Welcome again to EDC922 - ONLINE TEXTS IN THE 21ST CENTURY CLASSROOM
This is our class blog. It will serve as our discussion forum, connection to each other, and the main webpage you will be accessing. If this is your first visit, then please first read the entry below (titled, 'Practice Session') and follow the instructions there--- then return to this one.
I give detailed lessons on edublogs and their use in the classroom in my EDC921 course (which you are welcome to audit if you would like more information). The format and interface are similar to our class blog, but chances are you won't have too much time to spend there. The content here should keep you pretty busy--for now you only need to know a few things.
This blog can be viewed by anyone, but will only allow the participants of EDC922 to interact with it. When you would like to respond to someone or comment upon a session, just click on the 'comment' link below each of my postings (you should sign up for a Blogger account ASAP and choose a 'User Name' that is easily identifiable) until then choose the 'anonymous' button under 'choose an identity'; I sure some of you have already begun to practice a little.
In the left-hand margin you will see links to individual lessons (accessible every Wednesday).
If you need to contact me then please email me at DaveFontaine1@gmail.com.
This blog, in addition to its use as an interactive communication tool, will also be where you can access and download your weekly sessions. The presentation links to the left will be accessible on a week-to-week basis (Wed. afternoons). I've said it before, but it bears repeating---When attempting to download always choose 'save' rather than 'open.'
The syllabus is also linked to the left. Google has a free service that allows you to just upload any Word document and with one additional click it gets published online with its own URL. The course syllabus is an example of how easy it is to use, and we'll practice with this tool before next week.
One more aspect that will be unique about this course is that I support a completely collaborative teaching philosophy. Following that mindset, I will keep your assignments, comments, and reflections viewable and accessible to future participants of this course. The 'goal' of that is:
- For future participants to gain from the collective knowledge of your experiences;
- Use what you have done; and
- Incorporate new ideas into their classroom.
The bonus for you, of course, is that this information will also always be accessible for you. This way, in the future (many semesters from now) you may revisit this site and benefit from the ideas of all participants. In this way---YOU will gain from all the 'learning speedbumps' of those that have come after you--even though they are not currently enrolled in this course.
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Some of the content for our sessions is also covered in 921. Where that is the case I'll also give you a link to the 'comments' of past participants about that topic.
Before we go any further I would like each of you to practice using this forum and introduce yourself. We will be spending the semester together, so it is important to learn as much about each other as possible. Click on the 'comment' link below this posting, then you may click the 'anonymous' button and write a few paragraphs about yourself. (If you are feeling bold you may sign up for a Blogger account now and use the 'user name' that you create when you 'comment' rather than choosing 'anonymous.')
Please include:
-your name
-email address (so that you may contact each other directly if needed),
-your educational background,
-teaching history,
-current teaching position with location, and lastly
-what you hope to come away with when this semester is over, along with any additional information about you that you wish to share, like your motivation for choosing this course...
After you have finished posting this profile, come back to this page and read the '922-Session 1' posting (below this one), then find the 'Session 1' link (along the left-hand margin), download it, and view it. When you are finished with the session please click on the 'comment' link again and add any comments, insights, or reflections you have for Session 1, under the Session 1 posting.
Sometimes it takes a little while to get the hang of using this forum. I have taken this into consideration by reducing the workload of the first session. (Of course, if you get distracted easily, then you could spend hours exploring.)
Its primary goal is to make sure everyone is on the same page and skill level before we sink our teeth into the meat of this course. However, if you run into any 'techno-speedbumps' then please feel free to contact me with any questions.
Everything here is protected by Creative Commons. This means that you have complete authority to download, save, share, and use all of the lessons in your classroom, but are prohibited from any commercial uses.
You will notice that each slide of the PowerPoint presentation has the narration transcribed in the 'notes section' of each slide. This is because each semester we have teachers from around the world taking this course. We've had teachers from China, Alaska, California, Phillipines, Sudan...taking my courses (And they may need help understanding my "Ro-diland" accent) but more importantly, the transcribed narration allows you to take these slides and use them in your own classroom. (or, if you find my voice putting you to sleep, you can just read the slides instead)
Good luck this semester! I look forward to working and collaborating with you.
Dave Fontaine
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STOP--DO NOT READ ANY FURTHER UNTIL YOU HAVE FOLLOWED THE INSTRUCTIONS ABOVE.
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922-Session 1 "The World of Wikis!!!"
If you're eager to get started, but still have some apprehension then maybe some of the tutorials on the left might help.
You may also read past participants' comments here and here. Some people find reading them before the session helps with their perspective.
Have fun!
Dave
PS-If you have any trouble downloading any of these sessions from the link on the left, then I've got backups on Authorstream.com. Just visit the link and type in edc922 in the search box, then view the most recent session.
