Journal 7: PLN

Networking is key to success.

If a person is sincerely dedicated to what they are doing, they will network as much as possible to make sure they are on the cutting edge and have learned as much as possible.

Teaching is an art to me - one that I must craft into a masterpiece. It will always be a work in progress, considering the constant advancements and that is why learning from others is so needed. As time changes so do our students, and their needs for learning change as well.

My public learning networks were a good experience. Some were better than others - nonetheless it was still a good experience. I joined Edmodo and made accounts for my students.  There was one student in my class, however, that no matter how many times I remind him to make sure to add us on Edmodo - he simply wouldn't. Therefore, I had to e-mail the class the assignment and then have a separate one emailed to him. Maybe he's afraid of technology, and I need to ease his way in... I don't know. Aside from that student, I found the students in my class really enjoyed getting an email with their project assignment.

Furthermore, I joined interest groups on Edmodo with other teachers and enjoyed their sample classroom projects and lessons. One thing that I found useful was a simple coding sheet one teacher had to help out his students, that was cool! I needed that for myself. Also, there's a teacher by the name of Mr. Kash that will help my 8th graders in Social Studies prepare for their History STAR test. I haven't shared my learning strategies and materials into that group yet, but I can see myself doing that in the near future. For now, I have read a lot of their articles and posts and have found them to be useful.

Furthermore, I added a twitter account for the private school I work at. I sent out a message to all the parents that we have one set up, and I gave our account name. Unfortunately, only 8 parents followed. With a school of 150 students, I felt that was disappointing. I guess twitter is good for larger facilities. In any case, I updated it for about a couple of weeks and kind of gave up on it. I will return to it from time to time for consistency, but it is not a network that works for everyone.

 On my own personal twitter, I did start following different teacher organizations or teaching groups. For example, I have grown to love "Extra Credit" - they really post some amazing technology resources on there.

As of right now, I haven't used any of the teachers' ideas in my classroom "yet"... but as I keep reading their posts and articles the more I am becoming comfortable learning from them and gathering insight into the ways that others teach and are successful at it.

My biggest failure was the RSS feeder. I would go to it from time to time, but it wasn't as fun as my daily routine of going to the websites that I like to go to. For example, I really like to check out aljazeera.com for news updates about what is happening in the middle east. My RSS feeder was filled with updates by them, and they had so many updates that I would have to scroll down in order to see any other updates from anyone else. Granted, I could have just deleted that off my RSS feeder, but I didn't. Also, I don't like that it is aesthetically dry, meaning, it looked like scrolling text. I love the graphics and ambiance of my websites and searching through them, and the RSS feeder, though convenient wasn't aesthetically pleasing.

In any case, networking is an imperative aspect of success. It allows the networker to learn new strategies, and it gives him/her access to information that he/she may not be able to get on her own or was not aware of. Public learning networks are a must for any professional who takes their career seriously. 

Journal 6: Self Reflection

Initially, the book work was difficult - especially that bistro page that required linking from one folder to another. That assignment took me three days to figure out what I was doing wrong. Apparently, every time I would save a file I would save it with the exercise name (ex: chapter  6 exercise 3) instead of jenskitchen  - this created issues and confusion when I was trying to link to different files within the page.  Once I figured out what I did wrong, and I saw how all the files linked within other files, I was overcome with a sense of accomplishment.  It was hard to learn at first, but once I knew how everything linked together, I realized what an easy and fundamentally important process this is.

Also, I loved learning about css more than anything else. It is a lot of fun to click on a few keys on the keyboard and create an aesthetically pleasing page.  Creating the 2 column web page in class was a lot of fun - granted, I kept accidentally typing an extra hash tag and parenthesis messing up my page; however, it was a lot of fun, and also very rewarding. The most exciting feature is being able to hover over a word link like "Home" or "Books" and seeing it change colors. Also, I loved the gradients that were used to create that special graphic touch. Fun stuff. But, I wish someone would create a system that would highlight any mistakes... I hate missing a colon or something and to sit for 30 minutes trying to figure out what I did wrong. :P

Journal 5: Tweet Tweet :)

I work at a private school, and I figured it may be a good idea to start a twitter account for our school. I followed a good handful of educational twitter accounts and sent out an e-mail to all our parents to add twitter if they'd like short messages from the school. Only 8 parents started following us, but I'm sure it will pick up soon. Although my primary job there is a teacher, I am given a lot of green lights to move the school forward when I see a good idea. So far, twitter as a communication tool with the parents isn't looking to be that effective - but time will tell. I haven't given up on it yet.

