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.