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Aug/10

12

5 Steps to Digitizing Your Writing Workshop

0 Comments | Posted by jmguhlin in Teaching and Learning

Creative Commons Copyright ShareAlike-NonCommercial-Attribution 2010 Miguel Guhlin

“If you can write what people will read by choice,” shares Vicki Spandel, author of Six Traits Writing, “the world is your’s” (Source: http://bit.ly/bRwHIs). Over 70 million bloggers experience the truth of this statement daily. If their writing fails to engage, no one reads their work. Yet other bloggers experience that the world is their’s every time they publish a piece online.  As human beings writing about our passions, many of us have a deep desire to be heard and recognized…in the past, the experience required the rigamarole of having an editor read your work. Now, like everything else, the Internet enables us to skip the intermediaries and go straight to the audience. Of course, if what you write doesn’t sparkle in the eye of your readers, you will lack for readers.

Expecting students to write in our classrooms for hit-or-miss praise is criminal. Their nimble fingers can text an entire piece of writing via their mobile device to a relevant audience online at the same time they publish to a worldwide network. For them, the pay is in the joy of publication, in the act of making their work known, and of partaking of the work of others.
Gretchen Bernabei, speaking to a teacher audience participating at a 2010 Summer Writing Academy, shares the following observation:

If students leave the writing workshop feeling famous, then I have done my job right. Sharing your writing, being enlarged by others’ writing is what makes you feel famous.
Source: Gretchen Bernabei, 2010 Summer Writing Academy, San Antonio ISD, San Antonio, Texas
As a writing workshop facilitator, you have a multitude of online spaces where students can publish their writing for the world to see. Those include school district or teacher-managed blogs, wikis, Moodle-based virtual classrooms, external web sites such as Kidpub.com and many others.  Check Sidebar 1: Student Publishing Online for a partial listing.
In 2008, my daughter, Rosalie, published her writing online via Kidpub.com.  Only 14 years old at the time, she had access to a multitude of publishing choices. She did not publish in print until 2010 via Lulu.com, one of many web sites that allow you to publish your own book. She became famous in her small circle of friends and family, having shared her work online and, later, in print. At no time did she share her work with a teacher, and had published 18 chapters of her writing (a total of 50 pages) online before her parents found out. Another pair of children–home-schooled in a log cabin in Tennessee using an old laptop computer with MS Paint and Moviemaker–converted the first 3 chapters into videos shared on YouTube.com. The parents of the children had no idea their children had done this until after the first two videos had been created.
While publishing student writing online fundamentally hooks students as writers, as teachers, we can take advantage of available tools to make our jobs easier. Just as our students have new digital tools, so do we as their teachers.
This article is about 5 steps you can take, as a writing teacher, to digitize your writing workshop. There are many more, though, so “stay tuned” for future articles!
  1. Embrace open web tools
  2. Focus on the Facilitator
  3. Create an Online Writing Space
  4. Facilitate Online Conversations about Student Writing
  5. Offer feedback in audio or video, rather than written, format

Please recall that digital citizenship–including cybersafety–principles must be kept in mind. Also be sure to adhere to your school district’s responsible/acceptable use policy.

#1 – EMBRACE OPEN WEB TOOLS
“My son has dysgraphia and dyslexia,” pointed out a teacher in a summer writing academy, “His school never met his needs, putting him on skill-n-drill software.” In contrast, another mother and teacher shared, “My child learned to use a computer in third grade and has used it since then…he’s fifteen years old now.” The red-haired teacher pauses for a moment. “He’s now out of Special Education and in Gifted Talented Program.


“Computer software now allows young children to write and illustrate their own stories before their fine motor skills are developed enough to allow them to do so by hand” (Source: National School Boards Association, http://bit.ly/9Cwbz9). Student writers can publish their work, not only in print, but in a variety of media. Text, audio, and images combine when students use blogs, wikis, podcasts and digital storytelling. Students may find it easier to collaborate on a piece of writing when using collaborative word processors. Neither teachers or students can afford to ignore freely available technologies. These digital tools on the “open web” allow you to create a variety of media, much of which begin with text. Some of my favorites include the ones listed online at http://bit.ly/digitizethismedia.
Within this context of writers with its focus on the recursive, writing process, a wide variety of technology tools are available. Note that writing can find expression in a variety of media formats, as well as be developed singly or in collaboration with others. Take advantage of over 20 digital tools for students (Sidebar #2 – Digital Tools for Students). Learning to use open web tools–like social bookmarking site Diigo.com which allows students to annotate web sites, make notes and keeps it all in one location–eliminate the “Oh, I left my writing journal at home/work and now I’m stuck.” You can easily transition from notes and highlights kept in Diigo.com social bookmarking tool to a written piece that appropriately cites content. Check Sidebar #3 for Electronic Citation Resources.
#2 – FOCUS ON THE FACILITATOR
Our job as writing workshop facilitators can be pretty harrowing. Even a paper-centric writing workshop involves juggling colored sheets to create books, setting up writing centers, helping students deal with the daily struggle of journals and journal responses, and, crafting mini-lessons that engage and endure. The focus is always on student writing. As workshop facilitator, you can work to find the answer to the question, “How can technologies we now have make the HOW of writing workshop easier for the teacher?”
One possibility is to reflect on the teacher’s role in the writing workshop, and the technology available to organize the writing workshop. The work Diana Benner and I focused on centered around writing workshop components, including the following: 1) The Mini-Lesson; 2) The Status of the Class; 3) Write/Confer; and 4) Group Share. There are many more components and activities, but these present a starting point. Consider taking just one of these–such as the mini-lesson–and building an online writing space that allows you to share and archive your mini-lessons. Here are some simple ways you can use available free technology online:
  1. Create a Self-Editing checklist that is actually a GoogleForm or the Questionnaire Module in Moodle so you can quickly see class progress in graphs. Students complete this information via a web-based form that allows you to quantitatively track progress in class.
  2. Create a bank of online mini-lessons that students can watch and listen to again and again in an archive. Build that in your GoogleSites Wiki or Moodle.
  3. Facilitate sharing using recording tools in a discussion forum or Sites wiki. When doing the Group Share during a Writing Workshop, you can either play the students’ presentation of the audio (which they recorded when they were ready) or record the feedback students get so that it can be added to the written piece/recording shared. That way, students can come back and reflect on the advice provided by their peers.
While some of the ideas above are elaborated in this article, consider how technology, rather than complicating your life, can make it easier for you and your students over the long run of a writing workshop, eliminating the constant paper chase.
#3 – CREATE AN ONLINE WRITING SPACE
Often, writing folders serve as the central repository in a classroom in the throes of a writing workshop. As a writing workshop facilitator, my efforts involved storage of students’ writing folders in crates and/or file cabinet, depending on what was available. All writing resided on pieces of paper. Specific areas of writing workshop can be moved online. If your students are publishing online–whether via a blog, wiki, collaborative word processor, Moodle forum–then an online space to bring all the artifacts together is critical. A staple of the mini-lesson includes the mini-lesson.


“In the mini-lesson,” my mentor teacher explained to me, “someone–usually the teacher, but it can be a student or a guest speaker–introduces a new concept to writers. The mini-lesson, lasting 10-20 minutes, can also be focused on meeting the needs identified in students’ writing. The mini-lesson facilitator models the approach introduced, writing alongside the students.” Using a Moodle or wiki, you can create a reference point that can house your mini-lesson content, including audio and/or video recordings. Moodle allows you to group content around topics, or week of study.

