According to Meg Ormiston, the keynote speaker for the ending luncheon at NCTIES, it’s all about student engagement. She commented on the energy found at this conference and said that teachers need to bring that same energy back to the students.

She asked some of the students in her neighborhood to create a video about school:

Time is wasted with professional development if we’re not reaching the kids. She said that we actually need to re-educate our entire teaching force and stop abuse of technology. One example she gave was of a teacher using a SmartBoard but the students never touching it. In some situations, students simply move from desk to desk throughout the school day.

People need to touch and feel change. Help students make pictures in their heads. Mix up the projects we’re asking kids to do. For example: a teacher created and showed a video before beginning a difficult book to set it up

Let kids create book reports using slideshows, videos, etc. Focus on strengths of kids (especially those who are weak readers and writers.) We have to change what we’re doing. Their world is 3D. Worksheets are not.

Meg’s Wiki

Reel Disengagement Ning

More NCTIES Posts:

Opening Keynote
Photography Problems
Digital Tools for Digital Kids
Assessment with Technology
SmartBoard in Upper Elementary
Skype in the Classroom
More Than YouTube
Closing Keynote

Joanna Gerakios and Tim DeCresie of Pitt County Schools shared numerous links to video sharing sites that could serve as alternatives to YouTube. They said that kids are already creating and revising video and multimedia content, usually at home, and it would be beneficial to them to make video creation and sharing available to them for school projects. Then they can share their projects with an authentic audience. This would also give educators the opportunity to teach what students can do legally.

They created a slideshow that they shared during their presentation:

Be sure to check out the information in this presentation! As our students are becoming more and more comfortable with creating, editing, and sharing their own videos, we need to find more safe resources for using videos in education.

More NCTIES Posts:

Opening Keynote
Photography Problems
Digital Tools for Digital Kids
Assessment with Technology
SmartBoard in Upper Elementary
Skype in the Classroom
More Than YouTube
Closing Keynote

Kathy Beck and Linda Lerch from Iredell Statesville Schools presented a very informative session about using Skype in the classroom.  Skype is a free program that can be downloaded here, and it’s quick and easy to install on both Windows and Mac computers.

There are several sites to help teachers find other classrooms to connect with:

• Skype Other Classrooms Edublogger Post
• Using Skype at School
• Skype in Schools Wiki

Basic Information:

free pc to pc calls
free audio calls (can conference up to 25 people)
free video calls (just one to one)
group chat rooms
instant message
small fee for mobile phones and land lines
requires little bandwidth

high def speed 384 kb/sec
standard 128 kb/sec

Search for contacts – shows country and city so you can narrow it down

If web cam not connected, will only see ‘call’ button
If web cam is connected, can also choose video call

Classroom Ideas

• students can talk with each other
• send files to everyone in group to view and interject with text comments
• keep archives of text messaging conversations
• students can use video to practice for a play
• debates
• organize school events
• work on school newspapers
• collaborative research with students around the world
• learn about students and life in other countries
• learn a language
• ESL
• penpals
• have experts come to them
• hold a poetry reading in which actual poet reads to your class
• brainstorm teaching ideas with a mentor
• virtual field trip w/o buses and entrance fees
• include an ill student in daily discussions (child can unplug camera if he does not want class to see him)
• conduct a conference call for a club
• virtual substitute – monitor your class while you’re away
• quick connection to teacher
• traveling parent for child in midst of homework crisis
• assist children with special needs ~  describe the day
• skype conference with parents who cannot come to school
• hearing impaired could use the chat mode
• blind can use audio mode
• Read Alouds
• have an author read a story over skype
• other readers from local businesses
• local theater groups
• Collaborate with other teachers
• professional development

Need to teach Skype etiquette

dialing etiquette – let it ring once or twice
movement can be distracting while using a webcam (stand still)
have questions prepared
skype from a well lit room
think about time differences

Note: This reminds me of when IM was new and different. The young teachers used it for fun to connect with their friends and families used it to keep in touch. It took a while before teachers learned that these same connection and collaboration skills could be used for professional reasons. Quite often, a new tool begins with personal uses and then reaches out to the school and to the classrooms.

More NCTIES Posts:

Opening Keynote
Photography Problems
Digital Tools for Digital Kids
Assessment with Technology
SmartBoard in Upper Elementary
Skype in the Classroom
More Than YouTube
Closing Keynote

Another NCTIES presentation featured uses for the SmartBoard in the upper elementary classroom. Lynn Keith, Suzanne Blaszak, and Jennifer Keith from Providence Spring Elementary School near Charlotte shared numerous ideas with us.

