Obstacles to Opportunities

“Creating a Paradigm Shift in Technology”

October 26, 2007

Shawn Nutting, Trussville, AL, USA

Blog:http://www.trussvillecityschools.com/Teachers/Shawn.Nutting/default.aspx

Shawn, Dir.of Tech. for Trussville City, IT for 20 years. Published in Business Week Online,T.H.E.Journal, AL Best Practice Center’s WorkingToward Excellence, Access Control&Security Systems. Presenter at AETC, T+L, NECC, and SITE. CNS degree from ITT tech. District V rep. to the AETA, state committee child Internet safety, member of SSA, ISTE, and IEEE. In 2007 awarded the Chiquita Marbury award.

Bio Page

https://k12online07presenters.wikispaces.com/Shawn+Nutting

What if you worked for a dream system? With a Superintendent & BOE whose focus is technology and professional development. Would it be a utopian and collaborative environment with teachers and students engaged with Web 2.0 tools? Not necessarily. Having open Internet access and a 1:1 computer initiative is not necessarily the key to engagement. A core cultural change must take place where students, teachers, administration and the community support technology in the curriculum.

Presentation

Original

http://k12online.wm.edu/k12online_2007.mov

Audio only

http://k12online.wm.edu/k1207.mp3

Shawn works for a biggg school district.

Focuses on prof development and technology.

Always focus on what's best for students, and secondarily what tools can we give teachers to achieve the best.

They don't block everything. Have teachable moments!

But don't believe everything you read on the internet.

How do eight people take care of the tech needs of 4000? Not easy. Empower schools to take care of some things themselves. Document work orders, Allows you to measure the schools that are tech savvy and those that are not. Idea- students willing to assist technology. Schools also have a lead technology teachers.

But they do not fix tech problems, but are leaders in integrating tech into the classroom. They teach teachers.

They have a district tech integration specialist, to coordinate district wide tech integration. Visits all schools three times per year.

How do you know wht kind of tech prof dev you need for teachers? They only give to those who will use it. They have an online assessment tool, surveys, etc. and they grade out teachers. From that they give grants. Encourages some healthy competition among teachers.

They put on there own daylong tech conference-district wide.

They also try to "sell" technology to the board, parents, citizens, etc.

"Geeky Weekly"- spotlight on technology, teachers, tech tips, etc.

"Digital Showcase"- anything created digitally is spotlighted. Also an end of year digital showcase.

Gives public a chance to see whats going on.

Marketing, Marketing, Marketing

Teachers need to see leaders and others modeling technology stuff.

OBSTACLES TO OPPORTUNITIES KEYNOTE

“The Why’s and Wherefores”

October 22, 2007

Brian Crosby, Sparks, Nevada, USA

Blog: http://www.learningismessy.com/blog/

Brian Crosby, an elementary teacher for 26 years, teaches fifth grade in Sparks, Nevada, and has infused technology into teaching since the 1980’s. While piloting a 1:1 laptop program,students in his class utilize many Web 2.0 tools including Skype, Fiickr, blogs and wikis. His award winning student produced

video about including a classmate has been downloaded thousands of times. Brian teaches several popular tech classes for teachers. You can try keeping up with him on his blog “Learning Is Messy” at http://www.learningismessy.com/blog/.

https://k12online07presenters.wikispaces.com/Brian+Crosby

“The Why’s and Wherefores”

Description

Using what is happening in my classroom as a backdrop, we’ll endeavor to provide reasons, methods and rationale during our time here that support integration of 21st century tools in education. We will share a few tools and methods that you may not have access to, but much of what you will see is probably available at your school site … you just don’t know it yet.

Presentation

iPod ready

http://k12online.wm.edu/bcrosby.mp4

Original

http://k12online.wm.edu/bcrosby.mov

http://k12online.wm.edu/bcrosby_ lowres.mov

Audio only

http://k12online.wm.edu/bcrosby.mp3

Yah a low res copy!

But starts with a head shot.

Each of his students has a laptop.

What do they use it for?

drill and practice, internet based keyboarding, obstacles turned into opportunities.

blogs- get feedback about their thinking, "I don't want to know what you know, I want to know what you think", write about understanding

if writing is an obstacle, use blogs

digital video- great because it involves creativity

K-12 Conference

Classroom 2.0

“If All My Classes Did This”

Wendy Wolfe

Saint Paul, MN, USA

Blog: http://notimetosleep.wordpress.com/

Description
Recognizing that educators want students to engage in and enjoy learning and to have the opportunities for success and that reality often brings hardware and budgetary constraints, this presentation explores free Web 2.0 tools focusing on student learning activities and engagement.

