Our Top Posts Of 2011

What a wonderful year its been! While we are looking forward to continued learning we also take time to reflect back and look at a sampling of our top posts and content for the year.

Five Simple Ways To Use Edmodo Everyday-We rolled out Edmodo district wide this year and its been just plain awesome. Teachers all over are making global connections and carrying learning conversations outside of the classroom. This post give 5 really simple ways to start using Edmodo today.

Technology Advice For Administrators- There are some easy technology-related tools that school leaders can do to make the job easier, and more effective.

A Window To The World With Webcams- No reason a IWB or monitor has to sit idle in the classroom. Why not use it as a window to a new or exotic place? 

Interactive Social Studies, PreK-5- There are some great interactive sites, games and activities to use on the IWB in a Pre-K-5 Classroom.

Google Earth Timeline- Did you know you can go back in time in Google Earth? This post will show you how.

So there they are. There are loads more great posts. Check out the tags on the side and if there is a topic we haven't covered let us know by leaving a comment here.

Happy New Year!

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Express Poll in ActivInspire

Let's talk about Ad Hoc questions in ActivInspire using ActivExpressions. First of all, Ad Hoc is more like asking a question spontaneously. In order to do this, there is a button on the toolbar in ActivInspire. this button has a question mark in the middle of it and the tag is Express Poll. Once it has been clicked, a button will be placed into the flipchart. Hover over that button to see the different types of questions that can be asked. Some of the question types are: likert scale, multiple choice, text, number, sort in order, yes/no, and true/false.

If a teacher is using the text response, both letters and numbers can be used to answer a question. If they use the number response, only the numbers are used to answer a question.


With an Ad Hoc question, the correct answer is not shown until after all the voting has stopped. The teacher can then go into the upper right corner where there is an image of AB and a check mark and choose the correct answer. This changes the correct answer to green (bar chart or pie chart) so that the teacher can quickly see if they need to re-teach that goal, or did the students really understand it. 


Another tip that I learned is that once you start an Express Poll, if a student is putting in incorrect answers or silly answers, you can turn that voting device off at the board. That way the teacher doesn't waste time by talking to that particular student. I thought that was a very clever idea.

Image: 'Questions' http://www.flickr.com/photos/42788859@N00/318947873

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Making Connections

Take a look at this short video.



It really spoke to me. Connections are so important. Watch the video again and look at the different emotions on the faces of the folks. Some think it's a joke. Some are just happy-go-lucky. Others genuinely needed the connection and were glad to make it.

Now take the idea of connecting and turn it virtual. Social media has made it so much easier to connect with others. Many people can attest to the life-long friendships formed because of connections made through social media (be it Twitter, Facebook, Nings, etc). What is so unique and fascinating is that many times, these people don't meet in real-life for an extended period of time. Take my good friends Shelly Terrell and Tom Whitby for example, I didn't meet until almost a year after we found a friendship through our creation of #edchat. There are countless others I have had the honor of meeting like Kyle Pace or Nick Provenzano or Bill Ferriter or Kelly Tenkley, so many to name.

The point is social networking is less about networking and more about social. I encourage educators (and others) all the time to use Twitter. Many people know my thoughts on that. There are so many great resources out there waiting to be found and you can get them any time you want to.The people that you "meet" and the relationships you form can be life-changing. But the only way that happens is to move from lurking to to participating, contributing, reflecting and conversing.

Twitter isn't the only way that happens. Other places like the EDU PLN or Classroom 2.0 where asynchronous conversations take place. Or in live, on-line learning environments like the Reform Symposium where people gather from all over the world to learn and grow with each other.

The point is, we can't go through our professional careers alone. Well, we can, but what fun is that? And how fresh is the content in our classroom that we are teaching students? And how are we learning and growing to be better? The connections that we make help stretch our thinking, open doors to learning and so much more. But it's hard to do if we don't jump in or we just stand in the crowd.

So take a risk like the folks in the video.

Go out and hug the bear.

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Read ... Write ... Think ...

My daughter is in Kindergarten. She amazes me each day with the words that she says (and uses correctly). I know that her verbal vocabulary is much greater than the words she can read and write. She also has a very active imagination (hmmm ... wonder where that comes from?).

