Fresh Look Fridays - Astrotour

I figured by week 4 of Fresh Look Fridays it was time to bring my Science colleagues into the fold. As such, my website for this week's review is the Astro Tour



An awesome look at the solar system, it works incredibly well with small groups of students at the SMART Board. The goal here is for students to spend some time experimenting with the tools on the side (you can slow down the speed of orbits, zoom in, change the central object to follow, etc.) as well as work through the tutorial.

Yet another great example of inquiry based learning amplified by an interactive whiteboard.

Looking for curriculum ties?
Grade 6 Science - Topic C
Grade 9 Science - Unit E


Have a great weekend, everyone!
Vanessa

IE, MF and GC - The Alphabet of Internet Browsers in Education

I've been spending a fair bit of time discussing internet browsers over the past few weeks. I've been pitching Mozilla Firefox to many teachers at workshops, mainly because I like some of the add-ons that it has to offer.

But all this talking about browsers got me wondering -- what do most people use? Why? A quick Google search came up with a list of top internet browsers, but the three that I run into most in education (minus our Mac users) are Mozilla Firefox, Internet Explorer and Google Chrome.



My psychic powers tell me that Internet Explorer going to meet the same fate as Netscape Navigator. Which means that I must convince schools to soon pledge allegiance to either Firefox or Chrome...

What does your school division use primarily? Any particular reason(s) why?

iPad - All The Cool Kids Are Talking About It

Due to the fact that I claim to run a technology-based blog, I decided that there was no way to maintain that credibility without at least mentioning the much-hyped release of Apple's iPad. I'm not going to lie - I really haven't had much time to day to sit down and do some proper research on what the 'experts' are saying, but I figured I'd throw my own 2 cents into the ring, nonetheless.


From everything I've read thus far, it looks like the new iPad is essentially a giant iPod touch on steroids, and the reviews are mixed. Some are impressed with the price and rave about its compatibility with apps, others bemoan the lack of a camera and flash capabilities. Check out a couple reviews that I have found thus far:
Here
And here

Either way, I think that the marketing directors at Apple have created enough hype around its release that it is sure to become an instant competitor for existing netbooks and ereaders.

I personally am a glass half-full type of person, so pretty much anything that's new, exciting and shiny impresses me initially. I think any of the disappointments that people have come from extremely high expectations and loads of rumours pre-release. For those naysayers out there, one of my fellow Twitter-ers (@cnanson) said it best when he said "If ppl expected Apple to announce they could change sand into gold they would be disappointed if they could only make silver"

On that note, I'm off to add iPad to my Christmas list...

Vanessa :)

P.S. I couldn't possibly let a relatively large political event pass by without a brief comment on it. Here is what I was watching on TV while writing this post:

I Can Take a Picture of What?

I'd like to start this post by taking a minute to thank the staff of Hunting Hills High School in Red Deer, Alberta. I just spent the past 2 days leading workshops with the Math/Science department and the Humanities department and had a lot of fun with the participants on each day. They were a great group of fantastic educators with lots of ideas, great energy and varying levels of background knowledge with SMART products.


Now onto my post...with so many tools in SMART Notebook, the floating toolbar and the control panel, it's easy to overlook some of the features that are available to you. Unless you have time to sit down and thoroughly experiment with all the the icons, buttons and links, I find that most users initially find a level of comfort with using "main" tools in their classroom and don't dive into the rest.

One of my favourite tools that I believe gets overlooked far too often is the area capture tool. When it is selected, it's own mini toolbar follows you into any program or website, and allows you to take a picture of an rectangular area, a window, your desktop or an area drawn by freehand.

Why do I like it so much?

• It's super easy to use (even the most introductory users can grasp the concept and implement it immediately)
• The picture is instantly embedded into a SMART Notebook file, so that you can manipulate it like any other object on a page
• The applications for use are endless -- screen shots to demonstrate a new skill, area captures of a website that your students explored to use as a visual reference, introducing layering in art (by taking freehand captures of vegetation, animals, people, etc. and building a new scene), the list could go on and on
  

But my favourite reason that I like this tool? Because of the wonderful reaction I get from "1st-time viewers" of its use, "I can take a a picture of WHAT?"

