Learning Things

Getting to Know Folks

2011-08-24T12:41:00.000-06:00

In this 21st century technological world, many say that we are not as connected "face-to-face" as we used to be and that is weakness of our 21st century world. As an idealist and technology "aholic", I disagree that it is this way because of the technology. I believe it is because of the personality of the person and choice of the person whether it becomes a weakness or not.

I am more connected in every way - face-to-face, electronically and on an even deeper level in this 21st century world. One of my goals this year that I consciously decided and have been implementing as well as having happen naturally is getting to know folks on a deeper level. Perhaps it is because I have been with my new district for a year now and it is just naturally starting to happen, but several times a week now, I've had the opportunity and taken it to get to know acquaintances better, more, deeper and share with them about myself on that level. Each time it happens, I feel awesome, appreciative and thankful. I am loving this! I love the reflections I get as a result. I am growing.

Who have you gotten to know on a deeper level this year? Was it through technology, as a result of technology's efficiency's that provided you more time, or just because. No excuse is a good one . . .I want to know the folks that I work with because it enables me to work with them better, because I care about them, and because it goes both ways. And it is not just folks in the district - it is everywhere.

Have you ever planned to get to know folks better and deeper and done it? What were the results? Do you have time to do this, or are you just surviving treading water? Could technology help? Are you ready to use it to help? How could it help perhaps?

"Facilitated Communications" and Autism - Thoughts and Reflections

2011-07-12T10:04:00.000-06:00

My sister Sandy and I spent over a hour last night talking with each other on our iPhones about the concept of "facilitated communications" for autistic individuals. Sandy indicated that as a part of the Educational Psychology class that she is "facilitating" with a group of Master's students, that this term is one of the concepts she has on the list to cover.

I didn't really know what it was, but after having her explain it to me, had a wonderful dialogue with her. She sent me the video above so I could gain further information.

Amazing to me the many things that were so obvious to Sandy and me in the video weren't instantly obvious to many folks in the video. It is astounding to me that the folks didn't consider the possibility of the facilitator unconsciously directing the communication of the autistic individuals. That realization is kind of scary to me.

It is a long video but well worth the watch. Check it out and let me know what are you thoughts, reactions, conclusions.

I just enjoy learning things :)!

Communications and Collaboration Experiences

2011-07-06T12:22:00.000-06:00

Yesterday was a wonderfully insightful day of communications and collaboration experiences. It was not the kind you normally think of in education - working with teachers, librarians and tech folks to help bring about the best possible learning experiences for students - but rather a day of getting to know folks in the district administration in a whole different way. Getting to know them, value them - the real them - while at the same time collaborating to come up with workable solutions to issues.

As a result, I have decided that I need to get to know one person a day in a deeper way than I already know them. It was a blessing to get to know these folks in a deeper, personal way. It made my day and I couldn't help but reflect on it yesterday and today - hence this posting. It was a light bulb moment for me.

Thank you to those great district folks in 27J for increasing my reflection, thinking and for trusting me and sharing with me the real you. I am not the best listener, I've been told, but yesterday I did listen and hear and learned - you enriched my life and I appreciate it.

Learning things is a wonderful, never ending opportunity. What have you learned today that has clearly impacted you? Thanks for listening. . . :)

eReaders and eTextbooks - some thoughts

2011-03-28T15:36:00.001-06:00

"The Future of the Textbook" is a great read. Thank you Mike J. for sending it to me. If you deal with library media, textbook adoption, instructional technology, curriculum adoption, implementing standards, you should click on the link and review the article. I registered as I want to read the rest of the articles in this series.

Why? I am dealing with this issue right now as the Brighton Early Morning Rotary is working with our school district through a grant to provide ereaders and ereader textbooks for our students. Currently the only adopted textbooks that are available as ereaders are the language arts selected library books that are part of the curriculum. How are other schools and districts doing this? Where are they getting the eTextbooks? I can't really find any.

Someone or several folks have helped me to realize that since we have access to current information via the internet, that with a "good" teacher and "good" standards, the world is now our textbook - or should be. . . Of course we have to teach students to "drive" the internet and follow the "laws" and we have to "enforce" the consequences of not "driving" appropriately also. And we have to give kids and teachers access to the information that they need to use and it has to be available at a moments notice. Is that still too big a list of requirements for districts without proper funds, or families without enough income to supply the access tools?

I think it boils down to if you provide it, it will happen and yes we'll have to provide course corrections and displine when mistakes happen and most folks don't want to be the bad cop, they'd just rather never risk. But at what cost is that to students when they get out in the world and don't know how to drive properly? I think that option is even more deadly. I'd rather my kids make a mistake while they are with me at home, so that I have the opportunity to help them with their mistakes, rather than let them make the mistake once they are on their own and they have to deal with the real police, and permanent results of bad decisions.

Experiential, just-in-time learning, evaluating resources to be sure they are correct rather than just accepting a textbook as totally perfect (which nothing is, right!) are some of the requirements and benefits of using the world as our textbook. Wouldn't it be great if we didn't have to have anymore textbook adoptions? Districts could certainly save money and time and keep the resources current and up-to-date all of the time. :)

I believe schools are at a point in this process where with curriculum standards, textbooks no longer need to be adopted, but curriculum standards need to be followed in instruction and resources for accomplishing that learning needs to be just-in-time, current sources from where ever they may be accessed. Being limited to only one district adopted textbook for a class now limits learning potential as there are so many ways to get better information online.

Other benefits include student and teacher engagement, increased, active learning, and always staying current as a teacher as well. Of course, there is always the danger of the teachers doing as they have "always" done (not a real rationalization on my part, but) and using their same old materials that are tried and true (and yes probably boring). Teacher evaluation systems need to provide the accountability and motivations to keep that issue from being an issue.

Another benefit is students will be learning what is up to the minute. Teachers will know what is up to the minute and our society will be better as a result and hopefully keep up a little better with the speed with which our world is changing. Maybe there needs to be speeding tickets for the fast pace with which the world is changing. Yeah, right. That will never happen. Thanks for listening. Let me know your thoughts through your comments below.

Happy internet driving!

That Get Together After Work That I Promised So Long Ago

2011-01-18T11:07:00.001-07:00

This past Friday after work, the Brighton School Instructional Technology Technicians, Teacher Librarians and Library Paraprofessionals had the opportunity to meet and visit at the Copper Rail. Over Nachos, Hot Wings, Chips and Salsa we solved all of the world's problems! I wish!

Mike Jurkiewicz, Tiah Frankish, Carmen & Jeff Castro, Diane & Jeff Jewell, Kim Thoms, Julie Hacker, Paula Chalmers, Angela Trunkenbolz, Kim Westerman, Jennifer Rice, Julie Ann Baker and I all enjoyed appetizers, coffee, tea, soft drinks, water and great conversation and friendship. (I apologize in advance if I forgot and/or added anyone to the list). We missed everyone that was unable to attend! Maybe next time. . .

As a result of this get together, we planned a Potluck/Collaborative session for the next Professional Development Day. Originally we thought it was to be February 11th, but March 4th is the actual PD day. I look forward to helping each of you as you help our students to learn. I am excited to see what folks have to share regarding needs, successes, technology, books and who knows what else!

I am proud to be a part of this group! You are an awesome asset to Brighton 27J and our students are so lucky to have you to assist them in their learning!

We also had the opportunity to visit with Julie Hacker, say goodbye and offer hugs. Julie is returning to Alabama. She will be near family and her husband has accepted an engineering position there. We are so happy for Julie and her family, but sad for us and the kids at Southeast that will miss her terribly! Perhaps she should Skype in and read them a story one day!!

Now we need to plan "That 2nd Get Together After Work" - does April sound like a good month?

Do you and your colleagues get together after work socially to get to know each other and support each other? Looking forward to hearing from you on how you get together informally to build bonds and relationships with colleagues. Thanks!

I'd also like to say thank you to the Copper Rail and their staff! They did an excellent job attending to our group and we appreciate it!

My New Second Home - Brighton, CO - Part 2

2010-12-20T12:53:00.000-07:00

My New Second Home - Brighton, CO - Part 1 was written on November 8th. A lot has happened in the past 42 days - good things! But I bet you thought you were never going to hear Part 2 since it has taken me so long to get back to it. Well here ya go - :)

The District is taking a serious, research-based look at Cloud Computing productivity tools. A Cost Benefit Analysis has been completed by Technology and my report on the State of Instructional Technology in the District is written. We are considering Microsoft Live@EDU and Google Apps for Education. We plan to pilot them both. Two of the instructional technology key requirements are:

simultaneous editing of shared documents for teachers and student, and
the ability to create forms that auto populate a spreadsheet.

A key question that we have is, how many of our teachers and students currently use the personal versions of Microsoft Live@EDU or Google Apps for Education and how much training time can be saved by choosing the one that most folks already use personally?

Last year the District was awarded an $150K E2T2 grant by CDE. We are in the process of modifying the grant details to address completing the remaining tasks by May of 2011. Teachers and students are using formative assessment, EDU20, slates, projectors and document camera's to enhance learning. Things we need more of and perhaps will always need more of is professional development, up-to-date workstations to enable the slates and document cameras to perform, clickers to replace the missing projector clickers so we can black them out when it is necessary to access IC in the middle of a lesson and adhere to FERPA rules, wireless in those classrooms and wireless enabled devices, so that we adhere to Risk Management Safety Guidelines of no cords across the floor, time for the grant participants to get together as needed to collaborate, to plan on-going professional development as the program expands. Well I could continue on this topic forever, so on to the next one.

"If we all share the load and responsibility, we will learn and gain even more than we share." is my personally created quote included in my 27J signature line. Due to state budget issues, every Colorado school district has had to have their staff wear more "hats" this year. No one gets to say "No - that's not our job" anymore. Everyone needs to be doing whatever is necessary (within appropriate district guidelines), to help out where there is a need. I said all of that to prepare you for an opportunity within 27J. In January all staff will be able to participate in an Instructional Technology Expertise survey (and yes, it auto populates to a spreadsheet :)). The purpose of this survey is for folks to let others folks know where they'd like to know more from an instructional technology standpoint as well as what areas of instructional technology you might feel capable of helping someone else. This spreadsheet will include best times to contact each other to help or get help and will be available to everyone via a link that is live and up-datable 24/7! Go Prairie View High School for the idea!

Let me know your thoughts and comments and also "Merry Christmas and Happy New Year". As a new employee to the district, I will not be taking any vacation during the holidays as I won't have enough days to escort my daughter to all of her out-of-town cheer leading competitions if I did that!

A ReBlog of one everyone needs to read: "Facebook as an Instructional Technology Tool"

2010-11-09T16:35:00.000-07:00

Okay this is a partial quote (ReBlog - Retweet, you get it, right) of one you need to read. Though it is in a college class, I just love it. It could be done the same way in high school, couldn't it? Check it out:

Facebook as an Instructional Technology Tool
by K. Walsh on August 11, 2010
Can the wildly popular social network be used constructively in the classroom? This student’s story says it can.
Yesterday, student Kristen Nicole Cardon submitted a comment in response to my post 5 Reasons Why Educators Need To Embrace Internet Technologies in which she explained how she used Facebook in a course she took. I really appreciated her well stated discussion of how Facebook was used in the course and how the approach succeeded (slightly edited in the following excerpt).
“In my British Literary History course last winter semester, my professor created a class facebook group which we all joined. We’d finish our reading for class and then get online and write a paragraph about what we’d read, focusing our comments on the specific course

iPad Thoughts - Part 1

2010-11-09T12:39:00.000-07:00

Today I finally spent more time on the iPad I've been using to find APPS for teaching and learning in Brighton 27J. Though there are some things I find very frusrating, I think now that I have it all set up for use, I will use it more. This iPad is not 3G capable and I do not have internet access with it in the district. I had to stay home (or go to a hotspot) to set it up and install the APPS to review. And there are alot of them!!

Downloading the APPS was frustrating. There are pages and pages of iPad Education APPS. Even with a fast wireless network, the iPad couldn't stay up with me. At one point I was about 16 APPS ahead of the downloads. To get to the APPS that were twenty pages in, I had to page through the entire twenty pages every time (did I miss something here?). I did not like that at all, but I guess most people don't go downloading everything they can find in a category all at once or at least not after the initial first time. I hope I don't have to do that again soon.

Dropbox was my first APP to load, and I like it for what I used it for - to load a CD's worth of files that I'd left at home on my MAC (but had uploaded to Dropbox) to my Hewlett Packard PC at work. Worked great! Still accessing those files from Dropbox as it is just easier. But Dropbox can only upload video or photo files from the iPad it seems without finding an alternative APP. So if you download a document type of file to the iPad, you have to find an APP to load it in to to edit it there and to be able to upload your revised version back to Dropbox. Can anyone offer any insight into a better way to do this?

After I have review all of the free APPS for math, writing, reading, and etc., I will write part two of this blog post. If anyone wants to share educational iPad APPS that they particularly like, please comment on this post. Comment on the usefulness and quality of the APPS listed below if you have experience with any of them and thanks!

APPS to review include:

Books

Free Books
Umbrella
Wattpad
Kobo
DC Comics
Marvel
iBooks
Alice Lite

Language Arts

Word Search
ABC Phonics
Flashcards
Sight Words
NOVA Free
ABC Free
123 Writing
Words HD Free
Phonics Free
Sight Words Free
ABC Writing Free
ABC Tracer
Play and Learn
Alphabet Racing

Math

Shapes Free
Dino Math
Dots
Piggy Math
Flash to
Math Ninja
Mad Math
Kids Math
Algebra
Math Play
Number Battle
Kosmic Math Lite
Math Board
Math Tour
Glow Burst
Graph Book
Under Sea Math
Kids Math
Units and Constants
Times Tables

Others

Mia's Playground
Virtuoso
Stack the States
Educa Food Free
Art HD

My New Second Home - Brighton, CO - Part 1

2010-11-08T16:03:00.000-07:00

Today has been another reflective day for me as I get to know my new city, Brighton, CO. No, I am not living there, but I am working there as Manager of Instructional Technology for Brighton School District 27J. I am spending about ten hours a day in Brighton and the surrounding communities working to help use instructional technology as a tool in student learning. It is interesting how it feels to try to function in a new city when you don't know where the services you like or need to use are located.

The Brighton location of the Rangeview Anythink Library was one of my stops during my lunch hour. I'd signed up for a temporary library card online which allowed me to request books and put books on hold. Today I went by to get my official library card (so that I can access their online subscription databases) and to talk with Todd Cordrey, Anythink Manager, and Melody Costa, Guide, about working with the Brighton 27J school district. My goal is to work toward registering all students and teachers as library patrons of Anythink. Then they too can access the online subscription databases for school assignments and research. Students throughout the district can have free access to safe, qualified resources through Anythinks subscription databases. For the district to purchase these databases would require funds of well over $50,000 annually.

One of my goals in my position is to find ways to most efficiently and effectively utilize the instructional technology tools already available to us. I look forward to partnering with Lynda Freas, Anythink Adminstrator, to help all Brighton 27J students increase their access to information through Anythink membership and get online at school or at home using these 21st century tools to assist them in their learning.

If you would like to help with this project scaling throughout the district, please comment on this post!

The databases available through Anythink include:

Academic Search Premier
Search for scholarly articles from over 8,450 journals, including the social sciences, humanities, education, engineering, applied science, and ethnic studies fields. Full text is available for more than 4,600 journals.

ALLDATA
Find detailed car and service information from 1982 to present.

Ancestry: Library Edition
Discover more about your family history by searching a wide array of sources, including census reports, birth & death records, and immigration records. Fill in what you already know with newspaper articles, yearbook photos, and much more.

Associations Unlimited
Find information on over 475,000 non-profit organizations. Search by subject, location, organization name or acronym.

Beacham’s Guide to the Endangered Species of North America
Search extensive data on the habitats and ecosystems of more than 1,200 species identified as endangered or threatened by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife service.

Business Source Premier
View company profiles and full-text articles from over 2,150 business publications.

Chilton Library
Find step-by-step repair instructions, maintenance schedules, recalls, diagrams and more. Search by specific year, make and model.

Consumer Reports
Get ratings and reviews, recommendations and buying advice for thousands of products across several industries.

Drugs, Alcohol, and Tobacco: Learning About Addictive Behavior
Approximately 200 articles cover topics ranging from binge drinking to the role of genetics in addictive behavior for researchers in grade six and above.

