ISM ES AUP Course 2 Final Project

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I was conveniently asked by my principal to revise my school’s Student Technology Code of Conduct. The end of the school is coming to a close and the side projects are piling up, the end of the year stress builds. I researched other schools’ AUP’s and found a variety of models and techniques. Currently our Code of Conduct reads like a legal document. Considering the audience are the Myanmar parents and their elementary school children, the language and structure of the document is difficult to understand. I have modified the document to reflect some of the issues regarding digital citizenship. However, next school year I am going to completely change the whole document. I would like to create a document that uses positive language committing to positive behaviors, more of a promise demonstrating responsible behaviors.

I have seen some schools break up the AUP among the smaller grade levels: K-1, 2-3, 4-5. I agree with this breakdown, but I don’t think that my school quite ready for these distinctions. Before looking at separating the grade levels AUP, a complete overhaul is necessary. Next year I will propose creating a separate AUP starting with the grades 4-5 because they are sharing laptops. I think that they are more prone to bullying, have more responsibility moving and using the laptops, and can understand more complex language.
I was listening to part the BigMarker Conversation May 1st Podcast, and the topic of AUP’s was being discussed. The point was brought up that we can make more student friendly documents, but in the end it is just that, a document. It is up to the teachers to make this document come to life through meaningful activities. As educators we would never expect a student to read something once, and complete understand it and remember it. The AUP is the same. I will not be teaching the 4th and 5th graders next year, and I have been working on creating a document to give to the classroom teachers to guide them through teaching and integrating the limited technology that we do have. Essentially I’m saying to them, I’m not doing this job anymore, it’s your job now. Nobody likes to be given more subjects to teach, but this is the reality, technology should be in the classroom being used to enhance the other area of the curriculum.

I was able to discuss the revisions with two other CoETaILer’s Megan Kenney and Sarah Cornelius, who represent the other schools MS and HS. We mainly discussed the issues of cyber bullying and copyright. We agreed that each school should develop an age appropriate AUP. We talked about some of the bullying issues they have happened at the HS and MS level. It’s great to come together and talk about our school as whole. We still have a lot of work to do, but here is the first set of changes I made to AUP for this year.

It’s an Age Old Tale – Bullying

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Teachers share the responsibility to teach about online safety with parents. I think that it would be ideal if digital citizenship was included in the character education that is usually included in the classroom curriculum. Extending the behaviors of respect, being nice, and not hurting others into the online world is a natural progression. Are teachers taking this responsibility serious? I suppose it would depend on who you are. I think that teachers that stay connected and know about the many cases like School heads called parents in cyberbully case when a student/s created a Facebook page called “I hate…” I have heard about the growing problem of cyber bullying. Whether it is text messages, Facebook posts, or emails technology has certainly changed the way people bully each other. Technology allows people to instantaneously insult and hurt others without a face to face confrontation, and sometimes anonymously. I think the power of technology increases the frequency of teens bullying each other. I agree with the article “Bullying” Has Little Resonance with Teenagers. Teens are all too eager to be “adults”, they see their bullying as dramas, rather than labeling conflicts as bullying. It doesn’t matter what it is called, what matters is that parents and teachers are discussing what is appropriate behavior on and offline. I don’t think I’m cut out for teaching high school, perhaps middles school I would take on. I think these are the two groups that experience bullying the most. Fourth and fifth grade is also a prime time for bullying and school dramas.
I agree with fellow CoETaILer Sarah Leonardis, bullying has been going on for a long time, it being delivered in a different vehicle now. This is why I think that making digital citizenship and addressing bullying via technology belongs with all the other character education and training we give our students. Just because students are digital natives doesn’t mean that they born with the good judgement of how to use the technology responsibly.

