Tuesday 3/23

Not Again! 10:30-11:15

Alternatives to the Same, Old, PowerPoint

Randy Rogers - Birdville ISD

 

Wallwisher.com (good brain storming tool)

What is "right" with PowerPoint?

• Encourages creativity

• Saves paper

• Concise

• Visual

• Multimedia / Multi-Modal

• Very Familiar

 

What is "not so great"?

• It is overused

• It is isolated, for a limited audience

• Often used as a paper replacement.

 

By adding a couple features PP can become a powerful tool:

slideshare.net (site that allows you to upload and share your powerpoints. Sometimes you loose some of the effects)

slideboom.com (works basically the same way as slideshare)

authorstream.com (it will take a slideshow and turn it into a movie and can be exported for a youtube)

googledocs.com (a presentiaon tool, looks a lot like PowerPont but not with all the features. The share button permits you to invite people to participate with you on the presentation)

Google "ispring free" it is a plug in for PowerPoint to convert to Flash Movies

 

Other tools:

sliderocket.com (an alternative to PP, it is flash based)

voicethread.com (one of the best alternatives to PowerPoint)

animoto.com

scrapblog.com (electronic scrapbooking. Drag and drop items you want on the screen and manupulate them)

goanimate.com (many scenes and settings they can be annimated to act out things the students want to create)

extranormal.com (animation to make a story)

xtimeline.com (tmeline tool, small learning curve)

timeglider.com

sketchcast.com (records what you draw and what you say)

photopeach.com (like photo story and animoto)

 

Let's Get Together 2:15 - 4:00

Emerging Technology

Carol Teitelman - Region 13 ESC

 

Top Ten (Give or Take a Few)

Types by equipment:

Telepresence

• high definition codec coupled with flat panel screens

• high definition audio

• works best in specialized room

• realistic presence of life size images $50,00-$300,000

 

Intergrated Room

• centralized location for the codec and the associated hardware.

• Main camera

• displays and peripheral video sources with lultiple features.

• available from $10,000 - $100,000

 

Set Top

• designed to sit on a monitor

• small and easy to move around

• $1,000 - $20,000 a piece

 

Desktop

• ussed by people working at home

• keeping in touch with friens and family

• between $30 - $400 each

• able to do voice, video and application sharing

 

Types by focus

Peoplecentric

Tools:

SKYPE

ZORAP

DIMDIM

Safari Montage LIVE

Elluminate VCS

Telepresence

Integrated Rooms

 

Contentcentric

elluminate

WebEx

Adobe Captivate

GoToSeminar/GoToMeeting

 

Content Specific

H.239

Screencast programs

 

www.zorap.com

 

Top Ten Lists:

ooVoo

Skype

Yugma

Bbuzzer

Ekiga

Tokbox

Eyejot

SightSpeed

iChat

 

Presentation Address:

kqz-tmhpfwd

 

Monday 3/22

Keynote Session:

Steven Covey Notes:

Four hazards in business and productivity: Failure to execute, crisis of trust, loss of focus and pervasive fear

Industrial Age vs Knowledge Worker Age

Overall Philosophy: Kind Control  -> Unleashe Talent

Leadership: Position (formal authority) -> Choice (moral authority)

Culture: Boss Centered -> Complementary Team Servant Leadership

People: People-Expensed -> People - Voiced, primary leveraged asseet (Finding your voice Need, what is the need Conscience What should I do Talent what do I do best.)

Motivation: External -> Internal (Inspiration)

Management: The boss ones responsibility for results therefore manages and motivates -> Culture owns responsibility

 

Session: Getting students plugged in (10:30-11:15)

Speaker from Austin Peay State University

Loss of students to Brick and Mortar Universities: 30-70% in first year

Graduation rates at the University of Phoenix 16% from actual in-class, 4% from online class

 

Effective online course outline:

1. Designe Course Infastructure

2. Facilitate student learning

3. Students want the best for form and funciton

4. Create a hook "Somehting students will always see:" Give them ways and means to keep in contact with the instructor

5. Add Humor and be creative

6. Orientation: Clear course instructions for the course an navigation

7. Diversity: Words, pictures, formulas, color, font, audio & video

8. Modularize: Lead in chronological bite-size chunks. Alternate small input with small output bits

9. Group Me. Students want to stay when they make friends

10. Challenge students with engaging and meaningful work

11. Provide for self reflection/feedback

12. Your enthusiasm will capture attention from your students

13. Care about your students, make connetions

14. Be empathatic to understand students position and frustration.

15. Encourage the students along the way.

16. Prompt feedback is very important (This is the highest complaint from online students)

17. E-Mail and phone those who become uninvolved.

18. Get to know who your students are with an introduction assignment, read it throughout the course.

19. Customize: Cater feedback to let students know you are watching and paying attention to them (use their name frequently in feedback)

