Teachers & Technology…David Warlick Starts A Great Discussion

I thought I would share a blog post by David Warlick on integrating technology that caught my eye this week. There are so many positions to view this rant (as he himself calls it) from, that it has sparked a most lively discussion.

I don’t know that it is fair to make technology integration a blame game. I know that there are some teachers who are content to do what they have always done, whatever it takes to get them out the door 10 minutes after school is out. However, I also know there are so many teachers who truly define the word. They are willing to put large amounts of time into making their classroom a place where learning is fun, motivating, and truly happening on a daily basis. My very own sister is one of these people and would love to incorporate more technology into her classroom, but she teaches in a district where all streaming video is blocked and teachers are not even allowed to use a flash drive! So, it is hardly to fair to blame the teachers in that situation.

We are all human and there will constantly be someone holding up the process, whether it be a teacher, an IT staff, an administrator, a school board, or a superintendent. The best we can do is to continue to implement strategies that will be effective for the digital natives in our classrooms to the best of our ability. A technology-integrated classroom is not going to happen overnight, but that does not mean that it cannot still be an effective classroom.

One of the great things about CPS is that it does not require internet, so if you are a teacher committed to the cause, it is possible to use CPS in your classroom even if your IT staff is “out to lunch.” It is very easy to hook CPS up to your very own laptop if the school computer makes it much too difficult. Granted, it is nice to have a projector, but it works on a TV screen too!

My point is…if you are a teacher who is serious about connecting with your students in the digital world, you will find a way to do it. We have had so many teachers who took the initiative to step out on their own and get CPS in their classroom that other teachers caught the “fever” and realized what an incredible tool it was. Administrators can hardly argue with strategies that are engaging students and raising test scores. So, if you’re frustrated with your school, your administrator, your district, or your teachers, make sure that you are doing all that you can to integrate technology into your position and continue trying to make the process as easy and painless as possible for others in your district.

Someone alluded to the fact in a comment on David Warlick’s blog post that it is human nature to be much more excited about our own ideas than the ideas of others. Boy, how true that is! We are really seeing a major shift in the way that we educate our students, so be patient with those that are acting as speed bumps. As Bill Blackman said, “Great changes may not happen right away, but with effort even the difficult may become easy.”

View David’s blog post here!

CPS Clickers in the Elementary Spanish Classroom

This fantastic video, Technology in Elementary Spanish, provides a great peek into an elementary Spanish classroom and includes real student opinions on their classroom technology. It was posted on TeacherTube and demonstrates the technology used in their Spanish classroom: individual response systems (eInstruction Classroom Performance System), Promethean interactive white board, 2-to-1 laptops, Internet resources, and educational software. Their equipment was provided by grants from Qwest Foundation for Education, Tanque Verde Educational Foundation, and tax credit donations. This teacher is to be commended for teaching from a kids’ perspective and obviously makes motivating her students to learn a high priority in her classroom.

This video actually shows CPS in action, and the teacher makes use of CPS in her learning time and uses both the random student picker and the jeopardy game. The student excitement is so high during the CPS time…it is great to watch! And, of course, you won’t get more honest opinions than you do from the kids! Their comments get even better the longer you watch!

See the video directly on TeacherTube OR
Download the Video HERE: Posted by hyena72 at TeacherTube.com.

TeacherTube…An Alternative to YouTube

Are you dealing with an administration or IT staff that blocks links to so many useful sites for fear they will be misused? The site TeacherTube may (or may not) give you a workaround. Hey, it’s worth a try. Take a look and you might find –

• just the topic you were looking for
• some great real-life applications of your topic
• a funny video to capture attention and introduce a lesson or concept
• a creative video for a new teacher meeting
• something to make your administrators laugh
• a catchy tune to help your students remember the parts of speech

The Halls Are Alive With the Sound of Clickers

I just added a link on our website’s CPS in the News page to a great blog post, and I got quite a chuckle out of the title. I just saw The Sound of Music on TV the other day, so when I read the title, “The Halls Are Alive With the Sound of Clicking,” it was all I could do not to burst out in song! I could just see Maria with her laptop and all the little von Trapp kids with their clickers!

But really, on the serious side…the post does have some fantastic quotes from professors who are actually using the clickers in their classrooms on the campus of UNH and seeing some great results. Check it out!

Who’s Really Compatible?

The acquisition of FSCreations by eInstruction was probably one of the companies smartest moves and is an exciting one as well. ExamView-formatted questions are shared by educators all over the country, and hundreds of thousands of ExamView-formatted questions are distributed by textbook publishers for over 5,000 K-12 and higher education textbooks. The acquisition of FSCreations allowed eInstruction to do something no other response pad company could…create ’seamless integration’ with eInstruction’s Classroom Performance System.

In a open letter from Darrell Ward, CEO of eInstruction, he explained what ’seamless integration’ meant…

Only eInstruction’s Classroom Performance System (CPS) response pad technology features seamless integration with ExamView products, including the ExamView Assessment Suite (ExamView Suite) and the ExamView Learning Series. Seamless integration with ExamView means:

• The fastest, easiest way to use ExamView-formatted questions and content. Only CPS can open ExamView questions banks directly, requiring no intervention or makeshift intermediate steps.
• It works with content from all versions of the ExamView Suite. Only CPS works with questions from all releases – from v1 to the most recent v6.1 – of the ExamView Suite.
• An accurate display of questions. CPS uses the unique ExamView Suite word processor to display ExamView-formatted questions. Without seamless integration, questions will not display correctly and will not include all related question information (i.e. metadata).
• Only CPS works with ExamView’s dynamic question variations.
• Only eInstructions’s infrared (IR) and radio frequency (RF) response pads work with the family of ExamView educational products.
• Only CPS assessment results are readable by the ExamView Test Manager to provide comprehensive classroom reporting.
• Only CPS can exchange classroom rosters with the ExamView Test Manager.

So, as Darrell Ward puts it, “It really is quite simple. Only eInstruction’s CPS reponse pads work seamlessly with ExamView products.”

It will be interesting to see how these two separate products will morph and blend into each other as new releases continue to be developed.

New ExamView and CPS Training Available!

eInstruction is now offering a new series of complimentary online training webinars. If you need ExamView Learning Series training, be sure to register for the new “Using ExamView with CPS” webinars that are now available. You can register for this new training HERE! Most webinars are about 1 hour in length and are completely FREE.

ExamView and CPS open up so many possibilities in the way of assessments. Find out how to utilize both of these great tools even more effectively!

As of today, Using ExamView with CPS is scheduled for

• 9/6/07 at 4:00 pm CST
• 9/11/07 at 9:30 am CST
• 9/13/07 at 4:00 pm CST