E-Journal Week #12

May 5, 2008

E-Journal Entry #12

EDT598

 

Dear Journal,

     Happy Cinco de mayo Day! It was good to see everyone in class on Monday, April 28. I was heartened to learn I wasn’t the only person in class who was behind on the book report for “The World Is Flat ” by Thomas L. Friedman. I have not yet finished the report but I am much closer than I was last week. I will have to email it to Ellen later in the week! We saw two presentations last week. Dianna gave a presentation on Second Life and Stacey gave a presentation on a wiki she developed for her second grade class. I enjoyed the presentations which lead to follow up questions and discussions on each topic. It was also nice to be able to see these presentations and then have the luxury of presenting the following week!

     After the presentations and discussions we began the Cool Tools-Group Work portion of class. Instead of setting up my own Flickr Account, I am sharing Karen’s Flickr and other Yahoo accounts for the time being. The different applications for photo sharing which Ellen sited in class were not only educational but inspirational and emotionally moving! I will be sharing the Renegade Wheelchair site with my friend Jim who supplements his income by splitting, stacking, and selling firewood from his wheelchair! This site featuring wheelchairs built in Maine for various work capabilities is a creative use of digital story telling. I wasn’t totally prepared for the digital photo story of Christopher Nunan, however. That was much more powerful than I expected and, of course, I found myself sobbing through most of it and hoping not to be noticed! Wow! It is not hard to see that digital story telling can be a powerful and versatile tool in education, commerce, and people’s personal and private affairs!

     In order to learn more about Cool Tools on Flickr, Karen and I spent some time together visiting the various Flickr sites which you posted to our EDT598 del.icio.us account for this week. This first site we explored was bighugelabs/flickr. We linked to Fd’sFlickr Toys: Do Fun Stuff With Your Photos and found a site that puts your photo into a jigsaw puzzle. So we downloaded one of Karen’s baby pictures from our computer into a jigsaw puzzle template. It was easy and, of course, Karen is an adorable one year old! Teacher’s can take pictures, combined with this Flickr tool, to create pin buttons, calenders, puzzles, etc., to be used for class rewards, project supplements, gifts to others, or even as products for fundraising a class trip or project! The creative commons site on flickr.com was informative and interesting. We viewed an assortment of licensing tags which are used to create the desired level of copyright for an individuals work. We visited FlickrNation.com and checked out many links, including a FlickrNation Blog by Thomas Hawk. His blog entry “Point, Click, Design” gave a particularly good Fast Company Profile of Flickr founders, Stewart Butterfield and Caterina Fake. It was not only good company history but also a quirky look into how Flickr got started! The most useful site we visited for educators was the edtechie.wordpress.com. It included EdTechie: Resources For Teachers and Digital Images In The Classroom outline for class and digital storytelling. It also had Awesome Clip Art For Educators: a great source for clip art, educator templates, coloring pages, fonts, and markers for worksheets and puzzles. Their varied educator links and teacher to teacher resources were superb!

     I did finish putting together my “Project For Presentation” for class on Monday, May 5. I chose bookmarking as my Web 2.0 Tool for this project by creating a del.icio.us account <http://del.icio.us/kveducator> for KVMEA (Kennebec Valley Music Educators Association) to enhance my professional development.  I thought I would have two or three tags and maybe up to a dozen linked Websites but the amount of relevant Websites I felt necessary to include and variety of tags I chose, surprised me! I had fun putting this project together. It was a learning experience that stretched me horizontally and I am confident it will serve me well in the future! Well. That is all for now! Shawn.  

E-Journal Week #11

April 28, 2008

 

E-Journal Entry #11

EDT598

 

Dear Journal,

     It has been a nice two week stretch between classes and certainly  wonderful to have a school vacation! The weather and the time off were excellent!! Our last class (April 14), was motivational and beneficial. The planned work time, the email with our work completed/work to finish list, and the time to check in with Ellen about details and ideas was just what I needed to point me in the right direction. Until I saw it all in black & white, I didn’t realize just how much work I had in front of me. I left class thinking two things: 1)Boy, I need to get my ass in gear and get some work done and 2) What a bad year for the Flu shot not to match the Flu virus!! Ouch!!