20 Forgive w/ wisdom (missed deadlines, extra credit etc.)

 

Quality and Rigorous Online Courses:

It's All in the Details (11:30-12:15)

Laura Hodges, Barbara Smith - Texas Virtual School Network

Angela Clark - Harris County Department of Education

Brent Bakken - Region 4 Education Service Center

www.txvsn.org

TxVSN network is not moving to replace brick and mortor classrooms, they are to supliment or to offerr courses not always availble in a district.

Background:

SB 1788 of the 80th Legislature

• Established a State Virtual School

• Supplemental

• Leverage courses already developed

• Ensures alignment to TEKS and iNACOL National Standards

• No change to exiting distance learning laws.

HB 3646 of the 81st Texas Legislature

• State Virtual School Allotment funds

• Paid upon "successful completion" of course

• Final grade of 70 or better

• Completion of all course assignment sand assessments

• Upon 'Successful Completion" (Students must pass with a 70 and must complete ALL assignments and exams)

• Provider district is paid $400 per student per course

• Receiver district is paid $80 per student per course

• "No pass, no pay"

Texas Education Agency Administrating Authority

TxVSN Advisory Council

TxVSN Course Review Region 4 ESC

TxVSN Central Operations

Region 10 ESC Harris County Department of Education

Providers of TxVSN Approval and Professional Development

Education Development Center, Inc.

ESC REgion 1, 4, 11, 16 Harris County Dept of Educiton, Texas A&M University, University of Houston Clear Lake

Course Providers: Districts, Open Enrollment Charter Schools, Eduction Service Centers, Higher Education Institutions

Plano ISD, Texas Virtual School (ESC Collaborative), Alief ISD, Amarillo ISD, ESC Region 6, Mansfield ISD, Pasadena ISD, SUPERNet (District Collaborative) University and State Colleges Community Colleges

 

Courses:

Allinment with iNACOL & TEKS

Instructor-Led

High School Led:

Equivalent in instructional rigor and scope the course that is provided in classroom setting, Finalizing alignmnet

 

All high school course are TEKS aligned to meet iNACOL standard but may: Vary in pacint, enrollment type and materials to be provided by student or district.

 

Online Instructor Requirments:

• Must be Texas Certified to teach the course

• Must have completed TxVSN-Approved professional development

• Submit to Provider district's process of implementing the course.

 

Online Course Rigor

• Course Review Criteria for Approved Course

100% Alliged to the TEKS

Depth and bredth of content ensured with evidence of each Student Expectation and content being taught at the appropriate Bloom's level.

Meet or exceed the National Standards of Quality for Online Courses

 

• Online Instructor Professional Development

Leading active and ongoing interaction between the teacher and the student and among students.

There are 58 critera with a rubric that each course has to meet to be approved by TxVSN

Key Problems in courses submitted for approval:

1. Must have highly interactivity with students and instructor in at least 2 areas besides just e-mailing back grades

  Good communication types (Discussion board with EFFECTIVE use, it should prompt discussion between students and as well as instructor)

  Peer editing / group projects / chats / wikki's (There must be a requirement and purpose for use of interaction)

2. Students must be able to interact with each other.

3. Must have multiple learning paths. Be sure to have writing assignments with a rubric, etc.

 

TxVSN Site Coordinator

Know students academic needs

   Registration of students

Is "go to" contact for online instructor

   Will receive progress reports grades for student

   Will receive final grade for student

Must mentor student

   Or sees that another designated staff member mentors the student

 

READI Secondary

Pre-Assesses student readiness for online learning

Procrastination, motivation, willingness to ask for help

Learning Styles

Technical competency and skills

On-screen reading rate and recall

Typing speed and accuracy

Provided to participationg receiving districts at NO CHARGE!

