TECHNOS e-Zine

March 14, 2010

Technos e-Zine

April 2008—Vol. 5, No. 4

Retro News is a fast paced magazine style show hosted by kids and for kids from 9 to 12 years old.

Welcome to the technos.net e-newsletter, published by AIT’s Technos Press. You’ll find valuable information here about AIT products and services and other noteworthy news from the world of education. Please let us know what you think, or what you’d like to see here, by emailing us at: editor@ait.net. Thank you!

Featured Interview

Gwen Solomon, Director, techLEARNING.com

As director of Technology & Learning’s award-winning Web site, techLEARNING.com, Gwen Solomon works with educators, bloggers, clients, and staff to obtain and edit online content. She writes weekly newsletters and coordinates eBooks and Webinars and occasionally writes articles for the magazine—“If it’s online, it involves me,” she says. Her background is in education as an English teacher, school administration as founding Director of New York City’s School of the Future, and district administration as coordinator of instructional technology planning for NYC Public Schools. Upon leaving her position as a Senior Analyst in the U.S Department of Education’s Office of Educational Technology in 1996, she had an idea to start a Web site for educators to write about how they integrate technology, train others, and support it. Her idea won a National Science Foundation grant, and in 1998, at the end of the grant, Technology & Learning hired her to merge Web sites and continue working on theirs. Ms. Solomon writes extensively about educational technology. Her most recent book, Web 2.0: New Tools, New Schools, co-written with Lynne Schrum, was published by the International Society for Technology in Education in October 2007. Gwen also consults with educational technology companies on Web and marketing strategies. Technos “spoke” with her via email at the end of February.

Technos: What are the mission and goals of techLEARNING? Who are your target audiences?

G.S.: The mission and goal of TechLearning is to make a difference in the working lives of technology coordinators, teachers, administrators, and others who want to use educational technology to improve student learning. To that end, we offer the best thinking and writing from professional authors in our magazine Technology & Learning, which is posted online. We offer the best thinking and writing from educators who share their success stories and lessons learned with their peers in our Educators’ e-Zine. Along with helping their peers to learn what to do and how to do it from first-hand experience, writing an article about classroom practice serves to help educators gain insights into their craft as reflective practice and gain a sense of self-worth as authors and successful practitioners. We also provide tips (educators’ contributions) on professional development, Web-site recommendations, technical advice, and leadership, among other things. In addition, we present a series of face-to-face events annually to provide the latest thinking on educational technology and a day of collegial networking to share ideas.

How do you determine what to provide for your audiences?

We gather information in several ways: We keep track of the site’s traffic (and newsletter click-thrus) so we know what topics readers are finding important. We ask our advisors to let us know when there’s a topic that seems to be key to educational technology that we should cover. We survey Tech Forum (our events) advisors and attendees to find out what their burning issues are. In addition, by publishing our readers’ articles, we’re providing their peers with the topics that are important in actual classrooms, schools, and districts. The resources available on TechLearning for our audiences are almost all audience contributions.

Can you speak to the topic of coordinating K–12 technology resources to curriculum and standards?

We provide articles about coordinating curriculum materials to standards, but we don’t provide lessons or curricular materials for educators to use in the classroom.

Read the entire Featured Interview.

Featured Essay

What We Owe Our Young People

By The Honorable Lee H. Hamilton, Director of the Center on Congress at Indiana University

You cannot step into an American community today without finding a lively conversation about educating our children. How to boost math and science learning, whether our schoolchildren are reading and writing enough, what constitutes a “quality” education—all of this figures in the national schooling debate and its thousands of local echoes.

Yet with all respect, I believe this debate is missing a fundamental piece: a recognition that a well-rounded education includes the civic virtues. We owe our young people not just a solid grounding in math, science, English and a foreign language, but also an education in democratic citizenship, because in all too many places they’re not getting it. Too many youth lack a basic understanding of our representative democracy, and we reap the sour fruit of this in many Americans’ disengagement and lost opportunities to contribute to our society.

