Capstone Lesson Plan

I will be having my students use Screencast-o-matic or CamStudio to create a tutorial to teach classmates how to do something. 

The students will be communicating, teaching and learning using tools of the internet. The students will be using technology in every facet of this assignment. Using web-based communication, they will be the experts and they will be showcasing their knowledge to inform others. This activity will address different learning styles of the "expert" and the "learner." They will be using auditory, visual, and kinesthetic modes of learning for their teaching and learning. The students will be collaborating with one another by reaching through the physical walls of the classroom and sharing their knowledge using digital tools.  Students will be able to work on this activity during the class time allotted but will have tools accessible 24x7. They can work asynchronously to achieve the end result.

9-12.CI.3. use a variety of media and formats to design, develop, publish, and present projects (e.g., newsletters, websites, presentations, photo galleries.9-12.CC.2. use available technologies (e.g., desktop conferencing, e-mail, videoconferencing, instant messaging) to communicate with others on a class assignment or project

 9-12.CC.3. collaborate in content-related projects that integrate a variety of media (e.g., print, audio, video, graphic, simulations, and models)

9-12.CC.4. plan and implement a collaborative project using telecommunications tools (e.g., ePals, discussion boards,
online groups, interactive web sites, videoconferencing)
9-12.TC.12. demonstrate how to import/export text, graphics, or audio files

9-12.CT.1. use digital resources (e.g., educational software, simulations, models) for problem solving and independent
learning

9-12.TC.6. participate in a virtual environment as a strategy to build 21st century learning skills


Google Docs Lesson Plan Template

Thing 21 - Screencasting and Flipping Your Classroom

1. I really enjoyed the video and the website is amazing. I shared it with our math and science teachers in the district. Flipping a classroom definitely emphasizes all the educational buzzwords such as, "differentiated learning," "self-paced" and "peer-to-peer" teaching! What a great concept and it would be awesome for education, parents, and teachers if this would happen, even on a small scale. Education, is and always has been, rote memorization of facts, lectures, worksheets, tests, and experiments. I completely agree with the video that teachers are more concerned with covering the material than actually making sure the students understand the basics.  I have tried to incorporate some elements of a flipped classroom. My assginments are on Moodle. I incorporate multiple videos and discussion forums for students to talk with each other and learn from one another. I would like my classes to be more self-paced like an online MVHS course. They offer Flex courses where there are not specific deadlines, but all the work must be completed within a 90-day time frame. I have tried to do things like that on a smaller scale, but students choose to play games on the computer and hand things in a few days before the deadline. Since I am in the face-to-face classroom with them, it is difficult for me to allow them to be wasting their time and not working at a steady pace.

2. Loved it! I used Screencast-o-matic to create my recording of how to create a catalog in Microsoft Word. How fun was that!? I have watched zillions of how-to videos on Lynda.com and on VTC.com. Some were awesome and educational and some were distracting and annoying. I do not like when people ramble on  without showing me how to do something. I think I did a decent job for my first time doing something like this.

3. My screen cast is at http://screencast-o-matic.com/watch/clevYjg8g

4. Ok, now I feel deflated. I did show a few teachers that I work with and they thought I did sound knowledgeable, but they said I moved the mouse around too much. I didn't realize that the colored circles follow me around the screen. I did record a few times and tried to minimize moving my mouse around so much, but that's a hard habit to break. I usually frantically move my mouse around when I am demonstrating so the students can see where I am on the projection screen. I could tell that I was doing it while I was recording, but I didn't want to start over because I thought I had some Microsoft Word Masterpiece...until others critiqued me.....They said the speed was decent. I really made a conscious effort to speak slowly because I know I talk really fast. My students tell me to slow down so I was happy to hear that my critics thought my speed was acceptable.

Thing 20 - Online Video & Audio Resources

1. I explored School Tube to find videos on cyber-bullying. I do a unit on netiquette and internet safety and I  incorporate videos from Teacher Tube so I decided to explore School Tube. I have explained already that I use Moodle in my classroom. I have links in Moodle to the videos in Teacher Tube. Each student is assigned a pair of headphones so they can watch and listen to the videos at their own pace. After they watch the videos, we have a forum set up where they "discuss" the videos. I will ask them a few questions that they need to reply to and, also, respond to other students' posts. At first, this was quite exciting for the students, but now that they have access to YouTube, watching videos is a part of their everyday life. I still feel like the students learn and absorb the material better when they can watch and listen at their own pace. I have the links available to them at all times, so they can always re-watch videos at their leisure.

