When I make an entry into a blog, this is what it looks like. I write about whatever topic I want to. If my blog is about our basketball team, then after every practice I can write about how the practice went, games that are coming up, and other things related to the topic.
On our basketball team, there are 13 girls in grade 6-8. All of the girls go to the International School of Phnom Penh.
If I had a picture of our basketball team, I could insert it like this...
Then everyone on our team could look at this entry and comment on it. Isn't that fun?
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
Thursday, August 28, 2008
ISPP Tech Tips - August 28
I've been asked to write a technology-related article for our school newsletter. Here is my first one. If an ISPP parent or student is reading, feel free to comment at the end of the article.
Tech Tips
By Miss Jennie
There is a lot of concern about children’s safety when online, and for good reason. Here are a few tips to keep you and your family safe and smart when surfing the internet:
➢ Keep your family computer in a common room, not hidden away in a bedroom. After all, the internet is a public place.
➢ Know what your kids do online. Are you worried about what pictures your child is posting on Facebook (or Bebo, MySpace, or any other social networking website)? Ask him to show you his Facebook profile. If your child is not comfortable showing you, that is an opportunity to start a conversation.
➢ Know who your child is interacting with online. If he is a member of social networking website, have him show you his list of friends and make sure he actually knows them. If he has strangers on his list of friends, that person should be removed immediately. This is another opportunity to talk with your child about being safe on the internet.
➢ If you use a webcam for Skype or video application, turn it off when you are not using it.
➢ If your child is young, it is a good idea to discuss with him what he should do if a stranger tries to contact him online or if he accidentally comes across an inappropriate website.
Of course, these are general guidelines. Your decisions might be different based on your child’s age or other factors. Use your best judgment when making decisions for your family. The most important thing is that as our students evolve from children to adult members of the cyber-community, they learn how to make safe and responsible choices online.
If you have any questions, want to add a suggestion, or comment on this article, I have added it to my blog at: http://teach-ct.blogspot.com/
Tech Tips
By Miss Jennie
There is a lot of concern about children’s safety when online, and for good reason. Here are a few tips to keep you and your family safe and smart when surfing the internet:
➢ Keep your family computer in a common room, not hidden away in a bedroom. After all, the internet is a public place.
➢ Know what your kids do online. Are you worried about what pictures your child is posting on Facebook (or Bebo, MySpace, or any other social networking website)? Ask him to show you his Facebook profile. If your child is not comfortable showing you, that is an opportunity to start a conversation.
➢ Know who your child is interacting with online. If he is a member of social networking website, have him show you his list of friends and make sure he actually knows them. If he has strangers on his list of friends, that person should be removed immediately. This is another opportunity to talk with your child about being safe on the internet.
➢ If you use a webcam for Skype or video application, turn it off when you are not using it.
➢ If your child is young, it is a good idea to discuss with him what he should do if a stranger tries to contact him online or if he accidentally comes across an inappropriate website.
Of course, these are general guidelines. Your decisions might be different based on your child’s age or other factors. Use your best judgment when making decisions for your family. The most important thing is that as our students evolve from children to adult members of the cyber-community, they learn how to make safe and responsible choices online.
If you have any questions, want to add a suggestion, or comment on this article, I have added it to my blog at: http://teach-ct.blogspot.com/
Thursday, June 26, 2008
JOSTI Conference 2008
I’m at the JOSTI conference and so far, for me, the sessions have been hit or miss in terms of whether the information is new, review, or over my head. Even in the sessions that are mostly review, I have come away with some new nugget of knowledge that is either helpful for me or will be good for someone on my staff.
Anyway, there are a few applications, utilities, and/or websites that I am pretty excited about so I figure I’ll blog about them before I forget. I’ll start with the one I’m most excited about, Zotero.
From Zotero’s website:
Zotero [zoh-TAIR-oh] is a free, easy-to-use Firefox extension to help you collect, manage, and cite your research sources. It lives right where you do your work — in the web browser itself.
Of course it is essential to properly credit sources when doing research; however, I see no reason for a person to manually format a bibliography when an application can do it for you. Zotero extremely intuitive, particularly for students, because the developers emulated the iTunes interface when creating it. It keeps track of resources and easily creates bibliographies and citations. There is also a plug in for Microsoft Word or OpenOffice Writer which generates the bibliography and citations, allowing the user to easily switch between different formats (e.g. MLA, APA, etc.).
The only “drawback” is that it only works with Firefox, so if you are married to using Internet Explorer then you’ll be stuck.