Vanessa :)

Fresh Look Fridays - Interactive Geometry: 3D

Before I get into this week's review of an interactive website, I just want to take a few minutes to thank everyone for their hospitality this past week. I spent the last 4 days in Ontario, conducting SMART Board workshops for teachers and division office staff with both the District School Board of Niagara and the Durham Catholic District School Board. The participants in each session were enthusiastic, fun and obviously very knowledgeable, which always makes for fantastic workshops! Thank you!










My Fresh Look Friday website today comes at the suggestion of one of this past week's participants -- Lynn Jeffs with DCDSB. MathsNet Interactive Geometry: 3D is a fantastic interactive website for junior high - high school math students.


This website provides challenges where students have to replicate specific 2D images on a 3D platform. For the spatially challenged, such as myself, this is not as simple of a task as it first seems! I particularly love this site because it easily lends itself to small-group collaboration, trial and error discussions and problem solving -- all skills for our 21st century learners. Put it on the SMART Board, and work through together as a class, or make the SMART Board a 'center' with this one Geometry activity for one group of 3-5 students to tackle, while other small groups work on additional geometry challenges around the room (traditional pen and paper Math problems, building 3D models, etc.)

Thanks, Lynn for sharing a fantastic website that works extremely well in classrooms with IWBs!

As always, here are the curricular outcomes for Alberta that this site helps meet:

• Grade 9 Math, Shape & Space Strand -- S.O. 4
  
• Math 10-3, Geometry Strand -- S.O. 1
• Math 20-2, Number & Logic Strand -- S.O. 2

And what the heck, since this site came from a colleague in Ontario, here are the Ontario Education outcomes:

• Grade 9 Math, Advanced -- Measurement and Geometry
• Grade 10 Math, Advanced -- Analytical Geometry

Have a fantastic weekend everyone :)
Vanessa

Learning to Share -- Not Just for Kindergarteners

What a great day -- a full workshop with amazing teachers from the District School Board of Niagara! We spent the time exploring numerous ways to use their SMART Board from K-12, all subject areas.


As always, the experts from the classroom generated wonderful new lessons as we went through some sample files. A common question I get at such an energetic workshop is how do teachers efficiently share the lessons with colleagues -- both the ones created today, as well as those in the future?

This is a common obstacle to implementing new technology in education, and one that can be overwhelming. Let's face it - many teachers are already spending countless hours worrying about their own lessons. As such, sharing ideas and lessons with others is a great idea in theory, but without structure and organization can result in frustration for all involved.

Here are a few of the most popular ways to combat this common issue:


1. Make the most of SMART Exchange (http://exchange.smarttech.com)
- search by curriculum standards
- browse by subject area, grade level, topic
- tag your own files with identifiable key words (such as your school district's name) to make sharing with local colleagues more efficient
- 'recommend' good files, then search by 'most recommended'


2. Host a file-sharing area on your network - either using webspace or a shared drive
- teachers may feel more secure not sharing some of their 'rough drafts' of lessons with more local colleagues, rather than publishing them for all the world to see
- easy for many teachers within a division to access, update and re-post with little to no need for technology "know-how"



3. Use a file-sharing site online (such as drop.io)
- the free version allows for 100 megabytes of space; a fairly low-cost upgrade allows for an expansion of this space, with plans beginning at 10 gigabytes
- the name of your drop.io is easily customizable, making sharing within a district easy and effective

Whatever method you and your colleagues decide to use, the main point is that sharing lessons, tips and tricks amongst the experts in your division (and larger PLN) is crucial. Open and shared collaboration is one of the key components to the continued success of using new technology (including SMART Boards) in the classroom.

Maybe it's time we took a look back at one of the key lessons we learned in Kindergarten...


Vanessa

Fresh Look Fridays -- Who's Who in the House of Commons

YAY politics! Ok, while most people (including students) don't tend to share my love of all things political, I've found that it's usually due to

a.) a resistant mindblock that has been socialized into them
b.) the fact that they've never been shown a great SNL political skit
or
c.) a lack of understanding of the political system.

The latter reason is why I love the interactive feature focusing on Canada's House of Commons on www.cbc.ca, and why it's the focus of this week's Fresh Look Friday. Using your SMART Board in conjunction with this site allows for the quick and easy manipulation of the data and can be used with small groups of students or an entire class.


