Hi All,

I really enjoyed taking this class along with you!

Thanks for sharing your thoughts, discoveries, links, what works for you, etc.

Creating my 1st website was a fun experience! I'd like to be more thorough, but as for now didn't wish to share too much info on the web. Weebly was simple to use, and I like how they include a how-to video. My Sophomore asked if he too could create a free site on Weebly; hmm....I think that could be arranged! =)

Here's my link: http://swordandlightsamplings.weebly.com/index.html

Blessings to each of you during this school year and always,

Jules

Now let's go spend that $50,000 :)

Final Project Due Saturday

Thanks again for all of your hard work with the blog posts and weekly papers. I've been terribly busy with the start of classes so I am still trying to get everyone's grades updated. I should be able to take care of that tomorrow.

I believe everyone should have their final project or paper settled with me through email. Please post it to the course blog by this Saturday at noon. No blog comments are required this week but you are more than welcome to provide feedback to what people post for their final project or paper.

Should you have any questions please let me know!  Thanks for a great class =)

UPDATE: All grades should now be entered on blackboard. If you could please confirm that your grade is accurate I would appreciate it.  Reminder that your final project is due by this Saturday at noon.  Thanks!

Posted by Tanya Winter

eth·ics

1.

( used with a singular or plural verb ) a system of moral principles: the ethics of a culture.

2.

the rules of conduct recognized in respect to a particular class of human actions or a particular group, culture, etc.: medical ethics; Christian ethics.

3.

moral principles, as of an individual: His ethics forbade betrayal of a confidence.

4.

( usually used with a singular verb ) that branch of philosophy dealing with values relating to human conduct, with respect to the rightness and wrongness of certain actions and to the goodness and badness of the motives and ends of such actions.

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/ethics

cyber eth·ics

What is cyber ethics? And how do you teach it to your children? Simply put, cyber ethics is a code of behavior for using the Internet. One easy way to think about cyber ethics and to address the subject with children is this: acceptable behavior on the Internet is very much the same as acceptable behavior in everyday life.

http://us.norton.com/library/familyresource/article.jsp?aid=pr_cyberethics

I found the ethical dilemmas of using computers in the classroom a very interesting subject.  Through my readings this week I discovered many ethical areas that were hot topics such as:  Piratism, plagiarism, hacking, cyber-bullying, etcOne idea particular that stuck out as kind of different was:

"Making poor decision making faster" 

Say what??

I know, making poor decision making faster..what are you talking about, Tanya? Well, let me explain.  Basically, we are all using computers in the classroom.  Yes, hopefully everyone is smart enough to use a filter system and yes, hopefully we have rules and regulations in the classroom. HOWEVER, access to the web throughout the day can have negative impacts on the decisions our kids are making while they work because it takes less time to make a mistake. 

First example:

Brady was sick on Monday and is already one day behind on getting a paper started that is due Wednesday.  Tuesday he decided to do a search on shoes because basketball is right around the corner. If he does not find the perfect shoes...well, he just wont be as awesome as everyone thinks he is.  Well, he wasted class period and a study hall and now he is down to the wire.  He decides to cut a few paragraphs here and a few more there…done in less than an hour and now he can go back to looking up shoes for the rest of the night!  BAD DECISION!!  We all know the consequences of plagiarism are pretty serious.  Is it possible that would not have happened if the paper had to be hand-written?  He probably would have come up with a pretty poor paper to hand in, but the chance that his words and thoughts would have actually been used is much higher!

Second example:
Clara had to run back to her locker and asked her best friend Sophie to save her a seat in English class.  She just makes it to the classroom before the bell rings, grabs her Mac and looks for Sophie.  WHAT! Sophie is sitting by Hillary and they are laughing at Clara because she has to sit in the front row by nose-picking Jane!! Sara begins working, but in the heat of the moment opens up to her Face book account and types “Sophie is a b___h on her Wall for everyone to see.  Before she realizes what happens, everyone sees it and things just spiral downward from that bad decision.  Now I know that it is her own fault for acting out in anger, but I am simply suggesting that it is easier to make mistakes when you can type it out in five seconds as opposed to her taking out a piece of paper and trying to write a nasty letter to her friend. Chances are she would have ripped it up before she ever even had a chance to give it to her. She probably would have yelled at Sophie after class and had a one-on-one argument, but at least she would have had all of class period to kind of cool down a little.

