This was a FANTASTIC session. I see Steve Dickie already evaluated the session, but I would like to reiterate how good the session was. I was impressed that I learned about three new sites that I was not aware of. Now I can’t wait to play and see how the sites work. We put on a 5 county wide tech academy every summer and I can see the possibility of making this a full day session with teachers actually learning how to use them and brainstorming the best ways to use them with students.

I will name them off as several people have asked about the session since they were not able to attend!

http://top10freesites.pbwiki.com

1.bloglines.com (using RSS, store all your blogs in one place)
2.del.icio.us (social bookmarking system)
3.Flickr.com (photo storage and much more! Create trading cards, memory games. It finds flickr photos with the same titles and puts them into the memory game)
There are Creative commons licenses that allows you to use the photos- gives the ways you can use it legally.)
4. Picnik http://picnik.com (This is so cool! This is new to me. Find pictures from Flickr to edit that you have the right to edit.)
5. www.jumpcut.com (Will let you store videos online privately. You can also do some simple editing)
6. Gcast http://gcast.com (Safe site. Upload your audio to gCast and it will create a flash player with your podcast. You can do modcasting by adding audio from your phone. Call 1-88-65-GCAST and use your pin.)
7. Garageband.com (Has nothing to so with the Apple program. Steve said if you can download the audio you can use it in your Podcast. Just state where you can got the audio)
8. pbwiki.com and wikispaces (Both good free wiki creation sites)
9. Google Docs and spreadsheets (Multiple people work on a document or spreadsheet at the same time. I have been using this since it was Writely and it saves so much time!)
10. vyew.com free webex software (share your screen online and notes online)

I was hoping to spend more time blogging at the MACAL Conference, but my schedule and being worn out at the end of the day kept me from writing more. I think the “blogging team” did a good first attempt at blogging about the conference. I hope the MACUL Board continues to support this process. If you want to join the blogging team next year contact Ben Rimes . Hopefully next year we can have more people posting on this blog.

I used the blog to review some of the presentations that I couldn’t attend during the conference and was thankful for some of the links provided in the posts. It would be nice if we had more people covering more sessions. If you have comments about the blog and how it could be improved please leave a comment. Also, if you haven’t searched Flickr.com for the MACUL tag you might want to take a look at the photos that have been posted. I’m sure more will be added this weekend.

TWICE (Two Way Interactive Conferencing in Education won the MACUL President’s Award this year. TWICE promotes video conferencing in Michigan and throughout the US. They provide Michigan teachers with free and discounted video conferencing program. One big example is the Read Across America program that has now expanding into Read Across The Planet. TWICE is a great group of dedicated educators providing excellent leadership in video conferencing.  Congratulations on a well deserved award.

Jim

macul07

There are no words that can properly describe the joy, giggles, and unbridled learning that takes place during a videoconference. You just have to experience it, and that’s exactly what I had the opportunity to do this morning. On my way to Advanced Googlology, I met Janine Lim in the hallway on the way to my session (fully decked out in her Cat in the Hat outfit) and couldn’t resist sitting in on her TWICE session. I’m glad I made the switch, because I got to see a videoconference between a fourth grade class from St. Joseph, MI and a Year 7 class in UK, Wales.

It was a special videoconference for the classroom in Wales as it was there very first experience with videoconferencing. The class from St. Joseph shared pictures from their lake-side town and included information about Michigan’s fruit-growing regions. They also performed several short poems for the kids in Wales. The classroom from Wales shared a very special song about rugby that they recently won a cultural competition with during an annual celebration.

The children then had time to ask questions of each other, share a few interesting facts about where they lived, and the Head Master in Wales even “crashed” the session so he could say hi to all of the kids in St. Joseph. Towards the end of the presentation questions were opened up to those of us sitting in on the session watching. Janine Lim asked the students in St. Joseph what they liked about videoconferencing (since they’ve done many of them). One of the students replied that they enjoyed being able to talk with other kids around the country and the world.

And that’s what videoconferencing is all about; showing learners the wider world. Talking about other places in textbooks and pointing out locations on a map will never garner the engagement or inspire like the live video and audio interaction that videoconferencing provides. Today those students will go home and be able to tell their parents “we learned from kids in the UK today” instead of just, we learned about kids in the UK today. A much more powerful learning experience was witnessed today, and I’m personally inspired to begin pursuing grants and/or money to startup videoconferencing in my district.

I see that Patrick Crispen’s previous presentation was covered well by Joe, Jim, and Melissa.  I’m eager to hear how he’ll continue his coverage of Google in this session, “Keeping Up with the Googlebots: What’s New at Google.“

Well…Patrick says we’re skipping PP and just doing the presentation live.  Hooray!

By clicking on Advanced Search you can choose the type of Usage Rights as one of the search criteria for a particular resource.  That’s a good thing for teachers to know…you don’t have to ask permission for the stuff you use.  This takes into account copyright laws and ensures you’re not breaking the law!

