Instructional Technology - What's it all about?

Brief.ly

2011-10-31T20:30:00.005-05:00

So, I'm in love with this site and I will be using it all the time. I just wish it had been around while I was teaching in the classroom. Brief.ly is a great website that allows you to create a simple web page with all of your links. Therefore, whenever you have a project for your students or teachers, rather than having to have several links for your students, you can create one web page, give them a "short code" link and instantly they have access to all of the links you've

previously selected for them. You can share up to three dozen links all on one page.

It is really easy to use and the finished product is very clean to look at.

When Brief.ly opens, you are given an empty dialogue box.

You can either copy and paste or type the links in from other web pages (see the image on the right). You can leave a space after the link and include a caption for the students of the various web pages.

When you have all of your links in, click on the scissors on the bottom on the page.

This action will then create your short codes that will link to the web page (see to the right.)

Share the link with your students by pasting it to a website, writing it on the board, typing it on to a worksheet, etc. The link below is a sample Brief.ly site I created on Shakespeare to show how easy this was to work with.

http://brief.ly/~0q29k

I strongly recommend checking out Brief.ly and trying it with your students. I plan to use it soon to share information!

Diigo for education

2010-07-15T14:12:00.002-05:00

So it's summer time here in upstate New York and I've been a bit busy with my own school work and travelling around the state so I've sort of fallen off of the blog world a little bit. BUT, now Im back - sorry it's true... :)

Earlier this year I talked about social bookmarking and all of the benefits for bookmarking your websites using a web based tool versus the favorites bar on your stand alone computer. See that post here... I love social bookmarking because I am someone who moves from building to building, district to district, sharing great tools that are available to use with education. It's so much easier for me to login to one account and have all of these great articles, tools, pages etc. at the tip of my hands.

Diigo, which I have used for years for my own personal social bookmarking - see the side bar on the right for access to my Diigo account- has created a Diigo experience for educators now! I'm very excited for this because you can now create individual student accounts and class accounts. This means that each of your students can be sharing interesting articles, great reference materials, videos, podcasts, etc. with each other, at any time from any where they have an Internet connection! Yippee! Implications for education: they can comment on each other's resources. Great for teaching how to summarize or highlight key pieces of information. So, rather than using that textbook that was published 13 years ago, your students can create their own current text that has relevance to their lives.

In addition, in the educator accounts, students and teachers can communicate safely without outside people commenting and in the educator account mode, the advertisements are all educationally related. I tried it the other day for myself and can't wait to use it for professional development purposes with several groups of teachers I'll be working with this year. I strongly encourage all of you to check out the possibilities of social bookmarking in the near future.

PDF tips and tricks...

2010-06-04T08:37:00.011-05:00

In education, we always seem to have a lot of papers flying in and out. Sometimes, these are sent to us in PDF form and we are not able to edit them and make them our own. However, one of our middle school teachers, Kevin Krause, shared with me this site, PDF To Word, which will allow you to convert a PDF file to either a Word document or a Rich Text Document. It is simple to use and even better, completely free. What's great is that you then get an email doc version of your file and are free to edit as you please.

The second PDF resource I found that is also free and easy to use is called PDF Hammer. With PDF Hammer, you can upload multiple pdf documents and create one file. It also allows you to upload a pdf file with multiple pages and then you can rearrange the pages or delete pages that you no longer need.

Had to share...

2010-06-01T11:06:00.006-05:00

As many of you know, Im a huge fan of Apple. I love what they have done for hand held technology and truly believe that the Itouch and the Ipad are going to change eduction in a myriad of ways. So, when I saw this - I knew I had to share.

iPad + Velcro from Jesse Rosten on Vimeo.

Motivational quote maker...

2010-05-20T09:19:00.006-05:00

So, earlier this week I posted a Flickr group of Great Quotes About Learning and Change and the majority of the images were inspired to be motivational posters. After looking at that, I learned about this site that allows you to create your own motivational posters for FREE. AutoMotivator is really easy to use so it's great for all age levels. The site allows you to take an image from anywhere, your computer or the web, and then add words to create your own poster. When you have created your poster, you can save it to your computer, print it, share it, etc. I had a blast creating some different posters I can use for training.

Uses for Education:

One way to create a quick review. Have your students find an image they think exemplifies the topic. Then, use a one sentence summary to capture the content and the image.

Great way to introduce a topic.

Great way to introduce your kids to each other or you to them.

Great educational quotes....

2010-05-18T08:28:00.009-05:00

Yesterday I was on Twitter when someone suggested checking out this Flickr page. The page, Great quotes about Learning and Change, is devoted to educational quotes that have been created into "posters". There are about 230 "posters" on there and I loved pretty much all of them. You should check them out because they really make you think a little about education, where it is and where we want it to go. Here are two of my favorites:

Social Media Kick

2010-05-14T11:24:00.007-05:00

Lately, I think the worlds on a social media kick. It seems to be popping up EVERYWHERE I turn; take for example, all of the talk centered around Facebook's new privacy settings. That's been really big in the news and in the technology world because so many people are angry at the company and now want to boycott. So, I thought I would touch on Social Media for a moment today and I saw this great video: Social Media Revolution created by the authors of Socialnomics. If you have seen the video of Did You Know , which I showed earlier in the year to some of you, it's basically the same only with some new data and statistics. It's fascinating and while it's not directed specifically at education, though there are some very telling statistics in there. For example, 1 in 6 higher education students are enrolled in online curriculum, in 2009 Boston College stopped giving incoming freshmen email addresses because the students consider email over. It's only about three minutes and I strongly encourage you to take a look at it with this thought, what does this mean for education? How can you harness the power in your classroom, school, or district? Social media is the new wave, and if we, educators don't jump in, we're going to get swallowed up. I found the video at Teachertube, but it's also on Youtube.

4 Tips for Integrating Social Media from Mashable

2010-05-12T11:11:00.002-05:00

I just read this article 4 Tips for Integrating Social Media from Mashable, which came through on my Twitter and I LOVED it. The reason being, if you read the second tip, under the category of "Add Digital Citizenship to the Curriculum" it compares the importance of teaching digital citizenship to driving a car. And this quote is the piece that sold it for me: " Susan Brooks Young, a former educator who is now a technology consultant for schools, likens children’s social media usage to driving; neither activities are going away. “We really guide them through the process of driving to make it as safe as we can. Social media in a lot of ways parallels that. You would never just give that child a set of car keys," (Mashable 5/11/10.) In our district we just created a k-8 technology curriculum to help guide the teachers on curriculum skills. We utilized the ISTE standards (International Society for Technology in Education) as a starting point and we stressed the importance of digital citizenship. I can't wait to see where the teachers take it from here. Read the article - it's really quick and I love the quotes sprinkled throughout.

Cha Cha does it again!

2010-05-07T07:21:00.005-05:00

In January of 2009, I sent a Tech Tip about Cha Cha - a service where you can text a question on your cell phone to 242-242 and receive an answer back in a few minutes. See the previous post here. But the other day I was "visiting" one of the school's business teachers and she told me that Cha Cha has since expanded and are now offering some great video clips on a variety of topics as well. After looking over the site, it seems that the clips are all created with education in mind. There are a variety of topics covered, the clips are short (usually about 3 minutes), they are modern and more relevant to today's student sitting in front of you. There is no sign up or login required and they stream directly from the site - meaning no downloading to our network. However, two drawbacks - they stream directly from the site and there are advertisements that play before the actual video clip starts. What this means, is when there is high traffic on our network, the video may hiccup for a minute or two. But, I have yet to find that. The other piece is that there is an advertisement that will play at the beginning of the video clip but again, I haven't found anything inappropriate - but that doesn't mean it can't happen either.

For educational purposes, short video clips are a great way to access prior knowledge or to introduce a new topic to kids. Students love flashy things - we all know that - and video images allows us to meet them at their level. And for all of you math people who can never find any video content, there are quite a few math video's in the collection that you might want to check out as well. I strongly encourage you to check out the collection. You might be able to find a gem that you can use as soon as next week.

And if you see Jen Sawyer - thank her for the great tip!

Crocodoc - Great Way to Share and Revise and Edit docs online!

2010-04-30T10:30:00.004-05:00

The other day I came across this pretty great site. Crocodoc would be great for both students and adults because it allows you to annotate, revise, edit, mark up, share and protect any document with other people. The document can be something sitting on your computer or out there on the web. It's really easy to upload or copy and paste a section of text on the site. Then, you can edit and mark up the document with notes, strike throughs, highlight a section, draw or type right into the document. I played with Crocodoc this morning and then shared it with another teacher who also added their "notes" and you can see every body's contributions. I wouldn't suggest doing this with a larger group of people - say a whole class of 30 students if they were all on their making their own notes because it may get confusing. However, if you had them in small groups, you can easily have each group contribute to the page. You could also upload a homework assignment and go over it as a class by having different kids make notes on various parts. In addition, Crocodoc is a great tool for professional development because you can share articles, curriculum documents, lesson plans, etc. Crocodoc is free and you don't necessarily need an account. However, if you want to store your documents, you can sign up for an account and it will store 20MB of documents.

Social Networking: should we, shouldn't we?

2010-04-29T11:37:00.008-05:00

I was in a meeting earlier when the conversation shifted to a New Jersey Principal who is trying to "ban" his middle schoolers from joining social networking sites. Conversation went back and forth between two very divided parties arguing that it's a way of life and we need to get over it to we have to protect these kids from what's out there. Finally, there was a lull in the conversation and eyes started to turn towards me when someone asked, "you like kids using the Internet, how do you feel about this?" After a pause I said, I see why you would think that I like kids using the Internet and I do; but in actuality, I'm big into safe and responsible Internet use for students.

I see both sides of the issue but from the two very different perspectives. Yes, I believe that kids should be using the Internet - responsibly and appropriately. I also argue, that technologies - such as social networking and smart phone/cell phone use - are not going to go away; especially with the upcoming generations - they've grown up with it. They are accustomed to it more so than most adults and they believe they are entitled to it.

However, I don't disagree with the principal. Coming from the perspective of an administrator (which I am not) keeping middle schoolers off of social networking sites would prevent a lot of issues. Middle schoolers do not realize that when they put something out there for the world and even if the site is taken down, it's out there forever somewhere. Also, they don't realize that many times these actions, while done usually outside of school, tend to flow over into the school and thus, becomes a problem for teachers and administrators alike.

Yet - as a "Technology Instructional Specialist" my argument is one I continually come back to and that's educating kids. Rather than banning technologies, we need to educate and not just the students, but the adults responsible for them as well. Kids don't always realize the actions that they take until they are too late. That's not just in the technology field though. It's up to us, as the adults to guide them in the right direction.

