Many people download and install Google or Yahoo toolbars that appear in the top of their browser.  They provide useful information and keep visitors returning via the links and promotional items they can push out directly into the users browser.

Using a third party, we at Dearborn Public Schools are now able to do the same!  We just launched on our homepage a link that will allow parents to install the Dearborn Public Schools Toolbar.  The toolbar has many useful links and even reads RSS feeds from  various district news sites.  The rss feed of note is the school closing blog rss feed which will instantly notify the toolbar when we need to close a school.

The cool part about this is you can update any browser that has the toolbar installed with new links and news announcements regarding the district remotely.  With this, the toolbar can continually evolve and be improved.  It sure does make navigating a large district website easier!

Install our toolbar on your internet browser to test it out. 

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It looks like I may be involved with several very talented teachers and support staff in producing an Online  Parent Academy.  The project is just taking shape, but we plan to use the latest in web technology to produce an interactive training system for parents.  The project will focus on best practices and reading techniques that parents will be able to use at home with their children.

Goals

• Increase reading efficiency at an early age by training parents with reading strategies that focus on comprehension, retention, and skills.
• Involve students and parents in the process.
• The program can be replicated and shared.
• It will be based on best practices and proven instructional and assessment tools consistent with research data.
• Parents will be exposed to reading assessments and what is expected of their students.
• The program will increase technology and internet literacy through interactive web activities related to the various reading strategies.
• Multimedia and videos will be incorporated to show proper reading strategies and showcase desired skills parents will acquire.
• Interactive Reading and Writing activities will be created by the parent and child as they work through the project.  Using the digital technology will engage and sharpen the child’s skill-set.
• Program will be accessible to all in the community.

These are just some goals I came up with and since we are just beginning they may change.  We plan to build this Academy with Moodle.  There seems to be some interest from several teachers and a principal, so hopefully over the summer or before the end of the year we can get this started.

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Introducing uTV! We pick several videos of interest from D-Tube and play them back on cable TV. Now creative students can have a media outlet to express their educational knowledge. Check Out D-Tube Today… You never know what video will appear on TV!

DTube Video Website

Watch Our Cable Channel Live Video Stream 

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Learn how to create a cheap interactive Smart board using a Nintendo Wii controller and some special software. Check out the video…

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Many teachers are interested in setting up an online classroom, but do not have the time or patience to invest in setting it up. Well, I just eliminated that barrier. I have created an online classroom template that can be replicated over and over. Once I duplicate it, I assign the new teacher the online classroom and they have access to modify it and begin using it!

Here are the features…

• Homework Help Forum – Let the students help each other out and reward good answers to questions with extra credit points in your class.
• Classroom discussion forum – As homework, extend the classroom discussions into the home using this feature.
• Class Chat room – Let the students communicate instantly from home. Each chat session is recorded and can be reviewed by you. Useful for instant help before a major test or quiz.
• Classroom News and Announcements – A good place to post your news for all to see.
• Classroom Documents — Display any number of PowerPoints, word docs, images, PDF’s, etc Let the students review what was presented during class 24/7.
• A section to add homework assignments by either daily or weekly formats or link to you blog if you already use that!
• Expectations/Rules/Suggested class supplies – Using a “Book” component, you can lay out your rules, expectations, and syllabus.
• Personal Student Notebook — This is actually just a wiki given a specific purpose. Useful for the student to gather notes, links, etc when working on a project and store them in one place via Copy & Paste into the notebook.
  (student and teacher access only, private between students)
• Personal Student Journal – No more workouts carrying home 100 journal binders. Just check their online journal. (student and teacher access only, private between students)
• Media and Websites – Use this section to add relevant websites and videos used in class. I included an example of how to embed a D-Tube video.

This is version 1.0 of the Online Classroom Template. It focuses mainly on communication and sharing of learning resources. This is an easy format for teachers to begin with. Once they feel comfortable, they can really move forward quickly. I plan to take suggestions and maybe make variations of this for specific uses or skill levels of teachers. I sent out an email to staff last night at 4pm and within 24 hours we have about 30 new teachers exploring online learning. Many of these teachers reported that a template was exactly what they were looking for. Starting from scratch was difficult because there are so many options and steps to setting up a good online classroom. This new template probably saved them several weeks of work.

Next year I will be focusing on training and use of online learning tools. Ideally, I would like to see every teacher in the district have their own classroom. These are the tools students use. They are digital learners and are used to exploring new information in a “media rich” environment that only digital can deliver.

Please note:  The online classroom is for use with Moodle. 

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I found a really nice free Video Converter Here. It allows me to convert the videos from D-Tube into a format that can be played on our Cable TV Station on Comcast and Wide Open West. Basically we can download the Flash Video File from D-Tube and then run it through the video converter and then I upload the converted video into our cable playback system. Everything is web-based, so adding videos to cable tv is a snap!!

We can now announce video contests where the winner is put on Cable TV via D-Tube. Students now have a very viable media outlet to share ideas, projects, and knowledge… and if their video is creative they can gain a little notoriety by being on TV!!!

