Post T11- Reflection

So, I've completed my 11 tools training, and am ready to reflect on them. Some of these tools I've used for a while, most of them I've known of for a while but not used, and theres a few I was rather ignorant about.

Tools
They all have their assorted potential, but blogs, wikis, and google docs are the ones I find most useful. iMovies and digital story telling has its uses, and was quite enjoyable to play with, but is a bit more limited. Being a tech teacher, I'll actually be using alot of these tools, and had already planned to from the start. This is not to say I gained nothing from this, there are a few I've been able to add into my consideration due to these 11 tools. Of course, I will have to see how it all fits into everything. But one step at a time.

I can't really say I've had this change my opinion of tech much in the classroom. I've always been pretty open to technology if it can be implemented effectively and efficiently. I have alot of background in technology, so, that really shouldn't be too much of a surprise.

Google docs was a bit of a surprise for me. I knew what it was, and I acknowledged it could be useful, but I hadn't really realized how useful it could be. I've been using it quite a bit since its little debut in my blog.

Assessment
I'm not really too wild about the assessment. Alot of the questions and answers aren't worded in a clear and concise way, leaving us needing more information to choose the best answer. We aren't given a clear prompt of how we are suppose to consider some of the questions and answers. Majority of the teachers are integrating tech into other content, but the answers could vary based on what you are considering more important. This training is all about tech, so are we suppose to consider it the most important? However, if it's not your primary content, then integrating tech comes second to the content and it should not be held higher (maybe equal at times, but not higher) than the content. However, when answering questions in the test, it doesn't give you the background information as to whether that has been considered. There's also material in the test that isn't covered in the 11 tools training, and majority of what was covered in the 11 tools isn't reflected on the assessment either.

In addition, there are a couple questions which answers can be interpreted as opinions, and others where the options are valid and accurate and supportive, but not actually due to the technological side of things. Furthermore, being involved in technology for years (aided with plenty of printed and online materials), there are questions where the answer it wanted was not actually accurate. Other questions and answers are splitting hairs. If I were to take a guess, I would say that this assessment was not taylor made for our digital training, but rather a pre-existing assessment added onto the end. There is no other reason so much of the assessment should be so tangent to the rest of the training, if it was actually originally intended to sit at the end of this training. So, I can't say I cared much for the assessment.

I wish I could go back and review my answers to refute some of these questions, but the website doesn't allow that. The feedback section doesn't show your answer for majority of the questions, nor even what answer it was looking for, making majority of the feedback unhelpful. I'm sorry, but being unable to review the assessment and correct answers doesn't make this a very good learning tool.

T11- Digital Citizenship

Digital Citizenship is a key ingredient for students and educators working online. As far as training goes, I suppose it doesn't matter which order we learn things in... however, it certainly shouldn't be the last thing addresses in the classroom. Proper netiquette needs to be introduced and practiced throughout the year, not taught after everything is finished. Many students, as well as much of our society seem to have missed the lessons in life focused on how to conduct themselves sociably. I addressed this issue a bit in "T2- Commenting" as well.


The link to Digital Citizenship (from SBISD's PTL Resources) has some great stuff in it. I'll want to look more into later (the linked documents on the Resources and Publications pages specifically). The Brain Pop Video is a great introduction to this topic. There's alot of links to explore on the SBISD page. More resources on Ning.


The Digiteen Website has some good stuff on it too, however the menu layout has a few little issues here and there that make navigation a little confusing at first.

Our society has become a place where people tend to value their own opinions, and often feel strongly about defending it. While this is a great asset and quality, it often leads to fruitless and hostile arguments when it comes to the digital age. Its good to have an opinion and great to discuss and participate in discourse, however lets avoid the e-mauling please. This is definitely one of my biggest concerns when it comes to the digital age, and certainly something I will be enforcing.

