iMovie PSA NETs 3

Using iMove, a free software tool on MAC computers I was able to produce a public service announcement (PSA) for California State University San Macros. Using the iMovie software I was able to upload video footage from a video camera onto a MAC computer. Once the footage had be uploaded I was able to manipulate the length of each clip, insert various transitions between clips, freeze frames, add text, titles, and voiceovers. I inserted facts about the increasing fees facing students in the California State University system. I uploaded my PSA to my Google blog. 

Cyber Safety Collaborative Site NETs 4

Using Google sites, a free website creating software through Google that allows people to work collaboratively on the website, add attachments, upload videos and other Google applications like Google Docs, Google Calendar and Picasa, I created an informative website about cyber safety with a group of my peers. The application itself is created using a basic website template that can easily be changed with color, text, images and videos. On our cyber safety website we embedded links, pictures and videos to inform students about inappropriate content, cyberbullying, cyber predators, identify safety, piracy and plagiarism, and social networks. Each topic got its own page where we embedded links, pictures and videos to make the site interactive.  To keep our site organized and user friendly we created a side tool bar with tabs for each page. 

Inspiration NETS-T 2

Using Inspiration 9, a digital learning software that inspires students to develop and organize their ideas, I created a visual web connecting ISTE NETs to artifacts I have created throughout the semester. 

Journal 9 "Teaching Green"

Waters, J. (2011). Teaching green. THE Journal , Retrieved from http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/1105/journal_201104/#/12

John J. Water, a freelance writer based in Silicon Valley, informs his readers about teaching green through the wealth of online resource presently available. Water gives a handful of examples and briefly describes each.

The first, Classroom Earth (classroomearth.org), is a site that was created by the National Education Foundation in partnership with The Weather Channel. This sites’ objective is to strengthen environmental awareness and education in high school classrooms across the nation.

The next site, A Walk in the Woods (urbanext.illinois.edu/woods) is aimed at students in grades 3 through 5 who live in an urban setting and rarely have the ability explore nature. This site takes student on a virtual walk in the woods.

EEK!-Environmental Education for Kids (dnr.wi.gov/eek) is an electronic magazine for kid that covers a ranges of topics that is aimed at students in grades 4 to 8. This particular websites also has great feature directed at teachers.

The Ecological Footprint Quiz (myfootpring.org), created by the Santa Fe, NM-based Center for Sustainable Economy, is an online quiz that gets kids thinking about their ecological footprint.

Then there is, “one of the oldest environmental science-themed educational games”, PowerUp (powerupthegame.org). This website provide not only the teachers’ guide and lesson plans, but parents’ as well.

Lastly, Waters, talks about The US Environmental Protection Agency Teaching Center (epa.gov/teachers) site. This is a teacher-forcused site that offers an abundance of lesson plans and classroom activities centered on environmental topics.

Do you see yourself using any of the sites Waters spoke of in his article?

Yes. I was very interested in the several of them. I would love to have my students take The Ecological Footprint Quiz. I think it would be a great way for students to see how they personally impact the Earth.

At what age were you exposed to the idea of environmental issues? Was it in school or something you learned at home?

I was exposed to environmental issue early one in elementary school. It was also a topic talked about, in detail, in my household. 

Journal 8: "Should Schools Be Held Responsible for Cyberbullying?"

Bogacz, R, & Gordillo, M. (2011, March/April). Point/counterpoint: Should Schools be Held Responsible for Cyberbullying?. Learning & Leading , 38(6), Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/learn/publications/learning-and-leading/issues/Point_Counterpoint_Should_Schools_Be_Held_Responsible_for_Cyberbullying.aspx 

On one side there is Renee Bogacz who argues that it is the schools that play a big role in the prevention of cyberbullying. Bogacz, who has been teaching for 20 years and presents on cyberbullying for her district, says all educators as well as parents and the students themselves must work together in order to effectively deal with cyberbullying. Bogacz believes if everyone takes an active “role in the combating cyberbullying, then we will have the benefit of seeing it diminish and move toward a culture of tolerance and respect among children and teens”. 

