Final Project

As I continue to learn...I stored my final Power Point on Google Docs. for anyone to view and to make comments. I am always looking to improve graduate work. Thanks for my midterm buddies for all their help and information.

Journal Entry Seven and Eight and Final Project

As we are winding down this course, I am astounded at all the new and expanding technology that is available for online courses. The nature of collaboration and connectedness is becoming more and more important in our digital age. Some of the software and online options are new. Some are available for seasoned professionals. All, offer new insights into the online community.

One thing we looked at was online grading. The district where I work uses Skyward online grading system which has been a wonderful addition for our communication with students and with parents. Our gradebooks and report cards are available at all times and any parent can access teacher gradebooks at anytime. It has made teachers more accountable and student/parents more informed. There are multiple reports that can be used to find student data and use it for data driven instruction.

My final project is included. I was trying to try to revamp what I had been using and saw the need for increasing learning opportunities for my students. I also had the wonderful opportunity to work with my technical advisor to use Gaggle.net. My class made a wonderful class environment which was a necessity as one of my students is out of school with a brain tumor. Both she and her family are greatful for the collaborative community we have created to keep her involved in the class. The kids find it easy to use and I find it easy to manage. Isn't technology great?!

Precourse Survey

This week we worked on a precourse survey. I thought the exercise was worthwhile. The main problem with on line classes is the notion that people don't get to know each other when they are not in a classroom. I have made wonderful friends on line that continue to help me with my educational endeavors. I have included the link to my survey. I would hope a survey like this could build relationships in the on line environment.

Journal Five: Revisiting Bloom

In my teacher training program, I remember Bloom's Taxonomy well as I thought it made perfect sense. There are higher level learning skills that cannot be met unless we stretch the educational activities for our students. I know that in several of the articles we read, teachers should strive to meet some of the higher level objectives. I am also reminded of the Grappling Technology scale that looks to integrate higher learning into internet or technology projects. The goal is getting away from technology for technology sake instead of truly meaningful technology projects. Below is the Grappling scale:
http://www.bjpconsulting.com/files/MAPPSpectrum.pdf

Also I have included a link from Kent State University with an explanation of Bloom for further review:

http://www.kent.k12.wa.us/KSD/MA/resources/blooms/blooms.html

Journal Four

What a great experience working with my group. Everyone was so helpful and right on time with everything. The assignment was to construct a toolbox for furture use of online management tools. We did the four that were very different with reviews on each. As you look through the entries, it is obvious that some are not particularly for education but would be most appropriate in a corporate setting.

Our Team Toolbox

Toolbox Midterm
GROUP 5
Online Tools/Assessment Options
Online learning has become one of the key ways for students of many different levels to study, learn and collaborate. Our group looked at four different tools that are used in the online learning environment. All the tools have their advantages and disadvantages for educational purposes and all have counterparts that offer the same. We looked to examine survey, calendar, management and collaborative platforms for educational purposes within the online learning environment. Our group members include: Kathy Kniery, Shanda Slattery, Michael Gregory, and Lynn Coyer.




