Module 12: Blog Reflection - How will you continue to learn new ways of doing new things? What challenges do you predict for the 1:1 program?

I will continue to learn new ways of doing new things by continuing my professional development in information technology and literacy, namely, by exploring additional ways to use laptops to individualize instruction in order to meet the needs of all learners including the challenged learners and those that need challenging. Basically, I will explore ways in which laptops can support classrooms that are learner-centered and how laptops can help extend learning beyond the four walls of the classroom. One of my personal goals is to spend more time on gradually organizing my private online files. As I believe in life-long learning, I will keep abreast of new programs and online tools as they appear and select those that offer learners greater ownership of their learning and the knowledge they create, and those that encourage learner and teacher collaboration and communication at a global level. I hope to collaborate with colleagues around the world to exchange and gather ideas on how to deliver my curricula effectively using technology, and to share feedback about learning processes and teaching practices based on technology.
Challenges that might impede the smooth running of the 1:1 laptop program include:
• lack of internet connections at home
• lack of release time from teaching for teachers to collaborate in the development of activities that incorporate the use of technology
• the possibility of instant messaging and the sending of emails by the students during class
• student access to inappropriate online material during class. (It might be difficult to monitor all students’ activities on internet at all times.)
• laptop repair due to inappropriate handling
• general maintenance of laptops
• forgetting to bring the laptop
• forgetting to charge the laptop at home for use at school
• loss of completed assignments due to technical problems
• lack of time (block lessons) for in-depth projects using the laptop
• posture problems
• headaches and strained eyes due to overuse of the laptop
I believe that educators will simply have to expect and overcome all of the minor logistical challenges that might be encountered along the path of educational technology in the classroom, and continue with on-going professional development in order to provide the students with the transferable cognitive tools of technology that are necessary for learners to function efficiently and successfully in education in the twenty-first century. Technology empowers the learner, and both facilitates and accelerates learning, therefore, it is safe to maintain that laptops will become indispensable educational tools in education in the very near future.

Module 11: Blog Reflection – “The web is not just a source of information, but a birthplace of information.” Student Information Literacy skills

The two videos displaying the “sharing open data movement” for the spreading of incredibly detailed, explicit information around the world are mind-boggling. (See www.TED.com Tim Berners-Lee and Gary Flake) At the touch of a key, data can be reorganized allowing a user to find the particular, unique details s/he requires; this absolutely changes the way students can use information for their research and projects, because it goes beyond just searching and browsing. Because the students will be navigating the Web at a more sophisticated level, they need to develop their information literacy skills to encompass non-linear navigation, being able to discover patterns in the information they are analyzing in order to gain quality and meaningful information, accessing and reviewing data on a global level, and, exercising higher-order, reflective thinking skills and a superior level of responsibility.
In the future, learning will lean heavily on the student’s ability to find and recognize appropriate information online, in other words, the quality of the student’s research skills. This includes being able to choose, evaluate and use appropriate online tools to find the required information, applying this information to solve a problem or to complete a project, knowing how to use an online library and databases, how to choose appropriate internet sites, having the know-how to sift through the information obtained, categorizing this information and successfully utilizing this information for one’s own purposes.
All of the tools, concepts and skills mastered at the primary and secondary school level can be applied at the students’ workplace in the future.

Module 10: Blog Reflection – iGoogle as a possible start page; how to make student on-line self-organization more appealing

A wide array of excellent tools for organizing one's professional/personal life and work in a more effective way is available online. My “start page” is iGoogle, which is a personalized Google home/start page. Perhaps, students should also be encouraged to use a personal organizer such as iGoogle as their start page to help them create organized collections of useful and interesting information, improve teacher-to-student and student-to-student communication, and to add other organization tools which will help them achieve a higher and more effective level of productivity.

