Monday Sessions

 

Advocating Alternatives:  Choice and Change Through Technology

Tim King and Jan McSorley

 

The sessions was presented by Odysseyware.  They brought in two speakers to talk about how they use online learning in their schools.  They were asked to answer three questions.  

1. What makes your program unique?

2.  What planning effort do you use to rethink the way things are done and how do you support staff through these changes? 

3.  What advice do you have for educators who are looking to innovate?

 

The speakers spoke of the technology students today have in their lives.  They have always had technology and are very comfortable with it.  We can use this to help students who have dropped out, are being home schooled or cannot attend a traditional classroom setting.  We must find a way to make our classes unique.  We need to offer innovative options for the student population we will serve in order to keep their interest in their online course.  They need to have internet options and some of the school use air cards.  The speakers also said you needed to get the right people to teach online.  They must have a common vision and effective communication.  

 

Suggested Websites:

www.cast.org

www.allprep.us

 

Ensuring Continuity of Learning through Online Learning

Susan Patrick and Myk Garn

 

This session spoke of why online learning was useful.  The speakers told that online learning worked as a long term solution and a short term solution.  Long term would be for students who are not able to attend the classroom instruction and short term would work for students who are temporarily out of school for reasons such as illness.

 

They spoke that students must have internet access and spoke of the use or air cards.  They also told of some of the problems they had with the students having internet.  One of the things that I remember was that when they started their program, 50% of the students had internet at home.  A few months later, it was down to 30% due to economic hardship and households not being able to keep the internet.  This is when they tried air cards.  The day after issuing the air cards, some students came back to school and had already used up all their time on the card.  These students had not had internet before and had stayed up all night using the internet.  They also said that we need to prepare the parents as well as the students for online instruction.

 

Suggested Websites:

Continuity of Learning:  www.inacol.org/col

Disaster Preparedness Resource:  www.sreb.org/programs/EdTech/Disaster

 

What Does Exemplary Teaching Online Look Like

Rose Marsh

 

I thought this session might be showing some exemplary teaching examples from the description.  When I got there it was one person's course and what she had researched for her dissertation.  She showed how her course worked and how they communicated in the course. She spoke on video taping the teachers to see what areas they might need to improve in.  She showed us a video of a classroom and the teacher interacting with the students.  One thing to note is that the teacher spoke to the kids and the kids always texted their answers. She also emphasized that the kids will not just sign up for your course, you must pull them in.

 

Getting the Word Out:  Marketing Your Virtual School Program

Laura Hodges, Crystal Howard, and Brian Crouse 

 

This discussed how the Region 10 spokesperson worked to get the word out on the grant money for online education.  She used TETN Sessions, Conference Presentations, Conference Exhibits, ListServe and Webinars  to market the information.  She also produced flyers and posters to also get the word out.   We also saw students who were promoting online learning.

 

Tuesday

 

Operating a High Quality Online Program:  A Focus on Standards and Accreditation

Allison Powell, Liz Page, Ray Lindley, and Joe Pope

 

They spoke on iNACO Standards.  The standards are based on the results of a research review and survey of online course, teaching and program quality criteria.  iNACOL standards are available for download at:  http://www.inacol.org/research/nationalstandards/.

There are course standards and teaching standards.  The listed their standards and defined each one.  

 

NAAS Standards for Accreditation assures that schools are doing what whey say they are doing, parents are assured that their children are receiving a quality education, schools are assured that teachers are meeting rigorous standards.  They spoke more on each of the standards required for online leaning and the content of the classes.  The standards are there to ensure higher quality classes.  Schools must become a member in order to utilize the services.

 

The class was gear more toward what the different organizations do and what standards they use in their organization.  

 

Blended/Hybrid Schools:  Examples of Success

Sharon Hayes

 

Kids in Chicago attend school a half a day a week and then work on lessons online for 4 1/2 days a week.  They also utilized a parent room for parents to come together and network information on kids and school.  

