Introduction:
This week's blog focuses on internet safety and the security systems that help provide it. I will also discuss any areas of concern that I have with the district's protocol for preventing malicious activity or hacking.
All students must first receive permission from a parent/guardian before they can use the internet at school. Furthermore, a copy of the district's "Internet Safety Policy and Acceptable Use Procedures" is given to all parents and students at the beginning of each school year. This ensures that everybody is informed of the district's rules and guidelines for using the internet.
Limiting Malicious Activity:
My district has a blocking/filtering software installed entitled "X Stop" which prevents students and faculty/staff from visiting inappropriate or potentially harmful websites or web pages. For example, if I were to open a web browser like Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox and type www.facebook.com in the URL box, an error message would be displayed saying, "X Stop: Your District Has Blocked This Page!"
By using this blocking/filtering software, the district ensures that students are visiting only educational sites and not wasting instructional time by exploring social networking or other non-educational pages.
Avoiding Hackers:
"X Stop" also prevents outside sources from invading or attacking the network in which students and faculty/staff use for internet browsing. This is vital because it allows those using the internet to browse safely without worrying about hackers stealing important data, files, or other information.
All internet users must log in on the district's network before accessing the internet. This also helps limit hacking because an authorized user name and password must be submitted before visiting the World Wide Web. Furthermore, all students and faculty/staff must make "strong" passwords, meaning they are fairly lengthy and include upper-case letters, lower-case letters, and numbers, and they are required to change their passwords every 30 days.
Requiring students to login before browsing the internet may prevent one from doing malicious things because administrators and moderators can trace each user's internet activity. This is also why the district stresses that passwords are not shared among co-workers or other people in the school.
Areas of Concern:
One main concern I have with these internet safety procedures is that younger students, like my fourth graders, aren't very organized and can sometimes be forgetful. These traits don't bode well when students are encouraged to make passwords that are hard to decipher. I fear that my students will make passwords that are too "strong" so that no other student will figure them out. Then, if my students happen to forget the password, we will have to go through the password-changing process and thus waste instructional time.
Another concern I have is that students may forget to log out of an internet session. This could allow other students with bad intentions to act maliciously in order to prank or bully the student whose user name is still logged in. However, I feel this could be a non-issue with proper teacher supervision.
Lastly, I'm concerned that "X Stop" blocks too many pages and can sometimes be a nuisance to an internet browser. For example, my personal classroom website was blocked at school when I first created it. In order for my students to view it, I had to contact my media specialist and have her add the site to the allowable websites list. I have also tried to view other websites and web pages that were blocked in the past. I feel this issue could be resolved by allowing teachers to control which pages his/her classroom can view.
Overall Reaction:
I feel the district has all the proper guidelines and procedures in place to make internet browsing a safe and enjoyable experience for students and faculty/staff. My concerns are minimal and I never have second-thoughts after allowing my students to explore the net. Though "X Stop" and constantly typing different user names and passwords can be annoying at times, it definitely helps out and allows our educational community to utilize one of the greatest resources available: the internet.
In this week's blog, I've been asked to discuss a type of educational software that I use with my students. Therefore, I have chosen to talk about CPS software (Classroom Performance System) manufactured by eInstruction.
This software is used with CPS hardware called "student response pads" (otherwise known as "clickers"). One can use the software to develop class rosters, gradebooks, and much more. Each student is then assigned a numbered student response pad to use during instruction. For example, Student A would be assigned a clicker numbered one. Student B may be given number two and Student C could be assigned #3.
After each student has been given a numbered student response pad, educators then have options for using CPS during instruction. The first option is to go into "Verbal Mode" where one can ask multiple-choice or true/false questions and have the students input their answers using the clickers. This is a fantastic option for teachers who don't want to plan or upload assignments into CPS beforehand and just want to use the software freely.
The second way to use CPS software is to type or upload assignments into the program and have students use the clickers to answer the questions. The program will then provide feedback on how the students scored and will even grade the assignments uploaded. Though this takes more planning than using "Verbal Mode", it does cut down on the amount of time spent grading or providing feedback for students since it does those things for you.
