edtech VISION

Some other gems from NECC this year:

• Getting a chance to hear Angela Maiers discuss Literacy and NECC Unplugged and discussing it with her afterwards.  Angela is passionate about literacy.  Literacy is more than learning how to “read”  it encompasses all aspects of making meaning.  She suggests that we should teach literacy as a LEARNING SKILL.  She breaks down 21^st Century literacy proficiency into 4 areas whether you are a young learner reading a book, a HS students  doing research, or reading a Twitter page.  You learn to read and you read to learn.  The 4 Resource Model included:  Code Breakers, Text User, Meaning Maker and Text Critic.  You use all four methods when making meaning  whether the information is printed or digital.  When you understand that the skills, strategy and thinking of reading is the same skill set no matter what you are learning – it transcends all mediums.  I love her analogy of driving a car.  We don’t break down the skills of driving into mini lessons (this is how you turn the steering wheel) – it takes practices to be thinking of where you are going, what’s going on – how you are going to steer the car, etc.. Why then do we continue to break down reading into small parts instead of dealing with all aspects as one???  Anyway, I love taking with someone who loves what they do and any school is lucky to have Angela working with them
• Listening to Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach and Will Richardson at a session called Here Comes Learning! and them talking about the great work they are doing with their cohorts at Powerful Learning Practice.  I would love to be involved in a future cohort!
• Having a personal lesson about Wikispaces from founder Adam Frey during NECC Unplugged.
• The Blogger’s Cafe – what a fabulous idea.  I loved having a central place to return to after session and review what I just learned with the folks around me.  I think I must have met 50 people f3f who I follow on twitter.
• Learning more about the National Girl’s Collaborative Project and finally meeting Karen Peterson face to face.  I will definitely be looking at their resources for my Digital Divas 2.o girls tech club this year.

Btw, the last time I checked there were 4675 photos tagged necc09 at Tag Galaxy Check it out!!

One of the most inspiring sessions that I went to at NECC09 was Chris Lehmann’s session about Progressive Pedagogy and 21^st Century Tools.  I have followed Chris on Twitter for a while now and knew his reputation as a progressive administrator – but never had the chance to hear him speak.

First of all, I love the whole philosophy at Science Leadership Academy in Philadelphia.  The school wants students to be thoughtful, wise, passionate and kind.  Their goal is for their kids to be deep thinkers and willing to forgive others of their flaws.  Notice none of these lofty goals are about subjects??? Lehmann states, “We teach kids – not subjects”.  Instead of “I teach physics” – the focus in the students – “I teach kids physics”.

SLA is kid focused and community based.  They want their kids to be passionate about the work they are doing.  I love his quote, “School is real life – not preparation for real life.”  Technology is ubiquitous and invisible in their schools.  Lehmann suggests that we should stop describing our schools as “Schools WITH computers” — of course we have technology – it needs to be part of everything.  SLA is deliberately meta-cognitive – they want to help their students grow to be better thinkers.   Assessment is authentic and transparent.

One of the ways SLA is unique is that their ENTIRE faculty uses the Understanding by Design (Wiggin and McTighe) methodology for curriculum design.  This is very impressive.  Collectively, they have designed unit lessons around 5 core values:  inquiry, research, collaboration, presentation and reflections.  SLA uses common outputs for their curriculum projects with rubrics that evaluate:  design, knowledge, application, process and presentation.  Currently at SLA they are designing commons skill sets that will be taught across all curriculum areas.

Lehmann went on to explain the basic principles of Understanding by Design including establishing goals, essential questions, assessments, and so on.  I studied UBD in my graduate program and I love seeing examples of how it is used in project-based learning.  The activities in any UBD unit needs to be “understanding-drive” – whether you use projects, homework, tests, quizzes or class participation.

Attending his session motivated me to pull out my UBD curriculum plans that I wrote for my Computer Application classes (during my Masters degree) and review them.  I know I need to refocus my efforts and make sure that my activities and assessments are based around established goals and outcomes and the focus is truly on the big picture.

I’m excited to work with my Middle School staff this next year on mapping out how we are infusing technology throughout the whole curriculum.  It will give me an opportunity to share these ideas with my staff and improve the overall quality of our program.

I hope to go to EduCon 2.2 in Philadelphia next year and see firsthand how SLA and their program work.

Link to handouts from session:  http://ubd21c.wikispaces.com/

UbD in a nutshell (pdf):  http://ubd21c.wikispaces.com/file/view/UbD_Nutshell.pdf

I’ve heard about EduBloggerCon for the past two years and have always wanted to participate because the type of people who attend seemed like “my kind of people” — and I am happy to report that I was right.

