Technology of the Month

Links Worth Exploring

2011-04-05T21:30:00.000-04:00

Skype in the Classroom
I was excited to read on Mashable today that Skype has developed their own directory for teachers who wish to connect via Skype.

In the Door
This is an impressive tribute to the power of the social web. I logged in just to try it and was amazed at the results. Essentially, In the Door looks at your friends on Facebook and the companies they are connected to and then delivers you job openings based on your connections. It is very much worth a look even if you aren't job hunting. Wish this had been around when I graduated from college.

2011-03-29T21:47:00.000-04:00

Kahn Academy and the amazing work being done there isn't really new though it has certainly gained a lot of traction in the edtech space recently. The video of Salman Kahn's TED talk is certainly worth 20 minutes of your time. It started a conversation at our school, and even better one of our math teachers is going to try to flip his class. This is no easy task, over the summer he will create Kahn like videos of around 90 lectures. I am truly excited to help support the project but I do have concerns about the amount of work this teacher is taking on. How do we support these teachers who are taking risks and investing inordinate mounts of time? Should we offer stipends or grants to support them? Or, is this just part of the job?

Delinquent Poster

2011-02-08T20:49:00.000-05:00

More than a few weeks have gone by since my last post. I think the snow and darkness of winter has clouded my brain. I've even had trouble keeping up with my twitter lists this month. Something about boarding schools in February.....

While I have been neglecting my social media haunts, including facebook, I certainly have been exploring new tools and working hard on too many projects at school. Here are a few things that are new to me and so far quite useful.

1) iPad: We bought 2 iPads for testing and evaluation purposes. So far it feels more like a flashy toy than an enterprise class productivity tool. Angry Birds was the first app downloaded but since then I have mostly downloaded work related apps. RDP, Evernote, My Enterasys, Notes Plus, WritePad and Tweetdeck. RDP is pretty sweet and easy to use on the ipad. Notes Plus beats WritePad but this thing is definitely not meant to capture handwritten notes, a huge drawback in my opinion.

2) Evernote. I am only a few weeks into using this but can clearly see the benefits. Right now it is installed on my desktop at work, my mac at home, and my ipad. The ability to keep track of projects, aggregating files, links, and notes into one easily accessible place is awesome.

A few links cultivated by others and redistributed here....

Wikipedia has been under the microscope because of the large gender gap in their pool of editors. Sue Gardner has a nice blog post that aggregates most of the articles on the subject.

3 Trends that will Shape the Future of Curriculum

Problems I have yet to solve: Where do I take my Delicious bookmarks? So many options so little time to explore them all.

Is it Time to Put Technology in its Place?

2011-01-18T11:21:00.000-05:00

Sherry Turkle was on Colbert last night talking about her new book and advocating that its time to put technology in its place. If you didn't see it you can watch the interview below. What do you think?

The Colbert Report

Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c

Sherry Turkle

www.colbertnation.com

Colbert Report Full Episodes

Political Humor & Satire Blog</a>

Video Archive

RSA 21st Century Enlightenment

2011-01-07T15:26:00.000-05:00

I’ve seen a handful of their animated lectures now and am continually impressed. The combination of manual animation and the lecture audio really works for me. Its a fascinating way to learn. Here are a few of my favorites…..

Changing Education Paradigms

The Truth About What Motivates Us

The Secret Powers of Time

Exam Week

2010-12-14T22:38:00.000-05:00

Tuesday night is my duty night in the dorm. During exam week we traditionally do snacks at the 10pm check in. Typically I spend my Tuesday duty night catching up on work and chatting with the girls int eh dorm. Tonight, I got busy in the kitchen, making snacks.

I couldn't help but take a pic of my efforts. The girls got apples, grapes, strawberries, three types of cookies, an assortment of crackers, brie and a soft brie like blue cheese. Then came the pizzas.

It was all gone in a matter of seconds.

I also have a few cool things for you to check out. If you are still doing holiday shopping check out CheapTweet. I wouldn't follow them becasue you are sure to get overloaded with their tweets, but the site is searchable and I managed to save 20% an order I was about to place this evening. Pretty sweet.

Second thing is this cool info graphic that came across my twitter feed today from @marisacp51. The explanation for how it was done is very cool and can be found on mashable. Stats teachers take note.