"Who's Who in the House of Commons"

Students can interact with this chart to see great visuals of the representation within the House of Commons, broken down by party, gender and/or province, as well as specific names of MPs and their ridings. What a great platform for a class discussion on the reasons for some glaring trends (such as why Alberta only has one NDP seat?) or a visual to show Canada's election structure of representation by population! (It becomes glaringly obvious that Ontario has way more MPs than, say, Saskatchewan)

CBC.ca also has numerous other interactive activities on current events/trends to manipulate and explore, that would make for a great opening or extension activity for your Social Studies classes.

For Alberta educators reading this post, this website helps you meet the following curriculum standards:

Grade 9 Social Studies -- Specific Outcomes 9.1.4 and 9.2.6

Social Studies 30 -1/30-2 -- Specific Outcomes 3.3 and 3.5


Have a great weekend!
Vanessa

The Students We Face

More and more I hear discussions and debates surrounding the use of technology in the classroom. Is it worth the expense? Isn't technology just a more costly way of doing what we've always done as teachers? What professional development is going to support implementation? Is technology still valuable if used by non-techie teachers? Should we purchase a tablet or an IWB? The list of concerns, questions and debate topics can go on and on.

Our reality as educators is that we are increasingly facing a generation of students who have grown up with our fast-paced, ever-changing technology world, and are coming to EXPECT the latest gadgets in all facets of their lives -- including the classroom. Call them digital natives, call them Generation Y, call them 'that group of students that can't sit still for more than 5 minutes unless a flashy image is shown' -- the label is not important. What IS important is that they are leading the demand for increased technology in the classroom.

An article found here discusses a challenge that a professor in Florida gave her students -- go without TV, cell phones, iPods, DVDs, email and computers for 5 days. The result? Only 2 out of the 26 students succeeded in the challenge.

Not convinced? Take a look at the following video, entitled Teens Give Up Technology (launch the video from the link on the right of that page)


Watch as a group of teens are challenged to give up some of their personal tech items for 5 days.





Some of my favourite quotes? "I used to send over 17,500 texts per month" and "the regular newspaper is really messy"

Obviously this video also shows that there are some benefits to unplugging for awhile, as this demonstrates some of the over-reliance that some teens have. We could even discuss whether the mother in the video should have set ground rules so her son wouldn't have begun texting at the dinner table in the first place.

My point is, the students we face are increasingly plugged in, connected 24-hours per day and immersed in personal technology. It's time that we, as the education system, stop resisting this reality and start hashing out the details of how to properly embrace this change within the classroom.


Food for thought on your Wednesday.
Vanessa

Non-Techie? Your Cheat Sheet for 5 Key Tech Terms

We're all guilty of it -- tossing out technology terms around our non-techie friends and family, then proceeding to talk over their heads while they scramble to Google the definition.

As such, I've put together a cheat sheet of sorts for those who need it (whether they admit it or not)!

#1. RSS

• Stands for "Really Simple Syndication" [thanks Wikipedia!]
• Used to 'follow' new information as it's updated -- can be in the form of news, comments on a website or new posts to a blog. (shameless self-plug here: click on the icon on the top-left corner of my page to follow the RSS feed for my blog!)
• Simplifies the content so you can get a basic overview, or click on the link to see the full original text
• Look for the orange logo on nearly every website these days and choose what email service you use -- future content will show up in the RSS folder on your email

#2. Ning

• This apparently is the Chinese word for "peace" (just a little FYI)
• Essentially is an online community (also known as a 'social network') for those with shared interests.
  
• You can join as many Nings as you'd like, which often have smaller groups within the larger community, member blogs, forums and links to websites that members may find useful. I personally am a member of many Nings including "The Educator's PLN" and "The Interactive Whiteboard Revolution"
  

#3. GoogleWave

• While the layout is quite simplistic, this is actually a fairly complicated application -- it combines email, instant messaging, social networking, meetings and file sharing.
• I particularly like the fact that users can reply to any parts within the conversation and embed some tools that MSN or Facebook Chat lack (such as polls, visuals and interactive activities).
• All you need to get started is an email address, and you can request an invitation to join the Wave!

#4. Jing

• Yes, it rhymes with "Ning" but it's nothing alike. Jing is actually an image and video capturing tool.
• Similar to "area capture" or "screen capture" in numerous pieces of software, it allows you to take pics of your desktop and upload them to a designated URL. You can also upload videos to YouTube.
  

