Aug 28 2009
[slideshare id=521645&doc=integrating-technology-across-the-curriculum-v2003-1216616320675099-9]
The above slide share is a must for any teacher but especially high school teacher intent on meeting the needs of students to communicate, collaborate, share, involve and network with a larger pool of intersted like minded students.
Aug 16 2009
| By Patrick Fanelli, ERIE 2 CC BOCES, Public Information Officer
Faculty Promote 21st Century Approach To Education At the fourth annual High School’s New Face conference, which was held on Thursday, July 16 at Holiday Valley in Ellicottville, N.Y., four E2CCB teachers presented on four different topics that addressed the same fundamental theme: developing 21st century skills in the classroom. Jaime Monaco, special education teacher at the E2CCB Hewes Educational Center in Ashville, discussed the use of iPods in the classroom as a way of motivating students and augmenting their education. The popular devices can be used to administer quizzes, as a creative method of instruction, as a study tool, as a book, as a reward, and more, she explained. James Hedlund, another special education teacher at the Hewes Center, discussed the Young Adult Advancement Initiative, which provides students with real-life, work-related experience. Through a collaboration with Chautauqua Works, a non-profit organization that offers various workplace resources for employers and job seekers alike, students are provided real employment opportunities that help them develop the workplace skills and behaviors they will need to be successful later in life through the program, Hedlund told participants. Julie Sek, alternative education teacher at the E2CCB LoGuidice Educational Center in Fredonia, discussed the incorporation of blogs into the curriculum and she used a real-life lesson as an example. Her students, she explained, would visit her blog and answer a preliminary question about sustainability. They would then read a brief summary of the people of Rapa Nui (Easter Island), who squandered their resources to the detriment of their civilization. The students would then develop their own definition of sustainability without simply memorizing a definition from a textbook. Finally, Jason Delcamp, career and technical education instructor at the LoGuidice Center, discussed the incorporation of various technologies and resources into the automotive repair curriculum. One of his students, he said, used his Blackberry to build a relay and develop an understanding of complicated electronics concepts. Delcamp also uses hand-held computer devices to stay up-to-date with the latest in automobile technologies and repair methods. The E2CCB delegation to High School’s New Face was led by Una Raimando, special education supervisor at the Hewes Center, and assisting the delegation was Kim Texter, staff development specialist. The purpose of High School’s New Face is to bring educators together every year to discuss ways to develop 21st century skills in the classroom. The following are all seen as skills that are essential for students to be successful in the 21st century economy: critical thinking and problem-solving skills; the ability to collaborate across networks and lead by influence; agility and adaptability; initiative and entrepreneurialism; effective oral and written communication skills; the ability to access and analyze information; and curiosity and creativity.
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Feb 01 2009
Keep a digital camera in the classroom and you’ll most likely use it on a daily basis. Emailing photos is a great way for new teachers to build instant rapport with parents. Think of creative uses: Record the different stages of a science experiment, go outside and capture examples of geometry in nature and architecture, chronicle class events and projects throughout the year. You can post photos periodically on the web and also at the end of the year in a culminating slide show.
Get kids in on the action too. As roving reporters they can take photos for a classroom or school newspaper and later upload and format them on the computer. Students feel more invested in their work when given creative control and the leeway to learn-by-doing when it comes to technical equipment. Just make sure to begin with a lesson about gentle handling of digital cameras and establish rules about use.
Video can add a whole new dimension to student multimedia presentations, teacher-led lessons and school-related websites. Look for new handheld camcorders with on-board software for easy uploading to your computer or to video-sharing sites. They’re surprisingly affordable and a whole lot of fun!
For more information visit the “Digital Gadgets” section of Kathy Schrock’s Guide for Educators:
http://school.discoveryeducation.com/schrockguide/gadgets.html
Wireless technology is the ultimate way to integrate high-tech directly into the classroom. Portable wireless labs make sense for many districts. Make a case for getting your own school up to speed. Portable labs save space and money by sharing equipment throughout your school. Plus they give teachers and administrators greater flexibility when it comes to scheduling classes. Browse the CDW-G website for ideas. http://www.cdwg.com/ A typical wireless lab includes the following:
Multimedia Software
Multimedia software facilitates active, self-directed learning. Students can make connections and discoveries on their own or collaborate with others in the classroom. They learn how to integrate a variety of content from a variety of media to create effective presentations, and they learn how to sift through and process the barrage of information thrown at them on a daily basis. Multimedia is much more than bells and whistles—it is a new way of teaching and learning that encourages critical thinking, problem-solving, and communications skills.
http://www.discoveryeducation.com/products/streaming/
Looking for a video clip to illustrate a key concept? Or to enliven a lesson on social studies, science, math, literature, fine arts or foreign languages? Discovery Education Streaming is just the ticket. You get what you want, when you want it—whether you’re used to planning ahead or spur-of-the-moment. Discovery Education Streaming is a huge time-saver for teachers accustomed to scrambling around to find the right videos to fit the curriculum.
