I just happened to find myself in the middle of a school lock down drill at an area middle school last week. I was working with a teacher on creating an EduBlog when the code came through on the intercom. So. . ..the usual locking-of-the-door took place and we huddled in a corner where we could not be seen. All of that is ho-hum, but what fascinated me was that the teacher immediately sent a quick email via their FirstClass school conference regarding the status of her room. Cascading clinks could be heard as classroom teachers and others reported out. I'm guessing within five minutes time, everyone at the school knew what everyone else was doing. Neat.
WikiHow "How to Behave in a School Lock Down"
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Friday, January 23, 2009
Podcasting Anyone?
There are still openings for the following podcasting training sessions next week. Don't think twice - jump at the opportunity!
Podcasting for You and your Students
This workshop will present the fundamentals of planning, creating, and managing digital media files used to deliver a podcast. Participants will explore the rich collection of curriculum-related podcasts available for free on the internet, subscribe to appropriate ones, and create a collection in iTunes. Participants will then learn to write a script, and record, edit, and produce their own enhanced podcast for classroom use. Throughout the workshop, participants discuss the role of podcasting in education and how to use the power of the ubiquitous media players (iPods) as a teaching and learning tool to engage learners with diverse learning styles.
Link to site/registration
January 28 - Podcasting – Jay Middle School
January 29 - Podcasting - Great Salt Bay School
Podcasting for You and your Students
This workshop will present the fundamentals of planning, creating, and managing digital media files used to deliver a podcast. Participants will explore the rich collection of curriculum-related podcasts available for free on the internet, subscribe to appropriate ones, and create a collection in iTunes. Participants will then learn to write a script, and record, edit, and produce their own enhanced podcast for classroom use. Throughout the workshop, participants discuss the role of podcasting in education and how to use the power of the ubiquitous media players (iPods) as a teaching and learning tool to engage learners with diverse learning styles.
Link to site/registration
January 28 - Podcasting – Jay Middle School
January 29 - Podcasting - Great Salt Bay School
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Unofficial National Celebration
Many folks are multi-tasking at work today as they watch streaming video such as the CNN/Facebook collaboration.
Guide to Inaugural Events
Monday, January 19, 2009
"So, How'd We Do?"
Wicked Decent Learning Episode #54
WDL Blog
Jeff Bailey and Dan Ryder interview their former students.
Sunday, January 18, 2009
Learning in Maine Network
Start your own discussion topic at the Learning in Maine Network. It is easy to join. We are growing rapidly with over 40 members in the first five days. Go here to join.
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Learning in Maine Social Network
The Learning in Maine Blog/Wiki is nearly one and a half years old now, having started at the annual Castine Tech Conference a couple of summers ago. Just learning how to walk and talk. Today a Ning social network is being added to the mix. Do feel free to join and to add discussion topics and comments.
Learning in Maine Social Network
Monday, January 12, 2009
Online Mapping Getting Down to Earth
by Ed Latham
I had an OMG moment this morning as I was looking up an address for an appointment I have this week. I navigated over to google's fine mapping program and plugged in the address and sure enough a nice map was presented. I zoomed in to see the streets around the location to get my bearing and noticed that a little yellow people icon was present on the left side of my map. Being the curious button pusher I am I clicked on the little guy (sorry it may be a girl but looks like the guy on the bathroom doors) and dragged him to the location I was looking at. The screen when blank for a bit and then .... WHAM ... I was there at that location and was able to look around with 360 degree view! I was astounded. Sure it was photos of summer and we are under three feet of snow right now, but I can still see the buildings, trees, telephone poles and even a police officer pulling over a driver that saw his rights on the road a bit differently.
I had to check if my little bungalow out in the sticks was a virtual tourist trap yet. Typing in my very remote location, I was shocked to see that they had a road virtually in there that was less than 1/2 mile from my house. This got me anxious to see where in the world I could see. I went to Europe (virtually of course, I can't afford plane fare) and found that not all of the countries were available for this street level view, but some of the major ones were. I suspect there are many legal issues Google has to clear with each country before they can post such detailed pictures.
I keep hearing requests for virtual field trips and I see this street level access as yet another free resource for schools to take advantage of. Oh how my Geography classes would have so much more interesting to me with this tool available. I can see the building styles, the types of cars, the layout of the streets and surroundings and can see almost every tourist attraction in the world; What power!
Seems to many options for how a tool like this can be used. What do you think this might be good for? Does it go too far into privacy (they sure did not ask my technophobic parents if they minded their remote house way out in the woods was able to be posted)? Should a school ever have to buy a map again? Are maps even necessary any more with all the geography tools out there now?
