Donna’sSummercoreBlog

My assignment yesterday was to read any chapter from the book. (I couldn’t find the Any chapter.)

Due to an unforseen and potentionally disasterous family situation which I discovered when I got home, an hour or two trying to find the documents and going online to attempt to resolve the issue, and then attending my Wednesday night dance lesson and practice (more for the mental therapy than anything else), I was not able to read any chapter until midnight. By that time, I chose Ideas from Three Schools hoping to get technology ideas for my classroom. It really wasn’t what I thought it would be. It was mostly something our tech coordinator and administrators would find useful. In fact our T.C. has developed an acceptable  use policy using our school’s mascot letters similar to the one on page153.  There were some very good tips interspered thoughout, however, it was not what I expected. I didn’t have time to read anything else and am at present writing this blog at 8:30 AM. Time to go to Summercore!

Searching through the Tom Lehrer songs on YouTube, I came across one I would like to share with my students. Silent E.

Silent E

This was a rather dry chapter albeit an important one. It starts off with examples of excuses people give or use for illegally copying software, then lists copyright rules which would be a good resourch to have on hand. More importantly, it next gives examples of schools and teachers who have set ethical standards successfully in their environment. I thought a very good point was the Consideration #3 which states that this issue is not going to go away and the future will only provide more and more things to copy. . . . not something we can stick our heads in the sand about. The page on plagiarism websites was very amazing to think how blatent some of them are. The strategies for teachers to help keep tabs on papers students need to write was helpful. Actually, it’s what we as elementary teachers have always done i.e. keep topics specific periodic checking of progress, posting students’ work. The question and answer format at the end of the chapter was user-friendly, but again would be something to keep on hand as a reference. Finally, the last page on MP3 files and P2P sites was confusing probably because I’m not as familiar with those.

Blogs, RSS and Wikis are words that I was totally unfamiliar with a year ago. According to chapter 14, blogs are like an online diary or journal. It is your “Speaker’s Corner” to the world. The comments written are made in chronological order and can include embedded photos, videos and links. I can understand more about a blog now that I have one, but I have still not found one on the internet that I would like to read regularly. I can and will use a blog with my students this year to chronicle their writing.

RSS feeds are a little more difficult for me to understand since I don’t use them. Apparently they are a way of accessing several blogs involving news or updated material from other websites. It is like getting a newspaper or favorite magazine “hot off the press” I suppose. (Is it like a written version of a podcast that you receive as soon as it is published?) An aggregator organizes and collects many RSS feeds for you. It will probably be more useful when I find a blog that I would like to read on a regular basis.

Wikis are more familiar to me since my school used one last year in our search for a new reading series. It is an interactive website used for collaboration or group research. Many people can be invited to join and be connected to the others to view and comment or change what has been written. I can see the use of a Wiki in the classroom setting easily in order to make sure all students have a voice and/or participate in a discussion.

I’m learning a lot in this course. I’m hoping to be able to use these ideas in the classroom and more at home. Now, if I can only get my at home wireless internet to work properly, I wouldn’t be getting up an hour early to write this before class.

This is a link to the Summercore delicious link.

Me & Stef

http://youtube.com/watch?v=0Q8DriPCX2o

I think computers should come with a personal trainer.

OK, now we will insert videos and graphics into our blogs.