Why should I have a web presence for my classroom?

I believe teachers, principals, and administrators should have a "web presence" - a place on the web where you put information for your district patrons, fellow staff members, or students. Some of you may be asking, "Why?" or thinking, "If only I had time!" Ed Tech Specialist Denise Hogan explains the importance:

"In a world where people can bank, order groceries, shop for a home, instant messenger friends around the world, and see exhibits from the Louvre online - I can understand why parents are coming to expect more information about their child's progress online. Even more importantly, our students live in an ever growing 'cyber-based world.'  The rich, interactive and authentic web sites that are out there, make us, as teachers, criminal if we don't get our students on them in meaningful ways."

When designing a web site, you must consider your audience. For a teacher, the audience will mostly likely be students and parents. For a principal, it will most likely be parents. For a counselor, it may be graduating seniors. The list goes on. Secondly, what will you put on your page? The idea is to publish information in a way that helps your day to day tasks. As a teacher, publishing your daily assingments on a web site eliminates the student excuse that they didn’t realize it was due (even though you had it written on the board for the last two weeks). Some parents have no idea an assignment was due, and that you assigned it two weeks ago.  

A teacher web page can also carry valuable information about instruction for students. I personally know of teachers who use SMARTBoards, Mimios, and eInstruction software (Clickers) to save information to pdf's from their whiteboards and link that to their web sites, especially in the area of math. These teachers can post on their sites not only lesson plans and assignments that are due, but also problems that were worked out together in class. If a student goes home and struggles with the homework, he or she can go to that teacher's web site and find the class notes from the day.

From a parent perspective, it would be great to know what my kids are doing in school. Yes, I can get their grades from PowerSchool, and yes, I can - and do - talk to them about what they are doing in school, but from a day to day point of view, I have little knowledge about what they are studying. If a web page was created for the class or classes they are taking, I could not only track their progress, but I could be more involved in what they are learning and ask them more specific questions. Young parents especially are used to referencing web pages. Before families move into your district, one of the first things they will do is look at your school web site. If teachers have a link from the district’s web page, parents can easily find information about your classroom.

Ultimately, as the web editor of your site, you will need to decide what to post on your page.  At the ESU, we have Manila that we use to host teacher-created web pages.  Some schools subscribe to a web site service like SOCS and allow each teacher space for a personal web page.  If you would rather create one on your own, there are services like Wordpress, Blogger, and Google sites that can easily get you up and running without much difficulty.

Here are some wonderful teacher-created web pages from teachers in our service area:

http://manila.esu4.org/angelaschmit
http://manila.esu4.org/marystewart
http://manila.esu4.org/debniss
http://sites.google.com/site/sragillrenken/Home

Where, oh where, has my desktop gone?

Google Docs, flickr, de.licio.us,  EduBlogs, Wikipedia: These are some of the most widely-used Web 2.0 tools on the Internet.  Gone are the days when my files were created, edited, and saved in one permanent location: my desktop computer.  Getting them from home to work (or vise-versa) relied on available peripheral hardware such as a flash drive.  And collaborating with others required using email attachments of a limited size.  The introduction of Web 2.0 tools has changed they way we create, organize, save and collaborate on our digital information. The Mac vs Windows ‘thing’ is not really that big of deal. If you rely on some of the tools mentioned above, then there is a good chance all of your documents for teaching and learning can be stored online. All that is needed is a browser that can get out to the Internet.

I recently read an article in which Microsoft has just released its web-based version of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote. It is currently in testing, but look for it in the near future. Instead of running Word from your desktop, you'll be running it from the Internet, collaborating on documents with people from all over. In fact, that is how this article was originally published. I used Google docs to put it on the web, and then it was shared with my colleagues around the office for their editing. Another example of an education application that many people have used is Inspiration. Inspiration now has a web portal, called mywebspiration. You can get a free account and create the same things that Inspiration does without having it loaded onto your computer.