On the other side we have is Miguel Gómez Gordillo, an IT director for the Ascoiaión para el Desarollo Educativo (which manages K-12 schools in Guatemala), who argues that schools cannot be held responsible for cyberbullying. Gómez places the blame on the parent and society as a whole. He attributes the high number of bullying cases to the weakening of families and lack of parental love. Gómez solution is to establish close communication with the parent(s) and to develop an educational plan for each student and their family.  Gómez believes “a healthy family is the basis for a healthy society, and schools can only support that role”.

In your opinion should schools be held responsible for cyberbullying?

Like Bogacz, I think it is up to teachers and administrators as well as the parents and student to effectively combated cyberbullying. Blame cannot be solely placed on schools just as it cannot be solely on the parents. I believe that every person who invests in the lives of students most work together to rid our society cyberbullying.

Do you have any personal experience with cyberbullying? If so, please explain.

Fortunately, I have never been affected by cyberbullying

NETs For Students Presentation NETs 3

NETs FOR STUDENTS 2007 PROFILES PK-2 GRADE on Prezi

Using Prezi, an web-based presentation application and storytelling tool that uses a single canvas instead of traditional slides, I crested a short presentation on the NETs for students to demonstrate my fluency in technology systems and the transfer of current knowledge to new technologies and situations.

Assessment of Presentation NETs 3

Using Google Docs, a free web-based word processor, spreadsheet, presentation, form and date storage service offered by Google that allows easy collaboration, I created a form to have viewers assess my Prezi NETs for Students presentation. The ability to use Google Docs demonstrates collaboration with students, peers, parents, and community members using digital tools and resources to support students success and innovation.

Journal 7: Personal Learning Network NETs 5

My personal learning network (PLN) is mostly comprised of teachers, parents, “power players” and peers who are connected to the special education and “at risk” student world in one-way or another. I choose to follow, tag, and chat with people who are involved and interested in these two areas, because I am hoping to teach special education at the elementary school level in a low-income community. For example I chose to follow Bill and Melinda Gates because they value education. I am also following KIPP, Teach forAmerica, Citizen Teachers,  and Edblogs because they have a wealth of information on working with at-risk in low income communities. Lastly, I chose to  follow Anne Truger, a mother of a special needs child as well as educator. The majority of my PLN was discovered in Twitter chats and Diigo tags centered on the topic of special education and low-income students. In the short couple of weeks that I have been developing my PNL have been exposed to an abundance of great website, articles, resources and materials that I plan on using throughout the credentialing program at California State University San Macros and in my classroom as a future educator.

             On Tuesday March 22^nd at 5:30pm I participated in a #spedchat discussion. Due to March Madness there was no official topic for the night. One member, who is a mother of a special needs students, posted a link to the Edceptional Learning For All website (I found this link to be extremely informative and interesting. I later tagged this website using Diigo has part of my PNL). She had us listen to a podcast about the use of IPads in the classroom. The discussion took off from there as I watched in amazement.

            Developing my PLN using Diigo as a networking tool proved to be harder than I thought. However, once I was able to wrap my head around the idea of using Diigo as a networking tool it was a breeze. I tagged KIPP and Teach For America with “PLN” because these website provide information about working with students in low-income areas, as well as future employment.  I also tagged Edceptional Learning For All “PLN” due to the many interesting articled, podcast and blogs related to the use of technology in special education. In terms of networking myself, I am constantly tagging site a\ I find online that I feel are not only beneficial to me, but the people who I have tagged and share the same interests with. 

