Idle Thoughts of a K-12 Technology Director

Networking - When It's Not So "Social"

2010-05-16T19:48:00.005-04:00

Social networking sites are no longer solely the realm of geeks and technology-savants, but have become the focus of mainline technology users from flower shops to restaurants seeking efficient and cost-effective ways to communicate with customers. There have been problems with the public nature of social network posts, and students were often told by school district technology departments concerned for their safety that, "you should not share anything on the Internet that you wouldn't tell a stranger on the street."

That advice is still sound, and school staff should follow it as well.

As a Technology Director dealing with technology 24/7 (and sometimes it seems like even more), I am starting to accept that real privacy is a thing of the past. It may be a simple annoyance such as someone being able to find out your hobbies are "scuba diving, rock climbing, base jumping, and creating sand sculptures based on Picasso's paintings," and using that to send you targeted marketing e-mails, but there is also the very real threat of identity theft and other issues. Make sure to protect yourself as much as possible by following a few simple guidelines.

First of all - for students
Remember the mass hysteria in the press that students shouldn't post photos and personal information like addresses because of online predators? Sure, some of that was just fear of the unknown mixed with media hype and ratings sweeps, but the basis is real and still out there. Don't be stupid. You wouldn't tell a stranger on the bus where you live and that you'll be alone there all night. Don't tell ten million strangers on the Internet, either.

Social networking sites have privacy controls. Use them.
Use your profile to limit who can access your profile, wall posts, friends lists, and photos. Social networking sites are a great way to share photos and stories from your last exciting trip with friends and relatives, but does some stranger in Australia really need to see the photos of your donkey ride up the cliffs to Santorini?

Social networking sites let you password protect your account. Don't make it lame.
You know the stories about users that set their password to "password." Believe it. Also believe the stories about using your first, name, spouse's name, and pet's name as your password (although in my experience you more frequently see the pet's name used than the spouse's, which I'm sure is psychologically revealing). The best passwords contain letters and numbers, capital and lower case letters, and special symbols. Something like sailboat28 is better than just sailboat, but sai28lboat is even better. Of course, $@1Lb@T (think about it for a minute) is better still, and while &dLw@5%^8&Q may be the best, writing it on a PostIt note and sticking it on your monitor reduces the security somewhat.

Don't post names - particularly full names - online. Don't let others post your name or private information either.
If you post a photo, you may want to identify it. If you do, stick with a first name (even this may be too much for the identification of children). If you're a certain rabbit-hunting cartoon character, just post the picture and label it Elmer. Labeling your photo - or your site - Elmer P. Fudd III makes it too easy for identity thieves, especially if you have not used the privacy features and they can also look through your site to find out where you went to college, your address, and where you work. Throw in a social security number, and your identity is stolen. I watched a security expert burn through this entire process in less than 5 minutes once; it is much easier than you'd expect.

Don't publish your full birthdate.
Most people assume this is to protect the "children," but it is also a great gift to those seeking to steal an adult's identity for financial fraud as well. There is no way to be 100% protected from identity theft, but come on, at least make it a challenge.

Don't let vanity be your enemy - block search engines when possible.
Sure, it's easier for your friends to find you if you allow them to search the social networking site for your name, but it's also easier for the unsavory element to find you, too. OK, your friends may be unsavory, too, but I'm giving you the benefit of the doubt here. Maybe I should say "criminal element." Sure, you'll need to take the lead and find your less-savvy friends since they'll have difficulty finding you, but it might also help avoid the "joy" of being found by that annoying ex-high school friend who would love to visit and spend two weeks sleeping on your couch.

Remember that with these sites you are linked to your friends - and their friends. To protect yourself, you may need to help educate others as well. If you allow your children to use these sites, you definitely need to make sure they are educated as well.

And don't ever, under any circumstance, post things like, "We're so excited about our upcoming Asian vacation. Just think, two months hiking the full length of the Silk Road. I can't wait until we leave on June 18 (or to get back to our empty home, cleaned out by thieves who read the post).

Please feel free to post your favorite social networking best practices below.

Women on Nuclear Submarines

2010-04-29T19:30:00.003-04:00

I was watching the Today show this morning and they had a segment on the anticipated Navy Department decision today to allow women to serve on nuclear submarines. Much was made of the amount of time these submarines spend away from port, the retrofitting that may need to be done to accommodate women, and so on, but one brief comment really caught my attention.

The Navy is having trouble finding enough qualified candidates for this extremely demanding service, and now that more than half the top engineering and technical graduates are women, making women eligible more than doubles the candidate pool.

Repeat that. More than half the top engineering and technical graduates are women.

It seems that the many K-12 and other initiatives to attract female students to these traditionally male professions are paying off.

Way to go!

Modular Object-Oriented Dynamic Learning Environment

2009-12-05T15:19:00.009-05:00

One has to respect a technology that can survive such a cumbersome name, particularly one that is so valuable and still free.

Like Google Apps, my previous post, Moodle can be used at the classroom, building, or even at the district level to change the paradigm of education. Moodle is an open-source, free version of a Learning Management System (LMS) - alternatively Course Management System (CMS) – that provides a viable alternative to offerings such as Blackboard and the Sakai Project, which are often too expensive for a K-12 school district.

Those who have taken a Blackboard-based college or graduate course will find Moodle very similar, giving K-12 teachers with online course experience an inherent understanding of how the tool can be successfully employed for his or her students. Teachers can control the site by allowing access to “guests” or requiring that users must be registered students with a provided username and password to access the site, which allows teachers to take advantage of laws that allow certain “for classroom use only” duplication rights.

Teachers are able to use this product to do something as simple as create a basic web portal students can access to view assignments or pick up notes from the day’s classes to something as involved as creating fully online course offerings. Since Moodle is developed based on common web technologies, it is feasible for even small districts with limited technology resources to install and support this technology, although many districts are opting for paying a minimal annual fee for a hosted solution that is maintained by a Moodle-focused team.

The Moodle interface is well designed to allow easy access to tools such as participant lists, recent activity report, a class calendar, and a forum search tool. The instructor can easily add downloadable files such as course notes, reference and study guides, practice quizzes and tests, and other documents, as well as hyperlinks to Internet resources of value to the course participants. While a novice Moodle-using teacher can begin with a very basic site and still provide a notable benefit to his or her students, as experience with the resource expands teachers are able to provide a paradigm-shifting educational change. Some districts are using Moodle and other free or “for cost” online tools to address tutoring and credit recovery needs for at-risk students, and experience a level of success that is leading some progressive states to consider changes to “seat time” and other rules that might provide a barrier to the further creative implementation of these tools to address student learning.

Moodle Logo courtesy of http://demo.moodle.org. Creative Commons 3.0 Licensed for Sharing and Remix with Attribution.

Moodle class image used with the permission of it's creator, Jack Kruse.

Google Apps - an Important Free Resource

2009-12-05T14:59:00.006-05:00

Google Apps, a new service from web giant Google, is changing paradigms from the boardroom to the classroom. This collaboration suite is attracting a huge number of K-20 users because it meets a critical decision-making criterion (it's free), but it is also winning over even some corporate environments because it provides most of the key benefits of tools like Microsoft's SharePoint Server product without the need to dedicate a lot of time and hardware resources from the IT department to support it.

With the expanding focus on Web 2.0 tools for student collaboration and production, the rapid adoption of Google Apps is not surprising. This suite combines Google Sites, Google Docs, Google Calendar, Google Mail, and GMail (Google's e-mail offering), into one straightforward package that simplifies training and the technical management of users and services.

For many districts, Google Sites is the initial draw as it offers a simple but robust tool for the creation of student and teacher web sites and wikis. To achieve the greatest benefit, the district's technology department must first establish a Google Apps account with Google for the entire district and set the basic parameters for what will be permitted through that district account, but after this basic setup teachers are able to administer their own areas so they have the flexibility to immediately meet changing classroom needs without a dependency on technology department staff support. The fact that this flexibility does not require the teacher, or the district, to sacrifice control of the site's content, is a great advantage over some of the earlier forays into student website production for classrooms using other free website services. This control is especially valuable in determining who is allowed to view the district's sites, as a teacher is able to create a teacher portal area that allows "the world" to see his or her classroom notes, assignments, test schedule, and more, yet have a separate area only accessible to the students to help avoid possible copyright infringements.

Google Docs and Google Calendars are also very powerful tools, allowing for the collaborative creation and editing of student research documents, projects, and calendars ranging from student project meeting times to scheduling a multimedia cart through the building's media center for their classroom presentation. Controls are available to the teacher, or to the student project leader should the teacher decide to delegate these controls, that allow only specific students to access designated resources. Students can even collaboratively work on audio and video projects, if that capability is enabled by the district's technology staff.

Communication is futher enhanced through the availability of GMail and Google Talk, an Instant Messaging (IM) tool. Some K-12 schools, colleges, and universities are moving from school provided and maintained e-mail accounts to GMail accounts for students, and sometimes even staff, to reduce the workload on their own IT departments so they are able to attend to other more critical tasks. Instant messaging has always been a problem for district technology staffs due to the potential for abuse, and despite the fact that although IM does offer educational value when used properly, the only way to control the negatives has been to "turn it off" at the firewall level which makes it unavailable for all users. As with the other Google Apps resources, control of both the e-mail and IM accounts is still retained by the school, allowing individual accounts to be disabled or deleted in response to inappropriate use. This increased level of control is allowing some districts to feel more comfortable in exploring the educational opportunities offered by IM use. These communication tools are enhanced by the offering of an audio and video chat option for GMail, opening the doors for a vast range of rigorous and relevant learning experiences.

Image Source: www.flickr.com/photos/adriarichards/3285777403/ Creative Commons licensed.

Students 2.0

2009-12-05T14:46:00.006-05:00

“At the core of everything else, all the technology usage, it’s all about creating learners, not just students who are able to interpret these facts that the teachers just preach to them in the classroom. There are 300, 400 teachers in my school district maybe only a handful - I can probably count on one hand - who actually read blogs let alone write them.”

This quote is from Kevin, a 17 year old student from the Chicago area, one of three student participants in the Students 2.0 project interviewed by Steve Hargidan on his EdTech Live podcast. Kevin, along with Lindsea, a 16 year old from Hawaii, and Sean, also 16, from Scotland, provided a student perspective of technology and it’s importance in education. Lindsea believes that the expansion of Web 2.0 technology use is one of the most important trends in education, despite the fact that she has only been using the Internet for only about a year herself. Sean echoed that importance, and also stressed his excitement about the 1:1 initiatives that put a laptop in the hands of each student.

The most vocal advocate of technology’s value, which he contends is almost entirely untapped, was Kevin, the student who provided the quote at the top of this post. Kevin contends that the Web is helping drive a shift in educational methodologies from traditional delivery methods to more technology-based, or technology-enhanced, tools.

While these students all identified technology as a strong value-add in education, they were careful to note that they were not geeks, although Kevin admitted that he does “programming and IT stuff outside of the school day.” They felt that they were “normal” students who happened to recognize the potential of technology and are advocating the expansion of it’s transformational value for education.

The limited current use of this tool is evidenced by comments throughout the podcast. Lindsay reported that, “I know one of my teachers blogs.” Although Sean’s experience shows slightly more integration as he related that when his English teacher introduced WIKIs in a language class, other teachers who saw the value started similar WIKI projects in their math classes, the technology use was still presented as more of the aberration than the norm.

“I think the fact that Sean and Lindsey only have one real example each kind of speaks for itself,” noted Kevin. There may not be much penetration of technology in his school yet, but with the early adopter teachers leading the charge, the revolution has begun.