Google Search 2010

2010-12-10T10:45:00.003-05:00

Check out all the details at Zeitgeist 2010: How the world searched

Interesting Conversations on Passivity in Education

2010-12-07T22:16:00.000-05:00

The initial post came from Joe Bower: Legacy of Traditional Education. Scott McLeod commented, then posted/tweeted, The Passivity of Students and Educators. The conversation continues in the comments on Scott's blog post.

Besides the fact that i couldn't agree more with what both are saying, I love the fact that this sort of conversation is possible. The fact that we can comment on and share these ideas so quickly and effortlessly and with a huge audience is still amazing to me.

Crowdsourcing Exam Questions

2010-12-01T20:34:00.000-05:00

A few days back this came across my twitter feed from @mcleod

"...when the students collaborate in this way, they both have to do the reflective, synthesizing work of question-writing (which is better than cramming) and to come to an implicit agreement about what our course was about."

The original article was posted at The Chronicle.

Returning from Break

2010-12-01T20:26:00.000-05:00

Hope everyone had a restful Thanksgiving holiday. It is always nice to take a break from the daily grind to spend time with friends and family or to simply sit on the couch and relax. I've started to semi unplug during vacations. After the birth of my son it started to happen naturally: ignoring the pile up of emails, taking a break from my twitter feed, and using the web only for my personal life. I said semi unplugged. It's quite refreshing until its over and you have to dig out.

Unfortunately I spent more than a couple of hours working this break. Thanksgiving night I realized that my phone was no longer connected to our email server. Bummer. I managed to ignore the issue until Friday morning and then my stress level rose steadily. My family and I arrived back to campus in the late afternoon. I quickly excused myself and visited the server room for some post Thanksgiving troubleshooting. Turns out our firewall was in a hung state and needed to be rebooted. Further poking through our SEIM logs raised more questions than answers. I went home and then found myself back in the server room a few hours later. I repeated this dance until late Saturday when the issue was officially resolved. Sunday, a call came in from a neighbor wondering why they were still down. Again, out the door I went, crash bag in hand, to reconfigure the switch in their basement.

A few years ago it would have been ok to ignore these issue until after break. Today that isn’t an option. Schools have evolved. Technology plays a significant role in every aspect of our business, and it has altered the way we work. In the midst of all of the scrambling I received a number of phone calls and emails from people on and off campus wondering what was going on and seeking a quick resolution. In many ways I am happy, maybe even a little proud, that our community has grown to embrace technology. Teachers and administrators were keeping up with their emails, kids were communicating with colleges, some folks were working on curriculum mapping and our NEASC Self Study, others (most) just needed their Facebook fix. (90% of the traffic was flowing to and from facebook)

A few weeks back I was at a Tech Directors meeting at the Groton School and one of my colleagues mentioned that they were feeling the same changes. We all are. SLAs and on call rotations may soon be common place in our tiny IT departments. Undoubtedly our tiny IT departments will need to grow to accommodate the ever growing demands of our communities.

Twitter in 60 Seconds by @jgates513

2010-12-01T12:40:00.001-05:00

Thankgiving Break is on the horizon!

2010-11-16T21:29:00.002-05:00

This is a tough week for most in our community. Stress and anxiety always seem to build up just before a vacation. Everyone is ready to let down but at the same time they are scrambling to tie up loose ends. I too am feeling the crunch and as a result have little to write this week. I do want to share a few links with you and a short video.

Untag Me - This is a quick read but thought provoking. I have seen and heard some interesting stories about how kids are managing their digital lives recently. maybe next week I will see about posting a bunch of those stories for your consumption.

Digital Keys for Unlocking the Humanities' Riches - Great article in the New York Times today about how data is opening up new opportunities for looking at the past. Very cool stuff.

"Bullying" Has Little Resonance with Teenagers - I am always impressed with Danah Boyd's work.

The video is a remake of the original Social Media Revolution done a few years back. Compelling.

Interesting article in The Chronicle this week...

2010-11-11T11:28:00.001-05:00

Getting Your Work Done With Social Media: the Sprint

Smartphones, Scanning Apps and the World of QR

2010-11-10T14:52:00.000-05:00

I wonder how many of you have ever seen or noticed an image similar to this one and wondered, What the heck is that? Honestly, until recently I had never noticed them. Once I learned what they were I started seeing them everywhere and they are quite convenient.

So what the heck is that thing off to the left? It's a QR code (quick response code). With the emergence of smart phones, Google goggles, and bar code scanning apps these little buggers are showing up everywhere. They are similar to a bar code in that they contain information. Some, like the one shown above, contain a link to a website. Others simply display text, add contact info, or compose txts or emails. I created the QR code above as a link to this blog using a simple free QR generator called Qurify. Plenty of smart people have recently written about QR codes, check out some of the links below to read more. In the meantime, start looking for them, and if you have a smart phone with a bar code reader app give it a try.

