Gobble-gobble...Do You Speak Password?

I am writing to you from the great state of Pennsylvania.  I am visiting with family, some of whom I have not seen in three years. 
  It is amazing how the young ones seems to change so drastically while we more mature folks seem to be "stable". In our demeanor and physical appearance.  The college kids are smarter, taller, and more reluctant to hang out unless it involves a free meal.  The young ones, if they stop long enough, appear to develop into little people before your very eyes.  Needless to say, it was worth the 11 hour drive to be with the ones I love.

Oddly, I seem to have become my families personal technology consultant.  They all want to know what tools I am using and demand that I install the best apps on their i-phones...etc.  In fact, I spent most of the day migrating my mother's phone contacts from her defunct 4s to the replacement from Apple.  Her personal network is a mass of forgettable passwords and identities that have locked her out.  What a "web" we weave.

This got me thinking about web security and password management.  I started by defining "password management."  What is it?  How does it work?  What tools perform this task?  I have a useful article on Wikipedia:  http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Password_manager. It seems that a web based tool would work best for my mother.  She uses many tools including a laptop, an I pad, and an i-phone (pretty hip for a 65 year old!.


Next I started to investigate products.  I found a PC magazine article on top rated website management tools:  http://mobile.pcmag.com/device2/article.php?CALL_URL=http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2381432,00.asp.  I'll be trying out the free (because we like free) password management app called lastpass: http://lastpass.com/.  I will post my review after we use it for a while.

Intervention

It's that time of the semester when students and parents start to panic. Understandable, they all want a means to pass...and I want to provide them with a path to do so. A few years ago, I read a book entitled, No Excuses (http://www.amazon.com/No-Excuses-Lessons-High-Performing-High-Poverty/dp/0891950907). I believe that all students can be successful in my class and am determined to meet my personal goal of an 80% passing rate for both my classes.

To achieve this goal, I thought I'd borrow some best practices from the traditional classroom. Here are some of the things that I do to help students, but I would love to hear about other ideas for reaching these students in the online environment.
 Reminder E-mail –As I grade, send out an e-mail the Wednesday before the benchmark deadline for each outstanding assignment. Copy personal e-mail, parents, and facilitators.

1. Office hours -Host a live drop-in session
2. Targeted Live Sessions (Differentiation) –If students are not turning in or not doing well on a particular assignment, invite them to complete the assignment together in a live session after some instruction or provide them with samples of successful student work.
3. Proactive Page -“I noticed that you are having some trouble. What can I do to help you?”
4. Contact –call and speak in person with students, parents, and facilitators with a specific list of items that can still be turned in. Follow up with an e-mail documenting the call and add to the communication log.
5. Quiz-Test Corrections –A fantastic way for student remediation and for teachers to target misconceptions is through quiz and test corrections.
6. Parent-Student Conferences –Meet with student via live meeting software to review grades and opportunities to improve.
7. Learning Contracts –Create a written contract that establishes a “trial period” in which students must complete certain task to display their commitment and determination. If students meet this criteria, allow them to turn in late assignments. I believe this helps to build character and teach life lessons as well as support student success.

Synergy Explosion

Wow!  Things seem to really inter-relate lately.  So many of the threads in my academic studies are crossing into my practice at the Georgia Virtual School.  Check out some of the things that I'm doing.

@Learning

I'm taking two classes at Valdosta State University this fall as part of my EdS in Instructional Design:  8100, a theory class and 8200, an introduction to common practices course.  In 8100, we are studying the five domains (Design, Development, Utilization, Management, and Evaluation) and the theories that support each.  Right now, we are discussing applications of the Information Processing Theory and Constructivism.

Interestingly enough, Constructivism is also a prominent theory in language acquisition.  Many of applications of this theory in Instructional Design (ID) are also best practices in language instruction.  Please see my reflection:

In 8200, we are focusing on creating a course using the ADDIE model of ID.  My goal is to make assessing student's verbal communication in World Languages faster and easier for instructors at the Georgia Virtual School.


I will be demonstrating how to create and use a web tool called Voicethread (www.voicethread.com). I will be teaching instructors to apply a procedure to create a tool for assessing students. There is no hierarchical range of taxonomies in this procedure. Every step of the process falls under intellectual rule using in Gagné's taxonomy. It is a step by step method to produce some discernible end. It is linear and has directional flow. Each step must be completed sequentially. The process has a definitive beginning (create a Voicethread account) and ending (embed the Voicethread in a news announcement or homepage widget). Therefore, I will use Procedural Task Analysis.


