Holiday Fun IPad Style

Here is a YOUTUBE video that I think you will enjoy.  All the instruments are played on and IPad!

 Holiday Fun IPad Style

Send a fun message!

Check out this fun link and send your friend a musical message!   Dylan Messaging

Here's one I made as an example:   Jean's message to you!

To all my techie friends in this world,
I am so grateful to have you in my life and do this sometimes crazy work that we do! I hope your Thanksgiving is full of adventure, deliciousness, and connection.
Sending great abundance to you, Jean

Blooms Taxonomy

Blooms Taxonomy =

a classification of the different objectives

that educators set for students (learning objectives).

To understand the concept, and in turn think about how kids learn....which do you prefer??

#1- traditional  #2 not-so-traditional

WHICH ONE WORKS FOR YOU??

1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloom%27s_Taxonomy

#2  Boom's Taxonomy According to Pirates of the Carribean








If you need some techie help online or in person, please get in touch!
 

Teacher teacher tell me the news!

1.) Announcing our newest mobile lab, Mary Ann!  It has 5 macbooks and 5 pc laptops(10 total).  It is for smaller groups and you schedule it the same way as you do the other mobile labs.

 

2.) People often ask me about buying computers for personal home use.  Here is a webpage I put together to answer your burning questions:

http://cesu.k12.vt.us/modules/cms/pages.phtml?sessionid=d4aa93a5f37a5dbc753a5b95fe9c2380&pageid=188363&sessionid=d4aa93a5f37a5dbc753a5b95fe9c2380

 

3.) We have cd's dvd's and earbuds for sale at the Helpdesk for $1 each for staff and students.

 

4.) We have a 2 tiered cart on wheels 60" x 24" that is free to the first person to come and get it. 

 

5.) Stay tuned for an upcoming afterschool training and time to explore the IPod Touch mobile lab (which we affectionately refer to as R2D2).  We have had teachers use this with content specific apps, audio podcasts, video podcasts.  We would like to get some of you taking a closer look and seeing if it might be something that you want to try out.  More coming on this soon.

Waiting for Superman

Have you seen "Waiting for Superman?"  It is a movie about our education system.  I would love to hear your thoughts on it!  What do you think school reform should be?  How do we go about making change happen in our schools?

Waiting for Superman trailer

Google Slam

Hey check out this new project Google is working on called Google Slam.
Ironically enough, the first time I looked at it in Chrome Browser, it did not work, so use Firefox or some other browser since it is still in beta.    http://www.demoslam.com/

Props to MN who showed this to me!

1-2-3 Action - movies!

Here is how to make a short movie!  Click the arrow to start the movie.  Click the icon on the bottom right to make the movie a larger size to watch.

September Startup

All the students are back at school and the halls are full of activities.  Outdoor Fall sports are starting and technology in our schools is off and running at a fast clip.  The mobile labs are already being signed out for teachers in the classrooms to use for various online activities.

 The 1 to 1 student laptop program has been initiated.  We gave out 110+ HP 2102 netbook computers and sleeves to MMUHS incoming Freshman in the core group with Ms. Heiny, Mr. Turner and Mr. Richardson's classes.  Here is a link to more information on the project if you are interested:
MMUHS 1 to 1 Laptop Project

Many of the schools in our district are redesigning their school's website.  Many of the teachers and staff have been working on getting their team pages up to date with current information.  The new website has some improved calendar features.  The athletics and activities pages are improved as well.  Take a look at one of the school sites to get an idea of what it can do:
Camel's Hump Middle School

Here is an inspiring video that we watched during the Teacher In-service created by the New Brunswick Public schools that shows how technology is changing in Education.
Click here

Hopes for an exciting and enjoyable school year filled with learning opportunities!

School starts soon! Get Ready to Rumble!

Every year at this time I get a  little anxious about all the work that needs to get done at the start of school.  Often during the summer, the CESU Tech Support Team is doing major system upgrades and this year is no exception.


