Sample Student feedback survey create in Google docs

Top ten reasons teachers don't like technology

10. Anytime central office rolls out some new software, the staff is not properly trained to use it

9. Teachers have a hard time keeping up with the latest and greatest.

8. Teachers aren't properly taught the benefits of using technology both in the classroom and out

7. Administration does not understand how the students are learning and therefore teachers are not rewarded or valued for using technology.

6. This stupid NCWise is a pain!

5. There are too many logins to remember

4. NCWise has turned into NCStupid

3. That Blackboard always deletes my account

2. The one or two people who know about technology are teaching a full load and really don't have time to teach me how to use technology properly.

1. The kids know more about this than I do

Preparing for our new server this summer

Getting ready for the Server reimage

Everyone should do the following:

1.      Back up your data from your network login, the H: drive, to a 2 gigabyte or greater flash drive or a DVD.  If you have a question about how to do this, see me.  For example, my login is under H:\edeadmon.

2.      Locate all the software you want reinstalled on your PC (e.g. personal printers etc) and put it in an interoffice envelope with your name, room number and titles.   Give this to me by June 9 so I can have it ready for the installers.

3.      Any desktop computers you have in your room need to have a paper attached to the screen indicating any printer you want reinstalled or any software you want reinstalled (e.g. Lanschool with the channel number).  Printer names can be found by opening MS Word, going to File\print and in the pull down window at the top where it says Printer Name, make note of any printers you see in this pull down.  You only have to do this on one computer to find the names.

4.      If you have a laptop, make sure you backup your data and return it to me by June 10^th.

5.      All laptops and their power cords, including administrators’ laptops, need to be turned in to me so I can tag them and inventory them.

Thanks for your help.  If we can do all this, I think the fall will start with less problems.  Ed

100 Ways to use social media in the classroom

Can you think of some ways to use social media to teach?

Click on this link to give you some fresh idea's

A new site for students who struggle reading

Readthewords.com

Tips on Teaching teachers how to use technology

This is a real eye opener for me

Teaching Teachers how to teach with technology

Where does Social Networking go from here?

This is a must read if you are a skeptic of Facebook!
A Social Networking call to Arms

The tricks that Facebook is pulling right now are an example of where social networking should not go. Expect Google to turn the tables on Facebook in the near future and tie it's Google Buzz in with its Google Applications for Business and Education. Google's security is much improved in the last year and properly run the company should maintain its model of "do no harm" and move its worth even higher. As for Facebook, this could be the beginning of the end for them. If they don't address the issues of their 3rd party applications and stop messing with the privacy settings it will be lights out for them.

Stay tuned for more updates about Facebook's risks.

How to subscribe to this blog

The first thing you need to do is create a GMail account for yourself. It's pretty easy but may take a few minutes. Go to gmail and follow the directions. An easy username to remember is to use your WCPSS email ID and add wcpss behind it. For example I created one cdanehowerwcpss@gmail.com This is pretty easy to remember and then just use the same password. My WCPSS username is cdanehower.

Secondly, need to click on the link "Subscribe to this blog" at the top of this blog and choose Google Reader. Now sign in like you would to your GMail account and you are set.

Questions? Email me at coachd1athens@gmail.com

Video Vocabulary........if you have students who struggle with vocabulary perhaps this site may help

VocabAhead

Spring 2010 Exam Schedule in pdf

Spring 2010 Exam Schedule

Did you know (updated version sort of)...this is some scary stuff :)

Deadmon's Tech Tip of the Week-LAN Schools Software

Do you have more than one computer for student use in your classroom? Have you ever had a problem controlling what students did on-line when you weren't standing right behind them watching? Lanschool is the solution for you. Athens Drive has a site license for Lanschool, a tool for monitoring and controlling computers. You can limit websites students can visit, monitor their work from your desk and keep an eye on the where they go on the web. You can also take over their machines to display information and assist with your instruction.

If you think this would work for your classroom, please send me some email and I will have it installed on your computers. I already have a file of game sites I block which you can use to start.

edeadmon@wcpss.net

Freelancer survival skills

Just when you thought you knew all the ways to use your camera phone...

Making passwords easy to remember but hard for the crooks.

