VERNIER UPDATE

I saw the new Go! Motion in action today at the Ohio Section of the American Association of Physics Teachers meeting, and it looks slick.

The setup is easy (plug into the USB), the cost is low ($ 99.00, no additional parts needed), and the software is Logger Lite (shown displaying the Go! Temp data below.

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Another great science toy presented today was the World Wind software. In the words of the NASA site

World Wind lets you zoom from satellite altitude into any place on Earth. Leveraging Landsat satellite imagery and Shuttle Radar Topography Mission data, World Wind lets you experience Earth terrain in visually rich 3D, just as if you were really there. I've placed a sample screen shot below.

TECH THAT'S NOT-SO HIGH

When we think of technology, there is a tendency to limit ourselves to the high end of the tech. But, there is a great deal of science that can be best learned from low-tech applications.

Crystal radio is one of those low-tech apps. Despite advancements in radio - transistors, solid state electronics, and satellite broadcasts, to name a few, building a crystal radio provides a way for students to understand the fundamentals of communications and wave physics.

This link will take you to a page that makes an argument for including Crystal Radios into science classes, as well as including links to plans, kits, lessons, and community resources.

I'M REALLY ASHAMED OF MYSELF, BUT THIS IS FUNNY

OK, this link is a low blow at Whole Language advocates, but it's really funny.

Time and time again, the phonics-based methods and Direct Instruction have been studied, and shown to be better than Whole Language.

Time and time again, these promising methods have been jettisoned from the curriculum. The reasoning varies, but it generally includes complaints that the methods "stifle creativity" in teachers.

Would that it were true - some overly flaky approaches should be stifled.

REALLY TRIVIAL, BUT VERY CUTE

OK, I know it shows my frivolous side, but I couldn't resist linking to this picture. There's a grain of truth here - my son played chess on a computer for several years, before ever playing a live human.

His first tournament, he won.

LOCAL RESOURCE IN SCIENCE

I wanted to remind all teachers that we have a truly great resource in science education in the greater Cleveland area, the Cleveland Regional Council of Science Teachers. They will be having a Spring Symposium on Thursday, April 14th, from 4:00 to 7:00 pm.

Dr. Mano Singham, director of the University Center for Innovation in Teaching and Education (UCITE) and adjunct associate professor of physics at Case Western Reserve University will share research findings and information from his experience in working with teachers and their students for many years in the Cleveland area.

Dr. Singham will share insights from his work with teachers in the Discovery program and will provide a preview of material in his new book, “The Achievement Gap in U. S. Education: Canaries in the Mine” which will be published in May.

The structure of the evening will be:

* 1 hour lecture
* 40 minute light supper and formulation of questions
* 45 minute Q & A session with Dr. Singham

A Light supper (Catered by Verba’s) will be served.

If you email me, I'll send the flyer with registration details.

MARCH UPDATE

I haven't been posting lately, because I've been busy with family and job issues.

What's happening:

• My daughter had the baby - a boy last week.
  
• I've been working at Emerson, for a teacher out on back surgery. It only lasts about two more weeks, then it's back to day-to-day subbing.
  
• My asthma has had another flare-up, leaving me in the hospital over the weekend. I'm fine now, just a little behine in everything.

I was at a workshop on Saturday on flight. You can find out information on this link.

Apparently, the curriculum (which I had an opportunity to examine - it was great!) was sent to all schools in the Ohio systems. You may want to check with your district's science supervisor or director of curriculum. It may be buried somewhere at the administration building.

Or, you could bookmark this link. They will be coming out with a DVD by summer, which they intend to supply for a small price (less than $10) to educators.

PLAYING WITH MY NEW TI-84+

I've been using my graphing calculator in NoteFolio mode with the keyboard. It actually works fairly well, but I notice that I have made more typos than I normally do. I'm not sure if it's the touch of the keyboard, or my tendency to hit the keys hard.

While playing around, I found
a really cool use for a calculator - Making a Robot.

Is that cool or what! I already have some robot stuff, so I don't think I'll be doing it soon, but it looks like a truly geeky and fun activity.

If you decide to do it, please send the pictures to me.

NEW TECHNOLOGIES

I recently took a tour of St. Mark's school in Cleveland. They've installed several interactive whiteboards. The staff referred to them as "SmartBoards", but, they are another type offered by Promethean. The teachers have been trained extensively, and they are quite proficient in using the technology.

