the fair use exemption, and the ethical issues arising out of the whole question of intellectual property is a big challenge to tech folks, librarians, and teachers alike. Truly reliable and consistent information on copyright and intellectual property rights is available but all-too-often ignored or disregarded. The list of resources provided by Eric and Kristen on their .pdf sheet are quite comprehensive.

Another reality is that many of the students who come to us seem to have adopted the “whatever I can get on the Internet is free to use” point of view. Again, there were some among this group who also recognized that some of today’s challenges in dealing with the issues surrounding copyright have to do with the adults in our institutions, too. It was not lost on some of us that the realm of copyright, fair use, and intellectual property – and how the Internet has had impact on those concepts – is one challenge where we have nearly as big a job educating and convincing our colleagues as we do our students.

Adieu…….

Eric’s copyright session was the last one of the conference and it brought to a close the 2007 Tech Share Conference. Now it was time to head home. As was my experience last year (after attending the first Tech Share Conference at Islandwood), I found my time to be well-spent at this conference. I’m grateful that PNAIS offers this kind of professional development opportunity. It’s a lot of work to put together such an event and I hope those who organize this conference know that many of us “out there” are very appreciative. The good part, of course, is that I went home with much learned and much more to explore!

The Bolles Tablet Insitute 2007 -- April 18-20, 2007

2007-04-20T13:57:00.000-07:00

The group attending the 2007 Bolles Tablet Institute was housed at the Hampton Inn near downtown Jacksonville. The eighteen attendees came from a variety of areas including New Mexico, Texas, Virginia, Illinois, and Washington State.

Each morning at 8:30, a bus from Bolles picked us up and transported us to the day’s session. Days 1 & 3 were held at the Upper School campus; day 2 took place at Bolles’ Bartram Middle School campus. Each and every day was full of presentations, classroom visits, and hands-on practice time. Oh, and every day brought us a new and even more delicious lunch! Our days concluded late afternoon as the school’s shuttle returned us to our hotel.

The most obvious differences between my Tablet Institute experience and any other conference/workshop I’ve attended previously were four major (and extremely important) factors:

1) The small number of participants (a total of 18)

2) This conference about educational technology took place at a school while students were in class making classroom visits possible.

3) All the presentations were done either by Bolles’ Technology Team and faculty, not outside presenters or “experts”. I believe that, over the three days there were about 20 presentations [presentations and classroom visits], not counting those by tech staff. This seems to say volumes about the vitality of Bolles’ technology program and the interest-level of its faculty.

4) A thoroughly “hands on” philosophy in the design of the workshop, including a tablet PC (Lenovo X41) for each participant to use and practice on for the duration of the conference.

Having a limited number of participants meant that more individual attention was possible, more participant questions could be posed and answered, and more true acquaintanceship developed among those of us attending. Chatting with these folks between sessions almost always opened up new thinking and discoveries providing new perspectives, ideas, and brainstorms! I recognize that not every technology conference can or should have such a small group of attendees, but in this instance, it was a great treat to able to attend something with this design.

Another attribute of this conference that I have rarely encountered before is an educational technology workshop where, along with the presentations, we had the chance to make classroom visits and watch some of the same people who had presented to us working in their classroom with their students. The advantage of being at an educational workshop with real students and instruction going on is difficult to overstate.

I had assumed that all teachers at Bolles had laptop computers, and I was correct. They use Toshiba Portege M200 and M400 models.

I was wrong, however, in thinking that there is a student laptop program at Bolles; there is not. I understand that moving to a student laptop program is under some discussion, but it does not yet appear on the horizon.

Tablet PCs have been phased in among the Bolles faculty over a three-year process. The school moved from desktop computers for faculty to tablet PCs. At present, all teachers have a tablet PC. Though Bolles makes no claim that all teachers fully integrate the use of tablet PCs into their classroom, my observation was that the faculty “buy in” was substantial.

The Tablet Institute arranged for each participant to have a tablet PC (Lenovo X41) for the duration of the conference. Being able to use a tablet PC, both during the sessions and at “home” at the hotel, for practice and review of the day’s sessions, was a tremendous plus to this conference. Three days of tablet PC experience does not make one anywhere near an expert or experienced user – especially in the use of the tablet software such as Journal and OneNote. But having a machine to use for those three days was a great asset.

The theme that ran through so many of the presentations and classroom demonstrations is the tablet’s ability to allow the teacher to annotate in real time the results of classroom discussion and content arising out of the dynamics of the classroom. We looked at ink annotations (being able to write directly on the screen in “standard” applications such as Microsoft Office Suite) and specialized applications specifically designed for use on a tablet computer (e.g. Windows Journal, Microsoft Office OneNote, Ink Desktop, Snipping Tool, Ink Art, Ink Flash Cards, Equation Writer, Tablet Music Composition Tool – we even took a look at the My Font tool which makes it possible for you to create a font that is based on your own handwriting!).

The typical room set-up at Bolles had the tablet PC stationed at or near the front of the room. Teachers move freely about the room, facing their students, returning to the tablet to add notes or comments, or inviting students to do so. And all the ink annotations added to the “ink enabled” applications can be saved (or not) and used for future classroom presentations, distributed to students who missed class, posted to a class webpage as a resources, and so on. In most cases, the content of the day’s curriculum was prepared in advance and displayed on a large screen from a ceiling-mounted projector. The tablet computer was used by the teacher and students to add to and amplify the content based on the dynamics of the class, including the give-and-take among teacher and student and students among themselves. The stylus and ink annotations allowed that all of it to be preserved.

All at Bolles credited the installation of ceiling-mounted projectors as a major step in propelling the success of the tablet PC as a classroom and teaching tool. I’m wondering if, as teachers at Bolles accrue more experience with tablet PCs – and the technology for better display of multimedia over wireless connections – that teachers will be even less oriented toward the podium and use their portable tablet to roam more freely throughout the classroom.

My “take aways” from the Bolles Tablet PC Institute included the following:

Tablet PCs offer a number of tools that seem posed to make portable computer much more of a practical, day-to-day reality, one far more integrated into the teacher’s use in the classroom and in the process of teaching.
The tablet technology – hardware and software – has made noteworthy improvement. The tablet technology seems poised to become much more attractive as a first option in considering a recommended laptop for use in schools.
Among those hardware and software improvements include:

The stylus and screen interface are much improved – pen responsiveness to and on the screen, the clarity and brightness of the screen itself
The speed improvements in processors, the tablet operating system itself seems much more reliable and stable, and especially the strides made in handwriting recognition
The instructional tools such as Windows Journal, Microsoft Office OneNote, ink annotation which is available in a number of programs (including Microsoft Office), snipping tools for taking screen content and bringing it into programs such as Journal and OneNote

Based on the sense I got at Bolles, teachers are drawn into the use of tablet PCs in their classroom once they get an idea of what they can do (no rocket science discovery, in this case!). There is also much “cross-pollination” as teachers see what colleagues are doing with respect to the use of this technology in their teaching (which is also a model for growth and success we see over and over).
In my classroom observations at Bolles, my general impression is that student and teacher eye contact, interaction, and student classroom engagement were strong. (Reminder: Bolles does not have laptop program and, therefore, students are not on the other side of a screen which I see in some situations at our school with student laptops, so we’re not directly comparable.)

Questions that I remain uncertain about include:

Are SmartBoards and tablet PCs redundant? In other words, is what they can do equivalent enough that if you have one you aren’t missing much by not having the other?
Will an even greater “buy in” for a tablet PC at Bolles going to have to wait until a rock solid wireless transmission for multimedia is available?
The Math Department Head at Bolles – who was clearly one of the most knowledgeable and systematic proponent of tablet use in the classroom – spoke of major enhancements to Microsoft Office OneNote in the newest version (Office 2007). Of particular interest was an improved filing and organizational structure. Another highly-touted feature, which he had not yet experimented with because his students don’t have laptops in the classroom, was OneNote’s capability to allow collaborative sessions. I would very much like to research this tool thoroughly.

These thoughts, and those questions, are what I have on this last day of the Institute. I’m sure more will come to me as I continue to digest and think through the many presentations, discussions, and observations I’ve made over these three days. No doubt, more will follow!

