Wiimote Whiteboard vs Smartboard

For my professional presentation (workshop) I’ve decided to concentrate on the use of the Smartboard. Our school has one Smartboard and apparently we’re getting another, although not because our current one is overused. In fact, it’s generally used by only two teachers (me included), and used probably only once per month on average. I haven’t used it much, which was part of the attraction of selecting it as a topic….so I get a chance to research uses for it. Up front, I’ll admit that part of me sees the Smartboard as a VERY expensive projection screen, at least how we use it right now.

That “VERY expensive” part though may not be quite true very soon. Today I found something called a “Wiimote Whiteboard”, which uses Wii remotes and a light pen on a plain old projection screen or whiteboard. It looks to cost about $100 for all the parts. I’m going to do some further investigation, but here’s the website if you’re interested: http://wiiteachers.com/

By the way, the workshop I’ll be running is on November 13th, a Friday.

Tweeting about Twitter.

Just saw a great use for Twitter! Here's the link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6WPVWDkF7U8

Students are older of course, but what a great way to get participation and have notes of the discussion posted for later study.

boys' literacy

I'm big into using technology in the classroom. I believe it opens the doors to those disadvantaged in some way, whether that be an LD or even being a reluctant reader/writer, OR being a boy.

The focus in our school is currently on boys' literacy. One of the first things we were "told" to do was hand out booklets: one a reading journal, the other a writing journal. I detest journals for boys. Although it was a long time ago, I remember being 13 and if someone would have given me a booklet which clearly says on the front, "80 Pages", I would have immediately lost it and risked the wrath of my teacher rather than face the prospect of filling those pages.....times two! I passed my thoughts along to one of my more enthusiastic (and very new) colleagues, and she scoffed that perhaps our standards were too low if we couldn't expect ALL boys to complete the booklet over the course of the term. "It's not like we're asking them to complete 80 pages in a day", she replied. But to me, when you're 13, next week is a long time away, and 80 pages is 80 pages, whether you get months to do them or not. Blank pages are a mountain to climb - 80 blank pages is a trip to the moon.

Anyway, one week later when 13 of her students hadn't completed a couple journal entries, all heck broke loose. Students were talked to, phone calls made home, journals to be signed.

I tell this story not as an "I told you so" gloat, but to emphasize that as educators, we must make our goals with our students in mind, not a Ministry of Education designed program to be completed "by the book"!

I changed the assignment a little. I took the five boys and one girl in my class who I knew would quietly rebel against this (as I would have too) and cut them a deal. They would be able to email there journal, so keep an electronic journal, if you will. I'm fortunate in that I have the computer lab next door to me, and thus am able to send students in there when there's room. I also have two old Macs in my room. If no computers are available, students dot-jot their thoughts (by hand), show them to me, then take them home and email me their finished product later that evening. So far we've only NOT had computer access twice, and things worked out OK.

So far, three weeks in, so far so good. It probably wont last, once they figure out they're still reading, and still writing, but I'll get something from them, with few hassles, and perhaps allow them to learn our FirstClass email system a little better along the way.

There is another, perhaps unrelated "incident" that occurred because of this. It taught me a lesson. I'll explain that in my next post.

Fearless of Facebook

So, I’ve restarted my blog. I guess I should reintroduce myself. I think I would classify myself as a technology junkie. I’m currently taking part three of what used to be called “Computers in The Classroom”, and unlike one of my fellow students, I have a scary, zero fear of the Internet and the question of privacy. I call it “scary” because I know that I sometimes should be more careful, or at least consider the ramifications. (I just had a thought…. I’m a Mac user, and I’ve NEVER, EVER purchased virus protection and I’ve NEVER, EVER had a virus infect any of my computers. I go surfing/searching without fear, downloading whatever, whenever. I wonder if this is where my “false” sense of security comes from?).

Anyway, I have a Facebook profile. I recently signed up for Twitter to see what it was all about. I ave a MySpace account which I haven’t looked at for a couple of years now. And speaking of that, I have a couple of Geocities web sites that I created about eight years ago, and tonight I read that the site is being deleted on Friday. Darn, my very first website will forever disappear…forever…forever. Seems funny, because I think we’re most often worried about things being available to everyone forever, but here’s an example of the end of things I’ve posted that I don’t have saved anywhere. I wish I could remember the URL for my two Geocities sites so I could make just one last visit.