Even though I have a personal twitter account, I'm not inclined to it on a social level. I'm not too amused with what people (or celebrities for that matter) do from minute to minute. On an educational level, I am starting to see the benefit of getting short shout outs to articles and guided towards meaningful studies about education and learning. This has made twitter all the more worth while. One group I'm following is called extra-credit team. They're really amazing about clearly explaining and analyzing the multimedia world. :) That's one group everyone aught to check out.

One thing I haven't used in my classroom; however, I'm excited to explore is twitterfall.com. I like the idea that a buzz word can be searched for and a roll of comments with those words show up. I'll probably try it out this week.

Journal 4: Project Plan (Rough Draft)

Site title -  Golden Express

Developer - Diana Shaibi, with recommendations/design commentary from the high school students of PCHS tutored at New Dimensions Community Services

Rational or focus - This website is to launch the organization they have been working on since the beginning of the school year. Thirteen ambitious high school students would like to create a community service organization called the Golden Express in order to communicate with patience at local hospitals that will be there for a while. From young children to the elderly, if you're in the hospital and have limited interaction with the outside world, high school students involved in the Golden Express will write letters to you to cheer you up and befriend you (like pen pals). 

Main features outline - The main features include history of the organisation, biographies of the writers, testimonials, pictures, affiliated hospitals, the opportunity to join the organisation and to donate, etc. 

Content - 23 or more pages (considering I want each writer's short biography on a separate page)

Target audience - Ambitious high school students and community members who'd like to make a difference

Design considerations. I want to follow the rule of thirds and keep a "golden" color scheme. 

Limiting factors - I will know the limiting factors as I troubleshoot this project. As of right now, things seem like it is working out well. As for the pictures and biographies of the students, I will make sure I have written and signed a release waiver to allow for their information to go online from their parents. 

Journal 3: The Case for Social Media in School

Resource: Kessler, Sarah. "The Case For Social Media in Schools." Mashable. N.p., 29 Sept. 2010. Web. 20 Oct. 2013. <http://mashable.com/2010/09/29/social-media-in-school/>.

There is no doubt that the time students are spending on social media is on the rise. In the online article "The Case for Social Media in Schools," Kessler provides the example of a teacher who engaged her students via a social media network with remarkable success. It had the trickle effect of it spreading throughout her school which consequently engaged students a lot more and absentees were decreasing. The article discusses safer options for students to engage online including websites such as edublogs, kidblogs, edmodo, and so on. It also discussed using text messages as a means to communicate with students, in particular, the students who were late or absent would get reminders to come to school. 

I think in order for this type of educational networking to work, a teacher must first make sure that all her students have access to the internet. Chances are everyone well, but it's important to know for sure first - there is no doubt that if a few students are not capable of engaging with everyone else the feeling of isolation may be difficult on those children. Furthermore, I believe social media is an effective tool as long as the teacher knows how to introduce it and motivate students to use it properly. 

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Question #1:

Have you seen social media work successfully in a classroom?

Answer:

Yes. I have been on e-mail lists among students in Model United Nations sharing and discussing their position papers and their availability to come to our meetings. Also, in a class that I have observed a teacher was reading a novel and asked each student to create an instagram account portraying that character and talking/acting/posting as if the story character was real. That was really engaging and exciting for the students.

Question #2:

Are there any social media networking attempts with students that wasn't successful that you may know of?

Answer:

For an English class that I taught, I created a blog account for the students. They were all able to post an entry as members. I remember there were a few students who really enjoyed it and posted all the time, and there were some that asked me if they had to do it, because they would rather not. In hindsight, I should have assigned them tasks and subject matter to write about, but I simply opened it for fun to allow them to express themselves. It didn't work, to say the least. This is mostly my fault because of poor execution. 

