This class has been the best professional development I have done over my last eleven years of teaching. I feel like I'm a kid in a candy store and I don't know where to start, so I'll just dive into everything. My students have even shown their appreciation of me taking this course and have commented that the things I'm now using in class and having them do is helpful for them and I'm seeing quiz scores increase here in the last month. Thanks for the great course and I'll certainly be marketing this class to my colleagues.
Thing 15-21 Capstone
Thursday, December 16, 2010
Monday, December 13, 2010
Thing 21 - Screencasting
Video to show how to upload content to our school's sharepoint site:
I've been trying to use screencasting for nearly a year now. I started to apply for a grant to Camstasia and went to our computer teachers and they told me that they had a site license that I could use. The software was installed at the end of the school year last spring so I never had a chance to use it.
This fall I went to use it and due to a changing of the guard in our technology department, I was unable to load it. I've tried several times to get this changed but to no avail. But, then this class introduced me to Jing and I started using it in class right away. I did a series of videos detailing the requirements of the big project we do in biology class as well as a few videos to show some other things. The video above is a 2nd generation of one I already used in biology, but am now gearing for my physical science class. In fact, I'll be posting it to my physical science blog as soon as I'm done with this posting :)
Screencasting is great for giving students an opportunity to watch a presentation multiple times. I also have students who are absent watch the screencast videos I have made to help get them caught up. If I had the Camstasia suite setup up like it is supposed to be in my room, I'd be recording every presentation that I do and posting it publicly so parents can also see what is going on in their child's class.
I've had multiple students tell me that this is a nice feature to have and that it helped them out at times when they didn't think they could get help.
I'm our district "expert" on ExamView and I present PD several times a year to staff in our district and I will be using screencasting to record a series of short videos that walks people through a task in ExamView. I recently was able to send a video from home to a colleague showing him how to import his classes from Powerschool into Examview Manager.
I've been trying to use screencasting for nearly a year now. I started to apply for a grant to Camstasia and went to our computer teachers and they told me that they had a site license that I could use. The software was installed at the end of the school year last spring so I never had a chance to use it.
This fall I went to use it and due to a changing of the guard in our technology department, I was unable to load it. I've tried several times to get this changed but to no avail. But, then this class introduced me to Jing and I started using it in class right away. I did a series of videos detailing the requirements of the big project we do in biology class as well as a few videos to show some other things. The video above is a 2nd generation of one I already used in biology, but am now gearing for my physical science class. In fact, I'll be posting it to my physical science blog as soon as I'm done with this posting :)
Screencasting is great for giving students an opportunity to watch a presentation multiple times. I also have students who are absent watch the screencast videos I have made to help get them caught up. If I had the Camstasia suite setup up like it is supposed to be in my room, I'd be recording every presentation that I do and posting it publicly so parents can also see what is going on in their child's class.
I've had multiple students tell me that this is a nice feature to have and that it helped them out at times when they didn't think they could get help.
I'm our district "expert" on ExamView and I present PD several times a year to staff in our district and I will be using screencasting to record a series of short videos that walks people through a task in ExamView. I recently was able to send a video from home to a colleague showing him how to import his classes from Powerschool into Examview Manager.
Thing 20 - Visual Learning
All of the visual learning things available online now are great! With our district placing heavy focus on Marzano's content literacy strategies and Doug Fisher's work, these things lend themselves well to our district initiative. My IDP this year has two focus areas - improved technology usage and more use of word/concept mapping and similar tools so this is the jackpot for me. I've already used cmap and have had students do so as well, but the brainstorming maps would have been helpful several weeks ago when we started our formal lab writeups in biology class. I will also show mywebspiration.com to my students as they all learned how to use inspiration software in middle school and unfortunately we did not renew our license. I'm hoping the students will be able to effectively use it based on their prior knowledge.
Thing 19 - Virual Classroom
Plan for extending the classroom:
I am currently using blogging and sharepoint on a regular basis in my classroom and the students are using this on a regular basis (1300 hits since early October). I plan to continue using this, but am considering going to a more wiki heavy delivery so its easier for me to organize.
I am currently in the process of evaluating dimdim with a math colleague of mine and we are piloting this to see if it might be a worthwhile thing for us to invest in. Those of us more tech savvy individuals are also talking about (with our administrators) setting up some classes through teleconferencing and using a hybrid concept (similar to this class) for some elective courses. I am one of the people helping with this.
I am also planning on taking the moodle course by the end of the summer so I can start using a true learning management system for my classroom. The same colleague I referred to above uses this and I'm intrigued to do so as well. Due to my various commitments in my district, I am absent often for this meeting and that meeting, so having a learning management system would decrease the need for me to assign obligatory busy work on days when I am gone.
