Donna Holinga

Lincoln School

Springfield, Illinois

I have learned to become quite comfortable using Claris Home Page 3.0. While I had used it before with my students, I had depended on a technology facilitator to upload web pages for me and to help me whenever I had a problem. I feel that I have used it enough in this class to solve most of problems I might encounter when using it with students. This additional comfort level has allowed me to realize that I can have an entire class of students contribute to a web page. In the past I have confined the activity of creating the page to a small expert group of students. I have also gained additional comfort with Power Point, HyperStudio, and using the Internet, in general. I have learned how to use QuickTime VR Authoring Studio and I feel with additional practice I will be ready to have students make panoramas by the time we need them for our third quarter final project. I still would like to learn more about putting QuickTime movies into HyperStudio, putting the panoramas we make into a web page and using a CD Rom burner to archive student projects. The one we have in our district can be used to add projects as they become available; this seems to me to be the way to start a technology portfolio for students which can then be sent on with them or given to parents.

I probably have learned the most in the area of communications. While I have used the Internet for research purposes and I have used email to communicate with colleagues and family members and to find projects in which my students could become involved , my use of other communication technology has been limited. I am fascinated with Web Board, and the interaction offered by list serves such as EdTech. I found the office hours on Web Board helpful, and the sharing of ideas with classmates extremely interesting. For personal use I intend to continue monitoring Ed Tech, in addition to the HILITES list serv to which I also subscribe. As far as the use of a Web Board or an interactive list serv in the classroom, my first thoughts for the use of a Web Board are of increased communications with parents, and a way to answer questions about homework for students. While I do not have any clear objectives for the use of these two tools, I feel that knowing what is possible often helps spawn a good idea.

I have used the multimedia programs KidPix Slide Show and HyperStudio with students in the past. Students have used the FlexCam, a QuickTake 200 camera, and/or Flash It to add pictures to their projects and they have added their own sound. My list of goals for this coming school year include: having my students use PowerPoint, putting a QuickTime movie into Hyperstudio, Power Point, and/or a web page, and putting a HyperStudio Stack into a web page. Since taking this class I know all of this is possible. I would also like to update the PowerPoint presentation my team does for Meet the Teacher Night with a QuickTime movie of how students actually learn in our classrooms.

Using the Internet for research and creating web pages opens up several areas of which teachers must consider and become pro-active. These areas are special needs, legalities, and computer ethics.

In the area of special needs I have learned about the programs, Bobby and Tom, which check to insure that web pages are user friendly for disabled individuals. When designing a web page one should remember to keep the design simple, well organized, with neutral backgrounds, limited use of tables, few graphics and the text should in short sentences. The application for personal use and classroom use is to keep in mind that disabled individuals use the Internet, therefore, the web pages should be as easy for them to use as possible. The challenge will be to make web pages user friendly for disabled persons without stifling student creativity; students who know about the "glitz and glamour" of web page making want to use these items often on their web pages, however, this tends to make the web pages difficult for disabled persons to use. Moderation would be the key here and using text to describe the graphics on the page.

The legalities of using the Internet in our school is either covered by the district's Acceptable Use Policy or by the classroom management plan developed by our team. The best way to insure the policy is adhered to is to preselect sites students will use for research, limited searches to child directed search engines like Yahooligans and limited searches to those supervised by an adult. The creation of a web page should also be supervised by the teacher and approved by the teacher before it is uploaded to the Internet. As far as insuring that the sites students use for research are credible, the use of the CARS check list will help in this area.

Computer ethics ranges from using inappropriate Internet sites, which I have addressed above, to publishing information on the Internet or in multimedia projects which is not original to the author, to pirating software. Basically, I have been reminded that a person is not allowed to use large portions of another person's work without citing the source of the information. It seems to me that the same guidelines which apply to writing an essay or a research paper also apply to publishing Internet sites and creating multimedia projects. Students and teachers should be encouraged to internalize ideas and then restate them in their own words. As far as pirating software is concerned, the article I read, "Software Piracy" by Devin Reade, made such good sense: people need to pay for the software, so that software developer can afford to stay in business and create more and better software. In the past I have worked in the summer as a technology trainer, one problem I have had deal with every summer was that of people wanting to copy the software used in the training class for their own use. Hopefully, passing the thought I read in the article along to them will help them understand why this is not acceptable.

In the area of evaluation I am interested in making a technology portfolio which would include student projects, video tapes of students making presentations, and other activities. I view these portfolios as a way to assess student growth in the use of technology, as well as, a way for students to assess their performances in their presentations in order to improve. Taking another view, one of the largest stumbling blocks I encounter when trying to assess technology projects has more to do with the skills of the students then the content of the projects. If a student has a computer at home or has attended classes outside of school, technology projects are usually quite easy for them, however, for those students who must learn the technology and then do the project this is a much more difficult and time consuming situation. Input on ways to handle this problem would be appreciated.