The Wired Classroom

While I wasn’t able to make it to NECC, many of my Cooperating School District colleagues were able to, as well as my v/c community friends. Roxanne Glaser and Janine Lim are in San Antonio, Texas, and they are updating their respective blogs with all the stuff that is taking place! To check in on what’s going on, visit VC Rox and Videoconferencing Out on a Lim. Janine has several interviews linked on her blog with content providers, including Tonya Muro and Lisa Inks from Global Nomads Group. Roxanne & Janine, thanks for being so thorough and timely with your NECC blog posts!

 Janine Lim and Sue Porter talk about Read Around the Planet

(Don’t be confused by my screen shot (I liked the picture)!
Please click on “talk” above to see the clip).

To read up on NECC, visit http://www.necc2008.org/.

Now that the school year is over, I think people are starting to this about next school year-  and for high school students and their parents-  about college prep. Cooperating School Districts’ New Links to New Learning offers both an ACT Prep Class and now a PSAT Prep Class, both over videoconference. Trained instructors from The Princeton Review conduct the course and CSD gets you connected to the course. For more info, contact Rebecca Morrison.

Here’s some info to think about:

• Public Missouri high school students who completed The Princeton Review PSAT Clinic averaged of 12.1 pts higher on the PSAT, and the top 50% of student scoring 21.6  points higher, which is equivalent to an SAT scaled score increase of 216 points.
• According to The Princeton Review, when students attend all of the sessions, take all of the practice tests, and complete all assigned homework, average ACT score improvement is three points. 

Today was the Boundless Learning in Videoconferencing tele class. Districts represented were Hazelwood, Ritenour, Francis Howell, Normandy, and Parkway. During the day, participants learned about videoconferencing- everything from the equipment to programs to funding. We connected the class to three content providers- across town, across state, and across the country! Saint Louis University (AIMS), The Discovery Center in Springfield, and the Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, NY all provided v/c demos, sharing what they bring into classrooms. In addition to learning about different kinds of content offered, participants learned where to find programs and the best ways to schedule them. 

We told participants where to find free videoconferences (government agencies like Library of Congress and NASA). Multipoint versus point-to-point were covered, as was “upon request” and set times- common buzzwords. Participating teachers happened to be in New Links to New Learning districts, so we also shared what membership means. Of course, we gave them time ask questions, to click around the Moodle, to check various v/c content provider databases, and to skim all those v/c blogs out there!

K12 Online Conference is a free, collaborative, world-wide program- created by educators, for educators. If you click on the orange box above, you’ll go directly to the website where you will find a lot of information! 2008 is the third year for the October conference and presentations are still needed, according to the site: “this is our second call for proposals for the third annual “K12 Online Conference” for educators around the world interested in the use of Web 2.0 tools in classrooms and professional practice.” The deadline for submissions as been extended to July 11.

A little history: in 2006 and 2007, David Warlick was the keynote, presenting “Derailing Education: Taking Sidetrips for Learning” and “Inventing the New Boundaries”. On the website, you can click around and learn how to get professional development and graduate credit for participating in the K12 Online Conference. There’s a section for “first timers” and a link to the Ning set up by participants. Sounds interesting! All presentations will be archived online, and the conference has a Twitter account to update interested parties. You might want to take a few minutes and click around the website and see what they’ve done, and what they plan to do, and what you can do with Web 2.0.

 In an earlier post, we congratulated Cindy Lane from the  Lindbergh School District on being accepted to the Google  Teacher Academy. She’ll be heading to California next week.  We wanted to learn more about it, so we visited Google (that’s  where we also found the icon to the left) and here’s what the website says:

“The Google Teacher Academy is a FREE professional development experience designed to help K-12 educators get the most from innovative technologies. Each Academy is an intensive, one-day event where participants get hands-on experience with Google’s free products and other technologies, learn about innovative instructional strategies, receive resources to share with colleagues, and immerse themselves in an innovative corporate environment. Upon completion, Academy participants become Google Certified Teachers who share what they learn with other K-12 educators in their local region. 

A Google Certified teacher is an educator attended a Google Teacher Academy and is now a Google Certified Teacher. Google Certified Teachers are:

• Exceptional K-12 educators with a passion for using innovative tools to improve teaching and learning.
• Creative leaders who understand their local needs and can spread innovation as a recognized expert.
• Ambassadors for change who model high expectations, life-long learning, collaboration, equity & inclusion, and innovation.
• Certified in Google technology and able to lend their knowledge to you through professional development.

