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
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)