The Aspirnaut Initiative

Here's a story coming out of Arkansas - the Aspirnaut Initiative, launched in April 2007 in the Sheridan School District, equips students with laptop computers and iPods and allows them to take online math and science courses while traveling to and from school.

This pilot program spans three years and seven objectives. These are to establish:

• A Differentiated Program for High-Ability Students
• A One-Room Satellite School in the Community
• The Concept of “School-Begins-on-the-Bus”
• Teaching Awards
• A Professional Development Program for Secondary School Teachers
• College and Secondary School Scholarships
• A Non-Profit Organization to Secure and Administer Funds

The Aspirnaut Initiative

School Begins on the Bus

Arkansas News Bureau article

How could this work in your district?

Here’s a short video from the very clever folks at Common Craft on the topic of web search strategies:

Preventing Digital Plagiarism

Preventing all plagiarism all the time is impossible, but there are steps you can take to eliminate it from your classroom.

The Internet is an endless resource for information, and that means it can also be an endless source for both intentional and inadvertent plagiarism. While preventing all plagiarism all the time is impossible, but there are steps you can take to eliminate it from your classroom.

• Set guidelines. Discuss with your students what defines plagiarism, opinions, assertions, and arguments and clearly define for them what constitutes plagiarism in your classroom.

• Describe intellectual property. The World Intellectual Property Organization defines intellectual property as “creations of the mind: inventions, literary and artistic works, and symbols, names, images, and designs used in commerce.” Explore the concept of intellectual ownership with your students.

• Remind your students of the concept of citing resources, and walk them through some of the tools available on the Net, such as David Warlick's Citation Machine.

• Explore the concept of “common knowledge.” A good rule of thumb: If they can find information in a standard encyclopedia or in numerous sources, the information is more likely than not considered common knowledge and needn't be cited.

• Teach students the process of vetting Web content through Googling authors, reading perspectives from trusted sites, and investigating a range of opinions.

• Simplify by instructing them that a best practice to follow, even when taking notes on sources, is to paraphrase materials. Clearly define the difference between quoting someone and paraphrasing.

• Apply the “double check rule.” Have students return to the original material to confirm they used their own words before submitting their work to you.

• Consider designing tests and other evaluation materials to take advantage of technologies, such as the Internet, cell phones, iPods, etc. so that students are employing digital tools to perform higher order tasks, rather than using such tools to circumvent traditional testing boundaries.

• Let your students know up front that you will occasionally be using plagiarism check sites such as TurniItIn.

• Create a "Guidelines for Avoiding Plagiarism" checklist and share it with students and parents at Back to School Night. Emphasize that parental involvement is key to responsible student behaviour in the school setting.

Preventing Digital Plagiarism

25 EduBlogs You Simply Don’t Want to Miss!

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: future blogs)

BC's 3rd Annual Rural Schools Conference

Rural Communities Working Together to Enhance Student Learning

• Registration Link
• Conference Flyer
• Keynote and Plenary Speakers

The Rural Strategy Committee is pleased to invite Rural Educators and Partner Groups to our third annual conference: “Rural Communities Working Together to Enhance Student Learning” to be held at the Sheraton Wall Hotel, Vancouver, BC from October 22-24, 2008.

While the conference continues to examine the significant opportunities and challenges facing rural educators and communities, this year’s keynote speakers Calvin Helin and Russell Bishop will bring special attention to issues and approaches to support success for Aboriginal students. Plenary speakers Leyton Schnellert and Faye Brownlie return to continue their conversations about teaching and learning in diverse classrooms. Of course, almost twenty speakers from across the province have been asked to present their ‘rural strategies’.

Embedded in our conference event will be the New Rural Teachers (NRT) cohort program. As well, our Technology - Train the Trainer program will again be a pre-conference event but this year, these participants will be encouraged to remain and participate in the main conference.

The Ministry of Education, and the Rural Strategy, is pleased to offer a travel grant to rural districts for up to 8 participants for the 2008-2009 Rural Conference and Programs. Each District will receive funding for:

• 5 Conference participants
• 2 New Rural Teachers (NRT) Cohort participants (Invitation)
• 1 Technology Train the Trainer participant (Invitation)
  

This year the Rural Schools Conference has been scheduled at the same time as the Provincial Non-Instructional Day to encourage districts to register teams even larger than 8. Space is not unlimited, so the Rural Strategy encourages districts to register promptly to avoid any disappointment if we meet our capacity

For additional information,
Contact Janice Rittinger – Secretary, Rural Strategy at:250-453-9151 or jrittinger@gw.sd74.bc.ca

To register please follow this link:
http://registrations.bcssa.org/PER-WebRegister/registration-rural.php

To book your guestroom(s) at the Sheraton Vancouver Wall Centre Hotel:
Call toll-free at:1-800-663-9255 or Reservations@wallcentre.com

K-12 Online Conference

The K-12 Online Conference invites participation from educators around the world interested in innovative ways Web 2.0 tools and technologies can be used to improve learning. This FREE conference is run by volunteers and open to everyone. The 2008 conference theme is “Amplifying Possibilities”. This year’s conference begins with a pre-conference keynote the week of October 13, 2008. The following two weeks, October 20-24 and October 27-31, forty presentations will be posted online to the conference blog (this website) for participants to download and view. Live Events in the form of three “Fireside Chats” and a culminating “When Night Falls” event will be announced. Everyone is encouraged to participate in both live events during the conference as well as asynchronous conversations.

Here is one of their online offerings - “Free Tools for Universal Design for Learning in Literacy”

Enjoy these online money “games”.

• Change Maker - http://www.funbrain.com/cashreg/
• Counting Money - http://www.hbschool.com/activity/counting_money/
• Lemonade Stand - http://www.coolmath-games.com/lemonade/
• Math At The Mall - http://www.mathplayground.com/mathatthemall1.html
• Money Instructor - http://www.moneyinstructor.com/games.asp
• US Mint For Kids - http://www.usmint.gov/kids/
• Young Investors - http://www.younginvestor.com/

Electronic Journal: The Online Action Researcher

The Ontario Action Researcher is a freely accessible, full-text, peer-reviewed electronic journal intended for elementary, secondary, and university teachers who are concerned with exploring the unity between educational research and practice. While their primary aim is to serve the needs of educators in Ontario, hey welcome readership and submissions from elsewhere in Canada and the world.

Educational Origami Blog

Hello folks - I came across the Educational Origami blog and wiki today, and it is well worth a visit. The wiki has a lot of information on 21st Century Learning, rubrics for use with web 2.0 and instructional technology tools and more. Let me know what you think.
cheers

Home - U Tech Tips

This site is a wiki listing software recommendations for educators by educators.

Home - U Tech Tips