Good things

Things are good in the tech world, more or less. Many of my students are enjoying the idea of the blog, while others simply copy another post's thoughts. It's interesting to see how some think. This should develop into something much more useful soon. The wiki is still not available in school. Week 15 is well underway and no progress there. It is getting hit pretty hard though. I'm getting good comments from the students that are actually using it. These are two really good tools that will grow and develop throughout the school year. I'll have to wait and see what happens, but at least the blog is working through the filter. Who knows what will come next.

Quick Update

Things are going pretty well on the tech front. The class blog is gaining momentum, even though it's not what I'd envisioned just yet, and some have been vocal about their dislike for the idea. It is however getting some of the more subdued students involved and active. I'll keep working on it and working toward its improvement. Today I changed the appearance, in favor a a simpler, easier to use template. It's been noticed by a student already...so at least one student checked it out on the weekend!
I'm still waiting for the wiki to be officially approved in school. I haven't been told to shut it down, but the tech department has yet to give the students access on school computers. That has kept the wiki use to a minimum. It's tough to use it for required things when not all students have internet at home and the school doesn't allow them to see it. Those that are using it seem to be positive and are taking advantage of the availability of class information. One actually consulted it during an absence and had the work done before returning to school! Some things make me smile...that's one thing.
Overall school's been interesting. This new stuff I'm trying, thanks to UFL, really has some great potential. I hope to continue improving and making the best learning environment I can. I should also be back in classes soon. I'll see what happens.

Still Plugging Along

I'm still working toward more tech in the classroom. The wiki works great!...as long as the students don't try to access it from school. It's the 10th week of school next week, and I'm still not getting access for the kids yet. Maybe soon?
The blog has started. Some students love the assignments, while others have yet to visit it. The comments I've received have been positive and some have really made me laugh. I have a really great bunch this year. Hopefully this blog will evolve into something more in the near future.
I started SAP training. Student Assistance Program training has a BAD reputation around here. The first presenter gave us handouts which she read point by point from her PowerPoint. That was painful! I think we can all read. One part where she did stray from the written part is when a question was asked about whether this SAP is required in schools. She stated that it wasn't mandated, but that they'd "take your buses away" if schools don't adopt the program. So, it's not mandated, but funding will be lost if it's not implemented. Confused? Me too.
So far, I've been to two FULL days of training. Those are two days of my life I'll never get back! I'll wait and see if any lawsuits come from the last session, where religion was really pushed...at a school training...hmmm. Then there was the "you're pregnant, right" comment from the presenter, which lead to unexpected pregnancy versus intended pregnancy in wedlock, followed quickly by comments about how most troubled youths are from families without tight ties to church, and then about how churches are free etc. Ya, it was a really iffy day on the legal scale. Something about the separation of church and state? On top of that, I lose interest pretty quickly when a "professional" removes her shoes and starts into too many stories that are off topic and about how great her family/kids are.
We did have one presenter, that knew her presentation, added enough of a personal touch and didn't merely read her information to us. That was a nice change, just too bad it was about 2 1/2 hours out of the 16 so far. Oh well, just two more days left next week and I'll be a SAP.

PowerTeacher Changed Views...?

I know that I was pretty harsh on the PowerTeacher set up. After a bit (OK much) playing around with it, there are some really nice aspects. I guess that this shows that, just as in everyday life, letting your thoughts out in the open when you're frustrated is a bad idea.
The feature of exporting to and excel-like document (which is working now) is nice and so is having access to the grades my students have in other classes. I see that there are some gains, as it's on 1.0.3.1...or something like that.
While I do feel bad about blasting the program, I'll leave that post instead of trying to erase my mistake. I will, however, not be so harsh on the program. I'm still waiting for any response from a rep, but understand that I sent 2+ pages of thoughts/complaints/wishes. Maybe a month isn't long enough to figure out what I mean, or it's just not something that's top priority. Either way, I'm making headway in my uses of this product and have a crew of 4 people that are to be helping to facilitate its use. I'm hoping to hear something soon, especially in relation to lengthy and paper intense process of creating reports for missing work, student grades by assignment and a couple of other things, but I've resigned myself to the fact that my thoughts are just not that important. I am but a peon, not to be acknowledged or heard. That's life in public education. If you think about it, from the top down, things are dictated, things must be done. Just look at NCLB....how long can you show progress before you hit the 100% mark? Then think about the 4-5% of the population that has no interest/desire to do anything other than cash a monthly check from the government...well anyway, that's the point. We are to do what we're told, right or wrong.

Still Moving Forward

This past week, things went pretty well. The blog and wiki are still growing...I have my first student-made change! A few others are signed on, but this is the first addition to the page so far. This should really become more useful when the wiki is available on all school computers. When that happens, I see the uses and edits expanding quickly.
The blog is growing as well, with many positive comments and some students running with this new type of assignment. Others contribute little/nothing, but that's no different than any other assignment :)
On that line of thought, I thought that I might want to start a delicious (or some other online bookmark system) for my students. The first research project showed that having some mechanism for sharing worthwhile pages would be useful. I'll talk to the tech department and see if this is possible from school, or not.
Things are moving forward, and all is well on the teaching front. I'm just waiting for my level II cert to arrive. I've been told that it was approved on the 16th, but the actual document is in transit somewhere. Nothing big there, just wait and see.

Blogs and Wikis

Lately I've been using the edublogs.org pages for a new team blog. It gets through the filter and the students are starting to use it!! I have a few comments so far, with the current topic being the 50 year anniversary of Sputnik and how it still affects our lives today. The uses may change, but right now it's just another tool to interact with the kids and to get some extra science in that doesn't EXACTLY match the curriculum map that I've been given. If something happens, it will be discussed on the blog and linked to a page for the students to read.
As an added bonus, by getting myself an edublog (thanks to another teacher in the social studies department!), I get a free wiki!!! My add-free wiki is now free for me!!! NICE!!!! That saves me the 50 bucks I thought I had to spend to keep it!! I can keep it for free, even though my students still can't really access it at school. Even so, the hits are continuing. Today, after I assigned a small assignment on completing some graphic organizer style of notes, I heard a girl say to her neighbor who was complaining, "It's easy. I saw it on the wiki last night, just go there and there's your homework". While this wasn't the idea, at least a few are looking ahead and/or exploring it. I'm happy that this is working in some way.
On top of that, the learning support classes that I used to co-teach with a LS teacher have ended and a teacher that hasn't taught this stuff in YEARS is now teaching 8th grade science to the LS kids on her own. In talking with this person, I've determined that she could use help and I've been helping as much as possible. This week I directed her toward the wiki and invited her to let her kids have the address, or for her to take the WS and SG off the wiki to use for her classroom. I haven't talked to her since then, but am hoping that this little tool will help her too. I don't care if my stuff is used, just throw a little credit my way once in while and I'll be happy! Yet another way that this semi-banned tool is useful in context of teaching.
Get a blog at Edublogs and then get a free wiki with 2gigs of space and 20meg file limit and NO ADS!! So far, the wiki is the most useful, intuitive way to get a web presence. It requires no software and no special computer skills. Uploads and links are easy, and most importantly, only those you give privileges to change things can....Oh and by the way, you can save your wiki and restore it just in case some yoyo deletes or changes things. Right now I LOVE MY WIKI!!!
On Monday, I'll go to a meeting with the committee in charge of blogs and wikis and see what happens. I'm hopeful that I can get students full access to the wiki during school and hope that I can demonstrate the uses and the safeguards in place. So far parents seem to approve and encourage this tool's use. If I can get this across, I'll be OK.

New Contact and New Things

Well, in this connected world in which we currently occupy space, I'm amazed that others are interested in this little blog. My rants about the PowerTeacher program have received notice. I'll post more as I know more. At least I feel better knowing that I'm being heard right now and may be working toward some solutions. I know that perfection to me will most likely not be perfection to others, so I'm not looking for a completely personalized program. Progress makes me happy though!

Other than that, school is progressing nicely. I have a really good group of students this year, with only a few that are in the failing range and in need of a little extra persuasion. I also have several that are signed in to edit the wiki and a few others that are willing and excited to remake my rock collecting video. I've given them the scripts and access to the original video too. They are also aware that they are expected to make this video their own and to let their humor show. They are a very funny group of students! If permissions allow, I'll post that when it's done too. It should be interesting to say the least.
All in all, the first mid-term brings with it a change of weather and a change in mindset. Hopefully, the remainder of the year will go smoothly and show improvement across the board.
My wiki got hit pretty hard during the last project, so I think that students are starting to see some of the uses. My list of students that are permitted to make changes is growing, and I'm introducing the blogging to my students this week. Forward motion is most always met with happiness! I hope that progress continues.
More posts will follow on the experiences with all the above...for better or worse.
Thanks for reading!

