Final Reflection

I am glad that this class gave me a reason to experiment with these tools.  There is never time unless we make the time.  Many people have told me that I spend too much time at school, and as a result of their concerns, I try to only do what I feel absolutely must be done.  Experimenting does not fit in this category, and that is why I never took the time to even set up a youtube account.  Now I have and I think that will be a time saver in the long run.  I liked Storybird as a fun and easy way to create lesson visuals that are engaging.  Screencasting is another tool that will help me to be more efficient in my prep time, especially when I am preparing for a sub.  Google forms might save me from the annual task of filing artsonia.com permission forms.  Google docs could be a way to collaborate with other staff not only in my building but also with my job-alike group in other buildings.

The process of learning the tools was frustrating for my old brain at times.  I knew the thing I wanted to do was probably just a matter of finding the right button or link.  The blog format was extremely helpful in solving these types of problems.  I could look at the posts of others who worked on the same assignment and learn from them.  The open lab was also helpful because sometimes you just need a human being that you can explain your problem to and they can usually at least point you in the right direction.  Sometimes it is simply the process of voicing your problem that makes you realize the answer yourself.

Week 10: Free Choice: Google form

I am excited because I think this might actually reduce my workload once school starts.  Artsonia.com is an awesome website I have been using since 2006 to showcase student art.  It is super time consuming but worth it because students and families get excited about art through this site.

In the past, I sent home paper permission forms, waited for them to come back, asked the homeroom teachers to collect them for me and give them to me all at once.  Then I hoped I could read them and I hoped they didn't leave important information blank.

A google form permission form might save time because a spreadsheet would be created with all the information.  Would I be able to sort by homeroom teacher if that is one of the questions?  Would it be a hard thing to make sure the people responding actually are the legal guardians of the students they name on the form?  What issues have I not thought of yet?

Week 9: Fitness Assessment

Scenario 1: Collaboration = Harassment?
1.  Discuss the possible ethical issues involved.

We need to have a zero tolerance for harassment.
2.  Determine if the safety or well-being of anyone is in jeopardy.

The unnamed target of the harassment is the one whose safety or well-being is in jeopardy.  The parent's complaint about Jeremy's access to academic progress does not hold water.
3.  What advice, strategy, or policy would you recommend to individuals or schools based on this scenario?

I think Jeremy has already negatively impacted his own academic progress.  School administration needs to support this teacher's correct decision to suspend the student's account.  Jeremy will need to either complete the assignments in a different way, or have an adult stand over him as he completes the assignments in a new account. The adult will do the log in and log out so that Jeremy does not have access to the account outside of class.
4.  Share any real-life incidents or personal connections related to the scenario.
It bugs me when the school has to devote more resources and staff time to solve problems like this.  I do not have any specific story to tell here, just the general comment that these resources could do so much more if we did not have to spend them on reacting to people being idiots.  Could this scenario be avoided?  Parenting classes might be a good start.

Scenario 5: Email Complication
1.  Discuss the possible ethical issues involved.
I understand protecting the safety of the students by limiting the email accounts in this way, making sure they are used only for school communication.  It is extremely limiting also.  I don't think I would have thought of checking that aspect of this lesson plan.  An email account that does not accept outside emails?  Who knew. Not sure what is the best solution.

2.  Determine if the safety or well-being of anyone is in jeopardy.

The teacher!  I hate it when I look like an idiot in front of a class.  I am getting used to it, however.  :)
3.  What advice, strategy, or policy would you recommend to individuals or schools based on this scenario?

Whenever planning a lesson that involves students using a technology that you have not used with students before, it is a good idea to talk with the tech person or some other staff person who has done it before.  Who knows what quirks needs to be worked out.  Practice it from a student computer.  It would be helpful to have a bogus student account so we could practice things from a student perspective.
4.  Share any real-life incidents or personal connections related to the scenario.
I could relate to this scenario because it started by describing the teacher using the same powerpoint to introduce content for many years.  That's me.
Also, whenever I try to have students use technology, something like this always backfires.  I try it myself and practice it to make sure it will work, but there is always something I did not think of that causes a major problem.  Sometimes updates happen that change the way something works.  Sometimes a site crashes or a video is removed from youtube.  Sometimes the student setting is different from the staff setting.

Week 8: Polling and data collection

I struggled with this assignment, but here it is.  It is odd how it does not show up in edit mode, but it is there when you view the blog.  At first I had an open-ended question for my poll, but as I drove home from the computer lab, I decided I was not comfortable with the risk of the open-ended question.  Responses are public immediately, and who knows what shenanigans people may try.


