Statement of Professional Objectives

Jason Potsander
Statement of Professional Objectives
University of Alaska Southeast
July 27, 2008

"Computing is not about computers any more. It is about living." ~Nicholas Negroponte, founder and Chairman Emeritus of Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Media Lab and the One Laptop per Child association (OLPC)

Technology is increasingly being integrated into the personal and professional fabric of our lives. This technological bombardment occurs so constantly and consistently that it is nearly impossible to perform our activities of daily living without coming into contact or being facilitated by technology in some manner. Indeed, interfacing with various technologies is no longer a quaint novelty, but is often a prerequisite to achieving personal and professional success in today's rapidly changing world. As an elementary educator I believe it is my job to provide my students with a foundation of knowledge and skills that will enable them to be in a position to take advantage of any opportunities available to them throughout their lives.
Since earning my Bachelor of Arts degree in Elementary Education with a K-12 Teaching English as a Second Language endorsement in 2001 from Goshen College, (Goshen, Indiana), I have accumulated over five years of experience teaching English in small group settings. Four of these years of teaching experience were performed within the very multilingual population of Anchorage, Alaska. Primarily focusing on oral language and literacy development, I have experienced first hand how the integration of technology across the curriculum can greatly enhance student engagement and motivation.

In accordance with the Alaska Standards for Culturally Responsive Schools, I recognize that in order for my students to reach their full educational potential I must provide opportunities for them to master the technological knowledge and skills that will help springboard them into future opportunities. As a culturally responsive educator, I also realize that technology is a great medium in which students can learn about the rich cultural and geological variety around the world while enhancing their own cultural identity.

With this in mind, I seek to equip my students with several key technological skills. For example, students need to become critical consumer-evaluators of media, Internet resources, and technology-related hardware. To initiate this evaluation process students would be taught to question "Is a technology-related device or activity beneficial or accurate?" along with asking "Is a technology-related device or activity technically possible or allowable?" These questions are two very different, but related evaluation tools which students might use to guide their technology use.
In a world where multimedia can saturate our senses, students require the technical knowledge and skill to utilize software as well as hardware creatively in order for their stories and ideas to be heard. Increasingly, technology-related multimedia resources and skills are becoming the preferred communicative medium for both personal and professional endeavors. Students must be adept at harnessing the power of both software and hardware resources in order to express and promote themselves as well as contribute to the global society in which we find ourselves.

With a Master's degree in Educational Technology, I believe that I can successfully impart to my students the technological knowledge and skills that this digital age will demand of them. By exploring and critically evaluating a vast array of technological resources and concepts I will be better equipped to engage my students in their own quests of creation, expression, and communication. I believe a Master's degree in Educational Technology will provide me with the resources and knowledge to more fully integrate technology across the curriculum in my own teaching practice as well as allow me to serve as a professional resource to my colleagues as we mutually strive to cultivate each of our student's highest learning potential.

Embedded Blog: Highlights from ED693 Emerging Internet Technologies

Yeah! I found out how to embed my podcast within blogspot. That wasn't so hard...

I hope you enjoy the podcast.

Subscribe in a reader

Blog: Highlights from ED693 Emerging Internet Technologies

This URL should take you to my blog that highlights my experiences during ED693 Emerging Internet Technologies.

http://web.me.com/jpotsander/EmergingTechPodcast/Podcast/Podcast.html

or

http://jasonpotsander.podomatic.com/entry/2008-07-25T12_09_24-07_00

or

http://feeds.feedburner.com/PotsanderBlog

Here is a link my podcast through podomatic, but you will see I did find a way to embed the podcast within my blog in the next posting:

My embeded Grazr Widget Creation

With some tinkering and experimentation I figured out how to successfully embed the html that Grazr used to create my widget. When I first tried to embed the code I would get the outline of my Grazr widget, but the reading lists lists said "file not found." I'm still not sure what exactly was not working, but I kept trying to go back to original source code provided by Grazr and would then retry embedding the code. So not it works, yeah!

Extra Credit Widget Creation

Patti,
Hopefully this URL address will lead you my Grazr widget creation so you can view it and grade it.

http://www.google.com/ig/adde?moduleurl=grazr.com/jx/widget.pl?destEQ
GoogleIGQSTviewEQsAMPthemeEQgloss_blackAMPaddbarEQonAMPfileEQgrazr.com
/data/jason.potsander/Triathlon_and_Tour_de_France_Blogs_and_Podcasts_1

Web Quest Survey: Security, Ethic and Privacy Concerns of Web 2.0 Media

1. Identify the security concerns that you personally feel need to be addressed before using a web resource or service

a. How do you ensure your students are safe when using Web 2.0 resources and meet district technology guidelines?

When thinking about security concerns that I feel need to be addressed I can categorize a list of questions that falls into three general categories: Web Site Questions, Student Experiences Questions, and Teacher/School Site Questions. The following is a list of questions in each category and my accompanying justification for each.

Web Site Questions:

Is the site reputable? Is the site published by an individual or larger organization? Can the site be trusted as virus/malware free and as a factual source? Does the site contain any bias? Is the site currently banned by a school filter and why?

Justification:

Web resources must be evaluated with the same concerns and rigor that other media are held up to when ascertaining their legitimacy/validity. In fact one could argue that since web resources are becoming so increasingly accessible over other types of media that we must hold them up to an even higher standard. A lot of information can be ascertained by looking at a web site’s domain name and knowing who/what entity is responsible for it’s posting. Knowing who or what group published the site can at times tell you more that the web site itself about how far one can trust the specific site. Also, knowing if the site is currently allowed by a school’s/district’s current filtering protocols can give you some indication as what types of web sites may pose a threat to school-wide networks. Although, schools must often times use broad filtering criteria that unfortunately also blocks many potential useful and legitimate sites in addition to suspect ones.

Student Experiences Questions:

What past experiences have my students had with using Web 2.0 resources? How familiar are my students with Web 2.0 resources and which ones have they used most often? Have any of my students engaged in unsafe Internet practices in the past at school or at home? Have my students acquired any Internet safety information from past teachers or their parents?

Justification:

In all areas of a student’s education they need to be taught how to think critically and technological issues are no different. The above student experience questions are critical if we are to scaffold a student’s technological learning from the known to the unknown. One must know a student’s past experiences and familiarity with Web 2.0 resources to effectively teach them further. Given the vastness of Web 2.0 resources it is helpful to know what holes may exist in a student’s knowledge base. Knowing a student’s past history regarding Web 2.0 resources also helps in giving them specific knowledge to keep them and others safe while online. It can also be helpful to know what specific Internet safety classes/information a student may have received from past teachers or parents as this can vary widely given various teaching and parenting styles.

Teacher/School Site Questions:

Have specific and well-developed Internet safety policies been written, taught, and enforced among the student population? What protection measures have been tried in the past and are currently being applied? What type of security issues have been encountered at the school in the past and how have they been dealt with? What is the current administration’s/district’s philosophy regarding the balance of needed security measures with the need for student/staff productivity and ease of use? Do teachers/administrators generally feel that the student population can be trusted to make safe and wise decisions? Do all school site computer require at least one log-in username and password required from each student/staff? Are the school computers set up in such a way as to be easily monitored and physically secured? Does all staff understand the need to actively monitor any students engaged in online learning?

