Interesting thing on the way to the electronic forum . . .

Yesterday, on an otherwise lazy Sunday, I was noodling around on my laptop at home. I went to open up an article on the Strib homepage, and all of a sudden I had a request from an anti-virus service to update my settings and run a check. This anti-virus program told me that I was at risk of downloading a new and dangerous "Trojan" virus, and that I should upload the most recent version right away. It even provided the easy button to push to begin the download. Convenient, right?

Wrong!! After it began doing a few "fixes" to my computer, I realized that although the symbol for this anti-virus "service" and the colors/fonts for it were similar, I was actually beginning to download the virus itself! I called my resident tech guy (my system administrator-in-training husband) who came to the rescue, and prevented my computer from doing anything else harmful.

I was so surprised at how bamboozled I was! I never fall for this type of thing, and here was the perfect virus disguised as something to help me.

I guess I better be wary if anyone approaches me with the too perfect looking apple in the next few days, too. I would hate to end up like Snow White!

001010111100010100

As I sit here and try to write this, I am currently not a happy camper with some technology. In our program we are trying to use Infinite Campus to do our grading (it's a bit different than mainstream) and are running into many roadblocks. I can't think of a day when I haven't seen Jason Pelowski in our office trying to answer the new question of the day when it comes to the system. A fellow teacher reminded me that with innovation and improvements come change, but I'm not entirely sure I want this change. We are at the point where we are making fundamental changes to our program to suit the technology, and not the other way around. Isn't technology's purpose to make life easier? Shouldn't the issues we're having with the infernal campus be easily remedied because of this new fangled technology?

I can't really think of anything positive to say right now about technology--sorry! Maybe, too, it's because I've been teaching about the old ways in Russia. It seems like we're moving at breakneck speed into the age of technology and I'm feeling connected to the old, Russian serfs out there. Ugh.

A techno book?

As part of my Sunday morning ritual of reading the Strib, I always make a point of checking out the Target ad (whether I need anything or not.) The gift/technology item that really surprised me was the newest in book technology. It was a Sony Digital Reader "book" for $299.99. ( image courtesy of www.gizmosforgeeks.com)


Basically, it stores up to 160 books, includes an MP3 player, and eradicates the need to print books on paper. You upload the book(s) of your choosing, lets say all seven Harry Potter books, and then you have an easy, digital, portable way of carrying around all seven books to read. (Because who would want to wait until you get home to grab the next book in the series to begin reading? Not those in the instant gratification world!)

It seems like a terrific idea for college students--$300 for the gadget and another $10 to download the book you need for your undergrad? The benefit to this is not having to go to the bookstore, buy the book for $120 that someone else has highlighted, and then sell it back at the end of the term for $30. To me it seems like a plus for the college group, especially when you do the same thing 2-3 times a year with 4-5 books for a course. I know this is designed to be one of those overpriced gadgets you are supposed to buy for the person who you don't know what to buy for, but who really is the market for this? Is it that difficult to carry one book around, let alone needing to carry 160 to choose from?

But are books printed on paper that bad? If as a society we transition from books as we know them now to digital books, will we ultimately lose some form of culture in the end? Will candle stores begin marketing scented candles modeled after the smell of old books, once we've switched over to digital books? I'm interested to know how all the librarians/media specialists/English teachers feel about this.

The Base Line

After learning about databases last week, I am hopeful that they will continue to be used for all research applications. I used to be afraid, very afraid, of databases after many a search turned up to not have useful information for me.

The coolest database, that we have access to at the high school, is the decades site. You can even research newspaper headlines from the paper printed on your birthday! It would make research that much easier for students who are given the task to discover what happened on the day they were born. (As if that wasn't monumental enough!)

And even though we are learning all these tricks to make our searches that much more precise, I still find myself wanting more in terms of results after a search. I realize that there is no search engine that can read my mind and find exactly what I am looking for, but perhaps someday there will be. It would be nice to type something in (such as a recipe for red velvet cake, for example) and not have to filter through all the other gobbeltygook that comes along with the search results (ex: red cake, velvet cake, red velvet, etc.) even when you do use quotation marks to keep things together.

I do have hope, though, after learning about databases that one day searching will be easier and more thorough. Thank you for instilling that hope in me!

