Thank goodness for Spring Break!

Well, I can say I’m really glad for a break! I’ve had the netbooks for two weeks now, and I’ve used them every day. The kids are very used to them, and they are holding up well! Here’s a run-down:

Day 1: Introducing the computers to the kids and vice versa. I assigned each netbook a number and partnered up students so there were two students to one netbook. In this way, I hoped for some accountability from class to class, and I hoped that the students might be more inclined to take some ownership of their machine. We went through all the basics, from turning them on, to putting them back correctly in the cart and plugging them in. The netbooks are pretty similar to any other pc, and so there was not allot of teaching to do. I encouraged them to “play” – open OpenOffice and create a document to get a feel for it (they are all MS Word users!), take a picture with the webcam, save something to their jump drives, etc….In essence, take ‘em out for a test drive. They liked what they saw!

Week 1: We began using the netbooks with a project on Europe. Pretty basic – kids needed to create a travel brochure on one European country using CultureGrams, CIA World Factbook, and then 3 other Internet sources they were allowed to Google (or use Nettrekker for those less adventurous!). What I saw was what I hoped for…they jumped right in and used the computers as just a source for their material. There were no special “bells and whistles” that would wear off eventually, they just got to work. Of course, the most amazing part was seeing them actually discussing the content with their “Netbook buddies” and trying to understand currency exchange rates and different governments! Pretty cool stuff!

Unfortunately, as we’ve used the computers, we’ve discovered the stuff I forgot to include. The first thing I realized was that I forgot the video editing software. So, the tech guy came by, we got out all the computers and powered them up (the students did this), unlocked them (they have “Deep Freeze” on them) and we walked them through downloading the correct software. We then tested it, and we locked them back down.

After another few days, we realized that the tech guy hadn’t completed the installation of our Adobe Reader, so we couldn’t open .pdf’s. SO, back he came, we unlocked them again, and had another class take care of the install. Then we continued on with our work. We didn’t use them today and won’t tomorrow (it’s movie day in my room!), but will hit the ground running when we get back from break on the 5th.

More to come…

Finally!!

Well, it’s taken a bit longer than I thought, but I finally have the netbooks in my posession! I was really wanting to give them out to the kids to use the very next day (I got them two days ago), but then I thought I’d rather have a good “protocal” in place for who gets what computer, who will share with whom, etc. BEFORE I place them in the kids’ hands!
In working with my social studies partner, we decided that in our regular ed. classes, we would partner kids based on ability. In this way, I’ll be able to differentiate for the partners instead of having one pull the other along!
The first lesson we’ll do with the netbooks will focus on rules of use, as well as learning about their different features. I am thinking I’ll put together a short video that ‘lives’ on my school blog that will go over rules, etc. I’ll direct the students to that video, have them watch it, and then using the webcam and the video editing software we’ve loaded, comment on the process and create their own video which teaches the next class about the procedures.
I’ll need to make a rubric for this, and think about my directions! Thank goodness for weekends!

More to come…

Prezi lessons

Well, still waiting for my netbooks…I’m going to plan on the end of the month and then start getting antsy! In the mean time, I decided to learn a bit about Prezi, and so I handed my netbook to two of my techie students and told them to figure it out, and then teach the rest of us how to use it. They spent a good bit of time (3 class periods – with permission of course!) playing and creating. At the end of the day, one of them told me he had Camtasia at home, and he could go ahead and create a good tutorial! (Of course, I didn’t remind him that Prezi already has those!). It will be better with a 7th grader telling other 7th graders how it all works!

They really liked the application, and talked to me about the different uses they could see with it. At one point, they discovered that they could log into the same account on 2 different computers and work on the same Prezi simultaneously. That was pretty cool! The guys had two concerns:

1. How could we use the Education/Student edition if our kids do not have a school email address?

2. What do we lose by getting public free accounts instead of the education accounts?

I told them to look into that, and let me know!

Here’s a sample of their work…

Next, on to Moodle!

Netbooks are here…

It’s been an amazing week as far as my Netbook proposal is concerned. While I was doubtful that the district would sign off on this project, they were willing to go forward with it – even though the computers were not on our district “buy” list! They are also allowing me much leeway in what programs I want to use, which is very exciting.

I haven’t gotten the computers yet, they are still in “set-up,” and since our tech guy is only half-time, it might be a few weeks yet until my kids get to use them (which is fine – no complaint!).

Here’s a run-down of this week…it feels like it’s been very long!

Last weekend – After getting agreement to purchase from the district, our executive secretary agreed to travel to 7 different stores (specific retail giant -  only ones who have this particular netbook) during rush hour on Friday afternoon to purchase the 25 computers! I made the phone calls to check on availability and printed driving directions and hoped she would still speak to me on the following Monday!

On Saturday, I had to track down a few more and get more driving directions (apparently, some of the employees at this particular chain have difficulty with their math skills), but by lunchtime, all of the netbooks had been purchased…some $6000 later! (To answer the question of why we had to get them this way – this particular chain does not allow phone payments, will not hold merchandise, did not have this netbook available online, and won’t work with schools at all…although they were appropriately sympathetic! I tried to do all the schlepping around to get them, but the district would not allow me to sign on the school credit card – can’t really blame them!).

On Monday, our tech guy and I sat down and figured out what we were putting on these little guys. I had already purchased my own (that’s what started this whole thing) and had already removed and installed what I wanted. Included on the list:

To Add:

• Audacity – so we could complete our podcasts
• Open Office
• Google Earth
• VideoPad Video Editor
• AVG Free Anti-Virus

To Remove:

• All games (a considerable number!)
• MS Office trial
• Norton Anti-V – trial
• and a few other unnecessary items

To Add (district policy)

• All that District Office magic that makes them kid-safe – although that will be minimal on these!

On Wednesday, I told my kids. They were pretty excited! I also let some of my more tech savvy students use my personal netbook, and learn the video program (which I hadn’t used before). They’re experts now, and so I’ll let them teach that one!

Also on Wednesday, my social studies team-mate reminded me that we really need to plan how we will use these…so, we will take a planning day next week to figure all of that out! Ahhhh – details, details!

I have several Web2.0 projects that I’ve been using with my honors kids this year, so we are all pretty used to using computers to learn. I think it will be pretty easy to bring the rest on board quickly! More next week…

Welcome to NetbookClassroom!

I’ve been teaching middle school since 1993 and am passionate about utilizing technology to engage my kids. I teach some honors classes, and some regular ed in the same subject ,World Geography and Civics. I have learners spanning the achievement scale from dreadfully low fluency to the “30-year-old -stuck-in-a-12-year-old-body” kids. This year, I wrote a proposal to my principal asking for a class set of Netbooks. My rationale was that our textbooks were old (from a “what’s happening in the world” perspective), our funding issues in our state are such that our new textbooks won’t be purchased until at least 2012, and I could pilot a program where I can show that we no longer need textbooks in the classroom to teach students what they need to know (at least in World Geography!). While we have many computers  at our school, they are frequently unavailable due to testing requirements in the state, and so I had difficulty having any consistency with them. Having worked in a one-to-one setting with Macbooks that were student owned, I knew this Netbook project could work. I write this blog to document my journey with my students, and invite feedback from my education peers!

Please feel free to follow along! (You can follow me on Twitter at asg44)