Notes from Millie D

Okay this has nothing to do about technology but it still is important.  I remember surviving my senior year in college thanks to the power nap.  Now I have something concrete to tie it to.  The January 2006 issue of Men’s Journal contains an article that highlights the benefits of napping. 

How Long Is A Good Nap?

THE NANO-NAP: 10 to 20 seconds
Sleep studies haven’t yet concluded whether there are benefits to these
brief intervals, like when you nod off on someone’s shoulder on the
train.

THE MICRO-NAP: two to five minutes
Shown to be surprisingly effective at shedding sleepiness.

THE MINI-NAP: five to 20 minutes
Increases alertness, stamina, motor learning, and motor performance.

THE ORIGINAL POWER NAP: 20 minutesIncludes the benefits of
the micro and the mini, but additionally improves muscle memory and
clears the brain of useless built-up information, which helps with
long-term memory (remembering facts, events, and names).

THE LAZY MAN’S NAP: 50 to 90 minutesIncludes slow-wave plus
REM sleep; good for improving perceptual processing; also when the
system is flooded with human growth hormone, great for repairing bones
and muscles.

As a parent I survive on the micro-nap but I don’t my youngest daughter to realize the benefits…yet!

The best thing about the Internet, if you don’t like something you can always construct it. YouTube is a valuable tool but unfortunately not everything about it is appropriate for the education market. Started in January TeacherTube set out to be an online media property for Education Videos for everyone. The interface is very similar to YouTube (upload, tag, share, comment) plus you can flag a particular video if it is inappropriate.

I feel comfortable letting my teachers explore this tool. Now I’ve got one more vehicle to use in my teaching arsenal. Thank you. Can we start a flickr. Would it be name teackr?

Just watch the video and you’ll see what I mean…

The great guys from MacZot is working on a deal for Mac users.  iClip4 is looking for buzz about their product, which they really don’t need because the product speaks for itself, and they’ve partnered up with MacZot asking for the blogging world to put in their 2 cents on their product.  For every posting today MacZot will lower the price by 10 cents which may make it free before the end of the day.  Enough about the business side of the deal lets talk about iClip4.

I don’t personally have version 4.  I’ve been using version 3 and find it very useful and helpful in collecting items that you are using.  Your clippings can be organized into groups you define instead of pre-canned groups.  It is very easy to use and the product is customizable.  Within minutes of using this application you will come up uses for it wondering why you didn’t find it earlier.

If you regularly complete web forms,
then iClip4 is the product for you. You’ll eliminate repetitive typing and
typos by storing your commonly accessed info in iClip4 but it hides itself and you can call on the information as you need it. You’ll be
pleased with the time you save and the mistakes you prevent.

Like I said give it a try and see what you’ve been missing.

In a small way today was one of those days I will remember as I felt the positive impact I was making on the hardest group to impact: teachers. Last week I was able to put 19 laptops into teachers’ hands and in a very fast 2 hour presentation got teachers started on a project I call SAW IT (Student Achievement With Innovative Teaching). Anyway there has been a lot of buzz about some of the things teachers have been able to accomplish. I will admit teachers are a lots of different spaces with their uses of technology but their excitement has been contagious.

My morning started off with a kindergarten teacher who popped into my room to tell me she had used Skype last night to talk to her brother (in China) and that her son was able to see his Uncle for the first time in months. Her dad also works at the school and told me he was very grateful and that the whole family will be gathering this weekend at their house to host a Skype party. Way cool!

I then went into the library where the art teacher and I were talking about the positive response the PTA gave to me from the night before when I approached them about adding some projectors to our arsenal of tools towards impacting student achievement. Well the art teacher couldn’t contain herself as she blurted out, “I’m going to Japan in October!” She was notified last night that she was a Japan Fulbright Memorial Scholar! I was so proud of her. The part that I was excited about was the fact that I helped her write up her plan and we filled it with Web 2.0 tools (blogs, podcasts, Skype, flickr, just to name a couple) as her way of sharing her experiences instead of a standard Web 1.0 static webpage. We’ve got a lot of work to do in order to get her ready in time. Way cool!

As I walk the hallways the last few days I have teachers stopping me telling me how much they are loving their new technology and some of the things they’ve already accomplished. I ran into a first grade teacher who really wanted to learn PowerPoint. She started playing around with it last night but ran into a technical issue. After a quick re-assurance and some additional resources she went at again. She stopped by later in the day to say that she had already made 2 slides and was well on her way. Way cool for pushing through an initial barrier!

I also worked with our music teacher as she wants to record beginning band lesson, archive it, and at the end of the quarter burn a CD to allow parents to hear the growth in their musical ability. She went right at it and recorded one of her saxophone players yesterday. I helped her take the audio in Audacity, convert it into an MP3 file, put it into iTunes so we can later on create smart playlists by student to make life easier when it comes time to burn the tracks onto a CD (I also showed her how to use the rating system in an assessment. Way cool for being innovative!

