• Some Tech Sense » Blog Archive » Keeping Parents in the Loop

  This year, I have set the goal to get every parent set up with a Netvibes page so that they can access all of their child’s teacher’s blogs quickly. I’m attending the first PTSA meeting of the year this week to teach parents how to set up the page, I’ve written an article about Netvibes for our school-wide ParentTalk and I’ve created a screencast for parents to set the Netvibes page at home.

  tags: netvibes, RSS, parents

• TypeRacer

  Allows you to practice your typing and keyboarding skills against other people that are connected to the Internet. Social Typing practice?

  tags: keyboarding, game, typing

Popularity: 1% [?]

It’s been a while since I’ve posted here at UTT. Jeff Utecht and I no longer work at the same school; he’s moved on to Thailand and I to Switzerland. In many ways, both of us made the right move, to schools where technology integration lies at the heart of educational philosophy.

Here in Switzerland, the Zurich International School’s 9-12th graders have just begun the school year in a new, state of the art building in which technology was at the core of design principles. As a one-to-one tablet school with a digital SmartBoard in front of each and every classroom, ZIS has taken giant leaps in the direction of paperless, tablet-based learning. Here are a few examples of how technology is embedded in every class:

• SmartBoard in every classroom: In fact, there is not a single white board on campus. Teachers haven’t a choice between old and new, it’s all new. Teachers’ tablets can be synchronized wirelessly using the LinQ software from anywhere in the classroom with the SmartBoard in the front. This allows for maximum mobility, meaning lectures can be delivered via the board while the teacher roams the room, monitoring student progress.
• Tablets for every student: Lenovo Thinkpad X61 Tablet PCs, to be precise. Students use Microsoft OneNote or Windows Live Journal for note taking. .pdf’s can be distributed to students via Moodle and edited using OneNote or Live Journal. Many classes have gone to e-books, which can also be annotated using one of the programs installed on the tablets.
• Synchronize software for displaying student work on SmartBoard: This is still to be introduced, but soon teachers will be able to monitor each student’s work on his or her tablet from the teacher’s own tablet. When desired, any individual student’s workspace can be projected onto the Smart Board for the class to see. In economics, I envision using this feature often to allow students to share graphs and other illustrations without having to come to the board.
• Networked Cannon printer/scanner/photocopiers: The school is serious about cutting down on paper use. Teachers are encouraged to scan all documents using the amazing Canon scanners which automatically send an email to our school accounts of any scanned document as an attached .pdf. Rather than photocopying a handout, worksheet or reading, teachers are expected to scan to their emails and post documents to Moodle for students to access on their tablets for reading and annotating.

Many other projects are in the wings here at ZIS, including a Wordpress MU site for student and teacher blogs and a Google Docs account for online management of student and teacher work. For some teachers, these technological endeavors seem daunting, but overall I have been blown away by the attitude of even the most experienced, longest-serving teachers at ZIS, almost all of whom seem overwhelmingly excited about the steps the school has taken to embed technology at every level of our teaching and learning.

Personally, I’m thrilled to be a part of Zurich International School’s IT experiment. As a firm believer in the power of online and e-learning, as well as the utility of laptops in the classroom, ZIS is a perfect fit for me as I continue using wikis, blogs, and now tablets and SmartBoards in my own instruction.

Popularity: 2% [?]

Technorati Tags: educational technology, SmartBoard, tablets, Zurich International School

After my post about moving to a new school and having a Mac for the first time in 10+ years, I received more suggestions of software that I needed then I ever thought I would. I’m still going through the list and of course installing and uninstalling software as I try things out and find what I really need.

I was asked if I would create a wiki to keep track of all the cool software that people were mentioning….so….I did.

The wiki is set up and asks for software recommendations for educators and education in Windows, Mac, and Linux.

Now all it needs is software. It is open to the public so you can go ahead and start adding software recommendations without signing up for an account.

If everyone took the time to add just one piece of software it wouldn’t take us long to have an amazingly useful site.

