CEdO535 Week 6: course wrap up

What item do you believe you can incorporate form this class into your professional or personal life and how will you ensure that you achieve the goal of incorporating it. If you can discuss it in terms of being a SMART goal for incorporating.

S	Specific - what exactly will you do: I will incorporate Google Sites into the work I do as a Title I Director in a business setting. I will incorporate a Google Site to help close the communication gap that occurs between monthly staff meetings. The site will be a place to post announcements, maintain a calendar of events, facilitate discussions and provide resources related to HR as well as our program.
M	Measurable - how will you be able to prove it was done? I will be able to prove it was done by having the link available to my staff and monitoring their use of the site as well as collecting their feedback.
A	Attainable - Will you have the resources and time, what might you have to do to make it occur So far I have had the resources and the time, although it is sometimes difficult to maintain during our busiest times of the year. I need to be sure to set aside time each week to review resources and make sure the information is relevant (out with the old, in with the new). I have also set up notifications in my gmail in order to have real time notice when people have questions or needs regarding the site.
R	Realistic - Make sure it is doable, you certainly can add something to a lesson plan or work item, you cannot get to the moon It is most definitely doable and I'm determined to make it work. It is actually a tall task to fill, but one I think has already benefited our company and will continue to do so as it evolves.
T	Timely - Assign a timeline - when will this be done by? It is already a live site, but I don't know that it will ever be done. I see it as a tool that will continue to evolve as the needs of my company change.

CEdO535 Week 5: Web 2.0 apps, social networks in education

This week we took another look into social networking in the classroom environment and the difference between friend based and interest based social networking. As discussed in previous lessons, there is a struggle between the potential benefits and acceptable use within the classroom setting. Hopefully as educators become more aware of the benefits and the innovative ways social networks can be used in education, the more available these tools will be to students during school hours. I think the key to moving forward is keeping in communication with key stakeholders (parents, administrators, other classroom teachers) about objectives and outcomes when using online technology in a collaborative format. Knowledge regarding these areas could help demystify the use of social networking and assist in it becoming a more acceptable format for collaboration.

We were also charged with investigating web 2.0 applications/tools that we have not yet talked about in our cohort. There are a number of metasites that provide lists of the latest web tools out there including Web2go20, All Things Web 2.0, and listio to name a few. While checking out these sites I came across a web 2.0 web conferencing tool called Live Minutes. This application facilitates web conferencing with a simple click of a button that does not require users to sign up with a credit card or extensive information provided. The interface is easy to navigate and the features are excellent in terms of quality. Live Minutes also automatically records the content of a meeting and puts it into an HTML 5 document that can be saved and shared with participants or those who couldn't attend. This is an application I would highly recommend looking into for future study group meetings as an alternative to elluminate or skype.

I continue to learn new and exciting ways to integrate technology into my personal and professional worlds--this week was no exception! I look forward to learning more about the web 2.0 tools available and thinking of ways to leverage them to increase productivity and communication.

CEdO535 Week 4: Social Networking, Screen Casts

We investigated the uses and benefits of social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter, as well as revisited social bookmarking sites (Diigo.com, Delicious, etc.). While I've used Facebook for some time now, I have only recently realized the potential benefits of using it outside of pure socializing. Businesses use social networking sites to promote their goods and services, people with common interests and activities are linked together and a simple search could lead to information about something new. I am more often seeing links to articles being posted by my Facebook friends that lead me to learning about things I might not have thought about otherwise. Yes, it is still highly social and not necessarily the best fit for everyone, but it certainly does allow for users to practice communication in an online venue where people have differing opinions and somehow learn to get along. I think that even though most schools don't allow for tools like Facebook or Twitter to be used within their networks, most students do participate in these forums outside of school. My question then is how do we teach our students to behave responsibly online if we aren't able to access the tools when we are with them during the day?
Social Bookmarking is something I've used since we first visited the topic in our first class of this cohort. I've been using Diigo and have found it to be extremely valuable for me on many levels. I like that I am able to access my bookmarks on any computer with an Internet connection--this is huge when traveling or having to switch over to a new computer. Gone are the days of loosing all of my favorites that I've saved when my computer crashes! I've attempted to set up some groups within Diigo for my team at work, but it has not taken off. Just like anything new, you need to have buy-in from those you want to participate and if they aren't ready to give it a shot it probably won't succeed. I will continue to revisit and re-introduce the ideas because I believe these tools are a better alternative to communicating by email alone.
Screen casts are something I've had some experience with through trial and error. We use Mimio at our company and within the mimio studio software there is a recorder tool that allows for screen casting. I've used this tool to create several training videos for my staff, but it took me some time to figure out how to post them effectively. The files were huge and since I was working it through on my own, it took some time to learn how to post the videos. I did eventually work it out, but I am excited about some of the other online tools available. I'd like to learn more about privacy using these tools and whether or not there are ways to create private screen casts. I imagine there are those options, but those may come with a pricetag. Some of the tools we looked at include Screenr, Screen Jelly, JiingProject and ScreenToaster.
All of these tools are relevant to the work I do at my level within my company and I want to continue to learn how to use them effectively to improve communication and productivity. As far as using them within the school environment, I think they could be extremely powerful tools, but I'm not sure when they will be readily accessible.

CEdO535 Week 3: RSS feeds

This week we took a look at online photosharing, such as flikr and Snapfish; continued our Twitter accounts and thought more about blogs and wikis. But, the predominant topic of this weeks' work had to do with RSS feeds.

RSS or Really Simple Syndication is an online tool used to streamline the process of collecting articles and resources online. As I learned about RSS, I set up my own Google Reader account to begin playing around with the tool in order to get a better sense of how it works. Right off the bat I could see how powerful this application could be for anyone who needs to eliminate time spent searching for information online. URL's can be entered into Reader as a way to subscribe to specific sites' feed. Also, keywords can be entered into Reader which then generates a list of related sites from which to choose.

Aside from the obvious perks of using RSS, I learned that educators can use it to monitor blogs used by their students which I think could convince more in the field to have their students create and maintain blogs in the classroom setting. I imagine that the idea of trying to monitor blogs for an entire class, or for 6 classes of individual students, could be a daunting task. Using RSS in this environment cuts down the amount of time necessary to go into each individual blog--the updates are sent directly to the subscriber.

Finally, I learned what a fantastic application RSS is for students to use in school. Not only does it provide students with the most up to date information on any topics they may be researching, but it also helps students develop the skills of being able to select the most relevant and credible information out of all that is sent through the RSS feed.

I can see using RSS both personallly and professionally. I think it is something the leadership of my company can use to stay on top of trends in education and educational technology. I also believe it is something we could introduce to our students; particularly at the middle and high school levels. The more we can expose our students to in terms of tools to help with productivity, the greater the edge they will have in their regular classrooms and beyond.