Technology Medley

How will you integrate technology into your curriculum today?

Want to create a fun video that will make your fellow teachers envious of your editing skills? Head on over to Animoto.com and request an educator account. You can create 30 second videos with their regular free account, but these helpful folks provide free unlimited access to educators! You do have to request the account though and wait a few days for them to send you a link and instructions.

Once you have an account, simply upload pictures from your computer, select music from their library or upload your own, and wait for the magic to occur. They say that every video is different, so if you don’t like the way yours turns out, simply try again. This is such a fun site! Once you create a video, you can copy the embed code (I’ll show you how!) and then place the video on your own class web site to share with your students and their families.

Here’s an example of a video I just created from some pictures I had of South Salem’s 2008 beach party.

All of the teachers and administrators in both of my schools were recently issued brand new (or gently used) laptops for use at school. This is amazing in and of itself, and we’re all very grateful to our school division for making this happen!

There are still several user specific settings that need to be taken care of on an individual basis when you are logged in as yourself.

Adding a Network Printer

Using Files from Your “H” Drive from Home

Using a Projector

Removing the SmartBoard Toolbar

Changing the Power Settings

Qwizdom Settings

Touchpad Software

Internet Explorer Settings

Adding Software

Adding a Network Printer

Here are the directions in a previous post. This only applies to printers on the school network, not to printers connected directly to your computer.

To change your default printer, click on Start, then select Printers and Faxes. Right click on the printer that you will use most often and select Set as Default Printer.

Using Your H Drive Away from School

Some of you asked about being able to work on documents in your H drive from home using your school laptop. Since your H drive is part of the school system network, you can’t actually access it from home, but there is a work-around.

• From school, open My Computer.
• Right click on your H drive.
• Select “Make Available Offline.”
• Go ahead and take all defaults in the offline wizard that opens. Notice that the wizard provides an option to create a shortcut to offline files on your desktop.

When you shut down your computer at the end of the school day, it will sync your H drive contents, copying the contents of this drive onto your computer. Then from home, you’ll just open My Computer and should be able to work with your H drive materials. When you log back in at school, it will sync again.

You can change these offline settings by going to the Control Panel on your computer, then Folder Options, and finally select the Offline tab.

Usage with a Projector

If your computer does not detect the projector and you have double checked all of the connections, try this:

On the Dells, hold down the Fn key and press the F8 key until the image shows both places. On the Gateways, hold down the Fn key and press F4.

SmartBoard Toolbar

The new SmartBoard software has lots of cool features, but it also creates a toolbar that always sits on the left side of the screen. You can click the arrow and it will slide off the screen, but it leaves the tab there. I prefer to make it go away completely. If you find it annoying, try this:

• Log in as yourself
• Click Start and then Run
• Type in msconfig and press OK
• Click the Startup tab
• Scroll down and uncheck anything that says SmartBoard tools
• Click OK

The new settings will take place when you restart your computer. The first time you restart, you’ll see a message saying that a configuration utility has run. Click in the checkbox that says do not run configuration setup or show this message again, and click OK.

Power Settings

To change the power settings so your laptop does not go to sleep on you,

• Right click on the desktop
• Select Properties.
• Click on the Screensaver tab
• Click the Power button.
• Change the monitor and hard drive settings to meet your own preferences and click OK.

You might want to select different settings when the computer is plugged in and when it is running on batteries.

Qwizdom

Before you use Qwizdom for the first time with these computers, please check all connections a couple of days ahead of time. If you get a message saying you need to install more software, you’ll need the cd, so give me a call. Here are some other things to check:

Remotes don’t respond:

Click on the Remotes tab and look at the type of remotes listed.
Click the Change button if necessary.
South Salem should say Q3 blue with 19 buttons.
West Salem should say Q4 red.
Clicking the Test button is a simple way to make sure that all batteries are working.

