point a to point b

The annual state conference for educational technology, sponsored by NYSCATE, is this weekend. Just a few of the things I’m really looking forward to are…

…weekend workshops with David Jakes. David does incredible work in his district, and is very motivating to work with. He’s doing the Sunday keynote as well.

…a ton of sessions on Monday & Tuesday - I’ve yet to pick the ones i’m attending, but there are lots of great choices.

…the other keynote speakers, Marc Prensky, Don Knezek and Gary Stager - what a lineup

…connecting and reconnecting with colleagues from my district and people met at previous conferences and online.

…my session on Video in the Classroom, which is Tuesday from 8:45-9:45.

It’s going to be a fun, tiring, exciting time!

Image citation:
Reynolds, Peter. “Quest2008.” NYSCATE. 21 Nov. 2008 <http://www.nyscate.org/07/pix/quest2008.gif>.

Content Tech
Ideas for Technology Use in the Classroom

Continuing our exploration of Using Technology with Classroom Instruction that Works, the next global question addressed is, “Which strategies will provide evidence of student learning?” The first strategy for this question is providing feedback.

“…feedback is ‘the most powerful single innovation that enhances achievement.’” (p.41)

This is not a rocket-science discovery, but the research (over 8,000 studies) points to the effectiveness of providing feedback.

A series of technology tools are presented in this chapter to support providing feedback - I’m going to focus on two that have impact in any classroom and are under-utilized. In word processing tools, Microsoft Word has two options that can really improve feedback: tracking changes and readability scale.

Students are very comfortable word processing documents, and can submit them electronically via a drop box. With the track changes tool, teachers or peers can review the documents, and provide comments directly in the file for the writer to review and respond to. Once the original author accepts or rejects changes, the final document can be viewed with or without changes visible. This option is also great so students can see the revision process in action. To turn on tracking, choose Track Changes from the Tools menu.

Another tool in Microsoft Word is the Flesch-Kincaid readability scale. After doing a spell check, if the readability scale option is checked, a summary of the document comes up with the reading level. Students who use this tool can judge the level of their writing using the scale. To activite the readability scale, choose Tools | Options | Spelling & Grammar and check the box to display readability statistics. They will appear each time a spell check is run.

Communication software can help with providing feedback as well. Blogs (such as this one you are reading) are great ways to post exemplars or student work and have students respond / critique / analyze the work. WITS discussion forums work well for this also, and can be set up so students can see or post to individual pieces. To set up the WITS discussion forums for your class, go to the class list section of WITS, pick a class, and choose the setup tab to activate the forums.

I’ve left out some other technology tools that are very useful in providing feedback (such as the clickers), but if you try at least one of the above, you will have a very useful new tool at your disposal to provide effective, timely feedback.

Book citation:
Pitler, H., Hubbell, E. R., Kuhn, M., & Malenoski, K. (2007). Using technology with classroom instruction that works. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

Image citation:
A Koranic school in Cairo.. IRC. 2005. Discovery Education. 19 November 2008 <http://streaming.discoveryeducation.com/>

Tuesday’s Technology Tip
Little “bytes” of information to help make your computing life easier.

All computer files use a 3-letter suffix to help the computer figure out what type of file it is. When saving, the file extension should be created automatically for you. It is a good habit to make sure your files have the extension on them, especially when saving and opening betwenn Windows and Macintosh. Some of the more common file types are:

.doc (Word DOCument)
.xls (EXceL Spreadsheet)
.isf (InSpiration File)
.exe (EXEcutable file - these are program files that run in Windows)
.jpg (Joint Photographic Group - these are picture files from digital cameras, etc.)
.gif (Graphical Interchange Format - these are graphic files also)
.wrc (Who Really Cares??? -just checking if you’re reading - of course you care )

If you run into a situation where a file does not open like you expected (or with the correct program), check out the file extension to see if it clues you in to the issue.

Content Tech
Ideas for Technology Use in the Classroom

Carrying on with a focus on the book Using Technology with Classroom Instruction that Works, the first planning question is: What will students learn? There is one instructional strategy associated with this question, setting objectives.

“…when students are allowed to set some of their own learning goals, their motivation is higher than when they pursue only teacher set goals…” (p.18)

Taking the time to have students involved in the learning goal process can be a challenge, especially when teachers often know exactly which goals will help the most. As the quote above clearly says though, student engagement increases when they have the time to reflect and provide input into their own learning (something that is true of adult learners as well).

Most of the tools presented in this section represent technology making processes more efficient (e.g. word processing a KWHL chart, emailing a newsletter). One that stands out as a real enhancement of the setting objectives strategy is to use organizing and brainstorming software with sound recording capability to create a audio/visual KWHL chart.

We have Inspiration software on all of our computers. Consider the possibility of creating a template in Inspiration with the topic of your next unit on it. As a pre-assessment of understanding, ask students to rapid-fire the KWH pieces of the diagram, AND record a sound clip for each of those items providing more detail or an example. This multi-modal feedback would activate more input from the students and possibly reveal more understanding or lack of understanding.

