Feb weekend

Well I have to say that the Feb weekend has to have been the most inspiring and exhilarating yet. Mike Mazyck's presentation and the discussion that followed was the highlight. When we wrote what we felt our schools would look like in 5 or 10 years I was amazed at the variety of responses. It was somewhat discouraging to hear those who were realists as they were rather pessimistic. Some of us, myself included, were probably dreaming. I know I was thinking that if money was not an object what would the possibilities be?
When we examined the progression from web 1.0 to web 2.0 it helped me realize that it is almost futile to predict what our schools may look like. The technology grows and changes so quickly that there are likely to be many incredible breakthroughs that will completely change the landscape of the Internet.
I believe that the only thing we can do is try to stay informed, share with as many colleagues as we can and keep moving forward even if our particular situation seems to be moving at a turtle's pace rather than the speed of a hare. Keep our eyes on the technologies of the future and believe in our dreams.
I left the weekend feeling that I was really prepared to make a difference in my district and with the students and teachers as far as encouraging them to look more to the future and embrace the new technologies available even though we are unable to access them all at school.
Carl's show and tell of virtual worlds was quite fascinating. I guess I had heard of them but had not really explored because I thought they were just game type technologies. Well, now I can see that they can be very valuable and although I have not done much more with them, I am at least open to the possiblilities and hope to do more exploring in the future.

Cool!

I had such a great time at class on Sat. The presentations were awesome and looking at the future of technology in education was incredible. I have more to share at another time but just had to show you this information. The link is to a YouTube video about the Smart Table. I didn't even realize there was such a thing. Right now it looks like it may be geared more toward early elementary learning tasks but... Imagine the possibilities!!

Audacity project

I should have mentioned in my previous post that the tech tools I am working with teachers on are for them to increase productivity. At this time we can access some 2.0 tools as faculty but are not allowed to use blogs, wikis, or other tools with students. I do believe that by introducing these cool tools to my staff that they will be more than ready to plunge in when we do have permission to use them for working with students. One exception so far has been the use of Audacity. Our Literacy Coach wanted to work with students to record books on CD for younger students to use in school. One of our tech people and I downloaded the software and we purchased 6 inexpensive microphones. There were some glitches at first with saving the correct file in the correct format where we could find it but that was easily solved. The students are having a GREAT time and are improving their pace in reading. We will be putting together 4 books with a CD in a zip lock bag. Hopefully we will have 200 sets completed by the end of the year.

Jan. E2T2 Reflections

The videos of Introducing The Book and Stuck On An Escalator were hilarious. I am trying to decide if I should show them at a staff mtg. It seems as though everyone is so occupied with preparing for the MCA's that nothing else seems important.
Before the January session I had the opportunity to share/coach teachers on the use of Animoto, Delicious, Googledocs and Blogger. Having a structure to use for checking how I can improve my coaching skills is great. I found the practice quite interesting and very valuable. I realized that it is easy for me to bring my own personal experiences into the situation and get off topic. I am looking forward to our conversations with Nancy Guldberg.
The session with Elluminate was fun and also revealing. When participating in online classes during my MLS program several years ago we used chat sessions for discussions. It would have been much more effective if we would have had the options available in this program.
A great weekend of sharing and learning!

Image Hosting

Our art teacher is interested in saving photos of student work online so she can use them in projects without taking up so much space on our school server. I suggested she look at Flickr, Picasa or Photobucket. I would welcome any other possiblities.