Taming the Wild Data points of life.

This week I had to ask my brilliant children for help. I remember loving the lab work in college but hating the calculations especially determining standard deviation. I even whined to my son and daughter when they told me I had to calculate the cumulative differences between the data and the mean in a field with only 7 entries. They tried to console me and tell me that if I entered the data into the graphics calculator and did some logical and simple (Magical Mystical digital manipulations) calculations it would all become clear and I could reach a transcendent level of data understanding. Of course I didn't. I take it on faith that the statistical manipulations are useful and I have seen some evidence though the clarity of the moment quickly fades into a fog of confusion. I know with time and training I can tame the wild numbers and learn to ride this wave of data, but I have to tell you I fear that this horse truly hates me.

Week 5 0535

I have yet to use twitter in a very productive manner though I did share an interesting web source with follower this week MIT Course info. I am beginning to see how microblogging can be used professionally as a information and network tool. I would not have thought miroblogging to be or any interest or benefit to me professionally. I still keep forgetting to use twitter (checking now that I thought of it). I had thought of it entirely as a social networking tool for those wanting to stay in touch with friends. I can see how it can be used as a tool for networking with individuals on a professional level and a group interest level.

Social bookmarking has been the most helpful tool I have begun to use. I use it on my computers and a click of a button on my tool bar brings me to my Course management system, my school email etc. I can have my office anywhere I can hook up to the internet.

Last week I started a Wiki designed to be a warehouse of ideas and information for the start of a online student resource for my online science classes. I really like the ease of use and the idea of our science department collaborating to build these courses using this tool. My fellow teachers have really not added much to the wiki as of yet but I hope that once they explore the application a bit it will encourage them to contribute.

Ok, I must apologize for th3e lateness of this blog. I have been busy over the last 4-days caring for my elderly Mother. Serious stuff but she is doing fine at the moment. With that uplifting introduction let me say that I was able to do many things related to what we are discussing in the section or our class.
As my mother spent the day on Thursday getting a stress test I sat in the waiting room working. I logged on using a guest password form the secretary and was able to access my iQ Academy course management system and was able to grade for hours and hours (still not caught up). I was also able to access my iQ Academy online email application so I could answer parents and assist students. I easily managed all these application using the delicious online bookmarking application I am using.
I actually did forget that I had the convenience of Twitter as well. This would have come in handy as my wolfmail account would not function due to password ageism regulations. Though in defense I did try to change before the deadline but every time I logged into the change password application it kicked me to the wrong page and so I sent email to pc support which went unanswered even though they probably would have sent the message to the email I could not access.
But Props go out to Louis who once again saved the day to day with his helpful Twitter reply. (tl3johnson) I also want to add that the young man who answered the help desk number and walked through the fix was very helpful.
So hurried and busy as usual, the tools we are using do help me in a real way.

3rd blog for 0535

This week I set up a flickr account, I had received photos from my brother on his account before and searched for pictures for projects in the past. I will be adding some picture of the basement project now that I have electrical set up and dry wall on the inside looks like a room.

I also set up a Google reader account and added a couple of feeds to it. I added classmate’s blogs as well. It looks like it will be a useful tool once I have used it for a while.

That reminds me I also set up a twitter account and never remember to tweet or follow any one but Louis.

So I will be going there next and seeing what he has been up to as well as looking to add folks to follow and RSS feeds to feed upon.

I checked out Wikibooks as our science department is in the middle of planning to create some open source information to provide to our online science students. We are in the research and discussion stage though I really think that a creating our own wiki resource is a great option.


So this week was very relevant to one of our science department goals is for this year. We have a goal to explore creating some open source materials for our online course. We have some classes that use text books and others that use the online information provided by our partner. The main issue with the information provided is that it is not as comprehensive as we would like and is currently supplied in a very rigid structure. Assignments and activities are inbeded into the online source. Which makes it very difficult to adjust or modify the curriculum as we would wish.

It looks to me like we can start to collaborate on producing such an online source by using a wiki. I checked out the online text book project at Wikibooks which is a web wide effort to do the same. I specifically looked at the biology section and found that it was started but just barely. There are other such movements that we are looking into as well as just creating our own information as well.

As a department we have all agreed philosophically that the information should be open source and available to all. This does bring up the interesting fact that with the open enrollment system we could very well be contributing to the success of other online schools in the near future, who under the current system are in direct competition for our potential students. With the current capped enrollment system in place this could be potentially fatal to our endeavor.

Week 1 Ced 0535 Opportunity Lost?

I found the bookBlogs Wikis, Podcasts and other powerful tools for classrooms to be a very exciting read. I really got caught up in looking forward to the possibilities described in the read/write web. We have used some of those tools in this class effectively. My first thought was how difficult incorporating these tools into a face to face class would be and then how difficult it would be to incorporate these tools in to the rigid system we have in my online environment. Richardson's advice to start by using the web tools to learn about and develop your own passion seems to be great advice. it is nice that we have the added advantage to explore them in our grad class but I also feel that the tools will be most useful to me professionally in the context of organizing, building and communicating online materials with my science department. We have established a delicious group were we share bookmarked web pages. We also cooperatively work on projects using Google docs.



