For example, LearnNowBC provides access to a free Study Centre with tutoring in twenty-one courses from Grade 4 to Grade 12. This offering is a combination of One-To-One Live Tutor (Sunday to Thursday, 6:00 PM to 10:00 PM), Success Checker and Charged up for Math and Science which are provided 24×7 so learners can get support when they need it. There is also many other Homework Help resources that are online at the site. The Young Learning Center is filled with resources for pre-school to Grade 2 students as well as lesson plans and work projects for teachers to access online.

Want to take a course online? The Courses Finder has more than 2500 Distributed Learning (DL) online courses to browse through. All courses are offered by DL schools in BC and students can view course details and are able to enroll directly with a school online.

LearnNowBC also hosts the 19 Cyber Safety videos for teachers and parents. The new videos focus on social media and provide teachers and parents with a better understanding of what to look for and how to protect children in the digital age. The videos are short and concise and help adults to quickly understand the dangers and how to avoid them.

Teachers can create an online virtual room, free of charge, for meeting with students and parents to discuss homework and progress. This could also be used by the school Parent Advisory council ( PAC) with the ability to record meetings and post them on the school site for parents that were unable to attend to be kept up to date. There is also professional development that is offered to teachers in the Educator Centre such as Teaching Online Course, Early Learning Centre and more.

There is also an Advising center which was created to assist learners to make academic and career decisions. The Advising Center offers information on course selection, prerequisites, graduation planning tools, post-secondary options and planning, Apprenticeship opportunities, Work Experience options, Help evaluating career options, Post-secondary options and planning. LNBC has a dedicated Trades & Career Advisor by (email career_advising@learnnowbc.ca) or toll-free: 1 800 663 3381 (x2460) and a dedicated Academic Advisor ( email (academic_advising@learnnowbc.ca) or toll-free:1 888-412-5622 ext #2

Here is a video that provides you with a complete overview of the site in 3 minutes.
http://www.learnnowbc.ca/media/

This past December the Premier’s Technology Council (PTC) released A Vision for 21^st Century Education. The document highlights what K-12 education in British Columbia should look like once the system is transformed to better serve the needs of 21st century learners and citizens. It’s divided into four main parts: a) Needs of a Knowledge-Based Society, b) Vision for 21^st Century Education, c) How the System Should Function and d) Shifting Roles.

Over the past few months, I was formally involved in reviewing and contributing as an educator to this document. In addition, I participated in Ministry discussions on the role of technology in personal and professional learning, have had numerous conversations on learning and technology with a variety of stakeholders, and have worked to meaningfully embed technology into my classrooms, experiencing both successes and failures. However, on reforming education I have neither a short nor general case answer I can share. Like the province, I believe there are multiple paths to a better system, there is no one school of tomorrow, and that it is up to districts, schools and classrooms—the true experts—to determine their own nuances of how they will change.

One thing I can share though, drawing on all my experiences is this: effective classrooms, whether face-to-face, virtual or blended, are communities held together by a core.

Looking back on my career, I’m embarrassed to say I probably would have been hard pressed to articulate the core values, ideas and orienting frameworks I used at times to centre my classrooms. Today, however, although the opposite is true, I find demands within and beyond my classroom frequently work to distract me from the priorities we establish and the timelines we set as a class. Similarly, reflecting on my changing practice, more and more its seems some research is uncovered, or a tool is shared, or a subtlety in a student which was before me all along appears that I wish I had discovered earlier, and I’m humbled.

We teach in increasingly complex times. Neither good nor bad, this is simply the way it is. Technology, unlike ever before in the history of education, is changing teaching and learning, continuing to open people to content and people to people. Regardless, whether it is pushed or pulled into my room, either by me or someone else, intentioned or not, I’m open to it, adopting those technologies that most benefit my students provided they ground us, add to who we are, or contribute to the purposes we have agreed on and wish to accomplish as a community. In a sense, a key part of our jobs remains the same: teachers are the immune systems of our classrooms.

