922-Sessions 11---But wait there's more!

Welcome to the 'beginning' of the 'end', but not the 'end' of what has 'begun'!

This semester I've tried to guide you through what some people consider very complicated topics:

• Navigating through Open Source content, 
• Digital books, 
• Mobile devices... 

Through my "Internet travels and wanderings" while researching content for this course, I've come across countless resources that I knew were useful and valuable, but as the semester progressed, I was never quite sure where some of these items would best connect under a certain week's themes.  Therefore, throughout the semester, I collected many of these resources (from webinars, to videos, to readings) that I thought would be interesting to most of you with the hope of getting the chance to show you before the semester was over.  

Well, this is our last session, so it's now or never.  (After all, your Final Projects are due by midnight EST Friday, 5/10 which gives you two weeks to pull everything together.)    Let's tentatively plan on meeting for our last f2f meeting on the following Wednesday, 5/15 (3-6).  

This has been a unique pilot project, so thank you for your willingness to experiment in this 21st century endeavor.

On the 15th expect to present your completed work to me, your course peers, Mr. Ruscito, the Superintendent, and any other interested parties.

I have made lots of personalized changes this semester to suit the needs of this cohort, so don't focus upon the Final Project requirements on the syllabus. Instead use the information below for this semester.

Your Final Projects will be due by Midnight on Friday, May 10th.

You will create an additional screencast and place its link under the Final Project posting on this blog. (available by Wed. 5/8).  Additionally, you will prepare a 6-8 minute presentation that will be given live on 5/15.

The live presentation will be very similar to the Final Project screencast, but will provide more opportunity for discussion, and Q & A.

Both the screencast and the live presentation should include the following:

• A demonstration of your finished project (at least finished for the time-being b/c most of these projects will continue to develop over the next year)
• The practical uses you foresee for your students and yourself.
• How you envision this project will evolve over the next school year and over the next 5 years.
• The potential benefit to teaching and learning, as well as the financial benefit to the district or state, as a whole.
• Include directions for anyone watching about how to find your project on their own.  (what is the url, site it was uploaded to, save location...)
• Lastly, please add any other important details that you feel should be mentioned or shared.

Additionally, there may be several opportunities, after the semester closes, for anyone that may be interested.  


Holly Walsh,the Instructional Technology and eLearning staff member at RIDE, has expressed some interest in seeing your finished projects and possibly having some of you present them with me at the next "Innovations through Technology" conference that RIDE sponsors.

Also, Senator O'Neill, the Chairman of the Joint Legislative Commission to Study the Use of eTextbooks in RI, has expressed interest in hearing about the Final Projects that you have developed.

Once again,I would like to have our last face-to-face class at WHS on May 15th from 3-6pm.


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In this, our concluding session, I've included this potpourri of remaining resources that I know to be powerful, useful, and practical.  These resources never made it into this semester's weekly sessions either due to the sheer size of the workload per week or b/c I just couldn't find the best fit for them. So, knowing the value of these items I couldn't very well not share them with you.  That's why I've added this compilation in Session 11.

As I stated above, your Final Projects will be due by midnight of May 10th.  


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Let's start this week with a video explaining Project Gutenberg. (If an ad comes up, make sure you skip it.)




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Readings: 

• "Who needs a bulky textbook?"

• SLJ's 2011 Technology Survey: Things Are Changing. Fast.

• "Textbook-free Schools Share Experiences, Insights"

• " The App Squad: SLJ's advisors weigh in on kids' book apps
• Student Comprehension of Books in Kindle and Traditional Formats
by Michael Milone, a research psychologist and educational writer at Renaissance Learning. He asked students in two fourth-grade classes located in the Upper Midwest to read up to six books from a selected list of a dozen popular fiction titles that included Eleanor Estes's Ginger Pye (Harcourt, 1951), Gary Paulsen's Lawn Boy (Random, 2007), Mary Pope Osborne's Sunset of the Sabertooth The 31 students—who read a total of 135 books, 69 on the Kindle and 66 in print—were asked to alternate between reading half of the books on the Kindle and the other half in a bound, printed format.

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Teachers and eBooks: What's the Story?
View the Recording
Read the Chat TranscriptFeb 8, 2011: e-Book Lending and Borrowing for Beginners

Webinar
Public Chat Transcript

Jan 11, 2011: eReader Device Comparison
WebinarPublic Chat Transcript

Watch and listen to: "eBooks, eReaders and the Role of Mobile Devices" and

March 8, 2011: Ereaders in the Classroom

"Using eBooks to Motivate Students"

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Kansas State Dept of Ed. 
This webpage contains open access resources and digital textbooks that are available within the public domain. They are not copyrighted and may be customized, modified, or combined with other materials.

Enjoy these resources! It was a pleasure working with you this semester. The enthusiasm in some of your posts was contagious. Through the years I've worked with plenty of districts that didn't encourage their employees to strive and reach for new goals. I hope this course has convinced you that over the next few years we're going to see exponential growth in the use of eBooks for all purposes. Education won't be far behind, and you, the participants of this course, will be the leaders of this movement.