     I spent a great deal of time this past week reading, writing, visiting links, and processing the research required to get caught up on assignments. In doing so, I felt, at times, like the “slow kid” in class who doesn’t get “the comment/Joke”! As I was reading, or on a link, etc., I had to laugh because I found myself saying ”Ahh! Now I understand Patti’s comment on the “Zeitgeist Site” or “Now I get it, that was funny”! I’m glad I actually did the readings, visited the sites, and experienced the tutorials, tours, and exercises before I sat down to write a paper, a plan, or post an E-Journal. It was definitely worth the effort! Admittedly, I’ve been behind the class all along, but I know I’ll get the work done, and in the process, I’ll learn and accomplish more than I thought possible concerning computers, online technology, and Web 2.0 tools!  

     I read chapter 10 on tutorials. This chapter does an excellent job of reinforcing information about the Web 2.0 tools introduced throughout the course! The tutorials for “del.icio.us bookmarks & favorites” and “Google Reader” helped clarify the terms and separate the steps and procedures for me. The tutorial that most captured my attention was “Audacity: editing sound”! Here’s an application that I can use in the Music Room for podcasts and recording live audio! The features are extensive and easy to use, making “Audicity” quite versatile. Personally, however, the ability to convert tapes and records into digital recordings or CD’s makes my album and tape collection digitally relevant and usable in modern format with the students in my classroom! ”Old school” meets “new school”. I love it! 

     I have been doing my best to finish the reading and write my book review on “The World Is Flat” by Thomas L. Friedman. I’m not done yet, but I’ve made great strides over vacation. Karen found the book on a collection of CD’s. It’s been a great help to me to have both the book as the visual learning tool and the CD’s for the audible learning tool. Together, I think I get a more thorough digestion of the material! The book is thick and chewy with information but it makes sense to me, I enjoy it, and it dovetails nicely as a supplement to the rest of our coursework! Well, that is all for now. Shawn.   

E-Journal Week #10

April 14, 2008

 

E-Journal Entry #10

EDT598

 

Dear Journal,

     I gain more confidence with each class. Last week (April 7), I got a chance to work with Stacey. She is quiet and to herself, by nature, but I’m glad I got a chance to work with her and get to know her some. It did not take me long before I leaned over to her and said, “You really kinda get this stuff, don’t you?” She smiled and shyly said yes. Before long, she was showing me the Webmaster work she and her sister are doing for their church and gave me a glimpse of how to write computer code! Wow! Stacey absolutely blew my mind with what she was doing with computers and technology! I learned much from her quiet confidence. Ellen-Thank you for mixing us up in class!!

     I thought the three opening YouTube videos were an excellent introduction to Google Apps and Google Docs online office suite. There are definite advantages in cost savings and user efficiency with these applications. The four sites we visited in Activity #1 were interesting for different reasons. The third site, however, was full of classroom activities for all ages, which I found potentially very useful! Activity #2 was a good hands on lesson! This was new territory for me, so uploading the lesson plan, making changes, and sending the adjusted lesson plan by attached email to Ellen and Stacey was slow going, but I enjoyed the challenge! “DLBF” = Dead Last But Finished! 

     I did visit the two websites you sent by email for our assignment. The “Zeitgeist” site was very interesting. Search trends, patterns, and surprises is a brilliant idea. I’ll bet the marketing and advertising industry is watching and using this information! The 2007 Year End Zeitgeist shows Pavarotti actually more popular than the Red Sox in October! In Showbiz, Dancing With The Stars had more peak interest than South Park and CSI! This is a great way to be in touch with the latest trends. This could be used as a great starting site for students and teachers looking for relevant subjects and ideas for research topics. Music students could use this tool to create statistics and comparative lists for any musical subject that has ever been Googled. This is another creative tool for students and teachers to be more engaged and enthused about learning!

