Plagiarism

This week in class we focused on copyright and plagiarism, two things I teach about in my current classroom. I have a zero tolerance policy towards plagiarism, and my students (and their parents) learn that the first week of class. In class this week, I found quite a few resources that I could use to make teaching the rules of avoiding plagiarism and abiding the laws related to copyright as well as the Fair Use Act a little more entertaining. My favorite was a video that spells it all out to you using small clips from Disney movies. I've seen this before from a colleague a few years ago, but I kind of forgot about it. I won't forget about it again though! Here it is for you to enjoy, and for me to come back and find again later :)

The Fair(y) Use Act

Benefits of Online learning

I just finished viewing a video on some of the benefits of an online learning, especially when given as an option in high school. This video, by Susan Patrick, can be found at this address: http://www.edutopia.org/stw-online-learning-making-the-case-video
She made some really interesting points in the video. Something I wasn't aware of was that the United States spends more money on education than any other country, with the exception of Switzerland. Yet, we are far from the top when it comes to education being offered. Some of this, I have to think, has to come from the lack of resources and funding in our schools along with classes that are far too large. Students are the ones missing out, here. Susan Patrick also shared the surprising face that the state of Georgia has 400 high schools, but the state only has 89 certified physics teachers. Just think of all the students missing out on the opportunity to learn about physics. I am sure that there are other science classes offered, but some students may be considering pursuing futures that require a foundation in physics, and without the offering, they are already at a disadvantage compared to their peers in other states. This is ridiculous if you really think about it. By offering some courses online, though, these students may be able to learn from certified teachers in their state or in a differing state. Susan pointed out that offering virtual classes is bringing some teacher back to the profession! It is also allowing current, experienced teachers to teach some classes in a traditional classroom as some in a virtual classroom; this means there are some traditional classroom openings for teachers new to the field. This is good news, because many new teachers just out of college are struggling to find teaching position or even substitute opportunities. The online classroom, Susan shares, offers more opportunity for one-on-one attention. I have to say that I would miss out on the face-to-face interactions, but through online education, every student is reached, which may not always happen in a traditional classroom. All in all, this video provided some great insight to the benefits to online learning.

So many options...

This week in class I played with two new programs, Audacity and Photo Story 3. I'm not sure how often I will use Audacity in the classroom, but it is nice to be familiar with the program in case I ever want to use it. Photo Story 3, on the other hand, was a lot of fun to use and was a nice alternative to PowerPoint. I could imagine quite a few situations where I could use it in the classroom for presenting information or students could use it to create a presentation as a unit assessment. Here's the video I made with Photo Story 3:


I also watched a pretty interesting video about experiencing high school virtually. It gives the experience from both the teacher's and the students' perspectives.

Here's a link to the video: http://www.edutopia.org/online-learning-florida-virtual-school-video

There were quite a few things in the video that stood out to me. The first was when the online teacher shared that she typically has 200 students, but she often only sees 10 during each class session. That really surprised me! She shared that she enjoyed meeting her students, but she felt that she maintained strong relationships virtually with each of her students due to the one-on-one attention given through email and discussion. I can't imagine creating really strong bonds with students that way, but I'm sure it works out just fine. She shared she relates better with students this way, but I think I would miss the one-on-one time seeing reactions, sharing stories, and things spontaneously shared in a traditional classroom. The video points out the many benefits for students. For example, if students are working, they can complete their homework and classes around their work schedule rather than clash. Also, students can still participate in sports and other extra curricular school activities, they just don't have a "home school;" they need to join the activities through other traditional schools near by. One student did share that the online classes are not for procrastinators, which is something I expected to be true, but was surprised at how animate this particular student was in sharing. He said that procrastinators will fall behind quickly, so they shouldn't take classes online. A parent shared that students who find themselves embarrassed by the speed they work, slow or fast, don't need to worry about those things in online classrooms. I thought that was a good and valid point. Overall, this video really opened my eyes to different perspectives sharing the benefits of online learning.

Collaboration

One of the big challenges this week was finding time to work on a partner project. I usually get nervous about partner project; it goes back to that middle school anxiety, "Who will be my partner?" I was lucky, though, because two colleagues of mine approached me about being there partner :). We decided that we would each attach the project from our home computers at 12:30 Friday afternoon. After quite a few emails sent back and forth, we decided to do our project on pre and post testing online. Our medium was a really neat website called Wallwisher.com. You post virtual Post-it notes on a large screen. You can even add videos, websites, and documents. What a neat resource. It's a nice alternative to discussion rooms since you can attach other resources. I will definitely use this in the future. I think it will work even better that Google Docs for collaboration assignments since it is immediate, students can move things around, and they can include whatever resources they are looking at. What a great find!

Here's our example of a Wallwisher Wall: http://www.wallwisher.com/wall/nhckomets

New Tools

This week in class was all about finding new resources and tools to use in the classroom. I was super excited about many of the ones I found! After being in the same district for a few years, and gaining comfort with units I have created, I feel like it is time to freshen things up. Last week I created a prezi, which was a lot of fun. As I was making it, I was thinking of ways I could have my students use prezis in class. This week I worked with Glogster and made a Glog. Although I feel that my first attempt at a glog wasn't my best work, I can see where glogs could be incorporated in some of my current units, my autobiography unit to be specific. I also found a few website that offered interactive help on grammar, punctuation, and MLA citations. One of my biggest goals for taking this course was to find new resources to help in the classroom, and that is exactly what I am doing. I've also learned ways that cell phones could be used academically in the classroom, which is quite fascinating. I just wish the district I worked for was more willing to allow cell phones for appropriate uses in the classroom.

This week was also my first summer book group meeting with some English teachers in a area districts. We've been doing this four about four years now, I think. After discussing the book, I shared that I was taking a class on teaching online classes. I talked about Prezi and Glogster, and the rest of the group was really interested. I sent them the links to play around with both programs. I was surprised at how excited I sounded talking about these new programs. It's JUNE! And I"m already thinking about all the ways I want to update, polish, and change my units for this coming fall.

Here's my Glog for the course: http://walshh.glogster.com/core-beliefs-on-effective-online-training-/