Personal Learning Summary

As my EME5050 class comes to an end, I believe that I have learned a great deal from this course.  At the beginning, the list of things we were to accomplish over the semester seemed daunting, but if I just focused on one or two weeks at a time, it didn’t seem so big.  I was especially worried about the final project, but we put pieces together over the semester so that it wasn’t a Herculean task as I thought it would be. 

During this class, I was able to use the skills I have with programs such as Microsoft Word and PowerPoint, but I also learned new programs such as Prezi and how to make a wiki.  I learned about how to appropriately incorporate technology into my classroom as well. 

I’m also glad that I decided to complete the ABC extra credit because it gave me a chance each week to read some information about issues in education related to technology and reflect on how these issues impact classrooms in general or me in particular.  I learned not only about new technologies that could improve learning, but also about how technology has affected and will, in the future, further affect the lives of my students.  Technology is a major part of everyday life and to ignore that fact would be detrimental to our students.  The education system needs to come into the digital age, not by simply adding in a bunch of technology, but by modifying the curriculum and practices to teach 21^st century skills. 

I have always enjoyed technology and liked getting new toys, but this course has made me better able to see how technology needs to be utilized in the classroom.  Technology may just be a tool, but it is an integral part of our lives and therefore should influence how we teach and what is taught.

ABC Week 14: Digital Learning Council

I read an article about the recommendations of the Digital Learning Council this week (http://bit.ly/gRDesn).  The Council suggests "abolishing seat-time requirements, linking teacher pay to student success, and overhauling public school funding models."  I wonder whether these suggestions are at all based on research in education.  The Council is made up of leaders in government, business, education, and technology.  At least the educators are involved, but how much influence do they have?  There are tons of suggestions out there about how to improve education, but very few have relevant data to back up the claims and many are put forward by those who have no experience as educators.  You wouldn't ask a lawyer to diagnose a medical condition so why ask a politician or businessman to fix education? 

ABC Week 13: Is technology the solution for budget problems?

I read an article this week (http://bit.ly/d3IO7l) suggesting that using more digital textbooks and open-access materials may be a significant way to decrease the cost of textbooks.  Arne Duncan, the Education Secretary, believes that educational technology can reduce waste of money, time, and energy.  So the question is, is this true?  It depends on whether you look at it in the short term or the long term.  In the short term, it’s going to be a bit costly to get all the teachers appropriately trained in the technology and to acquire both the hardware and software.  Over the long term, however, it seems like it should be more cost effective, but you have to consider maintaining and updating the hardware and software as well as training teachers on the updated systems. It would be interesting to see some studies done on this so that we could see hard data on whether it would be cost effective or not.

Activity Reflection #7: Rubric

This week, I created two rubrics.  One rubric was for the written research paper part of the project and the other was for the final product.  Using Rubistar was fairly easy, especially since they provided potential criteria ideas for you once you chose the appropriate project from their list.  You can also make your own criteria, which I did for the final product since I wanted to have creativity and originality as one of the criteria and that wasn’t something that was included as a possibility for the digital storytelling rubric.  The hard part came when I was trying to figure out how to put the rubrics into my wiki.  Wiki-site only allows image file to be uploaded, so saving it as a webpage, pdf, or MS Word file didn’t work.  I finally found the “make it available online” link and from there, the print link.  When you click on the print link, it provides a print preview that’s online and you can use that as a link from the wiki. 

I really liked having some criteria suggestions available from the website.  Since I’m not teaching yet, I haven’t made very many rubrics and I liked being able to see suggestions for criteria that I hadn’t thought of.  Also, if you’re ever in a rush and need a rubric quick, Rubistar is the way to go.  It basically creates the rubric for you from the selected criteria because it provides descriptions of the different levels (poor, fair, good, excellent), which can be modified if it doesn’t quite suit what you want.  I still have to make the peer evaluation form for those of my students that will be working in groups.  I may be able to use the collaborative work skills rubric for this, but I’m not sure.  I might make my own form in a different kind of format for this.

