Digital Illuminations

Ed Tech Buzz at Hilton Elementary Schools: Announcing a New Online Course

2007-04-15T23:46:00.000-05:00

Ed Tech Buzz at Hilton Elementary Schools: Announcing a New Online Course

I'm really excited to finally have at least part of an online course developed in Moodle!!

Please use the link above to go to my post about it on my Tech Study Group blog. If you, or anyone in your districts would like to take this online pilot course, please contact me. I'm looking for volunteers to enroll, take the course, and provide feedback.

Collaborative Learning, the Wiki Way

2007-04-02T20:29:00.000-05:00

So, how can a wiki be useful in a classroom, you might be asking yourself. If you think of a wiki as a collaborative website where many people can add information and edit the information that is already there, then it does have value in an educational setting. Out of need to find online research sites which are "kid-friendly" for young students, Denise Duffy at the Village Elementary School in Hilton, NY, began a school-wide wiki, The Village Elementary Wiki. A 3rd Grader class added the first content as they researched the Arctic region. This has led to some wonderful learning! The class who began the wiki has spent extra class time going back to the wiki over and over again to reread, edit, revise, and improve upon the content they first entered. Try getting young students to do this on paper! Trust me, it doesn't happen! Secondly, another class has begun their research and is using the wiki as their starting place. It gives them information in "3rd grade-friendly" text (because it was written by their peers, with references cited) and it is getting them excited about their research. They are identifying what is "missing" or what they would like to know more about, and that is guiding the research they are doing. They are looking forward to being able to add the the wiki! Their teachers and I are getting "goose-bumps" as we are observing this! We are looking forward to watching this wiki grow as more and more classes begin to add content on a variety of subjects. And PB Wiki is a wonderful tool to use. Not only does it provide some free space for hosting the wiki, but it has very WYSIWYG text editing, which makes it very easy for young students to use and really take ownership of. If you would like more information on PB Wiki, you can visit their website or contact Lori Burch.

Lori's Geek of the Week Entry

2007-03-06T09:14:00.000-05:00

I know I'm a bit on the geeky side, but I found this article from ABC News really interesting in so many ways. Below is an excerpt. Click on the title to go to ABC News online and read the entire article.

So Much Data, Relatively Little Space

By BRIAN BERGSTEIN AP Technology WriterBOSTON Mar 5, 2007 (AP)

A new study that estimates how much digital information the world is generating (hint: a lot) finds that for the first time, there's not enough storage space to hold it all. Good thing we delete some stuff. . .
. . . Add it all up and IDC determined that the world generated 161 billion gigabytes (161 exabytes) of digital information last year.
Oh, the equivalents! That's like 12 stacks of books that each reach from the Earth to the sun. Or you might think of it as 3 million times the information in all the books ever written, according to IDC. You'd need more than 2 billion of the most capacious iPods on the market to get 161 exabytes.
So, what do you think? How does this effect us in education? What are the implications for us as a society? Post your thoughts.

Ed Tech Buzz at Hilton Elementary Schools: Embracing Web 2.0 in an Education 1.0 Universe

2007-03-03T17:10:00.000-05:00

Ed Tech Buzz at Hilton Elementary Schools: Embracing Web 2.0 in an Education 1.0 Universe

This is a post I recently added to the blog I use in my district for my technology study groups. I thought it would be of interest to all of you as well.

Ed Tech Buzz at Hilton Elementary Schools: More on Web 2.0 Tools

2007-03-03T17:00:00.000-05:00

Ed Tech Buzz at Hilton Elementary Schools: More on Web 2.0 Tools

Here's a follow-up to the post above. There are links to many Web 2.0 resources as well as a link to our podcast on the subject and to a Seedlings @ Bit by Bit podcast also on the subject.

Classroom Blogging

2007-03-03T12:27:00.000-05:00

Oh, my. It's been a really long time since any of us has posted here! We've all been busy posting podcasts on our ITS Tech Time site and also posting to a variety of wikis and other places and I'm afraid "Digital Illuminations" has been neglected.

