Personal Learning Networks (part 2)

Following up on my post about PLN tools from last month, I wrote a long description about "making the most of personal learning networks" for my presentation on this topic at the 2012 NAIS conference that took place in Seattle at the end of February. The NAIS conference attendees are primarily school leaders, so I framed the discussion for this audience, describing what PLNs are, why they are important, and how to grow one's own.

 I encouraged participants to take the following steps to start, and to grow, their networks:

1. Get on a list-serv.
2. Start blogging.
3. Try using twitter.
4. Use Google Docs.
5. Start using social bookmarking.

The full post has a lot more info on each of these, as well as the description and rationale.

Leading Change in Changing Times

This past Saturday Megan, Svetlana and I attended the EdTechTeacher Winter Conference at the Microsoft NERD Center in Cambridge. The focus of the conference was "Leading Change in Changing Times" and the sessions attempted to answer the following questions:
Why change?
How change? What systems need to be in place?
Did we change? What are the impacts of technology investments we've made?

The tone of the keynote address and the morning sessions I attended was, as one presenter stated, that "learning is not in the computer" and that our focus should be on "educating for the unknown. We should be teaching with the goal of developing wisdom, knowledge, critical thinking - the higher-order skills which students will need."

The presenters I heard outlined different educational frameworks designed to meet these goals. Chris Dede, the keynote speaker from Harvard University, talked about Blended Contextualized Learning Environments and showed us an example called EcoMUVE, a biology unit that uses technology to meet those goals. Martha Stone Wiske, also from Harvard, talked about TfU (Teaching for Understanding) and her co-presenter, Katherine Gaudet, showed us how TfU had transformed the educational experience for students at Friends Academy and for the teachers. The final presenter I saw in the morning sessions was Annamaria Shrimpf, from Winchester Public Schools, and she outlined LOTI (Levels of Teaching Innovation) and she talked about a rubric for assessing teachers and lessons that would help students achieve. There were four parts to the rubric: Higher Order Thinking, Engaged Learning, Authenticity, and Technology.

While the frameworks each presenter outlined were different the themes that stuck with me were constant:
1. Our focus as teachers should be on providing an environment where students are engaged, actively learning and developing higher-order thinking skills
2. All participants (teachers, students, parents, administrators) need a common language to describe the learning process and the goals and the everyday language used in the classrooms, whether there is a particular framework adopted or the school develops its own language.
3. Technology can make achieving these goals possible. It is not required in every lesson, but technology has an important role in the classroom/school.
4. Achieving these goals requires all participants to put into action the words "lifelong learner", to learn and to work together.

Geocaching- fun for the whole family

As I mentioned in my previous post about Twitter, I am currently taking my last class towards my masters in Technology in Education at Lesley University.  One of our assignments recently involved tagging and geotagging.  We explored social bookmarking through Diigo and geotagging through Flickr.  For extra credit, we encouraged to go geocaching.  I had heard of geocaching before, but I had yet to try it.  The basic idea behind geocaching is that someone has hidden something, and your main clue to finding it is its GPS coordinates.

I started my geocaching journey by exploring the site http://www.geocaching.com/.  People who have hidden items all over the world post their listing(s) on this site.  I began by entering my zip code so I could find a cache hidden near BB&N or my house.  I found the perfect geocache to try to located- located in Davis Square on my way home from work, and, even more importantly, it was labeled as "easy."  I don't want to give away too much information in case someone else wants to try to find it, but I will say that it took a good 20 minutes to locate the cache, as it was so much smaller than I had anticipated.  Another thing about geocaching is that you're supposed to take something from the cache and leave something behind, as well as sign the log.  The problem was that the cache was so small that nothing I had brought with me would fit inside it.  I ended up taking a guitar pick and leaving a mini pterodactyl from a barrel full of dinosaurs (think "barrel full of monkeys," just not monkeys.)  Inside the cache was a bunch of small things including some Chinese money and a plastic fish with a GPS locator inside it, also known as a travel bug.  I have read articles about schools who placed travel bugs in geocaches so they can track their coordinates as they travel from cache to cache, making their way across the US, and even ending up in a dogsled race in Alaska!

