u07a1 - Witthoff About.me

I chose to use About.me as my digital tool to attempt to capture my digital identity.  After watching videos and reading articles about our digital footprint, I found it very difficult to capture my entire digital identity in one place.  My digital identity is interwoven into our personal and professional lives which makes it challenging to capture it all.  

I used About.me to share some of who I am in the digital world.  I included some biographical information, work related links and projects I've completed through the Wilkes Instructional Media program.  

While I learned a lot through the videos and readings this week, I think this process of documenting a portion of our digital identity was the activity that made me really stop and think how much my life is tied into technology.  That isn't necessarily a bad thing, I'm just much more aware of this than I ever was before.  

http://about.me/cwitthoff/#

u06a2 - Science Webinars in Collier County, Florida

Creating and broadcasting webinars is something my office recognized as a powerful tool a couple of years ago.  I have run numerous webinars over the last two years for educators in our county and I would like to share my experiences with this technology through this blog post.  

List of a few webinars conducted by the CCPS science office

Broadcasting a webinar is a powerful way to reach out to any group that you work with or normally might meet with in person.  I have conducted webinars for large numbers of teachers, but I have also conducted webinars for just one teacher.  For either size group there are things to consider to make this use of time efficient and worthwhile to the teachers we are supporting.  

This first thing to consider is the type of webinar software to use.  In my case, it was selected for me by our technology department.  They provide us with access and a "room" through Adobe Connect.  I have found this software to be very easy to use from both a presenter and participant perspective.  This software allows me to present material using my voice and computer screen to my audience.  I have come to use this software in two major ways:

1) One on One Training: Working in such a large county (90 min. drive from North to South) and supporting all K-12 science for 43,000 students and 50 schools can be challenging to try and reach everyone and support their needs. I have started using Adobe Connect webinars to help us be more efficient with our support and respond to teacher needs in a more timely fashion. Teachers who need support that requires a quick turn around OR doesn't allow us to drive to them when they need it are both examples of where Adobe Connect is a powerful tool.  I can send the teacher the link to our Adobe Connect "room" and they click a link and either hook up a headset or call our office by phone and we are instantly connected by voice and computer screen.  We can now answer their questions, model what they need to see, etc.  The visual piece is much more powerful than an email or explanation over the phone.  

2) Science Dept. Chair Meetings: Our middle and high school department chairs meet every month. As I mentioned, with such a large land area in our county, some of these dept. chairs would drive an hour or more for a 90 minute meeting.  Two years ago, we decided to test out Adobe Connect and see if we could host one meeting per semester via webinar. The dept. chairs loved it! We still meet every month, but we alternate between meeting in person and meeting via webinar.  This is a huge time saver for all of those involved. During the webinars, the dept. chairs see the minutes of the meeting that are being taken so they can respond in real time if they have a question or if something wasn't captured accurately in the minutes.  We also record the webinars so if any members cannot make the meeting they can listen in. They also use the recorded version of the meeting to share parts of it with their department so if I explain something, they can just play my explanation and not have to do it themselves.  The screen shot above is what our software looks like and you can use the link here to watch one of our meetings.  

There are a number of things to keep in mind for successful implementation of this technology.  

• Training your users: This is critical as you can imagine.  My first few webinars, I spent time getting them familiar with the features of the software.  Basically I was doing a webinar about webinars.  They could see the software on my screen.  We would review these features each meeting until they felt comfortable using Adobe Connect.
• Practice: This cannot be overstated.  Running a meeting or training on a webinar is very different from in person.  It takes some getting used to, so practice is essential.  
• Two Screens: From the presenters perspective, I think this is a must. It's much easier to see the webinar presenter screen on one side and your content being delivered on the other.  
• How to handle questions and audio: This is something to consider and think through prior to the webinar.  I've been on webinars where audio is not controlled well and there is tons of background noise, voices, etc.  To avoid these issues, I created a "opening screen" that they saw when they logged into the webinar.  It reminded them of muting their phone line, turning off computer speakers to stop "feedback noises", etc.  My folks are now accustomed to these methods of being "polite" during the webinar.  I use a "hand raise" feature so they know I will call on them before they un-mute and ask their question or make their comment.  

