Technology Tidbit Blog

1,000 Locations for the Morning News

lasso246 — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 13:45:14 +0000

Our first wiki is designed to accomplish two goals. The first is to demonstrate to students what 1,000 items looks like. The second includes developing several locations that can be used as a backdrop (using a green screen) for our morning news program. We have over 250 entries already from over 7 countries and are looking for others.

Our First Wiki

Please take a moment and add 4 to our list. We appreciate it. Our First Wiki

Wikis in Education

lasso246 — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 01:32:23 +0000

After a few days of learning all about wikis, I’m certainly amazed about the potential impact on student learning. Just recently I sat in on a webinar on wikis in education. Clay Burell provided much insight on how best to use the technology in meaningful ways. This week I’ve setup a few wikis. The first was the 1,000 locations for the morning news.

1,000 Locations for the Morning News – Our attempt to demonstrate what 1,000 items looks like for students and to solicit different locations to report from with our morning news program with the assistance of our green screen.
Zoo Projects – One of our 5th grade teachers wishes to provide a different method for presenting information about animals based on their research. As a result, we began setting up this wiki. We are still working on it.

As I think about this further, more applications come to mind. I’ll post them to this blog so I don’t forget.

Whiteboard Challenge #3 Symmetrically Symmetric

lasso246 — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 19:29:00 +0000

Symmetrically Symmetric entices students to use the transparency feature of the board to practice drawing shapes around lines of symmetry. After completing the drawing, students use an interactive pull device to check their work. Finally, students play an anagram game with several words to assist with learning about symmetry. Click on the picture below to see and hear how Symmetrically Symmetric works. Click here to download Symmetrically Symmetric from the SMART Exchange.

Whiteboard Challenge #2 Patterns

lasso246 — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 18:31:14 +0000

I created another notebook file that uses the infinite clone technique to teach students about patterns. Sound, tables, and screen shades were also used for this SMART file. Click on the picture below to see a short video on how to operate the file.

You may also download the file from the SMART Exchange. Click Here.

Whiteboard Challenge #2: The Facts of Life

lasso246 — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 19:10:35 +0000

In this week’s challenge, we were shown how to use the infinite
clone technique incorporated into the interactive boards. After
pondering for quite some time yet again, I came to fact families as a
great use of this technique. Using the last challenge technique, I
again incorporated a sound file to introduce students to the task at
hand. The interactive die is used to provide numbers via chance to be
used in the fact family table. Both numbers provided to the left and
mathematical operation signs are all infinitely cloned for use in the
file. The amount of assistance provided via an Internet page, a pull
tab, and cell shadings for proper placement of signs gradually vanishes
as users progress from one page to another.

A screen shot of the SMART Notebook Lesson

Click on the screen-shot to the left to see a recorded demonstration of the file.

Click here to download the file from the SMART Exchange.

Whiteboard Challenge #1

lasso246 — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 23:39:04 +0000

Wow. After thinking long and hard on how best to use the sound creation technique, I finally came to the decision of using it in math. Once upon a time, I used to teach third grade. As a result, many of my thoughts and ideas were related to those years. While teaching math in Virginia, students are often shown what are called In Out machines. One number goes in and another comes out. Students have to determine what rule is being applied in the machine that results in a different number exiting the machine. I thought the sound feature would work well here. Here is a screen shot of the file.

A screen shot of the Whiteboard Challenge #1 SMART Notebook file.

Simply click on the picture to see a short video on how it works. I plan on pushing into some classrooms this week to give this a try. It certainly seems to be a great application of a very simple tool. What do you think?

Click here to download the file from the SMART Exchange.

Hello world!

lasso246 — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 20:06:58 +0000

Well. This is my first blog and I’m certainly learning. While blogging has been around for quite some time, this is my first opportunity. I’m excited to be joining the whiteboard challenge where I will learn from others around the world about how to integrate the technology into classroom instruction. I’ve provided the link below.

http://whiteboardchallenge.wikispaces.com/

A screenshot of the Whiteboard Challenge Page.

I’m sure that I will have fun and learn much. Stay tuned for updates about how I’m doing.