Journal 6 NETS 2,3, & 5

Rebora, A. (2010, October 11). Change agent. Education Week, 04(1), Retrieved from http://www.edweek.org/tsb/articles/2010/10/12/01richardson.h04.html?cmp=clp-edweek&intc=bs&sms_ss=delicious&at_xt=4cb7dc75d0303b73,0


Change Agent

The interview with Will Richardson repeats what many have thought and most definitely have said.  There needs to be a reformation in the classrooms.  Will Richardson has found that the reformation of school must integrate web tools.  For the web tools to be integrated into the classrooms they must be used and managed by the instructors.  The instructor must have a web presence to keep up with latest methods of instruction and current tools for learning.  Will Richardson stresses that instructors must stay up to date with web 2.0 to teach their students how to leave a positive online footprint.  The biggest problem he states is the shift.  The greatest thing that can be done to help this shift is a model to help shift and create new cultures.  Brenda McCombs' article Creating A Collaborative Culture lays it out real well when she prompts professional development and web 2.0 tools.  Ultimately the goal is to create a comprehensively broad, technical, and global student so as to make way for a well rounded society.  This must be certain in schools for students to excel later on in life.  Richardson also emphasizes learning and how it's very fluid.  It's reasonable to think that web 2.0 can satisfy the many modes of student learning.

Question 1.)  How will the methods of assessment change in the next three decades?  I believe the method of attaining the results and delivery of the assessments will change much with Web 3.0 on the horizon.  Maybe by then we will be at Web 4.0.  Either way I still believe there will be standardized testing and bell curves. 

Question 2.)  Must we embrace the web?  That is a definite yes.  It's not going away and it will only get more semantic.  The web is expected and not being on the web is equivalent as to not having a phone line.  The web is a measurable tool and with it the youth must be taught how to navigate through all the clutter to find what they need and to not misuse or get taken advantage of by the web.  The culture of digital information must be embraced so as to not get left behind in the dust.

Journal 9 NETS 4 & 5

Cifuentes, L., Merchant, Z., & Vural, O.F. (2010). Save the world with web 2.0. Learning & Leading with Technology, 38(3), Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/learn/publications/learning-and-leading/digital-edition-november.aspx


Save the World with Web 2.0 is an inspiring article challenging the teacher and student to go global.  Lauren Cifuentes, Zahira Merchant, and Omer Faruk Vural unfold the human narrative of education and technology derived from Neil Postman and mash it with six ethical questions, derived from a multinational panel, that all global citizens should ponder.  The mashup of inquiries for global citizens and the human narratives are used in creating a model for global citizens.  Examples are provided revealing more insight into a global giving world.  Poverty reduction was a theme given to the students to offer a consideration in alleviating the beggar.  Social networks was a way to get the word out.  The approach for relief is very practical and not unrealistic.  Much of the results are attainable.  Web 2.0 tools assist in the progress of communication. 

Question 1.) Will Web 2.0 tools split and evolve differently or will it simply grow as a whole?  Some answers; With web 2.0 it seems like there are different functions for its use.  Social networks are created for people to spend time sharing interest, activities, and themselves.  Then there are online classifieds where the Web 2.0 tool is used for anything from house hunting to discussion forums.  It seems that on the one hand Web 2.0 tools can be a web-based service, and at the same time on the other hand it also can be used as a social network.  Service and communication seem to be the big themes derived from Web 2.0.  Such as, in the examples of Save the World with Web 2.0, alleviating poverty was a duty and a spiritual mandate.  The students set out to relieve the impoverished of their woes and are prompted by sites to donate to projects in developing worlds, and at the same time they are able to publicize this on any network they socialize.

Question 2.)  What will Web 3.0 look like? People are already talking about components of 3.0.  A lot of it revolves around the semantic web.  From what I understand it's a method of computations by machines.  We'll see what's in store for the future.

Journal 8 NETS 1,2,3,4, & 5

 McCombs, B. (2010). Create a culture of collaboration. Learning & Leading with Technology, 38(3), Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/learn/publications/learning-and-leading/digital-edition-november.aspx

The article Create A Culture of Collaboration, written by Brenda McCombs the director of technology for Kannapolis City Schools lays out the history of the town once depended on Textile Mills.  With hardships in the1980s and in the beginning of the 21st century the textile mills were sold.  The Cannon Mills plant was bought by David H. Murdock in 1982 and he lied down a plan of development for the community.  Kannapolis was incorporated in 1984 making it officially the City of Kannapolis.  In 2003 bankruptcy forced one of the biggest layoffs in North Carolina's history.  Currently being built on the former site of Cannon Mills is the North Carolina Research Campus.  This change from textile mills to a research campus awoke the city of Kannapolis and forced the city to recreate its skill set. 