Cartoon Creator http://www.toondoo.com/ provides for

Alternative methods of presentation and provides a place to post. Useful for any assignment where you need to tell a story.

You could publish only to friends, or keep the cartoons private.

The other cartoon creator is called Comic Creator. http://www.readwritethink.org/materials/comic/

Final product is not published to the internet, but can be printed, and or scanned.

Graphic organizers- http://www.gliffy.com/ allows you to flow charts, diagrams, floor plans, etc.

Allows collaboration, to edit together from two different locations. Can publish publicly, or privately.

Online productivity suite called Zoho, allows word processing, spreadsheet, presentation, database, etc.

Zoho Show is a great alternative to Powepoint. Can publish to internet. No sounds or animations can be inserted.

Free podcasting tool called gcast. Create audio clips, cool! Can not edit within the application. For basic podcasting, even over the phone.

NEW TOOLS KEYNOTE

NEW TOOLS KEYNOTE

“More Than Cool Tools” Super Long!!!

Alan Levine, Scottsdale, Arizona, USA

Blog: http://cogdogblog.com

Brian Lamb, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

Blog: http://weblogs.elearning.ubc.ca/brian/

D’Arcy Norman, Calgary, Alberta, Canada

Blog: http://www.darcynorman.net

Description
There is no shortage of “Cool New Web Tools” out there and all three of us are guilty as charged for presenting them to teachers via the firehose effect. In our session, we will begin with a nostalgic nod to our presentation past where just 3 years ago we were talking up “Small Pieces Loosely Joined” - blogs, wikis, and a little RSS. Now there is so much more, almost too much. So we may talk about some cool tools, but more at a level of looking at the affordances which make them compelling, and why these and future breeds of tools and platforms matter to K12 teachers.

There are tools for almost any task imaginable in web 2.0

Trends- embedding content, connecting, collaborating, disrupting

Embed tag- embed technology rather than make people go to your site

50 different web 2.0 ways to tell a story

connect- API’s flickr, photobucket, picnik, photo storage, photo editing, mixercast

socialize- bokardo.com, flickr, del.icio.us, slideshare,

collaborate- google docs, a lot like word, must be on line, if not esport and then work on in word. Also zoho is a lot like google docs

share, remix- mashups, google custom search, open licensing like creative commons, flickr advanced search- 50 million images, OER commons

Taking a break…. Lots of good info, but their delivery method is super slow even on a decent dsl connection.

CLASSROOM 2.0 KEYNOTE

http://k12online.wm.edu/Classroom2.0.mov

CLASSROOM 2.0 KEYNOTE

“Classroom 2.0 or You Live Where?”

Clarence Fisher Snow Lake, Manitoba, Canada

“about change” is about changing the possibilities of the classroom,

we need to look at how we teach, pedagogy

students need to be good thinkers no matter where they live

what do kids need? (curriculum)

he uses a lot of tools—internet-based tools, tools that are free for teachers and students. You need a place to meet online, and it needs to be a safe place. Internet safety is vital. There are a billion connected people around the world, that’s powerful.

The whole idea is to look at the classroom in a different way, like a “studio”, where not everyone is doing the same thing.

Learning and Research with answers.com

Answers.com offers free access to millions of topics from the world's leading publishers.

www.answers.com

what the tool offers and what components are included in them. Include information on how teachers &/or students could benefit from these online applications.

5 reasons to use answers.com- from the site
“1. The Web is a big place, and it's getting bigger.
Sometimes, you simply want a clear, straight-to-the-point, helpful answer. Answers.com's unique, patented technologies will help you find that answer — quicker and easier than traditional search engines. Search engines are terrific at indexing the web and giving you the tools to explore it. If you are trying to find, say, a taxidermist in Kansas City or the name of a Victorian Scottish woolen bonnet*, you'll probably find a page out there that will point you in the right direction.

2. We're more than just a website.
Answers.com provides several different ways to access over 4 million topics; it all depends on who you are and what you need. We've got IE and Firefox users covered with Answers.com access built right into the browser's search box. Mobile junkies can get their answers fix on the go from most wired PDAs. Webmasters have an array of tools to enhance their sites, and Mac fans don't have to feel left out, either.