Several solutions are available to the problem of creating an online writing space, such as:
    • Blogger.com
    • Edublogs.org
    • Moodle’s built-in blog and/or wiki components
Once you know where you are going to put your writing workshop content–where you can share anything, everything you and your students will need for writing workshop–decide what format you will put that information online in. Here are three types of tools–with specific suggestions–that you can use:
  1. Create Digital Content viewable by Students using Digital Storytelling Tools
    • MS Photostory (Windows only) – Enables teacher to create an enhanced podcast–pictures and sound–about the MiniLesson content.
    • ShowBeyond.com – Enables teachers to create an enhanced podcast about the MiniLesson content.
    • VoiceThread.com – Enables teachers to create an enhanced podcast about the MiniLesson content, but also allow students to contribute audio, text, or video content as comments. This enables many to many interactions.
  2. Create an electronic slideshow using Online Presentation Tools – Teachers can create presentations and make them easily accessible online, embedding the code of the presentation. This relieves students from the requirement of having MS Office installed on their computers.
    • GoogleDocs Presentation Tool – Enables teachers to create a slideshow that students can participate in chat, as well as contribute slides to.
    • ZohoShow.com – Enables easy uploading of your Powerpoint presentation.
  3. Share your MS Office/OpenOffice created documents as PDFs.
    • Scribd.com – Allows you to print up a long document as a PDF and place it online for easy viewing on-screen. No downloading (getting) of large Word documents. Instead, you simply paste “embed code” that allows you to directly include content on a web page you have created. Students simply view the content online.
  4. Add audio introductions to writing workshop mini-lessons:
    1. Audioboo.com – This allows you to use your mobile phone to record and share audio content. You call it in and the content appears magically online and accessible for students to access.
    2. Drop.io – This is another phenomenal, easy to use tool that you can use with your students to collect feedback on a piece of writing (audio or text) in one place. Setup is free.
#4 – FACILITATE ONLINE CONVERSATIONS ABOUT THE WRITING
“Eddie, if you write about parts of yourself, I bet your reader will have some of those parts, too. I guess that’s a small answer to the big question you asked.” In this excerpt from Louis Borden’s book, The Day Eddie met the Author, we read the tale of Eddie, a third grader. Eddie who, when his favorite author visits, finds that he is not able to ask his question of the author. Fortunately, the author sees him and reads the yellow paper where Eddie had written his question. You may intuit the question from the answer the author gave Eddie.


When I first started facilitating writing workshops, one of the best sources of insights for students came from the students themselves. Facilitating large group share provides students a place for them to find out what others think of their ideas. That said, students tend to focus on different aspects of a person’s writing. Each of us, while listening to a writer, may find that the writing connects with a part of us.
As wonderful as a writing workshop teacher may be, s/he cannot offer the feedback that ALL students may need. However, online discussion forums through Moodle, attached to wikis, or with blog postings and comments CAN facilitate student to student interaction independent of the teacher. While many fear these kinds of interactions, in online learning, these interactions make or break an online course…or a face to face one. Moodle allows teachers to create a rich, safe environment with ample “brain food” for learners.


Collaborative word processors can also serve as a way for students in groups to interact with ONE text online. Imagine having a piece that needs editing. Paste the text of that piece into a collaborative word processor, then engage in group “ratiocination.” Ratiocination, a term encountered in an article by Joyce Armstrong Carroll, involves using codes that symbolize specific modifications that can be made to a text. Students can learn to decode clues, as Carroll (Source: Acts of Teaching, http://amzn.to/9I0NAs) says, and “figure out words and meanings to solve the mystery of their written drafts.”


For example, some common clues include circling all “to be” verbs, making a wavy line under repeated words, etc. Some of this work–with adjustment from the paper to electronic codes for clues–can be done in a collaborative word processor.


In a classroom using a collaborative word processor, assign different groups of students different clues to code and then turning them loose on a writing assignment. The written piece undergoes a virtual transformation online in full view of the students. This modeling of the approach can then be repeated with students’ own writing with a peer.


Educator “Mr. Warner” shares that learning conversation about writing can also involve offline work that finds expression online. He writes:


“In just over twenty minutes, the Class had gathered nearly 80 different ideas / persuasive phrases for use in our future lessons. These documents were on display on our interactive whiteboard, so we could see what everyone in the class was doing as the lesson progressed. They are also stored online, allowing us to access them during our future lessons.”
(Source: Etherpad in the Classroom Blog, http://www.mrwarner.com/2009/03/etherpad-in-the-classroom, Available: April, 2010 now offline).


In addition to posting written texts and commenting, you can also add audio or video.


#5 – OFFER WRITING FEEDBACK IN A VARIETY OF MEDIA FORMATS

Shelly Blake-Pollock, the teacher and author of the TeachPaperless blog (http://teachpaperless.blogspot.com), encourages his students to publish online. Beyond that step, though, he offers feedback on their writing online as well via screencasts, or video recording of his computer screen. Screencasts, or “JingCrits,” that he creates are short, less than 5-minute video clips where he highlights student work on screen and offers feedback (View an example - http://bit.ly/bsgVQQ).

Blake-Pollock sends each student a link to their own feedback. The response, Shelly says, has been positive:

So far, the reaction to Jing comments has been overwhelmingly in favor. In fact, both students and parents have been pushing me to produce as many JingCrits as my time allows.
This kind of feedback can connect with auditory learners who may prefer to get their feedback in another format besides cryptic comments on a post-it attached to their piece of writing. The teacher reviews student writing online, offering specific feedback, recording the feedback as a video recording. The teacher reports taking only 5-8 minutes to record feedback that would normally take 20 or more minutes to write out as feedback.

JingCrits get their name from The Jing Project, a free screen-recording tool available at http://jingproject.com that enables you to post videos online. Using screen-recording tools to offer feedback–whether from teacher to student, student to teacher, student to student–can offer tremendous benefits to students. This kind of video/audio feedback contribute to the demise of one writing myth–”it takes longer to grade writing.” As Shelly’s JingCrit demonstrates, writing workshop facilitators can grade for discrete skills. The focus on the lead of a paper is helpful.
Writing Workshop facilitators may be familiar with the Carroll/Wilson Analystic Scale for Classroom Use. The scale enables teachers to assess quickly and effectively what they have taught their students. Developed collaboratively with students, the scale embodies intelligent writing assessment. Simply, you only get graded on what you were taught. Imagine having students and teacher develop a Carroll/Wilson Analytic Scale for Classroom Use–centered around what has recently been taught in class–then offering video feedback on a piece of writing using that scale. The video of the Analytic Scale, shared online with students, serves as a perpetual “model” of how to provide feedback.

Shelly has found a quick way to offer feedback his student writers need using screencasting. Some free web-based services that do not require you to install anything on your computer include ScreenToaster.com, ScreenCastle.com, and/or Screencast-o-matic.com. Online tutorials are available for each, but you should be able to get going fairly quickly with 15 minutes of exploration.

If video is not for you, you can also take advantage of digital audio tools. A variety of tools are useful in this category. From inexpensive digital audio recorders, a USB microphone connected to a computer running Audacity audio recording/editing program (free) to online free web-based recording sites like Vocaroo.com and Drop.io, you and your students can easily record audio.
    • Digital Audio Recorder – Teacher can record the mini-lesson and post it on class web site (e.g. blog, wiki). This is an ideal tool for field trips or “on the go” recordings where a mobile phone is not desirable.
    • Vocaroo.com – Students can record a reading of their written piece then email it to the teacher or to other students.
    • Drop.io – This web site allows easy recording of audio, whether by sending a locally recorded audio file on a computer, emailed from a mobile device, or “phoned in.”
    • AudioBoo.com – This web site allows phone recording of content and publishing online.