 

Online learning center (1/2 day) - worked on science, special education requirements (IEP), writing, and math.  They pull up their online curriculum and work on it.  The have a teacher available to communicate with them.  The students also have "side" teachers.  I believe a side teacher is not an online teacher but an additional teacher for the students.

 

Each family gets a computer in the charter school.

 

In the virtual high school students earn their laptop.  They may have perfect attendance for 30 days (5 hours a day).

 

They advertise on the radio, printed posters and sent to various churches, etc.  Students have two interviews before they can turn in their application for school.

 

They reimburse the internet if they have attendance and are receiving regular work from the student.  Also they mentioned that if a student misses a day going to the online school, that a phone call needs to be made.  During the last semester, students need to make sure they have a plan for what they want to do when they get out of school.

 

St. Louis Public Schools Virtual School - students can take a class if they have failed it in an after school program.  They offer several programs for GED, high school diploma, failed classes.  , etc.  Students must attend a "brick & mortar" building for 3 days a week.  

 

Hoosier Academy - 2 full days required in a "brick & mortar" building.  

 

The speaker spoke of the several school she was involved in.  She talked about the kids communicating online with the other kids so socialization was fulfilled.  The state funded most of the schools because they are regular schools.  Virtual schools cost a little more.  On the hybrid programs, most of the money goes for materials for the kids and the teachers.  They partner with different community agencies to help with the cost of the facilities as buildings are expensive.  She did not talk about the curriculum in her programs.

 

TCEA Conference - Austin, Texas

February 2010

 

Copyright/Copy Wrong - Intellectual Right in a Digital World

 

My first session today was Copyright/Copy Wrong - Intellectual Rights in a Digital World.  This was an overview of copyright laws and current practice in and out of the classroom.  The speaker, Wayne Day of Northwest ISD, was very informative and had a nicely planned presentation.  He gave everyone a handout covering Copyright and Fair Use Guidelines for Teachers. 

Mr Day covered the history of copyright and what can and cannot be copyrighted.   He also talked about how to get a copyright, how long it will last and the advantages of having a copyright.  He included the laws on how much an educator was allowed to copy in music, video and text.  Lastly, he told us what the penalty for copyright violation was.  The amounts were large enough to get anyone's attention.

 

Suggested Web Sites:

www.digitalstreaming.com

www.digitaljuice.com

 

Tools for Tunin' Up Tech Apps

 

Tools for Tunin' Up Tech Apps was very informative and gave several resources to enhance Technology Applications.  This was presented by Kim Munoz and Cathy Sharp of Bryan ISD who currently use this information in their middle school tech app classes.  The presenters did very well, even overcoming audio difficulties, and presented us with these websites for classroom use.

  

http://animmoto.com

http://animoto.com/education apply to have a classroom code for 6 months.  At the end of the 6 months, apply again.

They have opened up full length videos to teachers.  Great way to incorporate multimedia in the classroom.

 

https://drop.io/

A website to share and send files

Students could read others papers and leave feedback on others work

 

Google Doc

 

                Share document for revising and editing

 

                Plan/brainstorm on group projects

 

                Tip:  Designate areas to work (page breaks or sections of doc)

www.docs.google.com

  

Glogster – Online Posters

http://edu.glogster.com

 

·         Use to differentiate writing instruction

 

·         Create historical timelines

 

·         Interactive e-portfolios

 

·         Free Class Account

Can be embedded in other files such as wikis 

Cover It Live – Live Blogging

http://www.coveritlive.com/index.php

Teacher has complete control over the chat as the moderator.

Edublogs

Gives the teacher more control.  Students are creating blogs off of the teacher’s blog.

http://etchmunoz.edublogs.org/  on the left hand side is links to all the student’s blogs 

Edublog gives directions on how to get kids under the age of 13 an email account. 

