Final Reflection

Technology Plan for Greenwood High School 2011-2013

The technology plan developed by Noemi, Ancizar and myself.

Emerging Issues

Cell phone; instructional tool OR annoying communicating device???

Without a doubt, cell phones can cause serious disruption in the classroom. From urgent text messages flying across the room to lessons interrupted by rap-song ringtones, these gadgets are responsible for nationwide frustration among educators. And, in extreme cases, students have used their cell phones to cheat on tests and harass other students, even during class time. While such disturbances are certainly a nuisance in school, not all teachers see cell phones as the enemy. In fact, for some, they’ve become a teaching solution
;Why and how

Smart phones now have hundreds of applications meant to educate kids — from graphic calculators to animation programs that teach spelling and phonics.


   In the article Cell phones have much potential in classrooms  there was this middle school teacher who did not have enough calculators for those testing, and he allowed them to use their cell phones and from then on he started incorporating it in his lessons. the students actually had ideas in taking pictures of the assignment and sending it to the students who are absent.

this video also shows the use of cell phone in classroom.



All this is good but then schools have policies and procedures that have to be followed.For some institutions this may be a decision of the school board. Not to say that you are to sit and be passive Get proactive,as an administator ,present a plan to the board , showing research data ,of course show how the diciplinary concerns will be handled. Request a pilot pilot program to start with.

Educators: Formal PD or Self Taught

In will robinson's blog he poses a very interesting question " Should the URGENCY be all about the teachers right now " and this was because of the frenzy in getting kids urgently ready with the 21st century skills. can this be if the educatrors are not capable of teaching the skills.
One thing I know for sure is that these Net gen learners are by far ahead of some educators in the use of these skills because of the time spent with technology. As educators this should make the job easier ; instead of teaching how to use the goal is now enhancing the lesson .




That brings me to the second point, how do educators learn these tools to use then to enhance the lessons?
Some have said that faculty development is a critical component of a technology plan.  Others have said that in this web application world, teachers should not need formal development, they can pick up the tools themselves - just as their students are doing. 

Well I do think a bit of both is good, like we did in this course that was interesting and as educators we should not wait to be taught, but should be able to take the initiative to learn on our own, especially when there are tutorials on  how to use of course there are some learners who can handle this.
However some tutorials are not easy to follow and one could benefit from some guidance available in a formal professional development . This is what Iwould implement, Iwould select a few tools and have mandatory formal training on those, of which I would like to see incorporated in the lesson.

Horizon Report

I liked this because it actually shows the reason for the cell phones ON or OFF. The arguments are fairly equal. now this brings me to the Horizon Report which speaks to mobile computing as a near projection and for some reason this pops out at me.
Now we know of the  capabilities of cell phones. As an educator you are presenting a topic, which involves internet access. Here is one student on his/her phone . Would you consider it distracting?
Maybe for some from the old school, and I reflect on a  particular course requirement (laptop) , maybe not that could be debatable.( Certainly can be acceptable with more mature students and even those will be distracted sometimes)

With the NO CELL phone policy , I do not see this happening in the near future in my school district.

If cell phones were to be allowed and used in lessons, there are going to be alot to consider
1) is it the school that is going to purchase these as a learning tool ?  ( additional resources that is limited or possibly grant) 

As educators, we have to make the best decisions depending on who our students are we need to assess  and the decide.
As consumers do you buy everything advertised?
There are other tools that can be used that will have technology integrated and learning fun and of course differentiation.

This is an interesting  site    Classroom 2.0, it definately can play a part in keeping schools current in technology. It provides training in various web 2.0 tool and has forums that teachers could use to their benefit.

School Boards Role

Basically my school district has the elements of the 5 components in place , serving a district where more than seventy percent of the students are on free and reduced lunch.  My high school had a grant where each student in grades 9, 10 and 11 were assigned were given a laptop to use for the school year and return and the end of the year.
However this program has been changed to giving the teachers in the core area a classroom set to use, and the reason for this is that it was too costly to maintain and service when the students had them.



As for my district we have just elected new members to the board, will the just go along with decisions or will they have a greater impact that I am not sure of.
The best role for them to take is make a decision that is in the best interest of the students that is increase students' performance and achievement. School Boards should ensure that technology is integrated into instruction used by all students and staff as an integral part of school improvement and student success.

How much should internet be controlled?

