Article: “How to Fight the New Bullies” by Rosalind Wiseman From Parade.com (Feb 25)
This is a great article for educators, future educators, and parents. The advice about cyberbullying is important because, like so many issues affecting the learning process, it isn’t going to call attention to itself. We have to be proactive and active about seeking out these problems. The link to www.wiredsafety.org is especially useful. Parents should definitely check this out. I have a 14 year old daughter and I just now let her have a computer in her room for doing homework. But, of course, to a teenager a computer is a communications device, a connection to her social network. So, I come in regularly when her door is closed to do homework and look over her shoulder so she knows I care enough to check. That’s not mistrust.
Question 1: What is on the wiredsafety.org site for Internet safety?
I checked out wiredsafety.org and took the Parents link. There were links to answers to a lot of questions that parents probably have about what their kids are doing online. There is “How can I tell if my child is communicating with an Internet predator?” And “Is there software I can use to track what my kids are saying and doing online?” And “What if I find out my child is a cyberbully?” There are many more like that.
I followed the question about Internet predators and found an article from a column called “Ask Parry” where he described things to look for in a teen to determine how at-risk they are. It started general, like “naïve kids between 11 and 15” and got more and more specific, like: do they have names of people in their buddy list that they don’t know personally, and do they have a web site or an online profile? Look over these things that your teen is sharing with the world and see if there is anything suggestive, or remarks about a “love” or someone special you don’t know about. Obviously, there should be no personally identifiable information in their profile, for example, no addresses, not even “a picture of them in front of their school with the name” of the school showing. The author also suggests that if you have reason not to trust your child, install some monitoring software on their computer, like from Spectorsoft.com. There’s more information about what to look for on the child’s cell phone and even their video game player.
Question 2: What is the greatest risk our children face online?
Next I checked out the wiredsafety.org “Educators and librarians” section. There they have links to online safety information for teachers a tutorial on cyber safety, and online safety information for librarians. There is also a PDF file in Spanish or English for parent information. The online safety link goes to another great site, wiredkids.org that has information on all aspects of kids’ use of the Internet, not just safety. This website reminds you that although the Internet isn’t safe enough to let kids go there unsupervised, there are lots of reasons to use the Internet. Wiredsafety.com says the “greatest risk our children face online is lack of access”.
Friday, March 9, 2007
Monday, March 5, 2007
Journal 4
Article: “From Toy to Tool”, by Liz Kolb from Learning and Leading with Technology from iste.org February 2007.
In this article the author explains that it is easy to add audio to a blog and tells us about educational uses for this technology. The technology is very convenient because one can uses his or her cell phone to record anywhere any time without any other equipment. There are complete instructions in the article for attaching audio to a blog beginning with getting an account on Gabcast. So being the intrepid blogging journalist that I am I followed the instructions.
Question 1: How did you add the audioblog to be automatically added to your blog by Gabcast?
After signing up I followed the link in the email verification Gabcast sent me, I proceeded to create a channel. Think of a channel as a connection between any phone you use and your blog. That is, if you set it up right. On my first attempt to set up a channel, I entered the title, description, channel password, and keywords (teaching, technology). I didn’t check the box that it would be explicit content. I’ll try to restrain myself… ;-) I left the Channel Website empty, not knowing what it was for. I pushed the button to use my Google blogger account and then it let me log in to my blogger account so it could read my blog ID number. Then I submitted that channel information.
Question 2: What happened after you called in your audioblog?
Next, I used my cell phone to call the audioblog phone number for the U.S. After I recorded my message and chose option 2 to publish it I waited eagerly for the posting to my blog but it never came. Later I added 2 fields I had left blank on the first try: the optional web site, which is the xxxxx.blogspot.com address, and I checked the box to Add Flash Component to the text blog. The next time I called, it automatically added it to my blog.
But when I was experimenting before I got the automatic publishing to work I tried the manual methods for adding the entry to your blog. When you are in Manage my Published Episodes there is an icon for HTML code that you can cut and pasted into the HTML editor on your blog posting screen to add a button to play your audio file into your blog manually. Of course, the goal of all this is to place a button in your blog that a reader can click on to hear your audio. The service leaves both a link and a flash media audio button for you to click on. Clicking on the icon is much better because it doesn’t have to open up another window or tab to play the audio. In fact the little flash media component shows the status of the music player without any distracting new windows or tabs. The posting that Gabcast made to my blog is just below:
In this article the author explains that it is easy to add audio to a blog and tells us about educational uses for this technology. The technology is very convenient because one can uses his or her cell phone to record anywhere any time without any other equipment. There are complete instructions in the article for attaching audio to a blog beginning with getting an account on Gabcast. So being the intrepid blogging journalist that I am I followed the instructions.
Question 1: How did you add the audioblog to be automatically added to your blog by Gabcast?
After signing up I followed the link in the email verification Gabcast sent me, I proceeded to create a channel. Think of a channel as a connection between any phone you use and your blog. That is, if you set it up right. On my first attempt to set up a channel, I entered the title, description, channel password, and keywords (teaching, technology). I didn’t check the box that it would be explicit content. I’ll try to restrain myself… ;-) I left the Channel Website empty, not knowing what it was for. I pushed the button to use my Google blogger account and then it let me log in to my blogger account so it could read my blog ID number. Then I submitted that channel information.
