March 31, Chapter 9

What do YOU think we should do with these technologies for the future of teaching and
Learning?
This is a very broad question. I definitely think we should not thwart the future and continue log jamming education. Former FCC Chairman William Kennard (2007) says, “The government accountability office found that 42% of households have either no computer or a computer with no internet connection (3503, Solomon & Schrum). I am appalled by this statistic because if this number is factual our students have no chance in the global marketplace. We should embrace these technologies and use them to drive education. We should continue to enforce net neutrality and let information flow without red tape. We should take these technological models and encourage responsiveness, convertible & conversable rewards, personal investment, identity building, and dependability. These learning models are what makes the learning experience of this generation compelling and instructionally potent (3461, Solomon & Schrum). We need to continue to investigate in those technologies that focus on mobility, downsizing, and digital natives. Our district needs to consider site licenses with mobile tablets and stop adopting textbooks that don't get updated till 7 year intervals. What if we stop buying textbooks and provide every teacher and learner withacces to the world with digital networked content (3422, Solomon & Schrum). The information age has an exponential historical curve and many predictions are made that suggests within the next year there will be more new information digitally available than all the previous years of humanity. With that being said how can justifiably adopt a history book every seven years?

March 23, Chapter 8

Systemic Issues

Accessibility is a part of the school that has a tendency to get overlooked because of the small minority population it represents. With that being said, I think that only takes place in cultural situations and not in the special education setting. The author suggests that blogging and especially podcasting may be one of the most effective ways to learn a foreign language, to learn English as a second language, or to learn other subjects that may be difficult to comprehend (3077, Solomon & Schrum). My school does not have a large ESL or ESOL population. However, we do have our share of special education students. Our special education students use computers and have access to technology in our Foreign Language, Read 180, and Gifted programs. Our students with special needs even have computers for “Assistive Technology Services” that have OCR scanning software to support electronic responses and provide highlighted text-to-speech reading, spell check and word processing with prediction. Current federal guidelines require that assistive technology must be considered for every student who has an individualized education program (IEP) (3100, Solomon & Schrum). These services are used to support difficulties in the areas of motor aspects of writing, composition of written material and other learning skills. We do our best to provide technology to all of our students but the ratio of technology devices and/or services are pale in comparison to other schools. The author says, “This must be viewed through the reality of unequal access to technology, specifically in schools with high minority populations, high proportions of families who have cultural or linguistic diversity, or in schools in rural areas (3136, Solomon & Schrum). I want to add to that with schools with high populations of any sub-group of students have a high percentage of unequal accesses.

Screencast Reflection

What we did…

We learned two new screen applications designed to record or capture and save what you do on your computer screen. Those two applications are jing and scree-o-matic. We also did various advanced search techniques with Google search. This allowed us to get a more detailed search of topics we are actually looking for. The last portion of class was generating code defined by us creating depositories of sites that we want a defined Google search to “sniff” from. Once we implemented those specific sites we were then able to create the code to be embedded into any html source code (specifically iGoogle).

The NETS Standard Met…
Facilitate and Inspire Student Learning and Creativity
Promote student reflection using collaborative tools to reveal and clarify students' conceptual understanding and thinking, planning, and creative processes.
Design and Develop Digital-Age Learning Experiences and Assessments
Teachers design, develop, and evaluate authentic learning experiences and assessment incorporating contemporary tools and resources to maximize content learning in context and to develop the knowledge, skills, and attitudes identified in the NETS•S. Teachers:
Engage in Professional Growth and Leadership
Evaluate and reflect on current research and professional practice on a regular basis to make effective use of existing and emerging digital tools and resources in support of student learning.

The way I can use this information…
I will use this information immediately with the project for my next assignment and by teaching new tools to students/teachers when I am not able to actually be there in person.

March 17, Chapter 7

This chapter goes through an assortment of information for expanding a knowledgebase and acquiring best practices for online safety and security. Topics of discussion include school legality, cyberbullying, oversight, CIPA, NCLB, COPPA, FERPA, Creative Commons, and AUPs. I believe we need more educators with vision to anticipate the issues and policies that are important to the safety and achievement of our students. When we discuss "keeping students and data safe and secure are important-ethically and legally", it is not just the school's job to do so. Our schools need legal direction from Board policies so the school's can determine how and where to begin. The author writes, “School districts have to do everything in their power to prevent problems before they start and cyberbullying may be the online equivalent of bad schoolyard behavior, but it is no less hurtful and dangerous” (2602, Solomon & Schrum). Politically this week, the White House has turned its attention to cyberbullying. I read one headline that said “New law may require Principals to monitor Facebook” (Fox News). I believe those that do not want “big government” so-say “intruding on local matters”, well then those local agencies and districts need to be proactive in doing the job before they are forced. Solomon and Schrum point out with good cause that “the tools used to enhance the classroom experience are not hosted by the school system, however, and there is no ability for administrators to exercise oversight effectively over teachers’ and students’ appropriate use of these tools. Some districts use E-Rate as the handcuffs that is preventing them from using these tools, hover, I have read the E-Rate documentation and it provides room for the school to implement the necessary tools. Security, awareness, online safety, ethical behavior and implementation of tools all require stakeholder collaboration of parental involvement. With respect to how problems are handled; in a study done by Douglas Levin, senior director of education policy for cable in the classroom, showed that 71% of parents believe that a major portion of the responsibility for ensuring children’s safety on the Internet falls to schools, 49% to government and law enforcement, and 94% had taken their own steps (2846, Solomon & Schrum). Does this mean our parents believe that they should have majority of the responsibility? Interpretation is a matter of who and how one looks at it.

