ORVSD Community Forum

Business sees Online K12 Education as Huge Market

jgranger — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 15:37:57 +0000

Here are links to two articles in the August 11, 2008 issue of Forbes Magazine I think that if you read through, you will see that the those people in the private sector of online education see primary and secondary education as a huge new area of privatization. Can't happen here? It already is. Comments?

Virtual Schools, Real Businesses
K12's Ron Packard is winning the fight against the school establishment.
By David K. Randall

http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2008/0811/084.html?partner=email

How to Change the Way Kids Learn
Computers have failed to improve education. That's because no one has gotten disruptive with technology.
By Clayton M. Christensen Michael B. Horn

http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2008/0811/081.html?partner=email

ORVSD Community Forum

Top Ten Technology Tools for Teachers

virginia.petitt — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 16:30:24 +0000

Good morning all!

Hope you've had a good summer! I'm in the process of creating a workshop entitled, the Top Ten Technology Tools for Teachers. My concept is to showcase ten Web 2.0 tools that are the most useful for teachers. I'd welcome any suggestions ya'll have!

Thanks for your input!

Virginia Petitt, Southern Oregon ESD

ORVSD Community Forum

Come see us at OSCON!

gchaix — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 22:40:24 +0000

The OSU Open Source Lab will be exhibiting in the expo hall at OSCON this year. Please feel free to stop by and visit our booth!

When: July 23-24, 10am-5pm
Where: Oregon Convention Center, Portland
Cost: Expo hall badges are available for free at the conference registration desk

ORVSD Community Forum

AP Literature and Composition Entry 1

mboyer — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 07:21:16 +0000

This is the huge assignment that you have to accomplish now.

ORVSD Community Forum

AP Literature and Composition Entry 1

mboyer — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 07:21:15 +0000

This is the huge assignment that you have to accomplish now.

ORVSD Community Forum

Video Conferencing Through ORVSD?

snelson — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 20:31:57 +0000

We are currently testing a browser based video conferencing application that we may release in the fall. This is the URL for the demo server. This is an open test server and not the application that is currently running on our system. It is the same version. All you need is a decent connection, a web browser and a webcam.

OpenMeetings

ORVSD Community Forum

Many of you have expressed a need for Moodle Tutorials. Please look at this Two Minute Moodle Model.

darren — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 16:55:02 +0000

I can't take credit for finding this, so we all must thank Skip Offenhauser! What a clear and concise step by step set of short turtorials that walk through Moodle.

http://human.edublogs.org/

ORVSD Community Forum

New Statistics content available on the Oregon Hippo campus

snelson — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 18:56:55 +0000

ORVSD Community Forum

NROC Professional Development Resources

snelson — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 18:42:03 +0000

NROC has a variety of Teaching Resources for your use. Our Lease grants you access.

ORVSD Community Forum

Web 2.0 and Education

snelson — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 21:16:44 +0000

Excerpted from
Web 2.0: New Tools, New Schools
Gwen Solomon and Lynne Schrum

ORVSD Community Forum

Interactive Learning Objects for Teaching

snelson — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 03:46:44 +0000

Examples of Interactive files for ORVSD Users. We are considering adding interactive Learning Objects like these to the Repository for teachers to link into their courses. Please let us know what you think of them.

Fractions

Linear Equations

Geometry

Science: Pollution

Science: Global Warming

Health: Food and Diet

English: Child Language

World History: Race and Conflict

Economics: Community Enterprise

ORVSD Community Forum

Interesting PDF about Technology, the U.S. and our future

snelson — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 21:05:07 +0000

ORVSD Community Forum

How Much Is Enough?

camcross — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 21:44:09 +0000

We teach you that Energy + Vision = Success, but when does Success = Excess? That's what Affluenza is all about.

ORVSD Community Forum

Resources, Resources: You said you want resources!

darren — Thu, 29 May 2008 17:30:15 +0000

We had Kathy at ITSC. What a great site for all kinds of resources K-12. Make sure you check this out:

http://school.discoveryeducation.com/schrockguide/assess.html

ORVSD Community Forum

Cool A/V Slideshow

jkeseck — Mon, 19 May 2008 18:55:53 +0000

Check out www.vuvox.com

It'll create a slideshow with pictures, audio, and video content that you can then put on your page.

