Support PATINS-Project: Please see this letter in request of your support for the PATINS-Project to continue providing Assistive Tech and UDL support in the State of Indiana.  We would greatly appreciate your voice of suport.
Download Letter Here:  PATINS AT letter of support 11-10-09

Indiana UDL Success! When you have a moment to read a success story on building up UDL in a school district, click on the link below.
PATINS has had six Bartholomew Schools in total become successful UDL pilot sites through our UDL grant.
We are pleased with their commitment and our working relationship with this school district and excited about how many students have and are benefiting from Universal Design for Learning!  It could build throughout your district too, if, it hasn’t already.
http://udlspotlight.wordpress.com/2009/11/09/a-district-implements-udl/

CAST You Tube Channel: Speaking of CAST, they now have their own channel on YouTube!  Check it out:  www.youtube.com/watch?v=viLC9FIo2a4

JumpStart World Future Land: For years now, you’ve heard me talk about the importance and the relevancy of 3D immersive environments for several different reasons.  One reason, obviously with the development of the new PATINS  Island is for teacher training that requires no travel costs.  Another big reason is that this is the sort of technology that our students are CHOOSING to engage in, have fun with and learn from on their OWN time.  Here is just one more example of the RAPIDLY expanding 3D online virtual spaces specifically intended for children as young as 3 years. http://blog.jumpstart.com/2009/10/16/futureland-is-here/

Kidzui: A controlled, safe web-browser FOR students, even VERY young children.  This one shared to me by my friend Chris.  Thanks Chris! www.kidzui.com

Second Life and Science Teachers: Check out this blog posting about Science in SL.
http://sarah-stewart.blogspot.com/2009/11/second-life-and-science-teachers.html

Teaching Students NOT at School (H1N1 relevant?): With a LARGE percentage of students missing from many Indiana school buildings due to H1N1-like symptoms, the issue of teaching students who might be our of class for 1-2 weeks straight becomes very relevant, very quickly.  Here’s one article on the topic.  I’d also like to remind everyone that I am available and willing to help schools set up things like podcasting, video conferencing and teaching in online immersive environments, for this purpose.  Just let me know!
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/education/2009969286_onlineschools30m.html

Windows 7 Accessibility: Windows 7 has a few accessibility features that have been improved from Vista:
www.microsoft.com/enable/products/windows7/

Some Indiana Educational Videosin the Paper:
www.indystar.com/article/20091110/LIVING/911100305/Program+puts+educational+videos+online+and+on+TV

The PATINS Second Life Open House is only 11 days away!

1. Do you have an Avatar created? See here: www.patinsproject.com/htm/TrainingVideos/SecondLife/SecondLifeIntro1/Second%20Life%20Introduction%20Tutorial%201.html
2. Do you have the software downloaded and installed? See here: http://secondlife.com/support/downloads/?lang=en-US
3. Have you checked to make sure you can access Second Life and that your computer meets the minimum system requirements? See here: http://secondlife.com/support/system-requirements
4. Do you have the address or slurl for the PATINS Island? Here: http://slurl.com/secondlife/PATINS%20Project%20Island/114/102/26
5. Need The One Page Getting Started Hand Out? Second Life Getting Started Informational Sheet

Regarding System Requirements: The two most common issues with some computers not being able to access Second Life are High Speed Internet Connection and a new enough Video Card and Drivers.  The high speed internet connection speaks for itself, but you can check here for info on updating your computers video card drivers to the latest, which just might solve your problem:

Update Your Video Card:

• ATI Video Card Drivers: http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/Pages/index.aspx
• NVIDIA Video Card Drivers: http://www.nvidia.com/Download/index.aspx?lang=en-us

Info on Letting Second Life Through! Here’s some techy info which may be necessary for accessing Second Life from your teacher computer at school:

• Hardware firewalls need to allow access on certain network ports. Second Life needs to connect to ports:443/TCP, 12035/UDP, 12036/UDP, 12043/TCP, and 13000-13050/UDP.
• You should configure your firewall to allow outbound traffic on those ports, and related inbound traffic.
• You’ll need to consult your firewall’s documentation, or the manufacturer’s website, for instructions on how to make these changes to your firewall.
• As of Version 1.13.2, released Jan. 10th, 2007, you need to enable UDP/TCP in order to access Second Life.Second Life Subnets used for connections:
  • 63.210.156.0/22
  • 64.154.220.0/22
  • 8.2.32.0/22
  • 8.4.128.0/22
  • 8.10.144.0/21
  • 216.82.0.0/18

Contact Us
With Questions.  We’re Happy To Help!

