Blog Post 7: Professional Learning Network

The Educator's PLN

I only just posted my first question to the collective wisdom on "Educator's PLN" today asking if there were any known websites for elementary school students regarding primary sources.

There was not as much activity through this network as there was on Twitter.  Going feature by feature, "My page" was very quiet as I did not contribute much content other than the question I asked on the blog, but I wanted to read through posts and see what topics were fleshed out from these professionals.  Wading through the posts from the "Groups" in the "Forum" section, I discovered "Best practices and differentiated instruction" with over 100 members.  Not to say I limited myself to this particular group.  I did check out groups with less members such as "STEM Education" and "Resources for EFL Teachers."  I checked out larger memberships such as "Project-Based learning" and one that I joined "EdTech."

I'll focus on EdTech:  http://edupln.ning.com/group/edtech  (not sure if login required, but I can provide links to the web from the listserv emails I received).  I received consolidated emails sporadically that would group various topics together and provide links to various sites.  One email I received on 10/29/15 had an eye-catching subject heading "Should school administrators use Snapchat?"

I learned early on that these emails with the subject does not necessarily mean the entire email with consolidated links will all discuss what is in the subject; only one of the links will.  The first article was the subject of the email:  "Should school administrators use Snapchat?"
http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2015/10/28/snapchat-and-disappearing-message-apps-vex-schools.html"
The source:  Education Week (reviewed)

In the same email, another link provided the title "Is Minecraft useful in school?"
https://theconversation.com/how-minecraft-could-help-teach-chemistrys-building-blocks-of-life-49449
The source:  "The Conversation" (not reviewed that I could determine, but content populated by
editors and academics in collaboration).
Another link in the same email:  "New Study reveals the most challenging common core standards."  (.com (commercial) site)
Another link:  "Service provides copyright-free digital tools" which led to this link:  http://www.ecampusnews.com/technologies/digital-media-videoblocks-718/

The titles led to sites with different information types.  For example, the commercial website:  http://www.curriculumassociates.com/products/ready-most-challenging-common-core-standards-overview.aspx?utm_source=Smartbrief&utm_medium=eNewsletter_InlineTextImg&utm_content=NewStudyReveals_SeeTheMost&utm_campaign=LeadGen_FW2015_CCS-1401#.Vk5JvHarTq4
Although a commercial website requiring information, downloads for sample instructional workbooks were free.
The Conversation provided an interesting point of view where academics collaborated with editors to produce news.  Being in the field of higher education, professors have a preference for peer-reviewed or scholarly sources, however, there are blogs and news sites in which peer-reviewed authors have created content.  It was beneficial to obtain news from a variety of sources, enabling me (the researcher) to further investigate if I felt the article was brief or the writing style made me raise more questions about the topic.  These feeds also introduced me to new and emerging trends that forecast what this field will be facing with changes in the technological landscape.

Returning to the Educator's PLN, I did not receive any responses regarding my post; it was pretty much a ghost town in the blog forum.  I received timely suggestions via Twitter, so I thought the use of social media for collaboration was a nice tool to use in this instance.

These feeds by email, tweets by social media and postings to a member-community forum can help me develop as a student and within the profession.  The PLN and Twitter are networking opportunities that can cultivate collaborations with educational professionals who use this technology.  The feeds are a more efficient way for me to do less web crawling and more reading.  Although I have a few searching tricks up my sleeve (Librarian and skilled researcher in the house :) ), I prefer the feeds directly sent to me to save time.  Snapchat is uncharted territory for me and having raising questions from school administrators about whether or not Snapchat is a useful tool in the classroom, will help me better understand the conversations in various classrooms that are occurring about this social media tool.

I especially like the contrast of peer-reviewed information and information that is opinionated and biased all in one group.  The reason being is that while I am constantly exposed to peer-reviewed information and scholarly sources and an advocate of those information types, I find it important to digest information that has not been peer-reviewed and tailored to higher education.  When I am doing research for general purposes, sometimes the peer-reviewed and scholarly sources are too scholarly and too focused for the type of research I am performing.
There is always room for more sources and the one source I seek to improve or find more time to manage is my personal blog.  I found myself only blogging for the assignments in this class. The time constraints limit me from blogging to a certain frequency (daily, weekly, monthly, etc.)  Blogging can be a rewarding experience, particularly the one thing I wanted to add to my final project but found it would be too advanced is to have comments incorporated with the content I blog.  Comments from my peers in our class were very helpful and I would welcome any constructive criticism about the design of my website, my writings or anything else that becomes a conversation-starter with the experience I have had using the PLN, the Tweets, the feeds, etc.

