Filezilla

I have been working for the last several days trying to sort out Filezilla, the program I planned to use to upload my webquest onto the internet.

I have used the program before to upload a website, but no longer had the old password I used. I spoke with Tech Support, Rob, and Mr. Riedl. None of them could really give me a clear idea of what to do and recommended I check with someone else.

I decided before I sought help again to investigate some more myself to see what was possible.

I had discovered that Filezilla could be downloaded for free onto my computer, and thought perhaps that might be the way to solve my problem. I spoke with Megan, my reference on technology when I hit a wall, and she wasn't sure.

Last night she emailed me with a page from the ASU website that explained the process and that she had gotten it to work herself.

I downloaded the program last night and was able to get halfway through before I was missing a piece. I am going to try again today or investigate the computers in the education building to see if I can do the same thing there that I was able to do on my home computer.

Working

I received an email back from Dick Riedl. I am going to try and see what server I uploaded my original website to so that we can get the issue sorted out. I'm hopeful from his email that we will either find my original password or he will let me know about another free source from the college i can use upload my webquest.

I worked on putting together my survey, research question and purpose statement so that I can make some more progress on the project. My next goal is to start scripting out what I want to include on the webquest pages and begin building the webquest. Kathy Moore is looking at activating the porject on October 4th, so once the project is completed, I can have more of the finished products to include on the webquest.

I am also looking at scanning in some of the pictures from my book sources as well from online to include in the webquest.

Working Weekend

This weekend, I am working on developing my survey for my teachers. I am also assessing to make sure that what I have developed so far will work for my project. I want to make sure before I move to far forward that my project is working and I will be able to accomplish what I need to in terms of the class.

My big concern is trying to find a way to use Filezilla to upload my project. I have used it before but cannot remember my original password. Without that, I cannot complete my upload. I am hoping that Dick Riedl will be able to help, but if not, I will be investigating other sources for uploading my webquest.

I have found a different web design program I am going to try called iWeb. it is available on the Macs in the library and will make for a more engaging webquest than what I would be able to create using Dreamweaver.

Emergency Help

On Thursday, Sara sent out a rather disheartening email. Upon sharing her thoughts about a blog for Safari Montage with her librarians, she was informed that their teachers were to busy to read one more thing. She felt brushed off by the librarians and that they no longer wanted her there. She was in a quandary about what to do from this point.

I emailed back with some thoughts and suggestions to try and adapt to what the librarians wanted or to think about working with another library.

Sara decided to switch to another school and will be working with Valle Crucis instead. When last I spoke to her, she had talked with the librarian at Valle Crucis, who she had a relationship with, and she was thrilled to have Sara and thought the project sounded like a great idea. Sara was relieved that she would not have to start searching again for a new idea to use.

Group Meeting

Wednesday before class, our group meet again in person to discuss how everyone was progressing.

Mary informed us that she was making progress on her project but didn't have many new developments to share.

Sara was unsure from our last meeting about doing a pathfinder or wiki for her project. We brainstormed for other ideas and she thought the idea of a blog with daily updates about great videos on Safari Montage would suit her needs. She is also an experienced blogger and thought the blog format would be a way to really personalize the site to her school.

James is still looking at circulation issues and how best to incorporate technology into his project. The group brainstormed for ideas and James felt one or two of our suggestions were really possibilities and would look into them further.

I shared with the group what I was doing in terms of developing my survey and looking into format and content area for the webquest.

I do not know what Denise is doing because she has not come to any of our meetings. She has been included in all group emails to remind everyone about dates and times, but I have received no response from her.

Meeting with Mary

Sunday I met with Mary to go over what we needed to get accomplished for the project. Unfortunately, Amanda couldn't meet with us because she is out of town, but we updated her on what we got completed.

I am creating a website that will accompany a project she is doing with Blowing Rock Elementary. Mary and Amanda are doing a lesson on immigration where they will be working with the 5th grade social studies teacher as well as Kathy Moore. The students will learn about immigrants coming to America at the turn of the 20th century. Students will be researching reasons why immigrants left countries in Eastern Europe as well as North America. Students will create their own "passport" based on some pre-determined specifications and use this information in small groups to travel through a mini Ellis Island that will be created in the library. Based on their research and passport, they will meet with judges who will determine if they can enter the country or not.

My website will be a way to house all the information that is used during the lesson. It will also be a way for other teachers to access the information to use in their own school and a way to keep the information organized so that Kathy Moore can use the information over again.

To see if other teachers would be interested in using the program, I am going to send out a survey to the other teachers in Watauga County to get their feedback. The teachers at Blowing Rock are incredibly excited about the project and the website but I want to see if it would be beneficial to others.

On the website, I am looking at having most of these components:
Background information describing the project
Background information on Ellis Island
Background information on the Statue of Liberty
Background information on immigrant homelands
Files of finished passports
Video of the completed project
Finished script to be used in mini Ellis Island

Now I am looking at formatting the website and where to post the website.

My issue is that I would like to use Dreamweaver to create the project and Filezilla to upload it onto my free ASU domain space. The problem is that I can't remember the password I used to originally create a website using Filezilla and without that I can't upload using Filezilla. I need a way to either change the password, find out what I used or another system to upload a website that gives me more flexibility in terms of design.

