Blog 8...just a note before my computer crashes

OK, so maybe my computer won’t crash this time, but it has happened, more than once. Can I get a witness brother & sista’s?

 I have an old laptop in the corner that caught something last year. It’s a door stop. So much for “cheap” anti virus software. That’s the almost daily discussion I have with our school’s technology coordinator. In the business classes and career options classes I teach, we use the computer lab every time I can get in there.  That means not only sharing computers, but also opportunities to have problems with viruses.  Unfortunately, our school’s technology options are limited. But I have found the importance of having a proactive district technology department.

When I started with the Floyd County schools, I was first impressed at the amount of in the classroom technology that was available. Then I substituted in a different school, and was depressed by the time the day was done. Through a year of subbing, I was able to see just how large the tech gap was. Not just with students, but from school to school as well. It is probably that way in a number of rural systems. As I have studied about the different technology issues through this course, the one of security, especially for my students, has surfaced a number of times. While we do have individual student IDs , I still worry that students will not only bypass the safeguards and security in place, but also bring other issues.    Most of the computers have common networking and the district’s anti-virus software, I have already witnessed students getting past those measures. Most of the problems have been attempts to download music or videos, but there have been students attempting to log on to questionable sites. When asked, they see nothing wrong with it. Many don’t consider illegal downloads of music to be a moral issue, or see no reason to cite sources when writing, but I am more concerned that they are not being monitored at home.

As with any technology, the catch up time is really beginning to manifest itself in the schools. This class has talked about adding more technology to the classroom, but the process to do so is far from implementation in our schools. While our district has been working for years to get new computers into the schools, the ability to so with proper monitoring and student accountability has been a more difficult task. We still have a large number of students without computer access at home, so they want to “play” at school. I would like to see special times for them to explore like their friends.

Thanks for the experience Dr. G. To the followers and AMS staff folks that read each week…hope it has been enlightening. Check my Facebook or Twitter accounts for more of the on-going story.

Norm's Blog...Software n'stuff

Norm’s Blog Seven or is it Eight)…light as the end of the tunnel…

This week’s lesson was about software….and it came at a time that we are reviewing new software options for our classrooms next year at the middle school where I teach (Adams MS in Floyd Co,.)

There are several software programs being used now, including the Discovery Series that allows for instant scoring and improvement and RTI programs geared at improving skill sets and learning ability. In my business/marketing classes, I have been exposing the students to Excel (Open Office’s Spreadsheet too) as a way to track everything from scores to inventories. We are using Excel in our current accelerated class to track the measurable aspects of creating a business, for survey gathering and graphic presentations on our data collected.

Each student group has an opportunity to create the spreadsheet data, and to use it to present to the class their business plan. While the actual presentation may ALSO include slides, Power Point or even posters, all of the information is entered into Excel to collect and interpret the information. Each category is assigned a sheet and completed before the next category is attempted. While some of the data is statistical in nature, some requires weighting by the team members as to value, relevance or presentation. So far, the hardest section has been creating the formulas necessary to present the statistical data so it can be displayed accurately. Students are however beginning to see how companies can manipulate data and even questioning to achieve favorable outcomes for a business. I have been surprised at how critical they have been on each other’s data and assumptions. We will be looking at various polls over the next 8 days and putting them into our own created models for analysis.

I enjoyed reading several blogs this week, though I only sent e-mail reviews to 3. Jamie Stringer’s blog on NetOp was very fascinating. I hadn’t heard of that software, but find it something I will look into, especially with the ability to interact in real time to several students. I am looking for a meaningful, but not boring way to teach basic economics next fall and may go in that direction.

I reviewing the various software packages available to use in the classroom, the only downside I see is the cost. Like many school systems, ours constantly has to crunch numbers to survive. I would like to see companies invest more in school technology programs, especially in the financial side of things.  Test, trial and striped down versions would help in preparing the students early for enter into the workforce.

