Snapshots of Technology

Smarter Work

This presentation by Sacha Chua hit home to me on so many different levels.

1 comment September 19th, 2009

Happy New Year’s Everyone!

Just a little year in review humor.  Happy New Year. I hope your holidays were great!

3 comments January 2nd, 2009

Have you seen Chrome?

What was at one time an April Fool’s Day prank from Google is now reality… Google released, their open source web browser, Chrome today.  I downloaded it to see what all the fuss is about… and I must say, I like it. The browser is fast! It’s simple in design and uses tabbed browsing. There are somethings I would like to see, such as, a button for my saved Google Bookmarks.Who knows there may be a way but I have only had it on my computer for an hour. I don’t have it totally figured out yet. One thing I like is you can create shortcuts for your desktop to gmail or any other web page you would like.  There is an incognito mode which allows you to click without putting the clicks in your history…So far I like it… I miss apps like twitterfox and my google bookmarks button but I can only imagine it will be available soon.Looks like at this time its only available for XP and Vista users… sorry Mac and Linux! What do you think?  

Technorati Tags: google_chrome

1 comment September 2nd, 2008

Summer has begun… for most

Students in Columbia are now sleeping late and enjoying summer… so are most teachers for that matter. But as I have talked about before, I don’t get summers off. This week we kicked off our summer workshops. To help with with the laid back mood we decorated our hall in a tropical theme complete with a lounge chairs and coconut cups (with nothing in them!). The only thing we are missing is the sand.

With the theme in mind I had to create a bulletin board…. Julia says I am too proud of my board. But I have to say I like it . I like it a lot. We are making a big splash (haha) with SMART boards so it seemed like a natural fit to me.

The department theme has brought smiles to people’s faces as they show up to classes at 8:30 on a summer morning.

Add comment June 3rd, 2008

Summer has begun… for most

Students in Columbia are now sleeping late and enjoying summer… so are most teachers for that matter. But as I have talked about before, I don’t get summers off. This week we kicked off our summer workshops. To help with with the laid back mood we decorated our hall in a tropical theme complete with a lounge chairs and coconut cups (with nothing in them!). The only thing we are missing is the sand.

With the theme in mind I had to create a bulletin board…. Julia says I am too proud of my board. But I have to say I like it . I like it a lot. We are making a big splash (haha) with SMART boards so it seemed like a natural fit to me.

The department theme has brought smiles to people’s faces as they show up to classes at 8:30 on a summer morning.

Add comment June 3rd, 2008

Richland County School District 1 Technology Fair this week!

This week is the District Technology Fair in Richland One. Its going to be a busy week. One thing I am really excited about is our special guest Wednesday and Thursday is Tony Vincent. If you aren’t familiar with Tony, he is a “pioneer in handheld learning.” His two specialties are PALMs and iPods.

Tony mainly works with adults but while he is visiting Richland One he will be working with students. I am really excited about this because it will give the educators in each school that he visits the opportunity to see/hear integration in action. His visit is focusing on iPods for more than music players (high school), podcasting (middle school), and PALM activities (elementary school). All of these activities are in the beginning steps in the district. I think he will add a different take on what the teachers/students are teaching/learning.

Schools around the district are doing some great things to show parents, community, and administration how they are incorporating technology in learning. The other day I helped at AC Moore elementary school. They integrated technology in to their International Day. I chose to Canada as my country of choice. The teachers were interested in why I chose Canada. The answer seemed simple to me… SMART Technologies the manufacturer of the SMART Interactive Whiteboard is in Canada. Students learned about Canada through a SMART Notebook lesson. In six hours, I met with 220 students to learn more about Canada!

This week is going to be busy… busy… busy… but fun… I will keep you posted on all of the events.

Technorati Tags: TonyVincent RichlandCountySchoolDistrict 1 Sansonetti ACMoore SMARTtech

Add comment February 18th, 2008

Super Tuesday Twitter Conversation with Google Maps

Have you seen this? Google has teamed up with Twitter and Twittervision to create a Super Tuesday Map that updates with the latest poll percentages and tweets from across the world about the primaries. This is incredible… take a look!

Add comment February 5th, 2008

2008 Education Blogosphere Survey is now open!

Take 5 minutes of your time to fill out this survey on blogging to help Dangerously Irrelevant’s Scott McLeod gather information about what is going on in the educational blogosphere. The survey is open until January 26th.

Technorati Tags: administration, administrators, blogging, blogs, education, educationaladministration, educationalleadership, leaders, leadership, McLeod, principals, schools, scottmcleod, superintendents, survey, technology, technologyleadership, sansonetti

Add comment January 17th, 2008

The DEN is the place to be…

As an educator, I have always wanted to belong to a group that shared ideas and was basically as passionate about education as I am… Well, I am happy to say Discovery Educator Network is the place for me. I absolutely love this Network. If you are an educator and haven’t heard of the DEN find out about it today!

Its a place where you can virtually or physically meet other educators across the state, country, or world and share technology integration ideas and resources. DEN is a division of Discovery Communications and with strong support from a major corporation DEN offers Professional Development, special partnerships with companies such as eInstruction, premiere events of Discovery Channel shows, individual, and leadership council blogs, and free swag.

Of course to take part in this great experience you have to be a STAR member. But don’t fear! Its not hard! Its 4 easy steps…

1. Join the DEN/watch a short video on the benefits of being a member.

2. Apply – the application is 3 questions about you and technology plus something you used in your classroom with technology.

3. Attend a webinar with other potential members and a DEN manager.

4. Conduct and report an event – share something about technology and Discovery’s MANY products. Can be as small as three people and as large as a small city. Whether you use unitedstreaming, Discovery School, etc., I am sure you have something you can share!

And your in….

I am also very excited … each week DEN spotlights a new Educator and this week … It is ME! Very Cool! I have to say truly the best part of the DEN is a sense of belonging in our huge educational world. Knowing there are people out there who are like me who want to use more technology integration in our classrooms.

Add comment August 12th, 2007