The Putting Out of Fires Real and Imagined: New teachers, training, SASi, passwords, e-mail. The truth is that a great deal of my job is, and has always been, putting out technology fires. Just today I did the following: got a Dell laptop a password to be wireless at IHS and got that set up; helped a teacher get on to mylearningplan and signed up for Conference Day; looked at a secretary’s computer, which seems to have a virus, and schooled her through the track-it/snoopy process. This is the way the world turns. Teachers come running with everything from an Epson projector that won’t work, to needing a SASi shortcut added to a desktop, to help with entering grades on SASi, to having a printer added, to having a printer un-jambed, to needing a computer or program for teaching purposes, to having a CD un-wedged from a slot after dropping a laptop on the floor (gasp), and so on. I do the best I can. No, these are not “workshops,” but being the technology go-to girl is a large part of my job and, well, user education does happen. That teacher hasn’t dropped her computer on the floor since! In any case, fires abound.

Turn-it-in: I have implemented this plagiarism prevention and grading software with all of my students this year. (After having written and received money for the purpose last year.) Almost immediately the problems of the digital divide became apparent in requiring students to word-process and submit their papers online. Thinking myself rather understanding and prepared for students who might have difficulty accessing technology, I was rather shocked at how fast I had to back-pedal and allow some students to hand hard copies to me. As much as we would like to think that students who don’t have access to technology or the Internet at home can simply come to the library during free time to accomplish this task, this is not the case. Not all students spend whole days on campus; not all students have free periods; not all students are allowed to be at school before or after regular class hours; and while it may seem that every teenager has a cell phone, PSP and laptop, I have students who don’t have, have never had, an e-mail address. What could I do but make exceptions?

For the students who had no problem with this system (all in my honors sections, I hasten to add) Turnitin works well. They get the same, or better, feedback than they might otherwise, they can’t lose a marked copy of a paper, and they have some opportunities for peer editing that would be impossible otherwise.

On the other hand I have been less-then-impressed with Turnitin on the whole. Yes, the plagiarism scan is awesome. However, there are real problems with the GradeMark system and I found it very slow as compared to my writing directly on a student’s work. The added hassle of having to be online to grade was a real deterrent (as if I needed more hurdles) and I found the customer service people lacking. I haven’t made my final assessment of this system yet, but will make a pronouncement later in the year.

Workshop-in-a-Box: Throughout the fall the other IHS tech. mentors and I ran new teacher training workshops for our staff. I may have a bad memory, but getting technology in the hands of new staff seemed particularly difficult this year. There is a lot of confusion as to who does what and in what order. To make a long story short, some teachers couldn’t accomplish basic tasks such as taking attendance, entering grades, writing and printing handouts, for one reason or another, until as late as November. There has to be a better process. To this end, in December, Todd Noyes and I spent a day revamping and adding to our new teacher orientation materials in the form of a Workshop-in-a-Box (WIAB). In addition to the information regarding the ins and outs of hard- and software, we included a section listing the forms that need to be completed and to whom they need to go at the district level, before one can, really, even get started. I think the WIAB will make this process more smooth, but there also need to be some kind of change to this system. Everyone agrees: nod, nod.

Jam Session: In January, Matt Holl, Todd Noyes and I advertised and ran a technology “Jam Session” at IHS. We simply announced that we would be available and for staff to let us know if they were coming and why, or to just swing by. It was successful. I think it makes a lot of sense for us to address needs as they arise, rather than hope that staff member’s training needs and our workshop schedules coincide. The teachers who came seemed to really like the idea that on any given week they could pop in and ask for help. We have scheduled another session in February and will likely do one per month from now on.

Multiple Platforms Due To Lack of Hardware: Now, half-way through the year, we find ourselves in another round of technology distribution and training. Problems arise. When we first passed the bond and teachers started using laptops, IHS had two platforms; Dell PCs used in the Special Ed., Career Ed. and Student Service departments and Macs which went to, virtually, everyone else. Relatively quickly new operating systems and upgrades came out and, as the years passed, we have gotten used to a greater variety of systems with which the staff works. Now, because the wait for Macs has gotten so long, teachers from every department have applied for whatever computer is available — in the case, Dells. Sigh. Now, within, say, one department, we have 3 different kinds of Macs with 4 different operating systems as well as Dells with at least two different operating systems. This variety, while perhaps unavoidable, makes training in groups very complicated for the tech. mentor. Imagine having 7 people in a room and having to give separate instructions to each of them. That’s what we are doing now. We may want to think ahead, as we progress, about whether it wouldn’t be wise to limit what’s available.

TTFN

1) A teacher whom I trained on her new MacBook added her own printer.

2) A teacher whom I trained on iMovie made an individual iMovie for each of her classes as a farewell present. They loved it!

I look forward to coming back next year.

Technology Work:

New laptop distribution. I have lost track of the number of workshops that we did, but it seemed like a lot. Apparently, there are more coming up.  Now that there are quite a few teachers with new hardware in their hands, I think we should take to opportunity to get users in the habit of signing up for workshops.  It seems like a shame that, once we are all in the PDC, people are open to and excited about how they can use technology in the classroom, but once they leave, they are very unlikely to return.

RFP 9. Making suggestions for departmental hardware is fun. Watching Matt Holl have a breakdown is not fun.

I led four members of the English department in a workshop introducing iMovie. This was a lot of fun and I think will lead directly to some lessons for our students. We also took some time to discuss equity among our kids and the digital divide. This is something which, I feel, should be addressed with the faculty as a whole more frequently.

I finally received, and started testing, Turnitin. I look forward to incorporating this into my curriculum next year and getting some real feedback

Events of note:

A week in the Caribbean.

Lots of technology mentoring workshop.

