Sustainability retreat.

For Mr. Bennett's Math Class.

Terms of Service.

Questions sometimes arise about the rights of websites that host data.  Questioning the terms of service and reading carefully about your rights is very important when signing up for accounts with websites.  The careful review of the terms becomes even more important when a site might be holding data provided by students.
The U.S. federal Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) prohibits disclosing confidential information about students to third parties without their or their families' permission.  The use of the website Turnitin to clear student papers of plagiarism issues is a good example of possible conflict with FERPA.  Because Turnitin is a private company that holds all submissions and sells the information it receives, the use of this site may create a violation of FERPA for educators requiring its use.  Several challenges have been made regarding this possibility. 

Another concern might be the the terms of use condition that states that all content is owned by Turnitin and the parent site.
Lets imagine that a teacher were to ask a student to write a pro Marx paper and submit the paper through Turnitin and the student accepted the terms(it is not necessary for a student to accept terms to comply with teacher requirements) of Turnitin upon submission.  I would worry that if that student were to become a prominent politician, or the equivalent, their paper might find its way into the light of day.

The following is an except from Dropbox's terms.

"Dropbox does not claim any ownership rights in Your Files. You acknowledge that Dropbox does not have any obligation to monitor the Files or User Posts that are uploaded, posted, submitted, linked to or otherwise transmitted using the Site or Services, for any purpose and, as a result, is not responsible for the accuracy, completeness, appropriateness, legality or applicability of the Files or anything said, depicted or written by users in their User Posts, including without limitation, any information obtained by using the Site or Services." 

These seem to be reasonable conditions, (if we can put aside that the privacy statement is not part of the agreement a student agrees to in the terms in Tunitin's case) but what would happen if Dropbox were purchased by a Chinese company?  What would happen if Turnitin were purchased by a Chinese company.  Would the copyrights that apply now be carried over to the new owner?  Would there be provisions written into the sale that could undo the previous conditions? Copyright understanding in China differs from our own because of a "Chinese tradition of sharing with one another, taking from others and the public without any sense of guilt, and disfavoring criminal litigation of copyright infringement as a result of the Confucian pursuit of social harmony(Tian, 2008)."

Spreadsheet Use to Determine Trends in the Classroom.

The use of spreadsheets to document the progress of individual students as well as group trends is a valuable tool for teachers.  The below spreadsheet is a mock of how this tool can be use in the classroom.  In the chart I have prepared, one can see that the test provided a fairly consistent set of  scores reflecting the abilities of the student quite well.  The scores with students Queen and Walter show a lack of improvement over time.  The use of a chart like this to spot issues with students can be useful in identifying students who might need some extra help.  In the case of Katherine, the scores might show an incident at home or a sickness that has led to a temporary setback.

Another important use of Google Spreadsheets is to keep data on the students progress on one place where easy calculations can be made at important moments throughout the year.  By using this product to help the teacher, the old calculator and grade book can be done away with reducing the time needed in reporting.

Piaget project and a view into sensorimotor development.

As a group project this video was developed using Screenr and the Google Presentation we developed to facilitate this lecture.

The use of the Google Presentation was a good tool for this project.  It allowed us to all contribute and bring together the material prior to the next class date.

The Use of Screenr provided a way to make our presentation come alive and the lecture to be easily disseminated on the net.

National and State Ed Tech Standards.

Ed tech standards aim to insure that students are exposed technology to enhance and strengthen the educational process.  By setting a standard of minimum achievement, students will leave school with the a current knowledge base that will provide them the skills to achieve in an increasingly technologically advanced world.  Being able to navigate the constant evolution of the tech world is also a skill that these standards should provide for in our schools.

As a science teacher, the use of technology is will be very important as a tool for research and as a way to connect ideas in the classroom to what others are doing and how others use the ideas and concepts we will be covering.

Areas where technology could be used in my class are;

1) Email communication with families and students to ensure that everyone is informed of where the class is going.
2) Video and audio conferencing to provide feedback to students.
3) Cloud computing for group projects.
4) Wiki type pages could provide a complete overview of the areas covered and to allow students to contribute.
5) Internet research. This can be used effectively to show how information on the internet can be suspect and what the accepted vetting process does for quality.

A teacher must be careful to insure that they are staying up to date on the latest technological advances and uses of technology.  Students needs to leave high school with the highest degree of current understanding to be effective in the next phase of their lives

My Favorite Web2.0 tools. Dropbox and Tokbox.

Web 2.0 is the accumulation of off-site, web-based applications that allow the sharing and collaboration of data.  Theses new tools and products allow users the freedom to work and collaborate off-site in a more user friendly, and platform friendly, environment.

I have selected Dropbox as one of my tools that I will be working with in Web 2.0.  I use dropbox now for downloading photos to allow for the sharing of projects.  A forester at Trout Mountain Forestry and I cut down an Oak at Zena and he is turning it into a conference table for his office in Portland.

Cutting the selected tree.

Barry hauling away the selected Oak.

Benny at the mill making saw logs.

  We were all interested in capturing the project and so we have been photo documenting from the stage of tree selection to the eventual final product.  This includes the cutting and drying at a small family run mill in the Eola hills.  Today, that tree is in plank form and will dry for another three months.

This tool allows the user to share and collaborate on projects as well as store images off-site.

Tokbox is a great tool to share real-time events on video.  The "Watershed" tool allows the user to broadcast live and use interactive tools as well as save and share the broadcast for later use.  A great teaching tool that can allow a lecture to live on.

