Bring Those Boring Binders To Life With Livebinders...

I realized today that I have talked a lot about my various Livebinders but never really have taken the time to explain what they are or how they work.

First, a video...



Think of Livebinders as a virtual 3 ring binder that you can put pretty much anything in. Webpage, PDF, image, video, text, they all can go into a page organized for you.

Each item can be on it's own tab or you can further organize by using sub-tabs.

Here are some of my binders:

Twitter:

An Educators Guide To Twitter

Staying Safe Online:

Staying Safe Online

Getting Started With Google Reader:

An Overview And Intro To Google Reader

I encourage you to explore each one to get an idea on what can be put into a binder. Also check out the Featured Binders and the categories to find more binders to use and share. There are tons of great examples there.

The folks over at Livebinders have also created a great "Getting Started" binder that has everything you need to know to, well, get started! There is something there for everyone to learn.

LiveBinders Tips and Tricks

Also visit the Livebinders4Teachers wiki which will connect you to other Livebinder using educators and you can share and exchange tons of great binders.

So check out Livebinders, and give it a try. If you do, head back here and tell us what you think. Do you use Livebinders already? What advice would you give those just getting started? Leave some comments below.

Shameless plug time. On Thursday (Nov 11) I will be the guest of Livebinders and the 21st Century PD Podcast where I will be talking about Livebinders, 21st Century learning and more. You can learn more about how to participate here.

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Updating Your Pulse RF Receiver Firmware

If you are using eInstruction’s CPS Pulse in your classroom, you will need to update the firmware on the RF receiver. That’s the thumb drive looking item you plug into the USB port of your computer. It’s used to communicate to the CPS. If you also use the Mobi on the same computer, it would be a good idea to plug them each directly into one of the computers USB ports. You shouldn’t plug them both into a USB multiport mini hub. By doing this, both receivers will compete with each other. Also, keep in mind, signal strength is lost with the additional wire length. An analogy I use in my trainings is, “Imagine hooking up multiple T connectors to a water hose. The water pressure at one of the hose ends will not have anywhere near the pressure as the original hose end.” I also wanted to let you know that there are updates to the Workspace Mobi (8.84.0001), (CPS 6.59.0018) and CPS for PowerPoint (6.59.0018) programs. They were new in October. The update mainly occurs in the Device Manager but since this is the software that connects the RF receivers to the devices, it’s a good idea to do these updates.

Ok, enough of the rambling. Although I hope you found it useful. Here is the process of updating your Pulse and Mobi firmware.
1.) Open the Device Manager and plug in the receiver you are going to update.

2.) Select the appropriate receiver in Device Manager, and go to file and preferences.

3.) This will open up a dialog box , choose the firmware update tab. Click “check for updates”.

4.) You will be told firmware updates are available. Click ok.

5.) Click next on the confirmation screen, and you will see a list of firmware updates for your device.

6.) If the current version is the same as the available version, choose cancel. Otherwise continue.

7.) Check the box in the device column. Click update, and then click ok on the confirmation screen. A progress screen will open.

8.) When the process completes, the following screen will display with the message “firmware update complete”.

9.) Click finish.

10.) Unplug the receiver.

11.) If you have another receiver to update, return to step 1 and start the process again with the next RF adapter.

Note: If you have plugged in multiple RF receivers, it's a good idea to open the Device Manager and right click on the devices you no longer have plugged in and choose remove.

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Ten Tips for Personalized Learning via Technology

How is technology being used in the classroom for more effective teaching, differentiated instruction and to meet the needs of every student in the school? This article outlines how one elementary school uses technology. Each classroom in the school has an interactive whiteboard, eight computers and access to digital cameras, flip cameras, remote-response clickers and PDAs.

Here are some tips from the teachers on how they use this technology with their students.