EduBloggerCon was everything I had hoped for … and more:    smart people talking about interesting topics – people who really CARE about learning, use technology and improving education.  I absolutely loved finally meeting my twitter friends face to face.  Beth Still said it best, “It’s like going to a high school reunion and seeing old friends”.  The morning of EduBloggerCon was filled with handshakes, hugs and lots of “I follow you on Twitter”.  I loved it!

The first unconference session I attended was Web 2.0 smackdown led by Vicki Davis and with Paul Wood as referree.  The time was spent with folks coming up to the mic and quickly sharing some new tool or gadget.  It was quick and fast paced – luckily – folks were twittering the links participating in a Cover It Live chat so I can go back and remember all the cool tools.

The next session was led by Mark Wagner about cool tools we wished we had.  Mark led a discussion about brainstorming ideas for tools that we could “rent a coder” to program.  They were lots of ideas of unique aggregators, assessment rubrics and so on – but one of the neat things that happened if someone suggested an idea — another person said, “oh, that already exists” and then shared the URL of that tool.  I think a lot of folks learned new things.  Mark would like to pursue the rubric idea and I am willing to help.  I already reviewed what Rubistar offers – but love the idea of an interactive rubric that sits on top of Google spreadsheets or one that sends students immediate feedback.  Great session and looking forward to learning more.

One of the most compelling discussions of the day was led by Jon Becker titled “Where School Reform Meets Madonna:  Can public schools fundamentally reinvent themselves?”  This was a thoughtful and insightful discussion about school reform and what we can personally do to improve education.  Yes, it started off with a rehash of what’s wrong with education but then quickly moved to ideas about engaging students with relevant projects, sharing models of what really works, filling the empty space with innovative projects and discussions of how 15, 16, & 17 yr old students are very ME oriented – and can they really chart their own course of how to effective use technology in school?

The next session I attend was a small group that discussed how students can use social media to effect positive social change – led by Mark Wagner.  We shared ideas of how we could engage students by using social media tools while they engage in social justice or service learning activities.  There was a strong sense that this type of “work” is very relevant and meaningful for students and as educators we should encourage more connections by using social tools or use the tools as a reflective process to think about & discuss what they are experiencing while doing service work.

Afterwards,  I had a great discussion with Wes Fryer about his Story Chasers program and how I can incorporate some of the elements of his program with a MS nursing home visitation program that is already being done in my school.  More thoughts on that later.

I showed up late for the last sessions so I just joined a group that was discussing “Social Media Policy & Practice for K-12 Districts” a Conversation with Ann Flynn,
Director, Education Technology, National School Boards Association (with Kevin Jarrett & Scott McLeod).  Even though I teach at a private school that is not governed by a school board, I still gleamed some ideas of how to get my administration on board with social media.

Overall the day was great.  We de-briefed at the end of the day and made plans for future events.  I will definitely try to make EduBloggerConNW a reality at the NCCE conference next March in Seattle.

I need to thank Steve Hargadon for all of his efforts with EduBloggerCon and Adam Frey of Wikispaces for their generous hosting of the afterparty that evening.  It was great to see everyone in good spirits and having a great time.
Kevin Jarrett’s Flickr stream: http://www.flickr.com/photos/kjarrett/sets/72157620446666009/
Scott Merrick’s Flickr stream: http://www.flickr.com/photos/optomystic/sets/72157620507710581/

NECC Hands-On Workshop
Using VoiceThread for Interactive Projects – [Formal Session: BYOL]
Tuesday, 6/30/2009, 3:30pm–4:30pm

Prepare for our session by collecting images for practice project. I selected some images from FlickrStorm (Creative Commons licensing) that you can download for our workshop or bring your own.

PC or Mac users should download Audacityfor audio recording and editing. Consider bringing a headset with microphone for recording audio comments.

Handouts:  http://edtechvision.wikispaces.com/VoiceThread

For our last Tuesday Tech Tip of the year, MaryFran and I decided that we should share our Five Favorite Google Tools.

Mary Fran’s Favs

Five…how could we possibly narrow the number of favorite Google Tools to 5? It has been more challenging than I would have guessed In the end, I decided to chose the five tools I use most.

Search
Most people have their first encounter with Google through Search. They expect to be able to ask a question and get their answer in return. I am continually amazed at the quality of the results and the number of Search Features Google offers. Recently, the Google Search team put together a series of 15 Second Search Tips. The topics range from Unit Conversion to finding local Movie Times. It’s always good to go back and refresh your memory on all Search has to offer.

Search Options, added to the Search page in May, lets you filter your results by type, time, and even offers suggestions for related searches. If you haven’t yet looked at Wonder Wheel you ought to give it a try.