Students can use these personal organizers as a substitute for the school agenda by using the To Do list, calendars, and the countdown clocks for homework assignment/project deadlines and forthcoming events. While involved in research on, or the analysis of a novel, students can have immediate access to RSS feed information to gather data for their work (via Reader), can easily access tools such as dictionaries and thesauri, can effectively utilize concept maps and mind maps that visually represent related concepts and ideas, and use bookmarks; students may also add Wikipedia Search, Crossword of the Day, Match Up (a fun vocabulary development activity), Online English Grammar, Grammar Vocabulary Game, Hangman, A Joke a Day, Inspirational Quote, Word of the Day etc. In humanities, students can link to a calendar, read news headlines, study weather forecasts, access to Google Maps, Google Map Search and You Tube etc., all on one page.

In fact, students who find it difficult to stay organized because of information overload can use iGoogle to manage their personal learning and schoolwork environment by organizing their favorites on their home page; for example, students can create their own dashboard on their iGoogle home page consisting of their Gmail, a Google Calendar, Google Bookmarks, Google Reader, and Google Docs and use each of these on a daily basis. In a nutshell, iGoogle is an easily modifiable home page which is highly adaptable for the students’ personal interests and scholastic needs.

Module 9: Google Earth & Maps - Some ways to use Google Maps or Google Earth to engage learning in the classroom.

Google Maps and Google Earth can be used for navigating global maps; for example, users can look up and study places anywhere in the world, switching between map, satellite, terrain, and StreetView modes as required. With MyMaps, students can create personalized maps, preview field trips, document journeys, and embed photos, videos and accompanying text.

Depending on what they are studying, students can take a virtual tour of all types of museums, places of interest such as the Colosseum, historical towns, capital cities (e.g., a tour of Rome when studying Roman history), various countries, and even share their summer and winter vacations with their peers within the four walls of the classroom. The Google Lit Trips site supplies lesson plans pairing books with Google "trips" that students can take while reading literature; similarly, they can simply trace the movements of a character in a novel from town to town, or map the journey of a historical character such as Alexander the Great. The Google Historical Voyages and Events site transports students into the world of explorers, historical voyages and events of countries throughout the World.

I shall witness the effects of technology-enhanced instruction on student learning as I utilize these tools in my classroom; namely, my sixth-grade humanities students will use the Weather and Storm Tracking Tools in Google Earth tools to study weather and even track storms/hurricanes, which is part of the humanities curriculum for grade six. The students will also prepare a travel project/presentation using Google Maps as their final project for this academic year; they will take us on a seven-day tour to at least seven different places in the world.

Both Google Maps and Google Earth offer high quality and engaging educational activities for students.

Module 8: Reading with Grade 1

This is a collage created inside Google Picasa that was sent directly to this blog. It shows grade six students reading to grade ones at the Lower School.

Module 7: Blog Reflection – Online mass-sharing (being immersed in the public domain)

As new and more advanced technologies are appearing in the classroom, more and more the students are becoming part of a global, self-educating, online community where they are involved in learning programs that encourage them to gain knowledge and master skills through mass-sharing.

Mass-sharing of information and skills through the Web is changing the very meaning of teaching, learning, and even schooling, itself; the roles of the learner and the teacher are changing, teaching and learning can occur outside the four walls of the classroom and beyond the time limitations of traditional class schedules, and, the focus is fast changing from teachers teaching to students learning.

By making education more achievable by more students, mass-sharing of information online will give access to improved, meaningful learning to students all around the world. Students need to be taught how to make the most effective use of the online tools available to them; web-based multimedia learning experiences for student learning communities, such as videoconferencing to learn and teach, on-line discussions with other students and course consultants/experts, sharing learning through online publishing tools, using a wiki as a collaborative tool to share class notes, web activities complete with images, sound, and video to present information, test knowledge and skills, submit assignments and communicate with students and faculty on a global level, all create a high quality learning experiences.

Computer hardware malfunction, inappropriate use of the computer, difficulty in accessing an Internet service provider, on-line traffic overload leading to low or no internet response, and security problems are obstacles that students need to learn to deal with in twenty-first century education.

Mass-sharing makes learning more dynamic, interactive and authentic, focuses on the social learning process, enables members of the learning community to access and share information resources speedily and easily, and motivates and empowers students. Students need to be encouraged to develop an interest for connecting with a global community and sharing with others as a means of learning and expanding their knowledge.

