Food for thought

If you get a chance, please read the article below on technology and education (David Hathaway forwarded it to me).

http://www.thejournal.com/articles/21543

After reading the article, feel free to respond to my comment below:

Interesting article. Where technology has its greatest role, I think, is differentiation of instruction. We don't do enough of that. It would be interesting to see if there is a guru out there who knows something about the use of technology to help differentiate instruction. Maybe we are the guru, that is, the Tablet PC working group. Maybe we can debate this in a share session, maybe today? Anybody using their Tablets specifically to differentiate their instruction? Feel free to comment in person/on the Blog.

Tablet + Camtasia = Great when missing class

I should have posted this long ago, but I've had trouble logging in. Using Camtasia and the Tablet made it much easier for me to go on the Burch trip this year. Before I left for the trip, I taught all the classes I was going to miss. I used OneNote to write notes, and recorded the session with Camtasia. While I was gone, my students watched a lecture each day by their normal teacher and were able to keep up daily. The time investment to set everything up was difficult, but not as bad as it seems. Since there was no interaction, I could cover everything I would normally cover in a class period in about 15-20 minutes.


PS - My video about changing the brightness settings is not very useful. Unfortunately, as soon as you shut down, the computer goes back to the original default. I have not figured out how to change that.

What has your tablet done for your lately?

It's been a little while but I figured I'd get the blog started again so we can share some ideas. So far I have found One Note to be an exceptional organizational tool and I plan to continue using it. Everything is organized into neat little tabs so I can pull in content (both old and recent) with a couple taps of the pen. The kids like getting the notes in *html form and I think the use of one note in conjunction with the markup features has allowed me to have a good balance of both prepared and "on the fly" presentations. As a result of all this, I am not using *PPT presentations anymore, though I never really did in the first place. This might be a reason for Mike Miller using Journal more than One Note; he already has his *PPT presentations organized so there is no need to reinvent the wheel. I'd love to hear any feedback the rest of you might have.

Also, Camtasia has been great for putting together online tutorials. If my students don't know how to do something in Blackboard, Audacity, V Brick video streaming, I just do a Camtasia video for them and they can get started.

Here is an example of a Camtasia video Tom Berry did regarding screen brightness.

What have your tablets done for you lately? Add your thoughts to the Blog and bring them to the next share session on Nov. 7, 2:30 pm in LC 303.

Backlighting

Does anybody know how to make the backlighting settings stick when you shut the Tablet down and reboot? Every time I boot up, I have to adjust the backlighting by using the FN and Home keys. When I shut down and restart, I lose the increased backlighting. Very annoying!

Using Stylus to comment on Student papers

I've been experimenting with actually writing (with stylus) on students' e-mailed work......it's all electronic this way, and it's frankly what I'd anticipated using this Tablet PC for.....here's a sample of a dialogue Paul Blake and I had last night....as we were both figuring out how this was going to work:

Oh btw the handwriting thing is great!!!!!!! It is so cool! It makes everything so much easier because I can make the corrections right on the page!
>>> Tim Rogers 9/11/2007 10:07 PM >>>
Better!
>>> PAUL BLAKE 9/11/2007 9:51 PM >>>
I made some corrections.
>>> Tim Rogers 9/11/2007 9:47 PM >>>
Great! See what you can do to fix those up, if you understand what I meant....and you can just add your sentence combinations to this document as well....thanks for being my guinea pig!
>>> PAUL BLAKE 9/11/2007 9:46 PM >>>
yes sir!
>>> Tim Rogers 9/11/2007 9:45 PM >>>
See if my comments have shown up here.....

One-Note session

Chris helped me set up my classroom (new audio/video equipment) so that I can use One-Note as an immediate projection session.....I foresee doing notes and background material ahead of time (typing, using a higher percentage type size, as my handwriting is lousy), then using that instead of my classroom white board......I can always go back and use the stylus to highlight/underscore important points. I've thought about then sending the notes to kids afterwards to possibly store in a folder of their own. Chris and I found a way.....from a One Note page, go to File, then Send To......it'll open up the e-mail address box, and send the page as a One-note file (which kids can't open apparently) and an html, which they can......I plan to experiment with this these first few weeks.....I don't want to them to not take notes in class of course, so I'll need to decide what/how much I send them on a daily basis.
I'm now able to download and post a United Streaming video to a One-Note page as well.....still unsure how to do a YouTube video other than just show it directly from the net.
I've been unsuccessful at using Snag It....anyone have any helpful hints?
WillyMo Rogers

Peter Jordan Question

Anybody have an answer to Peter Jordan's question about OneNote?


I was going to have my students instal the trial version on Onenote so that they will be able to open files we create in class, however in the installation process through the Microsoft site it says there will be a key needed if it will be used more than 25 times. Is there another way to be able to allow students to use the program so they can view the app outside of class?

Peter Jordan

Opening Faculty Meeting

My notes from the opening meeting. I printed to SnagIt and then saved as a jpg .