It is interesting how different districts are reacting to the changes taking place. The school district of Arrowhead moved this year to allow the students to use their cell phones throughout the school day and some teachers have encouraged their use in class. My son downloaded a Spanish English Dictionary on to his cell phone for use in class. While the school district of Waukesha has banned teacher participation in online social networks such as face book and twitter and blogs. What are your thoughts on this topic?


Students are currently learning how to interact in these environment on there own, with very little guidance. Wouldn't it be beneficial to give students experience in using these tools productively? Of course the fear of their misuse can out way the opportunities . Information security and privacy issues is one area that we need to address. Sooner better than later as it seems opportunities are being lost.

Week 5

I decided to create my Pecha Kucha on the 5-2 monster defense that I have coached and played in during high school. I had countless documents that I had put together over the years that I had used as informational packets for my assistant coaches and as a way of developing game plans. It was very enjoyable going through the schemes and developing a basic presentation. I found the activity to be very time consuming and the timing on the voice thread to be an obstacle. It would only start counting down the 20 seconds for each slide after you finished the voice over. So I had to time my speaking to fit in a 19 second window. I look forward to seeing how everyone did, though I am sure Kara will wreck the curve.

In conclusion is was interesting to use the rubric for the rubric assignment.

CYA,

Terry

Lesson 4

As exciting as the lesson we are learning are I am experiencing some very mixed emotions. I think we are learning some useful and engaging tools which would work very well to both deliver knowledge and engagement to my online students but the structure of my work is slowly changing from an online educational facilitator to a grading monkey.

We seem to be moving away from control over content, curriculum and delivery to that of a grader of work. This is very depressing when one stops to consider the incredible possibilities that are being developed an exist right now.

I really enjoyed the Animoto production and I can see the benefit of using voice threads in my online teaching. Even though I did spend an extraordinary amount of time on the work over the last six weeks I have fallen behind.

I am also a bit discouraged that my blog has not generated much feed back as I have endeavored to cover topics that I would like to know my classmates opinions on.

Though no reflection I have been late in posting the last view blogs and everyone is quite busy. So to sum up. Busy, enjoying learning the new tools, depressed about not being able to use them in my class, excited I got to produce the animoto for my vacation just love it.

Week 3 blog,

Though I must confess this is week 4, even so it is late in week 4 and with that I should be working on my online class Unit 3 rewrite as the deadline for getting those revision in is approaching quickly. I have continued to take pictures every day but have come to the conclusion that I have difficulty with keeping to a daily schedule. As I said though I have consistently taken pictures each day just as I have consistently worked out each day I have not loaded the pictures daily or logged my work out time on the fitness programs website even though they would reward me with several hundred dollars for doing so at the end of the year.

Is this just a classic case of procrastination? This is not a helpful strategy but nonetheless it persists. It usually does not originate from laziness as I illustrate by the fact that I do work out each day and that I have completed the reading and viewed the provided and recommended resources. With that said.

I have spent two weeks simplifying my presentations for my online classes and I believe it has been helpful. I think the presentations are less hurried and more targeted, which helps us both. The difficulty with this approach is that I do spend more time producing a quality presentation and even more time producing a supportive informational handout. Though much more time consuming it is also very beneficial to my students. I have in the past created supportive resources such as tutorial power points, and suggested websites. Now I am creating a document for each section that has all this information in one location.

In fact I think it will also help our science department. There currently is a gap that is perceived by the instructors to be growing between our educational partner and the districts iQ staff. In the past the curriculum being provided was weak and obviously insufficient for our needs. The science department (and others as well) was united in the vision of online learning to include differentiated learning and differentiated assessment and we thought that the online environment was uniquely qualified to deliver this flexibility.

As so the science department created and supported our own curriculum. The rub came this year when our partner decided to up their game and produced a new line of curriculum. This was predicted to be a good thing a year ago when we discussed with them what our vision for the curriculum was. This included many of the applications and educational tools we have been discussing in this class. The disappointment came in the form of a very inflexible and poor quality curriculum that we were forced to actually use. They would no-longer load our saved courses that we had previously produced. .Which brings us to this school year. Well actually we have to go back to January when they had us review the new course and let them know if we wished to use the new course or continue to use our created course work. We communicated to them that there were many difficulties with using their curriculum and would be using our own. Now flash to 4 days four days before school starts. We were told a decision was made to go with only the new courses. To be far when 4 days prior to the beginning of the school year they loaded their version of biology and we again notified them that the curriculum had severe problems with the content they agreed to have us (me) work with their developers to correct the major issues. The have been very helpful in making the changes I have suggested and we continue to assist them in producing a workable course.

To complete the thought and bring this back to the beginning, I believe by producing the supportive material handouts or links we can build a online open source resource for our students that can complement and fill in the curriculum while giving us flexibility and the ability to insert our curriculum into the provided curriculum. We can remove portion we do not wish to use and supplement with our own as is the case with a face to face teacher.

More on this next week, ok this weekend.