Ed Deadmon's Technology Tips

See the site below for some very useful technology tips
Athens Technology Tips

The post below is a way to use cell phones in your class to brainstorm

The website to set this up is
Wiffiti

Brainstorm: What is a database?

How do I subscribe to the feed of this blog?

The first think you need to do is create a GMail account for yourself. It's pretty easy but may take a few minutes. An easy username to remember is to use your WCPSS email ID and add wcpss behind it. For example I created one cdanehowerwcpss@gmail.com This is pretty easy to remember and then just use the same password. My WCPSS username is cdanehower.


Secondly, need to click on the link "Subscribe to this blog" at the top of this blog and choose Google Reader. Now sign in like you would to your GMail account and you are set.

Questions? Email me at coachd1athens@gmail.com

Rumor has it that....

The "word" on the street is that WCPSS, is considering using Google at least for some of its essential business needs such as archiving. This could lead to some wholesale changes in the way the school system does business. Stay tuned.........

Some estimates are that this could save up to $750,000 per year while offering more services. This would involve moving staff around to utilize them in other IT area's such as school support. That obviously would be good for the schools.

Oregon Public schools adopt Google Apps for Education...estimated to save 1.5 million per year

and that is only the beginning. To find out more read the following blog post by Chris Dawson

Oregon DOE and Google partner up to offer Google Apps for Education

What do you think about this development?

Build a tower, build a team...collaboration

Why blogging and twitter are important to learning

The link below provides some interesting thoughts on why we should be using social media to teach our students how to communicate in the 21st Century.

Blogs should promote not stunt growth and communication

What do you think?

MGS review from Staff Development on April 21, 2010

Mandatory Guided Study PowerPoint

Where is education going with all of these cuts?

Never confuse motion with progress, a rocking horse keeps moving but does not go anywhere. We have to keep moving forward. Finding out ways to integrate technology in the our classroom curriculum without the proper funding.

The good news is that we have access to free software online. Check out the Google Applications and see how we can use these mostly free tools to teach our students how to learn and communicate in the 21st Century.

More later..

Why we should listen to our students.......This twelve year old has some suggestions

Why teens are texting so much what can we do about it

Read this article and see what you thing. My thoughts are posted below

Many teens send 100 plus text messages per day

So if our teens are texting a lot and only making 5 phone calls per day, then how can we vary our teaching methods to take advantage of this paradigm? Think about how efficient some of these students are at texting. More than likely they are better at texting than they are taking notes. How do they do it? They use short hand, yes that's right use some of the same principles the old business teacher taught what seems like eons ago. I have a poster in my room called the "Text Message Glossary". Ask your students how why they think texting is more efficient than talking on the phone.

Help spread the word that Blogging is a fun and easy way to exchange info....

Welcome to the 21st Century. Today's post will feature why blogging is quickly becoming a way to share idea's among teaching communities.

We can create blogging communities of teachers who teach similar subjects. We can create blogging communities of teachers who want to share and collaborate with others about teaching strategies and other useful ideas in the classroom. What's even better that these are archived and searchable.

How can you learn to blog. It's actually pretty easy to get started. As you go along you will become more comfortable with blogger or WordPress and actually look forward to learning this way. I will post some links but the first thing you should do is create a G mail account. Why G mail..Well it is without a doubt the top email system in the world and one you log into your G mail account, you have access to hundreds of things without having to remember yet another username and password.

So why are they putting in traffic circles at NC State?

Blackboard Outage this weekend!!

The WCPSS Blackboard application will be unavailable beginning Friday, April 23rd at 8pm through Saturday, April 24th at 5pm while required system maintenance is performed. While we do not anticipate any data loss, please remember to archive your course(s) so that a backup will be available if needed. View instructions for archiving your course.

  http://bbsupport.wcpss.net/instructor/bb-course-archive.pdf

Deadmon's Tech Tip of the Week

If you need to report a problem, use the on-line version of the Helpdesk form. You can find this by going to the shared folder and looking for the Helpdesk folder, or you can click on the Technology Tips link below and look in the Help Documents. Filling out the form and submitting it as an attachment to your email will allow me to process it faster and documents your request. If it is PC affecting, please remember to include the model and serial number. I can then send you back email when I submit your ticket. Our support tech is here Tuesday, Thursday and every other Friday.

