A+Paperless+Classroom

Presenter: Ben Smith - Red Lion Time: 9:30 - 10:15 Room: 225 Contact: ben@edtechinnovators.com Website: [|www.edtechinnovators.com] Student / Teacher Website: http://www.rlasd.k12.pa.us/teachers/bsmith Additional Resource: http://nomorepaper.pbwiki.com/


 * Presentation Description: ** This session will explore how to turn your traditional class into a paperless environment. All of the activities and strategies that a teacher normally uses can be digitized. There will be teacher and student examples of lectures, Q&A, homework and more. The most important aspect about a paperless class is the having students submit papers and returning them back to the students. I will show you how to make this easier using tools already on your computers.

Presentation Materials are hosted on my [|website] (www.edtechinnovators.com). Scroll down and click on the link to the CFF Science Collaboration Day.

Ben will be presenting at NECC in June 2009. If you are attending the conference, please look for him!

The following are points that Ben made that are not included in his presentation materials:

Recommendation -- In 1-to-1 classrooms, scatter the cords around the room. When the machines are out of the cart and in use, they are to be plugged in and charging. When they are in the cart, they are not charging.

WebAssign allows kids to get problems from the textbook, but with their own unique numbers in the problem -- this has entirely cut down on copying. It also provides immediate feedback. The student can then contact the teacher to ask for clarification. The teacher is available online in the evening hours to provide assistance. WebAssign costs $8.80 per student per year. For kids with no web access, they can always just complete the problems in the textbook.

When more than one kid comes to Ben asking for help with a particular problem, he podcasts the help for that problem and posts it on his website. Kids can create help files as well and receive credit for doing so.

Make sure all docs are converted to PDF before posting online so kids can access them from any machine.

Use of Voicethread -- example -- kids make a video of one of Newton's Laws, but they do not say which one it is. Ben then loads those movies into Voicethread. The kids watch the movies and comment in the VT as to which law they think it is.

Digital Citizenship -- use every opportunity to talk to kids about ownership issues. If you are going to use their work in a presentation that you are doing, get their formal permission. Model the concept.

NoteBook -- (not to be confused with Smart Notebook software) -- $30 per machine, but they do have bulk pricing. Powerful software for organizing information (text, PDF, written notes if you have Mimeo or similar set-up) for the entire year. See this [|website] (circusponies.com) for more info.