PowerTeacher

I just sent an email to the PowerTeacher people to see what was going on and whether or not the issues that my colleagues and I have been bringing up are being addressed. While not a very positive message, I offered my input to help make this something better. We'll see what happens, whether I catch more grief for reaching beyond my bounds or putting my nose in where it doesn't belong, get nowhere, or make progress is yet to be seen. I'm hoping that something positive will result. I have no problem taking time to make this a better product. I know that not all teachers are like me...but when there are none that are in favor of this mutant series of code, there's something wrong with it. When even those intended to sell this bastardization to us (my administration) can only say how "powerful" it is and not show us any proof, something is definitely off kilter here, and more that a bubble off plumb!
The web page says that I should get a response within one business day, so I'll see where I stand tomorrow...making progress, or continuing to irritate and getting no where, but someone has to try! Most others aren't willing to make any noise and prefer to gripe in private...not me I guess.

Improvement?

This week I have a little improvement. Whether it's intentional or not I don't know, but, my students can access the wiki through some of the library computers, but not the regular student computers. I'm not sure what's up there yet. The tech department appears to willing to help, but nothing has happened yet. We'll see what happens.
On a positive note, I have a student that is now signed in to edit the wiki and the usage shows that there are a few using it. I posted the next test on the wiki to entice some, and that will make a GREAT case for students not caring about their grade when the parent teacher meetings start soon. They have access, in at least on location now and have no excuses. I'm hoping that this grows and becomes something more useful than it is right now. In any event, it's about the easiest way to get a web presence!! SOOO simple and easy to use in all ways.
Another teacher found a way to get through the filter and use blogs in school too! It turns out that our filter does not block the "edublog.org" pages, so I'll be tapping that market soon too. I might use this for something different, and might send a newsletter home to parents to get them involved too...might be fun and worth while.
If anyone has any say in the grading/attendance programs that their school uses, steer way clear of "Powerteacher"...what a bum steer this is!! I keep hearing from the administration how "powerful" the tool is, but have yet to find anyone to show me how it even comes close the the old SASI and IntegradePro. The basic things are gone and lengthy, time-consuming multiple step processes replace the simple click and go of the old. The only real benefit I've seen is that it makes the mandated state reports easier, which is not much of selling point for the anyone, other than the couple of people involved with that report at the end of the year. I (and many others) are really hoping that someone is hearing our requests and thing about updates. So far 1.0 really blows! Maybe 1.1 will gain ground, but I'm not holding my breath. If you have ANY say at all fight like hell to keep this thing from entering your district!!! What a pile it is!!!!
That's my advice for the evening...hope all is well in your district!

Changes

Things aren't progressing too well as of yet. The speed of the educational process is sluggish to say the least. Right now I'm fighting for the life of my wiki. It's blocked from student view in school right now. Today, I showed my principal what I was doing, but didn't really get the feeling that this was going to survive the computer gestapo. While I do not particularly like the reference, it's soooo appropriate. Someone of little intelligence gained complete control of a country, so why not someone of lesser intelligence with complete and I do mean complete, control over what my students can do with the computers in school. I can understand the fear of access to the blog and the POSSIBILITY of something inappropriate getting through, but the wiki is totally controlled by me. So far I have granted editing privileges to one student that requested it, but I spoke with the student to verify that it was him that requested permission. Others have downloaded assignments and others the notes. It's a GREAT tool! To bad it's not available during school hours!!
Even though things aren't progressing well, I'm finding allies in some very unexpected places. Maybe we can break through the line and propaganda of fear perpetuated in my district. One of the best control tactics is to separate and isolate. If I can gain enough support and get more people interested, maybe something will happen. My other option involves going in front of the school board to plead my case and possibly get something done. THAT will ruffle many more feathers, but at this point I really don't have all that much more to lose here. My free trial of the wiki without ads runs out in early Oct. After that I have to pay...I'd really like to have this solved by then...I don't mind spending the $50 to help the kids, but to do so and still not have access in school would be nuts. Maybe I'll get on the agenda for the end of the month meeting and see what happens. It wouldn't be the first time I irritated people and most likely wouldn't be the last. I guess the other option would be to bring a formal complaint against the person creating all this trouble, but the problem there is the 'the good ole boys network' that turns a blind eye to what's happening. At least with the board, I'd have some people that are really interested in the district and MAY not be quite so willing to support what's going on.
I guess that I have some thinking to do. As far as changing schools goes, it doesn't seem worthwhile. The bulk of the administration is great, although may not so computer literate, which is where the scare tactics and BS comes in. I'm quite well supported in everything except the technology end of teaching. Not that long ago we couldn't have the Google bar installed on any computer because it was 'spyware'. Now, without doing anything, I have two Google bars up every time I fire up Explorer and yet I can't load Firefox to browse or Netscape to manage and edit my homepage from work. No reason given, just NO. That's just life I guess.

A Way Around

Well, I guess I've done my complaining and whining about my now canceled activity for the coming school year. Now I have to start finding ways around all of the blocks that have been appearing. I need to get some new ideas and ways to do what I planned in some format. Without the blogs and no Publisher, it won't be the same for sure. Ideas are welcome here :)

Blog Issue

Today I write about a little issue that occurred this week. When I was in my school checking out the new computer and seeing what things I needed that were not yet installed, I found some problems. The big thing was the lack of access to my UF class pages and the blockage of the blogs by our school filter. I had some plans for utilizing the blogs this year. When I talked to my principal, he was now concerned that there is a legal issue here, using the "social networking" pages in or for school is potentially illegal. I'd really like to here from some others that are using these in the school setting to see how they are dealing with this issue. I remember reading about some schools that were using the MySpace to communicate with the student body and maintaining a presences there. The other issues are pretty minor really (I don't have Publisher on my computer yet and none of my stuff was backed up from my old computer. There was a simple button to click that was to back up all that was contained on it, but somehow mine wasn't even though I clicked the button and waited a PAINFULLY long time for it to complete it's work. It's fortunate that have no trust in my tech coordinator and backed all of the stuff up myself on my portable hard drive for just such a happening :) ), but losing this blog aspect will greatly hamper my ideas for this year...at least my wiki is still not blocked. Hopefully that will stay too!
If you or someone you know is currently using blogs as part of school, I'd like to hear from you. I'm looking at defending my request and would like to have some positive examples to help with my own vision of their usage. Thanks,
mark

Back Online

Things were nuts last week, leaving me very little time for work online after Tuesday. The annual invitational shoot that I work every year was put on. I had roughly 60 hours in this shoot Wed-Sun. I was non-stop beacuse things were "scaled back"---which meant 3 people instead of the normal 5, but with the same amount of work as usual. It was rough. I write this in the Ed. Tech blog because it really brings up a good point: This online stuff can really make life easier.
Learning about, and using RSS, has made it easy for me to catch up on the news that I missed last week. The online bookmarks would have helped me to keep up a little bit better on my class work, but doing the UF work on dial-up quickly proved to be too time consuming for the few 20 minute breaks that I could work in. I did show others some pages that I had at delicious for some parts customers were looking for. While I'm still not proficient in the creation of web pages and using CSS, my second job is patient and waiting for me to get them a decent web presence, which I'll most likely work on now that classes are over.
The more I learn, the more things I can do, and the more time I can save. Other than starting the last class 3 weeks late, I think it went well. Advancing in the tech realm is helping me in places other than my teaching and really proving to be worthwhile. I hope the classes I have coming up will be as useful!
For now, I'll most likely not be posting here much for the next couple of weeks and will be starting my summer now. I think I'll pretty much take a week off and not do much that I don't want to and enjoy myself.
Good luck in the Ed Tech adventures!!

Home

Well, I'm still struggling with some CSS use, but I think I have a decent home page, using some of the CSS commands. I still have work to do, but this seems to be OK. After this class is over, I'll remove the last link in the table as there is really no reason anyone else will need to see what's there. I'll use what I've learned, but not that page. That brings up the question of methods to remove some of my stuff from the sever. I still don't know how to approach that yet. The latest, but not the last, rendition is located at my Team Viking Science home page. At some point, I imagine that this will have to be housed on my school's server and monitored through their system. If that occurs, I'll pass that new page on down the line.
Now it's time to fight the last of the CSS assignment.