We have a wireless cart which can be checked out for your use. Just click on the Wireless cart link in this email and it will take you to a Google calendar. When you find a free day you would like to use the cart, send email and I will update the calendar. I will then send you back email telling you it is yours. All you need to do after that is come down and get the cart.

I hope this helps you. Please let me know if there is anything you would like to see me put on my Technology Tips page. Ed

Edward Deadmon MA, CCNA, MCSE

Wireless cart calendar

Technology Tips

Linked Data on the Web. A relevent look at statistics

What can adults learn from kids? This kid is amazing!!

Cutting technology is a bad move...extra duty well you can make your own judegment

Well WCPSS got the cutting board out and are looking to carve out some Extra Duty pay, technology, communications out of the budget. Next they are going to ask us to pay for using the internet.....

So I know what you are saying...poor coaches they don't do anything anyway. Well WCPSS coaches and other extra duty workers are already among the lowest paid in the state. For example a coach in Johnston county with the same experience as I have would already make about $1100 more. That's pretty bad. I am sure it is that way across the board.....

Ok...I hate to say it but....Aunt Bev failed to get a federal grant

I really hate to say I told you so...but I actually think in this case that my prediction that Tennessee has passed North Carolina by in education may be coming true. I knew we were in trouble when Governor Purdue, June Atkinson and Bill McNeal pinned our hopes to a laptop and a PowerPoint.   Read below....

NC Misses out on "Race to the Top" grant.

Revised Blooms and new media

So...what does a 21st Century Classroom look like?

http://theinnovativeeducator.blogspot.com/2010/02/what-might-21st-century-literacy-class.html

This article points out some points about exactly what a 21st Century classroom might look like. What are your thoughts?

100 Video Sites Every Educator Should Bookmark

http://theinnovativeeducator.blogspot.com/2010/02/100-video-sites-every-educator-should.html

You don't have to use all of these, just choose 1 or 2 and see how you might be able to use them to enhance your learning environment.

Convert PowerPoint Presentation into format for I-Touch or I-Phone

This is a cool tool to show your students. They could load all of your PowerPoint presentations into their Apple products

How NOT to use a PowerPoint

This is pretty funny, but true

Are you a left brain thinker or a right brain thinker?

Take this survey and find out

Promote student learning with "Pencasting"

Promote Student Passions with Pencasting! from Ted 21C on Vimeo.

Digital Blooms for 21st Century learning and collaboration

Blooms Visual New Media 2

Who is Tim Berners-Lee?

Tim Berners-Lee inventor of the World Wide Web (no it wasn't Al)

Tim Berners-Lee: The year open data went worldwide | Video on TED.com

Tim Berners-Lee: The year open data went worldwide | Video on TED.com

Why should we teach student collaboration and technology?

Watch this TED video (5 min.) recently shot in New York to see why we should be teaching relevant skills to our students such as collaboration and technology.

How technology helped identify blocked roads in Haiti

Have your students create an animated character

Create a Voki

This would really be fun to bring a poem, play or political character to life and make a lesson relevant to the students. 

Don't be afraid....The students will figure out how to use them. 

Snoopy tells about today's special

Wild Bill tells it like it is...

Get a Voki now!

National Broadband Plan by the FCC

The National Broadband plan announced by the FCC yesterday calls for the United States broadband internet connections to download 100 mbps. The current average speed right now is 3.9 mbps.

How will this effect education? It will make affordable broadband internet available to people in rural area's and the socioeconomically disadvantages students for low price. The plan calls for increased competition in services offered and increase infrastructure priorities from the private sector.

more later....

Perhaps it's time for a paradigm shift in teaching??

So exclaims my 7-year old, running into the kitchen, eyes bright at the prospect of getting his older brother in trouble. His face fell as I asked why it was a problem for him to be looking up the answers to his history homework on the Internet. As I explained that it was OK to search for answers to questions on the Web, he walked dejectedly back to my laptop and harvested some more crops in Farmville. Clearly, the little guy was missing the point of the World Wide Web.

