CEP 416 Spring 2008 ONLINE

Week 12: Technology Integration Projects

noreply@blogger.com (CEP416) — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 12:00:00 +0000

If you'll recall from the syllabus, we are no longer introducing new content, but rather providing you with some time to work on creating your Technology Integration Projects. You have already submitted proposals for your plan, and I will be sending back my comments and suggestions regarding those plans by Tuesday night.

After reviewing my feedback, you'll have much to do. Step one will most likely be creating mock ups of the different artifacts your plan highlights. Step 2 will be producing the video/digital story that presents your ideas and artifacts to your audience. Please keep in mind that these videos will be reviewed by current/former field instructors so that you can get their feedback about your internship plans.

Step three will involve updating your web portfolio to include your project. Ideally, you should try to figure out how to embed your video into your portfolio. Also, be sure to include your written plan.

The projects can be turned in anytime before April 14th. Please update the Wiki Gallery page to include a link to the Technology Integration Project section page in your web portfolio. You will not need to write a blog post for this project.

As the culminating project for the semester, I expect great things from all of you. I look forward to seeing what you can do. Please keep in touch and don't hesitate to ask if you need help.

Cheers,

Joe

Week 11: Collaborative Applications

noreply@blogger.com (CEP416) — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 18:20:00 +0000

First, congratulations to each of you for getting your podcasts up and running. I know for several of your it was quite the arduous process. Projects like these require such exactness that even one little error dooms the entire outcome.

This week will be a bit different than week's past and really starts to mark the transition from presenting new content to working on your projects. Let's see what's in store.

Watch the VoiceThread on Collaborative Applications

Explore these Collaborative Applications

THERE IS NO WIKI GALLERY PROJECT OR BLOG ASSOCIATED WITH COLLABORATIVE APPLICATIONS THIS WEEK. Instead, your Technology Integration Plan is due.

First, review the syllabus regarding the entire project and what needs to be in the plan.
Second, compose your technology integration plan. Here are some questions that might help you with your brainstorming.

How might I use technology to create assignments for students?
How might my students use technology to learn content?
How might my students use technology to demonstrate their learning?
How might I use technology to assess student learning?
How might I use technology to communicate with parents and students?
How might I use technology to document my teaching?

Third, create a post on your blog that includes a link to a .pdf of your plan. In your post, please include:

A brief overview of what the project will entail
Identify the specific grade level(s) you are designing it for
Identify the specific GLCES and METS that you believe it addresses
Discuss what technologies you will be using to create the final project (the 8-10 minute video or digital story) NOTE: This is not part of your plan, but I want to know what you are going to use to showcase your plan.

Please have the technology plan up by Saturday night/Sunday morning. Link the permalink to your blog post under the "Tech Plan" column.

One final note, I'm a bit behind on the grading, but hope to be caught up by mid-week.

Best of luck and as always let me know if you have any questions.

Cheers,

Joe

Week 10: Podcasting

noreply@blogger.com (CEP416) — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 12:00:00 +0000

Watch out. We're going to do amazing things this week! By the end of this week, you will have created your very own audio and video podcasts. You'll also have all the skills you will need for creating the final Technology Integration Project video. Lots to do, so let's get started.

Preparation

Watch the VoiceThread about Podcasting.
Read the following

Needed Technology:
For this week's project, you will probably need to draw heavily on the learning new technologies skill sets we've been developing throughout the semester. Below are some technologies that you may not be familiar with. Before you begin trying to complete the project, I highly recommend you seek out some resources to get a better understanding of how to use these technologies. To focus your research a bit more, I have identified some of the specific skills you will need to use each of the technologies below.

Audacity: For this project, you will need some kind of a sound recording software. Audacity is a free download and is user-friendly. Be sure as well to get the LAME encoder so that you can export your file to .mp3

Skills you will need

How to download and install Audacity and the LAME encoder
How to record projects
Basic sound editing with Audacity
How to export project to .mp3

You will also need some kind of video-editing software. Most computer already come with this software. For PCs, look for Windows Movie Maker, and Mac users probably will want to use iMovie. Please email me asap if you do not have access to a video-editing application.

Skills you will need

How to locate these files on your computer
How to import files to work with
How to move files on to the timeline/storyboards
How to resize/edit clips
How to save movie in podcastable formats.

iTunes or another media aggregator

Skills you will need

How to download and install
How to subscribe to podcasts using iTunes.