The power of mass-sharing cannot be under-estimated; collaborative, online learning community experiences more effectively augment acquisition of knowledge and skills than traditional or individual studies. In that light, it can be concluded that students need to be prepared/trained for a life of mass-sharing; they need to be aware of the implications of being immersed in the public domain. (See my Blog Reflection: Module 4)

Module 6 Blog Reflection

What online resources have you used to improve your teaching, and how do you usually find them?

At the moment I am engaged in a staff training course that will help me become sufficiently proficient in using available online tools/resources in education. My aim is to master these tools/resources adequately in order to be able to use them comfortably in my classes; I am excited about the skills I am gaining and looking forward to using an array of online resources for actual teaching purposes. For my own purposes, while practicing the use of these tools/resources, I have checked out some sites and tagged them, using Delicious; my next step is to classify this material so it is more organized, and therefore, easier to use. I am now using Google Talk on a daily basis and find it faster and more effective for communication than sending emails. I also feel that when I become more proficient, I will be able to use online tools for organizational purposes (e.g., shared calendars) and for improved communication with my colleagues and the students (e.g., shared documents). I am considering student use of Glogster with embedded media such as animations, audio and video, to create posters and presentations for a humanities project and to produce an informative e-portfolio, and teacher use of Glogster to present motivating/stimulating introductions to lessons. As my level of confidence in tinkering with amazing online tools such as Prezi, VoiceThread and Podcasting develops, I see myself using them not only to engage student learning, but also for my own personal and professional needs.

Module 5 Blog Reflection: Computer Use in 2013

Thinking back a few years on how I used to use my computer, I can truthfully conclude that the extent of my computer skills, both in the classroom and for personal use, was very limited, although, at that time, I made full use of all of the programs made available to me. Having participated in the “23 Things” technology development program, last year, and experiencing a continuation of that program in the “1:1 laptop program, this year, I have come to realize that sending/receiving emails, using word documents, excel spreadsheets, the LCD projector to teach both knowledge and skills, creating PowerPoint projects, and offering learners a variety of online activities comprises only a minute part of the possibilities available in the field of informational technology in the classroom. A wide range of online educational tools are now available allowing more engaging and meaningful acquisition of knowledge and skills by the students, offering a high level of teacher support, more effective communication, better organization and collaboration, global-wide social networking, and easy sharing, presentation and storing of information.

In the future, I intend to use technology more intensively and effectively. In the year 2013, I believe that all students will use laptops for all subjects to explore, research, collaborate, experiment and communicate, that digital "texts" (including images, animations, audio, and video) will replace all paper textbooks, and that the classroom environment (including both the physical and affective domains) will change dramatically to accommodate the demands of Informational Literacy in the twenty-first century classroom.

Traditional papers and other written assignments will be replaced by totally learner-interactive, computer-generated presentations which will be shared with a wider, perhaps, global audience.
By the year 2013, collaborative, global, multimedia student projects, virtual travel and the creation and maintenance of life-long e-portfolios will become a normal part of everyday schooling.

