The Wonderment of Free stuff for teachers
Free Tech 4 Teachers
Is a collection of hundreds of free resources for teachers to integrate technology into the classroom. I have spent a good deal of time on this site, and have only scratched the surface. I hope to look into this site further and bring in some for our professional development.
Monday, April 13, 2009
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
Great 1:1 laptop examples and other iTunesU goodies
The Wonderment of great tech infused lessons
While researching South Hamilton's 1:1 laptop initiative I stepped into a whole pile of awesome. iTunesU has hundreds of resources from universities, museums, and other professional educational sources. The one that I found was through the University of South Florida College of Education. There are tons of videos and descriptions of technology infused lessons available for download and the best part... they are all free.
There are many universities with classes available through iTunesU; Texas A&M, MIT, Harvard, Yale, USF,UC Berkley, UofM, and Stanford to name a few. ALL of the information in iTunesU is free. Topics range from the very complex to the simple. If you don't already have iTunes get it here (BTW it's free too).
While researching South Hamilton's 1:1 laptop initiative I stepped into a whole pile of awesome. iTunesU has hundreds of resources from universities, museums, and other professional educational sources. The one that I found was through the University of South Florida College of Education. There are tons of videos and descriptions of technology infused lessons available for download and the best part... they are all free.
There are many universities with classes available through iTunesU; Texas A&M, MIT, Harvard, Yale, USF,UC Berkley, UofM, and Stanford to name a few. ALL of the information in iTunesU is free. Topics range from the very complex to the simple. If you don't already have iTunes get it here (BTW it's free too).
Monday, April 6, 2009
1:1 Plans and Community Feedback
1:1 Plan
The goals for South Hamilton's 1:1 are:
1) Increase Student engagement
2) Increase Literacy levels
3) Increase student access
4) Increase student's educational opportunities
The 1:1 would mean that starting in the 2009-2010 school year every 7-12 grade student will be given a laptop computer to use for the duration of their time at South Hamilton. Every summer the laptops would be returned for maintenance and updating and that same machine would be given back in the fall. All the computers that are currently in labs at the MS/HS would be moved to the elem building to update and increase numbers of computers in that building. This program would be on a four year rotation. After the first four years are up the laptops would be replaced with new laptops and the old laptops would be taken to the elementary and put into carts so each classroom has a laptop cart. So by the year 2014-2015 SHCSD would be 1:1 K-12
Timeline:
4/13/09 School Board Agenda item for discussion
5/09 School board action item
5/26-5/28 Professional Development
Summer 2009 purchase 390 Macbook Laptops
August 2009 community meeting
August 19th 2009 laptops are handed out
PD will continue throughout the school year.
As South Hamilton CSD continues to evaluate the possibility of a 1:1 laptop initiate we need your input. All stake-holders need to be given the opportunity to weigh-in on the initiative, so to accomplish this an email address has been setup to allow for communication with the South Hamilton Administration.
LaptopFeedback@s-hamilton.k12.ia.us
The goals for South Hamilton's 1:1 are:
1) Increase Student engagement
2) Increase Literacy levels
3) Increase student access
4) Increase student's educational opportunities
The 1:1 would mean that starting in the 2009-2010 school year every 7-12 grade student will be given a laptop computer to use for the duration of their time at South Hamilton. Every summer the laptops would be returned for maintenance and updating and that same machine would be given back in the fall. All the computers that are currently in labs at the MS/HS would be moved to the elem building to update and increase numbers of computers in that building. This program would be on a four year rotation. After the first four years are up the laptops would be replaced with new laptops and the old laptops would be taken to the elementary and put into carts so each classroom has a laptop cart. So by the year 2014-2015 SHCSD would be 1:1 K-12
Timeline:
4/13/09 School Board Agenda item for discussion
5/09 School board action item
5/26-5/28 Professional Development
Summer 2009 purchase 390 Macbook Laptops
August 2009 community meeting
August 19th 2009 laptops are handed out
PD will continue throughout the school year.
As South Hamilton CSD continues to evaluate the possibility of a 1:1 laptop initiate we need your input. All stake-holders need to be given the opportunity to weigh-in on the initiative, so to accomplish this an email address has been setup to allow for communication with the South Hamilton Administration.
LaptopFeedback@s-hamilton.k12.ia.us
Thursday, April 2, 2009
Facebook... Not so bad?
The Wonderment of Social networking
There are tons of ways to interact with people on the internet; Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Second Life, Ning, del.icio.us, IRC, Gaming sites, Last.fm, and many many many more. One of the big reasons those sites are blocked in schools is "for the safety of the children", which I tend to (sort of) agree with. What if those social sites could be leveraged for education? Below you will find some links to articles about social networking and you can form a conclusion on your own.
USA Today For teens a friend online is usually a friend offline too.
Social Networking in Education (wiki)
Wired Don't tell your parents: Schools Embrace MySpace
Education Trumps Filtering
Youtube Video Goomoodleikiog
Now there are many arguments for and against social networking in the school, but I think with the ever rising tide it would be wise for a forward thinking school system to hop on the 21st Century bandwagon.
There are tons of ways to interact with people on the internet; Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Second Life, Ning, del.icio.us, IRC, Gaming sites, Last.fm, and many many many more. One of the big reasons those sites are blocked in schools is "for the safety of the children", which I tend to (sort of) agree with. What if those social sites could be leveraged for education? Below you will find some links to articles about social networking and you can form a conclusion on your own.
USA Today For teens a friend online is usually a friend offline too.
Social Networking in Education (wiki)
Wired Don't tell your parents: Schools Embrace MySpace
Education Trumps Filtering
Youtube Video Goomoodleikiog
Now there are many arguments for and against social networking in the school, but I think with the ever rising tide it would be wise for a forward thinking school system to hop on the 21st Century bandwagon.
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