CPS is one of the most wonderful pieces of software/hardware that I've ever used in the classroom. The students always get super-pumped when we use the student response pads because they feel actively-involved in the lessons. Additionally, CPS is a terrific resource for educators because it provides instantaneous feedback of how the students are absorbing the content being taught. For instance, if you notice that several students are struggling on a certain topic, you can spend more time explaining it and take advantage of the teachable moment. Likewise, if you see that the majority of the students are getting ALL the questions correct, you can then determine the content is either well-covered or too easy. Then, you can move on to something more challenging or to a different concept altogether.
CPS software helps me meet my instructional goals because I can easily assess how the students are performing on given objectives in the lesson. Also, an essential part of teaching is providing feedback in a timely fashion. Using CPS, as I stated above, gives students feedback instantly and lets them know how they're scoring.
Another instructional goal I emphasize is differentiating my instruction so that all students are given an equal chance to learn in a positive learning environment. Using this technology, I feel that I meet the needs of several different learning styles including Kinesthetic (hands-on) and Visual.
Lastly, a final goal I set for myself is to constantly motivate students to learn and be active learners at that. Since my students absolutely love using this software, I feel I reach this goal when using CPS. I literally have students arguing over who is going to help me operate the CPS software on the Smart Board when I use it in class (hitting buttons and stuff like that). Therefore, it's obvious to me that CPS is something the students look forward to using and, if they had it their way, we'd use CPS on a daily basis.
Now allow me to discuss some triumphs and challenges I've encountered with using CPS software. First, let me say that I consider myself a novice user of this program, as I only recently started using it and haven't really experimented with it much. With this in mind, I only used the "Verbal Mode" option in class. Therefore, one challenge I've faced is not uploading lessons and assignments effectively in CPS. I tried to upload a test once and couldn't get it to work correctly. This is definitely something I would like to change when I use CPS next year in class. Something else I'd like to change is in the amount of time I spend using this software. Last year I used CPS about 2 or 3 times each week. I would like to at least double that number to the point where I'm using CPS constantly in class.
Having said that, I also had a lot of good experiences with this software. I figured out how to show graphs of the results of student answers to questions during my instruction. The students really enjoyed seeing the amount of correct answers and the number of incorrect choices. Plus, it was easy to incorporate math skills into the lessons because I could ask students to read graphs, tell me the difference between certain scores, and so forth. Since I'm always seeking ways to motivate my students, I turned this into a challenge by saying things like, "If more than 5 people miss this question, we're going to do 5 more problems just like it!"
To sum this blog up, let me say one more time that CPS can definitely bring of a lot of joy to both teachers and students if used in a classroom. Just like many other types of educational software/hardware out there, it will take some time to get acquainted with using CPS, but it's worth the time up front because CPS can save teachers so much time in the end. If you scroll back to the top of the blog, you'll see that the word "eInstruction" is underlined. It looks that way because I linked that word to eInstruction's website that discusses the Classroom Performance System. If you have any questions, I'm sure that website will have a ton of additional information for you to review.
PS- Look how happy the kid in green is...don't you want your students to look like that? ;)
For this week's blog, I was asked to create a WebQuest, describe what I created, post its URL, and then discuss the challenges I faced in the process.
I created a WebQuest that asks students to compare and contrast their lives with children living in Pioneer times. This content is assessed in the area of Social Studies. My WebQuest asks students to be creative as they determine the similarities and differences in the two time periods. I believe they'll enjoy completing the activities I have planned.
My WebQuest can be accessed by visiting the following URL:
http://questgarden.com/104/97/4/100612122523/
Here is a copy/paste of my WebQuest:
As I completed my WebQuest, I faced a few unexpected challenges. First off, as soon as I learned about my assignment, a million different ideas went running through my head for my WebQuest. However, after reading the chapter and other helpful resources, I learned that it's essential to be organized when making a WebQuest. This really helped me slow down and think sequentially as I developed my project.
Secondly, I encountered a few problems with QuestGarden as I worked on my WebQuest. For some reason, all the work I completed at first didn't save. There may have been a glitch in the system on that day because some of my classmates in EDOL 533 had the same problem. Another challenge I faced was figuring out how to embed a document from my computer. For the WebQuest, I typed up some documents using Microsoft Word and used a website called "Slide Share" where you can upload and embed or email documents. This site was extremely helpful for me as I finished my WebQuest. I also used this URL to embed Microsoft Word documents I created with the WebQuest I made.
