The challenges i see for me would be once again using the many softwares in my classroom. Because of this class, i have truly started to embrace using software on a daily basis.Another problem is that i don'thave that many computers in my classroom and it is a constant challenge to apise all my students. and its quite difficult to continuly ask the computer instructor or the administrators to help with the downloads all the time.
Now some good things that i see about open source software is it has something for everyone. by this I mean , their are some software programs for students that are really available. www.gliffy.comis a good software because kids in my math class could create cool graphs for projects and to put in thier math journals.www.kidrocket.org is great because students could be interactive with it while still getting the essential skills needed, basically having fun while learning. www.survymonkey.com is good as well because it is a good way to get feedback from your students to better understand them and have them have a say in their education.
!
Welcome to the one-stop place for
!
MATN Webinars!
Use this site (wiki) to learn when and where to find an upcoming MATN webinar. Or, access the archive of a previous presentations and review the questions and answers posted by the participants and presenter.
MATN_OS_Webinar_11-07-07.pdf
Add your thoughts about Open Source software here.
Laura Hoffman
B) Discuss the challenge(s) that you need to overcome in your setting
My first challenge is lowering my guard and trusting that the software will work and not create a mess on my computer. I am not a "like it, click it, download it" kind of person. My first thought is usually that it will not work the way it's supposed to and/or it will somehow end up being full of viruses and crash my computer. That's my challenge just on my home computer. My setting for using Open Source would mainly be at school, which doesn't always allow downloads to happen. These downloads could be something that is supposed to be just fine, but the firewall settings/network of CCPS has a mind of it's own.
The second challenge is that as an elementary school teacher I have to worry about what would happen if a student typed a web address incorrectly. In the past, the way around that was to create a word document with the web address in hyperlink, so the student just needs to open the document instead of starting on the web. The extra effort isn't that much, but again, it's just thinking through the 'what ifs' that are the biggest challenges for me.
C) Describe the ways in which you can use the information presented
The first few things that were shared really didn't apply to my classroom - OS, web browsers, and office programs are things I have on the computers already. I could, however, share this information with parents at the beginning of the school year so that if they are unable to buy those things, they can have the free version. I could use the educational software for planning lessons or incorporate it into a lesson. The social media could be used as a class site for parents/students/me. I could use podcasting for assessment season.
Ashley Kretzer
b) Challenges that I need to overcome
I think that open source software will open many doors for myself and my students as I deliver instruction on a daily basis. There are some things that I need to work through, however, as I begin to learn about and utilize open source. First of all, I think I just need to learn more! I am a kinesthetic learner so while I learn a lot from reading about these software choices, I need to actually begin downloading them and playing with them so that I am comfortable with them. If I do not take the time soon to use these new ideas, I am likely to never use them. Which leads me to my next challenge: time. I need to find the time to learn how to use the programs and then find the time to teach my students how to use the programs, as well. It is also difficult to find the accessibility for my students to use this technology. I work in a one computer classroom and often do not have the technology necessary for all students to benefit.
c) Ways I can use the information presented
I intend to constantly learn and use new technologies in my classroom. I love to use technology and see the ways that it benefits my students with their motivation and progress. I have decided to create a wiki this year to use with my partents because I will be the only math teacher in the first grade. I feel that on a wiki I can mass deliver information to parents and they can post their ideas, thoughts, or questions to me. I think that while the wiki will create more work for me that I will be saving time in the end because everything will be put into one location and I don't think I will be repeating myself as often or answering the same question multiple times. I also learned about the following programs that I would like to test out in my room: Big Daddy's Math Drills (for addition and subtraction tables), Bingo Cards, Gcompris (to help students read an analog clock), Tux Math Scrabble (for a center), Kid Rocket (for a center to review skills and as a web browsing/e-mail tool), and Power Talk (so that students can hear my power point presentations read to them).
- The survey on Survey Monkey had been taken down, but here are my answers: 1) no 2) no 3) yes 4) yes
Shawn Hampt
b) Using open source software is a great way to engage this new generation of kids/students growing up in this exponentially growing technology world we're living in today. I feel that the most challenging part of incorporation will be getting the majority of us teachers on board, but not like many would think. Some think that teachers get stuck in their ways and refuse to change when in fact the good teachers actually welcome "positive" change... the hardest part is getting the technology in our hands and giving us the time and resources to make the most use of it in your classrooms. Once that hurdle is overcome I think the use of Web 2.0 tech and future updates will find a much more welcoming home in public education.
c) The way in which I am using open source tech is by designing class blogs, wikis, and webpages for up and coming school year and classes. I plan to give my kids the most opportunities they have had in a single class to investigate, interact and get involved with their learning. Survey Monkey will be use throughout the courses to asses the usefulness of the technologies the students are using day in and day out. I am going to make a concerted effort to expose as much technology to my students in a practical manor so they are better equipped to handed life after high school.
Beth Tasch
Challenges:
The challenges in using the open source software that I would face within my classroom are the availability of use, the time for implementation, and the confidence to integrate.
The availability of using the software is the first issue. In my classroom, I have only one computer for students to use. Although there is the option of using the computer lab, the lab computers don’t always all work and the number of computers is often less than the number of students. A teacher needs to be well planned in order to know when she needs the lab, yet she also needs to be flexible, because the students’ pace is not always the teacher’s which makes the computer lab connection sometimes difficult.
Another challenge is the time to implement this software. Putting technology use into an already crowded curriculum is difficult. The primary goal for the year, within a Reading Language Arts class, is to prepare students to score proficient or advanced on the MSA test. Vocabulary improvement, reading comprehension, and written expression are the focus. Although open source software may make the learning more interactive, such sources take time to teach and to integrate into a day’s work.
Lastly, for me, a challenge is having the confidence to use the sources. I am not very comfortable with technology; I have much to learn and realize that the students know a lot more than me which makes me feel at a disadvantage. I guess that I need to just take one step at a time and slowly learn…and try to integrate technology into my curriculum.
Uses:
I can use open source software in the following ways:
www.surveymonkey.com is a great source to use to get a quick poll on students’ opinions.
www.wikispace.com is another source that I could use to have students post journal reflections about literature that they read.
www.classtools.netis a resource that I could use, or my students, to get templates to embed into wikispaces or blogs.
www.brainpop.com is another source for interactive language arts activities.
Solution watch also provides a list of ways in which to use web 2.0 products such as word processing venues like google.docs, writely, zoho writer, and writeboard and mind mapping sources such as mayomi and gliffy. Perhaps students could use these sources for the writing process.
http://www.solutionwatch.com/515/back-to-school-with-the-class-of-web-20-part-2/
Becky Moser
Challenges
1. Downloading programs that are not approved by the school board.
2. The inability to manipulate the software to fit your needs.
3. Supporting the curriculum. Will the activities/assignments align with the curriculum or are you doing it just because it’s fun and cool.
4. Could you put the software on all the computers in the computer lab? Or could you only use it on one computer?
5. Would/could it be used for whole group, small group, or individuals?
Use of information
1. The ability to search by school level. Many things involve students to read independently. Primary students aren’t fluent readers, so it’s nice to be able to search for grade appropriate software.
2. There was software that could be used for multiple grade levels. There was a bingo card maker that had letters, words, and pictures. This works for non-readers as well as for fluent readers.
3. There was software that could meet individual needs of students. Software that could read aloud to students, as well as help them learn how to type. Some of the things may help meet accommodations that could be in a student’s IEP.
4. Mozilla Firefox can be a great web browser because you can put add-ons that can help students navigate to certain websites.
Beth Pugh
B. The challenges that I see in my classroom setting seem to be recurring themes in my responses. More specifically, with these tools, there is quite a bit of emphasis on student and parent participation outside the classroom. At my school, we have a noticable dichotomy of students in their respective socio-economic statuses. In a class so focused on differentiantion, I have to ask myself, "What about the other half?" Our challenge in the future might just be NOT becoming to intertwined with technology so that we forget that not everyone has equal access at home.
C. Having said the above, I'll completely contradict myself and say the goals (or "try-outs") that I want to achieve. I really liked the idea of Gliffy. As we all know, the diagrams and idea webs that we often use (the lovoely ones that come with the textbook) don't always suit the specific needs of our students. This offers a way to custom-make them, perhaps more than one version for increased differentiation purposes. On the freeware.intrastar.net website, I found quite a few tools that I could make use of, administratively. It's the little things that make a classroom culture, like singing Happy Birthday in Spanish. The one link on the site offers a birthday scanner. I didn't have the oppportunity to play around with it, but i'm guessing there's a little bit of upfront work to put birthdays into the system, but then reminders are sent automatically. This would eliminate the embarassment of the teacher looking like a forgetful idiot when the students say, "It's someone's birthday today!" As a final comment, podcasting (if it were supported and permitted) would be an interesting way to transmit information from teacher to student, or student to student. I'm not quite sure what I think of that yet...
Pat White
Challenges:
I am fortunate to have 12 computers in my classroom for the students, and another for me. One big challenge will be the speed of the internet. At this time, it is as slow as dial-up at FSK. We are supposed to get FIOS this summer with all the promise of speed. One way to overcome this is to give them activities that are either already loaded on the computers or the schools intranet site, or give them things to do while waiting for the sites to load. I'll have to see how slow things are before I decide what I have to do. Another challenge is myself any my lack of experience and time. I often have to force myself to do something new. If the first challenge is not a problem, it will be easier for me to make technological changes to the curriculum.
Using it:
The first thing I looked into was Audacity – the sound recording and editing program. Ashley mentioned it to me last year, but I didn't look into it. I often encourage my students to push what they do with their power points. Some have added sound, but have a hard time with that. I have a website I use for bird songs. Being able to capture those sounds and use them in my presentation will add an additional dimension to presentations.
