Editing Digital Images

I gave Picnik a try and it's a lot of fun. This image editor is really easy to use, you can be editing a photo in seconds without having to familiarize yourself with any kind of special software. It would be great to use with students in the classroom because you really don't need to spend any time explaining to them how to use it.

The interface is user-friendly and attractive, and you don't even need to register to use it (but registering allows you to save your photos on the site so you can retrieve them again later). You can upload photos from wherever you have them stored be that your computer, Picasa, Flick or any other web image hosting service.

There is an Edit tab for basic editing (i.e. cropping, changing color, brightness, etc) and a Create tab for fun features like adding text, frames and effects such as turning a photo into a pencil sketch or a vintage-looking print. Below are the examples of some photographs from my collection that I edited. I used the text, cropping and increased saturation tools for the first; for the second I used the neon effect; on the third I cropped, added a Polaroid frame, a sticker and a doodle. (Click on photos to see larger images).

















Once you are done editing, you can save the photos on your computer or any of the web image hosting services. You can also share them via Twitter, Flickr, Facebook...

One downside I found was only being able to upload and work with 5 pictures at a time (if you want more you have to upgrade to a premium account which is cheap but not free). I think the editing features would be too basic for anyone who is comfortable with a program like Photoshop, or an art student who needs to do more with the pictures. Pixlr is much more similar to these advanced image editors, you need to know how to use things like layers and filters, it would be difficult to figure out how to use it without watching a tutorial. Pixlr does include an "express photo editor" which is very easy to use and has similar functions than Picnik, but more limited in what it can do. The great thing about Pixlr is that like Picnik, you don't need to sign up to use it, you just jump right in.

In Search of Answers: Digital Images

This week I will try to find answers to the following questions I have regarding the use of digital images in the classroom:

1. Can I use any image (for non commercial purposes) as long as I cite the source?
2. What restrictions apply to posting images on a personal blog versus using them in the classroom (eg. in handouts, powerpoint presentations, posters)?
3. Are there any additional restrictions that apply to the use of video?
4. How can I limit the use of my own images, such as those that I post up on the web?
5. Can I post photos of my students working in the lab? If so, what guidelines exist regarding this?
   
6. How do I search for copyright-free images?
7. What is the best approach for teaching students about good/ fair use of images they obtain from the internet?
8. Can you edit images that are not yours, and if so, do different permission guidelines apply to their use?

Week 2 Reflections

Since I started the MSSE program two years ago, I have come to appreciate the value of my online PLN, given that I don't really have a physical PLN right now since I moved to a different state from where I was teaching before, had a baby and have been taking maternity leave since so I don't know any local teachers yet. Having an online PLN (even if its in its infancy) has been invaluable to me for staying connected with my teaching career.

So here it is, the state of my PLN and my vision for it:

1. MSSE-
I have really enjoyed the discussions I have had with classmates in the other four online classes I've taken and felt like we interacted with each other probably much more than if we were taking the lecture on-campus. The great thing about the Web Tools class is that it's much more involved and there are so many more dimensions to the interaction/ collaboration. I also think that the class will contribute to our PLN in a way that others haven't because it might actually offer an opportunity to continue connecting with each other after the class is over.
I hope to keep in touch with people I feel I have common philosophies with, similar subject interests, etc. after class is done.

2. Facebook-
I use it mainly to stay connected with friends and family (not for keeping in touch with students except in rare occasions I'll befriend those that have graduated, who want to stay in touch for legitimate reasons and I trust). I will continue to use it in this way.

3. Twitter-
I'm going to continue giving Twitter a chance, I don't think you can get the feel for it in a week, I read somewhere that you aren't getting the most of it if you are not following more than 50 people (or was it 100?). I'll probably add some more to what I already have, so will probably have around 50-60. But my intention is to "prune" it regularly and stop following people that are not adding anything to my PLN. I'm going to use Twitter mainly to keep in touch with other teachers and educational technology specialists, etc. rather than for more "personal" reasons like keeping in touch with old friends. I like the option of sending quick direct messages and I'm starting to discover some useful tips like using hot keys and tags.

