September 2007, Volume 8, Issue 3
 

Google Earth

Google isn't the only site I'm goo-ga about, but it is among the top. I bought a telescope, my first, last week. As I prepared to educate myself about the vast skies surrounding  the Four Corners, I found out that Google has a wonderful downloadable tool for potential or experienced sky gazers and geographers.

"Google Earth combines the power of Google Search with satellite imagery, maps, terrain and 3D buildings to put the world's geographic information at your fingertips.

  • Fly to your house. Just type in an address, press Search, and you’ll zoom right in.
  • Search for schools, parks, restaurants, and hotels. Get driving directions.
  • Tilt and rotate the view to see 3D terrain and buildings, or look up to explore the sky
  • Save and share your searches and favorites."

"Since Google Earth was launched, users have been exploring our world and creating content overlays (KML files) to share their explorations with others. We're now highlighting user-created KML files each week in the new Google Earth Gallery. You can also choose to add the gallery's Google Gadget to your iGoogle page."

What about our students? In the last issue, we talked about the new generation of learners. They want places to become creative. No more sage on the stage! Let's give them the space and the tools to express themselves as they teach themselves. Google Earth allows students to identify themselves and then to share with others. Think of students all over the world (ELL?) showing each other exactly where they live. Think of teaching them coordinates, a must in order to establish a home site; entering data about the area; entering images and shapes, directions and posters; searching the night sky; creating files; on and on.

Once the globe appeared in Google Earth, I held my cursor (hand symbol) on the surface and turned the world around and around. I double-clicked on Kiev, and kept double-clicking until the city was right there in front of me, buildings, streets and all. (Be sure to give the image time to focus at each setting.) In one of the plazas, I took dozens of photos. Travel time? Seconds. Enjoyment? Maximum. Cost? Nada. You may also use your mouse scrolling wheel to zoom in and out of the whole world! What a kick! Have your students take you to their favorite places or show you their home towns and schools. Take them to Paris, London, Timbuktu. Talk  about your trip, discuss the foods, the people, the activities, the geography, the history, the currency, the politics, the..., the... Limitless possibilities! Have them enter that mood: creative, competent, and joyful, all at the same time!

As with all tools, Google Earth and similar tools may not engage everyone, but they will offer a delightful addition to the international banquet we can serve our learners. And...it's FREE!

Go to http://earth.google.com/ to get a tour and to download the application. Go to http://earth.google.com/gallery/ to explore some of the projects people are creating. Your students can be one of them!

This is tool a step forward from my previously-mentioned mapping tools. If you liked that one, you'll love this one!

CAESAR-II

CDE/AEFL has extended the launch date for CAESAR-II until September 24th. That is good news because you have an added opportunity to play in the sandbox! If you are a program manager, please, please get in there and try all of the new features that allow you to enter data easily and intuitively.

Feedback on features that you would like to see in the program is invited, so get your ideas posted. At this time we are NOT soliciting ideas for reports, as we have a large backlog on our wish-list of reports for data management as well as a lot of work ahead of us in replacing the search function in old CAESAR with edit reports in CAESAR II.   

To try CAESAR-II features and to practice your data entry skills, go to https://cdeapps.cde.state.co.us/adulted/. Enter your old username and password. If your old username ends in four digits, leave those off ( i.e. daveg1234 would be daveg).

The system will only be available for testing until 3pm each day. After 3pm, the database will be refreshed by converting data from the old CAESAR system. The conversion will take until midnight. That means that you can enter any data to your heart's content, and it will be erased at the end of the day.

Debra Fawcett sent each program a the list of dates for Webinar Orientations being offered. Once you attend a Webinar Orientation, you will be given information to enter the support site for CAESAR II users. That site is your support and communication area with each other and with Dave Gustafson and/or Debra. Always be sure to read all of the messages posted since they may answer many of your questions up front. Webinars will continue to be offered at least once a week, even beyond the launch date. 

ALL PROGRAM MANAGERS ARE STRONGLY URGED TO SIGN UP AND ATTEND A WEBINAR ORIENTATION. Plan approximately one hour using phone and computer connectivity with Go to Meeting software. Your only cost will be the phone call, which should be minimal, depending on your own long distance service. You will receive instructions on how to connect once you sign up.

W.I.N.E. Retreat

The First Annual Western Information & Networking Exchange (W.I.N.E.) was held at the Two River Convention and Conference Center in Grand Junction Colorado on September 13 and 14. The goal of the exchange was to provide an opportunity for professionals from various state agencies to come together and learn from each other. (We just happened to be there during the Palisade Wine Fest and the last week of the Grand Junction downtown open market..) An additional goal of the conference was to provide a place for state professionals with cross-disciplinary interests related to education to meet and interact with members inside and outside their own particular disciplines. This year, the conference highlighted Adult Education, Labor, Corrections and Workforce agencies within the Western Slope. Thank you, Doug Glynn, for getting adult education involved!

We exchanged rich ideas and resources throughout the two days and got to know each other through faces and voices instead of just titles. All topics discussed deserve mentioning, but I'll share only two items here.

