ExploreLearning News

Thanksgiving Holiday -- Office Closed 11/25-11/30

ExploreLearning's offices will be closed on Thursday, Nov. 25 and Friday, Nov. 26 so our employees can enjoy Thanksgiving with their family and friends.

We will respond to customer service and technical support calls on Monday, Nov. 29. You may also experience a delay in order processing and free trial activation beyond our normal 24 hour turnaround.

We sincerely appreciate your business and apologize for any inconvenience during this time.

Have a happy Thanksgiving Holiday.

Shockwave on Linux Systems

In the past we've had several people asking about the Shockwave Plug-in on Linux systems. Our Gizmos require the Shockwave Plug-in to function, and in the past we have told people that there was no Plug-in for Linux.

One teacher recently let us know that our Gizmos can be used with no problems in the Linux operating system when using a product called CrossOver. If you are using a Linux system, and want to use our Gizmos, feel free to get more information on the relatively inexpensive CrossOver software. It allows you to use Windows software applications, as well as browser Plug-ins such as QuickTime and Shockwave.

Gizmos: "A League of Their Own"

Here's a great user testimonial from Evan Glazer, Ph. D., Director of the Roanoke Valley Governor's School for Science and Technology:

The activities at ExploreLearning are in a league of their own. … [They] enable students to feel the "A-ha!" of a learning experience, an expression that brings a smile to a teacher's face.

Thanks so much, Evan.

We've tried to make it such that Gizmos allow students and teachers to explore "What if?" questions quickly and effectively. We believe that pursuing "thought experiments" — the kind that lead to those "A-ha!" moments Evan alluded to above — is one of the main components of a high-quality educational experience. It's great to hear from the teachers using Gizmos that this is coming true.

October Server Stats Snapshot

If you're interested in this kind of thing, the ExploreLearning server logs for the month of October reveal the following. (Bear in mind that server stats are not 100% reliable, but are more for getting a rough idea of who is visiting when and what they're looking at.)

• Total unique visitors: 187,861 (The actual number of visitors is higher than this, as many schools are networked in such a way that a networked classroom or lab with 25 students will only be recorded as a single unique visitor in our logs.)
• Total page views: 1,504,296 (Wow, over a million and a half page views a month! That puts us in the top 1% of all websites according to Alexa.)
• Average Page Views Per Day: 41,786
• Total data transferred: 86.24 GB
• School District with Most Visits: Henrico County Public Schools, Virginia.
• Most popular Gizmo: Density Lab (And the second most popular Gizmo is updated version of the same Gizmo: Density Laboratory. Who knew density was so popular? We joked in the office that maybe we should change our site name to ExploreDensity.com!)
• Visits by country:
  1. United States (78%)
  2. The United Kingdom (4%)
  3. Canada (3%)
  4. Australia (2%)
  5. The European Union (1%)
  (A total of 132 countries had a least one visit during October.)

Jumping for Joy in Whitehouse, TX

In Whitehouse, Texas, the students and teachers were despondent and teary-eyed (wink, wink) when they thought they were not going to be able to sign up for another year of ExploreLearning's Gizmos due to budgetary constraints.

However, after working with our crack team of sales specialists and discovering some funding creativity on their end, the teachers and students were once again Gizmofied. And in Whitehouse, TX, there was great rejoicing!

The lesson here is one of not giving up. If you want Gizmos, you should have Gizmos. Where there's a will, there's a way.

If you find yourself in a tearful situation, broken hearted because you can't access Gizmos, let us know. Perhaps together we can find a creative funding solution.

Case Study: An Interview with Julie Eglite, Science Teacher

Julie Eglite, a science teacher at Deerfield High School in Deerfield, IL is an enthusiastic teacher/user of our ExploreLearning's Gizmos. In order to better understand her feelings about Gizmos as well as learn some ways she's incorporating Gizmos into her teaching, we asked Julie a series of questions.

What Gizmo did you have the most success (and/or fun and/or satisfaction) teaching with?

