D3

D3 Dr. Barnes, Dr. Wood, Mr. Kafalas, We, Greg Gongoleski and Nicole Lloyd, are lucky to have been exposed to the Web 2.0 movement and its impact on the classroom through a web based graduate course titled Online Texts in the 21st Century. Wikipedia defines the Web 2.0 movement as “the second generation of web development that facilitates communication, secure information sharing, interoperability, and collaboration on the World Wide Web.” Many of the applications associated with the Web 2.0 movement are extremely cost effective and ideal for the classroom. The applications, specifically wikis and blogs, are student centered which have a tremendous impact on the learning environment. As society moves further and further into a technology based society, the demand of skills placed on students entering the real world after high school is much greater than the previous generation. High school students live in an internet based culture and can navigate these technologies with even more proficiency than many of their teachers. This puts a new demand on the teachers of high school students. In order to move forward with technology and our society, we, teachers and administrators, need to look at how the Web 2.0 movements and its technologies affect and improve student learning. As many educators know, the purchasing of textbooks, at an average cost of $70.00, and the task of producing large quantities of handouts has become increasingly more expensive and puts an added strain on today’s already tight school budget. The high costs put school districts at both a disadvantage and a moment of opportunity. Today’s high school student is far more in touch with technology than any student in the past, but unfortunately at this point in time, we are not utilizing all of the students’ known technological skills to help them in their education. The underutilization of the students, known skill set is what puts us at a potential turning point in educating our students. We have the unique opportunity to use the Web 2.0 movement to make information more accessible for students as well as reducing spending in paper, copy machines and textbooks. In essence, the use of these Web 2.0 tools is a win for all stakeholders - students, faculty and parents. The first application that is proposed to integrate into the classroom is the wiki. A wiki is a web based interactive collection of information and pages. By using a wiki in the classroom, a teacher can upload information that they would normally place in presentations and on handouts. In this aspect the classroom wiki would be similar to what many teachers use Edline for. The difference is that there is a yearly fee associated with Edline and many wiki applications, such as Wikispaces and Wetpaint are free. With these wiki sites, a teacher may post information, video, presentations or place links to other sites as needed. The student would now be allowed access to information at anytime they need it and without the use of paper or texts. An excellent example of a wiki from New York University is Tim Frederick’s ELA page. This can be viewed at [|http://timFrederick.pbwiki.com]. Each teacher will have the freedom to design their wiki pages to fit the layout that they deem necessary, something that is not possible on many in-house applications. The major advantage will be the student interaction that happens. Students will be allowed the ability to edit and develop information pages on the class topics. Students will then be allowed to add information and ideas that will benefit that year’s class as well as future classes. They can create examples from their own perspective and add information and links from sites that they may have come across in their own research. A correctly used and directed wiki will foster student collaboration as they will be able to edit and improve each other’s work. The wiki will also develop a sense of ownership for students, since the student will be the ones creating the information on the student pages. In many cases, students would also be able to see data and pictures from past classes projects, thus allowing to see multiple models and benchmarks. The second application that is proposed to integrate into the classroom is the weblog, or blog. Blogging in its most simple form is writing one’s thoughts down and placing them in an online forum for all to see. As students in this graduate class, we have been exposed to extensive blogging since much of the classroom communication is done in this manner. This form of communications has been extremely effective. It allows students to post their thoughts and other students then have the opportunity to think and add comments on the subject matter. For the purposes of the high school we suggest the use of [|www.blogger.com]. Blogger.com is a free service that is provided by Google. If a high school student were working on a project, they could make note of their progress on the Google service. Other students could comment and add their thoughts to the previous student’s blog entry. The teacher may also check the blog and add their thoughts as well. This process would allow students to draw on the knowledge of others and improve on their projects in a forum that will go beyond the standard classroom discussion. The blog, which will be only open to the participants in the class, will help develop writing skills and personal accountability as the student will be solely responsible for their entries. Their responses and input will be authentic and will help them use a familiar application in a different manner. Lastly, it will help develop peer responsibility as