Journal #6 Self-Reflection

HTML and CSS

When I started this course and the readings in the text, I studied the tag library in HTML.  It wasn't a far cry from an encoding standard I had already become familiar with:  EAD (Encoded Archival Description).

Understanding the placement of the codes and checking the public display (or I should say "View in Browser") made me more fluent in coding.  I noticed one little typo creates undesirable or no effects at all- a hard lesson I learned.

The first webpage I ever created was the Jen's bistro lab assignment from the textbook.  Following along step-by-step, the author held my hand as I coded everything in HTML verbatim to create the webpage.  After placing the shadowed goose in the header, I clapped my hands and squealed that I had created a webpage, although on a drab page with the Dijon mustard colored background (I know, it's the little things that excite me).

I have to admit, I grew too reliant on the hand-holding.  I had to step away from the lab exercises and make heads or tails of all this coding begging questions "what does this mean?"  "Why can't I do it this way instead?"  "How do I get animation in there?"  "How do I get this drab color out of here?"  "I am so in love with the Star Wars website and how that banner picture in the header takes up a significant amount of eye-catching real estate on their website...HOW CAN I DO THAT TOO!!??"

Reading definitions of what CSS is and trying to make a connection to my learning of HTML was difficult.  I needed more than a definition and I felt the textbook lacked a little here - don't get me wrong!  The textbook is a wonderful tool, but I am one of those students that tends to read outside of the textbook to see what others have to say about the same topic in different words and I like to follow the research trail of the author(s) of my textbook(s)...which is why my biggest weakness is time management.  It is something I am working on.  In any event, reading about CSS in the textbook, I became clear as mud.  Working on the CSS1, CSS2, CSS3, CSS4 lab in our class, it finally became clear as water.  CSS is the presentation of the HTML markup language.  I see it as a framework, or guideline, that creates rules for the standard such as "all headers must be in bold," etc.

The biggest challenge, hands down, was file management (besides Dreamweaver :) ).  Because I was working on a MAC computer in the lab, I continued my work on my PC, my laptop and even my tablet.  So, geographically, saving documents in 4 places became confusing.  Looking back, I can't believe how trusting I was that the documents saved on the MAC computer desktop in the lab without being deleted by the end of the day!  One of the challenges (and mishaps on my behalf) was that I once I learned something, I started trying to do something on my own, going off on a different tangent.  I opened up a notepad, copied and pasted what we just coded and got sidetracked.  When I looked up, the class had moved on to something else and I missed some of the coding exercise!

A challenge of lesser magnitude was Photoshop.  I have worked with Photoshop prior to this class and have made coloring books, comic books and painterly style artwork- all with the help of Youtube videos holding my hand throughout the process!  I want to work more with Photoshop to understand the possibilities and implement my ideas into my website.

The biggest reward was starting my final website project.  I drafted out some notes on the idea I had based on informing elementary school students, starting with the Kindergarten grade, on information literacy using primary sources.  Working alongside the text and piggybacking off some of our in-class labs, I am scaling down on the original notes, which were a little ambitious and intended for future classes.  I'll call this a work in progress, but it is rewarding to start creating my own website based on some of the hand-holding the author has provided to get me to understand the fundamentals of website development.  Because it is a work in progress, I can't provide the link just yet.  I will provide a link to the inspiration from a CSS lab we did in class:
http://www.cpp.edu/~nmzagami/512/labs/css1.html
I like the way the first letter "I" is highlighted as it reminds me of one of those illuminated manuscripts with the highlighted initial.  I am going to use that for my opening "about page" to give the audience of my site the illusion of an illuminated manuscript.  I am going to try to add as many picture examples as I am allowed (many of them are copyright protected, so I will be berry-picking from creative commons license photos as well as attributing to the proper museums).  The overall website will look something like the CSS lab with buttons like we did in our layout lab: http://www.cpp.edu/~nmzagami/512/layoutdemo.html
One day, I would like to achieve this:  http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/onlineex/illmanus/roymanucoll/t/zoomify77429.html
I love the way this website has a thumbnail, the image, and zoom features where the viewer can inspect the manuscript piece by piece.

In sum, I have turned the most challenging parts of this class into opportunities.  While I am still facing trouble connecting my documents to the server and trying to become fluent with Dreamweaver, I am allowing everything we have learned thus far to percolate in my mind and prepare for future classes.

