My Learning Summary

This past semester has been very rewarding for me.  It was the first time that I was enrolled in two different graduate courses at one time, so I was nervous.  I must admit that it was a real challenge at times, but I do feel a sense of fulfillment now that the term is over.  I’m pleased with my performance and I’ve learned so much that will be very helpful to me in the future.  I look forward to sharing in this post what I’ve learned, the new things I can now do, and how my thinking has changed about technology integration since the beginning of the term.

Besides being pleased that I successfully made it through the semester, I am happy that I was able to “resurrect” my job-related blog that I had only dabbled with before.  Now I am actually posting to this blog on a regular basis, and I’m pleased that others are starting to connect to it.  That feels great!

In addition, I now have experience working with a wiki which is one of the technologies I had always wanted to use before, but I’d never had the chance.  I enjoyed using the wiki format for the basis of my digital storytelling project.  As I completed this project, I also learned about the key elements of a digital story and I believe I could now work with students to successfully complete such a project.  

As I worked through the modules of EME5050, I found a lot of very useful educational web sites.  I used my existing Delicious account to collect all of the URLs.  I’m also looking forward to working more with Diigo which was the new social bookmarking web site I learned about during this semester.  It has some features that Delicious just doesn’t.

There was another technology that was new to me during this course, and I actually avoided learning how to use it at first.  Prezi is the name of the program and I ended up falling in love with it once I took the time to view the tutorials and learned how it works.  At the time it was presented to us, we also learned about another program called SlideShare.  For the particular assignment we were given to complete, I chose to use PowerPoint, my “old standby,” in combination with SlideShare.  It was easy to do, but I wasn’t really satisfied and wanted to learn how to use Prezi.  It took determination and persistence, but I did finally become comfortable using the program and it became a central part of my digital storytelling project for EME5050.  This is another “moral victory” for me at the end of this term, and I can see myself using this program in the future.  I believe Prezi will be a great alternative to PowerPoint for students to learn to use for presentations.

Another technology that I’ve started using on a regular basis as a result of being a student in this course is Twitter.  I started using it a couple of years ago when I took my first trip to New York City.  I tried using it to keep my family and friends up-to-date on what I was doing.  That was only for a brief period of time, and I appreciate the opportunity to start using it again.  One new technology that I learned about during EME5050 was HootCourse and I’m going to look into how to utilize it with the next online professional development training that I will be facilitating.

I learned so much this semester, and I envision myself using many of the new technologies in my job as a trainer and technology integration specialist.  Luckily, many of these are free Web 2.0 tools and most of them are not actually blocked in my school district.

Culminating Project is Ready!

I am so excited to say that my culminating project for EME5050 is completed and everything can be found on my wiki which is located at  http://oneclayvirtual.wikispaces.com/.  I guess I'm so excited about having everything completed that I remembered to "hoot" about it, but forgot to post in my blog.  I hope you enjoy viewing my WebQuest for 11th and 12th grade virtual students to learn how to create a resume for one of the jobs "of the future."

Creating a Rubric to Assess My Digital Storytelling Project

EME5050 - Activity Reflection #7

This week in our graduate course on the fundamentals of technology for educators we have continued to work on our digital storytelling projects and we have come to the point of designing a rubric to use as the assessment.  If you are not familiar with the term rubric, it can be characterized in many ways.  It is an authentic way to assess how students solve real-world problems.  A rubric is built on a wide range of criteria and the students normally are given a copy to use as a guide as they complete real-life projects.  This type of assessment is known as formative because it is involved from the beginning to the end of the entire teaching and learning experience.  There are two different types of rubrics and they are called analytic or holistic.  As I read through this week’s online readings for our course I found the following definitions for the terms analytic and holistic on the TeacherVision.com web site.  “Analytic rubrics identify and assess components of a finished product.  Holistic rubrics assess student work as a whole.”  For the digital story I am developing for this particular course, I chose to design an analytic rubric.  I believe it will be the best kind of rubric to use to assess my student’s e-resumes they will be creating.  In this post I will be sharing the reflections of my experience of creating my rubric and I will share my thoughts on the role of rubrics in authentic assessment and when I believe authentic assessment is the best strategy.

I need to start by saying that my digital storytelling project has been an ever evolving process and I’ve been tweaking and revising it regularly.  Hopefully I finally have it to the point where I want it and I believe that is because I have finalized the rubric with which it will be assessed.  This is a digital storytelling project and therefore I have made sure that it is built around the seven elements that are key to a good digital story.  For this project the students will be given a WebQuest to follow in order to use web sites on the Internet to find answers that will help them create their own job resume.  Besides being Internet-based, there are other elements that also make this project digital.  Students will be asked to use Prezi and Jing to create an electronic version of their resume instead of the more common paper version.

My project is designed for 9^th – 12^th grade virtual students and I tried to make the rubric as grade-level appropriate as possible.  I also tried to make it as “self explanatory” as possible because it is for virtual students who may be at a disadvantage because they don’t have the opportunity for face-to-face encounters with their teacher.  I like the idea of giving these students (any student for that matter) the assessment tool upfront so they will know how to fashion their projects as they are being developed.  As a student myself, I like having “the big picture” early enough in the game so I can see how all of the pieces are going to fit together.  My students will be solving a real-life problem because they will be asked to create a job resume that will get them an interview for they think would be the “perfect” job for them.  There is also a dramatic twist to this project because it is built on the scenario that the students have been transported from the current year of 2011 to the year 2020 in order to help save the workforce and the future.  (Enough about that, you’ll have to watch the digital stories to see how they end.)

Creating my rubric wasn’t really difficult and I there are different reasons I can attribute this to.  First, I’m accustomed to having my work assess with rubrics and I have many examples to refer to from the two graduate courses in which I’m currently enrolled.  Also, the Internet is full of great examples, explanations, etc. on how to create and use rubrics effectively.  I have to admit I did do some tweaking and revising over the course of a couple of days, but I feel like I created a solid rubric with which to evaluate my students’ digital stories.