We are rolling out about 110 HP netbook computers to incoming Freshman at Mount Mansfield Union HS.  This is year two of our netbook project at MMU where we hope to one day put a computer in the hands of every student in the school to help them embrace 21st Century skills that they will need when they graduate from high school.  This year we are implementing the Suse Linux desktop on the netbooks for the operating system instead of Windows which we used in the past.  We hope that the adjustment will not be too dramtic for the students and staff.  Our teachers are working hard to plan curriculum with these tools that use plenty of open source software such as Open Office and online resources such as Google Apps, EDU2.0, and many other online resources that are great learning tools.

Many of our schools are implementing netbook mobile labs that will be used in the classroom with wireless technologies.  We are trying to get more computers available to students to use in all of our schools.  We are fortunate to have support for this from our school boards, community members, and administrators of the schools.

Many of our schools are implementing a new webpage system called SchoolFusion.  This is a system that is user friendly for teachers, students and eventually parents who will have login accounts to update and use the website.  Most schools are still working on getting things updated but take a look at Camel's Hump Middle School's page to get an idea of what it will be like. 

We are upgrading our Zenworks software from version 7 to version 10 in almost all the schools in the district.  This is the software that we use to image computers, manage workstations remotely, roll out software applications, implement network printing and lots of other things that go on behind the scenes that most people aren't even aware of.

We have also begun the work of virtualizing our servers.  This is when you have one physical server that is segmented and has several "virtual" servers installed on it.  There are many good reasons to do this.
Here is a good explanation of why.

All of our schools try to have a 5 year cycle out plan of desktop computers so many of the schools have replaced some and we are setting them up to use with our software and systems.  Many of our teachers have school laptops that allow them to be mobile in the building while still using them with our wireless systems so that they can do grades, create lesson plans, and other schoolwork.  Each summer we collect all these machines ad reinstall the operating system on them with our imaging systems to keep them in good working order and keep viruses and spyware at a minumum.

All this,  and endless questions, password changes, new employees and students to setup and other things keep me busy and loving my job.  I hope that you all had a chance to recharge over the summer and are ready to learn and be open to new experiences as we enter the 2010-2011 school year.

If you have questions please stop by the computer lab at MMU and see me or email me.
My hope is blog here weekly so come back soon and see what cool tech stuff we are up to @ CESU Helpdesk.

Peace, Ms. Campbell

Technology and students

I am in the process of  "window shopping" for colleges for my younger son who is a junior in high school.  Over the past month we have attended workshops and done some college visits.  There have been 3 technology things I have learned about that I think are noteworthy.

1. One college we visited gives a new laptop computer to all its incoming freshman. This service is included in the cost of tuition. The laptop has MS Office Suite, various CAD design software packages and the Adobe Suite which includes Photoshop, InDesign, Dreamweaver and other packages.  These laptop also include many free open source software titles too.  The students keep these laptops for 2 years, then turn them in for new laptops at the beginning of their junior year which they then keep for the duration of their next 2 years and are able to keep it after they leave.  Many of the attending students told us how great this is.  Everyone is on the same page as far as using the same technology tools.  Teachers and students can help each other out when troubles arise and there is an on campus Tech Support area where you can take your computer if anything goes wrong!  How cool is that!
2. At another school we attended, we were told about a current student (a part-time senior) who started a laundry service for students.  He has drop off boxes in each dorm and students leave their dirty laundry in the drop boxes in laundry bags and then the next day, clean clothes are delivered back to the dorm.  A text or email lets the student know when  their clean laundry is ready to pick up.  This student has expanded his business to multiple colleges in the Boston area and is now making over $2 million per year.  At the same school, if students choose to do their own laundry, all washers and dryers are programmed to text the student when their load is done to let them know they can come transfer their laundry to the dryer or pick it up. No more wet laundry sitting in the washer for hours!
3. The next thing I learned about is more disturbing.  It is a new trend in colleges and schools.  Students are using a webcam sharing site called chatroullette. This site allows you to be randomly connected to another person anywhere in the world using a webcam.  Apparently inappropriate interactions often happen here and this is the new trend that is replacing the previous popular "Sexting" trend that was being done on cell phones.  Take a look at the explanation on Wikipedia and if you dare, you can go to the site itself.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chatroulette    Once again I am reminded how truly unregulated the internet is.   In case you have not heard of "Chatroullette"  you should be aware of its growing use.
   http://www.pittnews.com/article/2010/02/18/layton-chatroulette-much-scarier-its-russian-cousin
   
    http://www.alternet.org/media/146018/chatroulette:_naked_chicks,_boys_seeking_boobs_and_connections_across_the_globe
   

Laptop project continued.....

