Education Trends: The Flipped Classroom | Piktochart Blog

Education Trends: The Flipped Classroom | Piktochart Blog
Here is a great Piktochart Explaining the Flipped Classroom

Using Skype and Vent as an Educational Tool

Skype is a  program that can be used for video conferencing and voice streaming to collaborate with people from different locations. Skype has the ability to stream video and voice along with instant messaging and screen sharing. The user needs a webcam, an Internet connection, a microphone, speakers, and the Skype software application. Skype is also free to anyone who has loaded the software onto their computer or mobile device. Up to 25 participants can connect at once for free if everyone is using the Skype application. However, there are additional features available if you pay the fees for the premium package. In addition, Skype has a support page which explains the needed bandwidth depending on the number of participants and what features you are using. Skype Support on Bandwidth: https://support.skype.com/en/faq/FA1417/how-much-bandwidth-does-skype-need

I was unfamiliar with Vent, which I found out is short for Ventrilo.  When I asked around at work, one of the guys in our technology department told me that he used Vent when he played games on his computer so he could carry on a live chat with his gaming buddies. He went on to explain that his friend paid a monthly fee of $10.00 to rent and be the administrator of a Vent server. The server admin had permissions to issue logons to his gaming friends and could allow them to chat and help one another while collaborating or teaming together during the games. In order to participate, each gamer must load the Vent client to join in the voice stream which runs about 24-32 kbps for 10 to 15 users. In addition, the administrator can give specific rights or deny rights to each gamer in which a logon has been created. However, my colleague stated that he preferred to use Skype because there were latency issues with his Vent voice stream. And when playing in a gaming environment in which you depend on others to help you progress or survive in the game, latency could be detrimental to your online character.

What are the benefits to using these applications for education? What is lost? We use Skype in the libraries to bring real experts into the classroom which otherwise might not be able to visit our students.  We have Skyped with authors of the books in our libraries, community members, and famous characters. Our students are always engaged when they participate in a video conference with our Skype guests. Skype allows students to interact with people in real-time giving them the ability to ask questions and explore new experiences in which they might not be able to encounter without a free video conferencing application. With the implementation of so many iPads and other mobile devices in our schools, Skype is an inexpensive app that can be easily accessed and utilized on any level.

Yet, Skype or other programs similar to Skype such as Vent are not a replacement for the teacher. Instead, these programs can enrich any educational activity. For example, teachers can set up a Skype time in the evenings in which students with homework questions can interact with the teacher in order to get tutoring or other needed clarification. However, this approach might not work well with all learners. The teacher comfort of using the technology and the students’ learning styles should always be a consideration when discovering new methodologies of instructional strategies.

Summary of "The Demographics of Social Media Users--2012"

The article reveals the results of a national survey for the Pew Research Center’s Internet and American Life Project on the demographic use of social media which was conducted between November 14 and December 9, 2013 (Duggan and Brenner, 2013). Researchers polled 1,802 individuals who use the Internet about their social networking usage by both landlines and cell phones. The social media sites which were examined included: Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, and Tumblr. The report also includes the usage of Facebook; however, it was surveyed in a separate study in December of 2012. The results of both surveys indicated that the use of social media is more likely to transpire in the cohort of young adults ages 18-29. In addition, the results discovered that adults under 50, women, Latinos, African-Americans, and urban residents had specific social media sites in which they were particularly interested in utilizing. Overall 67 percent of the surveyed Internet users were interested in using any one of the social networking sites listed.

Out of the 67 percent of Internet users who use social media, the survey discovered that 62 percent were men and 71 percent were women. Other findings included that individuals with a household income less than $30,000 a year had the highest use of social media. Also, individuals with some college experience ranked highest in social media use followed by the cohort of high school graduates and less than high school graduates, and the least amount of use came from people with college plus experience. And finally, the highest use was in urban areas versus suburban and rural.

Twitter, where each post is limited to 140 characters, is a popular social networking site that has doubled its membership since November 2010. Sixteen percent of all Internet users participate in the Twitterspere. Of those Internet users, 17 percent were men and 15 percent were women. The Black, Non-Hispanic ethnicity group ranked the highest use with 26 percent while the Hispanic group followed with 19 percent, and the White, Non-Hispanic group was last with 14 percent. However, opposite the highest cohort in the overall use of social networking sites, individuals with a household income of $75,000 or more were the highest users of Twitter.

