TECHNOS e-Zine

May 10, 2008

March 2008—Vol. 5, No. 3

Online Digital Resources

AIT premieres NEW online digital resources from Merced County Office of Education to help students with core mathematics skills. See Math Quiz and Digital Math for more information.

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’ eZine. 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 Article

What’s Next in Educational Technology? Becoming Your Favorite Philosopher

By Jason Ohler, Ph.D.

Do you have a personal philosophy about using technology in your classroom? Most teachers do but may not always realize it. It shows up in the ways they use technology with their students and in the questions they ask about when, why, and how to use technology personally and professionally.

If you’re like most teachers, your philosophy addresses issues beyond technical proficiency, like respect, safety, and developing a balanced perspective about technology’s advantages and disadvantages. After all, you want your students to see “the big picture” of technology so that they can be informed citizens as well as educated students. You want them to use technology not only effectively and creatively, but responsibly and wisely as well.

The responsible, wise use of technology

Addressing the responsible and wise use of technology is problematic because it covers a vast, complex area of human activity. But fortunately there are places to turn for perspective. One source is ISTE (International Society for Technology in Education), which fortunately provides comparable standards for students, teachers, and administrators. When I searched for commonalities among the different standards developed for these groups, the following common core areas emerged:

Area 1: Social needs, cultural identity, global community
Area 2: Equity, diversity, equal access
Area 3: Legalities, ethics, copyright
Area 4: Privacy and security
Area 5: Safety and health (personal, environmental)
Area 6: Media bias
Area 7: Personal responsibility and appropriate behavior

Read the entire Featured Article.

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, we're presenting a Social Studies Lesson focusing on gender equity in employment. Remember: The AIT products featured here are on Special at a 10 percent discount for the month of March!

The Lesson, for students in Grades 1–4
Women at Work: Early Elementary Explorations of Gender Roles and Career Options for Women

Using the following AIT Products:

Math @ Work, program 4, “Weather: A Whirlwind of Numbers”
Math @ Work, program 5, “Newspapers/Sports: Digital Deadlines”
Retro News, program 7, “Women in the News”

Overview:

The subtle message that there is such a thing as “women’s work” and “men’s work” affects all children, both boys and girls, and children still encounter hidden stereotypes at very young ages. This lesson plan utilizes programs from two AIT series to combat the stereotypes that girls can’t or shouldn’t go into any career that interests them. After meeting both men and women whose math skills allow them to work in jobs that were considered male-only positions in the past, students will learn about famous American women who broke stereotypes and made names for themselves in a variety of occupations.

Teachers are offered several activities designed to teach early elementary students about women and work. Students will discuss and sort pictures of working women, interview a female friend or family member about her job, and collaborate in small groups to create posters honoring famous American women workers.

Objectives:

Recognize that both men and women perform important jobs and may work at the same careers.
Interview a female friend or relative about her occupation.
Explore the lives of famous women in various jobs and careers.

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.

NETA Conference 2008 Provided Highlights of Interest to Educators

Reported by Joann Flick, AIT’s Broadcast/Training Professional.

NETA, the National Educational Telecommunications Association, is the primary professional organization for public broadcasters engaged in the pursuit of an educational mission. Most of the PBS stations that attend the conference offer a pre-school, K–12, post-secondary, and/or teacher professional development support service. Many of the stations at the conference are licensed under a statewide authority to provide educational services or to a college or university. Two PBS stations licensed to K–12 school districts were in attendance: KLVX in Las Vegas and KLCS in Los Angeles. More than 400 PBS staff attended the annual conference held in downtown Columbus, Ohio.

Key items of interest to educators included presentations about new technologies, a renewed interest in workplace skills, and the results of a newly published census of educational services provided by PBS stations. This report will focus on these three items, in reverse order.

Read all of Tech Notes

etc. (News You Need)

The Learning First Alliance, a partnership of 18 national education associations dedicated to improving student learning in America’s public schools, has launched a new Web site. Public School Insights: What Is Working in Our Schools has as its goal to build a sense of community among those who are working at the local level to strengthen their public schools, while showcasing proven strategies. It features real Success Stories that reveal an emerging vision for public schools in the 21st Century, a Toolkit that includes communications resources, and Reading and Mathematics Publications—as well as an Emerging Vision section where visitors can share their experiences with innovative strategies such as Personal Attention, Standards that Matter, Connecting Communities, and Safe, Great Places to Learn.

The Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS) is the brainchild of Dr. Robert Pianta, director of the Center for Advanced Study of Teaching and Learning and Dean of the Curry School of Education at the University of Virginia. CLASS is an “observational instrument that measures three broad areas of classroom quality: Emotional Support, Classroom Organization, and Instructional Support; within each area there are several specific dimensions of classroom quality.” Ten dimensions include: Positive Climate, Negative Climate, Teacher Sensitivity, Regard for Student Perspectives, Behavior Management, Productivity, Instructional Learning Formats, Concept Development, Quality of Feedback, and Language Modeling. For more about CLASS, access the Harvard Education Letter and click on the article by Dr. Pianta from the January/February issue, “Neither Art Nor Accident.”

The Milton & Rose D. Friedman Foundation has published “Grading School Choice: Evaluating School Choice Programs by the Friedman Gold Standard.” The Friedman Gold Standard is that of universal vouchers to empower parents to choose the best education for their children, but it also endorses well-crafted tax credit programs. Writing in the Foundation’s publication, “The School Choice Advocate,” President and CEO Gordon St. Angelo, tells readers that “[i]n the 2007–08 school year, more than 140,000 students are participating in one of 21 school choice programs in 13 states and Washington, D.C.”

