Using Web-based Technology in the Classroom

There are many programs available that provide opportunities to integrate web technology in the classroom. Students at all grade levels can get hands-on experience using web-based resources to demonstrate creativity and share classroom experiences with other classmates and parents.

Picasa 3, a Google-developed product, is one such software program. Picasa integrates a friendly user interface, a powerful photo and video search system, and basic photo editing functionality to provide a solution that makes it easy to integrate images into blogging or other platforms.

Each of the images attached to the left side of this blog were imported and edited using Picasa. Note that students have access to quick photo editing techniques that can turn any photo into a unique work of art in just a few minutes. Students can experiment with different contrasts, saturation, and other photo effects that are based in much more powerful editing programs. While these type of editing programs are simplified from more powerful versions available (e.g. Adobe Photoshop), they provide educators with a widely available, fast, and inexpensive resource for students to use. Public schools can use Picasa and other such programs to introduce students to web technology.

Web-based technologies should be a staple in the modern classroom. Students introduced to web programming in a controlled environment will be better off both later in schooling or in the workforce as many jobs now require either experience or on-the-job training in web development.

Your turn!
How can teachers more effectively use web technology in their classrooms?

Cultivating Participation in Classrooms

Presentation: Cultivating Participation

The following presentation was developed for a ITLS 6205 at Utah State University. The techniques that I mention here have been gathered from my own teacher experience and observation of other teachers in a variety of setting, primarily in teaching high school age young men and women.



For more information about this topic and others, please contact me at druhbrown@gmail.com

Safe Educational Blogging

As much as we'd like to think that blogging is a safe activity, anything dealing with the Internet requires a certain level of discretion and caution. This is especially true when dealing with educational blogs. Both children and personal information much be protected, and an unsecure blog might be a potentially dangerous outlet. The following blog attempt to provide guidelines for educational bloggers in developing safe and secure blogs.

1. Protecting Yourself

Blogs can be a great resource for fun and information, but, depending on the circumstances, can attract harmful circumstances. In extreme cases, stalkers and/or pedophiles my use information in blogs to track down or research victims. Bloggers should always remember that blogs are posted on the Internet and can be accessed by virtually anyone. You should 1) always be aware of and activate the privacy settings available on the blogging platform you use, 2) be mindful of potentially compromising information--like addresses, phone numbers, or geographically descriptive information--and use discretion when posting them, 3) never meet with anyone you only know through blogging. It is always better to be discrete with blogs and social media content.

In addition to the extreme situations above, difficulties more commonly arise from posting information that is incorrect, slanderous, confidential, or opinionated. Especially when representing a school or other organization, bloggers should heavily scrutinize the information they post on their site. Content should be above reproach, accurately represent facts, and not disclose confidential information. In one of my previous jobs, one of my co-workers got in trouble (and was fired in part) because of things they said outside of work being critical of the company. Slanderous information as well as plagiarized or non-cited information can cause serious legal problems, and incorrect information can damage the image of a company or school. Again, educational bloggers should adhere to a high standard of content before posting.

2. Protecting Others

Similarly as protecting yourself, bloggers should do everything that they can to ensure the safety of others on their blog. Especially for teachers using their blog to post student content, or allowing students to post their own original content, privacy should be of utmost concern. You should 1) always obtain release forms from students--signed by parents--prior to posting student content online, 2) always be the moderator for student content and not post any information that compromises the child's security in any way, and 3) allow parents to view student content and provide ways they can get in touch with you if they feel anything is unsafe.

3. Protecting Information & Equipment

Paramount in safe blogging is protecting both information and equipment from hacking or other types of predators. Again, privacy settings are one layer of defense, but also password protection and moderation are huge ways to protect information. Passwords should be difficult enough to prevent easy hacking (i.e. a good standard is at least 8 characters long and include letters, numbers, and symbols). Passwords should never be given to anyone and should be changed periodically.

Bloggers should also be aware of how to properly cite sources to protect intellectual property (IP). APA or MLA citations are always useful, but when citing Internet sources, using an HTML hyperlink directly to the site you got information from is also appropriate. Not only does this provide ready access to web content, but it also ensures a "backlink" to the external content which is helpful for search engine rankings and is always appreciated by the 3rd party.

