Learning with Webquests

We worked on producing the STAIR lesson plan we created earlier in the class.  I choose to do a lesson on using webquests as a teaching tool.  I was able to put together a short video to explain what a webquest is, some examples of effective webquests in several different subjects and then we walk through using the webquest template on zunal.com.    It runs about 11 minutes plus some short quizes.   

You can check it out at http://www.merlot.org/merlot/viewMaterial.htm?id=715329&newcontribution=1#.UL99NlPLq4o.twitter

Wikis

This week we are learning about Wikis and Wikipedia.  In our lab assignment we were to search for the school where we work.  Once found, we were to make a notable entry or edit an existing entry to update some information.   My school is a small private school and did not have their own Wikipedia entry.  I wanted to change that but it will require a bit of time and research to put together suffecient quantity of information to make the Wikipedia entry worth while and not immediately slated for deletion.  I did find a mention of our school under the general Castro Valley, CA page listed under the Education subsection.  In this section, it says that Redwood Christian Schools has two campuses in Castro Valley, Crossroads Elementary at Neighborhood Church and Redwood Elementary at the Redwood Chapel Community Church.  This was inaccurate as 4 years ago the two campuses combined at the RCCC site.  I updated the entry to reflect that Redwood Christian has one elementary (K-5) campus in Castro Valley, CA. 

 

In addition, I created a Wiki of my own to relegate my adventures while Scuba Diving.  You can find my wiki at CA-Diver.wikispaces.com



Universal Design

This week we have been learning about Universal Design for Learning.  This concept basically asks a teacher to go back through their curriculum and strip it down and examine it in the context of its ability to reach every student.  How can we identify and then eliminate barriers to learning within our curriculum?  What new information, technology or delivery method can we employ to allow all of our students to benefit from the knowledge we have to give them.  Maybe we need to present the same lesson three different ways over the course of a week to ensure that the concept is caught by all our students.

We examined the UDL checklist and saw how this tool can give us a framework for examining our lessons.  As a practical exercise, I took a lesson plan that I recently created and looked at it in light of the UDL checklist.  Take a look at the lesson plan and the comments that I made in response to the checklist.  The UDL checklist is reproduced at the bottom of the lesson plan to tie he comments together. 

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1SAXEFq1P7ybE9NH0JIv_do_TEtLsyZrw6VcqOzArKbo/edit

CEP811 Blog Lab

Today I am working on a lab for my new class, CEP811 Adapting Innovative Technologies to Education.  I was tasked with describing the differences between traditional web pages and blogs. 

In my experience, web pages are depositories of information.  There might be facts, examples, links to other resources, and of course advertisements.   It used to be that only geeks like me who knew how to program in HTML code could actually create and maintain a web page.  Today though, anyone can put up a simple web page using tools like Google Sites, or others. 

Blogs on the other hand are much more reminiscent of the paper journals of my youth.  Now most of us rough and tumble boys would never have thought of keeping a journal, but all of our sisters and female cousins did.  It was, and blogs are today, a collection of our thoughts, feelings and even ramblings.  Sometimes they contain our hopes and dreams and even though a fact or two might creep in, they are not primarily for passing on information about things... but our feelings about people and places. 

Even I, in my efforts to chronicle my journey through the Masters of Education program, find myself keeping a Blog... There are not many deep, dark secrets being revealed, but there is some link to the victories and struggles along this new journey.

CEP810 and ePortfolio SIG

Wow.. it seems like yesterday we were starting CEP810 and now we are 7 weeks into the course.  I have been so busy that I have not had the opportunity to post any updates. During this course I have been involved with a great SIG group that has been researching ePortfolios and their use in the High School environment.  This has been an eye opening experience and we have really created a great resource for someone looking to institute ePortfolios in their classroom. I am very proud of it.  I will have a post next week with a link to the presentation, which is in the format of an ePortfolio itself.  But for now, I wanted to share a link to our Diigo group as we have consolidated about 50 great links to resources, articles and YouTube videos on the subject.  Jump over and take a look...

http://groups.diigo.com/group/810-e_portfolio

The journey begins again...

After a few months off  for the summer break, I am back on track with the program.  I am also looking forward to applying some of the great knowledge I have aquired at ISTE 2012 and the 2012 Google Summit. 

To supplement this blog and to provide a place to apply some of the great tools that I have found, I created a new website called www.EdTechQuickTips.org   Here we will provide links to great tools and resources along with a video blog of QuickTips for teachers who are trying to incorporate technology into their classrooms. 

ISTE 2012 Rocked!

I just got back from San Diego... I really wish I could have stayed all week!  I have been going to conferences and expos for more than 3 decades but I have never been to a conference that was so packed with useful information.  I was only able to go to three sessions but all three were power packed and full of great ideas and resources.  I feel so enriched from the short weekend. 

I went to seminars on Emerging Technologies in the classroom,  Starting an Online Program, and Grant Writing for your classroom and school.  All three were dynamite and kept us rivited for the 3 hours of each session. 

I can't wait for next year and I have already decided that my wife, a teacher, and I are going to spend the entire week in San Antonio!

