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February 19, 2008 04:53 PM
UPhoneBlog
Take a picture on your mobile phone and sent it to itsc-oetc@uphoneblog.comRecently found on jena's weblog. | in Conference Info
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ITSC Evaluation
| Thank you for your participation at ITSC. Please take a moment to complete the ITSC Evaluation. There will be a random drawing of survey submissions for an Amazon Gift Certificate! It is a thoughtful, indepth survey, I appreciate your time in advance in giving feedback to make ITSC 2009 EVEN BETTER!! | 
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Recently found on jena's weblog. | in What's New | Comments (0)
Digital Storytelling - MarcoTorres
We learned it is essential to share the work your students have produced. Pictures and video pictures are original, but many times there is a temptation to use copyrighted music. Marco demonstrated some basic ways to compose original music with little music knowledge. One suggestion was from - http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/Session-main.html has the "garage band" software that can be used to product original music.
Below are some questions to ask the students to answer before the production of a movie begins, these questions will guide their thinking.
Ask the what- "What I would like to movie to be on?"
What is the how- "What do I need to produce this movie?"
Aim for very short stories, the average is less than 7 minutes.
A couple of examples of student project can be: 30 second film that shows your passion or what do you like about your day. You can always add some guiding limitations, such as, that they can not use your face in the video.
Marco shared how camera by A and B settings. The A side is for a close up,such as, a person's face. The B side will be items that further the dimension of the film, pictures of buildings or environments.
Recently found on sandynelson's weblog. | in Session | Comments (0)
Taking Digital Pictures Effectively
Leslie Fisher is telling us how she got into digital photography. Reed Hoffman, former White House photographer, formed a company, Blue Pixel, to support digital work and hired Leslie. This presentation is one that Blue Pixel gives in its workshops for a big fee.
http://www.bluepixel.net/
Top Issues with Taking Pictures:
Reading the manual for your new digital camera is really, really helpful.
1. Not being close enough - Take a picture and then take it again at closer range - Take lots of pictures and just save the best. Frame around your photo - look at the edges of your picture before you shoot. You can always crop the photo later. Fewer megapixels, with cropping you lose resolution, so can't crop too much.
The flower icon on your camera is Macro Mode - says you're 1-3 ft. from the target. Check David Schloss' site of Lady Bugs - funny.
2. Not being in focus - We rely too much on view finder. Figure out how your camera sets the focus point. Usually you hold down the shutter button halfway. Get your subject focused!
3. Camera Shake - Nothing is going to be in focus. Usually low lighting contributes and exposure times are very long. You can't hold camera still for that long. Want to get a camera with image stabilization. Some cameras have a low light or night time mode. Can also use tripods.
She likes Canon digital cameras.
4. Boring Composition - Ask what's important for the shot you want to take. Use the Law of Thirds: Act like there's a tic-tac-toe grid in your view finder. Put your point of interest at the intersections of the grid. This establishes good flow in the picture. Can crop to get this - useful for sporting events.
5. The Squint Test - Look at the scene with your eyes slightly squinted. What stands out? You'll notice the strong lines are the backbone of the image.
Look for Lines - some can help, some can ruin the picture.
Space Makes You Think - Have fun with open spaces. Put subject in one corner of the picture.
Shoot High/Shoot Low - Scenery shots have a cool perspective when shot low. People shots are more flattering shot high.
If I see another - Posed pictures near a view are great and wonderful, but how about a picture of you doing something?
6. Ignoring the Background - Pay attention to the background. Try to make sure there's nothing distracting in the background.
7. Missing the Moment - Chances are your camera is trying to expose for everything around it. Need to set your camera to take a fast picture (Often the running man icon - Sports Mode) Need more light to make this work.
8. Too Much Flash - Flash kills natural light. Try to use natural light if you can.
9. Too Little Flash - Can get camera shake with too little. Can use fill flash when subject is in shadow and background is in sunlight. Most camera flashes will work only at a distance of up to 8-10 feet.