As far as general use of tech (which is lumped into DC, although I don't really feel its the same thing; more of a digital literacy vs digital citizenship), there are some good things to keep in mind on Cool Cat Teacher's post. Alot of these comments aren't things that we don't know, but things that I feel we often forget to keep in mind. Our students are so into technology, we often just assume they know how to find good resources, understand that everything on the internet isn't true, etc etc etc.

T10- Exploring Mobile Technology and Apps

Personally, I'm not too into the whole iMobiles thing. However, as time moves on, they are slowly growing on me. Not that I feel my tastes have changed, but rather that newer features for roughly the same price is increasing their value. Originally, the iPod was just an overpriced music player, but with all the new features they've developed as its become the iTouch and the iPad make it quite a bit more marketable. For travel, the iPad looks like a good potential replacement for more cumbersome laptops.

With the constantly expanding world of apps, there are bound to be a few good ones for education. The link with the Top 50 Free Educational Apps has some neat apps, but most of the neat ones I see are science related. Which is cool and something I'm totally into, just not the area of my instruction. On the SBISD Apps resource page there were a couple apps worth mentioning.

Useful Apps:
- Learn Chess During IIW, chess is on of the activities our group will discuss.

- Photoshop Mobile Not really photoshop, but a few little things here or there for editing photos on your iMobile of choice.
- Musee de Louvre Too cool, a little art museum for your iMobile.
- Art Lite More art history and pictures for your iMobile.
- SketchBook MobileX sketch on the go.

Despite enjoying these apps, I'm still looking at them from a more personal direction. I would rather them use these apps on a laptop or a pc. I really am rather uneasy about the use of iTouches in the classroom. The concern of theft and potential off-task behavior are too high. While monitoring is always a good things, I'd feel inclined to monitor over providing support due to these concerns. To use iTouches in the room, and feel comfortable would require checking them out, complete with signed documents and waivers, deposit fees, and tethered to the desks with a chain (dont-take-our-pens-please retail style).

T9- Jing and Skype

I've used Skype quite a bit. Works well for talking to people in other parts of the world if you're not wanting to pay hefty phone fees. I've never really bothered with the video feature personally. We have used video conferencing though in my Rice classes to talk to the Mt. Washington Observatory. Using a headset is definitely a big help in using Skype.


From a social/cultural aspect, it would be neat if students could talk to students from other countries and learn about each other's cultures. Although, of course time zones could make this difficult depending on the region.

At first, Jing seemed too much like Photostory or iMovie to be useful. However, looking through it, especially from a multi-media or tech-classroom angle, it could have quite a few uses. With the aid of audio instructions and screen caps, it could be a great tool for creating video tutorials to walk students through more complicated processes on the computer.

T8- Video Resources

I used quite a few short video resources in Art with my students last year. I would often play one at the start of class as students were getting situated and their materials out to begin working. They varied depending on what we currently working on, maybe a short 4 minute clip on an artist, or on a certain art technique, or whatever else we might currently be studying. Most of the videos I used were just to give my students extra exposure to various aspects of the art world. These were more of an optional thing for the students, they were welcome to watch them or get started working. For more important videos, we'd wait to begin working on the art projects til after the short clip was over (as well as any additional conversation about it).

My Rice Geophysical Field Work Class on the News

Short Article Accompanying the Fox 26 Video


ABC News: History Being Unearthed in Prairie View


Art Curriculum Related:
Our first major unit was cave art.
Cave Art Short

We did a short mini-project looking at Mondrian in the spring.
While a bit sparse on information, I thought the video was a cute
way to give some exposure to the development of his style over time.
Mondrian Video

The embedded videos don't load properly on the iMacs in the computer lab :(
I'll have to provide a text link to the video later. Also, these videos are from youtube, and its important to note that youtube videos can not be accessed from student accounts, so watching them requires a teacher to login. Not that students should be able to access youtube, too much of youtube is devoid of anything intelligent.

These are not the only videos I used on these topics. There were two other short videos we watched on Mondrian at the start of classes, and quite a few on cave art. On some occasions I'd also play them at the end of class as students were cleaning.