These are only some of the technology tools available. Be judicious in which tools you decide to infuse into the writing workshop.

CONCLUSION
Remember that the technologies you can use to digitize your writing workshop are easily adaptable to multiple uses. If you find you want to scaffold student writing–or your own teaching of writing–by using tools differently, then do so.  Learning to use new technologies to transform how we approach writing workshop, while a matter of choice for teachers, is a life-skills requirement for our children.

Make the right choice, share back and let me know what you’ve done.

SideBar 1 – Students Publishing Online

  1. Amphitheater List – http://bit.ly/IOq1F – features over 20 web sites where student work can be published online.
  2. Education World article on Encourage Student Writing – http://bit.ly/1IjwJx – Offers additional suggestions.

SideBar 2 – Digital Tools for Students

Stage of the Writing Process Technology Tools Available
Pre-Writing
  1. Storyboarding Documents
  2. Storyboarding Websites
  3. Concept Mapping
  4. Playing with Words
Writing
  1. Digital Storytelling Software
  2. Digital Storytelling Websites
  3. Digital Posters
  4. Comic Strips
  5. Podcasting
    1. AudioBoo
    2. Aviary.com/Tools
    3. Drop.io
Revision
  1. Word Processing
    • Microsoft Word
    • OpenOffice
  2. Collaborative Word Processing
Editing
  1. Word Processing
    • Microsoft Word
    • OpenOffice
  2. Collaborative Word Processing
    • Google Docs
    • iEtherpad.com
    • PrimaryPad.com
Publishing
  1. Digital Storytelling Software
  2. Digital Storytelling Websites

Sidebar #3 – Electronic Citation Resources

· Bibme: This resource creates citations and pulls reference content.
· EasyBib:  Bibliography and citation maker–featuring GoogleDocs integration–for books, newspapers, web sites and more.
· Son of Citation Maker:  David Warlick’s MLA, APA, Chicago, and Turabian citation guide.
· OttoBib:  Enter the ISBN number of a book and it will prepare the citation for you.

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Nov/09

3

Trans-Classroom Teacher

0 Comments | Posted by jmguhlin in OnlineLearning, Teaching and Learning

Interesting article on online teaching and classroom change…here are my highlights:

  • Innovate: Online Teaching and Classroom Change: The Trans-Classroom Teacher in the Age of the Internet
    • Online Teaching and Classroom Change:
      The Trans-Classroom Teacher in the Age of the Internet
    • Is an online course in such-and-such subject more or less effective than a face-to-face course in the same subject?
    • those who teach online leave the familiarity of the face-to-face classroom for the uncharted terrain of the online environment, whose constraints and affordances often lead to very different practices. The trans-classroom teacher who moves between the two environments, transferring ideas, strategies, and practices from one to the other, is a mental migrant. The transformations—of the teacher and of the course—that occur in these migrations and the two-way interactions between face-to-face and online teaching are the focus of this study.
    • most VHS teachers also teach face-to-face courses in their own schools at the same time that they are teaching online, and second, VHS requires that all its teachers prepare for teaching online by taking a demanding professional development course—delivered online—on the pedagogy of online teaching (Pape, Adams, and Ribeiro 2005).
    • As part of their professional development, new VHS teachers either create new courses or, with increasing frequency as the catalogue is built, take ownership of existing courses by adapting them to fit their own knowledge base and teaching styles.
    • VHS professional development emphasizes student-centered teaching; collaborative, problem-based learning; small-group work; and authentic, performance-based assessment.
    • only a third were familiar with the principles of backward design.
    • As teachers adapt their courses for the online environment, they are forced to reexamine the course design, reconsider curriculum strategies, and make many decisions about what to take out and what to keep, what to add and what to substitute.
    • finished courses are the result of intensive reflection and look very different from the courses they have been teaching face-to-face. As one VHS teacher described it, “By developing my course, I have had the opportunity to introspectively analyze what I am teaching, why I teach the way I do, and how I can change and improve my communication with students” (quoted in Pape, Adams, and Ribeiro 2005, 125).
    • kinds of changes that might be expected in the move to an online venue
    • online (Internet-based) readings
    • group projects or assignments
    • adding whole-class discussions
    • debates, and peer reviews
    • respondents required their students to use the discussion forums, and almost all reported that their courses included multiweek projects (98%), collaborative group work (95%), and peer reviews (84%), while 69% reported that they had their students complete multimedia assignments.
    • As teachers migrate to the online environment, they find that a whole host of issues—including teacher-student and student-student communication, the extent and nature of reflection, student accountability, and assessment—must be approached differently than they are in the face-to-face classroom.
    • Teaching the online course led these teachers to develop ways to communicate with students they could not see, to find ways to know if they were meeting their students’ needs, and to assess whether, and what, students had learned.
    • How do teachers teach without personal communication? In the online environment, teachers struggled to work out ways to reach and evaluate students when they could not interact with them face to face on a daily basis
    • How do teachers provide instructions that are clear enough? Online teachers also contended with a slightly different issue in terms of teacher-student communication: how to provide instructions that were sufficiently explicit that students could follow them.
    • How do teachers know when their students are confused? In face-to-face classrooms, teachers know if their students are confused by their questions or by the looks on their faces, but in online courses this type of just-in-time assessment has to be done through text, which presented some challenges
    • How do teachers get all students to participate? These teachers were concerned about making sure that all students participated in the discussions and that student-student communications, particularly in the discussion forums, were meaningful learning experiences
    • How do teachers manage pacing and scaffolding? Some of the respondents were concerned with the loss of flexibility in course organization that was the result of planning an entire course ahead of time (a VHS requirement) so that they could not adapt on a just-in-time basis to the student population. This concern surfaced in their descriptions of their struggles with how to pace the course, how to break it into manageable pieces, how to provide scaffolding, and how to organize groups
    • How do teachers know if students are learning? Many teachers were concerned about how to assess whether their online students had learned what the teachers wanted them to learn
    • 75% of the 158 responding teachers who taught both online and face-to-face reported that teaching online had a positive impact on their face-to-face teaching
    • The most frequent changes (defined as those made by 60% or more the respondents) involved course design or redesign, including eliminating lessons that now seemed poorly designed, designing or redesigning lessons using backward design principles, and adding lessons or units from the online course.
    • The second most frequent set of changes (those made by between 40% and 60% of respondents) involved the transfer of a range of strategies learned from teaching online to the face-to-face classroom, most of which revolved around fostering better communication. These strategies included changing how groups were organized, requiring class contributions from all students, providing more timely feedback, providing more written instructions, using class time more efficiently, and providing additional ways to communicate with students.
    • Those who reported making the most changes taught math, science, social science, and foreign languages, while those teaching computer science or programming reported making the fewest changes. English language arts, art, and art history teachers were in the middle of the ranks of changers (Exhibit 9). It seems possible that the teachers in the first four disciplines made the most changes either because these are particularly difficult subjects to adapt to the online environment and so require a lot of rethinking (math, science, foreign language) or because the online environment opens up the range of resources available (i.e., social science, which was primarily history)
    • four areas were class participation, independent learning, questioning techniques, and metacognition/reflection.
    • In online classes, full participation in discussions can be mandated by requiring a certain number of posts each week or by requiring that students respond to one another’s posts. The teacher can easily monitor the quantity and quality of the participation, including who is participating, when, and how often.
    • To be successful in online courses, students need to be self-motivated, well-organized, independent learners; at the same time, taking online courses can help students develop these characteristics.
    • teaching online led to a subtle but potentially far-reaching shift in their attitudes toward their face-to-face students, as teaching online made them realize that they could require more independent work. This realization was accompanied by a shift to a more learner-centered pedagogy in the face-to-face classroom
    • Questioning Techniques
    • To work well, online discussion forums need thoughtful facilitation, including careful attention to how questions are asked. Teachers wrote about how they imported what they had learned about asking questions into their face-to-face classrooms. They also wrote that they were now more confident using open-ended questions with their students and were less likely to provide answers. Others linked this shift to larger changes in pedagogical approach, including a reduction in the amount of time spent lecturing and a shift to a facilitator role
    • Another affordance of the online environment is the time for thought or reflection allowed by the asynchronous nature of the discussion forum. Although posts can certainly be composed off the cuff, in general the fact that they are written and often graded forces students to think before they write. In addition, well-constructed questions can lead to reflective answers.
    • there is as yet little research on the effect of teaching online on teachers and even less on how teaching online can shape teaching in the face-to-face classroom.
    • the trans-classroom teacher’s migratory journey to and from the online classroom can transform that teacher’s face-to-face classroom practice in subtle and important ways.
    • Can we, and should we, find ways to develop more trans-classroom teachers or to make nascent trans-classroom teachers more so, by encouraging more teachers to teach in both venues and by encouraging online teachers to reflect on the changes they make when teaching online? Can we, and should we, deliberately find ways to encourage the transfer of successful aspects of online pedagogy back to the face-to-face classroom, capitalizing on what these trans-classroom teachers have learned by treating them as resources for their face-to-face classroom counterparts?
    • This research, exploratory though it is, suggests that giving more teachers the opportunity to teach online, as well as deliberately encouraging those who do teach online to share what they have learned with their fellow classroom teachers, provides an opportunity to strengthen teaching in both environments.
    Note: This article was originally published in Innovate (http://www.innovateonline.info/) as: Lowes, S. 2008. Online teaching and classroom change: The trans-classroom teacher in the age of the internet. Innovate 4 (3). http://www.innovateonline.info/index.php?view=article&id=446 (accessed September 27, 2009). The article is reprinted here with permission of the publisher, The Fischler School of Education and Human Services at Nova Southeastern University.

