YackPack Tool Has Classroom Possibilities

In my trolling on a Saturday morning I found an efriendlylearnng tool that I think has potential in the learning environment. With a focus on "efriendlylearning" for both teachers and students I love this tool called YackPack. Right now, YackPack is in beta testing, so try it out!!!

Some Ideas for using YackPack in your classroom:
1) Record a homework message for students.
2) Conduct a YackPack parent conference to keep parents in the learning loop. What is great, is that this conference can be conducted without a face-to-face meeting and in a non-traditional time structure.
3) This alternative for email has the potential to help struggling learners get away from "text".
4) Students can explain their understanding of a topic or concept being studied.
5) Students can provide feedback to a teacher about an assignment or activity.
6) Students share their ideas in learning with other students
7) Teachers can provide feedback to students on their learning progress on an assignment.
8) Teachers can help students make connections in learning by asking strategic questions that prompt students for writing and thinking activities. These questions can be customized to the individual students and their special needs or skills.
9) In a busy schedule, teachers from other classrooms could actually "talk" to other teachers!

*10) What do you think!!! Give it a try in your classroom and post your ideas for using YackPack with students as a comment to this message!!

News for Your Classroom Activities

I am always looking for the latest news online to use for learning activities. One I think teachers might find useful is Dotso.com. The user picks a channel and feed for the news and the latest stories are highlighted. News channels range from ABCnews to the BBC or the New York Times. Feeds are categories listed for each channel such as Top News, World, United States, Sports, etc. Not finding the news you are looking for Dotso.com also has a Sports, Tech and Business sections!

Check out Dotso.com for your quick access to news around the world.
Go WhiteSox!

A Great Handheld Conference

Just wanted to post this to let everyone know of a educational conference focusing on handhelds for learning.

Sign up to attend this conference to talk with other handheld using educators. Get great ideas for using the handhelds with students at the pre-sessions, breakouts, and networking with other educators. I will be presenting numerous sessions----and you get tons of free handheld apps to take and use!!!

Here is the info....hope to see you there!!

The 5th Annual Michigan Handheld Computers in Education Conference will be Friday, November 4, 2005 at the Ottawa Area ISD in Holland, MI. Holland is in west Michigan, about 2 1⁄2 hours from Chicago. Educators from across the country will come together to share how handhelds, both Palm and Pocket PC, are being used to improve teaching and learning. Tony Vincent, author and nationally known handheld integration expert, will give the opening keynote followed by over 30 different breakout sessions. Before the conference, on Thursday, November 3, 2005, attendees can choose from four different hands-on preconference workshops and enjoy a luncheon keynote by handheld evangelist, Elliot Soloway. Cost: $50 each day, lunch included. The Conference is sponsored by MACUL, GoKnow, and Inspiration Software. For conference or preconference information or to register visit: www.remc7.k12.mi.us/remc/handhelds.html. Registration questions, contact Donna Golden: dgolden@oaisd.org 877-702-8600 x4071.

Another Great Handheld Application!

Resurrecting another great idea!

I came across a Palm OS handheld app the other day that is useful for teachers AND students. The software is called Lesson Plan by Tapperware. Teachers can use this as an instructional management tool to keep track of lesson plans and students could "makeover" the app as a student management tool for tracking assignments. While there is a cost to the commercial version, the trial version allows 20 database entries.Lesson Plan as an Instructional Management tool:The software allows all the features of traditional lesson planning software, but everything can be done on the handheld! Lesson Plan as a Student Management tool:I know there are other "free" software apps for students to track their assignments but the feature I like about Lesson Plan that helps the struggling learner is its ability to insert a template, where the student only has to enter the data for the specific assignment page numbers, etc. All the heavy text entry can be done through the insert command with a pre-designed template. The only thing better would be a beam command! See what you think...test Lesson Plan with your struggling learners and those would benefit from a little more ease when organizing!

Online Calendars for Managing Your Classroom

A repost of favorite entry...

As teachers we are constantly looking for tools to help support the home-school connection for learning. The use of an online calendar is one such tool that teachers can use to place classroom events, assignments, and more! Parents and students can access the information posted here, anytime and anywhere for instant access. If you want to create a stronger home-school connection use some of the free online tools. Look at the calendar I have posted for my professional development events and ideas. You can sign up for your own calendar and customize your events, too, at AssignADay 4Teachers or search for a calendar by subject, id or last name of the creator. There are so many examples for you to get ideas. Type "American History" into the subject box to see examples of the calendar use by teachers! AssignAday was created by The Advanced Learning Technologies in Education Consortia at the University of Kansas Center for Research on Learning. ALTEC utilizes the most advanced and innovative technologies available to improve teaching and learning. Some other great tools for teachers from ALTEC include the popular Rubistar, QuizStar, and NoteStar.

