Blogging is similar to journaling or making a diary entry; it includes a date, reflections on the topic of interest stated by the teacher, and a signature as to what student typed the post based on their login. A teacher can post assignments, share thoughts, and stimulate classroom interaction and the students can use blogs to practice writing and communication skills.
One of our teachers has his students blog in his Commercial Graphics class to have the student describe process of the development of ideas and their feelings about the pictures that they have posted on the Blog. The second component is to have students comment on each other's growing portfolio of pictures.
Today, use this Blog to share your thoughts about learning your new tech skill that was assigned in Week 1. Describe how you are getting started. Feel free to come back in during your learning to keep us posted on your progress, but there are only two required postings, the start and the finish of learning of this new tech skill. It is basically in Week 3 and Week 8 and any other updates you wish to share for extra credit.
I am in the midst of finishing up my lesson plans for the River Research Unit, and I have to say I'm pretty excited with the way it's turning out. Not only does Google Docs seem to be a great solution to collaboration on an assignment, but I'm doing well at creating graphic organizers and step by step directions that will support many different Learning Styles. The project itself, because we are going out into the field to collect data will also support a few different intelligences such as Logical, Spatial, Body-Kinesthetic, Naturalist, and Interpersonal. I still need to work on incorporating a better understanding of Cognitive Styles. I've also decided to incorporate a second new technology briefly for a few students who are more advanced in their use of "computerized" technology. For one of the data collection groups, I'm going to have them take out a GPS unit and keep track of our location at each of the collection sites. During the data recording segment, I am hoping that they can piece together a large map of all our locations using Google Maps so that the reader of the group research paper can see their progress from upstream on the Green River all the way down to the mouth of the Duwamish.
ReplyDeleteRegarding Google Docs specifically, the students are quick to pick up the habit of "sharing" their assignments with me so that I have immediate access to their work, but they often forget to change the title of their new documents without reminders. This is most likely because Google Docs saves their work second by second rather than being prompted to save and create a title when trying to close down a word processing program such as Word. Therefore, the machine doesn't "remind" them to give their new document a title.
I am still a little unsure as to how the inputing of each section of the paper will go. I am doing this unit twice with two different groups (one week after the other), so if my first method bombs, I will adjust my strategy. As of right now, I've created one document into which each small group will type their section of the research paper. The advantage to this is that it will all be in one place, and they can see what others have added to the paper. The disadvantage is that one group could accidentally delete another group's section. I'm considering having them type it up in Word first and then cut and paste into Google docs as a backup, but that seems to defeat the purpose of using Google docs. I guess the good news is that I can see the Revision History in Google docs, so I can restore it to an older version if necessary (and it tells me exactly who deleted it).
I've started with the "blank" document I mentioned before but went ahead and typed in the subsections so that each group would know where to input their information. I also added directions at the top of the document so they'll follow the formatting and use commands such as "ctrl+Z" just IN CASE they accidentally delete someone else's work.
We'll see how it goes and if I have to adjust my strategy for the second group!
Lauren, have you had any issues with students creating individual google accounts so far? I set all of my students up with accounts the first week of school this year, and I was constantly reminding people about their passwords. They also don't seem to be using their google accounts for anything. Without any schoolwide consistency, it can be frustrating if certain teachers are having students use blogs, moodle, etc, and google becomes just another thing they have to remember. Google is sorta designed to be a 'one stop shop' type of system and I wish my students would just migrate to it altogether.
DeleteIt wasn't very helpful that back in September Google underwent major changes in their DRIVE and I had a ton of technical problems, even getting students access to drive or my google docs, but it has gotten better since. Good luck.
Hi, Charlie-- We've generally had great success so far using Google Docs. The password issue has been a challenge, but we have offered to keep track of student passwords for anyone who wants us to do so. Also, because we are a self-contained school program, we get to keep our students all-day, everyday for an entire year. Thus, it's easier for us to move them into the "Google World" permanently regardless of what they've done with other teachers. And yes, I remember the whole switch over to Google Drive well... We didn't have our students on there yet, but I had problems with my own account.
