Smartboard or not, everyone benefits from Smart resources…
http://exchange.smarttech.com
Whether you have a Smartboard in room or not, every computer in the district has Smart software on them. Therefore Fairport teachers can now utilize a powerful resource bank called Smart Exchange. Teachers all over the world populate this site with great lessons for all subjects and all grade levels. This resource has become an instructional staple in contemporary classrooms.
Easy, powerful, cloud tools for teaching and learning….
How does this sound…
- Organize your email more effectively
- Create shared calendars for your class assignments and events.
- Collaborate with others, online, on documents, presentations, and spreadsheets
- Deliver and collect surveys, quizzes, and feedback
(excerpt from Google Apps for education….)
Fairport teachers can do this very easily now with their new laptops. Fairport has what is called Google Apps for Education….we call it Fairport Apps. These apps are a collection of suite of web-based applications. The most popular app is an email which ends with @fairport.org…..so for example, my email account is bapthorpe at fairport.org. Last year a group of K-12 Fairport teachers and students used Fairport Apps for the year and have overwhelmingly recommended them to be available to their colleagues. Check out their feedback on an earlier blog posting.
For you to get your Fairport Apps account, simply email the HelpDesk or call 421-2043 or 19-002.
Check out these links for additional information.
Youtube Video on Google Docs (an example of a Fairport App)
For teachers who want to use their accounts with their students, we are starting off with grades 9-12 students. These students will only be able to use their @fairport.org account with other @fairport.org accounts. So in this respect it is only an email account that can be used internally. We will evaluate this usage and decide whether or not to expand to the lower grades in the future.
Colorado, Iowa, Oregon and Maryland now provides this to all of their students and teachers K-12….8 million students…
Our teaching and learning tools are now in the clouds…..
Which of the following is most likely to true?
- All my students and I have a PC at home with Microsoft Office 2003 and Windows XP.
- All my students and I have a Macintosh with Microsoft Office 2007.
- All my students and I have a PC with Microsoft Office 2010 and Windows 7.
- All my students and I can access the Internet.
My guess is that #4 is your answer…..and is why student writing, presentations, collaborations, group projects is now taking place in the cloud in schools all over the world. Today students and teachers working in the cloud no longer have to worry about whether students have a PC or MAC, Microsoft Office 2003, 2007, or 2010….rather all they need is an Internet connection. When RIT conducted a survey of our school community 3 years ago, as part of their cyber-security research, they reported that 96% of our students have high speed Internet at home.
Teachers and students now will do their work in the cloud…presentations, create documents, spreadsheets…all of it in the cloud.
What is the cloud, you might ask? Well take 4 minutes and listen to this 4 minute podcast done by National Public Radio as to what it is. The bottom-line is students and teachers can access their materials on any device, computer or phone, that can reach the Internet.
Cloud Computing Video in Plain English
The Future of Education is in the Cloud
Check out our previous blog entries for resources in the cloud that you can use immediately:
More instructional tools for our teaching repertoire…
JP Teachers invite all students to the table of learning…
You ought to be in pictures….
We know that most of our learners are visual learners and in the 20th century PowerPoint enabled us to migrate static overhead/chalkboard images to much more sophisticated and visually stimulating presentations. Today teachers have an incredible plethoria of on-line easy and quick visual tools available to them. There is a growing body of research that is confirming what teachers have known intuitively for a long time….good visuals anchor knowledge to a social context,create meaning and facilitates long term comprehension.
Here is an example of a web based slide-show.
Below is a list of ten great free slide show sites I reviewed from a blog by David Kapular. Over the summer try some of these and let me know which ones you like the best.
Also, check out the powerful web-based presentation Prezi program that is taking the educational world by storm.
Your password is your master key…..
12 years ago I got my first classroom computer as a high school social studies teacher. I always remember my principal telling us in a faculty meeting that we had to treat our passwords like the school master key. The master key can open any door in the building. The key is carefully guarded. A teacher password is a master key. The teacher password can open up many doors to places that contain important and sensitive information. It needs to be guarded carefully. This includes keeping it secret AND making sure no one can guess our passwords.