Only 15 numbers at the bottom of the screen:

Click on the Students tab
Select Class from the Menu bar
Select Edit Teachers
Select Sample Teacher
Click Delete
In the same window, click Add New
Enter your information as desired
Click Update and Done

Then click Class again and select New Class
You should see your name beside Teacher
Add a Class Name
Beside Type, select Normal
Click Done

Your class will now always be the default when you use the remotes.

Touchpad Settings

The touchpad software was not updated on some of your computers, and you will not be able to scroll by sliding your finger up the right side of the touchpad. Here are the directions for correcting this problem:

• Open My Computer
• Go to the P drive
• Select the Drivers folder
• Select Laptops
• Select Dell
• Select Dell830
• Double click touchpad
• Take all defaults.

Internet Explorer Settings

If you’re asked about the Phishing Filter, select Turn it On.

Home Page

• Go to the page that you would like to set as your home page (the one that will show up when you first begin Internet Explorer)
• If you don’t see the Menu Bar at the top of the screen, click on Tools on the right and check Show Menu Bar
• Click on Tools at the top of the screen
• Select Internet Options
• At the top of this window, in the home page box, click Select Current.
• Click OK

Search
This version of Internet Explorer has a small search text box in the top right corner.
To set this to Google, or another search engine:

• Click Tools and Internet Options again
• Beside Search, click Settings
• Click the Find More Providers link
• Click Google or another search engine name
• In the next window, check Make this my default search provider
• Click Add Provider

The next time you open Internet Explorer, your new search engine will show up in the top right corner.

Tabs
To open a new tab, click on the partial tab that extends to the right of the open tab at the top of the screen.
Navigate to any site you wish.
You can open links in a new tab by right clicking on the link and selecting Open in New Tab
You can also set up more than one home page by opening multiple pages in tabs, and then follow the previous directions for setting your home page.

Making Software Changes

Please do not uninstall programs from these computers. It’s fine to rearrange or even delete shortcuts from your desktop, but as these are school computers, the programs should stay basically the same. If you need a new program installed, I’ll be happy to help you with that.

Wireless issues can be very frustrating because teachers often don’t know what to look for or how to troubleshoot. Here’s a quick checklist of things to look for when problems arise, and there is a handout with more information that you can download from the Box widget in the sidebar.

1. Check the Power

   Are both of the black electrical cords are plugged in?
   Are both power switches on the back turned on?

2. Check the Network Connection

   Is the Ethernet cable (the one that looks like a phone jack) plugged in?
   Is it plugged into a “hot” port?

3. Check the Wireless Access Point on top of the cart

   Is the wireless access point getting power?

4. Make sure that the wireless is enabled on the computer

   Has the wireless been accidentally disabled?

5. Check for low, very low, or no connectivity

   Are some computers not picking up a wireless signal even though you have a working access point in your room?

6. Check for a cart in a nearby room that is not connected

   Is there a cart nearby that is getting power but the network cable is not connected?

Don’t ever hesitate to ask for help from your technician or ITRT! Hopefully, though, this checklist will help you out when help is not immediately available. Remember the handout in the Box in the sidebar too if you don’t already have a copy.

Yesterday, I introduced laptops to the fourth kindergarten class at West Salem, and as always, I was absolutely amazed at how well these little friends adapted to the features of a laptop computer. Once I showed them how to use the touchpad and how to click and drag, they were off and running. Each time I’ve worked with kindergarten or first grade students, my thoughts have been the same. They are fearless! Even though they have spent time in the lab on desktops, using the mouse on a laptop is new to them. However, they are not at all intimidated by it. In fact, it seems as if the touchpad is intuitive for them.

We were using Starfall, one of our very favorite reading sites. Mrs. Gauck had printed the URL on sentence strips and had each student type in the web address themselves. She had previously talked about using the keyboard and showed them where the “dot” was, and of course we had a help a few, but the majority of the children typed in the address correctly. Honestly, I really don’t give these young children credit for doing as much as they are capable of doing for themselves! Hmm, we showed them how to press Ctrl-Alt-Delete, so maybe we’ll have them type in the passwords for themselves next time!