Social bookmarking

2010-04-16T11:03:00.004-05:00

I find myself doing presentations all over and when I go, I always have to pack up my computer files including some of my favorites to a flash drive or a cd. To avoid this, I really LOVE having the option to use social bookmarking. Social bookmarking is basically an online repository of all of your favorites but it lets you access it anytime and anywhere there is an Internet connection. Case in point, I was in Honduras when I had to get to my airline information and my email wouldn't open. Luckily, I had bookmarked the site in my Diigo account and I got all the information I had needed instantly from thousands of miles away. There are several social bookmarking sites available: Delicious, Socialmarker, and Diigo, which is the one I use. This link from Common Craft will give you a very brief introduction to what social bookmarking is. Also, on the right side of the blog, you will also see a link to all of my Diigo bookmarks. This is a great place to check for ideas, lessons, websites, etc. that I haven't sent out over tech tips (yet.)

Benefits for education: you can save all of your links that you want your students to be able to use, give them the link and they can access all of the websites anywhere they have an Internet connection (home, school, Panera's, etc.)

Google FUN!

2010-03-31T10:14:00.002-05:00

One last time with Google - at least for this week- :)- I LOVE Google. We all know that. I wanted to share with you this free guide for 33 things you can do with Google. It mainly hits on Google Docs, Maps and Books but it gives some FANTASTIC ways to use Google for the classroom. Including using Google Docs for computer based quizzes, a Google word cloud, finding a reading level, etc. It's a really handy, easy to use guide. I strongly recommend you look it over and I bet you walk away with one cool new use.

I want to give a huge thank you to Mr. Byrne at the blog Free Technology for Teachers for creating and publishing this wonderful guide.

Google does it again...

2010-03-30T10:34:00.004-05:00

We all know I am a huge fan of Google. I love pretty much EVERYTHING they do. So, of course I follow them on Twitter and today I happened to login and saw this tweet from googlejobs
"Our Googley advice to students: Major in learning." And I couldn't help but think, YES! Students should be majoring in learning. They should be taught how to learn in schools. If we really want to help our students in the future, they need to learn to think and acquire new skills on their own. We have to teach them how to learn. The sage on the stage with all of the answers won't be following them on to their next phase in life, so we need to prepare them for how to survive. If you read the Google blog post that follows, they outlined 5 skills that students should learn that will help them latter on in life: analytical thinking, communication skills, a willingness to experiment, to be team players and passion and leadership. As a teacher, I know that I worked on how to be a team player, communication skills (I taught English) and I really tried to work on analytical thinking BUT - I never did get around to a willingness to experiment nor did I ever talk to them or teach them about passion. How many of these do you try to instill in your children? The blog post is not long; I strongly suggest you take a quick peek from one future employer who rely on us to change the future.

Summer fun...

2010-03-25T13:30:00.004-05:00

This summer bowling alleys across the United States are again offering a really great opportunity for kids. The Kids Bowl Free event, allows parents to register their child to bowl up to two games free for the entire summer - starting in late May and ending in mid September. It gives kids a chance to get out and do something safe and secure that is also fun. In addition, the bowling centers are offering a family pack where for a low price, up to four adults can go and bowl with the child as well. I just wanted to let folks know that this is happening and it's a fantastic chance for some free family fun.

Interactive Games...

2010-03-18T12:26:00.003-05:00

I LOVE the website Classtools.net. It's the website that gave us the Random Name Picker, which so many of you love to use with your Interactive Whiteboards with your students. But, now they have developed another cool tool. The Arcade Game Generator allows you to create five different games from a single set of data. You can type in multiple questions and answers or cut and paste them in from a Word file; for example: What color is the sky? *Blue. This will then create a series of games to use for review with your students. We all know how much kids LOVE games but now you get to develop the content. I created a quiz/content within ten minutes and had 5 different review activities to use. It's super easy to use and the instructions are right on the page.

Readability...

2010-03-12T10:30:00.010-05:00

Sometimes when I go to a webpage, I get bogged down with all of the ads and "other" items on there. Therefore, I don't always get to read the article or the piece of information that I set out to read in the first place. Through some of my research on the web, I stumbled on the site Readability. According to the site, "Readability — An Arc90 Laboratory Experiment
Readability is a simple tool that makes reading on the Web more enjoyable by removing the clutter around what you're reading." I played with it using a few different websites and found it to be quite useful and super easy. One thing I did notice though, is that if you go to a homepage or main page, it doesn't always work. It's not until you actually click into an article that it will give you the desired results. And sometimes, it's not any easier to read (like the Basketball article on who's in and who's out according to the USA Today.)

However, looking at Readability from the perspective of a teacher, if I have a particular student I know has a hard time concentrating because of the distracting items on a page, I might run it through the Readability site and then share the article that way.

The images on the right are an image of the USA Today article before going through Readability and then after.

Building a better teacher...

2010-03-09T09:39:00.003-05:00

I was directed to this article from a principal in another district. It's out of the New York Times Magazine from Sunday March 7, 2010. I found it very interesting because it mainly focuses on Doug Lemov who developed his own taxonomy for successful teaching. I found it simple and engaging and enjoyed several of the tips in there. It also led to a great discussion among some educators because it hits on college prep programs for teachers and some very simple techniques. Take a look, you might enjoy it too.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/07/magazine/07Teachers-t.html?pagewanted=all#

Digital footprint

2010-03-03T11:10:00.003-05:00

A few weeks ago we had one of the district's SRO (School Resource Officers) come talk to our 7th graders regarding the Internet and their safety. The presentation made the kids think about the dangers of the Internet using real examples of things that have happened in our community. For the most part, I really think that the presentation was well done and gave the kids something to think about. But, one of my concerns was what the follow up might be from that conversation. We talked about things that had happened but we didn't really get to discuss how to safely utilize the web, which I personally think should be an ongoing discussion with students these days.

So, while doing some research, I came across the My Footprint site. And I have to say I was really pleased with what it does. For those of you not familiar, a digital footprint is the mark you leave on the internet while searching, posting ideas or pictures, listening to music, uploading music or games, etc. Every one of us has a digital footprint and it's up to you, as a user, to decide what that footprint looks like - whether it's good or bad. One of the things I've been working hard to do in this district is to make students realize that no matter what you post, it's out there for life. Therefore, you want the items you put out there to be a positive reflection of you.

Myfootprintsd.org walks you through an introductory movie explaining a footprint using two classic stories. It's a very SHORT movie and you should take a look at it because it's great. Then the site provides four short bios of students who have left digital footprints and what they would do differently. Finally, there's a site with lessons for parents and teachers to use with kids when showing them the site. I STRONGLY urge all of you to take a moment and look it over. I know we're all very busy with the curriculum we have to get through before the end of the year. But, as many of you know, we're here to teach our students life lessons too and for many of the young people sitting in front of us, if we don't talk to them about this with them, no one will.

Changing education

2010-02-23T16:17:00.010-05:00

The other day I had the opportunity to work with a few student teachers. This doesn't happen very often but their host teachers thought they would have a valuable experience working with me to develop engaging and interactive lessons to use on the Interactive Whiteboards. I was flattered that the teachers felt that working with me would be a good use of the student teachers' time. I had less than half a day when all was said and done but it opened my eyes quite a bit.

These young adults have grown up with technology and while they know how to navigate with it, they weren't quite sure how to use it to engage the students. But, I aruge, this isn't their fault. Just because you use a tool well, doesn't mean you are going to be able to teach with it. I'd rather look at the programs that are getting these young professionals ready for the "real world." I was talking to one of the pre-service teachers and she mentioned that she had gotten to touch an Interactive Whiteboard once in her teaching program but had never actually created anything or really seen the software. I realize that Interactive Whiteboards are expensive and not all districts have them, but at some point in their lengthy careers, I'm willing to bet they will use one of these items.

So, my thought is this... where should they be learning the concepts and ideas of how to teach with technology. I have to argue that we need something sooner than a student teaching placement to prepare them for this invaluable skill. How will K-12 education change, if the teachers who are coming out of their preparation programs are taught to continue doing the same things our teachers were taught?

Image found at flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/my_new_wintercoat/415138363/ on 2.23.10

Word Magnets

2010-02-22T09:45:00.004-05:00

When we did our first round of Interactive Whiteboard installations, I sent the folks a link to what were basically refrigerator magnets for the white board but that was only to a few people and I haven't revisited the topic again. However, I was reading Cindy Brock's blog today (a technology guru out of Tennessee) and came across a great website Triptico. It's a fantastic site if you have an Interactive Whiteboard. There are some top notch resources for multiple types of spinners, a timer, a score keeper, etc.

But, one of the items I liked best was the Word Magnet tool. This tool allows you to copy a piece of text or type a piece of text into a text box and then the tool turns each word into a "magnet." You can then go in and choose from a variety of backgrounds, such as a Venn diagram, a chart, a circle, a timeline, a triangle, a plot line, an x, etc. You can then go in and change the color of the magnet, change the size to make it larger or smaller, add a magnet or remove one (if there are multiples, for example.) It's fantastic on an Interactive Whiteboard because it allows you to drag and drop the magnet where you want. I played with it using my mouse and thought it was pretty cool so I can only image it on an Interactive Whiteboard. I also strongly recommend taking a trip to the Triptico website and looking at their resource site. There are tons of really great Interactive Whiteboard tools.

Video Game predicts Super Bowl win...

2010-02-08T10:45:00.002-05:00

Last week, Electronic Arts ran a simulated game of the Superbowl using the Saints and the Colts and again this year, Madden NFL predicted the winner of the game. The game was slightly off on the overall score but it did predict that Drew Brees would be the MVP. Over the past six years, Electronic Arts has correctly predicted the winner five times. The simulation only takes into account the perceived skill level of each player but it doesn't take into account nerves, experience or injuries.

To read more here are a few articles:

Game Pro
Plugged in

Interesting statistic don't you think?

Doodle4Google

2010-02-05T13:04:00.003-05:00

How many of your students LOVE to draw? Google is having a drawing competition for students, K-12, in any US school where they can draw an image inspired by the concept "If I Could Do Anything, I Would . . . " Drawings will be judged by some of the most creative minds out there - someone from Sesame Street Workshop, an animator from Pixar, and the gentleman who created the Very Hungry Caterpillar - to name a few. And the students will be judged based on representation of the theme, creativity and artistic merit. As a teacher, you could tie this to a number of classroom activities or projects. There are some great prizes up for grab. You as the teacher, have to register your school and then submit any items your kids want to contribute.

If you want more information visit the Doodle4Google page. The top 39 finalists will be featured at the Smithsonian's Cooper Hewitt, National Design Museum from May 27, 2010 until July 8, 2010. Also, the winning Doodle will be featured on the Google main page on May 27, 2010. Think about the notoriety that could bring a young artist.

Prezi....