Sean believes that the learning that is occurring in class is more geared toward passing tests and helping him attain certain qualifications, but what he is doing at home via the web is what he expects to actually be relevant to his future. Kevin agreed, saying that, “There is a huge disconnect between the information we are given in school and the learning that we do on our own. We’re learning on our own. It’s an interesting model, the way school continues to operate as opposed to … the infinitely greater learning we can do outside of the classroom. We’re being given all of these things (in school) so that we can fill in the bubbles on our exams.”

Three Prominent People in Educational Technology

2009-12-05T14:24:00.020-05:00

Other life commitments have kept me from my blog for a while, but I'm now back from my hiatus. For the John Belushi fans out there, I feel like his character Ernie Souchak when he returns from the Rockies and announces to his newspaper readership, "I'm Back!" Not that the readership of this blog is anything like that of the Chicago Sun-Times, but I like to believe I was missed by both of my loyal readers ;-)

When considering people with im-
portant roles in educational technology, one realizes how much cross-pollination of fields, ideas, and personalities has occurred to make the field what it is today. Significant contributors include scientists who investigated electricity and developed components from capacitors, hard drives, memory chips, and CRTs; technicians who engineered ways to merge these components into computers and other technologies; visionaries who recognized the value these new opportunities offered to education; curriculum experts who developed effective educational structures that integrated these technologies, and the teachers who inspire and motivate their students through the application of these tools.

In Ohio, Ohio SchoolNet (now ETech Ohio) provided the vision and funding that truly launched the major technology focus of modern education in our state, and this initiative was sourced primarily in the desire to capitalize on the value of an amazing resource: the Internet. With that fact in mind, the first name that comes to mind for me is Tim Berners-Lee who, during his tenure at CERN in the 1980s, developed a little program called Enquire that provided the seed from which the World Wide Web developed. Berners-Lee later returned to this program as he was attempting to develop a tool to improve communication and collaboration, and eventually a new technology that completely changed the paradigm of everything from academic research to booking a weekend vacation.

Of course, no matter how impressive a technology is, it takes a visionary educator to recognize it's value and identify methodologies for integrating it into his or her curriculum. One such notable visionary is Alan November, one of the more well-known proponents of what have come to be called Web 2.0 technologies and author of popular articles and books such as Empowering Students with Technology. He is also popular on the speaking circuit, and has been a keynote presenter at eTech Ohio's State Technology Conference.

While Tim Berners-Lee produced a revolution with worldwide impact, and Alan November envisioned ways to use technology to enhance educational opportuni- ties for students that subsequently impacted entire learning systems, my third notable person originally achieved his prominence for a more niche product which had it’s impact in a subgroup population. Researcher, inventor, and futurist Ray Kurzweil achieved fame by taking technology into new areas with the visually impaired. Kurzweil’s pioneering Optical Character Recognition (OCR) research of the early 1970s resulted in him looking for important applications for that technology, and his vision led him to apply it to the development of the Kurzweil Reading Machine. Through the combination of flatbed scanning technology and text-to-speech technologies, as well as the OCR that was capable of recognizing a large range of fonts (and, therefore, applicable to a large range of original print materials), Kurzweil’s company developed a machine that opened a world of print materials to the blind. As you would expect, the original was bulky and expensive so availability was very limited, over time components and manufacturing processes improved, prices dropped, and these systems became affordable for wider distribution.

Ultimately, however, it may actually be the thousands of lesser-known and and therefore less-heralded visionaries, such as Central Ohio’s own Roy Gordon who identified a very niche need and used a simple tool, FileMaker Pro, to develop a database that facilitated the creation of Individualized Educational Plans (IEPs) for special needs students, that have the greatest cumulative impact on educational technology. Or, perhaps, the classroom teacher down the hall that uses technology in creative ways to stimulate and engage students so that they stay in school to learn, graduate, and go on to college and/or productive, creative careers so that they make their own contributions to the world.

The Good...

2008-05-28T21:05:00.008-04:00

I received my ASCD SmartBrief e-mail today, and my attention was drawn to the item header Is science being left behind? leading an introductory paragraph contending that schools are "...placing less emphasis on science education, which is sometimes neglected because the subject's test scores are not used to gauge schools' progress under No Child Left Behind." Obviously, the concepts of teaching to the test and the need to give our students strong science (and math) skills to keep America competitive in the global marketplace are not new, but the associated Washington Post article was reassuring.

The article tells the story of Bob Nicholson, described as "the science guy," and the enthusiasm he generates in fifth-graders as he uses a domed planetarium at a high school in Alexandria, Virginia to show them what the sky will look like on their last day of fifth grade. The learning opportunity - one that is certain to be remembered by all the students long after other experiences during their fifth-grade year have faded - was a great example of creativity in educational technology. While the article describes the planetarium as "Tucked away on the top floor of the new $100 million T.C. Williams (high school) campus," the technology used to provide the experience was actually a 30-year-old projector that had been donated by the U.S. Army.

A teacher (I'm sure) saw the potential for that old projector. An administrator (Kris Clark, executive director of elementary programs in the Alexandria school system) had a vision of what could be done if he created a science coach position at the elementary level to provide this type of student opportunity. The district treasurer was willing to jump through the hoops necessary to accept this type of donation. The students had a learning experience that will stick with them for a lifetime.

I've said in an earlier post that I was fascinated by space as a child. I remember being in awe when "Astronaut" John Glenn came to our town after his 1962 "first orbit" and our Boy Scout troop met him. Astronauts then were certified heroes, so we were all in awe as he told us about his experiences in space. When he returned to space 36 years later in 1998, as 77-year-old "Senator" John Glenn, our district was just finishing a 4 1/2 million dollar technology implementation and I wanted something notable to kick off our new "technology era" in the district. I partnered with one of our creative elementary teachers (Bruce Evener, for those of you who know him) on a back to space project.

Since we now had the technology, and the Internet connectivity (remember when that was a novelty in schools?) necessary, my original plan was to have the students communicate with Senator/Astronaut Glenn while he was actually in space. I knew that was ambitious, but thought that since he lived in the Columbus area he might be willing so I should at least ask. As my grandfather always said, "The worst that can happen is you'll be told 'no'." Senator Glenn and his office were very gracious, but unfortunately even Senator Glenn's office would be unable to communicate with him during the flight. OK, I should have realized that; I was a little overenthusiastic about the capabilities of the new technology. We now had the technical capability of communicating with an astronaut in space from an elementary school classroom in Ohio, but we weren't allowed to do it.

Senator Glenn was, however, able to provide an unforgettable experience for our students by personally answering our students' questions. Bruce designed an excellent lesson plan in which students discussed everything from space, how the technology used to get there had changed over the years from a one-man "capsule" to the space shuttle, even how the experience would be different due to his age. After classroom discussion about all these factors, the students themselves decided which questions should be submitted to Senator Glenn. The curricular lessons the students needed to learn were enhanced through the use of technology; the technology was not the focus of the teaching. Student learning/achievement was increased and through student engagement; the technology was transparent. Concepts were learned; the students had a fun and memorable school experience.

And for me, the most memorable part of the experience was the reassurance that, at the core, children near the end of the 20th Century were the same as children in the mid-20th Century. The question of most concern was still...

"How do you go to the bathroom?"

Special Technologies for Special Needs

2008-04-24T22:51:00.015-04:00

One of the student populations that can be best served by the application of the proper technologies is the special needs student. In the past, due to the niche nature of this market, an unfortunate reality was that, although the benefits for the individual student could be very high, so were the associated technology costs. Thankfully, there are some dedicated companies out there focused to addressing the needs of these special students, and they are coming up with cost-effective ways to serve this group. For me, the a-ha moment with these technologies was when I worked for the Franklin County Department of Education and worked with one of our teachers to program a Boardmaker device (covered in the hardware post) for one of his students so she could call her dog. That simple act so delighted her that, according to her parents, the dog was worn out by the end of the day. As a result of that single incident, I couldn't avoid including a post on some special student technologies.

Bookshare.org is an online resource providing access to thousands of digital textbooks, general literature, periodicals, and newspapers made available for free qualifying students and teachers through funding from the Office of Special Education.
Qualified special needs students can apply for an individual account, or districts can gain access for all qualified students and teachers through a single district-level application. You are required to agree to a detailed usage agreement to ensure copyrights are not violated by non-qualified students and staff accessing and using the site.

Almost everyone agrees that computers are wonderful tools that can increase learning and productivity options for everyone. Everyone, that is, who is physically able to interact with the computer's keyboard, mouse, and other human interface devices (HIDs). For those with difficulties in this area, there are a wide range of options available, including a very clever device called Magic Touch that is affixed to any standard CRT so that it can be used as a touchscreen. For many students who have difficulty controlling a mouse, or have cognitive issues that make it difficult for them to understand how the movement of a mouse on a table surface relates to the pointer moving on the screen, this device is a much less expensive solution than a specifically engineered touchscreen monitor.

The USB Mouse Mover by Tash uses 6 individual switches, or a multiple switch, to control all functions of a computer mouse, allowing computer access to many students who can not control the mouse itself.

You can also buy a mouse specifically engineered to allow the attachment of two standard 1/8" plug switches to be used for left and right mouse clicks. The mouse pictured here is by Infogrip.

Another option for students who have trouble with using a standard mouse are large trackballs that require less fine motor skills to successfully operate. The BIGtrack offers a 3" trackball that the manufacturer claims is the largest available.

Technology also offers solutions for the student with visual challenges. Technology leader companies like Microsoft should be recognized by taking complaints that they did not do enough for our special needs population to heart, and in many cares are integrating more accessibility features into their products. Microsoft, for instance, now includes some interesting text-to-speech and speech-to-text features in Windows XP and Vista, and other companies produce solutions for screen magnification. Microsoft itself offers a very nice magnifying mouse that uses software to magnify sections of the screen when a special button is clicked with the left thumb. A simple, but effective, solution for under $40.00.

Five Representative Web Sites

2008-04-24T22:18:00.003-04:00

The World Wide Web and its boundless resources was a tipping point for the launch of computer technology in the K-12 school environment. We soon learned that this resource was not without its downside, and schools soon began implementing filtering technologies to help teachers and other staff protect students from the dark side of the Internet and its inappropriate content. However, the challenges are offset by the sites offering quality content for student and teacher research. Of the sites that immediately came to mind in this category, I have chosen the following 5 to represent the range of resources available via the Web.

Anyone familiar with Internet searching knows Google, and the fact that “Googling” is now part of American vernacular shows that it is a major force with Internet users. In the early days of Internet research, a firm understanding of Boolean terminology was necessary as users conscientiously used AND, OR, NOT, quotes, and other qualifiers to locate appropriate information. Search engines like Google, Ask, and others that allowed users to do searches by entering questions such as how many steps are there in the statue of liberty moved Internet from the realm of the initiated few to the general public, and the value of the resource exploded. Since I know you’re wondering, according to several sites returned by the search, there are 254 steps inside the statue and its pedestal.

The Internet Public Library www.ipl.org was originally created by a student class at the University of Michigan’s School of Information. From the Spotlight article on the homepage to the deep and well organized content it offers, this site should be checked out by all educators and students. Media specialists will appreciate the way the site is cross-referenced; clicking the Education link under Subject Collections, for instance, not only brings up a list of subcategories fro Adult Education to U. S. Department of Education, but also offers See Also links to Magazines and Associations on the Net.

K-12 students may be most interested in IPL’s Kidspace, TeenSpace, Almanacs, Dictionaries, Encyclopedias, or their specialty POTUS (U.S. Presidents), Stately Knowledge, and Science Fair areas.