Thing 5

I have always been a fan of the public library system, even though I worked at one for only 10 days (one can only sort and shelve books for so much time before it becomes the bane to your existence.)

I am a proud card carrying member of the Carver County Library system, and enjoy looking for books on their website. You can see a book advertised on a TV show (such as Studs Terkel who was featured on the CBS Sunday Morning Show last week), hop on your computer in your jammies as you're watching TV, and request the book to be held for you at your local library. The lazy person in me likes that I can have the book delivered to the library in Watertown, and I don't need to drive all the way to Waconia, Chaska, or Norwood/Young America to pick it up.

Another nifty thing about libraries today is the self check-out system. While the system at the grocery store or Home Depot has a tendency to get stuck and stop working, the library one is very easy to use, and great when there's a line or no librarian to be found. Plus, on those days where one may be feeling a bit anti-social, you can visit the library and get your book without actually speaking to anyone.

What I would change about libraries is to make the online books a bit more interesting. It's great to have access to professional journals, but it would be nice to find a Harry Potter book on there when the wait time is several weeks or months otherwise. I also wish it were easier to use some of the online databases. I realize there is a specific method to accessing the information you need, but I don't want to search through everything. And I guess part of me is too afraid to ask the librarians for help. (They can be kind of scary!)

Thing 4

Following in the footsteps of others . . . I too am not feeling overly creative this afternoon. I've been meaning to blog about Thing 4, so here's my chance! Sorry, it's a bit wordy.

Which customizable homepage did you choose? Why did that one appeal to you? Will you make it your permanent home page?
I chose the iGoogle homepage for my project. Part of what appealed to me with this site is the fact that I can make it look (virtually) however I choose. I love being able to change the images/color spectrum when my moods need to be matched, and I love that I can use gadgets of my choosing. I use Yahoo! as my primary email server, so I only visit iGoogle to check my reader for Mili. Maybe someday I'll use it as my primary, permanent home page.

Did you find a tool that has some uses for you at school or home? Which tool(s) would you recommend to others?
My favorite gadget on iGoogle is the daily how-to. I've actually used it in my advisory to teach students how to make animals out of bath towels. It generally has very crafty stuff on it, but I like how random it can be and how varied the projects are. (I'll be you never realized you can make a wallet completely from duct tape!) If I see anything on this gadget that I think has a further application for my classes, I will usually bookmark it and save for my students.

How can the online calendars be useful to you?
The nice thing about online calendars is that they are usable almost anywhere you are--school, home, work, the library, out of town, etc. Normally, I just use the calendar on Outlook for recording significant events and meetings. But I can see the use of the online calendar for places other than work. I don't think I'll actually begin using other online calendar sites. For 1--I have a calendar as it is. For 2--what happens to all the cute calendars I'll inevitably receive as holiday gifts?

What about the To Do Lists -- helpful? too much work?

I almost always work with a To Do list, but I think the computerized version is one more unnecessary step for something already easy to create. I'll take my scratch paper and pen version any day!

How would you compare and contrast the use of paper-based assignments and assignment notebooks to the potential use of online assignment calculators and to do lists for students?

First thing, what do you do for students without computer access outside of school?

Transitioning into all technology will inevitably leave some students/people behind.

I have used online assignments this year so far, and the students seem to have some difficulty in finding my website, the assignment, or the motivation to do it. I had a student comment last night that he chooses to work on the computer because it feels like he's just playing around and not actually working. Education should be fun, but it also should represent what the rest of the world is like. I know we are becoming more technologically advanced daily, but I think, for the sake of history and all other cultures with writing, we need to continue to have students use their handwriting for other than scrawling on bathroom walls.

iPlanitude

A coworker clued me into a neat website today, especially for any geography classes. It's called iPlanitude.com and it's a compilation of videos from around the world that others can add to, and shows examples of daily life activities. Anyone can add videos to it, and use it free of charge. Right now there are a few videos from Latin America and Tibet you can watch. But the neat thing about it is that they are also looking for students to create short videos about daily life in America to post to the site. It might make for a really neat assignment for those students going somewhere for Spring Break (or even just staying home, too!)

Oh yeah, and the two responsible for this site are teachers here at CHS! Heidi Berbee and Allison Hanson created this site, with two others, in response to other requests from teachers about finding short video clips that show life outside of the US in an interesting way.

