Chapter 9: New Schools

           

Harnessing the Collective Intelligence of Education Data

As technology is becoming more and more involved with every aspect of communication, teachers now need to adapt their teaching style in order to teach “digital native students” by using new web tools.  One very important tool that could be developed would be an online electronic personal assistant.  This type of navigator would be helpful for students in order to help guide students to sites that would be helpful to them.  The navigator would suggest sites that follow how the student learns best either through simulations, reading, games, drills, or other type of learning.

             Software and textbooks could eventually only be paid for when it is actually used so therefore money is not wasted on materials that teachers are unable to use.  Teachers would be able to pick out the software that is important for their classroom, style of teaching, and style of learners, and just pay for that.  Textbooks could be used less, and instead use online resources such as wikis where classes can collaborate and discuss and almost make up their own “textbook” of information that is useful to them.  This would also allow students and teachers to have access to information at anytime and anywhere.

            “A body of educational applications that are all free, open source, and maintained by a collaborating community, could result in an exciting new generation of computer-based learning activities that are well designed, robust, and highly effective” (183).

Toward a Smart Future

            In order for such technology advancements in schools, students and parents need to have easy access to the internet, even at home, which is not the case for everyone.  The Telecommunications Act of 1996 provided poor and rural areas with broadband.  This same structure could be used in order to provide internet access.

            Net neutrality is another issue that is emerging.  The concept of net neutrality is that companies would have to pay the internet companies in order for their site to be loaded and transmitted faster.  This would then cause smaller companies who do not have the money for this to be transmitted very slowly.  In today’s society, people do not like to wait around for a page to load, so this could drastically negatively affect the smaller companies that are on the web.

            As the web continues to be more influential in today’s world, teachers are having to learn how to incorporate the web 2.0 tools into their curriculum effectively.

NETS • T Standard

          2.       Planning and Designing Learning Environments and Experience – Teachers plan and design effective learning environments and experiences supported by technology.  I think this standard applies to the chapter because it describes how teachers design developmentally appropriate learning opportunities that apply technology-enhances instructional strategies to support the diverse needs of learners as well as applying current research on teaching and learning with technology when planning learning environments and experiences.  It also relates to the chapter because the standard notes that teachers identify and locate technology resources and evaluate them for the accuracy and suitability and well as plan for the management of technology resources within the context of learning activities.  Finally, the standard also notes teachers plan strategies to manage student learning in a technology-enhanced environment.

Citations:

Solomon, G., & Schrum, L. (2007). Web 2.0, new tools, new schools. Eugene, OR: Intl Society for Technology in educ.

Chapter 8: Systemic Issues

            Schools have many different challenges and can vary based on the district, city, and region.  The community’s in which the schools are located also has an effect on the challenges they may face.  However, technology can be used in the classroom, as well as in the community.  New technology tools can be used in the community in order to address these challenges and figure out ways to fix the issue.

English Language Learners and English as a Second Language

            Within the past few years, the amount of English as a Second Language (ESL) students have steadily increased and is projected to continue increasing in the future years.  In order to help these students understand and correctly learn and use the language, technology has become a big factor.

“Certain strategies, such as activating prior knowledge, making connections, visualizing, and asking questions, affect the general education … a second language is best acquired through meaningful engagements with the language as opposed to a set of grammatical rules to be mastered.” (pg. 160 – 161)

Hands-on learning have proven to work best for any learner, but it is significantly effective for ESL learners and it helps them become more engaging and have a better understanding of the language.  Some technology tools that have been shown to help students to understand content better are through:

•  Blogging: Allows students to interact with others and improve on their knowledge, understanding, and comprehension on the language and subject matter.
•              Podcasting: Students are able to listen, respond, and practice their vocabulary and other skills effectively.

Students with Special Needs

            All the different tools that are accessible on the internet are very important for students with special needs.  They are able to access certain tools which can help each individual based on the needs that they have.  Students with special needs also benefit a great deal from clear instruction of their learning strategies and generally have a good result.  The teachers’ impact and involvement with the students also affect the way students learn and retain the information.

