Networking has got to be one of the most confusing topics in technology, but if you don’t have networking, there’s no use in having a detailed technology structure. I struggled to find something that I was interested in and would be beneficial to my home and work life. Recently my in-laws were talking about wiring their new basement for a wired network instead of using wireless. I thought this was a great idea for security reasons. It would be just like a mini office or just like we have in our lab at school. Click the link to see my write-up about what’s needed for a wired network. If I’ve left out anything or stated anything incorrectly, please let me know.

File: wirednetworkroberson

Experiences in Multi-sensory learning has been interesting and useful. Having the opportunity to focus on a key learning style and finding out how that information could help me in the classroom has been enlightening. I knew there were different learning styles, but I had never researched deeply into them. I have to admit that this was one of my favorite assignments and I plan to do more research into how I can use tools in my classroom to enhance the learning of my students.

Here is my teams presentation on Multi-sensory learning styles. Enjoy!
Multi-Sensory Learning

Our school is on the new technology bandwagon for document cameras. My principal called me in last week to as about them. She is looking at the cost of overheads, books, worksheets, etc. and wanted to know if each classroom had a document camera would it save our school money. My first reaction was ‘yes’. If each room used a document camera, the teacher wouldn’t be creating overheads from curriculum books. The book itself could be viewed under the camera for all to see. BUT we draw on the overheads as we go and they are erasable, so how would that work? Maybe a blank overhead over the book page, so they save on copying, but still need an overhead page? I’m not sure. There are many positives like students being able to share their work without recreating the work. Once they’ve done the worksheet, the page can be brought up and shared. Fourth grade does a heart dissection. Instead of buying a heart for every 4 kids, one heart could be dissected by the teacher and seen by the class. The downside is the students miss out on the hands-on work. Another thing I’m not sure about is the visual aspect. Can the student effectively view the images on a projector or TV? How dark does the room have to be and how big can the image be on the screen? Our school is a “daylight” school with lots of windows and few blinds.

As you can see I have a lot of questions. The research I’ve done is mixed. Some teachers LOVE them and wouldn’t teach without one. They love the student involvement in the instruction. Others don’t see the value. What I would like to hear from you is your input. What experiences have you had using document cameras?? What type of camera and projection system have you used?? I would hate to have our school spend thousands of dollars on a new technology that wouldn’t be effective. All these new trends!! Do we jump on the bandwagon??

I ran across the following link after Brent sent out the message about Educator’s eZine. I really like this site because it has given me ideas to use in all aspects of teaching technology and technology coordination.

http://www.techlearning.com/story/showArticle.php?articleID=196604725

This particular link is about students using their voice in the classroom. I’ve pondered having K-5 create digital stories in class and this year I’m going to try it out. I believe my kindergarteners can create a picture in KidPix and narrate their thoughts, so I’ll put all that together into a story. It sounds like fun even though there is added work on my part.

The older kids will be doing a digital story in place of one of their PowerPoint projects. As the article states, kids are good that this and finding that “golden egg” in the classroom is so true. I’m hoping this new adventure will be a golden egg in my classrom. My older kids need more challenging ideas and this is a skill they can use at home or in middle school. Have any of you tried this?

teacher-factor.jpg
Our principal gave the our staff an article “The Teacher Factor” (NY Times, 2000) in our mailboxes without any explanation. We are all assuming she gave it to us since we are starting into our round of MAPs testing. I”m mean isn’t one of the main reasons we test is to find out how well our teachers are teaching??

I’ve felt that our school has over done the testing. We’ve got DRA, CoGAT, CSAP, MAPs, etc. and we are still looking at others. The kids are tested so much, the classroom teachers are teaching in a rush.

Anyway, back to the article. So what does make a good teacher? They say they are still researching that. I found the article to be true to what most teachers say after they have moved around to many different schools. Some even say they can tell who the student had the previous year, but what the student has retained. Enjoy the article. I’d like to know what you think.

After completing my practitioner profile this week for my Trends class, I reflected on online educators. I learned quite a bit about online learning and educating that I did not know in the past. The eductator I interviewed does not create any of her lessons, nor is she an expert in the area she teaches. She is currently teaching an education phycology class, but has little expertise in the area. Her curriculum is created by the university and she tracks the work completed by her online students. There is very little she can alter. I can understand this from the university’s standpoint because they want each class to be identical no matter who the teacher is. The big question I have is how often the material is updated. I’m sure psycology doesn’t change as quickly as technology, but there has to be developments that can be taught each new semester. She said she has taught the same material for the last couple years. I don’t think that would work in the technology world!