Due to several students that do not have Microsoft on their home computers, I have started using OpenOffice (I am doing this on OpenOffice right now). The word documents and spread sheets seem to be identical, and the power points are different, but with not a lot of learning curve.
In the free software directory in the science area there is a program called Sispread that simulates the spread of an infectious disease. I spend a good amount of time in several different classes on diseases and their spread.
In Debian – there are lots of programs dealing with graphics. For some reason, I get a lot of students that are into graphics. There might be some programs that enables these students to develop presentations more graphically, a good way to differentiate assessment.
Wiki will become something that I plan on making a part of my curriculum, from posting my sylabus, expectations and class requirements before the first day of school to posting assignments daily with documents for students that are out. Also, using the Wiki as a site to get additional information on a project with hyperlinks will make instructions easier for both the students and myself.
Challenges
I’ll be the first to admit that there are several challenges that I need to overcome. There are several websites, and software programs that I am aware of, but I fail to incorporate them into my less because the time it takes to learn how to use to utilize them properly. Oftentimes, when I am exposed to new information, I need to have hands on experience with it or I wont try it all. For example, I heard the word “pod cast” several times. My friend who is a verizon wireless customer, would bragging about how great it was to have pod cast on her cell phone. Due to the fact that I had never tried it, or inquired about the purpose of pod cast, I simply ignored the possible advantages.
Time is of the essence in the classroom! There is a limited amount of time to instruct students, give directions, break students into groups, evaluate them there work, etc. I am often overwhelmed with the how time consuming certain technological driven activities can be. Nevertheless, I believe that with precise planning I can overcome this challenge.
As an educator, I sometime find my self afraid or nervous to step away from what I already know and try new things. I love PowerPoint’s and using the Clicker System because I am comfortable with it and every one uses it. I am afraid that trying new things may invite conflict with my school’s administrators who are not so open minded They are more concerned with teaching strictly for the yearly standardized test (DC-CAS), and sticking with the paced timeframe that is given. I am certain that they will be convinced once they see the how much the students benefit from the hands-on use of technological resources.
Ways in which I can use the information presented
I absolutely love surveymonkey.com! I was not familiar with survey monkey and it uses until I took this course. I have actually created a mid year survey for my students and plan to do end of the year evaluation using the site. Because I was give the challenge to create different types of questions, and forced to sign up, I have visited the site several times since the class first began.
I was recently introduced to Skype by my sixteen year old sister. I haven’t been able to stop skyping since I purchased my webcam. I plan to allow my students to skype for the first time this year during science fair season. The plan is for my student to collaborate with another local middle school to share ideas and critic each others projects.
Challenges
One the challenges I foresee is changing our students mindset from that of an extrinsic motivation to that of an intrinsic one. We have trained our students to perform for grades, rewards and notoriety versus learning for knowledge and self gratification. We have also taken the fun out of learning. Everything is centered around standardized testing instead of teaching creatively and towards the whole-child. Influencing teachers to stop this one sided approach and lean towards using the Universal Design will be a big challenge.
Another challenge for my setting would be teachers working out of their comfort zone. Everyone is not excited about technology. People tend to use what they are comfortable with.
In addition, there are some classrooms that don't have access to computers or students who outside of school do not have access to computers. This could make some access to software challenging.
Usefulness
The information presented could be very beneficial to the teacher who is looking for other avenues in which to acquire information, present information, scaffold instruction or simply improve their instruction. This webinar offers a plethora of information and options to differentiate teacher lessons and projects.
The most useful outcome of utilizing the Open Source Software is that students would be offered various means to receive and display their learning. These software options would allow the flexibility needed to reach all students. Heacox notes the importance of flexibility and differentiation in almost every chapter of her book. Teachers need to be pliable enough to serve whatever academic need that shows up within the classroom.
I thouroughly enjoyed the new resources such as www.surveymonkey.com This website is a very non-threatening way in which to collect information and assess prior knowledge before planning or starting a lesson.
The wikis phenomenon is fairly new to me, but yet again an excellent tool to have students utilized to share and convey information.
The main challenge in my particular situation is the lack of computers with internet access. Only one of the two computers in my classroom connects. While the laptops connect, there are not enough for the entire class (must pair up), and we are assigned one 45 minute computer period a week; any other time must be cleared by the technology coordinator. I am also unsure of the capabilities of the available computers; the requirements to run some of the software may be too great.
While I still have not had the chance to explore every link provided, a few have caught my attention and struck me as useful within my classroom:
Skype: This technology was very new to me when a parent approached me late in the past school year, but we were actually able to set up a Skype session while the parent was in Israel. While it wasn’t the greatest experience due to the time difference, I discovered what a cool resource this can be!
PowerTalk: In the spring I teach my students about the solar system and guide them through the process of creating a slide show to present to their parents. I think that this could be a very useful tool for some of my students.
Wikis: While my first graders are not ready for this, I also teach 5th grade Social Studies and hope to use a Wiki at some point this year to give students a new way of sharing information.
SurveyMonkey: I was very happy to use this early on in our course. I have since used it three times (once with 1st grade and twice with 5th) and the students have had no trouble using it, and I gained valuable information from their responses.
1) Module Six: Assignment 1 Web 2.0 Tools:
a) View the Webinar "Open Source Software…Try for Free Before You Buy: Quick and Easy AT Solutions for All" by going to http://matnwebinars.pbwiki.com/ .
As you view the webinar, be prepared to reflect on the following:
b) In the application of Open Source Software, be ready to discuss the challenge(s) that you need to overcome in your setting.
One of the main challenges I would have to overcome is not getting lost in all of the different sites. I would have to take the time to sift through all sites and really pick out the ones that could be useful for my students. I also would then need to really follow through with using it.
Also with the downloading of the programs: sometimes I feel that you really have to try it before you download it. I feel as for some of the sites I have downloaded programs for, after the download I notice that the program isn’t what I expected or far too confusing or hard to use.
c) Describe the ways in which you can use the information presented.
In your class at the beginning of the year you could do a survey online to get every ones input and then maybe half way through the year you could do another one to see if people are actually liking about your class and what they don’t like. www.surveymonkey.com
Another thing which I use in my classroom is my blog: www.fulmerbiology.blogspot.com I post my lessons on there and the homework that is due for class so my students have somewhere else to go if they forgot what it was or if they are going to be absent (excused) they are able to look what we did in class.
For my special education paperwork, I just starting exploring with google forms. I can have the teachers fill out the information that I used to place in their box now it is online and saves to a spreadsheet.
I can use this information presented in my classroom by stepping outside of the box and everything does not need to be done with me lecturing and using the traditional text book. There are 1000s of websites that you can use to help you differentiate the lessons. The students might not even realize that they are learning when they are!
Response of Nicholas DiMichael
b). My challenges are twofold: One, lack of access to computers in the classroom, two student knowledge of computer use for academic purposes. On the first point, I only have six computers in my classroom (and an even smaller number that work) how I am supposed to get a class of 30 or more (my average class size) around six computers is beyond me. Sure there is a computer lab in my school-a school of over 2,700! How I can access computers for the whole class on a consistent basis continues to elude me. How I incorporate technology use for all my students when I only see them for a limited time is also an issue. While I am not averse to using it, how I get my students to use technology on a consistent basis when I only see them for a limited time is a question I still struggle to find an answer to.
To the second point, that my students are tech-savvy I have no doubt about. I do question their ability to apply this saviness to academic study. In the past I have given them access to technology to help them do research for a project (.e.g. a short bio of a major figure in US History). Instead of original works supported by research, I get copies of someone else's research-usually a copy of the wikipedia page about that person in history. The quote from the presentation about the universe winning in the quest to produce more idiots unfortunately has relevance. Ironically, when my students are barred from using technology I get fairly good originial, thorough pieces of work. Too often for my students technology=funtime, and not technology =a fun tool to help me learn and understand.
c). I have begun to use surveymonkey.com as a way of starting a lesson. In order to accomodate the lack of technological access I have put the tests in printed word document form. I have also incorporated a "technology research ethics" element into my teaching. That way I can send studetns out into the world not only knowing about technology but how to use it. Working with students I help them to discriminate between reliable and unreliable information on the Web and try to incorporate in-depth research and not just peripheral information. For example, sure you can get a short, superficial weather report on your iPHone, but can you give me a detailed weather report? What other methods can you use to get me details about the weather in the coming days? How do I know info. you are giving me is reliable.
If the children and workforce of tomorrow have tech-savvy but no way of processing and discriminating and accessing useful information, then the link between technological and social/education progress will have completely broken down. For example, in 2001 NY Times columnist traveled to the Middle East and met with Muslim children there who were glad that Al Gore lost the 2000 election. Why were they glad? Because Al Gore is Jewish (or so they thought. According to the Almanac of American Politics 2000 Gore is a Baptist). Why did they think Gore was Jewish? Because it said so on the Internet!
Putting aside the disgusting anti-Semitism rampant in this story it is helpful to remember what this story teaches us (other than the horror that anti-Semitism still exists): If we cannot teach our children how to ethically use technology, we are leaving behind nothing but the keys to moral obtuseness and a life where they can be easily manipulated by others who may not have their best interests at heart.
Dana Pugh's Post
a) There would be many challenges for me to use this software in my classroom. The first would be to for me to learn more about these programs. All of this was like a foreign language to me when I viewed the webinar. I am still not very clear on some of the aspects of open source. Once I feel confident to use some of these programs in my classroom, I would face the challenge of having adequate time to teach my students how to use this. Also, first graders need explicit instruction to complete a task and their experience with computer use varies. In order to download programs on computers at school we need administrative capabilities. In a school of almost 900 students, it is difficult to get administrators in the classrooms to put these tools on our computers.
b) I found several “kid-friendly” software programs that would be appropriate for primary students to use. Others that I found to use would make my lessons more engaging. Using Powertalk at http://fullmeasure.co.uk/powertalk to read powerpoints aloud is a useful tool. http://gliffy.com would be great to use with students as well because students are able to draw diagrams and graphic organizers can be created so students can use them on the computer to complete various writing activities such as summarizing a text. I think that I would use http://kidrocket.com the most. I was very impressed with this site, especially for students in primary grades. Having a site that is specifically for kids where they can email, play games, and use the art application is a great starting point for younger students. Parents and administrators can control the site with the timer as well.
