bunchuck

Proposed Technology Requirements for Computer-Delivered Assessments

2011-11-17T08:52:00.000-08:00

As part of the Regents Reform, the New York State Education Department (NYSED) is planning computer-delivered assessments statewide beginning in the 2014-15 school year.

So they have released the minimum specifications for equipment purchase:

Processor Speed 1.3 Ghs
RAM 1 GB
Hard Drive 1 GB with at lease 512 MB available
Screen Resolution 1024 x 768

I'm wondering with the push to tablets and hand held devices if this initiative has got us all moving in the wrong direction? Shouldn't they be building apps to deliver the testing?

Just a thought. You can read the NYSED's recommendations here:

http://www.p12.nysed.gov/apda/ac-general/2011/tech-req-assessments.pdf

New Computer Devices and Airline Security

2011-03-06T17:21:00.001-08:00

The TV commerical for the newest phone/laptop dock are cute. The Motorola Atrix phone docks into a laptop, so your phone and computer are combined.

In the commercial, airline security are giving the passinger grief about the new device that they haven't seen yet. "Is it a computer or a phone?" they ask.

It reminds me of the trouble I had with airport security back in 1984 when I carried a Compaq computer to Alaska. The Seattle airport didn't know what to make of it and wanted me to "open the case". It was a sealed unit with just the keyboard coming off at the bottom. It weighed almost 30 pounds and was hard to carry too!

You can read about the computer here: http://oldcomputers.net/compaqi.html. I did get it on the plane. I'm sure the new laptop weight much less than 30 pounds!

New Year's Resolution - Online promotion

2011-01-22T10:49:00.000-08:00

You know that you want to increase your web presence or promote your business online. I teach a wonderful class called "Blogging 101" at Suffolk Community College. The class is 100% online, so you can take it from home. For $125, you spend a month learning about the latest online tools to promote your business or simply express yourself in a blog.

If you go to Suffolk Community College's online catalog: http://www3.sunysuffolk.edu/ContinuingEd/, you'll see my class XCW111 BLOGGING 101 halfway down the page. Here is a direct link to the class https://lighthouse.sunysuffolk.edu/pls/prod/bwckschd.p_disp_detail_sched?term_in=201102&crn_in=26957

You should consider signing up... It will be fun. The class starts on February 28th and there are only 16 seats left!

NYSCATE Leadership Summit 2010

2010-07-20T07:40:00.000-07:00

A link to my presentation at the NYSCATE conference this afternoon. I'm shocked, but I got assigned the Auditorium. I have to use a microphone. Wish me luck!

Group Work and Peer Editing

2010-07-12T05:09:00.000-07:00

I was trying to explain to a class just how revolutionary I think online document platforms like "Google Docs" are going to be. I thought I'd share some ideas about it here.

As an educator, you can put yourself in as a collaborator on any or all of your student's documents. A teacher can simply make it a requirement that the student shares the document editing process. The National council of teachers of English encourages writing as a process. As a teacher you will be able to see how the student is revising the document.

First the student must share the document with the teacher. The student clicks the "Share" button in the upper right hand corner and types in the email addresses of those who will have access to the document. You have the choice of letting the collaborator view or edit with you. Here is a document with many collaborators:

All the teacher has to do is sign into google documents and they will see all their student documents. The document list shows the documents you are a collaborator on. It also show the names of the other collaborators. If the student hasn't added the teacher as a collaborator, it won't appear. I make it a requirement that I must be a collaborator in each of my students documents.

The teacher clicks on the student's document and then can see when the student has been working, how many changes have been made and if anyone else has been editing the document.

The teacher simply need to click the menu choice "REVISION HISTORY"

At the revision history screen, the teacher will see the process of editing the document. Below is a the revision history from the Technology Plan that my district recently completed. We had a entire committee of people editing the document as once. You could quickly see who made what changes and how much time they had spent.

This new online document tool ushers in a new era for student document collaboration. No more will group work be done by one student while the others slack off. No more can a student slap something together on the day of the deadline. The teacher can check and see when the editing was done and by whom.

It is powerful tool for a teacher. A Google document account is free. As educators we should be taking advantage of this technology.

Kim Cronin Bunchuck

Engaging Parents

2010-06-09T11:21:00.000-07:00

ASCD Conference - Monday - GOOGLE DAY

2010-03-18T10:49:00.000-07:00

Today I spent a bit of time at the google booth.

There session on Curriculum mapping using google calendar and docs was great. I'll share more...

ASCD Conference "Don't Laugh at Me"

2010-03-18T10:42:00.001-07:00

The highlight of Sunday afternoon was a session with Peter Yarrow. He is the "Peter" from Peter, Paul and Mary. When I think of all that man has done for peace, most notably, the march on washington, I get goosebumps.

Currently he's spearheading a program called "Don't Laugh at Me". It attempts to stop bullying by distributing free curriculum with the anti-hate message.

So I was in the front row when Peter started setting up and he was gracous enough to pose for a picture:

It's a little fuzzy, but priceless!

ASCD Conference - Day 2 - Don Tapscott

2010-03-18T10:03:00.000-07:00

I started tweeting Saturday afternoon during the one-to-one session. There were many tweeters at the conference and if you checked you got a great sense of what was going on.

Here is the Tweeter screen with some sample posts:

I walked the vendor floor the first thing of the day which was a great way to gather information for my school. After the curriculum mapping session yesterday I was particularly looking for software solutions.

At 10 am the General session met with a talk by Don Tapscott on the "Net generation"

He started out by quoting Dylan "There's something going on here and we don't know what it is."

I too have quoted Dylan (see my earlier blog post) to show how technology is changing education in a major way, just like his lyrics talked about the changing society in the late 1960.

Here are some of my notes from his lecture:

He felt the critical periods for brain development are 0-3 and 8 -18 years old.

But because of our kids exposure to multitasking their brains are better at switching than ours are. He says there is emerging evidence that exposure to new technologies may push the brain beyond conventional "capacity"

He feels that our current kids are the smartest Generation.

Don't blame the internet for problems in the school. the Internet isn't the problem it is part of the solution.

He notes that back in the day the family structure was that - Mom reported to Dad and the kids reported to Mom

Today the kids are the center of the family - The family organization chart is a circle with the kids in the center and all family activities revolving around them. They are:Coddled kids, trophy kids.

He feels that facebook and social media is how kids communicate. Kids don't understand the concept of Privacy. So we should go through the privacy controls on facebook so that kids don't give away all their personal information.

Today's kids want to make a difference. They are in a culture of collaboration and cooperation. If you embrace that culture you get better results.

Banning facebook is demoralizing. We don't understand your tools, we don't trust you.

We fear what we don't understand

When we graduated, we were set for life, just get a job and keep up. Now the degree has a time stamp like a milk carton, it will go sour. Lifelong learning is the goal.

