Google+

Okay, so our ICT 07:755 class is a circle in Google+.  A lot of classmates have been asking about what Google+ is.  So, here is my take on it.

First of all, I would say that Google+ is Google's attempt at competing with Facebook.  Bravo, I say!  I personally have never really liked Facebook because of the confidentiality issues associated with using it.  Google+ is a great solution to using Facebook because of its features.  The features that I like best:

Feature #1: Circles - The circles in Google+ are meant to be like the circles that you have in real life: work, friends, family, etc. and are an easy way to help you organize where someone belongs and what you share with them.  Great idea.

Feature #2: Hangouts - Awesome idea.  You can have a video (yep, video) chat with 9 other people.  Cool.


Just like Facebook, you can share photos and videos, but only with the circles that you choose (not all of your friends).  You can also message, chat, and do anything else that you would with Facebook, but you also have the advantage of using other parts of Google.  Not only that, I like the look and feel of Google+, it feels more...professional than Facebook, which makes me want to use it more than Facebook.  I hope that I can get my family into Google+ so we can "hangout" together.

I've posted this link in my tweet, but it has some great information, so I'll share it here. https://www.google.com/intl/en_uk/+/learnmore/index.html#circles

The Strike is Over!!

Hey, life can start again, the university strike is over!  I am so excited.  Maybe I can actually complete my course, get my Grad Diploma and start having time for family and working out (I am becoming a fat slob).

I am happy that I have been able to stay motivated at tweeting/blogging.  The problem with trying to do these everyday is that some days there just isn't time to get everything done.  And, when it came to choosing between family time (on weekends) and school work, the family ALWAYS won.

Now that I am working on my final paper, I am starting to feel relief...I guess that I see that there is an end in sight.  So, not only am I going to be finished this class, I will have my Grad Diploma, I will be able to be home EVERY evening, AND I will get a raise.  Yay!

Talk to you tomorrow.

Maplewood

In an effort to provide as much information as possible to parents and students, we use Maplewood.  Parents and students have access to marks whenever and wherever they are by going to Maplewood and typing in their usernames and passwords.  So, I suppose, in a way, Maplewood is a type of social media; people are sharing information with one another.

When things work well, everything is great, but when they don't work do well...oh...my...goodness...is it frustrating!  The Maplewood server often crashes, sometimes when a teacher is doing class attendance, entering marks, or doing report cards.  Yes, all of the above have happened this year.  Sometimes the server times out, which means all of the unsaved data is gone.  Sometimes parents cannot log-in to see their child's marks, either because they entered the password incorrectly and were locked out of Maplewood, or because, yet again, the server crashed.  Over the last few years Maplewood has gotten better and better, so we are experiencing these type of situations less and less, but they still do happen.

There is another aspect to social media.  Because it is social, there has to be two-way communication.  Teachers have to make sure that they are routinely posting marks.  Just before IEP meetings in October, I printed progress reports for the students that are on my caseload.  Out of fourteen students, only one had any marks on their progress report, and that report only had marks for one class (out of nine).  I know how busy that we as teachers are, but if we choose to use social media to report to parents, we had better be using it.

My Rant

Today, after reading Dr. Poff's email, I am left facing the sad reality that this university term will probably be scrapped.  Perhaps I am a glass half-empty type of person, but Dr. Poff was quite adamant that the distance between the university and BUFA is bigger than it has ever been.

Now, I understand where BUFA is coming from (my father-in-law is a professor at the university), but, let's face it, this strike SUCKS!  ICT 07:755 is my LAST class until I get my special ed. certificate.  I had promised my wife and kids, that after this class was completed, that they would have her/their husband/father back after 3 years of classes.  We changed the girls schedules so that they could start some activities in January, when I would have time to help out with driving, etc.  Plus I promised my wife that we would start having "date night" again, that she could sign up for yoga/pilates, that I would get back into shape, and that we would have more family time.  This strike has really messed things up. 

Not to mention that I have been completing my assignments...  

And the deaf shall...speak!

Today I had a great conversation with an EA.  He works with an autistic student, and this student has a homework block the same time that a deaf student has his homework block.  I have been letting this deaf student use my iPad for different activities during the day, and recently purchased iASL (translates written English into video ASL).