CSS

Today, I found and fought with a CSS template. I found one that I thought really worked well with my intended use as a home page for my students. It was called Eclipse and looked pretty cool. Every time I saved it, the picture at the top disappeared, which was the main reason I chose the template. I've been at this for a long time today, after working on other UF stuff. I'm tired and ready to give up for now. For the first time, since I tried my first blog for UF, I'm really confused and a bit more lost than usual despite my efforts. I'm tired. It's been a long summer full of classes and computer work. For now, I need to move a little: too many hours staring at the screen and trying to find my mistakes and implement CSS into my web pages. Maybe later this evening I'll get a second wind.

Embedding

This week, I placed my first video online. It's not complete(microphone issues), but I wanted to try just to figure out how it worked before I needed to use it. This link was most useful so far. This Embedded HTML Generator is easy and requires just a little knowledge. You'll need to use an FTP program to upload the video to your server, but that's not too bad either.
At some point, I need to complete the video and get that taken care of. Things are winding down in class and it's about time to complete all those last minute things.

FTP

I'm in the middle of my first video upload. It took many tries to get it the upload started, but I found SmartFTP, which seems to work pretty well. It has many of the same features of the old GetRight, which I used early on when dial-up was the only choice for connections. Anyway, SmartFTP is relatively simple to get and free unless you're using it in a business capacity. For personal use, there is no fee, although you'll get the "option" to buy every time you start it up. Just click "OK" and you're off to upload and download. Once, you've set it up for you're chosen destination, it's just a click-and-drag of file and you're transferring. Even though the video for DIME isn't quite what I want it to be yet, I'm seeing how this works ahead of time and hope to have a better rendition before too long.
Now I guess I'll have to figure out how to remove things from my plaza account...hmmm.

Office for All

Yet another thing that is useful comes out of the UF courses. A link was provided for the Open Office suite of programs. These can take the place of Microsoft's version and it's FREE :). I have limited experience with it so far, but it looks and acts much like the pay-per version. Any time I get a chance to avoid MS's monopoly, I'm happy. If anything pops up in this realm I'll update my thoughts, but it seems to be simple and similar. For the download, follow this link: Open Office

Another First

Today, I worked on completing another UF assignment and found myself in another first. To this point I hadn't made a connection between pages and number of words. Today's work had a word limit, not a page limit. I now see some relationship that I hadn't noticed before.
While doing the writings (which are many throughout the courses) I try as many different methods as I can and end up with different works. I'm having some fun playing with the different styles and see how they affect my end products. I re-read several papers today and found significant differences. Some sound better than others, but they reflect my trials. I learn in different ways and am still working to perfect my writing style. I have a certain degree of pride in my works. This blog(and my other one), however, is much less structured and more off the cuff, but still reflects one of my mental levels. I'm surprised that I'm enjoying the writing end of things. That's never really been a big interest to me, but I guess I'm a work in progress. I wonder where I'll end up?

First Web

Well, I've finally done a SIMPLE web page. It's a start...for me at least. So far it's somewhat painfully simple, with no graphics. There are a couple of links to some of my other stuff, but nothing too major. If you're interested in checking it out, just remember that it's just a start. I'll work on this as time and needs dictate. For now, this is it :)
Hoppy's IC Home Page

Video Issues

My latest work involves the creation of my first video...no, not that kind. It's part of my last class for the summer. DIME has the potential to change some aspects of my classroom and open new doors. It's also a good reminder that humor is an important part of the classroom. Don't be afraid to laugh at yourself!
After wasting much of the week trying to find a camera, and then most of today working to get one that my computer likes, I finally have a working piece of equipment that should fit the bill. I'll see what happens soon. My only concern now is getting used to the MS software and editing the creation. The story board is done, the location chosen and the actors "hired", so I guess it's time for "action". Hope it all goes well! My directorial debut is not far in the future!

Copyright

Today, I learned a bit about copyrights...and found that there are many people not paying attention to this stuff. This was the best of the sites that I visited. It contains a nice little chart to help you figure out just how legal you really are. Cathy Newsome put together a nice writing about the fair use for educators and copyrights
Her writing got me to thinking about some things that I've seen and done since starting teaching. I've also seen that teachers will be prosecuted for infringing on these rights. Just because we teach doesn't give us the ability to misuse the work of others. In the past, I've requested permission to use things in my class and have had no issues. Most people seem quite happy to have their work known by as many people as they can. Ask permission, give credit and keep on the right side of copyrights. It's not as difficult as it seems and does allow for those "wow, that's cool, I'll show the kids" sort of things.
Just something to think about when you're planning your next year. How much questionable stuff do you have in your filing cabinet?

Video Tips

Here are a few pages that will be helpful when looking at the uses of digital video and for helping you to make better videos. I found some good tips here. Of course, some are pretty much common sense, but there are really some things I hadn't considered before.
DV tips for the classroom
Apple Ed site
O'Reilly Mac page
I hope that these tips will help me as I try to create my first video for may latest class....never tried this before, so it should be interesting to say the least. I have my actors lined up and my story board pretty well set. I have a location and now all I need is the camera and to learn the software. This may be a bit time consuming and I foresee many mistakes. I just have to remember to save frequently and make different versions so I can easily revert to the video before I screwed it up. Hopefully I won't be pulling my hair out by the end of this little adventure!

New Things to Use

This summer, during the course of the Net K-12 and Digital Photography classes, I have found so many new things to try! I'm actually excited about teaching next year...I haven't been this excited since my first interactive white board arrived nearly 7 years ago. While I'll not be taking two classes at the same time again...a bit too confusing and time consuming, I enjoyed them both. N K-12 had the best reading text of any course so far. It wasn't like reading the standard text book, but it did a very good job of conveying information. DP had me doing some self-reflection and trying my own lesson plans. How long it had been since I "sat down" and did what I was asking my students to do and completed the entire thing, including the final product. That was good for me. Combining these two classes will definitely benefit my students next year.
They'll be working on a wiki for the team, doing "A Day in My Life" presentations at the start of the year and some will be blogging to create science newsletter to go home to all team parents. It's an exciting world and one that I'm feeling more comfortable in. This digital immigrant is diving into the Web 2.0 world lock, stock and barrel. It should be interesting!
Thanks to all who helped, prodded and simply made their thoughts available in their blogs! Collaboration is one of the great tools made available with this technology, and one that really seems to help me.
Good luck in later classes. Hope to "see" you in future classes.
mark

SNC in School

SNC's in schools, which I had innitial thought of as being merely the MySpace and Facebook type pages includes much more than that. My latest reading, about uses for SNC's in schools, brings with it more ideas that can be incorporated to take advantage of the skills that the students have. From the library to the math class, the school newspaper to parental communications, there are concepts out there that are worthy of further exploration. Take a quick read of the above link and see what you think.
On another note, a colleague found out about the Blog Learning Contract from Net K-12....and found it interesting. It lead to quite a conversation, ranging from what I intended to some of the risks to the likely hood of our school OK'ing the idea. At any rate, it should be interesting. Most likely there will be more on that later.

Humans Conquering the Solar System

I just hit this article and had a mixed thoughts about it. Terraforming Mars and later other planets is the idea. The author discusses the fact that we have been terraforming here for millenia and will have to do the same, starting on Mars, which isn't too far from being somewhat habitable. The science behind this is wonderful, but the arrogance of some in the human race is a little scary. There will be issues that arise as humans become a spacefaring species. We have enough political issues over boundaries...what will we have when there are multiple planets involved. Would it be like the great days of exploration when brave men drove their men on to new things, planted flags and claimed the land for their king?
Somehow, it does sound interesting, but it's fairly obvious which countries would have an advantage in this realm. Could we be moving back to a future of colonialism?...then into a skirmishes over boundaries, taxation, and revolution? Imagine watching that develop as you compare the history of the U.S. Interesting and scary.
One can only hope that those in power will have learned from history, so it doesn't have to be repeated. BUT, imagine the possibilities...

Podcasting

I'm still looking for the best uses of podcasts and trying to find a reason to use them, when the video component is so useful, and with high speed connections, and massive storage capabilities it only makes sense.
I do like the idea of students creating their own cast and then placing the audio into a presentation, or screen casting. Or, maybe having them add a cast to the class wiki that verbalizes the events of the class that day, maybe creating an audio version of our text and trying to help some of our lower readers that way. There are some interesting uses for this technology and I have to adjust and try new things. That's really what it boils down to.

