Educational Websites

I really enjoyed reviewing my educational website and hearing what other students thought of theirs. My site was a social networking site. At first, I was a little skeptical as to whether or not a social networking site could be effectively utilized in a classroom. Once I signed up for it and played around with the settings, I started to realize how it could be used. I had to get into a teacher mindset before I could really understand how to best utilize my site and other sites. I tried to think of some projects that I have done in the past and how I could use the sites to enhance those projects, which gave me a lot of ideas. On Monday, I actually rearranged lessons in the technology class I teach so I could have the students use one of the sites, which they enjoyed.

Blogger

I had always been interested in setting up a blog. I could never seem to find the motivation to do it however, as it seemed like I always had something else to do. I also felt like setting up a blog would be time consuming. Now I feel foolish knowing that I once felt that way. I was surprised by how easy and intuitive blogger was. It’s also great because it really is a useful tool to use as a teacher. I think it will definitely come in handy as an administrator as well. To be honest, there are few assignments I receive where after doing, I am happy the assignment was given. This was one of those assignments I am glad was given.

Sunday

I feel better about the Wiki than I did on Saturday. After spending more time on it, I am more comfortable with the creation and purpose. The last hour of Sunday's class was very useful. Getting to see the benefits and uses of that many websites in such a short time made me realize that there is so much out there that I am completely unaware of.

Sunday, March 29

I enjoyed looking at the different websites. I thought Cooliris was pretty...well...cool! You can really find A LOT of pictures on there! I am also glad we had time to add to our wiki's and blog's. I am using my blog with my reading classes everyday. We have also linked the blog site to our school website where we post homework for our Blue Team. Of course the YouTube videos are blocked by our filter, but the students with internet access at home can view them.

Blog and Wiki Pages

I am really going to find the blog and wiki pages useful. The blog page is great for parents and athletes of my track team to have a place to find information about track. A lot of parents don't understand track as well as other sports such as basketball. I think the blog page will allow them an opportunity to ask question and get answers about track. I am hoping to use the wiki page as a calendar that parents and community members can use to put down important dates on a school calendar. It allows parents and students to find out information and upcoming events. It is also possible to link different events to their own website or wiki page. For example, if the park district is having a special event, a parent looking at the page will be able to click on the event and will be linked to the park district event wiki page or website. What a great tool the wiki page can be for a school event calendar!

Excel-Saturday

I am still amazed at how many different tasks can be done on excel. I was very comfortable using excell to keep track of information. After going over all of the different ways to do data, I am excited about all of the different ways I will be able to use excel as a teacher and as a principal. I am also amazed at how easy it is to use. I have already taken a personal excel page I use in my classroom for behavior and made some changes such as averaging and making a chart or graph. I found it very benificial and will continue to use excel even more. I also feel comfortable enough to figure out other ways to use it for different projects.

2nd Weekend Excel

I can't decide whether I love excel or hate it. It seems like it is capable of doing awesome things. When I am in class I can follow along and get the desired end result. When I am on my own I get very frustrated because no matter how good I think my notes are I do not end up with the correct end result. I think that this class could probably be twice as long and still not cover everything.

2nd Weekend

I am very excited to see what I can do with the movie maker program. I have previously paid my computer tech person a great deal of money to produce a movie for me. It seems like that is the program (or one very similar) that he used to do this. I hope that I am able to produce something at least close to what he did for me. I am excited to learn what technology is out there and what can be done with it.

Saturday 3/28 - The good, the bad, the ugly

Saturday started so good for me. I am very comfortable with EXCEL and was more than willing to help several of the class with dragging formulas and sorting (this was the GOOD). My union asks me to create spreadsheets for various things, and I use it for my girls golf team stats. Then after lunch our attention turned to the Blog and the Wiki. OMG! My level of frustration was very high. I felt like I was getting nothing done the entire afternoon (this is the BAD). Then all of a sudden it was 4:05pm. At least the time went fast. Working with these technologies is learned by trial and error; it is the ultimate in problem solving. I forgot to treat these things like a puzzle, and I usually like puzzles as long as the pieces are not too small. I have since come off the ledge as to the Blogs, but I am still very iffy with the wiki. Then I compound the fun of the day by driving back to Canton (This was the ugly). Getting home wasn't all that bad; not being able to get down my hill to the main road at 5:15am Sunday morning was brutal.

Boy I'm behind now....Class #2

After going through this blog I've found I did not post after the first Sunday. That day we did work with the IIRC, which I feel pretty confident working with. I showed my student teacher this site, since he is looking for a job. He had no idea this website existed (good job ISU!), and was shocked to see some of the schools he was looking to go to had such horrible test scores. Like many young people in his position, he was just looking at districts that paid well. I hopefully opened his eyes that money is not everything, and that having good kids to work with is more important.

