Thing #5: Create and Maintain a Teacher's Web Page

I remember being trained in Urban Planet two years ago-and how frustrated and confused I felt after the session. I put off creating my Web Page because I left the session not knowing how to even login- I appreciate our last session at Como with Leslie. It was so helpful because she had our usernames ready and all I did was create my password.

I'm so amazed at how quickly I learned how to create my website just after this first session with Leslie. I quickly caught on with everything Leslie presented and how easy it was to create this website. I did tell Leslie and Linda that perhaps my skills have improved through this MILP project and blogging!

Thing #11: All About Google

Okay- so I did learn more about Google- our PLC group lead by Linda went over some very important information about Google-

Here are some helpful tips:
-teach the students what is a domain
- as students research through Google, have them look at the domain for .edu, .org, .gov, these domains will give students more reliable information.
-students can use the "advance search options" to help narrow information
-many of our students do not want to read a full page information, you can teach them to use the Cached option next to the link to organize information to make reading easier
-students can also use * to ask Google for an answer- the civil war started in *
-Google also have so many options- I used the calender option to schedule an online meeting with a professor at the U- as an undergraduate student before the growth of technology, I had to make a phone call!

I will post more info about Google as I learn more- my students will do a research project in December using ROR sites and Google- I will blog more about it.

Thing #9: Streaming Videos

Away with buying DVDs- we now have streaming videos-how neat to have so much curriculum just a click away! I have heard of united streaming videos from my colleagues, Kathy Herrema-Johnson and Linda Wise, but I thought we had to take a class to use it. Linda helped me submit an email for a username and password and within minutes, I was on my way looking through streaming videos!

I found a video about the trials of Nazi perpetrators during the Holocaust- I know that students have heard of the Nuremberg Trials but they haven't heard of the American trials in Dachau. It was only 20 minutes long which was perfect for class discussions afterwards. If I can post this video on my blog or urban planet website- I'll try!

I feel so enriched by all the technology available ! After 9 years of teaching I've never felt better about how I teach, what I teach and how to use technology in the classroom! Thanks for allowing us the opportunity to participate in this program- MILP has converted me to use a variety of technology in the classroom-

Thing #13: Subscription Databases

The session lead by Karen regarding subscription databases was fantastic! I feel that I have learned so much more about the databases available for teacher and student use. I think I need more time to go through additional options provided by the databases- I loved the clickable maps from Grolier and EBSCO. The multimedia options from Gale-Discovery is also great for my Geography class. As always Proquest is a winner with its current articles. I will continue to use the databases and blog more about my experience as well as my students' experiences.

Thing #20 Podcasting

Leslie was at Como on Friday teaching staff about podcasting. I think it's a really neat recording lecture notes or having students use it for projects. I hope to learn more from Leslie- perhaps we can have some more time at our Wednesday meeting devoted to having teachers demonstrate how they use podcasting in class.

I will write more about Podcasting when I use it in the classroom.

Thing #17 One New Thing: Moodle

On our staff development day, I took Moodle training from my colleague, Pete Grebner. I found out that the district has discontinued using Blackboard and replaced it with Moodle. It is a neat program- apparently it offers more than urban planet. Some of the unique things about Moodle are:
-Students can take quizzes and Moodle will grade it for staff
-teachers can create interactive programs such as crossword puzzles, diagrams
-teachers can post all curriculum units on Moodle and "hide" certain units until students are ready to access the units
-students can use Moodle to participate in classroom discussions
-most colleges and universities are using Moodle

Thing #18 One Student Thing

I'm finishing up a couple of basic research projects for my classes and it has been quite an adventure. I am wondering if teachers are finding that the initial idea of research is difficult for students because they are so use to having "instant answers" at their fingertips. My students do not want to read research-they want quick answers from the internet.

Perhaps they grew up understanding how quick technology is today. They can text message very fast, multitask by eating, surfing the net, and listening to music as well. They complain about waiting for Grolier to retrieve information. They want to access the internet quickly and want research to be instant, without reading.

I'm know my students are excited about technology...but I feel that they're losing out on the wonderful world of reading and using their imagination. I know there has to be a balance but how do we do it?

