Welcome to the first edition of the monthly CTAP Region 5 blog for Santa Clara County educators. Each month I will highlight upcoming workshops and events, news that may shape your technology planning, tools for you and your staff, and interesting articles or websites. Subscribe to this blog via the RSS feed (lower right) if you use tools like Bloglines or Reader to track your favorite blogs. Or look for an email from me each month. Topics, suggestions, and questions are welcome! Note: Workshops start soon so please advise your teachers, librarians, and administrators of these opportunities. Upcoming workshops listed at right.
2nd Annual CyberCitizenship Summit
October 3, 8:30 am-4:00 pm, Yahoo HQ
CTAP 5 teams up with Yahoo again this year to offer a second cybercitizenship summit. This year's focus will be cyberbullying - certainly a topic that is taking more than its fair share of school administrators' attention. Gather with your colleagues from around the Bay Area to explore the issues, trends, and resources. Keynote speaker Chris Lehmann joins a panel of experts to bring you an engaging day of conversation. Click the image at right for a flyer. Slots are going fast. First come, first served. Click here to register.
Innovative Learning ConferenceSan Jose Convention Center
October 14-16
Computer Using Educators (CUE) and the Florida Education Technology Conference (FETC) team up to offer an interactive 3-day conference and exposition for the K-12 community here in San Jose at the convention center. Devoted to advancing student achievement through innovative education strategies, ILC will offer “hands-on” workshops, concurrent sessions, meetings and exhibitions. Click here to register.
'Day of Discovery' with Discovery Education
November 15, 9 am-3 pm, Santa Clara COE
Discovery Streaming provides digital on-demand video in the form of full-length videos and short segments to support all aspects of the K-12 curriculum. Additionally, the service includes a library of over 20,000 images as well as teacher support and lesson plans. Join your colleagues for this 'Day of Discovery' and tune in to all the online resources that Discovery Education offers. The day will include a keynote speaker and break-out sessions with hands-on experiences for you. Click here to register. If your district already has a Discovery contract or if you want to learn more about the resource, this full-day introduction provides a great opportunity to explore and discover.
A Good Read
Edutopia Aug-Sep 2008: Disruptive Technology for the Classroom
Authors Clayton Christensen and Michael Horn write: "That schools have gotten so little back from their [technology] investment comes as no surprise. Schools have done what virtually every organization does when implementing an innovation. An organization's natural instinct is to cram the innovation into its existing operating model to sustain what it already does. This is perfectly predictable, perfectly logical -- and perfectly wrong." Read more....
TechToolkit: Animoto
http://www.animoto.com
If you haven't discovered Animoto.com, you're in for a treat. Whether you're capturing the spirit of a staff development day or introducing the Civil War unit, you'll find Animoto a great addition to your toolkit. Upload images and then upload your music (or choose music available at the site). Animoto takes it from there. This Web 2.0 application analyzes your images in relation to the music and creates a professional looking video. Choose from either a 30-second short Animoto or full length. Fabulous results. Here's a quick example.
System Requirements: Current browser, Java enabled, and Flash 8 Player
Cost: Free to educators. For everyone else, 30-second videos are free. Full length are $3 each or $30 a year unlimited.
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