At the Articulab at Northwestern University, Dr. Justine Cassell has developed the Embodied Conversational Agent (ECA), a virtual human capable of interacting with humans using language and gestures. This “virtual child” is a cartoon about the size of an eight-year-old that kids can play with via a plasma screen projection. Through her investigation of the role that an ECA can play in children’s lives, Dr. Cassel has found that children with autism can develop advanced social skills by interacting with a virtual peer that they might not otherwise develop through human interaction.

The Turnaround Management Association (TMA) is accepting nominations now through May 1, 2008, for the 2008 Butler-Cooley Excellence in Teaching Awards. The awards honor teachers who have demonstrated exceptional dedication and skill in shaping the lives of children and teens through education. Maximum Award is $5,000 cash plus travel expenses to TMA’s 2008 20th Anniversary Annual Convention in New Orleans, October 27–29, 2008. Currently licensed primary or secondary school teachers employed by accredited schools for at least five years are eligible.

“Learning from Explaining: Does It Matter If Mom Is Listening?” by Bethany Rittle-Johnson, Megan Saylor, and Kathryn E. Swygert, has been published in Science Direct: The Journal of Experimental Child Psychology. The article explains the study of four- and five-year-old children to find out if explaining to another person would improve their learning and transfer of that learning. The kids in the study solved multiple classification problems, received accuracy feedback, and were prompted to explain the correct solutions to their moms, to themselves, or to repeat the solutions. The study found that generating explanations improved problem-solving accuracy following the test, while explaining things to the mother led to the greatest problem-solving transfer. The conductors of the study, professors of psychology at Vanderbilt University, concluded that these outcomes indicate that explanation prompts can facilitate transfers in children as young as five years and reveal that it matters if the mother is listening. But, then we moms already knew that!

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 March.

Math @ Work (programs 4 & 5 are featured) is a multimedia program that explores daily math challenges in five industries: theme parks, snacks, fashion, weather, and newspapers/sports. Five 20-minute programs for grades 6–9. Winner of a 2001 CEN Award for Non-Traditional Multimedia and a 2000 PBS Eddie Award—Best Web Original Classroom Resource. For more information and to view a video clip, visit the Math @ Work Web page. This program is available digitally. Contact AIT Sales for more information.

Retro News is a fast-paced magazine-style show hosted by kids and for kids from 9 to 12 years old (grades 4–7). From their virtual news room, teen journalists bring significant, interesting, and humorous historic events to life with actual news footage from the archives. In thirteen 30-minute programs, kids will see and hear newsmakers like Albert Einstein, Franklin Roosevelt, Amelia Earhart, and John Kennedy. They will see Mt. Rushmore take shape, the Wright Brothers fly, and John Glenn blast into space. The special feature “Innovation” shows the big advances of the early 20th Century like the telephone, the airplane, and plastic — as well as plenty of wacky inventions like the rain-making machine and the card table that deals for you. The young hosts introduce viewers to the people and events that have shaped our world. They mix the facts with plenty of fun. The segments “Sports,” “Vintage Vogue,” and “Fun and Games” give kids the giggles with unusual sights like edible hats, bowling elephants, monkeys driving a train, and flagpole dancers. Visit the Retro News Web site to view a video clip of the program.

Read about the development of the award-winning literacy series, Into the Book, in our Featured Interview for February. Into the Book is a multimedia teaching resource designed to enhance reading comprehension for K–3 students, as well as their ability to think and learn across the curriculum. The nine Into the Book student episodes feature an extraordinary classroom where a group of ordinary students use powerful learning strategies to enter the world of the story. Behind the Lesson consists of the professional development videos that accompany Into the Book. An interactive Web site and comprehensive print materials round out the curriculum package.

Produced by Nashville Public Television and the Country Music Hall of Fame, Music to My Ears is a resource for music teachers at the middle and high school levels. The series has several goals. The most important is to encourage the viewer to become an active listener who employs careful observation and critical thinking in the art of listening. Secondary goals include: 1) helping audiences make connections between concepts in music and other art forms, such as the visual or performing arts; 2) exposing students to a variety of musical styles and genres; and 3) introducing viewers to musical structure and terminology. The series is hosted by Dr. Cedric Dent of Take 6. Dent holds a Ph.D. in music and is active as a composer and educator as well as performer. The other members of Take 6 join Dent to provide vocal demonstrations of the ideas being presented in each show. Other featured groups include the Nashville Bluegrass Band, the Fairfield Four, the Beegie Adair Trio, and the Nashville Chamber Orchestra Trio. Each of the four 30-minute programs explores a musical idea through performances, conversations, and demonstrations. Other art forms are used to create analogies for the musical concepts. The Music to My Ears DVD, which includes all four videos and a teacher’s guide, is now available for $235.00.

This month,we’re featuring Special Pricing on the following Teacher’s Guides (minimum order of $25.00):

Geography in U.S. History (“G.U.S.H.”)—$1.00 each (normally $7.95)
Mathemedia—$10.00 each (normally $19.95 each)

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.

Find out more about AIT’s programs at our online catalog. Check out AIT’s sample video clips.

You can also download a .pdf version of AIT’s product catalog.

Read previous issues of the TECHNOS e-Zine.

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