Currituck County Schools Media and Tech

We are kicking off our Smartboards for Secondary Classrooms project. I will update the status of this project regularly on this site. This is the email I sent to teachers inviting them to participate.

Good Afternoon,

The Currituck County Schools Board of Education Strategic Plan includes the following goals.

CCS-5.1: Provide Smartboards in ALL secondary classrooms with relevant incentive based training. (Train first, then receive technology)
CCS-5.2: Provide laptops to all teachers with relevant incentive based training.

This year we will be adding Smartboards to as many secondary classrooms as our resources will allow. In some classrooms we will use existing resources. We will mount the data projector, purchase and mount a Smartboard (http://bit.ly/23o8v), and use the laptop from a presentation cart with the Smartboard. In some classrooms we will provide the all-in-one Smartboard data projector units (http://bit.ly/4czB2H) and provide a laptop.

To be considered for this project you must agree to the following:
Complete applicable Smart Notebook tutorials in Atomic Learning. (81 tutorials, total play time approximately 2 hours)
Upon completion of training, demonstrate a lesson to peers that uses the Smart Notebook software and the Smart board. (some after hours time may be required for this.)
Complete an orientation session on the Smart board setup in your room after installation. (approximately 30 minutes)
If you want a Smartboard, mounted projector, and laptop (assigned to you) in your classroom please respond to this email and let me know you agree to complete the three requirements listed above.

Principals will be asked to prioritize classrooms in each building and we will work down the list as far as resources allow.

I will keep the progress of this project updated on the Tech Department blog at http://curritucktech.edublogs.org/

I’ll be glad to answer any questions you have. Thanks.

A new study suggests that approximately 10% of U.S. children are addicted to video games, including online games.

“Video/online games stimulate the brain’s “reward centers” which gives the same high drug addicts feel,” said Dr. Charles Lee, physician for The Pinnacle Schools.

“Children and teens are becoming addicted to video/online games the way people are addicted to drugs, alcohol and gambling.”

The 10% figure sounds a little high to me, but certainly some children are demonstrating addictive behaviors.

From the website: “The warning signs for gaming addictions are the same as those for alcohol and drug addictions. Signs include: Lying, Restless and irritable when doing other activities, Eating meals at the computer while gaming, Inability to keep track of time spent gaming, Increasingly defensive about game playing habits, Poor school performance, Skipping class, Loss of appetite/ skipping meals, Defiant, Isolate themselves from family and friends,  Playing games instead of doing homework.”

The behaviors listed in the paragraph above certainly point to excessive use.  Someone once told me “If something causes a problem, it is a problem.”  If video games are causing the problems listed above it is time to take action, restrict video game use, and get the child involved in other activities.

For help identifying video game addiction and takes steps to curb it, check out this great resource from the MediaWise Network.

A recent survey highlights the prevalence of high tech cheating at school.

35% of teens report using cell phones to cheat and more than half report using the Internet to cheat on school assignments, tests, and quizzes.  They use cell phones to take pictures of tests and send to friends, to warn friends of pop quizzes, to text answers to each other and to store notes they can refer to during a test.

Interestingly, about 20% of teens don’t see these activities as cheating.

This information raises some questions we should probably address in our schools.

1. Should cell phones be allowed in school?  If not, how do you keep them out?  If so, what restrictions should be in place?

2. Is there a way to integrate the use of cell phones in classrooms that promotes responsible use and does not penalize those teens without phones?

3. Are we doing a good enough job teaching and learning about issues of digital ethics?

The full report and parent tips are available at Common Sense Media.

NCDPI has released the first draft of the new Essential Standards.  They are asking for us to review the standards and make comments.

We have set up a wiki to facilitate this process.

The wiki was created using Wikispaces, a free service for creating wikis.  The address is http://currituckacre.wikispaces.com/

I created an instructional video using Screencast-o-matic.  This is a free service for creating screencast video.  The address for the video is http://www.screencast-o-matic.com/watch/cQfUoDeC5

Have you heard the phrase “Cloud Computing” and didn’t know what it meant?  You have probably used cloud computing  and didn’t even know you were doing so.

Very basically, cloud computing is using the Internet to deliver software applications to the end user.  Let me give some examples.  I often use Google Docs.  This is an online word processor.  I don’t have to have Microsoft Word, or any other word processing software, on my computer.  I go to my free Google Docs account, type my documents, and save them on the web.  The word processing, aka the computing, is done on the web, or in the “cloud”.  I don’t know exactly where the software is located, or where my documents are stored.  I just know I can access them anytime I have Internet access.

Cloud computing has many advantages.  Many of the applications are free.  They can be accessed anywhere you have Internet access.  You do not have to maintain the software application, or buy multiple copies to use on different computers.  There are also some disadvantages.  In many cases, if my Internet connection is down, I can’t access my documents.  I don’t have the same control over my documents I would have if they were stored on my computer, so I’m very careful with private information.

Some of my favorite cloud computing, or web-based applications include Gmail (for email), Google Docs (for documents, spreadsheets, and presentations), flickr (for photo sharing), Delicious (bookmarks), and YouTube (for video).  All of these services are free and I can access my information anywhere.

Google has an added bonus.  When you use Google Gears you can copy your online docs to your local computer for a backup.  This helps with peace of mind!

I’m sitting in an NCWISE scheduling workshop with elementary principals and data managers.  We are learning how to schedule students in NCWISE.  Take a look at the pics to see how hard they are working!

This week we are also working on the following: Supporting summer school at CCHS, Installing new computers in the drafting lab at CCHS, preparing to inventory and image the new computers at Jarvisburg, addressing workorders.

We are happy to have Donna McCloud join us today to help with the summer work.