Overall, this was a very entertaining and informative process. I hope to make more WebQuests in the future so that I can utilize them in my classroom.
The blog this week discusses forms of online communication like electronic mail, blogs, microblogs, forums, and more. Two specific questions will be addressed below and they are as follows:
1. Have you ever used online communication in your classroom before? If so, detail your experiences. If not, what has prevented you from using online communication tools?
2. Identify one online communication tool you can use in the classroom and discuss how you will prepare your students for using this communication tool.
First, let's start with question one. In my classroom, I use various forms of online communication on a daily basis. I established a website that is equipped with a guest book which serves as a "mini forum" for the students to use. On this guest book, students, parents/guardians, and I can communicate back and forth in an asynchronous fashion. Secondly, my website features a blog where I post about various activities taking place in my classroom each week. I feel this really helps the parents/guardians get involved with their student's education by seeing what the students will be learning and completing in school. Also, students can check the blog on Sunday nights to see what they'll be learning about throughout the week to get mentally prepared for the instruction.
There are a ton of other forms of online communication that are available for me to use on my website. Some examples include a forum, an instant messenger chat program, a wiki, and a VoIP. I plan to incorporate more of these functions at a later date.
Another way I've used online communication is by setting up student email accounts. Our district setup a program where students in grades 3, 4, and 5 are given an email account through the school. Each student is responsible for his/her password and must change the password every 30 days. Though I didn't use this online communication to its fullest extent, I feel I made the students more familiar with using electronic mail and constructed the support for future use.
I also briefly experimented with a website called "Epals" where students could create accounts and post messages on a forum. However, after allowing students to browse the site and post a few times, I concluded that the software was too difficult at the time to continue using it. The students had trouble locating others' posts and responding to each other, so I decided to pursue other avenues for communicating online.
Question two asks me to brainstorm ways that I can use one type of online communication in my classroom. On my website, there's an application I can utilize that allows the students and I to make video blogs using a web cam. Also, coincidentally, our school has an abundance of barely used web cams available for me to check out from the library. I think it'd be neat to have the students create mini video blogs explaining concepts or processes they learned in the classroom. I would then keep all the videos organized in an online archive that could be accessed on my site.
Not only would this help struggling students better understand the content by watching and re-watching videos of interest, but it would also help the students making the video blogs internalize what they've learned. I strongly believe that a student who can teach a certain lesson has a pretty good grasp on the material. Lastly, by incorporating this form of online communication and strengthening the level of technology in my curriculum, I feel I will have motivated students and differentiated instruction to support them.
To prepare my students for creating video blogs, I will have to show them how to hook up a web cam and how to use it once it's ready to go. I can introduce terms like USB to them while doing so. Secondly, I'll need to teach my students how to create an account on my website so that they may post video blogs on it. Like with setting up the web cam, this should be a simple procedure to explain. Lastly, I'll need to show my students how to locate and use the video blog application installed on my page. This may be trickier than the first steps but shouldn't be an insurmountable task. In order for the students to make the video blog, they will need to practice what they're going to say and can even script out their procedures. I believe the students may be nervous at first but would eventually become more accustomed to being recorded.
Before using this form of online communication, I would make sure to go over our district's acceptable use policy with the students so that nobody does anything inappropriate on the website or on a video blog. I would also attain parent/guardian permission before recording or publishing any blogs from students. Lastly, I would make my website private to where it could only be viewed from site members like parents, students, and other educators in the building. By taking these safeguards into consideration, I feel I would provide the best possible online experience for my students.
To sum it all up, it's easy to see that the "way of the world" is changing and things are becoming more and more reliant on online communication. For instance, how many newspaper companies do you know that don't have an online version of their product? How many companies can you find that don't sell merchandise online? The answer: not many. Since the world is evolving and technology is becoming more prevalent, we, as educators, must instill a level of technological literacy in our students to prepare them for the "real world" and life outside of school. Isn't that our ultimate goal anyways? Using forms of online communication is just a small step in the right direction but every journey must start with a first step.
