END OF CLASS PRESENTATION

Here is my overview/presentation to staff - using Screencast O Matic....

FINAL REFLECTION

I thought the 2013 Summer Camp 2.0 was, by far, one of the most applicable, relevant, and fun professional development classes I've taken in a long time! While I consider myself pretty adapt at learning and using technology in general, this class gave me the opportunity to see a large variety of different web programs available that could be used in the education world. There is just so much out there, it is sometimes overwhelming to even narrow down programs to use. I liked the options given each week and the ability to practice with them. Some of my favorites or ones I could see using in my specific classroom include: Animoto (would need to pay for additional length/features), Zooburst, screencasting via SmartRecorder or ScreenCastOMatic, Tagxedo, expanded use of YouTube, and expanded use of cloud computing in terms of professional activities. In using these tools, I think I will almost need to train my support staff (paras) in how they work as well. Given the high level of cognitive needs of my students, I don't see many of them developing learning things with these tools on their own. However, I would love to see students develop products of their knowledge to share with their parents. In order to do that, they will need support in creating things, which will be from the paras. I also see class-wide use of some of these things. I feel fortunate to have a SmartBoard in my classroom (I know many teachers still do not) and that works as a visual/projection where we could develop classwide things. I think the visual and interactive nature of many of these tools are just what my students need to become more engaged overall! Some of the things I struggled most with in this class was the application piece - how to I really apply this to teaching high school kids with such significant cognitive disabilities? The other struggle I have is, while I think these are all wonderful, I an overwhelmed at thinking of how could I possibly develop and implement these into an already maximized schedule and workload? In addition to lesson development, student management, and endless special education due process paperwork - this is another thing on my plate! I know many teachers probably feel this way. Not enough hours in the day! That being said, I think I will set a goal for myself to utilize 1 new tool each month in class. That way, I am using them but not trying to do everything at once!

Activity #10 - Free Choice!

For the "Free Choice", I chose to work with Shelfari.  It is based on an Amazon account, and since I don't have one, I had to create a new one.  Once in, I really liked the visual aspects of this.  It was pretty user friendly.  You choose from books you've read, books you are currently reading, or books you want to read.  It allows you to write short summaries, tag key words, rate books, and much more.  Then, it presents it all in a nice visual format.

There are lots of options for sharing with others - people can see your shelf, you can connect it to other social media sites, etc.

As you can see by my shelf, I like to read mostly books that are on the Best Seller list.  I haven't read a lot recently, probably due to the fact that I have 2 young kids at home and not a lot of time for that.  Most of the books I searched for and put on were children's literature.

I think it would be fun to use this in a classroom setting, possibly using one since (teacher) account, where my students could add and rate books they enjoy.  It would be sort of a virtual "classroom library".  Unfortunately, given my student's cognitive and reading levels, not a lot of recreational reading of books takes place.  I think my favorite feature of this is the nice visual presentation it has.

Shelfari: Book reviews on your book blog

Activity #9 - Fitness Assessment

SCENARIO #2 - Blocking All Access

After hearing a presentation at a conference, your principal Mr. Smith has banned all Web 2.0 tools for students and teachers including Facebook, Skype, YouTube, wikis, blogs, and Flickr. A number of teachers and many students are upset with this decision but Mr. Smith cites legal reasons for blocking the sites.

ETHICAL ISSUES: While I think the principal has some legitimate concerns with the use of Web 2.0 tools in his school, I think he really jumped too far in banning use of all in his school.  There are indeed ethical issues that could become a problem and are of legitimate concern (privacy, potential abuse of tools, harassment) but I think it was without of his realm to put an automatic ban on all things.  There are legitimate learning opportunities available with many of these things, especially in this time for society and classroom environment, and he may be doing a huge disservice by not allowing students to learn this way. 

SAFETY/WELL BEING:  I think Mr. Smith does have legitimate concerns for the overall safety and well being of his school.  While technology is a great tool, it also has the power to be greatly abused.  In this day of such a litigation-driven society where parents tend to disagree/confront schools more than agree with them, I do see the principal's concerns.

