One More Note

I forgot to address the blog itself... I would like to set up a blog for my classes. I'm wondering though about the upkeep, grading and monitoring. I might set one up for my web designing classes and see how it goes. Time will tell.....

MY FINAL AHAS AND HORAYS

Oh my gosh, where to start? First, my aha is the student created lessons. What a novel idea. We covered everything and more on my list. How wonderful is that?

There are so my more aha’s. Skype was too great. My husband bought me a camera for the computer and a speaker. He got it all for ten bucks on the streets in South Dallas! His timing was impeccable! The only person I tried to call was you and you wouldn’t take my call! Unidentified contact I guess. Logged off right after my call attempt… what’s up with that?

I’m very sad that I missed the communities lesson night as I think communities may be the most useful learning source for my students. Because my students are not allowed to have contact with their home school, it would be great to be able to form a community with another alternative center in the U.S. I am scheduled to attend November’s conference in July. Now if I can just get on that plane! I was so excited by his philosophy that when I shared it with our technology director, he arranged for 6 additional people to attend the conference. The others are members of the Campus Improvement Teams for my school district! I think my enthusiasm shown through.

The primary and secondary sources lesson was too much for me. Like the Internet itself, it became too over whelming and I lost whatever lesson I was to learn.

Of course the other class I missed was WebQuest. I have however, downloaded tons of the information you suggested and intend to create a WebQuest this summer for at least three of my classes. I think the students will love the challenge and independent learning. I cannot do the group activities but will devise a WebQuest for students to work alone.

Second only to November, is Secondlife. Wow, what a concept. The possibilities are endless for use in a classroom, IF the technology department would allow access. I sent an e-mail my coordinator concerning access to Secondlife and what I’d like to try with it. Without discuss access was denied with a suggestion that we talk it over in the future. My challenge now is to set up some method of using it in a homework situation. The problem with this is our students are not “required” to do homework. In addition, almost 90% of my students are on free lunch and have not access to a computer at home or a means of transportation to the library. I’ll work on it and see what I can come up with. Maybe my artistic students can draw and create items in Photoshop while others upload to Secondlife. I’d love to set up something with a core subject teacher but, and this brings me to my biggest AHA, they don’t what to be bother with computer assignments and interactive lessons. My AHA didn’t come from them not caring about computers it came from learning my associates are the majority not the minority; that as a Nation, we are not using our resources as we should. I thought until this class, it was my school district and we’d never really use the technology we have purchased. I feel better knowing it many many districts that are failing to use what they have available.

As for suggestions, I would have liked more time to discuss our reading assignments, online learning, uploading web pages, tricks of creating moves and definitely more Secondlife. I also realize that to cover as much as we did, it is almost impossible to set aside class time for discussion. I noticed too not many of the students were into conversing about what we were learning. I think it may be due to the diverse reasons for taking the class. I took it not as a requirement (although it was I think) but as a base to build more technology classes upon.

It cannot be said that this class was easy because it was not. It was a reach into areas that I, as well as many in the class, didn’t know existed. It was fulfilling and well worth the money!

Technology Enhanced Curriculum

Technology Enhanced Curriculum

I loved the quote by Fisher, “Some will say that technology and education are doomed as partners for one moves too quickly and the other too slowly.” I connect this with, “Too many cooks spoil the broth,” or with Romano’s 3^rd guideline; … the rate of change and the increment of change possible in any given situation are inversely proportional to the number of people involved. It is interesting to me that his number 2 strategy is in direct contrast to the 3^rd guideline.

I do not agree that creating a national advisory committee with broad representation is the best first step when integrating technology into the classroom. The foremost reason is exactly what Romano shares in guideline 3. It is only logical that if a committee is national, than there must be many layers of bureaucracy before it gets to the classroom; going through state boards of education, county/city boards, high school, middle and elementary schools curriculum writers, technology departments approval, purchase and installation of new computers and software, acceptance by and integration training for teachers, and all of this IF there is money. So beginning at the national level is a very bad idea to me. Romano’s suggestion that the district with the highest SAT scores be the demonstration site is absurd beyond belief. A school district having the highest SAT scores in the nation would most likely have the highest income per capita to backing its schools. I’m sure the dollars spent per student in the top SAT district would outweigh the lowest income per capita. If a school district is unable to provide the funds necessary to support an education with textbooks for every child in every class, how can it consider TV monitors, a VCR or DVD player for each classroom?