Tips for Demonstrating with a Palm Simulator/Emulator

Another one of those re-post for those who have read this entry and for those who haven't I hope you find this a use read for those using handhelds with students.

So many times when I work with educators using handhelds they talk about how they wished they could project the Palm OS handheld screen so that the whole class could view a demonstration. Many have access to a LCD projector for their computers, but not a docment camera to project the handheld device.

I have created some tips for those teachers who would like to use the Palm OS Emulator and Simulator on a computer to demonstrate handheld use to students. The Simulator and Emulator are part of the POSE environment.

While I don't cover all the basic uses of the Emulator, I have created some time-saving tips for those who use handheld applications that are not part of the Palm OS apps and are tired of loading those apps into the Emulator/Simulator one by one. This is a great tool for demonstrating handheld use to a classroom of students or to use with teachers and administrators during professional development.

I Furl, Do You?

Another re-post that I thought might be of use to educators!

Coming back to life after a hard drive crash has been yet another painful experience on my technology road. That is not to say that I knew it could happen, odds were for it happening, yes, it has happened to me before...I am already over the files I lost because I didn't do a recent back up...I regret the email I may never reply to because, yes, all that is gone....but the one thing I am thankful for losing are all my favorite URLs that were stored in Internet Explorer!

You don't believe me...it is true because I now FURL instead of using boomarks for favorites that are stuck in a browser on a single computer. FURL has made it possible for me to share all of my web resources with everyone online. You can visit my FURLed sites.
I have set up categories to contain my urls and can determine if the urls are private, only for my viewing, or public online viewing. It is so easy to FURL new urls with the toolbar button that is linked in my favorite browser. When I find a url that I want to archive, all I do is click the FURL toolbar in my browser . I record a short description for my FURLed url and select the category I would like it referenced in. It is that simple for me to make my urls available to you! Oh, and did I mention that this is FREE!!!!

Now teachers, think of the possibilities!
1. You could publish links for students to activate their prior knowledge about content .

2. Share classroom resources for students and parents.

3. Create a classroom FURL site where students can add resources pertaining to a topic of study.

4. You could use FURL links for supporting your differentiated student tasks with varied level of text.

5. Collaborate with your grade level teaching team to find web resources for content area study so that everyone can contribute and reap the benefits of teamwork!

6. Students are using this outside the classroom:)

7. Create links to virtual manipulatives and other learning tools for students easy access!

8. Try out FURLing and email me with other ideas of how teachers are using FURL for classroom management and student learning activities. I will post them here!!

By the way----check out my Virtual Tools and Manipulatives category to find some useful online tools for students!

Teachers Using Handhelds with Students

I am resurrecting some of my past blog entries to keep them in my new blogging format and space. For those who know me...just don't accuse me of being a John Whiteside! He was a much better writer:)
Are you using handhelds with students? Are you looking for ways teachers are organizing classroom instruction using handhelds? Do you just want to see handhelds in action in a classroom?

Well...here are some websites that highlight classroom use of handhelds. Send me your classroom website for handheld use!

New! Third, fourth and fifth grade teachers continue their work with handhelds in learning. They have created a blog of their experiences and have a website for the collective curriculum product they are creating. Watch it grow...

A collection of 5th grade teachers websites for combining active learning strategies and handhelds in science and social science.

The Paperless Classroom testing and experimenting with one-on-one technology.

Studio Four classroom page for using handhelds with students

Mr Cring's classroom where technology and learning go hand in hand

Circa 5 fifth grade classroom artifacts for handhelds in learning

Delmar students have created e-books to share!

Adventure Fourth using handhelds with students

Planet 5th archives for using handhelds with Mr. Vincent's students

Northwest Technical School highlights classroom uses of handhelds

Party with Your Palms a site created by a group of sixth grade girls

A New Blog for Teachers Using Handhelds with Students

Just wanted to make everyone aware of a new blog for educatiors using handhelds with students. My colleague, Kellie Doubek and I are working with many fourth and fifth grade educators as they continue to work with handhelds in learning. Some of our teachers have been designing learning activities with handhelds for over two years and others are just beginning their journey to embed the use of handhelds in content area instruction to increase reading and content learning.

At this time the students are using AlphaSmart Danas as their one-to-one computing tool. Even though the handhelds, (some will argue that it is not a handheld because of its size) or sub-laptop, are not color devices, the extended battery life, full-size built-in keyboard and wide screen have made them the tool of choice for this group of learners.

Join us as we chronicle professional development and classroom examples!
Learn more @ eFriendlyLearning with Handhelds blog