All in all, I have found this to be an invaluable tool for supporting science instruction in our school district.  It's made both my life and our teachers lives more efficient and more connected.  

u06a1 - Attending a live webinar

Educational webinars are a resource I've been relying on for a few years now, so when I saw this unit I was excited for the assignments and to share my experiences.  Over the last few years, I have attended webinars from the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA), Discovery Education and webinars offered directly through my own school district.

While I personally prefer meeting and presenting in person, we know that time in the educational profession is valuable so webinars offer a number of advantages over face to face meetings/presentations.  The greatest advantage I have experienced is the ability to join the meeting from anywhere.  The county I live in (Collier County, FL) is the largest land area county east of the Mississippi.  It can take almost an 1.5 hours to drive from the southern end to the northern end of our county.  This ability to join the meeting from anywhere is very powerful.  We now can stay in our classroom, office or drive home and join the meeting.  Most webinar software has back channel features so that those involved in the meeting can send messages to the presenter, answer a question and generally stay involved in the presentation without needing to talk.  Webinars also allow many people to join the meeting and does not confine participation the way a meeting room does.  A final advantage that comes to mind is the ability to record the meeting.  Many of these webinar tools offer a recording option so that the meeting or presentation can be viewed by those who could not attend the meeting time.  

While few, there are some disadvantages to webinars as well.  Depending on the technology that the participant is using, the view of the screen can be small making it more challenging to see than on a projector screen. Presenters definitely need to be experienced at conducting webinars as these can be very different than a face to face presentation.  Attending a webinar with an inexperienced "virtual" presenter can be a downside to webinars as well.  

Webinars could easily be incorporated into the classroom.  This would be a very easy way to connect classrooms from across a county, state, country or world.  Our district provides access to the Adobe Connect webinar software.  I can connect up with any other school in the county or theoretically any school in the world who has an internet connection.  On this level and with some training, I could see both teachers and students being the "broadcasters". Our district has discussed the power of webinar / webcam technology being utilized on days when teachers are absent.  Consider two Biology teachers who are co-planning together and staying on pace with each others classrooms and then suddenly one of them is out sick for an important lesson. With webinar technology, the healthy teacher could deliver the lesson to both classrooms while the substitute teacher facilitates the learning in the sick teacher's classroom. Students would not lose that day of instruction and when the teacher returns, they could pick up the content and move ahead.  This is the type of efficiency that webinar software can bring to our schools.

Webinars offer numerous advantages at all levels of a school district and allow us to be efficient with our time, human capitol and financial resources. I will continue to attend webinars from within my own county and beyond in the future.  

u05a2 - Using Social Networks with the CCPS Science Teachers

My role with our school district is as K-12 science curriculum coordinator, so rather than creating a classroom science lesson that incorporates the use of social media, I thought I would share how my office is currently using social media with our science teachers in Naples, Florida.

The Collier County Public Schools is quite progressive when it comes to technology.  For over 5 years now, all K-12 classrooms have been equipped with video projection, interactive whiteboards, document cameras and speaker systems.  Our district is also moving to a Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) program at the start of the 2013-14 school year.  The use of social media in our school district has been discussed for some time and we recently (about a year and a half ago) adopted a social media policy in our school district.  

This new policy allowed my office to begin taking advantage of social media with our teachers and model for them how social media might play a role in their classroom.  My office consists of myself and two TSA's (Teachers on Special Assignment) and we work with a variety of teacher groups around our county. We have communicated with these groups in various ways over the years. This communication has taken the form of group emails, meeting minutes, and most recently a Learning Management System (LMS).  We are now utilizing a social media tool called Edmodo.  This tool has allowed us to create "groups" for a variety of teachers groups that we work with.  

We have invited teachers to join these Edmodo groups so they can stay up to speed with what is happening within the various user groups they want or need to join.  This "group feature" within Edmodo, also allows us to customize messages to certain groups or send one message that may pertain to multiple groups and know what each user group is receiving a consistent message from our office.

Edmodo screen of different groups

Currently, we have generated the obvious Edmodo groups such as our K-5 science program, middle school science teachers and high school science teachers.

The power of this social media platform allows us to create more specific groups as well, such as, science teachers who use digital probeware, science teachers who are flipping their classroom and those teachers who are beginning to incorporate the use of iPads into their classroom.  

