Technology in the Education Arena

On Thursday, Adobe released a free basic version of Photoshop entitled Photoshop Express.  It has been launched in a “beta” test version.  It is completely web-based so it can be used with any type of computer, operating system, and browser.  You need Flash Player 9 to run.  It offers free 2 Gb of storage.  More information from CNet.

Can’t wait to try this one out.  FUN, FUN, FUN.  So many tools — so little time!

COLOR is now available in Wikispaces.  You can now change the color, font, size or alignment of text on your wiki page.  Find more information — http://blog.wikispaces.com/2008/03/bringing-color-to-your-wiki.html.

A few weeks ago, I wrote a post about attending the Apple Tour of 21st-Century Learning.  As I am going through the material we received, I feel I need to comment on all the great sites we talked about.

Apple Learning Interchange (ALI) is a social network for educators.  You can find items as simple as a lesson idea to in-depth curriculum ideas.

Apple iTunes recently launched iTunesU available through the iTunes Store.  This features free audio and video downloads from universities across the United States.  Universities such as Stanford, Duke, MIT, Arizona State, and many more. 

LearnOutLoud.com has picked out the best lectures, courses, and audio and video programs that are available through iTunesU.  The University of South Florida has a free collection of stories and poems available in podcast format.

Lastly, we talked about the Framework for 21st Century Learning which contains a vision for 21st Century student success in the new global economy.

Had winter break this week and had quite a productive week.  Finally recovered from the flu by Wednesday and didn’t have to spend most of the day in bed.  Having a laptop sure comes in handy when you aren’t feeling well.

I am enrolled in an Immigration course and am reading the book “The Inner World of the Immigrant Child.”  It is a very good book and a must read for any teacher dealing with immigrants.  An assignment in this class was to watch the movie “In America.”  What a great assignment and well worth the time.  Had to go to an ethnic restaurant for one of the assignments, so I chose “The Brazilian Grill.”  It was an interesting experience and thoroughly enjoyed it.  It is nice to take a course that doesn’t always focus on technology.

For my Millennials class, my final project is focusing on professional development in Second Life.  I created a PowerPoint as a tutorial on Microsoft PhotoStory, then saved the PP slides as jpgs so I could upload them to the whiteboard in our school’s building in Second Life.  So far so good.  Then I took one of the student projects that they did in PhotoStory and turned it into a QuickTime movie (through the use of Zamzar).  This allowed me to upload it to the media player in Second Life.  So, now I had the slides for the professional development and the movie for a sample product.  Was hoping to present this at the DEN in Second Life, but they are all booked up for March.

Another project I worked on was the new Google form creator.  It was very easy to make the form, fill it out, and view the results.  Nice part is that you can share the form results (which are in the spreadsheet) with others if you choose. 

For my Universal Design for Learing/Assistive Technology class, I was able to (finally) post a movie on TeacherTube and YouTube.  Created a great polygon diagram in PowerPoint.  Saved the slides as images and put them, again, into PhotoStory.  Put narration to each slide describing the polygons and then turned it into a QuickTime movie using Zamzar.  Uploaded to the Internet and it worked great.

So, it was quite a productive week – even got some cleaning, baking, cooking, shopping, bills, income taxes, and movie watching done.

Love having time to do whatever …

Ryan Bretag, The Four Eyed Technologist, recently wrote a post listing 32 tools with links to the series 7 Things You Should Know About by Educause. 

 These are great summaries and introductions to the tools and a way to broaden your knowledge.  The articles focus on questions such as:

• What is it?
• Who is doing it?
• How does it work?
• Why is it significant?
• What are the downsides?
• Where is it going?
• What are the implications for technology and learning?

Find articles on tools such as Skype, Twitter, Facebook, Blogs, Wikis, RSS, YouTube, Podcasting, Social Bookmarking, and the list goes on.

Google Docs Spreadsheet has introduced a new feature — the ability for users to create a web-based form.  This is great for teachers/students doing research, working in collaborative environments where they want to conduct a survey, for sign-ups, or any other reason you would want input from others.

You can create the form and send users an e-mail with a link to the form.  Users do not have to log in to Google to fill out the form.  Once the user fills in the form, the data is automatically populated into the spreadsheet where the form was originally created.  How easy is that? 

If you have an iGoogle page, you can add the Form widget to your page and find out when new entries are added to your form.

To create a form:

• Log into Google Docs
• File > New Spreadsheet.
• Click on SHARE
• Give your Spreadsheet a Name and Click OK
• Now, where you usually choose to invite people as collaborators or viewers, there is a new option – To fill out a form.
• Choose this option and click on Start Editing Your Form button.
• Now you get creative and make your form.