My mechanic ate my homework.

Four high school boys afflicted with spring fever skipped morning classes. After lunch they reported to the teacher that they had a flat tire.

Much to their relief she smiled and said, "Well, you missed a test today so take seats apart from one another and take out a piece of paper."

Still smiling, she waited for them to sit down. Then she said: "First Question: Which tire was flat?"

Google Drawing.

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 Our Google drawing is a great Web 2.0 tool that allows the creator of the document to very quickly allow for others to both collaborate and share.  We found that this is a tool could help to increase productivity(because of the very fast creation time when others were invited) as well as increase collaborative input.  I contributed to the group by applying some of the tools to the drawing and defining ways in which we could use Google Drawing in our presentation.

Understanding how we calculate unempoyment and Oregon's place.

Unemployment rate reporting changes in the US have created some problems in understanding the true nature of the social and economic impact of this very dynamic issue. 

Below is a list of the ways we look at unemployment in this country.

Consider using the U6 calculation which includes the displaced workers who might be delivering pizza instead of running a company.  While the income of such a worker is typically below the ability to support a family, this person would still be considered "employed" under the U3 calculus.  The U3 calculus also does not take into account those no longer looking for work. 

The BLS also calculates 5 alternate measures of unemployment, U1 through U6,^[65] which have been charted over time^[66][67]

• U1: Percentage of labor force unemployed 15 weeks or longer.
• U2: Percentage of labor force who lost jobs or completed temporary work.
• U3: Official unemployment rate per ILO definition.
• U4: U3 + "discouraged workers", or those who have stopped looking for work because current economic conditions make them believe that no work is available for them.
• U5: U4 + other "marginally attached workers", or "loosely attached workers", or those who "would like" and are able to work, but have not looked for work recently.
• U6: U5 + Part time workers who want to work full time, but cannot due to economic reasons (underemployment).

Note: "Marginally attached workers" are added to the total labor force for unemployment ratecalculation for U4, U5, and U6. The BLS revised the CPS in 1994 and among the changes the measure representing the official unemployment rate was renamed U3 instead of U5.^[68]
Statistics for the U.S. economy as a whole hide variations among groups. For example, in January 2008 U.S. unemployment rates were 4.4% for adult men, 4.2% for adult women, 4.4% for Caucasians, 6.3% for Hispanics or Latinos (all races), 9.2% for African Americans, 3.2% for Asian Americans, and 18.0% for teenagers.^[61] Also, the U.S. unemployment rate would be at least 2% higher if prisoners and jail inmates were counted (Wiki, 2010).^[69][70]

Awakening the Dreamer, Changing the Dream

The place!

Last weekend I spent three days at Westwind attending this symposium.  My conservative friends have been known to call me a "crystal-gripping longhair hippy," but this brought a whole new meaning to the term! The video above was part of what I found to be the inspiration for attending, but it was far from what I expected as an educational experience.

Some highlights,

My cabin!

1. The first words said by the facilitator were that he was not really feeling well and he did not really know why that was.  The last words said by the facilitator as we closed out the three day event were similar and he added that if we could all just pray for him.....
2. A mouse pooped on my computer.
3. The food was terrible!
4. The cabins smelled like they had not been used in a year.
5. I was forced to hold hands with people for hours!
6. When they said Van Jones was presenting.... Well, you can see what we saw from watching the above video.
7. There is so much more......

Blogging and Education.

I guess I was a little intimidated about the possibility of blogging for this class.  I have looked at a few blogs and found them to be, a kind of run-on thought process that never seemed to be much more than a very long and detailed conversation one might expect between a couple of kids at the playground.  Because of this, over the years I have quit looking at all but one blog.  A friend of mine writes the “Recovering Straight Girl” blog where she has been writing for years about her changing life in ways that seem to me to be effective and rewarding for her and others who follow her posts. 

However, the possibilities of the use of blogging in education can allow teachers to reach out to students and families in ways that can help to enrich the educational process.  Using a blog can assist the teacher in keeping the parents informed about how the class is proceeding.  Blogs also are providing a tool for students to keep up to date about the class, provide a forum for students to communicate about the learning process by adding individual thoughts and feelings, and connect educators to homework issues.

Who is Jeff?

I worked many years in the oilfields of the world as a deep sea diver, underwater welder,  and project managers with my base in New Orleans where I lived with my wife Jill.  After she graduated with her degree in 19^th century English literature from Tulane University, she and I decided to pack what we needed into a boat and go sailing.  After two years and 16,000 miles under the keel, we found ourselves in Boca Del Toro, Panama enjoying one of the most beautiful places in the Caribbean.  It was here we found out we were going to have a baby.  We decided to turn the boat around and head back to the U.S.  Chemeketa Community College had made Jill an offer, and since she was adamant that she was “not going to be having babies in the jungles of Costa Rica,” this seemed the most prudent(and safe!) course of action.

After settling in Salem, I decided to go back to school.  I would eventually earn a degree in the Environmental Sciences and end up applying that degree in forestry fieldwork and research for Willamette University.  While working for Willamette, I have had the opportunity to work with the Willamette Academy.  The Willamette Academy reaches out to Salem area at risk youth and provides academic support and tracking to get students though middle and high school and on to college.  In a town that has a rough college admittance level of around 50% of graduating high school seniors, the Willamette Academy has been successful in getting that number up to 90%!  It was my time working with these students that it first occurred to me that teaching might really work for me.  So here I am.