Sandy's LIBE 477B 951 Summer 2013

Summative Blog

Our Inquiry Project: The ICT Sub Hub
Terrence designed our Weebly website.  We decide to divide the website into four sections: ICT survey (Input after Visiting a School), database of responses (Information about Schools), ICT resources, and discussion forum.  The ICT survey is subdivided into grade level groupings: elementary school (K-Gr. 5), middle school (Gr. 6-8), and high school (Gr. 9-12).  Like the ICT survey, the databases of responses are subdivided into the same grade level groupings.  The ICT resources contain a list of suggested ICTs to use in the classroom.  Finally, the discussion forum provides a place for TOC to contribute ideas, connect with other TOCs, and share experiences.

We did a few beta tests to work out the bugs (Thanks for everyone who filled out our survey!).  It is ready to go live, but we might not release it just yet.  Although Google Docs was able to provide the basic survey and database format we were looking for, we hope to explore other information access programs that have a filtering function.  It would allow for greater database accessibility if TOCs were able to sort the survey responses.

Final Thoughts:

Fun With Roller Coaster by Sukmaraga

It’s been a wild ride.  I couldn’t have imagined that I learned all that I did in a short span of time.  But the most significant lesson I think I’m taking away from this course is realizing the importance of a personal learning network.  I found myself connected to a group of intelligent, insightful, and amazing collection of people.  It was incredible experience to share my opinions, discuss my thoughts, brainstorm ideas and gain another perspective, with a wide range of teachers.  I was filled with an immense feeling of camaraderie and fellowship.  I hope we continue to stay connected with one another – offering support and encouragement.  We are greater than the sum of our parts!

I’m happy to have finished the course (and now have time to enjoy the rest of the summer), but I’m sadden to have face the reality that this might be the last time we meet together again as a group.   Here’s to a bittersweet end to an inspiring course.

Champagne Toast by Kristi

Big thank you to Jenny and all my wonderful classmates!  Good luck to everyone’s future endeavours.  I hope our paths will cross again.

Project Challenges

Ideas won’t keep. Something must be done about them. – Alfred North Whitehead

“Ideas Won’t Keep” by Brad MacDuff

Having the best idea, but not following through with actions, is equivalent to having no idea in the first place.  Terrence and I have spent a large amount of effort and time creating our website and realizing our idea, but our work isn’t complete.  We need TOCs to buy into our idea, that this is a valuable endeavour.  I don’t think it will take too much convincing that it fills a need for ICT knowledge in our current TOC system.  But in my opinion, our major obstacles are to get the TOCs onto our website and to get them to contribute to the ICT database.  Currently our database is empty and will remain empty until we get more responses to our survey.  In the beginning stages, I will be the main database contributor, but hopefully as more TOCs become aware of the website, the database will grow.  It is crucial to get more TOCs involved and using the website.  If it doesn’t get used, what would have been the point of it all?

Letting people know…
In my last blog I listed a few ideas that we can use to inform TOCs about our website.  We thought of using the TOC committee in our districts to assist us in circulating our website around through the community.  But upon reflection from my own experience, I’m not sure that one of our suggestions will truly reach our target audience.  One idea was to email the TOCs through our district wide email, but not all TOCs have a district email.  When I first started TOCing in the district, I had to contact the head office to get a district login and email.  If we send out a district wide email, those TOCs without district logins will not be receiving our email.  I think this issue should be brought forth to the district head office, possibly with the HR department.  District logins and email addresses should be discussed in the TOC orientation.  Furthermore, if a TOC is unable to log into the district server, that hinders his/her access to the ICT in the classroom.  You won’t be able to use the teacher computer, classroom computer or wifi, which are the most common ICTs found in the classroom.   Even if the TOC had an amazing lesson using ICT, without access he/she wouldn’t be able to use it in the classroom.

Therefore, the first thing to tell a TOC who wants to integrate ICT meaningfully into their temporary class….get a district login!

ICT Decisions

Why are we using technology?
Technology is the vehicle that makes our information available and accessible to everyone at all times of the day.  All the information will be collected, manage, maintained and viewed over the internet.  By having it online, TOCs can refer to our website whatever time and place they desire.  Therefore, a teacher can check our website beforehand (whether the day before, night before or morning of), and he/she can complete our survey anytime after work, or whenever he/she has time.  Technology will makes the overall information processing faster, easier and more convenient.

