NEON is an e-newsletter provided by SEIR*TEC, Regional Technology in Education Consortium at SouthEast Initiatives, through the Instructional Resource Center (ITRC) at the University of Central Florida.

This West Coast Edition of NEON is made available to you through a collaboration of SEIR*TEC and WestEd RTEC. It is accessible to you by email and web page, and is published electronically once a month.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

ANNOUNCEMENTS
1. Free Online Workshops from SEIR*TEC
2. iPods at Duke
3. Evaluating the Quality of Information on the Internet
4. Technology Integration Workshops from GLEF
5. Free Webcast from WestEd RTEC & SchoolsMovingUp.net

AWARDS & CONTESTS
6. 2004 Ed Tech Leader of the Year
7. 2005 DisneyHand Teacher Awards
8. Encouraging Science and Mathematics Education
9. Vernier Technology Awards
10. High School Students in Santa Barbara County Win a National GIS/GPS Competition

CLASSROOM RESOURCES
11. A New Online Science Resource
12. Olympic WebQuests
13. Playing It Cyber Safe
14. Election Index

PUBLICATIONS
15. Help for ADHA Students
16. Understanding Copyright

CONFERENCES
17. Upcoming Conferences

NETS RESOURCES
18. Facilitating Technology-Enhanced Learning Experiences

RTEC RESOURCES
19. Technology Tips for Differentiated Instruction

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ANNOUNCEMENTS
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1. FREE ONLINE WORKSHOPS FROM SEIR*TEC

The following EDC courses are being offered online by SEIR*TEC. Each course will be facilitated by a SEIR*TEC staff member.

Inquiry in the Science Classroom Using Internet-Based Data Sources
http://www.itrc.ucf.edu/classes/edc_classes.html#science
In this workshop, participants will explore the use of online data sources to enhance inquiry-based teaching and learning in the science curriculum. Teachers, technology specialists, curriculum specialists, professional development specialists, or other school personnel are invited to enroll. Class begins September 7, 2004.

Data-Based School Reform
http://www.itrc.ucf.edu/classes/edc_classes.html#reform
This workshop provides an introduction to the process of using data to guide school reform. Workshop participants will review current data-driven decision-making theory; use technology to identify, gather, and analyze data for patterns and trends; examine the role of data in equity reform; and develop action plans in support of their school-based data. Administrators, teachers, technology specialists, curriculum specialists, professional development specialists, or other school personnel are encouraged to take the course. Class begins September 14, 2004.

Special Students in Regular Classrooms: Technology, Teaching, and Universal Design
http://www.itrc.ucf.edu/classes/edc_classes.html#ud
This workshop provides an introduction to the concept of Universal Design for Learning (UDL), and strategies for implementing a UDL approach in instructional settings. Universal Design for Learning is a new approach to teaching and learning and the development of curriculum and assessment that draws on current brain research and new media technologies to respond to individual differences. All grade level teachers are invited to enroll. Class begins October 7, 2004.

Related URL: http://www.itrc.ucf.edu/classes/edc_classes.html

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2. IPODS AT DUKE

Duke University has announced a plan to give each of its 1,650 incoming freshman this fall an Apple iPod as an experiment to see how the devices affect teaching and learning. Duke will set up a Web site from which students can download course materials, lectures, audio books, and other academic content to their iPods. After the school year is over, school officials will evaluate the educational benefits of the program.
(Source: Wired News, 20 July 2004)

Related URL: http://www.wired.com/news/digiwood/0,1412,64282,00.html

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3. EVALUATING THE QUALITY OF INFORMATION ON THE INTERNET

Researchers should evaluate the quality of online and print information based on five criteria--scope of coverage, authority, objectivity, accuracy, and timeliness. This guide defines the criteria, documents incidents of questionable, false, or fraudulent information, provides examples of Web sites that illustrate good or bad information, and suggests strategies that help you detect bad information.