I found in the last few weeks a growing frustration with the students in our laptop 1:1 pilot program that we are working with this year.  Students were not bringing in their laptops to school when they were needed in class, student damage was on the rise, misuse of the laptops was occurring on a regular basis resulting in viruses and misuse of our school network.  As I expressed my frustration with these issues with our principal, she helped me to have some insight on the situation that I had not thought about.  She asked me if some of the students were finding the project a good thing, and were being responsible and doing what they were asked with the laptops.  The answer was yes, that at least 1/2 the students were having successful experiences with the laptops. 

She pointed out to me that the laptops will not work with all students and that not all kids learn in the same way.  This seems like such an obvious observation now but at the time I wanted all of them to work flawlessly and that is just not going to happen when you have multiple people involved in a project.

Now is the time for me to figure out how to help the group of kids that are not as successful to shift that for themselves and their classmates and use the equipment in a better way or reallocate it to another group that may use it better.

How can technology be assessed?

How can technology be assessed to demonstrate “independent” use by learners and still focus on curricular content?

Some educators in Chittenden County have been addressing this question this school year in the form of scenarios that exhibit age appropriate assignments that truly incorporate technology into the curriculum and also take into consideration the Vermont Technology Grade Expectations TGE's and National Educational Standards for Students NETs standards.  Take a look at them here:
http://transformation-technology.wikispaces.com/

This is also a great example of using a wiki.    

I think these examples are ambitious but they include great ideas that teachers can take part of or the whole thing to use in the classroom.

1:1 laptop initiatives

I am wondering where to find quantitative and qualitative data against the implementation of 1:1 laptop initiatives.  I have found plenty of articles that talk in favor of doing this but I want to know if it really does increase student learning.  Has anyone seen any articles that talks about this?

Project Ideas - 1 to 1 laptop initiave

I am working at MMUHS with the principal, Jennifer Botzojorns, and 4 classroom teachers to implement a 1 to 1 laptop initiative this year.  We gave 25 9th grade students HP 6535 laptops to use and keep for the school year.  We are about 1/2 way through the year now and there have definitely been bumps in the road but we are feeling that this is a project that we want to move forward with but have not yet determined how that will look for the next school year.  I would like my project in this class to help me determine what the next year (Part 2) of this project will look like and how it will work.  Here is a website of this year's information on the project that give an overview and more data on what we have done to date. http://help.cesu.k12.vt.us/studentlaptop.html

Things I am seeing as being important in implementing a 1 to 1 laptop initiative are:
1. Be realistic - determine how the program will work, who the participants will be and what the goal of the project is. I think we have the goals determined, who will participate determined but we are still being challenged at this time with the nuts and bolts of how the program will work.  If we could have started over with this pilot program I would have like to have had some professional development and curriculum planning time with the teacher that have the kids with laptops to help them at the start of the year to know how to use them with the kids.

2. Be prepared by understanding and addressing training and development needs.  We have found as we reached the 1/2 way point of this 1 to 1 initiative that when we started we did not have a well enough defined goal for the teachers who had these kids with laptops.  We needed to work more with them on how they would use these laptops in class with the kids.  Another area that we found was in need of improvement was the file management skills of the students.  We thought that they would have a much better handle on how to save files in an orderly fashion, using folders and backing up their data to the server at school on a regular basis.  This has not been the case and we are addressing that now with the students and teachers as the kids begin to work on a term paper, these skills will be reviewed as part of that project.