March 10, Chapter 6

I enjoyed reading this chapter with respect to the questions provided for comment. The chapter describes district leaders and administrators, using web 2.0 to increase effective communication with the students, faculty, and community. Upon reading this chapter I am quite discouraged by the current discourse we currently operate under and the lack of willingness to alter our path. Schrum and Lynne outline conditions for leading in the 21st century. The chapter sites examples of web 2.0 tools that principals in other schools use to post information, announcements, class projects, photos, and calendars to communicate with the entire school community (Schrem & Lynne, Location 2320). They use blogs, wikis, all for frequent transparent communication. The challenges I see of implementing these technologies are small in number but large in stature. In Calcasieu Parish every tool has to come through the District infrastructure. We use Blackboard and if blackboard doesn’t support it or create it; it is Against Policy: File Section GAMIA is the Calcasieu Parish School Board Policy regarding electronic communication from faculty to students. Myself, I have learned from history to implement with caution “Civil Disobedience” to support new technologies in my own school. Policy states “All electronic communication, including electronic mail, by an employee at a school to a student enrolled at that school relative to the educational services provided to the student shall use a means provided by or otherwise made available by the school system for this purpose and the School Board shall prohibit the use of all such system means to electronically communicate with a student for a purpose not related to such educational services, except communication with an immediate family member if such communication is specifically authorized by the School Board.” Well, this means that Twitter is definitely out of the question! Of course there is more but I will stop here because my civil disobedience only goes so far. I do not agree with our position not to support the many tools out there that our students speak, and create with. Lastly, when leaders act contrary to conscience, we must act contrary to leaders. ~Veterans Fast for Life

March 3, Chapter 5

Professional Development is a loaded term in the realm of education. There are many books and articles out there that discuss the elements within the scope of pd and how those elements contribute to the success and failures of web 2.0 practices. This chapter starts with the increased pressures of federal, state, and local governments on education. With the increased mandates in technology the technology standards has arisen to support pre and post in-services (ISTE, 2000). With the added pressures on high stakes testing the U.S. Department of Education has increased the focus of technology standards throughout education (Amrein & Berliner, 2003). According to the U.S. Department of Education, even though massive amounts of money have been spent on professional development, many school institutions have not done an adequate job in teacher training. I agree with that to some degree, the author says, “Traditional staff development has tended to be based on one model: a one-day session, often four hours right after school when everyone is tired and focused on other issues.” I think we do a little bit better job in Calcasieu Parish. We send our teachers on many whole day in-services and those particular teachers come back to and train the others. Many of our educators are not trained sufficiently in web 2.0 to get good feedback in the advantages of those web 2.0 tools or like I mentioned earlier they are not adequately supported with follow-ups. The disadvantages are numerous and they start with limited reinforcement. That leads to not enough experts in the school not being able to train the rest of the staff and that leads to staff still being resistant. The author writes, “With all of the support and training seemingly provided, many teachers are still viewed as resistant to integrating technology on a more frequent basis. Now we are requesting that educators change their practice in ways to take advantage of the opportunities of web 2.0” (Location 2010). The problem with this is if I asked the teachers at my school “What is web 2.0?” the overwhelming majority would not know even if they are doing some of its components i.e. podcasting.
Communities of practice are personal learning networks in the virtual social world that contribute to the cultural context of learning. This applies to students as well as teachers. Dede (2003) says, Emerging devices, tools, media, and virtual environments offer opportunities for creating new types of learning communities for students and teachers. The author uses an encyclopedia about Harry Potter’s fictional world and Milwaukee educators sharing ideas about effective instruction. These communities encourage participation, create trust, eliminate confusion, create interactive dialogue, and make learning interactive. I belong to The Educator’s PLN, a personal learning network on everything technology and best practices (www.edupln.ning.com). I have used this network many times to promote pd in the web 2.0 tools and technology.

Ipad2

There's one thing I love about Steve Jobs: he knows corporations follow in his footsteps, so when someone's shadow appears in front of him from a setting sun, he sprints all the way across the world just so the sun ascends in front of him....casting a shadow back on all those rival corporations.....His Ingenuity Really Is Phenomenal! It's a shame how many people fail to recognize the power of his imagination that is ever-changing the computing world for the better, and not for the worse.

posted by ~Original quote by IBod