On many occasions I have been asked to present at some state conventions, like NETA. I lug my laptop, projector, and possibly extra electrical cords around so I can get everything ready to go before my presentation begins. With services mentioned above and my personal online dropbox, I can get my presentations from the Internet. I am even allowed to share files. Dropbox, with a free registration, gives you the ability to load files up to its servers. Upon registration, your dropbox is created, and you get 2 GB worth of storage for free. I refer to my dropbox as my free 2 GB virtual flash drive. I just upload my presentation files to my dropbox, and that allows me to have a backup in case my laptop decides to quit functioning. Dropbox even has a free application for your iPod touch that allows you to get your files on your iPod. It is a very nice tool to have in your web 2.0 tool box.

The future will tell for certain, but I would expect smaller, faster Internet-based machines, such as handhelds, to start gaining more popularity as applications become more and more web-based. Are you using some of the tools mentioned above? If not, climb on board the web 2.0 movement and start thinking about how you can incorporate some of these into your classroom. Comments are encouraged.

Geocaching

Geocaching in the classroom

Maybe you've heard about geocaching and maybe you haven't. Our family started to geocache this summer after a workshop was held on what geocaching is and how it applies to the classroom. We hear about gps devices - TomTom, Garmin, and Magellan all come to mind. What makes this "digital treasure hunting" so unique are the many ways it can be used to to help students learn.

First of all, if you have not heard about geocaching, it is "a high-tech treasure hunting game played throughout the world by adventure seekers equipped with GPS devices. The basic idea is to locate hidden containers, called geocaches, outdoors and then share your experiences online. Geocaching is enjoyed by people from all age groups, with a strong sense of community and support for the environment." You start by going to http://www.geocaching.com and registering for a free account. Then, you download the waypoints (where the geocaches are) to your gps device. Our family uses the Garmin etrex Vista HCx. Once you get the waypoints onto your GPS, you're on your way to finding this "digital treasure." The treasure may contain trinkets you can trade for something else you may have brought with you. Other geocaches just contain a log for you to sign your visit. When you find your treasure, you go back to the website (http://www.geocaching.com) and log your visit.

We have been doing this throughout the summer as a family activity and hope to continue throughout the school year. One of us drives, one looks at the notes (for which we use an iPod ) and one of us tells the driver where to go (using the gps). The interesting thing is that we let the kids determine the route. We give them the tool and they tell us where we need to go. It has been really interesting to discuss longitude and latitude with them as they can link that to what they've learned about longitude and latitude in the classroom. You can also overlay your "track" (where you traveled) into Google Earth as well as determine the distance you have traveled. The GPS even tells you how fast your are driving.

So, how does geocaching relate to education? Think about hiding a geocache that travels. Those are called travel bugs. Place a travel bug in a geocache and tell it where you would like it to end up in its description on the geocaching website. Folks who find the travel bug take it from geocache to geocache until it reaches its destination. You can use the website to track where the bug currently resides. Mr. Leon Stall, a secondary social studies teacher in Gibbon, has been doing this for one year. His 12th grade U.S. Government class project involves circulating "BUFFY", their school mascot, around to the elected officials that represent citizens of Gibbon, Nebraska. Their goal is to have "BUFFY'S" picture taken with all of their elected officials all the way to President of the United States. If you want to look at his site for more information, you can go to http://www.mrstall.com/. When you get to his site, scroll down to the very bottom and click on "Government" or "Geography" under "Traveling Buffys". There are many more educational examples, hopefully you get the idea.

At the service unit, we are working on a way to purchase a GPS set that we would use to train and let our schools borrow. We hope to have a session next semester during the spring. Please refer to our upcoming workshop list if geocaching interests you.

iPods + iPhones = Engaged

First of all, I'd like to welcome you back to the 09-10 school year. I know the staff members at ESU 4 wish you a successful year as you strive to improve student learning. There are many changes the school year brings, especially in the area of technology. I am always grateful for the opportunities I get to learn new technology tools. I was fortunate to attend the NECC (National Educational Technology Association Conference) in Washington, D.C. this summer. I went to many sessions, but specifically, I wanted information on how iPods are used in the classroom. Here is an article I submitted to be printed in the next NETA newsletter. I hope you find it helpful if you want to use iPods in your classroom.