Weekend #2

I'm glad to hear that I'm not the only one that feels overwhelmed and/or confused. Working with Excel, Blogs, and Wikis over the weekend was great for me as I have had little to no experience working with any of those programs. However, after I left on Sunday I felt like I didn't even know where to begin. Does anyone know if it's posted anywhere what and when everything is due? I wrote things down in class, but I'm not sure if I got everything.

4

Class #4... i certainly have a better understanding of blogs and wikis - although my comfort level is still lacking. i thought cooliris was "cool" - thus the name i suppose. i feel i have my work cut out for me to get the projects completed but look forward to checking them off!

2nd Sunday

WOW!!! I am really starting to feel a little overwhelmed. So many new concepts and ideas have been discussed and played with that I don't know where to start. The movie maker we learned today was awesome. I, being technologically illiterate, have always wondered how to make such a thing. Now I know. The blog and wiki have me a little stressed. I just can't figure what should and shouldn't be on there. Sometimes less is more but hard to know where that line is. Although I am a little stressed about all the projects left to do, I can say that I have learned an abundance of new information in this class!

Sunday

After leaving today, I feel like I am very comfortable with the blog, but it is still a work in progress with the wiki. After being assigned the www.lucidcharts.com website, I found a great website that I could incorporate into my lessons. It could be useful for me and other teachers, but it also could be used by students. I think students could use this site to build flow charts or mind maps for their work.

Sunday, March 29

I don't know about anyone else but I am thoroughly confused. It just seems like my mind is going a 1000 mph with so much information and I don't know if I will be able to decipher it before the next class. Wiki, blog, movie maker and etc. there seems like so many general rules, hints and many other "Dr. Closen" tidbits for all the different assignments. I keep chanting "what doesn't kill you will make you stronger" I will survive.....we all will survive!!! Just stay strong see you all in a couple of weeks.

Second Sunday Blog

The blog and wiki pages were really interesting today. I hope that we can share ours in class to see how everyone else is using them. For my blog, I focused on my math class that I will be teaching next year. I hope to be able to use it next year to post homework, and provide interesting information my math students can use. I am looking forward to creating the pod cast and finishing up the other projects. See you then!

TSanders - Sunday #2

The website info has been good for me, as I am pretty low on both time and knowledge in the area of technology. I again enjoyed the time to work on the blog and wiki, but at times getting both to function as I want them to was a little frustrating! I feel like I need some more direction on the group project, but I'll work it out!

2nd Sunday Blogs, Wikis, etc

Well, there is lots to do now. I have never had a blog, but I do feel more comfortable with setting one up. I created pbwiki pages in my law class, so this is be a nice review. I'm choosing to do an individual multimedia project since I already have experience with this, also.

Weekend Two - Sunday

I continued to be amazed at how many websites are out there. I am certain in claiming that there are hundreds of new sites coming out every week. Technology is happnening around us and I am so grateful that education, at least philosophically, as a whole has embraced the idea of utilizing technology as teaching tools. My problem with integrating technology is when I see a colleague who does not want to use it because of their own stubborn reasons ("That's not the way I teach," or "Kids can't learn that way," or "I'm too old to learn such new things."). Professional growth opportunities abound!

Work Work Work

Working on the blogs and wikis this morning made me realize how effective they can be as a learning tool, but I also realized how time consuming they are to create and maintain. I know part of my problem is that I am a novice at creating blogs, but finding the time to edit them would also be a problem. As a teacher I would want to regularly monitor the comments being posted to ensure the appropriateness of the content. One thing I thought could be especially helpful was the wiki folders to help you file your projects and activities from year to year.
Week 2 Day 2 - Jacob Crase

Weekend 2: Sunday, March 29, 2009

I really appreciated all of the time we were given to work on our blogs and wikis. I am glad we have a few weeks before we meet again to get all of these assignments completed.

Weekend 2 Day 2

It was wonderful to have time to fool around with our Wiki's and Blogs at the beginning of the class. Everything that we are doing in class is relevent to todays learners (student & adult). I am really looking forward to using the Wiki and Blog with my classes.

Weekend 2 Day 1

Amazingly productive! It is nice to do things in class so that questions and trouble shooting can happen here instead of creating frustration at home. I think the Wiki will be a wonderful addition to learning /teaching tools in my classroom. I love how easy it was to produce a Blog. Again, a very productive, yet often overwhelming day!

SLUSHY, MUCKY, MESS!

What a great day to be inside! I was glad that we took extra time to work on Wiki’s and Blogs I needed some time to calm down after that drive. I wish we could have cloned Dr. Closen this morning, so many of us needed his attention at the same time. There was a hidden lesson in this for me. I noticed that when he couldn’t run right over to help me I usually found what I needed on my own. That little self gratification was great! Hmmmmm maybe we shouldn’t run and help our students at every little whimper? Thanks for the list of websites, Cooliris is great!