Anyway, I'm back with this post.

I've just listened to an excellent podcast on the topic of classroom blogging. It's a recording of a presentation done by Bob Sprankle at the ACTEM (Association of Computer Technology Educators of Maine) Annual Conference held last fall. He has wonderful examples of how and why to use blogging with students. He also has links to a myriad of classroom blogging resources. You will find the links below.

He mentions an issue with using Blogger with students which is that of the blue bar at the top that links to other, random blogs. If you would like to begin blogging with your students, but this is a concern you have with using Blogger in the classroom, please email me and I can fill you in on some options for addressing that.

Bit by Bit Episode 32 - Classroom Blogging Podcast
Workshop Links from this Podcast
Blog Tool Options Wiki by Wesley Fryer

Reading is Fundamental (RIF)

2006-09-06T09:00:00.000-05:00

Do you remember RIF? I have to admit I totally forgot about it until I saw them listed in the vendor section at NECC. I went over to visit with them and I was really impressed with their resources.

Their free website has tons of resources. It is aimed primarily at the elementary grades. There is an Educator section, as well as a Parent section, and a section for Kids. They also even have a Bilingual section.

In the Educator section, you will find "Writers' Block" where your class can join other classes in writing a story. They also have animated Read-Along stories. In addition they have contests, web resources, lesson plans and articles. They even have downloads and printable planning guides.

For the children, they have a section called Reading Planet, where the kids can do activities (like illustrate a story), play games, review books,browse book lists and write stories. There is also a free Reading Planet Club that kids can join which allows them to create a web page, join contests and get a birthday card. To join the club kids under 13 have to use a parent/teacher email.

The Parent section allows parents to look for reading ideas and activities by age level. They also have printable resources and calendars with reading activities.

If you need any literacy ideas or materials I recommend this site. I also think the section for students has enough pictures (and read aloud with speakers) that it could be used fairly independently depending on the reading level and activity.

Founded in 1966, RIF is the oldest and largest children's and family nonprofit literacy organization in the United States. RIF’s highest priority is reaching underserved children from birth to age 8.

Online Lessons: As Diverse as the American Mind!

2006-08-31T14:33:00.000-05:00

Kim mentioned she was looking for free resources - this is a reprint of my post for eSchool News. The resources that this site provides are outstanding and free!

Looking for student-ready, project-based lessons for students in grades 3-8? Need 24/7 access to the lessons and the content? No budget? Then the Adventure of the American Mind (AAM) program has great news for you – they can provide all of this to you for free!

The AAM Online Education Program (www.aamonline.org) has online lessons using digitized content from the Library of Congress that students can work on independently. Each lesson has a video preview and a lesson guide, as well as, supplemental materials for teacher use. In addition, lessons feature Microsoft Office technical tutorials and academic tutorials.

The Adventures of the American Mind program began in 1999 as a professional development to prepare K-12 teachers to integrate digital resources from the Library of Congress’ website (www.loc.gov). It began as one program in western North Carolina and has expanded to seven states with 27 programs!

The AAM program offers workshops, graduate courses, online professional development and faculty education, in addition to the online student lessons. Workshops are conducted at the school - using the technology resources available at the school. The workshops are grounded in adult learning theory and are practical in nature. By meeting the teachers and the schools at their technology levels the program ensures success.

The AAM program is designed around 3 Levels of Integration. The presenters’ shared several examples of lessons created by teachers at all three levels and even shared with us lessons created using digital content from the Library of Congress by the teachers’ students! The lessons were high quality and very well done. Some were even award winners!

I was impressed with the presenters’ enthusiasm and passion for the AAM program. I think their practical, success-oriented approach to professional development builds teachers confidence and comfort level with technology. This program offers a way for teachers to learn how to integrate technology at various levels and the support the teachers need when trying a new teaching style.