Rubrics are wonderful assessment tools, but there are certain teaching and learning situations for which they are best suited.  This digital storytelling project is one instance and others would be solving real-life problems and project-based learning.  Rubrics are very versatile and they can actually be utilized across all curriculums when teachers want to improve the types of projects their students create and therefore increase their overall learning.

I’d like for you to take a look at the “E-Resume Rubric” I created to use to assess the digital stories my students will be creating.  I would appreciate any constructive feedback that you have to share.  Use this link to access my wiki where the rubric I created is posted in the WebQuest my students will be using for this digital storytelling project. 

Creating an E-Resume for the Year 2020

EME5050 - Activity Reflection #6

As we have recently worked with wikis and WebQuests in our graduate course on the fundamentals of technology for educators, I have been experiencing some rather steep learner curves.  WebQuests are something with which I was familiar, but I had never created a wiki. On top of that, we were introduced to Prezi which is the “zooming” presentation software.  It is an awesome little program and it makes PowerPoint look rather linear. I must say that I have really been impressed by the currency and thoroughness of our textbook for this course.  Shelly, Gunter & Gunter presented us with a text that is filled with a tremendous selection of very valuable online technology resources.  I have therefore enjoyed reading the different chapters (yes, completing the quizzes) during each week of this course.  This past week we were given the opportunity to choose from two different activities to complete.  The first choice was to create a storyboard for the proposed digital story we will be asking students to create.  The other was to create an actual digital story like the one we would like our students to create.  I chose the latter, and this post reflects that experience as well as our recent readings from our text and online module.

This week was basically a continuation of last week as we continued to develop our wikis, WebQuests, and digital stories.  As many of my classmates have also commented, it seems like I keep finding something to tweak on my wiki or WebQuest.  I’ll have to admit that I did a little more than just tweak in the past few days.  I revised a lot of my WebQuest which then caused me to have to revise my wiki.  It pretty much became a “domino effect.”  My original digital storytelling project was going to be a culmination of the WebQuest with students using PhotoStory 3 to create electronic resumes.  That all changed this week when I decided it would be much more fun to have the students create their e-resumes using Prezi.  I say “more fun” tongue in cheek because Prezi is so radically different from the more common PowerPoint or PhotoStory programs. I really like the way I can upload and place images within my document without disturbing the text and the flow of the Prezi feels very “unique.”  I should also say that I surprised myself by choosing to use Prezi because I had previously hit a learning roadblock and not just a curve when it was first introduced.  No matter how I tried, I just couldn’t get the hang of it.  Literally I had to sit down with my laptop and go through the online tutorials and then get my hands on the software to actually learn how to use it.  Now I’m really glad I did.  I learned that when I put my mind to it, I can do just about anything.

This digital story I’m working on for our class has been “a work in process.”  In the beginning it was going to be called “All About Me,” and it was a digital story that virtual students in 9^th through 12^th grades were going to create to introduce themselves to their online teacher and classmates.  Then last week, much of that started to change.  The students are still 9^th through 12^th grade virtual Language Arts students, but they will be completing a WebQuest that will result in an e-resume that they have created in order to obtain a futuristic job in the year 2020.  During the first part of their quest, the students will explore the meanings of their names.  Next, they will continue with more self-evaluation by completing different online personality tests.  After that, they will research today’s top jobs in 2011, and then they will compare these jobs to those that are predicted to be the “hottest” in 2020.  The underlying goal of this entire process is for these students to find just the right job for themselves for the year 2020.  Oh yeah, don’t let me forget that in addition to everything else, the students will be learning how to write a good resume and then they will learn how to transform it into a GREAT electronic resume using Prezi.  Please note that I realize most resumes are only text, with no graphics, but because this is an e-resume for the year 2020, it has to have images!

My only concern right now about my digital story project idea is that I can’t stop wanting to tweak it and make it better.  I’ve been told by some that I am sort of a “perfectionist.”  That can get exhausting because I won’t let things alone.  I’ll let you take a look at my e-resume that I created as an example for students to have as a reference point.  I hope you like it, and I appreciate any constructive advice you can give me to make it better.

~Enjoy!

Ruth Paine's E-Resume on Prezi

In the Year 2020...What Will the Top Jobs/Careers Be?

EME5050 - Activity Reflection #5

This week has been a real learning process...
In our graduate course on the fundamentals of technology for educators we have been learning how to teach students to create digital stories.  This week we started putting our plan into action by creating a curriculum page for the type of digital story we would like our students to create in the future.  This curriculum page was created using a wiki of our choice, and I chose Wikispaces for Educators.  It is a free Web 2.0 tool and was a great tool for creating my curriculum page that was in the standard format for a WebQuest.  My curriculum page is "still under construction," but I'd love for you to take a quick preview.  The following is my reflection of creating my curriculum page using Wikispaces, but first, I'd like you to use this link to take a quick look at what I've done on it so far.

I started out this post by saying, "This week has been a real learning process."  It was a good learning process now that I look back on it, but as I was in the midst of it, I felt very frustrated at times.  This was probably because I felt I had to go out of town for business unexpectedly and the hotel where I stayed didn't have adequate Internet access and I was stuck in a storm for 48 hours.  I did make it through, and I'm really excited about the idea for the digital storytelling project I'm working on, but I'm really "feeling the growing pains" now.  I am also very excited about getting to share my digital storytelling idea with teachers in my district.  The first group with whom I will work on it will be the new virtual teachers we will be hiring soon for our new virtual school which is called the "Clay Virtual Academy."