I am in the analysis stage.  I have conducted a needs analysis and estimate that I will save my organization  over half a million dollars annually as follows:


There are two major sources of monetary loss in the process of conversational assessment are:  loss of time and frustration to teachers. 


Using Voicethread could recover a "Loss of time" of 5 minutes (12-7) per student.  With an average of 50 students per teacher in each class, this  equates to a potential loss of 250 minutes per class.  Georgia Virtual School (GVS) teaches approximately 54 classes per year.   Assuming an average teacher salary of $48,300 (See http://teacherportal.com/salary/Georgia-teacher-salary) that equates to 250 hours per year at an average teacher cost of  33.54 per hour (48,300/(9 months x 4 weeks x 40 hours)=48,300/1,440) or $8,385 per year per teacher.  Multiple that figure by the 54 classes costs $377,325 per annum.
"Frustration to teachers" can be measure in terms of opportunity cost.  The opportunity cost of completing other activities is equivalent to "loss of time" so the $377,325 can be used to capture this cost.

Loss of time	$377325
Diminished Quality of Feedback	$377325
Total Cost  .	$745,650 for 45 teachers per annum

Lastly, I am taking the last of my required on-line certification courses.  The class at RESA is also requiring development of one unit of a course.  I plan to complete the first chapter of my game/problem based plan for a French 1 class "Mission Possible."



Coincidentally, I attended an i-Nacol webinar on the topic of Competency-based Learning: Highlights of Promising Practices and Policy Frameworks.  I'm trying to align a problem based lesson with the competencies described in the GPS and with the best practices in constructivism within the frame work of online education.  Interesting stuff!

@GVS
So far, so good.  Reporting on my goals:

• 80% passing rate-  Right now, I've got at least 80% of the class passing.  It's been an effort of assimilation.  Most of the students just don't understand how to use the course schedule and online tools.  I'm confident that I will achieve this goal.
• Want students to take Le Grand Concourse through AATF-I think I may have missed the boat on this one, at least for this semester. It appears that the test is administered in the Spring. I will follow up with my department chair about doing this in the Spring.
• Want to use TPRS in one synchronous session.-Since we are migrating to Adobe Connect, this might be a great chance to use our new tool to try TPRS in a live session.  Working on it.
• Want to enhance the WL department website

@Sports

We ended the USTA season with a run to the semi-finals for city playoffs.  We all improved this season and should dominate next season.  I want another trip to States.

I started off my Fall ALTA season with a loss on Thursday and a win on Sunday.  Sunday was my first victory at A7, so I can now legitimately call myself an "A" level player (he-he)!  As team, both my Sienna Thursday ladies and Hampton Sunday women won.  Off to a very strong start!
  

@Home

Life is as crazy as always.  We are a busy family!

Trey is playing baseball.  His first game was last night.  I'm proud to say that he connected with the first pitch nicely his first time ever at bat.  I think we have a promising batter on our hands.

Davin and Trey are participating in Cub Scouts.  Davin is co-den leader.  Trey missed the first meeting with a cough and fatigue, but Davin managed to pick up his first assignment and possible crafts badge.  We are working on it!

Giddy up!

@Learning
So as it turns out, I'm taking three courses this fall:  two at Valdosta State and one at Pioneer RESA.  

The Pioneer RESA course is the last of three to earn my on-line teaching certification.  The focus is a project to create an online lessson.  I think I might try to use Moodle as it is open source and free.  It's definitely a tool that I can use.  I'll look forward to learning more about it.


My Valdosta classes are excellent.  I'm really enjoying being a student again, although the experience has definately changed.  I bought both my text books on-line:  one from Barnes and Noble via Nook Study and one from eCampus.  Both have awesome note taking and highlighting features that can be exported or printed out.  I could have really used these tools in some of my econ theory classes back at Bucknell!


I'm learning about the domains of the Instructional Technology field.  DDUME- Design, Development, Utlization, Management, and Evaluation.  I'm particularly interested in the sub-domains of design and evaluation.  Problem analysis, the foundation of course design, is fascinating and something that will truly benefit my work at Georgia Vitual.  I also find value in learning about how to evaluate resources and programs.  Good stuff!  I love theories!


@GVS
I'm so psyched to have my largest enrollment ever!  I've been fluctuating between 80-85 students in two different courses, French 2a and French 2b.  Previously, my largest enrollment was 45.  I'm dealing well with the increase.  So far, the majority of students are on schedule, learning, and succeeding.   We have had a few technology bumps, but I think we're on the straight and narrow now.  