Imagine a classroom where a student walks in, grabs an iPod touch, and takes a pre-class survey, then moves on to an interactive lesson, then finally does some practice questions and a post-survey, all from an iPod. While at NECC 2009 in Washington, D.C. I chose sessions that dealt with using smartphones and iPods in the classroom. One session in particular I went to was a model lesson using iPod Touches in the classroom and what was described above actually happened in that session. It was very interesting, and the presenters did a great job of answering questions. They were in a pilot year and had found many ways to incorporate iPods into their school. This particular school received a grant from AT&T to purchase 70 iPods. The iPods allow for universal design, and they were amazed at the increase in student motivation. The presenters stressed that they were focusing primarily on increasing math scores in their K-5 classrooms.

The participants were given an iPod and a log sheet when they walked into the classroom. Then they performed a short lesson on adding fractions and kept track of applications they used on the log sheets. The participants were able to learn at their own pace by pausing, stopping, and/or replaying the content on the iPod. They were to record their data on their log and then go on to the next application. If they finished the lesson early, they were able to play any applications they wanted until instructed to quit. For security reasons, some settings, such as Internet connectivity on the iPod can be disabled so students do not have access. This session piqued my interest as I believe there are many classrooms that can benefit by using handhelds. But, what about charging and syncing? If you are familiar with iPods, then you understand that you can only sync on iPod to one account at a time. Take into consideration TriBeam. It allows you to charge and sync multiple iPods to one account at a time. In this session, they demonstrated that they can charge and sync up to 15 iPods at a time.

Other sessions I went to included the same idea - using handhelds (smartphones, iPods, etc) in the classroom. I believe that is where 1:1 learning can start to take place in more schools where budgets are tight. Handhelds have gained popularity in recent years and already have pre-built apps installed, such as calculators, calendar, and stopwatches. Some of them, including iPod Touches, have notes built-in that will sync back to your computer, provided you have the new 3.0 OS for your iPod Touch. Then, when youconsider all the free apps that Google has built, such as Goog411, Google SMS, and Google Maps (to name a few) there is a lot of teaching and learning that can be done with these small "computer-like" devices. For the iPod, many educational apps are free from the Apple store.

NECC 2009

I was fortunate to get to go the National Educational Computing Convention in Washington DC just a few weeks ago. This was my first trip to Washington DC but not to the convention. I am always amazed at how much can be learned during these conventions. My focus this year was to get as much information as I could about using iPods and cell phones in the classroom. Below are my notes from the convention. If you read this blog and have any questions about them, feel free to contact me or leave a reply.

Opening keynote - Malcolm Gladwell - Sunday, June 28, 2009
SpeakUp report
Twitter stream - #NECC2009MH
Behind learning there has to be effort
Compensation is more important than capitalization (trying harder is a more important learning skill than doing good)
We need to have respect for difficulty
There are different learning strategies that are not always linear
Conceptual genius - people who have a bold revolutionary video
Experimental genius - An innovator who finds their way through trial and error
Feedback lies at the core of effective learning

Tammy's tech tips - Monday, June 29, 2009
http://www.tammyworcester.com
Todays meet
Jamstudio.com - c am f c
Vozme - voice recorder on the web
Ge smartgrid augmented reality
Fur.ly - multiple urls in one
Image mosaic generator
Imagination cubed - online drawing program
Jing/ Skitch
http://kickyoutube.com
Random name picker - http://claastools.net
Tag galaxy
Showcase for firefox
Add a keyword in firefox - cmd click - anywhere there is a search window

The missing link - preparing teachers to use smartphones in the classroom - Monday, June 29. 2009
Curriculum and instruction
Put it in their hands - letter recognition - teaching shapes
Standards and assessments - digital video - multiple representation - use photos - surveys using survey monkey -teacher created tools (checklist, self-assessments)
Learning environments
Celebrating success
Behavior management
Parent communication
Professional development - parent conferences, communication, grants, awards

Cell phones in the classroom - Monday, June 29, 2009
Tammy Worcester
http://handouts.tammyworcester.com
Goog 411
Google SMS - text 466453
Google Maps - can send to your phone or gps
Email posting to your blog - think of a project specific blog that students can post to - be sure to have your students post their name
Cell phone photos to flickr
Pictobrowser - embed a slideshow into ppt from flickr or your blog
Gabcast and gcast - no longer free
Drop.io - sharing site for all types of files - can call and leave a voice message to a drop
Geograffiti.com
Polleverywhere.com
Built in tools - calc, calendar, stopwatch
Rocketron - can listen to news on your phone
Mosquito ring tones
Send txt messages from computer to phone
Podlinez - can listen to news on your phone
Text memos to your cell phones
Slydial - sends a message right to voicemail on a persons cell phone

