Technology and Education @ U-High

Netbooks will be distributed to all students during orientation sessions offered between August 5 and 23. A variety of session times will be offered during both the days and evenings, and students can sign up to attend one of the two hour meetings during school registration. Parents are invited, but not required, to attend. At orientation, students will receive their netbook, wacom tablet and carry bag, and they will configure their wireless login, s-drive and classroom printer mappings. Issues of security and support will be covered, as will setting up and using the wacom tablet. The goal is to have everyone up and ready to go on the first day of school!

We continue to carefully work through issues and concerns in preparation for our netbook initiative rollout this coming school year:

• Tables and/or bigger desks have been purchased for those classrooms which do not already have desks that can safely accommodate the netbooks.
• Students will receive their netbooks at the netbook orientation sessions which will be offered between registration and the first day of school. Parents are also invited to attend.
• After evaluation, the netbook we have chosen to go with is the Toshiba NB305-N310. It offers an 11 hour battery, NN450 processor, 1 gb of ram and a 160gb hard drive.
• In consultation with our math department, each student will also receive a Wacom Bamboo pen tablet. This flat, 5×7″ unit attaches to the netbook’s usb port and enables students to write and draw using an electronic pen. This will allow students to continue using OneNote, Sketchpad and other tools that we have found valuable in the classroom.
• Each student will also receive a carrying case.
• All netbooks will be engraved with the school seal along with the mac address specific to that computer.

More updates will be posted…

Looking at effective ways to utilize wikis, OneNote, Dyknow, blogs and a range of other technologies into the classroom is the focus of a series of special workshops being put on by U-High teachers for College of Education teaching students this month.

Teachers Kim Rojas, Andy Davis and Jim Kelly volunteered to present two sessions apiece on integrating an online course system, Blackboard, into instruction. Blackboard is currently used at U-High, Unit 5, ISU and a growing number of schools around the state.

Teachers Kate Pole, Dianne Walker and Kathy Clesson are offering sessions demonstrating how and when teachers should consider using online collaborative tools. Kate has students consider strategies for using group chat rooms during and after class, while Dianne and Kathy show students how to integrate wikis into instruction.

Teacher Vicki Graziano is showing students the power of using Microsoft OneNote in the area of math. OneNote, combined with a tablet pc, allows students to write on the computer screen, a very useful technology for students writing math equations and drawing and graphing problems. Vicki is also showing students how a classroom monitoring system, DyKnow, can be used to keep students on-task and to share student work with the entire group.

Teacher Jim Potter is working with students on how to utilize on-line grading programs. Programs like Family Access enable teachers to updated grades from any computer, and at the same time, they give parents greater access to student progress than they’ve ever had in the past. This places additional responsibilities on teachers in terms of keeping grades accurate and updated.

These sessions were organized by teacher Jean Gorski and members of the C&I sub-comittee.

It may be possible soon using sixth-sense technology. Technology that tells you about a person as you meet them. Technology that lets you use your hands to take pictures. Don’t know the time? Just draw a watch on your arm and it’s there. For a truly jaw-dropping look into the future, take a look at this 8 minute presentation put on by Pattie Maes and Pranav Mistry at the MIT lab…

Freshman are exploring new books and ways to share them using Shelfari, a website that allows readers to build virtual bookshelves of the titles they have read or want to read.  Wanting to encourage students to read more, World History teachers Kate Pole and Char Lehnen, and librarian Anita Beaman helped all students choose a book on a historical topic that interests them. Students were encouraged to read any kind of history – historical fiction, biographies, traditional nonfiction or graphic novels – and to explore topics outside what is usually covered in the history classroom. 

While on their reading journeys, students are sharing their discoveries with each other through Shelfari discussions hosted on the library’s Shelfari site.  Kids are talking about what they’re reading, what they’re learning, and asking and answering questions.  Many have taken off in their own directions, building their own shelves of favorite books and recommending books to others.  Because they’re reading about topics that interest them, many students are flying through their books and moving on to others with similar topics.  Circulation in the library is up, and the freshmen seem to like it!

In fact, one of the discussions currently taking place on Shelfari involves the book “Race” by Marc Aronson, which all freshmen are required to read.  The discussion caught the attention of the author, who contacted us and has joined in!  As they are reading the book, students have been able to ask, listen to and challenge the author and get a response directly from him.  When one freshman had a question about the book, she stated it was the “coolest thing ever” that she was able to get her answer right from the author himself!

Help students at U-High with technical issues, earn course credit and get great career experience at the same time by signing up for the computer support tech independent study for 2010-11. As part of this course, you’ll serve as a leader during netbook orientation sessions in August, and provide 4-6 hours per week of technical support through the student tech help desk (currently being set up). Your job will include helping students with software questions and issues, as well as providing basic support for student netbooks. You’ll meet with Mr. Culbertson and Mr. Kurz on a weekly basis to discuss issues, technologies and solutions. See either of them for more information or download the information and application form.

Between now and the end of March, we are working to identify the best choice of a netbook or netbook-tablet that we will provide to each student beginning next school year.

We’ve requested demo units of 6 different netbooks to evaluate based on long list of criteria. These units include:

• The Toshiba Mini NB305-n210; highly-rated, good keyboard, screen, solid build
• The Asus 1005pe.  It has identical specs to the NB305, but claims a 14 hour battery life. 
• The Asus 1005ha. Older, less-expensive model.
• Toshiba mini NB205-N325BL- older, less-expensive model
• The Lenova IdeaPad S10-3t (tablet); probably prices too high, but worth a look
• HP Mini 5102
• the Dell Mini 10 is an affordable netbook with the pine trail processor and decent specs

We will look at other units as they become available.

U-High uses Tandem for Schools to manage all school calendars and events.  It will be THE place for you to find all school event information. You can sign up for you own free tandem account by clicking on the “Sign in” link. Sign-in enables you to:
* Find all the calendar information you need in one place
* Integrate school calendars with other tools like Cozi, Outlook, Google or iCal based on the groups you specify
* Filter events

Click the video link to see a 3-minute video of how Tandem for Schools works: http://help.intand.com/index.php?section=public_invite. Then, click on the “Calendar with/without sports” link to get an account set up. Enjoy!

Using authentic activities in social science has begun to replace rote memory of facts and dates in many class rooms across the US. This teaching method seeks to imitate real world activities performed by real people, and one of the most important categories of authentic activities is role playing.

Several years ago, Social Science teacher Jim Kelly discovered an activity in a teacher’s guide that sought to emulate the journey of Lewis and Clark. The basic idea was to send students into the “field” with pen and journal and record everything about their surroundings.  

In thinking of ways to bring the project up to date and to adapt if for our students at University High School, Mr. Kelly decided to do the project during a single class period. The “field” would be represented by the campus at Illinois State University and the “guides” would be student teachers from the Curriculum and Instruction Department of the College of Education.

Initially, students embarked upon their journey with a sketch pad and notebook to produce a paper journal. Now, many students use digital cameras and video cameras, and programs like Power Point, Photo Story, and Movie Maker. You can view one of the completed projects here.

Suzie Thetard has had her students creating comics to create a modern language version of the King James version of “David and Goliath”.  Students partner and create a storyboard using PowerPoint (or tables in Word) to outline these elements of the story. Using Blackboard to share files in the group page, they can then work outside of the classroom to gather elements and share. Once the storyboard is complete and agreed upon, the students use Comic Life to create a modern language version of the story. Some scan in art to use in Comic Life; others adapt photos with stick figures in Paintnet; some parody using other comic figures. Once their comic is done they submit it in Blackboard, and using the Peer review, they comment on all the comics.