Locate an AAM partner near you www.aamprogram.org/introduction/aam_partners.aspx

A Place Called (Virtual) School: The Promise of K-12 Online Learning

2006-08-31T14:31:00.000-05:00

This was fantastic - definitely a highlight of my conference! It was a panel discussion and I quickly realized that I really like the panel format. It was very interactive – with the panel participants talking with one another and it allowed a lot of time for Q & A. Over the last 5 years, one of the fastest growing trends in education is online schools. This panel was full of pioneers who have all had tremendous success implementing state-wide online schools.

Maribel Sevilla from ISTE Research and Evaluation was the Chair. The presenters were William Thomas from Southern Regional Education Board; Melinda Maddox of Alabama Department of Education; Matthew Wicks from the Illinois Virtual School; Robert Currie from the Michigan Virtual School; and Pam Birtolo of the Florida Virtual School. Each presenter spoke for about 5-10 minutes and then at the end we were able to ask questions. This was very well attended with standing room only.

Mr. Thomas (SREB) spoke about the considerations for planning state virtual schools. They have seen “skyrocketing” growth in virtual schooling across the country as educators search for ways to improve education. In addition, there has been a lot of success in students taking online classes. One of the biggest advantages online schools offer students is a wider variety of courses than their local school can offer. Mr. Thomas spoke emphatically about the need for quality with cost control.

Ms. Maddox addressed the importance of having state department and legislative support to back a virtual school. Their program is called ACCESS Distance Learning (Alabama Connecting Classrooms, Educators, and Students Statewide) and it was created by the Alabama Department of Education in October 2005. It provides the infrastructure needed for online education and it also provides the courses and teachers. The aim is to provide access to AP courses; additional courses; and remediation courses that are not offered in their schools. Currently there are 12 pilot schools which offer both asynchronous and synchronous online classes.

Mr. Wicks is from Illinois Virtual High School which has been in existence for 5 years. IVHS offers curriculum to all regular and alternative education students – the goal being equity of access. Mr. Wicks emphasized the ability of online schools and courses to meet students individualized learning needs. He encouraged us all to throw away preconceived notions of what type of student is successful in an online environment. Online teaching methods have improved and it is possible to reach a wide variety of learners online.
Michigan Virtual High School has been in existence for 6 years – since 1999 - and is supported financially by the state. Mr. Currie stated that there are over 7000 enrollments for this fall. In addition, they also offer a variety of test preparation courses that are not included in the general enrollment numbers. Since 1999, Michigan has been investigating what it means to be a 21st Century student.

Michigan is the first state to require students to have taken at least one online course as part of graduation requirements. Starting in the fall, all incoming 8th graders will be required to have an online course experience in order to graduate. Mr. Currie emphasized that online learning can be for every student and can meet the individualized needs of every learner with proper online teaching and facilitation.

Ms. Birtolo from Florida Virtual School began by agreeing with Mr. Currie and Mr. Wicks – online classes are for every student. The Florida Virtual School (FLVS) is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year. In the fall, they will have over 50,000 students (grades 6-12) enrolled in their courses. They have 476 teachers. FLVS contributes their success to student-centered learning and high quality teachers. In student surveys, FLVS has found over and over that students find the connection with the teacher to be the best part of their online experience. For students, it is not about the technology or taking classes online – it is about the relationship they have with their teacher.

This session allowed for a long session of Q & A. Some topics that came up during this time included:
1. Scalability – the online school program must be able to scale up to allow for large numbers of students. They discusses how often paperwork processes are the biggest hindrance to scalability. It is important to be sure your processes are not a barrier for students who want to take online classes.
2. 11 states have virtual schools by legislative actions.
3. No virtual school offers a diploma – the diploma comes from the local school district.
4. Funding is – and will continue to be – a huge issue in online schools. Online schools cannot become more expensive than traditional schools. Currently, there is little leadership at the federal level for online school funding.
5. Quality of teaching and teacher accountability. Most of these programs have high standards for hiring and maintain a strong training program.
6. Course ownership and intellectual property is more of an issue in college courses than in K-12 online schools. Right now the model is that schools create the content for online courses themselves, or they buy the course from a 3rd party like an online school. The school decides whether they will have their own teachers facilitate the course or use a teacher from the online school.
7. Home-schooled students often utilize online schools to take one or two courses – similar to students in the districts.
The final note that all the presenters wanted to make was to again emphasize that online classes are not for a certain “type” of student. Do not pre-judge students and exclude students based on an old profile of a successful online student. Online courses are engaging and individualized – students have a strong relationship with their teacher and often receive more one-on-one help than in a traditional face-to-face class.