the class will help to ensure that appropriate material is used. We would also like to mention that besides teaching the technological aspect of these applications we would be teaching our students about “digital citizenship”. Just as students have learned about proper formatting and citing for traditional research projects, students would also be taught about correct forms of attribution through open source materials including how to identify work that is available through a creative commons license rather than a traditional copyright. If a student is on the web then they should know the correct way to navigate and utilize the very tool they “think” they understand so completely. The use of these applications and technology will need to be a complete cooperative effort between staff, administration and technology directors. As teachers, we currently do not have a clearly defined acceptable use policy for these applications. This policy will be a must for the implementation of these applications. We will need clear rules about what sites can be opened to students and how much access would be available to these students. This would include a process in which teachers would be able to pre – select sites that they would like to use. For example, there are three excellent wiki sites: Wikispaces, Wetpaint and PBWiki. All sites would fit the need of the school, but choosing a single site would make for a smooth transition into this technology. It would also be important that the teachers using these applications will have the ability to select the students that will need access. This would alleviate outside and unknown users from entering the sites and posting inappropriate materials. One final potential issue that may sidetrack this proposal is the lack of understanding by the IT department regarding the needs of the district’s teachers. If we want our technology to work we will need our teachers to have immediate and consistent support.  In an attempt to alleviate some of the obstacles above it is important that there be the creation of a team of five staff members. This team should include both an administrator and the network director. The immediate goal is to develop an acceptable use policy, and set a procedure for pre – selecting teacher desired websites and a contract that the students will sign. The use of a service, such as [|www.Schooldude.com], will help record and prioritize technology related issues. A service such as this will help to alleviate the current confusion over school technology issues. This service will prioritize technology issues and will alleviate the confusion of response times from the current support e-mail. Lastly, attached is a sample letter that could be sent home with the students to keep their parents informed about the legitimacy as well as the intent of such applications. This letter is a first draft and will require editing before it is implemented.  The short term goals are to test and pilot the use of blogs and wikis in both the Art Department and the Engineering and Technology Department. Piloting on a small scale would allow us to work out any technology and user issues. In the long-term, this can become a developing knowledge base that would allow teachers to input and share material over the course of their career. This knowledge base would be in a completely shared environment and teachers will then have a virtual textbook of information for the use of the students and school staff. The larger the number of people using the applications, the larger the amount of shared materials. Teachers will have access to their peer’s materials, such as graphic organizers, common tasks, presentations and handouts. The students will have the ability to research materials from their classes and be directed from their peers by the use of blogs and wikis. The students will be able to pull from the knowledge base as they work on projects and will be able to add to this base as they progress through high school. In the future, there will be valuable information for the senior exhibition as well as information from digital portfolio. Students will be able to view and learn from previous exhibitions and the student may also have to complete a wiki page on their learning stretch. This would eventually develop into an in house Wikipedia for the information. Lastly, students who are not in the classroom for any given reason will now have a resource that they can use to view materials that they missed. Presentations, testing, data, handouts and lessons will all be available so that the student will not be as far behind.  There are various resources that we would like to present as informational sources so that you may examine these applications. The first place that you may wish to visit is Will Richardson’s student and professional blogs at [|www.weblogg-ed.com]. He is a pioneer in the field and provides extensive information on his site. This site also includes recommendations for choosing content management tools, something that will need to be solved when these applications are implemented. For more blogging examples, you may visit the site [|www.Edublogs.com]. There is an array of blogs from all grade levels. In the area of wikis, there is a multitude of examples on http://educatiuonalwikis.wikispaces.com. One example in particular is from Chris Bergmann, a science teacher at Kinard Junior High School in Colorado. This site can be found at http://bergmannscience.wikispaces.com. You may also visit the developing AP Studio Art site at [|www.studiostudents.wetpaint.com]. It is a site that is basic and shows what a wiki can be used for in schools. We feel strongly that if you visit a few of the links we have offered and allow us the opportunity to share with you the success we could have over the next year, that you will have no doubt about the positive implications these resources might have at a school wide level.  