Justification:

In my mind these teacher/school site questions are among the most important school network security questions primarily because the school staff can profoundly impact them based on individual and collective staff choices. Today’s teachers must understand and effectively work with Generation Y students and younger who have never known a time without a vast array of easily accessible Web 2.0 resources. As one unidentified risk manager in Cara Garretson’s article (Facing Generation Y Security Issues) relates, “flexibility must be accompanied by well-defined policies and layers of security technology.” He goes on to further state, “you need to specifically define parameters for what is and is not allowed in your policies, and spell out what will be the result of any violations.” Having a well-developed Internet safety policy that are proactively communicated, taught, and enforced is a key first step security measure. The specifics of such a policy may vary in an effort to provide the least restrictive and most productive policies to different age groups and school user groups. The current best course of action regarding Internet security policies will depend greatly on the school’s past experience/approach and that of current administration.

A parallel issue is how much school staff trust their students to make generally safe and wise decisions. Ultimately, security issues are blend of social and technological solutions that allow us all to work together efficiently. As Tim Bray, director of Web technologies at Sun Microsystems Inc., states, (Keeping Secrets in a WikiBlogTubeSpace World, by Mary Brandel, Computerworld, March 2007) “If employees can’t be trusted, technology is the least of your problems.” If one replaces the word “employees” with “students” I believe the same sentiment applies.

In addition to a sound and proactively taught Internet safety policy some automatic measures can be taken. At the very least I would agree with “The Lawyer’s Guide to Mobile Computer Security,” in that “All computers should
require at least one password for login. Individual documents containing sensitive information that are shared electronically should be individually password-protected.” Login requirements and specific password protected documents can do much to thwart opportunistic infringements. Also, enabling login requirements greatly helps when tracking down who potential culprits might be.

Login requirements are akin to prudent physical measures such as locking computer lab doors when not use and proactively monitoring learners while they are engaged in online activities. We must not forget or take for granted the simplest of measures before we brainstorm more advanced ones.

Ultimately, security will be best found when using a multifaceted approach that includes policy and technology. As Mary Brandel points out in “Keeping Secrets in a WikiBlogTubeSpace World,” “a combination of antivirus software, URL filtering, application controls, Web reputation services and “safe search” tools” in addition to sound policies all contribute in creating a “secure Web gateway.”

Additional Sources:

1. Bill Helling (http://www.firstmonday.dk/issues/issue3_2/helling/) highlights the fact that many web-sites enable Cookies which “can store the collected information - usually unannounced - on the visitor's hard drive. In some cases, the server itself stores the data and gives the visitor a code instead. When the visitor returns later to the same site, the visitor's browser gives the cookie's information (or the code to access the information) back to the server, and the site can recognize the visitor, perhaps presenting a more personalized version of itself or specifically targeted advertisements.” While this can be helpful in many cases it also raises security and privacy issues especially when users operate on computers that are publicly accessed.

2. Furthermore, schools face legal implications for not having security measures in place. Schools and libraries in the state of Alaska must comply with (Children’s Internet Protection Act) CIPA requirements in order to receive funding for Internet access and connections. Examples of requirements include: blocking sites depicting child pornography or obscenity and providing a filtering mechanism. More information can be found at: http://www.library.state.ak.us/usf/cipa.cfm

2. Ethic concerns are subjective by the individual who uses the Internet.

a. After reviewing the provided articles, please discuss the ethic issues that concern you most when using this new media.

The issues that most concern me regarding ethics include confidentiality of sensitive information and copyright issues. Web 2.0 effectively opens the door for a plethora of opportunities that social networking sites provide ready access to. Issues of confidentiality and copyright are becoming increasingly more muddied. The old adage of “do no harm” commonly used in the health care arena now applies to that of technology (KnowledgeCenterSecurity).

Any business or educational institution needs to takes steps in order to protect consumers’ or students’ personal information, which is becoming increasingly more difficult. In the business world, both businesses and consumers hold responsibility for maintaining confidentiality. For example, a bank issues a debit card with a secure access code. It is the bank’s responsibility to take precautionary measures to protect access to the code, but it is also the consumer’s responsibility to keep both the card and the code in separate, secure locations. The same logic does not necessarily apply to educational institutions. School staff are responsible for the confidentiality of student information, from the teacher who neglects to log out of the computer at the end of the day to the janitor who looks at the computer screen with student information. Students are not expected to maintain their own confidential student records; it is the responsibility of school staff to do so.

In any school or business, it is becoming easy for information to be transmitted to parties not authorized to access information. All devices need protective measures taken to safeguard sensitive information, including iPods and thumb drives. Schools and companies need to develop security policies to cover all mobile devices, not simply limited to laptops and desktops. Treat a USB flash drive as one would an office key, keep it attached to keys and in a protected area. Protect documents so changes cannot be made by saving to PDF format. (Freedman, et al., 2007).

Copyright issues pose a concern as more information is becoming increasingly accessible online, both through legal and illegal means. In the area of education, this takes two main approaches. First, as educators, we need to do our part to attribute credit where it is due. The Creative Commons blog notes some measures such as resources that post a small icon or link to the credits. Displaying such information or taking a moment to acknowledge the artist or author provides a good role model for students. Educators also need to be aware of accessing information legally. According to the Copyright Term Extension Act (CTEA), works published prior to 1923 may be entered into public domain. Be aware of adaptations, make sure to use the original (Jassin, 2003) CopyLaw.com. The second approach is to teach students proper use of copyright as students use Internet resources for research and learning.

On the flip side, is the idea that educators have a legitimate right to use resources within the confines of education for “educational purposes only.” This point is argued by an anonymous blog entitled etc@bmc that can be found at: http://www.brynmawr.edu/etc/etcblog/2007/05/copy-protection-web-20-and-education.html. This site argues for educators to remind lawmakers of our legal right to use resources for education purposes, before this privilege is removed as well.

b. How do you teach your students to adhere to acceptable online ethics and copyright issues? This is a big one so please spend time discussing this.

Ultimately, protection of sensitive information and using copyright information ethically comes back to awareness and education. All the hardware and software precautions in the world such as firewalls, filters and anti-viruses cannot take the place of teaching students and others about their responsibility to use and distribute information in an ethical manner. This fact is highlighted by Rick Cook in an article entitled Protecting Yourself with Web 2.0 CRM (http://www.insidecrm.com/features/prtoecting-yourself-crm-031208/). In this article Rick states, “Although the details of some of threats, especially Web 2.0 attacks, can be extremely complex, the most important way to protect yourself, your company and your customers does not involve technology at all. It relies on good, old-fashioned awareness. Awareness and education are not substitutes for protective measures like firewalls and filters, but all firewalls, security software and gadgets are useless without them.”