Weekly Gallery Project:
For our project this week, we will be creating both an audio and a video podcast. As far as content for your podcast, please develop a 2-3 minute mini-lesson for students of a specific grade-level. As you have done in the past, identify the specific grade-level you are intending this for as well as at least one grade-level expectation that your lesson would help satisfy.

There are numerous ways you could go about completing this project. If I were doing this, here's how I would probably go about it.

Creating the Audio Podcast

Create a new folder on your computer where you are going to save everything for this project.
Develop a polished PowerPoint with images that you would use to teach students during your 2-3 minute mini-lesson (Don't use animation in the PPT; it won't come through in the video version). You can use your own photos, create your own screen-captures, or draw on CC-licensed works. Be sure to save this PPT in the file you created.
Open audacity and start recording. Minimize audacity letting it run in the background and then view your PowerPoint, narrating each slide. When you are finished narrating your PPT, click back into Audacity, stop the recording and save your project to the project folder.
Because of switching between Audacity and PPT, you will have a bit more audio at the start and beginning of your audio. You can cut those segments out of your audio.
Export your audio to .mp3 and save the .mp3 to your project file. Next, upload this file to your afs space. If you need help uploading to afs, check out my FTP to afs space handouts from here.
Once the file is uploaded, be sure to check to make sure you can access it. My "FTP to afs space" handouts will help you figure out what the appropriate url should be for it.

Creating the Video Podcast

Go back to your PPT, and Choose File-"Save As"--"JPEG" and tell it to save all of your slides as jpegs to your project folder.
Open up Windows Movie Maker or iMovie, and import the jpegs of all your slides as well as the .mp3 audio file.
First, lay down your .mp3 file on the timeline, then pull down each of your slides in the order they should appear.
Listen to your audio to figure out where each of the slide transitions should occur. You can resize each of the slide clips by dragging on their edges.
Once you have the audio and the images aligned properly, you can save your movie to your computer. Be sure to save your movie as either a .wmv (Window Movie Maker) or .mov (iMovie).
Upload your movie to your afs space the same way you did with the audio file. Again, test your address to make sure it routes to your video.

Weekly Blog Post

Please identify the grade-level this mini-lesson is for as well as the grade-level expectation that it meets.
In a paragraph or two, discuss how teachers might use podcasting in their classrooms. In order to complete your podcast, you will need to create links (embedded please) in your post to both the audio file and the video file you uploaded to AFS. The act of creating the link is what enables the files to be available through your RSS feed.
Please link the permalink of this post to the Wiki Gallery under the "Podcast" column.

Double-Check

If you've done everything right, you should be able to acquire both your audio and video podcasts through a media aggregator such as iTunes.

Final Thoughts
This assignments pulls together many of the technologies and ideas we've been developing across the semester and it probably is the most complex project to date. While I want you to see what you can do "on your own" so to speak without jing videos that walk you through step-by-step, I also don't want you to struggle unnecessarily. Ask for help when you need it; remember, that, too, is part of our learning new technologies strategies.

Please have this week's assignment completed by midnight Saturday evening/Sunday morning.

Best of luck.

Cheers,

Joe

Week 9: Maps and Mashups

noreply@blogger.com (CEP416) — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 16:14:00 +0000

View Larger Map

Welcome back from spring break. In the past couple of weeks, we focused on digital images and storytelling. This week, we are going to learn about mashing technologies together. One of the most popular K-12 applications of mashing is with map programs.

To learn more about what mashing is, read through the following resources:

7 Things You Should Know About Mapping Mashups - (A nice concise overview)
T he Horizon Report 2008 - Feel free to read the entire report, but the section on Mashing is on pages 20-22.
Dr. Mashup or, Why Educators Should Learn To Stop Worrying and Love the Remix - A more in-depth look at mashing and remixing.

To see some examples of Mashups, check out these resources:

Using Google Maps and Google Earth - Look at section titled "Google Mashups"
Map Mashing Classroom Applications - A wiki produced by people at MSU
Google Lit Trips - Also has some nice resources for how to create Lit Trips

Weekly Gallery Project:
Your task for this week is to create your own map mashup to represent content that you could share with students as part of a lesson. Here are the requirements for the project:

Your map must have at least 5 different placemarks on the map.
Each of the placemarks should contain text for your students to read to help them understand why the placemark is important. Envision that your students will be looking through the maps on their own, so the text should be elaborate enough to help students be self-sufficient.
At least three placemarks should contain embedded images within the placemarks. You can either use CC images or images that you have taken. If you use CC image, be sure to properly cite the images as well. Smaller images will work better for this exercise.
At least two of your placemarks should included hyperlinks to web pages that students can click on to help them learn more about the content introduced in the placemark.
If you really want to go all out, you can embed a YouTube video inside a placemark. You can count an embedded YouTube video in lieu of one of the images. Be sure to give credit for the video though.

