Tech Team News
Wonder if you have set the Obtain GED Goal for everyone who is working towards their GED?
This is one goal that, because it is fully datamatched, can not be retroactively set. As a result, many of the students achieve this wonderful goal without programs getting 'credit' for its attainment.
It is important to set this goal for relevant students as soon as possible. To see which students in your program have set this goal, look at How To Check Who Has Set the Obtain GED Goal This Fiscal Year. This and other helpful tips can be found at sabes.org/smartt.
There's a document at the sabes.org/smartt page that shows you how to tweak the security settings in IE8 so that it plays nice with Cognos. Look at it under Cognos Tips and Tricks or click this link.
August was Open Office Month in Boston
Akira and a couple other Technology Coordinator's tried using Open Office as their main Word Processor and Spreadsheet application for the entire month. So far it looks like the few of us that have tried it are sold. Well 'sold' is the wrong term because the software is free at OpenOffice.org
Open Office is a free open source suite of programs that does what Microsoft Office does and then some. This may provide an option to your students that can't afford the real thing and don't want to risk breaking copyright law by instaling illegal software.
DL Week comes off as a big hit!
Tech Integration in the Classroom (renamed Emerging Technologies )
offered by Dan Chisholm (South East SABES)
Presented new technologies that can be of use in the classroom,
such as: Digital Photography, Sound Recording, VoiceThread, Creating a Website, and Wink ( a free video creation tool ).
This online course was delivered using Moodle and will continue to be available indefinitely. To register contact Dan Chisholm in the South East SABES office.
Great ESOL Websites
offered Charlie Herbert at Western Massachusetts SABES - Holyoke CC
6 teachers participated in this telephone conference while browsing the web. They discussed, looked at, and experimented with, about a dozen different ESOL websites. Everything went smoothly with no technical problems.
To view the agenda and links go to
www.sabes.org/technology/workshops and click on the Great ESOL Websites link. Contact Charlie Herbert <link to my contact info in Meet the techs> if you would like any more information.
Wicked Good Web2.0 Resources for ABE Practitioners
offered by Patty Ball (North East SABES)
An asynchronous workshop using Flowgram, which allows you to create interactive guided presentations combining web pages, photos, Power Point along with voiceover, notes and highlights. Participants could view live websites, watch videos, click on links within the pages etc. Participants could pause or stop the presentation anytime and spend as much or as little time as they desired.
Sites explored were Edublogs, PBWiki, Slideshare, TeacherTube, Simply Box, iGoogle and several others. At the end of the presentation, participants were taken to a site called Ning, where they could find several videos, articles and a place to share their comments with others.
Links to Material Here
Computer Graphics 101
Using Online Tools Photoshop.Com and Buzzword.Com
offered by Akira Kamiya from Boston SABES office, ALRI
Remote participants were able to see my desktop via software called Yugma. My voice was carried over the internet using Voice over IP software called Skype. We visited and got hands on use of two web sites Photoshop.Com and Buzzword.Com.
Photoshop.Com allows you edit and publish photos online for free. Buzzword.Com is a free text edit and document sharing resource. Both these tools can be used by teachers and students to create, colloborate and publish work on the web.
Workshop went surprisingly well considering all the possible technological malfunctions that could have taken the entire project down. In fact, I hardly noticed the technology getting in the way at all, and it allowed me to conduct the training pretty much unfettered.
Gone Tomorrow - Strategies to Support Learner Persistence Part #2
offered by Central Massachusetts SABES at Quinsigamond CC
This synchronous workshop was held as a Webinar using the web conferencing tool, Wimba. Wimba is a class that is held on the Internet. As the title leads you to think it was the 2nd session with our national presenter, Lennon McLendon, on persistence. We had 16 participants join in from all corners of the state plus our presenter who joined us from Washington DC. It gives us here at Central SABES the opportunity to bring to Massachusetts top presenters that may not be available to us otherwise. We find that participants interact comfortably with the presenter and each other in “class” joining us from wherever they choose to join the class be it from home or work. We also find the presenters like the technology and have asked us to have them do more workshops in the future. It seems like a WIN WIN for all involved. This workshop held during DL week is just one in our distinguished speaker series that we are continuing into the spring.
For more information on all our Wimba workshop, including archives and posted materials you can find them posted when they're available at this web link: Here Today Gone Tomorrow.
SABES Boston attempts a new kind of Hybrid Workshop
One of the main reasons that practitioners cite for not being able to
take part in our staff development trainings is time, time spent traveling.
