ETEC 699- 1

In what has seemed forever, I finally find myself in ETEC 699. Unfortunately, I know at this point that completion of my project and everything that goes with it to graduate will carry over into the Spring.

I am submitting my very optimistic timeline. My wife and I are expecting our third child in a week, so I am making this timeline hoping the baby sleeps 18 hours a day!

I spent much of last quarter going through the IRB hoops. I'm listing that as one of my first goals to wrap up and get final approval.

January 19th - Submit ambitious timeline

January 26th - Hopefully receive IRB Approval/ Video and Picture Collection Wrap up

February 2nd -

February 9th - Finish DVD Project/ Alpha Test - parents and teachers

February 16th - Chapter 2 - Literature Review

February 23rd - Chapter 1 - Background; Abstract, Acknowledgements, Dedication

March 2nd - Chapter 3 - Project Design; Chapter 4- Conclusion

March 9th - Whatever I didn't finish!

ETEC 692

Design and Development

ETEC 544 - Flint and Steel Video

Task Analysis for Flint and Steel

Task Outcome: I used the flint rock and a steel screwdriver to attempt to light the cloth and start a small fire using dry grass from my backyard. I was finally able to get a spark that lit the char cloth. I them put the char cloth under some dry grass I collected from my backyard.

Materials and Conditions: Flint rock, old rusty steel screwdriver, char cloth, dry grass, patience.

I watched the videos provided, as well as an episode of SurvivorMan, for some tips. I also checked out these sites : http://members.aye.net/~bspen/fire.html

http://www.ragweedforge.com/striking.html

Steps: 1. I took my flint and tested about 20 different screwdrivers and other “steel” tools I had in my garage. This was the biggest challenge for me. I finally found an old screwdriver that did produce a spark.

2. I placed the char cloth on top of the flint in order to catch a spark. The challenge here was avoiding hitting your thumb and finger that was holding the flint. I did not avoid this!

3. Once I finally got a spark to catch the char cloth, I blew on it very slowly and placed it under the dry grass, where I blew into the grass. It started smoking and then burst into a flame.

I hadn’t attempted this since my days in the Boy Scouts. I think I had a lot more patience then!

ETEC 644 - Pre-Thesis, Presentation DVD, Storyboard

Master’s Proposal

Scott Neuscheler

Introduction

Schools today face an increasing pressure on improving test scores and reaching NCLB requirements. Without the complete dedication of the students, teachers, administration, and the parents, our schools will continue to fail.

Research has long showed that parents’ positive involvement with their children’s schooling is related to many positive outcomes.” (Horowitz and Bronte-Tinkew 2007) Getting the parents to come to school and to stay involved in their child’s education is a challenge for a lot of schools, including my current school.

This project will develop a DVD presentation introducing the schools’ staff, building, educational programs, extra curricular programs, and opportunities for parents to get help and be involved.

Literature Review

Three areas of literature that will inform this investigation are Parent Involvement, Parent Barriers, and Home-School communication.

Method

The analysis phase of this project will use parent and teacher surveys and focus groups. The focus groups will consist of a parents’ group, The MODEL team, administrators, and support staff. Using these groups will help determine the necessary components of the introduction video.

The initial design of the project will be a storyboard layout highlighting each scene and the sequence of topics. Research collected in Chapter 2 will aide in developing effective messages to parents and student. The alpha test will be the Powerpoint storyboard and will focus on proper content and flow of the video. The information gathered will then be transferred to a video format. The initial video presentation will be alpha tested at a Back to School night. A survey will be passed out to parents and the data will be analyzed. The Beta test will be then shown to teachers and administration, followed by a final test to the parents at a School Site Council meeting.

The final project will be a burned DVD made on iMovie with a copy made for each family currently enrolled at Riley and any future families new to the school.

The evaluation phase will focus on parent involvement. This will focus on an increase in attendance at parent-teacher conferences, Back to School Nights, School Site Council Meetings, parent classes, and general school functions. With an increase in Parent Involvement, the project hopes to ultimately see improved test scores at the school.

Conclusion

This project will seek to develop an introduction video for parents of Riley Elementary School students. With the majority of families being Hispanic, this video will help introduce the parents to the school and make Riley feel more welcoming to them. This video will supplement current written introductions and will be produced in English, Spanish, and Samoan.

The project will use the ADDIE instructional design model and will be completed by September 2010.

