During the last class meeting, I was a little frustrated with the audacity program because it was not working properly for us. We wasted quite some time trying to get it to work. As always, once we got it to work, it worked and we got the job done. That is the trouble with technology, sometimes you spend so much time just trying to get it to work. You spend more time trying to get it to work, than to do the actual assignment! It can be so frustrating. I was glad we had the time to work in class, though. We did get it done. It was fun. I think we three learned quite a bit about cyber bullying. It is an interesting subject. We also found that we had to cut our essay down quite a bit to make it under 7 minutes. I feel like we didn't do the subject justice, but it was pretty lengthy to start with.

Web Site

The site you sent us www.northpole.com was certainly a hit with my nephews. They explored it Christmas day. I didn't get a chance to use it with my classroom this year. However, it will certainly be on my list for "enrichment" in the classroom in 2009. Thanks again! Please, if you find any others similar to it, email me the site address.

Thanks Dr. Closen for a very informative, interesting, and challenging class! It was exciting to learn the possibilities for technology usage in our own classroom. This class required me try out these tools that I would have never known about or ventured to try out otherwise. I appreciated being able to work during class. Thanks to your help and my peers support, I feel I have learned a lot. Special thanks to Lisa who is always willing to to lend a hand when the need arises! I am very excited to use the blog and wiki when I return to the classroom. I already have made contacts to put these tools into action on a new project. I am a pleased technology novice thanks to this class and look forward to sharing what I've learned with my student teacher when she begins in Jan. Thanks, and Happy New Year to everyone!

I am having the hardest time remembering to blog promptly! My apologies!

I have been totally absorbed in my assignments, to the extent that I will not be done with all of my assignments before the first of the year. I am having a great time looking for resources for the multimedia project, and I'm learning some things by trial and error. I guess that is the way I learn best. I have learned a lot of new things in this class, and I'm 'getting by with a little help from my friends!'

Our class in February seems like a long way off, but I'm sure it will be here before I know it.
Happy Holidays, everyone!

Tom Nelson

Last Wednesday, I worked with a number of google gadgets to plug into blogs. One frustrating thing about them is their sizing. They come in defined sizes, and they sometimes don't fit on the design of the blog they're being inserted into. I am not sure how to tweak the settings to make them fit, but I will be looking into that. I also experimented later with partial success as copying and pasting the javascript code into other html files. This opens up a whole new domain for adding all kinds of glitzy bells and whistles to Moodle pages and others.
One complaint about the gadgets is the number of broken gadgets. With their vast billions, Google could hire somebody to delete the ones that don't work any more.
I will say here that this has been a useful survey of technology for the classroom. I realize that we have just touched the surface of many of these topics.
Overall, I think the internet is a great resource, and I think there is great potential for it in the classroom. The problem is finding the right stuff and weeding out the garbage, especially video. The blogger gadget assignment and the delicious presentation reminded me of this. Compard to years ago, Google's search engines have helped get internet users to just what they want, but I along with others are looking for the tool to take it to the next level. There's just too much junk to wade through. Teachers can't possible look at all this stuff. Maybe some of the things we looked at like delicious and stumbleon will lead to a solution. The next computer genius is someone who can develop a way to generate search tags for video content.

In class on Wednesday Jeremy, Joe, and myself finished our podcast on phones in school. I think this is a very big topic today, considering most students are carrying phones. I found it interesting to find some of the uses for a cell phone in the school setting. I think they are a tool that educators could utilize in their classrooms, but I think it is very important for the schools to have a cell phone policy in place before they start using them in classrooms.

Thoughts from Carline

It's hard to believe that our class is over. Each week I came away with new information and would push myself to learn the "ins and outs" of the task put before me. This past Wednesday was no different. Even though I had used audacity once, I had forgotten a lot about the program. Luckily, it soon came back and Joy and I were off and running, actually speaking, as we created our pod cast. We were pleased and excited that we had mastered the task.
I thank you for pushing me to try these new programs and know that I will continue to use them. Have a great holiday, everyone! See you next year!