10. Why Not Vertical - Use for creative composition.
11. Digital Zoom - Optical zoom is lens moving in and out - want a big number. Digital zoom just crops the picture - cuts out pictures. Suggests turning off digital zoom.
12. Wrong Settings -
- Pixels: You cannot change the number of pixels per square in.
Screen and printing resolutions are different.
Good printing resolution min. is about 160 per sq in.
Uncheck "resample image"
Need to know what resolution (pixels per sq. in.)
your camera is using.
- Image Size - Changes width and height of image. Bad setting.
Leave it set to large.
- Shutter Priority - Tells your camera that speed is the most
important factor in the picture you are about to
take.
- Aperture Priority - Allows you to select the Aperture and
then the camera will select the appropriate shutter
speed. Controlling the aperture will change the
Depth of Field. Smaller Aperture = less depth of
field. Larger Aperture = more depth of field.
- Exposure Compensation - Controls entire exposure of picture -
makes things lighter or darker overall
- White Balance - An adjustment that can be made to the camera
to ensure that the colors are captured accurately
without any other color cast from lighting
being used.
www.lesliefisher.com
geek@lesliefisher.com
www.lesliefisher.com/gbu
Her photos: lesliegolf.smugmug.com
After the break, Leslie starts a presentation of photo editing.
Before going into image editing, always, always save the originals.
1. Make sure color is correct in image. Scott Kelby has a good book
on photo adjustment.
2. Using Levels - If image is too dark, don't try to fix
with brightness adjustment. Make a new adjustment layer and
make adjustments there. Change histogram of input levels; pull
outlier areas into range of most of picture.
Can use a white balance card to help adjustment color.
www.rawworkflow.com - has nice plastic color balance card
3. Shadow Highlight - Clears up objects that are in heavy shadow.
4. Sharpening - Damages the photo - deletes pixels but reduces
fuzziness.
5. Crop and Straighten -
Leslie demonstrates lots of features of Photoshop and Photoshop Elements.
Leslie has handsouts for her workshop on her web site listed above.
Recently found on johnballing's weblog. | in | Comments (0)
February 18, 2008 10:35 PM
Birds of Feather
If you would like to gather some colleagues for dinner, and discussion please complete the form. We will publish this during the conference. Take into consideration your topic and where you would like to go for dinner.
Enter a Birds of Feather Topic
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Gadgets for Everyone!
Leslie Fisher is the presenter. lesliefisher.com
Utility Software: Snapz Pro ($49 from Ambrosia Software for Mac) and Snagit ($39 from Snagit for Windows) - the best screen shot software.
Instant Messaging: Consolidate your IM messaging into one app. Adium for the Mac (free) www.adiumx.com. For Windows, use Trillian (free).
Fonts: http://www.extensis.com Extensis Suitcase. Puts all fonts in a special folder. Helps speed up system.
Backup: www.mozy.com for $5/mo. get unlimited backup space. Get 2 Gb for free. Works with both Mac and PC. Sends data in encrypted form.
Clipart: Art Explosion (www.novadevelopment.com) Cost $199.99. Largely vector images, so they're easily resized.
www.clipart.com - royalty free clip art. Much of it is raster so harder to resize. Can purchase by the week, month.
Photos: Pictures on the web can be expensive. Look at:
www.istockphoto.com and www.dreamstime.com Photos are sold for $1-$5. Illustrations are $5-$10.
Digital Cameras: Likes the Sony DSC T200B - thick credit card sized, with image stabilization. Get image stabilization on any new camera.
Canon Powershot TX1 - allows you to hold camera off to side and HD movie mode.
Digital camera cards have a speed rating. Cheaper cards are slow. Sandisk Extreme cards are fast and worth the money.
Use a card reader to download your photos. Downloading from camera drains battery and can destroy our card. You can get a PCMCIA card reader that is portable.
Photo Sharing: www.smugmug.com Most photo sites don't let you resize your pics. Can be free. Or, can be $40/yr. to set it up so that viewers have to pay to use your pics.