     I did take the Mini Google Notebook Tour. It was very helpful and I understood it! I think this technology tool could truly enhance my professional development. The features are designed to efficiently consolidate your work tools and facilitate the collaboration of your work. This is an excellent open source work station which can now be accessed from your mobile phone! Our Professional Development Plan was a difficult assignment but well worth the effort. It caused me to focus on what I’ve learned about technology and how I will use it in the classroom. I guess that was the whole point of taking the class in the first place!  Well, that is all for now! Shawn.

    

 

E-Journal Week #9

April 7, 2008

 

E-Journal Entry #9

EDT598

 

Dear Journal,

     Well, it was nice to see everyone back in class last week (March 31), on their feet, and relatively healthy! I know Karen and I were still not 100% but class was a good diversion from the Flu and it was nice to be out and about! Thank you for the updated course schedule. Very helpful! I enjoyed this class a lot! The main focus was to explore online organizational tools. To that end, we set up a Google account on Google Reader. As I understand it a Reader is a home for reading posts. From the Reader one subscribes or sets up a connection between the Reader and selected websites. This includes RSS (Really Simple Syndication), which is a feature designed to bring information to you. Select RSS and the website will automatically send you new information and updates. This cuts down major amounts of time searching websites for new and updated information. This is a good tool for professional development. Besides the savings in time, your reader will help you make connections to like minded people for common educational interests! E-networking, I love it!

     I enjoyed the two video pieces you showed in class preceding our Google Reader exercise. I think they were helpful in defining RSS Readers and how to use them! I must be getting the hang of it because setting up the account and adding sites to the Google RSS Reader certainly came easier to me than some of the other exercises we experienced in class! This class was over before I knew it!

     I read chapters five and six for this week. I hope that was right! Chapter five explores professional development in the Web 2.0 world. We have to make sure we practice what we preach. We can’t just teach technology clinically from a book. We must use and live technology to teach technology! To that end, professional development opportunities need to match the occasion. Teachers must have ownership in the process. Teachers need administrators to support the professional development networks necessary to become technology savvy and to communicate more effectively with each other. Chapter Six deals with educational leadership and new tools/new schools in the early 21st Century. If we expect teachers to learn, use, and teach new tools technology, it will be much more palatable if administrators, school boards, and parents are all using it too! To lead by example, to walk the walk, to stand up at budget meetings and support new tools technology as important enough to spend the money! I think the point is, whether you see it as bottoms up or top down in education, we are all connected! All parts and pieces of the educational chain need to see what’s happening with new tools technology, take training, make preparations, and get on board for the ride! There is no turning back! Well, that is all for now. Shawn. 

E-Journal Week #8

March 31, 2008

 

E-Journal Entry #8

Students and Online Safety

EDT598

 

Dear Journal,

    As promised, I am back to update and complete this E-Journal Post. I have now finished the reading, slide show, video, visited four links, created a lesson plan, and researched the MSAD #34 Student Computer and Internet Use Policy. Even though this assignment was designed to be more in depth due to missing class on March 24, it wasn’t the amount of work that slowed me down. Over vacation, I attempted to research this assignment at home, on dial-up, with a PC computer with Windows 98 and a Pentium II processor. I finally had to give up and visit our friend Hilu who has broadband access. Combined with my school’s Apple MLTI Laptop, I was astounded at the light years apart my computer set-up was from Hilu’s! I think I feel a complete technology make-over about to happen for us!

     I thought the slide show was very creative. I went through it several times, each time realizing something more I missed the previous time. It reminds us that today’s kids are constantly connected through multiple sources and not just users but active contributors to the Web. This slide show is aimed more for students and would make a great choice to show students/parents to start or further an online safety discussion. The video is geared for parents, informative, and very up-tempo! It’s pace caught me off guard as I was attempting to take notes. Parents play a big role in teaching safe behavior online. Parents need to understand the risks, identify the risks, educate themselves and their kids, define family rules, and keep the lines of communication open. For example, examining how we react when a child reports to us that they inadvertently viewed inappropriate content online! 