Laughter Is The Best Medicine

2007-04-16T15:36:00.000-07:00

I thoroughly believe it the positive benefits of humor and having a good laugh. All good-naturedly, of course!

Check out HelpGuide.Org's site, Humor and Laughter: Health Benefits and Online Resources.

Laugh it up and stay healthy! :-)

This Site Has My "Stamp" of Approval

2006-11-20T12:02:00.000-08:00

Don't ask me why, but I'm tickled to find this site out there: The Mailbox Locator

Find a mailbox pretty much anywhere in the U.S. Find mailboxes by state, city, or by zip code. Click on a particular mailbox and get the pick-up times, a map of the location, and other pertinent details.

What a blast! (Yes, I know you're wondering why I have so much time on my hands!)

Still, it's worth a visit now and then. It could just come in handy if you've got an important letter or package to mail and need to find the nearest mailbox and best pick-up times.

Check it out!

P.U.M.A.S.

2006-11-14T10:47:00.000-08:00

If you're interested in Math, Science, and making the learning of same more "practical" for students (and probably everyone!), you should visit this NASA-sponsored site called P.U.M.A.S. The acronym stands for:

Practical Uses of Math and Science

This seems like an eminently good idea to me. Maybe that conviction reflects my school experience with those subjects that seemed not very related to real life (at least as I defined "life" as a student).

Still, this is a great site and a great idea!

More Leonardo

2006-11-06T10:42:00.000-08:00

I've written about Leonardo da Vinci before but I've come across another online exhibit that seems too good to pass up.

Currently on display at the Alfred and Victoria Museums is a wonderful Leonard da Vinci exhibit. Since the actual museum is in Britain, click here to transport yourself virtually to the exhibit.

You won't regret another encounter with this incredible artist, engineer, and creator.

Giving Thanks For The Cranberry

2006-10-25T10:44:00.000-07:00

It's a little early to be thinking about Thanksgiving dinner (maybe) but I was for some reason. One of the traditional staples of the dinner menu to accompany the turkey in many homes is cranberries.

Lo and behold there is a site dedicated to this fruit. Click here for all you need (or want) to know about the mighty cranberry!

Just Two More Weeks

2006-10-24T10:33:00.000-07:00

I pretty much steer clear of politics on this site, but I will put a plug in for the Online Newshour (with Jim Lehrer) site that's dedicated to the upcoming mid-term election.

They've called it Vote 2006 and the site presents many of the issues and races of regional and national interest in a straightforward way including as many points of view as possible.

We are entering the final phase of this campaign and, boy, is there a lot going on!!

Undersea Wonders

2006-10-20T10:36:00.001-07:00

Undersea vents, and the rich variety of sea life that those vents sustain, is the subject of this website put up by the National Science Foundation.

This offers undersea views and interactive tools that lets you get an up-close (though virtual) look at a world that few of us will ever likely actually visit.

Click here to be taken there!

Web 2.0? What Does That Mean?

2006-10-19T10:11:00.000-07:00

Though no expert myself, there seems to be much discussion and a great deal written about Internet use given the umbrella designation: Web 2.0.

The Pew Institute has done a series of studies about the Internet and future use. Click here to view a recent report about this direction an apparently growing number of people see the 'net going in. (The report is available for download as a .pdf.)

300 Million And Counting

2006-10-18T10:41:00.000-07:00

Much has been made leading up to today as our country has apparently reached the 300 millionth citizen. Supposedly this landmark event took place today at 7:46 a.m. (Eastern).

The Census Bureau has prepared a special page to mark this occasion. It takes a snapshot of normal "facts" of American life in 1915, 1967, and 2006, these being the years when the U.S. reached 100 million, 200 million, and, now, 300 million citizens.

Click here to check out what some common aspects of American life was like then and now.

Elections In The USA

2006-10-17T10:51:00.000-07:00

Just over three weeks from now, our country is going to go through another election cycle...in this case, an "off year" national election. No presidential race, but all the House of Representatives and 1/3 of the Senate. There are, also, a number of local races, initiatives, and bond issues.

The Library of Congress has a set of resources that highlight the American electoral process. Click here to visit this excellent site (labeled as Teacher Resources, but there's lots here for teachers and non-teachers alike!)

Supremely Interesting Cases

2006-10-16T10:10:00.000-07:00

This current session of the United States Supreme Court began early this month. It is difficult, sometimes, to understand the impact decision made by this body have on the day-to-day life of us in the United States.

Two organizatoins, Stree Law & the Supreme Court Historical Society, have put together a site dedicated to the landmark cases that have, in our history, made a mark on our society.

A site well-worth visiting.

Landmark Supreme Court Cases

Cooking With What You Got

2006-10-12T08:29:00.000-07:00

Thanks to the imagination of Tom Tuke-Hastings, there's a website that helps all those who cook come up with recipes in that particular condition cooks everywhere now: I didn't have time to get to the store....what can I cook?

His site, CookByNumbers.com, lets you check off the items you have left in your fridge and in your cupboard. Once you indicate the stuff you have around, you click a button "Find Recipes" and up will come a list of recipes using as many of the items you have lying around. Cool!

Give it a try! There were a lot of recipes for things that never occurred to me that I would be able to put together from what I had in the house. Like I said.....cool!

The List of the Longest of Just About Everything

2006-10-11T20:54:00.000-07:00

This site dedicates itself to producing evidence of the longest item in many categories: song, building (could also be classified as the tallest), conga line, eyelashes, hammock, last name, NBA game, neck, ski jump, URL, Yo-Yo spin, zucchini, and many others.

If you want to check out the interesting and.....bizarre!.....go to:

The Longest List of the Longest Stuff at the Longest Domain Name

You won't be disappointed!

Free Reading and Definition

2006-10-10T11:43:00.000-07:00

If you've ever got a word you forgot to spell -- or have some free time for reading and you're online, too -- check out one or both of the following.

The Free Dictionary

The Free Library

Lots, lots, and lots more there!

Our Constitution -- What Does It Mean?

2006-10-09T11:29:00.000-07:00

There are times when I wonder if we, as a society, spend enough time pondering things that we take for granted. Like what? Well, I think we Americans talk a lot about our freedoms and the rights we have in this country, but I don't think we spend enough time looking at the Constitution itself, read its language, and think about what it means and why it's in there at all. Why did the Founders think those principles were important enough to be in that document.

The American Bar Association has a site to promote just this kind of analysis and reflection. Called Conversations On The Constitution, this is a site that provides plenty of concepts and principles to discuss. There are interactive pages that "test" your knowledge of this crucially important document.

I hope to be spending much more time there.

News To Wake Up To

2006-10-06T11:58:00.000-07:00

If you've ever wondered about the caffeine content of some of your favorite brews (tea, coffee) or soft drinks, check out this site courtesy of the Mayo Clinic. It lists a set of common beverages that many consume, yet we/they may not know how much caffeine your downing.

Click here to find out!

Music From All Over The World

2006-10-05T13:32:00.000-07:00

Wesleyan University offers this site where you can see and hear instruments from all over the world. Offered by region or by instrument type or by material they're made from, this is a terrific place to plunge into the wide, wide world of world music.

Click here to check out the Virtual Instrument Museum.

Traveling Nightmare -- Airport Division

2006-10-04T10:46:00.000-07:00

I don't travel that much but I was intrigued by this site: The Budget Traveler's Guide to Sleeping in Airports.

As a concept, the whole idea seems like torture, surely banned by the Geneva Convention. But take a look at the ratings and where the airport near you -- or the one(s) you're going to be traveling to -- compare. Naturally there are tips for where you'll get the best chances for shut-eye.

Good luck!

Automobile Longevity

2006-10-03T11:10:00.000-07:00

As the owner of a car with (real) miles now approaching the 150,000 mark, I hope I qualify as someone who understands the value of proactive car repair and maintenance.

For those who have yet to learn the advantages (and virtues) of taking care of those wheels so that don't fail you at the worst possible inconvenient hassle-inducing moment, take a moment and visit CarCare.org.

Who knows? Not only might it save you money, but a lot of time, anxiety, and money (to pay for the anger-management sessions).

Get A Load Of These Match(less) Wonders!

