Final Project

Computers in Education (IT 645) has been an extremely beneficial class. The class provided a wide range of technology that is available for teachers. All the course projects taught me a lot of new technologies available on the internet. The projects also allowed me to apply the available resources for teachers. I had to complete a lot of assignments using technologies that have never used before taking IT 645. At times when starting a project I would feel overwhelmed, but the instructions provided made even the most difficult project relatively easy. I am currently not teaching, so I feel like IT 645 has prepared me to use the available technologies that will best benefit me when I start teaching. I feel like I already have a head start on my teaching career. IT 645 is a great class for any teacher to take. I feel like all future and current teachers should take IT 645, because it would help to alleviate their concerns with using technologies in the classroom. Using technologies resources can make teaching more interactive and educational for the students.

I have always preferred taking a course in a classroom, so that I can have face-to-face interaction with the instructor. Even though I have taken many online courses during my college years, but this is the first course that I used email regularly. After the chapter in the textbook that talked about filters messages, I have been more alert to the way that I communicate while using email. The emails that was sent by Dr. Wang was outlined and detailed to make it easy to understand what was expected of me next week.

I chose to purchase the course textbook using the e-book. Using the e-book is a lot more cost effective for me. I had to get used to reading the textbook online. I have always liked to highlight the important text for later use. Since I used the e-book, I had to read the text more carefully than usual. But I believe learned and understood the information faster. Using the resources available with the textbook purchase allowed me to make sure that I understood the information. One of the best benefits is that I could use the resources at the best time for me. The podcasts were a lot of help to me. I got the lecturing, in a sense, I needed. The podcasts reinforced the importance of technology.

The blog was a great tool to use in this class. I will definitely use a blog in my class. It is a great educational tool. Teachers could create a blog for each class. He or she could post discussion questions on the blogs. Blogs are, in my opinion, created to integrate technology in the class. Teachers can have links important sites or documents for the class. I do not believe that there is a subject that technology can be useful. As teachers, we should use the best available educational tools for students.

The projects for this course allowed me as a student to make sure that I understood the each resource. The projects’ instructions made the projects easier to complete. I am the type of person that stresses over an assignment. I tend to look at the examples before I read the instructions. I have realized that this was the wrong order. Even though I would stress over the projects, they were the best part of the course.

I have created many flyers in my career. I now realized that I have not used the all the available components in Word for creating a flyer. I learned a lot when I creating the flyer. I enjoyed getting to be creative. Every person needs to make sure that the flyers in which he or she creates are eye-catching and list all the important information. If the flyer is not created properly, most people will not pay that much attention to the flyer. You can be creating a flyer for something extremely important, and if the flyer is not created properly than you may not have to turnout that you desire.

Using excel in the class can be greatly beneficial to a teacher. Teachers can create grade books like I created for the course. If you create grade book in excel, you do not have to worry about calculating grades for the students. It also makes it easier to have information available for parents when you are asked for it. Teachers can create graphs to see what the class average is, so that he or she can make sure that most of the students understand the information. And the older children can use excel for different subjects such as math, history, and science.

Creating the quiz in PowerPoint was a lot of fun for me. Before creating this project, I have never created a quiz in PowerPoint. I believe as a teacher, I could create quizzes to keep the students involved in the class. And the students would also have the correct answer. You can make animated for the students to make them interested in the quiz. You could also create a study guide for the students to make sure that all the students know all the information needs for each test.

The project on web tools was very interesting for me. I did not really know all the web tools available for teachers for no or little cost. You can create puzzles, rubrics, and test makers. I have always thought that making a rubric had to be difficult, but with RubricStar website it is made simple for teachers. I learned a lot from the web tools project. I had a great time creating my puzzle. I have used the site a lot since I discovered. I created about seven puzzles for my project. Now I use it to create puzzle for my young relatives. It really helps the children learn key terms. I found to be extremely helpful in learning spelling words. The test maker was a lot of fun also. I loved creating the test. TestMaker was great to use. It would be great to use as a study guide for test also. TrackStar is a great site for teachers, especially for teachers in junior high or high school. TrackStar is a great tool to use to reinforce the current subjects in your classroom. You can even use it to create a helper for the parents of your students. For the students that do not have a home computer, you could allot time to allow the students to explore the sites on your TrackStar site. Web evaluations are a great tool to make sure that all the sites are appropriate for your students. Teachers can also make the evaluations available to the parents, so the parents can make sure that his or her children visit the correct sites.

