Parent Technology Coffee - Social Networking

We had our second Parent Technology Coffee on Tuesday, November 15th with 8 people in attendance. The conversations were rich and focused on protecting home networks and understanding social media and social networking, the draws, the dangers, and the uses of both.

After introductions we summarized how Open DNS works to filter all devices on your home network. In a nutshell, devices on a network are pointed to the OPEN DNS server instead of your internet provider's server to translate and direct you to the webpage you are seeking. Open DNS has a blacklist of inappropriate sites and when a user points to one of these spots on the internet the site is blocked.
See the blog post "Filtering Your Home Network with Open DNS" to learn more about this free, easy alternative.

We watched two short video clips (embedded into the presentation,) explaining the differences between social media and social networking. The differences are subtle, but it's important to understand them when trying to wrap your head around why these topics are so popular. Social media are the tools we use for sharing and connecting with others while social networking is the tool we use to do the connecting. In the end, the real draw of social media/networking is the ease of which we communicate and share with friends and family and the ability to make new connections. Businesses have caught on and are capitalizing on social media to deliver messages and products, even creating social networks within their organization to connect people.

The embedded presentation provides factual information regarding social media/networking. Probably the largest "unknown" to many is the large social networking community centered around gaming consoles like XBox and Play Station 3, (PS3.) Statistics state that 97% of kids aged 12-18 play computer games. When we informally surveyed (a raise of hands) our MSSD kids regarding how many had gaming consoles in the home the percentage was equivalent. A very large percentage of the 97% are playing games with others via a social network. The need to educate our kids on social networking is of utmost importance so they can remain safe and create appropriate digital footprints.

A digital footprint is like an online reputation. Sites you join and information you post all make up a person's digital footprint. To monitor a digital footprint a user needs to do is google their name. The google results will begin to shape a user's online reputation by describing who they are affiliated with and what sorts of things they do and write. Making sure digital information conveys the information about yourself that is desired is key when navigating the social media/networking waters. Common Sense Media is a terrific website that provides resources for parents and educators related to these topics.



In school students are using social networking on their own. Half of students in grades 6 and 7 are using Facebook despite the account creation age requirement of 13. In 8th grade teachers are using Facebook to share student generated work and to provide thoughtful discussions around content related articles. Following of course material via Facebook is a way to keep current information flowing through a class as students check Facebook and will spend time on thoughtful commenting when in an environment they enjoy. Imagine if students started using social networking to share book reviews or to practice foreign language. The more positive opportunities for social networking we provide, the better they will become at maintaining a positive digital footprint.

If you haven't joined the Facebook groups and pages created by the Manitou Springs School District, do so. Staying in contact with other parents and schools are just the beginning of what social networking can do for us as a community.

MSHS Facebook
MSMS Facebook Group
MSES Facebook Page

The next parent coffee is scheduled for December 13th at 9:00 AM and then repeated again at 6:00 PM. The topic is Information Management and will focus on how we keep up with the information revolution. Bring your device, (laptop, iPad or smartphone,) and you can learn some tricks to managing all this information that seems available but difficult to locate.

Filtering Your Home Network with Open DNS

If you are interested in a free, easy to set-up way to filter your home network so that ALL devices accessing the internet from within your home can be safe from inappropriate sites look no further than Open DNS. This includes gaming consoles that access the internet, iPads and even phones.

DNS stands for domain name system. When you type an address like google.com into a browser the query goes to your internet server provider's DNS server. This DNS server translates the words google.com into numerical identifiers (IP address) associated with locating the website. DNS is sort of like a phone book for the internet. Human friendly names associated with numerical addresses. It's easier for us to type in a name, than a long, complex number that is difficult to remember so the DNS server does this for us.

With Open DNS, you just use them instead of your internet server provider's DNS server. The difference is that Open DNS server has a frequently updated blacklist (blocked list) of sites divided into categories like "adult," "games," etc... Parents can block entire categories or simply set a filtering level of low, medium or high, depending upon need. The advantage is that you now have an account with your dns provider that let's you customize where your kids can go on the net. Most people do not have these capabilities on all devices accessing the internet in their home. In addition to all this protection, a list of visited websites is provided through account statistics that can easily be accessed by parents.

Open DNS is easy to set up and directions for doing so are provided below.

• Mac OS X
• Windows 7
• Windows XP
• Windows Vista
• Generic Router
• Linksys Router
• Netgear Router
• D-Link Router

You can also tweet @OpenDNS for assistance in setting up Open DNS if you are a twitter user.

A parent of two middle school students felt this step was essential to providing an internet environment for her kids that was safe from inappropriate websites. She's posted her journey in the MSMS Facebook Group. The staff at MSSD is always available to assist with questions in this important matter as are parents within the community should you ask.

However, as with any filter on your network, it's important to remember that nothing provides 100% safety from inappropriate content. You are your best filter and teaching our children what to do when they encounter such content will be key in keeping them safe in the future.

