iGoogle is Must Have for Kids

ITM NOTE:
We are pleased to have a new correspondent join the ITM - 9 year-old Adora Svitak. Adora is a published author who's written hundreds of short stories, maintains her own blog, and has been featured on CNN and Good Morning America. Most importantly, she's an avid tech user who types at amazing speeds. We're excited to have Adora provide us with her thoughts on technology and learning from the perspective of a "Digital Native." Be sure to welcome Adora to the ITM community in the comments below her post! - Chris Walsh

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Although I consider myself fairly well-versed in technology, discovering iGoogle made me ecstatic. It's an absolute must-have if you want to keep floating on the all too murky surface of tech popularity. An iGoogle a ccount is necessary to put yourself forward as a professional tech savvy. iGoogle is a recently introduced branch of Google, stemming from its customized version. Viewers are able to choose from a palette of themes including "City Bus Stop" and "Sweet Dreams", all of which adjust to your local weather. Before you decide this is a "frivolous" product, consider the quick access to Wikipedia, Word of the Day, Brainteasers, Time and Date, To-Do, and Type Type Revolution gadgets. Google News, BBC, Scientific American, and the Discovery Channel all provide current events and educational news feeds. Kids have potential to succeed without sacrificing their "fun" -- iGoogle gives great educational links plus tools like calculators. Ye rowdy children, gather 'round the computer-place--warm your hands at the computer, and get ready to have some serious fun with serious learning.

As a writer, one of my favorite features is the Literary Quote of the Day. Including a wide range of authors, the Literary Quote of the Day is a whimsical gadget. While it's not particularly useful in everyday life (except maybe to retort to the coworker who claims you're vulgar and badly educated), the Literary Quote is interesting to look at. It's also small so it conserves space in your iGoogle page, unlike many larger gadgets. As a kid, I love Type Type Revolution, a fast-powered game featuring terrific typing. Creating your own iGoogle page is like creating your own world. I was extremely excited when I first discovered this. I began getting iGoogle gadgets in a frenzied race, as if a Cyclops would appear out of nowhere momentarily and smash my computer to smithereens.

Share and Tell #2: Custom Search Engine

Teachers often bemoan their students' Internet search strategies. Kids, especially younger ones, often surf to Google, type in general search terms, and end up with thousands, if not millions, of results. Many of these results probably are not very relevant and, kids experience difficulty sifting through pages of hits. Clearly, teachers need to teach kids methods of refining their searches. Additionally, there is a Google tool that might help kids become more efficient web searchers.

Custom Search Engine lets your create your own search engine based on preselected sites. This provides a more directed research focus for your students. I created my first engine last fall, and used it in with my classes that participated Google's Global Warming Student Speakout project. I've continued to add more sites geared toward my middle school computer science classes to this engine. The second search engine I created was comprised of sites I regularly explore for when compiling my Friday 5 resource lists. I've embedded this particular search engine in my blog so teachers can look for additional lessons and project ideas. Finally, inspired by the other Lucie who wanted to specifically search the Infinite Thinking Machine, I created a third search engine, using sites cited in the ITM, blogs of the contributors, and the ITM blog itself.

One important Custom Search Engine feature is that you can embed a self-created search engine in a blog or a web site; the html code is provided. You can also invite others to contribute to your search engine, and you can use the Google Marker to bookmark sites directly to your customized search tool. Google Co-op also facilitates collaboration as other people can be given permission to add to the list of sites, and you can add your Custom Search Engine to your iGoogle customized homepage as well.

I also recently discovered a more sophisticated use of Custom Search Engine. In this blog post, Wisconsin educator John Pederson describes how he translated the feeds from his newsreader and used them to roll a search engine based on items he reads daily. His search engine is directly available here. To see how others have used Google Co-op, check out Google's featured examples and the Custom Search Engine blog.

Homework Assignment #2

1) Create your own custom search engine and post the URL in the comments section of this blog post.

AND/OR

2) Join one of my search engines and add sites that you think are worthwhile. Just click on the Volunteer to Contribute link and I'll approve anyone interested in collaborating.

The Infinite Thinking Machine Search Engine
The Friday 5 Search Engine
Mrs. Gray's Research Sites for Kids

Google Teacher Academy - So Cal

As a native of "The OC" and a "Son of Westwood," I'm proud to announce that the next Google Teacher Academy will be held in Santa Monica, CA, on May 23, 2007.

With two successful Academies under our belt, Google's FREE training program for K-12 educators is "going Hollywood." The Academy is an intensive, one-day event where participants get hands-on experience with Google's free products and other technologies, learn about innovative instructional strategies, collaborate with exceptional educators, and immerse themselves in an innovative corporate environment. Upon completion, Academy participants become Google Certified Teachers who share what they learn with other K-12 educators in their local region.