http://www.wiki-site.com/index.php/Lisa_T_Curriculum_Page   

ABC Week 12: Digital Equity

Now we not only have the education gap, but we also have the digital divide.  Many of the same students who are on the losing end of the education gap are on the wrong side of the digital divide.  They either don’t have internet at home or have dial-up access because that’s all they can afford.  Many of these students don’t develop the 21^st century skills they need in order to succeed in the world until they are at least teenagers if not in college (that is if they get into college).  I know that the school system I plan on working in only have one computer in the classroom and that’s for the teacher.  They have a computer lab in the library, but you have to reserve it.  They don’t even have whiteboards and I’m not talking about the interactive kind.  They are traditional blackboard and chalk classrooms, at least in the elementary schools that I’ve been in.  I’m not certain about all of the schools, but I doubt that they have much in the way of technology like interactive whiteboards or computers in the classroom.  So if I were to assign something like the digital storytelling project I’ve been developing in this class, I’m going to need to be concerned about whether my students will have access to the internet.  I’ll have to plan days in the computer lab which will take away from regular class time in order to make sure everyone has a chance to do research and work on their project.  One way that I can start to close the digital divide at my school would be to write grant proposals for more technology.  I plan to start researching grants now since whatever school I work for in this area will likely have limited technology budgets.  I’m also going to research other ways to close the digital divide.  I am definitely open to suggestions if you have any ideas.

Activity Reflection #6: Digital Storytelling Example

https://prezi.com/secure/1a3cae11bd7e9349db5d6dac97025642c9eda5a2/

This week I completed the digital storytelling example for my student project.  I decided to do economic recessions and depressions in U.S. history.  It’s really interesting to see the pattern of recessions and depressions throughout history.  I used a bunch of different sites on the history of the U.S. economy and the Bureau of Labor Statistics website to gather my information.  Then I created a Prezi showing what I found.  I started my Prezi with an image I created through Wordle.  Wordle sorts words from text and shows the words in different sizes depending on the frequency of the word in the passage.  I used a passage from one of the websites I used in my research.  After that, I included definitions of recession and depression because many people don’t know exactly how those words are defined.  Then I provided a timeline that I created in Microsoft Word of recessions and depressions throughout U.S. history.  Next, I pulled some statistics on recessions and depressions to compare to the current economic crisis, which some call the “Great Recession.”  After that, I discussed what it meant for us.  I probably need to do a little more in depth on the what it means for us part.

It’s a bit rough since the project was meant to be something that students completed over several weeks to a couple of months and I completed it in a week.  I think with more time, I could improve on my Prezi.  I also would hope my students didn’t focus too much on using Prezi.  I want them to create something meaningful, which could be something very different from what I created.  It could be a mini-documentary, a play, poem, or song, or a voice over digital story sort of like my Prezi.  They could also do something as simple as a PowerPoint presentation.  I think the rubric will be more helpful to them in deciding on their project and since they will have to get teacher approval, that will hopefully ensure they are doing an acceptable project.  They’ll also have to turn in a storyboard prior to completing the final project.

I think that completing a project like this will be a great experience for my students.  It will show them the connections between events.  Most of the time in history classes, they are simply taught the events in isolation and they don’t understand why those events are important to them.  Both their own projects and the projects of their classmates will help them see those connections. 

ABC Week 11: Online “credit recovery” courses

I was reading an article (http://bit.ly/9jDJsz) on credit recovery courses in Texas that asked whether they could cut dropout rates, but there is a more important question we need to ask: are online credit recovery courses a good idea?  If you’re only concerned with improving your graduation rates, then yes, but what are these courses really teaching kids?  These classes aren’t regulated the same way that regular classes are and they’re accelerating material that the student previously failed to master.  This might not be a problem for students who failed simply due to a lack of effort rather than a lack of understanding, but those who did not understand the material the first time around may not truly learn anything from these accelerated credit recover courses.  We need to evaluate and regulate the curriculum for these online courses.  They shouldn’t be an easy way out of the regular curriculum, but rather a chance for students to learn in a different way that might help them understand better.  I’m all for improving graduation rates, but it shouldn’t be done by decreasing the quality of the education the student receives.

Activity Reflection #5: Curriculum Page Creation

My Curriculum Page: http://www.wiki-site.com/index.php/Lisa_T_Curriculum_Page
I’m starting work on a curriculum page project that will include a student project with task and procedures outline, resources for the students to use, evaluation, an example project, and a teacher lesson plan.  This week, I worked on creating my main curriculum page in Wiki-site (http://www.wiki-site.com).  Wiki-site is designed like Wikipedia so its pages are fairly plain.  I’ve never created or edited a wiki before, but it was really easy to edit.  I just went in and started by putting in the categories that I thought I was going to need: introduction, task, procedure, evaluation, example, and resources/credits.  I started with the introduction and wrote a little blurb about digital storytelling.  Then because I had a reference in that blurb, I went down to the resources/credits to put in the reference.  Since I was there, I started adding in resources on digital storytelling, websites with free media (images, video, and sound), software sites to help create the projects, and history websites students could check out for information.  After that, I went in and described the project under task and the steps that they will complete under procedure.  The evaluation and example sections will be filled in later after I’ve created the rubric and an example project.  I realized as I was typing this that I left out the teacher lesson plan section, so I’ll have to go add that in later.  I like the way my page has turned out so far.  It is somewhat plain, but it reminds me of Wikipedia with few distractions from the important parts (the information provided).  Although I like the way this turned out, I think the next time I create a page like this I would rather pick one of the sites that would allow me to make it look more like a custom website.  I would like to have a little more color and personality, but this will do for now.
I like wikis and Wikipedia even though most seem to think Wikipedia is evil or something.  Wikipedia is what it was meant to be, an online encyclopedia that can be built and edited by many people.  An encyclopedia isn’t really a good research source, but it is a good starting point for ideas, which is what my curriculum page is.  It’s a starting point from which students can work to create their projects.  Wikis can be a good online environment for collaborative projects.  Each student can participate in adding information and editing and the history allows the teacher to keep track of each student’s participation.

