http://about.ning.com/pearsonsponsorship/

Image: by Sklathill on Flickr

Most of the magic in maintaining a focus on instruction and learning in a 1 to 1 learning environment is classroom management. As much time as you spend in the beginning of the year developing discipline, procedures and routines in the physical classroom, should also be spent in your virtual classroom. Or better yet, draw comparisons between the two as you work with your students. Also, be be prepared to react swiftly to any student that moves slightly out of the boundaries developed by you and your students.

If a student crosses the boundary or honestly has a technical issue, be sure to have an alternative choice available for that student to accomplish their work. Once you make a practice of demonstrating the swift consequences for positive and negative behavior, students will be more likely to focus on their learning. This also stops the domino effect. I've seen it happen whereby one student “hoses” their computer by purposefully deleting file system folders and has an immediate excuse for not getting their work done. Soon after, more students replicate this behavior. If that student had  had an immediate next step that didn't let him/her get away with excuses, none of the other students would follow suit. It's too much work. So be sure students are responsible for always saving everything to the “cloud.” You may want an alternative netbook for the purpose of checking out to students have challenges. Also have a non-technical alternative available.

I've noticed that classrooms that have taken the same approach to the virtual classroom as they do to the physical classroom have minimal downtime due to technical challenges and zero to few netbook damages.

What have you found works best for you and your students?

ActivInspire 1.4 upgrade is now available through the ActivInspire dashboard or the help menu for all existing users!

What's New in ActivInspire V1.4?
For a more comprehensive overview of what's new in ActivInspire V1.4, please visit the special ActivInspire pages. There's also an ActivInspire Quick Start Guide PDF which you can download and print off.

Page Turn Effects
You asked for it, so Promethean delivered it! You can now transition between pages using animation, adding extra focus to your lessons and the added 'wow' factor for your class.

Multipage Select
Multiple pages can now be selected in the Page Browser for easy manipulation of content and the reordering of pages.

Exporting Self Paced Results to Excel ®
It's now even easier to export your Self Paced results into Microsoft Excel for instant assessment.

Pen Modify Tool
The Pen Modifiers tool allows users to create and underline text without having to switch between the write and underline functions

Are You New to ActivInspire?
If you're new to ActivInspire then why not try out the free version of the software, ActivInspire Personal Edition? You can also find out more about how to make the most of your software by taking a Promethean ActivLearning online course.

Existing users of ActivInspire and Version 3 can find out more about upgrading from the ActivInspire section.

ActivInspire V1.4 Tutorials
To coincide with the launch of ActivInspire V1.4, the ActivLearning team provide online tutorials that now include the new features of V1.4, demonstrating Multipage Select, Pen Modify tools and Page Turn Effects. These can be found in the free Introduction to ActivInspire online course.

A new V1.4 tutorial has also been added to the free LRS (Learner Response Systems) course demonstrating Exporting Results in Self-Paced Learning.

(Click image for larger view)

http://doit.aurorak12.org/tech-classes

• Center for Digital Storytelling
• Digital Storytelling Cookbook (.pdf)
• Downtown Aurora Visual Arts (DAVA)

Disclosure: The author is my delightful daughter.

By the way, the story above was created on a netbook powered by ubuntu. We scanned the images from a scanner using Xsane. The images were cropped and scaled using GIMP (image editor) . Her voice was recorded and edited using Audacity (audio editor) . Then we pulled everything into Kdenlive (video editor) to create the video file. If you don't have Kdenlive installed on your netbook, but would like it, follow the tutorial below that was captured using Screen Toaster. Be warned: The netbooks don't have the processing power needed to fully edit video. For example when I've imported video to cut, splice and render, the preview works in slow motion. This makes it nearly impossible to make fine cuts. So... I would only use Kdenlive on the netbooks to pull in audio and images that are already ordered numerically. This way you can line up the audio and stretch the images to match. Render to .avi or .mp4 (to upload to youtube) and you're done.

Recently I was researching Abraham Lincoln and discovered a new tool that helps me collect research material and save it in my own folder inside the World Book Online Encyclopedia. Now when I use the World Book for other research, I can save as many projects as I want.

During my Abraham Lincoln research, I collected and saved articles and pictures as well as the audio of the Gettysburg Address. Later, I added a video and a great map showing the division of the states during the Civil War. Then, because there is a Timeline Creator, I was able to make a timeline of Abraham Lincoln’s life and his accomplishments. And because I visited Illinois, I was able to upload and use my very own pictures in the timeline. I learned a lot about Lincoln by using this feature in World Book.

And did you know, there are two other encyclopedias in World Book? At the bottom of any page of the World Book, you’ll see two pictures; click on one of them and you will go to another encyclopedia. One is called World Book Discover and the other is a Spanish-English encyclopedia.

When I went to the Discover encyclopedia, I found I could have the text read to me and it would translate my article in 31 different languages.

And for teachers, all the encyclopedias are aligned with the Colorado State Standards.

By using the World Book Encyclopedia, I discovered and learned more about Abraham Lincoln and I will remember him because I learned about him in different ways. The multimedia content engages me more than a lecture or reading from a textbook. So, log into One Place and click on the World Book Encyclopedia and start learning:
discovery.aps.k12.co.us/web/guest/home

Aurora Public Schools Department of Instructional Technology is happy to announce our participation in this year's International Society for Technology in Education conference being held right here in our own backyard.  Denver, Colorado is the site for this year's conference and we hope that you will sign up to attend.   This is one of the top national conferences held in the United States and there are many opportunities to see first-hand how technology is successfully integrated into classrooms and learn about new ideas!

We will be sharing about APS Tech Camp that was held last 5th block and will be held this coming 5th block for AGATE teachers and students.  To learn more about the specifics and see our listing in the ISTE conference catalog, click here.