TV and Music: Pinnacle has a USB TV card for a laptop. Hooks up to standard cable. Costs $129.99. Mac and PC.
Speakers: Soundsticks II from Harman Multimedia for Mac and Windows. Cost: $199. Not wireless.
DVRs - www..tivo.com Tivo just signed up with Comcast. New Tivos can be web server for you. Can watch your Tivo on the web.
Slingbox - Install software on computer, cell phone, etc. Control anything the Slingbox is connected to, i.e. your home theater stuff.
Remotes - Logitech Harmony One. Install software on computer to do the set up then download config. to the remote. Costs $249.
iPod - Could use them as recording devices. www.everythingipod.com
Belkin also makes tons of stuff for iPods.
Vinyl Records - Turn them into MP3s using an Ion Audio USB turntable.
http://ion-audio.com. $134
www.everythingiphone.com and www.appleopolis.com to play with iPhone stuff.
www.inflightpower.com Uses headphone jack of your seat armrest to charge your iPhone. Needs a sound source.
www.virtual-laser-keyboard.com - Wireless connection from smart phone to a full sized keyboard.
Avis now offers a WiFi access point in car. Works on both Verizon and Sprint network.
Wireless mouse - www.keyspan.com $79 RF, works from up to 100 ft.
www.solio.com - Portable renewable solar powered battery for cell phones and other portable devices.
Computer Bags - Timbuk2 bags are cool. Sfbags.com also good. LowePro has a nice backpack.
www.orbicule.com/undercover/ for Macs An app to trace your stolen Mac. Turns the iSight on and takes pics every 6 minutes. Also dims screen to look like a screen failure. $49
www.sp-studio.com - create your own South Park characters.
www.despair.com - funny demotivational slides
Magellan Maestro - good easy to use GPS.
Recently found on johnballing's weblog. | in Session | Comments (0)
Recently found on juliechappelle's weblog. | in Photo Gallery | Comments (0)
Recently found on juliechappelle's weblog. | in Photo Gallery | Comments (0)
Recently found on juliechappelle's weblog. | in Photo Gallery | Comments (0)
Recently found on juliechappelle's weblog. | in Photo Gallery | Comments (0)
Recently found on juliechappelle's weblog. | in Photo Gallery | Comments (0)
Recently found on juliechappelle's weblog. | in Photo Gallery | Comments (0)
Recently found on juliechappelle's weblog. | in Photo Gallery | Comments (0)
Recently found on juliechappelle's weblog. | in Photo Gallery | Comments (0)
Recently found on juliechappelle's weblog. | in Photo Gallery | Comments (0)
Voicethread as an Instructional Tool
Richard Bursch and Jeff Linman of North Clackamas School District are the speakers.
Site: http://voicethread.com/
To use Voicethread, plug a mic into your computer, connect to the voicethread site, click the record button and record your contact. Can upload images, video, entire Powerpoint presentations to Voicethread. Can comment on an existing Voicethread.
Showing some interesting examples of the use of Voicethread.
Once you create a Voicethread you can share it or make it private.
We're having technical problems using the wireless network.
Lots of potential applications for Voicethread. Ex.: Short presentations that students can see at any time. Can ask students to comment on a set of images.
Recently found on johnballing's weblog. | in | Comments (0)
UPDATED: Cache Coordinates
We went out to the cache locations -- they ARE there, but the coordinates posted on the weblog were...a bit off. Here are the latest and greatest:
Cache #1:
N 45 35.026
W 122 34.455
Cache #2:
N 45 35.023
W 122 34.545
Cache #3:
N 45 34.956
W 122 34.430
Cache #4:
N 45 34.923
W 122 34.407
...and because we messed up the first set, we're going to GIVE you the bonus cache coordinates:
BONUS:
N 45 34.829
W 122 34.210
...sorry about the confusion!