Journal #5 My experience with Twitter

I thought the powerpoint with Twitter was useful in creating assignments, but I am wondering why only English and Geography disciplines were represented.  What other assignments can be created across disciplines using Twitter?  It is a communication tool and writing is definitely the main idea of Twitter, but how can other disciplines embrace this social media tool?  With the 140 character limit, I am curious to know how other disciplines utilize this tool for creativity other than writing or marketing a service or product.

The purpose of Twitter, I gathered from the Youtube video (retrieved on October 30, 2015: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4OxIz_3o3O0) is communication, interactive education and engaging students to use this as an educational tool while using it as an everyday tool in their social lives. In an effort to keep up-to-date with information feeds, Twitter's instant feeds provide massive amounts of information rapidly. This rapid technological information tool feeds headlines faster than newspapers can print news and commercial breaks can end for the next news hour, giving new meaning to the phrase "hot off the press."

My experience with Twitter was overall positive. I have used Twitter for professional purposes by posting to a library wall in my place of employment. In an effort to complete this assignment post, I created my own personal account:  Natalie Marie Lopez @BookCookMuse.  

After setting up my account, I compared my experience to Digg and began choosing networks based on my interests.  Following my love for books, NPR, TED talks, museums and adding some Educational/Technology multimedia groups, I received interesting and diverse tweets from the tweeters I followed.  Evidently, I gained a following myself without even marketing my Twitter presence!  By the end of the week, I had a whopping 8 followers!  Some of the followers reciprocally followed me from the tweeters I followed and some I had never heard of.  Just for enrichment (and kicks), I followed some celebrities such as George Clooney, Jensen Ackles and Jared Padalecki (the cast of the hit show "Supernatural.")I only tweeted once about my love for writing and that November is National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo).  I heard crickets as I saw no favorites, re-tweets or followers.  Truly an organic post as I did not hashtag, tag or market this.
Because I am tweeting using my name, I hesitate to post any content that will reveal personal images and stands I take on certain issues.  Tweeting from my professional account, I found it more useful to promote library events from my work, services that can benefit students and the occasional historic connections to our collections for Throwback Thursday.  
Twitter has a role in my professional life and development at my current place of employment in a library at a university.  I post meaningful educational posts on the library’s social media wall and the occasional tweets from students asking for research help. Some of the tweets I received from my followers were educational, entertaining and even way out of scope of what I signed up to follow.  For instance, the tweet below came from a network somehow connected to something I am following. Although posing an interesting question, it is an odd inclusion in my feeds!

Journal #4 Curriculum Plan

Site Title:

Information Literacy and research using Primary sources: a website for K-12 (add "students" for all-inclusive site), elementary school teachers and interested researchers

Developer
Natalie (Zagami) Lopez

Rational or focus

The purpose of this site is to introduce elementary school students to the information life cycle, information literacy and the process of doing research at an early age to accommodate lifelong learning skills in early childhood.  Using primary sources and historical documents as examples, students will begin to understand research and the value of information literacy skills thinking outside of the box and outside of their assigned textbooks.  With the Common Core State Standards (CCSS), these critical thinking skills will help them discover sources and appreciate the research process to become creative producers of research by the time they enter high school.Main features outline - List the main features of the site. 

Main Features Outline

Title page with links to very few subpages 

Limited Subpages with external links to helpful websites or local history sites

Comments area where teachers can communicate

Questions area where teachers can crowdsource information or inspire ideas for lesson plans and resources

Content

No more than 5 webpages (sizable; not overwhelming).  

Information Lifecycle chart with illustrative examples

Information Literacy:  definitions simplified for target audience of K-12

Research:  introducing students to how they can develop research skills with proposed plan to include lots of pictorial images (for students who have not yet mastered the ability to read)

Primary sources:  discussing local history (where students live in their cities), primary sources defined using language to be understood at their reading/vocabulary/comprehension level

Videos (closed captioned) for students who are unable to read

Possibly distinctive sections:  For students (age groups vary by grade/reading level)  and For teachers

Ideas Brainstorm

Differentiation of age groups with content appropriate for each age group:  example:

   Kindergarten:  Imagery and videos (or cartoon) Online video or possible inclusion of online game?  Possible early assessment activity?

