Author: Dale

Count stars, report results, collaborate worldwide

Dale

The Great World Wide Star CountNext Monday is the start of the The Great World Wide Star Count. From October 1st through October 15th, you can report how many stars are visible in your location’s night sky. With these data, this project can determine the amount of light pollution in different parts of the world.

Why do we care about light pollution? Light pollution is a strong indicator of wasted energy. Lights, contrast, and glare all impact the number of stars that are visible in a given location. Only the brightest stars are visible when there is a lot of nighttime lighting. Many people in the urban locations have never seen the Milky Way.

The project is an opportunity to encourage astronomy education and great example of collaboration via the web.

Reasons NOT to send that next e-mail

Dale

email closedIn an effort to cut back on all the e-mail we receive, Dan Costa at PC Magazine wrote an article listing 29 reasons not to send an e-mail message. This list is funny, yet many of the reasons are painfully true.

Here are a few of my favorites:

  • You spent 15 minutes on the e-mail, and the recipients will spend 0.15 seconds before hitting Delete.
  • Everyone got that joke, saw that video, and sent money to that dying kid two years ago.
  • You’re slow. By the time you finish typing your message, one of the 20 other people on the list has already responded and made your response outdated.

Missing from the list was– Today is Friday. I think we should all take a break from e-mail on Fridays. I’m not alone on this.

Google’s new presentation app has room to grow

Dale 1 Comment

Google PresentationsGoogle has just released a presentation program that runs right in your browser. Now you can create and share presentations online. With the addition of presentations, many are claiming that Google Docs now has three tools (they also have a word processor and a spreadsheet program) that can rival Microsoft Office.

Rival? Not really. While I like the ability to work together with people all across the Internet to create a slideshow, I’m disappointed with Google’s new tool. After uploading a PowerPoint file, I saw that its functions are quite basic. Google’s PowerPoint ‘wanna-be’ has a long way to go.

He’s what I think Google’s presentation software needs:

  • Animations and transitions: If Google really wants to stand out, they need to add a little motion. (The folks at SlideRocket are doing exciting things in this area.)
  • An easy way to embed slideshows: The whole point of putting a presentation online is to share it with a wider audience. Where is the button that shows me how to embed my presentation into my website?
  • Sound would be nice: Let’s face it, without the presenter many slideshows are quite boring. Google needs to add audio so the presentations can at least have narrations.

For now, Google’s presentation program is just a toy. It’s worth looking at and it might be fun to dream about what it will someday become, but I don’t see anything useful here. If you want your presentations online, I suggest you create them offline with PowerPoint or Keynote (or OpenOffice for free) and then share your work at SlideShare.

A year of podcasting- what have I learned

Dale

Last year I created a podcast for my physics students. It started off as a simple recap of the past week and an overview of the week to come. However, it evolved into much more than just a review for the students. It became a learning experience for me.

For starters, I learned that students, like with any other resource, needed to be shown how to use the new medium. I guess all the hype over the so-called “digital native” made me think that my students would just instantly pick up on the idea of a podcast. Not true at all. A large majority of my students didn’t even know what a podcast was before I started using them for class. Don’t let the “your kids already know how to do this” blather fool you. They need to be taught.

The students taught me several things too. Especially helpful was the feedback they gave me on a survey I gave at the end of the last school year.

Below is a slideshow of the results:



Slideshow above might be blocked (download original slides)

Based on the student feedback, here is what I plan to do differently regarding this year’s podcast:

  • encourage students to use it: Just like the textbook, notes or homework, a podcast is a resource that needs promoting.
  • have an out-of-class experience: We always have extra problems and labs to do in physics. The podcast allows students to see examples that we just don’t have time for in class.
  • always keep the quiz in mind: When making a podcast, always keep your next assessment in mind because it is what many of your students are thinking about as they watch.
  • more videos: It take more of your time but the videos were far more valuable to my students that just the audio.
  • write a script: You don’t need to write a script that you plan to follow verbatim but an rough outline will cut down on the “babble” in your podcast.
  • keep it short: My students complained incessantly when the podcast went over seven minutes. Many of them said they wouldn’t watch it if it was too long.
  • share clips in class: This goes back to encouraging students to use the podcast. If you have something great in the podcast, there is no reason not to show a little clip in class too.
  • get them subscribing: Show students how to subscribe to the podcast with tools like iTunes, Google Reader, or MyYahoo. If your podcast shows up on their desktops automatically, they will be more compelled to use it.

Watch (or subscribe) to this year’s season of BaslerCast.

When you’re teaching, timing is everything

Dale

Online StopwatchThere’s a reason sporting events show timers on their scoreboards. When the game is on the line, everyone needs to know how much time is left. With little class time to spare, teachers and students need to keep an eye on the time too.