After talking with her teacher, it is clear that she has a good understanding of letter knowledge. She can the identify letters and tell you what sound that letter makes individually. It is when you put the letters together to make words that is causing a bit of trouble right now. We need to work on her ability to put those sounds together. She also really enjoys the way words are spelled. She will "read" a string of letters to me to find out what word they spell.

So I have been looking for some ways to work with her. Since my job is in Instructional Technology, it would make sense for me to look for some technology options (I also have a background in Reading Education).

The other day I came across some information on Thinkfinity about Puzzle Me Words from ReadWriteThink:

Puzzle Me Words is an exciting new interactive from ReadWriteThink.  Students in grades K-1 learn about language by combining letters to form words based on the pictures that they see.  A talking school bus named Scootie reads the words aloud and further reinforces letter sounds for young learners. With each new round that is completed, students earn a new puzzle piece toward their prize puzzle: a coloring sheet they can print, color and display proudly at home or in school.  Try it with students today!

Although I thought that description was interesting, the way that I saw and heard my daughter interact with this activity made it so much better. I think it would be great to use with students in a classroom.

ReadWriteThink is more than just a website; it's a community of educators working to improve literacy learning for every student. ReadWriteThink is sponsored by IRA (International Reading Association) and NCTE (National Council of Teachers of English).

I wonder how Puzzle Me Word and many other resources from ReadWriteThink would be on an Interactive White Board (IWB) in a classroom for a small group of students as a center activity?

image source

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ActivExpressions Are Cool!

The other day I was learning about how to register ActivExpressions. Here is what I learned:

To register ActivExpressions, you need to have your voting browser open. Click on View, and then click on Browsers. The Voting Browser is the last browser in your list and has a picture of a voting device on it. Once you have opened the browser, click on the image of the clipboard (which is Device Registration). Click on Expressions and click Register. From here, the easiest thing to do is to follow the on-screen instructions. Usually you only have to register your voting devices once a year. You can register all of your voting devices, or just register the number of students in your class using your voting devices. If a student leaves your classroom or you get a new student, it is very easy to add or delete one voting device. 

A good rule to follow is to add a name of some sort to your voting devices. For instance, you might want to put your name in front of the number of the device. One of the reasons for doing this, is that if your voting device develops legs and walks out of the room, you can turn the device on and see who it belongs to. To name your devices all at once, go to the Device Registration (see above) and click Rename. Once again, follow the on-screen instructions. You have up to 14 characters that you can use. Make sure to put a space at the end of your prefix, it just looks nicer. One thing that you may notice is that ActivInspire renames your voting devices and starts with 0. You can easily change this by clicking on that device, click rename, and change it to the last number in your sequence. Make sure to click on Done.

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Embedding HTML into ActivInspire

Recently Promethean's ActivInspire program has had a fairly significant update to the software to provide a lot more versatility to its users.  The latest version of the software is 1.6.46087 and if you aren't sure what one you have you can click on Help in the Main Toolbar and then Click About to see which you are running.  If you are not running the latest version you are missing out on a lot of new improvements to the software.  So how do you update the software you might be asking?  Well it is really simple.  First you just go right back to the same Help button and then click Check for updates.  A window will pop up and say that there is a new update available and will ask you to Run, Save or Cancel.  The best thing to do is to Save it to your computer and then Run it after it downloads.

Now that is out of the way let me talk about one of the, at least I think so, Best New features of the latest update.  It's the ability to Embed HTML code directly into a flipchart page.  What a great concept to be able to embed content directly into the flipchart page so that you do not have to open up web browsers or office documents or even additional pdfs.  So how do you do this?  It's really easy as long as you have the update.  Click on Insert then Link and then Embed HTML.

After you do this you will see an panel box open and all you have to do is paste in the embed code and click OK.

So... you might be thinking, what would be the benefit of having this feature.  Well think of working on Fractions in Math with your 5th graders and need to show them a short video explaining the process that is on Schooltube or Teachertube.  Normally you would have to minimize ActivInspire and then open up your favorite browser and go to the video to see it.  All the while your students are getting restless due to the down time.  If in your prep work you go to the site and grab the embed code and Insert it into the flipchart page there is no down time because when you go to the page the video is there and all you have to do is click the Play button. 