Digital Art and Publishing Unit

www.artsonia.com publish digital artwork

Students are published with others around the world

Can be a fundraiser as people can order the art work on t-shirt, cups and many other objects.  I believe the school received 20% of the sales. 

http://pptheaven.mvps.org/ 

http://www.doink.com

Great introduction to slide by slide animation 

Teaching Good Digital Citizenship

http://dcpartnership.wikispace.com/Digital+Law

http://pwoessner.wikispaces.com/Digital+Citizenship

http://www.digitalcitizenship.net/Resources.html

 

Opening Keynote

 

Christopher Gardner, Inspiration for the Film "The Pursuit of Happyness"

 

Mr. Gardner is a great speaker with the ability to motivate all of us.  He has been a homeless single father who never gave up on his dreams while always looking after his son.  He has an incredible story to hear and is a motivation to us all.

 

Delivering Quality:  The Texas Virtual School Network (TxVSN) Online Course Review Process

Presented by Brent Bakken with Region IV ESC

This was a very informative session about the process to get a course approved to go online.  All courses must go through the same process before they can be posted in the catalog.  Courses are submitted and then go through the review process.  Reviewers look to see if the course is aligned 100% with the TEKS and meet or exceed the national standards.  These standards include interaction, variety of assingments and assessments, design, syllabus, objectives, overviews, and higher order of thinking.  They review the resources for the instructor and student and allow the instructor to make adjustment.  Reviewers also check how the course uses evaluation and how it is managed.  All courses must meet iNACOL National Standards.

After the course is reviewed, it will come back approved, approved with minor adjustments, not aproved needing major modifications or just not approved.  Any modifications are given a timeline.  Once the course is approved, it is passed off to Central Operations who work on the contracting, catalog listing, session and seats and the enrollment. 

This session was very interesting and informative.

 

Distance Learning 2.0 Using Web Apps for Micro-Distance Learning

Speaker:  Dwight Goodwin

 

This session stareted off with the speaker connecting up with 3 schools using Skype.  It allowed the teachers to talk to us while they were at their schools.  A copy of the sessions presentation can be located at www.classroomnext.blogspot.com and it does contain interactive links to more information.

 

Mr. Goodwin is promoting using a webcam within the classroom.  He spoke about how fun it was using avatars to replace their picture and the kids love it. Several of the websites he mentions are listed below and posted in the presentation notes.  All sites are free.

 

 

http://www.Ustream.tv

Presenter creates an account for online presence

Free 

www.tokbox.com

Presenter needs an account, audience needs to click on the link.

1:20 100% collaboration, but presenter controls audio and video. 

http://flockdraw.com/

Start drawing and then invite campuses to finish the project.

Good for things such as hangman, pictionary and collaborative drawings 

 

http://cosketch.com

Like flockdraw but more features.

No account needed

  

http://qik.com

Lets us do video on iPhone for 1.99 for the application

  

http://gawker.sourceforge.net/Examples.html

Turns mac video into a time lapse.  Also click on the link in the presentation for a PC program that turns video camera into a motion sensor camera using Tools link.

 

Good presentation with a lot of resources.

 

Thursday

 

Charting a New Course in BCIS

Presented by Charlotte Haley, Goldburg ISD

 

This was a session to promote lessons in BCIS and incorporate  Web 2.0 tools.  She likes to use project based lessons that can relate to real world situations.  They have a stock market paper and one day each weeks, the students check on their stocks and update their spreadsheets.  They also have a great lesson that involves depreciation.  Not only do the students learn how to calculate this in a spreadsheet, they learn about depreciation also.

One of the recommendations she gave was to give the students a partner.  They do not do work together but the partner is used for help.  If the student gets stuck on a project, they ask their partner.  This helps keep the teacher moving around the room and monitoring.  They also have gmail accounts set up for the students at school.  Below are listed a few websites given at the session:

www.freetech4teachers.com

www.wordle.net  Fun way to mix words up.

http://numsum.com  Shareable spreadsheets

http://www.zoho.com  Has connections to additional applications.

www.officelive.org  Create spreadsheet and talk about it with a friend

www.wet paint.com

www.gaggle.net  Student e-mail and collaboration accounts

www.gabcast.com  Audio website

www.podcasting-tools.com

http://aviary.com  Upload and edit images

www.picasa.com  Free photo editing software

www.delicious.com  Social bookmarking

www.gliffy.com  Diagram software

 

Blackboard 9 Tips and Tricks

Presenter:  Shalone Willms

 

 

Spoke on the features of Black Board.  We started out with recording voice messages.  I think this would be great for all the students prefer a different pace in giving lessons.  I could record lessons and they can play the lesson as they need it.  If a student needs to slow down, they can click pause and catch up and then start again when they are ready. 

