The XO Computer November 13, 2007

I have read two interesting posts by class members about the “Digital Divide”. The increasing gap between children with access to technology and those will limited or no access. I agree that continued exposure, discussion, practice, sharing of technology and the tools whenever possible is the best practice.

The one laptop one child program:

Initially started with the concept of producing a wi-fi enabled, open source laptop for $100, the project brought together giants of the tech industry to create something that had never been achieved before; a universally affordable computer for children in under developed countries in need of not just 21st century learning tools, but also access to information, the Internet, and each other. While the laptop was unable to be manufactured for $100, the parties involved finally settled on a design that would sell for just about $200. Even at that price, it’s not bad for a full-featured laptop that comes with it’s own office suite of programs, wi-fi Internet access, and a host of other features, including the ability to recharge the battery using a hand crank!

“The OLPC (One Laptop Per Child) project is making the computer available for purchase here in Canada & the United States! And while you make your purchase, you can give a FREE laptop to a child in a developing nation. For $399, you can purchase one of the laptops for your child (or yourself!) and send one off to another child in need. Up to $200 of that is tax deductible, so while you aren’t technically getting a free laptop, you are giving a free laptop, after taxes. Time is limited though, as the “Get One Give One” program is only running until November 26th, which means there’s only 14 days left to spread the gift of technology, information, literacy, and creativity around the world.

What a unique idea, for a pretty good price!

Above information and a picture found on today’s post of The Tech Savvy Educator’s Blog.

Is this an answer to the “Digital Divide”?

Some of you may follow Kathy Schrock (Discovery Education). She also comments on the XO Computer deal. She is participating in the program, one for a child in a developing country and one for her husband, who is biking across the US next spring.

Thanks to Vivian for her post, Pushing the Envelope. Would this be a computer that could make a difference in your world?

Do you want to create a survey? November 12, 2007

I have been working with several teachers using ePearl as an assessment tool and presentation tool for parents. They are using ePearl as part of their triad conferencing. Students will show parents their work stored on ePearl. Parents will see that they can access ePearl from home also. They will be encouraged to comment on their child’s work. I really like ePearl as the tool for assessment / electronic portfolio.

Another tool I tried for the first time this week is Survey Monkey. A tool for creating web surveys. I wanted to survey a group of students and this was an easy tool to learn. Your free survey can contain a maximum of 10 questions, you may have several surveys. There are several types of questions that are fairly easy to configure. I could see using it as a teacher, but also as part of an assignments where students compose the questions and compile and present the data. You are given a weblink or code to embed your survey into blog or webpage.

EduBlog Awards – “The Eddies” November 7, 2007

The 2007 Edublog Awards are open for nominations. There are 20 categories and a new logo. Nominations end November 21 at which time voting begins. When you go to the site, you can browse through the previous winners from 2004 – 2006. You should find some interesting websites to include in your RSS Aggregator or to bookmark in Del.ici.ous.

A Vision of Students Today November 6, 2007

On David Warlick’s blog today, he discusses the following video. A large university class illustrates their learning experiences.

The simplicity used to deliver the message reminded me of the Commoncraft videos.

Yugma Possibilities November 1, 2007

Hello again, I have installed Yugma, looks interesting, would like to give it a try with someone. Just wanted to say that I finally got a chance to look at everyone’s blog and they are very impressive, I can see that I have work to do! I am sorry that I missed the Skype Adventure on Saturday. Elluminate Lite also allows similar features for free for small numbers in conferences.

I am presenting a full day workshop, called-Let’s Talk about the Possibilities-to a group of K-8 teachers. We will be looking at the Literacy with ICT continuum, some web tools, developing a collaborative project between students in our division and creating a focus for this year. This is the agenda, I would say it is optimist, but I like to be overprepared!

You will notice that the agenda is a wiki page, I now use a wiki to hold material and links for presentations. It works really well, as long as the internet is available.

Scratch October 21, 2007

I have had fun today exploring a new online tool – Jing.

I am teaching 2D Animation. I was introduced to a free program called Scratch which I like to use for a few weeks in this course. Scratch could be used with young students. If you ever used Logo, this is the next generation programming. You use sprites, given directions by stacking blocks to create programs.

Something else I tried today is a screen capture program called Jing . It is an amazing program, I was able to record an introduction to Scratch. I then attached a link to the video on our class Moodle. Here is the video made in Jing.

K12 Online Conference – pt.1 October 21, 2007

I have been trying to keep up with the K-12 Online Conference, we are at the end of week one. The theme is Playing with Boundaries with a keynote given by David Warlick to get things started. If you would like to listen to David’s keynote – Inventing the New Boundaries.

Some of the impressions that I took from the keynote were:

The world is changing. The borders are invisible. It doesn’t matter where you are.
We learn by teaching each other, sharing our knowledge and experiences with others, as the new 21^st Century learners

 

Teachers and students are looking for new borders, pavement, places where we can get our traction. For the first time in history we are preparing our students for a future that we can’t clearly predict.

