Lynn Marentette's Comments

I can't believe I am just noticing your message after 4 years. I am currently retired but still do a lot of consulting in the use of technology in the classroom. Johnson C Smith has been a laptop university since 2000. we provide laptops for all full-time students. Our work is mostly focused on finding effective laptop use that supports learning. When the technology is available to everyone, innovation happens very fast.

I've been away from Classroom 2.0- my father had complications following surgery on March 3rd and was in the ICU for a few weeks, then a special care unit. I'm catching up with work and hope to visit the Classroom 2.0 world more regularly in the near future.

Hi Lynn. I was wondering if your students and colleagues would be interested in participating in a nationwide SAT Vocab Video Contest @ MIT university. You can view contest details at BrainyFlix.com Please let me know. Thanks!

Popular music and lyrics are excellent tools for engaging all learners especially at-risk students.

Great for social and emotional learning/character education and lessons focusing on identity, self-esteem, healthy risk-taking and goal setting.

I've been slow getting back to classroom 2.0. I've gotten into working with Project Lead the Way, and I've been consumed with getting that going for the past 18 months. I should be able to get back into this forum now that PLTW is running successfully.

http://www.bkwsu.com/
James

Hi Lynn,
It's nice to see another psychologist interested in technology. I enjoyed reading your blogs. Check out www.cpschallenge.com if you have time. I am looking for someone with a good background in technology and school psychology to do a review. Take care.

Hi Lynn,

That's one of the reasons I like it. :) If you have a question or need help please let me know. It's a powerful virtual classroom, I recommend you set up a session and just play around with it.

Hi Lynn,

In your research of web technologies I recommend you take a look at Wiziq's virtual classroom and authorstream's web based power point presentation platform. Both web based platforms have proven to be very useful to me in my online class.

This is the SoundHouse Assocaiation web site:
http://www.soundhouse.org.au/b_association.html

Contact in Melbourne for Banana Keyboard Access Kits:
Ken Owen, Executive Officer SoundHouse Association
email: owen.ken.r@edumail.vic.gov.au
phone: +61 3 9376 6833
Just tell him Gavin sent you! LOL :)

Hi Lyn try this link to get info about the SoundHouse Access Kits:
http://www.theartscentre.com.au/discover/education/special-access-kit.aspx

Hi Lynn,
SoundHouse Australia , based in Melbourne Australia has developed the "Banana Keyboard", designed for people with physical disabilities to make music on computers - that might be well worth exploring, I can give you the contact there if your are interested, it's Ken Owen, I can give you his email.

My son is very much into Gary's Mod, now that's 'modding' on a game engine, he works collaboratively with kids from all over the world building objects and stuff in 3D environment.

There are other games where the participants invent the scenarios, one I've heard of is "Spore" here is the wikipedia link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spore_(video_game)

I replied to your Facebook message! I see James Gee is a friend!
He has been very influential on my thinking about games and learning.

Anyway, let me know if any of this helps :)
Kind Regards,
Gavin
Gavin

Hi Lynn, thanks for linking me to your web world. What's your Twitter user name?

Hi Lynn,

Thanks for your message. Are you currently a practicing school psychologist? Are you using this technology now in some way? I am working on establishing a high school utilizing this Web 2.0 and a social networking platform. It's been quite a learning curve for me so far!

Tift's great! Where do you live? Near here? Best, Cathy

I posted this in the Forum's Conference and Workshops section:
I recently received a link to this workshop and call for papers:
Workshop on Education Informatics: Steps Towards the International Internet Classroom

Here is information from the workshop web-page:

Objective

Could an international group provide free access to primary and secondary school curricula, aligned with national, state and local standards, delivered by our best AI tutoring technologies, in several languages, over the Internet? The purpose of this workshop is to discuss the feasibility of an International Internet Classroom Project, specifically...

…to sketch the core requirements for such a project and the immediate needs to get the project started. One critical requirement is that the core should be extensible, so researchers can incorporate and test the efficacy of their new technologies within the infrastructure – and with the participant pool – of the International Internet Classroom;

…to review the available sources of content, tools, platforms, student modeling methods, educational data mining techniques, pedagogical strategies, modes of content delivery, and concrete experiences deploying technology-based education;

…to explore the feasibility of common standards for representing content and student data and to review previous standards efforts in academia, the private sector, and government;

…to build connections among people who work on related projects and sketch a plan to build the International Internet Classroom.

We seek papers, including position papers, from all sectors – academia, industry and government – on all these subjects. Authors are encouraged to present their research, systems, tools, evaluations and deployment experiences in terms of and as contributions to what we hope will become the International Internet Classroom Project.
Submission Guidelines and Important Dates

Please submit papers using the final camera-ready formatting style specified in ECAI 08 Style Guide. Our requirements are not identical to ECAI's: Papers may be up to 6 pages long and should be submitted directly to Paul Cohen (cohen@isi.edu). All submissions must be sent in PDF or PS format.

Deadline for paper submission: 14 April 2008
Notification of acceptance/rejection: 12 May 2008
Deadline for camera-ready paper: 26 May 2008

Workshop Dates: 21- 22 July 2008

Organizing Committee and Program Committee

Paul Cohen USC Information Sciences Institute
Carole Beal K12@USC, USC Information Sciences Institute
Niall Adams Imperial College London


Carole Beal, one of the program organizers, is an educational psychologist at USC. She's worked on the Wayang Outpost.

This will give you more information about her work:

According to the K12usc.edu website:

"The Wayang Outpost is a web-based tutoring system for high school mathematics, with a specific emphasis on preparation for high-stakes achievement tests such as the SAT-Math exam. Students complete brief assessments of their learning style, including spatial cognition, math fact proficiency, math achievement, and mathematics motivation. They then receive multimedia tutoring on practice test items, and can select from either algorithmic explanations or more visually-oriented solutions. Integrated SkillBuilder units provide practice in specific math topics. Students receive motivational and progress feedback based on a model of learner engagement."

"Evaluation studies indicate that, after working with the system, students improve 20-25% on average on the integrated pre- and post-tests of math proficiency, and the improvement is greatest for students with the weakest math skills. We also find that students who describe themselves as disengaged from math are most likely to access the multimedia help in an effort to learn, suggesting that technology-based instruction can offer discouraged students a path to success in math."

"The Wayang Outpost tutoring system includes "virtual adventures" that embed math problem solving in narratives about environmental science, specifically, an imaginary research station in Indonesia. Students interact with virtual role model characters based on real scientists and researchers who use math in their field work."

The Wayang Outpost project is supported by National Science Foundation grants HRD 0411532 and REC 04118

Craig,

I responded to your message, but my log-in timed out.

Basically, I started taking computer classes out of my frustrations with user-unfriendly database systems, and the lame educational applications for students

I was initially inspired by the work of CAST in the area of Universal Design for Learning, the increase in interactive whiteboards in educational settings, the increase in the use of PDA's and other hand-held devices for education, and serious games, specifically games for education, social skills development, and mental health promotion.

I realized that after 20+ years in the schools that no one was going to magically make things much better in terms of technology, so I decided to become part of the solution. At least, try.

-Lynn