ORVSD Community Forum

Free mind mapping software

gchaix — Mon, 19 May 2008 17:29:21 +0000

This is an interesting tool: Personal Brain

ORVSD Community Forum

Technology-rich classrooms and textbooks

gchaix — Fri, 16 May 2008 00:43:28 +0000

While I think the title is overblown and not really accurate, this is an interesting post via the AP and Teacher Magazine: Technology-Rich Classrooms Render Textbooks Useless

ORVSD Community Forum

Should teachers model in workshops what they expect from their students in the classroom?

darren — Wed, 14 May 2008 21:25:34 +0000

Would love to read your comments with regards to the title question or the attached cartoon?

ORVSD Community Forum

Article about some of the pitfalls when using online tools

gchaix — Tue, 13 May 2008 18:53:36 +0000

This is another article from the higher education environment, but it does bring up some issues relevant in a K-12 environment: Learning to Leisure

I found the comments somewhat more interesting and insightful than the article. They highlight the importance of establishing solid guidelines for acceptable behavior in online forums. Online communities can become self-moderating, but it takes careful moderation and a lot of intention early on in the creation of the community to establish those the norms and culture.

ORVSD Community Forum

Attention May 19-20 ORVSD grant awardees

darren — Mon, 12 May 2008 19:02:25 +0000

Hello ORVSD Grant Awardees,

It's been a while since we have touched base formally, so I wanted to remind you all about our up and coming training a week from today (May 19-20) at NWRESD (same place in Hillsboro). Greg and I are looking forward to seeing all of you at the training. If you have a specific questions or information about changes in your group please feel free to email me!

Following is the schedule and a few of the topic that will be addressed at the training.

Monday, May 19th

Breakfast: 8:30-9:00

Work Session: 9:00-12:00

Lunch: 12:00-12:30

Work Session: 12:30-3:30

Tuesday, May 20^th

Breakfast: 8:30-9:00

Work Session: 9:00-12:00

Lunch: 12:00-12:30

Work Session: 12:30-3:30

Various topics to be addressed:

Moodle: Gradebook, Quiz/Questionnaire development, resource/assignment developments (book, etc.); Community forum; NROC overview; New features in Mahara; DrupalEd; Google Tools; What trainings have people done so far (trainer share)?; Create your Region/District training plans and share them (time to create and discuss with other groups will be allotted in the two day sessions).

I'm looking forward to working with you again,

Darren

ORVSD Community Forum

Free textbooks?

gchaix — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 22:06:02 +0000

This is an interesting article in the Chronicle of Higher Education: An Online Company Tries an Unexpected Publishing Model: Free Textbooks

While this particular article is focused on higher education, I'd be interested to hear the ORVSD community's thoughts on the idea and whether it's a relevant issue in the K-12 arena as well. Do you think textbook publishers can succeed with a business model more akin to the open source world than traditional publishing?

ORVSD Community Forum

Battle of the Books

hazel.smith — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 21:51:40 +0000

By now you should have read several of the Battle books. Which of the books were the most interesting for you?

Pick a book from the list.

Shakespeare's Secret

The Next-Door Dogs

Listening for Lions

Sasquatch

Punished

what book did you pick?

What is the setting?

Who are the main characters?

When does the book take place?

What is the most important part of the story?

What was the most interesting part of the books?

Write a short review to persuade other kids to read the books.

ORVSD Community Forum

Make images come alive in the classroom: slideshows or a visual research resource

darren — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 17:44:22 +0000

I think this is one of the most visually interesting tools I have been shown all year! Only exception being ORVSD :)

http://piclens.com/site/firefox/win/

PicLens Products		Click to download
PicLens 1.6.3 for Firefox (Windows)		Download
PicLens 1.6.3 for Firefox (Mac)		Download
PicLens 1.6.3 for Internet Explorer (Windows)		Download
PicLens 1.5.16 for Safari		Download

PicLens Publisher (Windows)		Download
PicLens Publisher (Mac OSX)		Download
PicLens Plugin for WordPress		Download

Cooliris Previews		Click to download
Cooliris Previews for Firefox (Windows, Mac OSX, Linux)		Download
Cooiris Previews for Safari (Mac)		Download
Cooliris Previews for Internet Explorer		Download

ORVSD Community Forum

Success Stories

greg.collver — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 15:43:00 +0000

I would like to read any success stories anyone would care to share on their use of ORVSD resources.

