Thing #18 -- Acceptable Use Policy

The Student Handbook "Bear Facts" contains the WVU TECH's Acceptable Use Policy for computer usage on pages 19 thru 22.

Bear Facts

The policy is based on the West Virginia Computer Crime and Abuse Act of July 1989. It details the Computer Usage Guidelines for students that attend the university. The policy also defines the areas of Privacy, Theft, Vandalism, Copyright Issues and Harassment. A complete list of penalties are also listed.

Thing 15 -- What is the RSS thing?

There are times in this course that I feel like the digital immigrant. I have seen the RSS symbol but have never asked what it was. Seeing icons on web pages I have been reluctant to click on because of the horror stories of computer crashing and losing all the data on my hard drive. But with the simple explanation from the video RSS in Plan English, it is a little clearer now.
Getting all the new information from my favorite sites at one spot will be great to save time. Time is the factor that has delayed my investigation and practice of new tech skills.

Innovative Blogs for Teachers

After clicking on the Hyperlink that redirected me to the listing of 100 blogs, my first thought was OH My...... Do I have time to look at the 100 blogs this evening with sunshine outside on this Thursday evening? So I went down the list until I found titles and descriptions that might be of interest. At least the site was somewhat organized with subject groupings. When I came across a group of podcast listings the following caught my interest.

Teachers Teaching Teachers

Paul Allison the co-ordinator for this audio blog, along with Susan Ettehiem are teachers in the New York cities school system. They have set up a weekly podcast that has a talk-show theme. Just looking at listing of titles, they have addressed some technology issues like the following:

Learn about new features on VoiceThread with Steve Muth, Ben Papell, and Katie Beck - TTT 235 - 02.09.11

Bud Hunt and Gail Desler on citing sources, loving Audacity and more - TTT 233 - 1.26.11

Among others.

Time for Reflection

Previously when I would think of someone who would take time for reflection, I would picture them on the mountaintop in a lotus position repeating some sorta sound or mantra. But my computer will not let me do that because my wireless router does not give a strong enough signal or the fact that I do not have a "air card" that will allow me complete freedom to go to the mountaintop. So in my restrictive space, I have thought about all the electronic formats that I have looked at and experimented with. At times I have felt overwhelmed because this digital immigrant has some personal limitations besides the equipment. I do get frustrated because I see others complete the assignments with creativity and ease. The other problem is that there is SOOOOO Much to look at and tryout. I try to be discerning in looking at what might be of benefit to my present situation or the teachers that I serve. Then is looking at my professional and personal schedule of activities that I can find a adequate time frame that will allow my skills to approve with practice. At least I know what I need to do and now I need to "Get R Done."

Another that I did -- Voice Thread

The use of Voice Thread might open up some ideas on uploading audio and video to enhance the teaching and learning. In my situation, I am hoping that this electronic format can be adapted for the distance learning that our department uses for the instruction of new CTE instructors in WV and for those taking courses within the degree program.

My first creation is a short explanation on the 2 week New Teacher Workshop

Rick Yocke's Voice Thread

What Did I Learn with Video Assignment?

I have always felt that I was a visual/auditory learner. So in my formative education years I would enjoy the movie lessons from my various teachers. To this day, I would rather watch shows on History Channel or PBS then to watch network TV. It seems so much more useful.

At the ACTE National Convention a few years ago, I was introduced to Teacher Tube and it looked like a possible way to upload lessons for the department's extension or distance delivery courses. I did not get much support to investigate further plus there was a cost at that present time. But after reading some of the information on the website it appears that it is now a FREE service.

In looking at the School Tube and Teacher Tube websites, it appears that the "School Tube" site the videos are student produced. I did find some videos on Careers that could be used by the CTE instructors in that specific unit but the site was more geared to student uploads.

Teacher Tube appears to be more instructional and geared to assist in the instruction of subject matter. I am planning on investigating and research the use once again for the CTE program at WVU TECH.

I did find a site that would could use to produce WEbInNers for free. Screencast-O-Matic seems to be a site that I need to look into more.

I Did Find Something New 2.0

The Site GO2WEB 2.o had many resources that I wish that I had the time to explore the many suggested sites and links to eLearning resources. I am going to highlight a couple of websites that I have found to be interesting and maybe useful my present teaching situation and I can pass on the teachers that I serve:

Quizinator acts as a online resource library that organizes and manages these collections of questions, allowing you to group and categorize them in whatever way suits your needs.

Quizanator

LearnBoost is a grade book, lesson plan and education organizer. I felt is was limited on what I could do with the grade book by only allowing Grade averages or letter grades to be posted. We promote "point value" listing of grades only to be averaged for grade posting for the term.

LearnBoost -- Note: It is free

GroupTable is an online information storage site that allows groups to manage work of group projects, study groups and student organizations easily from one central location.

GroupTable NOTE: It is free


Schoology is a free web-based learning management system (LMS) built on a social network. Schoology leverages the familiarity of popular social media tools to improve communication and collaboration.

Schoology

These are the websites that I plan on continued research to see if it can be integrated into the WVU Tech Teacher education program.