4. Have a Plan of Action

Sometimes no matter what you do, bad things happen. Preventative action will eliminate 99% of difficulties, but in the case that difficulties do arise, institutions should have a plan of action that may include a mass password change, privacy settings or content audit, quick ways to remove compromising content, and notifying the proper authorities should the need arise. Each institution should have a well-defined and distributed plan of action to handle all conceivable cases.

Citations:

1. Microsoft. Safety Tips on Blogging. Retrieved on June 4, 2013 from: http://www.microsoft.com/security/family-safety/blogging.aspx

2. iLookBothWays, the Human Factor in Online Safety. Blogging. Retrieved on June 4, 2013 from:
http://ilookbothways.com/learn-safety/blogging/

3. wikiHow to do anything. How to Keep Your Blog Safe. Retrieved on June 4, 2013 from: http://www.wikihow.com/Keep-Your-Blog-Safe

Instructional Blogging: the Pedagogy of Blogs

When weblogs (or blogs) first started out, doubtless anyone would have realized how much of an impact they could have from an instructional standpoint. Businesses, agencies, and institutions use them as a way to provide value or knowledge to anyone that might stumble upon them; however, this can also be one of the pitfalls. How do we know if a blog, an educational blog specifically, actually adds any value or if it is just opinion, spotty, or faulty information? The following blog will attempt to identify types of educational blogs and how to determine if they are appropriate for use or not.

Educational blogs come in many forms, but they seem to center around the following three areas.

• Student creativity: These blogs are used as a resource for students or classroom enrichment. They provide a location that students can write or post things that are interesting to them, a location that teachers can post class events, and provide access to 21st Century media. A good example of a student creativity blog is: http://blogs.goaj.org/amoore/
• Teacher resource: Resource type blogs fall into two sub-categories: 1) blogs where teachers post classroom content and supplementary information for students (course syllabus, etc.); and 2) blogs that teachers can go to as teaching resources with ideas, activities, etc. A good example of a teacher resource blog is: http://edutech4teachers.edublogs.org/
• Teacher improvement: Improvement type blogs center on developing better educators as a whole. These focus on studies for both teachers and administrators that provide updated papers, new techniques, and provide other methods for improvement. A good example of a teacher improvement blog is: http://www.edutopia.org/

Blogging Best Practices

• Feed the beast: in both business and educational blogs, people expect two things: lots of content and new content. If either of those things are not kept up on, the blog will die out. If you don't metaphorically "feed the beast" the beast will die, or worse, will turn on you. Teachers should be prepared to blog often. A good example of a blog that does this is: http://darcymoore.net/. Bloggers on darcymore.net have posted recently, often, and have been doing so for a long time.

• Add value: Blogs should provide a level of value that cannot be produced otherwise. In the instance of student creativity blogs, they add value if the students can see their own work (both writing, art, or videos) being shared with other students, parents, teachers, etc., or even better if they students can directly affect the content. With teacher resource blogs, if the tools being advocated are not creative or novel in some way, teachers will not find them valuable, and will move on to other resources. A good example of this kind of blog is: http://blogs.kqed.org/mindshift/, a teacher improvement site that pulls in many professional sources and looks clean and organized.

• Creative use of media (video, social media, slide shows, pictures, etc): One of the premier opportunities that blogs provide is the ability to introduce students (or teachers) to various forms of 21st century media. Capturing student participation on video--when appropriate--or even allow students to film and post video or other media sources will build student confidence in using the technology tools they will be using in the workforce. Teachers should look for ways to incorporate modern technology as much as possible. A good example of this kind of blog is: http://www.freetech4teachers.com/ which has some form of media engagement for each displayed blog post (both videos and images).

• Modern layout: While having a blog with a professional look and feel is not necessarily a requirement for having an effective blog, it sure helps. Providing content in a very organized, meaningful, and professional manner increases the confidence of readers in the material just as a clean and organized storefront increases the confidence in the quality of products the store sells. Many blogging platforms do not require advanced HTML knowledge to post a professional-looking blog. A good example of an educational blog with a good layout is: http://blogs.kqed.org/mindshift/

Blogs are a unique resource in education, and while they should not necessarily be used as authoritative citations in educational works, they can have a valuable impact on teachers and classrooms.