Learning Solutions

eSchoolnews reports:

InfoSource Learning recently launched a free, online technology literacy assessment that tests K-12 students to determine their technological proficiency. The assessment is available free of charge to all school districts, state education departments, and educational organizations.

“It is extremely important for all schools to measure and improve their students’ use of technology,” said Michael Werner, chief executive officer of InfoSource Learning, in a press release. “In fact, we believe it is so important that we want to make our assessment available to all states and school districts free of charge–for all of their students.”

The assessment began as a promotion at the 2008 National Educational Computer Conference to help school districts determine if their students are technologically literate by the eighth grade in accordance with the No Child Left Behind Act.

Find out more at http://www.simpleassessment.com

Urging policy makers and school leaders “to take bold steps … to improve education for America’s 21st-century leaders,” the State Educational Technology Directors Association (SETDA) has issued new guidance for reforming the nation’s schools with the help of technology.

With input from more than 100 national policy makers and all 50 state educational technology offices, SETDA’s action plan sets forth the following 10 recommendations for national, state, and local education leaders:

1. Ensure that technology tools and resources are used continuously and seamlessly for instruction, collaboration, and assessment.
2. Expose all students (pre-K through 12th grade) to STEM fields and careers.
3. Make ongoing, sustainable professional development available to all teachers.
4. Use virtual learning opportunities for teachers to further their professional development, such as through online communities and education portals.
5. Incorporate innovative, consistent, and timely assessments into daily instruction.
6. Strengthen the home-school connection by using technology to communicate with parents on student progress.
7. Provide the necessary resources so that every community has the infrastructure to support learning with technology, including assessments and virtual learning.
8. Obtain societal support for education that uses technology from all stakeholders–students, parents, teachers, state and district administrators, business leaders, legislators, and local community members.
9. Provide federal leadership to support states and districts regarding technology’s role in school reform by passing the ATTAIN Act.
10. Increase available funding for the e-Rate so that schools can acquire telecommunication services, internet access, internal connections, and maintenance of those connections.

eSchoolnews reports:

LearningExpress has created a new blog, called The Writing Teacher, for sharing ideas and expertise on helping students become better writers. According to the National Assessment of Educational Progress, only 33 percent of eighth grade students in the United States are writing at a proficient level. To help change that, The Writing Teacher includes writing input, content, and feedback–all encouraging participation by those who teach writing every day.

The blog’s debut article, “Research-Based Best Practices for Teaching Writing: A Discussion with Steve Graham,” features advice from a literacy professor at Vanderbilt University. “We are a knowledge-based society. Knowing how to effectively plan, draft, edit, and revise your communications and then self-regulate the whole process are fundamental skills necessary for success in school and the world of work,” said Graham. “Too many students progress through school without becoming proficient in these skills. We can do better.”

http://www.thewritingteacher.org

eSchoolnews reports:

For educators who are ready to take on the growing frontier of virtual worlds, a new online hub–RezEd–now exists to make the journey to alternative realities a little easier. Launched in beta format in mid-March, RezEd is a comprehensive virtual-world resource for educators, students, and those simply interested in learning what these increasingly popular worlds are all about.

Developed by the nonprofit organization Global Kids through a grant from the MacArthur Foundation’s Digital Media and Learning initiative, the site brings attention to all aspects of learning across virtual worlds through resources such as weekly best practices, moderated discussions, and twice-monthly podcast interviews with students, educators, and experts in the field. Visitors to RezEd can learn about several virtual places and topics, such as Second Life, K-8 virtual worlds, virtual gaming in education, research on the sociology and ethics of virtual worlds, and more.

RezEd “is a community that makes accessible and practical the type of research being done by many and connects them with practitioners in the field to inform their work,” said Barry Joseph, director of the Online Leadership Program for Global Kids.

http://www.rezed.org

Now’s the time to GET OUT THE VOTE! The first round of judging in the 2nd Annual Interactive Classroom Makeover Contest has been completed and the 15 finalists have been chosen – five in each of the three grade categories (K-5, 6-8 and 9-12).

With nearly 300 video submissions from 40 states and four countries to review and “grade,” our judges narrowed the field to their top 15 and we’re now ready for you, your friends and associates – and anyone else you can think of – to go online and vote your choices at www.eimakeover.com. These votes will help determine who wins the Grand Prize classroom “makeover” worth more than $25,000.