#5. Wiki

• I personally thought this one was pretty self-explanatory, what with the explosion of Wikipedia over the last decade, but I stand corrected after I casually threw out the term amongst friends recently.
• Ultimately, it's a website that anyone can edit and post content to. Usually, these are hosted on servers (many companies have them) and thus the responsibility of sharing information no longer needs to fall on the shoulders of one person.
  
• According to Wikipedia, "Wiki" has been backronymed (made into an acronym after it's introduction) for "What I Know Is". Huh? Translation: the info on a wiki is only limited by the knowledge of the people contributing to it.
  

Images taken from Wikipedia with links here:RSS Logo and Google Wave Logo

Vanessa

Fresh Look Fridays -- Paint Splat

I've decided to create a new component of this blog entitled "Fresh Look Fridays". My goal is to offer a link and a review of a valuable educational website that works well with an IWB.

My motivation for this is two-fold:

1. I consistently get questions from teachers about how to effectively use their SMART Board with resources outside of SMART Notebook software.

2. Let's face it -- by the end of a work week, our brains are metaphorically fried, our attention spans shorter and our ability to sort through information diminished. Aside from pre-coffee Monday mornings, this is the time of the week when I'm least likely to dive into the depths of my intellectual side, so it's probably best for me to avoid exhaustive philosophical discussions of current educational pedagogy!

Paint Splat is one of the best interactive elementary games on Peep and the Big Wide World. (It is the 3rd game from the top left)


Students need to select which tubes of paint they need to make Peep jump on in order to match the colour splat shown. Press on the hose to wash down the wall!

I've seen teachers use this as an inquiry project (students guess which colours might work), as a whole class review (the class votes on which colours should be selected) and as a small group learning center (groups of 3 - 4 students manipulate the board while others are working on other colour-related activities).

It's amusing, it's cute and best of all it's educational. And for those of you keeping track, it links to the following curriculum standard in Alberta: Grade 1 Science, Topic A - G.L.E. 5.


Happy Friday!
Vanessa

Rule #1: Be Aware of Your Audience

Numerous educators use various pieces of technology (laptops, iPods, cell phones, social media sites and blogs to name a few) for a wide range of tasks that often blur the lines between 'personal' and 'professional'.

We teach kids to adapt to this 21st century lifestyle by asking them to consider their audience, purpose and context.

That's why it's imperative to always proofread before you hit "Send":

See Cartoons by Cartoon by Cameron Cardow - Courtesy of Politicalcartoons.com - Email this Cartoon

Vanessa :)

10 Ways to Use Your SMART Board to Improve Teacher-led Lessons

SMART Boards (and other IWBs) are often celebrated for their ability to increase student interactivity in a lesson. This is absolutely true, but in their quest for increasing the amount of time that students interact with the content on their interactive whiteboard, educators often miss one valuable asset that IWBs offer -- enhancing teacher delivery.

Teacher-led lessons still exist, either for prompting discussion, introducing a new concept or those moments that require the teacher to share concepts with their class.

Below are 10 ways that SMART Boards can enhance the teacher-led lesson:

1. Capture on-the-fly notes

• Gone are the days of accidentally erasing whiteboard content or trying to remember what ideas were created in a specific class. Previously, the teacher had to either spend time at the end of class typing the notes created on the whiteboard, or borrow a copy of a student's notes. Not so anymore -- use Ink Aware (Windows SMART Board users) to copy handwritten notes into Word documents, use the screen capture tool, or simply open a blank Notebook file to record your students' ideas.

2. Show a video

• Why not? True, best practice would state that this shouldn't be the only use of your IWB, but why get rid of it completely? You've essentially got a large flat screen TV with surround sound that beats the heck out of the old 20 inch tube TVs that squawked obnoxiously when you turned the volume up too loud.

3. Use it to model a skill

• As a Social Studies (and, by default, part-time English teacher), I dreaded the inevitable dry erase marker stains on the side of my hand when it came time to model essay writing. With your iwb, you can accomplish the same task without the mess, and save your work for later (see #1).

4. Model an experiment

• Hook up a document camera to your SMART Board and capture live video, pictures and blown-up images that you can further manipulate on the board. Everyone can easily see it without crowding around, and there are no safety issues with students handling the material prior to proper instruction.