Extending my classroom will increase the availability of the resources in my classroom outside of the walls of my school which is a big step ahead of where I am now. Using this style of learning will help make it easier for every student to fulfill the MDE requirement of an online course requirement without it having to be a traditional computers class.
What is necessary to be successful as an online student:
Based on my visiting of the Navigating the Land of Online Learning, I feel a student needs to have the following skills to be successful in an online learning environment:
I am currently using blogging and sharepoint on a regular basis in my classroom and the students are using this on a regular basis (1300 hits since early October). I plan to continue using this, but am considering going to a more wiki heavy delivery so its easier for me to organize.
I am currently in the process of evaluating dimdim with a math colleague of mine and we are piloting this to see if it might be a worthwhile thing for us to invest in. Those of us more tech savvy individuals are also talking about (with our administrators) setting up some classes through teleconferencing and using a hybrid concept (similar to this class) for some elective courses. I am one of the people helping with this.
I am also planning on taking the moodle course by the end of the summer so I can start using a true learning management system for my classroom. The same colleague I referred to above uses this and I'm intrigued to do so as well. Due to my various commitments in my district, I am absent often for this meeting and that meeting, so having a learning management system would decrease the need for me to assign obligatory busy work on days when I am gone.
Extending my classroom will increase the availability of the resources in my classroom outside of the walls of my school which is a big step ahead of where I am now. Using this style of learning will help make it easier for every student to fulfill the MDE requirement of an online course requirement without it having to be a traditional computers class.
What is necessary to be successful as an online student:
Based on my visiting of the Navigating the Land of Online Learning, I feel a student needs to have the following skills to be successful in an online learning environment:
- Highly productive w/out the need of somebody continuously "thumbing" you (self motivated)
- Ability to both learn collaboratively & independently
- Ability to communicate through written medium in a clear, unemotional manner
- Ability to take responsibility for ones own actions and learning
- Patience
- Ability to use reading strategies to learn material printed online
Thing 18 - RSS
I've been interested in this for a long time, but have been tentative to do so due to my personality. I am the type of person who can easily get addicted to things like TV & video games & computer things, so I've stayed away thus far, but now I'm in. I see this being a great thing both personally and professionally. I'm a huge sports nut so now instead of scouring all the big sports sites, I can just check this one place. Professionally, it will make it easier for me to follow people's blogs and keep up with their posts. I also subscribed to the Advance newspaper that is written in my school district as I often miss articles that are about my students. Let the addiction begin!
Thing 17 - Research
InfoTrac Junior v. InfoTrac Student Database
Venn Diagram made at http://www.gliffy.com/
I chose to evaluate the Educator's Reference database at http://mel.org. I found it interesting that the database is meant for teachers and parents (which makes sense). I liked seeing the lesson plan portion of the class and can see this to be helpful for both audiences, but the research piece appears pretty difficult to sift through unless you are knowledgable in that particular content area. This would be a good source for getting more technical information about science topics I teach, but its pretty boring at the same time. My search of genetics turned up 1758 academic journal results alone, thus credible sources. I once again like having the lexile reading level available in the short citation to help if I were to have students sifting through this.
Citation Pieces:
MeL:
I looked at an article titled "Teaching literacy in context: choosing and using instructional strategies: to help students become proficient with expository text, educators need to focus on how to choose and use the most appropriate instructional strategies for their students"
Citation:
Miller, Mimi, and Nancy Veatch. "Teaching literacy in context: choosing and using instructional strategies: to help students become proficient with expository text, educators need to focus on how to choose and use the most appropriate instructional strategies for their students." The Reading Teacher 64.3 (Nov 2010): 154(12). Educator's Reference Complete. Gale. Library of Michigan. 13 Dec. 2010
http://find.galegroup.com/gtx/start.do?prodId=PROF&userGroupName=lom_accessmich
Other:
Venn Diagram made at http://www.gliffy.com/
I chose to evaluate the Educator's Reference database at http://mel.org. I found it interesting that the database is meant for teachers and parents (which makes sense). I liked seeing the lesson plan portion of the class and can see this to be helpful for both audiences, but the research piece appears pretty difficult to sift through unless you are knowledgable in that particular content area. This would be a good source for getting more technical information about science topics I teach, but its pretty boring at the same time. My search of genetics turned up 1758 academic journal results alone, thus credible sources. I once again like having the lexile reading level available in the short citation to help if I were to have students sifting through this.