As for Facebook, (and the rest) I don’t have a lot “friends”, 23 I think, which is miniscule in comparison to the 200 average. I’m mostly on to keep up. However, I enjoy checking out what everyone’s doing almost hour by hour….it has its addicting qualities to it.

One thing I’ve always thought we neglect as educators is teaching about the “etiquette” of social networking sites. By this, I mean respect and treating each other (as the old saying goes) as we’d like to be treated ourselves. We also neglect to teach about safety. While I’ve mentioned my lack of fear, I think some of this has to do with my common sense usage and by the people that I’m in contact with. Again, as mentioned, my cyber friends are few and I know everyone of them in the real world. I know that some students I teach probably have upwards of 500 or more “friends” a lot of whom they’ve never met. As I’m typing this, I’m watching “The Passionate Eye” on CBC. Tonight’s show is titled, “Wired For Sex”. It’s about young people (14-18) and their exposure to inappropriate things on the Internet. One thing I learned is that there’s an “anonymous box” where people can post things to your page without leaving their name. I guess most of the kids expected positive postings (which is why they have the box), but they are in reality getting a lot of intimidating, mean and sexually suggestive comments left….by their friends. Again the users have the choice of not having this box, but their inexperience and seeming need for positive commentary leaves them exposed for the cruelties that exist in their online life. I highly recommend its viewing. An eye opener for sure!

That’s all for now.

Welcome back, ME!

Well, it’s time to start my blog again. I was thinking of creating a new one, but hey, I’ll use this for now, and maybe create another later…..if need be. My one one change will be that I want to NOT leave this blog for long again. I plan to write on it as often as possible. I think it’s a great place for me to explore later…months or years even…and be reminded of things discovered but long forgotten. Anyway, this is my first entry of my new dedication to my old blog.

drag & drop

Patricia....
I think you'll like Keynote. You simply drag the sound files onto the page where you want them to run. Then you place them in the order in which you want then to play by simply dragging and dropping. Then you save and go to sleep. Haha, not quite that simple. I to had file size issues, but mine were due to using too many sound files. Let's just say I had an orchestra of animals and about 20 sound files. I had to cut my project back significantly, but the point is, creating it, then making adjustments to it, was VERY simple. Hard to explain here, but do try it.
Keynote is not part of iWorks, so I doubt your Board has it. It comes with Apples new word processor called Pages. But iWorks has a lot of cool programs and I would definitely experiment there.

drag & drop

Yes David is correct here and count me and our school as being "beside ourselves" at the Boards recent musings. Last year our school spent $7000 on iMacs because we wanted to become more creative in our differentiated learning practices...we are/were one the few elementary schools who were PC. Anyway, it's crazy to me, anyone observing students in action would see them race to get to the few MACS and be amazed at some of the projects kids are creating with them. Mostly, the PC's surf the Net and do some word-processing. As an aside, David, any idea what the HDSB's plans are for word-processing software next year? Apple is not supporting Appleworks anymore right?

beside ourselves

Yes David is correct here and count me and our school as being "beside ourselves" at the Boards recent musings. Last year our school spent $7000 on iMacs because we wanted to become more creative in our differentiated learning practices...we are/were one the few elementary schools who were PC. Anyway, it's crazy to me, anyone observing students in action would see them race to get to the few MACS and be amazed at some of the projects kids are creating with them. Mostly, the PC's surf the Net and do some word-processing. As an aside, David, any idea what the HDSB's plans are for word-processing software next year? Apple is not supporting Appleworks anymore right?

creative boys

Ohhhh, just found another little bit of a problem....that characters do not necessarily have to have clothes! It doesn't show anything, but still, I can imagine some of my more creative boys being able to add stuff afterwards....

creating characters

This is awesome. I'm thinking I could use it to allow students to create characters for a comic book. Can't figure out how to save it better than as a screenshot, but I just "wasted" about 20 minutes creating great characters.