Pinterest, which is a place to visually share images through the use of online pinning boards, has captured 15 percent of the Internet users that were surveyed.  Twenty-five percent of all women Internet users indicated they use Pinterest verses just 5 percent of men.  Individuals, who are the most interested in Pinterest, range from 18 to 49 years old thus giving this social media site the largest span in ages.  The highly educated and those with a high income are more likely to use Pinterest. And different from the category of all users who utilize social media, more individuals in rural areas have joined Pinterest.  

Thirteen percent of the Internet users surveyed utilize Instagram. Instagram is a social networking site that allows users to post photos and share them with others. Women are more likely to use Instagram than men, and whites are less likely to use it than the Black, Non-Hispanic and Hispanic ethnicity groups. And consistent with all Internet users surveyed, individuals living in urban areas and earning less than $30,000 a year are most likely to use Instagram.

Tumblr, which is not as prevalent as other social networking sites, only has 6 percent of the Internet users utilizing its services to blog. The significant difference about Tumblr is that the largest percent of bloggers fall into the youngest cohort group. All other demographics align with all Internet users and their social networking habits.

Facebook, the most popular of the social networking sites, had the largest participation of all Internet users. Facebook allows for users to create a profile, share pictures and videos, add comments, and connect with friends and family members. Young adults ages 18-29 are the most likely to use Facebook, but individuals between the ages of 30 and 49 have a high participation rate of 73 percent. Women are more inclined to use Facebook than men, and wealthier people are more likely to use Facebook than people in lower categories of household income.

In order to identify Internet users, the Princeton Survey Research Associates International surveyed 2,261 adults and found that 81 percent of them use the Internet occasionally. This was a drastic change from the December 2002 information which identified that only 57 percent of adults use the Internet occasionally and that 43 percent did not use the Internet. The survey included weighting balances to ensure accuracy such as matching the parameters of the national population in the categories of sex, age, education, race, Hispanic origin, region, population density, and telephone usage.

In conclusion, 67 percent of all Internet users are likely to use a social networking site. The use of social media is more probable in the cohort of young adults ages 18-29. In addition, wealthier individuals were more likely to use Twitter as well as African Americans and urban residents. Women are more likely to use Pinterest than men along with people living in rural areas. Instagram is more likely to be utilized by ethnic groups such as African Americans and Latinos. Tumblr is not as popular a social networking site; however, young adults are the largest cohort to use the blog. Facebook is the most popular social media and women, young adults, and wealthier people tend to use the site more than others surveyed.

Personally, I use Twitter more than any other social networking site. The microblogging application is a great resource for following other professionals in your field or collaborating with them by joining in a scheduled chat.  I can understand why it is popular with wealthier professionals, so I am surprised that older adults had such a low participation rate in the survey. It was expected that Facebook would be the most popular. Our district has a Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter account in which our parents and students can follow, and our district Facebook constantly receives comments and questions from our community while Twitter and Instagram receive fewer visits on our monthly analytics reports. However, our teachers are constantly and consistently using our school Twitter hashtags which are embedded on our school websites to share events and student activities. In addition, at work, I once asked all of my coworkers to create a pin board using Pinterest for our department with ideas for a project. The men in the group replied, “Pinterest is not manly and is too girly for them to use.” I found their response amusing; however, they still had to find a way to submit ideas for the project! And contrary to belief, one of the men found some very masculine items to pin. So, perhaps that is one reason why Pinterest is more appealing to women than men. And I can definitely agree that the overall use of social media is more popular with young adults. Our students are always trying to find ways to circumvent our school filtering system in order to gain access to their social media accounts.  

References

Duggan, M., & Brenner, J. (2013). The demographics of social media users, 2012 (Vol. 14). Washington, DC: Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project.

http://www.lateledipenelope.it/public/513cbff2daf54.pdf 

 

 

Why do people share their personal information on their Facebook and blogs?

If people value their privacy, why do they share personal information on their Facebook pages and in their blogs?

