Photo Resolution... Day 7

Old business files in a museum... taken on day 7 but posted just after midnight!

Photo Resolution... Day 6

It's been an icy, snowy day... and not very sunny. The red berries on these trees on campus looked very pretty against the light of the sky.

Photo Resolution... Day 5

I was curious how well a snapshot of the monitor's screen would work. Actually, it's not as bad as I expected.

I quickly learned to turn off the flash. Left on, there was a large reflection in the middle of the photo.

But, I truly cannot think of a good reason for taking this type of photo. Skitch does such a good job! Oh, well. It was an interesting experiment.

Teaching about Phishing in Two Steps

How do you help folks to avoid being fooled by a phishing attempt?

In an earlier posting I recommended using CommonCraft's video which explains what phishing is. That's a good start.

However, this evening I discovered a good follow-up to that.

Hot Hardware shared news of a phishing scam that hit Twitter. The article also provided a link to Anti-Phishing Phil, an interactive game that helps players learn to recognize phishing URLs.

Playing Anti-Phishing Phil is a very good second step to help learn how to avoid being fooled.

So, when I teach about phishing this semester, I will...

1. share the CommonCraft video on phishing and
2. encourage my students to play Anti-Phishing Phil.

Photo: http://flickr.com/photos/cnbattson/3092362396/
License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/2.0/deed.en

Photo Resolution... Day 4

As you can tell from the last few postings, I’m having fun with my New Year’s resolution to take and post at least one photo per day.

I’m trying to see mindfully as Bud the Teacher (and D’Arcy Norman) have suggested.

In fact, after reading BTT’s comments, I realized one reason why my husband is such a good photographer. He is much more aware of detail than I am when he looks at anything. He’s also very creative. He sees mindfully.

BTW, today's photo is a parchment poinsettia from our church's Christmas decorations.

SMARTBoard Blog Shares Many Resources

I have been reading some of the blogs that won EduBlog awards for 2008. Some will join my Google Reader list and some will become popular with my spring semester instructional technology students as they read and comment on blogs. One of the blogs —Teachers Love Smartboards— will become popular in another course I teach and in which we use a Smartboard. The archives go back to August 2007, so I have a lot to explore! Topics include art, games, history, language arts, logic, mathematics, science, lesson plans, tips and tricks, training videos, social studies, and special education. Blogger James Hollis shares the purpose for his blog…

The mission of this blog is simple. Share information and resources so teachers will utilize their SMART Boards in a way that increases learning in the classroom. That's why I end each of my posts with "Sharing is Caring!"

Hollis shares many resources for Smartboards on his blog. Frequently, he summarizes what he has written in lists... lesson activities, lesson resources, 2008 top five lists. Those lists and his categories make it easier to find ideas to use in the classroom.

If you use a Smartboard--or will soon be--this blog should be a good resource!

Photo: http://flickr.com/photos/barretthall/2870833301/
License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en

Photo Resolution... Day 3

Wreath (created by Phil) in my office at the university

Photo Resolution... Day 2

Die Kotz, the oldest of the cats

A New Year's Resolution Begun!

I don't usually post during the week, but I just had to share the first instance in one of my resolutions for the new year. I resolved to take and post at least one photo every day in 2009.

Keturah, one of our cats, is the subject on this first day of that resolution.

Only 364 to go!

Reaching Toward Goals for 2009

It’s time to start making New Year’s resolutions. My first is to take at least one photo each day during 2009. I read of a similar resolution by several bloggers last year. So, this year it’s my turn. I plan to post the photos on Flickr! and/or this blog. The idea for this resolution comes from the question — “How do you get to Carnegie Hall?” — and its answer — “Practice!” I figure that the more photos I take, the better I’ll become as a photographer. We’ll see if I’m correct.

My second resolution is to maintain zero inboxes for email. I’m pretty good at doing that for my RSS reader, but not so good with my email. So, that means I have between now and December 31 to clear out my email inboxes. I think I’ll be busy!

Those two resolutions will require that I develop new habits. A third resolution will be a lot more fun. I want my students to become networked students with their own personal learning networks. (See here for my blog entry about this topic.) I’ve begun working on this one. One of the early projects for some of my students during spring semester 2009 is to create a movie of photos rather than of video clips. I’m so used to viewing this type of movie that it always surprises me when I’m reminded that many of my students have never seen movies created with only photos. Last week I created a short “photo” movie that explains briefly what we’ll be doing and also serves as a model of the first movie that I expect the students to create.

These three resolutions are going to keep me very busy this year!

