November 16, 2012

Hello again folks,

I wanted to share a few of the things that I’ve noticed in chatting with many of you and observing in classrooms in the last little while – the world of Educational Technology has been a busy place…

What’s working:

-         We’re seeing many teachers using blogs for their classes.  Cecilia has a Physics blog:  http://nwsphysics99.blogspot.com/  Francoise is using her password protected blog once again to connect students at NWS with students in France.  And more people are jumping in to try them for projects.

-         Blogs are also  useful as a reflective practice to focus on professional growth.  Here’s a great list of 100 blogs written by teachers about teaching.  Don’t be intimidated by the number, the list is broken down by location/subject with some quick blurbs to help find the most useful info.  Thank you Cecilia for passing this list on:  http://edudemic.com/2012/11/100-high-school-teacher-blogs-to-start-reading/

-         A few teachers are using Pandora as a great way to add music to their classes – just enter the artist, genre or composer you like and it creates a radio station that plays music you’re likely to enjoy http://www.pandora.com/  Pretty cool!

What’s wonky:

-         We have been seeing an increase in wireless problems, our wireless network controller has been randomly rebooting itself – this results in laptops (and other devices) losing their connection to the wireless network and students losing their work (temporarily in most cases) – this issue is obviously high priority and we are awaiting more information from our vendors about the source of the problem.   Here are the three steps to make sure your use of the laptops is as seamless as possible:

o    If you are using laptops for a test, please send an email to helpdesk@northwestschool.org with the date and time of the test -  Karl will be watching the wireless network during your test and able to respond as quickly as possible if things go awry.

o   Whenever students use the laptops, have them save the document immediately and often (MS Word, for example, auto-saves as soon as you save the document)

o   If the laptops lose wireless connectivity during a class  do not panic.  Reassure students and tell them to put the laptop aside for the moment, DO NOT quit any programs.    We have been able to retrieve student work once the laptops reconnect to the wireless when students have followed these steps.

Again, we know this is a serious issue and are working to resolve it as quickly as possible.  If you have more questions about the specifics I know Greg and the IT team are happy to go into more detail with you.

-         Lost remotes – if you know where the Raven or Maya Lin Smartboard remotes are, please return them.  We are ordering more but these are important items.

 

What you wish for:

-         A healthier, greener planet.  You can do your part by turning off your computer AND your monitor (it sucks a lot of energy) when you leave. 

 

Wild cards:

-         The list of Teacher Pages is much easier to navigate if you use a simple keyboard shortcut – hold down the CTRL key and the F key (for Find) and you can then type the name of the person’s teacher page.  The appropriate text is highlighted on the page – a great tip for general web browsing too!

-         This weekend is the TEDx Youth Day  - Dream Big... Then Do It! At TEDx events around the world speakers and performers share their great ideas with audiences of youth. Over 100 events hosted by young people in 42 different countries, and many can be joined by webcast.  Check out the schedule here: http://tedxyouthday.ted.com/webcast-schedule/  Another great resource from this event is their list of recommended Ted Talks specifically of interest to students:  http://tedxyouthday.ted.com/suggested-talks/

-         There is now a new Prezi interface – gone is the finicky bubble menu – if you were daunted before you just might be delighted now.  http://prezi.com

 

Thanks so much for reading and stay tuned for hopefully more frequent, and less dense emails in this Wired Weekday series (you notice I’ve given up on Wednesdays – my favourite quote of late is: “Blessed are the flexible, for they shall not be bent out of shape.”)

I hope this finds you well. 

Happy weekend,

Catherine

October 18, 2012

Hello again everyone,

Thank you to so many of you who got back to me saying this is a useful  communication habit.  I will do my best to live up to it!  I’m aiming to send them every other week.

Just as a reminder, I am popping into classrooms to observe how we’re using technology.    It has been the highlight of my week to get to watch many of you teach and engage our students.  I know this is always a little disruptive but please feel at ease and know that I’m looking for two things:  what’s working well and ways I can support you with effective use of technology.   

In the last two weeks here are the things I’ve seen and heard:

What’s working:

-         Check out the 6^th grade SWIFT page for pictures of all teachers, links to their respective pages and a shared calendar.  Nice work!  http://teachers.northwestschool.org/nws/sixth-grade-page More of these are planned for other grades.

-         Effective use of SMART boards for projection, interactive activities and note-taking/sharing.  We are also looking to bring in a SMART board trainer to give teachers more ideas on how to use these tools to their full potential.  Stay tuned!

-         Francoise is having a lot of fun exploring subtitles with her students (writing scripts, filming and editing)– they are making their own versions of this classic Youtube video of Henri the cat (who narrates his existential crisis here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0M7ibPk37_U – well worth a watch!)

What’s wonky:

-         The school website’s list of Teacher Pages has changed and you now see a longer list, alphabetized by last name.  We are discussing ways to make this more searchable and easier to use.