Related URL: http://www.virtualchase.com/quality/

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4. TECHNOLOGY INTEGRATION WORKSHOPS FROM GLEF

The George Lucas Educational Foundation's (GLEF) teaching modules were developed by professional development experts and education faculty. They're formulated for use as extension units in existing courses, as well as for independent use in workshops and meetings. Each teaching module includes articles, video footage, PowerPoint presentations, and class activities. They draw from the wealth of GLEF's archives of best practices and correlate with ISTE/NCATE NETS standards. http://cnets.iste.org/

Related URL: http://glef.org/foundation/courseware.php

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5. FREE WEBCAST FROM WESTED RTEC & SchoolsMovingUp.NET

Creating Strong Supplemental Educational Services Programs
September 8, 2004, Live Web Telecast
Dr. Nikola Filby, Associate Director of the Western Regional Educational Laboratory, will lead this live on-line telecast from 3:30 pm - 5:00 pm Pacific (PST). The telecast will draw on examples from five districts whose implementation experiences yield common themes and lessons that might help other district leaders as they implement supplemental services.

Related URL: http://www.schoolsmovingup.net/cs/wested/view/e/138

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AWARDS & CONTESTS
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6. 2004 ED TECH LEADER OF THE YEAR

Technology & Learning invites forward-thinking teachers, technology coordinators, and administrators to tell them how they're using technology to make a difference. Entries must be submitted by September 10, 2004.

Related URL: http://www.techlearning.com/content/contest/etloy

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7. 2005 DisneyHand Teacher Awards

The Walt Disney Company is searching for 45 dynamic, creative teachers willing to go the extra step to inspire, motivate, and educate students. DisneyHand is the worldwide philanthropic initiative of Disney. The nominees will take part in special events and unique professional development workshops focused on innovative approaches to teaching and learning through leadership development.

Students, former students, students' parents, principals, or members of the community can nominate teachers. Nominations for the 2005 DisneyHand Teacher Awards should be submitted between August 15 and October 15, 2004.
(Source: eSchool News)

Related URL: http://www.disneyhand.com
Contact Info: 1-877-282-8322

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8. ENCOURAGING SCIENCE AND MATHEMATICS EDUCATION

The mission of Toshiba America Foundation is to contribute to the quality of science and mathematics education in U.S. communities by investing in projects designed by classroom teachers to improve science and mathematics education for students in grades K thru 12.

Projects for K-6 are due October 1, 2004; projects for 7-12 requesting $5,000 or less have an open deadline; projects for 7-12 requesting more than $5,000 are due February 1, 2005.

Related URL: http://www.toshiba.com/taf/about_us.html
Contact Info: Toshiba America Foundation
1251 Avenue of the Americas, 41st Floor
New York, NY 10020
212-596-0620
foundation@tai.toshiba.com

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9. VERNIER TECHNOLOGY AWARDS

Vernier Software & Technology and NSTA have partnered to recognize and award excellent use of data-collection technology in the science classroom. Full-time science teachers (from elementary to college level) are eligible to apply for one of seven awards.

The submission deadline is October 15, 2004.
(Source: eSchool News, July 28, 2004)

Related URL: http://www.vernier.com/awards

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10. HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS IN SANTA BARBARA COUNTY WIN A NATIONAL GIS/GPS COMPETITION

Santa Ynez Union Valley High School students in Santa Barbara County won a national GIS/GPS competition for their Mission Santa Ines project! They beat competition that included university/college students and professional organization submissions.

The direct link to the article is: http://www.geospatial-online.com/geospatialsolutions/article/articleDetail.jsp?id=107295&&pageID=2

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CLASSROOM RESOURCES
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11. A NEW ONLINE SCIENCE RESOURCE

Visionlearning is an innovative educational resource designed for students, teachers, parents or anyone interested in learning science. The Web site features a free library of succinct, award-winning learning modules that integrate text, multimedia, and other resources to make learning exciting. Visionlearning allows teachers to customize the modules with comments, links and notes, by registering for the free MyClassroom system.