Things you didn't know you could do with video - Monday, june 29, 2009
Hall Davidson
Discoveryedspeakrsbureau.com - click on handouts
Play videos across slides
Kids are media natives
Create your own backdrops in Photobooth - video or still
Use Bluetooth camera to connect to computer wireless via bluetooth - $149
Enter their world - ex. Crayon world
You can email a photostory or moviemaker
Create a chroma key in photobooth
You can create video bullets in ppt
Create citations in QuickTime pro
Youngscientistchallenge.com
http://search.Creativecommons.org
http://Kitzu.org
Place videos inside goggle earth

Bricks and mortar schools are detrimental to the future of Ed - Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Michael Horn (against)
Does everyone learn in the same way? No
Bricks and mortar schools cannot meed the needs of students
They limit socialization to the local communities
Learning happens everywhere
Brad Jupp (for)
The teaching machine - schools are necessary and stand as a commitment to cause
Buildings can become great schools
Schools are the vessels of our wishes of democracy
Schools are where we gather our children to learn
We cannot leave the house of learning behind
Dr Gary Stager (against)
Problem lies with management
Depriving kids of rich educational experiences is the problem
What makes schools viable?
Schools vs online learning
Is technology used to teach the same old way?
Cheryl Lemke (for)
What bricks and mortar could really be
Let us get our kids reconnected with our local community as well as our online community
Where are our kids going to get access when they don't have that at home?
We need to re-define our schools
We do need online learning as well as face to face
We need socialization because of social capital
Marshall Thompson (rebuttal - against - student)
Why do I need to learn in a school?
Education cannot be limited
Students don't want to learn for 8 hours
Erik Bakke (for - rebuttal)
Schools create a strong connection
Students need to learn in a group environment and need to learn as a team

iPod touch/iPhone application support group - Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Leslie Fisher (http://lesliefisher.com)
Kensington charger for iPod
Solio - uses solar power to charge your iPod
Mophie juice pack - piggy back battery
Slider by Incase - iPod case
Showcase by contour - iPod case
Speck QuickDraw - iPod case
Take a screen shot - home button and power button (iPhone only)
Hold down .com for other domains
Jewelers loop - hold down and wait in notes or any other app that uses the keyboard
Check out presentation on Leslie's site
How to use the top 40 iPhone features and also 100+ hidden features
http://appshopper.com - for up to date apps for your iPod or iPhone
Saisuke - calendar app - links to google - shows calendar view like google
Note pad - group notes into categories and you can email notes
Evernote - an extension of the online version
Twitterfon - Twitter app
RTM - remember the milk
Duck you undo - keeps track of mis-spellings and lets you choose whether or not to accept you mis-spelled words
Spotlight search - is now on the front screen if you have the new 3.0 software
Loopt - uses gps location services - hooks into FB and twitter
Around me - stores near you - uses location services
iFinder - uses gps to find your location
TomTom - turn by turn navigation for iPhone - will be available soon
Shazam - identifies name/artist of song
Skipit - turns your screen into a forward button
Beehive - multiple-supported txt messaging service
Tripit - builds a travel itenarary
iTV - lists programming
USA Today headlines
Weather channel
Yelp - get user reviews for food, supermarkets, etc
Ocarina - flute app
Trombone app is out as well
Star walk
Iridium flares
Roller coaster physics
Motion gps
Crazy machines
Google - bells and whistles - keep scrolloind down on settings
Links on the site for more