On the other hand, as I grow more sensitive to my shortcomings, I’m seeing them for what they are: a lack of synergy, and this is where the shifting roles component of the PCT’s vision speaks to me. Teachers must adapt, but I’m not so sure we need to change. We must continue to do what effective teachers have always done: coordinate every resource at our disposal in order to benefit our students, both individually and collectively, while developing the communities we serve.

Educational blogs and journals are all “atwitter” about digital storytelling and have been for awhile. Why? At its base, digital storytelling is a modern (and very cool) way of doing something we’ve been doing for our entire existence on earth. Telling stories. The stories may not have changed much, but the tools at our disposal have changed drastically. Using simple digital tools, our students can create stories about the world around them and the world inside them.

“Great,” you say. “How do I start?” Easy! The first step in digital storytelling is one that we, as teachers, already do. Help your students create a good story. I spend quite a bit of time on this planning stage and have my students create a plan, a storyboard and a script of some kind. Remember that stories can cross subject boundaries. A story about the life cycle of a butterfly is just as valid as a fractured fairy tale or the story of human migration out of Africa.

The next step is collecting the images for the movie. This step can be as simple or complicated as you and your students want and are comfortable with. There are lots of great, inexpensive digital cameras and camcorders out there and there are also lots of great copyright free images online. I usually have my students create their first movie with still pictures (either of themselves, of drawings they’ve done or of images from the internet) and move to actual video after they’ve mastered the first.

There are lots of programs for creating movies, from simple slide show-creating tools to programs like iMovie, PhotoStory3 and Moviemaker. Once the kids have loaded the images or video into the program, it’s time to add the audio. I’ve discovered it works best to use a plug-in headset for this. It helps eliminate much of the background noise caused by a room full of kids!

Whether or not you choose to add music to the movie is really up to you and the computer skills of your students. I generally don’t do it, unless the kids have created the music themselves.

Once your movies are created, you need to decide how you’re going to share them. This will depend on the policies of your district and school. Invite parents to come to a “World Premier” night of your movies.  Share the movies with other classes or at student-led conferences. Put them on your class blog. Celebrate all the hard work you and the kids have done!

With some forethought and a little tech know-how, digital storytelling can be done with any grade and across the curriculum. Dip in your toe or jump off the deep end, but give it a try – you’ll be glad you did!

Further resources:

http://prezi.com/7ab3dtfvfsnz/digital-storytelling/

http://cwilson-sd45.wikispaces.com/

1.)    They are concerned that it will take a great deal of time and effort to overcome the learning curve.

2.)   They feel that by using technology, they are going to be creating more work for themselves.

I suggest that if technology doesn’t save you time, effort, or money, (or perhaps some magical combination of these three if you are lucky), then don’t adopt it.  For a little bit of learning, I find tons of way to save minutes and hours out of each day.

I use my classroom website to save time and effort each day.  I feel that my suggested uses of classroom websites would save mainstream teachers time and effort as well, and are not just successful because I am in a computer lab.  In fact I have used many of these ideas before I was a computer explorations teacher.

Embedding

Embedding is a great way to bring the best of the Internet to your website.  Rather than having your students look for the one video you want to show them on YouTube, you can paste the embed code from YouTube into your website, and now the kids can go to your site to see the video.  This prevents kids from being frustrated by not being able to find exactly the right video, and prevents them from stumbling upon content they should not be exposed to.  You know what I am talking about here….like Rick Astley Videos!

Screencasting

When I taught elementary Math, I recorded my lesson on a video camera in front of my whiteboard. But not all teachers wish to appear on camera.

Screencasting is a process where you record what you are doing on your screen and your voice.  This is a great resource for students and parents, and since you are teaching it, why not record it?  I use Jing, which is free software.  I send my video to either Screencast.com or YouTube.  Then I use the embed code to plug the lesson into my site.