 Grades 1-3 (3rd graders usually the grade where CCSS assign the local history project) will contain content appropriate for reading level with catchy words and imagery

 Possible inclusion of online game/activity?  Some form of assessment? 

 introduction to information literacy (critical thinking)

 Grades 4-6:  a more advanced reading level with content that continues from previous grade levels to review what they have already learned and build more critical thinking skills and introduce new material with new questions about historical documents and primary sources (possible virtual tours and tutorials of museum pieces)

 Early writing (paragraphs)

 Introduction of reading various primary sources of the same historical event with different pionts of view represented

 inclusion of online game/activity.  Some form of assessment

 Information literacy (review and repetition)

 History written by the victors?

 http://prizedwriting.ucdavis.edu/past/1994-1995/a-history-student2019s-reflections-on-history

 (creating activity centered around this quote.  The idea was inspired by a history class I took while enrolled in undergraduate studies at a community college.  One student commented that our readings were not “light” about the treatment of a certain ethnic group in the United States and how elementary school textbooks sugar-coated the facts.  I later had a conversation with an historian who wrote a more detailed perspective using primary sources to get the facts straight about what really happened).

 Grades 7-8 (middle school):  Introduce an activity “The 6 C’s of primary sources” created by UC Irvine:  http://www.humanities.uci.edu/history/ucihp/wh/6cs_Primary_Source.pdf

 Exercises on how to write a rough draft for a paper

 Introduction of literature reviews with questions “What has been talked about in terms of this subject?” “What have we learned?”  “What is something new that you would add to the conversation?”

 Introduction to the 6 frames of Information literacy (6 frames worksheet to be added)

 Online activity/game AND assessment

 Rough draft writing and early research paper writing.

 Grades 9-12:  (high school):  “The 6 C’s of primary sources” 

 More in-depth look at primary sources:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lDXTlkbT-lo

 writing a research paper

 More in-depth look at information literacy framework: 

1. “Authority Is Constructed and Contextual
2. Information Creation as a Process
3. Information Has Value
4. Research as Inquiry
5. Scholarship as Conversation
6. Searching as Strategic Exploration

” (http://www.ala.org/acrl/standards/ilframework)

Target audience

Teachers of K-12 classrooms

Student K-12

Interested researchers/educators

Design considerations

User-friendly site that is easy to navigate with easy-to-understand terms; less jargon

Imagery that is user-friendly for children who can point/click on pictures and receive 

Limiting factors

List the technical or audience factors that could limit the design goals of the site.

  (Audience) Because the site will contain lots of information, activities, materials and how-to’s at different levels of learning, I can foresee a student in Kindergarten accidentally clicking on the high school subpages and getting very lost.  

 (Technical) Because I will be referring to the updated “Information literacy framework,” the “6 C’s of primary sources,” the site may always need to be updated to reflect new research, updates and surfacing additional trends.

 A Site Map is a visual representation of the various pages in your website and how they are linked together.

 My site Map will be interactive and organized with subpages linking additional content by grade-level and a subpage in addition to each grade-level that will be for teachers to choose assignments for their classes or get involved in the conversations on the blog.

 I will also include breadcrumbs to link viewers back to the original page(s) they came from (so nobody will get lost!)

 Similar to PBS Kids site:  http://pbskids.org/), the front and center will be a rotating banner that will occupy most of the website real estate.  I like the way the “Videos” and “Games” options are placed.  

 Wire frame

 Header>The ABC’s of information, information literacy, research and Primary sources

 Website Footer Design> Social media presence, links to contact information, links to additional sites, contacts, etc.

 Columns< no more than two.  Simplified, but catchy to draw the viewer’s eyes to the content they seek.  

Journal #3

Kessler, S. (2010). The Case for Social Media in Schools. Mashable. Retrieved from http://mashable.com/2010/09/29/social-media-in-school/#cXxuBXB_1GqE


Social media, when used responsibly, can be an effective learning tool.  Libraries in particular have embraced social media channels for advertising their services, programs, resources, workshops and research ideas.  For instance, marketing workshops and resources such as databases have been effective for providing results that students have been made aware of these services through these effective communication channels.

When used irresponsibly, social media can be a hindrance and distraction in the classroom if students are not focusing on the curriculum, the class activity or the lecture.   There are some surfacing issues regarding social media and misuse in a new emerging study :  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/news/teens-social-media-addiction/

Referring back to our discussion a couple of sessions ago about expanding our networks in social media and those “weak ties,” how would we obtain those weak ties without social media?

