Entries Tagged 'Education' ↓

 Cross posted at Thoughts Have Wings

Mr. Gatekeeper, Tear Down Those Walls!
Mary Bell
Sam Houston State University
http://forwhomthebelltold.pbwiki.com/
filtering
librarians and tech specialists need to be working together
Introduced Nancy Pearl librarian action filter
the original person one book one city
has amazing shush ability
cipa
children should be protected from pornography
does not say we should have any reflection of political views
or that students should be denied the right to search independently
high interest like games and sports - cipa does not say block or shopping
does not say teachers should be blocked from things administrators might not want them to do
passing the law was contingent upon ready and simple override capability

Survey using listserves and twitter
over 400 participates broken down by states
79 % understand web 2.0
aware of web 2.0 resources being used 59%
satisfied with access to internet and web 2.0 39%
some of the problems people comments about were bandwidth issues

Block using specific word lists
true 73%

reasons for blocking and filtering
student safety 81%
ebsco and other databases somethings blocked true 28%
filters apply equally to all levels true (and teachers
Who can override - IT most common answer
Reading blogs at school - 52% but the people who don’t know number has grown
create and particpate in blogs 38%
students and faculty having access to wikis
encouraged to use wikis 39%
access to social bookmarking 31%
access to wikipedia 97%
students are often discouraged even though they have access
google docs 63%  don’t know 36%
Blocked search tools - images
youtube not blocked 52%
Course management systems 38% used
students have access to email
access to second life at school
access to educational game sites allowed
acceptable use policy up to date and addresses web 2.0
true 27% false 49% no idea 24%
district admin are tech savvy and encourage tech and web 2.0
trues 31%
http://hweimar.wikispaces.com
http://forwhomthebelltold.pbwiki.com/

Addendum

Mary Bell was king enough to send me a link to information about CIPA so if you are interested in finding out more about what this law says you will find what you need here:

http://www.ala.org/aaslTemplate.cfm?Section=cipaandschoollib

 Cross posted at Thoughts have Wings

Race Into Production
Jodi Andoe and Abby Rogers PISD
http://t4.jordandistirct.org/payattention
www whatever whenever wherever
teachers moving from dog and pony show to full fledged three ring circus with the teacher - not as the main act, but as the ringmaster
kids love to be center stage
ipods cameras phones
friend or foe?
combining what students have and what teachers have and making it work in the classroom
combine student interests and content for curriculum
provide students with info on available tools for multimedia
student engagement
reflection for deep learning
project based learning
effective integration of technology into instruction
differentiated instruction
centers, tiered lesson plans
advances photography and multimedia all the way down to basic ppt
works with all levels
critical thinking skills
technology TEKS
engages students
their minds wrapped around out content in a way they want to think about it
improved test scores
letting the students touch the learning
gather ideas - don’t re-invent the wheel
take tried and true projects and add a multimedia option to it
determine student needs and find their resources and skills
set timetable for completion
gather resources and hardware
what do you get when you mix CSCOPE Performance indicator’
students had a psp player, iPod, science closet, audacity, photostory movie maker and wax - made a rap video on global warming

used rubric that was in cscope and applied to multimedia project
what is the concept you want them to learn
rubric attributes
point of view
content
resources
curriculum alignment
organization
student cooperation
camera and images
titles and credits
sound
language
pacing and narrative
transitions and effects

make sure criteria is set beforehand and use the ribric
should be expressed in terms of observable product characteristics
scoring rubrics should be written in specific and clear language
statement of criteria must be fair and free from bias

green screen - green sheet from walmart taped to classroom wall
let kids teach you

audacity, wax 2.0 blender freeplaymusic photostory animoto
wax works with moviemaker and others
freeplaymusic - if burned to dvd becomes a copyright issue
animoto free 30 second video creation - can subscribe 19.00 year and get longer time and more options
handout includes cheatsheet of useful web 2.0 sites and free or opensource software

handouts will be available later on the TCEA site - I will post the link when it becomes available

