Final Project

I have chosen to reflect on the current policies in place regarding social networking in your school or district.

I have participated in several workshops through elearning over the past several years, two of which were Internet Safety for Schools in the Digital Age and Planning for Curriculum Integration of Technology. In the first of these workshops we looked at the best ways to protect our students from internet predators, cyber bullying and other dangers on the internet. We all agreed that a graduated lessening of restrictions on internet usage at school was the best answer, with possible password protection. In Planning for Curriculum Integration of Technology the focus for me was mainly hardware since my school was in the middle of massive renovations with hardware installation. I did focus some on the software side and related back to digital safety for the students.

I have tried to integrate more technology into my lesson planning and teaching. My textbook is all on line with SmartBoard and SmartMusic available. I have hit some snags along the way such as the latest update to Smart Notebook will not allow the ink overlay onto my textbook. Now I can’t write the rhythms into the music and draw my little pictures in the music that help the students remember where they are supposed to go. I have started using Google docs and email especially with my advanced band. It also teaches them responsibility for printing out their own music. I have tried to use a wiki with my beginners. Here again I have the problem of some of my students do not have computers at home.

We finally have some websites opened on the teacher computers only, freeing us to show videos, but others are still blocked. I would love to have a blog for each level of band that I teach, BUT, blogs are blocked. I understand the need to protect the students, but if it is part of a class, a learning experience, then the students should have access to the website. We have asked that certain sites be password protected with graduated restrictions. We have been unsuccessful in gaining access to these sites.

Some teachers have set up Facebook pages for their classes. These have to be administered from home or from their phones. The students are not supposed to have access until they get home. Most of the students access them during the day on their phones.

During this workshop I have learned many different ways to utilize technology in my band program. I haven’t set up a Twitter account for the students to follow yet but I am hoping to in the next few weeks. Here again, it will have to be administered by phone due to blocking, even though our school system has a Twitter account.

I would like to see my school utilize more than just email to communicate. When we get messages from the administration it is difficult to know if everyone else is having the same questions or problems if there is no way to have any input.

Some of the problems we would face in integrating some of these changes with the students has been stated above; blocking, access at school, no access at home. Getting the teachers on board might be a little easier. If the teacher does not have a computer at home, we have laptops that we can take home every night if we so choose. The only problem that I can see is the time requirements. Some of the teachers do not do school work from home. We would need to have the blog or whatever we set up opened at school. This would require the Technology Department’s permission for us to have access during school hours.

I think I will start by talking with the administration of my building and the assistant superintendent over them. We would decide the topics that would be covered on this network and who would have access. We could decide what would best suit our situation before establishing any type of network. Then there would have to be the training for the faculty and convincing them that it would be worth the time and effort to participate. Our faculty is against anything new that is going to require more work, as they see it. Of course none of this could take place if the Technology Department was not willing to open access to the network for the teachers. We would need to be able to read what others have posted and write posts of our own during school on planning time. We would need access to administrative posts. Gaining access is the biggest question at this point.

I hope I can incorporate the things I have learned in this workshop into my classes and integrate them into the faculty. I think the students will be more receptive than the adults to learning new ways to communicate.

Podcast

Why does it have to be so complicated?

Setting up a blog page has proven to be a challenge. I am not one to be patient and read all the instructions. Blogger has changed all the settings since the last time I logged in so I have to start over.

I have tried to read blogs from schools and administrators, but they are blocked at school. Some of the topics I have encountered are very applicable. We need to be able to read to know that we are not alone.

I have always had a support network of other band directors. I am fortunate that I work in a very large school system with 40+ band directors. There is always someone who plays the instrument I am having difficulty teaching, someone who has performed the music we are preparing, who has the percussion instrument we can borrow instead of having to buy, etc., and we all help one another. We are connected    by our telephones and now emails. We have never thought of one another as a Professional Learning Network.

I have served as an administrator in the past. We had no network like the band directors have. It was isolation. Some days it would have been nice to have had someone to reach out to, either on the other end of a phone line or email or to have had a blog or article that I could have read to give me a little boost.

We all need to learn from one another. After all we are all in the same business, educating our future.