Citation Pieces:
MeL:
I looked at an article titled "Teaching literacy in context: choosing and using instructional strategies: to help students become proficient with expository text, educators need to focus on how to choose and use the most appropriate instructional strategies for their students"
Citation:
Miller, Mimi, and Nancy Veatch. "Teaching literacy in context: choosing and using instructional strategies: to help students become proficient with expository text, educators need to focus on how to choose and use the most appropriate instructional strategies for their students." The Reading Teacher 64.3 (Nov 2010): 154(12). Educator's Reference Complete. Gale. Library of Michigan. 13 Dec. 2010
http://find.galegroup.com/gtx/start.do?prodId=PROF&userGroupName=lom_accessmich
Other:
Hofstein, A, & Lunetta, V. (2004). The laboratory in science education: foundations for the twenty-first century. Science Education, 88(1), doi: 10.1002/sce.10106
Thing 16 - Professional Learning
After checking out the learnport site, I was amazed at what was available. I found little video classes on most of the biology & chemistry units that I teach. This could certainly help keep me up to date on what happening in the world of science. I also saw that there are a vast number of courses available on a wide range of topics, so this certainly is a one size fits all type of resource.
Sites like twitter & facebook I can see being a help in the classroom since a large number of students are already connected to them, so adding a classroom friend would be pretty simple. Using these for the classroom can help make things more accessible to students and parents, but there are some negatives as well. I really don't want updates on everything my students are doing all the time - sometimes its best to not know what they are doing or thinking. Also, for a person who does not have the best filter in the world, these sites may not be the best. I am more likely to use twitter due to the limitations it places on its users. I've used facebook for personal things in the past, but last year one of my personal posts ended up on my superintendent's desk, so I have stayed away from it (I was defending the actions of our school in my posting and told a friend of mine who is also a parent in our district to move her kids to another school if she felt her kids were unsafe at the school they currently go to).
I've been a member of the Michigan Science Teacher's Association (MSTA) and National Building a Presence in Science (BaP) group for many years. Both groups have placed a high emphasis on using technology to help better educate our students about science. The cost for MSTA is relatively low and you get a quarterly journal be being a member that has many ready to use classroom activities and lesson plans in them. Being a member of these also has helped me in terms of social networking with other science colleagues in other districts.
I'm also currently waiting to hear back on whether or not our school gets a grant that will provide us the means of training some of our more tech savvy teachers to be trainers of teachers in effectively using technology in the classroom. Part of this grant will include membership to MACUL
Sites like twitter & facebook I can see being a help in the classroom since a large number of students are already connected to them, so adding a classroom friend would be pretty simple. Using these for the classroom can help make things more accessible to students and parents, but there are some negatives as well. I really don't want updates on everything my students are doing all the time - sometimes its best to not know what they are doing or thinking. Also, for a person who does not have the best filter in the world, these sites may not be the best. I am more likely to use twitter due to the limitations it places on its users. I've used facebook for personal things in the past, but last year one of my personal posts ended up on my superintendent's desk, so I have stayed away from it (I was defending the actions of our school in my posting and told a friend of mine who is also a parent in our district to move her kids to another school if she felt her kids were unsafe at the school they currently go to).
I've been a member of the Michigan Science Teacher's Association (MSTA) and National Building a Presence in Science (BaP) group for many years. Both groups have placed a high emphasis on using technology to help better educate our students about science. The cost for MSTA is relatively low and you get a quarterly journal be being a member that has many ready to use classroom activities and lesson plans in them. Being a member of these also has helped me in terms of social networking with other science colleagues in other districts.
I'm also currently waiting to hear back on whether or not our school gets a grant that will provide us the means of training some of our more tech savvy teachers to be trainers of teachers in effectively using technology in the classroom. Part of this grant will include membership to MACUL
Sunday, December 12, 2010
Thing 15 - Productivity
I found Zamzar to be pretty nice and easy to use. I don't like the idea of having word files out on the web for others to "steal" without my permission, so I like to idea of converting all my files to pdf and at least making it more difficult for other to "steal" without my permission. This will make me more willing to publicly post some of the assignments that we do in class so students can access it from anywhere.
At this point I find media-convert.com difficult to use as it is not working :)
I love google calendar. My students in physical science get confused as it is a team taught course so the students spend half the semester with me and half the semester with another teacher. I intend to upload my outlook calendar to my google calendar so I can share it. Our office staff also gets confused at times about where my students are so I will share this calendar with them as well.
