Michelle's Notes

Thursday, November 27, 2014

Happy Thanksgiving

Despite the push to have a completely non working holiday. I am grateful for the airlines and transportation people who are working, my son and daughter are safely home.

My meal is prepared and I diidn't have to really touch anything or cross contaminate my food.

Thank you everyone who is working so I can have Thanksgiving and may you stay safe.

Monday, August 11, 2014

Robin Williams has died!

Today an actor that I really haven't paid a lot of attention to. . . . stop! An actor that I didnt realize had a lot of affect on me has died. I feel very much the same way that I felt when Princess Diana died. Sad. Very Sad.

It has to explain because niether person is someone I knew personally or even thought I would, and they are both older than I am. They live lives I don't. I am still sad.

I won't remember how they died, but what they accomplished or tried to while they were alive. Most of all they bothe seemed to love their children. Their children seem to love them. How special is that!

Friday, August 8, 2014

Training Camp

The past two weeks our administration has referred to our back to school as the training camp. I have to admit that I really didn't pay any attention because they are always encouraging the general education teachers so that the scores will go up. That is not a positive statement and I would hope that it is not true. In addition, I have been paying attention to my own problems, primarily how to pay for my last four classes and mourning the fact that I have run out of time to complete my PhD.

Training Camp is actually a book authored by Jon Gordon. I bought the book with money I don't have, but it is a worth while investment. Our adminstrator must be a fan of Jon Gordon because last year she modelled our back to school development as the Energy Bus. She constantly refers to us as riding a bus together. I will have to go back and read with new eyes because after reading the Training Camp I realize why I feel the way I do and it not an Ah Ha moment for me, but the author does a great job in explaining why this is happening.

Pride is a great tool that Satan uses to make sure that when we reach a point of success we go no further. By this I mean that we push ourselves, we work hard, we do ALL the things that we are supposed to do to be successful and WHAM! All of our insecurities come to light and we don't reach out to the one who can do it for us. “That's because pride keeps you separate from the love of God. Pride causes the ripple of fear in your life, and all your fears big and small can be traced back to it. Instead of trying to be one with God, pride says ‘I can be my own God. I can do it alone (Gordon, 2013).”

I am constantly writing in my journal that money is an idol and do a degree it is, but it is based on the fact that I have a lot of pride. Pride is what has caused the lack of promotion in my career. Pride has caused me to stop dreaming and Pride has caused me not to have faith in God.

The author, Jon Gordon, has written several book and I have checked most of them out of the library. The only one I can't check out is the The Seed. I will have to save up for it and purchase it.

Training Camp is a good book and I strongly reccomend it!!

Reference:
Excerpt From: Gordon, Jon. “Training Camp.” John Wiley & Sons, 2013-04-26. iBooks.
This material may be protected by copyright.

Check out this book on the iBooks Store: https://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewBook?id=378759368

Thursday, August 7, 2014

School is Back in Session

Today was the first day of public school for 2014-15 school year. This year will be different because it will be better. The students in the primary grades came today so they could become familiar with the rituals and routines of the school. Always a good thing!!!

There are close to 600 books on my netgalley list and I have reviewed 48% of them. This weekend I hope to raise that percentage by several points. There are several good books on that list. In adddition, I have 5 professional books that I intend to finish by the end of the month, plus a couple of bible studies.

Two of the books that I am really getting into, Daniel's Plan and The Seven Decisions, are my life books. They are both making think about the decisions that I have made that have lend me to this point in my life.

Please help me pray for the backing I need to complete and pay for the last four classes of my post graduate degree in Educational Technology. I really believe that technology is the key to having all children learn in the public schools. One of these days, I intend to blog on that subject, acutally, I intend to blog on a varitey of subjects. I hope to see a lot of comments.

Blogging helps to fulfill a goal in life. I have always wanted to be a columnist in a paper who writes an open ed column on a variety of issues. Some opinions I agree with and some I don't. However, it doesn't say much about me or the columnist if I agree with everything. Or simply agree because I like this columnist.

Hopefully you all a good day!

Take care and God Blees!!

Thursday, March 6, 2014

How to afford a 21st Technology Classroom and Why

Just for the record I have never received a grant for any type of hardware technology for my classroom. I have received software based on a grant that I wrote from Donors.org. I have not successfully written a grant that resulted in receiving any type of hardware technology.

The title of this blog is to hopefully generate comments from people who have been more fortunate than myself in receiving equipment. Currently, my classroom has a Promethean board, docu camera, Epson camera and iPads (iPad 1 & 2) that I have checked out from our school technology library. This is more than some teachers have in their classroom and I am fortunate enough have what I have in my classroom.

