Maine Learning Technology Initiative

The 8th Annual MLTI Conference was a great success! Over 1000 participants converged on the UMaine’s Orono campus for a day devoted to inspiration and information. Highlights of the day included four powerful student voices in Block 1 – Joe Lien of Poland High School, Hannah Potter of Yarmouth High School, Chris Jones of Oak Hill High School, and Mike Rodway of Telstar Middle School. These student presenters held the attention of Commissioner of Education Steven Bowen and the 1000+ conference attendees as they made clear what can be done when the potential of the MLTI is fully leveraged. Don’t be surprised if you hear from these four – they have compelling stories to tell, and know how to get a message across. Visit the Student Conference Webpage and click into Block 1 and follow links for each to learn more about these amazing young Mainers, and visit other parts of the conference web site to learn more about this incredible event.

Maine DOE Newsroom

• 1,100-plus celebrate MLTI at UMaine
• Sharing a ‘new view’ through MLTI
• From MLTI student to international programmer
• Using MLTI to learn through video

Mark your calendars! The date has been set for next year, the 9th Annual MLTI Student Conference Thursday May 24, 2012

There were great discussions and resources from participants who joined us on May 12th for the Cyberbullying and Your School Webinar.  My thanks to Rebecca Randall for joining us and giving us good advice on cyberbullying and talking about the Common Sense Media programs for schools.  Common Sense has an elementary and middle school curriculum and will have a high school curriculum available in the Fall.  You can contact me at teri.caouette@mlti.org for more information.

Representative Don Pilon was not able to join us due to a vote on health care.   Don Pilon  is not the only legislator who is concerned enough about cyberbullying to sponsor a bill.  Please check out the National Conference of State Legislatures site which lists several states that have enacted legislation.
http://www.ncsl.org/default.aspx?tabid=12903

Added Resources from participants:

Book, Stop Laughing at Me by Jodee Blanco (also a speaker)

The book The Bully by Paul Langan as a school/community read on Cyberbullying

An article in The Healthland http://healthland.time.com/2011/02/08/do-popular-kids-bully-more/

Reference sources from our webinar:

Common Sense Media (sign on as an educator to get material for lessons)
http://www.commonsensemedia.org
Center for Safe and Responsible Internet Use
www.cyberbully.org
Cyberbullying Research Center
www.cyberbullying.us
Stop Cyberbullying
http://www.stopcyberbullying.org/
MPBN Maine Lawmakers Propose Measures to Combat Bullying  2/11/2011
http://www.mpbn.net/Home/tabid/36/ctl/ViewItem/mid/3478/ItemId/15157/Default.aspx
Confronting Cyberbullying by Peter Levy THEJournal  5/2/2011
http://thejournal.com/articles/2011/05/02/confronting-cyberbullying.aspx

Articles from Marvel         Academic Research or Eric

Cyberbullying
By: HOLLADAY, JENNIFER.
Education Digest, Jan2011, Vol. 76 Issue 5, p4-9, 6 p.

High-Tech Cruelty
By: Hinduja, Sameer; Patchin, Justin W.. Educational Leadership, Feb2011, Vol. 68 Issue 5, p48-52, 5p

Assessing Middle School Students’ Knowledge of Conduct & Consequences
And Their Bhaviors regarding the Use of Social Networworking Sites
By: Kite, Stacey L.; Gable, Robert; Filippelli, Lawrence. Clearing House: A Journal of Educational Strategies, Issues and Ideas, v83 n5 p158-163 2010. (EJ893199)

Cyberbullying and Other Student Technology Misuses in K-12 American Schools: The Legal Landmines
By: Conn, Kathleen. Widener Law Review, 2010, Vol. 16 Issue 1, p89-100, 12p

Cyberbullying at School: Good Practice and Legal Aspects
By: Marczak, Magdalena; Coyne, Iain. Australian Journal of Guidance & Counselling, Dec2010, Vol. 20 Issue 2, p182-193, 12p; DOI: 10.1375/ajgc.20.2.182

Drama is the term HS students often use for cyberbullying
Advice for schools:

Review and update existing policies
Implement an education program in your school.

Use creative ways to raise awareness, like public service messages
Have older students teaching younger students importance of using technology in ethical ways.

Peer mentors for students
Role playing to create empathy
Schools need to learn ways to de-escalate

Teacher Advice to Students:

Ignore the bully

Save evidence

Change your privacy settings

Tell trusted friends and adults

Stand up to the offender and if that is not possible, befriend the target and help him/her advocate.

School systems in Maine and all over the United States are dealing with issues related to Cyberbullying.  It is deeply affecting our students and learning environments.  Join me and my guest Rebecca Randall from Common Sense Media at the 3:15 webinar as we look at this issue and give practical advice on how to deal with it in your school.