Survey Monkeyby Kathy Kniery/IL
Survey Monkey (www.surveymonkey.com) is a website designed for users to build a survey to collect data and have the site collect and report the responses in a graphic format. Although there a free component for limited use, upgrading is possible for a relatively low price for operations that need to conduct many surveys with many respondents.
Uses in the online classroom. Instructors, who use quizzes in their classroom to test for understanding of the readings, might use Survey Monkey to construct a short series of questions that would require the learner to either choice an answer (i.e. multiple choice questions) or answer in a short essay. Instructors might also use Survey Monkey to develop an interest survey, or collect demographic information.
Benefits. Survey Monkey can be use at no charge with limited access to the many features. Instructors and learners alike can use the site to gather information. The reports are adequate, reporting in bar graph form the responses to each choice in the question. Survey monkey has a nice bank of tutorials and very strong help section for the user.
Weaknesses. The free service limits the number of survey items to ten and only 100 respondents. Of course the creative instructor can do a series of tests. There are other features that are disabled for the basic account also, but it can be used.
Challenges. An instructor who wants to construct a test over 10 questions may wish to look for other online sites to build a test. Other sites might be: QuizStar, ExamBuilder, QuizBuilder and Zoomerang. As with all online communication, wording is important.
Examples of application of the tool in an online classroom. This list is not, nor is it meant to be all-inclusive. However, let’s look at some applications of online survey and quiz building tools at the K-12 and academic levels.
Instructors can collect data about the learners at the beginning of a class to help the instructors understand where the learner is in terms of demographics (age, gender, education, etc.), technology use (beginner, comfortable, expert), if they are familiar with the CMS software, etc.
Quizzes and tests might be constructed by the instructor to access the depth of understanding of the readings assigned.
Survey instruments might be used by the learners to collect data that would be used during the class to prove a hypothesis.
Examples of learning objectives.
Learners will pass a 20-question multiple-choice test with 90% proficiency.
Learners will build, test and survey 25 people.



Calendar Softwareby Shanda Slattery/AZ
In this section, we will be focusing on RKS Calendar software as a course tracking tool. The link for the RKS Calendar software is: http://www.rkssoftware.com/calendarbuilder/overview.html . This software is easy to use, and has a free 30-day trial. For the teacher who has a simplistic approach to their planning, this would be a good tool for them to use. The calendars are primarily used to be printed out and put on a wall. For the busy teacher this tool would be great with organizing multiple classes. If an instructor teaches both online and in a classroom, this would help keep those dates and times straight.
Weaknesses. The list for weaknesses will be much longer. Although this tool is a calendar, it does say on their website that it is not to be used as a time management tool. It is not interactive, cannot be easily sent or uploaded and can only be used with IBM compatible computers and printers. There is no place to add grades, manage time, communicate with students or parents let alone other instructors or networks of any kind. The main concept of calendar software by RKS Software is to have a great looking calendar that is to be printed out and put on a wall. Since you can already do this with most calendars in your email (Outlook, Yahoo!, Gmail), there is no real “need” to purchase this software for tracking or assessing.
Challenges. One major challenge would be trying to get all of one day’s information in a calendar box. Many teachers are busy, so not having enough room to display everything that is needed to be done or to be able to look ahead is quite the challenge. For example, if you were to put on April 15th that you needed to teach History (in-class), taxes are due, teach online Spanish and you are already out of room for the day. Plus, once you print this you will get no feedback like you would with a calendar on email or another software program. There are no reminders, alerts, emails, etc.
Examples of application of the tool in an online classroom. The only example would be for each individual student or teacher to use this tool as a guide to their daily activities.
Examples of learning objectives. There would not be a good example of a learning objective for this tool. It is only to keep on task for the student or the instructor. They will be more aware of if they would rather have a calendar visible on their wall in an office, or if they’d rather use a daily activities online system.