Teacher Technology Skill Evaluation

2006-08-31T14:23:00.000-05:00

Hello All!
Vincy mentioned at the last meeting she was looking for an assessment tool to use with her teachers. I dug around my folders and found some resources that may be of use.

Rubrics for Teachers & Students NETS:
http://www.ncrel.org/tech/nets/rubrics.htm

Core Technologies Competencies & Skills
http://www.ncrel.org/sdrs/areas/issues/methods/technlgy/te10lk13.htm

Technology in my Life Assessment
http://fromnowon.org/FNOMay93.html
This is older but a more personalized approach.

Assessing Teacher Technology Projects
http://ldt.stanford.edu/~tacyt/projectrubric.html

Teacher Technology Assessment Rubric
http://www.compstrategies.com/staffdevelopment/cue/rubric.htm

Utah Technology Awareness Rubrics
http://www.uen.org/cgi-bin/websql/utahlink/UTAPdomains.hts

ProfilerPro (http://profilerpro.com/)
"ProfilerPRO allows for the evaluation of knowledge, attitude, and skill based on simple surveys implemented via the World Wide Web. Group members can share knowledge and promote collaboration based on responses to skills-based survey items. Use ProfilerPRO to strengthen your school's, district's, or other educational group's ability to share expertise and grow as an organization."

Sample of Online Tech Assessment Survey
http://www.sun-associates.com/eval/samples/samplesurv.html
From: http://www.edtechevaluation.com/

An Educator's Guide to Evaluating The Use of Technology in Schools and Classrooms
http://www.ed.gov/pubs/EdTechGuide/index.html
Self-Evaluation Survey from 1998
http://www.ed.gov/pubs/EdTechGuide/appc-7.html

Hope maybe they can be of some help or get you going in the right direction!

SimSchool

2006-08-30T09:54:00.000-05:00

I checked out a product called SimSchool (http://simschool.org) which is a simulation for teachers. It was created through funding from the Preparing Tomorrows Teachers to Use Technology (PT3) project. The idea is to allow teachers to practice differentiated instruction, lesson planning and classroom management in a safe learning environment.
Each student in the class has a profile with their personality and learning style. The teacher has to talk with the students and match assignments to learning styles. The student outcomes depend on the teacher interaction and lesson plans. Through repeated experience teachers can build teaching strategies.
The simulation is free – all you have to do is register. After you finish a simulation you can download a class report and individual student reports. The simulation can be saved and accessed later. There is an enhanced version that can be purchased - $12/year for premium access.
I tried it out a little and it was engaging, the premium version allows you to create a larger class and designate specific learning styles and personalities to a student. I think it would be a great tool to use to re-create a class situation that did not go well, or try out some new strategies. I definitely wished we had something like this before I started student teaching!

21st Century Information Fluency

2006-08-30T09:48:00.000-05:00

I also went to a poster session called 21st Century Information Fluency: Assessing Students' Knowledge and Skills. This is a project I have read about before but I knew they were coming out with some new curriculum for teachers and librarians so I wanted to check them out. It is a project of the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy (IMSA) to help educators and students use digital resources more effectively, efficiently and ethically.
Their website (http://21cif.imsa.edu/) has resources, a search wizard and tutorials for Digital Information Fluency. In August, they released their first Full Circle Resource Kit which has interactive activities for students, ready to use curriculum and assessment tools. Each Full Circle will feature a core competency for Digital Information Fluency. Also on their website they have a lesson database where teachers can access and share lessons and materials.
Even though the project originates from Illinois the content is free and open to all. I was very impressed with the material and I feel it addresses an important need for both teachers and students. Effective searching and digital literacy skills are not often offered to our teachers and we need to teach our students. The materials and resources available from IMSA are top of the line. I encourage everyone to make sure their librarians are aware of the site.

