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!