4. NSTA-
I get the magazine, news feeds and have signed up to NSTA Communities. I'm a member of several discussion groups (Biology, PBL, Tech Users, 9-12th, Evolution, Pedagogy) and get email notifications when there are any updates to my groups. It's pretty new, so there does not seem to be too much action yet, but I think it could become a great resource in the future because it's all Science educators participating.

5. Classroom 2.0-
I have found the Live sessions to be the most valuable part of this Ning network, although I have to admit that's all I've had time to explore so far. I joined a couple of groups, but it seems like some of them haven't been active for over a year. Katie suggested checking out The Synapse, a Ning network for Biology educators and I really like the look of it. I've joined and will hopefully become engaged in the group discussions and learn more about it, I might find it more relevant to my teaching/ interesting in terms of discussion topics than those in the Classroom 2.0 forums and will be likely to keep up with the threads.

6. LearnCentral.org-
I think this will probably take the place of Classroom 2.0, although S.Hargadon says it wont, at least many aspects of it. The extra features such as everyone getting a free vRoom are very appealing. It's brand new, officially launched today at EdubloggerCon2009, so we'll have to wait and see how it takes off...

7. Google Reader, blogs, etc-
Discovering and learning how to manage my Google Reader has been the best part of the week for me. Blogging and following/ commenting on other people's blogs is definitely the area of my PLN where I will continue to invest more time and effort into. I've always been curious about blogs but never really used them properly neither keeping one myself nor following other, so far they have been invaluable in providing useful links and directing me to the most up to date resources regarding using technology in the classroom.

Dipping my Toes into Webinars

My first experience with Webinars was a few weeks ago, when I listened to a recording of a live show in Classroom 2.0 on digital storytelling/ storyboards. I felt intimidated at the thought of attending a true "live" online seminar, so I figured I'd check it out first so I would know what I was up against. After that, I attended a Beginner Series Live Show (check calendar for times) about creating a wiki on wikispaces. It was a fun and educational experience, you'll want to go back for more :)





Useful things to know about Classroom 2.0 Live!:

• Definitely check out an archived recordings first, to get used to the "look and feel" of the Elluminate vRooms the webinars are usually held at.
  
• Archived shows are useful because you can play, pause, rewind, ff, etc like a video player, so you can listen/ watch at your own pace. You can also search for them by categories (see right side of Archive page).
  
• The live shows/ webinars usually last 1 hour, but you can come and go as you please, there are usually over fifty people attending, so nobody will notice/hold it against you.
• You need to install a piece of software in your computer first, when you click on the Archived file it will probably walk you through it, so don't wait till the live show starts to do this, do it ahead of time.
• Don't feel like you have to participate as soon as you get into the "virtual" classroom, just sit back and listen to the hosts.
• There is always an intro at the beginning on how the vRoom works for beginners.
• There are three main window frames, one with a list of partipants, one for the ongoing (written) chat messages, and a big one on the right which acts as a "white board" where the hosts show you how to do things.
  
• Don't pay attention to the chat window at first, people are writting things as the host is speaking and it gets crazy if you try to follow the chat and listen to the host.
• The chat is good if you're too shy to raise your hand and take the microphone to ask a question (if you're the opposite and would like your 15 seconds of fame, you can even turn on your video and ask the question so people can see you while you speak).
• There are always A LOT of other people in there that are webinar virgins, so don't be embarassed about asking questions or making comments.
• Don't feel like you have to take notes on everything, the show recording is published the next day on the site.
• All links that come up are provided at the end of a session, usually via a link to a webpage which contains them all. This is very useful!
• They are usually very laid back yet informative events.
• If you don't like it, you can leave the room at any time.

N.B. Because of the NECC conference, I think the next live webinar isn't till July 11th. I'll send out a note when I find out the exact one so a few of us can meet up in there, it would be nice to "see" familiar faces...

