Tech Play 4

I will explore the information literacy option because I was concerned about some of the responses I saw from educated people concerning this subject in the reading discussion 5 from this course.  The most concerning response I saw was about teachers teaching students how to find the “correct” answers on the internet.   It led me to worry about the skills that have been given to teachers to show students how to disseminate the vast amounts of information on the internet. 

I have attempted to find the most basic (elementary level) resources to support learning information literacy skills.  My first search was on Boolean logic.  I am familiar with Boolean because of my software engineering background and worry about the ability of most people to use Boolean logic to search in Google or other search engines.  I appreciated the Boolean Machine by Rockwell Schrock. (http://rockwellschrock.com/rbs3k/boolean/index.htm)  It uses the familiar Venn Diagram and an interactive presentation to explain Boolean logic.  I think this along with some teacher provided topics with student-led Boolean logic would help students to understand the concepts.

The second tool I likes was from Berkeley, Googling to the Max – Exercises,

Getting the most from: http://www.google.com

(http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Guides/Internet/Googling_Max-Exercises.pdf).  Although this is not specifically for students, I think it is important for teachers to understand the concepts taught here so that they can best guide their students. 

The next tool that I appreciated is Kathy Schrock’s FIVE W’S OF WEB SITE EVALUATION (http://www.schrockguide.net/uploads/3/9/2/2/392267/5ws.pdf).  This is a PDF that uses the familiar 5 Ws (who, what, when, where and why) to help students with determining the accuracy of a website. 

The last tool that I thought was worth considering is Kidport (http://www.kidport.com/Contents.htm) which is a website which limits the possible sources of information.  While I kind of disagree with the concept, I have to compare it to the firewalls which exist in most school districts (although more extreme).  Without extensive amounts of time to judge the validity and comprehensiveness of the sources included, I include this source with caution. 

Because my focus is on the earliest elementary level students, I have focused on the most concrete areas: Research and Library Skills and Critical Literacy.  I feel that Media Literacy can be developed within the scope of learning these other skills and Information Ethics, while at its highest level should be discussed, can be further developed at a later age.  

Creativity Tools

Since I am lucky to be in a district that chose to provide iPads to all teachers this year, I was lucky enough to be able to look at a number of tools.  Looking through the apps did not only give me new tools to use with my students, but made me consider better ways to use the tools I have.

I downloaded several of the evaluating level apps from GloballyConnectedLearning.com and with the exception of Skype, I had not previously heard of any.  I particularly liked Science 360 due to the fact that it was a video based program (since many of my students struggle with reading) and the fact that it was easy to use.   You can scroll through pages of video screen shots and click on any one that interests you.  Compared to the other options in evaluating (several newspaper type programs with a great amount of reading) Science 360 could be quite useful for my students.  Another program that I liked is ShowMe.  I love the fact that in addition to drawing, this app allows for voice recording.  For some students with difficulty in reading and writing, drawing and dictating are great options until the reading and writing skills can be caught up.  This is definitely an app my students could use.

I have a few students who, either due to learning differences or physical abilities, have much better vocal communication skills than reading and handwriting skills.  I typically write objectives for these students to improve reading and handwriting skills while continuing to push creative writing.  The way that I typically do this is to have students dictate their writing to a teacher.  This program could allow for students to independently draw and dictate their thoughts which could be written out for them later.  I think this would create student interest, which fits nicely with my behaviorist teaching approach and allow students to use technology while increasing their independence.  I think science could be another great way to use this program.  Students could take pictures of science experiment outcomes and verbally give their observations.

I think that some of the creative programs, like the puppet and cartoon programs could be great for my students.  I often use student interests to increase their willingness to do work that they do not desire to do.  Writing dialogue for characters that they know and love and doing it in video might prove to be really valuable to me.  Rote memorization is fairly easy for students with Autism to do, while creative writing is extremely difficult.  These tools could really help my students.  I am stoked to introduce them to these programs this week!

