JenGorlewski

[|My Website] (floraceramics.com) My Midterm Report (gorlewskiinternship.wikispaces.com) Final Reflection(et650fa10.wikispaces.com/Gorlewski+Final+Report) Final Presentation (et650fa10.wikispaces.com/Gorlewski+Final+Pres) Annotated Bibliography (gorlewskiinternship.wikispaces.com/Annotated+Bibliography) Timesheets (gorlewskiinternship.wikispaces.com/Timesheets)
 * [[image:Gorlewskibanner.gif width="797" height="209" caption="Gorlewski Banner"]] ||

I am actually in the final touches of my website. I have edited the pages and I continue to add images as more artwork becomes available. This is something that I will probably always be updating. I want to keep the website fresh and up to date with plenty of student artwork as well as my own. Therefore, it will be a continuous process. The only thing I am not looking forward to is making changes when I change my curriculum, which I do all the time. Maybe this will keep me from changing every year, but probably not. I love to try new things. For instance, I need to make a puppet unit now to add to the site because I am adding that to my curriculum. Instead of removing old units from the site, I think I will keep them up. That way all the units I teach, regardless of the year, will be available.
 * November 22**

I have given up on trying to convince the district to unblock my website. I have tried to convince the technology committee. I have tried to argue my point in that they have eChalk now but that will change next year or the year after that. Nothing is stable and I don’t enjoy having to do everything over again. The committee did not seem to care. I also tried to get another teacher to request to unblock it. They still said they won't unblock websites created by teachers. So, that didn't work. I have the feeling that things will probably get even worse in the next few years. I probably won't be able to use wiki soon which will completely destroy the program that I have worked so hard to develop. As far as incorporating technology, teachers have their hands tied. The district has put some many restrictions on the system, teachers can't do anything but type and show PowerPoint presentations.

Despite not being able to use the website at school, I am glad that my homebound students can use it at home, which was the main reason for creating the website in the first place. I think this tool will help me reach the needs of my homebound students, and will in return increase their achievement.


 * November 8 **

I am at the stage where I am putting the finished touches on my website. A couple of those finishing touches included a disclaimer statement and a copyright date and statement. Before I put a copyright symbol on the website, I felt it was extremely necessary to find literature about copyright that I could understand. My knowledge of copyright is very minimal, but after these last couple of weeks, is expanding. I have read many articles on copyright previously, but these were not helpful. I needed a “copyright for dummies” version so I could be completely sure that I understood acceptable use and copyright violations. I found a website (whatiscopyright.org) that has clarified many of my questions and misunderstandings. Unfortunately, as I understand copyright, I am having to change the content of my website to eliminate violations.

I am a huge fan of using the internet to find images that can be useful and inspiring to my students. While this is fine for slideshows and bulletin boards that are viewed only in my classroom, I discovered it is not acceptable to post these images on a website, especially one that I have copyrighted in my name. Searching for images using Google Images, for example, is called spider harvesting. These images are copyrighted and therefore credit needs to be given to the author. Many of the images that I found and had in my website I could no longer find in order to give credit to the author. Even if I could find the author, I didn’t feel comfortable using the images without the author’s consent. I just didn’t feel comfortable having someone else’s work on my website, especially after I put the copyright symbol at the bottom. Therefore, I decided to remove all the images that I took from the internet. I decided to include only images of my work and my students’ work. Because of this, I am having to do more work, taking images of my students’ work, trying to fill in the gaps. Although I feel like I have had to back track because what was almost a finished site now has holes where images need to be, I feel more comfortable with the site itself. I don’t feel like it is a law suite waiting to happen.

With the copyright symbol I felt it was necessary to label the artwork. I felt I needed to put my name to my work. This caused another issue. Should I put the student’s name under the student work? Although they are the author of the work, there is the FERPA law to consider. I had to research the FERPA law to make sure I understood what I could and could not do. Publishing the student’s name when they are on the “do not publish list” is breaking the FERPA law. The proper protocol would be to get the child and the parent to sign a release form. Some of the images are student work from several years ago. I currently do not teach many of the students, some of which have graduated. Because of this, I decided to put “student example” under the student images. I feel that this is the least risky solution. Also, if a student sees his/her artwork on the site and would like his/her name to be under the artwork, I would be more than happy to add his/her name.

From here, I will continue adding images to the examples pages. I feel that this is probably something that will continuously be updated, as I create new work as well as my students. I also need to edit all the pages for spelling and grammatical errors. I am still trying to get my current homebound student to join the communication wiki. This has been delayed because her illness has put her in the hospital. Hopefully when she is well enough, she will join the wiki so I can communicate with her. This is a unique aspect of teaching homebound students. Their progress varies because of their condition. Sometimes illnesses keep the students from working for weeks at a time.


 * October 25**

As we enter the ninth week of the internship, I feel that I am progressing quite nicely with the webpage. I came up with some solutions for my macramé unit, which I was having issues with earlier. I also created several online practice quizzes, which are already embedded. I really only have a few minor additions to make and the website will be complete. I need to create four more quizzes. I also feel that a tutorial on bead-making is probably necessary for the macramé unit. I also think that I am missing a copyright statement or disclaimer at the bottom of my webpages, but I am not sure exactly what I should state. I need to do some research to see what other sites have and act accordingly.

