MAC Week 2 Post 4 - Project Panic

Picture Courtesy of Creative Commons at:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/johnjoh/ / CC BY-SA 2.0

It is evident from the emails, blog posts and Facebook comments that the pressure is on. Many are becoming very concerned about the media project and how to get it done in the next few weeks. It seems indomitable, insurmountable and overwhelming. (Sorry, ran out of good thesis words) Compare that to the idea that the book is talking about; not feeling so confined by a measurement world. As much as I would like to believe the ideas the book is putting forward, right now those words are a little hollow. Right now we are being measured, by a clearly defined rubric, by a group of fair-minded educators and mostly, by ourselves.
Yes, by ourselves. Lets face it team, we have set an amazing standard all through this program and have created some great projects. We have made collaborative lessons, films, music, websites and flash projects that were incredible. Some of us have had some experience with a few of these, but most have had none at all. Yet we created magic from a blank page. All that seems to have diminished in our minds as we hit these last few months. What is it that is making this project so demanding? Is it the blending of media that we learned? Is it the concepts of multiple learning styles? Is it simply being judged by work we see as creative? What ever it may be for you I would be interested to hear; more for the sake of morbid curiosity rather than really being able to do much but support you. For me, it is largely the, been there done that, factor. I feel the need to do more than what I did on other projects in that past, correct mistakes I made, and make it even bigger this time. I also know how much time, effort and skill it took to do at the past level. I am apprehensive about my own talent and abilities to pull off all I want to achieve. Yes, there is a lot to do, but we have some great talent on this team. Several of our group can help with music, several can help with film editing, several can help with flash issues and several can help with html coding. One thing I know about this group is that we have the talent. I think it is time to lean on one another…..If I can help I am here for you!

MAC Week 2 Post 3 - Response to Jose Benitez

Picture courtesy of creative commons at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/glenscott/ / CC BY-NC 2.0

Jose Benitez Post
One of the first tips of advice I heard as a rookie teacher was, “Don’t smile until Christmas.” This was a little disheartening as I can somewhat remember the Teachers I had in high school who might have followed that statement, and by somewhat I mean I do not remember their names, but only their strong disciplinary actions. The teachers that I do remember made a connection with me individually, and presented information in an effective way to overpower my stubborn unwillingness to learn. The teachers I remember are the ones who used humor in lectures, and had a sincere interest in my well being.
I know that I lack as a disciplinary leader in my school, and I know that the students know this, but I also believe that I truly engage my students enough to work hard for 90 minutes on one design. I go to as many activities as I can, I sponsor two different clubs, and I ask how every single one of my students is doing everyday. I let them know that I am available for assistance and that my tutorials are after school everyday. Why do I do this? Because I want my students to feel welcome and I want them to discover a small space in their hearts and minds for design.
With this educational philosophy comes a strong need for positive thinking. If I were to dread staying after school or attending extra curricular activities, then my life would be miserable. It is my choice to have a positive outlook on my actions and the actions of the students who are in my classroom. By remaining positive and providing a welcoming environment for creative project development, once students enter my introductory class they usually go on for the next 3 years in my advanced classes.

My Response
Like you, Jose, I was given the same “don’t smile” advice when I started teaching as well. Also like you, I chose to ignore it. I went with what I remembered made a difference in my education. It was the teacher that met us at the door and greeted us everyday as we came in. It was the teacher that would go “off topic” to explore an idea or thought that the class was interested about. It was the teacher who stayed after even if we did not need their assistance, but rather to just hang out. What it came down to, and how I describe it, over making a difference was creating an experience. Yes, the strong disciplinarians created an experience as well, but not one we remember and if we do, it is not remembered fondly. One thing I do remember is that the teacher that created the positive experience for us did not need to be the unsmiling hard-nosed teacher as we all respected him enough to follow a few simple rules.
I, like you, try to create an environment that a student would want to learn in, come to everyday and try something new and risking potential failure. Like you say, it has a lot to do with being positive. I also think it is much more than the books trying to make a difference. That is an effort, but one where you cannot easily see the results. When you create a positive experience you can see the difference you make everyday.

MAC Week 2 Posting 2 - Content Proposal

Picture courtesy of Creative Commons at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jessalyn/ / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

If you want to read it here is my content proposal. Any feedback as I begin construction on the real thing would be helpful.

Thank!


EDM-665 On Line Course Development
EDM-613 Media Asset Creation
Education Media Design & Technology MS Program
Full Sail University

Prepared by:
Richard Hinkle
03/04/2010

I. THESIS ABSTRACT
Students are more likely to succeed when communication is strong between the school and the home. However, modern life makes it difficult for families to be as involved as the school would hope. One possibility for better communication between the home and the school is using technology and social networking. The problem with implementing this solution is that there is great resistance to change and implementing technological solutions by school administrators and staff. The solution must be a multi-pronged educational tool whereby administration, teachers, parents, and students are all made aware of what social networking is, how it can benefit all of them and how to operate safely within the digital world.


