Online Videos For Students and Educators

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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!

Happy New Year to One and All!!!!

John Adams -- Founding Father

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

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

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

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

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

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!