50 outstanding educators from Southern California (within 90 miles of Santa Monica) will be selected to attend the Academy based on their passion for teaching, their experience as leaders, and their use of technology in K-12 settings. Each applicant is REQUIRED to produce and submit an original one-minute video, and applications for the event in Santa Monica are due on April 23, 2007.

> Learn more about the program and the application

So far the Academies have been a wonderful experience for everyone involved with 97% of all attendees rating the Academy as "outstanding."

Here are a few quotes from Academy participants:

"The academy was everything I hoped for and more! I can't wait to plan out ways to use the tools we learned about, to share my experiences with my colleagues and to re-connect with the other academy participants!"

"The focus on innovation in education and not just about the tools was right on target."

"I appreciate the opportunity to be connected to a group of educators that are passionate about preparing students for the 21st century. I feel inspired and able to meet the challenges that lie ahead!"

"Until now, I had never attended a conference where I was so engaged and loving every minute of it."

"This was easily the most important professional development experience I have ever had as an educator. World-class tools demonstrated by world-class people at a world-class facility. THANK YOU!"

BTW - In case you're new to the ITM, my colleagues and I at WestEd coordinate the Google Teacher Academy program with our friends at Google. Cristin Frodella leads Google's K-12 education efforts, and she's the guiding force behind everything. WestEd and its partners, like CUE and Discovery Educator Network, are proud to work with Cristin on this program, and we're excited to see the program reach more educators across the country.

Please spread the word to anyone who may be interested in joining us!

Best of 2006: The Read/Write Web in Education

It's the winter break for many educators (at least in North America). Email has slowed to a trickle and most educational blogs are not being updated. During this time of reflection and rejuvenation we'll be celebrating the new year (along with the rest of the world). We at the ITM have discussed posting several "best of 2006" (or "predictions for 2007") posts to mark the occasion. For my part, I've identified five trends in the educational use of the read/write web that I've felt had a significant impact on my work - and ultimately, the work of teachers and students. In each case I discuss a free (and teacher-friendly) service.

For the sake of brevity, I've posted my predictions separately.

1. Educational Blogging at Edublogs.org (and learnerblogs.org): Though blogs and educational blogging have been around for several years, and though James Farmer's Edublogs.org was created in 2005, the impact of these tools grew a great deal in 2006. In February, I switched from using Blogger to using Edublogs when leading blogging workshops for teachers. In addition to being able to post text and pictures (and being able to receive comments), teachers could now post Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and PDF files, too. There were no random links to embarrassing or inappropriate blogs, and teachers could set up various levels of permissions for comments and for participants in team blogs. To boot, the tools were free and open source. Also, in June 2006, ITM blogger (and open source advocate) Steve Hargadon created supportblogging.com, which quickly became a valuable resource for teachers interested in these ideas. Read my predictions for 2007.

2. Educational Podcasting at podomatic.com: Podcasting began in 2004, and in 2005 my colleagues and I began leading workshops in which we helped teachers jump through many technical hoops in order to "easily" post a podcast. Podomatic was founded in 2005, but it wasn't until 2006 that we started using the service to help teachers and students. Now, teachers can create a new podcast episode by simply uploading an audio file that they've created using a free program such as Audacity. Or, for even greater simplicity, they can record directly into Podomatic over the web. The hosting of the audio files is free and the system takes care of most of the back end technical issues, creating a blog-like website complete with comments. Read my predictions for 2007.

3. Educational Wikis at Wikispaces.com: Though wikis have been around even longer than blogs, they are arguably behind blogs in educational adoption. But, in January 2006, Wikispaces.com started offering free (and add free) Wikis to teachers. Ten thousand wikis later, the company was so impressed by the work teachers and students were doing on their free wikis that they launched a campaign to give away 100,000 wikis to teachers. Today they are nearing the 20,000 mark. These wikis not only allow teachers to create collaboratively edited online resources, but also to post images and files as well. (I've written about educational use of wikis on the ITM before.) Read my predictions for 2007.

4. Google in Education: When we look back on 2006, this may very well be the biggest impact. This is the year Google began working in the k12 arena (an effort now headed up by Cristin Frodella). They launched the Google for Educators site, and played an critical role in the launch of this blog, the Infinite Thinking Machine. Google also released several new products that benefit educators who use the read/write web... particularly the easy to use RSS aggregator, Google Reader (for keeping up to date on news, blogs, and other "feeds") and the web-based word processor Google Docs (for creating, sharing, and collaboratively editing documents online). Though they existed prior to 2006, free desktop applications such as Picasa and Google Earth have been heavily used in education this year as well. (Of course, the newly updated Blogger is also still used by many educators.) Read my predictions for 2007.

