Create a Standardized Email Signature in Google Apps

Hour of Code with Pre- K

Working with the preschool students was great fun, I used the Tynker app on the ipads in a small group of 5. Such a young group required guidance and targeted questioning techniques, especially during the repeat function. Although it was challenging, it was worth the effort when the students started to identify patterns.

We worked on one ipad as a group, then each student repeated the levels on their own ipads. For the second round, I added a few new students and had the first group assist the second group while I supervised and jumped in when necessary. Although the Tynker app only allowed us to play the Codey's Quest Game for free, it was perfect for the time period and cognitive level of the 3 and 4 year olds. By far the best app I found was The Foos. It was easier to use and provided adequate visual guidance during the learning experience. This apps needs the least amount of guidance from an adult. The challenges are stimuating and really feel like a game. The Foos app also allowed us to reset the progress of the user.
During Morning Meeting, we "Programmed a classmate" for an unplugged coding activity using the geometrical design of the rug as a "Game board." I believe it would have been better to do this with a smaller group, rather than the whole class, as some students were not as engaged in the process.

 We did attempt to use a few other apps, such as Daisy the Dinosaur, but she doesn't take recognizable steps. When we used the "One move forward" command, the dinosaur appeared to take 3 steps instead of one. Another app that caused a bit a kerfufffle was Kodable, the first challenge directed us to select moves that we did not think were correct. The app represented moves in groups of blocks instead of one block per move, it was too confusing for such a young age. 

Skype Translator preview opens the classroom to the world

 Microsoft Research and Skype is  removing language barriers to make it possible for more people to communicate. Mystery Skype lessons just got better!

The first phase of the Skype Translator preview program kicks-off with two spoken languages, Spanish and English, and 40+ instant messaging languages will soon be available to Skype customers who have signed-up via the Skype Translator sign-up page and are using Windows 8.1 on the desktop or device.

hear from the team on the Garage Blog.

What Most Schools Don't Teach

Learn something new this week: how to build the technology that touches all of our lives! "We don't have enough people who are skilled and trained these days."  Learn about the "Humanity of software."

The Hour of Code - WORLDWIDE

Child Abuse/Child Neglect

New Jersey Administrative Code requires that all Boards of Education provide annual in-service training to all school personnel concerning child abuse/child neglect. This one hour in-service training can be delivered to you through this approved online, video-based workshop. Participants will receive professional development certificates upon completion of the workshop. Only ETTC member schools can register here for this on-line workshop.

Audience: All K-12 Personnel

Workshop Code: OT15OLCH

Dates: This is an online workshop

Cost: 1 ETTC Hour(s). Only ETTC Hours accepted. For info on membership, call the ETTC.

Instructor: ETTC Staff

Location: On-line REGISTER

Most Popular Education Hardware

As technology and education become more and more entwined, schools across the country are using many varying types of hardware to improve their students’ learning experiences. With funding, college acceptance, and the job market becoming even more competitive, staying up-to-date with technology trends in schools is a must.

With such a wide range of different types of hardware and so many different companies that make them, it can become hard to choose. However, if you look at the most popular choices and the facts about what has made them so popular, you can choose what technology will serve your students best.

Most Popular Hardware and What It Does

iPads

The iPad was one of the earliest and most popular hardware choices for classrooms, and for good reason. The highly intuitive interface makes it easy for people from a variety of tech backgrounds to use, and there are hundreds of educational apps that make learning more accessible and interactive. Furthermore, iPads can eliminate the need for textbooks, promoting sustainability and lessening the strain on students’ backs from carrying around pounds of books!

Interactive Whiteboards

Interactive whiteboards are becoming increasingly popular in both K-12 and college classroom environments. Combining, as the SMART board website states,  “the simplicity of a whiteboard with the power of a computer,” teachers can use these boards to show pictures, text and to write or draw charts and equations on the spot. Students can also use a remote control to select answers to multiple-choice questions, with an automatically generated bar graph showing how many students picked which answer.

Chromebooks

Chromebooks are in some ways an alternative to iPads, but in other a supplement to them. The advantage of Chromebooks, of course, is that they can be used alongside Google Apps for Education, which we wrote about here. Also, unlike the iPad, it comes with a keyboard (keyboards can be attached to iPads, but are usually used without). The Chromebook keyboard, also, is an advantage for older students needing to write longer papers and presentations.

Challenges Schools Face Incorporating Hardware

Implementing Technology

Bringing a new type of hardware into a school environment brings plenty of challenges. One of the biggest problems educators may face is ensuring that the devices are properly set up and ready for students and teachers. This involves not only networking the devices, but also ensuring proper firewalls and other security measures are in place.