Among the features available:

• Pre-prepared lessons on a variety of topics
  
• Ability to create interactive lessons
  
• Videoconferencing
  
• Ability to link to internet sites
  
• Remote control of the whiteboard
  

These technologies provide ways to use one computer with an entire class, while allowing more control over how the technology is used than multiple computers do.

A VERY EFFECTIVE TOOL FOR STOPPING AIMLESS WEB BROWSING

Click on the Title of this post to find a page that helps focus your concentration on the work at hand. I found this link thanks to Alpha Patriot. In addition to the tool for focusing effort, there is a lengthy article about procrastination, and how to thwart it.

WHAT'S SO GREAT ABOUT BLOGS? PART 2

I still have trouble explaining to friends and family what the excitement about blogs is all about. I decided that I needed to list my thinking in some kind of an orderly way.

1. Web page are static, blogs are dynamic.
   
   I didn't actually come up with this wording; another student in my graduate technology class did (can't remember his name). What it means is, that a web page is designed to be a finished, highly polished jewel, to be admired for the ages.
   
   A blog, in contrast, is a quickie scrap materials & glue project, meant to serve a purpose for a short time, then tossed in a drawer (or a wastebasket). That a given post may survive and be referenced for a long time is a quirk of the medium - electrons are cheap to store.
   
   
2. Books, and even magazines and newspaper have limitations on entry. Only a few can see their words in print, due to the cost of the medium.
   
   Blogs, in contrast, are the equivalent of the street corner - open to all, no matter how deluded.
   
   
3. The ability of anyone to set up a blog means that ANYONE does - the talented and interesting, as well as the tediously boring. However, I tolerate them better, since I don't pay for them, unlike print material.
   
   
4. Publishing is undergoing a real revolution, not unlike the change in the days of Gutenberg. The cost of publishing has made it possible to bypass the elitist gatekeepers.
   
   It also has the potential to light a fire under students. As never before, they have the ability to leapfrog past the editorial eye of their teachers, and seek their audience on the Web.
   
   There's nothing like knowing that what you've written has been read by someone who doesn't have to read it. Whether or not they agreed with it, approved of it, or enjoyed it is immaterial.
   
   With this technology, what could English classes become?
   

IF I KNEW THEN WHAT I KNOW NOW

This is a classic post, from a person, Paul Graham, who I've never linked to before, although I will now.

The question he answers is, what advice would you give to high school students from the distance of your life experiences today?

He talks about the root cause of boredom in teens:

And when I was eight, I was rarely bored. Give me a back yard and a few other kids and I could play all day.

The reason this got stale in middle school and high school, I now realize, is that I was ready for something else. Childhood was getting old.

I'm not saying you shouldn't hang out with your friends-- that you should all become humorless little robots who do nothing but work. Hanging out with friends is like chocolate cake. You enjoy it more if you eat it occasionally than if you eat nothing but chocolate cake for every meal. No matter how much you like chocolate cake, you'll be pretty queasy after the third meal of it. And that's what the malaise one feels in high school is: mental queasiness.

He talks about college admissions:

It's dangerous to design your life around getting into college, because the people you have to impress to get into college are not a very discerning audience.

I've just given a amall taste of the richness of this essay. Go there, enjoy. Devour and savor.

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Feel free to write your version of this essay in the comments.

ADVICE FROM A TECH-SAVVY TEACHER

I've been checking out more resources available to teachers. The number one question I'm often asked is is how I learned to work on computers. I think Rosemary Shaw, in this article from TechLearning expresses it best.

YET ANOTHER STUPID, BUT FUN, IDEA

I was wondering the 'net, and on A Small Victory (warning - not work safe), I found an acronym generator quiz. Well, naturally, I couldn't resist, and generated the following

T	Tender
E	Entertaining
C	Charming
H	Huge
N	Nerdy
O	Organic
L	Loud
O	Orderly
G	Graceful
Y	Young
I	Intense
N	Nice
T	Tame
E	Elitist
A	Ambitious
C	Cute
H	Hardworking
I	Innocent
N	Naughty
G	Good

Name / Username:

Name Acronym Generator
From Go-Quiz.com

NERDINESS

I ran across this test on Accidental Verbosity. My result are:



I think it says something about myself that I scored higher on this than the 800-question Nerd Test I took 10 years ago. I'm not sure what it says, though.

SOME NEW LINKS

I've been checking around, and teachers and others involved in education have caught the blogging fever. Right now, interest seems to fall into two categories:

• Those who write about technical aspects of the technology
  
• Those who write about how it's used in schools
  

I tend to be one of the latter. I'm most interested in how a technology can be used to foster learning, improve communication, and make teachers' jobs easier. Some of the blogs I've found lately:

• LORE: An E-Journal for Teachers of Writing. This is not just for Language Arts teachers. With the current emphasis on writing across the curriculum, this is of interest to all.
  