The old school ways of teaching: Drill and kill, Sage on the Stage, Broadcast model of learning - one way, teacher focused. In this style the student is isolated.

Student focused is the way the new generation learns. Collaborative classrooms is very uneven in today's implementation.

Children have a right to the tools of learning for their time and their century. Change the model of pedagology into a collaborative model.

But after he said all this he said that you can't just throw technology in. You need to change to a more collaborative learning style. Cut back on lecturing, empower students to self-organize and work together.

If you want to follow tapscott on twitter, he is: @dtapscott

More later - Kim

ASCD Conference

2010-03-18T06:40:00.000-07:00

I had the pleasure of attending the ASCD conference in San Antonio Texas in early March 2010. The conference focused on education. I attended many sessions. Here is a recap of my day on Saturday.

The first session was on Curriculum Mapping - How can we use 21st century tool to navigate teaching and learning?

The presenter of this topic was Heidi Hayes Jacobs, who is a leader in the curriculum mapping field. She wanted to dispel the notion that curriculum units are like real estate - teacher feel they own them. This is a wrong notion. Curriculum is a shared, growing, evolving thing.

She noted the four phases for implementation of Curriculum Maps:

Laying the foundation
Launching the process
Sustaining the map
Advanced tasks

She also talked about five types of Alignment

Internal - District align to one another
Cumulative - Year to year K -12
External - Aligns with state standards
TO Students - Mets the needs of the learners in your district
Global - Aims to help the school w/ global community

She also is a big proponent of Digital Portfolios. She feels that assessment is going to be done with digital portfolios.

I am anxious to read more of her materials and start to bring some of this to my district.

Each of our students has a network folder with their work. I hope to expand on Heidi's idea of digital portfolios and help the students move their high school work into their portfolios.

At 10 am on Saturday was the Keynote speaker, Jeffery Canada. I can't say enough about how much I enjoyed hearing him speak. I'm going to summerize his talk in another blog post because what he said was so important.

I focused on One to One computing on Saturday afternoon. The session was a bit of a letdown. I had hoped to get ideas on how to implement a one to one program. Instead it was just a justification lecture on why districts should move towards one to one. I felt the lecture was "preaching to the choir" with their reasons on why one laptop per child is so necessary.

Here are some of the reasons:

Put the learner at the center of the learning process.
Computers as imagination machines.
1:1 isn't about hardware, but software.

Three kinds of schools that have laptop one to one programs.

1. The pioneers

2. The Marketeers (want to get in the news)

3. Their neighbors (copying the other school but not having a plan)

A good resource for districts starting a one to one program is twitter. Follow tweets on one-to-one andsee what they are doing and not doing

The last session of the day was on Handhelds in education

Cell phones are not going away. We have to deal with them.

Saturday was a packed day.

I'll post about Sunday and Monday next.

Kim

Social network and the over 30...

2009-09-17T16:48:00.000-07:00

Well the school year has started. I had a discussion with another parent about social networking. Did you know that facebook now has as many subscribers are there are people in the US?

Of course, parents love to complain about how the Internet is ruining their children. It reminds me of a Dylan song... times they are a' changin'. Here's a verse:

Come mothers and fathers throughout the land
And don't criticize what you can't understand
Your sons and your daughters are beyond your command
Your old road is rapidly agin'
Please get out of the new one if you can't lend your hand
For the times they are a' changin'!

How to create a Blog

2009-07-07T08:19:00.000-07:00

This video explains how to create a blog.

AUGH! Online Math Classes

2009-06-19T08:59:00.000-07:00

I'm taking an Algebra II class this semester. Doing Math online is interesting. Here is one of the error messages I got today.

I tried plotting the lines as best I could, but where do you think 1.66666666 is on the X axis? I guess I wasn't close enough!

Kim

Video Sharing

2009-05-11T06:28:00.000-07:00

We have an Educational account at Google for Greenport School district. Email is going great. We are slowly getting students and teachers to use the documents feature. Another aspect of the package is Video Sharing. We've started using this part of the educational package.

Each educational account is given space to upload and share videos. Only teachers can upload and as administrator, I have to give them permission to upload. So far we have a dozen or so videos loaded. I'm trying hard to limit the videos to ones that are produced by Greenport Students and staff.

We dubbed the service "PorterTube" after the school mascot. Google lets you choose the URL you use, so http://portertube.gufsd.org will take you to our video sharing site. It is a closed site. You must have a Greenport school login to access the videos.

We'll see how it goes. I like the control that we have with our own video sharing site. Hopefully it will grow.

Finally an MS!

2009-05-11T06:25:00.000-07:00

I completed my studies at Stony Brook and I have my MS degree. I think I'm one of the oldest graduates this year, but I'm glad I finally got to it. This blog was originally started when I began my studies. Now that my course work is completed, I think I'll keep the blog going.

I modified the blog's headline to reflect this change.

Cloud Computing Revolution in K-12

2009-05-01T06:47:00.000-07:00

After spending so much time trying to bring Cloud computing to my school district, it is nice to get some positive feedback. District Administration magazine just published a front page article on how cloud computing is an education revolution! Yea, someone agrees with me.

You can click the picture above to go to the magazine's website, or click this link for the article

The Start of a Tech Revolution

The article says:

and many believe K12 education will completely embrace this technology structure in the coming years, revolutionizing how educators, students and administrators use software, hardware and the Internet. But many are unaware of the paradigm shift that they are participating in every day: it’s called “cloud computing.

A Teacher's Guide to Cloud Computing - Part6

2009-04-25T09:52:00.001-07:00

Part 6 –Setting Up Documents and Lesson Plan

Let’s take a look at how a teacher sets up an online document in google docs.

Document Type 1 – all students edit the same document.

Set up a document. Log into the google account and set up the bones of a document. You can start with just a heading, question or outline of the project.

Share the document. Once the document is set up the teacher needs to share it to the students. The teacher clicks the share tab and types in the google accounts of each student. To make this process faster, the teacher can create a “group” that contains all the e-mail addresses of the students in her class. The one group address will add all the students at once. The teacher has the choice to add the students to the document as “readers” or collaborators. A collaborator can edit and change the document. In most cases the students need to be access to the document as a collaborator.

Let the students know. The document will appear in each student’s document list. Although it appears that each student has a copy of the document, there is actually one document. The teacher can also send an e-mail to the students to let them know a document has been shared with them.

Once the assignment is finished, the teacher can remove the student collaborators and just make them readers. That way the students can not continue to work on the assignment after it is due. There is no need for the students to print their documents. The teacher can simply access the document online. Being “Green” is an added bonus. When the teacher is grading the paper, she can simply do it online. Like the teachers of old, she can switch to red “ink” so her comments stand out. The teacher can annotate, correct and mark the document. Since the students are still shared as readers of the document, they can see that teacher’s comments and grade. There is no need to print out assignments or hand them back.

