Tech Connects

Connecting As Needed

2008-11-25T16:33:00.000-08:00

Recently, Casey Flanagan, a student at Sacred Heart School in Royersford, Pa has had to endure some pretty challenging times. She suffers from cancer and her many treatments made it impossible for her to make it to school.

This was not insurmountable for the Tech Team at Sacred Heart. Though this was something that they had never done before, this group of parent volunteers, decided, when asked, that they would figure out how to bring the classroom to her.

They researched webcams. They figured out the various audio and video needs. They reached out to the local public school for spare equipment. They researched software.

And finally, they webcast the third grade class every day so that Casey could see her classmates and keep up with the various happenings in the 3rd grade classroom.

This was not simply one-way communication. Not only could she see and hear them, but they could see and hear her all the way from Boston where she was getting treatments. They could view her on the large smartboard and could talk and instant message back and forth. Their project, dubbed Casey Cam, made clear and meaningful connections for the students.

Did this help her academically. Surely. Did this connection with her class mean that and so much more? Undoubtedly!

At a time when technology can get some bad press, we need to remember that it can make a real and positive difference - connecting us not just with information, but with each other.

Thankfully, Casey is back in school having the regular face to face time that all students deserve.

Kudos to the tech team (voluteers!), and to the third grade teacher, Donna Stolnacker, the principal, Dorothy Gudz and the tech teacher, Mary Schott and to the pastor Fr. Timothy Judge.

Do you find that technology connects people and makes a positive difference? Feel free to share your examples.

Read more about this in the Catholic Standard and Times.

Photo from CS&T

2008-06-30T09:54:00.000-07:00

NECC 2008

The newly updated standards for Teacher Technology (NETS-T) use were released today.
New NETS-T
http://www.iste.org/Content/NavigationMenu/NETS/ForTeachers/NETS_for_Teachers.htm

Plain English Web 2,0

2008-06-01T11:30:00.000-07:00

These videos from Common Craft do a great job of explaining web 2.0 collaborative tools
What is a Wiki - View Common Craft Wikis in Plain English

Collaboration - Philly Style

2008-04-14T18:58:00.001-07:00

Today 2 of our Philadelphia Archdiocesan Catholic high schools had a combined professional development day for learning about Technology, 21st Century Learning and Web 2.0 technologies. This was the first time ever that the faculty members of these 2 schools met for this purpose. If you saw some teachers early this morning walking down Vine Street, past the Cathedral and towards the Art Museum, they might just have been our Roman Catholic High School teachers as they walked to Hallahan High School to spend the day. Kudos to the principals Mary Kirby at Hallahan High School , and Bob O'Neill at Roman Catholic High School for arranging this opportunity for collaboration.
The day was arranged in 3 sessions.
1. Intro The first session was an intro talk by me in which I shared resources and ideas for technology use in departments and a few of my current favorite video clips, A Vision for Students Today and Thoughts of Students and Teachers from Karl Fisch. Also shared was the Technology Weekend page put together for the Archdiocesan Technology Conference held this past February in Avalon. Karl Fisch and Anne Smith shared so many fantastic, creative ideas with us there and kindly together a great website for the Technology Conference for using technology in our schools that we thought this was a good time to share it.
2. Web 2.0 - The second session was an inspirational and highly informative talk by Joe Konecki, an Instructional Technology Coordinator at Cardinal O'Hara High School. Joe shared Web 2.0 ideas and implementation tips. See Joe's blog post here.
3. Departmental Sharing - Teachers collaborated with their own departments and those in the corresponding departments at the other school. To get the conversation going, they were asked to discuss their vision for technology use in their schools using the Questions to ask yourself and each other as offered by Karl and Anne at our recent conference. Essentially teachers were asked to discuss the following: 'Do you have a vision for where you want to be as an educator? for your department? for your school?'
The conversations that started today between these 2 schools will hopefully continue for a long time and will perhaps include a shared vision for innovative ways to use technology for teaching and learning and maybe even some Philadelphia soft pretzels.
Of course the web offers unending, quality opportunities for collaboration and sharing with teachers and it will only get better in this regard. Meeting other teachers and sharing ideas will always inspire us as teachers, whether online or face to face.