EBSCOhost
Search across multiple EBSCOhost databases simultaneously.

Encyclopedia of World Biography
Learn about individuals who have made significant contributions to human culture throughout history and the world.

ERIC
Find education literature and information about practice in learning, teaching, educational decision-making and research in this online digital library.

FirstSearch
Find library catalog records, journal articles, or ebooks by searching extensive collection of databases, including WorldCat, ArticleFirst, and MEDLINE.

Fuente Académica
Access articles in Spanish from scholarly journals published in Latin America, Portugal and Spain, with particular emphasis on the subjects of agriculture, biological sciences, economics and more.

Funk & Wagnall's New Encyclopedia
Search over 25,000 encyclopedic entries covering a variety of subjects.

Gale Legal Forms
Find and print up-to-date legal forms and informational booklets online, including forms for power of attorney, divorce and bill of sale.

History Reference Center
Thousands of biographies, historical documents, full-text articles, maps, historical video and more are available.

Infobase Ebooks
Over 150 ebooks are now available right from your desktop on a variety of subjects - from health to history. Geared towards readers grades 6-12, users can view, search or print any of the titles.

LearningExpress Library
Take comprehensive, interactive online practice exams for academic, civil service, military, and professional licensing and certification exams. Registration is required.

MAS Ultra - School Edition
High school students can find articles, photos, maps, flags, biographies and more for their school projects.

MasterFILE Premier
Access thousands of images and full-text articles from over 1,700 periodicals, nearly 500 reference books, and more than 164,400 primary source documents. MasterFILE Premier also includes an image collection of over 502,000 photos, maps and flags.

MedicLatina
Find medical research and investigatory journal articles from renowned Latin American and Spanish publishers, including full-text articles in native Spanish.

MedlinePlus
Learn information about drugs, latest health news, and find answers to health questions. An illustrated medical encyclopedia and interactive patient tutorials are also available.

Middle Search Plus
Middle and junior high school students can find historical essays, biographies, maps, images and more to help with school projects and research.

Newspaper Source
Search full-text articles from 25 national and 260 regional U.S. newspapers, including the Denver Post, Greeley Tribune and Pueblo Chieftain, and transcripts from TV and radio news.

NoveList
View fiction reviews, award-winner lists, and recommendations. Includes breakdowns by age and genre as well as resources for book discussions and curriculum.

NoveList K-8
Fiction guide for young readers includes discussion guides, award-winner lists and recommendations.

PubMed
Access thousands of biomedical citations and abstracts from over 5,000 journals published in the United States and 80 other countries.

Primary Search
Elementary kids can find articles on every subject for their school projects.

ReferenceUSA
Research businesses and individuals for class projects or market research for small businesses. Search for professional biographies, brands and products, or contact information.

Regional Business News
Search articles from regional business publications and full-text for more than 50 sources.

Science Reference Center
Learn about topics from biology and chemistry to environmental science from this comprehensive research database of science-oriented content, including full-text for over 600 science encyclopedias, reference books, periodicals and more.

TopicSearch
Find over 139,800 articles on current events topics like aging, crime, drugs, energy, health, human rights and world affairs, from over 4,800 sources, with 1,650 full-text periodicals.

TumbleBooks
Online, animated talking books for kids in English, French and Spanish. Includes puzzles, games and audio books for independent learning.

TumbleReadables
Search online collection of read-along titles for elementary, middle school and high school students featuring adjustable online text and complete audio narration.

TumbleTalkingBooks
Listen to high-quality audio versions of classics of American and world literature, non-fiction, fiction, and children and teen books. Ideal for readers of all ages and abilities, those learning English as a second language, and people who may be visually or mobility impaired.

Illumination and Transformation - 2010 CAL Conference Exciting Sessions!

2010-10-11T14:41:00.000-06:00

What a great conference this year! The brand new facility, the keynotes, the presentations, the layout of the conference all were fantastic! Thank you CAL Conference Committee for all of your hard work!

This was my 6th year to attend CAL and my 3rd year to work on the signage for the conference. Here are the events from which I benefited.

Keynote "Beyond Information to Transformation". It's all about choice, fun, hospitality, no guilt, relationships, community, favorites, tools and simplicity. For more information, click on the linkable title to go to the website by the presentators.
Session "Uncover...Discover...and Read" - a digital book talk on teens and tweens books by Brighton 27J Teacher Librarians Tiah Frankish, PVMS and Dawn Lewallen, Stuart Middle School. Check out their blog: ConsumedByBooks's Blog.
Session "Library Advocacy with the Maasai in Residence Program at ThunderRidge High School" - where their library hosted a Maasai warrior from Tanzania for a week of interactive lessons and cultural exchange. If you want to get in on it, he'll come to your school for a full day for $500. Contact Paula Busey at ThunderRidge.
Keynote "I'm Sorry You Hated This Book: A Conversation with Censored Author Lauren Myracle" - an Intellectual Freedom best-ever session in my opinion.
Session "Unconference within a Conference: School Librarians and the new Content Standards: Taking the Lead with 21st Century Skills". Wow - click on the session linked title to see all of the great information on their CASL wikispaces!
Session "Becoming Anythink - How Rangeview Library District turned everything upside down or at least sideways". They eliminated fines, thought totally out of the box for Summer Reading, energized themselves into such positive power houses individually and as a group. I went to this session specifically because in my tours of my new district, I've seen their mobile libraries at our schools.
The Colorado Association of School Librarians Board Meeting - At this meeting I joined the Awards Committee and will be doing the publication of this effort through Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and the like. We also as a CASL membership are doing a letter writing campaign to publicize the awesome stories going on in our districts through the local newspapers. Thank you to the CASL Board for preparing all of the collateral material needed to make this easy for us. This project aligns right in with a project we brainstormed in our District Leadership monthly meeting - marketing our schools and our district by sharing positive stories that are happening everyday in our schools.
Session "Libraries: Are we the center of our community? John Creighton, public policy researcher, community organizer and St. Vrain Valley School District School Board President, presented his finding from his analysis of public trends and community values and forecast impacts on our institutions. The shifts that are impacting communication, school districts, and politics impact libraries as well. John's visonary thinking enabled me to see and understand how we need to look at our potential roles for the future differently. It was a new way of thinking for me and I must say exciting!

All of the session handouts will eventually be available on the CAL Conference Handouts Link. Check back occasionally so that you can benefit from these great sessions as well.

Did you attend CAL? What were the"bests" for you?

Thank You Everyone!

2010-09-14T23:27:00.000-06:00

I started a new job this week with Brighton 27J. The position is Manager of Instructional Technology - the same position I had with St. Vrain Valley School District for the past five years. During those five years at St. Vrain, I worked with and got to know many, many wonderful folks. Holli Buchter, the Coordinator for Media Services, I believe, has had a hand in a very positive first week for me. Some how many of these great people found out that my new job started this week and every day so far, I have received emails wishing me well in my new position! Hearing from everyone such positive and loving comments has really made my week and I so appreciate it!

Thank you so much everyone! The emails of support and care as well as those that have me and my best in their thoughts mean so much to me. You guys are really making me learn all over again what true friendship is all about. I am so lucky to have you all in my life!

The picture above is from my second year with St. Vrain's wonderful library folks. It is one captured memory of some of the kind and loving men and women I am honored to know in the library world.

Friendship - you've all certainly shown me its value and reward. I hope that my girl's realize its value over the long term and get to experience such a wonderful feeling of warmth and caring. You are all very special to me and this feeling and experience has really helped make my transition to my new district a positive, exciting one.

By the way, I am loving my new opportunity in Brighton and look forward to having a positive effect on the achievement of Brighton 27J's students. Wonder if I should present the idea of a Student Technology Fair in Brighton? :)

Hugs,

Connie

One of the Best Learning Adventures

2010-08-30T09:14:00.000-06:00

A learning adventure that I only remember once during my youth (at age 14 in the White Mountains of Arizona) is camping. My memories of that particular camping experience were my brand new white tennis shoes getting wet in the creek and my Mom putting them by the fire to dry and theyir suffering a burn :) and brushing my teeth over the creek (we wouldn't do that anymore). I wish I had had more camping experiences, but have made up for it as an adult and parent.

Reflection is at its best in the flames of the fire at night with an alternate view of the Milky Way, the trickling of a waterfall in the creek over the rocks and pebbles, and walking alone with your thoughts and feelings, but also with family and friends on a hike with millions of views of nature along the path.

Normally we see beautiful rocks, flowers of every color and size, boundless greenery as well as pine trees dying from bark beetle infestations, remains of past fires, bones of animals, feathers of birds, beaver dams, animal tracks including domestic ones and most anything else you can imagine. This past weekend was a first - "gillions and gillions" of mushrooms. Every size and color and quantity!

Beautiful red!!

We called these popcorn!

Where are the fairies?

We saw white, orange, brown ones. You know - the ones you always see. But we also saw gold and purple tops like the red one.

This was the first camping trip ever for my new daughter. I dare say the five mile hike in the wilderness with the 700' elevation climb was a first as well. It was awesome to see her intrigue with the rocks of every shape, size and color. We were lucky to have additional family to mentor her along the way. Change - denial, anger, sadness at what happens to you in life can be reflected upon as you walk safely in nature. It is hard, hard, hard. But as hard as it is, it is good, releasing and healthy.

I had to leave early to get to another commitment, but I heard that both daughters with us were awesome breaking camp! Yea! Great kids! Almost adults. . . Sad though, they didn't want to go back next weekend like we older folks do. Hope we didn't over do the hike length. Time will tell.

What have you learned, reflected upon as you camped?

A New Learning Adventure!

2010-08-19T08:18:00.000-06:00

3X School starts today for my "triplet" 17 year old high schoolers. Yes I said "triplet". This week we gained guardianship of a friend of Jacey's so my twins now have another sister! She spent the summer with us and I watched everyone grow as a result. Now we all have the opportunity to grow and learn even more. I plan to journal our journey over this next year, so stay tuned. She is our second daughter through guardianship. We learned and grew so much with our first guardian daughter - I am excited about what this next year and on will enable me to learn. Join me in the journey. Happy First Day of School!

How Can We Help Those Students That Should Be Entrepreneurs?

2010-07-02T11:26:00.000-06:00

What programs are out there to support a passion for entrepreneurship? Do K12 schools address this? What universities are offering this field as a major? This TED idea really has me thinking? Let me know of positive opportunities of which you may know. Thanks!

Bored in school, failing classes, at odds with peers: This child might be an entrepreneur, says Cameron Herold. At TEDxEdmonton, he makes the case for parenting and education that helps would-be entrepreneurs flourish -- as kids and as adults.

Education Does Pay!

2010-05-25T12:54:00.005-06:00

Yes, it does.

A high school diploma, Heckman (the author of the linked article) and others have shown, is worth $11,600 a year in incremental salary.
Why then, don't students and parents demand the results for the money spent on their education? According to Heckman, the U.S. education industry produces many "defective products" from their $660 billion factory. We wouldn't accept this from other products that we pay for - so why does education get away with it?

There are ways to produce better end products. Thank goodness!

James Heckman, a University of Chicago economist and 2009 winner of the Nobel Prize, has spent much of his career studying this point. Heckman is a realist about the challenge that public schools confront. "Most of the gap in test scores is there at age 5, before they enter kindergarten," he says. He says to address this gap, collect data, look for small changes, intervene quickly and move resources to the formulas that work. Some of the better management techniques come straight out of the 1930s, but other steps look more like an information-driven company than an old-fashioned school district.

Quiz scores, homework, attendance records - every detail of a student's performance, needs to be entered into a computer database where teachers/administrators should examine the constantly unfolding record and quickly adjust lesson plans and individual teaching strategies in response. We need to be constantly using this data on an ongoing basis to adjust our teaching and learning to provide a better product - a giant payoff!

Only one questions remains in my mind - are educators all willing to do what it takes to produce successful, prepared students?

Linchpin by Seth Godin

2010-05-05T10:31:00.002-06:00

Just sat in on an Elluminate session with Steve H. where Seth talked about the message in his book, "Linchpin:". Here are my notes from that session.

We need to teach our kids how to solve interesting problems and how to lead. If school aren't, can't, won't, don't realize, or don't want to – we need to "homeschool" our kids from 3 pm until school starts the next morning to stand out. We need to teach kids to not “fit in”; we need to reward kids for standing out rather than fitting in unfortunately while at the same time maintaining NCLB test scores. We need to remember that the real customers are the kids, not our superiors.

We have enough time and resources in the school day to let kids start speaking up. We need to stop asking about test scores and start talking about how to make a difference. If you can persistently put ideas in front of people who trust you, sooner or later the "nickel will drop". It is that flip that should be our goal. If kids realize that others want this change, they will start doing it as well.

We need to say to our kids, "You are a genius, the world needs your contribution!" They need to know their gifts, talent and responsibilities. One teacher said she tried it and her 5 and 7 year olds get it, and they know each others gifts!

We can change this culture and the system with these conversations with young kids. Genius means – not Albert E., but solving a problem in a way that it has never been solved before. Unfortunately we scare it out of kids today, by telling them they broke a rule, etc. Yes, it is not easy to manage a class of 33 geniuses, but making it easy is not the point.

Seth mentioned a concept that I really wish someone would take the chance and do - "non-schooling" – providing resources and letting kids figure it out.

How do we break things into small enough groups with enough unique voices. Let’s fail 10 percent of the time with experiments like Google does as a company. Great employee characteristics is what we should be looking for in students. Reward risk taking.

We need to seek out risk taking teachers and celebrate their failures. We need to praise those that fail when they tried something that didn’t work.

Do what is necessary to make an impact. When enough is at stake, people chose to be a major maverick. If we want real change, it is going to happen one person at a time even when what people say is wacky.

How to start? One example was to start a father - daughter book club. Read something that would never be on the curriculum that will lead to "real" conversations. Again, the right books will lead to the right conversations. It will work. If we teach people that they can look into the words and then have provocative conversations where there is no right answer, we’ll build on their genius.

Make a difference and be unreasonable about it!

K12 digital textbooks? Yes, no or maybe?

2010-04-05T11:48:00.000-06:00

Check out the recent Education Week article discussing digital textbooks. With the release of the Apple iPad now, how much closer are we to seeing the development of K12 digital textbooks? The article says, "They're Coming", but really, are they?

In an ideal world, I'd love to see digital textbooks available and used. I am a strong proponent of being on the leading edge, but . . .

In the 80's, they said word processing and email would end the use of paper as a medium for communications. And while it has certainly decreased the amount of correspondence that gets put on paper, it has also increased the amount of correspondence/communications. I wonder if we counted the number of printed communications then and now would we see and increase or a decrease. I think it would be an increase.

Saw my first iPad today and I love it! But, it really seems like, if dropped, it would be "DOA". Every iPod that I see owned by a "kid", has cracks in them. To Apple's credit, even with a shattered screen, those iPods still work and the "kids" still use them.

I truly wish that the textbook vendors could just at least make the textbooks available online digitally and some have, but they are not scaled enough yet to be really feasible in all classrooms even in high school. Guess I just need to be patient, perhaps.

I am one who loves reading fiction for pleasure on electronic devices. Have done so on my Blackberry and G1, when I had them and continue to do so on my iPhone, but mostly only when I am waiting in an office for an appointment, on a bus, in a car (and not driving). Those are also about the only times that I have time to read these days. (Heavy sigh!) Getting students and teachers using e-texts in classrooms and outside of the classrooms for homework and research is going to take a long, long time, I believe. The best use I think is for students away from their classrooms doing research and homework and perhaps in classrooms through a projector as a reference while learning.

So, what do you think?

Help Longmont Win! Students enter to win an iPad!

2010-03-13T11:37:00.000-07:00

DO YOU WANT GIG FIBER ACCESS IN LONGMONT?

Check out this Student Video Contest Flyer! Join the City of Longmont, Ridgeview Tel and St. Vrain Valley School District in voting for Longmont to be selected as one of Google's Big with a Gig experimental fiber recipients.

Students in the St. Vrain Valley School District geographic area are eligible to participate in the video contest - home schoolers, students at private schools and St. Vrain students.

For more information on the Google Big with A Gig opportunity for Longmont and our homes and school internet access speeds, please go to the City of Longmont google fiber page (while you are there, nominate Longmont) and Google's Gig fiber Informational Page about this opportunity.

Please get the word out to everyone you know that is a resident of Longmont, or participates in a Community Group in Longmont.