2. The features of School Tube are quite simple. The students have a search box where they can type in keywords to search for a particular video, channel or school. Once you find the video, there are options on the side for the "You May Also Like" section. I feel that is helpful because the searching is done for you and you can preview the suggested videos. All the results were relevant to what I was searching and they are safe and teacher-approved.

3. The strengths of video resources compared to audio is that with the video the students get the whole picture and are able to watch what is happening. With audio, they are hearing something and they need to visualize what is happening. Some students are not good at visualizing things and get really distracted and frustrated. On the other hand, there is an advantage to just incorporating audio because what each student pictures in their mind will be different and unique and they can think outside the box. I have saved several samples of previous assignments that students have created. For some assignments, I allow the students to view and use the samples to help them get started. On other occasions, I don't allow them to use samples because I feel it stifles their creativity. Many students have the ability to be really creative and it is important as a teacher to foster that ability.  So depending on what outcome a teacher hopes to achieve would depend on if that teacher wants to incorporate video, audio, or a combination.

Thing 19-Digital Storytelling

Photostory 3 is simple and very intuitive to use. I attended a NetTrekker workshop and they covered Photo Story 3 as well. It was quite interesting how simple the program is to use and yet how professional the final product looks.

Digital Storytelling can be used in the classroom to help reinforce a topic and allow the students to be the teacher. The students could be given a topic and a length requirement and they would need to make a "story" depicting what they know about the topic. If a digital projector is available in the classroom, the digital story could be displayed and the other students could take notes to help them learn the topic as well. Once students get to play with transitions, images, videos and music to make a digital story, they will be engaged. Another way digital storytelling can be used in the classroom is to showcase students' creativity. Some students are shy and not comfortable in group work on talking in front of their peers. If they are able to tell their story through images, music, text, and narration they may be very comfortable and excel beyond the teacher's expectations. Those timid students will be able to express themselves and thus, hopefully evoke a discussion regarding the topic they are teaching. By using digital storytelling, all learning styles should be conformable. The visual and kinesthetic learners will be comfortable using the tools of the program hands-on, the auditory learner will be able to include music and narration to teach what they know.

The link to my Face of the Classroom site is: http://21thingsforthe21stcentury.weebly.com/

Digital Storytelling incorporates the higher level thinking we want to evoke from our students using Bloom's Taxonomy. Students can take their learning from concrete and static by using pen and paper to analysis and synthesis where students are generating and creating a product by connecting their ideas with the tools of the software. What more could a teacher want!? After creating my HTML photostory,  I showed my high school accounting students. Obviously, they are not the ones who are learning HTML. I just wanted to get their input since the information would be something totally new and different to them.

They are seniors so of course, they thought the music was boring and they wanted me to upload something "cooler." Most were fixated on the music and thought it wasn't necessary to have music because they were distracted by it.  The said the transitions were cool and it looked neat how they panned in different directions to keep their attention. They thought there was too much information in such a short 2-minute period so they were happy I threw in some pictures to break it up a little. Overall, they thought the HTML students would think it's a good attention-grabber to start the HTML unit, then each section could be expanded on as I progressed through each section. I agreed :-)

Thing 18 - Virtual Classrooms

A plan of how I can extend my classroom for me is by using Moodle. I have painstakingly taken the time to upload all my assignments and organized them into units. If a student is absent, they still have access to all the assignments in my class. I have rubrics for every assignment. When I start a unit, I give the students a hard copy of the rubric for the assignments. If they misplace them, they have access to Moodle so they can reprint their rubrics. I love it! I love that they have to be responsible for their own assignments and rubrics. I tell them in advance that I will not give them extra copies; they will need to take their time to print additional copies.

I have forums, chats, assignments and links to videos all organized so, in essence, my class could be a "virtual classroom." If a new student moves to our district and gets added into my class late, he/she has access to everything we have accomplished. Students have the opportunity to review and/or revisit any topic for further understanding if necessary.

I can refer parents to the site so they have access to what is expected of their child in my class. I give the students feedback in Moodle and also post their grades in PowerSchool so they have access to their progress at all times.

Using Moodle has brought my classroom to the virtual level and has encouraged me to incorporate more videos and online resources into my teaching. All I need to do is add the link and the students have the internet at their fingertips. I feel by using Moodle, the students are meeting the NETS-S standards, becoming comfortable with technology, and becoming prepared for the real world.