Matt Kendall's Post
What are some of the challenges?
In my setting the largest challenges thatI need to overcome in order to be able to let students utilize open source software is access to the internet and access to computers. Since I am the Physical Education teacher the majority of my lessons occur in a temporary Trailer, outside on the blacktop or in the cafeteria/multipurpose room. In these area's we do not have internet access or machines. Instaed of using this as an excuse, I have taken an informal survey to see how many kids have access to the web and how many of them actually have personal computers that they can use. Around 35% of the students in 3rd-5th have a PC and internet Access. An additional10% have access to a PC. This lead nme to think of two solutions; 1. most of the assignments will be done as homework and 2. all assignments will have a two week time frame to complete.
After speaking with classroom teachers I found out that students could access computers during inclement weather during recess. (each classroom has at least 5). This would allow students to complete or explore some of the programs I would like them to. At the school we also have a mobile lab. With instruction times so tight, students do not have time to complete my assignments so I will be opening the school for an open computer lab in the media center after school that kids can complete the assignmentsif they do not have access. Once I get the students on I will be able to complete some of my work so the burden will not be so bad. Hopefully, I can give them access to other programs that they can explore after they complete their assignments.
One item that I am grateful for is that I am the tech person for the building and I have Admin Rights so I do not have tpo worry about waiting for someone to load a good program on a PC. I also know the process to get software reviewed and approved throughout the county.
Ways I can use open source software.
Blogger.com - This is an easy way to get students input without taking up valuable class time. A student could easily write a few sentences a week in a PE blog and make it a lot easier for me to keep some of their journal information organized.
G Typist, Ktouch, Makin' Bacon, and Tux Typing- All of these are typing programs. This is a skill that is not taught in elementary school curriculum, but is something that we need to address. The MSA tests in Elementary Science for the 5th grade have brief constructive responses that must be typed because the test is taken entirely on the PC.
BMI Tracker- This is a cool program that I found. it allows the kids to track their Body Mass Index and keep track of it over a fitness unit. I will use this next year for my fitness classes.
Sportstracker- This program allows you to track activity. This program will also be useful when I do fitness units. The kids can log in sports activities that they do and create some graphs and charts on the information
Elizabeth's reflection
In the application of Open Source Software, be ready to discuss the challenge(s) that you need to overcome in your setting.
Foremost, I think the biggest challenge would be in sifting through all the free, available educational software and websites! I am so impressed with the quality of open source software that are readily available and free to download and use. The challenge would be in finding the best programs that I'd actually use in the classroom to meet the needs of my students. I would need time (!) to actually identify the programs that have instructional value and that tie with the curriculum. Also, they have to be reliable without any major problems of running it in the classroom!
Another challenge would be actually downloading them on the classroom computer or the computers in the computer lab. At our school, only the IT administrator can actually download software and other applications. I'd have to first place a request and on his available assigned days, and then he can download them only if they're on our districts' approved list. That may involve a lengthy turnaround time. I'd like to share the webinar with our Tech support staff so others can benefit from all the available resources to enhance our teaching and learning/ The Promethean Boards we have in each classroom would enhance the use of Open Source Software as well.
Describe the ways in which you can use the information presented.
-
www.keasoftware.com/kea-coloring-book-windows
I found this to be easy to use and fun! Kids can mix colors and color in the pictures. There are also fun sound effects as well. It offers up to 20 colors and a palette to mix them. I can use this website for one of Kindergarten lessons that I teach about mixing colors.
-
http://www.tuxpaint.org/
According to the website, "Tux Paint is a free, award-winning drawing program for children ages 3 to 12 (preschool and K-6). It combines an easy-to-use interface, fun sound effects, and an encouraging cartoon mascot who guides children as they use the program.” It's comparable to Kidpix with the exception of audio recording features. However, it does have neat stamps and imaging filters!
-
http://www.tux4kids.alioth.debian.org/
I found other Tux software for kids like TuxTyping and TuxMath valuable learning tools for kids! I can use Tuxtyping, an educational typing tutor for children, to teach them how to type in English and reinforce alphabet skills. Though I don't teach math, I can share TuxMath with my collegues who teach math.
-
www.surveymonkey.com
I think this resource is a fantastic tool to not only get to know more my students and their families, but also use it to plan out instruction by getting student feedback on lessons/units before and after teaching them.
5. www.gliffy.com
I use graphic organizers all the time with all my ESOL students in K-5th. They can be easily modified for users of varying English proficiency levels. They can use this site to organize their ideas for writing or presenting their information visually.
________________________________________________
There are many challenges that I need to overcome in my teaching. I need to adapt more various technology approaches for my special education students. The first challenge that I would face is teaching my students to use the websites and being able to apply the concepts and strategies learned or taugh towards their learning. If they are learning a strategy on a website they need to take that to their work in the classroom and deomstrate understanding. The other challenge is when a good time to modify work or not. The majority of the time I modify but it will be difficult for me to judge if a webiste activity or assignment should be modified. I think the the different softwares that I liked will challenge them so I am eage to see what they can do.
There were some that stood out more than others but the following were very interesting and easy to manuever for my students.
www.stickynotes.net- I teach my students to take notes or write down questions that have during an activity or assignment on a sticky note. Sometimes you can use sticky notes or post its as an accommidation on their IEP.
www.surverymonkey.com- This is a great tool to use for activites. As a teacher you could use it as an assignment or getting to know your students in the beginning of the year. Also you can use it as an evaluation for several different reasons, if the students understood the material, liked how you presented the information, what you could hvae done different. Another reason I liked it was because the students could use it and make a survey on their own. It is very user friendly and gives great directions.
www.kidrocket.org- Students can create puzzles for different academic areas. It is a fun way to use as a reinforcer of skills and also could be used as a center. This would allow f for students to use technology while learning. It is interactive to keep their attention and still teach concepts making it fun.
www.gliffy.com- This software was cool because you can have the students create different graphs for different reasons. These could be used as tool kits for those students who are allowed to use as an accomodation on their IEP. This could be used as an independent assignment or whole group activity.
Terry's Webinar Refelction
!
a. ) There would be many challenges I would face in utilizing the open source software. My first challenge would be how to effectively add the software to my curriculum. The second challenge I would have is rotating my students on one computer to experience the programs. The final problem I might have in a gymnasium/physical education setting is finding the time to introduce my students to the software given the fact that I only have them once a week for a fifty minute period.
b. ) There are a few ways I have already planned on using the resources presented for the next school year. The first thing I plan on utilizing is my wiki site http://bullfrogpe.pbwiki.com/.This site will allow for my students and parents to get involved in the learning process as well as allow me to reflect on my lessons and my students understanding. Another resource I will utilize is my blog I create located at http://bullfrogpe.blogspot.com/.This site will allow me to comunicate with my students and parents and keep them "in the learning loop" to understand expectations in Bullfrog physical education.
Randy's Webinar Reflection
!
a.) While browsing through a lot of the open-source possibilities, many thoughts crossed my mind when thinking about implementing them. One of the questions that I had was about the support my students (and I) would need to successfuly use these programs. Some of them take many steps for their use. With time shortage being a factor in my classroom, chances are I would be demonstrating these programs to small groups of students. Another factor is resources in a classroom setting. As others have mentioned, the use of a computer lab would be necessary. Fortunately for our school, we have a large facility for our class to use. However, scheduling conflicts always occur for the use of the lab. I plan on sharing some of these programs with my colleagues, while implementing them in small steps.
b.) The major problem that occured while checking out all of the programs was deciding which ones to use. I think for the most part, each one can play a key role in differentiating instruction in my classroom. I have already set up a wiki page for student-teacher interaction at this site: http://barnes208.wikispaces.com . I plan on using www.surveymonkey.com to create short classroom surveys. I believe by implementing the speaking PowerPoint slides, I will be able to effectively reach those students who may have reading difficulties.
David Nguyen Webinar Reflection
A) In the application of Open Source Software, the challenges that I will need to overcome would be learning how to use the program and all that it has for the upcoming school year. I believe that the information will make teaching less difficult for myself because of all it has to offer. It is a great source for teaching ideas and lessons to differentiate in the classroom. It would definitely an on going learning experience, but a very positive one geared towards our society’s future.Like other stated, I think my biggest obstacle would be 1) getting computer lab time and getting around the firewalls and blocked sites that are connected to our student networks. I also think it was almost too much information. I had a hard time deciding where to go next and keeping it all straight . I can't even imagine a new teacher or student trying to navigate through all the information.
B) Some ways to use Open Source Software:
Completing the module during class has made me realize that blogging web sites are the thing of the future and a great source to use in the educational world. We as a population use facebook, IM chats as a source of social blogging, teachers can use education blogging sites to pass information to parents and students.
I would love to use wikipages/spaces for students to reflect their ideas and learning in the classroom on different subjects. Students would be able to comment on their peer’s ideas and post their own thoughts and ideas as well.
www.surveymonkey.com is a good site for teachers to get to know their students on a personal level as well as an educational level. Plus it is a lot more enjoyable then a pencil and paper activity.
www.gliffy.com is a great site for creating a graphic organizer for writing or reading as well as flow charts. This would have been great resource to use during writing for students to organize their ideas and thoughts as well as their writings.