Now the embedding is not just limited to video sources you can also embed documents and pdf's directly into your flipchart as well.  You can use an outside webstie called Embedit.in to store the files and then just copy and paste the embed code into the flipchart.  Then you will have a nice clean viewer for the document on the page and have the ability to both download and print from the presentation if needed. 

What else can you do, why not embed a map into your flipchart.  Yes I know there are maps already in the Resource Browser of ActivInspire but sometimes the map is not as detailed as you want it to be.  So just open up Google Maps and click on the Chain Link button to see the embed code to copy and paste into your flipchart.

Do you create Animoto videos or use Voicethread with your students in class?  You can take the student created work and embed it into your flipchart pages as well with the embed codes that are generated directly on the respective sites.

Wow there are so many choices of how you can use the Embed HTML feature in the new ActivInspire it can almost seem overwhelming.  My philosophy is to just start slow and do something easy like just adding a Google Map to your flipchart page.  Watch this following video to see how easy it really is.

Now that you see how easy it is I hope that you have fun embedding everything directly into your flipchart pages so that you can keep your students on task and focused with no downtime in the classroom.  If you are having any difficulties or need some additional assistance or maybe even some ideas there's a lot of resources and feedback in the Community Forum Section of Promethean Planet website where you can ask and gets answers to your questions.

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Meeting Standards Using Online Resources

As part of my instructional technology responsibilities, I try to help teachers use whatever resources they have available in their lessons. Teachers have access to computers, the Internet, some interactive whiteboards and numerous applications so they can create new activities and assessments and/or use SMART or ActivInspire lessons that coorelate with the desired standard.

I have really enjoyed finding resources and helping the teachers learn where to look for different types of activities to compliment the standard they are teaching. The Learning Village resource has been our one-stop shopping experience for finding everything from a grade-level pacing guide, instructional tool such as Thinkfinity, links to subject-area wikis, technology integration activities, and much more. Learn 360 and netTrekker are two resources that correlate the videos, images, etc. to a specific standard. This makes it very easy to develop an activity or assessment. Some of my favorite reading/language arts activities come from ReadWriteThink and Wonderopolis.

Our elementary group has pulled together many of the Elementary Resources into Livebinders by grade level. They are on our DIT wiki and available to the teachers. We update the binders and wiki pages as we find resources for the core subject areas.

If you need an idea for an activity or are looking for a website to reinforce an objective you've taught, why not check out one of the above online resources. I highly recommend any (really all) of them to help make learning fun.

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The Edublog Awards

All of us in the Instructional Technology Department are always on the look out for something new to share or exciting to read. Most of us have our Google Reader set up to follow many blogs and try to keep up with the ever changing field of Technology In Education.

One of the best ways to find new folks, ideas, and resources is the Edublogs Awards. In a nutshell, these awards highlight the best in not just the Edublogosphere but on Twitter and other places as well. In late November folks from all over the world nominate blogs, Twitter folks, hashtags, wikis, podcasts and apps for the awards. And these are not just US based blogs, wikis, etc. They come from all over the globe, so it's truly an international competition.

The nominations are narrowed down and for 7 days the voting is on. This year there were over 30,000 votes from over 100 countries, the most ever. 

There are categories like Best Overall Blog, Best Teacher Blog, Best Student Blog, Twitterer Of The Year and A Lifetime Achievement Award. It really is a great way to discover new and exciting "stuff." 

Here is the Google Doc of the winners from this year in each category. I really encourage you to check out all of the folks on this list. 

And yes, I did win Twitterer Of The Year. This isn't the first year I was recognized with that honor. I won the very first Twitterer Of The Year in 2009. It really is a humbling honor for me. I am so lucky that I get to share wonderful content with wonderful people from all over the world.

So check out the blogs, wikis, podcast and people on the list. They are some of the very best in the world!