While looking for uses, I have found some pages that should be useful.
http://podcasts.yahoo.com/
-general stuff, may have uses in a variety of class settings
http://www.podcast.net/
-more general stuff
http://epnweb.org/
- more education based than the first two offerings with separate sections for the different curricula

First Wiki

Here is the START of a wiki that I'm considering trying to use with my students in the next school year. I have the basic divisions started and will see how it develops throughout the months to follow. It's really an easy thing to do so far, but I have lots to learn. Check out the Team Viking wiki.

Wikis for Me

I found a free wiki-building web page that seems easy, watch the tutorial, basic and FREE. Free is the good part. Paying a few bucks a month gets you more stuff, but for starters this seems pretty good. I'll try making one for my classes next year and see how it works. More on that later.

Fun In Space - Zero Gravity

Fun in near zero G...who says science can't be fun

More Space

I found a great weightless video on YouTube. Other than some fun with a cat, it shows a lot of what weightlessness is like. I'd been looking for some short clips to show my students about what it's like on the ISS. Some might be a little upset by the cat experiment, but I laughed any way. Should be good to use next year!
Wahoo...maybe I'll get to liking YouTube too!

Just Cool

This might not fit into any real ed tech topics, but it's just cool. I enjoy pictures/videos of space and the ISS. I use them frequently with my students. Here is a nice little set of pictures. They change from time to time and are usually very well done. ISS shots show a variety vantage points and show that the astronauts seem to be having a pretty good time in space. I can't wait for the average person to be able to go. I just hope I'm not too old for it by the time it gets here.

Power Point in Blogs

Well, the first attempts at putting a PP into the blog didn't work. I guess it's time to research and figure that one out next. If anyone has any ideas or success stories here, please fill me in :)
Instead I'll just insert a couple of pictures from the DP class for Week 4. I know I'm behind, but am nearing the surface!

This is Bear in his natural state...sleeping. He's such a calm animal, most of the time.










This is my attempt at being "artsty". At a recent car show, I tried taking different pictures, and avoiding the traditional shots, as recommended by an earlier reading.

A Couple of Useful Blogs

Throughout the searches lately, I've found couple of blogs that stand out in their uses for me in Earth and Space Science.

http://www.livescience.com/blogs/author/kerthan is written by a contributing author to Space.com which is one of my usual stops in the AM when I'm checking the various news sites. His blog is full of links and content that may be useful in the future.

The second page is http://awd.cl.uh.edu/blog/ which looks to be useful as I try to implement a blogging aspect to a new student written science based newsletter. The focus is on blogging in schools which lends itself well to my next venture. I'll be trying the student blogging on a small scale and see how it progresses before embarking on a much larger scale the following year.

Uhhg

Today was beautiful, sunny and not too warm; the perfect day to be out doing something, anything at all, and I spent it working in front of the computer. I'm working to get all caught up, and have worked myself to confusion. I'm trying to find an article on a product from an online digital photo magazine that reviews something that I can use in my Earth and Space Science classroom. So far, I'm not doing too well. Most things I've found just don't fit all the requirements. I'm tired and fed up with this part, might just skip it?
I started working on my second class and feel very overwhelmed there too. SO much to do, I'm getting confused and feel like I'll never get up to the point of being up to date! On top of that, I think I start my third class today. I haven't taken the time to check any of my email accounts, so I'm not sure, but I bet I'm behind in that one too...this is really starting to get to me...I can't remember ever feeling this bad about the things that I have to do. I guess I should have done things a little bit differently.
That's all the time I'm putting into posts today. Back to the grindstone!

Getting Caught Up

This past week has really put me behind. The last week of teaching usually makes for lots of work. I corrected 14,300 answers for the final this year. Most of that is behind me and I can start looking at taking care of school for my self. I hope to be all caught up by the end of next week. The Nk-12 class text is pretty well read. This is the first text that doesn't read like a text. I like it. DigPhoto has gone OK so far, I just wish that I had more time to dedicate to it. Hopefully that will improve now.
I'm looking forward to taking the time to find new shots and using my newfound skills to improve my classes next year. So far I've liked what I've seen. The chapter on the wikis got me thinking about how I could use them. I've started a file for my thoughts as I go through classes. It should help me to remember what I'd like to use new ideas for in my lessons. I leave today's post with a picture. It's one that turned out pretty well. It's also one of my favorite areas to hunt. I'm usually only here during the winter, with snow and ice everywhere, but for a class I ventured in to see what I could get a shot of. I'm happy that I did. Plus, on this little hike, I saw that there are number of native brook trout that live here. Sounds like an excuse to take day fishing the length of this little tributary. The surrounding area is steep enough and far enough from the general public that it should a solitary event...peace and quiet!

NK12 Approval

I received the initial approval for my club next year. In the MS each teach is to supervise a club that relates in some way to the curriculum. I'm looking at a club based on a newsletter that I put out for my students. The idea is to have students find the weird, latest and greatest in the science world and collaborate to make the newsletter. Meeting face to face once a month would not work to get the latest news out to the students, so the use of blogs only makes sense. I'll still have things to work out with the tech department, but I'm under the impression that all looks good. If all goes well with this small group there's talk of implementing the idea for my entire team and then all 8th grade...and from there the entire school. So, what I do now must be well thought out and demonstrate the possibilities while keeping guard for the possible misuses. I'm the "guinea pig" for this idea...maybe I'll get an official promotion to "certified test monkey" if all goes well? One can only hope :)

DP resizing

I tried PIXresizer yesteday. I'm pleased with the simple use and the fact that it allows for saving to a new folder, so the original and larger files can still be used later. It takes them down to a small size and doesn't cost too much in the detail department. A NICE FREE program!

DP - Shot choice and size

One of the most difficult parts of the digital photography course has been deciding which shots should make the cut and truly show what I've learned. Sometimes, looking too deep into things may make for poor choices. More than one picture has missed the cut due to minor deficiencies. These shots look really nice until I started to think about what I'd read.
On the same note, getting the pictures down to the required size can be rough too. This weekend, I talked photography with a friend who's pretty into the whole thing, with a $1500 camera, lightweight graphite tripod and countless other things. While looking through his recent shots, I noticed that the average picture size was between 55 and 60 megs each! Through this class, I'm supposed to get up to 10 shots sent at no more than 2 megs for the lot. That has posed its own problems. I have multiple versions of some as learned how to make the initial ones smaller without cropping them down. I really want to show the pictures without any form of editing, but have conceded and cropped a few. Getting a feeling for the setting before taking the picture should lead to less editing later.
During my car show, which my car failed to make, I spent time with a friend's girlfriend who happened to be an art/photography major. She was using a 1967 camera of some sort, which meant that each of her shots had to be well though out and perfect, as there would be no manipulation later. She helped me with a few things and suggested a few shots, but none fit the current assignment. For the first time in a long time, the rains held off and not water shots were available. I did get a few usable shots, some of which I though were interesting, that may make a later assignment, but I'll have to see what happens.
Still it comes down to choosing the pictures that best show the desired results. Sometimes it hurts to leave some of them out, but between the requirements and the size limits, something's got to give. I just hope I'm choosing pictures that show what they're supposed to!

DP-Rainbow

Today I found that taking a shot of a rainbow is quite difficult. I saw a rainbow over the rear of my house this evening after a rain, and thought that it would be a good opportunity for a pic or two. Well, after trying multiple settings and more shots than I'd like to admit to, the rainbow disappeared before I found the perfect shot. Each shot looks grainy, and unfocused. I would like to figure this out at some point and get a good rainbow shot. Not biggie right now, just a few minutes wasted and not much to show for it. I've wasted more time on less useful things I guess.