We need to teach students responsible practices for use of resources found on the web. It used to be that we taught students not to copy more than 3 consecutive words from an encyclopedia while doing a report. The same set of rules, expanded to apply to online resources, needs to be explicitly taught to our current “cut and paste” generation of young persons. Information such as copyright laws that can be found at CopyLaw.com, need to be taught (Jassin, 2003) in order for educators to hold students accountable to them. Older students may understand the ethical dilemmas of students caught cheating on open-book tests which are described at: http://www.businesspundit.com/the-business-ethics-of-web-20-does-collaboration-and-open-source-blur-the-line-of-what-it-means-to-cheat/

Let students know that you will be checking up on them. Students tend to think they can access information via the Internet and tend to forget that teachers can too! Following a lecture on responsible use of Internet resources and copyright information, I would take any papers that did not sound like the student’s typical writing style and Google segments of their writing in looking for plagiarism. I then highlighted the plagiarized text and gave it back, letting them know this was a warning and they must redo their work. If I caught the same student plagiarizing a second time throughout the year I would assign them an automatic “F” for that assignment.

Cara Garretson writes in the article entitled “Facing Generation Y Security Issues” http://rhetorica.uaf.edu/moodle/mod/resource/view.php?id=69) that “If you make things too restrictive, younger employees may just pack up and go elsewhere.” This same principal may also apply to students who face too many restrictions. They may either ignore them entirely or refuse to complete the assignment. Need to balance rules with a reminder of why rules are in place, and keep rules simple.

Students need to have impressed to them that someday they will be responsible for the security of sensitive information with severe consequences applied for the distribution or security of such data. Resource for teaching students about intellectual property rights, aimed at teens, can be located at: http://www.mybytes.com/index.html
Under the “viewpoints” section, students may listen to artists’ opinions on Intellectual Property Rights and learn how and why adhering to such (word) is important. Listening to real-life artists may have a larger impact on their understanding than a lecture from their teacher.

Provide students with examples they can relate to. Teach students how commonly used applications use their personal information, for example MySpace, Flickr, Digg. As Wil Harris (http://www.bit-tech.net/columns/2006/06/03/web_2_privacy/1) suggests teens might find it interesting that these sites pour money into the sites, seemingly without making a profit. The profit comes from knowing information about you, based on your posts. Information that advertising agencies can target to you. Students need to be made aware of how their seemingly innocent actions may have longer-term consequence.

3. Privacy issues concern all users of the Internet from children sharing too much personal information and private information inappropriately used by others.

a. What controls would you put in place to safe guard your students?

I would advocate for the following safeguards and controls for students in my classroom and throughout my school.

1. A thorough Internet usage and Network policy that has been formulated by the school’s Technology team and is understood by all teaching staff. If necessary I would advocate for in-service time to educate teaching staff how to consistently implement the policies throughout the school.

2. I would advocate highly for a school’s administrators and Technology team to be forthright in impressing the importance of education as a means to prevent many potential student/staff infractions. The power of education also builds a common language and ethos in the building from which all students/staff can increasingly relate to as their technological experiences increase.

3. I would also remind staff that keeping our students safe online is everyone’s responsibility, much like we watch out for each other’s physical well being throughout the classrooms, halls, and recesses. This would include actively monitoring all student engaged in online learning. Keeping computer screens un-obscured and pointed towards common areas. Shutting doors and rooms when not in use and being mindful of suspicious activity.

4. I would advocate for personal log in requirements for each student/staff within the school. User access and privilege would then be set differently among different grade levels and user groups. For example, log-ins could be configured to allow K-3 students more elementary programs than their 4-6 grade counterparts.

5. I would advocate for a combination of antivirus software, URL filtering, application controls, Web reputation services and “safe search” tools.

6. I some known sites have proved to be particularly troublesome for some students I would advocate for blocking those sites entirely, to remove the temptation.

7. I would encourage teachers/students to use kid safe Internet search engines such as http://www.askkids.com/, http://kids.yahoo.com/, http://www.rcls.org/ksearch.htm, or http://www.ivyjoy.com/rayne/kidssearch.html.

8. With specific students or issues I might advocate for student computer contracts to be agreed upon and followed to insure greater accountability.

9. I would make sure that all wireless networks within the school are password protected to discourage unauthorized users from siphoning precious bandwidth or attempting access confidential school data.

10. I would advocate that all students receive some basic and appropriate Internet safety information that is taught in collaboration with a technology or media specialist within the school.

11. I would advocate that parent information be prepared for dissemination at a school event, in which parents were free to see and use some suggested Online resources along side a technology or media specialist within the school.

b. How do you control your personal information on the web?

I tend to be fairly brief and non-descript when describing my self on-line. I maintain a family blog site that open to the public however fairly hard to find in my opinion by the average search query. The URL is fairly obscure and I have not been able to find my own blog when doing elementary searches for it. The blog site contains little information about who exactly is maintaining the blog and where I am living. I do this intentionally as I primarily use the blog site to give updated news regarding our daughter to friends and family. I would prefer that only people I know view my blog site and periodically send invitations to view updates to friends and family.

I also recently began a Facebook.com profile in which I rather deliberately refrained from adding to much descriptive information until I grow more comfortable with the social networking concept. I like the idea that only my approved “friends” are able to access my full profile and am very judicious about who I approve as friends. If I have never met the person I refrain from adding them as friends as well and that includes friends of my friends.

I approach many of the free Web 2.0 registration and profile requests with some wariness because I know that this information is being mined and sorted in a myriad of ways in order to market and sell various products. According to Wil Harris in the article entitled Why Web 2.0 Will End Your Privacy (http://www.bit-tech.net/columns/2006/06/03/web_2_privacy/1) “Our social networks, searching habits, visual identifiers and personal preferences will be mercilessly sold to anyone who wants to get their hands on our particular demographic.” I would suppose that a digital native would view this personal data tracking/mining on the same level as other older forms of market data such as credit card statements or merchant’s that offer savings by becoming a member. I however, cannot help but be somewhat suspect that the wonderful Web 2.0 applications and toys are costing me more than their often “free” label suggests. In fact cannot help but wonder how access to my interests and consumer habits might at some point cost me something further along down the road.

4. Please critically evaluate how to utilize the Web 2.0 benefits over security, ethic and privacy concerns.

In many areas of life it is helpful to live by some basic ground rules and an overall sense of balance. This applies when using Web 2.0 technologies as well when thinking about security, ethics, and privacy concerns.

Although, the wide world of Web 2.0 technologies is ever increasing in the applications and entertainment it may provide us, we must ask ourselves if the benefits are worth the potential risks. Certainly, a list of standard ground rules would could be prudently applied to a variety of Web 2.0 resources. As Wired.com’s Parenting Online handout illustrates, many ground rules that apply in the physical world can be adapted to the virtual world as well. For example, “Don’t talk to or accept anything from strangers” can be adapted to include not trusting anyone online unless they have physically met them at some point. Another common rule such as “come straight home after school” could be translated to mean that unlimited and aimless time spent surfing online is not allowed. More examples of translatable ground rules can be found at the “Parenting Online Booklet” available at: http://www.wiredsafety.org/

An overall sense of balance is also needed when considering Web 2.0 benefits over security, ethic and privacy concerns. As Internet based scams, frauds, and even legitimate accumulation of user market data increase, a healthy dose of skepticism when dealing with some Web 2.0 resources does much in providing a safety net.

