Hybrid Courses?

The Minneapolis/St. Paul Star Tribune published an article this morning about a hybrid education model that blends traditional and online learning. Students at Bloomington Jefferson high school attend class twice a week and finish online assignments during the three days the don't attend class. Teacher like the arrangement because they are able to work with smaller groups of students and students like it because it gives them greater flexibility. This model also answers the most common complaint of critics of online learning which is the lack of face-to-face interaction. The idea of a hybrid course model is an intriguing one that deserves further exploration. 

Read the full article

IR Pen Product Review

Please visit my updated review of IR Pens featuring Penteractive, IRPensOnline, Whalebone, and Infrawow.

The infrared (IR) light pen is one of the essential pieces of hardware for the Wiiboard. The evolution of the IR Pen has progressed rapidly as the Wiiboard technology has taken off. Throughout the school year I have used my Wiiboard regularly and have been able to experiment with several different light pens. Here are my thoughts about the products that I have tested.

1. The "MacGyver Pen"

When Johnny Lee introduced the world to the Wiiboard, it was necessary to construct your own IR pen from components readily available at your local RadioShack. I have no experience with electronics yet I was able to construct my home made IR pen in a couple of hours. Altogether it costs me about $20 by the time I bought a soldering iron and a spool of wire. The results were acceptable, but not outstanding. The two biggest challenges are battery replacement (requires dissembling the whole thing) and weak light intensity from the LED.

You are certainly welcome to tackle creating your own IR pen, but I honestly wouldn't recommend it because your product will be inferior to the commercial products that are now available.

2. Penteractive.us

The first commercial IR pen that I purchased was from John Mitchel, a full time middle school math teacher, who runs penteractive.us. His $8 pens are simple and effective. They run on two hearing aid style batteries. Through extensive testing, John has identified the absolute best IR LED which he has incorporated into the pen. These LED's are considerably brighter than the ones available at your local electronics parts store.

The IR pens from Penteractive are my personal favorite. The pens are operated by a switch near the end of the pen. The diameter of the pen is similar to that of a small highlighter which makes it easy to grip. The durability of these pens is awesome. They have been dropped countless times with any adverse affects. My students prefer these pens over all of the others.

Not only is the quality of the IR pens from Penteractive excellent, John provides excellent customer service. To start, every pen that you purchase comes with an extra set of batteries. Orders are filled quickly and if certain colors are back-ordered you will receive a personal e-mail from John letting you know the holdup.

I would highly recommend the IR pens from Penteractive. They are my clear favorite!

3. The Groove

When looking through posts on the wiimote project I stumbled across irpensonline.com which was developing an IR pen that was touch sensitive. Named "The Groove" this pen looked awesome and promised to provide a more intuitive way of interacting with the Wiiboard. The Groove has a stylish case which houses 1 AA battery and all of the electronic components. The IR LED in the tip of the pen is sensitive to pressure. When pressed gently against any surface the light source is activated.

I was so excited about the new features of The Groove that I preordered the pen in January. The cost of his pen ($30 + shipping) was considerably more than either my home made pen or the pens from Penteractive, but I justified this by the touch-sensitive feature. January passed as did much of February before my Groove arrived. According to posts on irpensonline.com, manufacturing issues delayed the release of the Groove longer than expected.

In testing the Groove with my students (who named the pen "the fish"), I concluded that the touch sensitive feature is not as amazing and useful as I had expected. Part of the issue is that my screen is mounted above my chalk board. When pulled down, the ledge of the chalk board prevents the screen from laying flat against the wall. This gap makes the screen "soft" so that it is difficult to obtain enough pressure to activate the LED on the Groove. Additionally, I had already trained my students how to use the pens from Penteractive which require pushing a button to activate the LED. They were very confused as the Groove didn't have a button!

While the Groove isn't as great as I though it would be, it is a fine product and others with a different setup may find it very useful. If you are willing to wait a while for your order to be fulfilled and are willing to pay $30, give the Groove a try!