Net K-12 Reading

Today, as I read for one of my current classes, I saw the wide range of uses for blogging. While this school year is pretty well in the bag, no truly new things will be happening from this point on, next year looks to be an interesting one to say the least. I've wanted to have some extra form of interaction with my students for a while and exploit what so many students are using anyway.
I see that starting small will be beneficial and ease the transition to this form of activity and help to figure out the pitfalls, and deal with concerned parents. While I'd like to fully integrate this technology, I'm currently without a Language Arts member to my teaching team. It only makes sense to coordinate this style of activity with the LA department. So for next year I'm looking to incorporate blogging in a limited capacity.
I'll use the "club" time to explore the use of blogging. As of this year, each teacher is expected to facilitate some club during the school day. Once each month the middle school runs a slightly altered bell schedule, during which each class period is shortened by six minutes. Through out the 10 period day, that equals an hour of "club" time. This year I participated in running "Science Club" with the other 8th grade science teacher, which was OK, but didn't really seem to be the most thrilling for the kids.
Next year I was thinking about doing something that involve the team newsletter that I send home for my students. I'd like to get kids involved in researching the topics and assembling the final product. I see that the blogs could just be the ticket for simplifying this. Meeting only once in a month makes for little face to face time, but by utilizing blogs, I think I can make it work.
The tech coordinator will be the first road block, but if I can get through that for a small number of students...the following year I could use this experience to incorporate the use of blogs with all of my students. Using this with a small number will also make it easier to supervise and start to show the issues that I'll face with a large number of students.
I've actually considered making a MySpace page for my class. This idea came after I asked all of my online students to take five minutes from MySpace and instead check out some science pages. Since they use it anyway, why not post some good content in their world? It would also help with the additional interaction that I'm interested in. Whether or not I'll use this idea, I don't know yet.
I need to talk to my principal and get his thoughts. He's pretty darn progressive and is open to lots of ideas. He also seems to see more pitfalls and asks questions that need to be addressed to make things run smoothly. Whether it's blogging, MySpace, or just trying to get access to tech, his input has been valuable on so many other things that I'll start talking to him this coming week to get an idea of how much leeway I may have for this venture. I'll see where I end up. I would imagine that the club idea will be good start to pave the way for further excursions into cyber-space.

Thank You

A big thanks has to go out to my group members. I learned from each of you and appreciate the feedback, links, and ideas that were exchanged. Many of these I have put to use in some way or shared with colleagues. I feel that I have received great benefit from this interchange of ideas. Thanks for helping to make me better at what I do.
Good luck in future classes and and I look forward to "seeing" you all again sometime.

Field Testing

This week my students took the new PSSA state field test in science. While proctoring the exam, I saw many students puzzled, confused and some giving up. This was a very difficult test, with items from the 4th grade through 11th curricula...and my kids are only in 8th. I can only hope that the real deal will be a bit different. The field test is done and I'm sure well on its way to becoming the final edition, which is interesting since just this past week I took a short survey on my curriculum, and teaching methods, what references I use, whether I consult any of a number of standards, etc. The test is pretty much in the bag and we get to have input now. What an interesting concept.
The original test, which was canceled several years ago, had things like the weather on the 4th grade exam(according to the standards we were given), so our district jumped right on the ball and moved weather from 8th to 4th grade so the kids would have do better on the test. However, in 4th grade, many students are incapable of grasping some of the higher level ideas that come with the topic. If they can't put their hands on it, it tends to be tough. So with their limited abilities, they are supposed to remember what they really weren't educationally ready to learn and put it to use 4 years after they almost were capable of learning it. Doesn't sound a recipe for success. What I saw didn't really match with the state standards, and now, anchors that I've been using either. It makes me wonder if my school is headed in the right direction.
At any rate, this new test should shake things up a bit. The new test will sheppard schools into line. Maybe the entire idea of these standardized tests is to make it possible for students who move school to school to be able to pick up where they were in their old placements? My entire year was changed this year...it didn't go so well...maybe this new set of changes will be good. Who knows what topics I'll lose and gain. It should be another interesting year.
A school doing poorly out of the gate will make it easier to show improvement. :) I can't wait to see how this plays out.

Two Pages for International Education

While searching for this week's assigned area, I found these two pages that had good statistical data. This first page, National Clearing House for US-Japan Studies includes "A Day in the Life" type information and also has the statistics that are interesting. Looking at what their students experience is interesting. I found the Day in the Life of a Japanese Student particularly informative.
The second page was from the MEXT Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology. This had really nice graphs and charts showing everything from the percentages of students that are enrolled in various majors at college, how many kindergarten students go on and percentage of compulsory age students that are not enrolled and the reasons for not being enrolled. It's really a quite complete list. If you have the time, there are some numbers here that are surprising.

Data Driven Decisions

After I posted a comment today, I thought about some of the things my district is up to. We're really looking at the idea of data driving decisions. This makes sense, but when someone makes up their mind, the data can be misleading. Currently the high school is looking at crating a 9th grade academy to help students transition from the middle school. One of the main purposes is to decrease the number of tardies. Tardies are a big problem. Data has been linked to make the statement that tardies equal low grades. The validity of the statement is unscientific. The results are not accurate for several reasons. It's sort of like trying to find out what percentage of citizens in a given city have aids. If you stand in front of an aids clinic and ask how many people have the disease, your results will definitely be skewed and inaccurate. The idea that creating a 9th grade wing to decrease tardies goes against our findings in the middle school.
At each faculty meeting, our principal provides each teacher with the data on referrals to the office and the consequences doled out. Inevitably tardies to class tops the list. Even though we have each grade in their own wings, with each student required to walk an average of less than 70 feet in the three minutes between classes. It's not a problem with time, it's a problem with decisions. Some students are late to classes each day even though they walk only 10 feet from one room to another. They choose to go out of their way to visit friends. Yet someone in our administration deems it necessary to create this academy, failing to see that the data implies that this will not be the answer. Even though teachers were asked for input, the decision was made long before. Any comment or advice against the decision fell on deaf ears. The most remarkable thing to me was the answer to a question. One teacher asked if the academy would removed if it failed to make the desired improvements...the answer..."It's here to stay." Sooooo, in other words someone wants it and it really doesn't matter if improvements are made or if the data shows it's a poor choice.
As far as a correlation between tardies and grades...it only makes sense that the kids making the better decisions would have better grades. Those who don't care enough to get where they're going when they should get there are more likely to not care about their grades.
We've had our top two, long term top brass retire in the last couple of years. The direction of our new heads is a bit scary. It seems that dictation will be the method of interaction with the lowly peons doing the grunt work of educating while under the guise that the peon's ideas would even be considered. While this mess doesn't directly effect me at the middle school level, it does demonstrate that the open, available lines of communication may not be what they used to be. It's almost like someone is trying to create something that they'll be remembered for, or leaving a mark. We've lost a few people recently and several others are looking to get out. I may be losing the reasons why I fought so hard to get in...maybe I'll have to change my profile to reflect the new establishment. It's not as cooperative and pleasant as it was just a short time ago.

An Attempt

This past Thursday and Friday I tried my first mini-WebQuest with my students. I chose a short, well defined quest to experiment with the abilities and willingness of my students. After reserving the computer labs (during 3 classes one lab was available, for the other 2 I had to use another). I had a few problems with students not knowing their passwords(even after over 140 days of school) and some with students not being willing to read the recommended materials. The other little issue was getting students to type in the desired web page correctly. Many students wanted the answers to be blatant, not ones they had to read and think about.
Even with these few minor glitches, things seemed to go very well. The majority of the questions that were asked related directly to the topic and showed that students were interested in what they were learning. I talked with our librarian who is willing to add links to the library home page so students can simply click instead of typing, passwords are now written down and the necessary pages open to student access.
Of course, there are those students that really don't read much and get done way too fast, those that read and work at a steady pace and those that read very deliberately, taking much more time than anticipated. Bringing these three groups of student together was taken care of by having a large bank of pictures of the topic, which was eclipses. Not only did these available pictures help to keep some of the faster students on topic and busy, seeing the pictures spawned many discussions and questions.
Students talked to each other about what they were finding and were excited for the most part. My answering of the questions was limited, as each picture had a caption and some explanation. Most of the other questions were in the material that students were to have already read, so students were generally sent back to the reading for the answers. The questions that weren't in the reading, I took care of while referencing their worksheets to expand on a topic. All went pretty smoothly. Monday morning I intend to get student reactions/suggestions and see what they thought.
Thanks to this class, I've really officially tried my first quest. Next year I'll start early in the year and build the students' skills to more complex quests with fewer bounds...which will again change my year. At least I'm not stagnating at this point!

A Change Already?

Thanks to Mr. Harris, I have a new online bookmark program. While I'm still learning its use, it appears to be much more simple than OnlineBookmarkManager. I've been using OBM with success this week. It is a little time consuming to save pages, but the organization of these bookmarks was simple. I opted not to use the the "import" feature that works with Firefox so I could build a neat set of bookmarks. The ones on my computers lack that right now. The only real issue that I've run into is that my user name and email address show up on screen. One of the reasons I'd like to have this program is so that I can show my students things online, sometimes to answer a question that they may have. With me using the projector I'd certainly prefer that my email address not be visible. Other than that, I'm happy with the program.
Delicious is different. For starters it is an add-on for Firefox. After installing, there is a button on each page and tab that allows an easy addition to be made to the bookmarks, much like saving them to the computer. NICE! Even more importantly, my email address shows up no where. The kids will be able to see my user name, but I can live with that. I'll just have to make it something appropriate and something that I don't use anywhere else, in case they search it.
Thanks for the help Jimmy!

