No Meeting on 12/14

This will probably not come as a surprise to you that we will not be meeting on Monday, December 14th. Work sessions over the past three weeks have been productive and informative, and it's time to tend to this busy time of year. Let's plan to meet again in person on Monday, January 4th.

Please keep in mind: We will be making a presentation to The Board on January 26th and our work in January will be dedicated to making a strong point that all teachers should have a laptop and projector to begin to teach our children in a 21st Century Learning Environment.

Until then, feel free to publish and share with me. Over the next few weeks I will work on using some new tools to publish the work some of you have been doing.

Please don't forget to contribute to the work identified in the sidebar of the blog. Good luck with those excited children this week!

Printing Report Cards from Laptop

Just a heads up reported at the work session last night. It's possible you could have difficulty printing report cards from your laptop. If that's the case, you should report this to the Helpdesk and try printing them from your classroom machine.


Update:
Three Digital Leaders reported having difficulty printing report cards from your laptops. Anyone experiencing this problem should make sure to submit a Helpdesk ticket to resolve the issue. As always, mention your DL Laptop in the ticket.

Printing Report Cards from Laptop

Just a heads up reported at the work session last night. It's possible you could have difficulty printing report cards from your laptop. If that's the case, you should report this to the Helpdesk and try printing them from your classroom machine.

Work Session: Monday, December 7th

Here is the agenda for the Digital Leaders work session on Monday, December 7th at CO:

• Discussion of the Apple event showcasing the accomplishments of the 1:1 laptop initiative at Washington Middle School in Kenosha, WI.
• Continued work on collaborative slideshow content for the board presentation on Jan. 26th
• Discussion of current projects
• Anyone want to try GoogleWave?

The session will start at 4:00 and end at 5:00. If you are unable to make it, please spend some time going over the collaboration and business sections of this blog.

VoiceThread for Collaboration

Want to join our VoiceThread and contribute to our discussion of using Pixie 2 for learning? Follow these steps:

Don't have a VoiceThread account? It's free for now, please don't pay anything.

1. Click on the link to take you to our VoiceThread. You will the screen pictured here.
2. Choose Sign In or Register from the bottom left-hand corner.
3. Register for your free education account. Suggestion: Use our op97.org username and password so you don't forget it.
4. After you have registered, please upload your avatar. If you don't have one, you might want to try BuildYourWildSelf.com or DoppleMe.
5. Once your avatar is uploaded, you can easily record your voice and comment on any page.
6. When you are ready to share a sample of student work for discussion, please let me know and I'll help you get it in to VoiceThread the first time.

Already have a VoiceThread Account?
You should be able to comment on this VoiceThread by clicking on the link.  You should be able to find it again under My Voice. Please let me know if you have trouble accessing it.

• Do you have a sample of student work to share and discuss here?
• Are you able to upload it as a new slide within the VoiceThread?
• If so, please upload it and discuss the work your students have done.
• If not, please let me know and we'll walk through it.

Caution: Pixie 2 images should be Exported, not saved within the Pixie program in order to turn the files into jpgs. Snapshots work, but they are more blurry and if there is an export option, it's always best to choose it.

Work Sessions Scheduled

At our meeting last Monday, we decided it would be a good idea to hold some regularly scheduled work sessions to provide opportunities for us to collaborate, contribute, and brainstorm. For this reason, work sessions are being scheduled on all Mondays for the remainder of 2009, which leaves us a grand total of four. Let's  plan to start at 4:00 and end at 5:00. The sessions are optional, but hopefully everyone can fit a few in.

On Monday, November 30th we will cover the integration of VoiceThread and Pixie.

The remainder of the work sessions will be held on the following dates:

• December 7th
• December 14th
• December 21st, if needed

Please use the comments section below to provide input about topics for the remaining work sessions.

A Learning Opportunity

Integrate Tools to Promote 21st Century Learning

My personal work-related goal this month is to launch some fairly simple projects using Diigo, Pixie II, and VoiceThread to showcase the integration of these tools.

If you are interested in working with me to explore ways to use these tools in fairly quick and simple ways that are connected to the content you are studying in your class, please complete the form in the sidebar. It would be great to work through this before rolling it out to the masses. I do think these are all really great tools and I think you will like them. If you are hesitant to take on all three new tools, we can start with just one of them if that's more comfortable for you.

• Diigo - A Web 2.0 research tool that includes the opportunity highlight text, comment on articles, use sticky notes and share. This is a very hot Cool Tool.
• Pixie II - Drawing and painting software that we have purchased with many handy features. This is not a Web 2.0 tool.
• VoiceThread - Web 2.0 tool that allows users to upload media and comment. Students can write a narration, record it, and share. Visitors can be invited to view the VoiceThread and also comment on it.

Mark Your Calendars...

1. Our next meeting is scheduled on Monday, November 16th at 4:00, CO. We have some work to do, so I'm hoping most of you can make it.
2. The Digital Leaders have officially been  put on the agenda for the Jan. 26th Board Meeting. At that time we will have about 20 minutes to show The Board some of the great things you are all doing to promote 21st Century Learning through technology.

