Research Prospectus Musings

Wiki Reflection 3

Although I liked working in the wiki environment and I had a great team to work with, I am ecstatic to be done with this assignment. No matter how hard we tried to be timely with all our work, it seemed we could not avoid working through the weekend. I not only learned the expected things (i.e. my research topic), but I learned the most I ever have about references and citations. Since that was the section of Galvan’s checklist (Galvan, 2009, p. 117) that I was responsible to cover in our peer edit, it only seemed right that I should also work on the citations and references in our paper. I feel a little more confident in that area after working on this wiki. The wiki is easy to edit. However, since this was a team project, I did not set it up, so that is something I still haven’t experienced. When you work in a group, you rely on the more experienced team members to do the tasks you feel less comfortable performing yourself. After teaching middle school writing for several years, I am adept at finding mechanical and spelling mistakes. However, when my Word document changed formatting in the middle of an edit, I did not know what caused it, nor could I seem to restore the original formatting, leaving me with something new to learn.

This was a valuable experience, even though it got very intense at my house these last three days. There were too many different threads that all needed to come together at the same time -  editing a peer’s paper, receiving my edited paper, changing my paper according to comments, getting all five documents ready to submit in exactly the same format as my teammates’ papers. I have survived, and I believe the experience as a whole was constructive.

Reference:

Galvan, J. L. (2009). Writing literature reviews: A guide for students of the social and behavioral sciences. Glendale, CA: Pyrczak Publishing.

Wiki Reflection 2

I am beginning to see how working on a wiki with classmates can help me learn. For one thing, I have to think of my teammates’ schedules as well as mine. Since one of the things I like about asynchronous learning is the freedom from most schedule demands, this requires a mindset shift. It also prevents me from procrastinating, even on other assignments, since I have to set aside time to work on the group project. We had an excellent group leader who helped keep us on task. We communicated regularly via various online communication venues, allowing us to try several different options. In our conversations, we talked about deadlines, responsibilities, and interpretations of assignment instructions. This was very useful, since we did not all understand the assignment instructions the same way. Since we divided up the sections of the paper, we got to see each other’s strengths and help with each other’s weaknesses. Since I not only read but helped edit the whole paper, I learned from my teammates’ input in the sections I had not had to research. Seeing how a classmate presented her material made me rethink my style in my contribution. Since I would like to eventually teach online classes, using a wiki will definitely be on my list of options for class lessons.

Wiki Reflection 1

Before taking this class, the principal interface I had experienced with a wiki was to access Wikipedia. I had heard wikis were a great way to encourage collaboration among students thereby increasing learning. Now I was going to experience it for myself. Because I was unavailable for my team’s first skype meeting, I chose a different topic for my webibliography than the one I would research for the wiki project. This meant I started working on the wiki feeling behind in my research. However, I was very interested in the topic, both the topic of the whole wiki – Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) – and my particular page – Professional Development (PD). Since I consider myself a teacher, I was very interested with the methods used to encourage and teach educators to incorporate technology in the classroom. The problem for me was that there wasn’t much research available because professional development for technology inclusion is a fairly new phenomenon and extending it to BYOD professional development means the research is almost non-existent. So I had to begin my project by deciding to settle for the research done on PD for technology inclusion, knowing that most of it would probably transfer from one type of PD to the other. I had been in classes with two of the three classmates in my group, so I was looking forward to working with them.

Muddiest Point

The muddiest point for me is the issue of copyrights and distance education. Because of the explosion of technology, the waters of copyright issues have become very muddy. In the past, if I purchased a book I was allowed to loan it to any friend I desired. If they forgot to return it, that was OK, too. Today, if I purchase any e-book for my Kindle, only some of them can be loaned to my husband’s Kindle. Most of them will be deleted from his device after a certain period of time. These copyright protections are done automatically, but this does not always happen in the field of distance education. It would be very convenient if textbooks could be accessed online, even for students in a traditional classroom so their book bags wouldn't be so heavy. However, this is highly unlikely at this time because of copyright limitations. It is very easy to violate copyrights because the Technology, Education, and Copyright Harmonization Act (TEACH) seems to put the greater burden on the users to interpret the law. In spite of the many words used in the language of the Act, most of them are negative – what can’t be done (Seadle, 2003). Does this mean that whatever is not listed can be done? Unfortunately, the true understanding of the amendment to our copyright laws will only come when violations are discovered and the courts interpret the TEACH Act for us in their rulings (Nelson, 2009).

