Going the Distance II Meeting 1/20/09

Great Ideas/Notes From Tonight's Meeting:

I've heard from three WOW! Teachers who watched the meeting live online. UStream worked! They could see and hear us fine but could not see what was on the screen. For next time, please tell me about tools you find that will allow us to show the stream AND the presentation simultaneously. There must be something!

-Use http://drop.io Amina shared her experience with using drop.io (1:13 into stream above) for private file storage and sharing. After her Mom sent her 20 emails with 1 picture attached to each, Amina set up a drop.io for her family. She found that the site allows a customized page (sort of like a blog) with multiple types of protection. For example, you can allow some users to edit files and others only to view them. She also used the feature where you call the number for your drop and post a message for those who log in to hear. It's an amazing tool. Check out this example for educators: http://drop.io/mrdavidson

Jason showed us how Delicious bookmarking works and we got to see a mashup of a Google satellite map with pirate attacks off the coast of Africa. It was very cool and memorable. He highly recommended using Delicious Bookmarking (http://delicious.com/about). This online tool allows you to bookmark sites from any computer as well as providing the ability to log in and use your bookmarks from any computer ANYwhere. You can also share bookmarks and search/see others' bookmarks if they choose to share. (About 49 minutes into the stream.) See the Live Piracy Map he showed us here.

We looked at Sumo Paint (50). It's just still SO COOL.

Charles showed us some amazing art tools (we were discussing symetry) available at http://www.nga.gov/kids/kids.htm. See what he says about 53 minutes into the stream.

Participate in the Conroe I.S.D. WOW Teacher Blog Project!
Site: http://conroewow.blogspot.com
username: conroeisdwowteacher
password: posted in the WOW! Conference inside FirstClass (Look at the top)

WebCam ideas:
-Use a webcam to record your instructions for students who are absent when you are outlining a new project.
-Use a webcam to record your science experiments. Students can watch them over and over, and absent students can see what happened.
-Use a webcam AND http://www.epals.com (1:12 into stream) to communicate with other classes from around the world.

Nathan (the host of our meeting) showed us student projects using Blogger and Animoto. Students were studying Antigone but weren't that enthusiastic about it, so Nathan came up with a project that solved the problem. Students compared elements of literature from Antigone with modern films/characters. The project got them much more excited about what they were learning, and the depth of their understanding was evident in their projects.

Nathan also showed us the blog called "The Fischbowl" (I'm such a sucker for a clever name) located here. Within this blog are links to Wikified Research Projects, a cool and rich revision to the 20th century research paper using Wikis (1:18).

Laurie liked http://letmegooglethatforyou.com , which lets you perform a Google search for someone else so that you can preview the results before they see it. You can see Amy clumsily try to explain it at about 1 hour into the stream.

We also talked about the Jing Project a free tool from the makers of SnagIT and Camtasia that allows you to capture your screen (or part of your screen) AND your voice, then very easily share that capture via a "Screencast," like this example. It's discussed about 1:06 into the stream.

http://www.freetech4teachers.com Can't say enough good things about this blog. This is where we've learned about almost all of the very best tools we use. Amazing!

Amina shared her WOW! presentation and reported that 99% of her participants "thorougly enjoyed" her two hour WOW! training (1:16). She shared the presentation with us here. If you want to use her presentation, ask her to add you as a collaborator and SWEAR you'll make a copy of it before you edit it.

Kellie made some very insightful comments about time on task when kids are truly engaged at bout 43 minutes in. Yeah, it may be loud, but listen to them! They're talking about why this makes sense and THAT doesn't. They're thinking.

At about 44 minutes in, Laura Collins gives a great example of how reading house descriptions remarkably improved her students' descriptive writing.

At about 45 minutes Nikki talks about her 4th graders Moodling. We can't wait to see what they do with it!

Why WOW Conferences are Necessary to Our Continued Success

I, along with David Greenfield, and my principal, Dr. Beken, recently visited the Vistas Program in Klein ISD. Vistas is an alternative program within the Klein District which has made headlines in year's past due to their successful implementation of 1-1 student to computer ratio. Klein ISD has followed up on Vistas's success by distributing laptops at the beginning of the 2008-2009 school year to at least 2 other schools, including Klein Collins High School. They have made plans for the 2009-2010 school year of distributing laptops to 3 more schools, including Klein Forest High School. I transferd to Hauke from Klein Forest at the beginning of the 2007-2008 school year. My principal at the time, Bill Lakin, mentioned the future proliferation of computers at our closing staff meeting of the 2006-2007 school year. I was a little skeptical at the time of the district's philosophy, but I have since come to realize that they are serious about implementing technology in the classroom. In the coming months Klein ISD will have distributed nearly 10,000 laptops to thier students.
SIDE NOTE(Do you have any idea how much money Klein ISD will spend in software licensing, computer technician needs, and other related costs? I don't think I want to see that bill.)
I mention all of this in order to distinguish Klein ISD's philosophy from Conroe's. While they are encouraging more technology use in the classroom, they are also maintaining the status quo by sticking mainly to Microfsoft applications. In other words, while every student might have a computer in their hands, they are using it like a fancy word processor. In many ways, they are stuck (and I fear they might remain for some time) in the 20th century. On another side note...while I was at Vistas, and therefore under the auspices of the Klein ISD server, I discovered to my horror that many of the Web 2.0 applications that we use (i.e. Animoto, Blogger, etc.) are blocked.
This reminds me in many ways of Amy Mayer's adamant feelings about worksheets, and how doing a worksheet on a worksheet on a computer is not a successful implementaton of technology, nor does it increase learning.
I emailed Amy Mayer recently to let her know how grateful I am for all she and Jan Robin have done in shifting my technology paradigm. I think back to that day in May 2007 at Klein Forest. I was really excited at the prospect of flooding the high school ranks with laptops. While this sounded like a great idea in principle, it needs careful consideration when the idea is put into action. The fact that we as a district are moving away from expensive software applications and computer technician repairs is a testament that we as a district are looking for ways to thrive in the 21st century. I credit Dr. Barret and all the rest of the IT staff for their careful and steady implementation of these WOW laptops. IT has done an excellent job in getting these WOW carts into the hands of those teacher who can (hopefully?!?) successfully implement a technology-rich curriculum into their classrooms. Thanks to our summer (or fall) training, and our recent update and refresher course at the Conroe High Library, I feel we WOW teachers are in a position to spread our wings and truly implement this technology into the classroom. To follow the analogy, our mother birds (Amy and Jan) have taught us all they can about how to theoretically use the laptops and cloudware in our classrooms. The only problem with this scenario is that neither of these great teachers still practices their art in the classroom. WOW teachers: it is time to leave the nest. In order to promote best practices, enhance WOW lesson plans, collaborate cross-curricularly, and have a good time doing it, we WOW teachers are going to have to meet together on a regular basis to learn from one another in a practical application setting. I don't know about the rest of you, but I learned an amazing amount of information in a short time this summer from my own trial and error as well as the excellent presentions from my fellow WOW teachers. Because we have come so far since then, I feel that we are in a position to continuely enhance our learning through similar insightful presentations. I invite all of you to come to next month's WOW Let's Go the Distance II Conference to learn from your colleagues how to best implement your WOW ideas into the classroom.