To learn about placemarks, adding images, including hyperlinks, etc. draw on some of the learning new technology strategies we are working on. For example, you might search through Google Video, YouTube, or TeacherTube. You might look through the help resources or user guides that accompany the mapping program. Feel free to choose whatever mapping program meets the assignments needs. In the past, students have found Google Maps easy to use, and it provides a link so that you can also view your map in Google Earth.

Weekly Blog Post:
For your blog post this week,

Embed your map in your blog. You may need to tweak the zoom on the map and change the settings so that the map looks good in your blog.
In your post,

Identify what grade level and subject matter you might use this map for. ( A single sentence is fine)
Give us an overview of what you think the mashup could help students learn and how you might use this map with students (at least a paragraph)

Link to the permalink for your blog post in the Wiki Gallery under the "Mashup" column.

On a final note, I will be in NYC Monday and Tuesday, but will be back online on Wednesday. Best of luck. I look forward to seeing the maps you create.

Cheers,

Joe

Week 8: Mock Interviews

noreply@blogger.com (CEP416) — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 13:00:00 +0000

First, just a quick reminder about your web portfolios. They are due the last weekend of spring break. I'll push it back so that you can have the entire weekend, but please have them ready for me to evaluate first thing Monday morning, March 10th. I sent out an extensive email about the web portfolios. Please be sure to look it over.

For this week, we will be doing mock interviews. In past courses, it's one of the topics that students have always found to be extremely helpful to them. It is easier in face-to-face sections where creating an interview-like atmosphere is more natural. I've been trying to decide how to do this in an online section and thought we would give VoiceThread a shot. Below you will find a link to a VoiceThread I created. On each new slide, there is an interview question for you. Here's how it will work.

Click on the link to the VoiceThread Mock Interviews.
Sign into your VT account. Please use your anonymous identity for this project.
Record a thread (voice please) for each one of the interview slides (excluding the title slide). I suggest that you treat this like you would an interview. Sit down, read the question, and record your first response. Don't worry about scripting out answers ahead of time or having polished answers--you won't have that luxury in a real interview.
In your blog post for the week, write about your experience with the interview. Please talk about:

What your avatar image was.
What questions you felt you answered best and why? (1 paragraph)
What questions you felt you struggled a bit with and why? (1 paragraph)
What can you take away from this experience to help you in a real interview. (1 paragraph)

Here's the weekly checklist.

Please complete the VoiceThread by THURSDAY, February 28th. On Friday, February 29th, I'll add my threads to the VT about what I would recommend when answering each question. The blog posts, then, will not be due until the final Sunday of Spring Break, March 9th so that you can take my comments into thought.

Also, I just found that the COE is offering mock interview opportunities. You may want to look into this.

Best of luck and let me know if you have any questions.

Cheers,

Joe

Weeks 7 & 8: Digital Storytelling

noreply@blogger.com (CEP416) — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 13:00:00 +0000

With spring break coming up, I thought that I would introduce what we will be covering this week and next. That way, if you want, you can get your work done ahead of time in case you are leaving for vacation. Though there are several ways you can create digital stories, we will focus on using VoiceThread.

Please also remember that your Web Portfolios are due on Saturday, March 8th in their finished and polished form. You should be working on these each week.

NOTE: To complete the lessons for this week and some of the coming weeks, you need to have a microphone. I bought one for $7 dollars at Meijer and it seems to work fine, so don't break the bank on one. If you can't afford one, ask your friends or check in room 133 of EH. You may be able to check out one at the desk there.

For this week, 7:

VoiceThread has several nice tutorials about their product that are worth exploring. At the very least, please look over the following:

Introduction on VoiceThread.
How to manage identities.
How to moderate comments.
How to use zoom in VT.
Here is one about the doodler feature.
This will show you how you can embed a VT in your blog or website.

Here are some examples of Digital Storytelling you should browse through.