Recently found on aaron's weblog. | in Conference Info | Comments (0)
Impact Teaching & Learning - Web 2.0
Kathy Schrock comes all the way from Cape Cod to give us a presentation on using collaborative tools.
kathyschrock.net/itsc
Kathy introduces Web 2.0 - simplified content creation, users can focus on ideas creativity and collaboration, technical know-how became less important, made data publicly available. Can combine data from various sources.
Shows the YouTube piece "The Machine is Using Us (Final Version).
RSS - Really Simple Syndication - family of web feed file formats to provide content or summaries
AJAX - Asynchronous Javascript and XML - for creation of interactive web applications
See: go2web20.net
www.43things.com - Site where you can share your goals and find other people with those goals.
del.icio.us - Social bookmarking site. Uses a community based set of tags as metadata for bookmarks.
Introduces the idea of wiki (Hawaiian for quick) to use for collaboration. Jottit is a free wiki on the web.
Wikipedia is a group constructed encyclopedia. Need to have students check the list of revisions and note the revision number if they are going to use Wikipedia. Kathy does not trust it; can't evaluate anything in it.
ning.com - Place where you can make your own social network. Can do this for your class
gliffy - Place where you can share floor diagrams.
bubbl.us - Shared concept mapping site.
Chat Creator - Place to create your own online chat.
twitter.com - Live, shared instant messaging. Handy for professional networking - Short snips only.
Zoho Creator - online database creation tool - can use it for capturing web survey data - easy to export to Excel
slideshare.net - Online slide sharing site
flikr.com - photo sharing site - very good for tagging specific items in a picture
Google Video and YouTube - used in Kathy's district. Can find lots of lesson plan tutorials on Google Video.
mediamax.com - 25 Gb of storage that you can share with others. But, only get 1 Gb of bandwidth per month.
voo2do - Online task keeping for projects
goowy - A webtop application - an online "desktop" - essentially a distributed operating system
zamzar.com - An online file conversion tool. Helps share resources with just about anybody. Get 100 Mb.
Kathy's district used Google Apps for Education. Uses Gaggle to archive e-mail going in and out of Google Mail.
Google Docs keeps all revisions - Can track what your students are adding. Students can't hide.
skrbl.com - Online interactive whiteboard.
Use an Aggregator piece of software to look at your RSS feeds. Examples are Netvibes and Bloglines.
pageflakes.com - Personalized start page through which you can choose what you share. Have a student page that is for teachers to share with students.
iGoogle - another personalized start page. Need to have a gmail account
tumblr.com - used for information posting.
letterpop.com - online publication creation tool integrated with flikr.
What's needed - Andy Carvin thinks ICT Literacy is important. Teachers need technical skills, content generation skills, research skills, information literacy, media literacy and online safety/responsibility.
Web 3.0 - The read/write/execute Web - students executing their own scripts - Things like Second Life, a multi-user virtual environment -
Second Life has a virtual library to take you to other web sites -
All kinds of real professional development going on in Second Life - ISTE has an SL presence - Kathy's district along with 3 others in Massachusetts have purchased an island in SL to do professional training. It's called Lighthouse Learning Island.
See: nausetschools.org/lighthouselearning
Is Web 2.0 a disruptive technology for schools? How can we keep our students safe? How can we keep our data secure? How can these tools or others be used with existing systems?
kathy@kathyschrock.net
http://kathyschrock.net/itsc/
AIM: webqueen3
Twitter: kathyschrock
Recently found on johnballing's weblog. | in | Comments (0)
Preparing our Schools for the 21st Century
Included here are resources for the "Preparing our Schools for the 21st Century" workshop.
21st Century School Leadership
- Download South Lane SD Pech Kucha (3588.8K)
- Pecha Kucha
21st Century Students
- Video Resources
21st Century Systems
- Electronic Article
21st Century Classrooms
Recently found on Todd's weblog. | in Workshop | Comments (0)
February 17, 2008 10:43 PM
Caches Placed!