In a school setting we must consider the collective good over the interests/preferences of the individual. Since so many functions and person daily depend on a functioning school network, we must base our decisions on what allows the school to collectively provide the best learning environment possible. As networked environments increase our world becomes more connected to places and persons we would not otherwise be connected to. The questions of what it means to have private and public ethics blur as the world becomes increasingly networked. Suspect online practices such participating in peer to peer file sharing applications may be deemed safe by certain high risk users, but vehemently opposed by others such as network administrators. The NEEDS of all users must take precedent over the PREFERENCES of others if there is going to be a sustainable, safe, and protected network. In cases where user ethics seem to differ one must at times take what is recommended by field experts while continuing a dialogue if the issue remains important to students and staff.

On the other hand, privacy issues seem much more “cut and dry” and are often dictated by Federal, State, and School Board policy rather than individual choice.

Widget Creation: Bonus Points

http://www.google.com/ig/adde?moduleurl=grazr.com/jx/widget.pl?destEQ
GoogleIGQSTviewEQsAMPthemeEQgloss_blackAMPaddbarEQonAMPfileEQgrazr.com
/data/jason.potsander/Triathlon_and_Tour_de_France_Blogs_and_Podcasts_1

I created my own “Triathlon and Tour de France Blogs and Podcast” widget using a site called http://grazr.com . I added the following feeds into my widget which can be seen on grazr.com site at the following address: http://grazr.com/config?view=o&file=http://grazr.com/data/jason.potsander/Triathlon_and_Tour_de_France_Blogs_and_Podcasts_1

http://www.velonews.com/lennard-zinn

http://podcast.tri-talk.com/feed.aspx?feedId=371

http://www2.trainingbible.com/joesblog/blog.html

http://www.martindugard.com/

http://community.active.com/blogs/frankie

http://community.active.com/blogs/tourdefrance/

I found the process of creating a widget relatively easy after clicking on the “Tour” tab and following the directions indicated on how to create and publish your widget. The “Tour” tab page can be viewed at: http://grazr.com/info/tour

Basically, my widget acts as a feed reader and Podcast collector for a few sites that I have been using to stay abreast of Triathlon and Tour de France news. My widget is relatively simple in that it deals with one subject, however one could create multiple folders each dedicated to different subjects and amass quite a collection of centralized information.

My widget creation can be viewed and published to your site at:
http://grazr.com/config?view=o&file=http://grazr.com/data/jason.potsander/Triathlon_and_Tour_de_France_Blogs_and_Podcasts_1

The sophistication that Grazr is capable of is illustrated in the “MennoWidget” that a friend of mine created. The purpose of this widget is to collect news, links, audio and video related to the Mennonite faith. It includes folders that categorize feeds into “links, news, podcasts, and video.” Since I am an alumni of the Mennonite College, Goshen College, I particularly enjoy hearing podcasts of weekly chapels and convocations that currently take place there.

The “MennoWidget” can be viewed at the Grazr site: http://grazr.com/config?theme=sateen_green&fontsize=9pt&file=http://grazr.com/data/MennoWidget/bc6cb10

Once my I entered my desired feeds into my Grazr widget I published the widget to my iGoogle page using the convenient publishing options listed on Grazr’s home page. Options to publish to many other popular services were also automatically available, such as blogspot, facebook, iPhone, twitter, and netvibes.

Integrate Web Application--Assignment

"The Fifty Nifty United States"

I found several online resources to teach the US states and capitals to fifth grade ESL students. I have taught this unit in the past and have been disappointed that the district currently blocks many of the interactive websites I have found on this subject.

I found several websites to aid in the learning of states and capitals through multi-sensory methods such as singing songs and interactive games.

http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/web_games.htm

This site contains a number of education games for engaging drill practice (reword), allowing students to progress as they learn more state capitals. For bilingual students, the task of not only learning the capitals of each state but learning the spelling and the pronunciation prove difficult. The capital activity level one restricts students to 5-6 states at a time. Students must match the capital to one of the states shown on the map. The capital is read aloud and the student sees the printed name as well as the physical location on the map, employing a variety of multi-sensory modes of learning. Games progress to matching all capitals and states without limiting the number of states. In this way the student’s learning is scaffolding from the known to the unknown.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQBvyqxeO70

http://www.teachertube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=7f16f32e7933e174c719

Both the YouTube and TeacherTube have videos along with the song “Fifty Nifty United States”, a song with the 50 states in alphabetical order.

The YouTube video is the one I would prefer, however I understand if the district would not want to allow access to YouTube, in which case the TeacherTube video would be acceptable. The YouTube video has the song with corresponding slides of each state’s stamp. The stamp briefly depicts a bit about each state, for example the type of geography, major crops, and tourism and sporting information.

I would use both resources to supplement my lesson on the 50 states. I would first model the site for students to review as a class, then as a follow-up tool for students to review the states and capitals on an individual basis, following a traditional lesson on the 50 states. Using this resource as an independent review frees up teaching time spent on review and allows me to work more individually with students while the others take a turn on the computer. It also provides a more engaging review format than the traditional paper map to try and memorize information. This would be a great resource for students to use in the general education classroom as well. Video and audio files are a way for students to engage in hands-on learning and engage students.

As a teacher, I can only do so much with paper-and-pencil drills especially for students who require a lot of repetition to learn the material. ESL students typically read below grade-level. The memorization and location of each state and capital is overwhelming enough, let alone the pronunciation and spelling of each. Both resources allow students to hear and see the name of the state capitals. The online game involves kinesthetic learning as they drag the mouse to the correct location. The use of games, songs, and movement also creates a more authentic learning experience in which the learner can be more highly motivated.

Both the game and song web sites offer a unique framework from which students can construct their learning.

I particularly appreciate how the 50 States games (located at: http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/web_games.htm) gives the students a visual-spatial framework from which to reference the states in relation to each other and not in isolation.

I particularly appreciate how the songs (located at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQBvyqxeO70 and http://www.teachertube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=7f16f32e7933e174c719) gives the students an alphabetical framework from which to recall the names of each state.

The YouTube video provides additional learning that I have not had time to address in the past through the use of each state’s postage stamp. I would first view the song a few times with my students, pausing the video to ask students to describe what they saw on the stamp and locating the state on the map. I believe it would help reinforce different attributes of our country. For example, seeing a picture of a skier on a snowy mountain in Colorado postage stamp and then locating Colorado on a US map can reinforce the fact Colorado is a state in which many people enjoy snow, mountains, and skiing.

All the resources I listed are currently blocked on the Anchorage School District’s (ASD) websites. I would like to request that the ASD IT department find a way to allow the specific resources I mentioned above with the following justification:

Justification:

Research in best practices demonstrate that students (especially language learners or ESL) learn best with a multi-sensory approach that is provided by these resources through the us of interactive games and catchy songs. Using these sites students are able to see, hear, respond, and manipulate information which will lead to greater motivation and learning.