The Solubility and Temperature Gizmo has been a real winner for us.

What was it about this Gizmo that made the lesson successful?

At the Freshman level, the ability to accurately collect data can often be difficult and counterproductive relative to the concepts that we are guiding them towards. In a solutions unit that we were working on, we were trying to get students to the idea that solubility tends to increase with temperature, but at different rates. We were able to perform a lab in which they used potassium nitrate and sodium chloride to see that the solubility of each of these substances did increase with temperature, but clearly not at the same rate. Now, with the Gizmo, students were able to gather actual numbers, calculate the solubility and create accurate solubility graphs of the two substances. From this, they were able to confirm their findings and trends with numbers as well as compare this to an actual solubility chart of the two substances to prove that the Gizmo was accurate.

Describe the technology setup in which you used Gizmos. (E.g., Networked classroom? How many computers? Laptops? Cart? Projector? Interactive whiteboard?)

[Deerfield High School] is completely wireless, and in our science department, we have 48 laptops that travel on 4 different carts. We also have a number of computer labs throughout our school. We also use a projector in the class to demo each Gizmo prior to students heading to the computers on their own.

How did you use the Gizmo in class? (For example, Did students work individually on computers? In pairs? Did you use the Gizmo as a demo for the whole class? Did you assign the Gizmo as homework?)

Students worked with a partner. We were able to bring in our traveling laptops, and due to the large number of students in the class (44—it is team taught), it would have been too much to have them work individually.

What made teaching with the Gizmo different than teaching without the Gizmo?

[The Gizmo] gave us the ability to collect accurate information and create useful graphs in which students could interpret and analyze data that would lead them to correct conclusions. Often students collect bad data, and therefore they can’t accurately draw conclusions. When that is the case, the lab is not doing its job.

If you’ve used other technology and/or teaching methods to cover this same math or science concept, did you find the that the Gizmo helped you cover the topic more quickly/easily, less quickly/easily, or about the same? Explain.

Again, [The Solubility and Temperature] Gizmo was a supplement to the actual data collection. We could have given students the information, but through the gizmo, although not with lab equipment, they could still gather data, and have ownership of the information. I think it was a helpful addition.

How effective was the Gizmo for struggling students? For gifted-and-talented students? For "typical" students? Please explain.

I really think it helps all students. It is a good visual for them! I believe this Gizmo, and others like it really benefit struggling students in a way that they are free of lab issues. Often my lower level students have a difficult time in a lab setting and using the equipment. Although I don’t want to completely take that experience away from them, taking out the element of lab set up and use helps them get to the end result more easily.

In your opinion, did you feel that students understood the topic better as a result of using Gizmos? Explain with specific /detailed examples, if possible.

I think yes for some students, as they didn’t have to worry about inaccurate results. This also allowed the teachers to move around the room and check to see if they were using the Gizmo correctly, and correct any mistakes with calculating solubility, as all of the students should be getting the exact same numbers. It is also nice in the sense that students can work in pairs instead of groups of four. I believe that really helps some student’s focus and concentrate better. Also working on the computer keeps students fully engaged the entire time.

Did you create any additional materials to enhance the Gizmo lesson? (Worksheet, quiz?) If so, what? Would you be willing to share these materials with other EL users?

Yes, we used the orignial Exploration Guide [for the Solubility and Temperature Gizmo] as a template and modified it according to what we wanted our students to do with it. I will attach a copy of this for you.

[Download Julie's modified Exploration Guide in PDF or Word format]

Great! Sounds like you are having a lot of fun and success teaching with Gizmos. Thanks so much for your time.

You're welcome. I'm looking forward to continued dialogue!

Site Maintenance — Weds. 11/03 early a.m.

We again will be completing important maintenance updates to the ExploreLearning servers on the morning of Wednesday, November 3, 2004 sometime between 3 a.m. and 6 a.m.

We expect that the ExploreLearning website will be unavailable for approximately ten minutes while the work is completed.

We apologize for any inconvenience.