 Cross posted at Thoughts Have wings

10 Fun Photoshop lessons
cs3 used
Daniel O’Kilen
http://divshare.com/download/6467229-584
all lessons handouts on website
create a miniature environment

lesson plan
TEKS objectives step by step procedure and extension lessons

rubrik contains list of tools student learned during that assignment - final product does not have to look like the teachers
10 lessons
creating miniature environment
taking ordinary photograph and use gradient tool and selection creation and quickmask to choose central portion of image
use lens blur, inverted, hue and saturation, tweaking colors makes it look like made out of plastic
His example was taj mahal but students can find their own image

winterizing an image
take photo and using quickmask - creating selection from it - selected grass in photo and manipulated hue and saturation, channel and lighten in channel mixer to create snow-like effect

creating a silhouette vase
start with profile photo quickmask select duplicate and flip - makes a vase effect
tweak pattern, shadow

Building a photo montage
take photo and use pattern to fill the image
select out part of image to use, crop using width and height settings
using other photos make tiny thumbnail - create pattern, adjust and desaturate to use colors from original image to make a fill
apply to original photo as overlay or softlight

Creating Old Movie Effect
can create animation in photoshop
using old photo, apply grain filter, stretched out vertically
create several layers using different grains to get different line patterns
in animation you use the frames you created
animation timeline
can clone out a person adn clone stamp character back in to make it look like character is walking across the screen
creates avi or gif

Creating a Planet
longer lesson
using satellite photo
select part, sphere it
emboss gives more texture
apply vivid light blending mode
create clouds, difference clouds
using brush, paint shadow on planet
inner glow for atmosphere reflection
place on starfield background

Colorize Black and White Photo
Selection and lasso tools
Magic Wand and quickmask
point of lesson was the three main ways to select
magic wand used for areas with strong contrast - learn about tolerance settings
fine tune selection with lasso - excellent detail work practice
magnetic lasso tool
drag color slider to get colors you want
can use same process to colorize a part of a photo for emphasis

Creating a Stone Texture From Nothing
render some clouds, add noise
work with channels
add fade
lighting effects
tweak brightness and contrast, then students learn to create a layer and emboss to carve their name into the rock

Creating an Underwater City
Use photo of a city
Covers most of the tools including paths with pen tool
use pen tool to select sky
edit gradient tool to make sky look like water - add hue and saturation, noise, particulate matter
took brush and added moss and plants on buildings
use smudge tool to add plants to the roof
they create a fish brush from photo to add fish to the image
add white lines and blur to make some ripples
grass brush to make seaweed - use flipping layers and warp tool
Shear tool
make bubbles, zoom in to add bubbles, make bubble, add shark from photo

Creating an alien
using photo of person
select circle, bloat
distorts the face
use pucker tool
bloat eyes
warp tool - liquify window
drag parts of face around
select using quickmask - edit hue and sat to turn him green
select eyes - up contrast, down brightness
marquis tool and shear to make a tail

 Cross posted at Thoughts Have Wings

writing safari TCEA09
Paula Alsup and Missi Downs
PISD

journey through the development of ten narrative compositions
all 4th grade students divided into groups circulate through the stations reviewing traits of well written writing compositions
technology used to record and save the group responses, select possible topics, survey attitudes about writing and extend writing activities
ten compositions well written goal

prep survey
groups
itinerary
teachers and assistants
lunch and recess
logistics
survey monkey
list of prompts students enjoy writing about
students take survey while rotating

eg imagine you were invisible for one day - write a story about that day

gives them some ownership

also survey of student attitudes - do they think they are a good writer
most difficult part
how they feel when asked to write a story
anonymous except for by homeroom - collects data

redo survey after TAKS to see if attitude changed

Import student and teacher names from winschool - number off student into random groups

use find and replace to convert numbers to team names (eg Galloping Gazelles)
have teachers check for discipline problems that fell together (head off possible problems)
inclusion students in one group so assistant can go with them (without grouping together they found it was problematic for the assistants to jump from group to group

Printed itinerary - group names, times, destinations
printed out badges and the groups even eat lunch together

pulled in volunteers from other grades and some parents
assistants can be anybody to run a document camera, type and save to the network

teachers use a powerpoint to review traits
assistants manage the technology
homeroom teachers distribute the group assignments
campus tech - ensure all technology in place and working

tshirts and pith helmets from oriental trading for teachers and assistants
principal does a kick off so the kids know this is important enough to the principal to give up a day of instruction

