Southwest Region

A common surgery that we hear about today is total knee replacement. However, six classes from North Dakota not only have hear about this, but can now say they actually observed a live surgery of this type. On Wednesday, April 9, Grant County High School’s Human Anatomy class was one of the six North Dakota classes that connected via video to the surgical suite at Mount Carmel East Hospital in Columbus, Ohio to observe a live total knee replacement surgery. The orthopedic surgeon removed the diseased cartilage and bone from the femur, patella and tibi and replaced these with prosthetics.

Students were allowed to ask questions of the operating room staff throughout the surgery. Comments from students following the surgery: "The surgical team was very descriptive to help us understand what was going on. Very interesting. Not as bloody as I thought it would be.” Instructor Darrell Howard conducted both pre- and post-visit activities with his 28 students.

The other North Dakota schools connected were Beulah, Bottineau, Jamestown, Tioga and Glenburn. Two schools from Ohio, one from Texas and one from Alberta Canada were also connected. This live interactive videoconference was coordinated by EduTech and COSI.

Posted by Marcy Schmidt at 1:58 PM | Permalink-1033

Recently in visiting with one of my colleagues, I was introducted to a great website that contains a weekly SMART Notebook™ lesson, a podcast and resource links. Here is the site address: http://pdtogo.com/smart/ The podcast can be delivered automatically to your iTunes or email address. Past lessons can be searched by category.

Also, on March 7, 2008, SMART Technologies began working with Scholastic to design lesson plans that provide teachers with digital resources to complement their SMART Board™ interactive whiteboards and Senteo™ interactive response systems. Here is what they say "This microsite features SMART lesson activities for Notebook™ collaborative learning software, resources to help with lesson activity creation and links to customizable tools and templates. Math and science lesson activities are currently featured, and additional lesson activity subjects will be added regularly." Check it out at http://www2.scholastic.com/browse/lessonplans.jsp

Posted by Marcy Schmidt at 1:09 PM | Permalink-1002

February 25 - March 4, 2008 twenty-five North Dakota teachers and their students traveled around the globe virtually with the use of interactive video equipment connecting classroom to classroom around the world. Activities included reading a favorite book, skits, plays, raps or songs. This years’ total number of registered classrooms hit an all time high of nearly 1,650 which is an impact of approximately 50,000 students.

Read Around the Planet, an annual reading motivation and awareness program, calls every child in every community to celebrate reading on or around Dr. Seuss’s birthday. Two Way Interactive Connections in Education (TWICE), an organization headquartered out of Michigan, sponsored the seventh annual National Read Around the Planet (RAP).

Participating North Dakota schools included: Ashley, Beulah, Bismarck, Cavalier, Devils Lake, Fairmount, Glen Ullin, Gwinner, Jamestown, Kindred, Maddock, Medora, Oakes, Williston and Wolford.

Conference technical services and facilitation of RAP in North Dakota was provided through the collaborative efforts of the Information Technology Department (ITD) and EduTech Education Technology Services.

Posted by Marcy Schmidt at 1:07 PM | Permalink-1001

On Thursday, February 21, the fifth annual Megaconference Jr. was held. This is a project designed to give students in elementary and secondary schools around the world the opportunity to communicate, collaborate and contribute to each other’s learning in real time, using advanced multi-point video conferencing technology. Hettinger high students, Sam, Joe, Logan and Colin, along with their advisor Mrs. Doe played a big role in making this a successful event. The students were not only involved as "video jockeys" to introduce and moderate the events, but they also filled in empty time slots with some entertaining videos.

Posted by Marcy Schmidt at 3:32 PM | Permalink-978

As teachers are creating more of their own flipcharts, this question came to me, "When creating flipcharts in ActivStudio, how do I add some of my favorite images from the shared library into my library?"

Here is the process if using a PC:
1. Open the Shared Resource library and drag the image/resource out onto your flipchart area.
2. Open My Resource Library and drag it into the area where the thumbnail would appear. You should now see that image/resource in your library.

