To read more about Pat and her work on the page and on camera, please scroll through the last year's posts on this blog. You can also learn about Pat's videoconferences by clicking here.

PROJECT OVERVIEW

From east to west, urban or rural, we each live in a unique community. What can we learn from our area, from our varied citizens or natural resources? What can we share with others that will enhance their view of our country or our world? This standards based project seeks to tap into the creative nature of students as they look at their community with new eyes and explore ways to share their findings with others using videoconferencing and technology as a resource.

Requirements include, in part: 

• Student Teams will research a topic in their community. Examples of this might include a historical place or figure, a natural resource, a unique place of interest.
• Students will develop an informational program geared toward a specific audience educating them on the topic.

Students all over the country participated- from Oklahoma to Hawaii! Jan shared some clips from the videoconferences that were really great. Students were teaching others about their community; for example, the students in Honolulu taught their mainland peers and about hula and about aquaculture. Students in Texas educated others on Fire Ants. The kids on both ends were totally engaged, as were the participants in Jan's session. I can't wait to get St. Louis area schools involved.

Here are some links to different categories of programs/modules that might interest you.

• Children’s Education  
• Emergency Care
• MSCE Prep
• Travel Information
• ESL Aids
• SAT Prep
• Yoga & Meditation
• Business Education

Go check them out! I’m telling you it’s definitely worth it!

If you are interested in trying out Learning Mobile Author (LMA), please visit www.hotlavasoftware.com.

CONTACT:

Sarah Brewster

(816) 842-8111 or sarah@trozzolo.com

Joy Torchia

(816) 932-1045 or jtorchia@kauffman.org

Barbara Walls

(540) 428-2988 or marketing@hotlavasoftware.com

KANSAS CITY, Mo. - July 15, 2008  – More than one competition will take place at the local T-Bones games this summer. The new Sports Bytes Competition, entering the field this July, is sponsored by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation and powered by Hot Lava Software.

The Sports Bytes Competition will engage the young fans in the crowd by sending them mathematics, engineering, technology, and science questions via their cell phones. Combining fun with technology, fans will learn the science behind one of America’s favorite pastimes. For example, while the players are warming up for the next inning, fans can learn about the impact of gravity and friction on a baseball’s path.

The in-game promotions will build excitement around science education during July and August home games. The Sports Bytes professor – a quirky-looking, crazy-haired announcer – will leap up on the dugout and guide the crowd through the sports-related science quiz. The announcer will ask the fans a question: “Which ball has the slower speed when thrown: a baseball or a softball?” In response, kids will text either “sporta” for baseball or “sportb” for softball to 83960. They will then receive a response text with the correct answer as well as a link that provides them access to other Sports Bytes questions. Sports Bytes enthusiasts can access the questions anytime from their mobile phones by texting “sport” to 83960.

 “We are capitalizing on young fans’ love for cell phones by using them as a learning tool,” said Merrilea J. Mayo, Ph.D., director, Future of Learning Initiatives for the Kauffman Foundation. “This new competition allows us to reach and inspire kids in a unique way. Our hope is that they learn how exciting science can be and potentially explore a career in the field.”

The kids who answer at least one Sports Bytes question correctly are entered into a drawing to win a prize pack, which is given out later in the game. With baseball players in mind, the prize pack will include free tickets to an upcoming T-Bones game, signed baseballs, a first pitch certificate, a kajeet mobile phone, and T-Bones merchandise.

In addition to the T-Bones, the Frederick Keys, Aberdeen Ironbirds, Bowie Baysox, Wilmington Blue Rocks and Delmarva Shorebirds are participating in the in-game promotions, along with the D.C. United Soccer Team.

About the Kauffman Foundation

The Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation of Kansas City is a private, nonpartisan foundation that works with partners to advance entrepreneurship in America and improve the education of children and youth. The Kauffman Foundation was established in the mid-1960s by the late entrepreneur and philanthropist Ewing Marion Kauffman. Information about the Kauffman Foundation is available at www.kauffman.org

About Hot Lava Software, Inc.

Hot Lava Software Inc. is the leading provider of mobile authoring, publishing, delivery and tracking solutions. Using Hot Lava Software’s content development and publishing system (LMA) integrated with the Hot Lava Mobile Delivery and Tracking System ^TM (MDTS) allows organizations to have the tools and knowledge needed to launch and track mobile initiatives faster, with more cost efficiency. Hot Lava Software provides mobile content solutions and a mobile content design, authoring and publishing solution to corporations, government and universities around the world. More information is available at http://www.hotlavasoftware.com/

• The Tennessee Board of Regents reports that summer enrollment in online courses is up 29 percent this summer over last year.
• At Brevard Community College, in Cocoa, Fla., summer enrollment in online courses is up nearly 25 percent.
• Harrisburg Area Community College, in Pennsylvania, saw its summer online enrollment rise 15 percent to 20 percent.
• At Northampton Community College, summer online enrollment is up 18 percent.

Noting this increased interest, the article further highlights how certain online schools and traditional schools with online programs are now endeavoring to capitalize on the trend, as explained below:

• The SUNY Learning Network, the online incarnation of the State University of New York, offers prospective students access to an online calculator that helps them determine how much they will save in gas costs by taking classes online.
• Colorado State University, which is launching a new online program this fall, has decided to waive the program's $50 application fee to attract more students concerned about gas prices.

Despite the reported increase in online enrollments, administrators at the University of Phoenix, the largest provider of online education, repot that there has not been a spike in online enrollments this summer nor have representatives heard much about gas prices affecting students' choice of formats.

This might be due in part to Phoenix's ground classes being designed to minimize drive time by meeting just once a week for four-hour sessions, with textbooks and library services delivered online.