Microsoft has developed an online workspace for students and teachers to collaborate on projects. The new offering, called Office Live, allows students to store their work online and share it with other students and teachers for collaborative projects.

One of the interesting features of the service is an activity panel that tracks activity on the shared project, be it a database, spreadsheet, or document, so that you can easily see if there have been any modifications since you last logged on. You can even create e-mail alerts to inform you of changes.

Although you may not throw away your flash drives, as their site’s homepage implies, you will find this a valuable collaboration tool.

NASA’s web site is a personal favorite of mine. I admit to a certain prejudice here because, yes, I was a space geek. Despite the fact that space shuttle launches have become so commonplace that they sometimes don’t garner enough interest to be included on the evening news, when I was a child the world still paid attention when space missions launched. My 6th grade teacher made me feel special by using her credentials to sign me up for NASA press release mailings, and 3 – 4 times a year I received a large manila envelope full of mission information, photos of planets and other space objects, and other such treasures. The contrast between those admittedly public relations efforts and today’s delivery of that information and much more via the immediacy of the web makes this site one of my favorite examples of government communication done well.

Wikipedia has withstood early challenges to the quality of its information in several double-blind studies that show errors are not substantially higher than in trusted print resources (see, for instance, Softpedia’s report on Nature magazine’s investigation).

As the largest encyclopedia in human history, Wikipedia contains information not generally found elsewhere – and definitely not as easily. One never builds an entire research project from a single source, and including print materials is a necessity to ensure that information contained even on multiple websites isn’t simply the result of a self-perpetuating incorrect piece of data, Wikipedia can be a valuable starting point for a wide range of investigations.

Five Representative K-12 Software Tools (Plus One)

2008-04-24T20:18:00.016-04:00

Adobe Photoshop CS3

Photoshop is an incredible program that allows students to modify photographs in a digital darkroom. The robust set of tools included in the program allow students to change brightness, contrast, color balance, and replicate the use of photographic filters. The program also allows students to easily modify reality by adding or removing elements, and change the work to resemble ink and pencil drawings, chalk and pastels, watercolors, and other artistic forms. Student creativity is also enabled through the use of layers, allowing students to assemble components from multiple photographs and other digital sources into a single image (think Tom Hanks in Forrest Gump with John Kennedy - and John Lennon).

SynchronEyes

SynchronEyes is a classroom management software particularly suited to K-12 computer labs. The teacher can use the software to broadcast videos to the computer monitors of specific students or the entire class, and can be used to electronically deliver tests and quizzes.

The software can help the teacher keep students on task by controlling Internet access, and teachers can remotely monitor student computer activity not only to ensure the students are not visiting inappropriate Internet sites but also so the teacher can offer assistance when needed.

Odyssey

The Odyssey software, by Compass Learning, targets the educational needs of elementary through middle school students. According to the manufacturer, they used “confirmed” research on student mental development to design their sofware’s project-based lessons so they could be learned in the shorter attention span of the early learner.

Students are engaged by the animations and sounds in the program, and the engagement can be expected to stimulate learning and increase student achievement. This is not an electronic baby-sitter, however, and is meant to be tailored to students’ individual needs by a skilled teacher. This helps the student achieve AYP, and the software provides summative and formative assessment tools that provide data collection opportunities to ensure that progress is being attained and differentiate instruction as needed.

The software is aligned to state standards, making it easy for teachers to ensure the standards are being accommodated in their classroom and students are progressing toward meeting these standards.

e2020

EDUCATION 2020 is a software that uses “master teachers” to deliver educational content in a virtual classroom environment. The class modules that are available include middle- and high-school level Math, Science, Language Arts, and Social Studies courses, and offer an additional tool to meet NCLB, AYP, and other goals. In our district, the program is being creatively used to allow struggling students an additional opportunity to master Algebra and other required courses through computer based training – under the supervision of a licensed teacher - and graduate.

Data Analysis for Student Learning

For years, schools have spent vast amounts of time and effort collecting massive amounts of data for reporting and accountability, but getting to that data required a knowledge of esoteric codes and processes. DASL is based on the simple premise that if this data is to be used to increase student achievement, it needs to be accessible to those who need it.

DASL puts a graphical front end on the data so that it can be accessed through mouse clicks on descriptive links. This ease of access results in increased data use by principals, teachers, and other district staff involved in data driven decision making (D3M).

Not only does DASL ease data access, but data entry as well. It’s simplified interface helps ensure greater data accuracy, which is particularly important because the DASL data feeds numerous other systems from student attendance to cafeteria point-of-sale, media center automation software to printing labels for district – parent communications.

ProgressBook is an online grading software that integrates with your existing student data to allow real-time attendance entry, scheduling modifications, grading, and more. The software includes reporting and letter printing options to increase communication between teachers, students, and parents with a minimum investment of the teacher’s valuable time. Although there can be some challenges during implementation as systemic processes develop to accommodate required changes, districts that have implemented the Parent Access Web Site feature, which allows parents to easily access their student’s classroom performance, have found that this information flow increases the parents’ ability to assist the schools in addressing developing issues before they become major problems.

Photo integration capabilities offer a range of benefits, from substitute teachers being able to take attendance based on a seating chart with student photos to encourage student – teacher relationship building at the beginning of the year as teachers more quickly learn the names of new students.

ProgressBook can accommodate traditional or standards-based grading; districts can select from a selection of report card templates or work with the company to design your own to meet specific needs. Standards-based districts will appreciate the program’s ability to track the number of times an academic standard has been addressed. The program also offers an optional SSEM module that assists with special need student data entry and tracking.

By consolidating many different functions into a single tool, data entry and access is greatly facilitated and the integration with the district’s “live” student data ensures that data has the maximum currency and value.

Five Representative K-12 Hardware Tools

2008-04-24T15:05:00.015-04:00

SMARTboards

While there are a number of options available to districts purchasing interactive whiteboards, Smart Technologies’ SMARTboard remains the de facto standard in the K-12 classroom. SMARTboards allow you to project your computer’s screen on the large, interactive whitescreen, and interact with the computer program by “clicking,” drawing, dragging and dropping through the whiteboard itself. This is an excellent way not only to demonstrate concepts and lead learning in your classroom, but also to provide access to computer content where there is an insufficient computer-to-student ratio. Teachers can annotate the lesson by writing on the board, and save the lesson – with annotations – to their computer to share with students after the class.

A large part of the SMARTboard success is the company’s companion Notebook software, which assists teachers in quickly building powerful interactive lessons tailored to the specific needs of their students. Novice SMARTboard users benefit from many downloadable lessons already built by teachers around the globe, and can tailor those pre-existing SMARTboard delivered lessons to meet their specific classroom needs. The teacher is able to search for lessons based on topic or state standards. If your district has invested in the optional Senteo student response devices, the teacher will also find lessons creatively employing that additional interactivity.

As the teacher’s SMART skills increase, he or she will find additional useful features such as a recorder option that records all onboard activities as well as the teacher’s voice. This file is saved as a Windows media file, so the file can be shared with a student absent from class, or provided for a substitute teacher to present if the teacher is absent. One thing that is often overlooked is that the SMART Notebook software also installs some components into Microsoft Office products, so you will find an additional toolbar and print option in the Office programs. One particularly useful feature that is often overlooked is the ability to “print” documents and PDFs to the Notebook software to make them available when using the SMARTboard, very useful for projects such as converting the practice tests available as PDFs on the ODE website for classroom use.

Computers - Creative Evolutions

Sometimes it is easy to forget that once the cutting-edge technologies in schools included mimeographs, overhead projectors, and filmstrips. For most people, however, when you mention technology in schools computers are the first thing that comes to their minds. While the computers that were placed 10 years ago are no longer impressive technologies, computers are evolving in some interesting ways to address specific needs.

On April 8th, Hewlett-Packard announced the release of one such computer evolution: The Mini-Note 2133. This notebook is about the size of a large college textbook and weighs in at about 2 ½ pounds, yet has a keyboard that is only 5% smaller than a regular keyboard. The size of this computer makes it easy to transport, so it is the perfect candidate for field investigations, carrying between classes, and take-home use. It’s relatively low cost, with a base price of around $500.00 and $700.00 “nicely equipped” (as they say in the car commercials), this is also an excellent option when considering notebooks as a communication tool for special needs students. Many teachers and administrators who do not like lugging larger notebooks or laptops will find this unit to be transportable enough to take to meetings and conferences.

nComputing

Almost all districts have problems keeping up with the financial commitment required to maintain an adequate refresh rate on the computer technology they have implemented. As the economy soured, even businesses extended their average 3 year replacement cycles to 4 or even 5 years; even wealthy school districts are extending their computer refresh to 5 or 7 years, while some districts have no plans for replacement at all and run their old equipment until it is absolutely beyond repair.

One company, nComputing, is offering a very interesting option. For just over $200.00, district CTOs can purchase a kit that contains an internal expansion card and 3 PDA-sized modules that allow four students to share the computing resources of a single computer. Rather than buying 4 computers, the CTO can purchase one desktop, the nComputing kit, and three additional monitor/keyboard/mouse sets to serve the needs of 4 students in a type of mini-terminal services environment. The modules allow each student to use his or her own headphones, flash drives, and other connected components. For pods of 7 computers, two cards can be used, as shown above.

Digital Still and Video Cameras

The ease of use offered by digital cameras – be they still or video – opens a whole new world of creativity for the K-12 students. The cameras can be used to create images to help support a student research project, or be the center of the lesson for art and media classes with follow-up digital photo editing or video editing modules. In one particularly noteworthy example, a student dramatically enhanced his project of interviewing local WWII veterans by including each of the men and women with whom he met.

While higher end cameras offer higher quality lenses, extended zoom ranges, and increased megapixel ratings that typically yield increased resolution and higher quality results, most classroom projects can be accommodated by the more reasonably priced cameras from the lower end offerings. Where top quality images are needed, even near professional level digital SLRs, such as Canon’s impressively successful EOS Digital Rebel XT, can be had for less than $500.00.

BoardMaker Activity Pad

Sometimes we forget how easily we interact with our environments, and how difficult it can be for those who are nonverbal. For some children, particularly those at the critical developmental stage of learning that their behaviors impact their environment, the ability to press a button to have a voice call the dog – and the dog comes to the child – is an amazing ability. The combination of the Activity Pad and software allow this to happen.

The Boardmaker software program can be used to create device overlays for the Boardmaker Activity Pad. The software allows you to create word and graphic touch areas that allow the user to use presses to create sentences and convey thought and needs.
To allow a student to independently order lunch, for instance, you could use words and pictures to create a pad template containing the words and phrases required, and then record your own voice speaking the words and phrases. In the lunch line, the student could use touch could use touch to communicate I would like + pizza or I would like + hamburger.

The possibilities are limited only by your imagination. Photos of friends and family, buildings, pets, and so on can be used for a variety of communication options.

When Disruption Isn't Bad

2008-04-24T14:52:00.003-04:00

Those who have not heard the term disruptive technology may be forgiven for their assumption that this is a negative term and, for some industries unable to adapt to new realities, it can be. However, typically the term is used in technology circles in a positive way to indicate a product that is so vastly superior to its predecessors that it drastically alters the world. Disruptive technologies are not simply evolutionary, or even revolutionary, improvements to an existing technology, but are new technologies that usually completely displace the competition. For computer user, possibly the best example is the USB flash drive, which exploded on the market due to its superiority over its predecessor (floppy disks - remember them?) in both storage capacity and ease of use.