Yesterday, the EA and the deaf student struck up a conversation.  On the iPad.  They talked for half an hour.  How cool is that?  This EA had never before "spoken" to this student and was surprised with all that the student had to say.  Using the iPad has helped the student go from using it to taking photos to communicating with others in a matter of a few weeks.

I had the opportunity to take this student to Networking Day at the Manitoba School for the Deaf in October.  We had an hour ride together until we picked up his EA interpreter.  What to do during that time?  Listen to the radio?  Drive in silence.  No way.  He took out his cell phone and typed out questions.  To respond, I used Dragon Dictate on my iPhone (no, I wasn't texting and driving) so that he could read my answers.  We had a great conversation on the way to Winnipeg and on the way back.  In fact, when we got back to town, he signed that "time flew".  It sure did. 

It is so awesome to see how technology opens up a world of communication for all individuals, as it has for this deaf student.

Windows 7: Part One

So, Windows 7 is an operating system, right.  Oh, it's so much more.  We have a deaf student, and the paraprofessional working with him only has a couple of ASL classes, so this student has no one to communicate with in our entire school, and only one person who can sort of communicate with him.  I have been racking my brain with how to help him fully understand what teachers and other students are saying.  Last week,  I came up with a plan.  I think it's brilliant.  What is this plan, you say?  Let me tell you...

1.  I ordered a wireless microphone from Amazon.com (the Microsoft LifeChat ZX-6000 Wireless Headset), which came on Friday.

2.  This morning, I trained the computer to my voice, using the built in voice-to-text option that comes with Windows 7.  How to get there?  Simple.  Control Panel--Ease of Access--Speech recognition--Start speech recognition.

After half an hour of training, I would say that it is 90% accurate.  I just open up Word, turn on the microphone, and start speaking.

So, doing this has helped to create a closed captioning system for this student to use in class.  He just has to bring a laptop to class, the teacher puts on the wireless microphone, and voila, he has a written transcript of everything that the teacher is saying in class.  Cool.

3.  We have students with ADD/ADHD, that are Hard of Hearing, and with Learning Disabilities, and all of them require adaptations that involve the use of an FM amplification system.  We have a few in the school, but they're broken, don't work that great, or need new recharagble batteries.  Have you seen the cost of one of those systems?  An FM system runs from $1500-$2500.  Well, every classroom has a laptop and speakers.  Could this wireless microphone also be used as an amplification system?  You bet.  Go to Control Panel--Hardware and Sound--Sound--Manage Audio Devices--Recording--Right click on the microphone icon--Properties--Listen--and check Listen to this device.  Voila, the microphone now works and can be heard through the laptop (or external) speakers! 
I took the laptop and gave the wireless microphone to the Chemistry teacher for him to try.  We hooked it up to his speakers and displayed the text on his SmartBoard.  It was so awesome to have his voice coming through the speakers in his classroom and have what he was saying appear up on the SmartBoard.

So, just using Windows 7 and a cheap wireless microphone ($30!!!!), I was able to create a closed captioning and amplification system for teachers to use.

Facebook: Part 3

So, here's something that I struggle with.  I have parents of some of my students who use Facebook to communicate and have asked that I be their Facebook friend.  So, if I do accept, not only do I have to deal with them professionally, now they have access to see any information that I choose to put on Facebook.  Not only that, students have requested that I be their Facebook friend.

With the students, I just click ignore, but with the parents it is a little more difficult, so I have chosen to accept their requests because I want them to know that we are on the same team (for their child).  My wife and I share a Facebook account (because we're old and don't really like using Facebook) and only post family pictures on the site, so we're not too worried about parents finding out too much about us.

I really feel that there has to be a professional boundary that teachers follow (like never being a Facebook friend with a student).  The problem with teaching in a small town is that everyone knows you, or thinks they know you.  Teachers need to enjoy some anonymity, so have to be careful about what information they put on Facebook and who they choose to add as friends.  I made the mistake of adding an old classmate as a friend and now have friend invitations by women (porn stars I suppose) with names like Jugs Galore and Frisky Tootimes.

Facebook friends....be careful...be smart...be safe.

The audacity of it!

