 Teacher's Workplace - Online Mentoring and Collaboration, Bill Romond and Jill Peck, Vermont Department of Education
The Teacher's Workplace tool, being developed in Vermont and eight national sites, will provide an assortment of web-based tools suitable for e-Portfolio development, Reflective Practice initiatives, threaded discussions, and many other mentoring or collaborative projects. This tool will become available to Vermont educators and pre-service teachers over the next year and this presentation will give participants a look at the tool and its potential for our work.
i-Life 05 For the Classroom, Bryan St John Schofield and Lauren Baker, Apple Computer.
Teachers across the country are using iLife to enliven lessons, meet instructional standards, and guide their students toward a more productive future. Whether students are making video records of science experiments, producing historical documentaries, or creating digital poetry, with iLife, every subject comes to life. iLife helps you and your students get the most out of digital movies, photos, and music in school projects and presentations. And, because iLife is so easy to use, students can focus on the content of their projects, not the technology. We've put together a collection of lesson starters to show how you can use iLife in your classroom in language arts, math, science, social studies, and other subject areas. These wonderful examples come from educators like you, who are using iLife to enhance their curricula and student performance.
Showcase Student Projects on the Web using FirstClass . Brad Edwards, Main Street Middle School
See how easily students create web pages with links to various class projects created by Inspiration, Timeliner, Ezedia QTI, and Word. You'll see a sample web page assembled and published. This is a great way for parents and administrators to see how technology integration and other standards are being addressed. The Main Street Middle School's Library Media and Technology Specialists collaborated in developing these FirstClass based projects. Although we've been using this with grades 7+8, grades 5-12 could also benefit.
Making Community Connections through GPS and GIS, Tim Sinnott, VINS Community Mapping Program
The Community Mapping Program brings students and educators together with members of community organizations to create maps with a local focus. Learn how to incorporate global positioning systems and geographic information systems into your curriculum to engage students in place-based education. Come see examples of projects from throughout Vermont and learn how to start a mapping project in your town.
FINALLY, A First Class, A-1 Solution, Neil Manders, Windham Central Supervisory Union
Outsourcing your Web can make sense. Windham Central's participation in The Virtual School Network Project resulted in clear and distinct district communications, easy access to information, professionally designed web areas, simple non -technical email and document posting for teachers, and above all, an effective school communication system that surpasses NCLB requirements for community interactions with schools. Take a look at how it all works. See that posting to the School web site or teacher's classroom site is as easy as an email message. Fill out a simple form, click and things happen. See how the job of webmaster has changed from "Techie" to motivator and publisher.
"What Makes a Good Student?" John Minelli and Roy Hathorn, Hartford Memorial Middle School
This program focuses on the integration of mathematics and technology in a unit entitled, "What Makes a Good Student?" After first using the concept-mapping software, Inspiration©, to create meaningful survey questions, students created databases, constructed computer surveys, searched for correlations through queries, and assembled PowerPoint programs to present their findings. Our students brainstormed and then asked 30 different questions about home life, study habits, hobbies all geared to their discovery about how students can do well in school. This presentation will show how middle school students can use databases (Microsoft Access) in an integrated math and technology."
Art Responding Through Technology (ARTT): Online Arts Mentoring" Lowell Klock, Vermont MIDI/ARTT Inc. and Lian Brehm, Danville School
Art Responding Through Technology (ARTT) allows participants to see how this state-wide network of students (k-12), teachers, and artists work together to help improve student performance in the visual arts though the use of online mentoring. Come see student examples with artist-mentor comments, view a video on ARTT, meet teachers and a mentor who will demonstrate ARTT procedures, and learn about our Arts and Technology Summer Institute at Castleton State College.
From Journal to Journalism: The Hows and Whys of Good Blogging, Joshua Farber
What is easier to create and maintain than a webpage, more fun than a journal, bringing ideas of audience and authorship to life? What engenders writing skills, students comprehension of information, media literacy, along with active and exciting participation in a global medium? Blogs (or Web Logs) are incredibly easy to set up and maintain. We'll have plenty of time to explore the nuts and bolts of classroom blog use and management. We will use current research and plenty of real world examples to dig deeply into why and how blogs can be used -- and are being used – to enrich teaching and learning in every subject area.
Intel Teach to the Future, Laurie Leichthammer, WGBY Massachusetts
Intel® Teach to the Future is a worldwide effort to help both experienced teachers and Pre-Service teachers integrate technology into instruction to develop students' higher-level thinking skills and enhance learning. Participating teachers receive extensive instruction and resources to promote effective technology use in the classroom. Teachers learn from other teachers how, when, and where to incorporate technology tools and resources into their lesson plans. In addition, they experience new approaches to create assessment tools and align lessons with educational learning goals and standards. The program incorporates use of the Internet, Web page design, and student projects as vehicles to powerful learning. |
About Scott Welch
Scott is currently employed by the FirstClass Division of Open Text Corporation as Director of FirstClass Product Management. His primary focus is serving as a bidirectional conduit, conveying the requirements of the marketplace to the FirstClass engineering and management team while at the same time conveying the features and power of FirstClass to the marketplace. It's a role he enjoys greatly. Scott is particularly interested in the effective integration of communication tools into learning and collaborative organizations. Scott has been active in the FirstClass world since 1989, when along with his two partners, Jon and Steve Asbury, he was a cofounder of SoftArc Inc. SoftArc started developing FirstClass shortly thereafter, shipping version 1.0 in April 1990. At SoftArc, Scott filled a number of roles over the years, including VP of Corporate Affairs and from 1995 through 1998 CEO, working with SoftArc's largest customers and corporate partners to make FirstClass the best communication product in the world and providing management and strategic leadership to a rapidly growing company. In 1999 SoftArc merged with MC2 Learning Systems to form Centrinity, and Scott moved into the role of Chief Evangelist. In 2002 Centrinity was acquired by Open Text Corporation and Scott moved into his current position.
Scott has a degree in Mathematics and Computer Science from the University of Waterloo, as well as over twenty years of experience in the electronic communication area. Scott was a software developer at Bell-Northern Research, where he worked on operating system architecture for a number of voice and multi-media messaging systems including the Meridian Mail system. He also pursued further studies into the management techniques of successful R&D companies.
Scott's personal interests include spending time with his 11-year-old son (a budding mathematician as well) and restoring old wooden boats (see www.islandeagle.net for details). He lives in downtown Toronto with his partner (a landscape designer, see www.ecoelemental.com ) and son, and likes to drive fast yet innocuous cars (right now an Audi S4). As if this were not enough, he's also writing a biography of Arthur DeFever, a prominent West Coast Naval Architect. |