ABC Week 10: Student Rights in the Digital Age

I happened to read a blog this week about a student rights conference that I thought was interesting (http://bit.ly/b3yzHq).  Discussions about student rights in school have addressed various issues throughout the decades.  From wearing certain colors or clothing items to freedom of speech, student rights have been argued by individual school districts, states, and sometimes in courts.  Now, in the digital age, we have arguments about cell phones and the internet.  Can school officials search a student’s cell phone?  Can they punish a student for comments made on the internet?  I think the same rules as they have for lockers apply to cell phones.  If there is reasonable suspicion of say cyber bullying and administrators believe that evidence can be found on the phone then they have a right to search it.  The second question starts to get into freedom of speech rights and it really depends on when and where they make the comments as well as whether it disrupts the operation of the school.  If students make negative comments about the school staff or teachers online when they aren’t in school and it doesn’t affect school operation, then it’s the parents’ responsibility to deal with it.  However, if they’re making these comments during school then I’d say the school has jurisdiction.  It still depends on whether those comments are disruptive.  If a student makes a comment about a teacher, other students see it, and they talk about that all day rather than focusing on their work, then that is disrupting the school environment and hindering learning.  Students have a right to their opinions, but they still need to be taught how to express those opinions in an acceptable manner and venue.  Honestly, my students can hate me if they want as long as they’re learning.  I would prefer to have them like me, but the most important thing is whether they’re learning.

Reading Reaction #5: Digital Storytelling Project

I intend to teach high school social sciences, probably history, government, and economics.  My idea for a digital storytelling project would be to have students do a project where they pick a topic and link that topic through various events in history.  This would be an end of the year project for history or government students.  They could choose a topic like prejudice, war, or liberty and discuss what these things meant throughout different time periods and their impact on people’s lives ending with what impact these issues have on their own lives.  Students could use whatever media format they wanted: Prezi, video, live performance, etc.  They would have to create a storyboard and get approval before doing the final project.  Students could bring in quotes, audio, images, or video that emphasized their points.  For this project, they would need various web resources including sites with information on history and digital storytelling as well as how-to sites where they can learn how to incorporate different media in their project.  I would likely direct my students to the Florida Center for Instructional Technology site (http://fcit.usf.edu/).  They have all sorts of resources for copyright free materials.  By the end of the school year, I intend to have completed lessons on primary and secondary sources as well as internet research, which would deal with evaluating websites.  In order to get students to produce the type of digital storytelling project I want, I would probably do a lesson on what digital storytelling is and create an example for them to view.  I would also tell them not to limit themselves by copying my example.  I want something that is creative and meaningful for them not just something that they’re doing for a grade.  I want my students to have the skills to be able to find and incorporate the information they need, not just to regurgitate facts and I think that this project would do that as well as teach 21^st century skills through the use of technology.



ABC Week #9: Technology & Teacher Training

I read this sentence in Shelly, Gunter, & Gunter, “To prepare educators to use the technology after it is implemented, administrators provide technology training with mentorship programs and follow-up staff development after training.”  I don’t know whether they meant this as the ideal or what they think is reality, but this does not happen a lot of the time.  I was at a conference last weekend and on Friday, I did a workshop on whiteboards.  One of the teachers had a whiteboard, but never used it because she had no training, no mentorship, or any other assistance in learning this new technology.  It’s not that uncommon for a school to have technology that many of the teachers either don’t know how to use or are afraid to try to use because of the learning curve.  It seems like everyone thinks of the goal as getting technology into the classroom, but really that’s just one step in the process.  The work really begins once technology is in the classroom.  Technology that sits idle does nothing, but teachers need the time and support to learn how to use technology effectively.  Time in class is very limited and we’re all trying to get all the material in that we can, we don’t have time to lose trying to learn technology while teaching.  So if time isn’t set aside for professional development in using technology then those who don’t already know how to use it won’t use it.  It seems like a really simple concept, but obviously it is overlooked since there are teachers out there with technology, such as whiteboards, in their classroom that isn’t being used.