So:
I’m thinking this will be helpful for students working on extended essays for IB, personal projects for MYP, the PYP exhibition, students’ investigation stages in MYP technology, science projects, or any project involving multiple resources in research/investigation. Up until now, I’ve encouraged students to use Citation Machine, but Zotero does so much more than this because the information is saved locally and can even make a local copy of a webpage for the student to highlight and have available when offline. That feature is pretty clutch for students who do not have internet at home or for schools in countries where the internet is spotty.
Thanks to http://www.mrbass.org/freeware/firefox/ for the image of the Firefox eating the IE logo.
Anyway, there are a few applications, utilities, and/or websites that I am pretty excited about so I figure I’ll blog about them before I forget. I’ll start with the one I’m most excited about, Zotero.
From Zotero’s website:
Zotero [zoh-TAIR-oh] is a free, easy-to-use Firefox extension to help you collect, manage, and cite your research sources. It lives right where you do your work — in the web browser itself.
Of course it is essential to properly credit sources when doing research; however, I see no reason for a person to manually format a bibliography when an application can do it for you. Zotero extremely intuitive, particularly for students, because the developers emulated the iTunes interface when creating it. It keeps track of resources and easily creates bibliographies and citations. There is also a plug in for Microsoft Word or OpenOffice Writer which generates the bibliography and citations, allowing the user to easily switch between different formats (e.g. MLA, APA, etc.).
The only “drawback” is that it only works with Firefox, so if you are married to using Internet Explorer then you’ll be stuck.
So:
- Download Zotero from www.zotero.org. Follow the instructions and install it in Firefox.
- Watch the screencast tutorials on the website to get an overview of the interface and its capabilities.
I’m thinking this will be helpful for students working on extended essays for IB, personal projects for MYP, the PYP exhibition, students’ investigation stages in MYP technology, science projects, or any project involving multiple resources in research/investigation. Up until now, I’ve encouraged students to use Citation Machine, but Zotero does so much more than this because the information is saved locally and can even make a local copy of a webpage for the student to highlight and have available when offline. That feature is pretty clutch for students who do not have internet at home or for schools in countries where the internet is spotty.
Thanks to http://www.mrbass.org/freeware/firefox/ for the image of the Firefox eating the IE logo.
Monday, May 5, 2008
I Finally "Get" a Virtual World
I was wary of social networks for a long time. I held out with MySpace and finally caved in with Facebook. Joining Facebook instantaneously added a dimension of connectedness to my life. As a born-again believer in the benefits of being part of a social network, I find myself much more open minded to new online trends. Show me a beta for a cool new technology and I’m ready to hop right on the bandwagon.
Second Life is still a black box to me. I just don’t get it. I’ve read articles about how Second Life is being used in different areas of education. It all seems really strange to me. Universities have invested money to building islands in Second Life and have classes that meet virtually. People make real-world money off of their Second Life jobs. I created an avatar in Second Life and lasted about 20 minutes before I gave up. As a teacher, I know that it is essential to use a technology myself before introducing it to students or other teachers. This is one of the reasons that I blog. I’m keeping an open mind with Second Life but for the moment, I am just not into it.
An article I read in the Washington Post gave me a glimmer of hope in understanding at least one virtual world (in development): Lego Universe. This MMOG has the hallmark characteristics of other virtual worlds like Second Life and Club Penguin – virtual money can buy more Lego bricks, players create avatars, and no “end” or goal to the game. Now this is a world I can get my head around. When I was a kid, I could spend hours building with Legos and Construx. The best part of Lego Universe – mom and dad won’t fuss at you for not cleaning up after playing.
(Lego photo from http://www.flickr.com/photos/huladancer22/530743543/)
Second Life is still a black box to me. I just don’t get it. I’ve read articles about how Second Life is being used in different areas of education. It all seems really strange to me. Universities have invested money to building islands in Second Life and have classes that meet virtually. People make real-world money off of their Second Life jobs. I created an avatar in Second Life and lasted about 20 minutes before I gave up. As a teacher, I know that it is essential to use a technology myself before introducing it to students or other teachers. This is one of the reasons that I blog. I’m keeping an open mind with Second Life but for the moment, I am just not into it.
An article I read in the Washington Post gave me a glimmer of hope in understanding at least one virtual world (in development): Lego Universe. This MMOG has the hallmark characteristics of other virtual worlds like Second Life and Club Penguin – virtual money can buy more Lego bricks, players create avatars, and no “end” or goal to the game. Now this is a world I can get my head around. When I was a kid, I could spend hours building with Legos and Construx. The best part of Lego Universe – mom and dad won’t fuss at you for not cleaning up after playing.