2006-09-27T11:03:00.000-07:00

In case you've ever wondered what some people do with their spare time -- especially if you've wondered about people who have a lot of spare time -- check out the Matchstick Marvels Museum.

Amazing, amazing, amazing.

Remember, I Promised Variety!

2006-09-22T09:01:00.000-07:00

The whole premise of this blog is finding things all over the map. I would certainly consider the following to be in the relatively off-the-wall category and of almost not improtance....but kinda fun!

We've all seen the ads or found the phonebook listings for companies who have phones numbers with words in lieu of just numbers. A oft-use example in our household -- as Earthlink subscribers -- is 800-EarthLink (which, of course, is actually 800-327-8454).

Not that I've thought about it all that often, but I've occasionally wondered if my own phone number spells anything.

Guess what! There's a site that will take numbers you type in and tell you what words can be made of it.

Give it a try. It's PhoneSpell.Org.

Rich Stores of Educational Resources

2006-09-11T13:12:00.000-07:00

I came across two extensive groupings of Internet resources related to education. Housed at Kean University, they are:

Educational Links for Middle School People

Educational Links for New Teachers

I haven't had time to check out all the links here -- and there are many, many of them -- but these look like valuable resources. They are double-chedked a couple times every year so should be both there and reliable.

The many links on each page are organized by subject area and, though, the pages are long, they have anchor links and "back to the top" links that make navigation fairly efficient.

I know I'll be coming back to these pages often in the future.

A Less Renowned Presidential Assassination

2006-08-30T15:31:00.000-07:00

I'm old enough to have the indelible stamp of the moment when I heard that President Kennedy had been shot. I realize that more than one of our past presidents have been killed while in office. I just finished reading the most fascinating book, Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln's Killer by James L. Swanson.
I've come across a website that covers the assassination of another of our presidents, William McKinley. I haven't explored this in depth yet but it looks like a well-done site and has, no doubt, a number of fascinating details about what happened. Click here.

Giving "Voice" To Our Literature

2006-08-28T16:54:00.000-07:00

I just found out about a website dedicated to producing audio versions of all books in the public domain. Called LibriVox ("acoustical liberation of books in the public domain"), volunteers read chapters from works in the public domain. These audio files are then made available for downloading and can be accessed in a similar manner to a podcast.

What a wonderful communal effort on the part of people who both love literature and believe strongly in making these books available in more than one format.

Not Just Your Run-Of-The-Mill Fiddle

2006-08-25T17:01:00.000-07:00

For those of us interested in music -- and perhaps in sounds and timbres in general -- here's a site which has a gallery of unusual instruments. It's the Gallery at Oddmusic.com.

Click on the link for the instrument that piques your curiosity and you'll typically see a picture or pictures of the instrument. Many of them also have sound files available to listen to, as well.

Check these out: LightHarp, Skatar, Uncello, Triolin, Cymbalom, Bazantar, Aerolian Wind Harp, and many more!

Historical Yo-Yos

2006-08-24T17:14:00.000-07:00

I don't know about you, but I certainly went through a phase where I couldn't get enough time playing with a yo-yo. Not that I mean to imply that anyone, any age, couldn't while away their time quite usefully learning all the fancy yo-yo tricks and techniques.

Well, whether you want to look back through the prism of nostalgia or just check it out because you love your yo-yo, check out the Museum of Yo-Yo History.

The (Record-Making) Wrap on Gum

2006-08-14T20:49:00.000-07:00

Chewing gum and I have a checkered past. I've had times when a wad of bubble gum or Juicy Fruit was something to relish. But there were also all those years as a music teacher and the iron-clad rule of "no gum." (How can you play the clarinet or even a string instrument with gum in your mouth?)

Why then am I directing you toward a site that celebrates an almost unimaginable level of gum use? A site dedicated to a gum wrapper chain clocked at 48,077 feet in length as of March, 2006? Why?

No good reason really. Just one of those feats that seems unbelievable.

The man who has accomplished this is Gary Duschl of Viriginia Beach, VA. The guy has earned your visit to his site. Click here.

The Vincent van Gogh Gallery

2006-08-11T10:24:00.000-07:00

For those of you who are fans of van Gogh, he is an online gallery that purports to have all his works available for viewing via the web.

What a resource! Visit The Vincent van Gogh Gallery

An "Elemiddle" School?

2006-08-10T15:11:00.000-07:00

I had never heard of the term "elemiddle". Period. Turns out it is a termed coined by those who advocate K-8 schools as the most effective model for educating those years. If you're intrigued by the notion at all, you might be interested in the article linked below:

American Association of School Administrators - Publications - The School Administrator - The Rise of the ‘Elemiddle’ School

Digital Photography Lessons

2006-08-02T21:23:00.000-07:00

Check out this site (I think it's really a blog) for what looks like some very good tips on taking photos with a digital camera.

Need To Take A Snooze?

2006-08-01T20:55:00.000-07:00

Maybe you really should get more rest. Turns out sleep is very important, even though it's not fully understood why humans, let along most other organisms, check out of consciousness and zone for hours every day. Enough of us learned in college, at least, that no one can go that long without a good snooze.

Check out a wealth of information at the National Sleep Foundation. This may be one case where what you read will put you to sleep....and that's a compliment!

Harold's Lausanne Log -- Day 3

2006-07-19T15:38:00.000-07:00

Wednesday, July 19, 2006

No keynote address today. After breakfast it was off to a workshop..

Session 1

Direct from NECC: Debut of Inspiration’s Brand New Software – InspireData!

Presenter: Jennifer Wagner

This session was actually added at the last minute. Jennifer had attended NECC which was about a week after InspireData was released by Inspiration. She saw it at NECC and found it to have much potential and was excited about this approach to having kids work with databases.

As before, I think it will be better to link her presentation here and retype it all. There is, of course, information available directly from Inspiration, too, that shows what InspireData can do:

http://www.inspiration.com/productinfo/inspiredata/index.cfm?fuseaction=features

I came away from the workshop pretty enthused about what we might be able to do with InspireData. The only drawback was clear in the demo today: it’s still so new that much remains to learn about it and, as a brand new product, there are glitches, some of which we saw today (some freezing of the program, for example). InspireData is definitely worth a second and third look.

Since this is the last day of the conference, and the final group session takes place in just a bit, I finally sat down and took the time I needed to go online and complete the evaluations for the sessions I had attended and for the conference itself.

Everyone gathered back in the Elder Performing Arts Hall for the much-anticipated final get-together which included – yippee!—door prizes. The potential booty ranged from laptop cases to software licenses to a tablet PC (!). It was a nice concluding event – and, no, I didn’t win any of the door prizes. However, in these three days, I was definitely a winner in the sense that I was exposed to a range of new thinking and ideas that will give me plenty to chew on for some time to come.

As I look back to my days at the 2006 Lausanne Laptop Institute, I am extremely grateful for having had the opportunity to attend this event. As was the case last year, as much as I’ve enjoyed the other conventions I’ve attended both in Seattle and other parts of the country, my Laptop Institute experiences outpace them all as interesting, effective, and engrossing experiences (I must say that this year’s first PNAIS Tech “Share” Conference was also very, very good). I can’t believe it’s all flown by so fast! Everyone here has been incredibly friendly, approachable, energized, creative, and dedicated to their work with students. The weather was a drag with the triple digit daytime highs but, then, pretty much everything here is air-conditioned so it didn’t really put a kibosh on anything except long walks in the afternoon.

If I were to assign “tags” to this year’s Laptop Institute, the ones that come to mind first include tablets, blogs, wikis, podcasts, RSS, moodle, collaboration, “the world is flat,” and constructivist teaching and learning. Allowing for hype, there does seem traction to the notion that we’re coming to a realization of the power of sharing information and collaboration through online tools and resources. It’s a very exciting time to be in schools and, at the same time, in educational technology, where change and creativity seem everywhere. Remembering that you can do only so much “online,” I can’t forget to repeat that it was wonderful to think, listen, and learn in the midst of such a great group of people with such dedication and passion about their work in schools. Blogging or IM-ing or posting to a forum are all great ways to communicate these days but nothing yet can substitute for meeting with and talking to people face-to-face. Great conference!