Searching for the Data: Online Learning with the Teacher at a Distance

2010-02-14T10:20:00.000-07:00

Where's the beef? Is online learning showing positive results for students? Is it better with a teacher at a distance or not? Which vendors offer curriculum online that is designed or works well with the "teacher at a distance"? These are all questions to which I am seeking answers as I draft the application due April 1, 2010 for Colorado multi-district certification of what I am calling our online school - St. Vrain Valley eLearning School (SVVeLS).

In September of 2009 St. Vrain's Superintendent, Don Haddad, tweeted:

We are planning to implement an Online learning school in St. Vrain during the 2010-11 school year. This will add opportunties for students. 6:32 PM Sep 22nd, 2009 from web http://twitter.com/SVVSDsupt.

Even before then, I had been researching the best way to implement an online school for St. Vrain students. Please send me your ideas, comments, resources that you have found to be helpful or think should be included.

If you have applied for multi-district certification in Colorado, I'd love to see your application. You could share it with me on Google docs: cmasson50@gmail.com.

Here is one post from Odysseyware's blog that tells of postive increases in student results. I need more. I also need to know which vendors offer an online curriculum that lends itself to utilizing the teacher over the internet rather than in person. If your school district has done this, please tell me about your research, your results, your failures, your successes.

At-Risk and On-Line

News on January 23rd, 2010 No Comments

Students in metro Detroit’s Westwood Community School District are excelling, and not just the students in mainstream classes. Students in the at-risk, alternative education program at Westwood have enrolled in an online class called “Cyber School,” where they can take their courses, receive credit, and matriculate along with their peers without ever having to set foot in the school itself. This remarkable opportunity has yielded results for students reaching as high as 32% increases in previous year grades. From the Detroit News:

Kyle Grigg, who was forced out of Melvindale High school for falling behind, is now heading toward graduation because he’s no longer confined to a seven-hour school day.

The flexibility means Grigg, 18, could play Scrabble with his teacher recently in the cyber school lab. His mentor turned the game into an English assignment: Write a two-page fiction story using all the words they formed.
“It’s all your own pace,” said Grigg, who buses tables in Greektown and completes schoolwork at night or on days off. “It’s all on me now. If I don’t graduate now, it’s my own fault.”

Exactly. That is why online curriculum works. Students who take the initiative to want to learn and seek the opportunity can use curriculum, like OdysseyWare, in a way that meets their individual lifestyle and allows them the freedom to learn in a manner that doesn’t restrain say a part-time job. We encourage students like Kyle to contact us and learn more about ODYSSEYWARE and how we can raise your test scores as well. http://www.odysseyware.com/blog/

I look forward to learning from you and receiving any materials, information that you can offer to assist me in this project!

Picture resource: http://www.combination-boiler-training.co.uk/learning.html

The Tablet and eTextbooks - Humm . . .

2010-01-10T12:01:00.000-07:00

From: http://www.amazingiphone.com/whats-new/appletablet/
Key points

Bookmark where you left off
Ability to take notes that stay after book expires
Choice in read through, search
Search textbook, all of them or the web
Break from reading to video on class
Up pops a psychology test alert
Buy the study guide to help
Calendar shows when you have time to study

The future of textbooks is now for college.

How close to you think it is for K12?

So I downloaded the free app, bought a book: "Supporting Learning with Technology: Essentials of Classroom Practice" by Joy Egbert, 2009 through FRCC for around $30.
You get access to it for 180 days.
Any notes you take do not go away after the 180 days.
Seemed just as expensive as buying a college text book - average around $60, but perhaps that is cheap theses days. Do college texts really cost double that today?
Too small for me to really use on iPhone, but tablet will be just right and works fine on my laptop, but nice that it can be acessed on the iPhone.

Will post an update after using the textbook for a while. Tune back in.

A Learning Commons Lab in a Tote

2010-01-09T11:31:00.000-07:00

Here is a great, inexpensive way to increase your school's Learning Commons value to student learning.

From Youtube channel: livelife1936

What could your school's implementation of this possibly look like? How would this model address some of the needs of your teachers and your students, of learning, of your district goals?

What do you consider important technology in your classroom for learning?

2010-01-07T16:48:00.002-07:00

The chart* shows the results of a recent survey of teachers in St. Vrain. They were asked to rank the technologies listed (in their opinion) in order of importance to aid in student learning and accomplishing the goals of the district.

Laptops or desktops came out as the most important technology listed. In our district, classrooms have administrative workstations for grades, attendance, email and etc. They are called thin clients and use the Citrix Enterprise system. They are great cost effective devices for administrative processes, but do not lend themselves to the instructional environment as the picture and sound capabilities are not high quality, and there are no drives for playing or burning cd's or dvd's, but they are sort of cloud computing at the district level. Not really cloud computing, but in the atmosphere between the desk and the cloud perhaps as the storage is in a server "farm" at the district's technology building. Desktops and laptops are in many of the classrooms and we've begun a conscious effort to provide equity of instructional desktops/laptops to the classrooms.

Projectors, the 2nd highest rated technology, coupled with the laptop/desktop for instruction is also being installed across the district consciously. These two devices coupled with our faster and more open access to the "cloud" is providing for global learning in the classrooms. Global learning is, I believe, where "it's at" today. If we are not helping our kids to learn globally, they will not be prepared for college and the work world.

Document camera's, the technology that ranked third, is an amazingly wonderful tool. It is the tool nation-wide that all educators are clamoring to use. They too require the projector, but eliminate the need for an overhead projector, enables you to use your old overhead projector materials, but also adds a deeper learning possibility through all of the things it can do. See document camera uses, capabilities for more information.

The fourth on the list is interactive whiteboards. We've recently begun to rethink their value versus expense and use. What do you think? I'm not sure they should be fourth on the list any more, but perhaps slates should be on the list instead. We had one school return all of the IWB's as they couldn't buy one for every classroom and then purchased slates for every classroom with the funds. It "walks around the classroom", isn't fixed to the wall, and meets the student where they are rather than pressuring the student at the front of the classroom. Just ponderings.

The last item, an audio enhancement system, should be higher perhaps. It is the one tool with documented data showing there are real benefits to it's use. Teachers are less tired at the end of the day, students can hear, no matter where they sit in the room, and students with special issues around sound are more easily accommodated. But they only help if you use them.

What do your teachers consider the top five most important tech tools in the classroom for student learning?

*2009 SVVSD Educational Technology teacher survey question results.

Watch a Fellow Teacher and Students Talk About Google Apps Education

2010-01-06T16:30:00.006-07:00

ANNOUNCING

Google Apps Education Edition for St. Vrain

The St. Vrain Valley School District is pleased to offer a new set of collaboration tools to district staff and students to use toward achieving district goals.

Watch below to hear what some students and teachers think:

For more information, check out this blog post. In this post, there are great short clips explaining each app as well as what other teachers are saying about it's use in their classrooms. Have fun learning about our new offerings!

To visit about it, call Connie Masson, St. Vrain Apps Coordinator, at extension 7741 or 303-702-7741.

Committee Members: Joe McBreen, Bill Brayshaw, Steve Borecky, Greg Martien, Jesse Gonzales, Darrin Tams, Becky Williamson, Michelle Bourgeois, Bud Hunt.

*video clip recorded at Adams 12 in 2009

What An Amazing Possibiity. . .

2009-12-21T15:56:00.002-07:00

Communication has changed. Think of the time when people lived above their place of work - they were able to communicate with family regularly, or in agriculture where they worked on the farm where they lived. Then came the industrial era where people worked in factories with no access to communicate with their family unless they were perhaps in management and had a phone at their desk. Now, today, with the internet, IM, Skype, texting, Facebook and etc., studies show that people are able to be in direct communication with their family and friends as never before. So though some think that technology is preventing people from talking with each other, it is really increasing that communication in a way that has never been before. I know that I have greater communication with my husband and kids than my mother did. I have greater communication with my mother than I ever did growing up.

Check out this November 2009 TED Talk presentation by Stefana Broadbent on "How the Internet enables intimacy". Good to ponder.

Stefana Broadbent: How the Internet enables intimacy

I believe we are in an era of opportunity for incomparable learning in our educational institutions if we take advantage of the communications possibilities via technology. We can capitalize on what is available and learn more, deeper, further, differently, etc. (you get the picture) or we can restrict it and pass by an unlimited growth possibility.

What are you going to do in 2010 to move forward engaged learning for all?

Joyce Valenza's K12 Online presentation video - great for your PLN

2009-12-07T09:58:00.000-07:00

Random Thanksgiving Readings - cheesy romance, sci fi and and oldie

2009-11-29T13:06:00.000-07:00

Three books, three days - all on my iPhone, all for free, all while in the beautiful, quiet, remote Encampment, Wyoming in a hunting "lodge". Read some on the road there and back, on the way up to sled and cut a tree for Christmas, in the dark, with the font size to meet my 56 year old eyes, in a light blue background with darker blue type which seemed to work best for my eyes when reading and oh yes, one as an audio book while I napped off and on, three difference genres - science fiction, "Beautiful Red", mystery, "The Film Mystery", and romance, "Irrestibile Forces". I feel restored. Each of these made me think, enjoy, and expand. Think I am going to buy "Beautiful Red" in print for my hubby for Christmas. Definitely going to listen to some more free mystery audio books, especially while napping over the December holidays. I love old "PI" detective mysteries. Now I know why my 84 year old mother-in-law loves the cheesy Harliquin Romance novels. I haven't read a book so explicit in a long time.

Here are some exerpts from the internet about the books or authors.

"Beautiful Red" by Darusha

The future is boring. Technology has solved the world's most pressing problems, leaving people with tedious work and mundane play. Jack is a Security Officer Class 5, which sounds important, but isn't. However, her banal life as a cubicle worker by day and tinkerer by night is interrupted when she discovers that her employer's computer system has been invaded. Jack enlists the help of her only friends - her co-worker, Gilles and Adrian, an online friend she's never met - to help her track down the source of the invasion. Her investigation leads her to a shadowy group called the Red, where Jack learns that not everyone lives a life of quiet servitude. Even though she believes that the Red are responsible for a series of gruesome attacks, Jack begins to become attracted to their worldview. In her search for the people responsible for the attacks, she confronts the leaders of the group as well as her own burgeoning sense of self-awareness.

About the Author
Darusha has done a lot of different things. She was the Senior Editor at the Conversations Network, the internet audio networks started by IT Conversations' founder Doug Kaye. She wrote critically about technology and its effects on our society in her weblog The Golden Hammer, (http://goldenhammer.darusha.ca) where she has been known to podcast audio segments. She wrote several articles about popular and unpopular science at http://90ways.com. In the physical world, she was a civil servant with the Government of Canada and is currently a website consultant for podcasters and other rich media providers, a freelance editor and writer. She is a poet, novelist, audio and video podcaster, a bicycle commuter, sailor, serial hair dyer and technophobic gadget junkie. She was most recently based in Victoria, BC, Canada and is currently sailing the Pacific coast of the Americas with her partner, Steven on their sailboat, Scream.

from Amazon

"The Film Mystery" by Arthur B. Reeve (1880-1936), American author of mystery/detective novels.

He wrote the Professor Craig Kennedy series including Craig Kennedy Listens In (1923). Kennedy's Dr.Watson-like sidekick is newspaper reporter Walter Jameson. Reeve was one of the first authors to combine an element of science into the mystery genre, widely read in North America and Britain.

Craig Kennedy is a professor of chemistry at a University in New York City who battles crime with his deductive powers and scientific genius. His travails are rife with various gadgets and inventions of his own making that assist in his work, including sophisticated phone devices, a fisheye keyhole spying device, portable lie detectors, and a machine that can apparently revive the recently dead. Walter Jameson is his room mate and reporter for the New York Star.

The Literature Network

"Irresitible Forces" a Harlequin Romance, by Brenda Jackson

Cheezy, I know, but I enjoyed it anyway. Love, desire and the perfect romantic ending. The main character is a successful business woman in charge of her own life. She decides she wants a baby and proceed to get one on a romantic island made for procreation with one of her most successful clients. Of course everyone is rich and everyone is nice - don't think there was but one fight in the whole book. Easy on the brain and nice ending.

Happy Thanksgiving!

iPod Touch - a replacement for "Boom Boxes" for Listening Centers?

2009-11-23T14:12:00.000-07:00

Does your School District's Traveling Resource Library still have "Boom Boxes" that teachers use with audio cassettes or cd's as a listening center for students? Ours still does, but we are considering how to best weed them out as cassettes and cd's are going by the wayside. Are electronic files transferred from a computer or recorded right on the music play unit the best fundable option?

Does you district allow music players in the classrooms? If not, are they perhaps ripe for finding a way to utilize these kid friendly devices to assist in student learning?

Instead of stashing their iPods or Nanos with a groan at the start of each class, students in the Escondido Union School District K-8 use them as part of the IRead program. Kathy Shirley, director of technology and media services for Escondido, created a unique program using the iPod classic and nano, along with a third-party Belkin voice recorder, to record student reading fluency and comprehension practice. The student simply reads the passage into the recorder. The captured voice memo files are transferred to iTunes to create a digital record, or eportfolio, of their progress. Escondido data studies indicate the IRead program is a success, showing 2-4 times higher student fluency and accuracy gains in classrooms using the iPod. Second language learners also benefit as students can practice correct pronunciation of troublesome words. http://www.techlearning.com/article/14700

Because of the popularity of music players and music player apps on cell phones, mobile learning has an opportunity to effect education positively. What if students listened to ecopies of books at listening centers that are ipods with a 5-way splitter for headphones? Ebooks might also incorporate visuals through the video capabilities of the iPods or individual listening stations.

Has your district incorporated this option? What about the cost comparison of using iPods and ebooks instead of "Boom Boxes" and cassettes or cd's. How is your district going about switching all of their cassettes and cd's to efiles? Are you starting over, utilizing a company to help provide the conversion and copyright compliance, or buying access to the efiles with new materials only. Since we are in the planning for this now, I'd love to hear from others that have moved to using music players such as iPods and Nanos.

St. Vrain's 4th Annual Student Technology Fair is Happening!

2009-11-17T18:19:00.003-07:00

Sweet Talk: Romance Fiction in the Library

2009-10-12T13:43:00.040-06:00

Join ALA and Booklist for this free learning opportunity

Booklist Webinar

November 12, 3-4 PM Central Time

Romance is hot . . . in the library, that is.

Join Donna Seaman, Booklist's romance fiction editor, and a panel of librarians, authors, and publishers to discuss the state of the genre—in public libraries and in the marketplace.
Panelists include:

John Charles, Reference Librarian, Scottsdale (AZ) Public Library, and Booklist reviewer

Shelley Mosley, Adjunct Librarian at Glendale (AZ) Community College, and Booklist reviewer

Madeline Hunter, best-selling author of 17 historical romances

Kayleigh George, Library Marketing Coordinator at HarperCollins Publishers

Cheryl Herman, Library Marketing Director, Books on Tape and Listening Library (Random House)

Don't miss what is sure to be an entertaining and informative session.

Click here to reserve your seat today!

www.ala.org.

2009-2010 Colorado School Library Survey is now open

2009-10-06T14:32:00.000-06:00

The 2009-2010 Colorado School Library Survey is now open. The data gathered in the annual school library survey provides library professionals with important information for planning, evaluation, and budgeting, and has been used in studies such as "How School Librarians Help Kids Achieve Standards" (see http://www.LRS.org/impact.php for more on this).

The survey is available online at http://www.LRS.org/slsurvey. The survey deadline is November 1, 2009. Login and password information was sent to each school last week. If you did not receive a letter and need your school's login information, contact the Library Research Service at 303-866-6900.

CAL Conference 2009: Power On! Avenues for the Future

2009-10-05T14:58:00.000-06:00

CAL Conference 2009: Power On! Avenues for the Future

The 2009 Colorado Association of Libraries annual conference will be held November 19-21 at the Marriott Denver Tech Center, Denver. Our theme this year is Power On! Avenues for the Future

We are so excited about this year's conference. Our theme this year is all about looking to the future of libraries. It is sure to be full of supportive information and exciting new trends for Libraries -- all kinds of libraries.

And two of the hottest topics right now are 2.0/technology resources and fundraising strategies. We are featuring many programs and workshops on economics and fundraising this year.

A new feature to the conference is the "Technology Petting Zoo" where you can get an introduction to many of the latest trends in online resources and software for your library. Be sure to check out the schedule of workshops and look for the Technology Petting Zoo Schedule near the exhibits area at the conference.