Whether you’re giving a timed exam or you just need to set some boundaries for your students work in groups, Online-Stopwatch.com provides a timer that can easily be displayed in your classroom.

The site offers a stopwatch and count-down timer. Simply displayed in your browser, the Online Stopwatch has a full screen display for every student to see. It’s like having your own classroom shot clock!

Online-Stopwatch also offers their product in gadget form for your own personal homepage at iGoogle or Microsoft Live. Windows Vista users can get a gadget for the Sidebar.

Can’t always get to the web? They even offer a free stand alone versions for download on Windows and Mac.

Rule the Web is perfect if you’re new to web 2

Dale

Rule the WebI just finished reading “Rule the Web” by Mark Frauenfelder. The book reads much like one of those ‘for Dummies’ books. It is the type of text that can be thumbed through and allows the reader to pick up anywhere they see a topic that interests them.

Frauenfelder covers topics such as Firefox extensions, how to podcast, creating a PDF file, and editing photos online. Of course, as the founder of BoingBoing– the world’s most popular blog, Frauenfelder explains how to set up a basic blog and provides tips such as:

  • include an image with every post
  • try to post at least once a day
  • write about your passion

While the book was perfect for someone who is looking to start a blog or podcast, I was hoping for a little more. For me, the book’s title and cover implied that it was going to spend time discussing how to start an online business.

For the novice, “Rule the Web” is perfect. I think it is a great book for schools to purchase and place in their professional libraries or staff lounges. If you already know how to create a blog or wiki, chances are “Rule the Web” won’t have much new to offer you.

Start the year with some school related tunes

Dale

Spare the RockThis summer our family started listening to a podcast called “Spare the Rock, Spoil the Child.”  It’s a radio program that features music for kids (that parents can stomach too).

Their last show featured several school themed songs to celebrate the new year. Chuck Berry’s “School Days” starts the series of school songs 53 minutes and 56 seconds into the program.

Berry’s famous hit is followed by:

  • Steve Blunt and Friends – Back to School
  • The Hipwaders – Educated Kid
  • Monty Harper – Dog Books
  • Mr. Billy – The Dog Ate My Homework
  • Stephen Fite – Cool To Be In School
  • Twink – Alphabent
  • Aaron Fowler – Room Mom
  • Bill Harley – I Wanna Play
  • Imagination Movers – Field Trip
  • Milkshake – School
  • Barry Louis Polisar – I Don’t Wanna Go to School
  • John Hadfield – The Principal’s Office
  • Trout Fishing in America – Why I Pack My Lunch
  • Asylum Street Spankers – You Only Love Me for My Lunchbox

Perfect music to play in the background as your students enter class.
Give “Spare the Rock” a listen at their site or via iTunes. 

My apologies to all of you who have already started school. We start late in Wisconsin.

Plan your lessons in Google Calendar

Dale 1 Comment

Each year I begin with every intention to write out my lesson plans for each day of the school year. For eight years, I started with the lesson plan book. I labeled the dates for the entire school year, added important school events, and began penciling in my lessons. Somewhere around mid-October the wheels fall off. Somehow this task gets pushed way down on my to-do list.

Google CalendarLast year was different. I decided to throw out the lesson plan book and use Google’s Calendar instead. For the first time, I maintained my lesson plans for the entire school year.

Here are the three reasons why Google Calendar works so well for my lesson plans:

  1. I can see the big picture. With Google Calendar, switching views from day to week to month is a snap. I can also add other calendars. I can see if the lesson plan for Physics conflicts with what I’m planning to do in Physical Science. I also compare the lesson plans to my personal calendar and my wife’s work schedule. You can even import your school’s sports schedule to plan around the big game.
  2. Google CalendarUpdating is a breeze. If Tuesday’s lab takes longer than I expect, I can drag the next activity over to Wednesday. No more erasing and recopying. In the description field I can put notes about the on-the-fly changes I made to the activity.
  3. Students and parents can follow along. Google let’s you share your calendar so others can subscribe to it or just view it on your website. Now students who were absent come to class knowing exactly what they missed because they read it online the night before.  Nothing motivates you more to keep the calendar up to date when you know others are going to see if you fall behind.

If you’re looking for a way to create lesson plans that are sharable, easy to use and provide access from anywhere, give Google Calendar a try.

Color your Website with a Touch of Nature

Dale 1 Comment

Recently Steve Dembo (from Teach42) Twittered:

It’s amazing just how much better you feel about a website once the graphic design gets put in.

I can’t agree more. While good content is what keeps your users coming back for more, usability and design are responsible for holding their attention during their first visit.

A site’s color scheme is key to its look and feel. Here is a site that shows how you can get inspiration from nature.

Frogs:
Frog Colors

Hawaii:
Beach Colors

There are also several online color scheme tools (like this one) that can help you start designing your next site.