Weekend 2 Day 2

This blog is from Sunday's class. It was nice to have time to work on the blogs and Wiki pages. What I liked about it, was that we could ask questions get help etc. This is new for me so any help I got was appreciated.
The only concern I have is doing the Podcast. I have never done one and have no idea what to do. Hopefully we will have time in class to complete them on the last Saturday's class. Our project is on cell phones, a hot topic in our school. We do not allow cell phones on in our school. There is a neighboring school district that allows students to be on them in the hallway right after class. I heard this is a mess as students are late for class etc.
Anyway I thought this weekend's class was very informative.
Rick

Sunday March 29th

Today has been pretty productive. I appreciate that we are able to use class time to work on our wiki and blog sites. It will be interesting to see how well my students will be able to use these tools.

3/28/09 Excel, Wikis, Blogs

I found the Excel informative but overwhelmeing. There is so much to do with it and I would definitely like to learn more to enhance my skills but I don't know when I will find the time. I think I need a class just in Excel. I know there are so many features that I could find uses for. I felt like a dweeb as I was trying to work on it in class. There are so many people who have more competent skills using it than I and I couldn't keep up at their pace. For me, I need something in print with the formulas written down to refer back to. The wikis and blogs were a lot easier for me to understand and I feel more comfortable playing around with those on my own. Having time to experiment is definitely what I need. I think that I will have some time in the summer to become more proficient.

TSanders - Saturday #2

I was most impressed with the afternoon of Saturday as we were working on the wikis and blogas. I had no idea we had been working for 3 hours--4:00 just crept right up. Yesterday was an epiphany for me...I was pretty intimidated when I saw the syllabus for this class, but after yesterday I really feel like I'm starting to reduce the fear factor. I like that we are able to work on so many of the projects in class where there are other students and Dr. Closen to help as we investigate.

Blog and Wiki

I didn't realize how easy it is to set up a blog or a wiki. I thought the blog was easier to work with, but that may be because we didn't spend as much time on it and it was hour 6 and things were a little blurry.

Blogging

I am very excited about the blog I have begun to set up for my classroom. It will be less time consuming than my weekly newsletters! I didn't realize how easy setting up a blog can be. I am less excited about Wiki...I'll have to work on that one.

Lots of info

I think the most helpful information will be about the excel program. It will be beneficial to learn how to make a payroll schedule easily on excel. I have used excel many times before, but I had not fully understood how to use the formulas. I also have to say that I have had my first experience with Wiki today. It was exciting to see all of the links that I can put together very quickly and use for my classroom. I still enjoy how we are able to work on our assignments in class; therefore, we can ask questions about any troubleshooting that may occur. I am able to get direct feedback as I go through the assignment and quickly learn how to complete the tasks.

Weekend 2 - Saturday

Wow, what a lot of information. I have never used most of what we discussed today. I am a little frustrated though that so much of this is blocked on school computers and can't be utilized in a classroom setting. I work in a very low income building and most of my students do not have access to a computer outside of school. And, expecting them to use the library will not work because the parents won't take them. So, the benefits of using some of this technology will not do my students much good. I loved the excel work. What a powerful program this is! Excel (once you know its capabilities) can make daily routines much easier.

3

what a packed day... 

the excel information i will use often - i always new there were shortcuts and easier ways to do things and now i have a couple of those tricks up my sleeve.

the blog seems to be as hard or as simple as you want to make it - fortunately i try to keep it simple.

the wiki - is my greatest challenge so far. we had to do one for a class or two and i never got the hang of it. hopefully i gained a better understanding of it today - i'll see.

the ISTE tech standards were interesting in that i had no idea they even existed - maybe my district is working towards acknowledging them.

i look forward to the pod cast - i see it as a tool i may be able to incorporate into my classes.

great day - see you in the morning...

Saturday, March 28th

Another day of a lot of information!!! I am looking forward to setting up the classroom blog and wiki. At times I felt a little overwhelmed especially moving videos over to the blog. I had to keep reminding myself the finished product will be so worth the pain and agony now.

Weekend 2 Day 1

A lot of information to digest. The blogger and wiki page was interesting. The excel page was great stuff!! At least I will come away from class knowing how to set one up w/o major frustration. I feel confident about excel now. Now I need to create a few so it will remain in my brain.

Wild About WIKI

I’m glad that we discussed the ISTE standards today. Unfortunately, I didn’t know they existed! The Excel information was great, just a bit overwhelming. I ordered the Excel Learning Lessons from the Video Professor. FYI: If you order these lessons, watch out because they’ll send you $189.00 worth of lessons and you’ll have to return them ASAP if you don’t want to pay for them. BUT, you do get to keep the free lesson you ask for! I better take some time with that before people actually call me “principal”. I see deep value in knowing how to use Excel. I really liked learning about Wiki pages and making a blog, but these things take a lot of time to make, and look professional. Hmmmm I’ve seen my principal reading the paper in the mornings, I guess I’ll have time once I pass my Type 75. Right???