In Search of the Meaning of PLNs

The Education field is full of acronyms that sound intimidating, PLN is one of those. I don't know why, but there is something about three letters without any vowels between them that causes me to get anxious. When I first came across it sometime in the past two weeks, I immediately thought I must have missed something big, where I had been all this time that everyone is now talking about these things? Finding out what the three letters stood for didn't help ease my level of uneasiness. I have been on maternity leave for almost two years now (childcare is not easy to come by in this part of the world) and I was worried there had been some huge developments in the field that I had missed. I felt lost. Turns out a Personal Learning Network is just a fancy term for something we have all probably had since we started teaching or even started thinking about teaching: colleagues, mentors, professors, education publications, professional organizations...

When referring to the digital version of the 21st Century PLN, I find Sue Waters is once again right on with her description, so I'll use her words here...

"Personal Learning Networks (PLNs) are all about using web tools such as blogs, wiki, twitter, facebook to create connects with others which extend our learning, increases our reflection while enabling us to learn together as part of a global community. PLNs increase our opportunities to ask questions and receive help compared to our normal daily face-to-face interactions."

Best of a PLN is it's personal! You make all the choices:

• What tools you use!
• Who you connect with!
• How you want to learn!
• When you want to learn!

Her tips:

1. Start slowly and find mentor(s) to help you.
2. Use the same username across tools
3. Share as much as you take
4. Ask as much as you answer
5. Try new TOOLS before you decide they're not worth the time
6. Comment on other people's blogs
7. Life long learning is the key!"

Another person I am becoming a huge fan of is Jeff Utecht. He has a great blog "The Thinking Stick" and actually tweets (@jutecht) useful stuff most of the time. I enjoyed his Stages of PLN Adoption write up. He has some wise insights, specially the part about finding balance between learning and living. My favorite quotes from the article:

"As you immerse yourself into the network your learning increases, the more you learn, the more you want to learn, the more immerse you become within your network."

"A sense of calm begins as you understand that you can learn when you need to learn and you do not need to know it all know."

So remember if you're feeling overwhelmed by the potential of your PLN and keeping up with it, you're probably not in Stage 5 yet, but just take a step back, put your life into perspective and that warm fuzzy feeling of calmness will soon wash over you. I'm hoping that by the end of this week I'll have reached the end of Stage 2, evaluating and coming up with a plan for my PLN.

But having a PLN isn't only about learning, some people develop very close relationships with it. If you want a dose of how good a PLN can make someone feel, Kim Caise (co-host of Live Classroom 2.0) is full of praise for hers in her post "My PLN is The Best!".

Will Tweeting Really Help My Teaching?

There has been a lot of frustration this week with Twitter, I'm still unsure what my exact plan for it is, but I'm starting to see how it would come in handy in extending my PLN. I've gotten some good links off people's tweets, and living in the remote mountains of NC, I have to admit its kind of making me feel a little more connected to other educators out there. For example, it's neat to get updates from people that are gearing up to go to the NECC conference. It kinda makes you feel like you're "in the loop".

Best advice I've read about Twitter this week: "If you find someone's updates to not be useful or be plain annoying, stop following them- you're in control!"

Twitter has earned some brownie points in my heart, whether it would be an efficient use of my teaching/ learning time, I still have to see. Here are some positives, a shout-out to Eric for his link to the Tweeting Your Way to Better Grades article and to Randy for providing the article about whether tweeting can help your teaching (full article here) a lot of these come from there:

• Simple, good tool for teachers open to online PLNs but not tech savvy
• Great to find mentors and keep up with latest trends in education
• Send review statement about a lesson, reminders to students about homework, sneak peeks about the following lesson, etc.
• Tweet review questions
• Direct students to useful/ follow up websites to use for homework or prepare for next lesson
  
• Share interesting things that happen in your lesson/ best practice ideas with other teachers
  
• Get students opinions about specific topics/ use as an opinion poll
• Communicate with experts in your field/ related to the topic you're covering
  
• Ask students provocative questions that will cause them to think about your subject outside class or use provocative question as primer for following lesson
• Encourage discussion and collaboration between your students and other students elsewhere
• Much quicker than blogging so it takes little time, teachers and students with limited time in their hands are more likely to use it
• Carry out book or article discussions with your students
• Keep up with latest news in your field of interest
• Students can set up virtual study rooms, offer each other support and share resources
  

A teacher from the UK posted this piece with 9 Great Reasons Why Teachers Should Use Twitter. For those of you who want a quickie summary in her words:

Together we're better

Global or local- you choose

Self awareness and reflective practice

Ideas workshop and sounding board

Newsroom and Innovation Showcase

Professional Development and critical friends

Quality-assured searching

Communicate, communicate, communicate

Getting with the times has never been easier.

