Category Archives: Summer Learning

Posted on by

Summer Camps and Audio Boo

I am in the middle of doing the two summer camps I started last year. Lego Mindstorms and Scratch with some Alice. Lego has been full with this week’s camp having 21 campers. Check out the wiki for more information and pictures. http://dalegoscratchcamps.wikispaces.com/

I have also started testing out Audio Boo on my iPod Touch. It is a free application for the iPod or iPhone that allows recording and posting to a web site. I think it is an interesting concept and wonder how teachers might use it with their Moodle courses. There could be an RSS of audio recorded by the teacher showing up in their Moodle course. Check mine out at DigitalKarl

Posted on by

My Summer Camp Experience

I have had the pleasure of attending the Adventures in Alice workshop at Duke University this week. http://www.cs.duke.edu/csed/alice/aliceInSchools/ It is being taught by Professor. Susan Rodger. I have done some basic work with Alice over the last two years. I was often frustrated since I could not really get going as the software is not something you can start and stop. My goal was to spend this week to learning more about Alice and playing with the software. I am happy to say I am meeting my goals. I want to do this because as a school, I believe we need to do a better job of recruiting female students to our computer science courses. I see Alice and Scratch as vehicles to getting this accomplished.

Tomorrow we are visiting DiVE which should be very awesome. http://vis.duke.edu/

In addition, we are hearing from the director of the Virtual Computer Lab at NC State. http://vcl.ncsu.edu/

How do I make our school aware of the power at our fingertips? Where do we find the time? I hope to have students create Alice worlds for reports.

Technorati Tags:

Posted on by

Lego and Scratch Camps Wiki

I have created a wiki to collect information for the camps that Ada and I are doing in July. Both Lego camps are full with 18 campers. (Session 6: 7/14- 7/18 9:00 – 12:00 and Session 7: 7/21 – 2/28 9:00 0 12:00) Both Scratch camps are full enough to go forward although there is still some room left if you are interested. (Session 6: [13 campers] 1:00 – 4:00 and Session 7: [11 campers] 1:00 0 4:00)

I am excited to be doing the camp and have been working hard on “playing” in order to get ready.

Posted on by

Raybook offers FREE US Geography Learning!!

Just in time for summer vacation, Raybook is offering U.S. Geography for FREE with the code “LEARNGEO,” through the month of May. Get it now and those long plane, train, car rides can prepare your students for next summer. In addition, they are also offering 20% off any title for the same time period with “SPRING08”

This article appeared in our News and Notes earlier in the year:

Durham Academy has purchased a site license for Raybook Math Facts to outfit first and second grade students with Math Facts: Addition and Subtraction and third and fourth grade students with Math Facts: Multiplication and Division. The programs provide simple flash cards and study guides to help students learn fundamental math skills. In addition to having them in the classroom, students and parents will be able to download these Raybooks for home use.

The Raybooks were recently tested in the Lower School’s second and third grades. “The students were highly motivated to practice with them,” said math coordinator Bonnie Boaz. “They looked forward to practicing with the iPods and didn’t view it as a drill.” Second and third graders worked in pairs with one student operating the iPod and the other answering the questions. Their scores on subsequent tests tended to be higher than when using traditional methods to practice math facts.

Modality, Inc. is the maker of Raybook, which combines text, images and audio into portable learning and reference resources for the iPod. Originally designed for college anatomy students, founder and DA parent Mark Williams saw that this simple repetition would have application for all levels of students. He was recently named one of 10 Apple Science Innovators for 2008, recognizing individuals who demonstrate excellence in the integration of new technology in research and education.

After we purchased the site license for Math Facts Raybooks we mailed each Lower School parent the key codes for their very own copy. We hoped they would download and use the Raybooks as we believe the iPod can be a much stronger learning tool then it has been seen as a device to leave in their bookbag.

One parent, really liked our idea and left Michele Gutierrez some feedback. How many school technology teachers would like to get this feedback?
Parent Raybook Feedback

Posted on by

June Moodle Workshop at Durham Academy

I am pleased to announce that Durham Academy will be hosting a Moodle Workshop for any teacher in the area who would like to attend.

Moodle is an Open-Source Virtual Learning Environment that can be used to extend your course or classroom. Durham Academy began using Moodle in 2006 and to date have over 100 courses being taught using Moodle to extend the learning in dynamic ways.

Durham Academy is pleased to announce another opportunity for you to learn how to use Moodle by attending a 4 day session from June 9 – 12, 2008 at the Durham Academy Middle School. The workshop will run from 8:30 – 3:30 daily – Monday – Thursday. You should plan to attend all 4 days. The cost for the session is $200.00 and will include lunch and refreshments each day. Payment can be made in advance or on the first day of the workshop. Lodging will be the responsibility of the attendee.

Attendees will work on creating their own course using the DAILE Moodle server. Any work done can be exported and taken back to attendees school. No prior experience with Moodle is needed.

Attendees will learn about many of the modules that Moodle offers and be able to see how teachers have successfully used them here at Durham Academy.

To register or questions, please e-mail Karl Schaefer or call 919-489-9118 x 4335

Technorati Tags:

Posted on by

Lego, Scratch and Alice Camps at Durham Academy

For the first time ever, I am conducting two camps with the help of a student. I have never done this before as I usually work most of June teaching workshops with teachers and then feel the need to work on my farm. I want folks who are reading my blog and live in the Durham NC, USA area to think about signing up for the camps. I am very excited to offer these two camps as they will provide me an opportunity to teach students some skills that are not offered here at school.

The camps will be taught twice so only come to one week. To register or find out more, please go to: Durham Academy Summer Programs

Spike

Lego Mindstorms – Week 6 July 14 – 18 or Week 7 July 21 – 25, Morning
Fee: $190 Grades: 3 – 8
Instructor: Karl Schaefer and Ada T.
Learn to build and program Lego Mindstorm NXT robots. Campers will work in teams to design and construct robots to perform a variety of movements and responses. No prior experience needed.
To learn more visit: http://mindstorms.lego.com/

Scratch2

Scratch Programming Week 6 July 14 – 18 or Week 7 July 21 – 25, Afternoon
Fee: $190 Grades: 3 – 8
Instructor: Karl Schaefer and Ada T.
Scratch is free software from MIT that we will use in this fun and creative camp.
Quotes are from the Scratch Web Site – http://scratch.mit.edu/
“Scratch is a new programming language that makes it easy to create your own interactive stories, animations, games, music, and art.
Scratch is designed to help young people (ages 8 and up) develop 21st century learning skills. As they create Scratch projects, young people learn important mathematical and computational ideas, while also gaining a deeper understanding of the process of design.”

Alice.Org

We also hope to cover Alice if there is time.
From the Alice.org web site:
“Alice is an innovative 3D programming environment that makes it easy to create an animation for telling a story, playing an interactive game, or a video to share on the web. Alice is a teaching tool for introductory computing. It uses 3D graphics and a drag-and-drop interface to facilitate a more engaging, less frustrating first programming experience”.

Technorati Tags: