And they call me a nerd...smh

CEP 812 Wicked Project - Final

noreply@blogger.com (Pam) — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 14:44:00 -0700

Script:

1. Hello, this is Pam Pilant and my wicked problem is communication between me, my students and their parents.

2. I have found that communication in old ways works but I thought there should be a better way using technology that didn’t include long lines, phone tag and “recycled” mail.

3. So I used TPACK to try to solve my wicked problem

4. Technology/Pedagogy. I decided to create a website to increase communication with parents, students, the district and the community. To do this I did some research to see what a website should include and what parents and students would find the most helpful. Some of the categories I found important were; contact information, classroom information, news & events, links and student work.

5. Technology/Content. My research indicated that parents and students like having a website to find content on their time when its convenient to them.

Through this website they will be able to communicate with me through a variety of ways, find out what is going on in the classroom all at the click of a button with no waiting for a call or for the mail.

6. Pedagogy/Content.

I have included multiple ways of finding out information through the website by including text, audio and am planning some future video portions.

Visitors to my website can retrieve information as often as they want and can go more in depth by following links to additional resources

7. So here is my “work in progress” wicked solution.

My website has links to the schools I will be teaching at, pictures of those schools and the hours I will be at each school. I created an avatar of myself that provides an audio/visual tour of the site. It looks like me and even uses my voice!

I have included pages for the courses I will be teaching that so far include spots for my syllabus and links to assignments.

On the contact page I have a link to my email and an alternate form that can be filled out to contact me directly from the website. On the bottom of the page is a link for parents to sign up for the district gradebook Family Access.

The Submit Homework page gives the option for students to sent me their completed assignment—no excuse for lost work!

My Links page will include additional resources for students to get extra help, practice and fun educational sites.

I have a calendar page that will provide important dates and events happening in the classroom.

The Blog page will give a new way for visitors to network with me! I will post questions, reflections and general information in this blog. I am planning on assigning a structured question for students as a way to get them used to visiting my website.

Finally, I am including a Survey page. On this page I can find out what information people want to see on my page and other information that I will want to know as the year progresses.

8. There are a number of reasons why I think my solution will work.

· I will be traveling a lot I will be hard to talk to in person! This will make me more accessible.

· Like many teachers I will be juggling many tasks and a website will put everything in one place for me too.

· Websites are accessible from anywhere

9. The key interactions among the TP & C that make this solution so promising are that my website will

a. include different strategies for delivering information

b. have information that visitors will find valuable

c. use technology to make it easier to find and use information

I think that students will experience this problem differently because they already spend an average of 31 hours per week online so my website will be where they already are, in a language that they understand, in a format they will find interesting.

10. So, I have discovered many advantages to students, parents, and teachers to having a website and I am looking forward to adding, revising, and playing with it for this fall!

Here are some changes I made based on feedback and comments:

CEP 812 Wicked Project Part A

· Changed blog color to make it more readable

· Added a blog to my website for collaborative element

· Added a survey to begin the year

· Checked with district about students using web site—okay

· Week by week assignments rather than daily

· Will find out what percentage of students have computer/internet access.

CEP 812 Wicked Project Part B - Application of TPACK

· Created a survey to hand out in class in first week about what students would like to see on the website

· Added more detail about what I would be adding to the website

· Added how I expect the website to improve communication

· Added what the general purpose of my website would be

· Made the font bigger and in general widened the website

· Made the submit homework require a detailed filename

CEP 812 Wicked Project Part C - Implementation

· Plan to include a weekly student podcast summarizing what they learned that week

· Separated submit homework and contact information onto their own pages

· Planning on using the Blog as a discussion board for “homework help”

· Checked with district on student image policy (no identification, group only…) will plan on posting projects only and not photos

CEP 812 Wicked Project Part D - Findings & Implications

· Checked to be sure the website works with Internet Explorer, Google Chrome and Firefox (which I was using when I created it)

· Saved the class emails for future feedback!

· Plan to consider feedback but still stick to research

CEP 812 Mobile Learning Lab

noreply@blogger.com (Pam) — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 12:38:00 -0700

What tools did you try?

I tried out a few different tools. The first thing that caught my attention was using iPods/iPads in the classroom. Most of my students have an MP3 player and I thought it would be interesting to see what educational resources there were for them to use this device. I think that having an iPad for doing research at their seat (as opposed to trying to get into the library) was particularly a good idea.

Also, since we have been doing podcasts I thought that having lectures on their device was something to look into. I used to take a tape recorder to classes and record the lectures to listen to on the drive home or later for studying for finals. Using an MP3 would be the next step up!

The other tool I tried was the cell phone's in the classroom since almost all my high school students have phones that I'm trying to get them to NOT be on. There were some interesting ideas on what could be accomplished on a cell phone.