I understand, affirm and agree that it is my responsibility to transfer my completed thesis to my first reader no later than 60 days prior to the format review deadline as established by Graduate Studies in order to avoid delays which might lead to my missing the format review deadline.

Foundation

ETEC 603 - journal (not going to publish due to privacy issues)

ETEC 605 - Project Oral Presenation

Identified Needs

A. Improve test scores and student performance

1. Increase Parental Involvement in Riley Elementary School

2. Research has shown that when parents are more involved in their student’s education:

· Students get higher grades, better attendance, higher graduation rates, decrease in negative behaviors, and increase in positive attitudes

· Schools get an increase in teacher morale, better school reputation, and better performance of school programs

· Parents get a better connection to their children and increase in support and services to the family.

3. It also shows that parents are willing to help, but lack the knowledge how to help, or are afraid or intimidated by the school itself.

Goal

A. What is the goal of the project-

· Replace the parent handbook – parents don’t read

· To increase parent involvement and parent understanding of the school.

· Get more parents to attend meetings and ESL classes

· Better conference participation

· Educate parents on how to help their children at home

· Actual Goal: IS to create a DVD presentation video of Riley Elementary School introducing all parents and students to the school, ways for parents to get involved, and as a welcoming invite to the school. Looking for a grant to pay for 800 or more copies.

Objectives, Strategies, and Measures (explain strategies)

· To research parent involvement

· To develop questionairres and surveys for parents, teachers, and administration seeking input and data on what should be included on the video.

· Storyboard the video

· Shoot video

· Edit and put in presentation form

· Present to staff – alpha test

· Present to SSC (parents) – alpha test

· Make copies for all families.

Measures

· Received feedback from staff and parents about what they want to include and what they want to know more about the school

· Alpha Test Focus Groups

· Beta Test Focus Groups

RResearch

ETEC 543 - Data Collection, Lit Review, Action research

Final Research Report: Important components that would be relevant on a school introductory DVD to help promote and improve parent participation

Scott Neuscheler

ETEC 543 Fall 2009

Dr. Baek

Table of Contents

Literature Review …………………………………Pg. 3

Research Topic ……………………………………Pg. 6

Hypothesis …………………………………………Pg. 6

Rationale for Relevance ……………………….…..Pg. 6

Rationale for Interest ……………………………...Pg. 7

Population Served …………………………………Pg. 7

Research Design …………………………………..Pg. 8

Data Analyzation ………………………….………Pg. 8

Survey/ Focus Group ……………………………..Pg. 9

Plans for Further Analysis ………………………..Pg. 11

Instruments of Collection …………………….…..Pg. 12

Conclusion ………………………………………..Pg. 12

Appendix ………………………………………….Pg. 13

References ………………………………………..Pg. 17

Literature Review

Introduction

This literature review was originally divided into two parts: Part 1 was a review of parental involvement in children’s elementary school experience. It also discusses how parental involvement improves students’ success in school, and whether socio-economic status has an effect on involvement. Part 2 explores potential technological answers to help increase parent involvement. For this action research report, only the technology portion is included.

Technology to Increase Parent Involvement

School leaders generally agree that improvement in communication methods would enhance the relationships between the school and home, thus helping parental involvement. Ramirez states that one of the widest forms of communication today is the internet (pg. 67). However, schools cannot assume that students have access at home, especially in a low-socio economic setting. Technology and Parental Involvement discusses the importance of knowing your school’s population and technological availability. Surveys and parent questionnaires can be a great way to obtain this information.

Parents show the desire to help their children, but many times lack the ability or tools to help. As Hughes and Greenbough stated (pg 474), they talk about sending home learning lessons that have been taped in classrooms to model to the parents on how to effectively teach their children. It shows actual video from the classroom so parents can see their students learning.

Another home-school technology was discussed in the article by Clark (pg no.), discusses texting messages to parents in a school service called In-Line. Parent would be kept aware of their child was absent, and could also be reminded about parent meetings and conferences. With more student homes having cell phones than home phones, this would be a technology that could be taken advantage of by inner city schools.