At this point I find media-convert.com difficult to use as it is not working :)
I love google calendar. My students in physical science get confused as it is a team taught course so the students spend half the semester with me and half the semester with another teacher. I intend to upload my outlook calendar to my google calendar so I can share it. Our office staff also gets confused at times about where my students are so I will share this calendar with them as well.
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
Thing 14 - Online video & audio resources
I already use a ton of online audio and video in my class. Most of my teacher led presentations have links to YouTube or TeacherTube videos or animations. This is a great resource for science teachers as it allows us to show things in our classroom that the students can see in a textbook or in the lab. I think utilizing video & audio is the easiest starting step for educators to begin integrating technology into their classroom.
I stumbled upon TeacherTube a year ago and like using that one whenever possible as I know there are not as many licensing and/or copyright risks involved in it. I like the idea of having small clips and being able to use those as they fit, rather than the old method of having to watch a 30 minute VHS video all at once (or being the person who fast forwarded through pieces).
Audio is nice, when the video isn't available. Audio at least stimulates the auditory modalities and helps students learn, but video stimulates the visual and auditory modalities, thus making it more effective. Its easier to learn content when you have visual evidence in addition to auditory information. Even if the video is just of a person talking, much can be learned from the mannerisms of the presenter that would otherwise be lost if the video was available.
I stumbled upon TeacherTube a year ago and like using that one whenever possible as I know there are not as many licensing and/or copyright risks involved in it. I like the idea of having small clips and being able to use those as they fit, rather than the old method of having to watch a 30 minute VHS video all at once (or being the person who fast forwarded through pieces).
Audio is nice, when the video isn't available. Audio at least stimulates the auditory modalities and helps students learn, but video stimulates the visual and auditory modalities, thus making it more effective. Its easier to learn content when you have visual evidence in addition to auditory information. Even if the video is just of a person talking, much can be learned from the mannerisms of the presenter that would otherwise be lost if the video was available.
Thing 13 - Quizlet
This site is awesome! Great study tool for students to use and even if they don't have online access at home, they can print the cards out - that's great. Very user friendly and I especially liked the auto-define feature which saved me from having to type all the definitions. I will be using this with my students later this week to study the vocabulary associated w/ our DNA & protein synthesis unit. This goes very well w/ Marzano's content literacy strategies and can be used for steps 4-6 all in one.
Thing 13 - google earth
Street Level Image, Disney World Magic Kingdom in Google Earth
My daughter loved this one :)
Google Earth image of my house. The date feature is pretty neat, because the first image date shows a bunch of empty home sites.
Thing 12 - Data Tools
I currently use ExamView Manager as my primary data tools source for my classroom. All of the quizzes and tests that I give are in ExamView and I have been tracking multiple choice question responses for three years. I primarily use the item analysis to assess where instruction may have been lacking for the whole class and I also use it to help pinpoint where specific students need remediation and use the data to determine where retesting is needed.
Our district uses Powerschool and imports some of this information into IGOR. I am vaguely familiar with IGOR and use it to access PLAN & ACT & MME info. However the amount of info available at the high school level for science on these assessments is pretty limited and does not help to drive classroom specific instruction. Unfortunately, our school has not started putting classroom specific info into IGOR, but once they do I foresee myself using this data on a regular basis.
FERPA & HIPPA are certainly limitations to using this as permission is necessary for students information to be shared outside of the internal school records. Since the data management tools that our school often uses are collected outside the walls of our school, both of these laws need to be considered and followed.
Our district uses Powerschool and imports some of this information into IGOR. I am vaguely familiar with IGOR and use it to access PLAN & ACT & MME info. However the amount of info available at the high school level for science on these assessments is pretty limited and does not help to drive classroom specific instruction. Unfortunately, our school has not started putting classroom specific info into IGOR, but once they do I foresee myself using this data on a regular basis.
FERPA & HIPPA are certainly limitations to using this as permission is necessary for students information to be shared outside of the internal school records. Since the data management tools that our school often uses are collected outside the walls of our school, both of these laws need to be considered and followed.
Thing 12 - Rubrics
I use rubrics on a regular basis in all of my classes, so this can certainly be a useful tool. I spend countless hours creating, formatting, tweeking, etc. my rubrics. Therefore, this could certainly help save me time in setting up my rubrics, and makes it easier for me to share them with students, parents, and other staff members who might use the same rubric. I really like to large selection of rubric types that are available, but as a science teacher will use the science lab report default.
The specific rubric I created will be used in grading our plant study formal labs. Groups of students are given the opportunity in October & November to complete their own scientific investigation on plant germination and growth. Time is given in class to record data adn give treatments three days per week. Upon the conclusion of the data collections, students are expected to write a detailed college style formal lab report detailing everything they did from start to finish. This rubric will then be used to assess their lab reports. The only thing I don't like about this is that is setup for holistic scoring and much of the grading I do on this lab is more of a checklist style. I will need to play around more with the editting features in rubistar to figure this out.