This year, the ALRI (Greater Boston SABES office) is trying out a new mode of staff development delivery. It's still in an experimental phase but for now we are attempting to hold our region's Technology Sharing Group TCBoston meetings face to face as well as over the internet simultaneously. Through the use of a combination of software and hardware the host's computer desktop and voice can be transmitted to remote users anywhere on the internet. Merely having the presenter's voice be heard is not enough. People who attend SABES workshops know that a big part of the learning experience happens on a peer to peer level as well.
Through the use of mics, a mic mixer, and audio monitors and some innovative software (Yugma and Skype) we can have our onsite audience hear our remote users and visa versa. Hopefully this will bridge the gap between the ALRI and those practitioners that can't come face to face.
The section of the SABES website devoted to supporting MA ABE professionals use and integrate technology has undergone a redesign. Hopefully it will now be easier to find Resources, Tips and Tricks, Links, and Workshop materials. Some of the links are more well developed than others but we now have a place to start filling up. In the meantime, please peruse, and let us know what you think.
Recently Posted New or Revised Files:
On the sabes.org/smartt page:
How Check Staff Professional Development (in SMARTT)
How to Get a Snapshot of Your Goals Performance
DL Week 2008 Announced
SABES Techs have pulled together a smorgasboard of trainings to be offered to ABE practicioners statewide during the last week of February. All of the trainings will require no travel and will be conducted using a variety of distance learning mediums. Here is the December Save The Date announcement:
This is a statewide project to explore new ways to reach the field with exciting
learning opportunities that can now be offered at a distance. This means these courses
will be offered through the Internet, over the phone or videoconference.
Each SABES office will be offering an event or workshop
that will be accessible from your home or office.
Below are short descriptions of the activities planned for the week.
Stayed tuned for more details and registration information.
Using Free Online Photo Editing and Word Processing in Class Using the sites buzzword.com and photoshop.com we will show how
your students can find, edit and paste images into word documents.
Thursday February 26th 2:00pm – 4:00pm
Presenter: Akira Kamiya, SABES Technology Coordinator
Tech Integration in the Classroom
In this workshop we will explore many exciting, educational, and
easy-to-use technologies that are available for teachers to use in their classrooms.
This workshop can be taken anytime during DL Week at your convenience.
Presenter: Dan Chisholm, SABES Technology Coordinator
Great ESOL Websites
See demonstations and take part in discussion on some of the the top ESOL websites
as recommended by your peers.
Wednesday February 25th 1:00pm - 3:00pm
Presenter: Charlie Herbert, SABES Technology Coordinator
Wicked Good Web 2.0 Resources for Adult Literacy Educators
What is Web 2.0? Web 2.0 websites allow users to do more than just retrieve information.
They allow for rich user experience, user participation, creativity, communication,
collaboration and information sharing. Participate in this workshop to find out what web2.0 is all about and how these exciting resources can be integrated into your classroom and used as great professional development tools.
This workshop can be taken anytime during DL Week at your convenience.
Presenter: Patty Ball, SABES Technology Coordinator
Here today, Gone tomorrow - Strategies to Support Learner Persistence During this two part webinar facilitated by Dr. Lennox McLendon, participants will review
the research pertaining to and strategies to support learner persistence. If you are unfamiliar
with the research, session one is a prerequisite for attending session two.
Part 1 will be held 1/26/2009 and Part 2 will be held during DL week.
Here Today - Session 1: Monday 1/26/2009 4:00-5:00
Gone Tomorrow - Session 2: Monday 2/23/2009 4:00-5:00
Presenter: Dr. McLendon is the Executive Director of the National Adult Education
Professional Development Consortium.
Video Tutorials for SMARTT and Cognos
SABES has been offering and supplying more and more Distance Learning options to interested users. One such example are video tutorials. There are currently three Cognos videos covering some introductory topics such as:
- creating a simple Attendance 'view' or report from the Attendance cube;
- creating a chart for that data;
- an overview and tour through adhoc reports.
See these under Cognos Tips'nTricks at sabes.org/smartt. In addition, there are several new pdf and Word documents covering those topics as well as how to print as a pdf and how to change a property setting so that your reports always run with fresh data. There's also a video going over some of the recent changes to the class section in SMARTT. See it under SMARTT Tips'n'Tricks.
[If you see a  that denotes that a wmv video is available and can be played with Windows Media Viewer.]
September 2008
SABES has received an Educational Grant to use Yugma Premium 10 service
In July 2008, Akira from the Boston area SABES wrote an application for Yugma software, with the aim that the Field Tech Coordinators in each region could use Yugma for their Technology trainings.
Yugma is an internet application that allows users to all view a presenter's desktop and collaborate interactively. One person can do a demo of a computer application and others, sitting remotely, can watch. The presenter can also pass mouse control to other participants and even allow other users' desktops to be shared.
It also allows the use of phone conferencing, text chat, file sharing and pen tool mark up of any screens or documents. Look f
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