EduTech’s West Central Region Blog

North Dakota K-12 students participated in the 2009 Legislative Technology Showcase being held in conjunction with North Dakota’s 61st Legislative Assembly March 3, 2009 in the Great Hall of the Capitol.

Participating Schools were:

• Jeanette Myhre Elementary, Bismarck – Web 2.0 in the Classroom (Chad Even)
• Wachter & Horizon Middle Schools, Bismarck – Web 2.0 in the Classroom (Benjamin Lervick)
• Sheyenne Valley Area CTC – PC Construction (Frank Egan)
• NDSU/Powers Lake High School – Remote Instrumentation SEM (Kim Owen, Roberta Rystedt)
• Ashley Public – Kindergarten Imagineers (Kristi Anderson)
• Turtle Mountain Community HS – Environmental Chemistry Utilizing iMovie (Renee Aalund)
• McClusky Public School – ND Current Issues Utilizing Ezedia Presentation Software (Roberta Froehlich)
• Fairmount Public School – 1:1 Initiative Utilizing DyKnow Software (Yolanda Luick)
• Burlington-Des Lacs Elementary – The Theory of Blogging (Kayla Anderson)
• Hazelton-Moffit-Braddock – GIS/GPS (Tami Naaden)
• Grand Forks – Connect Students with Government (Darin King / Darlene Johnson)

Here are a few pictures from the event.

Governor Hoeven and Ashley Kindergartners

Horizon and Wachter Students with Dr. Sanstead

HMB Students with Governor Hoeven

McClusky Students

On Tuesday March 11 elementary and high school students from Northwood, ND will interact in a live videoconference with students in Greensburg Kansas, Nebraska, Missouri and Oklahoma when they discuss the impact of a major natural disaster on their small Midwestern towns. The purpose of the event is to bring students together to discuss their experiences and share similarities and differences in the recovery efforts in each town. Classes from participating states will communicate in real time through interactive videoconferencing available at their school. In addition, the live videoconference will be streamed live and also recorded for later viewing. Both will be available on the Internet by visiting the website http://www.more.net/services/videostreaming/events.html

Northwood students were invited to participate in this event because of the similarities in their experience with the tornado that hit their town in August to those of the students in Greensburg, Kansas whose town was also devastated by tornadoes in May of 2007. Both towns are similar in size and characteristics; both are located in rural areas in the Midwest. In addition to the interactive sessions between both elementary and high school classes, students and teachers will have the opportunity to learn about project-based curriculum resources on topics related to emergency preparedness and natural disasters.

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Last week I had the opportunity of attending a Read Across North Dakota Event with Myhre Elementary School in Bismarck and DeMores School in Medora. The students had a wonderful time discussing their favorite books. They enjoyed the session so much that they’re planning to meet together in person sometime this spring!

On Monday, I attended two videoconference sessions with writers Larry Woiwode and Rick Watson hosted by EduTech and the partners of Read North Dakota. Over 300 students from Mandan, Bismarck, Fargo and LaMoure participated in the interactive events.

Watson began each session by performing his song Beyond the Bedroom Wall, which is based on Larry Woiwode’s novel of the same name.

Woiwode was raised in Mott, North Dakota and discussed his return from New York City in his memoir, What I Think I Did. Woiwode explained the importance of establishing a sense of place in every story. Students were encouraged to ask questions throughout the two one-hour sessions. Their understanding of Woiwode’s book and writing in general was quite impressive! I left with an excitement to write myself!

I have attached pictures of both sessions at Mandan and Century High Schools.

To read and listen to more about Woiwode and Watson, see the followling link: http://www.readnd.org/webresources.aspx

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Thursday, May 17, Andrew Howard of the Advanced Communications Research Group at the Australian National University in Canberra connected with Ashley Public School students in Melanie Campbell’s fifth grade class and Kendra Becker’s seventh/eighth grade geography class. It was the first experience Ashley students had with international videoconferencing. The students discussed Australian culture, geography, climate, people, sports, environment and animals for about fifty minutes.

Miss Becker plans to connect internationally with students and teachers from around the world in the 2007-2008 school year.

Ten schools participated in the recent Education Technology Showcase at the Capitol Building in Bismarck, North Dakota Tuesday. Schools were chosen to participate based on their use of technology in the classroom. Students demonstrated their knowledge and expertise to legislators and others from around the state.

BELCOURT TURTLE MOUNTAIN ELEMENTARY – North Dakota History with PowerPoint and SMARTBoards
BEULAH MIDDLE SCHOOL – Vodcasts/iMovie/iTunes/Garageband
BISMARCK ROOSEVELT ELEMENTARY – Multimedia/United Streaming/Student Response Systems
CAVALIER PUBLIC SCHOOL – ACTIVBoard in the Math Curriculum
DEVILS LAKE PUBLIC SCHOOL – PowerPoint/Podcasts/iSight Cameras/International Videoconferencing
FARGO CARL BEN EIELSON ELEMENTARY – Reading Read 180/Reading Intervention
GRAND FORKS WEST ELEMENTARY – Oral History DVD Project/iBooks/iMovie
HARVEY HIGH SCHOOL – Terminal Server Configuration
KULM HIGH SCHOOL – 1:1 Computing with iPAQs
NORTH CENTRAL AT ROCK LAKE – SMARTBoards across the Curriculum