As I went about my business in the kitchen, I couldn’t help but feel sad (and completely upset with myself as the technology director of his school district) that somewhere along the way he got the impression that Googling was somehow equivalent to cheating. Obviously, there are things that we should all be able to do without consulting the search engine of our choice. I want kids to not only know how to differentiate a function, but understand what those derivatives mean, both in terms of mathematical models and real-world situations. That sort of understanding comes from good teachers, good textbooks, and some actual practice by hand (as well as with a graphing calculator and any number of java applets for visualization); Yahoo! won’t get you there.

Same goes for being able to write and communicate effectively. Googling “essays on Hamlet” and then using essays someone else wrote instead of interpreting the play and laying out their thoughts in clear, concise prose is cheating.

I want students to be able to easily manipulate fractions and have a pretty good sense of what it means to have an 1/8th of a tank of gas or why cutting our state sales tax in half would need to be balanced by revenue increases elsewhere. These are not skills with which Bing can help.

However, why should our kids be asked to dig through pages of dead-tree textbooks for answers to questions that have been indexed, crawled, and organized so handily by search engines? Why is it less valid to Google “Major battles in California during the Mexican-American war” than to flip through pages looking for the paragraph that describes the Battle of Monterey or the Battle of Santa Clara? Savvy use of the Internet should allow students to quickly access facts and information and get on to the important questions that tap their higher-order thinking skills: What parallels can be drawn between the Mexican-American War and modern Israeli settlements in disputed areas of the Middle East? How do cultural divisions seen during the Mexican-American War still play out today in US immigration policy?

I don’t care if my kids don’t remember who Zachary Taylor or Stephen Kearny were. They can Google it if they ever really need to know. I care if they understand the sort of stage that events in American history have set for their modern lives. I care if they can make connections between the evolution of our country and where we might be headed. I care if they understand the broader issues of American politics and the historical and cultural contexts that brought us to a point where healthcare reform has already passed in their home state of Massachusetts, but remains locked in a stalemate in Congress. I care if they understand these issues well enough to make their own judgments. They can’t Google critical thought.

My time (both as a parent and educator) needs to be spent ensuring that kids are immersed in an environment that fosters critical and higher-order thinking skills. It also needs to spent teaching those same kids to use the vast stores of data online effectively and sort the figurative wheat from the chaff of Internet search. These skills will serve them much better than the ability to flip pages skimming for bold print, wasting time digging up factoids that are a few keystrokes away.

Who is Chris Dawson?

It's a Voki

Communication and Collaboration (Animation)

Removing Verses from our ED. Reform language

The below link is an example of exactly what is going on in our school district and state right now. If we continue thinking the way we are thinking our education system will fall down before us and as a result our students will not be competitive globally.

Removing Verses from our ED. Reform language

National Educational Technology Plan part 2 (Enter Microsoft)

National Educational Technology Plan part 2 (Enter Microsoft)

Get a Voki now!

So...how do you know you are effectively teaching students how to use technology?

So...how do you know you are effectively teaching students to use technology?

When you actually see them using it without you instructing to do so. This semester, I have noticed some at risk students learn how to use email to communicate with me about issues they don't feel comfortable bringing up in front of the entire class.

Today I was proud when I saw an advanced student using her Google Reader that we only briefly covered...it really makes me smile :)

How do you feel when a student instinctively uses something you taught them?

Why should we teach students to blog

This is a good video about students blogging and why they need to learn this skill

Transforming American Education: Learning Powered by Technology

National Educational Technology  Plan (Part 1)

This is powerful stuff coming straight from our government...let's just hope we can make it happen


Learning

• “Leverages the power of technology to provide personalized learning instead of a one-size-fits-all curriculum, pace of teaching, and instructional practices”
• “Whether the domain is English language arts, mathematics, sciences, social studies, history, art, or music, 21st century competencies and expertise such as critical thinking, complex problem solving, collaboration, and multimedia communication should be woven into all content areas.”

Assessment

• “Technology-based assessments can provide data to drive decisions on the basis of what is best for each and every student and that in aggregate will lead to continuous improvement across our entire education system.”
• “For this to work, relevant data must be made available to the right people at the right time and in the right form. Educators and leaders at all levels of our education system also must be provided with support – tools and training – that can help them manage the assessment process, analyze data, and take appropriate action.”

