I stumbled across this BBC podcast only after I forgot to turn off the proceeding podcast for history, and realized that it dealt with a conversation from the morning in our staffroom. It is called "Cheating in Internet Age", 7 min., and the simple message is "if life [or technology] gives you lemons, make lemonade." Great lesson ideas regarding book reports and other common assignments or tasks that are plagiarized from the web.
This podcast, also from the BBC, reviews "Technology and Teaching" and reviews some of the current trends as well as uses for technology for teachers.
The final clip is from a school board in California (found while searching for a lost link to a similar podcast).
Here is a link to a cell phones and teaching post by W. Freyer on his blog. There is also a debate regarding cell phones in schools in the December/January 2001-8 issue of ISTE's Learning and Leading with Technology.
Problems and Possibilities with New Technologies
Setting up a class blog
The instructions here are for blogger, but the basic principles will work with other free hosts such as wordpress and edublogs. The instructions will include registering with Google, then setting up a blog at blogger, managing comments, setting up an account with wikispaces, uploading content to wikispaces, and then writing posts that include links to content.
Sample blogs using this format include:
Academic English 12, http://www.academicenglish12.blogspot.com .
IB HL History http://ibhlhistorya207.blogspot.com/
Room A207 http://rooma207.blogspot.com/
PreCal and other pages at Mr. K's page
Steps to follow and remember to keep this set of instructions open to read as you work.
1. Register with Google and gmail.
2. Open an account with blogger, it is the same username and pasword as gmail. Follow the instructions and create a new blog. Do not close this window.
3. Open a new browser window and go to wikispaces and register for an account.
4. Once you have an account and create a page, then select the page and choose manage space (third option on left hand menu), in manage space select list and upload files from the Contents, then upload a file from your computer to this space. Right click on the blue file name in the list of files and copy the complete url or address as it appears in the little box that has appeared.
5. Go back to the window and blog that you created in #3 and in the posting section select create post. Write a comment, make sure the compose option is selected, and include the name of the file in the comment. Highlight the name of the file select the button at the top of the text box with the link and the earth and paste the address (url) of the file from wikispaces.
6. Select publish post.
7. Go to settings and select comments and turn off each comment option as you scroll down the page. Select save. If you wish to have comments make sure that you select the moderate comments option and have all comments first emailed to you.
8. Select view blog and see your work.
Rubrics Rubrics Rubrics
Here is a link the Rubistar site for teachers looking for online rubric creation site with templates, sample rubrics, and rubrics saved by other teachers. I have found the sample rubrics and templates to be the most useful as it can be difficult to sort through the very long list of rubrics posted by other teachers.
You may register as a user to save your rubrics on the site or you may copy the rubric that you create and paste it into a word document.
Teacher Web Pages
Wireless Keyboards
After a testing period, the school has purchased several new wireless keyboards for teachers to use with the projectors and interactive whiteboards.
The keyboards may be used to type class notes during class time by teachers who wish to write more clearly for their students, but who do not want to be restricted to previously prepared presentations. It seems that a dark blue background with white letters has provides good visibility while typing.
The keyboards may also be used to navigate through pages or presentations from anywhere in the class by teachers and students. Additionally, the students and teachers may use the keyboard to create content in real time with the interactive whiteboards. Content that may then be manipulated using the Smartboards.
Interactive Activities from Class Tools
The site Class Tools has a variety of good resources for teachers using interactive whiteboards or seeking to create interactive activities for their students. The activities may be embedded into a webpage or blog by pasting the appropriate code into the page. The activities include timelines, puzzle pieces, Venn diagrams, and essay organizers. This example is a demo activity from the Class Tools webpage. The puzzle pieces may be shifted and put into place by dragging the puzzle pieces.
Image and link to come.
Link to What to do! Blog for Educators using ICT
The What to do! blog is a good site for educators who want to include more ICT in there courses and in the words of the author, "screen grabs and audio explanations - demonstrating ways of using information and communication technologies for teaching and learning online".
The screencast for embedding media into a blog was quick and easy to follow. You can see the result at IB HL History in A207.
KES ICT presentation from September
Here is link to the ICT presentation from September. It includes information about using weblogs for course webpages, creating and using movies, using Youtube, and several other topics.
Technology and Its Place in the Classroom
While there are great advantages to using technology in the classroom, there are also many dangers and pitfalls that teachers and students may encounter as they use ICT in their studies and their work. The article by Edward Tufte in Wired 11.09 "PowerPoint is Evil" outlines a lot of these points nicely as well as showing how Stalin might have used this technology. If you plan to use PowerPoint there are some helpful hints from Presentation Zen's Garth Reynold's presentation tips for creating and giving presentations.
Interactive Whiteboards
There is an excellent set of case studies for teachers by teachers using interactive whiteboards and The Handbook for Classroom Instruction that Works (Marzano, 2000) found on the ESD 112 site. These case studies show how a variety of teachers have used the technology to improve student interest and student learning in their classrooms. These teachers are critical and realistic when describing what worked and did not work in terms of the technology and their lesson plans. The implementation plan is based upon the "sustainable classroom model" which includes one computer, one interactive whiteboard, a document camera, and one or two other pieces of hardware.
There are sets of resources and links to resources at the Smartboard site, as well as at the Promethean site and the Eduscape site.
You now have a tablet PC
Welcome to the world of tablet computing.
Here are several programs that you may wish to download as they are specifically designed for tablet use.
-Education pack for tablet pc
-Experience pack for tablet pc
-Xthink calculator
See the screen shot below and note that the blue text is from the calculator as it solves the problem...
Configuring your Start button menu
I have found that it is a good idea to put a shortcut to the "rotation utility" program in the start menu because then you can easily switch between landscape and portrait views.
Using your tablet with a projector
It is best to have the tablet in landscape mode for use with the projector as a lot of space is lost when you keep it in the default portrait mode.
The pen option works well in powerpoint, click on the bottom left set of buttons that appear when you present with powerpoint with a tablet.
Same blog new title
This blog picks up where "school tech ideas" left off. This blog will provide ideas, links to sites and software, and methods for teachers using ICT in their classrooms.
Posts on the old site included:
-Cutting and pasting from PDF documents
-Using Moodle
-Jeopardy! template with PowerPoint
-Streaming video for education
-Blogs and education