TECHNOLOGY NEWSLETTER WINTER 2015
In This Issue: Apps to Explore Articles of Interest Classroom Initiatives Faculty Workshops Making and Tinkering Spotted in the Schoolhouse TED Talks of Interest
Issue I, Volume I
Winter 2015
TECHNOLOGY NEWSLETTER Getting Connected | Staying in Touch | Looking Ahead
Faculty Workshops
Tech@Nightingale: Opening Doors
The following workshops were offered to Nightingale faculty members this fall: November Getting Started with MacBooks Screencasting Collaboration in the Cloud December Blended Learning Collaboration in the Cloud MacBook Airs
Social Media and Your Daughter The Ten Commandments of Instagram Common sense tips for digital citizenship on Instagram
As a popular television show claims, “successful restaurants
Tech Tidbits
physical change, the technology department ushered in a
Quick and Helpful Hints
The team hit the ground running with newly defined roles,
Goo.gl Goo.gl provides a free widget similar to Bitly or TinyUrl that allows you to take your long, cumbersome html link and shorten it. The more manageable size won’t break in e-mails and can be more easily copied. Just go to Goo.gl and insert a link!
a full slate of workshops, and one-on-one conferences.
don’t open, they launch.” Likewise, the revamped Nightingale technology department launched in September 2014 with a brand new “open door” policy. More than just a new mission of transparency, openness, and communication.
Looking ahead, we are moving toward an expanded role in classrooms, faculty dialogues, and professional development opportunities. This seasonal newsletter provides an opportunity for us to shine a spotlight on some of the great technology work being done both in the schoolhouse and around the world, and will feature articles of interest, technology news, and classroom spotlights. We’re very excited about this new way to communicate with you, and we hope you are as well. Enjoy!
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Issue I, Volume I
TED Talks of Interest
Winter 2015
Adapting and Changing Technology isn’t static, and neither
TED
is the environment at Nightingale. For the first time ever this past September, faculty
What’s Next in 3D Printing?
were offered Apple
Just like his beloved grandfather, Avi Reichental is a maker of things. The difference is that he can use 3D printers to make almost anything out of almost any material. Reichental tours us through the possibilities of 3D printing, from printed candy to custom-made sneakers and everything in between.
computers as an alternative to their traditional PC laptops. Sixty faculty members selected the Mac and excitement is high, with positive feedback on the change from many quarters. As the year progresses, we are taking advantage of the ability to create a seamless handoff environment between the Apple computers and our existing iPads, and training has been ongoing. To better support our faculty 1:1 computing initiative and
TED
steadily growing student use, our entire network is undergoing a massive upgrade that will see network speed and capacity increase by 1000%. This work is set to be completed in December 2014. Continuing workshops
Life Lessons Through Tinkering
will support faculty
Gever Tulley uses engaging photos and footage to demonstrate the valuable lessons kids learn at his Tinkering School. When given tools, materials, and guidance, these young imaginations run wild and creative problem-solving takes over to build unique boats, bridges, and even a roller coaster!
in their Macbook
Technology Newsletter
development, as we work towards a seamless handoff environment which will enhance the educational experience.
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Issue I, Volume I
Link and Think Articles of Interest
Winter 2015
Class III Digital Classroom
Science Fair Set to Change the World Students from around the world saving the world, one project at a time.
In this issue, we’d like
Blended Learning Around the Country What blended, flipped, and distance learning look like around the country, and some unique ways educators are utilizing technology to support education.
School. In Class III, the
Robotics Projects Encourage Girls to Engage in STEM Tinker Squads, physics in action, incorporating blended learning, and so much more are packed into this all-girls school in PA.
to highlight some of the fantastic technology integration work which takes place in the Lower girls learn foundational iPad skills under the guidance of Ms. Winthrop and Ms. Galassi, and begin cross-disciplinary work, which prepares them for Middle and Upper School. A major project each of the girls maintains throughout the year is her own personal blog, which she continues in Class IV. The blogs are
The Women Who Shaped the Computer Age From Ada Lovelace to Silicon Valley, female “computers” are critical to the development of the tech world as we currently know it.
pieces of rich educational content that serve multiple
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girls’ weekend physical activity through their blog entries.
purposes, allowing the teachers to touch on technology integration, iPad skills, creativity, collaboration, and digital citizenship, along with academic content like reading and writing. They also open new avenues for cross-disciplinary work. For example, the PE department can keep track of the Over time, the blogs become repositories of the girls’ work (they capture images of their work and record themselves explaining why they’ve chosen to archive that piece) and reflections on what they have learned, serving as a digital portfolio of their time in Class III. In the Musings section, students are encouraged to share observations on any topic and to respond to their classmates, learning digital citizenship in the process: everything they say and do online is representative of their self, and they are taught to always have that in mind when interacting.