The specific rubric I created will be used in grading our plant study formal labs. Groups of students are given the opportunity in October & November to complete their own scientific investigation on plant germination and growth. Time is given in class to record data adn give treatments three days per week. Upon the conclusion of the data collections, students are expected to write a detailed college style formal lab report detailing everything they did from start to finish. This rubric will then be used to assess their lab reports. The only thing I don't like about this is that is setup for holistic scoring and much of the grading I do on this lab is more of a checklist style. I will need to play around more with the editting features in rubistar to figure this out.
Sunday, December 5, 2010
Thing 11 - Prezi
Here's my prezi presentation on properties of matter
I see prezi being a great alternative to powerpoint for several reasons. Reason number one is that Microsoft Office is not necessary to make one of these, so a greater number of students would be able to do this from home. At the beginning of each semester, I poll the kids on their technology availability outside of school and more kids have internet access than kids that have Microsoft Office.
The other big advantage I see to Prezi is that it forces students to make connections between topics in order to link it properly.
I see this as being a great presentation tool for the career project I do in my physical science class.
I did struggle with the part of getting a screen capture while using zoomit. What I did instead was use picasa to resize the image and zoom into a certain piece of it. I see zoomit as being extremely helpful for taking text & images from the web that I project on the screen and making them bigger and easier for students in the back and students w/ sight disabilities to see the screen.
Image Before:
Image after:
Below is a screenshot of my prezi zoomed out
I see prezi being a great alternative to powerpoint for several reasons. Reason number one is that Microsoft Office is not necessary to make one of these, so a greater number of students would be able to do this from home. At the beginning of each semester, I poll the kids on their technology availability outside of school and more kids have internet access than kids that have Microsoft Office.
The other big advantage I see to Prezi is that it forces students to make connections between topics in order to link it properly.
I see this as being a great presentation tool for the career project I do in my physical science class.
I did struggle with the part of getting a screen capture while using zoomit. What I did instead was use picasa to resize the image and zoom into a certain piece of it. I see zoomit as being extremely helpful for taking text & images from the web that I project on the screen and making them bigger and easier for students in the back and students w/ sight disabilities to see the screen.
Image Before:
Image after:
Saturday, December 4, 2010
Thing 10 - Digital Storyboard
For my story, instead of doing something school related, I put together a video detailing my son's evolution into becoming a MSU fan.
I can see this being a helpful tool for students to catalog their learning and it certainly can be incorporated with Marzano's 6 steps of literacy instruction. I like the idea of students having creative rights to this, thus helping to personalize their learning. I would potentially use this to have students create a story of the unit we've covered from start to finish.
I can also see this being a good opening of the year assignment where students create a story about something they are interested in and then sharing it with the class as an icebreaker (similar to one of the suggestions from the Capturing Kids Hearts series)
Below you will find several screenshots as well as the mostly completed video. All pics used in the video are either royalty free or shot from my own personal camera.
Final Video
I can see this being a helpful tool for students to catalog their learning and it certainly can be incorporated with Marzano's 6 steps of literacy instruction. I like the idea of students having creative rights to this, thus helping to personalize their learning. I would potentially use this to have students create a story of the unit we've covered from start to finish.
I can also see this being a good opening of the year assignment where students create a story about something they are interested in and then sharing it with the class as an icebreaker (similar to one of the suggestions from the Capturing Kids Hearts series)
Below you will find several screenshots as well as the mostly completed video. All pics used in the video are either royalty free or shot from my own personal camera.
Storyboard:
Photo Editting:
Final Video
Monday, November 29, 2010
Thing 8 - Results of Copyright Quiz
Summary See complete responses
Which of the following are allowed for the OWNER of the copyright? | |||||||||||||||||||||
People may select more than one checkbox, so percentages may add up to more than 100%. | |||||||||||||||||||||
As the owner of an original document, you automatically have copyright of that material | |||||||||
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Which of the following types of works can be protected under copyright law? | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
People may select more than one checkbox, so percentages may add up to more than 100%. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
What is the cost of copyrighting a work online? | |||||||||||||||||
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Can I get permission to use copyrighted material and how? | |||||||||||||||||
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Do I have to register a copyright for it to be official? | |||||||||||||
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Can ideas be copyrighted? | |||||||||
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Can I copyright my webpage? | |||||||||
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Can I copyright a name, title, slogan, or domain name? | |||||||||
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Does a work have to be published in order to be protected by copyright? | |||||||||
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Number of daily responses | |
Sunday, November 28, 2010
Thing 9 - digital picture editing
Before:
After: Chris is my son :)
I used picasa as the editor for this pic. I tried playing with fotoflexer but it kept getting bogged down on my computer. I adjusted the shadows of the image, added text, cropped the image, and put a spotlight on Chris & I.