Weeek 2 digital story telling

This week I wrote specifically about being creative, and then about how non-creative I am with my presentations. I create a presentation for each of my online classes once a week. That is roughly 80 presentation a semester. At this point my process has been to take last years power point look it over and add to it. Looking back this process has created some long boring and confusing presentations. I am very excited about taking a new and more creative approach to the process of creating my presentations. For one thing I have always felt compelled to include quite a bit of detail to my presentation as many of my students would be downloading the power point and using it a their main information source. This meant that I overloaded my in person presentation. Now I will create detailed handouts with references and links included for my students to access online. I will then attempt to create interesting interactive experiences for my synchrounous presentations. This will be better for my students and more fun for me as well. I can't wait to start doodling on those legal pads.

Week one of Digital storytelling

So I was busy telling stories last weekend using a power point put together by my school principal. The presentation itself turned out to be very effective, much hand shaking and thank you's afterward nice comments from colleague and calls to the office regarding the fine presentation. Only thing is the internet did not work at the presentation so I had to wing most of the presentation. After reading the articles and Presentation Zen this week I realized that the success of the presentation was due to the simplicity of the slide presentation. If it were full of details about what they were going to see when we all logged in to the website they would surely have met with great disappointment. Instead I related the story of how I teach my class and what role the student and parents have in the learning process. It was helpful to have them see some screen shots as well (I ran to Starbucks and quickly saved some screen shots to include in the power point) I was able to show them that the important information I was telling them could be found in four different areas and that there was plenty of support at the start an during the school year for their student and parent as well. I am going back tomorrow for a second round and hope to use some of what I have learned for the presentations tomorrow. I will let you know how it goes.

Wow I am such a sucky teacher!

Ok now do I have your attention. I do not know about you but there are times when I try something new or read about some study and just sit back and think, "that totally makes sense and is so simple and yeah that will make my class so much better and why didn't I think of that on my own" or some similar run on internal voice sentence that expresses the idea. During this course I have hand that particular run on sentence internal conversation many times. That one is helpful the others I have had are

"How in the world am I supposed to be able to do that?"
"There is not enough time in the Day for what I do now!"
"I wouldn't be such a sucky teacher if I just had more time.... Ok one more game on NCAA 10 and the badgers win the national title game dang I Lost.... 14 games later.... Ok one more game and the Badgers win the national title..... rinse and repeat...

Today's enlightenment came simply by completing our latest assignment. I took my first lesson for the upcoming Environmental science class simply organized the material and then analyzed in briefly noticed some flaws made some simple changes and upgraded the lesson immensely. The whole process only took a few hours. I usually do this right before I teach a lesson but by then there is an approaching deadline and many other things to do. So this sucky teacher will be a bit better next year .... and then better the following and so on. You know that might just work hmmm....

P.S. sorry for all the .... but just in a hmmmm.....mood.

Week 4 Collaboration and reinforcement

Of the topics discussed this week the one I struggle the most with is implementing the collaborative learning piece into my online course. I believe the way in which my classes structured make it very difficult to implement the collaborative assignments. I have a set curriculum for my AP classes and their is a small piece The Discussion Board that is collaborative. Otherwise with the amount of information and time constraints I cannot really make any changes to those classes. In My Environmental class I could implement some collaborative assignments as it is of a manageable size and has a adaptive curriculum. This is where I will be able to be the most creative and flexible. The majority of my students are in my Biology class. The difficulty here is that there I teach literally hundreds of them. With so many students all with different degrees of interest, abilities and technology skills it seems impossible to set up manageable groups etc for truly collaborative work. I have used discussion boards in the past with limited success. I can and do incorporate some short collaborative activities in my online presentations using Elluminate. All ideas are welcome.

The online environment also makes it difficult to give directed effective reinforcement. Difficulties arise when you have a large number of students that you deal with in a virtual manner. There are students that you interact with on a weekly basis and some you may never directly interact with. Even the ones I do get to know, the interaction is not the same as a face to face environment. It is important in the online world to find ways to personalize the education experience though not necessarily for all students. I guess it comes down to giving all the students the opportunities to interact, and the online environment does have an advantage in this regard. My students can have access to me many hours almost every day including most weekend and evenings. So for some of my students the reinforcement happens but with many the most effective tool I have is a timely emial.

Week Three

This week was spent exploring the graphic organizers listed. I had used inspiration with my children on projects they completed for the middle school and found it easy to use, colorful and useful in organizing their work. I felt the use of inspiration increased their understanding of the material covered.

Bubbl.Us
Is a brainstorming web application. It is quick and easy to use. It is free and you can easily create simple bubble graphic organizers. I believe this would be a simple application for the students to use as well.

The Cmap tool could not be down loaded onto my work laptop and so had to wait.

Education Oasis
Seemed to be helpful though not opened ended as the others still an instructor may find some very useful preformed organizers. This site was also free.

Exploratree
Was also a free online application. It used thinking guides which are tools or frameworks for thinking through an issue. You had the freedom to create you own or use a ready made thinking guide. They seemed to be pretty well organized and easy to use. I viewed several of the ready made guides and found them apperanty useful, though they each contained a category that confused me. I created a link to a thinking guide I used to critiue or evaluate the exploratree site. http://www.exploratree.org.uk/c/?x=father710223803u993horse

Hope it works, let me know what you think.

* bubbl.us brainstorming web application
* creates bubbles in a graphic organizer
* very easy to use
* limited to bubbles and colors but quick and dirty


Cmap tools needed to be downloaded to my computer which I cannot due on my laptop

Downloaded to my desk top easily enough. Found it much less intuitive than the others though that may be because it is more powerful. Yet to be determined. I could not gain access to the public Cmaps which was frustrating. So overall I would have to give the Cmap an incomplete though it is lacking in convenience and ease of use.