There are other skills that are necessary to learn how to be literate in this new landscape. Find, evaluate, and organize information. Our notion of what is literate will have to change.

 

Information Landscape:

Increasing networked, digital, overwhelming, participatory, flows, uploads, connects and reconnects. There are opportunities within this landscape if we can harness it, create experiences where the work responsibly, communicating, sharing personal experiences within the world that they are learning about.

The best thing we can teach our students is to teach themselves

 

 

The Threat of Security October 14, 2007

I am reading an article in the current issue of Learning & Leading with Technology, “The Threat of Security – Hindering Technology Integration in the Classroom”.

The introduction mentions many unfortunate teacher security stories such as being warned about purchasing flower bulbs from an online florist on her school provided computer, CD-RW drives unavailable to teachers, who may violate copyright laws if allowed to freely burn CDs. The results is that teachers may avoid computing technology in their classroom.

The question asked in the article is “Could our concern over security be generating a fear that is now hindering the integration of technology in our classrooms”.

We all want children to be safe. We don’t appreciate when our PC networks, hardware, and software have been attacked by viruses.

Barriers to technology integration can include a lack of equipment, training, support. The authors of the article found that lack of security was rarely identified as barrier. Studies indicate that students who use technology in their classroom tend to develop more constructivist learning activities. Lack of access is a primary barrier to technology integration.

School Division have been forced to consider security measures in K-12 schools. Cybersecurity, limiting access to certain sites, AUPs, violations resulting in loss of privileges, increased firewalls, back up of data, antivirus software. Educators also have to be aware of copyright laws. Monitoring potential copyright infringement associated with digital information accessed through the web, although inconvenient the policies make sense.

Identifying the Threats:

E-Mail – teachers are expected to check and respond to email messages as they would to phone calls. The article questions that no one comments when a teacher makes a person phone call, however, personal email are discouraged. Email can be monitored.

Networks – forgetting to log off on a public computer can compromise your security. Some colleges have installed script that has computers logoff after 15 mins idle time. A comment in the article, most students that work in labs are more concerned with losing their data/work that some accessing their personal folders.

Web Sites – Many teachers are expected to maintain a website. Some policies may discourage teachers from using the web, filtering, not posting to webpages outside of the school server, limits on what can be posted, themes, pictures.

In conclusion, the threats to security are real, but they need to be seen in perspective. A balance of the need to protect our students and our tools with accessibility and flexibility is the best answer.

Online Security and Privacy October 7, 2007

The question of personal privacy and security is one that concerns individuals, educators, school boards, businesses and government. The internet has few controls, it could be discribed as the wild wild west.

It is best to be aware of all possibilities and try to minimize any resk. Personally, I have shopped online, I do belong to mailing groups. The “flat world” is a welcome place in rural Manitoba! I am not saying that I proceed without concern, I check the reliability of the site, look at user comments, and continue with caution. We also use a seperate credit card for online purchases, which makes keeping track easier.

As a technology educator, student security and protection is something we talk about all year, often using “teachable moments”. The question of filtering at school is one I hear about regularly. One answer is to try to create a walled-garden, filtering out any questionable sites using tags, keywords, URLs to limit student access to certain sites. I prefer the educate, train and practice approach.

School appropriate websites – most students can recognize an inappropriate site – students should notify the teacher or quickly back out of the site. The benefits of filtering or locking down your system often backfires for teachers, as sites that they know are fine can sometimes be blocked at school.

Helping students learn to understand, read and recognize preferred websites is a life long skill. Alan November’s “Teaching Zack to Think” gives us many ways to understand the language of the web. Security lies in education in my opinion.

We are going to be using online tools, security and privacy can be protected, if you proceed with caution. Using an alias, taking care when filling in, or not filling in, personal information, I would suggest that parents enter any personal information for their children if they want to register for a new tool.

Social Networking sites, email, IMing are a great way to keep track of your family and friends. However, one thing I like to remind my students and during PD sessions is that “Once it is out there, it is out there!” Don’t say something that you would not say to someone’s face. This could prevent some embarrassing, regretable incidents.

Cool Cat Teacher Blog, has a post on 11 steps to online parental supervision of your children. She feels that there should be some filtering on your home computer. Good point for parents.

Welcome to my ICT blog September 29, 2007

This is my first entry for our ICT for teacher course.  My understanding is that blogs are for opinions, ideas, feelings, reflections and comments. I have to admit that I will often puzzle over my comments, editing and reflecting too long. I am hoping that with practise I will be able to let go of my inhibitions!

I would like to share a cool video creating tool with you, it was presented to the web community at the end of August.  The program is called Animoto. You will have to sign up for a free account which will allow you to produce a 30 second video. Give it a try!