One of the first experiences parents have with their child’s school is Back to School Night. The parents that attend these meetings are usually not the one’s that need to attend. The challenge for my school is reaching the parents that wouldn’t have normal communication with the school. For years, our district has sent home a Parent Compact that would explain the rules of the district, the school, and ways to help your child at home. We asked the parents to read it, sign it, and send it back. For many parents, that never received this or would sign it without reading it. Clevensen discusses video as a way to enhance relationships between schools and families (pg. 158). Being able to introduce the rules of the school, the staff, and parent volunteers would be a way to open up the school to normal shy, unwilling parents. The video would give an overview of the policies and curriculum, as well as an introduction to daily school life. Clevensen (pg. 156) suggests that creating school videos would help send messages to their parents to help their students. Since some families have problems with literacy themselves, would be an ideal vehicle to send the school’s message home. The author continues to discuss how video would be an ideal goal of the Virginia Middle School and how they wanted to use television as a way to increase information received by the parents of the school. In my research at school, I found that 98% of our student’s homes had a DVD player, while only 48% had Internet access. Utilizing the technology that is already possessed in inner city neighborhoods is important. In using video, the language of delivery can be changed to meet the needs of the school. Parents would not have to be literate in the schools home language to understand the expectations from their school.

Lit Review Summary

No one can argue that parental involvement is an important ring in the ladder of school success for children. Using technology to increase this is just now starting to evolve. Improving home – school communication seems to be the best way to use technology to increase this. Creating a video that parents can watch with their children is a great way to introduce the message the school is trying to communicate.

Research Topic:

What important components would parents, staff, students, and administrators want to include in a presentation DVD focused on increasing parent involvement and increasing familiarity with the school.

Hypothesis:

Teachers would want a way to introduce parents to the school rules, curriculum, and ways to help their students with homework.

Parents would want more information about programs to help their children, social programs to help their families, and ways to get more involved in the school.

Administrators would want a comprehensive overview of programs offered for students and parents. They would also want the school’s discipline program introduced and staff introduction.

Rationale for Relevance:

With ever increasing pressure on school performances on standardized tests, schools have been looking for anyway to increase test scores. One of these ways is to facilitate a more prominent role of parents in their children’s education. As recommended by Dr. Ruby Payne, creating a video about the school can increase parental involvement. This research topic further looks into what aspects about the school that parents need to know more about and what teachers and staff feel parents should know more about.

Rationale for Interest:

Every year, our school struggles to get parents involved in their student’s education. There is a lack of participation in conferences, field trips, on-site parent meetings, and ESL classes. My hypothesis for this is that most parents are uninformed or our intimidated by the school to show up. At the beginning of every year, the schools send home a parent handbook. This handbook can be very daunting to read through and can be quite intimidating for second language learners. I would like to put all of this information that is vital for parents into a DVD format and create a fun, educational, and welcoming DVD to our school. Calabreses wrote about a principal who took a suggestion from Dr. Ruby Payne, and used video to enhance its relationships with their parents by using a school video. (Pg. 156)

Population Served:

The population that the research covered included parents and students of Riley Elementary School, as well as the staff and administrators. The demographic breakdown of the parent and student population was 80% Hispanic, 13% African-American, 4% Samoan, and 3% other.

Research Design:

My research design used a qualitative approach. The ethnography focused on site-based observations of the school, parents, and students. Interviews and focus groups were a key method for obtaining information. Calabreses stated that one of the initial steps was to have the support and enthusiasm of the entire staff (pg. 156).

Instruments used for data collection will include interviews and surveys. I had different surveys for students, parents, and staff. (See appendix) These questions will help form the layout of the presentation DVD by asking what important aspects of the school they would want explained on the DVD.

Data Analyzation:

In analyzing my initial data, I concluded that using a DVD format would be more useful than a web based school information site. 98% of our student’s homes contained a DVD player, while only 45% had Internet.

I used open-ended interview questions as a guide to see what should be included in the presentation DVD to ultimately recruit more parents to get involved with the school.

I met with focus groups consisting of our EL parents, teachers, administrators, after school program leader, MODEL program committee, and students to ask for input on what is important to include in the video.

Survey/ Focus Group Analysis:

My first attempt and getting data from parents was to pass out surveys. Out of 50 passed out, I only received 4 back. So I decided I needed to corral parents that were at our school and to hold a quick focus group. Three important points were discovered during these focus groups and surveys. There is a graph included at the end of this section.

Parents

1. 85% of the parents wanted to help their students with homework and reading, but lacked the basic knowledge as to how to help them.

2. 77 % of the parents wanted help with social programs. (I.e. glasses for students, help with food, how to change a child’s last name, and flu shots were mentioned more than once.)

3. 58% of the parents didn’t know about our parent classes and School Site Council, where parent’s help decides on school issues.

