Web Tools Reflection

As I reflect upon my experience with WebTools, I can’t help but get excited about the new technologies I’m planning on using in my own classroom. One of the most important ideas that I became familiar with during this course was that using a new technology in a new way (one not possible without technology) take instruction to a new level. A new level that is entirely engaging and interactive for the students. The teacher doesn’t need to be a “sage on the stage” because there are so many awesome tools that allow students to explore, create and learn. The possibilities are really limited only by one’s imagination.

With that being said, I don’t believe that technology implementation is a necessity to be a successful teacher. Several of my colleagues shared stories about teachers that use minimal technology in their classrooms. I think most of us agreed that there isn’t a set picture or set number of educational strategies or a set amount technology implemented that defines what it means to be a great teacher. If I were to finish this sentence, “I use technology as…” I would say…
• a tool that opens new doors and allows one to “see” new places not possible without technology
• a tool for organization
• a tool for collaboration
• a tool for creation and presentation
• a tool for gathering (and receiving) information

The last bullet makes me think “Web 2.0.” And the perfect way to conclude is to explain what I learned about the Web 2.0 and how it affects my life. I learned about several tools that can be classified as Web 2.0 instead of Web 2.0. One key Web 2.0 tool that I used this semester was Google Reader. Google Reader allowed me to instantly receive the new information being posted to other websites or blogs. The information was coming to me (in one spot) rather than me having to go out and find what I wanted. What a big time saver! The Web 2.0 is different than past “generations” because information comes to your rather than you going out to find information. This makes a lot a sense. I can’t believe I hadn’t heard of the concept prior to this class. Maybe it will be like so many trends, once it “lights up,” it will take off like wild fire. I know I can’t wait to share the tools that I’ve learned this summer. I wonder if my principal would give me 5-10 minutes during our monthly staff meetings?

Final Project - Finally

My final project consisted of created an "In Plain English" like video on the the Mole. I wrote up my script and brainstormed what clip art I would use a few weeks ago. See my previous blog post for a picture of the 9 pages of dialogue I wrote.

The video took a lot longer to put together than I anticipated because I did it COMPLETELY alone (I pressed record on the camera and everything). I used a simple flip camera that I check out at school. After searching for and then cutting out all the clip art I was ready for my first "take." After scrapping the first 5 or 6 takes, I decided I would have to shoot in small clips. I was really happy with the end result. I did no editing, I just combined the 7 small (about 1 and 30 seconds each) mp4 files.

I had issues with my FlipShare program only wanting to save my combined clips as a .wmv file (and I don't think Mac users can open that). So I downloaded a "free" converter program and when 20% of my movie was converted to an mp4, the free download was asking me for a subscription and fee. I thought, enough with that, I could try to upload my first youtube video. Here is my video :-)

Let me know what you think? I'm on to my final project for CHEM580

Week 6 Tools - Images, Images & More Images

It really would be devastating to me to lose my photos in a fire or other unfortunate event. That would probably be my #1 reason for uploading my photos to a site like Picnik or Flickr.The photo at right is one of the photos in the collection I uploaded to Flickr. It's a pic of my youngest son last fall. You can see the 5 photo album here.

This week I signed up and played around with web tools involving images. I created accounts in Picnik and Flickr. Lee LeFever, author of the In Plain English series, has another great video for “Photo Sharing.” The video is less than 3 minutes and you can see it on youtube here. If anything he makes a good point, that because of the threat of fire or unfortunate event, we all should back up our previous photos on the web. He also suggests trying out the public share option after uploading your photos. I may try this as I agree that keeping them private is no better than putting them in a physical photo album and letting them sit on a shelf. I also really like the easy method of organization using titles and “tags.” I’m using the “tags” feature with the website organization tool Diigo now. Tags make finding a specific item in a sea of hundreds or thousands really easy. Picnik is a commercial site and they want your business. One downside of Picnik is that only 5 photos can be uploaded at one time (unless you pay to upgrade).

