I'm off on Friday to do a presentation for a number of administrative folks who have an interest in classroom assessment. I'll be relating to them the reasons why our school district has chosen the NWEA assessment tool for use with our grades 2 to 10 students and how we have gone about implementing it in the school district. A draft of my slides can found on the SlideShare site.. The slides will be modified again tonight, but using Slideshare has given me the opportunity to share a work in progress with others.
If you are interested in finding our more about this assessment tool, visit the NWEA site.
Wednesday, February 21, 2007
Sunday, February 18, 2007
Playing with some Web2.0 tools
Part of the fun this week playing with tools that can be used to create HTML code for pasting into blogs led to this site. The magazine cover on the left is an example of what can be created using one of the free tools on this site. I expect kids and teachers to have a lot of fun using these tools, at the same time developing the literacy skills necessary to create publications for a variety of audiences.
Working with teachers
Most of the time I enjoy working with teachers and last Friday was no exception. The occasion was our school district professional development day. The topics for the two sessions I led were, Blogging with Classblogmeister and Creating with ComicLife. Both sessions were 90 minutes long and we only hit the highlights. It was encouraging to hear from many of the group that they planned to incorporate the newly learned skills into their teaching practice. I note this weekend that some have carried on developing their blog pages. Very exciting!
Wednesday, February 14, 2007
Teach good decision making
In her Tech for Learning Blog, Cheryl Oakes writes:
She makes this quote in the context of online discussion leading to offline meetings. I have had many similar experiences as the one she posts about in this article. I've travelled to California and to other states to meet people I have only otherwise met online and it has always been a postivie experience.
I attempt to incorporate these ideas into the internet safety lessons I deliver to students, but I get these kids on that topic for less than an hour. I encourage teachers to do as Cheryl suggests and find ways to teach good decision making.
"We need to give our students permission to make good decisions. We need to help them build those guidelines to make those good decisions."
She makes this quote in the context of online discussion leading to offline meetings. I have had many similar experiences as the one she posts about in this article. I've travelled to California and to other states to meet people I have only otherwise met online and it has always been a postivie experience.
I attempt to incorporate these ideas into the internet safety lessons I deliver to students, but I get these kids on that topic for less than an hour. I encourage teachers to do as Cheryl suggests and find ways to teach good decision making.
Tuesday, February 13, 2007
A Perfect Day
It's amazing what can be accomplished with a class size of three and motivated learners. I had a great time working with three excellent teachers who wanted to find out more about how blogs might be beneficial for their students. They would like to link their classes (they teach in three different schools) by sharing blog topics, peer editing and commenting. What a great idea.
The tool I chose to introduce them to is Class Blogmeister, a site created and managed by David Warlick. David has given the community a fabulous tool which fits right into the needs of the elementary class ... it offers a secure and safe place for students and their teachers to discover the value of sharing writing and other creative work. I have taken a look at Blogger and some of the other sites out there, including ones specifically designed for children, but Class Blogmeister really suits what I think our classrooms need.
They quickly discovered many other neat things that can be done with the classroom blogs with the simple addition of html in many of the text fields.
I'm looking forward to seeing their results.
The tool I chose to introduce them to is Class Blogmeister, a site created and managed by David Warlick. David has given the community a fabulous tool which fits right into the needs of the elementary class ... it offers a secure and safe place for students and their teachers to discover the value of sharing writing and other creative work. I have taken a look at Blogger and some of the other sites out there, including ones specifically designed for children, but Class Blogmeister really suits what I think our classrooms need.
They quickly discovered many other neat things that can be done with the classroom blogs with the simple addition of html in many of the text fields.
I'm looking forward to seeing their results.
Absolute WOW factor
Imagine a time when smart boards such as this one will be available in our classrooms.
Wednesday, February 7, 2007
Thin Edge of the Wedge?
I am a firm believer that students need to learn to use the Web 2.0 tools that are available to them in a constructive and ethical manner. I also teach internet safety to students, teachers and parents. I am opposed to blocking sites where students can read or post blogs, podcasts, and videos. I'm fortunate to work in a school district that understands my point of view. When things happen as a result of a YouTube posting, instead of a knee jerk reaction to block the site, we try to look at the episode as a "teachable moment" or as an incident that requires alternative discipline measures. So far, that has worked and the site has remained open.
In the course of my recent classroom discussions with elementary school students regarding keeping safe on line, protecting passwords, not discolsing personal information, etc. a number of students have offered to show their website creation work on the service Piczo. Quite frankly, I was alarmed at some of the information being disclosed, the personal identifiers, the photos, both fun and risque. The interchange in the chat/feedback areas with hurtful language. The pages for voting on what kids are hot and who are losers. And, the linking that takes place on these sites, the web of sites one can visit just by having access to one student's page. I don't think a lot of these students clearly understand how visible and public their spaces are.
Although I can make the case to open up website development opportunities for students to create and share, I see no redeeming value in using Piczo as a service to do that. I think it is causing more harm in our classrooms than good from sites that the students create at home.
The wedge has been placed under my values and beliefs about modern day computing and while I don't like it, I have taken the steps necessary to block the site, and its derivatives, from access within our district network.
And, once the block was in place we recorded over a hundered attempts to access the domain. At 1:30 pm. On a school day. What's wrong with this picture?