What do we hope to accomplish?
We hope to compile a database of the ICT in the classroom throughout our district.  We’ll be using online surveys completed by TOCs, based on their experiences from their daily assignments.  The data collected will be compiled on our website.  The success of our website is based on the number of contributors to our database (the more the better).   We need to inform the TOC staff of our project and how it could benefit them.  We have thought of several methods to promote our website and services:

• Email TOCs (through the district email)
• Talk to other teachers/TOCs in the staffroom
• Talk to admin
• Attend TOC functions
• Notify the TOC committee
  • mention us in their newsletters
  • put a link on their website

What ICT do we have at hand?
Most people have some type of device that can access the internet; hence, we decide to use application or software that is readily available online.  We require some specific functions.  We need a program that could collect and compile information.  Then we need a platform to host and display the information, including links.  Finally, we need the platform to have a blog function.

What ICT might we use?
1. Website
We wanted to present our information on a platform that was easy to use, easy to navigate, free, online and available without downloading.  We decided to use Weebly to create a website to house our resources list, blog, survey and database.  It’s very easy to use and offers free web hosting.
2. Survey
We needed to generate a survey to collect the data.  I looked at SurveyMonkey and Google Docs form as possible options.  We went with Google Docs because both Terrence and I were somewhat familiar with Google Docs already and it lends well to collaboration.  We were able to work on the survey together simultaneously and instantaneously make changes.
3. Database
We need a format to allow users to retrieve the data that we collected.  First, we thought about compiling the data ourselves and presented in a grid arrangement on the website, but that would be time consuming.  Then, we thought about using another program or application that could neatly organize the data and included a search function.  But once again, that would require us to transfer the data from on format to another (more work!).  Finally, we decided to just embed the raw data onto a webpage.  TOCs can use the find function to search for individual schools.
4. Blog
We wanted to provide a place where TOCs could share information and voice their opinions.  Initially, we wanted to use a blog page as the mode of communication,  plus it’s function on Weebly, but the blog format was too linear and didn’t allow for back and forth communication or direct replies.  Therefore, we decided on a forum instead.  The thoughts can be threaded and categorized neatly.  We will be looking for a platform for our forum in the coming days.

Project Participants

The main participants in our inquiry project are TOCs.  Through our project we hope to connect TOCs to technology in classrooms.  TOCs don’t normally know what technologies are available until they walk through the door or have been in the class before.  There is a wide spectrum of technology use in the district and in the school.  Hopefully our inquiry project will give the TOC the opportunity and resources to bring ICT into their temporary classroom.

In addition, we hope to connect TOCs with other TOCs.  Being a TOC can be lonely and isolating experience.  It’s difficult to make any meaningful connections in a school or classroom when you’re only in the school or classroom for a day.  There are district TOC committees and they organize TOC events, but most TOCs don’t participate (I, being one of them).   I, honestly, never really had the desire to go any meetings; either I was busy, wasn’t interested or didn’t find it relevant.  By providing an ICT database, it gives a reason for TOCs to visit our site.  We hope this can hook TOCs onto the other resources that we offer: a blog, ICT resource list, and ideas/guidelines on how to incorporate ICT into their lessons.  Through the blog, teachers are able to connect and share their experiences and thoughts.  If we can allow other TOCs to submit their ideas and resources, this could be the initial steps to building a TOC learning group or community.

Considering our participants’ history and experience with ICT, we acknowledge that there will be a wide range of ICT skills and knowledge, as well as, teacher experience.  But we have made some assumptions when creating our project.  1) Since, TOCs have graduated some type of education/teaching program, they will have some ideas on how to technology can facilitate teaching.  2) Because most people use some type of ICT on a daily basis (ie phone, computer, laptop, tablet, etc.), we assumed that TOCs, being people of the general population, will have a basic understanding and knowledge of ICT and will be familiar with the key language and technological terms.

