Posts Tagged ‘MACE’

Eric Langhorst was the keynote speaker at MACE and actively contributes to his blog, Speaking of History.   Today he gave a shout out to our buddy Flip! I just love it when my blog entries intertwine.   Langhorst is constantly coming up with new ways to make his lessons interesting for his students while selecting tools that are affordable for the district.

Check out his Flip project here.

Are you, or anyone you know, using video in your professional development?  Tell us about it!

Hello all!

I am at the third, and final, day of the MACE conference. I saw several great sessions this week and wanted to share some additional information with you.  If you are interested in exploring any of the handouts or presentations from the sessions this week, they are available here.

Thanks for tagging along with me, be sure to check in soon because Aaron and I will be at SIDLIT next week!

Hello again! I am at Day 2 of the MACE conference in Bonner Springs, Kansas. If you haven’t had a chance to check out my post from Day 1, you can do it here.

Eric Langhorst was the keynote speaker today at MACE and is currently Missouri’s Teacher of the Year. I can see why! Langhorst is a history teacher at South Valley Jr. High in Liberty. He engages his students by using technology and he won’t except any excuses not to. He records most of his lectures with a three-year old, $50.00 mp3 player and uploads it using free software on his laptop. The podcasts are available for students to review at their leisure. Langhorst believes that students should create and retain the content instead of consuming and regurgitating it. His students have written reports, produced videos, and recorded audio tour guides available at local Missouri museums in conjunction with a grant funded by AT&T.

Langhorst commonly hears excuses as to why his system of teaching doesn’t work for others. Here are a few:

• It is too expensive
• Every student needs a laptop, and we don’t have that
• It requires too much time
• I don’t know enough about technology
• No room in the curriculum
• My old way is just as effective

Do you often hear these statements or even find yourself using them? Langhorst has proven these excuses are merely that….Excuses. By using an inexpensive, easy-to-use mp3 player and free software he has improved the interest and comprehension of every single student in his classroom. He has included parents, teachers, authors, and the community in his lessons and by doing so, has given his students a sense of accomplishment, ownership, and pride in their work. Check out this article in Education World about his effective tools inside and out of the classroom.

So, how can we be more like Mr. Langhorst?

• Use the resources we already have
• Educate yourself
• Search for free options, they are out there!
• Use technology as your curriculum, not in addition to
• Don’t hoard your successes — share with others and they will share with you
• Get inspired

To learn more about Mr. Langhorst and his great ideas, check out his blog:

www.speakingofhistory.blogspot.com

Here are his slides from today’s presentation:

| View | Upload your own

Okay, not really but I did have the opportunity to attend the Mid-America Association for Computers in Science (MACE) conference in Bonner Springs, Kansas. I’ve picked up a few tricks today that I want to share with you.

Morning Session: Google 24/7-Searching and Beyond
Jerry Fort - Cherry Creek High School
Greenwood Village, CO

Fort opened the presentation by handing us a list of 20 questions and dividing our room into two groups. One group could only use their noggins, each other’s noggins, or a dictionary to answer the questions. My group was allowed to answer the questions by searching in Google. Want to guess which group finished first?

Yup, it was my group. The times have changed, my friends. He then shared some very handy tips to improve the information yielded by a Google search and to ensure the information gathered is as credible as that 10 pound* dictionary they were lugging around.

*(I had to Google that)

Here are a few things that I didn’t know about Google:

1. Speaking of Asterisks (*)…they can save your sanity

When you can’t think of all the words to a song or a concept you can use an asterisk to fill in the space; it works like a wildcard. You can also use an asterisk to replace any missing information when performing a search in Google.

Example: An apple has * calories or “Its the * of the tiger…”

2. Determining Credibility

Before you send someone to a particular website, you can use Google to determine the site’s legitimacy. It is easy to assume that a website ending in .org or .edu will be a safe bet. Not these days. By typing “link:” and then the website’s name into a Google search bar you will find the creator of that website.

For example: http://www.martinlutherking.org — This sounds like a good website, right?

Wrong. A quick Google search will reveal that this website is created by a white supremacist. This will save you lot of time without sifting through the entire website and subjecting yourself to questionable content.

3. Google isn’t the only search engine available

Okay, so I already knew this but sometimes its hard to determine which ones fit your specific needs. Here’s a list of different engines and why they are worth your time:

ChaCha- you can type in a request and get answers from a real person
Ditto - find images on the web that might not show up in a Google search
Ixquick - search for international telephone numbers across the pond
Cranky - this focuses on information that is, ahem, age-relevant for people who don’t want to deal with a lot of overhead
Ask for Kids - this is the highly filtered, kid-friendly version of the original Ask Jeeves
DMOZ- For you Firefox users out there, this is their search engine and it is directory based (Yay for categories!)

Mr. Fort has created a huge list of additional search engines that he updates on a regular basis. Click here to visit his page.

Thanks Mr. Fort!

I’ll be here for two more days so check back to see what else I’ve learned, I’m always happy to share!