Sincerely,  <span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">Nicole Lloyd and Greg Gongoleski <span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';"> <span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';"> = ART and TECHNOLOGY  = **<span style="font-size: 26pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Optima ExtraBlack'; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Wiki Warranty **<span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Optima ExtraBlack'; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"> The members of AP/Honors Studio Art at //Ponaganset High School// will be participating in a class wiki for the purposes of: ·  Responding to and commenting on curriculum topics as we study them ·  Creating written projects/ media projects and commenting on each other’s work ·  Encouraging process writing ·  Practicing persuasive writing ·  Reviewing and sharing study strategies before tests and quizzes ·  Creative writing ·  Practicing taking varied points of view on a topic ·  Sharing classroom events with families ·  Sharing special projects, such as   ·   Discussing current events ·  Making classroom suggestions ·  Creating an online portfolio to help them in future artistic endeavors ·  Creating FAQ pages on curriculum topics ·  Developing a sense of ownership in technology based projects ·  Developing a larger knowledge base ·  This wiki will be created using a wiki tool at www.studiostudents.wetpaint.com//.// ·  In the interest of students’ safety, the following restrictions have been configured on the wiki: //(keep the ones that apply; delete others)// ·  Only the teacher can enter registrations ·  Only students, parents, and staff members with a related interest to this class are allowed to add to or edit the wiki. ·  Only registered members can see the wiki ·  All wiki content is subject to teacher approval and/or deletion. ·  The teacher will be notified of any edits to the wiki. ·  All wiki content will be removed from public view after the school year _ __has ended.__ ·  No individual or identifiable profiles are available on the wiki Terms and Conditions ·  All students and participants in this wiki project must agree to the terms and conditions of this agreement. ·  No student may edit or delete the work of another without including a written explanation for the changes (with initials or pseudonym signature) in the Discussion area for that page. ·  The teacher, (name here), will make every reasonable effort to monitor conduct on the class wiki in order to maintain a positive learning community. All participants will respect the each other’s time and efforts by supporting the same positive approach. ·  No student or other participant may include any information or images on the site that could compromise the safety of him / her or other wiki members. Avoid specific comments about our location or schedules, if they would be visible to outsiders. ·  All participants will be respectful in their postings and edits. No trash-talk, inappropriate language, personal insults, profanity, spam, racist, sexist or discriminatory remarks, or threatening comments will be tolerated. ·  No student or other participant may post, comment, or change settings on the site in violation of these terms and conditions. ·  All participants must protect their log-in and password information, as well as class passwords (if any). If participants suspect that a password has been compromised, he/she must notify the teacher immediately. ·  No participant may share his/her log-in information or protected information about the site with anyone who is not a participant. This includes adding trackbacks or other means by which outsiders can access the site without permission. ·  Any participant who is aware of violations of this agreement by others must report these violations to the teacher immediately both verbally and in writing (email or note). ·  All use of the wiki must be in accordance with the school’s Acceptable Use Policy, including entries made from computers outside of school. ·  Un - cited use of copyrighted material in wiki postings, files, or comments will be deemed as plagiarism and punished accordingly. ·  No posting or edit may facilitate or promote illegal activity, either overtly or by implication. ·  No student may edit or delete the work of another without including a written explanation for the changes in the Discussion area for that page. Any violation of the above terms and conditions shall make the violator subject to both immediate terminations from the wiki, **with all related sacrifice of points toward grades** and to discipline through the school code of conduct, where applicable. At the teacher’s discretion, a warning may be given in the case of minor infractions. We should make this match the school rules on plagiarism etc… I agree to the terms and conditions of the class wiki for (name of class here) for the 2009-2010 school year and permit my student to participate in the wiki project. __ Student signature Date Parent signature Date Name: Email address: Name of student: Relationship to student:
 * __ Purpose of the wiki __**
 * __ Safety __**
 * Consequences of violating the Warranty **
 * Signatures **
 * Parent membership **
 * I wish to be a registered member of the class wiki. Please add me to the rolls: **
 * PRINT CLEARLY! **