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The Online Addiction

This morning I came across a post on Beth Still’s Nebraska Change Agent blog titled, Finding Balance. Beth writes about her commitment to finding balance between her online time and spending quality time with her family. This is a struggle many (all?) of us face. Here is my response to Beth’s post on how I am trying to ‘unplug and reconnect’.

Beth,

You describe a struggle many of us face. Not only is there work to be done (I’ve got my office in my lap!) but I often justify that I am fulfilling my lifelong learning goals by being connected.

It may seem silly, but I find the need to schedule time for relaxation and family/friends. I am trying to flip that and schedule time for online work/access. This will become more important as I have just begun a yearlong, rigorous online A&S certification program.

I have long since turned off my email sounds and taken the twitter pop-ups preference off. This has helped immensely. I check email at intervals, rather than constantly. During the school year this will change a bit due to the nature of my job, but when I am home, I am pledging to be more ‘present’.

I am also not constantly walking around with my phone in my pocket at home. I actually leave it upstairs for hours at a time! There are days where I just can’t turn on Twitter due to limited time. I know I am missing out on some great things, but I also know my PLN is always there; I don’t need to know or read everything.

As for my Reader, I am spending more time reading ‘offline’ when I have the time: on an airplane, waiting at the dentist, etc. Blogs, Readers, email, Facebook, they can all wait. Family and friends cannot.

Gotta run. I’m out the door to walk the dogs. It’s a beautiful day!

What are you doing to create a balance between your online life and your family?

Image attribution: http://u.nu/74uk

Effective Technology Leadership

Happy Leadership Day 2009! As I watched my twitterfeed today, I noticed the hashtag #leadershipday09. After a little investigating, I learned that Leadership Day was started by Scott McLeod in 2007. The idea behind this day is for bloggers to craft posts to assist their (or any) adminstrator with the idea of being a leader with regard to educational technology. As Dr. McLeod says,

Administrators’ lack of knowledge is not entirely their fault. Most of them didn’t grow up with these technologies. Many are not using digital tools on a regular basis. Few have received training from their employers or their university preparation programs on how to use, think about, or be a leader regarding digital technologies.

There are a list of prompts on Dr. McLeod’s blog entry for this year’s Leadership Day. I have chosen this one:

Do administrators have to be technology-savvy themselves in order to be effective technology leaders in their organizations?

This prompt is particularly meaningful to me due to the fact that I have recently begun an administration and supervision program through Johns Hopkins University in partnership with ISTE, so I have been thinking about the link between adminstration and leadership with educational technology.

To be an effective administrator and technology leader in the 21st Century, one must:

• understand technology is a critical piece to teaching and learning
• support and expect the use of technology in their schools
• recognize and understand the difference between effective and ineffective uses of technology in the classroom
• provide professional development opportunities for district staff (including themselves) to learn more about effective use of technology in schools
• budget and plan for the replacement of technology equipment
• surround him/herself with tech-savvy staff
• hire technology staff to manage and maintain the district/school infrastructure
• stipulate accountability for teachers to use technology both personally and with their students
• communicate the district vision of the use of technology in the teaching and learning process
• develop a community of learners to foster continued learning with technology

I think administrators can be effective technology leaders without blogging, podcasting, or even having a twitter account. What is important is for administrators to understand the potential and power of these tools and value their use for students and teachers.

Crossposted at JudithEpcke.wordpress.com

Teaching and Learning with iPods @NECC09

My district will be implementing some sets of iPod Touches during the 2009-2010 school year and I have been on a quest to learn as much as I can about their use in schools. I attended 3 sessions at NECC 2009 that gave me some great ideas and information

Tony Vincent, handheld guru, presented a session called: Do So Much With an iPod Touch. Tony’s presentations are always wonderfully well organized and have something for everyone.

Here are some great apps and ideas he shared:

• places to look for iPod apps besides the iTunes store: appshopper, mobclix
• earbuds are available from Walmart for $0.97. Beats having kids share them. Ew!

*Note: Games labeled as “lite” are free versions of a paid application. Lite versions usually have fewer levels or settings/options to entice you into buying the full-featured version. Lite versions often are enough for a school setting.

• Language Arts
  • Whiteboard Lite* — 2 devices share one ‘whiteboard’. Have students pose math problems to partner, create a list of synonyms together (can be saved for use later)
  • Quickword ($4.99) — word processor, can be used for peer editing: ‘red hot’ words (strong words) make them red, ‘cold words’ that need revision color them blue
  • Dictionary.com — once downloaded you don’t a wifi connection, a dictionary that is always with you
  • Lifestrips ($2.99) and Comic Touch ($2.99, also a Lite* version) — create comics, add speech bubbles and effects to photos, the ideas are limitless

• Social Studies
  • convert YouTube videos into mp4 format (needed to play on iPod) by using kickyoutube.com
    • first access the video on YouTube
    • then add ‘kick’ to the url before ‘youtube’ in the URL (ie. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mEJL2Uuv-oQ becomes http://www.kickyoutube.com/watch?v=mEJL2Uuv-oQ)
    • choose the mp4 format and download
    • drag into iTunes on computer
    • add to iPod during next sync
  • Inflation ($0.99) — see the relative prices of most anything from 1800 to the present
  • Google Maps (installed on iPod Touches as ‘Maps app’ — take a photo of a place/building and use with other maps
  • Allli’s Jigsaw Puzzle ($0.99) — turn any picture into a jigsaw puzzle, let kids put together to review a concept
  • create a list of links for students using wirenode.com
    • creates a mobile website for students to access using Safari on iPod
    • eliminates need for bookmarking in Safari on each iPod

