Melting ICE - My poster session and final reflections

 

Day 3 (for me) marked my debut in the conference arena as a presenter. As soon as I finished setting up my widescreen display and laptops, I found 12 people crowded around in a half circle by my table. So, off I went and as I walked through my Prezi and described our Google Apps deployment process at ETHS. A few large groups and many individuals later, I survived my first poster session and honestly loved every minute. I can see why some presenters enjoy posters more as I was able to connect with individuals much like how I enjoy connecting with students one-on-one in the classroom. It was great to hear what other schools were doing, and I was able to offer some advice to those schools just starting their experience with Google Apps. One potential collaboration involves working with some faculty members at Zion Benton High School in developing both curriculum materials and a course for training teachers on how to use Google Apps as well as assessments for the skills learned in such a course.

Earlier in the day, I attended a breakout session by Brent Coley on iPod flashcards which was quite interesting. I can see several great applications for this in so many fields which require any form of memorization: Vocabulary for English and World Languages, Formulas for Math and Science, to name a few obvious choices. Having students design their own flashcards (all through PowerPoint, a program they already know) is a great way for them to get involved in assessing their own learning as well. Clearly, not all of our students would have iPods (though an equivalent mp3 player or cell phone with image playback capabilities would suffice). However, I wouldn't be surprised if more than half did have such a device. This would be enough to consider offering this as a teaching tool and/or curriculum supplement. Or, a teacher could look into applying for a grant to get a classroom set of iPod nanos (cheaper and with video cameras) and tie these into podcasting projects.

The last session for me involved "What Not to Present" by Cindy Lane. In this session, Ms. Lane walked us through the "Dr. Doolittle" experiment which showed us how important imagery can be in memory recall. She then tied this into how to use more images and fewer words in presentations. This seemed to gel with my earlier post on why I liked Prezi both as a presentation tool and a way to organize my thoughts in the presentation creation process.

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ICE Poster Session 2/26/10

Here's my poster presentation for the ICE Conference on 2/26/10. I plan to display this on a monitor while having a few laptops to facilitate individual conversations. Below the Prezi is my conference handout that discusses our experience and outcomes with links to materials and exemplars. For other links and handouts from ICE 2010, click here.

Google Apps @ETHS on Prezi

Handout:

Click to launch the full edition in a new window
Publisher Software from YUDU

YUDU Library - Embed by www.yudu.com

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Reflections at ICE (General Conference) 2/25/10

Day 2 at ICE (for me) brought a renewed sense of creativity and interest in using our Smartboards and training our teachers on ways to effectively create lessons in Notebook. First, I saw a presentation on document cameras, and although this was my first time at ICE, it seemed like the Mega Center (Exhibitors Hall) was "mega" into DC's and SmartBoards. Every aisle had vendors hawking their own version of Smart Notebook and different cameras. At ETHS, we don't have too many document cameras out there, but I could see rolling a few out to departments and/or the Staff Tech Center. I would guess that teachers would find these a bit easier and more intuitive than a traditional scanner.

Later in the day, I attended "SMART 202", a very lively presentation given by Bret Gensburg. Engaging, humorous, and vivacious, Bret held the attention of a standing room audience for 45 minutes strong, and people were still cramming into the room at the end. Bret inspired me to focus more on developing some solid curriculum and training materials for our teachers on our SmartBoards, and he reinforced my current idea that teachers should just start with something simple and then build up to more complex lessons with the Smart Notebook software. And yes, that Gallery is addictive.

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ICE Conference - GarageBand and Podcasting Workshop

This week is the Illinois Computer Educators (cleverly shortened as "ICE") conference held in St. Charles, IL. As mentioned in previous posts, I'll be making my first poster session this Friday on Google Apps at ETHS. Until then, I'm soaking in as much as possible on Tuesday and Thursday. Today, I attended a full day workshop on GarageBand and Podcasting for Beginners. Led by Debra Segiet, the workshop provided ample time to dive into GarageBand, learn the basics of the interface, and allowed attendees to create their own podcast (see below for my feeble attempt). As usual with Apple products, I found the software fairly easy to learn, and I found myself getting so focused on perfecting my final composition. I can only imagine how students (with their own creativity) will also get lost in the ability to create something artistic and reasonably polished in such a short amount of time. I'm quickly running through all of the projects that I could see teachers using podcasts for. Unfortunately, we only have a few Macs available in the AV center, so a classroom project presents some spatial and equipment problems. The media center does have an adjoining PC lab, so a whole class can be separated into Mac and PC groups (as a teacher did with a class earlier this year), and we are fortunate to have an outstanding staff on hand to provide support.