DeleteEven with the challenges though, I think I'll be switching over to Google Docs permanently because of the many upsides: work saved each second, access from any location with internet access, collaborating on the same document, seeing revision history, typing comments directly into student work, and seeing student progress automatically rather than having to wait for them to turn their work in.
I am in the process of installing SynchronEyes in my Media lab, and trying to configure it to suit my needs. The goal is to teach a lesson using the "control" command where I control all of my students' screens at once so I can walk them through a software demo. I am hoping to end my frustrations with students not paying attention for part of a lesson and missing steps. I am also hoping to establish a system where I can answer basic "step" questions from my desk, rather than constantly running around reteaching and reteaching things that were covered in the original lesson. I am also interested in recording the sound for the "contro" lessons, and using screen capture so I can keep track of lessons, and play them back as videos for students who are absent. This should also help me improve instruction in the long-term.
ReplyDeleteAs of now I have about 20 of my 32 computers hooked up to synchronize-- it takes quite a bit of time to get everything set up, and I am working on 'grouping' my students. I have also been practicing randomly interacting with students while they are working, and making changes to their projects while they are watching so they can see how to do certain functions. Like I said, the goal is to teach a unit from the beginning using this new technology.
It is also very handy knowing who is working and who is not, on a more consistent basis.
For my new skill I am planning on using Prezzi's. Prezzi's is an online power point. I like the idea of an online power point as I think it will be more user friendly. So far It seems verly simple and interactive. I think that students will stay more engaged because I will be able to incorporate more in this online presentation.
ReplyDeleteOne of the things I always strugled with power point was embedding videos. Partly that was due to our server at my school but, also it sometimes just wouldn't synch up. I think with Prezzi it will be much simplier primarily because you will already be on line.
I plan to use Prezzi for my Financial Aid/FAFSA presentation. There are some cool videos out now to introduce students to FAFSA. I also am hoping to incoporate a poll into my presentation (this might be adventourous :-).
I look forward to sharing my presentation with you all!
I really enjoy Prezi! It is super interactive. I struggled a little at first figuring out how to use templates. I am just using the free version...I imagine if I upgraded I would have access to many more templates. After a little searching I was able to access the templates. I really love that it is online...it makes interfacing with other online websites much easier. I havn't linked a poll yet to the presentation but, am still hopeful!
DeleteI am currently in a class at South Seattle Community College. The class is Integrating Technologies in the Classroom. Part of the cirriculum is learning a new technology. I chose Google sites. It is actually a very cool website. You can create your own webpage for your class. So I am in the process of building one for my class. It is my goal to be able to post assignments, upcoming events, etc for my class. Stay tuned for more.
ReplyDeleteThis week, I had my first go at using Google Docs with the River Research Unit. Surprisingly, the use of technology has expanded with this unit to include GPS units, Google Maps, and Dropbox out of necessity. The highlights were that using the GPS units, Google Maps, and Dropbox worked beautifully. The GPS units were simple enough that they could set a waypoint for each testing site and then map them all using Google Maps. Fortunately, you can search for a location on Google Maps by using both the longitude/latitude and UTM’s (Universal Transverse Mercator), depending on which you are given from your particular GPS unit. I then had the GPS team print out a “master copy” of a map of all 6 of our testing sites identified by GPS marker. This will give the reader of their research paper a visual of how the students collected data along the river.
ReplyDeleteUsing Dropbox came about naturally because one of my requirements for each collection team was to document their collection with a picture of the collection site or of their actual collecting of the data. When we returned to the classroom with all of our results, I realized that we were faced with a small challenge of getting the pictures to each group because not every team had someone with a camera or smart phone and had to rely on another team to document their progress. Thus, the pictures they needed for their section of the research paper were on someone else’s phone. Uploading onto one computer would take extra time because each person would have to wait on the next rather than doing it simultaneously on separate computers. Emailing all of the pictures to me would have taken away time I was using to support each team informally with their data analysis and reporting. So, together, we came up with the solution of having each person upload the pictures either directly onto their own Dropbox account (if they already had one) and then sharing it with our class Dropbox account or uploading it directly to the class Dropbox. This worked beautifully because it cut the time in half as each person could work simultaneously on separate computers or via their phones. We’ve been using a class Dropbox account for several weeks already for other projects, so this was an easy transition.
