Lessons and Teacher Things

Leave a comment Posted on by Dominic Salvucci iPods in Education, Lessons and Teacher Things

iPods in Education Project Overview

I am going to take a step back and outline the project I will be blogging about over the upcoming school year. This year we are piloting a project that will utilize iPod Touches as a computer in the classroom. I believe we can use them in place of a laptop, for the most part.

I have been researching mobile technology for learning for the last cpuple of years in graduate school. I believe it is the next step in integrating technology in the classroom. Many colleges and universities already use them for educational purposes, as do several school districts in Pennsylvania. There a number of my colleagues throughout the country who are also working on such initiatives, so I have a strong network for support. Our representative from Apple is also a huge help with this project. If I get permission to use her name, I will name her later.

Our set-up consists of twenty-five iPod Touches, 8 Gig, and one cart to synch them all together. The iPods are engraved with an ID number for tracking. I have researched many apps for student use, there are many and they are all free, you can pay for an upgraded version, but for now we are working with the free levels.The nice thing is that we control all of the material that goes onto the iPods, they will be synced to my account. This will prevent the students from downloading content to them without permission.

We are going to purchase over the ear headphones for the iPods, they are relatively inexpensive, but students will be encouraged to use their own earbuds. I will purchase about ten microphones so we can record onto the iPods. The way the iPods will be set up will allow students to surf the Internet, create documents, create audio files, upload and save content to the district’s Google Domain. They will also be able to access content that I place on the iPods at their own pace. If a student needs to review a video or audio file, a picture, or some other multi-media they will be able to do so on the iPod Touch. Students will also be able to take notes in class, using Evernote, and synch all information to any computer they use.

This is the basic plan, more details will follow throughout the year.

Leave a comment Posted on by Dominic Salvucci iPods in Education, Lessons and Teacher Things

iPod Set-up Day 1

Today I went in to work on setting up the iPod Touches and cart for my classes. I did not get them synched, but I did get the cart ready for class. All iPod touches are engraved on the back, I added a printed label for an easier read. I also labeled the slots in the cart for the iPods. This will enable me to hand the iTouches out to the students and replace them quickly. I am betting I will lose at least ten minutes of class time to sign them in and out per period at first. I am hoping that this time decreases as we go through the year. I am also hoping for our school converting to block scheduling eventually…someday…it would make the time loss of setting up the technology minimal.

The district’s Technology Director and I finalized the sign out policy, I will have the students initial a sheet, printed out from my grade book, when they pick up and return their iPod. This will help keep tabs on who gets each iPod, a simple check mark could easily lead to sloppiness. The initialling will keep everyone, focused on tracking the iPods during the period.

I also looked over the cart and the procedure for syncing the iPods, it looks easy enough, just a bit time consuming. The manual approximated 20 minutes for 1 Gig of info for 20 iPods. The next step will be the most tedious, it is also the first step. I have to give each iPod a name and set it up with my Macbook. Once this is done, I will be able to sync 20 at a time. Over the next several days I will get this done and begin synching all of them with my computer.

For now I will be using all free applications for the iPods, I want to see how far we can go before we have to start spending money for them. A list of the applications I will be using can be found at the following link, https://nbasdcff.wikispaces.com/iPod+Apps+for+Sal%27s+Class. This page will be kept updated with which apps we are using and which we have dropped and why.

I plan on keeping a running journal on the project stating the good, the bad, the ugly, and the how did we adjust over the course of the year. More will follow later this week once I try to name and synch the iPods.

Leave a comment Posted on by Dominic Salvucci Lessons and Teacher Things

Fireside Reflections

The recently completed “Fireside Chat” project seemed to be a success. It will need a few tweaks for next year as the “State of the Union Project” but things went well overall. My students procrastinated in a big way and many were afraid of Audacity as a program to use.

Once the sat down and used it they were amazed at how easy it was to create their assignments. Most were looking forward to creating more assignments this way, which they will have the opportunity to do.

I had a large number of students use webcams or cell phones to create their projects which was fine, I learned a lot about the cell technology from them. The technology will be another form they can use if their do not have access to updated computer technology.

