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.