It is always fun to watch the kids once they actually start watching the videos and playing the games in Starfall. Their faces light up, they giggle, they help each other find games, and they stay completely engaged.

As the children were leaving yesterday, several indicated that they didn’t want to go home yet! They were so excited and felt like “the big kids.” Hopefully, all of our young children will have more opportunities to use the laptops as the year continues, and I will be more than happy to come in and teach or to lend an extra set of hands.

Children are just amazing!

Several of you have created podcasts with your classes over the past couple of years, and I hope that you’re thinking about more ways you can use this exciting and relatively new technology. If you’ve never created a podcast, it’s much simpler than you may think. All you need to do is prepare the students by having them practice reading their scripts aloud. Then let me know when you’re ready to record. I’ll take care of all of the technical details for you! However, I’ll be happy to teach you how to edit using Audacity if you’d like to learn to do the editing yourself.

Why not have your students create “Did you know?” podcasts using facts from any of their SOL related units? Mr. Barbour had his third graders record several factual podcasts from their SOL units. For an example of this, click below to listen to Mr. Barbour’s third graders as they share facts they learned about Ancient Rome.

Ancient Rome Facts

Mrs. Routt’s third graders enjoy creating their own newscasts at the end of each school year in which they review almost everything they have covered during the year. When students have the opportunity to listen to themselves or to their classmates, they are more eager to listen to the podcasts as they review for their SOL tests.

Third Grade SOL Review

Podcasting is also an excellent way for students to share their original stories and poems. Mrs. Buchholz had her third graders write stories about the adventures of their class pet who escaped.

Oreo’s Big Day Out

It’s great to use readers theaters for podcasts as it helps students who may have difficulty with oral reading skills and fluency. The more fluent readers can practice speaking with expression and using creative voices. Mrs. Bowles had her fourth graders read several tall tales, and the children appeared to really enjoy using the imaginary voices of their characters.

Pecos Bill

Here are a few more ideas for podcasts that you might want to consider for your own students:

1. Interviews – Have students write questions and interview another person in the school, either adults or other students. You could also use interviews to have students answer questions as if they are a famous American or a character from a favorite story.
2. Announcements – Let students practice their broadcast skills as they present announcements for your class, your grade level, or for the entire school. Here is an example: Announcements
3. Riddles – Have students create “Who am I?” or “What am I?” riddles to review people from social studies units, book characters, famous places, or vocabulary words.
4. Songs – Make up new lyrics to familiar melodies, such as multiplication facts.
5. Book Commercials – Instead of written book reports, why not let students talk about their favorite books? Have them share a little about the book and why they recommend it.
6. For the Little Ones – Let them talk about something special in their classroom or something new that they have learned if they’re too young to read or to write their script.

So, give some thought into creating your own podcast this year, and let me know when you’re ready to record! To listen to more podcasts from your school, click on one of the following links:

South Salem Podcasts

West Salem Podcasts

It’s great to see so many of you using the laptop carts with your students! When you see the excitement on the faces of the students and observe their increased level of engagement, you know it’s worth the extra effort it takes to move the cart to your classroom. These children are growing up in a world filled with mobile electronic devices, and the more we educate them in the proper use of those devices, the more prepared they will be for their own future. Hopefully, all of you will become more comfortable using the laptops with your classes as the year progresses. Remember, I am here to lend a hand or to teach the class along beside of you, so please don’t hesitate to ask!

To reserve the laptop cart, open up your email account in Kerio. Browse to the bottom of the folder list, and expand the Public Folder if necessary. Find either South Technology Scheduler or West Technology Scheduler. You will find instructions there. Go ahead and click on the + sign if you do not see the laptop carts listed. Click on the laptop cart or other item you would like to reserve. Then double click the date(s) you need and enter your name and time. Click Save and Close and you’re done!