References:

Nelson, E. (2009). Copyright and distance education: The impact of the Technology, Education, and Copyright Harmonization Act. AACE Journal, 83 - 101.

Seadle, M. (2003). Copyright in a networked world: Digital distance education. Library Hi Tech, 253 - 256.

Most Important Theory

We teachers are neglecting the technology tools our students use daily. However, the “Bring Your Own Device” (BYOD) movement is gaining ground. This is a theory that plans to use devices that our students already have to enhance learning in the classroom. If we allow our students to access the internet with their own smartphones or tablets, we can transform the classroom into a better learning environment. Some of the advantages inherent in this plan are that students are already familiar with the devices they own, the cost to the schools is reduced, and students are more likely to keep their devices updated. Some of the problems associated with this theory are that the devices are likely to be different (making consistency for the teacher a problem), students can more easily breach the schools’ security, and unwanted features may be available to the students during class time such as texting or phone. Since this plan is such a change from the “Park your phone at the door, or expect it to be confiscated,” times of the near past, we teachers have to make a shift in our thinking and planning for our lesson plans. However, it is a plan that makes sense and overcomes some of the difficulties of putting technology into our students’ hands with a much lower input of cash from the school.

References:
Brown, A. H., Green, T. D., & Robinson, L. K. (2010). Security vs. access. Washington, DC: ISTE. 

Norris, C., & Soloway, E. (June 2012). The $100 computer is here today: one-to-one across the nation by 2015 is inevitable. District Administration, 70.

Most Important Point

Since we teachers tend to focus on changing our students, we tend to be resistant to changing ourselves. Combine this attitude with busy schedules, and teachers have a hard time changing with the times. Add to this problem schools which are resistant to mobile technology being brought into the classrooms, and we have students who separate their daily lives from their lives at school. They don’t see much relevance in their school learning.

Because of these things, I believe the trend toward mobile devices is one of the most important issues in education today. Our students use them all the time, and some of us do, too. However, these devices usually only make it into our classrooms when students break the rules. Educators and administrators need to find ways to allow the use of mobile devices in schools, so school networks remain relatively safe and students learn to use their mobile devices for more than communication. Students need to learn academic material in the same way they are used to learning other things so learning will be more intuitive and less painful for them. This changes the direction for technology resource staff. Instead of just managing the networks and troubleshooting the equipment, the main thrusts of the job will be app research, management of security for networks and devices, and instruction for teachers in how to best use the technology available.

Mobile

EDUC 630 Kindle Fire

The fairly new Kindle Fire has many of the same applications that are available on a smart phone, but the surface area is larger, so the font can be larger and more screen is visible than on a phone. When wi-fi is available, you can surf the internet, download books and apps, and play internet games. The screen is touch activated and has a touch keyboard screen that appears when needed. The font size can be adjusted, books can be stored in your cloud or on your device, and it is very easy to use. You can check out library books or buy your own copy of a book you want to read and download it to your device. I have not yet used mine for an audio book, so I don’t know what the audio quality is as compared to an ipod. I love traveling with mine. My husband always complained about the weight of my suitcase when we traveled because I didn’t want to run out of books to read. Now I carry my Fire in my purse, knowing I can get new books easily if I run out. I have four translations of the Bible loaded and have the capability of searching them and having multiple bookmarks. I don’t use the highlight feature too much because I didn’t use the physical highlighter on a paper book very often, but it is available as well to help readers take notes. The game apps help pass the time when waiting in a doctor’s office, and again, it fits in my purse.

