Promethean Board Training - FREE and online

For those of you receiving Promethean boards, there is a free online course provided by Promethean. The course is title “Level 1 – Foundation Skills Course”. The purpose of the course is to show you the capabilities of Activstudeo. I have not completed the course for myself, but I plan to do so as soon as I get some extra time. I realize that those of you involved with the Classrooms for the Future grant may be reluctant to begin a new class because of your experience with the Embedded Learning course. Unlike the Embedded Learning course, this is not required. And, they are some other benefits.

· Its Free

· There is not time limit

· You work at your own pace

· There is a manual available online

· You receive a certificate at the end

In addition, there are fully interactive tutorials and there is a forum available if you need assistance. According to Promethean’s website, the only things you need to know how to do prior to the training is email and work a web browser (Internet Explorer, Firefox, etc.).

The course is divided into ten topics.

1. Getting Started
2. Organizing Your Flipchart
3. Working With Text
4. Working With the Shared Resource Library
5. Working With Drawing Tools
6. Working With Images
7. Working With Numbers
8. Working With Other Applications
9. Finishing Your Flipchart
10. Working With Special Interactive Tools

There are only two assessments that are 20 questions each. They are after Topic 5 and Topic 10. You are required to answer all of the questions correctly to pass the assessment.

Once you successfully complete the course, you will receive an Activstudio Foundation Skills certificate. The certificate will be in the form of a PDF (portable document format). Also, you will be permitted to upload a flipchart to Promethean Planet.

There are also two other classes available, but they are not free and they have a time limit

Level 1 - Advanced Skills Course - $50 - 90 day time limit

Level 2 - Curriculum Developer Course - $299 - 6 weeks (4-5 hours per week)

Level 3 – Training and Coaching Course – Currently being developed

The Ipod of Books?

Amazon.com recently announced its new Kindle, an e-book reader with free wireless access. It only weighs 10.3 ounces and can hold about 200 books, magazines, and newspapers. In addition to reading, the user can take notes on what they have read and store them on a server provided by Amazon. The device allows the user to connect and download books virtually anywhere. It does this through an EV-DO network provided by Sprint. There is no charge for this network but you will pay about $10 for a new release. Also, the device itself has a price tag of $399.

Sony already has a similar device available, but Amazon created their own so they can build a wireless service around it. It sounds like a good idea. However, it is sometimes hard to embrace change when it is in relation to something you are very passionate about, which I why think many hardcore readers will probably stick with regular printed books for a while. I am a tech geek and I love new innovations, so this concept does excite me. But, I will admit that sometimes you just can't replace a good ol' printed book. I, along with many others, have made the shift from newspapers and news shows to blogs and podcasts.

What do you think about this new technology? Heck, what do you think about e-books in general. I would love to read your comments. I know there are people out there reading this so if you have a comment or argument, please post it. Even if you don't agree with me; I won't take it personally.

Google Search Features: Awesome

I am here at Pattan for Classrooms for the Future training and I couldn't wait to share this with you. Mike Baker showed us a new tool available with Google. There is a way to search and have your results organized in a timeline. You can also search for results that have maps. To view your results in a time line, type in your search term followed by view:timeline. For example, if you are searching for information on California Wildfires you would type california wildfires view:timeline. If you want to search for google maps related to your topic you would type your search term followed by view:map. So, in this case, I would type california wildfires view:map. Check it out. I it is really cool.

TRETC - Digital Storytelling

I just attended the Digital Storytelling session at TRETC. Peter Scott from HarCourt Connected Learning was the presenter. The presentation focused on application in the classroom. According to Peter, there are four phases of digital storytelling. 1. Preparation, 2. Development, 3. Customization, and 4. Culmination. During the preparation phase, the students should be designing the story and creating a storyboard. The storyboard will make the whole project a lot easier. During the development stage, the students should be edit photos/videos and importing them into the program they are using. During the Customization phase, they can add effects and transitions if necessary. This is also when they will be adding narrations and text. Finally, during the Culmination phase, they are going to publish the project. This will enable them to share it with others. Most programs meld all of the components of the story together so they are all encapsulated in one file.

There were some uses of digital storytelling that Peter recommended to us. I have listed some below.

