This is the continuation of Week 1 - Technology Orientation.   If you need to, click to go back to Part 1: Technology Orientation .

Upon completion of these activities, you will be able to use the background technology tools necessary for success in your coursework in the Educational Technology program. In addition, you should become familiar with toggling between BlackBoard, the course wiki, and your wiki.  We will make every effort to help you navigate the course components.

Due to the limitations of BlackBoard, most of your course will reside in a course wiki.  You will also find a link to the course wiki in the left menu bar of the BlackBoard course.  In truth, for most of the course, you will not need to enter BlackBoard.  BlackBoard will be mainly used to house your grades, and provide the jump point to get into Collaborate.  

Please complete these activities (except for the Collaborate class meeting) the first week of class.

You will need a location for storing all your projects and making them accessible to your instructor and your peers. If you already have a server that you use, you may continue to use that for storage but you will need to create a single web page in which you provide links to all of your work.  If you do not have a hosting service or server space elsewhere, I recommend that you use PBWorks or a blog to house all your projects. Some of you may not know what a wiki is - or have heard of them and just aren't sure what all the buzz is about. First, the video below explains, in plain English, what a wiki is.

Although the following video is talking about wikis and blogs for higher education, I am including the video for several reasons.  The strategies and ideas are relevant to all levels - whether K-12 education, higher education or  training in the workforce. He provides a nice overview and some good ideas about the benefits of the wiki and blog. His final point in the video is critical:  Wikis and blogs engage learners. And  finally, the presenter has a nice accent.  I am sure you will find ideas that are relevant to your educational environment.

One comment that I have about his assessment of wikis versus blogs is that blogs are easier to build. I disagree with that - with the right educational wiki, you will find that it is quite easy to set up and populate.  You

You will find that you are going to develop many projects and multiple resources that you want to share with others and retain for yourself. A wiki is a perfect tool to use for this purpose. For the purposes of this course, you will create a page in your wiki to place all your projects.  The link to this page will be posted in the course portal page so that I can easily access your projects.  This saves time and frustration for you and for the instructor.  You do not have to hunt for where to submit your projects, and I do not have to click all over the place for access to your work. In addition, I and others can provide direct feedback to you on your wiki itself.

Thus, all your deliverables for this course will be uploaded and/or linked to YOUR wiki in a page you create for this course.

To do this, you will need to create a page in your wiki that "houses" everything for EDTC 6340.  Generally, a page is created for each course you are taking which is part of your ePortfolio. This has proven to be very helpful for students because they are able to easily access all the work that has been done throughout the program in one handy location.  No frantic searching for a particular project that you worked on in a prior semester. While it may seem that you will remember everything you did, most students have so much work throughout the program that it is easy to lose track. 

Creating the ePortfolio framework is part of the orientation activities. Within this ePortfolio, it is important that you maintain your record of academic credentials to show others that you continue to update your skills and knowledge of effective technology integration.

So, at this time, you will only be required to complete Steps 1, 2, 5, 8, 9 and 11 of the tutorial in addition to creating and populating the page for EDTC 6340, this course.   Follow the directions in the tutorial, remembering to complete only Steps 1, 2, 5, 8, 9 and 11.

If you need any additional information on navigating the wiki, the following page contains brief tutorials on all aspects of PBworks in short tutorials (60 seconds or less).

Request access to edtc 6340 Diigo Group  for Discussion Forums (Do not need to request access to EDTC 6340 Diigo Group) 

Diigo is an outstanding tool in which you can maintain contact with your peers and share information. This will be an additional component of your PLC.

Being quite honest, I am not a big fan of discussion forums.  Not sure why, but I think it is because it can seem like busy work. At the same time, I polled 50 of my students last semester to see how they felt about them and almost all found them to be beneficial. 

However, I have put a twist on it and it will be hosted on Diigo rather than in a typical discussion forum.  In this way, it is my hope that you will learn about the many great features of Diigo and see it as a potential tool that will help you in your work and/or school. 

What is Diigo - you ask. From http://help.diigo.com/teacher-account/faq , Diigo is a social bookmarking service - on steroids. Instead of just sharing bookmarks, Diigo allows you to share the conversation by annotating sites and including notes for others in the group to see. "It is a new kind online research tool that integrates tags and folders, highlighting and clipping, sticky notes, and group-based collaboration, enabling a whole new process of online knowledge management. learning and teaching in the information age."

I would like to see the class use this to the fullest potential by communicating with each other about the sites you will be posting. This, I see, as a very valuable activity that you can continue to use in the future.

For the first two weeks of this course, I would like you to post links into the Diigo discussion forum so that you become familiar with how the forum works in the hopes that you will find that the Diigo discussion board becomes a valuable tool that you will be able to continue using in the future.

For this week, you just need to make sure that you can access the Diigo Group for this class. Follow steps below:

• To request access, please go to https://groups.diigo.com/group/technology-in-education-pk_20 and click on the Apply to join this group button as shown below. This button is on the right just above Most Active Members.

• To join the group, you must have a Diigo account.  If you do not have one, then you will be taken to the appropriate place to set up an account. I recommend that you apply for a Diigo educator account because it includes many additional features for free.

• Please note: If you have a "cute" name for your Diigo account, please join this group under a name that will be readily recognized by your instructor or prepare to add your name at the end of each posting.  When you use an obscure or unusual name, it is very frustrating for the host - or me - to have to figure out who you are and give you credit for contributions.

• In addition to joining the group, please view the brief Research, Share and Collaborate videos below. These will give you an idea of the power behind Diigo groups discussion.  More details about the requirements for host will be provided when the activity is to begin.
• Details on how to post to the Diigo Group will be detailed in a future unit.