Weekend 2

Learning about the blog and Wiki has been a great experience. I have not used a blog in the past, but I can see some good uses for it. It would be an easy way to post my homework assignments online. That way students and parents can check the daily homework if they forget. There are still so many things to learn about excel. Being able to apply the formulas over a chart like the salary schedule is very useful in a number of different situations. I still have more to learn and will continue to look for ways to use it in my personal and professional life. There is so much available to put into the blog and wiki, it is hard to know where to start. Does anyone use these for their classrooms? If so, how?

Day 3

This day was very revealing. Never before in my graduate studies has a weekend academy course flown by so quickly. From the wonders of Excel to the ins and outs of the Blog and Wiki pages, I feel like I have learned so much more in this class than I have in any other class I have taken (and this is my last one in the program). I love the practical application, and I love that we are creating, doing, and manipulating things during the whole class period - that is the best way I learn and certainly so many of my students, having grown up in the "digital age." I feel so mentally exhausted, yet confident that I can at least seem to appear one step ahead of my students, technology-wise!

Weekend 2: Saturday, March 28

Today was great! I am so glad we went through excel formulas step by step! This will be very helpful for us all! I am very excited about the blog! My students are going to be very excited about this and I think this is an excellent way to reach our students academically in a way that they love....technology!

Blogging Away 3/28/09

I loved learning about blogs and wikis. What a great way to engage students in meaningful conversation and activities that are technologically and academically relevant. Standard #3 of the ISTE technology standards for teachers, focused on teachers modeling digital-age work and learning. Blogs and wikis seem like effective ways to accomplish the standards while engaging students in learning. The only problem I have is that our CIPA filter at school currently blocks blogs. However, after seeing the many benefits of these technological tools in education, I hope to be able to persuade our tech director to not only allow students access to my blogs, but also provide professional development for other teachers to develop educational blogs and wikis.

In class work

Thanks for the opportunity to work on these projects in class. We have had many inservices in our district but not enough time is given to explore and create projects such as a blog, podcast, etc. I am learning a lot!

Saturday #2

I thought the time spent on the spreadsheet really helped. As I mentioned before, I have not done spreadsheets since 1991. I actually have not done much math either so I really appreciate a spreadsheet. I could spend a lot more time setting up my blog. There are a lot more options to personalizing a blog than I realized. I don't understand how to really set up my wiki page. I thought the blog was much easier.

Analysis

I have been working on my school analysis assignment and I can see how this could be a beneficial tool in many ways for a school. It can show that there are patterns in school districts that are similar but also it can help re flag something that stands out in regards to your own school. When trying to make a point to the school board it could be helpful.

EDL 518 Saturday March 28

I really enjoyed working with the Wiki and Blog pages. I also learned a lot more about Excel spreadsheets. When I used Excel for negotiations a couple of years ago it already had the formulas in there and I just had to change the percentages!! Now I can do them on my own! I feel so much smarter!! :)

Day 2

I enjoyed the hands on activities of Day 2. How easy is comparing schools on IIRC! I didn't know that you could do that and am very happy to have learned. It is much easier than printing off the info from all the schools you're comparing and laying it out!

I do have one question...what does EAV stand for? I think I missed that in class. I know we talked about the importance of it, but I didn't catch what it stood for. I thought it was similar to instructional expenditure, but obviously I was way off.

Excel Refresher

It was really nice to be able to work on Excel in class. I have done a lot with Excel (the 2003 version) but I just bought a new laptop that came with MS Office 2007. The look is completely different and getting use to it is going to take a little time. I'm glad we got to play with it. Although, when I went back to work on Monday, I couldn't find a thing on the 2003 version! I felt silly asking for help from my TA who I always helped in the past.

Copyright and Fair Use Guidelines

One of the most interesting things I learned from Saturday was the copyright and fair use guidelines for teachers. I use a lot of powerpoints when I teach, especially for my social studies class. In making these powerpoints, I will often do a google image search to find pictures to put on them. I had always wondered if this violated any copyright laws. I suppose I could have looked it up, but I preferred to be ignorant. That way, I had an excuse just in case it turned out I was breaking copyright laws. Since I'm using the powerpoints for face-to-face instruction and am certainly not making any money off of them, it appears as if I'm safe. I found all the information regarding copyright and fair use guidelines to be interesting and relevant to my classroom.