Here are some other resources I found interesting:

Twitter is Messy (advice for skeptics)
25 Interesting Ways to Use Twitter in Your Classroom (some very original ideas you can actually put into practice in your own classroom)
Twitter- A Teaching and Learning Tool

Neat idea based on one given in 25 Interesting Ways...: Have students create an account with a username based on a scientist (eg. @darwin, @darwinswife, @wallace) and have them discuss a topic of the time through tweets.

Getting More out of Twitter

While trying to figure out how to use Twitter these past couple of days, I came across a few things that I found useful, thought I'd share...

I connected with this edtech specialist/ teacher in England (@tombarrett) after I read his name on the 10 teacher list above. He sent me a link to his blog, which is really neat, featuring an article called 5 Things to Get your Twitter Network Off the Ground. Here is the summary:

1. Complete your profile to help others know who is requesting to follow them or who they may be interested in following.
   
2. Dive right in.
   
3. Follow a bunch of people with similar professional interests (eg. whose blog you may have enjoyed reading)
4. Piggyback off someone with a large network by asking them to put out a good word for you, so you can get some exposure.
5. Reply to people (use the @ followed by their username in the tweet), it gets you more engaged.

Here is a list of 10 Teachers to follow on Twitter (from Free Tech for Teachers)

Ways to Find Teachers on Twitter (from Free Tech for Teachers):

1. Twitter 4 Teachers wiki: "The Twitter 4 Teachers PB Wiki was started by ed tech specialist Gina Hartman. This wiki is organized content teaching area so that visitors can connect with Twitter users who teach the same subject(s). "
2. Educators on Twitter is a Google Docs Spreadsheet started by Liz B. Davis. The list is constantly growing as new additions are added almost daily.
3. Twitter for Teachers "is a wiki started by Rodd Lucier with the purpose of educating teachers about the use of Twitter as an educational tool and as a professional development tool. You may want to check out who the contributors to the wiki are and follow them. Rodd has also produced a great video demonstrating how to use Twitter, Delicious, and Google Reader to find more Twitter users of interest to you. "
4. Jane Hart, founder of the Centre for Learning & Performance Technologies, has compiled a list of nearly 800 educators on Twitter. Each entry is accompanied by a short summary about the Twitter user.
   
5. Twitter search. Located at the bottom of the Twitter page is a search link. Try searching for key words commonly used in educational technology. Then follow the Twitter users who are writing messages containing those key terms.

Want a Twitter button for your blog? Find a free one here, there are tons of options! All you have to do is add it to your blog as a Picture Gadget, then create a link from the picture to your twitter profile page.

Some great tips on how to use Twitter are found on the Twitter help page, for example... If you type in GET username, it retrieves the latest Twitter update posted by the person.

iGoogle

Someone was asking about a place where you can access all your online applications at once (eg. email account, Facebook, Tweeter, Reader, etc.). I use iGoogle and I love it. It's basically a personalized homepage. You can customize your page and add gadgets for pretty much anything.

Below is a screenshot of my personal iGoogle page (click on image for a full screen shot).















Go to iGoogle

Gadgets I've added: Facebook, Tweeter, Google Reader, Birthday reminder, Weather, CNN, Digg (there are hundreds more).

You can add gadgets by clicking on the "Add stuff" link on the right hand corner of the page.

N.B. By the way, if you clicked on the image, you may have noticed that the full size shot is hosted in its own URL address, I did this through google docs (super easy, one step, you can share any doc, pic, etc. and have it be its own webpage you can direct people to). I just discovered this.