1. WorkKeys from ACT - So often I hear myself and others expressing a desire to have alternative ways of showing employers that students are competent in different areas. WorkKeys is one answer if the workplace in your area is prepared to endorse its certification process. The process of developing WorkKeys is called profiling. Profiling involves (a) anaylyzing specific jobs throughout the nation and in specific states,  (b) having workers from different companies identify each work task in terms of its demand for "real world" foundational skills on a scale of 1-6; (c) providing  assessments to identify skill gaps for specific occupations among potential employees; and (d) providing descriptors to assist in designing curriculum and training to fill those gaps. For more information on how to start implementing WorkKeys in your community, go to http://www.act.org/workkeys/overview/index.html. You may also contact Thomas Kilijanek, PhD, Senior Consultant for WorkKeys in Colorado: thomas.kilijanek@act.org. There are hundreds of careers already profiled and waiting for your students to meet job requirements.

2. Dr. Raymond Wlodkowski applies what he "preaches" and had us working together to experience his  message of "Enhancing Success among Adult Learners." You might remember him from his talk at  Rendezvous. Central to learning, says Wlodkoswski, is the engagement of the learner's emotions and the linkage  between new content and the learner's knowledge.

Think of activities that have you feel creative, joyful, and competent at the same time. That is the mood, or emotional state, that you want to encourage in students. Consider also how to help the learner connect with the material by bringing up prior knowledge related to it. Finally, as you assessing the amount of learning that students take from their time with you, consider applying I AM Competent and H3 checks that follow.

Were these elements present?

  • Inclusion: Respect and Correctedness
  • Attitude: Relevance and Volition
  • Meaning: Challenge and Engagement
  • Competence: Effectiveness and Authenticity

How will the 3H's work?

  • Head: How will they continue to think about the content?
  • Heart: How engaged were their emotions, and did they emerge feeling supported?
  • Hand: What will they actually do as a result?

Recommended Reading

  • Any of Raymond Wlodkowski  and M.B. Ginsberg (his wife and working partner) publications concerning adult learners and their motivation, learning diversity, cultural responses, and related research. Go to Google and enter "Raymond Wlodkowski ." Google will open a book page (new feature) that lists all of an author's works with links to how to buy it. I've pasted a couple of entries below.

    Creating Highly Motivating Classrooms for All Students: A Schoolwide ...

    by Margery B. Ginsberg, Raymond J. Wlodkowski - Education - 2000 - 336 pages
     
    "Ginsberg and Wlodkowski each bring a lifetime of knowledge and experience to this
    book.

    Accelerated Learning for Adults: The Promise and Practice of Intensive ...

    by Raymond J. Wlodkowski, Carol E. Kasworm - Education - 2003 - 112 pages
     
    This is the 97th volume of New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education, a
    quarterly report published by Jossey-Bass.
       
    Atttewell, P., Leavin, D.E. Domina, T., and Levey, T. Passing the Torch: Does Higher Education for the Disadvantaged Pay Off Across the Generations? New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 2007 - Very interesting research and worth applying among our students! Click on the book to go to Barnes and Noble or do more searching to find other reviews or costs.

     

    Zehr , Mary Ann, Interactivity Seen as Key, September 12, 2007 - "Teachers should focus on seeking out technology that encourages interactive learning by English-language learners and not be preoccupied with whether the technology is designed particularly for such students" -  Does that pique your interest? If so, go to http://www.edweek.org/dd/articles/2007/09/12/02ell.h01.html and read the rest. (Thanks, Phyllis Dobson, CCCOnline for pointing out the article.)

Office 2007

Uh, oh! Here come the new kids on the block with MS Vista and Office 2007! Be very aware! Most reviews I have read tell me to wait for Vista if you want to avoid compulsive hair-pulling. So what do you do if, like me,  you want to upgrade to Office 2007? Most recommend that you keep Windows XP and install Office 2007 on that platform. (Whatever you do, avoid installing Office 2003 on Vista! No, no, no!) Vista will be fixed soon, we hope, so hold off those new purchases with Vista platforms. On the other hand, if your experience has been positive using Vista, drop me a note with details, and I'll add it to the next issue.

Sooo, what do you do if your students send you Word documents from Word 2007? You have a few options in addition to the following two:

  1. Tell them to resave and send you the file as a .doc.
  2. Go to http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/products/HA101686761033.aspx and download a free converter from Microsoft, which will allow you to open the Word 2007 files in your Word 2003 application. (Office 2007 has .docx or .xlx extensions, which I understand will not open in Word 2003.)

CCCOnline Courses

Two EDU courses have made and more to follow if you act quickly!

Puzzle

Enjoy solving the puzzle with your ABE and ESL students learning math language!

NOTE: As with all images online, right-click the image of the puzzle below, and select "copy." Go to Word or another application, and "paste" the image into a page. You can then resize it and print it.

From http://www.edhelper.com

Please send me your ideas for future issues! What do your students want?

CONTACT ME: leecy@coloradoadulted.org
970-562-4418