MrKent.Net

After I attended the National Educational Computing Conference in San Antonio someone asked me what the next big thing in educational technology would be.  Of course, digital whiteboards, students response systems and course management systems like Moodle are still the big, however the new technology that will take schools by storm are mini-laptops also known as mini-notes. 

These little laptops are the size of a small book and are perfect for students.  Many companies are gearing these mini-laptops toward students.  They are durable, provide a “real PC” experience, are student friendly, and are full of educational features. Furthermore, they are very inexpensive compared to their big brother the laptop.  Most companies are selling their mini-laptops for less than $500, which means that they will get even cheaper as popularity and competition increase. 

This could mean that we are not far away from a realistic movement toward 1 laptop per child.  Schools like ours have been trying to get regular laptops into the hands of students for the last few years.  However, storage, maintenance and portability are issues that limited regular the use of the laptops by students.  Mini-laptops might just solve all those issues and make a paperless classroom a reality.

M&A is one example of a company that gears their mini-laptops towards students. There are many other companies that are getting into the mini-laptop business including HP, Asus, Fugitsu, Everex and 2go PC. 

Before buying a mini-laptop for every student in your board schools should try them out in a few classrooms where teachers are keen on integrating technology into their classrooms.  This way problems can be solve and a plan can be developed to properly integrate other mini-laptops into your school.

Thanks to Schooltube and Soundzabound for this great interview.

6 Steps to Success in Teaching with Technology

I received an interesting e-mail from a colleague the other day congratulating me on 6 Steps to Success in Teaching with Technology.  She has been supply teaching in a small school in Ontario and after seeing the subject of my book, she mentioned that the school she was at did indeed have a digital whiteboard, but no one used it, and it was sitting in the schools bathroom collecting dust!

This is a prime example of what has happened in Britain and will most likely happen in North America, if we do not properly prepare our educators and our schools to handle these revolutionary teaching tools. 

6 Steps to Success is just a starting point to help teachers and schools to figure out how to properly integrate technology into our long term education plan.  If we want to succeed and use these tools to take our students to a whole new level in education, we must work together and decide how we are going to teach with technology effectively.

6  Steps to Success in Teaching with Technology is now available on Amazon.com, Amazon.ca, Barnes&Noble.com, Target.com and many other online bookstores.

The National Educational Computing Conference is only a month away.  This conference taking place in San Antonio from June 29-July 2 will have over 18 000 educators from across the continent.  The conference will also have thousands of exhibits and hundreds of seminars and interactive workshops.  If your school or board are serious about making teaching with technology work this is the conference for you.

I came across this very interesting article today from the Times.  I have seen this problem cropping up in our schools as well.  The ministry, schools boards and teacher colleges need to put more money and time into training teachers to use technology otherwise these tools will become expensive paper weights.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/education/article3142536.ece

In last weeks National Post there is a good warning to teachers about emailing, messaging and social networking and their students.

http://www.nationalpost.com/story.html?id=379005

Educational software programs and websites are only beneficial if the students are challenged.  As a teacher I have noticed that when you give students time to explore a new site or program that they usually choose games or activities that are simple for them and require little thought.  As educators we need to take note of this and be specific about what is expected when students sit down to work on the computer.  Having students explore is ok for a few minutes but when you want them to really learn with technology they need to have a challenge along with the fun.

Hello my name is Sara and today I am your roving reporter today I am writing about the awesome day we had on February 26th 2008. In the morning we got settled in our seats and school began. We started off with singing Oh Canada and saying the lords prayer. Then Mr. Kent told us about the March madness chart I thougth that it was pretty cool. Then we got right into math we started of by watching a brainpop on exponents the answers to the quiz was C,A,B,C,B,B,A,C,A,C then we watched another brainpop movie on order of operations. Mr. Kent handed out some math packages they were easy for me once I did them a couple of times. DING DING!!!!!!! that was the bell and the best part of the day came it was snack and then recess I stayed in to help out Ms. Bidwell and that was fun.

Once the bell rang we all came inside and lined up for music we practiced songs and did some scales and arrpeggios and I thought it was very hard! Mr.Kent came to the door and that meant that it was time to go back to the classroom. We got back into our seats and read chapters 13, 14 and 15 from sign of the beaver I am actually starting to enjoy reading the book. After that Mr.Kent photocopied some sheets and we worked on them, they were about order of operations then Mr.Kent said that if you finish you get to go do work on the computers,we went to www.elab.com to finish our math sheets. Finally Mr.Kent said that we could have free time I went on to www.burkevale.comso I could chit chat with my friends, sadly the bell rang so we went back for lunch and then recess but I stayed in because I was doing phone duty. Mackenzie and Carolyn made a huge receipt while they were helping Ms.Bidwell it was VERY long!

When the bell rang we hurried in out of the cold weather and got settled in french class we did some activities with our gestures and people were goofing around so that made Mr.T very frustrated but I don’t blame him. We walked over across the hallway to our classroom we let the people who are going to the gym on Wednesday present their speeches while the rest of the class worked on some work sheets. We handed out the activotes but somebody dropped mine I was scared that it wouldn’t work but luckily it worked. We played a little game after that and the score was 4/4 so it was a tie for the class and Mr.Kent.

That was the amazing and fun-filled day on February 26th 2008. Well now I better go for dinner.

by Sara Thomson

     We started off the day singing  O Canada and saying the Lords Prayer.  Today Brook came back from the Dominican Republic and we read Eric D and Brady’s Blog.  Mr. Kent then picked a daily blogger, me, and we started taking up the Math from yesterday (pg 53 WB and pg 173 TB).  Then we started working with the Activboard.  We learned how to multiply 2 digit numbers and Mr. Kent talked a bit about the man who invented Math+.  Then we did a math problem on Math+ and used the Activote.  The answers were C,D,B and B.  Then, sadly, we got our homework.  It wasn’t that bad actually, it was just a worksheet.  The first side was easy and the second side was hard , but when you got used to it, it was fairly easy.  Finally it was snack, then recess.  Ashley was being really weird and was pretending to be a ground hog! 

After a refreshing recess, we sat at our desks and waited for class to start.  We finished our Math sheet and we started Free Writing.  In Free Writing we did a lesson on adverbs and read a story.  The story was full of error’s so Jillian fixed up the adverbs and Dylan M did the adjectives, Sara did the verbs.  Then we re-made a story.  You were supposed to make it sound funny, but I think mine sounded stupid. 

After some good work, we re-read the last page of chapter 6 in The Sign of the Beaver for Katie because she was away the day we read it.  Then we read chapter 7.  I read a little bit of chapter 8, then it was lunch, finally!  I was out of the school for lunch, so I don’t know much about what happened at recess and lunch.  What I do know is Payton was hugging people a lot!  When recess was over me and most of the class went for French while Payton, Brook and Brady went to work in the portable.  In French we talked a lot about God and the people that were always disrupting class. 

When French was over, Constable Kathy Anderson came into our class and talked to us about Drug Abuse Resistance Education (D.A.R.E).  Today we just learned the rules and her name.  After a cool talk about D.A.R.E, Mr. Taylor took us to gym and we played a weird game where we have to push our partners to the other side of the gym! Then we played dodge ball and finally it was time to go home.  I’m your Roving Reporter, Lydia, and I’m saying good bye!