Learning to Write Survey Questions

This morning, I was discussing my project with a few classmates on our way to class.  My inquiry topic led the way to the sharing of our TOC experiences.  Soon we were swapping TOC horror stories.  I noticed a commonality between our stories…. showing up in a classroom and there is no day plan or schedule.  There’s no baseline or starting point.  The TOC is completely in the dark!  One point was brought up in the discussion: how great would be if we knew in advance which were the ‘bad’ teachers that would leave TOCs unprepared to teach in their classrooms?  It would definitely make life easier and less stressful for the TOC.  Speaking of which, I created a question at the end our survey that asks the contributor to include information that he/she would want to know next time.  I left the question open so the TOCs could interpret the question however they wanted to.  I didn’t leave the question open intentionally to get the ‘dirty gossip’ on someone, but left it open for whatever the TOC found important that we didn’t include in our previous questions.  But after some careful reflection and discussion, we modify the question to make more constructive question instead of destructive one.  Really, does someone need to know who didn’t leave a plan for the TOC?  Yes it would help TOCs prepare if they do get called into the classroom, but is this the best way?  We should be trying to foster a community of collaboration and transparency, not one of hostility and criticism.  We should be providing resources and not pointing fingers.  I’m glad that we caught that misstep now, rather than after the survey went live.  I wouldn’t want anyone to get in trouble for my error.

Another note about survey questions….

In my initial draft questions, most of the questions I created required short responses.  Since each classroom and school varies with its technology, I wanted to get an accurate representation of the technology present.  I believed that the short responses would allow the user to describe his/her individual situation more thoroughly.  I didn’t realize the issues that we would encounter using these types of questions.

1. It made the survey too long (time and duration): People want to go through a survey swiftly and easily.  Wordy and long questions will turn off people from completing the survey.
2. It made for long responses: When teachers look at the database, we don’t want to overwhelmed with information.  They should be able to find the information quickly.
3. It made it difficult to filter the information:  Because each response will be different, we (or someone) would have to moderate the information so each answer is comparable.  It would be more work for us (which I don’t want!).

Therefore we revised most of questions to checkbox or multiple choice answers.

Who knew writing survey question was so difficult??

Week 2 Summative Blog

1. Where you were when you started?
A teacher friend highly recommended this course to me.  She found the course was a great source for online applications and software for teaching and told me to take the course if got the chance.  What we did in the first few days was something I didn’t expect.  I wasn’t sure of what to make of the course.  I was overwhelmed.  I had exceeded my breaking point and reached an ‘information overload’.  I was being pushed out of my comfort zone, and I didn’t like it.  I had moments were I thought about dropping this course, but I glad I didn’t.

2. Where you are now?
I’m feeling more confident.  I know what to expect in class and have learned to cope with the ‘information smog’.  It also helps to know that I wasn’t alone in my feelings of anxiety about our class; everyone else was feeling the same too.  That brings me to my feelings of being more connected with the teaching community.  It’s hard building relationships with other teachers as a TOC.  With this course, I’m slowly making personal connections and building my own learning group.  It’s been a great experience sharing with each other.  There’s a developing sense of camaraderie and fellowship.  It’s a great feeling.  We’re in this together!

3. Where you see yourself going?
I hope I can continue this motivation and momentum of change well after this course is over.
I want to continue to challenge my pedagogical practices, pushing myself to grow as a teacher.
I hope to maintain and keep the personal and professional connections I’ve made.

1. Information Smog (week 1): struggling and coping with the class (understanding concepts, expectations, assignments)
2. Making Connections (week 2-3): putting theories into practice and applying ideas to real life situations
3. Final project: a culmination of our learning

Developing World Libraries

In our discussion group, we defined world libraries as global libraries; libraries which are accessible on a global scale.  A library that is meaningful and applicable to all people.  Once we decided on what a world library should look like we examined way to develop these libraries.  Our group took a few standpoints looking at this issue, from a collection perspective by the addition of diverse resources or from an accessibility perspective by improving infrastructure for developing nations.

Multilingual resources
A method for developing a world library collection would be in the inclusion of multilingual and multicultural resources.  We looked at examples of world libraries and examined the types of items that were included in their collection.  We explored the International Children’s Digital Library website.  We found that they had a wide range of literature in various languages.   An interesting note that was brought up was the different languages available for their interface: English, Spanish, French, Mongolian and Russian.  Mongolian!?!  Not one of the most used languages on the internet.  We discovered that the International Children’s Digital Library Foundation’s first branch was in Mongolia, hence the Mongolian.  Although a good source of multilingual and multicultural literature, their collection composed predominantly of picture books which would be more suited for the elementary level.

