Educational Technology Weblog

The SDPBC Web site is very often the first impression to prospective employees, parents and students and represents the priorities of the organization to stakeholders.  Through the leadership of Deepak Agarwal (CIO), a presentation to the Superintendent’s Technology Committee demonstrated the need to provide consistent navigation and design, logical organization of content and use modern and efficient publishing methods to enrich the District brand through it’s Web presence and better serve all stakeholders.

Here is the PowerPoint presentation to STC with working links:

The SDPBC Web Redesign Project has been initiated through the Project Management Office (PMO) with the support of the Superintendent’s Technology Committee to:
Reorganize current District Web content by implementing a Web Publishing System that will provide standards, governance and support for departments to publish content in a consistent, organized and efficient manner in order to better serve all stakeholders and represent the District as an efficient and cohesive organization.

What does this mean for departments?
•    Ability to focus on content
•    Standardized templates and tools
•    Efficient utilization of staff resources
•    Reduced cost
•    Technical support
•    Part of a cohesive organization

Want to participate and learn more – attend a Stakeholder Workshop!!

It’s interesting to see what matters most to people if they are limited to say, 180 characters?

1000ThingsThatMatter is a project by blogger, Chasing Sheep. He’s creating a movie about the changing nature of technology and what matters to us most.

“We need your help. We’re making a film and we need to know what matters to you. So, we’ve just launched www.1000thingsthatmatter.com and we’re keen to get 1000 entries as fast as possible. Please spread the word We know you all have great ideas and lots to say… and we look forward to hearing your entries. Go on. What are you waiting for?”

As school begins again in the next few days, wouldn’t this be a great project for students of all ages? If you prefer for your students not to contribute right on the site, you can always create your own similar project. This can be done on a educational microblogging site like Edmodo, a wiki, blog, or just on pieces of paper and hang them on a bulletin board in your room!

I will be the first to admit that I can use plenty of help when it comes to my ability to remember lists of facts, or organizing my thoughts.  I will bet that many teachers are familiar with ways to become better thinkers and I’d love to here them.  Here’s a link to a really immpressive list of things you might consider useful in improving your own thought processes.

 This interactive list of ideas and information surrounding ways to improve your cognitive skills comes courtesy of Jessica Merritt and can be found at http://www.find-schools-online.com/blog/  This list has something for everyone. 

Please feel free to comment on your favorite or on any that you think are not worth the time.

Local television and YouTube sensation Damon Weaver from Canal Point/K.E. Cunningham Elementary has set a goal of interviewing President-elect Barack Obama at next year’s inauguration. But let’s allow Damon and his crew speak for themselves:

Now that you’ve seen the talented Damon in action (and let’s don’t forget the work of his dedicated teacher, Brian Zimmerman, who oversees the school’s KEC-TV and prefers to remain behind the scenes),here’s the big question:

What can you do to help his cause? It seems that funds are coming in, but it will take quite a bit of money to get Mr. Zimmerman and his students to Washington. Let’s see what they posted on YouTube:

Student reporter Damon Weaver, a student cameraperson, and two teacher chaperones will be going to the Inauguration in D.C. The students will create reports about their trip for their school. All of their reports will also be uploaded to this You Tube channel. Our school is still working on raising enough money for the trip. The entire trip will cost around $4,000. If you are interested in helping please make a check or money order to KEC/Canal Point Elementary and send it to:

KEC/Canal Point Elementary

Attention: Brian Zimmerman

37000 Main Street

Canal Point, FL 33438

For more info see this article in The Palm Beach Post that discusses Damon’s goal.

And for more Damon, you’ll want to see his full interview with Miami Heat star Dwayne Wade. Absolutely, positively worth the few minutes it takes to see Damon bring out the best in a sports star.

Is It Stressful?
It’s not uncommon during the gift-giving season to find yourself exchanging gifts with many, MANY, many people. Certainly there’s people from your family, but then there’s teachers in your schools or perhaps you belong to a church group, sports team or a MahJongg group. (Hi Mom! How’s the MahJongg coming?). Dare I even say, as I approach 50 (in 4 years, don’t rush me), the Red Hat Society? And how “Scroogey” is it to decline your part? Downright embarrassing, but sometimes necessary. Even putting a price limit on gifts can still cause quite a bit of stress on participants when there are so many involved.

Find Your Inner Elf
If you haven’t already considered organizing a Secret Santa Or Secret Hann-u-Claus or a Festivus For The Restivus exchange, now is the time. It’s not too late.

Watch and Learn
I was first introduced to Elfster by good friend, Steve Dembo. He finds the best stuff online and as quickly as he finds this stuff, he’s shared it with his friends (all 2,769 of them). I’m not going to explain Elfster any further because I know you are just DYING to watch this segment from the PalmBreeze CAFE where I explain how to set up your very own gift exchange and of course, I give credit to Steve for organizing probably the world’s largest gift exchange ever with Educators world-wide.

If you like this segment, you can subscribe to all the PalmBreezeCAFE segments through iTunes by clicking here!

How do you handle gift-giving during the holidays?

It seems only appropriate to wish the fabulous Lee Kolbert a Happy Birthday using a Web 2.0 tool such as VoiceThread, so here we go. You can scroll down a bit and join Dean Shareski and others from around the world in wishing Lee the best of days.