Look for more information on our Facebook Fan site at http://www.facebook.com/pages/CALCON/108482512589?ref=ts, our Web site at http://cal-webs.org/conference.html, and follow us on Twitter: @calcon09.

There will be lots to be Thankful for at this year's CALCON 2009!

When Thursday, November 19, 2009 4:00 PM -
Saturday, November 21, 2009 6:00 PM
Mountain Time Zone

Where Marriott Denver Tech Center
4900 S Syracuse St, Denver, CO 80237
USA

View Event Summary

View Event Agenda

RSVP Sunday, November 1, 2009

Please respond by clicking one of the buttons below

Having trouble with the link? Simply copy and paste the entire address listed below into your web browser:
http://guest.cvent.com/i.aspx?1Q,P1,9078E5E9-C258-4BA5-AF60-34511976F29D

If you no longer want to receive emails from Stacy McKenzie please click the link below.
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Share You Top Ten Tools for Learning Professionals in 2009

2009-07-19T12:00:00.002-06:00

My top ten professional learning tools for 2009 are:

yoono
twitter
google reader
delicious
igoogle
google apps for education
ustream
moodle
blogs - blogger.com
wikis - wikispaces and wetpaint

What are yours? Contribute your opinion to the global collection. Link above will take you to the source for the quote below.

Share your Top 10 Tools

If you are a learning professional (e.g. teacher, academic, trainer, consultant, developer, practitioner, analyst, etc) and active in the field of e-learning, we invite you to contribute your Top 10 Tools for Learning Professional to help me compile the Top 100 Tools for Learning Professionals 2009 list.

Here are 3 ways you can share your Top 10 Tools:

1. Send a tweet to @c4lpt with the name of your top 10 tools
2. OR Write a blog posting and then send the link to me at jane.hart@C4LPT.co.uk
3. OR Follow the instructions below and I will set up a web page for you

If you are a new contributor If you were a previous contributor
Please send an email to jane.hart@C4LPT.co.uk with the following information:
[1] Some information about yourself [1] Any updates to the personal information we have about you
(a) Your name or a psydonym if you prefer

(b) What you do and where you are based. Please provide a short paragraph about yourself with as much detail as you like. You can include a link to your blog/website if you would like to

(c) If you would like to, please also provide a photo. The photo should ideally be a headshot - although if you prefer something more anonymous like an avatar or other image then this is perfectly acceptable. Or just state: No photo. Either provide the web address where we can link to the photo or else attach it to your email. Bear in mind that it will be resized to about 85 x 85 pixels. .
If you contributed in 2007 or 2008, here is the Alphabetical list of Contributors.

If desired, please update the short paragraph about yourself..

If desired, please update the photo we have of you.

[2] Your Top 10 Favourite Tools [2] Updates to your Top 10 Tools favourite tools

Please provide the names of your 10 favourite tools for creating learning for others, for your own professional practice or personal productivity PLUS a sentence or two why you like each one.

Here are some definitions as well as guidelines on choosing your tools:

Definitions

* By "learning" we mean both formal and informal learning - as well as performance support
* By "tools" we mean software, online tools and services

Guidelines for choosing your tools

* You don't have to rank the tools yourself unless you want to; they could just as easily be in alphabetical order
* They don't have to be the tools you most frequently use rather they should be your favourite tools
* Don't feel obliged to choose tools that others haven't mentioned
* Choose ten tools only; please avoid combinations of tools in each choice
* MS Office tools should be treated separately i.e. Word, PowerPoint, Excel etc
* Google tools should be treated separately, e.g. Google Search, Google Calendar, Google Maps, iGoogle, etc.
* If you are a software/tools vendor or provider, feel free to mention your own product as one of your 10 tools. However, we will only accept one entry per software/tool vendor/provider to ensure results aren't skewed.

Your entry will appear on a page of its own at the website. Your updated entry will appear on your existing webpage at the Centre.
You will be able to update your list in 6 months if you wish.

Define "instructional" versus "non-instructional"

2009-07-18T11:55:00.000-06:00

"Free" for Free

2009-07-08T08:17:00.001-06:00

FREE (full book) by Chris Anderson

A National Educational Technology Plan

2009-07-02T08:17:00.008-06:00

We have until 11:59 pm on Sunday, July 12 to give input to the National Educational Technology Plan that is being developed. The U.S. Department of Education is developing a new National Educational Technology Plan to provide a vision for how information and communication technologies can help transform American education. The plan will provide a set of concrete goals that can inform state and local educational technology plans as well as inspire research, development, and innovation. A draft plan is expected in early 2010.

https://edtechfuture.org/

At NECC 2009, attendees gathered at the ISTE Leadership Symposium to give input into the development of the plan. Groups provided advice regarding the use of technology to address 5 key focus areas. Teams generated the five topics below.

Here is an opportunity to have a voice. Comment on the responses through the links below.

Topic 1: Access to high-quality learning experiences
Topic 2: Improved assessments
Topic 3: Data-driven decision making
Topic 4: Teacher effectiveness
Topic 5: Student engagement and success

2009-06-25T10:36:00.001-06:00

Glogster EDU Education 2.0

View more documents from glogster.

Librarians: Join us in the Sandbox @ TIE Colorado 2009

2009-06-21T20:18:00.020-06:00

for a Library Technology Play Date
Tuesday, June 23rd, 1 - 4 pm,
Lodgepole Room
Copper Mountain Resort

Come spend up to three hours with other librarians playing in a "sandbox" wiki. This hands-on session will provide you the opportunity to try out all those new technologies you hear about but don't have time to check out. Here is an opportunity to network and share with your colleagues. Learn from the experiences and educational technology expertise of others. Come help out others. Share and gather the best library technology learning projects from around the state!

This session will be facilitated by:
Connie Masson, St. Vrain Valley School District,
Myra Giersdorf, Skyline High School, Instructional Technology Specialist,
Nance Nassar, Colorado State Library, and
Nancy White, Colorado Springs ASD20

Just for Fun

2009-06-21T19:56:00.015-06:00

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.

My delicious account represented by "wordle"

Link to My Blog represented by "wordle" title="Wordle: blog.wordie"> src="http://www.wordle.net/thumb/wrdl/960749/blog.wordie"
alt="Wordle: blog.wordie"
style="padding:4px;border:1px solid #ddd">

Thank you http://www.wordle.net/ and Myrag for putting it on our Library Technology Playdate Wiki!

What Kind of Tech User Are You?

2009-06-10T17:04:00.005-06:00

Take the quiz. What kind of tech user are you?

I AM A DIGITAL COLLABORATOR

If you are a Digital Collaborator, you use information technology to work with and share your creations with others. You are enthusiastic about how ICTs help you connect with others and confident in your ability to manage digital devices and information. For you, the digital commons can be a camp, a lab, or a theater group – places to gather with others to develop something new.

Source: Pew Internet and American Life Project pewinternet.org

I Want, You Want, Everybody Wants a Netbook!

2009-05-29T13:05:00.004-06:00

Below is a video from what may be one of the best netbooks for use with students while in school. Watch the short clip and comment your pros and cons. Now don't read those already posted on Youtube - they will give you a preconceived bias.

I am one that is easily sold at first look, but these sound and look great. However, when I actually tried to use a different netbook our district was testing, I did not like it. Now I know that change is hard, and with any new piece of technology there is stress involved in getting comfortable with it, but I wonder if I'll react to this one the same as the last one. I'd sure like a smaller footprint netbook. Hope I get to try this one out soon.

Which netbooks have you tried, liked, disliked. Anyone know of a competitive analysis matrix out there for netbooks from a student use standpoint? Here is one from Wikipedia. Here is another one from cnet on the top ten.

Northridge Elementary - A Day of Stories

2009-04-22T08:29:00.015-06:00

Northridge Elementary held a school-wide program in honor of National Library Month. Yesterday guests from the public library, other school principals, professional story tellers, and many others told stories in the classrooms. Fifth graders coordinated the check-in with the help of one of their teachers. The library hosted the volunteers and provided wonderful snacks for everyone.

"Go Dog Go" was the book I chose to read to a wonderful class of kindergartners. I used the video with the sound turned down to enhance the story. The movie ran slowly enough that I was able to tell the story, and students were able to act out the story - we had our own "party" like the dog party on top of the tree!

I arrived early and stayed late to enjoy some other presentations as well. Traci, one of our Clinical Professors, wowed the kids with three stories: a flannel board rendition of "The Rainbow Fish" by Marcus Pfister, "The Big Wide-Mouth Frog" pop-up book, by Martha Hamilton, and "Somebody and the Three Blairs" by Tolhurst and Abel. The kids favorite, I think, was the pop-up book - they cheered for a second reading! The guest after me was an editor for the newspaper. As you can see from the picture, his animations mesmerized the kindergartners. Wouldn't it be awesome to have a day where different folks read to you all day long! You could enjoy yourself, imagine creatively as you listened, and perhaps brainstorm a story of your own in the process.

The benefits of listening to stories out loud include developing an ear for language, cultivating a deep vocabulary, and familiarizing the listener with many of the seminal stories of western culture. For further benefits check out Little Ones Reading Resource. For online read aloud stories check out: Story Time Online for stories that you can listen to and watch from a computer, an interactive white board, or projected on a screen or wall when the projector is connected to your computer.

Thank you to everyone that participated in this fun, learning experience for the students of Northridge.

What other resources do you know of that are great for elementary story time?

Legacies

2009-04-07T07:51:00.016-06:00

I love to read books
Usually five at a time.
Some I never finish it seems,
But I always pick them up
Where I left off
And they are still my friends
Helping me grow, enjoy, learn and relax.

I most love to read
the creations of my kids:
A poem, a story,
A picture, a photo.
What do they say
Even if they have no written words?
Do I hear what they are saying?

Reading what has been created
By my relations before me
Has always touched my heart
And connected me to a past.
I can perhaps only wonder about
the poems penned by my father-in-law,
the diaries by my mom, the war letters of my Dad.

All of these stories
Help me to be there
With the person who wrote them.
And to know them
Better, deeper, and in a thankful way.
As a result
I have grown.

Now what about those yet to be born?
What will they read about their past;
What will they write for the future?
I hope they find the stories by past relatives;
Value the creations of their kids;
Create their own stories;
Continue the legacy.

~Connie

Eat a Book for National Library Month?!?

2009-04-06T14:26:00.005-06:00

Saturday, April 4, 2009 the Book Arts of Boulder held the 10th International Edible Book Show and Tea . If you haven't heard of it, click on the link now to see what you missed and plan to attend next year. I am.

I learned about this at the CAL Conference Committee meeting. It is a showcase, not a competition and at the end of the showcase everyone eats the books! I think it is a feeding frenzy. Sounds like a lot of fun! Check it out.

Maybe you want to have one in your library this month in celebration of National School Library Month. If you do let me know and I'll come by and help eat.

Nine Great Reasons Why Teachers Should Use Twitter

2009-04-06T09:55:00.007-06:00

Just read a great blog post, "Nine great reasons why teachers should use Twitter" that I believe would be timely reading within our district. Principals are starting to use Twitter with encouragement from the department of Community Relations and Communications. Students are starting to use twitter with teacher supervision to communicate with parents. The district used Twitter to quickly communicate our snow days just last week. I believe using Twitter as a just-in-time communication tool is starting to be understood and valued in St. Vrain.

Check out this article and forward it on to teachers that are considering and learning about Twitter. What are the reasons you use Twitter? Do you agree with all of those listed in the linked blog post? What has been the most valuable use of Twitter for you?

This is it . . ."the death of education, the birth of learning"

2009-03-19T20:34:00.006-06:00

Lots of great information from many great 21st century proponents. I love to listen to them reaffirm what I know needs to be. If I watch it enough times, will it happen. No . . .we have to have a call to action. Start with baby steps and before you know it, it is possible we'll be running and then perhaps we'll be running like the super hero, The Flash. It is possible. I believe it. How do you think we should go about doing it?

CASL's 2nd annual Kickoff to TIE

2009-03-18T08:20:00.007-06:00

Posted on behalf of Susan Gilbert, CASL President

CASL is proud again to host a full-day workshop at the 2009 TIE Conference. Come to Copper Mountain on June 22nd for CASL's 2nd annual Kickoff to TIE workshop. We are so excited to have Dr. David Loertscher from San Jose State as our keynote presenter this year that we wanted to notify you about the pre-conference three months early. If you are not familiar with Dr. Loertscher please visit his blog. His topic at the Technology in Education workshop will be School Libraries 2.0 which you can read about on his blog. For more information also visit Dr. Loerscher's website.

CASL has created a partnership with TIE to bring its members another quality workshop that will focus on 21st Century Learners, AASL standards and utilizing Primary Sources.

The TIE conference, beginning with the CASL pre-conference, will be held at Copper Mountain Resort from June 22-26, 2009. For more details and to register visit CASL's link..

How I'd reword what was said . . .

2009-03-16T12:30:00.005-06:00

The Partnership's Statement on President Barack Obama's Education Plan

TUCSON, AZ - March 12, 2009 - The Partnership for 21st Century Skills is hopeful that President Barack Obama's new education plan will guarantee every child in America graduates high school with the 21st century knowledge and skills required to be successful citizens, workers and leaders in today's world. The Partnership applauds President Obama for his vision to create standards and assessments that ensure students have rich content knowledge and the ability to apply that knowledge, problem solve, and communicate.

President Obama said:

In a 21st-century world where jobs can be shipped wherever there's an Internet connection, where a child born in Dallas is now competing with a child in New Delhi, where your best job qualification is not what you do, but what you know -- education is no longer just a pathway to opportunity and success, it's a prerequisite for success.

I would change it to say:

In a 21st-century world where jobs can be shipped wherever there's an Internet connection, where a child born in Dallas is now competing with a child in New Delhi, where your best job qualification is not what you know, but what you know how to find out (we shouldn’t be training students to be knowledge workers anymore, we need to train them to be creators) – current educational practices are no longer a pathway to opportunity and success, it needs to be changed to a creative, thinking/learning model to be a prerequisite for success."

In addition, President Obama noted that (and I added in bold):

"I'm calling on our nation's governors and state education chiefs to develop standards and assessments that don't simply measure whether students can fill in a bubble on a test, but whether they possess or know how to go about possessing 21st century skills like problem-solving and critical thinking and entrepreneurship and creativity."

The Partnership for 21st Century Skills looks forward to working with the Obama White House, Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan and the whole U.S. Department of Education to help make this vision a reality.

The transcript of the speech is available online, as is video of the news conference.

About the Partnership for 21st Century Skills: The Partnership or 21st Century Skills is the leading advocacy organization focused on infusing 21st century skills into education. The organization brings together the business community, education leaders, and policymakers to define a powerful vision for 21st century education to ensure every child's success as citizens and workers in the 21st century. The Partnership encourages schools, districts, and states to advocate for the infusion of 21st century skills into education and provides tools and resources to help facilitate and drive change.
21st Century Skills Leadership States include: Arizona, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Massachusetts, New Jersey, North Carolina, South Dakota, Wisconsin and West Virginia.
Member organizations include: Adobe Systems, Inc., American Association of School Librarians, Apple, ASCD, Atomic Learning, Blackboard, Inc., Cable in the Classroom, Cisco Systems, Corporation for Public Broadcasting, Davis Publications, Dell, Inc., Education Networks of America, Educational Testing Service, EF Education, Ford Motor Company Fund, Gale, Cengage Learning, Hewlett Packard, Intel Corporation, JA Worldwide®, KnowledgeWorks Foundation, K12, Learning.com, Learning Point Associates, LEGO Group, Lenovo, Measured Progress, McGraw-Hill, Microsoft Corporation, National Education Association, Oracle Education Foundation, Pearson, PolyVision, Quarasan, Scholastic Education, Sesame Workshop, THINKronize, Verizon, and Wireless Generation. Organizations interested in joining the Partnership may contact info@21stcenturyskills.org.
###

I Love My Job! Do You Love Yours?

2009-03-06T13:17:00.003-07:00

Do you love to do your job? Are you passionate about it? Are you able to use your natural interests is doing your job? I do! I love it so much that it would consume me if I didn’t pay attention to providing balance in my life.

How do you know if you love your job that much? A clear sign is enthusiasm. When you're doing what you love to do, no one has to motivate, challenge, or check up on you. You do it because of your passion. You don't need rewards, or even to be paid, because you love it. I know though, we need to be paid ultimately. A saying I learned early in my career to reflect on every day goes something like this: “If you act enthusiastic, you become enthusiastic. I can, I will, and I’m going to have the best day I ever had in my entire life.” In my job, I do!