Jeremy, Ricky and I finished our podcast last night; I think it has a lot of great information about cell phone use in schools. There are several uses for these phones and I think we could engage our students more through the use of them. Obviously, there are drawbacks and those should be planned for when implementing such an idea.
I personally use the calendar tool in my phone as an agenda and I think these could replace the paper versions our schools spend so much money on. Our students don't seem to grasp the idea behind their planners; they just think they are a hall pass. If we allowed them to use their phones to give them reminders of homework and tests I feel they would better understand the benefits of keeping a day planner. The bottom line is to use some sort of planner, why should it be in a cookie cutter fashion that has been used for years?
I know most think that phones are a distraction, but can I ask one question: Don't most adults have cell phones on them all day? How is it they accomplish their jobs with such huge distraction right in their pocket? Just a thought.

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

I appreciate having the whole class time last night to work on our assignments. I now know how to do a podcast! I am still working on my wiki and multi-media assignments. Wish me luck. I have learned a lot of technological information in this class. I am so glad that I took it even though I really did not have to. Thanks to everyone that helped me in class, especially Lisa. Thanks for all the wonderful websites. They are very helpful.

I appreciate all the time we have had to work on our assignments. I couldn't imagine being assigned these though and then just told to go do them. If I was sent to complete these assignments on my own, it would have been a lot more stressful. It was nice to be able to do them with other people around so if you had a question, someone was always there to help. The podcast was not bad once we got it all figured out. The hardest part for us was keeping it under 7 minutes. We found ourselves cutting a lot of our information. Thank you Lisa for all your help through all these technology classes! You're a lifesaver! Thank you so much!
Everyone have a Merry Christmas! See you in January!

It was so nice last night to be able to have the time and all of the help to complete the assignments. Its nice heading into break knowing most of the work is done. I was surprised to see how easy it was to make and create the podcast, although we did have great help from Lisa!Thanks Lisa!! Overall I really enjoyed doing the WIKI it was fun to add the different videos and links for the studnets to get on and see. I think they will really enjoy it!! Have a Merry Christmas everyone!

December 17, 2008

My new wiki is http://solarsystem1234/pbwiki.com/ Thanks for all your help. As much as I ask for help, I know I am making some progress. My biggest problem is trying to remember what password goes with what. I am trying to use the same but I have to remember that there is one password for internet and one for gmail. I also went back to those pages in my wiki that you helped me with about the sun, moon, and asteroid belt and I did edit those pages all by myself and added my information. Please check it out!! Thanks, Tom

Lisa Pomazal

I am excited about creating a blog and wiki for students to use. My idea for using the blog will be to give students an opportunity to respond in writing to what we are doing in class (Kind of like how you are having us respond after each class on this blog.). Knowing that their words will be published online has been a huge motivator for my students.

I liked looking at all of the gadgets you can add to your page. I would probably not use many of them, however, as they are not geared toward elementary students and may be more distracting than helpful.

Thanks again for allowing us to leave class early to attend our music program. You are a very accommodating instructor.

Dec. 10

I still feel overwhelmed with all of this technology stuff. I still am not sure how I will be incorporating this into my classroom. Maybe down the road this will all fall into place but for now I am still struggling. However, in actually sitting down and working on the blog site, I do feel that it could be fun if more time is spent in working with this technology. I also felt that the same information was being used for both the blog and the wiki.

Wednesday night's class was great! I enjoyed setting up my blog and wiki. I kind of felt like I was putting the same information on them both. I need to take a little more time to think about how I want to use them. I teach Kindergarten, so as far as response, it would only be parents. I cannot believe that this week is our last meeting, until February. Now, just to finish all the assignments.

Class on Wednesday was awesome. Learning how to set up your own blog and wiki site is pretty cool. I enjoyed playing around with the wiki site a little more. Trying to learn how to put things in and thinking about what you want to put in is exciting. I found that if I'm going to use this in my classes that I really need to think about what type of things I want to put in. I also need to think about how many sites do I want. Do I want to have one for each class, or just one for all my classes. If I have only one, how do I set up the material to pertain to each level of student. These are just a few of the questions that I thought about over the weekend and will continue to think about while I make the page.

