Assignment 5 PLN
Porterfield & Carnes
Porterfield & Carnes
Chapter 8 Reources
- The Mayo Clinic Center for Social Media
- My Island View
- Social Media at Social Media Governance: Policy Database
Today's Tools:
Prior to today, I was unaware that there was even legislation in the works pertaining computer science standards, so that was interesting to learn. The idea behind the Computer Science and Education Grant program is great, though I wonder if much more funding will be needed to implement it well. Establishing a K-12 computer science endorsement seems very necessary in this day and age, but again I wonder how many people will choose to become a certificated teacher specializing in computer science when they could get their BS in Computer Science and make much more money. I wonder how we get around that?
ReplyDeleteThey are going to have to be very creative to get Computer Science majors to enter the teaching field. I wonder if there is a way to pair them with a major corp. to help with subsidizing their salaries. However, is that fair?
DeleteI was completely unaware of any type of legislation that was funding technology. All you seem to hear about legislation is how they are failing their civic duty to fund public education which makes me think about reading, writing and math. Technology was nowhere in my thoughts in relation to legislation, but I am very happy to see that technology is not going to fall through the cracks especially it is such a large part of the society in which these students are growing up in.
ReplyDeleteI think it's great that there's legislation going through for endorsing computer science! Its such a huge part of our culture that it's definitely a needed position! But with computer science degrees getting higher pay in the private sector, like Ashley says, I don't think there's man reasons for those people to take jobs in education.
ReplyDeleteI also reflected a bit on how much less technology I use in the day to day grind of the job. Things like staying connected and up to date on reading things online really take a back seat. As I look back over the past few years, my online presence is heaviest during school breaks times (specifically when my kids are napping). With our daily half hour tech time, I've gotten into the habit of checking my feedly, twitter, etc during my lunch time. I wonder if I can keep this up during the school year?
I agree Ann with the legislation, but at what point do we get overloaded with frameworks, initiatives, standards, integration etc? It always seems that the positive intent is there, but never the replacement of something. It always seems to be an add to versus a substitution. My wife did some hour of code work with her kinders this past year with very little tech. It was more about the cognitive piece.
DeleteFor man reasons I missed the man reasons. Dang it!
DeleteI agree that have a computer science teacher(s) will be essential for schools and encouraging them to teach at schools will be a challenge.
DeleteDennis Small
ReplyDeleteConnectivity 99.96%
99% of schools have broadband.
39% of districts adopted digital materials
It is great that this many districts are connected. With this many connected sites it would be great to connect kids and teachers in practice. Is anyone currently connecting with people from other school districts in realtime instruction? I tried a little bit of this in my ITC role last year. Is there any conversation around what we can substitute? Continually adding.
The Google cardboard virtual reality is a great tool and I can see it being a tool used to share experiences with students that do not have the funds or capabilities to grasp in reality. It also provides the students and families with the ability to dream about the possible. This is so important to me because I had such limited experiences because of socioeconomic issues. I'm a dream maker and I can see this tool being helpful for man reasons.
For man reasons I completely agree with the possibilities of Google cardboard providing an experience for students who may not have the resources. Engagement would be high and learning could be maximized. I am excited to see where virtual reality takes learning in classrooms.
DeleteI had no idea that there was talk about adding computer science into curriculum but I think it's an amazing idea! I know that a physics teacher has a unit where she does basic programming with the kids, and they love it! It is so engaging and so applicable to where our society is going.
ReplyDeleteI love the idea of visual reality. I think that there are so many cool opportunities for science and all classes with this tool! There are man reasons that I think we need to incorporate technology, but what a great resource for lower income schools to be able to see some of the things that they would not normally be able to see through virtual reality.
I agree, I think there are some cool places education could go with virtual reality and augmented reality. You'll have to keep us posted with how you are able to incorporate this into your class!
DeleteI completely agree with your man reasons for using virtual reality in the classroom for disadvantaged students. I commented that it is a tool that makes the dreams of others a "reality" where they haven't had even the first step in making it possible. Google has made the impossible possible. I am excited to see where it goes from here. Where could you use this in your class if you were able to ask for whatever you wanted like Becky Firth?
DeleteI also did not know about the computer science legislation. It will be interesting to see how that changes instruction.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed learning about Padlet, Piktochart and Infogram. I create a lot of presentations, and these two tools are going to be awesome to use this year. I run data review sessions with teachers and they are going to love Inforgram. Yay! Thank you for sharing.
