We closed the HDS Tech Summer Workshop today and eight teachers successfully completed the program with their presentations in the Main Lab. During the three days, we had over twenty staff members participate at least part of the time.
There were two comments this afternoon that I was most excited about. Donna Peck was appreciating the value of working closely with other teachers and she asked, "Do our students learn as much when they work together on projects?" Yes, they do...absolutely. And several of the teachers today commented on the high value of working with each other on their projects. During the year, teachers see each other all day long, but rarely get to learn in collaboration with their peers. When teachers are doing their primary work, teaching students, those teachers do their job in isolation from other teachers. When working directly with students, teachers are usually alone. Even if another teacher is in the room, she is usually working with another group on the other side of the room. I'm glad that everyone had the opportunity to work so collaboratively this week.
The other memorable comment was when Ernie noticed how a lot of the examples were about doing everything online and said, "I think there is a secret agenda to get us to stop using so much paper." No, Ernie...it's not a secret.
There were several interesting topics that were introduced today that I would like to comment on because I think they would help you.
Leslie told us about Pandora.com, the online music service that is FREE. Just visit Pandora to create an account and you can run it on your computer or use the iPad and iPod app. Robert commented how he uses it for background music for kids working in class. I do the same for my students at Towson and it works wonderfully well.
Kate showed us the Flashcard Machine website. People from all over share flashcard sets on nearly any topic you might need. But, you have to check them for accuracy first, of course.
Tricia and Sally showed us how they are using the Announcement feature on their class website to provide parents a weekly update. I'm disappointed I don't have any more kids to send through kindergarten. I like updates like that. (hint, hint...grades 1 and 3)
Ernie shared several websites he found. The lesson we learned from his presentation was that you do not need to spend time recreating information that is already organized on another webpage. If you find websites useful for your students, you simply paste them onto your website and let your students explore from there. Yesterday Patrick discovered the value of using Diigo for sharing websites with his students. I'm sure he would be glad to show you how it works.
Donna Peck shared her presentation about lockers for the fifth graders. She had difficulty converting a PowerPoint presentation to a Google Docs presentation. We'll figure out what the problem is and get back to you. But, her difficulty also revealed another issue. You do not have to do everything in Google Docs. Google Docs is great for online storage of documents so you have access to them anywhere and it is great for sharing documents with other without having to trade flash drives or print to paper. But, Google Docs has limited features compared to OpenOffice of MS Office (Word and PowerPoint). For most projects, those limitations are not an issue. but, if you need the full features of PowerPoint and you are the only one using your presentation on your own computer, you do not need to create it in Google Docs.
Donna also told the teachers about an article I shared with her about applying the principles of multimedia learning to making a presentation. You can get a free PDF copy of that article online.
That is a summary of what I teach in my classes at Towson University. If you like the article and want to learn more about, I'd love to do a session about for you. You can also visit Atkinson's website to learn more about Beyond Bullet Points.
Robert showed us all the changes he made to his class website. Several teachers figured out they don't like the preset theme with the notebook paper, so Robert showed us how to change it. He also showed how he embedded his Google Calendar into the body of his website without having to click to a different page. Robert also showed us the Free Rice website. If you don't already know what it is, you'll want to try it now.
Overall, I was extremely pleased with the success of the HDS Tech Summer Technology Workshop. I thank Su for providing the leadership to allow this workshop to take place and especially for providing a great lunch for everyone each day. I thank David and Tracy for supporting this project with their time and talent and for being the best team I've ever worked with. And, I mostly want to thank all the teachers who volunteered their time this week to focus on their own professional development to make Harford Day School a better place for all our students.
I had a great time working with you this week and I'm looking forward to another year of helping you in your classrooms. And, yes...I'll come help you even if Anna and Joshua aren't in your class.
Daniel
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
HDS Tech Workshop: Day 2 Review
There were a few issues raised today that I have answers for (or at least partial answers).
First, several of you asked about ownership of the grade level website, so I asked David about it. The grade level website is owned by one of the homeroom teachers. Then that person shares editing rights to that page with the other homeroom teacher. DO NOT share your account login name and password with each other. You share access to individual pages, but you do not share your account. If you need to know how to do this, we'll show you. Better yet, read the help article now: http://sites.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=97934&ctx=share
Another question was about posting pictures of students on your webpage. If you have a specific question, you should check with David Withrow or the Development Office, but in general it's OK to put pictures of your students on your web pages. Just do not identify specific students by name in the pictures. Group pictures work the best, both because it limits the attention on any individual child, but also because you get more of your students' parents interested in each picture.
Another photo issue that came up today was loading pictures from a digital camera to a web page. Donna P. found that she couldn't load pictures directly from her camera to the class web page because the file size was too big. The digital cameras assigned to each grade are 10 MegaPixel cameras. That size is great if you want to get high quality 8x10 prints, but for a webpage, they are way to big. Google Apps does not allow file uploads that big because it would make viewing your page too slow for most users.
If you want to take pictures directly from the camera to the website, the easiest solution is to reset your camera to take pictures at a lower resolution. On the Canon PowerShot A40, click the "FUNC. SET" button and then click to the right to set the resolution to either "M3" for 2MP pictures at 1600x1200 or even to "S" for 0.3 MP pictures at 640x480. The M3 setting should be small enough to load to Google Apps, but still high enough quality to make nice 4x6 prints or include in a presentation on a screen. A 640x480 picture is a great size for loading quickly on your website, but would not make a good quality print. So, you just need to think about what you are going to do with your pictures after you take them. Whatever the case, most people never need the highest resolution of 10.0 MP which is the default setting. But, that's what camera manufacturers produce so they can keep selling more expensive cameras.