 

 

We spoke of breaking the students down in groups.  This is useful when you teach several classes or different sections of a class. 

 

 

The presenters showed how the students submitted lessons.  They then grade the Word documents online by using track changes.  Create as a .pdf file first then send back to the students.

 

 

Safe Assign is a way to check documents against plagiarism.  It checks 3 ways against information being copied.

 

 

Blogs:  Have the students create blogs on blackboard.  They can use color, pictures and all kids of information to talk about a subject area given.  They can also post the hyperlinks for the information they have.

 

Web 2.0 Navigation - What It Is and How Can I Use It?

Presenter:  Rene Fuller

 

The presenter gave ideas that she uses in her classroom.  She mainly gave Web 2.0 site information. 

 

www.worditout.com  Fun site to work with vocabulary words.

www.amathdictionaryforkids.com

www.forensics.rice.edu  Go to fun stuff, then educator's guide and then writing on the wall

www.pics4learning.com  Site for free pictures.  Good to use for projects.

www.spezify.com  Different way to look up information

www.audacity.com  Audio editin software

www.kerpoof.com

 

The website for finding their lessons is www.technologyclassroomlessons.com

 

Symptoms of Successful Online Learning

David McGeary

 

Very informative about creating an online course.  Mr. McGeary stated that over all courses submitted, 80% were kicked back.  We should have rigid expectations that are enforcedconsistently throughout the course.  They predict that by the year 2014, every student will take at least 1 online course.  

Course Development Tips:

1.  Good face-to-face lessons rarely translate into good online lessons.

2.  Flat assessment is typically ineffective for online learning.

3.  Despite their high learning curve, students will need to learn the course.

4.  Media is your friend.  Text, Literature, Pictures, Video and Interactive Games.

5.  Less is more - avoid large chunks of text and focus on key concepts instead.

6.  Set clear and rigid expectations.  This is the #1 factor influencing success.

 

He also suggested that we need to build a sense of community in a course.  Kids will need support and explicit instructions.  We will need to develop a plan and we should never waiver from it.  

 

This was a very informative course with a lot of good information provided. 

 

TxDLA in Houston

Opening Session

The opening session started with a welcome by Brenda Qintanilla, the 2010 TxDLA Conference Chairman.  She addressed general business and had contest winners recognized and gave out awards.  The John A. Baker Memorial Award and the Don Foshee Memorial Grant was given out.

Keynote Speaker 

Predictable Results in Unpredictable Times

Dr. Stephen Covey - Author, Motivational Speaker

He spoke about finding the right place for us to be.  Due to the current economic conditions, we have unpredictable times which brings on:

 

• Failure to Execute
• Crisis of Trust
• Loss of Focus
• Pervasive Fear

These things bring on uncertainty in organizations.   

He talked about ways to address this and how to achieve more with what we have.  

He said our mission is to provide service.  It may be in many different forms and places.  The sound system was a little on/off but Mr. Covey is a very informed and connected.

 

Going the Distance with High School Students

Hands-On Session

Pamela Dooley - Northside Independent School District

 

The session was good but totally geared to Moodle.  She did have good pointers for online classes with how to handle students and to make sure you had all your information in case a problem arises.  She said you need to set specific due dates for a class because it helps the kids to stay on task.  Also, check your courses online reports and see how long the students have been working on something.  Sometimes students appear to be working on a class and the parents are frustrated that they are not doing well.  When reports are checked, the student may not have spent much time on the class while they were online.  Also group projects are good because kids work if they have peer pressure to complete their work Finally, make sure parents and students are well informed as to where they stand in the class.  Communication is a key elements in dealing with everyone involved.