If geocaching sounds interesting to you, give it a try.  And if you find the cache on Brattle, please let me know, because I can't find it!  And if you think geocaching sounds like a blast, check out letterboxing too!

Connecting to a "Personal Learning Network"

Are you connected? Do you have a network of colleagues that you can easily turn to with questions and to improve your professional practice? One of the things I most appreciate about the internet is that it allows me to personally connect with various individuals or groups of educators locally, nationally, and even internationally. My top digital tools that enable this communication include the following:

1. email list-servs or google groups
2. diigo
3. twitter
4. google docs
5. ning networks
6. facebook groups and linked-in
7. skype or google video chat
8. blogs
9. RSS feeds

Here is a brief description of each tool, it's collaborative power, and ways to try them out...

1. Do you belong to an email list-serv or a google group? If not, there is undoubtedly one in existence for your area of interest. NAIS has lists for many administrators; AP has lists for each subject, and various organizations have other lists for subject area teachers. If you're not on a list-serve or google group for some topic, I'd encourage you to try this out. It is a great way to dip your toe into PLNs. Here are a few links to some list-servs.

2. Diigo is an amazing social bookmarking tool. The more I use it, the more I like it. Read why here and see these instructions if you're interested in setting up an account.

3. Twitter is like a constant stream of interesting little tidbits from people you follow. You can dip your toe in whenever the mood strikes, or jump in and swim every day. Here is a page on how to start twittering if you are interested.

4. Google docs is another thing like diigo that just keeps growing on me. My latest favorite is the use of shared "collections." A collection is like a folder, but the cool thing is you can "share" a folder with another group of people and then [here's the really cool part], any additional google docs that you add to that folder are also shared to all the people who have access to that folder.

5. If you haven't checked out the Independent School Educators ning network, please do. It's another easy way to connect to colleagues at other schools and join in discussions or ask questions.

6. I rarely do professional networking on facebook but recently found a group which is fun to be part of. Linked-in has also impressed recently with it's weekly email of "trending" news topics. This is a nice example of the power of the crowd. When thousands (or millions?) of people are sharing  a link to something, it tends to be interesting. My favorite article from the past weeks is Culture Trumps Strategy. By the way, if you're wondering how I was able to find this website again several weeks later it's because I'd bookmarked in my diigo account (see #2 above).

7. Video chat is reaching mainstream adoption. I predict that before long we will have an easy way to send "video email" that may help with the well-known problem that email has no tone and can so easily be misinterpreted. There have already been companies in this space (most notably "seesmic") that never caught on, but I wouldn't be surprised to see google or facebook come out with some nifty video-messaging feature in the next few years. Meanwhile we'll have to work with synchronous video chat.

8. Blogs (like this one) continue to be a valuable tool in diving deeper into keeping up with colleagues' more in-depth thinking. With a 3 year old running around at home I don't have nearly enough time to read blogs, but continue to enjoy it on those rare occasions when it's possible.

9. RSS tools are a great way of letting content come to you. Google Reader is a great one. On it, you "subscribe" to feeds that interest you. Two other cool RSS readers I like are Scoop-it and Pulse [on the iPad.] Scoop-it is kind of a cool magazine-style format on the computer that allows you to either "curate" your own topics or read the curations of others [example]. Pulse is for reading feeds on the iPad.

So how do you connect to your Personal Learning Network?

KNBC - web page design

The Middle School KNBC club is redesigning the official MS Clubs and Organizations page. Students are creating individual content pages for the Middle School Chorus, Jazz, D-Squared, Community Service, Spark, Affinity Lunch and Science Club. Joseph Clifford, Director of Communications, talked to the kids about the web page design and gave us some tips and tricks for the new webpage.