The idea for the digital storytelling project I'm developing is for our future virtual students to complete a WebQuest in which they learn how to create an e-resume (electronic resume) using the PhotoStory 3 software program.  You've already had a quick peek at the project, so I believe you know how I've started structuring the WebQuest.  I am looking forward to completing the development of this digital storytelling project and to the point where I'm actually training teachers how to use digital storytelling with their students.

As I said, this week has been a real learning process.  I learned how to create a Voki which is the customized speaking avatar you saw at the beginning of my WebQuest.  The voki I created is named "Virtual Vincent."  All I had to do to add him to my wiki was to copy and paste html code.  It was really pretty simple.  Something else I am glad that I learned this week was how to use a wiki to create a WebQuest.  I've done that before using Word, but it is nice now to know how to create a WebQuest using a different tool.  One stress point was when I had a little trouble figuring out how to embed the Table of Contents at the top of my WebQuest.  When I finally "caved in" and looked it up in the "Help" section of Wikispaces, it became so clear and now it's a "piece of cake."

This week I learned how to use some new Web 2.0 tools, and I feel I'm the better for it.  I'll end with a "play of words" on my last name (which is Paine).  I can literally say, "If there's no Paine, there's no gain."

There's an App for That! (App Store Volume Purchasing Program)

EME5050 - ABC, Week 11

I can remember when Apple first came on the scene in education and they actually were putting their computers into the classrooms (for FREE)!  The first computer I came into contact with was an Apple II-e and I thought I had died and gone to “technology heaven.”  Believe it or not, but that little machine (along with my little dot matrix printer and the emergence of the Internet) inspired me to move from being a lowly little elementary school teacher into becoming a “digital diva.”  I am now an MCSE (Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer) and as we speak, I’m in pursuit of my Master’s in eLearning from UCF.  Putting their technology in the classroom (for FREE) was a genius marketing strategy back then, so when the iPods and iPads burst onto the scene, it appeared that Apple had again “given education a gift.”  This post will point out how the old saying “if it seems too good to be true, it probably is,” has come to apply to purchasing apps from Apple.

The reason we thought we were being “given” something when the whole iPods, iPads, and apps deal came along was because Apple said we only had to purchase an app one time, and then if we had the devices (meaning iPods and/or iPads) to put it on, we could sync it on up to 999 of them.  When we first heard this “deal of the century” in my school district, we immediately thought we were misunderstanding because it was just “too good to be true.”  We then became both curious and cautious, and because we had to know more, we consulted the “Apple rep” for our district for clarification.  Sure enough, he confirmed that it was indeed true.  Our rep told us that as long as we legally purchased an app from the iTunes Store, we as an educational institution could then sync it on up to 999 devices if we possessed them.  This was a phenomenal deal, and when you paired it with the iPod and iPad, it felt like a “marriage made in technology heaven!”  Unfortunately for us, the honeymoon was short-lived and now there has been a “wrinkle thrown into the mix.”

This wrinkle is called the “App Store Volume Purchase Program.”  Don’t get me wrong that I now think the whole iPad, iPod and apps scenario isn’t a “priceless” educational technology for 21^st century students in a 21^st century world.  It’s just the deal now isn't as “sweet” as it first was  because we no longer have the flexibility of purchasing an app once and then being able to legally sync it on up to 999 devices.  Those days have come and gone.  I’m not sure why, and I wouldn’t be so bold as to try and explain why Apple made this change.  All I will do is say that we are fortunate to be able to use iPods, iPads, and their corresponding apps to help educate our students to be well-rounded citizens in this technology-drenched century in which we live.  It is our job as educators and technology leaders to make sure we use our budgets as wisely and efficiently as possible.  I still believe Apple is providing us with an unprecedented educational opportunity and our students are going to be “the better for it.”

You’re probably curious yourself about this new program for purchasing apps in volume.  The following is a link to the web site that explains everything very clearly – Apple Store Volume Purchase Program.  As you will see, this new purchasing program is still a “sweet deal,” and it makes the old saying “When life gives you lemons, make lemonade” come to mind.  I’ve always like applesauce myself, so I like to think of it as, “When life gives you “Apple,” make applesauce.”

Digital Storytelling for the Virtual Classroom - Part 2

EME5050 - Reading Reaction #5

As I continued to learn more about digital storytelling this week, and I was completing our course readings and viewing a host of online sources on the subject, I began consciously looking for ideas that would help me plan a digital storytelling project that would work for virtual school teachers.  Our school district will be launching our new virtual academy this coming 2011-2012 school year and I will be working directly with the teachers on curriculum and training.  It is to my delight that this particular graduate course on the fundamentals of technology in education is helping me learn how to teach others to use the power of digital storytelling with students.  As you read further, I hope you will like my ideas for the first digital storytelling project I would like to see our virtual teachers use with their students to kick off the new 2011-2012 school year when it begins in August.

If you’ve ever taken any online courses for professional growth, in-service training, or undergraduate/graduate training, you realize there can be a “disconnect” if the virtual group isn’t drawn together in a personal way from the very beginning.  That is why I’ve decided to help our new virtual academy teachers use digital storytelling with their students to create a presentation that will help introduce themselves to the teacher and their classmates in the class.  It would basically be an “All about Me” presentation in which the students share information about themselves that will help the viewer “get to know them a little better.”  As far as connecting to a specific curriculum, I think this type of project could be modified and used effectively in most any online course.  Our virtual academy will be a K-12 learning environment, so the age level of the particular students in the class will also have to be taken into consideration.  The main purpose of this project is for the students to share meaningful information about themselves that can serve as a great “ice breaker” at the beginning of the course, and can also help bring the different entities in the class together as a real “class.”  It could be made to work for any grade level or curriculum area.  For this project to be successful, I believe there should be flexibility as well as established guidelines to follow.  Our virtual school will be presented using Blackboard Learn which is our district’s LMS (Learning Management System).  The students will share their finished “All about Me” digital stories using the Discussion Board section of their specific online class.  This way they can view one another’s presentations and then can interact with one another by posting comments, asking questions, etc.  There will be three different programs available for the students to use to create their stories.  They will have the option of using either iMovie, Windows Movie Maker, or Photo Story 3.  The students will also be asked to incorporate photographs of themselves into their presentations, and they will have the choice of either scanning and uploading still photos or using digital photographs.  Music and narration will also be part of the presentation and the students will have a choice of how to incorporate the two.  There will be a list of specific requirements for this project, but once these have been met, the students will have the flexibility to add additional elements if they would like.

