Since I have yet to get my stinkin' webcam to function with my computer, I did look into how it will eventually help in an online couse setting. (Might be spending several hours with it before my conference on Monday night!) At first (and through our discussion on Tuesday night), I thought that they would work for guest speakers and not much else. After doing some research on other ways to use webcams in the classroom, I am feeling much better about using them with students. Some ideas included displaying student work (w/o names, of course - FERPA!) as far as what's great and what's not so much as well as test question discussions after a test, lab set-ups, quick time videos, and showing the view through a microscope. One of the uses really hit home (as it drives me nuts when students don't try the calculations in class!) - to show how to do certain calculations on a calculator. (Most students don't still have the manual, so it helps to have someone show them - in this way, by following the example rather than requiring direct instruction from the teacher - especially if more than one student has the same calculator.) Skyping also has great uses in the classroom, as does linking in to webcams in zoos or in areas of the world that are making news right now. (Some awesome science connections!)
I am very excited about the online storage capabilities for schools. I tried Dropbox and love it. It's fairly easy to use and it is perfect for what I would need. I don't have a fancy phone and my organizational skills are pretty decent, so I don't really have a need (yet) for notes or lists to go to an electronic device (maybe I am a tad old-school). After reading an interesting article about online storage at a school in Oklahoma, I am sure that it would work in any district. That particular school upped the amount of storage (from 10MB to 100MB for students and up to 1GB for staff and administrators) for a very small price. They managed to maintain the amount of security and are looking at upgrading in the near future to add even more security options, as well as collaborative options between students and teachers. We currently use an online storage system for grades (Infinite Campus), but I think that an online storage system for files would be perfect. I would love it if my files were accessible from anywhere, so I didn't have to remember where I saved particular files to (or had lost a flash drive!). Our district is moving "to the cloud" this next year, so it will be interesting to see how we make the shift and how teachers and students adapt to it!
Saturday, December 17, 2011
Sunday, December 11, 2011
CEdO 501 - Week 2
Happy to report that some of my technical difficulties were cleared up for this week's class (darn that webcam!) This week we focused on three major topics - browsers, social bookmarking and FERPA.
I must admit that I am a creature of habit, and after growing up with and using Internet Explorer, I still prefer to use it over a few other types of browsers. For me, it's fairly easy to work in and I am used to the setup and some tricks (and how to deal with its shortcomings). In one of the rooms that I teach in (of which I am only in that room one hour of the day, and the teacher who is in there the most doesn't typically log off, and I primarily just take attendance on the computer during that hour) - the teacher in there the majority of the day prefers to use Firefox (and it shows up as the only option for the web). If I am doing something besides just taking attendance on the computer, it does get a little frustrating because I am not used to Firefox. I know that the majority of internet users are now using Firefox (as of November 2011, 38.1% of users were using it) and are loving it, primarily because it's easy to use and many operating systems support it. After reading some reviews, it does have some set-backs in regards to JAVA and sometimes the options can be overwhelming. I imagine that with Firefox, Safari, Opera and Chrome, it depends both on the system that you have (Windows vs. Mac, etc) and the willingness and time you put in to learning different browsers. For the time being, I am still going to be an Internet Explorer girl.
Social bookmarking seems like a wonderful tool in the classroom, but I haven't had too much success since our last class in really diving into one and exploring it. I love the idea that the bookmarks are not just saved to a single computer, but rather out there "on the cloud" for a person to access anywhere, anytime. I imagine that we have all tried to find materials on the web that could help us create assignments and assessments or provide some alternative resources, but we waste so much time finding sites that are age and material-appropriate. Many times there are some good things, but then it rises to another level (collegiate) or doesn't fully explain how to do something. By using social bookmarking, you can have access to (and tag) particular websites and SHARE them with others (so that they don't have to go through the same struggles.) I am a little concerned with some types of social bookmarking sites (in particular StumbleUpon), as some seem as though it would take forever to find something of relevance. In the classroom, I would prefer that students not use a site like that (where everything is quite random), as it seems as though most students would get completely off task or frustrated that they wouldn't find things that are related (using it today, I kind of felt like the Bing commercials...topic to topic to topic). I am excited to check out some more social bookmarking sites and to see it work on more than one computer!
The last topic that we just brushed on and studied more between classes was FERPA. It seems obvious to have that protection in schools, as the students are still minors (and I couldn't imagine blurting out everyone's grade to the class or anyone else...that's the individual students own business). We take privacy very seriously, even when it comes down to parents/guardians listed and who can receive information on a child and who cannot. I imagine that it will be a struggle for some of us that will be teaching online, as there are still a few things that we might feel we have no control over (a Big Brother-type of situation - who is really out there checking out what we are typing and broadcasting?)
I must admit that I am a creature of habit, and after growing up with and using Internet Explorer, I still prefer to use it over a few other types of browsers. For me, it's fairly easy to work in and I am used to the setup and some tricks (and how to deal with its shortcomings). In one of the rooms that I teach in (of which I am only in that room one hour of the day, and the teacher who is in there the most doesn't typically log off, and I primarily just take attendance on the computer during that hour) - the teacher in there the majority of the day prefers to use Firefox (and it shows up as the only option for the web). If I am doing something besides just taking attendance on the computer, it does get a little frustrating because I am not used to Firefox. I know that the majority of internet users are now using Firefox (as of November 2011, 38.1% of users were using it) and are loving it, primarily because it's easy to use and many operating systems support it. After reading some reviews, it does have some set-backs in regards to JAVA and sometimes the options can be overwhelming. I imagine that with Firefox, Safari, Opera and Chrome, it depends both on the system that you have (Windows vs. Mac, etc) and the willingness and time you put in to learning different browsers. For the time being, I am still going to be an Internet Explorer girl.
Social bookmarking seems like a wonderful tool in the classroom, but I haven't had too much success since our last class in really diving into one and exploring it. I love the idea that the bookmarks are not just saved to a single computer, but rather out there "on the cloud" for a person to access anywhere, anytime. I imagine that we have all tried to find materials on the web that could help us create assignments and assessments or provide some alternative resources, but we waste so much time finding sites that are age and material-appropriate. Many times there are some good things, but then it rises to another level (collegiate) or doesn't fully explain how to do something. By using social bookmarking, you can have access to (and tag) particular websites and SHARE them with others (so that they don't have to go through the same struggles.) I am a little concerned with some types of social bookmarking sites (in particular StumbleUpon), as some seem as though it would take forever to find something of relevance. In the classroom, I would prefer that students not use a site like that (where everything is quite random), as it seems as though most students would get completely off task or frustrated that they wouldn't find things that are related (using it today, I kind of felt like the Bing commercials...topic to topic to topic). I am excited to check out some more social bookmarking sites and to see it work on more than one computer!
The last topic that we just brushed on and studied more between classes was FERPA. It seems obvious to have that protection in schools, as the students are still minors (and I couldn't imagine blurting out everyone's grade to the class or anyone else...that's the individual students own business). We take privacy very seriously, even when it comes down to parents/guardians listed and who can receive information on a child and who cannot. I imagine that it will be a struggle for some of us that will be teaching online, as there are still a few things that we might feel we have no control over (a Big Brother-type of situation - who is really out there checking out what we are typing and broadcasting?)
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