Making the Classroom Work
- Assign equipment to kids BEFORE they walk in
- Make a BUNCH of sign out sheets
- Have a signal--door open-get your machine, doors closed, wait
- Send kids a few at a time
- Teach what an "acute angle" is (to stop students from typing while teacher is talking)
- Move around when computers are out
- The back button is our friend! (back out of "bad" site)
- Walk around and say, if your Mac isn't working correctly, please stop me
Monitoring Software
Pluses
- View what everyone is doing
- Can catch kids being good
- Software updates, file transfer
Minus
- Teachers become physically distance from the kids
- Focus on the negative
- "What if...confidentiality issues
Living in a Shared World
- Color-coded sign out sheets (to see who is signing out the carts)???
- Cart movement--who is responsible? Teachers only move carts. The teacher who has it moves it to the next room
- Keep peripherals with one person-more use, easier to find. Sign out cameras..they get all of them
- Student Helpers
- Online sign out sheet (Brian, the speaker said she lets the teachers sign out the cart themselves and they use Google Docs. :-) but just now someone raised their hand and asked if anyone else had teachers deleting other teacher. They have had this problem:-(
Cart Keepers
- Choose them carefully (teachers can claim "ownership")
- Support them
- Have clear expectations--update? troubleshooting?
- Give them something in writing (our expectations)
- Velcro is our friend holds the wires in place
WHAT ARE THE TEACHERS ACTUALLY USING?
What are teachers REALLY using?
- What tools do teachers find WORK in the classroom?
CoverIt Live
- Found at www.coveritlive.com
- Caught on at the HS
- Why they like it
- Easy to use
- No usernames/passwords
- Monitored/not monitored
- HTML Code for webpages, wikis, etc
- Demo http://tinyurl.com/5n4ax6
Voice Thread
- www.voicethread.com
- Why they like it
- Identities for kids
- Easy to use
- Easy to add images
- Alternative to Power Point!
- Do not buy the Ed one, it is free!!
WikiSpaces
- More used at Elem/HS! not MS
Easy Bib (easy citation creator)
- www.easybib.com
- No usernames/passwords
- Easy to export to Word
- Controversial
- Tool, like a spell check
Skrbl
- www.skrbl.com (shareable white board)
- no username/passwords...can be bad
- upload images
- Easily used code
- have one student keeping an eye on what is being typed
De.icio.us
iCHat/Skype
Google Docs
