Final thoughts on Course 2

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The Internet

‘Oh, they have the Internet on computers now!’ is one of my favorite Homer Simpson quotes.  CompuGlobalHyperMegaNet is the name of Homer’s new ISP and latest get-rich-quick scheme until he gets bought out by Bill Gates.  (Episode 5F11, season 9)

It’s the get-rich-quick part of this episode that gets me to thinking about Internet security, safety, and responsible navigation on the information super-highway.  This week I caught parts of two episodes of Danger in the Download from BBC Radio.  It’s amazing to think that over a third of all humanity is online now.  However, not everyone who’s online is a responsible, law-abiding, friendly person.  Host Ed Butler described many of the vulnerabilities that the Internet has when it comes to security.  Besides identity theft, there’s cyber attacks against corporate sites and individuals.  Interviews with hackers reveal how susceptable we are to problems

We rely more and more on technology, and sometimes this is good because it makes our lives easier…but sometimes it’s a crutch.  I’m still frustrated when I catch kids doing single-digit multiplication on a calculator.  Danger in the Download describes a day when we’ll dial up our home appliances to prepare dinner for us while we commute from work.  This is cool and convenient.  The program also mentioned insulin users getting automated doses via the Internet, and how a hacker could wreak havoc with such information and power.

Cyber-bullying

During my first year abroad, a student was found to be cyber-bullying another at my school.  I can’t remember all the details, but the bully was expelled.  I believe this may have happened while at school, and the school justified it’s actions through their Acceptable Use Policy.  I must say I was impressed; I remember the principal telling me that they just printed the pages of nasty comments when confronting the bully.  The school’s actions were justified, and I was glad that it took a side in the situation rather than 1) hemming and hawing about what to do or 2) backtracking on a clearly written policy.

I enjoyed Course 2 because I learned a lot about how to better cite sources, draft school policy, and explore ethical and moral behavior with technology.  I’m already eager to get into Course 3.

Working on the AUP

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For the course 2 project, I sat down and brainstormed with Tara Waudby and Matt Kelsey.  Our school has a very general AUP that’s been in our handbook for a while, although it’s not been updated and it’s spread out: cell phone use is in one spot, cyberbullying in another, computer usage yet another, and so on.  This is simply an observation not a critique.

So the first task at hand was to define what we wanted.  We wanted a cohesive, sensible, and flexible AUP.  All three of us work in the high school, so we wanted something that could also be general enough to apply to the elementary and middle schools as well.  This year the school is also going through the reaccreditation process, and we wanted to work in some school philosophy.  We consulted a few other schools to review length and phrasing.  There was an agreement that the AUP should be part of the handbook, but did not require a separate parent-and-student-sign-at-the-bottom form.  In order to avoid suggesting to students what we don’t want to have happen, we emphasized the positive side of using technology.  Besides Internet usage, we felt cell phones and tablets had to be addressed also.  Since this was a first AUP on technology at our school, we didn’t (at least I didn’t) feel stressed about getting it 100% right.  Nothing is set in stone, and there’s no shame in revision for next year.

Here it is: AUP

 

 

It’s OK, I cited the sources

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Since moving abroad, I’ve noticed that copyright is really ignored or, at best, it’s a fuzzy, gray area.  As I type this, I’m wearing a Colegio Bolivar sports shirt that has three stripes running down the sleeves in the Adidas soccer-uniform style.  It doesn’t say ‘Adidas’ on it, but it sure looks close.  This year my U14 girls soccer team put together team uniforms; they started with Nike’s Manchester United AIG uniform, re-worked the colors, and in the end had their names on the back with a nice Nike swoosh on the front.  Clearly this would not fly in other parts of the world.

In my classroom, copyright is enforced through the school’s plagiarism policies. If there’s some sort of written work to be done, I ask students to submit through Turnitin.com.  This has been quite helpful.  I’ve found, though, that sometimes I don’t even need to go to Turnitin.com to find plagiarism; I simply type in a suspicious sentence into Google, and I can see where they’ve copied information.  As second-language learners, sentence structure and vocabulary are sometimes a dead giveaway.

