EDLD+5362+Information+Systems

This was a interesting class and really helped me look beyond the school to the district level.

Week 1 "These students told us that the Internet helps them. It saves them time and allows them to manage their busy lives better, seek out new ideas and experiences, and keep connected with friends and family." (Pew Internet& American Life Projet)  I liked this quote because it gives the importance that the internet has in many students lives. This allows them to better handle on all the different aspects of their lives. It is Important to their schooling but is also become important to other areas as well. If we want to truly engage students we should look at was to integrate those other interest into the school projects.

Week 2 Collecting data is more than a technical process - it is the first step in the pathway to creating knowledge." (Tolley & Shulruf, 2009)      This quote spoke to me this week because as in so many endeavors the start is tedious but the out comes are amazing. In our case the amazing outcome should be better student performance both in schools and after wards in their career. My school has been using CMSto better look at data the past 3 years. It does make reviewing and generating reports easier. It is not nearly as detailed as the PEPsystem used in The Metropolitan School District of Wayne Township. I am grateful to have an IMS like we do but I would love a system that reported on more than tests and access to Individual Education Plans. A system where interests could be tracked and viewed by parents and teachers alike would be a great help in the start of the year in getting to understand your class.  It is also a start to the teachers’ journey of mapping out their plans so that students can all be as successful as possible. As Thompson and Gould mention in __A Homegrown Design for Data Warehousing,__ “… only learning for some was occurring.” We need ensure that all students succeed. Often those that need the most help are the ones that the system fails to give appropriate assistance to. With appropriate data showing teachers what has worked they will be more likely to continue that method than rely on what ahs worked in the past for them.

Week 3 “  What we're seeing is it has a powerful impact in terms of engaging the most important constituent in terms of how a child does in school, and that's the parent," says Brent Harrison, vice president of marketing at PowerSchool. This quote comes from Making Paperwork Fulfilling. I liked this quote because parents are very important to student's success. The more information teachers are able to give to parents about student performance the more they will be able to assist.      Most parents want the best for their children. Giving parents quick access to grades, attendance, even lunch accounts can help them have a better understand their students school lives. Many parents tell me they would like more information about their child's performance. It is hard to get important papers home if the student is trying to keep them away from their parents. It is nice to be able to give grades directly to the parents through the internet. It also allows us to get direct contact to the parents without having to make phone calls.  Another benefit that these SIS have is that they can provide information to parents about other area of their school lives. Our school has been trying to implement a food service connection with our current system, Parent Connection. We heard about a lot of the great features: seeing account balance, view student lunch and breakfast choices, and alerts about allergies. The system has yet to go online after three years of promises. The plan was even told it would soon be coming. When promises are made to parents they need to be honored to keep good faith.

Week 4 “In an Information Age-appropriate paradigm of education, students will be allowed as much time as they need to achieve mastery and move on immediately upon demonstrating that master, requiring a customized pace and sequencing of instruction (Schlechty, 1991).” From An Argument for Clarity: What are learning Management Systems, What are They Not, and What Should They Become?  I really was drawn to this quote as soon as I read it. I have been trying to achieve this in my class through the use of centers. That provides time for me to do remediation for those that need it, on level practice, and challenges for those that excel. This takes a lot of effort on the teachers part preparing the materials, knowing who to pull, and monitoring the centers while working with those that need extra support. All without trying to create leveled groups that might affect a students self worth. As technology allows the lessons to be more individualized and the programs take on more of the tracking of student needs it will free the teacher to be a guide on the journey rather than the Great Oz handing out knowledge. If individual lesson are tailored and presented through technology then the stigmatization of being in the low group will be as easily identified. I believe (I know this sounds like Science Fiction) that lessons will be assessed if not presented online. This will allow a program to slow down and revisit ideas that an individual student may be weak in. I am picturing students all at an individual workstation with a headset, possibly 3-Dglasses, watching and interacting with the lessons provided. I know we are not close to that at the moment but in our lifetime I definitely think it will be a possibility. It would be interesting to see how the teachers role would evolve if the lessons were digital all being presented by a master teacher in the field of study. Would the teacher be their to fix technical issues, and answer individual questions? I am excited to see where we end up by the time my career is over. I think we have the technology to automate many jobs right now (self checkouts, movie vending machines). What will happen as we remove these lower paying jobs from society? I can see why there is an increased need to better educate our students for the 21 st century they will be living and working in.

Week 5 “One of the biggest fears is over blocking, where people can’t get the resources they need. With this we can set up different filtering profiles. Teachers can use YouTube, but kids don’t. Teachers are empowered.” Culbert. He is part of a large district like the one I am part of. My district is not only a large district but a fast growing one as well. I researched and found out that we both use the 8e6 filter system. We picked it because of the tiered access. It allows for greater access for certain users in this case employees versus students. We have blocked social networking sites, and large band width sites from student use to prevent slow down of the network. I can understand the need for this but at the same time I know that some students are trying to use these sites for educational purposes. It is difficult to block out what we don't want when we are not sure what we want. I think as perceptions change the mindset against these sites will to. I believe it is part of our responsibility as educators to teach correct use of these new technologies and like teachers before us improve our students citizenship. The new trick is to improve citizenship in both the real world and digital world. It is interesting to see how students develop deep connections to online friends and yet often see it as not real and fail to realize the damage they can do to others in that environment.