How cute is this?

When I first saw this, I couldn't wait to get one. Ok, I admit it -- I love gadgets. This is pretty cute though.

The Ultra Portable Personal Media Player is promoted as the "smallest functional media player in the universe." It's certainly the smallest one I've seen. It's under $100 and plays audio, video, and ebooks. The display quality is surprisingly good. It also has a built-in speaker and microphone and takes a mini-SD card. File transfer and charge is through mini-USB.

Is smaller better? I was always the smallest kid in class when I was young. I hated it. (My dad used to say that I was the runt of the litter. Believe it or not, my parents and siblings are all tall.) Now that I'm older, I don't mind being small.

There's something cute about miniature versions of things anyway.

Writing...some research you might be able to use

I recently attended a presentation by Dr. Doug Reeves of the Center for Performance Assessment , known for the 90/90/90 research. One of Dr. Reeves' points that really resonated with me was the identification of expository writing as a best practice that significantly improves student achievement in all subject areas and on standardized tests.

Over the past year, I've been working on a project focused on improving student writing in four middle schools. I have a deep personal love for writing, so this project is of great interest. It's very exciting to see kids who have not had much academic success in the past find something they can do well and maybe even enjoy. I believe that for many of these kids, technology makes the difference. It frees them to be creative, expressive, and successful.

It's good to see some research on this that ties back to test scores, because in today's environment, that's everything. Unfortunate, but true.

Using Technology to Differentiate Instruction

I'm in Hattiesburg, MS today at the USM Leadership Institute. We're here talking about using technology to differentiate instruction for a wide variety of learners. The topics we're exploring include ebooks, multimedia presentations, audio ebooks, podcasts, mini-movies, scaffolding, graphic organizers, writing tools, assessment systems, and more.

I'd like to give the participants at this conference an opportunity to reflect on what they're hearing here. Please post a comment and address one or more of these questions:

- What does "differentiating instruction" mean to you?
- What is your school's biggest challenge in trying to differentiate instruction?
- What needs to be done to live up to the promise of ensuring the success of ALL students?
- Which technology that you've seen today do you think has the greatest potential to help differentiate instruction?
- What have you learned today that will be most valuable to you as you go back to your school?

Thanks for sharing!

Mobile recorders

In my collection of gadgets, I have different kinds of standalone digital audio recorders that I use for various purposes (from recording notes to myself to recording portions of podcasts). A few of you have asked about some of these lately, so we put together this page with sample recordings from various devices, including some pros and cons of each.

Please add comments here about your own favorite mobile recorders.

(Note: For more serious work, I record on the desktop with a USB condenser mic, but these tools are great for field work.)

Open Court Resources

If you use Open Court, you should check out the great site Open Court Resources. This site has some great PowerPoint presentations and other resources for grades K-6 and for both the "new" and "old" OCR.

We've had some very good success in classrooms with giving the students PowerPoint presentations on their mobile devices (Palms, PPCs, iPods) and having them follow along with them while the teacher shows them on the big screen. Kids are more engaged in the content and retention is better.

Much thanks to Mr. Mathew Needleman, a classroom teacher and developer, for making these resources available.

More Open Source Curriculum resources

There are two more new free, Open Source curriculum content resources coming on line:

Schools Without Limts

OER Commons

As these repositories get fleshed out, look for an upcoming review in my blog. In the meantime, if you have a great lesson or curriculum resource that you are willing to share, post it!

Movie from our podcasting workshop

Here's a short movie that shows some of what participants did during our podcasting workshop this week. I could only include a few examples here, but everyone did great work!

- WMV version for Windows
- MP4 version for Mac and video ipods

...ok, back to the other work I have to catch up on now (which is not nearly as fun as making movies and blogging :).

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Final thoughts on NCCE 2007

Well, NCCE was a great conference this year as always. I consistently find the sessions at this conference to be a step ahead of most other conferences.