Online Students:
In our school district, students have been using MVHS as a means for credit recovery, a chance to take AP courses, and also to gain additional credits for graduation. One concern is that the 'online student' has to be very disciplined and an independent worker and thinker. Spoiler Alert--many students who are taking these classes do not fit these characteristics. The students have to organize themselves so they are aware of the assignments and how to submit them to the instructors' specifications. Many students are reluctant to email an instructor and some instructors do not reply in a timely manner. This, of course, causes frustration and anxiety to the student. I have been a mentor for several years. Sometimes the students are in my classroom and I can help them pace themselves and keep them on task. Over the past few years, the students are scheduled during the study halls and placed in the library; therefore, I don't have contact with them. They are instructed to print progress reports every week so we can monitor them, but unfortunately, there is a disconnect since I don't have direct contact with them.

Students taking online classes have to do a substantial amount of reading. More-so than in a regular classroom. Most classes are organized so students need to outline as they are reading which helps them manage the material better. Although, sadly some students are not quite sure how to outline material or how to determine what information is pertinent. 

Also, some students have hit a roadblock because some of their tests need to be proctored. A mentor needs to know the password to get into the test. If a student is procrastinating, they may not inform their mentor in a timely manner. In this case, the mentor needs to contact the instructor to get the necessary information. This can delay the whole process which is a pain for all the people involved.

Overall, I think students can be successful using online courses and it provides an opportunity for them to take classes that would not normally be offered in a rural school district. Students need to understand that online classes require commitment, dedication and initiative. The luxury of a teacher verbally reminding (nagging) them of deadlines is not existent in the online environment.

Thing 17 - Professional Learning Networks

This website is amazing. I attended a workshop about NetTrekker under the Michigan LearnPort website. I was astounded by the amount of educational resources available. This is a site where you can be assured the information and resources are reliable, valid, current and age-appropriate. The courses available are of a high caliber and are recognized by the State of Michigan as credible.  Courses available focus on content expectations and the Michigan Merit Curriculum. It is a partnership with the Michigan Department of Education so all the content available is relevant to any teacher at any level. Most of the classes are free and some have a small fee, but it is nominal. As long as the educator has internet access, they are able to take the classes so they can work on their professional development at school or at home at their own convenience.

FACEBOOK
There is a varying degree of acceptance when teachers talk about using Facebook in the classroom. It could be a useful educational tool and an easy way to share information with parents and students. I use Moodle in my classroom and I have a unit about social networking. When I ask my students who uses Facebook, almost every student in every class either currently uses it or has used it. When asked how frequently they use it, most results are conclusive that students use it more than 3-5 times per day! Facebook is a way to stay connected and students are able to share images, post videos, chat and share apps. The problem is that students abuse this privilege. They swear, upload inappropriate images and bad mouth teachers and/or other students. Students certainly do not use proper netiquette while using Facebook. It is unfortunate because it would be very easy to share data to "friends" on Facebook because we know students are intrigued and fascinated by it. Students would think it's great for a teacher to deliver content home via Facebook and they would be excited to stay connected, but I'm afraid it would be abused and students would cross the line. I think it is healthy and necessary for teachers to have boundaries with students and I fear that once Facebook is used, students no longer see a boundary and begin to think they are equals with their teachers.That is a scary thought on many levels. I think using an educational resource such as Moodle or Blackboard allows the teachers to communicate effectively and efficiently with students.

NBEA
The National Business Education Association. I have been a professional member of the NBEA since 1999. The NBEA membership includes journals about relevant and pertinent business education news, both locally and internationally, ideas for successfully integrating technology into courses and bridging the gap between high school students and those entering the workforce. Members receive discounted registration fees for regional and district conventions. NBEA supports national-, state-, and local-level efforts to ensure that business education is understood and valued by legislators,  policymakers and local and state stakeholders.

The professional level is $80 annually. This includes all the publications and NBEA services. The professional/Delta Pi Epsilon (DPE) is $140 annually. At this level, members receive all of the benefits offered in the professional category plus membership in Delta Pi Epsilon. The Professional/International Society for Business Education (ISBE) is $110 annually. At this level, members receive all of the benefits offered in the professional category plus membership in the United States Chapter of ISBE.

I have attended the MACUL conference in the past and also local professional development training.  I have incorporated Moodle into my classrooms and have students work electronically as if they were in a college setting. My colleagues have told me that I should share what I am doing in my classroom with other educators. I have thought about it, but that is as far as it goes. I really enjoy teaching in this digital age and enjoy having the students be so excited and eager to learn what I am teaching them.

Thing 16 - Reference and Research Tools

InfoTrac Junior Edition and InfoTrac Student Edition (Middle/High School level)

a) appropriateness-the results were suitable for this age level.
b) usability - the information was simple to find and the databases were very easy to use.
c) content - there was a lot of pertinent information. I searched for charter schools and there were more results in the student edition database vs the junior edition. Although, there was suitable content in books, journals and news in both editions.
d) credibility - all the information was credible, reliable and valid.