Research in best practices demonstrates that all learners, and (especially language learners or ESL), need many exposures to specific words and concepts before they will be internalized. The use of the resources above will greatly help my student gain exposure in learning the names of the 50 States and their geographic location in a supported and meaningful context.

Mashups

I chose to review the following mashups:

1. http://www.daylightmap.com/
2. http://keirclarke.googlepages.com/sky.htm
3. http://wiki.worldflicks.org/mexico.html

According to wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mashup_(web_application_hybrid) a mashup “is a web application that combines data from more than one source into a single integrated tool.” I interpret this to mean that a mashup is able to take data from multiple third party web sites and integrate it together in ways that allow users to analyze the data in new and meaningful ways. This is unique because the mashup creates a way to interpret and interact with data that was never intended by the original data collectors with their independent web sites.

This is different from a web application in that a mashup is taking data from other independent web sites and a web application is simply a web based program that uses information given to it by the user or within it’s own data banks to achieve to produce its desired function.

All three mashups I chose use Google maps information to create three distinct mashups.

The purpose of http://www.daylightmap.com/ is to graphically show the pattern of daylight around the globe at any given moment. One can select to see the daylight pattern on a globe using Google map’s choices of “map, Terrain, Satelitte, or Hybrid.” I believe this mashup could easily be used with Elementary students as they learn about many aspects related to Earth science and geography. Concepts of time zones, geography, astronomy and continents are just some of the many aspects that could be enriched using this site. This site very simply and effectively shows a graphic representation of how the sun’s light falls across the earth at any given moment and season. It would be interesting to use this site with a class throughout the year from Fall to Spring and watch and notice the daylight pattern subtly shifting with the seasons. Advanced math students may also be intrigued by the parabolic nature of the sunlight pattern as it falls around the globe.

I anticipate using and recommending this mashup because of how it simply and effectively illustrates how the sun’s light falls around the world and how easily this concept touches so many other related concepts that Elementary students learn about.

The mashup found at: http://keirclarke.googlepages.com/sky.htm is star viewer designed to simulate the images you might see from many different high tech space telescopes when looking at various subjects in the universe. I can easily envision using this resource with upper elementary students as apart of an astronomy unit. This site seems easy to navigate by selecting different subjects in the universe to navigate from the menu on the left side of the screen. One can also notice square boxes highlighting that more embedded information or video is available within the actual map view. With this site one can almost sense the feeling of being behind the controls of a state-of-the-art telescope at some renounced space observatory or research center. A teacher could easily set up such a simulation like experience or assignment in which students need to view and report on various objects.

I envision using and recommending this site because of how easily and effectively it shows many objects in the universe and can easily relate to an Elementary astronomy curriculum.

The mashup found at: http://wiki.worldflicks.org/mexico.html is designed to show photos from different geographic locations all around the world. This site could easily be used with Elementary students for a variety of reasons. Students could locate pictures from pen-pals they may have around the nation or world. It could also be used to enhance student reports on various states or countries. This site also helps give students a geographic sense of how the world is made up of states, countries, continents, and oceans. The interactivity of this site could help to motivate students who might not be motivated to learn about geography otherwise.

I found it particularly interesting that when one views “Mexico”, for example, the site gives a short encyclopedia like description of Mexico complete with descriptions of it’s economy, visual points of interest, nearest places of interest, and the most popular places.

I anticipate using and recommending this site in the future because it is simple to navigate and easily shows many photographs from points of interest from all around the world. For example, I could envision using this site when studying Mayan culture or native Americans as a nice photo of a Mayan structure near Merida can easily be located on the Mexican Yucatan peninsula.

Widgets/Gadgets

I installed the following 5 widgets/gadgets:

1. Live Weather Gadget
http://www.google.com/ig/adde?moduleurl=www.labpixies.com/campaigns/weather/weather.xml&source=imag

2. Weather
http://www.google.com/ig/adde?spid=1:113115786110322176896:106512534632999922029&moduleurl=www.google.com/ig/modules/builtin_weather.xml

3. Flight Tracker
http://www.google.com/ig/adde?moduleurl=www.flights.com/flight_tracker_gadget.xml&source=imag

4. flight Status – flightstats.com
http://www.google.com/ig/directory?q=flight+tracker&url=www.flightstats.com/go/FlightStatus/AddGoogleHomePageFlightStatus.module

5. Word of the Day
http://www.google.com/ig/adde?moduleurl=www.thefreedictionary.com/_/WoD/wod-module.xml&source=imag

I selected these gadgets because they all display on my iGoogle homepage and they conveniently tell me information that I find interesting or frequently look up such as the weather and flight status updates. Having useful and frequently used sites automatically load onto my iGoogle page is very convenient for me as I often start at this page to access my Gmail account or RSS reader.

The first two weather widgets are to provide me with weather information. I chose to have two related widgets for several reasons. Since weather forecasts for the Anchorage area often seem hard to predict I can compare two Anchorage forecasts to see how similar they may be. I also like the added feature of the “Weather” gadget in that it allows me to simultaneously track other cites that I have friends and family in. I found both weather widgets effective in the simple task of providing me with a basic and easy to find weather forecast for cities I care about I will continue using these widgets as long as I keep accessing my iGoogle page.

I chose the flight tracker widget because it seems I periodically need to pick up friends and relatives from the airport or I have interests in seeing how their flying itinerary goes. The purpose of this widget is to provide flight status updates on flights. I found this widget to be reasonably effective. It can easily give you flight status information on an initial query, however when checking the same flight over the course of a day or hours the iGoogle widget is not able to simply upload or refresh using updated information. If one wants an updated status after the initial query one must retype the airline code and flight number. In this regard I found it easier to just go to the official flighttracker.com web site and hit refresh or simply type the airline and flight number into a Google search window. I do not anticipate to continue this widget because is seems easier to go directly to flightstatus.com or enter the airline and flight number into a basic Google search. Both of these options offer the ability to refresh the page with automatically updated flight information.

I also tested a related flightstatus.com widget. I did not particularly like this widget because it seemed to only serve as a bookmark to the original flightstatus.com web site. Any flight search within this widget takes one directly to the flight status.com web site rather than working and viewing the information with my iGoogle page. I find it easier to look up the direct web site myself or use a web browser bookmark function rather than take up competing space on my iGoogle home page.

The “Word of the Day” widget was chosen as a entertaining diversion on my iGoogle page that is also educational. I find it interesting to learn new words and see them used in context. It’s purpose is to provide new and interesting words, that I might increase my vocabulary. I find it is very effective in this simple and entertaining purpose. I will look forward to reading the new word of the day every time I log into my iGoogle page.

Adobe Air Applications

I chose to evaluate an Adobe Air application called clDesktop. This program creates an enhanced graphic interface with the popular Criaglist.com sites which list many goods and services for sale locally in cities around the country. After first installing the Adobe Air plug-in and the clCraigslist program I found it easy to get started. I often use Craigslist when looking for good used merchandise that is locally available. I particularly liked the enhanced user interface which allowed me to see the pictures and full descriptions of multiple listings on one screen versus having to individually click and open separate links in the original web based Craigslist site. This site allows me to quickly look up items using various search queries and all necessary information to spot a good deal on one preloaded page with as many as 50 items per page. The ability to save searches also comes in handy when you are patiently waiting for a deal to emerge in a specific product category over the course of many weeks or months. The program performed as stated in enhancing my Craiglist experience and I will continue to use and recommend it for it’s speed and utility when wanting to quickly and efficiently scour Craigslist items.

