Pete+and+C+2008

=Click the button "Edit this page" at the top of the page and post your comments here. Please use this throughout the conference and to reflect on what you saw throughout the day**.**=

[|Pete and C Link]

__Directions to convention center__ [|Hershey Lodge and Convention Center] West Chocolate Avenue, Hershey (717) 533-3311 Pennsylvania Turnpike (I-76) West to exit 266 (old exit 20). Turn left onto 72 North. Follow 72 North to 322 West. Take 322 West into Hershey (approximately 12 miles). Turn right onto University Drive (traffic light). Take the first left into the entrance to HERSHEY Lodge.

//2/8/08 at 11AM Donna Carpenter found that we may be able to get a shuttle from the Best Western,// //The lodge said that if we call the concierge desk from the Best Western, we can probable get picked up to go to the conference.//

The conference is broken down into hour session. Each session is located in one of over 20 different rooms throughout the convention center. Below is a tentative list of session for the two days. On the first day there are 5 different session and on the second day there are 4 session. Check the session out and pick ones that you are interested in. http://www.peteandc.org/programtentlist.asp

=__POST INFORMATION WE FIND AT THE CONFERENCE BELOW HERE__= =Important links that we found= [|www.simulscribe.com] [|www.callwave.com] http://pogue.blogs.nytimes.com/ [|http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov] [|http://mynasadata.larc.nasa.gov] [|www.portaportal.com] http://www.forensics.nl/presentations [|www.pde.state.pa.us/edhub] [|www.DENcommunity.com] - Discovery Educators Network [|www.del.icio.us.com] [|www.blabberize.com] make your pictures talk [|Google Docs]-this site allows you to hold your documents on line and manipulate them on line in a central location http://www.google.com/apps/edu/index.html [|www.moonk.com] create a slideshow-digital storytelling [|www.teachertube.com] Youtube for teachers [|http://scratch.mit.edu] [|www.testfactory.net] http://tech4di.wikispaces.com/ and http://www.lmsd.org/staff/techmentor/podcast/PETEnC07/petenc07.htm slides and hands out http://tech4di.wikispaces.com/space/showimage/Tech2DI4pdf.pdf Resources for planning, writing, and producing a Virtual field trip can be found at [|www.mapacourse.com] Animations for PowerPoint Shows can be found at [|www.animationfactory.com] http://thesciencefactory.wikispaces.com [|www.Bloglines.com] [|www.Google.com/Reader] [|www.Pageflakes.com]

=__**Monday Key Note Speaker**__=

(Dan) David Pogue the NY times columist kicked off the event with some interesting comments and ideas about emerging technologies. He spoke a lot about the use of wireless and mobile commmunications and where the technologies is heading. One interesting note was about how kids felt that email was too slow and that instant messaging was the way to go. Check out "twitter" to see a shorter version of a blog. Write in 30 words or less what you are doing throughout the day. Also try to text any questions or request to google from a cellphone. All you need to do is type in a movie and zip code and text this to google (46645) and you will get a response in 5 seconds. Try a movie time, phone number info, flighttime, weather, etc. Patrick Coulter tried it out and said it works. David Pogue can be found at his blog http://pogue.blogs.nytimes.com/ or his email address of pogue@nytimes.com

Dave's Mobile Show and Tell-(Aaron Torrence, Denise Leschak, Dawn Rosenberry) David Pogue, our keynote speaker, presented a variety of the latest mobile gadgets and gave a critique of each. He presented a device called the pocket hot spot that allows you access wireless through this device any where you are. You just need an ethernet cable. He also discussed an interesting website that allows you to have all your phones tied together so that they all ring at the same time. The website was GrandCentral.com. If you were in the car and someone called your home they would leave a message or try calling your cell. This site allows you to tie them together so they ring at the same time. I thought that this would be a good asset for our principals who carry around an endless amount of phones. _

=__Session A (1)__=

DAN's comments I went to a session on one to one mentoring and training integration. They had a great idea about creating mentoring teams/leadership teams in a building. These teams would help define the building goals for technology and help provide the directions for the building to go. Goals would need to be set that were simple (very simple) and clear cut so the building would be on all the same page. Steps: ID prof needs, build mentor team (including princapal), develope goals, Implement plan, and review 4 time a year. One note that was very strong was that the staff will never surpase the prinicpals level. What this means is that the principal not only needs to be on board and suppotive but needs to understand and know how to use and implement the technology themselves.