This also gave students who finished cleaning early something to focus on. As the students were often multi-tasking while the videos were playing, they were not used as the primary vehicle for content, but rather just extra content and info they could watch or listen to while working. If I felt a particular video was important for the lesson, and not just extra exposure I'd have the students wait to get started until after the video (or clean up early to watch it).

T7- Digital Storytelling

For my Rice class, we used iMovie to create a video documenting our field work at Wyatt Chapel Cemetery. I'll post up a link to it when I can get it online.

I hadn't used the software before, but am finding it relatively easy to use. Their are a few limiting factors. With the intent of instilling information without using a mic is limiting in the software. For the video, I'm using mostly stills, superimposed with text. iMovie doesn't allow us much customization of text overlays as I would prefer, so I've resorted to altering the images themselves with text through photoshop.

Last year in art, my sixth graders had a unit on cartoons. The two main styles of animation are American and Japanese. Japanese animation is rarely acknowledged in art, and never considered high-art, but just the same the kids clamor for it. Japanese animation has become amazingly popular over the past ten years, but the students really know very little about it. Adding to my cartoon unit, I've decided to make an iMovie on the history of Japanese Animation. I have found making the video very interesting, as I was unaware of the different historical events that have greatly affected this form of media.


It plays... but blogster really downgraded the quality :(
Cant read any of the text with how it compressed the video
I'll have to try to find a different hosting site later

I'm not really that into photostory personally. I find iMovie more user friendly and able to produce a better end-product. Creating an iMovie can be very beneficial for many projects. Students have to consider what information they want to include, what visuals to accompany it with, related audio, and the organization and professionalism to tie it all together into a successful short-film. Most of iMovie is pretty simple, but looking through some of the more complex tutorials revealed some neat tools that were hidden from view. The animated travel map I found especially neat.

T6- Wikis

Wikis are something I'm quite familiar with. In addition to the widely popular wikipedia, some of the other Wiki's I've enjoyed include: IMSLP (a wiki of public domain music), Wikimedia Commons (which I've found useful for diagrams, such as ones on plate tectonics), and Mythology @ Wikia.

Due to the ability for wiki's to be edited by just about anyone, they tend to get a bad wrap as far as credibility goes. For lesser known wiki's, this is certainly a factor.

However, credibility is always an issue, whether webpages or even published materials. Wikipedia, with the wide amount of users, and vast number of uses interested in keeping it credible is supposed to be about as credible as a printed encyclopedia. Not too shabby. In addition, with good use of the citations and footnotes, a conscientious reader can fact-check the details.


basic diagram of how a wiki works
While it has yet to materialize, creating Wikis as a teaching tool is something I've considered in every area I've taught so far. In the science classroom, I had considered the idea of letting students use Wiki software to share their notes and create a comprehensive guide of content covered. The concept was that it would double both in reiteration of content as well as a resource material for them. I had also played with the idea of instead of a traditional research project (paper or powerpoint), the project would instead be a wiki article for the class blog. This idea became having to do with art and artists when I began teaching that. I imagine this could be used in almost any content area.

As for teaching yearbook this year, the idea of using a wiki as organizational and compiling tool for the class, with each article representing a page in the book. I still need to play with the idea and the yearbook software to see if I want to implement this idea or not. Even if the yearbook software works perfectly well for this, a wiki could still possibly be used to allow content and text to be reviewed and a record and catalog of changes.

As far as within a teaching community, a wiki has a multitude of potential uses. Content, curriculum, lessons, activities, and a number of other resources could be included and allow educators to share resources as well as provide feedback on the talk page as well as make improvements and updates to the content in a mostly user-friendly way.

Few resources of Wiki Tips and Ideas:
- What is a Wiki? (and how to use one)
- Wikis for Supporting Distributed Collaborative Writing
- How to use a Wiki for Marketing