I have children and I do understand it is my job (as it is any parents) to teach my kids self-control, restraint, how to overcome peer pressure, and what it means to have consequences to his/her actions.  The question I am proposing here is "...Is it possible to be making it easier for our children to make bad decisions by exposing them to computers and the internet in the classroom?..."

I do look forward to reading your responses on this one!!

IDK WTH ISTE & NETS is, LOL!

We all know there is a huge push to get technology and information about technology into the classrooms. But who is doing this pushing? There is actually an organization dedicated to bringing technology into PK-12 classrooms and it is called the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE). They have a very informative and comprehensive website you can view by following this LINK. ISTE “…is the premier membership association for educators and education leaders engaged in improving learning and teaching by advancing the effective use of technology in PK-12.” Also, ISTE has an impressive 100,000+ members. ISTE strives to be a community that connects educators in a meaningful and powerful way to share in the transformation of education.

This website also has a LINK to the National Educational Technology Standards or NETS. There are NETS standards for not only teachers but students and administrators as well. Upon reading the standards applicable to teachers I felt that they were very vague. They didn’t say students need to know how to do (blank) on a computer, or know (blank) about the Internet. I feel that ambiguous standards allow teachers to have a lot of flexibility but do not really give teachers a direction. However, strict standards allow teachers to head in a more clear direction but then teachers have less flexibility. I guess the NETS are like many other standards in education. I feel that as a teacher I would like these standards to stay the way they are that way I could feel free to integrate technology into my classroom and instruction they way I saw best. I know other people would disagree.

I found a lot of feedback about ISTE and some was positive and some was negative. I think that it all depends how you view technology in the classroom, it seems there are more people than I would have ever thought that think students are already to technological savvy and rely to heavily on technology. I agree that technology should supplement the class and enhance real experiences with real people instead of replacing them. I found a very interesting video that explains how ISTE connects educators and how this is helping to forge the future for technology in the classroom.

A Major Ethical Dilemma in the Age of Technology

The punishments for it can range from something as simple as failing an assignment to being expelled from school, from a fine of anywhere from $100 to $50,000 to up to ten years in jail. What is it? It is plagiarism and in the age of copying-and-pasting from the internet, it is drastically on the rise. (http://www.plagiarism.org/plag_article_plagiarism_faq.html ). According to a 2003 survey conducted by Rutgers University, 38% of undergrad students admitted to one or more instances of “cut-and-paste” anything from a sentence to a full paragraph that they found in an online source. (http://www.nytimes.com/2003/09/03/nyregion/a-campus-fad-that-s-being-copied-internet-plagiarism-seems-on-the-rise.html).

Simply put, plagiarism is the use of someone else’s thoughts, words or ideas as if they were your own and neglecting to give credit or acknowledgment to the source it came from (http://www.plagiarism.org/plag_article_plagiarism_faq.html). Plagiarism can be something as simple as forgetting to cite, or improperly citing, a source to bluntly turning in a paper or assignment that you did not write but that you claim to be yours (http://kykernel.com/2010/01/24/reported-plagiarism-on-the-rise/).

But why do people plagiarize things? Sometimes it is accidental, but other times it is intentional. A freshman at Rhode Island College was accused of plagiarizing but he claimed it was not because the website he used did not provide author information (http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/02/education/02cheat.html?_r=1&src=me&ref=homepage). According to a writing tutor at Rhode Island College, students just do not understand that it is a serious offense to use words that you did not write as your own (http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/02/education/02cheat.html?_r=1&src=me&ref=homepage). According to a report by the BBC news, the “decision to plagiarize may be associated with increasing pressure on students arising from….heavier coursework load, or lack of personal organization skills” (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/education/4257479.stm). Teresa Fishman from Clemson University says, “Now we have a whole generation of students who’ve grown up with information that just seems to be hanging out there in cyberspace and doesn’t seem to have an author” (http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/02/education/02cheat.html?_r=1&src=me&ref=homepage).

Accidental or not, plagiarism is a crime and it is up to teachers and administrators at both the high school and college level to do something about it and to stress to students how important it is to give credit to authors and other sources that are used.

How are students using technology?

