If you have not checked out the Student Showcase in WITS recently, you should now. Quite a few recent projects have been posted – new Wall Tiles, PhotoShop collages, Colony Advertisements, and more!
Tag: Something for Everyone
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WITS from Home
Don’t forget – if you want to get access to WITS from home – put in the following address: wits.williamsvillek12.org (there is not www in the address). If you have the correct address typed in, you should see a box to enter your username and password. There is also a link to WITS on the left hand side of this page under links.
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Lab Opens Tuesday
The Computer Lab opens for business on Tuesday 9/13. The lab opens at 8am every day. Students can come in early to work without signing up in advance – just come in. During the day, students can use the lab during studyhall or other classs as long as there is room. Students should ask their teacher to call the lab to check if there is room prior to coming down.
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ThinkBright
This morning I was reminded again about a HUGE resource available to teacheres around the country for free – PBS. The national PBS websites have many resources available, and our very own WNED here in WNY has its own website that acts as a portal (entry page) to these resources. The WNED site, called ThinkBright, has areas for teachers, students, families, and the community.
Go there – use it – enjoy it! www.thinkbright.org
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Internet2
If a dial-up modem connection is the size of a soda straw (in terms of how much data can travel through it), and a cable modem is the size of a water main pipe, then Internet2 is built on pipes the size of the water intakes in Niagara Falls. Internet2 is a new portion of the internet being built between universities and other government agencies, with the focus on educational opportunities.
I saw a demo tonight of a live piano duet between a man at the convention in Philadelphia and another at a University in Nova Scotia. With the backbone of Internet2 to transmit data at much faster speeds, this type of event is possible. Now, there are still delays in terms of milliseconds that do affect something like live musical performances, but there are huge implications for what we will be able to do in the not too distant future.
I’ll be checking out some more Internet2 (“I2”) demos this week to see what is going on with it. The “official” site on Internet2 is www.internet2.edu
***Update After More Internet2 Demos: Internet2 is so new that most are still trying to figure out what to do with such a big pipe. There are some interesting ideas out there – remote control of high powered scientific microscopes, NASA video conferences from space, etc., but the fact of the matter is that I2 is simply a much hugher pipe – finding a need for that much “water” remains to be seen…
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Epic 2014
At the Technology Coordinators forum, David Warlick spoke about telling compelling stories. He showed us the following site. Want to spend a few minutes thinking about the future? Check out this compelling account of what happens by the year 2014. Its about 8 minutes long, and worth it – a very thought-provoking show.
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If All Goes As Planned…
Our technology plan for the next 5 years, titled (appropriately) Heim 2010, is in place. In the first phase, next year we will be replacing classroom instructional computers. We have not replaced computers in a number of years, so this is the focus for next year. In addition to that, we will begin 2 other parts of the plan – mounting computer projectors in classrooms, and starting a video studio. Both of these initiatives have some awesome possibilities for learning, and we are looking forward to implementing them.
If all goes as planned, next year is year one of a 5-year plan that will see Heim Middle leading the way in technology integration!
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Worldwide Conferences at Your Computer
I had the opportunity to participate in a web seminar (web-inar) today regarding 1 to 1 computing. There are a number of schools and states that are starting a program to equip every student with some form of computing device (laptop, PDA, tablet) in order to promote better learning. I hope this concept is one we can bring to Williamsville before too long. This webinar included some high level college researchers, K-12 Administrators, and upper level managment from Gateway and Microsoft. The coolest part is that it took place while I sat right in the computer lab. Using a website called WebEx and a telephone, I was able to listen to the presentors and see their presentation appear on the computer screen. Polls, Q&A, and chat are all handled right at the desktop.
This is a perfect example of how technology brings opportunity that otherwise would be hard to take advantage of. Rather than having the expense of traveling to see such a presentation, the presentation (and all participants) came together virtually, and the same end product was achieved.
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Wireless…So Close, Yet So Far
Wireless acccess to the network from anywhere in the building is still spotty. If you are close enough to an access point, it is great. If you are not close enough, it is not so great. IT has made a committment to get the wireless overlay network totally fixed during next school year. When that happens, we will truly have an “anywhere, anytime” network in the school.
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Which Printer?
Here is a question that comes up all the time. “I just printed – which printer will my stuff come out on?” At home, with one printer, the answer is simple. In school we are networked, which means you can print to just about any printer from any computer. So the question becomes, “which printer did you choose to print to?”
BTW, the answer is to look at the print dialog box before you click print – it tells which printer the computer is currently set to. 🙂