Delicious

I'm trying to remember, how do I stick the icon for delicious on my browser on my computer? I can't remember how, and didn't see anything on their FAQs about it. I know I would definitely use it more if I had easier access to it!

Thanks!

Thing 3

Looking at the RPC and other research tools, I think they can't do anything but help students to get more organized and make a better end product. I would say for myself, teaching research is very difficult. Maybe it's because of my age, but when I'm looking for an answer to something, I want it now! Not only that, but I am a huge procrastinator when it comes to projects. I feel that whatever I can do to prevent my students from falling into the same procrastination pitfall is great (and they're still young enough to not get stuck in a bad habit like that.)

At this point, I'm not planning to use the RPC in class as I don't really have any big projects on the horizon. However I do plan to use it when assigning larger projects in the spring to help students get a better idea of what to do.

It's easy in my classes to have our own sort of RPC as students don't have homework (Alt. School philosophy) so it's not depended on the student to do all the planning. But I guess for my planning purposes, it would be a good thing!

How to stay sane? Having more than 24 hours in a day! Seriously, more time to do things would be ideal. It's hard to squeeze all planning and worktime into a short time during the day. I do a considerable amount of work outside of school (as does everyone else) and I still use every bit of prep time for coming up with what's new and fun.

Scaredy Cat

With all this new, fabulous technology that we have available I am beginning to feel a little gunshy. I've tried a few (what I felt were easy) assignments in class in Alt. School, and they have bombed with some of the students. It amazes me that in the 21st century there are students who only have computer contact when they are at school--and have little idea how to compose an email, search for a travel destination, or understand how to make a brochure using Publisher (whether or not I've already created a template for them to plug stuff into.) I know I've mentioned before that I sometimes take technology for granted, but it's kind of scary that the seniors for this school year have never had an email address before.

Maybe it's because I'm still (fairly) new to this whole teaching thing, but it would be nice if schools/government could supply computers to those who can't afford them. I would think it could be one of the best ways to enhance learning outside of school and would give students even less of a chance to not get homework done. Especially here in Chaska where there's free wi-fi access around the city! Not to sound too political, but I'm sure some of the $700 billion bailout could be used to fund something like that . . . I don't know if I could find a grant quick enough or with enough cash to help out any senior, but a kindergartner would be more reachable.

Hmmmm, just pondering.

iGoogle

I just have to give a quick shout out to one of the gadgets on my iGoogle homepage. I receive the "How to of the Day" and over the weekend it showed how to make a towel kitty (just like the towel animals they make in various hotels and cruise ships.) I was telling my students about it today during one of those random moments and they now want to learn how to make one! If only they could get that excited about everything I talk about! :)

Wordle Addict

I have to say, I stole Sarah's idea. I checked out Wordle.net after she included it in her blog, and fell instantly in love. It is the coolest website! I actually used it in class today. I had students search through some of Reagan's speeches, and plug in the full text. They could then choose to design their cloud however they wanted, and emailed it to me. Tomorrow, we'll use their clouds to look for themes in the speeches.

I was just impressed (and really proud) that my students then went to other teachers in our program to show off what they did in my class. I guess I'm just so tickled that they actually showed off what they did in my class to another teacher--wahoo!

Yeah, so wordle.net is terrific. Great suggestion!

Technology in the Classroom, today edition

So I was amazed that my students had a really difficult time accessing email addresses and things today in class. I had a session the first week of school where I had them create email addresses for school and then had them send me emails to keep track of their login information. Then today, I sent the day's assignment to their emails and had them work in the computer lab on the first day of the project.

While some students had no problem accessing the information, I had many students who had no clue as to how to get to any email information, how to send a new email, how to download an attachment, or even how to properly save a document. I had one student that spent the entire 45 minutes in the lab trying to create an email (they had forgotten to email me the first time), receiving the document from me, and attempting to find the information they needed and save it to their user folder. I guess sometimes I tend to take for granted the things they don't know.

Part of my idea for today was to make it a "green" assignment where there is no paper used for the work that they were doing. Although we used zero paper, I think the time spent trying to get things up and running would have been dramatically lessened with going the old fashioned way.

Facebook Friends

So far this weekend, I've had two students request to be my friend on Facebook. I don't have anything on it that would be considered controversial, but I'm wondering if anyone knows of any rules/laws out there preventing teachers from being friends with students.

