A Change of Location - Digital That Is

Because of the problems we've had with Lesley's "Chalk 'n Wire" ePortfolio system, the importance of documenting the work done throughout the Lesley experience…and that I'm kind of digging this whole blogging thing, I've decided to move my blog to a new account with a name that is more general. The new account, http://thelesleycampaign.blogspot.com/, is still with Blogger, and it was actually quite easy to export/import my entire ECOMP 6008 blog (posts, comments, everything) to the new location. This is a nice feature to know about with respect to possible student use; that students can use Blogger for an assignment and if they want to keep the entries for later (e.g. ePortfolio) or combine blogs from multiple classes into one, they can!

So, if you are following this blog I hope you will make the journey over to http://thelesleycampaign.blogspot.com/ and follow me on my new blog.

See you on the flip side!

Dropbox & DROPitTOme: A Final Reflection

My final project for ECOMP 6008 was to investigate the web2.0 tool Dropbox and an add-on application, DROPitTOme. The original motivation for this investigation was born out of the frustration of one of our 8th grade science teachers who had grown accustomed to the idea of students submitted their school work to him electronically but his setup with MobileMe was not meeting his needs. In addition, I am always on the lookout for tools to help reduce waste due to excessive student printing, and with the recent news that our middle school had exhausted its technology budget for printer supplies, this seemed like as good a time as any to conduct such an investigation.

Dropbox:
Dropbox is a blending of cloud computing and file syncing (think Google Docs plus iPod/iTunes management rolled up into one service). You can store, backup, and share a variety of files in your virtual space at Dropbox.com, but also download their software so that laptops, desktops and mobile devices can all be synced with the same library of files and folders. So for example, when you save your lesson plan on Greek Gods into your Dropbox folder on your Windows computer at home, that same file will show up on the web, your MLTI MacBook, your iPhone 3GS, and the iPad that your are piloting for your building's technology integrator.

DROPitTOme:
Where Dropbox really gains momentum in the classroom is when it is paired with the add-on DROPitTOme. This service allows you to give students access to a specific folder in your Dropbox account into which they can "drop" files. The students can't see what's inside the folder and therefore cannot change, remove or plagiarize someone else's work. The DROPitTOme location is linked to the teacher's account and is password protected, so the average web surfer cannot use it as a spam depository.

Other Players on the Field…

MobileMe:

A service provided by Apple for an annual fee of $99, this was the original setup our 8th grade science teacher had been using to receive student work. Aside from the fact that there is no free or lite version of MobileMe, the iDisk component to the service was proving unreliable for both student and teacher. Students would sometimes be denied access to the teacher's iDisk or not be able to upload a file when it was clear that format and/or file size should not have been an issue. The teacher would have difficulty at times with his iDisk folder on his laptop accurately reflecting the file inventory.

Since the transition to their Dropbox/DROPitTOme system, both student and teacher have enjoyed a much better digital file submission experience. I watched as students in green block were asked to submit their most recent lab experiment on static electricity via the teacher's DROPitTOme folder. The time delay between student calling out "lab submitted!" and teacher replying with "lab received!" was only a few moments. Students were happy that the assignment was passed in and the teacher was happy that he had their assignments, (although he was not looking forward to all the grading he was now tasked with completing).

SugarSync:

Closer in look and feel to Dropbox, SugarSync offers cloud-computing data access from any device, anytime, anywhere. Both services offer support for Windows and Mac, and their lists of supported mobile devices are identical. Dropbox pulls ahead with support for Linux users, but SugarSync makes up some of that ground by offering more free space under their free account (5 GB vs. Dropbox's 2 GB) and larger storage bonuses for friend referrals. Miguel Guhlin offers a comparison review of these two services on his blog Around the Corner. The one major drawback to SugarSync is the lack of a feature or add-on component that equates to the power that the DROPitTOme add-on gives Dropbox.

Google Docs:

One of the major players in Google's vast apps. library, Docs is designed to host a variety of productivity files types (documents, spreadsheets, and presentations) for the dual purpose of accessibility from any Internet-equipped computer as well as be shared with others. A user can upload a file, invite others to come and collaborate on its content creation, then download a copy of the resulting product at any time. However, Google Docs lacks a syncing feature that will automatically update local copies of the files with their cloud versions or visa-versa. And, there is currently no comparable system to the DROPitTOme add-on that would allow a student to submit a file to a teacher's Google Docs library unless each student had a Google account and access permissions. Taking on such a task can easily add more management and headache than teachers want to deal with.