Preparing for school

It has been interesting this week as I shop for school supplies and try to get ready for the year. I keep looking at different kinds of notebooks to decide what kind I would like to use this year, and then realize that I have no need for a notebook this year. Anything I would have put into a notebook previously is going to go into my tablet. For me, at least, the Tablet will help me to live a more environmentally-friendly life. When students come to see me for extra help on dorm, we always work out problems on paper, which I then give to the student to keep. Now we will do the exact same thing just as easily, but instead of wasting paper, I will e-mail the work to the student. Hopefully they won't then print it out!

As a math teacher, I really hope we will eventually get to the point where the students have tablets as well. If we ever switch the students to tablets, I will be able to go completely paperless. By then most math textbooks will have electronic versions, and students would be able to do all their work on their computers and simply e-mail me their solutions.

While I hope to find ways during the year that the Tablet will energize my teaching, I am already confident that it will help me do what I already do better, more efficiently, and in a way that benefits the environment much better than now.

PLUS - it's fun to write on the screen, so I'll do a better job of taking and keeping notes, using OneNote!

Thoughts on the Tablet PC and Workshop

The Tablet PC Workshop was an excellent opportunity to consider how I present things for my students and to think about ways that their learning could be improved.

At a busy place like a boarding school, time is at a premium for both teachers and students. The Tablet PC can streamline the learning process and make it more efficient. For instance, I can work problems in a presentation live during class time and then save those presentations for students to view later. This will be particularly helpful for students who miss class or students who may have difficulty keeping up with the pace of class. Using Camtasia, I will also be able to prepare presentations ahead of time when I must miss class, creating a video for students to view. I may miss a class, but the students won't miss my lesson!

Microsoft OneNote will enable me to be more organized, keeping all of my materials for each class ordered in folders and by chapter. I can also keep a folder full of dormitory, athletic, or other school-related business. And with the sylus, I can take handwritten notes during meetings that can be saved in that format or converted to typed text. No more typing during meetings or keeping records on scraps of paper.

Overall, I believe my instruction will be better as I can prepare presentations before class and more easily keep a record of the use of that presentation in class. Presentations will be more dynamic with the use of the stylus. But now I face the dilemma of how to encourage students to take notes and keep a record of what has transpired during class if the notes will be available to them in electronic copies! Any suggestions?

Tablet PC workshop

This hands-on workshop taught me how to use the Tablet PC, and gave me a chance to work with some very cool software, like Camtasia and SnagIt. I can see many ways that I will be able to use these tools in my classroom to facilitate and enhance my teaching.

OneNote is a very handy piece of software. It will allow me to get my materials organized before my classes start, so that I don't need to rush during the break closing and opening files, which is something I have had to do when teaching students of different levels. I will have more time to help and talk to students before class starts.

Digital pen is another powerful tool that I wish I had years ago, and I know I will use it often to demonstrate how to write Chinese characters. Chinese characters have complicated stroke orders, and being able to demonstrate the stroke order live in class will make learning them more intuitive and easier for the students. This will be much more efficient than trying to teach stroke orders from a book. I can also save these demonstrations for students to review after class if needed, so it is almost as if they can take the classroom home with them.

Another powerful feature is the Input Panel. I can use the digital pen to write Chinese characters, and the tablet will actually convert my Chinese hand-written characters to Chinese text. I have heard of handwriting recognition systems before, but until I actually had a chance to use it I never imagined how useful this could be.

After exploring all the practical tools and benefits, I can say I am completely won over by the Tablet PC. Having it will improve my teaching efficiency, help me perform tasks more quickly, and ultimately make my classroom a better place for the students.

Tablet PC workshop

This workshop has given me insight to some wonderful software products (Camtasia, Audacity, One note, and Atomic Learning). I hope to use these new products along with my tablet PC to enhance my teaching. I have learned about many ways to incorporate this new technology into my classes. It is now time for me to try to implement them into my classes. I anticipate that the dynamic pen drawing feature among other PC tablet features will allow me to create a more interactive class. I am excited to try this out!!

Desktops

Several of you have requested a generic copy of my desktop with the school calendar shown below. I've placed two generic versions on the G: drive.

G:\Tablet Pilot Group\KGO\desktop generic EHS copy.bmp









G:\Tablet Pilot Group\KGO\desktop generic copy.bmp







I've made a Camtasia recording that shows you how to use the background (also on the G: drive -- G:\Tablet Pilot Group\KGO\howtochangeyourdesktop.wmv)

Tablet PC Working Group Homework :)

Thanks to all of you for participating in the EHS 07-08 Tablet PC Workshop. This is a great start to an exciting venture. We will continue to work together throughout the year. One great way to do this is to use this Blog. Feel free to participate anytime you want because this will serve as a record of our thoughts, ideas, and effort.

One quick HW assignment is for you to enter your thoughts about what you got out of the workshop and what goals you might have for yourself and Tablet PC use for the year 07-08.

Good luck and happy computing.

Welcome!

Welcome to the 2007-2008 Tablet PC blog. This is our space to post whatever we want about Tablet PC use in our classrooms. You can share content, ideas, just about anything. We will be referring to this blog throughout the year so please bookmark it. Thanks again for your participation in the group. Happy Tableting!