Question 2: What happened after you called in your audioblog?
Next, I used my cell phone to call the audioblog phone number for the U.S. After I recorded my message and chose option 2 to publish it I waited eagerly for the posting to my blog but it never came. Later I added 2 fields I had left blank on the first try: the optional web site, which is the xxxxx.blogspot.com address, and I checked the box to Add Flash Component to the text blog. The next time I called, it automatically added it to my blog.
But when I was experimenting before I got the automatic publishing to work I tried the manual methods for adding the entry to your blog. When you are in Manage my Published Episodes there is an icon for HTML code that you can cut and pasted into the HTML editor on your blog posting screen to add a button to play your audio file into your blog manually. Of course, the goal of all this is to place a button in your blog that a reader can click on to hear your audio. The service leaves both a link and a flash media audio button for you to click on. Clicking on the icon is much better because it doesn’t have to open up another window or tab to play the audio. In fact the little flash media component shows the status of the music player without any distracting new windows or tabs. The posting that Gabcast made to my blog is just below:
Sunday, March 4, 2007
Journal 3
Article: “Video in the Age of Participation” by Glenn Bull, from Learning and Leading with Technology on iste.org (Feb 2007)
This article explains how convenient it has become to incorporate video into your curriculum now that there are vast Internet video storage sites where you can find a short digital video file that fits nicely into your lesson plan. I took a look at the videos on PBS and there were some good science selections. The author also mentioned some African waterhole video clips on YouTube.com which I looked at. Although, not exactly exciting and dynamic, these clips are far better then watching the National Geographic webcam for hours to see one animal. I tried the Discover Education Unitedstreaming site after I signed up for the free 30-day offer. I arbitrarily asked it for content about Newton’s Laws of Motion. Oh man! This site has 23 videos about Newton’s Laws of Motion!! It’s got all kinds of media presentations to include in a lesson. It’s got video segments, images, articles, audio (songs and sound effects), quizzes, events, lesson plans, and clip art. And it has it all cross indexed by subjects and keywords! But wait! That’s not all… It’s got all this stuff categorized by grade also. But, hey! There’s even more. I can do a standards search on it! After putting in grade 12 and the state, CA, I ended up with more than 100 items related to teaching the laws of motion to 12th graders. I am totally impressed. This is a great resource. And it seems as though this resource is being utilized by a lot of schools, since 200,000 teachers have attended the Discover Education Network (DEN) workshops.
Another Internet site with digital video and other media is Next Vista, which is teacher and student oriented. And there are new Web 2.0 services coming online like “tagging” in which users can tag the content with keywords so that others can skip directly to a relevant section of the digital content. Many of these new developments are making the video content more convenient for educators to incorporate into their lesson plans.
Question 1: How would I use this technology in my high school science class? This technology is a big win for science! Usually only very verbal or logical people would be turned on by science at an early age. Appropriate, targeted short videos could excite kids and give them a high level concept oriented understanding of the laws of physics and chemistry. But they are no substitute for direct experience, or experiment in science.
Question 2: What style of learning is involved in watching a video? The dominant one is visual, as it would be in a physical demonstration as well. If there is narration, then verbal is involved somewhat but I think that in a well designed video the visual overwhelms the verbal. Video watching contrasts with lecturing while using the whiteboard which is all verbal unless you draw good pictures on the board.
This article explains how convenient it has become to incorporate video into your curriculum now that there are vast Internet video storage sites where you can find a short digital video file that fits nicely into your lesson plan. I took a look at the videos on PBS and there were some good science selections. The author also mentioned some African waterhole video clips on YouTube.com which I looked at. Although, not exactly exciting and dynamic, these clips are far better then watching the National Geographic webcam for hours to see one animal. I tried the Discover Education Unitedstreaming site after I signed up for the free 30-day offer. I arbitrarily asked it for content about Newton’s Laws of Motion. Oh man! This site has 23 videos about Newton’s Laws of Motion!! It’s got all kinds of media presentations to include in a lesson. It’s got video segments, images, articles, audio (songs and sound effects), quizzes, events, lesson plans, and clip art. And it has it all cross indexed by subjects and keywords! But wait! That’s not all… It’s got all this stuff categorized by grade also. But, hey! There’s even more. I can do a standards search on it! After putting in grade 12 and the state, CA, I ended up with more than 100 items related to teaching the laws of motion to 12th graders. I am totally impressed. This is a great resource. And it seems as though this resource is being utilized by a lot of schools, since 200,000 teachers have attended the Discover Education Network (DEN) workshops.
Another Internet site with digital video and other media is Next Vista, which is teacher and student oriented. And there are new Web 2.0 services coming online like “tagging” in which users can tag the content with keywords so that others can skip directly to a relevant section of the digital content. Many of these new developments are making the video content more convenient for educators to incorporate into their lesson plans.
