Digging Deeper into the Mainstays

     After exploring Edmodo, I found this genre of the social category to be very user friendly and a great collaborative tool.  Not only is it easy to use to creatively collaborate with co-workers, it can easily be transformed to collaborate with students – teachers with students and students with students.  Teachers can set up alerts to notify students of assignments, and grades and feedback can be added to assignment submissions.  Videos and documents can be uploaded to the website, and a polling feature can be used to survey students on various topics.  Students can post comments, and their fellow classmates can respond to their posts to engage in lively discussions.  Another great feature of Edmodo is the capability to join other groups of interest.  You can join many other groups and participate in their conversations as well.  Beyond the classroom, this website can be great to connect with others on a personal level.  Your friends and family can join in on the fun in this safe environment.  I believe this is a great tool to house many groups of people and be able to monitor these collaborative conversations.  Edmodo is definitely a tool that educators are using to enhance professional development as well as to enhance student learning while keeping them engaged and connected in this interactive website.

     After exploring Glogster further, I found this genre of the creative category to be fun and engaging.  It reminds me of an online scrapbook, and I love scrapbooking!  On a professional level, educators can create a Glog to showcase content on authors, time periods, books, and any other concept from any discipline.  The pages are both engaging and interactive, and students are excited to create their own Glogsters.  They can be used for professional development as well.  There are so many options provided when creating a Glogster that it is difficult to create just one!  Sometimes they can be time consuming, only because there are so many fun things from which to choose to make your Glogster your own!  It is also great that it has a “Preview” feature so that you can be sure everything is working properly before publishing and sharing.  I believe that educators are using Glogster to enhance student learning by providing engaging pages filled with information that can appeal to any learning style; in addition, students are using Glogster as a fun way to share their knowledge of various concepts.  On a personal level, users can use this tool to create pages that are filled with text, images, audio, videos, and documents to showcase their interests.  The user-friendly website provides multiple features to personalize your page, such as wallpaper, text, and graphics, and they can easily be shared via web address.  The color and movement of Glogs make for an interesting experience whether it is for learning or just for fun! 

     I have always heard of Pinterest, but have never taken the time to really explore it.  After joining and researching this website within the curation category, I believe it is a wonderful way to collect things of interest and organize them according to theme.  If you find someone with the same interests, you can follow their pinboards as well.  Users can upload images which can be shared with other users.  To begin, you need to follow five boards; there were so many from which to choose!  While browsing the boards, it was easy to see that this user-friendly tool could be useful both personally and professionally.  Professionally, users can join various boards of business, such as education, and these boards can be narrowed down to specific fields.  Educators can share ideas and resources for which other pinners can repin, like, and comment.  They can also share their experiences with other educators about what has and what has not been beneficial in the classroom for them.  Utilizing this website enables an educator to enhance student learning by learning themselves what is working within the wide world of education.  Personally, this website could be used to follow fellow “pinners” on just about anything of interest from hairstyles to home décor to health and fitness.  It is a great way to connect and share with others via images.  Clicking on a board opens up a whole another world of resources to evaluate and organize.  This website is visually stimulating without an overwhelming amount of text. 

     These three websites can build both relationships and resources that can enhance our students’ learning.   They are very creative and collaborative tools that can motivate our students (even those who are reluctant) to participate in their education and become life-long learners.  It is important for educators to explore these free innovative tools so they can implement them in the classroom for engaging real-life experiences.

Evaluating New Websites

     There are many things that need to be examined in order to determine if a particular website is desirable for students.  When I preview websites to share with my students, I look for appropriate content for my lesson, as well as if that content is age appropriate for my students.  Websites should be free of obscenity (both the content and comments), and inappropriate content or images must not be found.  In addition, the number of advertisements should be limited.  Although, I would rather see no advertising on a website, if there were a few that were not too distracting, I would still consider the website as a resource for my students.  Of course, the type of ad matters.  If it were to appeal to adult audiences, I would steer clear of that website.  Some other things I would look for is the copyright date.  If it is outdated and no longer relevant, I would look for a more current website to suit my students’ needs.  If I were to share a website with my students to read in class or independently, I would not hold them responsible for a website that was over three pages for fear that they would lose interest and stop reading and interacting with the website.  Finally, I would check the website/author to be sure it is credible.

