NIMAS

This is a picture of the village I teach in here in Alaska. Thought everyone might enjoy a picture taken during the summer.

Now back to NIMAS which is "the National Instructional Materials Accessibility Standard (NIMAS). The NIMAS guides the production and electronic distribution of digital versions of textbooks and other instructional materials so they can be more easily converted to accessible formats, including braille and text-to-speech" (CAST, 2008). This is important because all currently copyrighted material must be sent here so the needs of visually disabled students are met and as a teacher I was unaware of this.
So far in just a few weeks, I've learned so much and this will allow me to be a better teacher. I'll know what is available when I get the two visually disabled students in my class.

CAST, (2008). NIMAS at CAST: NIMAS development & technical assistance centers. Retrieved March 28, 2008, from NIMAS at CAST Web site: http://nimas.cast.org/

I Tunes University

Since our school is supposed to be adopting the one to one technology program, several apple representatives were out visiting our school yesterday. Part of the reason was to meet with the community to tell them about the program. So our professional development person set us up to have a short inservice type meeting with one of the representatives. He showed us that there is an educational part of the I Tunes store called I Tunes U. This site has lots of things from a variety of universities including lesson plans that include technology from the Universtiy of Southern Florida. Unfortunately, these lesson plans are not in written format. They are just movie clips with the teacher explaining and showing how to do the lesson. I find I would prefer something written so I can add it to my collection. There are links to places like the Smithsonian, PBS, and other web sites. Again, most of the material is movie clips rather than anything in written format. I found a few math things but mostly the clips dealt with the history of math, not with actual math teacher. There was really more for science.
I access it by clickin on my Itunes program, then I tunes store, then I tunes U. However, you can go to www.itunes.com then click on I Tunes store, and then find I tunes U under Mac or do a search and you can learn more about it.

computer input and communications

During my research, I discovered that learning to use handwriting is a part of the process students need to be able to read. I was unaware of this as I am a high school teacher and we don't usually teach beginning reading. A comment someone made lead me to realize that students who communicate alot via IM and chatrooms tend to use a shorthand that may spill over into other parts of their lives. For instance, I belong to a forum which has threaded discussions. There was a person who wrote her posts using computer speak shorthand and alot of folks let her know that it was not appreciated nor appropriate to the venue because it made communication more difficult. I beleive that we need to be careful when shifting from one venue to another and remember the expected methods of communicating.

what online classes require

This link from http://www.ion.illinois.edu/Resources/tutorials/pedagogy/StudentProfile.asp offers an insite into the type of student or the general type of characteriestics a student needs to complete online classes. This week's discussion has me wondering if the completion rate for online classes differs from traditional face to face classes. I think I may do a bit of research on that.

Research

Most of the research I've found on online classes is from a university perspective. I'm looking at creating the online class for the high school level because in rural Alaska we have few alternatives to the only school in the village. Although it is possible to travel 18 to 30 miles to the next school, it is not practical because of weather, no roads and travel must be done via boat, snow machine, or four wheeler. Furthermore, most villages have one high school and no alternative school so online education will provide the alternatives to students who have trouble in the regular school. Online classes will help students who regularly fail due to attendance issues; students who have had babies and cannot find a baby sitter; or students who have medical issues which prevent them from attending school. In addition, setting up online classes will meet some of the requirements of the No Child Left Behind act.
The other issue that arises is that many of these students may not have the self discipline to complete the classes within the time requirements. This may have to be factored in during the creation of the classes.

Blogging and legal issues

The idea of using blogs to share information with other teachers or parents lead me to wondering what the legal issues we have to keep in mind.  I found some interesting articles on the web at the following addresses.

1. http://www.edtechmag.com/k12/issues/november-december-2006/blog-rules.html

2. http://w2eff.org/bloggers/lg/faq-students.php

Both of these address teachers and students blogging and possible legal issues one needs to be aware of.

I'm finding out some interesting things about both topics.

more neat websites

I found two more that deal with creating good on-line classes.
1. www.elearners.com/resources/journals.asp
2. www.ibritt.com/resources/dc-instructionaldesign.htm
I am listing these in my blog so I can find them again. The first is a list of journals that deal with distance delivery courses while the second website lists places that talk about designing your own web class. These will help for my midterm.

Thoughts on Blogs and the midterm

I discovered something that I had not realized about blogs.  It is possible for someone to utilize the information on a blog to commit identity theft.  I had been aware of issues such as protecting students from preditors and protecting them legally according to school policy but this was a surprise.  I am glad I did a bit of research on blogs

While researching information for the midterm, I found a couple websites that I believe will help me prepare my report.  One is the Multimedia and Internet @ schools site (www.mmischools.com).  The Journal of Computer - Mediated Communications (www.blackwell-synergy.com/loi/jcmc)  is another place that is good to look.  As I find sites, I'll post them.

Mid - term

I've started looking for articles that deal with course delivery so I know better what is out there.  At the same time, I am doing research on integrating the web effectively into my lessons.  That is a number one goal outside of this class because we are to start the apple one to one technology program. Any technology I integrate must be done so its not just play but they learn as well as when I teach.  I know I am not going to only use the computers but I need to balance traditional instruction with the computers and that is the hard part.  I can find alot for the elementary and middle school but not so much for the higher levels of math.  That is much harder but it can be done, it will just take a bit of work.