 General One File

a) appropriateness - I didn't feel the results were appropriate for a middle school or young high school level. They would be more appropriate for higher level high school students or college level. I searched charter schools and did not get any results which I thought was strange. I then searched for social networking. The results were about articles in New Dehli and Kenya. I would need to narrow my search string to get more appropriate results.
b) usability - similar to InfoTrac. Typing in the keywords, titles or documents makes it quite simple.
c) content - I was not satisfied with the results because by just searching social networking, there were 16683 results and none of the top twenty that were displayed mentioned Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, etc. Searching on google resulted in "About 382,000,000 results" but the main results were about Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, and MySpace.
d) credibility - the results in the General One File seemed to be credible, reliable and valid.

 MEL Database Citations 

 FREE Citation Maker  

Buckley, J., & Schneider, M. (2007). Charter schools: Hope or hype?. Princeton, N.J: Princeton University Press.

Thing 15 - Staying Informed

I spent a lot of time playing with iGoogle and loved every minute of it. I changed my theme about a dozen times and I added more gadget than I would ever know what to do with.
 I decided to get back on task and focus on the assignment so I added the CNN feed, TechLearning feed where I have access to educational technology blogs and dictionary feed. This would be useful for teaching and learning because it is so simplistic to use and it allows students to have control over how they want their page setup. Students love to have control. I think it is a nice way to have things organized so tasks are more streamlined which makes students and teacher more effective. This would be really nice for a Current Events class where students need access to the news. They can quickly and easily view the feed and they can all have access to the same information at the same time without bothersome popups or ads promising a free laptop! As Ron Houtman states, that once you subscribe to these feeds, the news "automagically" comes to you in your RSS feeds rather than you wasting your time searching on the web. Awesome!

Thing 14 - Productivity Tools

Well, I'm not overly impressed with ZamZar because it took to look for my file to be emailed to me, then once it was, I had to go back into ZAMZAR to download it. I converted my weebly rubric that I created using Rubistar on a earlier "Thing" to a .pdf.  I do this very frequently because I put all my files on Moodle for my students to access. We use Word 2010. When I go to Save As, I have the option to save my .doc to a .pdf. That is very fast and it is done using the same progam I am working with. It streamlines my work and that makes me more productive. I doubt I would use ZAMZAR while I'm at work, but it is a good resource.

I was impressed at the number of available outputs. There are image formats, document formats, music, video and E-book. That was impressive. There were may options that I have never heard of, but I did recognize the .rtf, .txt, .html, .ppt, .pdf. My students are always looking for ways to convert their music files so we can import them into Movie Maker and oftentimes we need to convert their .wmv files to be compatible with a DVD player.  The only problem is this site is blocked because it is categorized as computers.filehosting.

I made a google calendar for this last week of my middle school rotation. I listed what the students need to get done this week. It is a good idea to keep them on task. I have been playing with Google docs more since we have had these "Things." I think they are pretty intuitive and there is ample assistance available. It was a little hidden on how to "share" the calendar, but I was able to look under the help and find it. Once there, it was easy to put in the email addresses. Our principal using Google Calendars with the secretaries so they are all on the same page and we have an interactive Google Calendar on our school's webpage where users can view events for the weeks or months ahead. This would be easy to share with parents and colleagues. Many parents ask for their students' work and like to be informed. By "sharing" this calendar with them, they can see the same deadlines the students see. These dates should coincide with the dates in PowerSchool so parents can be informed up to the minute.

Thing 13 - Online Interactive Learning Tools

How fun was Quizlet?! What a great resource for students to be engaged in their learning. I made flashcards for accounting class because we actually made real flash cards at the beginning of the chapter. The scatter games was a hit with the students. They loved the 'game' part of it and I loved that they were learning and applying their knowledge.

With my middle school students, we do a unit with business' logos and slogans. I could type the business' slogans in and have them match the business to the slogan. Middle school students would love to "play" these games. Usually I read the slogan aloud and they type the name of the company in Word, but they all try to read each others' screens and they never know what number we are on, etc. It would be very fun to watch them learn and engage interactively. It would be a great tool to use at the beginning of that lesson.

Thing 12 - Assesment, Evaluation & Survey Tools

1. I love google forms! I thought this was so easy to use. Although, I did have to search online to figure out how to modify my form once I was in this spreadsheet view. I had to go to Form....Edit Form. That was obvious once I figured it out. Also, the forms don't number the questions so I manually did that. As I was viewing my results, they are not in numerical order as you can see. Not sure why that happened, but I will investigate that online as well so I can get that figured out.