iPod touch Go - Enhancing student learning using iPod touches - A model lesson - a model K-5 classroom - Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Allows for univeral design
Received a grant from AT&T to purchase 70 iPods for their school
MotivatIon level was amazing
Disabled Internet access on the iPods
Simulating a short lesson on adding fractions
Use logs to keep track of apps they used - a fun meeter
Watch a video on your iPod - use these as lessons - students can learn at their own pace - pause, stop, and replay
Use help cards - students can hold them up or raise their hands
Fraction math - work until you have completed 15 problems correctly, then record your data and go to the next game
Kids % Fun - work until you have completed 20 problems correctly, then record your data and go to the next game
Once you have finished, you can practice any game until instructed
Some of the applications don't allow data to be transferred so data is recorded on paper - the appa do keep track of high scores though
Kids math fun is a good app as well and is used with their students
Syncing iPods - you can purchase products that will sync multiple iPods at the same time - they have a product that will sync 15 iPods at a time - also charges the iPods using a/c power (Tribam) - also allows you to change settings on individual iPods
Currently, they do not allow students to take them home - they want to try it next year - want to get parents involved
Each student was given headphones at the beginning of the year. At the end of the year, they are disposed of and they start with fresh sets the next year
Only have to buy the app once, as long as it is for that account - use the same account for all the iPods and only buy one app from the app store - need to check into copyright issues for this - they seem to think it is OK to use this procedure
Might be reasonable to have an account per classroom
Turned on parental controls
Locked the Internet with a password
Reduced the volume to 50%
These settings can only be done one at a time on the iPod

Constructionism, duct tape, and preparing children for their future - Tuesday, June 30, 2009
David Thornburg
The changing landscape of education
Constructionism is taking what you know and making it external
Constructivism is keeping what you know inside (your head)
Let's create educational environments where kids do not forget what they learn
Theory of flow - if your skill exceeds your challenge you will be bored. If your challenge exceeds your skill you will feel anxiety. If they are in alignment then you are in the flow. You will be engaged in the task. Your comfort level is manageable and you will not forget your learning.
You must have clear goals, you must have a high degree of concentration on a limited field of attention (focus), distorted sense of time, a sense of personal control, activity is intrinsically rewarding
Build things from scratch - hands on activities in teacher workshops
Recycled materials allows people to be creative
http://instructables.com - it's where you go to show people what you have built
Let's turn libraries into blogs
Let's turn lectures into web videos
Let's turn cafeterias into chat rooms
What keeps education from changing? It isn't the cost of tech
"Think of a laptop as a vaccine. You don't vaccinate some of the children, you vaccinate them all" - Nicholas Negroponte
Connections - a website that lets you create your own textbooks
In the future, you'll be able to print your own textbook using the "Exspresso book machine"
Internet archives
Free resources from the US dept of education
Freedom toaster - burns software to a DVD from a kiosk
www.tcse-k12.org

Literacy Isn't enough: 21st-century fluency for the digital age - Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Ian Jukes
Kids are nuerologically different
TTWADI - That's the way we've always done it
It is not about kids learning, it is about getting them to learn
There has to be a balance between traditional teaching and the future of schools
We need to move to an additional set of 21st century skills
5 skill sets - Obsolete skills (irrelevant), traditional skills (hand writing), traditional literacy skills, traditional skills (critical thinking), new skills (unique to the 21st century)
Technological fluency - being directly engaged - the primary focus is the task, not the tool
Media fluency - looking critically at content (web pages, wikis, blogs, etc)
Information fluency - must be able to ask good questions, acquire materials, analyze/authenticate raw material, apply that knowledge, and finally asess both the product and process. Not a linear process, bit cyclical
Teachers need to become facilitators of learning
http://www.committedsardine.com

polldaddy

I am featuring polldaddy.com in our Teaching and Learning Workshop today. Here is an example of how you can embed a poll into your blog. Take the poll and you can see the real-time results.

Teaching and Learning NOW

Part of teaching includes learning, doesn't it? I think so. I believe as educators, we constantly need to be learning either through our own students, through a professional network, through RSS feeds, through blogs, through social interaction, the list goes on and on. As a teacher, have you developed a professional learning network? Have you subscribed to an RSS feed, a blog, or some other social network? Some of these questions will be addressed to our area teachers as we take them through the Art and Science of Teaching by Robert Marzano. We will take our local teachers, through a joint effort with ESU 6, through some of the essential questions found in his book. Technology will be shown that highlights how to develop life-long learning. Below is a short clip of what will be provided to those who are in attendance.