Another good ides would be an art porfolio with pictures of project put into a photo story.

Monday Session 1 (Bob Decker) Making Our Students Competitive: Why Nanotechnology Literacy Is Crucial This session was presented by the Penn State University – Nationsl Nanotechnolgy Infrastructure Network (NNIN) an had a good amount of information about the current use of nanotechnology that can be used as an introduction for classes, or for full-blown lessons. The coolest thing is that we can set up a link with Penn State’s electron microscope or Atomic Force Microscope. These can be remotely controlled by the teacher to explore things at the nano level. There is a lesson plan that examines the surface of a CD or DVD and then, through measuring distances between the “pits” the students can find which type of disk it is. Additionally, there are 3-day workshops designed for teachers, administrators, and councilors that emphasizes the use and job options in nanotechnology. There are going to be 3 million open jobs needed some sort of nano knowledge by the year 2015! There are also 6-week summer hands-on workshops for science teachers that allows them to actually use those microscopes.

RSS & Research (Christian Fowkes) Chris Champion gave a breif background on what RSS really is and how it works. Basically, RSS allows the user to have news/events delivered to a personal page instead of going out and aimlessly searching for new information. Setting up an account is easy and he suggested using 3 RSS Readers: [|www.Bloglines.com], [|www.Google.com/Reader], [|www.Pageflakes.com]. You can set up student accounts for you class in order to have specific content delivered to them according to specific parameters you set up.

The Calm Before the Storm... America Has Fallen Behind (Diane & Taffy) Heather Chirtea presented data showing that America was once one of the top nations in education, but that we have flat-lined. Our school code and education system was built in the industrial age. The students of past days were preparing for the manufacturing jobs. Those days are gone. We need to be preparing our students for todays careers. How many careers today involve computer access most of the day? Are our students seeing that same kind of access? How many of today's careers are involved in books, paper and pencil? That is where our students are. We need to be teaching them the tools they need to suceed. How do we get the "tech-resistant" teacers involved? Find the "Killer App" - find something that hooks in that particular teacher and help tem to find a comfort zone. People need to have ownership over the technology and decide to use it. Heather also talked about testing ith instant feedback. Computerized testing that gives the students results as soon as they have completed the test. No grade assigned to the test, but giving the student the ownership over where they need assistance. The example used was students who would need to go to summer school if they did not pass the state test. Pre-testing with instant feedback and "treatment" - finding help and instruction for missed questions, over 50% of the students improved their results for the final testing. Another thing that Heather spoke on was finding funding for the tecnology in school - using the economic and modernization arguments - technology saavy students, prepared for today's workforce, will be able to better our community.

Monday, Session 1 - Digital Storytelling through Claymation (Mary Ellen) This is a fun way for students to retell stories or make up their own.After forming clay figures, pictures are taken.With young students, this would require a lot of teacher work to take the pictures.With second grade and up, the students could work on the project independently.There is software available and free downloads at [|http://tuxpaint.org] There are also how-to programs on-line.

=**__Monday Session B (2)__**=

(Bob Decker) Using NASA Data in the Classroom Somewhat disappointing due to the fact that the presenter’s information was web-based and the connections was less than perfect. However, there are three sites sponsored by NASA or the presenter that allow teachers and students to download data from a variety of NASA satellites and then manipulate that data, create charts, and analyze that data. [|http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov] [|http://mynasadata.larc.nasa.gov] [|www.portaportal.com] log on as guest with “pjmaher” or “rsvarner”

Also, email the presenter, an employee for educational resources at Goddard: Margaret.j.maher@nasa.govto answer any questions about educational resources or how to find information from nasa or telephone at 301-286-1977

Virtual Science Lab (Christian Fowkes) Tool Factory is a software company specializing in science simulation labs. There were a plethora of resources, but it seemed mostly tailored to elementary level science rooms. We spent the session time going through their materials.