Harold's Lausanne Log -- Day 2

2006-07-18T15:34:00.000-07:00

Tuesday, July 18, 2006

Keynote Address

1-to-1 Learning: Laptop Programs That Work

Speaker:

Pamela Livingston, The Peck School, Morristown, NJ

Tuesday began with the second keynote address of the conference. Much of her presentation derived from the book she just finished and is (or will soon be) published by ISTE.

Her main points were:

laptop programs do exist out there that are successful
laptops promote self-directed learning and support constructivist instruction
laptops help students stay organized.

All these things can contribute mightily to learning, especially in 7^th grade and beyond, according to her research.

She went on to list a number of observations about 1-to-1 laptop programs that applied to teachers:

increased planning, teaching, and communication
access to a wealth of curricular resources
increased communication with students, colleagues, and parents

Some observations for schools with 1-to-1 laptop programs:

student attendance and enrollment can be improved
student achievement can be improved
home-to-school communication can be improved

Pamela seemed quite taken by the OLPC (One Laptop Per Child) Project and showed a picture of the $100 laptop, had us use a pipe-cleaner to form an imaginary crank. We weren’t sure why, but we turned this “crank” for 30 seconds. Her point? In those 30 seconds of cranking, a person with the OLPC computer would have a number of minutes of computer use time since the OLPC Project computers have a built-in hand-crank generator. These portable computer can truly be used anywhere; lack of AC or battery power won’t be a hindrance. It gives a new spin on “anywhere, anytime” computing. The OLPC program apparently has the goal of distributing 150 million of these $100 laptops worldwide.

Here are the components Pamela listed of successful 1-to-1 laptop programs:

planning
steering body or committee
multiple constituencies
learning from what other schools/districts/states have done
professional development
logistics – networks, firewall, anti-virus measures, spam, spyware, etc.
just-in-time tech support
attention to teaching approaches that evolve to take advantage of the laptop in the classroom and with the student at home
effective classroom management

(she suggested videos on this subject from the Irving School District in Texas)

Some successful programs she cited from her research (I don’t think she did much research in the western portion of the US):

State of Maine
State of Michigan
Forney ISD (Texas)
The Peck School (where Pamela works)
St. Thomas Episcopal Parish School (Tampa, FL)
Henrico County Public Schools (Richmond, VA)

Pamela also made special mention of an examination of adult learning espoused by Malcolm Knowles. The term he coined is “andragogy”. Background on Mr. Knowles and his theories about adult learning can be found at the following site:

http://www.infed.org/thinkers/et-knowl.htm

Session 1

Tables, Tablets, and Technology – The Rocky Hill Model

Presenters:

Stephen Farley, Head of Upper School, The Rocky Hill School

Scott Young, Science Department Chair/Physics, The Rocky Hill School

Mr. Farley began by emphasizing what he feels schools should promote:

a culture of thinking
a culture of authentic participation
a culture of reflection

The Rocky Hill Model, which extends from the design of the building to the way classrooms are run to the way administrators make decisions for the institution:

transparency
communication
accountability

(some examples: the building is filled with light and rooms are separated by walls of glass which keeps that feeling of transparency and contant reminders of an environment of learning)

He also emphasized the importance his school attaches to being

partners with our students
willing to be patient, to fail, and to evolve
welcoming to innovation, to invest in the “humanware”, and to celebrate faculty accomplishments

Scott took over and showed some examples, illustrated by pictures from the classroom, or the use of tablets and the Harkness table. Students and teacher all face each other at the table, an installed projector and screen (wirelessly accessed and available to all students), and the transparency, communication, and accountability are built into this format. The whole class is gathered face-to-face (no hiding in the last row), the layout strongly encourages discussion among all, and the ability to display student work for all to see reinforces the accountability.

He also displayed examples of student and teacher note-taking using the tablet and made the case that the teachers liked the ability to be able to hand-write comments/corrections on student papers and return to kids, and that kids liked the ability to take notes by hand. He did point out, though, that there are a number of kids who use their tablet in the “notebook” mode (clamshell opening style) rather than the flat tablet mode because many feel they can type faster (or at least far more legibly) than they can write.

There were a number of presentations at this year’s Institute that featured discussion about the use of tablets in the classroom. There was enough “buzz” about tablets this year that I’ve begun to wonder if we should take a harder look at what tablets might offer in our setting, as well.

Session 2

Paper to Electronic Delivery

Presenters:

Rachel Holsinger – US Science Teacher – Sayre School, Lexington Kentucky

Debbie Wheeler – US Science Teacher – Sayre School, Lexington Kentucky

Website for presentation materials:

http://sparta.sayreschool.org/faculty/rholsinger/

The presentation PowerPoint plus some of the documents used in the demo are available at that link.

Rather than retype everything, I will link the presentation here in the online version of my Lausanne Log.

What I will say is that these two gave one of the more effective presentations of the conference. Why? 1) the information they shared was valuable; 2) their delivery was positive, energetic, and responsive to the audience, and 3) their materials were attractively and effectively designed.

This session was an example of a session where the focus was clear and effective. I believe Rachel and Debbie attended last year’s Institute, took home some ideas and tried them. They found that they had to tweak things to make them work in their school. Their presentation, then, seemed very practical and quite a bit less theoretical than a fair number of sessions I’ve attended over the years. By showing their “problems” they encountered in fulfilling their goal to become as “paperless” as possible in the classroom, their solutions taught us methods that will work for us, too.

Besides, as I said, Rachel and Debbie were both tremendously effective as presenters. This was a winner!

Session 3

Moodle, The Free Open-Source CMS

Presenter:

Peter Richardson, Director of Technology Serives, Rutgers Prep School,

Peter pointed out that Moodle is a Content Management System (CMS) and that it is an open-source program supported by many worldwide. It came about through the work of people deeply interested in social constructivist pedagogy.

Mr. Richardson shared his PowerPoint with me so I have that for reference.. He put great emphasis on the ease of setting up Moodle, especially with the help of a download from a group (in Germany) called apachefriends.org (www.apachefriends.org). By downloading one of their files (I believe he said the package is called XAMPP), the php, MySQL, and other component requirements will get installed automatically. Sounds kind of too good to be true but I’m going to look into it more when I get back.

Unfortunately, since some sessions in different strands overlap in the schedule, I had to leave early from this Moodle presentation in order to get to…..

Session 4

Using Wink to Create Custom Tutorials

Presenter:

Melissa Wert – Harpeth Hall School mwert@harpethhall.org

We had gotten an e-mail just before the conference to download the current version of Wink, if possible, so we could go through the steps of creating a tutorial during this workshop. I was ready to go.

Melissa walked us through the steps of creating a tutorial for a simple set of operations in Paint. After thinking about the potential for something like Wink, one of the reasons I really wanted to attend this presentation was to see if there was any potential for Wink to be used to do some kind of assignments in Laptop Prep next year. Why not ask 7^th graders to create tutorials with Wink to demonstrate that they know how to run a ChkDsk, or update and run SpyBot, or set McAfee for scheduled updates and system scans? Some might even be good enough to keep in a library of tutorials for other students and/or adults.

Be all the above as it may, Melissa’s presentation showed that Wink is good at what it does although it is not quite “fall off a log” easy. It’s quite likely that the kids will have an easier time of using it than I guessing from this exposure to how Wink works. The potential is definitely there for curricular use in Prep class. There’s also the option of my creating tutorials for adult or student use quite apart from Laptop Prep, so I’m glad I attended Melissa’s session.

End of day two. It's been a pretty packed experience and very rewarding!

Harold's Lausanne Log -- Day 1

2006-07-17T15:25:00.000-07:00

Monday, July 17, 2006

As the shuttle bus from the hotel made that last turn toward Lausanne Collegiate School in Memphis, I felt that sense of anticipation and familiarity as I recognized the place I had had such a rewarding experience a year ago. Yes, I had been at last year’s Lausanne Laptop Institute and that experience was very positive. I was sure, as I disembarked from the air-conditioned coach, that the 2006 session was going to be a great experience, too.

After a bit of granola, coffee, and fruit, I was off to the Elder Performing Arts Center for the opening keynote address of the conference.