Modeling proper, albeit somewhat vague, copyright practices is something that I do.  I recently gave students a set of problems dealing with math and agriculture for my Applications of Math class.  Much of this material I found online and modified to suit the class topic—the connection between agriculture and volume and area.  I referenced the site on each page, and left a note at the end ‘Adapted from www.tarleton.edu – these problems are found here, but the answers depend on you.’

As educators, I think that we are obligated to model behaviors that we want to see our students use.  If I don’t cite my sources, how can I expect my students to do the same?  I recently heard a story about a class of students that took a very hard test and the average score was around 55%.  The next class to take the same test had heard about its difficulty, looked up some of the key phrases on the internet, found the test, and had much better scores.  I think that the teachers in this instance are just as culpable as the students: why give a test that you copied from someone else and then not expect your students to find out?  Why not give it as a practice test instead?

The week before spring break I was told that a student of mine had plagiarized a paper for her AP English literature class.  A colleague of mine—who has also had troubles with this student—sent me the Top Ten Reasons Why Students Plagiarize.  It’s a decent article that not only gives insights as to why students do as they do, but also offers suggestions on how to steer them from such behavior.  This is where some educators would say we have entered into the gray area of teaching morals, intergrity, and consequences.  I have certainly learned something in all three areas from this particular student, and I’ll be carrying that into this last quarter and the next school year as well.

Legos.  I picked this Lego picture for a number of reasons.  First, I own this particular set.  Second, this model shown has been modified yet I can still recognize the original.  Finally, I always felt that Legos offered children a good opportunity to express original creative works.  When I was younger, I spent many hours building with Legos.  I created a lot of original on my own, even after building the instructed sets.

Copyright or copy…right?

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I read two posts on copyright from Wesley Fryer’s blog.  The first post titled Understanding and Respecting Copyright a Problem for Many was quite interesting.  I began to reflect upon my current attitude and practices with regard to copyright.  Generally, my rule of thumb has always been to 1) cite sources where I can and 2) never make an attempt to sell anything that I may have ‘borrowed’ or obtained through sharing.  My first year at ASK I took a picture of my Applications of Math class while they were holding their polyhedral models.  I was asked to include an article for the school’s magazine, and the Class of 2010 was happy to see their smiling faces published.  After reading Fryer’s mention about Allison Stokke, I am now wondering if the school has permission from parents to do this.  I assume that it is OK, since the image used for the magazine was taken by myself and the fact that the magazine is not sold and is available free to all students.  That left me to think about the school’s website; do parents know their children’s faces may appear on the ASK homepage?

Fryer suggested getting out in front of the problem and being proactive through the use of ‘iForms’, which are permission forms for usage before usage becomes an issue.  I once used a picture of myself as coach in the middle of my soccer team going through instructions; you can clearly see me in profile, but all other faces are hidden or out of the camera view.  I felt this was OK, and I didn’t bother with parental permission.  In college, we were always told to get permission or make sure not to include any faces.  More recently, some colleagues have obtained permission to photograph students because these teachers are putting together online portfolios for potential employers.  I’ll do this too in a few years I suppose.

Fryer’s other post (Copyright Questions and Answers about iTunes, Podcasts, and Fair Use) put me at ease because many of the things that he mentions I don’t do…or haven’t tried to do.  Sure, I have listened to some of Matt Kelsey’s music on iTunes because it’s set for file sharing on the local ASK network.  But I’ve not burned any of it to CD for 1) re-use or 2) re-distribution.  Not that Matt’s music isn’t any good.  I don’t have trouble downloading peer-to-peer (P2P) files because I generally stay away from anything (other than normal MS Office files such as Word, Powerpoint, etc) that asks me to download or requires permission to download.  The IT guys do a pretty decent job monitoring that, and I my only run-in was when I accidently left my computer streaming radio all day long once (I have since scaled back from Grooveshark and Iceberg Radio and listen to ‘locally’ streamed radio).  Anything I need downloaded from YouTube to show in class I send a request to the IT staff about it; other downloading I do off campus…in the privacy of my own apartment.

As I learn more and more about copyright issues, I will adjust my attitude accordingly.  I have not looked at my school’s AUP yet, but I will after Spring Break.  Right now, I think I’m doing OK.