Google Reader has Rocked My World

In my opinion, Google Reader is everything it promised to be and more. It has made by life so much easier. It's pretty straightforward to use and if you have a Google account, the reader is already pretty much set up for you, all you have to do is go to http://www.google.com/reader and sign in. Then just surf the internet for you favorite blogs and news sites and click the subscribe icons to add them to your Reader list. Once you have a few, you can play around with it to find what works for you.

Expert Village videos (on Youtube) have a lot of clear and concise videos on many different tech topics, there are a bunch about Google Reader such as how to get started, how to add feeds, how to organize them, how to read them, etc. I found this one very useful, it shows how to create folders to organize feeds so they are easier to follow:

If you'd rather read a quick article about it instead of watching the video, click here.



I like the Google reader gadget too, which you can add to your iGoogle page for even more convenience. Download Google reader gadget here.

I was wondering about Feedburner vs. Google Reader. It seems like Feedburner is now part of Google, so Google Reader has taken its place (I think).

I am still a bit unclear about subscribing to Blogs versus subscribing to comments. Right now, I signed up to follow classmates' blogs (and they appear on the Reader)- and this shows me the latest posts from each author. Then I also clicked the "Subscribe: Posts (Atom)" at the bottom of each blog and that makes another link in the reader titled "Comments on (so and so's blog)" which shows any new comments people make on that blog. My question is, if you want get updates on both posts and comments, would just doing the "Subscribe: Posts (Atom)" be enough or do you also have to Follow?

The Brain Behind Twitter

I don't know anything about Twitter, just created an account a couple of days ago and haven't touched it since because it seems really annoying. Hopefully with Twitter as part of the focus for the upcoming week in WebTools for Teachers, I will learn more about it any learn to appreciate the Twitter for the revolution it has created. Maybe I will even become a convert by the end of the week, who knows...

I stumbled across this video on a different page. It's a TED speech given by the brain behind Twitter (who also happens to be the one of the people who started Blogger): Evan Williams. It is not the most exciting speech on the net right now, but it gives an interesting background of how Twitter came about and how it grew. If you get bored of it after a few minutes, watch the next video below that follows, it's pretty funny...



This video is titled "How Twitter Ruined My Life".
Warning: some of the content might be offensive to some readers.

Week 1 Reflections

At the end of each week I will reflect on my progress discovering the world of Web 2.0. So here goes Week 1...

I'm an animal of habit, so when I opened D2L and found out that the Webtools for Teachers class was going to be taught in a whole different learning environment, I was a little thrown off and worried... When I opened the iteachSTEM wiki where the class was going to take place, I became even more worried. I like order in my life, and at first glance that site is anything but orderly. There are a bunch of pages, charts, discussion forums, links which cross over from one place to another, scattered lists of assignments..., in general an interface which I wasn't familiar with at all.

After playing around with it for a week though, I feel pretty comfortable. It's not too different from creating a wiki in wikispaces, and although it does seem to have more limitations, I like the fact there are no ads. Other than learning how to navigate around Wetpaint and seeing how a collaborative wiki works, I have also understood the importance of thread titles. I think my main issue with this specific form of collaboration is that there are so many different threads on each different page to keep track of! I think having one page for discussions, each thread having different titles (descriptive enough that you know what they're about) would be much more efficient... A point to remember when using wiki in the classroom.

I've also become a blogger, learning how to create, write posts and maintain a blog using Blogger. The Google Blogsearch has been a big help for finding blogs of interest (also looking at other blogs' blog roll), and I got great satisfaction learning how to embed a video into a blog post and how to decrease the size of the video screen.

On tap for Week 2...

-Learn how to use Google Reader, how to organize the blogs I follow and get the most of it. -Figure out what RSS stands for and how it works -Sign up to Twitter (which I have been reluctant to do thus far) and keep an open mind about its possibilities... -Find people to follow on Twitter -Start building my Personal Learning Network

Guiding Principles Part III (The Final Word)

This is pretty cheesy, but we all know how much teachers and students love mneumonics, so here is one I have created for myself to remember my Guiding Principles when integrating technology into my classroom...