Keynote Speech

Redefining Literacy in the 21^st Century

Speaker:

David Warlick, The Landmark Project

As most conferences do, this one opened with an address from an invited “expert” or “guru” and Lausanne was no different. David Warlick, of the Landmark Project and many other educational technology initiatives, was set to speak on the subject “Redefining Literacy in the 21^st Century”. But before he spoke, a few minutes were dedicated toward welcome to the 460 (!) attendees of this year’s Laptop Institute. Stewart Crais, Lausanne’s Director of Technology and Lorrie Jackson, the person most responsible for organizing this year’s Institute (she’s a tech integrationist at Lausanne, I believe) made sure we all felt welcome and ready to start a stimulating conference.

Not surprising in this day when Internet access is viewed by a large cross-section of people as a daily activity and routine, David’s talk began with a list of online resources up on the big screen These were designed to illustrate various points he was about to make in his address to us. They included:

About Wikis:

http://davidwarlick.com/wiki-warlick/index.php?title=Redefining_Literacy_for_the_21st_Century

Web links related to this specific presentation:

http://davidwarlick.com/wiki-warlick/index.php?title=Web_Links_Related_to_this_Presentation

David Warlick’s own Wiki:

http://davidwarlick.com/wiki-warlick/index.php?title=Main_Page

Presentation handouts:

http://handouts.davidwarlick.com

The homepage of Mr. Warlick’s Landmark Project:

http://www.landmark-project.com/index.php

David directly launched into an example he felt illustrated the importance of teaching our students the “new literacy”. He asked, “Does a social studies teacher need study guides anymore?” Instead of a study guide produced, printed, and distributed by the teacher, he invited that hypothetical teacher to consider creating a wiki page devoted to the particular curricular unit. Assign students to make their own contributions from their own research to the collected information that the wiki will form. David maintains that today’s literacy is marked by communication and collaboration. Why not use the power of the group to find the information and collaborate on a study guide rather than doing the traditional teacher-centric version yet one more time?

But what about making sure each student knows the body of knowledge needed for that curricular unit? Wouldn’t the social studies teacher be abandoning her/his responsibility to monitor each student’s learning by doing a wiki or allowing group work and collaboration?

David would argue, no. There is nothing in this model that means minimum requirements for each student are gone. It does mean the teacher would have to re-think the assignment, perhaps adjust the goal of the assignment and certainly the method for completing it. She/he would also have to re-design – or at least re-think – the way to assess student learning and what constitutes completing the assignment. David reminded us that even as wiki pages evolve, are edited and re-edited, the previous versions are archived. All page edits are identified with the author which means that all individual student contributions could be identified and assessed.

Even factoring in a little inborn skepticism on my part, I thought such a methodology would be well-worth trying. I certainly agree that all our online resources make collaboration very easy. Why not use those tools to build student knowledge, too?

After just a few minutes of speaking, David took us a little by surprise saying he was going to skip to his conclusion: Stop integrating technology in our schools.

Instead, we need to teach our students the primary importance of verifying information (in this day of information overload), as well as techniques and tools for sifting through the stuff they don’t need and find the material they do.

We must teach our students (and probably ourselves, too) how to uncover the origins of information we access and use.

On the subject of information and how much there is out there, David gave us a statistic to the effect (I may not have this absolutely correct): In 2003, the amount of new knowledge added that year amounted to 5 exabytes*…or 37,000 Library of Congresses-worth. That’s a heck of a lot of data!

I have been well aware that there is a near-unlimited about of data out there but hearing that rather dramatic statistic does underscore the need on all of our parts to know how to make sure the material we’re reading/hearing/seeing, is legitimate and trustworthy.

To illustrate this last point, David displayed a web page with background and biographical information about Martin Luther King. No author or sponsoring organization was listed but there were pictures and paragraphs of text. The page itself had a polished and professional look that certainly looked authentic.

However polished, David warned, without clear information about authorship and/or organization responsible for the page (or site), one can’t consider this a trustworthy site and it’s not possible to verify the content.

We have to verify.

And to illustrate why, David tried to find out who was the author or sponsor. By deleting the page name in the URL, he found the parent page, which was an introductory page about Martin Luther King with, of course, a link to the page we started with. The parent page had the same great professional look. Yet, there was still no indication of an author or sponsoring organization.

At the bottom, you could click on a link to contact the webmaster. David looked at the mailto: link, found a name and a domain. He didn’t recognize the web master’s name or the domain. He could have searched on the person’s name, but decided to start by seeing if there was a website with that domain name. He inserted the domain in a URL. To our collective surprise (and shock) we were looking at a white supremacist website! The sponsoring organization for this ostensibly authentic website about Martin Luther King was really a white supremacist organization! These specific pages have since been removed but this scenario certainly illustrates the importance all of us need to accept to verify online content.

The Literacy Tasks David laid out include:

find the information
decode it
critically evaluate it
organize the information into personal digital libraries

David showed a study of a group of online retailers (Rhapsody, Amazon, and Netflix) which showed there to be a so-called “long tail” in terms of availability of content. A link to the actual study is at: http://www.wired.com/wired/images.html?issue=12.10&topic=tail&img=2

The upshot is that there is a body of titles – music, books, movies – which amounts to common core of titles widely available. The titles, you might say, are the core group that you’d find at brick-and-mortar retailers. What has changed in recent years is the “long tail.” If you look at the right portion of the group, the “long tail” is the much flatter part of the graph that represents titles published in far few numbers than the core group. What has changed is availability. Before the advent of online bookstores, music download sites, and other online venues for buying content, you’d be looking at “out of print” notices. Now, however, there is far greater access to content that is way off the best-seller charts which gives us yet more access to information and points of view.

David gave the example of his own book. Once he finished writing and editing it, he used a self-publishing site on the web (http://www.lulu.com/) to get it “out there.” David claimed his book was available for purchase about two hours after he finished submitting it online. This is, obviously, much different than the way authors used to publish their books. Similar opportunities are available to composers, musicians, and film makers.

Not to mention our students: students can upload their movie to any number of sites (i.e. YouTube). Or their digital pictures to Flickr. Or they can put their short stories on a blog. Or they can podcast an audio diary to iTunes. The landscape for accessing and sharing information is changing!

It has never been easier for anyone to get their work distributed to a worldwide audience.

Another concept David put out there is that it should be one’s goal in her/his writing expresses ideas in a compelling fashion.

Unfortunately, due to lack of time, the final tenet of the new literacy that David had up there on the screen he had to skip. The word up there was “Ethics”. Even though he didn’t have the time to spell this out, it certainly makes sense to me that just as we must verify information, we must also bear in mind the importance of ethics with respect to the production and use of ideas and material. This is copyright and fair use, certainly, but I imagine David would have elaborated in more detail about the role of ethics as it plays out in the day of wide dissemination and sharing on information and ideas so often accomplished with a mere click of the mouse. I’m sorry he ran out of time.

As you want any keynote address to do, David Warlick’s talk gave me much to think about. I’ve bookmarked a number of his sites and will look for time to go back to them, re-read his thinking, and do a better job of digesting it all.

[By the way, David requested that, if we blog about this presentation, we include these three words in the blog text or tag:

redefine --- literacy --- warlick

Why? Our networked world makes it possible to share information in ways not possible before. By including those specific words a search/gathering tool he has set up will add that blog entry to all the others that contain those words, forming an ever-growing and ever-changing collection of thinking and observations. People can read and think about other people’s ideas and perspectives while sharing their own. Amazing!]

David’s contact info:

david@landmark-project.com

919-414-1845

*In case you’re interested – and I was because I had never heard the term before – an exabyte amounts to a billion gigabytes.

Now begins the conference and the scheduled sessions.

This year, the sessions are organized in various strands. There are strands for Integrationist, Teacher, Support, Administrator, plus some for exhibitors and so on. My first session was in the Integrationist strand.

Session 1

Tech Goal-Setting Strategies

Presenter:

Deidre Brown – Staff Development Coordinator – Randolph School – Huntsville, AL

Ms. Brown comes from the Randolph School in Huntsville and she is the Staff Development Coordinator there. Her focused on aspects of the professional development system at Randolph

To begin with, at Randolph each department has a Technology Integration Consultant (known as a TIC [sic]). They are the go-to people for members of their department. Randolph has a tech team as well. The way Deidre described the set-up of TICs, it must work pretty well. The TIC is a contracted position with a signed contract and stipend.