I had an OMG moment this morning as I was looking up an address for an appointment I have this week. I navigated over to google's fine mapping program and plugged in the address and sure enough a nice map was presented. I zoomed in to see the streets around the location to get my bearing and noticed that a little yellow people icon was present on the left side of my map. Being the curious button pusher I am I clicked on the little guy (sorry it may be a girl but looks like the guy on the bathroom doors) and dragged him to the location I was looking at. The screen when blank for a bit and then .... WHAM ... I was there at that location and was able to look around with 360 degree view! I was astounded. Sure it was photos of summer and we are under three feet of snow right now, but I can still see the buildings, trees, telephone poles and even a police officer pulling over a driver that saw his rights on the road a bit differently.
I had to check if my little bungalow out in the sticks was a virtual tourist trap yet. Typing in my very remote location, I was shocked to see that they had a road virtually in there that was less than 1/2 mile from my house. This got me anxious to see where in the world I could see. I went to Europe (virtually of course, I can't afford plane fare) and found that not all of the countries were available for this street level view, but some of the major ones were. I suspect there are many legal issues Google has to clear with each country before they can post such detailed pictures.
I keep hearing requests for virtual field trips and I see this street level access as yet another free resource for schools to take advantage of. Oh how my Geography classes would have so much more interesting to me with this tool available. I can see the building styles, the types of cars, the layout of the streets and surroundings and can see almost every tourist attraction in the world; What power!
Seems to many options for how a tool like this can be used. What do you think this might be good for? Does it go too far into privacy (they sure did not ask my technophobic parents if they minded their remote house way out in the woods was able to be posted)? Should a school ever have to buy a map again? Are maps even necessary any more with all the geography tools out there now?
Saturday, January 10, 2009
Incidents of Prohibited Behavior
Question: Should Maine local schools be forced to send names of students who commit incidents of prohibited behavior to the State?
Village Soup: SAD 40 opposes reporting student names to state
Village Soup: SAD 40 opposes reporting student names to state
NoteShare Express
NoteShare from AquaMinds is a staple on the MLTI laptops here in Maine. Every educator 7-12 has the app on their laptops . . . and every 7-8 student in Maine as well. The notebook metaphor it uses makes that connection with past technologies which helps many to easily move on to the new powerful digital functionalities. NoteShare is one of those applications which allows new learners to use it quickly initially while at the same time having many additional powerful features under the hood for those wishing to explore further. (More Info)For example, it allows created notebooks to be shared in many different ways. Notebooks can be shared and edited easily between teachers and students on their local networks as well as world-wide through IP addresses. Notebooks can also be published with a single click as an html document for the web. In addition, notebooks can be stored on a server for access. (More Info)
The one drawback had been that only people with Macs that had the NoteShare application could edit the documents. No more. Now we have NoteShare Express which opens up editing capabilities to anyone anywhere through a simple web browser . . . just about any web browser. This new feature can be experienced at the ACTEM server. Simply go to this address and use "actem" as a password. Choose the MaineEd category and then pick Demo_Playground to go to the sandbox. Feel free to mess around there, trying out this wonderful new feature. Add a new section, page or entry. Add and move text. Upload images and links. Discover the possibilities. (More Info)
Maine's educational technology association, ACTEM, is probably the best place for Maine schools and educators to go to acquire the necessary software to implement these enhanced capabilities. Craig Dickinson is the fine gentleman who will help you there.
Crystal Priest, president of ACTEM and keeper of the ACTEM NoteShare server, among her many, many other duties (where does she find the time?) is the resident expert on NoteShare servers and Noteshare Express. She can also point you in the right direction to individual school systems in Maine that have set up their own servers.
Scott Love, AquaMinds CEO, is unique, in my experience, in his approach to customer service. He works directly with his customers and users, always going that extra mile to answer questions, troubleshoot, and constantly improved his product based on user needs and requests. He listens and follows up. See AquaMinds Weblog. (Where does he find the time?)
Barbara Greenstone and Phil Brookhouse, statewide MLTI mentors, as well as many others throughout the State, provide excellent training in making the best use of NoteShare, focusing on student and teacher needs. Check out some of their own notebooks (toward the bottom of the sidebar list, password: "actem") at the ACTEM server.
What else should we know about NoteShare?