For Flickr, I can’t believe I had to generate ANOTHER EMAIL ACCOUNT. I think that brings my tally up to 5! Five email address, that ridiculous! Anyway, I really like the sharing capacity of Flickr. Although as Eric pointed out, because there is a wide variety of photos that are shared, some that may not be appropriate for our students, we might want to close monitor what our students are looking at. I would almost bet that both sites are currently blocked at my school for that very reason. I would need to put in a request for access. I do like the idea of photo sharing. And with Eric’s example of the 5 photo oil spill collection, I can definitely see some classroom application. If you missed it, find it here. The photo of the dragonfly with oil on its wings and the wave crest with oil drops was especially powerful but disturbing for me. Here is a link to the small collection I put together. It’s my family and I carving pumpkins last October.

Week 5 Tools

Google Earth

I can’t believe how fast time flies just exploring one tool. I first downloaded Google Earth yesterday and spent a few minutes (okay, an hour and a half) just looking at various features. I really like Google’s description of this awesome tool:

“The idea is simple. It's a globe that sits inside your PC. You point and zoom to anyplace on the planet that you want to explore. Satellite images and local facts zoom into view. Tap into Google search to show local points of interest and facts. Zoom to a specific address to check out an apartment or hotel. View driving directions and even fly along your route.”

I see lots of application for Google Earth in all elementary grade levels and middle school. However, for a high school chemistry and physics teacher like myself, I don’t see Google Earth playing a huge role in my curriculum. Anything I want to reference a place on the globe or a map, Google Earth has the advantage, hands down, over the traditional globe or map. Because there is a space component of Google Earth, I see the tool being extremely utilized in an astronomy class. One way that I could incorporate Google Earth in my high school physics class would be to add a virtual tour piece into my already existing Physics Hall of Fame Project. Here students create a tab poster that includes 10 facts (underneath flaps or tabs) that are numbered and increase in detail as you go down in number. So tab #10, might say something like, “This scientist was born in Copenhagen on October 7, 1885.” While a more specific Tab#5 might say, “Recognition of this scientists work on the structure of atoms came with the award of the Nobel Prize for 1922.” I could require students to take us on a virtual field trip that follows important places in the chronological time line of their physics’ (Niels Bohr in my example) life.

Here was a resource (free download) that is “An Illustrated Guide to Creating Virtual Field Trips Using Google™ Services.” Let me know what you think.

I suppose it just takes a little brainstorming to come up with a creative way to incorporate a web tool like Google Earth. Unfortunately, not all of our students are as geeked about science as we are. So anytime you can create a lesson that incorporates other disciplines, I think you enhance the learning experience for your students.

Make a Link for Your Document

As you can see from my previous posts, I blogged about wikis and blogs in the classroom. For this I created a “Blog Self Assessment” Rubric. But when I wanted to attach my document to my blog post I only saw a button to upload an image or video. Never fear, I remembered one of my classmates raving about how easy Scribd was to use to publish a document, presentation, spreadsheet etc. Actually, I couldn’t even remember what the publishing site was called. So I researched it and Scribd rang a bell. I created a link that I embedded into my post in seriously less than 1 minute. You can see my rubric here that I created using Scribd.

"Blog Self-Assessment" Attachment

Oops I forgot the attachment to my last post. Take a look. I'm pleased with this rubric and think it would be very useful for those of us thinking about adding a blogging pieces to our classes. If you have any suggestions for changes, please feel free to share. Thanks!

Blog on Blogs

I can certainly see the application of using both blogs and wikis in my own classroom. I could see integrating a blog requirement in my high school science courses that would serve as a great way to collaborate or simply ask a question. Requiring each student to make a few posts over the course of a unit could be extremely beneficial. I could see students helping students a lot more using a method, the internet, which they love. I would also incorporate and require students to fill out a form that summarizes their blog posts and comments to other students. Minimally, the grading rubric would include questions like, “Did I make write a post that raised an original question or issue stemming from the reading, lab, and/or homework assignment for this unit?” I would then ask students to provide the title, date and a one sentence summary of their post. See the attached form for my “Blog Self-Assessment” Rubric.

