Identified? AR#3

After completing the google search of the online identity calculator it was a bit shocking to see how many times my name was there. Well, actually only four of those hits were really me. I was initially afraid because I saw a search result number of 758,000. Did I like what I saw? When reveiewing the information that was up and running about me, most were consequences of social media websites, such as, Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace. There weren't any pictures or videos out there of me, but I really was worried as I hit that search button.

I would consider myself as "identified" and as Thomas Friedman says, "hyper-connected" especially to the social media outlets. Does this bring positive or negative attention? Well, that depends on whose accessing the information and how they portray what they see or read. Am I relating to others and making powerful connections? This question was also asked by Friedman and I think this is a fair question. The information that you put out about yourself should allow for everyone to make a positive connection with your identity. Is what I'm saying useful? When talking about creating a teacher web, I think it is important for educators to make a powerful connection to many different audiences. Educators are held to a higher standard and I think they have to prove that.

Of course, my teacher web page is going to create an environment that is positive and friendly with all those that I deal with in education. It's the social media sites, such as, Facebook that can sometimes tarnish our images. Unknowingly, friends and family could post a picture of you that you would never want your students to have access to. Not saying, a law breaking picture, but maybe a pic of you in a swimsuit at the beach. I give this example because I have seen educators (including administrators) in these types of positions.

No, we cannot control everything that is out there, but we can limit access to those that we do not feel should see, like our sudents. If we make a conscious effort to filter out and look at and re-examine questionable material, then I think we are doing what is appropriate, but this still allows us to be identified in a positive way.

Not so excellent!!

After extreme stress, I was finally able to figure this whole Excel thing out. Having used Excel in the past, I thought this assignment was going to be easy. It really was up until the dynamically part. After much exhausting research and going through all the resources I could find, it was thanks to one of my EME5050 friends that helped me find the way. No, they didn't give me the answer, but they did give me a link (http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel-help/create-a-link-to-another-cell-workbook-or-program-HP005199514.aspx) that helped me solve this thing! In the past I have used Excel for simple graphs and tables to use with a first grade science class, but never anything like this. As I was going through and completeing this I couldn't help but mumble under my breath numerous times, "Why am I doing this?" "I don't even use Excel as for my gradebook, so what's the point?" I found that it went beyond that and I really did learn a lot about different formulas and how to change, edit, and average. I didn't find any tutorial to be helpful when it came to question #8. I had to dig a lot to find anything. I was about to just say forget and then I became determined to solve this.

So, I do have a question that I was wondering if a few people could answer: Do any schools actually use Excel for their grading systems? I ask this because after reading a lot of your comments, many of you talked about other programs that are out there. My school uses IGPro or Integrated Pro for grading. It does have similarities to Excel because it is set-up in the same spreadsheet form. I think the great thing about these school based programs is that they are much more user-friendly then Excel. While doing this assignment I sort of felt like I was learning Russian. I also referenced a book from the Shelly Cashman Series on Excel. It did have a section about spreadsheets, but it never really told you how to do it.

School districts across the country are now implementing a new way to track and refer struggling students. Some, but not all, have heard of this process known as RTI or Response to Intervention. If you're an educator and are unaware of this process I'm sure it will be coming for you. Learning as much as you can about the process is so helpful with the implementation. I bring up this process because many of the sotware programs, particularly Excel, is one program that you have to have some knowledge about. When viewing and reviewing data about your students, everything must come from a graph or spreadsheet that is created from Excel. The graphs are used for comparisons and the spreadsheets contain assessment data from your students.So understanding how to navigate through this process will take some action on our parts to make sure we have accurate and reliable data on hand at our RTI meetings.

RR#3 loosen the reigns

Should we loosen the reigns on the availability or access to everything on the internet? Part of the learning process includes giving students and teachers the necessary tools they need to be successful and hopefully they have the ability to make good decision when trusted with these tools. If we shield or protect our students from everything that is out there we are not giving them a true leanring experience. When asked the question of ethics and access to the internet, my stance would place me with those that believe it is unethical to deny students/teachers access to instructionally-relevant Web-based tools and content?