What ways are you thinking about integrating mobile technology into YOUR classroom?

I am interested in using mp3 players so that students could listen to podcasts. I will be having my high school class listen to a number of podcasts and create a journal response. I also thought the cell phone pop quizzes/polls would be a good addition to the regular paper type quizzes.

What challenges (or inspirations) do you foresee?

I see a few challenges. One would be that electronic devices are banned for most classes in school. Occasionally teacher's can get a waiver for students to use their device for educational purposes. Also, I think that once you have a student using their cell phone or mp3 player they would want to continue to play with it even when the lesson was over. I have also had students tell me that these devices are the new crib sheets/cheat tools and that a number of students have all the answers put into their devices! I think regulating their use would be a big challenge.

CEP 812 Group Leadership Project (Final!)

noreply@blogger.com (Pam) — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 11:46:00 -0700

What tool did your group use to deliver the PD tutorial? Why?

We used iMovie to produce the tutorial because Emily who put the movie together because she was most familiar with that program. We put the tutorial together using clipart and Google Docs Presentation slides along with a screencast video. Jing was used to capture screenshots and screencasts. We used these tools because we had practiced using them during the class and thought that these products made the tutorial professional and easy to view. We uploaded the video to YouTube so that it would be easy for us to share, access, and embed into our blogs.

What did you learn during the development process of the final product?

I learned that having a picture of the end product was very helpful. We were pretty clear about who would be producing what product and how it would look in the tutorial. This made it smoother to put the end product together. We found it really important to keep in contact and be organized so we could all contribute our part. Having an outline, storyboard/script was a good resource to look at when I was working on my part of the tutorial (how to create a Facebook Page and Group) so I could see how long to make it and how to transition in and out of my section.

What would you do differently if you had to develop a similar product again?

If I was doing a similar project again I think we would make sure that we all either used Apple or Windows products or that we picked an online tool to produce the video. Emily, Tammy and Dave found that the Windows screencast and iMovie parts would not work together when trying to merge the parts. There were also a few features that we found we would have liked to include (like links) that the tools we used for the video production would not allow us to include. There are probably pro versions that have these features but I would definitely want to see what other free tools we could use.

CEP 812 Professional Learning Plan

noreply@blogger.com (Pam) — Thu, 16 Jun 2011 09:45:00 -0700

Here is my "plan"
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/27220883/PLP.wmv

CEP 812 Wicked Project Part D - Findings & Implications

noreply@blogger.com (Pam) — Sat, 11 Jun 2011 05:17:00 -0700

Even though I'm still working on my website I decided that I would post my Part D because I have come to the conclusion that I will never really be done! (Example: I've already changed the site since I took the screen shots at the bottom of this post! lol)

Formative: Did the project get implemented as planned?

The answer to this is no and yes. I was not really planning on implementing this project for this school year. The school year is winding down (3 days now) and since next year I will be in different school, teaching different subjects it did not seem to be a wise use of my time to create anything that had to do with this year. Therefore, the things on the website are all for next fall on classes that I will be creating the curriculum for over the summer. At this point I have many of the things that I would like to include for next year and some ideas of surveys that I could give to students and parents to see what else they might like to have on the website. The yes part would be that while I have been working on this website I have had a lot of interest from my current students. So, I have put the website out there for them to look at, comment on and critique.

Summative: Evidence of success in addressing the problem of practice.

My evidence of success is that the students are interested in my project! It is a good indicator that at least my high school students will be interested in and use my web site next year. I have also had interest from some of the staff at my school who have been watching the progress of my website. I know that they have asked questions about how I set it up and how hard would it be for them to set up a website. Next year when I truly implement my website I will be putting survey questions on the site to see how it is working. I am also planning on assigning Blog responses for my students to get them used to visiting my site and introduce the concept of an educational Blog.

How would you approach another project of this type differently given what you’ve learned here?

The only thing I would change in my approach of another project of this type is that I would like to have my classes in place before trying to set up a website. Right now I feel like I am creating both at the same time (no syllabus, no course outline, no links, etc. yet) and the things that I don't know have left gaps in the website that I can't fill until I develop the courses. I would do many things the same; research, start working on the project and get feedback from colleagues, and the intended audience.

What are the lessons learned that others might benefit from knowing about?

Some of the lessons I learned that others might benefit from is that you just have to accept that some projects just don't ever reach a point where they are done. I went into the project thinking that it would be "perfect" and ready to go by the end of this class but I can see now that it will be a changing and evolving process AND that is a good thing! The most important lesson I learned is that it is essential to get feedback! I got wonderful insights from my students, daughter, from my CEP group and instructor as they could see things that I couldn't and could tell me what THEY thought was valuable. I read and heard their comments with interest and then went back to my website with fresh eyes and tried to incorporate their ideas. I also made a lot of notes to myself about their suggestions to incorporate next year (all on an "invisible" web page)!