It is well publicized on the Internet what the most common passwords people use:
- 12345
- 54321
- ILOVEYOU
- LETMEIN
- raiders (school mascot)
- jesus
- password
- psswrd
Here are some sites that show common passwords….
20 Most common passwords of all time
Unfortunately there are some people who have malicious intents and if you have an easy password it is a security risk because someone could use your password to log on to the school network and have access to grades, IEPs, teacher shared folders where there are exams etc….so check out how strong your password is here: Microsoft password checker.
One method for creating password shared by Life hacker is the compound password which is a juxtaposition of two simple words, with their letters alternating. For example, dcoagt is a compound password. Can you see the two words in there? How about now: dcoagt. The two words in the compound password are “cat” and “dog.”
For additional ideas check out these links:
Syracuse University 5 ways to create a good password
University of Oregon How to create a strong password
Simple rules for using laptops safely….
Hit these two keys at the same time to lock your computer.
A number of our teacher colleagues have asked my advice on using their laptops safely outside of the school network.
Here are four simple rules to follow
- Only the teacher should use the laptop to ensure that the computer is being used appropriately. Almost always the troubles involving school laptops occurs when someone other than a teacher uses the laptop.
- Always hit the Windows-L keys when getting up from the laptop as this automatically locks the laptop. Only a username and password will open it up.
- Use school laptops strictly for school related work. We encourage teachers to experiment with new technologies and the many new web tools we have available for teachers. Do not use the school laptops for personal business such as Ebay or online gaming.
- Keep username and password secret.
Apple hit by hackers reminds us about being safe in a digital age
image by orvalrochefort
Apple itunes and apps store was hacked in yesterday, and rumors claim weak passwords are to blame. This is a reminder how important it is for us to protect our passwords. There are a lot of good resources on the web to help with learning how to protect passwords and how we can teach our students to keep good passwords.
A great aspect of the digital age is providing our teachers and students with 24/7 access to their resources via the Internet…..an aspect of risk is protecting teachers/student information from those who seek to hack into our networks via the Internet. We, as in all of us, Faiport students and staff, have an obligation to protect our data network from those with ill intents. Security has many aspects to it which include the users of the network abiding by school board policies (1, 2) , New York State, and Federal laws and regulations.
For teachers and students, if they are involved with legal activities that are part of their learning and teaching and using good passwords, they should not experience and problems related to data hacking.
Where problems come into play is when district computers are used by others not affiliated with the school district and they engage in activities, knowingly or unknowingly, which result in viruses, spy-ware, and/or other security breaches.
Top 20 books for your student
The Web site Twenty by Jenny is dedicated to giving teachers and parents the top 20 list of books, by age range for students.
There is a synopsis of each book located underneath the book. There is also choices as where to purchase the book. Here is an example.
The only downfall to the site is that books cannot be read on the site, only purchased. Although, there are many Web sites such as Big Universe which allows teachers and students to read books online.
Twentybyjenny also has a blog. twentybyjenny.blogspot.com
Eye-tracking technology
Eye-tracking technology is the newest way to literally track a students reading skills. Also known as Text 2.0, eye-tracking technology can follow where a student pauses, how they stare at the text, where they stop reading, if they are skimming the page, etc.
This new technology which tracks eye movements was created by researchers Ralf Biedert, Georg Buscher, and Andreas Dengal at the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI).
Text 2.0 uses a camera and an infrared light to track movement across the screen. This information is applied to to conclude what the reader’s intentions are while reading. An article on e-schoolnews.com said Text 2.0 can show if a reader is, “… taking more time to read certain words, phrases, or names could trigger the appearance of sound effects, footnotes, translations, biographies, definitions, or animations.”
To see the vision of Text 2.0, watch the video on eschoolnews.com. 