Privacy: the slippery slope

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I visited RateMyTeachers.com just to see how I rated amongst my colleagues.  I’ve been working abroad since the 2007-2008 school year, so my last evaluation was from June 2007.  Of 6 ratings, my average was a straight lined smiley face and, if the numerical scale was out of five, I’m slightly above average.  Two items to note:

1)      The site listed me as Math / English teacher.  My wife teaches English.  I teach math.

2)      Rarely do students who can offer an objective opinion visit this site.  I know of a teacher who left a district and a year and a half later was still getting negative comments from former students.

I found no ratings for the one year that I taught at Tomahawk High School in Tomahawk, Wisconsin.  Perhaps I did not leave a strong enough impression.

Privacy is a big issue even when I think outside of the internet.  If I’m on the internet, I’m not sure it makes a difference to me if others know what I’m looking at.  My main concern is basic information about me: Social Security number, credit card numbers, and the like.  As an expat, I rely so much on online security to keep those things private. 

A few years ago, I remember a court case (Lawrence vs. Texas) that made its way up to the Supreme Court.  Two men were seen to be, having relations in a house in Texas.  Texas, at the time, had laws that made such acts illegal, and a police officer entered the apartment and observed the two men.  At the heart of the matter is privacy: how much does the government need to know what goes on in my own bedroom?  It’s not completely about two gay guys doing gay things, although some would argue the court’s decision was about those acts.  Where do we draw the line on invasion of privacy?  When are searches illegal?  How private is private?

Slippery slope

I watched the Clay Shirky video that Jeff Utecht posted.  I tend to lean to the left politically, and I agreed with all that he had to point out.  It’s scary to think that some (if not most) legislation is suggested, even drafted, by interest groups.  I’m reminded of Michael Moore’s movie Fahrenheit 911 in which he discovered that much of the Patriot Act was never read by lawmakers before it was passed.  The now-defeated SOPA and PIPA bills will be back in another form as Shirky mentions, although I should think it difficult for the language of the bills to be worded (however likely vague) and enforcement next to impossible.  How can you get consumers to not be producers and then sharers of information?  We start down a slippery slope when this is stopped.  What can’t be shared?  What must be checked over?  If I shoot a video of my kids and post it on YouTube, do I need to prove that I took the video myself?  What happens if there’s a Pepsi bottle in the background?  Is that product endorsement on my part?  I think you can see where I’m going…there’s literally more questions than answers on this issue. 

I read an AP article by Martha Irvine, titled Social network users overlook privacy pitfalls.   I’d have to say that I’m doing pretty well with keeping my Facebook profile respectable.  I download no applications for Facebook, although I have admitted and declared that I am a Simpsons fan.  I’m not on Twitter or MySpace.  The article mentions the peer pressure to be in a social network, and while I’m in the loop, I’m in the slow and safe lane I guess.  Living abroad has helped me keep in touch with people that I had lost track of, and my status updates reduce the amount of emails I need to send.  I convinced my mother, now 60, to join so she could keep up with her two grandkids.

 

 

Creative common license & my first image

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I have a Creative Common license post for my blog.  Now I have set myself up for sharing my created items and thoughts legally.  I think it also is a nice professional courtesy, as well as sound CYA policy.

Since becoming a teacher, I’ve stolen a lot of material.  Someone said to me a long time ago ‘Do you need to re-invent the wheel?’  The answer, of course, is no.  When a teacher finds an effective method to deliver instruction, handle discipline, or deal with day-to-day housekeeping matters, he or she should go with it.  That is what I like best about networking and this COETAIL program.

Of course, since moving abroad I will admit that I’ve stolen even more.  Not only have I expanded my mathematical tools of instruction, I’ve come across media files for leisure.  I remember watching the Bucket List in my apartment, talking via Skype with friends back home, and hearing someone say ‘Hey!  That’s still in the theaters here!  How did you get that?’  Nowadays I can walk over to the movie guy and find whatever I need.

I find that when I download, say, powerpoint files or other projects from the internet, I like to reference these items back to the original author when I hit print or post.  Part of this is out of professional respect.  Another part is setting an example for my students.  Yet another part is for my own future reference, should I choose to go back and modify my ‘stolen’ file later on.

I miss the Green Bay Packers.  People ask me what I miss about moving abroad and that’s in the top 5.  Watching or listening to games is difficult because of media coverage here and the weekends are Friday-Saturday.  When they won Superbowl 45 last year, I did get to see the game.  Then I showered and went to work in a green shirt and yellow tie.

