Herman Wood

Analysis using Excel

We have lots of data about our students available to us. INFORM is one source that can easily be exported to Excel where we can really begin to analyze it!

Once you locate the information you like in INFORM by running the report, click the button at the top labeled "Export". It will take you to a screen where you'll be able to either view, download, or have the data emailed to you. I chose the tab delimited text version and then downloaded.

Once it was on my computer, I opened Excel and used File>Open to open the data. Excel took me through a wizard consisting of a 3 windows. I took the default each time and was rewarded with the requested data in Excel.

You can use the handout I provided to you in our session to help you with Excel. It began as a document created by the state department of education, though heavily modified by me to fit this purpose. Here it is as a PDF. Download Excel_for_Analysis.pdf

Finally- please help me with another project! I'm working on a tool for surveys. Take a minute to complete the survey below and expect me to tell you how you can create your own in another session:

Projects with Images

In recent posts, I've talked about creating slideshows and other products in iPhoto. One question that always comes up is where to find images. Don't forget the databases already available to you that have been purchased with county funds!

http://cvl.cobbk12.org/ There are amazing resources here!
There is a link to Nettrekker in there, but here's a direct link: http://www.nettrekker.com
From school, just click login, choose the school you're located at & start searching! (Students can create their own account and use it from home with their login.)

There are some great resources for images that don't require you to go Googling:
http://www.gigapxl.org/
http://photography.nationalgeographic.com/photography/photogalleries
http://www.loc.gov/index.html

But what if you want to unleash Google on those sites? Well, you can with a custom search engine I built with Google's help: http://www.google.com/coop/cse?cx=000201137543463009160:t8ddzopkqte

You can also build your own set to search sites of your choosing:
http://www.google.com/coop/cse/

Put a link to it in your blog, take your students to it in class or for homework and have a go at it!

Higher Order Thinking Skills & Photostory 3

I asked a new teacher this morning if she was familiar with Benjamin Bloom.  As always, I was rewarded with "Of Bloom's Taxonomy?"  Do you think his work is still relevant?  One of his former students, Lorin Anderson, has suggested an update.  An article in techLearning, http://techlearning.com/showArticle.php?articleID=196605124 does a good job of summarizing her work for us.  Two point stood out to me:  The additional cognitive objective of Creation has been added and lots of "digital" verbs have been added (googling, for one).

Can students create in the digital world?  (If you have any doubt, check YouTube.)  Are students doing the digital verbs on their own without us?  If they have access they are!  It's just as big a part of their world as cassette tapes were to mine.

One of the tools you can let them create with is Photo Story 3.  I'm attaching a PDF for you to use to help you learn how to use it. 

Download PS3.pdf

You can also use Atomic Learning at this link:  http://movies.atomiclearning.com/k12/photo_story_3 (login required).

If you'd like to know more about Dr. Anderson, go to:  http://www.andersonresearchgroup.com/index.html  She's in the neighborhood- just over in Columbia, South Carolina.

As a comment, please tell me about your plans for students to use Photo Story 3 in your classroom.

Welcome Back!

Summer is almost over for you! Why am I happy about that? It means it's almost time for me to get to work with you again! I've been busy with two courses, iNtegrating iLife iNto iLearning and eXtending iLife iNto iLearning, as well as the National Educational Computing Convention in San Antonio.

I learned lots at the Convention! You can see the sessions I attended and my notes at:

http://edtech.typepad.com/theblog/

Of note, there was quite the brouhaha at the convention by a request from ISTE, the organization who puts on the convention, that they wanted podcasters to not only get the permission of presenters to record, but to get permission from ISTE. ISTE bowed to pressure to drop the request, but it started quite the conversation.

I'd like to wrap up by saying hello! Hello to two schools that are new to me, Barber and Lost Mountain. I look forward to working with you!

Curricular Websites & Internet Resources

Internet resources for the curriculum are nothing new. What is new, are the ways we can use the resources in the curriculum.

One of the most powerful ways we can use the web is by going directly to a primary source for data. Rather than reading a summary in Time magazine or online, we have the ability to go look at the same data that Time looks at- a primary source. Where do we find the data? It depends on what type of data, of course. Fortunately, the Landmarks for Schools project, an effort of David Warlick, has compiled an extensive list of sources of data. Go to: http://landmark-project.com/page.php?stamp=&pn=4&psn=&cat=22

Please take a few minutes and look through the sources cataloged here. How could you use them in your curriculum?

Google has been on the forefront of using data in unique ways. Their Google Earth Program is quite amazing. It is approved for install on district computers. It is loaded on the Mac laptops at Lovinggood and the computers by the windows in the Media Center. The icon looks like this:

If you want it on your teacher laptop or other computers, place a work order to have the install done. Just for fun, let's take a look at a tour I created: Download Tour_of_the_SEC.kmz

Please open Google Earth and explore for a few minutes now.

