Educational Technology

SAVING DOCUMENTS TO NETWORK DRIVE (H: DRIVE) 

Step 1: Right click on the Start button. Select Explore from the pop-up menu

Step 2: From the list displayed on the left, click once on Workstation. This is a subcategory under “Documents and Settings”. Additional folders and files should appear on the right side of the display. 

Step 3: Left click once on Desktop, then while holding down the CTRL key, also click Favorites and My Documents. You will see all three folders highlighted. These are ready to be copied. NOTE: If you have Print Artist, you will also need to include the Sierra folder in this group. 

Step 4: Move the vertical scroll bar (found between the two sections) down until you see the network drive (H: drive that will begin with your user name).  

Step 5: Right click on top of one of the highlighted folders, hold down your mouse button, and drag the folders over the H: drive on the left. When the H: drive becomes highlighted, release the mouse button.  Step 6: Select “Copy Here”.  

SAVING DOCUMENTS TO FLASH DRIVE

Step 1: Repeat steps 1-3 as indicated above.

Step 2: Move the vertical scroll bar (found between the two sections) down until you see the flash drive (often, it will be the E: or G: drive). If the flash drive location is not displayed, click on Tools from the menu at the top, select “Disconnect Network Drive”. From the choices listed, select the F: drive. Allow time for the flash drive to connect.  

Step 3: Right click on top of one of the highlighted folders, hold down your mouse button, and drag the folders over the E:, G: or designated flash drive location. When the location becomes highlighted, release the mouse button. 

Step 4: Select “Copy Here”.  

SAVING DOCUMENTS TO CD-ROM Step 1: Insert a blank CD into the CD-ROM drive, then repeat steps 1-3 as indicated above. 

Step 2: Move the vertical scroll bar (found between the two sections) down until you see the CD-ROM drive (usually the D: drive). It may be indicated with a name that has several characters.  

Step 3: Right click on top of one of the highlighted folders, hold down your mouse button, and drag the folders over the CD-ROM drive (likely D:). When the location becomes highlighted, release the mouse button. 

Step 4: Select “Copy Here”.  

Step 5: After the files have transferred, click on File from the menu at the top, then select Write These Files To CD. Give the CD a title (such as BACKUP 11-08). Click OK. The files will be written, and when finished, the CD will eject automatically.

Wordle is a toy for generating
“word clouds” from text that you provide. The clouds
give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently
in the source text. You can tweak your clouds with different
fonts, layouts, and color schemes.
The images you create with Wordle are yours
to use however you like. You can print them out, or save them
to the Wordle gallery to share with your friends.

Create your own.

A full featured blog editor that integrates with the Firefox browser. A must have for blog editors using Firefox! https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1730

Emerging low cost web tools have implications for administration, public relations, communications, collaboration, teaching and learning throughout the school district.   Check out some of these tools today…

Skype - http://www.skype.com

uStream - http://www.ustream.tv

MeBeam - http://www.mebeam.com

Weblogg-ed TV - http://weblogged-tv.wikispaces.com

Ask your classroom a question and they can answer using SMS text messaging or the web, check it out at http://www.polleverywhere.com/

From SPEAK UP, a national, USA, online research project organized by Project Tomorrow.

For school work, students in grades 6-12 are using technology for these top 5 activities in 2007:

Students:
o Writing assignments (74%)
o Online research (72%)
o Checking assignments or grades online (58%)
o Creating slideshows, videos, webpages for schoolwork (57%)
o Email or IM with classmates about assignments (44%)

Teachers:

What do you do regularly with technology?
o 93% use email to communicate with colleagues or parents – only 34% email with students
o Create a powerpoint presentation – 59%
o Create or listen to podcasts or videos – 35%
o 21% maintain a personal website like MySpace or Facebook

#1 use of technology to facilitate student learning: assigning homework or practice work (51%)

Parents:

What do you do regularly with technology?
o Email my child’s teacher – 91%
o Email, IM or text with my child – 51%
o Download music – 53%
58% say that technology accelerates learning opportunities for their children

School Leaders – Principals and District Administrators

What do you do regularly with technology?
o Email with colleagues or parents – 93%
o Create a powerpoint presentation – 71%
o Participate in online communities – 30%

84% say that their school’s implementation of technology enhances students achievement

Here is a list of the elementary comments for those who prefer to view the whole thing.

MSPS Elementary Comments.xls

Click the image below for a review of the click steps for adding comments.

Do you have a class you no longer wish to see in you tabs?  Here is a brief video to show you how.

How to hide a class from tabs

Having trouble getting those huge photos posted to your blog?  Image Resizer, a power toy from Microsoft, is a free tool that can help.  After installed, image resizer adds a resize option when you right click on a picture file.  Then it will ask what size to make it while offering some of the most common choices.  Have a entire folder of pictures to resize?  No problem!  Simply select them all (or the ones you want) right click on one and follow the same process.  It will resize them all in one operation.  Watch out blogs!This is also great for preparing pictures for e-mail.

On the Mona Shores network find ImageResizer in M:\Courses\Power Toys.  Off our network, download it direct from Microsoft.

Hey, principals! Superintendents! Teachers!*

Here is a resource page that has been compiled for some common Web 2.0 tools, check it out at Resource Page.pdf

Data done right

By dr.scott.mcleod@gmail.com (Scott McLeod)
on technologyleadership

When eduwonkette
asked me to guest blog about data-driven decision-making in schools, I
eagerly agreed. Why? Because in my work with numerous school
organizations in multiple states, I have seen the power of data
firsthand. When done right, data-driven education can have powerful
impacts on the learning outcomes of students.