Video for Learning

2006-08-30T09:40:00.000-05:00

I went to a poster session called Creating a Free, Online Library of Video Resources for Everyone. I met Rushton Hurley, who is a former teacher and principal, who created Next Vista for Learning. Next Vista is a free, online video library with work using the Creative Commons license. The advantage is that all videos are made by students and teachers. The great part of it is that the videos can be downloaded therefore not requiring the bandwidth of a streaming video. I spoke with Rushton for a while and spoke with him about the challenges of providing streaming content to students. He said he is looking for people to add videos. All content will be prescreened by educators. When we spoke, Rushton was focusing on three library collections: Light Bulbs; Global Views; and Seeing Service.
The Light Bulbs section includes videos where a teacher or student is presenting a content topic in an engaging, fun way. The videos are to be short focusing on a single module. For instance, he has a video of a math instructor teaching mean, mode and median. The goal is to be short clips that a teacher can use to supplement their instruction or use for a lesson introduction or summary. The goal for students is to allow them to have the content presented in another way and that is available to them outside of the classroom.
The Global Views section includes videos that feature students presenting other cultures and other countries. The videos can be used to generate discussions and allow students to showcase their work. The Global Views video library collection aims to help prepare students to be global citizens.
The Seeing Service video library collection includes videos highlighting the good work students are doing in their communities. The videos can be used for discussions, to generate project ideas or even part of a project requirement. It is a great way for students to inspire one another.
I was impressed with Rushton and the Next Vista project. He truly believes we need to incorporate more visual learning to engage our students. He also believes that with the wide variety of tools available students and teachers can create quality videos. Rushton sees the Next Vista website as an open source alternative to expensive, commercial sites. He believes that together students and teachers can offer the same quality content as vendors. He hopes to have a collection together and online for the fall, by NECC 2007 his goal is to provide access to 200 student and teacher made videos.
Personally, I think it is a great idea and if you are creating videos at all then to check out this site and contribute videos. Who knows more what is needed to teach students – video producers or teachers and students? If you have some videos to contribute I strongly recommend adding them to this online collection.

Digital Illuminations: Virtual Adventures Workshop

2006-08-30T09:36:00.000-05:00

Digital Illuminations: Virtual Adventures Workshop

I wanted to put a link back to my post from NECC last year about my workshop with Annette Lamb and Larry Johnson. Fantastic resources!

Vincy's Resources from NECC

2006-08-29T15:05:00.000-05:00

Vincy created a great Filamentality site with links to all the resources she collected from sessions at NECC. Here's a link to Vincy's site.

NECC 2006

Thanks for doing this, Vincy!

Jimmy Wales of Wikipedia

2006-08-29T14:02:00.000-05:00

On Andy Carvin's blog, Andy Carvin's Waste of Bandwidth, in his podcast section, he has a podcast that is a recording of a presentation made by Jimmy Wales, one of the founders of Wikipedia, made at the Wikimania Conference. I listened to this and it was very interesting. Here's a link to Andy's entry for this:

Podcast of Jimmy Wales Talk at Wikimania
Scroll down to the August 4th entry

Here's a link to the podcast itself. It's a rather large file so it may take a few minutes to download.

Answers.com

2006-08-14T09:36:00.000-05:00

Are you looking for a student-safe information engine? Then Answers.com may be your answer! Answers.com calls itself “the world’s largest encyclodictionalmanacapedia.” It has over 3 million answers from brand-name publishers, as well as their own editorial staff answers. The site offers useful answers in a variety of categories like health, business, history, science and many more.

Each search comes up with a dictionary facts, definitions and translations. Dictionaries, thesauruses, encyclopedia listings, and external links are among the resources that Answers.com provides on a search. In addition, there is a citation generator so students (and teachers!) can correctly cite their resources.