I'm not sure about an ethical dilemma with technology but this was a struggle I had last year teaching science.
Last year, I taught Biology and Physical Science classes that were required to complete a high school science fair project.  When I found out about that, to be honest, I was a bit scared of it.  The schools I went to never participated in science fair so this would be my first journey into the world of science fair.  At a previous school, I had many parents doing projects for their child.  So I was very careful about what I was getting into. 
When it came to for students to get their topic, I thought it would be good to give the students some time in the computer lab allowing them to use the internet to find some topics.  It started good and the students found some topics but there is a problem with that.  The topics the students found were word for word from the internet sites.  I later found that some of the students used the information from these sites as their own work for their project.  I know using the internet can be very helpful for the students but I learned I have to be very careful in what the students are turning in. 
Later, I found myself giving time to students to type up their literature review and discussion in the computer lab.  Again to my dismiss, I found students cut and pasting internet sites onto their document and saying it was their own work.  I learned that you can't give your students an inch with an assignment like this.  Maybe one of the worst parts was working with the students on their reference pages.  They were allowed two internet sites and had to have 8 primary resources.  They had written research papers in 7th and 8th so I thought they would know the difference but I was wrong again.  Primary resources to my students meant internet articles.  I knew they were struggling so I found some online peer reviewed article from some professional journals that I know.  I showed them what a primary resource looks like and what to look for.  I was very troubled to see that about 80% of my students still included at least 6-8 internet resources in their reference section of their paper.  It was again astonishing when they tried to convince me that they were primary resources.  I learned a valuable lesson that I can't assume anything with my students, especially with technology.   If I give my students an inch with technology, they will take a mile.  I was learning just as much if not more than some of my students with this science fair project last year. 
This is the age of technology and teachers are doing everything they can do to introduce more and more technology in their classes including myself.  We want to give the students more and more time in the computer lab and online activities.  Expose them to more and more technology and they will be ready to succeed after high school.  Our students are smarter than we give them credit for.  Most already know more about technology than we as teachers know.  Students know at times how to get around different assignments so they can do as little work as possible.  While trying to incorporate as much technology is good for the student and teacher, teachers have to be very careful about how the students are using technology and what they are turning in for their assignments.

The Ten Commandments of Computer Ethics

Ten Commandments of Computer Ethics

1. Thou shalt not use a computer to harm other people.
2. Thou shalt not interfere with other people's computer work.
3. Thou shalt not snoop around in other people's files.
4. Thou shalt not use a computer to steal.
5. Thou shalt not use a computer to bear false witness.
6. Thou shalt not copy or use proprietary software for which you have not paid.
7. Thou shalt not use other people's computer resources without authorization or proper compensation.
8. Thou shalt not appropriate other people's intellectual output.
9. Thou shalt think about the social consequences of the program you write or the system you design.
10. Thou shalt use a computer in ways that show consideration of and respect for your fellow humans.

Copyright: Computer Ethics Institute Author: Dr. Ramon C. Barquin

Understanding appropriate behavior with technology is as important as understanding how to use the technology. As teachers we must be as involved with our students as we would with our own children. Technology creates anxiety in many people, especially the threats of danger that come with using the internet. As a parent I focus a lot on the websites that my children are using. But as they continue to use the internet in school and at home, I need to help teach them the importance of how they share and use information.

The "Commandments" are great guidelines to use in the classroom. I believe they provide the boundaries for acceptable behavior and help students understand how to ethically use technology. The temptation of technology, mainly the internet, is the isolation of the user. Students may feel alone as they use technology, but that perception isn't always true. Below is a great strategy on incorporating technology in the classrom from Education World.

•Draw parallels between the real world and the electronic world. Make direct comparisons between what students do on the Internet and how they behave in their daily lives.
•Involve students in constructive activities. Ask them to develop ten rules for a classroom acceptable use policy, for example.
•Post a written acceptable use policy in your classroom, and include the consequences for violating it.
•Reinforce proper behavior. Treat offenses as mistakes rather than "crimes," especially in the beginning.
•Assign students to work with technology buddies, other students who have already worked with technology and will set a good example. Peers can help sell a point that students might not accept from adults. In addition, kids who are working together are less likely to get off task.
•Take advantage of every teachable moment. You can't overstate the issue.
•Don't model inappropriate behavior.
•Instill a sense of responsibility, point out the real costs of misusing technology, and express a belief in students' ability to handle technology properly. Students will live up to or down to your expectations.

As teachers, we can't assume that students are being taught or know how to use technology properly. It is important that we get involved and provide clear expectations from the beginning. Incorporating technology into our classrooms is critical to providing the opportunities for students, and teaching them ethics along the way is part of that process.

A Collective Work?