If you haven’t already viewed some of these videos, you’re in for a treat. Each submission is an amazing demonstration of collaboration and creativity, and delivers an important message about technology in the classroom to educators, students and parents around the world. (More than 350,000 people have already visited the site and had an opportunity to watch the videos.)

Click the links below to view and vote for the finalists.

The voting will close at 11:59 am EST (16:59 GMT) on Friday, November 14, and the winners will be announced on Wednesday, December 3.

Please cast your vote now…and encourage others to do the same.

The 5th Annual Region XV Regional Robotics Competition will be held on January 26, 2009, at the Education Service Center Region XV.

There is no entry fee to compete at the regional contest. There is no limit to the number of teams that can be entered. No more than four students per team, please.

Please complete and fax the Arena and Inventions entry forms before December 15, 2008. Parent Release forms can be faxed or mailed to Region XV. Fax number is 325-655-4823.

First Ever ESC Region XV Area Robotics Contest

For the first time the TCEA State Robotics Contest will require an area contest to be held to determine participants at the state contest. ESC Region XV Area Robotics Contest will be February 16, 2009, and be held at Angelo State University.

Teams will pay $40 entry fees to be considered contenders for state. Teams not interested in competing for state are welcome to attend and do not have to pay an entry fee.

Teams will need to register with Region XV (forms are posted) and also register with TCEA (details coming).

Please complete and fax the Region XV Area Arena and Inventions entry forms before February 2, 2009. Parent Release forms can be faxed or mailed to Region XV. Fax number is 325-655-4823.

More information and entry forms at: http://www.netxv.net/pm-view.php?page=437

TCEA Robotics State Competition 2009

Sandy Sawyer our Area 15 TCEA rep has sent the following information regarding Area and State Robotics Contest.

1. problem statement will be on the website (From Angela Crowder- We are currently working on the redesign of the contests portion of the website. We were slightly delayed this week but are working on getting that done ASAP)
2. If they do not want to go on to state there will not be a fee to participate in the Area Robotics contest Feb. 16, 2009
3. I (Sandy Sawyer) will sponsor the teams from our area to go on to state.  (2 Teams from each division + 2 Wildcards) Arena and Inventions
4. They are looking at the calendar to see if they can change the date from May 2 to another date. (will know more information on this in a few weeks)

If you are struggling with the whole concept of Web 2.0 and how to introduce blogs and wikis into your classroom, then you need to take advantage of this time-sensitive learning solution.

Atomic Learning is making available for free Vicki Davis’ “Seven Steps to Flatten A Classroom”.  This workshop will be accessible until the end of October.

From the website:

“The steps to flatten your classroom were created because I wanted to share the best practices that helped me grow from a Web 2.0 neophyte to a teacher who is using tools effectively on a daily basis, ” explains Vicki. “Often, global collaborative projects seem so overwhelming to teachers, but it is a gradual progression which truly begins by connecting the teacher.”

“This tutorial workshop series was created to share with others what it takes to progress into a future that will help schools become world class and world collaborators.”

View the Seven Steps to a Flat Classroom at http://www.atomiclearning.com/7sfc_wb2

The 2008 K12 Online Conference is now in session.

From the website:

The K-12 Online Conference invites participation from educators around the world interested in innovative ways Web 2.0 tools and technologies can be used to improve learning. This FREE conference is run by volunteers and open to everyone.

The 2008 conference theme is “Amplifying Possibilities”. This year’s conference begins with a pre-conference keynote the week of October 13, 2008. The following two weeks, October 20-24 and October 27-31, forty presentations will be posted online to the conference blog (this website) for participants to download and view.

Live Events in the form of three “Fireside Chats” and a culminating “When Night Falls” event will be announced. Everyone is encouraged to participate in both live events during the conference as well as asynchronous conversations.

The keynote“It Simply Isn’t the 20th Century Any More Is It?: So Why Would We Teach as Though It Was?” is presented by Professor Bournemouth University, Chair in New Learning Environments,
Visiting Professor University of Wales, Newport.