Answers.com also has a feature – 1-Click Answers – which can be downloaded. It allows any word in any program to be clicked for a pop-up window with an answer tip. There is also a teacher center where they offer a movie and lesson plans called Mission Possible: Successful Online Research.

On the deluxe homepage there is 4 tabs – Highlights; In the News; On This Day; and Say What? The Highlights section has a birthday – whether it be a person; movie, book, etc. The In the News section has today’s news headlines. On This Day lists historic events –with links – and birthdays. The Say What? tab has an unusual word that people have been looking up on Answers.com. Below the tabs is a blufr and spelling bee where they have an unusual question and you guess whether it is true or a bluff – then once you enter your guess the correct answer pops up. The spelling bee is a multiple choice of a vocabulary word and proper spelling.

Answers.com allows teachers and students to have the most up to date information on a subject. In addition, there is a French version of Answers.com – where everything is done in French and there is also the ability to translate all search results into 14 different languages.

While I was at NECC, I visited the Answers.com booth in the Exhibit Hall. I was very impressed with their material and they said that since the content is pre-selected it is a safe search. If something inappropriate does get through, notify Answers.com and it will be resolved as quickly as possible. I highly recommend Answers.com as a safe search engine for students.

Open Technologies: What They Mean for You and Your Students

2006-08-11T17:26:00.000-05:00

This was a concurent session at NECC by Jim Hirsch, Plano Independent School District. I didn't attend his session but I just listened to his podcast and he did a very good job of explaining what options to consider when investigating the use of open source applications and content in an educational setting. You can get a copy of his presentation as well as hundreds of other links about open source and licensing and more at this site - Open Technology Resources.

Michael presented a great intro to this topic at one of our meetings last spring. This is a great addition to that with lots of resources and support links.

I highly recommend you listen to the podcast of Jim Hirsch's session as well. You can find it by going to the iTunes Music Store and then searching for NECC. That will bring up the NECC podcasts and you can download all of them or just selected ones into iTunes (which is a free download from the Apple website and is cross platform for both PC and Mac). All these podcasts are free.

iPod Stories for kids

2006-08-04T09:55:00.000-05:00

Hi All! I came across this cute site, Storynory, that is a feed subscription for kids. You can also download the stories from the website. The cool thing is you can decide which ones you want to download for the students. It may be something some of your teachers, parents or libraries are interested in.

Leading from the Edge: Moving Forward without Falling Off

2006-07-24T19:28:00.000-05:00

I just listened to the podcast of this session from NECC, Leading from the Edge: Moving Forward without Falling Off , by Chris O'Neal from the University of West Virginia (July 5th). He has some really good advice for technology leaders to help get people on board and moving forward with you, teachers, adminstrators, board members, and so on. Some of what he talks about isn't 100% relevant to the types of jobs we have, but a great deal of it is. I highly recommend you listen to it.

On the NECC conference website he has a link to his presentation also. He gives permission for people to use all of his resources, including his presentation.

This is a case of "I would never (and didn't) have thought I was interested in going to a session like this one" but it really was full of useful information for me. I'm so glad it was podcast so I got a second chance to listen!

Interesting NECC Podcasts

2006-07-24T16:14:00.000-05:00

I just listened to 2 very short podcasts from the NECC podcasts. One is called, "From the Escalator" and the other is called, "Man on the Street." Both are hosted by Ryan Panchadsaram. You can find these both by going to iTunes and searching the podcasts for NECC. Or you can find these (and all the NECC session podcasts) by clicking here.

Here's the description from From the Escalator

In the spirit of podcasts, we decided to try something new at NECC 2006, we call it “From the NECC Escalator.” It takes 45 seconds to go from the first floor to the second and that’s all interviews have to have to answer why they are here at NECC. Come join us as we take a ride with attendees, vendors, and Apple’s Vice President of Education, John Couch.

I really liked this format and I think these are both kind of unique ideas for creating a podcast at an event like NECC. I think I'm going to try to use the format for some podcasting in my district.

