Dream Classroom

Part II: Dream Classroom


I couldn’t believe it. I just had my child’s Parent Teacher’s conference. You may ask what’s so novel about that. Well I didn’t actually travel to the school we had the conference over SKYPE. I am so excited. I really didn’t know what to expect when my little Taneka came home with the Parent Teacher’s conference notice where the teacher gave parents an option of participating over SKYPE. The notice gave all the information needed to set up the SKYPE connection. I had a computer with a Webcam all I had to do was to set up a free SKYPE account which I did. Tonight when Taneka’s teacher appeared on my computer my heart leaped with joy and excitement. She linked me to her electronic Grade Book where we reviewed my child’s grades. When you clicked on a grade, the quizzes, tests, homework assignments were displayed in what looked like file drawers labeled 1st marking period, 2nd marking period, etc. After reviewing Taneka’s grades, the teacher invited me to go to the toolbar and select “Electronic Portfolio” which displayed artifacts that Taneka had selected to brag about. Each artifact was annotated by Taneka with comments by the teacher. The teacher invited me to add a comment to one of Taneka’s artifacts which I did. The teacher than told me to select the “Home” button on the toolbar. This button took me to the class webpage which the teacher explained was a collaborative effort between the students and herself and since it was still early in the year it was still “under construction” but the class had already started an RSS feed to collect articles and blogs related to constructing class wikis in order to get ideas for constructing theirs. The teacher explained that RSS feeds will also be used for unit studies, which is intended to give the students a broader understanding of the topics being studied. Another topic located on the class wiki is technology terms and software packages. By selecting any item it will take you to the website or to the definition.

The teacher took me to Taneka’s webpage where there were pictures she had downloaded from Flickr and Picasso, and music that she uploaded from the MP3 in the classroom and used Audacity to edit the music she selected to attach to the poem that she had written in class. The teacher said that she is encouraging Taneka to write a blog on how she created the poem and choose the music for the poem when the class becomes more comfortable with weblogging. The teacher explained that Taneka used Google Reader as the aggregator for her RSS feeds which stands for “Reading Skill: Scanning” or “Reading Skill: Synthesizing”. She went to Google Sources at http://tinyurl.com/24awzx and selected a few sites that I had previously viewed that was related to literature. The good thing about RSS feeds is that if it doesn’t work for you, you can unsubscribe. The teacher explained that the students will be doing more work in class that will be published on the web. She called it a Read/Write Web which has been around for many years but is just now making quantum leaps in education. She explained that learning is no longer confined to the four classroom walls. Learning reaches beyond the classroom and its being done via the web. Just like we were having this conference through SKYPE, the teacher explains that they will connect to prominent people in order to ask questions and learn from. This concept does not mean that the teacher no longer has a place in their students’ educational process. In fact, the teacher is very important to this process. The teacher has to teach students how to blog, assist in editing the students’ work, facilitate discussions, integrate the other subjects, make sure that each child is working to their potential, assessing the students, and the list goes on. She went on to explain that the students will be primarily using freeware and shareware and explained what each was. The teacher said that the students are keeping their own log of the usernames and passwords they have created for the software packages they are using which means that they can also use these resources at home. She said that the students have been participated in training sessions on security on the web and using the proper conduct and they have been issued certificates of completion. Letters have been sent home to parents advising them that the use of the world-wide-web will be a major part of our classroom life and if they had questions or concerns that they should contact me. She said that I must have returned the form or Taneka would not have able to participate in the Read/Write activities. The teacher says that the purpose of publishing work on a wiki or a blog is to develop constructive dialogue. Students will review blogs that the teacher, and her former students have published to develop skills in analyzing and synthesizing.

The teacher maintains the usernames and the passwords to the class webpage and the class wiki. However, anyone can view them and she invited me to view the sites anytime and if I have any questions about what we are doing and Taneka’s academic performance that I should not hesitate to contact her via phone or at the email address on the website. The website also included homework assignments for the week and some time in the future there will be Podcasts of lesson plans so that students who are out ill for an extended time have an opportunity to catch up and would also be a great artifact for the teacher’s own electronic portfolio.

Since I was not able to visit the classroom during “Back to School” night, the teacher selected the “Podtour” button from the webpage. She explained that it was not a professional job because she and the students hurried to put it together for this meeting but it does provide a flavor of what the classroom is like. The tour consisted of still pictures as well as video and a few of the students narrated it. The students indicated that the first most exciting thing was that each student desk had a laptop computer with a WebCam built in and a set of headphones so that they can listen to music without disturbing their neighbor too much. Next to each one having his or her own laptops and headsets, the second most exciting thing was the Smart Board that was mounted on the wall with a built in projector. It can be used for interactive games and also has Internet connectivity. They showed the digital cameras that were mounted in every corner of the room, the media center which had the monitor for SKYPE conferencing and DVD. At eye level a cabinet with a DVD player, MP3 player, digital cameras, and electronic games and books. The students showed me the wireless sensors that were mounted in ceiling so that the computers would use a wireless connection, the black and white printer and color printers.

I must admit that I was a little concerned that Taneka was spending too much time playing computer games at school and at home. The teacher assured me that she had done some research on the affects of playing video games on the children and the research indicates that there is no strong evidence that links media exposure to hyperactivity (http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2008-12-01-media_N.htm). She also said that the students move around the room a lot and have gym twice per week which allows them to get exercise. She suggested that I monitor Taneka’s time on the computer as well. The teacher also suggested that I read Will Richardson’s book, Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classroom, Second Edition (Will Richardson, Corwin Press) in order to understand the possibilities of many of the tools that she will be using in third-grade class this year. She assured me that it was an easy read.

I must admit that I was breathless when I hung up from my SKYPE conference with my daughter’s teacher and I was so happy that I wasn’t there to see the angry faces of the other parents who were waiting in the hallway to have their conference with the teacher.

Journal #4

The demo on the Inspiration was very good. Nicole said that you could use this software for any subject which is nice. It appeared to be a tool to help the teacher prepare her/his lessons. I know during student teaching last fall, I was not aware that the school offered this software. I may have broken the copywrite laws but I downloaded geometric shapes from the Internet or copied them from homework sheets in order to create quizzes and tests. Coming from Corporate America where I was given all the tools that I needed to do my job, I thought that the process that I was following was quite outdated. Not being an in-service teacher myself, I would like to start me career teaching with an arsonel of new or up-to-date techniques that will minimize the time it takes to create the lesson and make the materials look more professional.

With so much discussion on blogs and Wikis I have finally taken the plunge and created a blog of my own. I choose the free one recommended by Will Richardson hosted by Google and followed the instructions for creating a blog. It was very simple to create. There are some features offered by the paid websites that I would like to consider when I am an in-service teacher, i.e.; Edublogs.org offers the ability to set permissions and access. That woud be very important to me as the teacher and to the parents, and other stakeholders in the children's welfare.

A Sunday School student of mine said that Wikipedia is not accurate. He said that there is a waiting line of 2 years in order to edit something on the website. I explained to him that there are these unofficial watchdogs that monitor the website and would go into the site on an almost instantaneous basis to make corrections. it does sound like an inefficient way to maintain the integrety of a source that is so highly utilized. I for one used it as a resource for a presentation that I had to make.