S08_Christopher_Lauren

Lauren Stavros Bio- I've worked at Mill School and Technology Academy for the past two years in Whiiter, and this year I will be a 7th grade math intervention teacher at the middle school. I am currently working on my Masters of Education: Option in Mathematics and a technology Supplementary Credential. Both math and technoloy are a passion of mine and I am excited to use both in my teaching career. Lauren Stavros- Annotated Bibliography 1. Anderson, P. (2007). What is Web 2.0? Ideas, Technologies, and Implications for Education. //JISC Technology and Standards Watch//. Paul Anderson is technology writer and technical director of Intelligent Content Lid. He has over twenty years working with technology. Anderson’s writing is scholarly and he addresses those who are interested and want to integrate in web 2.0 In is article, he discusses how Web 2.0 has changed education from reading and writing on the web to interacting with others through blogs, wikis and podcasts. Anderson presents challenges that web 2.0 may present to educators which include an overcrowding of online communities, the knowledge and power of the individuals using the programs, and the power of ownership, specifically Wikipedia. What is Web 2.0 discusses the background and advantages of web 2.0, but does not describe how to use it successfully in the classroom. 2. Armstrong, L., and Berry, Dr. M. Blogs as Electronic Learning Journals. RMIT University. E-Journal of Instructional Science and Technology. Armstrong and Dr. Berry work for the School or Art in Design and Communication at RMIT University. Armstong and Berry wants the reader to know that blogs can be used as journals in the virtual world for others to read and reflect on. Blogging has created a new interest in teachers and students that motivates them to write more. Students are positively affected by the use of blogs by allowing them to feel power by having their work, journals, and thoughts students work in groups and reflect on their learning. Students can learn and reflect by viewing other blogs that are published online. Armstrong and Berry describe multiple advantages of using blogs in the classroom specifically with students. The article is encouraging for educators who plan to use and apply blogs in their classroom. 3. Clyde, L. (2005). Educational Blogging. //Teacher Librarian,// 5, 43-45. This article describes the benefits of using blogs in a school setting. Blogs were described as a cross between a diary, a website and online communication. There are different types of blogs that bloggers produce and not all of them include reliable information. Blogs can support the teacher, the curriculum, and encourage the student to produce work. Clyde uses a first grade teacher’s blog as an example to communicate with parents the work that is being done in the classroom. She also encourages the use of blogs because they are easy to create and update and the cost is reasonable. Clyde concludes that teachers and students create and maintain blogs as learning projects throughout the learning process. 4. Duffy, P and Bruns, A. (2006) The Use of Blogs, Wikis, and Podcasts in Education: A Conversation of Possibilities. //Precedings Online Learning and Teacher Conference,// 31-38. Blogs and wikis are two new content developments and management technologies that enable an interactive and intercreative engagement amongst students and between students and teachers. This article explains what blogs, wikis, and RSS are, the benefits, and how it can be used effectively in the classroom. Wikis provide opportunities with a task-orientated collaborative editing of content and blogs provide interaction through news, interviews, and ideas. Students can work individually 5. Downes, S. (2004). Educational Blogging. //EDUCAUSE Review, 39, 14-26.// Stephen Downes is a senior researcher with the E-Learning Research Group. His article describes a classroom that is blogging in groups. The students explain that by blogging they are more encouraged to improve their writing by receiving comments from other readers. The webblogging has supported the students’ learning and has supported teachers by enabling them to post assignments, schedules, discussions, internet links to related information and more on the blog. Downes concludes that blogging is more than just writing; it involves reading, thinking, and analyzing. Blogging is way to reflect on life and to communicate with others. Students will learn through blogs how to reflect on life. 6. Drexler, W., Dawson, K, and Ferdig, R. (2004) Collaborative Blogging as a Means to Develop Elementary Expository Writing Skills. //Electronic// //Journal for the Integration of Technology in Education//, 6, 140-161. This article discusses the way that blogging was used in a third grade classroom. Results found that students were motivated by the collaboration and feedback rather than the technology that was used. Students’ writing and technology knowledge improved throughout the study. The blogging also allowed differentiated instruction that met each of the students’ needs. Storytelling is one way that differentiated instruction can be used. Students write at their level and receive feedback from their peers and teacher. Blogging can be used in all of the academic disciplines as another way to motivate students

7. E Pals School Where Learners Connect. (2007). Retrieved on July 15, 2008. Website: [|Http://www.epals.com/products/esb.] This free websites allows schools, districts, and teachers to have blog sites at no cost. The site requires a username and password and attempts to make blogging safe around the world. The site also has multiple product features for friendlier use. There are various examples of elementary and high school blogs that have already been created to view.

