April 17 - Assessing Digital Projects & Storytelling

Bernajean Porter is a writer, thinker, educator, speaker, futurist, storyteller, and all around promoter of joy and outrageous possibilities in life.

On Thursday, April 17, she will be joining us through Skype to discuss the critical aspect for making technology a valid implementation into our curricula, assessment. She has written the book, Evaluating Digital Products, where she explained ways to assess students projects both formatively and summatively, but this evening she will describe the systematic process that she has developed and will be implementing over the next few years in an exciting school-based project.

Please prepare for this class by reviewing the following materials:

• IMPACT: Using the Lens of Digital Products
  
• Raising the Bar for Student Performance and Assessment
• Beyond Words: The Craftsmanship of Digital Products
• The Art of Digital StoryTelling
• Interview with Bernajean Porter
• The Power of Story - The Story Paradigm
• DIGITALES CAMP info
  

Assistive Technologies - April 10

We have two Assistive Technology experts coming to class to share their experience with us.

Clare Judas shares a variety of software solutions including:

• Kurzwell 3000
• The Speech Toolbar in MS Word
• WordQ
• Keystrokes
• Wivik
• SwitchXS
• Dasher

Here is his handout. (AccessSoftware-Hardware.doc)

Dr. Amy Staples discusses the legal aspects and responsibilities for using assistive technologies to support our students.

Here is her PowerPoint presentation. (AmyStapleAssistiveTechPPT.pdf)

March 7 - Keyboarding, Word Processing and Learning

This is our opportunity to discuss how mastery and access to keyboards can change learning in the classroom.

3 Keyboarding Articles on the Keyboarding Research - click on the S&I category (right column) to find the postings that link to the articles.

An AlphaSmart for Each Student: Do Teaching and Learning Change with Full Access to Word Processors? Review this article and find examples of how keyboarding changed the curriculum in your school or in the literature. We will use these for the discussion.

February 21 - Telecollaborative Projects

Dr. Yvonne Marie Andres, the founder of the Global SchoolNet, will be Skyping into our ICN class. You will want to review some of activities that are available through gsn.org. This includes these programs:

Doors to Diplomacy - Learn what they students are doing through this program.
International Cyberfair - Connecting students of the world.
Project Registry - Find a project that would benefit your students.
NewsBlaze - GSN newsletter
GSN Awards - Review some of these Awards.
Telecommunications in the Classroom: Keys to Successful Telecomputing - A recipe for designing and developing successful Telecollaborative Projects.


You will also want to review the Flat Classroom project that I listed last week. Here are the links:

• How Does Making Connections Affect Learning? (specifically Flat Classroom) - A 46-minute podcast that describes how classrooms from around the world have collaborated. You can either listen to this by subscribing to the podcast or by just clicking on it to listen through your computer. Pay attention to where the discussants live.
• Flat Classroom Project 2007 Ning - This Ning is for all participants in the Flat Classroom Project 2007 to communicate and interact. Every member is invited to add an audio introduction, join a relevant group, contribute blog posts and start forum discussions.

February 14 - Dr. Sara Armstrong

Dr. Sara Armstrong will join us for a tour of the MyHero website and a discussion about getting students writing about what is important to them.

• MyHero website - Review this site. Sara Armstrong will Skype into our class to share MyHero and what it means to her.
• How to Make a MyHero Website - How to video made by a young girl named Slater.
• Molotech - Molotech is a South African non-profit organization that supports the effective use of information and communication technology (ICT) for development by providing ICT-enablement services to local civil society organizations, educational institutions and government.
• The Recording Club - A short video about a music program at the Washington Preparatory Senior High School in South East Los Angeles.
• Dr George McKenna III - This is the principal who led drastic changes at Washington Preparatory High School.