The geocaches have been placed -- check out a GPS and go on a hunt! There are four caches (coordinates below) and a BONUS! To find the bonus, you'll get numbers from the four cache containers. Don't forget to write these down!
In each of the caches, you'll find tickets -- take one with you, deposit the big end at the registration desk, and we'll be drawing from them for fabulous prizes at the end of the conference. Enjoy!
(NOTE: See above for the updated coordinates...)
Questions? Ask at the registration desk!
Recently found on aaron's weblog. | in Conference Info | Comments (0)
Student-Run Enterprises
Wow!! A course without a true curriculum where students earn credits by fulfilling real world assignments in the form of movie creation or web page design; sounds too good to be true.
You are amazed at the student leadership and confidence exuded by each student associated with the Milwaukee High School student-run enterprises of Pulsemedia Productions and Tech Cadre. Working with instructor Jeff Linmanm in the background, these talented young people in Pulsemedia create prize winning movies and public service announcements to help their school and reach out to the diverse student population on meaningful topics related to community service, diversity and anti-drug use. Tech Cadre students design websites for the school and community for both profit and non-profit groups.
Profits earned from creating their projects are re-invested into new equipment for the program. The real world connections and development of life skills students gain in this program are unmatched. Students are very impressive producers learning skills that will catapult them into successful careers.
Recently found on lindareeves's weblog. | in Leadership | Comments (0)
Communicate & Share with Google Apps
Stacey Buglione is getting the group organized to use iGoogle and Google Groups.
We set up an iGoogle page - a personalized home page - and then formed chat groups.
We're now on to setting up Google Groups.
Moving on to Google News to search for research topics. Learning to create customized topics to have Google pull onto your personalized news page. Can also search news archives on a particular topic.
We're learning to create RSS feeds from our customized Google topic. Pretty neat.
Buzzed through a brief review of Google Calendar and sharing them.
Ended with a brief mention of Google Books. Lots of stuff!
Recently found on johnballing's weblog. | in Session | Comments (0)
TI-Nspire
Winnie Brown demonstrated the adaptability of the TI-Nspire by modeling math activities and problem solving useful in middle school classrooms, particularly.
Recently found on lindareeves's weblog. | in Math | Comments (0)
TI: Mathematics with TI-Navigator
Would you like to balance hands-on math instruction with technology?
Two HS teachers from Tigard-Tualatin, Donna and Reed work with classroom sets of networked TI-Navigators to enhance and monitor student learning in Algebra. Great opportunity to see and use formative assessment in action. They are experiencing great success with this technology in their classrooms and incidentally are participating in a research study with the Ohio State University proving the technologies are making a difference!
Recently found on lindareeves's weblog. | in Math | Comments (0)
Microsoft and Zune
Kathy Richardson of Microsoft is going through a description of basic features of Zune. MS sees entertainment market as extremely features going forward. However, on Marketplace they have 1000's of educational podcasts.
Zune's and XBox's can share a point system for downloading material from Marketplace. Microsoft also has a subscription model.
Can have a Zune based social network and share material.
Zune can pull stuff off a Sharepoint server, including audio and video content. Students can download Powerpoint presentations to a Zune. Gives students access to material everywhere.
Students like to have mobile content and the ability to share with other students. Showed demo of a Powerpoint deck that was flashcards of planets.
Teacher is creating Spanish vocabulary lists with correct pronunciation, putting them on Sharepoint and letting students download to Zune for out of class study.
Kathy finished and Scott Thompson of Microsoft takes the floor. Talks about knitting together images of different resolutions and different angles using a new app (not yet in beta) called Photosynth. Students could go on a field trip to an ecosystem, take digital pictures, then bring them back and knit them together.
Photosynth is currently a free tool.
Microsoft SharedView is a free tool as well. SharedView allows sharing of applications in real time. Supports real time collaboration.
Microsoft Learning Essentials plugs into MS Office to make Office experience education focused. One piece for students and one for teachers. The teacher's version has a test generator, integrates with a SCORM compliant learning management systems.