ORVSD Community Forum

On a Bloom role today!

darren — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 22:59:41 +0000

Another great site full of resources on Bloom's taxonomy:

http://www.learnnc.org/lp/pages/bloom0405-1#4-0-0

ORVSD Community Forum

Neat Wiki for teachers (Bloom's Taxonomy with Excellent Rubrics for Digital Assessments)

darren — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 22:00:46 +0000

Might want to explore this wiki! Interesting resources: http://edorigami.wikispaces.com/

ORVSD Community Forum

New E-Portfolio Feature: Institutions

gchaix — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 01:38:26 +0000

We've upgraded the Mahara e-portfolio server!

New features include:

Lots of work on usability. In general, using Mahara should be reasonably simple and straight forward to people with a basic knowledge of computers and the internet.
Devolved administration - each institution in the system can have their own administrators and staff members, leaving the site admin free to manage the overall running of the site.
Group forums - groups can now have their own forums, in which all group members may post. The forums have moderators, closed/sticky topics, threaded replies and subscriptions.
Social networking - It's much easier now to find friends and groups, and users' profile pages are greatly improved. All logged in users can see important information about themselves in a new sideblock.
Heaps of other minor bug fixes and improvements, especially around such areas as database independence, browser support and packagability by distributions.

As you can see, among its the new features is the ability to create multiple institutions. With institutions, we can allow you to segregate and manage your own Mahara users without having to rely on ORVSD staff for simple things like password resets. If you would like to have an institution created for your school or district, please send an e-mail to support@orvsd.org with the name of the institution and the name of the person(s) you'd like to have set as administrators and staff.

Regardless, please give the new version a spin and let us know what you think!

-Greg

ORVSD Community Forum

Child Abuse Prevention Training on ORVSD

snelson — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 18:46:34 +0000

Child Abuse Prevention Training Course

http://courses.orvsd.org/moodle/course/view.php?id=254

This is the training designed to meet the requirements of Senate Bill 379: Child Abuse Identification, Prevention and Reporting. This training, as I have previously told you, is designed for all ESD and SD employees in the state of Oregon. It is also designed to be accessible to all parents. It is NOT designed to meet the requirements in the law regarding training students K-12 and, therefore, is not a training for students.

ORVSD Community Forum

Welcome ORVSD Grant Folks

darren — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 21:31:39 +0000

Spring break is over so I thought I would send you all a little announcement via our ORVSD Community Forum. To begin I would like to thank you for attending the training prior to Spring Break. It was really nice to put a face to the email.

I also appreciate the feedback most of you gave us in the grant training questionnaire. On that note; however, some of you did not complete the questionnaire and we would really appreciate it if you would do so. So if you did not complete the questionnaire for what ever reason (left early, brain dead, long drive, etc.) please do the following:

Go to my ORVSD course (http://oetc.orvsd.org/moodle/) then click on ORVSD Grant Training March 20-21 link under the sub heading Course Categories -Miscellaneous.
Once inside the ORVSD Grant Training March 20-21 course scroll down to course subject #7 and click on Individual ORVSD Grant Training Questionnaire

As for the rest of the group who completed the Individual ORVSD Grant Training Questionnaire we ask that you please address the following questions in this ORVSD Community Forum:

What ideas do you have for the ORVSD site? What does it need? What would you like to see it address in the future?
What do you need on the homepage? What do you like about the homepage? On the contrary, what do you not like?
Give me some ideas of what you would like to see in the May training? (What would you like to see more time spent on? What do you need to have done by ORVSD at or prior to the May 19-20 training in order to develop and administer your region/district training? What new piece/type of content/tools would like to see?