Olga LaPlante

Today we’ll focus on evaluating how teachers use technology in the classroom. What makes good use of technology? For some of you, it may be the SAMR model, and the TPCK diagram. We’ll take up Grappling’s spectrum as our baseline, and we’ll walk around and get ideas from examples of other people using technology. Where are you? Where would you like to go?

We’ll set a technology use goal for the rest of the year.

We’ll also brush up some of the forgotten skills, on a number of titles. (individual help, during worktime).

Very inspiring - Read and watch the keynote presentation from MAINEducation Conference 2008.

Watch this video on project-based learning from Edutopia.

Sharing Web 2.0 Tools

To find blogs about your subject, you can do a search. Go to Google Blog Search and type in the type of subject-related topic you would like to read about. Please find and write about a blog that you would like to investigate. Include the URL in your post. If you’re not sure how to make the link active, read this article, “How To Make A Link Active”.

If you feel like you lost your grip on certain things with this new interface, here is a little tip: to add files to your posts, use the ADD MEDIA option on your toolbar. Here:

Here is a simple way to create a meaningful podcast, that you can use immediately with your community, if you publish it online.

Check out this water conservation site that offers dozens of tips on how to save water. Some of them will definitely apply to you and your area. Find 3 tips you like most or find most appropriate. (Remember that change starts with you!).

Then quickly make a search to find pictures/photos or use your own original work to illustrate your message.

Open GarageBand (if you have it!), and record your wise tips, using a Male or a Female Voice Track. Once you recorded your voice (narration), add some background music or a jingle to make your recording more expressive. This article may be helpful. Also, don’t forget to use your own Learning Center on your MLTI computers.

Bring in your pictures, to create a video podcast. Time them to transition from one to another in sinc with your narration.

Helpful Tip: Make sure that you don’t leave gaps between pictures. Pictures are easily “stretched” to take up all the room available.

Finally, show/play your podcast to a colleague to make an impression. Share it using iTunes, or send it as a file to your desktop. Enjoy your learning as you are helping raise awareness of water-wasting habits in your community!

Post it to your Edline account as a file or an assignment. (For Westbrook Teachers only).

A number of resources collected for those who are interested in expanding their knowledge and use of interactive whiteboards. This is not necessarily limited to using just SmartBoard Interactive Whiteboards, - other than the training on the software specific to the SMART brand - but is also a collection of interactive resources from the web.

Good places to look for stuff:

- The WhiteBoard Blog

- Becky Rank’s Portaportal: Be Smart

- My Delicious bookmarks

- SMART Tech website: Support

- SMART Tech website: Educator Resources

- MISTM: Math Interactive Resources

Notes from the session in at the Camden Hills High School, August 19th, 2008 - see link below.

notes-from-session

• Okay so you have tried your hand at blogging on Portland Schools Blogging Server - now what?

Have you used this tool in the classroom? How? Have you used it outside of the classroom? How?

What are some things you would like your blog to do?

TEXT ANNOUNCEMENT IN SIDEBAR

Some of you have been using Donorschoose for raising money for your projects. Announce it on your blog! View a short video on how to do it.

One way to do this is add a text widget. Go to Presentation, Widgets, and add one Text widget (as simple as drag and drop. WARNING: If you have never changed your sidebar (with widgets), it’s the default configuration. This means that if you modify it in any way, the default sidebar WILL DISAPPEAR, and you will have to recreate it. Drag and drop all the widgets you find helpful. Some may be: calendar, links, meta (which allows you to log in from your blog’s page), recent posts, categories, archives.)

Once you have Text in your sidebar, click on it. Give it a SHORT, and concise name. After that if you are planning to link to your donorschoose page, use the following text:

<a href=”http://yourlink - copy and paste it” target=”_blank”>Your project name</a>

Around this html code you can have your short paragraph describing what this is and why anyone would visit it.

You can add your picture the same way if you would like, but the html will be a bit different.

<img src=”http://blogs.portlandschools.org/laplao/files/2008/01/photo-8.thumbnail.jpg” align=”right” height=”50″ hspace=”5″ />
To read more about me, go to the ABOUT page.

Your image has to already be online (upload it to your blog and then get the URL for it).

COPYRIGHT

We all know that there is an array of resources online - easily viewable, and not so easy to get through the filter. Here is what you must remember:

- if something is publicly available (you can view it from a site, hear it on a site or download it from the web), provide a link - it’s the safest way to share resources. If you would like to print an article, do so using the proper reference - only for your students. If there is no explicit permission to print or save a copy, ask the publisher - it’s safe, and fun in a way. Most likely, if you state your purpose, the publishers will give you permission. If they don’t respond, you may still use the material, but keep an eye for an email or a letter from the publisher, just in case it comes late and has a “NO” in it. If this is the case, just stop using whatever you were denied the permission to use.