Digital footprint: watch where you step

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I thought about this blog post all week.  I actually carried around a small piece of paper in my pocket to jot notes on, since I usually do my COETAILing on the weekends or evenings.  I probably could’ve made separate posts here, so this may seem scattered.

A lot of info.  I read that each person has about 45 GB of data out there on average if you were to divide up the digital universe.  Sarah Perez’s article at ReadWriteWeb highlights the need for vigilance when it comes to stored information on the web.  There’s opportunities for abuse here, but I think that businesses & organizations will go to great length to protect your personal information.  Because it all comes down to faith.  People need to have faith that transmitting online information is safe or else they will not use it.  I just heard on BBC radio this morning about personal information from Visa & Mastercard that was compromised.  On more than one occasion I have been thankful that credit card companies track my personal information…or else I’d still be paying for those flat screen TVs I supposedly purchased in Colombia.  Most recently my credit card company contacted me about some unusual transactions I made regarding my summer vacation.  I like that they do that.

The next job.  When I move on to the next job, I want employers to see all the positive strengths that I bring to the table.  I expect that they will comb through the internet to gauge what kind of person I am that is not reflected on the resume that I submitted.  I read through Kim Komando’s article at USA Today, and what came to mind is this: if my future employer has to decide between me and another guy, I want to make sure that the information they find on the web is not the deciding factor when they make a selection.  I’m sure the other guy doesn’t want that either.

Not that Justin Marslender.  I have Googled myself on occasion, more out of curiousity than vanity.  Sometimes I search the images, and sometimes the links.  I have found items from when I worked in Necedah, Wisconsin.  This includes my ‘ratings’ that students did at ratemyteacher.com.  I found stuff for COETAIL, some older college project items, Facebook of course, and my wife’s blog.  I also found the other Justin Marslender that is a senior football player at Northside high school in Pinetown, NC.  This is not as interesting a discovery as my father, Michael J Marslender, who found out that a Michael C Marslender is a registered sex offender in North Carolina, nor is it as frustrating as my friend Eric M Karch who would frequently tell law enforcement officers that the Eric E Karch was the one with the criminal record.

Trim those bushes.  This summer I have a trip planned with the family before going home to Wisconsin.  In an effort to familiarize myself with the area, I did a Google Map search…and then I went to ‘Street View.’  Wow.  I walked the neighborhood where we’ll be staying.  I literally did some window shopping as well.  I know where to buy diapers and find fresh fruit.  Then I searched for my parents’ and my in-laws’ houses.  My father-in-law needs to trim some bushes out in front, and I can see that he didn’t park my old Honda in the garage.  My parents house is not on Street View yet.

Identity theft.  We live in a day and age when I can get a lot of information on a lot of things, including people’s connections, addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, etc.  This is a concern, and it’s something that I will talk with my own children about, as well as my students.  How much is left to be private anymore?  Which private information really matters?  These are questions that I can’t answer, but I have explained some situations and offered some opinions to my students, especially those classes with seniors.

So my digital footprint, in my mind, is acceptable.  But I’ll continue to watch where I step.

 

Course 1 final project

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Here is my final project for Course 1.  There are a few qualifications I feel the need to add.

First, I modified the UbD format.  I had to make my UbD unit more functional for me, a tool that worked for me day-to-day in the classroom.  I kept the standard boxes that Wiggins & Tighe have, but expanded the end to more of an outline format.  I also included a place for reflection, which I find to be a necessary component to sound teaching practices.  I use this format at my school, and I think our curriculum director is lukewarm to my changes.

Second, this was a work in progress.  I finished this unit a couple weeks ago, and wanted to build it up as my final project for this class.

Unit Title: Utilizing MS Excel

Grade Level: High school (9-12)

Subject/Topic Areas:  Math / Problem solving skills

Time Frame: Two weeks maximum

Stage 1 – Identify Desired Results

Established Goals

NETS Standards Met:Students will:

1.a: apply existing knowledge to generate new ideas, products, or processes

1.c: use models and simulations to explore complex systems and issues

1.d: identify trends and forecast possibilities

4.a: identify and define authentic problems and significant questions for investigation

Common Core Standards Met:

F-BF.1: write a function that describes a relationship between two quantities

S-ID.1: represent data with plots on the real number line (dot plots, histograms, and box plots)

 

What understandings are desired? What essential questions will be considered?
Tapping into the power of MS Excel can be a powerful tool to handle repeated simple and complex formulas.By inputting data and then interpreting trends, students can begin to problem-solve in a more efficient way. How can we utilize MS Excel to display and manipulate data?What can I do to make my life easier through the use of this tool?