Earlier NoteShare Posts
NoteShare Resources at LIM Resources Wiki
Friday, January 9, 2009
The Big Question
by Ron Smith, MLTI/eMINTS Region 3
I was excited to read this article in Education Week outlining Maine’s involvement in an effort to work with three other New England states in examining how to best meet the changing needs of secondary education. The goal of the consortium states:
"The New England Secondary School Consortium aims to create high schools that are "flexible, borderless, multidimensional community learning centers" in which students would have the chance to study at the secondary and postsecondary levels, do research in their communities, build real-world skills through internships, and immerse themselves in technology..."
It’s refreshing to hear educational and political leaders discussing real reform that doesn’t involve increasing the number of and reliance on standardized testing. Perhaps the revolution *is* just around the corner.
In my experiences as a middle school teacher and in working with educators in professional development, I have come to believe a couple of things:
(1) American education is in a great need of a massive retooling. I am not smart enough to really know exactly what American education should look like - but certainly what we have now is not serving our students and society well.
(2) At a time when this real reform is so sorely needed, the direction of national education policy as prescribed by NCLB has totally missed the mark.
I guess instead of dwelling on what’s not right, it’s time for us in the education community to start focusing on what will work for our students. So what are your ideas?
~ Is the New England Secondary School Consortium a bold step in the right direction, or just another empty effort at the illusion of reform?
~ What must K-12 education in American look like?
~ What will be the role of technology?
~ What about accountability - how do we know our students are gaining the skills needed to be successful citizens of the world?
I was excited to read this article in Education Week outlining Maine’s involvement in an effort to work with three other New England states in examining how to best meet the changing needs of secondary education. The goal of the consortium states:
"The New England Secondary School Consortium aims to create high schools that are "flexible, borderless, multidimensional community learning centers" in which students would have the chance to study at the secondary and postsecondary levels, do research in their communities, build real-world skills through internships, and immerse themselves in technology..."
It’s refreshing to hear educational and political leaders discussing real reform that doesn’t involve increasing the number of and reliance on standardized testing. Perhaps the revolution *is* just around the corner.
In my experiences as a middle school teacher and in working with educators in professional development, I have come to believe a couple of things:
(1) American education is in a great need of a massive retooling. I am not smart enough to really know exactly what American education should look like - but certainly what we have now is not serving our students and society well.
(2) At a time when this real reform is so sorely needed, the direction of national education policy as prescribed by NCLB has totally missed the mark.
I guess instead of dwelling on what’s not right, it’s time for us in the education community to start focusing on what will work for our students. So what are your ideas?
~ Is the New England Secondary School Consortium a bold step in the right direction, or just another empty effort at the illusion of reform?
~ What must K-12 education in American look like?
~ What will be the role of technology?
~ What about accountability - how do we know our students are gaining the skills needed to be successful citizens of the world?
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
Predicting Weather
Essential Question: How do we predict weather?I was a fifth grade teacher for 18 years back in the 70's and 80's in a small rural school in Maine. During that time, we always created a weather station with a combination of store-bought and "home-made" instruments to make daily predictions. Now, of course, in addition to the local news weather and the Weather Channel, there are numerous places to find detailed predictions on the Web based on the very latest technologies. There are tons of webquests. My question is this: With all the instant ways of finding a prediction, why bother getting our hands dirty to create these tools?
My answer, on reflection, is that the wonderful digital resources on the web simply don't allow us to experience at a gut level the joy of creating and manipulating these hands-on tools. Experiencing the natural world directly gives us roots while at the same time offering us the opportunity to feel capable and self-reliant.
What are the limits of information technology in growing kids who feel connected, loved, and capable?
Make Your Own Weather Station
Making Weather Tracking Tools
Building and Using a Homemade Weather Station
Weather Wiz Kids
Web Weather for Kids
Weather Basics
Weather Resources for Students
Lesson Plan: Weather Tools of the Trade
42exlore: Weather
Kathy Schrock: Weather Resources
eThemes Search
K12 Station: Weather (Grades 3-5)
K12 Station: Weather (Grades 6-8)
Maine Weather Notes (John Briggs)
MLR for Science & Technology
Monday, January 5, 2009
Electronic Whiteboards - A Wise Choice?
by Ron Smith, MLTI/eMINTS Region 3
As a educator who currently has the opportunity to work with staff members in schools across Washington and Hancock Counties, I receive many requests to deliver electronic whiteboard sessions. I always enjoy these sessions, as they tend to be rather fun, fast paced, and hands-on. Educators typically come away excited about using the whiteboard with students.
I recently read this blog post by Wesley Fryer and it’s accompanying comments (by Gary Stager and Sylvia Martinez, among others) that reflected a lively debate about electronic whiteboard use. The overall tone of the debate (particularly by Stager) was very anti-whiteboard. Some of the more interesting points expressed were:
(1)An electronic whiteboard, by its very nature, promotes a very teacher centered classroom environment. Essentially, from a pedagogical standpoint, there is no difference between a electronic whiteboard and a chalkboard.