 

Blackboard LearnTM:  The Move from "Course" Management to "Learning" Management

Dr. Teresa Acosta

 

The session went over Blackboard 9 and what it has to offer.  Then the speaker gave her "wish" list as to what she felt it still needed.  The session was not very dynamic and a little tough to follow for those who have not worked in Blackboard.  As she listed the things blackboard had she then went over what it did not currently have or was unable to do.  She did go over the report types  and student tracking indicators and presentation features available.

 

Exploring the Tests, Surveys, and Pools Tool in Blackboard 9

Wade Ashby and Dr. Patricia Ritschel-Trifilo

 

This was my best session of the day.  This is a hands on session that is 1 1/2 hours long.  We are able to sit at a computer and follow along with the instruction.  The hands-on experience is beneficial to learning an application and the presenter did an excellent job.  We all had log ins to blackboard and we were able to go in and set up pools and tests.  We put in test questions, of several different varieties, and placed the questions in random order.  We could change the dates and the amount of times students could take the test.  It was nice to get some experience in Blackboard and practice on how to create a test.  The presenter would go over each button and what it meant and was very clear in his explanations.  Great session.

 

Let's Get Together

Carol Teitelman - Region 13

 

Carol discussed ways to communicate in school.  She was going over the ten of the most popular video and conferencing software.  This seem to be more geared for upper level technology with some of the ideas as they were for the entire school system. Different types of websites are listed below with examples of each.

 

Peoplecentric  Examples:  zorap, dimdim, safari montago live, elluminate UCS, telepresence, integrated rooms

http://www.centerforsocialmedia.org/1pages/uploads/people

http://www.polycom.com/global/documents/whitepaper/navigating_research_on_videoconferencing_based_distance_education.pdf

 

Contentcentric Examples: elluminate, WebEx, Adobe Captivate, GoToSeminar/GoToMeeting

 

We saw a demonstration of elluminate.  The focus of the lesson is on the right side of the screen with messaging with messaging on the left.  The instructor was typing in questions and her participant on the "other side" was verbally answering them.  It seems like a nice program to conduct a class in.

 

We also went to zorap but since we had to download we watched the main screen for information on this tool.

 

www.prezi.com

kqz-tnhpfwd is Carols presentation

 

The top ten (give or take a few) list is:

1. ooVoo
2. Skype
3. Yugma
4. Vbuzzer
5. Ekiga
6. Tokbox
7. Eyejot
8. SightSpeed
9. iChat
10. GoToMeeting
11. InterCall
12. Fuze
13. Office Online
14. Mega Meeting
15. DimDim
16. iLinc
17. Webex

 

What do you Bring to the Table

Charlotte Stallings - Motivational Speaker

 

The General session started out with several awards being given and members being recognized for their achievement.  Ms. Stallings was our motivational speaker and she did a good job.  She was upbeat and funny and brought out the point that we needed to focus on what our goals are and work hard to achieve those goals.  She told many life related stories about how these things applied to her life.  She make several good points on attitude or "tudes" that we have and how the effect what we do.  She had several good pointers that would apply to each of us in education.  

 

Not Again!  Alternatives to the Same, Old PowerPoint

Randy Rodgers

 

Great presenter who gave us a lot of information to use.  Here are a few of the websites and ideas that were presented.

 

www.wallwisher.com/wall/notanotherpowerpoint to leave comments

www.moss3stone.com

 

slideshare.net –simply a site to allow you to upload and store your powerpoints and set different levels of privacy. 

 

www.authorstream.com - can move over to you tube

 

google docs presentation tool is very good and can collaborate easily with other users.

 

iSpring is also good for turning things into movies.

 

Sliderocket – flash based slide show creator.  Has a little more slide effects than googles.

 

Voice thread –

Ed.voicethread.com – you should be able to make accounts for your students

 

Scrapblog – lets you drag and drop items you want to use on the screen. 

 

GoAnimate (Go!Animate) great animation features.

 

www.xtranormal.com - incorporate text to speech.