CRU’s for ROL:

You may or may not be aware that you can get CRU’s just for learning how to use  Read:OutLoud software that Indiana has made available to every computer in your district AND take-home rights for students.

• CRU’s available here: www.donjohnston.com/state/indiana/indiana_readoutloud/index.html
• More info on ROL here:  www.icam.k12.in.us/downloads.php

NPR in Second Life: As I’m sure you’re eagerly awaiting the Open House for our very own PATINS Project Island in Second Life on Oct. 20, you might want to spend some time over at the NPR Island, especially on Fridays when they have their “Science Friday” presentations!   Here is a great set of resources on the blog: www.storyofmysecondlife.com/?p=397 and here is the Island Location in SL: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Science%20Friday/205/250/23

Two Other Virtual Spaces: I’ve blogged about lots of different virtual spaces, in addition to Second Life, including the 150 or so that are specifically intended for school aged children.  Well, here are two more that are new to me.  I’ve not explored either of them yet, but wanted to throw them out there and if you decide to check into one or both, I’d love for people to report their thoughts back here to the blog as comments.

• Blue Mars: www.bluemarsonline.com
• Metaplace: http://metaplace.com

Jokaydia Island and Resources:  “…a community of educators and artists exploring Second Life. Lots of great, creative resources here.

• The Wiki: http://jokaydia.com/2009/10/02/trademarks-and-the-sleducation-wiki/
• The SL Location: http://slurl.com/secondlife/jokaydia/128/128/25

1 Quick Teleporting Tip: Ever teleport away and want to go back?   See here:
https://blogs.secondlife.com/community/community/tnt/blog/2009/10/01/quicktip-ever-accidentally-teleport-away-and-want-to-go-back

K-12 Podcasting: …had a few questions this week about podcasting at the K-12 level.  Here’s just a real quick and NOT comprehensive list, but a good place to get started if you are new to the concept of podcasting:

• http://www.edtechmag.com/k12/issues/april-may-2007/podcasting-at-school.html
• http://www.edtechmag.com/k12/issues/april-may-2007/podcasting-at-school.html
• http://userwww.sfsu.edu/~nshelley/
• http://www.infotoday.com/cilmag/apr06/Eash.shtml
• http://www.det.wa.edu.au/education/cmis/eval/curriculum/ict/podcasts/
• http://kathyschrock.net/podcasting/podcasting.pdf
• http://www.intelligenic.com/blog/
• http://fcit.usf.edu/podcasts/

I do have a free hands-on podcasting workshop scheduled for Feb. 9.  We can also come out to you to do a training and/or we can have a training online in our new Second Life Island for free, saving travel costs for everyone!  Let us know how we can help!

Sensory Processing, Integration and Seating with Karen Kangas: PATINS is once again bringing Karen Kangas back to Indiana for 2 intense workshop days at no cost to you!   There are still a few spots remaining for this workshop.  If you’ve heard Karen before or heard me speak ABOUT Karen, you know this isn’t one you want to miss!  November 17, 18.   Click Here to Register!

Regional PATINS Workshops: Having personally spoken with several people this week that are new to this blog, I thought I’d post a quick link to the Regional Training Opportunities you might be interested in knowing about.  Many are already scheduled and additional trainings can be scheduled by request!

Go here and click on the link representing your region of the state: www.patinsproject.com/regional.html

Adapted Spelling Tests: I got a request this week to help make a spelling test more accessible for a student who struggles with handwriting (fine motor control) and thought my response might be worth sharing.  This was something I used to use in my classroom with a student who has since passed away, but who still inspires me almost every single day.  She would take all day to write her spelling test and we still couldn’t read it, but cognitively knew 90% of her spelling words or better every week.  So, I simply utilized the FORMS TOOLBAR in Microsoft Word OR the FORM CONTROLS TOOLBAR in Open Office.  This works in either one.  I would used these tools to create a form consisting of a combination of Form Fields, Drop-Downs, Radio Buttons, and Check Boxes, which allowed my student  to truly show what she knew with regard to spelling.  No longer was she being given a spelling grade based on her handwriting ability.  This is super easy, free and quick.  See screenshots below.  I’m also happy to walk through this over the phone/email with anyone needing help.  Of course, Forms can be used for so many things beyond spelling tests too!  Be creative!