Randolph asks each faculty, staff, and administrator to come up with an annual Individual Learning Plan (ILP) in which specific technology goals are set by the individual. Each ILP is presented to the person’s respective TIC and to the department head, and perhaps the division director. At some point in the year, the TIC will check on the various goals the individuals have specified; Deidre puts all the people and their goals on a spreadsheet of her own. That way, come late winter or spring she can approach her colleagues, ask how the progress of attaining their tech goals are going, and offer help with any still unmet These tech goals are not part of the individual’s yearly evaluation and, if they miss making a goal, they can roll it over into the next year. The ultimate goal of the program is not to admonish failure but, rather, to encourage learning, professional growth, and success.

Deidre gave us samples of ILP forms – blank and filled out.

Another document she shared was a skill sheet which gathers skill lists, various programs, and assorted other tech information for reference. Why? People can’t decide on a tech skill goal if they don’t the skill they don’t yet have. This sheet offers a wide array of possible opportunities for new learning. Think of it as a way to “prime the pump” for setting tech goals.

At some point in the year, the each department head presents the group department goals at a department meeting.

Teachers at Randolph may apply for grants to present their own summer technology trainings. If their proposal is accepted, they receive a small stipend.

Session 2

A Guide to Web 2.0: The Changing Shape of Information

Presenter:

David Warlick (see background info above)

In some ways, an extension of his keynote this morning, David Warlick focused on the future and information, if not literacy per se. Information, he said, in the last ten years, has become:

networked
available in digital form
overwhelming (which I took to refer to the flow and breadth of information coming at us every day)

Furthermore, he said, in the last two years:

content is created more and more based on conversations (blogs, forums, e-mail, wikis, etc.)
content depends on the behavior of readers and users
content is increasingly connected with others through ideas

David recommended a downloadable book by Terry Freedman called Coming of Age. I’ll try to get around to downloading it and see what it has to say.

David recommended another book – The New Shape of Knowledge, by Dave Weinberger

David went into mashups which he defined as websites that gather information from a collection of other websites and makes something new of that info. The Wikipedia definition of mashup is at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mashup_(web_application_hybrid)).

One example of news tracking David showed was Buzztracker (http://buzztracker.org/). Buzztracker monitors news and notes where the news is from or about. It compiles these feeds, tallies how many refer to what place, and then indicates this activity with dots on a world map. The larger the dot, the more news there is about that city or place. To quote its own introductory blurb:

Buzztracker is software that visualizes frequencies and relationships between locations in the Google world news directory.

Buzztracker tries to show you how interconnected the world is: big events in one area ripple to other areas across the globe. Connections between cities thousands of miles apart become apparent at a glance.

Buzztracker keeps an archive of each day’s activity and map. Going back in the archive is a way to watch the change in the news from day to day

David has created a mashup called Hitchhikr (http://www.hitchhikr.com/) which is focused educational technology events, conference, blogs, and other resources.

To quote his introductory remarks about his site:

In changing times, we need to raise our heads out of the water every once in a while, take a drink of kool-aid, network, learn, and energize. Yet, we can't always make it to the conferences we need to attend to mix with the people we need to see -- face-to-face. This is why Hitchhikr was invented, to provide you with a virtual space where, thanks to blogs, podcasts, and RSS, we can connect, share, respond, and grow knowledge out beyond the place and time of the event.

An example of how this works: To assure that any blog entries about this particular presentation gets linked to other entries about the same event, David requested that people be sure to include “web20” and “warlick” (without quotes, of course) somewhere in the text (or as tags). That way the entries get picked up by Hitchhikr and collected with other entries with the same terms. This, then, being an illustration of how information can be shared widely and immediately to interested audiences in a way not possible even five years ago (or two?!).

How to do wade through all this content? A tool David pointed to was RSS. He demonstrated his favored aggregator and explained, for those who had not encounted RSS feeds before, what they were. I’ve used SharpReader as a stand-alone aggregator as well as the online options such as Bloglines. I’ve gotten the RSS “habit,” too, but I still struggle with how to wade through all the content, even with aids like RSS.

David reiterated the point that “we connect to each other through the content” we seek.

As people use tools like blogs, RSS, wikis, and so on, they create their “personal learning network.” Building one’s own personal learning network is what we must teach our students.

Note about aggregators: David showed the group Bloglines as an online way of subscribing to RSS feeds along with other online content. He also made mention of a new(ish) tool he has started using called Netvibes (http://www.netvibes.com/) which offers a bunch of configurable tools you can add to your page (plus add other tabs for more content) including RSS, Gmail, and other options. Right now in beta, this is a free service out of Paris. When I get a chance, I’m going to set up my own netvibes page.

Tonight is the big dinner of the conference and will be held here at the Hilton in one of the large ballrooms/dining rooms.

Dinner was held in one of the very large convention dining rooms that are here at the Hilton. This year they suggested we find a table with our “strand” indicated so that we would be grouped according to our job focus. In other words, tables were labeled Teachers, Integrationists, Administrators, Support, etc. I sat at one of the Integrationists tables and recognized one person I had already met earlier today, a couple folks familiar from last year, and a group of people new to me. The geographical range at our table ranged from Florida to Tennessee to Iowa to Seattle. We had a nice meal (grilled boneless chicken, grilled veggies, and grits [that’s what the Tennesseans at the table said it was!]).

This has been a great start to the Laptop Institute. Now to get ready for tomorrow

It's Off to Memphis!

2006-07-15T16:57:00.000-07:00

Today I set off to Memphis to attend the 2006 Lausanne Laptop Institute, an annual conference focused on laptops and learning held at the Lausanne Collegiate School. This will be my second year in attendance and I'm looking forward to it a lot. Last year's experience was great and I suspect I'll again have a rewarding, interesting, and fun time.

A Fascinating Music Site -- Musipedia

2006-07-14T20:41:00.000-07:00

Boasting tools that allow you to enter notes (pitches & note values, including rests), or indicate melodic contours, or whistle a tune....whatever your method, this site claims to be able to help you identify those ditties or tunes you either can't get out of your head or can't remember the name of the song.

Go to Musipedia!

Lizards and Snakes......Alive!

2006-07-13T15:09:00.000-07:00

Come and visit this site at the American Museum of Natural History about -- well, yes! -- Lizards and Snakes. What's not to love about 'em?

More Patently Silly?

2006-07-12T10:38:00.000-07:00

In case you've ever wondered what some of those "stars" out there expect (or demand?) when they're on tour or in some performance venue, you can check out the expectations on the part of about 200 performers at the Backstage link at the Smoking Gun website.

Some pretty amazing (and fascinating) details!

Patently Silly Is Right!

2006-07-11T16:56:00.000-07:00

Thomas Edison these folks aren't. This site is dedicated to calling attention to actual inventions that have been awarded U.S. Patents. Well, not just to any invention but to inventions that are both patented and -- yes! -- silly.

Maybe not laugh-out-loud hilarious, a number of them will at least bring a smile to your face.

What were they thinking????

Patently Silly - The Humor of Invention - presented by Daniel Wright

Incredible Picture of Sydney Bay, Australia

2006-07-10T07:21:00.000-07:00

If you'd like to see a nighttime shot of the harbor of Sydney, Australia that is a beautifully (and incredibly) detailed combined shot made up of 10 separate images stitched together, go here.

Now, you might be asking.....why would I want to do that? Well, the photographer, Scott Howard, has produced such a detailed photo, you can click wherever you want on the image and zoom in and zoom in and zoom in. Unbelievably, if you zoom in enough, you can get to the point where you can see individual people in the high-rise office buildings.

Apparently, this single image is near 800 MB. Talk about mega-pixels!

It's a beautiful, night shot. Take a look.