We are building a new Cool Media resource site - it's a collection of all kinds of interesting media tools. If you have recently discovered a new tool, please let me know - I'd be happy to add it to our growing collection.

And please stay tuned for the launch of the new clubs and organizations page coming SOON before the spring break.

Twitter

I did it. This month I jumped on the twitter bandwagon. And I am thrilled with the experience thus far!

In the past, I had only used twitter at educational technology conferences as a supplement to a keynote speaker. As I took notes on the speech, I would leave my twitter page open so I could see what all of the attendees were tweeting about the speech to the rest of the room and those who were unable to attend. I copied important quotations and links from the twitter page into my notes. I found it incredibly useful for furthering my understanding. For those who are not familiar, twitter is “an online social networking service and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters, known as "tweets".” (Wikipedia)

On the path to pursue my Masters of Technology in Education, I am currently taking an online course titled “Web 2.0 for Education,” and for this course, I couldn’t just take the back seat and read other people’s tweets. I had to create my own twitter account and tweet myself. The results have been surprisingly great. I am now following many leaders in the educational technology world, so every day I come across great articles and resources to share with colleagues. I even participated in a twitter chat called #ATchat, where I contributed to a live conversation with other educators on the topic of UDL implementation in the classroom. I can’t possibly follow the hundreds and thousands of great websites and blogs out there on the Internet, but following other technology specialists on twitter, I get constant updates on important articles, blog postings, software, websites, etc.

As I type this blog post I can go to twitter and search for the hash tag #FETC to see what is happening at the annual Florida Educational Technology Conference since I am unable to attend. Even though I am not there right now, I know that Michael Wesch is talking about empathy, and one of the attendees just shared the following link: 50 Ways to use Twitter in the Classroom.

I think the best way for educators to use twitter is to network with other educators for their own professional development. It’s a great way for teachers to connect with other, as our collective intelligence is that much stronger, and to stay current in their field. If you are interested in educational technology, follow me! Join twitter today! @meganhaddadi

Reflecting on Professional Development

What did you think of our speaker on executive function last week? I've posted my thoughts here, and would love to hear yours!

I also want to send a shout-out to our ATSs who were at a conference last week and used Google docs to take notes. The cool thing about it was the ability to share the notes collaboratively. I was stuck back in the office but felt like I had a picture into what was being discussed at this conference. This method of storing notes means that multiple people can access the notes, and they create a record of the professional development, with the possibility of returning to them at a later date or building upon them. It often seems like our schools have limited follow-through from people attending conferences, so this use of Google docs is a nice example of trying to get more impact from these professional development experiences.

A rationale for instructional web presence

Recently I've wanted to articulate why teachers should have a web presence. please see my recent blog post about this on ISEnet.

Using Technology in the Classroom - the Mobile Experience

Making class a little more fun can be easy with technology. To further expand, "making class easier" can seem a lot like making class harder for the teacher. Now with access to everything from "Angry Birds" to Educational Apps on iPad, to blogs and webcomics on the internet, classes have become inundated with technology to try. In some ways it may seem more difficult to pick through the tangle. If we look at something more specific, say the iPad, then we see it has been geared toward education, but has it been geared toward teaching? Perhaps it is, but not necessarily the way of teaching as experienced previously.
In a recent conversation, the need to adapt teaching styles to new technology arose. One of the participants in the discussion noted that it was good to instigate integration of technology into the classroom, but without understanding how to utilize the technology in new ways it would be useless. Nobody likes to be told they are "behind the times", as seen in the post in the "Bright Ideas" blog titled 17 Signs your classroom is behind the times, but as life gets more and more mobile, noted in the article over at eSchool News, there is an increasing need to familiarize with the mobile technology available not only in life, but also in the classroom (which is purported as the preparation for life).
As a demonstration of the more common way to teach, in a recent article posted at iLearn Technology blog, the author mentions using webcomics to enliven a class*. The webcomic they refer to is "Brown Sharpie" (a mathmatics webcomic**). By using iPad applications and webcomics, the teacher integrated technology into the classroom in a manner similar to the old way where maybe a clipping would be brought in and discussed. Furthermore, the judging of resources for research are eased with Apps from the app list mentioned by Apps in Education in an article on iPad Apps used to research projects.