3. You can count on us.
Answers.com combines traditional and new media to provide you with the most up-to-date, accurate definitions and explanations available. On most topics, you'll see information from well-known, authoritative sources like Houghton-Mifflin, Columbia University Press, MarketWatch, Thomson Gale, Barrons, Investopedia, All Media Guide, Who2 and many more. On some topics you'll also find original articles written by Answers.com's editorial team, community-contributed articles from Wikipedia and/or user-generated questions & answers from Answers.com's industry-leading WikiAnswersTM (http://wiki.answers.com). Our topics range from business to technology, law to poetry, finance to nutrition, and culinary terms to mythology.

4. We're your first stage of research. Think of it as presearch.
People have different needs for research. Whether you're a student starting a research assignment, a journalist working on an article or someone simply pondering a bit of information, Answers.com is your one-stop guide to the initial research process and is often comprehensive enough to tell you all you need to know. For instance, let's say DaVinci was recently mentioned in a magazine. You're sure the reference was not to the artist, but want to know more.

5. It's 10 p.m. Do you know where your kids are surfing?
As the Internet has expanded to include resources on every topic a student needs, so have the inappropriate, incorrect, outdated and offensive sites on these same topics. Don't send your kids searching blindly on the Internet — teach them to look up topics on Answers.com, where they will find all the information they need for homework, test preparation and projects from a wide variety of safe, reliable sources. Best of all, with a "cite" button next to each of our copyrights listed at the bottom of the page, they will be able to prepare a bibliography in a snap.”

Answers.com gets much of its content from Wikipedia, which they then use to generate advertising revenue. It also licenses 'best of breed' content on over 4.5 million topics, drawing from more than 180 different sources, many of which are only available through Answers.com. (from Wikipedia)

They have absolutely fantastic resources for teachers and students alike, including Lesson Plan Tools, good instructions on how to make a classroom website with an interactive learning center, ESL helps, a long list of search operators, tips, and tricks to use when using Answers.com, and rotating special features for teachers. Right now, Answers is targeting Constitution Day, for example.

Answers.com has incorporated citation functionality, to help students cite their work. Clicking on the "Cite" button (which can be found next to each copyright at the bottom of each Answer Page), will direct them to a fully-formatted citation, ready to include in a bibliography. They can even choose from the MLA, Chicago and APA styles.

zoho challenge

http://zohochallenge.com/OnlineTest/Candidate.do

On-Line tests

"Easily conduct test online in 4 steps"

Why Zoho Challenge?

"It's smarter. It's online."

A smart way to conduct online tests and saving time and effort. Zoho Challenge is an online testing tool that smoothly tackles test requirements with smart, friendly interfaces.

Features of Zoho Challenge

* Support for multiple choice questions and descriptive questions.

* Results displayed immediately. This is configurable.

* Time limit can be specified for a question paper.

* Difficulty levels calculated automatically

* Online access to students' details

* Send emails to students

What can you do easily

* Create multiple exams

* Add students

* Schedule tests up to years ahead

* Take a quick peek on your students' performance

* Find out who's cleared the test in just one glance

* View a "report card"

* View graphical representation of the overall results of your tests

How teachers &/or students could benefit from these online applications--

It's an online test tool where you can easily create tests, send tests to students, and view results with visual reports and straight forward grading. Access is controllable (password protection, date and time access)

Could be a time saver for students and teachers if students miss a test.

It seems to me that a mix of online and face to face would be the way to go. Moderation in all things, the right path, etc. However isn't the Masters in Computer Ed going all on line?

Gradefix

http://www.gradefix.com/

“The easiest way to get good grades”

The best students prepare in advance for the busy times during the school year. The Gradefix algorithm automatically calculates how to balance their load and get everything done according to unique schedules.

User Reviews

Gradefix ranks 4th on "Top 25 Web 2.0 Apps to Improve a Student's or Professor's Productivity"

Online Education Database (OEDb.org)

"Its like having your own personal secretary"

Ash at onepowerfulword.blogspot.com

"Instead of you guessing what homework to give priority to, when to get started, or how much time you need to study - GradeFix does all of this for you. And not only does it do all this, it's incredibly simple to use and maintain."

Gideon A. at http://www.studentgtd.com/software/gradefix-getting-your-time-on/

how teachers &/or students could benefit from these online applications--

One key feature of Gradefix’s program are its algorithms, which break tasks down into smaller pieces and automatically distributes the work according to student's time allowances. Students that use Gradefix create a study schedule used to best spread out and prioritize homework throughout the week in hopes to decrease stress and improve grades.

It's an intelligent homework management system for students. Students add homework tasks and Gradefix works them into their schedule.

Wow, I guess this is a positive, and I probably would have benefitted when I was an undergrad. Do we lose a little sponteneity?

Welcome!

I just set up a blog. Woo hoo!