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EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY NEWS From the New Hampshire Department of Education Office of Educational Technology
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October 27, 2003
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IN THIS ISSUE • Handhelds in Education • Project Based Learning with ThinkQuest • Libraries and Technology • Ask your students to SpeakUp! • ICT Literacy • Share-A-Thon Presenters Needed • Bringing Laptops from Home • Homework Assignments Online ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
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ET News is sent from the Office of Educational Technology at the New Hampshire Department of Education. Please note that, while ET News is forwarding information about technology related products and services, we have not conducted a formal evaluation of such products/services. We encourage you to let us know if you find a particular item of high quality and value to your school. You can find previous issues of ETNews on our web site at www.nheon.org/oet/etnews.
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====================================== HANDHELDS in EDUCATION ======================================
Do you wonder how handheld computers can be used in your classroom? We have two suggestions to help you answer this question:
1) Visit Kathy Schrock’s website for some great links to handheld computer resources. Her “POWER in the Palm of Your Hand” page takes you to dozens of articles, lesson plans, software, and a lot more. http://kathyschrock.net/power/
2) Visit the upcoming Christa McAuliffe Technology Conference website, where you’ll find information about the Handhelds in Education Initiative. Dr. Eliot Soloway provides the Tuesday conference keynote address on the topic, “Palm-sized Devices are the Personal Choice for K-12” and many of the conference sessions focus on the use of handheld technology. You can even place your order for a McAuliffe Conference Palm handheld with conference materials pre-loaded for your arrival at the conference in Nashua. http://www.nhste.org/McAuliffe/
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====================================== PROJECT BASED LEARNING with THINK QUEST ======================================
What is ThinkQuest? ThinkQuest is an international project-based learning program where students between the ages of 9 and 19 collaborate, research and build web sites to showcase their discoveries. ThinkQuest aligns with national and state standards for technology and curriculum, brings real-life context to your curriculum through project-based learning, and gives students a variety of ways to demonstrate skills to their teachers. Many completed web site projects are published, categorized, and viewed by Internet users all over the world in the ThinkQuest Library at http://www.thinkquest.org/library/index.html
How can my students participate? Students form teams of 3 - 6 students per team to build web sites related to one of these 5 topic areas: nonnative species, natural disasters, mythology and folklore, space travel, world economy, medicine. Teachers who act as team coaches need only “a very basic understanding of the Internet to get their teams started. Each winning team member (students and the Primary Coach) will be eligible to attend a trip to ThinkQuest Live @ OracleWorld in San Francisco, CA USA where they meet face-to-face, present their work to thousands of conference attendees, participate in workshops and presentations, and meet some of the technology industry's most influential leaders.” Teams in the current round of web building have roughly 5 months, from October 1 to February 29, 2004, to complete their sites. ThinkQuest encourages teachers to form international teams and gives bonus points for any distance collaboration (different countries, districts or schools).
Still not sure you’re ready for this? Check out the easy to use TQ Coach Guide with information on planning, managing, and assessing a student team. http://www.thinkquest.org/oct03may04/guide_before.shtml Not only that, the guide provides a technical tutorial and some “words of wisdom” from other teachers explaining how they got their students started.
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====================================== LIBRARIES and TECHNOLOGY ====================================== http://www.eschoolnews.com/resources/reports/librariesandtechnology/
“Look it up: high quality school library programs lead to better achievement.”
This report on the eSchoolNews website has a wealth of important information for schools to consider. It includes links to several school library research studies.
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====================================== ASK YOUR STUDENTS TO SPEAK UP! ====================================== http://www.netday.org/speakupday.htm
Don’t forget -- Wednesday, October 29 is NetDay Speak Up Day! This is an important and widespread effort to reach out to students across the country and to learn how they are using technology both within and outside of school. Their comments will help shape the new National Education Technology Plan (NETP). Visit the website for details on how your students can get involved.
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====================================== ICT LITERACY ====================================== http://www.ictliteracy.info/index.htm
The new website for Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) Literacy is helping to promote awareness of ICT literacy as those essential skills which are needed for a literate 21st century workplace. The site is full of resource links to reports, grants, webcasts, and more.
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====================================== SHARE-A-THON PRESENTERS NEEDED ====================================== http://www.nhste.org/McAuliffe Share-A-Thon presenters are still needed for the Christa McAuliffe Technology Conference on Thursday, December 4, 2003 at the Sheraton in Nashua. This is a great way to share something about the exciting activities in your class without doing a full hour long conference session. This year the Share-A-Thon is being held on Thursday from 10:30 to 12:30, so participants can still enjoy the "SchoolHouse Rock" extravaganza keynote presentation and two full concurrent sessions. Classroom activity ideas that tie to the three conference themes are particularly sought after: (1) handheld computing (Palm, AlphaSmart, PocketPC, GPS, and so on), (2) laptop computing, (3) digital video and digital still. Three steps to register as a Share-A-Thon presenter: 1. Download the "Call for Presenters" brochure from the conference website. 2. Complete the "Share-A-Thon section." 3. Fax the presenters form to the NHSAA office at the number listed on the form. |
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====================================== BRINGING LAPTOPS FROM HOME TO SCHOOL ======================================
If your school is concerned about the possibility of viruses when students and staff bring their laptops from home to school, you might want to take a look at Bradford Software, Inc, a company based in Concord, NH.
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====================================== HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENTS ONLINE ======================================
Looking for an easy way to post homework assignments online for students/parents?
The folks at HomeworkNOW.com provide the following about this school service as “the Web's leading school-to-home communication tool. If you haven't already heard, many NH schools are now using HomeworkNOW.com…. a revolutionary on-line service which gives schools/teachers the ability to post classroom assignments and happenings on the Internet, keeping teachers, parents, and students connected 24/7 - at a cost next to nothing. What a way to implement technology into our schools and to keep teachers, students, and parents connected! For over 5 years HomeworkNOW has been servicing over 1,000 US schools and have thousands of registered teachers using the online service. Our educational service has been featured in virtually all major internet and education related periodicals and conferences.” Visit the site or call 888-426-9246. The company is based in Hampton, NH.
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Regards, Cathy Higgins for the staff at the Office of Educational Technology at the New Hampshire Department of Education Visit us on NH Educators Online at http://nheon.org/oet |
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