ETnews

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ET News is sent from the Office of Educational Technology at the New Hampshire Department of Education. Please note that, while ET News is forwarding information about technology related products and services, we have not conducted a formal evaluation of such products/services. We encourage you to let us know if you find a particular item of high quality and value to your school. You can find previous issues of ETNews on our web site at www.nheon.org/oet/etnews.

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NH Online Professional Development Calendar
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Announcing the Online PD Calendar!!!

Our office is delighted to announce the launch of this new online resource for New Hampshire educators. The NH Online Professional Development Calendar is part of a NHDOE initiative to enhance the way educators all across the state obtain information about workshops, conferences, courses, and ongoing study. The site is made available at no cost to NH educators. Access is a simple sign up process. Please visit http://nheon.org/prof_dev/ and click on the link to the PD Calendar.

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NCLB Title II D (Technology) Round 2 Allocation Funds
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Keep your eye on your email and on the web at http://www.nheon.org/oet/nclb/ next week for more info on the next round of federal technology allocation funding through NCLB!

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NASA Educator Resource Center in NH !!!
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Mal Cameron, Coordinator of the NASA Educator Resource Center (ERC) has an invite for NH educators: “Now that the new school year is underway, I would like to extend an invitation to all of you to drop by New Hampshire's own NASA Educator Resource Center (ERC), which is located here at the Christa McAuliffe Planetarium. Our "just drop in" hours are Wednesdays from 3pm to 6pm, and Saturdays from 9am to 1pm. Of course, you can always call ahead to schedule a visit for other days and hours. The ERC has FREE NASA materials that you can use in teaching your students -- POSTERS, LITHOGRAPHS, LESSON PLANS, AND VHS VIDEOS YOU CAN COPY. Materials are available for both formal and informal educators. This summer, we re-painted and re-organized the ERC. So come on over to see for yourself. For more information, check out the ERC web page: http://www.starhop.com/NASAERC.html I personally look forward to meeting you at the ERC!”

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US FIRST Lego League Program
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Elementary and Middle School Educators Take Note!

Herb Moyer is trying to spread the word about Lego League in NH and has provided the following info: Registration for educators interested in the US First Lego League Program is still open (till September 30). This is an elementary / middle school robotics “sports for the mind” competition. Herb’s company, Multimedia Systems, Inc., “co-sponsored a Dover Lego League team in the exciting competition held in Nashua last December. I am on the Technology Recruitment, Retention and Education subcommittee of the e-Coast Technology Roundtable division of the Greater Portsmouth Chamber of Commerce. Our subcommittee has been working for the past two years to help promote First Lego League and First Robotics teams in NH and the seacoast.” Visit http://www.usfirst.org/jrobtcs/flego.htm for details.

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Cool Math Content for the Classroom
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Thanks to Tom Warner in Monadnock for sending us these great resources:

A teacher workspace on the Intel education site . . . “Seeing Reason is a classroom workspace for investigating cause and effect relationships in complex systems. At the heart of Seeing Reason is an interactive mapping tool that helps students map relationships and construct models of their understanding.” Students can work in pairs and submit their schematic to the teachers’ workgroup (look for Teacher Workspace link on the site). Students create factors of an event and then decide if the factors affect the event positively or negatively (or neutrally). http://www97.intel.com/scripts-seeingreason/index.asp

It’s a Wild Ride . . . investigating the history and construction of Roller Coasters: at http://www.intel.com/education/projects/wildride/index.htm

..or go right to designing (adapting) a coaster by controlling hill size, friction, gravity, etc... at http://www.funderstanding.com/k12/coaster/ . This is a simulator “designed for kids who want to design their own thrilling coaster and educators who want to use a cool activity to simulate the application of physics by using an exciting interactive tool and access to a wonderful reference source.”

...or design or adapt robots at http://www.sodaplay.com ! (Java must be enabled on your browser to use the above sites)

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Looking for Best Uses of Technology in Teacher Prep
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The online journal, Contemporary Issues in Technology and Teacher Education (CITE Journal), is soliciting nominations of best uses of technology in teacher preparation. The editors of the CITE Journal would like to recognize innovative uses of technology by teacher educators, as well as by preservice and novice teachers. We are looking primarily for exemplary uses that enhance student learning of content, rather than those that facilitate administrative tasks in the classroom. Award categories are as follows:

Introductory Technology Course
An award will be presented for an exemplary, innovative practice related to teaching content with technology in an introductory technology course in a teacher education program.
Teacher Education Methods Course
An award will be presented for an exemplary, innovative use of technology to teach content in a teaching methods course.
Use of Technology in a Field Experience
An award will be presented for an exemplary, innovative use of technology to teach content by a preservice teacher in a field experience associated with a teacher preparation program.
Use of Technology in the Induction Years
An award will be presented for an exemplary, innovative use of technology to teach content by a novice teacher during the induction years (first or second year in the classroom).