 

X timeline allows you to embed you tube videos. http://www.xtimeline.com/

 

Timeglider is a little easier to you but you cannot put videos in.

 

Sketchcast is where you can draw for presentations.

 

Photopeach is a lot like animoto where you can put pictures in and it creates an animated show.

 

Diary of an Exemplary Course Program Reviewer

Tomika Greer

 

This session is to work on ideas to give everyone ideas on exemplary course programs.  Blackboard has an exemplary course program and the key guide is a rubric.  We will be looking at the components of the rubric and discussing each one.  

Overview of Todays Session:

Course Design

     Objectives easily located within the course

          Syllabus

          Each module

          Assignments  & Assessment

     Clearly written at the appropriate level and reflect desired outcomes

     Written as measureable outcomes

     Available in a variety of areas in the course

Interaction & Collaboration

     Communication Strategies

          Synchronous and/or asynchronous interaction

          Asynchronous communication strategies promote critical reflection or other higher order           thinking.

          Synchronous communication activities benefit from real-time interactions and facilitate           "rapid response" communication. 

     Development of Learning Community

          Student to  student interaction are required

          Students are encouraged to initiate communication

     Interaction Logistics

          Participation guidelines are provided 

          Expectations for quality of communication are clearly defined.

          A rubric used to evaluate participation is included 

          Instructor actively participates in communication activities

          Instructor uses communication tools

Assessment

     Expectations

          Assessments match the objectives

          Learners are directed to the appropriate objective for each assessment

          Rubric

          Assessment Disign

          Self Assessment

Learner Support

     Instructor Role and Information

          Let the students know what you are there for

          Policies - Instructional & Course/Instructor

          Feedback

 

     Content Modularized

     Navigation is intuitive and content flows in a logical progression

     Content is presented using a variety of appropriate mechanisms.

     Content is enhanced with a visual and auditory elements

     Supplementary resources are made available

Learner Engagement

 

•      Instructional strategies are linked to course objectives
•      Includes guidance for learners to work with content in a meaningful way
•      Higher order thinking is expected of learners
•      Individualized instruction, remedial activities, or resources for advanced learning activities      are provided

 

Technology Use

 

•      CMS tools are used to facilitate learning and reduce the labor intensity of learning
•      Technologies are used creatively in ways that transcend traditional teacher centered      instruction
•      A wide variety of delivery media are incorporated in to the course

 

www. txdla.org/conference/2010/program-session.php?id=128 

 

2011 TCEA Conference - Austin, Texas

 

 

The opening session was started with several speakers who spoke of the great achievements that have been made by several individuals and school districts.  Many awards were given out and people were recognized at this time.  

The guest speaker was Leigh Ann Tuohy.  She is the inspiration for the book "The Blind Side" and spoke of her experience of helping out Michael Oher.  She said that Michael is the type of kids we need to strive to reach.  He did not have a stable educational background and had missed out on some lessons at school. She said that we should all strive to be there for the "Michaels" in our classrooms and reach out to meet their educational needs.  She was a very uplifting speaker and provided a motivational message.

 

 

10 All New Photoshop Lessons You Can Use Today

by Daniel O'Kilen

 

Daniel brought in his lessons he uses in his classroom.  It was good because these lessons are used everyday and he provided input on how the students liked the lessons and the interaction that he had when using the lessons.  He listed the goals of his lessons and probably the most important one is that the students learn to use the tools.  He is not concerned that the finished product is pretty but that the specific tool has been mastered.  He does not base his grades on the final product just the technique was learned.  He also showed us the parts of the lessons he provided.  His lessons include the lesson plan, grading rubric, a tools list and all required files, detailed tutorials in Word.  His instructions are written in CS3 but can be modified for other versions of Adobe Photoshop.  Daniel then went over the 10 lessons to show the student's work and the details on how each lesson worked.  As time was running short in the session, we needed to e-mail Daniel at daniel.okilen@aliefisd.net for the lessons website.