After Attending a nine day leadership seminar at the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction, three principals and the district technology director of Kannapolis were determined to create a new culture.  The four implemented a professional development program with their teachers and administrators.  The teachers and admins were trained to assist teachers and to teach them to function as a collaborative unit.  Well equipped for a technologically fused environment the team was dubbed Vanguard.  The Vanguard team's most valuable defense is professional development.  The Vanguard team was created to help pass on tools to create a collaborative culture among the teachers and students.

Question 1.) How effective is an ill equipped team in professional growth?  Meeting the needs of technical support is needless to say expensive but with older technology becoming cheaper and cheaper it could be easier to invest money in a two year old laptop, netbook, or desktop.  But who wants something old?  When it's cheaper it's a big incentive, that's why I drive a 1987 BMW.  Features such as cloud computing make word processors free.  Social networks do not ask for cash so the access to a personal learning network is free.  With the pressure to change, a cultural shift is rapidly changing how teachers work, learn, interact, and function.  Money is always a worry and having a squad equipped up to the neck with technical support is valuable but not always expensive.

Question 2.) What's the importance of collaboration in schools?  Strong professional networks, eliminating the feeling of alienation and isolation.  Students will show improvements.  The schools are there to foster students into well educated citizens.  When you have the families, teachers, and the community collectively taking a stand to improve, the results will show up in the students.  It takes a joint effort to teach students and it depends upon the shared attitudes, values, and goals that describe the culture.  To recreate a culture is to spark innovation.

Journal 10, a hundred things that make me happy

100 things that make me happy...


1. Music
2. Soccer
3. Nice girls
4. Driving
5. Napping
6. Chocolate
7. Beer
8. Skateboarding
9. Money
10. Television
11. Success
12. Sunshine
13. Lavender
14. Cinnamon
15. New Shoes
16. Fish
17. Swedish Fish
18. Serenity
19. Cartoons
20. Impersonations of Christopher Watkins
21. Running
22. A rush of blood to the head
23. My dogs!
24. Spearmint
25. Chili Peppers
26. Tomato Plants
27. Marinating in a hot tub.
28. Showers
29. rain
30. Vacation
31. Christmas
32. Bender Bending Rodriguez - Cartoon Character
33. Homer J. Simpson
34. roller coasters
35. Clouds
36. Sleeping in
37. Hot bowls of soup
38. Spaghetti with meatballs
39. Warm socks
40. Electric Blankets
41. When my body releases Endorphins
42. The Beach
43. Drawing
44. Writing
45. Reading
46. Magnifying Glass
47. Fresh cut grass or flowers
48. Crickets
49. Tall trees
50. Aquaculture
51. Bridges
52. Trains
53. Planes
54. Copius Parking
55. Chickens
56. Eggs
57. Cows
58. Donald Duck
59. Orange Juice
60. Trombone solos
61. Trumpets
62. Traveling
63. Wandering
64. Day dreaming
65. Homeruns
66. 3 point shots, basketball
67. Hat tricks, hockey
68. Comedians
69. Not talking to my ex girlfriend
70. Turtles
71. Records
72. A clean room
73. New Cotton Tees
74. Strumming a guitar
75. pull-ups, chin-ups
76. the monster mash
77. lifting weights
78. hugs
79. air kicks
80. BBQs
81. Swimming
82. Bike riding
83. Karate Chops
84. Video Games
85. The chirp of birds
86. Grandparents
87. Sprinklers
88. Stars
89. Astronomy
90. Moon and its phases
91. Solar and Lunar eclipse
92. Grasshoppers
93. Field Trips
94. Cooking
95. A full tank of gas
96. Korean food
97. buying stuff
98. talking
99. Friends
100. Family

iMovie PSA (NETS 1)

As a new user of iMovie I was able to import footage, edit clips, and export/share the video using Quicktime.  iMovie supports creativity and the interest in tools with film making is absorbing.

The clip is of shots taken at the California State University San Marcos.  The voiceover is in the opening scene, there are at least four transitions, there are plenty of effects, and the footage was completely detached of its audio and music was added using the inspector tool of iMovie.