     I read chapters 7 & 8 and visited four links as well as the slide show and video. I thought the GetNetWise. org link had a useful Glossary-Guide To Internet Terms. The bewebaware.ca link featured bilingual English/French options and was parent oriented. The Netsmartz.org link featured and excellent Supplemental Materials Page, features bilingual English/Spanish options, and is geared to parents and educators. My favorite link was isafe.org “The leader in e-safety education.” I found the video clips for short messages and extended information a very engaging feature geared more for parents and educators. All of the above mentioned sources of research for Students and Online Safety eventually make essentially the same points. However, there were three separate information boxes in the slide show that summarized it best for me. What can we do? 1) public spaces for computer 2) open dialogue 3) negotiate use and purpose 4) monitor behavior 5) set limits 6) listen to understand. What can they do?1) no personal details 2) no meeting strangers 3) no sharing passwords 4) agree on limits 5) combat cyberbullying 6) keep safe. What are the issues? 1) keeping tabs on where your kids are 2) privacy 3) inappropriate content 4) bullying and predators. Think Before You Post!!!

     The Computer And Internet Use Policy for MSAD #34 assumes the premise that student use of computer, networks, and Internet services is a privilege, not a right! Those who violate said policy may have privileges revoked or be subject to further disciplinary and/or legal action. All Internet access is filtered per guidelines of federal law. Certain sites like MySpace, YouTube, flickr, and Facebook along with gaming sites are blocked period. Before any privileges are granted, students and parents must sign and return Computer/Internet Access Form to be retained at the student’s school. In summary, the policy addresses Acceptable Use, Prohibited Use, Illegal Activities, Violating Copyrights, Plagiarism or Copying Software, Misuse of Passwords and Unauthorized Access, Unauthorized Access to Chat Rooms, and News Groups, and Student Security. It may seem like all the blocks, filters, policies, contracts, possible consequences, meetings, lectures, and discussions are a great deal of work, but as our text book points out, “Schools have to be more vigilant than ever.” Followed later with, “Protecting children and personal data online is a legal responsibility.” (Web 2.0 new tools, new schools, Page 138) Well, that is all for now. Shawn.

E-Journal Week #7

March 24, 2008

 

E-Journal Entry #7

EDT598

Dear Journal,

     Last week’s class on March 17 and the follow up homework for this week is all about Wiki Group Work, Wikis, and their use in the educational setting. Dianna, Vanessa, and I broke into our group and went through the Wiki Group Work class assignment. I found this assignment frustrating and hard to understand at first. My group kept steering me in the right direction and got me through the exercise. I thought the five questions used to create the different pages were actually hard to answer! I wish I moved along faster in the beginning so I had more time to answer the questions and respond to each others answers and responses more thoroughly. We did make a presentation of the work we completed at the end of class.

     I was roaming the hallway at school this week and overheard Mr. Widmer, a Seventh Grade Math Teacher, talking to a student at his locker about logging on to the class Wiki. I’m not sure what information the student needed but afterward I visited Mr. Widmer’s classroom and asked him about his class Wiki. He explained that he uses two Wikis to manage different class subjects. One class Wiki is www.widmer.pbwiki.com, which is for his math class. Currently, Mr. Widmer has four math games websites on the Front Page including: The Factor Game, The Product Game, Krypto, and Tower Of Hanoi. I visited The Factor Game website which had the link right there to click on, clicked on instructions, and in about two minutes I was playing The Factor Game against the computer. The game was easy to understand, thought provoking, and a lot of fun! 