Guidelines for Educational Revolutionaries (1-7)

2006-07-15T16:15:00.000-05:00

I've been listening to some podcasts I lost track of in the last few weeks of June and the beginning of July while I was finishing the school year and getting ready and then going to NECC. If you have never listened to Wesley Fryer's blog and podcasts at Moving at the Speed of Creativity, I highly recommend you give him a read and/or a listen.

Wesley has done a series of podcasts on "Guidelines for Educational Revolutionaries" and I think that part 2 in this series really connects to what I was reflecting on in my post below of July 6th, SIGTC Membership Breakfast. He gives what started out as 14 Guidelines for Revolutionaries but has now expanded to include 16 guidelines. He explains these guidelines more fully in his blog and in his podcast, but here is the list:

Make time in the classroom for activities that matter: Tasks that are authentically “educative.”
Focus on level 2 (transformative) technology use.
Seek and celebrate incremental victories.
Promote conversations and messy assessment.
Embrace reasoned risk taking, along with trial and error / discovery learning.
Celebrate failure! Adapt and learn, teach, model and use the “failure bow.”
Seek leaders who support this vision, and support further development of administrative technology leadership vision.
Be patient and have faith. Changing is coming, but the process often seems too slow to visionaries.
Resilience and persistence will win the day more than short-term enthusiasm.
Seek novel, safe experiences that invite curiosity and stretch existing perceptions.
Feed dreams and imagination: For yourself and your students.
Be flexible and adaptable. (Live in a truly flexible frame.)
Use the language of teaching and learning, more than the language of technology.
Maintain a spirit of humility and servanthood to others, never an attitude of arrogance or exasperation.
Seek edification and renewal locally and globally, through F2F conversations and the edublogosphere.
Be courageous: instructionally and ethically. Remember Margaret Mead’s quotation: “A small group of thoughtful people could change the world. Indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”

I think that his #3 guideline, "Seek and celebrate incremental victories," really hit home with me and brought me back to gain some perspective on the challenges I was reflecting on in my previous post. In the podcast he says that we have to remember that "pioneers" are just that. They are not the majority. He draws an analogy to the early westward moving pioneers in our country saying that we didn't have 50% or more of our citizens taking the plunge and moving westward. It was a relatively small number of people who did that, it was the country's "disruptive time," and it took a long time before it was regarded as less of a risk and the majority began to follow. However, without those pioneers who were willing to take an enormous risk and give up all that was comfortable to move westward, the rest of the country never would have followed.

So, I'm going to keep plugging along, remembering to celebrate incremental steps forward, and try to have faith that we will move through this disruptive time and eventually more and more people will join us.

Tabula Digita

2006-07-12T07:18:00.000-05:00

I went to a session which was a panel discussion on digital content. The session was fantastic and everyone made real valid points. I was very impressed with one panelist, Ntiedo Etuk (NT), who is the Chief Executive Officer at Tabula Digita.

For those of you at the closing session will remember that they announced that next year at NECC there would be a gaming tournament. They showed a movie previewing the game - one of the taglines was "Learn math or die trying." It is a very interactive game focusing on algebra. The game is from Tabula Digita called Dimenxion. There is a demo version on their site.

Of course they have had a challenge integrating into the school systems so have been focusing on after school programs to introduce their game. They do have some research data from a summer program in addition to some white papers on games and learning.

I noticed that Marc Prensky will be the keynote speaker at the NYSCATE Summer Leadership Summit. If you saw Marc Prensky last year at NECC, you know that he is a promoter of game-based learning in education. Games for learning is a really hot topic in education right now.

Check out Dimenxion and share it with your teachers and students - who knows maybe the tournament champion will be from one of our schools!

IVC at NECC 2006

2006-07-11T13:50:00.000-05:00

I meant to blog 1000 times at the NECC conference – but I kept running out of time! So now that I am settling back into work, I wanted to share a few things about my learning experiences.

I was able to meet up with my friend Carol – who I met in an online course about videoconferencing taught by Janine Lim. We also ran into Janine a few times and even got mentioned in her blog!