For this training I have found some really good online resources for the virtual teachers to review in order to be able to help their students create their “All about Me” digital stories.  First, I think they would benefit greatly from viewing some examples of digital stories and I’ve found the following online resources for them:

• Scott County Student Digital Stories
• The Art of Storytelling
• Digital Story Telling

Besides viewing examples of good digital stories created by students, the teachers in this training will also need to choose which media to have their students use to create their “All about Me” digital stories.  Therefore they need to know as much as possible about iMovie, Windows Movie Maker and Photo Story 3 so they will be able to assist their students as they complete their projects.  Below are links to online resources that are actual tutorials for each of the three different programs and the teachers will be able to use them to learn for themselves how to use the programs effectively.  These tutorials will also be great resources for the virtual teachers to use with their own students as they have them complete their “All about Me” digital stories.  

Online Tutorials for Windows Movie Maker:

• Getting Started with Windows Movie Maker
• Windows Movie Maker Tutorials - How to Use Windows Movie Maker 
• Windows Movie Maker 2  

Online Tutorials for iMovie:

• iMovie HD
• iLife '11
• iMovie 2 - Atomic Learning 

Online Tutorials for Photo Story 3:

• Create Your First Photo Story 
• Using Microsoft Photo Story 3
• Microsoft Photo Story 3

For this particular training I will be creating my own “All about Me” digital story to use as an example for the training participants to have as a resource.  During this training, they in turn will be asked to create their own “All about Me” digital stories to use as examples for their students when they are working with them on this particular digital storytelling project.  The purpose for using these types of teacher-created resources will be to try and help the students create the types of digital storytelling projects that were envisioned at the inception of this training. 

Digital Storytelling for the Virtual Classroom - Part 1

EME5050 - Activity Reflection #4

This week in our graduate course on the fundamentals of technology in the classroom we have been exploring the integration of digital media and some of the educational software applications that are available for classroom teachers.  One special area of emphasis has been on digital storytelling and we were asked to create a presentation on the benefits of using digital storytelling in the classroom.  I chose to create my presentation for virtual teachers to help them learn why digital storytelling will work for them and their students just like it will for teachers and students in the traditional "on the ground" classrooms.

Below is my presentation that I embedded here in my post, and I'd love for you to take a look at it before we go any further.

Digital storytelling for the virtual classroom

View more presentations from rpaine5758

This week our instructor introduced us to two new programs that can be used to create presentations.  The first one was called Prezi, and the second one was called SlideShare.  I chose to use SlideShare and I found that it was pretty easy to use.  First, I created an account at the SlideShare website, and then I created my presentation using PowerPoint.  The next step was when uploaded my presentation to SlideShare where it was automatically converted.  Once the conversion was completed, I was able to obtain the embed code that I needed to embed it here in my blog.  


I tried working with Prezi, and I really liked the effects you can create that make parts of the presentation "zoom in" and "zoom out."  I ended up choosing SlideShare because I want to learn more about Prezi before I try to create something that will be presented to others to view. 


I really learned a lot about digital storytelling this week.   As I created my PowerPoint presentation I found quite a few beneficial online resources, and I learned about two great presentation programs I can use in the future.  Please make sure you view my presentation again and take a look for yourself at the web sites I shared both within the body of the presentation and also within the references.

Choosing a Software Program That Gives Me the "Most Bang for My Buck"

EME5050 - Reading Reaction 4

In this post, I will be reacting to what I read this past week in our textbook, module, and supplemental content links about computer hardware.  I will also share how familiar I was with the “inner workings” of my computer prior to completing this week’s activity in which we were given the following scenario to work through: 

Scenario:

I am a classroom teacher and I have one only one computer in my room that is connected to the Internet.  This morning my principal, Ms. Johnson, came to my room during my planning and offered to purchase one academic software program for my classroom.  She told me that I could spend up to $1,000 and she emphasized that I will be responsible for demonstrating how engagement with this software impacts my students’ learning. Ms. Johnson gave me a list of online software catalogues and she said I needed to give her my selection by the end of the day.  One other point she made was that there is no money to upgrade my classroom computer, so I must make sure the software that I choose will work on it.  

My first step in the process of locating just the right software for my classroom was to take a look at the hardware specifications for my classroom computer.  I wanted to make sure that my computer system would meet the requirements of the software that I decided to purchase.  The following are the specifications for my computer:

• OS – Windows XP SP3
• Processor speed – Intel ® Core ™ 2 Duo CPU @ 2.40GHz
• Memory (RAM) – 1.58 GHz, 3.45 GB of RAM
• Screen resolution – The screen display I usually use is 1280 x 800.
• Video card – Mobile Intel ® 4 Series Express Chipset Family (Integrated with the motherboard)
• Removable media options – DVD-R/CD-RW; four USB ports

Since I only have one computer in my room, I’ve decided I need to purchase software that could have multiple uses.  Below are links to the three different online catalogues my principal gave me to look at:

• Academic Superstore
• JourneyEd
• K12 Software

After looking at each of the different catalogues, I went back to the Academic Superstore catalogue because I decided I wanted to purchase Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2010 with Total Training for Office 2010.  It is regularly $539.95, but because my school district has a volume licensing agreement with Microsoft, I can purchase it for $89.95 which is an 83% discount.  Is that awesome or what? 