Anyway, I was able to change the theme and copy and paste the URL into a Moodle page that I made for the students and they were all able to take the quiz the same day. I loved it. I feel this is very educational as students will be working in an online environment in college. The are very comfortable working in this environment, but I think the more that teachers use these tools, the more everyone benefits.

It is really funny that I am on this Thing because I have been wanting to make a rubric for Weebly. I want my middle school students to make a small webpage and I have procrastinating. Now I can make one to meet this requirement and for my students. I have used a rubric with every assignment I have used in my classes for the past 15 years. That seems like an exaggeration, but it is true. I do not understand how to grade an assignment without one. My rubrics always list the criteria, points possible and points earned. I usually make a table in Word then outline the requirements I want them to meet for each assignment. These are all posted on Moodle for my classes. I love when use the word "rubric." I feel like they really understand that I am giving them the chance to get a perfect score on every assignment because I am outlining the criteria with the point value assigned to it. How simple, yet effective. I only give students one copy of a rubric for an assignment. If they lose it, they need to login to Moodle to reprint another one. It has been a great system for me as a teacher and it makes my students accountable.

2. This rubric is for the students making a wepage using Weebly. I cannot believe how easy it was to use Rubistar! What a wonderful resource. I spend countless hours working on rubrics and I am constantly modifying them once we are done with a project. This will make it much quicker for me to initially design a rubric. Rubistar will definitely become a regular part of my teaching tools!

3. Our district is now using Data Director as a student warehousing tool. We have had two in services on how to use it and we teachers still have no idea what to do with it! We use PowerSchool as our grading program and are a bit frustrated that we have to import data now into Data Director to take it out again to put it back into PowerSchool. The "experts" tell us that it is a lot of work in the beginning, but then once that data is entered, it will be a valuable resource for teachers and parents. We our trying to show that what we are teaching is actually being absorbed. We are tying to have pre-tests and post-tests and show student achievement. This is logical, but is seems like putting all this data into a Data Warehousing system is a bit overkill. I feel most parents are just happy know know their children are learning something by the end of the school year! The administrators need the data, but I'm not truly convinced this is what the parents want. But, I digress. I definitely agree that FERPA/HIIPA is important when dealing with students.The student's data should be protected and other students should not have access to files that don't belong to them.

Thing 11 - Presentation Tools

http://prezi.com/rwewsvbjwtki/edit/#0_4299178

 

 

 

 

 

1) Compare and contrast Prezi to PowerPoint
Well. I am a little sea-sick from the screen zooming in and out all over the place. I started fresh and was totally lost. I then watch the intro videos so I understood how it worked and how to use the tools. Obviously that made it much easier. I think this is trickier to learn than PowerPoint. I think PowerPoint is a very user-friendly program. Most young elementary students are adept with using PowerPoint.   I do not think elementary students would be comfortable using this program. It was easy to insert images and modify the text, but I struggled with inserted the textbox. My text would sometimes stick inside, then other times the text would move independently of the textbox. I think they are similar in the fact you can insert images, text, and charts and modify them. I think there is a higher learning curve with using Prezi. The screen zooming was unique and that is something I was not familiar with in PowerPoint. Also, you cannot easily upload and watch YouTube videos in PowerPoint. I cannot figure out how to add sound into Prezi. In contrast, that is relatively easy to do in PowerPoint.

2) How I can use it with students in my classroom, what projects they might be able to do with it
I think I could try this with my high school students. They need to create a PowerPoint of technological advancements. They could experiment with using Prezi instead. They would need to incorporate images and text. Prezi makes it very easy to incorporate YouTube videos. They could compare and contrast the "olden days" with the advancements of today.


3) How this presentation tool can help my students process some content which they have difficulty learning.
I think many students that struggle with learning can appreciate the visual and hands-on approach to learning. I think Prezi can allow these students to create a work flow in how they wish to present their information. Verbal learning may not be conducive to the learning style of all students presenting the information in a visual, colorful, sequential matter may reach those that have difficulty learning.

Zooming in and applying emphasis on something will be important to reach diverse learners because it is will them alert by observing what it to be learned. Using the pencil tool and being able to change the color will allow the teacher to be "interactive" and allow all students to watch and learn.

Thing 10 - Digital Images

Here is the image of Mt. Rushmore that I uploaded from the free image website Pics4Learning.

I will use the FotoFlexer program to edit the image.

http://fotoflexer.com/app/index.php?integration=upload






In the edited image, I added several "Effects." Since today is Valentine's Day, I decided to add a Heart Bokeh to the image. I felt a little strange about defacing this monument, but it's all for learning. I changed the image to Retro and I played with some 'advanced' features to use his face as a focal point to blur the edges. Under the "Decorate" option, I decided to add some stickers. A sheep is walking up the side of the mountain and a butterfly is flying. I also added a border to the image.

