December 1, 2006

Location:
Jordan School District Auxiliary Services Building:

Welcome and Introductions - Margo Shirley

USOE Updates - Kathy Webb

Kathy is very hopeful that we will get money from the legislature for educational technology.
QWEST Mini-Grant for Teachers
Due date: December 31, 2006
The Utah State Office of Education (USOE) received $50,000.00 from the Qwest Foundation for Education to award to Utah’s K-12 technology pioneering teachers demonstrating innovative uses of technology in the classroom. Please get the word out to your teachers.

Information Literacy

Hoax Photo Tests
Test your pop culture literacy by determining which are the hoax photos (i.e. those that have been manipulated in some way) and which are real. For each image, click either HOAX or REAL to begin scoring the test. When you're done, click the box at the bottom of the page to see your score.
Wikipedia Information or Misinformation?
- eMINTS Learning Activity
- Use your KWHL Chart to organize your information
Article from eSchool News Online Report on Students Struggle with Information Literacy
Other resources found for Information Literacy

- 8 W’s of Information Inquiry by Annette Lamb
- Kathy Schrock’s Presentation Support Site
- Hands on practice with Digital Information Fluency Concepts

Synthesis - Big6 theme Resources - Kelly Dumont and Margo Shirley
http://nb.wsd.wednet.edu/big6/big6_resources.htm

5.1 Organize information from different sources (Graphic Organizers)
5.2 Present the information (Student Projects)

Reviewing the Results
As students look at their diagrams, notes, or other representations of the information they have collected, encourage them to consider the following questions:

Have the most important questions been addressed?
Have any new questions arisen?
Is there extra or repeated information that can be eliminated?
Where are the "holes" in my understanding?
Are there other ways to view the information or perspectives I should be considering?

Graphic Organizers
Quotes from the Graphic.org site
"Is a picture worth a thousand words? A graphic organizer forms a powerful visual picture of information and allows the mind 'to see' undiscovered patterns and relationships."

"Graphic Organizers, Mind Maps, Concept Maps are a pictorial or graphical way to organize information and thoughts for understanding, remembering, or writing about. Graphic organizers, mind maps and concept maps are powerful tools that can be used to enhance learning and create a foundation for learning. On the other end, a graphic organizer itself can be the end product or project of a student’s learning experience." View Examples

There is a simple method for creating graphic organizers, it is called paper and pencil. (Crayons, markers, whatever. If you want nicer looking organizers there is great software and even web-based tools to help create graphic organizers:

Additional Sources for Graphic Organizers

Graphic.org
Houghton Mifflin Education Place - Graphic Organizers
More Houghton Mifflin Graphic Organizers
Enchanted Learning Graphic Organizers (now requires a membership fee.)
42 Graphic Organizers and Generic Patterns (pdf)
SCORE Graphic Organizers
teAchnology Graphic Organizer Makers
FNO: Graphical Organizers as Thinking Technology
Article: Graphic Organizers: What are they and how do we use them?

Student Products
Essential Question: How can students show what they understand from their research?

Different Ways to Find Out What Students Understand

Make a chart or diagram	Write an analogy	Write and do a rap	Develop an exhibit	Develop a collection
Write a letter to the editor	Participate in a mock trial	Design a game	Create a dance	Write a diary from the perspective of someone else
Conduct a discussion	Design and create a class	Present a news report	Design a Webquest	Critique a book
Create an advertisement	Illustrate a math concept	Judge an event	Create a puppet show	Solve a mystery
Write an essay	Create a multimedia presentation	Conduct an interview	Keep a journal log	Do a self-assessment
Participate in a simulation	Do a demonstration	Create cartoons	Create a report	Make a learning center
Create a poem	Make a book	Create a flow chart	Make a plan	Make a scrapbook
Do a photo essay	Participate in a debate	Give a performance	Make a mural	Draw a blueprint
Create an invention	Make a video	Defend a theory	Create a new product	Make a model
Devise a new recipe	Design a structure	Create a brochure	Do an experiment	Design a structure

Podcast Highlight:

Bonnie Muir shared all of her favorite podcasts and videocasts. The list was too long for me to list.
Darren Draper shared the National Geographic videos that are in iTunes.

Gadget of the Month - Celia Powell

Frequently Celia and others are asked to video tape district events. She thought that some type of camera stabilizer would help her produce higher quality videos. She looked into purchase one and found that most cost between $1,300 - 3,000. She couldn't get approval for that, so she found the .... are you ready for this?
$14 Steadycam - "The Poor Man's Steadicam"

It comes with all the parts and directions on how to assemble it and Celia put it together in 5 minutes.

Over the Shoulder

Joomla - An Open Source Web Content Management System, Darren Draper
Jordan School District is using currently using Joomla for their T4 web page and will be introducing to interested schools in their district shortly. Often school's do not have the skills or time to create a school web page from scratch - but with Zoomla they don't have to. They can select a template and just provide the content. There are several roles that an end user has in Joomla:

Authors: submit content
Editors: submit content and edit content
Publishers: publish content
If you are interested in learning more, you can contact Darren.

UTIPS overview - Julie Quinn

Julie made sure all of the districts have their scantron scanners and forms.
She said to check with your district's tech people to find out when they plan to install the new version of UTIPS.
Cory Spendlove says that the new scanners will work with EDesk 2.0 without a problem, but you will need to install the new scanner software on your older scanners.
Paul from Davis SD has agreed to help produce training materials for EDesk 2.0 - you can find materials on his web page

UCET Conference - March 2 & 3, 2007 at Murray High
Submit presentation proposals today! - http://www.ucet.org/

UEN Updates

KUED Internet Safety town-hall meeting - Need audience members
Sign-up Today - Online Questionnaire
Spread the word - time is running out
New Professional Development Schedule: January - May

eMedia:
- Total Items - 1,441 titles
- Major Collections:
  
  UIMC collection - 427 titles
  PBS collection - 416 titles
  KUED collection - 83 titles
  UEN-TV collection - 342 titles
  Telecourses collection - 116 titles
  General collection - 12 titles
- Title count by audience:
  
  K-12 (eMedia) - 1,276 titles
  Higher Ed (CollegEmedia) - 681 titles
  General Public (MediaHub) - 71 titles
  
  We are currently adding an average of 150 new titles per month.
- New items
  Art in the 21st Century
  Benjamin Franklin
  Broadway
  Conquistadors Empires: Martin Luther
  In Search of Shakespeare
  Liberty! The American Revolution
  Nature: Triumph of Life
  Scientific American Frontiers
  The American President
  NASA Connect
  NASA SCI Files
  NASA Destination Tomorrow
  Workplace Essential Skills
- In the queue:
  
  This year's UIMC video purchase (~200 titles)
  2 more U of U telecourses (~80 titles)
  The last batch of 150 PBS titles
  PDF teachers guides for many of the UIMC videos
  UEN Professional Development handouts
  UCME collection (~8,000 items )
  10 additional veterans oral history lectures from the SLC Library
Search PBS.org on uen.org

Visit UEN's K-12 Educator page or K-2 Educator page to search PBS.org for lessons and activities.

Document space allotment in my.uen has doubled to 20 MB.

Future meeting dates:

January 5, 2007 - Utah Education Network
February 2, 2007- Tooele School District
April 13 or 20, 2007 - Davis School District

For questions or comments contact us.