Blog 16: Entering a Credential Program

I've now entered an online teaching credential program at National University. I just love learning online. I also have received my Emergency 30-Day Substitute Teaching Permit and recently passed my Algebra, Geometry, and (hopefully) Calculus CSET tests. I am really looking forward to having my own classes and have already started thinking of inciteful wall decorations for a math classroom.

Check out my filamentality page for learning about polynomial addition: http://www.kn.att.com/wired/fil/pages/listpolynomiac.html (A math sheet that's a Word document and uses Microsoft Objects to produce math symbols for the equations goes with this web page btw.)

Blog #15: Concluding the Technology Class

I had a great albeit frustrating time learning about technology. I think that just the nature of technology makes it difficult for anyone to continue to know everything about technology, since it changes every second. The course content taught me a variety of software and internet tools to use in my classroom. Instead of entering into teaching wondering how I'm going to create a cute web site for my classes listing all the homework, I know how to do this. I also know how to do this quite professionally.

The instructor gave us very thorough instructions which I tried to follow carefully. In team projects this was more difficult to do, but I tried my best to find a way to follow the directions. I think with the video project there were some direction issues. 1) Students should be strongly encouraged to buy computer sticks with 1+Gigabytes to make their movies portable. 2) The reflection document submission instruction is incorrect. It says to use WebCT mail when the instructor wants it submitted through the assignments submission area.

In regards to the Blogs, the instruction to "respond to 2 classmates blogs" is unclear. This statement does not state "respond to 2 current classmates blogs." I got docked a few times for responding to older blogs, since few classmates had done their blog for the week when I was responding to blogs. If all the classmates do their blogs at 11pm on Tuesday, how is it possible to respond to "current" blogs which actually is never stated, accept verbally. I think that this response requirement needs to be restated more clearly and rethought about the feasibility of it.

With all things considered, the instructor did a marvelous job of teaching. She generally had excellent and specific instructions to follow. The above are just areas that could be improved upon. I was also amazed at how responsive the instructor is to our questions via WebCT e-mail. I'm impressed. She really puts her heart and hard work into her teaching. Cheers to a great technology class!

Blog #14: I-Movies & Articles

Although the filming of the I-Movie was fun, the editing of it was not. Interfacing my Cannon digital camera was a bear and Cannon's website did not support the camera with software, so we couldn't work on it on Wednesday night. Once I downloaded the film clips at home and brought it to the computer lab, we finally got it downloaded to the desktop and started editing it. Our sound attachment broke, so we rescheduled a team meeting on Saturday. Some thoughtless instructor scheduled an all day seminar in our computer lab on Saturday without putting it on the lab schedule!!! We waited and waited for a break in his class, but the maverick instructor never stopped talking!!! So we did our blogs while we waited for a lunch break and downloaded the i-movie on a stick with a lot of memory that Ian brought in. I think as a team we created a magnificent i-Movie.
It just was hard as heck to do with all the comedy of errors. I-Movie is an easy movie editing software. I've used another movie editing software that Cannon supplies which is not easy to use. I really liked the different layers for sound. That was awesome! Each sound clip could have the volume adjusted to blend well with the rest of the sound. I also liked how the clipping of clips was soooo easy. It was easy to pull the clips around to position them properly. I liked the transition and clip effects on the software as well. These effects were quite easy to use once we could get to the computer that we had created our movie on. Oh, the special effects were fabulous. I loved how the rain could be blown around by wind! To cool!!!
I think that there has GOT to be more instructions on what students need to download their i-Movies onto, so that the movies are portable from the beginning. Saving to the desktop in the lab is definitely NOT the way to save. I can't repeat enough how frustrating waiting to get the movie off the desktop was. The windbag just kept going on and on. We did get other 422 assignments completed while we waited.
The Article, Splicing Video into the Writing Process by Tammy Pandina and Diane Harding was interesting. I felt that they had "too many cooks in the kitchen." They should have had different groups in the class do different educational content standards for their state. That way the students would have to wear more hats when creating these i-Movies and learned more about storyboards, scripting, editing, filming, acting, etc. By doing several different content standards the films could educate all the groups during the final film viewings. This not only would teach the students how to create i-Movies, but teach them the curriculum for the course. This is parallel scheduling, a typical project management technique---"killing two birds with one stone" as they say.
I enjoyed the enthusiasm that the teachers displayed, but I felt that there was too much effort on the students' part to learn a very narrow section of creating an i-Movie. Their final project also only met one content standard. I don't know how these teachers could sell to their administration so much time to this class project. How were these students ever going to meet all their content standards and prepare for national testing that would rate their school? If these teachers had been more creative with their planning multiple film projects that covered multiple content standards, it would be an easier sell to the administration and benefit the students and school even more.
I realize that this is a callous viewpoint to such a wonderful start to using technology in the classroom, but I've experienced and seen a lot of great ideas that were badly implemented and failed miserably. Better initial planning per project management techniques is more successful than maverick approaches. Education is not a place where maverick approaches should be used. I know personally about that. I was part of the experimental generation of California students that never learned how to diagram sentences, because someone decided that we would be better served just writing and learning while we wrote. We became the laughing stock of the nation for being stupid at English. We were more creative in our approaches to writing and turned out better pieces. We just had weak sentence construction.
As far as viewing other classmates' i-movies, I've been waiting for these movies to be published, but my WebCT does not show any available for viewing. I have no comments about this topic, since I have no information.