            Of the two digital discussion forums that were presented in class I joined the Educators PLN forum. To be honest I was more visually drawn to this forum over the other. Because of this I took more time to explore the Educators PLN forum and found great and relevant information. Oddly enough, one of the blog posts listed under “Top Content” was about the pros and cons of Diigo. Since I do not have any experience with delicious it was hard to understand what they were talking about. However, I did find some useful information about the many uses of Diigo in the many replies to this particular post. I even was a post that mentioned EDU 422.
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In order to do so I have created a Personal Learning Network (PLN), a collection of people with whom you can engage and exchange information using digitals tools and resources such as Twitter and Diigo.With Twitter and Diggo I search for users and sites that are interested in similar topics as myself and add them to my PLN. My searches include terms like special education, international education, at-risk students, technology etc. Continually, I able model lifelong learning in order to expand my knowledge when I participating in local and global community discussion with the uses of these digital tools and resources. Expanding my network will allow me to explore the newest and best creative application of technology to improve my future students learning.

Journal 6 "Grow Your Personal Learning Network"

Warlick, D. (2009). Grow your personal learning network. Learning and Leading with Technology, 36(March/April 2009), Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/learn/publications/learning-and-leading.aspx

Summary: In the article “Grow Your Personal Learning Network”, David Warlick informs the reader about the resources involved in developing a personal learning network (PLN). Warlick suggests there are three main types of PLNs, each with its own “avenues of cultivation”:(1) Personally maintained synchronous connection which utilizes tools such as chat through iChat, Skype and uStream. This type of PLN also uses tools such as text and instant messaging, Twitter and Second Life in order to knock down the many barriers (geography, language, culture, etc.) that prevent us from connecting world of people out there. (2) Personally and socially maintained semisynchronous connections which is used to have untraditional conversations. A person might ask questions directed toward a single person, but instead the questions can be opened up to a community of people who are in a position to help answer the questions. (3) Dynamically maintained asynchronous connections which connects more with content sources rather than one another. The central tool being use is RSS aggregator in this type of PLN. Warlick goes into further detail identifying a RSS aggregator as throughout the rest of the article. Warlick goes on to identify a potential weakness of PLNs. That is, PLNs can easily become limited in the range of perspective due to personal bias. He states, “We must try to cultivate networks that challenge our thinking and frames of reference” in order to learn. Lastly, Warlick provides 10 examples to keeping the PLN simple.

(1)How do you “switch off” you PLN as suggested in the “Keep It Simple” partition of Warlick article?

I have struggle “switching off” learning when it comes to any form of learning in my life. Since, I am aware of this problem I will purposefully leave my chargers at home when going to the local coffee shop to work on projects. This way when the battery runs out, so does my time. Usually, I will hit the gym or go for a long walk while I let my computer recharge. I found this to be an excellent way to “switch off” my PLN. During holidays I make sure to keep the computer, text messaging and so on to a bare minimum. Sometimes I will turn everything off for 24hours (coursing sending out a message before hand).

(2) About how much time do you devote each day to your PLN?

            It varies from day to day. It all depends on my work schedule and my homework load. On average, I would say about 10 to 20 minutes. Some days I could devote a couple of hours if I am trying to find resources for am upcoming protect. 

All About Me Survey

Journal 4 “It's Time To Trust Teachers with the Internet: A Conversation with Meg Ormiston”

Schaffhanuser , D. (2010, December 01). It's time to trust teachers with the internet: a conversation with meg ormiston. Retrieved from http://thejournal.com/articles/2010/12/01/its-time-to-trust-teachers-with-the-internet-a-conversation-with-meg-ormiston.aspx?sc_lang=en

Summary:  Dian Schaffhanuser interviews educator Meg Ormiston about the many barriers that are restricting the use of Internet technologies in the classroom. Schaffhanuser brings up a great point that as educators we are pressured to incorporate Internet technology tools in the classroom, but it is made almost impossible with all the restrictions set in place. Schaffhanuser turns to Ormiston to better under stand these restrictions. Schaffhanuser and Ormiston discuss what needs to be in place in order to lift restrictions such as filtering and how to appropriately engaged students in an “unfiltered” Internet classroom.