Excel

I use excel a lot. I use it to make schedules and keep track of scores. I have my students make budgets using excel. Despite my prior knowledge of excel, I still learned a lot of new information about it on Sunday. The best part about learning the new information is that it is both relevant to me now as a teacher and in the future as an administrator. Excel can be used to track student achievement data. I liked the example given of excel being used to show teachers that low-income students are capable of high achievement. As an administrator, I would use excel to look for trends in achievement data.

EDL 518 Weekend 1

I was impressed with the IIRC website. I don't have much experience using it, but it seems like they have made a number of additions to it, even since last summer. I don't remember the site having so many graphs or data options. Maybe I didn't pay close enough attention. This weekend was the first time I have used the Compare Schools feature...extremely useful in helping to understand your own school's data and exploring all possible reasons for certain trends.

2

I enjoyed day 2 a bit more than day 1 & I'll blame it on the "hands on" activities. The excel information is very useful (most of which I was not familiar with). I am suspicious that we may have just scratched the surface of what excel can do. The IIRC information is important and I continue to learn how to decipher it. Dr. Closen's "Rule #1 of technology - don't expect things to go right" holds true more times than not at our school, but we are working on it ;-)

And, my fingers are crossed that Dr. Closen doesn't use anymore of my videos...

Day 2

It was nice to actually get an explanation on how to use some of the many features that are present on Excel. I have always been introduced to Excel with a figure it out on your own introduction, but during class today I was able to get a step-by-step explanation of the features. It was nice to have some hands-on activities in class because it makes the class go by more quickly.

EXCELlent

I have always hated working with excel, but was amazed how useful it can be to analyze information. The window pane and split screen feature were especially helpful when trying to compare the large groups of data. I can also see how the data could effectively used to identify areas of need within a school or grade level. The random numbers were transformed into meaningful statistics with just a few clicks. One thing I know I need to remember though is to sort the whole data field not just the column I want the data sorted by. I made that mistake while trying to first sort the measurement column, but was able to recognize my mistake when none of the names changed in order with the numbers. I am really enjoying learning how to use programs in ways that are already applicable to my job.

EDL 518- Second Day

Loved the excel presentation. I like that Dr. Closen literally went step by step during the whole conditional formatting process. Not only did he verbally say what we had to do, but for me the visual learner he had it up on the big screen to show us exactly what we had to do. The visual helped me understand the concept some much easier. I have put together some minor spreadsheet, but still learned so much from today's class. I think learning how to freeze panes was one of the most helpful part of the program. I know everything I learned today will only help me in the future. Only hoping I gained a little more confidence so I won't need to call my ex-husband and brother-in-law when putting together excel spreadsheets. Don't worry they love it when I call!!! :))

Sunday, March 15

I thought today's class was great! I see the administrators at my school doing a lot with excel and I am starting to feel more and more comfortable with it. There is so much data that we work with at my school and knowing how to sort it will make my job so much easier and more productive!

More software fun!

I love working with excel. I considered myself good in working with excel, but not an expert. With the new knowledge I learned today, I am closer to being an expert on it. Last summer, I entered my school’s ISAT data in my own spreadsheet to analyze it. This summer, I will be looking for a disk that already has the data in it! The conditional formatting and the freeze pane commands will be some great new tools that I can use this summer to analyze our ISAT data. See you next class!

Excel day 2

I am gald that we are "walking through" this. I have not had an opportunity to really work on Excel for a few years. I know this will be very helpful in my school. These types of activities are the things that the teachers need to do for inservice. Look forward to the next weekend.

EDL 518 first Class

I toook me 3 log ins to get in but with help I did it.
I find this class very informative, I wish I would have had this at the beginning of the program.
I was enlightened by the Copyright information. The information is very useful to know. I plan to share this information with others in my school.

Sunday Weekend 1

I was really pleased with the excel activities. My district is all about using excel spreadsheets to track data and then create cool graphs to post in classrooms. Although I'm not in a classroom, and therefore haven't been trained, I'm still expected to utilize/manipulate data via excel. This has been most helpful and has given me some confidence to just mess around with the program and see what else I can make it do.

Excel, IIRC, and Tablet PCs

It is almost overwhelming, when considering what Excel can do. I mean... I don't even want to image what else there is that we have yet to discover. The people that create that stuff are like Jedi.

The IIRC is just fantastic. The way that data can be compared is what makes it worthwhile for me. I think it can also be used as a great tool to prepare for job searching and especially interviewing. I mean think about it... what school district could resist a candidate that cared enough to do some good research and look at some data.

Tablet PCs... I want one. It is like a SMARTboard and a laptop put together. The possibilities seem endless.