Microsoft Office Live Workspace is in beta. Allows you to save documents onto the site with access from anywhere. Get a 1 Gb SkyDrive with a MS Office Live Workspace.
Microsoft has launched Tafiti which is a Silverlight based tool. Tafiti is a research tool. Go to tafiti.com
Microsoft Innovative Teachers Network allows you to connect with teachers around the world.
Talked about using OneNote to allow students to take a core concept and evolve their thinking from conception to analysis and evaluation.
Students and teachers share notes and collaboratively develop content.
Can use OneNote to organize and share class notes.
Three things you need to know about Microsoft Office 2007. 1. The Office Button - go here to save, all settings here. 2. Tools are presented as you need them. Can preview results of applying a tool inline before you actually accept them. 3. Help is much better organized and easier to read. Can customize help.
Want to get students to focus more on creating quality content rather than worrying about formatting. Office 2007 makes this easier.
SmartArt allows teachers to create concept diagrams very easily.
Did a long riff on OneNote.
Microsoft has an online interactive guide that compares Office 2003 to Office 2007.
There is a free Office Compatibility Pack that can convert Office 2007 docs to earlier versions of Office. Office 2007 file format is XML based and is more secure.
Powerpoint 2007 has some very slick ways of converting lists to diagrams. This is a SmartArt feature. Office 2003 will display SmartArt, but you won't be able to edit it in 2003.
Showed that creating Excel pivot tables is much easier in Office 2007.
Has a way to create dashboards based on rules you create for a particular variable in your table.
Just about everything he talked about can be found on www.microsoft.com.
General opinion of the group that this was a good session - at an appropriate level.
Recently found on johnballing's weblog. | in Emerging Technologies | Comments (0)
Digital Photography w/ Marco Torres
Below is the contact information and how-to's for Marco Torres' Digital Photography workshop.
Marco's e-mail: torres21@mac.com
Marco's How To's: flickschool.com
Marco's Student Work: sfett.com
ichat/aim/skype:mrtorres21(AIM)
Marco's Flickr: flickr.com/torres21
Flickr pictures tags: itscpdx2008, itsc08pdx, itscor08
Recently found on adamstewart's weblog. | in Workshop | Comments (0)
SMART Integrated Classroom
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The Good, Bad and Ugly. Taking Digital Pictures Effectively.
This entry will list some key points - check out her web notes (www.lesliefisher.com) to get all the exciting ideas.
1) Remember the difference between an amateur and a professional is the number of pictures you take, but more importantly the number of pictures you show (or don't show.) Take, take and take but be prepared to throw away.
2) Become friendly with your Manual, it has the details you will want to know about your specific camera.
3) Look at picture or viewfinder from edge to edge. Decide what is really important and let the picture be the storyteller.
4) To save those picture from a blasting flash: set a timer; use a tripod and use night mode.
5) Your camera has an optical and digital zoom. Optical zoom uses the mechanical movement of the lens. Digital zoom is the camera adjustment within the viewfinder. Check to make sure you aren't taking pictures with digital zoom.
The Good, the Bad, the Ugly by Leslie can be googled as a way of furthering your knowledge.
Recommended Photoshop Book: by Scott Kelby The Adobe Photoshop CS3 Book for Digital Photographers or The Photoshop Elements 6 Book for Digital Photographers
Recently found on sandynelson's weblog. | in Session | Comments (0)
February 13, 2008 10:30 AM
VoiceThread as an Instructional Tool
Presenters Jeff Linman and Richard Bursch from North Clackamas School District
Before attending this session you can save yourself time and grief by setting up your own VoiceThread account. To do so please visit the VoiceThread site and register for an account.
As part of the session we will be demonstrating the "Hows" of VoiceThread, but want to give the majority of the time to participants to create their own VoiceThreads.
Below are some documents that may assist you with VoiceThread.
Below is a sample VoiceThread:
Here is another:
Recently found on richardbursch's weblog. | in Session