Open Office Screenshot

MS Word 2007 Screenshot

A Sample Shot of the Final Product

Don’t Forget…To get your avatar created and Second Life software installed and running so that you can participate in the PATINS Project Second Life Island Open House on October 20th!

1. Creating Your Free Avatar:
   www.secondlife.com
2. Download and Install the Second Life Software.  Remember this can be installed to a $5 Thumbdrive and run from there.  No need to install to your computer if that’s an issue.
3. Make sure you can access the Second Life Grid by trying to log in once step 1 & 2 are completed above.
4. If you cannot log in, contact me.  I have some ideas that could help.

On OCTOBER 20, ALL DAY LONG, at least one PATINS Staff Member will be available on our Island to greet you, give you a tour, answer your questions, provide you with training demonstrations, etc.  Contact me with questions via email or leave comments on the blog!  Additionally, if you want to log in to SL earlier than October 20th to explore our island and would like one of us to meet you there, just let us know!

Second Life Keyboard Shortcuts Cheat Sheet: Down load here: SL_Keyboard_Shortcuts

Scuba Diving with Disabilities: An avid diver myself, this caught my interest and thought I’d pass it along.  This is really cool in so many different ways.  If you’ve heard me talk about broadening your definition of assistive technology and thinking more along the lines of accessible technologies, then you probably already know what I’m talking about.  But, maybe the barrier preventing someone from learning is the engagement piece.  Or maybe the barrier is actually someone’s preconceived notion that “they can’t do it.”  For example, “people without arms can’t scuba dive.” …right?

“Elliott is undaunted by the nature and degree of a diver’s disability, or age. He works with children, starting at 8, who are visually impaired, paralyzed, have autism, cerebral palsy or almost any other disability.”

Here’s a man ‘undaunted‘ by the severity of someone’s disability when it comes to taking them under the water with a regulator and compressed air to give them what could be a truly awesome sensory experience or motivational experience.  It makes me wonder why we still seem to have so many educators so ‘daunted’ to take these same students with disabilities into their classrooms to provide them with equally wonderful experiences.  In the light of Project Based Learning, this is exactly the sort of experience that could just ignite motivational wild fires in some of the students we struggle with in class to get even a little participation from.   Click Here for the Article

Text To Speech Options:
Most of you know how I feel about text to speech in that for those it works for, it works very well for.  But for any students with breath support or articulation issues, speech recognition has a long way to go yet.  However, I’m also firmly planted in the belief that it rarely ever hurts to try!   A couple weeks ago Tina shared with us these links, which are incredibly useful for comparing the speech recognition options available:

• http://www.consumersearch.com/voice-recognition-software/review
• Nice grid layout:
  http://www.pacer.org/stc/pubs/VoiceRecComparison_CTG_checks2009.pdf
• Comparison of Vista’s to Dragon:
  http://www.direct-laptops-guide.com/vista-vs-dragon-naturally-speaking-voice-recognition.html

Jumpstart 3D Immersive World now on the Wii: True story: Tuesday night my 7 year old told me that Jumpstart World (the online 3D immersive world like Second Life) would be coming to the Wii gaming system.  I, shamefully, sort of blew her off.  I mean, how could this 7 year old possibly know this information before I did, and I’d not heard this.   Well, Wednesday morning I receive the email from Jumpstart announcing this!  Wednesday night, I told my daughter how smart she was and thanked her for keeping her father current on this sort of information.    If you are new to this blog or haven’t talked to me in the last 3 years, Jumpstart World is an 3D immersive space for THREE YEAR OLDS!  Just another reminder for me that our children are learning differently, using an expanded vocabulary and expecting the adults in their lives to keep up.  This is also the world we claim to be preparing them to live and work effectively in.  Yet, for many students, their school requires them to ‘power off’ when entering.  They get through the school day so they can ‘power back on’.  I recently heard someone compare this to getting on an airplane.  Sitting in rows, all facing the front and being forced to turn off all electronics and restrict their normal activities, their normal personal and professional learning and social networks, their audio and video content, their access to more efficient ways of performing.  ….an uncomfortable necessity in order to get from one place to the next.  …just something to consider.

Virtual Authors: This morning we had a staff meeting on our Second Life Island and Vicki introduced us to this blog for improving reading, writing and communication skills.  This is great because she’s doing it with students with more severe disabilities, giving them an authentic purpose for writing and allowing others to comment on their writing without the fear of correction from their teacher, which really isn’t authentic.  This makes absolute sense to me as it is pretty much what I’ve been doing with my daughters since they were about 4 years old.  I can’t say for sure why, but they do love to read and to write now at 6 and 7.  Blogging is FREE by the way. 