Besides VT, some other popular technologies for creating digital stories are:

Any kind of movie software, iMovie, Final Cut Pro, Windows Movie Maker
Microsoft Photo Story 3 (PC only)
Slideshare
Alan Levine has 50 different tools you can use

If you can't get enough of digital storytelling, check out our del.icio.us account.

For Week 7 Weekly Project:

Open a VT account and upload an image for your avatar. The identities tutorial will show you how to do this. If you want, you can upload a picture of yourself to clearly identify yourself. However, please remember that VoiceThread are often public. Make sure that you have one identity where the picture is not of you or someone else (be creative) and use a name other than your own. You can use this identity when you want to leave comments that are more anonymous, and it is also what I would recommend if I were having students use it.
Choose one of the following options for creating a digital story this week.

Create a digital story that you, as the teacher, would use to share with students as part of a lesson or unit.
Create a mock digital story that provides an example of something your students might construct as part of a lesson or unit in a course you teach.

When making your digital story, please make sure that you:

Have at least five slides to it.
Have at least one comment on each slide.
Have at least two different voices (identities) on it - you could enlist the help of friends, colleagues, or you could use the two identities you've set up.

For Week 7 Weekly Blog:

Embed your VoiceThread in your blog post for Week 7. Here is a VT on how to do this. I recommend using the 480X360 version they have for blogs. When you get the code, you will need to paste it into your blog post when you are using the "Edit HTML" tab rather than the "Compose" Tab.
In your text, please write about

Which option you chose for your digital story and what your experience was like in creating the story.
Devote a paragraph to explore some of the different ways teachers could use digital story telling in the courses.
Please link the permalink to this post on the Wiki Gallery under the "Story" Column.

Here is a checklist for this week. Please complete the Week 7 tasks by Saturday evening, Feb 23rd.

A Sneak Peak at Week 8

For week 8: Mock Interviews

In past courses, one of the topics that students have always found to be extremely helpful to them has been mock interviews. It is easier in face-to-face sections where creating an interview-like atmosphere is more natural. I've been trying to decide how to do this in an online section and thought we would give VoiceThread a shot. Below you will find a link to a VoiceThread I created. On each new slide, there is an interview question for you. Here's how it will work.

Click on the link to the VoiceThread Mock Interviews.
Sign into your VT account. Please use your anonymous identity for this project.
Record a thread (voice please) for each one of the interview slides (excluding the title slide). I suggest that you treat this like you would an interview. Sit down, read the question, and record your first response. Don't worry about scripting out answers ahead of time or having polished answers--you won't have that luxury in a real interview.
In your blog post for the week, write about your experience with the interview. You might talk about:

What questions you felt you answered best and why?
What questions you felt you struggled a bit with and why?
What can you take away from this experience to help you in a real interview.

You can complete your interview anytime you would like, but please do so by THURSDAY, February 28th. On Friday, February 29th, I'll add my threads to the VT about what I would recommend when answering each question. If you would like, you can wait to turn in your blog until the final Saturday of Spring Break, March 8th so that you can take my comments into thought

Best of luck for these two week and let me know if you have any questions. I look forward to seeing what you produce.

Cheers,

Joe

Week 6: Adding Images

noreply@blogger.com (CEP416) — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 13:00:00 +0000

Photo Attribution:

Original image: "Erickson Hall"
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/211/521366682_a6d488c52e_m.jpg
by: Joe Freidhoff

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

Here's the scenario for this week. Imagine you are at your field placement this week and a student asks you for help. She wants to find an image that she can use in a presentation she's creating. Generally, she has two questions. First, where do I go to find images to use? Second, what do I need to do to be sure I've given the creator of the image proper credit?

You know what you usually do when you need to get an image, but you aren't sure its what you should be recommending to students. You tell the student you will do some research on it and that the next time you meet, you'll be able to give her a credible answer.

For this week then, complete the following tasks:

Becoming Informed:

Creative Commons (CC) has some great resources to help you better understand copyright and the Internet. One of the nice aspects of their resources is that they can be shared with students. Check out the following movies and comics by them:

Once you've reviewed CC, it should be clear that you have four options for using a work.

Claim Fair Use.
Ask author for permission.
Use CC licensed work according to permissions outlined.
Use your own original work.

Locating Work:

To search for CC-licensed images, you can try out the following sites:

Giving Credit:

According to CC license, there are several specific steps you need to take when giving credit. Check out the Erickson Hall image above to see what these steps would look like when done.