The Year of the QR Code
from Jeff Utecht @ The Thinking Stick blog

Exploring QR Codes
from Tim Wilson @ The Savy Technologist blog

Google Voice

2010-11-05T20:44:00.000-04:00

Having heard about Google Voice for quite some time i opted to carve a few minutes out of my afternoon to set it up. It was incredibly easy. I left the office shortly after and headed down the street to pick up my son from daycare. In the car i began to think of all the possibilites of this great tool.

For those who haven't heard of it Google Voice allows you to generate a telephone number, set up voice mail, and connect that number t other numbers. So, in my case, I grabbed a number in the 978 area code, and linked it to my cell phone, my office phone, and my Google chat account. Now I can give out just one number to everyone (the Google voice number) and anytime they call it both my phones will ring.

When someone leaves you a voice mail the message is converted to txt and sent to your inbox. You can also receive it as a txt message. So far I am pretty impressed and I know I'm just scratching the surface.

I sat down to write this post because in our little residential community a lot of folks have ditched the land line and gone cell phones only. one concern that comes up a lot is that people liked having that one number to give out to people. there was nostalgia for the home phone. I think Google Voice could be a viable solution, though you may still miss that old rotary phone on the hall table.

It might work like this; A family could set up a Google Voice number and then attach it to all of their cell phones. this way when Grandma calls it will ring on everyone's phone and if she leaves a message it can get sent out to each persons mobile device. Pretty cool and free!

Three Links

2010-11-02T21:27:00.001-04:00

This week I want to steer you towards three great blogs that are worth following on a regular basis. You could also follow the authors on twitter if you choose.

This week on Dangerously Irrelevant check out 12 Videos to Spark Educators’ Thinking.

Over on Danah Boyd’s blog there is a fantastic short post on Facebook and Helicopter Parenting.

After you take a look at those hop on over to iTunesU where you can now download Shakespeare’s Complete Works for free. While you’re there take a look at what is available in your content area. Read more about the recent changes at iTunesU at Open Culture.

Outlining and Mind Mapping Tools

2010-10-28T22:32:00.000-04:00

I like to use inspiration with students and also as an organizational tool in my own work. Unfortunately the version we have on campus is quite stale. Anyway, the other day I was frantically searching the web for a slick but free mind mapping tool and came up blank. I hurried off to class and once again used inspiration. Well... tonight I stumbled across the Free Technology for Teachers blog and found just the tools I was looking for. Here are the links to the tools and to the original post.

Knowcase - Free Outlining Tool
Bubbl.us - Free Mind Mapping Tool
Lovely Charts - Create High Quality Charts

Free Technology for Teachers

Thanks Richard for finding the goods.

Personal Learning Networks

2010-10-28T20:42:00.000-04:00

Well so far I haven’t stuck to my weekly blogging commitment. I went to far as to schedule it in my outlook calendar as a reoccurring event each Tuesday morning after getting inspired reading "Schedule Your Work to Avoid a Calendar Choked with Interruptions." But, the incessant reminders didn’t work the first week. This week, after snoozing on the reminder for a few says I am finally putting fingers to keys.

As you all hopefully know the web has evolved considerably in the last decade. Some might look at the evolution of the read write web and see a glut of random content. Certainly there is that, however if you take the time to dig, there is an amazing amount of quality information on just about every subject imaginable.

While at first glance tools like Facebook and Twitter seem like toys for sharing with friends, family, and catching up on mega star gossip, the careful and deliberate educator can weave quite the web of vibrant professional connections. I am talking about Personal Learning Networks or PLNs. For the last few years PLNs have been a hot topic on the educational blogs I follow and at conferences across the globe. Rather than reinvent what hundreds of others have already done I thought I would share with you a post from someone in my own PLN that does a nice job of introducing the idea to educators.

What follows is from Kate over at Once A Teacher….

What is a PLN?

If I had to define what a ‘Personal Learning Network’ is, I would keep it simple and broad:

n. – the entire collection of people with whom you engage and exchange information, usually online.

