Ed Psych, Pre-operational Podcast

This is our video for Ed Psych on Piaget's Pre-Operational stage.

Imovie

I chose to to use Imovie for my multi-media project because I have this brand new mac and I wanted to learn everything it has to offer. Also I have only used Imovie very casually and I wanted to get better idea of what it could do. First of all, Imovie is a mac only product, sorry PC, but as I found out it can handle a variety of different file formats. I brought in photos downloaded from Picassa and video from a friends helmut cam. I also downloaded a .mp4 file from Screenr.com that I think Iphoto converted automatically to a .mov format. All the video and images I brought in through Iphoto and music came from Itunes. The short audio clip I recorded directly in Imovie. One of the things I noticed right away was how intuitive it was. Most everything was drag and drop or stretch to fill. Simply double clicking on any click allowed you adjust many different aspects of video clips, audio tracks, titles and much more. With just a click from Screenr that video was downloaded and ready to use. Also as soon as I felt ready to upload the video to Youtube I just clicked on the share menu and chose the Youtube settings and within about a half a minute could log into Youtube and view the video. From there I just had to choose share and youtube had a quick-link to blogger.  I did have to save it as a draft because I wasn't ready for the text, but other than that it was ready to go.



I can see using this in the classroom to make lessons more Constructive. Combining video of the subject matter as well music to a lesson in order to appeal to several different learning types. I can also see using it to allow students to submit digital projects combining multimedia and innovation to allow students to express themselves.

Reflection of Ed Tech Standards

• How might you explain the big picture of what these standards are trying to accomplish.
It is very important that students in today’s classroom have the ability to use technology, a very powerful tool to further their own personal and professional life. It is our job as educators to make sure every student has the opportunity to stay current with technology. So that everyone can use technology without having to rely on someone else. This is necessary to increase communication, and open up the world to our students. We need to set rules to guide proper use of technology in our classroom and as future digital citizens. Further it is important in order to keep our nation on the cutting edge so we can stay competitive in the global economy.

• Describe some strategies you could implement at your grade levels in order to accomplish this huge task 
I might just start out with the question of what citizenship means to the students and then turn the class towards a discussion of the differences between that and digital citizenship. The next thing that needs to be done is to discus and agree upon rules and guidelines that will guide the use of technology. I could use a constructivist model to discuss these guidelines by committee and make sure that the rules are put into a way that middle school age students can relate. I would make sure they are posted in the classroom for everyone to see. I would also discuss the laws regarding age restrictions and why these are important. I would also have a discussion to find out on what level my students where already using technology and who would need extra encouragement. I could pair these students with the more advanced students so that we could bridge the technology gap. Depending on the available equipment in the classroom I could either let the students play around with a few of the web 2.0 applications or give them a presentation, using some of the features on my computer. This could culminate in either individual, small group or a collaborative class project.

Barry, I am currently working on a digital citizenship lesson plan and would like to get your thoughts. Here is the link to the rough draft if you would care to take the time to look it over I would appreciate any input.

My favorite Web 2.0 tools part 2

So these are not my favorite Web 2.0 tools

Ustream is a web-based video capturing site. It allows you capture, stream and track video. Sort of your own personal reality show. It seem to work fairly well but it took me a few times to get the audio to work. I have unsuccessfully tried several times to embed several different videos into this blog, so I am just going to link to it here. I also had to watch the same commercial four times and it was a little annoying.

Watch live video from jhillyoshi on Justin.tv

Watch live video from jhillyoshi on Justin.tv
I found Justin.tv which actually worked. I also did not have to watch any commercials. It did take me a few seconds to realize that I was recording but overall this seems to be a better option.

The second tool I have tried to use is delicious.com. It allows you to bookmark websites using an internet-based location so you can access them using multiple computers. It also allows you share bookmarks and suggest them to other users. This would be a great resource if you used multiple computers for the same job. Like maybe teaching and you don't want to purchase a laptop, or if you use the web to teach. It also allows you to tag sites so they become more relevant. I have used del.icio.us before as a search engine and it seams that it has evolved into delicious.com. What this has become is a way for users to generate tags and decide what content is relevant. As apposed to webspiders and webbots that other sites (google) use to decide what sites best fit your criteria. It is an interesting concept but it also has many flaws, because it relies on humans for information.

Overall I think these tools could be useful for teachers because they facilitate communication. I just think that maybe there are other, better tools to use.

