Schools and districts throughout the state of California are making greater use of technology on a daily basis. If you're responsible for planning, installing and maintaining this technology, the TechSETS web site can provide the assistance you need. http://www.techsets.org http://www.techsets.org/about/news/index.php http://www.techsets.org/images/TechLogoRss.gif 98 60 Schools and districts throughout the state of California are making greater use of technology on a daily basis. If you're responsible for planning, installing and maintaining this technology, the TechSETS web site can provide the assistance you need. Patty MacIntyre http://www.k12hsn.org/programs/erate/training_materials.php For anyone who was not able to attend the Beginning or Intermediate/Advanced E-rate training sessions sponsored by the K-12 High Speed Network (HSN) and California Department of Education (CDE), the PowerPoint presentations and supporting documents are now available on the K12HSN website. Bev Blaylock http://www.wiziq.com/ WiZiQ (Wiz-IQ) brings students and teachers together regardless of boundaries. With absolutely no cost to join or use its state-of-the-art virtual classroom, WiZiQ is becoming a vital tool in an online teacher’s or a student’s toolkit. This product is similar to Elluminate, but free. As members meet with other WiZiQ members, teachers and students who share subjects of your interest: 1. Find, share, download or upload Powerpoints on educational subjects and topics. 2. Use an intuitive interface to schedule sessions with a single participant or a group. 3. Teach and learn live, online in WiZiQ’s virtual classroom technology that needs no downloads and launches with just a few clicks. Bev Blaylock http://edtechvalley.blogspot.com/2007/10/google-model.html What if we ran schools like Google runs their business? At Google, employees are allowed to spend one day a week working on a personal project. From those projects come some of the best new ideas! What would happen if students and teachers could do the same? Check out the two You Tube videos at this site to learn more, and then ask yourself this question, "What would my project be if I had one day each week to work on it?" Bev Blaylock http://www.infinitethinking.org/2007/09/tech-savvy-learning-communities-la.html Moodle is a free learning management system, similar to Blackboard and WebCT. Many schools are using it to either offer online or hybrid courses, or as a digital space for a face-to-face class where students can submit homework, view resources, or have online conversations. This blog discussion provides a five-step strategy for a successful Moodle implementation. Bev Blaylock http://teachers.yahoo.com/ Yahoo is in the beta release of a new social networking site where teachers share ideas and lesson plans. Visit the site, watch the introduction video, and sign up to be notified when the site goes live. Bev Blaylock http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2007/09/our-feature-presentation.html Google has added a presentation feature to its web-based document and spreadsheet suite. Presentations -- whether imported from existing files or created using the new slide editor -- can be edited, shared, and published using the familiar Google Docs interface, with several collaborators working on a slide deck simultaneously, in real time. When it's time to present, participants can simply click a link to follow along as the presenter takes the audience through the slideshow. Participants are connected through Google Talk and can chat about the presentation as they're watching. Visit this blog and view the YouTube video, and the links that may just convince you to try it out! Bev Blaylock http://www.podcastingnews.com/articles/What_is_Podcasting.html Podcasting delivers audio content to iPods and other media players (including your computer) on demand. Here’s the basic process: 1. Publishers create audio content and post it to a web server, usually as an MP3 file. 2. They then publish an RSS newsfeed that provides descriptive information about the podcast, along with an “enclosure” of the actual audio file. 3. End-users subscribe to the RSS feed, using a free application, such as iPlodder or Feedburner, which is able to separate the descriptive information from the enclosed audio file and sync the audio file with the appropriate media player preferred by the user. 4. End users are then able to listen to the podcast on demand. Bev Blaylock http://www.usac.org/sl/about/training-presentations/training-2007/fall/2007-fall-training-presentation.aspx It is time to set up a new notebook for Year 11 E-Rate documentation! Now is the time to review the training materials for 2007-2008 and/or attend a training session within your region. This year there are few changes, and the major focus is “Back to Basics.” Bev Blaylock http://pc.innovativeteachers.com/mpc_web/PeerCoaching/pc_home.aspx The Peer Coaching Program, sponsored by Microsoft, is designed to help schools implement a professional development model that can enhance standards-based instruction by assisting teachers to offer students engaging, technology rich, learning activities. The Peer Coaching Program trains teacher leaders to serve as peer coaches for colleagues. As coaches, these teachers assist their peers in identifying ways that technology can strengthen classroom curriculum and enhance their students’ academic achievement. Be sure to check out the Portfolios tab. Bev Blaylock http://www.techlearning.com/showArticle.php?articleID=196604637 Is it legal to copy an image found during a Google search and paste it to your report? Here are some suggestions to consider: • Check for copyright notices at the bottom of the Web pages where the image was found • Never put copyrighted material up on the Web without permission. (Fair Use allows a one-time use. limited to a classroom - not for a multimedia presentation where others may download that image.) • If in doubt, ask for permission. (This means leaving time for receiving permission before using something.) • Create your own graphics. There is no more important literacy skill than learning to communicate. Visual communication is very important today. Always give credit to the original creator of anything you use. • Use a Creative Commons (http://creativecommons.org) license on your own work on the Web that will make it clear that others can use it.