Personal Learning Networks, or PLNs, have been around forever. Originally, they were your family and friends, maybe other educators you worked with, but as the internet and web 2.0 tools have become nearly ubiquitous, PLNs can include tons of different communities – social networking sites like Facebook, blogs, Twitter, wikis, social bookmarking tools, LinkedIn, and so many more. Basically, anyone that you interact with is apart of your PLN, whether they are social contacts, professional peers, or experts in their field. Most of the ‘learning’ takes place on-line now, because it is simple to find and connect with others with similar interests from around the world.

Click here to keep reading.

Back in the Saddle

2010-10-12T14:56:00.000-04:00

Time to dust off the keyboard and revisit the idea of blogging. Much has changed in the two years since my last post. There are new faces on campus, I've moved to a new dorm, and technology is charging forward fast and furious. Funny...the tech fad has not faded. I guess it is officially here to stay.
My goal for this year is to post on a weekly basis some useful tidbit of information relating to technology and education. Sometimes it will be a link to another person’s brilliant ideas, other times an instructive video. Whatever it is I hope you will find it interesting enough to come back over and over again.

Change is Coming...

2008-11-18T10:35:00.000-05:00

Sometime after the New Year we will begin rolling out Microsoft Office 2007. The new version has a significantly different look to it that may take some time to adjust to. Check out the brief introduction bellow to get a head start on the new interface.

A Quick Introduction to the Office 2007 Interface

Overview

With the release of Office 2007, Microsoft has made several improvements to the Office suite that includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access, and Outlook. The biggest changes to the software have been in the graphical interface. The menu and toolbars have been replaced by the Ribbon.

User Interface

1. The Ribbon replaces the menus and toolbars in the core applications: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access, and the mail editor of Outlook. Items are grouped together based on usage and context. For example, all editing commands are together on the Home Ribbon tab, which is the default tab that appears when an application is launched.

2. The Office Button, found in the top left corner of the application window, replaces the File menu and provides access to functions that are common in all Office applications. Examples are opening, saving, and printing a file.

3. Live Preview temporarily applies formatting on selected text or objects whenever a formatting button is moused over. The formatting changes from button to button and is only applied if the button is clicked. This allows the user to preview any format changes before applying them.

4. The Quick Access toolbar is located next to the Office Button and gives quick links to commonly used commands, such as Save, Undo, and Search. The Quick Access toolbar can be customized to add such commands as print and spell check.

5. The Mini Toolbar provides easy access to the most commonly used formatting commands. It appears as a ghost image beside any text or object that you select. As you mouse over the toolbar, it becomes solid and can be used to apply formatting. You cannot customize the Mini Toolbar.

6. Contextual Tabs appear on the Ribbon when certain objects are selected. These tabs provide easy access to options specific to the selected text or object.

*This document has been adapted from Office 2007 Introduction by PittNet.

Useful links that may help you as you explore and learn Office 2007:

Microsoft Office Training Home Page
Microsoft offers subject based training on all of the programs included in the Office Suite (Word, Excel, PowerPoint..).

Demo Trainer Channel on YouTube
Demo Trainer offers high quality video demos covering a variety of tasks in programs like excel and word. For example they have a video that deals with creating formulas in excel.

Search Strategies in Plain English

2008-11-18T09:46:00.000-05:00

I visit a number of Blogs run by people in the Ed Tech field and often find useful snippets of information. Yesterday I stumbled upon this interesting post over on Darcy’s Blog linking to the video below.

Web Search Strategies in Plain English from leelefever on Vimeo.

Using Activity Logs in Moodle

2008-11-18T09:37:00.000-05:00

Moodle allows teachers to see how often students are accessing their course and what they are doing in it. This can be helpful to see what aspects of your course students are most drawn to and also in assessing participation. Rather than write a long post about how to use the logs I’ve inserted a video tutorial from Moodle Tutorials. Check out their site for tutorials on other aspects of Moodle.

Literacies for Information

2007-12-06T20:39:00.000-05:00

Widespread access to the Internet allows fast access to an overwhelming abundance of information. Students are adept at locating information online but they are not well educated on assessing its validity, and using it ethically. While much of the information on the web isn’t acceptable for use as evidence in an academic paper, there is plenty of accurate information in a number of different formats, as well as opportunities to create and contribute accurate information. As educators we must guide our students to navigate, to validate and to use the plethora of information at their finger tips.

A more detailed explanation of participatory culture and media literacy is explained in a white paper by Henry Jenkins director of the Comparative Media Studies program at MIT. The increasing focus on information and media literacy is a small component of a larger shift in education to set new standards that better match the needs of our rapidly changing culture and economic environment. If your interested in learning more about these initiatives you can check out the work of NCREL, Partnership for 21^st Century Skills, AASL, and ISTE.