Blog Reflection: Module 4

Some people have strong feelings about being in the public domain (meaning their pictures, thoughts, interests... can be potentially accessed by people they don't know). Explain your feelings? How do we address these concerns as teachers and role models? How do we teach this?
There is a general consensus that digital technology is revolutionizing communication in many ways. Both adults and children communicate with friends through email, text-messaging or social networking sites. Of course, there are many positive aspects of online communication, however, unfortunately, there are also negative sides to being in the public domain. People who use online social networks to share personal thoughts, information about themselves, to post a picture, or write a comment, need to know that they are in the public domain; it is best for them to remember that there is a possibility that their personal information will be viewed by both invited and uninvited viewers. It is interesting to note that more and more people are of the opinion that a person has to assume that anyone can see his/her FaceBook account. Keeping this in mind might stop a person from crossing the line, that is, saying something that s/he might regret, later; for example, making public something that should have been kept private (perhaps, during a person’s reckless teenage years) could jeopardize that person’s chance of a positive outcome at a job interview.
Not only students, but also teachers need to see the importance of being sure of what they share and how they share online; they need to understand how people are perceived through what they share online. Already, some teachers have been removed or suspended from school for their MySpace postings containing inappropriate content for educators. Does this indicate that, at the end of the day, the lessons for the development of responsibility and cyber-safety that need to be taught to students also need to be shared with teachers? Perhaps, training in this area should be included in the teachers’ professional development; in this way, teachers will require a higher degree of accountability for online communications, and will become role-models for students.
The challenges posed by the new technologies, for example, issues such as people’s rights, privacy, integrity and security, strongly indicate the need for policymakers and educators to collaborate in finding solutions to protect privacy and online data, to eliminate cybercrime such as cyber-bullying, and to maintain a high level of security.
Of all the mediators that influence children (including teachers, parents, peers, and the mass media), parental interaction is the most important for online safety, therefore, perhaps the most critical lessons should be mastered at home and children should enter schools pre-trained in privacy protection. On their part, teachers should include social networking activities as part of the curriculum, thus maintaining a high level of student integrity and overall online security.
Food for thought …
- Is there a need for re-teaching the meanings of known words such as “privacy”, “security” and “integrity” in the light of the new connotations they are developing in the Digital Age?
- One outcome of dealing with this issue could be the drafting of an internationally-agreed upon policy strongly advising against inappropriate communication through any social networking sites.
- Most parents believe that their children disclose too much personal, and sometimes, false information online through Web sites or chat rooms. Perhaps, children up to a certain age should be required to obtain parental permission before disclosing their personal information online.
All in all, without a doubt, there is a pressing need to develop effective privacy education for all who enter the world of online communication; online communication is an essential tool in twenty-first century education, therefore, rather than blocking or censoring online communication, users of these tools should be trained in the areas of online integrity, accountability, mutual respect, the meaning of privacy and maintaining security.

Blog Reflection: Google Docs

I was amazed by the wide range of online educational tools offered through Google Documents to empower educators to empower learners; acquisition of knowledge and skills becomes highly interactive, genuinely engaging, accelerated, autonomous and both transparent and meaningful to the learners. Networks of communities of learners and teachers share information, collaborate conveniently in research, administration and presentations, communicate efficiently, more often, easily and in different ways, create documents, store information safely, and use tools for organization of their documents/folders and to create spreadsheets.
In addition, it is possible for educators to accurately assess and monitor the quality and quantity of the participation/contributions of individual members of a group working on a collaborative project, thus developing the level of accountability and responsibility of the learners and their powers of organization. Teachers can easily use a combination of Google Docs tools and doc folders to block in learner progress using a spreadsheet, throughout the completion of an academic program/class project.
The creation of public documents (Newsletters and letters to parents) becomes a simple action, meetings become less time-consuming when the completion of one shared document that all teachers can edit precedes the meeting, and lessons become more meaningful when interdisciplinary units are created through Google Docs. Furthermore, language teachers can use Google Docs for a whole range of activities including the creation of collaborative book reports/research papers, co-editing of written texts online, and learner-generated poetry/writing portfolios, while humanities teachers may utilize “My Map” in Google Maps to have the learners take a virtual trip through cities all around the world … this has changed the whole approach to learning and teaching, world-wide.

MS 1:1 technology program

· What are the main differences between Gmail and any email you've used before?

At first, not being familiar with the layout of Gmail and finding my other email service satisfactory, simple to use and sufficient for my use, I was not motivated to change to Gmail; however, the more I am exposed to the different features available through Gmail, the more I realize that Gmail offers more effective means of communication, collaboration and organization to the user.

· What would you like to be able to do with Gmail? Responses here might inform future learning opportunities in this course

I would like to explore and to be able to utilize all of the opportunities Gmail offers, in other words, to gain an effective level of literacy in using today’s tools of communication and collaboration.

· How could one of the tools in Gmail be used to positively impact student or teacher performance at ISB?

At this stage of my experience in using the tools of Gmail, I feel that I could not possibly do justice to the amazing possibilities Gmail offers…possibilities that positively impact both teacher and student acquisition of knowledge and skills, and overall performance. I am aware, however, that Gmail offers its users different and more engaging means of communication and collaboration, and recommends efficient ways of keeping organized and staying on task.