Shiasia's Webinar Reflection:
a) This was a great webinar! It provided so many open source resources that I was not aware before viewing it. One challenge in implementing some of the new resources is the number of computers that are available to each classroom in my school. Unfortunately, each teacher only has one computer for use with at least 20 children, in addition to one 45 minute period in the computer lab each week. It would take a very long time to complete projects and assignments with such limited use.
b) Some ways to use Open Source Software: 1- I would love to use PowerTalk http://fullmeasure.co.uk/powertalk/ to create differentiated projects outlined on Powerpoint presentations to help students with reading difficulties follow directions independently. 2- http://www.wikispaces.comkeeping would be a great for keeping a class log of learnings from a science or social studies unit; kind of like an ongoing K-W-L. 3-FreeMind -http://freemind.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/Main_Page#Get_a_taste_of_FreeMindwould be great software for mind mapping concepts throughout the curriculum. 4- Jarnal http://www.dklevine.com/general/software/tc1000/jarnal.htm to keep a writer's journal for seed writing ideas. 5- I would also like to use the Free Software Directory- http://directory.fsf.org/category/elem/ to search for appropriate computer based games for use with math and reading/language arts center activities.
Kristine's Webinar Reflections:
a) I had never seen a webinar before and after watching this one, I can see how this could be a great learning tool. I was so amazed and enjoyed listening and watching. It was a new and exciting way to learn new information. The webinar gave great information and I have already begun to search many of the sites provided. I do find it very time consuming, but I do a little searching each day. The webinar gives great information about open source software and I plan to introduce the software to my team. If my entire team would participate and search the open software then we all can gather an abundance of information. However, as a Kindergarten teacher I do find that many of the sources aren't developmentally appropriate. I do try to modify things but since time is an issue it makes it very difficult. I do know there are sources that are appropriate for my students and I plan to continue to search and encourage my teammates to do the same. Once again, I really enjoyed the webinar. Technology seems to keep amazing me :-)
b) Below are some ideas that I have already thought of on how to implement the resources given to me:
- http://www.kidrocket.org This is a great way to make sure kids are being safe when they are using the internet. It was very kid friendly!
- http://www.eduhound.com/hotlist To provide a list of site to my students. For example if there are some websites with games that are reinforcing what they are learning in Math, I could make a list so they could go to them during center time.
*http://fullmeasure.co.uk/powertalk/ This is a great way to present information through a power point that speaks the text. This would be very helpful during back to school night.
I know there are many more resources that I will learn about and implement in my classroom. I plan to continue to search and hopefully continue to find great things!
Terry's Webinar Reflections:
Let me begin by saying I was blown away with the entire webinar presentation. I had no idea you could set something like that up to reach out to a captive audience. Webinar's are defintely the wave of the future. I personally enjoyed the information, becuase a good part of it summarized a number of the free software applications we have already used.
I will defintely use the Web 2.0 tools in the future such as blogger.com, pbwiki.com, and odeo.com to possibly create audio presentations for my students to listen to at home. I really think the talking power-points would be a great way to introduce objectives based on grade levels to parents. Most parents do not visit specialists on back to school night and this would be a great way for them to find out what will be expected from their children in art, music, and physical education. Eduhound.com is a final site that I would link fo the students to possibly reasearch information regarding fitness or nutrition.
I know for a fact that Great Seneca Creek can defintely utilize this software to enhance the learning that takes place in our building. I'm interested to know the rules and laws as they relate to Montgomery County in allowing our students to interact and utilize the different software.
Carrie's Reflection:
Challenges: Wow, that was a lot of information! One of the first challenges is finding the time to actually go through all of the open source software applications and websites. And not only going through it, but figuring out how all of it works! Since I tend to be technically challenged and more of an auditory learner, some of the websites that I looked at were pretty overwhelming! Another challenge would be downloading some of the webrowsers or getting through some of the firewalls or blocked sites at our school. For example, I went onto http://odeo.com and am wondering if I could get on that site at school (I will try tomorrow). And as always, a big challenge would be that I only have 1 extra computer in my classroom. It would be hard for more than 1 student to benefit from these resources at a time. Furthermore, it is really hard to sign out the computer lab so that is another issue.
Ways to use the information: So I had some time to actually look through many of the websites. This is what I found to be very useful. First of all, I like the http://mozilla.org/webrowser because it is really fast. Also, I found a text to speech program on it that I am intending to use with my students to differentiate instruction. I also like the http://gliffy.comwebsite. It has a lot of cool diagrams and flowcharts that students can create. You can even send the diagrams to others via emails or through wikis. I believe though that it is only free for 30 days and then there is a fee of 5$ per month. I am not sure if I want to pay for it :( The http://odeo.com website had some good audio resources on such health topics as H1N1 and fetal alcohol syndrome. I could definitely use that in my health classes. I only found audio sources on that website, but would like to find video as well. When I have more time, I will keep searching. I also liked the http://kidrocket.org website but think it was too elementary for my students. I definitely like the idea of talking power points and creating a class wiki. In fact one of my goals is to create a class wiki using wikispaces.com. I just need more TIME! But, my goal is to have one done the winter break.
Shirley's Webinar Reflection:
a) As I viewed the webinar, I was astonished at the wealth of information it contains. I could see how some of us can be taken back by the overwhelming resources. I think my challenge is to trust the sources provided and take the time to explore some of them. Given that our time is stretched to maximum, it can be a challenge to explore them all, so I think I will pick and choose from ones that I find interesting. Since the webinar is all about open source software, I think I will suggest to the leadership team as we prepare for the inservice week if the staff could view it. I'm sure that many of my colleagues would take interest in the use of some of the information in it. Since my school is due to get the promethean boards this year, access to many of the open sources will be more convenient than ever. I just need to explore some in school to ensure that the software is operable on our network.
b) Below are some ways that I think I can use in the classroom:
~ http://freeware.intrastar.net/organize.htm Use the Digital Diary to keep track of day to day activities and the Notekeeper to manage information students may be collecting for an assignment. It is a one stop location to store notes and images in virtual folders in one file. Many notes and images can be stored in a single NoteKeeper file and can be grouped into flexible virtual folders enabling easy access at all times.
~ http://www.surveymonkey.com/ Use the online surveys to learn more about my students, get feedback on specific assignments, and to plan units to include my students' interests.
~ http://www.dklevine.com/general/software/tc1000/jarnal.htm Use for notetaking, sketching, keeping a journal, making presentations.
~ http://www.printfreegraphpaper.com/ This site is perfect for science and math homework, craft projects and other graph paper needs. All graph paper files are optimized PDF documents that can be printed on a transparency for sharp graph paper overheads.
~ http://directory.fsf.org/project/TuxPaint/ Tux Paint is a simple, easy-to-use drawing program for children. It provides a fixed canvas size, one-click saving and thumbnail-based browsing and loading. Large icons, simple labels and prompts, and the ability to display only uppercase characters and disable features like printing, quitting, and certain prompts make it easy for very young children and the disabled. Tools include a paintbrush, lines, shapes, text , a large eraser, a rubber stamp tool with dozens of pre-drawn and photographic images, and a collection of "magic" special effects tools. Multiple levels of undo and redo are available. A cartoon version of "Tux," the Linux penguin helps explain what's going on. Additional stamps, fonts and brushes can be added easily.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Raegan's Webinar Reflections
a) This was the first webinar I had ever watched and thought it was an extremely cool way to interact with others while obtaining so much useful information. I found it especially helpful that I could pause, go check out some of the links mentioned, or replay bits of information that I needed to hear again. I have already started to explore some of the open source software links that were mentioned in the presentation. This will be a time consuming process, but I feel that it will be time well spent. With so many options to choose from, I think it will be challenging to find the best program to suit the needs of my learners. Once I am able to explore the variety of open source software that is out there, I will then need to select several programs to explore in depth to become comfortable with using it so I can teach students how to use it during school. Since so many subject areas have open source software available, it is probably best to focus on one academic area at a time and then explore/familiarize yourself with programs from there. It is critical to make sure that the programs you are using are reliable and have been tested. A program with glitches and bugs is of no use to anyone. A barrier to using some of the open source software would be the limited number of computers for students to use each day in the classroom. The school's computers and network would also need to be compatible with the software so that it could work properly. It would be neccessary to make sure that the school's search engines did not block any of the sites you planned to use.
b) After exploring only a fraction of the sites mentioned on the webinar, I already have some ideas of how to implement some of the open source software. I will continue to explore the ideas this summer so they are ready to go at the start of the school year.
*http://www.eduhound.com/hotlist- to provide a list of research links for students in various content areas as well as linking homework resources and math practice sites for studetns to use. Eduhound.com would also help to facilitate a web scavenger hunt or webquest with my students.
*http://www.surveymonkey.com - to have my students provide feeback on longterm projects or the instruction of a unit, as well as to find out their learning styles and preferences.
*http://www.gliffy.com - to help students organize items via graphic organizers or to help them break things down to explain their thinking graphically.
*http://www.koffice.org- a variety of processing programs are available, but I liked how you could use kchart to help students record data in math or science. It is easy to compare, and to change the format of the data.
*http://www.kidrocket.org - to create a secure site for students to search the web. I love how it requires a password!
*http://www.blogger.com or creating a wiki page - for students to post reactions to what we are reading in class or current topics of study.
Anthony's Webinar Thoughts
The Webinar definitely did not disappoint-but I come from a generation where we were supposed to have flying cars by now. I do like all of the options available to teachers; but how do we ensure that information is given to the troops in the field? I can tell you for a fact that most of the teachers in my building do not know of the open source software that is available to them. Is this information going to be disseminated via the Staff Development Teacher during inservices? Will this prove to cumbersome for some of our new teachers? I know I will be bringing this matter up during leadership week in my school. The RT's must buy into this so it can trickle down.
As I meander through the websites it's sort of like reading my golf magazines; some tips are for my classes and some aren't. It's up to you to use the information as best fits your class within the parameters of your curriculum. Some teachers hands are tied more than others, nevertheless, you can find something to supplement your lessons and reach more of your students. I plan to introduce some of the Web 2.0 features to a few teachers in my building without being pushy. My school is going tech mod this summer so there is even more optimism in the air.