Each Google Certified Teacher has:

• Developed a “Personal Action Plan” to extend their learning to their community.
• Actively participated in the Google Certified Teacher Online Community.
• Shared the impact of their work with other Google Certified Teachers and will continue to do so through an end-of-year reflection.“

We’ve set up the following dates/times for Pat McKissack’s upcoming videoconferences. Pat is an award winning author who has written over 100 books! She does three part series, the first session always with teachers, the second and third with students. For more details and descriptions on the interactive programs, visit www.authorvisit.wordpress.com.

Winter Holidays Around  the World 
November  4, 2008-  4 pm
November  25, 2008-  9:30  or 11 am
December  16, 2008- 9:30  or 11 am

Creative Writing
Fall dates/times:                        Spring dates/times:
November 11- 4 pm                  February 24- 4 pm 
November 25- 1 or 2 pm           March 3- 9:30 or 11 am 
December 16- 1 or 2 pm           March 17- 9:30 or 11 am

Fact vs. Opinion with Arlene Zarembka
February 17, 2009 -  4 pm 
March 3, 2009-  1 or 2 pm
March 17, 2009-  1 or 2 pm

You’ll note that we are offering Creative Writing once in the spring, and once in the fall. We are also going to bring back the Historical Fiction/Biography series, but we haven’t set those dates- yet- but check here and at Pat’s blog, Can You Imagine? for updates. All times listed are central- Pat videoconferences live from St. Louis, Missouri at Cooperating School Districts. The cost for each series is $650 for New Links to New Learning members, and $750 for non-members. For information on New Links to New Learning, click here.

There are quite a few technology in education conferences taking place in July. As you know, I will be attending and presenting at the Missouri Distance Learning Association (MODLA) Annual Conference at Tan-Tar-A Resort in Osage Beach (that’s July 9-10).  Ruth, Martha, Nancy and Stacey will head to San Antonio, Texas the first week of July to attend NECC- the National Educational Computing Conference.  In addition, Successlink is holding the 6th Annual Technology Innovations Conference  July 17-18, also at Tan-Tar-A. There, Stacey will present on Web 2.0. Martha and Nancy plan to present at Successlink’s conference on several topics: Internet Safety, SMART Board, and Discovery Streaming.

In other education conference news, CSD’s CHARACTERplus is holding its 14th Annual Character Education Conference in St. Louis this summer. Dorothy White, who does an awesome job on the Midwest Education Technology Conference with Nancy and Joan, also works on CEC with a great group of folks from CHARACTERplus. CEC runs July 16-18.

  To quote Ruth’s granddaughter, “this is  serious business!”  I guess I do document a  lot of what goes on in the tele. Stephanie &  Stacey decided not to ignore the camera  today! Aside from posing for the camera,  they team taught second half of Free Online Resources for a group of teachers. What did they talk about? Accessing educational sources like web page creators, lesson plans, rubric makers, quizzes, Internet bookmark storage, and worksheet makers- for free- online.  

 During the day, the teachers clicked around  ikeepbookmarks.com and  took a tour of  Moodle, seeing how the Virtual  Learning  Center has utilized this open source software  course management system. Of course, there  was plenty of time to ask questions and  explore all the free options!

Stacey Franks showed me this great website- www.learninghand.com- where you can find educational podcasts in all subjects from around the world. Very cool! Please take a moment to click around the website. Tony Vincent has put learninginhand.com together. Check out his blog, too, you’ll learn what he has been up to and what he has planned when it comes to handheld computing, podcasts, iPods and other mobile devices! As Tony says about podcasting, “Remember, you don’t need an iPod or handheld to be a part of podcasting–you can listen right from your web browser. Whatever personal device you may use to listen to podcasts, learning is certainly in hand!”

Differentiating Instruction with Discovery Streaming   
Discovery Streaming (formerly unitedstreaming) is not just videos. St. Louis area teachers, come to CSD’s tele to find out how to use this awesome resource more effectively in your teaching! Dynamic instructor Cindy Lane will help you discover ways to develop curriculum based Writing Prompts, Quizzes and Assignments through the use of the Teacher Center.  

In this one day workshop, Cindy will show you ways to save time & make your teaching easier by creating common assessments and sharing them with your school and district through the use of My Content.  Bring a lesson idea, its objectives or GLE’s, and be ready to develop easy to use resources for more differentiated instruction.  You’ll meet other St. Louis area teachers utilizing Discovery Streaming, too. Walk away at the end of the day with a ready to use lesson- and earn graduate credit (see tele website for details). Interested?

 Class details: 
 Tuesday, June 17, 2008 from 9am-4pm 
 $125 CSD member; $195 non-member  
 Register at: www2.csd.org/tele