Interactive Whiteboards

Due to my limited experience, I have only come in contact with SmartBoards. I had hear of one other system - Promethean - but I had never seen one (still haven't). Because of this limitation, it took quite a bit of research to figure out what the differences are between them.

I have used my SmartBoard in a variety of ways. Class announcements have been posted for all to see. I use my document camera to show students how to use calculators and multi-meters. The Smart Response system is great for teaching an interactive lesson.

It was nice to see that there are other systems out there. At this point in time it doesn't seem likely that I will ever have much chance to use them. This is one are of technology where I am limited to using what is supplied for my classroom. 

Digital Storytelling

Here's an interesting concept: make a podcast of a story or idea that you can share with students. . . your voice, downloaded pictures, and background music. Just thinking about it makes me feel like Ken Burns.

Session 8 - Education Resources

This week's lesson was about online educational resources. Here's my take:
The Good:
Puzzlemaker - a good variety of customizable puzzles for classroom use.
Student Certificates - print free certificates from templates.
Internet4classrooms - lots of links to other sites.
Tuxpaint - free paint program for the younger generation.

The Bad:
Timeliner - great program . . . at a price.
Inspiration - a software package for making mind maps. I love mind maps, but not at a price. This is a high-tech solution to a low-tech problem.

The Ugly:
Wordle - I went to their site and wondered if I was in the wrong place. I seems to be nothing but groups of links to for-profit schools.
Teacher Tube - This one has gotten better with time, but two years ago it was a collection of second-rate, low-quality videos being presented on a too-slow server. Even today, most of the material here can be seen on YouTube.

There are many other resources and tool in cyber-land. I'll keep looking!

Session 7 - Creating a Webpage

This weeks my knowledge of Google was expanded once again. I had heard of Google Sites, but had never tried creating my own. I created my own site for my class at TCHS. It may not be the best/coolest site around, but it was very easy to do. I did some research and found out how to embed a PDF file in a Google Sites web page.

After I created the site for Electronics @ TCHS, I started work on a site for the class that I teach at DCCC. That work has been put on hold while I take care of some other business. I am trying to figure out how to create a "drop box" where students can upload homework and others will not be able to see it.

Today I learned about evaluating websites.

This weeks' assignments were very interesting. Mostly because I have played with source code and HTML, and I have always kind of subconsciously evaluated web sites, but this is the first time I have ever had to take the time to look closely at what makes a site "good" or "bad."

I spent time examining page info and source code for things that might not be obvious: If the author did not identify him/herself in text, did he/she tuck it away somewhere else? Were tables used? Were there hidden comments that might be interesting?

The thing that I found most interesting is something that I did not know you could do -- "link:" Now that I know about this kind of cyber-stalking, I did a little research and found that it is not as comprehensive as it once was. Not all links are returned in the search. But it is still kind of geeky cool.

Today I Learned About Adaptive Technology

I spend my days surrounded by computers. I have a tower that sits beside my desk that runs Windows XP and a MacBook on the desk. Sometimes I have my Windows 7 laptop beside the MacBook.  There are 17 other computers in my room. Other people bring their computers to me so I can "look at" them. But, I have never had to deal with Adaptive Technology.

Adaptive Technology is the world of software and devices that allow handicapped people to use technology. The software comes with various uses. It can read the contents of the screen to someone who has lost her sight or listen to, and obey, the voice of a person who is not able to type. There is also scanning software that is used in conjunction with an input device: The software "scans" the alphabet, and the user bumps a switch or gives a gesture that triggers an input to select the proper letter.

On the hardware side, there are keyboards with extra-large keys. They are great for people who lack fine motor skills. "Switches" are commonly used be people who need an input device that can be operated with a large motion, such as the movement of an arm or a bump with a knee. A "switch" can also be a device that detects a slight motion (the blink of an eye) to send a signal to a computer.

Digital Imaging

While most of this week's info on digital imaging wasn't new to me, I did pick up one important thing: Image compression is important. The quality (DPI) of the image is driven by the application. For some strange reason (ignorance, perhaps?), I thought that was taken care of when you resized an image. This might explain the poor performance that I find on some web sites when photos are loading.

We also did some work with desktop publishing, but did not get into it too deeply. Nothing new to me here. Using a Word template is simple and there are plenty available online.

I turned in my Excel project. Doing this project gave me a little more exposure to a few of the features of this wonderful program. I have been a light user of Excel for years, and it has gotten progressively better (and easier to use) with each new version. The exception to this may be the Mac version. By today's standards, I find it clunky and difficult to access some of the features. Fortunately, I have a PC notebook to balance out my company-supplied Macbook.

Web 2.0

This week we focused on Web 2.0 applications. There are several that I already use: gmail, Moodle (an FTP program for education), online banking services Facebook, and others. But I did learn about a few that are helpful and fun.
I some time playing with Jing. Our IT people use it to create help videos, but I had never used it before. It is a quick and easy download. Very easy to use. I especially like the screen capture feature -- you can draw arrows and write text on you pics.
I also discovered Diigo. After playing with it for an hour, I decided that it will be the topic of my online project for the class that I taking this semester. With Diigo you can bookmark sites, highlight text for future reference, capture screen shots. Diigo creates a library of your work; great for research.

Today I learned about spreadsheets.

This weeks assignments centered around Excel spreadsheets. We are preparing for a project that is due on 9/21/10 where we will create a spreadsheet with multiple worksheets with "circles and arrows and a paragraph on the back of each one explaining what each one was to be used as evidence against us" (thanks Arlo!).

I did some research (no, I didn't go to the library and blow the dust off of some old books; I "Googled), and discovered that there is a lot of info out there in cyberspace on how to create spreadsheets. There is also a lot of info on how to take the spreadsheets that you make and turn them into works of art. I think my spreadsheets will look much better in the future. Thanks, Mr. Google.

9/3/10 Digital Students?

It is obvious that there are different kinds of learners, as well as different kinds of teachers. The fact that there are different generations of people and, in a fast-changing culture, generations of people who think differently than previous or future generations shouldn't surprise us.

The articles that I read for my assignments this week identified the latest generation of students as "Digital Learners." This label isn't surprising. I teach electronics and technology-related stuff to teenagers. They know that I speak Digital with an accent. I text very slowly and make sure spelling, grammar, and punctuation are, at the very least, OK.

One of the videos that I watched was called "Engage Me or Enrage Me." I have mixed feeling about this video because it implies that teachers don't do anything but bore their students with meaningless lessons that are rooted in old-style thinking. Most of the teachers that I know work hard to relate to their students in meaningful ways and teach lessons that take advantage of all the technology available in their schools. Interestingly, this video didn't do that. Instead of showing students engaged with current technology, students were shown with white boards that had messages written on them. I couldn't decide of that was an insult to the students who were in the video or the teachers who were the intended audience.

Yet, important distinctions are made and developed in this lesson. Today's students know what technology can do for them. And it seems that most of today's students are anxious to capitalize on this technology. Many will use this technology, and the learning experiences that come with it, to better themselves. Some will use it solely for entertainment and social networking. A few will use the important tools in their hands lake an angry wife uses a butcher knife on her cheating husband.

Our job as teachers is to guide our students in the proper application of a huge world of technology. We must do our job well.