Effective searching calls for specific navigation skills. Understanding differences among search engines is helpful as each returns results differently. Students need to use the Advanced Search features of the engines they select to use. Boolean searches can be easily put together now by putting search terms into the proper boxes (with all of the words, with the exact phrase, with at least one of the words, without the words.) Searches can be limited by domain (.com, .org, .gov, .edu) or by creation date. When looking at a page, students can start with the cached version so that the search terms are highlighted and their relevance can be quickly demonstrated. Once a good page is found, students can look for similar pages or pages which link to it.

Deconstructing URLS needs to become the first step of validating a page: domain, country, personal or K12. Point of view, bias, or authority can often be inferred through the URL. For example, ~ signals a personal page so the authority of the writer would need to be checked out.

But beyond the standard web searches, databases, books, and other proven sources valid information can be found and organized in the following formats:

Mashups
YouTube
Blogs and Forums
Podcasts
Wikis
RSS
Delicious
Moodle

How would you use each of these or how could you ask students to make or use them…and what new issues of copyright surround these formats.

Mashups

Combining information from different media formats and sources to create meaningful content and or new meanings. Student created mashups can demonstrate critical thinking skills.

On the Road with Google Maps is a mashup of Google maps technology and information from Jack Kerouac's On The Road. To create this students had to read the book, pick out important quotations and place them on the map. In creating this classroom artifact students are demonstrating their understanding of the novel. Using their knowledge of the book and representing it geographically further supports and deepens their understanding of the material.

Further examples:

The US Presidents Map

Malleable Map of Census Data

YouTube

YouTube is a video sharing website where users can upload and share video content. A wide variety of content is available including historical news clips, documentaries, movie and television clips, college lectures, math lessons, how to videos as well as a host of truly bizarre user created content. YouTube is currently being heavily used in the election process and as a vehicle for social change. Recently Huckabee and Chuck Norris joined forces in a short video which is circulating rapidly through the Internet. Newsweek attributes some of Mike’s rise in Iowa to the Chuck as Huckster video.

Videos can be used as supplements in class, or you can ask students to find and evaluate them as homework, or the best idea is to create your own with students and post them as a video study guide, creating relevant classroom artifacts. Even if you only did one or two a year, over time with planning, you could have a whole year of chemistry videos. Using those videos for classroom demonstrations makes the material more relevant to your students.

Historical content exists on YouTube. For example, clips of the Nixon Kennedy TV debates are available as a great primary source. (Sometimes, however, you stumble across questionable content.) Another great historical example is a clip of Cronkite’s Report from Vietnam in 1968. Consider showing the Cronkite clip and ask students to relate it to our current war in Iraq. What is that sound in the background?

Blogs and Forums

Blogs and Forums can be good for finding opposing Points of View or even for getting feedback on your own points of view. The information here, contributed by individuals, provides an opportunity to help students practice validating information and sharing information. On some Blogs you’ll find valid information and hyperlinks to other sources some of which may be primary documents.

A Blog search for the years common book, The Glass Castle leads us to numerous points of view and reviews. As an assignment you could have students respond via argumentative essay to a review or POV that they disagree with. Of course this idea is not limited to The Glass Castle, Blogs and forums exist on just about any subject you can imagine.

One link in the search is an assignment given by a professor at Marshall University. Here the professor used a Blog as an online assignment for their students much like Karen and Elaine did last year with their sophomores. The teacher posted a prompt and the students responded. This is just another tool for getting students to write. Students are blogging and participating in forums all over the Internet on a daily basis, incorporating “their” technology into the classroom helps make learning more relevant to them, keeping them engaged in their learning.

Forums provide similar opportunities for finding and evaluating other points of view. In critical writing we are taught to anticipate and defend against counter arguments.

Podcasts

I-tunes and podcast directories provide access to information on a number of subjects. Basically podcasts are akin to radio broadcasts but portable media devices make them easily accessible. Many podcasts come from university professors who upload their course lectures online for their students and these educational podcasts are free. Students and faculty can easily record podcasts using their own laptops.

Podcasts are great for extra help, finding different points of view, and even helping kids with their writing. One possibility is to have students record themselves reading their rough draft or final draft. Then those recordings can be played in class or in one-on-one in extra help sessions. This exercise should help students develop better proof reading skills and strategies.