1. Where the many restriction on your Internet use during your K-12^th schooling experience?

Internet use was exploding when I was in middle school. However, during school hours in 7^th and 8^th I do not remember ever going on the Internet. Our computer lab time was spent typing papers, learning how to use Microsoft and so on. In high school I learned more about the array of search engines out there to help with research paper. However, we were still encouraged to use paperback books, journals and articles provided by the library instead of the Internet. During my high school years Myspace became big. Everyone was checking Myspace, various e-mail accounts and game sites at the school library. Having unfiltered Internet access at school never posed any big problems other than it distracted students from there school work for a few minutes.

 2.  How did those restrictions compare your Internet use at home?

Since we were not allowed to use the Internet in my middle school my friends and I never learned the dangers of talking to strangers online. The big thing in middle school was to use AOL chat rooms. Looking back on it I realized how dumb and unsafe those chat rooms were. On the other hand, when the chat rooms were set up right and restricted who could join, it was a great way to communicate with my classmates outside of school. During my high school years I did not have any restrictions in terms of my internet use at home, so it was just like being in school.

Journal 3 “Join The Flock” and "Enhance Your Twitter Experience”

Ferguson, H. (2010). Join the flock. Learn and Leading, 37(8), Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/learn/publications/learning-and-leading/issues/Join_the_Flock.aspx

Summary: Hadley Ferguson takes the confusion of out of how to build an online following and network in the endless world on education by developing a personal learning network (PLN). Ferguson starts off by defining a PLN. She then takes the reader step by step through the process of developing a PLN starting with Twitter. Ferguson informs the reader on how to build their community, set up an account via twitter, teaches how to follow, how to retrieve information, how to share information, how update a profile with pictures and bio, insert tags and so much more. Ferguson even shares some of her favorite educators to follow.

1.  How do you feel about your own PLN? Could it use some sprucing up?

My PLN can defiantly use a little help. After reading Hadley Ferguson’s article I feel way more comfortable building my personal learning network community. I have a better feel for the types of people and groups I should look for to follow in terms of my continuing education and teaching.

"Enhance Your Twitter Experience” 

McClintock Miller, S. (2010). Enhance your twitter experience. Learning and Leading with Technology, 37(8), Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/Libraries/Leading_and_Learning_Docs/June_July_2010_Join_the_Flock.sflb.ashx

Summary: Shannon McClintock Miller explains how to organize a Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Myspace, etc. using an organizer called TweetDeck. She goes on to explain how to create discussion forums, reply, tag, retweet and directly massage others. She explains the advantages of each.   McClintock Miller talks about how using these tools in this form have allowed her and many of her colleagues to connect with people they most likely would not have been able to connect with if it would not for web 2.0 tools such as Twitter. Lastly, McClintock Miller includes a great “twitter twerminology” list that defines all the terms talk about in her article.  

1.     What do you think about Angela Maiers 70%, 20%, 10% formula Shannon McClintock Millers comments about towards the end of her article.

I think Angela Maiers formula is great and totally makes sense. Using the formula makes you tweet and/or post efficiently. I recognize how tweeting or posting this way makes you get the “most bang for your buck”.

Journal 1 Do Web 2.0 Right

Light, D. (2011). Do web 2.0 right. Learning and Leading with Technology, 38(5), Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/learn/publications/learning-and-leading/digital-edition-december-january-2010.aspx

Summary:  Daniel Light and colleague, Deborah Polin, traveled the Untied States to find out how teachers were successfully, (and in some cases not so successfully), incorporating Web 2.0 activities into the classroom. The two interviewed 39 educators and several students in 22 different schools across the country to better understand how these tools were employed in their classrooms. Light and Polin identified (1) instituting daily practice, (2) carefully considering the audience, and (3) teaching and enforcing appropriate behavior as the three elements teachers used 2.0 Web in order to create sustained, meaningful communication among their students. Light goes on to discuss the best ways to implement each of these elements into the classroom and uses teachers examples to support his findings.

Do you see yourself making an effort to tread these elements into your classroom?

