Tech Focus logo TechFocus is a monthly feature on Schoolhouse 20, the district's cable TV channel (Cox Cable Channel 20 in Wichita) where we show you some of the innovative ways in which teachers throughout Wichita are using technology to engage kids in school. Each month we will highlight classroom projects, innovative technology, technology tips, and great internet resources for students and teachers.

May 2009

In this month's Techfocus you will see students collaborating with other students across the district and nation through the Wild Weather Project, learn how the social bookmarking site Delicious.com works, see some elementary and secondary educational websites, learn how the SMART Notebook print capture feature works, and features the Wichita Student Technology Leadership TechFest. Click HERE to watch the entire episode.

Elementary WSTL student Feature - WSTL Techfest: Elementary level Wichita Student Technology teams across the district participated in their Techfest on April 22. Teams presented projects completed throughout the year and some even taught others how to use new technology tools.
Wild Weather Project banner Focus on the Classroom: Students collaborated with others across the district and nation on the Wild Weather Project with help from Brad Niessen, Mark Bogner, and Interactive Distance Learning.
delicious logo Tech Tip of the Month: Cammy Todd demonstrates a social bookmarking tool that will help you to organize and access your internet bookmarks from any computer that has internet access and tell you what makes it "social" bookmarking.
Hippo Campus logo Focus on the Internet: Velma Davis presents some educational sites for students at both the elementary and secondary level. Into the Book and Hippo Campus are the sites featured this month.
SMART notebook icon SMART Tip of the Month: Brandon Bench explains what the SMART print capture feature is, how it works, and gives some applications for its use.

April 2009

April features features some physical education teachers using video games to get students moving, Coleman Middle School's technology leadership students creating the new website for Coleman, demonstrates the Desktop Search feature in Windows, shows how to customize the toolbar in SMART Notebook 10, and teaches about a browser plug-in called Cooliris. To view the whole episode, click HERE.

dance dance revolution image

Feature - Physical Education Playing Video Games: Physical education students across the district are using technology, including the video game "Dance Dance Revolution" to get up and moving during class. Playing "DDR" allows the entire class to be moving at the same time and maximizes the activity the students get during P.E.

Coleman Middle school logo

Focus on the Classroom: Coleman Middle School technology students are enlisted by the principal to redesign the school's website. The students learned to use Dreamweaver software and worked as a team to create the site from scratch.

Cooliris screen shot Focus on the Internet - Cooliris: Cooliris is a browser plug-in that allows users to search for a variety of media types on the internet where search results are a series of visuals and images, rather than text.
windows logo Tech Tip of the Month - Desktop Search: Windows Desktop Search is a fairly new feature that has made searching for files on your computer faster and easier than in the past.
SMART toolbar SMART Tip of the Month - Customize the Toolbar: Brandon Bench shows how to personalize Notebook 10 to your needs by customizing the location and functions of the toolbars within the software.

February 2009

This month features the Wichita Student Technology Leadership program, demonstrates how to use conditional formatting in Microsoft Excel, shows how to use the screen capture feature in SMART Notebook 10.0, explain how to create word cloud images using a website called Wordle, and visits Hadley MS to see how students are using blogs to learn about another culture. To view the whole episode, click HERE.

WSTL image

Feature - Wichita Student Technology Leadership: WSTL allows students across the district to not only learn how to use technology, but also to teach others how to use it. Students also will help with the maintenance and repair of equipment in many cases.

Blogging Bears image

Focus on the Classroom - Hadley Students Blogging: Cindy Carmichael's students are participating in a project from iLEARN. The students have exchanged teddy bears with a class from Italy and are blogging about the bear's experiences in their new countries, through the view of the teddy bear.

Wordle image

Focus on the Internet: Wordle Velma explains how a Web 2.0 internet site called Wordle allows users to enter text into a field, or copy and past text from other documents, and then create word clouds from the text. The more a word is typed, the bigger it is in the word cloud.