Conclusion:
Each of the web2.0 tools discussed here have their strengths and weaknesses. No matter how much you try and prepare for potential hiccups or try to anticipate problems, no system will work flawlessly. So far, the Dropbox/DROPitTOme system is meeting the needs of our 8th grade science teacher and the positive feedback is causing me to consider implementing a similar structure in my own 6th grade computer literacy class. If feedback from my colleagues in the IT department are also positive, then this system could quickly show up on our list of topics for our next technology professional development day. While tomorrow the world could change and the needs of teacher and student shift in another direction but for now at least, if you are looking for a system for students to easily submit homework in a digital format that is also easily accessible for the teacher, then I would recommend you take a look at Dropbox and the add-on DROPitTOme. 

Final Project: Dropbox & DROPitTOme Presentation Outline

Presentation #1: IT Department

Introduction Keynote

•  What is it?
•  Where does it work?
•  What is DropitTOme?
•  Use in the Classroom

Demo

• A student's p.o.v.
• A teacher's p.o.v.

Dropbox Mobile

• iPhone/iPod Touch
• iPad

Q&A

• Is this a viable tool?
• Will IT support its deployment
• If yes, contact building principal to setup Professional Development opportunities

  
Presentation #2: Staff

Introduction Keynote

•  What is it?
•  Where does it work?
•  What is DropitTOme?
•  Use in the Classroom

Video Tutorials

• Dropbox
• Create an account
• Logging in
• Download & Install
• File management

• DropitTOme
• Create an account & sync to Dropbox
• DropitTOme - student experience
• DropitTOme - teacher experience

• Dropbox Mobile
• on the iPhone / iPod Touch
• on the iPad

Hands-on Training & Setup Support (a.k.a. playtime)

 Q&A

Book Reflection: Chapter 10: What It All Means

"So, now that you have a good idea of the tools and the pedagogies, what is going to be the impact on education?" (Richardson, 2010) Good question Will. After all this talk and discussion about the Read/Write Web, blogs, wikis, RSS, Flickr, social bookmarking, podcasting and social networking, where do we go from here? Richardson sums this up in 10 "shifts" that these technologies have created for the future world that our students will inhabit and that we as teachers need to prepare them for.

Big Shift 1: Open Content
The sources that students have access to for learning can no longer be controlled by schools like they were in the past. The Read/Write Web has blown the doors open on information accessibility, and teachers need to shift their attention to including these new sources of knowledge and educating students on how to digest them efficiently.

Big Shift 2: Many, Many Teachers and 24/7 Learning
Learning is no longer restricted to the time period between bells or the start/end of the school day. Teachers have the opportunity to interact with students through blogs, wikis and social networking systems anytime and from anywhere. The Read/Write Web never sleeps.

Big Shift 3: The Social, Collaborative Construction of Meaningful Knowledge
The idea that students produce work in isolation, turn it in for evaluation by a single source (a.k.a. their teacher) and then the process ends has expired. We need to shift to the realization that students need to learn how to work in a collaborative environment, publish their work to a large audience and then continue to refine their understanding through continued feedback and more collaboration.

Big Shift 4: Teaching is Conversation, Not Lecture
Students, more so than ever, are turned off to learning when a teacher talks to them. The response greatly improves, however, when we talk with them and give them a say in how the class tackles the issue. Students cease to be passive learners and become active learners, contributing their knowledge and experiences to enrich the learning experience for everyone.

Big Shift 5: Know "Where" Learning
This one may be my favorite. "In the Read/Write Web classroom, it's not as essential to know what the answer is as it is to know where to find it." (Richardson, 2010) Teaching-to-the-test just doesn't cut it in the real world, but teachers continue to feel pressure to do this to meet standards and expectations set by an administration that is, well, clueless. The answer is not going to do a student any good if they don't understand how they got it. The destination is not as important as how you got there.

Big Shift 6: Readers Are No Longer Just Readers
Thanks to the "write" part of the Read/Write Web, anyone can publish anything online. Whereas before we had book, magazine and newspaper editors who would check content for accuracy, this is no longer the case. The result is that teachers must shift their focus to include educating students on how to be readers and editors of Internet content in order to seek out what is true and what is hooey.