 

Mentor

Research indicates that a local mentor increases student completion and success

May or may not be Site Coordinator

Campus Based

Designated staff assigned as Mentor

Day to day campus contact for students

Tracks student progress

Proctors exams

Assists with materials

Remains in touch with the student

 

Allotment Funds

Paid upon Successful compleation for course

FInald grade fo 70 or better

Compleation of all course assignments and assessments

 

Get Connected to TxVVSN

Registration process for districts and open enrollment charter schools

7 Steps to complete for school activitation

TxVSN Listserv

Upcoming Events

Information on these items may be accessed via the TxVSN website: www.txvsn.org

 

Blackboard LearnTM:2:00-2:45

TheMove from "Course" Managment to "Learning: Management

Dr. Teresa Acosta - University of Houston

 

Note: I typed this presentors notes, however my browser locked up during saving and I lost the notes.

 

A brief sumary: This presentation basically talked about Blackboard Learn 9.0 and 9.1 with some fo the features available to the students and instructors. It was not too helpful, as I have not been trained on the building of the course in blackboard yet, however most of the presentation dealt with the "Wishes" and "Hopes" for available tools and resources for a later update to Blackboard.

 

Web 2.0 Applications:3:45-4:30

Free tools for you and your students

Dr. Mark Workman Blinn College

 

Mobil Desktops

Zoho

http://www.zoho.com

full featured application

Glide

http://glidedigital.com

AirSet

http://www.airset.com

 

Zoho Writer (Free word processing application)

 

Zoho Document Sharing (Can be used for a true collaborative tool for distance learning: Spreadsheet, slideshows, etc

 

Zoho Show (Slideshow presentations)

 

Zoho Wiki

 

AirSet: Organize and Collaborae

 

Collaborative Word Processors

Buzzword

ConnectNow

 

Slide Show Applications

SlideRocket: sliderrocket.com

Prezi: prezi.com

 

Collaborateive Voice and Video Applications

Voxopop www.voxopop.com

USTREAM: ustream.com

Elluminate: elluminate.com

ooVoo: oovoo.com

 

Blogs and Wikis

PBworks

WetPaint

Edublogs

Blogger

 

Fun Applications

Pandora (Music genome project)

ToonDoo - ToonBook

Voki

Animoto

 

Tips, Tricks and Utilities

iframe

Use an inline frame to embed another document, such as HTML pages and other web documents, in your LMS, wiki, blog, etc.

 

Viper Anti-Plagiarism

TinyURL

CamStudio

Jing

ScreenToaster

 

Thursday 2/11

1:00 Session: Web2.0

Presenter: René Fuller and Charlotte Haley

 

A way of intergrating people and ideas. Second generation applications for the Web. Interconnectivity and interactivity: Latest and greatest Skype, Facebook and Twitter.

 

Who Knew:

Oprah uses Skype to interview people, Obama used the internet to reach younger voter's, many sites such as Flickr allows users to share photos, Companies can use internet to have immediate feedback from customers, Smart phones are opening endless possibilities.

 

Applications and how they could be used in a classroom:

www.picasa.com

User friendly application for storing sharing and altering photos.

www.wordle.com

Source to create a word cloud (also www.worditout.com)

Example lesson have students copy and paste a composition they hve created to see words they have used most frequently.

www.amathsdictionalryforkids.com

This gives an interactive module for common and not so common math terms to help students grasp their understanding.

Sample Lesson: List of math terms, visual representation

www.forensics.rice.edu

Fun stuff, educators guide, "The writing on the Wall", on-line activity, You can compare handwriting examples from a crimescene

www.kerpoof.com

Use to drw main idea of story/nonfiction. A Disney site that is fun for kids. Make pictures, movie, card, etc.

 

Aggghhhh.... Running out of battery on my laptop!

 

Go to Google. type in a topic, hit Show Options at top, go to Wonder Wheel on the side it is like a visual outline when they research. Good graphic organizer for kids. Under the wonder wheel, there is a timeline with links under it for research.

 

www.freetech4teachers.com

Topics are updated daily of new tools for Web2.0

www.picsforlearning.com

Free copyright photos for use.

www.slideshare.net

Premade powerpoints for nearly anything. Great source for people to use.

www.spezify.com

This pulls up photos, text, powerpoints etc. for any topic you are looking for.

www.audacity.com

Mentioned in a previous sesson. Free audio editing software.

www.moviemaker.com

Good resource to let students imagination go wild in making a presentation.

www.teachertube.com

A good resource for teachers and students.

Gotta quit out... bummer the battery is on reserve life :-(

 

 

10:30 Session Blackboard 9 Tips and Tricks

Contact info: Shalone Willms – Coppell High School swillms@coppellisd.com

Donna Casto – Coppell Middle School North dcasto@coppellisd.com

Workshop resource website: www.wix.com/dcasto/Blackboard

Voice Announcements:

When you record an announcement it gives you a recorder box you can record up to a 20 minute audio file.

