OETS

OETS, or Oregon Educational Technology Standards, is aligned with the national standards which present educators with a guideline for what today's students need to experience in order to become technologically literate. This is a list of the six standards: 1. Creativity and Innovation, 2. Communication and Collaboration, 3. Research and Information Fluency, 4. Critical Thinking, Problem Solving and Decision Making, 5. Digital Citizenship, 6. Technology Operations and Concepts.

Today's students have grown up with technology and so, for them, it's just an everyday bit of life; because they are "naturals," they can teach me a few things along the way. As their teacher, though, I can help them build on what they already know by introducing technology they may not have explored. For instance, we can collaborate with another classroom using Dabbleboard.com or Scribblar.com, and teams can design a plan for a new playground. While working on this project, they will need to research various playground equipment,analyze cost,the safety features of the equipment and whether or not it fits into the school, city and state codes.

The great thing about technology, is that it can be adapted to any age group. The playground project would be terrific for kids in the higher elementary grades and all the way through to highschool levels. Early elementary students can use the Internet for researching a country they hope to visit or to connect with a penpal currently residing in that country. Babblefish and Google Translate are two sites where you can translate a letter, document or website from one language to another and I can see this as a tool to aid students in their communication with a penpal who may not speak English.

At any age level though, it is extremely important to have an ongoing dialogue with the students about digital citizenship. For one thing, if the child is old enough to surf, they need to be made aware of safety issues and the discussion needs to continue in every grade level from Kindergarden through 12th Grade. In conjunction with the safety issue, is the need to begin early on emphasizing the need for kids to question sources and to ask themselves questions about the websites they are visiting. Today's technology is fun and a terrific learning tool and kids are already pros... we just need to aide them in their journey... so the Oregon Education Technology Standards will be a handy roadmap for me to follow.

SKYPE

Alright then, a new bit of technology for me to play with. Wait....better go wipe off that green cucumber facial mask I'm sporting.... AH...now I won't scare you! What?? I forgot to turn off the sound? You're kidding!?! Whilst I'm cleaning up things..then I'd better clean up my language too! I don't know about this...well, I can see the advantages. For instance, kids in my classroom can penpal with cyberkids in Estonia or visit their dad who is serving in Afghanistan. Someday, I may be blessed with grandkids and will be able to watch them taking their first steps. Well, at least I know that my new little netbook has SKYPE capabilities now and I'm all set up and ready to roll...but don't look for me too early in the morning.

Analyzing Student Data in a Spreadsheet.

The spreadsheet below shows test scores of all 26 students. Test scores, 1-10, are posted for each student. Then, each student's scores for tests 6-10 are averaged and show the standard deviation. The class average for tests 6-10 is shown and this is where we find that 12 students fell below the class average of 191.7.



This spreadsheet reflects the scores of the 12 students who fell below the class test average.



The chart below is a graphic depiction of the 12 students who averaged below the 191.7 class average on tests 6-10. You can see that some students,like Katharine, started off slowly and then grew in leaps and bounds. Other students gradually improved over time at a more even rate. All students showed a steady overall growth.



Here is a link to follow if you would like to see both spreadsheets and the chart:

http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0AoHf58rBn4-vdG9jUF9OS1NTZ2ZyQlp1c0piYkI2M0E&hl=en

My rate of technology aptitude showed an overall steady rate of growth throughout this assignment; although, if I charted it, you would see highs and lows resembling the Cascade Mountain Range. Unfortunately, I had absolutley no experience with Excel spreadsheets or Google Doc. spreadsheets before attempting this Ed Tech assignment. Fortunately, I could watch Barry's tutorial over and over and over and..again which helped tremedously, Laura gave us some pointers and Desiree spent hours helping me get it all put together. I can see that knowing how to use spreadsheets will be absolutely necessary when I'm teaching and so I'm glad to have gotten the experience.

Multi-media project

Although ScreenToaster is a fairly simple tool to use, it took me quite some time to get this multi-media project all together; but, here is the finished product in all its imperfect glory. Once I get started, I really have a fun time creating these projects, and I'm sure my students will too! One of the tools I am demonstrating is Google--Translate, because not only will I use it for communicating with parents, but my students will be able to communicate with any other student in the world using this technology. I made many many attempts to create this and finally decided it didn't need to be perfect. My students can know that their teacher has difficulty learning new things too sometimes but if we persevere...we'll conquer anything!

Screencasts and videos online

Web2.0 Tool Demo

Here is an embedded view of our Google doc presentation of Scribblar and Dabbleboard...enjoy. Don't forget to turn up the sound and listen to the sound of silence ;-)





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My Favorite Web2.0 Tools

Web2.0 sounds quite technical and I suppose it is; but in essence, it means that if I upload everything I usually store in my computer into a worldwide site like Google, using their filing systems such as Google.docs, blogger and Gmail and then lose my computer, I will be able to still find my vital information out there in cyberdom using Web2.0 tools. It looks like DropBox is also a cool tool where I can store and backup any information I might want to store and share and access from any computer anywhere in the world.



Web2.0 is also like having my own private toolbox full of gadgets and gizmos I can use and access from the comfort of my easy chair here at home. For instance: Screen Toaster will allow me to create my own video and I don't even need a lot of expensive filming equipment or film crew. I can use this technology to pre-record a lesson plan, tailor made to fit the needs of an individual student, and then that student can access my lesson online if he/she is at home sick.



Or, I think my students would have fun creating a Screen Toaster video of our classroom or of themselves in our classroom and then sharing it with a pen pal in....Pakistan. Of course, there is the whole privacy issue to consider and I would need to have the permission of parents, principals and the powers to be.



Dabbleboard is something like an online etch a sketch but that's like comparing a Model T to a Lamborghini. Dabbleboard is a site where you can create anything from a flowchart to a Monet-like painting. It can also be an interactive site as well where you can collaborate with one or more people and work on a project together and even at the same time even though you may be continents apart.



Dabbleboard, for instance, would be a terrific spot for a student who has artistic talents but maybe not as proficient with math. They could use Dabbleboard to sketch out a math story problem and that would give them a more concrete way to explain themselves rather than the

abstract 2+2 approach.

OTEN Conference

This is the yodio I created for the OTEN conference in Forest Grove at Pacific University. Although I attended the keynote speech and three other seminars, one of my yodio messages didn't quite register but I have notes on the other two.
http://www.yodio.com/yo.aspx?CardId=S8IVhKWooG6rUQMNxRNf10

The Link to My Past Bloglife

I feel it's important to be able to relate to my future students and so surely that must be why I'm spending hours on my blog and getting virtually nowhere; because, now I can empathize with them when they are struggling through an assignment, right? Now I've created 2 1/2 blogs but I'm pretty sure I'm getting the hang of it and this one (educ520cathytom) should be the final blogspot for educ520...right? I am attaching my old blogspot because the cutting and pasting of it came out in a gobbledygook mess. So, if you care to look, here it is: http://thecaseofthedisappearingblog.blogspot.com/