 

How Students Use Technology to Cheat

by Dr. Bruce Ellis

brellis@dallasisd.org

 

If good teaching is not going on then cheating is.  Research says that that males cheat more often than females.  Students feel that cheating is not hurting anyone and that makes it okay.  There are many ways that students use technology to cheat.  

 

Internet

Students can copy and paste.  

 

www.Corruptedfiles.com for $4.95 they will sell you a corrupted file.  This way you can drag and drop the file to the teacher then when the teacher opens it, they will contact you that the file got corrupted.  This can buy you a few days to complete the assignment.  

(Go to Word Options in the Word menu, customize, all commands, auto summarize.)

 

Software

In Microsoft Word we can copy and past an article to the program.  If you add auto summarize feature, tell it to highlight key points and change the percentage of the original, and it selects the main parts of the original article.  They can also select how many words and have the original article narrowed down that way.  

 

Cell Phones

The can get content from their phones and they can record notes. This is also done from a MP3 player.  They can change titles on MP3 players to reflect answers.  

They can also take pictures with their cell phones.

 

Scanners and Printers

Students figured out that they can print notes on candy wrappers especially Menthos and Sprees.  They just print the notes out really small.

 

What We Can Do

Walk around room

Clear off desk

State expectations clearly

Honor code policy

Multiple test versions

Foster a caring/inspiring environment

Student agreement form

Online sites that check papers

 

Overall the session was good.  Dr. Ellis pointed out several ways that we need to be aware of when it comes to cheating.  Our school still prohibits cell phones during the day and the use of MP3 players during class time.  This greatly helps prevent alot of these problems in school.

 

Survey Course for Technology Literacy 

Rene' Fuller

Charlotte Haley

 

Presenters are really big on project based learning.  They feel that until we can use the applications, we don't really know them.  

 

Current Policies consist of Districts that have or use online created assessments, portfolio demonstrating technology proficiency and 8th graders must pass technology applications class.

 

The keys to this technology is that it is intended as a survey course.  It covers all of the basic technology literacy content.  Each chapter has an overview of one subject area and contains lessons/projects to reinforce the concept covered.  All lessons include a web 2.0 application.

 

Some of the lessons shown consisted on netiquette, database applications, spreadsheets and publisher.  For a complete posting of the presentation, see the TCEA website. 

 

Keys to Technology Literacy at the Visions booth sells these lessons.  

 

These hands on lessons help the students to learn all the required applications in order to be ready to pass the technology proficiency test.  The project based learning reinforces the skills they will need not only for testing but in the real world.

 

 

Who Gives A Flip

chris.hulce@fwcd.org

Chris Hulce

Technology Integration Specialist

Fort Worth Country Day

 

The flip camera has two hours of video, uses AA batteries, plugs in directly to the computer, the software is built in and it is around $150.00.  At digitalwish.com you can get a two for one deal on the camera.

The flip camera is easy to operate and to download.  Mr. Hulce's school has done a flip integration for their teachers and it is going great and everyone likes them.  Some conversion websites to help with the videos are

www.zamzar.com

www.altysoft.com/freevideoconverter3.1

www.anvideoconverter

http://www.avs4you.com

Windows Live Moviemaker 

 

Some of the projects are doing commercials with the kids, or during a history lesson your could recreate a historical moment, or creating a music video.  The music video shown for example is "Blame It On the DNA" that can be found on www.youtube.com.  

 

Another great idea is to make a video to introduce new students to the school.  It shows areas of the school and videos students talking about what they like about the school.    This is a great way to show parents what a school is all about.

 

Funny video are a great way to motivate students and staff.  He shows videos of faculty where they are having some fun yet it is showing that the staff is a team.  

 

Websites used in his presentation are:

https://docsgoogle.com/present/view?id=df6bwk2v_460d2wkmkcc

https://docs.google.com/present/view?id=dhn2vcv5_6tv55j7g9

http://www.technologybitsbytesnibbles.info/archives/1479

 

Overall Chris did a great job in giving us good ideas for our classrooms and school.  He do something that we are all able to afford and gave us great uses for it.