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Nov/09

3

A Model for Learning

0 Comments | Posted by jmguhlin in OnlineLearning, Teaching and Learning

  • Innovate: The Knowledge Building Paradigm: A Model of Learning for Net Generation Students
    • The Knowledge Building Paradigm:
      A Model of Learning for Net Generation Students
    • Recently, I met some middle school students who carry laptops in their backpacks. One boy told me how technology should not be a machine you go to, but a machine that goes with you. He said, somewhat impatiently, “It’s part of my brain. Why would I want to leave it behind in a computer lab?” (xxii)
    • Computers and the attendant technology can no longer be considered desirable adjuncts to education. Instead, they have to be regarded as essential—as thinking prosthetics (Johnson 2001) or mind tools (Jonassen 1996). But, like any other tool, thinking prosthetics must be used properly to be effective.
    • Knowledge Building paradigm, a learning model particularly suited for a social environment in which cognitive prosthetics have become indispensable, as well as for the professional settings these students can expect to confront in their future careers.
    • The Net Generation (N-Gen) is defined as the population of about 90 million young people who have grown up or are growing up in constant contact with digital media (Tapscott 1998)
        • from linear to hypermedia learning,
        • from instruction to construction and discovery,
        • from teacher-centered to learner-centered education,
        • from absorbing material to learning how to navigate and how to learn,
        • from schooling to lifelong learning,
        • from one-size-fits-all to customized learning,
        • from learning as torture to learning as fun, and
        • from the teacher as transmitter to the teacher as facilitator. (142)

        • Tapscott has identified eight shifts caused by interactivity learning:

    • the Knowledge Building paradigm promulgated by Scardamalia and Bereiter (2003). This paradigm, which is based on the manner in which research communities work, takes a sociocultural perspective on human-computer interactions, seeks to virtualize the process of education in keeping with new trends in the technological circulation of knowledge, and privileges a less hierarchical model of learning based on flexible organizations of small teams.
    • Our intelligence is distributed over the tools we use (diSessa 2000; Hutchins 1995).
    • “It is a truism that we cannot know what the task is until we know what the tools are” (114). Computers are a particular sort of tool known as cognitive prosthetics; they augment human intelligence, freeing humans to do what humans do well.
    • tools often become invisible as we come to accept that they are part of our normal environment. As a result, we tend to see any intelligence in them as part of the person, not the object (Pea 1993). However, human cognition is mediated by the symbolic forms and tools we use, and the computer, a kind of omnitool, is rapidly becoming our principle cognitive mediation tool. The Net Generation is growing up in a tool-rich environment and this needs to be taken into account in designing pedagogical systems.
    • virtualization, a process in which “[an] event is detached from a specific time and place, becomes public, undergoes heterogenesis” (74). He outlines five characteristics of virtualization:
      • deterritorialization (the prying loose of an object or event from a physical place and moving it to a non-territorial space, essentially to cyberspace);
      • detachment (the prying loose of objects and events from their original context);
      • sharing (the distribution of conceptual artifacts among communities interested in them);
      • elevation to a problematic (the arguments, or ideas, and the problems that arise from the consideration of the logical relations among them); and
      • heterogenesis (the change that occurs as one shifts from traditional media to digital media, and the personal changes that occur to individuals as their thinking is increasingly shaped by digital media). (74-75).
    • many businesses are now finding that the pace of change demanded by the global economy and facilitated by various technologies is requiring them to rethink how they are organized. Many are restructuring themselves as learning organizations—organizations in which new learning and innovation are the engines that drive the company. These companies have flattened layers of management and tend to work in the manner suggested by Kelly (1994), Johnson (2001), and Gloor (2006): bottom-up, swarm-like organizations with fewer hierarchical barriers between ideas and decisions.
    • In such organizations, goals are fluid, driven by new learning among the organization’s members; goals are emergent properties of the system (Holland 1998), guided by general principles, and as such are unpredictable. In such companies, teams form around an interest in ideas for new products and services.
    • Fisher and Fisher (1998) note, “These teams are difficult to describe to outsiders because their membership shifts from time to time, forming and reforming like rapidly splitting amoebas” (106). In this environment, Bennet (2003) notes the need for tools that support collaborative work to virtualize the knowledge of the team, distributing it onto the artifact and thus making it available to all team members.
    • “Innovation tends to bubble up from these bright young minds . . . . Every employee is meant to divide his or her time in three parts: 70% devoted to Google’s core businesses, search and advertising; 20% on pursuits related to the core; and 10% on far-out ideas” (28). This means that approximately 30% of an employee’s time will be spent on pursuing new learning and developing innovative ideas.
    • The educational system will have to produce individuals who can work in such organizations and who understand the processes of innovation and creativity.
    • N-Gen students already regard computers as part of their brain; they are accustomed to distributing their knowledge across its various functions and collaborating virtually via e-mail, instant messaging, and any other available tool.
    • the best way to develop these skills is to create a learning community in which students can practice the essential skills required by learning organizations.
    • knowledge-building theory, a pedagogical approach in which students work in a computer-mediated environment in the manner of a research community

    • As Bereiter (2004) notes,

      Sustained innovation, progressive research, and idea-centered education are all basically the same knowledge building process, carried out in different contexts. Thus the skills and habits of mind acquired through classroom knowledge building are essentially the same skills and habits of mind that figure in workplace contexts of creative knowledge work. (3)