2008-02-09T11:08:00.000-08:00

Technology Weekend - Archdiocese of Philadelphia - 21st Century Teaching

Welcome to the page for the Technology Staff Development weekend for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, being held at Avalon, New Jersey from February 8-10, 2008.
We have teachers from many of our 203 Catholic Schools in the Archdiocese joining us. We will learn about many new and exciting ways to use technology for teaching and learning. We are energized about the enthusiastic response to the conference. We hope that this conference will give teachers new ideas and skills with which to implement innovative and effective learning in their classrooms through the use of technology. Our hope is that teachers will share what they have learned and act as leaders in technology at their schools either through mentoring or support of staff development.
We have a wonderful lineup of presenters which includes both excellent national presenters such as Karl Fisch, Anne Smith and Matt Monjan along with some fantastic presenters from our own schools.

Sr. Margaret Rose Adams
Joe Konecki
Melissa Dow
Peggy McGraw, Fran Gillen
Terry Heinz

Karl Fisch and Anne Smith join us from Arapahoe High School in Littleton School District in Colorado. Karl is the Tech Coordinator and Anne an English/Language Arts teacher. View the Technology Weekend page they have put together for this conference.
Matt Monjan is from Discovery Education(Discovery/United Streaming) where Matt is a member of the Discovery Educator Speaker Series. View Matt's Discovery Educator Network Page.
Other presentation materials are linked at the bottom of this page.

What inspirational ideas have you taken from the conference? What do you hope to implement into your teaching practice?

Conference Sessions:

Staff Development and Visioning for Technology in Schools

21^st Century Schools – What They Look Like and How to Get There

Our presenters will explore a vision for what schools can look like in the 21st Century. They’ll share their belief that building level staff development is crucial in this process through sharing their own successes and challenges. Come prepared to ask good questions and participate in a lively discussion.

Karl Fisch / Anne Smith

Learning has ‘Gone Digital’ with United Streaming

(Dining Room)

See how to use Discovery Streaming (United Streaming) to apply instructional strategies and support differentiation in your classrooms. See examples of classroom projects and special uses for digital media. View free demo Discovery Education Science Code: den-elem

Matt Monjan, Discovery Education Speaker Series

50 Ways to Use United Streaming

(Dining Room)

Matt will share some of the newer and advanced uses of digital video for enhancing teaching and learning. Also, learn how the Discovery Education (United Streaming) online tips and tutorial training tools can be used to inspire your faculty to incorporate the use of digital tools into instructional practice.

Matt Monjan, Discovery Education Speaker Series

Web 2.0

These free and easy tools will allow you to tear down the walls of the classroom and open it up to the global community (if you want) allowing students to be content creators and consumers. Learn how these tools will students take pride in their work as they share their questions, projects, and thoughts with the greater community.

Joe Konecki - Cardinal O’Hara V

View Joe's Site

Travel the World with Google Earth

This session explores Google Earth as an educational tool. Learn how your students can use this amazing tool to create guided tours that enhance your curriculum. We will discuss navigating Google Earth and strategies for its introduction and project creation. Student materials and grading rubrics will be shared. (Presentation, Handout1, Handout 2)

Melissa Dow, Villa Maria, Lower School

Afternoon Session

Constructivist Teaching in the 21st Century Classroom

Karl and Anne will share the efforts they’ve made to transform their classrooms into more student-centered, technology-rich classrooms. They’ll show classroom examples as well as the technology tools utilized. Come prepared to ask questions and brainstorm ideas for your school and classroom.

Karl Fisch and Anne Smith

Sunday February 10th

Technology: Enhancing the Curriculum in our Catholic Schools that Light the Way

Used correctly, technology may be the tool that inspires and enhances our curriculum, our student lessons, and our parent presentations. Techniques will be shared that may be readily used in all areas of your school.

