Educational Technology @ Winthrop University   Fall 2008 White Papers     Graduate students studying Educational Technology at Winthrop University have been doing research on existing and emerging technologies. Each student has chosen a technology and researched it during the semester. Each student has written a white paper on their technology and is prepared to discuss the technology and how it may be used in education with you. Here are the details: When: Wednesday, November 19, 2008 from  5:15-7:45 p.m. Where: In Withers WTS, Room 322C (the computer lab) in the Richard W. Riley College of Education at Winthrop University. What: A showcase on Educational Technology tools that are available. Each student in EDUC 651: Connecting Technology and Curriculum will present their technology in a poster session format during class. The students will be able to discuss with you a variety of factors related to the technology including: costs, licensing agreements, environmental factors that may impact implementation, the benefits and drawbacks of the technology, and how to use the technology. The showcase will be run much like a poster presentation at a professional conference. It would be completely appropriate to come for any part of the evening that you wish. It will run in two sessions with half the class presenting in each. Please feel free to stay the entire time, or come just to learn about the particular technology you are interested in. If you have questions please contact me by phone (803.323.2487) or by email (jonesmg@winthrop.edu). An RSVP would be appreciated, but is not required. Below are descriptions of the technologies we will be demonstrating. White papers will be available on this page on November 19, 2008.   Session One: 5:15-6:15 Allison Jeffers: MicroSoft Surface The topic I have chosen for my white paper is Microsoft Surface. It is an interactive table top which allows you to grab digital images without using a keyboard or mouse, recognizes multiple touches simultaneously, allows for multi users at once, and recognizes physical objects just by sitting them on the surface. Currently it has only been distributed to certain businesses in certain locations. My hope is that it will spark an interest to develop these in smaller, inexpensive versions available to replace students' desktops in the classrooms. James Daigle: Video Blogging Imagine students being able to broadcast their message to the world. Video blogging, also called vlogging, allows people to make entries of their commentary through the use of a video. Vlogging clips can be recognized by the pop-culture emergence of You Tube. Many applications of vlogging can be used in an educational setting. Come by and learn the painless way to make a video blog as well as some ideas for using it in a classroom. Rebekah Hullender: Windows MovieMaker Windows Movie Maker allows people to create movies through video clips or pictures. Transitions may be added to the movie. Audio such as music or voices can be added to enhance the movie. Also slides may be typed in to the beginning, end, or used to separate the movie into sections. Windows Movie Maker is a versatile software package that teachers can take advantage of in the classroom. Jessica Wheeler: Class Performance System Would you like all your students to respond to your questions and constantly be engaged, CPS (class performance system) audience response system is just the way! This technology allows for all student to respond to questions in either a true/false, yes/no, or A-D manner. This allows for a teacher to run reports, analyze results, and grade students formatively in a student engaged, entertaining manner. Cassi Odom: Ed Line Edline is an online service that many schools use for school and class organization. The service provides hosting and database support for students from kindergarten through 12th grade. Edline is aimed at improving communication between parents, students, and teachers. Notable features of Edline include the ability for students and their parents to check itemized grade reports, report cards, check classroom attendance, homework assignments, and class calendars, and the ability to access documents and presentations that may be used in classes. These features are dependent on the teacher uploading and updating these facilities. Mary Catherine Osborne: GarageBand This software is part of the iLife suite that now comes with all new Macintosh computers and allows users to create music and podcasts using multiple audio tracks. Even with very little musical knowledge and experience, the user can use their own creativity and a few ideas from Apple to arrange, mix, and share their own songs. With the right equipment and minimal effort and expense the user can also record and notate their own music with GarageBand. Kasey Strickland: Blogging Blog is an abbreviated version of webblog, which is a term used to describe web 2.0 websites that contain ongoing narrative of information that is most often created by individuals. Blogging allows people to share their ideas and read and respond to the ideas of others. Many applications of blogging can be effectively used in a classroom setting. Stacey Kirkley: Cell Phones Cell phones have changed drastically over the years. I chose cell phones for my technology because there are many ways to use it in the classroom. I look forward to showing others how easy it is to use cell phones for learning instead of it being a distraction.     