Teachers

Teachers had a very positive reaction to the research topic and seemed very excited to give their opinion. Some points from the data include:

1. Almost 90% of the teachers surveyed and interviewed mentioned promoting the MODEL program. As one teacher said, “The MODEL program has been instrumental in turning the overall culture of the school around. These comments included: (personal communication, November 12, 2009)

“We spend less time disciplining and more time teaching.”

“I love MODEL. I remind my student’s everyday to “be nice”. I’d tell the world that Riley really cares about the students.”

2. Another common theme was expressed in the desire for the video to show how proud the staff is of the school and how much they love their students. These comments included: (personal communication, November 15, 2009)

“Riley staff is committed to help students beyond academic needs.”

“How hard the staff works to meet the children’s academic needs.”

“We have created a school that is trying everything they can to improve the future of their students.”

Administration

The administrators reiterated many of the things that the parents and teachers mentioned. They had a few things that they thought would help the parents.

1. 100% of the three administrators interviewed wanted the video to introduce all the programs offered at the school. These included curriculum, intervention programs, before and after school programs, tutoring, college promotion program, MODEL, and parent classes.

2. They also felt the video should replace the parent handbook that goes out every year to parents, but feel most parents do not read the handbook.

“It is our duty to make sure all parents have access to the information provided by the school. A video would be a fun and entertaining thing that parents can watch with their children.” (personal communication, Nov. 12, 2009)

Plans for Further Analysis

At this point and for the class requirements, I think I have collected enough data to help me guide my action research. Further down the line, I will be conducting numerous alpha tests starting at the storyboard stage of the video and concluding with a beta test to the School Site Council.

Instruments of Collection (see appendix)

Teacher Surveys – surveys were passed out at a staff meeting and during committee meetings. Follow up questions were asked as open discussion took place.

Administration Interviews – The survey was used, but this was a chance to interview each administrator one on one.

Parent surveys- Surveys were given to students to take home, and surveys were handed directly to parents at the school and asked to fill out. Follow up questions were needed to entice more appropriate responses.

Conclusion

After collecting my qualitative data through surveys and interviews with parents, staff, and administration, I was able to learn a lot about what needs to be included in a presentation DVD focusing on parent participation. In the future, the survey questions need to be less open-ended. Many parents did not fill them out to completion. The questions were great when there were follow up question to be asked in the focus groups. However, parents needed the answers prodded out of them. The following graphs show the common needs for parents and staff.

As you can see from the graphs, there was one main points brought out by both parents and staff. Both groups wanted ways that parents can help their students with homework highlighted. Parents commented that they want to help their students, but aren’t sure how to help, because they lacked the knowledge of some of the skills. The other theme that both groups brought up had to do with school programs offered. There was a wide range of what programs should be highlighted, but some of these included the MODEL program, ESL parent classes, and the after school program (CAPS). From the data, you can see that parents and teachers have differing ideas of what is important. Through participation, the video hopes to close the gap. I was surprised that the majority of teacher responses wanted someway to get across on the video how hard the staff works and how much they care for their students. One of the challenges of the video will be how to get this message across. I wasn’t too surprised with the lack of surveys I received back from parents. I handed out about 50 to kids and told them if they returned them, they would get a prize. Only five surveys were returned. I then solicitated parents who would come to the school, but realizing this, these are not the parents we need to target with the video, it’s the parents who don’t visit the school. Another trend brought out by the staff was a simple introduction for parents on grade level standards. Teachers felt many parents are unaware exactly the grade level requirements for each grade. I believe that giving the parents a basic idea of what is expected would help their students succeed.

I saw a need for more focused survey questions. In the future, yes/ no questions would be more suitable for survey questions, while the open ended would continue to be sufficient for focus groups and interviews.

I came away from the research project very excited to start production on the video. I have a renewed sense of pride in the school and see this as a definite need for our school. As outlined in the timeline below, I hope to have a storyboard model that can be presented to the teachers and parents separately. I would then like to meet with separate focus groups to hear about what they liked and what they didn’t. This would be considered the first alpha test. I hope by having a physical model for the parents to view, they would be more forthcoming with suggestions and questions.

