Image Projector

At a recent Technology Mentor conference one of my colleagues presented his version of a "home-made" document camera. Teachers are always asking for new technology to use in the classroom. There have been a lot of requests for document cameras (such as the major brand names). We have purchased document cameras but the cost does not allow us to provide everyone with one. This video shows how a little ingenuity and not a lot of money can create a pretty decent projector for your classroom. It's creative. This camera was one of the hits of our conference if ony because we are always looking for a low cost way to meet the needs of students in the classroom and this one does it!

A World-Wide Audience

We often talk about students writing for an authentic audience. I mean how many of us wrote a paper for a teacher when we were in school to only have the teacher read it, mark it and hand it back to us. Then what happened? We looked at the mark and then tossed the paper. How many tossed papers would others have liked to read? A lot I think. Now there is a blog I found today that brings students out of the classroom and gives them an authentic audience. They are creating "This I Believe" essays and posting them as podcasts. Oh, but wait, in case you think they were just recording their thoughts off the top of their heads...no! Their completed essays are also there in text.
These students have some amazing things to say. Listen for yourself. This is the kind of learning we all should be striving for in our classes!

Did You Know?

If you have seen the old version of "Did You Know" but not the new version, it's worth a look. Updated and still engaging, I think it really shows what we as educators need to strive for as we educate 21st Century students. Click on the play button and spend the next 8 minutes thinking about how we can work together to change the face of education.

Open Office

OK, I tried Open Office today for the first time. I know, I am behind the times, but I have been hooked to that "other" office program and never had a chance to really need to use Open Office. I got a call from a teacher who had some questions about it. I downloaded it and all of a sudden I was surprised for the first time in a long time. Yes I find it has a few problems, but I can't really complain with the price. I know there are people all over the place who will think that this 'open source' software is full of bugs. Quite possibly it is, but that is the chance we take with open source. I've read a few blog posts today from people who are not fans of Open Office. That's fine. I understand that, but I am looking at the glass half full and think that if it serves me only 50% as well as my expensive software, then I'm fine with that. We all have to judge for ourselves. I am a fan of any program that allows me to create PDF files. Small techy things amuse me!! If you haven't tried it, give it a go. I am only at the beginning stages. maybe in a week I will be deleting it and never want to use it again. Hmmmm, I've wanted to do that with the "other" office program for years!

Screencasting

I've been working with middle level students lately and we have been creating screencasts in math. Let me first say that each student has a notebook computer to work on, so this is made easier than going to a lab. Also, let me say that I am working at a 1:2 ratio of teacher to student. This makes things even easier! My current teaching position allows me to do this. However, I can say this without hesitation...When I have a full classroom of students again, I will try it with the entire class. The students love it and it easy for them. Let me explain the process. First we had to give them a theme or idea to make it easy for the students to build the screencasts. In our case, we use mental math strategies as a starting point.
From here the students wrote their scripts (writing in math!!) and then practiced with the software we were using for our projects. That's it! The students then recorded their screencasts to be posted on our learning website. Students as teachers! It's a great thing. Plus these students will never forget their chosen concept.

OK, so what software did we use. Well there is a lot out there to choose from. If you are fortunate to have SMART Notebook software there is a program called SMART Recorder that you can use to record and the save as a movie file. This file has the added benefit of being able to be brought into Windows Movie Maker to be edited if you want. I have been using Jing a lot lately. I like it as well. An today, thanks to November Learning, I discovered ScreenCast-O-Matic. This is a fully on-line creater that is super easy to use and has the added feature of letting you hide the mouse on your screen.
If you would like to take a look at some of the work the students are doing, check out the wikispace we have created at thelearningfactory