Reflection 3

Although I felt all 10 researched principles relating to the AFL were extremely appropriate and well defined, I am drawn more toward the AFL which recognizes the full range of achievement by all learners. To me, it's in the same category as Ron Edmonds would have put it, all students can learn. The fundamental nature of recognition for all learners, which includes a full range of the learning environment, is a profound statement for teachers to adhere to. I believe it sets the stage for involvement between teacher and student. It also seems to have an effect of engagement so teachers have the game plan of student learning right up front. Achievement calls for an immediate association to all sorts of action such as best practices, proper pedagogy, better analyzing, more hands-on, and projects. When teachers make a full range of achievement by their students the focus, students benefit.

Electronic Portfolio assessment gives a clearer picture of what a person has created throughout his career in one neat little electronic package for possible assessment. It offers a way to analyze someone’s work, possibly in the selection of candidates for a job, via the Web. The potential is there for all types of purposes. For instance, an artist turns in a portfolio of all of his paintings, electronically. It’s a show-and-tell story of his creative efforts without hauling in the many pages of his/her artistic work. In earlier years, portfolios were stored in boxes and three-ring binders and other such devices. This worked fine for the paper years, but it misses many ways of communicating one’s thoughts and ideas. Recently, teachers, students, and business people have found electronic portfolios as a very effective way to present his/her information through visuals, audio, and video formats. Documents are now stored on hard drives, CD-ROM in digital formats such as text documents, picture files, web pages, digital video, Excel files, and Powerpoints. As you can see, we have come a long way BABY! This is OUR potential in today’s world.

My portfolio just might cause me to seek a job back into the education field one day. A glimpse back into the past of my principalship was somewhat satisfying. To see past work which was successful is inspiring.

Reflection 2

My findings were just "Shocking". When I went to the "Dihydrogen Monoxide" website and dissected its structure, I realized Dihydrogen Monoxide really was... H2O. At first, it really looked legitimate, but after further investigation, it led me to a very cleverly designed hoax. It was completely concealed from the initial appearance. However, further investigation led me to the belief that it was just an intellectual way of showing people why they should not believe everything read on the Internet. It was masterfully done so people would acquire that "watch out" syndrome while doing their research on the Internet. Now I know why most people think the web is the "truth and nothing but the truth". Very startling! As the saying goes, if it's on the net it must be true, of course it's NOT. What an eye-opener. My thinking now reflects caution when searching on the web. No more taking the first website that pops up without analyzing the structure first. No longer will I just use the most popular browser. Analyzing the URL will be one key in establishing good and sound research. Although my past research projects, I feel now, might not have been well rooted, I feel reasonably assured my research was sound. Using a variety of sources which include books, periodicals, magazines, newspapers, etc., which I do, establishes the needed checks and balances. But now this gives me new tools to trust.

Implications for students who do not have the proper instructions for researching on the net are alarming. If students believe the Internet is a sound, empirical source of truth, and a plethora of final information, they are surely doomed to being deceived and in danger of enslavement. A society just cannot remain healthy with this trend of thought. A remedy could begin in our schools by making all students take classes which incorporate "Internet savvy research". I think mid-management would be the starting point for this change to take place. They have the power to get courses approved and implemented. However, knowledge is the major key in making educators cognizant of the Internet's fallacies and schemes.

Google Reader is an excellent tool in keeping data at your fingertips. It certainly can enhance your organizational skills. There are so many feeds one uses today while exploring the net for research and reading pleasures. Now that I know what Google Reader is and how it works, I will begin using it to help organize my URL stuff.

Wikis have arrived for me at the right time. I am planning a camping trip in August with my wife and her sister. Her sister lives miles from us and we just can't always catch each other by phone most of the time or it's just not convenient. E-mails are okay but a wiki is a much better communicator to get group projects done. I will be incorporating my wiki for our August camping trip. Yes, it is up and running at http://whiteswikione.wikispaces.com/. It is not an original idea but it gets me into a project by using it which is a learning device. When the time comes to do other projects, I will have the needed skill to implement this technology. One advantage of a wiki is its flexibility and using it as a collaborative communicator. Wikis evolve as a result of the group adding, subtracting, and moving material within the document. A disadvantage could be people being mischievous. Since all the participants who have been invited can edit and modify the wiki, a real potential for danger is present. Personally, I think it can only handle small to medium-size groups (3 - 75): otherwise, it can become quite cumbersome.

I would like to investigate other 2.0 technologies such as podcasting and Flickr. I believe this would be just great fun and beneficial for me in my new career, retirement.