I'm on the plane on my way home now, and here are a few thoughts after this year's conference:

- Web 2.0 is quickly evolving beyond just wikis and blogs. The evolution of web-based tools, like word processors, presentation tools, graphic organizers, etc., is moving fast. (See previous post for links to some of these tools.) We may really see desktop software become a thing of the past. And the potential for collaboration with these tools takes my breath away.

- Teachers (and presenters) need to be more aware and diligent about intellectual property and copyright issues. At every event I attend, I continue to see people liberally (and illegally) "borrow" copyrighted music, etc. I also see a lot of this in classrooms. We need to model better behavior for students. There's so much great Creative Commons licensed content out there. Try using that...or create your own...or have your kids create it.

- Podcasting continues to be hot, hot, hot. While I am occasionally frustrated by how much educational technology is moved by fads, I do think podcasting has solid educational applications. Even if you aren't moved to create your own podcast, there is so much great FREE content out there that can benefit you, your students, and the community. If you haven't checked out what's out there, do it today!

- It's time for schools to block less and teach responsibility more. I know there is a lot of pressure from parents and the community, but we can educate them. There is too much great free content out there that is being blocked. Our kids are losing out as a result.

- Educators are the greatest group to work with. I talked to so many people who were enthusiastic and passionate about their work and the students they serve. This is one of the things that makes me really love my job.

Thanks to all of you who attended my workshops and sessions at NCCE. Thanks also to the fantastic NCCE team...Heidi, Adina, Jeff, Randy, Dave, Debby, Glenn, and everyone else. See you all next year in Seattle.
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Ed podcast mashup

New versions of the first ed pdocast mashup are up for video (WMV and MP4). Also the audio file is fixed now.
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Free Multimedia Resources You Can Use to Differentiate Instruction

Here are the materials from my session on Fri. at NCCE:




Free resources handouts
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NCCE podcasting session follow-up

Thanks to everyone who attended my whirlwind "Podcasting: What You Need to Get Started" session this morning at NCCE. Here are a few follow-up things I said I'd post:

- Philips GoGear 1 GB MP3 player (This is the small inexpensive flash player I showed.)

- Jodix is a good free video converter that will convert WMVs (and other formats as well) to iPod videos without spyware.

- Someone showed me a cute little inexpensive pocket recorder after the session. It's the Olympus Ws-100 digital voice recorder. I've got one on order, so look for more info and a review in a couple weeks.

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NCCE Palm workshop follow-up

I enjoyed the enthusiasm of everyone who attended my Palm workshop yesterday.

As promised, here is the Daylight Savings Time patch for Palms.

We covered a lot, but there were so many things we didn't get to also. Here are some links for you to explore more:

Ebooks
Free ebooks - ManyBooks.net
Free ebooks - Memoware
Also, check your local library. Spokane Public Library and Seattle Public Library both offer ebooks for checkout and many others do as well.

AvantGo (This is the web clipping program I showed to download a variety of web-based resources and htings like the New York Times.)

Plucker (more web clipping - this is the one I use for recipes and Yahoo driving directions.)

Educational uses - K12 Handhelds
Educational uses - Learning in Hand

More software



....Oh yeah, and how could I forget -- the very cool folding SD plus USB card!

I hope you enjoy your Palms! Keep in touch, and let me know if I can answer any questions.
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Gabcast! Mobile Musings #7



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Educational Podcast Mashup

OK, Tony inspired me. Thanks, Tony. After my last post, he asked if I could post the mashup I made. Well, it was too long and had some other issues that made it suitable for my workshops and sessions, but not necessarily for a download, but now I've edited it. It's shorter and now includes only pieces for which I have permission or are open source or public domain. (Some of you know how strongly I feel about intellectual property and copyright.)

Here it is:
- Audio only version (MP3)
- Video version with credits (WMV; for Windows)
- Video version with credits (MP4; for Mac and vid ipod)

I hope this gives you some ideas for how you might use podcasting in education. Here are links for the pieces included. If you like them, subscribe!