Update on Learning Groups

Our group meet before class on Wednesday to discuss what was happening with their projects.

Mary and I have already developed our ideas and are starting to put them in place. Because James and Sara are new, they have ideas but are now trying to decide format (in the case of Sara) or how technology incorporates (in the case of James).

I sent out an email last night reminding everyone that on the days we meet face to face, we will meet at 5:30 for anyone who wants to discuss the progress of their projects.

On the days we meet online, we are going to meet on email chat at 5:30 for anyone who wants to discuss the progress of their projects.

I sent the email to make clear to everyone what is going on because I still have no responses from some members of the group.

More from Learning Group

Yesterday, I was able to get in touch with Sara in regards to what she is working on for her action research.

She interviewed the librarians at Hardin Park Elementary and found out they are beginning to use a new program called Safari Montage. It is an amazing database full of video clips that can be used in the classroom.

The issue the teachers and librarians are encountering is knowing what is out there and how to search for it. Sara is looking into doing that for her project and I thought it was a great idea. This would work well for a pathfinder and make the teacher's lives a lot easier.

I also shared with Sara what I was considering doing for my project.

Action Research Project

This afternoon I was able to make some more progress on my project.

I had spoke with Mary and Amanda Perron over the summer about a project they were working on at Blowing Rock Elementary dealing with immigration. They wanted to bring awareness to what we consider an immigrant. They were focusing on 5th graders because the social studies curriculum covers immigration. The goal was to help students research the different early immigrants to the US, create their own immigrant identity, and use it at an imaginary Ellis Island set up in the library. Based on how students answer pre-determined questions, they would either be detained, deported, or admitted into the country.

I thought this was a wonderful project that needed something comprehensive to pull all the pieces together to give teachers the potential to use it year after year. I am going to create a website that would house all the information needed for the project, so that any teacher, in any school or state, could use this themselves.

I am looking at the possibility of making the Ellis Island experience virtual so that students would work through the project on the computer in case a school couldn't create a physical Ellis Island at their school. This would work similar to a choose-your-own-adventure book where as the students picked certain qualifications they would either be detained, deported, or admitted.

Now I am looking at surveying 5th grade teachers, pre- and post-project to determine if they would use it or not. The 5th grade teacher at Blowing Rock Elementary is in love with the idea, but I need more feedback than that.

Learning Group

My learning group has made some initial connections but it has been difficult. Trying to find a time when everyone can meet is tough because of where we are in the program. Mary and I are almost done, Denise falls somewhere in the middle, and Sara and James are just starting.

Currently, we are communicating through email as a way to let everyone share what they are thinking about doing for their project. I haven't gotten much feedback from anyone, but I'm hoping to hear more from the rest of the group soon.

I have spoken with Mary and she feels fairly strongly about what she is doing. We are considering working together on a larger project, but creating our own individual pieces of the project.

Because I haven't heard from all the group members, I'm not sure if they are struggling with the concept or just needed to complete their librarian interviews before they could get a clear picture of what they want/need to do. They are brand new to the program and may need some more time to develop their ideas. Hopefully after Wednesday's class they will have a better idea of the direction they want to take.

Interview

For my interview, I spoke with Meg Eggleton, librarian at Alexander Central High School. Mrs. Eggleton has worked at the elementary, middle and high school level in the media center, with the last 10 years spent at Alexander Central. As the only high school in the county, the student population is large.

In talking about how they use technology in the library, Mrs. Eggleton spends much of her time with the other library workers supervising students and classes in one of the school's computer labs. She does some troubleshooting with computers, but the school has an IT person who handles most of that work.

Classes come into the library sporadically with some English teachers being the most frequent visitors. Juniors and seniors often come with their English classes to help research for the senior projects. Mrs. Eggleton then has some opportunity to help the students search the Internet for resources or help find materials through the library's catalog.

Mrs. Eggleton gets little opportunity to use technology with students in the library. Few teachers bring their students in for tutorials in basic programs because most high school students receive some sort of computer class that shares with them the basics.

One struggle the school and Mrs. Eggleton face is the fact the community is small and not overly wealthy, so not all students have access to a computer at home in order to develop more skills. Many of the students rely on time they can spend in the computer labs in order to get work done for classes.

Mrs. Eggleton often attends conferences to learn new processes or information that she takes back to share with the teachers. Unfortunately, she does not get the opportunity to share this with classes of students. While she learns about great new programs that could incorporate technology, she finds the same issue we see again and again - time is so limited for teachers to teach what is required, it leaves very little time for learning new or interesting programs.

Mrs. Eggleton would really like to incorporate more technology into the school, but due to the extreme budget cuts the state has faced it has been difficult to make major changes. While she tries to seek out free resources it is often difficult to make enough of an impact that it can help the school. She is also nearing retirement and knows it will be difficult for the other workers who would remain to keep up anything she could start. Mrs. Eggleton loves the library and the students she works with, but is facing so many of the challenges that we all face - how to improve technology in limited space, budget, and time.