The ticker…

Teacher Kate Pole’s freshman world studies classes used Blackboard’s chat feature to great effect during sessions last week. While watching selected clips from the movie The Matrix, students had their netbooks open and used a live chat to discuss how key movie points compared with Plato’s Allegory of the Cave.

“It was fantastic,” Pole said. “The really quiet kids participated like nothing I’ve ever seen, and when I stopped the movie, their participation continued in live conversation.”

Prior to watching The Matrix, the class had read the text of Allegory of the Cave and sketched a diagram based on textual evidence. During the movie, kids attempted to find parallels between the two works. Specific questions included “which movie characters represented which of Plato’s figures?” and “If this is a modern adaptation, what’s the universal theme that we can take from it?”

“It was really cool to see the kids answer each other’s questions before I had to jump in to do it—not to mention the questions and comments they came up with that I hadn’t even thought of,” said Pole. “And, if someone said something really great and the class missed it, I could jump in and direct them towards that comment.”

Pole also pointed out that her college of education 216 students were able to join in the conversation too.

I’m often asked why we’ve chosen to stick with windows computers as opposed to switching to macs, and the answer is quite simple- money!

Over the past 10 years, we’ve rarely spent more than $600 for a computer; in many cases, that number has been less than $500. Contrast that with the cost of a mac, which historically runs $1000 per unit or more. Had we gone with macs, we would have roughly half the number of classrooms equipped with computers at this time. That translates to 8 less classrooms of computers, or approximately 56 classes per day that would not have access to computers during their lessons. Those are some big numbers.

When you look at the types of ways we use technology in the classroom- using Blackboard, the internet, Microsoft Word and PowerPoint, Audacity, Geometer’s Sketchpad, Logger Pro, Graphical Analysis, etc…- windows machines have gotten it done for us.

Sure, we “tremble” at the fear that apple tries so mightily to put into our psyche, that our windows machines will all get taken down with viruses. Yet, in the past 5 years, we’ve had fewer than 5 machines per year infected with viruses, and for the ones that do get infected, we simply wipe the hard drive and reinstall the software.

Pc’s or macs? Seems like a no-brainer.

We continue to gather lots of input and information as we look at this initiative that would equip all students with netbook-tablets beginning next August. Our first pilot group of 5 students has been using netbooks since early September and they’ve blogged their impressions on the front page of the website. One of the real positives they’ve listed is how the netbook enables them to do homework any time, anywhere during the day, such as when they are waiting for evening activities or in between classes.

We’ve also been meeting with teachers by department to get their input and specific suggestions. One of the things that has been made clear is that we need a more robust program than Classroom Spy to allow them to continue monitoring student computer use in the classroom. Thus, tech ed teacher Cory Culbertson is currently leading us through an evaluation of other products that allow teachers to not only monitor student screens, but also to limit internet use and what programs they can use while in class. Cory will also be helping us to line up better security and print solutions going forward.

We’ve been talking with other schools around the country who have laptop initiatives already, including Hidden Valley High School in Roanoke, Virginia, Westside High School in Omaha and Putnam Valley Central School District in New York. They’ve provided us insights regarding types of issues to anticipate, real costs involved and specific software that they are using.

If we have a concern right now it is that we have yet to see the ideal netbook on the market. Our target right now is to get computers with 10″ screens and almost full-sized keyboards, 6 hour or better battery life, 2 gb of ram and at least an N280 processor. In addition, we would really like the units to have tablet functionality so that students can write directly on the screens. All of this needs to come in at under $400 per machine. There are a number of new machines coming out from Asus, Acer, HP, Lenova and others so we will be watching closely….

Sure, you can use it to talk about the show you’re watching or the type of drink you just bought at Starbucks. But it can do much more. If you’re a student, twitter can be a great way to talk with other students- both here and in other places- about homework you’re trying to figure out. As a teacher, you can network with other teachers to come up with lesson ideas, answer questions and get support. As a school, Twitter provides us with additional ways too share information and headlines with parents and students.

I’ve heard of Author Edgar Allen Poe, but I couldn’t tell you much about when he lived or what he accomplished. And if you asked me what a frisson was I would guess it was something you might buy at the CoffeeHound to go with your drink (which isn’t even close in case you’re wondering). Fortunately, English teacher Mark Adams is on the scene and has used  a little technology to help engage students in learning about the life and death of the famous author. You can view the full lesson here, and take part in the same exploration as his students are here. You just might figure out what a frisson is as well…

Elora Karim, a junior, has been carrying around an MA Tablet-netbook during the past month, and has been providing us with feedback as to how, where and when it is best used. She’s part of a group of six students- Chris Michels, Kelsey Larson, Ben Kiesewetter, Traci Olson and Kylie McKeown- who have really been putting these little units to the test. They’ve done a great job of providing us with lots of feedback which you can view in the Netbook Initiative blog on the front page. In addition, Elora was kind enough to film a bit of her day with the netbook that she’s named “Daryl” which you can view here.

Teacher Laura Erickson has been getting real positive student interaction in her Spanish 1 and 2 classes using a software tool called “Stu” (well, we call it Stu- it actually has a more formal name but I can’t recall what it is at the moment). Laura opens Stu’s window on her teacher’s computer, and then her students each connect to it using the web link on the front of our site. With Stu, Laura can ask questions and all students can click in their answers which are then shown on the front screen. It’s a little bit like learning a language while participating in a game show. For a closer look at Stu in action, click here.

A couple of nifty new sites from the big online guys, Bing and Google, that are worth checking out.

One of the challenges with trying to find things through Google is trying to come up with the right words or phrases to use. Bing has come out with a new search tool called “visual search” that lets you search with images http://www.bing.com/visualsearch.

Another cool new tool is “Fast Flip” from Google. http://fastflip.googlelabs.com/. Fast Flip allows you to scan news articles from 39 print and online publishers. Take a look- it really is cool!

It will be interesting to see how this one goes. We’ve purchased three Wii gaming systems, and some of our fitness instructors will be trying them out with students to see what benefits they may offer. Wiis offer a number of very active games including tennis, dance, boxing, archery, swordplay, canooing, wakeboarding and more; if I’m correct, students will get a chance to try wii activities at stations intermixed with regular fitness workout stations. (Note to parents: please don’t panic if your student tells you they were surfing, boxing or swordfighting in physical education- it’s just the Wii!)

With the new school year starting, here are the key items related to technology that you need to know:

1. ISU assigns all students a master username called a ULID. All students need to activate their ulid, and create a new password here . You should be able to do this beginning the week of August 10. Use your ulid for logging into school computers, Webmail and your s-drive. You must change your password every 60 days.
2. U-High creates a Blackboard account for all students. Use your ISU ulid along with the password “blackboard” (no quotes) to log in. You can then change your password.
3. You should save all of your files to the U-High S-drive. At school, this drive will appear automatically when you log into any computer. At home, you can access the s-drive using the s-drive home link on the website.
4. Parents and students can check grades using the “Family Access” link on the website. You should have received a username and password for this at registration. If you have any questions, contact Linda in the main office at 438-3349.