• Response to literature

• Account of historical events

• Character Study

• Lab reports

• Class trips

• Presentations for parents' night

In addition to digital storytelling, he also discussed some resources that may be useful to you.

Answers.com

Filamentality– create and share hotlists

Pics4Learning– copyright free images.

Clusty– search engine that clusters results together

Airset– setup on-line study groups that are accessible by invitation only

Also, he showed us some example of digital stories. The best one was created by Ken Burns.

Public Domain

I realize that I discussed copyright in my blog yesterday but I mentioned nothing related to public domain. I apologize.

Public domain refers to works that can be used by anyone for commercial or non-commercial purposes. If you go to the government copyright website and read about what is in the public domain, it is pretty confusing. I checked numerous sources and I was still a little confused. This is probably because I never have been a “date” person. I will do my best to explain.

First, there are two types of works you can be certain are in the public domain.

1. Any work published before 1923.

2. Any government work

For any other works you have to follow the following guidelines to determine when they will enter into public domain.

1. If a work was published between 1923 and 1963, copyright protects that work for 28 years, unless it was renewed for an additional 67 years.

2. If a work was published between 1964 and 1977 the copyright was renewed automatically providing copyright protection for a total of 95 years.

3. If a work was created before 1978 but never published, it is protected for 70 years after the author's death or the end of 2002, whichever is later.

4. If a work was created before 1978 and published between 1978 and the end of 2002, it is protected for 70 years after the author's death or the end of 2047, whichever is later.

Finally, any works created after 1978 are automatically protected from the moment they are created. They are protected for 70 years after the author's death. If the work was made anonymously or under a pseudonym for which the copyright office does not know the true identity, the work will be protected for 95 years after publication or 120 years after creation, whichever is shorter.

Resources

Fair Use in a Nutshell. Retrieved October 29, 2007, from http://copylaw.com/new_articles/fairuse.html

U.S. Copyright Office - Copyright Law. Retrieved October 29, 2007, from http://www.copyright.gov/title17/92chap1.html#107

WHEN WORKS PASS INTO THE PUBLIC DOMAIN. Retrieved October 30, 2007, from http://www.unc.edu/~unclng/public-d.htm

Copyright, Fair Use, and Creative Commons

THE PROBLEM
It seems that since more people are using the internet in school, we are having more copyright issues. Copyright has always been an issue in public education, but it is more noticeable in the digital age. What or who do we have to blame for this? Perhaps it is attributed to the confusing laws that protect copyright holders. Or, maybe there is a misconception of what "fair use" really means.

FAIR USE
Fair use allows people to use a copyrighted work for certain purposes. Some of the uses include criticism, comment, reporting, teaching, learning, and research. Now, just as long as I am doing one of the six things I just previously mentioned, I can use a piece of copyrighted work, right? Not necessarily. There are four factors that must be taken into consideration when using copyrighted work.

1. The purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes
2. The nature of the copyrighted work
3. The amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole
   
4. The effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.
   

Just because a work can be used for one thing, does not mean it can be used for another. Each case of fair use is weighed on an individual basis.

It is better to be safe than to be sorry. Here are some tips.

1. Try to avoid quoting unpublished works.
2. Copy as little as possible.
3. Give credit where credit is due.
4. Put facts in your own words.
5. Try to avoid using the "most important" part(s) of a work.
6. Don't ruin that chances of the work making money in the future.
7. If you're not sure, seek permission from the copyright holder.

So, I can't be sue for copyright infringement because I am a teacher, right? WRONG!

CREATIVE COMMONS
There is a new movement in copyright called "Creative Commons". Creative Commons allows a copyright owner to allow certain uses of their work without having to seek permission. It basically changes the copyright to "some rights reserved". Many people think this is a great thing because it allows people to share their creativity.

Finally, just because something does not say it is copyrighted doesn't mean it really isn't. The law states that once it is created, it is copyrighted.