Photo: http://flickr.com/photos/paulworthington/82648702/
License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en

Sometimes the Most Detail is Not the Best Choice

When I first learned about posting photographs on the web, another educator with whom I was working objected when I said that she should save her JPG photo at an 8 out of 10 quality. She wanted to know why she shouldn’t save it at the “best” quality of 10 out of 10. I needed to explain why the “best” wasn’t really the best choice.

When students—and adults—learn about posting photos on the web, there are several topics they need to understand. File format and size, pixels, thumbnails, photo resolution, scanning, JPG quality and compression, cumulative distortion, and design guidelines are issues that should be discussed.

I know about these things, but I didn’t use my knowledge recently as I was trying to quickly post some photos on a wiki for a community group. You know, of course, what the result was… good pictures… once they loaded. I wonder if any of the community folks hung around long enough to see the result after the photos did finally load!

Thank goodness for Dennis Benson, a friend who was working on the wiki with me. He modified the photos so that they had both quality and speed. And he shared with me a web site — http://www.zyworld.com/webphoto/pages/print.htm — that I’ll use with my students to provide very simple guidelines for posting photos on the web.

What do you use to help your students take and use better photos?

Photo: http://flickr.com/photos/mikebaird/2087094553/
License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en

Tech Savvy Awards Deadline Extended

One of the blogs I follow is that of the National Center for Family Literacy. (Note: If you're wondering why you don't see it listed on this blog, that's because my blog listings and my RSS feeder listings have each taken on a life of their own. Maybe I'll get the two listings coordinated during Christmas vacation!) This organization has an interesting awards program in progress that you may want to investigate... and they have extended the deadline. Meg Ivey of this family literacy group wants to share information of this awards program and its extended deadline with as many folks as possible... and asked me to share it with my readers. I'm glad to help, Meg!

The National Center for Family Literacy announced today that it is extending nominations for the national 2009 Verizon Tech Savvy Awards until Jan. 12, 2009. NCFL extended the deadline in recognition that so many education programs are struggling with reduced budgets, which makes the award money even more important.

The Tech Savvy Awards are the first national awards to honor programs that improve parents and children’s understanding and use of technology. Four $5,000 regional awards and one $25,000 national award will be presented.

For a copy of the 2009 Verizon Tech Savvy Awards nomination form and a map of the regions, visit http://www.famlit.org/techsavvyawards . The deadline for submissions is midnight EST Jan. 12.

Students and Their Personal Learning Networks

As teachers we’re learning to build personal learning networks, but are we teaching our students to do the same? I just viewed a video on Steve Dembo’s Teach42:Education and Technology blog that will help me do that next semester. Check it out here.




Photo: http://flickr.com/photos/purpleslog/516283902/
License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en

Learning about Literature, US History, and Poetry with Shmoop

This evening I wanted to stop what I was doing and read a book. In fact, I wanted to re-read The Old Man and the Sea. And then I wanted to read about the Great Depression.

What led to those ideas? I was exploring shmoop’s web site.

Shmoop focuses on the relevance of literature and history to today’s students, middle school and above. They say that their mission is to “make learning and writing more fun and relevant for students in the digital age.” In my opinion, students aren’t the only ones who will find this site interesting and fun.

Even their blog is fun to read. Recent entries are titled “Why Should I Care About…” followed by the name of a novel that they relate to people and popular culture that today’s students recognize.

In the literature area, they expand upon 115 novels at this point. You can sort the novels by author or by title and view them as a list or by cover flow. After you choose a novel, you can choose to read and learn beginning with an introduction (“in a nutshell” and “why should I care?”) to the novel, and then a summary, themes, quotations, plot analysis, study questions, characters, literary devices, did you know, and best of the web.

Fifty US history topics are covered. After you choose a topic, you can read an introduction, an in-depth explanation, a timeline, people, did you know, best of the web (books, movies and TV, music, photos, audio and video, historical documents), and citations.

In the poetry section, I looked for Carl Sandburg among the 30 poems, but unfortunately they don’t have any of his poetry yet. I’ve not read much by E.E. Cummings, so I read about one of his poems. After you choose a poem, you can explore an introduction, the poem, summary, technique, themes, quotations, study questions, did you know, best of the web, and how to read a poem.

Once you’re in shmoop, you can put Stickies, Clippings, or Paper Outlines on any page and access them in your Folders. A dictionary is available to define words you select on the web site. You can also enter into a discussion (asynchronous) with others.

The literature section has a guide to help you write a paper. A free cram sheet and aids for review are available in the US history area. In the poetry area you can search for words that are displayed in a word cloud.

Launched on November 11, 2008, shmoop is beta. In fact, they state that they “still have miles to go.” But, it looks like a great start for a web site that both teachers and students can use as they work with literature, US history, and poetry.