PC Maintenance

We have an interesting module to accomplish this week and it had to do with PC Maintenance and Security.  Now I have been in the IT field for 25+ years, but I actually found some information that was interesting to me. 

I was intrigued by three workshops... The first was a module in a software program that I use all the time... Spybot Search & Destroy.  This is a great program for finding and eradicating spyware and malware.  I use the Immunization function and the scan functions.  I have see the Tea Timer function for years and never took the time to investigate what it does.  Tea Timer is a real-time memory and malware scanner.  It watches your front door and warns you if something tries to get in that could be harmful.  Very cool little add-on that I will now use.

The Second workshop that I wandered into was the great tools available on KarenWare.com.  The specific tool that caught my eye was the Replicator.  This little program is basically an automated backup system.  You can specify that a folder or file is backed up at a particular time to either a local drive, network drive or to the cloud somewhere.  You can basically copy your whole My Documents folder to a secure location and then each night the program only updates anything that changed or was added since the last update.  Great little free utility.  As someone who has lost files during a HD crash or a laptop failure, I think this is great protection.

Last utility that I learned about was called MailWasher.  This is a FREE utility that allows you to clean up some or most of the SPAM that hits your inbox every day.  I receive upwards of 200 spam messags a day and I am very glad to utilize this program to help me stop the craziness. 

Three great utilites... I guess you can still teach an old dog new tricks... lol

Are Smartboards worth the money?

I have read alot of articles this week about Smartboards.  Most touting them as the next revolution in classroom instruction.  Some though, describe them as glorifed projection screens.  So many schools throw Smartboards into the classroom as a way to 'address' their technology gap.  Sometimes it is because they have been able to secure grant funding for the technology and sometimes it is a first step into a total technology upgrade.  The problem is that the Smartboard in and of itself never taught a single lesson... and most teachers did not have any instruction on the use of a Smartboard or how to incorporate them into their curriculum.  The technology is only as good as the implementation.  If you are going to invest in this technology you need to research the software behind it and what curriculum aids are available.  Second, a teacher training program needs to be developed to instruct classroom teachers in the use of the technology and more important, how to use the software to their advantage.  Food for thought...

ISTE 2012 in San Diego, CA

I just registerd for ISTE 2012!  I am so excited to be attending this valuable conference.  The workshops and seminars available are incredible coupled with the chance to network with other educators interested in incorporating Technology into the classroom will be sensational.  If you are interested in attending, check out the link below.

Creating a Personal Learning Network

Another new experience this week.  Creating or more accurately, identifying my PLN... Personal Learning Network.  I have been networking for years with other educators and with business professionals.  Trying to par down the list of contacts to the most influential players in my educational world is a challenge but one worth embarking on.

I choose to use Glogster EDU as my platform for visualizing my PLN... you can take a look at it and tell me what you think.  It is a work in progress.... so bear with me.

http://masterramblings.edu.glogster.com/craigs-pln/

Making the most of technology spending

Came across another interesting article related to budget spending on technology.  It really makes me think that it needs to start early with a plan for implementation that one can get their school board to sign-off on.  Get them to agree to the need for technology upgrades for infrastructure, classroom hardware and training for teachers to be able to effectively manage and use the new tech goodies.  The board needs to see the big picture and then layout an implementation schedule that makes the  most of the dollars that are available. 

Check out this article...  http://www.zdnet.com/blog/education/its-that-time-of-year-again-where-should-you-be-allocating-your-budget/4835

Technology in the classroom is highly sought after even during tight budget climate

I found a great article on ZDNet that talks about implementing technology in the classroom even during tight budget climate.  That sure sounds like a winner to me... check out the article

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/education/luidia-finds-that-tight-budgets-change-dont-eliminate-tech-implementations/4844

Creating a Time Budget

Do you find that juggling family life, work and school difficult?  Try two businesses and lets not even discuss hobbies.  I am not sure how this is all going to work.  I have been counseled to create a time budget... but I am not very good at budgets!  After my first week in Graduate studies, it seems like this might actually require the 10-20 hours a week to do the job with excellence.  Carving this time out of an already busy schedule will be challenging, but not impossible.... who needs sleep anyhow.. .they say we can sleep when we die!  lol...

Social Networking and the Modern Educator

We have all experienced Social Networking.  Some more personally than others.  Most have at least dabbled with Facebook, LinkedIn, or Twitter.  The purpose is to interconnect people.

As an educator we can use Social Networking to our advantage.  First it is a great medium for advertising and promoting our classes and curriculum.  In a social network, particularly an electronic social network, access to targeted groups of people is instantaneous.  You can simply look for a particular demographic and post information to ONLY that demographic. This allows you to connect with people who are interested in the subject you are teaching.  You can find resources and references within this new community of like minded individuals.  You can also find the perfect student for your curriculum if you are not teaching in a traditional school environment.  I am an adult educator.  As such I am looking for students who WANT to take the courses I offer.  I want an engaged and motivated student and what better way than to fill your class with people who were LOOKING for you or your content.

For traditional educators, you have a medium that allows you to connect to your students and keep them informed and engaged.  Most of your kids are on Facebook or Twitter already and if you want their attention, you need to reach them where they are focused.  Adding dynamic content to  your curriculum through YouTube videos is another way to catch their attention and keep it.  You may find that you are the coolest teacher in school because you are using tools that they are familiar with and excited about!

