Training Topics for Laptop Projects

Share some topics for training that might help you this year...

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Leaders Supporting Laptops for Teachers

What two questions do you have as you move forward in the laptop for teachers project?

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6-8 Laptops for Teachers

What two questions do you have as you move forward in the laptop for teachers project?

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3-5 Laptops for Teachers

What two questions do you have as you move forward in the laptop for teachers project?

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K-2 Laptops for Teachers

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New Links Added to efriendlylearning!

I just wanted to note an update to my website efriendlylearning.com.

Since I have been working with 1:1 tablet PC projects I haven't been keeping current with my Free Applications for Handhelds recently. I am doing a few presentations at the Midwest Education Technology Conference and I have just added some new additions to my Free Apps for Handhelds site. Check out these great tools! And METC, too!

Lots of new favorites or bookmarks have been added to my FURL archive too! I use this online social bookmarking tool as an extension of my sessions with educators. The links that I review can be found here. For instance, if you heard me talk about alternate text to use with digital tools in your classroom, check out my FURL archive and filter the topics by Digital Text Sources.
Find more text sources...add a comment to this post with the link! I will add them to my archive. I am constantly adding to this archive so point your browser here or subscribe to my archive. Get yourself an account here.

A valuable link for teachers this time of year looking for practice for those high-stakes tests is an earlier blog, It's Testing Time Again, highlighting released test items from national and state tests.

What has Christine been doing to help educators embed technology in learning? Lots of 1:1 Digital Tool projects! And I am loving working with teachers and students in this rich environment! Keep track of me...

Just when you think you caught up...

I read two very interesting articles today, that impact my thinking about communicating and learning. What do you think about Death of Email and The Future of Reading?
Share your thoughts...

Reasons for 21st Century Skills in Learning

I have used this video with teachers and administrators as we work with one-to-one digital tool initiatives in learning.

Here is a video link for Did You Know created by Karl Fisch and Scott McLeod.

Watch this video and engage in discussion about 21st century skills in learning and the role that technology might play in the learning environment.

The authors have also created a Wiki Space, Shift Happens to support the "virtual" discussion. There are other versions of Did You Know on this site just in case your district has blocked YouTube with its proxy. One of my favorites is the SlideShare version by Jeff Brenman.

Share your comments after viewing! What data would you add to strengthen the discussion?

A New Add to an Old Fav, Google Earth

It is funny how your after hours web-surfing actually connect to something that happened earlier in the day....

One of my favorite tools, Google Earth was part of the observations I was doing in classrooms today. One class was using the toolGE to measure distances part of developing a "map" of the school neighborhood in a geography unit.

Another teacher was helping students read a chapter by doing a "text walk" and modeling a "think aloud". The topic was the ability to see the landforms of the earth. At that time in the observation a document camera was used to show a picture taken from space. The students read an excerpt from a book by astronaut, Michael Collins, describing the view of the world from space.

Ah...I wish she had Google Earth on each student laptop so that students could manipulate a take different views from outer space...

And now here I am finding that Google Earth now has a "sky" view. Download the latest version of Google Earth and check out what the sky has to view!!! There is a great video by astronaut, Sally Ride, which demonstrates the Sky View.

Virtual Spaces for Classroom Collaboration and Management

As a part of my consulting for efriendlylearning.com I have been working with schools in one-to-one digital tool initiatives in learning. I have found many teachers involved in these one-to-one technology initiatives looking for e-solutions which support student collaborating about learning, a place to manage their classroom content, the ability to publish student products, access to share ideas with other educators and communicate with the learning community what is going on in the classroom.

Oh...and please can it be free!!!! Hey, we are talking about education here, right?!

Well, that usually rules out the biggies like BlackBoard, Elluminate, and the other $$$$ tools. Open Source solutions like Moodle and Sakai are free, but usually need more expertise than the average teacher might have, or need resources beyond the teacher's "reach", so they are generally ruled out as options. But...what about the emerging 2.0 solutions??

Here is a list of solutions that I am investigating.
Chalksite, Elgg, Nuuvo , haiku LMS and Digication.

Of course the "free" is always for limited use but sometimes the features are just enough without going to the premium "pay" accounts. I want to guide teachers to a simple solution for those who have little support outside of the classroom.

I will be look for other solutions...post any you find!

Learning Forward - Day Two August 9, 2007

After taking a “Gallerywalk” viewing student work whether with students, teachers, parents or community members, find ways for them to reflect on what they saw and what they learned.

For our blogging purposes, think of this lab experience as reflective practice using student work to learn forward. Act AS IF you were a group of teachers who have gathered to review these lab samples of student work in your school.

Please comment on both aspects AND leave specific examples when possible:

1. What did you see in other products or learn from comments in the gallery walk worth considering?
2. What advice you would give yourselves to help coach even better student work NEXT time?

Greening Up Student Tasks - Ongoing Ideas for Transforming Learning for Kids

Now that your brains, creativity and collaborative thinking has warmed up, share your BEFORE (a G00d task assignment) and AFTER (a now GREENER and Greater task assignment) ideas increasing the quality of student work both in content as well as craftsmanship.

Play the good to great game by describing the task prior to the workshop experiences and the ideas you have now generated for GREENING it UP! Wherever your ideas start - no problem just join the challenge of greening IT up even more by using the template providing a compare and contrast approach to sharing. Feel free to consider this creative space an ongoing BEFORE/AFTER task even after our time together. This will enable us to continue learning from each other.

Begin with your team names.Now describe the BEFORE and AFTER using the following template - that way we can celebrate what IT looked like before and how it morphed into an even greener (ta da!) GREAT!

BEFORE-Good !
Student Task-
Type of Communication -
Rank Bloom’s Taxonomy-
Mode of Communication-
Category of Tech/Learning Use (L-A-T)-


AFTER – GREAT
Student Task Idea-
Type of Communication-
Rank Bloom’s Taxonomy-
Mode of Communication-
Category of Tech/Learning Use-

Teachers Explore Social Networking

Social networking is an exploding trend for online communication. Just ask any teenager about My Space or Facebook and they will be talking about their "friends" or messages left on their "wall". I know that many adults are afraid of these social networks... but sometimes it is just because we don't understand the tool and the communication systems and therefore cannot envision the value these tools have for learning.

What is Ning? Are you LinkedIn? Have you found out what's GoingOn? How can I learn more about KickApps? Isn't it all about me.com? And then ofcourse, what the heck is a CrowdVine?

Teachers, explore these sites, test a few by starting your own social network. Think about how you can get your student/parent/teaching community talking about learning on your customized social network!!

Here is a blog post that does a nice job of sharing details about some of the social networks.

Isn't Technology Competition(Lust) Great!!??

First the Apple iPhone and now....

Check this out running on a Windows Mobile device.
Want to know how it is done? While I don't own a Windows Mobile device, you can make yours "iPhone like" with a skin running on Windows Mobile 5.

It is all about computing in the palm of our hands!!