Custom Search
A feature of Search that I like that we haven’t covered is Google’s Custom Search Engine. Being a third grade teacher, setting my students loose in the World Wide Web can sometimes be a bit scary. When I assign third graders to do a research presentation on spiders in the Media Center, I don’t want to have to worry about what results they are going to get for [black widow] and since I want to incorporate teaching skimming and scanning skills, I want to make sure my primary students can read the results they get. So, I set up a Google Custom Search to limit the sites they have access to by simply dropping the URLs for the websites I’ve pre-screened into a form.

Docs
My favorite characteristic of Docs is its collaborative feature. It has helped Colette and me coordinate our schedule, my third grade team and I work together on the Educational Action Plan while I spent two weeks in Buffalo in September, my grade level team share grades for our rotation students, and my students to put together two presentations while working on it at the same time in the Media Center (thank you, Kelli Glass for putting up with the noise and confusion). And because it is all stored in “the Cloud,” I have access to my Docs wherever and whenever I have a device that can access the internet. This came in super handy when I went to give a presentation with my laptop and forgot to bring along the connector to hook my Mac up to the projector…I was able to turn on their Dell and access my slides!

Forms
Another favorite feature of Docs is Forms. I used it to collect phone numbers and e-mail addresses at back-to-school night, thus avoiding having to decipher a parent’s handwriting , to collect information from students on science observations, reactions to our field trips, to “vote” in the November elections, to gather “book report” information, and so much more. It is so easy to set up and the summary information provides instant graphs, and the kids love working online in the classroom or from home.

Gmail
While it took a bit getting used to, I love, love, love, Gmail’s threaded conversations. It is so nice to have all of the communication on a subject right there, in chronological order to refer to. But when that doesn’t work in finding that e-mail I want to refer back to, Search Mail always seems to come through for me.

It is very easy to filter messages to have them go to separate folders, and Google has done an amazing job at keeping SPAM out of my inbox. I also like getting a view of my Calendar and Tasks from the one screen I use most.
I am very excited to see how Google Wave will transform the “email” experience.

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Colette’s Fab Five

My favorite Google tools are similar to MaryFran’s choices – but I guess that shows how valuable these products are.

Gmail
I’ve been using Gmail since it first was in Beta and love it.  It keeps getting better and better.  I first loved how the conversations were linked together and have learned how to “search” for mail instead of wasting time organizing my mail into folders.  The integrated tasksand calendar features are really nice.

Docs / Forms
Using Google Docs& Spreadsheets this year with my HS Computer students has been transformational.  Students are much more willing to collaborate on projects instead of relying on one student to do more of the writing.  We have found so many uses for Forms, like surveys, data collection, and quizzes.  I am even moving all my lesson planning documents online to keep them updated and accessible from anywhere.

Maps
Personally I use maps all the time.  How did I ever find any location before Google Maps?  But now I find that I first go to maps to choose restaurants, accommodations and parks by using the “search nearby” feature.

My students also enjoyed mashing up Google Maps with photos, text and video this year.  Having the ability to go between Google Maps and Google Earth is also pretty cool!

Calendar
I’ve convinced my whole family to start using Google Calendarthis year and now its easy to remind them of important dates and upcoming events.  I color-code different categories (family, school, PD, etc) to make it easier to glance at my calendar and see what’s happening or sort by category.

Search
Last but not least is Google Search.  I love the new Search Options that I wrote about last week.  I use search for everything — recipes, questions, health information, current events – you name it.  I don’t think a day goes by that I don’t use Google search for something.  I find the results relevant and accurate but always have the option to narrow down or broaden my search with advanced search or the new options.

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MaryFran and I met nearly a year ago at the Google Teacher Academy. At the end of a jam-packed 12 hour day, we were challenged to stretch ourselves to learn more about all that Google has to offer and to make a plan to share what we learned with other teachers. As one of our three projects we were asked to commit to, we decided to take on the task of putting out a weekly tech tip for our staffs. It’s been great for the two of us and hopefully you learned something too.

We will not be doing Google Tech Tips Tuesday again next year but I am planning on continuing weekly Tech Tips but branch out to other technology resources.

Once again, thank you for all support and encouragement you’ve given us over the year.
~MaryFran Lynch and Colette Cassinelli

This past month Google unveiled some very helpful Search Options.  Search Options are a collection of tools that allow you to view your results in new ways.  After you search, click on the “show options” link in the upper left hand side of your screen.  This reveals ways you can redefine your results.

The options are grouped together by their type and you can combine options for more precise searches.  The explanation for these features is taken from the Google Search help:

Don’t want to see the search options on the sidebar?  Just click on hide options and your search results turn back to normal.  Also don’t forget to clik on the Reset Options to stop filtering if you choose to narrow your search by time or category.