Podcasts are helpful tools for learning a language, finding extra help in any subject, and even for planning a lesson or lecture.

Wikis

Wikis are showing up all over the Internet. They were designed for collaboration. The most famous example is Wikipedia. Because Wikipedia comes up in the top of many google searches students are using it as a source of information daily. If you don’t know anything about a subject, often Wikipedia is a good starting point to get a baseline of knowledge and key concepts to help you conduct further research. As anyone can be an editor of Wikipedia, students need to develop evaluation skills. A good lesson is to assign students a topic to find in Wikipedia and compare the result against the same search in Britannica. If they find an error or omission, let them edit the entry – evaluating and contributing.

How do we manage and role model the flow of this information in our classrooms and give students the skills to manage it, also? Moodle provides good tools. Forums provide an area to post evaluation discussions of specific resources. RSS feeds of specific content or of specific news searches can be placed within a block on your course. For example, if you are doing a unit on global warming, you can construct a search in Google News which would feed articles from around the globe to your course. No need to construct a search over and over. A single search provides continuous content.

RSS feeds can be aggregated using Internet Explorer. When you find a feed you'd like to keep track of, look for a small orange RSS button. Clicking it will bring you to a new page where you can add it to your Internet Explorer feeds. Feeds can be accessed in IE by clicking on the yellow star on the toolbar.

Another good tool is del.icio.us, a free web resource for saving, describing, and tagging URL's. You could set up an account for your class, share the account and password information in Moodle. Every time a student found a relevant page, she could post it. She would learn how to tag relevantly and to write concise descriptions. Another great feature of del.icio.us is to see what other users have to say about the page or to click on other tags to find related pages. And since this is a free web tool, all the URLs are available no matter where you may be.

Social Nature of Information

2007-11-09T09:33:00.000-05:00

Here is how the web works...

Many people view the video and leave comments on the Youtube site...

Comments are also collected on multiple sites as KSU linked it to their course blog which also accepts comments...
http://mediatedcultures.net/ksudigg/?p=119

Gary Stager writes about it in his regular column in District Administrator...
http://www.districtadministration.com/pulse/commentpost.aspx?news=no&postid=48655

This column also accepts comments (found at end of article) one of which is from the professor of the course which then links back to the another entry from their course blog for clarification of the piece.
http://mediatedcultures.net/ksudigg/?p=124

Now this is the power of the web... Real people across the globe, many who don't know each other, engaged in discourse about a topic. This discourse involves a diverse sample ranging from students, parents and general public to educators and specialists in education and technology. It also links back to the originator who gives almost immediate feedback on the stimulating piece and how others are viewing the work. While the piece by itself may make a statement for some or demonstrate lack of vision of others, there is no denying, this is a fascinating conversation which is occurring in a medium we can't ignore-the Internet. This is a wonderful example of the social nature of information today.

This post was composed by Chris Bigenho, Director of Educational Technology at the Greenhill School in Addison Texas and was released under a creative commons, attribution, non-commercial, share-alike license. I spoke with Chris about using his post on the blog and he was happy to share and hopeful that it would spark conversation. Hat tip to Chris.

Dealing with Office 2007

2007-10-16T09:55:00.000-04:00

Last year Microsoft released a new operating system (Vista) and a new version of Office (Office 2007). While new software packages are always exciting they also come with a host of new bugs and security vulnerabilities. Many small IT shops like ours tend to hold off on pushing out a major software upgrade until the product has been sufficiently tested in other larger organizations. While we encourage our students to do the same, many came to school this fall sporting the newest office package. The problem is that Office 2007 is not immediately backward compatible with Office 2003. If students are emailing you papers that you cannot open you’ll need to download and install the Conversion Pack from Microsoft. Once you’ve installed this software you’ll be able to view files created using the new version of office.

New Language/Computer Lab in Parsons

2007-09-04T11:50:00.000-04:00

Today the Language department is going through their initial training session in the new language lab. The lab features 15 student computers and a teacher’s station running Robotel’s Symposium software. What makes this lab special is that it doesn’t just function as a language lab. Any teacher can use the lab with their students. In this lab a teacher can monitor what students are doing on the computers, take control of their computers, or broadcast audio, video or applications to the students desktops. A short training lesson can bring any faculty member up to speed. If you’d like to learn more about the lab or want to see how it works drop techsupport an email.