2010-02-02T11:55:00.005-05:00

Prezi is a FANTASTIC presentation site. Very different from what most people have used in the past, such as a PowerPoint or Glogster. Prezi allows you to create an nonlinear presentation that moves away from the standard slide approach. It's entirely web based so people can work on their projects anywhere they have an Internet connection. And it allows for the use of some great images. Prezi has been around for a bit. I began playing with it about a year ago but, there was limited account space in the free version. Also, you needed an email address to sign up for an account. However, Prezi has now created a free Teacher/Student package for accounts. This gives you more space and it's free. However, you do need a valid teacher email address that you can verify, so you will want to use your school email address.
I'm creating this link to a VERY SIMPLISTIC Prezi presentation that I did just so you can look at the differences between this and your more traditional presentation software. While you are at the site, take a look at some of the other fantastic examples - especially the one about social media - that they have on there for you. The Prezi website has a great short video on what Prezi is and what it looks like. If you have two minutes, you should check it out.
The program does have a slight learning curve, but for your students it really won't be a problem. I know some folks at Durgee and Ray who have already talked about using this in a project or two. Now, with the teacher/student account, it becomes a lot more applicable in our school world...

Interesting article from the NY Times...

2010-01-27T12:20:00.003-05:00

The title of this article is startling enough for some people, but just wait until you actually read the content. "If Your Kids Are Awake, They're Probably Online," an article by Tamar Lewin sites a new study from the Kaiser Family Foundation. The study states that kids 8-18 spend more than 7 hours a day using a computer, smart phone or device (think I-pod). And usually that 7 hours isn't while they are in school. So, my thought is, when will schools start to meet the needs of the kids sitting in front of them and bring the student's world in?

Dual Touch Smartboard

2010-01-22T13:23:00.004-05:00

When I hear complaints about anything Smart does, I tell the person to write to Smart and let the company know because they truly listen to the end user and try to update the products to reflect the user's wants. One of the "flaws" that I hear often from teachers about the Smartboard is that you can only have one student using it at a time. So, now I reveal Smart's answer to the problem.... the Dual Touch Smartboard.... Check out the two minute clip below and see the capabilities. Hopefully, at some point in the future, these will be available for all of our classrooms.

Awesome Highlighter

2010-01-21T14:57:00.002-05:00

When I talk to teachers, they often say that kids don't know how to take good notes. Or, when they are supposed to be reading and taking notes they tend to highlight EVERYTHING on the page because they don't know what's important or not. I talk to teachers about using an Elmo that will allow you to put a book on it and then during a lesson, you can walk the students through how to highlight. Until now, I didn't really know of anything on the computer you could use besides the Smartboard software. However, I was doing some research and came across the Awesome Highlighter.

The Awesome Highlighter lets you copy and paste a website address into it's page. It then takes you to the website and allows you to mark up the page using a highlighter (with several color options.) You can also add a "sticky" note that you can hide if you to give instructions. When you are done marking up the page, you can then hit the "done" button at the top and it provides you a new website address to go back to for your students to open the page with your highlighted notes. Or, you can email it to someone, share it with Twitter, Delicious, or Facebook or copy it to a clipboard and paste it into Word.

I do have to say, there are some kinks in the system. But, overall it's a nice tool. Give it a try.

Relief for Haiti

2010-01-20T10:50:00.004-05:00

Last year when we watched the 08 election unfold, we saw the power of the new forms of social media and the impact it had on the Obama campaign. He was able to make millions from donations on his website, keep people up to date through Twitter and find millions of fans on Facebook. Once again, the new forms of media are having a profound impact on the world. This time it's to help with Relief efforts for Haiti. The American Red Cross has turned to text messaging to make donating an easy process that takes very little time and energy and still helps immensely. By texting "Haiti" to 90999, you donate ten dollars to the American Red Cross for Haiti Relief. As of January 14th, text donations have helped raise over $ 7 million dollars for the cause. I strongly urge everyone to take one minute and help if you can.

Gives me chills

2010-01-13T10:16:00.006-05:00

I saw this last night while I was in bed and I jumped up to search for it because I knew I had to share. This commercial has been around a little while but every time I see it, it gives me chills. I love it but I wish we were talking about k-12 education, not a college or university. We should be leading the way in moving education to better match the students we have in front of us. Often, I feel very much like the professor in this short clip, when he says, "I've failed you." This commericial though reminds me of all the good things we are doing in Baldwinsville. We are doing good things and as Im often told, I need to be more patient because it takes time to see the changes happen. So, I am hopeful. Hopeful, that Baldwinsville will lead the way in changing k-12 education for our students.

Refseek

2010-01-08T13:39:00.002-05:00

Often I'm asked about a better search engine than just using Google. There are quite a few out there today and it's difficult to know what are good search engines and what aren't so good. I personally like Google. However, I understand people's perspectives that there are too many ads and some the searches are rather generic. Refseek is a new search engine designed for academic purposes. It helps to eliminate the ads and also the paid sites that usually show up first after a search. If you do a search to compare between a Google or Bing and Refseek, you will probably find that the first few are the same. But, if you go two or three pages in, you will most likely find more academically inclined material than if you are searching Google or Bing.

One other piece that this site has is a great multimedia feature. If you click on directory in the upper right hand corner of the page and then choose Multimedia and Refseek gives you a list of 25 multimedia sites for video content. Most are free to use. However, with anything you find on the web, you will want to check the materials before using them with your students. So, go ahead and give it a try. I think you'll like the results.

Two Thoughts...

2009-12-23T12:54:00.004-05:00

Before we all head out for a nice break, I want to just take a moment to remind you all of two important computer tips. The first, in lieu of recent events, it's important to back up your documents. As we all learned in the last week, it's very difficult to go back to the chalkboard when all of your content is on a survey that you have no access to. Thus, I would buy yourself a 4 GB or 8 GB flash drive that you can carry with you and save all of your documents that you feel you will want or have to access later. And yes, to be honest, I do back up my items here at school roughly three times a year. One now, at this break, a second in Feb before that break and then again at the end of the school year. If you don't want to purchase a device, we can start to talk about other options like using a Blackboard site, which the district has available for all teachers, or using Google Documents, and or a Wiki. I will be happy to talk to you about any or all of these options if you want.

Secondly, it's that time of year when you should be going through and weeding/cleaning any of your documents that you no longer need. This is especially true for video and audio content because the size of those files are so large. Please burn this material off to another device. Go through and clean out all of your documents. My rule of thumb is if you haven't opened it in 8 months, delete it.

Passion

2009-12-18T09:39:00.005-05:00

I've been reading Sir Ken Robinsons' book The Element and it talks about passion and creativity and how education tends to remove the passion and creativity out of our students. How many schools do you see that offer a class in classical ballet or offer more than one course in drama and stage? Very few public schools offer these selections and not because we don't want to but because these talents don't often fall into the area of "intelligence". In the educational setting, intelligence is often defined through state assessments and national assessments, such as the SAT or the ACT. He argues that often, "we are educating people out of their creativity's." Rather, we need to start preparing our students to be "wrong" because if you're not prepared to be wrong, you can't come up with anything original, (Ken Robinson.)

I'm starting to see great value and potential with what he is saying, especially as it relates to technology and the 21st century skills, that I discussed earlier this year with most of you: creativity, collaboration and competition (those are the three that I particularly addressed, although there are others.) Many times, I was disappointed by the lack of creativity in the students' work. Part of it was, that by the time they got to tenth and eleventh grade, they hadn't had the opportunities to be creative so they didn't know how to think outside the box. But, part of it was, my idea of creativity didn't look like theirs.

If you have two minutes, I recommend that you poke around his website... SirKenRobinson.com just to watch the opener.

If you have ten minutes, I STRONGLY recommend that you watch his TED Talk (below)

And if you have a few days, I highly recommend his book, The Element.

Furly - so great for the classroom

2009-11-25T13:02:00.006-05:00

One of the best parts of my job is learning about amazing new tools that have the potential to shape/change the way we teach. Fur.ly is one of those websites. It has unlimited potential in an educational setting. Several months ago, I presented a URL shortner... it takes a long URL and cuts it down to a few letters, which is great when you have kids typing in an address. While, Fur.ly goes one better. It allows you to take multiple websites and combine all of them into one short web address. When you go to the new Fur.ly address, it opens a new window and you are able to move back and forth between your pages. You can check mine out at: http://fur.ly/ah3 if you want. You should try it; the whole website is super easy to manipulate. You can use this with students if you have multiple websites to take them to, rather than cutting and pasting all of the URLs (web addresses) into a Word document. Or you can use it for yourself in your classroom when you are going to be presenting several different websites.

I strongly give this one, two thumbs up!

Statistics....

2009-10-30T12:48:00.005-05:00

In education we keep track of statistics, even if we don't think about it in quite that way. We measure information - we track our students' progress, monitor grades, reflect on their well being- mentally and physically. It's ingrained in our field. And a lot of times, we look at a statistic and we self monitor or correct what we can, when we can.

Today, I wanted to share with you an interesting site developed by Facebook. AND NO, you don't have to be a member of Facebook to check it out. AND NO, you may not be able to get to it from here, but you can go to it from home, even if you have no account, but that's why I included a screen shot. AND NO, I'm not personally endorsing Facebook or saying you should use it; that is a personal choice.
Facebook is keeping track of the United States Gross National Happiness (GNH)level. Facebook tracks people's updates and posts looking for key words. Then, the company compiles those results to find the Gross National Happiness. It's really an interesting project to examine. Think about what type of posts people might make, knowing that they were affecting the GNH. Notice some of the trends that you see as you look at the different dates... were some of them unexpected?Wouldn't this be interesting to have a conversation with your kids about?

A couple of quick game ideas for them.

2009-10-23T09:43:00.004-05:00

I know, I know. I'm about to discuss something that some find slightly taboo... however, this will excite your students. Today I actually have two different "game" options for you to share with your students.

Purpose Games allows you to create

your own trivia and quiz games based on the content in your classroom. You can design multiple choice type games or you can create games using images that you have and you can do it in about five minutes. If you want to actually, create a game, you will need to setup an account. However, you can play any of the games on the site without creating an account. You

might want to go on and take a look at it before you actually set up an account. What's nice is that you can then link your games to your own website and the kids can have access that way.

TypeRacer is a competitive typing program. On this site, you compete with other "typers" from around the world. All of the "typers" who are competing are given the same passage to type. The game begins and you have to type quickly and CORRECTLY to win the race. What's nice about this, is the typing passages are actual passages from works of literature. Therefore, they are all real words instead of made up words to practice with. I played twice and won both times, although the second time, it got harder. Try it, to see where you fall. You do not need to setup an account to play but you can if you want to keep track of your performances.

Internet Image: Found at: http://static.howstuffworks.com/gif/best-games-never-made-6.jpg. Found on: Oct. 23, 2009.

Who we see in front of us...

2009-10-19T16:46:00.003-05:00

Earlier this year, I spoke to our Junior High about the differences in the "21st Century Student" versus the student we may have seen 10 years ago. I talked about the differences between the way they think and work, the reasons why and why that's important to realize when working with them in the classroom. However, I should have told them the following story. It's a little older (it was published in Sept but with school starting up I just didn't have a moment to share - until now.)