 

 

 

Student Blogging

I've had some teachers ask me to provide them with some evidence as to why blogging might be good to do in a classroom setting.  The list is quite extensive.
I'll start by stating I consider student blogging to be one of the most powerful piece of student learning. They serve as a perfect vehicle for students to demonstrate their learning to a much larger audience, thereby authenticating the learning.  They also serve as the beginnings of a effective e-portfolio, an excellent tool in documenting learning. 
Take some time to review the three student blogs listed below.  These blogs were completed by students four years ago when I taught earth science.

• Emma
• Megan
• Emmett
• Gabby
• Ashley
• Julia

So, now to the evidence for student blogging:

1. It is FUN! Fun!….. It is wonderful when students think they are having so much fun, they forget that they are actually learning.
   
2. Authentic audience – no longer working for a teacher who checks and evaluates work but  a potential global audience.
3. Suits all learning styles
   
4. Increased motivation for writing – students are happy to write and complete aspects of the post topic. Many will add to it in their own time.
5. Increased motivation for reading –  students will happily spend a lot of time browsing through fellow student posts and their global counterparts. (Ask me about these, I have a huge list of interested schools.)
   
6. Improved confidence levels – a lot of this comes through comments and global dots on their cluster maps (visits to their blogs.)  Students can share their strengths and upload areas of interest or units of work eg personal digital photography, their pets, hobbies etc Staff are given an often rare insight into what some students are good at. We find talents that were otherwise unknown and it allows us to work on those strengths. It allows staff to often gain insight to how students are feeling and thinking.
7. Pride in their work – My experience is that students want their blogs to look good in both terms of presentation and content.
8. Blogs allow text, multimedia, widgets, audio and images – all items that digital natives want to use
9. Increased proofreading and validation skills
10. Improved awareness of possible dangers that may confront them in the real world, whilst in a sheltered classroom environment
11. Ability to share – part of the conceptual revolution that we are entering. They can share with each other, staff, their parents, the community, and the globe.
12. Mutual learning between students and staff and students.
13. Parents with internet access can view their child’s work and writings – an important element in the parent partnership with the classroom. Grandparents can make comments on student posts. Other parents can ‘adopt’ students who do not have internet access and ensured they have comments.
14. Blogs may be used for digital portfolios and all the benefits this entails.
    
15. Work is permanently stored, easily accessed and valuable comparisons can be made over time for assessment and evaluation purposes
16. Students are digital natives - blogging is a natural element of this.
17. Gives students a chance to show responsibility and trustworthiness and engenders independence.
18. Prepares students for digital citizenship as they learn cybersafety and netiquette
19. Fosters peer to peer mentoring. Students are happy to share, learn from and teach their peers (and this, often not their usual social groups)
20. Allows student led professional development and one more……
21. Students set the topics for posts – leads to deeper thinking activities

I can't (and won't) point to increased test scores due to student blogging.  I can and will say that when students have a vested interest in their learning, everything changes. 


Thanks to Gareth Scholes and Karen Mills for their Ulearn Workshop.

Global Education Conference 2011

Announcing the Second Annual Global Education Conference Streaming Live Online
November 14-18, 2011

The second annual Global Education Conference, a week-long event bringing together educators and innovators from around the world, will be held Monday, November 14 through Friday, November 18, 2011. The entire conference will be broadcast online for free using the Blackboard Collaborate platform (formerly known as Elluminate/Wimba).

The conference seeks to present ideas, examples, and projects related to connecting educators and classrooms with a strong emphasis on promoting global awareness, fostering global competency, and inspiring action towards solving real–world problems. Through this event, it is our hope that attendees will challenge themselves and others to become more active citizens of the world. Let us learn, question, create, and engage in meaningful, authentic opportunities within a global context!

Keynote addresses this year will be given by noted thought leaders Alan November Chris Dede, Howard Gardner, Fernando Reimers, Esther Wojcicki, and many more. Conference sponsors include Brainpop and iEARN-USA Partner organizations are numerous as well and many will be presenting their work throughout the conference.

Last year’s conference featured 387 sessions and 60 keynote addresses from 62 countries with over 15,000 participant logins. Sessions were held in multiple time zones and multiple languages over the five days, and are currently archived as a standing educational resource at http://globaledcon.weebly.com/recordings.html.

For further information, please join our network at http://globaleducationconference.com and follow us on Twitter (@GlobalEdCon). Conference related tweets will be aggregated using the hashtag #GlobalEd11.

The Global Education Conference is a collaborative, world-wide community initiative
involving students, educators, and organizations at all levels. It is designed to
significantly increase opportunities for building education-related connections around
the globe while supporting cultural awareness and recognition of diversity.

Google Forms

Tech Tuesday was spent investigating Google Forms and the possibilities this piece of Google Docs offers to educators in a classroom setting, particularly pre/post testing.  But really, what I like about Google Forms the best is the ability to capture student thinking in the learning process.

The format of Forms is clean and simple, once you understand the main features. 
For instructions on how to use Google Forms visit the iPads Wiki.