My school currently doesn’t have a reliable internet connection, which puts cyberbullying on the back burner. However, I know it’s important to build a good foundation for our students so when the time comes that they can use the internet, they will be ready. I use Net Support to teach in the computer lab, it has a chat feature that I have been using with the second and third graders. This gives them a safe network to practice responsible chatting and discuss issues of bullying using technology. Next week I will give them a short story about cyberbullying and use the chat to have them respond to questions about how to handle bullying situations. I really like the CyberSmart curriculum, and I will recommend it to the fourth and fifth grade teachers, as they are teaching integrated technology next year. I will also used it to address digital citizenship during my lab periods with K-3.

Copy…Right?

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When I was in eighth grade I plagiarized on a few projects, and I was caught by my teacher. I had to have a meeting with my principal and my parents. I admitted to plagiarizing my science assignments, but not the poetry for language arts unit. I rented some science videos and had taken notes and typed those up, turn it in. It was an unpleasant situation, but I was embarrassed and learned my lesson. It is incredibly easy to plagiarize today with all of the copy and pasting from website to various software. This was very evident this year with my third graders.

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This year I taught a third grade PowerPoint unit, “If I could go anywhere in the world…” The students used Encarta for Kids to research the country they would like to travel to. In my demo PowerPoint I briefly covered copyright and citing sources of work that is not theirs. It was clear to me in the first thirty minutes that the idea of copyright and citing was not understood. I changed my demo PowerPoint to focus on what copyright is, why and how we can use it. This resulted in my students thinking great I can copy anything I want as long as I included where I got it from. This created a series of copy and paste information on slides, I was not happy about this result. I talked to my students about the importance of creating original work, I explained that anyone can copy and paste. I was interested in what they have to say, not a copy of information from a encyclopedia, that anyone can do. This idea was lost on many of them, but not all. A handful of students were able to research and paraphrase accurate information about their country. Their presentations were much better because they had digested the information and understood it, shown by retelling it to the audience. Reflecting on the things that went wrong with this unit, I can help but think that I haven’t set a good example. Even though it’s Myanmar, I should be regularly using cited photos and including the copyrighted information in any lesson it appears in.

The question about global society needing to rethink copyright laws is a good one. My students are not exposed to many of the copyright issues that go on in the world around them. Do I accept the lack of copyright law in this country? Or do I as a teacher adhere to the highest expectation of the copyright rules to ready my students for any country they may go to? I think there is a need for a global copyright revision, however I don’t think it will ever include all the countries in the world. The Creative Commons movement is an inspiring reaction to our “all rights reserved” copyright laws today. Giving creators the power to choose how they would like would like their work to be used by others. Introducing Creative Commons to students would be a great to start or continue the dialogue about copyright issues and technology. I think that we do have a responsibility as educators to set a positive example by consistently citing sources correctly. This one I’m definitely guilty of, and need to improve on.

I have to admit that my school uses unauthorized copies of software. This has been the norm here because current educational software has been, and continues to be difficult to find. I read the articles from course two, week three about the particulars of copyright with iTunes, podcasts, and fair use, and the problems that can arise from not following them. Currently the detailed questions about using these resources are not applicable to me because we primarily work offline, but they will apply in the future. The importance of the reading for me is to highlight the risks that are taken when copyright and media are used inappropriately. I will continue to set up my school for being connected someday, starting with a good policy on copyright.
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Focus on the positive

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by Kate Uebelherr
I enjoyed a wonderful spring break in Nepal filled with white water rafting and mountain biking through the terraced hills. I visited Nepal 12 years ago, and although I should not have been shocked by mass development, I was. With tourism comes change, positive and negatives just like anything else. Wifi was everywhere, I continuously commented on their internet access. It’s way better than in Myanmar, and even in some places that were off the beaten path, like Bandipur. I’m back at home watching the circles spin and struggling to connect. It’s time to book it and catch up on my CoETaIL work.