The National Science Foundation supports Visionlearning.

Related URL: http://www.visionlearning.com

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12. OLYMPIC WEBQUESTS

In honor of the games in Athens, these WebQuests focus on the Olympics.

Dawn Moore has crafted a WebQuest (Journey through the Olympic Games) that includes an Olympic time machine for students to use; the teacher assigns student groups each a different time period to learn how the Olympics have changed.

Related URL: http://web54.sd54.k12.il.us/vrkit/supplements/sixth/Olympics/student.htm
This SCORE project (Olympic Games: An Historic Event) resembles a WebQuest in structure, challenging students to create an advertising brochure to be used by visitors to the ancient games and propose events for the 2004 games.

Related URL: http://rims.k12.ca.us/score_lessons/olympic_games/
Sherri Verbeke created this Quest (Olympic Web Quest) to integrate math applications into an Olympics study; students determine the equation of a line given points they determine from their research.

Related URL: http://www.berksiu.k12.pa.us/webquest/Verbeke/

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13. PLAYING IT CYBER SAFE

The Business Software Alliance has produced a Web site for students, parents and teachers called "Play It Cyber Safe." The goal of this Web site is to empower elementary and middle school students to prevent cyber crime through knowledge of the law, their rights and how to avoid misuse of the Internet. Games and resources provide information about copyright, intellectual property, piracy, e-commerce and financial fraud, cyber-terrorism, and hacking. A complete curriculum guide is available to teachers and parents.

Related URL: http://www.playitcybersafe.com

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14. ELECTION INDEX

This set of resources includes links to information on the 2004 election, campaign finance, polling sources, voter participation and registration, and elections outside the United States.

Related URL: http://www.library.vanderbilt.edu/romans/fdtf/elections.html

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PUBLICATIONS
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15. HELP FOR ADHA STUDENTS

This article reports on an Asheville, N.C.-based companyís assertion that it has created an alternative to traditional treatments for attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). A bike helmet, lined with sensors, has been developed to send information to a computer and as the brain waves change, the outcome on the computer screen changes. Free Registration is required.
(Source: eSchool News, July 29, 2004)

Related URL: http://www.eschoolnews.com/news/showStory.cfm?ArticleID=5198

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16. UNDERSTANDING COPYRIGHT

Teacher Diane Painter writes about her experience and what her students learned about legal and ethical Internet use in August's Tech-Learning.

Related URL: http://www.techlearning.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=23902530

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CONFERENCES
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17. UPCOMING CONFERENCES

AECT 2004 International Convention
October 20-24, 2004
Chicago, IL
Related URL: http://aect.org/events/Chicago04/call/default.asp?

NSBA's T+L2
October 27 - October 29
Colorado Convention Center in Denver
Related URL: http://www.nsba.org/T+L

E-Learn 2004
The World Conference on E-Learning in Corporate, Government, Healthcare, & Higher Education
November 1-5, 2004
Washington, DC
Related URL: http://www.aace.org/conf/elearn/

GaETC
Georgia Educational Technology Consortium
November 10-12, 2004
Macon, GA
Related URL: http://www.gaetc.org/conference.htm

Sloan-C International Conference on Asynchronous Learning Networks
November 12-14, 2004
Orlando, Florida
Related URL: http://www.aln.ucf.edu/

NCETC
North Carolina Educational Technology Conference
November 29-December 2, 2004
Greensboro, NC
Related URL: http://ncetc.org/

CALIFORNIA COMPUTER USING EDUCATORS (CUE'S) ANNUAL CONFERENCE - 2005
March 10-12, 2005
Palm Springs, California
Related URL: http://cue.org

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NETS RESOURCES
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Each month, we take a look at one of the National Educational Technology Standards for Teachers (NETS) at http://cnets.iste.org/teachers/t_stands.html
and identify resources for helping teachers meet those standards.

