ISTE was a huge event with hundreds of workshops, lectures, presentations, vendors and experts of all varieties and honestly it is a little overwhelming. With this being only my second time attending the conference I still find everything quite daunting. With that in mind I had a great experience and I learned a lot hear are some of my observations.
Administering and Managing Google Apps for Your Domain was a good introduction to the control panel and dashboard areas of the Google Apps for Education Administrator tools. During the workshop we learned the basics of how to get around in the dashboard and where to go if you need to make changes to any of the account services. We learned how you can sign up for new services or tools to make the user experience more enjoyable. To me the most valuable resource shared during the workshop was information about the postini services. Postini is a tool that was offered by Google for free if you signed up before July 1st 2010. Postini is an additional layer of spam protection that goes even farther then just sorting out inappropriate content. Postini allows you to set limits on what email can come into your domain, allows you to attach a footer to every outgoing email for any purpose and much more. The reason that I attended this workshop was because the Jordan School District has set up Google Apps for Education accounts for all of the secondary schools in the district. As one of the people involved in proposing the use of this tool I wanted to be more prepared to support the schools in Jordan School District when they start using Google Apps for Education.
Google Earth Rocks: A Powerful and Free Cross-Curricular Learning Tool was another good workshop. This workshop provided instructions on how to get more out of Google Earth. While I was in the classroom I remember my students being eager to access Google Earth anytime they could. Mostly the students spent time looking at places they had been in the past or places that they want to go in the future. During the workshop we learned how to navigate in Google Earth using the various tools that are provided. We learned how to create place markers that you can attach almost any information to making a digital historical marker. We were shown how to make routes that can be used to show the actual path that the pioneers traveled. We learned how to add to the Google Earth experience by activating and deactivating layers, and within the layers to take advantage of the great resources that are provided to Google Earth user free of charge. One of my favorite resources is the “360cities”. You can find them under the gallery layer. Once you activate the “360cities” you will have access to amazing panoramic photos that give you a 360 degree view from that spot where the icon is placed on the map. Google Earth provides teachers a chance to take students to places that may not be accessible otherwise. How great would it be to embrace the students’ love of Google Earth and technology in general when doing assignments in class. Here are a couple of ideas of how to use Google Earth in the classroom. While having your students read a book in class have the students create a tour of the places the main character goes. While they are creating the tour the students can do research about the places and people involved to put on the placemarker. Instead of just reading about the holocaust, the pilgrims or the pioneers have them work in small groups using Google Earth to re-create the actual routes that were traveled or places they stayed with historical images and information that they found. Once the students do the work, they can save the project and then email you a copy of the information that you can import to your Google Earth files and look at.
The workshop that talked about Public Service Announcements (PSA) was kind of hit and miss for me. It was hosted by a company (BrainPop) and there was some commercial content. Click here for information. PSA can be powerful tools that let your students to work together to bring attention to issues that are happening in the world around them. PSA can help direct your students attention outward and can help them become and advocate and even an authority on a specific topic. In its most basic form a PSA is nothing more than a commercial that the students produce that addresses an issue or current event that they feel is important. It can also stem from a class discussion or curriculum topic that is relevant or important. As I sat and listened to the presenter I tried to think of a way to incorporate PSA in my class routine. One of the ways that I came up with was to give it as a choice for an end of unit assignment. Instead of writing a paper or doing a test, let the students do ongoing research throughout the unit with the end goal being to make a PSA that will be shown to the class. After it is shown to the class, with the necessary permissions in place you could post it (YouTube, Website, Blog, etc) so that other people can see it and comment on it. Another idea that came to mind was to have the students create a PSA about the book that they are currently reading. They could do a brief synopsis of the plot or storyline. The students could do a PSA about one of the characters depending solely on the information provided from the book. Instead of doing an oral presentation on an animal or famous person the students could put together a PSA explaining the attributes of the animal or person. You could also work with your administration to have the students create PSA that show and discuss your school rules and use the PSA as follow ups and training in your school.
I was able to attend a session from National Geographic Education. National Geographic has great resources for educators on their website that don’t require membership. There are maps to look at and use, great lesson plans to explore, pictures and videos that you can access as well. We had some time to explore the website and collaborate with other educators. I also learned about some educational games from National Geographic that can be integrated into your class.
Another session that I was able to participate in involved PBS and STEM resources. From the STEM Education Resource Center I was able to access some good tools to include STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) topics into your class activities. They don’t directly correlate to the Utah core, but they do provide ideas to work from.
I had the opportunity to explore NBC Learn and was pretty impressed. NBCLearn.com is the education arm of NBC news and is a great source for videos, pictures, stories and reports of the events that shaped our life. The person that I talked to in the booth wasn’t exactly sure what the cost of the materials would be, but they were pretty sure that there was a cost. I went to the website and requested more information about it so we will see what comes of that. In regards to paying for the content, you may find that the Library of Congress site will provide with amazing primary source information you with some similar resources as NBCLearn.com.
I spent a chunk of an afternoon talking to the Tom Snyder/Scholastic software team about a new math program that they are working on. I was very excited to be involved with them and this project. The program is designed to help students that are struggling with math become algebra ready. The program will be designed to start with the basics and move the students through a variety of math skills until they are competent and prepared for algebra. This program will provide educators with many great tools and reports to help the students achieve success. I am excited to see how the program will work and look forward to getting more information in the future. I know that a program like this will not work for every situation or need, but it seems like it will be a great tool for schools and districts to incorporate as they try to get students ready for the future.
I went to a session from The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) that talked about Digital Game Based Learning. The NOAA has provided some educational games to help develop awareness and get people interested in making a difference for the environment and in the community. The resources provided by the NOAA are not directly tied to our states core curriculum, but they can easily be incorporated to help support what we teach. We all know that our students enjoy playing computer and video games. Wouldn’t it be great if there was a way to for us to harness that joy and use it in our instruction. Well there is. I thought back to the time that I spent in the classroom and to the unit that I taught on the relationships between organisms and on the unit that I taught on how humans can affect the environment. The educational games that the NOAA has put together on their website would’ve been a great tool for me use to help conclude these units. During these educational games the students get to see first hand how organisms interact and see how humans can affect the environment for good and bad. I was able to complete both the games in a 50 minute chunk of time. I feel reasonably confident that if the students were on task while playing they would easily be able to complete the educational games in during the course of a standard class period.
