ISC's Blog

Travel the World

Meghan Scheib — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 20:16:59 +0000

So you want to travel the world with your students to show them the Coliseum in Rome, the pyramids in Egypt, or simply all of the Erie Canal. Obviously trips like that would not fit into the field trip budget, but what if you could use an alternative to show your students an up close view of the historical sites? Google Earth (Start ->Programs) will allow you to to fly around the world at no cost to show your students ancient ruins in Rome.

You could use Google Earth tools to determine the longitude and latitude of an area or measure the distance between two cities. You can even download Google Earth files with Haiti’s earthquake information for a science lesson.

For more Google Earth Resources, check out these sites:

Google Earth Gallery – Search and download Google Earth files
Google Earth Lessons – Great lesson ideas and downloadable Google Earth files
Google Earth Tutorials – How to navigate Google Earth and use the tools available
Model Schools Google Help – Help documentation from BOCES
Google Lit Trips – Find corresponding Google Earth files for literature like Grapes of Wrath
Google for Educators – Learn how other educators are using Google Earth in their classroom

Youtube Video

admin — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 19:18:48 +0000

Using video as a classroom resource can be a powerful tool, but can sometimes be risky if you are looking at a YouTube video. YouTube videos can be dangerous because you never know what offensive comments might be featured below the video or what related videos might be suggested to the right of the video. While you may have looked at the video a million times without ever seeing an inappropriate video, luck would have it as soon as you went to show the video to your students an inappropriate video would show up.

There is hope though! Tools like Quietube and SafeShare strip YouTube videos of all of the background noise that surrounds the video so you simply have the video. Quietube is a button that you add to your toolbar. When you go to YouTube and navigate to the video you want to watch, you simply click on the Quietube button and it removes everything but the video. In SafeShare, you paste in the URL of the YouTube video you wish to watch (you would go to YouTube before class and get the video URL) and SafeShare will give you a new link to just your video. SafeShare also gives you the option to crop the video, so you only show the portions that you want your students to see.

Quietube Video snapshot

SafeShare Video snapshot

E-Books and the student mind….Aristotle vs. Socrates

bapthorpe — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 17:40:56 +0000

Today our team was examining the new SONY E.Reader and we were discussing all the logistical issues related to bringing such devices into schools….for example, how to legally purchase and manage content…..how to determine if the content can be on a host server and made available on-demand…..and so on.

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In doing my homework for this I stumbled upon a fascinating debate in the New York Times Opinion section called “Does the brain like e-books?” There were short, well written opnions from five “experts” who weighed in on this question. In particular I found Marianne Wolf’s piece most interesting. Her proposition is that the human brain can only process so much information in a finite amount of time and the distractive allure to “read on” or “”click on” of ebooks will draw young readers onward before they have been able to process the information in at the refelctive layer of comprehension within the time allotted by young readers between clicks. Many of the experts wrote about the medium of ebooks potentially allowing readers to move more quickly through the material than they are able to process at the deeper layers….similar to how Socarates feared for the loss of the oral tradition to the written medium as preferred by Aristotle, this new medium presents both exciting and potentially scary propositions. It is a good reminder for us as educators, that as we make more content available to students, we must be even more diligent to teaching comprehension and synthesis regardless of the medium.

Winter Olympics

Meghan Scheib — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 19:08:14 +0000

With the winter Olympics going on, I’m sure that many of you have mentioned the events in your class. But why not take it a step further and use Olympic resources in your class? Why not look at the Google medal map for the total medal count while secretly learning some geography skills? Or look at the ski slopes in Google Earth and determine the elevation of the slopes, take it even further by setting up math problems that revolve around the ski slopes. Below are some of the resources I found:

Get inside the games with Google
Official Vancouver Olympic site
Google Earth Olympic file (can be downloaded from this site)
Winter Olympic Education resources

World of Warcraft promotes learning

bapthorpe — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 14:01:27 +0000

I was catching up on my reading this week and in the ISTE publication Learning & Leading with Technology Nov. 2009 issue I was drawn to the section on new multi-user virtual environments (MUVEs). I have long felt very strongly that these settings held enormous potential for advancing student learning. It was three years ago, as part of my doctoral studies at the University of Rochester, that my good friend Jeremiah Frink and I conducted an ethnography study at a popular gaming parlor in Rochester called Arena 51. During this study I had the opportunity to see first hand the sophisticated complexities of games that took place in MUVEs. I was also struck by the types of kids who were playing…..they were not the loner, quiet, friendless, introverted type kid that I envisioned. In fact it was just the opposite, the people were all very social. I really questioned my paradigm about gaming being all about shoot/kill and involving social misfits. In fact what I learned was these MUVEs hold the potential to illustrate and actively engage students in a social atmosphere that takes on very sophisticated concepts. Imagine a true MUVE through a human body with cancer, diabetes, high blood pressure……or the brain…

In 2008 the Pew Internet & American Life reported on a study that found

Game playing is universal, with almost all teens playing games and at least half playing games on a given day.
97% of American teens ages 12-17 play some kind of video game.
99% of boys say they are gamers and 94% of girls report that they play games.

