A Case for K-12 Engineering

I received a link to this video via email.  Help spread it around.

Increased Reading Speed?

I found ZAP Reader while looking at http://www.rsinnovative.com/.  I use their Ruler Game with my Eighth Grade Class. 
I am going to try it out on myself and see if I notice any results.  I just figured I would share.

Copyright Resources and Somes Examples of Consequences

At Techapalooza 2011  Joyce Mason presented a session called Copyright not Copywrong.  In this post, I am going to share some of the information and resources she shared with the group here. 

Since copyright law is very confusing, it seems to be one of the hardest things to teach students and adults.  Here is a video from the Copyright Clearance Center that I think does an excellent job of explaining copyright.
http://learn.copyright.com/copyrightoncampus/

Look at this data (embedded below) from http://www.carolsimpson.com/copyright/copyright_action_data_results.htm and notice who reported some of the cases. Think twice before you use something in your classroom.



Here are some other copyright resources I just learned about today.

http://librarycopyright.net/digitalslider/
http://techapalooza2011.iu1.wikispaces.net/file/view/Fair_Use_Checklist.pdf

Storybird - Collaborative Storytelling

Storybird is a  tool for creating digital books using image galleries and  text.  You do need to create a FREE account if you want to save and publish your book.  You can play around without an account, but you will be given the option to create an account before you close what you made.  This is a nice option if you want to demo before you sign up. 

The idea behind this tool is that you select an artist or theme and then create a story using the images provided.  

Another nice feature is that you can add collaborators to your story.  Here is a quick story I create in just a few minutes.

The Night I Went to Bed Without Dinner on Storybird

Museum Bots - Videos

Here are two videos of student projects from our Museum Bots units. I am also including the presentation I will be using tomorrow to talk about the project at Carnegie Mellon University.

About the Curriculum

The Museum Bots curriculum was created with the purpose of integrating science, technology, mathematics, social studies, language arts, and art by using robotics as a knowledge vehicle.  Students began with an introduction to circuits and robotic components.  They created robotic characters from ancient civilizations and narrated about their lives.  Students integrated sensors to have their robots interact.

 

Museum Bots

View more presentations from ruddler.

Animations Made Simple | DoInk

DoInk is a web-based application that allows users to create animations from scratch or with props submitted by other users.  Users can easily share their animations on YouTube and other social networks.  You can also embed your creations like I did below.  I think this is a promising digital storytelling tool.

Zombie Walk by ruddler, made at DoInk.com

Here are the tutorial videos from the site.  Looks pretty easy.

Drawing Tutorial from Aaron White on Vimeo.

Animation Tutorial for DoInk.com from Aaron White on Vimeo.

Watermark Your Images

I stumbled across PicMarkr which is a web2.0 tools that allows you to add watermarks to you pictures.  You can upload pictures from your computer or connect to facebook, flickr, or picasa.  This is a lot easier than using Adobe Photoshop or GIMP.  I watermarked a picture from my computer in about 30  seconds.  Plus, you can do it from any computer.

You have options to use black and white text and/or backgrounds and you can choose from multiple locations for the watermark.

Kahn Academy - Free Classroom for the World

 The Khan Academy is a non-profit organization which provides video tutorials for just about everything from developmental math to calculus to physics. Show your math and science teachers.  Everyone should know about this site.

Here's the example for Derivative of a position vector valued function

Global Data Sets in Google Earth

Someone shared kmlfactbook.org at Pete&C.  I looked at it at the moment and had totally forgotten about it.  Then, as I was getting caught up with my twitter feed, I saw many people have been tweeting about it.  So I took a second look.  This is an incredible tool for Social Studies teachers.  I am actually a Technology Education teacher but I am planning to use this when I teach about energy. 

kmlfactbook lets you view global data sets in Google Earth or with the Google Earth browser plug-in.  You can view everything from birthrates to energy consumption to internet users.

First, you choose the category and the data set you want to view.  There are seven categories:  People, Economy, Transport, Military, Geography, Government, and Communications.  

 Once you have picked the data, you can click "Preview in Map". This will show the data in the map.

   Then, if you click on a country, the data window will appear.

You can also click the "Download KML file" button to save the data file and open it directly in Google Earth.  Now, you can save it for later use without an Internet connection.  This will open it under your temporary places.

If you want to add it to your places, simply drag it to your "My Places" and rename it.

Now, you can have a bunch of data preloaded to show to your classes. 

Discovery Education Pete&C PreConference Notes/Recap

Hall Davidson

Hall showed us how we can use Wordle and chromakey together. He had us use PollEverywhere to share examples of successes we have had in the last year.  He copy and pasted the results into wordpad and elimated any unnecessary information (timestamp, etc).  Then, he paste it into wordle and captured the image.  Finally, he showed us how to use the image as a background for video in which we could point at the most important words and explain them.

Teach Smarter Not Harder - Porter Palmer

I've used SurveyMonkey for professional development for teachers but I never thought to use it this way.  Use survey monkey as part of your pretest to check the students' comfort levels about a topic before you begin. You use choices like  I don't know how, I need a little more help, and I know how.  You can use the same survey throughout the unit to keep checking the comfort levels to see where you need to make changes to your instruction. Here is an example I made about robotics.

She also showed us Quizlet.  It allows you to make online flashcards students can use to study.  They can also play it as a game or take in  a test format.  Another alternative I frequently use is classtools.net. Here is a quick example I made with Quizlet.

Choose a Study ModeScatterLearnFlashcards

Study these flash cards | Study science flash cards

One thing that stuck with me is that Porter said Data Driven Decision Making should be called Data Informed Decision Making.  DDDM is like following your GPS and driving into a lake because it told you to. DIDM is like seeing that there is a lake and realizing your GPS is about 500 feet off.  You adapt.

Junior Doodle

This project was shared by Maryann Molishus from Council Rock School District.  It is based on the work of http://fablefolk.blogspot.com/ . She has students tell a story about a word with a picture, video, or drawing that is then posted on her school website.  Here is one example a 2nd grade student did for the word Storm.  It seems like a good way reinforce the idea that words often have more than one meaning.
 

Here is the main site for the project.

http://www.crsd.org/5037092710394/blank/browse.asp?a=383&BMDRN=2000&BCOB=0&c=89466&5037092710394Nav=|&NodeID=7230