First Impressions

Well, this task was much easier than the last one. A simple "googling" and I found 4 different promising methods. MyBookmarks.com was the first to show up on this search engine. First impressions were OK, but then I read on and found that it did not support Firefox for importing my current bookmarks. After thinking about how disorganized my bookmarks currently are, this seemed rather insignificant. This could be my next try.
The second page I visited was Spurlnet. This one claimed to work with all the major web browsers and to work across all OS platforms. Even I can find myself working on a Mac from time to time. This one is promising, but their warning about features being limited due to excessive spam spooked me. I appreciate that they are honest and admit that they have an issue, but I'd rather avoid that one.
Thirdly, Murl.com with its initial "no support" and the idea that the person behind this page didn't work there, seemed a little too small and potentially short lived. Creating a long term storage for all of my bookmarks seems like something that's better suited for more than the whims of one person.
The last option for this evening was OnlineBookManager. This initial offering showed that they supported Firefox and also a plug-in for synchronizing different computers and lists. The registration procedure was pretty painless, with the only real personal information being an email address. The rest was basic. I was logged in and working through the program. Without reading directions, it was simple to get started organizing folders and sub-folders.
Naming folders is easy using the symbols in the "edit" mode making categorizing the pages a quick process. Adding new bookmarks is also simple and allows for not only your name for the page, but a description of what it is for later reference. So far this seems like a good way to go. Still there are features that I have not explored.
There is the option of making your bookmarks public, searching a data base of other people's bookmarks could both be future uses. The plug-in availability for synchronizing multiple computers and OBM online is another feature that I'd like to explore this week. I'll have to read there....I'd really hate to do something to lose the marks that I've been finding over the years.
This idea, like many others, has its potential in the education setting. Another tool that can be used to simplify student access to information. I can see folders set up by assignment or topic available to students at any time and in any place. This set up could save much time help to direct students toward helpful pages when searching for information.
More on OBM later. I still have to download the synchronizer and install it. I'll see what happens there.

Week 7 Goal

Last week, I failed to find the info I was looking for, but found other things that were useful. Not a waste by any means. All of this research has led me to my next goal. I need to find and learn a good online program to store and sort my bookmarks. During this class I've been using 3 different computers, one at home, and two at school. I've emailed pages to all of my email accounts, which isn't too bad, but I'd like to learn to have them all in one spot. I've heard it mentioned here in the different classes, but never looked into it. It was never necessary for me...until now.
When thinking about the uses for me, I started to think that storing these online could allow my students to visit a page that is designed with bookmarks organized to help them on the various topics we research in a school year. I know that I'm a bit behind here and hope to use these efficiently very soon.

Camtasia

Well, I've actually had Camtasia running! Yesterday, I unplugged my school computer from the network to avoid the detection of the new program and tried it out, installing from a USB drive. It's REALLY slow(even the "new" school computer is under the recommended system requirements), but I did get the bones of my presentation done. The screens I want are captured and the splits are done. It took just under two and half hours before I found that the program I wanted to teach about and Camtasia really did not like each other. My other program crashes any time Camtasia is used to do anything. After several crashes my intended lesson became a solution to last year's biggest issue when teaching guitar with my 8th graders. I'll now be doing a how to find, download and install Power Tab Editor, which was the start of my intended instructional plan. Last year my students had a really rough time doing this. Maybe this will help them.
My new problem is with the audio. When I try to record the directions to go with the visuals, I get garbled noise. I searched out assistance and spent much time today trying to get something to work. I know that I'm missing something simple, a stupid little thing I'm sure, but I'm stumped right now. Has any one else had trouble here? Has anyone else had their audio come out choppy, and compressed. A 10 second narration takes less than five when running in the program. What am I missing? Any help would be GREATLY appreciated.

Stymied on One, A Solution for Another

Today was a productive day over all. I figured out how to use the Camtasia and am working on a tutorial for a guitar program that I use in exploratory, set out my plans for the final paper and got a good start on planning out the next unit to be taught with my co-teacher in LS science. All in all, not a bad day!
On the other hand, I'm not having much luck finding data on the use of WebQuests. I had expected to find data showing the positives and benefits, countered by negatives and downfalls , with the pluses outnumbering the minuses. It's intuitive to think that WebQuests, with their interactive outcome based projects, would be a highly productive method to assist students in higher level thinking, problem solving and scientific method while integrating the various curricula in a single project. But, as we've read, what's seems obvious is sometimes wrong. I guess I failed on my quest so far this week.
Even though I failed on that, I did find some very good quests and ideas that could very well be part of my future classes, making me a better, more tech savvy teacher. Not to mention spreading the word of how useful new technology can be. It seems that there is always a use for more knowledge, and sometimes even someone that could use the knowledge that I have :)

Geologic Timeline

While looking for some activities in teaching glaciation, I came across this really great page that deals with the geologic time line. It addresses the same basics that I am to do, and makes it interactive. I had a student use it today to see what he thought...turns out it was "kinda fun" for him too. While it is a little of my topic of WebQuest data this week, it seemed like a good one to get out there. Enjoy.

Computer Envy

With the addition of the newest assignment, I've finally found myself at the point of "have to do something". I'm a bit behind, and need to work around the system requirements of camtasia. My school Tech Coordinator is unlikely to approve the program installation, my computer at home is incapable...interesting spot!

Web quest results

My research this week broke from the finding of ideas, to finding out just how successful these activities have been for others. After reviewing several articles, I found two that were most useful. This first page dealt more with the certification levels of teachers, but it did stress that higher order thinking and problem solving skills are built through a quality web quest. The notion that the web quests had to be well planned, thought through and supervised reminded me that even using this technology won't work without a good quality plan. They're not the kind of thing that you just throw together to make your own life easier.
My second page is a research project that had some very interesting pre-activity and post activity results. I found these to be the most interesting aspect. Some of the things I thought would be shown were not. In this writing, there is also talk about some of the problems encountered. The most significant dealing with the same group work issues that we have talked about here. The bottom line though, seems to point to the useful aspect of these quests and getting students involved in their own learning, while having something more to do.
Lastly, I'd like to say that I didn't find any concrete studies on how successful the WebQuests really were. I expected to find a study that showed the tremendous strides made by students that were regularly involved with this style of learning activity. I'll keep looking. Maybe I've just been looking in the wrong places this week.

Thanks for the help

Thank you all for your help this week. The web sites provided in responses to my blog have really hit the mark this week. I've emailed them to my school account so I can access them next week at school. I started by looking into Jimmy's idea of teaching students to work in groups. While I may not have the time necessary to get students through this, I think I have a method that might work.
In the middle school, there is a 25 minute period of each day where students are exposed to a variety of social skills. It's a wide range of activities that students take part in. I intend to speak with committee that sets up the curriculum to see whether this can instituted early in the next school year. Just about every teacher utilizes groups and has the same issues. By having the entire school subjected to this system, many of the issues can be resolved.
I also forwarded the pages of the AIE site and the others designed to help students with their future choices. I think my guidance department will be happy to see other things that will help them. Thanks again Jimmy.
I've also reviewed the math pages and think that they'll be useful as well. Science and math are difficult to separate. I intend to work more closely with the math teacher on my team and use these pages develop more useful cross-curricular activities. At times math can be less than exciting for students, especially with our district's use of one program. These new ideas(at least to me) can help to bring the idea of how useful math actually is to a broad range of students and hopefully, catch many of those students that bail out on math at young age.

AHA

After thinking about creating my own webquests, that meet exactly what I want, I remembered that several years ago I created something similar. I was working in alternative education and was in a stand alone building. We taught after regular school hours, which meant that there was no technical support for our iffy at best(at the time) internet connection. My project involved volcanoes, so I did the research and burned all the students would need to CD. We were totally off line, yet students could still visit what they needed to complete their projects. I even signed a couple of CD's out to students so they could work at home.
This involved many emails and a few phone calls to get approval from site creators. Most were more than willing to allow me to do this, as long as I left their names on their stuff. I guess that could be seen as a primitive version of a web quest?
Remembering the time required to do this...if I do, it wasn't really that bad and was quite successful. Being on CD-R did make it a problem to make changes, but today with better access that is more dependable, I think I'd like to give it a shot.