It was fun creating a blog page and wiki page. It didn't seem hard at all. When things worked, it was easy. I can see where this would be helpful for teachers, students, and parents. It is great for communication.

Carline's Thoughts

Each week we continue to be exposed to new technological magic. It is all fascinating. Yet, my biggest struggle is finding the time to put it all in use. I am so anxious for break, so that I can experiment more with all that we have learned from you this semester. It has been pretty amazing. I find myself sitting down at the computer every chance I get to try something out or search for something new.

I have enjoyed creating my wiki and blog pages. I want to do more with them both and am anxious to get my students involved. I keep going to the help pages for assistance. Thank goodness for "Help" and "You". It has been such a life saver being able to work on our projects with you right there on the spot. When the problem arises, you are right there to rescue us.

Thank you again, for allowing us to leave early to attend our Christmas musical program. It went well, but I think there were more adult performances than children. It's supposed to be about the "kids", right? Still, the children looked darling and performed beautifully.

See you Wednesday!

I was very surprised to see how easy it was to create your own blog page. I really think the parents and students would use it. This is would be another wonderful way to keep in communicaton with the parents. I also think it would be great to see what the parents have to say when posting thier comments. I thought it was great to be able to work in it in class and have the help as you needed it. It will be very nice next week to be able to record our podcasts in class incase we have difficulites:) I have really enjoyed this class so far. Our group is hoping to have everything completed by the end of next week! Well see:)

Tom Nelson

Last class period came me a chance to explore the add-ons to PBwiki. I am impressed how many gimgaws and doodads have been added PBwiki since last year. It is a powerful way to customize the look of wikis, and perhaps add some educational value. I am impressed how easy and intuitive the interface of PBwiki is. I used it last year for a literature class to keep track of their reading notes; I recall few problems of students who were unable to find their way around. One of the educator's biggest challenges with using Wikis is to give students additional reasons to look at the wiki. I don't want them to write their responses. I also want them to look at what other people say as well.

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

I greatly appreciate the lessons on creating a wiki and blog. I didn't really understand what the difference was between the both of them, but now I understand. I am definetely going to use the wiki page for some of the activitites that we do in my class for science and Geography. Also, the blog website is going to be useful in communicating with parents and students, but I feel I am going to really use it as a communciation guide between the parents and me.

W

I appreciated the time we had last class to get started on the Blog and Wiki Pages. I think I would have been worse off if I was sent to do this on my own without having you and others to ask questions of. I am not sure how I am going to use either of these without actually having a true classroom but I think it would be beneficial if the parents of my students wanted to get on and make any comments or let me know of any concerns they may have about their child. The only bad part would be that others could read what they write. If I had a classroom, I think the Wiki especially would be great because I could post assignments for the kids to do and they could access it and get on and explore what was on there. I think the interaction that would take place with both the Blog and Wiki would be a wonderful thing.

I found it very helpful to have time in class to set the blog and wiki page up. I haven't really decided how I will use them in class, but I do plan on letting the students know about it. I feel it could be helpful to keep reminders to my students since I only see them twice a week. I think I can also keep it updated on what we are doing in class that way if the students parents are wondering they can just go to the blog or the wiki.

Last night's class was helpful for setting up a blog and wiki. These items can be used for our classes. I plan to have students check the blog and invite them to post messages for pertinent topics. I'm still brainstorming ideas for the wiki. It was helpful to have time in class to put these assignments together. I feel comfortable when getting help from the professor and also assistance from peers.

Classtime was so helpful to enable us to create the blog and wiki . You are so patient! I am excited to use these tools with my students. I can see many possibilities for class useage. This class had widened my awareness of the many possibilities technology can afford once you are proficient enough to use these tools.

Thanks for your willingness to let us leave early. The concert was very special this year with using the stage, lights, costumes and instruments. The students did a wonderful job and were proud of their efforts.