My Favorite web 2.0 tools, part 1

In the beginning we had web 1.0 or first generation websites, these where mostly text and where used to distribute information from distributer to user. Eventually we got images and web 1.25 (second generation) was born. This was similar to a magazine, cool glossy pictures, text but still no interactivity. Then low and behold someone comes up with Flash! This is the third generation of the internet and it created cool interaction but on a very limited bases, more like playing a game.

Today we have the fourth generation of the world wide web and we call it WEB 2.0. This next generation allows users to create, expand, share and interact with all sorts of content and each-other.

"Web 2.0 is the term used to define the applications on the world wide web that are used to increase interactivity between users.  information sharing, interoperability, user-centered design, and collaboration." (From wikipedia)

Diagram showing the connections of users to web 2.0. Because it looks like a cloud we often use the term Cloud Computing.

There are new sites and applications being developed daily and it feels to me like we are on the verge of something very powerful. Google has been on the cutting edge of invention. Most of the programs they have developed or acquired are similar to programs that have been around for a long time. Google has just made them available on any computer with a web browser. Many of them feel very familiar to some of the programs I learned on when I was in college in the early nineties. That is not to say they are not advanced but are more accessible to the everyday user. In addition to the applications we also have social media. There are hundreds of sites that allow users to collaborate, communicate and interact at various levels. Facebook, Twitter, and Blogger are just a couple of examples. Even the most rudimentary sites these days have options for people to leave feedback.

With great interactivity comes great responsibility! MikeG, one of my classmates brought up the question of ownership? Who owns all this material? Who has access to it? Who is paying for it? Mike pointed out that Google owns all content in their sites. (update: Michiel another classmate posted this that clears up some of the issues) Up till now they have been very adamant about customer privacy, but who knows what the future will hold. Does the government have the right to access our documents? Who is google selling our information to? For now we can only assume that google is protecting us, but who knows what the future will hold.

Stay tuned for part 2!

Data Analyzing Assignment

This chart shows students from the class that improved the least from test 6 to the last test of the year.

Here is a link to the Student Growth data sheet, and the Average in this case is average for the entire class.

As you can see they all improved over all, just at different rates. and only a few of their scores decreased before going on to the last test.

If you compare that graph to the one below, you will notice only Kristi, Jason, Queen and Walter had average scores below the class average. (This links to Average Test Scores data sheet)


This shows me that, for the most part the students who start out with lower scores tend to improve more rapidly.

If you look at this data sheet for the last 5 tests, you will notice that some of the students with the highest scores show the least amount of improvement.

Link to data sheet.

This brings up two questions; first is the teacher spending to much time with the students who have lower test scores? and second should the teacher be worried about the students who are showing less than average improvement?

Awesome video.

I stole this from Becky Tengs blog, but I think it is awesome.


Becky Tengs is an Elementary Teacher who teaches Digital Citizenship in Beaverton.
Taylor Mali is an outspoken Teacher Poet from NYC.

Do you have too many Social Media sites?

Sometimes it can be hard to keep track of all the different sites you want to post on. Twitter, Facebook, Blogger, wouldn't it be nice to post in one place and not have to worry about the rest? Now there is ping.fm. With over 30 different sites you can manage at one time it is the place to go to update the world on that canker sore you just had removed. There are also several applications that allow companies communicate using twitter.

I know that I could use this product every fifteen minutes while I should be working. That's why I am switching to ping.fm.

Picasa project.

Here is the link to our notes on Picasa, a free photo editor and photo album program.

Picasa Project

Authors: Heather Burks, Kristen Klay, Josh Hill

Picasa is an interesting program that I was first introduced to by my brother-in-law. He would send me links to photos he was taking of my niece. I thought this was pretty cool because it allowed me to see these pictures. I had no idea what the potential was for this program. For the project listed above I went ahead and registered with Picasa and downloaded the install program and played around with it for a while. I have been using PhotoShop for almost 20 years and Picasa felt a little like the first versions of PhotoShop. Picasa is also very similar to iPhoto which I have also used alot. I like using Picasa because it is very easy and intuitive to use, but i don't see a point in having two photo editors on my computer. I was the original author of our album but we all uploaded photos to it. Heather reminded me to make it public so that everyone could work on it.

 I also used the local Picasa application to turn screen captures from Grab an apple program that stores a picture of what ever you have up on your computer in a .tiff format. I eventually figured out how to use Picasa to convert them to .jpgs and eventually started using Picnik. Recently I have learned that if I use Preview to take screen captures you can go directly to .jpg format. Picnik, is a web-based photo editing program with very rudimentary editing options. It does have the ability to change file types witch I found very helpful when trying to upload a few screen captures that where saved in a .tiff format.