            Yes, most defiantly. Being “the shy student” growing up I understand how Web 2.0 tools can help those students who are to shy to speak up in class. Web 2.0 allows their voices be heard in a way they feel comfortable with. Also, I like using Web 2.0 to allow students to discuss anything we might be learning without the year. For example Blogs will allow students to give more informative, critical and thoughtful comments on class discussions or current events we might be learning about in class. Lastly, I love the idea of my students having a safe way to communicate with myself, their peers, parents and our community.

How do you feel about this “always-on community” that Web 2.0 always teachers to create for their students?

            To be honest, in the beginning I thought always being connected was going to be stressful and time consuming. On the contrary, I am realizing that the stress level has decreased. At first, it was hard and confusing to learn how to employ these tools into the classroom, but it has become second nature now. My students are always learning in a safe environment that I can check in on whenever I want and that makes me happy.

Technology Self-Assessment: School 2.0 NETs 5

         I had plenty of reflection tool results to choose from. I am not 100% sure if having that many reflection tools was a good or bad thing. I decided to look at the link Creativity and Schools-Sir Ken Robinson under NETS-T Module: Facilitate and Inspire Student Learning and Creativity.
          Robinson is a genius and so entertaining to watch. I never spent a great deal of time reflecting on the hierarchy of school subject and how society bases intelligence on the success in these subjects until I watched Robinson's clip. Robinson points out that no matter what school system we look around the world the hierarchy is the same; math and science are at the top with art and music at the bottom. We are also lead to believe that intelligence is based on our academic success in the most valued educational areas, not so much on creativity. Robinson points out the obvious problem here, we as people do not work this way. Intelligence is diverse, distinct and dynamic just like us. Therefore, intelligence cannot be thought about in one way. His story about Jillianne drove home his point that we need to rethink the fundamental principle on which we are educating children. As a future teacher I want to foster creativity in my classroom and teach my students that intelligence is based on so much more that just academics.
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For this assignment I used the "school 2.0 Refectional Tool" on toolkit.org to answer a set of questions that are designed reflect on skills in technology integration and to identify areas for growth. Next I choose results from one of the NETs and investigated one of the resources. In this post a shared what I learned from the resource I choose to investigate. I included a screen selection of my results as a picture in this blog post.

Journal 2

1. 
   
   1.     Mom
   2.     Dad
   3.     Brothers
   4.     Grandparents
   5.     Spending time with all of my cousins
   6.     Christmas eve
   7.     Christmas day
   8.     Thanksgiving
   9.     Peanut butter
   10.  Time with friends
   11.  Hiking
   12.  Traveling
   13.  Meeting new people
   14.  Outdoors
   15.  The warmth from the sun
   16.  Smell of pavement after the rain
   17.  Smell of grass after the rain
   18.  Smell of fresh cut grass
   19.  Train rides across country
   20.  Hugs
   21.  Kisses
   22.  Freedom
   23.  Cold breeze against my face
   24.  Sticking my head out the window while riding in a car down the 101
   25.  Stars
   26.  Swings
   27.  Laying in the snow at night by myself
   28.  Bob Marley
   29.  The cello
   30.  Laughter
   31.  Laughing until I cry
   32.  Making my friend laugh until they cry
   33.  New love
   34.  Old love
   35.  Plane rides to new places
   36.  St. Louis
   37.  Humidity
   38.  Driving the 101 at night
   39.  Walking along the beach at night
   40.  Feeling the cold sand on my feet in the winter
   41.  Feeling the hot sand on my feet in the summer
   42.  Jumping into a pool after sitting in a hot tube
   43.  Sleeping
   44.  Naps in the sun
   45.  Music
   46.  Staying up all night with friends
   47.  Watching scary movies
   48.  Watching scary movies with my little brother
   49.  Scaring my little brother
   50.   Spending time with my girlfriends
   51.  Finding old friends
   52.  Watching my god daughter grow up
   53.  Listening to my little cousins express himself
   54.  Finger painting
   55.  Walks
   56.  Long slow runs
   57.  Fast runs
   58.  Half marathons
   59.  5 k
   60.  Food
   61.  Last minute adventures with friends
   62.  Swimming
   63.  Jumping to a lake
   64.  Jumping off rock
   65.  Nature
   66.   Airports
   67.   Hearing my first language while traveling
   68.   Bright colors
   69.  Sunsets
   70.  Sunrises
   71.  Walking home during the sunrise
   72.   Watching college basketball
   73.  Watching football
   74.   Mizzou football games
   75.   New Years Eve
   76.  Halloween
   77.  Flowers
   78.  Dancing
   79.  A clean room
   80.  Organized room
   81.  Smell of espresso
   82.  Green tea
   83.  Waking up early
   84.  Going to bed early
   85.  Trying new fruits
   86.  Peanut butter and bananas
   87.  Farmers markets
   88.  Riding my bike
   89.  Thinking of camp
   90.  Watching people succeed
   91.  David Gray
   92.  Diving into waves
   93.  Talking to people from my childhood
   94.  Weddings
   95.  Shopping
   96.  Boots
   97.  Cowboy boots!
   98.  Seeing my family after traveling
   99.  Flying into the SD airport
   100.  San Diego skyline at night