Inform myself and become familiar with webtools available
Network to get ideas
Start with learning objectives
Plan from start to Wrap up
Idealistic? scrap
Realistic? go
Evaluate the learning experience

Questions I will keep asking myself along the way... (based on the Jeff Utecht article):

Will the technology be creating new and different learning experiences for the students by...

... allowing them to learn from people they never would have been able to without it?
...allowing them to interact with information/ scientific data in a way that is meaningful and would otherwise not be possible?
...allowing them to create and share knowledge with an audience they would never would have had access to without teachnology?... allowing them to learn from people they never would have been able to without it?

Is it a replacement for the way we do things or is it something completely new and pushes both the students and teacher to new heights, new learning and new knowledge?

If at the end of the technology-enhanced learning experience the students are more excited about the Science they learned than the technology they used, I will know that I have integrated the technology into my instruction efficiently.

Guiding Principles Part II (Churning...)

As I draft my Guiding Principles, I am going to go on the assumption that I will become familiar with a wide variety of technology tools in my own time for my own personal learning interest. It is from this "techie toolbox" that I will take any instructional technologies that I plan on using in my classroom. Unless it's a very straightforward device or application to use (ie. would take no more than two hours to master in one sitting), I vow to not implement the use of anything I am not comfortable with into my class halfway through the year.

My Guidelines...

1. Know what's out there, keep up to date with emerging educational technologies and be aware of what technologies the students seem comfortable with or are using/ learning in other subjects.

2. Network with other teachers who are already integrating technology into their classrooms successfully to get ideas and recommendations. A good way to do this is via blogs such as The Edublogger, Free Tech for Teachers or Classroom 2.0, since many teachers reply to posts with what has worked and what hasn't for them and a specific Web 2.0 tool.

3. When planning for teaching a subject Unit, start with the learning objectives and consider whether any could be taught more efficiently (eg. in terms of time, depth, student engagement) using technology. Once a learning objective that could be enhanced has been established, consider what technie tool would do be best for the job. It is important to keep going back to the reason behind using technology in the Science classroom, so I have created a chart for myself that I will use to remind myself... here is a draft:


4. Map out:

• the time frame for the tech-based learning experience
• what its execution/management would require from teacher and students
• any extra requirements to keep in mind: cost, equipment, class time
• how I will wrap up the project and what form of assessment I will use (it would be important to include in the assessment process an opportunity for students to evaluate their learning- what they got out of the experience, what they would change, etc.)

5. Ask myself again whether it would be realistic and if its the best use of time, or whether learning objective could be taught achieved best using other more traditional tools that the students are already comfortable with.

6. Take time after the completion of the project to evaluate my own teaching practice critically. Ask myself: How successful was the integration of technology in this particular Unit? Would I do use it again? How could it be improved next time? Take notes + attach to the Unit while its fresh in my mind.

Guiding Principles Part I (8 Rookie Mistakes)

Rookie Mistake # 1. Diving right in without a plan

I would hear about a new Web 2.0 tool such as wikis or social bookmarking and within the next minute I would be trying to figure out in my head where I could squeeze it into one of my classes' syllabuses because it sounded so fun. I would become completely engrossed in integrating the particular tool to fit a unit without giving much thought to learning objectives for the unit. The result was usually that the students (and I) may have had fun messing about with the technology or gotten totally frustrated with it, but they certainly didn't learn anything extra about the topic at hand.
Tip: Have a plan. "It is only when a technology is combined with a particular teaching strategy that it becomes effective... and educational technologies must support existing instructional objectives in order to be effective." (Bell, Guess-Newsome and Luft, 2008)

Rookie Mistake #2. Not Thinking Through the Management Required

I would start the year with a great idea, such as an AP Bio class website where students could access all information related to the course... or a wiki for a Biotechnology class in which students would continue discussing controversial topics we covered in class... or a blog for an introductory Biology class where I could post "food for thought" questions each week and students would pick each other's brain to understand a concept better. But I would usually fail to think through about how much management would be required on my part to keep these up. The result= a great first couple of weeks, then other things get in the way and everyone forgets about the class blog, a few months into the year, a student asks "whatever happened to that class wiki we were putting together?" hmmm.
Tip: Before you start any sort of technologically involved project with your class, think about how much work it's realistically going to take for you to upkeep it and whether it is going to be too much for the students to manage on top of all their other assignments and classes. Think through the time frame for the tech initiative ahead of time (ie. will you use it for a whole unit, a couple of classes only or the entire school year?)

