Greetings Educators,

As you may know from my past columns I have a project funded by the U.S. State Department’s Middle East Partnership Initiative (MEPI) that is coordinated through Creative Associates in Washington, D.C. The purpose of this project is to establish global connections between U.S. and Algerian secondary schools using the Internet. We are connecting 11 schools in Algeria with 11 in the United States.  But, rather than discuss the particulars of this project, I would like to focus for a bit on the idea of “globalization” and how classrooms, teachers, and kids have the opportunity to connect to our global society.

In a broad context, globalization is a multidimensional set of social processes that focus on and transform the “economic, political, cultural, technological, and ecological dimensions of contemporary social life.” (Steger, M., 2003, Globalization – A Very Short Introduction, published by Oxford Press). When we, as teachers, focus on education we can see that it has the power to transform our social networks by reaching far outside our established communities, and enables us to create new social networks and a better understanding of communities world wide.

One observation I’ve made while managing this project is that programs such as this have real people involved. Normally, when we connect using the Internet and technology, there’s a somewhat detached or impersonal process taking place. We’re directing our communications at a computer screen and then waiting for that computer screen to respond back. But I’ve visited both sides of this communication channel and I’ve seen the faces of the global connections. We need to keep that in mind. There are real kids on both ends and they are anxious to tell the stories of their communities, cultures, and countries.

As educators, given the advent of new technologies and ways to communicate worldwide, we have an obligation to do more than just inform our students about other communities. We must connect them with real people in real communities across the globe. We should take advantage of the many programs already available that allow classrooms to connect with other classrooms and allow the kids to build new international relationships and understandings. Three programs that come to mind are iEarn, ePals and Think.com.   It is with programs like these and the one in Algeria that we can help our students truly become global citizens.

The program with Algeria continues through the end of this academic school year and I’ll have far more to report at that time.  If you have any questions or comments on globalizing our classrooms please let me know. I am very interested in hearing from you.

Best Regards,

Joseph Codde
Professor and Director
Educational Technology Certificate Program

Contact us at: 517-432-9259
http://edutech.msu.edu

We are excited to announce our Summer 2007 offerings for the Educational Technology Certificate Program. We have our summer accelerated program being offered at the University Center in Traverse City, the Livingston ESA, and Bay Mills CC in Brimley. The Traverse City and Brimley offerings are Monday through Friday from 8:30am – 4:00pm. The Livingston ESA offering is Monday through Thursday. The dates for each of these offerings are:

Livingston ESA: June 18-21, 25-28, July 2, 3, 9-12, 16-19, 23, and 24

Traverse City: June 21, 22, 25-29, July 2, 3, 6, 9-13, 16-20.

Bay Mills/ Brimley: June 25-29, July 2, 5, 6, 9-13, 16-20, 23, and 24

Classes will also be offered this summer in DeWitt, Birmingham and online. Please see Location Information below for a full listing of our course locations and dates.

We are excited to offer two new locations for our classes this fall. Alpena Public Schools and Allegan Public Schools will both be offering classes stating in October. These will be in addition to our standard locations in DeWitt, Birmingham, Wayne, the Flint area, and the Traverse City area .

You can also bring the program to your district. All you need is a minimum of 15 teachers and a computer lab. Contact Brook Thompson at 517-432-9259 if you would like to find out more.

–Carrie Albin, Outreach Coordinator and Co-Editor

The MACUL Conference 2007 is being held at Cobo Hall from March 14-16. This is a great conference for educators to learn more about technology and how it can be applied in the classroom. They have hands on workshops as well as presentations conducted by other educators and educational vendors.

The Educational Technology Certificate Program, the Master’s in Educational Technology and the Confucius Institute will all be represented at booth #436 in the exhibitor hall.Come visit us and learn more about the certificate, endorsement and Master’s programs in Educational Technology. We’d be happy to provide demonstration of our certificate program classes.

Representatives from the Confucius Institute at MSU will also talk about their online materials developed with up-to-date technologies, such as podcasts; 3-D language learning environments (“Second Life”); and other multimedia learning materials that teach adult and K-12 students about Chinese language and culture.

We look forward to seeing you there!

–Carrie Albin, Outreach Coordinator and Co-Editor

Using Photostory to Create a Video Presentation

Are you tired of creating presentations in PowerPoint? Would you like to create movies with still photos to add to your website? Perhaps you would like to have background music or audio narration on your movie. Then you should try out the free Microsoft Photostory program.