I really liked what Mr. Small had to say about digital citizenship. He said, “Any technology is not good or evil in itself, rather it is how we utilize that technology that makes it good or evil.” As with many things in life, I think this is totally true, especially with social media. I thought he brought a good perspective about how to approach technological change in looking first at how you want to use the technology, and then determining what district level barriers might need to come down before being able to do that. I think with what I want to do with social media and our orchestra I’m going to have to look at breaking down some district barriers to really turn it into what I want it to be.
ReplyDeleteI liked that quote too and it so true! I think many schools and districts shy away from using social media because of the possibility of it being used for evil, but after taking this class I see so many ways it can be used for good. Now to convince those higher than me!
DeleteThank you to Dennis Small for coming out and sharing what OSPI is doing related to technology. The past few weeks, we have discussed responsible digital use for students. I found it interesting that 83% of districts have an internet safety initiative. Also, that 37% of that instruction is given by teacher-librarians. I am interested in finding out more about the Digital Citizenship Legislation. I agree that many of the District policies discuss what not to do, versus a responsible use policy. I think the learning opportunities and conversations for students would be more empowering if we approached it in a positive, responsible way.
ReplyDeleteI also found Model policy 2020 (that describes roles and responsibilities surrounding instructional materials) very informative. The links for the rubrics are critical for reviewing the quality of instructional material. I’m also very interested in exploring the crosswalk ELA and EdTech site to find resources for my classroom. Especially, addressing the speaking and listening skills kids need to complete on the SBA. I’m hopeful to find some lessons and ideas to better teach this in my classroom.
I’m excited to try Piktochart - thanks Ryan!
I am excited to tinker more with Piktochart too! I tried messing with it a little last night and there is so much to learn. I feel like I need a tutorial! The finished products look so nice though!
DeleteI would love to take anyone through Piktochart if you want. I can do post some lessons online too if there is a want. I have toyed with the idea of using a webtool to post video lessons of how to start the venture of going paperless.
DeleteI was also unaware of the legislation regarding computer science for man reasons. To meet the needs of our learners, we must catch up and fund their future. I am happy that this legislation has created a an important dialogue that I hope to participate in as I continue my digital leadership journey. I am also excited to dive into using infographics with websites like piktocharts! Infographics would be an awesome way to add professionalism and engagement to future projects. I still can't believe how much I've learned in two weeks, and cannot wait to practice at my school!
ReplyDeleteToday's class was really interesting. I really enjoyed seeing everything we have talked about this week be presented in the context of what the state is doing about technology. I really liked what Chris shared about athletes and digital citizenship. I think that digital citizenship is an area that we are really lacking in teaching our students about.
ReplyDeleteI accidentally discovered Piktochart yesterday when looking for a creative way to display information for Andy and my project for Dr. Selby's class. I really loved how easy it was to use and it made really clear and striking graphics. I will definitely use this tool in the future especially after seeing today how easy it is to add charts to the diagrams as well.
I am excited to see how the AP computer science course pans out at RHS next year. I do believe that this is an important area for our students to be exposed to early and there are a lot of opportunities for college degrees as well as tech programs for students to align with post secondary plans.
I am excited to try the infogram for my next project. I have found showing data in a meaningful way is very time-consuming, but I think this could be a great tool to do that. I needed to find an “idiot” proof website. Some problems that I have found when using websites is they are too complex and time-consuming. Then I lose interest.
ReplyDeleteI am excited about the computer science legislation and what can come from this. This is an untapped area in education that will have a direct benefit in the private sector. That was eye-opening today. I liked how Dennis explained that the schools were equipped with the technology (wired and wireless), but now have to use it. That is where the building administrations come in.
Finally, Dennis mentioned the use of lockdown browsers for testing. I had not thought of that and was just an ah-ha moment in my head.
Time to go play around with some of these websites and become an “expert.”
I agree with many of the other posts in regards to Mr. Small's presentation today. I felt that he was very informative and shed light on a few things that I had not known before today. The comment he made about needing to identify the possible district level barriers in technological integration struck a cord with me. As I am part of a team that is adopting some math curriculum for Alg 1-Geo-Alg 2, we were told that we needed to adopt a curriculum (when we finally do) that has a textbook because our community and school board believes in the value of a book. This somewhat took away from our options as any more, publishers are only providing online resources for textbooks as that is the way of the future. I also thought that our conversation about the different realities that exist today was interesting and I thought that many good perspectives were shared- and made me think about ways that my own thinking is somewhat incomplete. Also, A+++ for everyone who has shared about "piktochart" as I love that idea as a teacher!
ReplyDelete