Rookie Mistake #3. Wasting Too Much Prep Time with Techie Pipe Dreams

If you're spending all your prep periods and several hours a night fiddling around with new apps you've heard about from your techie friends (or coming up with a cool background for your slides), you're probably not left with too much time for preparing the subject matter. Eventually you realize you don't have much of a life and you still have several lessons to plan for the following day.
Tip: Use your summer or professional development time to play around with the technology or attend conferences/ workshops about how to use it, it saves A LOT of time to learn from experts.

Rookie Mistake #4. Trying to Reinvent the Wheel

Yes, you've heard it before... If you're thinking about how cool you're going to seem to your students and the other teachers because you have integrated Twitter into your teaching (before you even actually do), changes are you are forgetting that many others already have and could give you some good pointers.
Tip: Instead of wasting time thinking about how to reinvent the wheel every time, invest the effort into networking with other teachers who have already implemented these strategies successfully.

Rookie Mistake #5. Not Investing Enough Time to Teach Students the Technology

Very often the amount of time required for students to master a piece of software for example does not make it worth using it in the class. On the other hand, if you are planning on using it across several topics through out the year, the time investment required to learn how to use it might be justified. I would also often assume that students were a lot more savvy with technology than they actually were... after all, it doesn't take master computer skills to update a facebook profile or send someone an IM.
Tip: It is crucial to determine how comfortable your students are with a particular technology tool before implementing it, I would usually realize this after I wasted several class periods showing them how to register for a website or upload a link.

Rookie Mistake #6. Bombarding Students with Technology Overload

I tried to integrate so many Web tools at one time that my students were getting confused about where they could find worksheets, post assignments or ask questions ("Ma'm, do we get that from the blog, the wiki, your personal website, our First Class folder?")
Tip: One thing at a time... and it's okay to still use traditional methods! ("Extra worksheets are on the bottom drawer of my desk, Jimmy").

Rookie Mistake #7. No Explanation Regarding the Use of a Gadget

Students need to understand the purpose of a technology and the reason behind using it in the classroom Looking back I realize I hardly ever discussed with them why I decided to try a specific webtool and how the activity would satisfy a particular learning objective.
Tip: Be ready to answer the question: "Why do we have to do this?" and have an answer for it that would satisfy an administrator who has read "Evaluating Technology Use in the Classroom" by Jeff Utecht (www.thethinkingstick.com)

Rookie Mistake #8. Inadequate Evaluation of the Tech-based learning experience

This could be in terms of assessment (I didn't really ever think of how I would assess the students' participation in the tech-based learning experience until after it was completed- then I was usually satisfied enough that they made it through and met the basic requirements (eg. replying to a post or uploading their end of unit project... not too much formative asessment there...). It is also important for students and teacher to reflect on the experience and think about what they learned from it, what went well and what they would change for next time.
Tip: Before you embark in a tech-based learning experience, think about how you want the end result to look like, how you're going to wrap the project up and how you're going to evaluate it.

Guiding Principles (The Prologue)

The main problem that I faced in the past with regards to using technological tools in my teaching is that as the book Technology in the Secondary Science Classroom puts it, I'm definitely one of those people "who enjoy new gadgets and [are] tempted to integrate technology into the science classroom for its own sake."

In trying to come up with my "new and improved" Guiding Principles for integrating technology more efficiently into my classroom, I will first reflect on my own experience with it the first time around and try to summarize the "rookie mistakes" I made. They may come in handy to others and hopefully the exercise will help me develop a more solid set of guidelines to refer to when using educational technology in the future.