I’m glad that I did a little research on the hardware specs for my computer before I started my search.  When I saw the system requirements for Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2010, I knew that it would work on my computer.  This software requires Windows XP SP3, Windows Vista, or Windows 7 and my computer is running Windows XP SP3.  It also requires a processor of 500 MHz or higher, and since mine is an Intel ® Core ™ 2 Duo CPU @ 2.40 GHz, my computer processor is fast enough to support MS Office Professional Plus 2010.  The memory requirement is 256 MB or higher and my computer has more than enough memory.  There isn’t anything special needed for the video for this software, so I wasn’t too concerned about my video card.  Before completing this particular activity I was already familiar with the “inner workings” of my computer.  I know that my processor is 32-bit and my original idea was to purchase the Adobe’s Master Collection CS5 Institution Edition (Win) for $998.95.  Unfortunately this program requires a computer with a 64-bit processor and since mine is 32-bit I knew right off the bat that it didn’t meet the requirements.  This particular software normally sells for $2,599.99 a copy, but because of my district’s volume licensing agreement with Adobe, I could purchase it at a savings of $1,600.05 which is a 62% discount.  Another reason why I’m familiar with the hardware of my computer is because I’m a former network specialist so I’m tuned into “what’s under the hood” when it comes to computers.

As I stated earlier, I want a software program that can give me “the most bang for my buck.”  I believe Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2010 is that program because it includes the following Office applications:

• Access
• Communicator
• Excel
• InfoPath
• OneNote
• Outlook
• PowerPoint
• Publisher
• SharePoint Workspace
• Word
  

In addition, when I purchase this particular program from Academic Superstore I would have unlimited access to eleven hours of in-depth tutorials that would help me learn how to use these programs.  This would assist me greatly with helping my students use the new programs that will be available on our classroom computer.  I also believe that because there will be so many different applications I will have ample opportunity to use it with my students and will be able to demonstrate the impact it will have on their learning.

As far as getting the software installed on my computer there shouldn’t be any problems because I’m one of the faculty members at my school who has been trained and granted “elevated privileges.”  That means I am one of the “go-to” people at my school who can install software on our school computers, so my installing software programs has become a quotidian occurrence.  Besides, my principal came to me about purchasing this software in the first place, so there shouldn’t be a problem with the installation.

That was a brief explanation of how I would react if my principal gave me $1,000 to purchase a software program for my classroom computer.  Now I’d like to share some of what I gleaned from our assigned readings from our textbook, the Week 7 Module, and the supplemental content links we were given.  Everything pertained to “hardware for educators” and I was pleased with how current and up-to-date the information was.  I am fairly knowledgeable about computer hardware due to my experience as a network specialist, so I was also appreciative of how thorough the information was.  There was a Special Feature at the end of Chapter 4 of our text and it reiterated that one of the National Educational Technology Standards for Students (NETS-S) states that “students should be able to demonstrate a sound understanding of technology concepts, systems and operations” (Shelly, Gunter & Gunter, 2010, pg. 268).  I believe that because I already have a “working knowledge” of computer hardware, and I have such great resources from this course I will be able to help my students attain this standard.  In order to be able to make informed decisions about technology, they need to have a good knowledge base.  It also goes without saying that they will need to be able utilize their current technology knowledge as they learn about new technologies in the future.  In the earlier scenario I was a classroom teacher, but in reality I am a trainer for K-12 teachers.  I believe the same goes for adult learners and that the information I have taken from this week would be very beneficial to them as well. 

All I have to say is that it would be great in this day and age to have the option to purchase a software program for my classroom that cost up to $1,000.  Unfortunately, “those are the things dreams are made of.”  I’m not sure when our economy or the state of public education will bounce back, but I am hopeful it will be very soon.  Meanwhile, it is up to educators to make sure their students are equipped to make the right decisions when it comes to computer hardware and software.

Reference:

Shelly, G., Gunter G., & Gunter, R. (2010).  Buyer's guide:  How to purchase computers 

     and mobile devices.  Integrating technology and digital media in the classroom

     (Sixth ed., pp. 252-268).  Boston:  Cengage Learning.

My Online Identity as a Professional Educator

EME5050 - Activity Reflection #3

This week in our graduate course on the fundamentals of technology for educators we explored how many of today’s educators are effectively using the Internet to host their educational web pages, blogs, wikis, and podcasts/vodcasts that they use with students in their classes.  We also completed an activity in which we created our own “online identity” as a professional educator.  I chose to create my profile with Google Profiles.  As usual, we started our week by reading our assigned readings and then we progressed to an exercise in which we used Google to do a “search” on our names to see if we would find anything of significance about ourselves on the Internet.  Needless to say, when the search for Ruth Paine (my name) resulted in 80,700 results I just knew I had hit the “jackpot.”  Then I realized they were all for the notorious Ruth Paine of Irving, Texas who is best known for being a friend of Lee Harvey Oswald’s mother.  As a matter of fact, Marina Oswald was living with Ruth Paine at the time of President Kennedy’s assassination. It was then and there that I decided I needed to establish an “online identity as a professional educator,” and that I needed to do it quickly!   Daniel J. Solove described this exact scenario in his book when he wrote, “the information that emerges in a Google search of a person’s name might not all relate to that person – it could pertain to other people with the same name” (Solove, 2007, p. 38).  The following is a short recap of my quest for an online identity that would be much more professional and a lot less notorious for the name Ruth Paine.  It is also reflection on our reading assignments for this week and how they related to me personally in my current job.

I’ve been using Blogger for my job related blog which is called the OneClay Virtual Blog, and I’ve always joked in the past that I was probably the only one who ever read it.  I’m happy now that I have a way to establish myself on the Internet and I hope that people will start reading my posts in this particular blog.  The audience for any of the blogs I plan to use will primarily be other educators so when I created my profile in Google I chose to keep my contact information strictly job related by using my work email, phone number and address.  In order to add a little bit of my personality I did add a few photographs to illustrate some of my “favorite” things.  In addition, I added links to two of my blogs, and I also added a link to my work website which is called OneClay Virtual.  I have my fingers crossed that this will do the trick and I’ll be able to establish a strong group of followers for my blogs and a very professional online identity.