Ideas for classroom use:

• Use Wonder Wheel to teach students how to narrow down their search results by clicking on one of the related terms on the wheel.
• Use the Timeline view to see when certain terms (like: swine flu) show up throughout history.
• the Past 24 hours option is great to help you find information about current events.
• Use Reviews to assist is making purchases for the classroom.

Watch a video overview of search result options:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MtirDMfcOKE&feature=player_embedded

By MaryFran Lynch

Even More

If you like keeping track of things on your iGoogle page, you can choose to add Tasks as a gadget.  You’ll have to search for it; just type [tasks] in the “Search for gadgets” box. It’ll return “Tasks (Labs).” Choose “Add it now” and it will appear on your iGoogle page.

Not only can you now access your tasks from any computer or device that is connected to the internet, you can even access and manage your Tasks list from your iPhone or Android mobile phones. Now there is no longer a need to carry scraps of paper with notes around.

For more information about Tasks check http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=106237

If you have a club, team or any type of group that you need to communicate with – consider creating a Google Group.  Google Groups allows you to manage and archive the mailing list for your group.  You can share files, create shared webpages within your group, and archive posts. Group members can create profiles including a photo and quote.  Group administrators can customize the look of the group site and members can read posts online or sign up for email notification. Here are some other ways you can use Google Groups: Organize meetings, conferences or social events among a private list of group members Collaborate on projects or presentations using customizable wiki pages and file storage sections Find people with similar hobbies, interests or backgrounds Learn more about topics of interest such as sports, health or philosophy Stay in touch with old classmates, coworkers and friends To get started just follow these steps: Click the “Create a group…” button on the Google Groups homepage http://groups.google.com. If you’re not already signed in to your Google Account, sign in, name your group, and fill out the other required information. Enter the email addresses of the people you’d like to invite to your group. If you’d prefer to directly add your members, click the “Add members directly” link. (Copying and pasting an existing list of email addresses into this form is one easy way of populating your group.) Write an invitation or welcome message, and select an email subscription option for your members if you’re directly adding them. Click the “Invite members” or “Add members” button. Google will send notifications or invitations to your group members. There are two ways to submit a post to your group: 1.  Visit the homepage and click the + new post button in the colored Discussions bar on the right side of the page. 2.  You can also send an email to your group’s email address. The subject line of the email will be the title of the post, and the body of the email will be the content of the post.  Remember:  You can reply to anyone’s post on the discussion page or by email. Many Google Groups activities don’t require you to have a Google Account, while many others do. Activities that don’t require a Google Account: Reading posts in public groups Searching for groups, posts, or authors Posting to groups via email if they are unrestricted or you’re already a member Joining a public Google Group via email Activities that require a Google Account: Creating and managing your own Google Group Posting to groups via our web interface Creating pages and uploading files Subscribing to a Usenet newsgroup and receiving posts via email Joining a Google Group via our web interface Changing your subscription type (No Email, Abridged Email…) Reading a restricted group’s posts online Don’t have a need to have your own group?  Consider joining one of the many public Google groups located at the Google Groups directory:  http://groups.google.com/groups/dir For more information how to use Groups or manage your group go to http://groups.google.com/support/

Google announced:

Applications are open for our next Google Teacher Academy, which will take place in our Boulder, Colorado office on Wednesday, August 5th. The Google Teacher Academy is a free professional development experience designed to help K-12 educators get the most from innovative technologies. Each academy is an intensive, one-day event where participants get hands-on experience with Google’s free products, which will help you bring communication, collaboration and fun into your classrooms. Teachers will also learn about innovative instructional strategies, receive resources to share with colleagues, and immerse themselves in an innovative corporate environment. Upon completion, participants become Google Certified Teachers who share what they learn with other K-12 educators in their local region. Applications are due Friday, July 3rd.

Last year I participated in the Google Teacher Academy at Mountain View, CA.  It’s a super-intensive one-day training on all things Google – but the best part is the very active online learning community to follow up your training.

One of my projects has been a weekly Tech Tip Tuesday along with my fellow GCT, MaryFran Lynch.  We took turns writing the weekly tip and shared them with our faculty and posted them at:  http://sites.google.com/site/techtipstuesday/.

I also have created several presentations about how I use Google in my classroom – check out my collected resources here:  http://sites.google.com/site/colettecassinelli/.

Another one of my projects was an interactive Postcard Geography project using Google Maps:  http://sites.google.com/site/postcardgeography/.

Some people may tease me about drinking the “Google koolaid”, but I don’t care.  The collaborative nature of incorporating Google Apps for education in my classroom this year has been transformative.  I strongly recommend this professional development opportunity for anyone looking for an active personal learning network.

