UEN is spending the week at the National Educational Computing Conference. This is the annual conference for the International Society for Technology in Education. If you haven’t visited their site or don’t know about what ISTE does and is now would be a great time to take a look into them. The Conference has been officially renamed to the ISTE Conference for 2010 year and will be held in Denver, Colorado.
This week UEN is in Washington D.C. at NECC and we have seen some really cool gadgets and tools. We will be sharing them with your over the coming weeks, but this weeks suggestion actually comes from Judy Gibbons in the Cache County School District. Judy Gibbons has purchased these devices for teachers and suggests their use in the classroom. For teachers who have only one computer and can’t do formative testing with an online tool the GradeCam allows a teacher to ’scan’ their own key and then students can bring up their own sheets and ’scan’ them into the computer. The clever part of all this is they aren’t scanned in the old fashioned way but placed under a simple inexpensive document camera which matches the pattern on the key with the pattern on the paper and give students feedback. Students can then return to working and continue checking their assignment until it’s 100% or they can get 1 try and scores feed into the gradebook.
The document cam is not the expensive item it’s the software that powers it. This is why the product comes with a site license not a per camera cost.
A short while back a Teachers’ Domain resource was posted on the UEN Multimedia Blog. That resource is only one of thousands of fabulous sources available on Teachers Domain. The bulk of Teachers Domain resources are things that were generated by or for WGBH in Boston. If you grew up when I did and there were only four channels. You know WGBH. During the summer months it was the only kid friendly programming on during the day.
The Teacher’s Domain site is organized by topic which allows you to focus on resources that are relevant to your situation. Most of the resources also explicitly allow permission to be used.
Others allow less permission but are still generous.
The site is a fantastic resource for finding all kinds of useful classroom media and interactives
Most teachers who spend time in the computer lab are at least vaguely familiar with Classroom Management Software. This is the software that allows a teacher or computer lab aide to monitor the students while they are using the computers. Most of these software packages include several features:
Monitoring of multiple screens at one time
Monitoring of a specific screen
Remote control of a specific computer
‘Pushing’ of 1 Screen to multiple screens (screen sharing)
Chatting from one computer to another
Now, how these features are implemented in each software package varies, but for the most part you see these features. A few weeks ago a there was a twitter conversation that started with this from @shareski
Well, I had my own input on the conversation, but I promised Patrick Black and Dean Shareski I would give some examples of how I used Monitoring Software to good effect in my classroom.
First, in my keyboarding class, it was impossible to see all 40 computers from one spot in the room, so my choices? Pace like a caged lion, or use monitoring software.
Monitoring software helped me keep students practicing keyboarding skills on task for more time than when I didn’t have it.
Students (keyboarding and others) could virtually raise their hand and I was able to go through the queue in order and more quickly than running around the room.
When I was helping a student at their desk, I left the monitoring software running and displayed on the projector. This allowed peer influence to affect use of computers and I was able to monitor while not at my desk.
I could share my computer to quickly show a technique that I may have not shown earlier (especially useful for multimedia projects)
I could share or allow a student to share their screen to show a technique or effective design
My favorite technique was to create group chats with students assigned the same work but seated apart. This allowed them to collaborate while sitting apart.
I found that the monitoring software wasn’t really about locking kids out of ‘bad’ sites but more about helping them focus on using their time and resources effectively. There are also highly effective ways to facilitate collaboration, sharing, and just in time/just enough training when an instructor can step in and resolve a specific problem. So go ahead try one out. For most situation they will probably require some technical set up, but they are worth the effort.
There are some that might argue that this site is a complete waste of time. The author wasted time building the games, and it’s a waste of time to play the games. Well, the author has developed mutliple games using Adobe’s Flash Animation. (If you don’t have Flash get it here) The games have one major component in common. Each of them require that you add things in the correct sequence to carry out the task. I have loved the games for several years, and have tried and tried to figure out a good excuse to actually use the in a teaching situation. I couldn’t figure one out so I just allowed students to use them as motivators after finishing other work.
Well, I finally found my excuse. I realized that these games can be used to reemphasize the concept of sequence. They could also be used to demonstrate cause and effect. Well, check them out yourself, let us know if you can see other educational applications, but when you visit be prepared to waste some time!
This weeks Tech Tip is more of a conversation starter. What challenges do students have when using technology in your classroom? Sometimes cognitive or physically disabled students have challenges using computer equipment. What can we do to help them? There are lots adaptive equipment items you can buy, large button keyboards, oversized mice, and larger screens with settings for better visibility. One of the techniques I have seen used with pre-schoolers, kindergarteners and early elementary is to have notebook style mini mice available for smaller hands.
The Teaching with Technology Idea exchange has become an influential conference over the years it has been active. This year’s conference was no exception. Educators K-20 were able to engage in genuine learning and growth experiences and develop face to face friendships with people interested in improving learning by the correct application of Technology. This year the conference was very well attended. UEN was present and conducted one session on viral marketing of resources. Look for this conference next year and get it on you list of places to visit.
Having a guest come into the class to speak can be a bit of a hassle, but with a bit of ingenuity and know how you can quickly get a guest in your room even if they are miles away. If the guest you have in mind has a web cam and one of a couple of services you can invite them into your classroom. Some of the services that currently allow video conferencing include:
Each of these has their own set of challenges, and the possibility of being blocked.
Another great tool you can use for video conferencing with guest lecturers is Wimba. A tool available to all Utah Educators. You can learn more at www.uen.org/wimba
American Rhetoric contains some of the very best American Rhetoric ever! This site hosts mp3 files of the best speeches given on American Soil by political leaders. While the site is a bit hard to navigate, it does have lists of the most important speeches of all time, ranked for your learning. It isn’t clear who ranked them as most influential, but still having every one of those speeches is a prime example of effective speaking. Another list ranks speeches by decade making the study of American History come truly alive as you hear speeches by leaders of that time.
July 1, 2009 
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The Teaching with Technology Idea exchange has become an influential conference over the years it has been active. This year’s conference was no exception. Educators K-20 were able to engage in genuine learning and growth experiences and develop face to face friendships with people interested in improving learning by the correct application of Technology. This year the conference was very well attended. UEN was present and conducted one session on viral marketing of resources. Look for this conference next year and get it on you list of places to visit.