The major change will be to set a cut-off date for helping them record in school. It will be especially important if CFF funds are cut off next year, since that would probably not give me any free time to work with students one on one. I can help them turn in projects the day they are due, but recording must be completed in advance.

Overall, the students did seem to enjoy creating a project like this rather than writng an essay. Most of the projects were of a good quality, only a few were “ast minute just to hand something in” types of projects, which unfortunately occurs with any type of project.

1 Comment Posted on by Dominic Salvucci Lessons and Teacher Things, Random Musings

Packrat

Hello, my name is Dominic, and I am a packrat. I have been for many years, and although I admitted this before, I am finally working on doing something to “fix” the situation. The other day while working on some online tools for my students, my Twitter network, names will remain anonymous just so I do not become a name dropper,  ran amok with discussions on educators who have way too many paper files around the home and classroom. I jumped in whole-heartedly, gleefully if you will, at the thought than I now have evidence that I am not alone in my predicament. The issue was possibly a continuation of a post brought up earlier in the week when a contact mentioned that he was scanning all of his hard copy documents into electronic .pdf files.  The idea hit me that my attempts to convert my hard copy files by typing is a futile endeavor, I never paid attention in 9th grade typing class…scanning will be the way to go.

This is not a cop-out, but I have reasons for  being this way. I am a second generation Social Studies teacher, I inherited my father’s file cabinet and added a couple of my own. I was brought up seeing how Social Studies teachers collect information. Later in college, my professors embedded the concept of “you never know what your budget at school will be, so collect all you can while you can!” Reinforcement at it’s best…I am a digital immigrant, I remember my first stint in grad school, we took notes on this new tool, the I-N-T-E-R-N-E-T. In fact I know I still have my notebook from that class with my notes on how to search this new tool. It contains all of the helping and control words necessary to search correctly.

This brings me to something that made me laugh yesterday in class and unfortunately disrupt my intern’s class. I had a student cleaning out my book cupboard to make space for my Econ books. No big deal, student did not want to stay in study hall and asked to help. The student came across a notebook from 1986, it contained notes from when I was my fraternity’s contact for the homecoming parade at IUP. Names and numbers leapt from the pages, which brought back a bunch of thoughts I don’t normally keep active. They were great times, but it is not efficient to have those thoughts active with everything else going on in life…22 years later.

The last example I have is one I use with my senior Econ classes. It deals with opportunity costs and how personal the concept is. When I was around 6 or 7, my Grandpap gave me a little pen knife, maybe it is an inch or so long, along with one he got for working at U.S. Steel in Duquesne, PA for many years. It is about the same size. I was so proud of them until I hit adolescence, then they became just toys. I wanted bigger knives like my friends had so my Grandpap’s presents to me were relegated to a drawer in my room.

I forgot about them until much later in life. I did not remember seeing them when I moved to my own house. My Grandpap was much older and for some reason the thoughts of those knives hit me. At first I thought they were gone, one of those spiteful adolescent purges when told to clean your room. It took awhile, but after some time I found them. They were then moved to the bar my Grandpap gave me when I bought my house, it too had been his. After realizing how important those items are to me, I would not let go of them for anything in the world. When I tell my students about the knives, they laugh I could not even sell them at a garage sale for $1.00, but they mean a lot to me, even before my Grandpap left us a few years back.

Because of this incident I was unrepentant about compulsion to be a packrat. Now I realize I need to tier my compulsion, personal mementos, no matter how corny will be kept, information that can be digitized will be sent into the great digital cloud of information that now surrounds us all. My only question now is, what will I do with all of the flash drives I will need?

Leave a comment Posted on by Dominic Salvucci Lessons and Teacher Things, Random Musings

Next Year’s English Project…if I can get an English teacher to help…

I was watching “Classical Baby, All grown up'” with Arianna, my daughter this evening. They were reading poetry to images with some of the readers being the authors, others stars, and even children reading poems and giving their ideas on the poems. It was really cool, some of thekids were very young, but they seemed to get it. I do not know how much was scripted for them and how much was their own, but it was cool and believable. Next year I think it would be great to do something like that in our district, but expand upon it.