Excel image

Tech Tip of the Month: Formatting in Excel: Cammy Todd walks through conditional formatting in Excel allows the user to use font color, cell color, or icons to visually depict and arrange data. Excel 2007 has many more enhancements with this feature than in previous versions of Excel.

SMART screen capture

SMART Tip of the Month: Screen Capture: Brandon Bench shows how to use the screen capture tool in SMART Notebook to capture images from other programs on your computer and insert them for use in Notebook lessons.

January 2009

The TechFocus for January demonstrates SmartArt in Office 2007, demonstrates a free communication tool called Skype, demonstrates the Fill Tool in SMART Notebook 10.0, shows how Webkins are being used in the classroom, and introduces Senteo clickers - the student response system that can be seamlessly integrated into Notebook 10.0. To view the entire episode, click HERE.

Senteo image

Feature - Sento Clickers Student Response System: Wondering how to use the new Senteo clickers that have arrived in your school? This clip demonstrates how quickly and easily the Senteos can be integrated into SMART Notebook 10.0. Senteo questions can be created before the students are in class, or "on the fly" for instant feedback on student comprehension.

Webkinz image

Focus on the Classroom - Webkinz: Brenda Jasper is using the plush toys Webkinz in the library at Harry Street Elementary to teach students technology skills and so much more. The stuffed toys come with an online access code that can be used to access the Webkinz online society. Here students can play educational games and care for their pets, all without the mess of a live classroom pet.

Skype logo

Focus on the Internet - Skype Communication Tool: Velma Davis demonstrates the advantages of using Skype for communications. It is a free tool downloaded from the internet that allows you to make phone calls, video conference calls, and to send instant messages from your computer to other Skype users.

SmartArt graphic

Tech Tip of the Month - SmartArt in Office 2007: Cammy Todd demonstrates how to use SMART Art in Office 2007 in a number of ways in your classroom. You can use SmartArt to add color, emphasis, and shape to information in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, or Outlook 2007 in just a matter of minutes.

Fill tool image

SMART Tip of the Month - Fill Tool: Brandon Bench shows how the Fill Tool works in SMART Notebook 10.0 and gives some reasons and applications for using this tool. The Fill Tool is a quick way to fill shapes in Notebook software with solid color or gradient fills.

December 2008

December's TechFocus features teachers using document cameras in the classroom, students at Heights High School collaborating with Google Docs, some new tips for Google, the shape tool in SMART Notebook 10.0, and how to set up a custom browser homepage using iGoogle. Click HERE to view the entire TechFocus video.

Document camera

Feature - Document Cameras in the Classroom:
Gone are the days of the overhead projector. Teachers today are utilizing document cameras in their classrooms to display documents in full color to their students, as well as three-dimensional objects-all without getting any overhead projector ink on their hands.

Google Docs

Focus on the Classroom - Google Docs:
Students at Heights High School are using Google Docs to collaborate in writing letters to President Elect Barack Obama. This is part of a nation wide project called "Writing our Future."

Google

Tech Tip of the Month - More uses for Google:
Cammy demonstrates that Google is more than a just a great search engine. She demonstrates how Google can be used as a calculator, dictionary, and can even help with conversions.

iGoogle

Focus on the Internet - iGoogle:
Velma shares a great time saving tool called iGoogle. iGoogle is a custom browser homepage that allows you to add gadgets and widgets that will help you to find information more quickly and complete tasks in a more timely fashion.

Shape Pen

SMART Tip of the Month - Shape Tool:
The Shape Pen in SMART Notebook 10 allows you to use either a SMART Board pen or your finger to draw a shape, and it will "snap" to a more clearly defined version of that shape.

November 2008

The TechFocus episode for November features classrooms using SynchronEyes classroom management software.You will see how teachers are creating classrooms for the 21st century using this innovative software, learn to use the reference tool in Microsoft Office 2007, see the dual-page function in SMART notebook 10, learn how students across the district were able to vote in a district-wide mock-election on the internet, and delve into Google Earth. Click here to play the entire video, or click the links below to view individual segments.