12 comments:
Hello all, my name is Kim Montour and I can be reached at pkmontour@verizon.net. I have a BFA in textile design from UMass Dartmouth and spent twelve years after graduation designing upholstery fabric. Due to the effects of NAFTA on the domestic textile market, the textile industry shrank in such a way that I was forced to rethink my profession. Consequently I enrolled in the Teacher Certification Program at Providence College and earned my certification in secondary English.
I was lucky enough to get a job right away. I have been in Warwick for three years. I taught 10th, 11th, and 12th grade during my first year in Warwick. My second year was spent at one of their junior high schools teaching an English elective class to 7th and 8th graders. (This second year was actually only a half year as I left in January to have my second child.) My third year, this year has been spent at the same junior high school teaching 7th grade English. I am happy to report that for the first year I have not received a lay off notice and plan on returning to teach the same subject area/grade level in the fall. I am looking forward to teaching the same curriculum two years in a row finally!
I chose to take this class because I find that I rarely use the textbooks I have access to. They are older than my students, and there are no materials to go with them. I already access most of my material online and thought this class could help streamline the process. I am also participating in the RITTI Grant program and hope to have my own Smart board to use in the fall. Maybe the two classes will work well together to help bring technology into my classroom.
Nick Paolini
SAegertown High School, Saegertown PA
Classrooms for the Future Technology Coach
BS in Social Studies Education from Penn State University
Masters in Education from Edinboro University
Instructional Coaching certificate: Wilkes University
I used to teach government/economics to seniors before i signed up for the technology coach in our school. I love it!
From this course i'd like to acquire new skills in navigating the web. I'd like to learn ner tips and tricks as well as useful sites to make internet use in the classroom more efficient and productive. I plan on passing on any and all information i learn in this class to the 6 CFF teachers that i coach.
Hello everyone, my name is Chace Loomis; I can be reached at cloomis@skschools.net. I currently teach 9-12 Business Educations with courses in Personal Finance, Computer Applications and International Business/Finance. I attended, a long time ago of course, Coastal Carolina University and since entering the field of education, I have directed the adult computer studies program here in South Kingstown, as well as coached many different teams and sports.
I took the 920 offering and it helped immensely as I was able to incorporate a "web sense" unit into our Computer Applications curriculum...long overdue for sure. I have also shared some of the lessons learned with my Learning Community of teachers here at the High School.
I have been teaching for 20 years, and I also own a Pizza/Sub shop in Wakefield for the last three years. A chance to wield my creative powers of business in the real world.
Hoping, knowing, this course will be helpful as we have our budget frozen for any purchases next fiscal year...thus rendering new texts a fairy tale.
Looking forward to the course for sure.
Regards.....Chace
Hi All,
Please include:
My name is Diane Cunha, and I can be reached at dianecunha@communityprep.org
I have a BA-biology major, education minor from Salem State college in MA which I received many years ago.
I've been teaching at Community Preparatory School, a middle school in Providence for students who would not normally have access to an independent school education, for about 20 years. The school is supported mainly through grants, foundations, and the generosity of donors.
Currently, and for most of the ~20 years, I've taught 6th grade. It's a wonderful age to teach/experience.
My motivation for taking this class? I've had a 3 year technology goal. I took a previous on-line course...and swore I'd never take another...but yet here I am. I am persistent. I do it for our students. It seems the text is never right for what I want or for all students. Little by little I've been having students work on-line with writing blogs, Brain-Pop, taking quizzes etc. If they think something like the swine-flu will keep them out of school... their assignments will be on-line! I also want to differentiate texts so that all students have access to the information. Enough said...my husband says dinner is ready! DC
After finishing the slide show and reading materials for Session I, I have the following thoughts.
I wonder how many parents would post on a wiki posing as their child. As a 7th grade teacher I have reviewed several projects this year that look nothing like the work the student has completed in class, which leaves me wondering if it was a parent who actually did the work. Would this be a problem on a wiki?
I also teach lower income students who don’t all have a computer with internet capabilities at home. Our school library is only open one day a week after school so that limits their access as well. Many of my students don’t know how to use word processing programs or PowerPoint so I think that more needs to be done district-wide to foster technical literacy skills. I know it is coming at some point, but funding will likely be an issue.
Where I see wikis being used effectively with students would be as a way to peer edit written work or when working in literature circles. This way the work is begun in class and is extended outside of class via the internet.
I see more applications to collaborative work with my colleagues at the moment. It would be very beneficial if work on our curriculum or district-wide rubrics could be completed through wikis rather than through multiple lengthy meetings that take us (teachers) out of class. On a more immediate level I think that wikis could be a great tool for teaming. I am able to meet formally with my team members only three days out of six and for one class period. By the time we get through the day to day issues there is little time for real team building. We could plan common units of study and field trips as well as developing common classroom policies via a wiki. We are reflecting on our practices daily so it would be great to use a wiki that is ever-changing as well.