Unfortunately, most
school districts still are struggling with their data-driven practice.
Much of this is because they continue to think about using data from a
compliance mindset rather than using data for meaningful school
improvement. An uninformed model of data-driven decision-making looks
something like this:

This is the NCLB model. Schools are expected to collect data once a
year, slice and dice them in various ways, set some goals based on the
analyses, do some things differently, and then wait another whole year
to see if their efforts were successful. Somehow, this model is
supposed to get schools to 100% proficiency on key learning outcomes.
This is dumb. It’s like trying to lose weight but only weighing
yourself once a year to see if you’re making progress. Compounding the
problem is the fact that student learning data often are collected near
the end of the year and given back to educators months later, which of
course is helpful to no one.

A better model looks something like this:

The key difference in this model is an emphasis on ongoing progress
monitoring and continuous, useful data flow to teachers. Under this
approach, schools have good baseline data available to them, which
means that the data are useful for diagnostic purposes in the classroom
and thus relevant to instruction. The data also are timely, meaning
that teachers rarely have to wait more than a few days to get results.
In an effective data-driven school, educators also are very clear about
what essential instructional outcomes they are trying to achieve (this
is actually much rarer than one would suppose) and set both short- and
long-term measurable instructional goals from their data.

Armed
with clarity of purpose and clarity of goals, effective data-driven
educators then monitor student progress during the year on those
essential outcomes by checking in periodically with short, strategic
formative assessments. They get together with role-alike peers on a
regular basis to go over the data from those formative assessments, and
they work as a team, not as isolated individuals, to formulate
instructional interventions for the students who are still struggling
to achieve mastery on those essential outcomes. After a short period of
time, typically three to six weeks, they check in again with new
assessments to see if their interventions have worked and to see which
students still need help. The more this part of the model occurs during
the year, the more chances teachers have to make changes for the
benefit of students.

It is this middle part of the model that
often is missing in school organizations. When it is in place and
functioning well, schools are much more likely to achieve their short-
and long-term instructional goals and students are much more likely to
achieve proficiency on accountability-oriented standardized tests.
Teachers in schools that have this part of the model mastered rarely,
if ever, complain about assessment because the data they are getting
are helpful to their classroom practice.

NCLB did us no favors.
It could’ve stressed powerful formative assessment, which is the
driving engine for student learning and growth on whatever outcomes one
chooses. Instead, it went another direction and we lost an opportunity
to truly understand the power of data-driven practice. There are
hundreds, and probably thousands, of schools across the country that
have figured out the middle part of the model despite NCLB. It is these
schools that are profiled in books such as Whatever It Takes and It’s Being Done (both recommended reads) and by organizations such as The Education Trust.

When
done right, data-driven decision-making is about helping educators make
informed decisions to benefit students. It is about helping schools
know whether what they are doing is working or not. I have seen
effective data-driven practice take root and it is empowering for both
teachers and students. We shouldn’t unilaterally reject the idea
of data-driven education just because we hate NCLB. If we do, we lose
out on the potential of informed practice.Thanks for the guest spot, eduwonkette!

Click here to open the PDF detailing the updated teacher features.

We need to begin seriously considering the migration to some open source applications. It is part of my charge to lead this so lead it I will. I would like to begin by having all of you start getting some experience with Open Office. Find the install in the following directory: M:\Drivers\Open Office. You may add it to your laptop or workstation without fear of interference with Microsoft Office so long as you do not check the boxes when asked to make it the default handler for Microsoft Office files. When you open one on the applications for the first time it with take you through a five step dialog box. There is no need to put in your name or register the product.Here are some of the primary reasons we are considering this and other open source products.

Currency - We are not revision current with office as you all know. We are using Office 2000 while several newer releases have been issued up to the current one of 2007.

Concepts - We believe in teaching concepts not products. Open Office is very similar in how the end user experiences it and though there may be “click here, click there” differences when teaching it, the products and their capabilities are very similar.

Cost - Open Office is free. Microsoft Office is expensive. We have a responsibility to investigate it as it could save the district and provide the opportunity to push future resources into other tech avenues.

This is the beginning everything is up for discussion. I will likely be adding more collages to the group/discussion. If you have suggestion on who some of them may need to be I would like to hear it. I am going setup a sit down meeting in the near future.

Matt

Reconsidering how to cultivate skills in U.S. citizens to meet the demands of the global citizenry by Yong Zhao who is director of the U.S.- China Center for Research on Educational Excellence at Michigan State University in East Lansing, Mich. Check it out - > http://www.aasa.org/publications/saarticledetail.cfm?ItemNumber=9737 Keep developing those right-brain skills, now where did I put my guitar?

The world of video is exploding, there is YouTube, TeacherTube, SchoolTube, DNATube, and undoubtably other “tubes” on the way. We have the ability to create content, distribute content, and create a competitive voice that can be heard. This is an essential 21st Century literacy that needs to be developed in our students.

“Are we doing what is best for our students or are we doing what is most convenient for us?”

From David Warlicks blog http://davidwarlick.com/2cents/archives/1363

In this demo, Jeff Han shows off (for the first time publicly) a high-resolution multi-touch computer screen that may herald the end of the point-and-click mouse. The demo, which drew spontaneous applause and audible gasps from the audience, begins with a simple lava lamp, then turns into a virtual photo-editing tabletop, where Han flicks photos across the screen as if they were paper snapshots. (The Apple iPhone, to be released a year later, also does multi-touch — but only with two fingers.)

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/65