This Just In About Wireless...

I have been told by Cao Mac that the Tech Specialists will be contacting each of the Digital Leaders in order to configure your laptop so it can connect to the wireless network.  I know you are all excited for this to happen, so please look for that communication.

Preparation for Board Presentation in January

We are tentatively scheduled to make a presentation to the School Board as a group on January 26th.  Please mark your calendars. The goal is to show The Board what teachers can do to promote 21st Century Learning if given a laptop and also to encourage them to continue funding for technology for the benefit of all.

In order to prepare for this opportunity, it's a good idea for each of you to start creating your own portfolio of samples of projects/student work from your work as a Digital Leader. For now, I'd like to suggest that each of you start collecting samples of what you've done/are doing, and put them in a Google Presentation. If it's all together in one place, we can put something together for the Board that will help them see just exactly what it is we are doing.

Ideas include...

• 21st Century Projects you've launched and/or participated in
• Samples of student work
• Examples of collaborative work
• Blogs, glogs, voice threads... you name it.

Don't worry about having too much. If you  all create your own collection, we will have a lot to pick and choose from for the final presentation. We can work on this together as a group the next time we meet.

Next Gmail and GoogleDocs Training

The next Gmail and GoogleDocs training session will be held at Irving on Tuesday, October 6th.  Sessions begin at 3:30 and 4:15. Feel free to attend either, or both of these sessions.

This is a great way to jump in on many levels, and it will also provide you with the opportunity to collaborate and share the great things you are doing with some of our teachers.  Real examples from real teachers is a good selling point, and there's nothing better than all that shared enthusiasm! If you are free, we would love to have you join us!

Sign-up for Gmail Training in any building

GoogleDocs Training

The first GoogleDocs training session is scheduled for this Thursday, October 1st, from 3:30-5:00 at Longfellow. Although it's last minute, I thought it might be worth it to invite some of you to attend and participate in the training. At this point, only 10 people from Longfellow have signed-up, so we have trainers to spare, since all of the trainers want to attend the first training.

So, if you happen to be free and you want to attend, please sign up before 12:00pm today. There will be two forty-five minute sessions, starting at 3:30 and 4:15. (MS teachers could only attend the 4:15 session I realize.)

If you are not available on Thursday, that's okay. The upcoming training schedule for the trainers is pretty tight next week, and I'm not sure if they will be able to hold a separate training for you, but feel  free to attend any of the scheduled sessions, see link below. If that doesn't work,  I will find out when some of the trainers might be able to hold an alternate session for this group. I know you are all eager to do training in your own buildings, and that is the goal!

If you attend any of these training sessions, please bring your laptop!

Sign-up for Longfellow Training
Sign-up for Training in Another Building

Reimaging

Please remember to back up your files before sending your laptop in for reimaging. When your machine is returned to you, nothing will be on it except the programs included on the District Image. All of your files and bookmarks will be gone.

If you move your files from your laptop to your network storage space via a jumpdrive, all you have to do is sync after your laptop is returned and you will be able to retrieve your files in one fell swoop.

Information about reimaging can be found by clicking on the photo in the sidebar. This will help you submit a Helpdesk ticket, and includes advice about what to state in the ticket.

If you have questions about any of this, please let me know.

-blogmaster

Meeting Agenda & Ideas

The next meeting will be held on Monday, September 21st from 4:00-5:00 at Central Office.


Tentative Agenda Items

• Sharing: 21st Century Learning Project Celebration
• Goal Setting
• Tech News Blog
• Opportunities for collaboration
• Virtual Scavenger Hunt
• Training Opportunities for You

Please use the comments to tell us if you have a 21st Century Learning project from last spring to share, or if you would like to submit additional items for the agenda.

Monthly Meetings

Thank you for completing the survey to let us know which day of the week works best for scheduling our monthly meetings. Results indicate that just about all of you are available to meet regularly on Mondays from 4:00-5:00 during the school year. The meeting dates have been posted on a Digital Leaders calendar and shared with each of you. You should be able to see the shared calendar when you log in to your Gmail account.

In case you are unable to view the calendar, or you haven't had a chance to figure it out yet, you should know that the first meeting will be held at CO on Monday, September 21st, from 4:00-5:00 pm.

Please remember to check the due dates in the sidebar. 

Why a Digital Leader Blog?

Blogging is a tool that has a place within a 21st Century learning environment because of it's ease of use and also because it provides viewers with updated information that's easy to find  at the top of the page. Combined with Google Docs, a blog can be interactive. Since we are promoting the use of blogs for communication, collaboration, efficiency and student learning in our schools, it makes sense to use a blog for Digital Leader information.

This will be a new place for Digital Leaders to find information and also collaborate. Hopefully it will make things easier. When the blog is updated, you will receive an email message to alert you to check it.

Please pay attention to tasks and due dates, displayed in the sidebar of this page.