With thousands of high-quality curriculum-aligned clips for K—12, Discovery is the only digital video-based learning resource scientifically proven to increase student achievement. And it’s one of the most convenient and efficient ways to integrate technology into your curriculum on a daily basis (if we do say so ourselves).
Dec 22 2008
<a href=”http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=fACKgs47Hvrz9oyt1S6SMQ_3d_3d”>Click Here to take survey</a>
Please complete the above survey so as to give feedback about whether or not the Hewes Center should consider a name change to reflect more of the work students, teachers and staff are doing to promote education for all – Kindergarten through 12th grade plus.
Rationale: The above is a survey I created using a very useful tool called surveymonkey. The work that we are doing within the instructional programs at the Hewes Center – the blending of general and special education programs at the middle school level grades 7-12, the extension of our special education programs to include grades Kindergarten through 2nd grade; the collaboration we enjoy with Little Seeds Preschool, a for profit agency located within our facilities which also mirrors the blended educational programming we do, speaks volumes for the changes we have undergone these past 5 years. This type of educational programming one based on the premises of IDEA has transformed the notion of “E building” being one serving the neediest of children with severe behaviors and disabilities, to one where the students are learning that the “E” stands for Education and higher standards, the attainment of Regents Diplomas, College and the world of self-independence, independent living and work.
Result from this survey will be shared with faculty at the February 2009 Team Meetings which will also discuss how feedback will be received from students, parents and component school district personnel.
Dec 19 2008
The request was simple, but it still managed to put its finger on one of the most intriguing technology questions inside K–12 schools today. It was just after the winter holiday break last year and a student in the Bremerton, Washington, school district came back to school eager to show off one of his presents. Only this wasn’t a new shirt or even a fancy smartphone: It was a laptop and he wanted to not only show it off, but use it in class.
The district’s policy didn’t allow for students to bring in their own computers and connect to the school’s network, and the administrators told the student that, says Jeff Allen, the educational technology director for Olympic Educational Service District 114. The issue might have stopped there, and if it weren’t for a visit his parents made to a subsequent board of education meeting, it probably would have. But when his parents asked the board why their son couldn’t connect to the network that they as taxpayers helped pay for, well, suddenly the issue wasn’t so cut-and-dried.
Across the country, the same question is being considered. The idea of having 1:1 computing in schools has turned from if to when, and while the last great hurdles remain price and sustainability, more and more administrators are wondering if the answer isn’t already in their students’ backpacks and bedrooms. With so many students owning computers, especially high schoolers outside of urban areas, it’s easy to daydream about using them to help schools reach 1:1 goals.
Almost as soon as the idea of free technology starts drifting through administrators’ minds, reality intrudes with a highlight reel of bad what-ifs: What if students bring viruses, spam, and other threats to your servers? What if students have such a mishmash of software that even completing a simple project in Word becomes a guessing game of “What Version Do You Have?” What if students use the anonymity of their open computer to im, watch videos, or download music instead of taking notes or listening to their teacher?
Plunging In
while it’s possible to over think this knotty problem and subsequently make no changes in your system, some districts—including Allen’s—are slowly setting up programs with the idea that they will learn as they go.
“The whole thing with 1:1 is it’s going to happen regardless, in spite of us,” says Mark Klingler, the director of technology services for Forsyth (ga) County Schools. Klingler admits allowing students to use their own computers in class helps boosts the district’s already formidable technology base, but also raises questions—some of which his team has still to answer.
“It definitely creates classroom management issues, including many we haven’t thought of yet,” he says. Nonetheless, Forsyth is plunging ahead in a limited manner, handpicking teachers to quietly tell select students about the policy. However, the district did alter its Acceptable Use Policy, eliminating the ban on personal computers in the classroom. So, Klingler says if any enterprising students figure out the policy change, they’ll be welcome to join the experiment.
Jason Murray, coordinator of district technology of Cornwall-Lebanon (pa) School District, is also taking the invitation route. “We’re going to invite 20 seniors [this school year] selected by teachers,” he says. We don’t want the computers to be a distraction.”
The Consolidated High School District 230 in Orland Park, Illinois, has taken a step in this direction by allowing students to bring their computers to school and connect to the Internet, but not log on to the district’s network, says Darrell Walery, director of technology.
Stay Away from My Network
walery sums up the struggle in this issue succinctly. He says tech directors who have been teachers favor the experiment, while those who have business backgrounds blanche at the thought. “My role as technology director is to mediate this exact issue,” he adds.
it people worry about viruses, worms, phishing scams, and spam, not to mention whatever games or inappropriate content may be loaded on said computer. For these reasons, most would want to avoid the whole problem before it begins.
While Walery admits these concerns are legitimate, he also thinks they can be handled. His district can certify PCs before they are allowed on the network and point users to necessary antivirus tools, and do it easily enough to avoid making students feel as if they’re going through an endless airport security line.
In Forsyth, the district uses radius servers for centralized network management. This device identifies the districts’ computers, allowing them access to the network according to their status. Laptops that don’t pass this test are put on the district’s virtual lan. This gives them online access while keeping the user behind the district’s firewall and within its Internet filters. It keeps these computers—and their users—away from the district’s network.