Inspiration used in the past bubbl.us seemed to be the same at its basic level

Education Oasis graphic organizers

* seemed to be helpful though not opened ended as the others still an instructor may find some very useful preformed organizers.

Exploratree

Use thinking Guides tools or framework for thinking through an issue.

you can create from scratch or you can use a ready made thinking guide, pretty flexible and free, can work collaboratively but only one at a time hmmmm.

I have used power point in the past to produce flow charts or graphic organizers I could see how each of these tools would aid in their production.

Week 2 class 525

online environment feed back can be difficult as interaction is limited, example.

"Good work on the project, you did not answer # 15 correctly check out page 459 in your book."

"Ok, but you did not answer most of the questions, please contact me so we can discuss how to improve this grade and I can assist you on the project."


"This work is incomplete, please re-due." poor feedback


Examples of possible feed back. One, only effective if the student reads the comments, two only effective if the students care what the comment say. Also those students online that turn in incomplete work rarely (never in my experience) contact me or resubmit the work. That does not mean meaningful feedback is not important as many of the efforting and motivated students gain better understanding and increased motivation by proper feedback.

The article reminds us that descriptive feedback which relates to the skills being learned and accessed is the most beneficial.

Erased snarky comment about time and number of students and amount of feed back in effective feedback example.
Most of the time I do not have as much time as I would like in order to produce the most effective feedback. It is not really a question of understanding what is effective feedback, most teachers I would argue have learned what is effective though it is helpful to be reminded. The limiting factor on effectiveness for me personally is the number of students and time available for individual feedback.

I do believe rubrics can be helpful for both the student instructor as they are a effective way to let students know what is expected of them. Using and referencing a rubric can be time consuming when grading many different types of assignments as I do online but it can also be a time saver when grading many of the same types of assignments. Rubistar was an application that allows for building of basic quick and dirty rubrics. It may be slightly useful in a onetime manner for a science teacher.

Quia is not a free service it costs $49 a year. It would be a nice resource for students. It would allow for diverse practice with immediate feedback.
online practice quizzes auto graded

IQ Academy of the school District of Waukesha uses Blackboard. This allows for several types of feedback.

1. Automatic grading of certain types of questions for immediate feed back.
2. Areas for comments on essay or short answer questions including automatic generated responses. Ex. Refer to page 524 figure 5 on photosynthesis.
3. Word processing or spread sheet documents are turned in electronically. The instructor can then grade and comment on the assignment and make it accessible by Students.

Use Elluminate for synchronous presentations were group work presentations praise etc. can be used.

CEDO 525 Enhancing Learning Materials through Technology Week one

I really liked the quote

"Learning results from what the student does and thinks and only from what the student does and thinks. The teacher can advance learning only by influencing what the student does to learn."

Herbert Simon

A good thing to keep in mind when setting up your class for next year. The articles we read this week discussed using more quantitative analysis when looking at both the use of technology and educational practice overall. The School District of Waukesha has been focusing on best practices which for the most part means Practices that have been analyzed and effectiveness demonstrated. As a science teacher I would strongly agree to this approach.

Week one Article Summary
Enhancing learning week one Terry Johnson

Learning results from what the student does and thinks and only from what the student does and thinks. The teacher can advance learning only by influencing what the student does to learn.

Herbert Simon

learning principles

prior knowledge
Motivation
organization of knowledge
meaningful engagement
goal directed and targeted feedback
Metacognitive

Teaching principles

1. teaching students not content
2. aligning learning objectives, assessments, and instructional activities
3. clear expectations and objectives
4. Prioritize the knowledge and skills we choose to teach
5. effective teaching role
6. improve our course through experience

Meta-analyses and scientifically determining the effectiveness of technology on learning.

Summary

Technologies change and are very different today than 10 years ago or even 5 years ago. In addition teachers experience or expertise in using technology has increased at a rapid rate as well. Therefore the measurements from available studies may not be reflective of the true effectiveness.

In addition some studies indicate that technology can increase the student-centered classroom approach where students work cooperatively, and have a more active role in their learning.


The results of this quantitative synthesis show a modest, positive effect of teaching and learning with technology on student outcomes.
Waxman, H. C., Meng-Fen, L., & Michko, G. M. (2003). A meta-analysis of the effectiveness of

teaching and learning with technology on student outcomes. Retrieved June 27, 2009, from

Learning Point Associates Web site: http://www.ncrel.org/tech/effects2/waxman.pdf


The Text looks to be a very good resource for implementation of technologies in the classroom and I have started to book mark some of the resources listed as possible useful applications.

Week 4 blog

After reading through the week four blogs, I found out a couple of interesting things. One, I am not the farthest behind in my work Sheww..... or some such word expressed while wiping my forehead, and it was easy to discern those blogger's with younger children from those without or with older children. If you have children and a computer you have already heard much of the common sense issues involved with online safety. If your child is online late and or with out supervision there are probably other issues the family could use help with as well.

It was interesting to read about the privacy issues surrounding the social networking applications that are so popular. I also believe that online information and privacy will continue to be a problem in the future use of this technology.