Equity and the Digital Divide

            “An ongoing challenge for all schools is to provide an equal opportunity to learn and achieve to all students” (pg. 165).  There are many factors which are included in this challenge such as access to technology, families who have cultural or linguistic diversity, students who face physical challenges, as well as many more.  The issue of equity is not only limited to the classroom, but is also found throughout communities.  Some suggestions in order to help this issue include the production of laptops for $100 which will work off of satellites instead of wired broadband access, and using free open-source software instead of having to purchase software.  Many current web 2.0 tools can usually be used in today’s world in order to help those students how may not have the same accessibility as others.

Assessment

            In schools today, teachers are in an odd circumstance because the schools are given the requirements that need to be completed in order to improve on standardized test scores.  Sometimes the importance of focusing on the test distracts the teacher from teaching other basic concepts.  Studies have shown that teachers can incorporate new technology web 2.0 tools in order to better prepare and collaborate with other students and build upon their knowledge.  Educators are able to plan their instruction with the web 2.0 tools and be able to evaluate their students throughout the unit instead of just at the end.

NETS • T Standard

4.      Assessment and Evaluation – Teachers apply technology to facilitate a variety of effective assessment and evaluation strategies.  I think this standard applies to the chapter because it describes how teachers can apply technology in assessing student learning of subject matter using a variety of assessment techniques.  It also relates to the chapter because the standard notes that teachers can use technology resources to collect and analyze data, interpret results, and communicate findings to improve instructional practice and maximize student learning.  Finally, the standard also applies multiple methods of evaluation to determine students’ appropriate use of technology resources for learning, communication, and productivity.

Citations:

Solomon, G., & Schrum, L. (2007). Web 2.0, new tools, new schools. Eugene, OR: Intl Society for Technology in educ.

Chapter 7: Online Safety and Security

“Social-networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook allow youngsters to post private information, which leaves them vulnerable to harassment and other dangers.  Cyberbullying may be the online equivalent of bad schoolyard behavior, but it is no less hurtful or dangerous.” (pg. 138)

Schools which receive funds for using technology in the classroom, have certain requirements that they need to follow.  These requirements include installing filtering and blocking technology on the computers in order to keep the internet age-appropriate for children.  Copyright and intellectual property is also important, as well as sometimes confusing.  There are five steps listed in order to help prevent copyright problems:

       ·         Create and implement a technology policy that includes a code of ethics and set of procedures.

       ·         Review the entire policy with you educational community: students, teachers, and parents.

       ·         Appoint a technology manager to conduct audits and maintain a log of licenses and registration materials.

       ·         Teach ethical and legal behavior for technology use.

       ·         Thank employees and students for supporting these steps.

There are some securities solutions that can help keep students safe when using the internet at school.  These solutions include:

       ·         Awareness Programs: Teachers need to have conversations with the students in order to inform them of the possible threats and dangers when being online.

       ·         Acceptable Use Policies: A list of policies that is given to students that outline the guidelines, procedures, and responsibilities for using school technology.

       ·         Ethical Behavior: Facts about ethical behavior can be very confusing.  Some tips to follow include:

              o   Seek Truth and Express It: Teachers and students should be honest, fair, and courageous in gathering, interpreting, and expressing information for the benefit of others.

              o   Minimize Harm: Ethical teachers and students treat information sources, subjects, colleagues, and information consumers as human beings deserving of respect.

              o   Be Accountable: Teachers and students are accountable to their readers, listeners, and viewers, and to each other.

              o   Respect Information and Its Infrastructure: Information, in the Information Age, is property.  Information is the fabric that defines much of what we do from day to day, and this rich and potent fabric is fragile.

       ·         Administrative Restrictions: Teachers and administrators need to have specific rules of how the students’ content will be shown on the internet, and parents should be informed.

       ·         Parental Involvement: The schools need to work with the parents in order for them to understand the issues and the policies of the school and how they are helping keep their children safe.

       ·         Blocking: Teachers and administrators need to set up firewalls and protection against certain websites that are not age-appropriate and so students can not pull up inappropriate pictures.