Learn WITH The World Webinar: This one is not free unfortunately, but looks really good and certainly supports the concept of removing barriers between the real world and the school environment.
Learning WITH the World: Using Technology to Connect Students Globally in Project-based Learning is an ISTE (International Society for Technology in Education) webinar happening Sept. 9 at 4pm EST.   More info here: www.iste.org/Content/NavigationMenu/ProfessionalDevelopment/WebinarSeries/20092010Webinar/Learning_with_the_World.htm

PATINS Project Island Main

PATINS-Project Island Open House! The PATINS PROJECT will be hosting an open house for most of the day and a portion of the evening on October 20th on our Second Life Island.  Watch for more information on this to come in the next several weeks.  There will be PATINS Staff Avatars available to give tours of the island, answer questions and help you out!   You will need to have an avatar created and Second Life software installed ahead of time.  See the PATINS website’s 5- Video Tutorial series on getting started in Second Life and creating your avatar.  …or contact me for help!

Have a great LONG WEEKEND!

Karen Kangas! …is coming back to Indianapolis November 17 and 18! If you saw Karen last year when she presented for us on Seating and Positioning for Success, you know what sort of treat you’re in for by attending this year’s 2-Day workshop on Sensory Processing, Sensory Integration, and
Seating & Access.

• Flyer here: Karen Kangas Fall 2009 2-Day Workshop Flyer

• Registration here: www.patinsproject.com/training.html

FETC Virtual Conference: Last year I attended an FETC online virtual conference with Sandy and we both really enjoyed it.  It’s an experience you should consider if at all possible.  October 22 from 10am to 6pm.  Details and registration here: http://virtual.fetc.org/Microsites/FETC-Virtual/Event-Home.aspx

Fall 09 PATINS AT Overview Course: Don’t forget to register!  This is a great opportunity to become more familiar with Accessible Technologies and how you can help increase access to the General Ed. Curriculum in your building! As always, this course is free and provided by the PATINS Project.  It will run from 9/28 through 11/6.  More info here:
2009 AT Overview Coarse FAQ
2009 AT Overview Course REGISTRATION FORM

Time Zone Converter: Between Second Life Time (SLT), which is the same as PDT and EST, where I live and work and CST where some of the other PATINS Sites are and Australian time, where my in-laws live, and England where my brother-in-law lives, I tend to get confused now and then!  Here’s a resource that might be worth bookmarking for you and your students.
http://www.timezoneconverter.com/cgi-bin/tzc.tzc

Camtasia For Mac: YES!!! All I can say is that it’s about time!  Camtasia is hands-down my favorite program for recording screen tutorials, but until  this week it has been unavailable for Mac.  Here it is!  Unfortunately, it’s not a free one.  But, it is one that’s well worth spending the money on if screen recordings are something you intend to do right. www.techsmith.com/camtasiamac

Getting Started in Second Life: Second Life Getting Started Informational Sheet

• 5 Short Video Tutorials on getting started here: www.patinsproject.com/videos.html

]]> http://nepatins.edublogs.org/2009/08/28/8282009-featured-teacher-video-fetc-virtual-conference-karen-kangas-returns-camtasia-for-mac-getting-started-in-sl/feed/ 0 http://nepatins.edublogs.org/2009/03/13/3132009-vodpod-nasa-accessibility-second-life-sage-math-typeit-readit-update-virtual-guidedogs-new-response-method-prize-and-more/ http://nepatins.edublogs.org/2009/03/13/3132009-vodpod-nasa-accessibility-second-life-sage-math-typeit-readit-update-virtual-guidedogs-new-response-method-prize-and-more/#comments Fri, 13 Mar 2009 17:01:04 +0000 danielgmcnulty http://nepatins.edublogs.org/?p=210 VODPOD: You’ve probably noticed that for the last two weeks, there are some new videos just to the right of the main content area of the blog.  This area is usually referred to as the “widget area” and one of my new “widgets” is the VodPod!  It’s a free tool that allows me to collect videos that I like in one place and then embed a widget to them in something like a blog or a website.  It works with videos that I might find while surfing the net or I can search for videos on a specific topic/keyword.  I can create multiple ‘themed’ collections of videos, etc.  Check it out, it’s FREE!  http://vodpod.com/   **Please be advised that vodpod is just a tool, a resource for making collections of videos that you might find on the internet, such that you can group them for efficiency.   As with most other tools, real or virtual, this resource could be used for collecting appropriate/educational videos or potentially inappropriate content.   Of course, my intentions are always educational and my belief is that teachers are professional enough to explore tools in an appropriate way as well.  Just be advised that vodpod could display links to content that could be inappropriate for the classroom depending on what sort of content you are searching for.  The way I’ve utlized the tool however, demonstrates one appropriate and powerful use of this resource.