(Lego photo from http://www.flickr.com/photos/huladancer22/530743543/)
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Murphy's Law Meets RSS
Last week I attempted to have a session in which I taught teachers about what RSS is and then helped them make their own, personalized readers through www.netvibes.com. It did not work out as I had intended. Here is the I wrote to my staff as a follow-up. The attached pdf referenced in the email can be accessed at http://www.drop.io/JennieDocs.
Email to staff:
I wanted to thank my sessions’ participants for attending and for your patience as www.netvibes.com refused to cooperate with me. It was Murphy’s Law at its best (or is it worst) – the site was down for maintenance and was back up by 5 pm that night. I will work on a video tutorial on netvibes this weekend, so there will be a follow-up for those who attended (and even those who didn’t).
In the first session, when the website wasn’t loading, someone had the comment that this is often what teachers go through – lots of planning around something on a website and just when you go to use it, it’s down. I agree, it can be frustrating and whenever possible, I try to have a back-up plan. So in the spirit of trying to turn yesterday’s problem into today’s teachable moment, I wanted to share with you a strategy I use for downloading videos off the web. The attached pdf (downloadyoutubevideos.pdf) gives step-by-step instructions with screenshots for how to download videos off of YouTube.
The benefits of downloading are:
1) Once you’ve downloaded a video, you don’t have to worry about whether the internet is down. The video is on your computer and available for viewing any time, anywhere.
2) You don’t have to sit and wait for the video to load during the lesson, which depending on the length of the video and internet traffic can be a very long time.
3) Sometimes a perfectly appropriate video has inappropriate comments underneath it in YouTube.
Email to staff:
I wanted to thank my sessions’ participants for attending and for your patience as www.netvibes.com refused to cooperate with me. It was Murphy’s Law at its best (or is it worst) – the site was down for maintenance and was back up by 5 pm that night. I will work on a video tutorial on netvibes this weekend, so there will be a follow-up for those who attended (and even those who didn’t).
In the first session, when the website wasn’t loading, someone had the comment that this is often what teachers go through – lots of planning around something on a website and just when you go to use it, it’s down. I agree, it can be frustrating and whenever possible, I try to have a back-up plan. So in the spirit of trying to turn yesterday’s problem into today’s teachable moment, I wanted to share with you a strategy I use for downloading videos off the web. The attached pdf (downloadyoutubevideos.pdf) gives step-by-step instructions with screenshots for how to download videos off of YouTube.
The benefits of downloading are:
1) Once you’ve downloaded a video, you don’t have to worry about whether the internet is down. The video is on your computer and available for viewing any time, anywhere.
2) You don’t have to sit and wait for the video to load during the lesson, which depending on the length of the video and internet traffic can be a very long time.
3) Sometimes a perfectly appropriate video has inappropriate comments underneath it in YouTube.
Saturday, April 19, 2008
Wiimote and Interactive Whiteboards
My longest lasting struggle as technology coordinator this year has been to get interactive whiteboard technology to my school. I used a Smartboard (paired with an ELMO document camera) when I taught middle school mathematics. I found the Smartboard technology had a relatively steep learning curve but once I got used to it, I really couldn't imagine returning to teaching math without the same set-up.
When reviewing the budget requests for the 2008-09 school year, the number of requests from my elementary school teachers brought on mixed feelings. On one hand it is extremely exciting to have so many teachers interested in learning about a technology, on the other hand, I was worried about the cost benefit ratio to this particular technology. We have piloted a few eBeam IWBs with limited success this year, which was due in part to not having the full interactive package shipped at the beginning of the year.
I was downloading some TED videos today and came across a recently posted talk in which Johnny Lee demonstrated rigging a Nintendo Wii remote to create a cheap interactive whiteboard. With $40 for the Wii remote and perhaps $10 for the pen parts, that's $50 for interactivity. Compare that to $2,000 for a Smartboard or Activboard (don't even mention the $5,000 to get one IWB shipped from Bangkok, the closest dealer). Granted, Smartboard and Activboard come with packaged software and other possible benefits.
I'll be bringing this conversation to my school's technology committee and perhaps student council and will be interested to see where it goes.
Here are some links to useful things I've come across when researching:
When reviewing the budget requests for the 2008-09 school year, the number of requests from my elementary school teachers brought on mixed feelings. On one hand it is extremely exciting to have so many teachers interested in learning about a technology, on the other hand, I was worried about the cost benefit ratio to this particular technology. We have piloted a few eBeam IWBs with limited success this year, which was due in part to not having the full interactive package shipped at the beginning of the year.
I was downloading some TED videos today and came across a recently posted talk in which Johnny Lee demonstrated rigging a Nintendo Wii remote to create a cheap interactive whiteboard. With $40 for the Wii remote and perhaps $10 for the pen parts, that's $50 for interactivity. Compare that to $2,000 for a Smartboard or Activboard (don't even mention the $5,000 to get one IWB shipped from Bangkok, the closest dealer). Granted, Smartboard and Activboard come with packaged software and other possible benefits.