The opposite is also true: When you don't have a heart for what you're doing, you're easily discouraged. There are a lot of things in life that I’ve learned just have to be done. They are not fun, pretty or easy, but they have to be done. I have resigned myself to that realization. It makes me sad, but it is a fact of life. Thank goodness I don’t have to deal with that in my job.

What are the benefit of being enthusiastic about your job? Whenever you do what you to love to do, you get good at it. Passion drives perfection. If you don't care about a task, it is unlikely that you'll excel at it. I plan plans to end all plans someone one once said. I believe that is part of the way I do business. That passion drives me to do the best that I can for the students of my school district.

The highest achievers in any field are those who do it because of passion, not duty or profit. Are you one of those high achievers? I know that I strive to be.

People have been heard to say, "I took a job I hate in order to make a lot of money, so someday I can quit and do what I love to do." Well, duh! That's a big mistake. Don't waste your life in a job that doesn't express your heart. And yes I’ve had this conversation with my employees. I want them to be fulfilled in their job.

We all know the greatest things in life are not things. Meaning is far more important than money. The meaning that I get from my job is part of what drives me. What drives you?

Don't settle for achieving "the good life," because the good life is not good enough. Ultimately, it doesn't satisfy. You can have a lot to live on ($), and still have nothing to live for. Aim instead for a life’s work that expresses your heart.

Love your job!

Two eBook tools - Are they of value to you?

2009-02-25T10:59:00.007-07:00

Below are two videos regarding ebooks that I think you will find valuable. The first one is rather long - 11 minutes, but it explains how to use "TextOnPhone.com" to download and read any book to your iPhone or G1 Google phone. I have been using it on my G1 and I love it. I am currently reading "Kite Runner" by Khaled Hosseini on my phone whenever I get stuck somewhere - like on a plane, or waiting at an appointment. It is awesome and the books are current ones, not just public domain ones. I have on my list to read next "Eclipse" by Stephanie Meyer and "The World is Flat" by Thomas Freidman.

This next video shows you how to use Power Search Tool (a downloadable add on available in Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox). It shows how to look for pdf's of books to save for reading. They say you can download any ebook for free. It looks like a great application, but when I tried to download it on my Powerbook to Firefox, it said that PST did not provide secure updates and wouldn't let me download it. Have send them and email and will post as a comment what I find out. Haven't tried it on Internet Explorer. If you try it, let me know.

I'd appreciate your review of these two options.

What Superintendents and Students Say About Technology

2009-02-24T19:06:00.012-07:00

According to Dr. John Morton, Superintendent, Newton (KS) Public Schools, "technology plays such a significant role" in going "from a good school district to a great one". Of all the challenges a district faces, technology leadership may be the one that leaves district leadership feeling the most uncertain. Districts of every size and geographic region expressed similar sentiments about technology with the Consortium for School Networking (CoSN) at the 2008 technology leadership conference in K-12 education.

We need to model technology use, showcase its use at every opportunity, integrate it into district leadership, and utilize it to expand communications within the district and between the district and the community and parents to sustain dialogue and transform relationships.

The Programme for International Student Assessment shows that world-wide competition for our students is increasing. We need a globally-oriented, first class educational system to enable our students to compete.

Here's what some students have to say about technology and learning:

Join me at the CoSN 2009 Annual Conference, Leadership, Policy & Innovation in a Collaborative World,
March 10-12, 2009, Hilton Austin Hotel, Austin, Texas to learn more.

Pearson Foundation
COSN
PSIA

2009-02-22T08:40:00.000-07:00

Another new tech tool! I am blogging from my cell phone! Now I can post to my blog on the fly - while riding in the car, on the bus, from a conference where there is no internet (yes, that does still happen). This means that your students can also from their phones. Do we really need a one to one laptop initiative or do we almost already have a one to one cell phone opportunity?

St. Vrain's Technology Fairs are a Great Success!

2009-02-16T09:37:00.008-07:00

St. Vrain Valley School District's 2008 Technology Fair made the School Library Journal. Check it out by clicking on the link above!

This year's fair was another big a success!

Skyline High School sophomore Joshua Rahm explains the computer language encryption program he created to judge Joe Jen of Western Digital and Frederick High School teacher Peggy Morrow during the 2009 St. Vrain Valley School District Technology Fair at Trail Ridge Middle School.

This year’s winners were as follows:

ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

1. Centennial Elementary School, “Slideshow of Classroom Learning”
2. Fall River Elementary School, “Interviewing Inventors of the Past”
3. Blue Mountain Elementary School, “Blue Mountain Podcasts”

MIDDLE SCHOOL

1. Sunset Middle School, “Water for Kenya”
2. Heritage Middle School, “Spanish Style Home”
3. Trail Ridge Middle School, “Hiroshima Bombing Project”

HIGH SCHOOL

1. Frederick High School, “FHS Battle of the Bands ’08”
2. Erie High School, “Renaissance Rally Opening Video Project”
3. Skyline High School, “CypherMake”

GRAND PRIZE

Frederick High School, “FHS Battle of the Bands ’08”

Learning 2.0: A Colorado Conversation

2009-01-05T09:21:00.005-07:00

Check it out! This is one of the best FREE opportunities for real professional development and collaboration in Colorado's Education arena.

Hope to see you there!

Margin

2009-01-05T08:43:00.006-07:00

Just read a great email my husband sent me from The Purpose Driven Life: Margin or Marginless? What a great way to start out my first day back at work in 2009 (and the rest of my life for that matter). Perhaps you too will benefit from some thoughtful reflection regarding "margin" in your life this coming year.

Here are some quotes and paraphrases from the article (italics added for emphasis by me):

Do you have breathing room, a place to get away from it all?
A lot of people are on overload and headed for a crash. Not me, I thought - I always stop and regroup before crashing (Yeah, right! I go 200 mph or 0 mph.)
Consider these statistics:

• People now sleep 2½ fewer hours each night than people did a hundred years ago.
• The average work week is longer now than it was in the 1960s.
• The average office worker has 36 hours of work piled up on his or her desk. It takes us three hours a week just to sort through it and find what we need.
• We spend eight months of our lives opening junk mail, two years of our lives playing phone tag with people, and five years waiting for people who are late for meetings.

We’re a piled-on, stretched-to-the limit society that is chronically rushed, late, and exhausted. Many feel like we have no quiet or rest!

Overload comes from too much activity, change, choices, work, debt, and media exposure in our lives. We’re stressed by information overload; accessibility overload – being connected all the time. We’re stressed by the pace of life.

So what do we do about it? Do we do anything about it? Perhaps the answer is to consciously put some margin into our lives - breathing room, a little reserve. It’s not going from one meeting to the next to the next with no space in between.

Margin is the space between your load and your limit. But most of us are far more overloaded than we can handle, and there is no margin for life in our lives.

Dr. Richard Swenson, MD says: “

The conditions of modern day living devour margin. If you’re homeless we direct you to a shelter. If you’re penniless we offer you food stamps. If you’re breathless we connect you to oxygen. But if you’re marginless we give you one more thing to do. Marginless is being 30 minutes late to the doctor’s office because you were 20 minutes late getting out of the hairdresser because you were 10 minutes late dropping the children off at school because the car ran out of gas two blocks from a gas station and you forgot your purse. That’s marginless.

“Margin, on the other hand, is having breath at the top of the staircase, money at the end of the month, and sanity left over at the end of adolescence. Margin is grandma taking the baby for the afternoon. Margin is having a friend help carry the burden.

“Marginless is not having time to finish the book you’re reading on stress. Margin is having the time to read it twice. Marginless is our culture. Margin is counter-culture, having some space in your life and schedule. Marginless is the disease of our decade and margin is the cure.”

What are the margins you have in your life to help you maintain? Do you have them? If you don't, what might some be that would help? Can you really effectively pursue your purpose in life without margins?

Happy 2009!

CAL Project of the Year

2008-12-31T10:19:00.001-07:00

IMG_8805-2, originally uploaded by CALwebs.

Holli receiving the award from Martin, past President of CAL
November 2008 Conference - CAL Awards Ceremony

Flickr

2008-12-31T10:16:00.001-07:00

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

New Blog Gadget - Followers

2008-12-30T15:37:00.005-07:00

Been updating my blog, among other things, and found a new gadget with which I'd like you to help me out. If you are reading my blog, please "follow me" with the new gadget called "Followers" in the right hand column just under my picture.

I've always wanted a way to see who is reading this blog (since I get very few posts), and I hope this is the answer.

Now research shows that

* 90% of users are lurkers (i.e., read or observe, but don't contribute).
* 9% of users contribute from time to time, but other priorities dominate their time.
* 1% of users participate a lot and account for most contributions: it can seem as if they don't have lives because they often post just minutes after whatever event they're commenting on occurs.

from Jakob Nielsen on Why No One Comments on Your Blog.

I'm sure there is a lot of other research out there regarding percentage of readers versus commenters, but this one fit my post so I'll stop with it. You can let me know about the others if you choose to do more research, thanks.

Anyway, click on that little follow option . . . I appreciate it.

Here is a link to the Help about following

Attention Elementary folks and parents of young children

2008-12-29T13:38:00.007-07:00

Check out the bottom of my blog to look at one of three picture books from LookyBook. Just click on the eyes to enlarge it. Click on the page to turn the pages.

What is LookyBook? Found it on the GO2WEB20 site during the holidays.

Lookybook allows you to look at picture books in their entirety—from cover to cover, at your own pace. We know that nothing will replace the magic of reading a book with your child at bedtime, but we aim to replace the overwhelming and frustrating process of finding the right books for parents and their kids.

We value the book reviews of librarians and industry experts and we especially value the opinions of moms and dads. Because we are a site for looking at and discovering new books, we want to know what you think and like. Not only can you share your comments about a particular book, you can share all your favorite books by creating and posting your Bookshelf. Fellow Lookybookers can look at your favorites and show you theirs—creating a virtual show-and-tell about today’s best picture books. (register to get a Bookshelf)

To get your own LookyBook shelf click on this link: LookyBook

How could you use this in your classroom or lab? How could you use it to provide books for kids with online access without even checking out a book?

7 Things You Really Don't Need to Know About Me

2008-12-29T08:27:00.037-07:00

Just read Mobile Technology in TAFE. Don't really understand this meme thing, but thought I'd give it a try. The term Internet meme is a neologism used to describe a catchphrase or concept that spreads quickly from person to person via the Internet. So here goes:

1. I have a very out-of-date family website with way more than 7 things . . .think a New Year's resolution needs to be to update the site. Find this picture on the website and you have almost reached the bottom. Yes that is me jumping in the water behind the sub thingie.

2. My kid likes to make funny pictures on Photo Booth of herself to leave for me to find.

3. My kids are comedians:

How to Surviv 7th Graid

4. My sister taught a clown fish to swim through a hoop for food (she's a behavior analyst - my sister, not the fish)

5. My niece's husband is the Head Winemaker for Yellowtail in Griffith, Australia.

6. My 82 year old mother has a Facebook account.

7. I can stand on my head and drink a beer. Picture to be added later - check back.

Tagged folks:

Bud Hunt
Karl Fisch
Nancy White on the Teacher Librarian Ning
John Creighton
Christopher Sessums
Scott McCloud
Phil Goerner

Your turn. Blog 7 things we really don't need to know about you and tag 7 people. Happy Tagging.

2009 Learning 2.0 - A Colorado Conversation

2008-12-12T16:03:00.004-07:00

Did you attention the 2008 Learning 2.0 - A Colorado Conversation? It was great! If you missed it, don't miss this one. If you were there, spread the word - the 2009 event is scheduled. Check out the 2009 Learning 2.0 - A Colorado Conversation.

What did you gain last year? What do you wish was addressed, but wasn't. Let Bud and Karl know your needs and ideas so we can make this event the best conference to meet Colorado's needs around learning. It is wonderful that we can have a conference that provides so much and is free to boot.

Look forward to seeing you there!

Think about this quote from last year's conference marketing:

The future of education does not exist in the isolated world of theory and abstract conference sessions. Instead, it exists in conversations. It exists in creating a robust learning network that is ever-expanding and just-in-time. Learning 2.0 is not the beginning of this conversation. It is merely a stopping point, a time to talk about the visible difference that we all seek.

CO TIE 2009 Keynote Speaker - Dr. Tim Tyson

2008-12-02T08:24:00.007-07:00

We are again in for a treat with an awesome keynote speaker for TIE2009. TIE, you are the best, how do you keep it up from year to year!

I'm excited to hear him! Why? To pull some topic quotes from the TIE site: "School Library Journal" (tie to library world), "Digital Film Festival" (possible tie in to Colorado School Technology Fairs), "innovative use of technology to maximize student achievement" (#1 hot topic for me these days), the "Global Learning Collaborative" through Mabryonline.org and because he believes that "technology is neither 'the answer nor the magic bullet' but a tool that, when appropriately leveraged, brings people together so that they can collaboratively create and share with unprecedented ease and facility."

Oh yes, I almost forgot - and because his goal is "to empower people by making learning irresistible."

Check it out at TIE's new website.

Learner's Bill of Rights*

2008-11-16T18:24:00.009-07:00

The learner has the right to:

1. Question and be curious.
2. Have personal ideas.
3. Choose how to learn and share understanding.
4. Plan and participate in learning at a level that's appropriate.
5. Grapple with challenging ideas or concepts.
6. Access the information and resources needed.
7. Participate in and contribute to a learning network.
8. Think critically, solve problems and make decisions.
9. Make mistakes and learn from them.
10. Reflect on learning.

Today more than ever it is evident that we all need to always be learners - L4L (text message for learners for life). No longer should teachers be standing at the front of the room imparting knowledge and facts through lectures. Students, with teachers learning right along side of them, should be inquiring, thinking critically, and reflecting individually and as a group to find solutions to problems identified in the process of questioning and being curious. As a result everyone will contribute to the learning network, make mistakes and refine their abilities to plan for and solve whatever may come their way.

These learner rights listed above should be basic to education, but I think many times along the way we lose sight of them as we get caught up in life. Thank you to the Colorado subcommittee for bringing our attention back to what is truly important, engaging and exciting about learning!

What do you think about how simple these are, but how complicated we tend to make learning when we lose site of these basic rights of learners?

*The Learner's Bill of Rights committee, a sub committee of the 21st Century Learner Standards Vision Committee created the Learners Bill of Rights listed above. Jody Gehrig, member of the Vision sub-committee, chaired the "Learner's Bill of Rights" committee. The "Learner's Bill of Rights" was presented to Colorado Commissioner of Education Jones for approval and the State Library is waiting for feedback from the Commissioner's cabinet. The "Learner's Bill of Rights" has been endorsed by the Colorado School Library Leaders (CoSLL). They are for use with the students, teachers, administrators, parents, and other business and community leaders.

CAL 2008 - Communities and Libraries

2008-11-05T12:51:00.006-07:00

It's here - Colorado Association of Libraries 2008 Communities and Libraries Conference. I'm sitting in the hotel CAL office avoiding finishing my script and a class's homework that I need to complete. There is much hustle and bustle going on around me. Kathleen is working on the name tag printer, balloons have arrived, and I'm going out to put up the small signs on each room soon.

What are your goals for yourself for CAL this year? What sessions are you attending? I'm looking forward to hanging out with my library friends!

On Friday, I hope you will join me as I present Teen Tech Week - Technology Fairs - Amazing Stories and Results. The session is in the Aspen Amphitheater from 3:15 to 4:15pm. You'll hear about the 2008 CAL Project of the Year. For more information go to the Colorado Technology Fair Wiki.

Banned Bytes Week - 9/29 - 10/4

2008-09-29T08:16:00.017-06:00

If you haven't already, check out Doug's post "Blocked Bytes Week" on The Blue Skunk Blog.

Libraries have had a code of ethics for 70 years now officially established through the American Library Association. Three points we need to support especially this week are:

• Provide the highest level of service
• Resist all efforts to censor library resources
• Respect intellectual property rights

Intellectual freedom is a core value of the library profession. Article V of the Library Bill of Rights affirms special protections to minors using libraries:

“A person’s right to use a library should not be denied or abridged because of origin, age, background, or views.”