After considering this question, I opened my Facebook account and reviewed my privacy settings. There are always updates to the privacy settings that are sent to my e-mail account, and many times I simply click the “agree” button because I am too busy at the time to review the policy changes. So, I took the time to see exactly what I was sharing. And I made several changes to my settings after reviewing that I was sharing some items with public, and that people could find my profile using my e-mail address or my phone number. From this observation, I think that many people simply post personal information without really knowing “what” they are sharing with the public. They may be thinking that they are simply sharing information with family or friends, but the reality might be that their information is searchable by anyone using a browser. The privacy settings are somewhat difficult to find as you must go into settings to make changes, and they aren’t accessed from the pages you visit most often like your profile or timeline.

In addition, I don’t think that a high percentage of people have had something “bad” happen to them because they were choosing to share photos, locations, or other identifying information. You hear of cases where information published on Facebook has led to a crime; however, the numbers of people who have been affected are few. So, people are likely to post personal information because their circle of family and friends has not been affected in a negative way for doing so.  

I use Blogger for my blog postings, and I know that by default all my blogs are searchable and viewable by public. So, I think that some of the same premises for Facebook can be applied to why people share private information on their blogs. However, I also think that people use blogs to promote their professional knowledge and are more likely to want to share their information and knowledge with other Internet users. People can establish a business by blogging their expertise in a particular subject if they have an advertising agreement and a large group of followers.  

How does Creative Commons affect an individual's copyright protection?

Stanford law professor, Lawrence Lessing, understood that in some instances copyright laws were too restrictive and prevented the use of intellectual property unless a person gained specific permission from the copyright holder. However, if a person decides to license their intellectual work with a creative commons copyright license, they have more control of specifying how users may utilize their intellectual work. For example, a person may choose not to allow someone to use their work for commercial purposes. Or someone may stipulate that the work such as a photograph may be utilized for noncommercial purposes or for commercial purposes as long as credit is given to the creator. The creative commons website allows a person to select from six different licenses. The person that holds the copyright license then has the authority to choose the license that best fits their needs. Therefore holding a creative commons copyright protects the individual’s intellectual work, but also gives the creator of the work options of how others may utilize their work without necessarily having to contact the copyright holder to ask for permission. And if an individual is interested in using the copyrighted material for commercial purposes, then an agreement can be established between the two parties.

Why is texting more popular than making phone calls?

My niece asked me if I would pick up a few items for her before she headed back to college. I explained that I would be glad to help out and that I would get in touch with her over the weekend. So, I made a special trip on a Saturday to begin my search for a few of the items in which she had requested. That morning, I called her on her cell phone to clarify a few things before I bought them, but, she did not answer my call. However, no more than thirty seconds later, she sent me a text message which stated, “What do you need?” I absolutely thought that I was going to run off of the road. I explained that I needed her to call me! When she called me, she could not understand why I was so furious with her text message response to my phone call.

I posed this question in a Twitter hashtag this morning to my technology staff and later discussed their answers in our meeting to help me get some perspective on this situation. My staff members that are about thirty years and younger all agreed that texting is the best form of communication because they could multitask, it was a fast way to communicate a brief response, and that it was considered awkward talking in a phone conversation. They also agreed that in a text message you could think about your response a little longer than in a conversation. When I asked if this form of social culture or interactions with others was the new norm, they quickly responded yes. However, the older than thirty generation spoke up and interjected that while they liked to text message and could see the advantages in which the younger staff members had mentioned, that they could still see the need for conversation over messaging for some situations.

This made me think about a recent problem of instructional practice that we identified as a district. The problem identifies that students are not responding during discussions at the higher levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy and are having a hard time articulating their thoughts. It makes you wonder if the use of texting over face-to-face and phone conversations is helping to create this problem of practice in which we have identified and are targeting district-wide.

What is "Fair Use" in the Context of Copyrighted Material?

In order to explain “fair use” the idea of intellectual property should be explained. Intellectual property is a product such as a book, music, movie, or invention that is generated by the creativity of an individual and has commercial value. Copyright provides the creator or author with rights concerning their work and the ability to give others the same rights. The author or owner has the right to reproduce, distribute, display copies in public, perform the work in public, and produce new works derived from copyrighted work.