One thing I have learned this week is that I need to go beyond my plan to teach effective and ethical use of the web tools, but to also take a more indepth look at what students in my district are actually producing from the comfort of home.
In the course of my recent classroom discussions with elementary school students regarding keeping safe on line, protecting passwords, not discolsing personal information, etc. a number of students have offered to show their website creation work on the service Piczo. Quite frankly, I was alarmed at some of the information being disclosed, the personal identifiers, the photos, both fun and risque. The interchange in the chat/feedback areas with hurtful language. The pages for voting on what kids are hot and who are losers. And, the linking that takes place on these sites, the web of sites one can visit just by having access to one student's page. I don't think a lot of these students clearly understand how visible and public their spaces are.
Although I can make the case to open up website development opportunities for students to create and share, I see no redeeming value in using Piczo as a service to do that. I think it is causing more harm in our classrooms than good from sites that the students create at home.
The wedge has been placed under my values and beliefs about modern day computing and while I don't like it, I have taken the steps necessary to block the site, and its derivatives, from access within our district network.
And, once the block was in place we recorded over a hundered attempts to access the domain. At 1:30 pm. On a school day. What's wrong with this picture?
One thing I have learned this week is that I need to go beyond my plan to teach effective and ethical use of the web tools, but to also take a more indepth look at what students in my district are actually producing from the comfort of home.
Tuesday, February 6, 2007
Zoho Notebook
The following video has been referenced from a number of blogs I read regularly and I thought I would post it here for some possible discussion. In my home province, British Columbia, the consortium of school districts our district belongs to is considering an offer from Microsoft to license MS-Office for any district who wishes to participate. We don't know the cost yet, we will within the next 6 weeks or so, and I anticipate it take a fair amount of our budget to do this. At the present time, we license Office for many computers in the district and if it appears that our annual costs to do so under this new plan is reasonable, we may move to the provincial agreement. The Zoho Notebook video does give a glimpse as to what can be accomplished by an online tool. No pricing for this software is available at this time... it is in its early development stages. Take a look and see what you think.
Thursday, February 1, 2007
It's been a while
I haven't posted for a couple of weeks. I went to Mexico and in a subsequent entry I'll post a bit about that and probably share some pictures. I'm also going to get my technical head around Flikr (others make it look easy) and add that to my page.
Yesterday I had an opportunity to talk with a dozen teachers who enrol grade 4 and 5 classes. They were doing a full day session on teaching personal safety and for the first time, Internet Safety, was included in the facillitator's program. I was asked to come to speak for about an hour at the end of the day. I think it went well and I was able to add one component that I haven't included in any of my prior talks to parents or teachers regarding the issue of students protecting their identities while online.
Earlier this week I was speaking to a class of grade 5 students and a few of the children not only responded positively to my question asking how many of them are actively working on their own webpages. Some of them offered to show them to me and to the class. It was quite an enlightening experience that put a visual face to the statistics we can read from various studies.
As a group we were able to look at the profies and the about me pages and critique them for the content they contained which might serve to identify them to the viewer. It is apparent to me that many students do not realize the "public" aspect of their websites. I think some of them think that the site is only available to the friends they tell the address to, not to the world at large. We talked about that, and about the use of screen names and the importance of protecting passwords and other safety issues.
When I used some of these sites to show the teachers in my workshop, they were astounded. They had no idea how creative some of these kids are, and, more importantly, they made the connection between the handouts, the website references (such as NetSmartz), and the real work their students are doing on the net, away from the school. I'm hoping that this gives them a better understanding of why it is that the school needs to be proactive in teaching internet safety while, at the same time, encouraging students to express themselves online. And... the important role the parent/guardian plays in the monitoring of their child's website.
In closing a few of teachers agreed with my point that we need to tap in to this creativity in children and their interest in all things digital. Imagine them using these tools to create Science, Socials, Art, or Writing focused sites.
Yesterday I had an opportunity to talk with a dozen teachers who enrol grade 4 and 5 classes. They were doing a full day session on teaching personal safety and for the first time, Internet Safety, was included in the facillitator's program. I was asked to come to speak for about an hour at the end of the day. I think it went well and I was able to add one component that I haven't included in any of my prior talks to parents or teachers regarding the issue of students protecting their identities while online.
Earlier this week I was speaking to a class of grade 5 students and a few of the children not only responded positively to my question asking how many of them are actively working on their own webpages. Some of them offered to show them to me and to the class. It was quite an enlightening experience that put a visual face to the statistics we can read from various studies.
As a group we were able to look at the profies and the about me pages and critique them for the content they contained which might serve to identify them to the viewer. It is apparent to me that many students do not realize the "public" aspect of their websites. I think some of them think that the site is only available to the friends they tell the address to, not to the world at large. We talked about that, and about the use of screen names and the importance of protecting passwords and other safety issues.
When I used some of these sites to show the teachers in my workshop, they were astounded. They had no idea how creative some of these kids are, and, more importantly, they made the connection between the handouts, the website references (such as NetSmartz), and the real work their students are doing on the net, away from the school. I'm hoping that this gives them a better understanding of why it is that the school needs to be proactive in teaching internet safety while, at the same time, encouraging students to express themselves online. And... the important role the parent/guardian plays in the monitoring of their child's website.
In closing a few of teachers agreed with my point that we need to tap in to this creativity in children and their interest in all things digital. Imagine them using these tools to create Science, Socials, Art, or Writing focused sites.
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