Creating Online Connections with Web 2.0 (Aaron Torrence, Denise Leschak, Dawn Rosenberry) We learned how two classes, one from Central Bucks and the other from Korea, used Web 2.0 to communicate, collaborate and create. The presenter demonstrated how using various on line tools could and did foster relationships between various students from different backgrounds. She discussed the difficulties (time zones) and the benefits of this collaborative effort.

Conduction Computer Forensics in Eduation (Diane Meck) Robert Lipton from Berks Co. IU presents background information on Computer Forensics. He reviewed what computer forensics is and how laws defining computer crimes did not exist until 1993. Forensics includes securely collecting computer date, examining the data, presenting the information to courts and applying board policies and laws. He sited http://www.forensics.nl/presentations as a great training resource. Robert did not give any specific tasks to perform, however, he reviewed guidelines on processing a major incident. He's presentation is available on line at www.personal.psu.edu/rbl4.

During session 2, I (Taffy) was able to attend a workshop entitled "Managing Geek Central - Leading IT Professionals", conducted by Bill Connaghan. As an IT Director, his role is to "manage" IT service "geeks" for his school district. His main talking point was about the difference between motivational factors for Professional Staff vs. Custodial Staff vs. IT Staff. He provided insight into the minds of technical service personnel who are continually burdened with the responsibility of maintaining aging equipment, assisting personnel who do not see themselves as "mechanically inclined", and problem solving on the fly. These individuals face a unique set of challenges, and they are expected to do so in a professional manner, even when they are all but "attacked" upon entering a building to assess an issue. Some of Bill's more interesting tips were "serve free food", "challenge their minds with puzzles", "provide a quiet workspace they can call their own", and provide varied and on-going opportunities for stress relief".

CFF Stories (Dan) For my second session I attend one of the many CFF workshop that were going on. During this session Holly Jobe spoke about the current project and the approval of next years CFF grant. It appears that year 2 will happen. Deadline for the grant is April 11 at 2PM. Coach applications will be accepted from Feb 11- July15. For more info check out [|www.pde.state.pa.us/edhub]. After talking about the grant, a couple of schools from the first year of the grant (Pottstown is year 2) spoke about some of their findings.One principal spoke about how he recognized that he was asking his teachers to do wiki’s and blogs and other web 2.0 ideas but he was not using them.Therefore, he set up a blog where he would post information about his day and what was happening at school.The community soon began reading the blog and felt more of a sense of connection to the principal and began to build better and stronger relationships with parents and the community.Beyond that other schools spoke about how they began to have a book talks using wiki pages and to build a community online. One comment that I felt was important in thinking about the use of technology was, “not same activity in different way but new things to improve learning and response from students”.What they are trying to say is that we don’t want to just use digital paper or a digitized encyclopedia but we want to think about completely new way for students to learn about a topic.Another good idea was to use epals schoolblog to have students communicate with students from around the world and to do classroom writing.http://www.epals.com/products/esb/

Monday, Session 2 - Using Wikis for Classroom Connections (Mary Ellen) Enables students to share, edit, ask questions and solve problems.Advantage is the teacher can control who sees it.I see this as a tool for upper grades, but not at the primary grades.

=**__Monday Session C (3)__**=

(Bob Decker) LaTeX and Moodle forMath and Science Teachers LaTeX is a library of symbolic representations for Moodle. Although it does a nice job of making mathematical symbols, it is really designed for a LYNX system. The steps are tedious and too much effort in my opinion. The combination of MathType and MSWord are far more user-friendly. We should look into whether or not a worksheet or webpage created using MathType can be read on a computer without it.

Gaming Theory for Students (Christian Fowkes) Presentor showed us a freeware program from MIT called "Scratch". It allowed for students to "write" code in order to make a character do some sort of action. This allowed for logic and processing skills. This is a free program and should be investigated by teachers. Although a bit overwhelming at first, it will "force" students to engage at whatever their ability level and push them towards higher thinking and inquiry skills.

