Education and Technology

It’s been almost a year since we got our first 18 ActivBoards. In that time 50 more ActivBoards have been installed, making it one in every classroom. We’ve had the expected growing pains, but also a great leap in teacher and student interactive learning. As I wander the halls on my way to fix some technology I see every class using their ActivBoard in some way.

We are now into intermediate training on integrating other technology and lessons into the ActivClassroom. The latest ActivTechnology training class that our teachers have been working on is integrating streaming video into a flipchart lesson. I like using gadgets in lessons because I see the students as gadget lovers. The students are already using digital technology, iPods, xBox, play stations, computers and the internet so why not use what they use and like to teach them?

I see them more involved in the classroom, but we also need to watch that we don’t just use the ActivBoards as a replacement for the whiteboard. The key word here is INVOLVED. Students need to be involved in the class, interact with the ActivBoard, not just answer questions or read to ActivBoard. All the items that I mentioned above that students use like the iPod are interactive, which is why they like them. I wouldn’t want to just sit and listen to a lecture anymore than a child likes to.

• I want to interact
• I want to have fun
• I want to learn without feeling it’s a chore

Don’t you think our children are the same way?

We have received ActiVotes for the classrooms, which will increase the student interaction. I can’t wait to see the students faces when they get to use the ActiVotes, (I call them eggs because that’s what they look like).

• Congratulations to Tes Powell for passing her National Board Certification!
• Lastly, I’ve been having a ball getting 165 new HP Short Form desktops ready for deployment into our classrooms. I know the students and teachers will see the difference between these computers and the ones that I will be replacing. This is another step toward an advanced, up to date ActivClassroom.

Technorati tags: Promethean, ActivBoard, K-12 Education

Do you use the theory of least-privileged user account (LUA) with your teachers?

While I believe in the theory, I’ve also found that if you use it in an educational setting with the teachers that you increase your workload. I have had to only remove 3 virus/malware infections in the last 3 years on a user base of over 500 computers at my school. All the infections have been on teacher laptops from downloads or internet usage. The student computers, both laptops and desktops are locked down using LUA, so I haven’t had a problem with them.

The teachers need autonomy to use or try different programs to teach their students. The teachers are given administrator rights on their laptops and are given full access to the laptop hard drive. They have their own Home folder on a network server to save important data like grades and documents. I only ask a few things from the teachers….

1. If you are going to install a program let me know ahead of time to see how it installs and if it conflicts with any district applications.
2. Do not install any other anti-spyware, anti-virus software.
3. Do not install anything from Google. I install Google Earth as a default in the image for the teacher laptops.
4. No Instant Messaging software.
5. Do not click on any dialogs for updates to Flash, Adobe Reader, Java or anything else unless I’ve sent an email.
6. No AOL.

Pretty basic, common sense requests. The teachers know that if they do not follow these basic requests and their laptops is not reparable to a previous state within a minimum amount of time that I will have to image it to a pristine state. Also, I am not responsible if they lose any data that they have not saved or that I cannot find in normal locations on their hard drives. A disclaimer here: I do my best to get every bit of data from a teachers laptop even though I state that I am not responsible for any lost data.

I believe in treating the teachers with respect, letting them do what they do best…teach our children. If you do, they actually come to you for help, ask questions and respect you in return. It makes my job much easier.

Technorati tags: Educational Technology, K-12 Education

Dave Pogue of the NY Times has an interesting review of the $100 dollar laptop program.

Technorati tags: k12 Education, Educational Technology, One Laptop per Child

I’ve been working on this post for a month with a teacher at my school. Together we’ve started a blog for his 5th grade class (click here).  The idea is to engage the students on the computer in a way that gets them interested in their work, while teaching them how to communicate. We also want to get the parents involved with their children together outside the classroom in an environment that the kids feel comfortable. The blog has been up for two days and in that time the students have already started asking questions about assignments with over 25 comments.

The blog consists of the main entrance page that contains the Upcoming Events post, pages that contain weekly class Lesson Plans in Math & Science, a Homework page and an Online Resource page.

• The Upcoming Events post is static, sort of; Keith will change it depending on events as they change each month. We decided that instead of making new posts, then having the posts scroll down as in a typical blog, that Keith would just write the upcoming events in the text editor and save the update. He will also change the time stamp to reflect the new age of the post.
• The weekly Lesson Plans are short basic overviews on what the students are doing that week, if there is a test and what is expected. It is not a detailed lesson plan, but something that gives a parent an idea about what their child is working on.
• The Homework page gives the students a homework assignment due later in the week. The student can ask questions by using the comments section of the page. The comments are moderated by Keith so that nothing inappropriate gets on the blog.
• The Online Resources page will change, be added to as time goes on and Keith finds sites that he wants his students and Parents to visit.

The Blogroll has basic links to our school page, the county school page and eharcourtschools, which is one of our main math sites. As I mentioned above, the Pages have comments allowed so that the parents and students can communicate with Keith after hours when Keith is online at home. It is also a help to the parents that cannot contact Keith during the school day. They leave a comment and Keith can email them a personal reply or leave a comment of his own if appropriate.

I personally believe a blog is an easy method of communicating your class goals than maintaining a web site. The quickness of editing a post or page is much faster than using FrontPage, DreamWeaver or another HTML program. The manipulation of the pages is easier and you can add video, pictures and other multimedia much easier. Lastly, you can communicate in faster and better with your students and their parents.

Check out Keith’s blog: Mr. Thompson’s 5th Grade Class

Technorati tags: Educational Technology, k12 Education, Blogging, Elementary Education

I experienced some weird signal loss with a few of our ActivBoards that I could only reproduce on the teachers laptops that used those ActivBoards. I took my known good laptop with me to test the board to verify that it was the teachers laptop, not the ActivBoard. I also took the teachers laptop to another ActivBoard, which would then reproduce the error without fail. This led me to start looking at what was installed on the laptop for conflicts.

In each case, 8 total, the laptop either had the AOL client installed or a Google product that had installed the Google Updater. After removing or actually first disabling these programs, I found these laptops worked without any further trouble with any ActivBoard. I let the laptops run for a week with the updater or AOL disabled before I then re-enabled the offending software for a final proof of theory. Bingo, the systems started losing signal with the ActivBoards within an hour, sometimes within 30 seconds.

Our district does not condone the use of Google products such as Google Desktop or toolbar and does not support them, ditto for AOL. I personally consider the AOL client software a poor piece of programming that takes over your system without any regard to your wishes or what else is installed.

I’ll be warning teachers more often about Google and AOL so that I don’t have to make a service call that could have been avoided.

Technorati tags: Educational Technology, k12 Education, ActivBoard, Promethean, Google, AOL

This YouTube video has some interesting points that I talked about in my last post.

Pay Attention:

Technorati tags: Educational Technology, Technology, k12 Education