Web Applications Assignment

The following are the 4 professional and 2 personal web applications that I chose to review.

My 4 Professional Choices:
1. http://www.easybib.com/
2. http://disposablewebpage.com/
3. http://www.flowchart.com/
4. http://www.nvu.com/

My 2 Personal Choices:
1. http://www.google.com/calendar/render —sharing, weather
2. http://picasa.google.com/web/mac_tools.html

My 4 Professional Choices
When finding my professional web applications I chose to focus on sources that I could envision using with Elementary classes or small groups. Generally, my criteria consisted of being easy to use and navigate for Elementary students to use. I believe my first two choices really shine in this regard. Easybib.com and Disposablewebpage.com seem very directed and concrete in the steps needed to format a bibliography source or make a temporary web page. I can envision 3-6 grade Elementary students easily navigating this site with initial assistance and independently in subsequent attempts. Since it functions as an interactive web page there are no issues of installing or running software directly on your computer. The user interface for both programs seems very direct and intuitive with high lighted open text boxes and “click here for…” messages linked to further information. Both programs performed as stated, I could see how to easily format and cut past bibliography resources from Easybib.com and I also created a sample disposable web page at: http://disposablewebpage.com/turn?page=XObKEwrlC5

I could see using Easybib.com with Elementary students who are doing a basic report with a few resources or who are simply learning about APA and MLA styles for documenting sources appropriately. Traditional thought would pose that a teacher first give the order or formula for the bibliography style and let the students manually find the information and plug in the information. This program still necessitates that the students find and plug in the information in the appropriate field, however it basically takes care of formatting the various components. I do not view the automatic formatting as a negative trait as many activities could be done with students to decipher how Easybib.com formatted various sources. For example students could be required to use Easybib.com to cut and paste their sources into their report while also labeling each component such as author’s name, title, publisher, page numbers, volume, and etc… I believe I will use and recommend this resource to other teachers in the future, because of how it so easily formats a variety of sources into MLA and APA formats. I would suspect that no person has the format for every source memorized, and this site emphasizes the important fact that knowing where to look to find information can often be easier than knowing all necessary facets of the required information.

I could also envision using Disposablewebpage.com in requiring Elementary students to publish a final report or creative writing piece. This would seem to be an easy and painless way to publish a student’s writing on a broader scale that would allow friends and family members from across the world to validate an Elementary student. The novelty of publishing a temporary web page may provide the essential motivation for a student to bring out his/her best writing and encourage greater parent support/involvement. I believe I will use and recommend this as a resource to other teachers in the future because it provides an easy to use, fast, and painless way to create temporary web pages.

http://www.flowchart.com/ was much harder and advanced to use in comparison to the previous two web pages mentioned, however I can envision using this with upper Elementary students with guidance, however it does offer some logistical challenges in that one must register with a valid email address before being allowed to access the flowchart’s features. I suppose a teacher might be able to bypass this logistic if flowchart.com would all student users to log in using the teacher’s user name and password. This site was not chosen for it’s ease of access, but for it’s potential to help upper elementary students to outline and categorize their thoughts and writings into understandable flow charts.

I did not feel that the interface was intuitive enough for most upper Elementary students to navigate independently. However, with direct guidance and teacher modeling I believe that an upper Elementary student could successfully make an independent flowchart on a topic of his/her choosing. After logging into the site one is offered choices on what type or style of flowchart is desired. Once these choices are made one can begin to play with rearranging the graphics and text of many of the models to choose from. However, I did find that manipulating and changing the graphic boxes and text within the models proved to be a bit tedious and frustrating. Often the mount of text I experimented with overflowed out of the small graphic shapes that were meant to contain it. It could take a lot of effort for Elementary students to think of succinct text titles that accurately describe their ideas while also fitting into the flow chart graphic boxes. I do not believe this site would be the easiest to lead a group of upper Elementary students, however with considerable practice I believe it or a similar site could prove to be very helpful in demonstrating a student’s critical thinking and analysis skills. The program does perform as stated, but not without much time and tinkering. I don’t envision using this site with many students or recommending it to colleagues until I either gain more confidence with it or find another similar site that is more easily navigated. However, I do see great potential with this site in being able to help students visually demonstrate their thought/analyzation process in a flow chart form.

The fourth program I chose to review is a web authoring program called Nvu (http://www.nvu.com/). Unlike the other web based programs I reviewed, this program must be downloaded and installed and is currently available for Linux, Windows, and Macintosh platforms. My reasons for choosing Nvu were primarily based on my personal and professional interests in gaining knowledge on how to create web pages. My primary interest in using Nvu would be in creating personalized web pages for specific lessons I plan to teach, however advanced upper Elementary students may benefit from a basic use of Nvu. Nvu is a “What You See is What you Get” or WYSIG web authoring program that aims to greatly simplify the process of web creation. That said, I still believe it would take considerable time to gain the experience needed to create and post a well created web page. This could be used with student to introduce them to the concepts of web authoring, however I would envision a polished web site would take considerable time and much motivation for the average Elementary student to complete. An accompanying logistical issue would also be to determine how/where to post created web pages to the Internet. Nvu simply helps create the html files necessary for a web page, but does nothing to provide an Internet host, although it “Publish” button which prompts you to provide the necessary independent hosting information needed to upload the pages to your host provider.

I found Nvu to be generally be intuitive and similar to formatting and working with Microsoft Word. While I have yet to test Nvu’s limits I found it to generally meet any potential professional or personal interest I may have to create a web page. I would like to continue to become familiar with Nvu and gain confidence with using this program so that I might become a resource to others seeking web page authoring assistance. The fact that Nvu is an open source and easy to use web authoring program that is available for Linux, Windows, and Macintosh makes it a tempting alternative to commercial web authoring tools.

My 2 Personal Choices
My two personal web application choices included enhancing my Google calendar page with weather, Olympic Trails TV schedules, phases of the moon, and Tour de France schedules. I also downloaded a photo sharing application plug-in from Picasa.

I selected these two applications because I wanted to find some web applications that would be useful, meaningful, and easy to use. Since I am all ready familiar with and use Google for many web searches, Gmail, and RSS reader…I decided to expand my Google usage further by developing my Google calendar. Once logged into my Google calendar page I found it very easy to search for and apply new calendar options into my personal calendar that may interest me. The Google calendar interface is very intuitive, I can add or search for new events simply by clicking on “Add” and typing in a query or selecting from many suggested choices. The Calendar does perform as stated and makes it convenient to make your calendar public to others or add other public calendars to yours. It also does a great job at offering a huge variety of suggested calendars that you might want to add to your calendar. I was disappointed however that more information could not be given with some of the Google calendar entries. For example, when I applied the “2008 Olympic TV Trail Schedule” I was expecting to find information leading me to what TV channel I might find the programming on, but I could not find this information there. Likewise when I added the “”Tour de France” schedule I would have liked to see links to resources that tell more about each days stage or what is expected for future days and routes.

