Stretch into a New Year

I'd like for you to start thinking about how you can "stretch" yourself in 2010. So often, we get into a routine and sometimes feel a bit uncomfortable when our routine gets jostled. These routines may even vary between school and home. I recently read an article found on the U.S. Department of Education's website entitled, "Harnessing Innovation to Support Student Success - Using Technology to Personalize Education." This article states that "more than half of young adults send or receive text messages daily, three out of four teens between 15 and 17 own cell phones, and eight out of ten teens say they've helped an adult do something online that the adult could not do him or herself." This article was published in 2008. I wonder how those statistics would look in 2010. If you have never sent or received a text message, then I would suggest you need to "stretch yourself." If you've never had a teenager show you how to do something online to help you learn, then why not "stretch yourself" and ask one for help? I don't know how many times I've seen my own children do something with technology that prompts me to ask, "Will you show me how you did that?" 

Just last week my 16 year old nephew stayed up all night using Google to help him build his own FTP (File Transfer Protocol) server. How awesome is that! He enjoys using technology and finds ways for him to learn these techniques on his own. He is "stretching himself" everyday by using Google, online forums, Facebook, and other media to help him figure things out.

Do you have a Facebook account? A twitter account? A blog? An online profile? Do you use ANGEL or some other Learning Management System in your classroom? If not, then I would recommend you continue to "stretch" and start by just using one. Once you start, you can start adding friends and build a place where you can learn, interact, and share information about your classroom. I use Twitter for professional use and I use Facebook for personal use on a daily basis. In fact, at ESU 4, we recently set up a Facebook page for those of you using Facebook. I can tell you I learn something from Twitter and Facebook everyday. 

I recently read an article on JenuineTech's blog in which the author reflected on managing your online presence. Here are a few tips from that blog:

1. Stretch yourself by 10%. Invite more people to be your friend on twitter, join a ning and comment on a forum, participate in a project, try a new option in your classroom.

2. Don’t hesitate to share an idea which you think everyone always knows about. Not everyone is online 365/24/7 and ideas get missed, overlooked, or not seen for a variety of reasons. So go ahead and share….I can promise you that someone will say "wow, I had never seen that before and thank you for sharing.”

The author goes on to list eight other ways in which to control and mange your online content. I highly recommend reading this article in your attempt to "stretch" this year. You can find the blog at: http://jenuinetech.com/blog/?p=1298

So, will you make it a New Year's Resolution to "stretch yourself?" Try one new thing in your classroom, in your district, in your professional experience. Try it and see how it goes! If it doesn't work, figure out a way, ask for help, or try something else. Try expanding the classroom beyond the confines of your physical space by inviting a guest speaker via Skype or some other form of distance learning. I know I will be finding ways to "stretch" myself. Will you?

Reminder:

The 2010 Internet Safety and Digital Citizenship contest is underway in each ESU in Nebraska. Entries must be submitted to ESU 4 by March 12, 2010. You can email me for an entry form or you can download it here.

Website of the Month:

Free Educational Resources from the Federal Government

http://www.free.ed.gov

Elf Yourself

I just elf'd myself today

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Some of my favorite web sites

I have had the opportunity to share some of my favorite web sites with pre-service teachers as well as with some of our special education staff. Below are some of my favorites. Feel free to comment and I will add yours to the list. This list does not include all of my favorites, just some of them.

http://animoto.com

http://animoto.com/education - free "all access" pass for educators

http://wolframalpha.com

http://doodle.com - free meeting scheduler

http://polleverywhere.com - free polling with your cell phone

http://zacbrowser.com - for autistic children - windows only

http://www.printfriendly.com

http://lab.arc90.com/experiments/readability

http://pppst.com - Pete's PowerPoint Station

http://diigo.com - social bookmarking site

http://diigo.com/user/Grobke - my diigo bookmarks

http://google.com - docs, forms, spreadsheets, advanced searches, so many possibilities

http://livescribe.com - Information about the Pulse Smartpen
http://www.theflip.com - Information about flip cameras

http://www.sndlc.org - For ESU 4 area schools to connect to "enrichment" centers

WII console for the special education classroom

Thank you!