The website project was one of the challenging projects. It was also the most time consuming for me. There was a lot of trial and error for me. But when I just followed the instructions in order, it seems to get easier. I like for everything to perfect, so changed a lot of information before I was satisfied with the site. A class website is a great ideal. The teacher can list all the homework assignments, which would eliminate the phrase, “I don’t know what I had to do for homework.” The site would make it easier for communicate between the parents and teachers. But you should still make sure all the parents have numbers to reach you, because every household does not have a computer and internet. You could also put others sites for the students. I believe that creating a website is better than TrackStar. You could a page for the different subjects. If the teacher is committed using the site, then he or she needs to make sure that all the parents have the ability to use the site to its full potential. The teacher needs to create an instructional guide for the parents.

The Story and ListServ project was the most difficult for me. It took me awhile to create the narration for my movie. It was a lot of trial and error. You had to make sure that you timed the slides perfectly with the narration and also the song. I worked on it for hours. But in the end, the project became my favorite of all the projects. I have never using the Windows MovieMaker before the project.

The blogfolio is a great way to make sure that you understand all the concepts learned in the class, because you must review what you learned in the class to create the last blog. It also allows that students to show to what extent you understood all the concepts of the class. I created electronic portfolios in another class. I believe that I liked creating a blogfolio the best.

I learned more organizational skills in this class. When you take an online class you have to be more structured than when you take a regular class. But the pros outweigh the cons. I was able to create the projects when it was most convince for me. Dr. Wang made sure that there was good communication with all the students. She responded to email quickly. She sent reminder for all the projects, which helped me stay focused. The projects helped me strengthen my weaknesses with technology. It was opened my eyes to the unlimited free resources on the internet.

In the future, I want to make sure that I use most of the concepts used in this class. I hope to one day teach in high school or a junior college teaching some form of technology course. I believe that taking IT 645 helped me one day achieve my goal. I hope to one day use all the electronic portfolios to show all the strengths concerning my technology skills.

Week 13 Legal, Social, and Ethical Issues in the Digital Age

What are the legal, social, and ethical issues arising in the Digital Age? Summarize each.

- Legal Issues -

Copyright & Fair Use
Copyright protects the rights of the owner of intellectual property. Generally materials that are protected by copyright should not generally by used without the owner’s permission, but there are times when using the material is permitted. (Lever-Duffy and McDonald, 400)
According to Lever-Duffy and McDonald, fair use guidelines describe circumstances in which teachers can use copyrighted material in face-to-face instruction. The TEACH Act stated the guidelines for using copyrighted material in distance learning. To make sure that you use all the information correctly, you should ask yourself four questions:
1. What is the intended use?
2. What type of work is it?
3. How much of the work do you intend to use?
4. What impact does this kind of have on the market for the work?

Privacy
Every adult and child in the United States has the right to privacy. Before using information about child, you should get permission from the parents. The right to privacy is one of the significant issues in the Digital Age. Before the law COPPA (Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act) was passed in October 1998, internet sites that were constructing for children would ask for personal information like name, address, phone numbers, and photos without asking for permission for the parents. As future teachers, we should make sure that we have written permission from all parents of our students before we post any information about a child on the internet. The Federal Trade Commission created a website that provides information to children, parents, and teachers (www.ftc.gov/kidzprivacy ).
As a teacher, you should remember that privacy is just as important offline as online. Software that contains information such as personal information and grades should allows be protected. Most schools have the teachers save information on a network, so you should make sure that all the information is password protected.