     The second Wiki Mr. Widmer uses is for a class service learning project which is found at www.widmer.wikispaces.com. The goal, as stated on the Front Page of the Wiki, is to come up with a project that reduces the amount of CO2 emissions from the MSAD #34 area. The students may use project ideas posted on the Wiki or make up their own project ideas. The Wiki has posted guidelines on how to rate each project proposal for a final selection of three projects to be accomplished by the class. After making final choices, the Wiki has a written outline for each student to copy to a word processing document on their own computer. This becomes their outline for steps, procedures, and  student assignments designed to complete each chosen service learning project. This Wiki also includes a timeline for completion, scheduled in school times to work on their projects, and other pages for discussion, history, and notify me for all users when needed! 

     I think the the use of Wikis in the educational setting is an awesome tool. I am convinced I can make use of Wikis in my Band Room. For my program, I can envision a Band Room Wiki with several pages: one for Band Rehearsals, one for Band Lessons, one for Jazz Band, one for General Information (concerts, parades, etc.), one for Course Requirements ( Band Contract, practice requirements, concert attire, etc.), and maybe pages for Discussion/Contact Me! Like most of the Web 2.0 tools, I will need training and tech support and the time to put it all into place but Wikis could help transform how I organize and modernize my teaching! Well, that is all for now! Shawn.

   

E-Journal Week #6

March 17, 2008

 

E-Journal Entry #6

EDT598

 

Dear Journal,

     Last week’s class (3/10/08) and this week’s follow up homework was all about Video Group Work and the use of video technology in the classroom. In class, Dianna, Vanessa, and I worked in our group with the goal of  creating a lesson plan using a video which was presented to the group at the end of class. This lesson plan was recorded on the Lesson Plan Format provided by Ellen’s email to us and sent back to her by email for review. Our project was a math lesson plan geared to Fourth & Fifth Graders about reducing fraction using Greatest Common Factor (GFC). Although we probably spent too much time looking through videos, we got it done and had a good time doing it!

     The follow up to this class included a few websites to visit concerning the use of videos in the classroom. Brenda Dyck’s article, “Using YouTube In The Classroom” pointed out the Catch-22 of using YouTube as a video tool in the classroom. There are excellent videos with relevant educational content on YouTube but there are many dangers as well. Due to the inappropriate nature of many non-restricted videos on YouTube, teachers must be vigilant about being mediators between YouTube videos and students. KeepVid and Oyoom are suggested programs for teachers to download to their computer. With these programs, teachers can download YouTube videos and selectively share them with students through the use of FLV (Flash Video) files. Another suggestion was using TeacherTube. Launched in March 2007 by Jason Smith with help from his younger brother, TeacherTube is a free online educational community that shares instructional video devoted exclusively to teaching and learning. Open source technology to the rescue again!

     My visit to the Miro website from my very elderly home computer was painfully slow so I did not negotiate there very well. I was looking through the “Vlad” Q&A website on wordpress.com and noticed V. McLean’s “Vlad” posting of 3/31/08 was about Miro! I now know that Miro is a non-profit, open source, video software site created by the Participatory Culture Foundation. The three principles of openness are open access, open standards, and open source each of which assist Miro in eliminating the gate keepers who regulate TV. The subject matter on Miro is not restricted so students can’t search the site themselves. Rather, teachers need to import the subject matter to their computers first. 

     It said in our homework for 3/17/08 that we were to send you a video we found while searching online and tell you how you would use it in class?!? I found several videos while searching through websites for Whiteboard Technology last week. Again, I am working at home and my dinosaur computer is painfully slow to do anything, but most especially to download music videos! The video I would choose to send you would be one from “The Arts” website link from last week’s assigned whiteboard search from the class assignment email you sent us. This video link specifically came from the Music In Our Schools Showcase Video/Audio Samples of 2007. I would also download the attached Student Video Scoring Sheet. As an exercise in celebration of Music In Our Schools Month in March, I would show my Band one or more of the Video/Audio Samples from this site. They would be required to use their Scoring Sheet to evaluate the performance. If more than one performance is shown, the students would also have to compare and contrast the performances with each other as well as rate their individual musical performance. We would take time to share our responses and render our opinions within the Band. I think this is a great way to set the musical standard in the Band Room and to motivate band students to strive for excellence on their own instrument as well! Well, that is going to be all for now! Shawn.