Everyday, the staff in my classroom tries to think o ways that we can get an iPad 2 for each student in our classroom. I would like to have 15 iPad 2; this would result in letting each of my students have their own iPad. In addition, I would like to have a MacBook computer that would have the software to coordinate the iPads and make sure that they stay where they should be and not going somewhere else.

(POINT: I do know about guided access that iPad 2 have in their settings and I use this on some iPads, however, iPad 1 do not have the same type of settings where I can lock the apps on the iPad 1 as I do on the iPad 2s)

My dream is to have the ability to plan my lessons and develop a blended learning environment in my classroom. Although, I do know that flipping the classroom is the current vogue for many teachers, I am not convinced that it is the best environment for all teachers and it is something that each teacher needs to think about for their classroom.

In the meantime, I am continually searching for help in raising money from grants or donations in order to buy the 15 iPad 2 and MacBook. In addition, I hope to learn to use the technology in efficient manner so that I work in directly with each of my students. Eventually, I will transfer this knowledge to an online environment where I will instruct future teachers.

Monday, May 20, 2013

Module six EDUC 8846 Course Project: The Evolution of the Overhead Projector

EDUC 8846 Course Project Outline

Michelle MartensDragalin

Student ID: A00113550

Michelle.martens-dragalin@waldenu.edu

The Evolution of the Overhead Projector

This paper will explore the following technology from the supply cabinet, an overhead projector. This particular form of technology is not obsolete, but document cameras and Epsom projectors are replacing it. Throughout this paper, these statements will be explored, discussed, and visually represented in a PowerPoint presentation that is attached in the appendixes, as well as, interviews and transcripts, which is a part of PowerPoint presentation. The answers are represented by visual material, the individuals did not want to film for the project.

learnerdictionary.com

A Brief History

In the last five years, the schools have been replacing their technology with the newest type of technology that they can afford. Many schools have received technology grants in order to purchase new computer, laptops, and overhead projectors. The devices are more efficient to use and take up less storage room. The overhead projector is a device that has been evolving throughout the years. The first document invention of the overhead projector technology was in the 1420. Several people credited for developing this technology are:

(Marples, 9/11/2008)

As the business and corporate world grew during the Industrial Revolution, people needed a way to promote their items and train their people in an efficient manner. The period between World War 2 and the advent of personal computers in 1982 is regarded as the audiovisual instruction period. Immediately after world war two, educational technology practice revolved around the media formats that had widely become available to teachers by 1946; i.e. 16 mm films, 35 mm slide/filmstrip projector, radio receivers, and record players. These formats were owned by schools at a rate of one per 100 teachers. Television receivers reached this status by 1958 and overhead projectors in 1960 (Finn et al., 1962) (Spector, Merrill, Van Merrienboer & Driscoll, 2008 p. 9). An overhead projector used to be considered a necessary piece of technology for every classroom. This is called “old technologies (p. 12) “along with textbooks, blackboard, overhead projectors, television and videocassettes, (p. 12). A teacher would use these items, and it would be demonstrate an innovative in its use of technology. Now with the inclusion of document camera and Epson cameras are replacing the use of overhead projector. The use of this technology promotes what is referred to as teacher center instruction. From 1980s through 1990s the pendulum was swinging from analog media to digital media as the primary source of instructional materials in schools, colleges and corporate training centers; however traditional formats such as textbooks, the overhead projector, and videocassettes have contained to be used heavily by teachers at all levels right up to present. (Cuban, 2001)

(Cuban, 2001)

More and more schools are teaching student the necessary skills in order to prepare them for the 21st century. The idea presented by our district technology department (DPS website, 2009), is that students will pay more attention to their teachers if the students use “cool” technology in the classroom. The technology will also provide teachers with an efficient method to present curriculum, as well as, interact with the students in the classroom. Finally, the teacher will be able to diversify their lesson in order to appeal to the multi different learning styles of their students. The overhead projectors were replaced by the below items LCD projector and Epson cameras as noted in the picture below:

Google Images

Current Technology

The overhead projector I found in the supply closet was the one I used last year in my classroom. According to the technology integration specialist at our school, she recycled 50 overhead projectors back to the district’s warehouse this year. (Recycled means that a piece of technology was returned to the district, and the school is credited with the cost of that item.) Ther are only two teachers that use the overhead projector at our school the early childhood teacher and the music teacher. The technology grant that was allocated to the school covered the cost of the Epson camera and document cameras for the general education teachers. The special education department wrote a series of grants and we purchased our own devices and material to be used with students who have individual education plans. Technology in today’s world is changing on a regular basis, emerging technology is based on what state of the environment of the technology. The following individuals define emerging technology as follows:

“Dr. Soloway (n.d) described an emerging technology as technology that has yet to cross the chasm from early adopter to early majority. That phase is the period where the cost of the technology is high, and users do not yet consider the technology essential to their everyday life. Using an example of a prototype he developed. Dr. Thornburg (2009) described an emerging technology as something that has just been developed. By the time, a piece of technology hits the mainstream it is no long emerging. Rogers (2003) defined emerging technology as an innovation that is considered new to a person or a group of people. The perceived newness describes an innovation (Roger, 2003, Soloway, n.d, Thornburg. 2009)”.