In light of the recent swine flu epidemic, I think teachers must be the voice of reason and use this opportunity as a “teachable moment” to discuss disease prevention but also how the media can cause mass hysteria.

Technology is great for having the most up-to-date information but it can also over feed the news frenzy.  Here are a few resources that I am using to educate my students about disease prevention and the swine flu.

For students:

CDC YouTube channel.  “Put your hands together” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZlDqcmY_EV8

Questions & Answers from CDC:  H1N1 Flu (Swine Flu) and You http://www.cdc.gov/h1n1flu/swineflu_you.htm

HealthMap – Map of Global Disease alerts http://www.healthmap.org/

Slideshow:  Top Hot Spots for Germs http://life.familyeducation.com/slideshow/hygiene/61567.html

Good advice:

• Cover your nose and mouth with a tissue when you cough or sneeze. Throw the tissue in the trash after you use it.
• Wash your hands often with soap and water, especially after you cough or sneeze. Alcohol-based hands cleaners are also effective.
• Avoid touching your eyes, nose or mouth. Germs spread that way.
• Try to avoid close contact with sick people.
• Influenza is thought to spread mainly person-to-person through coughing or sneezing of infected people.
• If you get sick, CDC recommends that you stay home from work or school and limit contact with others to keep from infecting them.

Media Hysteria:

Student editorial

CNN commentary:  Its time to end flu hysteria http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/05/01/navarrette.biden.flu/

Swine flu hysteria spreads faster than virus http://www.prisonplanet.com/swine-flu-hysteria-spreads-faster-than-actual-virus.html

For schools:

Information from CDC about school’s response to swine flu http://www.cdc.gov/h1n1flu/k12_dismissal.htm

School District (K-12) Pandemic Influenza Planning Checklist http://www.pandemicflu.gov/plan/school/schoolchecklist.html

This term I decided to make some changes to the blogging activity that I do as part of the Digital Citizenship unit.  In the past, students chose a topic based around the theme “We must be the change we wish to see in the world”. We are continuing with the theme and students will still get to choose their topic, but they must choose a topic that fits in one of four categories (the students chose the themes):
1.  Environment / Animals
2.  Digital Citizenship / Tech Issues
3. Health Issues (drugs, diseases, teen stress)
4. Social Justice / World Issues (poverty, war, etc).

Students have planned out their posts according to their interest and will blog 1-2 times a week along with their group members in their respective group blog.

Students will be formed into learning circles and be expected to respond to group member posts by writing appropriate comments that ask questions, give more information or extend the conversation.

Now when the term ends, the four blogs will continue with new students who will carry on the message. No one’s work will be deleted and students can revisit the blogs after they’ve left this class.

The class is very receptive to the idea. I love having my students connect online and see the value of using technology for good.  Along the way I will be teaching them about their digital footprint, keeping their privacy intact, and appropriate use of images and citations.  This real-world activity brings up lively discussions about how they use technology outside of school.

I also am blogging along with my students.  I want model my thinking process and appropriate commenting.  Here is my first post:

Digital Citizenship – Why I Chose This Topic

As a technology evangelist, I take it upon myself to educate students and parents about the benefits of “technology networks” to support student learning.  There is way too much hysteria in the news about “sexting” and the dangers of predators scouring social networks looking for their next prey.  The reality is that teens (and adults) enjoy the connections made with online networks and it rarely does harm.  That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be careful.  We should be.  But the benefits outweigh the harm.  What I hope to accomplish in this blog is to educate readers about ideas for staying safe online, what it means to be a “digital citizen” in the 21st century and tips for using technology for good.  Enjoy and please comment if you feel so inclined.

Photo credit:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/darrendraper/3199912709/in/pool-858082@N25/

By MaryFran Lynch
Cross-posted at http://sites.google.com/site/techtipstuesday/

Look out iPhoto, Picasa 3.0 is about to give you a run for your money.

Picasa is a free, downloadable, photo editor now available for Windows XP, Vista, Linux and Mac platforms. It is easy to download and not only keeps track of your photos no matter where they are on your computer, it also has some photo editing features I haven’t found for free anywhere else. It super easy to use and fun to play with. There are a lot of great features, but before you can get started, you’ll have to download a free version.

Getting your Free Software

Here are the links to download the version you need. One word of caution, you’ll need to have an Intel Mac to take advantage of Picasa 3.0. If you have an older Mac, you’ll still be able to use Picasa Web Albums. You’ll want to check back next week, when we talk about those.
Mac
Windows/XP
Linux

Once you download the program, you’ll have to install it like you would any software program. Decide where you want to have it reside, and open.