This program would be amazing to use in my classes. I teach some middle school and high school multimedia classes. Some students have access to Photoshop, but that program is not very user friendly. I am amazed at the options available on this program.

Students would be able to upload and manipulate images before inserting them into PowerPoints, flyers, brochures, etc. I think students would find this very simple to use and would learn about the effects while playing.


I uploaded a Valentine's Day picture to FotoFlexer. The link is http://fotoflexer.com/app/index.php?integration=upload

Thing 9 - Creative Commons

I gave a copyright quiz to my students in my Microsoft Office class because we do a unit on netiquette. I don't usually cover copyright laws too much because I don't know what they are! I have a chart that lists the medium and the law that pertains to it. I try to refer to it and have them understand they are not allowed to take another person's work. The students are freshmen through seniors. They did a poor job on the quiz because they are under the impression that as long as they find information from a reliable source, they are allowed to credit it and that is as far as they need to go. They did alright on the few questions I asked about Fair Use. We watched the YouTube Fair(y) Tale Use video. I thought it was quite annoying, but the students enjoyed it and we were able to have a conversation about some information presented in the video. They were asked about Fair Use as it relates to a teacher taping a news broadcast at home off of the tv and allowing students to watch it every year. They thought this was okay. This violates Fair Use because she should either buy the news broadcast from the company or get permission to use it year after year. They also did poorly on the questions pertaining to buying software. The school district needs to purchase license for how many computers they wish to use the program. That would be copyright infringement to install it on all the computers without the purchasing the licensing. Students also thought it would be Fair Use to create a senior video and include popular songs downloaded. This would violate Fair Use because they did not get permission nor are they using the video for educational purposes.

Thing 8 - Visual Learner

I used the bubbl.us site to create a visual map of internet dangers students should be aware of. This is a basic list and there are many more items that could be added. I would allow the students to brainstorm more topics to add. I could break them into groups to become experts on one of the topics. They could gather statistics online and report back to the class by creating an informational brochure about their topic.

This was really a cool and user-friendly program. This would be a great tool to use at the beginning of a lesson. Most of the items listed are pretty obvious, but some students are not familiar with spyware programs and those are things they should be aware of and knowledgeable about. This would be very easy to begin every new lesson with as a springboard for the students to have exposure to new vocabulary words. The students could be given a few words each and they need to present the word and the definition to the class.

Thing 7 Part 2- The Online Student

I would direct students to the site http://www.albion.com/netiquette/corerules.html and have them paraphrase 10 suggestions for proper netiquette use. Do not copy and paste the underlined topics. Read each section and tell me in your own words what you learned from reading the material. Number your responses 1-10.

Secondly, I would use http://www.makebeliefscomix.com/ to have the students create a comic strip that demonstrates the dangers of poor Internet etiquette (netiquette). Use elements of body language (through their characters’ gestures or facial expressions), spoken word (speech bubbles) and/or online shorthand, including emoticons, in your cartoon. The important thing is to express your point of view as clearly as possible.

Thing 7 Part 1- Digital Citizenship Bogus Site #2

Buy an Ancestor Online!
http://www.fulkerson.org/ancestors/buyanancestor.html

I am laughing already. This should be an interesting evaluation!

C: Credibility/Authority - It is a bit concerning that the name of the company is the Losing Proposition Company. I can't find any information online about the credentials for such a company. Nobody's name or phoen n

A: Accuracy -  I cannot even believe what I am reading.  You can buy an ancestor for free or for a "slightly higher fee" you can get a made-to-order ancestor! Who would ever believe this to be true and actually give their credit card information.











R: Reliability -I'm not sure how reliable a person would think this information would be. From their "latest press release" they will be featuring stem cell cloning techniques to download authentic ancestors. They then say certain restrictions may apply in Wisconsin. Why Wisconsin? How do you download an ancestor? There are too many things wrong with every sentence that this information is so "bogus" that even a novice should be able to detect that! 

R: Relevance - I don't think there is any relevance in paying money to buy a person!

D: Date -No date.

S: Sources Behind the Text - There is nothing reliable or credible on this page or any other page linking to it.

S: Scope and Purpose -There is certainly nothing scholarly on this page. The audience would be a very disturbing portion of the population. I'm not sure if anybody has bought an ancestor, but apparently JW Booth was popular because he is now sold out! Hilarious.