For MAC users:
1. Pull a shared image/resource from Shared Images out onto your flipchart area.
2. Open My Images. Click on image and drag on the Hand icon to move it to My Images.

I would recommend setting up folders in your library before moving images/resources to it.

Posted by Marcy Schmidt at 9:12 AM | Permalink-961

Have you ever sent an important e-mail that needed to arrive on a specific date and time and then wondered if the recipient ever received it? Outlook has a feature that will help you track e-mail.
To track a message in Outlook 2007
1. On the Message tab, click on Options dialog box launcher.
2. When the Message Options window opens, under the Voting and Tracking options, click on Request a delivery receipt for this message and/or Request a read receipt for this message.
A delivery receipt tells you that your e-mail message was delivered to the recipient's mailbox, but not whether the recipient has seen it or read it. A read receipt tells you that your message has been opened. In both cases, you receive a message notification when your message is delivered or read.
If you are still using Outlook 2003, this feature is available and can also be found in the Message Options window by clicking View on the menu bar and then Options.
So don’t stress out any longer when sending important e-mails as it just takes a second to set up the tracking.

Posted by Marcy Schmidt at 10:56 AM | Permalink-940

With my job, I have the opportunity to visit with teachers to find out which web sites they are using to support student learning. At a recent workshop, a teacher introduced me to this site, ThatQuiz, www.thatquiz.org . ThatQuiz is a free online resource for math practice and testing. Not only is registration free, but teachers who register also receive record-keeping of scores for their classes. Teachers have the ability to create single tests with questions from different categories or access a public test library. The Math Test Directory includes Integer, Fraction, Concept and Geometry.

Other links are available are USA states and capitals, Latin American countries and capitals, European capitals, African capitals, coin guide, geometric formulas and a library. For more information, go to http://www.thatquiz.org/tq/docs/about.html

Posted by Marcy Schmidt at 1:43 PM | Permalink-927

Internet safety is something that we as educators should be constantly reminding our students, parents and community of. A great online newsletter i-EDUCATOR Times, published by iSafe, is a free download that has excellent information to share. Here are a few of the highlights of this month’s issue -

• Cyber Ethics – Taking moral principals into the online world.
• Internet Complaints – stats from the Internet Crime Complaint Center
• Voice Texting – hands free text messaging
• Hacking the iPhone – unethical or ingenuity?
• Ten Commandments of Computer Ethics
• Internet Safety Tips – Think twice before forwarding that email!

Download i-EDUCATOR Times today and share it with your students, family and friends! To subscribe to i-Educator Times, go to www.isafe.org, sign in and update your account to receive email updates.

Posted by Marcy Schmidt at 9:37 AM | Permalink-900

As more and more schools in North Dakota are obtaining licenses to United Streaming, I know many are excited about all the video and video segments that are available. However, there is a component that many may not be aware of, the Discovery Atlas Interactive Map. This atlas has a unique video guide to our world, featuring exclusive clips from Discovery's Atlas series. The interactive maps provide thousands of videos that show off the wonders of countries ranging from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe.
1. Log on to www.unitedstreaming.com
2. Enter your login and password.
3. Click on the Discovery Atlas Interactive Map link under Teacher Center on the right hand side of the window.
4. Click on Launch Atlas button on the Discovery Education Atlas window that opens.
5. Select the desired country from the drop box.
6. Click on the links to the left of the country image to learn about the Culture, Government, History and the Natural World of the selected country. Note how the list of available videos appears in the mini window on the right as you click on one of the four options. A yellow dot will appear to indicate the current selection.

Posted by Marcy Schmidt at 1:00 PM | Permalink-861

As schools are beginning a new school year, I have been busy conducting "Video Streaming in the Classroom" workshops to help teachers become more aware of what's available for them to use with their students. Even though the majority of the time is spent on exploring the contents of the United Streaming site, other sites such as National Geographic, eField Trips, Tumblebooks and See More Wildlife are also introduced. This past week, I was informed of another great site that connects math and science to the real world,
The Futures Channel Check it out for some good stuff!

Posted by Marcy Schmidt at 8:09 AM | Permalink-836