18. FACILITATING TECHNOLOGY-ENHANCED LEARNING EXPERIENCES

NETS for Teachers - Standard III(A): " Teachers facilitate technology-enhanced experiences that address content standards and student technology standards.î

Related Resource Sites:

BEACON Lesson Plans
http://www.beaconlc.org/boa/lessonplans_online/welcomepage.asp
This website offers educators a chance to search for outstanding lesson plans aligned to Floridaís Sunshine State Standards and Goal 3 Standards. These plans are teacher-created and student-tested.

EvaluTech
http://www.sret.sreb.org/
EvaluTech is a searchable database that contains more than 7000 reviews of instructional materials recommended for classroom use in kindergarten through grade 12. Trained reviewers using extensive criteria evaluate these materials. Products evaluated include computer software, audio/visual materials, CD-ROM-based reference databases, websites, and print materials. Evaluation criteria include some correlation to state student academic standards. There is no fee for searching or for printing reviews.

SUNLINK
http://www.sunlink.ucf.edu
Funded by the Florida Department of Education, SUNLINK is Florida's K-12 public school union catalog, a shared database of materials in Florida K-12 library media centers. Imagine a giant card catalog or electronic catalog that contains the records of all school library media centers in Florida! Includes reading levels, interest levels, book cover images, Web sites and more! SUNLINK makes it easy to locate materials that can be used to support state and national standards; simply type keywords into the Subject or Quick Search field.


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R*TEC RESOURCES
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The Regional Technology in Education Consortia (R*TEC) program at http://www.rtec.org/ supports the integration of technology into K-12 environments and other educational settings. In each issue of NEON, we will explore some of the free and/or inexpensive resources being provided to educators by this program.

19. TECHNOLOGY TIPS FOR DIFFERENTIATED INSTRUCTION

In partnership with the Alliance for Technology Access, WestEd has just released a new Web site that is aimed at helping teachers learn how to use software and devices they already have to meet the needs of diverse learners. The Web site also contains links to materials (PowerPoint and related handouts) for professional developers to adapt and use within their existing efforts to help teachers integrate technology into the curriculum.

Related URL: http://www.westedrtec.org/techtips
Contact Info: jduffie@wested.org
jduffie@wested.org
415-615-3213

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NEON (News for Educators Online Now! - the West Coast Edition) is designed to disseminate educational technology announcements and news. NEON provides a way for YOU to let others know what you are doing.

To submit an announcement of national interest, use the online form at http://www.itrc.ucf.edu/neon/archives/submitstory.html OR send email to ucfitrc@orion.itrc.ucf.edu. To submit an announcement of interest for West Coast educators, send an email to klarsen@wested.org. Each announcement should be sent separately and MUST include an email address or URL for people to go to for more complete information. We will use as space allows.

The IRTC staff reserves the right to determine which announcements will be used in NEON based on content, length, and timeliness. The ITRC staff also reserves the right to edit information provided.

The Instructional Technology Resource Center (ITRC) at UCF
University of Central Florida
Dr. Donna Baumbach, Director
Kathy Katz, NEON Editor
http://www.itrc.ucf.edu
ucfitrc@orion.itrc.ucf.edu
(407) 207-4962

SEIR*TEC
Elizabeth Byrom, Ed.D., Principal Investigator
http://www.seirtec.org

WestEd RTEC
Kurt Larsen, Principal Investigator/Director
http://www.westedrtec.org

DISCLAIMER: We do our best to verify the information in NEON, but we do not guarantee accuracy nor agree with every opinion expressed.

The Instructional Technology Resource Center (ITRC) at UCF is a partner in the SouthEast Initiatives Regional Technology in Education Consortium(SEIR*TEC). SEIR*TEC & WestEd RTEC are funded by the U.S.Department of Education under grant number R302A000011, CFDA 84.302A to support the integration of technology in education. The contents of this newsletter do not necessarily reflect the views of the U.S. Department of Education, or any other agency of the United States government.
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