In a more modern approach, the student is given the power wherein they must utilize the search and collate functions important to life outside the classroom. In an article by Michele O'Dell, two approaches to the iPad in conjunction with curriculum are approached. The Apps in Education blog also has a comprehensive list of strategies posted recently as Mobile Learning and Tablets in Education RoundUp!. If each student has access to an iPad, then learning how to individualize the learning experience through projects like creating an eBook on the iPad might be considered.

Whatever the method of integrating technology into the classroom, hopefully this post assisted in pointing out some resources to assist the process.

*Although these are educational comics, it is always recommended that one checks that the specific comic of the day is up to standard for the age group the viewing thereof is geared toward.

**[In this mathematical and science vein, some other fun math comics are "Spiked Math" (although it is for a slightly more college-aged readership at times), "Peebles Lab" (Apologies to English grammarians for there is no apostrophe - it is a science based comic), "xkcd" (the golden standard of stick-figure geek comics), and "(x, why?)" (a math comic - tends toward puns). Some of the fun of using webcomics is not only in the connection, but also in updating how one interacts with technology. Some of the webcomics (Brown Sharpie) also include apps.]

iPad review

For the last year, I used an iPad as part of my work at school. In the end, I actually think it is the iPad 2, and any future upgraded versions, that will actually be able to be of use in the classroom.

The most significant issue with the use of the original iPad in the classroom is its inability to mirror the display, a problem that it should be of note that Apple has fixed with the iPad 2. This lack of mirroring meant that that many of the interesting educational apps that were produced for the iPad over the past few years were far less useful than they would have been had I been able to actually to use them in class by projecting them through the SmartBoard. The ability to mirror on the newer generations of the iPad will greatly expand the usefulness of the device in the classroom.

The other issue of note with the iPad is its lack of Adobe Flash capabilities. An increasing number of publishers are making much less expensive electronic versions of their textbooks, but some of those textbooks require flash. Steve Jobs has said on more than one occasion that he has no plan to ever put Flash on the iPad, so there will continue to be both websites and textbooks that cannot be used on the device

A clear benefit of the iPad is the ability for both teachers and students to greatly reduce the number of textbooks needing to be carried on a daily basis. I was able to put all of my textbooks, as well as supplementary texts, onto my iPad through the purchase of eBooks from publishers and/or the Kindle or iBook apps. The only exception was my US History textbook that necessitated the use of Flash [see aforementioned Flash issue]. Some publishers are also making a free copy of an electronic textbook available with each purchase of the paper text. One could also certainly argue that it is a lot harder to ever forget your book for class if all of your books are just one device that you have to grab.

A drawback to use the use of eBooks, however, is the inability to make margin notes; most of the books allowed for highlighting, but not writing in the text. Additionally, there are sometimes differences in pagination between electronic and paper texts, and so if both versions are being used in classroom, page numbers to use as reference points may not match.

The feature of the iPad that I found the most useful was the ability to save handwritten notes. I greatly prefer to handwrite my notes to typing them, and using the Evernote application, I was able to take notes in meetings that would be automatically saved and dated for easy access later. For students [or adults!] struggling with organization, note-taking applications could be of great use.

The iPad is fun, nearly effortless to transport, and makes both carrying and organizing notes and textbooks easy. An interesting idea for the future might be to have an entire classroom pilot the use of the iPad to fully test its usefulness as an educational device. For me, the iPad certainly saved me time, money and effort in a myriad of ways, but I cannot quite support Apple’s early claims that it is the educational wave of the future.

By Nia Hays

Exercise your brain this summer with AGoogleADay

Every day Google posts AGoogleADay- a daily puzzle for you to solve using your creativity and search skills using Google search, images, calculator, maps, etc. The problems usually involve 2-4 steps and can be solved within minutes. There is no right way to solve them, but there is always only 1 correct answer. Take a few minutes and exercise your brain this summer, or use the puzzles as fun, quick challenges in your classroom next fall.