In what ways will you endeavor to do the same project again, and what will you change or not do?

I will "complete" this project later in the summer as I add new information and revise some of the information I put on there as fillers. I will definitely get more people to give me feedback. I would not attempt a huge project thinking I could get it done in a short period of time. Fortunately since I now have the framework completed, a lot of great ideas and a vision I think it will be easier to use for the fall and keep up-to-date.

My website so far: http://mspilant.weebly.com

CEP 812 Group Leadership Project: Part B -- Storyboard and Script

noreply@blogger.com (Pam) — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 13:18:00 -0700

We are really progressing on our Facebook "Communications" project. We made rough verbal sketches of where we wanted to go and then took screen shots of potential scenes that we would like to use. I feel really good about how far along we are and how clean the story board and script look. Now we just need to find out how long the entire presentation ends up!

I have been working on the part of the tutorial that covers how to make a Facebook Page and Group. I put the different parts together in a Google Docs presentation. I also wrote the script for that part of the tutorial. I found links about teachers using Facebook and Facebook's FAQ about the difference between Pages and Groups. I also contributed a couple of FB songs for consideration (and background music). For the final product I will polish up my part and let Emily know that the presentation is complete and ready to record.
Tammy was in charge of putting a time table together for us, the initial outline of where we wanted to go and setting up the story board in Google Docs. She also put together some of the "why use Facebook" sections of the tutorial. She found resources and took screen shots of what we discussed about putting in that section. For the final product she will be helping keep us on track and help put the finishing touches on the presentation.
Dave was in charge of the example FB Group. His role helped us know what things we wanted to emphasize in the presentation. He has a group that he hosts with students and will be taking us through a tour of what types of activities can be done on FB so there is a visual representation of the benefits of using a Group or Page. Dave will screen-cast his tour and provide his example of a teacher using FB.
Emily has been putting the opening and closing scenes of the tutorial together and has also done a lot of the research and screen shots for the story board. She has also provided proofreading services and helped us with consistency in the project. Her big role will be putting all of our parts together and providing the "voice" for the tutorial along with Dave's tour section.

Our Story Board in Google Docs

CEP 812 Wicked Project Part C - Implementation

noreply@blogger.com (Pam) — Mon, 6 Jun 2011 16:34:00 -0700

Click here for an audio update on my wicked project aka increasing communication!

The website is coming along! And as I mentioned in my podcast students seem to be reacting very positively to the idea of using a website and they gave me some good input!

CEP 812 Web Conferencing

noreply@blogger.com (Pam) — Tue, 31 May 2011 17:14:00 -0700

In your blog create a reflection titled “Web-Conferencing” and discuss how the video conference went, what software you used, and what you would do differently next time. Also explain how this might be useful in your classroom.

We had our first web conferencing session on Thursday, May 28 at 8 pm. Michigan time. We used Vyew. The conference went pretty good despite a number of glitches to start with. First, scheduling was complicated due to our busy schedules and being on the opposite side of the world from one of our group-mates. We then discovered a number of technical difficulties with feedback from microphones (solved by having only one person on at a time), pages appearing and disappearing, not all members being able to see the screen sharing and strange incidents of text doubling and tripling as we all were contributing to a document (we just had to live with that and clean it up later). We also had a few of us who were spontaneously logged out of the conference and then had to come back in. As we started our conference we found out that Vyew does not record the session for us to include in our blogs (although the meeting notes and everything are still there to go back to so that's nice).

I'm not sure what I would do differently next time. I think a lot of the issues we had were because of our inexperience with the program, some program issues and maybe some individual computer issues. Since we had our conference prior to the email recommending using Adobe maybe we would try that program for a future web conference as it sounds like it works better.

I think this technology could be useful in the classroom if a high school student was working at home (ill/homebound etc.) and needed help or tutoring. This could work between teacher/student or between students. Next year my only students using technology on a regular basis will be 5th/6th graders who I have been told have very little computer experience so I'm not sure that this would be something that they could do on their own. I could see some possibilities of having a guest speaker present through web conferencing though which would give them an idea of what is possible and maybe letting students interact with the speaker.

CEP 812 Wicked Project Part B - Application of TPACK

noreply@blogger.com (Pam) — Tue, 31 May 2011 13:28:00 -0700

What is the TP knowledge for the solution? (i.e., how does the technology you have chosen support the teaching strategies and methods you have chosen?)