As I stated in the above section, the definition of emerging technology depends on the financial state and environment of the technology.

Tetrads, Interviews, and Mulitimedia Presentation

This section will review the tetrads of the overhead projector, interviews from the decision makers, technology users and an outline of the multimedia presentation for this course. The information is summarized from the interviews and presented in paragraph form and narration. The interviewees did not want to be filmed, so I am providing a transcript of our conversations. In addition, the link to visual presentation will be posted on my blog: Michelle’s Notes

Interviews: The Decision Makers

The section provides a summary of the decision makers in our district. This list is different from my original list because I was told that they approved or disapprove it would be best to discuss it with individuals on this list. The original list has changed since I discovered that the ITS was also a decision maker. I reviewed the original list of interview and made some changes. The information provided in this section is a summary of the information that obtained from the following: (Interview questions are in the Appendix)

• Robbie Makely (Integration Technology Specialist at our school)

• Ligia Gibson (our principal)

• Sharyn Guhman (Chief Information Officer)

• Tim Summers (web tech)

Denver Public Schools has a department that handles the distribution, training, acquiring and inventory of all of the technology in the district..

The following screenshots illustrate the mission and responsbilities of the technology departmens.

https://dots.dpsk12.org

According to Ms. Guham, the district has been awared several million dollars in grant money which is used to provide training, hardware, software and adminsteration of technology to the schools in the Denver Public schools. . In addition, the school received money from several bonds that have been passed since 2007.

Budgets

The schools are given an amount of money that is determined on their school population. The students are counted based on the following breakdown; 0 for students in the early childhood education class, .5 for students in kinder; 1.0 for students in grades 1-5 and finally students in middle and high school are counted as 1.5. The numbers are tallied up, and a broken down for each school by the budget department in the technology department and presented to the board of education and passed onto the schools. Each school determines their own educational technology needs, based on a needs assessments completed by the integration specialist. The requests are presented to the assistant superintendent of curriculum and instruction and technology. It is approved or disapproved based on those requests. In addition, each school is allocated for an Integrated Technology Specialists (ITS), some schools dig into their building fund for a para professional to assist their ITS, so the ITS can teach and develop professional development course for their teachers. In addition, the school determines which classroom will receive different technology for their school. Also, the Technology department also receives grants and money from the federal government for different age, race, language and disability needs. This money is generally put into the schools building fund for the administration to use the money as they determined. board of education and passed onto the schools.

In addition, the school determines which classroom will receive different technology for their school. Also, the Technology department also receives grants and money from the federal government for different age, race, language and disability needs. This money is generally put into the schools building fund for the adminsteration to use the money as they determined.

Interview: Technology Users or Not

The following people use the overhead projector, the Epson camera and as little technology as possible in our building.

· special educator

· special educators

· ECE teacher

Center based Teacher does not use technology, unless she has to in the classroom. She does not own

any type of technology (cell phone, iPad, computer and she has no internet at home). One of her students has a Go Talk that has taken her all year to use because no provided training for her or the family. The type of computer she prefers are laptops since they are portable. However, her favorite educational technology are the white board and bulletin board in the classroom. Mild Moderate Teacher is a resource special educator who used an Epson camera for everything; lessons, center work and Individual Education Plans meetings. All of the information is posted on the wall so that everyone can see the information. The technology lets her provide a visual for everything that she completes in her work. ECE teacher is an ECE teacher who uses the overhead projector to teacher her students the letters. She posts them on the wall and the children trace the letter and post pictures that represent the letters. It is really quite interesting. All of the teachers agreed that the overhead projector is bulky and takes up a lot of room. The Epson camera will replace the overhead, because of its portability. They did think that it will eventually become wireless, a fact that some businesses may use, however, at this point schools won’t receive that technology for a few years. All of the teachers agreed that small and compatible is best. We all such small room.

Tetrad

This section will illustrate the obsolete technology and the technology that is replaced by new materials. Tetrad One is used to analyze the obsolete technology in the school’s supply closet:

Tetrad One is used to analyze the obosolete technology in the school’s supply closet:

Multimedia Presentation

The following will be used to cmplete this project:

· Dell laptop

o sharepoint maker

o Audiocity

o Microsoft Word

· Dell netbook

o Microsoft Word

· Apple iPad

o Video

o Camera

o APA citation format

The Rhythms of Technology: It goes away . . . and it comes back looking better!!!