My biggest accomplishment for these two weeks was the macramé unit tutorials. I decided to break the tutorials up by knot type. I scanned in a worksheet that I use in the classroom with the different types of knots on it. I used each knot as an image that links to the tutorial. For the tutorials, I took photos for every step of each knot, which there are nine knots that I teach the students. It was quite a task, but I think it is a good solution. As I finish up the macramé webpage, I am discovering a couple other issues. My students in the classroom use photocopies of handouts that show step by step how to create various bracelets and necklaces. These photocopies are taken from __Making Beautiful Hemp and Bead Jewelry__ by Mickey Baskett. I do not believe scanning in copies of the handouts and placing them on the web will fall under “fair use”. The website is used as a distance education tool, however everyone has access to it. This is very different from something like BlackBoard, where only the students have access to the tools that are posted. This is where my website relies on the “blended” format in order to get all the materials to the students. I think I will put the reference information on the webpage, but not the handouts. I will have to physically give my students the handouts, instead of posting them for downloading. My second (hopefully last) issue deals with bead-making. While I think bead-making is fairly straight forward, I have learned that nothing can be assumed when teaching teenagers. I think I need to have a very short tutorial or video demonstration on bead-making.

As I finish up with the site, I am really wishing I could do a formative evaluation with some of my classroom students. I do have one student that is on homebound and is using the site on a regular basis. However, communication is almost nonexistent. I need to encourage the student somehow to join the communication wiki, so I can monitor her progress and also meet her needs. I have received some feedback via email from the student’s mother, but this is not as helpful as feedback from the actual student. Perhaps my next step would be contacting the mother and encouraging her daughter to join the communication wiki. I am also considering having some of my classroom students join the communication wiki so they can communicate with her as well. It is important for the student to have some sort of social contact with other students, and this may help her feel less alone as a homebound student. The students cannot access the website from school, however, they can access the wiki.

Communication is very important in the distance/blended classroom setting. I need to do more research on how to increase and encourage communication in an online course setting. I think it is just as important for the students to communicate with the instructor as it is to communicate with each other. Considering the dynamics of the situation, I am not sure how to do this in a way that will benefit all the students, both classroom and homebound.


 * October 11**

As week six comes to an end, I feel that I am making considerable progress in the building of my site. I did some experimenting with differnent formats for the demonstration videos. I decided the original videos were way too long, some extending 30 minutes. I decided to take Dr. Smyth's advice and created stills from the video footage. I used the stills to create both shorter videos and tutorials. I do think the shorter videos will still be informative. I believe included enough stills to get the point across to the learner. I also like the tutorial format ([]) because the students can look at the still as they go. They do no have to worry about pausing or rewatching a video.

When it comes to producing video, it is extremely difficult to keep the videos smaller in size. I decided to add audio to one of the videos and this made the video size triple. Also, converting for AVI to SWF increases the size even more drastically. While using the stills instead of video footage helped (it decreased from 100mb to 25mb) I was shocked at how much little additions can add to the size. It is something I never really thought about until I started uploading my videos to the server. The larger ones took nearly 20 minutes. Now, they only take about 5 minutes.

I was concerned about copyright in my last reflection. Originally, I had images by other artists that were copyrighted on my example pages. I decided that this was probably not the best idea. Instead of trying to contact the artists, I decided to put links to the artists' sites instead([]). This way, I won't be breaking any copyright laws, yet the students can still view their artwork. I did this for two of the pages, for Patz Fowle and Adrian Arleo.

Currently, I have one homebound student using the site. It seems to be going well, despite the fact that the site is not complete. She has used some of the coil demonstratios, and she seems to be able to complete the assignments fairly easily. I do want her to start using the communication wiki however. It would be nice to have other students adding the wiki besides her, so she could interact with other students, However, I would like for her to start using the wiki to communicate with me about her progress, ideas, and issues. Since I don't get to interact with her face to face like the other students, I have no idea how she is progressing. I feel that there is a void between her and I and perhaps the communication wiki could help fill this void.

I am having an issue with how to teach the last unit online. I have not made a video yet for the macrame unit because I am not sure how to convey what I need to convey through video and stills. Macrame is creating string art using a series of knots. There are about ten knots with multiple variations that need to be taught. I just don't know how I am going to do it. I have a wonderful book that I copy handouts for the face to face students. Considering copyright laws, I do not feel comfortable putting the handouts on the web. Perhaps I need to make my own handouts using photographs that I can put on the web.

From here, I am going to figure out the macrame unit issue. I am also going to make unit assignment handouts in Word and PDF format. I am also going to start creating the rest of the online quizzes.

**September 27**

As I progress into the next phase of the internship, I am having a lot of ups and downs. I have been frustrated, but also excited and motivated. While I thought I was doing well with the video production, I have discovered that having so many videos (which are large files) is causing problems. Also, due to a respiratory illness, I had to delay recording my Jing videos of slide presentations. So, I decided to move to my next items and return to the videos when I am healthy enough to record my voice. Moving on to other aspects of the website has motivated me. I am learning new things, such as hosting servers and the logistics of uploading files, and creating online quizzes.