The virtual classroom as I stated in my critique does hold some promise but has the same privacy and safety issues for adolescents that are found in some online environments.

Wonderfully, fascinating

Week 3

The tools we explored during week three were diverse and impressive. There seems to be an explosion of web applications designed to increase my online efficiency. On one hand it is about time as I have been puttsing around on the internet for many years getting lost and cluttering up my desktop with shortcuts and such. On the other hand it feels like just yesterday I was at my high school getting a pass out of study hall so that I could go down to the Calculator lab and safely land the Lunar Lander on the moon using the cool state of the art calculator. So things have definitely improved no more key punch cards and green and white sheets of paper with syntax errors everywhere. Now I magically travel almost anywhere and gather more information than I can handle. In fact that has been the problem. Book marks galore, files of interesting links and daily emails from friends and colleagues with more links to more interesting sites.
So over the last year I have been introduced to Google docs so I can collaborate long distance and store information in the clouds, there is Delicious which allows me to book mark and manage my list of websites online. Now there seems to be an ever increasing number of wonderful, fascinating web applications that will assist me in my online world. I just wish someone would produce a wonderfully fascinating application to manage my ever increasing number of wonderful fascinating applications.

Week 2 reflections

Confession time, this is not week two I believe this is week four but I seem to have lost track. By the sounds of things many of you are also feeling the pinch here at the end of the semester. While my situation is similar there is an additional factor that makes this particular part of the semester uniquely difficult. Our students do not have due dates, actually they only have one due date that is this week. All their semester work is due on one day and then we have a week for submission of the final exam. Now most of my students work close to on pace at least the successful students do. So here I am scrambling to grade and learn. So the tools we have been exploring are interesting and I can see that many are useful, I can’t wait for this summer and the start of next semester so I can incorporate these tools in to my work.

Sorry short and sweet this week which again is not really this week so there will be more this week which will be week three even though this is week four. Sorry, Sorry Sorry….

Reflection week 1 Internet learning Resources

By the looks of things, most or what will be covered in this class will be directly applicable to what I do every day. I have put together an assignment that leads the students to evaluate the usefulness and validity of a website. I hope to be able improve upon the to one I am currently using.

It will also be interesting to explore how to use Web 2.0 technologies in my classes next year. I have explored some of the links provided in Internet learning resources and several look promising.

Connectivity

This course did not directly help me with one of the skills I was looking for: How does a computer connect to the internet and how do you trouble shoot the connectivity. That being said I did learn an incredible amount of very useful information about how a computer does its magic. It was helpful to be forced to open a computer and explore those internal components. I kind of want to go into the old computer and preform a complete autopsy. The timing of this class and the beginning of my own computer issues on my desktop could not have been timed better. Most of the issues I am or was having were covered in this class.

I work on the computer for most of my work day and I understand a great deal more than I did. The course has peaked my interest in the technology of computing which I believe in the long run is going to cost me. I am already looking a making several upgrades to my system based on what I have learned in this class.

On the practical side I have leaned quite a bit about antivirus software and will continue the search to find a system that works for me. In addition to gaining a better understanding about the dangers of hard drive failure I have increased the security of our existing back-up plan.

All in all this course has been helpful both personally and professionally.

Kablooie!

Thankfully if my computer failed I could survive. I would not prosper, I would be frustrated, I would use foul language, .....but I would survive. I have a back up for my desktop and I periodically back up the material on my laptop. I have also started to produce almost of all of my word processing documents using Google docs.
If my back up systems failed well that is another story all together. As is the case with most folks that work from home, I would lose both work material and personal material. As a writer I would be heartbroken to lose all my stories and poems. As far as work material, most of what I have is currently accessible through the blackboard server so I could get copies of the material from that source.
I am currently going through a depressing period in relationship to my new computer. It is only 6 months old and up until this last month it was a magical machine. It flew a click of the button brought me any file I needed. The speed of this machine cut my work load in half compared to the laptop or old desk top I had been using. Then for some unknown reason the new desktop started to lag. My world started to crumble, every time the circle of death starts my blood pressure shoots through the roof and ringing starts in my ear and I hate resort to calling my computer unflattering names. I go and work on my laptop because it is faster but still I sulk because I have seen the promised land and this is not it.
I have taken the computer in to Best buy twice and they have spent hours of their time free of charge yet the poor thing (me) still suffers from lagitis. Arrrrrrrg!!!!!!!!!!!!

What does the future hold?

According to David Gelernter in a article found in ComputerWold, today’s operating system have been built upside down. Then started with the mechanical and were built from the ground floor up. The next generation of operating systems needs to start with the user. He claims the existing operating systems are inefficient and need to be replaced.

Mr. Gelernter foresees a future operating system that includes a simulated 3-D version of the informational landscape. The operating systems will move to help you see the big picture as well as manage your documents.

The info-management revolution will also be addressed with the new operating systems, which may begin as soon as a couple of years from now with the production of the Microsoft’s “Longhorn”. These info-management systems are being developed to address the questions of “Where’s my stuff?”. Here is something that would definitely enhance my productivity. Sure Delicious and Google docs have added to my mobility and ability to work whenever and wherever. With all that productivity comes products and for me where there are products there are files and files and files and documents and documents and documents. At times finding what I am looking for takes forever.