This week our course text, Integrating Technology and Digital Media in the Classroom, provided us with some very useful ways in which teachers can use online tools such as teacher web pages, blogs, wikis, and podcasts/vodcasts to enhance the educational experiences of their students.  I can personally relate to this section of our text because I have actually trained teachers in my district on how to utilize all of these technologies, except for one, which is the wiki.  Now that I have read this particular section about wikis, I think I have an effective way to incorporate using a wiki in one of the podcasting courses that I teach.  I started teaching podcasting a little over three years ago when my district started offering a podcasting certification program for Clay County teacher.  This program has evolved over the years and now the participants may choose to become certified podcasters in one or all of the following areas:

• Podcasting in Blackboard
• Podcasting in Education – Audio Podcasts
• Podcasting in Education – Video Podcasts

Upon successful completion of a course, the teacher will earn a certificate and will be considered “certified” to create and post educational podcasts that correspond to the specific training that has been completed.  In addition, "certified podcasters" may not only create and post their own individual podcasts, they may facilitate their students to do so under their direction and supervision.  This is a great way to engage students and give them ownership of their own learning.

There is one more topic from our course text that we read this week that I would like to discuss.  It is called Camtasia Studio and it is “one example (there are many others) of new or recently updated software programs that allow you to easily and quickly create and distribute true digital instructional solutions to meet the needs of today’s digital generation” (Shelly, Gunter & Gunter, 2010).  Camtasia Studio allows teachers and students to produce a “screencast” which is a digital recording of a computer screen’s audio and video output. This program is produced by Tech Smith and it costs $299.99 retail for one copy.  The education cost for one copy is $199.99, but even at that, it is still very expensive.  Years ago when our district technology budget allowed it, we were able to purchase Camtasia Studio at a significantly reduced price per license.  This was because of something called “education volume licensing” that the company offered us if we purchased 500+ copies.  We ended up placing orders for almost every school in our district and with the special offer Tech Smith gave us we were able to acquire one copy of Camtasia Studio bundled with another piece of Tech Smith software called Snagit for an amazing price of $35 each. 

This week I feel that I took a step in the right direction when it comes to developing my own “footprint” out on the World Wide Web.  I purposely chose a “professional footprint,” but did allow some personal information to be shared.  As a Distance Learning Specialist for a K-12 public school district, it is part of my job to have a professional identity not only within the confines of my district, but also out in public.  What better way than by developing my own blogs, wikis, web pages, and podcasts/vodcasts that can reach an unlimited number of people out on the Internet and establish my online identity as a professional educator?

Resources:

Shelly, G., Gunter G., & Gunter, R. (2010). Creating web pages, blogs, wikis, and more.
     Integrating technology and digital media in the classroom (Sixth ed., pp. 184-200).
     Boston:  Cengage Learning.

Solove, D. (2007). How the free flow of information liberates and constrains us.  The
     future of reputation (pp. 29-40). New Haven:  Yale University Press.

An "Excel" lent Grade Book Activity

EME5050 - Activity Reflection #2

This week in our graduate course on the fundamentals of technology for educators we have been examining various software applications and productivity tools that can be very useful in the classroom.  One of these specific tools is Microsoft Excel, and as we found in our Module 5 activity this week, it can be easily used as an online grade book.  In this post, I will share my reflections on my individual experience as I completed the activity and produced a customized Excel grade book.

First, our professor gave our class a spreadsheet containing data such as student first and last names, and also corresponding scores for their various homework assignments and tests.  We were then given a sheet of tasks to perform on this spreadsheet and we were allowed to use any program we wanted to open and modify the document as long as our final version was an Excel file.  We were also allowed to consult any tutorials or other resources we had to complete the tasks that comprised our activity. 

The list of tasks we were given consisted of eight required tasks along with a ninth one that was worth two extra credit percentage points if completed successfully.  The first two tasks were fairly easy in that we were first asked to format the contents of each column of scores in a different color, and then we were asked to add a new column in between two existing columns.  I didn’t find the next three tasks on the list overly difficult either, and that was due to the fact that I was able to utilize the MS Excel “insert function” feature to complete them.  It helped me create one column that would display each student’s homework average, and then I used it to create another column that would display each of their test averages.  The final column I created using the feature was a column that would display each student’s final grade, based on the average of all their grades in the grade book.  That covers the first five tasks on the list of nine, and now I will reflect on the final four.  The last three required tasks proved to require a little more thought on my part, but they were relatively easy to complete.   Number six required me to sort the students based on their final grades.  I chose to sort them from least to greatest and I determined that there were three out thirty who were “in danger” of earning a “D” or less based on the grading scale we were given.  The next task was very simple because it only required me to “boldface” the contents in the corresponding rows for the three “in danger” students.  The final required task was the only one I had to really think about.  After I consulted the built-in online “Help” section of Excel, I was able to make the student names appearing on the first worksheet in the spreadsheet dynamically appear on the other three worksheets.  This means that when a change is made to a name on one worksheet, it automatically appears on the other three.

As I stated, the last task on the list we were given was for extra credit and we could earn two extra credit percentage points if we completed it successfully.  The task was to determine if completing the homework assignment could have a positive effect on a student’s subsequent test score.  I can’t go into much more detail because it would give away my answer that I submitted to our professor, and it must be sequestered at this time in order for me to earn any extra credit.  Needless to say, this was the most challenging task we were given, but I was able to rely on Google to find a solution.  It was again another built-in Excel function to the rescue and I’m hopeful to earn the extra credit for my solution.