Accpectable use
As a teacher is your responsbility to make sure that all the students use the available technolgy is the appropriate manner. You would not allow any of your students to bring questionable paper into your class, so you should make sure that you do not allow the students look at sites that are questionable. All teachers need to make sure that all the students know what is expectable and unexpectble. The students should be given a code of ethics for computer use. The teacher needs to have the students and parents sign something stating that he or she understands the code and conquences for misusing the computer. All of the school computers have filtering software that blocks access to inappropriate sites.

Software Piracy
Software piracy is copying software to share with others or installing software on a computer when one copy was purchased. Just as it is illegal to copy a CD or DVD, it is illegal to copy software. Teachers should never copy software without having purchased the software. All schools and businesses must purchase a custom for the network or purchase a site license. All schools have rules regarding piracy. You should must sure that you have a copy of the rules and that you understand the rules.

Social Issues

Equity and accessibilty of technology are the most pressing social issues. National Telecommuciation and Information Administration conducted a study that found the 46% of household earning $35,000 to $49,000 have internet access and a home computer, 66% of househoulds earning over $50,000 have computer and internet access. This difference gives the last group a head start on developing computer skills. It also means that when it comes time for the students to have to conduct internet research the wealthier children have more internet access. The inequity of access is sometimes referred to as digital divide. Teachers should learn to become sensitive to their students access level.

Ethical Issues

Freedom of Speech
The Internet is basically a forum for sharing information and opinions. Some of the information is factual and some of the information is solely based on personal information. Because of freedom of speech, it is near impossible to restrict a person for stating his or her opinion. The responsibility of making sure that a child uses the correct information is left in the hands of the parents and teachers. Teachers need to be aware of their responsibilty to guarantee students “digital safety”.

Privacy
Privacy is an important issue is the United States. Teachers and students must remember that when he or she signed the computer usage form, the manual stated that the school has access to all the files on the network. Network administrators can monitor activity, and software can track what is said and sent over the network.


Academic Dishonesty
As a students, we all have seen the sites that offer services such as writing a term paper for students. This is an example of academic dishonesty (AD). Even if you copy and paste information from a site without giving credit to the author, you are committing AD. Most schools use antiplagiarism software to make check students’ works. The software compares the students’ works with well-known authors’ works as well as works posted on the Web.

Week 12 Movie and Group

Cora’s Movie

Using Windows Movie Maker was very interesting for me. Like every other assignment I was stressed up starting the assignment, but it turned out to be fun. I like creating the movie. While creating the movie, I had a lot of trial and error. The only part that I found difficult was the narrating the movie. I had to redo the part about ten times to get what I want. I tried to add to the wrong saved file. I had to recreate the narration part.

I think that using Windows Movie Maker could be useful in a classroom setting. You could upload the movies onto your website for the parents of the students to see after a large project. As a teacher, I could get the students involved to create a movie for the parents on special occasions. You could integrate technology into any subject with this program. The students could use Windows Movie Maker to create presentations for class. It is very hard to get in front of a group of people. This program could be used to get the students used to talking in front of a group. The student would be more comfortable talking to a computer than talking to a group of his or her peers. But the student would still know that he or she would have to show the movie to them. Another benefit is that when you create a picture movie, you do not have to be in front of the screen. You have to just worry about talking correctly.

ListServ

The ListServ was the easiest assignment this semester. I was amazed that a group could be so easily. I would rather create a group than rather a website. A teacher could create a group and invite all the parents and students in the class. I would post all the homework assignments and study guides. I could post discussions for the students. The parents would receive an email with the homework assignments in them. The parents would have to wonder what his or her child had to do for homework because he or she would receive an email listing all the information daily or weekly. Listserv is an effective tool for teachers. I believe that using technology is the best way to go for teachers. Education will one day be mainly technology based. Teacher should keep up to dated with the advances in technology.

Sorry that I am late this week. My computer was having malfunctions.