5. The Deleting Online Predators Act of 2006 (DOPA): This may be the biggest change that didn't happen in 2006. Call it the biggest disaster averted (at least in the United States). Introduced in May 2006, the bill proposed to protect students from online predators by limiting their access to "social networking websites," which could have potentially limited student access to a wide range of websites, including everything I've mentioned above. In July, the house of representatives passed the bill by an amazing 410 to 15, and it seemed as if the Senate would quickly follow suit, thus placing an additional burden on many schools receiving federal funding - and placing a significant obstacle in the path of enterprising teachers using these tools with their students. Happily, organizations such as SaveYourSpace.org rose to the occasion and opposed the bill, which has languished in the Senate since before their August recess. Read my predictions for 2007.

Please feel free to discuss these read/write web trends (and predictions), and to leave ones of your own, in the comments. I look forward to reading your reactions.

PS: The image above was taken by Alan Levine and generously shared under the Creative Commons Attribution license on his Flickr account. Read his prediction about Creative Commons licensing in the comments for this post.

Google Teacher Academy NY

It's official! The next Google Teacher Academy will be held in New York City on February 15, 2007.

After a successful pilot program in Silicon Valley, CA, we're taking Google's FREE K-12 training program on the road. The Academy is an intensive, one-day event where participants get hands-on experience with Google's free products and other technologies, learn about innovative instructional strategies, receive resources to share with colleagues, and immerse themselves in an innovative corporate environment. Upon completion, Academy participants become Google Certified Teachers who share what they learn with other K-12 educators in their local region.

50 educators from the NY Tri-State area will be selected to attend the Academy based on their passion for teaching, their experience as trainers, and their use of technology in K-12 settings. Applications for the New York event are due on January 21, 2007. NOTE: Each applicant is REQUIRED to produce and submit an original one-minute video.

Learn more about the program and the application process here. And please spread the word to anyone who may be interested in joining us!

BTW - My colleagues and I at WestEd jointly coordinate the Google Teacher Academy program with our friends at Google. Cristin Frodella at Google heads up their K-12 education efforts, and she's been fantastic to work with. It's her vision and hard work that make the Academy (and the ITM!) possible, and we're excited to take this professional development program to more regions in 2007!

ITM 3: Living in 3D

ITM #3 is finally here! In this episode we share tips and tools related to visual design. So put on your cool 3D glasses and let's go for a ride.

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Show Notes:

NASA's team at the Lewis Center for Educational Research runs the Goldstone Apple Valley Radio Telescope (GAVRT) in a desert region outside Los Angeles, CA. They conduct a full educational program where students team with scientists to conduct cutting edge research leading to discovery. This is a great learning opportunity for kids to control and operate a deep space radio telescope. GAVRT provides training for teachers and detailed lessons plans, such as Mapping a Radio Source. And you can even see the live video feed of the GAVRT operation control center.

Since we're talking about space, you might want to check out NASA's education site, the NASA Kids Club, Space.com, and the xPrize Foundation.

The EVS-Islands website is produced by "Mr. Minton" - a teacher from San Diego, CA. With the help of his students, he is creating and sharing vector-based images of shorelines from around the world. Basically, he's combing basic shoreline maritime maps with real satelittle images and turning them into stunning, colorful maps that can be used by the rest of us. Much of the work is done with 20-30 students afterschool. His map collection is impressive, and you can download and use all his maps for FREE. He even gives us detailed map making techniques, so we can can join in the fun.

Sharing videos on the Internet is extremely popular with kids. If nothing else, you need to check out YouTube, MySpace, and Google Video, just so you know what kids are up to these days. While much of the videos are produced for fun, a growing number of teachers are using video sharing websites in the classroom. These websites make it extemely easy to post videos, and, in some cases, you can even control who sees them. How are you taping into this craze? Post your thoughts in our comments section.

And don't forget about sites like the Internet Archive, which houses thousands of PUBLIC DOMAIN videos that students can download and re-edit. Some of my favorites are Thomas Edison's news reel on the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, the 1952 classic"Duck and Cover" , and a 1963 production on how to use film in the classroom.

SketchUp is FREE software that empowers students to be 3D designers. SketchUp is a great tool for easily teaching kids to construct 3D models of buildings, trees, cars, and anything else they can imagine. You can use it as a stand-alone tool or in conjunction with Google Earth and the 3D Warehouse. On the main SketchUp website you can find a gallery of student examples, case studies, tutorials on how to use the tool, an educators forum, and even a book on how to use it in the classroom.

As one of the original inventors of the Internet, Vint Cerf is widely recognized as a leading thinker on how 21st century technologies are transforming our daily lives. Learn more about Vint on Wikipedia. In this segment, Vint talks share his thoughts on how technology is changing how we design things.

Learn more about the convergence of design and technology at the Designing Interactions , a book, DVD, and website from Bill Moggridge, one of the founders of IDEO. Check out the other feature articles on design on the IDEO website.