After reading the article Beware: the Internet could own your future by Husna Najand I learned about the recent controversy about Facebook’s change in their terms of service contract. This change would allow Facebook to own your content, even after you close your account. Fortunately enough people protested these changes by Facebook and they reverted back to the original terms of service. Even though this happened in 2009, I’m sure that this kind of sneaky moves by corporations are happening all the time. As the corporations pursue personal content of their users, the importance of being proactive about your digital profile and what the privacy settings are on the various websites used increases.

I have actually shifted through my photos to make sure if my privacy was breached I wouldn’t look bad. I think that it’s good to think of places like Facebook a private area that you can control who sees your content. However, to be on the safe side I think it’s a good policy to not post inappropriate photos of yourself or others. I often just delete photos like that. This won’t stop others from taking photos of you. We have been pushed into a corner where the line between private and public life is blurry. It makes me frustrated that the user needs to be so attentive to the fine print and constant changes that are always being made.

The other side of protecting yourself from negative pitfalls of a digital profile, is creating a positive profile to follow. The CoETaIL programs helps us to get started creating a positive and professional profile. In the last six months I have looked at numerous blogs of colleagues and trainers and see how powerful these tools can be for future employment. I think if you can provide a positive digital profile for viewers, they are less likely to search social network sites, or seek out negative leads on you.

Following your trail

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When I started my job at the International School of Myanmar we had a couple days of orientation. One of the subjects that was discussed was “friending” students on Facebook. I assume that this subject was being brought up because there have been problems in the past with students seeing inappropriate photos of teachers. My principal explained that if she is friends with another teacher, and that teacher accepts a student as a friend they have access to possible seeing pictures of her. To be honest I had not thought about this problem. A couple months later I was “friended” by two former students, and I had to stop and think about what my students would be seeing, aka my digital footprint. I decided to keep my Facebook account free of student interaction.

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It is certainly clear to me now that my digital footprint is important and needs to be edited from time to time. I attended the EARCOS Conference last month and went to many of the workshops that were technology oriented. Each of the instructor had trackable and impressive footprints. Throughout the presentations I could access their blogs, presentations, and interactive notes and question websites. I had a fellow teacher from Yangon ask me what a digital footprint was in a workshop, I was happy to explain it to him, and felt good about having an answer. Living in Myanmar my digital footprint is smaller than before. Regardless, it is clear to me that is very important to create a positive digital footprint. It certainly has implications for finding or losing jobs. I Googled myself recently and found a very clear trail of the accounts I have with different website like Edutopia, Facebook, Meet Up, Twitter, and other random places I didn’t expect to find a trail. If a my digital footprint is this important, what does this mean for my students?

Currently I’m teaching elementary students, and next year will only teach kindergarten through third grade. I think that introducing the digital footprint to them is important but perhaps not applicable at these grade levels. I think that for the upper elementary students it very important for them to understand the trail they leave behind on the web. Even with the connectivity problems with the internet, Facebook connects better than some other sites, and I know that my fifth graders are social networking. I think focusing on how to create a positive footprint is the best approach, while discussing how negative trials could impact your life. Next year I will be asking the fourth and fifth grade students to create a digital portfolios. Without being able to consistently rely on the Internet, the portfolios will be offline and using as many software programs as possible. I would like to encourage the classroom teachers to find ways for the students to post their portfolios creating a positive footprint displaying their academic accomplishments.

Course 1 Final Project

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My final project is a 4th grade Turtles Unit: Life Science and Technology. This is the first year that technology is not a stand alone or pull out class for 4th grade. The goal for this year has been to co teach tech and what ever core curriculum the grade level decides on. It has been a challenge trying to unify the teachers at these grade levels to develop a common integration lesson. However, Ms. Jess has been enthusiastic, open minded, excited about integrating tech where ever we can. I think that this unit turned out great, the students were engaged every step of the way. Using the different software programs, pictures they took, and recorded video reflections in a presentation that their peers watch increased their buy in. I hope that this unit will be used by all of the fourth grade teachers next year. They could include more community connections with in their grade level. Ms. Jess has been great to work with and reminds me of the collaboration skills we are modeling for our students. Here’s the link to my lesson.

