Boolean Searches

Each year, I do my best to teach the idea of boolean logic to third graders. Their wee eight year old minds have a tough time getting the notion of "and" but "not" as it applies to keywords. Ben Rimes, over at the Tech Savvy Educator posted about the Boolify Project using Boolify.org. It's a visually depicted search engine...using puzzle pieces. I'm a firm believer in using illustrations, graphics and analogies in teaching so this fits the bill perfectly. We're set to begin search engines this week, so it's perfect timing!
Image - http://www.boolify.org/images/boolify_logo.jpg

That's Not Cool!

Thanks to a MICCA Newsletter, I learned about That's Not Cool! Over at ThatsNotCool.com teens can watch videos about privacy, send text messages or callout cards letting someone know that a cyberboundary has been crossed, and my favorite area of the site, visit a discussion area about various issues. In the Talk It Out section, people can read about other people's experiences with cyberbullying via Text, Pictures, IM, Social Networking, etc and can respond to one another. I'm approaching my middle school administration about focusing a lesson around this site. Here's one of the callout cards that can be posted to facebook or texted or used as a desktop background:

Should You "Friend" Your Kids?

Common Sense Media is hosting an interesting thread for parents called "Should You Friend Your Kid on Facebook?" Parents from all sides of the debate are definitely weighing in and it makes for an interesting discussion.

Distance Learning for Teachers

We have an inservice planned in March and one of the activities we'll do is participate in some kind of distance learning experience. Some of our teachers have already dipped their toes into the "online course" pool, but this is a way for the whole faculty to check out the resources available for professional development outside of the traditional top-down model. I have created a page on our professional development wiki with some resources for them and I'm reposting them here for ya'll. You're welcome to use them freely:

One of the biggest trends we see in education is the development of Distance Learning. This means, the learner is not situated in a traditional classroom, with a teacher or even with other students. Most of the time, the learner is in front of a computer, sometimes learning interactively at the same time as a group of other students. Other times, they are all learning ASYNCHRONOUSLY...at their own pace and in their own time.

Today, we will experience Distance Learning on our own. This requires the learner to be intrinsically motivated, because there is no one requiring you to make eye contact or look interested! You can often even skip to the parts that interest you!

Learner.Org (Annenberg Media)
Learner.org http://www.learner.org/ This site offers professional development across the curriculum. This is CONTENT SPECIFIC, not HOW TO TEACH. You can browse topics by grade and subject area. You will have to create a login, but after that the courses are free. You will be unable to complete most courses in their entirety, but can definitely learn a few things in our time allotted. If you're so inclined, you can even earn graduate credit!

Discovery Education
There is a new site called "Teacher Survival Central" http://www.discoveryeducation.com/survival/ that offers a lot in the way of new lesson ideas in video format. You can also view some of the professional development videos offered on the Discovery Education (Streaming) Web site here: http://streaming.discoveryeducation.com/professionalDevelopment/index.cfm Categories include:

Teaching Tips

Best Practices

Interactive Training (a good one!)

Project Demonstrations

Discovery Education Network.

Teacher Tube
This site hosts hundreds of videos related to teaching various subjects. Some you can use to learn from, some you can share with your classes. Check out the most viewed links, top rated, and featured videos on the home page. http://teachertube.com/

Video On Demand/Podcasts/Handouts from National Conferences
National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS) Video Clips from General Conference Speakers http://www.nais.org/ac/ac.cfm?ItemNumber=149398&sn.ItemNumber=149439 And then individual speaker highlights here: http://www.nais.org/ac/eventdoc.cfm? ItemNumber=149909&sn.ItemNumber=149439&tn.ItemNumber=149910
NAIS 2008 Conference Handouts
Over 150 handouts from one-hour workshops and three-hour workshops are currently posted. http://www.nais.org/ac/eventdoc.cfm?ItemNumber=149399&sn.ItemNumber=149439&tn.ItemNumber=149511

National Educational Computing Conference 2008
You can view videos of various workshops and presentations at this year's conference. It's like you were there! http://center.uoregon.edu/ISTE/NECC2008/program/video_on_demand.php

Image credit: HB's Photostream on Flickr (http://www.flickr.com/photos/84861681@N00/)

FlickrStorm

Kathy Schrock over at Discovery School recently sent out a newsletter letting folks know about FlickrStorm. It's a site that allows you to search Flickr images by copyright. This is hugely useful because my students sometimes search for images to use in videos and digital storytelling, etc, and spend a great deal of time sifting for ones that are available for use. This ensures that everything they see is usable! Plus, it gives us another real-world segue into the copyright discussion, an issue that can seem so vague for students.

Teacher Suspended in Facebook Incident

Okay, admittedly this is old news, but I'm only hearing it now. Apparently, a teacher in a public school posted a comment to her Facebook page, thinking her profile was set to private, when in fact it was public. I'm guessing she wasn't a technology teacher. Or maybe I'm hoping she's not. At any rate, she was suspended. I read about it in T.H.E. Journal article "Suspended Teacher In Facebook Incident Ignites Debate." Of course there is some responsibility on the teacher's part for learning how to use a tool before posting sensitive information. But on the other hand, I think this is a perfect illustration of how our students fall into these same kinds of situations. They are not taught at school the correct ways to keep their information private, these subjects are taboo, and the Web sites blocked out. That kind of thinking produces adults who make mistakes like this one! My school blocks these sites out, but that's because of school policy, not my policy. I try my best to teach the students about it anyway through demonstration. I'm just not sure how much responsibility lies with the parents. Wouldn't you say most of it? Or no?

Positive Feedback Loop Revised

At our faculty meeting yesterday, I shared my diagram for what I thought created a positive feedback loop in technology programs in schools, probably specific to independent schools. The teachers were able to help me fill in the parts I had left out: professional development, long and short range planning and and peer modeling. It seems like we have covered most things. What do you think?

VideoConference Projects Database

On Classroom 2.0 Ning, I just learned about Collaborations Around the Planet, which "is a social networking tool for educational videoconferencing built into the new Read Around the Planet registration system." I haven't had a chance to dig around in the projects registry yet, but it is highly praised by our peers in the "How Are You Using VideoConferencing" forum....

What Dictates Success?

Our school's long range technology plan is almost complete. A part of this planning process is meeting with similarly-sized and resourced schools to determine where our own resources are going as compared to others'. It has been an interesting process and got me thinking about what makes for a successful technology department. I tend to think in pictures, so I created these images of what I think is a positive feedback loop and what makes a negative feedback loop. However, I am quite sure they are incomplete or too simplistic. What am I missing?