Shelly, G.B., Gunter, G.A., & Gunter, R.E. (2010) Integrating technology and digital media in the classroom (6^th Ed.).  Boston, MA: Course Technology.

Article on using whiteboards: http://bit.ly/9DuEXy

Activity Reflection #4: Prezi on digital storytelling

The activity this week was to create a presentation using Prezi about digital storytelling and how it might benefit my students.  I’ve never used Prezi before so this was a new experience for me.  It was still pretty easy.  I just went into the software and started trying things out.  It kind of reminded me of the class I took over the summer on creativity in gifted education.  I had to create a poster with words from the semester and make it look cool.  I really like Prezi and found it easy to use.  The presentation I made for this was pretty simple, but I think if I were to use it for presentations to my class then I would add in more detail like audio or video.

I think my students will love using Prezi.  A lot of kids are tired of boring old PowerPoint so this will be a welcome change from the traditional presentation format.  You can still integrate images, video, and audio so kids still gain those skills.  Creating this kind of presentation will improve my students’ ability to find, evaluate, and synthesize information into a coherent product as well as improving their communication skills.

ABC Week 8: The Magic Technology Pill

I read news articles about how all these school districts are moving towards technology.  They have digital textbooks, Nooks, Kindles, Ipads, and more, but is this really improving education?  If you’ve read my previous blog postings or my about me page then you know that I’m not anti-technology.  If anything I’m pro-technology, but I don’t think blatant overkill will solve anything.  New technology is fun and can be very useful in improving productivity, but we need to take the time to do research and determine how to best apply technology in the classroom.  Throwing in a bunch of technology just because it’s fun isn’t going to help our students.  We need to come up with technological applications that improve some aspect of education (i.e. the curriculum, student motivation, etc.)  Adopting all this technology sounds great, but it may just mask the underlying problems.  Students need 21^st century skills but technology overload will not solve the problems with educational system.

Some interesting articles related to this idea
http://yhoo.it/cVRatd
http://bit.ly/dkvTTP

ABC Week 7: “Averting Tragedy in a Digital World”: Cyberbullying and Digital Citizenship

I was reading this article called “Averting Tragedy in a Digital World” (http://bit.ly/cf31Th) and I was thinking about the rash of incidents dealing with cyberbullying that have been in the news recently.  Bullying has always been a problem in schools and now has simply moved into the digital realm.  It’s not acceptable to bully another person, either in real life or online, to the point that the person sees death as the only way out, yours or their own.  Nor is it acceptable for parents to threaten children who are bullying their kid.  We need to establish a set of procedures for parents and educators to be followed when bullying or cyberbullying occur, but we also need to take preventative measures.

Citizenship education has been around for a very long time.  It was intended to make better citizens, but now we need better digital citizens.  So the solution is obvious: digital citizenship education.  We can combine regular citizenship education with the new needs of a digital citizen.  Rutgers University established Project Civility to raise awareness and sensitivity, but we really should start in elementary school.  Students need to receive the same message at school and at home, so that they understand the damage they can cause by bullying.

Some resources:

http://www.digitalcitizenship.net/uploads/09-0489_AWAY__26_DIGKIDS_.pdf

http://www.digitalcitizenship.net/uploads/1stLL.pdf

http://123digitalcitizenship.wikispaces.com/

Activity Reflection #3: About Page

Well, I created an About Me page this week.  You can check it out at the link on the right side of the page.  I decided to design it directly in Blogger rather than creating a Google Profile.  I’ve created and maintained websites before, but usually using FrontPage and occasionally DreamWeaver.  So I had to figure out how to add a page in Blogger.    It only took a couple of minutes to find the Edit Pages link under the posting tab.  I had already written what I wanted to say in Microsoft Word so I just copied and pasted it.  Then I added a picture of me and my husband as well as pictures of my dogs.  I also provided a link to my Facebook page.

I’m not afraid to make mistakes with technology when I’m learning.  If I can work out all the kinks then I can utilize the skills I’ve learned in my classroom.  Being able to create webpages from various platforms is a necessary skill in our digital world.  If I know how to do this then I can teach it to my students or if they already know how at least earn their respect for having this knowledge.  Teachers who aren’t tech savvy can be alienated from their students because their students may think they couldn’t possibly understand them if they don’t have this knowledge.