Blog #13: Databases

The World Wide Web article was very informative. I found it interesting that there are html tutorial sites on the web. I also found it interesting that the web is interactive and html is just a fixed page. I know so little about html. I guess that it's a good thing that so many new software packages from Ciris and Microsoft can bypass the need to know html in making web pages for your classroom. I wonder how teachers today store their web pages, since they are too large to store on their computers?

The Americas Presidents article was intriguing. I liked the idea of having a database where students can all participate and add data to it. Can you imagine how powerful that database will be after years of various students entering in data? I'll have to think carefully about what type of database would be appropriate for my math classrooms, so that I can build on that database year after year.

The Bells and Whistles article taught me a lot of jargon. I always thought of pop-ups as irritating advertisements. Now I know that there is another usage of that word---a field that has choices that pop up and are to be selected with no alterations possible. I didn't know what a value list is. I've used them a number of times filling out this application and paying that online bill. I did know about check boxes since I've used them in my marketing surveys when getting a marketing certificate. We would have drop down menus for certain check boxes selected on our product surveys to determine which demographic would be most inclined to buy our product.

All in all I thought the articles on databases very helpful. I look forward to the ease of the new database and web page softwares that will make my technology life so much easier!

Blog #12: Abiding by Copyright Laws

I found the article Schools, the Internet, and Copyright Law by Nancy Willard to be very useful. It had several examples of how to properly convey copyright law concepts to students using the computer system. I loved the tool of teaching the students the value of copyrights by having them copyright material on the teacher's website. Once the students understand the value of copyrights and how copyrights protect them, they will probably not violate someone else's copyright. The article also had a great example of how to solicit permission to use a copyright for a specific educational purpose. That was quite useful.
"The Internet is not in the public domain!" per the article, Copyright Law and New Technologies Part 3 of an Education World series on copyright and fair use by by Linda Starr. I know that I have been guilty of copying pictures and putting them into my Project Management Power Point presentations. Oooops! I was also shocked by this article on some of the items listed as violating copyright laws, "deep-linking to an interior page of a site. Bypassing advertising or identifying information on a site's main page may deprive the copyright owner of revenue." This completely makes sense, but I just had never processed the loss of profits before for the party who has the website. I'm guilty again! I liked her final line, "When in doubt, ask permission!"
The article, SOFTWARE PIRATE GUILTY OF COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT UNDER NET ACT was quite illuminating. I had no idea that there were organizations that were self designated software pirates and proud of it like the Pirates With Attitude. I'm glad that the penalties for software piracy reimburse the victim twice the gross gain to the perpetrator or twice the gross loss to the victim depending on what's greater. Usually, the perpetrator goes to jail and the victim just loses money. This is a modern legal consequence that I really appreciate.
With all things considered, copyright laws are important to understand and follow. As educators we should be the front line regarding dissemination of copyright laws, since our students are future creators of copyrighted material. By teaching them the value of copyrights to protect their works, they will appreciate the values of copyrights to others.

Blog 11: Bridging the Digital Divide

The first part of the article discusses schools not having classroom computers and students not having computers at home. At my kids' grade school they had computer labs. These labs were not available to students before and after school, even though there was a minority of economically challenged students. The computer lab time only occurred if the school technical aid had scheduled time for the class or a technically savvy parent like me taught the class how to use programs to enhance their computer skills (typing) so that they could type their assignments using a computer.
I typically see in my classroom observations only one computer and it is for only the teacher to use. I did see about ten computers at a minority school in the classroom. I was happy that they had time to learn how to use the web to find subject matter for their assignments. Typically schools with higher levels of income did not have more than one computer. They must assume that there are computers at every home. That assumption leaves the minority lower income students at a disadvantage.
There's a lot of educational software out there that is not extensive or alluring enough for the students to benefit from it. There are ways to gain funding to purchase software, but who is evaluating it and is it evaluated with student input? The Digital Divide is a real issue, and I liked how the article touched on many technology issues that are prevalent today.
I was a bit frustrated with getting to the appropriate screens on the Filamentality web site, but eventually I figured it out and became quite good at navigating the site. I loved using the Filamentality program, too, and will definitely use it in my classes.

Blog #9: The Midterm in EDUC 422

I had never taken a midterm purely on a computer before. I found it a good challenge and representation of what we truly had learned from class to that point in time. The midterm instructions were presented in a clear way, even though I typically have a hard time following directions. Once I learned how to communicate with and understand this instructor, following directions was easy.
I admittedly didn't know how to do a screen shot for the midterm, but Jenny has taught me, since the midterm. The aspect that I liked about the midterm is that it made me realize how far I'd come since the first class. I've learned inspiration, a program that is very useful for teaching. I know more about Power Point than my husband! ;) I also realize how to use this wonderful presentation software in a way that will keep my students' wandering attention. I also know a lot more about Microsoft Excel and can professionally communicate to my superiors how my classes are doing.
All in all I felt that the midterm was geared to show how much each student has learned from our classes and assignments.