Norm's 533 Blog 6

Blog Six 533 UC  Norm Marcum 4-10-11

This week’s sessions on Webquests have been very educational. I had only heard of the web quest format once or twice in the past, and actually didn’t even know enough to ask the right questions about setting up, or using them for classes. I decided to ask several of our teachers if they were familiar with the web quest format this week. I was delighted to not only find they were, but many at our school regularly use them to assist students in deeper, more specific knowledge tracks and projects. While most used other’s quests, a few have attempted their own. I have literally found enough web-based material to change the entire dynamic of my Career Explorations class. As for actually putting the Webquest together, I am finding the process a little more time consuming than first thought. I am finding the time to do it correctly with depth and measurability difficult, but will continue to work on it, since I plan to actually use it in the classroom.

For my own classroom, I actually began planning three separate Webquests. The first (and the URL that I have created) will be about gathering information for an in-class “job fair” we will have following the spring testing cycle. Through it, students, in teams and individually, will be gathering information about vocations they are interested in.  We will be following a rubric of interests and skills based analysis to narrow the fields to two to four possible specific careers. After working through the process links to obtain additional information, students will then be directed to create a poster, foldable (brochure idea from a fellow teacher) or a Power Point presentation for the class. Those can be team based, but each individual will also be asked to write a 250 word essay on what they discovered about their chosen field. To allow more creativity, students may instead video a person in that field about the job, its positives and negatives. This may be done either by direct video file (like a phone or hand-held video camcorder) or posted to YouTube, since several of the students in this rotation have accounts.

The second Webquest I am going to develop will be for the first of the year’s orientation into the class. We have several days in which we discuss rules, regulations and the student handbook. We will use the school district’s own web site to look at AUP and student conduct aspects. We will do team based posters to hang in the room, as well as develop our own classroom rules by looking at other such sites available. The third Webquest will be about the economy. I want to concentrate on the supply/demand chain and reading the stock market information. Each section will allow for a deeper knowledge as they explore the financial world and then report to the class their findings. This may be for the elective class next fall at the middle school.

Blog 5...the Musical (hmmm)

OK, so there's no music (yet). This is being written on April 1st, so there you go. My first lesson of the week had nothing to do with class, at first, but has become the center of my thought process on use of technology in the classroom.

Monday began like any other day, off to school, lesson plan ready, world waiting to be faced. Only when I had pulled into the parking lot did I realize that my cell phone battery was nearly dead and would not make it through the hour, let alone the day. Since I juggle three or four lives at a time, my phone is more than a communication necessity, it's like a vital organ. Now, it's not a cool IPhone or Blackberry like many of my friends and colleagues carry. Just a phone. It's just a phone. Trying to convince myself of this fact. I don't e-mail with it, I can't Facebook with it...it's just a PHONE! Monday was NOT the day to have to leave said device in the truck to charge, even if for just a few hours. In a few hours I can be six months behind. But alas, that's exactly what had to be done.

At this point in the day I am kicking myself for not grabbing the charger from home, or even investing in another charger for school, but I had to move on. The first small human that I encountered was a 6th grade boy with a face so long that he barely missed stepping on it. In an attempt to distract myself from my withdrawal from connectivity, I ask him what was wrong. "Just look" he said as he held out what had just moments before had been a really nice modern telecommunication and gaming device...at least I think it was nice, for now it looked like it had been dropped from an airplane and crushed by a steamroller. The young man's really cool phone...was basically now junk. Instant dilemma. Do I say it? Will it be comforting? Sure, why not? "It's just a phone". Before the words reached the ears of the heartbroken lad in front of me, I was already condemning myself as the world's biggest hypocrite. We both knew it was NOT just a phone. It was our only link to modern civilization. Without it...we were just homo sapians drawing on the cave wall. I had compassion for the long faced boy. We shared a common bond. And yes at this point, I am eternally grateful that my phone is just on a low battery (also wondering if it is charged yet...after all, it's been like 2 minutes). Then a light bulb moment. Two fine examples of how addicted we are to our personal devices. A plan for the classroom...we'll have fun, get to play with our phones and SAVE THE WORLD!