They have shared their presentation here, and it’s full of ideas that can be used with older elementary students ~ well worth the time to download and explore. In addition to content ideas, they have demonstrated many of the advanced features of the Notebook software.

Some other items discussed during the presentation:

Daily uses for the SmartBoard

• morning routine
• calendar
• pledge, class rules
• weather
• number of days in school – place value items
• money
• use infinite clone for money
• homework
• attendance

They noted that the SmartBoard Notebook software is powerful, and it takes time to explore and find things.

One of the activities they shared involved numerous colored circles on the Notebook slide which were linked to other pages with math problems. Students tossed a koosh ball towards the board. When the ball contacted the board, one of the links was activated and then the students solved the math problem on that particular slide. You can download the file at the SmartBoard Exchange. (You’ll probably need to log in first.)

Create board games and use the dice from the gallery to play.

Use the built in camera to grab screenshots from other documents to use in your Notebook file.

Play Jeopardy. There are lots of templates online that can be used with the SmartBoard. Be sure to sure to check out Jeopardy Labs too.

More NCTIES Posts:

Opening Keynote
Photography Problems
Digital Tools for Digital Kids
Assessment with Technology
SmartBoard in Upper Elementary
Skype in the Classroom
More Than YouTube
Closing Keynote

Vicki Davis uses a Ning with her students. She teaches them to communicate as professionals. They are not allowed to use IM speak. Even though it resembles Facebook and My Space, she does not use Ning for social reasons, but rather for educational networking. She takes advantage of the ability to make the networks private when appropriate and also told us that the good folks at Ning will remove the ads from the site if you email them.

She says her students already know how to use new technology and set up new accounts. To use new Web 2.0 tools, they need to be taught how to create hyperlinks and how to embed code.

We want to build digital citizenship. Online behavior should have offline consequences. Schools should not punish everyone and take the tool away. (You don’t lock a bathroom because of a bad word on the wall!) Use RSS feeds to monitor blogs and wikis that students are using and deal with problems as they occur.

Vicki spent some time talking about various learning styles and how these can best be used in networking:

• linguistic
  • blogging, forums, writing
• logical mathematical
  • virtual worlds, programmers, administration, organizers
• naturalist
  • outdoor video, photography, gcast, roving reporter, google earth, geocaching, maps
• spacial (pictures)
  • photography, camera operator, voicethread, animoto….kids like to be behind the camera, not in front of it
• bodily kinesthetic
  • acting, presenting, get on film, want to move
  • need to learn difference between production quality and content quality
• musical
  • record audio files, audacity, voice thread, animoto
• interpersonal
  • cell phones, forums, blogging or pics, discussion facilitators
• intrapersonal
  • reflections, reading and opinions, debates

Teachers need to let kids write about what they’re interested in and create personal interest projects. She suggests letting them
invent something of their own!

Kids still need teachers, but not as the sage on the stage. They need for the teachers to plan the process and to coach them as they grow and learn.

Some links that were shared:

Think.com
elementary to early middle
have to apply (We have accounts in Salem.)
very strong profanity filter
will disable if not used within period of time

Westwood Schools Wiki
uses wiki for her classes
embed google calendar for assignments
students have own igoogle page

ClassTools.net
let kids create review games for each other

Toondoo
cartoons and embed
fun way to teach how to embed

Here’s a slideshow that Vicki used at NCTIES:

You can find more resources by Vicki Davis on her wiki.

More NCTIES Posts:

Opening Keynote
Photography Problems
Digital Tools for Digital Kids
Assessment with Technology
SmartBoard in Upper Elementary
Skype in the Classroom
More Than YouTube
Closing Keynote

Howie DiBlasi shared numerous online tools during his NCTIES session. His website contains additional links, handouts, and powerpoints that I hope to find time to explore in the not too distant future.

He began by showing a revision of Karl Fisch’s Did You Know video.

Following a brief discussion about how students today are living in a digital world, he shared the following Web 2.0 resources:

Wikipedia

• probably not completely up-to-date
• only one source – students should use additional sources for information
• suggests that students find out something in their community that is not already written up and post and article about it

After asking how many people were using blogs, wikis, and VoiceThreads, he noted that these tools are being used much more often now than a year ago. (See previous posts about blogs, wikis, and VoiceThreads.)