Example of Edmodo Group Code 

One of the advantages to a platform like Edmodo is the similarities to other familiar social media sites like Facebook.  When we create a group for teachers to join, they have a simple "join code" that we provide to them so they can become part of the group.  These codes can be locked or reset by the group admin making it easy to manage who is able or allowed to join your group.  I will be resetting my group codes this year for the 2013-14 teachers that are invited to the groups.

Additionally we are able to manage our group members by using the built in page in Edmodo (see screen capture to the left) to keep an eye on who is currently in the group.  As teachers change roles, we keep these memberships up to date.

The most powerful feature of Edmodo is our ability to send messages directly to only those that need it.  These messages can shared to multiple groups to keep our communication efficient or members can reply to posts and dialogue with each other on a post to share ideas.  This is particularly helpful for groups of teachers who may be "isolated" at their school (i.e. science academic coach).  See the screen captures below for examples of posts and replies and posts sent to multiple groups.

Example of Edmodo post shared with multiple groups.

Edmodo Group Post + replies

This year, in addition to incorporating this example of social media, we will also be modeling another method for teachers to create "back channels" within the classroom.  This is another way for them to allow students to answer questions, provide feedback, etc. without needing to raise their hand and offer their answer for the entire class to hear.  These "back channels" allow all students to reply and even allows the teacher to expect that all students would reply.  Here is an example of a back channel I have created using Padlet for the 2013-14 Middle School Science Department Chairs.

Social media has embedded itself into many of our personal lives.  We think it is important to model for the teachers we support how to incorporate social media into their classroom and support them in using these valuable communication tools with their students.  

u05a1 - Witthoff Photo Challenge Wrap Up

The social immersion challenge I selected for this week was the "Photo-a-day" challenge.  I had only heard briefly about these 365 day photo challenges, so I checked a few of them out before starting my much reduced version that would last for a week.  

I decided that I would use my iPhone as my camera for this project.  These smartphones take great pictures and because it is with me pretty much all day, everyday, I thought I would be able to capture a number of things that were happening in my life each day.

As I started taking pictures, I began asking myself which picture would most help me remember the details of this day in my life.  The pictures in this photo challenge represent one of the key things (either personally or professionally) that was a main event in my life on that day.  

I decided to use my dropbox.com account in addition to my iPhone to complete this challenge.  Each night I would plug in my iPhone and transfer the pictures to my dropbox.com account.  Then when I wrote my blog post, I would move the pictures from dropbox.com to my Blogger account.  

I had a great time with this challenge and found this to a be a fun way to document a time period of my life.  

Here is a link to my Blogger posts for my 7 day photo challenge.

u05a1 - Photo Challenge (Day 7)

Douglas Lake, Michigan....one of my favorite places in the world.

u05a1 - Photo Challenge (Day 6)

Fishing on Douglas Lake

u05a1 - Photo Challenge (Day 5)

Hiking in Northern Michigan

u05a1 - Photo Challenge (Day 4)

Douglas Lake....here we come!

u05a1 - Photo Challenge (Day 3)

Northern Michigan, here I come....

u05a1 - Photo Challenge (Day 2)

Summer Academic Coach Academy - Day 1

u05a1 - Photo Challenge (Day 1)

3 screen Monday....it's going to be a long week.  

u04a2 - Digital Story Created with a Cell Phone (Witthoff)

Below is the link to my video of "I knew I was an educator when...."

http://youtu.be/B2Fr6bH9IX4

u04a1 - Cell Phones in the Classroom - A Language Arts Teacher's Perspective

When it comes to cell phones in the classroom there is a wide spectrum of opinions on the role these mobile technologies should play in a classroom. These opinions vary from ban cell phones at schools to use them every day. Issues, such as, the age of the children using cell phones play a major role in the side of the argument educators take.  

I reached out to a colleague of mine who I used to teach with and she currently uses cell phone technology in her classroom.  Jen Price is a 6th grade English/Language Arts teacher at Oakridge Middle School here in Naples, Florida. I spent some time talking with Jen about her thoughts on cell phone technology in her school and in her classroom.  