Your Own Works:

When you can, it's often a great idea to you use images that you have taken. There are several photo hosting sites that allow you to share your images with others.

Because these images are on the web, it makes it easy to add multiple images to your website or blog. One of the major advantages of putting images into your web pages using one of these applications is that you can easily change the images without needing to change the format of your pages. I've mocked up examples of each of these so you can see what they might look like in your portfolio.

Flickr Badge (HTML) - Flickr images only
Flickr Flash Badge - Flickr images only
Flickriver - Flickr images only
PicasaWeb slideshow - PicasaWeb images only
Slideoo - Flickr only
Slide - Flickr, Photobucket and image urls

Weekly Gallery Projects:

Add a CC license to your blog. If you would like to reserve all rights for your blog/portfolio, you can remove it once I've been able to grade it. Here is a link that explains how to add the license to your blog.
Create an account at an online photo-hosting sites. Consider this a professional account that you will use to host images for your blog/website. In the future, it might even have images of students' work that you could share with parents.
Create a page in your portfolio that utilizes the badges or slideshow tools I showcased above. This page could be a revision of a page you have already created or it could be a page you haven't completed yet. Aim to have at least five images in your badge or slideshow. Link this page of your portfolio to the Wiki Gallery under the "Photos" column.

Weekly Blog

Find a CC image using FlickrCC or CC Search and add it properly to a post on your blog. Here is a jing video to show you how to do this. In this post,

Write about what you would have suggested to the student in the scenario BEFORE this week's lesson. (Where would you have had her look for images and what would you have told her to do to cite the image source?)
Based on what you've learned this week, what would you recommend to her now?

Here is a checklist for the week.

For next week, we will be getting into VoiceThread. VoiceThread offers a free general account that you can use, but there are a few restrictions on how many VTs you can create (and some other things, too). They do however, allow a free upgrade to their Professional account if you are a K-12 educator. I wrote them and asked if pre-service teachers could also qualify for the professional educator accounts. They granted us permission. If you want the educator account, when you sign up for it, you will need to use your msu email addresses and list my email as the school contact (freidhof@msu.edu). I recommend that you take time this week setting up your account so that when we start digital storytelling next week you are all ready to go.

Cheers,

Joe

Week 5: Organizing the Internet

noreply@blogger.com (CEP416) — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 13:00:00 +0000

During this week, you are going to learn how to use social bookmarks and online calendars as ways to organize your teaching. Here is the learning scenario for the week.

Your collaborating teacher asks you to plan a week-long unit of your choice. Though the topic is up to you, she does want to see a few things:

You need to identify at least two specific content expectations your unit will meet. Here are links to the K-8 GLCES, and to High School. In your blog post, you will need to tell us the grade level you are planning this unit for.
You also need to identify at least two specific technology standards from the METS that you will be working on in this unit.
You must supplement the content of the unit with at least five websites that address different aspects of the unit.
You need to use a public calendar to communicate with parents and students what you will be doing each of the five days.

Therefore, the agenda for this week is:

Watch the VoiceThread on Organizing the Internet.
Read through the GLCEs and the METS linked to above to help you pick a unit topic that you can clearly align with the content expectations.
Weekly Gallery Project

Set up a social bookmarking account of your choice (del.icio.us, is a popular one, but there are others as well.)

Organize at least five websites under a common tag that you can use with your students to help them learn your topic.

Set up a public calendar (google has one) in which you briefly outline what you aspects of the unit you will cover for each of the five days.

In your blog post for this week:

Identify the grade-level you've created this unit for.
Identify at least two GLCE's and two METS that this unit addresses.
Identify the tag you used to organize your five resources. Please embed a link back to this tag on your del.icio.us account (or whatever you chose). Here is a jing video to show you how to do this.
Devote a paragraph to each of your five web resources to let us know how you would use the site to help students learn. For example, you might consider saying, "On Monday, the lesson focuses on part A of the unit. The website URL will be used to help students x..., y... and z. On Tuesday, the topic changes to part B . . . "

WIKI gallery

Please link the permalink of your blog post for this week to the wiki gallery column "bookmark."
Please link the public page of your calendar to the wiki gallery's "calendar" column. Here is a jing video to show you how to find the public url.

In the survey, some people thought it would be a bit easier if they had a checklist of what they needed to complete for the week. Here you go.