If you think you’ll need more help installing Picasa, here is a website that’ll help:  MyPicasaDownloads

Picasa will scan your computer and find your pictures and movies wherever they are on your computer, including ones you even forgot you had. Picasa won’t move them, it’ll just keeps track of where they all are. On a Mac, it will even integrate your iPhoto library. The program works with JPEG, GIF, BMP, PSD, and movie files and is compatible with most digital cameras. Just think of the time you’ll save trying to locate that photo you knew you took on vacation in 2004.

When Picasa is done, it’ll open the Library page. You’ll notice that your media will be organized in Folders or in Albums.

Folders in Picasa contain your media and will appear in chronological order. They represent actual folders on your computer’s hard drive that contain photos. Be careful because changes you make to folders in Picasa will affect the corresponding folders on your computer’s hard drive. For example, if you delete a photo from a folder in Picasa, it will delete the photo from your hard drive. There are different views of your Folders available, you’ll Albums, however, exist only in Picasa. You can create an album that contains combinations of photos from multiple folders. For instance, you might want to have an Album of your favorite photos. While they can be found inthe album, you’ll also be able to find them in their folder. Unlike Picasa folders, your albums don’t correspond to real folders on your hard drive. When you delete or move photos from an album, the original files remain in their original locations on your hard drive.

The main part of the window is called “The Light Box.” Beneath it, you’ll find a status bar giving you information about the Folder you are viewing. Beneath that, you’ll see the Photo Tray. Here is where you drag your photos when you want to create an album or edit them.

As you are adding a number of photos to your tray, you might have some you know you want to hold onto. The green lightening icon “Holds” the selected picture in the tray until you “Clear” it by selecting the red circle. The bottom icon in that row, adds the pictures in the tray to an Album.

Basic Editing

Picasa never changes the original image of your photo. It just keeps track of the changes you made and you’ll be able to see them in a copy. Select a photo you’d like to edit. It will appear in your Photo Tray and the Editing menu will appear on the right. You can select Basic Fixes which includes things like red-eye reduction and cropping, but also lets you straighten a photo, add text, or retouch the photo. I’m Feeling Lucky lets the computer figure out auto contrast and auto color changes to your photo.

Tuning lets you add light to a dark photo by using the slider, or add warmth to a bright photo. It’s also where you can touch up a photo. The wands on the side are the “I’m Feeling Lucky” changes you can ask the computer to automatically suggest. Notice the “Undo Tuning” tab in the left bottom corner. It will return your photo to the version you last had.

Effects gives you thumbnail views of the different effects.

There are four choices (the ones with the “1″ in the corner) that simply give you one version of that effect. The rest all have sliders that let you adjust the amount of filtering,focus, or color saturation you’d like.

It is really fun to play around with these, and when you have the photo exactly the way you want it, the new version will be saved. Remember, Picasa never changes your original. It will always be saved in an “Orginals” sub-folder.

The best way to really learn about Picasa is to get in and play with it. Here are a few resources you might want to check out:

This is a video from Google introducing Picasa 3 to PC users. While some of the features are not yet available on Mac and Linux versions, there is still a lot of good information on Picasa.
Introducing Picasa 3 on YouTube

Here is a link to a HelpMeRick YouTube video, it is geared toward PC users but there are tips here for any Picasa User
Using Picasa – Part 1 on YouTube

This is the Google Help site for Picasa
Picasa Getting Started Guide

GeeksOnTour has a combination of free and paid subscription

Next week, we’ll talk about how to share your photos and Picasa Web Albums. In the meantime, enjoy learning about and playing with the photo editing features on Picasa.

My notes from several of the NCEA sessions I attended:

To “Tech” as Jesus Did
NCEA conference April 15, 2009
By Greg Dhuyvetter – http://twitter.com/GDhuyvetter

Greg’s weekly blog for his school:  http://www.mdtech20.wordpress.com

Our goal:  promoting gospel values and creating life-long learners.  Greg has a vision of Catholic Schools that incorporate these goals along with technology.

Students will have mini-computers with them for the rest of their lives – we need to tap into that.  Don’t remove them – it’s like having your hands tied behind your back.

3 books that should be consulted when planning technology for Catholic Schools:

1.  Bible – all decisions need to be grounded in scripture.

2.  Catechism of the Catholic Church

3.  To teach as Jesus did:  a pastoral message on Catholic Education.

“Faithful to the past and open to the future, we must accept the burden and welcome the opportunity of proclaiming the Gospel values.”

Instead of WWJD isn’t it “www.jesus.do.”  How would Jesus manage with technology?

We are in times of Disruptive Innovation – which means:

• Fundamental change to the status quo
• Questions older values and ways of being
• Resisted and considered dangerous
• Over time becomes the dominant paradigm

Current example of disruptive innovation:  Web 2.0 revolution.  Everything is in the “cloud”.