It will be interesting to watch what new subjects they add.

Name Your Files So They Can Be Found

Erin Doland shares a good idea for naming computer files on a recent Real Simple blog.

Doland suggests that the combination of consistently- and appropriately-named files/folders with a good desktop search program such as Google Desktop will allow you to find whatever file you need.

Doland uses file names such as 081125-project-client. I like the use of the date in the name. By using a year-month-date approach, the files will sort chronologically. I use the date as part of some of my filenames, but I use 20081125 (all four digits of the year) because some of my files are pre-2000.

I find that I use the date as part of the file name for (1) files that refer to events that occur on an annual or otherwise recurring basis and (2) photo albums. So, I have files such as Fireside Chat 20080313 and Fireside Chat 20080626 for a community organization. My photo albums name the event and the date… Thanksgiving 20081127. I plan now to consider using the date in other filenames as well. And I might begin the filename with the date rather than end it with the date. That would assure the chronological ordering even better.

So, how do you name your files?

Photo: http://flickr.com/photos/librarianavengers/413762956/
License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en

Print a Web Page as You Want

Did you ever want to print a web page, but didn’t want to waste paper on all the ads and portions of the article that you didn’t need? Or you could print just the portion of the article that you wanted… except that it printed in narrow columns with big areas of white space?

While reading Tim Lauer’s blog (http://timlauer.org/) I discovered Print What You Like.com (http://www.printwhatyoulike.com), a site that lets you save as a PDF those portions of a web page that you want… and then you can print the PDF.

Try it. It’s easy. It’s free. And it works!

Professional Information and Weekly Address

Professional Information

The TeachersFirst site is always a good source of sites to use when teaching. However, it also provides other useful information. When you follow the trail Professional > Staying Current > Outside Sources, you find links to all the State Departments of Education (USA) and the state education standards. At the same spot you can also find links to many professional education organizations and current information on grants and contests. This is certainly a good site to bookmark.

Clip art licensed from the Clip Art Gallery on DiscoverySchool.com

Weekly Address from President-elect Obama

Http://change.gov is the official website during the transition of President-elect Obama and his team. News, events, and announcements will be available here during the transition period.

Weekly addresses will also be found here—and on YouTube, AOL, Yahoo, and MSN—in addition to being broadcast on the radio. It appears that the transcripts are also included. These weekly updates will continue during the transition period and then also from the White House. This is the first time that a weekly update has been released as a web video.

Current events should be much easier to discuss with this new source.

Field Trips Too Expensive This Year? Try a Virtual Tour!

Do you and your students want to travel to a museum, a city, a country, the solar system? How about a virtual tour? Would you like your students to create their own virtual tour?

Here's a few of the sites available for virtual tours:

• Franklin Institute Science Museum
• Museum of Science and Industry
• American Museum of Natural History
• Worldwide Museum of Natural History
• American Red Cross Virtual Museum
• Metropolitan Museum of Art
• Vanderbilt Museum
• Easter Island
• The Nine (8) Planets
• The Whitehouse
• The Virtual Cave
• Dark Ages
• Poet’s Pantry Tour
• Africa

Dianne Krause of the Wissahickon School District in Pennsylvania has created a list of virtual tours which includes many that I have not seen elsewhere. This list is definitely worth exploring!

Photo: http://flickr.com/photos/striatic/19839430/
License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en

Common Craft Video Explains Phishing

No Phishing

Information literacy is one component of digital citizenship. Included in information literacy is the ability to recognize dangers online... and one of those dangers is phishing.

Common Craft has produced a video--Phishing Scams in Plain English--which does a very good job of explaining phishing.

I have embedded the video here for you to view. It can also be accessed at YouTube.




Photo: http://flickr.com/photos/62327186@N00/2538390229/
License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en

About Me

Hello! My name is Jo Schiffbauer. I believe in lifelong learning. With that in mind, I designed this blog as a series of technology tips for educators—tips that provide ideas for learning, teaching, and using digital skills.

Students should be actively involved in their learning and they should have authentic audiences for their work. The use of technology—especially many web 2.0 applications—supports this type of learning and teaching.

I am a former teacher (mathematics and computer science) and director of technology. Currently I am an adjunct instructor in instructional technology for preservice teachers at a local university and I teach graduate workshops for teachers. With Ohio’s Project Discovery I provided professional development designed to reform both the teaching and learning of mathematics education. I have presented to local, state, and regional groups about mathematics and technology education and I have served on the boards of local and state mathematics and technology education organizations.

If you would like to contact me, I am available at Jo.Schiffbauer@gmail.com.

Thank you for visiting Learning and Teaching in the 21st Century.