Hey fokes! My name is Erika Nicole Redlinger and this is my story so far......

      I was born in San Antonio, Texas. Two years later I moved to the great surf town of Cardiff By The Sea near San Diego, California. A few years later I moved to the Midwest. I lived about 20 minutes outside of St. Louis, Missouri in the "unincorporated" town of Ballwin. Kindergarten through 5th grade I attended Oak Brook Elementary School. I went to Southwest Middle School for 6th through 8th grade. I was all ready to start my freshmen year of high school at Parkway South High when I found out I would be moving back to California. This time we settled in Encinitas, California where I attended and graduated from La Costa Canyon High School. Unsure of my plans for University and fear of anything standardized I enrolled at Palomar College. I received my A.A. in Liberal Arts and Sciences. I then transferred to San Diego State University. Along with the transfer I moved to Pacific Beach, California (only so I could to be closer to school of course). Two years later I received my B.A. in Psychology. I took off to Europe right after graduation to work at a sports summer camp for children ages 7 to 17. Once I returned to the United States  I worked in a year long preschool program in Encinitas. Last summer was an intern working with high school students at Loyola University Chicago. It took all of that to make me realize that I wanted to be an educator. This realization led to me to California State University San Marcos where I am currently pursuing a Multiple Subject Teaching Credential.

     

     On the technology continuum I fall under Master of; texting, facebooking, e-mailing, googling, skyping and navigating my way through the Netflix's website. As for everything else in the technology world I have little to no idea what I am doing. My elementary school set up a computer lab when I was in first grade; although state-of-the-art at the time the computers would be considered extremely basic by today's standards. They had no color and the smallest screen ever, remember the 8-inch floppy discs that where actually floppy? As my schooling progressed, so did computers. I wish I could say the same about my skills. By middle school I was decent at Microsoft Word. And by high school I was learning the basics of Excel and Powerpoint. Somehow I got through my undergrad without ever having to use Powerpoint. As a lab assistant at SDSU I had to use Excel for data entry. After being out of school for almost two years I am afraid that my Excel skills have been reduced to less than a rudimentary level. With technology playing such a huge role in this generation, I understand the importance of being fluent in its many uses. However, that does not change the fact that it is overwhelming and makes my head hurt.

    

     "Collaboratively transform public education... committed to diversity, educational equity... and life long learning..." are parts of the College of Education Mission Statement that speak to me. Over the years I have become more and more worried about the public education system in America. When I was in elementary school there were so many classes, resources and extracurricular opportunities for students. As the years past classes were fewer and bigger, resources were being taken away, and extracurricular opportunities were dwindling one by one due to budget cuts. Now, more than ever, the public education system needs a massive transformation. A transformation with an emphasis on diversity, educational equity and life long learning. Not every student is the same and as an educator I have to adjust my way of teaching to best suit each child. As an educator I am a person of many roles; these roles go well beyond the walls of a classroom and the days of a school year. As the American historian and writer, Henry Brooks Adams, once stated "A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops".