WEEK OF JUNE 29
BRISTOL COMMUNITY COLLEGE, FALL RIVER, MA

July 1st in Room K101 (9:00 - 3:00)
Bringing Technology into the Classroom: Creatively Enhancing the Skills of Your Students through Technology

The two software programs that were discussed within this workshop were Alice and Scratch. Alice is a program that was developed by Carnegie Mellon for the purpose of teaching the basics of programming to students using a 3D environment. This program is a great tool for animating story telling. Scratch is a program that was created by MIT for the purpose of teaching children, ages 8 and up, to develop 21st century learning skills. With this tool, students learn important mathematical and computational skills, as well as learn to think creatively, reason systematically, and work collaboratively.

This workshop taught educators basic instructions for utilizing the software as well as provide you with suggestions for incorporating these programs into your lesson plan. Both Alice and Scratch are free to download and use.

July 1st in Room K102 (9:00 - 3:00)
Working with QuickBooks
Phoebe Blackburn, Bristol Community College

QuickBooks is the most widely-used financial software in small business. This workshop was an introduction to familiarize the participants with the most commonly used functions within the application. It was recommended for any individual who would like to learn, hands-on, how to use the software to record financial and bookkeeping data in a computerized environment. Topics presented included the basic procedural steps to create a QuickBooks company, how to process sales and cash receipts, record purchases and cash payments, reconcile banking transactions and create and customize QuickBooks forms.

July 2nd in Room K104 (9:00 - 3:00)
Introduction to Illustrator
Paula Mailloux, Bristol Community College

This one-day workshop offered an introduction to basics of Adobe Illustrator. A step-by-step, hands-on project took educators through the basic tools for drawing and photo and text manipulation to create simple shapes, illustrations and logos to incorporate into print and web projects.

WEEK OF JULY 6
UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS BOSTON, BOSTON , MA

July 6th - July 10th in Healey Library, Lower Level, Room P5
Essentials of Computer Programming
Link to Materials
Russell Zahniser, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Learning to program a computer is challenging, not so much because of the cryptic nature of computer languages, but because those languages are designed to express realities that have no analog in human language or even in the physical world. This class focused on not merely learning to program, but also acquiring a deep understanding of the big, unfamiliar ideas that undergird all of computer science. In one week, educators covered the first few months of an introductory Java programming class, using software called CodeMotion that supports the learning of programming by building visual intuition for how a computer program works. Educators found that the instructional approach, which focuses on experimentation and collaboration rather than direct instruction, could be readily adapted into their own teaching of introductory or AP computer science.

July 7th in Healey Library's Green Lab (8:30-12:00)
The Tidal Wave of Digital Data: Are Your Students Ready to Surf?
Alok Shrivastava, EMC Global Services

The wave of digital photos, blogs, emails, and other data is growing at an explosive rate, and is projected to double every 18 months. In order to avoid drowning in data, organizations must consider scalability, compliance, security, and a host of other implications across the IT infrastructure. The demand for IT professionals with storage knowledge to ride this wave far exceeds the available supply. Educators attending this workshop found out more about how they could prepare students to be successful in the IT industry by attending this workshop. Participants left with an understanding of information infrastructure and its technology segments including: storage, protection, virtualization and management.

July 8th - July 9th in Healey Library's Green Lab
Integrating Employability Skills Across the ICT Curricula: A Practical Approaching Using Office 2007
Mike Puopolo, Bunker Hill Community College

This two-day, hands-on workshop introduced ICT Educators and Administrators at all levels (High School, Community College & University) to proven methodologies and best-practices for integrating Employability Skills across the ICT curricula using any one or all Microsoft Office 2007 Programs.  The BATEC Workforce Study clearly spells out the need and urgency for implementing these skills and points to key areas where ICT Education CAN & MUST be changed to insure competitiveness of our students in the 21st Century global economy. Using Office 2007, new approaches to insure quality and consistency in delivery of content, infusion of Group/Team Work, Improved Oral & Written Communication, Critical Thinking, Problem Based Learning, On-Line Collaboration and Customer Service Skills were covered and demonstrated. Participants were also introduced to technologies for pre and post assessment, many advanced features of WORD, EXCEL, ACCESS POWERPOINT and OfficeLive as well as proven task-based and case-based teaching & learning techniques. Participants were given access to a range of fully populated Office 2007 Introductory & Advanced Courses using the Pearson Education myitlab Learning Management System.

WEEK OF JULY 6
BRISTOL COMMUNITY COLLEGE, FALL RIVER, MA

July 6th - July 7th in Room K102 (9:00 - 3:00)
Introduction to Photoshop
Paula Mailloux, Bristol Community College

Participants learned the basics of Adobe Photoshop in this two-day, hands-on workshop. A guided in-class project introduced them to Photoshop tools that helped them develop the basic skills to touch-up photographs and manipulate images that can be incorporated into print and web projects.

July 8th - July 9th in Room 101 (9:00 - 3:00)
Introduction to Flash
Chris MacDonald, Bristol Community College

Participants learned the basics of Flash in this two day workshop and explored creating exciting projects that they could use in their classroom.

July 10th in Room K102 (9:00 - 3:00)
Introduction to Microsoft Office 2007
Craig Watson, Bristol Community College

This seminar was designed to introduce participants to new ribbon system in all applications as compared to use of menus and tool bars in older versions of Office. Accessing dialog boxes using old version menu access was discussed, for example using the Alt key to open embedded dialog boxes and new features of Office 2007.