TypeIt Read It Update: Last Summer, I blogged a little about an application called TypeIt ReadIt for Mac and I actually used this program to create audio for a podcast from a transcript of a class I was teaching one day a week.  Version 1.5 is now available and includes some nice features like increased font size to 200pt, more fluent reading, user settings saved, more consistent text to audio and more.  However, one feature they removed was highlighting or tracking of the text.  This may not be important for your uses (especially if just using for text to audio files), but remember that the research supports tracking or highlighting of the text for all users of text to speech software.  TypeItReadIt is also dual platform meaning it’ll work on your Macs and your PC’s, and it’s FREE!    Check it out here: www.schoolfreeware.com

There are also some video tutorials available for using it on both Mac and PC here:

The video tutorial for TypeIt ReadIt Mac is found at:

http://blip.tv/file/1830515

The video tutorial for TypeIt ReadIt Windows is found at:

http://blip.tv/file/1830486

Second Life Networking:

I’ll be speaking to a group of college students from Empire State College in NY on April 1 & 2 in the evenings about what PATINS does in the state of Indiana with regard to Universal Design for Learning (UDL) and Assistive Technology.  Their island is intended for university students preparing to be science teachers to have classes and to become familiar with immersive worlds technology.  You should consider visiting their place in SL, especially if you are involved in science education:  http://slurl.com/secondlife/Empire%20State%20College/58/90/23 I stumbled across this opportunity while visiting ISTE (International Society for Technology in Education) Island in Second Life and started talking with the professor of this class at Empire State College.  …just another example of the amazing networking potential of this tool!

Virtual Guidedogs! I spent about 45 minutes with a lady last week in Second Life, who’s visually impaired in Real Life.  She uses a scripted guidedog in Second Life named Max, to help her navigate the virtual world and interact with it.  She spent about 45 minutes training me to use the guidedog as well and I have to say that I’m very, very impressed.

Sage Math: www.sagemath.org I also attended a math class in Second Life this week.  This was a math teacher demonstrating how a math class could be taught almost entirely in Second Life, which was quite impressive.  One of the tools he was using to teach with was the Open Source Sage Math.  I’m sure many of you math teachers are already familiar with it, but it was new for me and quite exciting.  I’d love to hear comments from those of you using it already or who likely have more knowledge than I about teaching math.  It’s definitely worth taking a look at though if you haven’t yet!

Also, while in this Second Life demonstration of a math lesson, I connected with a director at NASA.  She noticed that I was using the virtual guidedog and we ended up talking and exchanging links about accessibility.  Check out this website she shared with me.  I’m sure I’ll be talking more about it in the future:  NASA, Accessibility and Second Life: http://prime.jsc.nasa.gov/

NEW! Comment on this blog with your own video and/or audio!   Who will be the first to post a video comment to the PATINS Rapid Fire Blog?  I think this is really exciting and such a powerful example of an alternate form of response!   Remember UDL principle #2; multiple and flexible means of response!   I’m so excited about this new feature of the blog that I’m offering a prize to the first one of you who responds with a video and/or audio comment!   The prize isn’t much, but it is something useful, it is something real (not virtual) that I’ll send to you and it has to do with PATINS and UDL!   So, it’s got to be good right? 