Many of the educators I talked to who taught online courses were able to mold the lessons to fit their style and current trends. Even with being a student in a current instructional technology trends class, I feel trends are everywhere, in every disipline. If a class were to be in a classroom and the same lessons had to be taught by all instructors, the class would still get differerent types of input and feel for the material. I feel an online class should be the same. An instructor should be able to mold the class as they see fit.

I’m not sure why this came as a surprise to me during my interview, but I’m thinking it came from my assumption that everyone gets to mold their classroom as needed to make the material work.

Our school was notified last week that we won a grant provide by LSI Logic here in Fort Collins!  The grant was written for document cameras that will be used in our fourth grade classrooms.  When the district announced participating in the grant process, the grant was to be complete and submitted by the first day of school.  We found out the week before school started.  We got the grant written and off to LSI, but there was limited research time.   We requested five document cameras, microscope adapters and light boxes.  These are all wonderful tools, but I’m a little nervous about the use of equipment.  Most of our classrooms are still using overheads for instruction and they feel the document cameras will replace the overheads.  I’m hoping that is true and the teachers will utilized the new technology in their classrooms.  The downside is our school is a natural light school (many windows), so the projection image may not be as clear as they anticipate.  If it’s not very clear in presentation, I’m not sure they will continue to use the document cameras.  Technology is a wonderful thing given the correct environment.  I will be interested to see the outcome.  Given more time to evaluate the technology, I feel we could have tested out some equipment to find the best match.   I realize now that we should be looking to the future and trying things out in order to be better prepared for quick decisions! 

The week has been crazy with paper editing through email, learning about RSS and blog updates, kids, sports and Lego Robotics! I have to say I think I’m in over my head this time. One day at a time, right?

I read a great article by Will Richardson (2005) called “RSS: A Quick Start Guide for Educators” and it got my juices flowing to learn more about RSS. I hadn’t realized it was such a powerful tool. Having my fifth grade students subscribe to feeds when doing research could be a time saver in class. Up front it would take some training, but they would enjoy it. It took me quite a bit of time to weed through using RSS and linking it to my blog, but I finally succeeded! In Richardson’s article I read about using a Furl account to have links automatically updated by those who subscribe. I would like to learn more about these accounts and how they can be used in my classroom.

I’m constantly amazed with the web technology I could be using in my classroom. I’m slowly emerging from my bubble!

In my Current Trends and Issues class I read an article titled

When Gadgets Get in the Way

by Lisa Guernsey. The article was published in the New York Times on August 19, 2004.

The article seemed to be focused on the use of electronic devices in an upper school level setting, but when I got into the article, I could relate many of the scenerios to my elementary classroom setting. I have a few 5th grade students who are bold enough to bring their cell phone to technology class, but I have not yet found one of them texting (that I know of). The part of the article that made me chuckle was when she compared texting to note writing. I had never thought of texting in that way, but I can see the relationship. Kids today will have the fun of quick notes being sent, but will miss out on the hard copies that they can keep! I think I still have a shoebox with some of my school notes. I’ve seen news channels talk about bullying that occurs using texting on cell phones, but bullying also happened with note writing. It is something we will always have to deal with.

When Lisa talks about is the use of the networking software NetOp, I could relate. I use NetOp in my labs and the kids like it. I can lock their computers so they will pay attention for instruction and if the lab gets too noisy, I lock the computers again. I can view what they are doing on their computer from my teacher computer and I can send them messages, but I have never had to. With the kids being young, they get the idea pretty quickly when I freeze things!

I enjoyed this article. If you have a chance, you should check it out.

Hi! I’m Ronna Roberson and I’m a technology teacher in a Colorado K-5 Core Knowledge school. I’m starting into my fourth year of teaching. Prior to teaching I worked as an IT consultant for Hewlett-Packard and Agilent Technologies. I started out in support services and ended with account management. When the IT sector took a plunge around 2003, I quit and stayed home with my two kids. After going crazy being at home while the kids were at school, I decided to volunteer in the computer lab at their school. The computer lab teacher decided to be principal, so they were interviewing for a replacement teacher. They didn’t want a certified teacher, so I interviewed (to keep my skills up) and got the job. I don’t get paid nearly what I used to, but I enjoy the kids and they teach me a lot!

I’ve setup this blog as a communication tool. I’m taking a Current Trends and Issues in Instructional Technology class at CU Denver. This blog is my introduction to an area I’ve never used before. This will be an exciting journey!!