ALABAMA SUPERCOMPUTER AUTHORITY
Alabama Supercomputer Authority will provide many opportunities for professional development for network engineers and technicians at the Alabama Educational Technology Conference at the Birmingham-Jefferson Convention Complex in Birmingham, June 16-18, 2004. ASA will also exhibit on the vendor floor, provide Tech Talk sessions, answer your technology questions, and lead several Hands-On Workshops. Details are provided below.
ASA engineers will teach the following two technical classes as part of the Hands-On Workshops::
CREATING WEB PAGES WITH HTML TAGS AND JAVASCRIPT On June 16 and 17, Tiffany Davis will teach this session for Math, Programming, and Business/Marketing Education teachers who are interested in learning and teaching HTML tags and basic programming skills. Web resources and lesson plans will be provided. This class will be taught without purchasing software. Only a Web browser and a text editor are needed. Grade Level: Intermediate (6-8), High School (9-12) Audience: Classroom Teachers, Administrators INTERMEDIATE-level technology skills suggested.
SECURING YOUR NETWORK: A HANDS-ON WORKSHOP On June 18, Donnie Moss and James Duncan will lead a morning and afternoon session that will focus on firewalls, switches, and routers through the creation of a network. Each participant will be responsible for the implementation of one aspect of the network. Grade Level: Audience: District or School Technology Coordinators INTERMEDIATE network administrator skills suggested.Pre-registration assures you a seat in one of these sessions. For additional information and registration forms go to www.aetc.cc
ASA engineers and staff will offer Tech Talk Sesssions from the ASA booth on the vendor floor on the afternoon of June 16 and the morning of June 17. Each of these sessions will end with a prize drawing for those participating in each session for its entirety.. For additonal information, click here.
READING ABOUT EDUCATION AND TECHNOLOGY
NetDay Speak Up Alabama had a strong participation rate in the NetDay Speak Up Day for Students in October 2003. With over 2,440 students participating, Alabama ranked 13th for overall participation this past year on a state-by-state comparative. Participation included schools predominantly in the suburban areas with some schools in the rural and urban areas throughout the state.
Highlights from the Student Surveys
3rd Grade Surveys
More students in Alabama said that he/she has his/her own email address-
84% vs. 29% nationally
More students in Alabama indicated a need for better software- 40%
vs. 28% nationally
Grade 3 - 6 Surveys
More students in Alabama indicated a need for new computers -75% said
that their number 1 priority if they were a school principal would
be to buy new computers
More Alabama Students said they use technology to help with schoolwork -80%
vs. 73% nationally
Grade 6 - 12 Surveys
Alabama middle and high school students are very comfortable with technology
and consider it an important aspect of their education and personal lives
74% have 1-3 email accounts - vs. 67% nationally
63% have 1-3 IM screen names - vs. 52% nationally
60% of Alabama students would go first online(access to the Alabama Virtual Library possibly influenced this number) to find information for an assignment (vs. 40% nationally)
78% said it is very important for students to have technology access. Only 69% of students nationwide feel as strongly
65% of Alabama's students know more friends' IM screen names than their home phone numbers. Only 53% of students nationwide feel the same
In response to the overwhelming request from teachers who also wanted to speak up, NetDay is pleased to announce a very special Speak Up Day for Teachers taking place right now. Please share this opportunity with your school district, teachers and administrators. Go to www.netdayspeakup.org to update school registration and take the online survey to share ideas about technology and education with our nation's policymakers. The survey takes only 10-15 minutes and you can do it anytime, anywhere, anyplace. Speak Up today! Let your voice be heard on this important education issue. The survey site is open for teacher input April 14 through May 7. The national report on Speak Up Day for Teachers will be released at the National Education Computing Conference in New Orleans on June 22 and shared with the US Dept of Education, US Dept of Commerce, the Congress and many other federal and state agencies. Your voice can help to change policies and programs on ed tech!
High (School)-Tech: The Effect of Technology on Student Achievement in Grades 7-12 What the chalkboard was to the 20th-century classroom, the computer is to the 21st-century classroom. The one important difference is that the concept of the chalkboard didn't change much over the decades; however, we're just at the beginning of the evolution of the computer as a teaching and learning tool. To read this article in T.H.E. Journal, click http://www.thejournal.com/thefocus/37.cfm.
EDUCATION AND THE INTERNET
Lewis and Clark: Corp of Discovery The Lewis and Clark expedition was the first federally funded scientific expedition in the United States. Between May 1804 and September 1806, the explorers mapped the terrain; collected plants, animals and soil samples; and met many Indian tribes. Their discoveries set the stage for the growth of the country to what it is today. This month, the MarcoGram features activities to engage students in capturing the spirit of this famous expedition. Use the warm-up activities and then scroll down for links to more lessons and resources suitable for use with students in any grade level or subject area. http://www.marcopolo-education.org/MarcoGrams/May2004.html.