The authors point out a challenge with using software such as Inspiration since most students do not have it at home to use. This relates exactly to the post I wrote a few months ago about making software accesible. A solution in this case would to use an open source solution, such as Cmap. Using Cmap would break down the walls between school and home.

For the next Content Tech, we’ll be looking at the instructional strategy of providing feedback.

Book citation:
Pitler, H., Hubbell, E. R., Kuhn, M., & Malenoski, K. (2007). Using technology with classroom instruction that works. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

Content Tech
Ideas for Technology Use in the Classroom

We are familiar with Marzano’s research in Classroom Instruction that Works. In 2007, MCREL released a supporting book, Using Technology with Classroom Instruction that Works. What is terrific about this book is that it puts technology in the proper place - as a tool to support research-proven instructional strategies.

I’m going to take the next series of Content Tech posts to highlight the book, and discuss ways it can help us specifically in our setting here at Heim. I invite you to provide feedback and conversation through comments here or f2f discussion.

The introduction frames how technology fits in, by providing planning questions for instruction, instructional strategies that work, and then categories of technology available.

The four planning questions for instruction, and the associated Marzano strategies are:

• What will students learn?
  • Setting objectives

• Which strategies will provide evidence of student learning?
  • Providing feedback
  • Providing recognition

• Which strategies will help students acquire and integrate learning?
  • Cues, questions and advance organizers
  • Nonlinguistic representation
  • Summarizing and note taking
  • Cooperative learning
  • Reinforcing effort

• Which strategies will help students practice, review, and apply learning?
  • Identifying similarities and differences
  • Homework and practice
  • Generating and testing hypotheses

Note that 2 of the original 9 strategies have been split above in order for them to be addressed more specifically.

Technology to support the above questions/strategies have been broken into the following seven categories:

• Word processing applications
• Spreadsheet software
• Organizing and brainstorming software
• Multimedia
• Data collection tools
• Web resources
• Communication software

The following matrix shows which categories of technology best support which strategies (click to enlarge):

I’ll be exploring each of the strategies and supporting technologies in coming weeks. What initial thoughts/comments do you have about looking at technology this way?

Image citations:

“Book Cover.” Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. 5 Nov.
2008 <http://shop.ascd.org/ProductDisplay.cfm?ProductID=107025>.

“Matrix.” Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. 5 Nov. 2008
<http://www.ascd.org/ASCD/images/publications/books/pitler2007_fig7.gif>.

Tuesday’s Technology Tip
Little Tips to Hopefully Help Make Your Computing Life Easier

On District computers, you do not have control over the desktop or Start menu. You can create and mange icons in the Quick Launch Bar, found right next to the Start menu:

You can drag a shortcut for a program, a folder or a file to the Quick Launch bar, for easy access to those items later.

Try this to create a shortcut to your server folder:

1. On the desktop, open My Computer
2. Click on the icon for your server folder (), and drag it down to the Quick Launch area. If you drag to the correct spot, you will see a vertical bar appear, indicating you can drop a shortcut. If you drag to an incorrect spot, you will see a “Do Not Enter” symbol.
3. If successful, your Quick Launch bar should look like this:

Happy shortcut-ing!

Content Tech
Ideas for Technology Tools in the Classroom

Our video streaming service, Discovery Education Streaming, has a wide array of media available to support every content area.

One way to view available media is by browsing by New York State standard. After logging into your DE Streaming account, scroll down on the left side of the page to the Curriculum Standards Search. Choose New York State, Learning Standards, followed by your subject, grade level, and year (most are based on the 1996 standards).

At first what appears looks like just a listing of the standards themselves. If you click on the + to expand the standards and performance indicators, you will then be taken to a page with media that supports the particular indicator clicked on.

For example, browsing the ELA standards regarding reading comprehension reveals the following (click to enlarge):

The DE Streaming service allows for many different ways to search for content - this is just one way you can discover resources for your class.

Tuesday’s Technology Tip
Little Tips to Hopefully Help Make Your Computing Life Easier

Staff has access to the same locker that students do in WITS. To attach something to your WITS Locker, do the following:

a1: Click the “Personal” tab
a2: Click “My Documents” on the left
B: Click on “Add Document”
C: Click “Browse” in the window that opens up and find your file on the computer
(also note the allowed file types for upload are shown here)
D: Click “Upload” to put the file in WITS
E: It will now appear in your list of files. To Download it click on the filename.
F: If you are done with a file on WITS you should delete it with the “red X icon”

(click image to enlarge)

You may attach something to your locker from school to work on at home, or attach it from home to bring to school. Your files will not update as you work on them. You must save them on the computer you are working on and then place them back in your locker when you are done by following these instructions again.

Hat tip to Chris Poole at Transit for the directions and graphic!

So this is the first post from my iPod touch. A trip to the App Store & I downloaded the free Wordpress app. After a few configuration settings, I can post and manage the blog from my shirt pocket!

This device is a game changer in portable computing…