I may also post information and resources connected to other projects I'm involved with. And perhaps this can be a source of online professional development for you, the readers of my blog.

I hope you will find this a useful space for support and resources. Please leave comments so that we can continue conversations begun during face-to-face meetings and workshops. Or begin a conversation with a question or suggestion. A blog is always made better through the contributions of the readers.

You can also find other thoughts and reflections on my other blog. Reflections Along the Way

And feel free to contact me by email as well. I'll look forward to hearing from you.

Basics and Beyond Basics Training Materials

Hilton Central Schools SMART Board Pilot Project Wiki

My Link Collection to SMART Board Resources

Free SMART Board Interactive Viewer

SMART Education Resources

Feel free to contact me with any questions or if you need further support.

I plan to post a short series of blog entries illustrating how I am creating my own "PLN" and the value that it gives to me. In this first post in the series, I'd like to introduce you to Plurk.

Plurk, and other similar networks such as Twitter, enable you to find others of like or differing ideas and interests and "follow" them. People post short snippets of ideas, questions, projects they are working on, links to resources and more.

Take a look at Plurk through my Plurk network.

Lori's Plurk Network

And here are a few of my latest "plurks."

So, what value does my Plurk network give to me?
In the last 2 months, people in my Plurk network have made the following possible for me:

• I've gotten countless links to resources that will be very useful in my work
• I was stumped by a problem I was having with Moodle, the software I use for my online courses. I had asked several people I know and no one could help me. Instead, someone I have never met, in Michigan and a member of my Plurk network, helped me to solve the problem.
• I was made aware of a wonderful project, Pinwheels for Peace. I was able to involve students and teachers in this project to celebrate International Day of Peace. We were able to add our photos to those of others around the US who also participated as one of my Plurk colleagues made a collaborative VoiceThread.
• I've participated in thought provoking discussions that help me to grow professionally
• I've participated in purely "just for fun" real time discussions with people all over the United States as we simultaneously watch our favorite television program.
• I've gotten, and have shared, feedback almost instantly about software, hardware and other resources.

And these are but a few of the things that being a part of this PLN have brought to me.

Nearer to the beginning of this project, the teacher had asked me to come to her classroom to talk with the students about how to present their projects. She had lots of examples of exemplary projects from past classes for the students to look at. The one difference this year is that the classroom now has a SMART Board, so she wanted me to talk with the students about ways to use the unique features of the SMART Board for presenting their final projects.

We had had a great discussion that day, led completely by the students' questions. We talked about how to navigate a PowerPoint on the SMART Board and how to make use of the SMART tools, like the pens, to focus attention or highlight information during the presentation. But then they also began asking questions about how to embed and play video, how to use text and pictures as hyperlinks, how to make a presentation more professional looking, more interactive, more interesting for the audience. I was impressed by their questions and thrilled to have the opportunity to discuss the art of presentation with them.

Fast forward to today. I saw one pair of girls finishing up their presentation on Spain. They were so calm, confident and poised. They navigated their PowerPoint on the SMART Board without missing a beat, as though they'd been doing it for years. They had embedded links in photos they had downloaded that took you to websites for more information. The next team, 3 boys, presented their research on Australia. Again, with confidence and enthusiasm, they ran their PowerPoint. They had embedded and linked all manner of multimedia to their presentation, all of which enhanced what they were sharing. They included links to websites, to videos, to virtual tours, to Google maps street view so that they could walk you up to the Sydney Opera House. They had built and embedded graphs that they could manipulate as they spoke about the data. They posed multiple choice questions with photo choices and linked to the correct answer. They used the SMART Board pens to color code and highlight information on combined graphs that they thought might be confusing to their audience. They included maps and used the pens to highlight areas they were referring to. It was so refreshing to see students use a PowerPoint to really present, to go beyond the usual bulleted points with semi-appropriate clip art, with things flying in and out and students just standing there reading the over abundance of text on each slide. You know, the usual sixth grade student presentation we've all seen hundreds of times.

So how did the SMART Board make this transformation happen? These students were motivated to reach beyond, to really think not only about their research and the information they wanted to share, but also about the best way to present it. Having a somewhat novel piece of technology available and having seen their teacher present lessons and ideas differently using it, caused them to consider aspects of presentation that most other sixth graders never think about. Because of what they've come to expect during lessons using the SMART Board, interactivity, student involvement, multimedia content, they just naturally assumed their presentations should include these same elements. Yes, these same things, for the most part, could have been done without the presence of the SMART Board, but I don't think it would have been as likely to have occurred to these students. The SMART Board has, by example, raised the stakes, so to speak. These students expect more in their lessons and reflected this in their own presentations as well. What a difference this SMART Board has made!

Harnessing the Power of the Internet in the Web 2.0 Classroom

Session Description

Today's students demand multimedia, interactive tools to keep them interested and engaged, bridging the gap between school and the real world. In this session participants will learn about interactive, online multimedia tools that when embedded into classroom instruction can bring all core subject areas to life. Participants will be taken on a tour of Scholastic.com, Thinkfinity.com, National Library of Virtual Manipulates and so much more.