Eportfolio Tools

I explored six eportfolio tools that I found when searching Google for eportfolio platforms.  Though, there were several comparisons from the perspective of a company or institution, I was unable to find one from the perspective of the student.  As a person who utilizes several computers daily, the ease of use (no printing or hole-punching) and ease of mobility (not carrying a binder) are the most obvious differences  between eportfolios and physical portfolios.  In addition, the various media, including video, that can be used in eportfolios is significant.

The platform that I chose to use is Epsilen.  My eportfolio is http://www.epsilen.com/cabramsky.  The first platform that I ruled out was Canvas (https://www.canvas.net/) due to the fact that this platform does not appear to offer individual eportfolio options.  Pricing is not transparent at all (you must request a pricing quote.  Even if Canvas had an individual eportfolio option, having to request a price quote is a negative for me. 

Other platforms and information that I found include:

Platform	Price	Storage	Additional Details
Evernote (https://evernote.com/)	Free	60 mb/month	Although I found this sight when searching for an eportfolio platform, it seems to be more of a “note to self” type platform with the ability to show your information in slide format.
Epsilen (www.epsilen.com)	Free	75 mb (according to http://www.aaeebl.org/?page=Epsilen)	Limited to .edu and .k12 email addresses.  Has an age requirement of 18 or older unless under supervision of parent or teacher.  No software download required.  Only allows US users.
Digication (www.digication.com)	19.95/ year for student 34.95/ year for teacher	100 mb	Much better pricing (including a free option) for Google Apps for Education Administrators and Schools
FolioTek               (http://www.foliotek.com/)	19.00/ year	250 mb	The fancy scrolling on this site distracted me from really looking too deep into the platform.

While several of these platforms offer free trials, I decided to go with one that appealed to me and is always free.  The best part of Epsilen for me is that the hosting is done online.  This allows for access to my eportfolio on any computer, without having to download software.  People who currently access materials from anywhere using Google Drive, Dropbox, etc. will appreciate this feature. 

Obviously Epsilen is not useful for many people in different contexts.  For example those who are not either students or teachers would not be able to join.  Also, the website Terms of Service excludes users outside the United States. 

If I were asking my students to create eportfolios, I would further investigate the Digication platform using the Google Apps for Education, because previous research on Google Apps for Education showed they are careful about student privacy and do not require email addresses for students under the age of 18. 

Technology Play Testing: Blogs

According to Merriam-Webster.com, a blog is "a Web site on which someone writes about personal opinions, activities, and experiences".  This is an interesting and possibly outdated definition. Many businesses, large and small, have blogs.  By this definition, are we to assume that these corporate blogs contain personal opinions and a primary "someone" who is posting to them?  Dictionary.com defines a blog as, "a website containing a writer's or group of writers' own experiences, observations, opinions, etc., and often having images and links to other websites".  This is a slightly more accurate description.  However, both of these definitions have failed to include the origin of the word, weblog, which in name expects a blog to be a log of information.  While many types of websites contain a person's opinions, activities, and experiences, a blog should be in log format, as opposed to former context being deleted and replaced with new. 

Newer, cheaper computers brought about the invention of blogs and newer, cheaper hardware and software components will continue to change them.  The inclusion of web cameras (webcams) on many laptops, phones and tablets combined with the popularity of YouTube has brought about a new type of blog, the video blog (vlog).  Although many types of vlogs exist, this type of blog seems to be dominated by the younger generation who have had access to this technology since their childhoods.  In additional to personal vlogs, there are a number of vlogs that focus on teaching activities that are best taught using video, such as mechanical repair, knitting, and other activities where words and pictures do not give enough information to the learner.

I follow a number of teaching blogs and feel that this is my way of "sneaking a peek" into other classrooms (which I seldom get to do in real life).  I also started a teaching blog a few months ago, but have never considered using a blog to teach.  My current district seems a little reluctant to promote electronic communication between teachers and students and the population that I teach does not do a great amount of writing, so created a blog for my students may not be in my immediate future.  However, after exploring a number of blog sites, I can see how they could be an amazing teaching resource. 