UPDATE:  By using the district cable TV  scheduling, we will be setting up specific times that D-Tube Videos will air on TV.   There will be a specific time they play throughout the week.  This will be really nice because we can let students and staff know when their videos will air.

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We received an award for our website from WantToTeach.com for being selected as one of the top 10 websites nationally for education.

From the wanttoteach website:

We at WantToTeach.com visit thousands of public school district websites each year in search of “the best”. We also receive many “blind” nominations as well from users to our site who take advantage of our nominating process.
During the course of each year, we then bookmark what we consider to be the best of what the Internet has to offer in preparation for our December deadline day.
Thus, the websites that we ultimately recognize each year represent what we feel are the best public school websites that the Internet has to offer.Our selection criteria is as follows:

1) Functionality - useful information and ease of access.

2) Design - a sharp design designating a sense of pride in one’s school and/or district.

3) Imagination - a sense of imagination present in the site.

4) Timeliness - the site is maintained and current.

2008 Top Website Award Winner

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We just conducted a test using X-Meeting on the Mac and were able to quickly and easily connect 2 Mac computers with live video and audio.  It was a really nice image and audio was great as well.  Making the connection was as simple as dialing the IP address of the other computer.  This can be useful for quickly connecting classrooms that may be working on similar projects or just want to share information - kinda like a pen-pal type of thing.  Between Skype, H323, and ePresence, we are exploring a variety of options for distance learning, collaboration, and video conferencing.

I am still without a server for Mahara ePortfolio, ePresence, and a district wide wiki application.  As we get closer to summer break, it appears that these three apps are going to be my big projects for the summer.   I am told that around July is when there may be a free server or two available for me to install these on.

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OK, Here’s me reflecting on the improvements we have made in the last 3 years…

• Completely re-engineered our district website to make it a first class educational hub for learning.
• Launched iLearn/Moodle for online classrooms. These courses meet the new Michigan graduation requirement that students be exposed to an online learning activity. We have several hundred courses and over 6,000 users.
• Created a comprehensive web publishing network based on Adobe Contribute for schools to maintain and expand their websites providing information for parents and community. The publishing network is all controlled centrally and easily manageable by one person. This was not the case prior to this with over 30 schools all moving in different directions for creating websites.
• Made classroom website creation as simple as entering a username and password. With iBlog, a teacher merely enters their district ID and a classroom website is instantly created for them and viewable to parents. iBlog is a wonderful website creation tool that allows teachers to update their website from any computer and anytime. We have around 500 teacher blogs.
• 24/7 Access to streaming video! We stream our public access cable channel on the web live. We also podcast and record all Board Meetings and have an archive going back to June 2005. Utilizing a QuickTime Streaming video server, any school can create a “live” feed to the web.
• D-tube is now the video sharing website of choice for Dearborn teachers and students. With D-Tube, students/teachers can upload videos share classroom projects etc. Teachers can upload videos and then embed these videos into their iblog websites for parents/students. D-Tube has about 90 videos and over 46,000 video views. Some videos have over 4000 views.
• Provided podcasting access for any teacher with a iblog website. Podcasting for all !!! With our podcast system, the feeds can be added to iTunes for easy viewing and tracking.
• Hours upon hours of training and trouble shooting for staff. To keep the system running, training and support are critical. Whether it is 1-on-1 or large group training, providing help is critical for getting people to adopt the new technology.

Here is kinda the game plan…

Phase I
Establish the main publishing and online tools (iLearn, iBlog, D-Tube). These three tools provide tools for learning, publishing, and multimedia/video. This is the foundation for our online learning platform. We are constantly adding new features, but this is the core group of web applications we are using. Staff do not need to use all three and most don’t. They each have strengths and weaknesses. It is important that we keep expanding the use and awareness of the core applications. This is done via the training sessions.

Phase II
Expand functionality: Communication, Collaboration, and Personal Learning Space.

With Phase II we want to enhance certain aspects of the core applications. Communication will involve adding on a “Live” web conference system (WCS). The WCS will allow teachers to record and archive lessons, concepts, etc. in a video and media format that will allow students to retrieve this information as they are studying 24/7. The WCS will also allow students/staff to instantly connect and meet with video and audio via a webcam and computer with eachother real-time, real-fast! So, the WCS will allow the teacher to record the instructional delivery of key concepts in the course and archive them for student viewing. It will also allow for real-time online meetings. The meetings would be beneficial for students who may be studying for a test at home and want to meet to discuss test items.

Collaboration will be covered by the release of a district-wide WIKI. Staff and Students can login using district ID’s and work collaboratively on WIKI pages for reports, projects, etc.

Personal Learning Space will in effect be ePortfolios where students can create profiles, store their works and educational bookmarks, blog, connect with friends, form study groups, and much more. It will become their personal learning environment where they can store their educational materials.
Phase II is just beginning… It will be exciting next year in September.

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