New Laptops

2007-09-04T11:06:00.001-04:00

The Dell 830 and 820 laptops have Wireless cards that we’ve preconfigured for our network offering complete mobility in all classroom buildings. They also have a convenient switch located on the right hand side of the laptop. The switch can be used to turn the wireless card on and off. Sometimes this switch gets flipped when taking your laptop out of the bag or stand. So when you find yourself wondering why your not connected, check the switch.

Moodle Quizzes

2007-09-04T10:55:00.000-04:00

Many moons have gone by since I evangelized Moodle to my colleagues. I guess I’ve been distracted by more mundane tasks like upgrading software, and imaging laptops. Right about now many of you are returning from Summer Vacation all revved up for another year of teaching America’s youth. So how about trying something new?

Let’s take a look at that age old assessment the quiz. Quizzes are great for assessing where your students are at any given point. Frequently used to see how much reading is actually being done. Through more positive lenses, checking to see how much the students are retaining after their nightly readings. Whether Math, or literature there are a multitude of uses for quizzes.

Over the summer I discovered a great new add of for Moodle that allows you to generate a quiz using Microsoft Word. To use the Quiz Template Open the department Drive and look inside the Moodle_Quiz Folder. From here simply double click the template and enable macros when prompted.

Look closely at the top section of MS Word and you should see the Quiz Maker Toolbar.

Now just start making questions by clicking on the Question Type. When you are done generating questions you should have something like this,

The final step is to click the export button and choose a safe place to save the file.

You’ve just created a list of questions that you can now import into Moodle o create a quiz.

Remember quizzes in Moodle grade themselves and you can export your student’s grades to excel. Quizzes also allow you to set limits on time and availability. Most importantly Moodle quizzes allow you to deliver immediate feedback to your students letting them know where they need to focus their studies, ultimately making them better learners

TheWannster is a big fan of Moodle quizzes and started using this tool over the summer. A Hat Tip to Paul for the above image. Curious to hear how he uses the tool, ask him next time you see him on campus. If you’d like to get started with Moodle this year contact Aaron, Susan, Greg or Paul.

What is a Blog?

2007-04-06T08:49:00.000-04:00

Creating a meaningful post is no easy task. It seems lately I’ve compiled quite a list of potential topics but the posts aren’t flowing off my finger tips like I had hoped. This week we’ll explore the question: What is a blog? It seems in my excitement I forgot to communicate that to you.

There are countless definitions of the term “Blog” scattered about the internet, many in the form of blog posts. So rather than reinvent the wheel I’ll refer you to a post written by Andy Carvin entitled What Exactly is a Blog, Anyway? In his post Andy outlines the evolution of blogs and offers a clear definition of the term. He also answers the #1 question: Why would you, as a teacher, want to create your own blog?

Communicate with parents. Some teachers see blogging as an outreach tool for interacting with parents. It’s not always possible to have the kind of hands-on interaction with parents, especially with large class sizes and busy schedules. A blog allows a teacher to summarize what’s going on in the classroom and share it with parents that have Internet access. (But it’s worth noting that not all parents will have access - something we’ll talk about more another day.) And most blogging tools allow readers to comment on what’s been posted, so parents are able to respond to different blog entries and have an online conversation with the teacher.

Communicate with your peers. Lots of educators blog so they can have a professional dialogue with their colleagues. Everyone can benefit from discussing the various challenges we all face in our work, and blogs serve as a mechanism for sharing those ideas. Some educational bloggers like Will Richardson and David Warlick have developed quite a following because of their eloquence and creativity. In many ways, blogs like these serve the same purpose that email discussion lists have served for more than a decade - they become a platform for discussing topics of interest to a large group of people. Blogging is different, though, in that it’s more personal and intimate, tailored to your professional interests and needs.

Showcase student work There’s nothing like seeing a teacher beam with pride because of the success of their students. Blogs can be used as a platform for highlighting the best work of your students, showcasing their talent to an audience that goes beyond the classroom.

And who’s to say that teachers are the only ones who should blog? More and more educators are exploring blogging as a student activity in itself. Blogging takes writing assignments into the real world, giving students the chance to receive feedback from each other, as well as other online mentors. While some teachers prefer that blogs only feature their students’ polished work, others see blogging as a platform where students can share early drafts of a writing assignment, using online feedback to improve each version. Blogging becomes an interactive form of peer review.

Who is blogging at The Governor's Academy?

Sophomores in Mrs. White and Mrs. Gold's English classes blogged about the Middle East and Baghdad without a Map. Mrs. Chase and Mrs. Brown run a blog for the library which has gained a national readership. Most recently Ms. Pinkham created a blog for her research in the school's archives.

