Kamehameha Schools Distance Learning (KSDL) Owau

Dona Young is the author of Writing from the Core and Which comes First, the Comma or the Pause? She describes five steps to make a difference in designing a writing program for students entering college needing remediation to bring them up to college level reading and writing . Step 1. Become an active Researcher Use quantitative and qualitative measures in your design. Quantitative measure give us an accurate idea of what our students know and more importantly, what they don't know. Qualitative feedback allows us to have a constant and steady stream to help us connect with the students' learning needs and their perceptions about learning. These can be very informal but gives you an idea of what your students are thinking. Step 2. use the Taxonomy of Educational Objectives to identify learning gaps. Follow Bloom's Taxonomy to understand why some students work so hard and make so little progress. The hierarchical levels are Knowledge, Comprehension, Application, Ana...

This webinar focused on engagement techniques for synchronous virtual classes that have 10-30 people. There were many useful techniques discussed such as: Create engagement every 3-5 minutes as studies show that participants mentally check out every 7 minutes. Some ways of of creating engagement are: Breaks, re-energizes participants. Display a timer that counts down from 10 min. Storytelling, people remember stories more than plain facts. Thinking, have participants do an activity that involves thinking and give them time to do it. Tests, participants do best when they know an evaluation is coming up. Multiple voices, especially a man and a woman's voice keep participants interested. Humor, participants can hear your emotions so tell an appropriate joke to lighten the mood. Smile when speaking as it changes your voice. Enjoy yourself, if you don't no one else will. Managing Questions Questions usually fall in to four categories: technology, activity instructions, program l...

Aloha all, I recently attended a webinar called "Digital Content" and sponsored by Project Tomorrow. Project Tomorrow organizes the Speak Up survey given every year to students, parents, teachers and administrators across the nation to examine students growing desire for online learning and how schools are meeting that need. What I found interesting were the disconnects between what students want and what they're really getting. It seems like the adults know that students are very technologically savvy and even prefer technology as a means to communicate and socialize, but they don't realize how much students want to be able to apply that to their learning. Students report "powering down" to go to school. School administrators also reported that their teachers were not trained to integrate digital content, but the teachers reported that they felt comfortable using it. Teacher did report that they needed support in identifying digital content that would be m...

Here are a couple of good links to add to our previous blog postings. ... Ko marey's link to the free cheatsheets for 14 different types of software at the Free Technology f or Teachers blog. http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/14-great-cheat-sheets-posters-to-make-you-a-software-wizard/ Print and keep next to your computer for fast reference. Found a good review of Captivate 4 that describes its new features and candidly comments on their usefulness. Nicely done. htt p://www.writersua.com/articles/captivate/

In my quest to find a Web 2.0 tool to share, I kept in mind our homeless tribe. With that in mind, I went out "house" hunting to find a "house" that was free and open in architecture. What I mean by open architecture is a system that provides multiple functions to meet our current needs and is able to grow with us in the future. I know we mentioned Ning in the past, so I started there and will be the focus of this post. Ning lets you create your own social network and offers many features like: blogs, videos, wikis, events, music, rss, chat and more. I really liked the all in one feel and not having to go to separate sites to post to a blog or watch a video. The all in one feel and many features provide a good structure for the "house" and the strategies implemented will make it "livable." I also found it was very easy to create and administer a Ning social network. You can check out the test Ning social network I created at: http://ksdlo...

Maybe I got these from you guys, sorry don't remember, but some of them are kind of handy.. http://www.seoconsultants.com/windows/key/ desktop shortcuts using the Windows key (between the ctrl and alt keys) Window F find file A lt Tab switch between windows Window D minimize all open windows (see desktop) Window D again opens to where you were Window E New explorer window Window start menu Window M minimize all open windows Window shift M restores Window L lock computer Window R run a command Window + Pause/break display system properties http://www.wintipz.com/XP/MinimizeWindows.htm cascading and tiling windows Cascade windows so titles all show Rt. Click task bar (the left side) > Cascade windows. Tile window so you see them side by side Click one button (page) on the Task bar Ctr-Click others. Rt-Click the Task Bar > Tile Horizontally or Tile Vertically T o stop Horizontal or ...