Simply banning it from the classroom can actually lead to a level of ignorance on the part of the instructor leading to poor teacher-student interaction.  As is quoted in the article as a “lock down” on social media and the internet, ignoring a daily habit on the part of the students and not weaving social media into the curriculum or by means of communication is neglecting to become technologically literate which is required to effectively communicate with teenagers (the age group for which the article addresses).   

With more personal experience as my daughters are in Kindergarten and preschool, text messaging and social media have been the most effective communication means for me and my husband as working parents.  I find I receive information rapidly more so than having to wait for a printed flyer arriving by post or in my daughter’s backpack among a sea of papers and in-class work, not to mention how it reduces the amount of clutter and is less likely to get lost. Kindergarten and even preschool are embracing not only social media, but also apps that educate the kids as well as the parents. These apps are a luxury for information and calendaring purposes.

Drawing attention to #2 in the article and the blog writing, I think that would be an integral part of keeping students current in producing information rather than simply consuming it.  Like social media outlets, students can consume information and creatively produce it.  The problem question that would arise is are they producing information responsibly?  Good social media etiquette and habits should be enforced as this will be training for their future online networks such as LinkedIN.  This should be something weaved into the curriculum for elementary schools and high school students in order to engage them in their daily social media usage.  For students who don’t use social media, this would be a good assignment to introduce them to social media and the benefits of networking.  

I think the elephant in the room is not the issue the article addresses about embracing social media, but making it an integral part of the elementary curriculum, albeit, with other avenues for learning. Not simply focusing on social media for hours on end.  This is addressed with the Nielsen statistic of increased internet usage by children in #4.  There should be a balance between online time and offline time.  Spending hours on the internet for educational purposes should allow time for rewarding time spent on the internet (gaming), but should also incorporate offline time to exercise and focus on offline activities.  Children introduced to social media at an early age will better position them for their future careers with networking opportunities and make them better informed.    

Q1: How can social media effectively be integrated into the elementary curriculum?
Possible Answer: With the inclusion of computing in early childhood education as early as Kindergarten and pre-school. Introducing computer literacy to children and teaching them software such as Drawing or painting to create images can be a starting point to showing them how to post their work on social media to share with their parents and siblings. Finding ways to teach them keyboarding is a start and will also better engage them with the alphabet and numbers.

Q2: How early should students be introduced to social media and blogging?
Possible Answer: With the Common Core State Standards, it should be introduced in stages. Introduction to the computer with letters and numbers should be the starting point that leads to creating blogs to enhance their writing skills in later grades/middle school.

JOURNAL 1

Robbins, J.N.  (2012).  Learning Web Design:  A Beginner’s Guide to HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and Web Graphics (4th ed.).  Sebastopol, CA:  O’Reilly Media.

1.     For each journal entry:Include a 200-250 word summary/analysis/reflection of the article. Then, ask two relevant questions and attempt to answer your own questions that pertain to the article.

Summary of Chapters 1-3

The terminology, acronyms and fundamentals of web design are explored at the introductory level.  Differentiating between coding and some misuses of terms such as web and internet, these chapters provide a user-friendly approach to terminology, HTML coding at the basic level, layouts of web pages and the differences between web designing, scripting and programming.  

Q1:  In the beginning, the author mentions web designers as wearing multiple hats.  One of the hats the author didn’t mention was marketing.  Why?

POSSIBLE ANSWER:  Although this textbook is designed for education in grades K-12, there is a set of marketing eyes that have to be behind the web designers side of things to make the content engaging for any audience.  

Q2:  On pg. 33, Robbins (2012) states:  the heart of the matter is that as web designers, we never know exactly how the pages we create will be viewed (Robbins, 2012, p. 33).”  How can web designers assess their websites for effectiveness?

POSSIBLE ANSWER:  I am curious to further explore this as a thesis or project and gather information on how this can actually happen.  I see it as an opportunity to organize my website with helpful links so even the savviest of searchers will not be lost when they try to find information.  I want my website to be for an audience of everyone:  all-inclusive, easy to find information, easy to navigate if someone is exploring for curiosity, and intriguing enough so they will return.  

Affinity Group joined

I joined “The Educator's PLN” online community (affinity group).  Here is the link:  http://edupln.ning.com/

Based on the tagline “the personal learning network for educators,” I am hoping to network with other teachers at varying grade levels to share curriculum ideas and best practices for assessments.  I am also curious how teachers address at-risk students for the sake of retention.