Document Type 2 – each student produces their own paper.

In this example, the teacher has a document for each student. An efficient way to do this is to require the student to create the assignment document and share it with their teacher. The teacher would give an assignment like this:

Create a document in your google documents account called “Your name - how I spend my summer vacation". The document must be shared with the teacher as soon as it is created. Go to share document and add smith@gufsd.org as a collaborator immediately.

As the students start the assignment, their documents appear in the teacher’s document list. She can tell right away who has done their homework and who hasn’t. There will be a document for each student in the class. Even though the document shows who you are sharing it with, having the student name in the title makes it even easier. Here is how a teacher’s document list will look with student docs in the mix.

The documents appear in the teacher’s list when the students create and share the document. The teacher can sort the files into a “Summer Vacation” folder to keep that assignment together. As the student work on their themes, the teacher can see how they are progressing and offer comments and help to struggling students. She is also able to see a revision history for each document. She can see how often the student accessed the file and what was added each time. For students who are struggling, this can be a valuable teaching tool.

LESSON PLANS:

Lesson plans can be adopted for use with online Docs. Here is a standard lesson plan for Middle school science:

LESSON 1 - Middle School Science

This lesson uses Google Spreadsheet to have the students pull together shared data gathering.

Hazardous Chemicals at Home

Brief Overview:

Students find potentially hazardous common household chemicals and classify them into categories.

Curriculum: Science
Standards: 6-8

Goals: Students will learn that common substances in the home are chemical compounds. Students will learn that many household substances are dangerous (poison or toxic). Students will group household chemicals into categories according to whether they are toxic, corrosive or poisons.

Lesson: Following class discussion about chemical elements and compounds and chemical families, there will be a discussion about types of hazardous chemicals and categories of such.

Students will be asked to make a chart with categories of "toxic', "corrosive", and "flammable". We will discuss the meanings of these words and give a few examples in class.

Students will be asked to go home and search the cleaning closet, basement, garage, etc. and see what kinds of "hazardous chemicals" are at their homes. Students will be encouraged to use the computer to make a chart or graph showing their results.

The teacher sets up a Google Spreadsheet Document detailing the lesson. She shares the document with the class . Each student adds a row to the spreadsheet for each chemical they find at home. Student who do not have internet access at home, will bring a written copy and enter their findings into the spreadsheet at school. Here is the spreadsheet:

The students are collaborating on the project immediately. They can see what other student have entered. Once the table is completed, it can be published as the students' "Findings".

Conclusion –

School can change the way students do their computer work by joining the cloud computing boom. In researching this paper, it seemed like there was new information on this topic coming online daily. It is an exciting time to be in education and I’m hopeful that this new trend towards cloud computing will see some very positive benefits for school districts.

Notes about the production of the paper

I started researching this topic in the fall of 2007 after learning about Google applications in a class at Stony Brook in July of 2007. Initially I did not realize that the term cloud computing applied to storing student documents online, which is were my focus was.

I presented my initial research and findings at “the Campus of Excellence”, in June of 2008. This conference was held in the Canary Islands and gave an opportunity for graduate students to present their work to experts in the field.

The feedback I received was mixed. Richard J. Roberts, 1993 Nobel prize winner for Physiology, talked about the importance for scientific information to be posted on the web for all to share. I talked to him about the student’s posting their work and he was concerned that the student papers would “dilute” the more important information posted on the Internet.

A fellow graduate student from Canada, Annemarie Lesage, felt that students were opening themselves up for ridicule if they put documents online. She felt peer review was a bad idea.

But I pressed on. My school district was very supportive of me trying out cloud computing in our district. I was give a staff development day in September of 2008 to show the staff how it all worked. I created the accounts for teachers and staff and did the training.

I wish I could say that it has been an unqualified success. The problem is the staff doesn’t want to change. They like using Microsoft Office products and so they continue on they way they have.

I decided to present my finding at another conference. The A.S.S.E.T. Conference (Association of Suffolk County Supervisors for Education Technology) on Monday, March 16th, 2009 gave me another place to present my ideas. My talk was attended by many administrators as well as teachers. That group was concerned with saving money. Economics was not a huge motivator for me when Istarted this project, but it has become a big priority. Cloud computing can definitely save a district money.

So this project just kept going and going as more information on Cloud computing seemed to be coming out every day. Today as I was finalizing this paper for e-mail to my Dean, another white paper arrived in my mailbox from e-school news “Cloud Computing: The Economic Imperative”. I had to force myself not to read it and to submit this project as is. I think I have been living in the clouds for too long!

Bibliography

Hoover, J. Nicholas. "A Stake in the Clouds." Informationweek 3 Nov. 2008: 22-26.

D'Orio, Wayne. "Working Together". EdTech November/December 2008: 33-36

Johna Till Johnson, “Are Young Workers really all that different?”, Network World Magazine, October 27, 2008, 28

Horrigan, John B., Pew Internet and American Life Project, “Data Memo, Use of Cloud Computing Applications and Services”, September 2008

Oishi, Lindsay, “Working Together”, techLearning.com, 11/22/2008,

Google Apps Education Deployment Pack, 2008, Google.com

National Geographic Society, “Inventors and Discoverers” National Geographic Society, 1988

Part 5 - Collaboration, Sharing, Peer Review and Project Based Learning

2009-04-20T12:30:00.001-07:00

Cloud Computing - Part 5

In this section, I’ll address benefits that cloud computing can provide that the traditional computer/application model does not provide, namely increased collaboration.

There is a trend in education today to move students to project-based learning. Students are put in teams to solve a task. This collaborative learning style is shown to improve student
performance. Howard Mahoney, a California high School principal says, "[Students] can't just repeat what their teacher said. They have to learn how to work cooperatively in
a group". (D'Orio, Wayne. "Working Together". EdTech November/December 2008: 35 ). Having students work together to solve a problem is as a growing trend. Cloud computing is the perfect vehicle to
facilitate this collaborative learning style.

Teachers can set up spreadsheets, documents, presentations in Google docs. These documents are shared with student teams. Each student can edit, add to and access the document, from school or home. The teacher can check the revision history for any document and see which students are contributing and which students are not. It is a perfect vehicle for managed collaboration.

Another aspect of putting document online is providing peer review. Online documents can be shared. Envision Schools is a group of four charter schools in the San Francisco area. The schools are tasked with helping their students become the first in their family to attend college. Although the four schools have different themes, the all share a technology-rich environment. This environment combines project-based learning with regular exhibitions of student work. (D'Orio, Wayne. "Working Together". EdTech November/December 2008: 34 )

This student work can be easily shared by publishing it online using Google docs. The five core values that project based learning can foster are: inquiry, research, collaboration, presentation and reflection. Google documents makes collaboration and presentation much easier than with standard computer models.