Some ideas I would like for my classroom:
SurveyMonkey-Just to know what my students' likes and dislikes are. Maybe I can teach something better-I might be encoding something wrong.
Nasdaq-Students need to know how the stock market works and how to invest.
Gliffy-For projects and charts-great for presentations.
ConsumerReports-Students will be surprised when they find out what merchandise is deemed bad or good based on tests and not hearsay.
1. Wow! Talk about alot of information! There was quite a bit of information in the webinar. I think the first challenge for me would be to just wrap my head around all of the presented information. Just by going to some of the suggested sites, I could see that the possibilities really are tremendous. I would think it would be best to narrow down first what you want to accomplish and secondly, which sites and open software would be best to help you get there. As the presentation alluded to, it is probably best to stick with software that falls under the stable distribution. Being in a school setting, I would think it would be prudent to only use software that has been tested and is reliable. Since I teach high school, I would think my students could use quite a bit of the tools that were presented.
Another challenge, for me personally, would be to actually feel comfortable using some of what was presented. I know that technology offers many possibilities and allows for a wonderful learning experience, but that doesn't mean I always get it! I am usually able to, through trial and error, decipher how to use technology. Of course, that really wouldn't work in front of a classroom. As my comfort level increased, I could see me putting some of this to good use.
My school setting is one that allows and encourages technology use in the classroom. We have knowledgeable people that are more than happy to lend a hand if necessary. With that being the case, I feel confident that I can successfully implement some of these Web 2.0 features into my classroom.
2. Ideas of how to put ideas to use:
a. Possible wiki site for homework help- Can be accessed by teacher and students so that students can also help those in need.
b. Homework podcast- Go over steps to solve problems. Can be used to walk students through basic problems and/or more likely than not, the more difficult problems. It can be presented daily or as warranted by the concepts.
c. Gliffy.com- Cool site to make posters, flow charts, and floor plans. Could tie nicely into math presentations and/or projects. Could be used for the problems I assign having to do with geometry and such. Ex. Mr. Davis is putting in a pool. His backyard is a rectangular measuring 2000 square feet etc. Kids design backyard and use gliffy to create a layout of the yard.
d. Zoho.com had quite a few uses. Great site to use as a tool for a project. It had a word processor, online presentation tool, a wiki, etc.
e. Directory.fsf.org/category/second had many great math tools such as math games, building geometric figures, and interactive math activities.
f. Blogging- This seems to be quite popular today. Since I teach math, it may not be something students want to blog about. However, since I am at a Catholic school, I could certainly have them blog about scenarios that make them think about things from a moral standpoint. St. Joe has 5 virtues that the students hear about and see around campus quite frequently during their 4 years. Trust, humility, compassion, zeal, and simplicity are ideas that we hope they make apart of themselves. Blogging would lend itself to such ideals. It can be difficult to have a teenager break out of the "me" phase and focus on how things can impact others, so this might be one way to do that. It's surely better than blogging about math!
Lou
I mentioned in a previous post I find when I’m presented with an abundance of information (websites) I tend to shy away. Lou, you are correct…wow! Not only was I overwhelmed, but nervous about downloading. So many of them wouldn’t allow you to preview what they had to offer until afterthe download was complete. I find most of the “free-ware” I use has been sites shared with me through friends or colleagues…I allow them to download them onto their computers at home and/or school and then if recommended I’ll risk downloading it. My computer at home has very few downloads for two reasons, 1. the risks of viruses, and 2. I have dial-up internet. The biggest challenge occurs at school; I find firewalls block many of the free downloads I attempt…which may be a good thing, because I probably take more risks on my school computer. This may sound frivolous, but I think I’d rather purchase software in a store rather than download it for free, other than the situations mentioned above. In a store, you can preview a box, graphics, talk to a salesman, etc, where online I found very little information exploring the sites.
I found the following websites worth mentioning and useful:
I personally have used the following downloads. As previously mentioned I’d prefer someone to suggest a download that was used and works. Take a look!
-
www.3m.com Here’s a different “sticky-notes” download, however it was purchased.
-
-
-
-Tracy
________
The webinar certainly was thorough. I couldn't download anything at school, but the webinar is a great resource for templates that you can use in your classroom. I think many of us by now have a wealth of material. The goal I have is figuring out how to streamline the material into usable and accessible formats. During the summer months, I can transfer much of my material onto more accessible and transferable formats.
I think a common theme throughout the webinar is making information more accessible. Like anything, this takes great preparation and trial and error. There are a handful of teachers who have digitized their courses on BlackBoard. I think there are elements in this webinar--like Zoho--that allow a teacher to streamline their material. The only obstacle is learning the software and undergoing the normal pitfalls of learning new technology.
I think that the strengths of the webinar were the presentation of front pages on the PDF file. When you are dealing with so many resources, it's nice to window shop. I think if there was a way to shrink some of the front pages, the presentation would be more effective. The front page of a website speaks volumes about its usability. And I found sites like Zoho and Free Software Directory to be useful because of their simple designs.
Some possible uses:
--I think the onset of Web 2.0 software greatly benefits English program. The essence of Web 2.0 is editing. Editing is a vital part of AP Literature and Composition. Using Wiki, students can post essays, and then edit each other's work. I find this to be a far more productive and organized form of peer editing. Imagine--a student's work could be scrutinized by the entire class. This allows exponentially more access to the writing process. Grading and student participation would be efficient and simple. I think that the Wiki format has great potential in English classes of all levels. Writing is editing.
--I think the Freemind software would also be effective. A major component of my AP class is effective outlining. Outlining is practiced throughout the year. On the AP exam, students must be able to create an effective ouline in about 7 minutes. The Freemind software provides good practice for outlining and creating visual maps for essays.
--My students analyze over 100 poems during the course of the year. I burn far, far too much paper on copying these poems. I think the PDF creator would be an effective tool to disseminate poems to the students. It has always been a goal of mine to go paperless, and this application can make it possible. PDF files are easily mailable and have easier viewing and printing options than Word files.
--Zoho looks like a really cool site. It is a one-stop for users and maintains a very accessible interface.
--I have personally used Audacity to record audio and edit audio files.
Good stuff.
Mick Coogan
- MATN Online provides information on planning, implementing, and evaulating assistive technology.
____________________________________________________________________________
1. WOW… not to the repeat the pattern but I also found the webinar to have a overwhelming amount of information. But it was very helpful. It was definitely a presentation in which you have to take the time to go through the information presented to figure out what can work in your particular classroom setting. Since there was such an abundance of information the first thing I would do is decide which area I would like to focus on first. If you try and spend all your time exploring everything you will leave yourself very overwhelmed. The first thing I would do is focus on the OATS Project. Being a special education teacher I found the information given on this website in particular to be very helpful. I was able to see the endless possibilities of things that could come in very handy with each of my student’s individual needs. The main problem that I would have to overcome at my school is the evil firewall. It seems that every time I have an educational based website that I am using on a regular basis, within a couple of weeks it is blocked. While I know you can request that websites be unblocked it really is a pain especially when I plan a lesson at home and it works on my computer only to have the site not work when I get to school can be very annoying. There is also the threat of viruses. Another obstacle I would need to overcome is computer lab time. While it is nice that I have three computers in my classroom for my students to use, I prefer a whole class computer lesson in the lab. Lab time at my school is really hard to come by.
2. Ways in which I can use this information…
• The OATS Project- This is definitely a website that I will be checking out since it is assistive technology. The things that I saw from this website that I think would be helpful are the Click-N-Type virtual keyboard (which allows students to type using the mouse to click a keyboard on the screen), Edword and EdWeb (which are talking word processors), PowerTalk(allows a power point presentation to be read aloud), Mouse settings (allows the mouse to enlarged and slowed down), the Big Calculator (which allows you to click on buttons with the mouse or use the numeric keypad to perform calculations) and the PDF Aloud (which allows PDF files to be read out loud). This is all information that would be helpful to my particular students.
• I would also like to try and create a classroom Wiki to allow the students information that would help with class notes, assignments and homework help.
• Free Mind- it helps students to map out their ideas.
• Zoho-looks like an interesting site that allows fun things like web conferencing and a planner which all of my students can use.
• Hotlists: http://www.eduhound.com/hotlist/ this would be helpful in organizing the websites and links I use on a regular basis.
• Surveymonkey: www.surveymonkey.com a great way to create surveys and pre-tests for students.
• Airset: http://www.airset.com this would be very helpful in organizing all of my passwords for all of the websites I use.
• http://freeware.intrastar.net/organize.htm -I would like to use this website to help my students stay organized.
-Kristin Mannion
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
A. From the webinar one thing that stuck out in my mind was the quote that was displayed from Steward Brand- "Once a new technology rolls over you, if you're not part of the steamroller, you're part of the road". This quote exemplifies all the difficulties and challenges that I often experience about incorporating technology full force into the classroom. I am so used to the so called basics of technology such as powerpoint presentations, overhead projectors, etc., that incorporating another form of assistive technology is kind of scary. One thing that initiates the fear is not having the formal training and knowledge of the various technology out there. I think one thing that can help me to overcome this fear is to have more professional development workshops that provide the opportunity for hands on learning utilizing technology. The second challenge that I have is the security that the computers are working, that the internet will not be down for the day, that all my students have the opportunity to use the computers. From the webinar, you provided excellent usable and most importantly Free downloads that can be used for the classroom computers.
B. I looked through most of the websites that were displayed but the following websites that I listed, seemed to be more benefical to my classroom setting:
1. www.gliffy.com- (graphic organizing)This website would be excellent for brainstorming for writing ideas, developing writing passages, and connecting science ideas and vocabulary.
2. www.skype.com- This site would be great with the pen pal program that I have in my class. We write letters to another school within our district. However, another option is to have an international component by having the opportunity to write to students from another country and finally have the opportunity to speak to them using this program. That would be very exciting for my students.