There are some great projects outline now in several curricular areas! Here's links to them:
Social Studies: The Sojourn Project- used Google Earth to share their tour of historic Civil Rights sites: http://www.sojournproject.com/blog/
The Google Earth component: http://miramonte.acalanes.k12.ca.us/bbcswebdav/institution/MHSwebsite/sojourn07/Journey/Welcome.html

Language Arts: Google Lit Trips- Follow the path taken in literature in Google Earth: http://web.mac.com/jburg/iWeb/GoogleLit/Home.html

Earth Science: Google Earth for Earth Science- a whole website devoted to using Google Earth in Earth
Science: http://www.eastchester.k12.ny.us/schools/hs/teachers/fermann/GE.htm

iTunes, believe it or not, is a terrific catalog of educational podcasts! Open iTunes, click the iTunes Store and look for link labeled Podcasts. Search there for podcasts in your area. Please feel free to look at a prior post on podcasts for curricular areas: http://tiscobb.typepad.com/herman_wood/2007/09/lovinggood-ma-4.html

Finally, let's not forget Nettrekker! Please go to Nettrekker now and do a search on standards for your curriculum: http://www.nettrekker.com/

Mrs. Crumley has compiled quite the list of websites to help you herself! Please go to her blog at:

http://lovinggood.typepad.com/rcrumley/

Problems Embedding into Posts or Pages

Some folks are running into problems embedding pictures or calendars into their posts or pages in their TypePad blogs.  I can't isolate the problem, as there is no problem on some PC's, but there is on others.  Seems to be no problem on our Macs in Safari.  Anyway, here's the fix:

On PC's, and in FireFox on Macs, there is a tab called Edit HTML that is visible to the top right of the editable area of your post/page.  If your code is showing (oh my!) instead of your picture or calendar, then edit your post/page.  Copy the code again.  Click the Edit HTML button:

Paste the code you copied a moment ago back in and save your post.  So far, it's worked every time!

Let me know if you need any help!

PS- Happened to me on this post in FireFox on the Mac ; )

Google's Calendar

Google Calendar is a great way to share important dates and times with your students and parents!  As always, you have to have a Google account.  See my prior post on PICASA for more info on creating an account.

Google gives you all the info you need to get started:  http://www.google.com/support/calendar/bin/topic.py?topic=8556

Once you have some events added, you can go through the process of embedding it into your blog.  Again, Google really comes through:  http://www.google.com/support/calendar/bin/answer.py?answer=41207&topic=8573

The help at Google will allow you to paste the code from Google into a TypePad post so that your calendar will appear in a post. If you want it always in the same place, you could give your calendar its own Page, if that has been enabled and set up for you. (Example in the right hand column of this blog under Pages.) Other options include putting it in the sidebar of your blog as a Notes Typelist. An example of that is on this blog on the left hand side. It's a public calendar for Dowell Elementary.

It takes some time and you have to change some settings, but it's a tremendous help to your parents and students.

Google's PICASA for Your Blog

Google provides all kinds of goodies that you can use with or without a blog.  We're going to deal with PICASA in this entry.  PICASA is a service that allows you to share pictures.  Pictures can be viewed in online albums or  inside a blog.  There are many examples on my blog, but here's one:  http://tiscobb.typepad.com/herman_wood/2007/08/basics-of-blogg.html

By pictures, I mean digital pictures or graphics.  Before you can get started, you need to create a Google account.  It's free!  Start by going to Google's account set up help page.

Once that's all set, go to the PICASA set up page.

Here's how to upload pictures from your web browser: http://picasa.google.com/support/bin/topic.py?topic=10753

You may want to place a work order to have the PICASA software installed on your computer, if it's not already installed.  It is approved, though it is necessary to place a work order for it to be installed.  Besides making uploading easier, it has all kinds of helpful features.

Once you have a few pictures uploaded, you can embed them in your blog!  Start by clicking on an album.  To embed one picture, click on the picture, then look in the right hand column where it says Link this Photo.  You'll need to click it, then it will look like this:

Use the pulldown to select the size you want your picture to be.  Keep in mind that the middle column of most blogs is set to 400 pixels.  Copy the line of code under HTML to Embed in WebSite and paste it into the blog where ever you want the image to appear.  As always, save your post!

You can also create a slideshow from an album.  The only real changes in the procedure above is that while you are in an album, the button for embedding a slideshow is on the left rather than the right.

Here's an example using some pictures I took:

One option you can explore, if it's been enabled for you, is to have a Page just for displaying pictures. Instead of New Post, click New Page, then paste your choice of the html code into the body of the Page. You can see the same slideshow on one of my pages. The link is off to the right.

Putting Images in Blog Posts

One of my colleagues, Lauralyn Sunseri, did a very clear post on inserting images into TypePad blog posts. Go check it out at: http://tiscobb.typepad.com/lsunseri/2007/08/inserting-image.html

Atomic Learning

Atomic Learning is a terrific resource available to you! Any employee can use it at their desk, in front of students, or even at home. They have tutorials on about any software available to us in the district. They recently added Lesson Accelerators, which take you through student projects all the way from planning to implementation.

The best way to get started is to use Atomic Learning to learn about Atomic Learning! Go to http://movies.atomiclearning.com/k12/support

You'll be asked to login. Your user name is your e-number, found on your check. If you've used it before, you have already set up a password. If not, then I'll share the default password for the district in person. You should change your password right away.

Once you've looked at the above, click on Our Tutorials at the top of the page, find one you're interested in, and take a look.

Finally, take a look at the Lesson Accelerators. Click on the Atomic Learning Home icon at the top.

In the right hand column, click More Lesson Accelerators to see what's available.