Networking sites have also become a problem and can distract students from doing their work online.  These networking tools include:

       ·         Instant Messaging

       ·         Social Networking: Facebook, MySpace

       ·         Image Sharing: Flickr

There are also many sites that have a lot of information and have been created by educators so they are safe for students.  These sites include pictures, and many search engines, but are safe and secure from images that students should not be exposed to.

NETS • A Standard
6.  Social, Legal, and Ethical Issues – Educational leaders understand the social, legal, and ethical issues related to technology and model responsible decision making related to these issues.  I think this standard applies to the chapter because it describes how educational leaders should ensure equity of access to technology resources that enable and empower all learners and educators as well as identifying, communicating, modeling, and enforcing social, legal, and ethical practices to promote responsible use of technology.  It also relates to the chapter because this standard talks about promoting and enforcing privacy, security, and online safety related to the use of technology and also to participate in the development of policies that clearly enforce copyright law and assign ownership of intellectual property developed with district resources.

Citations:

Solomon, G., & Schrum, L. (2007). Web 2.0, new tools, new schools. Eugene, OR: Intl Society for Technology in educ.

Chapter 6: Leadership and New Tools

            This chapter begins by listing six qualities that individuals must have in order for a school district to achieve success on the 21^st Century.  They are:

·         Individual excellence

·         Organizational skills

·         Courage

·         Results (goal-oriented)

·         Strategic skills

·         Operating skills

I thought the twelve reasons for an Administrator to Blog were very interesting:

·         Sharing news and events:  Large amounts of people can quickly and easily view upcoming events, awards, or schedules.

·         Progress monitoring:  Ability to show the progress of projects that are going on at the school.

·        Status alerts:  People can be notified quickly of last- minute cancellations of events.

·         Marketing:  Allows schools to save paper in order to distribute newsletters or other important information.

·         Public relations:  Administrators are able to post their own versions of stories and allows others to post their feedback.

·         Community building:  It allows the school organization to feel more like a community since everybody has the same access to information.

·         Customer relations:  The public feels as though they are more involved with the school if the principal publishes events and alerts as well.

·         Branding:  This is good for parents who are looking to enter a new school district, and want to find a “good one”.  By having an online blog, it can make parents feel comfortable that information is easily available and update accurately.

·         Creating ‘customer evangelists’:  It allows people who really care about the school to promote and encourage parents of future students to attend.

·         Thought leadership:  The ability for schools to put out on the web new thoughts or ideas about possible changes in the school and allow feedback from the community.

·         Advocacy:  Schools can inform the community about upcoming legislations that may affect the school system so they can become aware and voice their opinion.

·         Replacing the school Web site:  Some schools have used blogs as a key feature to their website because it allows others to communicate and leave feedback.

More schools are turning to free web-based tools, such as Blackboard and Moodle, in order to allow their students to complete assignments and see their grades on line from anywhere and at anytime.  Although the information is free, administrators also need to keep in mind that the upgrades, maintenance, support, and hardware are not free, and can sometimes become expensive.

It is important to look at the cost and benefits of using open-source software for schools.  There are five steps in determining the value of the investment:

·         Estimate costs:  initial and ongoing costs

·         Assess risk:  the probability of success of the project

·         Calculate anticipated savings and revenues: out-of-pocket costs, better efficiencies, user productivity, or future cost avoidance

·         Measure qualitative benefits:  besides money, how could the school and community benefit from the project such as obtaining a goal or mission

·         Evaluate results:  review the anticipated costs, savings, and benefits versus the actual costs, savings, and benefits

“Students and staff have access to Web-based applications and information, and users can control almost everything – the content they read, the ideas they espouse, and the presentations they create.  Today’s users control the tools of production and can reach the world with their ideas.” (pg. 135)

NETS • A Standard

      4.      Support, Management, and Operations – Educational leaders ensure the integration of technology to support productive systems for learning and administration.  I think this standard applies to the chapter because it describes how educational leaders should develop, implement, and monitor policies and guidelines to ensure compatibility of technologies as well as implementing and using integrated technology-based management and operations systems.  It also relates to the chapter because this standard talks about allocating financial and human resources to ensure complete and sustained implementation of the technology plan, integrating strategic plans and other improvement plans and policies to align efforts and leverage resources, and finally to implement procedures to drive continuous improvements of technology systems and to support technology-replacement cycles.