However, in the context of fair use, it is sometimes legal for others to reproduce copyrighted work without permission. The Copyright Act lists four factors that need to be considered in order to determine if the material is considered “fair use.” Four questions that should be considered to help define if the material is in the realm of fair use are: the purpose and character of use, the nature of the work being copied, how much of the work is being used, and how will the use affect the market value for the copyrighted work?

Our book provided two scenarios to help you understand the process of determining if the conditions were in favor of fair use. I am very familiar with the first example because when I attended college for my bachelor’s degree, I had to get my English materials from Kinko’s. I would pay for entire articles to be copied, but never wondered if it was a violation of copyright since Kinko’s was a well-known and established chain of stores. When you exam the four questions in this example, three of the four factors weigh in favor of fair use, so it would appear that the professor’s actions were within the realm of fair use when reproducing copyrighted journal articles.

Deciding if something is fair use is still very subjective, thus making it hard to enforce the rules and consequences of reproducing copyrighted material. To make it even more difficult, images and text are easy to snip and copy from the Internet. Teachers and students aren’t aware or considering if they are reproducing someone’s intellectual work without permission because it is so readily available to them, and they aren’t using for profit. However, there are more factors to consider.

References

 

Quinn, Michael J. Ethics for the Information Age. Boston: Addison-Wesley, 2011. Print.

 

 

What is a Blog?

Here is a quick video for the new Castleberry Bloggers that explains the various parts of a blog!

Free Technology for Teachers: Seven Good Student Response Systems That Work On A...

Free Technology for Teachers: Seven Good Student Response Systems That Work On A...: Earlier today I received an email from someone who had found this comparison chart of student response tools. He was interested in learning...

Wrapping my Mind Around how to Implement Instructional Rounds from a Digital Leader's Perspective

Today, I attended the 1st day of a very beneficial training for our district called, Instructional Rounds in Education. Our presenter, Dr. Sheila Maher, held everyone's attention and kept me contemplating the use of technology in the classroom and asking myself what is the main problem of practice when it comes to students using technology to learn?

Just like in many districts, we employ technology support staff, provide technology professional development, provide support documents and websites for teacher use; however, there seems to be only a few pockets of  student improvement in learning geared to the higher level of  Bloom's Digital Taxonomy. Teachers, technology coaches, instructional administrators, and myself are all working many hours in hopes of seeing student learning improve through the use of technology resources.

This year my department will spend time researching and asking the question of what are the problems of practice when it comes to implementing technology to increase student learning? We will begin this journey by identifying what specific technology tasks can illicit the higher level learning skills that our students need in order to be prepared for living in the 21st Century. The CISD Bloom's Digital Taxonomy is a good place to start, but we know that technology support resources should be reviewed and dynamic in nature to reflect proven strategies.

http://www.castleberryisd.net/departments/technology_services/bloom_s_digital_taxonomy/

Winding School Down and Preparing for the 2014-2015 School Year

The end of the year brings excitement as you begin to establish new goals for the up and coming school year; yet, it also brings closure to some goals and objectives that were accomplished during the previous year. As I look back at the technology target objective, I am happy with the progress that the district has made in the implementation of technology into the classroom. Many successes can be counted; however, as a district we still have room to grow. Students utilize technology on a daily basis outside of the classroom. It is our job to incorporate the tools in which our students use outside of the school walls into the classroom as a tool for learning. The first step is to create digital leaders who can model the use of technology when leading their campuses. This summer, our administrative leaders will complete a book study on Digital Leadership by Eric Sheninger. Click the link for a recent interview posted on Youtube. The book study will help all of our administrators develop into digital leaders who use the power of social media to communicate the positive aspects of our district to everyone. I am looking forward to another successful year and growing with each of you as we continue to become digital leaders in Castleberry ISD.

How can the use of technology help us learn?

When integrating technology to help others learn, teachers should consider the basic principles of learning. First, to ensure that learning occurs in context, technology can provide real world situations that engage learners in solving problems. For example, the author refers to an interactive video environment that teaches problem solving as an example. The interactive video presents mathematical problems that a character must face and solve to reach the next level. Each challenge builds upon the skill set of the previous level and is addressed in a sequential order. Last year, Think Through Math, an online interactive instruction, was purchased by the state for all Texas schools. This interactive website, like the one discussed in the article, provided math lessons that were aligned with the student’s ability and then progressed through lessons that built upon previously acquired skills. Students were required to transfer previously learned skills to new situations in each new lesson. By using challenging and engaging math lessons taught in context, students enjoyed using Think Through Math as a math tutorial.