    • the Knowledge Forum—is designed to make advanced knowledge processes accessible to all participants, including children; to foster the creation and continual improvement of public artifacts or community knowledge; and to provide a community space for carrying out this knowledge building work collaboratively
    • n a knowledge-building classroom, learning is a by-product of the creation of new knowledge, but the focus of classroom work is the continual improvement of ideas.
    • The focus here is to make student ideas, rather than predetermined activities or units of knowledge, the center of the classroom work.
    • The next step is to get the students to generate ideas about the topic and write notes about their ideas in the Knowledge Forum (KF) database, an online environment with metacognitive enhancements to support the growth of the knowledge-building process. In generating these ideas, the students form work groups around similar interests and topics they wish to explore. These groups are self-organized and dynamic; the teacher does not select the members, and members can join or leave as they choose. Idea generation can take place during these group sessions, during which all students are given the chance to express their ideas, or in individual notes posted directly to the KF database.
    • While in a typical classroom setting ideas or comments generated in discussion are usually lost, the KF database preserves these ephemeral resources so that students can return to them for comment and reflection. Students are then encouraged to read the notes of other students and soon find that there are differing schools of opinion about the problem. The teacher’s job is to ensure that students remain on task and work towards the solution of the problem under study by reading each other’s notes and contributing new information or theories to the database.
    • The students, rather than the teacher, chose the civilizations to be studied and, facilitated by the online environment, the students organized themselves into groups around the civilizations that interested them. The inquiry ranged from commonly studied civilizations such as Rome and Egypt to the Vikings and even to the skeletal ‘hobbit-like’ hominids discovered on Flores island. In each case, students explored whether these societies were civilizations and why. Students classified their contributions to the database using built-in metacognitive scaffolds (cognitive labels) such as “new information,” “my theory,” “this theory cannot explain,” “I need to understand,” and “putting our ideas together,” and they made extensive use of both the reading and responding functions.
    • Students are encouraged to research their ideas by accessing a variety of authoritative sources, or by designing experiments, or by any other means that is practical and safe. They bring the fruits of their research back to the class in the form of more notes in the KF database, either supporting or invalidating their positions. Typically, one inquiry runs into another in a flow dictated by the output of the previous research, not by direction from the teacher. This process continues until the topic has been exhausted or time for study of that unit runs out. During the process, the students often far exceed curriculum expectations and develop a deep understanding of the topic under study.
    • Using social network analysis, Philip (2005) found flexible work groups spontaneously forming and breaking up in the live-class setting; in an analysis of note-reading patterns in the database,
    • Philip (2005) also found a high density of note reading (92%)—a strong indicator of teamwork in the class, and generally consistent with the extensive patterns of collaborative communication otherwise observed among students
    • Further observation of these sessions yielded additional information regarding the relative degree of focus and digression on the part of students as well as the need for resilient moderation skills on the part of teachers; moreover, the communal process of note reading among students suggested that actual levels of database access may be substantially higher than the levels recorded by the system itself
    • While the high levels of free exploration afforded by this pedagogy may require a greater degree of monitoring and discretion on behalf of teachers, the approach allows students to adopt strategies of small-team collaboration that will suit them well in their future professional careers.
    • whatever online environment is used, “attention needs to be paid to developing a sense of community in the group of participants in order for the learning process to be successful” (20). In other words, a knowledge-building community must be allowed to develop in order for the learning to succeed
    • the Knowledge Building approach, through its idea-centric focus, shifts the locus of classroom control from the teacher to the students, with the teacher acting as a facilitator. In this shift, the students become the directors of their own learning, catalyzing the transformation from one-size-fits-all to individualized learning; from instruction to building new knowledge; from learning as drudgery to learning as fun; and towards learning how to learn in a non-linear way geared to produce the innovative ideas our society will need in order to solve the problems of the future (Homer-Dixon 2001).
    • Online learning environments such as Knowledge Forum, which helps students create new knowledge and new understanding in a collaborative manner and through diverse media, can prepare them to work in the distributed, virtual workplaces of the future.
    • Copyright and Citation Information for this Article
      This article may be reproduced and distributed for educational purposes if the following attribution is included in the document:

      Note: This article was originally published in Innovate (http://www.innovateonline.info/) as: Philip, D. 2007. The Knowledge Building paradigm: A model of learning for Net Generation students. Innovate 3 (5). http://www.innovateonline.info/index.php?view=article&id=368 (accessed September 30, 2009). The article is reprinted here with permission of the publisher, The Fischler School of Education and Human Services at Nova Southeastern University.

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

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Nov/09

3

Meet Carly

0 Comments | Posted by jmguhlin in OnlineLearning, Teaching and Learning

Note: The following is one of several entries related to my work in learning how to teach online as part of the Texas Virtual School Network (TxVSN). In the Office of Instructional Technology & Learning Services, 4 team members are learning to facilitate online courses. To achieve that, they are participating in a TxVSN.org approved professional learning session offered by the Harris County Department of Education (HCDE). The HCDE’s 6-week series is known as “Online Instructor Training” or OIT for short.

As this article on online learning accommodations points out, “new delivery methods for education create new challenges to our assigned role in assuring access for students with disabilities” (DAIS Online Toolkit). Being responsive and supportive of students with special needs is required by law. This is shared in the information cited below:

No person shall, by any reason of his or her disability be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination in any services, programs, or activities of an entity covered by the law…Under Section 504, children with disabilities must be educated with their nondisabled peers “to the maximum extent appropriate,” and “removal . . . from the regular educational environment occurs only when the nature or severity of the disability is such that education in regular classes with the use of supplementary aids and services cannot be achieved satisfactorily.” (Read Source).

This is important because virtual learning opportunities are now one of the benefits to students. But how can virtual learning be an option for students who have special needs or learning disabilities? One possibility is that students with temporary disabilities can have their needs met (consider Brian Crosby’s class interaction with Celeste, a homebound student). One of the key points that is often missed when discussing the needs of special needs students is the social aspect of learning. These social aspects have to be explicitly taught. As a result of communication with students, “positive group formation” and learning can occur (Read source). It is also important to accommodate for student learners with disabilities. To ensure participation for the student learner, it is important to provide an accommodation or supplementary aid/service necessary. Learning disabilities may be defined as a disorder in one or more basic psychological processes involved in understanding or in using language, spoken or written. This disability may manifest itself as an imperfect ability to listen, think, speak, read, write, spell, or to do mathematical cal­culations (Source).


The left-thumb blogger is afforded the opportunity to publish to a global audience. This reminds me of autistic Carly, a student who, when given a computer, was able to express herself in ways NEVER imagined autistic students could communicate.

Strategies afforded by new web technologies allow students that have learning disability to side-step their “different ability” and learn via various media (e.g. podcasts, videos), as well as be engaged in creating their own content using a variety of tools (e.g. VoiceThread.com, ShowBeyond.com). For students that second language learners, or English Language Learners, we can see that tools like ShowBeyond.com are helpful; consider this example to build vocabulary in target language. Additionally, other accommodations might include the following as mentioned in the previous source:

  • giving a student extra time on an exam
  • providing hard copy or online model assignments
  • coordinating phone numbers or e-mail addresses for classmates who will share class notes
  • providing training in assistive technology
  • making class notes available on the Web
  • planning clearly-designed Web formats
  • planning both auditory and visual learning and testing options

(Click on the link for clearly-designed Web Formats…very helpful!).

To be responsive to a learner’s needs, the facilitator needs to take advantage of the entire toolkit of multimedia tools available, providing multiple learning opportunities that bypass a disability that might be focused on listening, thinking, speaking, reading, writing, spelling or involve mathematical calculations. By embedding rich choices for content review and creation, this becomes an opportunity for students to learn with each other in a way that is specific, or differentiated, for them–all by design.