This enables parents to help their kids.  Also, as Jing limits you to about 5 minutes of recording, so you have to be brief and to the point.  Remember, you seldom hear kids walking out of a lecture hall saying “Great lesson, but if only he had talked longer…”

Lessons and Attachments:

I put my lessons in my site as separate entries, like separate blog posts.  I use a SharePoint website so I can just “close” a lesson and it disappears into the background.  I can just open it up later, when it is time to teach that lesson again.  I also change my lessons a bit each term based on things I learn from the students and their experiences with the lessons.  They generally make good suggestions, and I can update my lessons and marking criteria on the spot.  If you took a black felt marker and began crossing out sections of a Science textbook, writing words and thoughts in the column, the teacher would call it vandalism.  In my class, where the website is the text book, we call it progress!

I had a student who always forgot her Science homework.   It was a lot of effort to print off a new copy of the question sheet, or diagram to be labeled.   Then I had to find time to keep this student in to do the work she lost or forgot which ended up costing me time.  However SharePoint and most blogging sites support attaching files.  Since many of us are already creating our own question sheets, diagrams for labeling, etc. why not attach the files to your online lessons.  I found by attaching my sheets to the website, the girl’s parents could print off the sheet she left behind, lost, or made into origami animals!

It’s smart to invest your time as a teacher to learn how to create and use a classroom website.  Technology for technology’s sake is pointless. It’s about putting technology to work…for you.

Photobility

A fabricated term to measure how well each medium handles photographs. Pictures are an important part of any school year as they tell the stories of that particular moment. Both Facebook and yearbooks have this feature and apart from the sheer volume that is available on Facebook, they are equal in this round.

Winner: Tie

(NOTE: Yearbooks may actually have a better selection because it forces the editor to choose the best pictures instead of putting in everything from the camera.)

Weight

Physical yearbooks can be cumbersome depending on the number of pages, paper stock and type but it does have the tangibility factor that some still cherish. In comparison, Facebook’s weight varies with the device that it is displayed on (i.e. computer, iPhone, etc.).

Winner: Tie

Technique

The variety of applications and games not only entice the users of Facebook to stay and play, it also serves as a revenue stream for developers and advertisers that use the platform to reach their audience. Yearbooks have normally settled with advertising to community businesses just to subsidize printing costs.

Winner: Facebook

Commentary

Facebook gives the play by play action on everything as they are posted by the user. Yearbooks have actual autographs which are one of the key elements that make it so enamored and likely why the convention still exists.
Winner: Tie

Replays

SEE pictures of school events? Or RELIVE the experience through video?

Winner: Facebook

Reach

Although the physical yearbook gives the ability to touch and feel something when the need arises, accessibility is the mantra for the 21st century. Most people are so used to their emails being available 24 hours of the day that it would only seem natural that Facebook’s omnipresence typifies today.

Winner: Facebook

Conditioning

Facebook is continually being updated. Hats off to the staff of 1700+ working hard to give the public something to enjoy and for free at that. The pulp and ink version is essentially WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get). The only updates that can be done are with your marker of choice and it will stay there…forever.

Winner: Facebook

Stamina

As long as the company is still around, Facebook will continue to provide hours of endless perusing and connecting with people worldwide. Traditional yearbooks are only as permanent as the materials they was made from. In a fire, computers are replaceable whereas yearbooks are…well, not so much.

Winner: Facebook

(BONUS: Since Facebook is hosted in the cloud, it means that embarrassing photos stay intact even if your PC burns down.)

Just something to consider – what happens to your photos and other information should Facebook cease to exist?

For people who are concerned with privacy, it is interesting that many throw it out the window with Facebook. Essentially they are leaving their info, photos, friends, interests, dislikes, and a whole lot more in the hands of complete strangers!

Facebook clearly won in many of the rounds. Some believe that the yearbook is already out for the count, barely clinging onto consciousness in our fast moving world. Actually there need not be any real losers in this battle. There are aspects of Facebook that are undeniably stronger than the yearbook and conversely, there are things about a yearbook that cannot be replicated on Facebook. Ideally both contenders could work as one to bring the yearbook to a new generation; one that coexists with technology but transcends the physicality of the book. In fact, that generation is already here.

Yes, the yearbook can be revived!! Find out more in part two of the Face vs. Year Book wars!