You will need to download the program to your computer and then begin creating your masterpiece. The progam walks you step by step through the process from importing photos to adding music and audio narration. In case you need more direction on using the program you can visit the Microsoft Photostory tutorial or read Using Microsoft Photostory 3 created by David Jakes an Instructional Technology Coordinator in Illinois.

When you are finished with the project you can save your work to be viewed on a computer using Windows Media Player, sent in an email message (will compress the file to 1MB or less if possible), or for playback on a Pocket PC or SmartPhone.

Students can use Photostory to create video presentations of research they have conducted on a selected subject. Their presentation can combine images, text, music, and audio narration. Teachers can create presentations that showcase what goes on in their classroom which they can use during Parent-Teacher conferences.

To see an examples of Photostory being used in the classroom visit the following websites:

http://www.greece.k12.ny.us/task/photostory/ps3demos.htm
http://www.greece.k12.ny.us/oly/library/teachers/gianotti/APllinkpage_06.htm

–Carrie Albin, Outreach Coordinator and Co-Editor

Call for Best Examples of Web 2.0 Technologies in the Classroom

When we made the decision to take our Educational Technology Certificate Program classes online, we also decided to revise our curriculum to include more information about Web 2.0 technologies such as blogs, wikis, podcasts, and rss feeds. In doing so we are creating a Guide to Web 2.0 Technologies document that we will make available to our current and former students, as well as our newsletter subscribers. But we need your help. We’d like to use authentic examples of successful Web 2.0 technology used in the classroom.

If you have had a particularly successful or exciting technology-supported experience with your students, please take 10–15 minutes to share your experience by filling out the form below.

We’re looking for examples of preK – 12th grade in all subject areas. Submissions will be accepted through March 30, 2007. Teachers whose submissions are selected will be entered to win a free 256MB USB drive as well as receive recognition in the final document.

An example of a possible submission:

Name: Jane Doe
School District: Great Public Schools
Email: janedoe@greatpublicschools.edu
Type of Web 2.0 Technology: Blogs
Free or Low Fee Sources: The service I used to create my blog is http://edublogs.org
Educational Benefits:Provides an opportunity for all students to contribute
Classroom Application:I use my blog to keep students and parents up to date regarding assignments and upcoming events. I also have students post their thoughts to readings we do in class.
Examples of Use: Mrs. Jane Doe’s 4th grade classroom blog http://janedoe.greatpublicschools.com/blog/

We look forward to reading your submissions. We will post the results in our next newsletter in June. Thank you in advance for your participation!

–Carrie Albin, Outreach Coordinator and Co-Editor

Web Sites Worth Visiting

Website	Description and Educational Applications
http://www.zotero.org/	Zotero [zoh-TAIR-oh] is a free, easy-to-use Firefox extension to help you collect, manage, and cite your research sources. It lives right where you do your work — in the web browser itself.A great extension for students to use when conducting research for a project or paper.You will need Firefox 2.0 in order to use this extension.
http://google.com/notebook	Google Notebook makes web research of all kinds – from planning a vacation to researching a school paper to buying a car – easier and more efficient by enabling you to clip and gather information even while you’re browsing the web.Teachers can create a Google Notebook for a particular lesson when they want students to have access to many sites for their project. Instead of creating a Word document with a list of websites for them to use, teachers can share a Google Notebook with them.(Submitted by Carolyn McCarthy, instructor of the Educational Technology Certificate program)
http://edcommunity.apple.com/ali/	The Apple Learning Interchange (ALI) is a free online resource for educators. This online community provides a wealth of content ranging from simple lesson ideas to in-depth curriculum units, rich with digital media.ALI enables educators to create their own curriculum content, find colleagues, collaborate around their classroom methods and experiences, and share movies, images, sounds, and other powerful teaching tools.
http://creativecommons.org/	Creative Commons provides free tools that let authors, scientists, artists, and educators easily mark their creative work with the freedoms they want it to carry.This is a great site that can provide clear guidance about acceptable and legal uses of digital content that you may want to use in your classroom. In order to conduct a search click on the Find CC Licensed Work link at the top of the page.If you and your students are creating content that you share on the web you may want to consider licensing your work on Creative Commons as well.
http://www.flashcardexchange.com/	Flashcard Exchange web site is an internet application where you can create, study, print and download flashcards.You need to create a free account to create flashcards that you can share with your students online. For a small one time fee you can get a membership account that will let you print your flashcards or export them to Word or Excel.

Our courses are taught by an outstanding team of MSU adjunct faculty, many of whom are:

• K-12 classroom teachers themselves who have experience using educational technology in the classroom
• Graduates from our certificate program
• Exceptionally skilled in educational technology
• Winners of awards such as technology Teacher of the Year from the Michigan Association of Computer-Related Technology Users in Learning (MACUL) and the national award of the International Society for Technology in Education

This quarter’s instructor spotlight is . . .

