Nina+Barber

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 * Monday **


 * Big Idea:** TECNOLOGIA AL SUR DE LA FRONTERA, Technology south of the border
 * __Technology Initiatives in Mexico__: outlining and highlighting Mexican visions of TIE. Most observers were native Spanish speakers (this was my 3rd choice after the others were full, 45 min before the scheduled start of the lectures!) It was interesting to see the national perspective in Mexico about developing tech education. A huge job, to bring tech to rural areas, but the Telesecondarias in rural areas are the schools most willing to accept technology. In Mexico, only 4 out of 10 students have computer access. Got lots of gov't statistics here. It was really interesting, but I was hearing the DOE side of the story. Would love to hear what the teachers say.
 * 4 out of 100 people in Mex have access to broadband services, but the OECD avg is 18 out of 100 (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Dev)
 * In 2009: 68 million Mexicans had no internet access
 * 26 million students in primary and secondary schools in 1 million classrms in Mexico
 * SEP 2012 objective to equip 6-9th grade classrooms with equipment (208,017); promoting 1:1 model
 * Many established teachers are resistant, using computers only for record keeping
 * Preservice teachers (interns) being trained as tech support to mentor “senior teachers”
 * Telesecondarias are located in poor rural areas, 2-3 classroom school with often only 1 or 2 teachers, have been very receptive of tech; more than in developed areas, because of the dependence on distance learning.
 * __Cedros News__: news podcasts used to reinforce English acquisition in a Mexico City private school for boys. Students made a daily news podcast with the goal of encouraging English speaking from reluctant students. This session was really a bore, sadly. The kids were so enthusiastic, but the instructors had such bad English skills, it was hard for me to understand them for most of the meeting (and I am a spanish speaker!!!) Here are some good ideas that I gleaned from a pretty sloppy presentation:
 * A daily news podcast can give students the chance to practice the foreign language in core areas (this works at Cedros where all classes are taught in English as a foreign language): weather report; news like Pluto's loss of planetary status, etc. It seems that the podcast had a leaning towards science in the news.
 * Students learn to apply green screen technology.
 * Students may feel safer producing language in front of camera where they may rerecord if their report not done correctly.
 * __Podcasting 101__: this was an excellent model classroom where teachers could set up their own mini podcast and see how it works. This is something that I have been wanting to add to my current wiki page/blog and will work on this summer.
 * Use Garage Band.
 * Choose background music, add still photos from internet or from iphoto files; record voice track
 * student-created podcast can be viewed by other students and/or parents
 * *my application would be for students to receive quality comprehensive input by accessing MY podcasts, which I tailor to the needs of my own 7th grade Spanish/French classes! This would be great, especially for students who are out of town or sick at home.
 * I have discovered that a MAC is the way to go, and I am so happy that I bought myself one! The iLife series on Macs make podcasting a snap! [|www.apple.com]


 * Tuesday **

> *famous monuments > *cultural art tours > *spatial awareness > *cultural rooms > *cinema > *folklore and proverbs > *currency > *using public transport > *holidays > *Le Petit Prince-create the planet > *ordering (cafe, travel agent) > *shopping in a market > *Mesoamerican ball game
 * Big Idea:** STUFF I CAN'T HAVE but it's neat anyway
 * __Empathy: The 21st Century Skill__: design rigorous and motivating and engaging assignments. [] Empathy means to look at an idea from BOTH sides. A great example: when studying the American Revolution, search UK sites for student opinions on the other side of the pond (sch uk). Students can compare / contrast points of view of US and UK. Follow up can be a skype conference with a British school or a skype debate on the revolution. *The point of the internet is not to get a better test score, but to communicate on a global scale, give students a different POV, teach students to communicate. Teach students to have better relationships by using the computer-relationships.
 * __Cure What Ails You: A dose of Twitter for every day of the year__, Kathleen Schrock. I came to this session to learn more about how to use Twitter educationally. Finding loads of frustrations because DPS blocks so many of the great sites I am learning about!! Not sure I would actually use this in my classroom even if I could. There are lots more useful things I can do than TWEET for education. Still, after all this time saying that Twitter was silly, I finally joined Twitter. No one is following me.
 * __Virtual Worlds in the World Language Classroom__: advantages of creating a virtual world in which student avatars use the foreign language in an alternative world. While my students would love this, I don't see the connection to my own classroom. At my beginning level, my students do not produce enough language to communicate in these settings. Still, in a higher level high school classroom, this could be awesome! The presenter was not a foreign language teacher, sadly, so she was unable to create any situations that were meaningful in a foreign language setting. I am concerned that student avatars chatting with other student avatars will produce some erroneous language. Maybe student avatars communicating one:one with the teacher avatar would be a better use of this technology. Some applications:
 * [|Second Life]; [|Reaction Grid]