While the term is relatively new, the concept is not. We have seen disruptive technologies time and time again, from candles to gas to electric lighting, from Conestoga wagons to Volvo semis, from cooking on wood fires to gas stoves to electric ranges (and back to gas stoves and wood-fired pizza ovens again; evidently disruptive technologies can be cyclical). However, the pace of disruptive change certainly seems to be increasing, and everyone from the Gartner Group to the Washington Post pronouncing their "Top 10" disruptive technologies.

Educational technology has certainly seen its share of disruptive technologies, which started me thinking about my personal "Top 10" disruptive technologies in our business. I quickly realized it would be impossible to come up with an exhaustive list of technologies that have radically changed the way we educate our students, but have chosen a few representative examples that you will find in the next posts. I am interested in reader comment on these, so hope you will post your own personal favorite disruptors.

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Introduction to Web Research: Finding and Evaluating Websites

2008-04-13T00:25:00.004-04:00

Description:

This one class period lesson is intended to introduce the student to some techniques for online research and the evaluation of the quality and authority of the web resources found. Due to the limited time available for this lesson (40 – 45 minutes), this introductory session will be an instructor-led overview. Ideally, it will serve as a launching point for additional opportunities in which the student can apply this knowledge to his or her independent research to gain a deeper understanding of evaluating research resources.

Be sure to include, at a minimum, the following concepts.

1. Site Appearance

Does the site “look good?” Is it obvious that a lot of time was spent on the site’s creation?

Are words spelled correctly, and the grammar correct?

Do the graphics support the content of the site? Are they sized and placed correctly?

2. Site Functionality

Is the site structured in such a way to make it easy to use?

Do internal and external links work, or lead to “404” and other errors?

Does the site need specialty add-in software, or a specific Internet browser or Java version?

3. Domain type

Is the site an official government (.gov) or military (.mil) site and carry the “authority” of the US government. Note: remember that “country codes” such as .us and .ca do not mean they are an official government site.

Is the site a college or university (.edu) site?

Is the site a K-12 education site (in Ohio, often indicated by a .k12.oh.us extension, but sometimes by .org to avoid the overly long standard)?

Is the site a personal site (often indicated by “slash” addresses off a main site, such as \joeschiska\everythingabouteverything\index.asp)?

4. Content Quality

Is the “ownership” of the site available and provide the credentials of the author or authors? Look for an “About Us,” “Contact Us,” or copyright information? This is especially important on sites that do not attribute authorship of individual articles or pages, as in those cases you can not determine credibility based on the author’s personal authority.

Does the ownership of the site indicate objectivity, or might the owner be expected to display a bias?

Does the site reference quality information, and is it properly cited?

Is the content current?

Is the content authoritative?

Is the content supported by other sources?

Expansion Ideas

Do a WHOIS search through the “official” InterNIC site www.internic.net/whois.html or www.betterwhois.com to check ownership of a web site and discuss if that person or group might have a personal agenda or bias that may taint the quality of the site.

Use a site like www.about.com, alexa.com, www.lii.com, or infomine.ucr.edu to further investigate a site.

Do a Google search on the site authors name(s) to learn more about him or her.

Use http://blogsearch.google.com/ to see if the author has a blog site.

Ohio Standards Addressed

Technology Standard 5: Technology and Information Literacy

A. Determine and apply an evaluative process to all information sources chosen for a project.

C. Formulate advanced search strategies, demonstrating an understanding of the strengths and limitations of the Internet, and evaluate the quality and appropriate use of Internet resources.

D. Evaluate choices of electronic resources and determine their strengths and limitations.

Library Benchmark: Technology Literacy

A. Formulate advanced search strategies, demonstrating an understanding of the strengths and limitations of the Internet, and evaluate the quality and appropriate use of Internet resources.

B. Evaluate choices of electronic resources and determine their strengths and limitations.

C. Utilize the Internet for research, classroom assignments and appropriate personal interests.

English Language Arts Benchmark: Research

B. Evaluate the usefulness and credibility of data and sources.

Learning Goals/Objectives:

What student learning goal(s)/objective(s) do you have for this lesson?
After completing this lesson, the student will:

1. Be able to identify at least 3 ways to evaluate a web site based on the site content, appearance, design, and function.

2. Be able to identify at least 3 tools to learn more about the site owners and authors.

3. Be able to identify at least 3 domain types and how they relate to the authority of the site.

How does this lesson address the Specialty Professional Association (SPA) standards?

National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE)

7. Students conduct research on issues and interests by generating ideas and questions, and by posing problems. They gather, evaluate, and synthesize data from a variety of sources (e.g., print and non-print texts, artifacts, people) to communicate their discoveries in ways that suit their purpose and audience.

8. Students use a variety of technological and information resources (e.g., libraries, databases, computer networks, video) to gather and synthesize information and to create and communicate knowledge.

NCATE Report - Teachers Need to be "Fearless" with Technology

2008-04-12T22:13:00.002-04:00

In 1997, the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) Task Force on Technology and Teacher Education published a paper entitled Technology and the New Professional Teacher. 1 This focus of this report was how support could be provided to teacher education colleges and universities as technology continued to increase in the education of students being prepared for the 21st century that was rapidly approaching. It is interesting that in some areas this forward-thinking report already seems quaint itself, with admonitions such as, “Teachers must participate in formal courses, some of which may be delivered in non-traditional ways, e.g. via telecommunications” (p. 11). Barely 10 years later we have respected universities offering graduate degrees entirely through online study without the need to ever set foot on their physical campus, MIT making entire classes available online for free (but not for credit), and few people in awe of the fact that they’re being offered “via telecommunications.”

Now that we have both feet firmly in the 21st century, it is interesting to review the NCATE task force’s vision of education in our century, and how technology integration into the education environment can be encouraged and supported.

_____________________

“Teachers need an ‘attitude’ that is fearless in the use of technology, encourages them to take risks, and inspires them to become lifelong learners” (p. 11).

“Teachers may be forgiven if they cling to old models of teaching that have served them well in the past. All of their formal instruction and role models were driven by traditional teaching practices. Breaking away from traditional approaches to instruction means taking risks and venturing into the unknown. But this is precisely what is needed at the present time” (p. 10).

I agree with these statements wholeheartedly, but developing a teacher who is fearless enough to take risks and venture into the unknown is much more difficult than simply recognizing the need. While there are some teachers that are approaching retirement and “coasting,” or simply don’t want to put forth the effort required to change the lesson plans they have been using for years, we also need to recognize that there are some very real concerns that make it difficult to be fearless.

In Maslow’s hierarchy of need, safety is second only to physiological needs like breathing. Maslow specifically includes safety “of employment” and the safety to provide for the needs of one’s family in these secondary level needs. To be fearless in embracing technology, teachers must feel secure enough in their employment to be willing to take risks. If they stray from the lesson plan that has “served them well in the past,” they run the risk of getting a decreased result as they perfect their new lesson. Will that be acceptable to the school principal? Will the school principal be willing to take the risk of allowing the teacher to try a new approach, or will he or she be concerned about the possibility of a negative result that will need to be explained to the assistant superintendent, and so on up the chain. No Child Left Behind, AYP, and “district report cards” are important and noble goals, but have made education a very high stakes game in which everyone is very focused on “the numbers” to continually improve the district’s report card rating.

Given this reality, it is important that teachers are given as much as we can give them to facilitate the technology integration. Three of the items listed on page 21 of the NCATE report regarding needs of teacher educators are equally important for teachers in the classroom.

1. “Incentives for faculty in terms of release time for professional development, new course development, and recognition for experimental teaching at times of tenure and merit review.” We may not be able to offer tenure and direct financial rewards, but need to be supportive of teachers making the attempt and recognize their efforts. Time, in general, is a huge challenge for our teachers as they are increasingly stretched to deliver more academic content, more effectively and thoroughly, to increase student achievement on standardized tests.

2. “Technical support that provides reliable maintenance of existing equipment and assistance for new software applications.” Classroom teachers also need to know that when they develop a technology-infused lesson, every effort has been made to ensure the lesson will not be challenged by non-functional equipment. Offering instruction on newly adopted software, rather than just letting teachers flounder trying to learn the application by trial and error, also decreases the time needed to integrate a new technology and increases the likelihood of a successful result.

3. “Sufficient access to technology for faculty and students.” Classroom management and lesson delivery logistics can be a real challenge if there is insufficient technology available to teachers and students. Even when labs are available, it may be difficult or impossible to reserve them at the time(s) they are needed to effectively deliver the lesson.

“The new technology will transform the role of the teacher as thoroughly as did the introduction of printed textbooks” (p. 12). We need to ensure our teachers and our administrators – including the superintendent - have the support they need if we expect them to be “fearless” enough to take the risks necessary to reach this potential.

1 The full text of the NCATE report at ERIC.

Who Am I? A digital camera infused elementary lesson

2008-04-05T13:29:00.005-04:00

For an actual lesson plan, I would first determine my students needs and tailor the lesson to those specific requirements. Since this core lesson can be used to address so many different needs and content areas, it is written in a much less concrete form than a more focused lesson plan.

Objectives:

Introduce students to their ancestry to:

 Provide a context for history

 Provide a context for geography

 Provide a context for cultural awareness

 Provide an opportunity to examine personal and cultural differences

 Provide an opportunity for research

 Provide an opportunity for writing

 Provide an opportunity for timelining

 Provide an opportunity to integrate technology (digital cameras, scanners, computers, photo and timelining software)

Prerequisite:

The teacher will need to arrange to borrow the school’s digital cameras through the media center, the building principal, or whoever controls those resources. He or she will also need to develop a rotation schedule for the students to take those cameras home for parent and grandparent photos, and possibly to re-photograph existing family history photos.

Process:

Genealogy and the student’s personal ancestry is the core of this lesson. The teacher will provide an overview of genealogy, common threads students can expect to find, lesson goals and processes. Students will then work with their parents to develop their family history through the identification of their grandparents, great grandparents, and so on. It is important to have birthdates, if possible, and being able to trace the family back to the countries from which they came would be optimal if using this lesson as a starting point for cultural studies.

Next, the teacher will explain digital camera use, camera care, transferring the photos to a computer, editing and printing the photos. Students will use a digital camera, either borrowed from the school or one owned by his or her family, to take photos of their friends, parents, and grandparents (if available). For any ancestors no longer living, students can scan existing photos or use a digital camera to re-photograph the originals. Note: Students should use the school’s camera to take pictures of their classmate friends to avoid the necessity of bringing personal cameras to school.

Students will then create a standard family tree on a large posterboard, with photographs of themselves, parents, grandparents, and so on and their birthdates. Beneath their own photo, they will place the photos they have taken of their friends.

From this core lesson, there are numerous possible options that can be selected by the teacher based on his or her curricular goals.

 Teachers can use this student’s personal history to create a timeline that puts historical events into a personal context. For instance, if a student has a great-great grandparent born in 1867, the timeline will show that this was right after the Civil War and put the war in a historical context related to his or her own family. An ancestor born on June 6, 1944? That was the date of the “D-Day” invasion in World War II. Having photos of those ancestors further personalizes the student’s ties to historical events.

 Teachers seeking to enhance student understanding of cultural differences may compare and contrast the ancestries of those who are descendents of African, Asian, European, and Native American ancestors. What culture did they bring with them? How were their lives and perceptions the same or different from yours? Are the friends pictured in the photos the student has taken representative of the friends your ancestors would have had 50 years ago? 75 years ago? Why or why not?

 If most students are able to trace their ancestry to specific countries, research on their home countries can support library, electronic research, geography, and world history and culture state standards. If students are unable to get back that far, most will be able to identify ancestors from other states, so can address geography and history standards in the US.