The evening courses I teach for DeVry are designed similarly: classes meet once a week for four hours with an online component designed to provide two to four additional hours of educational experience. That being said, I still have students who admirably drive upwards of 30 miles to the campus from places like Delano, Wasco and Shafter. I also have one student that drives more than 40 miles from Lake Isabella!

I suspect that as gas prices continue to climb there will be increased demand for online classes. Anecdotally speaking I have seen an ongoing increase in the advertisement and availability of online courses -- both individual classes, certificate programs and degrees.

While I can't verify this, I feel as if I have seen more schools offering additional programs during the past few months. Likely, if it is true, it is merely a coincidence, because developing and launching an online learning experience is not something you can do in just a few months.

Nevertheless, as an online adjunct instructor and as someone who feels technology can both increase the availability of education and enhance a student's ability to learn (in classrooms or online), I am pleased to see the increase in online education -- whatever the reason might be. Personally, I welcome additional opportunities to teach online because I would appreciate a chance to save a few (hundred) dollars in gas!

"Today, the climate is changing faster than any time of the last 65 million years. Warmer ocean temperatures are feeding more powerful hurricanes, while mega heat waves and droughts are occurring in record numbers.

In partnership with The Offshore New Harbor Project (which is part of the Antarctic Geological Drilling Program), GNG will host a series of Virtual Classrooms from Antarctica from October - December to study evidence in Antarctica from the last time carbon dioxide levels were this high — 34 million years ago! By examining our world's past, we hope to get a glimpse of our future — as global warming has become an inevitable reality. Click here for more information."

As more information becomes available, I'll share.

In the program, primary and secondary students complete hands-on, inquiry-based investigations of the environment around them.  Then, the results and measurements of the investigations are added to the collective database.  GLOBE has been around for 13 years and now has over 18 million measurements in areas such as "atmosphere and climate, hydrology, land cover biology, and soil."  Over 21,000 schools have been involved in this collaborative global science project! GLOBE takes the scientific method and inquiry-based learning to a more authentic level by having these budding scientists work together around the world.  Here are some questions and answers about the GLOBE program:

Who pays for this?  NASA, NSF, and the U.S. Department of the State

What are some states that are currently involved?  New York, Texas, and Alabama

How does it work?  classroom teachers get trained with GLOBE and identify a research project and then get connected with other schools in other countries working on the same scientific questions

Want to get involved?  Go to www.globe.gov

On that note, really, thank God for distance education. BYU, the University of Indiana, Stanford University's EPGY program, and a host of others provide distance education options for university classes, of course, but what some folks might not know is that they also have classes at the high school and middle school levels as well -- and best of all, they're accredited, which means that if you're a homeschooling parent whose child may (at some point) want to attend high school in the future, she or he won't have to sit through Freshman English again if they've passed their distance ed. coursework in that area.

Best of all, for parents of gifted or profoundly gifted children, none of these programs gives a rat's caboose about the child's age.

This is really a miracle when you think about it, given the fact that basically no school system would even consider the kind of radical acceleration some gifted kids genuinely require. I'm not talking about one or two grades: that's relatively easy and it happens (usually with politely pitched battles between parents and administrators) from time to time. Instead, I'm talking about six or seven grades, and that ain't gonna happen in public school, no how, no way. Pleasantly enough by contrast, when we registered at Distance Ed for freshman English and gave the date of birth, the person registering didn't so much as blink (or appear to blink; this was on the phone). It was no longer the Dreaded Birthdate of Doom.

Interestingly, the Distance Ed. course uses the same textbook as I'm supposed to be using for a class I'm teaching at Techno High School in the fall, I was amused to see. The teacher assigns a boatload more writing than I assign...I'm thinking of doing the same and seeing if I can get away with it. Anyway.

I find myself wondering what people did before the invention of the Internet and the popularity of homeschooling. I have a feeling that most of them probably did nothing -- not because they didn't want to do nothing, but because there was a dearth of options. I'm fairly sure that a parent whose kid needed radical acceleration -- especially in a "fuzzy logic" area like English -- was probably given the usual host of excuses: "Well, Billy can read very well, and yes, he's read Romeo and Juliet before, but he's never read it with me. I'm sure he's going to get a lot out of the class," or "Elizabeth seems to have a good grasp of the material, but her organizational skills and handwriting really need work, so I think we'll keep her where she is right now."

And, though some parents fought the system, most probably figured out it was a losing battle and told their kid, in whatever way they told them, that they'd basically have to put up with it, that this was the fate of being an academically able kid in a system that essentially doesn't want or care about the academically able: sitting in class, making no waves, and just enduring it until it passes, like labor pains.

Thank God those aren't the only options now.

Yeah, there are some down sides to distance ed for gifted kids, to be sure. One of the most unanticipated (okay, unanticipated by me...) issues was one of worldly experience. For instance, one Distance Ed prompt for an English journal assignment asked the student to explain about a time when they'd felt betrayed by a friend. Depending on the child's age, that simply may never have happened. As a result, the child will basically have to a) draw upon vicarious experience gleaned from reading, or b) use her or his imagination. The other down side is that, like most distance education, the parent has to do the bulk of the actual teaching. The distance ed. people provide you the "bones"; that is, the textbook, the assignments, the course goals, and some skeletal explanations, but for the most part, the discussion of the actual material, that give-and-take of initial understanding, clarification, examples, elaboration -- that job is left up to the parent. That's not much different from homeschooling itself (and it's actually less work than homeschooling overall), but the parent needs to know about the subject matter in decent enough depth so that they can work with the material.

Overall, it's a good deal.