Let’s look at scriptures for Catholic School technology planning:

1.  “You are Called” – Matthew 4

The story of when Jesus calls the disciples.

Many people in your environment are “on fire” with technology.  He has chosen you and given you a mission.

2.  “Many Parts One Body”

We expect tech people to do everything.  Let’s celebrate each other’s difference.  We need:

• Visionaries
• Planners
• Technicians
• Teachers (for PD)
• Maintain-ers to keep the project going.

3.  “Build Castle on Firm Foundation”

You need to have a vision of technology that is unique to your school

Have documentation – but keep it flexible.  Tech changes fast.

Calculate the real cost of implementation

• Research – It takes time to locate and choose the correct hardware/software.
• Purchase – most people only consider the actual price when calculating the cost of new equipment.
• Installation
• Training
• Maintenance
• Replacement costs

Avoid the planning pitfalls

• Death by Documentation – don’t drown everyone in paperwork.
• The Training Trap – training cannot be one size fits all. Set up a mentoring or buddy systems. Remember Jesus sent out the disciples two by two.
• Don’t “fundraise” for your tech budgets. You don’t fundraise to pay your gas bill – so technology costs needs to be incorporated in the regular budget.

3.  “The Mustard Seed”

Start small – don’t feel like you need to do everything at once.  Have success with small projects first.

4.  “New Wine in Old Wineskins”

Our natural tendency is to stay with the old.  Technology requires a new paradigm shift in how you plan and teach with technology.   Ask yourself:  Can we do things in new ways?

5.  “Render Unto Caesar”

Model and teach about theft of intellectual property.  As teachers we are a bit hypocritical by “borrowing” information all the time and then come down hard on students for copy/paste.

Evaluate your use of music, software, ideas and images (use Creative Commons licensing).

When students copy/paste – make it an assessment issue, not a moral issue.  How will I develop assessments that really show what students are learning?

6.  “Let the Children Come to Me”

Children have an innate interest in technology.  Stop pretending they are like you (the teacher).   They think, process, and create differently.

7.  “Woe Be to You”

There are dangers of technology – but we have to let them run.  Let them use the tools safely.

Don’t buy into the media hysteria – like “sexting”.  Remember, the media’s goal is publicizing these topics to gain viewers and sell advertising.

8.  “Come Away and Rest Awhile”

Take time away from screens.  We need to tell kids “now it’s time to turn it off”.  Model moderation.

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Every child has a story
NCEA conference – April 16, 2009
Dennis Grice – http://twitter.com/dgrice

http://Dgrice.wikispaces.com/stories4learning

http://Rcbotech.wikispaces.com/dennis+grice

We learn through stories
- As you listen to stories you draw pictures in your head and you store those stories in your head; this creates better recall

Take things that are complex and put them in story so we can relate to our own experience
Stories become powerful when you place students as storytellers

Stories with sound

Radio drama, podcasts

Recording your story

• Audacity http://audacity.sourceforge.net
• GarageBand
• StoryCorps – record personal stories from PBS
  Has section called “Great Questions”.
• The Story, interviews by Dick Gordan

Sharing your story

• Gcast
• Podomatic
• Gabcast

Find sounds.com

Stories with pictures

Photostory3

Use Digital Kit and provide students with images and sounds to facilitate the process of storytelling

Stories with place

• Google maps
• Picasa Web Albums
• Upload photos into Picasa and add location to map.
• Save images as KML file. Open in Google Earth and view.

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Designing Interactive Learning Environment for the Millennial Student
By Gini Shimabukuro & Nancy Barrett

Grown up digital
Don Tapscott

• The Baby Boom Generation
• Generation X
• The Net Generationfr
• Generation Next

“A Vision of K-12 Students Today” video

In what ways does learning in your classrooms address the needs of Millennial learns and thus enable them to function in a digital world?

“The Net Generation has been flooded with information learning to access, sort, categorize, and remember it all has enhanced their intelligence.”

Pedagogical Shift:

Shift from teacher focused approach based on Instruction to student focused model on collaboration and innovation.

Practice strategies that focused on the learner.

Backward Design Model – Understanding by Design

• Outcomes: identify desired results – what is the significant learning to be achieved?
• Assessment Methods: Determine acceptable evidence – How will students know that they have achieved it?
• Teaching strategies: Plan learning experiences and instruction – What will teachers do to make this happen?

Creating a Curriculum That Works
Lorraine Ozar

Preparation Techniques

Brainstorming, concept-mapping, chaining, webbing, kindling, do-look-learn, metaphorical learning, inductive learning, KWL, circle of knowledge, interpretation of data, corners, interviewing, case studies, simulation games, learning centers

Presentation Techniques

Storytelling, peer-reading, jigsaw, compare & contrast, new American lectures, advanced organizers, etc.