Week 11 Distance Education

What is distance education?
Distance education can be defined as the delivery of instruction to students who are separated from his or her teacher by time / or location. Many colleges have adopted this idea of moving information rather than people and have applied it to the delivery of instruction. If you are taking a distance education class, you probably would not see your teacher on a regular basis or see your teacher at all. Most communication will be through email and system like Blackboard. For example, a student is working on an assignment at night and he or she has a question about the assignment. The teacher is not in her office. The student can email the teacher from his or her home computer. Then the teacher will get the email either at her home computer or when she gets to the office in the morning. The teacher can email the answer to the student. The teacher would not get the question until the morning in this scenario, the teacher and student to be separated by both time and place. This type of instructional interaction is the core of distance education.

Technology is the key to providing a format for academic communication and exchange. Technology is the key to success with distance learning. Most students that use distance education to complete their education to complete their education have a full time job and probably a family also. Distance education was developed to deliver instruction to students in remote rural locations. Distance education used to be completed through mail correspondence courses or the teacher would have to travel to the rural area. But with the advancement in technology, the teacher can stay in the comfort of her office and communicate with the students. Technology has made the response time a lot faster.

What types of support are critical to the success of distance education? Why?

Supporting technology that are available or that need to implement the instructional design. In distance education, these technology fall into two broad categories, technologies that support synchronous and asynchronous distance education. A synchronous distance education example is when a teacher requires the students to log into a chat room at a specific time. The students that participating in the class meet at the same time but in different location. Examples of tools used for delivery of synchronous technology are the telephone, broadcast video, radio broadcast, internet chat, and videoconferencing. Asynchronous distance education is time shifted; which means that the teacher and students can participate at different time and from different locations. An example of asynchronous distance education class is one that is conducted over the internet like our class. We all work at our convenience. Examples of delivery methods of asynchronous distance education are voicemail or fax, videocassette, audiocassette, internet conferencing, email, and print materials. All of asynchronous and synchronous distance education classes are conducted in an internet classroom sites like Blackboard. If the teachers and students do not that have support needed for distance learning, there will not be any success. Teachers need to be prepared and keep up on the new technologies.

Week 10 Website

Social Science Website

This week’s assignment was pretty scary to me. I have a hard time using a new program for the first time. I have used other website designing programs before. I always have a hard time getting started on a project. I will sit and worrying about the project, then I start it. I realize that I can handle the task at hand. I thought that I would not like creating this site but it turned out to be fun. I think that if I was actually a teacher, I would have an easier time creating the site. It has been a long time since I have been in school. I have not taken any teaching classes, so it was a little harder for me to construct a website for students.

Having a class website would be convenient for both parents and students. As a teacher, I could put the assignments on the site for parents and students to have copies. If a student lost his or her assignment, it could be found on the homework page. Parents would know what the child must complete every week. The homework page would help the parent be able to plan out his or her child’s homework time. One of the best benefits of a class website site for the parent is knowing what the child has to complete for homework. One of the things that I learned about a child is that if he or she does not want to do any homework then he or she will simply say, “I don’t have any homework”. Or my personal favorite, “I lost my homework papers.” If the teacher puts the homework on the website, then parents can just print out the lost homework.

The website cannot replace the face to face interaction. But it can make the teacher’s job easier. Most students have access to a computer and internet, so it teacher could put links to sites to use as a subject study aid. The teacher could create practice test on the site, so that parents can make sure that their child understands the information in the class. If the students do not understand the information, the parents can look at the many links to get more information. And there are some subjects that parents could use some help understanding the subject also. I had to use different sites to help my niece with her math homework.

Week 8 Project

WEB CONTENT EVALUATION
WEB DESIGN EVALUATION
PUZZLE
TRACKSTAR
TEST
TEST ANSWER
RUBRIC

I really enjoyed working a this week’s assignments. At first, I was looking at all the parts of the assignment and I was a little afraid. If you look at the assignment as a whole, there is a lot to the assignment. But when I started working on the assignments individually each part was fun. My favorite parts was creating the puzzle and test.

Web evaluation is important to me as a parent. While I was completing the the evaluation on content and design, for the first time I really looked at the site. I evaluated a site created by Mr. Dowling a Social Science teacher from Knoxville, TN. He created a great site. It is a great site for both parents and children. The site is eye-catching and easy to navigate. The site has information on almost all the subjects in a sixth grade social science class.

