Lincoln Tech Update

1. Google Documents (http://docs.google.com)
Free online word processing, spreadsheets, and presentation software.  Great for collaboration and sharing for teachers or students.
2. Quizlet (http://www.quizlet.com)
Excellent online vocabulary testing software; powerful and useful.
3. Google Earth (http://earth.google.com)
Great supplement to any subject, connecting content to geography and mapping.  Advanced features allow for interesting mash-ups.
4. Voicethread (http://www.voicethread.com)
Easy online video creation tool.  Create documentary style slideshows, allowing commenting, sharing, and multimedia.  Check out 100 ways to use voicethread in education.
5. SurveyMonkey (http://www.surveymonkey.com)
Create online surveys easily and export data in an easy to use format.
6. Google Sites (http://sites.google.com)
Probably the easiest way for students to create their own websites in any content area.  No code necessary.
7.  Ted Talks (http://www.ted.com)
Awesome talks on all subjects by experts in their respective fields.  Check out Math Class Needs a Makeover and Bring on the Learning Revolution.
8. Common Craft videos (http://www.commoncraft.com/)
Fun, engaging videos about a variety of topics; short and good for kids.  Watch the one for blogs, wikis, and World Wide Web.
9. RIA Animate
Animated lectures. Drive and the Power of Time
10. Diigo (http://www.diigo.com)
Great social bookmarking website.  Save and share the best websites easily.
11. Moodle (http://www.moodle.org)
My personal favorite. Teachers have been creating hybrid online courses to provide online interactivity with their students through forums, online quizzes, submission of digital work, surveys, etc.  This one you will need assistance getting started with, offered through the district or Lincoln HS. (Email if you are interested in getting started.)
12. Google Reader (http://reader.google.com)
Read the web through RSS feeds (no need to visit multiple website when the stories archive automatically into your reader.

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Math textbooks are no better than a episode of Two and a Half Men; they encourage laziness in our students. We need to rethink how we we teach math. I recommend all teachers watch this one.

skramstad EdTech math

I wanted to recommend you check out, especially if you are a math teacher, the online tool/resource, Wolfram-Alpha, by the creators of Mathematica.  It was voted the greatest computer innovation of the year by Popular Science.  It’s not the most user-friendly name and it’s billed as a “computational knowledge engine.”  The best way to truly understand its value is by testing it out.  It looks a lot like the Google or Yahoo search box, but instead of searching web sites across the Internet, it does all the work on its own servers, crunching, comparing, analyzing, and computing the data you provide it with. (Sorry, it cannot answer what is the meaning of life? though I encourage you to ask it).  It certainly does more than a TI calculator might accomplish, since its scope involves all subjects besides mathematics, including history, language, astronomy and statistics to name a few.  You have to use a little creativity in terms of seeing its potential.

I initially saw its power when I was seeking answers to a number of CAHSEE questions (that I didn’t remember how to solve and didn’t want to spend time figuring out).  I basically copied and pasted the formulas into the Wolfram-Alpha magic machine, and had the correct answers instantly.  It didn’t just give me the answers, but offered additional information useful in figuring out how I might solve the problems had I wanted to.

I recommend you try the following queries and see its power for yourself.  I’d love to hear if you find some other interesting data sets to throw at the machine for your own subjects.  I can certainly see the potential for a unique lesson using this tool.

1. 25 miles = feet

2. 5x + 12 = 27

3. 45% of 123.50

4. slope = 5, y-intercept = 1

5. population of china 2005

6. California Florida

7. 2x^2 + 12 = 72

8. | x^2 |+ 7 > 15

9. World War II vs. World War I

10. 4,9,13,77,123,852

11. SNE APPL

12. sagittarius vs scorpio

13. facetious

14. life expectancy 20 year old united states

15. probability of 6 dice

Bonus: And of course, What is the speed of a swallow? (Monty Python reference)

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Blogs

A blog (also know as web-log) is an online diary or journal about a topic where the most recent post (or reflection) appears at the top and older posts are constantly archived below it.  Blogs exist on all topics from politics to cats, from educational technology to pottery.  Sadly, many people have negative opinions about blogs due to some of the louder, more inane blogs.  There are as many positive and constructive blogs as obscene and inappropriate blogs (in the same way, there are Oscar nominated movies and just plain stupid movies).

The most popular places to create a blog are: Blogger (www.blogger.com) and WordPress (www.wordpress.org) and Typepad (www.typepad.com). Students can also blog privately within a Moodle course.

Getting started with a blog is a relatively simple process.  You must create an account and you can start posting (writing) immediately.  Customizing the themes and content is a matter of learning the software’s relatively user-friendly interface.

Why blogs are beneficial for student achievement and learning?

Blogs provide an informal way for students to think about a topic or subject and express their opinion (like a free-write or a journal entry).  It allows students to comment about topics casually without worrying about perfect syntax or grammar.  This type of reflection is helpful and useful for later composition of an essay.

As a teacher, you can see the development of students’ thinking about a topic over time and make accommodations to your lesson plans to address areas of misunderstanding and confusion.  Blogs also allow students to associate links, images and visuals with their writing with a simple click (a limitation of a normal journal).  All posts are archived for a running record of student progress in writing and critical thinking.