Two girls in Australia, one ten and one twelve, were trapped in a storm drain and rather than calling the equivalent to 911 (triple zero), one girl actually posted that they were stuck in a storm drain. Luckily, a friend of theirs happened to be online and was able to send them help.
To see the actual news story click here.

So, while the girls were most likely able to call for help on their own, due to the fact that they could post on their Facebook accounts, their initial response was to post to Facebook. In essence, this was their first/preferred method of communication. Thus, while we sit here as educators, and say, well, they should have known better, it's our job to think about why and how to use that when working with this generation of students.

Internet Image. Found at: http://lifeinthenhs.files.wordpress.com/2009/02/facebook.jpg. Found on: October 19, 2009.

Insider tip...

2009-10-09T09:55:00.003-05:00

So, I'd like to take a moment and thank the teachers at Durgee for this little insider tech tip. I'm not sure who started it, but yesterday at a workshop, the teachers were sharing how to "freeze" your computer screen through the projector. Thus, when you put up your opening agenda, some problems to solve, notes to take, a journal entry to complete, etc. you can have that "up" or projecting for your students. Then, on your remote, you will see either a "freeze" or "still" button, when you push it, your screen will stay frozen for your students but you have the ability to move between various screens to do something else. For example, taking online attendance or entering grades. Give it a try... it's actually kind of fun to play with. But, one word of warning, if you have a Smartboard and a student is moving his finger across it, even though the screen is frozen, it will move your mouse on your monitor as you're doing something else.

Image found at:http://www.projectorreviews.com/images-projectors-Q3-07/powerlite-s5_remote_control.jpg. Found on: 10/8/09

Ted.... no not the person... the event

2009-10-02T10:44:00.002-05:00

So, this year on our opening day, we had a guest speaker talking to us about our body and mind and how it can improve through exercise. I am taking that concept for this first tech tip and rolling with it. But, rather than focus on something "exercisey" I wanted to share with you something that will improve your mind. For those of you who don't know, I'm a HUGE fan of TED (Technology Education Design): Ideas Worth Spreading which is probably one of the most important conferences out there today. It is an invitation only conference where some of the greatest minds get together and share out some of the coolest projects going on throughout the world. But, one of the best parts is that they share ALL of their content online. You totally need to go in and take a look at it.

While you're in there, I wanted to introduce you to Benjamin Zander, who I saw speak at a conference this summer. He moved me in a way, that I haven't been moved in years at this technology conference when he talked about passion and education. This truly touched my soul and made me look at life in a whole new way. If you click his name, it will bring you directly to his talk he gave at TED. If you have 15 minutes or so, and truly want to be inspired, you should totally check it out.

Finally, what's really awesome is that this other blog, "From the History Teacher's Attic" has broken out the Ted Talks into various disciplines. If you do nothing else, at least take a look and see what' available. I think you will be pleasantly surprised.

Speaking to others

2009-09-28T10:20:00.003-05:00

So, Friday, I got to give a speech to the junior high teachers in the district on 21st Century skills. I had roughly half an hour to cover a topic that I could speak for three or four days on. I have to say, I think it went well. Rather than trying to talk statistics and theory I tried to show them the importance of the change in their classrooms by looking at who's making up their student population these days and what makes them tick a little bit differently than in the past. It was a daunting task, trying to boil all my thoughts and ideas down into 30 minutes. Especially, when I love the hands on pieces technology offers, but didn't get to incorporate because of the time restrictions. I really wanted to offer a back channel - but knew the teachers wouldn't have access to computers. So, then I wanted to give them a quick poll using Poll Everywhere but again, was worried about the time I had. Thus, my "21st Century Skills" presentation was super low tech... but I did use Google Presentation -to show them another option and the impact it could have and a bunch of YouTube videos - although they'll be blocked for them... ;). But, I challenged all of them to try ONE new thing in their classroom and that if they wanted assistance to just ask. And so, I start this school year with this blog entry challenging all of you, to just try ONE new thing with technology this year. If you start with one, I'm willing to bet you get hooked (at least a little) and will want to keep moving forward. And think - don't do it for you - do it for the digital natives in your classroom, who depend on it for survival... :)

Google Labs...

2009-05-29T12:44:00.005-05:00

You all know I love the Google! Most educators shun the Google - but that's mainly because when they think of it, they think of it as a search/research tool. But, it's so much more than that - and thus, why I love the Google. But, if you get a minute you should go check out the Google Labs section. This is Google's experimental area where you get to see what they are currently working on.

My advice, go to the second page and play with the "In Quotes" experiment. It will show you what two different people (keep in mind it's still in experimentation mode - so there are not a whole lot of people to choose from) and see what they have to say on a variety of topics (education, housing, health care) and there's even a place for you to write in your own topic. Think about a social studies class that is looking at two political figures. All the evidence they need to carry on a debate is right at their finger tips. One of the best parts is that the information is relevant and up to the minute.

PS - (shameless plug coming) and if Google is looking for Google Educators to teach others - I would be THRILLED...

Wolfram Alpha - all it's cracked up to be!

2009-05-29T07:51:00.006-05:00

So, I first "heard" about this on the web about two weeks ago and since, I've been thinking of ways to apply it to education. According to it's website, Wolfram Alpha is a "long-term project to make all systematic knowledge immediately computable by anyone. You enter your question or calculation, and WolframAlpha uses its built-in algorithms and growing collection of data to compute the answer. " In short, its a very cool website that will only get better with time, as it is a multi-year project.

But, some ways to use it in education:

Math, science and technology- super easy way to figure out equations. Any Equations! It doesn't get stumped to easily. I was using it to figure out percentages, but others have done plots, functions, units of measurements, the possibilities go on and on.
Social Studies: you can look up people - even compare two people, historical events - try the Battle of Hastings, political people: try 16Th President.
English and Foreign Languages: You can look up word definitions, parts of speech, you can translate into various languages, type in books, periodicals, movies and even nursery rhymes.

It really is quite an amazing website! So, check out Wolfram Alpha... see if you can come up with a way to challenge it!

In honor of one of our very own...

2009-05-27T13:00:00.002-05:00

I thought I would point out to the National Spelling Bee website. It allows you to meet the contests (yup, all 293 of them) and lets you monitor their progress. So, you can go into each round, see what word they have to spell and if they got it right or wrong. They also have a Scrippsbee Twitter page setup so you can get instant updates if you use Twitter. What's also cool is to check out if you would have made the spelling bee by taking the test. You click a button, it will say the word and you type it in. When you take so many, it gives you your results and lets you know if you would have passed.

Check it out! And a shoutout to our spelling star student, Katie S. and her mom (also one of our very own...) everyone here is cheering for you!

Glogster and Detention Slip Contest...

2009-05-27T11:32:00.002-05:00

OK - so, here's a great competition for your kids to enter. Glogster (have I mentioned Glogster before - I'm sure I have - I LOVE it!) and Detention Slip have created a pretty cool contest. Kids can create a Glog (a visual blog - so to speak) about a school issue that's bothering them. The winner will get an Interactive Whiteboard for the school. Pretty cool... see the following link for further information. And I'm going to get back to you later this week about possible Glogster users in the classroom! Big shout out to the Durgee teachers and librarian for already putting this beneficial tool to good use!

J.ot down...

2009-05-22T13:18:00.005-05:00

If any of you have a Mac at home, you know that there is a "sticky notes" tool.
This allows you to "post" notes to yourself right on your desktop (see image). The PC world doesn't have that option - or at least it didn't - until NOW.

J.ot Down, a is a very easy to use notepad for your computer. There are several great things about it...
1) It's free. - And who doesn't love free stuff...
2) You can save it and come back to it anywhere there is an Internet connection. Jot gives you a permanent link and if you bookmark it, it will bring you right back to your notes.

3) You can share your notes! At this time, you can not collaborate on the same note at the same time, but you can share a copy of your notes with your friends, family or colleagues.
So, give J.ot Down a go and see if it will work for you!

One story.... but it take's a thousand years...

2009-05-20T10:48:00.004-05:00

Opium Magazine came up with an interesting concept using special ink that will reveal itself slowly. Take a look at the story... it's super creative... and now I kind of want a copy - though, I'm fairly certain I won't make it a thousand years. But, what a cool thing to hand down to your family members...

http://gizmodo.com/5261463/magazine-story-to-reveal-itself-during-one-thousand-years

It's ok, you can admit it...

2009-04-24T10:42:00.005-05:00

The other day, I Googled myself. That's right, I did. Now, being that I'm relatively up to date on some of the technology items out there (I have twitter, a blog, wiki, etc.) I was saddened to see that I am basically non-existent on the google front. There are a few other Melissa Julian's and wow - let me tell you- their lives look great. So, then I got to thinking, what if someone (my boss, a potential employer, a friend, my parents, etc.) Googled me and came up to one of their sites. Would they know enough to realize, that it's not me. With this in the back of my mind, I am very excited to tell you about a new service that Google has come up with.

Google will now allow you to create your own profile so that YOU can control the information that you decide is important enough to send to people who may Google you. Its a great site, because you can add pictures, web links that you think are important, and information about you. For example, where you went to school, what you do, your maiden name, etc. But, it is completely controlled by you. Then when you google someone who has a profile, it shows up on the main Google screen. Its super easy to create your own profile. All you have to do is go to Google and type in Me. The very first link that comes up will be in a blueish/gray tint and it will say, Create your own Google Profile. You do need to create an account, if you don't currently have one but that's really the only down fall.

While I was talking to Pat Wilson, librarian at Baker, about this, she said look at the potential this could have for students. They should definitely know about the benefits of creating a positive profile that they can edit and control.

Thank you Lindsay Cesari (Durgee Jr. High Librarian) for allowing me to use your Google me page.

Let's not forget the oldies...

2009-04-09T11:52:00.003-05:00

Just about every week I try to give provide you with some tech tip that's new and fun and while, until yesterday I thought it was great. However, I may have been failing you as well when I don't mention some of the "older" stuff we currently have in the district. Take for example, Inspiration.

Inspiration is a FANTASTIC concept mapping program that I rarely see used (except when it's research time - 8Th graders.. :).) But, it has so many great options for kids. First it has two different views - diagram - for your visual learners and outline for your students who need more organization. Secondly, with the newer Inspiration, you can include Video clips and sound clips. Thus, any content can be made into a multimedia project. So, the students could go into United Streaming and find some video piece that complements their project, download it and add it to their organizer. Third, it is super simple to use. We've used it with students as young as third and fourth grade with few instructions. Fourth, there are so many templates (including an outline for a resume.) You don't necessarily have to assign your students to create a map, if you can't get into the lap. Most of us, if not all (still working on it guys), have a projector in our classrooms. Pop open one of those templates and together as a class work through it. Better yet, have students manipulate it on the Interactive Whiteboard. Fifth, it is super easy to transfer the concept map or outline into another program, such as a Word document for a project or onto a PowerPoint slide.