Why not try one today? A Google A Day keeps the summer boredom away...

Google has also created "Deja Google," a wormhole-inspired time machine that searches the Internet as it existed before the puzzle was posted online. This way, your search for the answer won't result in anyone else's blog post containing their answer or how they discovered it, spoiling all your fun.

-Megan

P.S. Thanks to Svetlana for finding this fun game to keep us entertained!

Beginning to Understand Technology

While it is fantastic to innovate the classroom via technology with new gadgets, sometimes it is also good to re-establish roots and understanding of all the technology already available.

In this vein of thought, the Diigo Education Group focused on the article: Technology 101 by ProfHacker, a website under the purview of The Chronicle of Higher Education. First, they mention ThatCamp (link here: http://chnm2011.thatcamp.org/about/). This is an "unconference" which is held every year at the Center for History and New Media from 2008 through to the present. The topic of this year's conference contained a theme of "back to basics".

This return to understanding the basics of technology includes such gems as Google's Teach Parents Tech Form (one can only send 12 videos at a time; however, the videos are available on the site) and focus on the importance of building a foundation to facilitate utilizing technology with greater ease. The ability to use technology is important not only for the ability to actually use one's phone, but it is important for teachers in order to better integrate technology with the classroom.

Items that some people take for granted, such as copy/paste may seem too "beginner" for some, but it is important to know. Are there keyboard commands to do copy and paste? (The answer is "yes".) What about passwords? Is your password secure? (If the password is a sequential string of numbers like "12345678" probably not.) A password is important because even if your security software that protects all internet interactions is top-notch, if your lock is the equivalent of a piece of yarn then it negates the security. Can you search the internet? (If the only bookmarks in the browser are links that a friend sent, the answer is probably "no".) How do you turn off that annoying spell check? (The alternative question is how to turn it back on after one too many homophones slip by.) How do I know a link goes to the same place the face of it tells me? (Hint: hover your mouse over the link, but do not click! You can read the address of the place it is attempting to send you.)

Hopefully, the link to Technology 101 article (posted again here for your convenience: http://chronicle.com/blogs/profhacker/technology-101-the-basics-no-one-tells-you/33844?sid=wc&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en ) will help answer these questions and help give a solid foundation in the basics to all who read it.

6th graders create Internet Safety games for 4th graders

Over the course of the past year our 6th graders have been discussing Internet Safety topics including private identity information, chatting online, copyright law, email etiquette, cyberbullying, and digital footprints. They recently shared some of their knowledge with our current 4th graders through movies, PowerPoint presentations and jeopardy games, and scratch projects. Their final scratch projects, as well as some practice ones they created earlier this year, are posted online in a virtual gallery. Check them out!

1st Grade Pen Pals Project

Looking to connect to students in another part of the world? 1st graders at BB&N are doing just that using epals.com. During their study of Mexico 1st graders are doing a pen pal project with two schools in Mexico, one in Tijuana and one in Saltillo. Each BB&N student is paired with a student from one of the schools. The students write letters to each other, take pictures of themselves and important places around their schools and then the teachers send them back and forth. The students are really enjoying learning about their buddies, their schools and daily life in Mexico and with the speed of e-mail the students are getting responses to their letters/questions quickly.

Epals.com has been a great tool in this project. There are thousands of teachers/classes from around the world on epals.com. We found many in Mexico that fit our criteria. We are doing a simple e-mail exchange but epals also connects classes that want to focus on a particular project. The site also offers curriculum guides for those teachers/classes that help framing their pen pal exchange.

What is a PLN?