Yesterday evening I was finally able to record a conversation with a classmate using Audacity.  Wow, was it ever easy!  We called on Skype, then took turns discussing our topics.  We each had questions that we discussed, and all that it involved was opening Audacity and pressing record.  Cool beans!

What I really liked about using Audacity, besides ease of use, was how simple it was to edit the conversation.  I was able to remove coughs, ummms, pauses, and things that we talked about that may have been off topic.  I was able to edit down a 6 minute conversation to 4 minutes just by removing the extra "fillers" in our conversation.

As I was editing, I started thinking about other ways that I could use Audacity.  Using Xilisoft, I was able to convert a video to audio and then add effects to it in Audacity.  Even just recording my voice and adding effects was pretty cool.  I also like how I was able to record my voice overtop of an mp3 file (I tried singing Karaoke).

Now to actually getting around to posting the conversation on my wiki...

Facebook: Part 2

I found a copy of Oct/Nov's The Manitoba Teacher in my mailbox at school today, and found the article by Ray Job entitled "Teachers must take care when using social media".  This tied in quite well with my rant about Facebook etiquette yesterday.  Some points that Job (2011) outlines in his article are:

• Get parental consent
• Follow divisional policy
• Make sure everyone understands what information is being collected, how it will be used, and how it will be disclosed
• Make sure you have proper releases of information
• Do not post content that you are uneasy or unsure about how it may bee received
• "When in doubt, chicken out"
• Be careful posting (tweeting, blogging) photos of students
• Preserve anonimity
• Have appropriate profile pictures (not one of you drunk, etc)
• Make sure to manage social media properly

Social media is amazing in what can be shared and with whom, but it is so important to be cautious in what information is posted online.  Remember, once it's on the web, it is everywhere.

Facebook: Part 1

Well, I haven't blogged for a few days.  In fact, I haven't turned on my computer, except for work purposes.  My brother called and asked if his family could stay at our place for a few days.  They're having an elective C-section next week.  That's no problem, but them my parents called and asked if they could come, too.  My parents want to help look after his 2-year-old son and our 3 girls while their baby is being born.  This has meant that renovations to our basement had to be put into high gear, so last week I came home from school, got into work clothes, and worked in the basement until 10 or 11 each evening.  All that's left to do is install a faucet in the bathroom this afternoon, and then we're done!  We have been living in renovations since before our 5-year old was born, so I'm not sure what we're going to do with having the use of our entire house (my wife already wants to paint our main floor and start making renovations in the kitchen...I asked her to wait until after this class was finished).  Our basement is awesome: new windows, new bedroom, new bathroom, new everything, plus satellite TV (we only had one receiver until a couple months ago).

So, that's my long story.  Renos done, but school work had to be put on hold.

I want to talk a little bit about Facebook.  The past couple of months I have had to deal with three issues, two professionally and one personally, that involve what I would deem improper use of Facebook.  I can't be very specific, but one involved a paraprofessional writing about a student, another involved a student bullying others using Facebook, and the third involved a family member posting something inappropriate on a university's Facebook page.

What is is about Facebook that makes people think that they can post whatever they want?  Do they think the internet makes them anonymous?  Do they think that writing something isn't as serious as saying something?  Is it because they post something in their own house/bedroom and feel insulated from the rest of the world?  I am struggling with how people misuse Facebook; how people that I know misuse Facebook.  The paraprofessional almost lost her job, the student was expelled from school, and the family member...let's just say the family is going to have a "meeting" next weekend and express how unacceptable the family member's behaviour was.

I've actually struggled with posting this blog, and hopefully have not said too much about the Facebook incidents.  I just hope that people realize that once something is sent into cyberspace, it's there for all of the world to see.

e-Pearl: Part 1

In my search for ways to engage students with social media and technolgy, I discovered ePearl.  ePearl is an electronic, web-based portfolio for students to store what would, traditionally be stored in a binder.  What can be put on ePearl?  How about pdfs, Word documents, video and audio files, scanned files and documents, and any other digital media. 

Research shows that portfolios improve student motivation as they learn how to set goals and chart their growth through looking at what they have done, what they are doing now, and what they want to do.  By seeing the quality of their work improve, students realize that they are growing and learning.


For more information, check out: http://grover.concordia.ca/epearl/promo/en/epearl.php