Description:

We are in the throes of a financial crisis unparalleled on our lifetimes, and at the same time in front running 21st century schools around the world learning is seeing a transformation that seemed unthinkable in the dark days of 20th century factory schools.

As we move to a new tomorrow built on mutuality, collegiality, communication, community and ingenuity can we learn anything from the colossally expensive financial collapse of Wall Street, the City of London and many of the world’s financial centres.

In three sections, and in a conversational, intimate style, Stephen examines the certainties that stare us in the face from past learning projects that clearly mapped a new world of 21st century learning; he reflects on the impact on technology on the world around us, including the financial world, and ponders on what this means for education, for learning, and for the necessary pace of change as we experience the death of education and the dawn of learning.

The academic world is moving at a rapid pace.  Instructors must cover more content in less time, while still ensuring that students are learning and retaining the material.  Wouldn’t it be great if the face to face classroom time could be used for open-eneded discussion instead of “sit and git” lecture?  Would students want this convenience?  Would students see this as an alternative to attending class?

From Inside Higher Ed:

A new study released today suggests not only a willingness but a “clear preference” among undergraduates for “lecture capture,” the technology that records, streams and stores what happens in the classroom for concurrent or later viewing.

The study, sponsored by the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s E-Business Institute, tackles the much-discussed question of students’ preferences for traditional versus online learning with unusual rigor. Based on a survey of more than 29,000 undergraduate and graduate students at the university, the study had a response rate of over 25 percent. Almost half of the undergraduates — 47 percent — had taken a class with lectures available for online viewing.  Read more…

Several companies have developed solutions that enable instructors to record their lecture material and make it available online, so students have immediate access to the lecture content.

Panopto - CourseCast 2.0 sets a new standard for ease-of-use in lecture, meeting, and presentation capture technology. CourseCast includes several new features that make it ideal for quickly and effectively capturing, streaming and archiving lecture material in a fraction of the time and cost of competing systems. Panopto offers the system FREE to K-12 and higher ed institutions.

Tegrity - Tegrity Campus 2.0 is at system that makes class time available all the time for EVERY student by automatically capturing, storing and indexing every class on campus for replay – whether accessed online, on an iPod or by a variety of other mobile devices. With patented Tegrity “search anything” technology, students can instantly recall key class moments at any point during a captured lecture by searching on any text presented in class.

Echo 360 - Gain a competitive advantage through on-demand learning. The EchoSystem’s modular product design makes implementation easy, with solutions to meet curriculum, technology, and budgetary needs. Automatically schedule, capture, and publish with no additional personnel. Monitor—and make updates—through a central interface.

I envision a process similar to receiving podcasts from ESPN on my iPhone:

1) Go to school podcenter site

2) Select my classes

3) Choose the date of the lecture I wish to view

4) Watch lecture, whether as review or preparation for class

Instructors may be intimidated by this learning solution for the simple fact that they will have to come out from behind the lectern and actually interact with their students.  If a student can pass the class by just using the lecture notes, then what is the purpose of the instructor?  Where is the REAL learning? It reminds me of the Rodney Daingerfield movie, “Back to School”.  He sets a tape recorder in his seat to record the lecture. Before long, everyone is doing the same thing, and the instructor is alone in the classroom.  This movie was in 1986, long before the advent of online learning, but the concept is the same.

As one school observed:

“Student retention has improved among adult students taking hybrid courses, because the technology enriches the online component to keep them engaged. And with more flexible scheduling, students can also take more classes per quarter and graduate earlier.”

I came across the ooVoo.com commercial last night, and was instantly fascinated by the prospect of another Skype application to communicate across the globe. It officially went live June 2007, bit I had not heard of it until last night.

Features of the FREE service include:

• Video Chat with recording - Start a face-to-face conversation and include up to six people.
• Video messages
• Call non-ooVoo Friends - Have a face-to-face ooVoo conversation with anyone (even those friends that don’t have ooVoo yet) through a Web browser.
• Phone calls - plans start at $5 per month
• Text Chat
• File sharing
• Sidebar View - Enable sidebar view to clearly view documents or other tasks on your screen.

ooVoo.com provides solid online assistance with video tutorials and support center

Learning Solution: Another way to facilitate virtual field trips and collaborate with classes next door or next continent.

The only question is: Where did the term “ooVoo” come from?