As far as a class wiki, I don’t see myself incorporating a classroom wiki in the near future. I can see the benefit for using a class wiki for a virtual learning experience. I watched the youtube video posted by Gordon that includes a teacher explaining how her students collaborate using a wiki in order to write an essay. All the while I was thinking why not just use Google Docs? For those teachers that are already using a wiki for something like a group essay, what is the benefit over using Google Docs?

Requiring either web tool could prove to be discriminatory. As some of my students don’t even have a computer at home, making a requirement that involves the internet could serve to be a hardship or challenge for some. I may need to provide in class time for such a requirement. Or maybe when I help them set up their blog accounts, I could ask them to fill out a simple technology survey. From the survey, I should know who may have limited access to the internet. For these students, I could provide them a one-day-a-week pass to my seminar (a 25 minute “homeroom” of sorts that falls in the middle of the day).

Web Tools - Week 4

Google Docs is definitely the best web tool I’ve explored this summer. I can’t count the number of times I was at home the night before I was to teach a specific lesson creating and then emailing myself something to use the next day. Or I can’t believe I was taking the time and putting my computer at risk of viruses to load a lab report from a student document. All the while we could have been using Google Docs. Here’s a In Plain English video that I found very informative.

I can see SO MANY BENEFITS from using Google Docs both for myself and my students. And I can’t wait to share this tool with my colleagues. I found this video created by teachers and administrators that describes a few of the possibilities and benefits of Google Docs. One teacher describes the editing and sharing between classmates and says that the quality of student work goes up because they are publishing work that their peers, parents and other will see. Their work has more personal value. And Google Docs isn’t for just word processing documents. Students could collaborate on a presentation or a lab report that involves a spreadsheet. Plus this sharing, editing and collaborating can occur 24/7/365! If anyone is already using Google Docs, please share your favorite applications of the tool.

This week I also explored several science simulation sites. My favorite site was PhET Simulations from the University of Colorado. The site was referenced in an article I read on Virtual Labs on Circuits in the Science Teacher Summer 2010. The simulations are very interactive, colorful and applicable. They are organized by content including chemistry, physics and biology. Although, the majority of simulations are physics related. Simulations can also be searched by content and grade level.

Lastly, I took a look at Google Translate. This web tool is fairly simple. But I can see it having application in my rural West Michigan area. The area where my school is located has a lot of agriculture and immigrate workers to help harvest the various crops. Local schools have a fluctuating Spanish population as immigrant families move in and out of the area. Google Translate could be a very powerful tool for those ESL students. This web tool is able to translate text, web pages (simply copy and paste a URL) and documents from 55+ languages. It could also serve as a great resource for any foreign language class. Here’s a resource to get you a quick intro. And Google Translate has this URL: http://translate.google.com/.

Students love to ARGUE!!!

What a great idea!!! Everyone, adults and kids alike, would agree that when you have data, research, statements, observations, facts etc that support your beliefs or statements, you understand the concept better. That is basis behind the “Generate an Argument: Instructional Model” by Victor Sampson and Jonathon Grooms (The Science Teacher, 2010). The model basically requires students to analyze data and make a claim that answers a question that is supported by their research.

I use several methods, from labs and demos to concept maps to homework practice with the equations. But I have no doubt that if students could see “how we know science” rather than “what we know about the world and how it works” would be meaningful and enjoyable. I especially like Sampson and Grooms Step 3 in the process. Step 3 involves the construction of an interactive poster SESSION. They say session because students engage in a round-robin format, to collaborate and critique one another. The round-robin format is a way to make each member in the 3 to 4 person team accountable as one person stays to present the argument while team members rotate together to hear other arguments. And lastly, a step often put on the bottom of the totem pole of too many high school science courses is putting their final argument in writing. I would assume this also serves to make each member accountable.