A Quest for Something

My research for a cross-curricular project utilizing the internet landed me squarely in the land of web quests. It didn't take long to find several pages dealing with these. A list of quests that I first found had several dead links, which was disappointing at first. I did find one particular quest that seemed promising. Space Station Phyve has a group of objectives that leads students through several scientific processes and is one that requires a rather high level of communication skills. Students will have to incorporate much English(or Language Arts in my school) knowledge in order to be successful in the project. Since science and math usually end up together, it's not surprising that there is a mathematical element to this. Art also plays a role in the final project, as does at least some in the Social Studies arena. Thinking about the socialization of human beings in closed quarters will most likely be new for students. This seems like a good final activity/project for students, culminating our unit on space and its exploration. Of course there are tweaks to made to suit the individual teacher, but this one seems very well thought out.
My only concerns about this sort of project revolve around access for students. There are several ways around the limited access that would have to be pursued. I would be exceptionally nice if a tech coordinator could be talked into giving each team of students access to their own network folder to store all their work. A place that each student can access, edit and create without having to exchange hard copies. That would make this a project that I could do with my entire team, grouping students from different classes instead of just using the same, limited number in a single class. That would also allow students to potentially pick their own team? I know this is risky some times, but it does end the problem of having one student do all the work and then getting calls complaining about the performance of the partners. This way they choose their fate, succeeding as a group or crashing to the ground with those they chose.
More research will follow, but this is my initial thought of webquests.

Software

I worked on finding software today. My goal was to find a tool to help me create my own web pages, without learning tons of technical jargon. I tried to use Netscape Composer for another class, and completed enough to get by, but didn't really like my result. I intend to create one for my students, and will build one for my second job. This seemed like a really good time to try one. I chose More Motion Web Express 3.3. CNET gave it 5 stars, but average users were in the 3 range. The initial file was a bit large, over 10 megs, but downloaded in zipped format pretty quickly. I'll install it this evening and start to see what it can do.
I had thought that photo editing would be nice and planned to try the GIMP, as I no longer have a workable Photoshop program. The problem is that I'm still running 98 on a computer that I built for myself way back in 99. GIMP requires a newer OS.
If the MMWE 3.3 turns out to be a toad, I'll try the Flick-R that was recommended by a family member. I guess sending a BUNCH of pictures to people at one time doesn't always go over so well! This one would also be useful to me, and could have a fun and purposeful use for my students.
I'll post more when I know more.

Using What I've Learned

While at work this weekend, it was brought to my attention that I had agreed to create a web site for the business. The original conversation was more than a year ago, but now it seems that the owner is serious and would like me to take care of it ASAP. Very timely huh? With my limited experience, I intend to do my best to create something useful, concise and one worth revisiting. I'll work on this during the week, but already have a list of things I'd like to do with it. Thanks to IC II I stand a better than average chance at creating something good! I'll most likely submit this page to the blog to get feedback before unveiling it to the power that be for my second job.

Two New Pages to View and Inform

This week, I spent some time with one of our LS teachers. She co-teaches LS science with me in 8th grade, but also co-teaches 6th grade LS science, 7the grade LS science and teaches her own social studies classes. Her mission was to create a short unit for teaching electricity. In doing so, we came across a couple of really nice pages.
This first one, Ipex, meets every need I can think of for being a good site. The information was well organized, well animated and very useful. It covers a wide range of interests and is very user friendly. No complaints from me at all!
This second page, 6th Grade Energy Unit, seemed quite well done too! I could use this next year with my unit on alternative energy. I have the kids compete to win the contract to power my new city. They have to tout the benefits of their given energy source, keeping the not so good parts for the fine print, and create a billboard. It's a fun project that has resulted in some interesting campaigns. One other important requirement is that they can't trash another source. It has to be kept positive...I learned that the first year I tried it (things got a little ugly between nuclear, and solar power groups!)
At any rate, this second page has good information and would be a good starting point for my kids to start their research. It's appearance is that of a quality site without being too overly dependent upon flashy, distracting content. I think they may have read the same articles we just did.

Solar Syatem Scales

I found this educational website, which involves solar system scales. It is one that isn't too flashy, doesn't have much to catch the eye, but does do what it should. Simply type in the diameter of the sun you'd like to have and then it calculates the sizes for the other solar system objects and their distances. If you don't have any idea of what size you'd like to start with, just guess and see if your choice is feasible. I'll most likely make use of this to alter my outdoor SS scale that I do. I start the students making scale planets with the earth having a 10cm radius and Jupiter having a 140cm(roughly) radius. This works pretty well, but my outdoor scale, to demonstrate the vast distances of space is a little lacking. We get through the inner planets and our moon OK but run out of room around Saturn. This site could be helpful.
It's definitely designed for a purpose or to meet a need. There's nothing fancy but it works. I guess that makes it qualify as a good web site. I think my 8th graders could also figure out how to use it, although most wouldn't fully grasp the output.

Educational Web Pages

I'm currently working my way through a site that has numerous pages listed by popularity. They are educational in nature and varied. Right now I'm doing a cursory overview and will narrow my search soon. I am surprised with some things, good and bad, and look at things a little differently after reading the second article for ICII. Just a couple of ideas can change everything! The current page is Sites for Teachers. I expect that at least one good/bad site will come from this database. For now, I'll continue to wade my way through to something I can use.

Student Interest

Student attention can get tough during the spring in NW PA. As we near the end of the year (49 more school days left), students can get lazy. If their grades are high enough, mathematically, they can shut down and drift through the remainder of the year. The fortunate part of my demanded curriculum change is that I'll be finishing the year out with space, followed by glaciation. Today, I read the students a news story about a Russian satellite falling to earth in a streaming ball of fire, "nearly" coming in contact with a jetliner. The discussion that ensued dragged the classes through the number of bits of "space junk" orbiting over their heads to the Taco Bell target for MIR space station. (for those not familiar, the MIR space station was the first Russian, long term habitation in space and set MANY records. It also brought the idea of living in space far into the future. When its usable life was over, it was abandoned and purposely set into a meteoric path with the earth. Taco Bell, seeing a great possibility for advertising, placed a huge bull's eye in the ocean near where MIR was supposed to land. Even those not interested in space were interested in whether or not the target would be hit. You see, if MIR hit the target, every human being on the face of the earth would receive a free taco.) The reentry of the space station was mundane and went pretty much as planned, missing the TB target. Talk about cheap publicity though!
Thinking of the number of things orbiting over your head can be scary and set you to thinking about what might be the next object to return to earth, but it makes for a good short writing exercise! So does the idea that the area where my students are currently living was once covered by a couple thousand feet of ice, and the house sized rocks that they see littering the landscape were once sitting happily in the Canadian countryside long before humans could have been held responsible for the warming of our planet. The earth is still rebounding from the tremendous heft of the ice sheets. Students can see the impacts of the ice and identify with what they see. It too is a good way to end the school year. I hope to keep the students engaged right up until the last day, learning about their world and preparing them for anything that they choose to do in the future. I believe that science, and the skills they learn will help them in any subject area they choose.

A good email

I received and email today that really made me think about how much I could do with computers in the classroom. It comes from a relatively local university and utilizes a Phoenix college. The idea is to get students involved in the MER(Mars Exploration Rovers) projects through NASA. These have survived 6 times as long as expected. I was quite interested in the idea, until I researched a bit(on their cite) and found that they were looking for high school students. My 8th graders would most likely be out of their league here, both mentally and computer skill wise). Even if I could get a couple of students that were interested and ahead of their grade, the next problem was the proximity to the "mentors", which would have to be visited twice each month. In my locale, it is a 40 minute drive one way just to get a network card...the universities listed would be on the order of vacation time! While there are solutions to this issue, the final straw that broke the proverbial camel's back was the requirement of having the school's tech department being cooperative and available to help sort out issues. Currently, I'm willing to fight through what I have to, but am entirely fed up with attempting to get any sort of help from my tech guy.
If you or someone you know is near a major university(listed on the web page) and have a good tech department, check out Phoenix Mars Mission to see what is offered. The requirements aren't that bad and really seem intended to bring the word of what the MERs are doing to the general public. It would also be a great PR exercise! If you have a couple of space oriented students that are well spoken and willing to commit some time to research and discussions, this just might be the place for you. I am and sadly, unable to utilize such a program.
I have used the MER animations to instigate discussions with my students and to get debates started about the money spent on these indulgences. Students do a very good job of discussing the benefits and consequences of such quests. Even as young people, most seem to see at least some benefit to exploring the solar system and the worlds beyond. Many are interested in visiting other planets or moons tehmselves. The spirit of adventure lives on......even though so many will spend their evening in front of MySpace trying to make themselves look cool, or tough or important and competing to see who can get the most "friends". At least there is hope that some will continue to question the established truths and work to forge the future. Where would we be if Galileo hadn't pointed his newfound telescope to the heavens and noted that there were moons orbiting Jupiter, which supported a Copernican(and heretical) view of the solar system supporting the heliocentric view. Where would we be without free thinkers, suffering from constraints of one establishment or another, who supported unpopular views that had scientific study behind them? Being involved with this program would benefit students and bring their education to a point of realism unmatched in regular classes. Take the time to send the link to someone that may benefit if you cannot. Thanks