My “genius” plan of having everyone type into one Google Docs document did not go as well, but not for the reasons I had anticipated. Fortunately, we only had one slip up regarding accidentally deleting a section of someone else’s work, and it was quickly remedied with the old “undo” function. The problem I hadn’t anticipated was that having so many people logged on to one document at once overloaded the system, and the document kept locking up, thus significantly slowing their progress. Now, I’ll have to find extra time in the next two weeks to allow for them to finish a paper that was supposed to be done on Friday. The good news is that I get to repeat the exact same Unit starting tomorrow with the other half of the class, and I can change my approach. This week, I’ll be having each team type their section into their own Google Doc first and then cut and paste into the group Google Doc at the end. That will also remedy any more accidental deletions. Overall though, I’m really happy with how well technology seems to be fitting into this Unit, and after our class yesterday, I’m already considering using Podcasts in my next science unit!
Ok, I am officially done with my Google Docs / River Research Unit. In the end, I am very glad I chose to use this new technology because the benefits far outweigh any technical difficulties I encountered. I love that my students had access to their work from any location where they had an internet connection and that they could even check their work on their phones. My other favorite features were the immediate AutoSave (no more lost work due to power failure or frozen screens!) and the ability for students to collaborate on their work.
DeleteAfter my first mishap having all students working off of one document, I adjusted my lesson for the next week so that each smaller team created their own GoogleDoc for their study area and then "cut & paste" their text into the "Master" GoogleDoc. For the most part, this worked out wonderfully as I was able to keep track of students' progress based on when they required access to the Master document. I could keep track of their progress via the app on my phone as I walked around the classroom and could even give them "permission" to edit the Master document from my phone as well. The only downside is that some of the graphics wouldn't transfer via cut & paste from the team documents to the Master document. I tried several troubleshooting methods and then finally settled on taking a picture of the graphic with my phone, uploading the picture, and inserting it into the Master document. Not the greatest solution, but it worked in a tight spot.
All in all, I will DEFINITELY be using GoogleDocs in the future!
My project is to build a Sealth Computer Science website using Visual Studio. I've done a few sites off and on over the years, sometimes what I've created and sometimes just taking over maintenance functions. A large part of my start was with intranet sites.
ReplyDeleteThe curious part of my teaching Web Design is that I am having to quickly update my skills. In part this is out of concern that we keep using the technology of yesterday to prepare students for tomorrow. Thus my goal is to help students gets to the level of obtaining some comfort level with Visual Studio for both web design and programming (in the near future). Visual Studio Professional is about $1000 although there are "express" versions for free for students, thus my choice.
I bought the website http://sealthcs.org/ from godaddy (whom I do not recommend - it was the cheapest and now I know why). I also bought a Visual Studio 2012 book and am about 6-7 chapters into it, but as you can see on my site I barely have a shell. It took a few hours just to make my updates automatic instead of manually posting each file via FTP (the reason why I want myself and my students to get used to the newer large programs).
I had to laugh when Earl presented on Saturday because I've been looking at his garfieldcs.com and the rooseveltcs.org websites a lot as models. My new tech challenge, however, isn't so much just building a site but doing so with the new Visual Studio software. It will not be complete until well after the course is over, but I do want to learn several of the formatting tools to automate some tasks via VS 2012. That doesn't make the site better or worse than anything else out there, but in order to show my students a high-end professional tool I need to at least get some of it working.
I know this is kind of an addition, but I went through the assignment again because our staff was just emailed a link to an in-house edublog for private "open" discussions about issues regarding the campus (schedule, study hall, etc.). Nothing horrible, but with the idea that the discussion was open to all staff but password protected so staff could openly discuss pros/cons about a couple issues instead of just forcing it into a single staff meeting at the end of a long day.
ReplyDeleteAnyhow, based on that I relooked at this and I went to check out 4 different random blogs from the edublog list and 3 of the 4 were not functioning (including a couple from the top 100).
I'm big into tech as evidenced by the fact that I'm loving my new computer classes (2 weeks down now) despite the 12-14 hour days, but I also often remain concerned about "relevant tech". Blogs are ok - but today's exercise of finding the first 3 out of 4 now nonfunctional again reminds me of a tendency of educators to follow the latest fad. Something done well is not the same as doing a little bit of everything, thus this little rant.