I'll be bringing this conversation to my school's technology committee and perhaps student council and will be interested to see where it goes.
Here are some links to useful things I've come across when researching:
- A YouTube video of Johnny Lee demonstrating how to set up the Wiimote Interactive whiteboard
- A YouTube video of a teacher comparing a Wiimote IWB to commercial IWBs
- A How-To on building the pen and setting up the board
- A How-To on connecting the Wii remote to you computer via Bluetooth
- Johnny Lee's webpage with instructions and source code (only for Windows so far) for the whiteboard
Friday, April 18, 2008
Trying to Go 2.0
Ever since I attended Jeff Utecht's sessions at EARCOS, I've been trying to play catch up on the Web 2.0 tools that I learned about. I've bought a domain name ad am just waiting for the summer so I can learn RapidWeaver and make a homepage. Why RapidWeaver? There are heaps of other web design tools out there, but I'm a sucker for apps made exclusively for Mac.
So in the few weeks since EARCOS, I've been using my netvibes page to keep up on some Ed Tech related blogs, which has been going really well. I have an upcoming pd session next week in which I'll introduce fellow teacher to RSS feeds, which I'm really excited about.
The thing I've found frustrating since EARCOS is Internet in Cambodia. It often takes 10x the actual length of a video to load it on YouTube or TeacherTube. I've tried a work-around of downloading without previewing through Zamzar. I leave my computer downloading heaps of videos overnight and watch the videos the net morning over breakfast. The catch is that about half are corrupted. The upside - videos like "Think Before You Post" and "Are You Listening" are powerful hooks for pds with staff or discussions with students.
Another source of frustration is the TED talks. It takes hours to download the file for a 20-minute talk. Some of the videos are so thought-provoking and inspiring, but again I'm working with a 50% corruption rate. I wish I could get a dvd of all the talks.
Despite these frustrations, though, I'm still committed. I'm starting a list of all the videos I'm going to download this summer when I'm visiting the US and have faster, more reliable Internet.
I recognize that the title of this post is Trying to Go 2.0 and that most of the things I've discussed are arguably not technically Web 2.0 tools. The point, though, is that in the face of Internet-related frustration, I struggle with whether, as technology coordinator of my school, it would be responsible for me to teach teachers about the valuable and powerful Web 2.0 technologies available. Would introducing blogs, wikis, streaming video, and other 2.0 tools be a help or a source of frustration to most newcomers?
My inclination is to hold off a little bit longer and to do a field test with my own students using wikis and blogs before doing any pd with my staff. I'll continue to attempt to download videos and share them with my staff. With the Internet still slow and spotty, I think this is the best balance I can find between going 2.0 and avoiding a staff of frustrated teachers.
So in the few weeks since EARCOS, I've been using my netvibes page to keep up on some Ed Tech related blogs, which has been going really well. I have an upcoming pd session next week in which I'll introduce fellow teacher to RSS feeds, which I'm really excited about.
The thing I've found frustrating since EARCOS is Internet in Cambodia. It often takes 10x the actual length of a video to load it on YouTube or TeacherTube. I've tried a work-around of downloading without previewing through Zamzar. I leave my computer downloading heaps of videos overnight and watch the videos the net morning over breakfast. The catch is that about half are corrupted. The upside - videos like "Think Before You Post" and "Are You Listening" are powerful hooks for pds with staff or discussions with students.
Another source of frustration is the TED talks. It takes hours to download the file for a 20-minute talk. Some of the videos are so thought-provoking and inspiring, but again I'm working with a 50% corruption rate. I wish I could get a dvd of all the talks.
Despite these frustrations, though, I'm still committed. I'm starting a list of all the videos I'm going to download this summer when I'm visiting the US and have faster, more reliable Internet.
I recognize that the title of this post is Trying to Go 2.0 and that most of the things I've discussed are arguably not technically Web 2.0 tools. The point, though, is that in the face of Internet-related frustration, I struggle with whether, as technology coordinator of my school, it would be responsible for me to teach teachers about the valuable and powerful Web 2.0 technologies available. Would introducing blogs, wikis, streaming video, and other 2.0 tools be a help or a source of frustration to most newcomers?
My inclination is to hold off a little bit longer and to do a field test with my own students using wikis and blogs before doing any pd with my staff. I'll continue to attempt to download videos and share them with my staff. With the Internet still slow and spotty, I think this is the best balance I can find between going 2.0 and avoiding a staff of frustrated teachers.
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