To help your searching, Google very quietly has started to incorporate “Ask Jeeves” type answers to their search queries.  Meaning…you can type a question directly into Google…Google Question and Answers is the name of this trick.  Watch for this to become more popular.

Besides the map and satellite views in Google Maps, you can get live traffic data from at least 25 major U.S. cities.  The data is basically live and in real time.  Detroit is included so take a look before you head home today!

If you yourself want to keep track of what Google is up to, check out Google Labs for the latest and greatest new tools.  For example, Google Music Trends displays what people are listening to right now on their computers.  Why?  I’m not sure, but many times these “labs” ideas become mainstream tools.

What else is Google doing?  If you find a business, you can type your phone number into your browser and Google will call the company for you.  Why?  In order to make the company think they’re getting a call from Google, instead of taking down your contact information.  Thanks, Google.  Patrick reminded us that Google’s #1 rule is “Don’t be evil.”

What can be done with Google in the classroom?
Google Book Search  Allows you to search inside of books.  You can’t read the whole book, but if they’re not under copyright you can download the book in its entirety.

Hand in hand with Google Book Search is Google Scholar.  This service searches journal articles…you’ll get the article’s abstract.  You’ll still have to get it from your local or university library, but it goes way beyond ERIC.

Google Notebook is their answer to the 3 x 5 cards you used to use for research.  (You have to have a Google Account in order to use it.)  Google Notebook allows users to take information from a web page and “click it” into their Google Notebook.  Besides just the information, the notebook entry includes the URL where the information originated.  It doesn’t give the date and time, but you can add that yourself by editing the entry.  Another cool thing is that the Notebook can be shared…meaning it can be shared among a group of students collaborating on a project.  Having used Google Notebook a bit myself, this is a great tool!  Definitely try it out!

Patrick is showing us Google Docs, which includes a free online word processor and spreadsheet application.  You can save the documents in a number of formats, including MS Word.  In addition, you can upload your own MS Word document to Google Docs and share it with any number of users.  It’s a great collaborative tool…it can be edited live and in real time by all collaborators.

The audience, in a very full room, really enjoyed Patrick’s presentation.  Who doesn’t like to see a new idea that can be used in the classroom?  Patrick reminds us that all his presentations  (there are a lot) are available online and should be stolen used by everyone.

OK, Steve Demob is going to be another one of those speakers I look for at these meetings. Steve went through about 20 or 30 different websites while highlighting his Top 10 Free Web 2.0 Sites. All his links are available at 10freesites.pbwiki.com, so I won’t list them all here.

Here are some of the cool new things I learned:

• Jumpcut – A free online video creation/editing site now allows you to do the Ken Burns Effect with your photos
• Picnik – This is a free online image editor. I’ve heard of it before, but I’ve never used it. I will now. It does all the basic editing you need. You can upload photos or you can pull them directly from the web (including your Flickr). When you’re done editing you can save them, email them, dump them to Flickr, or send them to a number of places that will print them out for you.
• Vyew – Webinars free on the web. You can use your browser to host a webinar. The participants, who only need a browser, can watch your presentations or you can share a real time screen cast. There is a chat window available and you can share audio by having participants call into a phone number. Up to 100 people can call into the free version!

Steve talked about a lot of stuff more than I will mention here. His list of 10 Free Sites is great and you should give it a look.

WebQuests have been around for a while and are recognized as effective, web-based activities that teachers should use.  Elizabeth Horner, Amy Boone, and Ryan Collins from Kenton City Schools (What state is high in the middle and round at both ends?) feel that they’re a perfect match for Moodle, the free, open-source content management system.

First we’ll talk about Moodle.  Moodle is a content management system that’s a free, open-source package that can be installed and run on OS X, Linux, and Windows.  Ryan recommends that for Windows users, they use the XAMPP package from Apache Friends.  This package installs the web server, PHP, and database applications that Moodle requires to run.  As far as installations go, it’s a pretty straightforward procedure.  Here’s a link to Kenton City Schools’ Moodle page.

Ryan shows us some of the behind the scenes Moodle administration controls.  There is a lot of flexibility in how an instructor can set up their course…what types of information is available, how much of it is available, and how information is arranged on the page.  Besides the look and feel of the course, instructors are able to add a ton of resources and activities.

Moodle makes it easy for less-than-technical-teachers to add content by providing an online editor.  It looks very much like MS Word or other word processors that most teachers already use.  Content can include web pages that teachers create or files which they would like to upload, like docs, pdf, ppt, etc.

To more easily meet Ohio’s research standards, teachers at Kenton City Schools use WebQuests.  They’re an organized activity that allows students to complete many types of online research and discovery.  Elizabeth shows us her Moodle course where she has created various activities including her WebQuest.  In order to set up the structure for the WebQuest, she is using various types of what Moodle calls Resources.  You may know that most WebQuest templates include the following components:

• Introduction
• Task
• Resources
• Process
• Evaluation
• Conclusion

Each of these components were set up as a separate resources…meaning that instead of all the components being on a single web page, they’re separated into individual links.  That’s a nice feature that allows students to access the component they need right away.