My plan, much more detailed in the paper we have to write this week, is to create a paperless classroom. We will use texting (which my students can do while sleeping), video and e-mail to do assignments. The similarities to what we do in this online class are purely coincidence. But realizing the value my students place on being connected, and the resistance they show when made to give up that technology for school time, I know it will be successful. In my plan, everyone has a phone capable of texting (I'm sure grant monies are available for those who don't...few as there are). After lecture, video, Power Point and white board lessons and reading (e-books available to those who Kindle and Nook), I will post a series of questions that have to be answered via text. Even the students who are not yet tech saavy will be able to join the revolution...

...now if my phone will just charge. For the entire plan, expected outcomes and anticipated difficulties, I will attach the finished work to my blor after submitting it to Dr. G over the weekend.  (and yes, that is a veiled "I don't have it finished yet" excuse).

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More Musings from the Wonderful World of Technology

Welcome back to another entry in the Technology Blog for my first Grad class at University of the Cumberlands. I guess if you have read from entry one until now, you've figured out that I wear a lot of hats, hold a lot of different positions and am a bi/tri vocational minister. My landing in Grad school has more to do with God taking care of my family than my own ambitions. I would not have chosen to return to school at 50...at least not while in my right mind. But sometimes there are other issues going on that need to be dealt with ahead of ourselves. Which brings me to this week's blog entry...on Monday morning, following the UK win over NC. Technology is helping me with time management, but I still kick & scream into change occasionally. This week has been a bear on my schedule...focus:

Each week, I use technology like Power Point (PPT) in most of my vocations. For my church position, we use PPT to project song words for our Praise & Worship time, to run event announcements and lessons for teaching. We use video & PPT in our youth group activities and throughout the church to get information out to our members. We have a website, email and Facebook presence and several people in our church who are very technologically proficient. That use carried over when I began teaching for the Floyd County Schools.

After a few times in the classroom as a substitute, I soon realized that I could use my familiarity of PPT to put together basic, transportable teaching aids that I could use to help me reach the students. At first it was the basic things like rules, expectations, general educational game sites and the like. I also found that I could use the visual captivation of the screen to be an attention getter, especially if I used humorous pictures & cartoons to reach the kids. Since I was in a different school everyday, the presentations were very generic and simplistic. What worked in elementary school, for the most part, worked in middle school. But not always...and never without a painful lesson that technology can not replace good old fashioned relationships and personal contact. That changed after I received an opportunity to long-term sub in music. I actually had to create lesson plans, follow guidelines and have outcomes. Had it not been for my previous knowledge of Power Point, I would have been doomed. I used PPT to create music history lessons (with classical composers pictures, timelines and to tie in art and architecture), used the PPT to teach music scales, instruments and even collaborate with the other Related Arts teachers to make a presentation of our joint teaching times. We covered different aspects of the classic film "The Wizard of Oz" and used the PPT for visualizing set design, staging, use of props, dance, character development and even Oz trivia games.

Now that I have moved into Career Options/Business Ed role, I am using PPT to visualize the many career categories, tracking company stock prices etc. While I still use the PPT to remind of rules & expectations, I am now also getting to the place where I can actually let the students learn how to use it. While I am not the technology teacher, we do work together to get my students time in the computer lab to do research and work on projects and make presentations. As I watched the video from this week's lesson, I realized how helpful it would be to have access to computers in the classroom. We have to share with other class times and schedules, cutting down on our time. I do use my classroom computer to project info we track on the Internet, and there are several educational websites that we use to further teach the basics of subjects like economics, banking and researching the job markets.

As technology changes, I hope we can stay relevant to the students. Our competition is tough, but the students are worth it. Well, time to go work. I get to impact kids today and change the future. Pretty cool!

Technology in the Classroom...we need an upgrade.