There are so many factors that can hinder student access.  Some students are using Internet Explorer which doesn't support all of the features of the D2L learning management system that we use.  It also seems to cause problems with the Softchalk presentation software used in my course to present materials.  Thus, I've had to campaign that all student use Mozilla Firefox and ensure that they have the latest version.  Add to this issue that most student do not have the authority to install or update software.  So, we have to involve the school technology professional.  This is a pretty good example of some of the challenges my students and I face throughout the semester.  It's not just the academics!



@Sports
I can't be disappointed.  My USTA 3.5 team won their division this summer.  We went all the way to the city semi-finals before losing to a team that we beat during the regular season.  I can't help but note that someone from our division has made it to the semis every season.  We play some good tennis and keep getting better.


We started practice for the ALTA season.  We're playing A7 again (ouch!).  Matches start in two weeks.  Looking forward to improving my game!


I think a broke my little toe on my right foot.  It hurts when I walk barefoot, but I'm fine in hard soled shoes.  I have not attempted to run this week and am falling behind my training schedule.  Even if it hurst, I've gotta run this week.  My goal is to get in 20 miles.


@Home
Trey has started back at school.  We're still getting used to the schedule.  He was such an early riser this summer.  Now, he's exhausted and we have to drag him out of bed.  We'll get used to it.


We're going to be busy and have some fun this fall.  Trey will be playing little league baseball for the first time.  We are all really looking forward to cheering him on and watching him play.  He's also asked to sign up for Cub Scouts.  He's going to look so cute in that uniform.  I think he'll love it.  
With his activities, my tennis and Davin's tennis, we'll be busy every night of the week.  Giddy up!  It's on!

Back to the drawing (white) board again!

@Learning
I finished my Atomic Learning class at Valdosta State University.  I ended up with a high "A".  Atomic Learning is a great resource for  software training.  I learned a lot about wikis in my last tutorial.  I'm hoping to use this new found knowledge to enhance the GVS World Language Department's website.  I'd like it make it more used and useable as a resource to our teachers.
Wiki Tutorial Reflection




I'm eager to start my fall classes.  I'm taking:

• ITED 8100 Theories, Models, and Perspectives of Instructional Technology-
  Survey and analysis of the theoretical perspectives change, communication, diffusion, system, learning, and instruction as applied in instructional technology.
• ITED 8200 Instructional Design for Training and Education- Application of systematic design principles to address an identified need in a training or education
  context. This course includes problem identification, message design, instructional strategies, and learner characteristics.

Both look like very interesting courses and should inform my instruction at GVS.  I'm excited to get started in two weeks.


@GVS
I'm getting ready for the fall semester to start next week.  My course is set up and I've drafted a welcome presentation.  Student enrollment keeps going up.  I've been told to expect at least 80 students, possibly more.  I can't wait!

I have a few goals for the semester:

• 80% passing rate
• Want students to take Le Grand Concourse through AATF
• Want to use TPRS in one synchronous session. 
• Want to enhance the WL department website

@Athletics

We had a surprising outcome in our 3.5 USTA division.  After losing two matches, we still ended up with the best record and won the division.  It was a very competitive division and we had a great season.  The fence sign is already up :)!

As division winners, we are in the city playoff bracket.  We had a GRUELING first round versus the ladies from Sugar Creek. They were very aggressive and consistent players.  We managed to win three lines, but it came down to line three doubles.  My partner and I played three sets in burning hot temperatures.  We took the line, 4-6, 7-6, 6-4.  I played really well and enjoyed every second of the competition.


We play at Old Atlanta Racquet Club this Sunday in the quarter finals.  We have a very strong line up and I think we can take at least three lines.  We're likely to face Central Park, from our division, in the semi-finals.  All of us are shooting for cities in the hope that we can make another run at the state title.  Great stuff!

@Home
We finally finished Trey's playground.  I still need to mulch the play area, but he's already started going down the slide and playing on the swings.  I am hoping it gets him outside more often.

Trey's swimming and tennis are coming along nicely.  Trey can swim a full length of our 25 yard pool without any assistance.  I'm hoping to get him on swim team at the new Cumming Aquatic Center next summer.  He's part of a proud swimming legacy.  I hope that he loves it as much as I always have.   Trey's swing is also progressing.  He's been taking lessons with Zenda Greibenow for most of the summer.  He can hit a forehand and backhand and rally a little.  I am working to put together an 8 and under league in Hampton.  I think the kids would really enjoy playing matches.

After a great summer, Trey is ready to head back to school on Thursday next week.  He'll be starting first grade.  I know that he loves school and will enjoy his new class.  There will be a lot of familiar faces on the bus this fall.  Three boys in our side of the neighborhood start kindergarten.  Trey is excited to be the "big kid".  I can hardly believe my little man is beginning first grade.  Time flies!