Stop Collaborate and Listen

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I was recently involved in a data day at my school. We took half of a school day to review the ISA Test Scores taken in Oct. We had a staff meeting to discuss the uses of the scores and how to read them. I was apart of the specialists group, and were given the task of looking at all of the data grades 3 through 6, reading, writing, and math. This was a little overwhelming at first, but it is the way that we interact with the school. Everyday I teach K-5, and it’s a unique perspective. I could see our school is successful with lower order thing skills, and needs to develop more of the higher order thinking skills. Stepping back from each grade level to see a need to reshape the curriculum made me think of the TEDxNYED – Dan Meyer video from our week five readings.

In this video Dan Meyer’s talks about how to take the boring text book math problems and use it with real world multimedia to engage and challenge students to solve problems. Multimedia doesn’t necessarily have to depend on the internet. Making your own video, storyboard, or animation are other ways of including multimedia. Dan suggests 5 ways to engage our students in meaningful and productive problem solving skills.
Use multimedia.
Encourage student intuition.
Ask the shortest question you can.
Let students build the problem.
Be less helpful
I think that these changes to curriculum create more independent problem solvers, or as Dan Meyer calls it “patient problem solvers.”

At the end of Dan’s video he emphasis the unique opportunities we have right now to reshape curriculum, that is in need of transformation. Our students are digital natives speaking the language of technology, and our curriculum needs to reflect that. We have the technology to create our own media to reach and challenge our students. All the while sharing our work with colleagues and personal learning networks building a great knowledge base for all teachers and students.

Technology is definitely changing the learning landscape by creating new ways of connecting. Making connections is what is at the heart of the Web 2.0 movement in education. I saw this Connected Learning Infographic

Connected Learning

on my friend Ben Sheridan’s blog Exploring Digital Media in Education and thought that it summed up much of what I have been exploring in this first course.

I have set up many tools to create a personal learning network. One of my favorites is my Google reader. Gathering an incredible amount information in one place to scan and browse interesting posts. I have recently added some great bundles to my RSS Reader. The amount of information coming in is a little overwhelming, maybe too many bundles. I have also just started exploring Diigo’s research, sharing, and collaborative tools. I am continuously surprised by the amount of ways I can access information, organize it, and share it. One of the tools on Diigo that catch my attention is taking screen shots with it. I can’t take a screen shot with my laptop, it’s too old.

Despite living in Myanmar teachers and students find ways to connect, whether it be face to face, or if you’re patient enough online. Many of my students have ipad, cell phones, and computers at home with better internet connections than I have. Perhaps some day better internet will come to Myanmar, until then I will use as many low tech tools as I can find. It’s a big year for me, learning the ropes of my new job in a new country with definite connectivity issues, most of my collaborating is happening on a school level. I have worked with several 4th and 5th grade teachers creating new ways of using technology in their core curriculum. I’m gain more experience using the networking tools I am developing in this course, if I can’t implement them in the classroom via internet I can focus on creating connections on the community level.

What’s on the Horizon

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The fourth quarter is approaching in my first year teaching internationally, and I look forward to my next. I was reading Shaping Tech for the Classroom – By Marc Prensky where he set up a couple stages that schools go through during tech integration. My school is just beginning the process of integration, and this outlook has been helpful to me. I need to find a balance between pushing progress and giving the process it’s due time to adjust. This article talks about being a digital native or immigrant, I like this idea of categorizing people based on their date of birth. It may be harsh to simply draw a line in the sand, and say if you born from this day forward you are a digital native. We all know people who brake this generalization. However, in my job to collaborate with two grade levels of teachers to co teach lessons, understanding their level of comfort and experience with technology is a must.