What would a decent civic education look like? It begins, I think, with a robust account of the American story: the full, unvarnished history of our successes and failures, our ideals and the human flaws that jeopardize them, our progress over the centuries and the detours we’ve taken along the way. That is the best way to learn how crucial the involvement of ordinary citizens has been in setting the course of our history. It is also the best way to gain an appreciation for how deeply experimental our system remains, with basic questions about the use and allocation of power that were present at the beginning still in play.

Indeed, understanding that we continue to evolve as a nation, I’m convinced, is the strongest spur not just to participating in local and national civic life, but to appreciating the skills democracy imposes on us: consensus-building, compromise, civility, and rational discourse. The only way to learn them intimately, of course, is through experience: the hard but rewarding work of face-to-face engagement with political leaders and our fellow citizens. But learning how crucial they are to making our system work, both in the trenches and at every level of government—that is something our schools can teach.

So, too, we need to teach that citizenship carries with it certain responsibilities: staying informed, volunteering, speaking out, asking questions, writing letters, signing petitions, joining organizations, finding common ground on contentious issues, working in ways small and large to improve our neighborhoods and communities and to enrich the quality of life for all citizens.

Civic education can help young people feel a part of something larger than themselves by connecting them to the splendid traditions of American democratic involvement, and by showing them how to make the most of their talents to leave their communities better places than they found them.

Withholding civic education, on the other hand, means denying the people who will build our future the means to help them do so. The 21st century is bringing with it some very tough challenges: terrorism; nuclear proliferation; declining energy resources; global warming; a rapidly changing economy; competition from China, India, and nations still emerging as global players; immigration; new diseases; fundamental questions of governance. Our young people cannot hope to be successful in confronting those challenges if they have no idea how to get along together in an open and democratic society.

In the end, then, a good civic education has to include not just history and the skills demanded by democracy, but the qualities that undergird collaboration and engagement:

mutual respect, so that results of lasting consequence can be achieved;
tolerance, so that our citizens know how to navigate a diverse world and to value differences rather than fear them;
deliberation and consultation, so that open debate can lead us to consensus rather than conflict;
empathy, so that we can understand the worries and motivations of others;
civility, so that we can disagree and still find common ground;
humility, so that we keep in mind that we might be wrong and are open to learning from others;
honesty, so that our common deliberations are open and straightforward;
and resolve, so that we can overcome setbacks and surmount challenges.

These are not matters for classroom education alone, of course. For the most important quality a democracy must possess is the ability to transmit its needs and values through the experience of participating in it. Our families, our communities, our political system as a whole—all serve as teachers.

We adults have been given the great opportunity of political freedom, and we have a heavy obligation to pass on the knowledge of where it came from and how to sustain it. But teaching our civic virtues has to start somewhere, and I would argue that a key place is in our schools.

Lee H. Hamilton was U.S. Representative from Indiana’s Ninth District from 1965 to 1999. He served as Chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, and the Joint Economic Committee on the Organization of Congress. He is now director of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, D.C., and director of the Center on Congress at Indiana University. He also served as Vice Chair of the 9/11 Commission.

For more information: The Center on Congress at Indiana University
1315 East Tenth Street, Suite 320 | Bloomington, IN 47405
Phone: (812) 856-4706 | Fax: (812) 856-4703 | Website: http://centeroncongress.org/

Read our previous Technos e-Zine Featured Interview with Lee Hamilton.

What’s New at AIT?

Into the Book Reading Comprehension Session added to NECC

We are pleased to announce that our colleagues from the Wisconsin Educational Communications Board (WECB), producers of the award-winning Into the Book reading comprehension series, have been invited to conduct a workshop at the 2008 National Educational Computing Conference (NECC). This year, NECC will be held June 29–July 2 in San Antonio. It is the major annual conference sponsored by the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE).

The BYOL—Bring Your Own Laptop—workshop, “Online Tools for Reading Comprehension,” is scheduled for Tuesday, July 1, from 11 a.m. to noon. Both WECB presenters are co-directors of the Into the Book project: Peggy Garties, a multimedia developer who has spent the last ten years developing instructional multimedia materials for K–12 schools; and Kristin Leglar, an instructional programs developer who has 16 years of experience as an elementary school teacher and three years experience as an assistant principal. They are frequent presenters at statewide conferences and workshops.