Teaching

• “Teams of connected educators replace solo practitioners and classrooms are fully connected to provide educators with 24/7 access to data and analytic tools as well as to resources that help them act on the insights the data provide.”
• “Episodic and ineffective professional development is replaced by professional learning that is collaborative, coherent, and continuous and that blends more effective in-person courses and workshops with the expanded opportunities, immediacy, and convenience enabled by online environments full of resources and opportunities for collaboration.”

Infrastructure

• “Infrastructure includes people, processes, learning resources, policies, and sustainable models for continuous improvement in addition to broadband connectivity, servers, software, management systems, and administration tools.”
• “Our model of an infrastructure for learning is always on, available to students, educators, and administrators regardless of their location or the time of day. It supports not just access to information, but access to people and participation in online learning communities. It offers a platform on which developers can build and tailor applications.”

Productivity

• “Tight economic times and basic fiscal responsibility demand that we get more out of each dollar we spend. We must leverage technology to plan, manage, monitor, and report spending to provide decision-makers with a reliable, accurate, and complete view of the financial performance of our education system at all levels. Such visibility is essential to meeting our goals for educational attainment within the budgets we can afford.”
• “The last decade has seen the emergence of some radically redesigned schools, demonstrating the range of possibilities for structuring education. These include schools that organize around competence rather than seat time and others that enable more flexible scheduling that fits students’ individual needs rather than traditional academic periods and lockstep curriculum pacing. In addition, schools are beginning to incorporate online learning, which gives us the opportunity to extend the learning day, week, or year.” 

British Library to offer free ebook downloads

Imagine what this could do for some young readers

How E-Books will change reading and writing (NPR)

Reading and Writing

How does Google Search Work?

Google Docs in plain English

Laptop Chart Calendar by Ed Deadmon

View Laptop Chart Calendar

Pay attention..how do your students learn......

Don't think technology can teach....watch the video below and you will see...

A relevant way to remember the Presidents of the United States. Still not convienced..think about what these students learned from actually making this video.

How does texting effect formal writing?

Why we should be teaching proper social network in our schools

Read this blog post about social networking in our schools.

Education is changing quickly Worldwide. The United States as a whole is far behind most developed nations in education and we are falling further behind everyday. Social network is not a fad, it's not something that is going away. Instead it is evolving right before our eyes. If you have ever seen the movie "You've got Mail" that was the beginning of social networking as we know if today. If you have not seen this movie you should.

We have to apply the same principles of social networking to our education enviornment. We actually needed to do that yesterday. I recently wrote a letter to the k-12 eduction legislative committee in North Carolina and got a few responses. We have to wake up and at least smell the coffee, right now the coffee is still in the field and not even in the package yet. Once we get the coffee in the package, they we might get a sniff of how social networking might be beneficial to education.

If you want to veiw a copy of the letter I send the NC Legislature, click on the link below......
Letter to NC Legislature about Technology Integration into schools

 

Using I-Tunes to teach fiction writing

click on the link below and open up the world of I-Tunes

I-Tunes Start writing fiction

What banning cell phones teaches kids

In his post “I lost something very important to me” Will Richardson shares three important lessons that banning cells teaches kids. They are:

1-It teaches them that they don’t deserve to be empowered with technology the same way adults are.
2-Tools that adults use all the time in their everyday lives to communicate are not relevant to their own communication needs.
3-They can’t be trusted (or taught, for that matter) to use phones appropriately in school.
I recently had a cell phone enriched lesson plan shared with me (stay tuned, will be posted shortly) by a secondary teacher who is empowering students to harness the power of cell phones in their learning. And guess what happened when he did? They came up with their own list of appropriate use.

This is perhaps the best blog I have seen for Innovative teaching

100 ways to use video that teachers should adopt

Of course don't get too excited as expected WCPSS has block some of them!! (welcome to my world)

A cool webquest to expose your students to Taxes 101

I got wind of this webquest created by a teacher at Battle Ground High School in Washington State.