OK, so pedagogically speaking...and I had to look up the word to know that it meant teaching the teaching process, or something like that, has in fact, been at the very heart of our discussions thus far concerning technology with our students. Since I actually have a few days away from the classroom, I am finding myself strangely missing it. While I am enjoying the discussions about all the tech issues my fellow teachers are encountering, I am also anxious to try out a few of their ideas. I am also becoming aware at just how far behind our schools are in terms of technology.

If the "newest" computer is over a year old, it is ancient in technological processing speed and capabilities. Many of the students I have in middle school play Xbox 360 live or have iPhone and blue tooth devices. Tech-wise, we are offering a feather quill when they come into the classroom with just regular computers and projectors. I also saw, though a fairly recent article, that even the educational discussion of the trends in technology was outdated. CD technology may have been the best media storage at the time, no doubt the advent of the flash drive and smaller, super storage USB sticks have already made the CD archaic. We are going to have to find a way to speed up the technology upgrade time if we even hope to keep pace with the changes that are occurring.

I like the idea that when we are using technology to teach with, that we are actually also teaching technology as well. When my students in careers class are using spreadsheets to determine withholding from the paycheck, they can also gain confidence in using Excel, and have that knowledge to use in any other class they choose. It's good for the English or math teacher to use these technologies, while at the same time preparing students for use of various software platforms. When we use Desktop Publishing, we are allowing the student's creativity to grow, as well as actually mentoring other students who may not have some of the same opportunities. And how helpful it is to have students type, edit and save to a flash drive their papers and research findings. I can pop it in the USB, check it and grade accordingly. Even the technology that makes the Teaching Technology class this blog is affixed to has given me several ideas about how to expand the typical "term" paper into a fun and expressive project.

In the center of this desire to push for more technology in the classroom, I am also careful to realize that as versatile as it is, new gadgets can also be a hindrance to teaching. I try to use several media methods to keep the students engaged in the class discussions, and allow them to use them as well. I'm finding an opportunity to write on the white board of even chalk board can be as rewarding as screen time in the computer lab. These kids have computers, they DON"T have chalk boards at home. Maybe a quill and parchment might just be bazaar enough to capture their attention.

Lesson Two...using the software

As I take a few moments to collect my thoughts about this lesson on databases and spreadsheets, I am amazed at how timely this is. At Adams Middle School where I teach in the "related arts" rotation, we are in the process of putting together a special session where students get to choose the area of R.A they can attend prior to the KCTS testing next month. During their selected class, we are to provide not only content, but enrichment as well. We are to "spice it up" a bit, so to speak. This class comes at a time when I was trying to decide how I could add a little extra to the Business Ed/Marketing class. I had already decided that we would create a mock business and do research on industry and even surveys of students to show how product research can be done. With the discussion on what others were looking at and had a light bulb moment. One of the additional links to the posted ones had an idea for creating a spreadsheet on a payroll scenario. From http://www.middleschool.net/ I was able to create and personalize a payroll spreadsheet to show the deductions workers have (Federal and State taxes, FICA etc,) as well as use budget items like rent, food utilities and even valuing fun items like movies to show value/worth for the exchange of spending. This leads into a natural lesson on necessities verses the more extravagant household and business expenditures. I also will be using the smaller class size to go a little deeper into Microsoft Office with them. Having the ability to use spreadsheet to allow for graphics and visual aids will make the point on the economics, as well as allow our group to explore the resources in the computer lab.

I think I had stated on one of the discussions that we use Infinite Campus to post grades. Most of the syudents have heard the program name but have no idea what it does. But I also use a spreadsheet to track the students assignments and completion of worksheets. I will be using a mock class to teach the next group how the technology of a program like Excel can not only help with tracking, but let them enter their own information and do the administrative tracking part of the class as well. It should make for an interesting cycle, to say the least. Time permitting, I would also like to put together a cost presentation for them to see how their local business remains in the marketplace, even during a time like the present economic recession.