RECOMMENDATIONS:  Before using these technologies, one need to ask what type of digital citizenship training students have had - both at home and in the school environment.  At school, are they educated on proper use and internet safety?  Are there parameters set up to ensure privacy and appropriate use?  Does the district have a technology use form that needs to be signed?  Does the program being used have privacy settings turned on?  It would be wise for the district, principal, and school staff to have some training in these areas.  Perhaps only teachers who are trained are allowed to use sites?

REAL LIFE:  I haven't had a lot of real life situations with this.  One thought/question I do have, is in determining which sites can/should be used.  My example would be Facebook.  While it seems that everyone is on it these days, I take a hard line in thinking that teachers and students should not be "friends" on Facebook, unless the teacher has a specific account that they use only for school purposes.  I think it is a teacher's responsibility to have a hard line between their personal and professional life and being "friends" with students on Facebook crosses that line.  If they only way a teacher knows someone is in a teacher/student relationship, I don't think they should use that...if there is an outside relationship (coaching, church, neighbors) then I think it is different.  Anyone have thoughts on this one?  

SCENARIO #6 - Course Management Overload

Ms. Carlson is excited to use Edmodo, a course management system similar to Moodle with her students.  Although Edmodo isn’t officially supported by the tech department like Moodle is, she is excited to use it because she finds it much more intuitive to use and she likes the interface better than Moodle.  Ms. Carlson is vigilant about the privacy settings, has informed her principal and parents of her instructional goals and objectives. Her students jump on board and post to the discussion at record numbers. Ms. Carlson is pleased to see such motivated dialogue on a novel that had previously felt like pulling teeth.  Two weeks into the unit, she receives a parent complaint. The complaint is as follows:
     Dear Ms. Carlson, Mr. Miller, Mr. Hamilton and Ms. McIntyre,
     Although my son is a motivated and active participant in all of your classes, I am concerned that the school does not seem to have a unified course management system. He is using Moodle in Math, Edmodo in English, Schoology in Science, and Kidblog in Social Studies. Furthermore, all of these sites require different logins and passwords. As a parent, I am having a difficult time keeping this all straight and am requesting that the school discuss this issue and figure out a more streamlined approach.
     Thank you for your consideration,  
     A supportive but confused parent

ETHICAL ISSUES:  I really see no potentially conflicting ethical issues in having the class/students use this piece of technology for learning.  The scenario seems to show that Ms. Carlson took measures to protect student privacy, informed both administration and parents, and has meaningful content or learning in using this (as opposed to just some novel, time-filler activity).  If anything, I praise her for seeming to cover all bases and strive to use a medium that students will be engaged in learning with.

SAFETY/WELL BEING:   I see no problems with student safety/well being.  It seems that Ms. Carlson took action to ensure privacy for all, and that is huge.  

RECOMMENDATIONS:  I think it can get very overwhelming for all parties involved when many different programs/log in names/passwords are required for all these different things.  If at all possible, it might be useful to provide students with a school-issued email (as our district has done - is this for all grade levels, or just secondary?) to have as their log in for these school-related sites.  That way, all the information and log in is coming from that site.  It gets tricky with passwords, when some require more characters than others and some need numbers and symbols...so I can see how a student/parent might get overwhelmed with that.  If anything, perhaps the school should provide a paper for students/families to keep at home as a one-stop place to keep all these straight.  At MVHS we get a "year end" form to fill out with all our different passwords, etc. (phone, email, sped files) that we get back in the fall to keep things straight.  Maybe the school could put together a sort of cheat-sheet for families that lists all sites being used, where they can then have their log in/password written for their own use.

REAL LIFE:  Though not classroom related, my personal connection to this is that I too understand the overwhelming nature of having so many different sites/log ins/passwords.  Between personal recreational activities (blogs, social media), personal important sites (financial, medical),  and work/professional sites, I can't even begin to think of how many different sites I need to remember.  I have developed my own personal "cheat sheet" to keep them all straight, but with some things (financial) you need to be really careful.  I find my self frequently getting my log in/password reset and/or emailed to me because I struggle with this problem as well.