Another aspect of putting student work online is that students are more accountable with an online document tool. Their work is tracked with a document revision history. Here is a screen-print of a documents revision history.

As you can see, each time the student logs into the document it is noted. If more than one student edits a document, their names go into the revision history as well. This revision history is a valuable tool for teachers to use with their students.

Teachers can access a student documents and look at the review history. Then can see how much time the student put in to the project, what date they started, what date they finished and what editing changes were made. If a document was accessed once, and a large block of text pasted into the document, it is a red flag that the student is plagiarizing (copying) other work. If a student is required too work in an online document, the teacher can access the document and check on the student’s progress, make comments and guiding the student along. If a document is a team project, each student who is assigned to the project has their own login. The teacher can see what students accessed the document, when and what changes they made.

Sharing information with Parents – Another Benefit

Moving student documents online not only benefits students, but also their parents. Parents can see how the work is graded and see the work that the students are producing. As a parent of three teenagers, I can testify that my children rarely bring their work home for me to see. If parents are included in the access to google docs, they can see what their children are doing.

All the teacher needs is a parent’s e-mail address and the parent can be added to any document as a viewer or collaborator. I personally would be reluctant to add a parent as more than a viewer. The old problem with parent’s doing their children’s work would take on new meaning. Of course with the revision history, the teacher could see just who (parent or child) was doing
the editing.

Sharing the documents with the Online Community

Another advantage of having the students do their work is the “share” feature. After all the collaboration is done and the document is finished, it can be shared. Google docs gives teachers the option of sharing document with just members of the school community or with
anyone with Internet access. For a student, having their work compared to the work or others is a powerful motivator. This Peer Review has been proven to increase student production.

If a student submits a writing assignment using paper and pencil, the usually is little or no revision Using the model that teachers set up the assignment and share it with their students is also valuable to assignments that require Internet research. Students tend to stray off topic when web surfing. A teacher can create a hotlist with links to websites. Since the document is already online, students can click to go to the places on thw Internet that the teacher wants. Students stay on task.

Using Google docs with your students also opens up another way too communicate. Since the document sharing, e-mail is all online, students have another way to ask questions of the teacher. If a student is too shy to ask in class, they can contact the teacher through the Google e-mail platform.

The online platform does not have to be the final “resting Place” for a google document. Google give the user many choices for storing the document. A document can be downloaded as a Word Document, web page, PDF file, plain Text, rich text or Open office. If a document needs to accessed while the computer is offline or if the document needs to be attached to an e-mail, it is simple to download the file and deal with it in the traditional ways.

Online documents also is beneficial in case of a disaster. When schools were destroyed in Hurricaine Kattrina in New Orleans, those districts who had set up online communications outsourced from their districts found a great benefit.

If a district sets up Google Docs and the district building is damaged or destroyed by a disaster, they still have their documents and work. Teachers can continue to communicate with their students through the google interface. A off-site solution like google docs provides this benefit

In the Next Section, we'll look at some sample lesson plans that you can use in your classroom.

A teachers' Guide to Cloud Computing - Part 4

2009-04-18T11:21:00.001-07:00

The steps to applying the Google Apps cloud computing model at a school district

Since Google is offering an Education edition for schools for free, there are currently few other options that can compete. As technology moves forward, I'm sure this will not always be thecase. But for the timing of this paper and blog posting, early 2009, Google is the major player. Here are the steps that I've taken to bring Google Documents to my School District.

1. Apply for an educational Account at Google. You need to prove that you are an education institution to receive benefits from Google. Advertisement will be turned off on all pages for educational organizations. Google will also provide 500 free accounts for use with Google Docs. If you district needs more than 500 accounts, they can be purchased.

To apply for the account, you need to start at Google's website:
http://www.google.com/educators/p_apps.html

You will need a web address for your school. Google will be using that web address for
the name of your google domain. My school district was currently using Greenport.k12.ny.us to point to a web server that held the district’s website. The address was also used to point to a
Microsoft Exchange server where district e-mail was sent. Both of these services were housed in the school district and supported by district staff.

When you create a google document account, you also create e-mail accounts. Google has married the services together and google docs is no available without email. I did not want to disrupt the services that we already had running at the district, so I registered a second domain to use with our new google system. Gufsd.org (Greenport Union Free School District) was registed for $10 per year. Domain name registration has become a very cost effective thing to do.

We pointed the domain name to the google services. Google has many pages of instructions to help you do that.

After the account is set up with Google, you will need to create accounts for your students and staff. I downloaded names from my student information system and created a spreadsheet. I had to provide the first and last name, desired e-mail account, and initial password. Once this
was completed, the file was uploaded to google and all the accounts were created at once. Here is a sample of what the file looks like:

If you don't provide initial passwords, google will assign them.

You can read more about creating accounts at google’s website here:
Http://mail.google.com/support/vin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=12119

Once the accounts are created, you need to train your students and staff. My district held a “google Documents training session as part of staff development day. The teachers were shown how to log in and use their accounts. They were provided with the account lists and passwords of their students, so they could show their students how to access their accounts.

Changing the climate at a district can be difficult. At my September 30^th, 2008 staff training day, I trained 35 teachers on the use of Google Apps. Teachers were given their accounts, lesson plan ideas and a day of training on how it works. Student accounts were set up for each student in grades 7 – 12. Since Microsoft word licenses exist for most machines in the district, teachers had no incentive to switch over. As of this writing in April 2009, students are still doing their work in the traditional way using the Microsoft office that is installed on each PC.

In the teacher training session, there was a bit of confusion as to how the system worked. Teachers understood how to create new documents, change fonts, spell check and traditional word-processing tasks with no problems. But when it came to learning the collaboration tools,things didn’t go as smoothly. Collaboration tools are not available in traditional word processing documents. To work together on a document, it had to physically be place in a file on a floppy disk or flash drive. The document had to be transferred from one student to another so the student could add their part of the document. This type of document sharing was called “sneaker net” as you had to walk the document from one person to another.

I had one group of four teachers who set up a collaborative document. They were each viewing it on their screens simultaneously. For the training each teacher had their own laptop computer, and were logged into their own google account. Once teacher would make a change to the
common-shared document and then say to the other “did you get the message yet”, like they were using a sort of on-line chat room. I explained that they were editing one document. When one teacher would edit anothers words, it surprised them that the changes showed on all screens, not just theirs. I left the training thinking that they didn’t quite “get it”.

Once you’ve rolled out the accounts to staff, it is important to keep training.

I have pushed into several classrooms to teach the students how to use their google docs accounts. Students have taken to the technology is a very rapid way. Once they discover they can work on their documents at home, they are interested.