5. Add a component of "magic"

• Again, not to be the MAIN focus of your teacher-led lessons, but one that shouldn't be brushed aside either. We all like to be entertained from time to time, and that includes our students. For those who think magic shows are only for elementary, I have 22 recent Grade 12 grads who'd argue that point. Humour and surprise elements make for memorable moments that often helped these students remember class content.

6. Conduct the lesson from one location

• Having touch screen capabilities decreases the lag-time that was previously needed to switch computer programs. Quickly jump from Notebook to Word to the Internet to a video without having to leave the front of the class. Particularly useful for classes where a 30 second delay might throw off the entire flow of the lesson and lead to fires that need to be put out at the back of the room.
  

7. Provide memorable visuals

• You'd be surprised what impact a quick visual or picture can have on students' memories. Discussing a historical figure? Show a picture of that person in the background. Reading short stories? Throw up a plot diagram image. These visuals help students when referring to the content in later lessons. And yes, this could have been accomplished with a projector, but organizing these images is easier with an IWB. Which leads me to #8...
  

8. Organize all elements of your lesson

• SMART Notebook has an attachments tab at the side of the page where you can store actual copies of all the files you'll be using in your lesson (see diagram on the left). Gone are the days of trying to recall which folder you stored that really cool video in ("Social 10"? "great videos"? "files to use later"?) Create a lesson or an entire unit with ALL the pieces embedded into your main file.

9. Page record steps in a lesson

• The page record feature in SMART Notebook can let you, as the teacher, record the content that you create on the board. It can then be saved for students to access either for review, help with homework or for those who missed a week of school for a hot-weather vacation.

10. Operate in the same medium as your students

• Nowadays, textbook and workbook publishers often provide a pdf version of the pages. Showing these on the SMART Board while your students are following along helps decrease the "where are we"? questions, and allows for you to easily point out key points. Write questions or comments that students have on this content and use the screen capture tool to save these important points for later. (again, see #1).

SMART Boards and IWBs are a great tool, but they're just that -- a tool. Their value in a class is dependent on how YOU, the expert, chooses to use them to enhance all components of your lesson. With a bit of creativity and well-thought out planning, you can easily use your IWB to provide a meaningful learning experience for your students.

If you have anything to add to this list, please feel free to add them in the comments section!

Happy whiteboarding!
Vanessa

Am I a Twewbie, a Twurzel or Just a Twit?

Ah Twitter. The new-ish networking site that has evolved from constant annoying Facebook-like status updates ("I'm toasting my bread", "I'm buttering my toast", "I'm eating my toast") to a useful microblogging tool. I must admit, when I first joined with a personal account 614 days ago (thanks whendidyoujointwitter.com!) my sole interest was in following a few of my techie friends and legally stalking celebrities (yay @EmersonDrive!) It was fun, it was a novelty and I quickly ran out of things to tweet since everyone who bothered to follow me back (aside from those pesky adult entertainment spammers) were already my friends on Facebook. I saw no need to duplicate descriptions of my whereabouts or thoughts on life. And let's face it I'm not exactly @aplusk with four million+ followers.




Since re-joining the Twitter community with a professionally focused account exactly 27 days ago (again thanks to whendidyoujointwitter.com for that information!), I re-discovered the value in Twitter. Primarily, over my past 137 tweets (as of this post), I've networked with other educators, posted links to interesting content, shared thoughts on 21st century learning and learned TONS from others in my PLN (professional learning network). Thanks to Tweet3d I've created a Tweet Cloud that identifies what my most tweeted about topics have been.

I've also had a chance to see how some educators have chosen to integrate Twitter into their lessons -- a concept that I, unfortunately, did not think of introducing to my students during my teaching career. However, I see it as an extremely valuable tool, and cannot wait to share the idea with some of my former colleagues.

Despite my official status of 614 days on Twitter, I'm still considered a fairly green Twitter newbie -- apparently also known as a Twewbie, a Twurzel or, as my husband sees it, a Twit. Confused yet? I know I have been throughout this re-introduction to the microblogging world. (It took me forever to discover the twitter meaning of a "hashtag" -- my experience of teaching high school students led me down a different thought process on that one!)

For all those out there who have yet to join the Twitter world, I strongly encourage you to do so. For those fearful of being an obvious newbie, I recommend Twitter 101 as a starting point.


Happy Tweeting! (Just watch out for that blue whale -- he usually means trouble!)
Vanessa