Romano is living in his own little world. In Garland ISD all high schools have credit recovery programs that include remediation as a teaching method. The problem, credit recovery classes are held during a one-half hour time slot; too many students, not enough time. Remediation is a fabulous teaching method as well as the narrated videos discussed in chapter seven. But if there are not enough computers and/or teachers to provided remediation to students who have already failed and need to get back on track, how can a computer lab be used for TEC?

I have researched TEC in my own district and find that by “department” there are great discrepancies. One department supplies only Power Points presentations for their TEC and video narration is not an option. However, in the math department, TEC is routinely updated and training provided though out the school year. TEC is only as good as the leader assigned to its development.

MY STRATEGIES

I think Romano was going backwards in his strategies. When doing an analysis’ for software or hardware needs, I think it is most important to identify the end user, so this is where I will begin.

Strategy 1: THE END USER

What is the end user to accomplish by being educated with TEC? Is the purpose of the “system” to provide multi-media education methods to reach various levels of ability of various levels of students? The end user must provide input as to his hopes and goals of education. Everyone knows the goal of administration is higher test scores so starting with the district administration is a waste of time. If you start on the “state” level, you must take into consideration the make-up of every district in the state. The per child dollars, although supposedly equal through Robin Hood in our State, isn’t really equal. If it were, Sped and ESL programs would also be equal. Thirty-five students in one science classroom would be the norm if all was equal. If we start with the understanding that nothing is equal and what the end users want, TEC might just work.

Strategy 2: THE TEACHERS

What do the teachers want? They want not to fear loosing their jobs, they want training and support. Show them they are necessary to make the new TEC work. Train and support them with an ongoing system. As the software updates, training takes place.

Strategy 3: REMEDIATION TIME

Two hours once a month as suggested by Romano is not enough for remediation. What if the student lost their way the second day of the 10 week lesson? He has only 2 hours to make up what he’s missed? The student will feel defeated and give up, make the success of TEC null and void.

Strategy 4: Start the TEC at the high school level and flow downward. High school students are closer to either graduating or giving up and becoming another statistic. Middle school students can be help in high school, and elementary students have years to be brought on line with TEC. This is not to say middle and elementary students don’t deserve TEC but districts must address the severest areas affected first. It is a triage for high schools.

NARA Overwhelming At First Look

Could it be there’s a point of too much information? Do you consider 23 links from the first column of a page too much? How about a column with 11 links and a drop down box that offered 25 more links? This is just too much information for me. It was truly overwhelming and quite honestly became immediately intimidating. I did find a class I am going to check into that teaches how to best use NARA, how to research and how to organize information.
In the Archives.gov column I spotted the genealogy and family link. I have been trying to track my great-grandparents arrival at Ellis Island so I clicked on the link. Long story short, I ended up on the Ellis Island website, to which I am already a member. No great insight for me with the genealogy link.
For my vision of working with at-risk students through remediation and computer based curriculum, I don’t think the Archives is something I would request they use. I would use it to supplement textbook curriculum with picture and video links to break up the boredom the can come from sitting at a computer for an hour or more.
The site I do like is the Library of Congress. It offers more items that I believe students would enjoy and it’s very heavy into teacher education.

Online Learning is Great for At-Risk Students

With almost five years as a teacher, curriculum developer, and district coordinator of online learning for Garland ISD’s seven high schools, I can say without hesitation that online learning is a perfect medium for my educational philosophy and working with at-risk students.

The areas of interactions (student/lessons, student/peers, and student/teacher) for higher education are the same areas of interaction that must be addressed for on-line learners in middle and high schools, allowing us to teach to the entire child.

Beginning with the curriculum, on-line learning must be engaging, meet district and state educational requirements, challenging, and most importantly to me, success oriented for the students.