Any ideas? (So far I've sent both requesters messages stating that I'd love to be their "friend" but needed to check into the rules first and then let them know on Monday.)

I know I'm supposed to be working . . .

I should be working on lesson plans and other technology stuff right now, but I was thinking back to some posts awhile back about yearbookyourself.com and just had to try.

It's kind of scary how well you can get them to line up right!

Maybe we can put these on our name badges--or in the yearbook. What do you think, Bri?

Otherwise, it's a very Candace Cameron Full House kind of look. Wow, technology can be fun!

Where's the Jelly?

I'm feeling a bit frustrated with PBwiki. It's not as user friendly as I had hoped it would be. Perhaps it's feeling a bit burned out at the end of the day, but I think I will definitely need a bit more time to play with it before using it. I think it might be too blank of a slate and perhaps it's scaring me (and I have writer's block because of it!)

I do like GoogleDocs, especially for the powerpoint option. (I especially like the different backgrounds--like the chalkboard!) It's such a cool idea to have this really good free software out there for students to use anywhere! It's great, especially, for the lower income students who maybe only have computer access here at school and at the library or at a friend's house. I'm hoping to show this to some students and have them give me some feedback on their thoughts.

Maybe it was just the blond hair?

As for the block, I know I was having issues with it back in August and assumed (incorrectly, I realize now) that it would be blocked throughout the year. I checked then later today and, yep, it works just fine. Maybe I'll chalk it all up to being a tad overwhelmed right now . . .

Or the blond hair!

Musings

Technology as a requirement

For this first week of school, I took all Alt. School students to a computer lab to set up email addresses to use for various projects throughout the year. I was (pleasantly) surprised that so many students had little/no trouble creating a new email address. There was plenty of grumbling about doing it ("Why can't I just use my fluffybunny@yahoo account?") but in the end the students did a fine job of setting things up and sending their first emails to me.

Using the fabulous ABtutor software in the computer lab, I then took them on a tour of the revamped Alt. School website, including my own site. I showed them how they will be using the homework dropbox and the link to the survey I have posted on who should be the next President of the United States. I must say, each student stared in wondrous amazement as I guided them around the net from the comfort of each chair in the room. Technology can be a great thing!

Questions that I am pondering--I really want my students to use blogger.com, how can students do this if it's blocked by the firewall? Is there more to GoogleEarth than just flying around visiting far off lands from the comfort of your couch at home? (And yes, a student did clue me into the flight simulator function!) How do I go about finding funding if there is a technology that I want for my classroom (clickers!)?

Thing 2: Blogging & RSS

Oddly, I'm reminded of Dr. Seuss right now . . . . I digress.

I am a fan of blogging, and I really hope my students will become interested in it as well. While they may take some time to warm to the idea of plastering their thoughts and feelings on the web (as it did with me) I think they'll like the anonymity of being able to get in touch with their emotions and being able to see what their friends are doing. And all from the comfort of their sofas at home.

Blogs in the classroom can be a really good thing seeing as the students can write either from their perspective, or from the viewpoint of another character. While it will take some time to teach students how to blog successfully (and feel like they're technologically gifted) I think they'll take to it and really get into my assignments.

RSS, on the other hand, seems like a bit of a nightmare to me. I have my routine of seeing different sites for new info, and it'll take time to break the habit. Not to mention the issue of not logging into the RSS for awhile and then being inundated with new information . . . scary! The idea of the potential of information overload, I think, can really have the problem with being overwhelming and may turn people off. I may need time to warm up to RSS, even though it is supposedly "really simple subscriptions."

At this point, the scorecard reads the following: Blogs, 1. RSS feeds, 0.

Great Expectations

The First Post . . .

Growing up, my family was very afraid of technology. Funny that as an adult, I want to learn as much as possible about technology, how to do things (post a YouTube clip, create a snazzy website, anything!), and how to use technology to my advantage and my students' advantages in the classroom. Who would have thought a girl growing up in a house where the Internet was viewed as a place for child molesters would grow to love it and want to include it as much as possible in my life? (not the molesters, though)

I'm hoping that this experience will teach me more about technology and how to use more of it in my classroom with my students. I want the Alt. School students to get the same, if not more knowledge, that the mainstream students receive in their nifty classes.

In the words of one of my great teachers from back in the day . . . here we go!