The Wise Guide portal was designed to introduce you to the many fascinating, educational and useful resources available from the nation's library and one of the most popular Web sites of the federal government.The "Wise Guide" is refreshed monthly and offers links to the best of the Library's online materials. Each of these articles is based on items contained in a collection, database, reading room or other area of the Library's online offerings. Holdings range from prints, photographs, films, audio recordings, maps, manuscripts, music and digital materials to (of course) books. The Guide's monthly articles should encourage you to explore the millions of items available at www.loc.gov. http://www.loc.gov/wiseguide/about.html
LIBERTY! The American Revolution is the story of the American Revolution---two and a half decades of debate and rebellion, war and peace. It begins in the aftermath of the French and Indian War and ends with the creation of the Constitution. http://www.pbs.org/ktca/liberty/
Gateway to the Summer Games Let the upcoming Summer Olympic Games provide content for your curriculum. The site provides educators with a host of resources, lesson plans, and tools designed to teach students about the Olympics. Teachers will enjoy using the site's lesson plans and worksheets, while students will enjoy learning about the legendary games through different games and activities. In addition, the site features factual and historical information on the Olympic Games, information on the Paralympic Games, physical fitness techniques of Olympic athletes, and the geography and history of Athens all organized in grade-specific and subject-specific categories. http://www.edgate.com/summergames
Investigating the Climate System offers problem-based modules for studying five topics: clouds, energy, precipitation, weather, and wind. Learning activities, assessment rubrics, and prerequisite knowledge are included in these 20- to 30-page booklets, which respond to national academic standards for Grades 5-12.http://spacelink.nasa.gov/products/Investigating.the.Climate.System/
Porgy and Bess: An American Voice is the companion website for a documentary tracing the history of Gershwin's opera from DuBose Heyward's novel, "Porgy," in 1924 to the opera's premiere in 1935 and subsequent productions. Behind the Scenes, Meet the Artists, and A Look at the Work are among the features. http://www.pbs.org/wnet/gperf/porgy/
Small French Paintings presents a selection of small French impressionist and postimpressionist paintings by Bonnard, Cezanne, Degas, Matisse, Pissarro, and others. The works are organized around six themes: realism, barbizon, early impressionism, later impressionism, alternatives to impressionism, and postimpressionism. http://www.nga.gov/exhibitions/sfpinfo.htm
Huntington Archive of Buddhist and Related Art contains nearly 300,000 slides and photos of Asian art and architecture. Materials are predominantly Buddhist but include Hindu, Jain, Islamic, and other works (dating back to 2500 BC). This archive is the most comprehensive collection of its kind. It includes the largest photo archive of Nepali art and architecture in the world and represents the only formal collection that photographically records Nepali's artistic heritage. http://kaladarshan.arts.ohio-state.edu./projects.htm
Immigration includes lessons, photos, and vocabulary activities for learning about immigration and migration, oral histories, and more. Information is provided about immigrants from Africa, Germany, Ireland, Scandinavia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, China, Puerto Rica and Cuba, and Poland and Russia. http://memory.loc.gov/learn/features/immig/immigration_set1.html
Journeys West helps students examine the motivations of people who traveled west during the 1800s, as well as the conditions they encountered, the conflicts between settlers and native people, and policies of the federal government. Students interpret first person narratives and choose a role for in-depth study -- a gold miner, fur trader, pioneer family, Native American, or explorer. http://lcweb2.loc.gov/learn/lessons/01/west/index.html
Papers of John Jay is an image database of thousands of pages scanned from photocopies of original documents. Jay (1745-1829) helped negotiate peace with and independence from Great Britain. He served as Secretary for Foreign Affairs, contributed to the Federalist, was the first Chief Justice of the U.S., negotiated the 1794 "Jay Treaty" with Great Britain, and was a two-term governor of New York. http://www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb/eresources/archives/jay/
Picturing Modern America helps students learn about modern America (1880-1920) by analyzing primary sources. Topics include immigration, the city, women and suffrage, industrialization, the West, children's lives, leisure time, progressive reform, and World War I. Three kinds of exercises are offered: analyzing a single document, exploring a theme (prairie settlement, for instance), and creating an online exhibit. http://www.edc.org/CCT/PMA
NEWS YOU CAN USE
NORTEL NETWORKS KIDS ONLINE (NNKOL) is a nonprofit educational organization whose mission, vision and values are dedicated to preparing K-12 students and teachers to live and work in the information age through innovative peer-to-peer technology training distributed using advanced digital technologies. The NNKOL Digital Studio has been constructed at Virginia's Center for Innovative Technology (CIT) in Herndon Virginia, to help students and teachers develop skills to increase their knowledge of the rapidly changing world of technology. Nortel Networks, the signature sponsor, is providing the optical network hardware for a multi-gigabit Internet connection that has the bandwidth for millions of students and teachers to remotely access these programs, including Kidz Teaching Kids Live!, Streaming Futures, gURL Tech, Technology in Action and Teach IT. http://www.kidzonline.org/
INTERACTIVE QUIZ WEBSITES The Hot Potatoes suite includes six applications, enabling you to create interactive multiple-choice, short-answer, jumbled-sentence, crossword, matching/ordering and gap-fill exercises for the World Wide Web. Hot Potatoes is not freeware, but it is free of charge for those working for publicly-funded non-profit-making educational institutions, who make their pages available on the web. http://web.uvic.ca/hrd/halfbaked/index.htm
AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION'S' Communications and Marketing Office recently launched the new Tell Your Story! component of the ALA Library Funding Web site. The new ALA Library Funding Web site provides important information about funding cutbacks in libraries in states throughout the country. The Tell Your Story! component is an anecdotal collection that will allow library advocates to submit stories of how funding issues have impacted their communities, as well as retrieve stories to share with legislators, decision-makers, and the media. To view, go to www.ala.org/libraryfunding. Scroll down to the Tell Your Story! area to submit your library funding story or to read stories about funding impacts around the country.