Will you get a refund or will you have to pay (the realities of working)

Top 100 VE- Learning Tools for 2009

Lisa Harts top Virtual e-learning tools 2009

Which one's are you using..which one do your students use...which one would your students benefit from using?

Bakers Dozen preview
1. Firefox plus extensions—web browser
2. delicious—social bookmarking tool
3. Google Reader—rss reader
4. Gmail–webmail
5. Skype—instant messenger
6. Google Calendar—online calendar
7. Google Docs—online office suite
8. Slideshare—presentation sharing tool
9. flickr—image hosting and sharing tool
10. Voicethread—collaborative slideshow tool
11. Wordpress—blogging tool
12. Audacity—audio/podcasting tool
13. YouTube—video hosting and sharing tool

What will it mean when the ebook comes before the regular print edition

I ran across this blog posting.....it brings up some valuable points about the many different uses of electronic books, textbooks and other electronic media. How can we adapt electronic textbooks to better serve different populations from Honors and AP to middle of the road students to the at risk students. Think in terms of how we could use this to scaffold our book for easier reading.

What will it mean when the ebook comes before the regular print edition

What is 1 to 1 computing and how does it help education

Ok, exactly what is one to one computing?

Read this blog post if you are wondering how we are going to be able to help the at risk students in the future. Acutally the future is now!!! How long will we wait before we take action?

One to 1 computing

MacMillan textbook company close to getting this e-textbook thing solved

Check this story out

A new revolutionary way to charge an electronic device

Using a Blackberry to read books?

Visit this online textbook organization created by the Californial General Assembly

Visit the website below and see how a "Flexbook" is working with online resources

C-12 online textbook collaboration

Could this be the next revolution in education?

Social Studies teacher resources

Wow while searching for online textbook resources I found some interesting sites on Social Studies

This may help your struggling students or maybe not

Ourcourts.org

The latest on e-textbooks and devices to deliver educational content

According to Businessweek, looks like Apples attempt at the IPad device to break open the textbook print model for education will potentially pay off huge dividends. Read the link below to get more information

Apple Tablet + McGraw-Hill: Now we're talking

Apple in talks with McGraw-Hill, Hachette over Tablet

Wiki's in plain english....learn how a wiki works and what it can be used for

Newton's three laws of motion

This is a good unit that may help some struggling students.....what's the risk?

Blogs explained in plain English

This is a good explanation of exactly what a blog can do for you. You can use it as your classroom website. It has many function that will enhance your classroom instruction and help your classroom extend outside the walls and time in school.

This is pretty funny...and it just might be effective

At least you will get a laugh out of this

Let's celebrate Google's step forward

Google's step forward for education. They have announce that they are building a nationwide WiMax which will offer competitve rates for less than $20 per month.

Why is it important which countries have the fast broadband network?

I think this is a good question. I ran across this hubbling graph the other day that shows the United States, the most powerful country on earth ranks 15 in broadband internet speed. So then I asked myself (here I go again asking myself questions I don't have any idea of the answer)why is it so important to have fast internet anyway. Secondly I wondered if those counties ahead of us were also ahead of us in education.

Click here to view the graph

Turns out the top 5 countries are all ahead of us in education.....hummm....i wonder if there is some correlation?

The DualBook eDGe

This is pretty cool....what do you think about it?

Tips for Beginning Bloggers

A blog about beginning blogging

Today's digital learners

How to set up Google Reader

Top 10 signs your field trip is not going well

PBS video about living in the digital age

PBS video about living in the digital age

">PBS series Digital Nation video

Top Ten things they don't teach you in college about teaching

Believe it or not....doesn't look good for school again tomorrow

The bus lot has not been attended to at all. We are not going to get any sun today and the temperature is going to hover in the 30's. Mr. Liles and I just pushed Ms. Assa out of the Senior lot onto Avent Ferry.

Dr. Burns has already announced that Wednesday would be a full day of school with dismissal at 2:28 for the Drive.

Hope you are enjoying your Spring Break :)

No school tomorrow for students

Since the WCPSS site has crashed because it cannot handle 20,000 views to see if schools is cancelled tomorrow, I thought I would "break" the news on the blog.

Even better, there is a chance of frezzing rain Tuesday morning.......

No school tomorrow??

