workshops

Machines First, Humans Second: Building Web Apps for Multiple User Agents

Course Overview

TOPICS INCLUDE:

• Considerations for Building for Machines
  • Cross Browser/Multiple User Agent Compliance
  • Search Engine Optimization
  • Tableless layouts
  • W3c compliance
  • Accessibility Issues
• Considerations for Building for Humans
  • Information Architecture
  • Content Management
  • new Media
  • Customer Behavior (Tracking and Data Collection)
  • Training
  • Support

Introduction to Flash Animation

Course Overview

TOPICS INCLUDE:

• Keyframes and Tweening
• Scaling an Object
• Rotating an Object
• Adding and Using Layers
• Symbols and Instances of Symbols

Creating PLEs with Firefox

Course Overview

Create Personal Learning Environments for yourself and your students using the many extensions and features of the popular open source web browser: Firefox.

This workshop is fun, hands-on, and open to all experience levels.

TOPICS INCLUDE:

• What is a personal learning environment?
• Why firefox?
• What is open source?
• What is RSS?
• Organizing Information with Feed Readers

Drupal Basics: Content Management Simplified

Course Overview

Learn the basics of one of the open source communities' most popular content management systems, Drupal.

TOPICS INCLUDE:

• What is a content management system?
• Why drupal?
• How do I create content? What kinds of content can I create?
• What are modules? What are some of the modules I might use and why?
• What are themes? How do I change themes?
• How do I use photo galleries? What are some of the gallery features?
• How do I set up a contact form?

Introduction to Online Video

Web 2.0 for Educators Series

Course Overview

Enhance Instruction through the use of online video. Video is the hottest media on the web, and students of all ages can relate and be engaged by video.
This workshop is fun, hands-on, and open to all experience levels.

TOPICS INCLUDE:

• Why video and instruction?
• What services are available to host my videos?
• Where can I find videos that are already created?
• What tools are available to edit and produce my own video?

Web 2.0 for Educators

Web 2.0 for Educators Series

Course Overview

Leverage the power of the world wide webs latest and greatest learning tools with this hands on interactive workshop. Explore various web based tools that will engage your students, and integrate various web-based technologies into your instruction. Create your own digital artifacts in the process.

This workshop is fun, hands-on, and open to all experience levels.

TOPICS INCLUDE:

• What is Web 2.0?
• What is a Digital Native? – enter the mind of the 21st century Learner
• What are wikis, blogs, mashups, and podcasts?
• What is the the Firefox web browser? And why would I want to use it?
• Wikipedia vs. Britannica
• What is the Read-Write web?
• What is RSS and how do I use it?
• What is an edublog? See examples of edublogs.
• How do I join the Global Conversation?
• How do I join The Google Teacher Network?
• How do I use google applications in the classroom?

Using Moodle in the K-12 Setting

Course Overview

Easily create your own online courses to mange classroom technology integration. Allow your students to access assignments from any internet connection. Provide your students with a dashboard, or an online planner, that graphically organizes your curriculum.

TOPICS INCLUDE:

• What is the purpose of the Boerne Virtual School?
• What pedagogical principles does it support?
• What is a Learning Object?
• How do I share learning objects with other teachers?
• Why would I want to use Moodle?
• What features does Moodle offer?
• How can Moodle make my job easier?
• How can Moodle help my students?

Using Google Earth in the Classroom

Course Overview

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.
• Save and share your searches and favorites.

TOPICS INCLUDE:

• Installing Google Earth
• The Google Earth Interface
• What are .kzm files? How do I use them to share information with other teachers and students?
• How do I incoporate Google Earth into my instruction?

Updated!

Featured Content in Google Earth

This layer contains highly informative, multimedia-enhanced data about various places around the planet, overlaid on Google Earth imagery. So now you can not only see high-resolution satellite imagery, but also read detailed information from various sources. See this animation to learn how to use the layer. Overlays in this release of Featured Content for Google Earth include:

• United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP) – includes successive time-stamped images illustrating 100 areas of extreme environmental degradation around the world.
• Discovery Networks World Tour – enables you to take a virtual tour of major world landmarks, cities, and natural wonders through Google Earth.
• Jane Goodall Institute – you can visit Flirt and the other Gombe preserve chimpanzees and follow their daily exploits with the Institute’s "geo-blog" in Google Earth.
• National Geographic – this features articles, pictures, live webcams and more around the world from National Geographic.
• Tracks 4 Africa - Community generated map data across part of Africa along with photographs and interesting snippets about various places.
• Spotlight on Africa - Flags and snippets of information about the 53 sovereign nations of Africa
• Rumsey Historical Maps - Historical maps around the world spanning from year 1680 to 1892, including a Map of Africa from 1787.
• European Space Agency – More satellite imagery of beautiful places and phenomena around the world
• The Geographic Web layer contains similar content contributed by various user communities around the world, such as Wikipedia and Panoramio.