ESU 4 December News

NETA in the News:

This time of year as schedules get busier and busier with the hustle and bustle of the holidays, I'd like to take a few moments to reflect on a conference that has been going on in Nebraska since the late 1980's. It is the NETA conference and every year it gets bigger and better. Currently, NETA is held each year the last Thursday and Friday of April. The 2010 conference is slated for April 29-30, 2010 at the LaVista Embassy Suites and Conference Center. This year's theme is "Creative Journeys to Learning." Each year I am amazed at the quality of presenters and the different "strands" that are available to your district. "Strands" include information for technology directors, schools that are going 1:1, an administrative strand, and much more. NETA is a way for you to connect with others that have the same passion for teaching and learning through using technology effectively in the classroom. Through my experience, NETA has allowed me to learn new techniques and even share some with others that join the conference. NETA has many contests that students can submit entries to and there is even a teacher-trek contest that will send a selected to the National Conference (ISTE) to Denver in June, 2010 and an "Excellence in Leading with Technology Award." If you feel like a teacher or a leader in your district is deserving of one of these awards, would you please consider him or her for a nomination? Mark your calendars today and start planning to attend the NETA conference. For more information, please log onto the neta site at http://netasite.org. Be sure to check out the keynote presenters while at the neta site - Peter Reynolds and Rem Jackson!

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2010 Internet Safety and Digital Citizenship Contest:

The ESUs of Nebraska in partnership with the Nebraska Attorney General’s Office are sponsoring an Internet Safety and Digital Citizenship Poster and Public Service Announcement (PSA) Contest for students in K-12 Schools in Nebraska. 

1. Eligibility

Any public or private school/district within an ESU may participate.

2. Categories

Each school or district may submit one entry in each category from each grade grouping:  K-4, 5-8, 9-12, i.e. three entries per school for each of the five categories.

3. Entry Formats

• Poster - high quality computer generated (pdf, tiff, jpg, or png);
  
• Poster - hand drawn
  
• Audio PSA - submit on labeled CD (mp3, aiff, or wav format).
  
• Video PSA - submit on labeled VHS, DVD, or CD (QT, WMV, or RM format)
  
• Open - a submission which does not fit a poster or PSA category above—could be a brochure, video documentary, etc.

4. Rules
   

• No real names used on posters or in audio or video PSAs.
• Copyright laws must be followed, i.e. images, sound, etc.
• 29 second target time on PSAs (audio and video).
• Label CDs and DVDs with ESU Internet Safety Entry Form info (see next page.).
• Put ESU Contest Entry Form on back of posters
• Poster Size:  minimum – 8.5” X 11”, maximum – 16” X 22” (recommended delivery in protected mailer, such as tube or flat box. Do not bend.)

5. Deadline

Entries must be submitted to ESU 4 by March 12, 2010.

            Send entries to:         

                            ESU 4

                            Attn: Gregg Robke

                            919 16^th Street

                            Auburn, NE 68305

Entries may be delivered via van mail or snail mail. Email Gregg for an entry form or you can download the entry form here.                  

6. Award

One entry in each grade grouping from each ESU will be selected and given state ESU recognition. Winning posters and PSAs, audio and video, will then be eligible for awards and/or use by the ESUs and the Nebraska Attorney General’s Office. A winning entry in each category will be selected and sent on to the Attorney General’s office for special recognition.

What learning would look like from a 16-year old persepective

Our son is a sophomore in high school. We had asked him the other evening, "If you could have the optimal high school setting, what would that look like?" Below is his writing. It has not been edited, but his response really got me started thinking about questions teachers and administrators should be asking. Are schools preparing our students for the 21st Century? What does that look like? How can technology help? My mind started getting full of thoughts and questions that would take considerable amount of time to answer. As educators and/or parents, we may not know all the answers, but perhaps we can glean a little understanding from what our students/kids are telling us.

I think the best kind of high school situation for me would look like this:

"Me learning through the use of technology but still being able to hang out with my friends at school. For example, Using laptops in class. That way, the teacher could tell us where to go and show us some examples of what we are learning. The teacher could also limit where we went on the laptops and have control over them so the students wouldn't abuse them. I like learning through the use of technology and I think it's fun. It would make researching for a class a lot easier along with essay writing. We would be able to send our work to our teachers and ask for suggestions and help via e-mail or some other type of chatting thing. I would also like to have big desks with enough room for my books and my work along with the big comfy office chairs like the ones in accounting. This is what I think the best kind of high school experience I would like to experience."

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.