As with the Excel exercise from last week, I found this assignment relatively easy because I have experience with designing websites and I learn new software easily.  When I was at the University of Florida, I did work study in the Sport & Fitness Department.  I had some knowledge of FrontPage so they had me maintain their website for their classes.  Each semester I had to duplicate template pages for each course and add the info provided by the course instructors such as syllabi and schedules.  The page I created this week was fairly simple with text, pictures, and a link.  I should probably practice embedding more complex features and using other platforms.  This will give me further knowledge to help move my class into the digital age.

ABC Week 6: Social Media & Educators

If you use social media such as Facebook, do not expect privacy.  Employers now look for the Facebook or MySpace pages of their potential employees so be careful what you post.  Teachers, especially, have to be very careful to ensure that they portray a professional image.  Facial expressions, body language, vocal tone, and other cues are missing in internet communication so you have to be careful what you say and how you say it.  Humor or sarcasm may not come across as you meant it without your tone of voice to tell the reader that you’re joking.  There can also be questions about appropriate interaction between teachers and students online.  While it’s safest for the teacher not to communicate with students through social media, I believe avoidance is too limiting.  Class time is very limited and being able to communicate outside of class may allow for a better relationship between teacher and students.  Social media may provide students with the opportunity to ask teachers questions about assignments or to ask for help.  We just need to set some guidelines and remind teachers to think about what they’re writing.  Look at your potential posting or message from an outsider’s point of view.  Could what you plan to say be misconstrued?  If yes, then simply rewrite your message so that there is no misunderstanding.  I recently read an article with some tips for keeping school staff out of trouble when using social media (http://bit.ly/ctJLXn).  A second article I read this week, highlights a disturbing trend (http://bit.ly/bHNuAI).  In this article, they talk about rules that counties are thinking about imposing which limit what teachers can and can’t say on Facebook.  I think if these rules are passed then there are going to be some serious lawsuits based on First Amendment violations.  Honestly, just use common sense people.  If your settings on Facebook would allow other people to see what you say (potentially including your students or their parents) then don’t say anything you wouldn’t want to be heard saying in public. 

Activity Reflection #2: Spreadsheet

Being able to learn new programs is important in this digital age.  Working on an assignment this week where I had to make changes to a mock grade book in Microsoft Excel was pretty easy for me except for the last instruction.  I had to link the list of student names from the worksheet on the 1^st nine weeks to the worksheets for the other 3 nine week periods.  I’ve never had to do that before and I just upgraded to the 2010 version so I had to use the help section to figure it out.  I’ve had plenty of experience with Excel (at least earlier versions).  As an undergrad, I had to take a course on Microsoft Office, which had a lecture and lab.  After the first couple of classes, I quit going to the lectures and just completed the labs.  I did so well that they asked me to tutor some other students.  Being able to utilize Excel for a grade book would allow me to quickly calculate my students’ current grades and isolate the ones that are in need of extra help.  There’s no need to wait until the end of the nine week grading period to find out if the students need help when I can set a formula that will recalculate the grade each time I add a grade for an assignment or test.

Of course, even if I didn’t have experience with Excel, I’ve always been able to learn new programs easily.  Usually when I want to learn a new program, I just go into the new program and try different functions to see what they do.  If I can’t figure out how to do something with a program I’m using, I start looking for directions in the help section for the program.  If I still can’t find what I want there, then I search the internet for directions.  In high school, I took a course in desktop publishing and on occasion, I couldn’t get the results I wanted using just one program so I would figure out which programs could do the things I wanted and then worked between them to get the results I was looking for.  I think this ability will be very useful as a teacher.  Our students need to learn 21^st century skills and my ability to learn new programs easily will allow me to integrate more technology into my curriculum.  I know that some teachers are reluctant to integrate new technology because of the learning curve involved, but I really like learning about new technology.  Sure, there may be some bumps along the way, but as long as I keep a Plan B as backup for when technology fails, I’ll be fine. 

ABC Week 5: Wikis and Education

Wikis can be a useful research tool.  However, whether a specific wiki or specific wiki article should be used as a reference in an academic research paper depends on the wiki and/or article.  Wikis provide an excellent opportunity for teachers to instruct students on how to evaluate internet material for validity (Murley, 2008).  Wikipedia, for example, is meant to be an online encyclopedia.  Encyclopedias are secondary sources and are not considered valid sources for an academic paper, but are considered to be useful starting points for research.  I would not allow a student to cite Wikipedia as a source for a paper, but other wikis I might consider acceptable depending on their policies.  If a wiki has a policy requiring sufficient source references and has a peer review process then it should be an acceptable source in most cases.  In this age of digital resources, we have to adapt to new sources of information.  This does not mean that we should lower our standards, but that we should find ways to apply those standards to new media. 

