Pilkerriffic!Musings, ideas, and juicy links from a DEN STAR and MD LC member…

I often use free choice time as an incentive for my students.  After they have finished their work to the best of their abilities, I allow them to choose from a selection of pre-approved educational games and/or typing practice.  A few times a year, such as the week before Christmas and the last week of school, I allow them to play games on the internet.  Most students are quite satisfied to play Poptropica, Webkinz, or something innocuous like a puzzle game such as Bloxorz, but sometimes they venture off into the world of Game Sites.

By Game Sites i mean those such as Addicting Games, MiniClip, and POG.  While there are many fun games here, there are also many problems.  I have found Addicting Games especially bad for pop-ups and viruses.  And just the other day, I noticed a group of boys huddled around one monitor giggling.  I went to investigate and this is what I found them playing:

It’s called Bartender: The Right Mix.  You mix various drinks and then feed your creation to the bartender to see if he vomits.

Come on, Game Site Owners.  It’s one thing to have silly games like Potty Racer, where kids can trick out and race modified porta-johns, but this is straight up teaching kids how to mix alcoholic beverages!!!  We need to draw the line somewhere.

I had a discussion with my students about why this game is inappropriate for them to play, and they get it.  I just wish these game designers didn’t make my job quite so difficult.

On Saturday I attended (and presented at!) the Powering Up With Technology conference, Prince George County Maryland’s annual conference promoting Technology in Education.

It was, as in years before, a wonderful event- well planned and organized, and immensely helpful for teachers, with tons of sessions designed to help all teachers integrate technology, from the novice to the expert.

This was my first time officially presenting, and, I’m hooked!  I was very nervous, but once my sessions got started everything went fine.  We had some technical difficulties, which I’ll mention later, but nothing major.  It also helped that I had a co-presenter (Yay, Mary!) so I didn’t feel so “on the spot” and alone.  Now I can’t wait for my next chance to present!  I’m already working on revamping the presentations I did and submitting them to the Maryland Society for Educational Technology annual conference.

What I Learned:

1. If you’re nervous about presenting for the first time, just do it!  You will feel better afterwards and be glad you did.

2. Co-present if possible.  That way, if there are technical difficulties, one can talk while the other fixes.

3. Check out the space ahead of time, if possible.  When we got into our room, we found that the projector remote was missing, so I had to climb up on a table to turn it on.  Also, the wires coming out of the wall were hanging open!  one of us had to hold the wire in place (and pray that we didn’t get electrocuted) while the other person talked!

4. Find out about the wi-fi/network situation ahead of time, if possible.  We were trying to present a workshop on Virtual Worlds, and the port to allow us access was blocked!  Luckily, Mary had an Animoto video and several screenshots, but it would have been nice to let the participants see the actual game live.

Finally, instead of handouts, I loved that the Conference Website had a Resources page, where attendees could download all the resources even after they got home.

A fun experience!  Can’t wait to do it again!

I’m back at school after camping with the 8th graders.  We had a great time!  The students learned a lot about teamwork, and the 4 c’s:

• Communication
• Cooperation
• Commitment
• Caring

I think times like this are important for students and teachers alike.  It gives us a break from the routine, but challenges us in a different way.  For example, the challenge I faced this trip was the High Ropes course.  I have gone to Black Rock Retreat with the students at least 6 times, but never had the chance to try the ropes course.  So I practically begged the staff to let me do at least one element, and I did the Zipline.

Here I am climbing up the pole- it was about 35-40 feet tall.

and here I am enjoying the ride (after screaming my head off)

It is tough to get back in the groove after such a nice time away.  It almost makes me want to go back to camp! allllmossst…

So, to avoid stress, I am taking a break from blogging this week while I catch up on my to-do list back here at school and home.

See you next Monday!

Our middle school students go every year, for three days and two nights, to Black Rock Retreat in PA.  It is a wonderful place, and I enjoy going there for the beautiful surroundings and the chance to see my students in a different light.  We do “team building” type activities, have devotions, take on the high ropes course (I want to do it too!), and just have fun.

So, here are the top 5 things I have learned to bring:

1. 1. Layers of clothing!  Camping with 28 8th graders in October can be an adventure, and you never know what the weather will bring.  I bring short sleeves, long sleeves, a sweatshirt, thermals, and jeans, and mix, match, and sometimes during a night hike, wear every piece of clothing all at once if it gets really cold.
2. 2. A PILLOW!  I tried for the past few years to go all “scouty” and just roll up my sweatshirt for a pillow but this year I am bringing a REAL pillow.  I just never wanted to get it dirty or have too much to carry, but oh, well.
3. 3. Bug spray.  For some reason, I am particularly tasty to bugs.
4. 4. A good flashlight, and extra batteries.  For when one of my big, strong, scared-of-nothing students gets scared of the dark.
5. 5. A sense of adventure.  I go with the flow.  I don’t miss my computer (at least not too much).  I revel in the beauty of nature, gobble down “camp food,” and participate in everything, no matter how messy or potentially embarrassing.  Like that time 2 years ago when I very badly attempted to climb the rock wall.  It was not pretty.
   

Dear Cybersmart,Thank you for being you.  You are such an amazing resource!  Lessons that are interesting, varied, relevant, easy to implement, and more.  I am glad I can rely on you to help my students learn just about everything they need to learn about Internet Safety.  (And I learn a lot from you, too!)