Bloggerby Michael Gregory/NJ
Blogger (blogger.com) is a software publishing application, which is owned by Google, and makes publishing “blogs” to the web simple and easy. A blog (a contraction of the term "Web log") is a Web site, usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in reverse-chronological order. "Blog" can also be used as a verb, meaning to maintain or add content to a blog Wikipedia: (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blogger.com)
Blogger is a content management system specifically designed for hosting weblogs. It is a free service for the purpose of web publishing. This publishing is in the design of a web page and includes postings to which viewers have an opportunity to comment on the content. Blogger also enables the owner to invite up to 100 authors to have rights for publication on the blog. In addition to written text, Blogger easily allows one to import pictures and video as well.
Benefits -
Free, Free, Free – Often times certain applications are free up to a certain point and then there are tiered pricing levels. Blogger is a completely free publishing application.
Students audience now becomes worldwide vs. writing for a teacher, and possibly a peer.
On the other side, students now constructively review other’s work.
A classroom blog can act as a virtual classroom newsletter, keeping parents informed and participatory. http://mrhowd.com/
Professional development – many blogs are devoted to the sharing of ideas associated within a particular profession (http://techdossier.blogspot.com/).
As mentioned in the introduction, the control settings provided allow for customization of comments, authors, and viewers.
Technology skill acquisition – Students gain, and refine, technology skills associated with core content standards, as well as real life skills.
Challenges –
Access to necessary technology - does every student have access to an internet capable computer? Possibly not.
Inappropriate posting – Although control settings are available, nothing is absolute. Students could post inappropriate material.
Some parents that are unfamiliar with current technology prohibit their children from participating. New Jersey law requires parents to provide permission for students anytime they are posting material on the World Wide Web.
Examples of application of the tool in an online classroom –
Online publication of student generated work.
Student Scribe – Students are assigned as scribes to post lesson reviews, homework, and due dates. http://www.classblogmeister.com/blog.php?blogger_id=56473
Screencasts – Blogs have been used to post screencasts of mini-lessons.
http://mrhowd.com/ Example of a classroom activities update.
Examples of learning objectives –
Summarizing – Students required to act as scribes are practicing and honing their summarization skills
Peer Editing – Student comments act as peer editing
Portfolio – E-portfolio of student generated work. Students are able to visualize their progress over time.

Groove Software Download
By Lynn Coyer/WI
Mircrosoft Groove® (http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/groove/FX100487641033.aspx) is the collaborative workplace addition to Microsoft Office 2007®. It works well with existing Microsoft Office® software and makes a fine addition to the corporate applications of the existing suite. The functions are many. The workspace can take the place of multiple email communications and put all the necessary team members in one separate work environment. The functions are many. The software includes chatting options, correspondence options, templates for multiple office documents and several other functions. While a good addition to the Microsoft Office Suite®, it is also very “corporate” in nature. This is a software for companies with global connections that use the computer to synchronize production, advertising, communications and product development.
Benefits: This is very progressive software. Any type of collaborative workplace function you can think of is included. You can work from your computer on or off line as the situation dictates. Thus, you could be working on a document on your computer in Groove® when a connection isn’t possible and then when the connection resumes…it will be available for other team members. Working with other collaborative environments has the added step of working with another software and then transferring to the document when a connection is available. My group worked with Google Documents which is another less sophisticated collaborative workplace document but it didn’t have as many of the “bells and whistles” as Groove®. However, for our needs in writing a group paper, most of what was available on Groove® wouldn’t have been necessary.
Challenges: As when of my co-workers stated an advantage as FREE, FREE, FREE, Groove® has COST, COST, COST! There is a free 60 day trial download that is free and then the most basic software runs about $79 with multiple upgrades that can run into the hundreds. However, you get what you pay for with this software. It has so many options and runs so well with Office® it may well be worth the money especially for administrative type situations. The document share and template options are numerous and varied and I could see writing a large grant with multiple departments benefiting from the professional documents and multiple sharing features with the software. For other educational purposes, something more simple like Google Documents may suffice.
Examples of Learning Objectives:
Collaborative document storage and editing. Especially with a global audience or group members.
Collaborative creation of multi-level projects that may include such things as templates, budgets or promotional materials.
Online collaboration on any type of document with real-time communication and editing options.
Peer editing or collaboration on educational documents or papers.

Summary/Conclusion:
The following online applications and software; Survey Monkey, Calendar Software, Blogger and Microsoft Groove® can and have made a difference in the collaborative nature of online learning and communication. All the different programs work to incorporate the best of face to face learning with collaborative workplace options and management that make the absence of face to face contact a viable way to learn. While all the programs have their plusses and minuses, they all look to make the online environment the new workplace and education place of the future.

My Concept Map and Moodle URL