Murley, D. (2008) In defense of Wikipedia.  Law Library Journal, 100(3).  Electronic copy available at http://ssrn.com/abstract=1122602.

Reading Reaction #3: Censorship

“Is it more unethical to allow threats to students/schools or to deny students/teachers access to instructionally-relevant Web-based tools and content?”

I find it interesting that this question assumes both options are unethical to some extent.  Denying students and teachers access to tools and content that are instructionally relevant would most definitely be unethical.  We would be limiting what the students are able to learn by limiting what they are allowed to access.  It’s like saying you can read this book on calculus, but not this book on Einstein.  While I know I’m risking getting into a discussion on books being banned for questionable content, I don’t agree with that either.  I’m not saying we should give students free rein or that all students should be allowed unlimited access, but as students enter middle and high school they are moving toward adulthood and we need to teach them how to deal with the responsibilities they will be expected to take on.  Part of this includes how to use the internet in an acceptable way.  Honestly, even young children should be taught how to determine if a site is appropriate for their use.  Bell (2009) believes that students may end up being less safe rather than more if they go to schools with filtering where they are not taught how to determine whether sites are appropriate.  Also relying on filters can be dangerous.  It provides a false sense of security when filters are far from 100% effective (Bell, 2009).  Denying a student the right to learn about something or how to use certain internet tools because there is the potential for danger is like saying students can’t use scissors because they might cut themselves or they can’t play sports because they might get hurt.  We still allow students to do those things; we just make sure they’re supervised when they do.

However, allowing threats to students by giving them free access to web-based tools and content would also be unethical.  Fortunately, it is possible to monitor student use of the internet as we teach them responsible internet behaviors.  Objectionable materials from racist literature and pornographic materials to web pages that provide incorrect material are major concerns when dealing with K-12 students (Shelly, Gunter, & Gunter, 2010).  I know we want to protect students from these materials, but who will protect them from these materials when they go out in the world?  Simply blocking the content isn’t the answer.  The best solution is to teach students how to avoid these materials and why they should while we can still monitor them to ensure their safety. 

 

Bell, M. (2009) Do you want kids to be safe online? MultiMedia & Internet @ Schools,     Jan/Feb 2009, 38-40.

Shelly, G.B., Gunter, G.A., and Gunter, R.E. (2010) Integrating technology and digital media in the classroom (6^th Ed.).  Boston, MA: Cengage Learning.

 

ABC Week #4: Standards and Training for Virtual Educators

Many states and counties are utilizing virtual education as a way to diversify course options and to offer students an alternative to seat time classes, but are our teachers being properly trained to teach these classes?  Over the last week, I have seen several articles about how teacher training and standards for educators in online environments are seriously lacking.  Online education is vastly different from face-to-face and even blended (part face-to-face and part online) learning.  The challenges for the instructor are very different in online learning (Quillen, 2010).  Right now, most pre-service teachers receive no training in online instruction.  Many teachers who start teaching online have little to no training in online teaching prior to beginning (17% received 10 hours or less of professional development in online teaching based on a 2008 report – Ash, 2010).

While most pre-service teachers, receive training in integrating technology in the classroom that is very different from teaching completely online.  In a face-to-face classroom, you have synchronous discussions and the teacher can prompt students during that discussion and look at faces to be able to see who is getting it and who isn’t.  In an online course, you have asynchronous discussions where the postings may occur days apart and students generally only post as much as they are required to post.  It can make it difficult to have a good discussion if you have no experience with it.  Also, I have had online classes and have heard of others who have as well, where the teacher had no idea what they were doing which led to a lot of chaos and very little learning.

Many states including my home state of Florida don’t even have endorsement requirements for their teachers to teach online.  We have teaching certificates and endorsements for everything else, but not online learning.  It is somewhat alarming with the emphasis that has been placed on virtual learning with the recent applications for Race to the Top and other funding and education reform efforts.  With all the concern over having highly qualified teachers, this oversight is really surprising.  Online education is nothing new.  It has been around for more than a decade, so how is it that the education establishment has not made the time to create requirements for being an online teacher?

Ash, K. (2010) Virtual-Teacher training seen to lack consistency.  Education Week, 30(4), S8-S9.  Retrieved from http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2010/09/22/04edtech_profdev.h30.html?Intc=EL102ENL.

Quillen, I. (2010) Ed. schools lag behind in virtual-teacher training: Virtual education experts say graduate programs to train online teachers make the most sense, at least for now.  Education Week, 30(4), S11-S13.  Retrieved from http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2010/09/22/04edtech_teachprep.h30.html?Intc=EL102ENL.