Sister Margaret Rose Adams, IHM – Ss. Simon and Jude

Enhancing Student Projects

Using Photoshop and Podcasting with PowerPoint

View a sample project which incorporates many technology tools and view tools demonstrations: View a demonstration of how students created a journal of a Civil War nurse or soldier in PowerPoint, a podcast in Audacity to replicate sounds of a battlefield, and used Adobe Photoshop along with a digital picture to create a Civil War soldier or nurse. Presentation, Activity Handouts, Activity Handouts

Peggy McGraw and Fran Gillen - Our Lady of Perpetual Help

Palm Handhelds in the Classroom

Hear how one school is using palm pilots in the curriculum. See examples of curricular applications and hear about successful student projects. Palms are the perfect way to create a student-centered classroom. This presentation will focus on classroom management, how to use the features of a Palm with the lessons you already teach, new project ideas and a sample hands on activity.

Terry Heinz – Immaculate Conception

Technology in Our Schools

Mary Rochford, Assistant Superintendent for Elementary Educational Services

Nancy Caramanico, Director of Technology, K-12

Special thanks to Maureen Colleluori for sharing Internet Safety materials.

Technology and Instruction Teacherweb Site

Presentation Materials

A Whole New Monday

2008-02-09T08:46:00.000-08:00

Isn't Staff Development by definition expected to result in change and growth for us as teachers? Is positive change the result of every staff development session you have ever attended? Quality technology staff development should bring with it positive change.
At this weekend's educational technology conference we are seeing amazing and innovative examples of how to implement teaching with technology for the 21st Century classroom. Given the inspirational talks and innovative examples from Karl Fisch, Anne Smith, of Arapahoe High School and Matt Monjan from Discovery Learning, Melissa's Google Earth, Joe's Web 2.0, Terry's Palm Pilots, and Peggy and Fran's Photoshop and Podcasting, we are ready to take the next steps to enhance the use of technology in our classrooms. Pondering 'Shift Happens', has to make you think. Karl talked about the 'yeah buts', which is the inclination many teachers have to say , "yes, that may sound like a good idea but that won't work in my classroom." When Anne got her first laptop, Karl challenged her to 'change the world'. Hearing about the many projects such as the live blogging with Daniel Pink who wrote 'A Whole New Mind' really made us think about new possibilities. With these and the many creative examples shown, your world can't help but be changed. Karl and Anne challenged us to take away one thing that we want to implement. I don't know about you but when I listened to all of our presenters, I found many reasons to be open to innovative practices in our schools. I am inpired by the many ideas that are coming from our own teachers today as they reflect on our sessions and think about new ways to teach for the 21st Century. 'A whole new Monday' may be in store for your classroom. (All conference materials and podcasts are contained on this blog for future reference and for anyone who is viewing them online for the first time).
Please comment on the following:

What inspirational ideas have you taken from the conference? What do you hope to implement into your teaching practice? What one thing will be the 'something new' your classroom on Monday?

Presentation Files

2008-02-08T11:20:00.000-08:00

Download all of the great presentations by clicking on the presentation title.

Podcasts of many of the presentations can be found by clicking here then click on the down arrow to download the podcasts to your computer.

Technology in Our Schools, Nancy Caramanico

Travel the World with Google Earth, Melissa Dow

Google Earth Scavenger Hunt
Google Earth Tour Rubric

Google Earth Tour Planner

Enhancing Student Projects Using Photoshop and Podcasting with PowerPoint, Peggy McGraw and Fran Gillen
The directions can be downloaded by clicking here
The Podcasting file can be downloaded by clicking here

Palm Handhelds in the Classroom, Terry Heinz

Web 2.0, Joe Konecki

Technology: Enhancing the Curriculum in our Catholic Schools that Light the Way, Sr Margaret Rose Adams

Mary Rochford

Nancy Caramanico

Special thanks to Maureen Colleluori for sharing Internet Safety materials.

Tech Smartz - Tech Classroom Examples

2008-02-06T21:50:00.000-08:00