The Beauty of a Class Webpage

As I sit here this morning before 7 a.m. on a Monday morning waiting and waiting and waiting for a new son to decide he's ready to finally join us, I can't help but profess my love for my school web pages. I have taken the day off as it seems as if our baby wait may soon be over, and the fact that I have this website available for my courses makes me feel like I am still engaged somewhat with my students. Rather than showering and putting on my shirt and tie, this morning I logged on and posted announcements for my students to remind them of the assignments and projects they should be working on today, as well as what to expect in the upcoming few days. I have everything set for my sub, but this website gives me the chance to connect with my students through a more direct intermediary that I have a bit more control over, and I like that. It must also be nice for the students to have instructions directly from a teacher rather than wondering if the substitute is telling them correctly, and the ability to embed video could make my absence days even more productive for students. Imagine sub days without losing instructional time!
What's next? Getting students to buy in and learn to use this asset they have available to them. In every announcement I post regarding my absences, I refer students to my email address and ask them to contact me with any questions, but I get very little response while away. Without the two-way communication, these announcements are more for my peace of mind and over-glorification of what I am doing than actual instruction. Once students learn to engage in this type of learning and communication, we can really have no lost instructional time chalked up to teacher absences. Wouldn't that be awesome!?

Say it ain't so, FLIP

I am so surprised and disappointed at the news that was spreading yesterday.  I heard on the radio on my long drive home that Cisco is going to stop making the FLIP camera, a pocket sized video camera designed to record and easily upload digital video to the web.  By the time I got home and looked around on some news feeds, my disappointment sunk in and turned into some frustration as I realized I hadn't heard wrong.  Cisco is going to kill this very popular consumer-based project to "focus on selling its core products," which unless you are a systems manager, you probably have no idea what they are.  You can read more about it here.
A few years ago when my first child was born my wife and I bought a FLIP to share our daughter with her grandparents who are located in different states and countries.  We have loved this camera, as have our parents who get to keep up with their granddaughter's exploits from afar.  It has only been recently that I have brought these cameras into my classroom, and they have been very useful and worth every bit of the $100 or less price tag.  So it only figures that this would happen as soon as I get something going.  On a daily basis, my students record homework problems being completed and explained so that I can post them to my webpage for homework help for students at home, and numerous student groups have incorporated digital videos into projects for my class to add a bit of flair and interest to their work and/or presentation.  The more I use these cameras, the more I find I can do with them, and I have gradually been working them into class projects more and more.
Earlier this school year I convinced our school to purchase two of these cameras for our use, and I have essentially had permanent possession of one of them.  Feeding my disappointment is the fact that Cisco does not plan on selling the FLIP product line to another company, but rather, they are just killing it.  With this news, my concern is that we are going to be stuck with only two FLIPs rather than growing to the point of having at least a classroom set of 10-12 of the cameras to really get some use out of.  I really don't think I have the persuasive abilities to convince a district examining possible layoffs because of budget concerns to spend their money on more video cameras.
My advice to anyone reading this is to get out there and buy up these cameras while they are still available.  They have really been an asset to my classroom, and I highly recommend getting these devices into the hands of your students; you will love the results of their work with them.  For a few examples of FLIPs being used in the classroom, visit the links below:
My Class Website
David Sladkey's work with FLIP cameras
Megan Powers' Book Projects

5 Easy Ways to Start Using Technology

Let's get moving.  Technology doesn't have to be some mystical and expensive tool that we can't fit into our curriculum.  I don't know of many schools without a functioning computer lab, and more and more students have computers to work from at home.  This is all you really need to get a start.  All you have to do is go for it.  With today's focus on Web2.0 tools, we don't need the expensive hardware or even fancy software to start using technology to improve what we do as teachers and what our students do as students.  Here are five simple ideas to start with:

1. Use Wikis.
   Wikispaces.com is great; they offer free wikis for education, and students pick up the nuts and bolts very quickly.  For your next project, try replacing the poster board with a wiki.
2. Utilize Google Docs
   Have students write a paper collaboratively, or participate in another writing group activity.  All your students will need to do is create a free Google username and have an assignment to complete, and they'll be off and running.  The interface is a simple text editor that any student familiar with Word will be comfortable with.
3. Create a Class Website
   It could be as simple as posting classroom announcements and homework assignments to discussion topics and extension assignments as well as sharing student successes; a class website could be the key to communicating more easily with parents and possibly engaging more students.  If you don't have the capability through your school's website, webs.com or weebly.com offer free web hosting under some limitations.
4. Start a Discussion Board
   This is a great way to get students involved in thinking outside the box and expressing their thoughts while using what they have learned in class.  You could go as big as blogging and commenting on blogs to a more formal 3rd party hosted discussion board to discussion threads hosted on your classroom website to simple and easy, informal boards like Wallwisher.
5. Start using Digital Media
   I know, I know, I said no expensive hardware and devices.  But, almost everyone has a digital camera or could access the one on their cell phones to participate in a project involving digital images.  There are tons of ideas out there, and these could even be merged with projects involving wikis and shared on your class website.  Create a Flickr group for your images, or if you're capable, jump into digital video projects with Flip Video cameras.

Whatever you decide to do, start something.  It doesn't have to be big, but it will make a big difference.  It's time to start using these tools that we have available; we need to catch up to the rest of the world, and as Lao Tzu stated, "The longest journey begins with a single step."

A Quote From 1992

A quote from 1992

Scott McLeod posted a quote from Schools for a New Century, a 1992 publication, last week on Big Think's Dangerously Irrelevant blog.  I find this extremely sad that in nearly 20 years, we are still in the same place.  We all know, just as we did in 1992, that technology is not in our schools at the level our students need it to be.  Why is this still the case?  As I come to the end of my Master's program in Educational Technology I find myself very frustrated by how resistant to change our schools are.  Every other sector of our society embraces technological advances that keep them current, and our schools keep falling farther and farther behind.  Aren't we the ones that are supposed to be preparing our students for life?  Shouldn't we be the early adopter's of new technologies?  Imagine the job we could be doing if we weren't stuck in the same mindset we were at the turn of the 20th Century!
I'm with Scott, "What's it going to take for us to start taking seriously the power and potential of learning technologies? How much more evidence do we need?"
It makes me want to scream!

Wake up!!!