If anything, I think it is great that another technology is being added by Ms. Carlson for this class.  In addition to curricular content learning, this is a lesson and application of how technology continues to grow exponentially in our lives and be part of everything.  We need to learn and use many different things to keep up in our world!  This will only continue to expand as we move forward, so we need to get used to it. 

Activity #8 - Polling and Data Gathering

POLLING - It was really easy to create a poll using PollEverywhere.  I like how there is the option to upload a visual image - that is a great adaptation for many of my students who have limited reading skills.  I'm not sure about using the texting option in my class, as most of my students don't have cell phones.  However, for the students who do have cell phones, it would be a fun learning tool for them to answer a poll question by having to text their answer (as texting is now an everyday, real life skill that I could teach to students in my program).

 GOOGLE FORMS - I've seen this used a lot (admin sending out informal polls to us) but never had a clue how they did it!  Now I know!  I played around with it a bit to figure out the different questions/response types.  I think this would be a tool to use in terms of organizational purposes - either within our department or PLC group.

It might also have application to individual students in terms of sending out a personalized survey to IEP team members to gain input for progress reporting or IEP meeting updates.  (We currently use an online program called TRAX/Tensigma for this, but this would be good for more personalization for an individual student).  For example, if I had Suzie's meeting coming up, I could create a form that was sort of a checklist...."What behaviors have you seen in the last week?", "How many days has Suzie been absent from your class?", "How many prompts did you need to get Suzie to put on her shoes?".  The questions/response types would depend on what I am asking and the student skills/needs.

Activity #7 - Cloud Computing

GOOGLE CALENDAR - First thing I played around with was the Google Calendar.  As a whole, I have seen the use of this cloud device increase more and more the past two or so years.  I would consider myself a passive user...I would have people's calendars listed that I needed to see for different purposes (the schedule of our Sped dean, general MVHS school calendars for field trips/meetings, school testing calendar) and would also receive the emails from other active users inviting me to things (reminders for department meetings, school emergency drills, etc. where I would simple click 'ok').  I had never set up any activities or added things for personal reminders.

I set up my calendar and added an fictitious IEP meeting for a date in August.  It was easier than I thought.  It was easy to input the emails of those who needed to be reminded.

I liked this as a meeting option.  However, in Student Plans (the Sped program we use for all due process paperwork) there is already an 'email' option that attaches the official meeting notice to necessary parties.  I'm not sure which I would use at this point....maybe both?  I like that an automatic/default reminder could be sent out to parties in the Google Calendar.

I'm also not confident that I would use the Google Calendar for all my activities...maybe I'm a little more old fashioned in this respect, but I still like the old paper yearly planners...I like going to Target in the summer (all school supplies are out now, sad!), getting my fresh planner, and writing in things to see.  I don't know if that will ever change for me!  Perhaps if I had a smartphone with my electronic calendar more readily available, I would be more apt to use Google Calendar to organize my work and life?!

GOOGLE DOCUMENT - Again, I would consider myself a very passive user of this cloud device.  I've seen more and more people using it to share documents via work, but had never created one myself.  I think I really never had the time to sit and play with it to learn it, and had no formal training so never really did anything with it.

After taking the time to play around with it, I found it quite easy and I am no longer intimidated by it.

I created a document that I shared with 2 co-workers centered on a calendar for our 4th hour activities.  In the past, we printed out a calendar, hand wrote in notes, and photo copied to share.  For this activity, I created a chart document and typed in things.  There is no need to photocopy and have paper copies of this, as we would all have access on our computers when shared.

REFLECTION - Overall, I think it was really useful for me to learn more about these cloud computing tools.  They are gaining more and more use in our workplace.  For "PROS", I see using them in a my personal work in terms of professional organization (calendar, meetings, collaborating with coworkers, creating documents to share as a department).  We are frequently creating things that need to be shared with people in our department and this is an easier way to do so.  For "CONS", I really can't think of ways this would directly impact my daily teaching or interaction with students.  Most, if not all, of my students don't have the computer knowledge or skills to work with documents or interact in such a manner.  I'm not sure how I this would be part of work directly with students...any thoughts?