     Websites that would be less desirable would be filled with obscenity and inappropriate content and images.  The advertising would be very distracting, overwhelming, and adult-oriented.  Antiquated websites would be doing a disservice to students, as information would be outdated and irrelevant.  Finally, if websites are created by non-credible sources, they would not hold much value and may not be worth sharing with your students.  All of these less desirable websites should not be permitted in the classroom, as there is an abundance of resources available that can be used instead. 

     Because of these negative aspects introduced by particular websites, it is extremely important to preview all information before it is shown to students.  Not only is it important for educators to look for these specific things in websites, students should be taught to identify positive and negative aspects of the overabundance of websites as well.  Educators and students should be aware of the possible inappropriate content of particular websites and know how to react to them properly.

Acceptable Use and Internet Safety Policy Evaluation

     After learning about the Children’s Internet Protection Act (CIPA) and reviewing PA Virtual’s Acceptable Use and Internet Safety Policy, I am pleased to report that my school’s policy properly outlines its adherence to “CIPA, 47 U.S.C. 254(h) and (l) and the Neighborhood Children’s Internet Protection Act (N-CIPA), the 2008 Broadband Improvement Act, and any applicable implementing regulations” (page 1).  The policy addresses these acts and provides definitions of applicable terms of these requirements and laws.  The policy also addresses aspects from Authorized Users to Viruses to Consequences for Inappropriate Use to Content Filtering and Monitoring, and the agreements of these various terms must be acknowledged and signed by the student’s parent/guardian/learning coach, student, administrator and staff user, and vendor, contractor, and/or consultant.  This Acceptable Use and Internet Safety Policy was adopted on September 26, 2011.

     In regard to Content Filtering and Monitoring, PA Virtual employs technology protection measures to filter internet sites and to control the loading of software applications by students in accordance with the school’s Internet Safety Policy “Pursuant to the Children’s Internet Protection Act (CIPA).”  “For purposes of research and other lawful purposes, certain blocked sites may be made available – but only after approval by the CEO” (page 4).  The CEO will determine if the use of these sites will serve a legitimate educational purpose or otherwise benefit the school.  These requests can be made by a teacher, student, or parent.  If the party involved disagrees with the CEO’s decision, it can be escalated to the Board of Trustees for further review. 

     In my opinion, I believe that this Acceptable Use and Internet Safety Policy does promote the use of new technologies in the classroom.  In the Web Content Developed by Students section of the policy, it states that, “As part of class/course assignments, students may be developing and/or publishing content to the Internet via Web pages, electronic and digital images, blogs, wikis, podcasts, vodcasts, and webcasts, or may be participating in videoconferences” (page 5).  Because it is a virtual charter school, the students are exposed to these tools on a daily basis and are encouraged to explore new technology that is introduced in the classroom. 

     I believe that there are direct comparisons between CIPA and this particular school’s policy because the terms employed are identical and the same issues are addressed (content or pictures that are obscene, child pornography, or harmful to minors).  This virtual charter school’s Acceptable Use and Internet Safety Policy does recognize the need to monitor content on school-issued technology.  In addition, the students are educated on appropriate online behavior, which would include interacting with others and the topic of cyberbullying.  In the classroom, these aspects are reviewed before each semester in an effort to bring awareness to these issues and the appropriate way to react to them.  As I mentioned previously, I am delighted that my school has such a thorough Acceptable Use and Internet Safety Policy that is aligned with CIPA to make our students’ safety a priority. 