 The use of computers, digital cameras, scanners, genealogy software, photo editing software, timelining software, and other technologies will address the state technology standards through integration of these technologies to support the central lessons.

Assessment:

Students will be assessed on the family tree information gathered and their posterboard presentation presentation of that data, as well as their participation in classroom discussions.

Follow-up Activities:

Students can use the information they gathered on their own family, plus information gathered from class discussions about history, timelines, geography, and cultures to create a portfolio-worthy technology-based project such as a family book, a PowerPoint, a slideshow, or a video.

Students can pair with a student with a dissimilar history to create a blended story of two families that compares and contrasts their family experiences.

Students can write a nonfiction story about an ancestor who lived through an important historical time or event, such as participating in the D-Day invasion in WWII or remembering the assassination of President Kennedy, of a fictional account of a historical event through the eyes of an ancestor who lived during that period.

Need a free photo editing software? Get Google's Picasa software.

Show Me the Money!

2008-03-30T17:04:00.003-04:00

Sorry, I just wanted to start a serious topic by getting everyone thinking about Cuba Gooding, Jr.

There are so many excellent applications of technology in education, finding the funding to support technology initiatives is always on the minds of district technology directors. Usually, this involves hours spent "burning the midnight oil" grantwriting, so when potentially good news comes out of Washington regarding Federal funding it is like a birthday present.

The March 2008 issue of the Consortium of School Networking (CoSN) newsletter (Vol. 10, No. 3) provides the good news that both the House and Senate have adopted versions of the 2009 Congressional Budget Resolution that reject President Bush's proposed reduction in funding for the U.S. Department of Education. The Senate's version of the Resolution would provide an additional $5.4 billion dollars than the President's proposal (representing an 8% increase over the the actual FY08 funding level); the House's FY09 budget resolution would provide an additional $7.1 billion dollars.

As noted by CoSN, it is important to remember that these are "big picture documents" that neither directly fund specific programs nor carry the weight of law because they are not enacted by the President, and in cases of conflict there is always the possibility of a showdown between the President and Congress over appropriations. However, it does indicate a broad-based support of increased, not decreased, education and training funding.

As our district treasurer so correctly observes, you can never be absolutely certain of anything when it comes to funding. As always, this process will be interesting as it unfolds. Stay tuned.

On a Quest

2008-03-30T14:15:00.004-04:00

Note: This is a very basic webquest based on a more detailed model lesson I developed for the Ohio Department of Education during the development of their Instructional Management System. The ODE's IMS (we technology people live for acronyms) is an excellent resource that provides professionally developed and reviewed lesson and unit plans aligned with Ohio's academic content standards. If you are not already familiar with this great resource, you should visit their site to find information not only on lesson plans, but also information on standards-based education, assessments, programmatic improvement, and other tools (including "OAT Toolkits" for Science and Social Studies).

Course Topic: Transportation Systems

This abbreviated lesson targets the elementary school student learning about the development of transportation technology and its impact on the exploration and settlement of Ohio. This topic could be dry and boring, as it was for me when I studied it in elementary school, but could be much more engaging for students actively involved in performing online research. Elementary eachers new to web quests can use this outline as a quick start guide, but remember that it barely scratches the surface of what a web quest can offer in terms of technology and content integration opportunities.

If you are a Whitehall teacher and would like assistance with the development of a web quest, whether based on this outline or not, please feel free to contact me at extension 5014 to arrange a time that's convenient for you to discuss options.

Instruction Strategies

The lesson should begin as any “offline” classroom lesson with background information, general concepts, and a review of the goals of the lesson. Since this example could be a student’s first experience with a web quest, I would suggest starting with a quick review of how to perform an online search, why the students should not accept every web site as authoritative, and provide a few clues about determining a site’s credibility.

All the elementary schools at Whitehall have media center computer labs with at least 30 workstations, so I would arrange a time with the media specialist when I could take my entire class to the media center so that each student could have his or her own research station. Use the media center's computer/projector/SMARTboard teacher station to introduce your students to two authoritative sites you have selected that provide credible core information and provide the opportunity to point out indicators for the quality of website the students are seeking. Students will later be required to cite information gathered from these two sources, and from four other sources they have found on their own using search engines and/or links from the original two sites, in their research results.

Since one of the factors cited as a barrier to the integration of online research is the fact that it can take longer to deliver a lesson plan, be sure to allow sufficient time for your students to become familiar with the online process. Time constraints also may not allow each student to present his or her research results in class, and there would be a lot of repetition as multiple students covered the same information. To preserve this critical classroom discussion component, you could select students with good results on a few key concepts (possibly 3 - 4, depending on the quality of the research and the number of presentations required to fully cover the core concepts) to present their findings as part of a whole class dialog.

Students could also produce a 1-2 page written report of their findings that includes a list of at least 6 websites consulted in the research (the two teacher provided sites, plus at least 4 discovered by the student).

The “Five Questions”

Coulter, et al. (2000), suggest five key questions that should be considered by teachers planning an online class (a full citation is at the bottom of this post for those who are interested).

1. What is the curriculum-related purpose of the activity?

It is important to remember that the focus of the lesson is the content, not the Internet. Activities should address real learning needs based upon your curricular objectives.

This lesson, as presented, would address the following State Standards (Ohio) and, with only slight expansion, could easily include a range of additional standards.

Standard: Nature of Technology
Benchmark: B. Identify, describe and discuss the core concepts of technology.
Indicator: 3. Cite examples of how tools and machines extend human capabilities (e.g., automobiles are more efficient than walking great distances).

Standard: Technology and Society Interaction
Benchmark: E. Identify development patterns and examine the influence of technology on the world.
Indicator: 1. Classify collected information in order to identify technology development patterns.

Technology and Information Literacy: Designed World
Benchmark A: Develop an understanding of how physical technologies enhance our lives.
Indicator 4: Discuss how modes of transportation have changed over the years in Ohio.

Science: Science and Technology
Benchmark A: Describe how technology affects human life.
Indicator 1: Explain how technology from different areas (e.g., transportation, communication, nutrition, healthcare, agriculture, entertainment and manufacturing) has improved human lives.
Indicator 2: Investigate how technology and inventions change to meet peoples’ needs and wants.

2. Does the Internet enhance the activity?

A frequently offered criterion for using the Internet is the simple question, "Can this be done without the Internet?" For some reviewers, the answer is just as simple: If the Internet is not required, don't use it. Personally, I don't always agree with that because to me there is a lot of "multiple intelligences" flavor to the Internet; a subgroup of your students will learn better precisely because the Internet is involved.

While it is possible to present this lesson without the online component, access Internet resources definitely offers benefits to the students both in terms of the scope and breadth of materials available and in the increased student engagement in the active learning process. Our district’s media centers offer a wide range of materials and students are well served by the media specialist’s materials selection processes, but even the best centers are enhanced by the plethora of information available online, which offers increased and simple access to multimedia (without the “A/V Cart”), current materials, and more. Even the basic problems, such as every student trying to access the single hardcopy of a resource at the same time, are alleviated when using online resources that allow access by multiple users.

3. How will students use online resources?

Aa above, the goal of the lesson is not to simply find resources on the Internet, it is using the information gathered from these resources to address educational needs; unless, of course, the title of your lesson is "Googling the Internet."

A side "idle thought:" a current topic of discussion among Ohio technology directors is whether or not Google's Terms of Service, particularly section 2.3 which stipulates "You may not use the Services and may not accept the Terms if (a) you are not of legal age to form a binding contract with Google," actually prevent those under 18 from legally using Google. Some notes on the legal intracacies of K-12 technology programs will be introduced in a later post.

The best research includes online sources as a component of the whole, which includes “offline” materials available to the student in the school’s media center and media center specialist (if the school is lucky enough to have one), local library, and other sources. However, since we are stressing online research in this lesson, students will be using the information from these online resources as the core of their investigation. As such, they will use the information gathered in their online search as their primary source material for a 1-2 page written report of their research findings and for the in-class discussion. Students will be required to include a reference list that includes the correct web address for the two sites provided by the teacher and an additional 4 sites of their own discovery.

Since this is an elementary lesson and may be the class’ first experience with a basic webquest, and since our primary goal is to promote the student’s active learning of the core lesson, I would not include a deep critique of the sites consulted and their usefulness in this particular experience. It would be of value to the class, however, to remind students about the indicators of site authority, such as the significance of site extensions such as .edu, .org, .gov, and .com, as the opportunity arises in the general flow of the in-class review.

4. Do students have the necessary information analysis/information synthesis skills?

As noted earlier, we're not questing for the sake of the quest; we're using it to gather information that the student will analyze and synthesize into an understanding of the curricular driver of the lesson. The teacher must consider whether the students have the prerequisite knowledge and skills to do that, or if those must be developed as part of the lesson. However, since this may be an introductory experience focused on developing enthusiasm for the subject and the active learning of online research, although information analysis and synthesis are expected the teacher may choose not to hold the students to the same standard of higher level tasks that would be expected from a more advanced group.

Since performing online research is also a focus of this lesson, you should include an analysis of the webquest process itself. Why did you consider the two sites you presented to the class “authoritative?” Was there a particular benefit to the hyperlinks on the teacher-provided sites? What are the benefits / drawbacks of using a search engine to locate websites for your research? What are the benefits / drawbacks of using links from sites you’ve already found? What is the significance of a site’s domain type identifier?

In our district, we have the benefit of media centers with trained media specialists in all our buildings; make sure you utilize this resource and her knowledge of online materials available to our students (INFOhio resources available for free to all Ohio schools and students, free and subscription sites purchased by the districts that students can access, and so on).

5. Do I have the necessary time and support for the activity?

Two factors are often cited as barriers to the success of online learning strategies; they can take longer than traditional learning strategies, and technical problems can derail the lesson plan. While neither of these two issues will ever be eliminated, they should not result in missing the opportunity to provide an excellent learning option to your students and the likelihood of encountering these barriers can be minimized by some proactive planning.

Time is always an issue, as teachers are expected to teach more material to a higher level of understanding in a smaller time window, but using technology for webquests offers a way to integrate the additional "technology education" standard into an existing lesson to increase student performance on both. Once familiar with webquests, you will become proficient at identifying even further opportunities for integration that may actually reduce the total time needed to address these multiple areas. For instance, the lesson framework presented could easily integrate additional information literacy, history, math, geography, and other standards.

In Whitehall, the media specialists can also resolve many of the technical issues that might be encountered during a webquest, which is another reason I would utilize the media center to perform the online project. Since there are more computers in the lab than students in the classroom, should a problem be encountered on one workstation the students would be able to move to a working computer without interrupting the lesson. Short of a total network or Internet connection outage, which is very rare, technical problems should not be an issue.

I would, however, confirm prior to the class that the websites I know I will be visiting are accessible. Since the Child Internet Protection Act (CIPA - another legal issue worthy of consideration in a later post) requires that districts have web filters, there is always the possibility that a site you have found valuable at home may be blocked for the district. For example, we have one teacher in our district who would like to access YouTube for geometry lessons, but the site is blocked due to the inappropriate materials it contains. Protecting the students is paramount, so facts such as these are unfortunately a fact of life in schools. Taking proactive measures like checking the site prior to class use will ensure that the site is accessible through the filter. Checking the site in advance will also ensure that it doesn’t require specific add-ons, such as a specific version of Flash or Shockwave, that is not installed on the district computers, and provide time to find an alternative to that sitesite.

REFERENCE:

Coulter, B., Feldman, A., & Konold, C. (2000). Rethinking online adventures. Learning & Leading with Technology, 28(1), 42-47.