The online system purchased by my District was NovaNET. The predeveloped curriculum covered all core areas for middle and high school students and thirty plus electives. Although the packaged or canned curriculum met most states’ basic needs, the curriculum left a lot to be desired for the student/lesson interaction. The even used gopher links to the Internet. The second year a new program was developed allowing users to access direct links to the Internet which made the curriculum more alive.

Another area that was lacking and I didn’t realize it until taking this class, was the necessary interaction of the students with other students. I could interact with them anytime they were online from any computer in the US. I had only to load a program to the PC I was using and I was connected. The students and I could then talk in real time. They loved it. Their need for instant gratification was being served. However, the program offered little in the way of student – student interaction. Towards the end of our use of the program, they had developed an area that students could use to put comments on current events. I don’t remember any opportunity for student to student discussion.

As for Second Life, I have already contacted our technology department to see if they can unblock the site. They didn’t know anything about it but because it has game in the description and it is automatically blocked. I’m hoping they will see the potential benefits of the site and open it up for me to develop online curriculum for my Web Mastering Course.

Perceptions Part Two

One of the constant patterns I have seen in the multitude of attempts to integrate computers into the classroom, is the expenditure of funds. It seems there is no end to the money that, [I believe they are referred to as “experts in the field”,] are willing to spend to make sure computers are in every classroom; teachers are provided the latest-greatest software to support their subject, but no means to learn how to integrate this wonderful technology into daily classes. In my computer classes, I am routinely provided with new software. A perfect example was the recent installation of two new programs called Car Builder and Truck Builder. The software allows the student to build cars or trucks, run them for statistics and then revamp their work to produce more fuel efficient end projects. The problem with this great software is I received a Xeroxed copy of the setup and all but useless instructions on how to use it. Money spent, training nil.

To change this pattern I would first and foremost work closely with the end users, the teachers, to see what THEY want in their classrooms. Those that may appear negative or hesitant I would identify, without them knowing what I was looking for, their greatest asset in teaching and ask them to design a lesson(s) around that asset. If a history teacher favors teaching about the Trail of Tears, I would suggest he develop a totally inclusive group of lessons that the entire department could us, or possibly break into groups and at the end of the lessons have the students share their knowledge. No one ever wants to feel stupid or useless especially in the area they studied. Using their expertise gives them a comfort zone in an unknown or slightly known area. Money would be spent as the teachers learned how to integrate technology in their classrooms. For instances, the history department gets together to develop lessons on the Civil War with the end result being a field trip to a battle site in the area or a reenactment of a battle. Prior to the trip, the students are introduced to various aspects of the battle; what led to it, how many soldiers, time of year, hardships, etc. The Internet is used to research the battle, soldiers, etc. with the students saving pictures as they go. Then the pictures are turned into a movie, with written commentary, and presented to other history classes. Prior to going on the field trip, the classes gather to discuss what they’ve learned so far and what they expect to learn on the trip. A follow-up/wrap-up presentation will be developed by each class to cover what they learned, what was unexpected, and possibly conflicts in the information obtained from the Internet vs. the field trip.

Perception I
As the third millennium begins, it is evident that the development of digital technology has had, and will continue to have a profound, pervasive impact on the course of global civilization.

Technology has brought the world to my students (many have never been out of Garland), and I strive to share my students with the world. We develop PowerPoint presentations for family members in other states and countries. We create imaginary businesses that need letterhead and business cards; areas that were never considered as possible now seem in reach. I am searching for ways to connect my students with others from around the globe to show at the root we are almost alike.

“Like any new frontier, cyberspace presents limitless opportunity and unknown perils.” I think this is the alpha and omega of the Internet. As teachers we must educate ourselves to present our students with opportunities and protect them from the perils; which leads me to perception two.

Perception II
…..Using a computer can be considered aerobics for the mind!

I love this perception because I see it every hour I have class. I see the students’ minds turning to be creative with their assignments. Once they become the least secure in their work, they begin helping the new student next to them. From the first day of not knowing anything, to the 2nd week of free thinking, I witness the “aerobics of the mind”. Now if I could get their mind off of connecting every idea to drugs, I really be a great teacher.