Synchroneyes

Feature - SMART SynchronEyes:
SMART SynchronEyes is a classroom management software that enables teachers to spend less time managing the use of computers, and more time focusing on curriculum. WIth this software, teachers can monitor students' computer use, display student computers to the whole class, "push" website addresses to the student computers, and much more.

Student election

Focus on the Classroom - District Wide Student Election:
November 4 was a record-breaking and historic election day in our country. Learning Services and the Instructional Technology Department worked together to implement the first ever, district-wide presidential straw poll election for USD 259 K - 12 students. Secondary students also voted on the Senate and House races.

Reference tools

Tech Tip of the Month - Microsoft Office Reference Tool:
For years, teachers have spent countless hours teaching students how to create citations and references for various purposes. Now, Microsoft Office 2007 has integrated a reference tool that creates citations, works cited, bibliographies using will use multiple formats - such as ALA and MLA.

Google Earth

Focus on the Internet - Google Earth:
Google Earth is a free internet application that allows you and your students to explore places all across the globe without leaving the classroom. Students can view satellite images of their school, home, or anywhere else they might like to visit.

Dual-page display

SMART Tip of the Month - Dual Screen:
SMART notebook 10 has added many new features. This month, Brandon Bench will demonstrate the dual-page display and pin-page features. The dual-page display allows you to view two pages at one time. The pin-page feature allows the user to keep one page "pinned in place" and scroll between the rest of the pages in dual-page display mode.

October 2008

The TechFocus episode for October shows how technology has influenced and changed the school library, visits a technology rich music classroom, gives tips on documents created in different versions of Microsoft Office, delves into Google Docs, and covers a few new ideas on using your SMART board. To view the whole video, click here. To view the individual segments, click the titles below.

White library students

Feature - Technology in the Library:
Index card catalogs are a thing of the past! See how technology has changed the school library with tools such as electronic card catalogs, electronic checkout systems, and internet magazine databases.

Coleman music students

Classroom Focus - Coleman Music:
Visit Amy Ives's classroom at Coleman Middle School to view a technology rich music classroom. Students are utilizing computers to compose music, listen to themselves sing, and much more.

Tech Tip of the Month - Microsoft Office File Formats:
Cammy Todd explains the file formats created in different versions of Microsoft Office including saving in different versions and identifying the various types of documents by their file extensions.

Focus on the Internet - Google Docs:
Velma Davis explains and explores a free online application called Google Docs. It is an incredible tool that can be used quickly and easily to increase collaboration and efficiency.

SMART Tip of the Month - Magic Pen:
Brandon Bench from Mueller Elementary will demonstrate a new feature in SMART Notebook 10 called the magic pen and gives ideas how to implement it in the classroom.

September 2008

This month's TechFocus features L' Overture Technology Magnet, Hadley Middle School students utilizing Interactive Distance Learning (IDL), tech tips for Microsoft Word 2007, and some great web-based applications. To view the whole video, click here.

L'Overture SMART showcase school

Feature:
L' Ouverture Technology Magnet has been named a SMART Showcase School. Click the image to see how they have integrated SMART Technology products, as well as other types of technology, into their school in order to receive this distinction.

Hadley IDL

Classroom Focus:
Interactive Distance Learning, or IDL, is a way that students can interact and collaborate with other students in other cities, states, or even countries. Click the image to see how Hadley Middle School students used IDL in their classroom.

Word 2007

Tech Tip of the Month:
Recently moved to Office 2007 and now you're completely lost? Cammy Todd walks through the basics of Word 2007 including the Office button, Quick Access toolbar, the mini-toolbar, plus Tabs and Ribbons.

Web-based applications

Focus on the Internet:
There are many web-based applications that can be used to increase productivity and promote collaboration. Velma Davis introduces and demonstrates several of these free, web-based applications including iGoogle, Google docs, and Google Earth.


 

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