(2)The cost of the whiteboard is simply not justified. Limited resources most certainly could be spent in a wiser manner.
(3)Purchasing an electronic whiteboard represents an easy, highly visible, and ultimately unwise representation of creating the illusion of a 21st Century learning environment. Decision makers can quickly point to this purchase as a way of demonstrating their commitment to promoting technology in their schools.
What are your reactions to these assertions? What are some ways in which electronic whiteboards can be used in a true student-centered classroom environment? Are they a good investment for our schools?
As a educator who currently has the opportunity to work with staff members in schools across Washington and Hancock Counties, I receive many requests to deliver electronic whiteboard sessions. I always enjoy these sessions, as they tend to be rather fun, fast paced, and hands-on. Educators typically come away excited about using the whiteboard with students.
I recently read this blog post by Wesley Fryer and it’s accompanying comments (by Gary Stager and Sylvia Martinez, among others) that reflected a lively debate about electronic whiteboard use. The overall tone of the debate (particularly by Stager) was very anti-whiteboard. Some of the more interesting points expressed were:
(1)An electronic whiteboard, by its very nature, promotes a very teacher centered classroom environment. Essentially, from a pedagogical standpoint, there is no difference between a electronic whiteboard and a chalkboard.
(2)The cost of the whiteboard is simply not justified. Limited resources most certainly could be spent in a wiser manner.
(3)Purchasing an electronic whiteboard represents an easy, highly visible, and ultimately unwise representation of creating the illusion of a 21st Century learning environment. Decision makers can quickly point to this purchase as a way of demonstrating their commitment to promoting technology in their schools.
What are your reactions to these assertions? What are some ways in which electronic whiteboards can be used in a true student-centered classroom environment? Are they a good investment for our schools?
Finding and Organizing Internet Resources
Telstar 3 at CPS Library, 3:30 - 7:30 Agenda"Thinking about using Internet resources in the classroom is like . . . "
"Asking students to conduct Internet searches is like . . . "
"Let me tell you what keeps me up at night . . ."
Sunday, January 4, 2009
Learning to Read
"Children are made readers on the laps of their parents." ~Emilie Buchwald
Free Reading
Teach a Child to Read: Learning to Read
Family Education: Learning to Read
Reading Rockets
Alphabet Action
Bembo's Zoo
StoryPlace
PBS KIDS: Between the Lions
Sesame Street
Owl & Mouse: Play Letter Sounds Online
Montessori Home: Learn to Read Free
Helping Your Children Learn How to Read
Starfall Learn to Read
The Myth of Learn to Read/Read to Learn
Add more resources at the LIM Resources wiki.
Image Credit
Saturday, January 3, 2009
Web Browser for Young Children
Learning Spanish
Spanish Language and Culture @ Diane Whitmore's site at Freeport High SchoolTeaching Spanish - Resources & Lesson Plans @ Richard Byrne's Free Technology for Teachers
SpanishDict Network
Teaching and Learning Spanish Blog
Any other Maine teachers have sites on learning Spanish that we can add here?
Friday, January 2, 2009
Online Language Tools
"You live a new life for every new language you speak. If you know only one language, you live only once." ~ Czech proverb
I only know one language - English - and after taking three years of French in high school and two years of German in College, that really bothers me. Have no idea how I nominally passed those courses, but ultimately they were pretty much a waste of time for me. Is it too late to get serious at age 61 on actually become fluent in a second language?
This time I have motivation. My grandson, Ilan, at one year old, is learning both English and Spanish at the same time. He is attending an all Spanish-speaking daycare, being immersed in it during the day, and then speaking English and Spanish with his parents when with them. If my grandson can learn 2 languages simultaneously, shouldn't I at least be able to learn one additional language . . . even if past my prime? ;)
And, by the way, whatever happened to Esperanto? When I was a young man, along with promoting birth control to keep the world population down, it was all the rage. Guess it went the same place that metric measurement in the U.S. went during the early eighties.
Anyhow . . . below find some online language tools I discovered on a recent search. In the end, I suspect I would be better off to use the RosettaStone methodology.
What do you think?
Diane Whitmore's Language Website (Freeport H.S.)
Omniglot
Nice Translator
BabelFish
Google Language Tools
Meta Language Translation
Online Language Dictionaries
Free Online Language Courses
Commercial Language Learning Courses
Second Language Software Reviews
Thursday, January 1, 2009
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