At times I’ve wondered if I had taken technology as far as I could with the staff I work with on a daily basis. Today I’ve realized that I’ve only scratched the surface and Web 2.0 tools may be the way of making the necessary inroads. I know that not every day will be this amazing but it allows me to keep pushing the envelope with teachers so that our students (in an elementary setting) move closer towards achieving 21st Century Skills.

powered by performancing firefox

I just finished reading a post from Scott McCloud’s blog, Dangerouly Irrelevant, called Are You Smarter Than A Fifth Grader. He based his post on the premise that the Fox Television Show highlights what is wrong with education right now: memorization of facts that most people never really need to remember as general knowledge. He argues that it is more important to teach the skills for children as well as adults to find the information on the Internet when you need it, consume it, and use it in a way that is professional, ethical, and productive. The funny thing is that I just finished reminding 4th and 5th graders about that very fact.

Unfortunately we need to have some standards in education to help hold people accountable but in the last dozen years or so we, as a society, have lost the concept that teaching children to be able to think is a more important skills as an adult. Maybe the television show can be used as a teaching moment for children that education is not about the ability to memorize information but how to find it, process it, and then use it in a way that is productive.

The bigger hurdle I’m having with students in this area is breaking the idea that you have to use Google and you don’t have to type the whole entire question into the search query. To address the second part I took a sample set of factual based questions and gave them 20 minutes to find as many answers as they could. Most kids only got part way through the question list. I then showed them keyword strategies to narrow the focus and streamline their work. Many of my students were amazed how easy it was to work smarter instead of harder when researching on the Internet. Yesterday Brian Mull, from November Learning, reminded me that I could have students use Answers.com or NoodleQuest to figure out the best search engine/tool based on what kind of information is sought.

I like how Scott ended his posting and I’m going to borrow it here:

Am I smarter than a fifth grader? Yes, and it’s not because I have memorized
all of this stuff. It’s because I’m an adult who can find the information that I need in mere seconds when I need it,
critically consume information, and act upon information in professional, ethical, and productive ways.
What do you want your fifth grader to be learning in
school?

My answer is for a fifth grader to able to think through a situation and not just memorize factual information that may or may not stick in their adult life.

tags technorati : 21st Century Learning, Google, education, information, recall ScottMcCloud

Brian Mull is presenting today at the Northern York County Collaborative workshop day.  Brian is presenting 2 sesssions this morning.  The first session was on Critical Thinking on the Web:  Information Liteacy.  The session highlighted a lot of topics that educators need to consider when integrating technology in the classroom.  If we don’t figure this thing out our students are going to still do and probably not ethically nor responsible.

The session started with a brief overview of “The World is Flat” type presentation.  Brian challenged educators to change the model for the use of technology so it can talk hold for everyone.  Otherwise all we’re doing is adding boxes, wires to classroom and just throwing money at a problem.

The session continued with a mention that teachers need to change the way teachers pose questions or problems to their students to prevent a copy/paste experience.  The rest of the session went over “smart” searching.  I wasn’t aware of NoodleQuest.  NoodleQuest is a search tool that helps the users figure out the best search tool to use based on the topic.  Users can check off the items that they need and the site figures out the best site(s) to use.

I was also exposed  to a simple set of guidelines to help students validate websites when researching topics:  REAL.

Read the URL

Examine the content

Ask questions about the author/site

Look at the links coming in/going out

I will definitely be using this in the classroom. Thanks Brian!
The second session is on Blogs, Podcasts, Wikis, etc. 

If you are a fan of Picasa then today is a happy day for you.  Picasa has bumped their online storage from 250MB to 1GB.  There are other features that have been added (linking albums to email or IM as well as embed in websites) that have peaked my interest.  I’ll take advantage of that this weekend.

I’m glad I’m getting rid of my .mac account with all of these free sources for storage and email.  I wish Apple would figure out that their service is not cost effective for people.

I’m sadden to hear about another resource for educators in Maine will be shutting down its’ doors at the end of the fiscal year.  The Center, better known to people as the organization for Project SEED, has been hit hard due to the lack of funding.  John Brandt summarizes the situation at Maine ASCD with his posting called Goodbye to the Center.

On a personal note I’ve worked with Bob Shafto when he was a master of ceremonies for the Maine Academic Decathlon Super Quiz (which seems like another lifetime ago).  The legacy of Bob and Project SEED lives in a lot of middle school teachers through version 1 of MLTI as well as countless educators whose lives have been touched by attending technology workshops or integrating technology into their classroom through SEED grants.  The work of The Center continues with dedicated educators who are keeping the spirit alive (SEEDlings and Bit by Bit).

Yes, John, I will do my part in building the community in some of the ways you mention in your list.