This is a workshop on wikis and blogs.

Today I spent several hours trying to work out some glitches in podcast producer. In order to use the program, one would launch podcast maker (found in applications). I have successfully tested both single source input and the dual source input and both seem to work.

My problems are the following:

• the short cut "command" F2 does not work. This short cut is important as it allows one to start, pause, and stop recording within an app. I have sent inquiries to Jim Uyeda in hopes of resolving the matter
• the program crashed on me a number of times. I still don't know why that is happening.

Thank you for coming to the session today on Wikis and Blogs. I hope you find this pdf helpful.

Wow - I just discovered Storybird and I really love it. Great tool for teaching reading and writing in early elementary!




Click on Teach by ireners on Storybird

Thank you for attending today's workshop on assistive technologies. As promised, here is a pdf of the presentation for your reference.

Thank you so much for attending the "Personal Learning Networks" workshop. I hope you will feel free to contact me for any follow up help. I am especially interested in knowing if you would like some "how to" workshops relating to anything we talked about today (blogs, wikis, twitter, facebook, ichat, nings, etc.) I know we covered a lot of territory, but I wanted to give you an overview of the various tools that one can use to build a learning network.

For your convenience, I have attached a pdf of the workshop session. If you would like - please leave a comment on this blog - its good practice!

Thank you for attending my workshop on "Technology Tools for the Busy Administrator and Teacher". Here is a pdf file of my presentation. I hope you will find it helpful. Don't forget to join the Diigo group - Technology Honolulu Conference - for bookmarks mentioned in the presentation. Please feel free to contact me with any questions you might have. Judy

July 11-18 in Hawaii

Contact Judy Beaver jbeaver@punahou.edu to register

Punahou Summer Technology Laboratory School

Collaboration, Observations, Reflections, Workshops, and More!

Please consider participating in our Summer Technology Lab School, a Punahou and Apple, Inc. collaborative venture. July 11 through July 18 participants from Punahou faculty will join educators from public and private schools for a week of discussions, presentations, and workshops . Seven Punahou teachers from our regular Summer School program will open their classrooms to lab participants as we examine the role of technology in meeting the needs of diverse learners.Throughout the workshop, we will refer to the nine categories of instructional strategies discussed in the book, Classroom Instruction that Works: Research-Based Strategies for Increasing Student Achievement. As part of the week-long lab school experience, participants will attend workshops offered by three Apple Distinguished Educators: Andrew Gardner, Dianna Williamson, and Kris Hill.

Dianna Williamson

Workshops:

Project Based Learning: Learner Centered Technology Showcase K-12
Make the Most of Your Mac: Meeting Diverse Learner Needs

Schedule of Events

• Friday, July 11 - Orientation and Welcome (1/2 day)

• M-W-F, July 14, 16, 18 - Presentations, Workshops, Discussions (full day)

• Tues & Thurs, July 15 & 17 - Optional Activities (via virtual participation)

• Note regarding Opening Session - Luke Auditorium -Monday, July 14

The Monday afternoon session (1:30 pm -3:00 pm) will be open to all Punahou faculty, faculty from other HAIS schools, and invited DOE and UH faculty. Our three invited guest consultants will each share their perspective on “technology and diverse learning”.

Kris Hill

Workshops:

Bringing LIteracy to LIfe
Universal Design for Learning - Using Technology to Reach all Students.

Andrew Gardner

Worshops:
Social Emotional Learning, Communication and Technology
New Media Tools and the Fieldtrips of the Future

Last month I visited my neice, a school teacher in Benicia, California. During my stay, her daughter (a first grader) asked me to participate in her "Flat Stanley" project. Her teacher had read the story of Flat Stanley, a child's tale about a boy who makes himself flat and asks his parents to mail him different places. After making their own little "Flat Stanley" the students in her class were asked to mail him to a relative or friend. In my case - Flat Stanley simply slipped into my suticase! He also came with a cute little journal in which to record his adventures.

But it got me thinking - in addition to writing in the journal - Why not make this a digital experience? So, I created a Flat Stanley website to record his adventures in Hawaii. Flat Stanley even blogs a bit about what he is seeing. In addition, I've used my iphone to email pics to my neice. I've enjoyed this project and looking at Hawaii through the eyes of Flat Stanley. Check out this work in progress:
http://web.mac.com/jabeaver/Site_3/Welcome.html

A friend of mine recently sent me an invitation to Evernote. This is a web-based tool that allows you to keep all of your notes, images, and ideas in one "searchable" environment. Client software (free) is also available for Mac or Pc and enables the user to work offline. The easy sync mechanism can be set for manual or automatic. The webclipper embeds easily into firefox (I was not successful with the safari version) and you can easily clip selections from the internet and store them in your notebooks.