I foresee myself using this to keep an online photo album of class happenings that I can attach to my blog that parents can use to see what it is we are doing in class. I would also be interested in using this to create a photo album for my track teams that I coach and then providing the link for others to check it out. I currently use a website, but if I could instead find a way to have a public folder for parents to upload pics to and then I arrange it, then this would be great.
The above pic and a pic of my beautiful daughter is available by clicking here
I foresee myself using this to keep an online photo album of class happenings that I can attach to my blog that parents can use to see what it is we are doing in class. I would also be interested in using this to create a photo album for my track teams that I coach and then providing the link for others to check it out. I currently use a website, but if I could instead find a way to have a public folder for parents to upload pics to and then I arrange it, then this would be great.
The above pic and a pic of my beautiful daughter is available by clicking here
Thing 8 - Creative Commons
Instead of putting a CC on my website, I put one on my biology class blog. You can also see the copyright law quiz that I put together using the forms feature in google docs.
Thing 7 - Making a web presence
I've been using a webpage for my class for the past five years. I typically use this for posting class agendas and assignments, but it has been down for most of this semester so I haven't used it this school year. I find that this was a great way to give parents and students access to class materials 24 hours a day.
http://staffpage.spartaschools.org/staff/matt.landry/landry.htm
Now that I've played with wikis and blogs in the past year, I'm prefering to use those applications more than the webpage. I use a wiki for posting most assignments and for students to submit assignments (its all password protected) and I am using a blog to log daily & weekly activities and due dates. I've been using the blog for only a month now and already have had 1000 hits so it is actually being used.
http://staffpage.spartaschools.org/staff/matt.landry/landry.htm
Now that I've played with wikis and blogs in the past year, I'm prefering to use those applications more than the webpage. I use a wiki for posting most assignments and for students to submit assignments (its all password protected) and I am using a blog to log daily & weekly activities and due dates. I've been using the blog for only a month now and already have had 1000 hits so it is actually being used.
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
Thing 6 - Acceptable use
The two things I plan on working with my students on are acceptable use of the internet & posting personal information on the web.
I already spend time talking to my students about plagiarism and am amazed at how many students think it is acceptable to copy and paste anything on the Internet and use it as their own. I remember at one time I had 75% of my students fail my Code Blue biology project due to plagiarism and I've now acquired the reputation of being a stickler on plagiarism. I intend to continue to work with my students on how to properly use the information on the Internet and filter through the garbage. I will use more hoax websites while doing this to help show that not all info is good info.
In regards to posting personal information, I will spend more time discussing this in class and will utilize my blog to help with educating people on this as well. I will share with them instances where people have had facebook postings come back to haunt them in the workplace (in fact, I'm the subject of one of those stories :). I will also show them examples where things posted on the Internet have been used in investigations, both criminal and civil, and that the footprint left on the Internet never goes away. This would be a good time to discuss cyber-bullying as well, and our district is working on a plan to combat this issue.
I already spend time talking to my students about plagiarism and am amazed at how many students think it is acceptable to copy and paste anything on the Internet and use it as their own. I remember at one time I had 75% of my students fail my Code Blue biology project due to plagiarism and I've now acquired the reputation of being a stickler on plagiarism. I intend to continue to work with my students on how to properly use the information on the Internet and filter through the garbage. I will use more hoax websites while doing this to help show that not all info is good info.
In regards to posting personal information, I will spend more time discussing this in class and will utilize my blog to help with educating people on this as well. I will share with them instances where people have had facebook postings come back to haunt them in the workplace (in fact, I'm the subject of one of those stories :). I will also show them examples where things posted on the Internet have been used in investigations, both criminal and civil, and that the footprint left on the Internet never goes away. This would be a good time to discuss cyber-bullying as well, and our district is working on a plan to combat this issue.
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
Thing 6 - bogus/hoax sites
For this site, I chose two science based sites; one of which I already use in my chemistry & physical science classes and one I intend to start using in my biology class.
http://bandhmo.org/
This site talks about the dangers of DHMO - dihydrogen monoxide. I've used the paper version of this and have not accessed the web version before. After evaluating the site, I noticed several things about it:
1. There are many advertisements scattered throughout the site, telling me that this is not a scholarly site.
2. The information is accurate, but skewed to make you think the substance is not an everyday product.
3. Many of the links are dead and the links that are active take you to a general site and when you type DHMO into the search box, you get no results.