Bob Sprankle and Wells Elementary (Room 208 and now 209 Podcast)

Spoken Wikipedia

Grammar Girl

Los Angeles County Office of Education

Tony Vincent, Learning in Hand

Radio WillowWeb and Willowdale Elementary

Colonial Williamsburg

Englishcaster.com

LD Podcast

THANKS to you all!

If you like this , let me know by posting a comment here, and maybe I'll do more. It sure was fun to put together.


P.S. If anyone notices a drain on the bandwidth at the Doubletree....it might be me. ;)
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Welcome to Spokane and NCCE

I just got into Spokane for NCCE, and the weather is beautiful!

On the plane on the way here, I put together a quick mashup* of education-related podcasts. It was a lot of fun -- there are so many great podcasts now that it was hard to choose from them all. I tried to pick some from a variety of genres: kid-produced podcasts, podcasts for parents, podcasts about technology (for professional development), podcasts produced by museums, podcasts by educational service centers, etc.

If you're at NCCE or another future workshop of mine on podcasting, stop by to hear the results.
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*This is a good example of one of the features of Wikipedia -- not many other online resources have information about current tech terms and topics.

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There's a better way

In the business world, PowerPoint has become a staple, and in some cases, overused tool. No meeting is complete without a PowerPoint presentation.

One of the most appropriate uses of PowerPoint, though, may be in the classroom. Like it or not, teachers spend a lot of time presenting information, and a computer is generally a more effective tool for this than a chalkboard or an overhead transparency. Coupled with a graphics tablet, an interactive whiteboard, and the participation of students, this use of technology can transform learning.

Using an LCD projector with PowerPoint and other tools is a great way to engage kids. (See previous posts on differentiating instruction.) What is more interesting to look at -- an explanation of sentence structure hand-written on an overhead that is barely legible because of the dark projector or an animated PowerPoint that is colorful, bright, and easy to read?

The real benefits of electronic presentations are all the other ways you can use them to expand learning. Here are a few ideas:

• Post presentations for current lessons online for students who were absent. (You might be surprised how much these are used even by students who were in attendance.)


• Create a library of past and future lesson presentations online for students to use for remediation or enrichment.


• Distribute presentations on mobile devices for students to follow along with in class. (I've seen engagement go up significantly as a result of doing this.)


• Give students electronic copies of presentations to add their own notes to. Challenge GATE students to add more details. Have ESL students record audio notes. Encourage all students to personalize for their learning style.


• Make presentations into mini-movies by using a tool like Camtasia Studio or CamStudio to add narration.


• Print reduced-size handouts of key presentations and assemble them as mini-books for students to reference. (They could also be distributed as ebooks, especially if you have mobile devices to use.)

I spend a lot of time in classrooms around the country doing technology integration mentoring, and I am surprised how many teachers are still writing on overhead transparencies, while a perfectly good LCD projector sits unused. (In the last two weeks, I have been in three schools where all the teachers had LCD projectors, but were still primarily using overheads. I'd like to think this is anomalous, but I don't think it is.)

If you're reading this blog, you're probably not using overhead transparencies instead of PowerPoint presentations, but maybe the teacher next door is. If so, try to talk them into using this technology. And if you're an administrator and every teacher in your building doesn't have an LCD projector (or they have them but aren't using them), get moving! This may be the one piece of technology that offers the most bang for the buck in improving student learning.

Engaging kids

A study recently published by Indiana University found that the majority of high school students surveyed were bored by school because of lack of interaction with the teachers, boring material, and lack of relvance of the material. This is appalling, but not really surprising. We are failing to engage kids, especially in high school years. No wonder so many are dropping out before graduation.

One of the things I love about the work I do is that kids feel special when they use technology to learn. They are engaged and motivated and actually do better work as a result.

It doesn't necessarily require technology to accomplish this, but it helps. Viewing each student as an individual and getting them engaged in their own education are central premises of differentiating instruction.