Session Two: 6:30-7:30 Kristal Salyer: Smartboards The technology I will be presenting is SmartBoards. I will be demonstrating how the SmartBoard can be used interactively to engage students and improve achievement in various subject areas.   Hailey Hughes: Senteo Response System The Senteo interactive response system provides a direct wireless connection between the teacher and students. The Senteo system includes a radio frequency remote for each student in class, a central receiver, Notebook whiteboarding software and Senteo assessment software, which tallies student responses, records attendance, posts test results and provides individual feedback. The Senteo interactive response system is designed to enhance interactive teaching and learning. With it, you display prepared questions, students anonymously key in answers with their remote, and responses are tallied, then displayed on a projection screen or interactive whiteboard. Tallying and displaying results occurs immediately. Amy Womble: Flip Digital Video Recorder The Flip digital video recorder is easy to use and has many implications for education. It allows users to take video with the push of a button, flip out the USB drive attached to the camera, and download the video to a computer. Even elementary school students could use this technology to create short movies or record reader's theater performances to help with expression and fluency. Sarah Melton: LuLu I have chosen to research LuLu. LuLu is a web-based self- publishing service. It allows individuals to design, publish, and print their written material. It can be used to create things from textbooks to children's books. Students may use it to publish their own written work. It breaks the barrier some students have due to the paper/pencil approach to writing. Mary Good: Photostory Photostory would be a wonderful tool in the classroom for things such as book reports. It would help students who are uncomfortable standing infront of their classmates talking by allowing them to prepare what they want to say and record it ahead of time. Photostory would also be great to use in centers by having the teacher make the presentation ahead of time and having the students watch it. Jordan Knight: Hot Chalk The topic that I chose for my White Paper is the web 2.0 Hot Chalk. Hot Chalk is a webct program that can be done over the Internet from any computer. From Hot Chalk, one can store Lesson Plans, store grades, communicate with students and parents, and access video files for teaching purposes. The web site program is free for basic access. It is usable by any grade teacher and perfect in a Social Studies classroom due to the teacher’s ability to access video aids. Megan Sink: Apple iPod iPod is a popular brand of portable media players designed and marketed by Apple. Educators are now being to slowly maneuvering such devices into their daily curriculums. Who would of thought that an iPod can become such an powerful educational tool that enables children to achieve their academic needs. This device is a new piece that can be noted as "21st century literacy". The iPod is a portable learning tool. I want to look at the ways that teachers can use this in their classroom. That learning about this will enable teachers to want to develop their curriculums around this widely available piece of technology.   Ullanda Tyler: Word Clouds Wordle is an application for generating word clouds from text that you provide. The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text. I will present ways that teachers can incorporate Wordle in their classrooms. Melissa Tucker: Screencasting Ever feel lost or unprepared when scheduling a day in the computer lab? If the students can manipulate Ipods and cell phones, why don't they know how to format a term paper? How can you become more productive in the computer lab without having to put out 30 fires? Screencasting is the technique used to create a "how-to" video for one ore more functions in computer programs. Students can watch and listen to the video and then complete the task on their own, leaving you more time to answer content- not technology-related questions. Screencasting can not only save you time, but the students can demonstrate mastery by screencasting how they organized, edited, or drafted papers. Screencasting is a tool that provides flexibility and productivity for teachers and students.   Lisa Watkins: Second Life Imagine being able to share your ideas with people from all around the world without leaving your home or classroom. There is a virtual world called Second Life that was established in 2003. With more and more people using the internet Second Life has become a place to explore and learn. Political parties, collages, businesses, and educationally based companies are all purchasing land in Second Life for people to explore. Come out and learn about a whole new world… the virtual world.   All content created by Educational Technology Students at Winthrop University, Rock Hill, SC. Students work under the direction of Dr. Marshall G. Jones (http://coe.winthrop.edu/jonesmg) For more information on Graduate Study in Educational Technology at Winthrop University, visit us here: http://coe.winthrop.edu/edtech