Leadership Lessons from Pygmalion and Clever Hans

2008-03-27T21:49:00.006-04:00

Classical Literature 101, condensed version:

The Roman poet Ovid's Metamorphoses, X, tells the story of the sculptor Pygmalion who created a sculpture of the perfect woman, Galatea. Even though he had turned his back on women, his sculpture was so perfect he fell in love with it, and eventually Venus (Aphrodite) took pity on him and brought the sculpture to life.

The Pygmalion Effect, condensed version:

Expectation impacts results.

In the early 1960s, Dr. Robert Rosenthal, then at Harvard and currently Professor of Social Psychology at the University of California (Riverside), began to suspect that researcher expectations were influencing the results of research studies. Although this may not be big news in 2008, and in fact even in the 1960s was an extension of a 1911 study of a horse named Clever Hans, it was the stimulus for several hundred studies to test his hypothesis. One of the more interesting investigations was one he conducted in the South San Francisco Unified School District after being contacted by elementary school principal Lenore F. Jacobsen who was intrigued by his hypothesis and offered her school for the testing ground.

In this “typical” elementary school, Rosenthal chose random children and told their teachers that those children had scored very high on a test that showed they were educational bloomers who would perform very well in class. Those children actually did better than their peers, with the only variable being teacher expectation. They expected better performance, and got it, probably because they treated them as “performers.”

In another study involving a vocational class for the “hardcore unemployed,” welding instructors were told some of the students had scored exceptionally high on a welding aptitude test. Those students learned twice as fast, scored 10 points higher on an exit exam, and were even absent less than the other students.

Pygmalion “Expectation Cycle:"

1. We form expectations of others.

2. We communicate our expectations (verbally and nonverbally, consciously and subconsciously).

3. Others respond to the cues we provide by adjusting their behavior to match our expectations.

4. Our original expectation comes true in a classic self-fulfilling prophecy, reinforcing our belief in our original assessment.

In the classroom, establishing high expectations for students with the anticipation of success increases student performance, but it is important to remember that the converse is also true. If the teacher has low expectations that are consciously or unconsciously transmitted to the student(s), lessened performance is the result. It is also important to remember that this applies not only to teacher - student relationships, but to supervisor – subordinate and peer – peer relationships as well.

According to Dr. Rosenthal, the Pygmalion Effect is composed of four main factors, listed below in oversimplified form, that apply both to students in the classroom and staff in any organization.

1. Climate. If you expect good things from people, you create a more positive interpersonal climate for them and the result is increased performance.

Positive: Being supportive and encouraging is important, but we also transmit signals with tone of voice, eye contact, facial expression, and body posture, that help create a positive environment that fosters success.

Negative: Being negative and discouraging removes the structures necessary to support success, and produces substandard performance.

2. Input. We teach more to those from whom we expect more due to the increased amount and quality of the input we give them.

Positive: We communicate our positive expectations of others by giving them important and challenging assignments that encourage them to expand their skills, and the information they need to perform their task well.

Negative: Negative expectations result in a dismissive attitude and a “just do it” approach that does not provide needed information and hinders chances for success.

3. Output. We give more opportunity to the “good” student (or employee) to ask questions of and communicate with us.

Positive: Opportunities to speak, offer their opinions, even the opportunity to disagree with our opinions are provided and foster student development.

Negative: We may consciously or subconsciously discourage output from the student from whom we expect less than stellar output, and since we don’t give them the opportunity for that stellar output, we create a classic self-fulfilling prophecy.

4. Feedback. The quality of the feedback we provide can vary based on what we expect from the student.

Positive: We give more feedback to the “good” student, not just by telling them what they’ve done well and giving them a pat on the back for the good work, but also by more thoroughly reviewing areas that offer opportunities for improvement.

Negative: When expectations are low, we may not make sufficient effort provide useful feedback. This can easily cause a student or staff member confusion over what is expected, and the cycle continues when that confusion is taken for confirmation that the student or staff member is a low performer.

For More:

http://www.psych.ucr.edu/faculty/rosenthal/index.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lenore_Jacobson

http://www.kidsource.com/education/pygmalion.html

http://psychology.wikia.com/wiki/Pygmalion_effect

http://www.accel-team.com/pygmalion/

SMARTboards

2008-03-26T20:04:00.007-04:00

NOTE: There are several companies that produce interactive whiteboards, and each has its advantages and disadvantages. We chose SMARTboards due to our district’s specific needs and they may not be the best match for your district, but much of what is written below applies to other interactive whiteboards as well. These thoughts came out of our most recent round of SMARTboard training for our elementary school teachers.

The interactive whiteboard is certainly a technology tool that has reached critical mass. Over the last year we have added over a dozen boards, and during this year’s budget proposals, each building principal asked for several more boards for his or her teachers.

SMARTboards are used with two primary software applications: SMART Notebook and Essentials for Educators. Both of these programs can be downloaded for free from the SMART Technologies web site so that teachers can create lessons at home, and both offer some value to the classroom even without the SMARTboard.

Anything you can do on a computer, you can do via the SMARTboard; in fact, you can think of the SMARTboard as an overgrown touchscreen monitor. This makes the board a great tool when you have more students than computers, as they can share a single computer via the large SMARTboard screen.

When you pick up a pen from the SMARTboard tray, a floating toolbar that gives you access to SMARTboard features will automatically appear. You can then use the pen to highlight areas of the screen and write notes, just as you would if you were writing on a transparency, and you can use the SMARTboard eraser to erase specific areas or simply touch the screen to erase everything. However, unlike a transparency, everything you write or put on the SMARTboard is an object that can be moved around the screen. This offers some great opportunities in the classroom, such as having students arrange words into a grammatically correct sentence or numbers into a correct mathematical equation.

The SMART Notebook software works very much like the Microsoft Office programs, so if you are familiar with PowerPoint it isn’t difficult to use the presentation creator component of SMART Notebook. The icons are also intuitive to use; you click the icon of the disk to save, delete text by highlighting it and clicking the red “X” to delete it, and so on.

After using the SMARTboard for a classroom presentation, you can select FILE – SAVE AS to save the presentation with all annotations that you can then print, post to a web site, or e-mail to a student who was absent that day. Note: If you are concerned that students may modify your notes, you can do a FILE – EXPORT – PDF to create a PDF file of your presentation. You can also export to other common formats, such as PowerPoint.

Writing on the Board

Simply pick up one of the colored “pens” from the tray to write in that color. If you have a student who has trouble gripping the pen, you can write with anything (a finger, a tennis ball). Just touch the pen icon at the top of the screen, then use the object as the writing instrument. You can also change the “ink trail” to anything from dotted lines to a line composed of smiley faces. There is even a handwriting recognition feature that is surprisingly accurate – it can even read my handwriting.

If you are one of the 3 people on the planet who has handwriting worse than mine, you can activate an onscreen keyboard and then using your finger or pen to “type” the text.

Using the Screen Shade Feature

Touching the icon on the top toolbar that looks like an old fashioned window shade allows you to selectively cover parts of the screen. A good use might be when you are leading a class discussion about an event or procedural sequence. Before class, you could create a sequence in order from top to bottom, then activate the shade and pull it up from the bottom of the screen. In class you could prompt, “What comes next,” and reveal the next step when a student provides the correct response.

Using the Capture Feature

Teachers can easily add impact to their classes by including graphics, web pages, sections of web pages, and more in SMARTboard lessons by using the capture feature, which is activated by clicking the various camera icons.

1. Bring up the capture toolbar with the camera icons.

2. Bring up the Web page or other screen you would like to “photograph.” The camera icon toolbar will follow you to that page.

3. Touch the leftmost camera icon to snap the photo, and then use your finger to drag a box around what you want to copy.

4. You can now use the graphic as part of a page, write on it, and so on.

5. Cool feature! If you want to use an Internet video in your class, after capturing the start picture you can use the down arrow and choose Link – Import to create a link to that video. Then when you touch the picture, it launches the video.

Note that the different “cameras” have different functions. The first takes a snapshot of a generally rectangular area that you define, the second captures the entire main content screen of a web site. The third captures the entire screen (particularly useful if you want to capture an entire web page, including the title bar), and you can tap the fourth icon to use your finger to draw outlines around irregularly shaped areas. If you have just captured something you want to save for use in other lessons, you can save it to your “gallery” so it is available to you later.

Using Microsoft Files with SMARTboard

If you are in a Microsoft application such as Word, Excel, or PowerPoint, you can save the document for SMARTboard use by “printing” it with FILE – PRINT – SMART Notebook print capture. This will convert the file to one that can be read by the SMARTboard software to let you easily use Word, Excel, PDF, and other files with your SMARTboard. Each Word page, Excel worksheet page, PowerPoint slide, and PDF page are captured as separate slides in the SMART Notebook software.

OR, in SMART Notebook, choose FILE – OPEN and select a Word, Excel, or PowerPoint file, and it will be automatically converted for SMART Notebook use.

When moving through a PowerPoint, tap left, then right and you move forward to the next slide. To reverse, tap right then left.

Random Notes of Particular Interest to Elementary Teachers

Elementary teachers working on sentence construction can write words on the SMARTboard, and students can touch and drag the words to create grammatically correct sentences. However, since the SMART Notebook software is designed to recognize words written left to write as a sentence and will automatically group them. To keep the words separate, you should write them in a column on the board. Math teachers may want to enter 5 6 7 8 9 10 30 = X , and ask the students to touch and drag elements to create the correct formula of 6 X 5 = 30.

The Keyboard option contains text and number keypads.

Lined paper is available from the Gallery for use when students are doing on-board writing projects. The gallery is a very important tool to learn, as there are many backgrounds, graph paper, and pre-made interactive lessons that are aligned to subject and grade level standards. Going through the Gallery and selecting Online Options will allow you to search even more pre-made lessons available via the Internet, which is a great way to start using your SMARTboard without having to reinvent the wheel.

Click on the downward pointing triangle on a page in the page sorter area, and choose clone to make a duplicate of that page (so you get the same background, etc.)

You can “right click” the board by touching it for 3 seconds, and then make selections from the popup menu.

When using the pen, you can write a word, tap it, use the down arrow at the top right of the selection, and select GROUPING - UNGROUP to “ungroup” the letters in the word so they can be moved independently for an onscreen spelling lesson. You can also select the letters, and choose GROUPING – GROUP to group them again.

VIEW – ZOOM – DUAL PAGE to see two pages at once. VIEW – ZOOM – SINGLE PAGE to go back to a single page view.

There is a fantastic interactive protractor in the Essentials for Educators software, under Shapes – Angles. Choose the “Flash” protractor (identified by the FLASH icon), and you can use the interactive protractor to measure or demonstrate fractions.

…and when the inevitable happens…

If you inadvertently write on the SMARTboard with a dry erase or permanent marker, you can clean the board with EXPO cleaner, but that can leave a film on the board so it is better to not get into the habit of pointing with markers other than the ones included with the board – or that tennis ball.

For More:

http://education.smarttech.com/ste/en-us/

http://www.scholastic.com/interactivewhiteboards/

http://www.computerlab.kids.new.net

http://eduscapes.com/sessions/smartboard/

http://itmc.cesa5.k12.wi.us/digitaltools/Smartboard.htm

http://itmc.cesa5.k12.wi.us/digitaltools/Smartboard.htm

http://technology.usd259.org/resources/whiteboards/smartlessons.htm
http://www.theteachersguide.com/SmartBoards.htm

Online Classes - Top Ten Tips

2008-03-16T23:25:00.005-04:00

Many public K-12 students, particularly at the high school level, are now utilizing e-learning to address specific individual needs. For some, a required class was offered at a time that conflicted with other classes or outside responsibilities, while others may be using e-learning for credit recovery necessary to address graduation requirements. Some are taking advantage of an online option to take a class not available in their home district (has anyone else noticed that the old example of a Japanese language class has now become a Chinese language class). Teachers and other staff are increasingly turning to online coursework to address licensure, IPDP, or other requirements as an option that also allows them to fulfill not only their professional needs but their employment and family obligations as well.