A collective work, I like that definition for this type of "standard". I spent quite a bit of time on the ISTE website and at first it seemed loaded with information and links. But when I was trying to see what the actual standards it seemed the site was really geared toward selling me something. Thanks to a wiki I found while searching it gave me a direct link to the pdf for students standards. I would have seen it if I would have scrolled down the page a little farther but I kept following a link in the article, oh well.

I did look at the board members but I don't have any idea who any of them are so I read the mission statement, bylaws etc. Well it gets too wordy for me so I guess I will go with their results and say that while the standards seem broad compare to other subject areas I think it has to be that way for this field of study.

Just going to let you wonder about the picture! What does it have to do with standards? Can you figure it out?

Good utube by CEO of ISTE gives a short overview of ISTE and what it is about. International Society for Technology in Education. Educators in this field owe it to students to keep on top things. The standards for teachers are a good guide for us. My favorite is "Model Digital-Age Work and Learning", just an excuse to keep taking classes and trying out new things.

HONESTY

 error in syntax
haiku dot c line two
too few syllables
--Daniel from Gig Harbor, Washington

Just for fun you can enter your own techie haiku and have a chance to win some money.

I am an honest person so I do not want to copy something that I have no right to. I like the definition of plagiarism described as trying to pass something off as your own when it isn't. So if I make sure and let you know that I did not write that haiku up above by telling you who did write it then I have done my job, right?

I do not want to spend hours trying to document everything just the right way so if I make sure you know where you can find it and who it belongs to do I really need to do it just the way MLA or APL say?

One more thing!

An article on

Bringing

Computational

Thinking to K-12:

What is Involved

and What is the Role

of the Computer

Science Education

Community?

By Valerie Barr and Chris Stephenson

This is a terrific article! I have tried to explain to my mom what excel would have meant to her when she was working. She kept the books for my dad's doctor's office for 25 years and lived on 3-4 hours of sleep a night for years because they felt they needed to handle some of the tasks personally. Record keeping, wow have computers changed our lives. If you have the right formlas you don't have to add something over and over, you know it is right.

On page 52 there is a table to help you see how computational thinking can be accomplished for different concepts and in different subject areas.

Enjoy!



Teachers Need To Learn Too:

To be an effective educator of technology a teacher needs to continue to learn about new technologies throughout their career. Standards A and B of Section V. (Productivity and Professional Practice), of the National Educational Technology Standards both relay the importance of teachers who are implementing technology staying abreast of technological improvements and advancements. Standard A states: Use technology resources to engage in ongoing professional development and life-long learning. Standard B states: Continually evaluate and reflect on professional practice to make informed decisions regarding the use of technology in support of student learning. In order for technology education to be useful to students the technology needs to be current and the teacher needs to have a solid understanding of relevant technologies. If one were to teach students on computers from the early nineties, with 5 ¼” floppy disk drives little of what they were taught would be of any use to them in the real world. So if you are a teacher who has been teaching and implementing technology for only twenty years, and you had not educated yourself and updated your classroom technologies, much of what you would be teaching would be a waste of you and your students’ time.

The need for teachers to keep up to date with improvement and advancements in technology is fairly obvious. The question is: How? After searching the web, reading several sources, and thinking about this question myself I have come up with a few resources to aid teachers in this quest.

1. Teacher Workshops

2. Educational Courses

3. http://learnweb.harvard.edu/ent/home/index.cfm

Educational courses from a variety of sources are fairly easy to find. There are a variety of on-line courses available. Additionally, local community colleges offer courses that are often reasonably priced. The Harvard website is a valuable resource for teachers looking to stay abreast of changes in the world of technology as well.

Hacking, Cracking, and other Viruses

What comes to mind when you hear the word, "virus"?

"STAY AWAY!" "Yuck! I don't want it!"

The word doesn't normally bring about positive connotations. And neither does the reaction to a computer virus. Don't you get frustrated when someone so smart and with extra time on their hands, uses it in this way? What can we do?

Let's start with the present, in educating those around us. Let's face it; technology is exploding and we all want to be a part of it.While continual technical developments don't normally in and of themselves raise moral or ethical issues, the way they are used, can.
Is there a lack of concern over those partaking in these unethical actions? Are we turning a blind eye, or dismissing the situation thinking the individual is just uneducated in their action?

Our Text's scenario, pg. 507 #3, comes to mind. What would you do in this situation? Is this fellow teacher innocent? I think she is. How, then, do we prevent future cases, and again, when do we begin?