What key knowledge and skill will students acquire as a result of this unit?

Students will know….

  • How to set up a spreadsheet with data
  • How to use technology in useful and innovative ways
  • How to interpret and display data
 Students will be able to….

  • Create a fictitious gradebook to see how teachers arrive at a final grade
  • Examine said gradebook and look for trends
  • Apply ideas gained from data entry and display to solve other problems

Stage 2 – Determine Acceptable Evidence

What evidence will show that students understand?

Performance Tasks:Demonstrate knowledge and ability through computer lab activities that require use of MS Excel.

GRASP Task:

Goal: Utilize the power of MS Excel, specifically to display data and input equations

Role: Teacher

Audience: Students

Situation: College preparatory, private international school

Product:

  • Manipulation of the order of operations as it applies in MS Excel
  • Implement skills gained from introductory activities to problem solve the final project

What other evidence needs to be collected in light of Stage 1 Desired Results?

Other Evidence: (e.g., tests, quizzes, prompts, work samples, observations)Daily warmup activities; Excel prompts when we’re not in the computer lab; quizzes; ICW (In Class Work)

Student Self-Assessment and Reflection:

As students complete their sample gradebooks, I will ask them to reflect upon a single student and prepare evidence that shows weaknesses or strengths of a particular, fictitious student.For the final project, I again ask students to reflect upon their answers to see if they are similar to classmates and if answers seem to make sense.

Stage 3 – Plan Learning Experiences

What sequence of teaching and learning experiences will equip students to engage with, develop, and demonstrate the desired understandings? Use the following sheet to list the key teaching and learning activities in sequence.

 

(At this point, I have forgone the final box and put in an outline.  I have also included a portion for my own self reflection, and restated the essential question because I need to keep students focused on the bigger picture.  Some of these boxes are filled in by hand, but after finishing this unit a couple weeks ago I typed some of the reflections.)

 

Essential Question: How can we utilize MS Excel to display and manipulate data?

 

Dates:

Start      2/19       End 3/1

Quizzes    One (3/1)

Test  (project only)

Estimated classes:  5 to 6

Teacher reflection

  • §  For next year I will:
    • §  Require printed names on anything that’s submitted.
    • §  Set up an option for emailing work to me.
    • §  Require any printed materials to fit on the smallest number of pages.

 

 

 

 

 

  • §  Other adjustments I will make:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


Formulas: Basic 4 operations +, -, *, /

                Play KRYPTO; review PEMDAS (BEDMAS)

                ICW: Can you find the locations within MS Excel?

Activity – Use Excel for showing PEMDAS parts only

HW:  Complete activity; print and show answers for each

 

Other formulas: Average, Percent, Sum, and multi-step

                Activity – Sample gradebook; directions

                HW: Complete activity; print and show answers for each

               

Data displays in Excel: pie charts, histograms, line graphs

                By hand first (proportions for pie charts;

stem-and-leaf plots for histograms;

graph points for line graphs)

                Show how to do in MS Excel

HW: Use gradebook data file to create charts

 

Data displays day 2

                Warmup: How to find my gas mileage given this data.

Finish by hand, do in Excel

 

Quiz on Excel parts

                Introduction to final gas project

                Data sheets (& answers); reflection sheet

 

Adapted (and modified) from Wiggins, Grant and Jay McTighe Understanding by Design, 2nd Edition, ASCD, Alexandria, VA, 2005.

iClickers went well

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So this past week I used iClickers in my classroom to review for a test on polynomials.  I have two Algebra 1 classes, and the first went quite well.  In a nutshell, iClickers are handheld devices slightly longer than a standard Nokia cell phone that allow students to vote for multiple choice questions on a MS Powerpoint presentation.  The instructor iClicker allows control for the voting window, next or previous slides, and a histogram that shows how everyone voted.  I was impressed with the features and the syncronization with MS Powerpoint.  Matt Kelsey uses them frequently in his classroom, and many of the students were already familiar with how they worked.  My afternoon class did get a little excited with them; I adjusted the review by making them write down the question and answer as an assignment.

