Wisconsin

The last week or so, I’ve been working on a project that involves Skyping with students and classrooms from all across the United States.  Our 4th graders are studying the U.S. and I thought it would be neat to get authentic research from someone who lived there, rather than just using books and online resources.  This is the second year of the project and you would have thought I would have learned something.  For a variety of reasons, mostly my fault, the project seemed to be more successful last year.  Now, we’re not done yet, and we could make a strong push this last week and a half, but I wanted to let you know about a few things that you might want to keep in mind when attempting a big project like this.

1.  Be aware of Time Zones.  This wasn’t as much of an issue for me as last year, but it’s still something you can’t forget about.  There was one interview we had scheduled this year, but I sent out the wrong time.  Luckily, the teacher was able to work us back into their schedule and everything worked out.  I can’t imagine what it must be like dealing with time zone differences more than a couple of hours.

2.  Organizination is key.  I tried to keep in constant contact with the teachers we would be communicating with so the potential for something to go wrong was minimal.  I made a few mistakes when I originally set up my contact list from last year, but eventually got things worked out.  However, don’t do what I did, and have 3 different lists of contacts.  It’s not a good idea.

3.  Plan on everything taking longer than you’d expect.  Barring any technical difficulties (see #4) the interviews will take longer than expected.  In some cases, the students are more talkative.  In others, you get started a little later than expected.  Regardless of the reason, I figured out I had to schedule the chats at least 20 minutes apart instead of the 15 I did in the past.

4.  Technology is great - when it works.  We used Skype for all of the video chats and for the most part, things worked okay.  Some connections were better than others and the quality of the video and audio was good.  In others, it was pretty choppy.  In some cases we had Skype issues on one end and had to cancel the chats all together.  In all but one case so far, we were able to reschedule.  Regardless, I reasonably happy with how things are going.

5.  Flexibility is key!  Luckily, I’m in a position where I have large chunks of time during the day when I don’t have students.  I know that’s not the case with a lot of people, but I can honestly say that the willingness of the teachers involved to work with our schedule has been pretty good.  In several cases, teachers we were working with simply told us they’d work around our schedule.  Some went as far as to say, “Tell us when to meet and we’ll stop what we’re doing to chat.”  That’s awesome and very much appreciated.  I do have to say the willingness of the two classroom teachers in my school to be flexible has been great as well.  There have been times when I’ve called up to their rooms minutes before a scheduled chat and asked for a student.  They’ve sent the child down with no issues.  (Or at least no issues that I know of!)

6.  Use your PLN and their PLN’s.  Getting the word out about the project is probably the hardest thing to do.  I started much later this year than last getting the information out.  Last year, I posted information about the project all over the place.  I wrote a blog post about it, used the Classroom 2.0 Ning, the Projects by Jen Ning, Global Schoolhouse Network and probably others I forgot about.  This was both good and bad.  It was great because a wide variety of educators heard about the project.  It was bad because I had to make sure I remembered to visit the sites to check for comments.  This was hard for me.  While I did receive emails from the Nings when comments were made, I struggled (and did again) touching base with all interested educators.  I also didn’t realize that you could close a discussion on a Ning, which I should have done because there were comments about particpating after the project was over last year.  That’s part of learning, right?  In addition to posting the information all over the place, several members of my PLN on Twitter retweeted the information to their PLN’s.  This was very nice of them because in most cases, I didn’t ask - they just took a few seconds to help out. Read the rest of this entry »

Looking for a great professional development opportunity?  How about a FREE day of professional development?

Participate in the DEN Virtual Conference on Saturday, April 25th at New Berlin Eisenhower High School. Here you will have a chance to have fun with other great teachers and immerse yourself in a great learning experience.  The day will begin at 8:30 and wrap up at 3:00.

If you can’t make it to N.B. Eisenhower, you can still participate from the comfort of your own home - just click on the link below.

DOWNLOAD this DEN Virtual Conference Flyer about the event to post in your Teacher’s Lounge or to share with your colleagues.

 For more information, a schedule of events, and to register, click here.

Mark your calendars for the WEMTA Winter Virtual Conference - Saturday, February 28th, from 9:00 am (CST) to 4:00 pm.  What is a virtual conference?  Well, this one is a one day conference delivered virtually LIVE to your computer - wherever you are.  All you need is a computer that has internet access (a microphone is optional, but it does allow you to participate live with your questions or comments.)  You can attend all day, part of the day, or just the session(s) you are interested in.