Have you ever heard of a PLN? It seems to be quite a buzzword these days. A PLN, or Personal Learning Network, is a network of people from whom one gathers information as well as interacts with, though that does not have to be face-to-face. While the acronym is relatively new, the idea behind a PLN is not. Teachers have always shared with and learned from each other. Some ways you can use a PLN:

1. I belong to a group of Massachusetts educators (MEMSET- Massachusetts Elementary and Middle School Educational Technologists) that just started meeting together and collaborating this past year. We have been gathering every month or so, using an email list for questions and for posting news, and using Google Aps to share our curriculum.

2. You can find a ning related to your interests:

• After a technology conference with Tom Daccord of EdTechTeacher, I joined his ning for the National Council for Social Studies.

• I am also a member of the Classroom 2.0 ning which often sends out announcements about live and interactive webinars.

• Lastly, I am a member of the Independent School Educators Network ning and a couple of its subgroups, including “Schools of the Future.”

3. You can use social networking, such as Diigo:

• I am a member of the iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch Users group to get updates about using handheld devices in the classroom.

• BB&N’s technology department members have created a group in Diigo so we can share articles with each other, and all of the pages we bookmark get posted on our technology department blog for the whole school.

4. You can follow members in your field through their blogs and tweets. Though I’m quite busy these days, I try to follow leaders in Educational Technology. I went to a presentation at BLC a few summers ago where Liz Davis and Lisa Thumann presented “25 Ed Tech Leaders to follow.”

How are you using your PLN? Please share your ideas below. Not sure where to start? Take a look at http://edupln.ning.com/, the personal learning network for educators.

Quick Math Information: iTunes Applications

This may be old news, and the offer will expire quickly, but from now until May 6th the "Everyday Math Apps" sponsored by the McGraw-Hill School Education Group are free to download for teacher appreciation week.

The link to the iTunes page is here:
http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewArtistSeeAll?dkId=11&ids=413312889&softwareType=iPhone

To Kill a Mockingbird Blog

For the past several years, and thanks to the inspiration of Eric Hudson’s idea, my class creates a blog as we read To Kill a Mockingbird. The book is great fun study with eighth graders both because of their eagerness to practice their new skills in literary analysis as well as their passionate responses to the events in the book. The blog provides a perfect venue for them to share insights into the novel and to create a communal, public record of the evolution of their ideas. They post about symbols they identify in the novel. They post about their moral outrage as they read about the verdict. They comment on each other’s posts in order to agree, disagree, or refine their classmates’ ideas.

Students are required to write polished paragraphs and to support their ideas with evidence from the text. Because they know how public and lasting their writing is, and that its purpose is to build a communal resource, they are invested in contributing their best work. Each student writes frequently and receives immediate feedback from their classmates as well as me. This blog has become an exciting and invaluable component of teaching this novel. By the last chapter, the students have worked together to create something for themselves and each other of genuine intellectual achievement.

Besty Canaday, MS English Department Head

Web Browsers: Further Exploration

While downloading Google Chrome (a web browser like Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox), I came across a good beginners guide to web browsers and the internet. If anyone is interested in the basics of web browsers and internet usage, then this link: http://www.20thingsilearned.com/ has a handy starting guide.

From the charming format that imitates a book to helpful information regarding cloud computing and a thorough explanation of cookies this handy guide of "20 Things I Learned About Browsers and the Web" is a good primer to understanding more about the internet and browsers.

One of the chapters of the book that might be especially helpful for projects is the "Using Web Addresses to Stay Safe" section. (Found here: http://www.20thingsilearned.com/url). Although not directly related to school projects the chapter addresses discerning how to tell what sites are legitimate and which are not.

Hopefully, starting with the site "20 Things I Learned About Browsers and the Web" will lead to learning more than 20 things about the internet and web browsers.

6th Grade ACTion Project at the MFA

This past Sunday, April 19th, at the annual BB&N at the Museum of Fine Arts day, all 6th grade students had their impressionistic artwork on display. In addition, there were laptops available at the MFA for visitors to view the students' recent technology projects incorporating their art pieces with French and Spanish recordings about their painters. This project has been called the MFA ACTion project for Arts, Culture, and Technology.