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North Carolina Virtual Public School (NCVPS) Help Center

The North Carolina Virtual Public School has a help center to support students taking NCVPS courses with technical issues. The main issue that comes to mind is students who have forgotten their Blackboard password. The Distance Learning Advisors of the schools and the District Distance Learning Coordinator can look up the students password only if they have not changed it from the original password given to them by NCVPS. If the student has changed their password, the change is not reflected in the student information. They would need to contact the NCVPS Help Center. The hours of operation for the Help Center are 8am-4pm, Mondays - Fridays except for state holidays. There are two ways to contact the Help Desk. The first method, and their preferred method is to submit an online ticket. Their address is http://www.help.ncvps.org/. Students will need a valid email address as the solution will be emailed to them. The second method is to call them at 919-480-8770 and leave a voice message. They will get back to the student via email in 1 business day. Return phone calls won’t happen unless there is a time sensitive need to acquire further information to solve the student's problem.


The NCVPS Help Center services all people involved with The North Carolina Virtual Public School. Their services are not just limited to the students. The Distance Learning Advisors of the schools, The NCVPS Instructors, the Peer Tutors and the District Distance Learning Coordinators (LEA’s) can contact the Help Desk for technical issues.

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Holiday Themes

It's holiday time again! Many schools are looking at how other countries are celebrating the holidays. I gathered some resources and wanted to share them. Below are web sites that have information for students to learn about different countries and their holiday traditions. I hope you enjoy them!

The Gift of Holiday Traditions

What is Ramadan 

What is Rosh Hashanah
How do People Celebrate the Winter Holidays in Different Ways? 

NCWiseOwl websites

German Holidays
Christmas Around the World
Christmas Traditions Around the World
Christmas Around the World
How is Christmas Celebrated Around the World
Christmas Celebrations
Christmas Around the World Lesson

For those schools that have Interactive White Boards, there are plenty of holiday themed lessons in SMART Exchange and Promethean Planet.  I also have been re-tweeting some holiday activities that would show up great on IWB's. Here are some of those games: 

Santa Run

Christmas Activities
Create Your Own Snowflake 
Create Your Own Wrapping Paper using Patterns

Want to create snowflakes and learn about symmetry? Try this lesson plan on The Symmetry of Snowflakes. 

If your class is going to read "The Polar Express", click on this link The Polar Express. You are your students can explore different parts of the book. For example, the boy's house, a tunnel, etc.

Image: 'mr frosty' http://www.flickr.com/photos/17149966@N00/3258065532

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Google Earth Timeline

During a Planning meeting last week with one of my schools we were looking over some of the layers available on Google Earth and the information that you can get from them and we noticed something that was new to us.  It may not be new to anyone else but we thought it was very interesting. 

What we noticed was that there was a date in the bottom left side of the window when we were viewing our location in Google Earth.  When we clicked on the date (1993) in the upper left side of the viewing area appeared the Historical Time Slider.  It was very interesting to be able to go to a location on the map and then go back in time to see what the area looked like years before.  We were able to look at the school location that we were at and see what the area looked like before the school was even built.  There were even some photos showing the process of the school being built which the teachers thought was very neat and felt there students would enjoy it as well.

It was very interesting to show it to the students when they came back into the classroom.  They were wide eyed and happy to see that they could walk up to the ActivBoard in the classroom and move the earth to the area they wanted to see and then zoom into it or type in the location they wanted to visit and have the program pull back and then zoom back in to their destination.  They were able to then use the time line to go back in time to see what the area looked like in the past.  Now so far the limit for the time line is back to 1993 but in some cases that is enough to see what an area looked like 10 years earlier or before the students were born.

Again I might be behind the time in seeing this feature but we were all having a great deal of fun using it with the students in the classroom.

images taken using ActivInspire Camera Tool of Google Earth Time Line Tool

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Communicating with Space ...

Think about all the ways you have communicated with people today?

Have you talked on the phone?
Have you sent an email?
Have you written a letter?
Have you video chatted with someone?

What ways do you think you could communicate with the International Space Station?

Think about what it would be like to be a NASA astronaut.
What kinds of things would you see?
What do you think you would experience?

That could be a great idea for brainstorming, writing a journal, or creating a blog post.

I remember the Challenger Space Shuttle.

Do you have any NASA-related memories?
Will our students have any memories of space exploration and discovery?

I came across a neat thing the other day related to NASA Astronauts.

According to the NASA site, you and your students can send greetings to the crew of the International Space Stations!