Access
Another dominant discussion in our developing world libraries brainstorm was accessibility.  We can develop the library by increasing the amount of people that can access it.  We thought how can we improve digital accessibility to the students in poor and developing countries?  I found an article from the Bill and Melissa Gate Foundation and their efforts funding public library, in Botswana, Latvia, and Lithuania, to provide them with free internet and ICT training.  Through their grant they hope to increase access to expand global libraries.  But someone pointed out, in rural communities where there’s no running water and no electricity, how does building modern technological infrastructure in fact benefit the citizens living there?  As a group, we struggled with the idea of the applicability of such technology.  Will the people have the knowledge to sustain and maintain the technology?  Will it be integrated into the society and will people continue to use it after the grants are gone?  Next we discussed how laptops and computer are still expensive and beyond the reach of average citizen in developing countries, but cell phone use and ownership is on the rise.  Would there be a shift to a mobile app world library?  We didn’t really come to a proposal or conclusion on the topic of accessibility and the world library.

In the end, we arrived with more questions than answers…

Wayback Machine

During Karen’s 10 Minutes of Fame presentation, she expressed the need for copying down website/pages because they may become inactive or disappear.  The Wayback Machine popped into my mind as a solution to that.  The Wayback Machine was introduced to me by a classmate when one of our assigned readings was a dead link.

Background Information
The Way Back Machine is a free service provided by a non-profit organization call the Internet Archive, whose main purpose is to build an “internet library”, which for them is collecting and archiving everything on the internet.  Their rationale for such archive is to preserve society’s digital cultural artifacts for educational and historical uses, and boast collaborations with the Library of Congress and Smithsonian Institution.  Whether the information is truly used for educational mean is up for discussion, especially with the discovery of the NSA tracking personal communications on American based websites (The Internet Archive is based in San Francisco).

How It Works
The Wayback Machine is able to display websites and pages snapshots from a static point in time.  Using crawlers, which are programs that spread through the internet jumping from website to website via links and pages, the Wayback Machine records each website it passes through (This is the same process that search engines collect information on websites to be used in their searches).  To use the machine, you input a website in the search box, and if the Wayback Machine has it in its records, the results will show a calendar of the various dates and times the website was crawled and hence archived.  At the top, it shows the number of times the website has been crawled in a bar graph form from 1996 (the start of the internet) to now; as well as, the date of the first archive entry.  By clicking on the coloured circles on the calendar the user may visit different historical versions of the same website at each time it was crawled by the machine.  Changing archive years, is done by moving the mouse over to the bar graph at the top of the page and clicking the number for the corresponding year.

An example of the Wayback Machine’s archive of Weebly.

Things to Consider

• The Wayback Machine does not have archives for every website on the internet.  It’s just not possible to have every single one.
• The Wayback Machine’s terms of service does not allow for the copying of websites in their archives, because of copyright issues.  It is meant as a reference for viewing.
• A person may request that their OWN website be removed from their collection.

Besides having practical uses for teachers re-visiting dead links, the Wayback Machine can be used in the library or classroom to teach internet safety, digital citizenship and online presence.  The teacher can show that whatever they put on the internet can be found and can never be ‘erased’.

Inquiry Project: Collection Data

During our discussion today, we talked about how we would collect data for our ICT database.  What we thought was the best method of for collection was some type of online survey.  SurveyMonkey, a popular online survey development company, and Google Docs, a free online office suite software by Google, was brought up.  I had previously used Google Docs’ form function to create an online survey, but had no experience using SurveyMonkey.  Although I was biased towards Google Docs, I want to see which would best fit our needs.

Google Docs
Google Docs is provided by Google and is an included feature when you sign up for a gmail/Google account.  They offer the basic office suite programs: word process, presentation, spreadsheets, forms and draw.  The form program allows for the creation of online forms and surveys.  The user is able to create the questions and specify a type of response (i.e. short answer, paragraph answer, multiple-choice, scale, checkboxes, choice from a list, etc.).  Questions are added easily by clicking on the “add item” button.  There is no limit on how many questions are in the survey or how many responses are submitted.  The general look and layout of the ‘live’ (what the survey taker is seeing) survey is restricted to the templates offered.  Unfortunately there is no way to customize it and there are only 19 templates available.  The submitted responses are compiled and displayed in a spreadsheet format with individual time/date stamp.