So, what issues have you had with transferring pictures from a digital camera? Please post a comment for me.
Daniel
First, several of you asked about ownership of the grade level website, so I asked David about it. The grade level website is owned by one of the homeroom teachers. Then that person shares editing rights to that page with the other homeroom teacher. DO NOT share your account login name and password with each other. You share access to individual pages, but you do not share your account. If you need to know how to do this, we'll show you. Better yet, read the help article now: http://sites.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=97934&ctx=share
Another question was about posting pictures of students on your webpage. If you have a specific question, you should check with David Withrow or the Development Office, but in general it's OK to put pictures of your students on your web pages. Just do not identify specific students by name in the pictures. Group pictures work the best, both because it limits the attention on any individual child, but also because you get more of your students' parents interested in each picture.
Another photo issue that came up today was loading pictures from a digital camera to a web page. Donna P. found that she couldn't load pictures directly from her camera to the class web page because the file size was too big. The digital cameras assigned to each grade are 10 MegaPixel cameras. That size is great if you want to get high quality 8x10 prints, but for a webpage, they are way to big. Google Apps does not allow file uploads that big because it would make viewing your page too slow for most users.
If you want to take pictures directly from the camera to the website, the easiest solution is to reset your camera to take pictures at a lower resolution. On the Canon PowerShot A40, click the "FUNC. SET" button and then click to the right to set the resolution to either "M3" for 2MP pictures at 1600x1200 or even to "S" for 0.3 MP pictures at 640x480. The M3 setting should be small enough to load to Google Apps, but still high enough quality to make nice 4x6 prints or include in a presentation on a screen. A 640x480 picture is a great size for loading quickly on your website, but would not make a good quality print. So, you just need to think about what you are going to do with your pictures after you take them. Whatever the case, most people never need the highest resolution of 10.0 MP which is the default setting. But, that's what camera manufacturers produce so they can keep selling more expensive cameras.
So, what issues have you had with transferring pictures from a digital camera? Please post a comment for me.
Daniel
Monday, August 23, 2010
HDS Tech Workshop-Day 1 Review
We had a busy and successful day today working on the computers at school. I created this blog as an example of something you might want to create. This is the tool I demonstrated during our closing gathering this afternoon. Blogger does not integrate automatically with our Google Apps, but you can easily create a link from your class home page.
Please take a moment and click on the comment tab to let me know what you thought about today's session. You can ask questions or even offer suggestions for tomorrow.
Several of you asked about a blog feature today, so I looked into it. Google Apps does not have an automatic blog tool. There is an announcement feature that some people have used as a blog, so you might want to try that. If you like this blog, you might be better off just using Blogger. You can read the blog I've been keeping for years to see what it looks like after many posts: http://danielroz.blogspot.com/ It's a collection of essays I've written over the years.
One question today that has not yet been fully resolved is the issue of posting pictures of your students online. There are school policies for that and if you would like, we can use one of our group sessions to discuss the issue and offer clarification.
Posting photo albums was a major topic today. I showed you how I use Picasa Web Albums to show off pictures of my kids. You can see them here: http://picasaweb.google.com/danielroz
Like Blogger, Picasa is a FREE feature owned by Google, but it, too, does not automatically link with your Harford Day Google Apps account. But, like a blog, you can make photo albums and then create a link from your class home page to your photo albums.
Because we were trying to accomplish a lot today, we discovered many limitations: limitations in time, background knowledge and computer capabilities. My first response is that when we find these glitches, we will fix them as soon as we can. My next response is that you should not expect yourself to learn everything right away. This workshop is designed for you to pick a manageable project and focus on it for these three days. Please don't try to do too much. You are not being compared to anybody else.
On Tuesday morning, Tracy will be leading a discussion about her role in helping you integrate technology into your classroom.
Please post your comments so I know how to help you tomorrow.
Please take a moment and click on the comment tab to let me know what you thought about today's session. You can ask questions or even offer suggestions for tomorrow.
Several of you asked about a blog feature today, so I looked into it. Google Apps does not have an automatic blog tool. There is an announcement feature that some people have used as a blog, so you might want to try that. If you like this blog, you might be better off just using Blogger. You can read the blog I've been keeping for years to see what it looks like after many posts: http://danielroz.blogspot.com/ It's a collection of essays I've written over the years.
One question today that has not yet been fully resolved is the issue of posting pictures of your students online. There are school policies for that and if you would like, we can use one of our group sessions to discuss the issue and offer clarification.
Posting photo albums was a major topic today. I showed you how I use Picasa Web Albums to show off pictures of my kids. You can see them here: http://picasaweb.google.com/danielroz
Like Blogger, Picasa is a FREE feature owned by Google, but it, too, does not automatically link with your Harford Day Google Apps account. But, like a blog, you can make photo albums and then create a link from your class home page to your photo albums.
Because we were trying to accomplish a lot today, we discovered many limitations: limitations in time, background knowledge and computer capabilities. My first response is that when we find these glitches, we will fix them as soon as we can. My next response is that you should not expect yourself to learn everything right away. This workshop is designed for you to pick a manageable project and focus on it for these three days. Please don't try to do too much. You are not being compared to anybody else.
On Tuesday morning, Tracy will be leading a discussion about her role in helping you integrate technology into your classroom.
Please post your comments so I know how to help you tomorrow.
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