1 laptop connects to doc camera and data projector
word ppt and thinking map software
may use poster for prewriting
extension cords and powerstrips
folders on network for each group and folder with writing components ppt so all can access
copy of ppt on desktop of teacher computer for faster access

homeroom teachers have a 1 hour block to do lunch and recess
students attend rotation during regular time
may need to adjust time for lunch for available cafeteria space

writing ppt
written by writing teachers and tech specialist
include district curriculum terminology and thinking maps
saved to the server

The Elephant Walk - Planning
reading prompt
brainstorm real imaginary pretend
use a bubble map
prompt in the middle
magnify
Intro and beginnings
who when where
the teachers get to move through the different pieces with each new group instead of having to teach the same thing over and over all day

Organization and transitions (Zebra Zone)

transitions phases

a couple of paragraphs of story

Voice - what is it?
fingerprint of the paper
create a movie in the readers mind
students are getting to hear things from other teachers
dead words

A cheetah conclusion
ending - draws all the story together, resolves conflicts
what did you learn from story
what do you hope or wish for because of events in the story
Lets write!
the last group - the teachers will have worked with the students writing 5 stories

all ten stories are printed out and each student will have a copy, students journal or blog about their experience
survey monkey
students use rubric to score each groups compositions, identify strengths and areas that need improvement
students write an independent narrative using strategies and ideas they have learned during safari

Everything is on their webpage - all handouts, ppts
http://paulaalsup.blogspot.com/

 Cross posted at Thoughts Have Wings

I actually didn’t stay for all of this because there was a conflict with another presentation I wanted to see.  I was hoping for a reason to like SecondLife but I still have difficulty with seeing how it is useful.  It gets boring to me very quickly and there is also the problem of people all over the world being in the virtual world and no way to filter the content.

You basically sign up for a free account, choose a basic character and one improvement that I saw was that you can designate an interest from the start.  You can then tweak your avatar (or character) by changing the body shape, face, hair, clothes and make it more personalized.

Jamey Osborne
LaPorte isd
Jamey Sismondi in sl
jamey.sismondi@gmail.com
osbornej@lpisd.org

go online and be in a virtual world
not mission based like video games usually are
like first life - do whatever you want
presentation is to shorten the learning curve
wear a thick skin in second life
things can happen that will offend you, crazy weird things walk away
virtual world that has people from all over the world in it.
can be an intensely absorbing experience
you login and say you will on for ten minutes and three hours later…

secondlife.com
owning land costs money

http://slurl.com/secondlife/Abitibi/228/113/39
(slurl is a link to a location in secondlife)
secondlife about the size of boston (they say)
there are live concerts
each square represents a server somewhere  sim or region
parcels are sims broken down
you can buy those premium account 77 dollars a year
the more land you buy you have to acquire land tiers
you find or acquire things and they are stored in your inventory
landmark is a bookmark of a place in secondlife
world menu - create landmark here
create things and set permissions to no transfer so others cannot just take them
you friend someone
search panel - how to find someone = click people tab and type name
groups (e.g. sailing community)
can create own group
search for places e.g iste - click teleport and go there
search land sales
showcase
events - like live music
classifieds for things like scripts
you can customize body shape, skin, clothing, and hair and shoes
right click on yourself and click appearance
create and save a shape
you can put all the outfit together and click make outfit button
green amount in upper right shows the money you have
there is an entire economy in second life

can learn scripting

Cross posted on Thoughts Have wings

There was so much so fast here but she does have the links to the instructions on her website at http://www.karenferrell.net/TCEA

This was all about using the randbetween function in excel to generate random numbers in a range you designate to create flashcards, graphs, ordered pairs and more.  She shows you how to use autoshapes and this function to create dice.  I will play with this some more but wanted to get the link posted.  Excel rocks!