• You can click on a postcard and then add a typed message.
• You could also send a Holiday "tweet" on twitter the to NASA Astronauts ( @NASA_Astronauts )

Here is a Wonder of the Day from Wonderopolis that goes along with the Space topic too:

• How Will Future Astronauts Travel to Outer Space?

image source

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A Window To The World With Webcams

If you have visited our new offices you may have noticed in the Instructional Technology area we have no windows. (We don't let it get us down too much though.) But we do have an Interactive Whiteboard. Normally we use it to post a question of the day. Such as:

If you could have any superhero power what would it be?
What is your best childhood memory?
Turkey or ham at Thanksgiving?

We use it as a way for all of us in the office to have a little fun and learn lots about each other. (It was an idea we picked up from the Promethean Offices in Georgia.) Having a question like this on your board when the kids come in in the morning could be a great way to activate their prior knowledge about a subject or to just get to know your kids.

But something new we started doing was video. It began with a webcam to watch the effects of a hurricane on the NC coast. But has turned into visiting various webcams around the world for periods of time. It's our little window that connects us to the outside and our board doesn't sit idle.

So think about this in the classroom. You have your IWB (or monitor or projector) that just hangs there. And frankly you might not be using it all the time. No problem! Find a webcam and just leave it up for a while. Travel the world through your "window."

There are loads of great webcam sites out there. Here are just a few we use:

Earthcam- This is the motherload of Webcams. Ever wanted to see what was going on with the Bull on Wall Street, Times Square or Tokyo? They have 100's of cams to view.

Surfchex- This is the site we use to view the beaches of NC

Vail Webcams- This is a great one this time of year to watch snow fall and folks having fun on the slopes.

Amazing Animal Webcams- One of the Livebinders Top 10 Binders, there are loads of great sites for watching animals in zoo's and preserves.

This is just a small list. Normally I will just ask where we want to visit and do a search in that area for webcams.

And these cams are more than just windows; they are teaching tools as well. Studying about South America? Find a webcam and leave it up during the study. Help the kids feel like they are there. (Marlo also wrote a great post about using images on the IWB that you will want to check out as well.)

Oh and if you think you have to have an IWB to do these, you don't. Your monitor or projector will work just as well.

So open up your window to the world and explore.




Photo Under CC License From IronRodArt

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The Technology Integration Answer (Well Almost...)

Earlier this year our group adopted the TPACK model of technology integration. Basically, it takes the approach that planning for technology integration shouldn't be an event. It should be something that adds to what we are already doing. Through the use of Activity Types, teachers can take the activities they are already doing and match them up with appropiate technologies that may or may not work, depending on the context of learning.

You can view this presentation to learn more.

According to the feedback we have gotten from the folks who have embraced it has been overwhelmingly positive. Being able to take the content (which is king by the way) and the activities we always use or want to use with our kids and matching them up easily with the technology has made it much simpler to plan. And the Activity Types Sheets are great to keep in the plan book so they are always there.

Recently I came across something that you can also use to make technology integration easier for you and your staff. The Technology Integration Matrix uses examples for subject area and grade level to attempt to show how technology integration can work in any type of environment.

There are actually 2 that you can take a look at.

The first is the original from The Florida Center For Instructional Technology at the University of South Florida.

The other is an adaption from Northern Arizona University.

(You will want to visit each of the sites where these live because both matrices are interactive.)

Down the left hand side of each is the learning environment. Active, collaborative, goal centered are just a few. Across the top are the levels of integration, moving from entry to transformational, left to right. So you match up where you feel you are. Maybe you are a newbie. Maybe you have kids using technology (rather than passively engaging with it) and you are at the entry level. Go to that box, find your grade level and subject area to get examples of technology integration. Remember these are just examples to show you how it would work. Adaption is always recommended.

As you progress you move up the integration level and as your learning environment changes the types of integration change as well.

You will notice that this is just for lessons where kids are actively engaged with using technology. There is nothing here for the teacher presenting material or using technology singularly. Technology integration is about getting kids out of their seats and working hands-on with the technology to create products.

So between using the TPACK model of planning and the Technology Integration Matrix, using technology in the classroom doesn't have to be a mystery. It can be something that is pretty easy to plan for and do.