A VoiceThread is a collaborative, multimedia slide show that holds images, documents, and videos and allows people to navigate pages and leave comments in 5 ways – using voice (with a mic or telephone), text, audio file, or video (via a webcam). Share a VoiceThread with friends, students, and colleagues for them to record comments too.

Users can doodle while commenting, use multiple identities, and pick which comments are shown through moderation.

VoiceThreads can even be embedded to show and receive comments on other websites and exported to MP3 players or DVDs to play as archival movies.

Users can doodle while commenting, use multiple identities.

Commenting & Doodling

VoiceThread inspires collaboration and expression with 5 innovative ways to comment. Collect the voices of an entire group on a single page by computer microphone, telephone, text, audio file (MP3/WAV), and webcam.

Simple voice and video commenting takes place right in your web browser.

With Doodling, you can draw on top of the media as you record your comment (using mic, webcam, or keyboard). VoiceThread’s innovative Video Doodling feature allows you to control the playback of a video, while Doodling and commenting on specific video segments. VoiceThread Doodles are synced to your comment, showing viewers your thoughts in action.

Identities

One VoiceThread account can have many identities (commenting avatars) associated with it. A family, a class, or an interesting person can switch identities on-the-fly without having to sign in with a different account. Think 22 kids, 45 minutes, and a project to complete – and you’ll understand the wonder of this feature.

Sharing and Groups (Ed. Version)

Any way you want it. VoiceThreads security comes in many forms, from private to public, and anywhere in between. Simple security settings allow creators to choose what the VoiceThread viewers can do. You can change these settings as often as you like.  You can also easily create Groups of your friends, colleagues, or those you have common interests with, and have the Group’s VoiceThreads shared and shown in one place (on your MyVoice page).

http://voicethread.com/ (free site)
http://ed.voicethread.com/ (charge to create your own group or secure environment)

Media has a history of being misunderstood and subsequently trashed. Back in the day, it was thought that television would surely rot the brains of youth as we sat with our faces pressed up against the screen watching The Beatles on the Ed Sullivan Show. The content we could access was even more frightening to our parents.  Rock and roll was accessible everywhere – on radio, TV and vinyl.  Media was changing the world.

A little over a decade ago, we went through another significant transition.  People with little knowledge of technology could use the internet to access all kinds of new and current information. Never mind that the information wasn’t necessarily accurate and finding it was like looking for an earring in a vacuum cleaner bag.  No matter.  It was about immediacy, access and personal control. We didn’t have to rely on media outfits to feed us information; we could go find what we wanted, when we wanted it.

These days, a new concern has emerged from the original cast of television viewers who now observe youth obsessed with computer games, cell phones, texting and social media.  A new generation of parents fears that we may be permanently altering the way we think and relate as a result of technology.  If the medium is the message and information is content, then so are relationships. With “ieverythings” at our technological fingertips and so many ways to access information using these tools, it is heady business. The pun is intended. The way we use our brains is changing.

Under the circumstances, it is not surprising that everyone has an opinion about certain forms of new media. It is nothing short of messy to live in an age where we have so many tools and so little time.  It can be difficult, frustrating, and exhausting to keep up. Perhaps these are some of the things that fuel reactionary responses to applications of technology. Here are three camps of resistance I have identified:

You’ve Got Email

This camp is largely populated by young people, many of whom would be classified by date of birth as members of Generation Y or Z. These kids use email as a secondary tool of communication and are fond of creating outrageous user names for email accounts that they rarely use.  In stark contrast to these youngsters, but still in the same camp, are the middle-aged business people. They have been buried alive in email for the best part of a decade and are sick to death of it. They are usually in the possession of Outlook Inboxes containing over 1,000 messages.

In Your Facebook

Interestingly, this is also a cross-generational group. True to human form, anything which becomes wildly popular with the masses is bound to get a reaction from fringe elements of the populace. Facebook is the fastest growing form of social media we have ever known. Bordering on omnipresent, it is frequently criticized for its superficial and self-indulgent uses. Facebook appeals to popular culture as it can turn anyone into a teenager again without plastic surgery.  For some, this can be fun to play with. For others, it makes them say and do things they may regret later.