Today is the day to make our young people aware of unethical technical use. They can learn to use their computer savviness smartly, and in ways that will benefit others and possibly their future careers. Being aware of unethical behavior as a student can prevent uncomfortable and criminal situations in their future.

Jerry Crystal, technology coordinator at a Bloomfield, Connecticut middle school, suggests, "middle school is the ideal place to focus on cyber ethics...because that is where kids begin to develop their awareness of ethical behavior. If we provide positive images and effectively communicate ethical values in all areas of their lives, those values will be reflected in the technological environment as well. How we teach kids to view themselves and their use of technology at this level is what they will carry with them into adulthood."

What about letting natural consequences be their teacher? As cautioned on pg. 473 of our text,

"Do not use pirated, illegal copies of copyrighted software. Not only is using them illegal, but they are a favorite source of viruses." No, let's do them a favor, and educate them now. Then, in our future, there should be fewer 'hackers', 'crackers', and other 'viruses'.

The following are sites I found helpful in educating about cyber crime:
This one includes different cyber-scenarios for students, followed by multiple choices for how they should react in the situation, and results for each choice! A site I plan on using in my classroom, for sure!
http://cybercitizenship.org/4kids/4kids.html (copyright for photo above)
http://www.cybercitizenship.org/
http://www.educationworld.com/a_tech/tech/tech055.shtml

Communication = Social Networking

Many of us are familiar with Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace. Now Google + has added to the mix. I, like many others, joined Google + and took the tour so we could really get to see what all the hype was about. I have to say that I actually liked it a lot better.
Social networking has gotten a lot of attention lately due to its role in the school systems both from students and staff. I know in Omaha Public Schools, there have been a few staff members that have been reprimanded due to the content they had posted on Facebook. As a result of this, many districts have had to place guidelines within contracts or staff handbooks stating what is appropriate when dealing with social networking. I know that in some districts such as Creighton Prep, you are not even allowed to have a Facebook page if you are an employee. Is that fair? I don't know. What I have found is that many staff and students have gone beyond the boundaries of what is ethical when it comes to social networks. Google + could be placed within the same bucket as the rest. I will say the one aspect of Google + that I found to be a positive was that you could place your friends into "circles". These circles allowed you to interact with people in different ways. For example: you could have a circle that only had your students in it. This circle then would only be allowed to see what you wanted them to see according to what was posted to that circle. Another circle could be friends where you could place people that you had more of a personal relationship with. I believe this feature would allow people the "personal space"' that many people believe they should be entitled to. I agree that teachers should be allowed to have a personal life and be able to post pictures and comments relevant to what they do outside of the school day; however, it is also a fact of our job that we are held to a higher standard than others. Is that fair? Probably not, but it is something that we all knew when we decided to become teachers.
Another aspect of Google+ that I liked was the chat rooms. Instead of being able to enter a chat room and just type, it was a lot like Skyping. It was a great way to be able to chat with your friends but also have a face to face conversation.
Finally, I liked the option for Smartphones. If a group of your friends were trying to figure out where to go to the movies and you were sending texts to different people, you could download Google+ to your phone and actually have a conversation with all of them without having to send 5 different texts. I thought that was a cool application.

Overall, I really thought that Google+ was trying to develop a social networking site that was more ethical than the ones that we currently have. It seemed to me that the site was really trying to take into account the privacy issues that are currently at the forefront and work through them. I would recommend at least touring Google+ and seeing what you think.

NETST & ISTE

"ISTE’s advocacy efforts extend beyond putting technology in the classroom. We strive to ensure that technology improves learning and teaching to help more students achieve their full potential."

International Society for Technology in Education

National Educational Technology Standards for Teachers

They are a set of standards created by the International Society for Technology in Education for the goal of using technology in elementary, middle and high school grads with the intention of students learning and being productive in a “digital society.” The standards were first released in 2000 and according to the website, defined the fundamental concepts, knowledge, skills, and attitudes for applying technology in educational settings.

Who is ISTE and why should we listen to them?

This organization according to their website is a nonprofit professional organization with a worldwide membership of leaders and potential leaders in educational technology. The goal is to provide leadership and service with the hopes of improving teaching and learning through technology in schools. They are dedicated to giving the voice of teachers to policy makers regarding educational technology in this digital age of learning.

Are there other resources on the ISTE website that can be useful?