Google points out on their website how Google Documents can benefit schools. The google website says:

"Students, teachers and staff can share ideas more quickly and get things done more effectively when they have access to the same powerful communication and sharing
tools. Google Apps Education Edition lets tech administrators provide email, sharable online calendars, instant messaging tools and even a dedicated website to faculty, students and staff for free. There's no hardware or software to install or maintain, since everything is delivered through a standard web browser -- anytime,
from anyplace."

The bulk of what students use google docs for will be document processing. The computers that are provided for Student Use at my district are used mainly for internet research and document processing. Students use a set of tools when they use word processing software. I was concerned
that student would feel they are losing options and functions when their switch from a full-functioning wordprocessing program like Microsoft Office to a web-based program like Google Docs.

There are fewer menu options available in Google docs then there is in Microsoft Office.

However, I feel the set of tools that Google document provides to the students is adequate.

To test my belief that google docs tool set is adequate, I surveyed students and teachers to see what features of a WordProcessing program they use. I listed several WordProcessing features and asked whether or not students use them. There is a belief that people only use a small percentage of the features that their software applications provide. My finding bear that out.

The chart below detail what features students use. It is clear that Google Documents (the online model) provides all the tools needed to produce student work.

Feature	Percentage of Survey responders who use this feature	Provided by Google Docs	Provided by Microsoft Word
Spell Check	86.8%	Yes	Yes
Printing	86.8%	Yes	Yes
Change Font	78.9%	Yes	Yes
Insert Footnote	13.2%	Yes	Yes
Insert Image	52.6%	Yes	Yes
Insert table	23.7%	Yes	Yes
Insert Headers	39.5%	Yes	Yes
Insert Footers	13.2%	Yes	Yes
Create a Table of Contents	18.4%	Yes	Yes
Text Search and Replace	21.1%	Yes	Yes
Add Watermark	2.6%	No	Yes
Use Multiple Columns	26.3%	No	Yes
Alphabetize (sort) columns of Words	18.4%	No	Yes
Mail Merge	13.2%	No	Yes

As you can see from the table above, the features provided by Google Docs are adequate for most users in a K – 12 environment.

I also asked students if they work on document from multiple locations. An overwhelming amount, 74.3% do. But asked if they collaborate on document creation, a majority (60%) said they produce documents without the help of others.

My informal survey was facilitated by the website SurveyMonkey. If you wish to take
the survey, it is still online here:
Click Here to take survey

I have stopped analyzing responses, but withe the link above, you can see how the survey was taken.

The question on the survey about multiple document authors ties in with the trend in
education toward collaborative project based learning. In my next section of this paper, I will explore the benefits of cloud computing that are not available with the old model.

A teacher's Guide to Cloud Computing - part3

2009-04-18T09:36:00.001-07:00

Part 3 - Using Cloud computing to benefit K - 12

According to InformationWeek. "Cloud computing promises to cut operational and capital costs, and more important, let IT departments focus on strategic projects instead of keeping the data center running."

In K-12 Schools, the benefits of cloud computing can greatly enhance the way student create documents and store their work. Let's look at six potential benefits for schools when the adopting this cloud computing model.

Reduced Costs. Since schools do not have to maintain the computers and programs in-house, the costs are lower. Software licensing fees do not have to be paid. Staffing for server maintenance, backups can be reduced.
Increased Storage. Schools have to limit the storage that students can access on the school servers. There is a finite amount of space on school-based file servers. With cloud computing, more space is readily available.
Highly Automated. Schools must constantly update software to keep pace with changes. Older versions of software that is installed on the school computers has to be updated to newer programs. Using an Internet-based, server the updating is done automatically. School personnel area no longer responsible for keeping software current. With the "Software stored on Local PC model", when a program enhancement comes out, the school is responsible for purchaing the upgrade, and then installing it on each computer. With the applications stored on a cloud server, this software updating is done automatically for the school
Flexibility. If the school wants to change the programs they are using, they can just sign-up with another service. They don't have to re-invest in new software and install it.
More Mobility. Students and staff can work on their document from anywhere there is an internet connection.
IT can shift focus. IT staff doesn't have to spend resources keeping server running.

So if this technology has all these benefits, how can we apply them to Schools?

Since Cloud computing is Internet based, you need to use a service provided by a third party. More and more companies are jumping into cloud computing, but there are still limited
options for schools. The most obvious place to start cloud computing in your school is with document creation and management.

There are two major companies providing “online document” services, Google and Zoho. As cloud computing becomes more prevalent, I’m sure this number will grow.

Google has gone out of their way to woo the Educational customer. They have provided a free google Document account for any school. The Google documents accounts comes with 500 free accounts for schools to give to their students and staff. Google turns off advertising for these school accounts.

Zoho also provides free accounts, but only for personal use. To create a group of accounts, you must purchase a plan. There have a discount for schools, but even with accounts as low as $5 per month, they can’t compete with the free model that Google offers.

So, the cloud computing model that I am exploring is with Google Apps (Applications). This platform is sponsored by Google and is being offered to Educational Institutions at no cost.

Since the platform is free, it can be set up at any school district without incurring a lot of expense. School can evaluate how the platform works without inventing any money. Google has put together a very good set of tools: e-mail, calendar, Web messaging, word processing, spreadsheets, and slideshow presentations. These applications take the place of Microsoft
Office which costs $350 per user for a corporate license and $49 per user for an educational license. Also, there's no need to back-up or transfer files from multiple computers.

There are other benefits to using Google docs that we haven’t explored yet. Google docs does allow students to store their work in the “clouds”, but there are other benefits as well.

Google points them out on their website:

Documents are stored online. School do not have to invest in servers with large storage capacity to store student documents.

Students can collaborate in real-time. Documents can be shared and edited between students.

Access to the documents is controlled.

Existing documents can be uploaded into the new Google Docs accounts.

Each document has a revision history

It is integrated with e-mail.

The fact that student can collaborate in real-time is something that was not available in the old, "everything installed on the PC"model. Now a group of students can all be editing the same document, from different locations. If a group of students has to do a group project, they can access the files from home and contribute from there, as long as they have an internet connection.

My school district, Greenport Schools, set up a google documents account. In the next section we’ll look at the process.

A teacher's Guide to Cloud Computing - part2

2009-04-18T08:22:00.001-07:00

Part 2 - Cloud Computing Explained

Cloud computing is Internet based use of computer technology. The word cloud is used as a metaphor for the Internet. Cloud computing is also synonymous with the phrase "Software as a Service (SaaS)". With cloud computing you are using the technology without knowledge or control over the infrastructure. You don't purchase software, but instead use a service that is installed on a server computer.

To explain cloud computing using another example, we'll go back many years. When electricity was first invented, companies had to generate their own electricity. When utility companies and municipal electric service came into existence, companies now could tap into the electric that was provided and not generate their own. All they have to provide is a way to tap into this shared electric service.