Overwhelmed by feeds...

Well, I have been using Google Reader for a couple days now and I can say that I am overwhelmed.  I went from not getting any pertinent news from the web to having so many feeds I am not sure I can keep up.  I am already having to put together a serious time budget to be able to juggle the new class work with my already overwhelming business and family life.  I am not complaining, just a little taken back at the amount of content that is generated on the web each day... I only hve about 10 RSS sources feeding in each day and I have hundreds of posts to read.  Some superflous, some with some great insight.

I did find and comment on one today advertising an event in my area.  The  Google Apps for Education California Summit which is being held this summer in Santa Clara... which is right down the road from me. I signed up already for myself and my wife who is a 2nd and 3rd grade teacher.

I certianly have learned that you need to discriminate which sources you subscribe to.  Many will not bring you the information you want, but if you are careful, you can get up-to-date news on anything you want.

Over the last couple of days I can see that some of the sites that I subscribed to don't do much in the way of updates, two of them no new information at all in three days.  Others, like  Free Technology For Teachers has multiple feeds each day on new hardware and software specific to the classroom. 

Now that I have learned about RSS feeds, I can see that it would be helpful in many of my business ventures to stay up on technology, current events and market trends.  I don't have the time, or make the time, each day to go out searching for the information, but if I can have it pushed to me, it would be more effecient for me to stay on top of things.

Web Pages and Blogs and feeds... oh my!

So much to think about... but it really is quite simple.... a blog is simply a collection of your thoughts on a subject... When I was growing up, we called this journaling.  Putting to paper, or now screen, you thoughts.. many times for noone else's pleasure but your own.  Now, in a highly social society, we share our thoughts with the world.  Our thoughts are put into snippets of information and placed electronically on the world wide web for any and all to see.  Sometimes we allow people to comment on our thoughts and we start a discourse on the subjects involved.  Other times we choose to state our opinions and just allow the world a peak at our thought processes and our convictions. 

A web page, on the other hand, is a much larger platform for making information available.  Web pages may include blogs, pictures, text, videos and so much more.  Often times our webpages are supported by commercial ads that help defray the costs of hosting the page.  Some web pages are commercial in nature and others are just for relaying our family vacations.  As we are learning in our course, web pages are also a great tool for getting our students involved and for communicating about our classes and subject matter.  Many classroom teachers are creating web pages for their classrooms to host calendars of events, informatikon about the curriculum they are teaching and a place where parents can comment or volunteer to help out. 

Both are tools in our quest to integrate technology into our teaching experiences.

Delving into RSS Feeds

I have been on the world wide web for more than 30 years.  I publish websites, search for content and price out purchases.  Yet in all these years, I have never subscribed to a RSS feed.  How could I have missed such a time saving step?  Ignorance I guess.  In the last two days I have been researching RSS feeds as a means to stay up to date on particular subject matter.  I choose to use Google's Reader as I am well entrenched in Google's clutches.  As I added feed after feed of targeted educational blogs and news sites, I found that having the latest news and information about technology in education to be exceptionally valuable.  Check out a screen shot of my Reader Page below...

My reader feeds are being funneled into iGoogle and are shared publicly.  go to http://www.google.com/ig#m_32

Addendum:  I have been following my feeds for a couple of weeks now and find that the amount of great information coming from the sites I have subscribed to is a little overwhelming.  Yet, I have found some great resources... one site I particulary love is the Free Technololgy for Teachers site.  I have either bookmarked or subscribed to 6-7 different great tools such as DropBox.  I commented on this blog post and described how this tool allows my wife and I to share our work from the home office computers to the school computer without having to upload or email them to ourselves.  Just save into the DropBox folder and it is instantly available on all computers. 

I can see myself setting up folders for the different types of content that I would want to pull from the web and setting up RSS feeds for each folder.  When I am looking for educational materials or resources, I would open my Education folder...  In addition, I can see myself starting a Blog specific to my classroom and using it as a way for parents to stay informed.  I could make my Blog posts available via RSS and show parents how to subscribe to them to get up to date information and alerts.

One of our first week's assignments and one step in my plan to create a Time Budget, is to establish a Google Calendar for this first class.  I intend to post assignment deadlines and other pertinent events on this calendar and those on the journey with me will have access to it.

My calendar is located at https://www.google.com/calendar/render?tab=oc

Inaugural Post

This is the inaugural post in my series on pursuing a Masters in Educational Technology.  As I go through this process I will chronicle the ups and downs.  My name is Craig Conley and I feel like I am going crazy trying to budget time to work on this program.  I have two businesses to run, am married, active in my local church, and am an ESRD (End Stage Renal Disease) patient so I have to spend 3.5 hours each night tied to a Dialysis machine.  Fortunately I am able to do it at home so I can work on my computer and try and stay productive.

This is the first week of class and I am already feeling behind... and it is only day 4... I am going to try and take most of my Friday to work on school work. Well... I guess this post is actually the first step.  It is getting late so I will sign off for tonight.