Activity #6 - Study Tools

TOOL #2: TAGXEDO

 

Marvelous Minnesota

I had pinned the Tagxedo website on Pinterest awhile back and played around with it as a school idea, and now here it is!  When I did it via Pinterest, I had a difficult time manipulating things (I don't think their site is the most intuitive or novice friendly), but after watching the tutorial this time I was more easily able to get what I wanted.

I really like the visual fun a student could have with Tagxedo.  We had been using a lot of Wordle images this past year, which students enjoyed, but feel that the Tagxedo is the next step of it allowing for a lot more customization and visual appeal!

I see my students using Tagxedo at the end of a learning activity to plug in words or themes we learned into an applicable shape.  For example, after learning about Minnesota, we could brainstorm words together and place them into a final product/image.  We have a color printer in our classroom so the visual appeal of creating and printing these excites me!

TOOL #2: TIMETOAST

The other tool I chose to work with was Timetoast.  I like the visual structure and order a timeline presents to users.  Unfortunately, I feel many of my students have NO concept of time whatsoever (probably nature of their disability).  One minute, one hour, one day, one year...all the same in their minds.  When we talk about history, it is even more difficult for them to comprehend...things very relevant to our country's history are so far beyond their cognitive reach and are just not meaningful to them, so it is difficult to teach.

I did like the idea of a timeline more relevant to them - such as one on their life or perhaps their daily schedule or high school career.  I created this of my son's life as an example.

It took me awhile to figure this one out.  I was having ongoing difficult uploading photos and would get an error message for many (but not all) of the photos I wanted to use.  Tip to whomever uses this, they need to be UNDER 3MB - so I ended up resizing/resaving my photos to fit those parameters and then they worked!  Frustrating until I figured that out.

I did like that there are 2 view options:  timeline (traditional left to right, chronological) and then a different text view that is more top to bottom.

When I published this and made it public, I didn't see a way to filter or set privacy so that only certain people could view it.  It seems to go public to everyone.  While this is ok for an educational thing such as a general history timeline, I would need to be careful not to use it for personal student photos or personal student timelines that would include identifying information.

How else would people use this in their teaching?

Activity #5 - Creating a MV YouTube Channel

Following the instructions for this one, I had a little difficulty. Working from my home computer, my husband already had some things set up and a YouTube channel created for other purposes - so, it was using that as the default setting and I had a hard time switching the username, etc. But, I think I got it! (Not quite sure how...but I'm thinking if I login as myself again or on other computers, it should be my own channel.)

This is a video we took via IPhone a few weeks ago of my toddler thinking he was strong by "pushing" the golf cart around. "Mighty Maddox" was quite proud of himself. When my husband actually took the video and wanted to share it with out-of-state family, he found it too long to quickly share via email and so he did the YouTube channel thing, told me about it, but I tuned it out....now, here I am creating my own. Guess I can do it in the future?!

I see a lot of applications of this in my classroom. We like to take videos of students doing activities - cooking, personal tasks, "job interviews" - and this would be a great way to have them get to watch themselves. In the past, we just took video via Ipad and had to cram around the small screen to watch it again. This will allow larger screen playback by projecting it onto the Ipad. I could also see myself using this to video certain students working/learning and sharing the link to their parents. Because students would be involved, I'd need to be sure to get video permissions and make sure everything was very private for only me to share or only the parent of the specific student to see. How easy is that? Is it possible? (I'll need to play around more.) I can also see myself using this as a sort of YouTube video library for myself. Many times I know what I want to show/share with the class but have to search for it which takes up time. I could keep a database of common videos on my channel to have quick access to. I'm going to work on adding a few more videos (probably ones that are already done) and see how it plays without advertisements and without all the things on the side.

I get nervous using this tool in class sometimes because there always seems to be some questionable content on the related videos shown on the right side!!!! (Students notice!)