The Into the Book Web site will be featured as one of the free online tools for teaching reading comprehension strategies like inferring and synthesizing, plus finding interactive activities for elementary students and resources for teachers. For more information, go to the NECC Web site.

Lessons ALIVE!

Lessons ALIVE!—Free Online Lesson Plans Feature AIT’s Programs

Our Lessons ALIVE! feature provides free lesson plans corresponding to AIT’s products. We give teachers ideas for going beyond our videos’ teacher guides and for developing lesson plans that combine media from different series or select segments from programs. The lesson plans highlighted in Lessons ALIVE! promote contemporary ideas about structured learning environments and model best practices in teaching.

This month, in honor of Earth Day, April 22, we’re presenting two Lessons focusing on “green” issues. Remember: The AIT products featured here are on Special at a 10 percent discount for the month of April!

Pencil Lesson No. One, for students in Grades 3–6, is
Trashing the Planet: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

Lesson No. One utilizes these AIT products:

Economics at Work, “That’s a Lot of Trash!”
Art History III: Mastery in Three Media, Episode 7, “New Methods and Materials: Twentieth-Century American Sculpture”
The Outside Story with Slim Goodbody, Program 6, “It All Adds Up”

Overview of Lesson No. One:

Environmentally aware consumers produce less waste by practicing the “3 Rs”: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. This lesson is designed to help students become more environmentally aware by having them look at each of these three waste-control strategies in turn. They will consider ways to reduce junk mail and excessive product packaging, explore ways to reuse items they would normally throw away, and investigate the reasons why recycling makes less of an impact on the problem than reducing and reusing. They will work together in groups to create trivia games about the problem of dealing with all the trash in the United States.

Objectives of Lesson No. One:

Investigate contributors to the growing trash problem in America, including excess packaging and junk mail.
Describe reasons manufacturers continue to create excess packaging and unsolicited mail, and make judgments about which are acceptable practices.
Explain that the conserving and recycling of natural resources is the responsibility of everyone on the planet.
Identify ways people can reduce, reuse, and recycle various disposable goods.

Pencil Lesson No. Two, for students in Grades 6–12, is
They Write the Songs: Using Writing-to-Learn Strategies to Develop Insight about Environmental Health Topics

Lesson No. Two utilizes these AIT products:

Energy, the Pulse of Life, program 5, “A Changing Environment”
Energy, the Pulse of Life, program 6, “Some Brighter Ideas”
Cracking the Code, program 5, “Seeds of a New Era”
Energy, the Pulse of Life, program 4, “Water, Wind, and Watts”
Front Row Center, program 15, “The Songwriter: George David Weiss”

Overview of Lesson No. Two:

This lesson utilizes the “writing-to-learn” instructional strategy in which students explore and acquire deep understanding of informational texts through creative writing and reflection. Writing-to-learn activities can range from journal writing to interactive learning logs to creative note-taking. The strategy highlighted in this lesson will involve students in a collaborative group effort to research the environment’s impact on human health and write new lyrics to one of their favorite songs to create a new song designed to persuade listeners to help solve the problem. Students will learn about three persuasive techniques, discover persuasive metaphors and hidden meanings in the lyrics of a well-known song, and examine some clever songs about energy, efficiency, and the environment. They will conduct research to develop insight about a chosen environmental health topic and demonstrate deep understanding through creative song writing.

Objectives of Lesson No. Two:

Define and apply three terms for persuasive argument appeals: pathos, ethos, and logos.
Listen to, analyze, and describe song lyrics for meaning and persuasive arguments.
Participate in a collaborative research project to gather information about an issue related to environmental health.
Create original lyrics for an existing song, matching text to the rhythm of the melody.

Check out all of our Lessons ALIVE! lesson plans.

Let us know if you’ve created your own unique lesson plans by submitting them to the Technos e-Zine editor at: editor@ait.net. Selected entries will be published in future issues of the e-Zine.