Thing 7 Part 1- Digital Citizenship Bogus Site #1

The Burmese Mountain Dog
http://descy.50megs.com/akcj3/bmd.html

Using Joyce Valenza's criteria to determine if this website was bogus or not, was pretty simple.
C: Credibility/Authority - By: Dr. Charlie White, Ph.D., DVM., AECT. This person claims to be a doctor of philosophy (Ph.D), a doctor of veterinary medicine, and lastly a member of the Association for Educational Communications and Technology (AECT).
A: Accuracy -  The information seems accurate. The site describes the physical traits of this type of dog that matches that of other websites about Burmese Mountain dogs.
R: Reliability - There doesn't seem to be much of a bias to a particular organization or company. The author is trying to explain the advantages and disadvantages of owning this type of dog. There are advertisements on this website, but the author isn't trying to persuade the viewer to buy anything.

R: Relevance - The author's information is relevant.

D: Date - 1994-20xx which I'm not sure what that means. It says it is updated on January 3 and June 7 each year and as required. I'm again, not sure who is requiring the updating of the page.

S: Sources Behind the Text - The link to the Pet Publishing, Co. is broken. The link to the Burma fact book is broken. Amazon is very general. The link doesn't go to a direct source for information about the Burmese Mountain Dog.  Also, the Oxford link brings you to the homepage. A person would need to search within that site to find the particular information they are searching for. The links are not useful or helpful at all.

S: Scope and Purpose - The material is very easy to read, the purpose is to inform a person about this type of dog. The site looks very generic. There are a bunch of these icons for awards for this page. They don't link to anything. They are just images that are copied and pasted onto the page. This doesn't make the page look anymore credible to me.

Thing 6 - Differentiated Instruction

1. Differentiated Learning Assignment: To differentiate instruction is to recognize students' varying background knowledge, readiness, language, preferences in learning and interests; and to react responsively.
I think this is one of the biggest challenges educators face whether you're a new teacher or a veteran teacher, it is always a challenge to keep students engaged, on task, and learning based on their individual learning preferences.

I use Moodle in my classroom. Before every class, I have the students take a short learning preference quiz online (http://www.vark-learn.com/english/page.asp?p=questionnaire) then they need to do a short reflection on what they learned about their unique learning style and explain to me what will make them successful in my classroom. Here are the questions they need to answer for me:

1. After completing the questions on the Learning Preferences Questionnaire, tell me what are your learning preferences?
2. Then tell me in a few sentences what that means.
3. What can I do in this class to help you feel comfortable and succeed?

This has been an excellent tool in my classroom to get immediate feedback from the students. Students will tell me they need handouts, other will tell me to make sure I spend extra time with them in reading directions, some say they need a detailed rubric. This has been very successful in my classrooms and the students feel comfortable in knowing that I will try to my best to teach to their learning style.

I have always provided multiple media and formats. I will show YouTube videos, I will allow them to watch "Common Craft" videos before I introduce a new unit. I will give detailed rubrics and also demonstrate using a digital projector. In varying the method in which I introduce material, each student will find some format they become comfortable with and be able to identify which aids in their learning.

I provide opportunities to practice with support. I will circulate around the classroom as the students are practicing and give them applicable tips to support and enhance what they are working on.

Offering adjustable levels of challenges is something I do in my middle school and high school classes. For example, my Careers class is at the middle school level. They need to do a career presentation. They are allowed to use PowerPoint, Movie Maker or Weebly. I allow them to choose which program they are comfortable with, but I also challenge them to use a new program so I can help them learn the program, plus demonstrate their understanding of their chosen career as well. This has proven to be a successful approach in keeping the students excited about learning at a level in which they are most comfortable.

2. Diverse Learning Assignment. Using Technology to Support Diverse Learners - Visual.  A visual approach to learning helps the struggling learner visualize and imagine what they are trying to learn. Make graphic organizers to organize data in a sequential pattern will be very beneficial for a struggling learner. Also, making use of videos and incorporating phones, notebooks, Smart Boards, and other technology can help bridge the gap for some students who may struggling with reading text. If they can see it, it may help them store it in their long-term memory and retrieve it by visualizing what they saw. Students, even those that struggle, seem to be more comfortable with "gadgets" than most teachers. If they were able to utilize such methods of learning, it may greatly benefit those students that struggle.


3. Universal Design for Learning Assignment - NetTrekker. NetTrekker is an amazing and powerful teaching tool. I attended the NetTrekker workshop at the ISD on February 1st and was very impressed at how intuitive and powerful this search tool was. I was easily able to find three different readability levels for career information. The levels are for middle school levels and lower. This will be helpful because this is a middle school class, yet some students read at a much lower level. Some of the icons on these results indicate to me that there is audio, video, and interactive media integrated into these search results. This would be ideal for the struggling learner because there is a variety of learning styles presented.