The evolution of the overhead is one prime example of how the same technology keeps coming back and used to present more and more items.

The first overhead:

The kind that I remember from my audiovisual student days:

The overhead I put in storage last year:

According to our tech person, she recycled 50 this past year. Only two teachers use their overhead projector; the ECE teacher I interviewed and the music teacher who retired this year.

The technology of the overhead has not really changed. The concept of the material used to make the product. What, I believe that has changed is the outlaying structure and the size of the projector.

The overhead has changed names to include other types of technology:

The overhead ------------------------------------------------Epson camera; document camera

Now:

The blue chord connects the laptop to the Epson camera, which illustrated the various applications on the computer.

The VGA chord connects the ipad to the Epson camera, which illustrates the various downloaded applications.

Future:

The ipad, iPod and various cameras will attach themselves to the Epson camera.

In addition, the document camera will connect to the Epson camera.

The same technology that made the overhead projector in the 1960 will go into the table so that teachers and students can use it in the classroom. ON THE OTHER HAND, it will go insides glasses whether the student can view the material.

This same technology may even replace the DVD players that we use today by streaming the material with a similar disk used in a camera or in the future in the glasses.

Conclusion:

This course project was very interesting for me because when I went over the history of the overhead it reminded me of the time when I was in high school. I was part of the audio visual team at our school. I used to splice the film and filmstrips for the teachers when they tore the film or broke it. In addition, I set up the videos for the teachers, laminated their materials and did a lot of other work with the various technology. The educational technology had changed between the time when I graduated from high school and went back to full time teaching. The VCRs and 16 mm were still in existence, but on their way out, by the mid 90s, most of the technology I was familiar with was becoming obsolete. Also, the hardware used to laminate had .

· The iPad can connect to the Epson camera and document camera with a VGA cord.

· The whiteborad turn into SmartBoard.

The classroom teacher goes from this setting:

---except for the people who are sticking with “old technologies”.

References

Cuban, L (2001). Oversold & undersused: computers in the classroom. Cambridge,

Massachusetts Lond, England: Harvard University Press.

Denver Public Schools website.

Jennifer, J. (2012) Who invented the overhead projector? eHow. Retrieved from

http://www.ehow.com/about_4679041who-invented-projector.html.

Kriegal, M.S.Ed; O. (2013) Everything a new teacher really needs to know (but didn’t learn in

college). Free Spirit Publishing, Inc.

learnerdictionary.com. Retrieved from Google Images.

Marples, G. (9/11/2008). The History of Projectors-The Battle for Brightness. Retrieved from

http://www.thehistory of.net/history-of-projectors.html.

Morgan, H. (2012) History of the overhead projector. eHow. Retrieved from

http://www.ehow.com/about_5345030_who-invented-projector.html.

Oppenheimer, T., (1983). The flickering mind: the false promise of technology in the classroom

and how learning can be saved. New York: Random House.

Rogers, E.M. (2003). Diffusion of innovation (5^th ed.) New York. NY: Free Press

Soloway, E. (n.d.) Emerging vs. emerged technologies [Audio Podcast]. Retrieved from

https://class.waldenu.edu/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_tab_group_id=2_1&url=%2F.

Spector, J.M., Merrill, M.D., Van Merrienboer, J., & Driscoll, M. (editors) (2008). Handbook of

research on educational communications and technology. New York, London: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Taylor & Fancis Group.

Thornburg. D.D. (2009). When is a technology emergent? Lake Barrington, IL. Thornburg

Center for Space Exploration.

Zafra, A.; Goss, T. (6/23/2009). Brief histroy of overhead projector. Retrieved from

http://www.brighthub.com/computing/hardware/article/39556.aspx.

Appendix A

Interview Consent Form

All of the individuals signed a form similar to this form.

I, the undersigned agree to answer questions about the technology, use of technology andapplication and distribuion of technology that is used in the classroom. I do not want my likeness used as part of this project since it will appear on the internet blog.

Signed.

Appendix B

Interview Questions

Teacher questions:

1. What type of technology do you use in the classroom?

2. Do you use the overhead projector in the classroom? If so, how do you use it?

3. Do you use an expson camera? Document camera?

4. Which type of technology do you use most often and why?

5. General feeling of technology?

Decision Makers Questions

1. How is technology used in the classrom?

2. How are educational technology needs determined in the classroom?

3. How is thebudget determined for educational technology?

These were the outlined questions I used to get my information, for the most part I used it as jumping off form with the questions.

Appendix C

This is a link to my powerpoint; enjoy the narration.