 CIPA (Child Internet Protection Act)

Recommendations
Have students and parents sign internet agreement, and ensure teachers check before allowing the kids to use the internet.
Have a policy in place in accidentally inappropriate material was viewed
Have disciplinary actions for those who violates their intenet use terms and conditions.

Is it Slander or Free Speech?

Cyberbullying

.

According to Wikpedia , bullying is  a form of abuse.

The definition and explanation was placed in wordle and notice that the word, power stands out , that is what is being sought by the one who commits the act of bullying.

  Cyber bullying is bullying through email, instant messaging (IMing), chat room exchanges, Web site posts, or digital messages or images send to a cellular phone or personal digital assistant (PDA). Similar to traditional bullying, involves an imbalance of power, aggression, and a negative action that is often repeated.

Statistics show that 23 percent of students in grades 4-6 had been bullied "several times" or more; 20 percent had bullied others (1998 study of 6,500 students in rural South Carolina  and more recent was an incident in  Item dated October 17,2010  involving my school district where one family has filed a lawsuit against Sumter School District 2, saying the school officials failed to protect their child. The  recently filed lawsuit against Sumter 2 lists some harassment on Facebook, Superintendent Frank Baker and other school officials said they have yet to see a lot of cyber bullying in the area. It is covered in most of the schools' policies, though.

Roles of teachers and administrators with regards to cyberbullying

If there is nothing in place  then,

• The school develops an environment of fear and disrespect
• Students have difficulty learning
• Students feel insecure
• Students dislike school
• Students perceive that teachers and staff have little control and don't care about them

There is nothing in the sumter 2 internet agreement  that speaks directly to cyberbullying.School's internet policy  .  As for my school,  cyberbullying would be an act of improper use of internet which is a category 2 offense, which there are consequences.
The South carolina code  speaks to bullying and cyber bullying
SECTION 59‑63‑120. Definitions.

As used in this article:

(1) “Harassment, intimidation, or bullying” means a gesture, an electronic communication, or a written, verbal, physical, or sexual act that is reasonably perceived to have the effect of:

(a) harming a student physically or emotionally or damaging a student’s property, or placing a student in reasonable fear of personal harm or property damage;  or .......

and

Section59-63-140 requires that schools have a policy in place to deal with this.

What the reports say?

 

What can we do ??
Educate children
Teach them to tell a trusted adult when this happen
Provide support
Have consequences for the bully so that it is clear this wil not be tolorated

References
http://www.asdk12.org/MiddleLink/AVB/bully_topics/EducatorsGuide_Cyberbullying.pdf

http://www.scstatehouse.gov/code/titl59.htm

http://www.olweus.org/public/bullying.page

http://www.olweus.org/public/cyber_bullying.page

Module1: Reflection on Web 2.0

Module1- Web2.0
It is amazing how I was a novice to many of the web 2.0 tools, something a simple as blogging was far from  my desire until this course. Interestingly this is  a great learning experience for us and also to enlighten us how to use this tool effectively.

In developing my tutorial on wordle  it was great after the hitches at first. It was interesting how even though I had been exposed to wordle I had not actually used it but then learning all about it and also learning to use jing which is absolutely fabulous. At first I was sceptical and was of the opinion that this should have been a face to face course where we are actually taken into a lab and showed how to use certain tools.
But I will retract on that; one of my most satisfying moments was actually when I did the first recording and playback after many failed trials.
I think we all did a very good job on the tutorials

Well I used photostory thus far, thanks to Janet for her tutorial , hope to incorporate as much as possible. Well I spoke with my principal today on sharing my tutorial with my faculty and she is all for that.

Credit for picture
lingeyhouseprimary.org

Wordle tutorial

This is my tutorial on Wordle, how to create a wordle document and embed it in a blog.
What is Wordle?



Credits to Jonathan Feinberg  who created wordle. For more information, check out FAQ

Education Blogs

                    

  Two other blogs that caught my attention are :
1) Joanne Jacobs
Joanne is my guide to finding interesting education stories all over the web.  She posts daily, sometimes several times a day, but her posts are usually brief summaries with links to other sources and the topics are always interesting.  For example,she directed me to New York Times article    involving  nine- and 10-year-old students, the fittest children, as measured by a treadmill test, performed best on cognitive challenges; MRIs showed “significantly larger basal ganglia, a key part of the brain that aids in maintaining attention and executive control. The results Since both groups of children had similar socioeconomic backgrounds, body mass index and other variables, the researchers concluded that being fit had enlarged that portion of their brains.

