The Tech Barn

Welcome to The Tech Barn!

Welcome! As Summit's Technology Coordinator, I wanted to create a space that could be used as a resource for Summit families looking for tech tools to help their son or daughter succeed in school. I am hoping to use this blog to post exciting new educational hardware and software as well as revisiting solid tools we've used and known about at Summit for years. As the Summit community knows, every child learns differently. This Summit mantra certainly applies when discussing technology as what is gold to one student might be less effective for another. If you ever have any questions about any technology on this site, please feel free to email me at ian.walsh@thesummitschool.org.

A quick blog primer for those who have never followed or viewed one. A blog is the internet age's diary. It allows long or brief posts from the author (myself) but also allows for interactive feedback from it's readers. Please feel free to comment on any post I make (just click on the comment button under the relevant post) but please keep in mind that all comments will be viewable by all followers of The Tech Barn.

This post will always be first but all other posts are listed chronographically. You can view older posts by clicking on the calendar or archives on the left side of each page.

Talk to you soon!

Magnetize your head!

I heard about a great website for anyone who has ever wished the could remember more. It's also a fantastic option for students who are trying to remember things for a quiz or test.

http://headmagnet.com/

Head Magnet takes information (facts) that you enter into it and quizzes you online in a variety of manners. It learns which items you know well and which you have difficulty recalling and adjusts the quizzing accordingly. It's like online flash cards that are smart! And its FREE!

Give it a try with your studying teenager or try it yourself!

Online E-books

It's been awhile since my last post but that snow just took a while to recover from and get back on track. Today I want to use this space to publicize an exciting new tool available to members of the Summit Community, including parents and families. Summit recently was awarded a one year grant from Sylvan-Dell Publishing to use their new E-book site. This site contains quite a few (i think almost 30) titles that are viewable online and are accompanied by audio of the text. A child is able to turn the pages as they would a regular book while they are listening.

To access the E-Books, visit the Summit website, www.thesummitschool.org, and go to the Online Resources page. Click the library link and look for the Sylvan-Dell Ebooks button. Note the code that must be entered before using. All of the books are primary and designed for our younger students (or maybe older students' siblings?) and each is accompanied by activities that are appropriate.

I would love to hear comments from those that try this for Hoofprints!

Websearching with kids

Below is an an interesting podcast from NPR Education on kid's habits when searching for information on the internet. It's short but offers some interesting results from a study that was done. Researching on the internet is such a relevant 21st century skill for our students. It's also a skill that is often overlooked by parents and educators.

Click the link below to listen.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=122893913

The Magic Pen!

It's been hard to wait this long before writing about one of my favorite pieces of educational hardware. The Livescribe Pulse Pen, while only about two years old, is setting itself to be a game-changer for many students. I'm especially familiar with this device not only because of its potential, but because I own one and am a very frequent user.

The Pulse Pen must be handled in a demo to really understand but let me try to describe its usefulness. About the size of a normal pen (maybe a bit thicker - which tends to help one's grip), it records everything written onto internal pen memory. Every word, diagram, drawing, or list is kept. Text can be recalled by placing the pen in its docking base attached to any computer. Notes can then be archived, modified or shared. The second feature is what gives this pen its power...audio recording. With a tap of a label in the special notebooks (which are priced competitively with regular notebooks and available at Best Buy and Target for easy resupply), the Pulse begins recording all audio in the classroom. Think of the possibilities now....A teachers lecture is now linked to the notes a student is taking. That night, the student can tap the notebook wherever there is text and the exact phrase the teacher was saying at that moment is replayed through a small speaker on the pen. Notes can then be updated or modified. For slow writers or students who struggle to keep notes organized, this is a fabulous feature.

The Pulse Pen does so much more (language translation, math help, musical instruments) but check out the website fora demo.  www.livescribe.com  The pricing has changed recently but it's still a great deal. $149.99 or $199.99 depending on memory capacity and this comes with notebooks to get you started.

Again, I have the Pen and would love to give any members of the Summit community a demo if you're interested. Just email me...