The Boundaries of Education

I just finished watching David Warlick's presentation at the K12OnlineConference, "Inventing the New Boundaries". If you have a chance to view this presentation, I encourage you do so. He expressed some ideas that I think are relevant to what we do everyday as teachers. In this blog entry, I am go to summarize the ideas that I think are the most important.
First, he discussed how the boundaries of education have changed. Many of these boundaries have been broken down. For example, we are no longer limited to just the resources within our school building. What is the cause for the fall of these boundaries? TECHNOLOGY. We can access information that is housed thousands of miles away with a just few keystrokes. We can collaborate and share resources with other teachers that are all around the world. Technology provides us with a means of global collaboration.
What does this mean for us? Since many boundaries have be broken down, we need new boundaries. We, as educators, now have the responsibility of creating new boundaries. Will education work without boundaries? Probably not. Some aspects of education would still be successful. But, we need to have structure. How do we invent these new boundaries that are necessary? Perhaps, we can work with the students. Maybe, we will create new boundaries just to have them changed again in a few years by a more advanced technology. It is hard to say just exactly what will happen.
This leads into another idea that David discussed during his presentation. He said that we are currently preparing students for a future that we know very little about. Think about this. What do we know of the future. Think back ten years. What did we think then. Were we able to predict what our live are like now. We need to keep this in mind when we decide how we are going to educate our students.
Also, David said that as the nature of information changes, our idea of literacy must change. You can find information on the internet related to just about anything. Before, literacy referred to the ability to read and comprehend. However, now that there are many different sources of information, students must be able to evaluate the sources. Just about anybody can publish information to the internet. When we teach our students to be literate, we must now teach them how to identify which sources are dependable.
David also talked about the idea of the "digital divide". Originally, the phrase "digital divide" refers to people who have regular access to information technology vs those that do not. However, David said that he believes it refers to the people who are connected to a network of other people vs those that are not connected. I believe he is correct. Many people use technology but are still not connected.
Finally, I would like to discuss one more idea that David shared. He suggested that many teachers want the students to be what they want to teach. Basically, he is saying that we want students to adapt to us. Our students have access to technology that keeps them connected to the rest of the world. They learn many things through these connection. How do you think many kids know more about computers than we do? It is because they have these connections. So, it is through these connections that our students learn a lot of things that they feel is relevant to their lives. However, when they walk into the front door of the school, we expect them to sever themselves from these connections.

Social Bookmarking with Del.icio.us

I recently began using a social bookmarking site known as Del.icio.us. Delicious allows you to create an online account where you can bookmark websites. There are many advantages of using this method over using bookmarks/favorites in your web browser. These advantages include but are not limited to:

• You can access your bookmarks anywhere. They are not on one specific computer.
• You can bookmark links with the simple click of a button.
• Other people can view your bookmarks and vice versa .
• You can tag your bookmarks with keywords so you can easily navigate through them.
• You can add people to your "network". Basically, you can watch what certain people are bookmarking.
• You can bookmark links for someone else and they can do the same for you. So, if you see something a friend/colleague may be interested in, you can recommend it to them. This way, you no longer have to email links to each other. We all have enough emails to read as it is.
• You can create a "link roll" which allows you to post your delicious links on your website or blog. (you can see mine on the right side of my blog)
• You can see what the most popular sites are in general or what is popular according to a specific keyword.

There are many more advantages but I don't want to have a mile-long list on my blog.

For more information watch the Common Craft Video

Give Del.icio.us a try; it is free to sign up and there are no obligations. If you decide it is not for you, just stop using it.

Open Office - FREE

I have been using Open Office for about 3 months now. It seems to be a great open source office suite. It includes six programs: Writer (word), Calc(excel), Draw(paint), Impress(powerpoint), Base(access), and Math. I have had the occasion to use Writer, Calc, and Impress. I have played with Draw. But, I have not gotten to try Base and Math yet. I feel pretty confident about these programs. I even went as far as removing Microsoft Office from my personal computer and installing Open Office in place of it. The only thing lacking is its own clip art library. But, many people (myself included) looked to online providers on clip art anyway. You can try Open Office for yourself by downloaded it from http://www.openoffice.org. There is no commitment on your part. If you don't like it, uninstall it. Also, if you do decide to use this program, you may want to save your documents in the Microsoft Office format, especially if you plan to share them with anyone else. Open Office saves documents in its own format, but you can decide to save as another format.

Common Craft

I just watched a few videos on Common Craft and I think this is a great tool for anyone who has questions about technology. They answer questions with real-world stories. Also, they explain it in plain English so non-techie people can understand. You might even find a video to show to your classes. I am thinking about using the one that explains the difference between regular light bulbs and compact halogen bulbs.