• Science
  • Flipbook Lite* — create animations of processes or cycles
    • will need a stylus to draw with detail
    • can upload animation or see what others have created on flipbook.tv
  • Belkin Mic (or similar) — have students narrate during a field trip or while performing an experiment (will need to put audio into GarageBand on a Mac (or similar audio editing software on PC) if editing audio is desired)

• Math
  • Math Drills Lite* — math facts practice
  • Make Num Lite* (Sum it Up) — use as many numbers possible to make a given sum
  • Lemonade Stand ($0.99) — the old stand by simulation game now for iPods/iPhone

The “Birds of a Feather” session Using iTouch and iPhones for Teaching and Learning, dealt with a huge gamut of topics with lots of folks popping up from the audience to add to the learning. It was a wonderful structure and a rich learning experience. It can be viewed here thanks to Scott Meech for posting the video and the folks at ISTE for recording it.

Here’s a tidbit from the session, Global Connections in the Primary Classroom:

• Australian teacher Amanda Marrinan has her Years 2s (which is equivalent to first grade, I think), read books into an iPod and then sends the iPod home with the child so parents can hear their children’s reading fluency. She stated that many parents say they are too busy to sit down and listen to their children read. She also has them podcast what they are learning and posts it to their blog.

For more iPod apps, ideas and information please check these sites:

• Tony Vincent’s Learning in Hand
• IEAR.org (i Education Apps Review)
• Lots of links and resources on Karen Thompson’s iPod Touch site
• iPods4Education wiki Add some of your own resources/ideas, too!

Making ‘Magic’ (schoolbus) with 1st Graders

At the suggestion of Ann Oro (aka @njtechteacher) and Kelly Tenkely (aka @ktenkely) both ladies from whose blogs I learn much, I am writing up the information on how I created the “Magic Schoolbus Goes to the Ocean” project with 1st graders.

Classroom Teacher’s Role:

After reading the book, The Magic School Bus on the Ocean Floor by Joanna Cole, the 1st graders did some research on ocean topics of their choosing. From the research, they wrote a few sentences on their topic. The teacher took photos of each student in various poses (like swimming) in front of a green screen. If a green screen is not available, the photos can be taken in front of ANY solid color background, like a bulletin board. It’s best if the background doesn’t have a texture, so a cinderblock wall is not a good option.

Tech Facilitator’s Role:

Preparing the images: To prepare the images, you need to remove the green screen background. There are many ways to do this with image editing software like PhotoShop, but I used the ‘Preview’ program on the Mac. I opened each photo in Preview and used the Instant Alpha tool to remove the background. The Instant Alpha tool, or magic wand, is located in the “Select’ menu. Work carefully so as not to eliminate too much from the photo. Changes aren’t finalized until pressing ‘Return’. Resave each cropped image with the name of the student.

Drawing the background and adding the child’s photo: The next step is to have the students draw their background images in KidPix or a similar drawing program. As they are creating their drawings, it is important to remind the children to think about where they will place themselves in the picture. Save the KidPix drawing and then insert the cropped green screen image of the child. To insert the image in KidPix, go to the top menu and select Import>Graphic and navigate to the desired image. Once the image is imported there will be green handles at the corners to resize the image. The 1st graders were able to resize their images and place it in the desired location. Once you click off of the image and the green handles disappear, the image cannot be moved. This happened a few times, so we had to ‘Quit’ and open the drawing again. That is why saving BEFORE importing the child’s image is important. Once the image is in place, save the KidPix file and export as a jpg (File>Export).

(The next two steps could be completed in Word, PowerPoint, or Keynote. The steps may be different, but the same result can be achieved)

The Comic Life template: In Comic Life, turn the page to Landscape (File>Page Format>√ the Landscape box). Drag an image box onto the page to the desired size of the book page. Add a rectangular textbox in the upper right (or left) corner and fill the box with yellow. This replicates the notes seen on pages of the Magic School Bus books. This yellow box is where an adult will type the sentences about the ocean topic written by the child. After typing in the facts, save each Comic Life document with the child’s name.

Adding the children’s drawings and speech bubbles to the Comic Life page: Navigate to each KidPix jpg and drag it in to place into the saved Comic Life document. The image will slide under the yellow text box with the facts. Have the students add their speech bubbles and comments. Save as a Comic Life document.

Publishing: There are many different ways to publish. We have printed them to make a class book. We are also recording the students’ voices in a VoiceThread. If using VoiceThread, you will need to export the completed Comic Life document as a jpg (File>Export>Export as Image) before uploading into VoiceThread. Here’s our finished product: http://voicethread.com/share/466957/

We worked on this project 2x a week for 30 minutes each time. My involvement didn’t occur until after the research was completed. To complete the ‘tech’ portions of this project, we completed it in about 3 weeks (9 meetings). The children loved putting themselves into their drawings and really saw the connection to the actual Magic School Bus book. They are enjoying reading and rereading about their ‘journey to the ocean’.