Citations:

Solomon, G., & Schrum, L. (2007). Web 2.0, new tools, new schools. Eugene, OR: Intl Society for Technology in educ.

Chapter 5: Professional Development

Seven major steps and recommendations for implementing technology in our schools:

      ·         Strengthen leadership
      ·         Consider innovative budgeting
      ·         Improve teacher training
      ·         Support e-learning and virtual schools
      ·         Encourage broadband access
      ·         Move toward digital content
      ·         Integrate data systems
                       (U.S. Department of Education, 2004, n.p.)

Five-step evaluation program:

·         Participants’ reactions – evaluation at this level identifies the appropriateness of a program’s content, process, and context.  Was the content appropriate?  Was the presenter knowledgeable?

·         Participants’ learning – What are the participants’ beliefs toward the professional development topic, and has the event changed those attitudes and beliefs?

·         Organizational support and change – Does the organization have the tools, services, and policies in place to support the training experience once teachers return to the classroom?

·         Participants’ use of new knowledge – Did the participants implement what they learned?  Did it change classroom practice?

·         Student learning – Did the experiences improve student learning?  In most cases, that should be the most important question to ask.

Situated Cognition – defines learning as a process of participation in communities of practice.

Situated learning – where learning takes place in a specific context.

“Most learning occurs naturally through activities, contexts, and cultures, but schools too often abstract learning, ‘unsituate it’, and teach concepts removed from natural contexts and applications.”

pg. 103 (Lave, 1998)

Strategies to support virtual communities:

      ·         Establish regular times for team interaction

      ·         Send agendas to participants beforehand

      ·         Designate a team librarian

      ·         Build and maintain a team archive

      ·         Use visual forms of communication where possible

      ·         Set formal rules for communication and/or technology use

Virtual communities have the obstacle of needing to encourage participation.  In order to help encourage participation some tips include to create an environment of trust, eliminate confusion by making sure the participants understand how the community works, create productive dialogue ./ make learning interactive, have teachers share what they are doing on a regular basis, and give constructive feedback and support as a facilitator. 

Blogs – they can allow teachers to become comfortable with and understand the Web 2.0 tools and can be used to create their own professional and personal networks.

Podcasting – these can be used in order to have professional development training sessions, lectures, and ability to visually share ideas.

Wikis – allow members of a community to participate together in order to create a goal, plan, direct, or simply discuss the way a new activity is working.

NETS • T Standard

5.      Productivity and Professional Practice: I think this standard applies to the chapter because it allows teachers to use technology to enhance their productivity and professional practice.  It also relates to the chapter because this standard uses technology resources to engage in ongoing professional development and lifelong learning and continually evaluate and reflect on professional practice to make informed decisions regarding the use of technology in support of student learning.  This standard also describes applying technology to increase productivity and to use technology to communicate and collaborate with peers, parents, and the larger community in order to nurture student learning.

Citations:

Solomon, G., & Schrum, L. (2007). Web 2.0, new tools, new schools. Eugene, OR: Intl Society for Technology in educ.

Chapter 4: New Tools in Schools

Cool Schools

            New technology is being tested at schools in order to create a learning environment, which is based on teamwork, communication skills, and critical thinking.  With this technology, students are able to receive real-time feedback.  Such a system contains, assessment rubrics, communication tools, curriculum, and live grade books.