The school library media center has the unique responsibility of introducing young citizens to the world of information. Here children and young adults have unlimited daily access to books, magazines, newspapers, online resources, and the Internet. Students have the right to a relevant, balanced, and diverse school library collection that represents all points of view; school library staff have a leadership role in protecting minors’ First Amendment right to read and receive information and ideas.

The Children's Internet Protect Act requires internet filtering

visual depictions that are obscene, child pornography, or harmful to minors...during any use of such computers by minors

I am intrigued by the idea that Doug's district uses a formal process similar to most school district's policy for challenged books to block any site other than pornography. What a great idea! Our filter blocks based on keywords we selected and then requests for unblocking are considered and voted on by a team. Perhaps we need to take a look at Doug's district's policy.

As a glass half full person, I think we should be approaching this in a positive light rather than through the negative lens so many district utilize.

Karl Fisch ends his blog post about this topic right on target with the essential question:

how do we best prepare our students for the unfiltered world they live in when they step off the bus? (Or open their cell phones? Or pull out their laptops with their own unfiltered connection to the Internet?)

What do you think?

How do you advocate for your school libraries

2008-09-25T10:52:00.002-06:00

How do you advocate for your school libraries?

Below are a list of actions I've taken as Manager of Educational Technology (which includes District Media Services) in trying to advocate for St. Vrain's libraries. What do you see missing? I'm thinking there is a lot.

1. Have HR participate once each year in our three monthly meetings
(Media Tech - elementary; Media Clerk and Teacher Librarian - secondary) to listen to the media staff's requests, answer questions, provide feedback and advice.
2. Be present in the meeting with Union rep and the media staff regarding
help through master agreement verbage (reviewed Jeffco verbage).
3. Discuss this need with every principal in the district in 2005 -
2006 to gain their thoughts on this need in their school; review the academic benefits of this option for their students including Library Research Service information; discuss best practice; give them a document which presented a justification for this approach.
4. Surveyed the state districts to ascertain which school district
had this recommended FTE approach adopted; documented what all districts had. Results are published with CDE.
5. Advocated with Director of Information Technology
Services and Directors of Human Relations.
6. Presented this need as part of report to the School Board.
March 6, 2006
7. Conducted a survey of Library Priorities by principals,
teachers, library staff (9/2007)
8. Community presentation (3/27/08)
9. School Instructional Technology Model for Success (3/24/08)
given to Director of ITS
10. Reviewed state and national research, for example, South
Carolina's state document recommendations Appendix D, Colorado Springs D11's implementation plan: Technology support for success, Denver Post article.
11. Have meeting planned with HR and separate one with Deputy Superintendent of Learning Services and the Union Rep.

Education is Key to Economic Competitiveness

2008-09-16T10:35:00.011-06:00

Do you agree or disagree? Why? What can we do about it?

Did you know that 24 countries outscore U.S. schools in math, and 20 outscore the U.S. in science? Our schools are failing. While the rest of the developed world is preparing their children for the new century, our system continues to lag behind. The countries with the best schools attract the best jobs. If jobs move to other countries, our children’s opportunities dry up. And so does our economy. Join the national debate. Act now and visit www.strongamericanschools.org to improve education before more American students lose out, hurting our economy and impacting every one of us.

These are the words I heard at the first "In Focus", a new program of the Education Foundation for St. Vrain Valley. The Longmont "Times Call" newspaper headlined this event in their Monday, September 8th, 2008 edition. Last night I heard it again on television via the Aspen Summit. To watch the webcasts of the presentations click on Aspen Summit.

Am I just paying more attention or are we really seeing an increased focus on the fact that education is the answer to America's top issues? Are we seeing this increased focus because it is a presidential election year? Yes, of course. But will we see some real progress in education as a result? What can we do to keep this going? Are folks listening and getting it?

What Are You Doing For Constitution Day?

2008-09-16T07:43:00.004-06:00

Wednesday, September 17th, 2008 is Constitution Day in the United States of America. What are you doing in your libraries to celebrate with your students, patrons, staff?

Constitution Day and Citizenship Day" provides an opportunity for libraries to perform a major public service. Libraries can
continue their critical role as the foundation of our democracy,
showcase their important resources for all citizens, and
demonstrate that libraries are strong supporters of our country's values.
(All educational institutions, that receive federal funding from the Department of Education, are required to hold an educational program pertaining to the United States Constitution every September 17 in order to commemorate the September 17, 1787, signing of the Constitution. The law gives each institution the flexibility to act independently in implementing the celebration. When September 17 falls on a Saturday, Sunday or holiday, Constitution Day is held during the preceding or following week.)
Free resources for Constitution Day may be found at the Colorado State Library website, http://www.cde.state.co.us/cdelib/ConstitutionDay/index.html.

It's Happening - Smiley Face

2008-08-01T12:47:00.010-06:00

"AASL’s second longitudinal survey reveals schools’ acceptance of social networking tools"1

And the survey says, "schools are continuing to accept social networking tools and technology as vital parts of the education of a 21st-Century student." Key findings reported so far include:

Fifty-three percent of elementary, middle and high schools use some sort of collaborative tools to aid in instruction.

Fifty percent of schools use intranet within their school community and more than 41 percent of schools use podcasts.

Twenty-nine percent of schools use blogs as an instructional platform.

Although not extensively used, tools like online instruction and social bookmarking are popular with almost 20 percent and more than 15 percent of schools using some form of these tools, respectively.

Integrating social networking tools into instruction is widely accepted by public and private schools alike.

Final results will be released in August 2008. We better get with it! What are you doing to adopt and advocate use of appropriate social networking tools?

P.S. Of note is that social networking sites like My Space were the least used - no duh! What are your favorite ones that you can access from school?

1"AASLsurvey," American Library Association, July 01, 2008.http://www.ala.org/ala/pressreleases2008/june2008/AASLsurvey.cfm (Accessed August 01, 2008)Document ID: 498402

Do you read more online or in print? In what age group are you?

2008-07-27T07:21:00.035-06:00

Well it has been more than a month since my last blog (June 25th) and I'd like to say I've been on vacation all of that time, but I've really been even busier than during the school year. Summer is when all of the projects get implemented in K12 technology since students and teachers are gone. We work 4 - 10's instead of 5 - 8's, so on Friday's I've sleepily been able to start camping trips early. But enough of me.

I just went to the NY Times instead of the Longmont Times Call by accidently inputting only part of the url. Accidents sometimes enable one to stumble upon some good "online" reading. Right up front was an article that caught my eye: "Literacy Debate: R U Really Reading?"1 Along with it was a video clip, "A Family of Readers" that is worthwhile watching.

This is the first in a series of articles that will look at how the Internet and other technological and social forces are changing the way people read.

Below are some sections of the article and my comments:

Michael L. Kamil, a professor of education at Stanford who lobbied for an Internet component as chairman of the reading test guidelines committee, says, students

are going to grow up having to be highly competent on the Internet. There’s no reason to make them discover how to be highly competent if we can teach them.

Okay this last sentence seems rather the opposite of project-based learning. Isn't it all about letting them "DISCOVER" how to be highly competent? Aren't we trying today, to not be the expert, but to let the student lead the learning through discovery rather than "teaching"?

Experts on reading difficulties suggest that for struggling readers, the Web may be a better way to glean information. “When you read online there are always graphics,” said Sally Shaywitz, the author of “Overcoming Dyslexia” and a Yale professor. “I think it’s just more comfortable and — I hate to say easier — but it more meets the needs of somebody who might not be a fluent reader.

Next year, for the first time, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, which administers reading, math and science tests to a sample of 15-year-old students in more than 50 countries, will add an electronic reading component. The United States, among other countries, will not participate. A spokeswoman for the Institute of Education Sciences, the research arm of the Department of Education, said an additional test would overburden schools.

I can't believe we are not participating!?! If we are overburdened, then get rid of some of the other tests or consolidate tests! We finally have a tool that will help students with learning issues and we are not going to participate in the research!!!

Students are developing new reading skills on the internet that are neither taught nor evaluated in school. ". . .online reading skills will help children fare better when they begin looking for digital-age jobs." We need figure out how to assess all learning.

And yes, perhaps reading's meaning should be refined.

Interpreting videos or pictures, are as important a skill as analyzing a novel or a poem.

Huh? This is not new. When my 19 year old college senior (yes that is a brag) was in 2nd grade, we used clues from the pictures to help decipher the words. Did I miss something between now and then? Has there been a time warp?

I believe we should read where we need to when we need to and where we want to when we read for pleasure. There are always going to be different strokes for different folks and when it comes to reading as long as reading is happening it is a good thing.

1"Literacy Debate: Online, R U Really Reading?" New York Times Company. By MOTOKO RICH Published: July 27, 2008. Accessed 2/27/08. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/27/books/27reading.html

1:1 session at tie cover it live

2008-06-25T13:08:00.003-06:00

Let's try this again

join us at TIE and hear about Ft. Carson Fountain Districts implementation

Coveritlive is down

2008-06-25T10:13:00.000-06:00

Looks like Cover it Live just went down. Sorry

2008-06-25T09:46:00.001-06:00

To participate remotely go to :

the link to the copyright session at tie right now.

Increasing your library's profile & accessibility to students

2008-05-28T15:37:00.012-06:00

Laurie, the Librarian's blog references a presentation about incorporating library links into your teachers Moodle pages for student/teacher access. I am very excited about this idea and want to promote it successfully in my district!

We have a growing group of teachers using Moodle in each of their courses as a tool to enhance learning and instruction. Wouldn't it be great to have a link on each of their course pages to the library system, district/school subscriptions, articles on copyright and citations, etc.! What a great way to get into the classroom and courses without really being there!

Check out these resources:

1. Coysh, Sarah and Jeffery, Betty (2008) Decanting the Library within a Course management System (CMS) (PDF). Delivered at WILU 2008: 37th Workshop on Instruction in Library Use, UBC Okanagan, Kelowna, British Columbia (Canada). Presentation.
2. ACRL
ACRL - "E-Learning Spaces: Librarians in Course Management Systems." Learning Spaces: Librarians in Course Management Systems."
1/5/2008.

What library links to "you and your library" are available in your school classrooms? What links would you like to be there? What links would students find most useful?

I know that in our district we do not yet have our library system available to students outside of the district. It is in our future plans though. School personnel can access this information.

An RSS feed of Subject Research guides based on course code might be invaluable.

What other thoughts come to mind as you read this? How would you go about making this project happen successfully in your school or district?

From Concept to Reality? Ed-tech Trends

2008-05-28T10:19:00.016-06:00

Six important ways technology is being viewed as effecting teaching and learning:

1. One-to-one computing - programs that provide full-time personal computing devices for all students in at least one whole grade level, and not simply mobile laptop carts,
2. On-line formative assessments,
3. Interactive whiteboards (IWB's) researchers predict that iwb's will be in every school five years from 2008),
4. Learning management systems (hasn't been fully realized),
5. Internet bandwidth (in a state of crisis)Bandwidth issues limited scope of student interaction with technology, and
6. Tech support shortage (new programs costs too much when struggling to even support current programs).

When I read this article, I thought about my school district. Some items we are the same, some we are ahead and some we are behind. But we are "close" on all of them (if I curve the grades).

One-to-one computing is still a future for us. There is real power in the opportunity of one-to-one and also many risk factors. To grow and learn, we all must risk. But at what point is the ROI best to take that risk? "Nada" for us right now.

On-line formative assessments is a current investigation but I believe we are going from concept to reality. Some say we have too many assessments, some say the assessments have been invaluable for teaching the gaps. What is the right balance? We are risking and searching for that balance. Go us!

Interactive white boards are happening in our district! Slowly but surely which I believe is the best way to go - managed roll-out. Standards have been developed, equipment is being ordered as appropriate, training is happening, most teachers that have them are using them at the level 2 moving to level 3 stage. Go us!

Learning management systems (Moodle for us) is happening as a district effort as well. Slowly but faster than IWB's (since it is open source - FREE). The Virtual Campus is a postive, forward moving trend in our district and everyone that learns and uses it, loves it. Go us!

Internet bandwidth. Well we join the club as far as the masses go. This is our number one technology trend need - to increase bandwidth within our district. And all that takes is money and support. Hopefully our plan to accomplish that will come to fruition. Club members with the rest of most of the K12 school world.

Tech support shortage. Ditto number five. I know, I know. Can't have two number one needs. . . .well I say they are tied.

One "nada", two "club members", and three "go us"es. Humm . . .If you are from my district, how do you think we are doing? If you are from another district, how is your district doing in these trend areas?

Citation:
Thu, May 15, 2008
Researchers identify key ed-tech trends
One-to-one computing, online assessment on the rise in schools--but keeping up with bandwidth needs is a problem
By Meris Stansbury, Assistant Editor, eSchool News

". . eating the napkins. And probably the plastic forks as well."

2008-05-24T11:11:00.013-06:00

Tim Holt posted on Intended Consequences a great analogy about how students in using the web, "a rich buffet", eat only the napkins and probably the "cheap" plastic forks as well. Kevin Honeycutt said it:

“I always say that the web delivers a rich buffet of learning opportunities to kids and they are eating the napkins.”

I had to post about it when I saw the "plastic fork" comment, Bud. For those of you who have not been there, check out Cheap Plastic Fork Man Blog. I think we now need a "Rich Buffet Man"! And I don't mean Warren Buffett . . .but perhaps he is?

I loved the Tim's post, what it said, what it means, but here also is my comment:

What a great analogy! You hit the nail on the head!! And I am just as guilty as the next parent. But I also don't believe in forcing learning to the point that it ruins it for the kids. They have to discover that usefulness for themselves and then we won't have to force ipod use for traditional learning. And I believe they will find that usefulness and be excited about it if they keep hearing about it in a fun way. The power of it all is what I think will capture their attention to check it out on their own without the, "you get an ipod if you use it for 15 minutes a day for educational podcast" syndrome. What can I say - I am an idealist an[d] I believe the lure of it's value will get them there in time. Teachers and friends can also get them to try it out much easier than parents. Then it is their idea and it is cool!
Saturday, May 24, 2008 - 11:08 AM

How do you get your kids to eat from the buffet of the internet rather than just eating the napkins and cheap plastic forks "man"?

My Personal Summer Reading Program

2008-05-22T09:01:00.006-06:00

What in your view is the best book on teaching and why? What teaching book do you recommend? Share your views and experiences. I received this discussion forum through an email from Teacher Magazine. It is a discussion forum, that as I read, I wanted to make a list. Now I have my own summer reading program. I’d like to grow the list with your best book on teaching and why? Might be a valuable list for a professional development collection. I’ll let you know after I read them.
I look forward to hearing about your favorite teaching book.
Check out the post by Anthony Rebora.

1. 100 Paid Adventures for Teachers by Jill Frankfort - to find wonderful free programs and grants for teachers around the world
2. Checking for Understanding by Fisher and Frey
3. In The Middle: New Understanding About Writing, Reading and Learning by Nancie Atwell
4. Mosaic of Thought by Ellin Oliver Keene and Susan Zimmerman
5. Papers, Papers, Papers: An English Teacher’s Survival Guide by Carol Jago
6. Behavior Management: Principles and Practices of Positive Behavior Supports, by John J. Wheeler, David Dean Richey
7. Teachers Change Lives 24/7: 150 Ways to Do It Right, by Jim Burgett
8. Teaching Kids with Mental Health and Learning Disorders in the Regular Classroom, Miles L. Cooley
9. Teaching Phonics And Word Study In The Intermediate Grades, by Wiley Blevins
10. Teaching With Love and Logic by Jim Fay
11. TeamWork: Setting the Standard for Collaborative Teaching, Grades 5-9, by Monique D. Wild, Amanda S. Mayeaux, Kathryn P. Edmonds, Jack C. Berckemeyer
12. The Art of Teaching Writing by Lucy Calkins (also The Art of Teaching Reading)
13. The Power of Reading by Stephen Krashen
14. The Teacher's Essential Guide to Effective Instruction, by Jim Burke
15. Tom Sawyer at 2nd-3rd, 3rd-4th, and 5th-6th grade levels), students with disabilities ranging from mild learning disabilities to mental retardation were able to engage in tear-jerkingly high level discussions about race, author's purpose and morality.
16. What Really Matters for Struggling Readers by Richard Allington
17. Why Are School Buses Always Yellow? by John Barell

Check out my Shelfari of these books that I’m planning to read.

Shelfari: Book reviews on your book blog

Lyons Elementary Students "Songs" - I Can . . .