PNAIS "Share" Technology Conference -- Follow-ups and Resources

2006-07-01T21:16:00.000-07:00

Yes, I know......I don't typically post on weekends but I thought it best to post these follow-ups and great resources that I gleaned from the PNAIS Conference sooner rather than later. So, it may be Saturday, but here they are! :-)

The following are listed for my own sake so I have some record of some things mentioned that I want to keep for one reason or another, in no particular order:

Portable MP3 player -- Olympus DM-20 digital recorder (CD quality audio, MP3 or WMA formats, highly portable, 45 hours recording time), remote control doubles as external mic (!), USB docking station

International Radio Project -- Is this the correct site where one can get student podcasts distributed? a very brief visit to radioproject.org didn't look like it . check into

Wireless mice for use in classroom -- Gyration is company (http://www.gyration.com/en-US), recommended product (at UPA) is one of their air mice (and possibly wireless keyboard) -- possible alternative to SmartBoards

Pixma i9900 (Canon) color inkjet printer was highly recommend especially coupled with after-market ink tank system (not sure where to find this)

PaperCut program for monitoring printer usage on network -- http://www.papercut.biz/pcpl/free_print_logger.htm

Hamachi.cc -- easy vpn

UW Classroom Presenter -- software tool helping make the use of tablet pcs much more interactive in class -- http://www.cs.washington.edu/education/dl/presenter/

Getting Started Guide is at: http://www.cs.washington.edu/research/edtech/presenter/doc/gscp.htm#connecting

Streaming video from Annenberg Library (Annenberg Media Leaner.org) -- http://www.learner.org/

Wikimapia -- combination of a wiki and Google Maps -- http://www.wikimapia.org/

Edline mentioned as possible alternative to Moodle: http://www.edline.com/

Webhosting possibilities -- bluehost.com http://www.bluehost.com/

and what I thought was littleorange.com but could only find asmallorange.com http://www.asmallorange.com/

Ruby on Rails -- open source programming tool http://www.rubyonrails.org/

and Ruby -- object-oriented programming http://www.rubycentral.com/

Designing Web Projects and/or Digital Assignments -- WebQuest Taskonomy -- http://webquest.sdsu.edu/taskonomy.html

point teachers here for food for thought as they design assignments using technology

Student Video Editing resources -- AFI Screen Education site -- http://afi.edu/ (American Film Institute)

Atomic Learning was also mentioned

Other video resource -- ScanTV -- http://www.scantv.org/ (which is Seattle Community Access Network)

one person said they came out and did a video-taping project at his school, brought all the equipment, etc.

Online bookmark, collaboration resources (folksonomy? [wikepedia definition: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Folksonomy ] such as

Connotea ( http://www.connotea.org/ ) and del.icio.us ( http://del.icio.us/ )

PNAIS "Share" Technology Conference -- Day 3

2006-06-30T21:15:00.000-07:00

The morning session I attended on Friday was "Instructional Roadkill: What Didn't Work and Why". (Now as I'm sitting here days afterward, I'm thinking that maybe John mentioned the classroom management challenge at this session rather than the earlier one. In any case, the kinda lack of agreement as it being a problem for others out there remains.) I'm going to have to consult the notes from this one, too, because I didn't take any of my own. I do think that the overall sense of this was again a bit more positive than I was expecting....in other words, some people spoke about things that didn't work but more of the comments ended up being positives, which was good to hear. There were a few tidbits of deadends and lowered expectations which will be good to refer to at some point.

The final session of the conference was our third "megasession" where we all met together, just as we had started the conference two days before. The focus was "Why We Do It: Best Practices and Best Examples of Technology Integration in the Pacific Northwest." Jim Heyndrickx moderated this session and presented three examples gleaned from volunteers among our very own group. I remember seeing Josh's Little School highlighted but have forgotten the others (again I didn't take notes relying on the Wiki or notes sent out). Although a little fatigue/overload was beginning to set in, there was enough energy left to look at these examples as ones to celebrate and acknowledge. It was a great way to end the conference.

We were sent off to head home with much learned, much enjoyed, much experienced, and a box lunch. I think the organizers did a fantastic job of putting together the event, finding such an ideal location for it (okay, I guess I will have to admit that sharing a room was a tiny downside.....I would have gotten better sleep without the company but it could be that Islandwood did not have the extra rooms, or we didn't want to pay the extra cost, or some other reason, but, if it were up to me, that is one thing I'd change for next time), great food, great company, stimulating sessions (almost all of them), and a group that was big enough to have much variety in it but small enough where you could get to know people you didn't already know (having "family style" meals helped a lot in this, too). I hope they make this an annual event.

PNAIS "Share" Technology Conference -- Day 2

2006-06-29T21:13:00.000-07:00

First session of Thursday began at 9. I went to the one called "AV in the 21st Century." Put on by Eric Stratton from University Prep (in Seattle), there was some general discussion about multimedia in the classroom and the shift that has taken place over the recent past. The main thing Eric had to present was the changes they've made to their rooms at U Prep. Over the last two/three summers they have upgraded around 40-50 classrooms with installations that include a ceiling-mounted digital projector, a large display screen (8 ft.), DVD/VCR capability, surround sound. Cheryl Wolotira, from the Northwest School, was another presenter, and her emphasis was on the use of document cameras (although the one she had to demo was not working). This was useful and cemented my belief that we can do more at the MS to upgrade the installations there, especially with the audio & assuring the ability to show DVD/movies. I think that 8 ft screens would be great, but until we see how far and wide SmartBoards are going to spread at the MS, we might hold off on mass replacement of smaller screens.

After a break came the second session of the morning. I attended the one called "K-12 Computer Science Curriculums: Is Symbolic Reasoning Essential for All Students?" and was presented by Jim Heyndrickx from Oregon Episcopal School. Jim started with a fairly impassioned advocacy of moving beyond merely automating tasks we already do (moving from hand-writing text to typing it into Word) to info-mating material, meaning primarily that the tools afforded by technology give us an opportunity to re-think how we collect, present, and distribute information. I believe the "automate" "info-mate" distinctions come from his ready of a book by Jane Healy where she lays out these principles (I believe in her book, Failure to Connect). He went on to strongly advocate for programming to be taught starting in early elementary (with programs such as Microworld), moving on to Squeak. In middle school, he advocates for robotics to be the center of the programming effort, moving to Alice 3D programming (http://www.alice.org/) in high school. He is working right now to get a computer science graduation requirement added to his high school's curriculum.

Then it was time for lunch break and another quite enjoyable Islandwood meal.

In the afternoon, the first session was another full-group (or "mega-session") called "The Dark Side of Technology". Meant to prompt discussion of some of the things that didn't quite live to up the promise or hope, it was an interesting exchange of things people have tried and the results. I didn't take notes during this session and am looking forward to the notes being sent out soon (or on the Wiki). I believe it was in this session that John brought up a concern that I certainly share, which is "classroom management." Surprisingly -- at least to me -- there was not much follow-up on that subject. Maybe it's just an issue that we are challenged by more than other school environments. I think that one of the reasons there is some wavering of support among some Middle School teachers about the laptop program is due to the amount of time/effort/persistence necessary to maintain focus and concentration in the classroom. More time than I would think necessary seems to be devoted to policing laptops rather than making optimal use of them. Other subjects discussed during this session seemed more positive and less "dark" so, again, I'm looking forward to the notes.

The second afternoon session that I attended was "Digital Multimedia Authoring: How to Integrate Creative Digital Media Technologies in the Classroom". The areas of focus here were 1) Digital Storytelling (stories told through pictures & text; simplest in terms of technology; final product often PowerPoint or web-page); 2) Stop Motion Animation (story told with pictures & text but with motion added; can use drawings or physical media; might require special software/hardware; often results in movie); and 3) Digital Video Authoring (story told through pictures, text, sound, and video/film; can use existing or student-produced footage; also often requires special software/hardware, and end product is usually movie [video]). We were reminded that the formula for most digital (multimedia) projects is 80% planning/20% "doing" & 80% content/20% technology. Also: K.I.S.S. (aka "Keep It Simple and Straightforward") and guideline that for every minute of finished video count on 3 or more hours of post-production. All these principles are very important to bear in mind when putting a multi-media assignment together. As much as we want to challenge our students *and* get them to use technological tools to boost their creativity and learning, we also want to program into the assignment/challenge as much success for them as possible. Forgetting some of the basics of what it takes for them to put together an effective, successful digital media project is going to lessen the learning and probably hamper the creativity.