- If you find a cool educational video on YouTube and YouTube is blocked - talk to your network administrators. They need to know that the school system fails to provide you with educational materials, and you should make a case to change the district/school AUP policy and the “no-no” list. You are the ultimate decision-maker - that’s why you were hired as teacher - to provide best possible education for your students. Stand up for your rights.

This also means that you may be canny, or cunning, enough to work around it - like, say, download a video from YouTube (in case you can’t find a copy of it on TeacherTube.com) and play that copy off your computer. DO NOT upload the video to your own blog - that is a violation of copyright (unless it is explicitly stated that you may download and redistribute this video). Always reference the source. You may also embed the video using YouTube code, but don’t expect it to play at school. Students may view it later though, as soon as they cross the street to go to the library.

- The same is true of images. There are some things to remember:

• if you use your own image - excellent! Just make sure it is scaled down so you can upload it safely and quickly. Big images are awesome - they are high resolution - but not suitable for the web. Make them smaller. Your photo upload application can do it, iPhoto can do it (export or share your photos and define the size), or use Bitmap - does the same. Grabbing the corner of the image to resize it is not going to work - it just makes your huge file look smaller, but does nothing to the properties of the 1-2 Mb file. Be nice to your visitors, too; if your blog takes too much to download on a computer, who would want to go there? Not these kids!
• If you are about to use someone else’s image - make sure it’s okay to use it. Do you have the permission? If not, obtain it! Then, scale it down if the image is too big. Normally, 20-30 Kb is plenty.
• Do not insert an image by copying its location (although it seems ok). Well, at least try not to. When you insert an image by using its URL, your page pulls the image off the original server, thus using its bandwidth. Wikipedia calls it “bandwidth theft” among other things. I assume you will cite the source anyway, but it’s not quite enough in this case.

EMBEDDING FLASH FILES

If you find videos online that add meaning to, or a different perspective on, the topic, you may link to them. Linking is easy.

Or, better yet, and in compliance with copyright, you may embed the video in your blog. Oftentimes, video collections give you the opportunity to embed (spread the word about) their video(s) by providing you with the [code] which you can copy and paste like I did below. That sounds really easy. And it sometimes is. Just copy the embeddable code and paste it in the CODE VIEW of the post. Normally, the default mode is VISUAL, so you will have to switch.

The trick then is to find the right code! For example, if you embed a video from TeacherTube, use their EduBlogs version of embeddable code. Like I did below.

- NOTE: Search a video collection for “in plain English”, great resources! Another note - if your video is from Google Video or YouTube, it will not miraculously bypass the school’s filter. But it will play at home or at a library.

Download Video: Posted by leelefever at TeacherTube.com.

HANDLING DOCUMENTS

If you have a document you would like to share with your readers, you can upload it to your blog! Easy, right? The best part - if you simply must keep your files in .doc format, anyone can still preview them by using the ThinkFree Viewer - just click on the word VIEW - URLS Kit Resources

SHUTTER

If you liked how you can see the images in this post when you click on them, you can do it too! This feature can be found under Plugins. All you need to do is activate it. Try clicking on the picture below. See? Very sleek!

So, you decided to go paperless - that’s great! How are you going to do it?

If you would like to ask questions, go to (in Firefox):

http://show.zoho.com/remoteclient.sas?_inv=C7705nI6875sBd670ml9VN0qgy7J9Ed88T8Fx80×6G0×67020x703GT7c1

Luckily, for schools, there are simple and complex solutions totally free! In fact, you might discover that your school already has an account all set up.

One option worth exploring is Think.com.

 MEVL - Maine Virtual learning Site.

Soooooo…

Let’s first learn a little bit about Kidspiration and how it works:

A collection of video tutorials from AtomicLearning

Now, browse examples of how Kidspiration may be used in the classroom.

MISTM project has been proven a success when technology-assisted strategies are used with improved classroom techniques.

We’ll start off with this assignment. Use the handouts to assist in your process.

When finished, click on the MISTM link to explore what the site has to offer.

We’ll poke around the site and then move on to the Math Course on MEVL - the statewide virtual courses site. You can look around with guest access, however, I will give you your login information for today so you can use and complete assignments and possibly participate some more in the course.

Not that I am supposed to know it all, but it would be still nice to offer some ideas.I got stalled the other day when a teacher expressed his concern over publishing student comments to a blog post for the community to read. He was concerned that some students (middle school level) might put out some very naive comments, and that others upon reading them would form an opinion about that kid without taking the time to learn about that kid more first. Am I making myself clear? So, I guess the concern was exposing students’ inexperience which can be used to harass them later when using a blog.I had not run into this before, and I guess the teacher had a right to be wary.I also think that this may have come out of fear - we do or don’t do so many things out of fear - and insecurity. I also understand that there is this whole notion of the evil of the internet on many levels, and while it’s not completely ungrounded, it’s not something that should stall your digital exploration, especially when such is guided by a teacher.Need more ideas, and it’s telling, huh? Is safety and protection the opposite of trust?