JOURNAL #7

I’m still working on narrowing down my Twitter account to the feeds that most interest me and are most  applicable for me.  For the most part, I have enjoyed learning the tidbits that come my way:  technological developments such as the increasingly common sightings of drones.  More importantly, there are tweets from other teachers about tools to use in the classroom.  Great resources I have enjoyed:  white board apps, class Dojo   (where students can engage in live quizzes etc).  Via my Linked In account, I am regularly updated as to job opportunities for educators nationwide.  By far the most useful info that has come to me are the tips for interviewing as well as various ideas as to how to adapt to the Common Core.  

JOURNAL 6- REFLECTIONS

Learning HTML and CSS makes me feel as if I have “seen the wizard”, and there is a certain level of pride that goes along with this.  But thoughts of the developer’s web code and CSS invade my thoughts and distract me as I conduct my business on the web now.   After learning some of the no no’s, I am particularly disgruntled as a consumer when I have to scroll horizontally, whereas before, it was annoying but I figured it was just natural and I didn’t realize that this is not encountered on all sites.  One bonus has been taking GED 571 concurrently with 512.  I like the way the topics often overlap, or mutually assist in understanding the other.    

One aspect of programming that I appreciate is that we can rely on the browsers to display the bones of our websites, but in reliably variable ways due to various browser accommodations.  I like that the coding community has agreed that there are characteristics that must be present (HTML), but that the accessories (CSS) are icing on the cake.  Still, being a visual person myself, I realize that the “icing” is of dire importance.  CSS is the difference between spending 2 seconds on a page or delving into a 30 minute “relationship” with a website.     

My most rewarding assignment was the examples of CSS, mostly because it was so difficult get it straightened out.  I hadn’t realized that we were to have saved different documents for each example, and so I had to really tease out some details in order to get all my examples in shape.    

Here is a link to that assignment:

http://www.csupomona.edu/~mclangley/ged512/labs/cssindex.html

JOURNAL 5- MY EXPERIENCE WITH TWITTER

I always feel as if I’m not using it right, certainly not to its potential, but I have found value in Twitter.   I appreciated the many ideas as to how to incorporate Twitter into the classroom, especially the idea of using it for the invention of dialog between historical figures.  

Q  WHAT ARE THE BENEFIT AND DRAWBACKS TO USING TWITTER IN THE CLASROOM?  
The limit of characters presents itself as a relief for students who may find it difficult to compose lengthy essays.  I am conflicted, however, about the tendency toward brevity in the form of emoticons and text shorthand that riddles the world of social media.  Again and again, engaging our students must be done in a way that reaches them on their level, but does not compromise literacy.  With proper standards in place, I can appreciate Twittering.  

Q: HOW DO YOU SEE YOURSELF USING TWITTER?

One of the more intriguing options I explored was tweeting a travel journal.  Over spring break in 2015, I will be leading our middle school’s first 8th grade trip to Washington DC.  As a parent myself, I am certain that this will be an anxious time for the families of the attendees.  With a photo journal, I can keep families up to date by tweeting the trip in progress.  Ahhhh, perhaps more importantly, I can solicit followers from among current 7th grade families, so that next year’s potential attendees begin to sign on for 2016.  Hmmmmmm….

JOURNAL 4- WEBSITE DESIGN

SITE TITLE:  “GUEST TEACHER” 

DEVELOPER: MONICA C. LANGLEY

RATIONAL OR FOCUS:

The website I will design is intended to be a drop down menu on a teacher’s homepage and would serve as the teacher’s “sub notebook”.  

Because a day in the life of a substitute or “guest” teacher is full of unknowns, anxiety can end up being a constant companion.  Some x-factors can lead to a good number of avoidable situations.  Here are a few examples:

• There is an assembly and you must walk 1/2 a mile with the class to a nearby auditorium—>  your allergies flare up and your feet are blistered from walking in inappropriate shoes.  SOLUTION:  advance notice of the day’s activities
• Joey is mainstreamed autistic, sensitive to noise and holds his breath if he is asked to do something he doesn’t want to do—>  Joey turns blue when asked to line up for recess.  SOLUTION:  knowing the special needs of students prior to arrival.   
• Martha gets pulled out for speech at 8am while you’re working with groups and there is an earthquake drill at 8:10am —-> your headcount is off and the school begins to search for missing Martha.
• School starts/ ends later than the time specified by the automated machine that doles out jobs. --> you have to find someone to pick up your own kids from school because you're going to be working later than anticipated.  SOLUTION:  viewing the day's lesson plan ahead of time would give you a chance to arrange for your own needs.  
• The list goes on and on!!

So, this would be a site where teachers can load the info that applies to their school as well as their classroom. Sub teachers could peruse the site by logging in with their job number.  This portal site would not be public because of the sensitive nature of some of the information.   

MAIN FEATURES and CONTENT:

There are 5 directories under the “GUEST TEACHER” button, each with at least one link. 

TODAY’S LESSON PLAN

 BELL SCHEDULES

1) Monday schedule

2) Tues- Friday schedule

3) Assembly schedule

4) Minimum Day schedule

 ROSTERS

1) per 1

2) per 2

3) per 3

4) per 4

5) per 5

 HELPFUL INFO

1) staff phone list

2) emergency procedures

3) map of school

4) assembly seating chart

5) class info- this is a standard fill-in form that includes information such as preferred class management techniques, time fillers, a list of helpful or team teachers, instructions with regard to class pets

6) expectations for each period throughout the day : another standard fill-in form that includes a seating chart, student pull outs, helpful students, student who need extra positive reinforcement, students with special needs, and most importantly, health issues of which to be aware.  

