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Category Archives: Tech Director
School Pilots “YouTube for Schools”
YouTube is often a dirty word for schools. While there is a ton of great content relevant to education, there’s also enough content that makes educators and administrators cringe.
Enter “YouTube for Schools.”
By adding a setting on our web filter, we can take advantage of education partners like the Smithsonian, TED, Steve Spangler Science, and others without all the cute kittens, music videos, etc.
We’ll be piloting this use of YouTube in the next week or so to evaluate. So, in theory, your son or daughter may come home saying they were on YouTube today. Know that if this is the case, they are going through the YouTube for Schools rather than the unfiltered YouTube you might know at home.
You can learn more about YouTube for School at www.youtube.com/schools.
Also posted in General Tech News Comments closed
Cletus Doodles
SC students used their creativity and photo editing skills to manipulate the Cletus logo, similar to the Google Doodle concept.
Check out their submissions!
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.284822401584447.66361.100001700693213&type=1&l=b2b40ba5f4
Also posted in General Tech News, Tech Learning Center Comments closed
What Does It Mean To Teach Technology?
Times have certainly changed since my computer class with Mrs. Galanti in the 80s and early 90s. Oregon Trail and Where In The World is Carmen Sandiego still seem cool, but today, games are only one small piece to educating students with technology.
At the elemenatary school level, I see technology education in two ways. The first, it exposing students to tools. Everything from introduction to technology terms, keyboard layout, and mouse operation. The second becomes being able to use these tools to be a 21st century digital learner. With so many devices able to access the internet, the classroom teacher is no longer the gatekeeper of knowledge. However, it becomes even more important for the teacher to teach how to evaluate information and how to answer questions using tools available to them.
This video demonstrates our vision for technology at St. Cletus: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTIBDR4Dn2g
Posted in Tech Director Comments closed
School Pilots BYOD
It was just another school day… until students brought out their cell phones and other wifi-enabled devices!
Students in 7th grade got the opportunity to bring/use their personal device in class to show what they learned in mythology. Guided by Ms. Wollensak, students one-by-one logged in to a special student response system website to provide their answers to quiz questions.
Both classes responded well to the pilot program and our education team will be discussing how today’s activities might be beneficial in the future. We know the students liked working with their own devices!
Also posted in General Tech News Comments closed
Archdiocese Tech Conference Attendees (PowerPoint)
Thanks for attending the Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) seminar. BYOD is new for many schools, but do a few Google searches and you’ll actually see quite a bit of buzz. I’d love to hear your feedback on the presentation and how your school chooses to embrace BYOD.
Find my presentation below:
Posted in Tech Director Comments closed
Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) Presentation
Today, I’ll be presenting an interesting topic, “Bring Your Own Device”, at the Chicago Archdiocese Best Practices in School Technology conference.
What if students could bring in their own devices like cell phones, mp3 players, netbooks, and laptops? How would those work in the classroom? Just the questions I’ll address today… and on my blog in a few days…
Also posted in General Tech News Comments closed
Receive Classroom Updates by Email
Looking to receive classroom updates by email? The Tech Committee provides a link to a free website to subscribe to your desired content.
> First, visit the classroom newsletter of your choice. Copy the URL
(We’ll use 4th grade as an example: http://www.stcletusschool.com/news/category/4th-grade/4th-newsletters/)
> Next, visit www.tabbloid.com. Click ”Create Tabbloid.” Paste the newsletter URL into the box.
(Important! You must manually add /feed/ at the end of the URL. Using the above example would then be http://www.stcletusschool.com/news/category/4th-grade/4th-newsletters/feed/.)
> Select your delivery frequency and email address.
Add as many different newsletters as you’d like… homework pages, too.
Also posted in Tech Tips Comments closed
New Document Cameras to be Deployed
The document camera is a fairly simple technology. Take a camera, mount it to an arm and allow the feed of the camera to project onto a board or other surface.
We’re more than doubling the total number of these devices for the 11-12 school year. They are useful for not only transparencies, but books, 3D objects, and microscopes. Just about anything that fits under the document camera can be projected for an entire classroom to view. These can work with or without a Smart Board, making them very versatile.
Be sure to check them out in various locations of the building to see how they are helping to engage our students.
Also posted in General Tech News Comments closed
Looking Ahead
Here’s a brief synopsis of what improvements and additions we will be making over the summer and in to next school year:
- classroom set of ipads
- upgrade to Office 2010
- 4 new Smart Boards (room 98, 107, 112, 115)
- classroom technology renovation (projectors and speakers installed in 5 classrooms)
- various network infrastructure improvements including fiber optic data runs, replacement of core network switch, addition of 4 wireless access points, assign a new subnet mask to all network devices to allow for more devices
We are also considering adding additional video cameras at several entrances/exits to continue to enhance our school security.
It looks to be another busy summer of improvements. We’re excited to continue to improve our school technology program and initiatives!