My first podcast using GarageBand (made in less than 30 minutes):

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The Prezi Shift

So, I stumbled upon a post on really bad PowerPoints, and I will admit that I was breaking nearly all of the "rules" that Seth mentions in his article. Later that day, I viewed Steve Jobs' keynote on the iPad, and I noticed that he pretty much followed along with the "rules" as well. I decided to reform myself and my next few presentations had fewer words, richer images, and allowed for more conversation. And then I rediscovered Prezi. A colleague of mine had recommended the tool awhile back, but I had not found the time to truly explore. I chose to use the tool for my upcoming poster session at ICE, and it was then that I also learned of the free educator/student license which allowed for more storage, private content, and no watermark.  In terms of ease of use and features, I found Prezi fairly simple to grasp, and I only had to search for help on a few items.  I really like the "wow" factor of the zooming presentation, but I can imagine that this gets either old or dizzy after a while. What I really appreciated was how Prezi's editing mode made my creation process much easier and ultimately more enjoyable.  Similar to a concept map or word cloud brainstorm, I just began with words or topics that I wanted to cover in my presentation.  I then expanded by including images and links.  Finally, I played around with layout and design.  I didn't worry about theme, transitions, or how the slide looked.  Instead, I focused on content and how I would be conveying my material.  In the end, isn't this what matters most?  From here on out, I'm recommending Prezi as an alternative (not necessarily a replacement) to PowerPoint for our teachers and students.

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Dongle-itis: The search continues for the best wireless connection to the projector.

The past two weeks have been filled with a lot of requests and troubleshooting for our Tablet PC's and how they wirelessly connect to the projector.  Currently, we have two major systems in place.

For our Toshiba Tablets, we've been using Internetvue 2100 PC2TV adaptors.  On the Tablet, a user will open a program (PC2TV) and connect wirelessly to the projector.  I used this when I was teaching chemistry with a tablet last year, and I found it to be a bit clunky at times, but overall relatively stable.  There was an issue with the firmware update that disabled portrait mode as a viewing option.  Internetvue responded by allowing for a firmware downgrade, but that's a lot of legwork for our teachers.  Consequently, I refused the firmware upgrade for a long time as a teacher, but this meant closing a message box every time I connected.  I have since been upgrading the firmware and telling users that portrait mode will not be enabled. 

This year, with the Lenovo x61's that we've been issuing to teachers, we tried a different wireless device.  Purchased in bulk and at a discount (from what I've been told), the Atlona USB wireless adapters seemed promising when I came on board to help train teachers.  They were simple to use, did not require bulky software, and allowed for both portait and landscape modes with ease.  Unfortunately, about 3 months in, I've had to answer many calls on the stability of the devices.  Often, this involves a simple power cycle or adapter reset at the base of the unit.  Unfortunately, for those that have their receiver units connected to ceiling mounted projectors, this usually involves climbing on a chair, table, or worse, calling me for a ladder.  Needless to say, this has been a growing inconvenience for teachers.

The third option involves native USB adaptors for Epson wireless ready projectors.  Now, we only have a few of these purchased, and I went ahead and recommended the replacement of a ceiling mounted projector in a classroom that frequently had "dongle-itis" (the need for a receiver reset).  Despite being native to the device, I still had a lot of difficulty getting the Lenovo to cooperate consistently with the projector.  I suspected that this had a lot to do with the bundled software that Lenovo included.  Thus, I removed "Access Connections", upgraded the wireless driver, and things seem to be better.  The user connects with the Epson "EMP NS Connection" software and can then connect wirelessly to the projector.  Our pilot user still has a difficult time searching for the projector, or the connection will not work.  However, with persistence, I'm told things end up working fine (so far).  