Cloud computer treats computer applications and documents that same as this electric model. Companies (or schools) don't have to provide their own computer applications or places to store them. They can tap into the document storage and applications of the Internet. All they have to provide is the means to tap into the service.

Cloud computing is an emerging technology where data -- documents, messages, photographs, computer programs (word processing and spreadsheets) are stored out in the Internet and not on an individual's computer. Cloud computing simply needs an internet connection to work. If you have to install new hardware or new software then it isn’t cloud computing.

Ray Ozzie, chief software architect at Microsoft, is quoted as saying "We're going to look back at this era and wonder how we did without this other kind of computer in the clouds". (J.
Nicholas Hoover, A Stake in The Cloud (Informationweek, 2008) 22. ) He is working to revamp the architecture of programs at Microsoft to take advantage of cloud computing technology. Windows and office, two of Microsoft's most important programs, will change to take advantage of cloud computing. According to Information week: "the next version of Office will offer a browser-based option
so users can read and edit documents online as well as the ability for users to collaborate using Web, mobile and client version of office."

Michael Nelson, a professor at Georgetown University is quoted assaying, "Cloud computing is going to change the way we do computing and not in 10 years... but in 4 or 5. " ("Google D.C. Talks:

Cloud Computing." Google Video. Online video clip. Youtube.com
Accessed on 04 November . http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVb41AVL05k )

The Pew Research Center published a Data Memo in September 2008. In the memo they cite the following statistics:

CLOUD COMPUTING ACTIVITIES

Internet users who do the following online activities (%)

Use Webmail Services such as Hotmail, gmail, or Yahoo! mail	56%
Store personal photos online	34%
Use online applications such as Google Documents or Adobe Photoshop Express	29%
Store personal videos online	7%
Pay to store computer files online	5%
Back up hard drive to an online site	5%

Source: "Use of Cloud Computing Applications and Services", John B. Horrigan, Pew Internet and American Life Project, Pew Research Center, September 2008.

So cloud computing is coming... next we'll explore how it can benefit K-12 Institutions.

A Teacher's Guild to Cloud Computing - Part1

2009-04-18T07:49:00.001-07:00

Every year there is a new buzz word. In technology it seems to be every month, there is something new for a teacher to keep up with. If students are doing it, teachers should know about it.

The latest buzz in technology is cloud computing. Just what is cloud computing? Can students use the technology to help in their education? What do teachers need to know.

This teacher’s guide to cloud computing is my attempt to answer some of those questions. If you read all the information in the guide and follow some of the exercises, you’ll see how to tap into cloud computing and use it in your classroom.

A look back on Computers in the Classroom:

Since Personal computers have found their way into schools, the same model for

student computer use has applied:

A computer is placed in the classroom.
Software programs are loaded on the computer
The student types their work into the program on the computer.
A file is created and the work is stored on a locally, either on a hard
drive, floppy or flash drive.

There are several problems with this system:

First, Students can and do lose their files. If the student is working on a different computer than yesterday, the work may be on the hard drive of yesterday’s computer. If the student stored their work on a removable storage devise (Floppy, flash drive) they can lose it.

Secondly, the files can be in the wrong format. Students bring work in from home, but their file may be saved in WordPerfect format and the classroom has Microsoft Word. Or the student works on an Apple computer at home. The file is too difficult for the teacher to open.

The software industry is constantly changing. They have to come out with upgrades
and new features to keep people buying their product. Each program stores their files in their own format. If a student work in Microsoft Works as home, but at school there is Microsoft Office. Office can’t open works files. Or student are using the latest at home – Office 2007, but at school there is still Office 2000, which can’t open the newer files. The technical incompatibilities can sidetrack even the most diligent student.

This is where “cloud computing” comes into play. Instead of storing the work locally, student work goes into the “clouds”. Programs are not stored on the local computers. The programs
are on the Internet (up in the clouds). Students simply need to access the Internet to run their programs and access their files.

So Cloud computing can change the way school store student work. Before we explore
cloud computing further, let’s see how we got to where we are today with computers in the classroom.

Models of computer use at schools

The personal computer got started in 1980 with the IBM PC. School quickly adopted computers for use in education, utilizing Apple II computers. One of the first uses of computers in education was word-processing. This is how word-processing on a computer is done in a school:

A software program is loaded on the computer
The student types their work into the program
A file is created and the work is stored on a local storage device (hard
drive, floppy disk, flash drive).

Students at home have no access to the files or applications at school. The work is stored on the computers. In the last few years, cheap flash drives have made carrying files back and forth easier. The work is stored on the drive and can be carried from machine to machine or
home. If the flash drive is lost, or if the student leaves it home, the work is not available.

The cloud computing model is different. Student still sit at the computer to do their word processing, but the programs are not installed on the local machine. Student work is stored in "the cloud" of the Internet. This model allows students to get access to their work anywhere there is an internet connection.

Students at school save their work into the Internet based applications. Students at home can also gain access to the document. Since the work is not housed in the school district's computer network, the documents are available from anywhere with an Internet connection.

Now that we've seen how our student can use cloud computing, in the next blog post, we'll dig deeper in just what cloud computing is.

Asset Technology Conference

2009-03-15T12:57:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow is the Asset technology conference on Long Island. I'm presenting "Cloud Computing for the K-12 teacher.

Here is my presentation. I'm presenting session one, so I don't have to worry about it all day. The presentation is a Google Docs presentation. I've embedded it here in my blog, but in the presentation is an embedded video. Amazingly, it all works.

I'll let you know how it goes.

WordProcessing Survery

2008-11-12T07:08:00.000-08:00

I'm collecting data for my thesis. Please fill out my quick survey on Word Processing features and software!

Click Here to take survey

Thanks,

Kim

Who coined the phrase Web 2.0

2008-11-07T08:02:00.001-08:00

If you've been reading my blog, you know that I'm working on my Master's Thesis. Since it involves Web 2.0 technologies, I thought I'd include a section on the history of Web 2.0.

I've found differing options on the origin of Web 2.0. In the book "Blogs, Wikis, MySpace, and more: Everthing you want to know about using web 2.0 but are afraid to ask". by Terry Burrows, I found the following:

"The concept of Web 2.0 came from an Internet media businessman names Tim O'Reily. He and his colleagues coined the phrase in 2003, and it became public at the first Web 2.0 conference a year later."

In "How to do Everything with Your Web 2.0 Blog" by Todd Stauffer, it says:

"The term "Web 2.0" was coined by Dale Dougherty in a brainstorming session with book publisher Tim O'Reilly at a conference in late 2005, and while it wasn't perfectly well-defined at the time, it was meant to suggest the next generation of Web applications that were turning the Web froma sort of static experience into a more acitve -- maybe "useful -- one. "

So when was the term coined? 2003? 2005? I guess it is time to google....