Week 4: Web Portfolios

noreply@blogger.com (CEP416) — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 13:00:00 +0000

Hard to believe another week is in the books. The semester is flying by already. I wanted to check in with how the course is going for each of you, so I designed a quick web survey using a free application called SurveyMonkey. You can find the link to the actual survey below.

Now that we have our blogs up and running and we've set up RSS aggregators as a way of pulling the information we want to us, it's time to develop more traditional web pages. As you work through this week, try to think about the different affordances and constraints of blogs v. web pages. Obviously, one is the presence or absence of RSS feeds. Another is the design flexibility. Still another is a self-archival structure.

Another goal of this week is for you to lay the framework for your web portfolio. The term "portfolio" itself can mean a variety of things, but primarily in education I tend to break it into two categories: teaching portfolios and job portfolios. Teaching portfolios tend to focus on professional development by documenting your experiences, reflecting on these experiences, and using the reflections to make changes to practice. This process is recursive and never ending. A job portfolio, on the other hand, tends to provide the kinds of information that will help you get a job.

Though these types of portfolios are by no means mutually exclusive, one difference tends to be the audience. For the teaching portfolios, you are often writing for yourself as a way of improving practice whereas with job portfolios your audiences are administrators, teachers, and parents. For the purposes of this course, we will be focusing on creating job portfolios.

To get you in the right mindset consider this scenario. I'm a principal (or potential employer) who has a stack of resumes on my desk--yours is one of them. I'm trying to decide who I should invite for an interview. Some people I know, others I don't. For those I don't know, I do a quick Google search of your name to see what I find. What would you want me to see if I Googled your name? You can probably imagine the possibilities:

No matches -- In the twenty-odd years you've been alive, you've left no digital footprint. Is that a good thing or a bad thing?
Sites that talk about you -- Perhaps I find little clips from hometown newspapers or the sort. They might help me get a little better picture of what you were like growing up. What else might I find. The key point is that in these instances, others speak for you.
Sites where you talk about you -- If it were me, I'd rather have a potential employer looking at sites that I've authored, and probably ones I've pointed to on my resume so that the principal didn't even need to Google me in the first place. However, if the work I'm authoring isn't of substantial quality, it could be worse than no web presence at all.

All right, enough of the intro, it's time to get to work. Below you will find the agenda for the week. Please have all of the work done by Saturday evening so I can get your grades back to you on Sunday. Last weeks grades should be up in ANGEL by Monday morning. As always, let me know if you have any questions.

Cheers, Joe

Please complete the brief survey so I can get your feedback on how the course is progressing.
Watch the brief VoiceThread on Internet Basics.
Look through some of the past galleries to see the kinds of portfolios your peers have created. You might even want to check out some school websites and see if they have links to teacher pages.
Do a quick web search of your name using whatever site you'd like. (You will need to write about this in step 8 below)
Set up an account with Google Page Creator or another web creation site. You might want to draw on some of learning strategies we talked about during week 1. Note: if you use GPC, make sure that you use the page that has the home icon in it as your home page!
Create the main pages of your site. At the very least you should have the following sections:

An Autobiography/About Me page. Students want to know who you are as a person and so do administrators. Devote at least one section of your site to this purpose. You might consider it like a bulletin board you would put up in your room.
Resume Page: I'm rather specific about this part. Because your resume is the most common piece that will be printed out, you need to have a version on your site that is in .pdf form. If you don't know how to convert a document to a pdf, click here. You can either link directly to the .pdf from your home page as the resume section, or you could include it as a "printer friendly version" or ".pdf version on an html page."
Teaching Philosophy: Don't be concerned if you haven't written a teaching philosophy yet. Most students in the past have not. However, by the time your portfolio is evaluated, you ought to have a draft you can build on as you continue through the program.
Technology Integration Project: You will build this section later in the course, but you can create the page and set up the links now.
Other types of pages that have been popular in the past, but are not required have been coursework, web resources, and lesson/unit plans.
As far as navigation is concerned, a person should be able to get to any of your major pages from any page. That means each page should have links to About Me, Resume, Teaching Philosophy, Tech Int. Project, etc.