NLVB

I've known about the NLVB (Natural Library of VIrtual Manipulatives) for years but was reminded of it's effectiveness after watching a teacher use it with her students in the computer lab yesterday. Years ago, math teachers were forced to dig out Base 10 blocks or geoboards to provide a visual representation of the math concept being taught. While physical manipulatives certainly still have value in the classroom, the NLVB is a quick, effective way to provide reenforcement in a presentation format that students enjoy.

Check it out -  http://nlvm.usu.edu/en/nav/vLibrary.html  It's free but they do sell kits which include lessons to use with the site.

On the homepage, NLVB is broken down by grade level, as well as by content. Within each section are dozens of virtual manipulatives that can be moved using the mouse. (Your computer may ask you to download Java, available free at http://www.java.com/en/ before allowing you to see the page).

Besides a valuable classroom and computer learning lab tool, this site could be an excellent homework helper for students confused about an assignment or concept. It's even fun to just play around with.

Check out and feel free to post a comment or question about the site!

First time keyboarding

We've used a number of different keyboarding programs at Summit and usually end up modifying our keyboarding curriculum every couple years to keep it fresh. However, there is one program that has always been in place for our youngest typists. It's called Dance Mat Typing and is available free, online, from the BBC. Yep, that's the British Broadcasting Company. They actually have a number of really cool online activities in the school section of their website. Our favorite is Dance Mat. It introduces keyboarding concepts at a gradual pace and keeps things exciting with animations, voices, dances and songs. It doesn't track which level a student has progressed to so that needs to be recorded separately.

If you have a new typist, try it out. Again it's free and available at...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/typing

In the future, I will cover some of the keyboarding programs we use for older students.

The future of dictation...?

Some of you may be familiar with Nuance's Naturally Speaking  Dragon Products. (http://www.nuance.com/naturallyspeaking/) If you're not, here is a quick summary. Dragon is software that allows a user to speak (into a microphone) and have their speech transcribed into text. While it rarely fully eliminates the need for keyboard/mouse use, it does a pretty good job. The program's accuracy varies but improves when it's trained to an individuals speaking tendencies. Training can be done in an hour or so and consists of reading sentences displayed on the screen. We have had certain students really benefit from this technology while others have been frustrated by it. Like all emerging technologies, voice recognition is improving exponentially each year. Case and point, the IPhone/ITouch app just released by Nuance. (http://lifehacker.com/5422606/dragon-dictation-does-voice+to+text-transcription-on-your-iphone?skyline=true&s=x) It is currently available, for free, from the ITunes app store. I haven't tried this app but from what I hear, it does a pretty good job of recognizing individual voices with little training. It allows voice dictation into emails/text messages or into any text file.
While currently a limited tool for students, I think this design has a strong future as a tech tool for students who have difficulty typing and spelling. What do see this technology becoming in two to three years?

Netbooks! Netbooks! Netbooks!

Netbooks are all the rage on the tech world right now. Small , relatively inexpensive (compared with full size notebooks/laptop computers) and designed for students. I plan to write a full post on Netbooks and their pluses and minuses in the future but I saw this review of some new models and thought it might be helpful to those in student shopping mode for the holidays.

http://cnettv.cnet.com/before-you-buy-laptops-netbooks/9742-1_53-50078913.html

Update: (12/11/2009) CNET posted a video list of their top 5 netbooks of 2009. Its available here...

http://cnettv.cnet.com/9745-1_53-186.html?tag=TOCmoreStories.0

Summit Sites on Delicious

I wanted to remind the Summit Community that I maintain a growing list of educational website links on a Delicious page. (Delicious is a site that allows someone to store important or interesting web links they've found.) You can view the whole list my clicking My Delicious Bookmarks on the right side of this page. Underneath that is a list of the most recent additions. All of the links a sortable by the tags listed on the right side of the Delicious page. Please feel free to browse at your leisure. Some of the sites are free others are not. Some or designed for older students, others are more primary.