This website has something for any level in the educational field. From students to teachers to administrators there is something for everybody. It shows the National Educational Technology Standards for all education levels. In the connect section of the website it a section called communities that has links to twitter, wiki and face book accounts as well as a section for special interest groups.

Click on link to listen to a message from the 2011 ISTE President

ISTE PRESIDENT

Ethical (and Legal) Social Networking

Social Networking has been a problematic issue for education. Ethical issues involving friendships between students and teachers has been the subject of many technology policies and, most recently, a law in Missouri.

Facebook has become a ubiquitous part of most middle and high school student's lives. A gray area comes into play for educators in being friends with their current or former students on Facebook. Many schools have technology policies that spell out what kind of online contact students and teachers are permitted to have. Missouri has taken this one step further recently by making it illegal for teachers and students to have any contact on any site that allows for private communication - not just Facebook. This bill was created in order to protect students from inappropriate contact between teachers and students.

The law prohibits teachers and students from being friends on Facebook but still allows teachers to create a Facebook page that would allow students to become fans of them. So, in essence, Facebook contact is not entirely prohibited but contact that would allow private messages to take place is not permitted.




Recently this law has been challenged because it also prevents teachers who are parents from being friends with their own child if they happen to meet the definition of a student in the state of Missouri. A Missouri teacher has filed a lawsuit that claims that this law violates her 1st and 14th amendment rights. There is legal precedent to back up this teacher and it will be interesting to see how the courts respond to this lawsuit.

Facebook has also published a .pdf called Facebook for Educators which was created with the help of professional educators as a guide for teachers regarding Facebook and education. This guide recommends that educators can use Facebook to:

1. Help develop and follow your school’s policy about Facebook.

2. Encourage students to follow Facebook’s guidelines.

3. Stay up to date about safety and privacy settings on Facebook.

4. Promote good citizenship in the digital world.

5. Use Facebook’s pages and groups features to communicate with students and parents.

6. Embrace the digital, social, mobile, and “always-on” learning styles of 21st Century students.

7. Use Facebook as a professional development resource.


These guidelines and the recommendations accompanying them are important for educators to familiarize themselves with so that they can be informed and able to speak intelligently about social networking and the inherent problems therein.

Google+ has emerged as another social networking site and the way that it is set up may mitigate some of the problems that are associated with educators and Facebook. Google+ does have a chat feature like Facebook does, however, because it allows users to place contacts into circles it allows for a mechanism to ensure appropriate contact. Students could be placed into a certain circle so that only certain information is shared with them. This feature does not entirely eliminate the possibility of inappropriate contact because it would depend largely on the teacher to use the site appropriately but it is a device that could create limited information and sharing with students.

Ultimately teachers must use social networking sites carefully to protect their students and themselves from compromising situations. Most teachers do not desire to have inappropriate contact with their students but it is important to be careful that being friends with a student or former student does not create overfamiliarity and denigrates professional distance. Teachers should be concerned with their students and available for them, but that does not necessarily need to extend to social networking sites.

Week 4

Hello all!

I must admit it feels a bit odd as this class is wrapping up and the school year is about to start!  My daughter is starting kindergarten in about two weeks so we are quite excited about that new adventure.

Great job finding quite a few interesting resources were highlighted this week - nice work! I thought the Speaking Image site was really interesting and would make a great assignment for almost any class.

This week is the final week of our "regular" assignments - and in two weeks your final paper or project will be due by Saturday, September 3.  Please do your weekly blog post by this Thursday and two blog post comments by this Saturday, August 27.

As far as the weekly paper we'll switch gears a bit this week.  Please do still review chapters 7 & 8 of your textbook but rather than discussion questions I'd like to finalize with each of you what you'd like to do for the final paper or project.  

If you decide to write a paper please plan on writing a 10 page research paper on a topic of your choosing with a minimum of 10 sources. Please email me what prompt you'd like to respond to - I'd suggest an area we've covered that was particularly interesting to you.  You can see some samples of final papers by clicking here.

If you decide to complete a project it should be the equivalent of a 10 page research paper. You can setup a class webpage, wiki, or blog, or create a webquest. You can see some samples of final projects by clicking here.

Whether you choose a paper or a project please make sure we are in agreement by the end of this week on the prompt and scope of the paper/project.

Update: I forgot to mention that I received feedback that quite a few people were having trouble joining Google+ - they received an error message saying that the site was not accepting new members.  As such, I scrapped the Google+ focus for this week. However, if you'd still like to blog about Google+ feel free!