Connection to my project/learning? I have built up a fairly extensive "Fusion" page internal to our district's student/family website including nearly 50 resource files and almost daily notes (Power Point or Word). The internal site is good but has its limitations which is why I was considering setting up sealthcs.org. Realizing that even many top-rated ed blogs disappear I am really thinking about the fact that if I truly build the site I should maintain it, otherwise it's just one more needlessly annoying forever "under construction" site.
Charissa E.
ReplyDeleteI attending a training for my school district and I am learning how to use Word Press to create a website that is linked to each high school I work withs school website.
I have a list of items I want to include and I am learning how to add links to the OSPI website, The BOLI website for employment laws and required forms.
I have to submit a form to get clearance from each school and I am waiting to hear back from one then I can get my first draft up and running.
I plan to include program requirements, forms to submit required documents, it would be great to include an excel page for students to input their own work hours and also a page for employers to submit their evaluations of students electronically if that would be more efficient for them.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteFor my new skill, I have been learning how to build a website on Weebly.com. As I started learning the skill, I realized that I wanted to build two different sites. One geared towards the classroom where could integrate a tool such as Canvas and another geared towards the general public and parents to show the program we have and for general communication and informative purposes. The issues I initially started out with was learning some HTML code. Most of the things I wanted to do were built into the website and were quite simple but deciding how to post actual video to the website without using YouTube was challenging at first.
ReplyDeleteThis is definitely a skill that I am going to use for a long time after this class is over. It is a great way to connect with the online world and I really do feel that it is imperative in today's society if we are to promote CTE and our classes.
The further I got into building my new skill, the more ideas I have for the website. I plan on continuing to expand the website, creating a page to link to Facebook and Instagram to further promote the program.
DeleteThere were certain aspects of the class web page that I was attempting to make work that were already incorporated with Canvas. After discovering that we can sign up for free with Canvas and create our own online website, I decided just to link Canvas to the website and use the Weebly site as more of a research and resources page with videos made by the class and post notes, lectures, etc.
At this point I feel like the skills necessary for this skill are learned and in my bank but the project itself is only beginning. I'm excited to get this thing going and get the chance to run it with an actual class sometime very soon!
(this did not upload here when uploaded to the instructure site)
ReplyDeleteAlthough I've made little progress with my website using Visual Studio, I have learned a fair amount about the software and its various versions. One of the challenges I realize that I now have is that I have VS Professional 2010 on my home desktop computer (managed to get free) with Vista, VS 2012 Express on my Win 8 laptop, and 2012 Express with Win 7 in my classroom. That was thoroughly complicating my learning as despite reading chapters out of my VS book my "play" was spread across the 3 depending upon when I had time and where I was.
The most challenging thing I learned was I cannot install VS 2012 Express on my Vista desktop as it requires either Win 7 or 8. I really have not liked Win 8 on my laptop (I upgraded from Vista for the almost sole purpose of installing 2012 Express at home for practice). I realize Win 8 is designed for touchscreens (so I do like it better on my phone). This has been one of those "learned more by what didn't work than did work" computer times. The benefit of my headaches will be that when my students begin loading VS Studio 2012 Express at home I know they too must have at least Win 7.
Although my projected learning was to be building a class website with VS 2012 myself, based on the presentation on the 2nd Saturday in which middle school students built a large part of the website, I have decided to have students build a large part of the sealthcs.org website too.... after I build the shell. I also learned via the process that HTML 5 essentially now combines HTML with CSS and javascript and so the 2012 functionality is somewhat different than 2010. As I have made the decision to try and use nearly the latest technology for teaching I learned I'll need to slow down on building the site w/ VS 2012 as it's different enough from 2010 that I don't want to set it up with the wrong tools and have to undo it later.
As an aside, since Seattle has "Fusion" I am making my computer classes almost all digital and have had my students upload 3 assignments digitally so far. Since they'll clearly do the same in college (as we have) that will hopefull be good practice for them. I also don't mind not having to hand back papers (only good for me weeks 1-3 when learning names).