Creating a voice announcement: Another suggestion is to make a custom avatar with a voki account: http://www.voki.com/

TO MAKE A VOICE VERSION: Under Tools, scroll down, click on voice announcement, use a headset with a mic, type in a subject, ie “welcome”, you can type a script and go to the recorder, click record, speak with an inside voice, click stop. If you need to remake it, hit the record button and redo it. Set up the display times and hit submit.

Groups

Go to control panel, select users and groups, select groups, select the students you need in the group you are setting up for discussion boards and blogging, click on manual enroll, type in a name for the group, select availability, scroll down and select the students for the group, click submit. As in instructor you can click the link for the group to send out an e-mail to all the group members.

Assignments / Digital Drop Box

You can create a button called “Digital Drop Box”. Go to edit mode, go to content area, and make a button.

To collect the items go to evaluation, go to grade center, scroll over and it will show green marks to indicate when students have submitted work, drop box will give you options to collect the files, click on submit. Now you can open a students file and select “Track Changes” and anything the instructor does or writes permits you to make marks on the document to give feedback to students. Export it as a PDF and send it back to the student.

Assignments / SafeAssign

SafeAssign is a way to check your documents against campus submitted assignments, web based information, databases, etc.

In classtools go to SafeAssign. Direct Submit if you have access to students home documents you can use this tool to submit the file for the student in case there is a problem form the student’s end.

 

SafeAssign, will highlight possible places and links where information is plagiarized.

Blogs

Blogs can be used to share information, they can modify colors and insert links. Students can read posts and comment on the topics and posts, they can add photos. Rember to make up your setting for the blogs under the preferences. Think of the difference between Blogs and Discussion Boards. Blogs are like a log of what is going on, a Discusson Board is more focused and structured to a topic for feedback and discussion.

 

Discussion Board

Teachers can see posts at a glance and gives a link to their posts and assignments to insure they are keeping up and being involved in the discussion board as far as posts / comments made.

 

8:00 Session: From Smart to Great:

ideas presented:

• How to modify photos and clip art (Instructor uses ideas for starting day and taking attendance)

• Adding sounds must be MP3 files, any CD can be modified from a program  "Audicity" http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

• Utilizing sound files can be used to trigger student responses. Clean up, get your journals, wrap up on exam, etc.

• Moving spinner to group stations can get kids more organized and more structure to your room.

• Insert will permit you to import from the Document Camera.

• Using your doc camera to show references from books can be captured and placed into a file for presentation (Check w/ copyright use)

• Using the Smartboard to make a visual key to do a self check for students to utilize.

• Images "Making Learning Fun"

• Layering will permit you to hide images behind one another

• Animated GIFs will work with notebook software

• Making a JUKEBOX page with linked sounds will make for a transition and  classroom procedures

• If you Google "Free Sound Effects" to utilize in your files.

• Utilizing headphone mic to recorded classroom instructions and putting them into the lesson on SmartBoards.

• linking green arrows for students to touch to transfer them to the next page.

• Speakaboos.com Free Children Stories Online

• You can embed a webfile into your slide by dragging the URL icon next to the address bar into the Notebook Page.

• Presenter: ronda.mcclain@centralhts.org

 

Wednesday 2/10

3:10 PM:

The above image is a SMART Table for about $7,000. Pretty cool I would love to have 4 in my classroom :-)

 

Above Image: Just a "SMALL" View of a portion of the Exhibit hall (Over 900 vendors)

I have spent my afternoon doing the following:

I attended the following

"Playgrounds"

a: Web 2.0

b. Open Source Lounge: Programming on the backend of web development.

c. Second Life: Neat application, I attended a workshop last time we were in Austin over this. It permits you to create virtual worlds for your students.

d. Geocaching (Awesome) I am already using this in the classroom but came away with new ideas to add to what I am doing

e. Gaming: Incorporating game apps into current and developing virtual classrooms

f. I Playground: Utilizing I Touch and apps to generate a technology infused classroom $$$

 

The remaining time I have spent visiting with exhibitors and technology vendors in the exhibit area. I am truly amazed with what is available, most for a pretty hefty pricetag. I am finding out the "capitalism" sure inspires competition between competetors to make a better more useful product. The sessions at some of these booth have been very impressive.