Dropout Rates

I was reading the post regarding the decrease in funding for certain programs in the blog from Instructional Computing II, just after I read an article on "The High Cost of High School Dropouts" in the NEA's magazine. This 'President's Viewpoint' shows that he feels the dropout rates will threaten the nation's future and mentions a 12 step process to reduce these rates. In this article, Reg Weaver compares the dropout crisis to the 9/11 attacks as a threat to our democracy. No mention of funding, but racial demographics and dropout rates were cited. More stuff that is without a funding base?
Having a student in school that doesn't want to be there is rough at any age, but the older they get the harder it is. Keeping the student engaged is key. Keeping a non-college bound student interested in the education is tough, but Mr. Weaver states that the NEA will call for more emphasis on vocational and technical training, both of which require more funding or more business partnering. Is this the answer? I don't know, but I'll have to wait and see how the funding and organization stack up.

Podcasts

I just started to read about the idea of podcasts in schools. I received an offer from a company offering a $40 starter kit. This is an idea that I have heard of but never explored. I started my search on Google and found Wikipedia's information useful, to better understand what they are(lots of technical stuff). The first page I visited was Podcasts Increasing in Popularity, which suggested that individuals would increasingly make use of this technology and students would benefit as well. But had yet to find what I was really looking for. I was looking for a "How to..." or a program that would show me what the uses were and what pitfalls there were. When I looked further I found that podcasts appear to be for audio. I found some information on About: radio, but was still disappointed in the in the audio end of things...my students hear me enough, would they really like to get online and listen to me at home? What would or COULD they do with my voice, using the editing technologies out there? Right now, I'm not interested in trying one of these casts, but may change my mind if someone can show me what I can do with one...we'll see what happens I guess.
I did find a page that seems pretty good at the "How to" stuff at http://www.how-to-podcast-tutorial.com/00-podcast-tutorial-four-ps.htm
It seems promising. There must be good uses that I'm just not seeing yet.

Technology Coordinator

I'm wondering what your definition of "Technology Coordinator" is? I have my idea, but in my district, I'm apparently wrong. I've introduced my colleagues to so many new things (thanks in large part to the UF classes I've taken), but my coordinator seems more like a repairman that gets mad when you have a question, even though you follow the new procedure for stating the question, emailing it to the proper location and waiting patiently for days to get a reply, which usually shows no personality or care for you as a person. Is this typical, or am I just SOL with who I have? Check out my post on my other blog Hoppy's Melon to see a little of what I deal with at work as I try to make more use of new technology. Sometimes it's just so difficult to make basic use of computers at my school.

Good Reactions

While I've done no research today, I did spend quite a bit of time dealing with the interactive PowerPoint. I showed a teacher that co-teaches the learning support science with me a few things that I thought we should try with this new idea (at least new to me). She was very impressed, so we spent a while going through what we could do with it. As so frequently happens after school, when you have things to do, another teacher showed up. Another one needed to learn how to do this...that took up most of the time I'd set aside for the research today, but did seem worth while. I'll see what my co-teacher thinks of tonight when she stops in to plan tomorrow.
At least I've already hit one new thing that I'll definitely use and don't need enormous quantities of new equipment to put to use. That's a pretty good success ratio! It's also one that can grow in its uses as the tech in my building catches up.

Animations to Go

While searching this evening, I discovered some more cool stuff for science animations. Even more importantly, I figured out how to get around needing the network for some of them. My school's network is continually slowing down, going down etc...making the use of video/animation from the network a shaky thing. I found that most of the stuff from NASA can be saved to any where you'd like by just using Mozilla! That little tid-bit makes me sooooo happy as I start into the planets and go a little nuts showing what the MERs are doing, and how they came to be.
Back to the new animation page. Some of these would make good starter ideas to get kids thinking and more importantly to me, questioning. Of course some are lacking, while others are impressive. The Cassini animation was interesting as I try to stress how huge things are in space and how long it takes to get anywhere outside our orbit. ESA has done much for NASA. They're animations of the MERs are impressive and since they're done for NASA, spending your tax dollars, it's free to be used by any teachers...as long as they receive credit. Pretty simple there.
On top of that, I also found that Hubble Space Telescope(HST) has hundreds of thousands of pictures it's taken since it's launch in 1990. Also free to use. NASA and it's more up to date portion called Jet Propulsion Lab(JPL) have some great things out there that can be used to supplement instruction, generate interest and get kids thinking. Nothing I've seen so far is anything that should usurp the teaching process, but can be used to get kids involved.
Also, I've found two freeware programs that convert and save videos and animations to your computer...I'm just a little hesitant linking to them as the seem to be in the gray area of legality. I'll do some more research and see where they stand. For now I'll just stick to the safe bets at NASA and Mozilla.

First Interactive PowerPoint

Well the first interactive PowerPoint is FINALLY in the bag! I became quite a bit more cumbersome once I started testing it to see what kids could do to get around the basic idea. I ordered things to keep on task. I think it came out pretty good, but I'm unsure how to make it stand alone...never tried it. That will be my main mission for this PM. If you have any ideas feels free to help :)

Interactive PowerPiont

Today I looked at the interactive PowerPoint. I'm really amazed at what it has to offer...before this I had no idea that this was possible. The new avenues are endless! With my school becoming more and more involved in technology, I see PP's being hyperlinked from our school page for students to review for exams, get help for assignments and for parents to see what their students are learning. This seems like a technology that I could really use and one that will help make students more involved in their own learning.
Most teachers seem to hand out some form of review for tests/finals...imagine that being interactive and full of just the things you'd like to have the students look at! I guess it's time to learn how to create these myself...more on that later.

Impact Calculator

I recently found this page http://www.lpl.arizona.edu/impacteffects/, which I'm going to use next week to help finish my current lab. Students are calculating the orbits of a few NEO(near earth objects) and plotting them with the orbit of the our home planet in order to determine whether these objects pose an immediate threat. Other important ideas are discovered here too, but the addition of a writing piece that involves the potential consequences of a chance meeting with a given object should really bring home the point. Students can use this page to run simulated impacts and adjust the numbers to match their asteroids. Even though this does not have the high impact graphics or the entertaining aspects of other pages, this is a good looking, simple to use resource that has a very good purpose. It's also something that I find interesting...just plug in a few things and see what will happen when a rather small (1000m) object lands at 100 miles from your house, then try one that's a bit larger(say 10 miles) and have it land 100 miles away. This could also lead to another creative writing where students put themselves at a given distance from the impact and describe what they see, what happens and how their "normal" lives are interrupted/changed....so many possibilities!

A research topic

I believe that today, I have chosen to research how the internet/technology can be used to teach Earth and Space Science. What methods are out there that I've missed, or possibly misused? What can I do to improve what my students and I do each year, with limited technology...with unlimited technology? Hope this is useful quest :)

A New Interest

One day at home on the computer and I've already found myself a new interest. With so many of students online, the idea of a group blog seems like a fun thing to try. I have to check on some things and learn more about it myself, but this could something that will help me to help my students...more on that when I know more.

An Intro

Welcome EME 5404! This is blog number two for me...in the other one I have a pretty good record of where I've been mentally over the course of the last year or so. Feel free to check that out at http://spring06eme5207.blogspot.com/. Some of the entries are a bit long, so I'm working on that aspect.
Throughout the instructional computing II class, I would like to look into the facilitation and expansion technology into the classroom. I would really like to know about the ideas and findings involved in the use of varying strategies in the science curriculum. What's out there? What has been tried? How did it work? It would be interesting to see how the ideas can be gathered and combined to try other things.
This is my initial thought. I'll see how it stands up...too broad? too refined? Maybe in the wrong direction? We'll see soon.
There is also some interest in how sims are used for education. I found a space station sim that seems like it would be a great idea for use in my space/astronomy sections...just have to map it to approved curricula and state standards.