So, this isn't new, but it's long been forgotten and I think Inspiration can be a valuable tool in every subject area. I would like to thank the 8Th grade English teachers for reminding me of Inspirations power for students and teachers.

Very simple...

2009-04-03T12:02:00.008-05:00

So, this tip is kind of a quick and easy trick of the trade. There is no learning curve, I promise. Its called SplashURL.net. The point of the website is so that you can copy and paste a URL - preferably something long and hard to read - into the splashurl text box. It then transforms your long, hard to read URL into a smaller, much easier to read version that you can show on your projector and make it easier for your students to copy the site. Try it! I think you will love it. For example, I put in http://puppydogweb.com/gallery/puggles/puggle_engebretsen.jpg and it gave me http://is.gd/qyHY. So much easier for the students to copy.

Amazing

2009-03-16T07:19:00.004-05:00

I would like to thank RJ for sending me this gem. In a world where information is becoming easier to get, imagine if you only had to wear a portable device that instantly gave you millions of pieces of information at your fingertips (LITERALLY). This video from TED is showcasing where the world is headed. The video is only about 9 minutes long and it truly blew my mind... so, take a moment and watch - you will be amazed - I promise (especially at the wrist watch piece!) For more information on this check out the Ted site.
However, I have to say, as I watched this professor explaining her student's work, I was left wondering if his education (up to his college career) helped him along the way to get him to this point? And from another perspective, are we helping our students in public school in the United States, achieve the types of things in store for this young man?

All My Faves.com

2009-03-13T12:43:00.003-05:00

A great librarian showed me this a few weeks ago and I'm totally addicted. The site, All My Faves.com is a visual library of the most often used websites. It breaks the web down into categories, weather, maps, news, email, video, etc., and shows the most sites in order of popularity. Its concise and very easy to use. Even the youngest students can check it out because it shows the logo - so, if they don't read the words, often they know the logo of a program or page. There are some sites on there (games, videos, chat and email) that we can not access from here; so, when you click on those specific sites at school, you will be blocked.

So, lets say you have the kids working on something with current events, go to All My Faves.com, and let them search the magazine, blogs, wiki or news section. Time, Technorati, Wikinews, Cnn and BBC are all at their fingertips. Then they could cross search another site and instantly you have provided them with multiple sources.

Personally, I like to look at the Weeks Faves. They usually have some pretty cool sites. So, when you get a minute check it out. I think you will enjoy it.

So many things...

2009-03-06T10:33:00.002-05:00

There are a lot of things that I was thinking of posting today. But, I think I'll go with Itunes U - because it's such a simple concept and yet so powerful for students and teachers alike.

Many of us are pretty familiar with Itunes - the Apple software that allows you to download and store music to your computer that you can then put onto your mp3 player and make it mobile. It's fairly easy to use and its free software - both are bonuses in the education world.

Itunes U follows the Apple ease of use and free policy but the possibilities that it provides are endless. Itunes U is an online "warehouse" of some of the best educational podcasts available. The podcasts come from all over the world including, MIT, Harvard, Edutopia, Arizona State Education Dept, museums, PBS, etc. They cover a wide variety of topics, foreign languages, sciences, math, literature, etc. And the best part - they are ALL free and open to anyone.

So imagine, your students are learning about the Renaissance period. You could assign the task to go out and find one podcast on the Renaissance period on whatever topic they are most interested in. If each student brings in one podcast on their device, you could instantly have twenty or so outside sources of information for your kids to use to study from. In addition, the kids can take this content with them any place they go - loading to their mp3 player or their phones. Furthermore, they have 24 hour access to this program, so they get use it when its convenient for them. Just one more way for us to try to meet our students in the middle.

To learn more about Itunes U, go to ItunesU and click on the video link. The video is SUPER short and gives you a great overview of the program.

Just a thought...

2009-02-13T12:57:00.003-05:00

Watching this video, (and I think you should watch it!) Pay Attention, makes me think-

am I doing enough to meet my students?

What about you?

Did you rise to my challenge earlier in the year to meet your students half way when it comes to technology?

Are you challenging your students to

Remember

Understand

Apply

Analyze

Evaluate

AND CREATE?

When was the last time you consumed, remixed and shared something with your peers? For most of our kids, it was about 8 hours ago - before they walked into the school building.

What does engagement look like?

And how is it different from what you are used to compared what they are used to?

And who's engagement is it?

When you walk away at the end of the day - are you tired or are your students?

If it's you, who's doing the work?

Shh... don't tell... Im secretly listening to music

2009-02-11T12:34:00.000-05:00

So, awhile ago the district I work for turned off streaming music from the web. Bummer - for a lot of folks like me, I like a little background noise to accompany my work. Keep in mind the chorus next door sings some lovely tunes, but not quite what I'm usually looking for. Thus, I've been looking for other options for awhile now. This week I discovered Musicovery.com and was very excited to see that I could use it on our computers at school. (Now, please don't all rush to get on or they may close it - so one building, or one subject area at a time please). But musicovery.com allows the user to choose types of music and then allows you to adjust the types based on your mood. For example, if I want to, I can choose pop and calm or r and b and dark. Either way, musicovery.com then posts five songs in a web and it will play them for you. The best part, if you click on the song, you can see where to purchase it as a download, as a CD, etc. It's a great little tool that allows you to be in charge of what you want to hear. Check it out - but not all at once... and shhhh... its our little secret ;) .

Instant Feedback - easy as 1, 2, 3

2009-02-06T12:46:00.007-05:00

Warning: I love this next tip... but I think some people may be hesitant to use it because it says Text Message on the main page. Can you use it with Text Messaging - absolutely - but that is not the only way - so, please, don't give up on it - read on and I think you may be pleasantly surprised.

When I'm teaching, I love to know how people are doing on something or what they're thinking about something. With technology, it's usually pretty simple. You can judge if they are understanding by whether or not they are stuck some where, if they are four screens behind you or if they have left you in the dust because you are going too slow. However, in English for example, sometimes it's a little harder to gage if someone is understanding what you are talking about. For example, irony is a hard concept - especially for 7th graders. Often they would say they got it, but never be able to give you an example. We have started to look into some instant feedback devices (Student Response Systems) in some places but they can be pricey. Poll Everywhere is a free and easy web program to use.

Poll Everywhere is a fantastic program that lets you create a multiple choice poll (there are other options if you upgrade to a teacher account for $199. a year). Then you can provide your students with the web address (here's mine: http://www.polleverywhere.com/multiple_choice_polls/LTIwNTE4MDQxMzM/web ) and they can go on ANYWHERE - home, school, Barnes and Nobles - and give you anonymous feedback. Or you can have them create accounts and you can get feedback with their username associated with them - so you know who said what. Try mine. The one downfall, you can only have thirty people respond to one poll. But, you can have multiple polls for multiple classes. Also, if you were daring enough, you could have people text their responses (not in school of course... :) ). But, if you were teaching a workshop and you wanted to know what people thought, you could ask several participants to open their phones and text in the responses. Then when you open the window, the data gets updated instantly. It's really an awesome application.

Here...anyone can be somewhat muscial

2009-01-27T12:04:00.002-05:00

I just learned of Muxicall from Lisa. Thumann on Twitter and I think its unbelievable. First, its a learning tool for students to visualize music in addition to hearing what the cords sound like through different instruments (piano, strings and drums.) In addition, its FUN. What's great about it is multiple people can all be online "sharing" their musical choices. Meaning, that I can sit in my office and "play" while students in another classroom on campus can hear my piece and can their own or add something and I hear it. There is also a chat feature where you can talk about different music cords or a color associated to one cord. Or you can just chat about nothing at all. Think about how much fun two music classes from across town could have collaborating on a piece. Or even two music classes across the campus, in different buildings or even just around the corner from each other. I enjoyed just visually seeing my "work" come to life while I played the notes. Check it out- it is VERY cool.

Homepage Startup

2009-01-23T11:31:00.004-05:00

Homepage Startup (http://www.homepagestartup.com/) is a great tool for people who use the same webpages over and over again. The website lets you customize your own “homepage” where you can choose to post several webpage links all on one page. So, once you login to Homepage Startup, you can get to a number of other pages that you choose (see my page).

You can customize the window so that you have twelve boxes or more or less if you choose. The two best parts are that it is completely free – you just need to register – and it’s SUPER easy to use. Click on the box, give it a name (ie. MyGradebook, Google, Quia, etc.) and then paste the link from the webpage in the box. Then hit the save button. When you are done, you click on the box and are taken to the new webpage. You can also customize the color of the page, and you can add several tabs so you have one for school, home, kids, etc. Finally, you can decide whether to make your page public to share with people or private for your use only.

A great classroom use would be to create a page for your students to use for a research project – give them all the same username and password to login and then they all have the same information at their fingertips. Or you could use this as a VERY simplistic links webpage.

On your home computer, you can save this as your homepage and then it would always open to this page. Unfortunately, at school, that’s not an option. I really like this site and have been using it myself for a little over a week. I really haven’t found many flaws.

Technology Tips for you...

2009-01-09T10:50:00.003-05:00

I've been hesitant to do this posting but feel that it is just as important for all of you to stay current on technology as much as it is for me to teach you tools to use in the classroom. While this could be used appropriately in the classroom, it's also for your own benefit. In addition, these are some tools that your students may be using without you even knowing about it. These two tools are both cell phone technologies and I use them ALL the time.

Ever been away from the computer or Internet and had a quick question but didn't know who to ask? For example, over break, I was driving from my aunt's house and instead of going out, my cousin and I decided to go to a movie. But, we didn't know where or when the movie we wanted to see (Four Christmases) was playing. I picked up my phone, selected text message and dialed 466453 (G-O-O-G-L-E) (this link will not work at school). I then typed Four Christmases and then Syracuse, NY (the place). We waited all of 22 seconds and had two reply messages telling us all the times and places that Four Christmases was playing.

A few things you need to know before you start googling things -

A) Standard Text Messaging rates apply. What that means is if you pay for your text messages, you will be paying to send your message and then to receive your messages.
B) Google is only able to send you items that can be stored in a database. For example, weather, movie times, game times/scores, local addresses/numbers of places, translations (LOTE teachers - watch out :) ).
C) your students already know about this fine feature.

So then after the movie my cousin and I wanted to know how long Reese Witherspoon had been acting and what her first movie was. Unfortunately, Google couldn't tell us those answers but something even better could: CHACHA! So, again, I picked up my phone and sent the question, what was Reese Witherspoon's first movie role and when did she start acting to 242242 (C-H-A-C-H-A). It took about two minutes but then I had my answer.