How search savy are you?

I know that I get frustrated when I can't find what I am looking for on the Internet, so I decided to research the website 21st Century Information Finder. Of course being an English teacher, I am always on the look out for ways to teach students to find information on the Internet in an effective manner. This website has tutorials that does just that. I spent a couple of nights taking interactive quizzes that helps you refine your search so that you can pull up the exact information that you are looking for. This website takes the students through levels that builds upon their knowledge so they don't become overwhelmed and frustrated. I used the Digital Investigator Training (DIF) that specifically has modules for middle and high school language arts students.
In addition, there is Wizard Tools which helps with citations (for both MLA and APA), searches, and evaluations of web pages. To evaluate the web pages all you have to do is type in the web page and then you choose at least 3 things you want the students to evaluate the page on. Once you have chosen the criteria they are the evaluate on, you can print them out so the students can have them in front of them with the website at the top of the page. This tool give the students the opportunity to learn what to look for in a reliable web page when completing research for a paper.
Overall, I found this website to extremely helpful for teachers to use as a resource. I know that the Internet is the first resource our students go to when looking for research. However, many of them don't have a clue on how to decide if the information if reliable or not. This website gives them the tools they need to do that. I know that I will definitely use this with both my freshman and sophomore classes when they are completing their research papers.
Jayne Kreifels

H Net: Science, Medicine, and Technology

 
Being able to teach science today is very much a balancing act.  Science by nature is a hard subject to teach due to the content.  With the everything at your hands society, the traditional teachings methods just won't work today.  Students want to always be stimulated and entertained in the classrooms.  Science teachers need to have lessons be able to teach the material to the students while also keeping their attention throughout the lessons.  Melding the both styles helps the students learn the material and be able to use it on quizzes and tests.  Finding resources to help bring more interactive activities to the classrooms is the goal of all high school science teachers.


On the H-Net website for Science, Medicine, and Technology, there is a tool bar going down the left side of the page.  There are several different options that science teachers would be able to use in their classrooms.  Information about the site, messages, posts and blogs, reviews from posts, resources, jobs, and search engines all give teachers different information and options to use in their classroom.  There is alot of information can is available for science teachers here.  Its up to the teacher to be able to look through the different options and use what they find to give their students a better lesson.

           

On the other side of the web page lists different posts or blogs about different science topics.  This is an area for science teachers to look at what other science teachers have put down.  They can use that information in their classes or similar activities and lessons for their students.  There is also reviews of posts and blogs.  These reviews will give science teachers more information about how well certain lessons and activities worked in class and how they might be changed.  Finding new methods and how well they work in the classroom can go a long way to providing students with a current and relevant education.



The bottom of the page has alot of outside resources.  These outside resources can be invaluable to the science teacher.  By providing professional science societies, associations, and journals to science teachers, they can find different avenues to learn new teaching styles and methods to be used in the classroom.  Using scientific journals can help to teach primary resources to the students that they will use on future projects.  Academic programs are an additional way for science teachers to learn more interactive activities and technology to bring to the classroom. 

This website is a great way for science teachers to get resources to use in their classroom.  Finding newer and more interactive activities are good not just for the teacher but also for the students.  These resources will allow the teacher to provide a great education.

H Net: Science, Medicine, and Technology

21st Century Information Fluency: Yo no hablo technology-o

This website is dedicated to helping the 21^st century learner develop and hone 21^st century skills. Once you reach the page, there are many different avenues to take and they are all dedicated to teaching users skills to help them develop their information fluency (others call it information literacy). They have a search button right at the top of the page which is useful if you have a specific skill or area you are wanting to learn about or you can browse the first page which has some of the most popular and most widely used skills. Teachers and students should visit this website if they are unfamiliar with certain skills or hoping to increase existing skills.

Teachers can access tools that serve to assist students in locating, evaluating and citing information. There are also games for students that will teach students to be better at finding and evaluating large amounts of information. The feature that I find the most useful for teachers is the tutorials for middle and high school students. These are self-paced tutorials and there is an opportunity for teachers and schools to purchase more comprehensive packages.

On the website there are also links for online learning classes, scholarly articles and blogs. A lot of the articles I browsed cover current issues that many people in our school systems are facing and things we may face as we enter the teaching profession. This is a nice way to connect teachers. I stumbled onto this feature by just “playing” with the website. I am sure that there is lots more to see and with more time I am sure I could learn more than enough about 21^st century information than I hope I will ever need to use.