3.www.kidrocket.org- this website is a fun website that has a full screen option for games and puzzles for kids. One thing I wish that it had were more user friendly directions in playing the games.
4.eduhound.com- this is an excellent website for teachers, parents and kids because it provides resources for various topics such as suggestions for bulletin boards, lesson plan ideas, math games, etc.
5. freeware.intrastar.net/organize.htm- was an excellent website for organizing. Two things that I feel could really benefit my students include the digital diary- an opportunity for students to keep daily, weekly or project logs on their thoughts and feelings about the days, weeks or monthly activities. The Birthday scanner can help me keep track of the students birthdays.
6.oats.com:The OATS software- open source assistie technology software, provided great assistive technology for all learners. DSpeech- reads aloud written text. This would be used for a center activity for a story that was read in the classroom, or for poetry, etc. The Big calculator will be great for students to use for working on math problems. Our school is part of the Teachers Institute program where we focus on writing stories, so using the estory-maker program would be great for those students who have difficulties writing their ideas on paper.
7. fullmeasures.co.uk/powertalk- talking power point presentation- This would be great for presenting ideas to the classroom and for the upcoming final project.
By: Munachiso Onuoha
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________
This is very overwhelming to me, and I agree with others about downloading. Downloading can be a scary think with viruses and such, but follow others so avoid a computer problem. I agree with other above about purchasing the product at the store rather than downloading.
!
!
!
Now, using the software can be another task, and where do you start. I am one of those where you find a couple things and stick with what works. I know of some people who have a new theme every year with things and want to change it up. If I find something, especially when it comes to the computer, I stick with it and run it until I feel comfortable enough to try something new.
!
!
My high school is really pushing technology use, bad things is there is about one or two of everything. I was someone who would fight for things, but now have grown tired of the war and throw in the towel. Today I was introduced to this notebook like thing that you could write on. It was like the smart board, but you passed this notebook sized device and write on that. Once again we only have one, and we don’t know if we are getting more. Information on the internet is so accessible, but getting the tools to access is a struggle.
1. Wiki site for homework and for help- This can be assessed by teachers and students to help those having difficulty.
2. www.sticky-notes.net – A great organizational tool in using your desktop. Customize them to the way you want and are easy to use.
3. www.gliffy.com – Great for creating visual aids (flow charts, posters, etc.) and helpful for presentations or projects. With my lower level learners I use a lot of visual aids, and this can be a way for me or them to create more charts. I think if they were to create them that it would benefit them more.
4. www.zoho.com – I like the uses it has, and has a variety of things. It has word processor, wiki, chat, projects, invoicing, and other useful tools.
5. www.surveymonkey.com – Students can take surveys and respond to questions, and also give their ideas or opinions on something.
steve
I had a hard time putting my comments on the page, and I have no idea what I am doing wrong.
Like others who have already commented about the Web 2.0 information I thought that it was a great deal of information to put together and digest. I had to go back and forth referring to definitions in remembering what was what. Once I had some connection, it was better. It was informative information though. I do alot of web surfing but I have never seen any of those site and actually I was surprised that some many of them and the ways that they are used is really wild. I use Mozilla on my own and Netscape when I first started using the computer many moons ago.
1. In my setting, one of the challenges would be having access to work with some of the webpages. Some of pages would probably would not be able to be used due to the firewalls with the school system. Some sites may be blocked. Another challenge could also be if the sites are child friendly, more specially elementary friendly.
2. The sites and information that I would use in my class settings;
www.writely.com- as a product from google, this site students could use it to do various reports, spreadsheets and reports.
www.bloggers.com- here at this site, my students could set a bloggers about their exercise or eating journals. Younger students could do storyboards.
www.wikispaces.com - I would have my older students do a class wiki about multicultural games or the history of different sports.
www.zoho.com - I could use this site to do my organizing and writing my lesson plans and tests
www.fullmeasure.co.uk/powertalk.com - This would be a great tool when teaching simple skills such as throwing, skipping, gallooping or other locomotor skills. With each step being broken down and the students hearing the how to do it would be fun.
With all of these website, going to them on my laptop that I would connect to a LCD projector, would allow for the entire class to experience first. By walking the students through the websites and then giving them time to use the sites themselves.
Stephanie Keeling
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
1.
I feel that this information can make my job easier. We spend so much time re-inventing the wheel when so many resources are already out there. I am in my 6th year of teaching and I am already getting bored teaching the same old way. What a great resource to update my teaching.
1. www.writely.com- this would be a great resource for my high school English students. We use a program called noodletools.com where the students can submitted work cited pages and notecards online for us to view. This could be great for my research paper unit.
2. www.zoho.com- I spent a lot of time exploring this site. I like many of the programs especially the organizer/planner program. We do a 1 1/2 month long research paper in English 11. The hardest thing for our students is completing all the steps and on time. They could set up reminders to be emailed to them.
3. www.gliffy.com- I love this source! During our Oediupus Rex unit in English 12, I always draw a family tree for the students. This would be a great way for the students to make there own chart.
4. www.sticky-notes.net- This would be so good for my special education students. I am always telling them to use actualy sticky notes to jot down questions or comments during discussions, when reading, etc.
5. Any blogging site--- blogging is the new thing! Students blog through myspace, facebook, etc. I would love to show them that they can use blogging in an education way too. It allows them to practice organizing information, writing clearly, peer reviews, etc.
2.
Like other stated, I think my biggest obstacle would be 1) getting computer lab time and 2) getting around the firewalls and blocked sites that are connected to our student networks. I also think it was almost too much information. I had a hard time deciding where to go next and keeping it all straight . I can't even imagine a new teacher or student trying to nagivate through all the information.
-Jessica Garlick
Question 1 - What are some challenges to overcome?
I think using a program that you're not familiar with is a challenge in and of itself. It takes a lot of time to become comfortable with technology, especially if you are going to use it in front of a class or with students. It seems like it would require a lot of time up front to find the software, download it, learn how to use it, work out the bugs, then implement it in your class. I think it would be well worth it in the long run, but would be frustrating at the start. I think the best plan would be to identify a specific need and then look for the software to address it rather than just looking for ways to implement what you find. Like many of my colleagues have said, it's a lot to wrap your head around. However, if you're looking for something in specific it might be easier to navigate. That said, it was really helpful to look at all the resources and see what's out there.
Question 2 - How can I use it?
www.gliffy.com
Students can use this for making flow charts and concept maps for their vocabulary or concepts from a chapter. They could also create other graphic organizers.
www.oatsoft.org
I noted the power reader feature on this site to help kids who struggle with reading. Not only would this be great for kids to use at school, but also at home where parents may not have the know-how to find these programs on their own.
Your Brother's Keeper
You could use this to store usernames and passwords. I would use it to store the usernames and passwords for my students to log on the computers, www.studyisland.com, and www.firstinmath.com.
TrayNotes
I love post-it notes and it would be great to have them on my desktop. I constantly need to write things down and make lists so this would be perfect. My students could use them as they listen to stories on tape since we use real sticky notes during reading to apply our strategies.
TuxTyping http://directory.fsf.org/project/TuxTyping/
I don't know about you, but I teach 4th grade and none of my students are effecient typists. I don't have them type their papers because it takes them too long. My school won't buy a typing program so this would be perfect.
BingoCards http://directory.fsf.org/project/bingo-cards/
I would use this to create bingo cards for vocabulary words in all subject areas, science concepts, etc. It is a fun way to make reviewing interactive.
Multiplication Challenge http://directory.fsf.org/project/MultChal/
My students are weak in multiplication and this would be another way for them to practice.
www.kidrocket.org
This is a great idea for kids. They often have too much access to things and stumble upon things by accident. This would eliminate those incidents. It is a browser that allows users to only access kid friendly websites instead of filtering out inappropriate sites.
Shawna Stoltenborg
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
I would say the biggest challenge that I see in having all this technology available is the sheer magnitude of it. It is so wonderful that there is so much out there for teachers to use with their students, but I believe that in some cases, it is a little overwhelming. We know as teachers there is little time in the day to teach all the subjects we need to get in, but when you offer these opportunities to learn technology, they get a little stressed out. I understand while some individual teachers really embrace technology there are others who shy away. A possible way to approach those who may be hesistant, is to show them how it may enhance their lesson or make it more enjoyable for the students. I think that one of the most positive things in the school to get teachers on board is to see their colleagues using the technology in a lesson. Teachers not only have to be taught how to use a technology, but examples of when and how you can use it. There have been many times when I have done lessons in the library using technology and a teacher sees and says, "that was great, can you show me how to do that". This is a great way to get them on board.
I think one of the first things I am going to do is share the information with our technology specialist so that he can determine, what might serve our teachers best. We have a great tech specialist at my school. He is always working with the teachers and encouraging them to use technology. I think that if we could go over websites that were given in the web seminar, we can think about the best ones to share with our teachers. Many of them are not even aware of all the things that are available to them and their students. I wasn't even aware until I listened to the webinar. Looking over the list, I think that there are a few that stand out that would be of use to me.
www.kidrocket.org
I think this would be a great website to share with parents. Our school has a filter, but many parents may not be aware that there is a browser that they could use at home with their children to keep them safe.
www.skype.com
I think that Skype could be an intersting software to use at school. You could have students from one class talk to another. Another possibility would be two same grade classes talking to each other from different parts of the country. Also, I just love using Skype at home to talk to family members. It is a lot of fun to use.
www.eduhound.com/hotlist/
I think this could be a great link for teachers and myself. I am always on the look out for websites for teachers. There are so many education websites, that I think I will start using this to gather my websites together.
www.openoffice.org/
This looks great! This could be used to collaborate with other teachers in different places. There are so many great teachers with wonderful ideas. It would be a great tool to try to work together.
www.surveymonkey.com
This is tool that I would like to use at the end of the year to survey my staff about the library. My school aready uses this periodically for different occasions.