I could see the Kindle being used in educational settings. The obvious use would be for books to read in an English class. Each student could be issued their own Kindle (around $200 each when bought individually, so it is cheaper than an iPad) loaded with the books for the course. Teachers could download assignments to each student’s Kindle Fire if they have wi-fi in the classroom or if they have a USB cable connection. Educational games such as math practice games could be loaded for practice in other subjects. For those who need help with reading, there are apps to translate or to read aloud. Because of its size, it won’t really fit in pockets, but it is not cumbersome. It certainly is much more manageable than a typical textbook. After reading some of Marc Prensky’s articles on technology in the classroom, especially the one where he recommends “disposable technology”, a Kindle Fire is a very real option to enhance learning in the classroom.

Daily Technology

When I was a youngster, I lived with my family in Brazil because my parents were missionaries there. At first we lived in a major metropolitan area with “modern” conveniences, but on my fifth birthday we moved to city in the interior of our state. There was no telephone infrastructure – no one had a telephone in the entire city of over 70,000 people. We got telephone service when I was eleven. There was television service – one channel. Programs started at 4 PM and ended at midnight. My parents decided not to bother with a TV, so the only time I watched TV growing up was when we were on our short furloughs in the States. My dad got his amateur radio license so he could communicate with our family here in the States. When I came to the States for college, I wrote letters, since there was no e-mail yet. Maybe because I felt I didn’t really know my stateside family, I love the connections I can make with technology today. My son and his family just got moved to California for his work. After being in the habit of seeing my grandchildren every Tuesday, I love that I can connect with them via e-mail (for details that need to be worked out), cell phone (to hear their voices), and Facebook (for the pictures) whenever I feel like it.

I usually do not feel the technology in my life is too demanding. Maybe this is because the sales people aren’t allowed to use the cell phones like they use the land line phones. I check my e-mail and Facebook every day, with my phone if I can’t get on my laptop. I ignore my landline phone if I don’t recognize the number on the caller ID or if I am busy and don’t want the interruption. Since I don’t usually work outside the home, the amount of e-mail I get isn’t unreasonable. My husband, on the other hand, uses his e-mail to keep up with the demands of his job. If he is away from his laptop too long, his e-mail fills up to the point where he can’t access it on his phone any more.

I use technology for communication, as described in the above paragraph, and I use the internet for research and shopping. I like to window shop when I have free time, but mostly I would rather order the things I need from companies that do business online and have my order delivered at my doorstep. In my genealogy research, there are people who have transcribed old cemetery records and posted them on the internet. Even if I had time and could find the cemetery, the headstones would probably be unreadable for the records I want. This service is invaluable to the genealogist. An engineering friend who works with my husband told us a story about googling. He was in a hotel room and the thermostat wasn’t working. He went online, googled the model of thermostat, and fixed it himself. The amount of information available on the Web is amazing.

EDUC 630 Social Networks

The social networking site I am most familiar with is Facebook since it is the one I have joined. I check my news feed every day to see what is going on in the lives of my friends and family. I also play games with friends through that medium. I have long thought that there are some characteristics of Facebook that would lend themselves well to educational purposes: the ability to post pictures and posters, the blog-like nature of the news feed, and the ability to post videos or link to video sites such as youtube. The concerns I have would mostly be safety-related. If someone deliberately wished to stalk or prey on someone else, Facebook is not that difficult to hack. People tend to be quick to accept “friends” they don’t really know. It would also be easy to turn in work that the student had not done himself. There is no surefire way to ensure that the work was done by the student and not an older sibling or a friend. A third issue with Facebook is the distractibility factor. Not only are there all kinds of available games, there are also ads encouraging users to link to a new “nonFacebook” page. As an adult, I can ignore these, but it is more difficult for some of the younger ones.