Don’t forget to register for the Tech Expo:
www.patinsproject.com/training.html

…and Download your copy of Read:OutLoud Text To Speech Software at no Cost:
www.icam.k12.in.us/DJ/DJLogin.aspx

And Remember to Suggest Workshops for me here:  www.patinsproject.com/ne.html

]]> http://nepatins.edublogs.org/2009/03/13/3132009-vodpod-nasa-accessibility-second-life-sage-math-typeit-readit-update-virtual-guidedogs-new-response-method-prize-and-more/feed/ 0 http://nepatins.edublogs.org/2009/03/06/362009-udl-collaboration-day-livescribe-paper-second-life-examples/ http://nepatins.edublogs.org/2009/03/06/362009-udl-collaboration-day-livescribe-paper-second-life-examples/#comments Fri, 06 Mar 2009 04:28:53 +0000 danielgmcnulty http://nepatins.edublogs.org/?p=205

09 UDL Collaboration Day Photos:

Last Monday was the annual PATINS UDL Pilot Team Collaboration Day in Indianapolis.  All current teams come together to show and talk about the UDL principles, concepts, technologies, and instruction they’ve been implementing in their schools.  The newly selected and trained UDL teams come to see what sorts of things other places have had success with.  Photos from the event here: www.patinsproject.com/PhotoGalleries/UDLCollaboration2009/index.html

…and one of the New UDL Teams blogged about their experience on this day here: http://esmspatins.edublogs.org/2009/02/24/udl-collaboration-day/

LiveScribe Paper: I know many of you have been playing with the awesome Livescribe Pulsepen this school year and hopefully many of you are utilizing them with students who need the support it offers.  I just realized recently that you can can print out your own “Dot Paper” to use with your pen:  See here: http://www.livescribe.com/smartpen/dotpaper.html And here: http://www.livescribe.com/cgi-bin/WebObjects/LDApp.woa/wa/CSKBPortalPage#/support/kb/?View=entry&EntryID=221

ISTE’s Samples/Examples: …of great educational uses for Second Life are displayed in the screenshot above.  This is a wall of great destinations to go visit to see how Second Life is already being used successfully in Higher Ed., Libraries, History, Literature and Art, Math and Science.  I highly recommend visiting some of these if you’re new to Second Life and want to see what might be possible OR If you are still thinking that SL is merely a social site.  The slurl to visit this wall: http://slurl.com/secondlife/ISTE%20Island/116/43/30

Additionally: An article in THE JOURNAL about Second Life in Education.  www.thejournal.com/articles/23777_1

AND… check out NASA in Second Life:

Free Promethean Conference:
Westfield-Washington Schools will be hosting a FREE Promethean Interactive Whiteboard Conference on March 13th, 2009 at Maple Glen Elementary School. Please feel free to join us for breakout sessions on uses of Promethean in the classroom, lunch, keynote speaker and door prizes. You are welcome to bring any other staffers from your district that you think will benefit from this conference. All that we ask is that you and anyone else attending, please register at the following link, so that we are aware of how many to expect.    www.eventville.com/search/groups.asp?coordinatorgroupid=1001051

Click on “Indiana” on the map and then click “register” to sign up for the specific breakout sessions and complete your registration. Remember that this is a FREE conference!  Lunch will be provided free of charge from Kelties Restaurant as well.

To Start the Weekend With A Smile:
Last Friday, we had a text to speech workshop here at the NE Site and had our first non-human participant!    Thanks Tiki for keeping my participants awake… couldn’t have done it w/out ya

Don’t forget to register for the Tech Expo:
www.patinsproject.com/training.html

…and Download your copy of Read:OutLoud Text To Speech Software at no Cost:
www.icam.k12.in.us/DJ/DJLogin.aspx

Promethean Try B4 U Buy! Dave Tutton at Promethean Inc. has offered the opportunity to evaluate Activclassroom and accompanying products for a period of 90 days as a try before you buy sort of opportunity.  As many of you know, I’m a big believer in the instructional power of interactive whiteboards.  This may be an offer you want to look into. Full offer details available and a download of the form to take advantage of this offer here: http://www.patinsproject.com/ExperienceActivClassroom  TC’s Final 1 19 2009 97 version.docAny questions should be directed to tutton@empower-learning.com

Priory Woods: Check out these cool switch/touch screen videos from Priory Woods! www.priorywoods.middlesbrough.sch.uk/resources/videos.htm

Online Teaching in Florida: Check into this article from eSchool News on teaching and learning in virtual environments.   A quote, “As virtual schooling continues to surge in popularity, there is a growing need for new K-12 teachers who understand how to teach in an online environment successfully. ” www.eschoolnews.com/news/top-news/?i=57314

While we’re on the topic of online learning and professional development; I realized this week that there are people out there who simply are not aware of the educational potential of these tools.  Most of you know that I’ve been blogging about the potential of professional development in immersive 3D environments like Second Life, Jumpstart World, Pixie Hollow, etc., for most of this school year.  We’re getting closer, I feel, to doing some professional development in an online immersive  environment every week and I find it exciting in many ways.  We’ve got a lot to learn, thats for sure.  I realized this week however, that perhaps I haven’t shared with you all some of my reasoning behind supporting tools like Second Life for teachers to learn and develop their professional skills in.  I am, by far, not the first to think of implementing these tools for educational purposes.  I thought it would be worthwhile to use the rest of this week’s post to share some resources, data and general information on the topic.  I hope it is beneficial and informative.