Streaming with the Stars (Aaron Torrence, Denise Leschak, Dawn Rosenberry) Three presenters showed us the top ten voted on web sites for educators. They were from the Discovery Education group and they each talked for four minutes on each site. Some of the sites were: [|www.DENcommunity.com] - Discovery Educators Network [|www.del.icio.us.com] Social bookmarking site which allows you to search other educators bookmarked sites to save you the time of doing it yourself [|www.blabberize.com] make your pictures talk Google Docs-this site allows you to hold your documents on line and manipulate them on line in a central location [|www.moonk.com] create a slideshow-digital storytelling [|www.teachertube.com] Youtube for teachers flickr- this site allows you to organize and store pictures

Scratch MIT logic program for students (Dan) This session was interesting as is focus on not a broad range of ideas but one product/program.We learned all about a program that was designed by MIT to help students learn logic and simple programs.This may seem very complicated but it is applicable for students from 1-12.The program works on a premise of building blocks with logic statements.If the blocks do not fit together the logic is flawed.Therefore, the program forces the learned to create logical statement and to construct an understand why as they build.At first was a little uncertain but after looking at the program and thinking about it for a bit it may be more useful that I originally recognized. The program may help students understand basic programming and to relate to if than and logic statements.It may also students to understand coordinates as everything relates to an x/y axis. This program is free and available at http://scratch.mit.edu/

Monday, Session 3 and Tuesday, Session 1 – Beep and Honk Your Way Into Learning and Special Education Strategies and Software (Mary Ellen) Both workshops were presented by Tool Factory and they provided software to use in the classroom.Some of the program focus were on phonemic awareness, spelling and writing.The programs were designed for prek-2.The disadvantage was that the teacher would need to adjust the program to the student needs.It did not adjust automatically.I did like that the teacher could type in the weekly spelling words for students to practice.I didn’t feel that it would be a replacement for Successmaker or Earobics Programs, but an additional practice tool for struggling students.

=__Monday Session D (4)__=

(Christian Fowkes) More Than GoogleEarth? ISSEarthKam ISSEarthKam is a NASA program which allows students to become Mission Photo Specialists. Students use the website to determine which orbit of the International Space Station (ISS) will allow for the best picture of a desired landscape. Much like GoogleEarth, ISSEarthKam provides up-to-date real time photos of areas of about 100-square miles. You will need to train yourself before you release to students.

Improving Math Scores- Egyptian games and Applied Math- (Aaron Torrence, Denise Leschak, Dawn Rosenberry) We were presented with a study that showed how [|www.testfactory.net] registered remarkable gains in math scores based on the use of the software from this company. We then played a game based on Egyptian times that was math related and was owned by this company. It was a sales pitch more than anything and our Successmaker does similar things to this program.

My (Taffy) sessions D and E were blended together into a two-hour program entitled: "Essential Skills for the District Tech Leader". In Part I, we were introduced to a Framework created by CoSN (Consortium of School Networks). Part II was a self-assessment project. Both sessions were presented by Irene Spero. The Framework is designed to the new array of skills and responsibilities that Technical Leaders face today. In the past, the expectation was that as a Tech Leader, your skill-base had to be 70% Tech Skills with the other 30% addressing a blend of skills for Leadership, Budgeting, Interdepartmental Collaboration, and Organization. The IT Leader of today faces challenges on a much more evenly blended scale. Each of the areas are now approximately 20% over the five areas, including Tech Skills.

Center for Advancing Partnership in education (Dan) During this presentation we learned about emerging technologies and how to possible use technology for younger students. A bulk of the presentation dealt with the OLPC project that is building 100 laptops for students in 3rd world countries. However, a lot of the technology relates to new and improved technologies for younger students.Some of interesting things were the use of smaller keyboard and simple to use programs.The younger students had no need for programs that allow to format in various ways.A simple word processor that allows the students to change font color and size is adequate and appropriate.Along with that we talked about students building collaboration thru the exchange of projects and communication thru the laptops.It was evident that younger students will thrive if they are given the proper opportunities with the proper equipment and software.

Monday, Session 4 – The Connected Classroom(Mary Ellen) Discussed wikispaces and the importance of collaboration.There were problems connecting to their teachers back home, which was the majority of the presentation.I walked away feeling that I learned nothing at this workshop

=**__Monday Session E (5)__**=

Integrating Technology K-5 (Aaron Torrence, Denise Leschak, Dawn Rosenberry) This was an interesting session because the speakers were computer lab integration specialists who worked as teachers and then their district had them work in the computer lab with the entire school. They work collaboratively with the teachers to infuse technology into all aspects of instruction. Together they planned lessons using the districts curriculum and the technology available to them. This was something that I wanted to do in our building. Rather than using the computer lab twice a week to have the students come in and put headphones on and quietly work through two sessions of CCC, the teacher and the integration specialist would create technology projects. This is something that I think would work well in our district so that we utilize the wide assortment of technoloy that we have at our disposal.