The project that I generated is called “How Well Can You Argue??? Project (Investigating the Relationship between Specific Heat and Atomic Weight).” The project that I generated will require students to use the online data here answer the questions “Is there a relationship between specific heat and atomic weight? If so, what is it? They will work in teams of 3 – 4 and create a presentation in the form of a glog (online poster) or Power Point Presentation. Students will then share in a round-robin format. Finally, students will be given a writing prompt based upon the initial question. This will help ensure that each student is accountable for understanding the rationale behind their argument.

I Heart Diigo - Week 3 Summary

I checked out a couple tools this week. My favorite was Diigo. At first, I thought, “What is the point of needing a webtool to sort your favorite websites when you’ve got the option to bookmark your favorites and then organize those?” Ah, but what are your favorite sites if you’re on a different computer? You don’t know because using your computer’s book marking tool only applies to that computer. I started in Diigo by watching their tutorial video, which was extremely helpful. I love the options to “1) research, 2) share and 3) collaborate.” The research part is similar to book marking, except you’ve got fun added features like highlighting and the ability to add “sticky notes” plus you can access your favorite bookmarked sites from any computer that’s online. The “snapshot” feature allows you to archive your favorite sites, so that when you revist, you’ll be sure that it is still there. I LOVE IT! This would be a great thing to share using our newly created PLN. If we all book marked our favorite science sites and shared them, what a build on our PLN that would be, huh!?!

I also set up an account at glogster.com but was having a hard time with the getting Adobe Flash Player to work. However, I’ve got the idea behind “Postering Yourself.” I think this is something that my student would enjoy; after all it is geared toward teens and preteens. I like the fact that this is something they could save on a computer and work on outside of school. However, I would be concerned about assigning it as homework, as only about 50% of the students at my rural, West Michigan school have internet access. Although, I’m willing to try glogster in place of a traditional glue-cut-paste project, I do think that some people get a lot of enjoyment from that physical form of creation.

Copyright & Technology

I want to start my blog with a question, “If a teacher leaves a school district, does the teacher get to keep the educational materials, like a lab worksheet, that he/she designed or is the property of the school district?” I had a colleague tell me that anything I create becomes the school’s property. I could find anything legal online so I thought maybe someone out there in cyber land might have a resource.

As far as copyright infringement, the following quote authored by Linda Starr from Education World (2010) really made me say “What!?!”

“Most copyright experts recommend this rule of thumb -- when in doubt, assume a work is copyrighted and ask permission to use it. Don't make the common mistake of believing that including quotation marks or a line of attribution satisfies copyright requirements. If you properly quote and/or credit a work's author, experts say, you cannot be accused of plagiarism, but you may still be accused of copyright infringement.”

I also found it interesting that the only reason we don’t hear about educators being persecuted for copyright infringement, and lets face it almost all teachers do it, is because the task force to fight the problem isn’t big enough (due to the lack of $$$).

I read the copyright policy on software and school use. The first thing that came to my mind was the fact that last year our building purchased several new textbooks. Because several teachers would be teaching multiple sections, our technology director made copies of the CDs that came with the single copy of the teacher resource material. Wow! I can’t imagine that he had permission to burn copies of that software.

The biggest piece of information that I now know about copyright law is that you need to ask permission when you’re not sure if it’s copyrighted.

If you’d like further information on copyright infringement, specifically copyright law and technology, check out Starr’s article here. Hope I didn't infringe on the copyright laws.

A Screencast Idea and 2 Cute Little Boys!

I couldn’t sleep anymore this morning because I had a great idea for a screencast to work on. I’m calling it “Chemistry Commoncraft – Volume 1 – the Mole” and going to try to make it as simplistic as the other commoncraft.com screencasts I’ve viewed.

Below is a picture of the rough “script” I worked on from 5:30-7AM today. The dialogue I plan to say is written on the right side of the paper and the basic pictures I’ll use are VERY roughly sketched out on the left.