Tech Notes

New Spectrum Launches Schools into Exciting Wireless Territory

For more than four decades, schools and colleges have used a patch of spectrum space to send video from one building to another using special transmitters and antennae receivers. This spectrum was called ITFS (Instructional Television Fixed Service). The transmissions at that wavelength didn’t travel far nor could they negotiate around buildings or other obstacles very well—meaning the receiver had to be within a line-of-sight from the transmitter. Transmissions could only be sent in one direction, limiting the interactivity of any classroom use of this spectrum.

But the FCC (Federal Communications Commission) learned that spectrum could be put to good use using modern wireless technology. Over the past few years, rules and licenses were renegotiated, resulting in some great new opportunities for educational institutions. Schools utilizing the space could swap their existing license for new spectrum space. By taking advantage of favorable rulings and new technologies, educational agencies can lease up to 80 percent of their designated spectrum to a wireless services provider in return for equipment for new towers, transmitters, and receivers—and cash income to offset the operating costs of these new systems. Technology permits the use of the new spectrum for two-way wireless transmissions, including two-way video. That means schools can now transmit to multiple classrooms back and forth for real-time visual exchanges. The potential for virtual learning opportunities with dependable connectivity that is supported by leases of the excess capacity is very exciting for schools that may have once questioned the value of their old ITFS licenses.

The new spectrum license is called Educational Broadcast Spectrum or Service (EBS). Designated primarily for schools and colleges, the unused “white space” of the spectrum will be made available to the commercial wireless providers in an auction that will be held later this year. For schools, converting their ITFS licenses to EBS licenses could mean long-term returnable revenue and an exciting new way to serve their learners and faculty.

This transition didn’t happen smoothly. ITFS licensees were nearly dismissed from having any access to these new opportunities as the FCC sought to make room for the bulging requests from commercial users for spectrum space. For the past five years, the National ITFS Association (NIA) waged a political battle to secure spectrum so that existing services could be preserved and new services expanded.

Now that the issues have been settled, the NIA had plenty to celebrate at its February conference in Newport Beach, CA. It was time to reconsider how best to use that spectrum and also, to take on a new name—NIA became NEBSA—the National Educational Broadband Services Association.

AIT has long provided video resources to the K–12 licensees that are part of NIA/NEBSA. At their conference, we hosted a table to showcase our content. We also presented one of the opening sessions which was focused on how to make content really help learners get information to “stick”—that is, how media can improve deep learning and retention.

The welcome presentation by Patrick Gossman can be viewed on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IqoIh-8KIAc. Watch for the presentation in next month's edition of Technos e-Zine.

Contact Joann Flick, AIT Marketing, a jflick@ait.net.

etc. (News You Need)