-         We’ve seen increased problems printing from a webpage when you’re using IE.  You might have encountered this – when you print a blank page instead of the actual website that is on your computer screen.  The solution at this time is to open the same webpage using Firefox.  You should be able to print without problems.  We are looking into solutions.

What you wish for:

-          Further discussion about an online tool that would let students log in and write their take-home essays in a timed environment.   This would reduce the frequency of students spending 6 hours on essay that is intended to be written in an hour and a half.

Worth mentioning:

-          How to link to documents on the common folder from your email – steps  below:

o   from a new email window, click on Insert (one of the tabs across the top of the window) now click on the Hyperlink icon (the globe with a little chainlink image).  You’ll now get a chance to browse to any folder you have access to.  There’s a drop down list that defaults to My Documents, but just choose Common and browse from there.  Your link will now appear in the email.   This is an alternative to attaching the file – and will work from home now that we have the VPN portal set up.

-          You may have noticed students playing computer games in the library that look at first like a “first person shooter” game.  In fact, they are playing Minecraft – an online game that encourages problem solving and teamwork.  Here’s a bit more about the educational value of Minecraft :  http://blogs.nitle.org/2010/11/16/learning-from-computer-games-playing-minecraft-part-1/

Thanks so much for reading!

All the best,

Catherine

October 3, 2012

Hello everyone,

I write this “everyone email” hoping to make these messages pertinent and helpful.  For folks who are new, last year I began collecting information about how we are using technology here at NWS for learning and teaching.  The emails took the form of what is working, what you wish for and what is wonky.  With a few wild cards.  Alliteration is my strong suit.

As we return I thought I’d ask the question: is this still helpful? Please let me know.

You will also see me around school more frequently dropping in on classes just to see how we’re using technology for learning and teaching and seeing how to better support you all.  I’ll be an inconspicuous presence but just wanted to let you know that I’ll be around more visibly now that we’re into our second month of school!

Here’s what I’ve seen so far…

What’s working

-          Lots of creative use of technology, specifically with the new functionality with SWIFT.  People are creating multiple sites (check out Sarah Porter’s pages:http://teachers.northwestschool.org/nws/sporter) or working together with colleagues to simplify their lives (see Emma and Jeremy’s collaboration: http://teachers.northwestschool.org/nws/physical-science)

What you wish for:

-          Access to files - the portal is on its way.  Having access to files from home has been a big issue and we are SO close. 

-          Wireless access – it is on the list of priority items and we will keep you updated.

What’s wonky:

-          Many of you are using the email helpedesk@northwestschool.org to report issues that arise.  Thank you!  Please continue to submit issues and if you are in a bind don’t hesitate to pick up the phone and call the HELP desk (dial 4357) for immediate response.

-          Please be gentle with the photocopiers in the faculty room – when placing a book on the glass do not crush the book with the top cover (it’s okay if a little light gets in). Turns out the top has been broken twice already this year.  Ack!

Wild card (useful resource and tips)

This excellent podcast from This American Life has come up in quite a few conversations I’ve had here so I thought I’d share it.   It’s based on a new book, How Children Succeed, by Paul Tough http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/474/back-to-school

 

Thanks for reading, 

Catherine

 --

May 30, 2012

This is going to be a doubly wired edition of wired Wednesday since I didn’t send out any wired related e-mails at all last week.

So here we go, things people are talking about:

1)      Ken shared with me some of the more interesting/applicable 2011 Edublog Award winners:

Two Swift-style online collaboration platforms for teachers (one of which I think people already of heard of): http://www.edmodo.com & http://edu.glogster.com

 Free - Engage the class using any device: http://www.socrative.com

“Socrative is a smart student response system that empowers teachers by engaging their classrooms with a series of educational exercises and games. Our apps are super simple and take seconds to login. Socrative runs on tablets, smartphones, and laptops.”

 One more social engagement site. I chose this site because it requires no account to log in – it’s like a Swift discussion board but visually adjustable: http://www.wallwisher.com

No login required and privacy optional!

Create a ‘wall’ on ‘wallwisher’ for student or group reactions to a topical questions (comments as well as links to images / videos are allowed)

2)      There is a survey out there regarding Smartboard usage during the class. If you haven’t taken it – then please please please do so – it is quick, painless, and will be valuable information going forward. http://www.zoomerang.com/Survey/WEB22FMGFWLQVV

 

Finally, before I close it out and find out why Outlook auto changed my font color to blue, lately as students have been working on final projects and what not we have had a couple of “learning the hard way incidents” that can only be avoided through educating the students. Many students e-mail papers and what not they are working on to themselves, and then when they go to open it in Internet Explorer, they don’t actually save it to the computer, they just open the file from the e-mail. So no matter how much work is done, and no matter how many times the students click save, they are working on a file that is stored at that moment in the TEMP folder, a folder whose name lends itself to not containing contents for too long.