Enjoy!

Being someone who is always pushing myself (which is probably why I am lying in bed today with the flu and my computer) I am enrolled in a second masters course entitled “Universal Design and Assistive Technology.”  This is in conjunction with a Massachusetts DOE grant received by 3 school districts.  I find the course really interesting — learning about universal design and so many assistive technology tools available.  I have learned so much already and we are only on Topic 3 out of 10 topics.  As part of the grant, I am working with other teachers from our middle school and this week I will be introducing the class to the SMARTBoard and doing a fraction lesson.  The students will be receiving laptops in the next couple of weeks and I will be working with the teachers and students getting them acquainted with the laptops and how to integrate the use of the laptops into the math curriculum.  This will be lots of fun and I am really looking forward to working with these teachers and their students. 

I have also created a wiki as one of my projects which we are using as a resource for the students. 

Some of the great sites I have learned about on these topics are (I am sure this list will grow):

• CAST Center for Applied Special Technology
• Learn about what Universal Design is.
• Family Center on Technology and Disability
  http://www.fctd.info
  Excellent Assistive Technology site. Contains facts sheets, powerpoints, family guides, monthly newsletters, online discussions, organizations, resources, and much more. The AT Fact Sheets (Glossary, Technology 101, AT and the IEP, and AT Laws) are also available in PDF format. See the Fact Sheet page at http://www.fctd.info/resources/index.php.

I am currently enrolled in a course through Endicott College being offered in my district — Millennials: Technology, Teaching, and Learning.  This week’s task is to create a blog or wiki.  Since I already have a blog and wiki, I thought I would look back on my first entry posted my blog.  Teachers feel overwhelmed getting into this Web 2.0 world, but if they know that we all feel that way at one time or another and to take one tool at a time, the movement grows and more and more teachers will be using these great tools with their students.

My first post to my blog on June 20, 2006

Well, I have finally arrived in the blogosphere. I have spent the past month reading about blogs, wikis, and podcasts. Needless to say, I was overwhelmed. It felt like when I began using a search engine oh so many years ago — I would put a search word in and get 50,000 finds and not know where to start. One month later and thanks to Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms by Will Richardson, Publishing a Blog with Blogger (a Visual QuickStart Guide), along with Classroom Blogging by David F. Warlick, I have learned a lot (at least enough to get started). I am going to spend time this summer learning about blogs and how I can work with the teachers on integrating them into their classroom — whether it is for a daily journal, a grade-level news update, a discussion on a project in class, or a blog with input from the students. The best way to learn is by doing so here I am!

Last week, I worked with 5 classes of 8th Grade Students on a great project.  The students did research on the presidential candidates.  Each student selected their candidate and wrote an essay focusing on their selection.  They concluded their essay with a brief paragraph on the candidate’s views.  This is where I came in.  We had about 50 minutes in which to learn Photo Story, go to the Internet and download a photo of their candidate, create their own project in Photo Story and record audio (which would be the brief paragraph from their essay), add some effects, titles, and possibly some transitions.  No one had background in Photo Story or making movies — this was all new to the students.

I burned all their movies to a cd and the teacher played them back to each class on our Primary Election day.  Each student was successful; the students loved it; their teacher loved it; I loved it; and the main point — they learned so much and it was authentic, interactive, and learner-centered.  I was very proud of them and it was great collaborating with the teacher on the project.

To view one of the completed projects, check out the movie below.
(Please note that this is not an advertisement for this candidate — just a posting of a student project.) 

Download

Microsoft Photo Story 3 is a free download.  If you have a Mac, you can accomplish this in Garage Band by creating a podcast or using iMovie.  Both programs allow you to add voice, music background, digital images. 

Another interesting thing I tried was to take the completed Photo Story project which is a wmv file viewable with Windows Media Player, run it through Zamzar to convert it to a mov file viewable with QuickTime (which is what I posted).  I am trying that out because I would like to show the project in Second Life on the media player in our school building.  For that, you need it in QuickTime format.

Attended a session sponsored by Apple yesterday entitled “Tour of 21st-Century Learning.”  It was a great day.  I knew about a lot of the tools but they not only focused on the tools, but focused on project-based learning with the tools and integrating areas of the curriculum.  We, as students, did research that we posted on our wiki, then created a summary podcast and posted the podcast on our blog.  We moved on to another session and did scientific research using digital probes and microscopes.  With the microscopes, we took digital images and created an iPhoto book where we also posted the data from the digital probe.  It was a great day and I had good company — Nancy and Beth.