Many teachers here in our own school district know Lee from our TV show and all the great training she’s done over the years in how to use technology to enliven their lessons. What people might not know locally is that Lee has a reputation that reaches all over the world. That’s right, Lee is one of those pioneers in the field of educational technology that sees the really big picture, and has collaborated with folks all over the world. Teach Locally, Share Globally pretty well sums up Lee’s attitude.

So, without further ado, here’s our little tribute to Lee. You can join right in by adding your own voice here and wish Lee a happy birthday. By the way, if you add a comment to this Voice Thread please be sure to tell us where you’re from.

If you are looking for an EASY and very cool way to promote community amongst your interest groups, I have found TabUp to be an outstanding resource. If your school district or community group does not provide you with your own web presence FREE TO YOU, and you would like to create a private, semiprivate, or open destination for communication, TabUp can provide just what you are looking for.

With features like a shared calendar, forums for discussion, links to various web resources, and the ability to make this modrated or invite only ALL FOR FREE, I can’t think of a school group, sports team, or common interest group that would not find some use for this service. Please take a look, and add your thoughts to this page. The page is not intended to be a primary source of new information, but rather a living example of another great FREE tool available to educators and community groups.  I will be automatically notified of any changes or additions, and will be sure to act on valid suggestions.

This sideshow and many other useful “Best Of” lists can be found at the web site of the Centre for Learning & Performance Technologies. Click on any that you might not be familiar with to see what they have to offer. I always recommend listening to what other educators find useful, and this is a great way to add new tools to your proverbial toolbox. Please keep in mind that these resources are gathered and reviewed by educators from around the globe, so as you explore, please understand that certain links will be blocked by various educationally based firewalls and security measures

I had the chance to speak with Allisyn Levy who runs the BrainPOP Educators blog at a conference recently, and they’ve got some great things going on over there! We’ve always been impressed with the terrific content that we receive from BrainPOP and BrainPOP Junior here in our school district, and the company is now reaching out to educators through an online community.

If you don’t know about this community of BrainPOP-loving teachers then you’re missing out on some great ideas for integrating BrainPOP into your classroom. It’s definintely worth your time to sign up (free of course) and join in. Whether you’re using BrainPOP, BrainPOP Junior, or BrainPOP en Espanol–which we make available at school and at home in our school district–you’ll find that this is another example of how your personal learning community can be expanded by becoming involved in discussions with like-minded educators.

One of the added benefits of joining BrainPOP Educators is it gives you the ability to embed the featured movie of the month in your own web site. That’s right! All you need to do is copy and paste the code provided to you after you request the snippet from BrainPOP and away you go. Try it! It’s easy! Palm Beach County teachers can even do this in their Edline sites, providing their students and parents with a fun lesson from BrainPOP that changes frequently.

So, without further ado, here’s what you’ll see when you get your own BrainPOP code. I’m not even sure what movie will appear when you read this, but you can be certain that the content will be like the rest of the material we get from BrainPOP–fun, fast-paced, vocabulary-rich, and chock full of add-on activities that you can do with your students!

Me neither but I felt like I was very close!

Today, I had the pleasure of video conferencing with a 5/6 grade class in Central Butte, Canada. Participating in the activity was (teacher) Barb Mcinnis (& her students), Tim Lauer (Portland, Oregon), Tom Barrett (Nottingham, England) and Dean Shareski (Moose Jaw, Canada). This is direct from Mrs. Mcinnis’ class blog

:

The grade 5/6 students had the chance to meet people from different parts of the world thanks to wireless technology!  On Tuesday, November 4 we participated in a web conference.  We had the opportunity, thank you to Dean Shareski (division technology) to interview educators from Nottingham, England;Portland, OR; Florida; and Moose Jaw via a web cam.  We were able to see and talk to these individuals. We first asked them questions to try and locate them, then we talked about the wireless technology that exists in their classrooms and schools.  Wow!  there are sure some great pieces of technology being used!! This project came about from an article we had read called “Get Set For the Net”. This article helped us understand how past inventions lead us to the wireless age we live in. Most of the students take this age for granted and do not realize the negative and positive effects it can have on our lives. We watched “Smart Guy:Stranger on the Net” to help us become more “Net” smart. Then we decided to do something positive and exciting with our wireless technology.

I’d like to commend Mrs. Mcinnis for her innovative vision as she seeks out relevant technologies to make learning for her students relevant. Wouldn’t you love to be in her class? This is an easy and free activity that took less than 40 minutes and can easily be replicated in YOUR classroom. Where would you find another class to communicate with? Try ePals, for starters.

This is the edited version that Dean created (5 min):

This is the entire conversation (40min):

Thank you, Dean, for asking me to participate. It was truly a pleasure to “meet” Tim, Tom, Mrs. Mcinnis and all of her students.

P.S. I hope my clues (about where I live) still have them stumped!!

The Technical Stuff:
We used Adobe Connect to have our online conversation and I recorded the session. When we were finished, I downloaded the video in .flv format (the default for recorded Adobe Connect sessions) and then uploaded that file to our school district’s Vodcast server (Video On Demand). I was then able to copy the code (anyone know how to read code??? Certainly not me, but I know how to copy and paste!) and pasted it into this blog. Code like that can be pasted into ANY webpage, including Edline! The video is also available on MediaShare along with a description so other teachers can easily access and replicate similar activities in their classes.