Local District 4 Instructional Technology News

Thank you for taking the time to attend our Tech Coordinator meetings. Thank you Plasencia ES for hosting our meeting. If you have any comments or need any information on the topics being discussed, feel free to e-mail me or post a comment on this blog site. Just click on the Comments link.

This month, our Technology Coordinator meeting focused on the integration of video into the curriculum without the need for video equipment. The integration of video into the curriculum is available right now at every school site without having to spend a dime. Whether you use PC’s or Mac’s at your school, you have the necessary software to create simple video projects with your students to help them better understand the curriculum. On the PC side, you can use Windows Movie Maker or Photostory 3 (a free download for Windows XP) and on a Mac you can use iPhoto or iMovie.

The idea behind integrating videos into the curriculum is not to pop in a video and sit back and watch it. It’s about giving students the ability to take the content and create a project illustrating their understanding of the curriculum. Learning is more powerful for students when they take ownership of their own learning. Students are more engaged and will retain information better than just watching a video or being lectured to.

By using sites like Kitzu.com, teachers can download all the media files needed to create simple video projects. Kitzu is a free site that does all the work for teachers. Search by grade, subject, or content and Kitzu will provide you with available kits that may include images, videos, and sound clips. Normally if you go into the internet to gather your resources, you have to download each file individually and organize them on your computer in a logical form that will make sense to you later on. With Kitzu, it’s a one click download. Kitzu provides you with pre-made kits that are aligned to the standards and have all the media you need in the kit. By downloading the kit, a folder is created on your desktop with all the necessary files. Now, all a teacher would have to do is give students access to the files and allow them to make their own representation of the media files.

Even though students may be working on the same project, with the same files, their representation of the content may be illustrated in a different way. For example, if students are learning about the Oregon Trail, one students presentation might be from the pioneers point of view whereas another student might want to focus on the Native Americans point of view. And of course, before students get the opportunity to work on these projects, they would have had exposure to the content and had time to research the topic ahead of time. Which means they are doing research, using the writing process, and working collaboratively with peers.

But teachers do not have to use Kitzu for these projects. Most teachers have a collection of images and video clips that they have collected over the years. Or, teachers might want to have students take pictures of school events, field trips, interviews, etc. It does not matter where a teacher gathers their resources from, it’s how the student interprets the information and produces a multi-media project that matters.

Our students are “Digital Natives” and need to be exposed to technology. We are preparing them for a future that will be engulfed with technology and they need to be prepared.

CA Technology Survey

All schools in Local District 4 should have received a fax containing the PIN number and Password for the 2007 California Technology Survey. Local District 4 is asking that this survey be completed by March 6, 2007 in order to avoid technical pitfalls that may hamper the ability to meet the CDE deadline and qualify for this year’s government-funded programs, including the Enhancing Education Through Technology Formula and Competitive grants. Failure to complete the survey will result in your school not receiving the various awards negotiated with the State of California.

Each section of the survey may be saved separately and it is not necessary to complete the entire survey in one visit to the web site. Also, you may return to any previously completed section to make changes. The survey is “completed” when all sections have been saved.

http://www.cde.ca.gov/ls/et/rs/techsurvey.asp

As of February 23^rd, only 10 out of 101 schools have completed the survey. Please complete those surveys as soon as possible.

Thanks to the following schools for their completion:

Atwater ES Plasencia ES City of Angels

Dorris Place ES Grant ES Lafayette Park PC

Glassell Park ES King MS Highland Park Continuation

Downtown Business Magnet

Use this site to check your completion status:

http://www.lausd.net/Arminta_EL/TechSurvey/Progress.htm

Is Your Computer Virus Protection and Operating System Software Up to Date?
Functional, virus, and security updates should be done on all computers. Windows computers should be set to search for updates every day.
You can monitor Microsoft Security Issues at http://support.microsoft.com/security and
http://techsupport.lausd.net/

Dell Laptop Battery Recall Information here
Apple Laptop Battery Recall Information here

Next Meeting

March 15, 2007

3:30- 5:30 at:

Our meeting will be a workshop by Apple on Podcasting. You will learn about Podcasting, its uses in Education, how to create a Podcast, demos and much more. Sign up early for this workshop at the following address:

http://www.applela.com/?q=node/163

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