Unlike Google, which can only search databases, Cha Cha is a real live person on the other end and can answer most any question that you send. So, you ask a question of Cha Cha and there is a person on the other end searching for the answer. They then reply and usually (about 99% of the time, I've found) it's correct information.

A few things you need to know before you start "chachaing" things -

A) Standard Text Messaging rates apply. What that means is if you pay for your text messages, you will be paying to send your message and then to receive your messages.
B) ChaCha is free but there has been some talk of making it a paid service.
C) Your students know and use this tool.
D) It's very addicting - during a New Year's Eve Trivia Party - between the four teams, 82 chacha messages were sent.

Holiday Items

2008-12-17T11:04:00.005-05:00

I hardly ever do this but thought I would share what I consider to be a few of the best holiday items you can give or recieve this year.

They are in no particular order:

1) Kiva.org

- Although its not a tangible object, this gift keeps on giving literally. Kiva is a micro-financing website that allows everyday people to loan small amounts of money ( $25 - $1,000) to someone in a third world country with the intent that they can use that money to pull themselves out of poverty. You get to search through the website to find someone you would like to loan to and then you get updated on their progress. At the end, you are repaid your loan and you can choose to reloan, donate your money to Kiva or withdraw your funds. What a great site for kids to learn about financing or to learn about giving during the holiday season. Kiva is also working to establish an educational piece where school groups could donate and watch their progress. Its a great concept and a fantastic way to spread a little holiday cheer.

2) One Laptop Per Child Program

This is a three year old program that has helped make the lives of children everywhere a little better. The object of the One Laptop per child program is to provide each child in the poorest nations a rugged, lowcost, connected, software included laptop that will change their educational experiences by allowing them to connect and collaborate with other children all over the world. The donation of a laptop to a third world country is $199.00 but between Novemeber and January, OLPC offers a deal where you can purchase one laptop for yourself and donate one all fo $399. The laptop looks funny but it is a great tool for collaborating and communicating. Its about the size of a text book and weighs about as much as lunchbox. It comes with wireless connectivity, no hard drive, audio components, and a video camera. If you are looking for a computer that will hold up to your kids, this is a good one. Or if you are looking to change the life of someone on the other side of the world, this may be right up your alley as well.

Teens send 10,000 messages a year...

2008-12-16T12:46:00.003-05:00

So, if teens send up to 10,000 messages a year and many are worried about missing an important call, that they leave their cell phone on at night - does this make me a teen? Because, thank goodness, I'm well past that middle school mentality (so I think) but I seem to follow the same trends the kids do. I mean, how else would I get up in the morning if I didn't have my cell phone alarm?

Interesting article that I thought you might enjoy.

Xtimeline

2008-12-12T11:16:00.005-05:00

I know that many of you have your kids create timelines "the old fashion" way: you give them a sheet of paper, they write down fact/information and then they are done. Sometimes, if they are really into it, they throw in an image or two. And there is nothing wrong with that - its quick, easy and harmless, but today's tech tip is a quick and easy online timeline application that helps put a little pizazz into the ordinary.

The nice thing about the Xtimeline is that you can add images and VIDEO to the timeline to help the kids really demonstrate understanding. What's also great is that this is a Web 2.0 technology and it allows for collaboration. Meaning that after creating a timeline (on any subject) the students can go on and post comments and questions about each others' projects, if they allow them to. If students want to keep their project private and only viewable by people they choose, they have that option as well. In addition, you can see the Timeline in two views - outline view and timeline view and you have the ability to print your timeline. So, you could create one and then print it for your students to take with them. The timeline is completely interactive - meaning that once its created, you can click on different events and it will link to more information, another link, a photo, video, or whatever content you want to add to it.

Two drawbacks - one: you need an email address to join. This is a problem for some of our students. Secondly, since this is a web 2.0 technology, there may be some content on the web page that may not be appropriate for all students. However, I have not come across any and feel that I have to put that statement in as a cover-all statement.

I strongly recommend taking a look at it. Many of these technologies would help you bridge that gap between what your students are doing at home and what they are doing here at school.

Mywebspiration

2008-12-05T12:50:00.005-05:00

Mywebspiration (http://mywebspiration.com/index.php) is the online, FREE equivalent of Inspiration. The program is available any time, anywhere there is an internet connection. The program is very easy to use and looks identical to Inspiration. You can create a visual diagram or an outline. It stores your files and projects for you online; thus, your students do not need a flash drive to bring their projects home.

One of the best features of the program is that it allows people to work collaboratively on a project. Thus, you can have two or three students creating a web on one topic from three different places at the same time. In addition, you can review the history to see who contributed what information and when. Furthermore, you can start something at home if you have to and then either download or upload your project into Inspiration. One drawback, however, is that the students will need a username and password. But, I promise, the positives far outweigh the negatives to this great resource.

The power of the librarian

2008-10-27T09:18:00.000-05:00

I feel very fortunate to work in a district that values the school enough to have a well-stocked and fantastic library. But even better, I work with three of the greatest assets the district has - the secondary librarians. Each of the librarians has their own style and their own flavor that they bring to the library, but all three of them are phenomenal at what they do. I'm always impressed with the way they can multi-task moving effectively and efficiently from helping a student pick out a new book, to helping another finish a digital story telling project, to planning a team-teaching lesson with a teacher. The opportunities they provide to their teachers and their students and their love of learning should be commended. I am always in awe at their wealth of knowledge and ability to present it. If you get a chance, thank a librarian for all of their hard work and realize that we are extremely lucky to be in a position with three fabulous folks leading our researching hubs.

Digital storytelling

2008-10-17T09:29:00.006-05:00

I spent a week with 8th graders working on their social studies projects. The students were required to create a digital story based on a topic from the Industrial Revolution. There were three adults, all experts in various areas - the librarian (research expert), - the teacher (expert in content) and myself, working with the students. I thought at some points, we were definitely losing the students. We kept trying to explain the purpose was to tell a story, not show a picture and hear: "this is a light bulb. This is Thomas Edison who invented the light bulb." Each pair of students were responsible for a topic and to teach the others. The three of us were on edge as we watched the construction of various pieces taking place in the lab. The groups of students discussing picture, narration, music choices and whether or not to include motion and transitions. They were very into the technology aspect and they were focusing on that, versus the main focus of what they were learning.

Presentation day finally arrived and as we sat in the library watching the various "movies", we were extremely happy with the outcome of their work. Many of the presentations were well done and articulate. They explained their topic and concept quite well in a well developed way. The best part though was asking the students to reflect on their work and realizing that yes, they had become an expert on their topic. So, the ulcer - was all for naught. The best part was, the teacher who did, is now a believer and is selling it to other teachers in the school. He also can't wait to do it again!

This is awesome...

2008-10-10T13:25:00.002-05:00

If this is where education is heading, sign me up! This is truly awesome. Think about how this can change education.

Cell Phone Projector

Web 2.0

2008-10-10T10:18:00.008-05:00

Trying to teach people about Web 2.0 can be difficult in some instances. I often go into the history behind the Web and that initially it was designed to be a way to gain information. Thus, I sat at my computer did a search on a person, place or thing and then I would have some results that I could search through and use or not. And when I start to talk about the history, I see people's eyes start to glaze over and a tiny trickle of drool form in the corner of their mouth. I hate to put people to sleep but I think it's important to know where we've been. So, I liken it to Google. You put in a term and out come your results - thus Web 1.0 - the old World Wide Web. Web 2.0 - the new World Wide Web - allows YOU, the user to enter, edit or TRANSFORM, the information you see in front of you. You have the power to connect to people - showing us that the world really is flat. Conversations can happen all across the globe and we can provide opportunities for the students sitting in front of you, that we never had. The information available to teachers on the Web now is a thousand times better than the outdated text book sitting in front of you.

Below is a SHORT youtube video,Web 2.0 ... The Machine is Us/ing Us, that explains Web 2.0 in a way better than I can. Take a few minutes to view it... I think it will transform your learning.

Thinking about who are students are in front of us...

2008-10-03T12:46:00.008-05:00

In the next few weeks, I plan to talk about Web 2.0 applications. What they are, how we can use them, etc. But, prior to getting into the definitions of what this means I thought we might take a moment to reflect on who we have in front of us at this moment. So, take a few minutes to watch the video on digital learners. Maybe you will learn something new about the people sitting in front of you. It helped me open my eyes to some new statistics. If you want to add something, feel free to leave a comment for your colleagues.

Some Halloween fun...

2008-10-03T12:44:00.003-05:00

When you need a two minute break...

Go carve a pumpkin.

Amaztype

2008-09-30T13:13:00.013-05:00

Amaztype has got to be one of the coolest sites I have seen. You can type in any word. ANY WORD! And the site will spell the word out using whatever media (book, audio or video) format you have asked for. Then, as its "building" your word with the item that you requested, if you click on any of the picture objects, it will provide you with ALL of the information based on that object. Its Amazing! Its truly Amazing!

For the dog image on the right hand side, I chose the word Dog and the book media. I then could click on anyone of the books and it would not only provide me with more information but it would take me out to that specific website. AMAZING!

To actually capture the image, you can't save the picture or anything, so I took a screen shot of it and put it into Microsoft Word. (Print Screen button on your keyboard will work.)

Twitter

2008-09-29T07:11:00.004-05:00

This morning I read a fascinating article on Twitter in the academic world. http://searchenginewatch.com/showPage.html?page=3630980 (If you want to read it.) Since I read it, I started to dig a little deeper into this thought of using this specific tool in the classroom. I have decided to make it a mission of mine to introduce Twitter as an academic tool to several teachers I work with over the course of this school year. In doing so, I hope we can grow together as a learning community. I vow to show twitter during each of my workshops and have it available as a support tool after we leave the workshop. My goal is to show this off to as many teachers as I can. But, also, to have as many educators as I can using it before the year is up.
Feel free to follow me.... and I'll follow you: http://twitter.com/mjulian

Some other interesting Twitter Reads...

http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7027.pdf

http://www.wired.com/techbiz/media/magazine/15-07/st_thompson - Clive Thompson at Wired

Students...

2008-09-23T18:02:00.003-05:00

Over the summer, I got to work with an educator who I greatly admire. Constantly seeking to improve herself and her classroom; she is the English teacher I always wanted to be (before I became an Instructional Specialist). But, we were talking about some new technology items she might use in the classroom and blogging sparked her interest. So, we walked through the process determining which site to use and how we might use it. Whether to take into account punctuation and grammar (not yet), how often they post (at least once a week), if they should respond to others (YUP!), etc. After hammering out these issues, the teacher decided to start off by asking a question to her students and having them respond. She has about 135 students in all of her classes and she ended up with about 235+ responses. So, you know what that means - that's right - kids were going on two or three times to write a response to someone else or to add to their own posting. Anyway, I was there when we introduced the topic and worked with the kids on how to actually write a post. I love it when I get to work with students and lucky for me, teachers are very good at letting me.