Big Shift 7: The Web as Notebook (or Portfolio)
When I watch a teacher instruct students to print off two copies of a product (one to turn in, one for their portfolio) it drives me nuts. More and more of the content that students are creating today can't be printed on an 8 1/2x11 piece of paper (have you tried to print a podcast? Trust me, the results aren't pretty). Digital or ePortfolios are the future, because they allow students to include rich multimedia artifacts like podcasts, videos, Voicethreads, Storybirds and much more to show their mastery of fact and skill.

Big Shift 8: Writing Is No Longer Limited to Text
We need Shift #7 because student production is no longer limited to just text. Students are "writing" about their knowledge and experiences through the genres of podcasts, iMovies, digital photography, live-streaming and others. I'll never forget a presentation by two 7th grade boys on "Italian Food" and "Coca-Cola." They started their presentation off with a podcast which was animated, even funny at times, and yet still addressed each of the requirements set by their teacher for the assignment. However, they had run out of time to finish the podcast and had to rap things up via traditional oral presentation…it was painful to watch! I asked their teacher if she would grant them an extension so that they could finish their podcast, she agreed.

Big Shift 9: Mastery Is the Product, Not the Test
"Would you feel safe in world where kids were awarded drivers licenses by just passing the written test?" (Richardson, 2010) That question right there hit me like a Mack truck (I won't say how old the driver was). Think back to Shift #5 here; we asks students "how" and "why" because we want them to be able to show us that they have mastered the skills so that, when they are confronted with similar (or different) scenarios in the future, they will have what need to be successful.

Big Shift 10: Contribution, Not Completion, Is the Ultimate Goal
What students have to say and contribute to our community has value. As teachers, it is our job to help them add to this library of knowledge so that their contributions become stronger, fuller, richer. The work students do is "…not meant for the teacher or the class or even the school. It's meant for the world - literally. It's not meant to be discarded or stored in a folder somewhere; it's meant to be added to the conversation and potentially used to teacher others." (Richardson, 2010)

That is the power of the Read/Write Web. That is the power that our students are already using, whether we are aware of it or not. It is this power that we as teachers must educate our students on how to understand, control and use to contribute to the greater good of our society.

One final note…
I have to admit that I'm finding my experience reading this book incomplete. I think it may be because the final chapter ends in a comma. Seriously, I think my book is incomplete. So, I am making a official shout-out to my colleague Bryan to ask if his final chapter in his books ends with the line, "Here is where the real learning,"

I think the culprit was Colonel Mustard…


Diigo: Book link list

Book Reflection: Chapter 9: Social Networks

In chapter 9, Will Richardson dives into the controversial topic of social networks in the classroom and even uses the F-word…yup, you heard me, Facebook. Just like any other web2.0 tool that Richardson has discussed in his book, I can see social networking being integrated into the classroom given the right service, oversight and expectations. And, I know that Facebook is the "in" thing right now for networking online, but I've also seen first-hand the hurt, harm and damage inflicted on students due to Facebook misuse.

Technically, it shouldn't be an issue for us at the middle school level, what with Facebook's 14-years-and-older policy for having an account…but it IS an issue. A week doesn't go by when the assistant principal and I aren't investigating a report of cyberbullying between one or more students via Facebook with one of the laptops from the MLTI 1-to-1 Initiative. We even have a school Facebook account for the sole purpose of investigating these incidents. But I digress…

Richardson rightly advocates that we as educators need to be aware of social networking and Facebook in particular, regardless of whether it is permitted on our schools or not, for the simple reason that our students are using it right now. Because if we know how Facebook works then we can educate our students on how to use it appropriately, ethically and safely. It all comes back to the idea of digital citizenship and the need to integrate this into all corners of education. My colleague Jen has a very well-written blog post that covers this topic in more detail. You can check it out here.

A popular path to social networking integration in the classroom is to create a Ning network. While sometimes also blocked by school filters, most IT departments will be more open to allowing a Ning site through than Facebook. After that, you can create a Ning around any interest-topic of your choosing. Richardson provides some great examples of teachers who have integrated Ning networks into their classrooms that, although prove to be a lot of work to manage at times, have yielded fabulous results with students. Check out my Diigo links at the bottom to see for yourselves.

