Text Messaging

Here is a recent article on text messaging that was forwarded to me by my tech director. I'm now understand how text messaging could be a likely cause of poor student performance and lack of sleep.

http://www.boston.com/news/education/k_12/articles/2009/05/26/texting_may_be_taking_a_toll/?page=full


With texting and cell phone use in schools increasingly showing up in newspapers and on TV, I think there will be challenge for schools and parents to strike a balance. Cell phones and like technology is a great and powerful tool. With increased technological ability and access, there comes a level of responsibility to use the tool correctly and not abuse it. Is technology really a productivity enhancer or an efficiency killer? It all depends on how the technology is used. I believe this will be our greatest challenge in the next 10 years. To teach morality, responsibility, and restraint while using technology. We need to teach this to our students and children, but more importantly, we need to model it. That's the hard part.

ZoomIt

Have students ever complained about not seeing something you are projecting on the screen? Ever want to draw on your projected screen? Set a timer to keep students on task?

Scott Trudeau, an Adobe trainer, shared this cool app. with me this week. It's called ZoomIt.

It can be downloaded from:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb897434.aspx

After you download and unzip the file, save the program file to your desktop.
Double click on the ZoomIt icon any time you want to use the program (it doesn't automatically load into memory)

Ctrl+1 zooms in to your pointer (move your mouse to change zoom location)
Ctrl+2 allows you to draw any where on your screen with your mouse
Ctrl+3 starts a count down clock (time can be changed on your ZoomIt icon on the Taskbar)

Press ESC to stop any of the above functions.

It's that easy.

Wordle for the Classroom

Wordle is an easy to use and free Web 2.0 tool. "Wordle is a tool that creates a graphical display to show the frequency of word usage in a text, web page or document. This is called a Word Cloud. The bigger the word is, indicates its dominance of usage. As I’m sure you know; Visual Feedback can give a more lucid understanding of what you read." (source: http://www.techedknow.com/?p=56)

I think both teachers and students will see some advantages in using Wordle plus it's a fun activity that can change up a lesson.

Here are some resources that I recently discovered...

• Web 2.o and Education Blog: Wordle--Word Clouds
• Technology and Education Box of Tricks: Wordle--Using Word Clouds in a Lesson
• Technology Education Know How: Wordle in Education (this one here has plenty of lesson examples)
  

10 Online Learning Tools for Students

A tech friend of mine (Thanks, Nathan) sent me this article: Handy Tools for Students from Makeuseof.com

There are a number of good resources listed for Chemistry, Biology, Math, and Language teachers and students.

Dynamic Periodic Table
Periodic Table of Elements
Foldit
Mathway
SpeedCrunch
VerbaLearn
WePapers
Zotero

I would suggest taking a look at the article first to get a short description of the tools.

Snake Dissections

I was invited to Mr. Morse's class today to observe students dissecting snakes with the help of CFF computers. This was a great example of taking an old lesson and adopting it for 21st Century learning. In the past, students used photocopies of old snake dissection pictures to identify the parts of a snake. With the new laptops, Mr. Morse created a Word document with instructions for the lab that contained links to a website that displayed the photos in color. Students organized themselves into groups of two and three. One student operated the laptop while the others performed the dissection. It worked very well and each group was able to identify the parts. I remember sitting in Biology looking at this old photocopied diagram of a snake trying to figure out the parts. It was much more identifiable for the students in Mr. Morse's class. Students also have access to the diagrams online so they can study for the quiz in which they will identify the snake parts using one of the photos from their lab.

Nice job, Mr. Morse and thanks for the invite.

Use Google to search a site

I think this is a good and easy tip to help teachers and students find information on a certain site instead of searching the entire Web.

To search a certain site in Google...

type in the search box: site:website.com +criteria

An example to find information about the Apollo 11 missions from the NASA site...

site:nasa.gov +"Apollo 11"

This is a great way to search huge sites such as Library of Congress (loc.gov) or NASA.

Google Docs

Google Docs may be that hidden gem for the classroom teacher. Google Docs has a word processor, spreadsheet, and presentations software that is available on any computer that has an Internet connection. That means, students can begin typing a paper in class using Google Docs' word processor and finish it at home if needed. The student could work on an assignment at home and at school over several days collaborating with other students. Google Docs allows for people to share documents and edit them live as they work.

Teachers may create quizzes and essay questions or forms right in Google Docs for students to access and complete. Teachers can evaluate group project work to see how each member of the group has participated by looking at the document's history to see which students are
editing them and how they are participating.

Here are two great resources to start:
Google for Education and Using Google Docs in the classroom: Simple as ABC

Each student will need a Google account. Before you start using Google Docs, ask if your students already have a Google or Gmail account. I bet some will have an account. For those that already have an account, have them give you their Gmail address to use. For those who don't have an account, have them create an account in Google. For uniformity, have the students create an account similar to their school accounts. For example: Thomas Smith who graduates in 2012 would use 2012smitht@gmail.com. I recommend that you keep a list of all your students accounts (why not use a Google Doc spreadsheet!).

Allowing Students to View Promethean Flipcharts

At times you may want other people to view your Flipcharts that do not have the Promethean board software such as students or other teachers. It may even benefit your students to place your Flipcharts on your teacher webpage or Moodle. This can be accomplished by exporting your Flipchart.

Exporting FlipCharts:

1. Start your ActivStudio software
2. Open or save your Flipchart
3. On your ActiStudio Toolbar, choose the Main Menu Icon then choose Flipchart from the dropdown menu.
4. Choose the Export Option then choose your export format.
5. Continue to follow the on screen directions and becareful to remember where you exported the file.

It's pretty easy and doesn't take long once you figure out the exporting format that you want to use.

Your best exporting formats to choose...

• HTML--Exports your slides to a web page that can be viewed within a browser. It gives you navigation controls. It's great if your viewers are going to access the flipchart from a web browser. The downside is the HTML file requires Adobe Shockwave to be loaded on the viewers computer which may need to be downloaded for free.
• PDF--Another good choice if your viewers are using a web browser to view your slides. Almost every web browser already has the Adobe's PDF reader installed, but may require the viewer to download the plugin.
• PowerPoint--This is a good option if you want to use PowerPoint to deliver a Flipchart you created. Just be careful to make sure the computer where the file is going to be viewed has PowerPoint already installed. Choosing the Maintain Separate Objects option gives you the most flexibility to edit the chart in PowerPoint.
• Word Document--This will save each slide onto a separate page as a graphic. It's nothing fancy, but it's easy to view. Again, you need to make sure the viewer has Microsoft Word. Not all computers have Microsoft Word or PowerPoint.