At 7:15 Representative Don Pilon will also join us to speak about the bill he is sponsoring LD 980, “An Act to Prohibit Cyberbullying in Schools”  Please come with your questions for Rebecca and Representative Pilon.

Select the webcasts tab from the top menu, then scroll down to April 26, 2011 and select the time interested to be directed to registration.

Great big thanks to Nadene Mathes, who took us through the projects she has been working on with her First Grade students, connecting with students in Europe and collaborating on some excellent work. Her work really exemplifies the power of connecting with other classrooms and teachers: her students got to experience life in a culture separate (but similar!) to theirs; they exhibited excellent digital citizenship skills and picked up many good habits that will sustain through their school careers.

Please check out the sites where you can see the work of Nadene’s students:

http://booksmakefriends.blogspot.com/

http://myfriend-thebear.blogspot.com/

To find classrooms and teachers that are looking to connect, try the following sites:

http://www.epals.com/

(MLTI’s Epals page: http://www.epals.com/connects/usa/maine/)

http://teachersconnecting.com/

http://www.classroom20.com/

Also try Google Earth Community – try looking under the ‘Education’ forum:
http://bbs.keyhole.com/ubb/ubbthreads.php/Cat/0

Great places to find teachers on Twitter (thanks to Richard Byrne for this information):

http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2009/03/seven-ways-to-find-teachers-on-twitter.html

The Flat Classroom project is inspiring in so many ways, and gives a great view of how large collaboration projects can grow. The site has much to explore and learn from:

http://www.flatclassroomproject.net/

Some tools that were mentioned as a means to connect included iChat, Skype, and Voicethread. In addition, using wikis to collaborate and blogs to host information are great tools for students to get involved with. Check out wikispaces and edublogs for free wiki and blog hosting.

Other means of sharing work:

http://www.youtube.com/

https://www.dropbox.com

Thanks to all those who took part in the webinar. Please get in touch if you have any further comments or questions.

This webinar will focus on the connectivity of our classrooms: getting our students in touch with other students, educators and experts outside of our school buildings. There is tremendous learning to be gained from discussions and collaborative work with people outside of the immediate environs. Differing perspectives, language practice, sharing lifestyle and culture information can all lead to a rewarding experience for students.
I will be joined by my special guest Nadene Mathes, first grade teacher at Atwood Primary School. She will take us through a project her students worked on with students in Europe, helping us to understand the work that goes into connection projects and the benefits her students gained from taking part. The webinar will also look at places to get started on connection projects, some ideas for ongoing projects and tools that can be used to smooth the way.
The webinar will take place on Thursday, March 24, at 3.15 and again at 7.15. To register for the webinar, click on the ‘Webcasts’ tab above and follow directions.

Image by superkimbo on Flickr, used under Creative Commons License.

As citizens of the 21-st century, we have reached a point in human history where content creation and consumption is at an all time high. With this increase the notion of copyright has become prominent among all who traffic information. This webinar will provide the participant with an introduction to the concepts of copyright.

During the 3:15pm webinar we have the honor of talking with Creative Commons Policy Coordinator, Tim Vollmer. He will be discussing Creative Commons from an educators point of view. There will be time for Q&A so make sure to bring your questions.

During the 7:15pm webinar we will be discussing Copyright and Creative Commons with as many layman’s terms as possible. Very often it is easy to get caught up in the jargon around copyright. This session aims to introduce participants to copyright, the public domain, fair use, and Creative Commons.

Come join us Thursday, February 3, 2011 at 3:15 or 7:15 pm.  To register for this webinar, select the Webcasts tab at the top of the page and register for the time desired.

Update: As promised I have updated this post with links and resources used in the two webinars. Click read more to view them.

Read more…

The Maine Learning Technology Initiative in partnership with the Good Shepherd Food Bank and the United Nations World Food Programme is excited to invite you to participate in the first annual Rice Bowl Challenge. We invite you to challenge your students to Think Globally, Act Locally. The challenge starts now and runs through February 12, 2011.

Students can Think Globally by playing the Freerice game online that challenges them with questions about art, vocabulary, chemistry, geography, world languages, and math. For each question answered correctly, 10 grains of rice are donated to the World Food Programme. The game is adaptive, so as students answer correctly, the questions get harder! The Rice Bowl Challenge sees two teams compete for the RiceBowl championship. The objective? To raise rice for WFP and beat global hunger while proving intellectual strength.

Super Bowl 2010’s Most Valuable Player Drew Brees and Freerice are challenging students and sports fans, young and old, to team up for a different kind of bowl game this February, with the goal of beating global hunger.

The challenge runs February 6 – 12, with results tallied daily. Three Brees-autographed footballs will go to the top players who rack up the most rice by February 12.