I am creating a website to help increase communication with parents, students, district and community. The website I have chosen is providing information that I have found through research that parents most want such as homework, links and ways to get in touch with me. I will also be adding a survey so parents can let me know what they find valuable and what they would like added. I am starting out with a simple framework to keep it clean and easy to use. I will be adding some instructional audio and maybe video portions so that there are multiple ways of finding out how to navigate the site and how to access information.

The types of information I am thinking about including are:

What is the TC knowledge for the solution? (i.e., how specifically does this technology make the content in your problem more intellectually accessible? Be sure to think about representation.)

While researching the "best" way to communicate with parents I ran across a lot of information that indicated parents prefer a website to letters, email, phone calls, etc. Since the website will be set up in a simple easy to use format it should be easy for parents (and others) to find the content they are looking for. I will include links for those who want more in-depth answers and there will be a way for parents to email me directly from the website by filling out a form (one-stop shopping).

The website will improve the lines of communcation by:

I expect parents will be able to find out what students are doing in school
Check anytime at their convenience
Be able to ask questions and provide feedback
Parents will be plugged into a network by having a blog to contribute and links to other resources
Making news and announcements available at the click of a button rather than waiting for mail.
Provide a way for students who are at home ill or who are behind in class to find out what assignments there are, access the assignment and have the option of submitting the assignment electronically to avoid "lost work syndrome".

What is the PC knowledge for the solution? (i.e., how specifically do your pedagogical choices make the content in your problem more intellectually accessible?) Be sure to think about how the student will experience the content given these instructional strategies.

Visitors to my website will have a number of ways that parents and students can access the information that they are interested in. Students (and parents) will be able to check on what homework they have even if they are at home sick or on vacation. Parents and students will not only be able to access information and increase communication but will be able to play, explore as often as they want without worrying they are "bugging" me.

The General Purpose of my Classroom Website:

· Providing a general description of the classroom or course.
· Providing a general outline and timeline of the units covered.
· Providing specific information about individual units or projects.
· Providing information about the progress of individual students.
· Providing links to online academic resources.

Website so far: mspilant.weebly.com

CEP 812 Group Leadership Project: Part A - Brainstorm Session

noreply@blogger.com (Pam) — Sun, 29 May 2011 09:03:00 -0700

1. What web conferencing tool did your group use?

We used Vyew as our web conferencing tool. We made this decision before we found out that recording the session was no longer a part of the free site but with the use of Jing and Screencast-o-matic we recorded a good portion of our meeting. Our meeting was held on Thursday, May 26 at 8:00 pm Michigan time. The link to our session is at https://www.msu.edu/~rebaemil/wc.flv

2. What were the advantages to using the web conferencing tool to discuss this project?

The advantages of using the web conferencing tool to discuss the project were that we could bounce ideas off of each other and come to a decision on what we wanted to do and how we wanted to do it all in one session instead of having multiple emails being sent back and forth between the group members. We also had a chance (except for one member) to see what we looked like and to see facial expressions and body language instead of just text. There were a number of moments of head nodding and laughter as we fumbled with the new technology, met a small pirate daughter and heard dogs and cell phone tunes go off in the background. At the end it felt like a very productive meeting and I feel like we add knew what our rolls were. Emily recorded the session using Screencast-o-matic and I took a number of Jing screenshots.

3. What were the disadvantages to using the web conferencing tool to discuss this project?

The disadvantages of using the web conferencing tool to discuss this project made themselves apparent when we first started trying to come up with a date and time to "meet". I'm sure one of the reasons we all chose to take this class online was because of our busy and changing schedules so finding a time that would work for us all took some doing. Between these schedules, having a member on the other side of the world and the weather here in Michigan adding to the confusion made this a challenge. The next disadvantage was the program itself. While exploring the program we chose before the scheduled meeting the site looked easy to use and a couple of us logged in early to practice. As we were navigating Vyew we found that it was not as easy or intuitive as we thought. We discovered that we couldn't all have our speakers on at once or we had ear piercing feedback and one member couldn't get their webcam to work. We struggled with multiple people flipping pages, making things appear and disappear which was confusing and comical! When we worked our way through that we then saw that we couldn't record the session using Vyew. Since we were all there we decided to continue on and we used a variety of screen captures to record our session. The final and least disadvantage was the advertisements in the corner, its a small thing but I found their flashing, appearing and disappearing to be distracting.

CEP 812 Wicked Project Part A

noreply@blogger.com (Pam) — Thu, 19 May 2011 14:51:00 -0700

An educational need or opportunity. This element is fundamental in this project. Since we have limited time, energy, and resources, cool technology without a clear sense of why it matters or what we gain by it is of little value in the educational setting.