Well, there you have it, my take on three flavors of IR pens that you can use with your Wiiboard. If you have sampled other versions that I am not aware of please post your review as a comment. If you are a manufacturer of an IR pen, send me one and I would be glad to try it out and write a review for you!

Wiiboard Questions

After presenting on the Wiiboard at the MACUL conference, several people have spoken with me and e-mailed questions related to implementing the Wiiboard technology in their schools. In replying to them individually, I thought I would also share my thoughts here for others to read. 

1. Can/will the Wiiboard replace our commercial interactive white boards? 

I'm no fortune teller, but my guess is that Promethean, SMART, and the other commercial vendors of interactive whiteboards wont be knocked off of their pedestal by the Wiiboard. They may lose a few potential customers to the Wiiboard (like me!), but the customers they currently have will be loath to give up the products that they have invested thousands of dollars to put into the classroom. 

While the Wiiboard delivers 90% of the function of the commercial boards, at 1% of the costs, it does not come with a suite of software to assist in creating lessons, tracking attendance, or building assessments. It is possible to collect a variety of different programs to use in conjunction with the Wiiboard so that you can create lessons and build interactive assessments, but it doesn't come in the nice, neat package that Promethian and the other giants have assembled. This is another advantage the commercial products have over the Wiiboard.

Another thing to think about before you throw your SMARTboard out the window in favor of the Wiiboard is technical support. The Wiiboard is a hack. We are using the Wiimote for something other than what it was intended therefore it is inevitable that problems will occur. There is no help line for Wiiboard trouble shooting. Creating and using the Wiiboard requires patience and enough PC savvy to problem solve the various issues that will pop up. Trying to implement the Wiiboard in an entire building or district would require a tremendous amount of technical support. Most tech departments have enough to do already. 

2. What happens when Nintendo comes out with another game console and stops making the Wiimote? 

This is a realistic question, however I wouldn't worry too much about it. You can easily purchase controllers for the original Nintendo game console. There will be enough Wiimotes around for everyone!

3. Is there an alternative to powering the Wiimote besides AA batteries? 

A heavy user of the Wiiboard will quickly become frustrated by having to replace the batteries in the remote. I estimate that a set of batteries would last 3 days if the Wiimote is used throughout the entire school day. Fortunately, there are two options available. John Mitchell over at penteractive.us is selling a battery pack replacement that allows you to power your Wiimote through the USB port on your computer. He is also selling a USB to AC adapter that allows you to charge your Wiimote through a standard plug. I have not tried either product personally, but I use the IR Pens that John created and they are outstanding. I would highly recommend him!

The second option is a Wiimote recharge station. Dock and charge your Wiimote at night and you are ready to go in the morning! There are many different models available. This one is made by Griffin and is being sold at buy.com for $24.99. This one by joytech.net looks neat, but no price or purchase options are listed. I'm sure there are other comparable products out there. 

Personally, I would go with the rechargeable option rather than the plug-in option because it provides the greatest flexibility. Plus I hate computer cables! 

4. How do you mount your Wiimote? 

Proper Wiimote placement is the greatest key to a high performing Wiiboard. If you are using Boonjin's Smoothboard software, you will be able to see the tracking resolution of the Wiimote. The higher the resolution, the smoother the line you will be able to draw. Each setup will be slightly different, but I have found the greatest success when my Wiimote is level with the center of the screen and is about halfway between the screen and the projector. Play around and see what works best for you. 

I have a very unsophisticated setup for mounting my Wiimote. I have a standard microphone stand with a flexible mic clip that is wide enough to hold the Wiimote. I like this setup because the height is adjustable and the base is heavy enough to keep the stand from tipping over. 

When I first started using the Wiiboard I set the Wiimote on top of my ceiling mounted projector. This worked okay, but I could never get the tracking resolution above 40% because the Wiimote was too far away from the screen. 

John Mitchell (penteractive.us) has another neat product-- a battery cover with a 1/4-20 threaded bolt that allows you to attach the Wiimote to anything that accepts a thread such as a tripod. He also sells a telescoping ceiling bracket. 