Twitter Is For The Birds

Those who don’t like Twitter never threw a note in class, find Ashton Kutcher annoying and probably still purchase Hallmark greeting cards. (That sentence is exactly 140 characters long. I have also described myself.)

So what is my point?  That which forces us to change when we are not ready generates push back. This has nothing to do with what is right or wrong. It is simply the nature of change. To express this in scientific terms, “to every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction”. Newton’s Law of Motion applies to education as how we teach and learn cannot be separated form the context of our rapidly changing technological world.

List is sorted in order of frequency of use.

Web Browser

If you have a Mac, the default browser is Apple’s Safari, on Windows it is Internet Explorer.  However, there are a number of reasons you should consider installing a second (or even third browser).

• Firefox remains the most customizable feature rich browser.  It is opensource so it is made by people who share their expertise to make one of the best browsers available.  Check out all the free addons that expand what firefox can do.  My most used, must have addon is Video Downloader which can be used to download offline copies of YouTube videos for use in the classroom that isn’t dependent on an internet connection.
• Google Chrome is amazing and fast with all the google sites such as gmail, google docs, reader… etc
• Not to be left behind, Internet Explorer is moving to version 9.

Office software such as word-processing.

• Microsoft Office is the solid ‘education industry’ standard.  If you work in a BC district that has subscribed to the licensing agreements it is a mere $11 to take the software home.  Get the license code from your district educational technology team and see more information here: Microsoft Home Use Program
• OpenOffice is a ‘free and open productivity suite’ which looks and has many of the same features of Microsoft Office.  See: http://www.openoffice.org/
• Google Docs – although this isn’t something you have to install as it is FREE and online, it is amazing for educators wanting to collaborate as it has live online editing.
• Windows Live Writer – is the blogging program that works with most types of blogs.  It makes it really easy to embed photos to posts!  See previous post.

Antivirus

• AVG Free is all I’ve ever needed.  Install, allow the automatic updates and let it work. I recently got to see it in action as it picked up a Trojan Horse on my computer and cleaned it off.  Most people start looking for an antivirus once their free trial of McAfee or Norton runs out on the computer they purchased. http://free.avg.com

Video Player

• VLC video player is the one program that will play almost any type of video file.  This includes the ‘.flv’ video files that are created when downloading YouTube videos using Video Downloader for FireFox (see above).

PDF Creator

Have you ever wondered what file format to save your class newsletter in so that all your parents can open?  Well PDF if the most universal file type that can be opened on all computers and retains the formatting.

• Cute PDF writer once installed is like having another printer.  Once your document is ready, click print, select CutePDF and save the file.

Video/Sound recording and Curricular

• JING will capture whatever you have on your screen and the audio from a microphone.  It is a great way to explain how to use a website to students.  The link to the recording can then be shared.
• Audacity will allow you to record sound and create a podcast.  Check out the version 1.3 beta.
• Google Earth is an amazing way to view, measure and manipulate our physical world.
• Microsoft Photostory is a long-time favourite to put voice-overs on pictures.  It works in Windows 7 so it is here to stay.

Software to skip…

On my last posting on free software I had MSN and Skype.  I no longer use these now that that you can make free phone calls to North America right from within GMAIL.  Rumour has it that even Facebook is getting into the free phone.  See more on the article by the Globe and Mail.

To see original article, please visit: http://jamesmcconville.blogspot.com/2010/09/free-software-for-teachers.html

We have a fundamental question to address with regards to educating our Digital Age children. How we answer this question will determine how we plan for and implement education in the broadest sense for many years to come. In its simplest form, the question is, Should we consider students to have two lives or one?

Allow me to restate this question with a bit more detail: Should we consider students to have two separate lives—a relatively digital free life at school and a digitally saturated life away from school—or should we consider them to have one life that integrates their lives as students and digital citizens?