Nominations should be no longer than three pages, single-spaced and should: (1) Describe the specific activity in which the technology was used or the ongoing practice incorporating technology. (2) Provide a link to a web site with supporting evidence. Supporting evidence posted on the web site should include examples of student work (i.e., either the preservice teacher or K-12 students) relating to this exemplary use, including photographs and screenshots, links to other relevant websites, electronic slideshows, syllabi, video and audio files, or electronic discussion transcripts. Winning nominations will be announced in fall 2003. Winners will receive an award plaque and will each be featured in an article in CITE Journal. Nominations should be submitted by September 10, 2003. Send nominations in electronic form only (e-mail with an attachment) to: Lynn Bell, CITE Journal Managing Editor LynnBell@virginia.edu Receipt of nominations will be acknowledged by return e-mail.

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DriveShield^®======================================

What is DriveShield?

Fred Richter at Centurion provides the details: “DriveShield is the software based drive and data protection solution, for Macintosh and Windows, from Centurion Technologies, Inc. It allows anyone who manages computers to reset a system back to its original configuration just by rebooting. No reimage! Allows full use of the entire operating system. Reduced computer maintenance. Consistent configuration from day to day. Network Control License Manager NCLM [allows you to control all your units from a designated computer or server] For a list of happy customers in your area or a free trial please contact: Fred A. Richter, Sales Representative, Phone 800-224-7977 x109, Fax 636-349-5431, fred@centuriontech.com or visit www.centuriontech.com and www.driveshield.com and http://www.centuriontech.com/DS_features.htm “

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Open Source Software
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Information on Open Source Software
If you're curious about the buzz around open source software or have questions about the practicality of open source in the K-12 environment, a new site from the Northwest Educational Technology Consortium at NWREL may have some of the answers you are seeking. Visit www.netc.org/openoptions/ for details. Source: Northwest Educational Technology Consortium

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Designing for Technology Integration
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NEIRTEC announces the next session of *** Designing for Technology Integration *** - an innovative seven-week course combining online learning with a two-day face-to-face institute. The course starts Oct 8 and ends Nov 25. A two-day face-to-face Institute (part of the course) will take place on October 21-22 (Tues-Wed) at the ACES Center in Hamden, CT (just north of New Haven). They will give priority to applications received by Sept 17. This is the first of two sessions of the NEIRTEC DTI course that have been scheduled for the 2003-2004 school year. For more information on the DTI course and to register, visit http://neirtec.terc.edu and click on Enroll. Enrollment is open to individuals from the NEIRTEC region (that includes New Hampshire, of course!)

A little about the course:

“In this age of NCLB and accountability measures, school leaders are looking for strategies and resources that will have a positive impact on teaching and learning of all students. The DTI course will give you the opportunity to learn how good practices for curriculum and for professional development can be supported by technology. You will learn how technology can be used as a teaching and learning tool that supports student and teacher inquiry, problem solving, and higher order thinking skills and extends creative thinking processes. You will learn how technology can help you meet the needs of your full range of students. This course will guide you through the design of a unit of practice that can be used in your school or district. Creating this unit (a professional development workshop or a curriculum unit) will strengthen your understanding of how to design, use, and promote effective models of technology integration in your school or district.”

TO READ AN EXAMPLE of how DTI has helped shape the work two educators, copy the full URL (2 lines) into your web browser: http://knowledgeloom.org/practice_story.jsp?t=1&bpid=1169&storyid=1239&aspe

ct=2&location=3&parentid=1163&bpinterid=1163&spotlightid=1163&testflag=yes

To view the unit that these teachers created as part of DTI, click on the link in the final paragraph of this case study.

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Regards,
Cathy Higgins
for the staff at the NHDOE Office of Educational Technology

*** Visit us on the NHEON.ORG web site at http://nheon.org