Unprepared Teachers

The hardware options discussed here can be hugely beneficial to students’ learning and testing results, but only if used properly. If teachers are not instructed on the best usage of these technologies, it might actually inhibit students’ learning, not to mention frustrate the teachers. Make sure teachers are adequately trained and given plenty of examples of lesson plans that use whiteboards, iPads and other hardware in ways that make the best use of the hardware. New tools always require new training.

A New Frontier

Technology is changing the face of education, and the hardware used in classrooms shapes the unique way that students will benefit. Whether it’s a tablet, a netbook or an interactive whiteboard, the key is to make sure that both teachers and students are getting the most out of the experience. Be sure to look for local IT companies with good reviews to help you with all your security and installation needs.

submitted by http://blog.rddata.com/

Photo by US Department of Education

- See more at: http://blog.rddata.com/popular-education-hardware/#sthash.9rTs5zfT.dpuf

Customizable Themes in Google Forms? FINALLY!

Can we customize themes in Google Forms? Yes, it is finally here, the feature we have all been waiting for in Google's latest update.  By clicking on change theme, you will see the new themes that they have rolled out, or the ability to customize your own! If you do create your own them you can copy it to other forms. This will save so much time. There seemed to be a bit of a snag when trying to covert forms that were over a year old as they were not built using the newer form of forms.

Beware of Geeks Bearing Gifts (Online Workshop)

When you and I were growing up, the words Trojans, worms, viruses and spam had considerably different meanings than they do today. We took a pole and went out fishing, but today we encounter phishing expeditions and electronic bait trying to hook us. We are victimized by spyware, adware, and malware of all types. These electronic parasites can be sucking your personal data and affecting the performance of your computer. This online workshop will give you a better understanding of these dangers and introduce strategies on how you can deal with them.
 Audience: Workshop Code: OD15004
Dates:This is an Online Workshop - What does this mean?
 Cost: $29 OR 1 ETTC Hour(s).
For info on membership, call the ETTC.
Instructor: Robert Heinrich Location: On-line N/A
  Register

Meet the New Google Drive!

In case you have heard about the new Google drive, but still don't know why you cannot see it, you actually have to turn it on. You can do this in the settings area of drive.  Watch the included video to see the most recent updates to Drive.

BrainPOP brings us Concept Mapping

The concept mapping tool by BrainPOP, Make-A-Map

Introducing the Make-a-Map™ Concept Map Tool by BrainPOP – Powered by Ideaphora

Flash Cards in a Flash with Google Spreadsheets

Make Your Own Set of Flashcards using Google Sheets

1: Modify the Google Spreadsheet Template

• Copy this template into your Gmail or Google Apps account.
• Enter as many terms as you want.
• Name your set of flashcards by changing the name of the worksheet (at the bottom).
• (New Google Sheets users, use this template. Sign-in, File, Make a copy…)

2: Publish Your Spreadsheet

• Go to File, Publish to the Web…, then click Start publishing.
• Copy the link under Get a link to the published data.

3: Get Your Link

• Follow the instructions to get your Flippity.net link directly from the template.
• Or paste the link you copied in the box below and click Go:

4: Share 

• Share the  link with anyone you want to view your flashcards.

Tell a Story With Impact using Adobe Voice

Adobe's free iPad app called Adobe Voice allows students to create animated videos using a series of slides. With a selection of over 25,000 images, this impactful app offers background and transition options as part of its cinematic motion. It is user friendly and starts with a tutorial for how the app works. Students can create their own template or select from nine pre-made templates called "structures" and use the available photo and music library. They may also upload their own photos, add text to the slide formats and narrate each slide with their own recorded audio. The app will automatically auto adjust the slide timing to fit the narration.   To share their work, students can email a link to their presentation or grab the embed code to plug it into their own digital portfolios.

Randomize Answer Options in Google Forms

Google forms now allows you to randomize answer options for Multiple Choice, Checkboxes, Choose from a list and Grids.  
Simply use the advanced settings drop down to shuffle your option order.

Formative Assessment With Zondle

Mrs Brown of St. Mary's Memorial High School shared her love of  Zondle as an assessment tool, "I am sure a lot of you have been been using Zondle already  but if you haven't checked it out I definitely suggest you do!   In general, you create review questions on the website and the site turns it into games for students to play on computers, tablets and smartphones. You can also set it up to play review games as a whole class. Students get points for getting questions correct and playing often.  Their current "place" is put on the leaderboard so it is like a competition for the students.  A lot of my students are just as obsessed with using zondle as I am.  Go to www.zondle.com and start playing around with it if you have time. Students can play again and again if you set the quiz as formative assessment, so its great for any memorization. You can see if their scores are improving each time and which questions they miss most. It also makes students answer questions they miss over again until they get it right. Yes, you can also use quizzes other teachers made. Also, if you want to take a grade on a quiz you can set it as summative assessment too so they can only play it once."