E-Journal Week #5

March 10, 2008

E-Journal Entry #5

EDT598

Dear Journal,

     My technology experience in class last week, including this week’s homework, was all about Polyvision Group Work or Whiteboard Screen Technology and its application to the classroom. In class, Dianna and I worked with Todd & Ellen to produce a lesson plan using the “Whiteboard”. This lesson plan was sent to Ellen by email and presented to the group at the end of class. My part of the presentation included musical terms and their definitions. We created boxes for each musical term. Hidden under the box was the definition and superimposed over the box was the musical term. We had to experiment with many of the “Whiteboard” options and features to get the presentation to work. I, also, had to use the pointer devise because touching the screen with my finger, which is usually OK to do, seemed to disagree with the system! We had a lot of fun with this exercise and I walked away amazed at this technology! 

     During the week I went back to visit the Polyvision/Whiteboard website we used in class and also visited the search on Education World which you sent us by email. “Interactive Whiteboard” seems to be the generic term used for this technology. The most widely used of these are: SmartBoard, ACTIVBoard, PolyVision, Mimio, eBeam, Numonics, Interwrite, Starboard, and Webster. The main function of “Interactive Whiteboard”  is to replace the traditional whiteboard and flipchart. Arguably, teachers may be able to deliver their instruction just as well on the traditional whiteboard and flipchart. However, “Interactive Whiteboard” can do all of that and, more importantly, allow teachers to record their instruction and post materials. This allows students to view and review the necessary instruction and materials from their teacher, on their own time, from any computer with internet access! There are huge benefits to the teacher, student, parent, and school system by saving time, materials, costs, and redundancies in the educational network! 

     I was disappointed with the ”Education World” search at first because while using the search engines with the key word “whiteboard”, combined with ”arts”, “music”, or “music lesson”, the searches came up with nothing! Then I decided to visit a Whiteboard-Jeopardy Style Game submitted by Gary Hopkins. I noticed on the left column there were other links, so I clicked on “The Arts” which eventually took me to a Lesson Plan Article entitled: “Tune Up For Music Activities”! This article was in celebration of the annual Music In Our Schools Month (MIOSM), in March! The article mentions how to participate in the World’s Largest Concert as well as the Music In Our Schools Showcase with video/audio samples of the 2007 winners! Also included was a Student Video Scoring Sheet for your students to use to evaluate other school performances and potentially to use to evaluate your own videotaped rehearsals and concerts. I was very pleased to find at least a dozen other Lesson Plan Titles included on this site that covered a wide variety of musical subjects, most of which I could actually use in my teaching! Overall, the Education World Search was excellent! 

     The thing, this week, that keeps coming back to me is that I see just how important and relevant the use of “Interactive Whiteboard” could be in my classroom, even if it is a Band Room. Most lesson plans I researched this week concerning “Interactive Whiteboard” had nothing to do with Music or Band, but I could always envision how to transpose the essence of that lesson to my subject. I would need a lot of intensive training with this technology and the time to create my lesson plans, but I could adapt and incorporate the use of “Interactive Whiteboard” into my classroom on a daily basis! I think I might even have fun with it! Here’s to hoping I last long enough in education to see this happen! Well, that is all for now!

Shawn. 

E-Journal Week #4

March 3, 2008

E-Journal Entry #4

EDT598

 

Dear Journal,

    I have had a good week concerning EDT598 and the subject of technology. I am finally caught up on all of our reading assignments from the textbook and related articles. This has slowed me down with my Forest59 Blog entries as I want to include my comments on the reading, in addition to our class work and other assignments. The assigned chapters and related articles dovetail nicely with the class work and assigned web sites we have been exploring!

     I though our class on February 25 and the related assignments were quite interesting! Even though I struggled to keep up while we set up our del.icio.us accounts, I did get my account set up and, basically, understood the process. As I started to add links to my account and re-tag them for my own use, I was able to successfully negotiate the options and complete the exercise pretty smoothly. I have to admit I enjoyed creating categories and organizing my tags! It is easy to see how this 2.0 Web Tool can assist teachers and students to get organized and stay organized with Web Sites for class resources, pertinent to the work to be done. And, of course, all done in real time! 