1st Sunday

I learned a great deal today in class. I was amazed at how easy it can be to use Exel. At the beginning of the year, our principal gave us a hard copy of our test scores and we had to go through with markers and highlight the different areas. How easy would this be with Excel!! I look forward to sharing this with my fellow teachers. The other lesson I really enjoyed was researching my school on IIRC. When I took my new job this year, I went to IIRC and researched the demographics and test scores. I was blown away at how the school that had offered me a job had a 91% low income but test scores near 92% meets and exceeds. However, this is as far as I had ever gone with IIRC. It definitely has a weatlth of information on it. Great tool for educators and future administrators. I came away from clas this weekend with a lot of new and interesting technology ideas.

EDL 518 March 15

Not that this photo has anything to do with what we did in class today, but it looks peaceful and serene!! Anyhoot, the team I am on in 6th has spent a lot of time analyzing the data at our grade level. I found this to be very useful when I construct my lessons in Reading. I have used Excel, but have learned a lot more from today's class. I also appreciate the articles we receive and talk about in class as well!

Excel & IIRC

I am amazed at what you can do with Excel. Although I had been using Excel for many years I didn't realize how much you can do with it. Amazing! The value of color-coding criteria for future reference will save time and frustration. I also like the idea of comparing schools. This too will be valuable when writing grants and presenting information to the board.

Weekend 1 Sunday

Wow, I came away from class full of knowledge on Excel. I am excited to keep on learning more about technology. Coming into class, my knowledge on technology was very limited. My true test if I retained anything from today will be the assignment that are due March 25th. Also the terminology I picked up over the weekend was an eye opener. Sexting, happy slapping are terms I never heard of before this weekend. I am looking forward to future classes so I can learn more about excel and other technology based information.

I am a novice when it comes to excel so the work we did this morning using the program was very helpful. This program will obviously be very useful to me when I become an administrator for testing data, budgeting, etc. The Taylor Mall clip was comical. Thanks for sharing!

A Lot to Discover in Excel

Todays information on Excel data analysis and application was helpful. There are an array of uses out there for Excel spreadsheets that are useful for administrators. I have a long way to go before I can say that I am proficient in Excel application. Finding the time to get out there and explore all the functions takes time. For myself, if I am not actively using the knowlege I am gaining, I will lose the ability to remember all the functions of the program. I would be happy to navigate my way around this technology to increase by personal abilities. I do not like that I have to constantly ask others for help. The social media terminology handout had some vocabulary that I had not heard of before. I think I will have to classify myself as a Digital Immigrant or maybe a Digital Idiot, but I am trying to learn.

Day 2 - Excel

I felt pretty comfortable using the excel program. I use it to document data and to make charts for my classroom. I also use it to keep track of times, distances, and other information for the track team. What I learned today will help me read and do comparisons more efficiently for both my classroom and the track team. Learning how to freeze the frames will be very beneficial. Also, it will help me to highlight and format my discipline chart I have created within the classroom. Furthermore, I will be able to use these skills to help me look at ISAT material much closer. As I further understand what excel can do for me, I feel it will definitely benefit me when I become a principal, especially when using it to show the teachers some of the trends or areas that will need to be addressed. The more I use excel, the more comfortable I will feel using the program to look at data other than ISAT scores.

One area of the IIRC website I feel is going to be extremely useful is the trends data. I like that I can track a certain group of students to see how they have done on the ISAT test as they went through each grade.

Excel work

I was told by people I respect that excel is one of Microsoft's best efforts in terms of software with useful applications. Until today, I didn't realize just how much excel can do. I thought I knew a lot of excel applications - but that was not the case. I have doubled my excel abilities today - THANK YOU!!!

Valuable Information

I am so keyed up to learn material that I know I will use in my career! Confession: I was dreading the Excel activities. After manipulating a spreadsheet while working together, the idea of actually taking time to learn more wasn’t as frightening! (During break I paid my $6.95 for S/H to the Video Professor!) I’ve had experience with the IIRC web site but didn’t utilize all its “bells and whistles”. I hope that the assignment will help me dive a bit deeper into its full capabilities. Utilizing the IIRC web site to examine potential job openings is a very good idea. I feel that it is important to interview a school district, prior to them interviewing you!

Creason Day 2

I thought the work on Excel was very helpful. I literally have not done anything on a spreadsheet since my freshman year of high school. In 1991 the spreadsheet I worked on was vastly different. Or, it was the same. It was so long ago I don't remember. I do know that I have had a hard time doing any spreadsheet assignments in other classes in this program.
I thought exploring the IIRC website was very helpful. This website is mentioned all of the time in my other classes but this is really the first time I've been in a class that has spent some extensive time analyzing the site.

Tech Day 2

I can see where the EXCEL spreadsheets can be useful in sharing & analyzing data with staff. Thanks for showing the steps to formatting conditions. For those visual people, EXCEL gives you the capability to create a variety of charts from these conditions. I really like using this program. The iirc is an amazing tool, also!

