Technology Operations and Concepts
This standard involves the effective use of technology systems and a fundamental understanding of technology concepts so that students can transfer their knowledge to new technologies and perform basic troubleshooting when problems occur. Students should also be able to select and use appropriate applications for their tasks.
I WON I WON I WON!!!!
A free 6-month subscription to Study Island! So excited, love this product and wanted to get it last year, can’t wait to try it out with my TAKS tutoring students!
We went to the poster session this morning and were very impressed and excited about two booths we saw.
Rio Rancho Cyber Academy in New Mexico is offering a 7-12 school within their district for students who can not function in a regular school environment. Students include those with health issues, ADD and OCD, athletes involved in olympic trials, and home schoolers by choice. Students take all their courses online from home but meet in a classroom 4 hours a day 2 days a week for group work, collaboration, and tutoring sessions. The program has also been used for credit recovery and credit acceleration.
Students/Parents are required to provide their own tools for success, i.e. Computer and high speed connection.
http://www.education2020.com
tkeime@education2020.com
Oops I pressed enter by accident.
I wanted to mention that this program would be great for our UCLB students.
I am wanting to incorporate reading and writing into my math class, so I attended a session on Differentiating Reading and Writing Using Readily Accessible Technologies. I learned about many free tools availible to help with reading and writing that I had no idea were out there. One is http://www.loosestitch.com — it allows you to create outlines for a variety of things and then re-arrange ideas with the click of a button. Then it allows others to leave comments about your outline. For math, I was thinking it could be used solve problems. Students could outline how they solved a given question (either using words or with math symbols — or both!). Then other students could go leave comments about how it was solved, if they agree/disagree with the answer, etc. Instead of a traditional homework assignment, maybe each student can be given a unique problem to work and then go analyze and comment on 10 other student’s problems. I did an example. Below is the link.
http://www.loosestitch.com/x3b972246m9oivxq/#
password: 4outlines
Can’t wait to try Moodles with my students in the fall…seems a bit more user-friendly than BB.
I went to a session this afternoon about the use of cell phones in the classroom. There was a ton of useful infomation.
One thing that I plan on trying to use is Gcast. You can have the kids call into Gcast from their cell phones and they can respond to a question that requires them to reflect on the literature that we are reading in class, etc. It’s a great alternative to assigning pencil/paper homework.
Also, another website to check out is:
www. polleverywhere.com
You can use this to poll your classroom – let the kids respond to a particlular question using thier cell phones.
Check out this website:
eduscapes.com
One session that I attended today was Inquire, Explore, and Make Connections Using Multiple Visualization Tools. Basically the session was about using Geometer’s Sketchpad with Smart Boards to explore H.O.T. questions in Math. I was impressed by the strategies and the challenge possibilities provided to students. Combined with Squeak, it presented the Math problem in a format which one had the ability to manipulative…somewhat similar to the Gizmos .
One of the sessions I attended today presented tools on the web for special ed. students that would also work well with ESL students. They noted sites that have helpful tools for reading, writing, and math. You can check them out at http://freewebtools.wikispaces.com/.
I attended 2 other sessions, one on Audacity and podcasting and one on PowerPoint Poisoning. The presenters in both showed some good examples using these programs. I liked the idea of using podcasting as a vocabulary activity. I also like the way the PowerPoint presenter advocated using PowerPoint in new ways that would encourage higher order thinking rather than displays of recall learning.
Re: gcast and cell phone sessions–will students and parents be charged for the phone calls/texts from their cells? I am always concerned when we use a service that would cost our children money. However, most of them have much better cell phones and cell phone plans than I do! I think using the cell phone/portable device is going to be the next step in the communication process. It is coming and we should be ready for it!
This morning, we stopped by the student presentation area. I was extremely impressed with this young man, Cory Matzat. He has created a website with links to free web resources for middle school. I can’t wait until I have time to sit down and go through all of the links. There were many that I was not aware of.
Sorry – the website is:
http://www.coreymatzat.com/webtools
Stef -
We have talked alot about the cell phone costs, etc in the last 24 hours since the great session we attended. We even talked about writing a grant for pay for class sets of pay as you go cell phones and prepaid minutes/texts.
At the minimum, we would have to send home a permission slip that outlines which services each student is allowed to use and always have an alternate way of completing the activity.
Just as we struggle with equity related to internet and computer access, we will have to be creative in overcoming the obstacles related to cell phone use in the educational setting.
I attended a session on Wednesday morning that was so PACKED full of great information and resources that it made waiting til Wednesday for it worth it!
Math games and programs using excel, sketchpad, word, and several others.
http://www.themathplace.org/shoulders/shoulders.htm
After visiting the exhibit hall, we found out that ASUS will have some newer models of their ultramobile PC out very soon. The newer ones have a larger screen and a battery that lasts 7.5 hours. I think this will solve some of the issues we had been discussing earlier.
Prior to the start of the final keynote address on Wednesday afternoon, we watched a video of comments by NECC 2008 attendees. One of the men interviewed made the statement: “You’ve got to jump in. You can’t wait till the water’s warm enough to walk in.” This really struck a chord with me. All too often, some of our teachers are reluctant to “jump in”. What a shame to miss out on wonderful opportunities for our students and for ourselves because of our hesitation. We, as technology advocates, should continually strive to “jump in” and model that behavior and attitude to those with whom we work.