(See the next post for a list of "Rookie Mistakes" revisited)

Blog Search

To get some inspiration, I have searched around for some blogs related to either Science, Educational technology or Using Tech in the Science classroom... I found these by using blogsearch.google.com, technorati.com and following other people's links.

SOME BLOGS ABOUT TECH IN EDUCATION:

Learning Digitally http://mborden.edublogs.org/
A great resource and very clear information presented in an organized way. The slogan for the blog is "Working to help prepare our students for a Web 2.0 world"

Free Technology for Teachers http://www.freetech4teachers.com/
This one is awesome, provides reviews of free tech tools available to teachers and how to use them to enhance their instruction.

Steve Hargadon http://www.stevehargadon.com/
Hargadon is the social learning consultant for Elluminate and the founder of Clasroom 2.0, a great network for teachers wanting to learn more about Web 2.0 tools. Check him out, he is pretty amazing and has seemingly unlimited information about every webtool out there...

Technology for Teaching http://blog.tech4learning.ca/
This Candian blog is very inviting and user-friendly. The blog slogan is "discussing the issues and joys of technology and learning." Great post selection plus check out the video section.


EXAMPLES OF CLASS BLOGS:

Mr. Aria's Biology class http://heymrarias.blogspot.com/
This looks like the start of a neat blog, the teacher is obviosuly passionate about Biology. The main way he uses the blog seems to be as a portal for his students to obtain information about the class (such as schedules, worksheets, presentations, access to grades). He has created some posts with videos and things but I don't see many comments/ discussion, I think he could get more out of it.

Endless Forms Most Beautiful http://access.aasd.k12.wi.us/Staff/Hoffman/Wpress/
Another Biology teacher's blog for her classes, she seems to have put in so much work! This is exactly what I would aim my Blog to look like (I had even picked the same theme when setting mine up recently on edublogs.org!). I like how easy to follow everything around the blog is, and her use of categories. The posts are also interesting, unfortunately, I can't read the comments because they are closed, but judging from the amount of info in her blog, it seems that it has been successful thus far. I also like her idea of calling for "guest bloggers" (experts in Bio fields, etc.)

Science Class 411 http://www.scienceclass411.com/
Here is another teacher's blog, a Physics and Chemistry High School teacher based somewhere in Atlanta. His blog if pretty packed as well, and he seems to use every webtool out there. Among his accomplishments are obtaining a $15,000 grant to obtain a set of laptops with wireless connection for his class. His students seem very engaged in his blog. He uses it for the usual stuff like sharing files, help session schedules, class news, grades, policies, links of interest, there are online practice quizzes and interactive calendars. Many of the posts are intended to teach students how to use a particular tool on his web.

Summer Adventures in WebTools for Teachers

I'm starting this blog to track my progress in learning how to integrate educational technologies more efficiently into my teaching (as part of a summer class through MSU called WebTools for Teachers).

I recently taught for a few years at a very "techno-friendly" school where each student was required to have a laptop and teachers were encouraged to make regular use of information technology in their teaching and in communicating with students, so I am not completely new to all this. However, I still feel very much overwhelmed and lost among the educational technologies of the 21st Century.

When I was first introduced to this "high-tech" learning environment, the computer became an additional vital organ for me, something I just couldn't live without. I took on board every web tool and software program that was introduced to us by the ICT specialists and figured out how to use it in my class: personal web page, wikis, blogs, social bookmarking, software for making online surveys, movie making software, audio editing software, iStop animation, brainstorming programs, podcasts, news feeds... I realized I was probably not using the technology very efficiently when students started to become confused about where to go online to get assignments for my class, participate in online discussions I had set up, ask questions, etc. because I had so much going on at once. I was getting carried away by virtual gadgets and was way over my head in trying to manage them all.

I am hoping that this journey revisiting how to integrate technology into my teaching will help me find a more clear sense of direction when using some of the web tools that are available to teachers. The questions that I want to try to answer are:

• What is out there?
  
• How could I use it in my teaching?
• Would it REALLY enhance my teaching/ my students' learning or just create a distraction?