From the looks of the parking lot at Athens....it would guess that we won't have school tomorrow. No one has come scraped the Junior lot and I would think if we were going to have school tomorrow that would be in the works.

Also if you go back past WCPSS decisions...I would say that it is safe to say that we normally stay out of school at least one day longer than we need to be. So from that standpoint, I would say we will return on Wednesday.

Tomorrow will likely be a staff workday.

Hope everyone is enjoying our spring break in February....: )

Looks like Winter has arrived in fine fashion

it's winter wonder land..........

No it's not the big one, but a good solid icy mess.......great for sledding!!!

Share your pictures on Teachnology........

Snow is on its way...share your snow pictures on Teachnology

Could this be a repeat of the big one?

or will we be disappointed again?

It's always a great day at the Drive

Recently while browsing for information on instructional technology I ran across an article about a 100 year old women who completed her college degree and then passed away the next day. I guess this proves you can never be too old to learn.

Read the article it's pretty cool

Chris Dawson's take on the iPad from Apple

This is a good article about the utlimate effect of the iPad.

Who is Chris Dawson..Read below

Christopher Dawson is the technology director for the Athol-Royalston School District in northern Massachusetts and a member of the Internet Press Guild. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations, but always keep in mind that the opinions expressed here are his own and not those of his daytime employer, even if he talks incessantly about his day job.


He has worked for the Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health and Biogen, Inc. (now Biogen-IDEC, Inc.) and has consulted with STATNet and Cytyc Corporation. Currently, his only business relationships of interest are with X2 Development Corporation (the supplier of the student information system he administers) and Hewlett Packard (the primary vendor for computer hardware in his district). He may report on either of these companies as his experiences with them have direct bearing on educational technology; positive reports are not necessarily an endorsement and he receives no financial compensation from these companies or any others.

Apple's new iPad...is this a paradigm shift??

Remember the video "Shift Happens" well here we go with another huge Paradigm Shift...

more to come.......

Watch this Video.....this is awesome and its only $499

Governor Purdue's Ready Set Go educational plan

Well, finally some leadership in Education. I think this is a good start, but much more needs to be done including financial support. However, if we are going to be successful, ultimately the teachers are going to have to buy into the fact that we must change our thinking. See the link below for a copy of the release from Purdue's office.

Purdue's Release

What are your thoughts on this plan?

Apple and McGraw-Hill reported in talks about e-text books

Read this article link below. Read my  post below and respond  and give us your opinion on this ( i don't care if you agree or disagree) if fact disagree is probably better for the mind anyway.
Apple and E-Textbooks

 I really believe that if we really want to graduate more students who are prepared to participate in our society, pay taxes and can improve our country's production we are going to HAVE to adopt this type of technology.

Like it or not (and a lot of teachers and educators don't) students are not learning by reading physical books anymore. Sure some are, but for the most part, the students who are struggling to be successful in school are the one's who don't read as well and need every advantage they can get to educate themselves.

This will change everything in educuation and as a tax payer you should be supportive of this change. It will save money and increase access to information. Apple will make money off of this, but they are not in business to loose money. Neither are the textbook companies which is why they are interested in this. The textbook companies know that eventually for them to remain profitable, they will have to sell e-textbooks so they might as well move in that direction. They don't want to become like the record companies and become very irrelevent.

What do you think. Just click on the comment box and tell teachnology how you feel.

Top Tips for a new semester

Now that we have used up nearly the entire month of January testing, we can now focus our attention to our purpose for being at the Drive.

Spring Top Tips for using technology in the classroom
1. Use Google Docs to collaborate with collegues and students.

2. Convert your Powerpoints into Google Docs Presentation and post them on your website

3. Learn new techniques for creating Effective PowerPoint Presentations

4. Set up a classroom Blog and create discussions about how technology is effecting change in our society.

5. Learn how to get free access to Stanford University lectures on teaching and learning on I tunes U.

I will post a link each day to these tips........Have any tips you would like to share....Join the blog and share

Lotus Notes Email Down again

No communication has been given up concerning Lotus Notes being down. Do you suppose everyone went to lunch and no one knows it is down?

Hope not......someone has to minding the ship...or do they?