The district hasn’t tackled the problem of scanning laptops for harmful content yet, but knows the day for a policy is approaching, Klingler says. “We’re not sure which direction to go or what we’re going to need. The main problem we have is that we know these things are really necessary but we don’t want to make it too difficult for a student to connect.”
Murray’s Pennsylvania district scans each notebook before it can connect to the school server. Clean Server antivirus software is one of the tools it uses to avoid “malware” and worms. Also, the district’s scans point users to free patches and service packs that are needed to keep security up to date.
Compatibility seems to be less of an issue each day as more online applications become available. Rather than install software, schools can subscribe to a number of licenses, allowing students to use the applications from home or school, as long as they are counted in the school’s agreement. Or schools can turn to the growing number of free online tools available to all.
Currently, Walery says his district has hundreds of software titles used across multiple courses, ranging from geometry programs to healthy eating programs. This makes it nearly impossible for a student to get an exact (and legal) match for all the software he or she needs. And even if his it department could find the time and resources to load each computer with what’s needed, Walery says the district’s licenses wouldn’t allow it.
Keeping Control
klingler admits that for it staff, “standardization has been the mantra to keep down total cost of ownership and maintain our sanity. Thin clients seemed to be the way to handle that,” he says, but now student computers don’t fit into that model. That’s why Forsyth is going slow, because “we don’t want to bite off more than we can support,” he says.
Classroom management is another potential worry. If college professors feel like students sometime use their lectures as a quiet place to fool around or get other work done (see sidebar), then what chance do K–12 teachers have of getting—and keeping—25 students on task?
Teachers in Pennsylvania use classroom management software (a small software download) to keep control. Murray says this program allows teachers to take complete control of each laptop if they want, pushing out their lesson to each screen, blocking all work with a single button, and even using the pcs as glorified personal response devices.
The last big hurdle to make this policy a reality in more districts is one that can’t be cleared with a simple software program. It is instilling the idea that teachers will no longer be the dominant information delivery for each class. If a school goes 1:1 but the students use the computers only as a better way of taking notes, the whole experiment will fail. “We can solve most of the technology concerns about security,” Walery says. “How do you get teachers prepared to teach in a classroom where everyone is a teacher?”
That is why a transformational venture like this requires teacher and administrator buy-in, the earlier the better, Klingler says. “Professional development is key. We have instructional technology specialists at every school. These folks are not the fix-it people but certified teachers [usually from that same building]. It’s a peer.”
Benefits Abound, Too
but enough doom and gloom. if 1:1 computing brought only trouble, no one would bother trying to get it off the ground. The reality is that a well-run program where more students have access to technology and use the tools in meaningful ways is a goal for every school.
“There’s an explosion of social activities” that computers enable, Murray says, from talking with people worldwide to keeping in touch with like-minded groups through Twitter to having students take virtual field trips halfway around the world, or just down the street. Science students can do an online dissection with step-by-step analysis, or math problems where a simulation can help illustrate a difficult-to-grasp concept, he adds.
If used correctly, computers in more hands can help speed schools along the path to 21st-century learning, Walery says. “You’d be teaching them how to collaborate and work in the tech-rich time that we’re in. Teachers need to think about teaching in a different way,” he says. “If you’re doing that, a lot of these [problems] go away.”
Having kids bring in their own computers can help bring 1:1 a lot closer to reality, especially in poorer districts. Klingler says Forsyth can channel its existing computer stock to students without personal computers and help reduce tech disparity.
While Forsyth is able to hew to its computer replacement policy closely, Murray’s Cornwall-Lebanon (pa) School District faces another problem. While his state’s Classrooms for the Future program brought 550 pcs into the district, the technology coordinator realizes he won’t have the funding needed to replace these machines in three or four years. “We have to get on board [with this program] now to sustain what we have,” he says. “Technology is fairly expensive. This is a viable option. To really get ahead in the workforce today, you have to have a fairly good technology background. Some schools can’t afford a 1:1 program.”
The Next Laptops?
savvy tech directors already predict that as technology advances, kids will move on from the laptop.
“The cell phone is their thing,” Walery says. “Communication is the main [goal]. They constantly text back and forth.”
Most districts tolerate cell phones, but require them to be turned off in class. Murray says that free online programs could allow teachers to use student cell phones as personal response devices. Instead of picking the next American Idol, the phones could be used for a multiple-choice quiz in geometry, he says.
Pennsylvania’s Murray already sees students shying away from laptops because of the weight of carrying them around. “It’s much more likely in a few years all students will have their own smartphones,” he says.
The mini computers that are popping up with smaller form factors might become the next big player in the K–12 space, he says. Forsyth has even looked into using Sony Playstation handhelds in class, noting that they have a “decent Web browser.”
“We want to support whatever kids bring in,” he adds.
Computers Age by Age
Discusses software for infants and toddlers and answers the question, “How young is too young?”
Policies & Practices: Finding a Place for Computers
Computers should be used for enriching the early childhood curriculum, and administrators, directors and teachers can work together to achieve the right balance in a program. Kneas discusses integrating computer technology into the early childhood classroom.
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