Activity #4 - Screencasting

OVERVIEW:
I've seen lots of screencasting used in a variety of setting but had never done any myself.  In initially working on the activity for this week, while free, if I were going to use ScreenCastOMatic at school, I would need the technology people to "unfreeze" my computer to get some things set up and saved.  I've done this with things in the past, but sometimes it is a pain and takes time, when I want things immediately!

My husband actually suggested ScreenCastOMatic over the other one, as he teaches engineering and does a lot of this, and said it was his "go to" method.  Once I got ScreenCastOMatic ready to use on my home computer, it really was quite easy.  Like all the other programs we are learning, there is an additional subscription fee and lot of bells and whistles you could play around with.  I stayed very basic on this one - not changing screen size, not messing with sound, etc.  One thing I would need to work with in future instances is the noise/sound (you can hear my radio from the other room, my voice wasn't the strongest, and I had a baby making some noises - so I would remedy that for future use!)

Once I started recording, I thought it was pretty easy.  I need to remember to go slow - as it would be easy to move fast and get done.  (I especially need to remember this for my population of students with disabilities who often take much longer to grasp things!)  I thought it was interesting that, while I am fluent in logging in and writing an email, here are always "unexpected" things that come up (ie already logged in, can't see where I am writing, too many boxes).  While it is easy for me to quickly click around and get to where I want, I almost need to "practice" some of this stuff before I record to make sure it goes smoothly for instructional and viewing purposes.  I found myself stumbling over my words!

In the end, I envision a number of applications of screencasting for my class, centered on task analysis of different things (breaking a task into extremely small pieces, for instructional purposes.)  Writing emails, computer navigation, cooking tasks, personal hygiene tasks - all could be served with a screencast method.  I like how it can then be saved and revisited an infinite amount of times.

Question for all screencasting tools - If I were to use this at school, could I do it on my classroom computer?  We don't have built in microphone/method of recording voices, so do I need to check out another piece of equipment from tech?

I would like to try this again on my school computer, using the SMART Recorder.  (I used to have it on the home computer, but don't anymore because I felt it slowed things down too much!)

ACTIVITY #3: Digital Storytelling

OVERVIEW:
I really enjoyed creating this - I think both the topic excited me (I love Hawaii!) and the creativity aspect.  I could see it being using in my class for a variety of purposes: students could take something they have learned and make a product to show parents (ie where we went on an outing, a state we learned about, their daily schedule).

Given the nature of my students, I don't think any of them would have the cognitive capability to create a novel story independently.  I see this more as a tool we could use (either individually 1:1, small group, or as a class) to create a product demonstrating our knowledge for others to see.

It would also be fun to use this as a teacher to create short introductions of new topics or lessons.  Some things I see doing are creating step-by-step task analysis stories of things we do (a cooking lesson, daily grooming) for students to click through visually.  It would also be a fun after-product way to show photos of an outing or activity we have already completed.

PROS: After playing around for a few minutes, I became pretty fluent in how to manipulate the program to create what I needed. I liked that I could use a variety of photos, both personal and image I found on the computer.  I think my students would really relate to the page turning, like a real book.  I also like the potential for further interactivity in terms of clicking on images to get more information and the potential to link up to other websites (though I didn't try this with my Hawaii presentation, I saw it was an option).

CONS: It would be easy to get caught up in all the animation and fancy things you could do in this program.  (I liken it to when people go overboard with animation, color, and graphics in PowerPoint or SMART!)  Oftentimes, I think simplicity is better!  Also, without paying the subscription price, you are limited to only 10 slides (though I thought it was plenty long at this point and couldn't see my students doing much more). 

A few questions I have but didn't really explore yet:

1) Are free subscribers limited to a certain number of books, or can I have a library of unlimited?

2) What would the benefits be of paying - beyond extended animation/graphic options?

Activity #2 - Pimp My Presentation

OVERVIEW:
I created a short, 30 second video highlighting a trip to Hawaii using Animoto.  This was the first time I have ever used this site.  After creating an account, I found it quite user-friendly.  I liked how you could include photos from different areas (photos on your computer, Facebook albums, Picasa, Flickr).  Music and background or themes were also customizable.  In the end, after simply choosing photos and uploading them, with a simple click Animoto did all the "work" and automatically put everything into a quick slideshow presentation. 