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Nov/09

3

Professional Learning a la TxVSN

0 Comments | Posted by jmguhlin in OnlineLearning, Teaching and Learning

Note: The following is one of several entries related to my work in learning how to teach online as part of the Texas Virtual School Network (TxVSN). In the Office of Instructional Technology & Learning Services, 4 team members are learning to facilitate online courses. To achieve that, they are participating in a TxVSN.org approved professional learning session offered by the Harris County Department of Education (HCDE). The HCDE’s 6-week series is known as “Online Instructor Training” or OIT for short.

In my Online Instructor Training (OIT) class through the Harris County Department of Education (HCDE), during synchronous discussion, the topic came up of misbehavior in online classes. It was a topic I hadn’t spent a lot of time reflecting on since I work with adult learners. I definitely agree with the author cited at the link above:

A well-organized class and a syllabus that clearly lays out the requirements, procedures, and other aspects of the class are necessary elements. In regard to interaction, the instructor also does much to set the tone for the class, and how well one provides feedback is also a critical factor. Training for instructors should address how to organize and manage an online class so as to reduce the odds of miscommunication, and should also help instructors recognize and manage difficulties when they arise.

If an adult learner “misbehaves,” I know exactly what to do: 1) Re-direct; 2) Direct contact; 3) Remove; and if necessary, 4) Contact his supervisor.

With children, though, the contacts appear to be more subtle. Clear expectations up front are critical no matter what the age of the learner. This is why I was grateful to Jeanie Cole (HCDE) for her suggestion that I visit the Florida Virtual School to view these policies:

While each of these has to be adapted, developed for one’s own situation and community, it’s nice to know that we’re not starting from scratch. I encourage Texas districts that have addressed these items to share their policies with the rest of us!

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Sep/09

23

Be Cyber Safe!

0 Comments | Posted by scorrea2 in Administrators, CTR Updates, Classroom Technology, Digital Citizenship, General, OnlineLearning, Teaching and Learning, TechTips, eNews

free video player & video platform - interactive video, online video solution: video player, video editor - kaltura
wordpress video - wordpress plugin for integrated video on video blogs, and video tools  

Friday, September 25th marks the beginning of the Be Cyber Safe! website which will be used among teachers throughout  San Antonio ISD to promote appropriate online behavior and cyber safety. The curriculum was created with written consent from CyberSmart!, who is recognized as using standards-based lessons aligned with national and state technology and information literacy standards. Through the use of  the CyberSmart! curriculum we will prepare students to safely use the Internet for communication, creativity, collaboration, critical thinking, and problem solving.

The Be Cyber Safe! website has both a vision and a mission statement which includes educating all San Antonio ISD students on the importance of being responsible digital citizens. The site includes: curriculum links, expectations, standards, parent tips, online safety tips as well as other teacher resources.

Teachers who have already used lessons from the site considered the lessons, “easy to use without or with the Internet” – Ms. Angel Clark, first grade teacher. While teachers felt at ease with the organization and flow of the site, students loved the lessons they were being taught stating, “We have to be safe and it taught us how.”  We are looking forward to the district-wide use of the Be Cyber Safe! website.

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Aug/09

14

Differentiating Instruction with Technology

0 Comments | Posted by scorrea2 in General, OnlineLearning, Teaching and Learning

Differentiated_Instruction

Differentiating instruction for student needs is not new to education, but what does differentiating instruction for the 21st Century learner look like? The Virtual Learner Series initiated its first Differentiating Instruction with Technology online course facilitated by Stephanie Correa, Instructional Technology Facilitator. The course was developed to provide educators with resources which would enable them to become more aware of the 21st Century skills students need to succeed and how to integrate those skills into classroom experiences. The week-long course provided teachers with an opportunity to:

  1. Develop and/or adapt a lesson integrating technology
  2. Collaborate with other educators around the district in a discussion forum on differentiating instruction with technology
  3. View sample lessons which illustrated technology integration
  4. Read various research-based articles on technology integration
  5. Explore various educational resources available for infusing technology and curriculum

Preliminary Feedback is below:

Was this course worth your time, as an educational professional, to complete?

DIT_Question_1

On average, about how much time did you spend DAILY working on the course content, responding to discussions, and time online within the course?

DIT_Question_2

What was one thing that surprised you about the course?

  • The information learned about differentiating instruction and how technology addresses the various learning styles.  Also, being able to revisit the site…very cool!
  • The videos were great and very beneficial.  Even with the articles I found myself making a copy and putting them in binder like I did in college

Did online course development meet your needs? How would you have improved it?

  • Yes, it met my needs.  I think I enjoyed this better than attending workshops.  Here, you have the opportunity to read the lessons, postings, and think about what you would like to say.  Usually in a workshop you are only have a limited amount of time to work with others and you don’t get as much out of it.  That’s just my opinion.
  • I liked the way the course content was organized.

What else would you like to share about the course content, course facilitator, and the fact that you can earn CPE/GT hours online?

  • I think that the opportunity to earn GT hours online is indispensable. I cannot tell you how many times that I check  ePath to see what is available for GT credit only to discover that there is nothing listed or that it conflicts with staff development already scheduled. This is a great way to get your credits without having to sacrifice time with students during the class day or after school.
  • I enjoyed the class; the facilitator was very prompt and professional on her responses. I think that is an excellent opportunity for those of us who have a family to learn and comply with the required courses.
  • Good information pertaining to the class.  Stephanie Rocks! Love earning GT hours.
  • I enjoyed it and the facilitator was very knowledgeable.  Truly helpful.
  • This class was beneficial it reminded why I  became a teacher.  Again the video and articles were great.

If you could say one thing to other SAISD educators about your online learning experience, what would it be?

  • Learning is an ongoing process, take advantage of the opportunity to take a class while you are still in bed in your PJ’s.
  • I would recommend it!
  • Online learning can fit into many different schedules and give you the opportunity to learn in between teaching!

At the end of the course, educators were able to leave with not just a lesson plan template, but with a wide array of valuable resources at their disposable for the upcoming school year.

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Aug/09

13

Go Green Academy

0 Comments | Posted by scorrea2 in General, Teaching and Learning

computer

Go Green Academy has completed its final session! The academy was created to provide professional development for Gifted and Talented Teachers allowing them to successfully implement Web 2.0 Tools linked to the Texas Performance standards during the academic school year. Sue Harris and Stephanie Correa from Instructional Technology Services conducted the first academy June 22nd- June 25th, the second academy July 27th – July 30th, and the final academy August 3rd- August 6th.

Preliminary Feedback from both academies is shown below:

go_green

How would you describe what you have learned to another person in this workshop? Include the content, the interaction with the facilitator, and the collaboration opportunities.

  • I am feeling extremely uneasy when I think that for 20 years I have done this work, but that I really haven’t done the right work to get my kids ready for what they are facing.  I truly hope that I can find the courage to deviate from what “the powers that be” say I must do and do what I now know I must.  As for the 400 or so kids that have already passed through my classroom, I certainly hope that somewhere along the way someone rescues them from the antiquated ways in which we’ve taught them to think.
  • The class was very organized and the instructor went through the material very meticulously so it would be hard to not get it.  Teaching technology requires a lot of patience for those students who fear it, but the instructor demonstrated great patience and concern so our fears were lesson.  The hands on experience and activities have given me the confidence to use what I have learned and pass it along to others.
  • As befitting a GT Workshop, this workshop has examined not just the subject at a basic level but the responsibility was on me to really implement the content.  Kudos to the department and Sue for doing such a good job with the open learning.
  • This class was a great way to get informed about new technologies that are available to our students and how to get them up to date with the global world.  The class was easy enough for me to follow along with the facilitator.  Basic computer skills are a must if you wish to keep up with what’s being shown in class.  I also enjoyed the fact that everything was not clammed into one session.  The weeklong format made it easy to follow and work at your own pace.