There are so many websites, I can't wait to go through more of them and find ways to use them or share them with the staff at my school. I think that the key to using technology, is to sometimes think outside the box.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Michael-
The webinar is a very important reference tool. I’ve saved the PDF version to my flash drive, and I’ll probably continue to refer to the webinar way into the future. Though the sites listed in the webinar are great, the knowledge of open source and free websites is even better. I had no idea there were so many free and open source websites out there. I knew that if I was interested in something that chances were there was a website that would address my interest. Still, I had no idea about the availability of free websites; now I know there is a free website for just about anything. This newfound understanding of the availability of open source and free websites is the main thing I’ve gotten from the webinar. A few open source/free websites, which I can utilize in my classess, are listed below.
http://www.surveymonkey.com - to have students fill out a preassessment on their aptitude for health and physical education curriculum
http://www.mypyramidtracker.gov/planner/launchPage.aspx - to help students track their daily calorie intake and quality of the calories they are taking in
http://www.eduhound.com/hotlist/ - to create a web site for my students with important class information
Testing - Elizabeth
Ken's Reflection:
The webinar presented many opportunities to incorporate open source resources into my current teaching placement. There were a few challenges which came to mind as I was viewing the webinar. First of all, there are SOOOOO many resources and many more are probably being created everyday! This makes choosing the "right" ones and the most appropriate resources a challenge. Once I do decide on a source to use, it's implementation would require a good understanding of how the software works. This is necessary because in order to teach students how to use it, I feel I would have to have a very firm grip on it. Finally, technology connections could be an issue. To install software on student computers requires appropriate permissions and clearance, not to mention time. It would need to be a very worthwhile resource (not one that would just be used once and forgotten) in order to be worth the effort.
I have already begun including some of the available open source technologies in my classroom to aid in management and differentiation. This includes wikispaces (for my class website) and bubbl.us (a thinking map share program). After viewing the presentation, I am excited to try several others...I would like to introduce my students to openoffice.org so they can create presentations and documents even if they do not have Microsoft Office! I think the idea of having students create podcasts of notes from class or learning about a topic could be a great engagement activity that would be helpful for remediation and review. I've considered the prospect of using Skype to teleconference with other teachers to showcase a project that both classes completed and have a class contest. Finally the PDF Aloud and PowerTalk sound like they could be great if they work as they claim to.
Like you said this is a jumping point and now I have to discover how much of this is worthwhile to incorporate into my differentiated teaching style in order to do what's best for my students.
Angela’s Reflection:
Challenges:
After viewing the abundance of open source software programs I felt overwhelmed. There are so many programs that I would not know which ones would be the best match for my curriculum. I would have to do further research on the programs and take time to learn how to use the software that I select. Another concern I have is whether the software would be compatible with my computer and how much memory it would use. I currently use a lot of software programs and I’m afraid that if I add new programs that my computer will crash. In addition, the IT department only allows us to use certain programs. Finally, I would want to make sure that all my students would be able to access the software. I only have one computer in my room and it is difficult to sign out the computer lab because the entire school shares the lab.
Usefulness:
After viewing the webinar I found a couple of open source software programs that have potential use in the classroom. For instance AirSet is a software program similar to blackboard where students and teachers can collaborate. For instance, I can post an announcement about assignments, deadlines, and upcoming assessments. In addition, I can store class documents on AirSet so that students and parents have access to important information such as class notes and homework. Just this past week, a parent asked me to email a homework assignment because the student forgot to bring it home. If I had AirSet then students and parents can have access to all documents at their own convenience. Furthermore, I can post online discussion questions and students can collaborate with one another on outside projects. Another software program that I think would be neat to use in class is skype. At my school I am in charge of the multicultural club which promotes diversity and teaches tolerance of other cultures. Many times our club writes announcements and makes posters to celebrate and teach others about different cultures. However by using skype students would be able to use webcams to talk directly to students from other countries and learn about their perspectives and beliefs. I think that students would be more motivated to learn about other cultures if they could personally share stories and collaborate with one another.
Jenny's Reflection
As I was looking at all of the information that was presented in the powerpoint, I became very overwhelmed. There was so much that was presented, I started to think about what would be beneficial to me and my students. As I have mentioned several times, one of my struggles in my classroom is the lack of computers for the students to use as well as only having one lab for the entire school to use. My other worry becomes being able to figure out how to use the software. I know how to use the basics on the computer but when it comes to other softwares, I need someone else to show me how to correctly use it.
After looking at the open source software programs, there were two main things that I thought that I could use for myself. The first is the Google Docs. This is actually something I just learned about 2 weeks ago. One of the other teachers in my school recommended this site as a way to communicate with other teachers. I have 2 other teachers that come into my room and work with the same students. Since they are coming and going while I am teaching, we never have time to discuss how the students did. We have decided to use Google Docs as a way to communicate about the students and how they are progressing with the concepts that are being taught. I am very excited to use this as a way of communication. The other program that I would like to use is the bingo cards which was located in the free software directory. I would like to be able to use this to create all sorts of bingo cards. I could use this with vocabulary words and even word patterns. I am always looking for ways for the students to practice their word patterns they are learning and they always get excited when they can learn by playing a game. Instead of having to make my own bingo card and fill it in, this program would make it easier for me. Finally when looking through all of the programs, I wish that I still taught math. There were many programs that could be used to help student learn their facts. This is a concept that many students in 5th grade still struggle with. These programs would be great to use as a station for the students to practice.
Rachel's Reflection on Open Source Software
Challenges to overcome:
The biggest challenge that I see when it comes to opensource software is finding what you need and installing it on many computers. I think I would have to figure out if we are allowed to install software on the computers in our computer lab before I could do anything else. If the software is only on one computer than it can only be used by one student at a time which isn't very practical.
In addition, as I started to explore some of the programs I had difficulty installing some of them. I found a program that sounded great called vocabumonkey, but when I tried to install it, I couldn't get it to work. There was another program that I tried to install that needed additional software in order to open it. I started to wonder if these kinds of problems would happen with a lot of open source software. Like Angela had said in her post, I worry about causing my computer to crash or doing something that might mess up or slow down my computer. Not being very tech savvy this is a challenge for me.
Usefulness of the information:
I love the mindmapping software. This was one of the first things I downloaded after viewing the webinar. I tried it out, and it is easy to use and I think it is a great tool that can be used by my students. I think that if we were able to get this software in our computer labs then a mindmap would be a great way for students to explore new concepts and connect the things they have learned.
Other software that really caught my attention were the many programs that would give information orally to students. I have many children in my class this year who struggling with reading grade level text. However, with these programs I could give them the information they needed without them having to read it all on their own. For example, I can record podcasts that give directions orally for students, or use the powerpoint software so that students can listen to the powerpoint at a later date, or even scan their social studies text into the computer as a pdf and then use the software to read it aloud. This made me think of UDL and how these tools would really help to make information accessible to all students.
Ginny's Reflection on Open Source Software and the Webinar
Usefulness of the Information:
Open source software definitely has a place in the classroom! I was amazed by all the software available if you just go looking. I especially loved the idea of Gliffy.com where kids can draw a diagram and then write about it to discuss it. That would be something very useful to me later in the year when we are working on thinking maps and writing ideas. I also loved the Free Software Directory where you could search by category. This was probably the most useful site to me because it contained elementary software and games that would be appropriate for my age of students to use without too much instruction. On that site, I found the site Gcompris which offers games for young children to learn basic academic skills but it also focuses on learning how to use the keyboard and mouse which is our major hurdle at the beginning of the year! I would love to use this with my kids. There were many other resources that I found too that could tie into the ideas of UDL and provide adaptations for students who needed things read aloud or for students who wanted/needed alternatives to assignments. These could be for students with learning disabilities or students who need/want to take things to the next level. Overall, I felt that the webinar presented open source software in a way that was useful to teachers who are looking for different ways to meet their objectives while still meeting their students' needs.
Challenges of the Software:
As with most things with technology for my grade level, most of the software I found I would be using either with the kids or showing the kids rather than them using them independently. There were a few pieces of software I found that my students could use themselves but the majority would be to assist me in meeting their needs or differentiating. Also, learning to use these different types of software could definitely provide a challenge. There are also so many resources out there that it may be difficult to find the time to go searching for them or to learn how to really use them most effectively. The biggest challenge I see with open software though is getting the kids to use the programs in the way they were intended. The first challenge would just be putting the software on all the computers for the kids to use. The one software I found on Gcompris had very complicated directions for getting the different aspects of the software downloaded and I would have to do that x19 for all my students! Also, as with any new activities, teaching them how to use the program, modeling and troubleshooting through problems are challenges. I think that in order for me to put a lot of time into downloading, installing, learning about and teaching my kids how to use some software, it would have to be very purposeful and something we could use for a variety of skills all year long. I don't see myself using the software for just one or two lessons or activities.
Marie's Reflection:
I was very interested in reading about the different types of software. I felt alot like a sixth grader reading an adult level book, because although I kind of understood, there were alot of concept with which I was very unfamiilar. In this realm I would definately consider myself a novice. As I have understood it, all software is a combination of several terms. It is either free, open or closed and copyrighted, copylefted or public domain and it is either stable, testing or unstable. If it is free software that is the same thing as open source and the only difference between the two is the licensure. Public Domain means that software has not been copyrighted, so anyone can use it, but not anyone can look at or work on the source code. Copyrighting protects the software as well as the code, and copylefting is the same as public domain (I think they were trying to be funny or cute).
I don't always want to be a novice so I’ve saved the PDF version to my flash drive, and I’ll probably refer to the webinar way into the future. The sites listed in the webinar seem to be great, but the knowledge of open source and free websites was more meaningful to me at this point. I had no idea there were so many free and open source websites out there! I have heard the terms but did not understand them. This new understanding of open source and free websites is the main thing I’ve gotten from the webinar.