Richardson sums up the chapter with one word of caution for you Ning users, "whatever you do, don't let anyone click on that 'Add Apps' button." If you've ever seen a students' iGoogle page, then I think you know what he's talking about.


Diigo: Book link list for Social Networking | Facebook | Ning

Book Reflection: Chapter 8: Podcasting, Video and Screencasting, and Live Streaming

In chapter 8 Will Richardson jam-packs a lot of multimedia tools, ideas and resources for you to consider to the point where you can easily be overwhelmed. Thus this was definitely not a chapter to read all in one sitting. However, the goal of each of the sub-topics is the same: to get students to invest time and energy to create quality pieces of work for the purpose of publishing the products online.

I love podcasts and the power they give students to tell a variety of stories. Each year I see podcasts popping up in more and more of our 6th grade classes as an option for students to express their understanding and/or mastery of a topic or skill. So much in fact that "How to make a Podcast" has become a necessary part of my computer literacy curriculum that fights to be the first taught each year. Last year we got our first set of "enhanced" podcasts from one of our 6th grade language arts classes published to the web (click here) and we hope to add more classes in other content areas this year!

Video and screencasting are just like podcasting except you are cranking up the difficulty level a notch or two. When you add video, you are adding a lot more to the process in the form of planning (a.k.a. scripting and storyboarding) filming, editing and rendering. While the time investment is significant, the results can be well worth it and students will be invested - remember how popular YouTube is!

For those of you who are technology integrators, media specialists, or the teacher who everyone turns to for tech. help, screencasting is a great way to provide tutorials and how-to guides for both students and teachers. As the MLTI Tech Lead for my school, each year I would create tutorials and guides for my users on a variety of topics, everything from changing-your-password to saving-to-the-server to backing up your browser bookmarks. Just one problem…NOBODY was opening the documents to read them. No matter how many screenshots I used or how many times I refined my directions or how many funky arrows, circles and squares I added, I would still get flooded with emails and phone calls asking for help. Then, last year I used the screencast tool built-in to Quicktime 10 to make my tutorials and WOW what a difference! That was it, I was sold on screencasts.

In the case of podcasting as well as any digital video production, this is a great time to talk with students about copyright, creative commons resources and citing where you get your digital media from. The reason why my school has yet to be able to publish student iMovies online is because this issue has yet to take a firm hold in our school culture. However, with the integration of podcasts and iMovies entering into more and more classrooms and emerging from more and more assignments we hope to see a change in this for the better.

Resources…
My Podcasting Unit
Diigo: Book link list for Podcasting | Screencast | Live Streaming

Book Reflection: Chapter 7: Fun With Flickr

In chapter 7, Will Richardson looks at photos, images and online organizers as powerful tools for student expression and igniters for project ideas. Leading the pack in this corner of web2.0 is the photo sharing site Flickr.com. Flickr allows users to upload digital images, organize them into albums or "photostreams" and set permissions for who to share them with. One of the founding struts of the site is the use of tags (there's that word-of-the-day again, aaaaahhhhh!…oh, flashback to the days of Pee-Wee's Playhouse, my apologies) to organize photos for searching later as well as take advantage of a growing number of web2.0 tools. For example, you can create RSS feeds from Flickr based on specific tags.

For teachers and students, an important place to visit on Flickr is their Creative Commons section. I like how Flickr provides a legend to educate us about the different types of permissions photo authors can give and how they would like their images treated and referenced. This provides an important teaching opportunity to educate students on citing sources from the Internet; citation is just as important for images as it is for text. In fact, some general search engines now have filters under their "advanced search" tool that allow you to find content that has been tagged with Creative Commons permissions.  Google | Yahoo! | Flickr

The potential for teachers to enrich assignments using Flickr are quite numerous and continue to grow. Just a few of the ideas Richardson mentions are: photo field trips, random writes and Make It Mine. And the projects do not have to be complex. Richardson describes a simply activity where students go to Flickr and in the search bar type in the first word that comes to mind. Then, they take the first image listed in the search results and writes a story about it. Check out my Diigo link list for several web2.0 applications highlighted in the book that use Flickr to enhance web content.


My Flickr Photostream
Diigo: Book link list