So head on over and add just one…..that’s it! Through one….comes many!

Thanks!

http://wiki.utechtips.com

Popularity: 2% [?]

Technorati Tags: Education, linux, MAC, software, Wiki, windows

So many times we use the phrase “Teaching & Learning” but really we need to be asking ourselves:

This came up in a discussion with Kim earlier today, (BTW….the two of us in a room for longer than 10 minutes is enough deep conversation to keep me going the rest of the day) that what we are focusing on is not necessary student learning, but instead teachers teaching. It’s easy to get caught up in the moment and take our eye off of what we’re really here for.

As we continue to support teachers using technology tools in their classrooms we need to realize that teachers’ use of technology is not the same as supporting teachers teaching with technology. In these early days I’ve been supporting the use of technology. Answering questions about SmartBoards, Entourage, Office 2008, OSX 10.5, etc. Although it’s important to support teachers in the use of technology it’s much different then supporting teachers teaching with technology.

Supporting the use of technology focuses on the tool itself. Not on the learning or the students. When we support teachers by helping them with a SmartBoard Notebook file, or teaching them some new trick in Office, we are supporting their use of the tool, not their use of that tool for learning. One can easily get sucked into supporting the use of technology full time (such as I have lately) and not make a true impact with technology in the classroom as a learning engine.

As long as we continue to think of technology as a tool for learning we are going to get caught in this circle of supporting teachers use of the tools, rather than focusing on student learning.

Technology as a tool worked when the impact on learning was small. I think of the use of Word or any Office application for that matter. It was a tool that we used to replace a way we had/have always done things.

Technology for learning is about connecting students to information and using applications that allow students to manipulate data, ask questions and interact with information.

I think of the use of Google Earth…not to study the Earth being round (using the tool like a globe) but instead using Google Earth with an overlay of migration patterns to talk about why people migrate (a lesson I did last year with 5th graders). Then having student interact with data by having them create their own migration pattern, and share that information with others (connecting information) to create an understand of why students in international schools migrate and where they come from.

I am continually reminded of the Marc Prensky article in edutopia where he states the different levels of technology use.

1. Dabbling.
2. Doing old things in old ways.
3. Doing old things in new ways.
4. Doing new things in new ways.

To me using technology as a tool is still dabbling with technology and not really affecting learning in a deeper more meaningful way….I mean it’s 2008!

When a new technology appears, our first instinct is always to continue
doing things within the technology the way we’ve always done it.

Technology as a tool.

What we’re talking about is invention — new things in new ways.

Technology as a connector to information allows us to look at data, to interact with learning like we have never been able to do before and connect with people, places and things in ways we were never able to do prior to the Internet.

What I find when I talk to teachers it that this is a HUGE jump! Thinking beyond replacement into a world where you can create, invent, and think about information and learning in new ways does not come natural to many educators. (Ouch!)

Let’s focus on learning, let’s focus on creating an atmosphere in which technology is more than a tool, but is an embedded part of our classrooms, our own thinking as we plan lessons, and a gateway to inventive teaching. Let’s stop using technology as a tool and start using it as a way to connect ideas, to create new and interesting way to learn and interact with information in ways that were never possible before. Let’s use technology as a way to make learning meaningful and authentic to learners.

It’s more than a tool….it’s a connection creator!

Popularity: 3% [?]

Technorati Tags: 21st Century Learning, connections, Google Earth, Marc Prensky, support

• Guided Reading and Reading Games with Roy the Zebra

  Great for early years English learners.

  tags: literacy, reading, interactive

• Rick Wilson Ocean Challenge 2008

  Students can follow Rick on his journey around the world. Complete with lesson ideas and contact info for teachers.

  tags: Education, OnlineProjects

Popularity: 4% [?]

