Not Someday. Today.

INSYS497 Final Reflections

2008-12-11T19:48:00.000-08:00

My learning networks have drastically changed over the course of this semester. I am now aware of web 2.0 tools that put me in touch daily with the knowledge of experts. Using my news aggregator alone has been huge for me. At this point, however, I still feel like my network is a one way road, with all of the information traveling TO me. It is a work in progress, and I hope to continue growing into a contributor in my own learning network.

I have always felt strongly about the need to make connections while learning. My masters thesis focused on integrated and interdisciplinary curriculum as a means to help students make connections between various content areas. My new knowledge of web 2.0 has added a whole new dimension to this idea.

I still have many questions. My biggest question is how will the field of education change and adapt as these powerful web 2.0 tools continue to develop. Connectivism and web 2.0 pose a challenge to the traditional ways of many educators. In fact, they pose a challenge to the structure of education as a whole. I hope the future will hold a massive change to our educational system, as I think it is needed to adequately prepare our students to be global citizens in today's world. That being said, I know how difficult even the smallest change can be in schools... are we ready to handle a change of this magnitude?

INSYS497 Final Project Podcast

2008-12-04T17:07:00.000-08:00

A podcast about my INSYS497 final project can be found here.

Blog #4: Planning and Implementation

2008-12-03T16:25:00.000-08:00

As a teacher, I feel a need to break down the barrier between me and my students. I do not subscribe to the "chalk-and-talk" approach to teaching, primarily because I believe there are more effective ways. Because of this, I think I have created a safe and secure culture in my classroom that encourages risk-taking and creativity. This, in my opinion, is essential in a creative arts classroom, such as music. It also may be essential in a classroom that explores the most effective use of web 2.0 tools. I have found that, because of this environment in my room, experimenting with and incorporating web 2.0 tools in my classroom has been a generally successful experience. I think it is key for the teacher to be participating with and learning along side of the students as new technology is explored. I think of Second Life as an example. If I were to incorporate this in my classroom, I would be learning things right along side of my students. Especially with web 2.0, it is impossible to know everything. We as teachers need to accept the fact that the days of being the all-knowing ones have passed.
I would like to add another step to planning and implementation: reflection. Planning and implementing the tools is obviously important, but being a critically reflective teacher is, in my opinion, paramount. I often feel that this step is missing. It is in this stage that teachers determine if the tool effectively enhanced the curriculum or not. I believe that this is time to evaluate the tool's use, not the tool itself.

Blog #3: Safe Practices with Web 2.0

2008-11-25T14:57:00.000-08:00

With the internet being the hyperlinked environment that it is, students are never more than a few clicks away from inappropriate content. Even when looking at a blog such as ours, students can easily click on the "next blog" button on the top of the screen and be taken to any random blog from around the world. Are we responsible for that? Regardless of the answer, if a parent walks in and sees their child on a random blog (which may be inappropriate) and is told it was linked off of their teacher's blog, we have a problem. Instead of sheltering the students completely, I think we need to educate them on becoming safe internet users. Equally important, however, is educating the parents and community as a whole. This FBI site provides a good starting point for schools looking to educate the community about internet safety.
As I explored the use of wikis, blogs, and podcasts in my classroom, I became increasingly aware of the advertising space that is often included on these free tools. It surprises me that the ads on sites run by google are even inappropriate. Is this a matter of student safety? Again, I go back to the fact that students are only one click away from danger when some of these ads are present. It is good to know that several of these sites, including wikispaces.com, are providing ad-free content for educators.
The responsibility of teaching internet safety should be shared. For students, the responsibility should be shared between all teachers in the building. The network acceptable use policy for my building can be found here. For the community, the responsibility should be shared between the district and the teachers. My district does attempt to educate the community about internet safety; the website has a collection of resources for the community, including an internet safety brochure and information about cyber bullying. Only by sharing this responsibility will safe use of the internet become embedded in the school's culture.

Web 2.0 Tool

2008-11-17T08:28:00.001-08:00

Final Project Idea

2008-11-13T16:55:00.000-08:00

For my final project, I'm looking into using web 2.0 tools to bring an expert into my classroom. This year, my 7th and 8th grade band is playing a piece by a composer from Japan. I recently came up with the idea to somehow bring this composer into my rehearsal electronically to listen to my students and provide appropriate feedback. I managed to contact him and he liked the idea. I am currently working out the language barrier. The question now is whether he interacts with the students through video (skype) or some sort of text based medium. I am hoping for video, but he appears to be more comfortable with text.

Does anyone have an idea of how he could interact in real time through text?

