Well, I signed up for a 30-day free trial software package from Autodesk Inventor which should arive in 2 to 3 weeks. I'm not exactly sure if I'll have time to look at it too closely before the summer, but we'll see. Also, I might be able to get the actual software package free through FIRST Robotics--I'll check with my engineer.
After reading the text and looking at this week's videos, I have looked into Google Docs as a vehicle for collaboration--students can look at, comment on, and edit Word, PowerPoint, and Excel documents online from different computers at the same time or asynchronously. The key here is that it would result in the creation of a single document by the members of a team, and document participation in the creation of the "product" (at least I think it does--maybe someone can straighten me out here...). This would ensure that each team member is an active participant in making the PowerPoint that a team will be responsible for.
So far, I have discovered that my browser must be updated from IE-6 to IE-7 to take advantages of all of the frills Google Docs has to offer. I uploaded an old PowerPoint just to see how it worked, and it uploaded all right, but doesn seem to have all the animation of the original. The initial memory capacity for a new account is 1024 MB, and it appears that it can be increased. In the next few weeks I will see how Google Docs is managed. For example, how do students share documents in such a way that outsiders can't mess with 'em. Can I look at them as they are created by my students? Can I comment on 'em? These are all questions that some of you may be able to answer for me!
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Tim,
ReplyDeleteI am glad that you are going to try and use Autodesk. My school was very lucky to get the software for free. We have construction tech prep class that is co-taught by the county's technical institute. Therefore, the technical institute paid for the software to be used in my school. Unfortunately, I have never used Google Docs and can not offer any first hand advise. There is a tour you can take that may help at http://www.google.com/google-d-s/tour1.html . Also, there is a help section in google docs with some troubleshooting as well as FAQs.
The Robotics Team at my school received the first engineering inspiration award at the competition in Cleveland two weeks ago. Their robot did not win but I guess the award is pretty great. I believe that it qualifies them for nationals. They just traveled to North Carolina for a competition and made it to the semi-finals. They did not get any other awards this time. Good luck to your team and to your GAME plan.
James,
ReplyDeleteYou are right that the FIRST Engineering and Inspiration Award qualifies your team for nationals. Tell them that Team 1675 sends them their congratulations!
James,
ReplyDeleteCongratulations to you and your team! I am so intimidated by what you do with your students. I realize we need the breadth of our knowledge, but the direction that the "shop" classes have gone is wild. We have a new school here at Richland in Johnstown, and with the new school came two new tech ed teachers who just blow me away with what they do. We even had a student begin a patent process for something they created in class. That is authentic assessment. I only hope he remembers his boring Cultures teacher when he gets rich! Again, cool post for taking it to the next level.