Getting started

Please post what techniques you are using to help meet the needs of each child and feel free to comment on the techniques others are using.

What is a podcasts and how can I use one with my students?

Podcasts were mentioned on this blog and I have heard about a few other teachers that are interested. I have also heard from people that have no idea what a podcast is. If you are interested in creating a podcast email me. We have a few teachers that are interested but they are not sure how to use them in their class. If you have any ideas please post them to the blog. Podcasts are basically recorded audio or a radio broadcast saved to a file that can be played back on your computer, mp3 player, or ipod. Broadcast for ipod gave birth to the name podcast. Many podcasts on the internet are recorded daily. People are using them like a blog. You can subscribe to podcasts and they are downloaded to your device everyday without any effort by you. Creating a podcast is very easy. Prepare what you want to record use a standard computer with a microphone and free software and you created a podcast. The podcast can be a few seconds long or you can record your classroom lecture. There are thousands of podcast programs available on the internet. Now students can take your record messages or lessons home. While you are teaching a complicated lesson you can record the narrative for students to review if they need help. If you are going to be absent and you want to make sure the students do the correct thing you can leave the record message to be played to your classes. You can post classroom announcements and updates as podcasts. This is a great way for students that are absent to listen to what they missed. Podcasts can be used by the students. Let the students create reports and record them to podcasts. The podcasts can be placed on the internet. Research has shown that when students are doing projects like previous classes but they are presenting the material with new technology they are more engaged and learn more. What they learned also sticks with them longer. There are many podcasts available on the internet. If you find any good ones please post links in the comments of this blog. The educational podcast network has a number of educational podcasts. http://www.epnweb.org

How am I to make interesting lessons without any pictures?

All of the good image searches are blocked. First off they are only blocked because a small percentage of students use them to look at inappropriate pictures. With the increasing number of computers in a classroom it has become very difficult for teachers to see what every student is doing at all times. You would not believe what we have found students searching for. We are looking into different filtering software that would allow us to unblock yahoo and google images. The filter would enforce the child safe searches built into the filters. I do not know if or when we can implement something like this but we are working on it. We are looking into other sources for images. As a work around www.unitedstreaming.com has 35,000 images plus all of the videos. If you do not have an account with unitedstreaming email me. Microsoft has 150,000 images and sounds. http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/clipart/default.aspx After you complete the search you can filter it to only show photos.

Don’t be shy, participate

I see that many people are looking at this blog but only one person posted a comment. For this blog to be successful we need your interaction.

What is an Intranet and why use one?

An intranet is similar to the internet but access to it is limited to people within an organization. You can post information on an intranet that you do not want open to the public. It provides an easy way to communicate and store information. Everyone in the district has an account for our website. When you sign in and go to the employee only section you are using an intranet. For the district page we provide forms, the employee directory, and monthly enrollment reports. There can be intranets for the building level. Right now only one of our buildings use their intranet. They post referral forms, teacher handbooks, weekly building news, special education forms, and directions for common tasks like printing to the photocopier. They post field trip information and some social welfare like the birthday list for the building staff. Many buildings are accomplishing similar items by sending out lots of emails. Then people have to save the email so they can find the information when they needed it. People have to send out reminders. By using the intranet everyone knows the information will be there when they need it so you do not need to save all of the emails.

Blogs in the classroom

Some of you have been debating about using a blog with your classroom.  Before you use a blog there are a few things you need to keep in mind.  First not every student has internet access at home.  For those students you need to make sure they have time during the school day to participate in the blog.  You must also monitor your blog regularly and delete anything that violates the district’s acceptable use policy 815.  Students may not post their last name, their email address, or anything that would allow someone to contact them directly.  Before students may post work on the internet you must have their parents sign the release form.  The form is on the district website.  On the main page go to district information and then choose technology. 

This blog is located at blogs.fundingfactory.com and you can use this for your class blog.  One advantage is that students are not required to register.  They are given the option to provide an email address and their name.  Please inform them not to include their email address or their name.  If a student does you must delete their post.

You may use your blog just within your class or if you teach multiple classes of the same subject you can have all of your classes in one blog.  You may also use the blog with other teacher’s classes in the district or any other class in the world.  If you want ideas on how to use a blog or if you already have ideas please post them here.

Comments or concerns

I have two suggestions for everyone when there is a problem.  First restart the computer, printer, etc. That fixes 15% of the problems we are called about. Second tell someone about it.  You would not believe the number of times teachers complain to the principal about something that has not worked for months and we knew nothing about it.  Call or email us when you have a problem, with 1500 computers we do not go around and test every feature on every computer on a regular bases.  If you see one of the tech staff in the hallway you can tell them but if we are in the middle of fixing other problems and do not have a place to right down you problem it can easily be forgotten.  If you report a problem and it is not fixed in a day or to contact Troy Stevens.

Suggestions for Workshops

In our needs assessment the district’s technology workshops were one area that had some room for improvement.  The only way we can improve the workshops is with your feedback.  I have posted surveys every year for the last few years.  I made the workshop selections based on those surveys and you would not believe how many negative comments I have received from staff members on the “dumb” choices for workshops.  The “dumb” choices are what the people that took the time to complete the survey choose.  If you would like technology workshops that are not “dumb” you must express your ideas here. 

Please include in your post a description of what you want to learn, when the workshop should be, and who you would like to see teach it.  For example when people just said they want to learn Microsoft Word, some have meant very basic features and others were expecting very advanced features.  When would you like the workshop 1 hour after school, ½ day over the summer or a full day over the summer?  Who would you like to see teach the workshop is very important.  The workshops need to be relevant to you.  Would it be better if one of the technology staff taught the workshop, a high school teacher, an elementary teacher, etc?

What are classroom highlights?

What are classroom highlights?

This is where you can post how you are using technology. 

At James Burd we have a first grade class that had a video conference with a first grade class in Hershey.  This allowed the students to talk to and see the each other live.  The students created questions for the other class and created reports on what was important about Shippensburg and their school.  The students had a great time sharing their work with the students from Hershey.  Of course our students were jealous that the other students we so close to Hershey Pak and Chocolate World. 

If you have any ideas on projects where you could use this type of system email Troy Stevens and I can help you find another class to work with.