 CONTACT ME (button)

TARGET AUDIENCE

The site would be viewed primarily by guest teachers after the home teacher has front loaded their info to the interactive forms.  

 DESIGN FEATURES

The design will be clean and tidy, with few graphics. 

LIMITATIONS

At this point, I don’t know how to create a site with limited access granted to those with a job number.  Also, I don’t know how to create interactive forms at this point and getting teachers on board could be difficult, as some are still averse to the use of technology.      

JOURNAL 3- SOCIAL MEDIA IN THE CLASSROOM

Friesen, N. (2010). Education and the Social Web: Connective Learning and the Commercial Imperative. First Monday: Peer Re viewed Journal on the Internet, 15(12). Retrieved October 14, 2014, from http://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/3149/2718

This article explores the commercial facet of social networking, pointing out that services such as Facebook and Twittering are fundamentally friends of advertisers.  As such, we are their “product”, being sold to the advertiser at every click of the mouse. This is made possible by our willing, voluntary provision of oodles of personal information upon creating our accounts for such social media. Our age, family status, preferences, interests are mindlessly shared upon the request of the social media, so that this info can then become part of a complex algorithm that tells advertisers whether and with what products I should we targeted.  

Q:  How does this apply to social media for educational purposes?

Social media could be used to connect students in much the same way we are using it for this class.  Students could research a particular topic and share postings online, creating dialog and exposing each other to alternate thoughts not yet explored.  

AND, they could expose each other to alternate thoughts not yet explored- which is a common parental fear as their child embarks on an internet adventure. 

This article reminds me of Channel 1 way back in the ‘90s.  Channel 1 was an educational television feed, perhaps best described as a public television station that was all news (international/ local) relevant to high school kids.  And so were the ads that were attached.  Here’s the deal:  Channel 1 paid for the installation of the TVs/ cables, and the school had to agree to show so many hours of the feed, including the ads woven into programming- no turning the TV off during the ads. Pasadena Unified declined the proposal on the principal that it was inappropriate to create a commercial environment in the public school system.     

  

Q: Should we negate the value of social media for education?

While I very much agree with the author’s point (which seems to lean toward a disapproval of the use social media for educational purposes), we must be careful 

not to throw the baby out with the bathwater

to stay current with technology and the practices of students.

JOURNAL 2- THE RSS EXPERIENCE

This is my first go with an RSS or PLN.  I have a hard time finding sites that are relevant or focused. 

Q:  Articles interest me more than blogs or chats.  Is there a way to discern or predetermine the difference in browsing?

A:  From what I can tell, the discernment comes in after the search.  As I scan through the search results, I view the URL to determine if the item is a blog 

My primary interest is in how technology is applied in the classroom by creative teachers. There are several services that provide a mode via which teachers can set up quick quizzes or surveys.  Students “play” these educational games with immediate feedback.  Depending on the program, the results can be public (kahoot.it) or feedback can be private, allowing only students and their parents Class Dojo).  Class Dojo also uses a platform via which teachers and parents can communicate, centralizing assessment and communication.   

Chats were flooded with the confessions of teachers forgetting something, or showing up late for appointments because they didn’t have an appropriate system through which to be reminded.  The resounding theme was over- commitment.  The topic of the chat was “what are your favorite tools for organizing?  

Q:  Over-committed and struggling with time management, yet spending the time to chat with comrades (who are essentially strangers) on the internet.  How do they manage the time to chat?

 While this is not my personal approach, perhaps this is their method of socializing and decompressing.  The bonus is the problem solving along the way.                          

JOURNAL 1- LEARNING WEB DESIGN CH 1-3

Niederst Robbins, J. (2012). Ch. 1 Getting Started. In Learning Web Design: A Beginner’s Guide to HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and Web Graphics (4th ed., p. 624). Sebastopol, CA: Littlechair.

Because I am an organizer by nature (admittedly a little on the uptight side), I find the most attractive aspects of web design to be User Experience and User Interface. I am a stickler for proper grammar and spelling, and I appreciate visual simplicity in addition to graphics that are kind to the eye and that don’t detract from the purpose of a page.   Additionally, I find poorly organized and unintuitive websites to be very irksome.  Time is one of our most valuable resources, and poorly organized websites waste time at best and, at worst, can turn consumers completely away from a company entirely, not just their website.  

QUESTION:  Will I need to purchase more memory?

Computers on the lower market end always sacrifice some aspect of performance.  Until now, my MacBook Air has served me just fine.  Knowing that many upcoming projects will require much  more memory than I have available, I intend to rely heavily on the cloud to hold my memory-heavy projects. 

Niederst Robbins, J. (2012). Ch 2- How the Web Works. In Learning Web Design: A Beginner’s Guide to HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and Web Graphics (4th ed., p. 624). Sebastopol, CA: Littlechair.

I think of my browser as a messenger boy.  I ask my messenger to get me certain information, and he runs out to retrieve my desired material.  Some messengers know their way around better than others and come back with exactly what I want.  Others may come back with superfluous or non-applicable information.  The challenge lies in choosing the messenger, Firefox, Chrome, Explorer, etc.  

QUESTION:  Why are some browsers seemingly more efficient?   

I have to imagine that the manner in which browsers function is essentially the same across the board.  Perhaps the difference lies in the focus of the browser.  Is it aiming for accuracy?  Is it aiming for breadth?  Perhaps knowing what my preference is will help determine the browser to be chosen.