I attended a Birds-of-a-Feather session hosted by Scott Merrick (Snacks 4 the Brain) and Joan Roehre. It was a real thrill for me because I got to meet Scott and I have been reading his work for so long it was like meeting one of my idols. The session focused on desktop videoconferencing and they showed us a tool called iVisit. It is a desktop videoconferencing solution. It has the capabilities for multiple people and locations to conference together. It really has a lot of potential as a cost-effective alternative to room conferencing systems. We also looked at SightSpeed which is a video calling tool for desktops and the Polycom Communicator speaker to use with Skype for enhancing audio on computer calls.

I also attended the 1st Annual SIGIVC (Special Interest Group Interactive Video Conferencing) business meeting. It was exciting for me because last year, at my first NECC, I was able to sign the charter and here we are already having our 1st annual meeting! Our SIG decided to break off into 4 sections (based on survey input we collected earlier in the year) – Communications; Professional Development; Research and Technology. I joined the Research group alongside of Allen Greenberg of Wainhouse Research! Again, a total honor since each Wainhouse Research Bulletin and Forum are my lifeblood to the IVC industry.

I blogged on 3 sessions for eSchool News – They were:
Online Lessons: As Diverse as American Minds!
21st Century Education: A Blended Learning Environment
Experience HyperMirror Videoconferencing!

I really wanted to be able to attend more IVC showcases – but the ones I did were fantastic!

I attended Enhancing Visual Thinking Strategies and Promoting Acceptance through Videoconferencing which was actually a project done from the Mohawk RIC! This was absolutely fantastic. It was a cross-curricular project where students from South Jefferson Central School videoconferenced with students in France. The students created self-portraits, videos and worked on collaborative websites together. In addition, the project was shared with 25 future teachers at SUNY Oswego where they could see the impact and results of global project. The work the students did was fantastic and they also had opportunities to discuss current events like the Parisian Riots.

I also attended K20Connections: Virtual Field Trips between University Research and Pre-College Classrooms. Quyen Arana from the K20 Connections center at the University of Oklahoma created a mobile videoconferencing unit - fitted with a wireless bridge – which he used with scientists and researchers in the lab environment. The scientists and researchers were able to bring the videoconferencing unit into their labs, show the students around and answer questions. To show us an example we were taken on a tour of the Super Computer Lab at the University of Oklahoma. The researcher in charge of the Super Computer enthusiastically explained all sorts of aspects of the machine. The goal of this type of project would be to increase student interest in Math, Science and Technology while linking them with local universities. It was a terrific example of learning from an expert and seeing their enthusiasm for their life’s work!

Another IVC Showcase I attended was K2K Connections and Collaborations: Get Your Project and Partner Here! – hosted by Joan Roehre. It was a take off on speed dating, where we all partnered up for about 3 minutes discussed some collaboration ideas we had and made connections with new people and schools. I feel even luckier since Carol was at the same session so she and I were able to double-up on our resources!

Throughout the conference I met so many people who want to make connections with our schools – either through videoconferencing, blogging, collaborative websites and/or podcasting! I feel like the conference did a fantastic job on showcasing the power of kid2kid (or class2class) collaborations.

I have a lot of ideas for the upcoming school year – so start recruiting your teachers!

Copyright and Ethical Issues: Avoiding the Copyright Police

2006-07-11T12:06:00.002-05:00

Click on the title above to read the story I wrote for eSchool News Online about this session. All of the resources for this session are also available on the NECC website. If the link on the eSchool News article doesn't work for you, try these links below.

Barnett_Policy4printer.pdf (Short version of policy to post at each copy machine)
Barnett_Copyright2.ppt (Copyright Presentation)
Barnett_CopyrightEthics.pdf (Avoiding the Copyright Cops: Copyright and Other Ethical Issues)
Barnett_CopyrightPolicy.QuickGuide.pdf (A Quick Guide to Copyright Policy)

All of these materials are shared with permission for educational use.