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Issue I, Volume I
Apps to Explore Check out the apps below, which you may find useful for yourself or for using together with your daughter. Flipboard A news aggregate where you can discover, collect and share all the news you care about. Personalize your news feed on your mobile device! Available at the App Store, Google Play, Windows Store, and Blackberry World. ColAR Mix Print, color, and see drawings in hand-animated 3D worlds. Factfilled narration accompanies many of the pre-made coloring sheets. Available at the App Store and Google Play. Post It Plus Take snapshots of your scattered sticky notes and organize them into digital, easy to use files.
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Winter 2015
Necessity is the Mother of all Invention…
! ! ! ! ! ! ! …While fearlessness is the mother of reinvention! Under the guidance of Ms. Blandford, Class X students in Foundations of Computer Science are learning both of these principles as they work on inventions of their own design. Students were challenged to identify an everyday problem, work to find a solution, and then conceptualize and design that solution. Using TinkerCad, they’ve pulled together their crosscurricular knowledge of engineering, math, science, and art, thrown in some straightforward ingenuity, and worked through the design process from inception to fabrication to field testing. Fabrication is happening via our MakerBot 3D printer, an integral tool in our nascent “maker” program. The designs created by the girls are wonderfully varied and address a host of daily problems from smudged nails to creating personal levitation, and have allowed the girls to tap into a sense of creativity and playfulness while reinforcing the serious academic STEAM underpinnings of the course. Making is a fantastic opportunity to introduce or continue interdisciplinary problem solving, allow plenty of space for self directed learning, and make room for creativity, risk taking, and learning from failure.
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Spotted in the Schoolhouse
Winter 2015
Problem Solving Through Creativity
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Class III girls have been
Ms. Guggenheimer and Ms. Epstein using ExplainEverything and Google Drive in their lessons on Ancient China.
learning the basics of robotics by working with LEGO WeDo. Once the girls learned the basics,
Ms. Hart using ExplainEverything with Class V, as the students learn to write and sing musical notes.
they were challenged to create a robot that would follow simple programming: begin,
Mr. Donnelly using Moodle for AP review distance-learning sessions. Mr. Meikle using iMovie with Class III to film commercials for their woodworking clock projects. Ms. Birch’s Class VII students using Notability to explore music concepts in more depth. Ms. Qualman and Ms. Anderson’s Class IV girls using their iPads to create interactive multimedia blogs. Class X using TinkerCad and the Makerbot to design their own solutions to everyday problems. Ms. Kernell’s music students using an app to accurately tune their guitars in class.
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complete an action, play a sound, repeat, and end. Many of the designs went through three or more iterations before coming to completion, and the monkey and puppy shown here are just two examples of what the girls created. The collaborative groups drew knowledge from many sources, including their previous building experience and the gear structures and building schematics in their LEGO books. Most often, however, their learning came through experimentation and trials. Once they moved on to programming, the girls were hard pressed to stop at the basic commands and most groups met and exceeded the requirements, creating multistep programs which had their creations moving, rotating, and playing a variety of sounds. To cap off the project, they each presented their creation to the class. Class III will continue with their robotics studies throughout the year. Next up? Kinetic architecture and robotics!
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Nightingale Tech At-A-Glance ✦
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Our current daily device average is over 1,300 devices in use in the schoolhouse. By the end of December, we’ll have upgraded our network capacity and speed by 1000% to support this usage.
Winter 2015
Spotlight on: Blended Learning Some students might resist the idea of “Saturday school,” but not those in Ms. Vivion’s Environmental Science class. Comprised of girls from Classes X, XI, and XII, the class works in a blended learning environment, which means that face-to-face classroom time is reduced and some of that classwork is delivered digitally. Every two weeks, the class drops one period and moves to the cloud for instruction, resources, materials,
The LMS pilot program is well underway and surveys have gone out to all users. Many thanks to all teachers and staff involved in the planning of this project! Some faculty members are beginning to explore distance and blended learning opportunities, which will allow us to extend learning even further beyond the blue doors. We are currently piloting Chromebooks in some classrooms. A Chromebook is a Google-based cloud computer that has a small footprint and huge collaborative ability. Our maker program is beginning to take shape—look for exciting news about this project in the upcoming months!
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Technology Newsletter
and opportunities for interaction. Projects designed within the cloud are ongoing and allow multiple entry points for student collaboration, participation and research, and also permit students to work in timeframes that take every girl into account. With online learning, each student is free to work and contribute at her own pace. Feedback can become deeper, as online spaces for feedback such as forums and blogs not only encourage more discourse among students, but also allow students to plan out thoughtful written responses to topics that might be raised as questions in class. Ms. Vivion and the Environmental Science class utilize the Finalsite blog creator to contribute responses to articles, and girls are asked to write and respond to their classmates’ blogs. Screencasting is used to deliver content, and additional content such as videos and companion articles are housed on the class Finalsite page. The girls are also expected to check the calendar regularly for their assignments and deadlines, and to use WikiSpaces to turn in projects. Above: Ms. Vivion presents her work to the Academic Affairs committee.
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