4. Text-to-Audio Conversion Assignment. 

This was awesome! I have never used anything like this before. This was very easy and would be so helpful for a struggling learner. The teacher would need to record the voice before class, save as and MP3 and allow the student to listen as they learned. They would be able to use headphones so they could be listening discreetly and they can rewind and fastforward as they need. This would be very helpful when explaining things step-by-step because some students need a longer processing time to understand each step before moving on to the next one. This would allow the struggling learner the flexibility to learn at their own pace. Excellent learning and teaching tool!

Thing 5-Thinkfinity

The place that I will be doing with my students in class are in the learning lab section on Thinkfinity.
http://learninglab.org/

http://learninglab.org/life_skills/cyberbullying/
I do a unit on Internet Safety and there is an interactive Garfield, "Watch, Try, Apply" video that would be excellent for the students to get exposure to new vocabulary and the concept of cyberbullying.

I will use the Teacher's Guide which helps introduce the new vocabulary, has focus questions, a short quiz to assess how well the students understood what they learned.

http://learninglab.org/life_skills/online_safety/
This is the second section of Thinkfinity that I would use in my classroom. This is set up the same way as the cyberbullying unit. I would have the students, "Watch, Try, Apply" then discuss some of the new vocab, do the questions, then take the quiz.

These are interactive so the students will be engaged and yet educational so they are learning while they play.

Thing 4 - Communication Tools

I finally used Skype! I think it was quite easy and pretty fun. My friend, Emily, is on the main screen and she is an avid Skyper. She lives in Chicago and Skypes with her family and nieces in Iron Mountain. Her nieces always ask if she is in their house. It's cute.

I definitely think this would be a valuable teaching and learning tool in the classroom. People from all over the world could be in contact with a few keystrokes. It would be awesome to see people from other cultures so students in the U.S. could see different customs, clothing, and lifestyles. Using Skype would be great to communicate with 'pen pals' throughout the world, scientists, explorers, poets, authors, etc. The possibilities are endless and students would be easily engaged.

Thing 3 - Google Docs

I used the google template of cover letter and resume. Google Cover Letter & Resume Template


I was able to quickly update and modify the template which had all the buzzwords that employers look for in their employees. When I added my personal information, it was placed as a header on each page so the pages look consistent.

This will be helpful to me in my classroom because I do a unit on job searching with middle school students. They don't really understand the significance of a cover letter and they do a very plain, generic job of creating one. By using the google template, they can modify the existing document to suit their needs and it looks professional.

For the second part of the assignment, I used the google docs to share a word processing document with my principal. It was a bit tricky at first because I asked him to edit my google doc, but did not give him permission so he had to email me. Plus, we think my first request went into his spam folder because I sent it from my home email instead of my school email address.

Once he got the permission he needed, he was able to easily edit my document and I was able to see his modifications. I'm not quite sold that this is any quicker than email for one correspondence, but I could see if would be nice to collaborate with a group.


Doing groupwork in a class would be conducive to using google docs because each person could make a contribution.

Thing 2-Face of the Classroom

My weebly address is:
http://21thingsforthe21stcentury.weebly.com/index.html

I think weebly is very user-friendly. It is simple to create professional-looking web pages for free!

I don't think parents really care about a lot of bells and whistles. I think they just need to know time, dates and information about the classroom, deadlines and assignment requirements. It would be very beneficial for a teacher to use weebly to create a web presence to disseminate information to parents.

Thing 1 - Diigo

http://www.diigo.com/user/lvross

I love this! This is very easy to use and I think using Diigo will definitely help increase my productivity. I teach computers and I don't use a textbook. I am constantly looking online for websites and resources. I like diigo because I will have access to it from any computer. Also I can tag the sites so I can organize the webpages I find as they pertain to certain classes that I teach.  

Thing 1 - Shortcuts

The shortcuts were helpful and pretty simple to use. I feel like once I get comfortable with them, I will use them to be quicker and work more efficiently. I knew most of them, but sometimes get stuck in a rut and do things the "old way" which is not as time-effective.

I played with the double click to select a word, the triple click to select the paragraph and the right-click spell check option.

Thing 0

• What makes a good blog?  Information that is relevant to the target audience.
  
• How could a blogs enhance your classroom? It could give the quiet students a chance to express themselves. Students could be experts on topics and share with one another.
  
• Are blogs an easier way for people to self-publish? Yes. 

I would like to learn about some of the programs that were mentioned in the pre-course survey. It is hard to keep up with all the new technology.