The educational need or opportunity that I have selected for my Wicked Project is to increase communication between me as a teacher and parents (and incidentally between me and students, the district and the community). I have identified this as a need over many years where I have attempted to contact parents about what we are doing in class. The old way of playing phone tag, sending home postcards, letters, progress reports is time consuming and seldom shows results. The new way of using technology is as an opportunity to make the class work accessible online by having syllabi, course outlines, posting assignments, and providing resource links for further research and practice. This way parents, students, the district and the community know what is going on in my classroom. It will be there on days that students are absent or for ones who are working on homework at home to have the documents available so there is no “I left it at school”.

How you plan to address this educational issue with technology. You need to make a clear and convincing case that your proposed solution will make a real impact on the issue you identify, and that your proposed approach is a reasonable approach given its costs and possible alternatives.

I plan to address this educational issue with technology by creating an easy to access and use classroom website. I will be using a free website (Weebly) where I will include information about me, my classes, assignments, forms to contact me and a way to electronically submit student work. I will include links to the Family Access gradebook and other resources for research and practice. This approach will take less time to maintain once set up than I previously spent playing phone tag with parents or addressing mail. I also believe that parents will find accessing the website less intimidating than trying to talk to secretaries, leaving voicemail or talking to a teacher that they may not know. Students will find the ability to look up assignments (and being able to turn them in) not only valuable for my class but a valuable skill for future employment.

Logistics of solution (what is the scope; when and where will tool be used and for how long?)

The website I create will be used by me for the duration of this year with the intention of continued and expanded use next year. As I work with the website I will be able to modify and enhance it for the remainder of my teaching years. I am hoping that it will prove to be a model for other teachers who I can encourage to create a website so that it will become routine for parents and students to access them anytime they have a question or just want to know what is happening in the classroom.

Relevant research and resources (from the Internet and elsewhere) including reports on the closest effort you can find to what you are planning to do as well as ideas and materials you may be able to build upon in your own effort.

There is a lot of research (both old and new) that indicates that parent involvement and communication between parent and teacher is key for student success. As I will be working with 5^th/6^th grade as well as High School next year I included research for middle school as well. I found that due to the difference between middle school and elementary school structure, parent involvement tends to decline across the grade levels. But if teachers in the middle school use appropriate tools to help increase communication with parents that those patterns will continue through the upper grade levels. A website was shown to keep parents informed of homework and important school dates while fostering independence in adolescent students by not having parents visibly checking up on the students (ie. Being embarrassed in front of their friends by parents showing up in class!)

I have been bookmarking articles using my Delicious account: http://www.delicious.com/ppilant and Google Bookmarks

A plan for the portion you will implement during this course and the portion you will implement after this course completes.

I will create the website that I will be using after completing my research on what an effective teacher website should include and interviewing potential “clients” (parents, students, teachers…). After I have the website up and running I will have some test subjects look it over and use the various features that I include. For the fall I will update the website with my current course information and add website maintenance to my weekly schedule of “things to do”. I will have the website included on my course syllabus, business card, the bottom of my email (signature) and have a link added to the school website so people will know that it is there and available.

Indicators of a successful project

I will know if my project is successful by the number of visits I get to the site, the number of subscriptions I get to the website and the feedback I receive from parents, students and other users. Since I will have a different job next year than this year I won’t have a before/after percentage to look at but I will be able to complete a survey during parent-teacher conferences to see if parents and students feel better informed. Since I will be including a communication form and a homework submit form I will be able to see if that is being used.

CEP 812 My Personal Introduction Movie

noreply@blogger.com (Pam) — Fri, 13 May 2011 17:32:00 -0700

So here it is, my first "movie" which took way too long because I kept playing with it! All this for a one minute introduction!

CEP 812 My Avatar

noreply@blogger.com (Pam) — Sat, 7 May 2011 07:14:00 -0700

I created this Avatar of me while playing with ideas for my personal introduction. I decided not to use it but it was so funny I had to keep it and post it!

CEP 812 My First Audio Podcast--experimental

noreply@blogger.com (Pam) — Sat, 7 May 2011 05:08:00 -0700

Here is my first audio podcast created in Audacity.

It's located at:
https://www.msu.edu/~pilantpa/cep812/mypodcast.mp3

CEP 811 Final Reflections

noreply@blogger.com (Pam) — Sun, 1 May 2011 13:03:00 -0700

Its hard for me to separate the questions from CEP 810 and CEP 811 since I was taking them at the same time and much of it blended together with only the assignments making a distinction between them for me. This was actually a good thing as I could apply what I was learning in one course to the other and my studies and readings flowed back and forth between the classes. So, my answers for CEP 811 are similar to CEP 810 :)

Some of the things that I have learned about effective teaching strategies when integrating technology are:

to provide guidelines
to make lessons valuable to students
to select technology lessons that enhance the curriculum
to make technology fun
to not worry about knowing the technology perfectly

Integrating web-based technologies helped me think about and evaluate uses of technology by:

helping me be aware of resources that I didn't know about (like Merlot)
helping me think about the quality of the different web-based technologies
helping me know how to evaluate the quality of the resources

I have met my own personal goals for learning about technology integration by:

becoming more aware of new types of technology that are available
learning how to use new types of technology
implementing some of the new technologies learned for personal use (I have set up my own website)
introducing some of the new technologies with students. I have shown some of my projects to students who then have decided to try them too
assisting other teachers at my school to use some of the technologies too (they love Google Docs now and one teacher wants me to help her set up an online resume).

