Netbooks – The Dell Lattitude 2100 is now available on the purchasing picklist.  The 2100 is shipping with a Linux operating system called Ubuntu.  Novell, Groupwise, and Office products are not loaded on this netbook.  We are shifting to more open source tools such as Google Docs, Open Office, Moodle, Linux, etc.  There will not be a Windows XP version.  We recommend training for any teachers or staff who plan on using netbooks.

Interactive White Board Research – Dr. Robert Marzano completed a study last spring to determine the effectiveness of Promethean technology in classrooms.  The study is available online, and there are some key findings that may assist teachers in understanding how to utilize these tools more effectively.  Please go to
http://www.prometheanworld.com/staged/server.php?show=nav.18731

Moodle – Through a comprehensive review process we have made a decision to implement the use of a content management system.  Moodle is an inexpensive application that allows teachers and staff to create effective online learning sites for their students.  Moodle will allow us to create secure social networks, wikis, forums, and many other Web 2.0 tools to assist educators in teaching our students.  An administrator training is planned, and we will be offering classes for teachers this year.  Please watch our website (www.apsdoit.org) for more information.

Instructional Technology Grants – The competitive grant process to acquire instructional technology tools for classrooms are nearly ready to be launched.  This grant process is an effort to develop effective 21st Century Classrooms and beyond.  Final timelines and edits are being made to the application, and we expect the grant applications to be out by August 21.  All communication will go to site principals.  Please watch our website (www.apsdoit.org) for more information.

Instructional Technology web-based resources – There are a large number of online resources paid by our e-Rate funds to support classroom teachers in providing rich, dynamic, and up to date resources to enhance student learning.  Some of these resources include Discovery Streaming and Science, Nettrekker, Atomic Learning and World Book Online.  Through the monitoring of use by individual sites we have seen some major decline in usage at some sites and in some cases, non-use of these resources.  We will continue to monitor site usage, and we will share this information with school sites.  If sites are not using these resources, we will reduce the number of licenses being paid  at the district level.  All of these resources can be accessed at  http://discovery.aps.k12.co.us

Here’s “Part 1 of Dr. Robert Marzano addressing the question “What do we know about the effect of technology on student achievement?” at the CUE 2009 Conference on March 6, 2009.” (thanks Ivan)  Not surprisingly his studies show an increase in student achievement when instructional technology is used effectively and a decrease in achievement when instruction is focused on the tool rather than the learning.

The deciding factor of success is whether the teacher has a good understanding of pedagogical and content knowledge prior to using instructional technology. This just underscores for me the importance of teaching how to use instructional technology within the framework of instructional strategies. This is definitely an ongoing pursuit for me, as I tend to skip directly to how to use the technology rather than when or why.

Anyway… if you are preparing to write a grant soon for instructional technology, this is a great resource to book mark. The points that Marzano speaks of, relate directly to the work that the recipients of the DoIT Grant have worked to achieve with the technology they received. They have done some fantastic work! Check out their projects… and be sure to check out Marzano’s presentation.

image by Punya Mishra

This evening, Aaron Berthold and I presented to the Technology Steering Committee. Our focus was illustrating where netbooks fit in to education and how the netbooks are being used. Aaron spoke about from macroscopic perspective and I presented from the microscopic perspective of how teachers are using netbooks.

The presentation I created follows closely Robert Marzano meta-research for classroom strategies that have the greatest impact on student achievement. Presentation (ppt) The presentation contains links to many useful resources that are free.

This video below was created by Tom Fox and clearly demonstrates the benefits of using 1 to 1 computing with blogging to foster greater literacy among students. Watching the video, you’ll notice that several of the strategies that Marzano writes about are mentioned; summarizing & notetaking, reinforcing effort & providing recognition, and providing feedback.

I was reading one of my favorite blogs (NashWorld) the other night and stumbled upon the work of Punya Mishra from MSU. He has done some amazing work highlighting the need for utilizing relevant technology in the classroom with Lee Shulman’s work on Pedagogical Content Knowledge.

This morning I presented to the Technical Services Department five of my favorite ways that teachers are using technology in the classroom. Specifically, I focused on the computer, projector and visualizer.  There are thousands of examples to choose from, so it was nice to have a clean way of organizing my ideas. I leaned heavily on Punya’s work for the presentation below and am quite thankful that he shares his talents.

If you are interested, my attempt at blending Punya’s work with presentation is below in the form of a Google presentation. Below, I’ve added links to the 5 parts of Punya’s video. His videos are definitely worth your time. Check it out!

My Presentation on Creative Teachers | Punya Mishra’s Keynote: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5,

Have you ever spent more time trying to find information on your computer than it would actually take to get the job done once you have found the information?

Well lucky for you there are applications that will assist you in organizing your notes. These applications enable you to keep notes, phone numbers, files, tasks, lists, tags, images, directly record audio notes, share notebooks among colleagues, etc., all in one easy to use and organized place. The two applications I enjoy most are OneNote by Microsoft and BasKet Note Pads for Linux.

If you work for APS you can start using OneNote right away. While at work, turn on your computer, click “start,” “run,” and type in “aps2007,” and click, “ok.” Wait 10 or 20 minutes while it installs on your computer. Do not stop the process.

Once it’s finished installing you’ll have the Office 2007 suite which includes OneNote. To learn more about using OneNote, log in to One Place and go to Atomic Learning where you can search through over one hundred tutorials on using One Note. You can also go to Microsoft’s One Note website to find lots of helpful training resources.

If you have a friend in the district that is hopelessly disorganized, send them this link. Give them the necessary tools to empower the organizational wizard within them. Let’s all get organized.

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Here is the link to the One Note Presentation that I used at West Middle School.