Long story short, if possible when working in the lab, or on a laptop cart, or in the library, or where-ever, please remind your students to SAVE the file they e-mailed themselves – say to their personal drive – and open it from there. A few students have had a hard lesson to learn, and on the IT side there isn’t much we can do about it.

Thanks and as always if anything is on fire, please e-mail nwsit@northwestschool.org with any issues.

Peter Woodburn

May 15, 2012

Or maybe this is post-emptive if only that was a word since I forgot to send out an e-mail out last week. Oh well!

MIT and Harvard are starting an online learning initiative (entitled ‘edX’) that will be available this fall to students from all over the world at no cost. Their first offering is ‘Circuits and Electronics’ and results in a certificate from MIT – all the content is online with virtual labs, e-textbooks, group discussions and lectures by video.  http://mitx.mit.edu/

Do you know someone who is terrible at typing? Send them here so they can finally get with the 21^st century:  http://www.typingweb.com/

Ken forwarded on a site that has a pretty large supply of digital media for classrooms – on a whole range of subjects: http://www.teachersdomain.org

Ken also sent out a survey regarding classroom use of smartboards and such, please please fill this out if you haven’t yet. Technology is always changing or so the tired old saying goes, and knowing what is being used and what isn’t being used helps us the school in its attempt to keep up with the times. I just realized I don’t even have a web address for the survey – so ping Ken on that to get the link to the survey (ping is nerd talk for open a line of communication).

Last but not least, I am aware that the computers in the faculty lounge haven’t been playing nice the past few days. I am/have been taking a look at them today and hopefully whatever temperamental issue that was there will be better by tomorrow. Thanks for your patience.

I lied, this is the last part - thank you everyone. I haven’t seen a laptop missing a key in quite some time. I appreciate this greatly. Replacing letters on keyboards makes me feel like I am all left handed thumbs. It is tough.

Have a good rest of the sunny week, and as always, if anything is catching on fire please let me know.

Peter Woodburn

May 3, 2012

Once again I’m one day late to this whole Wednesday party, so I’ll forgo my urge to blabber uncontrollably and get right down to the techie, nerdy happenings of the school.

1)      Kathryn Wallace and her 10^th graders tried out a new online tool to help better understand how RNA and DNA recombines, mutates, and do all the fancy stuff the two strands do in life. It is a java based program called Molecular Workbench and also has simulations for physics, chemistry, biology, biotechnology, and nanotechnology.

2)      Starting next week, Marina and her class (with the help of Cecilia) are going to blog with students from a school in Uruguay using the quite hip and quite popular Tumblr platform. We’ll link to it when it gets going (and by we I mean me).

3)      The PNAIS Techschare Conference is happening this summer on July 2^nd and July 3^rd. If you are interested in going, the early bird registration ends on May 14^th and the price skyrockets $45. Head to their website for more information.

4)      Apparently Blended Learning is the hot new topic out there – here is a good introduction for those needing it.

 

Thanks and that is all I/what Ken provided to me have for now.

 

-Peter

April 26, 2012

Happy week back everyone.

I’m still trying to get the hang of this e-mailing thing, but here goes with the latest tidbits of technology information you may or may not care about.

School Stuff:

·         Over the break the IT department attempted to do wonders, but a few things still didn’t quite get completely resolved. If you’ve been into the computer lab and turned on the projector, you perhaps have noticed that the projected image is a bit…small. Without going into the boring details of aspect ratio/video card/duplication limitations, just know that Ken White is tirelessly working with our vendor on getting the correct model projector placed into the computer lab for maximum viewing pleasure.

·         The pen tray attached to the SmartBoard in Euclid is now fixed and working correctly

 

Plea for Peace From Peter (Me):

·         As Greg and I did inventory of our equipment over the break, we noticed quite a few laptops are missing keys on the keyboard. This is in addition to the quite a few that were missing keys on keyboards about a month ago. Please try and keep an eye out for wandering/lazy fingers that like to pick at things that shouldn’t be picked at. The letter “T” for whatever reason was a very popular one to go missing. I think I got all the keyboards good and QWERTYed again, but in the good chance that I missed one or two, please swing those laptops by my office for the quick fix.

Fun Technology Related Stuff From Ken:

·         CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – With a new $3 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the MIT Education Arcade is about to design, build, and research a massively multiplayer online game (MMOG) to help high school students learn math and biology. http://education.mit.edu/blogs/louisa/2012/pressrelease

·         In addition to this, a white paper from the Education Arcade at MIT  is available on the subject of “Digital Games, Social Networking and Simulations: How Teachers Can Leverage them” is available at this link: http://education.mit.edu/papers/GamesSimsSocNets_EdArcade.pdf

·         (This one from me!) Since we have the program on our image, figured anyone that uses Google SketchUp would be interested in knowing that Google has sold the product to a different company. More information here: http://sketchupdate.blogspot.com/2012/04/new-home-for-sketchup.html#links

As always please notify the IT staff of anything that is running amok or isn’t working correctly.

Thanks!

Peter Woodburn