CUE Conference 2011

Man, if you've never been, you're missing out! You can still review the phenomenal resources compiled by the presenters at the schedule calendar site: http://2011.cue.org, and you can watch some sessions in whole at http://www.cue.org/conference/extend/2010.

Google Cloud Print

I own an iPod Touch: it's the best...as long as there's wi-fi! Reading a document online and I'm given the option to print...so I try it, just to see what happens. And I'm introduced to Google Cloud Print, which lets you share a printer then you can print from any device. And Google's world domination continues. If I'm able to print from this iTouch, I may never buy a desktop again. A laptop because I can't develop curriculum on my 8" netbook's screen, but never a desktop! As it is I do most of my browsing/blogging/reading on the iTouch.

Resources, Internships and Professional Development Opportunities for the Tech Teacher

I am taking a credential class, Instructional Strategies for the Adult and Adolescent Learner, and have the great honor of being a student of the NASA - Endeavor Science Teaching Certificate Project, so I will be a busy bee! Though each class has just met for the first time in the last 48 hours, I already have useful resources:

Benchmarks & Standards

• entire book! Science for All Americans: the ideal science knowledge people will have long after graduation
• entire book! National Science Education Standards: adopted in the 1980's and useful to compare to your state guidelines
• entire book! Taking Science to School: Learning and Teaching Science in Grades K-8: methods to make science relevant in the K-8 classroom

When was the last time you took a refresher course or participated in professional development? There are so many programs and opportunities available, especially with the abysmal ratings U.S. students have received:

• Krause Center for Innovation's MERIT Program 2011
• Krause Center for their tech in education classes: they have face-to-face classes in San Jose (?) and online classes to learn or brush up on technology skills
• U.S. National Laboratory Teacher & Student internships (high school & college)
• National Lab Day (tba) ... President's Call to Action ... community
• Edublogger Teacher Challenge: having successfully completed their Student Challenge, this is the first opportunity for teacher's to get some blogging professional development to implement in the classroom (beginner & advanced challenges)

Cartoons in the Classroom!

Found a wonder blog that features lots of lovely tools for technology in education. Not sure how I happened upon Creating Comics Online, but I'm glad I did: cartooning makes teaching storyboard design relevant, and the online tools are much easier than demonstrating my stick figure storyboards and having students draw on sheets of paper.

He ends the article with 20 Ways to Use Comics in Your Classroom and More than 100 Editorial Cartoon Lesson Plans which makes cartooning immediately relevant to the classroom.

Embedding Blogger into Google Sites

I wanted to embed my Blogger into my Google Site without reinventing the wheel...this article provided the code to make it happen.

Single feed from Blogger

1. Insert> More Gadgets > Search for "Generic Feed Reader"
2. insert "your blog url"/atom.xml ---> Blogger's built-in RSS feed

Feeds from Multiple  blogs

1. Insert > More Gadgets > Search for "RSS News Feed Scoller"
2. add blogs to gadget

Include gadget for Google Sites

I've been using [free] Google Sites for years to organize my lessons, present to students, and have students access resources and lessons. Google Pages, the precursor to Google Sites, was more flexible in formatting different pages: I had 1 site but could change the design of individual pages. Because Google Sites does not have this functionality (I really needed to differentiate between my regular site and pages for a Computer Science Education Week), I built a new site just for CS Ed Week. The problem was how to direct students to the site without too much interference in the normal procedure (ie. going to the regular website).

Solutions

• refresh the homepage to the new website: functionality not available
• embed the new site: embed did not work but ....
• Solution: Include gadget: embeds a URL like an iframe

Not as elegant as a dynamic refresh, but it kept the interface familiar and I could direct students to working from that website.

Update: Robotics are the new programming

I read somewhere [link coming] that there is grant money for student robotics competitions to prepare the next generation of computer scientists.