Not exactly two things I’d put together right away.

Yet, they have the same technology need right now.  Imagine how hard it is to get 35 kids around a sewing machine, and show them how to tread a bobbin. Imagine doing biology lab demonstration with small pieces to a group of 35 students.

Enter the Flip video camera. Both teachers are using the Flip to record the demonstration they would normally give in class, submit it to our podcast server and then show it during class, on a big screen (or smartboard). They are able to stop, rewind, point out (on a large screen for all to see) discuss, answer questions without being tied to a little bobbin….that 27 kids can’t see anyways.

We take it a step further. Publish to the podcast server.

The enriched biology students watch the video at home, discuss things before the lab, and then get to work. The sewing students have a set of iTouches in class, when they get stuck with a step, grab an iTouch, watch the process – listen to the directions – correct their process and move forward. Stopping to ask the teacher questions that can’t be answered via video. Allowing the teacher to help kids who are really behind & struggling. Everyone is calmer and happier, because everyone is learning! (without having to wait)…

Try it sometime, video the demonstration, share it online if you have that ability. Or, use ours, they are out there for everyone!

There are a couple tools that every teacher / student should have access to in order to deliver / experience the 21st Century Education. I spoke about this at the TIES 2009 Conference in December and the more I think about it, the more important I think they are to education today.

Projector / Internet /Interactive Whiteboard in the Classroom

I’d add to this an interactive whiteboard, but bare minimum you need a way to project and create a visual classroom. This idea / requirement isn’t new so I’m not going to spend much time talking about it.

Moodle

If you have a way to collect and organize the electronic information for your students, everyone is better off. Moodle creates that extra layer of classroom tooling that makes it better than a web site. From a systemic perspective, you have a really great way of sharing materials between teachers. It spread like wildfire in my school, because the early adopters could give others what they’d created. Better than some of the social networking / web 2.0 tools out there as we can package and share between classrooms and schools. I like the idea of Ning, but it really isn’t the complete classroom tool that Moodle is for everyone.

Over the next couple days I’ll add to the list and probably talk more about the power of each tool (IWB, Moodle, Google Apps, itouch, Podcast Server, Screen Capture Software). Let me know what you think, and what 6 are on your list.

What an exciting use of simple free technology! Connecting with the composer of the piece this choir has been working on, Stephen Bachicha.  They shared a video conference call, performing for him, having him change the cords as he’s listening.  Asking him what he was thinking as he was creating, what the creation process is like..etc.

The choir conductor did a great job of prepping the kids, they had a great conversation about the music that kept the kids popping and engaged.

I’m sure this will go down as one of those remembered days in class.

So, I’m following http://twitter.com/timoreilly.

Think about that for a while.

If you don’t know who he is…read about him for a moment.

The summer presentation link…

MIT publishes pieces of its courses for us to read, explore, and learn from. As do more and more universities everyday. It is becoming about Open Education, not just open source software. I’m thinking about how we (EPHS) could start to give back to the open source community, or the world, as we start using open source software as the way we do computing…why not start thinking about opening up our educational content. Yes, of course it is way more complicated than just that statement, but why not?

If we start sharing what we are creating, for students to use as resource, as other teachers to use in the classroom, as home school parents for their kids, we aren’t ignoring that we still believe in the human nature of education, people aren’t going to stop going to EPHS because they can read about coursework online. We are still humans, and thrive on the connection we get with learning. People will start coming here to share in the collaborative nature of our education.

Being open, doesn’t drive people away, it attracts the right people.

So, at the visioning meeting yesterday, Eric did a rockin job of sharing where he is on developing the flash drive that kids will have (next year maybe?) to bring home to ensure they have access to the tools that will support their education.

Portable Apps are allowing some great work, along with Open Office. If you aren’t being a hippy and using it, start. You will find some really great features that might just make you smile.

So, this is a concept that makes me smile.

Freedom Toasters are conveniently located, self-contained, computer-based, ‘Bring ‘n Burn’ facilities.

Like vending machines, preloaded to dispense confectionery, Freedom Toasters are preloaded to dispense free digital products, including software, photography, music and literature.

The Freedom Toaster project began as a means of overcoming the difficulty in obtaining Linux and Open Source software due to the restrictive telecommunications environment in South Africa, where the easy downloading of large pieces of software is just not possible for everyone.

Isn’t this something that we *should* be doing in high schools, to support people having open source stuff at home?

And then again, why can’t we get fresh water to more people?

The Google Earth Community looks a bit interesting!

Search is at the heart of everything we do here at Google. That’s why we are excited to announce a new innovation in search available today in Google Earth. Users can now search through all of the world’s Keyhole Markup Language (KML) files, making the millions of Google Earth layers on the Web instantly accessible for geo-browsing and exploration. Now all of the world’s geographic information – discoverable by users worldwide.

So, I downloaded and installed Open Office a couple of weeks ago. Gave up cold turkey the competing Microsoft product. Wow, it feels good to get away from that big company, even if it is just a little bit away.

The programs feel just a little different, and I’m ok with different. I do think the average user would be just fine after a couple minutes of hmm, this isn’t my usual program. My kids sure don’t care.