Moodle gives teachers a useful “place” to create and host their WebQuests.  It’s a breeze to create links, upload images, post information, etc.  The technical expertise required is minimal so teachers have the ability to fly on their own.  Thanks, Ohioans, for sharing your experiences with the rest of us!

Patrick Crispen has a gift for us. Even if you did not attend this interesting session you can see his powerpoint presentation through his page at net squirrel. The beginning of this session was his interperetation of how google works and how we can make the search engine work for us. It’s important to note Crispen does not actually work for Google, he is an instructional technology coordinator for a university in Southern California. Lots of good information. One tip that sticks out was to use archive.com to see web pages from previous years, also how to search google’s cache when the page you’re in the lab trying to share with kids is not working. Use google to define words, solve math problems, check the weather, or type in your zip code:movies to find out the shows in your area. Enjoy and check out his handout at netsquirrel.com

Did you know that the most of us use universal design and don’t necessarily have a disability? We use these tools to help us adapt.
•    Captions on the TV (too noisy use captions, or if you want to watch  TV and not annoy anyone else use captions)
•    Curbs designed differently so that we can wheel our suitcases, computers or strollers
It is so important that we help those who cannot read due to a disability.
Put all books into electronic form  (turning pages by people is not always physically possible)

WiggleWorks- scholastic program that reads to children

He showed some neat graphics of Pet Scans- where is the bran active- where it burns glucose. This helps us first understand what learning is, and what kinds of learner there are.

Memory is very different because we can watch it through scans now. The brain scans show that when people are passively viewing words or listening to words different parts of the brains are working.

He feels that Books:
Are not good about teaching process
Don’t necessarily prepare students for their futures.

The Options:
We can either dumb the books down
Or Smarten the books up
Smartening up through Technology

By using the power and flexibility of modern technology

•    Represent the information so everyone knows the information is there
•    Make it as big as you want
•    Play the book so you can hear it
•    Or have the words highlighted and pronounced

NIMAS  National Instructional Materials Accessibility Standard
Textbooks companies are now required to create a Print and
HTML copy for students with print disabilities  (blind or other students with print disabilities in elementary and secondary schools)

Check out the CAST website- Bookbuilder  Create your own Digital books

You can find all of Patrick’s session handouts at http://www.netsquirrel.com.

Here are some helpful hints for those who use Google and would like to perform better searches!

Google uses simple Algebra
How Google Works- use a phrase (the X’s)
Google measures adjacency (the Ys)
Google then measures the number of times your keywords appear on the page (the Zs)
Then throw away but the top 2,000
Multiplies each remaining page’s individual score by it’s “Pagerank”
And finally displays the top 1,000 in order

The importance of a Web page depends on the amount of hyperlinks to it. Get people to link to your page!!

When you do a search:
1. Be specific
2. Use Quotes to seach for phrases (Well not really!) It searches for phrases automatically
3. Use the + sign to require an exact match. (Not really!) searches automatically
4. Do use the -sign to exclude
5. Combine symbols as often as possible

Google’s Boolean Default is AND
You can use OR between words
To get a better OR statement put the words in parentheses

Google is not case sensitive!!!!! You will get all the same results.
Google now accepts up to 32 keywords. Unless you are trying to get students for plagiarism, stick to 10 words.
The order of your keywords does matter!

Google has special programs called spiders (aka spider bots) that searches for new pages. So when you search Google, you’re actually searching Google’s cache of Web pages.

An interesting reflection from Will that this will be the The You Tube election. Check out YouTube for the newest news from the candidates!

So how will the tools (Blogs, Wikis and Podcasts) impact learning and how does it change what we do with students.
He showed some neat sites

• Clustr Maps- looks like a neat site to measure who and where people are that are reading your Blog!

• Fan Fiction Site- If you are passionate about a book or movie, you can write an alternate ending. The site has nothing to do with School, but students are using is as it is fun. If you love Harry Potter you can share information about Harry.

Some observations from Will:

• Texting on phones, myspace and IM. We don’t allow it at school. Not going to go away.
• Bebo- 23 million people now
• Myspace 162 million people on now
• 65 % or more of kids are social networking
• Doing a ton of learning in Myspace, Learn about music, popular culture.
• Every print encyclopedia is obsolete when Pluto was demoted!
• Text message 4665 Google will send you a text message back with the answer
• OpenCourseware- take courses online free,
  Video lectures and content for free
• Libya will probably the first country totally online as they are receiving the 100-dollar laptops.
• Wikipedia One of the most important sites on the Internet “Collaborative construction of knowledge as we know it”

Work with other people collaboratively on work. Collaboration on documents very popular among groups now. “Google docs and spreadsheet”

Secret Life of Bees- The author blogged back to Will’s class and wrote how impressed she was with their insights of her novel.

Melissa