Go Green Academy covered an array of new concepts for classroom teachers which included:

1. Digital Storytelling using Microsoft Photostory 3

2. VoiceThread

3. Online Literature Circles

4. Classroom Moodles

Participants learned a great deal about how to integrate technology as a means of differentiating instruction for not only Gifted and Talented students, but for all students. Some participant comments included:

  • Media literacy – I realize now how little I know about what is out there and how big my responsibility is to learn about it and share it with the students. The literature circle idea, although not new was presented in a way more usable to me in the classroom. Modeling the proper way to do this will take up some time in my room but I feel I can do this for all my students. This one I will definitely useful for all students.
  • The programs have shown me many ways that I can take our normal activities and include technology into our classroom. They can talk about the story elements and practice their writing skills and speaking skills. These concepts have taught me that I can make my students take more ownership over their own learning.

Participants left every day of the workshop with a variety of resources which they will use in their classrooms with their students.

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Jul/09

12

Policy Leadership and Web 2.0

0 Comments | Posted by jmguhlin in Administrators, Classroom Technology, Digital Citizenship, Leadership, Podcasts, Teaching and Learning, eNews


Image: Keith Krueger (CEO, COSN) and Miguel Guhlin

Below you can find links to my slideshow and the audio of my presentation at the Texas Chief Technology Officers’ (CTO) Clinic held in Austin, Tx on June 22-23, 2009. I had a lot of fun delivering this presentation, but spent a lot of agonizing picking out which slides to cut from my 40 + slideshow. Some folks wrote to say, “Your presentation was inspiring!” and I heard similar remarks from others after the session.

To be honest, I was thrilled to present next to Keith Krueger from the Consortium for School Networking (COSN). I had no idea he’d been the founder of COSN and had been with the organization for 18 years or so. Wow! That’s a story in itself worth sharing!

There are now ample examples of the points I made in my presentation, but I’ve realized that simply because something is obvious doesn’t mean it’s going to be accomplished or implemented. “This is obvious…why aren’t we doing it?” argument seldom works in entrenched cultures like K-12 education.

From Facebook and other Social networking applications to wikis, blogs and digital media, students in the U.S. are fully engaged in the use of participatory Web 2.0 tools outside of the classroom. Though school leaders believe that Web 2.0 collaborative applications expand the resources available for classroom learning; they are often constrained by policy considerations. How can schools better align the reality of technology-rich world in which students live outside of school with the learning experiences they have in the classroom each day?

Keith starts out sharing the results of the CoSN and partners’ Leadership and Web 2.0 study (view results here), and then I follow up with my presentation, including audience participation. Note that I tried to capture participant notes online at the wiki page.


Listen to Keith Krueger and Miguel Guhlin on Web 2.0 and Policy Leadership
The file is about 40 megs in size and hosted by the Internet Archive.

Txcto09short
View more documents from mguhlin.

Relevant Links

  1. Copies of Presentations available online
  2. Whack-a-Mole Champion (via YouTube)
  3. Examples of How Tech Is Used In Spite Of Command and Control
  4. Twitpic
  5. Reaching for the Heart – 5 Tips for School District Communications
  6. List of Texas School Districts Using Twitter (Thanks to Richie Escovedo, Next Communications Blog)
  7. The King and His Hawk Story
  8. “Web 2.0 is an attitude, not a technology.” (Ian Davis)
  9. UnMask the Digital Truth (Source: Wes Fryer )
  10. Learning Ecology
  11. Draft – Acceptable Use Policy
  12. Free Seminar – **Social Media: Trends and Implications for Learning** – George Siemens and Dave Cormier
  13. A List of Walled Garden Applications
  14. Moodle Central – Repository of Moodle related resources
  15. WordPress Multi-User

Audience Participation

  • Alamo Heights ISD – Use 5th grader stealing another student’s password to the Moodle as a teachable moment.
  • Magnolia ISD – Curriculum uses chat during workshops and teachers discovered solutions to problems, detours to obstacles.
  • Spring ISD – Communications and Technology are together. . .need to have our own channel and communications.
  • Leander ISD – One of the things I’ve found out…undertook a process starting in January (glad to share the documents) of investigating and building an RFP process, looking for a comprehensive Web 2.0 solution that includes teacher web sites, student portfolios, homework assignments, comments/posting…I realized that everybody plays a little differently…lot of power in combining tools (wikis, blogs) and you get the flow of information up and down and how it flows to parents. Moodle/Sakai don’t know how to handle a parent natively. Put an RFP, had demos from 6 vendors, including open source integrations to commercial solutions. There was little delta in the price…don’t limit yourself to open source.
  • Key is to narrow the focus…we had a reorganization…it’s key to get area superintendents to use these tools, use online meetings/tools and this expectation to use tools is conveyed to principals on down.
  • Spring ISD – Using tools with principals….
  • Donna ISD – Held our first tech conference…did this with university of Texas at Brownsville. We included a wide variety of Web 2.0 tools, bringing in stakeholders…have a good core group…lot done on wikis. After 4 days, we’re all wiki’d out. We did FLIP videos, Jing…wow, I can afford this was a comment teachers made often. Downside – do a big staff development for teachers in the Fall. People in leadership roles…that question the value of what we’re trying to do.
  • A science teacher at an intermediate campus sets office hours (online?) so they can share TAKS prep.
  • Dr. Sheryl Abshire’s district: Students are skyping in England, doing online stuff…

One thing that is your biggest problem in getting collaborative tools in your District:

  • Administration – I’m getting ready to rewrite your AUP policies…I was bombarded by all the bad things students are doing. How do you get the leadership engaged?
  • Brought in representatives from UTB to share (1/2 day) with principals, core directors and relayed the long range technology plan for Texas. It is important that NCLB…more out front.
  • Keith: Superintendents don’t want to look stupid but they really don’t know what they are. Superintendents have to take ownership…until you get that, you’re not going to see wide-scale adoption.
  • Why can’t we take the parent notification system…and do a student notification system? Take the same concept and use the tools that they’re used to.
  • Leander ISD: Providing a context and examples…one of our past failures is just showing them the tool and there’s no connection…doesn’t make a difference. We brought in examples (Denton ISD – wiki going with class in Germany)…something that connects (China…PreK students).
  • Keith: One of the big mistakes that we found is that if you have the best buy discussion about the tool, then…what is the education problem that you’re trying to solve? If you want to do engaging learning environments, what’s more engaging than Web 2.0 tools? Create a compelling learning environment. Over the last 17 years, the problem is that the “boss doesn’t get it.” We’re not putting it into the context…educational problems, not technology problems.
  • Magnolia ISD : Leapfrog school administrations…go to the communications companies.
  • Keith: The factors that mattered (significant statistically): 1) Vision and Leadership – could articulate what they were trying to accomplish and buy-in from the superintendent/school board; 2) Community Support – are you going before your chamber of commerce, PTA, not just you as the tech director but having kids presenting…the big secret weapon that you have is if you can engage the business community and parents. These groups have no idea what their students are encountering. Go before Kiwanis and talk about what you want…we have one device for every 5 kids, slow connections that precludes video, get business community members that make the school board presentations.
  • Keith: Shift in participatory learning at school…we need to talk about, culturally…shift in the way we do learning and the power of participation (Participatory Learning at School isn’t that exciting a title).