Carvin, A. (May 22, 2006). What Exactly is a Blog, Anyway? Retrieved April 4, 2007, from http://www.pbs.org/teachers/learning.now/2006/05/what_exactly_is_a_blog_anyway.html.

All They Do is Sit in Their Rooms and Play Games

2007-02-12T15:31:00.000-05:00

Our students play a ton of games. They play on their computers, Xboxes, playstations…. You name it they play it. In response to the habits of this “playstation” generation, educational researchers are looking at building educational content into game architecture. One local company, Muzzy Lane, is working to create cutting edge games that bring educational content to life. Their current project is Making History: The Calm and The Storm, which claims to bring WWII strategy and policy to your desktop. Muzzy Lane recently launched a program to reward and recognize innovative teachers who commit to using the game as part of their class this spring.

A recent article in the Technology Horizons in Education journal names Dave McDivitt, a high school teacher in Converse, Indiana as an Innovator of the year for his use of the game. Dave and his class were featured in USA Today, The Wall St. Journal Online and soon will be featured on CBS Evening News.

To learn more about Mr. McDivitt’s classroom experience in his own words, please visit his blog at http://davidmcdivitt.wordpress.com/.

“Anytime I can use technology in class, it helps me connect with kids who are walking around with cell phones, iPods, laptop computers.” Dave McDivitt

Interested in learning more about the educational communities research into gaming?

The Learning Never Stops

2007-02-12T14:30:00.000-05:00

Taking time out of your busy day to investigate new ways of using technology isn't easy. Enrolling in a workshop forces you to carve out a chunk of time, allowing you to commit yourself to learning something new, even if its just one day. Each summer Nobles hosts a series of workshops offered by The Center for Teaching History with Technology.

This summer’s line-up includes:
Teaching History with Technology
Enhancing History & English Instruction through the Internet (online workshop)
Teaching English and Language Arts with Technology

For those of you with a wee bit of curiosity and maybe a few extra minutes of time, you should check out The Journal of American History’s Web Projects. The site offers a selection of curricular projects for teachers that involve the use of JAH. Certainly worth a quick peek. Another option is Learner.org, a website dedicated to offering quality professional development and classroom resources free of charge. The site is loaded with video-on-demand and many other multimedia resources.

If you are interested in learning more about professional development opportunities involving technology post a comment on the blog and we will be sure to get back to you.

Hat tip, Tricia Har.

Mobile Computing

2007-01-15T15:45:00.001-05:00

Last week Apple announced their new iPhone, representing another advance in mobile computing. Mobile computing is no longer just about laptops. The cell phones and PDAs that our students carry have a tremendous amount of computing power and fantastic features that we as educators can take advantage of.

Combining the power of cell phones with web 2.0 technologies like blogs can produce some powerful results. Blogger, currently owned by Google provides free blogs to anyone with an email address. Their latest venture is into the world of mobile blogging and they've made it incredibly easy. Blogger Mobile allows you to create a blog and begin posting to it right from your mobile phone. Essentially, you can take a photo with your phone, then send that photo to Blogger at go@blogger.com. Mobile blogger then takes your photo and the text you sent with it and posts it to a brand new blog. Then Blogger will text you back with a confirmation code that you can use to claim your new blog at http://go.blogger.com.

This semi-new technology opens up a world of possibilities for education. Imagine you've taken your science class on a field trip to collect data and explore the natural environment. Using this technology students in your class could begin a Field Journal that could be updated live in the field. Students could snap pictures using their camera phones, use their fantastic text messaging ability to identify and describe the image, and then post it to the field journal in seconds. Back in the classroom or, even better as part of their homework, students could log into the blog and add to or edit the post, slowly building a comprehensive field journal which could also double as a study guide. Further, you could invite outside experts to look at your blog and offer comments on the students' work. Notice that there does not require the teacher to do much with the technology yet the assignment takes full advantage of the technical abilities of our students, and by inviting outside experts to comment helps students connect their work with the real world.

First Post! - Statement of Purpose

2007-01-10T10:37:00.000-05:00

Welcome to The Governor's Academy Technology of the Month blog.

The general purpose of this blog is to introduce classroom teachers to new and old technologies. We hope to provide insights into features of our existing software and also introduce you to emerging technologies that the education community is buzzing about.

We hope you'll visit us here often and encourage you to leave comments and feedback on the posts.