I’m wondering when it is we start teaching electronic calendar management. First I suppose we teach ourselves, then start sharing it with our students. Google allows for multiple calendar creation, making it nice to have the subscribed calendar for PeeWee Hockey -just add events to my virtual life. At work we are moving towards a Google Calendar for each class that we teach, having the students subscribe to the calendars so they end up in one place.

calendar

I suppose this works better when the information comes to the device in your pocket. I know all the phones text, and I wonder how many of them would (or do) calendar if we asked them.

It is great to see people adopt this strategy, even if people then write the events down in a paper thing that goes into the backpack. It will sure make it easier for the crack-berry generation get a sense of what is happening with those teenagers (who hardly speak out loud anymore). It also speaks to my need for every kid to have a digital device that is small enough to fit in a bag..think netbook, iTouch, iPad. I can’t wait for us to be connected to the information so the learning can be about what to do with it, not recite it back to me.

I know we are close, it just isn’t there.

Yet.

Last year we installed a podcast server using Apple’s OSX server and Podcast Producer. Wow.

We are a 95% PC district, and the podcast producer doesn’t care. We can submit audio / video files to the server from a web page. Combine this with Jing, a $15 screen capture software and teachers can teach anywhere / anytime.

Many districts use the OSX server to manage accounts and such, so all they would have to do is turn on the Podcast Producer service!

Right now, we are creating 5 minute (or less) videos that show people how to do things in Moodle, graph a parabola, answer questions about an assignment, listen to the paragraph spoken in French. There is a great correlation between watching video and success in class, so we are doing it as much as possible!

http://podcast.edenpr.org/

Jing from jingproject.com created by the people that make Camtasia have created a really inexpensive piece of software that helps you make screen captures. The ability to record into a movie what steps you go thru to post a web page, enlarge columns in a spreadsheet, read an email attachment, rename a file saves me a ton of time explaining. Now I can SHOW the steps and talk thru them like I’m sitting with you at the computer. You can pause me, rewind me, play me again and again. Just helping with software questions, this app is worth the $15 I spent on it.

Now, think about having the ability to record what you are writing / doing on a smartboard. Watch and Listen to the teacher complete the square, diagram a sentence, read and explain the french sentence in English. This is the BIG MONEY app. Now as the teacher, am anywhere I need to be to help the kids at anytime of the day or night. When I’m off at a meeting, the sub now plays the snippets of me. I’ll say that again, now when I’m off LEARNING how to be a better teacher, the sub plays the snippets of me. This doesn’t replace me, it doesn’t hold their attention everyday, nor is a one directional lecture always the best, but it is better than the English major trying to teach graphing a parabola.

I’ve tried different apps, and keep coming back to Jing. Go, pick a screen capture tool, start creating short instructional videos for your kids, then share them on say…Moodle. Watch what happens when you run out of time doing homework problems, and they start saying, just Jing it. “Not everyone needs you to go over this problem, so could you Jing it for me?”

Next up: Podcast Server from Apple. Once you have one teacher who makes 200 videos for her class, and this idea catches on like wildfire, you need something more than just Moodle. I’ll explain more in the next post.

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.

Finally.
Not to say I think there is a ton of great content, and yet there are some helpful Moodle videos. If you’d like a podcast that shares tips and tricks for common classroom integration tools, check out the one we are populating. Nothing is much more than 5 minutes, because we are using Jing to record (hence the limit) and uploading to our Apple podcast server to get things in order for the store.

Next job, is to get decent art work, and a better description, although I’m afraid that might need snow leopard server to get completed. Oh well….at least it is there for others to use!

Lots of schools run the Apple Server to run blogs, wikis, calendars and the like. We’ve enabled one more piece that I think changes the landscape for education. Podcast Producer! Teachers use Jing Pro to create short (<5 minutes) instructional videos on everything from how to access the online textbook, directions for that software application, explanations of the assignment to graphing a parabola.

Students can see and hear the teacher writing on a smartboard, going over something they did in class, enabling the student to hear it again. I’ve had students in my office that were struggling math students all the way through the program to Calculus students who raved about how nice it was to see it more than once. Given how class time is finite, this blows the doors off the clock and gives the students 24/7 access to the bits they need.

Here we are creating videos to support teachers as they use Moodle, Jing etc to be there in the middle of the evening when they are posting that next assignment or creating the next quiz for their students.

I needed a place to put the list, could have been a couple different places. Today, it is here…and of course in my moleskin.

• MyMoodle Page
  This is the second time in just as many days that this has popped up on my radar. Looks like something I should start to pay some attention to…
• Exabis e-Portfolio Block
  Seems like a natural next step
• Google Apps for Hybrid course collaboration

email me
leave a comment here
@jenn_nelson

if you are interested in getting together to talk and SHARE courses, strategies, professional development, this isn’t going to be a come and take but rather a come and share meeting with like minded moodlers!

Date: May 20th 1:00 CST

As promised, here is the presentation. Let me know if you need anything, have any successes! (Please share) and if there is another place you’d like to have us come share our story.

Duluth in May might be beautiful, and then again the excitement of a weekend with math teachers is draw enough!

MCTM starts tomorrow morning, Sarah, Mark and I are presenting a little piece about how Jing, Smartboards and iTouches are increasing student achievement. Science and Math are the 2 areas we are seeing students really take off in today. Creating Jing’s for professional development, software and sharing of information (short presentations) are other places we are currently exploring.

If you are in Duluth, looking for something fun to do, stop on down. We all just might learn a thing or two together.