 PA Virtual.  (2011).  Acceptable use and internet safety policy.  Retrieved from https://pavcs.blackboard.com/bbcswebdav/pid-730772-dt-content-rid-1196532_2/courses/org-staff_all/Acceptable%20Use%20and%20Internet%20Safety%20Policy%2009262011%20-%20SIGNED.pdf

Creative Commons License

This work by http://pstinson2110.blogspot.com/ is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 United States License.


After carefully reading the Creative Commons license descriptions (quite a few times!), I chose to combine the attribution, non-commercial, no derivative (by-nc-nd) Creative Common License for my EDIM 514 blog.  I chose attribution because I believe that I should receive credit if someone decides to use my work for something of his or her own.  I then chose non-commercial because I believe that no one should receive funds if my information is used.  Finally, I chose no derivative because my blog contains my thoughts, ideas, opinions, and perspectives on various material.  Therefore, this information should not be changed because it would no longer reflect my views.  If I were to license something reproducible, such as images, worksheets, graphics, or assessments that could be tailored to meet the needs of other educators, I would have used the share alike option.  However, since my blog is based on my opinions, users can agree or disagree, but I would not like them to change my words in any way.


I thought this assignment was very interesting.  I was unaware of Creative Commons and its various licensures.  It is very important for everyone to learn this information in order to protect themselves in an age where it is extremely easy to “do" and "make” things due to our increasing technological tools and abilities. 


Link to D2L Profile: 
https://live.wilkes.edu/d2l/lp/profile/profile_edit.d2l?ou=83705

YouTube in the Classroom

After learning about CIPA, deciding if YouTube should be used with students is a very difficult question because I see both sides of this debate.  I have used YouTube in the classroom because it houses many wonderful “How To” videos and videos delivering wonderful messages and concepts.  However, these great videos can be accompanied by inappropriate comments, and believe me, those types of comments do not go unnoticed by the students!  On the other hand, there are very insightful comments that add to the material and prompt lively discussions.  With that being said, I believe that YouTube should not be blocked.  As mentioned by Willard, these websites should be unblocked if approved by the teacher, after close examination of the content and comments.  It is very important for teachers to preview the material before it is presented to the class.  On some occasions, the teacher can share these videos in class and be in control of its delivery. 

In Straight from the DOE:  Dispelling Myths about Blocked Sites, I liked the idea that someone mentioned in the comments (see, they can be helpful!) that these appropriate videos could be transferred to SchoolTube for student use.  Since most of my students are older and more mature, it would be imperative to review the rules, so they could gain knowledge and understanding of appropriate use and make informed choices on appropriate and inappropriate content on the web.  In addition, it is important for educators to adhere to CIPA and their school’s policies to protect their students.

Barseghian, T.  (2011).  Straight from the DOE:  Dispelling myths about blocked sites.  Retrieved from http://blogs.kqed.org/mindshift/2011/04/straight-from-the-doe-facts-about-blocking-sites-in-schools/

Martinez, S.  (2008).  Generation YES blog.  Retrieved from http://blog.genyes.org/index.php/2008/12/03/heavy-handed-filtering-is-a-problem-not-a-solution/

Introduction

My name is Paula Stinson, and I live in Windber, PA (a small town comfortably nestled between Harrisburg and Pittsburgh).  I have been a High School English teacher at PA Virtual for six years.  Although I teach online, I am excited to learn some interesting new tools to share with my students!  After the completion of this course, I will be at the half way mark to my Master's in Instructional Media!

I just celebrated my 18th wedding anniversary with my high school sweetheart, Scott, on June 9.  We have two beautiful daughters - Ashlee, age 16, and Emilee, age 13.  Two teenage daughters - yikes!!  My poor husband - even our 1 year old Shichon, Baylee, is a girl!  Ashlee plays volleyball, and Emilee plays soccer (making a transition to tennis), so I am on the road a lot, but love every minute of it!  My favorite flavor of ice cream is Birthday Cake (unfortunately, I just had a bowl of it and the beach is a week away!), and the movie I have probably seen the most (besides Disney) is Pretty Woman.  I look forward to working with all of you for the next seven weeks!