Week 2 - Weekly To Do List

	Discussion
	Textbook Reading Guide
	Activities
	Web Resources

Directions for having a discussion online

I will post the discussion questions under the message REPLY HERE. If everyone just opens this message and replies, either to the discussion question itself OR to someone else, then we will only have to open ONE message to see what everyone has to say. Yes, it takes a little longer to open, but then you only have to open it once. So please REPLY for discussions.

If you want to add your own discussion question, then you can post. Otherwise, what? You've got it. REPLY.

Here are Week Two's discussion questions. Start with any questions. Commenting on another student's answer counts as participation. We are going to talk back and forth about the topic.

TIE-IN #1

Determining the Relative Advantage
The superintendent of the Wellmade School District felt that every student should be "connected to the Information Superhighway," so he decided to install Internet connections in every school classroom in the district. The hardware and installations were funded through a federal grant and local business sponsors. Two years later, it became apparent that only about 25% of the teachers were using the Internet with students, and most uses were "casual surfing."

1.1 Why do you think the teachers did not see the relative advantage of this technology?

1.2 If you were made responsible for integrating this technology into instructional activities, how would you translate the superintendent's rationale into problems and solutions for which the relative advantage would be clear to teachers?

Just click on Conference to go to the classroom for Week 2 discussion.Choose REPLY HERE. The discussion questions are repeated and you can use "reply and quote" and just add your answers under each heading.

See TRG, your Textbook Reading Guide, who will tell you what pages to read in your textbook. You will only be held responsible for the pages listed. . See the quiz directions here.

You should all have now completed your own teaching NETSlist. . Now each week I will ask you to fill it out, indicating what you learned for the week. Some students keep track of this chronologically and others categorize and put it under headings. At the end, you will be asked to synthesize all of what you learned and put it under the headings that you chose. YES, you can add more headings as you go along and delete others that don't fit. During the term, it is a work in progress.

Go to your NETS update conference and let me know what you learned in weeks 1 and 2 and document the details under the appropriate heaading. You may also want to keep track of this in your private folder, so you can add things as they come along.

Annotated Bibliography

Now's the time to start your annotated bibliography. You can put this in your private folder and just add to it each week. So what sites or books or magazines did you find this week that you want to add to your bibliography?

Remember, it is easier to do the annotation at the time that you find the item and are excited about it than to remember what it was all about later!!

The annotation should include who it is for (is it a teacher's resource or a student's resource),what level or class would it be for, and how would you use it.

I will check each week to see how these are coming along. So start your bibliography this week in your private folder.

Project for the Week - Acceptable Use Policy

Your job this week is to construct an Acceptable Use Policy. It may be for your work, your family, or for your classroom.

The way that you do is - is to get input from the users. You may guide or coach them, but it should be their acceptable use policy. So someone might have an acceptable users policy the grandchildren! It should reflect their ages. Therefore, it may be very informal.

Please see if you can get some positive statements in the policy, so they don't sound so militaristic. Remember, if this is for 2nd graders, it should be in language that second grades use and understand.

Remember you are not writing a district policy, but an informal one developed with the users themselves. Post your Acceptable Use Policy in the conference labeled as such.

Remember to tell us who the audience is. Is this for kindergarten, fifth graders, workgroup, family, police force, parents? The language and criteria will change for each group.

The best acceptable use policies are those written with the students themselves. In other words, you get the students to create the policy for their own computer use in the classroom or lab. Last year's rule number one from the first graders was "Don't pound on the computer!"

One of the students didn't have access to the classroom, so she created a computer and technology use policy with her children for the technology use at home. She included how to answer the phone, when the parents aren't there. You do not have to do this, unless it fits into your plan, but I thought that this was an interesting concept of a family acceptable use technology plan.

By creating the policy with the users, you get them to buy into the uses. Sometimes students make harder rules than the teachers! So whatever level you decide to work with, the language must be appropriate.

Simple tutorial that ends with an Acceptable Use Permission Slip, available in English and Spanish.

http://k-12.pisd.edu/guide/elemen/inter1.htm

Assignment:
* Create an Acceptable Use Policy for your class, famiily, children or parents
* Find out if your school or organization has an acceptable use policy.

THE Journal- Technology Horizons for Education

Subscription for Educators. Well worth it, for a real magazine that you can highlight and clip.

4teachers.org

One of my favorite starting points. Has an easy rubric maker. You can construct online quizzes here. Many of you talked about equity in the classroom and here is an Equity Index to help you locate resources. For bilingual classrooms there is CASA Notes to create take home notes in English and Spanish. Grant Resources, Assistive Technology and so much more. Bookmark this one for sure!

Carol Hurst Children's Literature Site
Interested in children's literature and how to use it? Here is a portal site that offers both professional resources and a wealth of information on children's literature. Good place to start on summer reading! You can also sign up for a free newsletter on this topic.

Tom Sndyer
Again this site is highlighted, because it is a good example of constructivist software. Take a product tour. Review the program Lucy's favorite program, Choices - Taking Resonsibility,which is collaborative software for K-5 or Decicions, Decisions for 5 -10. If you're new to Powerpoint, there is a great project based book with CD, that includes clip art, templates and sample files -- Powerpoint Workshop for Teachers.

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