CHILDHOOD LITERACY. A recent report shows that on average, a child growing up in a middle-class family will have the benefit of as many as 1,700 hours of one-on-one picture-book reading before he or she enters school, while a child in a low-income family will have only 25 hours during pre-school years. Further, once in school, reading aloud can be problematic for kids if they have little experience doing so. A volunteer organization in the Chicago area has developed a unique program for kids in grades 2–3 to help them learn to read aloud, called Sit Stay Read! All the kids need are attentive, non-judgmental listeners — specially trained therapy dogs. “The dogs increase confidence and generate excitement about reading,” says SSR’s executive director, MaryEllen Schneider. So far, 30 SSR people/dog teams and nearly 100 other volunteers called “book buddies” are visiting eight schools in the city of Chicago, and the waiting list is growing. The kids love it, the teachers and volunteers attest to the excitement generated, and test scores reveal improvement.
BOOKS ACROSS AMERICA. The National Education Association’s Read Across America effort is sponsoring the Books Across America Library Books Awards Program. Fifty public school libraries serving economically disadvantaged students will be able to purchase books with the $1,000 individual awards. Eligibility is limited to practicing pre-K–12 school librarians, teachers, or education support professionals in a U.S. public school in which at least 70 percent of the students are eligible for the free or reduced-price lunch program. Application deadline is November 7, 2008. For more information, download the NEA Grants Information brochure pdf.
SEEN & HEARD. According to recent research, students today hold a number of misconceptions about the First Amendment and are likely to be more censorious on issues than their elders. A study done by the Associated Press in 2005 found that 99 percent of high school administrators believed that people should be able to express unpopular views, while only 83 percent of students agreed. In order to protect freedoms for future generations, teens today must value and understand their freedoms. The McCormick Tribune Freedom Museum has sponsored a national student expression contest, Seen & Heard, in which students expressed their thoughts on contemporary social, political, or economic issues using four media outlets: editorial cartoons, film, photojournalism, and Web design. The 2008 winning works will be displayed in a special exhibit, Seen & Heard, at the Freedom Museum in Chicago from April 12–June 1. “It is often said that students’ voices are among the most powerful in the nation, but also among the most censored,” says Nathan Richie, director of programs and exhibits at the Museum. “Since we are the first museum dedicated to freedom and the First Amendment, it is our goal to give teens an outlet to make their voices heard.” For more information about current exhibits, events, and resources (including free lesson plans), go to the Museum’s Web site.
XTIMELINE. Teachers and students can devise timelines free online at xtimeline. Free registration allows users to create, share, and discuss interesting timelines in many content areas. The site categorizes and organizes timelines and provides groups and forums for interested parties. Some ads and content may not be appropriate for young students, so adult supervision is recommended.
NEWSEUM. The Grand Opening of the Newseum: The Interactive Museum of News in Washington, D.C., will take place on April 11, 2008.
GRANT OPPORTUNITIES. Entertainment Software Association Foundation Grants are available to nonprofit organizations producing youth (ages 7–18) programs in one or more of these areas: Skills & Personal Development, General Health & Welfare, Risk Behavior Prevention, Education, and Multimedia arts/ technology related or applied. The application deadline is April 15. Presidential Awards for Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching This award of $10,000 from the National Science Foundation honors exemplary K–12 mathematics and science teachers for their contributions to improving teaching and learning. The application deadline for elementary school teachers is May 1, 2008. (Secondary school teachers are eligible to apply in 2009.)
ANNENBERG INSTITUTE REPORT. The Community Involvement Program of the Annenberg Institute for School Reform has published a report on its study of community organizing and its effect on student achievement. The study reveals the major improvements that sophisticated community organizing at the grassroots level can produce in student achievement. In fact, there is strong and consistent evidence that indicates effective organizing:
- contributes to higher attendance rates and test scores and increased graduation rates and college-going aspirations;
- fosters school-community relationships, parental involvement, and engagement in schools; and
- stimulates important changes in policy, practices, and resource distribution that expand capacity and equity in traditionally underserved communities.
A free .pdf download of “Organized Communities, Stronger Schools: A Preview of Research Findings” is available at the Annenberg Institute’s Web site.

AIT Products & Services

The following AIT Products are featured in this month’s Lessons ALIVE! free lesson plan. These programs are being offered at a 10% discount for the month of April.

Logo Economics at Work, Module 2, “That’s a Lot of Trash!” Module 2: Exchanging studies the process of getting what is produced to consumers, in four lessons (14 class periods) that cover: markets, opportunity, and transaction costs; barter and exchange rate; and inflation, fiscal, and monetary policy. One 65-minute videocassette; one 136-page teacher’s guide; one 120-page student guide (sold separately). Product Code: 368-M02.

NOTE: The complete Economics at Work kit is now available on DVD. It includes 20 student video programs on five individual DVDs, one 20-minute teacher training program, five teacher guides, a 32-page workshop leader’s handbook, and a CD-ROM. Student guides are sold separately. Product Code: 368-KIT-DVD.

Logo Art History III: Mastery in Three Media, episode 7, “New Methods and Materials: Twentieth-Century American Sculpture.” American sculpture of the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s is intriguing for its capricious and imaginative use of material. “New Methods and Materials” shows examples of Calder’s witty stabiles and mobiles, Smith’s heroic totems, Chamberlain’s crushed auto parts, Nevelson’s structured walls, Hunt’s hybrid steel forms, Edmonson’s naïve carvings, and Christo’s wrapped objects. One 15-minute videotape. Product Code: 349-007.