EDL 518 - 1st day

I have to admit, I learned a lot about what I can copy and what I can't. I was surprised about the percent of song usage that is legal. So many violations. I also found it interesting at how many schools are at the same level of Grappling's Spectrum as Logan. Although many of our newer teachers are further on the spectrum due to their experiences with technology in general, most of our teachers are stuck in a comfort zone of just doing enough to get things done...gradebook, attendance, etc. I love the challenge, therefore find myself experimenting with things I know nothing about:)

Day 1 - Technology Plan

I was amazed, when looking at Geneseo's Technology Plan, how much information was in the plan. It was very in-depth and very specific. There was a lot of important data, but it was easy to read. The Geneseo Plan followed the monitoring form exactly. Dr. Closen mentioned how it was important to bold categories and key words. Geneseo did exactly that. In our groups, we were going through the monitoring form and Geneseo's tech plan. We were able to go through and follow along very easily. The plan covered everything in order and it was easy to see how well Geneseo put together their tech plan. When I think about my districts tech plan, there is a lot of work to do for it to give the information related to the monitoring form. It does not have any data. It is more of a user form with some parts related to a technology plan. It will be interesting to see what kind of changes will be made to my districts tech plan over the next year or two.

Weekend One - Saturday

Wow... after finishing EDL 571 last October (... or maybe it was September), it has been a while since I have been in a class. My time has been spent on my administrative internship. While that is an entire series of blogs all in itself (which I am sure that you are all keen to read), I will devote this blog to my first day of EDL 518.First of all, let me state how great it is to have Dr. Closen again. He teaches a pretty mean 522, which, if you haven't had it yet, I highly recommend it... well, it's also required for certification so... there's that too! White shirt, coat, tie, golf, and Star Trek aside, I find Dr. Closen's methods of teaching very effective, his assignments meaningful, and his feedback constructive. No, Dr. Closen, I am not brown-nosing, I have just had a few bad experiences with faculty members who were not... you know what, let me stop here while I'm ahead.About the first meeting of class: it was eye-opening already. The activity where we classified technological terms on the "visibility" continuum was very effective in that I believe each of us learned a few new terms that I think is important for each of us to know. From "Happy Slapping" to "Frenemies" to "Sexting," these are things that we all need to be cognoscente of as many of our students are more adept at utilizing technology than we are. It is almost scary.

Go Cubs Go!- Scott

Weekend 1 - Technology Plans

I find it very interesting that in Illinois they are required to have these elaborate technology plans and in Iowa my technology guru says we don't have a plan and don't need one. I understand his point that technology should be incorporated into our everyday lives but I also know in reality it isn't. At least not in my school. I think there should be a happy medium. Somewhere in between a multiple, difficult to read document and no document at all. I think the video raised a good point. Our kids are using all kinds of technology so lets use it to benefit them.

Weekend 1 - Copyrights

I think one thing that I found most interesting (or probably most scary) is the possible copyright violations that are occurring in our schools. I think of the things we have done in groups as a counselor and am sure that I have violated a copyright many times. It is a bit reassuring to know that it usually isn't a legal problem but still concerns me. I hope that I have a clearer understanding now and am in a better position to follow the law. I am sure there will still be issues but as a potential administrator I hope that I have found one area where I can eliminate potential problems.

1st day

I thought it was interesting and scary that teachers could get in trouble for watching a movie in class. In our school we watch movies as a reward for any students that reach certain expectations. When I was watching the gorilla movie, I didn't notice that the gorilla was actually in the movie, but I did notice something walking across the screen. I didn't pay any attention to what it was exactly, but you would think a gorilla would stand out to me.

Tech Plans

Saturday, March 14, 2009

Tech Plans
I didn't know that Illinois e-Plan Technology Plans existed and were required to be in place by school districts. I am glad to see there is a standard template for creating them. They appear to be long and repetitious but I can see the validity and need for having them. Summary and analysis is necessary for creating focus and goals for a school district and the people working within it. The information on copyright laws was interesting but confusing to sort it all out.
Posted by Lisa at 8:42 PM 0 comments

Weekend 1- Saturday

All of the copyright laws and procedures that are in place for schools really opened my eyes! Also, I thought it was good for us to go through the technology plans. It wasn't until this activity that I realized how much was actually included and the time and work it must have taken to put one together. It makes me question how many teachers are aware of the technology plan that is in place within their school/district.

EDL 518 3-14

I have to admit, I had A LOT of ahh-haa moments in class!! #1 - the gorilla??? Sheeze, I know that I can become focused, but to miss that?!?!?!?! #2 - I didn't realize that I have been illegally showing documentaries in my classroom!!!! I guess it seems like an oxymoron to me that we should be educating our children, and the easiest way it seems is with technology, but we are limited by what we can "leagally" copy, show, distribute!! I suppose I could feign ignorance, but will that work?!?!