Second, to ensure that learning is active, technology tools can be provided that help make thinking visible. Our district uses many free Web 2.0 mind mapping applications to accomplish this. Bubbl.us, Mindmeister, mindmup, Popplet, and Webspiration are all applications that allow a student to map out concepts into logical representations of information. For example, a student could use a mind map to organize their thoughts for a compare and contrast essay. They could create a mind map indicating the positives and negatives concerning a topic, and then take the information and develop their thesis, topic sentences, and content for their paragraphs from the mind map. When learners create mind maps, it helps make their thinking visible and actively engages them.

Third, to ensure that students work together to accomplish a learning task, technology applications that increase social interactions can be utilized. For example, the use of twitter and discussion forums can enable students to reach out to experts for information. Our district has worked with increasing such connections through the development of Personal Learning Networks (PLN). Each administrator attended the Digital-Age Leadership Academy, in which, they were taught how to use various Web 2.0 and social networking applications to make learning connections among other experienced educators. During each administrator leadership meeting, everyone shares new knowledge that they have gained from their PLN social connections. Web 2.0 applications enable people to participate and contribute to a social community of learners.

Last, technology can help make learning reflective. The use of electronic rubrics, discussion forums, and blog postings allow others to provide feedback about a person’s work or thoughts. People can contribute a comment to your post, question, or idea through a blog, discussion forum, tweet, or wiki. Feedback then allows you to reflect upon your own work or thoughts. This opportunity for reflection can help you reach a deeper understanding of information.

References

Driscoll, M. P. (2002). How People Learn (and What Technology Might Have To Do with It). ERIC   Digest.

 

How do we learn? Four basic principles of learning.

First, people learn by building information from previously acquired skills. Therefore, learners learn by transferring prior knowledge to unfamiliar information to draw conclusions or help understand new material. Comprehension and learning are difficult when information is not presented within context. However, learners are able to learn new material from drawing conclusions when appropriate context clues are provided. My first year as a teacher, I taught one section of sixth grade reading. To help students learn new words they encountered in their reading material, I would suggest looking for context clues in the paragraph. Once a student recognized the clues that surrounded the unfamiliar word, many times they could understand the meaning of the word without the ability to pronounce it. People can learn new information by drawing conclusions from familiar information.
Second, people learn by being actively engaged in a learning activity. Being an active participant in the knowledge construction process enables the learner to understand information by constructing meaning from their experiences. I remember reading poems in my high school literature classes. However, once, my ninth grade teacher asked me to memorize a poem by William Wordsworth. I had to recite it to myself, my dog, and my mom in order to remember it. I was actively engaged in learning the poem by reciting it out loud and rehearsing it before I had to present it to my peers. I can still recite the first paragraph of Daffodils, by William Wordsworth, today. By actively involving myself in the learning process, I was able to learn the poem and actually retain some of the phrases from the first paragraph.
Third, people learn from communicating and working with others. Others may have an expertise in a specific area and can offer knowledgeable information or ideas to an unfamiliar concept. In the area of technology, my department is faced with new and challenging tasks each week. I have learned that the best way to solve technical problems is to bring all of my experts to the table; so, we can talk through the technological challenges of managing over four thousand devices in our environment. Once everyone contributes their knowledge, a consensus to the approach of solving the problem is usually reached quite quickly. When people work together, they bring different strengths and expertise which can help solve complex issues.
Fourth, people learn by reflecting upon their own thinking. In addition, feedback from others can provide insight to a person’s thinking. For example, revising a paper and giving feedback about suggestions to add or make the points stronger in the paper can prompt a person to think about ideas in a more meaningful or deeper understanding.  Completing a peer review on a classmate’s research paper is a good example of how feedback can help a person reflect on their own thoughts. Once I received my peer review sheets, I considered the information and made corrections if needed. Reflection enables a person to deepen their understanding and learning.

References

Driscoll, M. P. (2002). How People Learn (and What Technology Might Have To Do with It). ERIC Digest.