Creative Commons is GREAT! The other 7th grade English teachers and I already share documents electronically so that we can change them and adapt them to best suit our students. Being able to do this through the internet and all that it has to offer is wonderful.
Hi everyone:
My name is Karen Izzo and I can be reached at KIzzo1@cox.net. I earned a bachelor's in English from Central Michigan University, and a law degree from the University of San Francisco. I practiced law for ten years, but now have been teaching for the past decade at East Greenwich High School (AP English, Brit Lit, Freshmen). In addition, I advise the Gay/Straight Alliance. My goals for this class are two-fold: I'd like to develop a text for the "Bible as Literature" to help my AP English students. In addition, my GSA students are developing a library of gender studies material and I'd like to help them with that.
Hi,
My name is Derri Green and my email is Chester915@netzero.net.
I have a Bachelor's in Elementary Education/Special Education and a Master's in Special Education.
I have been teaching Special Education in Providence for the past 9 years. (My first 3 years of teaching were in Hawaii.) Currently, I am a 6th grade inclusion teacher.
I recently took the 920 class and came away with a wealth of knowledge. In taking this class, I am hoping to utilize different resources to help my special education students.
Well...
It's a good thing I'll be out of school soon, because what I had a hard time with in my previous on-line class, was spending the time to be lost on the internet and still having to live the rest of my life. Last time I worked with a blog and writing tutors for our sixth grade language arts classes and I sort of, just barely, not really, considered wikis...and this time I will. The blog was very protected, being a school blog with a password and the tutors were close friends, whom I've known for years. So I would probably want something protected if I was going to "wiki" with my partner teacher about students (I wouldn't use student names, would I?) or have students use a wiki. I'll have to find out what rules the school has about what can be put on-line.
Some thoughts on Kim's comment about parents helping/doing a child's project...I also teach lower income students who may have to use the libraries' computer, but I don't see any of those parents helping or doing any work for their child... not because they don't want a good education for them, but they are busy working, too tired etc. to help them too much. I do see students doing computer projects at school who will spend an inordinate amount of time on it and do a nice job, because they love doing it.
Hi everyone:
After reading all the background material and looking at a few of the links on the powerpoint, it's pretty clear to me that I am using my current class wiki in a pretty rudimentary way. I developed it after taking Dave's introductory internet course, and I've used it primarily (and too sporadically) as a repository of information. I was frankly afraid of the collaborative nature of a wiki and am a control freak. But looking at the AP Economics wiki and reading the excerpt from our required text, I think I'm ready to let go a bit. I was also feeling a bit overwhelmed at the idea of creating a Bible as Literature text, but there must be someone who's already started that out there, and I'm anxious to try finding that. Here are some comments and questions, in bullet point form, which will hopefully allow easier skimming by others:
•Love the idea of having kids add to a preexisting Wikipedia page so they can get real life feedback from outside editors
•Love the discussion tab on Wiki – need to check that out as I never knew it existed.
•Interesting information about Wikipedia being nearly as accurate as Brittanica (4 mistakes per entry as opposed to three).
•Steve Jobs’ endorsement also interesting; our school does not permit students to cite Wikipedia as a source in research papers (although we do encourage its use as a jumping off point). What do the rest of you do?
• Wikibooks sounds really cool
• What’s a tinyurl? Is it just what it sounds like? I miniaturized version of a long url? How does one make one?
• Need to explore Wetpaint software and the Welker’s Economics further–
• Love the AP Exam Facebook prank
•are the concepts behind copyleft signs actually a legally recognized contract? That could create an entirely new breed of lawsuit
Karen, I wanted to say that in the two high schools where I have taught English, we did not let students use Wikipedia as a source for research papers. As time progresses this may change due to their record so far.
Thanks Kim - my issue is that it truly does take at least several days for mistakes to be found. I had a student post "Hi Mrs. Izzo" on a wikipedia entry because he wanted to prove to me that I was wrong about their reliability. He ended up proving himself wrong, as it stayed up for almost two weeks! That was a couple of years ago. It would be interesting (but probably unethical) to test it again now.
I can say that universally here at South Kingstown High, the English department rejects the notion of Wikipedia being cited as a primary source....a great "jumping off" point? Yes, but it is interesting as I went through the presentation and the "collaboration" concept, or "collective intelligence" model, is gaining steam throughout the online community. I can say, being an elective, it would be interesting to see how much effort my students would put into a class Wiki, as I only meet with them for a semester. I am going to go back and dig up some of the Economic Wikis and see the effects they had on a couple of the links.....
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