E-learning courses may be offered onsite using the district's technology to provide individualized instruction, or via an online course developed and delivered elsewhere. In both cases, since the learning is more self-directed by the student than in the traditional classroom, there are some skills that are particularly critical for success with this educational delivery method. The following have been my personal "Top Ten Tips."

Be Clear on Why You Are Taking the Course
Motivation is the prime driver for everything we do, so it is important that you clarify your purpose for taking the course. Are you doing it to become qualified for employment, to increase your value to your current employer, or simply due to a long standing interest? When challenges arise, reminding yourself of your motivations will help encourage you to meet those challenges.

Be Prepared
While online coursework offers many benefits, there can be unanticipated challenges that can only be addressed by advanced preparation. For instance, if you are an on-campus university student and need to purchase textbooks, that requirement is normally addressed by a simple stop at the campus bookstore. However, if you are an “online student” and live hundreds (or thousands) of miles from campus, an obscure textbook can cause serious challenges. If possible, contact the professor well in advance of the course start date to determine if any textbooks or other materials are needed. If they are unavailable to you locally, you may need to arrange to have them shipped from the university’s bookseller.

Since your computer and Internet connection will be your crucial link to the online class, if you do not have an understanding of computer and modem troubleshooting you might want to find someone willing to help you if problems arise. A high school classmate or college/university campus support technician might be worth cultivating as a friend, because we all know technology “glitches” occur at the worst possible time. Advanced planning might give you someone to turn to should a problem arise when you are desperately trying to meet a course deadline.

It is also more important to be prepared for an online course than a traditional “face to face” course due to the more limited opportunity for teacher/professor and student interaction.

Polish Your Writing Skills
The majority of communication in an online class is written, so it is critical that you have good written communication skills. While tools like online chat allow for back-and-forth discourse, typing is slower than speaking for even the most texting-addicted students so it is important to be as clear as possible. Tools such as discussion boards take asynchronous communications to even greater extremes, so “precise and concise” is even more critical here. Imagine the classic “Who’s on First” comedy routine by Abbott and Costello on a discussion board with hours – or days – between lines as they strive for understanding.

“Touch Base” Regularly
Remember to check your e-mail regularly to keep up with communications from your professor and the other students in your class. If you are using an e-learning tool such as Blackboard or Sakai, make sure you log onto those frequently as well. Your only communication conduit is electronic; do not neglect it.

Participate!
Simply showing up for class and warming a seat isn’t sufficient for success in the traditional classroom, and participation is even more critical in the online environment. If your professor uses online chats and/or discussion boards to encourage interaction, you must participate both for your own benefit and for that of the other students.

Schedule “Class Time”
Many students prefer the online learning experience because it allows them to flex their learning schedule to accommodate fulltime work, family, and other commitments. However, the lack of a defined schedule can also make it tempting to put off your coursework until a “better time.” To avoid this temptation, establish a set schedule that accommodates your other commitments, but also assures attention to regular class participation and study.

Also, make sure you schedule enough dedicated time for your course. Some students participating in their first online class expect the class to be a “breeze” because you don’t have to encounter the leader face-to-face. Once in the class, however, you may well find that your online course requires more time than a traditional class as you develop the new skills required for this learning modality. Some sources suggest you plan to spend 9 – 12 (or more) hours per week on each class.

Stay Focused
During your defined class schedule, be sure to stay focused. In traditional classes, it is not acceptable for your friends to drop in suggest going out for pizza. Don’t let this occur in your e-learning experience, either. It is also not conducive to learning to multi-task your coursework and the “Matrix Marathon” on the Sci-Fi Channel. Unlike the traditional classroom where your teacher or professor and the rest of the class – even the structured class itself - helped you stay focused on the task at hand, in the virtual class environment this responsibility is yours alone.

Carefully Read and Complete All Assignments – On Time!
Due to the lack of face-to-face communication and discussion, it is critical that you carefully read and understand all instructions to avoid misunderstandings about assignment parameters and deadlines. Make sure you complete and understand all assigned readings and other supplemental materials (web sites, electronic presentations, videos, and so on). Do not fall into the trap of letting the lack of definite class times translate into a lassiez-faire attitude toward your assignment deadlines; these are typically non-negotiable and, if anything, it is in your best interest to submit assignments early so that a last-minute submission isn’t prevented by a technical issue such as an Internet connection problem.

Organize Your Work
Online classes are electronically-based, and require that you have (or develop) certain skills. You should always keep copies of everything you submit online, for your own reference and also as a protection against files that are lost or corrupted during transmission.

Design an electronic file structure that helps you locate your files when needed. You will want to create a directory for each class, and a subdirectory for each module within that class. In an increasingly mobile world, you may be able to save electronic course materials such as assignment sheets, assignment templates, documents, PowerPoint presentation files, and more to your notebook computer so that you can access them any time you have some spare time – even if you are away from Internet access. Many programs, such as the Backpack program for Blackboard, exist to help you automate this process. You can then save all materials related to a specific module in the appropriate directory so you can find them easily. You will also want to save any files you produce for submission in response to this module in the same directory so you will have a copy in case one of the electronic dogs “eats” your homework.

For extra protection, also remember to backup your computer. You can save your files to a USB thumb drive, burn them to a CD, back them up to an external USB hard drive, or even just print everything out in hardcopy - whatever is your backup process of choice. It doesn’t matter how you do the backups, but in the immortal words of Nike, “Just Do It.”

Communicate with Your Teacher or Professor
You may not be able to raise your hand, but you can send an e-mail. Make sure you communicate questions and problems with your class leader, just as you would in a traditional class. This is particularly important because in the virtual classroom your leader can not see if you are confused or frustrated.

Some students have told me they actually do this better in the slightly more anonymous online class because it causes them less embarrassment than discussing questions and problems in front of others in a traditional classroom. I have also heard positive comments about the immediacy of responses, as a question posted at 1:00 am may be responded to at 1:03am. Your teachers and professors do, however, have lives outside the classroom, so do not expect this immediate response as the norm. Most class leaders try to respond to all messages within 24 – 48 hours, but even these teachers may take longer over weekends and breaks.

Software - is it worth your district's money (and your students' time)?

2008-02-22T20:16:00.005-05:00

School districts have significant challenges, with time and money being two of the biggest. As a result, it is important that the software you choose for your district offers the best possible value for the purchase price, and is the best tool available to maximize your students' learning in the limited amount of time you have with them.

Ohio SchoolNet, now eTech Ohio, had a software review project (SSRP) that is now, regrettably, inactive. The intent was to have Ohio's teachers use a standard software review matrix for the software they use and submit it to SchoolNet for inclusion in a review database. This would make the front line experts' objective opinions about the value of the software they used in their own classroom available for others to use when performing their own evaluations of software for purchase. The good news is that, even though the SSRP program is no more, there are several groups who have devised evaluation rubrics to help ensure you make the best possible software decisions.

Ohio SchoolNet's own SSRP Tool is still available on ERIC's website (an incredible resource in it's own right).

The International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) also offers it's own Educational Software Evaluation Form, as do other organizations such as SREB/EvaluTech with their own software review criteria outlined below.

Of course, your own teachers are still your most valuable resource for information on software that works - and doesn't. Encourage them to participate in conferences such as eTech's, and take all available opportunities to share with teachers in other districts. We all share the same goal, to provide the best possible education for our students, so there's no need for each of us to reinvent the wheel (to coin a phrase).

No bathrooms on the bottom...

2008-02-22T19:14:00.002-05:00

Technology educators and administrators in the State of Ohio have the great benefit of an exceptional state-level support agency - eTech Ohio (formerly Ohio SchoolNet). This agency has a long track record of support for school technology initiatives, from it's inception as Ohio SchoolNet when it provided funding for districts to install network cabling infrastructure that began the explosion of K-12 technology programs, through the SchoolNet Plus program that provided funding for the purchase of student computers, to it's current incarnation that merges the K-12 technology role with other existing state agencies such as public television.

One of the key services provided by "the new eTech" is the annual State Technology Conference, one of the premiere events in the industry. Held in February of each year, this conference provides individual sessions in everything from technology management and leadership to assistive technologies for special needs students. And, of course, there are always notable keynote speakers.

I have been interested in oceanography and marine biology ever since taking up scuba diving during a trip to The Bahamas when I was 11. By 11 1/2 I had my scuba certification (I was big for my age; at the time you weren't supposed to be eligible for your certification until you were 15), and I spent a lot of time underwater for a lot of years. So, I was excited to learn that one of the keynote speakers for the 2008 conference was Bob Ballard: oceanographer, explorer, and "finder of the Titanic."

Dr. Ballard gave a very engaging presentation, and provided some very interesting insights into the impact technology is having in his field of expertise. While there was the obvious required technology, such as submersibles that allow humans to survive temperature extremes or descend well below the depths that could be tolerated by a scuba diver, it was technology's "remote access" capabilities that are now offering the most exciting benefits. After a very humorous account of a typical day before remote access, which could include a "commute" of several hours straight down in a cramped submersible with no bathroom facilities, he said that the technology that allowed him to remain on the topside research vessel (with bathroom)was a huge step forward for all oceanographers. The remote vehicle, carrying cameras and other information-gathering devices, could now make the commute without him while he stayed in the relative comfort of the mother ship.

The real impact of remote monitoring, however, is just now starting to be realized. Dr. Ballard described a technological world in which the data collection vehicle can be literally anywhere, and the top experts in any field can view that information real-time via High Definition Television (HDTV) and data monitors that can, if needed, exactly duplicate the environment of the researcher sitting in that cramped, "sans facilities" submersible. A submersible studying underwater volcanoes off Hawaii, for instance, can simultaneously provide realtime data to a top vulcanologist in Australia and a top marine biologist in France, with both having access to data equal to what they would have onsite - without the indignities.

Of course, we all know that the major technological benefit of HDTV is an improved viewing experience for Big 10 football games, but it's nice to know there are also minor side-benefits to the technology such as those described by Dr. Ballard.

Get Graphic - on the Cheap

2008-02-03T19:28:00.000-05:00

In 1972, while studying the acquisition of science knowledge in children, J. D. Novack discovered the value of using simple, graphical representations to reinforce student learning. By creating a visual template, or scaffolding, to support the learning, knowledge acquisition improved. Over time, the variety of tools used to create this scaffolding came to be known generically as graphic organizers. Expanding use lead to increasing data that these organizers increased the speed of knowledge acquisition, depth of understanding, knowledge retention, even the application of the acquired knowledge to new contexts.

These tools don't only work wonders for students in all curricular areas, they work in management and leadership contexts as well. Without Novack's discoveries we may not have what seems to be the one universal element in all meetings: the wall-sized PostIT note. The reason it is so universal is that the graphic charting element works so well for educator knowledge acquisition, too. We use it to identify major concepts, subconcepts, contributors, and interrelationships to help understand complex systems and project how systems change will impact the whole - including areas that are sometimes not obvious at the first review.

The 5 main types of graphic organizers are:

- Star/Web
- Chart/Matrix
- Tree/Map
- Chain
- Sketch

Let's look at how two organizer types, chain and sketch, can easily be created with a technology every district already owns - word processing software. Our district happens to use Microsoft Word, but I do not know of any word processing software that does not offer a similar capability to produce this type of output (yes, including freeware).