Parent Participation Questionnaire

1. Did you read the parent handbook handed out at the beginning of the year? If no, why not?

2. Do you attend School Site Council/ ELAC meetings? If no, why not?

3. Do you attend the Parent classes? If no, why not?

4. Do you attend awards assemblies? If no, why not?

5. Does your student(s) participate in CAPS/Sunrise? If no, why not?

6. Do you feel that the school shares information with you? Explain.

7. Are there any other comments you would like to make concerning Riley Elementary School?

If your child returns this to the office, they will receive 50 Bear Bucks. You do not have to include your name.

Parent Involvement Survey - Administration

1. What is the most important thing you would like parents to know about the school?

2. In addition to providing the basic needs for their children, what role should parents have in their child’s education?

3. What are you most proud about Riley? What do you want to tell the world about our school?

4. What information about the school do you feel parents know very little about?

5. Is there anything else that you think we should put on a video presentation introducing our school to students and parents?

References

Calabreses, Nicki. (2006) “Video technology; a vehicle for educators to enhance relationships with families.” Education, 127(1), pgs.155-160

Clevenson, Rhonda. (1999) “Picture-Perfect Communication.” Educational Leadership, February, pgs 66-68,

Gonzalez-DeHass, A. R., Willems, P. P., & Holbein, M. F. D. (2005) Examining the relationship between parental involvement and student motivation. Educational Psychology Review, 17(2), 99-123

Greenhough, Pamela and Hughes, Martin. (2006) “Boxes, bags and videotape: enhancing home-school communication through knowledge exchange activities”. Educational Review, 58(4), pgs 471-487

Padgett, R. (2006). Best ways to involve parents. Education Digest: Essential Readings Condensed for Quick Review, 72(3), 44-45

Tobolka, Darby. (2006) “Connecting teachers and parents through the internet”. Tech Directions, 66(5), p24-26

TEchnology Skills

ETEC 500 - web page index, quick writes

Maintaining Student Engagement and Motivation

Maintaining Student Engagement and Motivation

Some very interesting points brought out by Dr. Newberry on our Talkshoe session the other day. Having taken a few classes from Dr. Newberry, I can now understand his thinking when laying out his on-line classes. Probably the best resource we have for designing our own is from the classes we have taken from him.

It is nice seeing the course outline right away on blackboard. I appreciate how each class is given an assignment and an objective and we know going into the assignment, what our expectations are. The orientation at the beginning is a must for laying out the course objectives, expectations, and to ensure that all students are logging in right away to the course material.

I have found in the past that I am reluctant to initiate communication with a professor, but by sending the emails to us on a weekly basis, Dr. Newberry is eliminating the awkwardness of it. I look forward to the weekly emails. They are a great motivator and a reminder. Taking on-line classes, I find I can get a little off task during a busy, hectic week (Even as I am typing this in an Auckland Hotel lobby)

The Social presence created by a simple greeting with each students name gives the class a more personal feel, even though there is never, or rarely any face to face communication. (Where was the pizza meeting?)

I hope to model my future project on the examples that Dr. Newberry has presented to us over the past semesters. The presentation made me reflect on all the ways that we communicate and made me look deeper into why certain things are done in certain ways.

ADA Assigment

Assignment 1: Evaluate an eLearning webpage for accessibility issues.

Name of Evaluator:

Scott Neuscheler

URL of page being evaluated: http://studyonthebeach.com/csusb/classes/winter2010/etec_674_win_2010/media/eLearningADATestPage.html

Procedure: Went to the web page and read it from top to bottom. Couldn’t get past the initial shock of seeing the putrid purple font on the gray background. After using all of my visine, I then went the video and audio files. I had a pre built ADA checklist that I used as I was reading through the page.

Problems Found:

1. No captioning with the video

2. Horrible purple font.

3. No text version for audio file,

4. No keyboard navigation available

5. Used color to convey meaning

6. Font is not changeable

How to Correct Problems:

1. Pay someone to caption the video for you!

2. Change font color to a non- Red,Blue,Green. Simple Black on white background would have been appropriate.

3. Create a text version or powerpoint presentation to accompany audio file.

4. Create embedded table to use keyboard navigation of interactions and links.

5. Change matrix interaction colors to bold or italics, or change the size of the font.

6. Create in an embedded word document so font is able to be changed by the user.

Assignment 2: Planning for ADA compliance

ADA Checklist

Visual: Color Blindness

· High contrast

· Red-Green-Blue combinations

· Don’t use color to convey meaning

· Make use of a user changeable font

· Text version

Visual: Low Vision – No Vision

· High Contrast

· Make use of a user changeable font

· Navigation requirements

· Configurability – Screen Reader Compatibility

· Text Version

Seizure

· Avoid flickering images

· Avoid Animations

· Avoid optical illusions

Auditory

· Text Version

· Captioning Videos and Slide Shows with Audio

Motor – Navigability Issues, Provide:

· Keyboard Control instead of mouse

· Internal Navigation to skip through long sections

· User Configurability

Instructor Created Presentation 1: Powerpoint

In order to ensure that a Powerpoint presentation was ADA compliant, I would simply design it with my self created checklist in mind. All videos and audio sections would have to contain a text version. Font and titles would be kept basic with no flash or dash. Colors would be a simple black and white.