Internet Safety Goolge Site (NETS 1,2, & 3)

The google site is chalked full of information and resources regarding internet safety for students as well as educators.

The collaborative safety site addressing the topics for safe cyber surfing.  

Wiki Page (NETS 1)

Critiquing a web tool then sharing and collaborating with others about the tools they used on CSUSM wiki.

Inspiration NETS-T 1,2, & 5

The diagram above is a collection of work that satisfies the National Educational Technology Standards for Teachers.  I used a trial version of Inspiration software to create the chart.  The chart communicates the majority of assignments completed in ed422 and their satisfaction to the NETS-T.
The software Inspiration contributes to the characteristics, to the impression, and to the self renewal of the teaching profession.  The end result demonstrates the understanding and competence of the software, and collaboration is also possible for those that have Inspiration.  The assignment itself is aligned with the International Society for Technology in Education.  Inspirations is a fun tool to use, it permits inventiveness and engages in collaboration by sharing the diagram with others on Inspiration.  The diagram is a reflection of the ISTE NETS for Teachers.

Journal 7: My Personal Learning Network NETS 3,4, & 5

My personal learning network helps me think deeper. My personal learning network deals with critical issues and current events. As a classroom teacher in the outskirts of a metropolitan my PLN keeps me in touch.

Twitter permits discussion and with it I can participate. The hashtag was #edchat, and the discussion seemed spatial. I finally found the focal point and it inclined three themes; teacher observation, subjective assessment, and professional development. The question of discussion was, how ”do we” change teacher observations to be subjective assessments as well as a professional development tool. The discussion had an array of educators from administrators to principals. While I was busing trying to grasp the question posed, the discussion ran its course of ideas from an open discourse between observer and classroom to questioning the observer’s lens. From the discussion I gathered a broad spectrum of educative ideas that resulted in immediate critical thinking.

What also resulted from the edchat were new followers. Doctorjeff is an astrophysicist that I am now following because of the chat. He was able to direct the conversation with questions about subjective assessments and teacher obvservations.

Delicious my webpage of bookmarks keeps me in the loop too. NBC learn on twitter, U.S. News Education on twitter; my network tags make great selections for educators.

I chose to follow certain users that were either teachers or within the world of academics because they have valuable insight to the world of education. Being that the users I am following have much more experience than I do and are in sectors that surround the education department there input about education can be priceless and help me on the path for teaching.

TED, Technology Entertainment and Design has a lot of videos with speakers in education.

I subscribed to The Educator’s PLN, I watched a presentation by Sir Ken Robinson. He presents the need for change in schools. Sir Ken Robinson is an enlightening speaker. He illustrates the concern for school reform with history and compares the current public schools to factories packaging students on an assembly line. He presents the perspective of current academics and states that it was designed for a different age.


My personal learning network is a group of teachers that support, learn, and discuss assessments, professional development, and critical thinking.


This assignment dealt with networking.

Journal 3 (NETS 1,3 )

McDermon, L. (2010). Bring the world into your classroom. Learning and Leading with Technology, 38(2), Retrieved from http://www.learningandleading-digital.com/learning_leading/20100910?pg=36&search_term=linda%20mcdermon&search_term=linda%20mcdermon#pg1


Linda McDermon advocates the access of global collaboration. McDermon's article Bring the World to Your Classroom projects the National Educational Technology Standard for Teachers when she encourages the idea of classrooms going global through interactive video conferencing. This in turn forces professional growth and leadership with the educator and student. The video conferences model digital-age work and learning. With video conferencing in place students and teachers are linked and can undergo development. Nothing is off limits from plays to lectures, students and teachers have an audience. It's an engagement with professional growth. All the participation is local or global and allows everyone to be creative.



Question #1 What benefits are found in global collaboration? It opens up a whole other world for the student. The educator as well as the student take charge in an innovative technological community allowing for growth in technological activity.

Question #2 What can video conferencing do for the individual student? It fuses the pupil to others in different parts of the world. The classroom is exposed and allows cultures to clash. it removes the boundaries for the student and teacher making anything possible in a virtual interactive world.

Journal 4 (NETS T 1,2)

Johnson, D. (2009). Computing in the clouds. Learning & Leading with Technology, 37(4), Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/learn/publications/learning-and-leading/digital-edition-december-janruary-2009-2010.aspx

Computing in the Clouds, promotes and models the digital-age in a cost effective manner. Doug Johnson, the author of Computing in the Clouds offers up an easy finance situation for schools to be cost effective, promote and support student inventiveness, engage students in exploring digital tools, and be technologically current and proficient with innovative thinking. I've used a program exactly like this. With Google Docs, it's the same idea; making available shared resources via internet. This is really a nifty program, it truly makes your documents omnipresent. I agree with Doug Johnson when he says that this not only makes life easier, but efficient. I have a netbook and I don't want to slow it down with documents.