For this week's Wiki Gallery Project:

Create your home page and five major sections pages that are linked to from the home page (See the #5 above about the required sections)
On the home page, insert a picture, add text, and a link to your blog.
Give each page a clear title, and set up the links to each of the other pages.
Choose one other major section besides the home page to develop for this week. The remaining sections only need a title and working navigation links. As you build these pages, think about balancing your use of written texts with visual ones. In later week's will learn some technologies that will help us with this.
Update your portfolio link on the Wiki Gallery so that it links to your homepage.

Create a new post on your blog that

Tell us what you found when you Googled your name and what you felt someone else could learn about you by doing this. (1 paragraph is fine)
Discuss what you want to accomplish with your portfolio and how your structuring of the portfolio will maximize your success with these goals. Be sure to give the post an appropriate label or tag.

Best of luck this week and let me know how I can help.

Week 3: Personalizing the Internet

noreply@blogger.com (CEP416) — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 13:00:00 +0000

Week 2 is already complete and it looks like you have been quite successful getting your blogs up and running. During the first couple of weeks its been difficult to for me, and probably for you, to feel like you are part of a class community when you aren't meeting face-to-face or writing in discussion forums. I've decided to switch weeks 3 & 4 from the syllabus so that we can start communicating with each other more efficiently.

I hope you've noticed the new "What We're Blogging About" widget in the right sidebar this past week. This is a little tool that I've set up that monitors all of your blogs and any time you create a new post, it adds a link to it at the top. That's pretty cool because now instead of looking through each blog for new content, new content comes to us in a single convenient space. That's the theme for this week.

By the way, I have posted your grades in ANGEL for this past week. It is really the only time I use ANGEL. Let me know if you have any questions on them.

Here is your agenda for the week of January 21st. Please have all of the items completed by Saturday night, January 26th:

Watch the VoiceThread on Personalizing the Internet.
Complete the following reading:

Educause. (2007, April). 7 things you should know about RSS. Educause Learning Initiatives. Retrieved January 17, 2007 from http://www.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7024.pdf

Set up a Google Reader Account.

Watch this Jing clip on how to add your classmates blogs to your reader account.
Create a new folder in your Reader Account where you subscribe to all of your classmates' blog. You might even want to subscribe to this blog as well.

For your Weekly Gallery Project, do ONE of the following:

Pick a topic you can see yourself teaching. Your goal will be to supplement whatever materials you have inside the class with the freshest content possible. Therefore, look for web pages specifically about your topic. Each page or blog, though, will need to have an RSS feed on them. Create a new folder in your Reader account in which you subscribe to at least 3 RSS feeds about your topic. Make this folder public and add it as a widget to your blog. I've included a Jing video below on how to do this.
Imagine that you have parents asking for information about a certain topic (In my experience, this could be things like test-taking and study strategies, behavioral strategies, enrichment activities, etc. It usually starts with parents saying . . . "Hey, can you recommend . . .?" or "Where could I learn more about . . .?" Your task will be to look for web pages specifically about the topic you've chosen. Each page or blog, though, will need to have an RSS feed on them. Create a new folder in your Reader account in which you subscribe to at least 3 RSS feeds about your topic. Make this folder public and add it as a widget to your blog.
As educators and advocates of lifelong learning, we are constantly seeking out new ideas and information to improve our teaching. Think about an area you want to focus on for development. Your task will be to look for web pages specifically about the area you've chosen for professional development. Each page or blog, though, will need to have an RSS feed on them. Create a new folder in your Reader account in which you subscribe to at least 3 RSS feeds about your topic. Make this folder public and add it as a widget to your blog.
Here is a link to the Jing video that will show you how to make your folder public and add it as a widget to your blog.

On your blog, please create a post in which you talk about:

Which of the three Gallery Projects you decided on and why. Be sure to provide us with enough context to so that we can understand the resources you have linked to. Please also create an embedded link to the public page url for your project (see the Jing video) as well as linking the permalink of the post to the Wiki Gallery (the Aggregator column please).
Please also write about how you might use RSS feeds in your future teaching. You might want to think about each of the three categories above-- for student learning, for communicating with parents, and for professional development.

Play with iGoogle and Google Alerts. Personally, I thought it was pretty neat that I could add Pac-Man into my Google Search Page!

Because we've set up the aggregators (Reader), we can now communicate with each other by leaving posts on our own blogs. Let's try to use this method for communicating with each other. Here is what I suggest. If you have a question about something for this week, Begin the title of your post with "HELP:" to alert each of us about your need. Also, tag it with "cep416help." Whomever reads the post first can then try to offer assistance by leaving a comment on the post. If you want to share something with the group, start your title with "Comment:" and tag it with "cep416comment. "

Best of luck this week. Please don't hesitate to ask the group for help.

