Implementing New Technology

The school year has begun, and I have been hard at work creating new training materials for teachers. The task seems daunting, and I quickly discovered that the task at hand is immense. I have a good handle on how to use the new technology, but I feel that I still need to work on bettering my presentation to the teachers. My goal is to set up some resources in NetTrekker for different groups. If I can find really great content for ESL, the Math Dept. etc, I can use it as a hook of why this would be useful to them.

Web 2.0

Podcasts

I am most impressed with podcasting and the technology that supports them. I had never used RSS fees before. I also didn't know there were places you could upload for free. (other than Myspace) I am really excited to put this technology to use.The things I learned in this course will allow me to get started on this right away. My plan is three fold. First, I want to start creating podcasts for teachers to help them gain access to district resources. Second, I plan on teaching teachers how to create podcasts. And last, support teacher's endeavors into integrating them into their classroom. Such as students creating them to demonstrate mastery of a specific skill.

New Literacy

Will Richardson brings up some good points in his books, "Bolgs, Wiki's. Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms". His list of the Big Shifts are dead on. The idea of a traditional classroom needs to change. This in itself is the challenge. Teachers who are not comfortable with technology need the training and mentoring to start incorporating it into their classrooms. The second challenge is providing the hardware necessary to utilize 21st century skills. Many schools, like mine, are having trouble funding new technology. It is going to take a shift in thinking from the ground up. In Akron we are making the commitment and are working on a computer replacement strategy. But, that is just the beginning. We will need to develop a network of teachers using technology and mentor those who are not. We need to show other teachers how technology integration can foster student engagement, increased test scores, and an increase in critical thinking.

Workshop Podcast

Subscribe in a reader

Creating my podcast was really fun. I decided to create a video podcast because it supported something I was working on for work. I used a free program to take screen shots, Audacity to record audio, and Windows Movie Maker to put it all together. I exported the movie as an AVI. This created a 700MB file for a 3 minute video. I used QuickTime Pro (already had a license) to convert it to an MPG4. I had the hardest time working on the RSS feed. I think I finally have it all correct. I know my video images are a little fuzzy, but that is because of the file size reduction for the blog. It looks good as a 22MB file size, I will use that for work.

There are only three people that work in our office. We have a lot of information to get out to over 2000 teachers. We are hoping to use podcasts to help alleviate that problem. I hope to further use podcasts in professional development opportunities for teachers. It would apply the the following NETS standard:

Creativity and Innovation


Students demonstrate creative thinking, construct knowledge, and develop innovative products and processes using technology.

Photo Sharing

I liked this photo because it shows you're never too old to start computing. I think this would be a great image to start a discussion about digital native vs. digital immigrant. I found this photo on Flickr.

I have been using photo sharing through Sam's Club for some time. I also discovered that I already had a Flickr account that came with my internet service. However, I did come to some realizations. Sam's Club deletes photos after a few month's. If I continued to upload to flickr I could have an archive of my photos. I had already decided a few weeks ago that I was no longer going to print photos. Currently I print at Sam's, and burn to a cd. Nobody in the house ever looks at the albums. Everyone grabs the little case of cds and pops one into the computer or DVD player. The bonus is the CD's take up little space.

1. Creativity and Innovation

Students demonstrate creative thinking, construct knowledge, and develop innovative products and processes using technology. Students:

b. create original works as a means of personal or group expression.

I would accomplish the above standard by incorporating on of the ideas I saw on another photo website. They had inspirational/motivational photos. Students could take images around the school or classroom and create captions that with photo editing software. You could also create a pictorial vocabulary wall or book using photos from the internet.

Social bookmarking

It was very easy to get started with social bookmarking. I looked for tags that I found interesting and then browsed the pages that I thought looked interesting. In my reading it mentioned that social bookmarking is built in simple technology. The benefits are amazing for such simple technology. Sharing useful resources is what 21st century teachers need to be successful. I would like to gather helpful technology resources for teachers in my social bookmarks. (http://delicious.com/kwlickt) A one stop shop where they can find technology related activities for their students. The best way I feel this applies to students is through the standard below:


Research and Information Fluency


Students apply digital tools to gather, evaluate, and use information. Students:


b.locate, organize, analyze, evaluate, synthesize, and ethically use information from a variety of sources and media.

RSS Feeds

It was certainly easy to sign up for the bloglines account. Now I can stay current on educational technology without clogging up my e-mail inbox. I signed up for several technology related RSS feeds. I am especially interested in how to take this to the next level and create my own feeds. I really feel like this is something that our school is ready to jump into feet first. As I begin to gear up for the new school year I am going to try to get others involved in blogs, wikis, and feeds.

I think teachers and students could use RSS feeds to help gather information on a subject they are researching over time. They could also use it to stay current on events around the world. I could see social studies teachers really jumping on board with that. This would support the following standard:

Research and Information Fluency
Students apply digital tools to gather, evaluate, and use information. Students:

b. locate, organize, analyze, evaluate, synthesize, and ethically use information from a variety of sources and media

Wiki

http://akrondoit.pbwiki.com/

I created my site as a tool for supporting the different web-based data management tools that we have in our district. I started the first wiki page with a simple "how to log into achievement series. There are many features that we are just begining to use. I envision creating an ongoing page that tells of the various ways to use the program. I would like to continue to create pages on the other programs that we use. Staff could also add content as to what works for them or how they are using the features. I feel that this supports the following NETS standards.
IV. Support, Management, and Operations

A. develop, implement, and monitor policies and guidelines to ensure compatibility of technologies.
B. implement and use integrated technology-based management and operations systems.

Overall, I feel much more confident in wiki's. We have several curriculum leaders that want to start incorporating them into their websites. I feel like I am knowledgeable enough to discuss how they may want to incorporate them and where to get started in them.

Blog Review

I have created two blogs. One to use for this course and to reflect my thoughts and one to use at work. I plan to post news on the technology updates that will be coming out this fall. We will be unveiling several data management tools for teachers. I would also like to generate discussions on how to incorporate technology into the classrooms. One way to do this is to actually start using blogs. I think I know several teachers who would be interested in using them as an online journal. I love the Will Richardson's book that was assigned. I have read of several ideas on how to incorporate blogs into the classroom. I work in the curriculum departnment and several of us would like to start blogging as a way to develop learning communities as a way to sustain professional development. This is my main goal on how to use blogging. I will also share the ideas I read about and saw on-line with classroom teachers as a way to incorporate technology and use 21st centruy skills in the classroom. I think the biggest challenge will be overcoming the equity issue of who is using technology. Most teachers worry about how to get the studnets on the computer during the day. We are a very poor urban district. In our latest survey 68% of parents have access to e-mail. Some may have access at work only, so the number of students with internet access at home is most likely less. We have very old machines in the classrooms, but most highschools and middle schools have at least 1 lab.

The nets standard that I would be aligning to would be:
II Learning and Teaching

A. identify, use, evaluate, and promote appropriate technologies to enhance and support instruction and standards-based curriculum leadning to high levels of student achievement

My First Blog

How cool! I have used blogs to search for information on how to troubleshoot computers, but never thought about how tye were created. This isn't really my first blog though because I was so excited I created one for work this morning before I read the assignment to create a personal one for class. I am so excited to try and get teachers collaborating on integrating technology.