I figure if I’m going to make a screencast, I might as well do one that has value and applicability for my own classroom. And many chemistry teachers would agree that the first go round with the concept of the mole is a struggle for students.

It might take a while to gather my materials (clip art pictures and whiteboard to lay horizontal) and edit the video but I think it will be well worth it.

P.S. The last picture that I’m including is from yesterday. I stepped away from the breakfast table for 2 minutes to check my email and when my 1 year old started fussing, I asked my 3 year old to give him a little more cereal. This is what I came back to.

1st Podcast

I bought a headset and microphone (~$18.00 at Meijer). Attached is a random chemistry article, titled Building with Alloys that I made for my first podcast. Its about 2 minutes in length. The only problem that I see is that I can only upload a picture or a video. I guess I'll try it as a video file although there is nothing to see. Ok, after 10 minutes and still waiting I guess I need a plan B. Any suggestions? I saved it as a .wav file.



I thought about turning a test or quiz into an audio file and making it available to my special needs students for the coming year. However, I’m apprehensious about doing that because of the ease at which cheating could occur. In fact, I am amazed when I walk into another teacher’s classroom during an assessment and half of the kids have earbuds in their ears. It’s pretty obvious from this course how easy to use web applications are software are to make an audio recording. And just as easy to save your audio recording on an ipod or MP3 player. Maybe I could have my own MP3 player(s) available with assessments pre-recorded to the special education teachers on a checkout basis. I welcome your thoughts.

Podcasting for a State Park Ranger (and a Teacher)

I wouldn’t have guessed that my husband and I would be working on the same type of project this week. I’m a high school chemistry teacher taking summer classes and he’s a park ranger (I took the picture of the lighthouse at the right at his state park). But it just so happens that one of his projects for work this week is putting a podcast together that describes important rules about the campground and the unique ORV sand dune area. His podcast will then be uploaded and able to be played over a specific AM radio frequency.

I’m looking forward to creating my own podcast using Audacity. I think I have a pretty good understanding of how the program works. I love that it is a FREE download. Importing a music file seems fairly simple. I watched this youtube video that described key features of creating a podcast using a PC and found it helpful.

Here is a rubric Kathy Schrock has published as a pdf file for discoveryschool. There was also rubrics for wikis and several other rubrics for grading your student-generated podcasts. Just click the discoveryschool link above for a complete list (the tech-related rubrics are toward the bottom of the list).

I’m anxious to get to the store and pick up my own headset/microphone and get started. Meanwhile, my husband is using my son’s computer and is editing the mp3 file he brought home (he recorded at the park) using Microsoft MovieMaker. Apparently, that is another option for editing.

Guidelines for Technology

I had read Marc Prensky’s process of technology adoption in another class. At the simplistic level he describes the newest and earliest technology integration into school as “dabbling” and the most educationally-value stage he describes as “doing new things in new ways.” If you haven’t read his article, “Shaping Tech for the Classroom,” it’s an interesting and informative read.

Before I list my guidelines for using technology. I’m going to brainstorm what technology means to me… each beginning with “technology is…” The list is organized by what comes into my brain first.

1. Technology is a collection of tools that can be used to enhance an educational environment.
2. Technology can be used by students, teachers or both simultaneously. In other words it can be a tool for learning or a tool for teaching.
3. Technology allows educators to bring a lesson to life for their students. I’m reminded of a question I ask my 9^th graders, “why do we use models?” I’m point to an awful model of an atom when I ask. There are several reasons they come us with… something is too small, too large, too far away, to expensive, too hazardous, too lots of things. But now with the internet at our fingertips and so many resources at our disposal we can bring our students that much closer to an authentic experience.
4. Technology is authentic.
5. Technology isn’t going away.
6. Technology enhances the learning experience when used to augment a lesson, not replace it. In other words, I don’t believe that a virtual experience when used exclusively is the best educational experience.