<span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 14px; margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">Instead focusing on the videos, I decided to move ahead and focus on gathering, editing, and embedding images into the webpages. For each unit, I have example images for every assignment to help students generate ideas. I have student work, my examples, and other examples from the internet. I am a little concerned about having random images from the internet. Although the site is used for educational purposes, I am concerned about copyright issues. I have given credit to the artist of the famous images, however, I am not sure if that is enough. Perhaps I need to include a reference page and include the websites that I have taken the images from. <span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">As recommended by Dr. Smyth, I did purchase a domain name. I also had to purchase a hosting site, which I did from godaddy.com. I had some issues uploading my data to the server. I uploaded, but when I went to my domain, my website wasn’t there. I originally thought I did something wrong with how my files were organized in folders, so I rearranged the files, which caused major problems with the embedded files. I ended up having to re-embed all the files in all 36 pages. This set me back quite a few hours, which is unfortunate. I ended up calling godaddy again to get some assistance. The problem was how I named my html files. Apparently the server that I am using to host my stuff is a Linux server and is case sensitive. Therefore, since I named my index file Index.html, the server didn’t recognize it as my default home page, which is why I couldn’t see my site. The tech guy was very helpful it fixing the problem. I now know not to save my files with capital letters. It is lowercase from here on out. Ironically, saving my files with capital letters is something I learned in one of my EDET classes. Through all the issues, I feel that I am finally starting to understand how everything works with servers and uploading data.

<span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">Since I was finally experiencing some success with my website, I decided to continue with my exploration. I have never created online quizzes before, and I wasn’t sure how to do it. I figured there was probably some web 2.0 tool out there that would be helpful, so I went on a search. I decided to try proprofs.com. It was actually very simple to use. I created my first online quiz, linked it to the correct page, and tested it. Therefore, my Pinch Pot Unit is officially complete!

<span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">As for my video files, Dr. Smyth recommended that I use the videos that I have filmed, but take still of the various sections of the demonstrations, and create a video that way. I am going to attempt this to see how much it reduces the size of my files, and also to see which format works best. Some of my videos are rather lengthy and it may be beneficial to cut some of the extra stuff out. However, I do think it is beneficial to have some video clips because of the different procedures that I am trying to illustrate.

<span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">**September 13**

<span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">I met with my mentor, Lillian Herrington, and also the other visual arts teacher to discuss what might be needed to set up an online course for the visual arts that could better serve the homebound students that are enrolled in the program. They agreed that a website with demonstration video for the different projects for each unit would be very usefully for the homebound students because often times their homebound teacher has no knowledge of the visual arts in order to help the students with their work. They also thought that handouts and examples of what they students are supposed to make would be helpful. They were not convinced about the online quizzing however. Both felt that quizzes and tests should be proctored by the homebound teacher. This would allow the classroom teacher to have confidence that the student did not cheat or use resources for the answers. I agreed with the ladies, but offered to keep the online quizzes as part of the website as a way of practice and review for the homebound students. Since they are not in class, those students miss out on reviewing and utilizing the terms on a regular basis. An online practice quiz may assist the students in monitoring their own learning.

<span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">I am finding as I am getting started on my webpages for my internship, perhaps I should have organized my timeline for my contract a little bit differently. According to the contract, I was supposed to film and produce all the videos for all the projects in each unit. While it is nice to have the videos completed, it has been very time consuming. Filming all the videos in the first two weeks meant that I had to do an entire year’s worth of demonstrations in 14 days. At this point, I am wondering if it would have been easier to separate the weeks by unit. For example, tackle everything for the Pinch Pot Unit and Coil Pot Unit in the first two weeks, and so on.

<span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">I had some difficulties figuring out how to embed my videos into my webpages. The videos were in the AVI format. I followed the directions given in a Dreamweaver book, using the Plugin option. However, this was unsuccessful. It seemed that I was missing a step because the videos would not play when I previewed on the web browser. I decided the best way to solve my problem was to find software that would convert my AVI videos to the SWF format. I found free software on the internet and converted my videos. I was able to embed and view my videos after that. The most difficult part about this was finding the right software. Some software says it is “free” yet when you convert, there is a huge watermark over the video. My best option seemed to be the DVDVideoSoft software.

<span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">I did not film videos for a few of the units because new techniques were not introduced. I felt there wasn’t a need for a demonstration video. I feel like there is a need to have some sort of video option for these units, however. I have decided that I am going to create Jing videos of PowerPoint presentations in place of the demonstration videos. These PowerPoint presentations will give examples and an overview of the assignment.

<span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">I feel that I am in a good spot as far as my progress on the website. I am actually ahead of schedule because most of my videos have already been produced and embedded. I feel that creating the videos is perhaps the most time-consuming portion of the internship. For the next two weeks, I plan on capturing the Jing videos and continuing to capture, edit, add images to the unit pages.