Thing #4 questions

1. Which customizeable homepage did you use? Why did that appeal to you? Will you make it your permanent homepage?
I used igoogle. I choose it for two reasons. One, it is private. I am not sure of the implications of not being private on the other sights, but I do know that I have no desire to share or give access to this to anyone else. I know there is nothing on there that is in any way objecionable or "private" to me, but I prefer to keep as low a profile online as possible. It was also the most logical to me to use another google product. It will be easier for me to remember and access, it think. I liked how easy it was to set up, but I am not sure if I set up the homepage address correctly. I am going to try to ask for assistance on this at the next Wednesday meeting. I also liked the overall look and information that I choose to display. I really would like to have this homepage.

2. Did you find a tool that has some uses for you at school or home?
I am not sure what kinds of tools you are thinking of, but I did find a few that will be helpful. I like the to do list that is going on the igoogle homepage. It looks like it is very easy to use. I find that when I write things down I have a much greater chance of remembering it. I also found a number of feeds that will let me know what important events happened in history each day. I think that could be helpful to me as a U.S. History teacher. I want to tell students what was significant about certain days during the year, and this will be a great source and handy reminder of these events. Some of the feeds also offered videos relating to the event as part of the feed. I didn't have time to explore this as well as I would have liked, and I am not sure if I have the capacity to download them on my home computer, so I am going to try when I return to school.

3. How can the online calendar be useful to you?
I think this could help me remember what obligations I have on a given day. What I need to do is to commit to adding in the events each time I need to and then checking the calendar each day. But definitely a good organizational tool.

4. What about the do do lists. Helpful or too much work?
The one that I added to the igoogle homepage doesn't look very difficult or time consuming, but knowing myself, I may not remember to use it as often as I should.

5. How would you compare and contrast the use of paper-based assignments and assignment notebooks to the potential use of online assignment calculators and to do lists for students?
I think the online assignment calculators have the greater potential of giving students access to their work more efficiently than paper assignments. Most students are so connected to the web that they would have no problems accessing the assignments and would appreciate it. It is also helpful if a student is not in class on a particular day and wants to see what assignments they missed, etc. It would not work for all students, however, especially those who do not have computers at home. This is important to remember. Computers and Internet access cost money!! The economy is down, and I read recently that many people are cancelling their high speed Internet access to save money and are lining up at the doors of libraries in the morning to get access to Internet service offered there. I know that many teachers are already doing this for their students and I am sure it will be required of teachers in the near future.

Thing #3 Questions:
1. What is easy for you about teaching research?

I like students to do independent research. It gives them a chance to focus to delve deeper into issues of interest that I do not have time to teach (I speak specifically about U.S. History. A very crowded curriculum.) I always go into it thinking this is just what the students want and need: time to work independently and learn something on their own.

But I come away from it (Q. #2: What are the challenges) many times frustrated. My biggest disappointment is that so many have no intellectual curiosity. Internet tools such as Wikpedia, Infoplease, etc. have made it too easy to find information on a person or topic. They do not care to check for accuracy of information, because they believe whatever is said over the internet.

3. How might the RPC Teacher Guide help you plan and manage research projects?
I think it will help a great deal. I am working on a project for U.S. History where a group of students research a decade in the 20th century and prepare a presentation on it. I want to use the RPC to help students develop a unique thesis question on the decade they have chosen, so as to make the final product more authentic. I think that I will also use other tools offered by the RPC to guide them in the 5 steps of the rsearch process. I haven't finished this yet, but I am working on it and will report other tools I use.

4. How can you keep the planning, teaching, and managing of research projects sane for you as a teacher?
That is a good question. When students are given researh projects, I used to think that it would be great for me, because I would be free to do other work as they researched. Of course I was sooooo wrong! I think the best way to keep it sane is to plan the project well. I need to have timelines for student work to be completed, provide more oversight into the work they are doing to ensure that quality research is being done, and provide more clearly articulated expectations from the beginning. Students need to know what is expected of them and how they are going to be able to access the information and other tools necessary to complete the project. I think this will help me a lot.

5. What additional support or resources do you need to be successful in this area of information literacy?
I need to talk more to the media specialist about my plans and see what she has to offer. As a result of this class, I can see that there is a wealth of resources; now the trick is to identify which resources are best to help me in this project.