Last of all, but not least, I finally know that Web 2.0 isn't an actual thing but a concept meaning that the web has been improved from it's original design. My favorite quote was the one about the difference between verisions, because I actually got that!
Amy P's Reflection
I was very overwhelmed by the information on the webinar about Open Source Software, however I do see how it can be very helpful for students in the classroom. Some challenges that I think I would face when using the software would begin when I download the programs. I don't feel like I have enough knowledge about computers to download all the programs. If something goes wrong I would not know how to fix it. I also wondered how useful the software would be if I only have one computer available in my classroom for students. I would need to take students to the computer lab to use some of the programs. Then I wondered how I could download the programs on all the computers. I think if I do try some of the programs I will start small and try to use a program that I can use as a center for students. I realized too that it would take some time to learn how to manage the program. For example Abiword looked really neat, but it had so many different features I don't think I would be able to learn it all in the amount of time that I have.
Like I said earlier I do want to try some of the software programs, but I want to start small and possibly use them in centers. This way I only have to deal with downloading on one computer. I saw a few programs that I would be able to use with my students now. The first program was called Tuxtyping. This program helps students practice their typing. Earlier in this class I talked about the need for my students to get keyboarding practice. I think this would be a great center for students to practice their keyboarding skills. I have already used the survery monkey software as a interest inventory and I got a lot of useful information from it. I have thought about creating pretests with the survey monkey. I think it would be a great way for me to collect my data on a certain topic. I am also interested in the software that reads power points. I think I could use this with my struggling readers when they miss a class. The power point could teach students the concepts they missed. I know the software programs would be very helpful in my classroom, so my goal is to take some time to learn about and explore some of the programs that look useful to me.
Amy A's Reflection on Open Source Software
What a great presentation. I found many great sites. The number of possibilities is overwhelming. I think the biggest challenge for me is time. I set up a Wiki for my classes, but having the time to search for specific sites to go with my lessons is a challenge. I plan on taking it one unit at a time, and continue to work on my Wiki for the years to come. Another concern would be accidentally downloading a virus. This is particulary a concern for my school computers. So far this hasn't been a problem, but it can happen. I do like to download all sorts of things. Here are some of my favorites:
The following link is The Hat. You can create a list of students and it will shuffle them, pick one out of a top-hat, or pick pairs. My students love the sound effects!! It is very simple to use.
http://www.bestfreewaredownload.com/freeware/t-free-the-hat-freeware-kergjyxx.html
The following link is to a timer. The name says it all, "Cool Timer". You can set it easily. It is large on the screen. And again there are great sound effects.
http://www.bestsoftware4download.com/software/t-free-cool-timer-download-ixzoknzd.html
You can download this program and then place post-its on your desktop. I use it to show the list of objectives for each of my classes and then can "check" them off as we go. The students know where we are in the unit and up-coming quizzes or tests.
http://www.hottnotes.com/
I like this as a PDF converter. I always send home attachments as PDFs. If you send it in word, parents could change it when you don't want them to.
http://www.dopdf.com/
Given time, you probably can find just about any freeware you need. As a teacher, you can't beat free. Anything to make my job simpler or to engage my students is key. Also, by showing my students a function plotter or calculator, they are able to extend what they learn in my class. This was not possible even five years ago.
Chris M's reflection
I think the biggest challenge I have in using Open Source Software is getting beyond vocabulary, jargon and the idea that this is something new I'll have to figure out. I am reluctant to spend a great deal of time trying to learn something new just to get across the same ideas that I can already get across. Part of what will help is the knowledge that I already use some open source software. Another thing that will help me is having a boyfriend who is an experienced at computer programming and engineering who is also great at explaining things that seem very complicated in an easy way. (Ex. Open source software works the same as going to a pot luck dinner and getting to try a new dish and getting the recipe for it to boot.) I'm not sure how knowing the 'recipe' for any of the programs I use in education will every be useful to me but if I expose my students to these programs, the random computer 'geek' in my class might take interest, play with things, and go from there.
I did find some resources that I think would be very useful and worth the time and effort expended to try them out. PowerTalk and PDF Aloud would be programs that I could find a use for. I do an activity where my accelerated students research and create presentations about Islamic achievements that the standard students use to research the same achievements. The students in my lower reading level class would use PowerTalk to have the presentations read to them, enabling them to have a better change to fully understand the information. This will also help them to not fall so far behind that I have to cut out activities so all the key concepts get covered.
Triva Haley’s Reflection
How the webinar was useful:
The presentation contained a wealth of information. I was intrigued and a bit overwhelmed simultaneously. The available resources for technology usage in the classroom are endless.
1. For instance, as I watch the webinar I thought about how I could infuse (skype) video conferencing as a learning tool. This allows the students in my classroom to conference with other students throughout the entire world about any given topic.
2. Surveymonkey.com is great because it allows me to get to know my students and gives great feedback, ultimately valuable information is gained.
3. Blogger.com is awesome because it can be use as form of journaling for my biology students. It allows students to capture how they feel in writing.
4. Downloading can get great because it allows you to install software on multiple devices simultaneously which allows more learning for the students and less time for teachers to plan.
Challenges:
1. Time is needed to digest and apply all the information and knowledge gained by viewing. My school has limited resources, meaning every classroom is not equipped with computers/laptops. Ensuring these matters means thorough planning must be done in advance.
2. My school is Wi-Fi enabled, however every classroom does not have access to it 100 % of the time. I can foresee potential problems when incorporating a lesson requiring internet access.
3. Downloading can also have a slow connection or have hangs up. Also the internet can stop working.
Brian King's Reflections:
Usefulness
The use of Open Source Software can revolutionize the educational experience ( I am not just being dramatic). It appears to give all of the stake holders (parents,students and teachers) the opportunity to have input on the objectives and outcomes of each learning experience. It can be tailored to find things that are subject specific such as www.bullfrog.pbwiki.com does for physical education. It can also provide general study skills assistance such as www.gliffy.com does for teaching organizational skills in notetaking.The implications that it has for teachers are equally limitless. The new teacher can design their lessons based on contemporary content and best practice discussions, from the Open Source Software links. It can also serve as a tune up organism midway through the year. www.surveymonkey.com can be used to design questionaires for the students that will allow an assessment of what is working and what isn't. These results can be utilized in such differentiation techniques as scaffolding of lessons and the ability grouping of students.
Challenges
There are some challenges that are intrinsic to opening any faucet. Whether water comes out or information. The issue remains, who/what is there to contain the flow. The students have access to many different sites in the Open Source Software.This may often bring up literacy issues in affecting their ability to access everything they might need. Many of my students have limited vocabulary. They know what information they need, but they don't know what its called. There is also the temptation to get lost in the surf. There are so many places to look that all of the useable time may be used up just trying to gather information as opposed to using it. Lastly, the use of this method may call on my students to have a sense of academic independence and self efficacy that most of my students lack. They have been spoon fed for so long that, they have hard times looking for anything without having the search set up for them.
M. Leader
Challenges: I think the largest challenge to overcome in using open source software is abiding by our acceptable use policy and the other restrictions we have. Sites that are educational in nature are blocked by our school because of particular keywords on the site. Even if requests are made, the powers that be refuse to unblock them. Assuming that we are promoting the usage of students at home, the hurdle that exists, especially in my situation, is the fact that 25% of my students are FaRMs and even among those that are not, many of my students do not have Internet access, or even computers, at home. Another challenge is the Internet access in my students’ region. Even families that are in a comfortable financial situation are limited to dial-up speed Internet because no utility providers offer anything faster where they live.
How to Implement: I don't know if this qualifies as "Open Source" but I feel that something as simple as Google Docs would be a great benefit. Of my students that do have computers with Internet access, many of them do not have access to Microsoft Office which has essentially become the de facto word processing and presentation creating software. Google Docs word processing documents can be saved as .pdf files, Word documents, HTML, or even rich text. Presentations can be saved as a .pdf or PowerPoint file. Another helpful use for Google Docs is with Wikispaces. Wikispaces allows for spreadsheets (and other documents) to be embedded into a Wiki page.
I also like Audacity. It is a great Open Source resource. I have used it on numerous occasions. It can easily be used to create (or edit) audio files. These could be used to provide supplemental information for students, replace a missed lecture, or to give directions on completing an assignment. It can also be used during instructional activities to facilitate learners that excel in auditory intelligence.
Comments (5)
Anonymous said
at 6:36 pm on Nov 27, 2007
I think that the software is a great boon to the teacher. This seminar has given me a great number of resources to look at and find things that might be useful. The trick seems to find the best software with the fewest problems.
Anonymous said
at 8:01 pm on Apr 27, 2008
I think one of the big challenges to overcome is just being comfortable with using a program you're not used to. I think having enough time is also an issue. I would want to use the software first to work out any bugs before I used it in class. Now we're talking about the time it takes to find the software, download it, learn how to use it, and then implement it in the classroom. This is time well spent, but you need to find the time first.
Anonymous said
at 10:31 am on Apr 29, 2008
Taking your time to undertsand how these software programs work and how they can be used in the classroom require patience. Fishing through all of these software programs can be frustrating when you are trying to find something specific, but there are enough resources to find what you are looking for or adapt it yourself.
Anonymous said
at 3:34 pm on Jul 2, 2008
mmmmm
charles covington said
at 1:41 am on Nov 27, 2008
The greatest challenge that I must overcome is becoming frustrated too quickly. I must take my time and read information carefully before moving forward. Find effective ways to make use of such a vast amount of information is also a great challenge. I believe that that it can be used and could be useful if there was enough time to explore.
b) This information could be useful for administrators to share and communicate with parents. Students could use this a reference to find information/answers to difficult topics or questions that are assigned in class. I could use this information to extend lessons.
You don't have permission to comment on this page.