Within minutes a teacher is capable of creating a form to analyze the following:

• Pre/Post assess student knowledge of an essential learning, topic or unit of study
• Collect information (Survey)
• Evaluations of all types (Self/Student/Lesson/Unit/Course)
• Quick Evaluation for student presentations (teacher fills out while student is presenting)

There are also ready-made public templates covering a wide range of document and report types to help jump-start the process.  These templates are a great place to gather ideas for Google Forms.

A teacher may email the form to students or embed the form into a wiki or blog easily. 

Google Forms offers seven different question types to choose from and response summaries may be viewed in spreadsheet form or in a graphic display.

Parent Technology Coffee

On Tuesday, October 18th, we hosted our first parent technology coffee.  The session was hosted twice, once at 9:00 AM and then again at 6:00 PM.  Twenty-five parents and members of the community came together to discuss digital safety, security and the Opt-in/Opt-out choices in the iPad User Agreement sent home to students in grades 5-8 earlier this month.
For those of you that were not able to attend (or those that would like to review some of the topics and resources we discussed), this post serves as a brief re-cap of the event.
We started out with some brief introductions of staff members and attending parents.  Staff members present were:

• Ed Longfield - Superintendent (morning session)
• Chris Burr - Middle School Principal
• Russ Vogel - Manitou Springs Elementary School Principal
• Cat Butler-Olimb - Technology Coordinator (morning session)
• Lisette Casey - Technology Integration Specialist
• Glenn Char - Parent and Facilitator for parent meetings

After introductions we talked a bit about the focus and format of the coffees.  The main focus of the coffees are to build understanding of the ways that technology is changing society, and therefore, changing education.  Every month we'll watch a short video related to the featured topic and then discuss the implications of the video on education and learning, always with practical examples from classrooms here at MSSD.  All Manitou Springs School District parents are invited to attend.  We'll always meet in the Multi-Purpose room of the SILC building at 9:00 AM and then again at 6:00 PM.
Norms for the parent coffees are as follows:

1. Start and end on time.
2. Adhere to the agenda and honor the time allotted for each item.
3. Engage in honest, focused, and respectful discussions surrounding the focus topic.
4. The coffee is not a place for discussion of school policy.

Lisette Casey spoke for a bit regarding technology integration in the classroom around the topic of today's parent coffee.  Currently, Glenn Char and she are presenting the topic of digital security and safety to all students in grades 5 -8.  Since many students have internet access at home via computers, personal devices and gaming consoles, the need to keep kids safe and secure online is at the forefront of everyone's mind.  Many kids identify themselves as the family person responsible for performing routine maintenance and tasks necessary to keep their home networks/computers running smoothly.   Detailed diagrams, schematics, and discussion about what network makeup is shared with students.  This leads into a discussion about the importance of making responsible choices regarding the downloading of files. The second half of the presentation is geared toward keeping a person safe from dangerous files, predators, and cyberbullying.  Movies shown during this presentation can be found under today's parent coffee topic in the iPads Wiki.  A simulation is shown to students that reinforces the need to always check for reputable sources before downloading material of any type from the internet.  This simulation was also shared with parents during the coffee.
Following this Glenn Char presented on the subject of digital security,   The presentation elaborated on the differences between filtered and unfiltered networks and what this means for families when iPads leave the school grounds at both elementary and middle school levels.
The presentation is embedded below.

The Home Network Security Page on the iPad Wiki was shared as a resource for parents in regards to securing their home networks.  A call to your internet service provider or a visit to a retail store selling routers and interent connection equipment followed by a conversation with a sales person was recommended to steer parents in the right direction.  Remember, regardless of what type of content filter you employ in your house, the  best filter will always be you.  Talk to your child often about what to do when they encounter inappropriate sites on the internet as well as why it's important not to purposely visit these sites.
Our next coffee topic is social networking on November 15th.

A Google A Day

"Information is powerful, but it is how we use it that will define us."
 -Zack Matere, Kenyan Farmer.

There is no denying the need to teach kids how to search for information on the internet in efficient, safe manners.  There are few sites that teach this skill better than A Google A Day.

A Google A Day is a web search engine by google that helps sharpen search skills by those who participate.
The game is quite simple in design: you're given a question and need to find the answer.
Your efforts are timed, and usually take several layers of searching to arrive at the desired outcome, however, there is of course more than one way to discover the answers. Hints can be given along the way if you get really stuck.

Users can go back in time to complete questions on days they missed, and of course, you could repeat the search of any question as many times as you'd like, trying different query approaches.

Along with the game, is the resource, "Tips and Tricks" which includes the link to "Google Inside Search," where users can learn even more about successful searching techniques in the "Features" and "More Help" sections. (There's plenty more to do at the "Google Inside Search" page, such as enjoy and learn the meanings of all the Google Logos that have graced the past Google pages).

"A Google A Day" is an excellent resource for teachers to use with students together or pass on to students for their own independent study. It can be used as bell work at the beginning of class.  I can imagine classes breaking up into teams to compete against each other, or graphing their best times each day. Each daily answer could also lead to even more research for students.

The site is open at the middle school, not sure about the elementary.