Some folks that future operating systems will be simpler, simply by simplifying. What could I get done by a computer that simply opens a browser? Well I could take this class. I could teach my online course? Hmmm…. I think I over paid for my new computer. How about you?

Computer History For Terry Johnson

My first experiences with computers took place with me as a spectator. My younger brother received a small computer from one of our Uncles. I do not remember what model the computer was but I do recall that it used cassette tapes for its programming. If I recall correctly (and this is in some doubt, from listening to child hood stories told by my brother and cross referencing with my own memories, let's just say one of us lived in an alternate universe. I fear it is me, due to the fact that I have very similar experiences with my wife's recollection of events as well. ) it played some basic games on a small black and white screen.

My next experience was described when I read the history of the computer on Wikipedia. I would go to class learn about the formatting of programming. I would receive a worksheet which I would follow to create a program. Then I would tax my typing skills to produce punch cards, a whole stack of these card board rectangles with holes literally punched in them. I then took the punch cards over to this large copy machine looking device called a computer. Here I fed the punch cards into a tray. At this point I would hang around trying to chat up as many girls as I could as we all waited for a large green and white striped printout to come spitting out of the machine with our names on them. This is where it really got exciting, I would lay out the paper and look for areas on the margin were errors where pointed out by the words Syntax Error. Which could have meant many different things but mostly just meant I miss typed one of the punch cards. So back to the typing, stacking, chatting, waiting and finally I would have a green and white striped paper without errors on it. I would proudly take this to the instructor and turn it in for a grade not knowing the slightest how the code I wrote functioned.

I graduated to using the computer as a word processor later in my teaching career. I bought one for my wife when she was going to school at Whitewater while working on her Computer Science degree. I then helped develop a multimedia lab at a school and was well on my way to being a experienced user, who knows very little about how a computer actually works .

So lets review just what did we learn about in CeDO 515. This class started with the most useful of tools. The Delicious social bookmarking application has made working in remote locations and on my laptop magically easy. I have yet to set up the science department group but will get that done when we start the new year in the fall.

Week two material was fairly old hat as I use an online presentation tool several times a week. Though I was unaware that there were so many out there that could be used for free. With that it will be cool to have students working in Google docs on collaborative assignments in the near future. With that said weeks 3,4did a great job in setting up guidelines and structure for the implementation of collaborative and problem based learning activities.

Week 5 was both reflective and futuristic. It was interesting and helpful to set up goals based on what we have learned so far.

Finally it was interesting this week to follow-up our session on goal setting with a piece that looks forward to the barriers we will need to overcome in order to further our use of technology in our classrooms. I may be alone in my feelings on this but when reviewing what I do in my classrooms, I recognized there are new and exciting strategies that I am not using or if I am using them, they are not as tight and useful to my students as they could be. With that said, I continuously ask my self how I can implement the new ideas. This was a inner conversation I had from the start of this class, so many good ideas so little time to implement. After writing the paper I feel some of the barriers are not so high after all. With the warped and strange perspective of a motivated teacher overcoming the barriers could be considered opportunities. Yeah opportunities to improve the way I teach and the way my students learn. It reminds me of when you start a new work out program. You start with energy and vigor and see some pretty good results. Then you guessed it, you plateau or level off. The pounds do not drop and the weights don’t seem to get lighter. Though you are working hard and being productive the progress has slowed. To get to the next level you sometimes need to change-up your workout. Well the same thing applies to our professional lives as well. Time to get past some of those barriers and change-up my teaching!

Week 5 Technology learning plan

Most teachers would describe themselves as life-long learners. We learn about people and our topic while teaching our students it is part of the process. We are asked to complete teacher development course work of some kind. And for the most part take a interest in the field in which we teach, whether it is British literature or Biology. As instructors we most likely have an interest in learning effective teaching strategies, or in understanding how new technologies may enhance our students learning. The reading this week and our technology learning plan assignment are designed to focus our attention to more specifically what skills or technologies we plan to acquire or utilize in our classrooms.

Throughout the course I have read about and explored web technologies and specific guidelines for applying technology assisted learning activities. I have found many of the ideas and applications of the technologies helpful in my teaching at an administrative level. I have found many of the ideas intriguing with possible application for my online classroom. The technology learning plan is the motivation I needed to put some of these intriguing ideas to work.

My strengths would be that I have an large amount of experience teaching using computer technology. I am confident and secure in working with software and trying new approaches using technology. My weakness lies in the area of technology hardware and programing. I only had one semester of programing as a freshman in 1981 using Fortran. I also have very little understanding about how the hardware on a computer functions. I did not know about Web 2.0 technology until very recently and this has opened up a very large area of knowledge that I am just starting to explore. Further more I am learning much about technology teaching strategies that I may have utilized but did not fully understand. In addition I am a bit of a stick in the mud as I very much like to lecture.

Obviously it would be good for me to learn more about how computers function and more about how they do what they do. Specifically store information, find and connect to the internet. This would be helpful both personally and professionally as I am often asked to trouble shoot for my students daily in our online environment. It would also help me as I end up acting as an expert at many events my school holds. I am asked to set up the technology and then trouble shoot for all the students and teachers if any problems present themselves. I have also learned that there is so much out there concerning the Web 2.0 technology that I did not even know about. I have already increased my production and effectiveness as a teacher using many of the technologies presented in class and can see applications for many of the items listed in our class curriculum.