All 6th graders completed a master study in their art classes with Sharen Bowden then researched their painters and paintings in their Spanish and French classes with Senora Cristina Carrion Murphy and Madame Soizick Munir. In technology class the students then scanned their artwork and recorded their Spanish and French scripts. All elements of the project were pulled together by the students using MIT's scratch programming environment where some students also chose to animate their paintings. All projects have been posted online in a gallery.

How to use Google Forms to Create online Quiz or a Survey

Poetry Project in the English Classroom

For the last two weeks, eight graders were working on composing a series of creative interpretations of the selected poet’s work. Today in class they were presenting and explaining their multimedia piece to the entire class. There were 4 required components to the project:

1. Create a Visual Interpretation of a poem into a comic strip
2. Create a Multimedia interpretation of a single poem: compose the film so that the images enrich the tone, sound and meaning of the poem
3. Write a Biographical Poem that pays tribute to the poet by imagining, in detail, a key event from the poet’s life, using real facts and details garnered from the research.
4. Write an Explication describing the process and the choices that helped make the comic/video/poem.

The videos are made private on our 8th grade youtube Poetry Channel. You must be signed in to view the videos. Please ask Svetlana, Paige, Betsy, Ethan or an 8th grader for a password.

Here are a few examples of student's creative intepretations:

Dr. Rosario Sánchez Gómez Comments on Her Smartboard

Dr. Rosario Sánchez Gómez (Upper School Spanish) commenting on her experience with SmartBoard technology in the classroom says that she admires the quality of the screen and speakers, and that it makes watching movies and videos more enjoyable. The tactile experience and projector enable “a far more interactive experience by opening any program with the tap of a finger and knowing that I still have the students full attention.” She says the experience has enhanced classroom learning, to the point where the class often works on literature review on the spot in the classroom, but she would like more time to explore some of the unique functions of the SmartBoard, such as the Notebook software.

Eric Whitacre: A virtual choir 2,000 voices strong

In a moving and madly viral video last year, composer Eric Whitacre led a virtual choir of singers from around the world. He talks through the creative challenges of making music powered by YouTube, and unveils the first 2 minutes of his new work, "Sleep," with a video choir of 2,052. The full piece premieres April 7 (yes, on YouTube!).

Reflecting on B-12 English Department Meeting

At our recent B-12 cross-divisional faculty meeting the English Department shared a variety of technology-related projects. From the Lower School we heard about Dibels reading assessment software, Lexia software for students' self-paced reading instruction, and Scratch programming projects for developing facility with oral and multimedia expression. From the middle school we watched several student-produced videos that demonstrated a high level of engagement with their novel study and great use of video-editing as a publishing format. From the upper school we heard about the advantages of class blogs and FirstClass conferences for communication and passing of electronic documents.

We also heard about Ms. Kornet's "ning" project for her class's study of Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen. [A ning is a social media platform on which participants have a profile page, blog, and discussion threads, as well as a feed of all activity on the site, not unlike Facebook.] In Ms. Kornet's project each student assumes the role of one of the characters from the novel and participates on the ning in the manner of that character. Students don't learn the assumed identities of their classmates until the end of the project. Here is a screenshot from the ning site (click on it to enlarge and read the content.) What a wonderful way to build engagement with this novel!

What struck me about this meeting of the English Department was not only the great number of innovative "tech" projects going on (and great teachers!), but also that our basic curricula around reading, writing, and oral expression has in many respects adopted digital tools that we take for granted. For instance, the use of word-processing, keyboarding, and reading online didn't come up as a topic at this particular meeting. I think this is because these tools are embedded on a daily basis we don't necessarily think of them as "tech," and certainly not as innovative. Part of my role is to articulate our vision of what we ask ourselves and our students to do with technology, and I think we are well-positioned to consider next steps in our basic expectations for routine use of digital tools for all students. For example, all students should learn to produce compelling written text published digitally that has embedded hyperlinks and multimedia elements that model current best practices of publishing on the web. Students should gain fluency and independence communicating and writing collaboratively using free tools like Google Docs and personal blogs. Students should routinely use digital tools for brainstorming, bookmarking, and citing sources. Students should gain experience and support with non-linear but focused patterns (and habits of mind) of reading online. I think we have several shining examples of these technologies in our classrooms, but I'd encourage us to move from conceptualizing them as "tech" and move towards the day when these will be the tools we take for granted, embedded across the curriculum. 