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A Date Which Will Live in Infamy

This photo was taken on December 7, 2006 at Pearl Harbor,

December 7th is a day that stands out in US History. Do you know why? Do your students know?

I did simple searches on two resource sites (netTrekker and Thinkfinity) to see what classroom resources were available to help explain and understand that day in US History. I was able to find a range of things covering many grade levels and including audio, videos, images, activities, personal accounts, time lines, and activities.

netTrekker

• From PBS: Freedom: A History of US: Pearl Harbor is part of the excellent PBS site based on Joy Hakim's A History of US, this focuses on the attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, and the ramifications of the attack.  You can access primary sources and photographs to bring this part of American history come alive.
• From The War Times Journal: Pearl Harbor Animated Maps presents animated Pearl Harbor maps that provide an overview of the areas that were attacked and the actual action that took place.
•  From Scholastic: Relive the Experience Pearl Harbor includes an eyewitness account, timeline, glossary, related web links, and even a teacher's guide.
• From ThinkQuest: The Pearl Harbor Story shares a very detailed description of the events leading up to the war, the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, and the outcome. Be sure to check the interactive map and the survivor and eye witness accounts. The site also provides great animated photos.
• From Calisphere: Pearl Harbor includes a broad selection of images featuring Japanese-Americans during World War II can be found on this site by Calisphere. By clicking on individual images you'll find high quality photographs and image information. 
• From Scholastic: Our America: World War II is a way to learn about World War II and the American home front through diaries, interviews with those lived through these times, and writing about what you've learned.

Thinkfinity

• From EDSITEment: Turning the Tide in the Pacific 1941-1943 includes activity sheets, student resources, and media, (This from the We The People program: We the People is an NEH program designed to encourage and enhance the teaching, study, and understanding of American history, culture, and democratic principles. ) Grades 9-12
• From National Geographic Education: A Date That Will Live in Infamy includes the article and vocabulary. There are also links for further exploration (audio, video, interactives, websites) Grades 5-12
• From National Geographic Society: Remembering Pearl Harbor ~ Multimedia Map and Time Line includes articles, images, audio, and places for more information. Grade 6-12
• From National Geographic Expeditions: The Legacy of Pearl Harbor includes lesson plan and related links.  Grades 3-5
• From ReadWriteThink: Pearl Harbor was attacked by the Japanese in 1941 includes event description, classroom activity/questions, websites, and related resources. This activity really caught my attention: 
• On December 7, 1941, "a date which will live in infamy" in the words of President Franklin Roosevelt, many Americans were called upon to act as heroes. Countless Americans gave their lives in defense of our country and its citizens in Pearl Harbor. Similarly, the surprise attacks on America on September 11, 2001, called for heroic acts of selflessness from ordinary citizens, as well as firemen, police, military personnel, and other government workers. Ask students to compare these two events using the interactive Venn Diagram. How are they alike? How are they different?
  
  How did each event change American citizens' perspectives on war and the need for war? How did the two different Presidents of the United States react? What was different about the media coverage?  

image source

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You Always Wanted To Know The History Of Searching The Interwebs, Didn't You?

I dunno about you but I might do about a billion searches a day. From everything to how to unbrick a phone to a recipe for a holiday party to how to spell words, search is a natural part of how I browse the web. Sometimes its easier to just search for a site, even when I already know the address. (I think that might be on the verge of lazy, but hey, I own it)

Kids do a lot of searching too. Pictures, music, games and even research for class, they spend a lot of time searching the web for content and information too. But if you asked how many of them know how search works or even the pretty interesting history of search.

Digital literacy is important. 

Well...

Yesterday Google posted on their blog a great video about the history of search and how it has evolved and adapted as folks changed their patterns of how they look for information.Understanding this can lead to better and more accurate results faster.



There is also another video from about a year ago that tells exactly how Google search works. In terms of digital literacy and understanding where information comes from, this video should be standard viewing for kids. They need to understand how pages are ranked and that just because information is at the top doesn't always mean it's the best.



Don't forget, there are some great lessons that Google has put together that help kids at all levels do better searches and understand where their information comes from.

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