Instructor Presentation 2: iMovie

In order to ensure that IMovie presentation was ADA compliant, I would also follow the checklist with the main focus being on a text version. Also, the movie would need to contain captioning.

Annotated Bibliography Assignment

Bibliography #1

Citation:

Dyke, Harding, & Liddon (2008) How can online observation support the assessment and feedback, on classroom performance, to trainee teachers at a distance and in real time? Journal of Higher Education, 32(1) 37-46

Summary:

This was a qualitative study in England about the real time observations of teachers using video conferencing technology. The research looked at initial teacher training. This research looked beyond the initial training where teachers video taped their teaching and then waited for feedback from the observer.

In this study, two cameras were placed in the classroom. The observer could remotely move the cameras to gain a better understanding of what the teacher, as well as what the students were doing in all areas of the classroom.

The classroom teacher was allowed to meet with the observer before the class and after the observation. This made it more personal for the teacher and limited the anxiety of teaching to a stranger.

Review:

The study found that careful placing of cameras and having the ability to remotely control them enabled the online observer to gain the proper perspective of the classroom. This made it more real as to how an observation on the classroom would go. By not having the observer directly in the classroom also limited the distraction for the students and the classroom teacher.

The study for this method to be comparable to face to face observation. It was also concluded that this is a cost efficient way to help new teachers, as well as extend this technology to on going teacher trainings in England’s schools.

The study seemed pretty solid. While it is a long term cost effective solution, it is still time consuming in the set up of the cameras, as well as the initial cost of the cameras and on line technology.

Bibliography #2

Citation:

Pittinsky, Matthew (2005). No Teacher Left Behind. T H E Journal, 32(11) 32-34

Summary:

This article summarized the findings of the National Summit conducted by Blackboard to address the topic of online professional learning. In the summit, they discussed how elearning had transformed higher ed learning. The major challenge discussed was implementing elearning to replace traditional professional development for teachers. Problems discussed for teachers using traditional professional development were many of the same as the argument for on l ine classes versus face to face classes. Time to travel, on going support after the class ends, and maintaining teacher interaction after the session ends were reasons discussed to move to on line professional development.

Review:

The article was a reinforcement of ideas that we have discussed in class as it pertains of on line classes versus face to face classes. With teachers having a 50% attrition rate after 3 years, districts are challenged in finding new ways to reach out too their teachers to support them in the classroom. The article highlights a few districts in their attempt to help teachers learn Spanish, create supported on line communities for teachers, and general on line classes for teachers.

The article is a good, basic summary of the necessary arguments that districts discuss when implementing professional development. While a bit elementary for a graduate program, it would be a good tool to deliver to teachers who don’t fully understand the importance and the advantages of elearning and professional devekoplment.

Bibliography #3

Citation:

Poftak, Amy (2007). Best of 2007. Technology and Learning, 28(5) 12-30.

Summary:

As a student who is still learning all the technologies out there, I found this article the most interesting. It was a summary of Technologies and Learning Best of 2007. The article covers the awards for a broad range of software and learning modules, picture dictionaries, library management, multimedia creation studios, on line communication and collaboration , and other categories. Criteria used to judge each product included if the program was a groundbreaker, pedagogically sound, crucial solution, user-friendly, and innovative.

A trend newly discovered in the review was a focus on teaching core skills in a self paced on line environment with a goal of showing measurable student growth and software solutions for managing and monitoring classroom computers.

Review:

Top Winner – Acheve3000 – We use this program at our school. It is a web based literacy program focusing on student growth in the core programs of elementary school. It focuses on the management aspect of the students and being able to track their growth and time on the system.

Other winners were WritetoLearn 3, Discovery Education, Brainpop, and Leapfrog Schoolhouse.

The multimedia winner was Adobe Creative Suite 3 Web Premium version. It is a do it all web design and development suite.