My Goals are as follows:
Goal 1: Integrate Problem based learning activity. I will modify my lesson 6 application projects for my biology class incorporating a PBL activity.


Goal 2: Integrate cooperative learning activity. I will develop a cooperative leaning activity for my environmental science class lesson 6 application project using web 2.0 technologies

these are goals I could complete prior to the end of my semester.

Goal 3: Learn about how computers work: I will learn from Mr. John Sklar in an upcoming class about this topic

How will I measure progress toward my goals?

I will complete my biology modification by April 27th and my cooperative learning activity by April 20th . I will develop an online surveys asking those who choose to complete this application project how it compares to other application projects they have done in this class this year. I will also collect copies of the artifacts produced. I will create a trouble shooting document for my own use and a list of resources from our class with Mr. Sklar.

515 Week 4

I visited the InTime site and watched the video on ocean Exhibits.

Teacher: Julie McLaughlin
School: Smoky Valley High
City/State: Lindsborg, Kansas

Curriculum Area: Earth Science
Grade Level: 9

Video Number: 004kshs


The Oceans Exhibit consisted of having High school science students produce and present information to grade school students in a museum format. The students in the project took on the role of instructors and developed and delivered the hands on learning activities. The student's participated in a PBL type called Scenario challenge according to Gordon (1998). The strength of projects designed with the students teaching the material are many. One element is the authenticity of the activity. Students are working toward the goal of presenting a teacher the grade school children and therefore work with a high level of engagement. The process of teaching the material also tends to increase the level at which the students understand the material. Increased student involvement and a format that encourages active participation in the acquisition of the knowledge lead to effective learning.

The students are also free to be very creative in the way in which they demonstrate the understanding. The more creative the better as they will also need to capture the interest of the grade school children they will teach. The video of the reflective conversation the students had with the teacher also points to a deeper understanding of the process of learning and student attitudes.

All in all this section has made me think about which level I could implement more authentic activities for my students. We as a department have put in place several applications per semester that allow for some creativity on how students demonstrate understanding. Add problem based learning activities on an individual bases on as group activity would add to the online learning experience. I have yet to implement any group or collaborative work in the online environment and am considering what to do in this area as I believe it can be an effective tool in engaging students in the learning process.

Week 3 515

Thanks to all who replied to last weeks topic. "What do you think about phasing out textbooks in an online course." Though the sample size was small and perhaps biased toward the online environment it was helpful to read your ideas, with most commenting that is was a good idea. At each of our monthly teacher meeting the subject comes up in some way or another. Many teachers are comfortable with the conversion, citing economics and efficiency as reasons. Others argue on the behalf of our students parents who have communicated a desire for having textbooks for the classes we teach. This could be a response from their own personal educational experiences or their tactile relationship to the written word. The discussion often becomes one of marketing, how do we make the parents comfortable with the decision to move away from textbooks. We did actually make some headway in this matter during the meeting as several promising strategies were discussed.

Producing and displaying reference materials that can be acquired by parents if desired. In addition the text in most cases can be printed and then read. Programs are also available that will read the text which can be helpful to certain students.

I have worked hard over the last several weeks to expand my findings and resources on the web by utilizing more diverse search engines and have been rewarded with a greater depth and variety of supplemental information for my students. This week I added net Trekker to my repertoire and immediately put it to work for me. While putting together a presentation for my biology class I use net Trekker to search for information on simple animals and the evolutionary trends in animals. It was very helpful in providing interesting and valuable links. This will be a tremendous asset for my science classes.

Once again I would like to thank you all for your input and I hope your finding these tools and useful and applicable as I am.

515 Week 2 So what do you think about online texts?

Once Louis started to discuss search engines I thought of an application to what I was learning. I had produced an assignment on web searches for one of my online science classes a couple years ago. I had read about and used some of the skills Louis mentioned but still much of it was new to me. So I have been working on updating the assignment to make it even more useful to my students.
The history of the internet section activity were we found researched and then posted new and interesting knowledge we acquired, provided me with much new knowledge and was very interesting. It will be interested to read the forum as more people post as there is quite a bit diversity in our group considering age and backgrounds. It will be interesting to hear what he younger folks have to say as well as the techno geeks and grey beards like myself.
I finally did get my book this week which will make that particular section much easier to deal with. Though it did bring up and issue that I would like your opinion on . Teaching online my students receive there information in many different ways. They can attend or view a taped version of a lecture where I discuss or demonstrate the information from the chapter. They may also view a lesson that has information and interactive games for them to check their knowledge. I also provide power points and web links to further enhance the amount of information concerning the topic. At the high school level we also send out text books. With the addition of the new 6-8 level we are no longer going to provide text books but will provide digital online access to the texts. Now in our meetings the teaches reacted very negatively to the idea of our middle school students not having textbooks. I do notice the difference when I read a textbook and when I read online, but I wonder if that is because there is something different in the way we process the written word as displayed on paper or computer screen or is it more a function of my background and age. After all this computer stuff is almost like magic to me but for my kids it is just another tool. So what is your opinion on this. Think of how easy it would be to have the students use an online text. You would not have to coordinate the shipping, you would reduce your carbon footprint and costs. Hmmmm.........

