Technology Boot Camp General Information:
All camp activities will be held in the Emerson Court Technology Resource Center and the adjoining Professional Development Center. We will use desktop and laptop computers. The activities for each day are outlined below. Note that on Thursday there are three activities and only two available sessions—you will need to make a choice. Each participant will be supplied with a flash drive and a digital audio recorder that can be used after camp in your classroom.
Digital video cameras and digital still cameras are available for checkout from the Instructional Technology Department. If you have questions, contact John Kain at 2899, Noreen Strehlow at 3786 or Linda Cooper at 2879.
Monday (8:30 a.m. – 3:30 p.m.) How SMART is that board? The ins and outs of using the SMART Technologies and NEC tools including the projector and remote, SMART Notebook, SMART Recorder, and the Airliner tablet. What to bring: materials to create a lesson to be used in your classroom including text material, supplemental material, vocabulary, spelling lists, Internet URLs, etc. The goal is for you to walk away with a completed lesson.
Tuesday
(8:30 – 10:30 a.m.) MS Word. Your MS Word document doesn’t have to be boring. Go beyond the basic word-processing features of MS Word—insert pictures, create Word Art, add hyperlinks and use drawing tools. What to bring: nothing.
(10:30 – 11:30/12:30-1:30) MS PowerPoint. Integrate interactive PowerPoint slide shows into your lesson plans and other fun Power Point activities. Our focus will be using the PowerPoint tools including sound, animation and photo tools. What to bring: digital photographs on an SD card or flash drive.
(1:30 – 3:30 p.m.) MS Excel. It’s Party Time! Learn Skittle spreadsheet basics and find out how to use Excel for a fun project your students will love. What to bring: the Skittle’s will be provided. No other supplies are needed.
Wednesday
(8:30 – 11:30 a.m. or 12:30 to 3:30 p.m.) How to create your own classroom blog. Learn to use the Google Blogger tool to create your classroom blog/web site. Integrate video presentations using Photo Story and photo montages created with PowerPoint. The goal of this activity is for you to create and post to your blog. What to bring: information, digital photographs, and ideas relating to your classroom. For an example go to these URLs:
(8:30 – 11:30 a.m. or 12:30 to 3:30 p.m.) Need to fix photos? Gimp ‘em! Learn to use this Photoshop-like free program to crop, resize, clean up, manipulate and layer digital photos. What to Bring: digital photos on a memory card or flash drive (including a good face shot of you).
Thursday
(8:30 – 11:30 a.m.) Video Editing. Use Windows Movie Maker to create a video with video clips, photos, music, narration, and Hollywood style special effects (it’ll be the low-budget end of Hollywood, but Hollywood nonetheless). What to bring: video clips, digital photos, a music track, and a narration script for creating a "practice video" will be provided -- you'll get hands-on experience editing a video, but your finished video probably won't have any value in your classroom. You may instead want to create a video that you could use in your classroom. Here are some examples of class videos: http://howardscience.blogspot.com/. If you want to make your own video, please give John Kain the following content no later than Tue., June 17 or June 24 depending on the dates you are attending.
- video clips on mini-DV tape (if you need to shoot video and don't have a mini-DV camcorder, your school's Media Specialist should have one, or you can check out a mini-DV camcorder from Instructional Technology)
- digital photos on a memory card or flash drive,
- music tracks on a CD or as mp3 files on a flash drive,
- a narration script (narration that you will record to complement the video)
(12:30 to 3:30 p.m.) Podcasting. Use the audio-editing software Audacity to mix music, narration, and other types of audio clips to create podcasts. Then upload your finished podcast to the Web or an MP3 player. What to bring: the content for teachers who simply want to make a practice podcast will be provided. However, if you want to make a podcast that you will use in your class, bring the following to the training:
- the main audio content in written form. This might be a script, a reading selection from a book, an explanation of how to reduce a fraction to its lowest terms, etc. It must be written out word for word.
- an interview recorded on a digital audio recorder. If you need to borrow a digital audio recorder, see John Kain.
- music tracks on a CD or as mp3 files on a flash drive.
Here is a sample of a class podcast: http://msrentzsclass.blogspot.com/ (scroll down to the “We Interview Scientists!” podcast.)
(8:30 – 11:30 a.m. or 12:30 to 3:30 p.m.) Intro to Second Life. Learn how you can use the virtual world of Second Life as an alternative meeting place or a classroom presentation tool. What to bring: It would be helpful if you create a free account and avatar before coming to this presentation, but not necessary. Go to this URL: http://secondlife.com/whatis/ (What is Second Life?) Register for a free Second Life account. Write down your avatar name which is your login and write down your password. You will receive an e-mail telling you that you will need to activate the account. If you want to activate your account you will need to download the Second Life software on your home computer or if you are using a school computer, the software needs to be downloaded by someone from our staff (call Noreen at 3786 for help). You may activate your account and begin to explore before class but stick to Orientation Island or my sandbox. Like real life, there are areas into which we will not be going and Noreen would prefer to caution you during the workshop and make sure we have a safe, educational environment.
Feel free to contact Noreen if you wish to explore this prior to boot camp just to have a head start into this virtual world.
