Content Standards and Technology

I am a fan of technology in education. I love Linux and the applications for classroom use. Computers are wonderful tools. This idea of the computer being a tool is key. We can have computers and the most fabulous software. If technology does not add to what we want to specifically teach and guide student learning based on learning standards, why have it?

I use the California Academic Content Standards to guide my teaching. It only makes sense to apply those standards to the activities I have my students working on while they are on the computers. During my first year with this lab, I have been able to integrate writing and research in science. My students were engaged in learning and stayed on task.

Convert Open Office Presentations to Flash Slide Shows

Here is something I discovered. Did you know that you can save Open Office Impress Presentation documents in Flash format? Why is this important? With this capability, you can create a tutorial or slide show and place it on your website. The presentation can be accessed right on your website using Macromedia Flash which everyone has. All you have to do is create your presentation and save it. Then, go to File/Export and choose Macromedia Flash (swf). Save to your desktop. Open this file by opening Firefox. Then, go to File/Open File. Browse and find your swf file and open it. If it works here, it will work on a web page.

Classroom Web Pages

One thing that was helpful last year was creating a website for my students. It was the first thing they viewed when they went online. It provided resources to begin searches, information about the lab, links to educational sites and games, helpful videos, and a way to contact me online. It is constantly changing and featured photos of the year's activities and field trips. Here is the link to our site: http://hawaiianfifthgrade.weebly.com/ This year I plan to incorporate our math textbook into the site. Students will always have access to their book. I use weebly.com to publish my website. It is very user friendly.

Background and Purpose

The 2008 CUE conference featured an Open Source Linux lab created by Steve Hargadon. The lab consisted of thirty-two thin client laptops and a server running a Fedora Linux Terminal Server Project network. All the computers were donated and the cost of the lab was under $1000.00. All the software was free and the system was fast. I realized the potential of this resource and how my students would benefit from using this technology in their classroom. Linux is free and works on virtually any computer. A network is easy to build and configure. Since then, I have integrated Edubuntu LTSP into my fifth grade classroom. Open Source software has created many new learning opportunities for me and my students. The purpose of this blog is to share methods of integration and teaching strategies within the daily schedule of the classroom as well as sharing basic administration tasks. Hopefully the information on this blog will help others.