II. Introduction

Problem Addressed
Despite the fact that students do better when communication between the home and school are strong, many schools and districts are resisting the implementation of many technologies, especially those of Web 2.0 that involve social networking due to fear of bad publicity, legal repercussions and a general lack of knowledge of what social networking is or how it works. The best way to overcome the fear and misconceptions of social networking is by creating an online course and Facebook presence that discusses the advantages of social networks, how to use them safely and what rights and responsibilities an individual holds.
Target Audience
Since fear and misconceptions of social networks can happen at any level, this course is designed for all stakeholders in a school or district. This course will allow the policy makers and administrators to see the benefits of social networking to get the news out about important school initiatives, and the parents to see how they can have better contact with their child’s teacher. It will teach educators of how to be more creative in communication with both parents and students. Finally, it will teach students what is acceptable behavior in the digital realm as well as how to maintain personal privacy and security.
Sharing the project
In order to share this project with the stakeholders, an online course will be created in Udutu. The link from the Udutu course can be linked to a schools web page, an entity in Facebook or attached to a website. In this regard it can be accessible in a large amount of formats. The ultimate location will be on the Skyline Schools website and Facebook page so that the students, staff, parents and administrators of this district will have access to it and be asked to complete it. All those involved will be asked to complete this course in order to promote online responsibility and safety in the district in order to ensure the use and future of Web 2.0 tools and social networking within the school community.

III. Goals and Objectives

Instructional Goal
The subject of the media project will be an online course of digital citizenship and net etiquette, also known as netiquette. The course will involve several areas of training. At present there are three main areas that will be included. The first area will focus on the fact that social networks give everyone an opportunity to share and be heard about any subject that is important to him or her. However, those taking the class will also be made aware of the possible drawbacks, ethical issues and legal ramifications of doing so. This area will also focus on a school or company Acceptable Use Policy. The next area of study will be on the area of plagiarism, copyright, file sharing and hacking. Since many in society today are unaware of the legal issues that surround the Internet and social networks it is important to understand them. The final area of study will be about appropriate manners and communication on the Internet. This would include e-mail, instant messages, message boards and online chat. It would further include appropriate and professional conversation rules for communication with teachers, students or others in the workplace. Finally, it would also discuss new areas of concern like cyber-bullying and inappropriate text subjects.
These subjects are important to teach as many people today do not know the legal or ethical consequences of improper Internet use, nor are they fully aware that if used properly, the Internet can be an amazing tool of collaboration, marketing and friendship. This means that the main outcome of this course will be that anyone who takes the course will be comfortable and confident in using the Internet and social networks and further, understand possibilities of better communication with others as well as areas of danger to avoid.

Learning Domain
The media project fits into both the cognitive and affective learning domains. Since the project is designed to teach safety and understanding of social networks there is no pattern of movement that would fit into the psychomotor. The project is clearly in the cognitive domain with the student being asked to look at and understand an Acceptable Use Policy (AUP), which is the knowledge area. The student will also interpret the policy and how it may affect him or her, which is comprehension. A scenario will be given and based on the AUP information the student must make a choice or decision, which shows application. Finally, jumping to evaluation the student will be able to make the best decision in a given situation due to the information presented.
The project is also in the Affective domain since many of the elements discuss citizenship etiquette and respect these are more emotional elements of the project. Since a major section is about being respectful to others that you communicate with on social networks the project is clearly in the area of receiving phenomena. After learning the rules of Internet safety the student will be questioned as to whether he or she uses them thus placing this part of the lesson in the area of responding to phenomena. The valuing area will also be very focused on in the project in understanding and being sensitive about what you post regarding another person, a culture or someone’s set of values. One of the ultimate goals of the project is to get students to understand that just because you can post anything on the Internet does not mean you should. In other words, using the organization area the students will balance his or her ability to say anything with the responsibility of what is appropriate and make the best decision. If the project is accepted by the student then he or she will leave the course with a set of values and knowledge that will control his or her behavior in the future, thus being the internalizing of values area of the domain.

Learning Objectives
Explain how Social Networking is a powerful in disseminating both positive and negative messages and ideas

Be able to relate privileges and responsibilities of using Social Networking through the use of digital citizenship and an acceptable use policy.

Analyze online behaviors and predict their consequences.
·
Generate solutions for dealing with a cyberbullying.
·
Formulate a list of tips to help avoid cyberbullying situations.
·
Give examples of copying original works and understand why that is unethical.
·
Describe basic rules for avoiding plagiarism
·
Define hacking and why it is illegal.
·
Identifies that the new ways of communicating call for consideration of how people may react or feel.
·
Practices good manners common to all messages in the digital realm
·
Displays good manners specific to any form of electronic communication.