1st Day

new for me on saturday - i learned that Dr. Closen is a Trekie (sp?)... now when i listen to music i think how much 10% of that song would be so i could use it legally... when i got home i started looking for the longest songs i had - iron butterfly's inagoddavida (17:05 - that's 102.5  seconds worth of legal use!)... i'm looking forward to sunday's class.

Who knew...

I was fascinated by the Copyright laws PowerPoint shown in class today. I never knew I had unwittingly broken so many (and no I didn't put Mavis Beacon on 30 computers). With technology growing as quickly as it is, I wonder how long it will take for these laws to completely catch up. It's scary to know something I create for class or for the school can be used without my approval or that I might inadvertenly use someone elses.

First Day in EDL 518

Today I learned about copyrights and trademarks. I really didn't understand some of the legal ramifications of having technology in the classroom. Yikes....I learned I have been guilty of some minor technology infractions. I learned I need permission or am allowed to use less than 10% and still be okay. It seems everything you do today there is always the possibility of some legal action. Also I was shocked after completing the gorilla exercise I was unable to see a big gorilla jumping around the screen. Ugh....

Learn something new everyday

I had an ah-ha moment when discussing the material relating to copyrights and fair use policies. This stems from a conversation I had with our district technology person. He said that he had a new program on the server to create web pages and had it setup so that three people at a time could use it. Today, I realized he must have said three because that was the number of programs or site licenses that he purchased. I found our discussions today enlightening. I had previously thought that any use of copyrighted material such as music was unacceptable. I am looking forward to tomorrow and Excel! See everyone then!

Copyright

Today I learned a lot of information that I didn't know about copyright laws. For instance, I didn't know that you could only use 10% of a song in digital media, if you haven't gotten permission. I also learned how tedious a task of peer reviewing technology plans is!

showing movies

I was blown away at the fact that districts can find themselves in trouble when showing movies. This has been an activity I remember from my days as a student, and find myself doing now as a teacher. In fact, just last Friday our 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders watched movies in celebration to the end of ISATS! I never imagined that this innocent reward to cause issues for the district. The other issue that surprised me is the 10% rule for showing clips and adding music. I never imagined the amount one was able to use was so little. I guess I have been quite illegal in my use of music and my showing of movies.

Saturday Reflection

I found out today that I have been doing some illegal things by using music and videos when I attached them to my powerpoints. Twenty seconds is the time limit to do this. Also I learned how to blog properly without violating someone else. Rick

March 14 Class

I learned a great deal today regarding media do's and don'ts. I found the quizes very helpful. The assignment we did in class about our technology plans was also very helpful. What we have in my district is not nearly as indepth as other districts. This could be something I could work on during my internship.

Creason Day 1

I learned that almost everything a teacher does in his or her classroom could be seen as a violation of a copyright law. In United States history I show lots of films that help provide visual representation of the material we have covered. I did not realize that this might be a violation of a copyright law. Our entire department has its own "video cabinet." It appears this cabinet is full of copyright violations.

Seeing the Gorilla!

I would really like to find the statistics about the gorilla video. I think teachers need be aware that today’s students take in information differently. I thought the video provided a good discussion about how students learn. I would be interested in a similar video or study that demonstrates the effectives of teachers using strategies that require students to do multiple tasks at once while measuring student retention of information. It would be especially fun if it included a Gorilla Suit again.

SandersT-first day comment

I did find out that copy right violation is confusing and also rampant. I've violated it as have most of my colleagues. In addition to the copyright stuff, I have used more new technology today in creating my gmail, blog, and wiki accounts than I have for the past year. It was a productive day---

Copyright/Trademark fun....

WOW - Who knew about what is OK to use, what is not OK to use...I just hope Disney does not get upset with me if I ever use their stuff, my kids love to go to their parks. I do not want to be banned.

Our class comfort zone was stretched a little with all the issues we have had trying to get us all signed up and running. Just think if we were all 13 - we would have been done 30 minutes ago.

Looking forward to getting into the report cards and EXCEL tomorrow.

MK:Technology Day 1

Interesting conversation on the copyright law and fair use policy. I'm guessing that many of us have violated these laws/policies during our teaching career. I understand now why principal's do not like "reward videos" - besides the waste of teaching time - we could be breaking the law.

3 1/2 Drive to Class!

After finally getting to class after driving to the Macomb campus…. I was excited to learn something new! I found it interesting to learn about Bill Dagget and his ideas on how children learn differently. I agree that children are rewired for a new millennium. I really enjoyed the video suggesting that teachers “rewire” their teaching styles for their students! Great idea! I also liked knowing where Tech Plans came from. I helped write ours and I kept thinking that nobody will be reading this and it was a waste of time….guess not.