I can see using Picnik in a class to convert, touch up and adjust photos and then transferring them into a Picasa album for the distribution. I think I will remove Picasa from my applications because I don't see the point in keeping two volumes of photos on the same computer.

Resource for Aspiring Teachers

Link to some volunteer Opps.

Great article in the WSJ about teaching in a Charter School

Deborah Kenny's article on the future of education.

This is a very good article in the Wall Street Journal about where we should be going in education.

I like the content and am a big supporter of Charter Schools. She points out that we need to trust our teachers as professionals to do a what they do out of love of the job not money. Teachers are a bit like children, they are motivated by knowledge and success, not just money.

Interesting video from the OTEN conference.

This is long but it has some good comparisons

OTEN Notes and Reflections

These are my audio notes on the 2010 OTEN (Oregon Technology in Education Network) conference.
Saturday, Sept. 25: 8:30am - noon.

This includes a brief description of the Keynote Speaker and two of the sessions.

The first session was with Becky Tengs who teaches Digital Citizenship to grade schoolers

The second session was with Suzete Lewis and she talked about developing a video game for teaching that incorporates all the attributes of a good classroom. She also compared learning to WOW.

OTEN Website

Unemployment in Oregon

I just found this data sheet for Oregon Unemployment, Labor Statistics by State. By comparing our all time low of about 4.7% relative to the rest of the rest of the nation. This almost double some of the other states. I think our current rate might not be as bad as I once thought.

The uses of Blogs in education.

There are many applications for using blogs in education at all levels. Their basic function is to share information and this is almost the same as the school system. We know that most of what is on the internet is not very accurate, but some sources in fact can be. For example wikipedia is actually fairly accurate. For example this webcast Assessing Wikipedia's Accuracy from NPR explains the relative accuracy of Wikipedia. This shows us that collaborative websites have a higher level of education content and are more trustworthy.

What this means in education is that blogs can be a large source of reliable information for everyone in the teaching environment. We can use them to get information from teacher to student, teacher to parents, parents to students, administrators to teachers, and even students to teacher.

I think that one of the best uses of blogs is to get parents involved in their children's education. By opening up the lines of communication parents can contribute their experiences, goals for their children and fears to their teachers on a daily basis. It is a powerful tool in everyones arsenal. A teacher can post assignments or homework so teachers know what is going on in the class. Parents can post related stories to make the lesson more relevant to the real world. Students can ask questions and get answers in real time, and combined with video and audio all groups can carry on real time discussions. Here is a blog that further discusses this issue. Classroom 2.0, Getting Parents Involved

Blogging can also be used for students to present papers and class work. Not everyone likes to get up in front of class and speak. Maybe through this forum children who are sometimes quiet and sitting at the back of class could break out of their shell and speak out about what is important to them. I think that anyway to get a child involved is good. It also would encourage them to do better work if they new there might be some pier review and discussion. As you see by this video, Student Blogging, children get excited about sharing their blogs with the world.

Of course there are some implication of blogging in education that are scary. Every teacher who uses blogs in their classroom need to setup rules in order help protect the children, the school and them self. But as long as it is a safe, educational and a positive environment these blogs are an excellent resource for everyone involved in education. In the Salem Keizer School District they have made a set of goals related to students and the internet under digital citizenship in The Salem Keizer School District Technology Plan.

One more use would be be the ability to share information between piers. Such as me posting this list to volunteer opportunities at South Salem High School.

Who am I?

I am a first year student in the Willamette University MAT Aspire program. I have gone back to school after 15 years as a graphic designer for several reasons. Partly because I don't see much of a future in graphic design. Most of it is becoming automated by websites or outsourced to other countries. Mostly because I want to make a positive difference in the world. My mother is a retired teacher who was very respected in her field and I want to effect the kind of change that she has had on her many students.

I intend to teach middle school math or social studies and I look forward teaching at this level. I know you might think middle school is scary but I think it is one of the best times in a child's life. I know it is one of the most important times for them them to have consistent quality interactions with positive adult role models.

I bring with me 15 years of real world experiences including Graphic Design, Construction, Theatre and other professional skills. I also enjoy exploring through hiking, motorcycling, camping and fishing. I hope that with all my experiences I will be able to bring the real world into the classroom. I plan on making every lesson relevant to each child I have the pleasure to teach.

Sundays in Salem

It is another lazy Sunday in Salem, Oregon. Just sitting, drinking coffee and doing homework (or not doing). I have spent much of my life in coffee shops, watching life go by. Interesting stuff, but now I am joining the throngs who pass by and doing something new with my life. Should be fun, will be scary, looking forward to the next thing in life. All is good.

Josh