Michael Partridge, Instructor for MSU Educational Technology Certificate, Technology Training & Support Specialist at Pinckney Community Schools, and
MACUL SigWEB Asst. Dir.

Michael Partridge, a Michigan State alum, is our newest instructor in the program. “I just LOVE this!” Michael has said of the certificate program. “We provide an opportunity for teachers to spend time, often in their own district, on their own equipment, learning with their peers.” 

Michael’s passion for education, combined with his interest in technology, are evident in the workshops and courses he presents for the Regional Technology Academy, the Pinckney Instructional Technology Academy, and the many workshops he presents in conjunction with the Pinckney Office of Curriculum.

Michael has a Bachelor’s degree in Theatre Arts and Elementary Education from Dordt College in Sioux Center, Iowa, and a Master’s degree in Educational Technology From Michigan State University. He has over ten years of experience working with students and teachers in K-12 settings in Iowa, Pennsylvania, and Michigan. Michael has worked as an Elementary Classroom teacher, Computer Center teacher, and now focuses on technology and professional development, helping to build capacity in the teachers of the Pinckney School District.

Michael and 3 other educators from his district also have a weekly podcast show. To learn more about it you can visit http://geek-ed.com.

The following question came from one of our teachers participating in the E3Link Project that connects students in Algeria with students in the United States. It is applicable to anyone that has tried to send a large attachment through email only to have it bounce back or the person not receive it.

Question: I am unable send the PowerPoint presentation to you via email. It gives me an error message saying that the file attachment is too large for your mailbox. Is there another way that I can send this presentation to you?

Answer: Unfortunately many email programs have a limit on the file size of an attachment that is either sent or received. This can be frustrating when you are trying to send a person an attachment for a required project. In addition, when adding photos, audio or video to PowerPoint presentations they can become quite large. Below are two suggestions with short tutorials to accompany them.

Compress Pictures in a Document or Presentation

In order to view the size of a document or presentation, open it up. Go to File and then Properties. In the dialog box that appears be sure the General tab is selected. Once the General tab is selected you can view the size of your file. If you file is over 10 MB (some emails the limit is even less) you will want to try to compress the file before sending it through email. If after compression your file size is still over 10 MB than you should upload your file to a web server and provide the person you are sending it to a link to access it. (See Uploading a File to MediaFire.com)

In Word and Microsoft PowerPoint there is a easy way to compress the pictures that are included in the document. Open the document or presentation and double click on any of the pictures. A dialog box will appear. Click on the Compress button at the bottom of the box. A second dialog box will appear. Choose All Pictures in document, Web/Screen and click on the Ok button. Another dialog box will appear asking if you want to apply picture optimization. Click the Apply button. Depending on the number of pictures you have it may take a few seconds to apply. Once it is done compressing click on the Ok button on the original dialog box.

If you go to File, Properties once again, you should notice a large difference in the file size of your document or presentation if it included a lot of pictures.

Uploading a file to MediaFire.com

If compressing your file does not bring the file size down enough, you do not have access to a web server and you find that you are unable to email an attachment, you can use several free file transfer services that are on the web. I will provide instructions for the one we are using for the e3Link Project called MediaFire.com. Other services include Files-upload.com, GigaSize.com, Pando.com and Xdrive.com.

MediaFire.com is a free file transfer service that allows you to upload a file to their web server, store it there and send it to someone else by sending them a link to the file. Per the MediaFire.com website you can :

• Share files with all of your friends and upload them only once
• Link to files from your MySpace page, your blog, or forums
• Keep frequently used documents online for easy access from any computer

Currently there is an unlimited disk space, no time limits on the files being stored, and you can upload up to 100 MB per file. All of this for FREE!

Visit Using MediaFire.com to Upload Large Files to open a short tutorial on how to upload and email a file to someone.

–Carrie Albin, Outreach Coordinator and Co-Editor

Are you a teacher interested in MSU’s Educational Technology Certificate Program? Check out the list below to see if the program is being offered in your area. If not, email Joe Codde to get your district started with the program.

Spring 2007

Summer 2007

Fall 2007

*Participants in the programs at the LESA, Traverse City, and at Bay Mills CC in Brimely must take all three courses due to the accelerated format.

Online Sections*

*Students participating in the online courses will have the opportunity to meet to share their projects at a time and place determined by the participants. Please contact Brook Thompson at 517-432-9259 if you are interested in registering for the online courses.