Lastly, in relation to our English curriculum I'd echo nearly every library mission statement I've ever read which is encouraging a lifelong love of reading. We want our students to truly enjoy reading and writing in all its forms. This is a good topic for a future meeting, and when we work together, teachers, librarians, and technologists we are the better for it. I welcome your comments and reactions, and encourage your participation in this digital text forum by use of the "comments" feature below.

Vocab Grabber: an Amazing Online Text Analysis Tool

Try VocabGrabber today! -

IT'S PRETTY AMAZING ...

VocabGrabber analyzes any text you're interested in, generating lists of the most useful vocabulary words and showing you how those words are used in context. Just copy text from a document and paste it into the box, and then click on the "Grab Vocabulary!" button. VocabGrabber will automatically create a list of vocabulary from your text, which you can then sort, filter, and save... read more and try it now now!

I grabbed some text from today's CNN headlines, pasted into VocabGrabber and Voila! CLICK on the image above to see the results OR Try VocabGrabber with one of sites samples:

• United States Bill of Rights
• Oliver Twist: Chapters I and II
• Science Text: What is a Genome?

3rd Grade Africa Research

During the winter 3rd grade studied Africa. As part of this unit students worked in partners to learn about one African country in detail. They did the research using tools they learned about during Information Science/Technology class including GoogleEarth, the BB&N Lower School library catalog and worldbook.com.
After gathering their facts the students then choose how they wanted to present their information. Each group was allowed to choose their own style of presentation and this year projects included Powerpoint presentations, Jeopardy games, movies, posters and Scratch animations. The students did amazing work and this week they are presenting their projects to their classes.

What is Blended Learning?

Q: What is Bended Learning?

A: Blended Learning refers to a mixing of different learning environments. The phrase has many specific meanings based upon the context in which it is used. Blended learning gives learners and teachers a potential environment to learn and teach more effectively.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Blended Learning Global Education Conference 2010

Posted by Mike Gwaltney on November 9, 2010

Watch these 2 videos from Carpe Diem and Millis High to start to imagine the possibilities of what blended-learning schools do in helping their students achieve stellar results with models that increase productivity and personalize learning

Is school the place where students get information?

Diana Laufenberg teaches 11th-grade American History at the Science Leadership Academy in Philadelphia. In this TED talk video she shares 3 surprising things she has learned about teaching -- including a key insight about learning from mistakes.


What do you think? Please leave a comment!

iPad 2

You may have heard a bit about the iPad 2 which will be available March 11th. But if you want to learn more then visit apple.com and watch the video. There are some significant new features on the iPad. In addition to the 2 cameras, there is iMovie and Garageband, which almost completes the iLife suite of software available on other Macs.

Arts Day Festival at the Middle School - Friday, March 11th

The Middle School Arts Festival is on Friday, March 11th. As part of the KNBC curriculum for the year, the members of KNBC will be taking a lead role in the Arts Day Festival/Celebration. Kids in KNBC club will run a 85-90 minutes workshops for their peers. To prepare for the workshop they were asked to create an attractive flyer that gives an overview of their workshop, a sample lesson plan, a How-to handout and a video example to be presented during this week's morning assembly. Below are a few examples created by the kids:

Xtranormal Workshop:

Animation Workshop:

Below is the list of workshops offered March 11th; all were chosen by the kids based on their interest and technical expertise:

• Make Your Dream Trailer
• Satirical Shorts with iMovie
• Music Videos
• Animation Cartoons
• Stories with XTRANORMAL
• Fun with Photoshop