• EduBlog Insights. This blog is both enthusiastic and insightful (as its name would suggest).
  
• Teachnology. This is apparently a post-secondary teacher with an interest in education.
  

COMMUNICATIONS ON THE WEB

Weblogg-ed posts about the social aspects of the Internet. I think this is an often-overlooked feature of the technology. Think of the ways that the Internet fosters interaction:

• Instant messaging
  
• Email
  
• Listservs
  
• Videoconferencing
  
• Blogging
  
• Distance Learning

The funny thing is, school districts are terrified about that very thing. They often make it as hard as possible for spontaneous interactions to occur, even banning some of the above activities. Unless the activity is scripted or moderated, they don't want it.

And that's a true shame. In my experience, it's the spontaneous hook-ups that most often lead to a true educational moment. I favor giving kids the tools (age-appropriate, and with oversight), and letting them use them. Yes, I know that kids will initially need a lot of monitoring (particularly their language, which is often not even PG), and, yes, I know that there will need to be supervision to prevent them from contact with predators, but that's true for most activities involving kids.

Rather than clamp down on all kids, single out the ones using inappropriate language, and send them a personal message (like, I know this is how you talk normally, but I believe that you can do better than this). If necessary, kick them off for a few days, longer if they don't learn the lesson. But, don't keep all kids from accessing the power of the web because of a few. It's better to teach them how to use it properly.

BLOGS HIT THE MAINSTREAM

Blogging in educational circles is reaching the level of critical mass - it's not just for the techies. The blogging tools are widely available, the expertise needed is well within the reach of the average user, and its benefits for both students and teachers has been demonstrated over time.

Educational blogs range from commentary on education Joanne Jacobs, a writer who specializes in educational issues, graduate students and professorsJenny D. and Winston's Diary, an adjunct, and classroom teachers Ms. Frizzle, Behind the Desk, and I Am a Teacher, who is currently working as a substitute (as am I).

Some Links about Blogging:

• Blogging - an article by a North Carolina Technology Specialist
  
• Using Blogs to Integrate Technology in the Classroom - Glencoe Publishing explains blogging
  
• Blogging Across the Curriculum - some good basic information about blogging, and many links to more advanced topics

TRY OUT THIS TECHNOLOGY

If you have the ability to download on your system's computer, I suggest that you try Mozilla's new Firefox browser. I have been using it exclusively for the last few months (starting with the beta version), and I have noticed that the problems of pop-ups and annoying ads don't occur. I'm told by my son-in-law (who is our home network guru) that the security puts Microsoft products to shame.

I also love the ability to create tabs in a single window. They're easier to close when I want to return to the previously open tab than the multiple windows in IE or Netscape.



I've experienced no difficulty with viewing any sites. It doesn't appear that incompatibilities are much of a problem. Either that, or website developers are getting savvier about not using browser-specific tags.



There's also a new email viewer, called Thunderbird, that many are calling an "Outlook killer". I haven't tried it - I generally use my Yahoo account, or Popmail.

In general, the Open Source software that I've tried is functional and easy to use (Open Office, Linux, Firefox, etc.). I must caution, however, I don't generally push the envelope. I'm a lazy user - if the software does 80-90% of what the commercial product does, I'm satisfied with it. Minor differences don't bother me.

CHRISTMAS BREAK

I'm on vacation for the next 2weeks. After that, I don't know right now. I'm of the belief that, right now, the most important quality for a teacher is to be flexible. The employment situation is tight, improvements in class sizes or pay seem unlikely, and most districts are operating in no-frills modes.

On the positive side, it's nearly Christmas. My kids are nearby or staying with us for the holidays, my extended family is healthy, and I'm baking cookies with my daughters today.



Merry Christmas to all, and to all, a Good Night!

FUNDING SOURCES

I've been researching sources of funding for professional development. The following places, I've found, explain a little about ESEA (Elementary & Secondary Education Act), and other grant sources. I think I need to pick someone's brains about the specifics of how I help districts get the money for workshops and training.

• Title IIA
  
• ENC Site
  
• Technology Grant News
  
• NSTA Website
  
• Yahoo's Directory of Grants
  
• EdGate

I fear that I will need to become engulfed in the jargon and esoterica of the grant world to be able to make this happen. Well, if I have to, I have to.