2008-05-07T09:02:00.008-06:00

The first book in the Growing Field Adventure Series by Mark Hoog is "Your Song", a story of personal strength, finding your own voice. In a collaborative effort with all teachers, Linda Bryan, Media Tech and Lab Leader at Lyons Elementary School read the story to all of the students, had the author come to the school and speak to the students about "their songs", and then students finished the sentence "I am" and illustrated it. Each students' projects were then prepared in the computer lab by typing, drawing, printing and publishing their original artwork and text into a book by classrooms. Some examples are shown above.

Mrs. Bryan said that every student completed the sentence in a positive way with out any writers block, doubt or hesitation. To see these publications, call Lyons Elementary School. I was able to see them when I attended Tall Tales Day. Want to know about Tall Tales Day? Check back soon for a blog post about it.

Segate Day for Secondary Tech Fair Winners

2008-05-07T08:29:00.008-06:00

Students from Silver Creek High, Longmont High, Mead Middle and Sunset Middle School recently attended a day long session at Seagate Technologies where they heard about the company, their internships, skills needed in the engineering field, and careers at Seagate. Next they had a chance to take a disk drive apart, learn about the components, how they are made and then try to put it back together. Touring the facility included seeing the robots that are made by Seagate to make the disk drives and some great math lessons in the real world. We felt the computers that shake the drives at different speeds to measure their breaking point and to use to improve that breaking point. We watched as laptops that contain Seagate drives were dropped at increasing heights to measure their durability, we visited the Seagate sound room which is probably the only one like it in the world - their was absolutely no echo and our ears could really hear the difference. It was amazing the minute detail involved in the quality control of their products. It made me wonder if these students took that information and paralleled it to their education and the importance of their learning to that level of detail as well.

Thank you to Seagate and all of the employees that gave of their time to give our students a glimpse of their technologies and careers. It is a tour worth repeating!

Students Learning Math, Geography and to never quit

2008-05-04T19:52:00.005-06:00

Clip is after the ads - patience will pay off.

MS Patient Soars New 'Heights'
In the clip above you'll hear about Wendy Booker, a person I met last summer at a friend's wedding. Wendy has had multiple sclerosis for 10 years. In this clip you'll hear about how she is inspiring students in East Boston and helping them to understand what it means to "never quit". She plans to climb the highest mountains in the world despite her condition.

Along the way these kids got a great geography lesson and learned some math as well, but the greatest thing Wendy gave to them was that understanding of the desire to never quit and that they too can achieve their dreams - just never quit. Dream the seemingly impossible and go for it.

What are you teaching the students that cross your path? How are you challenging yourself?

The Impact of Blogging & Social Networking on Reading & Writing in the 21st Century

2008-04-29T10:40:00.011-06:00

Check out LunchTime Learning #1. It is an archive of the first of a series of formal conversations with media staff about school libraries in the 21st Century. The series, called Lunchtime Learning, focuses on issues of relevance to media staff today and is hosted by Holli Buchter, Assistant Media Coordinator for the St. Vrain Valley School District. Bud Hunt, Instructional Technologist for the district, facilitated the technology and invited others via twitter to join in the conversation. Watch the video and review the Cover It Live transcript of the online participants.

The discussion, which reflects on the impact of blogging and social networking on reading and writing in the 21st century, is from the perspective of middle and high school teacher librarians in the St. Vrain Valley School District in Longmont, Colorado. Comments on Cover IT Live are from inside the district as well as outside.

Key areas of the discussion include:

1. The impact on their students at their two middle schools and one high school;
2. How do we get reading and writing in a format that engages today's students; and
3. How do they, the teacher librarians, adapt their services to meet these needs.

If you are interested in participanting in the Lunchtime Learning #2, subscribe to the blog or watch for up to the minute info on twitter.

I Can See Everything Clearly Now! iGoogle, Tabs, Expose & Spaces

2008-04-26T16:19:00.006-06:00

I am happier these days with my "electronic desktop" (so to speak) on my laptop. I still have a bad habit of switching between open screens using the minimize/expand feature, but tabs helped with that a couple of years ago somewhat. Last summer I really committed to blog, use delicious, and Google Reader. Since then I've added twitter, use callwave, have a myspace, facebook, wikispace, ning and much more. It is all fun at first and then life takes over and you can't keep up with it all. So I would access them a lot sometimes and at other times not at all. I think I am a binge or not at all type of person.

Where am I going with this. Well as technology evolves, it does get better. With iGoogle I now have everything that is possible to put on it there for easy access and viewing as well as many other fun things. My top gadgets give me access to my Delicious, Twitter, Google docs, calendar, reader and one that I am learning about Google Notebook. I also have my Callwave, Skype, Tiny url maker and favorite sunsets down lower on the screen along with the Leadership Quote of the Day. I now have really started staying up with these regularly for the most part.

This week I upgraded my laptop with the latest operating system: Leopard, MAC OSX.5.2. My 15 year old daughter has had it for sometime and acted like I was lower class since I could only do "expose" and not "spaces". I never used expose and quite hated it when for no valid reason my screen would suddenly show me all of my pages that were open when I accidently moved my mouse to some secret place on the screen. It drove me crazy at first, but I quickly learned to just click on the screen I wanted on top and then went on my way.

For some reason I think it bugged me - I hate not knowing about a technology the rest of my more technology-savvy family uses expertly, so I decided to try spaces. She and my husband were very condescending as I tried to set it up. They laughed at me when I didn't know what something meant, but I vowed to show them. They "snickeringly" said I should only set up two or three spaces and keep them all on one line, so I setup the max they recommended three. And I think I'm going to like it here - it sort of completes the items that I want to be able to see easily by adding spaces to tabs and iGoogle. Who knows maybe I will try expose - later.

What are your favorite gadgets? Which ones help you stay up with the world?

Technology Career Days for SVVSD Tech Fair Winners

2008-04-26T09:24:00.011-06:00

The elementary student winners of the 2008 SVVSD Student Technology Fair spent the morning at Channel 3 Public Access and KGUD (90.7 FM) radio station learning about technology in those environments. Not only did they tour the stations housed in the historical Carnegie Library building in Longmont, they were the featured guests in a video shoot and the voices you will hear on KGUD promoting next year's fair encouraging students to start now planning projects for 2009.

Thank you to everyone at Channel 3 Public Access and KGUD radio for providing this additional opportunity for learning about career opportunities using technology in the radio and television fields. Thank you to the many who volunteer there as well.

In about two months look for the television production to be shown. You might want to check the programming schedule. You should be able to hear the radio promotional running soon from now through February. I'll post a comment when we know exact times.

For those of you who missed the fair this year, the tv production will give you an opportunity to see the elementary winning projects. As the radio promo says, students and teachers start now planning your project. The Grand Champions won $1500 for technology for their school. Middle and High school students won up to $500 per entry for themselves!

"Seagate Day" is this coming Wednesday for the high school winners. They will see a "clean room", watch quality control as they shake, rattle and drop drives, hear about engineering careers, and see the assembly process. One lucky student will also win a 160GB FreeAgentGo (portable external drive). Will post a review of the day toward the end of next week. Until then . . . thanks for visiting!

It's Not About Education . . .

2008-04-15T08:24:00.010-06:00

You may think I have really lost it, or you may think the title of this post it really on target. It is not about education!! If that is true, then what is it about? I believe that it is about passion (enthusiasm) and conscious leadership. Educators today are calling it engagement (to attract and hold fast). Getting excited is something I have always been able to do -sometimes (I think) to the point of irritation of others. My apologies.

Everyday I try to say this phrase:

If you act enthusiastic, you become enthusiastic.
Today is the first day of the rest of my life.
I can, I will and I am going to have the best day that I have ever had in my entire life.

My kids think I am nuts when I say it aloud to them driving them to high school. But I am passionate about the results of this kind of positive thinking. I've seen the results since learning these statement in 1976 during one college summer with the Southwestern Company. Yes I sold educational handbook and Webster's New World Dictionaries in Tenessee one summer, had a positive experience, and made some life long friends.

I searched the internet to try to find where these statements originally came from and found that Mary Kay Ash references the power of "If you act enthusiastic, you become enthusiastic". Then I found a blog titled "the first dayof the rest of your life" by a peace corp teacher that loves what she is doing teaching in Osh, Kyrgyzstan though she does seem to have trouble keeping her blog alive.

A lot of this information was presented through Dale Carnagie's principals found in his book, "How to Win Friends and Influence People". His "Golden Book", which includes these principles is available as a free download at this site.

According to the Dale Carnagie Corporation, companies with engaged employees outperform others by 47% to 202%. Wouldn't it be great to see those kinds of results with our students. Creating an environment of teamwork builds alignment and engagement. This environment promotes focus, direction and action.

Creating alignment and purpose in a team helps promote action, focus, and direction. Employees and students (as learning is their work) need to come together to identify and work by the values, vision, and guiding principles that build successful teamwork.

We need to look at ways to strengthen the sense of common purpose among your students. Teachers should use the powerful forces of values and vision to unite students and give them direction.

Create common purpose for team members
Examine the values that govern team interactions
Create a unifying team vision
Create a team environment of mutual support
Commit to principles for building teamwork

Let's get passionate! In closing, check out this short video clip about conscious leadership and passion.

Old Fashioned Books in an Internet World

2008-03-30T17:58:00.005-06:00

This is the quote of the day on my IGoogle home page:
The leader has to be practical and a realist, yet must talk the language of the visionary and the idealist. ~ Eric Hoffer

I believe I strive to be that type of leader.

As I was reading an article from my Google Reader news section: Champion of reading - Winthrop's library dean crusades for old-fashioned books in an Internet world. JERI KRENTZ SPECIAL TO THE Charlotte OBSERVER. Sun, Mar. 30, 2008, I though once again of this quote.

A stirring article, that brought out mixed emotions as I read it - emotions from one end of the spectrum to the other - but an article for sure worth reading, contemplating, and keeping in mind so that we find and provide balance - especially in my dual role as manager of library services and instructional technology. We are lucky to be living in a time when we have so many options from which to choose. And I like that we can choose both, one one day and perhaps one another day. We can select what fits our being for that particular point in time. And we need to teach our students to think about and do that as well.

Thoughts, comments?

Please ignore my shelfari below - I can't seem to get rid of it in this post and am out of time. Gotta go plan our trip to Mexico with friends. Happy Spring Break!!

Another "DUH!" Smaller classes = student improvement!

2008-03-27T09:44:00.002-06:00

I find the article linked in the title above timely as we are hearing rumors that class sizes will be going up next year due to financial issues. Just as studies prove time and again that having a teacher librarian in the library improves student achievement, studies have long proven that class size affect their success as well. It doesn't matter how many studies are done that prove what we already know to be true, if finances impede progress in these areas, why even do the studies. Okay, I know I am being negative. We believe the studies, we listen to the researchers and cheer on the proven results, but we don't have the power to implement for the results that could be available from them. (Sad Face)

Here is my summary of this latest article. It is still interesting after all.

Breaking up large classes into several smaller ones helps students, but the improvements in many cases come in spite of what teachers do, new research suggests. Why? Because of what students feel they can do: Get more face time with their teacher or work in small groups with classmates. And the research shows that students stay more focused and misbehave less in this environment. So 1st thing we should do is make our classrooms smaller without worrying about changing the unimodal approach that many teachers use. In fact, researchers found that few teachers do take the opportunity to incorporate activities that take advantage of the smaller class size. But if you want more improvement, the data from a long-term class-size reduction effort in Tennessee show that while smaller classes improve achievement overall, they seem to benefit high-achieving students more than low achievers. Because low-income students are more likely to be low achievers, researchers say, the effort is doing little to reduce the stubborn "achievement gap". (Another Sad Face)

Please feel free to opine in the comments section.

"Size alone makes small classes better for kids". Greg Toppo, USA TODAY3/24/2008.

Multimodal Learning: The research says,

2008-03-26T13:55:00.008-06:00

Analysis of research shows that multimodal learning is more effective than traditional, unimodal learning. This is not news. And we have long sense seen that even though the research proves something, that folks still don't "want to go there". But I love it when the facts are stated, so here is a quote from an eSchool news article.

. . . students engaged in learning that incorporates multimodal designs, on average, outperform students who learn using traditional approaches with single modes.
. average student's scores on basic skills assessments increase by 21 percentiles when engaged in non-interactive, multimodal learning ( using text with visual input, text with audio input, and watching and listening to animations or lectures that effectively use visuals).
. interactive multimodal learning (engagement in simulations, modeling, and real-world experiences--most often in collaborative teams or groups), results in average gains of 9 percentiles.
. average students engaged in higher-order thinking using multimedia in interactive situations, on average, have a percentage ranking on higher-order or transfer skills increased by 32 percentiles.
. shift that context from interactive to non-interactive multimodal learning, the result is still a 20 percentile points increase.

Notice they are all increases! Why then doesn't everyone teach in these ways? Does anyone really teach unimodally anymore and if so why? What are your thoughts, comments.

Multimodal Learning through Media: What the Research Says
Cisco Systems
The Metiri Group

"Analysis: How multimedia can improve learning: New research sheds light on students' ability to process multiple modes of learning." By Meris Stansbury, Assistant Editor, eSchool News. Wed, Mar 26, 2008.

Web 3.0 Already Here? And more terms to go with it. . .

2008-03-16T11:44:00.006-06:00

Web 3.0 - being able to reliably mine the Internet for meaningful information - is here. Read http://snipurl.com/21jj5

A lot of new terms (at least for me anyay) in the article include:

Ingenta, Oxford-based small business that has over 20 million documents stored in the IngentaConnect research platform. These are viewed by over 30 million users each month. Ingenta is able to store this huge amount of data using its revolutionary Metastore.
The Semantic Web enables sharing of mammoth amounts of information with customers and other companies or sharing massive volumes of internal information much more simply. It can convert multiple information streams to one format so they can be read, assimilated and interpreted together.
World Wide Web Corporation (W3C) - overseeing the development of the semantic web.
Jena, an open-source Java framework recently developed by HP’s Semantic Web Program.
Resource Description Framework (RDF) format that enables interoperability between applications that exchange machine-understandable information on the Web. This gives businesses access to new information streams that previously they did not have the capability to read.

Gee, everyone doesn't get web 2.0 yet, and now we have Web 3.0? Will some miss Web 2.0 altogether? Will some never get to Web 3.0? Is it valuable for everyone or just businesses? Feeling overwhelmed? That is a common state for me this days.

What are your thoughts, comments?

The Results are in Again

2008-03-12T09:06:00.004-06:00

The research continues to confirm

teacher librarians in schools K12 results in:

higher test scores,
direct impact on the educational success of our children, and
support for efforts to require teacher librarians in grades K-12, especially in those school that are not meeting state and federal standards; and

what nineteen other state studies have shown, that school libraries

staffed by teacher librarians and
equipped with current books and technology have a positive impact on overall student academic achievement.

See the following links for more information: Press Release and Preliminary Report.

After 9 years of research confirming these facts, we still have a move away from certified librarians or a repurposing of them in the classroom, and elementary schools without any certified staff.

I do believe that administrators know these facts and agree that they are true. I believe they would do something about this issue if they had the funds. Where and how can we get the dollars to support an effort to have certified staff in all school libraries?

Thoughts, comments, experiences, results? I'd love to hear from you.

Check out AASL's new blog and post on Aligning Standards

2008-03-11T08:37:00.011-06:00

The new AASL standards and ISTE standards need to be adopted, addressed and inbedded into instruction - in core content including "library learning". How do we best go about that? The link above holds information on a good start to align them with each other as well as with The Big Six.

From that article:
Doug Johnson: Student standard comparisons and a clean garage
different view: SIGMS compares the NETS and new AASL standards
Janet Murray: NETS, the new AASL and the BigSix
curricular comparison: Relationship Between Reading Comprehension Strategiesand AASL’s Standards for the 21st-Century Learner

Check out the new AASL Blog and at the same time get some great data on incorporating these standards into your practice. Track back and read and earlier post: AASL standards Align, Embed or Integrate?

Okay, I want to go back to college

2008-02-27T08:58:00.010-07:00

"What might a university look like with a fully deployed program of converged devices like the iPhone? Connected is one possible vision. This fictional day-in-the-life account highlights some of the potential benefits in a higher education setting when every student, faculty, and staff member is "connected." Though the applications and functions portrayed in the film are purely speculative, they're based on needs and ideas uncovered by our research - and we've already been making strides to transform this vision of mobile learning (mLearning) into reality."