Looking forward I’m focusing on next year, and making progress with the resources we have. I will not be co teaching with the fourth and fifth grade teachers, rather acting more as a consultant for support. The resources that we will have are 25 laptops, a mobile lab network, and a laptop, LCD projector, and document camera for the teacher. I need to research an offline way to create the connections that make web 2.0 the success it is. We maybe not be able to connect with the “outside world” as I call it, or using the internet to connect to a PLE, personal learning environment, but we do have a server to store data.

The NMC Horizon Report: 2011 K-12 Edition predicts PLE’s will be ready to adopt in four to five years. The far term rating has been given due to lack of case studies and documentation in using PLE’s in K-12 education. Also the attitude towards the role of technology needs to change before this model is ready for adoption. This is helpful in looking towards the future. As I start to develop requirements for fourth and fifth grade teachers to demonstrate tech integration and addressing NET-S standards, I want to set up for a PLE to develop. I thought that this report was informative on a variety of levels. I feel better versed in what’s hot, what’s coming up, and what to look for in the future of technology education. I know mobile devices are where it’s at right now, combined with the cloud technology, avoiding the data management and cost of provide adequate data storage is a wise choice for schools. I’m looking into picking up a reduced priced iPad 2 to keep up with the new applications and uses. I was going to share on with my boyfriend, but customization is key, as stated in the report to truly integrating with your life. I think I’ll get my own, and someday I will be in a 1:1 school.

Looking to the horizon

I recently heard about a Middle School teacher using PBWorks as a hub for his class. This website allows teachers to use the basic edition for 100 students. Students can create their own blogs, account profiles, and post documents in response to multimedia posts from the teacher. It is a internet depended way of creating a online personal learning environment. If sixth graders can do it, I think that the fifth graders are ready to develop those important networking skills. Many of our MS student do have access to computers, I think less so in the elementary school. I was talking with another HS teacher who pointed out that his students don’t have access to a computer lab to access Google docs for some of their classes. If they don’t have a personal laptop at school or home they can benefit from this online network. This gave me the idea that I should hold open lab times for the fourth and fifth grade students to mess around with the new computers. This free time will give students a chance to be more comfortable with the new programs and used a track pad. This might also lend itself to encouraging interested teachers to use PBWorks for their classes. If students have free time to access the website, it would encourage them to get involved in blogging, commenting on others posts, and creating a PLE.

Another project on the horizon is creating requirements for technology in the classroom for the fourth and fifth grade teachers. I would like to use an electronic portfolio. We have a server that the students can use to keep their work on. This would also allow students to access each others work. In all of my readings for this course, being connected to a community online for collaboration and sharing information is at the heart of it all. I have been thinking about how I can create this same principle, but offline. I’m researching different social networking software programs. Money is always a problem, which is why PBWorks might be a good direction to go. I feel a responsibility to my students to give them an opportunity to develop these interactive skills and creating PLE’s. Encouraging students to bring in their own devices and computers is a slipper slope with the digital divide. This would stress the importance of having open laptop time for those with no computer or internet access at home. Exciting projects are on the horizon.

The Infamous Cart

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The story of the laptop charting cart is a cornerstone of my first year here in Myanmar. I was first hired to teach 4th or 5th grade, with a possibility for teaching ICT. I did a Skype interview in May to confirm the change in my position. I was told that I would be focusing on integrating technology with laptops in classrooms with 4th and 5th graders. Previously I taught using all the fun gadgets : Smart Board, document camera, microphone, laptop, and projector. I knew that I wouldn’t have access to these things in Myanmar. However, starting with laptops for 200 students to share was a start. In the confusion of new teacher orientation, new curriculum, and figuring out where the bathroom was, I discovered the day before school the laptop charging chart had not been ordered, as promised.

