Janet

So, after a long day of Valentine excitement with a passel of 8 year-olds, a meeting with the Trustees Committee on Education, and a quick catch-up with what I missed at the Lower School Faculty meeting, I landed on both feet in Handheld class! What a day! But, all was not lost; Norman arrived with a plate full of chocolate covered strawberries! Did we have food in the lab? No! Of course not!

Topic 1 focused on eBooks. What fun! I can easily read on the handheld screen, but had trouble getting just the right speed on the auto-scroll option. It was either too fast or too slow for my taste. I think my reading speed would increase if I forced myself to use a faster speed than is comfortable right now!

I have several plans for eBooks already. I can see their use in:

• downloading tourist info off the web for my Chaing Mai trip
• some of the current articles I want to read about Barack Obama
• things that I accidently run across that are not on the topic of my current search, but would like to read later.
• brief current events articles that I would like my class to discuss/debate and then journal on.
• things that would be best read while waiting in line at the post office
• Macworld magazine!

Zinio reader for Mac sounds interesting. It turns the pages for you.

Remember that when you download an ebook it will be a pdb. file

Something to try: Look for video.coogle.com and then type in “handheld”
Topic 2 was the video presentation of Handheld use in Upper and Middle school. This was the first actual visual that I had seen with older students using Handhelds. We were all “keen eared” because we all chuckled when a “learned” member of the board referred to the “Palm Pilots” that they were funding for the school district! Vocabualry is really important when one is dealing with a relatively new form of technology. A lot of time is wasted trying to talk about problems, programs, or experiences when we don’t call things by the correct name and the “techi” can’t understand what we are trying to say. I’m guilty!

We actually spent some time reading an eBook that Rolly had prepared on a card just for class. I have several things on that card yet to read!

I also learned about a program called Missing Sync that might help me download my address book from the desktop to the handheld.

Tired and happy with a new load of learning, we retired!

AOL@SCHOOL

Type in your entry word. You will get several choices. Choose the one that is best for the information you need.

CyberSleuth Kids

Click on the first letter of your animal’s name. Find your animal’s name in the list and click on it. When you get to the site, look for a “contents” list near the bottom.

dmoz Kids and Teens

Click on the name of your animals. Choose the site that shows your animal’s name.

Yahooligans!

Click on “Animals” or type in your entry words. Read the site choices carefully before you click on the one that is best for you.

Awesome Library

Look under Sub Topics. Click on the first letter of your entry word. Then,look through the list to find your animal.

Animal Search

Type in your entry word or use the list given and click on your animal.

i thak i for KIDS

This is a safe site metasearch engine just for kids. Type in your animal’s name and follow the links to the information.

The Handheld program Giraffe has been instrumental in improving the penmanship of my Third Graders!

We teachers have noticed for quite a few years that the penmanship of our new classes has been neglected. Children are holding a regular pencil at a much earlier age nowadays, and once they establish a habit of gripping the pencil incorrectly, you can’t get them to correct that grip for love nor money. This issue interfers with their ability to form cursive letters correctly. Children who are making the letter o or a in a clockwise motion have a very difficult time forming an unbroken chain of letters when learning cursive.

I used the Giraffe program initially to give my children practice with grafitti 2 on the handhelds. In Giraffe, the object is to form the letter in the graffiti writing area before the letter drops down to the bottom of the screen. If the letter is written with the wrong strokes in graffiti, the falling letter does not “pop” and your score does not build. The only way to build your score is to form letters correctly and beat their progress towards the bottom of the screen. It does not take long before the child is well aware of the exact strokes that make a letter disappear. Correct practice equals high score!

An interesting, and productive use for Giraffe!

When we are teaching children to write, we always try to provide them with an “authentic” reason to write. Now, finally, the teachers are writing (blogging) for an “authentic” audience!

Can blogging really make me miss a meal?

What about a blog themed around my hobby?

Do blogs show up on Google searches? Maybe I have seen them and did not recognize them.

Why can’t I remember how to make bullets appear when I blog a list? Was that so hard?

Do I kinow all the stuff that was presented in the January blogging class?

Can I start a blog that is just for my students?

Topic 1: Issues with blogging. We spent quite a bit of time talking about various problems and issues with our attempts at blogging. One blogger has recieved feedback for someone out in the wider world, so we know we are “reaching out” and touching someone! We explored http//www.splashblog.com/handhelds. This site is free and allows you to easily post up to 500 photos.Topic 2: The big “WHY” question. Why handhelds? Those of us who use them no longer ask “why?” We are too busy scheming ways to get and keep a class set of handhelds and trying out new programs to find just the perfect one to help the students learn a certain skill. But just in cae you haven’t heard all the reasons, I’ll list some of them:

• Handhelds are fully functioning computers.
• The ease of use and the cost of ownership says it all.
• No viruses!
• Can be easily replaced.
• Simple backup procedure/
• Portability.
• Space efficient.
• Free software.

Topic 3 dealt with projection of handheld processes or programs. We have seen our tech. use the Elmo camera set on a tripod. That is doable, but a clear projection is not going to happen. A better choice would be using the multimedia projector connected to the handheld via a Margi connector (no longer available at Palm). This system made it easy for the students to see the steps that the handheld was being taken through in order to set up a preference or to secure the correct word list for a program like Words to Grow. This connector can also be used to link the handheld to an isolated monitor for use in presenting to a small group at a table, etc. The one drawback was that the students cannot see the stylus actually tap on the screen, but must wait for the change to appear on the projection screen in fron of them. Another possibility was the Mirror program which allows you to drag programs right off you desktop onto the presentor area which is an image of a Palm handheld.

Topic 4 focused on current as well as back issues of the publication education In Hand. We discussed several articles and browsed through the featured “New” items that one can invest in. Several ideas for future blogs were generated. We will use the example of the “Handheld Diary” for one blog in which we will record all the uses of a handheld throughout the course of one day.

Blogging could become addictive! I was reluctant to pause and eat a meal as I was working on this!

This is kind of confusing! But I did manage to write ONE sample blog and insert a photo. If I go to the html place on the upper right, I can control the position of the photo in the blog page. Like this:

• move the photo onto the page
• go to html
• find the “img”
• right after the”img” insert one space
• then type align “right”, “left” or “middle” with quotation marks as shown here
• click on update
• and the photo will move over and allow text to wrap around it.

If the text refuses to wrap, you may have to move the photo above it. Be brave, try it!

Today we also learned how to get lost while finding our own blog, to make sure that we write down our own code, to not mess with our passwords, and where to find the blogs of others in the class. To do that you must go to EdTech Advantage. 

Another important lesson: if you decide in the middle of writing a blog that you want to import a photo, be sure you click on one of the save options. Probably Save and Edit is the best. guess how I learned that!

I have an idea for Roving Reporter. I’ll take photos this week so I can be prepared!

This is cat, found on the web, looks exactly like my “Dream”. She was living in the Santo’s carport and Zeny was not too happy about that. Consequently, Dream and her furry family of 4 moved over to our house. The “family” found new homes, but Dream continues to occupy my bed!

This is a cat who traveled around the world via email while wearing a swimming costume.