I was also excited to see that Evernote integrates with Jott on my iPhone. I now can easily use Jott to dictate a 30 second audio file that will be transcribed and stored in my notes. I also successfully used the iPhone camera to capture images and sent them via phone to my Evernote web account. Best yet - you can take pictures of text (even hand-written notes) and email the file to Evernote. The website utilizes handwriting recognition software that allows the search process to discover both written and printed words within an image - Now how cool is that!

One more thing - it also integrates with Skitch - a product of Plasq - makers of Comic Life. If you haven't tried this remarkable product - please check it out. Skitch allows one to manipulate pictures and images, add text or digital inking, and upload to Evernote. The threesome - Evernote, Jott, and Skitch - offers a comprehensive solution.

Enjoyed a great retreat today with colleagues who attended the Technology, Reading and Learning Diverse Conference in January. Each of the participants shared one or two "take away" ideas from the San Francisco conference. We enjoyed exploring new websites and software, as well as learning together. Here are some highlights from our discussions:

Creative Commons - find videos, pictures, music, and other content to "share, remix, and distribute". Encourage your students to license their work and share with others. To learn more about this website go to http://creativecommons.org/

Landmark Citation Machine - a great tool for academy students -discussed the need to for a common bibilography tool.

Google Advanced Search - should be teaching our students to utilize this robust tool. Can specify language, country code, and file format.

Commoncraft - great videos on complex ideas such as blogging, wikis, and RSS feeds. Click here for an example.

Sarah Kadger - featured presenter at TRLD conference - outstanding sessions and great ideas regarding reading, digital storytelling, and ways to engage reluctant readers. John Nagel shared an excellent curricular example utilizing GarageBand to record fluency and student comprehension. One track to hold visuals; one track to record student fluency; one track to record student inserted "understandings and connections". A great idea for student portfolios!
Check out her websites:
bringingtheoutsidein.com
promiseintopractice.pbwiki.com

Joan Sedita - session speaker at TRLD conference - excellent workshop on use of technology in building vocabulary. Mari-Jo shared student created vocabulary tables. Click file to see.



Visuwords - excellent graphical dictionary and thesaurus. Similar to visual theseaurus but free! Click here to go to website.

Jott - voice to text web service. One may leave a voice message via phone. Messages are translated into text messages and appear on email, phone or even as a calendar appointment in google calendar. Lots of potential! Click here to go to website.

vRoom powered by elluminate - 3 seat web conferencing for free! Seriously - take a look at this tool. It allows three people to video conference, chat, and share a common whiteboard and works cross platform.

Technology Reading and Learning Diverse Conference - San Francisco 2008
Right/Wrong - Great small group discussion with David Warlick regarding the ethical use of the internet. David reminded us that information today is abundant and overwhelming. Students want to use that information – to think critically - to reshape it – and create something new. He challenged those in the audience to think about what that means to pedagogy.
Educators must utilize this desire to share, remix, and reuse – but we also want to teach them to do it legally. How do we get students to WANT to respect the intellectual property rights of others?
Wartlick maintains that we should make our students (k-12) intellectual property owners. He asserted that one has to be a property owner in order to respect the property of others!
Students should be introduced to Creative Commons and taught how to share their intellectual property (podcasts, musics, pictures, etc) through Creative Commons.

Great visit to Wallenberg Hall - Center for Innovation and Learning
Bob Smith, Director of Technology Services gave us a tour of Wallenberg Hall. This incredible space is designed to facilitate teaching and learning through innovative technologies. The learning environments included:
Webster copycam
Huddleboards portable whiteboards – converted to digital images with CopyCam
Flexible furniture
iSpace software – enables users topush files from one computer to another and share control of websters (open-source)
video conference capability

Bob shared his experiences regarding digital pens, tablet pcs, and videoconferencing software.

Here are some highlights from yesterday and today at MacWorld:

Feature Presentation:

At 9:00 am this morning, I lined up outside the third-floor ballroom of Moscone West for a chance to watch David Pogue in action. He opened his show with a video that he created last July called iPhone: The Musical. It's sung to the tune of My Way and it is guaranteed to make you laugh! If you have never seen this - please stop now and follow this link.

