Open Source software in the classroom.

Technology Roadblocks, don’t keep teachers from utilizing technology in their classrooms. Recently I started a project with my Special Education students to explore the use of open software for classroom learning.
I found that the school district I am teaching in has created technology roadblocks. In their attempt to control what students are able to access online they have created problems for teachers who are trying to integrate technology into their classrooms. For example when I try to download open source, or free source software more than 50% of them will be blocked requiring an administrator’s access in order to download the programs. Even the programs it does allow can run into other problems when students are attempting to utilize the software. For example, students cannot access their email form school. Most free software requires email verification after registering in order to fully utilize it.
I have attempted to download some open source software having students download “Evernote” open source from the website. Here we run into problems that students needed to have an email address in order to create an account. Some of the students do not have email addresses and none of them can access their email from the school computers. So I have to rely on them accessing email from home in order to complete the account. This will create more problems since not all of them will be able to do this or remember to. Regardless I will move on possibly having students work with partners who were able to complete their accounts in order to utilize this software program. A few days later I found that after entering your user name and password, you can bypass the request for a confirmation code and still access the program.
It’s important that school districts and teachers continue to push forward with technology in the classroom. Students need to have the most up to date technology education that we can provide them. Somehow we need to balance the need to monitor and protect them with the access to technology. I will continue to search and use what programs I can find that will work through the school district that I teach in. The roadblocks will not keep me from utilizing technology!
www.evernote.com

online assessments

The biggest online assessment that I liked is the quia.com for it's huge content to choose from. I can have students use different assessments providing more of a individualization for student work. I plan to use some of the assessments this coming school week in order to provide my students some practice on skills they have recnetly learned in a technology rich, exciting and fun interactive way. Since I teach math, writing and reading, quia provides many different assessments that I can easily use for each area that I teach.
Another site that I have used some primarily for my writing classes is the rubistar site. This is so nice to have a program that has rubrics to choose from that are already created, choose aspects to be included into the rubric and or create your own. I want to use rubistar even more to have students help choose waht should be included in their rubric.

Netiquette

Netiquette, a portmanteau of "network etiquette", is a set of social conventions that facilitate interaction over networks, ranging from Usenet and mailing lists to blogs and forums. These rules were described in IETF RFC 1855.[1] However, like many Internet phenomena, the concept and its application remain in a state of flux, and vary from community to community. The points most strongly emphasized about USENET netiquette often include using simple electronic signatures, and avoiding multiposting, cross-posting, thread hijacking, and other techniques used to minimize the effort required to read a post or a thread. Netiquette guidelines posted by IBM for employees utilizing Second Life in an official capacity, however, focus on basic professionalism, maintaining a tenable work environment, and protecting IBM's intellectual property.[2] Similarly, some Usenet guidelines call for use of unabbreviated English[3][4] while users of online chat protocols like IRC and instant messaging protocols like SMS often encourage trends in the opposite direction. (wikipdeia.com)
The following is a good site listing good and bad netiquette with happy and frown faces.
http://terrymorris.net/eitr/netiquette.pdf
http://www.microsoft.com/protect/computer/basics/netiquette.mspx
Good site for acronyms and emoticons, I found this information good in educating myself on the acronyms.
http://web.jccc.edu/edtech/notes/store/30/Netiquette.htm
As will the cyber bullying I would worry more about what students are sending and receiving online more in their homes than at school. Since many districts have limited email, chat rooms for students on school computers.

Cyber bullying

“Cyber-bullying is when someone repeatedly makes fun of another person online or repeatedly picks on another person through emails or text messages, or uses online forums and postings online intended to harm, damage, humiliate or isolate another person that they don’t like.” The National Crime Prevention Council criterion of what constitutes cyber-bullying is "when the Internet, cell phones, or other devices are used to send or post text or images intended to hurt or embarrass another person." (wikipedia.com)
Wikipedia does a great job of describing what exactly cyber bullying is. Cyber bullying concerns me when asking students to post information online. I do not want to open students up to online perpetrators. So I have been waiting on starting my students with blogs. Waiting until I can gain information from the school district on a way for students to have blogs through the school district services, which should limit the about of cyber bullying. By the time students reach high school to where I teach I would hope yet don’t assume that they would have a considerable amount of knowledge about cyber bullying.
Looking at the national crime prevention council website they have some short videos that could be used a teaching tools for students.
http://www.ncpc.org/newsroom/current-campaigns/cyberbullying/?searchterm=cyber%20bullying
Some good resources about cyber bullying and /or teaching about it:
http://www.wtvi.com/teks/06_07_articles/cyberbullying.html
The following site has some great information on how to save bullying information, tips on things not to share etc. Really worth looking at.
http://www.cyberbullying.org/pdf/Cyberbullying_Information.pdf