I spent the first semester hoping for the cart and making do with shortened desktop lab periods with the 4th/5th graders. I would go to my principal’s office and look at the laptops sitting in their boxes. After first quarter went by I asked to set up a temporary lab in the teacher’s lounge, where the 4th/5th graders can at least use the laptops. It is so generous of the staff to accept the loss of the teacher’s lounge, in the best interest of our students. This temporary lab was the solution, until the cart is here. I’m still using the temporary laptop lab, and fourth quarter is around the corner. I’ve had to accept that “the cart” is not going to be a part of my ICT plan this year. The cart would let the laptops to be at the students’ desks allowing natural integration with the core curriculum. That was the original plan. I would focus on the tech aspects of the integrated lesson for the first part of the allotted time, and the teacher and students would continue to work for the second half of the lesson.

I know that being flexible and a creative problem solver is important in my position. I tell myself to focus on the things that we have, instead of the things we don’t. My students are using Windows 7 and Office 2010. That is probably the first time they have used current OS and software programs. Until we have a reliable connection to the internet, it is very difficult to implement the Web 2.0 approach to my curriculum. This year I’m focusing on familiarizing the students with using a trackpad, seeing the differences in the software programs they are used to using, “messing around” if you will. I’m also trying to work in as much multimedia projects as possible. My fourth graders we working on newsletters last quarter. One of the teachers was very enthusiastic to use the digital cameras with the newsletters. The students when off campus and used the camera to take their own pictures related to a story they wrote in their newsletters. This made their stories more personal, interesting, and meaningful.

We have a Mobile Lab server set up to share folders with teachers and students, even thought we are not so mobile. I think this is a resource that may be an alternative to the internet for sharing and connecting student work. I have been training the students to back up their work to the mobile lab, and I think that I could use this to bring students together for peer evaluations, and other connective activities.

I have thankfully let go of the laptop charging cart idea this year, and have focused more on making our tech projects meaningful and utilizing as many of the resources as we have. My fourth graders will be working on a PowerPoint presentation and poetry soon. I’m working on using the digital cameras and laptop cameras to add multimedia into their presentations. Many times I feel like we can’t accomplish as much as other schools that have internet, but many of our readings have reminded me that having great gadgets and a good internet connection can’t replace well planned lessons, and collaborating with colleagues. Today the glass is half full. The cart will come someday, and we will continue forging the path of technology integration in Myanmar.

New Digital Bloom’s Taxonomy

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I really like this new twist on Bloom’s taxonomy, I think it could be useful in PD training about integrating technology. All the elementary teachers are scheduled to receive laptops, document cameras, and LCD projectors. At the beginning of next school year ISM will need a couple of PD trainings about using their new equipment. Teachers are familiar with the original Bloom’s taxonomy, distributing this version would help get teachers’ thinking about the opportunities to integrate technology. I’m realizing quickly that I need to develop PD materials for the staff as a part of my job as ICT teacher. I hadn’t anticipated this as part of my duties. I think as integration continues, the role of an ICT teacher will be more of a consultant helping teachers access resources, rather than direct instruction.

We are far from being a one to one laptop school, but we are starting to make some progress with a set 25 laptops for the 4th and 5th grade students, and laptops and projects for the teachers. My challenge is to negotiate integration in an offline world.

Although we are trying to included technology more at our school, we are met with significant challenges. Today I was working with third graders in the desktop lab formatting a new PowerPoint presentation. The clip art on our computers froze from several minutes, I get very frustrated with our lack of internet connection. I wish students could be more productive than just waiting for the internet. I have 30 minute classes, and every minute matters. I suppose this is a lesson about the internet in Myanmar. Would it be better to simple avoid the internet? Should I be pursuing limited internet access despite the slow connection, giving students some experience using it? Where are my efforts best spent? These are the questions I ask myself.

As I am reading the articles this week, I think of different ways to connect students to each others and information. The reality I’m working in is still riddled with power outages,and slow or no internet. I continue to think of how I can apply the idea to my situation. If I can’t connect to other classrooms using blogs, maybe I can develop an intranet method of creating community. Offline activities are my primary resources.