Turnitin

“Of Hispanic children, 39 percent rely on schools to use computers. Of Black children, the number swells to 45 percent, compared to just 11 percent of Asian and Pacific Islanders and 15 percent of White children.”

“Once you hand kids access to technology ad the World Wide Web, you break the chains of social and economic inequity and allow these kids to take responsibility for their own future . . .”

“When his students went on to high school, they’d feel intimidated by the technology that many of their classmates were so accustomed to and that they’d set their sights lower as a result. They are less likely to go to college if they feel they don’t have the same skills their classmates have . . .”

I have a few reactions to these quotes.  First, its interesting to me that this is such a relatively recent phenomenon.  I’m not that old.  Aside from the Commodore 64 on which my brother and I played video games I had no access to computers in my primary and secondary education.  Computer work was non-existent in my high school (and this was in the 90s).  I’m a self-taught technology user since college and I relied completely on the technology the school provided for student use up through my first year of teaching.

As a teacher now, when I survey my students, 95% of them have a computer and internet access at home.  However, I work with a, for the most part, privileged population.  I wonder what the this survey would look like across the entire student population at IHS.

Also, while I do agree with quote two, I also agree with quote three.  Technology can be a great tool for educational advancement, but only if students have enough time to become comfortable and fluent with that medium.

Having a great library and books in the home does not make a student more literate, but, without them, literary is impossible.  The same is true for technology.

First, my students took the ELA Regents. The average score among my students was 92%! Hoorah!

In the world of technology, I spent a lot of time filling out paperwork. I applied for a individual license for Turnitin — a writing assessment and plagiarism prevention program and service about which I’ve heard very good feedback. (It’s also integrated with BlackBoard.) It looks great, but runs completely on the Web. Subsequently, users MUST be connected to the Internet in order to use the service. Since I do an awful lot of my grading at Gimme Coffee, this is already a big drawback. BUT, I’d still like to assess the program and present it to the English and Social Studies departments. Immediately after filling out the form, I was told to re-fill it out, and then I was told that it won’t get looked at until after vacation. Too bad.

Then I spent a lot of time trying to organize a workshop for the English department on BlackBoard. We finally got that papework done and the workshop listed for Superintendents Conference Day, when we were then notified that the district network is scheduled to be shut down on that day. I think it has all been rectified by now. Let’s hope.

Lastly, in paperwork news, I helped a bunch of people fill out laptop requests. This was fairly straight forward and I’m hoping that this next round of hardware distribution will encourage folks to come to more workshops and continue to incorporate techonology in their classrooms.

Events of Note:

Scheduled BlackBoard workshop with Roger.

All new laptop proposals were approved.

After school on Monday, 12/10, I will be holding a
technology workshop in my room, F3.

I plan to give a basic overview and will try to answer the
following questions:

How do I get technology help and/or signed up for technology
workshops?

What do I do when something breaks?

How do I add a SASi shortcut, printer or Network Account
shortcut?

What programs do I have and what do they do?

What is BlackBoard?

What technology resources are out there and how might they
make my job easier?

I put together a small presentation and met with six people for a couple of hours one afternoon.

See my PowerPoint Presentation here:

Tech Free-For-All

The workshop was well received and members were interested in additional instruction in iMovie and BlackBoard.  Furthermore, members also discussed the Turn-It-In software and service and would like more information about it.

Events of Note:

Gave Technology Free-For-All Workshop

Researched and received quotes for purchasing Turn-It-In (both as an individual and for the whole high school).

Had an extended discussion, through Armin and Mike, of two questions: How does one apply for software through the district (in this case Turn-It-In)? and How is district hardware distributed for school clubs?

While, in theory, I am supposed to be spending all of my time educating staff members about technology as it relates to curricula; in practice, I spend a lot of time fielding questions of the following sort:

“My laptop is broken. What do I do?”

“My laptop has been at IT for months. What do I do?”

“I want a new computer. What do I do?”

I wish I had a stash of shiny-new laptops that I could hand out to the people who make the best cases to me but, alas, I don’t.

So, I taught a lot of people about Track-It and Snoopy.  I also let users know that they could get directly in touch with the IT Staff assigned to a Track-It by asking in the library. I have also, after much calming of nerves and coaxing of tempers, encouraged people to write proposals for new laptops being distributed, hopefully, this spring.

Events of Note:

Dell laptops which were handed out during the first deployment seem to be self-destructing at an alarming rate. While there do seem to be some (though very limited) options for Mac users in the building, there seems to be no recourse for Special Ed. and Support Staff that use PCs and find themselves without a computer.

I know this is not news, but we really need a better system for getting temporary replacements to staff members whose computers are being worked on.

After initial introductions with the Staff-Development Staff in the PDC, and the other tech mentors at IHS and the ICSD, I felt comfortable beginning work. At first, most of my meeting time was spent with veteran members of IHS who were receiving new or reconditioned laptops running OSX. Though these teachers had been running OS9, most were already fairly comfortable using OSX and trouble-shooting for themselves. What was surprising to me was how little knowledge of operating, outside of basic trouble-shooting, that some users have. Many did not know how to connect to network servers, printers, or SASi. I guess this makes sense, given different aptitudes, interests and needs among the staff, but I wonder if it wouldn’t be a good use of time and resources to make sure that every user has these basic skills.

Events of Note:

Many printer IP addresses changed over the summer. Those who had been connected to these printers, had to be reconnected — which, in the case of the English Dept, was everyone. I learned how to connect a PC to a printer not listed on the network by following Roger’s 12-page-long directions. There has to be a better way to do this.

SASi went down and the whole school moved to OSX.  This change meant a number of orientation meetings for me.

WebMail crashed and many people lost e-mail files. I spent some time trying to get people with problems over to Surge templates. In the future, I would like to learn more about Entourage.