Dec 10 meeting

I finally found out where to make blogs and wikis. I never heard of blogger.com. I added some solar system items to it and a written note about sun and light on it too. My blog is http://robbins1234.blogspot.com/ and the wiki will be http://solarsystem1.pbwiki.com/ Am learning a lot but I realize how little I do know.

I was glad to see we were allowed to pretty much get our blog and wiki done in class. I was hesitant last spring when we first did these things thinking that I wouldn't ever use them in my art classrooms. I was wrong, though, and the kids actually would rather do notes on a podcast then listen to me give them to them. Hopefully our district will continue to update its technology to stay with what is available; it will be hard because of the speed in which technology advances. I believe it is worth the cost.

I appreciated the class time to work on the blog and pbwiki. I don't know how sophisticated and creative mine will be, but I will keep working on them. I become very frustrated with any problems or stumbling blocks thrown at me. It's so nice to have an instructor that is willing to help you through. I also appreciated the time to ask questions at the end of class.

My group is doing a podcast on cell phones in schools. I am excited to see where this goes as it is an ongoing problem in our school. At some point we have to teach and not be police officers toward the kids.

I finally made it to the blog! I have been having difficulty. I throughly enjoyed the multimedia projects we watched last week. It helped a lot to know what was expected. I am still deciding on a topic for that. I am looking forward to tonight with the work time at the end of class. I need to get caught up on a few things.

I was a little apprehensive about doing the Wiki project but once I had the information and got started it ended up being easier than I thought it would be. I was a little overwhelmed with getting the assignments last week at class but none of them are too bad once you get started on them. It just seemed like a lot on top of everything else going on this time of year.
I liked being able to work on the Wiki together and I am anxious to see it all come together.
The videos we watched were amazing. I just don't see how people can do this. It amazes me the quality of the things you can find out there. It just takes sooo much time to do this. You could spend forever searching.

First and most important, Tom does talk to much. Lets face the facts people. At least he admits it. Anyway, trying to understand what is being said and displayed on the IIRC is difficult at times. Listening to how different people think about a certain subject is great. Many thought this or thought that. We talked........and some good points came out. I liked that very much. I enjoyed the discussion.
Watching the video examples was also good. They gave good and not so good examples of what we as a class should be looking at when we are going to do our own.
Finally, being able to write our script using a wiki is a great idea. I live in Trivoli and working with people who live in Abingdon or Galesburg, this will help out tremendously. Thanks

The projects we watched about Cyber Bullying (and other subjects) were interesting. It is amazing what people can put together with the use of technology! I wasn't sure about doing a collaborative report on the Wiki, but it was a piece of cake. I can see where this could be very beneficial for group projects when the people in the groups can not physically be together. It was fun. I am glad that we are given time in class to work. It really helps.

Dian's blog for November 19th

I found the November 19th class interesting because I learned about some of the different sites on the internet. To know that there are many more options available when needed is reassuring.
Working on the transferring of information and linking data from one spreadsheet to another didn't seem so bad. It really helped to have easy to follow directions and assistance from others in class when needed.
I have already implemented in my classroom resources that were offered in the t4jordan website with my students. There were several things that I would like to try in the future with the students.

Dian's blog for December 3rd.

The IIRC assignment opened a new resource for me and it validated the attainment and achievement of the students at Hedding Grade School. It was rewarding to reveal that our school met and often times exceeded standards. Our school also did very well against other Illinois schools of comparable size.
The podcast/wiki project along with the multi-media project tends to overwhelm me. However, because these projects can be completed in groups does lessen the stress level. Watching the video examples did help with some ideas as to what was expected.

It was interesting to see the different ways that people used media to create their own videos. I think that I have a better idea of what components I should use or omit as I make my own presentation.

I have used Movie Maker a couple of times before, although my approach was very simple. I made a weather segment for my fourth graders a couple of years ago that used some pictures that I had taken of a developing funnel cloud. Last May, I made a photo slideshow set to music (...uh...music that I hope Phil Collins never finds out about...) to give to my son at his wedding. Adding a third element to a Movie Maker presentation will present a new challenge for me!