Cloud Computing for K-12 Schools

2008-10-23T06:35:00.000-07:00

I’m working to change the way school do their work. In the 12 years that I’ve been a technology director, we’ve followed the same model for documents:

A software program is loaded on the computer
The student types their work into the program
A file is created and the work is stored on a local storage device (hard drive, floppy disk, flash drive)

There are several problems with this system.

Where’s my file? If the student is working on a different computer than yesterday, they don’t have access to that work. Students lose floppy disks, flash drives and then their work is gone.

What format is my file in? If the student works in MS Works at home and brings the document in to school, he can’t open it. At school we have standardized on Microsoft Word. We are also running word version 2003, so if a student is working on a higher version at home, there is a need for a “compatibility patch” to be installed on the computer at school.

Unfair access is common. If a student has a computer at home, they can bring their work home on a CD, flash drive or floppy disk. If a student doesn’t have a computer, they don’t have that option. Bringing work to a public library doesn’t guarantee that the software necessary to open the file is available.

The new model that we are trying to implement is called “cloud computing”. In theory work goes into the “clouds”.

Here is the new model using Google Docs:

An academic account is set up at Google.com. Each educational institution can apply for a few account with 500 user accounts

No advertisements

7,000 MB of storage for each Student

Accounts are set up for each student and teacher.
Computers need Internet access but no other software need to be installed.
Students log into their Google account and work is typed into their account. The documents, spreadsheets and presentations are saved in their Internet account.

Advantages to this system:

Cost – No software licenses need to be purchased.

Accessibility – Student can access their work from any computer with an internet connection

Compatibility – Since no software is required, the problems creating a document with one program and typing to open it with another is eliminated. Google documents can be saved as files in the following formats:

HTML
PDF
DOC (MS OFFICE)
TXT (plain Text)
RFT (rich text)
Open office

Sharing and collaborating

By putting the documents online, the student can share or publish them. This opens up group projects, collaboration and peer review. The students can publish their work for anyone on the Internet to see.

Here is a video on the sharing aspects of Google Docs.

We are working to implement the change at my school district. I will continue to post as the project moves forward. I'd love to hear your comments on using Google Docs in education.

First Report from the Campus of Excellence

2008-06-25T07:30:00.000-07:00

I´ve been on the Canary Islands since Sunday attending the Campus of Excellence. It is a well-named event. Yesterday I learned particle physics from Dr. Jerome Friedman. He has won a Nobel prize in Physics. Far from being too brainy for me, he made the subject clear and understandable. It was like learning how to read music from a rock star!

Here I am with Dr. Friedman.

Today I had breakfast with a NASA Astronaut. Michael López-Alegría joined us at our table and then later gave us a talk about living in the Space Station. Incredible.

I´ll post more later.. This afternoon I´m exploring the $100 laptop!

Port Jefferson on a Spring Day

2008-05-15T15:28:00.000-07:00

My class walked around Port Jefferson and took some photographs. We explored Picasa and I posted this collage to my blog in about 5 minutes. Lots of fun.

If you haven't downloaded Picasa from the Google website, you should. Google is creating many free tools for educators to use.

Final Project for EST 582

2008-05-12T17:25:00.000-07:00

For this semester's class - System Approach to Human-Machine Systems, we studied how machines are engineered and how ergonomics and marketing play major roles. I enjoyed the class much more than I though I would. Here is my final project:

I compiled my research using Google Documents, so here is a link to that.

http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dgzd86sp_12dchk32hf

My master's thesis concerns Web 2.0 technology in K-12 Schools. I decided to use some of those tools (Youtube, Blogs, Shared Online documents) to present this project.

Video showing Highlights of Last Year's Campus of Excellence

2008-04-29T12:10:00.000-07:00

I found this video on Youtube that shows last year's Campus of Excellence

As the time before the conference grows shorter, I'm getting excited to go.

What to do with a Wiki.

2008-04-18T10:47:00.000-07:00

In each of my classes we've discussed Wikis. The professors for my college classes love them. One went so far as to set up a classroom Wiki and had each of us set up an account at wikispaces. We didn't use any of it. I thought only worthwhile Wiki was Wikipedia.

So I was please to stumble upon this Wiki. Rock, Write, and listen is a wonderful educational Wiki space that was used for a Rock and Roll class. I'm impressed. I'm planning on incorporating some ideas from this great Wiki for my school.

Thank you, Dr-Haiken! Great Job.

The Campus of Excellence

2008-04-15T17:52:00.000-07:00

WOO HOO!! I've been selected by Stony Brook University to participate in the 2008 El Campus de Excelencia, organized by the University of Las Palmas. The University is located on the Canary Islands! We'll be going for a week in June.

The purpose of the Conference is to provide a meeting point for young people to present their innovative and feasible projects to the world's leaders in scientific, cultural, political, economic and business knowledge.

Focus will be placed on promoting the exchange of knowledge in the following areas: Health and Welfare, Eco-innovation, Education and Technology, Economy and Cooperation for Development, and Entrepreneurs and Business.

The events covers a broad spectrum: from Plenary Panels and Simultaneous Forums to Press Symposiums, University Seminars and Poster Sessions.

Thanks to the Campus of Excellence, we will have the amazing opportunity of sharing face-to-face meetings with the most prodigious thinkers today, including a large delegation of Nobel Laureates.

<http://www.campusdeexcelencia.org> Is the link to the site. I have to get going on my project. I'm focusing on Web 2.0 technologies in K-12 Education. I'll keep you posted.

Digital Dinosaur

2008-04-10T14:19:00.000-07:00

ComputerWorld had an article this week on how the IBM AS/400 is not dead. Click here for the article.

I was pleased to see it. The System 38 (what the AS/400 grew out of) was one of the first computers that I worked on. I remember setting up PCs to emulate as terminals, my first networking task. It's nice to know that there is a place for older technology to fit in.

Like me!

Asset Conference Presentation

2008-03-18T16:43:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was the Asset Technology Conference on Long Island. I presented a 45 minute demonstration on Video Screen Capture and On-line Video.

It went well. I had a packed room with people sitting on the floor. No one got up and left! The computer and projector worked. The internet streamed in well. I'm pretty happy about it.

Here is the link to the conference Vault where you can find more information about my presentation.

Using the Districts' website to aid Parent Communications.

2008-03-12T07:40:00.001-07:00

Background

Greenport School District is mandated by the No Child Left Behind Act to involve parents in the education process. This law includes fostering parent involvement and Parent access to Student Information. The parent Communication mandates are in Title I, III, IX, X, FERPA, and PPRA of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001.