The MS Excel activity we completed for Module 5 of our course was a good exercise in how productivity tools can be effectively used in the classroom.  In this instance it was used to create a class grade book and it demonstrated how easy it is to use Excel to create and maintain these types of documents that are essential to today’s teachers.  Even though I found the activity fairly easy to complete, these types of productivity tools are usually user-friendly, and they have built-in “Help” sections if needed.  In addition, I found that when I wanted to complete the extra credit task, it was easy to find a solution by searching for it with Google.

A Proactive Approach is Always Good in Education

EME5050 - Reading Reaction #3
I am so excited that this week’s Reading Reaction speaks straight to my job and it is something about which I am very passionate.  We have been asked to react to the question, “Is it more unethical to allow threats to students/schools or to deny students/teachers access to instructionally-relevant Web-based tools and content?” As the Distance Learning Specialist for a K-12 school district, one of my responsibilities is to help educators and students in my district access and utilize instructionally-relevant tools and content out on the World Wide Web.  I can speak on this subject for days, and I'll try to keep it under control.

Where do I begin?  No doubt, I am all too aware of the threats that await our students and teachers out on the Internet.  That is one reason I believe it would be unethical not to train them how to effectively and safely use the phenomenal educational resources the World Wide Web has to offer.  There are so many legitimate educational tools and content that are “free” on the Internet, and all a person needs to access them is an Internet-ready device and an Internet connection.  Why wouldn’t educators take advantage of them?  This is especially poignant this week based on our governor’s budget that he proposed for the state of Florida.  I am so upset that public education is being treated with such disdain and literally “cut down” like an enemy right before my eyes.  (I told you I was passionate on this subject, but now you know there are other subjects that I have a passion for and my lifelong profession as a public educator tops them all!)  We are being asked to do more with less and we’re smart people (we’re educators) so we’re going to have to harness the power of the Internet and help our students do the same.  Teachers can model for their students how to ethically use technology and be good digital citizens not only within the confines of their face-to-face classrooms but also how it is done online. 

The fourth standard of ISTE’s NETS-T is “Promote and Model Digital Citizenship and Responsibility” and it is a standard for 21^st century teachers for a reason.  Today’s students may not have total access to the Internet during the course of the school day, but as soon as the bell rings and they are dismissed, many of them “plug in” and then stay plugged in until bedtime.  As educators we need to therefore consciously train and model for students how to safely utilize the resources of the World Wide Web so they can independently make wise choices for themselves.  Facebook, MySpace and other social networking services have taken off in popularity and usage, but not everyone who uses them realizes their innate power.  Apparently in the 21^st century there is a need for personal expression, and the founders of Facebook have tapped into it.  Unfortunately there have been documented cases in which predators have taken advantage of innocent users who aren’t aware of the pitfalls of making “too much information” public.  That is why in my district we are taking a proactive stance because we know a lot of our students are using the Internet, and we want them to be safe while they partake in all the treasures it has to offer.  I’d like to share some of the things we are doing in my school district that we hope will help teachers and students tap into some of the instructionally-relevant tools and content on the World Wide Web.

Our K-12 school district uses Blackboard which is an LMS (Learning Management System) and we first started using it just for professional development.  Now we have opened Blackboard up for teachers who use it to post their class websites, and also for those who want their students to log on to an online learning space that compliments their traditional face-to-face classrooms.  Blackboard has started offering their own Web 2.0 type tools by offering Blackboard-specific blogs and wikis in the different courses and organizations that our teachers use.  I call these “Blackboard-specific” because they are only accessible when a person is logged on to our Blackboard server with a unique username and password. There is even a social bookmarking tool called “Blackboard Scholar” that is available now, but it hasn’t taken off as of yet.  What Blackboard needs to do is utilize RSS (Really Simple Syndication) with these different Web 2.0 tools they are adding and this would cause their usage to ramp up a notch or two.  As I conducted further research on this topic, I found a quote that specifically touched on the lack of social connectivity in the learning management systems that are currently being used.  The statement that hit home with me is, “students today demand more autonomy, connectivity, interaction and socio-experiential learning opportunities in their learning contexts” (Mazman & Usluel, 2010).  I believe this is so true, and we as educators need to be proactive by modeling and training how to safely and effectively use some of the online tools such as Blogger, Wikispaces, and Delicious that students come across every day on the Internet.  In my district those three specific websites I mentioned are not blocked for teachers, but they are not accessible to students on our network.

This brings me to another topic which is whether there are certain websites or apps blocked in my district. We do have a very conscientious IT Department that takes every precaution available to protect the integrity of our network while also protecting our students when they’re surfing the web.  I found the post on the Classroom 2.0 forum very interesting because it is from the perspective of a private school educator, their network appears to be “wide open,” and the sore point is that usage by their students is “killing their bandwidth.” Oh yes, I can’t forget that most of the high school students in this particular school have their own laptops. As I mentioned earlier, we have a proactive group of educators in my district and this has been demonstrated on more than one occasion over the past two years.  It started with a few changes in leadership and this was when all involved decided we needed a complete audit to determine the least and most effective ways our district was using technology.  As a result we have had a few more leadership changes and now there is a stronger partnership that has developed between our Information Services (IT) Department and our Instructional Department.  Things are not perfect, and let’s be real, they never will be.  The point is, things are a lot better and we are working together as a team instead of being polar opposites. In the past, our network was “locked down” and neither teachers nor students were able to access a lot of very valuable educational online resources.  Now our network has been set to allow teacher and administrator accounts to access websites that are only available to them and not students.  As a matter of fact, the three online tools I referenced before (Blogger, Wikispaces, and Delicious) are not blocked for teachers, but they are not accessible to students on our network.  The changes in our district have opened us up to a lot of great educationally sound resources on the Internet. We still don’t have as much bandwidth as we need, but that’s a topic for another post.