Ning.com

• create your own network and decide who you invite
• similar to a social network but used for professional reasons
• very useful for administrators
  • should create ning for their school
  • use as communication device
  • put all teachers in it
  • upload docs, videos, collaboration group
• need to unblock
• then could open up to community and let parents communicate within the site

Imbee

• a social network for kids
• monitored by adults
• designed as home or school site

Utterli

• crossposts to several networking sites at once
• send videos, messages, and texts from mobile phone

Twitter

• teachers could use to post homework assignments every day
• parents can follow and get news and homework daily
• instant communication

Gizmos

• interactive flash utilities for math and science

Delicious

• keep students materials and sites organized by tags
• use as network for older kids to share links

Fantastic Contraption

• online physics game

GCast

• create a podcast using your cell phone
• use Audacity to change pitch to make it sound like you’re having a conversation with a different person

ePals and Gaggle

• free email
• 191 countries and over 11 million students
• walled garden (safe for students)
• emails are all monitored
• projects are already set up, like people and culture, global warning, habitats, etc.

Jing

• free screen capture
• screencasting tool
• make instructional videos

280 Slides

• like powerpoint
• can upload powerpoints and save back to computer
• web2.0 based

Animoto

• make cool videos with music from photographs
• see example here

My Studyo

• make quizzes online
• can embed into web site

Glogster

• create interactive online posters
• make sure you use ed version

Rock You

• fun effects for use with photos
• add music, text, glitter and more to slideshow

PhotoShow

• another online slideshow for photos
• numerous music choices to add to photo show
• done by Roxio
• will be creating an ed version

One True Media

• combine photos and videos
• add special effects

EduBlogs TV

• safe place to upload videos for kids

Ustream

• record video of presentations
• live stream so others can watch in real time

QuantumShift tv

• can upload videos
• stories about people who are changing the world

YackPack

• connect members of group
• live talk
• messags

Flowgram

• combine powerpoints, web pages, documents
• add your voice to presentation
• share with friends

Pixton

• create your own comics
• special are for schools
• have to pay for the education part

You can download the entire PowerPoint from Howie DiBlasi’s web site if you’d like to see even more!

More NCTIES Posts:

Opening Keynote
Photography Problems
Digital Tools for Digital Kids
Assessment with Technology
SmartBoard in Upper Elementary
Skype in the Classroom
More Than YouTube
Closing Keynote

Leslie Fisher presented an entertaining and information session on digital photography. She discussed several of the top problems people have with digital photography.

Not Close Enough

• take photo, move in closer, take it again
• fill the frame
• your eyes will focus on the object, tend to forget the other stuff in the frame

Not in Focus

• usually a square that shows up in view finder that is the focus point
• press shutter down halfway to get a focus point

Camera Shake

• no focus point
• usually caused by lighting
• camera considers lighting and speed equal
• camera needs to expose the picture longer to take the image
• newer cameras have image stabilization
• when you hold down the shutter button, the sensor freezes in place
• put camera on tripod or stable object
• set a timer
• use night mode – tells camera lighting is low – will try to take picture more quickly

Boring Composition

• wander around and figure out a way to tell the story
• share the interesting ones, take thousands and share just a few
• change your location
• use the rule of thirds
  • PhotoShop – grid and ruler command
  • set up grid for rule of thirds
• squint your eyes – something will stand out
• look for lines (any diagonal, straight or repetitive lines will draw attention to the subject)
• space makes you think – have fun with open spaces
• shoot high / shoot low
  • scenery shots better shot low
  • people shots are better high
• shadow shots – use exposure compensation on camera

Ignoring the Background

• move things or wait for things or people to move
• colors in backgrounds can distract from subject
• wander around

Missing the Moment

• Sports Mode- tells camera to take fastest possible
• camera needs to compensate for the lighting/speed thing

Too Much Flash

• don’t need to use the flash every time
  • may not be as good of  quality
  • try with flash; then try again without flash
• need tripod  or set timer
• Look at the natural light and try without flash
• may need to use flash more during the day, especially middle of day
• use flash to fill light and get rid of shadows
• flash lasts 8 – 10 feet

Why Not Vertical?