The Vendors:

While walking through the exhibits, I saw this amazing backpack with built-in solar panels. Apparently it generates enough electricity to charge a phone or iPod. The company representative told me that their new solar backpack (expected to come out this Spring) would be able to charge a laptop! This, I've got to see! The company that produces this product is voltaicsystems.com.

The Presenters:

Steve Wozniak - co-founder of Apple Computer opened this morning's Educator Academy. Following the presentation, Steve held a book signing session - and I saw our own Tedd Landgraf with three signed copies!

John Couch, Apple's Vice President of Education, shared the company's educational vision - a vision focused on "empowering individuals". In preparing for the emerging learning environment, Apple is focused on several key components:

1. Mobility and 24/7 Access - achieved through iPhone, iPod, computers, and AppleTV. The newest version of the AppleTV now allows one to directly download content from iTunes (no need for a computer.)
2. Content Delivery - Couch explained that the infrastructure behind iTunes has already been created and paid for by the music and entertainment industry. Apple is now working on leveraging iTunes to deliver free educational content. They are currently working with States and public organizations offering iTunes as a repository to host that content. Just as iTunes created a new economic reality for the music and entertainment industry, Apple is working with textbook publishers to create a new economic model for academic content!
3. Easy Content Creation - creativity and innovation are key to Apple's educational vision. He pointed out that their software and hardware solutions are designed to facilitate the creation of content. The new Leopard Server works seamlessly with their software to provide easy capture of videos, slide presentations, documents, as well as facilitate editing and podcast production.

Touching the MacBook Air - so light it seems to float in the air!

Having a wonderful time. I saw Jerome Burg yesterday and he sends his regards to everyone at Punahou. Tomorrow morning, I have a three hour workshop on the Leopard Server, so I hope to learn more about possibilities. In the afternoon, I will assist Lucy Gray with a workshop on wikis!

Today was an exciting day at MacWorld. I enjoyed a breakfast meeting with other Educational Administrators at the Westin Hotel where we watched Steve Jobs deliver his keynote via a simulcast. The line-up of new products and offerings was exciting - especially the amazingly thin and lightweight MacBook Air. Although it has no optical drive, one may purchase a USB accessory drive for $99. Another option is to utilize Remote Disc Setup Software that allows you to access the hard drive of a nearby Mac or PC - pretty neat feature! With the ability to access other hard drives wirelessly, Jobs feels that optical drives are not necessary. I was especially pleased to see that the MacBook Air included a touch pad that incorporated many of the "gesture" features from the ipod touch allowing one to pinch, rotate, swipe, and zoom.

In the afternoon I was invited to participate in a stimulating roundtable discussion regarding School Design for the 21st Century. Other guests included representatives of Intel, WASC, Howard University, Apple Inc., and George Lucas Foundation. Marco Torres was also present, and he asked when he could back to visit us at Punahou!

Tonight I went to a special event at the John Lennon Tour Bus. Richard Dreyfuss, a strong supporter of both Apple Inc. and the Tour Bus, worked with six high school students to create a short video which premiered at the special gathering. The students and Dreyfus completed the entire project within a 24-hour time period. He also spoke to the gathering about the need to engage America's students through the use of technology that fosters creativity and innovation.

Following the event, I joined four Apple Distinguished Educators friends (Lucy Gray, Kris Hill, Dianna Williamson, and Lori Roe for dinner at a nearby Italian restaurant. Tomorrow is the first day of the Educator's Academy. I will keep you posted.

Tonight I got a chance to play with the google docs "presentations" feature. I am excited about this new functionality that has been added to google docs. Presentation allows up to 10 individuals to collaborate on a slide deck in real time! The Google Docs Help Center provides easy to follow tutorials. I easily imported a powerpoint presentation into google docs and then changed the theme. Here is a screen shot of the view you see in google docs presentation. Also of interest, you can embed the slide presentation in a website or invite up to 200 viewers to watch the slide show (at a designated time) while commenting through google talk. The viewers are also able to discuss the presentation through the chat feature. Check it out - and let me know if anyone is using this feature with their students.

This morning the Jr School TRTs met for about an hour and half to review current and emerging technologies. The following items were discussed:
VoiceThread (amazing classroom potential - contact me if you would like some training)
Twitter (start microblogging now - my username is jbeaver - send me a twitter)
Mobypicture (share your iphone pictures immediately to flickr or twitter)

It was a very fruitful morning.