3. Be supportive!  We have found to date that there needs to be resources for our students and teachers to lean on when the kids run into trouble. We have a tech support Helpdesk at school that the students can bring their laptops to if they are having technical difficulties, or damaged hardware.  They also come to us with general use questions as well.  We have also had to address the issues of some students having a computer of their own at home for the first time ever and the dynamic that plays out as a result of this at home has make some parents call into us for help and support around that.  Finally we have to be a resource for the impacted teachers to come and discuss challenges they have had in the classroom and we try and work out resolutions with them on this.

Going forward, I have to admit that there are some issues that I am still nervous about such as how we will grow this program, what we will use for funds given the current economic situation and how we can support the growth without addition human resources.  These are the challenges of my job that make it exciting and never the same from day to day.  Stay Tuned!
Jean

Social Networking sites and Cyber Bullying

In class last Tuesday night, I heard classmates discuss the benefits of using Social Networking sites.  I have a Facebook page myself and I enjoy using is during leisure time.  I however think that social networking sites for middle and high school students can be an area of concern.  In my school district, our administration has determined that it is in the best interest of our students to have these sites blocked by the internet content filter.  Given that I am the technology person that has to set this up, I have found this to be challenging to say the least.  Kids are continually finding ways to sneak around the filters such as using proxy sites or secured Facebook sites.  Once I get one "hole" plugged to access these sites, they find another way around it.  Students want to be able to access these sites during the school day for legitimate reasons such as accessing documents or pictures there that they need to use for a school related project that they are working on.  They also want to access it to socialize with friends.  I am asked on a regular basis if I can open up Facebook for just a few minutes so the student can access some needed material.  My standard answer to them is, "You know that we block Facebook at school, so why do you put materials there that you will need?"  There are many other ways to store information online and make it accessible at home and school.  We provide an online "locker" for such a purpose and students can always email attachments to their school email accounts as well.  Many of our students also use Moodle which is an online classroom area that they can post material.

The flip side to this is the cyber bullying that I have seen take place on social networking sites that can be cruel, hurtful, and dangerous to kids.  Posting inappropriate pictures of classmates, writing slanderous comments, as well as connecting with sexual predators are all risks that can be found in sites like  Facebook and MySpace.  In a very informal survey I have asked many students at our high school if they think Facebook should be open at school.  Many of them say that although they think it would be good if it was, they also admit to me that they would waste a lot of time there as well.
In a related topic, the amount of time kids are online has grown damatically over the past few years.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/20/education/20wired.html?scp=1&sq=kids%20and%20technology&st=cse

Here is a link that you may find interesting related to this topic:
http://blog.absolute.com/cyberbullying-more-prevalent-on-social-networking-sites/

I had mixed feelings over whether these sites should be allowed in school or not but as I have seen the trouble it can cause for some students and the overwhelming amount of time wasted that would occur if they were open, I have decided (just my personal opinion) that I think it is best that we do not allow social networking sites to be available in our middle and high school levels.   I also think that many businesses today do not allow access to social networking sites because it can be deemed such a "time waster" so we may as well let our students be familiar with that policy in the workforce today.

Creativity in schools

After listening and watching the Youtube Ken Robinson's YouTube video stating that schools are killing creativity by focusing on core classes, I do not agree.  I think there is plenty of areas of creativity in schools especially in content areas where teachers are willing to experiment with technology.  In my school, our history department is currently working on a long term project with the entire sophmore class that involves World History.  Part of that project requires every student to create a movie  based on the historical content that they selected.  The movies are then posted on SchoolTube.com and the culmination is a school wise movie contest where the movies are judged on criteria such as content, technology skills, and creativity.

I think there are plenty of opportunities to use technology as a creative medium, but it depends on whether the educators are willing to change what they have done in the past to incorporate this type of learning.

Sir Ken Robinson Video: Do Schools Kill Creativity
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iG9CE55wbtY

GED 589 Information Technology Influences in Learning

1st Post - Hi World, I am just setting up this blog to begin posting for the class I am taking at St. Michael's College, GED 589 Information Technology Influences in Learning.