In short though, I am happy with the simple performance of Google calendar and it’s ability to share and aggregate a variety of calendars. I would like to become more comfort in using Google calendars and slowly wean myself from using my current standard which is Macintosh’s iCalendar. I believe the primary feature benefit of Google calendar is the ability to share my calendar with others and add their calendar information to mine. I will continue to use Google calendars to supplement my iCalendar and I will try to gain more experience in sharing my calendar with other friends.

My second personal choice web application was to install a photo sharing application for Macintosh called Picasa which can be found at: http://picasa.google.com/web/mac_tools.html . I decided to try Picasa because I have heard good reports from many of my friends who have already started using it successfully. Being a Mac user I was happy to find that they offer a Mac compatible version so now I really had no excuse for not dabbling with this photo sharing software. Once I downloaded and installed the Picasa for Mac plug in I found that it easily and very discreetly integrated with iPhoto, in which I currently have all my pictures stored and managed on my computer. In a matter of a few clicks I found I could easily upload pictures directly from my iPhoto program into Picasa. This seamless and discreet integration increased my opinion of Picasa from the start. Had I known more about Picasa about 12 months ago I may have forgone paying for a .Mac account which affords some of the same seamless uploading from iPhoto to an internet site. I will continue to experiment with Picasa primarily because I love it’s seamless integration into iPhoto. A free photo sharing site that enhances a product I already know and am familiar with (iPhoto) is hard to beat. I also see that Picasa offers options to upload to one’s blogspot account. Surely as I increase my familiarity with a these programs these options will only spur me on in higher levels of use.

Home Page Syndication Service

Since I already had a Google email account I was interested in trying out Google Reader as my syndication service. I found the process of subscribing to various web pages and blogs as easy as cut and pasting a URL into a Google Reader open field box. I quickly added all of my classmate’s blog sites into my reader and find it fun and interesting to keep up with other’s postings.

I really like how Google reader lets me read the first line of each entry without actually opening any of them. This allows me to more selectively open entries that capture my attention based on the first sentence. I also subscribed to many other sites such as the Anchorage Daily News, blogs of friends, and various sports commentators. I quickly began amassing a massive amount of entries for each day the flooded my Google Reader. Needless to say, I began to see the need to categorize my resource to better manage and digest them. I found it easy to assign resources to specific folders from which I can more quickly monitor new entries and navigate to them.

I really like the concept of resources and updates being “pushed” onto my Google Reader after I subscribe to them, rather than me manually “pulling” them one by one after visiting each web site. I can definitely see how using a syndication service would save huge amounts of time when reading and monitoring even a few web sites. I also found it interesting at the variety of sites that offer syndication. I expected blogs to offer this ability, and even news sites, but was somewhat surprised to be able to syndicate several sports commentators that I enjoy reading from.

There are also many features of Google Reader that I really appreciated.
1. Google Reader automatically found any Gmail friends I had that also used Google Reader and shared resources. I found it fun to see what my friends subscribe to and share in their Readers.
2. My Google Reader “Home” page automatically presents the most updated postings from any site that I have subscribed to.
3. Google Reader also contains a “Trends” page in which one can view the percentages of each subscription that you have actually read. You can also view statistics on how many postings each subscription posts per day. One can also view their own reading habits by seeing the time of day and days of the week that they are most active on Google Reader.

Overall, I am really impressed with Google Reader and anticipate using it consistently in the future to better manage time spent reading online resources.

Social Book Marking

I created a del.icio.us account which can be found at: http://del.icio.us/jason.potsander . My criteria in selecting del.icio.us was based on del.icio.us’s popularity as a social book marking site. I’ve read that some have criticized del.icio.us’s plain design, which seems to be very text driven and lacks any superfluous graphics. I too found the text-centered design a bit hard to navigate at times, but felt that it’s popularity might overcome this downfall by socially networking others book marked sites to my own.

I found the process of joining very easy and quick. All that seemed to be required was establishing a user name, password, and email address. After I verified a confirmation email sent by del.icio.us and downloaded a del.icio.us tool bar widget for Firefox I was ready to start tagging sites.

As of this writing I have now added 14 sites to my page. Some of the resources I’ve added are:

1. http://www.bicycling.com/article/0,6610,s1-1-383-13579-1,00.html --- An review on the Cervelo Soloist Carbon which lead me to….
2. http://www.bikesportmichigan.com/bikes/difference.shtml --- An article explaining the difference between a road bike and triathlon bike, which lead me to…
3. http://analyticcycling.com/RiderAeroStudy.html --- An article on a bicycle rider aerodynamics.
4. http://www.crosscountryalaska.org/trails/index.php --- A web site in which skiers can report on ski conditions on many trails in the state of Alaska, which led me to…
5. http://forum.baart.us/ --- An Alaskan Winter Outdoors forum in which users can comment on various geographical areas and topics.

I began by going through the locally book marked sites I have saved using my Firefox web browser. After I added my most used web sites from my Firefox web browser I began to find out how I might better organize my tags. The main method I found to better organize my tags was through “bundling” them. Bundling essentially creates a folder that automatically acquires sites with predetermined descriptors that you tag each site with. Being very used to a folders mentality, I found that creating categories of bundled tags greatly helped organize my sites.

However, I found the process of creating the bundles a bit cumbersome and not quite as intuitive as I would have hoped for. To start the process you must click on a very small text entitled “bundle tags” in the lower right hand corner under “Tag Options.” From there you are presented with several open field boxes. After a bundle category is created you may then enter various tags that you would like to be associated with that bundle topic. It took me several times to properly create the bundles so that the appropriate resources were listed in the bundle. Several times I inadvertently deleted or overwrote one bundle when creating another.

I can see how the concept of tagging and bundling is more dynamic than the more traditional static folder and desktop model, however it will take some time for my practice to efficiently use tags and bundles. The constructs I have built in my mind regarding file storage and organization have worked well by-enlarge, and bundling and tagging is simply a new concept that will take some time to optimally utilize.

I have been somewhat disappointed with the touted benefits of being able to see other del.icio.us users who tagged the same sites as me. So far exploring other del.icio.us users accounts who tagged similar pages as me has yielded very few new resources that I’ve found genuinely helpful to me.

Overall I like the concept of del.icio.us as way to remotely access a list of often used Internet resources from any Internet enabled computer worldwide. I can also see the potential benefit of sharing resources, however I have to fully experience how helpful this can actually be.

Web Quest: Asynchronous and Synchronous Communication Tools

Reflection on Two blogs I’m interested in:

Two blogs that I would like to regularly read are:
http://jrlive.blogspot.com/
http://freetech4teachers.blogspot.com/

I chose http://jrlive.blogspot.com/ because I have a personal connection with the blogger and many mutual friends. Jonathon Reuel is an inspirational visual artist and musician friend of mine who challenges me to sincerely follow Jesus in a rapidly changing post-modern world. I’m an avid listener and collector of many of the CD’s and watercolor prints he’s produced in the last ten years. His blogs in combination with music and art often leave me wanting to see and hear more, as if his message offers me a prophetic insight and greater connectedness to being a Jesus follower. As with all great art, music, and writing I become aware of different aspects each time I return to his work. I can’t wait to set up an aggregator that will catch new blog entries for me.