 

I was also able to visit with Region 10 who manages TMSDS (Texas Math and Science Diagnostic System) and voiced many of my concerns that my department has had in utilizing TMSDS this year. The feedback I received is that the complaints and comments are numerous and they have held back on Science awaiting the new TEKS approvals and will continue with development beginning this Summer. (I hope this happens)

 

I also visited with the folks at "Study Island" as our district has put this in the works for K-12. I was originally informed there was no 9th grade Science resource available which bummed me out, bu found by visiting with them the resource for 9h grade is under Biology EOC (End of Course). It is a great resource and I am hoping to get our district to re-look at getting this portion for out 9th graders.

 

Most of all my head has been spinning with all of the vendors and resources that are available. If we could only find the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow!

 

 

9:20 AM:

Link to TCEA 2010 Convention: http://www.tcea.org/convention/2010/Documents/index.html

 

I am currently attending the Keynote address welcoming the conference attendees in Ballroom D. They have currently told us about the 900 exhibitors available during the conference.

 

Awards are currently being given to educators and educational staff who have made dramatic impacts with the use of technology in the classroom.

 

 

 

 

 

Mike's Reflecton and Notes

Virtual Virginia

Overall process: Access the need

Assemble Teams

Content Development Department

Content Development Teams

• Team Leader – 1 Per course

• Subject matter experts Content Developers 2-3

• Instructional Designer 1 per course

• Course Reviewers 1 per course

Acquire Permits

• Content development training

• Handbook / Style Guide

• Templates

• Multimedia Guidelines

• ETLO

Final Course Checklist: www.virtualvirginia.org/conferences/vss09

Course Delivery

• Text, eText

• Written/Oral Discussions

• Interactivity

• Research

• Primary/Secondary Document Analysis

• Written Assignments

• Projects

• Assessments

• Ancillary Materials

• Presentations

• Simulation Labs

Nice Resource: Article from Tech and Learning: www.techlearning.com/article/8670

Develop a Learning Experience Design Plan

Create Content: Prepare for new information, determine prior knowledge

Acquire knowledge present content information

Establish Scaffolding of knowledge

Test Formal and Informal

Create a course content with graphics that appeal to students

• Create the course in HTML pages: They use www.desire2learn.com for their course templates.

• Provide feedback on Designs of Lesson

Construct Course

Lecture

Discussion Boards

Virtual Labs

Simulations

Student Projects (Research

Small group projects

Video United Streaming TV Studio Videos

Audio Podcasting mp3/Wimba

Role-playing

Practice/study sheets

Guest speakers

Icons are consistent and match up

Sample interactive activities

The Repid E-Learning Blog (Great location for tips for online activities)

www.articulate.com/rapid-elearning/

Inspection: From SREB http://www.sreb.org/

They DO NOT hire their full time teachers to develop their online classes it is too much. They once did, but learned the hard way. They hire people with content knowledge to devote their time to develop the course.

Go to www.virtualvirginia.org

Username: VSS.09

Password: virtualva

This will permit people to view some content online. Revisions for viewing will be up online soon.

 

Virtual Science Labs online:

The Student Experience

Merriam Webster Definition for a “Lab” a procedure done in order to discover or demonstrate some fact or general truth

Hands on or virtual?

38-50 States specify hands-on requirements for regular ed

AP Requirements

Inquiry or Structured?

Student Level

• Both virtual and hands on labs are both critical to understanding.

Evaluation and Assessment

Evaluation

• Teacher input and evaluation

• Student input and evaluation

• Formal and informal lab reports

• Discussions

• Computer-graded assessments

• Reflections/Journals

Hands – On Structured Lab (Traditional)

Science Concept

Testable Question

Materials

Procedures

Results/Analysis

Conclusions

Labs are developed with photos from the lab the instructor did to show step by steps and photos of indicators, etc to evaluate the lab process and conclusion.

Some kits of materials are shipped to students to actually do the labs at home.

Procedure questions are posed as students are working on the lab to insure students are actually doing the lab themselves. Data is recorded and the data is often used in discussion boards to evaluate their results among other students.

Virtual Avatar Characters are used to implement some online instruction. These can be used and embedded from Pearson.Fizzelets

Some labs come from “FET” from the University of Colorado

Refer to handout for the FET’s from University of Colorado they will permit free use with agreement of giving them credit.

 

RESOURCES:

PhET Online Laboratories

http://phet.colorado.edu/index.php

How Stuff Works Videos

http://videos.howstuffworks.com/

Science Daily

http://www.sciencedaily.com

NASA

http://www.nasa.gov/audience/foreducators/index.html

Treehugger.com

http//www.treehugger.com

 

Iclone and crazytalk are biing used for their own personal virtual web lab development.