My group and I have started working on the wiki project, and it's kind of fun! See you all Wednesday for more techno-excitement!

Comments for Dec. 3

After wading through the IIRC data looking for meaningful connections between student achievement and their communities, I have a couple of thoughts.
1) I realize Illinois doesn't have any money and that some information is better than no information, but I am wondering if the taxpayers and parents and other members of our community understand the significance of the data they're being given. The report card does a nice job of boiling down the spreadsheets and colorful graphs, but most educators agree (as well as our class discussion showed) that the things that really matter in making a school good or mediocre are things that cannot be readily quantified. The implication to the viewer is that these are meaningful statistics and you might be able to figure out what the problem is with your child's school from trends in budget categories, racial composition, etc. I was especially intrigued by the class room indicator called "Parent Involvement." I read about high schools that have 100 percent involvement and their meet and exceed levels are down in the 30s and 40 percents. How are these schools measuring parent involvement? At the least, these reports need footnotes and hyperlinks that explain financial line items. We teachers at least had the benefit of Dr. C. explaining them. I shudder to consider the misconceptions triggered by poorly documented data. Since there is pretty widespread agreement about what makes one school good and another mediocre, I have to wonder why the ISBE doesn't provide more relevant information. These presentations seem to distract the community from a more productive, relevant discussion about school quality, teacher accountability, and student achievement.
2) The scatter plot data concerns me that Illinois is either failing to educate its high school students, or that the tests it gives them is invalid. When I first looked at the data as a whole, I noticed the two roughly parallel bands, both sloping down when moving from left to right on the horizontal axis. When I analyzed my schools, I was able to exclude the middle and grade schools, which make up most of the schools on the upper (high achieving) band. The vast majority of high schools fall into the bottom band. I was happy to discover at AHS is doing much better compared to other schools in the state. This shows me that while Abingdon has a ways to go, teachers at Abingdon have been doing a great job.
Yes, I know I talk too much.

Lisa's Reflection for Dec. 3

I like the idea of using a wiki to collaboratively compose a summary of our podcast topic: “Using blogs and wikis in the classroom.” I found some interesting suggestions for using a wiki with students.

I’m also excited about the multi-media project. My topic will be a project I did with my class this year. I trained a few students to use the digital camera to take pictures for the movie. It’s amazing how quickly 9 year-olds learn new technology. They were taking pictures, transferring, renaming, and saving them to the computerlike pros by the end of the week.

I am a little frustrated about the assignment concerning our district’s student information software. Our technology coordinator has the most knowledge about STI, but he couldn’t answer the questions about the budget. Our superintendent will be out of town until Thursday, so I am unsure of how we can collect the necessary data to complete this assignment on time.

Carline's Thoughts

It is always interesting to look at the IIRC site to see how our school compares to others with similar demographics. I just wish it offered more answers. Oh, there are plenty of statistics to compare and ponder over. Yet, I never feel like I know exactly how to go about solving the problems we face. Perhaps, the state needs to direct more funding towards that aspect of the testing program.

I agree, it was nice to go back and look at "movie maker". When I don't use something on a regular basis, I get rusty and have to reteach myself. That's what I was doing Wednesday night. I still need to review the audio component to movie maker. I wasn't happy with what I came up with for my other class project (audio-wise), so I'm hoping I will be more pleased with the music I import for this project.

Thank you for being patient with me and assisting all of us with our individual needs.

Is anyone else stressed out? Tis the season, I guess!

I really enjoyed doing the IIRC assignment. I found it very intresting to see where our school and district fell in the mix with the others. It was helpful to see some examples of the mulitlmedia projects in class Wed. night. Thanks for going over the scavenger hunt assignment and how to post it! I wasnt sure how to do it and now I know so thats a good thing. Hopefully all will go smooth with the podcasts and movie maker projects!

The class on Wednesday December 3 showed several examples of multi-media assignments. These examples functioned as guidance for our assignments. The use of movie clips, music, power-point slides, etc. on the multi-media assignments gives us a good starting point for our assignments. These assignments can be used in our classes. There are also opportunities for our students to create similar projects to further their learning.