Programming the Future With STEM

  What do you get when you cross an adorable, programmable robot with a group of tech-savvy high school students? Self-directed elementary students with an interest in basic programming!  Teachers Adam Swift and Lynne Kesselman advanced Egg Harbor Township Schools’ STEM initiative goals with their Finch Robotics grant, which included bringing their high-schoolers into the district’s 1st through 8th Grade elementary computer classrooms to teach the younger students how to program the sturdy creature to follow their commands.  Common Core standard ties included problem solving, positive and negative number recognition and number lines, inverse operations, units of measurement, cause and effect, and conditional statements. The high school students were given the fortunate opportunity to practice their leadership and programming skills in a supportive environment.

Some advance work was completed by all students by participating in the STEM Hour of Code program during Computer Science Education Week in December. The young learners were able to draw upon their earlier experiences with Scratch programming when Kesselman and Swift’s students taught a similar program, Snap, to make Finch come alive. This STEM activity was more memorable and active because they could watch an actual robot respond to their on screen commands in a physical environment. Students manipulated the robot’s operation using the JAVA programming language to engage motors, light sensors, infrared sensors, temperature sensors, accelerometers, and speakers.

 It was gratifying to see seven and eight year old students learn the first few programming commands  from their fifteen to seventeen year old  instructors, then direct learning themselves by taking over the display computer and modeling the next programming tasks.  Swift and Kesselman were true "Guides on the side" as all activities were student-based and student-led.  

Egg Harbor Township High School Students
directing the programming process.

For more information on the Finch visit http://www.finchrobot.com/. 

Subtweeting, Avoiding Confrontation, and Disciplinary Action

Teens know how to negotiate social media to get their point across and avoid outright confrontations through the art of the subtweet. The hashtag #subtweet reveals  passive aggressive posts with real targets. The biggest celebrity names subtweet their heartaches, hates and frustrations and our students are using the subtweet as well as the most popular twitterers. Many opt out of the hashtag and just post subtweet-like comments on their twitter feed to fly even further under the radar.  Comparable to the slambooks of the 80's, students use subtweeting to make a point about someone in particular or to draw attention to themselves for a particular purpose.  Using subtweets allows students to avoid disciplinary actions, because they do not name names directly.

Subtweeting from Devils Advocate on Vimeo.

SRI & ETTC Offers Teachers a Lesson in Social Media Uses, Pitfalls

Post by SRI & ETTC at The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey.

Who we follow on Twitter

10 years ago today, a bouncing baby rover landed on Mars. Explore Oppy's "90-day" mission https://t.co/7WZYIVyBvT #10YrsOnMars

— Spirit and Oppy (@MarsRovers) January 24, 2014

Win a FREE workshop at the SRI & ETTC

We are running a facebook "Like" campaign, to win a free workshop, like us on facebook and share one of our posts on your wall. We will announce the winner here on our blog and on our facebook page. 

Best Science Fair Resources 2014

Science fair help has never been closer, with these four websites, your students can enroll in challenges and competitions as well as access organized science resources to meet their objectives.  Siemens Science Day Learn by Doing offers monthly activity themes and experiments listed by difficulty level and a chance to win an interactive science assembly.

3M’s 2014 Young Scientist Challenge is “The nation’s premier science competition for grades 5-8” requiring new innovations or solutions that could solve or impact an everyday problem that directly affects student, their families, their communities, and/or the global population.

Discovery Education partners with Elmer’s to offer a Science Fair Central with projects, presentations and a leveled idea finder to assist students in finding their science fair investigative passion.

 The Science of Everyday Life sponsored by Discovery Education and 3M makes accessible the science of everyday life to make meaningful connections. Student explore the science around them with games, families  can find learning activities to try at home,  teachers have standards-based lesson plans and videos, and in Innovation Headquarters, innovators explore virtual labs.

Using Edmodo to Collect Data for Science Fair Projects

Middle school teachers battling with science fair projects and the collection of real data have many resources at their disposal.  Students can create surveymonkeys, polldaddys or Google forms to collect data.  The problem lies not in the creation of the collection tool, but in the dissemination of the actual surveys to a participating audience.  Here is an example of a science teacher from Virginia reaching out to his professional learning community in edmodo to assist his student in her objective. This plea will garner many responses, beyond what the student needs, because teachers love to help one another. As a result of Mr. Bearman's post, there will be teachers who will use this link for their own students to complete in science classrooms across the globe. This student will have more responses than she could have ever dreamed of and will be able to find correlations for her research based on a huge sample size.  If you want to add your own response to her project use this link and complete the survey yourself!