4. Credibility takes a hit due to no info about the author and the last update date is not shown
http://www.rythospital.com/2008/
This site appears a little more authentic and hides the hoax better, but being a biology guy, I immediately noticed things that are not possible. For example, the Rivitalex pill popped out immediately as well as the male pregnancy video link to the right. After further investigation I noticed that a number of the links are dead links and bring you back to the home site. The links that did work often sent you to pages that had info that was very blatantly false and had only a scattering of links that provided any information. However, if you didn't have a background in science, this site would appear real. The contact us option even worked and had a verification code as part of it. Out of curiosity, I filled this out and received a message stating that the volume of emails is large so immediate response should not be expected :)
http://bandhmo.org/
This site talks about the dangers of DHMO - dihydrogen monoxide. I've used the paper version of this and have not accessed the web version before. After evaluating the site, I noticed several things about it:
1. There are many advertisements scattered throughout the site, telling me that this is not a scholarly site.
2. The information is accurate, but skewed to make you think the substance is not an everyday product.
3. Many of the links are dead and the links that are active take you to a general site and when you type DHMO into the search box, you get no results.
4. Credibility takes a hit due to no info about the author and the last update date is not shown
http://www.rythospital.com/2008/
This site appears a little more authentic and hides the hoax better, but being a biology guy, I immediately noticed things that are not possible. For example, the Rivitalex pill popped out immediately as well as the male pregnancy video link to the right. After further investigation I noticed that a number of the links are dead links and bring you back to the home site. The links that did work often sent you to pages that had info that was very blatantly false and had only a scattering of links that provided any information. However, if you didn't have a background in science, this site would appear real. The contact us option even worked and had a verification code as part of it. Out of curiosity, I filled this out and received a message stating that the volume of emails is large so immediate response should not be expected :)
Thing 3 - Skype
Thursday, November 4, 2010
Thing 5 -Nettrekker
Thing 5 - Digital Text
My district has been stressing Premiere Software for several years now and I just assumed it was for reading text only. Now that I know more about the capabilities of digital text and the ability to manipulate it in addition to having it read, I am more inclined to use this on a regular basis with all of my students. Colleagues of mine currently use a text reader to help accomodate students who are struggling readers and I'm wondering if they are aware of the other features that could be used. I'd like to use more of this in my classroom to help promote literacy in science.
Additionally, I'm in the process of developing an AP Biology course at my school and with money being an issue, I'm wondering if using a digital text or digital flex text might be a way around having to purchase thousands of dollars worth of textbooks for the course. I will certainly be patrolling the ck12 site more to see what is offered.
Additionally, I'm in the process of developing an AP Biology course at my school and with money being an issue, I'm wondering if using a digital text or digital flex text might be a way around having to purchase thousands of dollars worth of textbooks for the course. I will certainly be patrolling the ck12 site more to see what is offered.
Thing 5 - Differentiated Learning
Several things stood out to me with this topic. First of all, I think I already do a relatively decent job of presenting in different styles to help ensure that all students are learning in our classroom. I put a great deal of time into ensuring that all learning styles and modalities are addressed at some point during each unit and I try to spiral these throughout a course.
The thing that stands out to me is the statement about not using one style all the time and that "no single teaching methodology for pattern recognition will be satisfactory for every learner". I find this interesting because my district is currently pushing univeral methods and strategies that they want every teacher to use k-12 to help ensure that methods are more transparent and transportable. I personally don't agree with this stance and I keep having research shoved at me to show why its effective. I, in return, push research back at my leaders that using a variety of methods is central to helping every child learn.
I personally believe that the flexibility in differentation is the key to it being successful. Giving a variety of opportunities to demonstrate learning that applies best to the individual is ideal. Over my 11 year career, I have certainly become more flexible in how I allow a student to demonstrate their learning. For instance, most projects in my class are open-ended now, ie. the task can be completed however the student wishes as long as the objectives are met.
The thing that stands out to me is the statement about not using one style all the time and that "no single teaching methodology for pattern recognition will be satisfactory for every learner". I find this interesting because my district is currently pushing univeral methods and strategies that they want every teacher to use k-12 to help ensure that methods are more transparent and transportable. I personally don't agree with this stance and I keep having research shoved at me to show why its effective. I, in return, push research back at my leaders that using a variety of methods is central to helping every child learn.