8. Huette, S. (2006). Blogs in Education. //Teaching Effectiveness Program: Be Free to Teach.// 1-8. Huette describes that a blog is shortened for web log and what it is made of. There is a title, body, comments, permalink and post date. There may also be categories and track backs. He also describes why blogs are different from ordinary sites and how they are created. Huette concludes by describing the benefits, uses, how to start a classroom blog, and how to get your students involved. 9. Huffaker, D. (2005). The educated blogger: Using Weblogs to Promote Literacy in the Classroom. //AACE Journal, 13//, 91-98. This article explores the role of weblogs in promoting literacy in classroom settings. Literacy remains very important in learning because it is included in all other academic disciplines. Storytelling ignites literacy and remains an important part of life from childhood through adulthood. Weblogs resemble personal journals or diaries and provide an online venue where self-expression and creativity is encouraged and online communities are built. Weblogs can then provide an opportunity where students can story tell with expression while reading and receive feedback from peers.

10. Kathy Cassidy—Blogmeister. (2007). Retrieved on July 15, 2008. Website: http://classblogmeister.com/blog.php?blogger_id=1337. This is a first grade teacher’s blog site where her students are learning to read and write. Each student has his/her own blog link where they type their journal entries. Cassidy also allows visitors to talk to the class through Yackpack. The class communicates with other classrooms around the world and has links to them. On her homepage, Cassidy’s class wrote and sang a rap to their blogging friends.

My class project is using my classroom webpage to connect students by blogging. Students will create their own blog page using Blogger during the first week of school. I will also set my class up with an email and a password using Gmail. Each student will have their first initial and last name as their username and their password. I will provide students with their password in case they forget or lose it. Once the class understands how to use the blog site, I will introduce them to Google Reader and explain the purposes of it. Students will then subscribe to their peers’ blogs in order to see updates on the blogs and have easy access to the links. When students become comfortable using the Blogger and Google Reader, I will then assign homework or class work involving their blogs. Parental involvement is very important when using the internet. Some parents may not know how to monitor their child’s use of the internet. On back to school night, I would show parents how to access the webpage and what is expected of the students. By providing parents with background knowledge and information on internet safety and computer access will allow the process to run smoothly. Last year my district implemented writer’s workshop into our daily instruction. My students wrote in their composition book daily but became frustrated when they needed to revise and edit their work because they were tired of rewriting. Having students conduct writer’s workshop using their blog site will allow them to edit and revise without getting too frustrated. Huffaker adds that Weblogs can provide an opportunity where students can story tell with expression while reading and receive feedback from peers. When students post their daily work, I will be able to comment on everyone’s work more often. It was a challenge for me to have teacher-student conferences everyday due to time constraints. Students will also be able to comment on each other’s work while at home or in the library. There are many advantages for using blogs in the classroom. Results from Drexler, Dawson, and Ferdig’s study found that students were motivated by the collaboration and feedback rather than the technology that was used. Students’ writing and technology knowledge improved throughout the study. The blogging also allowed differentiated instruction that met each of the students’ needs. Students are motivated to write and read while on the computer. Weblogs resemble personal journals or diaries and provide an online venue where self-expression and creativity is encouraged and online communities are built. AlphaSmarts would be used in the classroom as a free activity to help students learn keyboarding skills. The more students are exposed and have practice using the computer, the more comfortable they will feel. Students feel power by having their work published online, and learn by reading their peers’ work. Blogs are easy to create and the cost is affordable. _
 * __Stavros Abstract__**

__**Chris Petrini**__ Bio:__ I have just started my fourth year at Jefferson ECC-AEWC, a secondary dropout recovery program, and taught Language Arts and Reading to adults for three years before that. I will be starting my Master's in Counseling (School Counseling and Leadership) in September. I have had a somewhat dysfunctional relationship with technology. I have tried to avoid learning new things, but of course have been grateful for its utility when it helped me accomplish something quicker, neater, more professionally.