Wikis

A wiki is a shared online repository of information about a topic, edited by a number of users.  The most popular wiki is Wikipedia, an ever-changing online encyclopedia edited by users globally.  Studies have shown that the number of errors in Wikipedia is no excessive than Encyclopedia Britannica.  A wiki can focus on any topic, but usually are a one-stop location online where you can find exhaustive information about a particular topic from Web 2.0 resources to baseball.

Since many topics today are complex, detailed, and ever-changing, a printed text or book is rarely satisfactory.  A wiki allows a group of individuals to edit one growing document.  Each revision leaves a record, so you can always revert back to a previous version and track abusers. Ultimately, you will have a detailed online resource about a topic available to the entire Internet.

The most popular places to create a Wiki are: PBWorks (www.pbworks.com) and Wikia (www.wikia.com).  You can also create a wiki within a Moodle course.

Possible Applications for the Classroom:

* Students can blog about class topics or books they are reading in class and teachers can assess comprehension and create a dialog.

* Students can follow a current event topic over number of weeks and blog about it on a weekly basis and link their response to news articles.  At the end of the period, students would have an ongoing discussion of the content and a list of sources for generating a larger research paper.

* Teachers can blog about learning experiences in the classroom or topics of interest related to education.

How wikis are useful for student achievement and learning?

Students become collaborators and creators of an online resource of information.  This information can then benefit the whole group of class, including future students and educators who might access the resource.  Students learn to write informatively and objectively about topics for specific audiences.  Future classes can utilize the content in their own learning and edit it for future students.

A wiki is useful, not only to its initial creators, but to all the people who can benefit from the information in future years. Wikis have a clean and simple format, the ability to have multiple editors, and the flexibility for adding or editing content over time, making it an ideal choice for some projects and assignments.

Possible Applications for the Classroom:

* Students can create a wiki about the school or community they live in.  Unique topics are valuable because it requires original writing and thought since they cannot find information existing elsewhere.

* Students can create a wiki about unexplored or ever-changing topics (like comparison of government systems between different nations, the theme of survival in multiple pieces of literature or frequently asked questions about an emerging career or technology).

* Some classes (like AP Classes and science bowls/decathlon teams) have to cover a large quantity of information each year.  Wikis can allow your classes to continually build on the content from previous classes in one online location.

* Teachers can create a wiki about a club or program (Debate Team / Leadership) or a major test (CAHSEE or AP Government) or a complicated procedure (video editing or web design).

* Teachers can use a wiki for collaborating on interdisciplinary lessons or projects.

I’ve summarized the difference between blogs and wikis in education in this document.

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Even though we may have all suffered an overdose of PowerPoint everywhere we go, PowerPoint continues to be an ideal technology tool for our students.  As we all know from our CLAD classes, the more we can support our students with non-textual connections to our content the better (through images, pictures, audio, and video).  In addition our students will benefit significantly from increased opportunities to speak in front of others.

Use a Template: Creating a blank PowerPoint with all the slides empty with the information you wish them to include is sometimes necessary.  Unless you want to spend a lot of time repeating directions in terms of creating slides, adding textboxes and inserting pictures, having a blank template will allow students to focus more on the content and less on the PowerPoint software.

Gather Research Ahead of Time: Students should never start a PowerPoint without their notes and writing completed ahead of time.  If they have not written out anything, they will likely copy and paste straight from the Internet without properly giving credit or putting it in their own words.  With the content already written down, students will have to rewrite it in their own words as they create their slides.

Questions or Storyboards: To focus students’ research on their topic, they should have a number of research questions they are expected to answer.  This provides necessary structure for our students when they visit the library or computer lab to research.  You can check their understanding and the completion of their research by their hand-written notes in response to the questions.  If time persists, they should even create mockups of their slides by filling in blank slides, sketching what they intend to write on each slide and the images they will choose.  You can create three blank slides and print them in Handout form and make copies for students (See attached.)

Presenting their PowerPoint is as important as its creation: Students should be expected to present their PowerPoint presentation in class whether in groups or on their own.  Emphasis should be placed on presenting without reading from the PowerPoint; in fact, students should not use full sentences or paragraphs on the PowerPoint, but short bulleted points in PHRASES.  PowerPoint slides are intended as a visual aide for a presentation, not in substitute for the presentation.  They should select images that best illustrate the ideas in their speech or presentation.

Emphasize Good Slide Design: Sometimes there is a temptation to make students create a large number of slides in their PowerPoint.  It is preferable to have students create three to five quality slides than 7-10 mediocre slides.  If you have samples of previous PowerPoint presentations, you can show them good and poor examples of slide design.

Well Designed Slides = Short Concise Phrases on Main Concepts, Representative Graphics/Images, Easy to Read Text and Colors, Photographs are Sized Properly/Not Blurry.

Encourage the Tech-Savvy Students to Experiment and Help Others: Some students are comfortable using PowerPoint and we should encourage them to apply advanced features of the software, including animation, slide transitions, and narration.

Download Word Document

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