The chain type offers us a chance to look at graphic organizers as the simplest level: sequencing.

HOW TO MAKE TEA (with sincere apologies to my English friends)

Put fresh water in cup
Put cup in microwave
Set on high power for two minutes
Take cup out of microwave and put teabag in cup
Let steep for 3 minutes

Timelining is a "step up" from a simple wordprocessed sequence list that can easily be accommodated with a word processor, it's line draw features, and a little ingenuity.

Ohio has State Standards for Education that include mapping to help with spatial awareness and other learning areas. You can also easily integrate a technology component by having students use the drawing capabilities of your district's word processor to create a neighborhood map. All programs easily create lines, squares, rectangles, circles, and ovals necessary to give at least an adequate representation for lesson plans that include basic mapping.

To Blog or Not To Blog...

2008-02-01T22:47:00.001-05:00

Blogging is one of those technologies that it is unfortunate the students embraced before the educators realized it's potential. Social blogging, and the media focus on it's negative aspects, created a stereotype of blogs as uneducated ramblings focused on weekends of inebriation, rife with misspellings and bad grammar. To make matters worse, young bloggers often revealed more about themselves than was prudent, with the potential for disastrous results. Added to this, of course, are examples of students publishing negative information about district teachers or the district itself.

The negative reputation of blogs has been difficult to surmount, even as a growing number of teachers are finding creative uses for blogging in the educational environment. Certainly there are students who are much more motivated to author blog entries than to complete a simple wordprocessing assignment. The shared development opportunities, in which other classmates or even students from other countries, allow for some very creative group dynamic scenarios. As we are able to offer more positive examples of blogs, such as group collaboration on a creative writing projects, language projects that involve students in another country, or history projects in which class members assume the roles of specific characters and "discuss" the events of another time, or even something less creative like a district technology director using a blog to offer technology integration ideas to teachers, we will be able to get beyond this negative stigma.

To use the old standard, "the train has left the station" and our students are already on board. It's time for us to join them by finding creative ways to apply this relatively new technology in our classrooms.

A sample site evaluation - NASA's K-12 site

2008-01-27T14:22:00.001-05:00

Each teacher will have his or her own specific needs based on the topics and grade levels taught. As a result, this sample is a fairly generic; your own review of the same site would be more specific to your unique class needs.

For this evaluation, we will be looking at NASA's "For Students" area.

While content is the most critical area for review, the usability issues are most evident when first visiting this site. The launch page for this area is eye-catching, with photos of the Space Station and students in headphones listening to podcasts. It is, however, a little intimidating at this level due to the wide range of content, photos, and links. Thankfully, links in the upper left of the site allow you to easily identify grade levels to hone in on the content appropriate for your students. Clicking the Grades K - 4 link opens a menu of several options, including Stories, Find It Fast, Play & Learn, Picture Dictionary, and Current Opportunities. These different links offer a variety of educational reinforcement opportunities, from the Find It Fast link that lets students quickly find links to specific topics and the Picture Dictionary that provide quick access to research tools to the Play & Learn area guaranteed to engage students in educational games. The Search for Spinoffs game, for example, lets students search for items like a cordless drill that has it's root development as a result of the space program.

Usability

This sites subdivision into age-group areas generally ensures materials are appropriate for different student groups and enhances the site's organization, some links in the K-4 area take the user to content beyond the abilities of most students at that grade level. Students comfortable at the higher level could continue their research, while others could return to the lower-level content with a single click of their browser's back button.

It also receives top ranking in reliability, but surprisingly is not as interlinked to Internet resources outside their own site as one might expect. Intense graphics and video could result in problems with bandwidth limitations, but were not an issue in our district. Since we repurpose our old workstations as terminal clients, there are some possible issues with the video cards in our oldest (1995) computers not being able to display the highest-end graphics.

Content

Given the "ownership" of the site, it is safe to assume quality content which is proven when visiting the site. Although at the K - 4 level most of the content is not attributed to specific a specific individual, authority can be assumed on this site due to the credibility of NASA itself. NASA is probably the ultimate authority in space exploration, it is also safe to assume the information it contains is current and unbiased.

Other Considerations

While the site offers a wealth of multimedia materials to reinforce student learning through engagement, this same consideration can make the site difficult or impossible to use for those students who require accessibility devices.

Overall, this site would be on the top ten list for almost all those researching space.

Detangling the web

2008-01-27T12:52:00.001-05:00

An example of the power of the Internet comes from my own educational history. A two month sojourn in Japan during my "formative years" instilled a lifelong interest in Asia, which culminated (educationally) in pursuing graduate studies in East Asian Languages and Literatures at THE Ohio State University (you have to be an Ohioan or have attended OSU to appreciate the THE ). To reinforce that my study was out of a sheer love for the material and I had absolutely no career plans driving my efforts, I will further note that my concentration was in Classical Japanese Buddhist Literature.

Although not the focus of my studies, many of my "favorite reads" were works by the poet Saigyo (佐藤義清), who began writing in the 1100s. Although OSU has an incredibly impressive library, delving deep into Saigyo's writings often required the beneficience of other universities sharing materials via interlibrary loan. Now, a casual search of the Internet reveals over 7,500 reference to Saigyo sites. Absolutely amazing, but how do we find the appropriate trees in this extensive forest?

My last post lists some links to sites that offer ideas on how to evaluate sites, and from these I have distilled ideas to come up with my own set of evaluation criteria that seem particularly applicable to the K-12 environment. For ease of use, I have grouped them into content, usability, and other.

The Top Ten

Content - Five Suggested Review Criteria

The site provides accurate information, and what you find on the sites matches your own previous knowledge or those of other teachers who are specialists in the research area.

Sources are referenced, so you know what individuals or groups are providing the materials on the site.

The sources are authoritative, either known experts in the field or the site is owned by a credible group.

Information on the site is current, and updated appropriately for the content. A list of the kings of England may not need to be updated regularly, but it seems like celebrity incarceration news must be updated hourly to remain accurate.

The site provides unbiased information that is free from intentional or unintentional skewing of information based on personal or group beliefs. Often, a visit to a whois engine provides valuable information about who has registered (owns) the site, which can help uncover any hidden agendas.

Usability - An Additional Five Criteria

Is the site appropriate for your students' age and educational level? Does it use navigation techniques they will understand, and is the content appropriate and comprehensible for them?

Is the site reliable? Do the links and multimedia content work, and is the site rarely down?

Is the site well organized, and the relevant material easy to find?

Does the site offer links to other sites with valuable content related to the research topic? Will a student researcher find this site a good starting point in developing a web of information?

Is the site functional with your district's technology infrastructure? The best site in the world isn't helpful if it requires special software, computer equipment, or has excessive bandwith requirements for it's multimedia content that aren't available to you in your district.

Other Considerations

In addition to the Top Ten above, there are four other considerations that may be appropriate based on the specific research and needs of your students.

Does the site meet a unique need? For instance, if your school's media specialist has arranged an author visit, does that author have his or her own web site you would like your students to consult prior to the visit?

Does the site address your students that have specific needs? Do you teach a visually impaired student that needs a screen reader to access web sites and, if so, has the site been developed with accessibility in mind (does it use ALT tags for graphics, and so on). Teachers of students with special needs can use the "Bobby" software to proactively evaluate site accessibility by clicking this link.

Does the site engage the student researcher with multimedia and other "wow factor" content, or is it just an electronic presentation of what would have otherwise been available in print?

Does the site provide free use of it's content for student reports and presentations, or does using it's content in this manner represent a copyright infringement? Sometimes this can be difficult to determine, but is important if we are teaching our students ethical use in the digital age. Some sites are helping by making usage rights more evident. For instance, the Saigyo photo above was taken from Wikipedia. When I clicked the photo, the site explicitly stated that the image was from the Wikimedia Commons, which is a "freely licensed media file repository."

Next up: A site evaluation using the criteria above.

Oh, what a tangled web...

2008-01-26T21:57:00.001-05:00

When you mention technology in schools, the first thing most people think about are computer networks used to access the Internet and students doing web research, so this is as good a place to start as any.

For educators, the availability of free, high quality multimedia resources for education obviously held a huge "wow factor" that helped technology establish a foothold in the K-12 environment. Students who had grown up with television, movies, computers, and video games were already more technology-literate than many educators who came from earlier generations, and were often more engaged in the learning experience when it was presented via this multimedia content.

While the value of the Internet to the K-12 student, their teachers, and the rest of the world's population with Internet access, is incontrovertible, it wasn't long until the reality set in that this valuable tool was not a panacea. Filters were put in place to help protect students from inadvertantly accessing inappropriate materials. Unreliable internet connections could ground a lesson plan centered on online research. Perhaps most challenging to always frugal schools is that technology is not inexpensive, and in an environment used to long-term purchases it was - and continues to be - an adjustment to deal with items that are "obsolete" in just a few years. Much ingenuity has been shown in schools to keep older equipment alive, and it is not unusual to find 12 year old (or older) computers that have been repurposed as terminal clients so they are still in production, delivering educational value to students.

It was also soon evident that students - and staff - needed to develop a critical eye when surfing the Internet. We had, perhaps, never fully appreciated the intrinsic preselection process in the materials found in the school media center. Printing books is expensive, so publishing companies were motivated to ensure the credibility and accuracy materials to ensure the book would be positively reviewed, academically accepted, purchased, and profitable. After surviving this first test, materials were further reviewed by school media specialists prior to purchase. As a result, materials students found in the school's media center were generally credible.

The great value of the Internet - it's extremely low "publication costs" that allow a much wider range of voices to be heard - makes it essential that we evaluate the materials found on the net with a critical eye. When doing research on the moon, you may find a very professional looking site done by an enthusiastic 8 year old. While that 8-year-old may be a "moon-savant," it is probably more important that we view the information it contains critically that information on NASA's web site.

Many tricks can be used to assist with web site evaluation, but all have unique drawbacks. For instance, you can limit your research to sites that have a .edu extension, as those are reserved for use by colleges and universities so may help confirm credibility. However, for elementary school students, the content level may be too high for comprehension, and many items of interest to them will not be covered at this academic level. Another trick is to do a whois search, which allows you to enter a web address and find information on the person or group to whom it is registered, which can give you an indication of the credibility of the site's content.

For guidance on how to evaluate web sites, please check out some of the sites below.

Cornell University's Olin & Uris Libraries

Cornell University's Olin & Uris Libraries' "Five Criteria for Evaluating Web Pages"

CyberBee, by a friend, Linda Joseph, an educator in the Columbus, Ohio area.

Kathy Schrock's Guide for Educators

The Ohio State University's net.Tutor

UC Berkeley Library

Those with elementary level students may want to have them consult Eduplace's step-by-step tutorial on finding and selecting web sites.

This is just a sampling of hundreds of sites you can find with a simple Google search, where you are sure to find some to suit the needs of you and your students.

Good searching!

Welcome

2008-01-20T16:45:00.001-05:00

Hello, and welcome to my blog. For those of you into older English literature, my title is an homage to Jerome K. Jerome's classic Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow. If your sense of humor is a little off-kilter, like mine, you should check out his Three Men in a Boat for some good laughs.

OK, down to business. I am a technology director who, after working in private sector technology for years, decided to move into the world of K-12 technology where the rewards are more spiritual than financial but you get the pleasure of working with some really exceptional people and for the benefit of some very incredible students. Hopefully, this blog will be less of an ego massage than something that creates some interesting dialogue from the "idle thoughts."