Jen began using cell phones with her students in 2012-13 as a way to offer a new twist on doing book projects. Students and faculty at Oakridge MS were under a school policy that allowed students to have cell phones on campus and in their pockets, but the devices had to be turned off and unused except before and after school.  Jen approached her school leadership and asked for and received permission to utilize cell phones for their book projects, which included student presentations.  These book projects focused on creative ways of describing the characters of various books that were being read.  Some of these project ideas included:

• Creating an Instagram account for a character they were reading about and "liking" topics that they thought the character in the book would have chosen if they had one of these accounts.
• Another group used a voice recorder on a cell phone to create a message for an answer machine or cell phone voice mail box.  These messages were recorded using the personality the students believed the character would have expressed in this message.  
• A music video was created using an app on a smartphone to address a topic in a book.
• Students also used their cell phones to write text messages back and forth as is  they were two characters from a book and then printed these "screen shots" to present to the class. 

Jen discovered a few things during this process.  She learned that when students were given technology options, they most often opted for their cell phone.  The projects that allowed for cell phone use produced the most excitement and engagement among her students.  She also observed a new found excitement for presenting material to their classmates.  

We also discussed the feelings of the parents of her students when it came to cell phones in class.  As expected some parents didn't see the need for students to have cell phones in class, while other wanted their student to have their phone with them at school.  Most parents, according to Jen, were "surprised" when they found out about the methods used for learning with their cell phones.  

We wrapped up our discussion with what her plans are for cell phones in her classroom in 2013-14.  Jen plans on using cell phones more often in this school year and in a variety of ways that won't just include book projects.  

Like anything new to education, there is a period where we see some teachers taking the lead on using a new resource, teaching method or in this case technology.  In the end, it is the excitement for learning that we generate with our students that should guide the decisions we make about using these mobile technologies in the classroom.   

Citation:

Price, J. (2013, July 17). Using cell phones in a 6th grade classroom. (C. Witthoff, Interviewer)

u03a2 - Discovering Something New in Web 2.0

After spending some time with a resource like http://www.go2web20.com it is obvious that we are in the middle of an explosion of web 2.0 tools. Developers are creating a multitude of tools for just about every walk of life, both personal and professional.  

I came across three web 2.0 tools that have uses inside the education profession, but could just as easily be applied to other professional or personal applications as well.  

Screencast-o-matic

As media has changed over the years, technology has provided ways for us to record our media in different ways.  We had dual cassette players allowing us to record music and other voice recordings and then the VCR came along to help us record our televisions. Now, more and more of us are finding a need to record our computer screens.  With that need and interest, we've seen a number of web resources come out to help us record our computer screens.  I've used at least two other screen recording web tools, but I have now found my new favorite. Screencast-o-matic is a very user friendly intuitive recording tool.  The free account, like other screen recording tools, allows for unlimited recordings at a lower video quality.  One of the features I like about Screencast-o-matic is it allows for video's up to 15 minutes instead of 5 minutes like others I've used. As I tested this resource I also found a nice feature where the program creates a "halo" around where you click, giving your viewers a way to focus on a part of the screen you're showing off.  

While this technology has application in both personal and professional realms, I feel this could be an invaluable tool to teachers.  Teachers could use this resource to record directions or notes to be posted in their Learning Management System (LMS).  They could also record lessons using a variety of computer tools matched with their voice to deliver a consistent lesson to their students.  This would be especially helpful to teachers who teach the same class multiple times per day.  There wouldn't be the need to repeat themselves over and over.  Once this video is created teachers then have the option of generating a link from within the screencast-o-matic site or posting it to YouTube or embedding into their own website.  

As video becomes more embedded into the classroom, teachers will be selecting a screen recording resource that best suits their needs and as of now, I think screencast-o-matic does the best job.

Breezi

In our careers today we all have some presence on the internet, but not all of us have the ability to use complex software to create professional looking webpages.  Teachers are definitely a part of this group and often times we find the need to create webpages for our personal lives or moonlighting opportunities.  Breezi is a web 2.0 tool that creates very professional looking websites by simply making some design selections and this online tool does the rest.  The site boasts the ability to create over 60 billion different combinations of webpage designs.  Once you make some basic choices, Breezi provides three webpages to look at.  Click on the design elements that you like and pass over the ones you don't and the site will narrow the search so that you get a website just right for you.