My plan for reaching my goals is to complete the next 3 CEP courses I need to get the NP endorsement. My long term goals will be to continue learning about new technologies and search for other opportunities to advance my educational technology education. Since I already have a MA in Educational Technology I'm not sure what my next step will be but through the networks I am now connected with I will be able to see if new courses, new degrees, or workshops become available. Also I will be kept up-to-date on what's new in the world of educational technology and can pursue learning on my own which taking this class has reminded me I really love doing! I plan on continuing using my Wiki and my Website for both professional use and as an example for students in my classroom.

CEP 810 Personal Learning Reflection

noreply@blogger.com (Pam) — Sun, 1 May 2011 12:16:00 -0700

Some things that I have learned about effective teaching strategies when integrating technology are:

to provide guidelines
to make lessons valuable to students
to select technology lessons that enhance the curriculum
to make technology fun
to not worry about knowing the technology perfectly

Integrating the Internet helped my think about and evaluate uses of technology by:

helping me be aware of resources that I didn't know about
helping me think about the quality of the different resources
helping me know how to evaluate the quality of the resources
helping me show students how to evaluate Internet resources

Of the assignments that I turned in I feel the following really exemplifies good teaching with technology:

The SIG Annotated List of Resources. I feel that our project would make using technology relevant to students, enhance the curriculum, make technology fun and introduce students to the concept of enjoying learning and lifelong learning.
PLN Visualization. I feel that is a lesson I could use with my students to help them set goals for their own learning while becoming familiar with new technologies.

I feel I have met by goals established in my Personal Growth Plan by:

becoming more aware of new types of technology that are available
learning how to use new types of technology
implementing some of the new technologies learned for personal use (I have set up my own website)
introducing some of the new technologies with students. I have shown some of my projects to students who then have decided to try them too!
assisting other teachers at my school to use some of the technologies too (they love Google Docs now and one teacher wants me to help her set up an online resume).

My goals for after this course is over are pretty much the same as in my Personal Growth Plan. My plan for reaching my goals it to complete the next 3 CEP courses I need to get the NP endorsement. My long term goals will be to continue learning about new technologies and search for other opportunities to advance my educational technology education. Since I already have a MA in Educational Technology I'm not sure what my next step will be but through the networks I am now connected with I will be able to see if new courses, new degrees, or workshops become available. Also I will be kept up-to-date on what's new in the world of educational technology and can pursue learning on my own which taking this class has reminded me I really love doing!

CEP 811: Online Experience

noreply@blogger.com (Pam) — Mon, 25 Apr 2011 11:47:00 -0700

As I explored the resources and technologies I could see that many of them would be applicable to my future students and it made me look forward to trying them next year! I think that most any class could adapt some of the online experience to their curriculum.

I am especially interested in Educational Blogs where students would have "a personal online journal that is frequently updates and intended for public consumption."

Learning can happen anywhere a student has computer access
Everyone can partipate even students who normally don't contribute to class discussions
Students can build on learning by revisiting their beginning blogs and adding new understanding to them.
Students would gain writing experience
Encourages collaboration in the classroom
Can involve people outside the school
Students can use images to express themselves
It can reduce the costs of printing and other supplies (journals, notebooks)

I would probably use a variety of pedagogical strategies with my students starting with direct instruction where I would show the students step-by-step how to use the blog. Next I would use structured questions to get students used to blogging their thoughts, opinions and become familiar with the technology. I would also model blogging by including students in my own blog and by responding to their blogs. As we became more familiar with blogging I would have students become more reflective, have dialogues with other students and then invite responses from others outside the classroom.

I think some of the technologies that would be harder for my students to use are the RSS Feeds because many of them are poor readers and finding articles that would work for them would be challenging. Podcasts and Videocasts would also be difficult because we do not have the equipment for audo or visual recordings. Most of the other online experiences would work for us if we started out small and worked our way to their full capabilities. Although my current students don't have a lot of computer experience I think they would enjoy learning about and interacting with these tools.