2) So You Want To Teach?
Who doesn't love a good list?  This blog is full of them, and they are truly useful.  Some examples are :
Top 5(Plus 14) character Traits of Superior Teachers,
 5 Habits of Highly Effective Teacher and 9 Reasons to Quit Teaching (and 10 Reasons to Stick).
3)
 These are some of the pros and cons reading education blogs.
the pros

Inexpensive: reading a blog doesn't cost anything except time

Personal view points can enhance the reading experience

Can choose which blogs to read, and even which of the messages you can read

Very quick response, can learn about news within hours or minutes of first announcement

The cons

Slightly difficult to set up (although it is getting easier)

Personal view points can cloud the issues

Very inconsistent, even on the best of blogs

Usually don't get the whole story

That's all the time you've spent reading news blogs

 The document 7 things you should know about......RSS , why it is significant is  because it can filter and organize the vast amount of information on the web and its downside is that not all content is appropriate for RSS such as a published article that is not going to change

Blogging is pretty cool, once you get use to it, definitey something  I will experiment with in the near future. My class has a set of laptops, my school is enforcing writing across all subjects and this could be one way to get my (N-Gen)students to do reflective writing  in mathematics.

Reflection on Vicki's post

What do you think ? The teacher is always right? Teacher knows  everything.
Do you think your N- Gen students believe that?
Net Generation  also known as Net Gen is defined by wikipedia, as the  generation that is born  1980s and 90s  and  is generally marked by an increased use and familiarity with communications, media, and digital technologies.

Vicki Davis post use of the of this classroom was that, definitely she had a stong understanding of her N-Gen students as she was also participating in the same learning fields, one could see her twitter feeds and her blobs.
One of the things that was interesting was the was she gave her students a choice to turn in their differentiated assessment (letting them turn in a video, blog post, or photo w/ commentary) which could be beneficial to students ;some schools are now pushing for this differentiated assessment especially for special education students .Definitely she has indicated that it is challenging  at times .

It was interesting how the school had a strict cell phone policy, with the exeption of her room but as she said "My headmaster is so visionary! ". 
As Marbito and Medley outlined in  http://www.innovateonline.info/index.php?view=article&id=510
there are two factors that will drive the adoption of a pedagogy that can access  that accesses the strengths of the N-Gen learning styles.
1) Faculty members need need to spend time in the leaning space of the N-Gen learners to develop and understading of how the N-Gen literacies and learning styles develop, which is what Vicki did.
2)Such a classroom cannot be constucted unless there is tremendous amount of institutional support.
When are schools ever going to stop blocking these sites.

This  article Why Professor Johnny can't read had me thinking, I am sure there is at least one faculty member who never uses any of the Web 2. tools and they are educating N-Gen students. This is what they expect, I give it  you the information  , you store it, then you give it back to me. The majority of these N-Gen students conduct there researches using technology not print like their lecturers/professors.I think as educators we are afraid  to experiment and explore as we become embarass to know that our students know more than us in the technology field.
But if we endorse the the fact that learning is continuous , why not learn from these prosumers(N- Gen) how to better utilize these tools so as to cater to their virtual learning style.

All the interactive Sites for math lessons

So I had my training today, so now my kids will have their laptops.
Please leave suggestions for interactive math sites- Algebra 1, so I can explore
I appreciate all your help
Thanks.

Reflection on the PLE Video

This is just sharing my review on the PLE video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YEls3tq5wIY 
In my opinion this is a typical 12 year old  just moving with technological developments in this age. Most definitely this would be something that I would welcome in my class as I strongly believe that students should be versatile and be prepared for the global market. I was excited with the fact that she took responsibilty of her learning and was even doing additional research. Something I would love to see all my students do.

However there is concern about the people she is communicating with. Is she really communicating with a professor ? What guarantees that ? finally too much freedom can be very distracting.

She has definitely utilised Web 2.0 as defined in wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_2.0
as web applications that facilitates interactive information sharing

 as she has has done video conferencing , and just the idea of social networking and being able to have the work check by someone in another country.

This definitely would have students interested. But for my school these social netwoking sites are blocked.

So where do we go from here?
 

Don't Stop Believing

The theme for my school this academic year is 'Don't Stop Believing"and I do believe everybody can learn.