This type of web 2.0 tool brings the option of having a professional looking webpage to all of us even if we don't have skills with software like Dreamweaver.  This type of resource would be good to introduce to some students.  As students reach the age where they are ready for more advanced computer work, the creation of these types of websites may be the first step in learning about how websites are designed and created.  

JPEG Mini

Today's digital cameras are becoming better with each new device.  Even our smartphones have incredibly powerful cameras built right into them.  While this provides us all with stunning photography from devices that fit in our pocket, there is a downside....file size. Along with beautiful pictures comes images that are very large files.  This fills up our hard drives, thumb drives, Dropbox accounts and makes our websites open more slowly.  The web 2.0 tool JPEG Mini is a free resource and takes our original files and claims to make them 2x to 5x smaller.....without losing image quality! The picture I used to the right was reduced in size by more than 1/2 and yet the picture still looked great.  As far as I can tell, the companies claim to reduce file size and maintain the quality of your image is accurate.

The process is as simple as uploading an image and then saving it as a new file on your computer or in your Flickr or Picasa account.  This tool has a lot of application across the personal and professional landscape, but teachers especially could benefit from this tool.  Most school districts have limited space on the district network they provide to teachers so reducing file size is not only a time saver, but also a money saver as well.  Teachers with a website can also see improved performance of their website by faster load times of high quality images.  Students could equally benefit from a tool like this now that they are using social media sites such as Instagram, Facebook and Twitter to share photo's.  This site is very clean and easy to use and would benefit anyone who uses digital photography and has concerns with file size.  

Don't forget to share
Periodically checking out web 2.0 sites like go2web20.com is a great way to pick up some new tools that could really benefit all of us in our personal and professional lives.  Check out the site and start sharing with your friends, family and co-workers the next web 2.0 tool you discover.

u03a1 - Using Bit.ly, QR codes generators & Bookmarklets

I am testing three technology resources that have a number of applications to teachers in both their personal and professional lives.  These tools include URL shortening resources, QR code generators and bookmarklets.  

Bit.ly
The website www.bit.ly allows you to take lengthy website addresses and shorten them into something that you could share with someone in conversation. We've all seen how long websites can be and trying to share something like that verbally would be near impossible.  A URL shortening resource like bit.ly allows us to take those long web addresses and generate something much shorter.  With these shorter links, we can communicate these verbally, in print or in an electronic document much easier.  

I have taken my Wilkes blog and used bit.ly to shorten up the website.  It's much easier to type or write out and if I'm sharing my blog with someone verbally, it's much easier to say "bit.ly/curtsIMblog" than the much longer web address associated with my blog.  

During this process I also utilized a bookmarlet (see more about these below) that Bit.ly offers called Bitmark.  The image to right shows the pop up screen you get when creating a shortened URL using Bitmark, so there wasn't even a need to go into the bit.ly website to create this.

These URL shortening resources can be used in the classroom very easily, especially with commonly used sites.  It is also a much easier way to share important areas on the web with parents, etc.  Many of these same advantages in our educational lives could be applied to our personal lives as well.  It would be much easier to share verbally the link to my family's blog through a bit.ly than to say the entire blog address.  

Here is my Bit.ly link to my Wilkes Instructional Media blog:
http://bit.ly/curtsIMblog 

QR Code Generators
QR codes are easy to generate and have a lot of application in the classroom.  While these are an exciting technology resource, there are some drawbacks to them as well. 

Teachers can now link any online content to a QR code in a just a few easy steps.  I used a free resource called Delivr.com and I generated the QR code to the left in just a matter of a couple minutes from the time I registered to the time I had the code saved to my computer.  The code I generated will take you my Wilkes Instructional Media Blog.  One of the downsides to QR codes is that the teacher or student must have a smart phone or tablet with a QR code reader app ready to go.  While exciting to teachers, this technology needs to be in the classroom to take advantage of QR codes.  

For those classrooms that have the technology or are implementing a Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) program, there are a number of ways to engage students with QR codes.  
QR codes could be embedded into a set of directions so students do not need to type in web addresses.  This could be especially helpful with younger students who don't have high level of typing skills.  QR codes can also be posted around a classroom, school, museum, etc. as a digital scavenger hunt.  Teachers can also use QR codes to set up a "lab practical" type of assessment where students rotate from QR code station to QR code station to answer a question about the content embedded with in the QR code.  These might also be a great "back to school" tool or on "meet the teacher night" where parents can walk up and scan a QR code with a video made by the teacher embedded within.

