Welcome
to the First Edition of the Generation YES Express
Over a period
of five years, the Generation Y model was developed through a U.S. Department
of Education Technology Integration Challenge Grant awarded to the Olympia
School District in Washington state. Upon completion of the grant, Olympia
staff and students created the Generation YES organization to provide support
for schools implementing Gen Y and other student centered strategies.
This newsletter is dedicated to youth and educators working together to
improve education through the use of digital technology in schools. We plan
to send it out occasionally when we have news to share.
I?m happy to hear your comments, questions and suggestions. And please feel
free to forward this newsletter to colleagues and friends.
Dennis Harper
What?s
New at Generation YES
Graduate Credit
For Gen Y Partner Teachers - Gen Y partner-teachers
can earn 1 semester unit of graduate credit from Washington State University
for colaborating on a technology project with a Gen Y student. The credit
is offered through the WSU Distance Degree program and is completely online,
so teachers in any state or around the world can take advantage of this.
https://genyes.org/products/supplemental/wsugeny
75 New Schools Start This Month - Welcome to the newest members
of our Gen Y family - 55 schools in Maryland, 8 in Philadelphia, 10 in Wisconsin
and 2 in New Jersey. In future issues of the Generation YES Express, we
will report on what these new (and "old") Gen Y schools are accomplishing.
To see if there?s a Gen YES school close to you, see the Member Schools
map on our website https://www.genyes.org/scripts/schools/schools.php
Generation YES On The Road - We enjoyed meeting lots
of old friends and making new ones at FETC in Florida earlier this month.
In February, Generation YES will be at NAIS and CoSN. Come by and see us!
https://genyes.org/news/events
No Child Left Behind - Federal technology funding
through the Enhancing Education Through Technology (EETT) grants is available
in various states. We have heard from schools in North Dakota, Georgia, California,
New York, and South Carolina that the applications are available or will
be shortly. If you have been waiting for the right time to start a Gen Y
program, it?s now! Gen Y is perfect for the requirements of No Child Left
Behind, and we have pre-written narrative that has resulted in successful
grant awards in several states. Just give us a call or drop us an email,
we?d be happy to share it with you. Check out our Web page on how our programs
can match the new federal and state requirements. https://www.genyes.org/news/nclb
Student
Showcase
Gen Y Student Keeps Up the Good Work - Back in the seventh grade,
Jeff Conor signed up for a Generation Y class. He's been hooked on helping
teachers ever since. After Gen Y, he continued maintaining the school Web
site at his middle school. When in high school, he worked with a local elementary
school to help teachers put student work online. Frustrated by the amount
of time it took to manage this process, he searched the Internet to find
something that would help, but found nothing. "I thought, I could write a
program that would be useful and really help teachers," says Conor, now
an eleventh grade student at Olympia High School in Olympia, Washington.
"Digital Scribe came out of a need I saw and I knew that if one school needed
it, many more did too."
Digital Scribe is Jeff?s program that allows teachers to put student work
online by simplifying and speeding up this normally tedious process. About
a half dozen schools are using the program now, with more expected to start
soon. Jeff will present his program at the National Educational Computing
Conference in June, so if you are planning be at NECC in Seattle, put Jeff?s
session on your schedule. The program is supported by an extensive Web site
that guides teachers through the setup. You can learn more about Jeff and
Digital Scribe at: https://www.digital-scribe.org/
The students and principal worked together to produce a video that shows what being bullied looks like and how it feels to be bullied. The goal was to help elementary students understand that bullying really hurts other kids and that the results of bulling can lead to very bad things for everyone involved. In addition, watching this video helps the elementary students meet a civics and government state standard! All Gen Y projects are matched to state and local standards to make sure that the projects are not only meaningful to the creators, but can be used for years to come at the schools. For more student projects, check our sample project Web page: https://www.genyes.org/products/geny/genyprojects
Tech Tips Plus
Palm Utility Site from Rainbow Tech - Tech help for handhelds, software recommendations, downloads (both free and commercial) and lots of useful links for students and teachers. https://rainbowtech.org/Palm/index.html
Featured Book - Internet & Computer Ethics for Kids: (and Parents & Teachers Who Haven't Got a Clue.) - By Winn Schwartau. A well-written and fun tour of ethics on the information superhighway. https://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0962870056/qid%3D1044942507/103-0242807-9387827
News You Can Use
Free For Teachers! - Apple has extended the offer to get Jaguar (Mac OS 10.2) for K-12 teachers until March 31, 2003. This is a full version of OS X (Jaguar), the latest operating system from Macintosh. It comes with a CD of tutorials for teachers, 90 days of support, and more. Over 300,000 teachers have taken advantage of this already! https://www.apple.com/education/macosxforteachers/
Practically Free For Teachers! - Get iLife and Keynote for $14.95 until March 31, 2003. iLife consists of iTunes 3, the new iPhoto 2, iMovie 3, and iDVD 2. Plus, get a full version of Apple's new presentation software, Keynote. Keynote can import PowerPoint presentations and has very cool graphics, 3D effects and transitions. This is more than $100 below than the regular education price. This offer is open to K-12 teachers and full-time higher education faculty. https://www.apple.com/education/ilifeandkeynote