I’m sorry that I was so “long winded,” but as I said at the beginning, this is close to my heart because this is my job. I am glad that my district is open to using online educational tools such as Blackboard, and I am also glad that our particular technology leaders are always looking for ways to offer students educational alternatives to some of the online resources they “just happen to come across” every day.  It would definitely be unethical if we allowed threats toward our students, but it would also be unethical if we didn’t train them how to safely and effectively utilize the World Wide Web as the educational resource it can be.  I believe a proactive approach is always best, and besides, if I wanted to always be “putting out fires,” I would have become a fireman instead of a teacher.

References:

Kitch, Derwin.  (2008, May 9).  "What sites/apps does your school block?"  Classroom 2.0.Retrieved February 8, 2011, from http://www.classroom20.com/forum/topics649749
Topic:140090#_blank

Mazman, S. G., & Usluel, Y. K.  (2010).  Modeling educational usage of facebook.  Computers
& Education, 55.  Retrieved from http://mabrito.net/csw/instructor_readings/educational_uses_
facebook.pdf doi:  10.1016/j.compedu.2010.02.008

Reading Reaction #2 - This Isn't the Time for a Loose Connection!

My Reading Reaction #2 is ready for review.  Please check it out!

:) Ruth

This Isn't the Time for a Loose Connection!

EME5050 - Reading Reaction #2

The following is my reaction to how information presented in Chapter 2 of the textbook on fundamentals of technology for educators relates to the message Wendy Drexler presented in her video called The Networked Student.  The  title of Chapter 2 is “Communications, Networks, the Internet, and the World Wide Web," and the main relationship I see is that one cannot exist without the other.  In other words, if there isn’t a connection and there are no communications, networks, the Internet, or the World Wide Web, then there won’t be any “networked students.” In Drexler’s video, the 21^st century high school student was portrayed as always being connected, and the scenario was summed up as an example of connected learning.  The following is my take on the idea of the “networked student” and whether in the future it will refer to all students, or just a select few.

This would be a great time for you to see The Networked Student video for yourself.  Please take time to view it before you continue reading my post.

What did you think of the video?  You'll find out later in this paragraph what I thought.  As a person who has had experience working as a network specialist in several different public junior high schools, I can attest to the fact that the 21^st Century is not the time for a “loose connection.”  It actually wasn’t the time years ago either, but today it is especially crucial that our school systems provide students with a strong connection to the Internet and all the educational resources that the World Wide Web has to offer.  My question in the current state of the education budget is, “Will we have the money and the resources in order to provide 21^st century students with the skills they deserve and need for the future?”  I also have to question if this will be the norm?  In no way am I downplaying the message of the video, and as a true “techie” who happens to be an educator, I was inspired and excited by the thoughts that I could be a “connectivist teacher” one day.  It also made me think that being a high school student again might not be so bad.

I brought up the question of money earlier when I mentioned the current budget constraints in education.  Fortunately for us, many of the educational leaders of today “get the big picture” when it comes to what education should look like in the future.  For example, in the school district where I work, my boss is over the Instructional Resources Department and she has always looked for online resources that were managed by experts instead of asking district personnel to try and “re-invent the wheel” with a “home grown” version of the same thing.  She also chairs our District Technology Committee and as a group we work with outside consultants and other districts across the state as we develop the goals of our District Technology Plan.  So far, this has proven to be a wise usage of time, resources, and education dollars for our district. In addition several of our committee members belong to different state and national technology organizations such as FCITL (Florida Council of Instructional Technology Leaders) and ISTE (International Society for Technology in Education).  As a matter of fact, I just attended the FCITL meeting this week in Orlando, and the budget was discussed, but the main focus was on ways to equip Florida schools with the networks and technology tools we need to provide our students with a collaborative and “connected” 21^st century education.  Our two-day session consisted of small group discussions and large group presentations from various entities that ranged from representatives of CoSN (Consortium of School Networking) to one of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt’s vice president.  The most remarkable statement he made was that within three years his company will be offering totally digital content as an alternative to only printed materials. The meeting agenda was online and projected for the audience, and the data gathered from the meeting participants who engaged in collaboration, was obtained via student response systems and submitted via Google Docs which is a participatory Web resource or Web 2.0 alternative to paper and pencil.  We weren’t just talking the talk of “connected education” we were also walking the walk!

This should make you hopeful as an educator that there are leaders today who are focused on the future and they are working hard to steady education on a strong foundation that is built around communications and networks.  They see the power of the Internet and the value of the World Wide Web as an educational tool.  They also see how the Web 2.0 resources of today will soon give way to the Web 3.0 generation that will take utilization of web content to an even higher level.   I also hope that as an educator you see how you are still an integral part of the education puzzle.  Your role as a teacher will definitely change when it comes to “connected learning,” but your importance will not be diminished.  In order for a student to be truly connected with a PLN (Personal Learning Network) he must first have a teacher like the one depicted in The Networked Student, who is a:

• Learning Architect
• Modeler
• Learning Concierge
• Connected Learning Incubator
• Network Sherpa
• Synthesizer
• Change Agent
• Manager

As a classroom teacher I always said that I felt like I “wore many hats,” and I guess that holds true today.  The list above is actually a list of 21^st Century Skills that every student needs not only today but also in the future.  We therefore don’t need a “loose connection” when it comes to connecting our students with the educational resources that are “out there for the taking.”  Below is a photograph that illustrates how being a connected learner makes all the resources the world has to offer us "in the palm of our hands."

 

                                          Microsoft Clip Gallery.  Retrieved February 2, 2011, from
                                          http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/images

References:

Shelly, G., Gunter, G., & Gunter, R.  (2010).  Chapter 2.  Integrating technology digital media in
the classroom (Sixth ed., pp. 59 - 109).  Boston:  Cengage Learning.

Drexler, W. (2008). The Networked Student.  Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=XwM4ieFOotA