Bookmarklets
Bookmarklets might be one of the most unknown tools within the educational community. These tools are amazingly easy to use, require no skills except the ability to drag / drop to add them to your favorite internet browser and offer some really cool resources that teachers could use throughout the year.  I reviewed two bookmarklets that I thought I would use quite often.  The first is called QuietTube.  One of the concerns that teachers have when it comes to YouTube is the comments section and additional suggested video's all of which appear "around" the video.  QuietTube will remove all of this extra content that students don't need to see and teachers don't want them to see.  It's as easy as opening a YouTube video and clicking on the QuietTube bookmarklet.  The other is Printliminator.  We've all been to a website that has some great content, but it also has tons of graphics, pictures, ads, etc. so when we go to print, it ends up using a lot more ink than we need or it prints more pages than we need.  Printliminator allows you to click on different sections of the page to "delete" them from what will be printed.  This gives you a much cleaner view and a nicer print out than you might have had otherwise.  I think teachers would use both of these resources in their personal and professional lives and bookmarklets make them so easy to access and use even those digital immigrants will be willing to use them.  

These are three more categories of digital tools that teachers can learn and implement into their classrooms in a very short amount of time.  Like with all technologies, it's important to start with what you can handle, master that and then continue to add to your digital teaching toolbox.  

u02a2 - Edmodo, Prezi and Symbaloo - Their role in today's classrooms

There are a number of web 2.0 tools that are gaining much popularity in the education landscape.  Web 2.0 tools are often free and allow teachers to interact with students in ways that go beyond the classroom.  These web 2.0 tools allow teachers to take advantage of social networking technologies, new methods of being creative and keeping all these technologies organized.  

I will be exploring three tools that are becoming more embedded in classrooms at all levels.  Edmodo, Prezi and Symbaloo are offering new, innovative and free ways to work with students.  

Edmodo

http://www.edmodo.com

This social networking site for educators is quickly becoming known as the "Facebook for educators".  Edmodo has over 20,000,000 users connecting teachers and students all over the world (About Edmodo).  This site is popular with teachers, schools and school districts due to the way that teachers and students connect in a social network type of environment.  Unlike other social networking sites, Edmodo does not allow for student to student communication, the site only allows for users to communicate within the class.  Teachers can very easily create a "group" in Edmodo.  These groups are what teachers would invite students to "join".  The teacher provides a "group code" so that only students within that class are invited to join.  This allows teachers to create different "groups" for different classes (i.e. 1st period, 2nd period, etc.).  Once a student joins this group, they can only communicate with the entire class.  This provides a safer environment for students and provides piece of mind for teachers, parents and administrators when it comes to using social networking in a classroom setting.  Teachers also have the ability to moderate all posts adding another level of filtering and safety for students.  Teachers can share links to websites and files, as well as, offering an environment to dialogue with their classes in a virtual space.  While Edmodo isn't as robust as some Learning Management Systems (LMS) it does offer an easy way for teachers to create a social networking environment for their students, which is very popular with today's student.  

Prezi

http://www.prezi.com

When it comes to creativity in the classroom, many teachers now have the opportunity to move away from presentation tools like Powerpoint and Keynote and begin using online presentation tools like Prezi.  Like many other web 2.0 tools, Prezi offers a free version to educators, but this resource offers other attractive features to teachers in the classroom.  Prezi is a "non linear" presentation tool, so unlike slides that go from one to another, teachers and students can utilize a "blank canvas" environment to present their ideas.  In talking with teachers, most students are burned out on powerpoints and Prezi offers a new look at content that is exciting to students and adults alike.  When I use Prezi, often times I'm asked as much about the presentation tool as I am the content of my presentation.  Prezi offers another feature that is attractive to the classroom, the ability to collaborate on a presentation.  This feature provides students the opportunity to work on a project in real time from different workstations, even if that is from outside the classroom.  Access to presentations from any computer / tablet with an internet connection is another advantage that teachers appreciate.  There is no more need to carry around thumb drives or remember where the most current version of the presentation is located.  