Running into this teacher in the main office during her planning period yesterday, we got to talking about several topics and she asked me - have you been back on the blog. I said, honestly, no. I was distracted by several other projects. She looked at me and said you have to get back on it. Its amazing and then she proceded to tell me about all of the things the kids were posting and how into the project they really were. So, yesterday afternoon I managed to go back on and visit what the students were writing about the pros and cons or "cheers and jeers" (as she called them) about school. I was blown away at the way these kids were able to articulate their feelings in a respectful and impactful way. The 9th graders really do know what they are talking about and it makes me wonder why we don't ask them more often.

My challenge for the Baldwinsville CSD teachers

2008-09-18T12:06:00.003-05:00

I've been working on my very first tech tips for the teachers in my district since school started. But, I gotta tell you, I keep changing it. There are SOOOO many tools and tricks out there that we have the ability to use, that would enrich our content areas and would really meet the learners on their level, but where to begin? This year, my focus is going to be on Web 2.0 technologies. For some of you, this will make total sense, whereas for a few of you, I may be speaking another language. I hope that at least once this year, you get something useful to use, whether with your teaching or for your own purposes. If each secondary teacher learns and uses one new thing, I will have reached 300+ folks! Then, if you use it with your students, the reach will be endless. Think about the impact we might have? For now, I would like to leave you thinking about this little snippet from a student I heard at a conference this summer...

"At home, we have so much technology at our finger tips that we have the ability to "plug in" - everything we need is right there. Our friends are only seconds away, people from other places, so much information. For the most part, my life revolves around technology. But, when I come to school, I have to "unplug" myself. I sit in a classroom where I can't share my ideas or thoughts unless Im asked. I cannot connect with friends or outside sources. It's a book that's 13 years old. What's the point? And you wonder why I don't wanna be there? "

Let's try to "plug in" a little more with our students and see what a difference we might make! My hope is that the tech tips I send will help us all to do this.

Still thinking about Twitter....

2008-09-17T17:21:00.009-05:00

I LOVE THIS! Last year I sent out to teachers a link to twitter as a way to grow our own learning communities in school. But I didn't get much of a reaction to it. No one really took it in and embraced it. Even me, I have to admit. Because I don't think I truly understood it. But, I went to BLC '08 and went to a FANTASTIC workshop (thank you Lisa Thumann and Liz Davis) that made me want to revisit this tool. But, we all know how the start of school can be and Im finally now just getting to it. I made it one of my priorities this year and today took the time to go back to it. Then I saw on Jeff Utech's blog this clip and it made me think that maybe Twitter truly is an amazing tool. Check out this video for a laugh on that very topic.

You know if its made in to a YouTube video topic, its gotta be good. :)

Im on twitter.... still new but trying it. Please feel free to join me and maybe we can share some great ideas and conversations with each other.

http://twitter.com/mjulian

SpellingCity- who says Spelling can't be fun...

2008-06-03T08:00:00.004-05:00

Today's website is more for our 6-9 learners, but could be beneficial for all students who need help with spelling (I would have been one of them).

Spellingcity- A relatively new webpage, was designed to help prepare students for spelling bees. On this website, students/ teachers can either upload their own list of words or can practice using one of the 27,000 words already loaded into the program. On the website there are three different functions, Test me, Teach me and Play a Game. When you click the Teach me button, it will bring up the selected words (either from a pre-generated list of their words or your words from class), then when you click start, the site will say the word and then spell it out loud for the kids to hear. This is great for your auditory and visual learners. In the Test me tab, the kids have to type out the word correctly. They are given two "helps" - a say it option that will tell them the word they need to spell and a sentence option that will put the word in a sentence. When they are done, they can click the "Check me" button and it will give them instant feedback on which words are correct or incorrect and they will show the correct spelling for any they got wrong. This would be a great reinforcement for your students at home because it is interactive and engaging for them.

I hope you enjoy this and the others that will follow. As always, if you have any questions or problems, please let me know and Ill be happy to help you in anyway that I can.

A fun way to randomly pick your student's name for activies....

2008-02-12T10:52:00.001-05:00

When I was teaching English, I kept a can of sticks with student names in them. Then whenever I threw a question out to the class, I would choose the person from the can of sticks. This got a little cumbersome on a cart because I had five different bundles of sticks. When I changed districts, I was still on a cart and abandoned my sticks, but still tried to randomly pick kids for different things, so I would have little check marks, stars or notes all over my grade book. The vice-principal (nice guy but more than a little compulsive) wanted to expel me for all of my little checks. I wish I had known about my next fun little tool for you while I was teaching. Especially, if I had a ceiling mounted projector (I didn’t) to use everyday.

The Random Name/ Word Picker from ClassTools.net, allows you put in any words (names, vocabulary terms, famous people, characters, etc.) and then you can choose to have the computer sort it – either through a typewriter version or a fruit machine (kind of like a slot machine – no I do not promote gambling ;) .) It’s just a fun, new way for you to choose the kids. There is a remove button so that you can get rid of a word or child after they have been chosen. Also, it helps to take the stress off of you.

What’s nice is you can copy and paste the words from a word processed document. So, you can create your class list/vocabulary terms in Word and paste them into the “machine”. In addition, you can then save those files and so you only have to type/paste them in once.

Go to the following link: http://www.classtools.net/main_area/fruit_machine.htm.

Type in your words you want to randomize (for now you can just put in fun names – Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, etc.)

Then click on either Typewriter or Fruit Machine and watch the action happen.

Want to hear what you wrote? Check out Vozme.com.

2008-02-08T12:11:00.001-05:00

This morning I came across this very cool site, vozme. It allows you to type in and/or cut and paste, any piece of text, could be from a textbook, a piece of literature, a website, etc. and then it will say out loud what you have typed. Now, the voice that's used isn’t the best quality. But, it will work for the most part.

What’s great is that it is free and it allows you to either play the text piece right from there or you can download it and save it somewhere to play it later. This is great for Websites because you can record a passage from your book and your students can go back in and read it/listen to it a later date or time period. In addition, you can also hear the passage in Spanish or Italian.

Wouldn't it be great for your students to have to run their written work through Vozme.com before handing it in so that they can hear any mistakes they have created? Or when your students who are better auditory learners can put their science textbook materials into Vozme.com and have their text turned into audio content. Its a quick and easy way to create a mini-podcast as well.

Growing Up Online Special

2008-01-24T09:16:00.000-05:00

I was home on Tuesday night and happened to catch the Frontline Special, Growing up Online, on PBS. I have never seen the show so, I'm not exactly sure of what lens they come from. I often try to figure that out prior to watching a news show so that I can brace myself. However, I quickly found out that they were going to point out the negatives of the Online Generation they highlighted versus the positives of what can be accomplished using this new technology with these teens. I found the program to be quite scary if you were a parent with very little or no background knowledge on the Internet topic. I was, at some points, even concerned and that's with knowing that we should be teaching kids right and wrong and about cultivating a positive net-image. I found one point, however, to be quite informative and for that I'm glad I recorded the show.

There were several girls who were talking about the fact that two different girls were fighting over facebook and then "threw" down in the cafeteria. The other kids in the cafeteria then started taping the scene on their phones and then uploaded it to YouTube. Now, when you do a search on the girls, the videos of them fighting come up - which they admitted was a very negative image. They even mentioned that they had thought about the fact that now, if a college does a search for them (which the college does) they will see the video of the girls fighting. They admitted regretting this fact. I thought that for that point alone, I was watching the show. This is also the segment of the show that I would use to teach students about their positive net-image and how it can impact you for life. I thnk that is where schools need to begin when it comes to the Internet.

NOTE - PBS has published the program on their FrontLine Website for you to view in segments. If you click the title for this blog, you will be taken to the main page and can view the program from there.

To Facebook or not to Facebook... you know the rest.

2008-01-14T09:17:00.000-05:00

Last night I was watching 60 minutes - which is a rarity for me, I must confess, and they had the CEO and Founder of Facebook Mark Zuckerberg being interviewed. I was for the most part impressed with the 24 year old, Harvard drop out guru who is making big companies, like Google, quake with fear. But more importantly, it got me thinking about the possibilities in the United States for the use of social networking sites, such as Facebook and Myspace, in a school environment.

Many people are scared to look at this possibility because they think Facebook and Myspace are filled with highly inappropriate content. But, its like everything else, when have we ever talked to our students about the content on their webpages. When have the adults ever discussed right and wrong and representation with the students we have in relation to the Internet. Most people would rather avoid the subject, which is why kids now-a-days have two Facebook/Myspace sites. The one to show to mom and dad and the one for their friends. Jeff Utecht, a K-12 Technology Specialist at the t Shanghai American School in Shanghai, China, recently spoke to his secondary students about their digital image/representation of themselves. Most of these young adults have no clue that in 3 years college admissions officers will be looking back to their ninth grade Facebook pictures and seeing what it was they were doing. Students are not thinking long term, but who can blame them. Its up to us, as the adults, to teach them about their online profile and the good that could come out of it.

Imagine the possibility of a senior in high school creating his/her art portfolio through his/her social networking site. He/She posts it for the world and then they could receive comments from other artists or art enthusiasts. People as far away as China, Australia, students in Florida or Alaska could comment or question the use of materials, methods, etc. Those same people could then PURCHASE some of the art he/she has on the site. This would never be possible with the traditional art portfolio kept in a book in her locker. Just imagine....

Trying something new...

2008-01-09T11:24:00.000-05:00

I'm working with a few tech teachers and trying to get them into using Blogger with their students. The problem is that we don't give students email at our district for various reasons. So, therefore, how do you get around the fact that they need an email to create a blog? I suppose we can use a generic email address and have them all log in with that and then just create different pages off of that site. Another thought is to use Blackboard and use the Wiki feature. Problem with that is it doesn't "look" the way we would like it to and only the students and teachers would have access. We were trying to make this open so that other students of technology studying the same principles would be able to comment. If anyone has any thoughts, please let me know.

Talking Photos - just something fun

2008-01-02T09:14:00.001-05:00

Just something fun to start the school week off with a laugh.

Other options

2007-12-21T11:37:00.000-05:00

I know many of us in education are often looking for a replacement for Google because sometimes it is slightly more than overwhelming with the information it provides. The following link provides ten other alternative search engines that were voted to be the top ten search engines for 2007 by altsearchengines.com. I have looked at just about everyone on the list and I have to say, the differences are vast. Some of them (like KootTorch and Quintara) provide results in a completely different format than what we are used to. Its intriguing to see the various styles and systems. Take a look through them and you might find something that works better for some of your learners.

Very excited...