Reading Reaction #2: The Networked Student

Wendy Drexler's The Networked Student outlines what our students should be capable of doing and the role that we as teachers should play.  The networked student will acquire 21st century skills that will be necessary for the student to succeed not just in his or her career, but also in life.  The networked student will learn how to do adequate research on the internet and to create a network of other informed individuals to learn from.  These skills will allow a networked student to be better informed, more adaptable to circumstances and especially new technology, and capable of critical thinking.

In a classroom meant to create networked students, the focus is on the student and the skills he or she has acquired in obtaining knowledge to solve real-world problems.  The networked classroom is multisensory which allows for the different ways in which students learn.  In addition, the networked classroom is collaborative.  Many employers now seek employees who can work together on projects.  Collaboration allows for varied perspectives, which may result in ideas from the group that individuals alone would not have thought of or may prevent mistakes because someone else was thinking through the same problem. 

However, we also need to keep in mind the limitations of technology and encourage our students to also think about alternative solutions.  I recently read a blog by Patrick Ledesma (http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/leading_from_the_classroom/2010/09/schooled_on_my_ipad.html).  He talks about how he tried to compete with a person with traditional photocopied research articles and books and a laptop using his ipad.  The ipad definitely stood up to the more traditional methods until the other person started comparing articles side by side and doing multiple things at once with her laptop.  An ipad can be great and it's all the rage right now, but it does have limitations.  We, as teachers, need to remember that technology is not a magic wand that will reform education.  It is only part of the equation.

ABC Week #3: Net censoring at school

Usage of the internet in public schools (K-12) has been and will continue to be a controversial issue.  Should students be blocked from accessing some sites? Or should students have unlimited access with strict teacher observation and guidelines?  Should schools limit or ban internet usage?  Well I definitely don't believe that banning the internet at school is a viable option.  We live in a digital age and students need to develop digital skills such as researching on the internet.  Many students may not have internet access at home and if their access at school is limited as well, when will they have the opportunity to gain these skills? 

So we're left with either blocking some sites or strict supervision.  Blocking sites would provide safety for our students while at school.  However, many blocking programs will also inadvertently block useful websites such as Wikipedia.  That leaves us with only one acceptable option if we don't want to limit our students' opportunities for research: unlimited access with strict supervision and guidelines.  I know when this idea is mentioned most people think of strict rules that teachers wander around the room trying to enforce while students quickly hide off task windows when the teacher comes near them, but I have seen some software that would allow the teacher to supervise the student's use of the computer including the internet.  Some software not only allows the teacher to view different student's screens without their knowledge, it also allows the teacher the freeze the screen.  This means that the students don't know when the teacher will be looking and can't simply hide their off task activities.  The internet, in and of itself, is not dangerous.  It's the material that our students may find on the internet that is the problem.  If students help to create the rules and know that the teacher will be able to adequately enforce them if necessary, then I believe that we can keep our students safe while providing them with the opportunity to acquire and/or improve their digital skills, which will be necessary for a successful future career.

 

Activity Reflection #1: Searching

After exploring the Florida Department of Education's website (www.fldoe.org), my county's website (www.marion.k12.fl.us), three other websites from our text by Shelly, Gunter, and Gunter (2010: www.google.com/educators, bensguide.gpo.gov, and www.educationworld.com), and doing some indepdent searching for teacher resources, I've realized that there is a LOT of stuff out there. One thing I noticed was the number of lesson plans out there in cyberspace. While a lot of the lesson plans provide age ranges and descriptions, having to read all those descriptions to find the lesson plan you want would be time consuming. Also, when you get to junior high/middle school and high school, a lot of times they're all grouped in together so you can have a lesson plan that could potential be used for students from 6th grade to 12th grade. After eliminating many of the lesson plans based on their descriptions, you would have to review the lesson plan to make sure that you could do it and that it was appropriate for your students. If all lesson plans had tags or keywords such as technology-based, English Language Learner appropriate, explicit instruction, etc, it would save some time. Also, you'd have to have criteria set up before hand to evaluate lesson plans for quality. A lesson plan may sound like it would be fun and your students might love it, but it might be lacking in some way (goals and assessments matching, accurate time estimates, etc). Another thing to consider is teacher experience level. They could label lesson plans with beginner, intermediate, and advanced. It's not that the beginning teacher isn't capable or couldn't use an advanced lesson plan, but if it was labeled as such then he or she would know to ask a more experienced teacher where the lesson plan might be problematic in the execution and whether they could modify it to prevent problems. Beginning teachers (like me) often don't have the experience to know what activities may cause which kinds of problems and what they should do beforehand to mitigate the potential chaos.