When I heard about Edmodo, I was excited. Here is a site that uses many of the positive features of Facebook and filters out many of the negative features. There are no ads or games unless you as a teacher post them. There is a code students need to join the site and participate in the class. As long as students are protective of the code, security can be fairly well maintained. Parents can also be given a code which allows them to monitor their own child’s work (including grades) as well as any general teacher posts, but they can’t enter comments except direct posts to the teacher. Security codes can be changed to exclude students from the ability to comment. This feature can be used to teach a student about inappropriate comments – he can read but not write (except to turn in work) for a while. You still have to be on the honor system for work turned in, because from a distance a teacher can’t really tell for sure who did the work. As teachers we would have to trust the parents of our students or, if the students are college or higher, the students themselves. Of course, we do learn to recognize the quality of work each student turns in, so if it changes drastically, most teachers would notice. Edmodo can also be used to work a project with another class doing the same kind of work. The teachers can issue special codes specifically for the project so the “foreign” students only interact in the specific project. But this feature allows collaboration at a distance (even around the world) with students who may have a different culture, even a different primary language, adding an exciting new dimension to the class. An issue for a math teacher is the need for special software on all the computers to allow students to use math symbols. Most word processing software is limited in the symbols available so students would have to write out worksheets and scan them if they don’t have math software.

Educ 630 Collaboration

I used Google Docs for a collaboration assignment in another class. If I could have turned in the final product from Google Docs, the other irritations I felt would probably have been minor. However, since our formatting had to be APA and we couldn’t figure out how to do everything we needed to do in Google Docs, we had to keep saving our changes to a Word document. That meant that anytime one of the four of us did any editing, all four of us had to change our own resident Word document. It was not a “seamless” transfer, either, so I got frustrated with that part. Google Docs does not have as many formatting options as a good word processing software. It can accept documents, tables, spreadsheets, graphics, etc., from many other programs, but the fine-tune editing has to be done before it comes to Google Docs.

A collaboration assignment helps us learn from each other, and I learned a lot from my team. We could chat while we were working if we were there at the same time, or we could work alone and leave messages for the others. We were able to record some of our sessions when all of us were there at the same time. We each had different strengths, so we complemented each other and brought in unique ideas.

There is definitely a learning curve involved in using collaboration to complete class assignments. These are some of the things I would do differently next time. I would make sure each team member had a specific assignment. I would make sure one team member was willing to be the leader for the group, for the times when we felt rudderless. I would make sure we had at least one synchronous meeting early in the project to set the guidelines, including those two I just listed, but also to map out the project so less time is spent “spinning our wheels.”

EDUC 630 Web Resources

I use the internet for many different activities. I use it to stay connected with family and friends through https://www.facebook.com and through e-mail. Through Facebook, I also play games that allow me to interact in a different way with family and friends. There is an educational site patterned somewhat after Facebook that allows a teacher to instruct online. It is called http://www.edmodo.com/. If I were teaching in a regular (traditional) classroom, I would use it to extend my classroom. Since I am not teaching right now, I am learning how to use it by sending assignments to my grandchildren. My grandchildren are being taught at home, so their mother allows me to share in their schooling. Some of the assignments I have posted for them have come from http://nlvm.usu.edu, a source of learning games played with virtual manipulatives, mostly to help with math concepts. This site requires a sign-in and a “java” download, but it allows free access, and I was able to link it to my Edmodo page.

I live in the country, so it is often easier to shop online. I shop quite frequently at http://www.amazon.com/, especially since I received a Kindle for Christmas several years ago. One of my favorite sites for teacher materials (especially for this math teacher who believes in using math manipulatives and games) is now called http://www.hand2mind.com. Another site with an emphasis on the classical model of education is the catalog for Veritas Academy in Lancaster County, PA, http://resource2.veritaspress.com/Online_Catalog_2012. Since I taught in a classical Christian school for eleven years, I became familiar with their offerings in almost every subject. I had used them as a resource for my own home school, many years ago, and always enjoyed the reviews of each book or learning material.

Since I enjoy researching my family history, I subscribe to a site called http://www.ancestry.com/ which allows me to search many databases, including the U.S. Census, to see if I can find mention of my ancestors. I also use the free site http://usgenweb.org/ to complement and add to what I find on Ancestry’s site. Some states have more extensive cemetery listings on http://usgenweb.org/ than on Ancestry.

Of course, no listing of web resources would be complete without mentioning the search engines available. My favorite and most used is http://www.google.com, but there are many others.