• turn camera and it tells a different story
• follow the lines

Digital Zoom

• optical zoom is lens actually moving
• bigger camera for bigger zoom
• digital zoom just clicks on the photo, zooms in and crops
• no reason to have it turned on

Wrong Settings

• resolution set in camera – 72 or 200
• need to resample image for printing in PhotoShop
• uncheck resample, change resolution number
• more megs – uncheck resample, type in width and height you want to print
• never set camera settings on camera as small

Other Information

• a pixel is just a single dot
• number of pixels per inch is set in each camera and can’t change
• dpi (dots per inch)
• 72 dpi is perfect for web and ppt
• 180 minimum for printing
• if you need to crop, need to get as many megapixels as you can
• no cropping needed, smaller number of megs is fine
• look around the edges of your picture frame

Macro Focusing

• best to use w/tripod
• can get much closer
• flower icon on camera

Read the Manual!

Wow! If we all followed these suggestions, we could all take awesome pictures every day! Do you have any other suggestions for improving your digital photography?

More NCTIES Posts:

Opening Keynote
Photography Problems
Digital Tools for Digital Kids
Assessment with Technology
SmartBoard in Upper Elementary
Skype in the Classroom
More Than YouTube
Closing Keynote

Vicki Davis inspired all of the NCTIES conference attendees during her opening keynote. Here, I’m going to share some of the notes I took during her message. She began with the following premise:

“It’s not about the technology. It’s about what the technology lets you do.” ~ David Warlick

Most teachers are learners, and Vicki says we should all set a goal to learn three new things each year. Then we need to give ourselves the gift of 10 – 15 minutes three times a week to explore these new things. After all, if we are not exploring, creating, and learning, how can we expect our students to do the same?

Keeping with the conference theme, Vicki said that we have to decide that we WANT to make over our classrooms. Otherwise we won’t really do it. Don’t just say we’ll try; decide we will do it! Recognize the need for a change, and set goals for ourselves. After all, the world around us is constantly changing and there are new things to learn, both for teachers and for students.

She shared the following video which was scripted and created by Peggy Sheehy’s students at Suffern Middle School.  The kids are saying such things as…

“The future is ready for us. Are we ready for it?”
“The future is ours. You have to give it to us.”
“I can’t create MY future with the tools of YOUR past.” (ouch!)

Notice that the students are not asking for no homework, no work. They want to work and create! They are just asking schools to meet their future. These kids are on Facebook and other social networking sites. In the future, they may not be able to find jobs because they are not networking! Schools need to teach them how to safely use the internet sites that they are exploring on their own. (You can keep them safe and still teach them rock climbing.)

Schools have to be able to take acceptable risks. Otherwise, they will never innovate and move on. Schools need to consider allowing teachers to override the internet filter when they need to use a site that is currently blocked. Speaking of filters, she also asked why schools punish everyone because a few teachers do not properly supervise their students? Blocking should be a curriculum decision, not an IT decision.

Computers should not be considered babysitters, something to keep the kids occupied. Students should not be rewarded with a trip to the computer lab to play. Computers are tools that should be integrated seamlessly into the classroom instruction.

Effective curriculum constructs effective online spaces. Sometimes, kids are the best textbook ever written for each other! Did you know that in Finland, teachers actually choose their textbooks based on the needs of their students?

Teachers will innovate when someone is there providing assistance and giving them confidence. That person (that would be my position!) needs to provide little bites of information to help teachers become independent but not overwhelm them. Expect slow but steady improvement. Eventually, the teacher needs to own it!

Remember that technology is a tool, and what you DO helps you pick your tools. Are you ready for the future?

More NCTIES Posts:

Opening Keynote
Photography Problems
Digital Tools for Digital Kids
Assessment with Technology
SmartBoard in Upper Elementary
Skype in the Classroom
More Than YouTube
Closing Keynote

There were some amazing educators from the national educational technology community presenting at this conference including Vicki Davis, Will Richardson, David Warlick, Kathy Schrock, Meg Ormiston, Leslie Fisher, Tammy Worcester, and Howie DeBlasi, and I was excited to hear from these folks whose blogs I have read for some time now.

In an attempt to share the information I gathered, I plan to write several new posts about the sessions which will include my notes as well as links and occasional reflections.

So, keep reading and learning!

More NCTIES Posts:

Opening Keynote
Photography Problems
Digital Tools for Digital Kids
Assessment with Technology
SmartBoard in Upper Elementary
Skype in the Classroom
More Than YouTube
Closing Keynote