Google Sites or GoDaddy

Years ago I had a MobileMe account through <3 Apple where I published a web site for my students to use.  Apple dumped MobileMe :( and in a fit, I almost dumped Apple :-O

For the last two years, I have used Web Site Builder (formerly Web Site Tonight) through GoDaddy.  I really, REALLY, enjoy maintaing a web site.  I like adding links and pictures and adjusting things just so.

For the purpose of the Digital Tools class, I tried out Google Sites -- with an open mind, "just in case".

The one thing I like about Google Sites that GoDaddy does not offer is that anything from my Google Drive that is linked to the site automatically update as I make changes in my drive.

The many things I don't like about Google Sites that GoDaddy does offer are the ways I can manipulate every item on every page.

I am mostly decided that I will stay with GoDaddy.  I can link all documents, videos, forms, and blogs that I have learned how to create and use in this class.  I am going to play with Google Sites some more this summer.  I will check out sites other teachers have made for ideas.

Google Sites
https://sites.google.com/a/adams12.org/namuth/ 

GoDaddy (this is not the one I have for students -- my students' site is under construction)
http://thenaword.info

Or -- checkout super cool Edgar's site:
http://blackittyedgar.info

This I Believe: About Technology

In the classroom I say that I embrace and welcome technology.  If you own a device, and haven’t been grounded from it, I expect you to bring it.  And to use it.  I have my own computer, iPad, and iPhone on my desk at all times.  I FB and Tweet everyday.  I build my own web sites as a hobby.  Using technology is a way of life for my family.  I met my husband online -- 17 years ago -- before people did that kind of thing.  (For a lot of years we stopped telling people where we met because the axe-murderer jokes get old.)

My students use technology much in the same way I do.  When it comes to academic work in the classroom, though, I hesitate.  And put in place a lot of rules.  My students are twelve -- and  like to think they are tech savvy.  I disagree.  I have seen that they are not afraid to click around before reading anything on the screen.  They end up lost because “It’s not working.”  One thing I remember about BASIC programing is that a computer does not do anything you haven’t told it to do.  Some are likely to look up dirty words and search for images to match.  Their parents monitor my assignments more than they monitor their student’s online lives.  District policies and advice from the CEA lawyers make me feel like everything I should do to embrace technology in my classroom will create liability and trouble for me personally, as well as an employee.

Technology, like time, marches on: seemingly faster.  My students deserve to bring in to the classroom their digital lives.  

It is time for me to shift the role of technology in my classroom.  In a collection of essays published on learningthroughdigialmedia.net, I am reminded, “Today, learning is at least as much about access to other people as it is about access to information.” This quote sums up what I believe and how I use technology.

Their devices are still welcome.  The rules will remain.  My personal FB posts and Tweets continue to be none of their business.  Middle ground, though, is possible.  Starting my 14th year of teaching (this will be my 11th year in 7th grade), I already know what to teach.  I know what the standards are and can reliably predict what most students will need before I meet them in August.  This frees up time and energy for me to focus on how to deliver instruction and how to allow students to master the information in ways that shift technology from a what to a how.  

Phones will no longer be glorified dictionaries.  Tablets will no longer be typewriter substitutes.  

I will find ways for my students to take reasonable risks.

I will shift from: avoiding the use of technology because “what if . . . “ pointing at your screen and saying “click here” emailing ideas of resources to post on my site submitting final drafts in Google Docs asking students to verbally repeat good feedback as an example of others using school iPads after your work is done using only free apps already loaded on school iPads practicing a speech or presentation alone publishing a web site explaining how to use a technology 1:1 for each 120 students

To: establishing concrete expectations that students will be held accountable to teaching the vocabulary students need to effectively use technology adding resource ideas to a shared doc sharing working drafts with peers projecting a document with comments and revisions as an example of what you should be doing choosing an app that suits the purpose of the work you are doing recommending apps and technologies every student should try -- via my digital hub recording your speech or presentation for peer review before being graded providing a digital hub of resources asking students to publish screencasts about technology they know how to use

This I Believe Screencast

This I Believe Essays: A Screencast to help you get started

This I Believe essays are short and to the point -- but can be overwhelming at the start.  Check out some examples and select a mentor text of your own.

Home Computers

Before we had a microwave -- before we had a VCR -- my father purchased VIC computers.  There was one before the VIC Commodore 64, but I do not remember what it was. 

The green cursor on the screen blinked impatiently while I tried to understand and learn BASIC programming language.  How this could be any man's hobby was beyond me. 

In high school, before "the internet" was available to everyday people, I used my father's computer for word processing.  Having learned to type in junior high, it was faster than composing papers by hand -- especially when it came to using footnotes.  The research was done at the college library.  My whole family would go there like other families would go to the movies.  I used the card catalog and microfiche to gather information and take notes.  When we returned home, I took my turn on the family computer.

I had filled one floppy disk with things I no longer wanted.  I asked my father how I could delete everything on the disk -- freeing it up for my new writings.  

He wrote these directions on a scrap of paper: del*.*

What he forgot to write down was the a: designation so that the computer knew to delete (del) everything (*.*) on the disk in the a drive.  

I deleted everything on the hard drive.

I've never been afraid of technology.  I enjoy the technologies I have access to. I read MacRumors and impatiently wait for the iPhone 6 to come out.  I learned to use a cloud to back up my computer: after the great hard drive crash of 2003.  I Facebook.  I Tweet.  I have a Tumblr blog that I never use.  My goal this summer is to make my cat an internet star.  (You can follow him on Twitter: @blackittyEdgar.)

I use my personal FB and Twitter accounts to participate in political activities around public education.  I use GoDaddy to build my own sites because I like flexibility to make it look and function exactly the way I want it to.  (Edgar's site will be published shortly.)  I use any software that starts with the beloved i and recently got my husband turned on to Keynote.  

My most recent technology challenge has been teaching my mother to use her iPhone.  We bought her an iPad for her 60th birthday (first generation iPad -- 5 years ago).  Then we bought her an iPhone 5 for her 64th birthday.  Her phone is attached to her like she is 15.  She uses her iPad more than I use mine.  Every time I ask a question, just thinking out loud in the course of normal conversation, she Googles the answer.  She is on Facebook too and recently started a Twitter account.  

We are a connected family.