Adressing Ed Tech Standards

NETS, or National Education Technology Standards, are a critical part of a teacher's curriculum.  Technology is here to stay, and has become an integral part of the world we live in.  Almost every job requires some use of technology, and students need to be brought and kept up to speed in the increasingly digitalized world. The goal of these standards is to ensure that students leave school with these skills in place so they may use technology to their greatest advantage in life, and to use it responsibly.

How to address these standards?  Some of my thoughts...

• Facilitate and Inspire Student Learning and Creativity.  This is probably the easiest standard to impart, since technology can be used creatively for learning with very little effort.  It can include anything from the use of blogging, research on the Internet, creating drawings through computer software, reaching out to students in other states or countries via email or social networking (Facebook, Skype, Twitter, Yodio, etc), and sharing projects with the parents and community.
• Design and Develop Digital-Age Learning Experiences and Assessments. This goes hand in hand with the first standard, as teachers integrate technology into their lesson plans.  As a prospective elementary or middle school teacher, I could have students put together slides for a power point presentation, create videos that are shared through a class website for parents to view, guide student research using online resources for projects, and have web-pals with another classroom in a different culture or environment.
• Model Digital-Age Work and Learning.  It is important for me as the teacher to be fluent in the technological language I am to instruct my students in.  How to do this?  I am a self-motivated learner, so my plan is to seek out new tools to use in the classroom, either by personal research, developmental workshops, and collaboration with fellow teachers to find new and exciting ways to use technology.
• Promote and Model Digital Citizenship and Responsibility.  Just as it is important to understand how to use the tools of technology, it is vital to do so safely and responsibly.  Teaching students how to behave while online goes hand in hand with teaching them how to behave on the playground.  Also important is addressing how to properly use and site online resources in projects and reports.  I plan on using group discussion to address these issues, and link online behavior with "real world" behavior so the students understand the importance of their actions.
• Engage in Professional Growth and Leadership.  This standard requires similar actions as to the second, where I as the instructor need to model not only how these tools function and the proper way to use them, but also that it is a fluid, ever changing world that we should continue to learn in.  My overall goal is to create life long learners, and I plan to model that with my own continued growth.

Analyzing Student Data in a Spreadsheet

The Process
After reading in full the directions to the assignment, I took the following steps:

1. I copied and pasted the Raw Student Data into a Google Spreadsheet. (see first tab) I like charts to have some color differentiation, so I added that before moving on.  I think it helps the eyes follow the data delineation better.
2. Since I like this kind of thing, I took the averages for all of the tests, which ended up being 173.6.
3. As the assignment only wants the trend for tests 6 - 10, I opened another worksheet (second tab, "Test 6-10 All") and copied only the names and scores for tests 6 - 10.  
4. Using the formulas function, I calculated (or rather let the formula calculate) the average for these specific tests, which ended up being: 191.2
5. The assignment asks for the trends for the bottom half of the class, so I opened yet another worksheet (third tab, "Below Average Group") and transferred all the student names and scores that fell below 191.2
6. Using the chart tool, I created a line chart that represents all the below average students and the trend of their test scores. 

 

The Results
There is an obvious upwards trend for all of the below average students.  As a teacher, this kind of information is extremely valuable; it speaks of improvement, that whatever changes mid-term are being made in teaching style or lesson plan, it is working.  Even by looking at the difference in average score from test 6, a 153.4, to test 10, a 187.1, an obvious upswing is in progress. 
The lovely thing about these types of charts is they provide a striking visual presentation of improvement, which would appease not only the teacher, but principals, fellow colleagues, parents, and the school board. 
When I worked in the private sector, each of the employees at the collections call center I worked for received a monthly statement showing their numbers for the month and line graphs giving their yearly trend for dollars collected, calls taken and made, etc.  This same procedure would be a fabulous tool for parent-teacher conferences, to place in a student's portfolio, and even for the students themselves to see their individual progress.  It was pretty easy and quick to accomplish as well, especially once the spreadsheet is set up, since the data updates itself in live-action.  So a teacher could set up a spreadsheet at the beginning of the year, and would only have to enter scores in as the year progresses to have it all available to download, share or print.

Out of curiosity, and since I'm a bit of a data geek, I wanted to see if the above average half of the class continued to trend upwards as well, or had leveled off since they were already doing well enough.  These results are on tab 4 ("Above Average Group").  Their group average is 210, and they trend upwards as well.

In Conclusion
Overall, I enjoyed using Google Spreadsheet.  There is a bit of clunkiness as far as maneuvering rows and columns, and there aren't as many formatting options for the cells as there are for Microsoft Excel.  But it is extremely user friendly, especially for those who are intimidated by Excel.
In order for the trends to accurately depict the data, all of the tests would need to have the same scoring system, or percentages could be substituted for raw scores.  But this tool is obviously very enlightening to depict student progress (or lack thereof). 

Web 2.0

What IS Cloud Computing?
I'd never heard this term before our class, but now realize I already have been using it!

Cloud Computing, or Web 2.0 refers to the Internet stratosphere and all that resides in it.  This can include file sharing (pictures, videos, audio, games, documents, spreadsheets, drawings) social media (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube) or anything that you upload into or can download from the mass amount of data floating above our heads in cyberspace.

A few ways I already had been computing in the "Cloud":

• Flickr
• Shutterfly
• Facebook
• YouTube

Now I can add to that list Google Docs, Blogger, 4shared and Ustream.

I tried out 4shared, a site that allows you to upload pictures, video and audio up to 200 MB at a time (for the free version) and share them with friends, or embed into blogs or other websites.

Here's a picture I uploaded of my little Gwenny onto 4share.  I like how fast it is, and that you're allowed 10 GB of storage!  Great for when I finally start recording videos!

This would be wonderful for a teacher to use as a platform to upload student projects, speeches, and pictures of artwork done in class.  The best part - since it's in the Cloud it can be accessed anywhere, anytime, from any computer - regardless of platform. 

I also looked into Ustream.  It's a pretty neat site, where you can join (for FREE!) and record live video or audio for the world to see.  There's a lot of radio stations from around the world, which would be neat to play for a class when studying different cultures, and you can subscribe to them and recieve updates when new material is posted.  There's a chat feature, plus easy linking buttons for Facebook and Twitter. 

The only thing I didn't really like is how slowly my computer reacted to the site.  There's a lot of video ads, plus the video stream itself, so if your internet speed isn't great it can get frustrating.  Neat site though!

Google Reader

The Google tool my group focused on is the Google Reader. It allows you to subscribe to:

• blogs
• YouTube video channels
• podcasts
• any other website that updates content that you are interested in.  

For example, on my personal reader, I have:

• our class blogs
• my sister's blog
• the Angels baseball trade rumours site
• a fan site for The Office (best show ever!)

Now, instead of going on a wild bunny hunt for information on everything I want to stay updated in, I can open my Google Reader and PRESTO - it's all there! 
This tool is amazing for personal and professional use.  As a teacher specifically, I can:

• keep track of blogs relating to education (other teachers, my students)
• stay updated on legislation and school board activity
• subscribe to sites specific to my content area (National Science Teachers Association is a great one)
• encourage students to utilize the web for research, news, and to interact with their peers

I'll admit it took me a few tries to figure this out, but it is user-friendly, and the always helpful "help" tab is available if needed.  Now that I have it, I can't emphasize enough how much time this tool saves.  No more pop-ups and obnoxious ads floating over the screen - just the content you want to browse.

I assisted with writing our document, as each of us wrote (simultaneously!) our viewpoint.