January 22, 2013

Hello everyone,

I can’t quite believe we’ve only been back for two weeks!  This is a busy place and this wired weekday email is almost bursting at the seams.

Here’s what’s happening with teaching and technology here at school:

What’s working:

-          David Matlock is introducing students to the fundamentals of investing using the very cool website, Wall Street Survivor: http://www.wallstreetsurvivor.com/ Even students not in the class seem to be trying out the site.

-          Last year we had a surge of interest in blended learning and “flipping the classroom”-  turning a lecture or other basic materials into homework (watching a video of a lecture, explaining a concept online), and spending more class time in practice and problem-solving.  It’s also popular at UW (among other places) and highlighted recently in the Seattle Times: http://seattletimes.com/html/localnews/2019920197_flipping17m.html

-          Nancy, Alicia and I have pulled together some useful handouts and videos to help students evaluate resources (books, articles, websites etc).  The CRAAP test (we love the name, the acronym stands for Currency Relevance Authority Accuracy Purpose )is straightforward and easy to use.  You can use the handouts or the quick Youtube description in your classes as lessons or starting points for discussion: http://teachers.northwestschool.org/nws/cseaver/class-resources

-          My Backpack updates: you are now able to see a listing of  student’s teachers.  You are also able to see students’ email addresses.  Follow these steps:

o   Log into My Backback, Search for an individual student.  Select “Details” next to the student’s name.  Click the “Schedules Tab” and on this new page, select the icon above the list, to the left (it looks like a grid) to display “as a list”.  The student’s teachers will be listed.

o   You are also able to see students’ email addresses in My Backpack.  Please only use the Upper School students’ email addresses.  Middle School parents have not given permission to use these email addresses for direct contact of students. This information is also available in the Details section once you search for a specific student.

-          The computer lab and library is no longer a space for Computer Games (read: Minecraft madness is behind us) over lunch time.  This means that students and staff can use the space to do work.  We’ve seen an increase in magnetic poetry writing, face-to-face interactions, as well as MAD magazine and graphic novel consumption.  A huge thank you to Joe for coordinating alternative activities for the middle school students and to MS teachers for supervising.

What you wish for:

-          Tamara and Julie would love to see our default search engine on IE be changed from Bing to Google – Google has a much more robust image search that allows students to actually click back to the original webpage and as a result credit sources effectively.

-          A new audio system in the Commons is woefully needed  – I am contacting people for quotes so if you are interested in seeing any other specific AV capabilities in that space, please let me know.

-          There’s already been a request to add a projector and laptop cart to Standifer to make the room more versatile.  Please submit a tech request if you have other items you’d like to see happen.  The form is located here. 

What’s wonky:

-          Lately we’ve seen teachers’ computers being used by students without the teacher’s knowledge or consent.  I encourage you to lock your computer if you leave it unattended and to set your screen lock up in advance.   If you have your own desktop (instead of using a shared computer in the school) these are the steps to automatically lock your computer when you’re away: http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/29410/beginner-automatically-lock-your-computer-when-youre-away/

-          A short note from Peter:

Hello everyone and welcome to 2013. There was something I wanted to bring up but figured two days before break started would be pretty poor timing. Over the past month while the kids have been at school, there has been a rash of keyboard vandalism. I know it doesn’t sound like that big of a deal – but I just wanted to bring it up because replacing keys on the keyboards are actually a real pain in certain places (especially for someone born with 10 left thumbs like me). I understand that some of the keys will just come off due to general wear and tear of being used and abused five days a week. But a lot of times they also come off because of wandering fingers that get bored and just like to pry. In fact, I actually ran out of used H keys and we had to order a new keyboard at the sum of thirty dollars. For one letter. So if you could keep an eye out, maybe let the kids know that twirling hair/doodling on a note pad are also appropriate things to do when zoning out I would greatly appreciate it.

Wild Cards:

-          The NCCE conference is coming up – February 26 – March 1 in Portland, OR -  and I will be coordinating a group of eager teachers.  If you are interested in attending please let me know.  The conference info is here: http://www.ncce.org/2013-home-page.html

-          Gabriel Teodros - the fabulous Hip Hop artist who performed at the end of our MLK celebration - has a TEDx talk: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jvpgggGYtW4

-          This flowchart recently made me laugh - it is the Tech Support Cheat Sheet: http://xkcd.com/627/  (thank you Peter!)

Thanks for making it through this jam-packed installment of the Wired Weekday.

I look forward to seeing more of you in meetings and popping into classes in the coming days.

All the best,

Catherine

 

December 18, 2012

Hi Everyone,

I hope this finds you well or at least winning the battle with these nasty colds!  Here’s a snapshot of how we’ve been using technology for teaching and learning in the past two weeks.

What’s working:

-          Yesterday I had a chance to sit in on Jen Kulik's Applied Theatre class as they skyped with Danial Maposa from Zimbabwe.  He talked with the students about his work to promote human rights and creative expression using applied theatre.  The Protest Arts International Festival is an example of the work they do in Zimbabwe (http://www.comminit.com/governance-africa/event/4th-protest-arts-international-festival-oct-25-27-2012) and Daniel also mentioned the Drama for Life organization - both inspiring, activist arts programs: http://www.dramaforlife.co.za/

-           The new document cameras are set up in Fisken, Sprinkler and Feynman.  They have some impressive and easy to use features:

·         Use the dial on the right of the camera to zoom and then push the round button on that hinge to auto focus.

·         If you are using Smart Notebook software you can automatically add an image using the document camera by clicking on the little “document camera” icon at the top of the Smart Notebook file… it pulls in a photo of whatever is in the document camera’s field of view.