Research and the Reflective Practitioner

2008-11-12T15:12:00.000-08:00

As I was driving home from work today, I was half thinking about this blog entry and half listening to Bob Sprankle's Bit By Bit podcast (#79). On this particular episode, he played a presentation by Liz Davis called Making Things Happen: Tapping into the Power of the Network. Liz began this presentation with a quote: "If you don't know where you are going, you will probably end up somewhere else." This caught my attention because I think it really relates to my research of web 2.0 in the past weeks. There is so much information out there that it can be overwhelming. I have discovered that if I have a goal in mind, I can more effectively research and evaluate the massive amounts of tools available to us. While it is important to have an open mind and be willing to learn new things that I didn't even know were possible, having an idea of where I am trying to go in my classroom has proven helpful. In my own situation, I know that I am looking learn about internet safety, technological literacy, and innovative ways to connect students and classrooms around the world. This week I came across Rollyo, which allows me to predetermine the web sites searched when my students use this search engine. I am confident that this will be effective for me, and, to bring it back to Liz Davis' presentation, it will certainly help me get to where I want to be.

When I think about reflecting and web 2.0, the first thing that comes to my mind is blogging. Admittedly, I have relatively little experience with this medium. Even so, I am aware of the reflective benefits it provides both educators and students. I was listening to an old podcast by Steve Hargadon (can you tell that I listen to podcasts during my daily walk with the dog?) that included an interview with three students who write the Students 2.0 blog. As I listened to the students on the podcast, I was impressed at how reflective they were regarding their own education. I went from impressed to amazed when I actually logged on to their blog. The blog has not been updated in a while, seemingly because some of the students have gone on to college. But I was still able to read through the old posts, and they really prove the reflective benefits of blogging. I believe that education as I understand it will drastically change when more teachers start reflecting on their practice through blogs.

Web 2.0 is about connecting, communicating, and collaborating. As I go to the web to research and reflect, I encounter other people doing the same thing. I am quickly learning that this simple but effective slide from Liz Davis' presentation really sums it up: The more people you know, the more things you can do.

Copied from Liz Davis' "Making Things Happen" presentation.
http://docs.google.com/Present?docid=dfnmfqtd_13755hd6b6gp

Creating My Own Social Network - Response 1

2008-10-30T04:27:00.000-07:00

I must admit that I struggled quite a bit as I mentally planned out this blog entry. For me, I do not have a personal online social network. When I was first introduced to using the internet for social networking and communication many years ago, I was led to believe, both in school and at home, that I would be opening myself up to near certain danger. Because of this, I never really used any sort of communication tools... with the exception of AIM. I used AIM through high school and college, but I don't even really use that anymore. I think since I was encouraged away from social networking at a young age, I have grown up with a sour taste toward it. Even today when I am encouraged by friends to check out MySpace and FaceBook, I consistently turn them down. This really speaks to the importance of technology literacy being taught in our schools. That is something that was definitely lacking when I was in school.

All that being said, I do use social networking in my professional career... sort of. I would classify myself as a passive participant in professional social networking. As Carrie Milton wrote in her October 29th blog entry, "I haven't fully embraced the conversational, read-WRITE aspect of the internet yet." I subscribe to many professional podcasts and blogs, both related to my subject area (music), educational leadership, and educational technology. At the end of last year, I did write in to one of my favorite pod casts (EdTech Musician) for some advice on sharing pod casts that my students have been working on. My e-mail was then read and discussed on the next week's show.

In my classroom, I have begun using blogs with my students. I am very fortunate to have a dedicated Mac laptop cart in my department, which allows me to spend a lot of time with technology. I had a hard time developing these blog activities this year for several reasons. I wanted an online environment where students could communicate over a specific given topic. While a blog allows them to post comments to the author's post, I wanted something that would be more conversational between students. The best forum for this would be a wiki, but I was having a hard time finding an ad-free wiki site. I have since discovered, thanks to our text, that wikispaces.com allows k-12 educators to apply for ad-free space. Since I didn't know about the wikispace possibility until it was too late, I went ahead and tried the blogs. The biggest problem I had was that the student responses were generally poor quality. Students thought that since this was a blog, conventional grammar and writing style did not apply. This is something that I now know has to be addressed and discussed before returning to the blog activities. On a positive note, the students absolutely loved the concept. They were fully engaged and many students even posted additional entries from home.

The concept of social networking is exciting for education. By absolutely avoiding it in schools, I worry that we will pass on the message that I received about it being a dangerous and generally useless concept. We should strive to teach our students how to effectively and safely participate in social networking. I believe that as social networking continues to evolve and develop, there are exciting times ahead.

INSYS497 Week 1

2008-10-23T17:04:00.000-07:00

We are finishing up our first week of INSYS497. There was a ton of information to manage this week; some of it I knew about, but much of it was new to me. I have quickly realized that no matter how much you think you know about technology, you don't know everything. This is one of the most exciting things though. I appreciate the fact that I will never fully master all of the technology that is available to me. This is a pretty exciting concept for someone who works hard at being a lifelong learner.

At this point, I am most interested in figuring out how what I currently teach can be supported and enhanced with technology. I have done a bit of podcasting and blogging in my classroom already, but I know that I have barely scratched to surface. The potential is huge.