Teaching in a virtual world (Dan) This session focused on the use of Second Life as a teaching tool.I must say that I am not totally sold on this concept but it is gain momentum and may be resource in the future.This program allows schools to build a virtual world where students and teachers can interact.With the program students would be able to go to a classroom and view other students in the room and be able to discuss or work with them virtually.It is basically a graphic interface of the tools that are available. For example you would check you mailbox in front of your house for email or you would open a virtual book to read something.This technology sounds like it may be useful as it would make it easier to navigate and find resources.However, the software is not up to par with delivering the display and is still very hard to navigate.However, in the future this may become the way we navigate for information instead of using a web browser.

Monday, Session 5 – Photo Story in your Classroom (Mary Ellen) Using a free Windows XP Application, students can edit photos, add title and captions and add sound.One of the student exhibits used photos from a field trip to retell the trip.

=**__Vendor Area:__**= (Diane) - The vendor exhibits were open through out most of the conference days. Vendors of all sorts of technology service and equipment were on display. Monday afternoon, I spent a large portion of my time with SIS vendors learning how they are handling some of the new requirements in data collection and storage that is now required due to PIMS. Most of that time, I had spent with Judi Barnett, one of the Team managers and help-desk co-supervisors for PIMS, discussing many of the issues that districts are having with the data access at the state level.

(Taffy) - While visiting the vendor area, I had an opportunity to speak with ACE and EPlus about miniature laptops (for the Physical Education Department). I also spoke to Leader Services about IEP Writer, Achieve 3000 about KidBiz and TeenBiz, our SchoolDude account rep, and our previous accout rep for Fast ForWord. The information that I gathered will assist with budgeting this year.

=__DAY 2__=

__**Keynote speaker: Steve Dembo**__

The day opened with a speaker from Chicago Steve Dembo. Topic Speaking Digital Native.

What is a Digital Native/Digital Immigrants- The differenct between people who grew up with tech and those who did not. It was interesting to hear some of the comparisons of today's students. They are nature multi-taskers and graphical learners. Yet, they come into the classroom and we "tie down their arms" as they seem to be wired in a whole different way. Steve also spoke of the many places you can be without ever leaving your own little place in the world. He demonstrated many world-wide collorations and variuos web-sites that are available for the sharing of information of virtually any topic.

=__Tuesday Session F (6)__=

(Dan) Direction Instruction and Tech- we learned about the overall meaning of d.i. and how technology fits into this idea. The thought is that we often teach to one type of learner. With the use of technolgy we can adjust the context of the learning and possibly improve and draw out area of expertise of our students. This is NOT writing an IEP for each students or changing the content or criteria. However, it may involve the process or product. Some area to look at are grouping or flexable activities. Start with low prep _ easier things to implement and start and transition into higher prep. The classroom will most likely evolve into high prep. Presentation can be seen at the trainer wiki page of http://tech4di.wikispaces.com/ and http://www.lmsd.org/staff/techmentor/podcast/PETEnC07/petenc07.htm slides and hands out http://tech4di.wikispaces.com/space/showimage/Tech2DI4pdf.pdf

Tuesday Session F (Bob Decker) Moodling Along – The Conversation Continues… Good information about the set-up, use, and effectiveness ofusing Moodle for some online class management including quizzes, chat, wikis, etc. I have not as yet really looked at the Moodle feature of our intranet, but intend to do so.