Cheers,

Joe

Week 2: Blogging

noreply@blogger.com (CEP416) — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 05:00:00 +0000

Now that the semester is settling in a bit, we will have a more typical week in terms of what you need to accomplish. You can view the agenda below. If you have any questions this week, let's practice using the commenting function of blogs. It will allow each of us to benefit from others' questions or comments. If need be, you can always email me as well. Please have the work for this week completed by midnight on Saturday, January 19th. Best of luck, and let me know what I can do to help.

Cheers, Joe

For the week of January 14th, you should:

1. Watch the VoiceThread about blogging so that you can get a brief introduction to blogs and blogging.

2. Please complete the following readings. Each is quite short, and I've tried to focus them around how some teachers are using blogs in the classroom:

Ferdig, R. E., & Trammell, K. D. (2004). Content delivery in the 'blogosphere.' T.H.E. Journal, 31(7), 12, 16-17, 20. link

Echlin, H. (2007, January 7). Digital discussion: Take your class to the Internet. Edutopia. Retrieved January 13, 2007, from http://www.edutopia.org/digital-discussion-take-your-class-to-internet.

Colombo, M. W., & Colombo, P. D. (2007). Blogging to improve instruction in differentiated science classrooms. Phi Delta Kappan, 89(1), 60-63. link

Lesesne, T. S. (2006). Technology meets literature: Meeting authors through their blogs. Teacher Librarian, 33(5), 58-59. link

Ishuzuka, K. (2006). History teacher 2.0. School Library Journal, 52(4), 26-27. link

Richardson, W. & Mancabelli, R. (2007). High-tech inspires the read/write website. The Education Digest, 72(9), 14-18. link

3. Decide which service you would like to use for your blog. Two that I might recommend are Blogger and Edublogs, though you could even use a blog that you already have provided that is more tailored to your professional identity. In past courses, most students have chosen Blogger and have had good success with them, but you should read over the Terms of Service for each to make sure you are comfortable with them.

4). Set up your blog account. As part of this process please create an about page or update your profile to briefly talk about yourself and how you are going to use this blog. Keep in mind that the goal is to use this blog professionally, so if you have to create a new account, make sure you have a url and title you won't mind referring students and parents to.

5. Since we will be creating podcasts later in the semester, "burn your feed" with Feedburner. Here is a quick 2 minute video I created using Jing to show you how to do it.

6. Update your blog link on our Wiki Gallery. Here's a quick clip on how to do this.

7. Locate two examples of teachers using blogs in ways you find interesting. You might try using a blog search engine such as Technorati or Google Blog Search. You can also find a list of educational blogs here. There are different categories there, so be sure to scroll through the entire page.

8. Create a post on your blog in which you a) devote at least one paragraph to each of the blogs you liked best (# 7 above) and tell us what it was about them that you liked. Be sure to create an embedded link back to each blog so we can see the blogs you are referring to--hint, the links in this post are embedded links because they do not display the url address, and b) capture some of your current ideas on how you might be able to use a blog in your teaching both as a classroom management tool and for student learning. Please try to tailor these ideas to the grade levels and subject areas you are most interested in teaching.

Finally, when you create the post, also think about what tag or label to use for your organization.

Week 1: Introduction to Course

noreply@blogger.com (CEP416) — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 05:00:00 +0000

Welcome to CEP 416. My name is Joe Freidhoff and I am very excited to be instructing the very first online section of CEP 416. Over the course of the semester we will get to work with a variety of free web-based applications that you can use in your future teaching careers.

To model what teaching with these tools might look like, I'm using this blog instead of ANGEL as our method of communication. You can find your agenda for this week below.

Cheers,

Joe

For the week of January 7th, please complete the following items:

Complete the poll in the right sidebar asking you if you already have a Google Account.
Read over the course syllabus carefully so that you understand what this class is about.
Look through some of the past student galleries so that you can get some sense of the work you will be asked to produce during the semester.
Watch the presentation on Learning New Technologies that I created using a free web-application called VoiceThread. The video should introduce you to some strategies that might be helpful in the coming weeks for problem-solving on your own.

This week's tasks should be completed in full by Saturday, January 12th, by midnight. Best of luck and feel free to email me should you have any questions.