I found this article helpful to me, the novice technology user, and thought it would help schools looking to guide them in software purchases and use. While the article isn’t really research of any kind, it is a good starting point for software investigation.

Bibliography #4

Citation:

Eroz-Tuga & Sadler (2009). Comparing six video chat tools: A critical evaluation by language teachers. Computers & Education, 53, pgs. 787 - 798

Summary:

This qualitative study discusses the evaluation and examination of six video chat tools. Two classes of graduate students conducted the study. One school was a large Midwestern United States school and the other a school in Ankara, Turkey. One student from the US paired up with a student from Turkey. The students are all current or future language teachers. The reason for the research was to investigate more advanced forms of CMC (computer-mediated communication). The focus of the project was to evaluate the technical aspects of the popular video chat programs to determine the practicality of personal and professional use. The study will be used as guidance for language teachers who wish to incorporate the technology in their classrooms.

The six video tools that were investigated were CUworld, ICQ, MSN Messenger, Paltalk, Skype, and Yahoo Messenger. They picked these six because of their popularity and availability to the public. The study first compared the audio and video capabilities (multi part, 1-1, and half/full – duplex) The students were then asked to discuss technology lessons using the six different video chats, but weren’t allowed to comment on the actual CMC.

The study ranked the 6 into 3 groups, bottom third, middle third, and top third. They ranked them on video and audio quality, community oriented category, and user friendliness. Skype and MSN Messenger ranked at the top for audio and video chat, but both tools lacked an integrated community component.

The overall rankings were broken onto two groups, personal use, and language learning with Paltalk scoring the worst for both and MSN Messenger scoring the best for both. Skype was ranked second for both.

Review:

I thought this study was very well organized and worth reading for anyone in the CMC field. The study’s strength lies in the different chat providers they used and tested. Having people from two different countries was a good way to differentiate the demographics. Another key point was that the students were not allowed to talk about the features of the actual video chats as to persuade the other student one way or the other.

Overall, it is well worth reading. The study recommended MSN Messenger and Skype over the others for both personal use and language learning.

Bibliography #5

Citation:

Whelan, Robert (2008). Use of ICT in education in the South Pacific: findings of the Pacific eLearning Observatory. Distance Education, 29(1), 53-70

Summary:

This was a qualitative study conducted in an online survey to assess levels of access to information and communication technologies in eductaion and to identify ways of lowering the barriers in the Pacific region. The importance for distance learning in the South Pacific is extreme, due to the large area that the University of the South Pacific serves. With the large increase of on line users in the past decade, distance learning has become a real importance to the region. The article discusses the use of the universities private satellite based telecommunications and ICT infrastructure, USPNet. It has had to triple its bandwidth of the last decade to accommodate the rising need.

The survey participants were policy makers, educators, and experts information technology. The “feedback” tool used to collect the data was Moodle. The survey addressed eight araes: demographics of the respondents, perceptions of ICT (information and communication technologies) in education and teaching practices, ICT access and school networking estimates, role of ICT in curriculum, current ICT initatives for education, strategies for the development and deployment, and current needs and challenges for development.

Review:

The article was focused on lowering the barriers to ICT in the South Pacific, but the research had external validity (thank you EDUC 607) in it’s findings. Some of the key finidings to tahe research were:

· Review lecturer workloads resulting from an increase in use of ICT’s.

· Provide an introduction and orientation for rural students mot in need of ICT.

· Study student behaviors online to develop models of effective practices.

· Design and test innovative ICT-based language learning resources to improve students’ academic and communication skills

On line learning is a challenge in all areas of the world, and it seems that they all have the same challenges. This study probably could have been conducted in Montana or upper Canada with close to the same results.

Session 6 Grading, Assessment, and Evaluation

My Read 180 classes just completed reading Bud, Not Buddy so I created a quiz using quizstar and created a 4 point rubric to go with the essay question. I thought quizstar was ok, I have used other test creators, including the one imbedded in our program, and found tht easier to use than quizstar.

Found the discussion on plagarism and essay writing essay. I wasn't aware of the severity of the problem in High School and college. I think rubrics are the closest thing to "perfect' we can get. In elementary school, rubrics are a great way to pre teach the expectations of the writing assignment. It gives the students a guide as to what you are expecting them to write about, and lets them focus their writing on the points.

I'm curious to hear Dr. Newberry's reasons for not liking turnitin.