With all of the above in mind, I am now re-evaluating our currently placements of wireless connections, and I am still searching for the ideal solution.  Moving forward, I am using the USB dongle/receiver combination with projectors on a cart, allowing for easy access to reset the device as needed.  For ceiling projectors, I am using the PC2TV device for a more stable connection.  Originally, we were unable to get the PC2TV software to work on the Lenovo's.  However, after uninstalling the "Access Connections" software and upgrading the wireless driver, I was able to connect the newer laptops with ease.  I have to say that in a week of frustrating moments, this was a nice breakthrough for me.   I'd love to hear what other schools or users are doing or considering.  We're always on the lookout for more reliable yet still economical devices. 

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iPad in Education

I've been following the Apple Tablet, "iSlate", and the now official iPad rumors for a long time, so I was glad to finally see the most anticipated piece of hardware since the iPhone finally came to fruition.


Initial Thoughts:
I was a bit disappointed, but this was due to the intense rumors surrounding this device. No OLED, no 3D interface, not even a camera? From what I saw in the keynote, there was no groundbreaking innovation or new technology that would change the world. However, after viewing the product video, I became more excited about the interface, and I believe that there will be small hidden gems in the OS that will only show up when we get our hands on the device (in 60 days). I will hand it to Apple that this was a shrewd and timely business move. The company had to get in now to compete with the Kindle and the Nook, and make no mistake that the iPad is going to square off firmly against these two devices. My guess is that Apple wanted to make a more innovative device, but time dictated the need to get something out there this year, and Mr. Jobs realized that going the easier route of enlarging the iPod was a safe enough bet to drum up solid business and begin Apple's reign on e-readers.

Implications in Education:
We use Tablet PC's at ETHS. I've been impressed with the functionality of our Lenovo x61's and how they've allowed our teachers to show handwritten notes electronically, annotate text on screen, and open doors to interacting with their students in new and exciting ways. However, unless we went 1:1 with Tablets, the devices contribute to perpetuating a teacher centered classroom. The movement to 1:1 with netbooks has been gaining momentum steadily. I have been intrigued by the possibility of offering all students access to computers in the classroom with game changing features such as online textbooks, collaboration tools (such as Google Apps), and Internet curriculum materials becoming more readily available and richer in content. The question sure to be asked is whether the iPad is indeed a "netbook killer"? I would argue that it will be in education. The ability to access electronic textbooks, hyperlinked content (assuming we get wireless access at ETHS), and collaborating with other students in the classroom is the key for this technology to establish a firm footing in the classroom. The reason why the iPad can succeed where netbooks can't or won't will lie with its unique and user friendly interface. Ask any student what they would prefer: a netbook or an iPad, and I would bet that nearly everyone would say an iPad. Why? Simply because Apple excels in design, interface, and form. And at $499 (will there be an education discount?), I think that the iPad may cause those moving towards 1:1 to possibly reconsider their invoice for Dells, Acers, or Lenovo's in favor of the company from Cupertino.

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Google Apps @ETHS

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When is the best time for Teacher Training?

So, I tried to time a Tech Tools Workshop (see embedded post below) prior to the start of the second semester for our faculty/staff, but despite a promising 6 teachers in attendance during Period 4, I was only conversing with a few others during the remaining two lunch periods. I'm beginning to think that lunch is not the optimal time. Honestly, I would probably think long and hard about giving up my lunch period as a teacher to attend some internal PD, so I don't blame them. However, I think that I have something to offer with these presentations, and I have been receiving positive feedback on nearly all of my workshops and individual coaching sessions. Therefore, I ask, "When is the best time for teacher training?" How do other schools implement technology professional development for their teachers? My next move might be to hold a workshop after school. As a teacher, I might have an easier time focusing and making an effort to attend if it was not in the middle of an already busy day. Summer curriculum projects would be the next move should after school prove to be sparsely attended as well. I'm envisioning a "Technology Teaching Corps" (or some other catchy name) where teachers would serve as trainers and their classrooms would be demonstration environments for new technologies. Perhaps, the summer can be used to train these trainers and use available funds to encourage aspiring technology leaders to attend. Having attended a presentation on how the Maine schools have developed a cadre of Technology Coaches and Staff Developers, I have an idea of how I want to help develop a similar program at Evanston. If you have suggestions or feedback on the topics above, feel free to leave a comment.

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Tech Tools Workshop!

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