In my computer lab, we use a thin client system.  I have 30 total workstations, but only 9 computers in the room.  The teacher workstation is standalone, as is the print server, but the other 28 monitors are shared 4 to a computer.  We achieve this using NComputing boxes.  They look like little hubs, and attach to each monitor, connecting it to a special network card in the controlling computer.

Image credit: http://www.zdnet.co.uk/i/z5/rv/2008/02/ncomputing_x300_1_432x315.jpg

There are many benefits to using this system.  First of all, I love the way they save space.  No big bulky towers all over the place.  Second, there is energy savings – much cheaper to power 9 computers than 30!  Obviously, there is hardware savings – again, only purchasing 9 computers vs. 30, and replacement costs are kept down as upgrades are needed.  I also like the fact that if I have any software installs or system changes to make, I can get it done a lot faster.  It’s a giant pain to install software on an ENTIRE LAB of computers one…at…a…time.

However, I’ve recently come upon some drawbacks.  When one student workstation freezes (because the student has opened 25 instances of Microsoft Word because they kept clicking and clicking instead of waiting patiently for it to open! @#$!) they all freeze.  And it takes a while for them to recover.  Longer than 20 Kindergarteners want it to.

But the most annoying problem is the fact that when students log into online accounts, their workstations get all confused and they end up either a) Unable to log in, or b) Inadvertently switching between accounts of those seated at their shared thin clients.  This is a major problem, because I use a lot of web 2.0 tools where students have to log in to an account.

So here is what I did to fix it.  I installed 4 different browsers on each station.  Chrome (my personal favorite, and yes, its by Google), Safari, Internet Explorer, and Mozilla Firefox.  I labeled each monitor with one of those four browsers so each computer has one monitor for each browser.  Then, when the students log into their accounts, they won’t have login issues as long as they are all on different browsers.

Too complicated? Maybe.  Does anyone know of a better way to solve this problem?  If so, I’d love to hear it!

1. I am an avid Google fan.  For my money (um, none) it is the simplest, easiest, and most effective search engine.  Have you ever tried, however, Google’s Advanced Search?  It lets you choose what words to exclude from your search and customize the results.  Another fun tool is Google’s Custom Search, which lets you name your own search engine, tell it what sites to search, and customize the look and feel.  This might be useful for teachers who want their students to stick to a few trusted sites for searching.

2. Wolfram Alpha- It is different from traditional search engines because instead of searching for web pages that might have the answer to your question, it actually ANSWERS your question.  This works best with mathematical queries, for example, a search for “population of china” results in a simple one page answer containing the current population right at the top of the page, a graph of recent and long term population history, and related demographical data.  There is also a great page available for teachers with ways to use W/A in the classroom.

3. Bing.  I hate Bing.  I don’t know why, I just find the results are geared towards selling me something instead of helping me answer my query.  But one thing I do like about Bing is it’s Price Predictor.  Anytime I need to purchase airplane tickets, I check Bing to see if the fares are expected to rise, fall, or hold steady (they measure this based on recent price trends).  I’ve gotten some great deals this way.

4. Delicious- Since I use Delicious to keep track of all my bookmarks (although I’ve started dabbling in Google Bookmarks as well) I like searching its database for other sites that have tags similar to what I have tagged.  A “tag” is a keyword that describes what a website is about, and is, at least on Delicious, user-defined.

5. Google Fast Flip - I know, another Google thing.  You’d think I work for them or something.  Hey, Google!  You hiring?  :)  But seriously, really, are you hiring? what I like about FastFlip is the visual aspect.  You type in a topic, and it shows you results as “front pages” of a newspaper.  My students find it easier to find current events this way, as opposed to a plain web search.

For the next few weeks, I will use the Friday Game-Related posts to chronicle the introduction of Quest Atlantis to my 5th grade Computer class.

QA is an online learning adventure game created by the Indiana University’s Center for Research on Learning and Technology.  They promote the concept of Transformational Play, or how learning through play can strengthen learning connections and make the learning experience more fun, enriching, and authentic.  Within the 3d world, students become researchers, historians, doctors, mathematicians, and so much more.  This is not just a game, this is a research-supported learning environment.

One of my favorite things about QA so far is the amazing Teacher Training they offer.  First of all, teachers must apply and be approved in order to enter their classes into the 3d world.  Then, teachers go through a mandatory 4 week training process.  I found this to be SO valuable!  They really take the time to make sure you understand every facet of the game before sharing it with your students.

They also have a set of guidelines to follow, the I-BURST rules, which I am introducing to my students today.  Good rules to follow in many different situations.

Also today, I am reviewing the Social Commitments the game is based on with my students.  It is my hope that these commitments will carry through into their real lives as well.

Well, I will keep you informed of our progress!  So far we are very excited and can’t wait to get started!

So, on Wednesdays I usually talk about a website I use, and on Thursdays I discuss tech integration ideas.  So today here’s both:

Microsoft Office has a website with lesson plans on various subjects, from Geography to Phys.Ed!  Since I teach students the Office Suite, these lessons come in very handy.

I check with the classroom teachers to find out what subjects are coming up in the general classroom, and hand-pick lessons from the Microsoft website to go along with those topics.  Why reinvent the wheel when you don’t have to!