Process Techniques

Think-pair-share, role playing, sequences, analogies, panel discussions, predicting, “chalk talk”

Practice Techniques

Boggle, Pair check, quizzes, acting out, concept mapping, reading for meaning, Mnemonics, Outlining, team game tournaments

Real life Connections

• Make subject matter relevant
• Allow students to connect the material to their lives
• Involve hands-one activities
• Get students out of the classroom
• Connect students with people outside the school community.

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Brain-Based Teaching Strategies to Improve Student Achievement
By Lou E. Whitaker and ?

Attention and concentration is centered in the frontal lobes.  The frontal lobes of young males are not as developed as young females.  Boys have less myelin = less mature.  Girls have 15% more circulation in brain.

What can we do? (specifically for boys)

1.       Give outlines, give structure or scaffolding for notetaking

2.       Verbal cues

3.       Many students thrive on pressure.  Create short, frequent quizzes instead of long drawn-out projects.  Create a structure with well defined goals that need to be completed within a certain time frame.  Research shows that kids with ADHD use movement to keep awake

4.       Computers give immediate feedback – that’s why boys do better with technology

5.       Prior knowledge about material helps with learning.  Assists with organizing new information faster.

6.       High Interest and incidental learning.  Give fewer problems on page or more space between problems.

Brain is divided into two hemispheres.  Left side = verbal  right side= spatial

Speech and memory is centered in the temporal lobes  Hippocampus stores and processes memories.  In order to remember students must 1.  attend (pay attention) 2.  Remember  3.  Incorporate  4.  Implement.  Women connect emotions and (learning) memory.

Basis of memory is association – helps make connections.

• Use repetition:  go over new material and review notes.
• Encourage multiple modalities.
• Understand Learning styles, V.A.K.  boys are visual.
• Use memory techniques.
• Chunk information together and break smaller information into steps.
• Write down homework.

Male and female brains grow in different patterns and rates.  Females are better at simultaneous processing.  They have 20%-25% larger coetical.

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Technology and the Law/Handbooks
By Sarah Wannemuehler

Facebook, Myspace, Stalking, Bullying: What Catholic High School Educators Need to Know about Cyberspace and the Law
By Sr. Mary Angela Shaughnessy, SCN – http://www.educationlawinstitute.com/

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Photo credits:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/geowombats/139077383/

Blogger is Google’s blogging platform. A blog (short for Web log) is a Web page that serves as a publicly accessible journal for an individual or group. Typically updated daily, blogs often reflect the personality of the author or are based around a hobby or theme. The postings are organized chronologically. A blog post can be “commented” on by others, allowing for a dialogue on a the topic of the post.

Educators have embraced blogging as an authentic way to encourage reading and writing throughout the curriculum. It’s also a great way to share resources with other educators. More uses for blogging in education.

To get started with Blogger, go to http://www.blogger.com and enter your Google username and password. Click the Create a Blog link to get started. Choose a name and address (URL) for your blog and one of the pre-designed templates. You can customize your blog’s design and add gadgets such as slideshows, user polls, or photos. If you want more precise control over your blog’s layout, you can also use the Edit HTML feature. Finally you can add information to your personal profile and customize how your blog looks.

Adding your first post is simple. Choose a title and add your information in the post area. You can choose basic formatting features such as fonts, colors, alignment, and bullets/numbering. You can insert images along with your text as well as hyperlinks and videos. Blogger accepts AVI, MPEG, QuickTime, Real and Windows Media files but they must be less than 100MB in size.

When you’re writing a post, you’ll have a space at the bottom of the form marked “Labels for this post. This allows you to create keywords for your blog posts.

By default, your blog is completely public, and can be read by anyone on the Internet. However, if you want to keep it private, you can do that, too. Your blog can have up to 100 authors and you can limit your blog to only be view by authors – which is great for private groups and organizations.

Check your school’s policy about using Blogger with your students.

Here are some examples of classroom or educator blogs that use Blogger:

Sarah, Plain and Tall Book Blog – http://sarahplainandtall.blogspot.com/

Student Reflections on Night – http://nightwiesel.blogspot.com/

Tech 4 ESL – http://www.tech4esl.blogspot.com/

Web 2.0 Book study – http://web20bookstudy.blogspot.com/

Math 306-04 – http://web20bookstudy.blogspot.com/

Link to directory of educational blogs

Next week I will be presenting Using FREE Google Tools in the Classroom at the National Catholic Educational Association conference (NCEA) in Anaheim.  I am looking foward to meeting other Catholic School technology teachers and discuss issues unique to our schools.

Click HERE to view a website that I put together with Google classroom examples, resources, tips and explanations.