 Schedule of Events

9:00 – Copyright or Copywrong:  Copyright and fair use in the classroom  Not sure what is allowed or is not allowed under copyright laws?  Need a refresher on what to be telling students when they produce their multi-media presentations?  Need practical suggestions on how to bring your staff up-to-date with fair use and copyright?  Then attend this webinar and get “up to speed.”  Presenter:  Keith Schroeder  Web address:  http://keithschroeder.net

10:00 - LEARN 360 

Learn360 is a diverse collection of thousands of online streaming videos and video clips created by organizations such as PBS, National Geographic, and Sunburst Visual Media, as well as educationally relevant audio files, newsreels, speeches, and images. Many videos can be downloaded in QuickTime, Windows Media, and Flash and imbedded in classroom presentations.  Even if you’ve seen LEARN 360 before, you haven’t seen anything yet!  They have greatly expanded the available resources and tools.  Presenter:  Tom Bukowski  Web address:  http://www.learn360.com/

11:00  iSafe – Internet Safety Curriculum 

Recent legislation appears to require schools to provide Internet Safety education.  This wording was added to the Communications Act: ‘‘(iii) as part of its Internet safety policy is educating minors about appropriate online behavior, including interacting with other individuals on social networking websites and in chat rooms and cyber bullying awareness and response.’’  One of the resources available for your use is the www.iSafe.org approach to educate and empower youth in internet safety concepts. IT is a free curriculum, though you need to be complete some training in order to access the materials. iSafe covers five basic internet safety concepts.  Presenter:  Chris Rogers  Web address:  http://www.cesa7.k12.wi.us/content/ils/index.asp

12:00  The Importance of a Personal Learning Community (PLC) and How to Develop One   

A PLC is a personal learning community.  These are the people who are your resources.  This is where you can bounce ideas, get new ideas, brainstorm, etc.  You are not alone any longer when connections are so easy to develop with the new tools available on the internet.  We’ll take a look at what all of the buzz is about and I’ll show you some of the great tools available for you to start developing your PLC!  Presenter:  Keith Schroeder  Web address:  http://keithschroeder.net

1:00 RSS - Your New Research Assistant! 

Need Your Own Research Assistant?  Do you wish you had more time to explore the internet and find cool sites to integrate into your curriculum?  Are you looking to bridge the gap between yourself and your students in the digital world they live in?  Create a RSS feed page.  Time is always an issue, there is never enough.  A RSS feed page will allow you to find keep track of newly added information to blogs, websites and wikis that pertain to your subject area or other areas of interest.  In a few simple steps you can set up a page and you will instantly be on top of the most current news.  Presenter:  Dena Budrecki  Web address:  http://msdenabudrecki.pbwiki.com/

2:00 (Double Session)  Cyber-Safe Kids, Cyber-Savvy Teens: Helping Young People Learn to Use the Internet Safely and Responsibly - FERPA and How It Impacts Schools. 

We must expect that young people will post personal information online and will interact wih a wide range of people ~ including “online strangers.”  There are risks associated with these activities.  There are also risks associated wth crossing a busy street.  We don’t tell children never to cross streets.  We hold their hand when they are young ~ then we teach them how to do so safely and responsibly!  As our young people are becoming involved in the global interactive Internet community, it is important for educatros to ensure they have the knowledge, skills and values to do so safely and responsibly. This presentation will focus on materials available for students, professional development and resources for parent education.  The presentation will  give you practical suggestions that will incoporate insight from research on youth risk online and effective risk prevention.  Presenter:  Nancy Willard, the executive director of the Center for Safe and Responsible Internet Use, is a nationally recognized authority on issues related to the safe and responsible use of the Internet.Web address:  http://www.cyberbully.org/ 

To register please follow this link:  https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/621167197

My district has recently installed Microsoft Sharepoint. This is a dynamic tool (albeit from the MotherShip) that allows me to create and control groups where users can collaborate though shared documents, discussions boards, blogs, and wikis (and many other features).

My initial observations of Sharepoint made me realize that it has a distinct Microsoft footprint - heavy on tools, but clunky to use. It reminds me of that spoof video fantasizing if Microsoft had packaged the iPod. In any case, I futzed around with it for a while until I was semi-satisfied.

I have to admit - the discussion board is a powerful tool. It engages my students on a level that they would not comfortable with in the classroom. It challenges them to raise questions they would not ask in class. It actually brings more discussion into the classroom. And this was only after a week of discussion. (NOTE: the power of a discussion board is not new to me, but this is the first time I am able to use one under my district’s IT reign).

This is exactly a tool I have been looking for, as I have a colleague in Sweden who wants to have our classes collaborate on a project. Since SKYPE is blocked, this would allow the students to actually have that collaboration - supervised by me and my Swedish colleague.
Sharepoint is quite powerful in that it allows multiple configurations for its users with many layers of permission. There are a few no-brainers that I already have setup to protect my students. First - they can only post, but can’t edit or delete their entries. This helps to reinforce the idea that once something is posted on the internet, it is always there. Secondly, I don’t allow anonymous outside registration either - outside registration would have to be added by me or would have to be requested.

But I am not clear how to setup other student permissions/identities and if I should allow outside access for viewing. I have a few options:

1. Lock down the site so that ONLY students in my class can see and participate in the discussions
2. Lock down the site as above, but allow it to be viewed by any student or teacher in the district
3. Allow outside viewing, but protect student identities - make them create unidentifiable usernames
4. Other options?

If you use student discussion boards, what advice do you have? What are the benefits and drawbacks of these configurations? I want students to be safe, feel free to speak their mind, but I also want to emulate the outside world as well.

You can see what I’ve done (and what the students have done) so far. Their identities are protected - so I am currently using option #3. Most likely, these settings will change in the future. [Link]