Next came a free time in the late-ish afternoon. I took this opportunity to walk as many of the paths in Islandwood as I could. I had seen in the Welcome Center a map that laid out the grounds and the landmarks....buildings, paths, and so on. I also had heard of a couple that were not on the map including a tree house that sounded quite amazing. So off I went looking for some of these things I had seen only on a map. I found the Bird Blind, the Tree House (which is truly amazing...hugging the trunk of the tree, substantially built, with a great view of the bog below), then headed the other direction and found the suspension bridge, Mac's Pond, and a fairly long walk. The scenery was great and the walk wonderful after all that sitting. Another tasty dinner followed and not long after dessert came the presentation in the Great Hall of "Monty Python and the Holy Grail". That was fun to see after having seen it way back when!

PNAIS "Share" Technology Conference -- Day 1

2006-06-28T21:11:00.000-07:00

Arrived somewhere around 2:30, found a place to park, packed up my miscellaneous bags, and headed for the Welcome Center. First impressions of Islandwood School was that this is quite a natural, unspoiled setting. The buildings are wooden, large but not out of place in the wooded area that is Islandwood. Checked in with the folks in the Welcome Center and traipsed off to where I was going to stay. First encounter after checking in was with a deer who was chomping on grass in a meadow adjacent to one of the housing structures. She looked up at me, gave me a good checkout, and resumed her grass munching. We were maybe 10-12 feet apart. The quiet and that sense of nature (and, dare I say, peace and relaxation) that was manifested there was a great introduction to Islandwood.

Our group assembled in a large meeting room for our first meeting which was scheduled for 3 p.m. Called the "Great Hall" no doubt because it is the largest open gathering room among the buildings, it still is not a huge place. We fit in there nicely. Noticed there was no air conditioning (the first observation about the "nature friendly" spirit of the facilities and all the amenities -- I didn't see a television once!) although the temp inside the building was very comfortable.

The introductory session was called "Cool Stuff" and pretty much turned out as billed. People volunteered a series of programs, strategies, etc., that worked for them. This entire conference was billed as a series of "sharing" sessions and this first get-together did just that. I hope the notes that were taken get shared. (At our final group session, it was stated that a wiki was going to be started that would grow out of these three days of sessions and I look forward to accessing & contributing to that resource.)

After a break, we had our first "break-out" session. I went to the one entitled "Choosing the right SIS (Student Information System). Much of this information was new to me. It involved various experiences, programs, strategies people were using at their schools to create, maintain, and share databases within the school community. There was a fair amount of discussion about one fairly widespread (the name of which I forgot!), SASI, and a couple others. We use our own in-house system, some of which is commercial (i.e. business office system) and some is custom software by Tom Rona. Although not exactly relevant to what I do, it was still very useful to hear about all the aspects of running a school -- including student records, grades, comments, but also development, alumni relations, finance -- that ideally would be great if it would work together seamlessly. In most schools, it sounds like this remains a dream much sought after.

A social time came next followed by dinner. The food was great (chicken, rice, tossed salad, steamed potatoes/carrots/beets) and dessert.

After dinner was unscheduled time. Some people finished get checked in -- my two roommates arrived at this time: William Larrimore, Technology Manager of the Meridian School in Seattle (in the Good Shepherd's Home in good ole Wallingford; and Kwame Pobee, who is the Network Administrator at Annie Wright in Tacoma. Nice guys and we had a little time to chat.

80 Days That Changed The World

2006-06-26T09:56:00.000-07:00

Go to this TIME Magazine site to be reminded of historical events that have been monumental in their impact on our lives.

I suspect, as soon as you see the pictures scroll across the screen, you'll understand exactly the import of these events.

Virtual Skies: Aeronautics Tutorial: Introduction

2006-06-23T12:49:00.000-07:00

I've always wanted to fly. Yes, me, actually fly. Not just in an airplane, but all by myself. Like most of you, I've dreamed of floating around and have, on a couple occasions, almost convinced myself that I could fly by flapping my arms.

Well, before that really happens, I'm going to have to conquer the realities of aeronaturics.

No better place to learn about what it takes to join the birds in the sky than the site below. A very well-written tutorial.

Virtual Skies: Aeronautics Tutorial

"Common Sense" Copyright Licensing

2006-05-25T14:45:00.000-07:00

We spend a lot of time in our Laptop Prep classes talking about copyright, copyright law, and fair use.

In these days of great amounts of information -- with so much available at the click of a mouse -- the issues involved in complying with copyright, in spirit and by the letter of the law, is daunting.

The Ceative Commons movement seems to be gaining more prominence as more of a "common sense" response to the challenges to copyright.

Creative Commons is a way to license creative works so that they can be more widely shared while maintaining some protections for authors/creators.

To quote their opening paragraph:

Creative Commons licenses provide a flexible range of protections and freedoms for authors, artists, and educators. We have built upon the "all rights reserved" concept of traditional copyright to offer a voluntary "some rights reserved" approach. We're a nonprofit organization. All of our tools are free.

This is a subject worth exploration in much greater depth. I hope to cover it next year in the unit on copyright.

Welcome | Creative Commons

Leonard da Vinci -- The Real Artist, Not The Movie

2006-05-19T10:30:00.000-07:00

I'm not sure how I feel about the release this week of the movie based on the book, The DaVinci Code. I've never read it and there has been so much publicity -- and this week so much hype -- about the movie that I'm going to stay on the sidelines and not rush out to this flick.

However, da Vinci, the artist, deserves on-going attention in a big way. I've run across an online exhibit at the Institute and Museum of the History of Science called:

The Mind of Leonardo -- The Universal Genius At Work. Get your mouse pointing in this site's direction. A wonderful site. (This site, by the way, is available in both Italian & English.)

Oddly Enough There Is News Of The Weird

2006-05-18T15:55:00.000-07:00

Once you've been to and left the Oddly Enough site at Reuters news service, click your way to Craig Shepherd's News Of The Weird. Check 'em out!!

In Case You Don't Have Enough To Do

2006-05-17T15:52:00.000-07:00

Why not check out the case against Ken Lay and cohorts at the Enron trial. All you'll ever want to read and know is right here at the US Department of Justice site.

National Baseball Hall of Fame - Dressed to the Nines

2006-05-16T15:50:00.000-07:00

Now that baseball season is underway, why not have a link to a historical look at one of the distinctive aspects of the game: the uniform.

Click on the following link:

National Baseball Hall of Fame - Dressed to the Nines

The Immigration Debate in the Classroom 2006

2006-05-15T15:41:00.000-07:00

Today President Bush is making a speech to the nation on the subject of immigration. Some educational resources for this important topic and its many implications are available at the links below.

The Immigration Debate in the Classroom 2006

Public Agenda Issue Guide: Immigration

The Price Of Gold Back When

2006-05-12T15:42:00.000-07:00

I'm not sure why this resource seems so fascinating to me. It's a site that will tell you the value of gold by various measures --- the official British price from 1257 to 1945, the official US price from 1786 to 2001, the London market price from 1718 to 2001, among others. All you have to do is select the price measure you want, plug in the year or span of years, and it will tell you.

A bit fascinating, I'd say.

Economic History Resources - What Was the Price of Gold Then?

They Test the Driving Tips

2006-05-08T12:19:00.000-07:00

This portion of Edmunds.com is a place to go to find out how the "great" driving tips you get actually pan out. In this day of ever-rising gas prices, it's not a bad place to start and see what the real skinny is on saving gas and improving mileage.

We Test the Tips

Visual Learning - Example diagrams

2006-05-05T13:59:00.000-07:00

We're all aware that our students -- heck, even ourselves -- have different learning styles. We have worked with kids we would classify as "auditory learners," "visual learners," and various combinations.

The software application, Inspiration, is an especially helpful tool to use with visual learners as it provides a way to show ideas and their relationship to each other in a visual fashion (you may have heard of this referred to as 'conceptual mapping').

Here are some lesson plans and ideas that use Inspiration in Language Arts, Science, Social Studies, Math, among others.

Visual Learning - Example diagrams

More Da Vinci

2006-05-04T12:00:00.000-07:00

Here is a site that focuses on Leonardo's famous painting, The Last Supper. You're able to view some of the restoration work as well as preparatory drawings by the artist as he planned his panoramic painting.

Cenacolo - Last Supper