Fall 2006 South Carolina Ed Tech Conference ©2006 Patrick L. Hanks Web-based Communication – The Never Ending Adventure October 6, 2006 11:00 am - 12:00

Fall 2006 South Carolina Ed Tech Conference ©2006 Patrick L. Hanks

Web-based Communication – The Never Ending

Adventure October 6, 2006 <->11:00 am - 12:00 pm <-> Room: MR208

Patrick L. HanksDirector of Instructional

Technology


Excellent Communication is an essential part of student

learning.Increased Communication

More Parent Involvement

Better Student

Achievement

Improved School Morale

Positive Perceptions

of School

So Why Do We Want to Communicate?


Today I Will• Share ways to communicate with

parents.• Focus on the Internet

communication.• Share our district’s experiences –

the good, the bad, and the ugly.• Expose you to Web 2.0

communication features.• Tell you what you learned.


Ways to Communicate with Parents

• Parent Conferences

• Written Notes• School-wide

Meetings• District Public

Meetings• Newsletters

•Telephone calls •School Marquees•Phone dialers•Newspapers•TV•Community Visits


Technology and Communication

• Web Pages • Email• Surveys• Video

– CD/DVD• Web 2.0

– Podcasting– Blogs– Vodcasts– Social bookmarking– Interactive maps – Community Walk

• Riverdeep


First There Was…

The Search Begins…


A guide for the process…

Trials and Tribulations• Many Products, some hard to find

– Web searches– Asking others– Conference vendors



What we were looking for…

• An easy web presence for teachers to post class information and resources.

• A web site for parents to have access to their child’s information i.e. Attendance, grade book, student information and report cards.

• An easy way for teachers to email a class or students or a class of parents.

• An easy way for parents to see all their children’s (even if in different schools) assignments, tests and quizzes, due dates, etc.

• Great technical support


https://www.edline.com/


A quick introduction to Edline – or as we call it,

Lex-Connect!


A School’s Home Page


And another…


And another…


And even a school that hasn’t opened…


Edline Features

• Sign in feature• School picture• Introductory

statement


Edline Features

• News• Contents• Links• Calendar


Edline Features

• Calendar!


Expanded Calendar View


Edline Organization

• District website• School websites

– Class pages– Group pages





We Require:

-Appropriate picture

-NCLB credentials information

-Syllabus

-Grading policy

-Appropriate links to pertinent information



Current Grades


Student Absences


The Rollout Plan• Plan carefully and far in advance• Invite lots of input from teachers,

administrators, students, and parents• Build excitement and buy-in• Share basic product features and do

initial training for teachers and administrators

• Set deadline dates for rollout activities and monitor your progress.


The Rollout Plan• Train school personnel who have

individual program responsibility on their functions and set up a time schedule for their activities.

• Introduce the program to parents in as many ways possible and start signing them up!


Parent Registrations

• Think student information security!• Register face-to-face• Register parents as parents. Do

not give them student accounts!• Decide in advance how to handle

special cases• Split families can be a challenge!


Parents provide

feedback

Increased purpose to use Edline

Teacher inputs

information


Other Edline Features

• Groups– Student– Parent– Teacher

• E-mail



Questions and Answers??

• Why do teachers need webpages?


• Web Pages– Edline– District Website

http://www.lexington1.net• Email

• Surveys

• Video– CD/DVD

• Riverdeep


http://www.lexington1.net/



• Web 2.0•Podcasting•Blogs•Vodcasts•Social bookmarking•Wikipedia


http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/oreilly/tim/news/2005/09/30/what-is-web-20.html

What is Web 2.0???


What is Podcasting?

• Podcasting is the distribution of audio files, such as radio programs, over the internet using RSS syndication for listening on mobile devices and personal computers. A podcast is a web feed of audio and/or video files placed on the Internet for anyone to subscribe


Podcasts

• Third Graders Share Poetry


http://www.lexington1.net/technology/?page=instruct/main.htm

Lexington One District Instructional Technology Main Web

Page

http://learninginhand.com/podcasting/create.html

Learning In Hand

Podcasting Directions


So Why Podcast in Education???

As an Instructional Tool -It's Motivational It's FunIt's SharingIt's CommunicationIt's Differentiated Instruction!

As a Communication Tool – It’s EffectiveIt’s EasyIt’s Far-reaching

http://digitalmedia.oreilly.com/pub/a/oreilly/digitalmedia/2005/07/20/WhatIsPodcasting.html


Other Web 2.0 Stuff

• Blogs• Wikis• Social Bookmarking• Aggregators• And the list grows all the time!


Blogs• A weblog, which is usually shortened

to blog, is a website where regular entries are made (such as in a journal or diary) and presented in reverse chronological order. Blogs often offer commentary or news on a particular subject, such as food, politics, or local news; some function as more personal online diaries.

- Wikipedia

Best of the Education Blog Awards http://www.eschoolnews.com/news/pdf/best_of_the_ed_blogs.pdf


Wikis• A wiki is a type of website that

allows users to add, remove, or otherwise edit and change all content very quickly and easily, sometimes without the need for registration. This ease of interaction and operation makes a wiki an effective tool for collaborative writing.

- Wikipedia

Example – http://teachingwiki.org/


Social Bookmarking

Social bookmarking is a web based service, where shared lists of user-created Internet bookmarks are displayed.

- Wikipedia- Wikipedia

Example - Del.icio.us - http://del.icio.us/popular/


AggregatorsAn aggregator or news aggregator

is a type of software that retrieves syndicated Web content that is supplied in the form of a web feed (RSS, Atom and other XML formats), and that are published by weblogs, podcasts, vlogs, and mainstream mass media websites.

- Wikipedia

Example – Netvibes http://www.netvibes.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_Syndication

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_feed

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RSS_%28file_format%29

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atom_%28standard%29

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XML

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weblog

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Podcasting

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vlog

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mainstream

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_media


For More Web 2.0 Information

• Connected Learning http://davidwarlick.com/connectlearning/

• David Warlick’s Session Handouts• http://handouts.davidwarlick.com/• Dr. Tim Tyson – Cobb County, Georgia• http://mabryonline.org/• Will Richardson – WebLogg-ed• http://www.weblogg-ed.com/• Tim Lauer –Education Weblog• http://tim.lauer.name/

http://davidwarlick.com/connectlearning/

http://handouts.davidwarlick.com/

http://mabryonline.org/


This presentation will be posted on the following website:

http://www.lexington1.net/technology/?page=instruct/main.htm


Documents

Fall 2006 South Carolina Ed Tech Conference ©2006 Patrick L. Hanks Web-based Communication – The Never Ending Adventure October 6, 2006 11:00 am - 12:00