CEP 811 Wikis Lab

noreply@blogger.com (Pam) — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 18:46:00 -0700

Wikipedia: I first of all searched for my school, Holt Central High and we are not listed on wikipedia. I considered adding a page but since Central is being closed down in June it seemed like a waste of time. Therefore I went to the Holt High School page and noticed that the school's Color Guard and Winter Guard teams were not included on the site (my daughter has been on the team for a couple of years!). Therefore, I added those two extracurricular activities.

Wikispaces: I had created a wikispace for CEP 810 but hadn't done much with it since signing up for the space. My wiki is at ppilant.wikispaces.com. I added an image, a map of the town were I live, my Google Calendar, my Delicious bookmarks (last 10), a table containing the 5 classes I'm taking. I also added a second page (with nothing on it except a link back to the home page).

CEP 810 Learning Styles

noreply@blogger.com (Pam) — Sat, 9 Apr 2011 10:20:00 -0700

In my own learning experiences I find that I combine all of the types of learning. Primarily I am a visual learner. I like to read, see diagrams/pictures and take notes to look at later. Secondly, I think I am a kinesthetic learner in that once I read/see I would like to try it! This helps me really know the material and retain the "important" parts. I know that I can memorize things by the "feel" of them--like my pin number! If I can't remember it in my head I can remember the finger movements! Thirdly I find that auditory learning works in some situations. For example if I want to remember where I parked the car I will say it out loud and I won't forget it!

So, the most effective method of learning for me is to read it/see it, try it and then review it out loud! The least effective is just for me to hear it or to try it without reading or seeing it first.

We can't teach each lesson focusing on ever learning style for a lot of reasons. First of all, most lessons are in the written form. Second, there isn't time to do every lesson 3 different ways. Thirdly, we don't know how each student learns. I believe that since most learners are a mix of all three learning styles we need to focus on teaching students how to learn no matter how the material is presented! They need to find out what works for them. I know at my school we often talk to students about this and give them ideas of how they can take a lesson and use different types of strategies to adapt the lesson to their personal learning style so they can learn and retain the material.

CEP 810 Using CC Licensed Works

noreply@blogger.com (Pam) — Sat, 9 Apr 2011 09:25:00 -0700

This is an image I might incorporate into my Health class as we were studying the affects of smoking. I think its a powerful image.

Photo Attribution:

Original image: "antismoking10"
http://www.flickr.com/photos/7330030@N03/3674110607
by: xkorakidis

Released under an Attribution-Non-Commercial-Share Alike License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/deed.en

This is a picture I took of my dog running on the beach. I think it shows the pure joy of summer!

Photo Attribution:

Original image: "Pure Joy at the Beach"
http://s146.photobucket.com/albums/r262/ppilant/?action=view&current=lilyrunning.jpg
by:Pam Pilant

Released under an Attribution-Non-Commercial-Share Alike License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/

This is what Creative Commons says the CC looks like:

Pure Joy at the Beach by Pam Pilant is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
Based on a work at i146.photobucket.com.

CEP 811 UDL Guidelines

noreply@blogger.com (Pam) — Fri, 8 Apr 2011 07:19:00 -0700

After completing the UDL lab I was suddenly overwhelmed by the scope of making my lesson plan "fit" the requirements! I have always thought I tried to present lessons in a multi-dimensional approach but this really brought out more depth to what could/should be done. The only thing I worry about now is that there is not enough time left (in my career let alone the school year) to add all these components to my teaching! With some of the items I struggled with defining what they were asking for, wondering if they applied to a "short" lesson and then getting off track trying to decide how I could add those features. I noticed that the checklist sent by Chuck was not exactly the same as the one on the website (UDL Guidelines - Educator Checklist) but used the version he sent.

CEP 811 Share & Evaluate learning Material from MERLOT

noreply@blogger.com (Pam) — Sun, 27 Mar 2011 13:57:00 -0700

I picked an activity called Google~Guide. I have been looking for a lesson on Google features and thought this looked interesting. The tutorial was http://courses.cvcc.vccs.edu/IST_Hoisington/searchmodule.htm

When I got into it though, I found that it was not really interactive unless you count active links you could click on.

So, in my opinion it is not a tutorial that I would use for my class other than as a possible resource for what is available.