If you're interested, here's a successful way of getting your students interested in blogging:

Five Tips for Blogging with Your Students

Journal 2: Affinity Group and Digg Stream

Edutopia - The affinity group I joined is called Edutopia. It is filled with interesting insight into teaching. There are a lot of articles on game based learning, hands on learning, and tips to being a motivational teacher and so much more. The link to this affinity group is: https://www.facebook.com/edutopia ~ I also included it on my Digg RSS reader, and I'm getting lots of interesting articles.


I Dig My Digg Stream: :) I added a bunch of sites I'm interested in on my digg stream and some proved to be better than others. For instance, Al-Jazeera, a news network that I love to read has posts up all the time, and I have enjoyed keeping up to date with their posts in such a nice way. I had a few blog websites and forums I enjoy, but they're not as active as I hoped they would be. I noticed that the top two places that I enjoyed reading from were Al-Jazeera's posts and Edutopia. It is nice to see updates from both on one screen.
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Questions:

#1: Should it be mandatory for educators and other professionals to keep a digg stream to stay up to date?

I would have more trust in a professional who is constantly reading and staying up to date with whatever their profession is. If a professional is part of affinity groups related to their field, it makes me have more trust for their work because it shows they have an inner passion and interest in their field. I don't know if it should be mandatory, but it would heighten the level of trust that the consumers have with their service.

#2: Would it be a good idea to put which affinity groups you are in on a resume, or on linkedin?

I believe it depends on the affinity group you're in. There are affinity groups that are known for the quality of their work and have a great reputation - whereas others may not be so well recognized. It also depends on how many you're part of. If you're part of a good handful and keep up to date with them, it is better than being a part of hundreds and just skimming through them.

Journal 1: Part I: Getting Started

Robbins, J. (2012). Learning web design : a beginner's guide to HTML, CSS, Javascript, and web graphics. Sebastopol, CA: O'Reilly.

Summary Reflection:

The first three chapters of the book gave an overview of the language used in current technology, it discussed the way in which "the web" works, and the basic building blocks of web design. 

It is fascinating to see how the web, as we know it, is progressing and evolving. Flash is going on the decline as HTML5 is taking over, the format for our IP address IPv4 which can hold over 4 billion unique addresses is moving towards IPv6 so that it can take on trillions of numbers, not to mention device diversity from our desktop to our mobile device. We can only wonder what the W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) will be looking over next!

Side Thought: Also, when I was reading about the diversity of devices, and how we need to keep in mind that when we design something it is going to be viewed from many different devices, there's a really neat website out that does a great job of helping us view how our final design will look both on mobile phones and desktops. It is called mailchimp.com, and it takes great care in making sure that whatever is designed on that site is accessible. I use it all the time for sending out newsletters to my students and parents - not to mention it lets me know who is opening my email and who isn't - that's the best part. :)

While reading about web accessibility for "everyone" the one thing that intrigued me was having Braille displays for the vision impaired. Just the thought of having something like that blew me away. 

Question #1: What does a braille display look like, and are schools with blind children required have this type of device available for students who are blind and what to participate in a computer course the rest of the students are taking?

According to http://www.ada.gov/cguide.htm which is "A Guide to Disability Rights" I found out that section 504 states that Section 504 states that "no qualified individual with a disability in the United States shall be excluded from, denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under" any program or activity that either receives Federal financial assistance or is conducted by any Executive agency..." and that due this, a visually impaired student in the classroom has the right to be able to learn and access what other students are learning. As I kept searching the web, I found this very short article: Ensuring emerging classroom technologies are ADA compliant which pretty much explains that an educator in a government setting must make sure not to discriminate against any of her students, even with technology. 

Question #2: What's the difference between XML and HTML?

I read page 14 again, hoping it would become clearer, but it still didn't connect. I found my answer in this site:  http://www.w3schools.com/xml/xml_whatis.asp. Basically, XML transports data and focuses on what data is, and HTML displays data and focuses on what data looks like.