Thanks for the reinvite. I want to thank you for showing me again moviemaker. I did recall some things from the only time earlier I made it. I do think that the bottom line in education is the dedication of the teachers and how we engage the students. It is more important today to show the relevance of what they are learning and how it will affect their lives in the future. If we can make that connection, then we will have the students in the palms of our hands and they will be more acceptance of their own education.

I reall enjoyed the IIRC assignment although it took me forever to copy and paste all the info onto Word. However, once I did that analyzing the data was fascinating. I never realized I could access so much information about any school before this class. I looked up my grandchildren's schools and shared that data with my son. I have really learned a great deal in this class! I am looking forward to the moviemaker assignment and sharing the finished product with my student's parents. I appreciate the time we are allowed to work in class! I posted once, but it didn't post, so if this is a repeat hopefully I can delete it...hmmm still learning ...

Wednesday, December 3,2008

I enjoyed and found much insite into the moveimaker and podcast videos that we viewed in class on Wednesday. My group was able to come up with an idea for the moviemaker video that I think will be very beneficial for District 217 for receiving money for ISAT preperations. I also found it useful and have already viewed several files on the assignment that we have to do on finding websites, etc.

The IIRC assignment was one that I found very informative. I had never really examined the test scores of others schools or the school data to find out what may be the difference between schools. Looking at the IIRC gives you so much information and insight on why some schools are achieving higher than other schools. I found it interesting to study all of the data and form conclusions on that data. I really enjoyed this assignment and found it very helpful in understanding the differences between school achievement.

The sites we were introduced to last week are interesting to me. I downloaded spacetime at home and have used it a lot; there are some bugs in it, like the ebay search not working at all. It's nice to learn about these sites that I might not ever know about if we didn't see them in class.
The IIRC page gives so much information to look at and decipher about our communities and their test scores that we may be fooled into thinking that is the only information we need. While there is a lot of information there, I think other variables come into play when it comes to these things. One example is how the community values education. In Abingdon, for instance, the community may not put as much emphasis in education as a Carbondale or Normal or Macomb where there are institutes of higher education. Communities like that, where the major employer is an education based facility, will probably put more emphasis in their families education. The old saying, "My dad works at the factory and he's doing fine, so I don't need school cause I'm just going to work there anyway," isn't part of the majority demographic. These factors can weigh heavily on the scores of a particular school. If the kid doesn't think they need school then why would they strive to do well on these tests?

I have had a good time in the past two weeks checking out the various sites that we learned about during our last class. I have saved numerous videos from YouTube by using idesktop.tv, and I've been bookmarking sites using delicious.com. I have played around with a couple of the others, and I'm planning to check them out more completely over Christmas Break.

I've been working on my IIRC project, and I'm a little overwhelmed by the extent of the information that is available. I'm glad we have had the opportunity to do some guided research during classtime. This site is an amazing resource!

Looking forward to more fun on Wednesday!

Tom Nelson's post

The web has so many resources that keeping track of them could be a full-time job. Last week's class showed a few tools that give access to even more resources. I saw some good stuff from some of the sites we visited in class last week, but I saw a lot more stuff that wasn't and just had to be waded through to find something worthwhile. I liked the tags associated with Delicious for finding links that others have found. Many of the videos I looked at weren't useful. Searching is the key; the search engines for these places are lacking in keywords and descriptions that could making find the right thing easier.
The IIRC website is an interesting place to root around and make comparisons with other schools. I saw some interesting patterns in the data, but I'm not sure if they mean anything. Making generalizations about a school based solely on its gross test scores doesn't sound like good methodology. It's like buying a car because the body has no rust. Doesn't the engine count?

Thoughts from Joy

I have really been enjoying class. I also enjoy the time in class to work on assignments. I learned a lot from our last class on Pageflakes, Stumble, Desktop tv, joost, delicious. I just wish I could find more time to explore some of these things a little more. The IIRC data has been very interesting. I am not very familiar with the testing since I am a Kindergarten teacher, but I am learning a lot and how I can use the excel to help in my testing processes.