Question #1 Are all programs collaborative like this? I ask because I wonder about Prezi. It's great to weed out all the unnecessary effort. I think it would be possible. If internet programs cannot collaborate like this the users become estrange. The silver lining as Doug Johnson puts it is the network that makes way for innovative collaboration.


Question #2 What if I lose access to the internet? With this innovative collaboration tool there is also an applet if there is an issue getting online. So you'd be able to work on the documents but you would have to collaborate later, when the internet is back in action; and from what I understand it is dynamic. Imagine riding the world of flash drives and harddrives.

Journal 2 (NETS - T 1, 2)

Ferguson, H.J. (2010). Join the flock!. Learning & Leading with Technology, 37(8), Retrieved from http://www.learningandleading-digital.com/learning_leading/20100607#pg1

Hadley Ferguson's article Join the Flock! is a quaint piece unraveling the aim, the etiquette, and the commitment it takes to create an interconnection of comprehensive professionals in the pursuit of shared knowledge. The main theme to Ferguson's article is communication and collaboration, and the two are drawn together through Twitter's Professional Learning Network, also known as a PLN. The PLN is a classic example of digital-age learning engagements. The PLN accomplishes self-achievements and an assessment of one's own efforts in a virtual world of collaboration. Twitter is a self help tool that serves on a give and take basis.

Question #1 How will I be sure of the PLN's credibility? The PLN has the power to elicit belief. As I begin to understand more and more about Twitter, what I am finding out is that it detours the traffic of mass information to the user. The credibility is considered with the information's origniator, be it the author, researcher or editor. A world of information is constant and Twitter helps sort out what the user finds most interesting and most credible.



Miller, S.M. (2010). Enhance your twitter experience. Learning & Leading with Technology, 37(8), Retrieved from http://www.learningandleading-digital.com/learning_leading/20100607#pg1

As if in unison Shannon McClintock Miller's piece, Enhance Your Twitter Experience compliments Ferguson's article. Miller offers up a glossary of terms permitting the apprehension of the interpersonal digital language used on Twitter. Miller's article encourages the users of twitter to immerse themselves in an internet culture of quick and massive information systems.

Question #2 How do I promote student reflection with Twitter? Twitter forces refelction. When using collaborative tools the driving force behind the user is the desire to know. I personally am encouraged to sift through shared articles and resharing what I think is valuable.

ISTE Presentation Assessment (NETS 2,3, & 4)

The assessment gives me feedback from my peers so I can learn from them.

Test Survey - All about me!

School 2.0 Reflection Tool (NETS 5)

NETS T 2 - Design Digital-Age Learning Experiences and Assessments; I chose this Standard because I firmly believe learning through experience is easier to retain.

http://thejournal.com/Articles/2008/05/01/21st-Century-Teaching-and-Learning-Assessing-New-Knowledge.aspx?sc_lang=en&Page=1  The article is titled, 21st Century Teaching and Learning: Assessing New Knowledge, by Ruth Reynard

In the same way autumn turns the green leaves gold, the 21st century turns knowledge virtual, meaning a constant cycle is always changing.  From what I understand after reading Ruth Reynard's article, 21st Century Teaching and Learning: Assessing New Knowledge, the practice of learning constantly evolves.  With the constant change a record is desired to assess the learning function.  The teacher must assess the methods derived from student learning.  In the process of digital learning, a digital lineage of learning is illustrated.  With technology allowing surveillance, the complexity of learning can be followed; thus the process to assess learning has become easier.

The student living along the frontier of technology can explore new routes to learning, that is to say students can work together digitally and teachers can oversee the development of technological proficiency; such as student web logs.  Reynard expresses the value and recognition of the digital student.  Along with technology’s ubiquity, the students and teachers have advantage of the digital world and implement it into the classroom.  Taking advantage of the digital world allows the assessment process to be illustrated digitally and gives the instructor a chance to oberve and learn from a lineage of class work researched throughout the web.  The resources are endless among the web.  The turn of the century calls for a turn in education and with technology innovating education, teachers and students are exposed to new tools to assess learning and new fashions that lead onward to knowledge.