For my google form, I decided to try to get a feel for the staff impression of artsonia.com, a website that I have used for a few years now to showcase student art. I also want to know if it is still important for me to send out my weekly art update emails to staff.

https://docs.google.com/a/moundsviewschools.org/forms/d/1M-vVft3ienMZWrAL7N-pI9fthKUhQmB7eGNbrhlnh2c/viewform

This is a link to the google form.  I think it is fine for you to respond even if you are not a turtle lake staff person.  I will send a new one to the Turtle Staff if I decide this is a good way to gather this information.  This version is a little wordy.

Week 7: Cloud Computing

This assignment makes me happy.  I have already done sharing of google docs, so this process makes sense to me.  I'm glad the assignment forced me to figure out a few new things, like making the link public.

Here is a link to a list of vocabulary for my 5th grade art students.  I shared it with our Info Lit teacher last year, because we collaborated on the first unit of 5th grade art.  It is the plan to do the same this year.  Now I have shared it with two of our homeroom teachers, they might see connections between art vocabulary and other subjects.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1qbAzkZ3avm9Jvo18mDJ4S9hLzoD2BsI_t5lIAWWQqOE/pub

I enjoyed the video in the SummerCamp 2.0 blog that explains how google docs is better than attaching things in emails.  That would be a good video to show in a staff meeting to help people to understand how it works. I found it helpful when I have a student teacher to have our lesson plans in google docs so we can both comment and edit and not wonder which version is current.  I could see this as a better way to collaborate with other art colleagues in the district about district curriculum and lesson sharing.

One way I could use this with my students: Students could start an artist's statement document that they edit throughout the year.  They could add photos and information about ideas they want to explore in their art.  I could add comments about how they could adjust the assignments to include some of those ideas.  This would have to be an extra credit thing.  There is no way I could comment on everyone's.  They could share it with another student or another adult so they could at least get comments from someone.  I would set a number of documents that I could look at each week.  Oh my.  What have I done?  I have just added another couple hours to every week of the school year, that is what.  Technology is supposed to make our lives easier, isn't it?  I will need to let this idea percolate for awhile.

Week 6: Study Tools

I think these activities fall in the category of "would be cool if I had the time".  Here is a word cloud that I might use as a first slide in a lesson to introduce the architecture of the United Kingdom:

http://www.tagxedo.com/artful/aa56f06c0ed84065

I also explored the timeline site, which I do think I will use, but I do not think I will have time to make many myself, there are lots already made that will work well for me.  No need to reinvent the wheel.

Just now I tried to use Quizlet, but after I typed in all the flashcard information and hit submit, it said the set did not exist.  (of course it didn't, I just made it)  When I tried to back up to see what I did wrong, all the information I just typed was gone.  It said step one was to create the cards.  Step 2 is to create an account.  Seems backward.  So I gave up on Quizlet.

Spicynodes was fun.  I created a mind map to go with the architecture picture above
http://www.spicynodes.org/a/2db57158041e4e53dd8477a88c8f0ee7

The problem with Spicynodes is that I can't seem to get an embed code.  I see the button to click, it just doesn't work.  It thinks and thinks and thinks.  So I put the link above.  If I can get this site to work, I think it might be something I will use.  It seemed to be a lot like Prezi in the way it looks when it is done.  I like the outline format of how to enter the information.  It looked like it was possible to add visuals, so I think I could use it to create lesson presentations.

OK, I tried again and here is the embed code.

I am at school now.  The word cloud doesn't work here, but spicynodes does.  I will need to have a tech person do the freeze and thaw thing to install "silverlight".

Week 5: Creating a YouTube channel

This was easy and very helpful.  This will definitely help me this school year.  I use videos often for demonstration, for introducing artists from history, for supplementing the content.  Some of my videos I took myself so they are in my home folder, some are on YouTube, some are on the mvvideos site.  Subs often found it challenging to figure out how to follow my lesson plans because there were so many digital items to pull up from so many different places.  It was suggested to me that I should put all my videos on a YouTube channel and I said, "Yeah, with all the extra time I have, I'll get right on that."  Well, now I have and it was so much easier than I thought because I had that step by step how to.  Thanks SummerCamp for that.

This video I took using the school's digital camera on a tripod.  I used it last year for 3rd grade.  Videos of demonstrations are so much better than trying to gather the students around me.  This way I can watch the students as they watch to see who looks confused.  Behavior issues decrease.  Everyone can see and hear.  All classes get the same information because there is no chance of me forgetting some important point.  Classes that have subs get the same information.  If students need to, they may hit "replay" during work time as I help other students.