Using the Tools for Learning

·         Writing Process (blogs): taking the place of a hand-written journal for classrooms

·         Collaborative Writing (wikis): students are able to work together on the web and teachers can track which students are participating

·         Student Feedback (podcasting): students are able to record their reactions and easily share them

·         Digital Storytelling (flickr): it combines photographs, music, and writing and allows students to create their own media story

·         Digital Diplomacy: allows students to easily share their digital stories with others including all over the world

Classroom Applications

·         English and Literature

            o   Teachers are beginning to use blogs in order for students to easily share their ideas with others

·         Media Literacy

             o   Teaching students to check the reliability of the web source they are getting their information from

·         Social Studies

             o   Students are able to record interviews with others about history and post them on podcasts

·         Journalism, Broadcasting, and Video Production

             o   Schools are now publishing their newspapers online as well as broadcasting them on the web

·         Math

             o   Teachers have begun posting questions online and allowing students to work together and learn from each other

·         Geography

             o   Students are able to look at a 3D map of the world and some cites allow students to add their own information to the map on what they are learning

·         English as a Second Language and English Language Learners

             o   Students are able to compile the information they have learned into one location and be able to easily look back at it

·         Science

             o   Students can create and watch videos of experiments and watch them and learn from them

There are so many tools used in today’s world that students and teachers can use in order to learn, teach and collaborate with others.  The applications that can be used for educational purposes are endless.

NETS • T Standard

3.      Teaching, Learning, and the Curriculum:  I think this standard applies to the chapter because it allows teachers to implement curriculum plans that include methods and strategies for applying technology to maximize student learning.  It also relates to the chapter because this standard facilitates technology-enhanced experiences that address content standards and student technology standards.  Teachers can also apply technology to develop students’ higher-order skills and creativity.

Source:

Solomon, G., & Schrum, L. (2007). Web 2.0, new tools, new schools. Eugene, OR: Intl Society for Technology in educ.

Chapter 3: New Tools

Web 2.0 Meme Map

·         Strategic Positioning

             -          Using the web as a platform

·         User Positioning

             -          User controls their own data

·         Core Competencies

             -          Services that are not packaged software
             -          Architecture of participation
             -          Cost-effective scalability
             -          Mixable data source and data transformations
             -          Software above the level of a single device
             -          Harnessing collective intelligence

v  O’ Reilly Media Inc. 2005 (Solomon, 47)

AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML) applications allow the web to load and refresh data quickly.  Another web tool includes open-source which is where the software allows users to edit, study, and enhance the source code for programs which allow the program to evolve. In order for users to be able to easily find search results, webpage creators create tags that are applied and related to the content.

Basic Web 2.0 Tools

·         Blogs – A web log created by a user in order to share their personal views and perspectives.

·         Podcasts – Allows users to distribute multimedia files quickly over the internet and to personal devices.

·         Wikis – A webpage which allows users to collaborate in writing, editing, and adding content.

·         Social bookmarking – A website which contains links to a users’ most visited sites.

·         Photo sharing – Users are able to post photos to the website so others can easily access and view them instead of through e-mail.

·         Photo editing – Allows users to use a website to edit and enhance their photos.

·         Video showcasing – Users are allowed to upload videos to the web for easy sharing with the public.

Web 2.0 tools are beginning to incorporate basic desktop tools which are available for free on the web.  These basic desktop tools include Microsoft Office which includes word processing, spreadsheets, and presentations.  Other helpful tools that are available on the Web include:

·         Electronic portfolios

·         Calendars

·         3D modeling

·         Social networking

·         Surveys and Polls

·         Drawing

·         Mashups

·         Instant Messaging

·         Internet Telephony

“Open source provides a rich and growing set of applications that
can be used as learning tools and other
software that is designed specifically for learning” (Solomon, 72).

Educational software is becoming more effective and planned into curriculums for schools.  Educational applications are available on the web and can be used on any operating system which makes it very accessible for students.  Students can learn very well from these tools and collaborate easily with other students.

NETS • T Standard

2.      Planning and Designing Learning Environments and Experiences:  I think this standard applies to the chapter because it allows teachers to plan and design effective learning environments and experiences supported by technology.  It also relates to the chapter because this standard allows teachers to design developmentally appropriate learning opportunities that apply technology-enhanced instructional strategies to support the diverse needs of learners.

Citations:
Solomon, G., & Schrum, L. (2007). Web 2.0, new tools, new schools. Eugene, OR: Intl Society for Technology in educ.