Journal 1 (NETS - T 5) Taking Laptops Schoolwide: A Professional Learning Community Approach - Learning and Leading with Technology, Vol. 38 No. 1

Green, T., Donovan, L., & Bass, K. (2010). Learning and leading with technology. Taking Laptops Schoolwide: A Professional Learning Community Approach, 38(1), Retrieved from http://www.learningandleading-digital.com/learning_leading/201008#pg1

The International Society for Technology in Education examined the practice and habit of elementary and middle school level students employing laptops.  While the ISTE research team covered the array of student grade levels K-8, they came upon a discrepancy that struck them hard.  The research team became aware of a disparity and decided to dig further.  The striking difference that took most of their attention was why some schools incorporated technology much easier than others in the same district.  The ISTE team was impressed by the smooth continuity some schools had uniting their students to their laptops and were dumbfounded by the realization of failure that plagued the other schools.  As the ISTE research team explained a successful school was the result of an omnipresence of technology, a practical approach indicating main features to computers and technology performance - the curriculum imbued with technology - and the cooperation of educators.  The ubiquity of technology plays a giant role in the student's capability of adapting to technology.  The ISTE research team gave little credit to this god like trait of technology required for success within the schools and gave little to no information about the unfavorable or failing schools.  What they did credit was "the district adopted Richard DuFour's Professional Learning Community (PLC) approach to planning: a focus on learning rather than teaching,.." (Green, Donovan, & Bass, 2010)  The research team could not stress enough the success of the PLC Approach.  The research team gave many examples of teacher collaboration and student success resulting because of the PLC approach.  The PLC Approach developed a congregation of educators and gave rise to an environment where ideas were to be unfolded and synthesized upon by colleagues.


 Question #1.)  Is the PLC Approach everything that it is hyped up to be?

Yes, The PLC Approach is the driving force motivating the educators to assemble and better understand their established relations with their colleagues, students, and school objectives.  The students could not become proficient in technology without the educators creating a curriculum saturated in technology.  The successful schools with the technologically imbued curriculum made for technology proficient students.


Question #2.)  Would the PLC Approach have any effect in a school lacking the ubiquity of technology.

I think not, although the PLC Approach would have an effect it would have to be geared towards something already in place.  With the absence of technology in a school, the collaboration of a curriculum with technology would simply be theory; pure speculation.  Although, the cause of educators collaborating for a technologically fused curriculum could effect the students outside of the schools, inwardly the students would be lacking the tools for practical use.

Much ado about Mario

Mucho gusto

How-d'ye do! My name's Mario I am from the foothills of North County, San Diego.  Fallbrook to be exact, although kinder to fifth I was at Central school in Escondido.  Afterwards, I attended Potter Junior High and bridged my way to Fallbrook High School.  In high school my main interest was agricultural education, meaning I was part of FFA - Future Farmers of America!  I raised a lamb, germinated beans, and potted plants.  I really enjoyed the Ag department.  Later, at Palomar community college I began to cultivate myself with literature.  From Palomar I transferred to the University of California Irvine.  The campus is gorgeous and the Humanities Department is great.  I left with a Bachelor of Arts in Comparative Literature.  After graduation I wanted to teach English but finding no luck I held a series of odd jobs in Fallbrook; I painted homes, washed windows in high places, walked dogs and later I was a host at the Benihana's off of Poinsettia in Carlsbad.  I'm Back at school at last satisfying prerequisites.

As for my position in the technology continuum, I'm a novice so this is my first blog.  My experience with technology is basic.  I love MP3s.  My sophomore year in high school I was exposed to MP3 file sharing with Napster, it made life great to find music at the touch of a button.  But that all came crashing down.  Now I'm back to buying albums and compiling playlists.  I use Microsoft Office constantly and currently learning to use FileMaker Pro and the 4D client at work.  I'm a data entry clerk for the North Coastal Consortium for Special Education, we too are part of the San Diego County Office of Education but we are located at the North Coastal Regional Education Center in San Marcos.

The College of Education Mission Statement stands out in the courses offered by the California State University San Marcos; such as with the technology tools course.  The COE Mission Statement expects us to work together through the practices it promotes.  I believe the course is the driving force that joins and outfits the considerate learner.  For example the blogs unfold an area to join efforts and rally ideas.  I believe the CSUSM will expose us to many other ideas reflected in the Mission Statement.  I also really like the idea of building "educational equity" I yearn to learn and to build my "educational equity."