I chose http://freetech4teachers.blogspot.com/ because I am personally interested in integrating technology and education. This site seems particularly interesting and practical because all of the resources shared are supposedly free to use/access. With the advent of many free Web 2.0 applications/resources it can be difficult to stay informed on new programs that may be beneficial in the classroom. This blog should aid me in finding useable and free resources from which I can recommend to my colleagues in future teaching positions. The free aspect is often a key aspect in helping educators surmount the numerous obstacles to integrating technology into their classroom. This along with other blog and internet resources will help me stay abreast of helpful resources from which to increase technology integration in my own teaching practice and that of my colleagues. I can’t wait to set up an aggregator that will catch new blog entries for me.


Reflection on Two Social Networking sites I’ve explored:

http://www.facebook.com/home.php (search for Jason Potsander and add as friend)
http://www.classroom20.com/profile/JasonPotsander

Thought it was interesting that when I joined www.ning.com it somehow found the same profile picture I used for Classroom 2.0.

This past week I dove into the world of Internet social networking sites. I joined Facebook and Classroom 2.0.

Facebook interested me because I had heard so much about it from various friends and news media stories. My closest experience using it came from periodically observing my 20-year-old brother access the site and show me various things on his Facebook page. I remained intrigued, but not quite ecstatic or motivated to try it independently. In my mind it remained a fad phenomena in which I could not really see the need for expending the energy to create and maintain a page. After becoming a member in the last week I must say my perspective has changed. In less than a week I have accepted 41 “friends” from all over the country and world that I have shared bits and pieces of my life with. It is interesting and fun to learn what many of my past friends are up too, without really expending that much energy aside from the initial time it took to create my profile. I was amazed at how efficiently Facebook automatically found and suggested potential people I may know. For many of these friends I would not necessarily take the time to write them an email nor would I have anything particularly important to say, but with face book I can easily post something on their wall and maintain a contact and connection without expending much effort since the Facebook page seems to do all the “work” of amassing updates of all kinds from my friends list. I particularly like the way Facebook lists networks that I can identify to join such my past High School and College. I also liked how Facebook collects all the photos my friends have uploaded so that I can view them and catch glimpses into their lives. Checking my friends “status” is also revealing into their lives as some friends update them daily based on what is happening to them or how they are feeling.

I also found Classroom 2.0 to be interesting. Within Classroom 2.0 I joined several subgroups such as “Connecting Content and Technology,” “Elementary School 2.0,” and “Mac Classroom 2.0.” I joined these groups because of personal and professional interests that I have and am tempted to join many of the other groups I saw listed. I am still learning how to interact within these groups and glean and contribute information. Overall I like the usability and page layout of Classroom 2.0 better than www.ning.com. I found www.ning.com to be a bit clumsy to navigate around and while it had many sub-groups from which I could join, it was hard for me to tell how active some of the groups were and how helpful they might be for me. I find it interesting that apparently Classroom 2.0 was created by using Ning. I found some the my subgroups such as “Mac Classroom 2.0” interesting. For example I learned that Apple will soon be releasing “Snow Leopard 10.6.”

Reflections on my Wikipedia Experience

Reflection on my Wiki contribution to the following article: (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stay-at-home_dad#References).

Since my primary “occupation” this past year was being a stay-at-home dad I decided to look up what information Wikipedia had on the subject and if I might add any edification. To my surprise I found that Wikipedia did have a page devoted to “Stay-at-home dads” with some basic information regarding the historical and social background behind this family arrangement along with external links related to the topic. I deem the information presented in Wikipedia under this topic to be generally creditable and accurate despite its lack of depth into the topic. I feel in this instance, as in most, Wikipedia provides a convenient way to get a very cursory or initial explanation on a wide variety of topics. I would solely rely on Wikipedia as a primary resource no sooner than I would solely rely on print encyclopedia of old.
I registered an account with Wikipedia so I could be a contributor if I wished. Under the above Wikipedia article on “Stay-at-home dads” I contributed the following statistics that I gleaned from the U.S. Census Bureau: 64.3 million – number of U.S. fathers, 159,000 – number of stay-at-home dads in 2006, 2.9 million – number of preschoolers cared for by their dads while mom is at work. Within 24 hours of my additional posting to this article I found that my addition had been deleted. Unsure as to why my addition was deleted I took care to create the subtitle “Statistics” in which I placed my information under. Perhaps this subtitle will help it fit within the flow of the article in an acceptable manner. I can only assume that someone edited my information out the first time because I unknowingly placed the information under “References” which is not an accurate placement.
I have used Wikipedia in the past and will continue to in the future to gain a cursory idea of many topics that I would like basic information on. I feel that Wikipedia can generally be trusted to be as accurate or helpful as any print encyclopedia set. The common fault sited with wiki’s is their open nature which allows any common person to post information that may be baised, outdated, or incorrect. However, this open nature also allows people monitor the recent changes to Wikipedia to watch for postings that need further editing. The popularity of Wikipedia ensures that most submissions will be “reviewed” by enough people to help the postings aspire to a minimum quality level. The Wikipedia overview page (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Overview_FAQ) claims that “the overall accuracy of the encyclopedia is improving all the time as it attracts more and more contributors.”

Reflections on Elluminate

The ED693 class meeting on 6/5/08 was my first experience using Elluminate and I must say it was a very positive experience. Having taken many distance education courses whose primary interaction came through weekly an online and in depth discussion boards, I can say I already feel more connected to my classmates, professor, and course objectives than I ever have through using discussion boards alone. The combination of shared audio and graphics really helped me to understand the various ways I would be interacting/navigating with this class and fulfilling its requirements via the UAS class home page, Moodle, blogs, and etc... Had it not been for the initial Elluminate class session I’m sure I’d be a bit lost and overwhelmed in trying to put the many components of this class together on my own in isolation. While the synchronous nature of Elluminate does create some added challenges in bringing distance education students together simultaneously, I believe the challenge is well worth the benefits.

I could see using Elluminate in many applications that go beyond the classroom. Such a tool could be used in supporting colleagues throughout your district or network by more conveniently sharing resources and ideas. I could also envision using Elluminate when joining or creating a professional interest group devoted to specific topics that pertain to my field. I believe a tool such as Elluminate would be particularly helpful when members of a group may never have the opportunity to meet each other in person. The combination of shared audio and graphics creates a shared experience that connects a group more than audio or graphics can alone.

My Social Networking Sites

Here are the links for two social networking sites I have joined.

http://www.facebook.com/home.php (search for Jason Potsander and add as friend)

http://www.classroom20.com/profile/JasonPotsander

My First Blog

This is my first attempt at blogging per requirements for my Emerging Internet Technology class I am taking.