I personally believe that the flexibility in differentation is the key to it being successful. Giving a variety of opportunities to demonstrate learning that applies best to the individual is ideal. Over my 11 year career, I have certainly become more flexible in how I allow a student to demonstrate their learning. For instance, most projects in my class are open-ended now, ie. the task can be completed however the student wishes as long as the objectives are met.
Thing 4 - Thinkfinity
Amazingly, I used thinkfinity.org and on my first search under 9-12 science, I found two activities that I would like to use in my classroom (normally it takes me forever to find things that I can use without me having to tweek them to my liking.
The first thing I found was a research/interactive activity that deals with cell division and how it relates to skin cancer. This is a direct correlation to the CEs I'm expected to teach in my biology class so having one place to go was nice for a change. The activity first involves completing some research and completing some tutorials, and then leads to an activity that requires the students to apply their knowledge to patients who need consultation on potential cancerous tissue in their skin. This activity looks like it could be completed by my students within one block and would be a great application & synthesis activity following our learning of the cell cycle. URL: http://www.sciencenetlinks.com/pdfs/skincancer1_actsheet.pdf
Another link I quickly found was a list of short (3-5 minutes) videos that shows how science applies to everyday and extraordinary situations. The original link takes you to a series of videos that show how science applies to the winter Olympic events (and the videos are made by NBC & its Olympics video crews), but further searching found links to more videos as well. I would like to use these to help reinforce some of the topics I cover in all of my classes, especially the physics pieces that I teach in my physical science class.
URL: http://www.sciencenetlinks.com/tools.php?DocID=213
The first thing I found was a research/interactive activity that deals with cell division and how it relates to skin cancer. This is a direct correlation to the CEs I'm expected to teach in my biology class so having one place to go was nice for a change. The activity first involves completing some research and completing some tutorials, and then leads to an activity that requires the students to apply their knowledge to patients who need consultation on potential cancerous tissue in their skin. This activity looks like it could be completed by my students within one block and would be a great application & synthesis activity following our learning of the cell cycle. URL: http://www.sciencenetlinks.com/pdfs/skincancer1_actsheet.pdf
Another link I quickly found was a list of short (3-5 minutes) videos that shows how science applies to everyday and extraordinary situations. The original link takes you to a series of videos that show how science applies to the winter Olympic events (and the videos are made by NBC & its Olympics video crews), but further searching found links to more videos as well. I would like to use these to help reinforce some of the topics I cover in all of my classes, especially the physics pieces that I teach in my physical science class.
URL: http://www.sciencenetlinks.com/tools.php?DocID=213
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Thing 2 - Google Docs screenshot
I anticipate google docs being helpful mostly for providing a means of sharing documents with myself and other members of our science department, rather than using email and/or flash drives for sharing documents. I do not forsee me using this with my students very often, but I do intend to show my students that this is an option for them to use when completing a group project or lab report. I can also see this as helpful for collaborating with my family for annual trips, like the above Boyne trip that we have planned.
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Thing 1 - Delicious
Click the following link to access my delcious public bookmarks http://www.delicious.com/mrlandryshs
This site should be extremely helpful for teaching as each machine I use has a separate set of bookmarks and I often forget which machine has which bookmark. Instead of having to send links through email, I can now log them into delicious and access them anywhere. Once again, using this more streamlined process should free up time to do other things.
This site should be extremely helpful for teaching as each machine I use has a separate set of bookmarks and I often forget which machine has which bookmark. Instead of having to send links through email, I can now log them into delicious and access them anywhere. Once again, using this more streamlined process should free up time to do other things.
Thing 1 - Shortcuts
Why Blogging - Thing 0
It appears that anything makes a good blog; it just matters what your flavor is.
I feel that blogging for school purposes is a great opportunity to bridge the communication gap that often happens between parent and teacher as the age of the students goes up. I like the idea of being able to use one media to relay daily information all at once and that students can access this info at any time as well.
Blogs make it so anybody can publish information that is relevant to them, regardless of writing ability and access to a publisher.
I feel that blogging for school purposes is a great opportunity to bridge the communication gap that often happens between parent and teacher as the age of the students goes up. I like the idea of being able to use one media to relay daily information all at once and that students can access this info at any time as well.
Blogs make it so anybody can publish information that is relevant to them, regardless of writing ability and access to a publisher.
Welcome
Welcome to my new blog for 21 Things for the 21st Century Educator. I am taking this class to catch up on my technology usage abilities that have slipped slightly over the past several years. I used to be pretty tech. savvy and feel I'm now average. Hopefully this class will help move me back into the above average catergory.
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