December 2001

Is it really December? In Lowell, Massachusetts it feels more like spring! But, this is New England and if we wait long enough the weather will certainly change!

The Design Team Forum Meeting held on December 3 was a very successful brainstorming session with each team discussing ideas for their technology integrated curriculum units.

Many of the team participants have completed most, if not all, of their multimedia training with John Wren. In addition, John is working closely with some preservice classes on final projects incorporating multimedia and technology.

Our curriculum workshop taught by Mass Networks Laura Christian and Madeline Roy has been well attended. Many people took the opportunity to attend either the MassCue or Christa McAuliffe Conferences in November that was paid for by grant funds.

In the coming six weeks, we will be working closely with our project evaluator, Dr. Julie Meltzer, on our annual GPRA report on assessing activities and accomplishments during year one of the Ready to Teach grant.

Another exciting prospect is the possibility of partnering with the Intel Corporation on prepared training units for preservice teachers. Intel has a tried and true program already in place for inservice teachers and they are expanding these training opportunities to College of Education faculties and their students.

New product!

During a trip to the Christa McAuliffe 2001 conference in Nashua last week I stumbled across a wonderful device.

Many times I have found myself needing a quick means to save and transport a project off my work or home computer. Of course the file is always just over the size that would fit onto a floppy and perhaps you have not yet come to the point to justify the purchase of a zip drive. To add to this list, many of us are now faced with having to use both PC and Mac systems in our daily work. What is a person to do???

How about storing your project on a key chain!

www.diskonkey.com

From their web site, "DiskOnKey utilizes a standard Universal Serial Bus (USB) port for complete and instantaneous plug-n-play interoperability on the latest Windows®, Mac® OS and Linux® operating systems - without requiring users to load software drivers*. When plugged into an USB port, the DiskOnKey operates as a secure, reliable, removable hard drive."

"The DiskOnKey lends itself to a wide variety of innovative uses. The product is an active device with its own central processing unit (CPU) and is capable of supporting and running multiple applications directly from the product. When using the DiskOnKey you can save documents, presentations, cross the boundaries between a PC & Macintosh, and save downloaded music, videos or books. Because it connects with host computers through a USB port, the DiskOnKey product is easily utilized: just plug it in! The host computer will immediately detect it and recognize it as a supplementary hard drive."

This is the perfect device for teachers and students to transport class work. Many preservice teachers at UML have placed "DiskOnKey" at the top of their holiday wish list. The device comes in 8, 16, 32, 64, 128 meg sizes, with 256 and 512 meg on the way.

*Windows 98 requires a quick download from the DiskOnKey web site.

Happy Holidays to all!