 * Wednesday **


 * Big Idea:** WRAPPING IT UP to apply in my classroom
 * __MashMedia: New web, old media and your own stuff__, Hall Davidson, Discovery Education
 * Use Web 2.0 sites and media library; download them, screen capture them, mash them together
 * Create tutorials for kids that are not on the web, so will still run when network is down.
 * Take advantage of free stuff for educators
 * __Blogging Basics and Beyond__: Use Google Blogger to create informative and interactive blogs for classroom purposes. Instructor [|Tammy Worcester] packed about 6 hours of blogging information into 1 hour!
 * Links and Resources so others can pick up on what you learned

SUNDAY, JUNE 27, 7PM-8:30PM **
 * Keynote and other Special Sessions


 * Big Idea:** GLOBAL EDUCATION
 * __Skoolaborate__: A Global Education Initiative Using Virtual Worlds (a poster session on a product that can be purchased by a school for about $1500 in which student and teacher avatars communicate with avatars from other countries about global issues such as water, art, education...)
 * __iEARN-USA__ (a poster session on International Education and Resource Network, which enables students to participate in global projects and make a difference in the world. Projects include studies on culture: food, music; science: water habitat; youth news and folk tales.) Cost is $100 per classroom, $400 per school.
 * __Global Nomads Group__ (a poster session on an organization that coordinates video conferencing with classrooms in other parts of the world. Students discuss news, politics, environmental issues, school life. Conferences are coordinated with age-specific partners. GNG is also part of a challenge grant to rebuild schools in Haiti. [|Global Nomads Group]
 * [|Skoolaborate] ;[| iEARN]
 * **WEDNESDAY, JUNE 30, 8:30-11AM **
 * Playground session: interactive video conferencing. I spent about 2 hours in a "playground" setting, testing out various products used for video conferencing. I spoke, face to face, with representatives from several museums across the US about what their museums can offer students. This would be a great experience for students to see the world, even if it is only on a computer screen or white board. Still, the technology needed is not cheap (camera, microphone, projector or interactive whiteboard). So, after talking with representatives from 2 videoconferencing companies, and participating in a video conference with [|GLOBAL NOMADS], I have decided to pursue some grant applications to get involved in videoconferencing via GLOBAL NOMADS. With GLOBAL NOMADS, my students will be able to conference 4 times per year with students in other parts of the world, generally in poorer nations. This would be an incredibly enriching, eye-opening experience for my students! In order to participate, however, I need to purchase some hardware, and for this, I will need some grant writing support. I spent some time after the video conference talking to people that will walk me thru the grant writing process. I hope to work on this in cooperation with my coworker at Hamilton, world geography teacher Lesley Meyer. This would be an outstanding opportunity to link world geography with world languages.

I think I addressed what I think of some of these options for my classroom. A goal is to, somehow, scrounge up the connection and the necessary equipment to work with Global Nomads and have some sort of video conferencing with other classrooms in the world. I will also use some names I gathered to connect via email with some schools in Mexico until I can get some equipment. I am pursuing applying for grant money to get this project off the ground. It would be great for my students to learn about the issues that their foreign peers have by listening to their foreign peers and not a teacher.
 * Implications for your Classroom ** (

Last year, I used a wiki page to connect with students at home and their parents. This year, I will add a blog, weekly podcasts, and may even add Twitter to better connect with students and parents. Sadly, lots of this must be done on my own time and not at school, because I do not have iLife available at school, nor can I get into my twitter account. It is blocked by DPS. My principal will not unblock any forbidden sites for me. I have been unable to use YouTube videos that my students would love and would learn from. The limits that are given to teachers in DPS buildings make some technology unreachable, sadly.