Logo The Outside Story with Slim Goodbody, program 6, “It All Adds Up” describes how people produce more waste when they generate more sophisticated products. Kids’ favorite Slim Goodbody demonstrates the importance of dealing with waste responsibly and shows how humans dispose of waste. Students see ways to reduce, reuse, and recycle much of the waste they create. One 15-minute program; product code: 337-006-V-CC.

Logo The Energy, the Pulse of Life series explores both basic science and (applied) technology concepts related to energy, including today’s most pressing issue of energy use. Connect theory to real-life applications within a very entertaining, viewer-friendly format that features original songs by best-selling pop group Moxy Früvous. Students first cover core material on the scientific history, physics and biology of energy. They then go from basic science theory to a detailed examination of how energy is actually produced and used today, including the various problems of energy and the environment, particularly the greenhouse effect. Possible solutions are then proposed. The material is presented in a style designed to appeal to a teenage audience, yet the content is very rigorous. This series, consisting of nine 10-minute programs, is available digitally. Contact AIT Sales for more information. The following three individual VHS programs are featured in Lessons ALIVE! this month:

Program 4, “Water, Wind, and Watts” discusses how North Americans became the greatest energy consumers in history and outlines the evolution of energy technology through the ages. Product Code: 416-004-V-CC.
Program 5, “A Changing Environment” surveys our major sources of energy and their respective environmental problems, including a detailed explanation of the greenhouse effect. Product Code: 416-005-V-CC.
Program 6, “Some Brighter Ideas” introduces new, more efficient ways to use energy, such as compact fluorescent bulbs, solar housing, heat pumps, and low-E windows. Product Code: 416-006-V-CC.

Logo Cracking the Code, program 5, “Seeds of a New Era” examines the profound effects of the DNA-based revolution in agriculture. A dramatic example is the transfer of genes from one mammalian species to another, yielding modern medical miracles. A broader (and more controversial) movement into foods which have been genetically modified is compared with traditional cross-breeding methods. Product Code: 451-006-V-CC.

In Front Row Center, program 15, “The Songwriter: George David Weiss” Weiss sings some of his famous songs and talks about his songwriter experience. One 14-minute video. Product Code: 383-015.

Check out our AIT Classics collection. These are single programs from our extensive list of titles—available for the low price of $39.95 with no minimum order. These titles may be mixed from a number of series or duplicated from the same series. One teacher’s guide will be supplied per series purchase. Shipping and handling charges are additional.

A friendly reminder: You can sample our instructional and professional development products online by accessing our Video Clips section, which also includes program descriptions.

Our Technos Press books are on sale for 50% off for a limited time…

Final Exam: A Study of the Perpetual Scrutiny of American Education (First Edition), by Gerald Bracey (Product Code: 387-BB)

The Complete Handbook of Block Scheduling, by Thomas Shortt and Yvonne Thayer (Product Code: 430-KIT-CD/BK)

An Interactive Guidebook for Designing Education in the 21st Century, by Jerrold Kemp (Product Code: 441-BK)

The Instruction Use of Learning Objects, Edited by David Wiley and published in partnership with AECT (Product Code: 458-BK)

Tightrope to Tomorrow: Pensions, Productivity, and Public Education, by Morton Marcus (Product Code: 401-BK)

Taming the Beast: Choice and Control in the Electronic Jungle, by Jason Ohler (Product Code: 433-BK)

Read previous issues of the TECHNOS e-Zine.

CONTENTS

Featured Interview

Gwen Solomon, Director, techLEARNING.com

Featured Essay

What We Owe Our Young People

What’s New at AIT?

Into the Book Reading Comprehension Session added to NECC

Lessons ALIVE!

Tech Notes

New Spectrum Launches Schools into Exciting Wireless Territory

etc. (News You Need)

Recommended Links

AIT Products & Services

The following AIT Products are featured in this month’s Lessons ALIVE! free lesson plan. These programs are being offered at a 10% discount for the month of April.