It would be difficult and time consuming to go through everything available on the web to find what you needed.  There are tons of articles, websites, apps, videos, and blogs dealing with education. There's just no way for any one teacher to keep up with all of it. I think that's a good reason for supporting collaboration among teachers. If each teacher in a group keeps up with a part then they can share the useful stuff with others.

Shelly, G.B., Gunter, G.A., and Gunter, R.E. 2010 Integrating Technology and Digital Media in the Classroom (6th Ed.).  Boston, MA: Course Technology.

ABC posting week 2: Net-Age Students Have Different View of Plagiarism

Net-Age Students Have Different View of Plagiarism

This article from The Associated Press on Education Week kind of annoyed me. Just because information is out there and available does not mean students can copy it wholesale and not understand that what they're doing is wrong. They may think that it being available on the internet makes it common knowledge, but copying and pasting is still copying and pasting not stating something that is common knowledge. This situation isn't just a problem of not being able to determine ownership. If the student in this article had used information or ideas from an online source to help him write his business plan then the situation would have been very different from what he did, which was directly copying parts of an online business plan. I think we as teachers simply need to make it clear that if you copy anything (hardcopy or digital) word for word without quotation marks and a citation, then it is plagiarism. Perhaps we should go over plagiarism and appropriate citations in every class and then students wouldn't have not knowing as an excuse.

ABC posting week 1: Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants

I read this article by Prensky (2001) and I thought I'm not quite a digital native, but I don't quite fit in the digital immigrant category.  I turn to the internet for info first, I install and try to learn a program by using it and only use the manual as a reference if I can't figure out something, I don't print out email unless I need it as proof, I send urls rather than calling someone in to see a website, and I don't call to check to see if someone got my email.  However, I also don't speak txting fluently.  I know the basics like lol and lmao, but some phrases I have to look up.  
Also, this article was written in 2001 and he talks about not waiting for these students to grow up to teach other digital natives.  Well, that's already happened, I'm 29 and most people younger than me are digital natives.  Some of them may well be teaching by now, but they've been trained to teach in the manner of a digital immigrant.  I really like the idea of incorporating technology in my classroom, but I worry that I may not be able to because I may be given a specific curriculum with specific lesson plans to follow.  Due to the situation with accountability, I know that many school boards have adopted very specific curriculum and how strict they are on following it would limit how much a teacher could adapt that curriculum for digital natives.
I've seen the curriculum for my county for high school social science classes and it is very scripted.  Technology is used to lecture and for review/quizzes, but not much beyond that.  Also, I have so many ideas I would like to employ such as students having discussions on a blog or having a choice what kind of project they want to do whether it is a traditional report, a powerpoint presentation, or something like making a documentary, but what if I work in a low socioeconomic status school where most students don't have access to a lot of technology at home and the schools don't get as much funding for technology in the classroom.  There can be many limits to what teachers may do and even digital natives may not teach in a way that relates to other digital natives.

Prensky, M. (2001) Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants.  Retrieved from http://www.marcprensky.com/writing/Prensky%20-%20Digital%20Natives,%20Digital%20Immigrants%20-%20Part1.pdf

Reading Reaction 1: What students need to be successful in the 21st century

I liked Fisch & McLeod's video, Did You Know.  It clearly points out the digital reality for those who may not see it clearly.  For some teachers who feel that traditional teaching strategies are the only way, this might give them a wake up call and help them to realize that traditional teaching strategies won't work with students who interact on a completely different level.  
I also really liked Alice Mercer's response to Dr. McLeod's blog. There are two factors: effectiveness and convenience.  Teachers shouldn't spend all their free time on work.  That being said we also need to make sure our curriculum is effective.  We can balance effectiveness and convenience if we try.  Mercer's highly effective, very convenient category should be the goal for all teachers though the reality is probably somewhere in between that and highly effective, not convenient.
In order to achieve this highly effective, very convenient goal, we need to keep in mind the 21st century skills students will need to be successful both in school and in their future careers.  Students still need the traditional core subjects, but integrated within those courses they should also acquire information literacy (knowing how to find, use, analyze, and communicate information), flexibility and adaptability, technology skills, and innovation skills (Shelly, Gunter, & Gunter, 2010).  Students need to be able to adapt to the rapid changes our world is going through and be able to use the technologies available to them which means we as teachers need to be able to do this.  We need to learn new technologies and integrate them in our classes not because they're shiny and new or because they might hold our student's attention, but because our students will need to know how to use these technologies.  Many teachers fall back on traditional teaching strategies because they are comparatively easy and definitely more comfortable since they are well known.  Therefore, we need to stay on guard and remind ourselves of what our students really need to know regardless of whether it is comfortable to explore new strategies.