·         For teachers like Wynn who might have students come in with SD cards full of photos… you can slide the SD card into the little slot on the left of the Document Camera and then push the button for SD card view(third button on the machine, below the image of the laptop and the camera).  This will let you pull images from the SD card directly – could be useful for Yearbook.

·         Smart boards can now used SMART Mixed Reality Tools  – this little video gives you an idea of how to use these cool new cubes: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9sYRVaPPmrM   

What’s wonky:

-          We’re seeing a few people reporting issues with opening files with Adobe Acrobat Reader – the files do not open unless you specifically choose the Adobe Reader application.  It seems an Adobe update may have caused some problems with their own software.  If you’re seeing this problem please submit an email to helpdesk@northwestschool.org and we’ll  sort things out.

-          We’ve had a few issues fall through the cracks – laptops left in carts with post-it notes explaining a problem but no other communication sent.  Please do submit an email to helpdesk@northwestschool.org if you are having a problem, or call the HELP (4357) number, or grab us in the hallway, or whisper to us across the lunch table, or stick a post-it note on my shoulder… you get the idea.  Thank you in advance!

What you wish for:

-       From the remote access/VPN logs we can see that almost 60% of teachers use Macs at home….(myself included).  Do you have any requests for Macs (iPads etc) to use here at school?  Please email me so we get an idea of interest as we finish off budgets.

-          At students request, Stencyl software will be installed on the computer lab machines so they can create their own video games – we have a Game Design interest group emerging!  Check out this very cool little program that makes programming fun and straightforward: http://www.stencyl.com/ or come join our interest group!

Wild card:

-          The NCCE (Northwest Council for Computer Education) conference is happening February 26 – March 1  in Portland next year, we have money available to send people to this inspiring and exciting conference.  Please let me know if you’re interested and we can organize a group trip. The program is here: http://www.ncce.org/advance-program.html

Thanks so much for reading and I hope you all have a wonderful holiday.

All the best,

Catherine

December 4, 2012

Hello again everyone,

Thank you for making it so much fun to work with all of you.  It is a highlight in my week to see all the exciting things happening in our classrooms.  Here’s a quick look at what’s come up in the last two weeks with education and technology:

What’s working:

-          Remote access/VPN is working well – our records show a high usage and so far we have heard of very few problems.  Yay!   Click on VPN on the school homepage or https://vpn.northwestschool.org

-          Jen K is using Evernote as an easy way to collect and organize resources (from websites, to documents, to audio clips and annotated notes…) Their slogan says it well:  “Capture Anything. Access  Anywhere.  Find things fast.“ It’s free and has some great apps too:  https://evernote.com/

-          David Montero and Tina have been experimenting with Google Voice to do audio assignments – students click on the icon on their teacher page, enter their phone number and Google Voice calls them with a pre-recorded message from David or Tina with an audio assignment.  Students simply answer the question in the form of a voice message.  Here’s an example – scroll to the bottom of the page to see the Call Me icon:  http://teachers.northwestschool.org/nws/dmontero/9th-grade-course-materials Check out some of the pretty cool things you can do: http://www.google.com/googlevoice/about.html

-          More teachers are using Quizlet – online flashcards that students can use to study online or print out – cool little bit of background… Quizlet was founded in 2005 by 15-year-old Andrew Sutherland for a high-school French class. He wanted an easy-to-use tool for learning vocabulary. He built Quizlet for himself, shared it with his friends, and it grew from there.  http://quizlet.com/teachers/

-          Michelle has her 8^th graders creating their class presentations using Glogster – a website to create online multimedia posters – it’s free for the basic tools: http://edu.glogster.com/

-          Please continue to report any issues that come up by sending an email to helpdesk@northwestschool.org – please don’t worry about duplicating an issue that’s already been sent in.  It really helps to know if the issue is happening frequently!

What’s wonky:

-          The computer lab has been overrun lately during lunchtime with computer game-playing students.  We are reminding students of the bump policy that prioritizes schoolwork (you are bumped off a computer if someone needs to do school work and you are doing other things) and empowering  faculty  to ask students to leave if playing games while a class is happening in the lab.

-          You may have received an email reminding you to change your password.  This is a normal reminder every 6 months and you can change your password here at school (not remotely) by logging into your account, holding down the Control, Alt, Delete keys and then choosing “Change Password”.

-          The Carson Smartboard is currently sporting an impressive techy/crafty solution– a pencil and some tape are making the Smartboard behave.  Pop by to see but please don’t move the pencil!  A new board is likely going to be the only long-term solution.

 

What you wish for:

-          More easy to use video cameras… we now have new cameras- Sony Bloggies much like the old Flip Cameras - that allow you to quickly shoot video.  Check them out in the library!

-          New document cameras -  are now available in Fisken, Sprinkler and Feynman.  These are Smart Document cameras and seamlessly (hopefully) work with the Smartboards so you can pull images from the document camera right into your Smart Notebook.  More about these to come!

 

Wild cards…

-          Check out Mark Terry’s impressive article on our website called Getting It Right: Improving The Teaching of Evolution in Schools -  http://www.northwestschool.org/blog/teaching-evolution his most recent project is here: http://www.hhmi.org/biointeractive/evolution/Skeletons/01.html.

-          Some good tips on how to embed video – a great way to spice up your Teacher page (the trick is to copy the embed code into the HTML view of your teacher page) : http://www.miracletutorials.com/how-to-embed-video-vimeo-in-wordpress/

Phew! Lots of info.

I hope these are helpful and not too daunting. 

Have a great week,

Catherine

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