eNewsletter, Tech Tips, and Trouble Shooting Oh My!

I am swamped with writing blogs, create and publishing video tutorials for Tech Tips, organizing a Trouble Shooting group at both elementary schools in York, all while finishing up my masters and trying to maintain my regular day-to-day duties as a technology integration specialist. I apologize for the brief blog post, but every now and then it's a good idea to update readers on the other projects that are going on as well.

The latest edition of the eNewsletter for February is published. My main article is all about the balancing act educators go through every day in trying to embed enriching technology into their lessons. How much is too much? Balance has always been the key, and I offer some good strategies to keep that moto. There are also some wonderful web sites for teachers and students to check out, and my new iPad app of the month is another great interactive story. I hope you enjoy!

Each week I broadcast a Tech Tip of the Week over our CTV live in the school on a morning during the week before class begins. This way teachers can stay in their classrooms in the morning while they are getting ready for the school day and still learn a quick tip that they can use in class or in the lab using technology. At my web site above, I archive all of the Tech Tips so that teachers can revisit them as the need arises.

I have started a new Trouble Shooting and Problem Solving group in the mornings at both elementary schools as well. This group meets in the lab once a week before the student day begins to analyze a scenario or issue that often comes up with teachers in the computer lab, and finds ways to troubleshoot or work around these issues. I add the scenario and our potential problem solving strategies to a blog so that others can add comments or reply to problems that we cannot work out. It's just a start, but we would love global feedback as well.

Lastly, I have been asked more then ever to publish videos online for teachers to share students' projects, broadcasts, presentations and successes. For this reason, my YouTube Channel has grown immensely in the last year.

Of course I do not expect you to follow all of these resources. It's hard enough for me to keep up with them and I'm the author of each! If, however, you would like reminders of new updates to each of these blogs, posts, uploads, or publishes, you can check out my Mobile App, which will send you reminders for each of these areas as they are updated, and also lets you follow me on Twitter.

Internet Safety in our World

Parents and teachers often say, "Technology is moving so fast, I cannot keep up. My children, or students, know more about them then I do. How can I possibly make sure they are safe online, unless I take some of their access, or privileges away from them?"


I hear this issue all the time. Is it really the technologies, and the accessibility to these technologies that are the problem, or is it a lack of supervision and guidance from educators and adults that are comfortable with what these technologies can provide that is the real issue? We have similar issues in our district. In fact, an art lab at our high school was fully decked out with brand new iMacs and students snuck in and had video chats, and shot pictures of themselves in provocative and even nude poses, however they were "smart" in that they never showed their faces. Since the students could not be identified, the iMac's web cam was taped up and then eventually disabled. I argue that these students will now just find another outlet to explore either within the high school again, or at somebody's house. 

The issue to me isn't that the access to these technologies are there, but rather there was not an educator there to supervise and make sure students were using the technologies to make good choices in their interactions and education. I have to have this same conversation every year at our parent Internet Safety talks in which many of our community parents believe that as long as the web site search starts on a school page, they are filtered at home. I have to always explain that our filters only work within our buildings, and when they are at home they are on their filter, if one exists.

I was at a conference once in which the issue of Internet safety in our schools was brought up and the speaker used this as a metaphor. When we were kids, we would leave our houses and walk down to the neighborhood playground or park. Some of us used the equipment as they were meant to be played with, and others used this area to get into mischief. Now, parents do not trust their children to leave the house by themselves, as the world is too dangerous. They feel that they are much more safe sitting in their room, right within the house. However, that room is equipped with cable TV and a computer or mobile device hooked up to the Internet. As soon as a child decides to enter a chat room, or other forum, they have entered the same park we used to go to in which each user can see this area as something different. The problem with this new picture is that this park could include a million people world wide and it isn't as obvious to distinguish between character and friend or foe as it was in the physical park we used to play in. Is this area really safer unsupervised by their parents then actually leaving the house without adult supervision and walking down to the community park? I would have to disagree.