Last month I while visiting Tara and Dale I had the chance to play with Tara’s new Kindle, the electronic book reader from Amazon. Given that I like gadgets and books a lot, it is only natural that I would be most intrigued by this device…. And I quite liked it. The price point still seems high to me, but given that you can carry 200 books with you, music and more, i could be a very cool device for us global nomads. Tara gives her first impressions on her blog, but my short interactions was pretty positive: The screen looks like paper. That it does not support PDFs is a big disappointment, one I hope they address in future versions. And the future is almost here: Today Amazon confirms that they will release a student version–larger screen better suited to text books. Beyond that details are sketchy. My list of features would include:
1) True Wi Fi, not just Amazon’s whisper set
2) Either pricing text books at a student price or the ability to sell it after you finish a course (10 dollars seems like a good price point to me in the over inflated text book price market)
3) Better annotation technologies–highlighting, stickies, maybe even linking to online articles that you may want to highlight.
4) I would love if it could switch from greyscale to colour for charts and maagzie supscriptions.
5) Battery life. Reports on the original Kindle suggest that batter life is pretty good…but it has got to be better.
6) Multi touch interface–for better annotation.
7) true rss feed support to get access to blogs and newspaper–not through Amazon, which charges for this, but through wifi.
resizable font (which the current kindle does)
9) sd slot so you can expand your collection easily.
10 Support for every format–PDF, Doc, Text etc.
I am sure there are mroe features I am missing, but given I have only play with one for an hour….What are your thoughs?

For those in a market of an ebook reader, I found the ebook reader matrix a helpful tool.

Popularity: 6% [?]

Technorati Tags: ebook reader

Readers of this blog know I am a big fan of podcasts…Well yesterday, itunes was blocked in China:

The government of China has blocked access to the entirety of the
iTunes store, and the publishers of a single new Tibet-themed album are
claiming responsibility.

The album, Songs for Tibet [iTunes link],
is a compilation of music by Sting, Alanis Morissette, Garbage and
others, plus a 15-minute lecture by the Dalai Lama. The album is being
released by the New York City-based Art of Peace Foundation, whose
spokesman Michael Wohl said he believed the album was responsible for
the outage, but couldn’t prove it.

Is this a temporary block from the net nanny? Or is a local company launching an online service ad needs a little leg up? What does this mean for an iphone release in China? Podcasts are proving very useful in education. Aside from teh obvious language and news podcasts, we used them to introduce courses at SAS.

Popularity: 7% [?]

Just developing a website feels just like dating — together all the time but, you know, you can walk away when you want to. Now going live with that website feels like, you know, getting married — it’s a commitment. I have been coordinating the development of our new school website and yesterday I realized that it was time for our 10-month relationship to go to the next level.

Saddled with anxiety and excitement, I launched the new IST website early in the evening yesterday. Today, I feel a deep sense of relief and a determination to make this work. Here’s a look at the site’s new homepage and how it intends to change our school community.

Website Homepage, originally uploaded by todbaker.

Goals

• Improve teaching and learning.
• Organize our school community.
• Promote our school.

Design

• Gives first-time visitors a sense that they have been in our school before.
• Evokes a feel for our host country as well.
• Designed by finalsite.

Content

• Comprehensive, informative, and current information supports cooperation.
• Inspires visitors to return frequently.
• Includes photos, videos, and text created by a variety of people.

Marketing

• Distinguishes us as a unique school in Tianjin.
• Brands our school as family friendly, IB World School.
• Gives visitors an online store (coming soon) to buy school merchandise.

Teaching & Learning

• One-stop repository of inquiries and actions throughout the school.
• Teacher sites (coming soon) provide space to reflect and connect.
• Amplifies our group communications and promotes change.

Essentially, the website intends to improve teaching and learning, but as you can see it will change our school community in many ways.

I will be presenting the development and coordination of this website at Learning2.008 next month. Hope to see you there.

Website Homepage Old, originally uploaded by todbaker.

This is a screenshot of our old website homepage.

Popularity: 8% [?]

Technorati Tags: learning2cn2008, website