The “two lives” perspective contends that our students should live a traditional educational life at school, much like their parents did, and a second, digital life outside school. It says that the technology that kids use is too expensive, problematic, or distracting to integrate into teaching and learning. It says that issues concerning the personal, social, and environmental impacts of living a digital, technological lifestyle are tangential to a school curriculum. Above all, it says that kids will have to figure out how to navigate the digital world beyond school on their own and puzzle through issues of cyber safety, technological responsibility, and digital citizenship without the help of the educational system.

On the other hand, the one life perspective says it is time to help students blend their two lives into an integrated, meaningful approach to living in the digital age. It says that if schools don’t make it their primary mission to help students understand not only how to use technology but also when and why, then we have no right to expect our children to grow up to be the citizens we want them to be and that the world needs them to be. It says that if we don’t help our digital kids balance personal empowerment with a sense of community responsibility, then future generations will inherit a world that does not represent anyone’s dream of what is best for humanity. It says that if we don’t understand that schools are exactly the place for kids to learn how to use technology not only effectively and creatively but also responsibly and wisely, then heaven help us all.

With the help of my friend and colleague, Joseph M. Pisano of Grove City College in Pennsylvania, I came up with a way to bring composers to live concerts using technology. Pisano and I invited our mutual friend and colleague, Jason Davis, into my eighth grade general music classroom using Skype. Davis, then a freelance musician and licensing agent, spent 45 minutes discussing copyright laws, the music business, and censorship. Over lunch that day, the idea to use Skype at a live concert came to us.

Making It Happen

The equipment requirements were very minimal: a computer with a broadband Internet connection, a data projector, a couple of microphones, a webcam, some adapters to pump the audio feed through the sound system, and a projector screen. A lot of this hardware was available at our school through a grant from Classrooms for the Future. The technology coordinator and staff made sure we had a good connection, and several of Pisano’s students from Grove City College assisted with behind-the-scenes work.

We brought three noted composers into the concert setting: Scott Watson of Allentown, Pennsylvania, who has composed for concert, radio, and theater and wrote the book Using Technology to Unlock Musical Creativity; Brian Balmages, a guest conductor for honors bands, university groups, and professional ensembles; and Andrew Boysen Jr., assistant professor in the music department at the University of New Hampshire, where he conducts the wind symphony and teaches conducting, composition, and orchestration.

They agreed to appear live at the concert via Skype and make the introduction for their pieces before the student ensembles performed them. The introduction turned into an interactive conversation that was very meaningful to the students and the audience.

Enriching and Easy Too

I have one steadfast rule about using technology in my classroom and rehearsal hall: If it makes for a richer educational experience, then it is worth it. This experiment was certainly enriching and well worth the brief amount of time it took for everyone to figure it out.

Skype’s ease of use as a telecom-munication platform is unrivaled. We used the free version for each of the three calls. We went to www.skype.com, signed up in a few simple steps, and after a brief installation, Skype was ready to use.

Two of the composers, who had never tried the program before, used Skype with no problem. They were impressed with how simple it was to make this connection. It afforded them the opportunity to be very direct with their explanations about their pieces so that both the audience and ensemble could better identify with them.

Connecting with Experts

Skype makes it possible for educators to seek out experts in their subject areas and invite them to share in the classroom or the rehearsal hall.

Later, I invited Patrick J. Burns, a composer from Montclair State University, to join another one of my ensembles for a question-and-answer session during a regular school day. The questions and comments from the students were very thoughtful and engaging.

It made me wonder how many other experts in other fields could be brought in to speak with students so that they might consider a different career or get a better understanding of the paths that lie ahead.

We are seeing a paradigm shift in education, where the teacher is no longer the absolute authority of knowledge in the classroom. I would like to think that Skype can make every classroom bigger and more open to all experts in every field. Educators shouldn’t fear this aspect of technology, but instead tap into its potential. What 10 years ago would have taken a satellite and a television truck can now be accomplished using two laptops and a couple of webcams.

Copyright © 2010, ISTE (International Society for Technology in Education), 1.800.336.5191 (U.S. & Canada) or 1.541.302.3777 (Int’l), iste@iste.org, www.iste.org . All rights reserved.