If you have other questions related to the viability of implementing a Wiiboard in your classroom, please post them as a response. I will do my best to answer them! If you have other suggestions for the questions posed here I would welcome your comments as well!

Wiiboard

I appreciate the large turnout to my presentation on using the Wiimote as an interactive whiteboard.  You surpassed my expectations! I hope you found my session informative and inspirational! 

As you setup your wiiboard, please feel free to contact me with questions or success stories. I encourage you to add comments to this post if you have resources related to the wiiboard that you think would be helpful for others. I am happy to trade blog links with you as well! 

I would like to keep in touch with teachers who are using the wiiboard in their classroom. I know that there are lots of applications out there, but I need your help in finding them! 

For information on setting up your wiiboard and helpful resources, check out my wiki.

Friday @ MACUL

Here are the highlights of what I've seen and heard here today at the MACUL conference: 

Opening Keynote: Alan November
Alan spoke about collaboration and student centered learning. Here are three things that I took away from his presentation:

1. Create a custom search engine through a new Google application. 
   
2. Use Jing to create screencasts.
3. Assign a student in class to the be official "class researcher" and arm them with a web enabled laptop. When questions come up in class, have them search for the answer.
   

Workshop #1: Google Applications

This workshop was more basic than I was hoping, but I did learn that Google will provide a free suite of applications for educators which includes e-mail. 

Workshop #2: Using Moodle

I am getting ready to dive into the world of Moodle next year by teaching a course on C.S. Lewis using the Moodle web interface. Tammy Maginity, technology coordinator at Pennfield Schools provided great information on the benefits and challenges of Moodle. You can view some excellent Moodle sites put together by the Pennfield School district.

Workshop #3: The National Park Project

I am blessed to be in the same building as Karen Bosch, an Apple Distinguished educator and one of the most creative teachers I have met. She shared a project she did with her elementary students this year in which they created wiki pages, podcasts, digital trading cards, and travel brochures on the National Parks. 

2009 MACUL Conference

It's been a busy month since I returned from Kosovo and I have not had time to do any blogging. Today and tomorrow I will be at the Michigan Association of Computer Users in Learning (MACUL) conference at Cobo Hall in Detroit, Michigan. Conference attendance is expected to top 4,000 this year.

The annual MACUL conference is an awesome opportunity to hear how other educators are using technology in the classroom and to browse the latest in ed. tech. hardware and software. Numerous breakout sessions, workshops and keynotes will be given during the two day conference. Last night I spent an hour going through the conference program and picking out the sessions that I will be attending. Here is what I came up with:

Thursday:

• 8:30-9:00 Opening Keynote-- Allen November "The digital learning farm"
• 10:00-11:00 Workshop-- Google: good to great
• 11:00-1:00 Tour vendor exhibit hall
• 11:30-12:30 Work at MI Learning booth in exhibit hall
  A kiosk will be setup in the exhibit hall to showcase the learning resources on the MI Learning channel of iTunesU K-12. Come and check us out!
• 1:00-2:00 Workshop-- "Want to teach online? Free training, free or low cost content!"
• 2:30-3:30 Workshop-- "Web 2.0 tools for classroom instruction"
• 4:00-5:00 Workshop-- "Toys to tools: connecting students' cell phones to learning."

Thursday:

• 8:30-9:30 Workshop-- "Creating curriculum resources on MI learning
  I am on a panel with two other teachers. We will be discussing some of the ideas and issues surrounding are creation of podcasts for student use.

• 10:00-11:00 Workshop--
• 11:00-1:00 Tour vendor exhibit hall
• 11:30-12:30 MI learning round table
  The educators who have been creating and posting learning resources on the MI learning channel of iTunesU K-12 will be meeting together for an idea swapping session.
• 1:00-2:00 Workshop-- "Creating a wiiboard for less than $100"
  This is my workshop! I will be sharing how I created a interactive smartboard using a Nintendo Wii controler.
• 2:30-3:30 Closing Keynote-- Timothy J. Mangner "Trends in ed. tech. a national perspective."