1. Deliver instruction through multiple forms of media
• Teachers access instructional videos, audio clips, animations, instructional games and other available online resources.
2. Gather and use immediate feedback on students’ understanding
• Teachers use remote-response clickers with practice questions to see where to customize subsequent lessons to meet the needs of all students.
3. Give students options
• Using digital media students are allowed to show learning through a variety of media tools.
4. Automate basic-skills practice
• Teachers use Study Island and EducationCity to identify weaknesses in student skills and then assign lessons according to the students’ needs.
5. Practice independent work skills
• Teachers have procedures so students know how to use the technology and what to do if they have a question.
6. Create a weekly “must-do” and “may do” list
• Teachers provide a list of personalized “must-do” tasks that all students need to complete and a list of “may-do” tasks that students may choose from so all students always have something to do.
7. Pretest students’ knowledge before each unit
• Teachers assess prior knowledge and tailor lessons to each child’s needs.
8. Be flexible when plans go awry
• Teachers model good problem-solving behaviors and involve students in devising alternative approaches when technology isn’t available or not working.
9. Let students drive
• Teachers let students lead the lesson at the whiteboards giving them the opportunity to capitalize on their skills.
10. Share the work of creating differentiated lessons
• Teachers work together to plan units of study with activities to meet the needs of all students.

From this list of ideas think of ways to use technology to provide differentiated instruction, feedback and choices for all of your students? Also, how are you using technology to assist in planning with other teachers?

To read the entire Edutopia article:

http://www.edutopia.org/stw-differentiated-instruction-ten-key-lessons

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Web2.0 Science Tools

Now that we have started the second nine-weeks of school I thought it would be helpful to offer some useful resources in science for middle and high school teachers. This is just a short overview of the many sites included in this site. To view all the resources please go to:

http://www.guide2digitallearning.com/professional_development/web_2_0_science_tools 

General Science

1. Google Earth – use Google Earth to fly to places around the world. Check out the Showcase of tours and videos or the Gallery of images.
• http://www.google.com/earth/index.html
2. Google Earth Lessons
• http://gelessons.com/lessons/
3. Science NetLinks – resources for K-12 science, standards-based Internet experiences for students. Check out the Lessons, Tools, Resources and Benchmarks.
• http://sciencenetlinks.com/index.php

Anatomy

1. Get Body Smart – an online textbook about human anatomy and physiology. The site currently covers nine subject areas.
• http://www.getbodysmart.com/
2. Science & Nature: Interactive games to better understand the human anatomy
• http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/humanbody/body/index_interactivebody.shtml

Astronomy & Space

1. Hubblesite – explore astronomy from the Hubble, gallery of images, recent discoveries, and learning resources.
• http://hubblesite.org/

There are also resources for the following areas in science:

1. Kids’ Space Sites
2. Biology
3. Chemistry
4. Earth Science
5. Physics

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Learning Village is back and ready for you to use!!!!!

Yay!
You can now access WSFCS Learning Village from the WSFCS Homepage under quick links on the left side. There is also a link to WSFCS Learning Village Curriculum Warehouse on the top of the glog below as well as a quick reference guide linked at the bottom of the glog!

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EDU Glogster Presentations

EDUGlogster has two new features for premium users. Presentations and Portfolios. I put together a couple of Presentations from Glogs that I had previously created or that someone else created and I added to prepared Glogs. The Presentations are listed below.





To create a Presentation, gather similar glogs together, for instance staff development, reading, social studies, etc. Even if you didn't create them yourself, you can add to prepared glogs. To add to prepared glogs: click on a glog and scroll down to find the "Rate It" box. Within this box you can Add to Favorites, Embed it, Edmodo it, and Add to prepared Glogs. Now you can combine like glogs together to make a presentation. You can then look at an individual glog by clicking on the page that is showing.

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Connecting EduGlogster and netTrekker Search?

I have been focused on ways students can use the information and images they find to create glogs (multimedia posters) with EduGlogster. Students can use colors, shapes, images, videos, and audio recordings to share the knowledge discovered after completing research using netTrekker Search. I was looking today at the netTrekker village forum. I had seen a thread about glogster/eduglogster before but had not really looked at the comments. Teachers talked about the ways they could create followup assignments by linking various activities found on netTrekker. Something clicked in my mind about all the things that are possible pulling together these two great sites.

I have used EduGlogster as a way to pull together links to share with students and as a way to share resources with teachers in workshops. I have used EduGlogster to pull together information about the ways netTrekker Search can be used to aid a teacher's instruction. I am not sure why I did not put those two ideas together ...

What other ways can EduGlogster and netTrekker Search be used together?

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