Friday, April 1, 2011

Reflection #3 - March 21-April 1

Use the comments section to reflect on Project 500 using the following sentence stems. You can also add any other information or experiences that might not be covered in the stems provided.

The biggest issue with the Chrome machine has been...
Before the Chrome netbook was introduced, students were ….... and now student are......
This week was challenging because...

12 comments:

  1. The biggest issue with the Chrome machine has been to get all the new kids at Kanesville up and running. We start over for 4th quarter with new kids, so it was a challenge to get kids going.
    Before the Chrome netbook was introduced, students were making projects and hanging them up on the wall and now student are creating great projects but more of an e-portfolio.
    This week was challenging because of the new students entering and organizing my google docs.

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  2. The biggest issue with the Chrome machine is that some of them (seems to be the same ones) keep freezing. We lose work time by trying to troubleshoot the issues or having students create a new profile on a different machine.

    Before the Chrome netbook was introduced, students were lugging around three textbooks and a notebook for my class alone. Now students are down to one softcover textbook - practically everything else can be done using the CR48.

    This week was challenging because although I provided all sorts of electronic resources to students via email, they don't have very good organizational skills so I had to keep screenshots on the projector.

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  3. The biggest issue with the Chrome machine for me has been the machines going offline. The students have adapted pretty well and they are very patient.

    Before the Chrome netbook was introduced it was a struggle to keep students interest level up, it seems most are excited about learning.

    This week was challenging because I had to be gone and I wanted to make sure that the students could use the Chromes, so I was a little nervous. But it worked out, because my neighbor also has Chromes and she could go in and open the computer cabinet and lock it up at the end of the day. My sub was very impressed on how well behaved the students were now that they have the computers.

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  4. My biggest issue this week was getting my students started on the computers, again. I've also noticed that I have more students this quarter who are extremely unfamiliar with computers. They are having difficulty completing tasks which I would consider very simple.
    Before the chrome netbook was introduced it was difficult organizing writing for revision and editing, and now students are revising and editing on their own. They are asking classmates for feedback and they are asking me for feedback. More important, they are implementing the feedback.
    This week was challenging because I'm still trying to get rid of old shared collections from students on Google Docs. Have I mentioned that I hate the Home page on Google Docs? Yes. I have.

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  5. The biggest issue with the Chrome notebooks it the lack of connectivity and going offline. Sometimes it seems that we are limited in what we can do because of the computers freezing up.

    The week was challenging because those students who do not regularly show up to class seem to be lost when it comes to basic notebook operation. Before, lost students could quietly remain in the back of the classroom and hope to be undetected. The Chrome notebook often "outs" the students who are lost, and they frequently are the students who are absent often.

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  6. The biggest issue I am seeing is getting the students to place their work in their folders. I remind them to do that right when we start to create our documents, presentations, etc.

    Before the Chrome computers, students didn't want to edit their work once comments were given. I find it is easier and faster to grade papers on line and insert comments and give an overall grade. Students will come and ask to know what they received for a grade and then amny will fix.

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  7. The biggest issue with the Chrome machine has been blocked access to You Tube. In one class, we are creating a photo essay for the novel Night, and one requirement is to have a music video representing the human spirit. It would be nice if some of the blocks could be lifted or certain students be allowed access to a site to complete assignments.


    Before the Chrome netbook was introduced, students were more likely to not participate in a lesson, and now students are more likely to participate. It is the middle group that has made the most change – the ones who could go either way (work or not work). Students, who refuse to work, still refuse to work, however with less disruptive behavior.

    This week was challenging because I needed time to explore more apps and how they work, but fate doesn’t seem to want to be cooperative.

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  8. Before the Chrome netbook was introduced, (some) students would come see me personally before getting makeup work or late assignments ….... and now student are checking in with classmates, figuring out based on the google docs that I have shared with them, or sending me a quick email to get themselves caught up. I like the extra layer of self directedness that the technology can encourage in our kids BUT…

    This week was challenging because I have discovered that I need a mechanism for students notifying me when they have updated their work in the shared collection that they put assignments into. For example, I grade an assignment and if Johnny isn’t finished I put a Z into Pinnacle. Johnny checks his grades and sees he is missing the assignment and quickly finishes and puts it into his Johnny: Gov folder so I can grade it. Johnny doesn’t understand why I don’t click on 175 student Google folders every night and check to see if there are any changes. Unless Johnny mentions that he has in fact updated his collection, that Z is not likely to get changed. I don’t really want kids to email me every time they turn work in (the shared folder system was supposed to save me from hundreds of notification emails for shared student work). Guess I have to think some more on this one… any suggestions?

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  9. The biggest issue with the Chrome machine has been... (like Bev) I seem to have some students who forget to title their documents and put them in the correct collection. The students with the problem are the same kids who often forgot to put their names on their papers and/or left things in their lockers, so it is really just "same problem / different look."

    I wish there was a way to place the doc in the collection while it (doc) was still open. As far as I can tell, the placement of a document into a collection must happen from the document list. If I am wrong about that and there is a way to "organize" from the open doc, please let me know. As it is, my students create the doc, title it, close it, and then drag or "organize" it into their collections. Then they open it again to write on it. That is an extra step that some don't like to take; however, if we don't do it when creating the doc, too many forget to do it at all.

    Before the Chrome netbook was introduced, students were often asking what we had done while they were absent. Now students are able to use the class website for the answer to that question. The class agenda on the website is much more reliable than my memory, and I had never been very organized about that sort of thing. The computer has helped several students who have poor attendance. I also have a student in JDC who has been able to continue interacting with the class through the website, Google docs, and our class blog.

    This week was challenging because several weeks ago I messed up my organizational system by accidentally removing things from the document list rather than clicking "don't show in home" (making them entirely disappear from my view). I am still discovering things that students can see but I cannot (a mess I created myself -- lesson learned!).

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  10. The biggest issue with the Chrome machine has been wanting students to be able to use technology tools that are unusable on these computers, or finding that only a few students are able to log in and use them at a time.

    Before the Chrome netbook was introduced, students were always finding reasons not to be on task, and now students are more on task because there is always a resource available.

    This week was challenging because I lost the email with this link! Sorry!I also need to work on a protocol to minimize classroom disruptions when I'm in the middle of a lesson and suddenly a student or two needs help with troubleshooting, or the lesson is slow to get started because their computers are slow or having problems.

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  11. The biggest issue with the Chrome machine has been lack of support for Java and Flash. I have had several tutorials I wanted to do and could not because of Java and Flash. It is a small problem I know, but I was disappointed that the students didn't get to do some of the cool chemistry things because of it.
    Before the Chrome notebooks students struggled with some of the abstract concepts of chemistry (such as how an atom gives off light) because they couldn't interact directly with the concept. Now students can be engaged through the computer models that actually allow them to manipulate certain aspects of models that we just can't replicate in our lab exercises.
    This week was challenging because students really wanted to use the chat feature all of the time and it became distracting. I thought I had a good protocol in place to limit it, but this week was extra difficult with the chat.

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  12. My biggest issue with the machines has been student impatience with technology issues that are frustrating. If their computer times out they complain/disrupt etc. This is also a classroom management issue, which I have yet to find a great way to deal with.

    My greatest success thus far has been actually having groupwork be productive. (: The kids are working together much more effectively and have done much more complicated projects than they were able to accomplish before.

    This week was very challenging because students are getting spring fever and were not using their computers for work, but trying to play games and FB and chat and just generally be off-task. It was draining and we wasted a lot of time.

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