Symbaloo

http://www.symbaloo.com

One of the biggest challenges to educators working in the world of web 2.0 resources is managing all of the resources.  Teachers have always had to come up with ways to organize content, find new content, remember when to use new resources the following school year, etc.  The new methods of educational curating are highly social and provide a more robust quality and quantity of resources (Swanson).  Symbaloo is one web 2.0 tool that will provide organization to a world of resources that can be overwhelming.  This resource provides a teacher with the ability to link all of their websites that are most commonly used into a "webmix" by creating individual "tiles" on the screen.  These tiles can be moved and categorized by area on the screen, colored background, etc.  Teachers could create a series of webmixes based on different classes they teach, subjects, topics or projects.  Schools or school districts could also create a Symbaloo webmix to provide quick links to all the systems that educators use in their professional lives.  Symbaloo also provides a social aspect to this tool.  Users can share their webmixes with the world.  This way, teachers who want to collaborate with other teachers can share their webmixes on various topics.  Teachers can also search for other webmixes created by educators and then save them for use with their own colleagues or students.  

These three web 2.0 tools are only a very small number of all the great tools that are out there.  While it may be overwhelming to consider all of these great resources, the key is to try using at least one of them.  Once you try one resource, it will generate discussion with other educators and lead to other ways to use the resource or possibly a better web 2.0 tool for doing the same job.  In the end, these tools can make our lives more efficient as educators and it helps to engage our students who are native to this digital world.  

Citations:
About Edmodo. (n.d.). Retrieved July 7, 2013, from Edmodo: http://www.edmodo.com/about/

Swanson, K. (n.d.). Curation for Professional Learning. Retrieved July 2, 2013, from http://www.scribd.com: http://www.scribd.com/doc/98582279/Kirsten-Swanson-Curation-For-Professional-Learning

u02a1 - Using New Technologies - Interviews from Collier County Public School classrooms

Utilizing new technologies in the classroom is widely varied across classrooms that I visit and observe.  In many ways our classroom use of technology is not all that different from the society at large.  There are wide ranges of teacher interest, skill and resources when it comes to using the latest in web 2.0 technologies in the classroom.  

I decided to approach a couple of teachers to ask how they use new technologies and web 2.0 tools in their classrooms.  David and Sheila are both elementary teachers.  Sheila teaches at a school that has a very low free and reduced lunch population while David's school is a Title 1 school.  The perspective on using technologies at schools of varied socio-economic situations is helpful to see that teachers at both end of this spectrum deal with the same questions and challenges when incorporating new technologies into their classroom.  

Selecting a web 2.0 tool
David and Sheila both agreed that when it comes to selecting web 2.0 tools, it typically happens through recommendations of colleagues or in the case of these tech-savvy teacher, they on occasion go out searching for new resources that try to accomplish something specific in the classroom.  David also felt cost was a very important factor when it came to identifying new web 2.0 tools.  Communication with parents was one of the more important reasons for searching out web 2.0 tools as well.  David also brought up the point that these tools are only helpful if they make a classroom teachers life "simpler, better or easier".  If they don't accomplish one of these three things, teachers likely won't be interested.

Obstacles and obtaining permission
When it came to getting over obstacles when using web 2.0 tools, David and Sheila had a few different things for teachers to be aware of.  David's number one obstacle was cost.  It's difficult to approach administrators with a cost for something if the technology is unproven.  Technological obstacles due to district hardware, software or network capabilities were another major obstacle to consider.  A web 2.0 may look and work great at home or a conference, but it's only a helpful tool if it works on the school computers and network.  Sheila commented that it's always easier to use web 2.0 tools that are district approved.  This way the correct parental permissions and releases are taken care of.  Web 2.0 tools that require student accounts can be tricky.  Teachers are often times making "dummy" accounts for students to use or encourage parents to create accounts with their children.  

Advice to teachers
David and Sheila both offered some great advice when it comes to incorporating new technologies into the classroom.  