2007-12-14T11:30:00.000-05:00

I'm fairly certain that I have two excited, and possibly a little hesitant, teachers who are willing to try and update their curriculum. Instead of continuing to use PowerPoint, they are willing to have their students create blogs as a presentation tool. A little background: these tech teachers have their students create CO2 cars and then they have to create a PowerPoint presentation that highlights the building and design of the car, has an image, etc. I spoke with them about the possibilities of using blogs with the intent that hopefully we can have some community members help the students by adding comments, suggestions, feedback etc. I am thrilled that they are willing to take this leap and try it full speed ahead with me. I am very excited and can't wait to really dig in and work with this and their students to see what they can come up with. I think we are once again moving in the right direction.

Secrets to becoming an "expert"....

2007-12-12T10:46:00.000-05:00

Will Richardson said recently at a workshop that, "Once you put an Internet connection into the classroom, the teacher is no longer the smartest one in the room..." I know many people will feel a little put off by that statement but for the most part, its an accurate assessment - although I would like to make an addendum to it - as long as it is being used and utilized correctly. Normally, I would then get on my high horse about the fact that we are doing a disservice to students when we simply shut everything down or block them. But today, I'm going to focus on a tool that will help the teacher once again become an expert in their room.

Twitter is basically an online instant messaging community. Wait... just wait a second before we start getting all hot and bothered around the collar about instant messaging there are some things you need to realize. The importance of this tool is that it will allow you to create a network of people, who you trust, to respond instantly to something you have posted. Now think about this... your students are doing a research paper on Italy. You know quite a bit about Italy but you have limited knowledge because you have just read about it or seen it on television. Your student, your darling student who always puts you in an awkward position (little Tommy - you know the one) asks you a question that you are not quite sure of. You get onto Twitter and post a question. Out of your safe network of 100 people, 25 respond with some further insight to the question. You can then provide that feedback to the students.

Imagine the possibilities of that... in your classroom.

To check out my twitter - you will have to sign up for an account I believe.

But if we all did and we had a twitter set up for Baldwinsville, imagine all of the information we could be sharing.

Something to share...

2007-12-02T17:15:00.000-05:00

Think this program is worth sharing with all of you. Many of you have heard of the Laptop for every child program and from now until the end of the year, if you purchase one of these laptops for your child, you will get one free. You may think the laptop looks a little funny but read about why it looks the way it does and you will see that it is very much worth the amount you would spend on it.

One Laptop Per Student

Very exciting for me....

2007-11-29T20:23:00.000-05:00

Yesterday and today I had the pleasure of teaching two different workshops to my colleagues in my district. One was a beginner Blackboard workshop and today's workshop was on pod casting using our network and Audacity. I realize why I LOVE my job so much. Sometimes I forget, because I don't always get the opportunity to pull teachers out for the day and teach them. I love the times I get to work with teachers either one on one, small group settings or in a class format. The most amazing part is watching the excitement of the teachers when they are learning something new. That for me is my favorite part of the job. And while technology does not always work, for instance we had a server outage yesterday and the podcasts would not post because of some issue, the teachers stuck in there and realized the potential of the tools they were learning and how they can impact their students and teaching. For some, its a risk to give up a day in the classroom to come out and be willing to go through training on something that their students will with out a doubt pick up faster then they will. And I respect them for taking that risk and to be willing to constantly grow and adapt to meet their students half way. Because in today's world, you need to either lead your students, follow them or get out of their way when it comes to technology.

No more keyboards... no more typing skills?

2007-11-27T09:51:00.000-05:00

Two weeks ago I had the pleasure of seeing Will Richardson speak twice. Once on a Wed, in a session mainly for administrators and again on Friday in a session for mainly Library Media Specialists. At one point on Wed. he asked whats the point of teaching typing skills when keyboards may not even exist in a classroom in a few years. I chewed and stirred on that statement quite a bit and wonder how accurate it really is. I mean yes, for the most part, new technologies are emerging every where that allow for the person to use touch sensitive equipment. For example, Interactive Whiteboards, the new I-touch, the Apple I-phone, The Fly Fusion Pen. And while schools seem to have caught on to the Interactive Whiteboard (in some districts-who can afford them), the other technologies haven't seemed to make a big educational splash. Thus, I think in some ways, Richardson is correct, and I want to believe in his line of thinking, I have to disagree. In education, we tend to always be playing catch-up and I have a feeling the same will be true with his statement. I would love to say that yes in ten years mice and keyboards will be a thing of the past, and in the business world, that may be true but in education I don't think it will happen.

Imagine....

2007-11-26T09:38:00.001-05:00

Over Thanksgiving I got to spend some time with my three and a half year old cousin and his parents. Spending time with him opened my eyes to quite a few things. For example, if you type his name into Google, you will have a video clip with him talking to the news reporter in Rochester as one of the first links. Ryan, at least at this point in his life, has more Internet hits then I do and I have two blogs going. Can you imagine?

Also - I'm kind of afraid to admit this but I spent most of my vacation playing WII - the Nintendo gaming system. It was probably the most fun any of my siblings and I have ever had with a game. We were bowling, playing tennis, and playing baseball for hours, all the while, laughing and joking around. The best part was I think I lost several pounds and I don't think I've ever been so sore the next day - including the times I took the cycling classes at the gym. For those of you not familiar with the WII - it is a game system where you can put in a game of your choice - and everything you do is done with the two touch sensitive controllers. Meaning that when you bowl, you actually have to bowl - perform the movements with your arms and legs. It was very funny to watch how all ages, from 3.5 to 60, were actively engaged in the process. No wonder more and more gym classes are employing these technologies... the physical education teachers know that in order to be successful we have to meet these kids at least half way. So, then, why are we still not embracing technology in the classroom? Imagine....

Teacher Tube - really?

2007-11-15T21:55:00.000-05:00

Question: How can I use a You Tube video at school? Because I found a great video at home and when I tried to open it here, (at school) it's blocked.

Answer: Well, you can't. YouTube is blocked. HOWEVER - the alternative is a site called Teacher Tube.

TeacherTube

The concept is the same as that of YouTube except the content is that the videos are all educational in some way. The site looks almost identical to YouTube, so those of you familiar with YouTube will have no problem making the switch. What sets Teacher Tube apart from YouTube is that there is a way for teachers to flag inappropriate videos, although I have not found any yet. Also, there is a link at the bottom of the page that will provide copyright tips for the videos that are on the site. This is great because so many questions are still being asked about what the copyright laws are regarding media content on the web. In addition, there is a way to download the videos if you sign up for a free account.

One problem I have found with Teacher Tube is that the videos are slow to load and if there are a lot of people on the network then they may not load or may skip as you try to play them. Also, a few teachers have had problems playing them during class, so you may want to test it prior to using it.

Combating Plagarism

2007-04-24T06:58:00.000-05:00

The other day I went shopping and ran into one of my former students in the checkout line. I had him when he was in 9th grade, about three years ago and now he is a senior. I asked him his plans and where he was going to college and we got into a pretty good discussion about his options. Then he told me that I was one of the only classes he had ever failed - always a positive note. I asked him if he remembered why he failed and he then said "yeah, and it was my own fault." The student failed, not because he had not done his work but quite the opposite. He wrote the required paper on a character in Greek mythology a little too well. While he was a smart young man, he used words like "prophetic deity" and "conflated" - not words from a typical 9th grader. When I typed the sentence I was questioning into Google, sure enough there was almost the entire paper taken almost verbatim from the website. I called the student in to discuss it and he was adamant he was not cheating. I therefore, printed out the paper, highlighted the sections that were replicas of his paper and wrote a referral. The student ended up failing the project and my class for that marking period. However, it made me realize that I had also failed the student because while I had spent a month earlier in the year on research skills, I hadn't been clear enough on how to take notes and use them in a multi-page paper.

However, it was at that time that I found a valuable tool for detecting and stopping plagiarism. I used Google and typed in the sentences I had in question, using quotation marks around it and found the article right away. I used it several times that year - sometimes I was right and sometimes I was wrong. But what other tools can we use to detect and stop plagarism that is now even easier for the students to accomplish?

The Wave of the Future

2007-03-22T11:09:00.000-05:00

I was recently reading an article from the ASCD Smartbrief about a device that is making some major changes in schools in Texas. The founder, Joe Nichols, believes that schools need to be more tech savvy before they head out to the working world. His solution is a "personal digital assistant-type device with a keyboard -- laptops also can be used -- and their lessons appear on the screen" (Viola). Teachers who a software program called Eddy that allows them to create lessons and send these lessons to the students. Lessons can include anything from assignments, quizzes, tests, texts, etc. The students can complete as much of the assignment as their teacher allows them to see and then sends it back to the teacher. Once it is back to the teacher, the assignment is instantly graded and feedback is provided for the learner. Instantly! Three schools in Texas are currently using the program and have seen substantial results in everything from scores to attendance.

While in theory this sounds great and to be honest, I am very much in favor of trying something similar if not the real thing here, I have to ask what do we lose in the process?

Viola, Catherine. "Making the Grade." ASCD Smartbrief 18 03 2007 March 22 2007 .

Google

2007-03-09T13:20:00.000-05:00

What's nice about Google (besides the Google Docs piece) is that there are soooo many capabilities with the different features. For example, this Blog, built from Blogger, is a Google program. While many people argue that the Google search option isn't always the best option available for students - which I agree with, I have to say that I am very impressed with the different technology components that Google is branching out with - like the home page (next weeks tech tip) that you can set up or have your students set up. In addition, they have opened up Gmail to allow all students access to it. So, if a teacher did want to be able to communicate through email Gmail is a safe, free way to have a uniform email for all students.

2007-02-28T11:45:00.000-05:00

I am really excited about the Google Doc opportunity; especially as it relates to "collaborators" so that I, as the teacher, will be able to monitor what students are doing when they are supposed to be gathering information. I am hoping that this will diminish the 'slacker' in the group who has been able to just sit back and take the accolades while contributing nothing!

What is a blog and is it relevant in the classroom?

2007-02-28T10:39:00.000-05:00

According to Tech Target (an online journal), "A blog is a personal online journal that is frequently updated and intended for general consumption." A blog generally reflects the thoughts and feelings of the person who is writing it, generally referred to as a blogger. One key point to remember is that a blog is open to the public; your thoughts can be viewed by everyone. Therefore, you have to consider the impact that may have on you.

Currently there are millions of blogs on everything from poetry to automobiles. I have a friend who is a muscle cars enthusiast and every night he is on the various blogs gathering all sorts of information from people around the world. He is also sharing his wealth of knowledge with several people who all share his passion.

But are blogs meant for the classroom? Are they relevant? If so, why? Or why not?

"Tech Target." Whatis?com. July 27, 2006. Tech Target. 28 Feb 2007
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Welcome

2007-02-27T11:36:00.000-05:00

This blog has been created specifically for the secondary teachers in the Baldwinsville Central School District as an open forum to learn about instructional technology tools and ways to utilize them in the classroom. I am hoping this will be a place for open communciation where members feel free to express their ideas. Thoughts will be updated often so please check back regularly.

If you have recieved an invitation to this blog but would prefer not to be a member, please let me know so that I can remove your name.