So much to do and so little time. I don't know about the rest of you but the work this week has taken up a lot of time. Now this is not a complaint as such, really it is the lead into how useful the tools and technologies we are learning really are. Working to meet the Monday deadline means that I will have to complete some of my school work this weekend. Well I will be out of town this week end. In the past that may have really stressed my time management skills. I would have had many a long evening this week and probably stayed up into the wee hours on Sunday and Monday as well. I had even planned on not watching Psych and Monk with my family tonight which is the only shows all four of all like to watch. It really wasn't until this afternoon that I realized that while I was in Rhinelander, Lac Du Flambeau, and Wausau this weekend for our open house programs instead of using all the down time that I usually spend being bored or trying to find a good place for chicken wings, I could be accessing and completing all my MEIT work.

That's right I can simply pack up my laptop, with my delicious online bookmarks, my in the Box online storage, my Empressr online presentation tool, and my digital scanned textbook and off I go. Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning I can now spend being productive just as if I were sitting at my desk at home. Not only that but I can probably even use the computer to find a place with wings.

I found the online presentation applications to be fairly sophisticated after looking at the graphic applications we previewed this week. I currently use Power Points on an almost daily basis and so the use of these online presentations was easily understood. I was impressed as I mentioned at how sophisticated many of the sites were. Currently I have unlimited use of Elluminate which is an online synchronous white board web application. There must be a term for what it is that I am unaware of, maybe someone can fill me in on that in the comments area. With Elluminate I can upload a Power point and use it for my presentations. I really have not thought of how I can utilize the online presentation capabilities but I look forward to reading the ideas generated in all of your Blogs.

Joining in the exploration

Ideas, ideas, ideas, that is what I got from reading all my colleagues blogs. Idea sharing, and support from the comments given, very positive and energetic. The process of writing the blog feeds into the this idea generation as well. It forces one to consider what is possible and evaluate what has been tried or in the context of this class learned. To borrow a phrase from Nick, I am excited about the possibilities. It occurs to me that I very much like the idea of discovery learning. (This is not a shot at Louis who has been a great support!) So far I have learned a lot and been taught very little. I have been asked to discover and experiment in order to understand the different technologies we are working with. I have been exploring how they work and generating ideas of possible uses in my classroom. Even more lately I have been thinking how much I like having the opportunity to explore and learn as compared to being "taught" and how this might translate or apply to the experience my high school students have in my online class.

Specifically this week I started using a social bookmarking system; Delicious. I had also decided to use Firefox as a browser, which incidentally runs some of my online work application better. I bounce between my desktop computer and my laptop computer all the time, whether it is so I can sit in my easy chair and grade hundreds of exams while watching the birds at the feeder or I pop into the Greatest Coffee shop, downtown Hartland to work so I avoided the drowsy effects of grading countless assignments submitted during the last week of the semester as I am doing right now. It the past this meant I would have to send all my links back and forth between computers if I wanted to access them. when I go up north for a 3 day weekend and would realize I don't have my favorites set up on my In-laws computer. Well those days are gone. I added my work and class links to Delicious from each of my computers and now no matter what computer I am on I can access them.

As part of my online class I also set up information links for my student for each topic we study. I have folders of links which I pull up each semester to check on their relevance and whether they are active links. Now I can tag them and have them organized on Delicious. In Addition my students have a assignment choice they can do which asks them to complete an internet search and report on helpful websites they have found. In the past I would fill pages and pages full of these links and then go to each and check them out, adding some to favorites. Now if I find them useful I can tag them in Delicious and have them organized by topic. I have already found ways to save time and get more done.

Ideas, ideas, Ideas they just keep on coming..... I look forward to reading about your ideas as we explore this new virtual environment.

Introductory Post

Week q MEIT program
Welcome to my Blog, to better understand my posts it would behoove you to know that I teach for a virtual high school. I have four classes with varying degrees of difficulty and student numbers. My AP courses are small in number of students but much of their structure is beyond my control. My Biology class consists of a mix of students almost 200 strong. Environmental science has roughly 38 students.
It seems to me the tools being taught during this first class will be very helpful for my interactions with my teaching colleagues. I had just learned about Google doc's in a meeting in December. My department used the Google doc's to produce a rubric for grading research papers. We also used Google doc's to produce a schedule for student projects next year. In my AP class I used the Google Doc's for a survey to find out information concerning number of student's planning on taking this year's AP examinations. This proved very useful. The tools concerning communication and collaboration may or may not be as helpful when working with my student's. I believe class size may inhibit collaborative work biology. This program has already stimulated ideas for incorporating more collaboration in my classes. In particular I am writing curriculum for nest years Environmental science class which usually has between 30-40 students each year and with this number I look forward to implementing many of the collaborative strategies and techniques we will learn in this class
I have not been able to sign into the Stritch Wolfmail system but have an account of my own set up on a different Email app. Hopefully I will be able to collaborate with my assigned group but I am currently waiting on a fix or assigned group.
I have begun the process of comparing Google Doc's word processing and Microsoft Word which is the traditional word processor I use. I am unsure of which Google features to discuss.