     I visited the “education-world” web site and read all the links. There was a lot to absorb. This site does a good job of reinforcing the material I am reading in the textbook and related articles. Social Bookmarking as the open source, web based, metadata driven movement that is a big factor in “flattening” the world. By using “tags” and “tag clouds” as the key to organize your on-line bookmarks and connect your information, data, and research with others across the globe, the on-line social bookmarking systems circumvent the “bottleneck” of time and materials that exist in more traditional forms of information gathering.

     While reading through the top sites cited on “education-world” I found the link ”wikipedia on social bookmarking” to be more interesting and useful than ”teacherlibrarianwiki”. I found the link ”tags vs. trusted sources” most interesting as the author is looking for the balance between the desire for relevant information and the time to put into creating systems to deliver the information. I think about this one a lot as the course goes on! The link ”Reinventing radio: on phonetags” was interesting. I can see it having benefit on the business side of radio and music, especially in creating play lists and deciding the style of music or particular artist a recording studio might produce and promote. The top sites, according to “education-world”, for social bookmarking are ”del.icio.us”, “Scuttle”, “Furl”, “BuddyMarks” each of which have similar and  differing features that make their use better for some situations and not as good for others. 

     The reading in the textbook (Chapters 4&9) did a good job of relating the Web 2.0 tools, introduced in earlier chapters, to the schools of today and in the future. I am starting to see how these tools could be used in my own classroom to enhance the learning that is currently taking place. Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, Social Bookmarks, and other Web 2.0 tools,  combined with a supportive school community could even help shape my Band Room into a model for other 21st century Band Directors! Well, that is all for now. Shawn.

E-Journal Week #3

February 25, 2008

 

E-Journal Entry #3:

EDT598

Dear Journal,

     This has been a good week. It is always nice to have a vacation to help you get caught up in class a little! I finally finished my personal philosophy assignment concerning the use of technology in the classroom. This assignment was hard for me because I thought I knew exactly how I felt about using technology in the classroom. The more I thought about it, I began to realize I needed to clarify and expand my definition of technology itself! This, of course, changed the way I felt about using technology in the classroom. I started to feel like a dog chasing it’s own tail!

     Over vacation I decided to visit the “harryfox.com” web site, once again, to research royalty fees and obtain mechanical licenses for a CD recorded for the Kennebec Valley Music Festival. I mentioned in “E-Journal Entry #1″ about my first visit to this web site causing me frustration when I was not able to successfully navigate and locate what I needed. This time, after several attempts at working my way through the sequenced pages for license applications, I finally finished the project and obtained the propper mechanical licenses. I was proud of myself for figuring it out on my own!

    I thought the “Appendix A: Web Timeline” was fascinating, although I had to go through it a few times to absorb it all! I left teaching in 1991, thinking I would never have to learn much about computers to get through life. Interesting that the “seeds” for the  world wide web and all that it has become were sewn that very same summer! In 1997, I returned to teaching, purchased my first computer (Windows 95), and received a book in the mail from my friend Jeff in New York City, via “Amazon.com”. It was around 2000 when I set up my personal email account and first became more aware of what on-line actually meant. Around that time, the headlines about Napster and the sharing of MP3 files was a huge issue and caught my attention, especially concerning royalties and copyright laws. 

     I thought web 2.0, chapter 3 was a big chapter. It took me a while to read and digest it! The web as the platform for administrators, teachers, students, and parents to control their own data and have the on-line tools to build the kind of education system needed today and in the future. This chapter explains the open source movement and how this philosophy has provided the collaborative evolution that supports the web 2.0 tools necessary for its success. The list of basic web 2.0 tools and how to use them are very helpful in understanding our class discussions and assignments. I am really quite amazed that some of this is actually sinking in and making sense to me!

Shawn.