Theory

If my District adds a content management system to our website, we can meet the mandates of NCLB. By putting an organized menu-system on the website, the information can be organized into a coherent resource for parents. Currently, the Website is a mish-mash of information that has been put online by teachers, staff, and administrators. Information is not updated in a timely fashion. Currently average monthly website counters show 200 website visits per month.

Hypothesis

We will increase parents’ access to information we organize and update the district’s website.

Analysis and Prediction

We will place a content management system on the website. Parents will be informed by student take-home handouts about that information is also online. After two months of usage, the new website will increase readers to our website. The website counters will increase.

Evaluating Classroom Management Software

2008-02-09T07:36:00.000-08:00

We evaluated Syncroneyes software for use in our school district. Although the program has many bells and whistles, it is just too expensive for our district.

Here is the slide show of our presentation:

| View | Upload your own

Enjoy! Kim

Engaging 21sth Century Learners

2008-01-16T11:20:00.000-08:00

This video was made for college students, but it applies to all learners. It shows "NetGen" behaviors:

Today’s students are overloaded with information, over scheduled and disconnected from traditional classroom teaching. As we see in the video, NetGen behaviors include:

Using personal digital devices during class
Working on something else instead of focusing on the lecture
Not doing the reading assignments
Communicating non-verbally

To reach students you have to use their own weapons against them. If they want to collaborate; design a collaborative document using Google or Zoho documents. If they want to communicate non-verbally; set up a bulletin board.

My attempt to engage students was with a seventh grade typing class. Every 8^th period, the students filed into a room to type practice exercises from a book into Microsoft Word. Although they are all in the same room, there is no interaction and the teacher stressed “no talking”.

I put the class “online” by creating a virtual classroom. At http://ny.globalclassroom.us/ I created the class and uploaded the student accounts. Now the students do their typing into blogs. They interact with each other by seeing each other's work. The teacher posts the typing assignments and the students then do the work. My intention is to allow the typing class to be a non-scheduled class. Students log into the classroom and do their typing assignment when they have a free period. It will no longer be necessary to schedule everyone into the same room at the same time.

In the First Chapter of “Educating the Net Generation”, Bob Pletka writes about how students are bored with current teaching methods. They have a need for a sense of community, teamwork and collaboration. Creating virtual classrooms helps because students are doing the work “on their time”, not being forced into a classroom for 45 minutes.

The associated press report today that there were nearly 4.3 million births in 2006. This is the highest number since 1961 (near the end of the baby boom). As these babies become students, how will the school accommodate them? By adding classrooms in trailers as they did in the 1970s or by adding virtual classrooms?

Another thing that students do today is to question authority. Back in the day, when a teacher told us something, we took it at face value and didn’t question the information. Now students are using the Internet to find the answers for themselves.

Now more than ever we have to realize that students are not an empty bucket that we need to fill. Time recently did an article on this subject. You can read more here:

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1568480,00.html

As educators, we’ve got a lot of work to do.

Kim

A New Year - A New Semester

2008-01-08T11:43:00.000-08:00

It is a new semester and I've started with my first class. It seems interesting and I hope to learn more than I did in the last class. The first assignment is a "getting to know you" essay, so I thought I'd share it here:

------------------------

EST 571 January 8, 2008

Written Perspective 1 Kim Bunchuck

Understanding and Use of Educational Technology

The IBM Personal Computers and I started in technology the same year, 1981. I was in college trying to decide what I wanted to do when I grew up when I stumbled into a BASIC programming class. I was hooked! I took as many computer electives as an English Literature major could and graduated college in 1982 with a minor in computer programming. While in college, I was employed to write programs in FORTRAN to collect and report surveys results.

I’ve worked in IT ever since. In 1985, I started teaching evening classes at Strayer College (now University) in Washington DC. My students learned Harvard Total Project Manager, WordPerfect, and Lotus 1-2-3. By day I was Assistant Director of the technology department for the Wilderness Society. We used an IBM System 38 to perform all the fundraising for the large organization.

A move to Long Island in 1989 brought me to Suffolk Community College to teach Adult Education classes, something I have done now for 17 years. Currently I serve as the Technology Director of Greenport School District, a position that I’ve held since 1997. It is a small district, so I get to do it all, from printer jams to network implementation. I am not classroom faculty, so my teaching is limited to staff development. I do teach one night a week at Suffolk Community College.

My hobby through all this time has been quilting. In a mid-life crisis decision, I started a quilt related business in 1999. I registered SunbonnetSue.com and started an e-commerce web business that sells fabric and patterns. I have changed the website over the years, first programming it with CGI scripts, but now managing my inventory and customer databases with SQL and PHP pages.

Even though I have been involved in education for most of my career, I never went back to college to get a Master’s Degree. I’m doing that now. I hope to complete my Degree at the end of 2008 with a thesis focusing on incorporating e-commerce into a college curriculum. I’d like to leave the K-12 environment and work at the college level for the last 20 years of my career.

In the 27 years that I’ve worked in IT, I think I’ve forgotten more information than I currently use. I remember teaching “Introduction to Personal Computers” classes where we worked from a DOS prompt. My favorite application has always been spreadsheets. I current work in EXCEL, but I’ve worked in Symphony, VisiCalc, Lotus (1-2-3 & Symphony). I also have done quite a bit a Database Administration. I used to teach dBASE II, III and IV. Currently I work in Access and SQL using mySQL and phpMyAdmin. I am a big supporter of open source software. I’ve downloaded and implemented all open source programs to run my website. Currently I’m using Gallery and OSCommerce. I have been searching for open source software to put on the Greenport Web Server that I manage. I have a copy of XOOPS downloaded (website management), but I haven’t implemented it yet. I would also like to deploy Moodle on the Greenport Server.

As for my online life, I have training videos posted on Teachertube and Youtube. I have two blogs, one for my quilting life and this one.

The joy of working in IT is that there is always more to learn. I look forward to doing that in this class.

Final Project Done

2007-12-04T10:18:00.000-08:00

I completed my final presentation for my Instructional Technologies class. I used video screen capture to create staff training videos. It is hard to get the teachers of my school district to attend staff development training, so I put it online.

| View | Upload your own

The eboards are here:

http://technology.greenport.site.eboard.com

All the videos are linked up there. I'm presenting the project as ASSET's technology conference in April. Here is the link to that conference:

http://www.suffolkasset.com/spring_conference.php

First Post

2007-11-20T16:18:00.000-08:00

As I work my way through Suny Stony Brooks' Graduate program I thought it might be fun to write about the process. I'm attemping a career change at the age of 47.

I've worked in technical support for 27 years and it is time for something else. I started supporting PCs when they ran PC-DOS (without a number!). I'm so tired of the same questions, same problems day after day. Hopefull the master's program that I'm in will prepare me to be a great college professor. Let someone else fix the PC for a change!