Google Docs has is the ability to share, open and edit by multiple users simultaneously in real time, which allows for fluid collaboration.  Once opened, each member present is denoted by a different colour and each member can see what everyone else is doing.  For example, when both Terrence and I were on our group document, he could see words instantly appearing next to a pink cursor on the document.  At the top of the page, it displayed my name in pink (hence the pink cursor).  So, Terrence was able to ‘see’ me imputing the information just as I was typing it in.  I have been told that Google Docs has a revision history feature that can display which member added what, at what time, but I haven’t use it myself so I don’t know how to do it.  Also, there is a chat function embedded in each program letting members communicate with one another.  Additionally, since Google Docs are online, there is no need to save, because it automatically saves the data onto their cloud.

SurveyMonkey
SurveyMonkey is in the business of surveys and it shows.  It has everything a person or company would want to survey a particular demographic.  It offers a paid service version and free version.  The paid service version has extra features such as unlimited questions and responses (the free is limited to10 questions/survey and 100 response/survey), marketing features, custom links and sample pool to name a few.  Survey Monkey has “expert survey templates” that are questions templates of most often asked questions on a specific topic.  In the education category, I was able to find a pre-made bullying survey for students.   They also have a question bank where users are able to choose questions that were created by “survey methodologists to minimize bias and give you the most accurate responses”.  Like Google, the format of the responses can be adjusted.  Every facet of the survey layout and theme can be customized.  The extra function that SurveyMonkey has is the ability to analyze the results.  The user can filter and compare each question’s response to see trends or patterns.  This would be very useful when examining a large amount of data.  There is no collaborative element in SurveyMonkey.  The creation of the survey is limited to 1 user at 1 time.

Overall
I didn’t like the look and feel of SurveyMonkey.  The survey came out looking like the surveys that large companies use for customer sanctification.  Although I did like their question bank and question template feature, but more as a source of question ideas.  It felt like they always were trying to sell how great their service was and pushing how their questions/surveys were created using the latest question methodology psychology.  SurveyMonkey would be very beneficial for large corporations trying to understand their employees and clients, but maybe not for us.  I liked the simple interface of Google and its collaborative elements.  It’s great for doing simple surveys and forms.  SurveyMonkey and Google both get the job done, but for the overall feel and the collaboration part, Google Docs wins out for me.

ICT for TOCs

It was fascinating hearing everyone’s inquiry ideas.  There were many great topics being suggested and it’s unfortunate that we don’t have to the time to investigate all of them.  Terrence’s idea about ICT for TOCs struck a chord with me.  Being a TOC, it’s difficult to present lessons with ICT in the classroom.   Most importantly, you don’t know what ICT available and accessible until you walk into the classroom door.  As much as I liked my own ideas, I thought that investigating the topic of ICT and TOCs was one that would be most applicable to my situation come September.

Terrence and I brainstormed about the purpose and goal of our project, but we were encountering challenges developing a focus for our study and its practicality in a real world situation.  What are we doing?  What are we asking people to do?  And will they do it?  We got stuck dwelling on who are participants were and how to get them to contribute.  Our thoughts were a bit scattered, but luckily Jenny helped direct us.

Our inquiry project will examine the availability of ICT for TOCs (and new teachers) in the classroom.  The range of types and quantity of ICT varies greatly across the district and within individual schools.   I have visited some classrooms where each student had a laptop, where there was only 1 computer (the teacher’s) and everything in between.  It’s hard to plan and predict what’s available in the classroom unless you’ve been in the classroom or school before, which isn’t always the case.  Any marvelous lesson plan or activity won’t work if the ICT you need isn’t there.  Therefore, Terrence and I propose a plan for an ICT database that TOCs can refer to that lists ICT related information for each school in the district.  Other TOCs or teachers can complete our ICT checklist and it can serve to help TOCs prepare for teaching with ICT in the classroom he/she is substituting that day.  By teaching an ICT enriching lesson, hopefully it can inspire other teachers to try more innovations in their own lessons, (plus it makes you look good in front of the admin and that’s not a bad thing if you’re looking for a full time job).

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