Day three of Testing @ the Drive...Can't wait on the fun to begin!!

Let's have a great day of testing!!

what nice weather for a day off

Google and social media's impact on World events

This is an interesting take on the tragic earthquake in Hati and Google's threat to pull out of China has prompted action like no other. It's pretty amazing that over $21 million has been raised in less than a week all through texting donations. The phone companies did the right thing by not taking their usual cut from the donations. Since most people have unlimited texting, the entire $10 goes to the Hati relief effort.

article about Social Media and it's impact on World Events

What do you think?

Did you know that over 800 four year colleges admit students without an SAT score

Most of us have probably heard that Wake Forest University will now accept students without their SAT scores. Well someone told me the other day that Wake Forest had changed their policy back to accepting the SAT as a standard of testing. So I thought I would do some research on the matter.

I found out that not only is Wake Forest going that route but over 800 others have taken this stance. Check out the link below.

Fair Testing

Testing thoughts continued...

Ok, to finish my thoughts on testing....If we are going to keep testing as we know it....and that's a BIG IF....we are going to have to streamline and digitize it. Why you ask? It is a matter of quicker feedback and will allow for special programs students to be better served within the confines of the classroom and normal testing environment.

View this article by Fair Testing.org


Our current way of testing has gotten so bogged down it to test security that it honestly takes up more time than it is worth. Not to mention that the validity of the test are in question. If the public and teachers knew how the test are scored and "curved" now called normalized, there would be a public outcry.

For now though we are stuck with our current system and we will have to make the best of it.

Food for thought about Testing

Hey...I was thinking the other day. Yea I know that is scary but...What if we could make our tests relevant? Better yet what if we could develop the test to access how well the students can apply information? What is the future of testing anyway?

Know one really knows how much we spend on testing, but it's bound to be a lot. Just the answer sheets, the ink, the paper and to print those lovely test administrator booklets. Not to mention the salaries of those in charge of testing.

More to follow..

The future of technology is in our hands

After reading several educational blogs over the last few weeks, I have come to the realization that the public educational system on the United States, North Carolina and yes in good ole Wake County will not adapt and make use of technology in time to make a difference.

So it is up to us the teachers to take a leap of faith. In my opinion it is a small risk to take. If we are going to keep the courses relevent and "real" as the kids would say, then we must adopt an attitude that technology is a neccessary to reach students. Students who might have a disability or just need a little help reading. I ran across a new device that will be very useful to these types of students and others. Click on the link below and watch the demo.

Intel Reader after this page comes up click on the video link under Intel Reader and play the video. It's pretty awesome!!

The Children of Cyberspace: Old fogies by Their 20's

This is downright scary but it it tomorrow's reality born today

This is the future of our children's learning

The best of Blog 2009

Calling all English teachers....oh wait we should all be teaching writing

Check out this blog

Two Writing Teachers

Top Ten Test taking strategies for students

This is some good information to pass along to your students

I was going to email this out but.....

Suprise suprise suprise...our email server is down

History of Lotus Notes Email System

If you scroll down you will see that our version of Lotus Notes 6.0 was first released in 2002!!! We deserve better.

And we got better...an upgrade in our Lotus Notes email we are now up to version 8.5 but we need access to more of the features in the full version of 8.5. Please don't tell me the is the best IBM can muster!

Laptops for all students in rural North Carolina......

What a novel ideal.....Check out this article by our WRAL and see what the possibilities are for education

Edgecombe students more engaged thanks to Laptops

One and two hour delay schedules (Just in case we need them)

These links are google doc's that are available to you to download, print or whatever you want.

Athens Drive Two Hour delay Schedule Winter 2009-10

Athens Drive One Hour delay Schedule Winter 2009-10

Try this cool word scrambler to help with exam study

We owe this one to a IBM researcher actually for this cool software. Click on Credits on the following link and check it out.

http://www.wordle.net/

Below is an example of Wordle used to quiz the school in our Athletic Conference

http://www.wordle.net/show/wrdl/1503426/Schools_in_the_Tri-9_Conference

Teachnology welcomes teachers back from a restful 2 weeks

WELCOME BACK TO TEACHNOLOGY............Let's get back to work teaching and using technology to make learning relevent.