After much thought of all the "bad" things that are out there, my feelings of how much "good" is taken away because of this bad outweighs the "bad". I think it was best stated by Thornbugh and Lin in their study on Youth, Pornography, and the Internet. "Swimming pools can be dangerous for children. To protect them, one can install locks, put up fences, and deploy pool alarms. All these measures are helpful, but by far the most important things one can do for one's children is to teach them to swim."http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?isbn=0309082749 With that said, I feel a great deal can be taught to our students about what is educationally relevant and what is not.

After researching a bit more, I found that school districts hire private companies that filter web material and it is these companies that make decisions on what is censored and list is usually kept private. I do agree that some degree of filtering is necessary, especially for younger children, but in my experiences too many sites that are educationally relevant are blocked. For example, students and teachers have access to Teacher Tube, but not You Yube. Many valuable learning videos that are out there are not accessible on Teacher Tube, but they are available on You Tube. Filtering has to be done because it is the law. Chapter 8 talks about the Children's Internet Protection Act and how this directly effects the classroom. This act protects children against inappropriate materials on the internet and protecting the safety and security of our students on the internet. I do agree with the group that opposed this law because students are in fact, denied viewing appropriate material from being viewed.

The internet is great tool that should be accessible in almost any arena. We teach our students what they need to know and hopefully offer them an authentic learning environment. If we restrict access to the internet even after educating them on what types of information they should obtain, we can't ensure that they will not make mistakes. We have to allow students to make mistakes and I don't think it is any different for an internet use policy. If they are accessing websites that are inappropriate then I think to a degree they are learning. Not speaking of the extreme, like pornography, but they may find themselves learning something new from a site that a private vendor says is inappropriate.

Lin, H. & Thornburgh, D. Youth, Pornography, and the Internet. 2002. National Academy Press. Washington, D.C. http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?isbn=0309082749

RR#2 The Networked Student

As I watched "The Networked Student" video I couldn't help but notice that I relate to this student's position in so many ways. All my college classes are on-line and I probably will never meet Dr. Thompson face-to-face. I know this is sad, but it is reality. Sad in a good way because the use of "teacher as a facilitator" shows us that allowing the student to guide the instruction can work and the students will learn even though they may never see their instructor.

The video makes "real" points about how our shift towards technology has changed the way students learn and teachers teach. Connectivism or learning from a social network does and can occur on a daily basis. I like to reference the Chinese Proverb, " I hear and I forget, I see and I remember, I do and I understand." The traditional lectures that students hear are a good example of forgetting. With social networking and the connection to so many people and resources students are now able to say "I do". Interactive videos, blogs, and web pages help to make this possible. I thought it amazing that the student in the video could gain access to the top professors at prestigious universities to gain more knowledge about his subject. Who better to get it from than those that are experts in the field.

Chapter 2 highlights the importance that the federal, state, and local governments are putting on funding in order make sure that classrooms are equipped with networks and software programs that enhance learning. Having access to an e-reader set-up and Smartboard in my classroom has given me the ability to take advantage of just some of the resources out there. The multimedia that is available on the web is endless. The book talked about video and mentioned the website Discovery Education (United Streaming) and this caught my eye because I have used this site on many occasions. For example, today was Chinese New Year and I didn't have any really good materials that I could share with my students about the holiday so I did a quick search on this website and found an educational video that gave visuals to my students about the Chinese New Year. Without this my students would have lost out on valuable information.

Addressing our students' learning modalities should be considered when we are planning and teaching our lessons. Social networking, in my opinion, offers something to all learning styles. Whether it's a video, web page, chat room, or e-mail the numerous ways of communication on the web addresses all learning styles and should be considered.