Perception III
Computer technology has been adapted to amplify the capacity of professionals in virtually every aspect of society—with the exception of the teacher. Rationalizing this reality becomes increasingly difficult since teaching and learning is an
information–intensive process.

I often say, if a school was run like a business and waste had to be answered for, teachers who teach by worksheets, coaches that teach health because they can’t teach anything else, and an office full of coordinators who don’t remember what the inside of a classroom looks like, would be gone and our schools would be more productive. How sad it is that the people who taught the creators of computer software and hardware, logic with math, creativity with multi-media how to do all this are the ones that fail to open their minds to technology. There is a teacher in our district that insists on teaching his web mastering students the binary numbering system for the first six weeks of school. This same teacher doesn’t teach the “logic” behind html, he just puts worksheets on the overhead and tells the students to copy it into notepad and then open in the Internet. He has a master’s degree in computer science, but can’t connect the technology to teaching.

Perception IV
… What is lacking is a sharply focused definition of what role computers have in teaching and learning and a strategy for integrating them alongside the books and chalkboards…and that secures the teacher’s central role.

This is another recurring theme. How to get the computers integrated and make the teacher’s feel secure. Hog wash! The problem should not be making teachers feel secure that the computer is going to replace them, if anything, they will be replaced with a teacher that is willing to learn and use the technology that is provided. The integration should start with the development of the curriculum. For those teachers who will not stray for any reason from the “written curriculum” adding technology lessons would force them to use the technology in teaching. For those who think outside the box, allow them to develop and share lessons that “aren’t” in the pre-developed curriculum. This opinion goes along with the Perception that all three literacy modes should be integrated into the curriculum. I don’t agree that we can’t find a way to best accomplish this. I believe we still have those in places of control, that can’t face the technology age being used outside the “attendance and grade book” areas!

Perception V
The fundamental role of computers in the classroom is to extend the capacity of teachers to provide individualized tutoring to learners, thus compensating for the disparity in each individual’s capacity to achieve.

Probably this more than any other perception discussed is the one I feel the strongest about. I have seen first hand how computers can provide remediation to a student to the point of bringing a failing student back to grade level, building a new confidence of learning ability, providing a way to succeed and stay in school, and all without peers knowing just how far behind a student was. If the curriculum is written correctly, computers can identify where a student stopped learning, being there and bring the student back to the future!

For four years I did exactly this with NovaNET. Politics and the belief by some teachers and “coordinators” that NovaNET couldn't do this was the demise of the program. Even tests were questioned when previously failing students began passing. The credit recovery program continues but no remediation is happening. The District uses a (in my opinion) dummied down system that allows the student to take as many tests as necessary until their score is 80%.

The powers that be, need to be still and listen to those showing success and use that success to integrate technology into the classroom creating a “killer app.”

Perception VI
There is ample evidence that after more than a quarter century of high expectations, dedicated effort, and substantial expenditures, computers have failed to improve what happens in the classroom. Additionally, it appears there has been no serious attempt to analyze and thereby learn from this failure.

This perception supports all the above opinions. We’ve spent too much money (recurring theme), for teachers who don’t want change (recurring theme), on technology that isn’t used (recurring theme), and no one seems to know why! Where are those experts when ya need’em?

THE POWER IN THE POINT (PowerPoint)

I have been teaching, and using PowerPoint for ten years. Over these 10 years I have created hundreds of presentations, numerous Jeopardy games for both core and non-core subjects, and taught at least a thousand students how to create presentations using PowerPoint.

It is my belief that PowerPoint has two main functions in its use; 1) to teach something or 2) to sell something. I have never seen a PowerPoint presentation used for any other end purpose. So, I will continue to use PowerPoint and teach its use based on one of these to ends.

As I do not totally agree with the seven words – seven lines guideline, I will not change what I feel is best for each slide. Yes, in some cases, seven words/lines is reasonable. However, in other cases more words may be required to get the point across. I will be more conscious of “wordy” slides and adjust where necessary.

My main focus will continue to be the audience and purpose of the presentation, and design it around the desired results.