• Find other teachers who are using this resource and take the time to observe or mimic how they are using it. 
• Don't be afraid to jump into a new technology, especially one that you feel will make your job easier, more efficient or more engaging for your students.
• Find resources that offer a mix of high student engagement and is not taking up more time on the part of the teacher than they were spending before.
• Incorporate technologies that allow you to do multiple things.  You may find you can minimize the amount of technology in your classroom if one resource allows you to do multiple things!
• Start using the new technology early on in the school year so it can become part of your classroom routine.
• Build in time to model and "train" the students to use these technological tools.  The more time you put in on the front end, the more it will pay off down the road.

This is great insight from two "techie" teachers who teach in very different types of schools within our community.  Hopefully this will provide some things to consider as you think about the next web 2.0 tool or other technology that you choose to incorporate into your classroom.

Visit some of David and Sheila's technology resources below:

David's Edmodo Class Page: bxad87

David's Knowmia Page

Sheila's Edmodo Class Page: eg7nll

Sheila's School Tube Channel

u01a2 - Witthoff - Appropriate Use / Internet Safety Policy in the Collier County Public Schools

The Collier County Public Schools (CCPS) has very recently updated their "responsible use" policy when it comes to use of technology and the internet within our classrooms.  This update has come about as part of our Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) program that is being implemented in the fall of the 2013-14 school year.  This responsible use policy lays out the guidelines for the BYOD program in our schools, but it also addresses student network and internet acceptable use and safety policies.  

The CCPS responsible use policy document clearly lays out what the Children's Internet Protection Act (CIPA) requires schools districts to do.  CIPA applies to any school district who receives discounts on internet services through E-rate funding.  On page 4 of the CCPS responsible use policy, the district lays out how CCPS utilizes software and hardware methods to protect students from displays or images that are inappropriate as outlined in CIPA.  

CCPS expects that teachers will take the lead in protecting students from inappropriate content when utilizing online resources.  The policy lays out that staff will provide guidance and instruction to students in the appropriate use of the internet and they are also expected to monitor student technology activities while in their classroom.  

There is also a system set up for CCPS teachers to request bypass internet filters.  In some cases it's as minor as another log in screen to bypass some filters, while other sites will require additional permissions.  

CCPS is a very progressive district when it comes to technology use in the classroom.  Our district highly encourages the use of technology within our classrooms.  The "background" section of our responsible use policy document lays out a four paragraph summary of the importance of teaching and learning in the 21st century which is heavily dependent on acquiring a number of technological skills.  

u01a1 - Choosing a Creative Commons License

I have created a Creative Commons (CC) license for my Wilkes University Instructional Media blog.  I have placed the CC badge under my blog archive.  The CC license generator was very easy to use and a license and badge can be created after answering only a few short questions.

For this blog I selected the Attribution-Non Commercial-Share Alike license.  I decided to allow for modifications of my work as long as others applied similar CC licenses to this modified work.  I don't anticipate many folks wanting to use the work from my blog, but since I am not using this blog for commercial use, I didn't see any reason not to allow my work here to be altered.  At the same time, if anyone would like to use my work, I would like to see them apply the same license that I selected.  

I also chose for my work to not be used in a commercial way.  If I am providing these thoughts and ideas without any commercial profit, I would not like others using my work in this way either.  

I have been very impressed with how easy it has been to use the CC website and license generator.  I believe making this resource so easy to use will help it's overall cause.   

EDIM 514 Introduction

Hello EDIM 514,

My name is Curt Witthoff and this is my 6th class towards my Instructional Media degree.  I live in Marco Island, FL (near Naples, FL) with my wife and two children.  I just finished my 16th year with the Collier County Public Schools and my 6th year as the K-12 Science & Environmental Education Curriculum Cooridinator.  Our district serves approx. 43,000 students and about 50 schools.  One of my most exciting projects of the last couple years has been implementing Discovery Education Techbook into our K-8 + HS Biology science classrooms.  I'm a "tech-ie" and have really enjoyed being part of a technological progressive district.  

My current favorite ice cream (it tends to change....) is Mint Moose Tracks!  I've only seen it at our grocery stores here in FL.  Does anyone else have it in their state?

Easily the movie I've seen the most is A Few Good Men.  It's on TV a lot where I live and it's one of those movies I can't not watch when it's on.  Any James Bond movie ranks right up there as well.  

I'm looking forward to another great class, if anyone is new to the program, I can honestly say the first 5 with Wilkes have been outstanding.