Leading the charge this year is the Students Team led by the Maine Department of Education’s 1:1 laptop program, the Maine Learning Technology Initiative (MLTI). MLTI has already begun its blitz to tackle hunger, organizing 100,000 students to battle for the Bowl. Are you a student? MLTI invites you to join the MLTI Student team.

This year, we hope that 100,000 Maine students will participate! Students, teachers, parents, and community members can play. Learn more at http://www.mlti.org/ricebowl

Students can Act Locally by helping to raise online donations for the Good Shepherd Food Bank. The Good Shepherd Food Bank helps collect and distribute much needed food to organizations all over Maine to help feed the hungry. Schools can compete to see which school can raise the most money during the RiceBowl Challenge by registering online. By registering, your school will have a unique URL (for example myschool.gsfb.org) that will accept online donations directly to the Good Shepherd Food Bank on behalf of your school. 100,000 students each helping to raise an average of $10 each would mean $1 million to help feed the hungry here in Maine. To learn more and register your school, please visit http://www.mlti.org/ricebowl

Wait there’s more! Check out these curricular ideas on how to challenge kids to think about how to solve hunger. If you have additional ideas, please share them by adding comments to this blog post!!

Please feel free to share this with all your schools in your district!

Curriculum Ideas:

• Hunger Tree
• How’d That Get on my Plate?
• The Millennium Development Goals (.pdf)
• Web of Connections (.pdf)

The MLTI team announces the creation of MLTI Minute (MM). The MM is bite size PD for all MLTI users. We realize everyone has busy schedules and although we all would like to know more about our MLTI computers we often struggle to find the time. Most MM episodes only take a minute or two to watch, with some taking a few minutes longer.

The short Screen Recordings cover a variety of topics related to MLTI. The clips show, as well as talk through demonstrations of the various features and applications of your MLTI MacBook. Each episode will focus on a tip or topic to help you make the most of MLTI. These bite size chunks of PD should help save time in your classroom or with your homework as they demonstrate some of the wonderful features of your MLTI laptop.

Perhaps there is something on your MLTI MacBook you would like to know more about? There is a section on the MM site for you to request a MM. If you request it, we will create it.

These short professional development clips are suitable for teachers, administrators students and parents. They work for anyone involved with the Maine Learning Technology Initiative. All MLTI Minutes are tagged. Use the search feature to find an episode.

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Do you have a minute? Visit MLTI Minute today

While planning this month’s MLTI Principals Webinar with our outstanding team of expert guests, I had a feeling it would be an interesting and engaging session, and my intuition was correct! Each guest could easily have filled the allotted hour with excellent insights and useful information for the 60 or so registered participants.  With a flurry of draft PDFs, comments, questions, and revisions emailed back and forth, our team of six created a webinar jam packed with great advice and dozens of online resources for principals and their leadership teams to help effectively address cyberbullying in Maine’s schools and communities.

We began with Tom Harnett’s advice from the Maine Department of the Attorney General. His slides emphasized the importance of applying existing state laws and their requirements in all harassment and hazing situations, including cyberbullying.  Next, Teri Caouette, MLTI Integration Mentor (IM), emphasized the importance of clear and ongoing communication among school leaders, staff, students, and parents around digital citizenship, acceptable use, and related policies.  Veteran middle level education expert Ed Brazee and Connie Carter of Operation Breaking Steroetypes shared their insights and many online resources about the importance of integrating digital citizenship, cyberbullying, and the school’s curriculum.  Ted Hall and Alice Barr from Yarmouth High School shared two highly effective school programs.  An evening aimed at helping parents understand what it takes to parent in a digital world has been well received in their community.  A digital citizenship program for incoming 9th graders provides freshmen with a common basis for understanding their rights and responsibilities as digital citizens in and out of school.  Stan Davis from stopbullyingnow.com did a great job of extending participants’ thinking by sharing his work and research relating to the victims of bullying and implications for bystanders.  This student perspective is often neglected because of the focus on rules and consequences.  Stan ended with a thought provoking comment relating to our need to understand how issues of student privacy and legal liability may be impacted by digital technology.

To access the archived recording, transcript of the online chat, PDF of the Powerpoint, and shared links you can find them on the WebCast Archives Page of the Maine121 website.

This Wednesday, December 15th at 4 PM the second MLTI Principals’
Webinar will take place. The topic is Cyberbullying – What Principals
Must Do. We’ve gathered some great people and resources for this jam
packed one hour session. Thom Harnett of the Maine Attorney General’s Office, Stan Davis from Stop Bullying Now, Ted Hall and Alice Barr from Yarmouth High School, Ed Brazee and Connie Carter from Operation Breaking Stereotypes, and MLTI Integration Mentor Teri Caouette will share advice and specific suggestions as well as philosophical insights about how to combat cyberbullying in our schools. Sooo…bring your principals and/or assistant principals, and even if you can’t get them, feel free to join us for what promises to be a timely and useful session.