In looking at the Meriwether Lewis Elementary School website highlighted in Will Richardson’s book, I determined that I really needed something that had a front page that wasn’t going to change or have its most important information get buried at the bottom of my project, like a blog. I realized that I want the look, functionality and permanence of a website with dropdown menus, but with the ease of creating content like on a blog or wiki. In talking with Dr. Chen last week, I explained that I teach at an independent studies high school diploma program called Jefferson AEWC. Since it is an open entry/open exit program, there is a constant influx of new students who always need to be oriented about their new school responsibilities, weekly conference and attendance schedules, book check-out policies, where to get materials, how to read their assignment sheets and, not least, the critical steps required to graduate, which we absolutely expect they will. It has become entirely too time-intensive to explain all of this from a couple of times a day to a couple of times an hour, and trying to do it extemporaneously risks leaving out critical details. In traditional high schools, the incoming freshmen get oriented on special days or weeks, meet with buddy seniors who give campus tours and answer social questions, and meet all of their teachers who explain their classes at the beginning of a semester or school year with syllabi. The high school diploma program I teach in has no comparison on many levels. Beyond the aforementioned details, the students hardly know one another to begin with, nor do they regularly attend at the same time or even on the same day in two consecutive weeks, making new social connections almost impossible. Unless they become aware of A Place Called Home's blooming programs and take advantage of them, those AEWC students who are uninvolved and unaware, orbit within their limited paths of obscurity and isolationism as enviable opportunities revolve around them disappearing into black holes. Our school (which is really a two-room branch site with a staff of six) is housed within a vibrant, dynamic community youth center with evolving programming. After teaching there for a year or so, I was stunned to learn that students of mine who had attended our school for over six months were completely unaware of the opportunities available to them at A Place Called Home. They would walk down the hall past the "heart" of the community center, come into class, turn in assignments, receive new ones and go home without even checking to see what free food was being served. They also wouldn't take advantage of the free music, dance or art classes. They wouldn't go see the career counselors upon my suggestion to begin developing a transitional plan for post-high school. And finally, I was boggled to realize that they also wouldn't attend the Teen Night events--either stand-up comedy, spoken word/slam poetry events, or talent shows with great music and free food--which were created with our student population in mind. In traditional high schools, these types of events would be announced during homeroom or zero period, advertised by banner signs streaming from cafeteria or student center walls, or at least be mentioned by a classmate in passing: "You going to the dance on Friday?" Upon examining all of this, ho wever, I can now see that they possibly might have had information overload their first few days. What I might value as an incredible opportunity for them, my students might experience as an auditorial nightmare, incapable of processing it in all of its complex layers. Confined by my human limitations, my frustrations and disappointments stemmed from forgetting to tell a new student something that I had mentally footnoted to share. I would nail the school side explanation to them in full, and then inevitably forget to tell them about the free prom gown program or dental cleanings happening at APCH over the weekend. For students who already lack organizational skills and weren’t functioning highly in the traditional classroom model to begin with, I cannot think of a more efficient or better information dissemination tool than the web for them to see, watch, listen and read all of this new, detailed information at their own pace, with the ability to continually refer to it. And for teachers who are too busy to stop in mid-sentence to explain another minute, yet mighty detail, to have to just do it this one last time, electronically, is completely relieving. Thus, in addition to explaining this alternative high school model, I will show them the abundant opportunities available to them in the art, music, sports, and youth leadership programs, as well as encourage them to use the on-site Teen Center, computer lab and counseling services by using [|www.edu20.org] to manage all of this. It has always been our vision for our high school students to maximize the support services offered to teens in this neighborhood by APCH, and I am hoping this project furthers the bridge of collaboration between us. Finally, in the spirit of web 2.0, I also envision my students reviewing an APCH experience or program they participate in on our class blog to attract others, or pointing other students towards a website or article they found relevant to a specific assignment in government, psychology or english.
 * __ Seminar Project Abstract __**