PROS: The entire site was pretty user friendly.  It didn't take long to create a quick, fun show.

CONS: Since this was the free or "lite" version, my video was limited to 30 seconds which amounted to only about 10 photos.  In addition, while I liked that the photos were set to music, again, since this was the lite version, all of the song choices were unfamiliar to me.  While I liked how Animoto then did all the "work" of putting it together, if I needed a specific order or defined structure to my presentation beyond just looking at pictures, this would not be the site to use.

If I were going to use this in my classroom, I would definitely need to be a paid subscriber.  Just looking at the website, it does seem quite reasonable (approximately $5/month).  

Activity #1 - Blog Bling

OVERVIEW:
As I work on functional/life skills with students, one thing we do is check personal emails.  A student actually had this emailed to them from a relative and it was part of a long chain for forwarded emails.  While I would usually delete those types of things for obvious reasons, for some reason I looked at this video and found it really interesting!

One activity we do in class on a weekly basis is a combination of social studies/functional skills.  We learn about a state in the USA (capital, fun facts, history) in the form of a slideshow and then cook a food related to that state.  For example, did you know that the maraschino cherry is primarily made in factories in Oregon?  So, when we learned about Oregon, we looked at photos of Lewis and Clark's expedition, the Pacific Ocean, Nike headquarters, USA Track and Field, and then maraschino cherries recipes.  Our "recipe" to cook that week was then a simple Shirley Temple.  We do this type of activity weekly with different states and my students love it!  Given their cognitive disabilities, there isn't a lot of takeaway or long term remembrance of states from week to week, but they are engaged in the moment!

So, back to the video, I think this would be a fun video to show at the beginning of the year and again at the end for these activities.  It shows an airplane flying over the country from east to west with a bird's eye view of historic landmarks and places in our country.  I thought it was pretty clever and interesting.  It would be fun to see what my students would recognize.

REFLECTION:
1) How could a blog be useful in your classroom or professional life?

• I tried using a blog awhile ago in my class but didn't keep up with it.  I would have students write posts about activities we did or things we were learning about.  It was a combination of functional writing skills and communication.  The problem I had was that I felt it wasn't a very relevant avenue at the time, because nobody was reading it.  There were too many parameters with privacy and parent access we needed to cover.  Ultimately, my use of the blog faded and is now extinct.  I'm hoping that through this class, I can again begin using a blog for classroom purposes.  In addition to communicating with parents and "displaying" our work and learning, I think it can be a very useful life skill for students to learn to log in, read posts, and write things - as this is a use of technology that is becoming increasingly more popular in everyday life.

2) After checking out some of the other blogging sites, which do you think would be the best option for you?

• While I like aspects of all the sites listed, I think I will probably stick to using the Blogger site for now.  As with any new program, there is a learning curve and little nuances unique to each site.  I feel I could spend hours tweaking little things (how does this look? what if I added this? how do I do that?).  As our learning and posting will take place in the Blogger site for this class, I would like to stick to using that, as it is what I will become most familiar and fluent with.

Starting Out...

As the school year winds down, I'm starting up this new learning opportunity.  I thought the Summer Camp 2.0 class sounded like an applicable, interesting, and fun undertaking this summer.

While I consider myself familiar and somewhat savvy with a variety of technologies, I haven't had the time or opportunity to learn some of these tools that could be applied in my teaching. I hope to learn about a variety of different things that I could use in my class next year to engage students and (hopefully) have them create and interact with as well.

I am quite comfortable, on a surface level, with different technology.  I am comfortable with computers and internet programs, can upload photos and save things, and feel I do a decent job of incorporating things into my daily life and classroom teaching.  I've loved having the SmartBoard in my class as an interactive tool.  I'm hoping that by learning some additional programs, coupled with the SmartBoard interactivity, my classroom and students will be further engaged.