The Virtual Field Trip (Christian Fowkes, Denise Leschak, Aaron Torrence, Dawn Rosenberry, Patrick Coulter) In this presentation we looked at various webcams commonly used for a Virtual Field Trip (VFT) and the reasoning behind VFTs. While the differences between a VFT and a Webquest are mostly in the process of finding and presenting the information, a VFT should be used to research places as opposed to terms, ideas, historical events, etc. VFT can be used as a prelude or a follow-up to a real field trip. Resources for planning, writing, and producing a VFT can be found at [|www.mapacourse.com] Animations for PowerPoint Shows can be found at [|www.animationfactory.com]

Your DataGoes to Washington (Diane Meck) Namce Cheris from PDE presented on the MANY data fields and records that are collected from the school distict and what is sent to Washington. With the start of PIMS, one goal is to eliminate approximately 250 of the reports that LEAs sent to PDE. With the 4 or 5 times a year data submission at the student and teacher level, soon all these reports will be generated at PDE and sent to Washington - into EDEN. (Education Data Exchange Network). Nancy explained the new race/ethnic information that will be required next school year for all students and employees for the federal government. Multiple codes will be used to be able to break down the multi-ethnic people.

For this session (Taffy), I attended a workshop about AUP (Acceptable Use Policy) language. It was provided by Carrie Gardner. She reviewed AUP language in over 20 Pennsylvania AUPs. There were some thought-provoking discussions about a child's right to an education, and what that means in terms of providing technology as a tool or resource for the child's education, but calling it a privilege rather than a right. And taking that technology access away as a punishment for misbehavior. One comment was: "Do we take a child's math book away as a punishment for misbehavior in math class?" And further. . . "In schools where we deny access to technology for students who have misused the technology, would we ever remove the child from math class for the remainder of the year for misbehaving in that class?" Carrie also made a point about the difference between having parents sign for permission to use Internet technology vs. having parents sign when they specifically request that we deny Internet access to their child. It was a very thought-provoking workshop.

=__Tuesday Session G (7)__= Teaching Using Simulations (Christian Fowkes) This presentation focused on the use of online simulations to drive science conepts. Although geared more towards the higer level sciences, simulations can be found for the elementary levels. The use of simulations will introduce students to the process of science as well as the content of science. Students become self-directed learners in the process of uncovering the content and concepts. One limiting factory to our students is access to computers with internet access for extended periods of time. Links to simulation websites can be found at http://thesciencefactory.wikispaces.com

Tuesday, Session 2 – Teaching Using Simulations (Mary Ellen) This was one of the most interesting workshops I attended.The presenter was very good.He stressed the importance of students needing interactive engagement in order to become life-long learners.While much of the information was more for upper elementary and higher, he did provide a site for primary grades at learningscience.org.You can also check out http://thesciencefactory.wikispaces.com

Tuesday Session G (Bob Decker) 21st Century Students in a 21st Century Classroom Session concentrated on the use of Moodle in a high school English class. Good points were that the students really took to the use of Blogs and journals, they responded to, and commented on each other’s comments, those who normally do not participate in class discussions felt comfortable doing so. The instructor also used some wikis, and online quizzes through Moodle.

Inspiration and United Streaming (Aaron Torrence, Dawn Rosenberry, Patrick, Denise, Liz) This presented demonstrated how to combine two assets that Pottstown already uses-United Streaming and Inspiration. They showed us how to create Inspiration maps and use United Streaming to allow students to view clips of movies in their Inspiration presentations. It was a different way to use Inspiration and United Streaming that allowed the students a fuller view of the subject taught.

PIMS 102 (Diane Meck) Dave Ream presented on the latest updates of PIMS. The window for data submission for the 10/1 enrollment and for the staff snapshot for the profession report has been re-opened. March 3 will be the next snapshot date and all student, staff and course data is expected to be submitted. There has been some confusion over the use of PIMs vs. DRC for the student data. The disticts are requesting the PDE lists the responsiblities that they think fall under a PIMS administrator - a title that was created by PDE.

For this session (Taffy) I attended a workshop entitled "Enforcing Your Acceptable Use Policies" presented by Phil Scrivano. Since we are looking to review and revise our AUP, I wanted as much information as I could get before tackling this task. Although I was hoping to hear more about the day-to-day pitfalls of enforcing an AUP, Phil's talk was more specifically geared toward illegal activities performed on District networks. It made me pleased that our filter is so effective and that we do not allow staff to bypass without a specific purpose. Other organizations only filter student accounts, leaving adult accounts open. Prior to this workshop, I would have thought that was reasonable. However, it was almost frightening to hear how many cases of child pornography he had testified in where teaching staff or Administrators were involved in districts throughout the country.