TCEA session 3 Notes
blog has handouts and links
http://www.ed-tech-4-science.com

analysis
inference
explanation
interpretation
evaluation
self-regulation

www.wonderwhizkids.com
java applets

World of Goo - trial download
demonstrate basic relationship between force and motion using simple machines
http://2dboy.com/games.php

Spore - trial but you can download Creature Creator e.g. of class use - have students create a carnivorous organism that lives in water.  Have students evaluate each other and vote on creature most likely to survive.  Change the environment to hot and dry - what are the results?
genetics, structure and function

Adaptive Curriculum (not free)
intended for a once or twice solution

Peter Rillero Ph. D

Dare to Use Audacity Session 2 Notes
http://sites.google.com/site/daretouseaudacity/
Resources and Links all on their google site Yay!
Audacity is opensource - free - links are on their google page for downloading
Make sure you download the lame encoder so you can export as mp3s

Classroom uses (they showed several examples)
Book talks
Substitute Instructions
Speech Pathology
Create Interviews (you can do it yourself and use audacity to change one voice so it sounds like two people - historical character. book character etc)
(files can be brought into movie maker and powerpoint
record reading a textbook for student
record students reading aloud so they can hear themselves
audio book reports
book promo for library

Headphones with mics attached helped to record without picking up background noise

Sound resource freeplaymusic

demonstrated creating three tracks - two had the music and stepped down and then back up and the “speaking” track was placed so that it fell between the steps so you had music introducing, then speech, then music for the ending
Can edit out words (uh, and like)

Can add words

Audacity saves the file as a .au (this is where all the behind the scene stuff happens - do not touch this file and you can edit it later)

When complete you have to export as an mp3 or wav file

resulting mp3 can be used as background audio, podcast, embedded in a blog, imported into powerpoint or moviemaker

Technology Staff Development Strategies
Kaye Moore Hurst Euless Bedford ISD (HEB)
What they did - went from Windows 98 and Office 2000 to xp and office 2007 over the summer

Discussed the usual closed doors of staff dev
Time, schedules, childcare, reluctance to use personal time, facilily usage and software problems

Unlocking the doors

Went from face to face to techno tv
Borrowed a dedicated channel that was not being used
Instructional video each week plays all the time so teacher can access whenever
They do have “best of” weeks
Fun project weeks (before Christmas they showed teachers how to create a calendar or personalized notepads (use glue you buy and apply at the top of the pages to create notepad?)
At strategic times the broadcast can be gradebook instructions

Videos created using Camtasia

Also utilize a departmental website with instructional docs available to download - no login or password needed so things like gradebook are NOT found here

They also have HEBonline (blackboard) with online courses and curriculum info.  Constantly being updated.

Software central where manuals can be downloaded

They do an end of year video and instruction sheets for backing up to server

Podcasts and Vodcasts - ability to blog /wiki, or subscribe in itunes

Create a plan
do preliminary training with key people - instructional and support
Timeline for installation - support
timeline for training - instructional
timeline for implementation

They outsourced the training for their key people
Then, key instructional staff dev in house
Key instructional staff to use model that has been created and adjusted to train staff

Trained admin staff first

Information blitz entire district - IT staff provide 15 minute overview for every staff. vodcast available

Summer Training

Result of all this - fewer calls for help,
Requests for upgraded training

Used PDSA model
Plan Do Study Act
Plan - analyze
Did training using small steps to start controlled environment
Analyzed - what worked, what didn’t, revised and adjusted or standardized process
Check, Study results
Get buy in

An article in Popular Science on the Mythbuster guys speaking at teacher conventions gave three things that that they think need to be done to improve science education in this country.

1. Let the students get their hands dirty

2. Spend more money on science education

3. Celebrate mistakes

“These teachers are so dedicated, but they have difficulty teaching for the standardized tests they’re given with the budgets they’re not given.”

It’s amazing that in my one generation we as a country have gone from an image of THE world power, rich, educated, land of opportunity to falling behind everyone in all kinds of areas.  When I was a young adult you would NEVER have read that we are falling behind another country in science, math, medicine, technology and yet  it seems like every other article I read these days says just that.

What happened to us?  The cold war ended and we got comfortable with the lack of competition?  I don’t get it.  We live in an age where so much information is at out fingertips.   Why does it seem to be so impossible to get it from our fingertips into our brains and then DO something useful with it!

Enough ranting - I think I will just go watch Mythbusters.