Unless teachers and parents have ample amount of time, the desire, and guidance to try out all of these technologies, they will never catch up or surpass their children, or students, in technology expertise. That is not really the issue though. Supervision and balance is the key. It's great that students are willing to experiment and try new things, however, the one thing they may lack that adults and teachers can provide, despite their technology abilities or savvy, is how to make good ethical choices when using these technologies. Just because an adult does not fully understand how a webcam, video conferencing software, or chat room operates, does not mean that they could not sit down with their child and provide some guidance on how to act ethically online. In this model, both people become teachers and learners. The child shares their knowledge of the technology tool, while the adult shares ethical reasoning and making good choices. Together they both will learn, and the relationship and trust between the two will become stronger. 

(Photo courtesy of jenliddy.wordpress.com)

It's also important to provide balance. Adults need to carve out some time in their day to share experiences with their children or students. Take the time to see what children are interested in and do online, and provide common family areas in the house where the computer can be located and not behind closed doors. Then take some time to interact offline. Whether it be a family game night, with an old fashioned board game, or a stroll in a physical park, or sharing a meal in a restaurant. Kids need good role models, and their observations and actions generally reflect what they have witnessed both online and off. Sometimes, however, they have to realize that the online world, although filled with virtual meeting places and fake identities, does not mean that human interactions between one another should be any different then that of the real world. After all, a person's true character comes out when they are alone behind closed doors. Some students feel that when they are online in their bedrooms they are in this place, even though the Internet has actually opened up it's doors to the world.

Project 365 and Project 52

For Christmas this year, Santa brought me a new iPhone 4S. I love it! It is so much faster then my older iPhone 3G and the High Definition camera is great. With this new tool, I have decided to commit myself to two year long projects this year as a New Year's resolution to hone my photography and filming skills.

Many of you have heard of Project 365, and I have had the app on my phone pretty much since I had purchased the older 3G, however, I never made it past two pictures on the yearly calendar. Well, with the new camera in the iPhone 4S, and our brand new daughter at home (now 3 months), it seems like a perfect match for this project. My plan is to take a picture of Elsa, our baby girl, next to a window each day for the Project 365. At the end, I would like to create a YouTube video of her growth throughout the year as the seasons change out the window. Hopefully I can share this project with my daughter when she is old enough to appreciate it. It's a long road, but so far I am 5 for 5.

This picture was taken before Project 365 started on January 1st.

My other year long goal is to work on my filming skills. I have always been a fan of the movies, and as a young boy I used my father's old video camera to make small movies using my sister's Barbie dolls, or my Lego sets in a stop motion scene, or reenacted fun scenes with my friends out in our backyard. Well, now that I am equipped with an HD camera in my pocket on the new iPhone 4S, I plan to create mini clips each week to better my skills in filming and play around with some apps for special effects. I think this task would be impossible, unless I quit my day job, to publish each day to YouTube, however, once a week seems manageable to me so I will call it Project 52.

This is a clip I created with a 5th grade student using the app "Action Movie" on the iPhone and a green screen to complete the backdrop.

My intent with these two year long projects is to hone my own skills, but to also use these as models to inspire other educators in and out of my district, as well as students to take learning beyond the classroom. I'm certainly not a professional photographer or filmographer, but it's important to share my trials and tribulations with students to showcase that it takes time and practice to get good at something. It's important that educators and schools allow students to try something and fail once or twice before they are expected to master something. This is something that seems to be escaping us in public education, and I fear that true learning, through real hands-on experimentation, may decrease in our curriculum unless we do something about it.

Reflection on Project 365 and Project 52

My first personal reflections of the project are that this will take a great deal of effort and time, but I believe it is worth it. In my Project 365 theme, I realized that I don't always get home in time to "see" the weather outside the window, and therefore you cannot see what it looks like in Maine at this time of year, however, daylight and time change may be something I will use to reinforce and skirt my problem. (Also, there is no snow on the ground right now to see in Southern Maine anyhow.)

On my clip above for my Project 52 entry, I realize that we need a bigger green screen. I would love to convert one of our double wide trailers "parked" outside of the school as an extended classroom into a production studio and paint the entire inside chroma key green for student projects. That way we wouldn't have to figure out where to hang the old green cloth, or find more green poster paper. I'll keep working though. After all, I have 365 days to better my skills. Cheers!