The first thing that I did was google, "blogging sites".  This brought a flood of information that was similar to what I encountered when I decided to create a teaching blog this summer.  There are a number of lists of why you should use this site or that, but I needed to narrow my search.  So, I googled, "blogging sites for teachers".  This also had huge amounts of information, including a number of lists that I read through.  After looking closely at WordPress and Weebly, I returned back to my search, where a chart for teachers comparing blog sites caught my eye.  This was exactly what I needed to tell me what sites might be for me.

In a dream world, where money is not a problem, I would likely use WordPress.org.  The ability to completely control all aspects of the blog design is very appealing to me (former software engineer that I am).  However, two things are necessary to use the 'free' software of WordPress.org is to have a domain name (which costs money) and a place to host it (which could cost money).  WordPress is the 'self-employed' choice of blogging, in that no one is really making you do things a certain way.  This site offers unlimited themes and layout customizations, does not insist that blog writers/owners are 13 and up, allows multiple authors, supports embedded media...basically, if you can figure out how to do it, you can.  That is right.  You have to have some "behind the scenes" knowledge to create a WordPress blog, though there are a number of good tutorials to help you.

So, let us visit the world where teachers are underpaid and spend a great deal of their own money for their classrooms - the free blog hosting options.  As a teacher who writes a blog directed to other teachers, I use blogger.  It is easy to use, free, backed by a great company (Google), supports embedded media and (most important to me) has unlimited themes and layouts.  If I want to get rid of that ugly, little ".BlogSpot" from my blog address, I can pay $10 a year (plus the cost of the domain name) to do so.   However, at this time I am looking at these sites as a teacher who uses a blog in teaching.  This changes things.  For one, as a teacher I am going to want to manage my students' accounts.  Also, my students are not over 13, so what about those Terms of Use agreements?  Blogger does have a plan for this - Google Apps for Education.  Looking at Google Apps for Education, I think that if my research had been done a few weeks later, this would be the site I would choose to use with students.  Google Apps for Education supports email, storage, word processing, spreadsheet and presentation software, and basic student site building. However, at this time the organizational software to create, organize and assess is not in place.  This portion, named "classroom" is supposed to be up later this month. 

This leads us to the blogging site that I would choose if I were creating a lesson for students and could not wait for the release of the "classroom" portion of Google Apps for Education.  I would choose Kidblog.  Kidblog allows complete administrator control over all student accounts, sites are private by default, have password-protected guest accounts (parents) and do not allow comments from outside sources.  In addition, Kidblog does not require any personal information (including email accounts) from students.  For my elementary students, I think Kidblog would be a great choice. 

My first thought on using a blog as a media for student work is in reading.   Creating a blog for students to answer high-level questions about an assigned book would be great.  Some of the same features that improve communication in online vs. traditional classrooms apply here.  Blogs allows for all students to express their opinions, even the most shy, reluctant ones.  Blogs also allow a log of student contribution, as opposed to the arbitrary, subjective "participation" grades that occur currently.  A blog allows for input from students as they read (instead of only during class), which would likely make student contributions more detailed. When my own children are assigned books, I read along with them to provide support.  As a parent, I would love to be able to read (and even participate in) a blog where my child discusses his ideas and observations on the book.  A blog would allow for more open sharing from students when addressing questions relating to themselves and their experiences.  This open sharing would likely help teachers and peers alike to appreciate other students and their experiences.  The assessment of comprehension would be easier to manage in writing (as opposed to verbal discussion).  The amount of control I could have in the conversation as the teacher would also be great - too off topic, I can add to the conversation to bring you back. 

Another way blogs could be used in the classroom is in writing.  If each student had a blog, they could post their written work to their blog and other students could be asked to critique their writing by giving thoughts and ideas to the writer.  The student could then make modifications to the writing based on the critiques of the editors.  Isn't this what peer editing is suppose to be?  Writing their critiques would teach student editors to be kind in their critiques and student writers to take critique better.  

The one obstacle I worry about is how districts are going to handle this new format.  Districts have started addressing teacher blogs, texting apps like Remind 101, and social media with differing results.  Some districts have not been keen on these technological advances.  How will they feel about student controlled blogs?  I am willing to bet we will all find out in the next decade.