Just a select few other respected educational organizations and campuses utilizing Second Life include:

• Florida Diagnostic & Learning Resources System: http://www.paec.org/fdlrsweb/
• More than 300 universities including: Duke, Harvard, Purdue, Indiana University, Bowling Green, Ohio, Ball State, etc.
• Center for Advanced Technology at Oregon University
• PBS Teachers: http://innovateclassrooms.blogspot.com/2008/11/are-you-pbs-teacher.html
• Austin Educators Coop
• Marlboro College Graduate Center
• Lighthouse Learning Island: A Second Life professional learning community created by four K-12 school districts in southeastern Massachusetts.
• Another helpful article in “THE Journal” http://www.thejournal.com/articles/23777
• The Appalachian Ohio K-12 Second Life Learning Community
• IBM, NASA and International Spaceflight
• Ann Myers Medical Center:  A training/teaching hospital in second life for real life doctors and nurses.
• A slideshare from the University of Cali Berkeley on Academic Library 2.0:
  http://www.slideshare.net/HVX.Mica/second-life-education-in-a-virtual-world-slidecast
• Specific information on educational usage from the Second Life folks themselves can be found here:  http://sleducation.wikispaces.com/educationaluses
• The top 20, according to Second Life folks, educational locations in Second Life here exist here: http://simteach.com/wiki/index.php?title=Top_20_Educational_Locations_in_Second_Life
• Discovery Educator Network: http://blog.discoveryeducation.com/secondlife/
• A strong listing of Second Life URLs for K-12 education continues here: http://kathyschrock.net/k12secondlife/

I realized this week that some people new to the blog who maybe hadn’t read my early postings on immersive environments might not have this foundation which would help in understanding my interest in the concept for teacher learning and professional development.  The main point I want to make is that we are not the first, nor the only educational orgazation to recognize the potential in these immersive technologies like Second Life.  There are true pioneers of this concept listed above and it would be well worth your time to check them out before forming an opinion for or against this idea of immersive 3D virtual world teaching and learning.

Tech Expo: Don’t forget to register for the 2009 PATINS Tech Expo here: www.patinsproject.com/training.html

ROL: …and to download your district’s FREE UNLIMITED license of Don Johnston’s Read:OutLoud software here: www.icam.k12.in.us/DJ/DJLogin.aspx

Indiana’s Universal Design for Learning (UDL) teams gathered in Indianapolis this Monday.  One team has already blogged about their experience there:  http://esmspatins.edublogs.org/2009/02/24/udl-collaboration-day/

Photos from the UDL Collaboration Day next week!

Indiana Moms: I came across this blog this morning from “real Indiana moms of a child with a disability,” and was completely impressed!  Check this out and get yourself subscribed to their blog for sure: http://4thosewhofollow.blogspot.com/

Second Life Art: A few  good places for art-related content in Second Life were recommended to me this week.  I haven’t been able to spend much time in any of them yet, but thought they were worth sharing at this point.  Check these out and tell the art teachers in your building to check these out!  Let me know if you need help w/Second Life.

1. The Present Age:  http://slurl.com/secondlife/Utwig/153/253/291
2. Gallery: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Dakota Skies/125/67/22/
3. http://slurl.com/secondlife/Immersiva/116/157/24/

Converting Video Formats? I’ve had the question come up several times this week about good, free programs for converting a video from its current format into a different format, so I thought I’d post my favorite tools once again.  (Remember that VIDEO is one of the new Accessible Formats listed in Indiana’s Article 7 (511 IAC 7-36-7).  The other 7 are Braille, Audio, Digital Text, Large Type, Tactile Graphics, Captions, Audio Descriptions.

• “Any Video Converter” is still a favorite of mine:  http://www.any-video-converter.com/products/for_video_free/
• Another good one is “Super”: http://www.erightsoft.net/SUPER.html
• A third one I really like that works well on both Mac and PC is “MPEG StreamClip“:  http://www.squared5.com/

Accessible Book Resource: This resource came across one of the groups I read this week: LINK HERE.