IV. Presentation

Instructional Approach
The content of this course will be constructivist. Since the project will be an online course that anyone can take it is by nature in the constructivist area as the learner is self leading him or herself through the program and creating a personal and unique understanding of the material to adapt and use in his or her individual life. The material in this course will be given and laid out, but it will be up to the learner to discover the facts, concepts and important details for him or her self. Since most students live in the digital world, they will be able to make connections to that realm and therefore create individual meaning concerning the proper use of the Internet. Also at several points in the course there will be scenarios that the learner must navigate. These scenarios are based on the challenge, response, and consequence pattern of online learning and are deeply rooted in constructivism.
Several authors contributed to the project but a few standout as the ones that will most influence the project. The first is Marc Prensky. His 2001 article Digital natives, digital immigrants is very influential on this project. Besides arguing for a constructivist approach to teaching and using technology, he also maintains that educators must use technology like social networks to reach, communicate and educate the students of today. He also believes that there should be checks and balances for staff and students to know the line and limits in the online world.
The next set of authors is Boostrom, Raghu, and Summey, whose 2009 work Enhancing class communications through segregated social networks describes the effectiveness of creating lessons using tools like Facebook, ning and Udutu. Finally there are two separate works the first is Susan Lipka, whose 2008 The digital limits of "in loco parentis” article describes the lack of knowledge of students on where the boundaries and responsibilities of online communication are and how few have taken up the challenge to correct this. From the perspective of the same issue, but concerning educators is Young whose 2009 How not to lose face on Facebook describes the problems educators face when using social networks. Finally Matt Villano in 2008 wrote Text unto others...as you would have them text unto you, this article describes the need for teaching digital citizenship in schools to do more than teach etiquette, but also how to manage information and privacy.
Lesson Structure
The course will start with a unit of on the benefits of social networks and why students, educators and parents should be involved in the online environment. From there the course will move into the area of digital citizenship. This section will cover the privileges and responsibilities of an individual on the Internet and specifically cover a typical AUP. Next will be the unit on net etiquette and cyber-bullying. Simply put, this unit covers what behavior is considered acceptable and which is not in regards to using the Internet and social networks. This flows right into the next unit of ethics and copyright issues in the digital world.

V. Evaluation
Throughout the course there will be several assessments. At the end of each unit there will be a few quick questions regarding the information presented to see if the student understood what was presented. Incorrect answers will refer them back to the slide where the information was presented. In order to see if the student assimilated the information, the learner will be asked to post a short paragraph or two on the Facebook page expressing what they learned and how they intend to adapt the new knowledge into their online lives. There will also be scenario challenges along the way where a student will be presented with a situation and decide what to do next. Depending on the choice certain consequences can occur. Since these are formative assessments, there will also be a summative assessment at the end of the course. This assessment will ask questions from all units to verify long-term incorporation of the information. A score of 80% or above will be needed to earn a certificate of achievement. The student will also be asked to make a short post on the Facebook page regarding his or her overall experience in the course and how it will change certain behaviors in the future.
During the development of the project I have been allowed by the Skyline school district to present the information to 30 students and 10 staff members for testing and comment. Besides the self-critique method, the feedback from the students and staff will allow corrective measures, additions and clarifications to take place to assure that the goal and objectives have been fulfilled. Once the project is completed there will be a feedback area on the Facebook page which will allow users of the course to post statements of things they liked, things they did not like and things that they think should be added.
After some time has passed and several participants have had a chance to take the course a survey will be sent out to asses if past users are still using the information, how it is being used and what things have changed since then that may need to be addressed in future versions of the class.


VI. References
Alessi, S., & Trollip, S. (2000). Multimedia for learning: Methods and development (3rd ed., Rev.). Boston, MA: Allyn and Bacon.

Boostrom, B., Raghu, K., & Summey, J. (2009). Enhancing class communication through segregated social networks. Marketing Education Review, 19(1), 37-41. Retrieved October 3, 2009 from Education Research Complete.

Clark, R. C., & Mayer, R. E. (2007). E-learning and the science of instruction: Proven guidelines for consumers and designers of multimedia learning (2nd ed.). San Francisco, CA: Pfeiffer.

Cybersmart. (2010, March 4). K–12 student curriculum. Retrieved March 4, 2010, from http://cybersmart.org/

Demski, J. (2009). Facebook training wheels. T H E Journal, 36(4), 24-28. Retrieved December 9, 2009 from Academic Search Premier.

