Change of Venue

I have moved my posts off the ECSD server and am now posting at http://casualteacher.org

The idea for the Casual Teacher site name was given to me by one of my co-workers and it represents two things. First, it relates to my relaxed and uncomplicated way of living. Second, it uses the currently popular tag for the "Casual Games" to draw a link towards digital games as learning tools. I am very excited to have my own site and I hope it draws me into more current and relevant classroom practices

I am now posting on my own site so that my message doesn't get confused with the districts message. I love the ECSD community and I am sure I won't say anything controversial but I want to move my thoughts away from their property so that there is no confusion about what I say and what they stand for. Trust me ECSD is a great place to work and this is really more about protecting them than me.

Gmail sub accounts and Animoto

One of the draw backs to Animoto has been that it is hard to get enough registrations for your students. Aninmoto has an educators side http://animoto.com/education where you can apply for a discount code that gives you free videos that aren't limited to 30 seconds. Once you have the code you can use your Gmail account to sign up multiple Animoto accounts.

Because you can hack/edit your gmail account you can add sub-emails to it. Yeah, I'm not sure if that is the best way to describe it since you're not really hacking anything. Here is what you do...

1. Get your Animoto Educator's code by giving them your info at http://animoto.com/education.

2. Wait to get the code. It may take a few days (5 days max)

3. a. Once you have the code use it to sign up with your existing gmail account like this..

Because you can add sub-emails by placing a + after your existing login name you are able to create multiple logins.

For example my gmail login is mraball (my gmail is mraball at gmail.com). I can use the gmail addresses mraball+1 at gmail.com, mraball+2 at gmail.com and so on. All of these will send directly to my gmail inbox and will look like a normal email to me but they will generate a different logins in Animoto that I can give to my students. The finished movies will also be emailed directly to me when they are done so that I have more control over when and who watches them.

I hope that makes sense. I think that Animoto is a great tool and the only thing that has stopped classroom use is the long registration process which is now no more.

Hope that helps.

September 24th District PD

Thank you to all of the teachers and principals who attended my sessions yesterday. It was great to be able to share with you and I really appreciated a chance to learn from you and hear your opinions. Below I have included the resources I used for both presentations.

Video Games in Education
Keynote: http://balla.ecsd.net/Files/GamesthatEducate.key
PDF Version (not as pretty): http://balla.ecsd.net/Files/GamesthatEducate.pdf

Video Cameras in the Classroom
http://balla.ecsd.net/Files/Sept24VideoSession.notebook

eBeam Electronic Whiteboard review

Most of our time today was spent reviewing the eBeam interactive whiteboard tool. There are a few principals in our district who would like to use this instead of the SMARTboards which dominate the district.

The main reasons for using the eBeam is they are extremely portable and can be installed easily on any flat surface without cutting into the walls or removing white boards. There may be some schools that have asbestos issues which would make easy install important.

eBeam

Pros-

* Price
* Runs SMART Notebook and Web-tools well
* Retro-fittable
* Portability
* Scalability (cost not determined by the size of the board)

Cons-

* Smaller selection of gallery tools
* Batteries in pens

* (CL2032's @ $1 each)
* Increased waste

* Pen lose ($50.00 US) cripples the use of the software.
* Runs SMART notebook (Licensing issues?)

The feel of the eBeam was a little off. I am a big SMART user and this system didn't measure up.

Links:
http://www.prometheanworld.com/
http://smarttech.com/
http://www.e-beam.com/
http://www.mimio.com/ <http://smarttech.com/>