I only a few general guidelines in my classroom, which are…

1. Be respectful

2. Be safe.

3. Be prepared.

4. Be motivated.

5. Do nothing that prevents others from doing their job, which is to learn chemistry.

6. Do nothing that prevents Mrs. Sherburn from doing her job, to teach you chemistry.

So along those lines, my guidelines (first draft) regarding technology would be…

1. Be respectful (when chatting, collaborating, posting, blogging etc.)
2. Be safe (if you publish something to the internet expect that even your parents could see it).
3. Keep an open mind and explore (new ideas and technologies)
4. Be patient when learning something new or using a new technology (“patience is a virtue!”)
5. ?
6. ?

* 5 and 6 will be my work in progress

I read someone’s blog (ha ha, I’m typing this out in Word and it doesn’t recognize “blog” as a word) that said they relied on students to use technology outside of school. At my school, this wouldn’t be an option. After conducting a short school-wide survey 2 years ago, we discovered that about 75% of our low SES (socio-economic status) student population did have computers; only about 75% of those students had an internet connection.

I really want to focus on ways to allow “students to interact with information in a way that is meaningful and could not have happened otherwise?” And maybe even more important for me to integrate into my classroom are ways for my kids to “create and share their knowledge with an audience they never would have had access to without technology?”

Setting the Stage Reflection

Do our students really learn more about technology outside of school rather than in school? The answer probably has a lot to do with the socio-economic status of their family and friends. Bell and Bull (2008) reported in Technology’s Greatest Value, that “there is a ‘digital disconnect’ between limited use of technology in schools and extensive use of technology by students to complete academic work outside of school.” I couldn’t agree more (at least this seems to be the case at the rural school where I teach).

The use of technology in the science classroom, or any classroom, has great potential. However, teachers, including myself, need professional development that is thoughtful and consistent (2 hours at the beginning of the school year isn’t going to cut it!) and able to demonstrate how a technology can be used. Bell and Bull (2008) provided a description of an ideal technology, stating that it has a “low threshold and high ceiling. In other words, it will be intuitive for the novice to learn and yet support increasingly sophisticated activities.” Of course, this is the kind of technologies that many teachers are more than willing to try. It’s the other kind, intuitive only for the advanced to learn and supports only certain activities, which are quick to turn a teacher off.

Our students LOVE TECHNOLOGY. They’ve grown up with the constant bombardment of information and have learned quickly what gets “let in” and what gets filtered out. I think the educators that are at least willing to allow presently-taught content to be enhance or potentially delivered using a technology are much more likely reach the “2.0” audience that fill our classrooms. I’m going to be open-minded and give it a try.

Sherburn's Synopsis

I am a high school science teacher at Hesperia High School in, you guessed it, Hesperia (Michigan not California). I will be going into my 7th year of teaching. I also coach 7th grade volleyball and HS Science Olympiad.

I am setting up this blog as part of a course to complete my Master's program through Montana State University. I am also now using a few other technologies as I first posted including Twitter, Google Reader and a wiki for the class.

I am married to my college-sweetheart (although we attended different colleges in Michigan that were 400 mi apart). We have 2 beautiful boys, Andrew (3 yrs) and Nate (15 months).

I'm taking 3 online graduate classes this summer and going to another 6 day workshop in August. Whoever said that teachers get the summers off must have been telling a joke.

In my "spare" time I enjoy scrapingbook (haven't done that since Christmas break), kayaking (last summer), reading (something other than a graduate reading assignment would be nice), watching a good movie (I think that last one was "The Proposal"). But mainly, I love spending time with family and friends. And in the wonderful area of West Michigan that I live there is so much to do outdoors in the summer.

Information Overload

I've started my own blog. I now have a Twitter account and new email through Google. I'm using a Wiki. Meanwhile, organizing all the new technology with Google Reader. If my brain doesn't explode from all the information, I'm sure my husband's will from listening to it all. On second thought, he probably tuned me out a few days ago :-)