What a great article. What a great opportunity for students of Abilene Christian University. What great efforts this university has gone to to do it right. Check out their vision and their progress. I think I'll send my kids there - as if I have that much control or would want to have that much control of where they go. . .

Check it out - Abilene is giving their incoming Freshmen an iPhone or iPod Touch to utilize during their college life for classes, university administrative stuff, etc. While I'd love to see the video's on You Tube right now, I have to wait until I go home from work. Blocked iTunes University and too slow of a band width to look at it here. Well perhaps I'll post more once I get home :(

Engaged Learning in math with eBeam

2008-02-22T16:04:00.004-07:00

Today I watched 8th grade regular mathematics students having a blast! They were engaged, having fun, and learning about a subject I dreaded in school. Perhaps if I'd had a teacher that facilitated class the way Gene does and there was intelligent white board technology in the classroom, I would have a different opinion of math.

How did this happen? Not my dread of math, we all know how that happens. I mean how did the engaged math classroom I saw today happen. Quite by accident, but aren't some of the best discoveries the result of an accident.

As I said two posts ago, my department received the eBeam as a result of a grant from taking a free class. Can't get much better than that, right! Well perhaps, but never mind. Anyway, I'd asked Sunset's library staff to consider presenting as session at Technology in Education Colorado and they sent me back a "sweet" note saying, if the district would give them a smart board, they'd be happy to make a presentation about it. Little did they know we had this one, so I sent it to them as a surprise and told them to go for it! They happened to show it to Mr. Kath first as his has clickers in his classroom and they made the "mistake" of letting him use it and now they can't "seem" to get it back.

Mr. Kath emailed me that he and his kids loved it, wanted to know how long they can use it and wanted to know if they could buy it.

So today I went to watch a class or two in action. Wow! Great learning going on, everyone interacting and speaking up. Lots of raised hands and requests to come up to the board to show how the chosen answer is the right one and why.

He said it is amazing how this has changed the dynamics in his class. Kids that never spoke up before are participating. I could see just in my short visit, the quality and the quantity of their learning. Now I happen to know what a great teacher Mr. Kath is as my twins had him for two years. We love him, but that combined with a useful applicable technology is making math even more fun. And he doesn't even have a white board. He uses a large white piece of paper on the wall!

Anyone out there use the eBeam or other devices? What are the pro's and con's of the eBeam versus other intelligent interactive white boards? What about the cost difference. I still haven't found a cost on this one yet. I plan to soon.

Educational Value of Social Networking sites

2008-02-22T15:58:00.003-07:00

Okay - it is my turn. I need data from others on the educational value of social networking sites to make available to our principals as they decide "to block" or "not to block". These links have already been made available to them:

http://blog.absolute.com/educational-benefits-of-social-networking/

http://boardbuzz.nsba.org/discussions/archive/session.10172007.edbenefits.php

http://aquaculturepda.edublogs.org/tag/educational-networking/

If you have other information or sites that I should make available to them, would you please post them for me?

Thanks to you all.

Connie

SLAM Poetry at Silver Creek High School

2008-02-22T14:09:00.010-07:00

Yesterday for lunch I watched, listened and vocalized my reactions to a "marvelous" lunch time event of the library at Silver Creek High School, SVVSD, Longmont, CO. It was the monthly student SLAM Poetry contest.

On the 3rd Thursday of each month, Phil Goerner, Teacher Librarian, hosts this fun, educational event in his Power Library. You should have seem him "hawk" his "wares"! Phil has a library full of kids eating lunch while students sign up and read or recite their original poems of three minutes or less. The crowd provides the five judges, a timer and a calculator. The slam includes a sacrifical poem from the previous month's winner - the purpose of this one is to get the crowd warmed up. Then the competitors begin (it is all very fast paced). The highest and lowest scores of the judges is dropped to level the playing field. The two highest scores then have a slam off with another new original poem of their own composition. There is more judging and a winner.

The prizes are fun but kind of cheezy. The winner yesterday won a plastic kite. The judges won a rubber 2" ninja in the color of their choice and the timer and calculator won a balloon race car (smile).

There is much entertainment not only from the competitors but also from the entire crowd. One judge gave the females consistently higher scores than the males. (This judge was a male). One judge gave a 6.66 and one tried to give a 10.999 (I think those were both high and low so they were dropped). A slam is designed for the audience to react vocally and openly to all aspects of the show, including the poet's performance, the judges' scores, and the host's banter.

Next month is the sock puppet slam off - can't wait to go back and see that one! If you are part of our district and are interested in attending one, contact Phil at school.

So what is all of this fun about? Engaged learning - Yes! Way to go Phil!

Educational benefits - students are able to:

put a dual emphasis on writing and performance, encouraging them to focus on what they're saying and how they're saying it,
meet other poets and audience members, get to know all of the resources and programs available at the slam, (Phil does a good job of advertising library events during this time),
meet other students, interact with them, learn from their experiences, and develop new strategies, experiences and programs to add to their learing,
feel welcome at the slam. Throughout the slam, students have both formal and informal opportunities to connect, network, and develop positive interactions with fellow students, and other slam attendees,
discuss complex social issues related to their own leadership experiences, identity, growth, and development throughout the slam, and
gain additional resources to help them be better student leaders on campus. 1

Okay, now, have I ruined all the fun by stating all of the hidden educational experiences? I hope not. I'd love to have a district-wide school slam off. Anyone want to help me put this together?

For more information about Slam poetry, check out Slam Poetry Frequently Asked Questions or check out the book: "Slam Poetry: The Competitive Art of Performance Poetry".

For more engaged learning in St. Vrain, look for my next post on Sunset Middle School's own Gene Kath, math teacher, using the WebMax "check-out-able" (is that a word) eBeam Intelligent white board with wireless blue tooth. He has found that by using it daily in his classes, that students are more engaged in their learning no matter what the math course. All of his kids are loving using it to learn. Kids that never spoke up before are jumping into the class discussions with gusto.

How do you get one? Media Services received it as a technology award selection from the Colorado Adventure of the American Mind free course. If your school hasn't received technology from this source yet and two of you take the class, you can receive up to $3000 in technology of your choice from their list of choices.

1 Adapted from http://www.acui.org/content.aspx?menu_id=106&id=148

Building Learning Communities

2008-01-27T13:00:00.002-07:00

In the link below are my notes from Alan's session on Building Learning Communities. What an awesome individual, educator and innovator.

FETC Alan November 1st session

We need to do a Horizon Report for SVVSD

2008-01-27T12:17:00.000-07:00

Another good post from YALSA

"What is on the Horizon

Last week, the 2008 Horizon Repor t was released.

This is a collaboration with the New Media (NMC) and EDUCAUSE.

The report "seeks to identify and describe emerging technologies likely to have a large impact on teaching, learning, or creative expression within learning-focused organizations." The six technologies identified in this year's report that are predicted to have an impact on teaching and learning include;

grassroots video,
collaboration webs,
mobile broadband,
data mashups,
collective intelligence, and
social operating systems.

Challenges as well as examples of how each are being used in organizations similar to those that many of us probably work at, are included. Take a look, or just check out the examples if you don't have time to read the entire report. Do you see other trends or challenges than the ones listed?

Posted by Kelly Czarnecki"

What are the trends for SVVSD - what are the emerging technologies within our district that are likely to have a large impact on teaching, learning and creative expression within St. Vrain? Are we utilizing the six technologies identified in the 2008 Horizon report? Should they be in our ETIL Plan? Are we truly preparing our kids for business and industry careers if we do not provide these tools in our school settings?

A Circle of Choice - a good idea and application to libraries

2008-01-27T12:06:00.000-07:00

The subject of this blog post is from the YALSA Blogpost and

"the Managing Editor of Time.com, Josh Tyrangiel, about using Twitter as a reporting tool. As I read this quote in yesterday's New York Times I thought to myself, that's exactly what librarians need to focus on when it comes to teens (or actually when it comes to customers of any age), being one option in their "circle of choice."

Using the library should be one of the choices a teen might make when looking for materials, space to hang out, programs, technology, web tools, etc. Key in the phrase "circle of choice" is that the library doesn't strive to be the only option a teen has or will make. The library actually accepts, recognizes, and promotes a variety of choices for teens. Instead of fighting the fact that teens might want to use Facebook, or Google, or Wikipedia for information and interaction, the library can work to help teens understand that the library fits right in the mix with those other tools as a choice to make when in need of information or recreational space and materials.

It is important to think about how the library gets into the circle of choice of a teen. Of course, part of that comes from the recognition mentioned above. But, something else Tyrangiel said also helps to highlight what it takes to get into the circle. He said, "If you tell people how to consume their content, they will ignore you." Not only should the library not try to be the only choice a teen has for informational and recreational needs, the library also has to provide a variety of content and format options to a teen so that she can pick the right solution for a particular need. The library works to provide interaction opportunities in the physical library space as well as on blogs, wikis, via Facebook or del.icio.us, and so on.

In providing these options and getting into this circle of choice, a library needs to take the plunge. Getting into the circle will never happen if the modus operandi is to wait and see what format/setting ends up being the one teens want the most. Instead, libraries need to give teens the chance to use the tools of the moment in the moment. That's what Time is doing (primarily for adults of course) by providing readers access to content via their web site, Twitter, the print publication, etc.

Sure, the technology might change, the tools of choice might change, a different generation might want something entirely different. However, if libraries get into a teen's circle of choice by plunging and not waiting, providing options for content and format, and recognizing and promoting that they are one possibility within a circle of possibilities, once in that circle it will be easier and easier to move forward. This forward movement will happen both in more and more ability to easily update access and content options and in getting support from the community of teens, adults, and colleagues.

What would happen if libraries serving teens used Time as a model? Would that help libraries to be in a teen's circle of choice? Try it and see what happens."

FETC 2008 - It's All About Curriculum, Not Technology

2008-01-23T09:53:00.000-07:00

Sounded great. But, my clue should have been basic computer skills. Concept and description were wonderful, but the information was old, out of date and very basic. The last video that was shown should have been the first one and used as a conversation starter. Oh well, the networking has been good so far and the sessions can only go up from here. I guess I should try making the same presentation and view the audience from the presenters shoes.

What are your thoughts about the topic?

Do you believe students should be allowed to use cell phones at school? YESSSSSSSSSS!!!

2008-01-21T18:56:00.000-07:00

Gee! Why do we have to punish everyone all of the time? Especially the teachers and the students. I can't believe the results of this poll so far. Go take it if you agree with me and change these sad results. See my comment that I left below.
Thanks for participating in this poll
Do you believe students should be allowed to use cell phones at school?
Yes - Students should be able to use their cell phone without restriction at school.	3	(1.88%)
Yes - Students should be allowed to use cell phones before and after school, during passing periods between classes and at lunch.	75	(46.88%)
No - Cell phones disrupt the education process and should not be used on school grounds. Students should have access to an office phone for emergency calls.	82	(51.25%)

Why don't we let kids bring the cell phones to class, use them in learning activities and engage students using the technology they know best. I wonder if a teacher gave an assignment for students to text any person they knew outside of school to ask a current events or research question, how fast they would hop to it? Ever use your cell phone as a dictionary? Text Google (466453) and ask what something is and see what happens? Why can't learning be fun and done utilizing the tools available? Most student phones can access the internet now easily - how about a little research, critical thinking conversation to evaluate the sources found through their cell phones? Not allowing cell phones in classs just makes the teachers have one more job - cell phone cop. As a past teacher, I would love to have the tools in which we think they are addicted to use as a means of reaching them. I'd bet students that wouldn't open their mouth in class would gladly instant message or text me an answer. Most text messaging plans today are unlimited messages for a month fee. Let's make those text messages a part of their learning process.

Colorado Technology Fairs

2008-01-20T12:01:00.000-07:00

On February 2, 2008 St. Vrain Valley School District is having their 2nd Annual Disrict Technology Fair. It is from 11 - 1 pm at Trail Ridge Middle School and you are coordially invited to attend.

Last year Bud Hunt created a wiki space called Colorado Technology Fairs on Wikispaces after a presentation by Holli Buchter and myself at TIE 2007 about St. Vrain's 1st district Teen Technology Fair. The technology fair wiki was an outcome of that presentation. Attendees wanted to have a two-way conversation about school tech fairs. We also wanted to find out where they are happening in Colorado schools. Do you know of other tech fairs that showcase student's 21st century learning? Are there fairs that promote teacher's efforts in incorporating technology into classroom learning? We have seen many collegiate and business technology fair sites on the web. If business are doing it, should we be doing it also?

Since the creation of this wiki, we've learned that Douglas County schools has had district fairs, and have continued technology showcases at the school level. Aurora schools also have school level technology fairs. South Dakota has had a student track for 17 years at their TIE. It is a state media fair. We are investigating their model to propose to the Colorado TIE organization.

If you know of other technology fairs in the state of Colorado, please post the location and a link to information about the fairs at: Listing of Colorado Technology Fairs. If you know of other state technology fairs, we'd appreciate hearing about those as well.

This Year' Winners

2008-01-14T08:14:00.000-07:00

ALEX Awards

AMERICAN SHAOLIN
BAD MONKEYS
ESSEX COUNTY VOLUME 1
GENGHISTHE
GOD OF ANIMALS
A LONG WAY GONE
MISTER PIP
THE NAME OF THE WIND
THE NIGHT BIRDS
THE SPELLMAN FILES

SCHNEIDER FAMILY AWARD

KAMI AND THE YAKS young children
REACHING FOR SUN middle grade book
HURT GO HAPPY teen book

CORETTA SCOTT KING

CORETTA SCOTT KING STEPTOE: SUNDEE T FRAZIER for Brendan Buckey's Universe and Everything in It

Two author honor:

NOVEMBER BLUES BY SHARON DRAPER
TWELVE ROUNDS TO GLORY BY CHARLES SMITH

AUTHOR WINNER: ELIJAH OF BUXTON BY CHRISTOPHER PAUL CURTIS
ILLUSTRATOR HONOR

THE SECRET OLIVIA TOLD ME
JAZZ ON A SATURDAY NIGHT

ILLUSTRATOR: ASHLEY BRYAN FOR LET IT SHINE

EDWARDS: ORSON SCOTT CARD for Ender's Game and Ender's Shadow

PRINTZ HONOR:

DREAMQUAKE
ONE WHOLE AND PERFECT DAY
REPOSSESSED
YOUR OWN SYLVIA

PRINTZ WINNER: THE WHITE DARKNESS

BATCHELDER HONOR: THE CAT, NICHOLAS AND THE GANG

BATCHELDER AWARD: BRAVE STORY

SIBERT HONOR: NIC BISHOP SPIDERS, LIGHTSHIP

SIBERT WINNER: THE WALL

PURA BELPRE

ILLUSTRATOR HONOR: MY NAME IS GABITO, MY COLORS MY WORLD

ILLUSTRATOR WINNER: LOS GATOS BLACK ON HALLOWEEN

AUTHOR HONOR: FRIDA: VIVA LA VIDA, MARTINA THE BEAUTIFUL COCKROACH, LOS GATOS BLACK ON HALLOWEEN

AUTHOR WINNER: THE POET SLAVE OF CUBA

ODYSSEY AWARD:

HONORS: BLOODY JACK (LISTEN AND LIVE), TREASURE ISLAND (LISTENING LIBRARY), HARRY POTTER 7 (LISTENING LIBRARY), DOOBY DOOBY MOO (SCHOLASTIC), SKULDUGGERY PLEASANT (HARPERCOLLINS)

WINNER: JAZZ (LIVE OAK)

ARBUTHNOT: WALTER DEAN MYERS

CARNEGIE MEDAL (VIDEO): JUMP IN FREESTYLE EDITION

GEISEL AWARD HONORS: FIRST THE EGG, HELLO BUMBLEE BAT, JAZZ BABY, VULTURE VIEW

GEISEL AWARD: THERE IS A BIRD ON YOUR HEAD

CALDECOTT HONOR ILLUSTRATOR: HENRY'S FREEDOM BOX, FIRST THE EGG, THE WALL,, KNUFFLE BUNNY TOO

CALDECOTT: INVENTION OG HUGO CABRET

NEWBERY HONOR: ELIJAH OF BUXTON, THE WEDNESDAY WARS, FEATHERS

NEWBERY: GOOD MASTERS, SWEET LADIES

Click on this link for more information on the YALSA awards. YALSA's 2008 selected lists will be posted on that page also.