Mountain Lake PBS

On Jan 21, in partnership with the SUNY education department Mountain Lake PBS will sponsor a workshop for representatives of area school districts.  Dr. Heidi Schnackenberg and Eddie Vega will present Free Open Source Digital Resources that schools can utilize to enhance their curriculum.  The school committee will be meeting for their semi-annual meeting and other area school districts are invited to attend.  This workshop will emphasize technologies that allow teachers to move forward with technology enhanced lessons and leave no student behind simply due to the economic state of affairs.

This workshop will present alternatives to commonly used, commercially available produced software as well as where to get technical support, training and professional development.  It will also focus on how both open and closed source software, can co-exist in schools, the workplace and at home.  Demonstrations with various applications and a Q&A sessions will be provided.

Some of the questions that will be addressed are the following:

•  How do you stay on the cutting edge of  technology without bleeding the wallet dry?  
• How to bridge the Digital Divide between those who have and those who have not?
• How to be productive on a no-string budget?
• Who in education is currently using FOSS?

For more information on this workshop and the professional development opportunities that Mountain Lake PBS provides contact the Director of Education, Jane Owens.

PBS offers a wealth of educational games for students that are safe and trusted environment for children to learn.  Two literacy games that are offered are Kids Island and The Great Word Quest.  They can be accessed at www.pbskids.org/read.

There is also a new social studies game for middle school students called Mission US.  In Mission 1, “For Crown or Colony?,” players assume the role of a young apprentice in pre-Revolutionary Boston who experiences the Boston Massacre. Through innovative and engaging game play, students navigate historic settings, develop relationships with key figures, investigate primary documents, witness pivotal events, and ultimately decide their fate in the face of history.  It can be accessed at:  www.mission-us.org.

There are also many educational games and interactive resources on the program websites which can be accessed at www.pbskids.org.