By Dan Maas on
1/19/2010
Dr. Mark Warschauer is a professor at the University of California, Irvine, and author of a number of books about the use of laptops in classrooms. He visited Littleton this month as part of some research. He was interested in visting some of our schools because we have over 3,400 netbooks in use today!
Dr. Warschauer first visited East Elementary to observe the 4th and 5th grades and then he went on to Hopkins Elementary where he visited the 5th grades. All are 1:1 netbook equipped classrooms. He has promised to write us with what he thinks of our work.
But the story in LPS can't be told just by visiting two schools. We have netbooks in use for writing at every school in LPS. So I think Dr. Warschauer would enjoy hearing from students about your views on the Inspired Writing project in your school.
Students, please share your thoughts on this question from Dr. Warschauer:...
|
By Dan Maas on
1/15/2010
 So, as a former science teacher, I always crindge when a software vendor shows me some great way for kids to learn the Periodic Table of the Elements. I never made kids memorize the table but rather always felt that the kids needed to understand how the table worked and could use it effectively. What do the symbols mean? What information does it convey? Why is it arrayed the way it is? What can you tell about the properties of an element based on its placement? Software that helps kids memorize stuff is always low on my list.
So when Randy Stall first remarked to me that Mr. Genson's 8th grade science class at Powell Middle School had created a wiki for the Periodic Table, I have to admit I crindged. Flashes of reciting the properties of Oxygen appeared in my mind as I tried to guess how a wiki had been used to advance "knowledge-level" work. But, I put my instincts aside...
|
By Dan Maas on
11/25/2009
|
By Dan Maas on
11/20/2009
If a picture is worth a thousand words, then the rest of this post is superfluous. Heritage High School Principal, Ken Mortiz sent this picture to me after returning from his trip to Sierra Leone, Africa. His school started a project they call "MAD Week" about three years ago and raised money to build a school in Kabala, Sierra Leone. MAD Week stands for "Making a Difference" and just looking at this picture, it is clear that the mission has been accomplished... and yet still goes on. Several students made this trip in past years and brought back impassioned stories about the poverty and the courage of the people of Kabala. This picture is on the steps of the school that kids built for other kids.
Don't ever believe you can't change the world. ...
|
By Dan Maas on
11/11/2009
Laptop projects are popping up everywhere and some even go away (see NYTimes article on school dropping laptop project). Recently, a small Indiana school implemented a laptop rental program using HP Mini netbooks charging students $55/year to fund their initiative (see Indiana DOE press release). 
In Littleton, lots of kids have access to technology from iPods, to netbooks, to smart-phones and even laptops. Indeed, our high schools all welcome student-owned technology and we provide filtered wifi services that our students can freely access at school. Yet, after two years of wifi availability, I don't see digital technology squeezing out paper and pencil in the study halls and cafeterias I walk through to see kids doing their school-work. A curious sophomore asked me what I was peering at as I scanned an area full of kids doing homework and when I told her, she remarked "oh, I bring my...
|
By Dan Maas on
11/3/2009
On October 30th, 2009, guests from the NSBA T+L conference visited East Elementary School. Lunch was provided by the NSBA as visitors came to hear our vision for technology, visit classrooms, hear from students and dialog with staff. But before going further, there are some factors that are important to note. For two days prior to this visit, we had one of those classic Colorado blizzards; 60 degrees on Tuesday, 14 inches of snow by Thursday morning, and the sun peeking out on Friday. Also, one might notice that 10-30-09 would be the last school day before Halloween which fell on a Saturday this year... meaning kids wanted to have some celebrations on this day.
The miraculous staff at East Elementary had dress up time and a parade in the morning, but by 11:00, they flew into action and transformed their school into readiness for important visitors. In a matter of minutes, you would not have guessed that it was the day before Halloween. The school was spotless and clean. The sheer volume of quality...
|
By Dan Maas on
10/27/2009
Thanks again to our participants who joined us for the Lunch-n-Learn session last week! We had about 10 people attend in person and another 12 who viewed online in real time. Here is a recording of the session: This time, we used ustream.tv instead of the dimdim.com site and seemed to have better results this time. It felt a little weird by running two computers (the presentation station and the ustream.tv station), but it wasn't too bad. I would enjoy reading any comments about the session experience or the quality of the recording from your perspective... ...
|
By Dan Maas on
10/19/2009
Since 2006, the National School Boards Association has selected 20 educators from across the United States to honor as leaders in the use of technology in their classrooms. Two years ago, we were thrilled to nominate our own Karl Fisch who was selected for the 2007 awards. This year, we again have cause to celebrate as not just one, but two LPS educators were selected!
Anne Smith is a Language Arts teacher at Arapahoe High School who routinely uses blogs to facilitate discussion, reflection and communication as students tackle literature ranging from the classics to the most modern texts you might find on the New York Times Best Sellers list. It is a common occurence now for educators, authors, community leaders to tune in to class discussions or contribute to blog discussions. Her class activity on the book, A Whole New Mind has involved members of our Board of Education, the Superintendent,...
|
By Dan Maas on
10/6/2009
What is blog storming? Think of the old biplane days when a pilot would guide the airplane at stunning speeds through a barn bringing along a whirlwind of noise and energy into an otherwise quiet environment... well, the 21st Century equivalent might be when a classroom teacher equipped with 30 or so netbooks and a class of expert blogging students swoops down onto a blog that has posed an interesting question... and leaves some 30 comments in the space of 10 minutes! Imagine the owner of the blog that has setup the system to alert her on each posting... all of a sudden, the email box becomes a flurry of blog comment notices!
My friends, that is blog storming and it looks like several of our teachers in LPS blog stormed at the NSBA ( see the post here) in the last day or so. No telling if more storms are on the way... because that's how we do things here in LPS. Kids are learning to find their voices...
|
|
|