Disclaimer: In this presentation, while I reference my school district work directly, I do want to be clear that my beliefs/assertions are MINE alone, and do not necessarily represent the District’s…it would be better to say that my statements are informed by my experiences in schools, conversations with many technology directors, and the few thousand tweets I get per day and blogs I read. However, it would be remiss of me to not thank my school district for their support, and in particular, my supervisor, Patricia Holub, who appears below in this photo with Keith:
Thanks also to Harold Rowe (Cypress-Fairbanks ISD), Dr. Alice Owen-Farsaii (Irving ISD) for thinking enough of what I had to say to invite me to speak on the same stage with Keith Krueger!

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Aug/06

18

Phishing Email Warning

0 Comments | Posted by jmguhlin in CTR Updates, Teaching and Learning

TO: All Outlook E-Mail Users

Recently several of our Outlook e-mail users have received an email with the following message:

Wachovia – Personal Finance and Business Financial Services

Dear Customer,

Wachovia Internet Banking, is here by announcing the New Security Upgrade.
We’ve upgraded our new SSL servers to serve our customers for a better and
secure banking service,against any fraudulent activities. Due to this recent upgrade,
you are requested to update your account information by
following the reference below.

Reference*

Internet Link Removed from this Sample Message

Regards

Wachovia Bank, N.A. and its affiliates.

If you receive this message, please DELETE it immediately and do not click on the Internet link in the email. This e-mail is not from Wachovia but is instead an example of a phishing scam. Phishing is an attempt to lure you into divulging personal information. Phishing e-mails are legitimate-looking e-mails that appear to come from well known and trustworthy Web sites in an attempt to gather personal and financial information from the recipient.

Please take a moment to revisit the message below previously sent to all e-mail users about ???Safe E-Mail Use.??? The information in this e-mail can assist you in identifying these types of scams and gives you guidelines on how to handle the issues when they arise.
Sincerely,

Patricia A. Holub
San Antonio Independent School District
Executive Director, Technology Initiatives and Support
1702 North Alamo Street
San Antonio, Texas 78215
(210) 299-1305 Fax: (210) 223-8879
pholub@saisd.net

From: Holub, Patti
Sent: Monday, December 12, 2005 4:09 PM
Subject: Safe E-mail Practices

To: All Outlook E-Mail Users

The Technology Department has received several calls regarding the recent increase in junk e-mail and suspicious e-mail. We have also seen an increase in Phishing scams. Phishing is an attempt to lure you into divulging personal information. Phishing e-mails are legitimate-looking e-mails that appear to come from well known and trustworthy Web sites in an attempt to gather personal and financial information from the recipient.

SAISD, like many other institutions, has seen an increase in these types of messages as we near the holidays. SAISD has a firewall and content filters in place that work to flush out these types of messages before they get to your Inbox. Unfortunately, no tool can eliminate these messages 100%.

There are things each user can do to help in the fight against Spam-mail and Phishing scams. The following are some recommendations and suggestions. Please review these and put them into practice as you encounter these types of messages.

Spam (Junk) E-mail Prevention:

* Never Respond To Spam – Spammers will never take you off their list! In fact, by clicking on any link within the e-mail, you have sent them a message that your e-mail is valid. This will cause you to receive even more Spam.

* Don???t Give Your Email Address Without Knowing How It Will Be Used ??? The Spam Recycling website writes, ???If a website is asking for your email address, they want to use it for something. Be sure you know what. Read the terms of use and privacy statements of any site before telling them your address. Ask yourself some simple questions. Are they going to share or sell my address? Do I want emails from this website? Do I trust them? Is it worth the risk? If you can???t answer these questions satisfactorily or, if you can???t find their privacy statement, don???t tell them your address.???

* Don???t Give Out Your Co-Worker???s Email Either ??? Many times websites have a link asking you to e-mail this page to another user. You have just given them another address to which they can send Spam.

* Never Buy Anything ??? If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Most of the time, the product is a gimmick. These sites are very liberal with your information. They will sell your e-mail address and information to other vendors.

* Delete Unknown Senders ??? If you receive e-mail from an unknown sender, please delete the email. The e-mail could contain a virus or other spy software called a Trojan horse. These e-mails can be harmful to your computer or send out information related to your computer.

* Report Obscene Or Offensive Content ??? If you receive an e-mail or website that is obscene or offensive, please report is immediately to the SAISD Help Desk 281-9090 or email abuse@saisd.net.

Phishing Scams Prevention: (From FTC Website: http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/alerts/phishingalrt.htm)

The FTC suggests these tips to help you avoid getting hooked by a phishing scam:

· If you get an email or pop-up message that asks for personal or financial information, do not reply. And don???t click on the link in the message, either. Legitimate companies don???t ask for this information via email. If you are concerned about your account, contact the organization mentioned in the email using a telephone number you know to be genuine, or open a new Internet browser session and type in the company???s correct Web address yourself. In any case, don???t cut and paste the link from the message into your Internet browser ??? phishers can make links look like they go to one place, but that actually send you to a different site.

· Use anti-virus software and a firewall, and keep them up to date. Some phishing emails contain software that can harm your computer or track your activities on the Internet without your knowledge.

Anti-virus software and a firewall can protect you from inadvertently accepting such unwanted files. Anti-virus software scans incoming communications for troublesome files. Look for anti-virus software that recognizes current viruses as well as older ones; that can effectively reverse the damage; and that updates automatically.

A firewall helps make you invisible on the Internet and blocks all communications from unauthorized sources. It???s especially important to run a firewall if you have a broadband connection. Operating systems (like Windows or Linux) or browsers (like Internet Explorer or Netscape) also may offer free software ???patches??? to close holes in the system that hackers or phishers could exploit.

· Don???t email personal or financial information. Email is not a secure method of transmitting personal information. If you initiate a transaction and want to provide your personal or financial information through an organization???s website, look for indicators that the site is secure, like a lock icon on the browser???s status bar or a URL for a website that begins ???https:??? (the ???s??? stands for ???secure???). Unfortunately, no indicator is foolproof; some phishers have forged security icons.

· Review credit card and bank account statements as soon as you receive them to check for unauthorized charges. If your statement is late by more than a couple of days, call your credit card company or bank to confirm your billing address and account balances.

· Be cautious about opening any attachment or downloading any files from emails you receive, regardless of who sent them. These files can contain viruses or other software that can weaken your computer???s security.

· Forward spam that is phishing for information to spam@uce.gov and to the company, bank, or organization impersonated in the phishing email. Most organizations have information on their websites about where to report problems.

· If you believe you???ve been scammed, file your complaint at ftc.gov, and then visit the FTC???s Identity Theft website at www.consumer.gov/idtheft. Victims of phishing can become victims of identity theft. While you can’t entirely control whether you will become a victim of identity theft, you can take some steps to minimize your risk. If an identity thief is opening credit accounts in your name, these new accounts are likely to show up on your credit report. You may catch an incident early if you order a free copy of your credit report periodically from any of the three major credit bureaus. See www.annualcreditreport.com for details on ordering a free annual credit report.

The above steps can protect you at work and at home. Remember to always adhere to the SAISD Acceptable Use Policy when using email. (D5 ??? Acceptable Use Procedure for Employees: Computer, Telecommunication and Internet Access.)

SAISD has a central firewall in place for filtering purposes. Also, SAISD computers are all loaded with Symantec antivirus software and this software is updated centrally. If you are concerned that your computer does not have antivirus software or that it is not working for some reason you can call the SAISD Helpdesk at 281-9090 for assistance.
Sincerely,

Patricia A. Holub
San Antonio Independent School District
Executive Director, Technology Initiatives and Support
1702 North Alamo Street
San Antonio, Texas 78215
(210) 299-1305 Fax: (210) 223-8879
pholub@saisd.net

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