Hambridge, S. (1995). RFC 1855: Netiquette Guidelines. Retrieved March 4, 2010, from Delaware Technical Community College: http://www.dtcc.edu/cs/rfc1855.html

Kidsmart. (2009). Being smart. Retrieved March 4, 2010, from Childnet International: http://www.kidsmart.org.uk/

Lipka, S. (2008). The digital limits of "in loco parentis". Chronicle of Higher Education, 54(26), A1. Retrieved December 10, 2009 from Education Research Complete.

McGee, P., Carmean, C., & Jafari, A. (2005). Course management systems for learning: beyond accidental pedagogy (1st ed.). Hershey, PA: Information Science Publishing.

Microsoft. (2008). Digital citizenship and creative content curriculum. Retrieved March 4, 2010, from http://www.digitalcitizenshiped.com/unit01-creativeWhat.pdf

Motion Picture Association. (2010, March 4). Educational outreach. Retrieved March 4, 2010, from http://www.mpaa.org/

Prensky, M. (2001). Digital natives, digital immigrants. On the Horizon, 9(5), 1-5. Retrieved June 15, 2009, from: http://marcprensky.com/writing/Prensky%20-%20Digital%20Natives,%20Digital%20Immigrants%20-%20Part1.pdf

Recording Industry Association of America . (2010, March 4). Tools for parents and educators. Retrieved March 4, 2010, from http://www.riaa.com/index.php

Ribble, M. (2010, March 4). Using technology appropriately. Retrieved March 4, 2010, from Digital Citizenship Web Site: http://www.digitalcitizenship.net/Home_Page.html

Viddler. (n.d.). Digital citizenship. Retrieved March 4, 2010, from http://www.viddler.com/

Villano, M. (2008). Text unto others...as you would have others text unto you. T H E Journal, 35(9), 47-51. Retrieved December 20, 2009 from Education Research Complete.

You Tube. (n.d.). Digital citizenship. Retrieved March 4, 2010, from http://www.youtube.com/

MAC Week 2 Post 1 - Reading

Picture courtesy of Creative Commons at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/tambako/ / CC BY-ND 2.0

Week 2 Postings – Reading

The chapter on making a contribution made me think about how I act when I work and I am not talking about when I teach. As with most teachers I hold other jobs to fill in the gaps. Many people wish to work with me in those other jobs; some even ask to be assigned to me. This confused me a bit as I tend to be very demanding, precise and critical how the job is done. Yet, they still want to work with me. I certainly did not see myself as making a contribution to them or myself, I just want the job done right. I took the question to a colleague that knows how I work and can be rather insightful. Again she was. She mentioned that it was not how I worked, but what I was working for. When I work at something it is about the experience. Not necessarily gaining experience, but rather creating an experience for the customer, client or guest. In effect, that is making a contribution and those that work with me see that and want to know how to do the same thing. I then began to see that the same must hold true in teaching as well. How can we make a contribution to our students? I believe that when we make a contribution we are doing something that is more than what others are doing around us, so the usual arguments of the nobility of teaching seem to fade. The answer is creating an experience for my students the same way that I create an experience for my clients and customers. If my classroom is a better experience than others, then I am going to be more effective as an educator and that is how I will make the best contribution. The idea of waking up and believing that I am a gift to others is a great notion too, but I won’t get into that here.

The next chapter flows right into this same thought. The chapter is titled Leading from Any Chair. The concept being that it does not matter where you sit in the orchestra you can still be a leader. Basically, I see this chapter as discussing confidence. If you are confident, believe in what you are doing and how you do it, then it does not matter where you are. You can still influence everyone and everything around you. I have often heard teachers mention that they do not feel like they are accomplishing much with the resources they have and if they ran the district this is what they would do. This shows that they are not leading from the chair they are in. They want to be in the big chair making the decisions instead of making the best of what they have. The other part of this chapter seemed to say to me that if you lead from wherever you are then you make believers. Not that they are blind followers of your ambition, rather they want to spread the excitement about what you do, whether that be teaching, selling, building, creating or anything.

The Chapter about Rule # 6 starts out humorous, but takes a nasty turn for the maudlin. It is odd how a chapter on not being so serious can be so serious. From tales of Auschwitz, to battling business partners to couples going through a split this chapter was very difficult to read in light of the subject matter that it was about. I understand that when you are talking about not being too serious you will have to be examples of people who are being too serious. Still, I don’t think that means that you have to be Oprah Book Club depressing in how you go about it. I have never taken myself that seriously. Professional, yes, but serious, no. I have always done this because I believe in the old adage that if I am laughing at myself and my situation then I am not angry about it. I do not believe that anyone has the perfect life, but being overly serious about who we are or what we do just makes us look silly. That often creates a paradox, as we see ourselves as serious, but are perceived as silly. This paradox can create anger and disappointment. If we see ourselves as silly first then, often, people take us seriously as they see we are able to see humor in what we do and how we do it.