Question 1: How would I use this technology in my high school science class? This technology is a big win for science! Usually only very verbal or logical people would be turned on by science at an early age. Appropriate, targeted short videos could excite kids and give them a high level concept oriented understanding of the laws of physics and chemistry. But they are no substitute for direct experience, or experiment in science.
Question 2: What style of learning is involved in watching a video? The dominant one is visual, as it would be in a physical demonstration as well. If there is narration, then verbal is involved somewhat but I think that in a well designed video the visual overwhelms the verbal. Video watching contrasts with lecturing while using the whiteboard which is all verbal unless you draw good pictures on the board.
Saturday, March 3, 2007
Journal 2
Article: “Breathing Fire into Web 2.0” by Justin Hardman and David Carpenter. From Learning and Leading with Technology (Feb 2007) on iste.org.
The article notes the disparity between the promise of technology and the reality that we have in our schools today. Private business has taken much more advantage of the new infrastructure then schools have, and many of the students and faculty are already using Web 2.0 tools at home for social networking.
The author says some teachers are using wikis, forums, and blogs, which are aspects of Web2.0, and administrators are beginning to integrate classroom management and curriculum mapping software. Beyond that, schools should participate in an online communication and collaboration system that incorporates all these Web 2.0 features.
The article goes on to describe how the Hong Kong International School is implementing its own Web 2.0 tool called MyDrangonNet. MyDragonNet seems to do all of the same things that WebCT does for CSUSM. I would like to read an article like this about WebCT so I could compare it to MyDragonNet. There is some information about WebCT on www.blackboard.com . They have an academic suite and a commerce suite. Their online learning application, called Blackboard Learning System, is the most widely used course management system among U.S. postsecondary institutions, they claim.
As the article describes MyDragonNet, it has been designed with a very large vision and does more then basic course management. The tool has three major components. It has lots of database capabilities to organize all the information in efficient ways such as to map curriculum to standards for any grade and you can search through all the varied media and data types in various useful ways. Also, teachers, staff, parents, and students are all in close communication through its messaging component. And there is an electronic portfolio management component that showcases all the projects teachers and students have completed and would like to share. The author refers to this highly evolved system as a “multifaceted virtual community experience”. That sounds pretty cool!
Question 1: How would I use a tool like My DragoneNet in my high school class?
These are awesome capabilities! I could use it to communicate with parents and students. That would be the best benefit. Even with all the sexy applications and the new high bandwidth applications, email and the person to person communications implied is the most important aspect of it. This system has that as a primary goal. A teacher should be accessible to the students and the parents. That’s really all that needs to be said.
Question 2: What about the curriculum to standards mapping features?
Well, OK, those are really cool too. Why should each teacher “recreate the wheel from scratch”? Engineers don’t do it in private business. We should be able to incorporate elements from other teacher’s lesson plans as long as we understand them and it makes sense. The value that the teacher adds is to know his or her students well and then to know the content well enough to choose widely among all the possible technology enhancements. These features only give you a multiplier on the skills you already possess.
The article notes the disparity between the promise of technology and the reality that we have in our schools today. Private business has taken much more advantage of the new infrastructure then schools have, and many of the students and faculty are already using Web 2.0 tools at home for social networking.
The author says some teachers are using wikis, forums, and blogs, which are aspects of Web2.0, and administrators are beginning to integrate classroom management and curriculum mapping software. Beyond that, schools should participate in an online communication and collaboration system that incorporates all these Web 2.0 features.
The article goes on to describe how the Hong Kong International School is implementing its own Web 2.0 tool called MyDrangonNet. MyDragonNet seems to do all of the same things that WebCT does for CSUSM. I would like to read an article like this about WebCT so I could compare it to MyDragonNet. There is some information about WebCT on www.blackboard.com . They have an academic suite and a commerce suite. Their online learning application, called Blackboard Learning System, is the most widely used course management system among U.S. postsecondary institutions, they claim.
As the article describes MyDragonNet, it has been designed with a very large vision and does more then basic course management. The tool has three major components. It has lots of database capabilities to organize all the information in efficient ways such as to map curriculum to standards for any grade and you can search through all the varied media and data types in various useful ways. Also, teachers, staff, parents, and students are all in close communication through its messaging component. And there is an electronic portfolio management component that showcases all the projects teachers and students have completed and would like to share. The author refers to this highly evolved system as a “multifaceted virtual community experience”. That sounds pretty cool!
Question 1: How would I use a tool like My DragoneNet in my high school class?
These are awesome capabilities! I could use it to communicate with parents and students. That would be the best benefit. Even with all the sexy applications and the new high bandwidth applications, email and the person to person communications implied is the most important aspect of it. This system has that as a primary goal. A teacher should be accessible to the students and the parents. That’s really all that needs to be said.
Question 2: What about the curriculum to standards mapping features?
Well, OK, those are really cool too. Why should each teacher “recreate the wheel from scratch”? Engineers don’t do it in private business. We should be able to incorporate elements from other teacher’s lesson plans as long as we understand them and it makes sense. The value that the teacher adds is to know his or her students well and then to know the content well enough to choose widely among all the possible technology enhancements. These features only give you a multiplier on the skills you already possess.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)