Photo story

Using photo story seems to be a great program that can really have some great educational uses. I am looking forward to using this program with my students. Yet, I will have to see if they will allow the program onto the school computers for students to use. I am have to beg and plead. The following website provides a lot of great information about
1) how to use photo story
2) uses for photo story
3) rubrics

etc. I found a lot of great links to further sites. Really liking that someone already made rubrics that I could use when assigning photo story as an assignment.

http://its.ksbe.edu/dst/

Educational uses of blogs?

Using Blogs as a classroom educational too can have some really great uses. I was able research online and easily find numerous websites that discuss the uses of blogs as educational tools. On the Pembina website they list five educational uses for blogs. They are: 1) can take place of a classroom website 2) teachers use the blogs to list internet sites 3) to organize classroom discussions 4) teachers may use them to organize and or summarize class lectures or discussions 5) students may be required to have their own blogs as a part of their class grade or assignment. These are all good suggestions for ways to use blogs to enhance student’s educational experience.
On another website I found out that, Blogs can provide a communication space that teachers can use with their students in order to develop writing, share ideas and or reflect on work being done in the classroom. It seems that blogs would be an excellent use of technology that can enhance, encourage and connect learning for all students at their level of learning. Sense we know that every generation is growing up with more and more technology in their lives it only makes sense to incorporate it into their education. I cannot see how it would hurt but only help in making education work for today’s technology driven students.
Thirdly, I found a website that stated;”In 1997 Jorn Barger coined the phrase Weblog to describe a site that combined links, commentaries, and personal thoughts and essays from the perspective of the Weblog author.” (Campus Technology website, 2008) To me this sounds like another way of getting all types of writing out to others to read. Some where I read that blogging is just online journalism. That really connected the whole idea of blogging for me, online journalism.

link
http://www.det.wa.edu.au/education/cmis/eval/curriculum/ict/weblogs/
http://www.pembinatrails.ca/program/technology/uses_of_blogs_in_education.htm
http://campustechnology.com/articles/39247/

Educational Journal Subscription

After looking around a bit I decided to subscribe to the e news letter of "Edutopia" which seems to provide a variety of articles on all kinds of educational topics. this was much more appealing to me than one that is too narrow of topics. I will be much more likely to read the newsletter articles when there are more topics.

link
http://www.edutopia.org/

PPT as an educational tool-reflections and web resources

Power points can be a great educational tool if used correctly. As a technology tool students can use it for many important educational purposes. Although it can become an over used or misused tool.

Personally I have had students use power points as a way to show information they have gathered, presenting it to the class. In the future I hope to broaden what students is it for. For my students who are special education students they need the experiences and practice with the skills and knowledge needed to create power points. Yet taking the time to have students create their power points can be consuming for some, needing a lot of time to complete the tasks needed.

I can see using power points as a way for students to teach each other about topics they are studying in a more interesting and creative way. I can also see that as a teacher I can incorporate more powere points when appropriate into my lessons providing the studnets a more visual learning atmosphere.

Thoughts on Presenky article

The main idea of the article, that education needs to change with the students is a very important aspect of education as a whole. It is difficult to teach students in the best ways possible for them. Educators need to be able to build bridges between their teaching and what the students need to know and be able to do. The only way I can see that we can continue to teach students is to 1) include them in the process 2) continue to keep educators up on technology 3) provide students with the most up to date supplies.

Personally I am mastering in technology for this very purpose, in order to keep my own education up in order to help my students the best that I can.

Harvest Time

Just an FYI for those who enjoy pumpkin farms.

There is a really interesting farm called Spooner farms located between Sumner and Orting. It is really worth the trip.

Introducing Myself

Good morning everyone

I am an advid WSU cougar I graduated in 1997. I currently teach at Renton high School where I teach reading, writing and math to resource room special education students. I have been teaching at Renton high school for 5 years now yet this is only my 4th year as a special education teacher. The first year I taught culinary arts and 9th grade health as an emergency teacher. the next year i taught language arts and math special education as well as (Spanish for two months) while getting my special education certification. then the next year i taught language arts, math and two periods of Spanish. the year after that i taught language arts, math and job readiness. Now this year i teach reading, writing and math will obtaining my procert and masters in technology.