More TRLD: Another tool I learned about at TRLD that’s well worth discussing this week is ZOHO www.zoho.com.  I was instructed to think of Zoho as Google-Docs on steroids!  Being a big fan of Google Docs, I was very keen to spend some time with Zoho, and I have to admit that the steriod comment was probably an accurate assessment of this tool.

As this screen shot indicates, Zoho offers LOTS of great tools including apps for mail, word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, file management, databases, invoicing, web conferencing and more!   Did I mention that Zoho is FREE?  You do need to create a login or you can use your existing Google account or your existing Yahoo account.  IMPORTANT: One thing I recently learned that you should also take note of (if you don’t already know), is that with most of these free tools such as Google Docs, when you create docs using their applications, they technically own those documents.  This was very startling to me.  However, Zoho’s Terms of Service pretty clearly state that you own the content you create.  This is a huge positive for users!  In fact, Google’s and Zoho’s Terms of Service are pretty much exact opposites of one another in this regard.  These are things you should think about when using tools like these.  Keep in mind however, that the real power in these sorts of tools is in the COLLABORATION opportunities they provide.  Multiple people, from multiple locations w/out needing any other software, can collaborate on a document or a project and be making almost real-time edits!  That’s powerful and exciting stuff!  Zoho also has chat, calendar, planning and utilities like website monitoring and polling that I’m hoping to explore further soon!

Plan To Attend
PATINS TECH EXPO 2009

April 16, 2009
9:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.
Junior Achievement Building
Indianapolis, IN  46240
No Cost to attend!   Door Prizes!
To Register:
http://patinsproject.com/training.html

TRLD Conference 2009:

Lots of good stuff at the conference!  My session went really well this evening and was well attended.  A recurring theme at the conference and general buzz amongst people seemed to be that of professional development and how it seems that so many teachers are ready for it to be, at least in part, an online experience.  This is interesting to me and goes right along with my recent blogging about Second Life and other immersive environments as I believe this sort of 3D virtual world is where we are headed with a lot of professional development.

Some quick tips and things to try:

Zoho: Zoho is sort of like Google Apps on steroids.  Try this out as a great way to collaborate on documents!   It’s FREE.  www.zoho.com

Twidla: Twidla is a FREE interactive whiteboard that multiple people can use and colloaborate on at once.  It’s fairly basic, but it works really well and it’s free!  www.twidla.com

TagCrowd: A free, simple way to take a body of text and focus down to the most frequently used words in that text.  Very Powerful Tool in my opinion!  www.tagcrowd.com

UDL Editions: http://udleditions.cast.org/

Book Builder: http://bookbuilder.cast.org

CAST Curriculum Self-Check: http://udlselfcheck.cast.org/

CAST UDL Lesson Builder: http://lessonbuilder.cast.org

PATINS Project Tech Expo

April 16, 2009

Junior Achievement Building of Central IN, Inc.

7435 North Keystone Ave.

Indianapolis, IN  46240

• No cost to you.
• Varied Presentations nd Vendor Booths.
• Door Prizes and Giveaways!

• Register for the Tech Expo By Clicking HERE

NIMAS Digital Rights Managers Update:

• There are currently a little over 600 DRMs registered statewide.
• New DRMs can now be registered through the ICAM right on their website.
• There will be DRM Webinar Trainings from the ICAM almost every week, on Tuesdays.

Pixies Online: It’s been a few weeks since I’ve talked about immersive environments such as Second Life and I wanted to mention a couple of things.  First, we now have a PATINS-Project SL Group in Second Life.  If you create an avatar (which is free) in Second Life, do a search for PATINS and join our group!

These last few weeks, my daughters have been completely immersed in Disney’s Pixie Hollow, which is a free, online virtual world.  Unlike Second Life it is highly controlled and I feel, quite safe.  My daughters each have created multiple fairies (avatars), know how to fly them around, how to chat with other fairies, how to collect ingredients such as leaves and spider webs and how to decorate their fairy homes!   My daughters are 5 and 7 years old.  I’ve given them relatively little instruction or help once I helped them set up their accounts.  This is just incredible to me and it really goes to show that this sort of 3D virtual or immersive world is what our students are growing up with.  They understand it, it’s not “wierd” to them like I hear from many teachers and they are quickly able to learn with it, from it and contribute to their worlds.  I think we have an obligation to pay some close attention to what’s coming!