WEEK OF JULY 13
BRISTOL COMMUNITY COLLEGE, FALL RIVER, MA

July 17th in Room K101 (9:00 - 3:00)
Next Step with Microsoft Office
Craig Watson, Bristol Community College

This seminar was designed to explore some of the changes in wizards that assist in completing Office tasks. There was also some discussion on integrating documents from the various applications.

WEEK OF JULY 13
BUNKER HILL COMMUNITY COLLEGE, BOSTON, MA

July 13th - July 14th in Room D101
Integrating Employability Skills Across the ICT Curricula: A Practical Approaching Using Office 2007
Mike Puopolo, Bunker Hill Community College

This two-day, hands-on workshop introduced ICT Educators and Administrators at all levels (High School, Community College & University) to proven methodologies and best-practices for integrating Employability Skills across the ICT curricula using any one or all Microsoft Office 2007 Programs.  The BATEC Workforce Study clearly spells out the need and urgency for implementing these skills and points to key areas where ICT Education CAN & MUST be changed to insure competitiveness of our students in the 21st Century global economy. Using Office 2007, new approaches to insure quality and consistency in delivery of content, infusion of Group/Team Work, Improved Oral & Written Communication, Critical Thinking, Problem Based Learning, On-Line Collaboration and Customer Service Skills were covered and demonstrated. Participants were also introduced to technologies for pre and post assessment, many advanced features of WORD, EXCEL, ACCESS POWERPOINT and OfficeLive as well as proven task-based and case-based teaching & learning techniques. Participants were given access to a range of fully populated Office 2007 Introductory & Advanced Courses using the Pearson Education myitlab Learning Management System.

July 13th - July 16th in Room D121A
Learn to Teach Java
Maria Litvin, Phillips Academy and Rashmi Pimprikar, TechBoston

BATEC and TechBoston collaborated to offer Learn to Teach Java - a 4 day, hands on course that accommodated participants with different levels of familiarity with Java and OOPs concepts. Classes and objects, constructors and methods, interfaces, inheritance, and polymorphism, strings, arrays, arraylist and some topics specified in the AP Computer Science Exam were all covered. Emphasis was placed on techniques for teaching Java in high school (role play, team projects, case studies, writing Java code, debugging exercises etc...). Also covered was rubric base grading of an AP CS paper. Upon completion of the course, BPS participants who successfully completed the course received 2 in-service credits.

July 15th in Room D116
Teaching Employability Online: A Practical Approach
Joyce LaTulippe, BATEC, and Lori Weir, Middlesex Community College

This one-day workshop addressed critical questions about online teaching and learning such as: How do students work in groups and teams online? How will student complete projects in an online course? How are group and individual interactions measured and assessed? What role can industry take in an online course? Faculty and K-12 educators who had struggled with how to design engaging instruction in an online environment found answers in this workshop. The session introduced participants to the rich features of leading LMS/CMS systems such as Blackboard, WebCT and Moodle. From there, participants explored the dynamics of online interactions while applying methods used to teach and model employability skills in classrooms. Session participants left with a viable course design, an enhanced syllabus and hands-on practice in how to engage students in authentic tasks, projects and problems. 

July 17th in D121A (9:00 - 4:00)
iJava
Robert Moll, UMass Amherst

iJava is a newly-developed online interactive textbook for introductory Java instruction. The text is unique in its hands-on style: users type code directly at the book, and receive instant correctness feedback. Because of its hands-on, interactive engagement style, the text has dramatically reduced failure rates in introductory classes at UMass-Amherst. An iJava-based class is suitable for the AP exam in computer science (level A). High school teachers had the opportunity to also arrange for college credit in Computer Science for their students upon successful completion of the course from the UMass Amherst Computer Science department.

WEEK OF JULY 20
BUNKER HILL COMMUNITY COLLEGE, BOSTON, MA

July 20th - July 24th in Room D103
Cisco CCNA Discovery
Leo Carey, Boston Latin Academy

WEEK OF JULY 27
BUNKER HILL COMMUNITY COLLEGE, BOSTON, MA

July 27th - July 31st in Room D103
IT Essentials
Leo Carey, Boston Latin Academy

PC Hardware and Software Courses Image IT Essentials: PC Hardware and Software v4.0 covers the fundamentals of computer hardware and software as well as advanced concepts. Students who completed this course were able to describe the internal components of a computer, assemble a computer system, install an operating system, and troubleshoot using system tools and diagnostic software. Students were also able to connect to the Internet and share resources in a network environment. New topics included in this version were laptops and portable devices, wireless connectivity, security, safety and environmental issues, and communication skills. Virtual learning tools are integrated into this course. The Virtual Laptop and Virtual Desktop are stand-alone tools designed to supplement classroom learning and provide an interactive "hands-on" experience in learning environments with limited physical equipment.

WEEK OF JULY 27
UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS BOSTON, BOSTON, MA

July 27th - July 28th in Healey Library, Upper Level, Room 0030
Teaching Interactive Multimedia with Flash and Dreamweaver
Rashmi Pimprikar, TechBoston and TBA

BATEC and TechBoston collaborated to offer this free intermediate hands on workshop of Teaching Interactive Multimedia with Flash and Dreamweaver. This course effectively integrated elements of project based learning; standards based curriculum, Graphic design & STEM concepts, animation, and 21st Century Skills. It can be used in-class in any discipline or in an after-school club. The course covered topics in Flash, Photoshop and Dreamweaver, ActionScript programming using Flash, and classroom techniques. BPS Participants who successfully completed the course received 1 in-service credit, Adobe CS3/CS4 software, installation help, curriculum materials and priority access to follow-up workshops as they were offered.

Prerequisite: Experience with Adobe technologies.