Gaming is a ubiquitous part of this generation. So I was excited to read that the World of Warcraft, arguably one of the most popular MUVE game of kids is being used by schools to explore literacy, math, writing, digital citizenship, and 21st century skills. Suffren Middle School in Suffren NY is a leader in this endeavor and it is exciting to see them engaging students in a learning medium that will continue to have a growing presence in their lives.

Doodle 4 Google

Meghan Scheib — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 20:23:24 +0000

Have you heard of the Doodle 4 Google contest? The contest is for K-12 students to redesign the Google logo. Each school can submit up to six entries for this year’s theme “If I could do anything, I Would . . .”

How could you work this contest in to your curriculum and lessons?

This may be a project the art teacher would like to take on and have the students create their designs based off their favorite artist. Students would research the artist’s style and replicate the style in coordination with the “If I could do anything, I Would . . .” theme.
Computer teachers may want to have the kids create their design using a new computer software. This will acquaint the students with the new software while they create their Google design.
General Education teachers could discuss current events and how they are creating the society we know today. Students could then design their Google logo as a follow up.
Could be posed as a writing topic. Students write a story revolving around the “What I Wish for the World” theme and create their design as a supplement to their writing.

The possibilities are endless . . . how would you work this project into a lesson?

For more information about signing up your school, visit the Doodle 4 Google page.

EduCon 2.2

Meghan Scheib — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 15:18:21 +0000

It is hard enough for teachers to be absent from their classroom when they are sick or have a family emergency, let alone leave the classroom for a conference. But conferences are great way to network, collect ideas for your own classroom, and most imporantly learn. But how do you balance your classroom time and your personal learning time? Virtually attend a conference.

The EduCon conference will be running from January 29-31 in Philadelphia, but will also have sessions streaming live online. To participate, create an account and look at the sessions/conversations available.

From the EduCon website:

What is Educon?

EduCon 2.2 is both a conversation and a conference.

And it is not a technology conference. It is an education conference. It is, hopefully, an innovation conference where we can come together, both in person and virtually, to discuss the future of schools. Every session will be an opportunity to discuss and debate ideas — from the very practical to the big dreams.

International Baccalaureate and Technology

bapthorpe — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 14:47:42 +0000

Yesterday I had the great pleasure to meet with the IB teachers of Fairport. I really enjoyed this meeting and the great questions posed by the group. The theme of the presentation was providing real time access to real world resources 24/7.

The presentation slides above contain links to some of the sites that they will be able to utilize once their network infrastructure is completed this summer.

TLT Conference

Meghan Scheib — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 12:25:40 +0000

I know many of you have seen the emails your administrators have passed on requesting proposals for the 2010 TLT (Teaching, Learning, and Technology) Conference at Nazareth College, but many of you are probably wondering what the TLT conference actually is. The TLT conference is three days filled with sessions about literacy, technology, etc and you get to decide what sessions you want to go to. Many sessions are presented by local teachers or instructional technology specialists and feature hands on time. Last year I went to sessions on Google Apps for Education, Moodle, Safari Montage, and Voicethread – this session was taught by one of our District’s Library Media Specialists.

You will walk away from the conference with some great ideas you will want to implement in the classroom, technology you want to try out, and connections with local teachers that may help you in your professional network. I know many of you won’t want to present, but do think about attending, it would be great to see more Fairport faces!

I would encourage many you to think about presenting at this year’s conference. So many of you are doing amazing things from blogging, using a wiki, using audacity, etc. in your classroom that you should share with local teachers. If any of you are considering presenting, but just not quite sure, send me an email or comment below, I would love to see what you are working on.

Students interacting 360 degree videos over the Internet….

bapthorpe — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 17:16:19 +0000

Imagine having your students watching a video on the Amazon River, from the perspective of being on a boat on the Amazon. They explore the diverse geological and cultural surroundings as the camera moves down the river…yet in this video format the students can move their view 360 degrees as the boat floats down the river. Check out the interactive video below from Yellowbird and mess around with the views as you watch it….it can be a paradigm shifter for how we make videos for kids.