Thing 21: Youtube

I did it! I finally used Youtube! I was hesitant at first because my little nieces and sisters are always on youtube watching foreign films from South Korea or watching taped concerts of the hottest music stars and I felt that it wasn't educational enough for me. My colleague Steve Powers told me that he showed "shift happens" via youtube and I felt better-I remember thinking perhaps it has more than concerts and foreign films-

We were studying the war of 1812 which eventually lead to the Indian Removal Act. I looked for a video clip of the "Trail of Tears" and it was great! This clip showed how the Cherokee nation was moved west with a wonderful music score. I have posted the video clip from youtube on my blog-

I did talk to Linda and I like what Linda had to say... "the Internet is so big with so much stuff, remember it's your job to teach students how to find the educational purpose of the internet."
So, I guess instead of fearing the internet I can teach the educational purpose of it!

Thing #10: More on the discussion of plagerism...

I was taught by teachers before the Internet invasion and I often live in fear of plagiarism in high school and college as well. Here were some comments made about plagiarism in my class:

-but I'm not really copying it, I'm just copying and pasting information
-I think it's stupid to punish people for plagiarising
-you're not learning if you plagiarize
-what's the big deal, everyone does it?
-it's about respecting the work of others, if you plagiarize you're not respecting them
-I think my teachers are just uptight about this business of plagiarizing

We had quite a lively discusion and I felt defeated by the end of the day because I don't think they left feeling that they understood the issue of plagiarizing. What mattered to my students was that they follow my directions and cite their sources to get points of course-

Thing #14 ROR

On early release day, our PLC group met and decided that we would teach students how to use Reliable Online Resources. Linda has set up a wonderful web page: www.comosr.spps.org/ror with a plethora of ROR sites. I developed a research project for my US History class only using ROR sites. This was our second day in the lab and I can't count how many times I had to ask my students to stay away from Google.com- I explained that we will use Google.com for a different lesson as we explore how to "smart search" Google. It's amazing how addicted our students are to Google.com.

Linda taught me that some sites like ABC-CLIO will teach students how to cite their sources with a click of a button, other sites are more difficult. I think I need to do more work in my classes with citing sources. We had a great discussion in my class about plagiarism and the impact it has on education. I'll share more later...

Thing #4

I read Lauren's email about public libraries and I agree that it's one of the most fascinating places in my life. We have a brand new county library in Forest Lake and I love physically being there as well as accessing their online resources. I was thankful to learn about ELM and other resources from public libraries.

I wonder if we can have access to other university libraries, like the U or Hamline? I know when my husband was doing his graduate work, he never left our home but was able to access all the academic periodicals and journals- I know a few years ago a colleague at Humboldt told me that we were able to access academic, peer reviewed journals through a purchased SPPS database, but I'm not sure if we can still access the database.

Thing #3

I must have copied and pasted about 18 of my colleagues' blog on to my favorite bloglines. I made a mistake and set my profile up to receive additional blogs- OHHH what a headache it was to delete all the unnecessary blogs! This is the beauty and the pain of technology. Now I have only the ILP blogs and I'm finding that I don't like too much information.

I followed the directions of copying and pasting additional blogs from the Metromilli site. I know that we received an email about how to do it in a much more simple way, but as I imported subscriptions I noticed that my colleagues had two blogs on my blogline. I had to go and delete the additional blogs. I'm thankful for the learning experience.

This is a great technology tool but somehow I need to manage more effectively the information coming through my bloglines.

Thing #2

lThis is my first time setting up a blog page. I have set up a web page in the past but I have long forgotten how to do so. I had fun creating this blog page. I'm sure as I learn more about blogs I can have students set up blog pages for class discussions. I did learn to add a picture to my blog.

I'm finding that it's fun changing templates and colors that I think I finally found a template that I like and have customized it in my own way . I remember this was the same problem I had when I was setting up my web page...maybe I'm enjoying this too much!

Thing #1

Sitting in Kathy Dumas' CIS writing class in the spring of 1994, I wrote about how email was going to change the future of tomorrow. Now more than fifteen years have passed since I last analyzed technology in a classroom assignment. In the interim, technology has changed so much, yet I haven't had the opportunity to think thoroughly about its impact on my life or the development of my students. It's ironic that today I will continue to write and learn about technology as I attempt to navigate the expanse divide as a teacher and learner.

Apparently the standards of information literacy are now included as a part of the United States History course in St. Paul. I am excited to add these standards to address how students research, retrieve, and use reliable sources.