RESEARCH

Diigo V4: Research ~ annotate, archive, organize from diigobuzz on Vimeo.

SHARE

Diigo V4 Sharing ~ build a personal learning network from diigobuzz on Vimeo.

COLLABORATE

Diigo V4: Collaborate~ Create a Group Knowledge Repository from diigobuzz on Vimeo.

Each of you will be presenting the three Web 2.0 tools that you selected to work with at the end of the semester.  You will have 20 minutes in which to wow us in your presentation.  Please sign up for your presentation slot in the bottom chart on the EDTC 6340 Course Portal Page.

We will NOT be meeting synchronously the first week of class. This is intentional and gives you time to get all this technology under your belt before the first meeting and hopefully diminishes some stress students (and the instructor) feels at the beginning of the semester.  We will be meeting synchronously through Collaborate the second week and approximately every two weeks during the semester.  The tentative meeting time is Tuesdays at 6:30 PM in the Collaborate Meeting Room. The weeks we will be meeting can be found on the Course Calendar. Sometimes, class might be cancelled, depending on the world around us.  I make every effort to post any Collaborate cancellation in the Course Calendar in addition to emailing you.  So, it can be helpful to check the calendar just before you head to class.

To use Collaborate, you first need to make sure that you have a headset that has a microphone. Headsets can be purchased at Best Buy, Office Depot, Staples, WalMart, etc. for about $20.00. I recently discovered that I can even use my phone earbuds with the mic for Collaborate. However, in most cases, the better your equipment is, the better it is for you and your peers in class. 

Critical:  Although this sometimes gets ignored, you MUST have a headset with microphone even if you have a computer with a built in microphone and speakers. Using the built-in speakers and microphone will cause the others in the class to hear an annoying echo. Echo. Echo. Echo.  Echo. Please be advised that you will be called out by your peers if you cause an echo.  Please invest in a headset and mic!

You can access the room through BlackBoard by clicking on the Collaborate link in the left sidebar menu. Once you have your headset with microphone, you can access Collaborate through the link in your UTB course menu sidebar to the left.  Before the first meeting, please go into Collaborate and make sure you can speak and hear in the course.  This is done by entering the class and going into Audio Setup Wizard.  You are all moderators in the Collaborate room, thus you can go into Collaborate and use all the features once in the course.

Some critical things to consider for making your visits to Collaborate happy times:

• Gremlins and their cousins have been known to interrupt the meetings.  We just go forward and pretend that they are not bothering us. Despite multiple attempts to trouble-shoot the problems, those same gremlins become conspicuously absent when someone comes into the room to observe. I do find that those with the most problems are infrequent users of the technology.
• Be patient during the gremlin-caused glitches. We all learn from glitches and find ways around them that work effectively. 
• PLEASE NOTE: In most classes, you are all moderators. This gives you access to all the tools in Collaborate and allows you to click on the record button when I forget. You can also upload files and conduct polls and more. However, since you are moderators, you cannot private chat with each other. Hence, be very careful.  Not only will NSA likely be listening in to your conversation and reading your chats, but your colleagues and instructor will see it as well. 
• Finally, if you have to miss a Collaborate session, you must listen to the archived meeting of any Collaborate session that you miss and send a reflection to the others in the class via listserv to receive full participation credit.  This is not a formal document and I am not concerned about APA or other formatting. Just reflect on your thoughts as you view the archive and make pertinent responses to questions that may be posed.  Constructively add to the conversation with your pertinent and relvant thoughts. How long, you say?  250-300 words should be sufficient. 

You will be able to go in early to make sure you are up and running. In fact, since you are a moderator, you can go into Collaborate and use the room any time you need to.

One Final (but very important) Note:

Password Log:

It is not as critical now, it seems, since we are pretty much used to multiple logins, but I used to get many complaints about  all the logins that I created a little form to keep track of the many logins for the course. You will be opening many accounts and it might help  you to find a way to keep track of your logins. I use RoboForm and it is a huge lifesaver - or brainsaver since I do not have to remember my hundreds of passwords and usernames.   If you want to keep them all together in one place for this course, click here for a handy offline log that you can add to as you open accounts.

Before you begin working on the content for this course, it is important to ensure that you know how to do basic troubleshooting for your computer - when you understand the basic skills, and can troubleshoot your technology, then it will be easy for you to help your students.  Please review the following sites on troubleshooting skills.

• Basic Computer Trouble Shooting Guide: http://www.ccsd.k12.ny.us/tech/troubleshooting.htm 
• 11 Tips for Troubleshooting Software: http://www.techsoup.org/support/articles-and-how-tos/eleven-tips-for-troubleshooting-software 
• 5 Basic Tips for When You are Having Problems with Emails: http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/quick-troubleshooting-tips-problems-sending-email/ 

After reviewing the three articles, please go to QuizBean and take the quiz.

Reflections

Through many iterations of this and other online courses, I have found that spending the first week to learn the fundamental tools you will be using and basic troubleshooting skills prevents frustration and aggravation later on. While some instructors prefer to jump right in to the content without a "breaking in" period, I have found that taking the first week to learn basic skills decreases problems occurring later.  You should now have completed this example of a technology orientation for the online learner. In your wiki page, please reflect on the importance of this activity for the online learner.  How did going through this activity make you feel?  Did you feel more (or less) confident about online learning after completing this activity?  Were the directions understandable? If you have taken other online courses that did not have a technology orientation, was this experience more or less helpful?  Finally, how important do you think this activity would benefit the K-12 online learner?

You have now successfully completed the technology orientation and are ready to move forward.