ITM 3 Homework: See if your kids can help you find out what the image is and where it is located. It's tougher than it looks. If you don't have any luck finding the answer, let me know, and I may release a few hints in the comments section. : )

Thanks to the students from Mr. Hernandez' class at Price Elementary School in Anaheim, CA, for helping us explain what the Infinite Thinking Machine is!

ITM #2: The Write Stuff

ITM #2 dives into the world of language arts with some great web resources and instructional strategies. Pour yourself a cold glass of milk and enjoy!

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Show Notes:

The History is Elementary blog is great resource for practical ideas on teaching history, especially in elementary school. The Shake and Bake post is particularly inspired, providing great ideas for hooking kids on Shakespeare by introducing them to the mystery of his identity.

Type in "Answer to life the Universe and everything" on the Google search bar and click "I'm Feeling Lucky". Hint: It's an obscure literary reference to a famous science fiction novel. If you want to cut right to the chase, check out this entry in Wikipedia.

The Gmaps Pedometer is a FREE web tool that measures and records walking distances from one point to another. It even measures changes in elevation! Use this tool with kids to help measure the exact distance between two points or to monitor your exercise path. FYI - Although Gmaps Pedometer uses Google Maps to help make it work, the website is not affiliated with Google in any way.

Ken Stein's Teacher Blog is a "sandbox" for ideas and resources related to teaching writing. It's just one of many great resources provided by the New York City Writing Project. His post on "Things to do with Writely" has 10 specific tips on how teachers and students can get the most from Writely (now called Google Docs) and other online word processors. Zoho Writer, AjaxWrite, and ThinkFree are a few other online tools to check out.

Google Docs & Spreadsheets (formerly Writely) is a free web-based word processor and spreadsheet tool.

Mike Lawrence is a former high school English teacher who currently serves as the Executive Director of Computer Using Educators. He visited Price Elementary School in Anaheim, CA for his "field trip" to see how they were using online word processors in their writing process.

The Big 6 is an information and technology literacy model and curriculum developed by educators Mike Eisenberg and Bob Berkowitz. It is the most widely-known and widely-used approach to teaching information and technology skills in the world. On the main Big Six website, you can get lesson ideas, read about their evidence of success, and access grade appropriate tools.

There are lots of FREE online dictionaries (Dictionary.com and Free Dictionary are two of the most popular), but you can also define words straight from the Google search bar. This simple tool allows you to quickly view multiple definitions of words and follow the link to the original source of that definition.

Your Homework Assignment: Take one of the ideas or resources mentioned in this episode and use it in your school or classroom. Post your results to the comments section of this blog (see the blue "comments" link above) or send us an email.

Thanks to the students from Mr. Hernandez' class at Price Elementary School in Anaheim, CA, for helping us explain what the Infinite Thinking Machine is!

ITM 1: Calling Planet Earth

Thanks for watching the premiere episode of the ITM! We know it was a long episode, but we just had so much to say. We promise to make them shorter in the future, and we hope to vary the topics more too. Please be patient as we figure out how to get the most from this great medium. And feel free to send us your ideas and comments!

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Downloads

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> Windows Media (52 MB)

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Show Notes:

Textmapping is a graphic organizer technique that can be used to teach reading comprehension and writing skills, study skills, and course content. The Textmapping website has great examples, lesson plans, and email discussion groups.

The Inertia video was created by Erica Eng when she was a Senior at Skyline High School in Oakland, CA. More examples of student produced media can be found at Listen Up!

Hart Island is just outside New York City, NY. You can get historical information here and look at the detailed satellite images here.

The new Google Educators website has lots of resources to help K-12 educators get the most from Google's FREE tools.

Hall Davidson runs the CA Student Multimedia Festival, and he works for the Discovery Educator Network. He is a board member of Computer Using Educators, and he is a popular speaker at education conferences. He visited Franklin Elementary School in Hollywood, CA for his "field trip."

Google Earth is free to download and use.

The Jane Goodall Institute is a global nonprofit that empowers people to make a difference for all living things. Jane Goodall has dedicated most of her life to the study and preservation of chimpanzees in Tanzania. The virtual tour of her work can be downloaded here for use in Google Earth.

Learn more about the educational uses of Google Earth at the Juicy Geography website.

A "mashup" is when you combine two or more technologies or media products together to create something even better. Learn more about mashups on Wikipedia or see some great mashups that use Google maps at Google Maps Mania.

You can find, download, and share "placemarks" for Google Earth at the Google Earth Community

Get the World War II "Places, Battles, and Special Ops" placemark to use in Google Earth.

Check out Wikipedia's full entries for World War II.

Thanks to the students from Mr. Hernandez' class at Price Elementary School in Anaheim, CA, for their great introduction to the Infinite Thinking Machine!y