Scientific Research:

“Scientific literacy entails being able to read with understanding articles about science in the popular press and engage in social conversation and about the validity of the conclusions.”

 

Tuesday Session 9:15-10:15

The iLab Network: Broadening Access to Hands-on STEM Learning via Remote Online Laboratories

This session was good but it is limited at the moment. Students virtually controll real equipment during real time with a webcam to see their experment in process. The data is generated and sent back to the student along with graphs. Students can even have the system send a PDF file of an actual lab report of their expermental design and data. Right now the only application available is one over testing radioactivity. Another lab that is to be released soon will test water for the presence of metal.

 

Benefits of iLab:

• More time on task and less set up / clean up

• More repetitive labs

• safer

• less expensive (currently free)

• labs can be done before and after school

• students can share and compose results locally and globally

 

A study has been done on iLab and they have noticed a 19% gain of increased knowledge

 

Curriculum and material are free online for teachers and can be modified to fit the teachers curriculum

 

If onsite professional development is needed with iLab, they will set up a webanar if contacted to give professional development to staff.

 

LINKS:

www.ilabcentral.org

www.ilabcentral.org/radioactivity

 

Tuesday Session #2: Exploring Tools of the 21st Century Classroom

 

Michigan Virtual School

jbennett@mivu.org

www.delicious.com/bennettj (The below links can be found at the presentor page at left)

 

Google: Life after Death by Powerpoint with Don McMillan (Very FUNNY)

 

Personalize your courses in areas taht won't take away from others that might be using your course down the road. Two places with freedom: Announcement page and Staff Page

Really COOL sites to add pop to your site:

The speaker was throwing these websites to us during his presentation, so may need to google the actual sites:

• simposinseme.com Pretty Cool, you can put animation with it with Blabberize (SWEET)

• moviestorm (Requires a software download free for basics)

• gcast (permits a music / audio file with an embed code into blackboard) Always put a text or summary of what the audio says in the event that the audio is blocked by a firewall

• extranormal (makes a lego cartoon character that will take your text and put it into a file speaking to you)

• goanimate (free cartoon movies with your own input)

• www.flocabulary.com (The week in rap, a movie w/ lyrics and links to stiries that the rap was talked about AWESOME)

• Wikki ideas were given with links and rules how the students can utilize the Wikki

• wikispaces is the site that the presentator uses

• Presentator has no problem with students cutting and pasting biblography text as long as they site the source

• jing.com a good screen casting tool

 

Second Presentator's Info: (Jeff Piontek: his links will on delicious as well)

• sketchup.com

 Creative Publishing Academy: Write stories, shoot vieos, design websiteds and more- make your digital statement through words and images. If students want to create their own games etc, the money generated will go into a student account using "scratch" the money is set up in an account for post secondary education.

 

• Cross culture communication is being used through Avatars to get real live discussion in other cultures and environments around the world. Wouldn't it be cool to use this in science to have students who live in other biome environments discuss their areas with each other.

 

• scratch.com permits students to make their own games to utilize for class processes, presentor showed a food chain being made, he also made a game called Pirate dog using x & y axis to find treasure.

 

• secondlife.com is still good but the presentor is using other systems now that are more advanced.

 

• sketchup.com (Permits you or students to make "virtual worlds")

 

• illuminate is an alternative to blackboard.

 

• Woordle can be used to check a students development of writing.

 

Afternoon Sesson: K12 Urban Hybrid Schools

 

Chicago VIrtual Charter School

• Kids come in 1/2 day a week. A parent comes to an orientation room was designed and parent room is set up. A certified teacher is still responsible for setting up, responding to e-mail, grading, etc.

• Demographics were from homeless to parents who were Doctors and Lawyers.

• Kids work with the online school 4.5 days a week.

• Online school program is individualized broken up by grade level.

• Each kid might have a different curriculum.

• The science curriculum was done on site during the first year.

• The .5 day was used for remediation with math and reading during the 4.5 day week.

• YCCS Virtual High School 22 campuses across Chicago (Dropout Recovery Model)

     -Students are between 17 and 22 years old

     -Students must already have 10-12 school credits before accepted

     -Students must be able to get a high school diploma in 2 years

     -Students have teh opportunity to earn the use of a K12 laptop

 

BUMMER: My battery is about dead, will have to add to this after the session.