It was hard to find out how others are benefiting from this website because I could not find reviews on it. I did stumble across one review that gave a good background of the website and how it was started and funded. This review also mentioned that the website was developed using the National Education Technology Standards, the American Association of School Libraries Information Power Standards, and the Illinois Learning Standards. This is a really awesome website and I hope that as teachers if you need help understanding a technological concept this is your first stop.

Interactive Photos and Maps? Yes, please!

Review of SpeakingImage.org

For my week 3 blog, I choose to review SpeakingImage. SpeakingImage is a great online interactive resource to use for your classroom. The registration is easy and takes only minutes simply go to http://www.speakingimage.org/ and sign up with a user name and password.

SpeakingImage is an easy to navigate website and allows you to upload images and make them totally interactive for you students. Teaching about the various countries in Africa? Simply find the photo of the countries you wish to use and upload it to the website. Once that’s done, you can add a speaking image, layer the image, add points of interest, and all sorts of other tools to make the image interactive and informative for you and the students.

If you want to see what other people and educators have uploaded, just click on the images tab on the top of the website. Here you’ll find pictures of famous paintings, historic events, countries, and city skylines all of which have been made to be interactive and informative for use in your classroom!

For example: http://www.speakingimage.org/images/daley-plaza shows an interactive map and picture of the Kennedy assassination and how that part of downtown Dallas looked in 1963. The picture also allows you to zoom in, follow the route of the motorcade, the location of the sniper, and the directional path of the bullets. The picture also allows you to click on various parts to view actual photos from the day of the assassination such as people running on to the plaza and Jackie turning to her husband. http://www.speakingimage.org/images/kate-middleton-and-prince-william-official-wedding-portrait allows you to click on various points of the royal family taken minutes after the Prince Williams wedding and allows you to view the titles of the various royal family members.

SpeakingImage also allows you to join various groups to share images with and chat with users and discussion common interests or to create your own group. You can follow SpeakingImage on Twitter or share information to Facebook. Were I still teaching, I would most defiantly use SpeakingImage.org as an interactive technology resource in my classroom!

WEB 2 Tools for Mobile Devices!

by Kathy McLaughlin

I used a site about Web 2.0 tools from Barbs delicious account lists and decided to focus on mobile tools since I think that is something that would benefit the most teachers and students at this time and possibly for a while into the future.

I was only able to get to one of the links out of four. One link was "retired" this year do to lack of need for it since the tools are available in most phones now.

Classroom Response System (CRS) are sometimes referred to as "clickers".

We have clickers in our district. One teacher has been using them for several years, she teaches math courses. I have not had the chance to see them in action.

"Know what your students are thinking and learning right now.Bringing interactive social assessment to every classroom is now possible and affordable. Using Poll Everywhere in your school or university, you can increase teaching effectiveness without breaking the bank."

The following list has some very good reasons to use this type of tool.

Increase classroom participation and attentiveness

• Encourage risk-taking with anonymous student responses
• Elicit diverse opinions when there isn't a correct answer
• Expose social misconceptions
• Gauge student comprehension of material immediately
• Grab students with thought-provoking opening questions
• Allow students to provide instructor feedback
• Automate taking attendance
• Assess last night's reading with a quick quiz
• Strengthen retention
• Utilize its capabilities outside the classroom for professional development, student-run presentations, talent shows, battle of the bands, company presentations, student government, or community forums.

Poll Everywhere is free for classes with up to 32 students per section. To find out more go to their website." It is fairly inexpensive way to involve your students.


This site http://www.go2web20.net/app/?a=voice_on_the_go  is one that could save lives. “Listen to email and compose email and SMS by voice…” The “eyes free” access to these programs sounds great. According to our text on page 79 “non linear” learning that is available as a result of the internet and our access to more indepth information on a specific topic, exactly what we are doing here.

To see a video go to this site.

Google voice utube can be found at this site.



I tried to get google voice on my phone last night but I am not quite there yet.
Hopefully I will get it figured out by tonight.

Free Apps for the iPad!

My husband and I just purchased an iPad2. We have not been able to use it much because when our granddaughter sees it she thinks it is for her. She is 22 months old and is learning how to use it. Hopefully she will get tired of it so we can play with it too.

Easy books sounds like a good site for business classes but so do most of these sites. I look forward to really checking them out.