When I was Title I teacher in another life we had some of the better readers record stories for the not so good readers to use if they were reading on their own. I have no idea where the tapes went, but they were made. I think the Classical Baby” idea would be great with the expanded addition of original student poetry read over Ustream. The work can be archived and shared with the Middle and Elementary Schools. The original work can be from all grades since our District writes at most levels, the kids would love it. It is authorship beyond the classroom or school walls.

As for using published work by other authors, maybe private sites can hold the recordings for the younger students to use as a guide to reading. The kids like working with the other levels and all would benefit from the experience. I would have to look into copyright issues, but fortunately an associate I met on my online network at Eduwikius.wikispaces.com, has done a lot of research on the topic. Eduwikius is an entirely different post, for another time, but they are an excellent network of very helpful professionals.

Since I now teach Economics/POD and American Civics I would need to pull the English Department in on this endeavor. It will be much easier to accomplish if we get the Classrooms for The Future grant. I was chosen to be the coach and would have more time to help implement his idea if everything falls into place. Here’s hoping for the plans to fall into place.

1 Comment Posted on by Dominic Salvucci Lessons and Teacher Things, Random Musings

Student fear of Internet

I can not figure it out for sure, but I have a number of students who are afraid to use the Internet for their 20th Century President Projects. I know they utilize the Internet for socializing, I see them on the ‘net looking up stuff during study halls. I have stressed that I am not taking points off for having trouble with the technology and offered full help in working with new issues that arise from the technology. Yet, I have a group that runs when asked to use the net for something besides surfing. Actually, adding to the class wikispace is easier than the other type of projects they could choose from. I have given them the option of anonymity or first name listing for credit. I have tried to make the experience workable for them, but there is still a good bit of resistance. I wish I could find a better way to motivate them than just force them to participate with the technology. I do understand that it is not about the technology, it is about the lesson, however I want them to become familiar with the tools they will more than likely be using in life in their future. It is an issue to keep working at defeating.

Leave a comment Posted on by Dominic Salvucci Lessons and Teacher Things

Today’s Wiki-work

The students seemed to grasp the ideas with the notes on the Executive Branch.  We worked as a class and I showed them how to fiddle around with some of the options we can do. They are allowed to edit the space, so they need to be able to do these tasks successfully. They seem to like the group setting and I use their ideas, we will see if it transfers to work outside of the classroom.

Leave a comment Posted on by Dominic Salvucci Lessons and Teacher Things

Wikispace Knowledge

I need to expand my knowledge of the wikispace universe. I learned a neat trick last week of imbedding video right into my pages, but I need to learn how to indent the students’ notetaking work. The students are learning quite a bit, so I need to stay ahead of the curve to better help them with the site. The tutorials are easy to understand, I just need more time!

Leave a comment Posted on by Dominic Salvucci Lessons and Teacher Things

Modeling in the Classroom.

I have been trying to model notetaking on my class wikispace with both my Freshmen and senior classes. I believe I am making some headway, but I can  not be sure. I use the LCD projector and we work cooperatively with the class to brainstorm and edit notes from class sources. I am hoping that by showing them the process and that mistakes can happen and they will understand not only the information but learning process better. Sometimes it doesn’t show, especially when I turn them loose outside of class, but some seem to be getting it.

Leave a comment Posted on by Dominic Salvucci Lessons and Teacher Things

Video Conferencing

I know I have been beating this topic over the head since the Polycom training, but I am fired up.  Several teachers have contacted me about video linking our classrooms for lessons.  I am working on several ideas which should be interesting to see how they turn out.  I need to brush up on my Technoman skills.  The first several attempts with my new webcam lead to fatal errors and my computer shutting down, but I believe I have that remedied!!!!  At least until the next time I forget to turn off the webcam programs when I log into Skype.  I hope to have some comments on my successful attempts and video conferencing here in the near future!