This prompted me to start work on a review session for my AP Economics class.  The format is similar of course, but the questions are of a different level.  With this class, even multiple choice questions should produce some great discussion.

Tara Waudby stopped by to see how it went, and she suggested rearrangement of my classroom to allow students to see both the dry erase board and the back wall for the LCD projector (and eventual Smartboard).  This seems like a minor thing, but it will be a subtle reminder to me that I should start using these technological tools that are at my disposal.  Next week I’ll shift my desks around and see how the students react.

Shaping Tech for the Classroom

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Just now, as I typed the title to Marc Prensky’s article Shaping Tech for the Classroom, I’m thinking that he should have titled it Shaping Classrooms for Technology.  The article is all about adapting and adopting teachnology use in our classroom.  When I read articles like this, I like to print them out (no iPad or tablet yet) and write comments and reactions in the margins.  I had a lot for only a few pages of article.

My school is somewhere in the stage 2 (doing old things in old ways) or stage 3 (doing old things in new ways).  Last year the school started using Moodle, and this year we are slowly adding smartboards.  We are still stuck with an older gradebook system, but I’m hopeful that will change soon.  When I left Wisconsin in 2007, we had Skyward grading which was outstanding.  I even had the ability to access my school computer desktop from anywhere in the world, and I thought that was pretty slick.  I wish we could do that here.

I feel that part of the reason that we are still doing things the old way is that some teachers–I’ll admit that I fall into this group sometimes–feel that technology is such a distraction.  There are some days where I want to yell at the kids, ‘I WISH YOU HAD AN ATTENTION SPAN THAT LASTED MORE THAN 30 SECONDS.’  Technology may be a distractor if the instructor doesn’t use the correct approach.  I recall a professor telling the class once that we needed to allow time for some initial dabbling and be OK with that.  For example, if I am teaching something on area in a geometry class, I may pass out Legos as manipulatives…and I need to allow for some initial exploration.  The same has to be true of technology.  Unfortunately, the students may have better knowledge of the technology than the instructor.  I think that may be intimidating to some teachers.

Students are doing many more old things in new ways, and they’re ahead of us teachers.  Prensky mentions ordering items online, gaming, and socializing.  This got me to thinking: does technology need to have a social aspect when used in the school?  To a degree, yes it does.  We interact with friends and strangers everyday.  We learn from our peers and we learn on our own by trying new things here and there.  But to what extent is it imperative to be social?  Do I need to update my Facebook status every two hours (my life is really not that exciting)?  Do students crave that instant feedback?

Prensky goes on to describe barriers to our technology adoption, the big ones being social and technological.  I can agree with that.  However, time and money are at the root.  Teachers need time and training; I’m getting a smartboard next year, but someone better show me how to use it.  And that will take time.  Money is always a problem.  Public or private school.  I’ve always operated under the ‘do-more-with-less’ philosophy.  When I needed protractors in my room, I had the copy guy make transparencies from some examples I found on the internet.

One-to-one computing is a decent broad goal for a school’s adoption of technology.  However, it has to start somewhere, so I disagree with Prensky’s notion that anything less will delay the revolution.  Hey, at this point we’ve at least started.  He also mentions cost as an obstacle and that costs are continually dropping.  This is good, but let me play devil’s advocate here: the cost drops, the budget loosens a little, and we buy all this technology…that may become outdated in a shorter amount of time than the drop in the cost.

Prensky describes a fast-paced world in which we live.  Instant messenging is great, but somedays I feel my students really lack patience.  I was teaching how to factor ax^2 + bx + c polynomials last week, and I showed how it will take time to work through this problem.  Many of the 8th graders who are in my 9th grade algebra 1 class were (are) so used to getting the answer right away in their heads; multi-step problems require patience.  Several were unhappy when I told them it might take two or three minutes to figure each problem out.

Am I sold on technology in the classroom?  You betcha.  Am I realistic?  Yes.  And I am, almost to a fault, very pragmatic.  This week I’m using iClickers to review in Algebra 1.  We’ll see how it goes.