Quality of Content:
1. Does the software present valid (correct) concepts, models, and skills? The content contained valid concepts, models and skills for searching the Internet using Google.
2. Does the software present educationally significant concepts, models, and skills for the discipline? The content had educationally significant concepts, models and skills but you really had to click on everything and open up other pages to see it

Potential Effectiveness as a Teaching-Learning Tool:
1. What stage(s) in the learning process/cycle could the materials be used? The material would be used during the explanation and demonstration process of learning to search Google. I believe you could also use it during the practice and applying if you went and looked at just that section or used some of the “cheat sheets” for queries.
2. What is(are) the learning objective(s)? What should students be able to do after successfully learning with the materials? The learning objective was stated to “use Google’s capabilities, features, and services”. Students should be more familiar with what Google can do after the tutorial.
3. What are the characteristics of the target learner(s) The characteristics of the target learner would be someone who is very interested in the subject and who is a high level reader.
4. Does the interactive/media-rich presentation of material improve faculty and students' abilities to teach and learn the materials? There were a lot of pictures but not a lot of interactive presentations in the material.
5. Can the use of the software be readily integrated into current curriculum and pedagogy within the discipline? I think the teacher would have to assign a particular part instead of just letting students jump in, there are too many areas where it gives options (if you know the material skip ahead, if not open this link and read…)
6. Can the software be used in a variety of ways to achieve teaching and learning goals? I think the only way would be to read it and try some of the directions out in Google)
7. Are the teaching-learning goals easy to identify? The teaching-learning goals were not listed anywhere that I could find.
8. Can good learning assignments for using the software application be written easily? If you just picked one section I think it could be used at a learning resource.

Ease of Use:
1. Are the labels, buttons, menus, text, and general layout of the computer interface consistent and visually distinct? I found it very difficult to find the information I was looking for after the initial page. There were many links that all led to other topics and more information but not back where you were.
2. Does the user get trapped in the material? There is a lot of information presented all at once and not much guidance in the order in which you could tackle it so I personally was trapped!
3. Can the user get lost easily in the material? Very easily lost. I didn’t know what I had looked at and it was not sequential.
4. Does the module provide feedback about the system status and the user's responses? There was no way of responding or practicing outside of having a Google browser open.
5. Does the module provide appropriate flexibility in its use? It would be flexible in that it has a lot of material contained in the module.
6. Does the learning material require a lot of documentation, technical support, and/or instruction for most students to successfully use the software? There really is not an order or any rules to using the module, you could jump in or out of any section.
7. Does the material present information in ways that are familiar for students? It is set up something like a book with an index on the left and the text on the right.
8. Does the material present information in ways that would be attractive to students? I don’t think students would enjoy this module as it would take a lot of reading and there is no guidance or feedback and the only pictures are of google and its tools.

PC Maintenance and Security Lab

noreply@blogger.com (Pam) — Sun, 27 Mar 2011 11:59:00 -0700

For the Atomic Lab I picked 3 Tutorials.

The first was under the Blocking and Killing Sypware and Adware and was about Spyware Blaster. There were actually 2 that I watched but the second one was very short!
I learned that there are good free tools on the Internet and I will definitely share this one with other people. It was easy to install, updates regularly and will make my computer run quickly.

The second tutorial I watched was on Tips for Safer Browsing, Exploring Firefox. I only began using Firefox when I began using Angel for this class. So I was interested to find out about the different settings I could use and tools were particularly useful. I would show some of the ways I learned about the Firefox privacy options and the set master passwords option.

The final tutorial I used was under the Good Safety and Security Habits: Following a PC Maintenance checklist. It was interesting to see that they recommended manually doing updates instead of just using the automatic updates. I would share this list with others!

Getting Things Done

noreply@blogger.com (Pam) — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 15:18:00 -0700

So I read the Mastering Workflow article with great interest and as I've been hoping to clear up incoming paperwork and email I've been practicing this week.
1. Collect: I have an inbox for paperwork and for email at work.
2. Process: I tried each day to have a do/keep/toss/later immediate sorting. I was amazed at how much I eliminated right away! Most things were either right now or in the recycle bin.
3. Organize: I made subcategory folders (both paper and email). While I was moving the items in I added notations into my calendar
4. Review: I haven't had a chance to Review yet, that might take a couple days since most things that I didn't get to on the day I got it are future events.
5: Do: My inbox is empty, my outbox is full and all my email is taken care of. Hurrah!

Well, at least until tomorrow when the process starts all over.

To answer the questions in the assignment:
Once you have gone through the process once, (get to the do process), go to your blog and answer the following questions.

1. How did you organize your process? (are you using paper and pencil, a phone, a piece of software)? I organized using paper folders and computer folders plus my work (computer) calendar.
2. What was it like for you going through the process the first time? It was pretty easy to go through the process for the first time. Its not too different from what I already do, I just never did it in a formal step-by-step process.
3. Do you think that this process will help you? Why or why not? I think the process will be good to keep in mind when I see all the paperwork/computer work piling up. It helps keep things from getting overwhelming and out of hand.
4. Do you think you will continue this process? If not, what will your process be? I think I will continue the process.

Appropriate eMail Addresses and email Etiquette

noreply@blogger.com (Pam) — Sun, 20 Mar 2011 15:47:00 -0700

My MERLOT Lesson Plan for CEP 811

Appropriate eMail Addresses and email Etiquette