The puzzle was the best part of the assignment. I made about seven puzzles for the fun of it. I loved the site. If I was a teacher, I would use it for my students. I did not realize the things for teachers on the web. The site is easy to use. Parents could get on the site to create puzzle to help their children study.

I looked at the other students Trackstar site before I started mine. I was a little afraid at first. I thought that completing this part of the assignment was going to be the hardest part. But it turned out to be fairly uncomplicated. I really enjoyed making my trackstar. Using this site in your class would be great for your students and parents. You could put all the sites that you think would be good for your students. The parents and students would not have to search for examples, because all the examples would be all in one place.

The Test Maker site was great. If I was a teacher now, this would be the site for me. I would use this site weekly. I really enjoyed creating the test. The only thing that I enjoyed more was the puzzle. I created a few test just to try out the site. I researched my subject online. Then I created my test. The site made creating the test easy.

The rubric was the first part of the assignement that I created. I worked with the rubric site to get the rubric the way that I wanted. I was worried about this assignement. A lot of my instructors have used a rubric to grade me. I learned a lot from creating the rubric.

Week 7-2 Asynchronous and Synchronous communication

What is the difference between asynchronous and synchronous communication?
Asynchronous communication is communication that occurs at different time. Synchronous communication is communication that occurs at the same time. Asynchronous communication does not require that all parties involved in the communication need to be present and available at the same time. Some examples of electronic asynchronous communication are email, discussions, and mailing lists. Synchronous communication is simply communication that happens at the same time, immediately, a give-and-take. Some examples of electronic synchronous communication are chats and videoconferencing. We use mainly asynchronous communication in our online class. We use our blogs to communicate with each other. We email each other with questions and answers. Dr. Wang emails us the assignments each week. One of the advantages of asynchronous communication is that you can complete assignments when it is the best time for you. It allows you to have a flexible with your schedule. You can complete your class work while the kids are sleep, on your lunch break, or while you are waiting for breakfast. One of the advantages of synchronous communication is that you can interact with other students and instructors. You can ask questions when the information is fresh on your mind.

Name and describe the Internet communication that fall into each category.

Electronic mail is a form of asynchronous communication. E-mail is key communication tool provided in the networked environment. The author compares email to mail delivered to the post office. The inbox of your electronic mailbox is the same as the mailbox at the post office. You can sign in and check your mail. When you sign in, it is like using your key in your post office box. Your log-in name is unique to only you. Your log-in name is how the server knows which mailbox to open. Other people can send you mail, and you can check it and respond at your convenience. You can delete any of the messages that you do not want to keep. You can create folders to save you important messages.

Discussion is another form of asynchronous communication. Sometimes discussion is called a bulletin board, club, conference, or forum. Discussion allows one user to communicate with many users. In this class we created this blog, which is a form of a discussion. Discussion can be private or public. If a discussion is private, a user can only participate if he or she is invited to join. Public discussions are available to anyone.

Mailing lists are a form of asynchronous communication. Listserv is a mailing list. This tool automatically delivers emails to those who subscribe to the list. The messages are sent to an umbrella email address of the list itself and then appear on in inbox of all the subscribers. The list can be set up to where everyone on the list can post messages that will be emailed out to every other person on the list or set up so that only the administrator can list personal email messages.

Chats are a form of synchronous communication. A chat is a service offered by some ISPs and some other Internet sites that set aside a space in which two or more users can meet in real time. This space is called a chat room. The participants type their message and it is post for all the participants to see. This allows other participants to respond to the post in real time. The user can download the chat software on their computer to participate. Chats can be private or public. Instant messaging is a form of chat that is commonly used.

Videoconferencing is a form of synchronous communication. Videoconferencing software allows users at either end of a synchronous connection not only to hear each other but to see video images of each other also. You must have a video camera connected to the computer. Most laptops come with a web cam. The quality of the video is based on the internet connection. Because the video is transmitted through the internet, the quality is only as good as the speed of on the download from the internet. As the bandwidth and speed increase, the quality will get better.