Erin's Education Environment

Looking for help from PLN…

Erin — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 20:23:20 +0000

First, you may ask: “What is a PLN.” Instead of me explaining it, I’ll give you this link.

So, if you consider yourself part of my PLN (if you got this in a “tweet” or on Facebook, you are) I’d like your help.

I’m hoping to start graduate school in the fall. It’s been quite a while since I’ve been in school and feel like I could use some advanced preparation. I mostly feel like I need help in the area of academic writing. I did some Google searches and found some creative writing and poetry courses online, but nothing really focused on academic writing and critical thinking and research skills at the graduate level.

If you know of any courses I could take online just to help with my writing/research skills I’d love to hear from you. If you teach an online course, I’d like to hear from you. If you’ve taken an online writing class, I’d like to hear from you, as well.

Thank you, in advanced for your help. You can comment on this blog post or contact me any of the following ways:

email: erin.c.barrett@gmail.com
twitter: @erinbarrett
website: http://www.erinbarrettonline.com

Point England Primary School

Erin — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 21:49:40 +0000

This week, mom and I visited Point England School in Auckland. It’s in one of the poorest neighborhoods in Auckland. Despite that, they get MORE funding from the government for their school. The schools in the higher income areas get less.

This school has a lot of technology. Students (years 6-8) have netbooks and there are several desk-top computers in each classroom. Kids as young as kindergardeners are blogging! The school emphasizes the importance of the kids having an “authentic audience” for their work…not just their teachers and peers, but all over the world.

Student working on her netbook

I was very curious about online safety and privacy with these kids. It was explained to me that the community the school is located in is mostly made up of Pacific Islanders and Maori families. Public sharing and transparency are a huge part of their culture. When the school getting permission to share students’ information (not over identifying, just first names) the parents’ attitudes were more like “why WOULDN’T you share their work with the world?”

All the student blogs are owned by the school and the kids are co-authors on them. There is one password for the blog account. So, in theory, every kid COULD edit another kid’s blog. Of course, that would cause concern. But in the time they have been doing blogging with the students, they’ve had ONE incident of this happening. Then they dealt with it like “you know you shouldn’t go into another student’s desk or book bag without their permission. Why would you do this?” They saw this incident as a teaching moment, not just a time to panic and scrap the whole thing.

Students working with their netbooks

Our schools could learn a lot from this school. Unfortunately, there are so many restrictions from “high-up” that limit US schools from giving students the ability to share their work with the world. There’s still lots of discussion on this matter.

Google Summit Oregon

Erin — Fri, 08 Oct 2010 22:27:04 +0000

I’m just finishing up the Google Summit for the state of Oregon. My mom did a presentation and I pretty much came along for the ride.

I attended one session on tips and tricks for using gmail. At first I thought “I use gmail all the time. What am I going to learn that’s new?” I went anyway and saw some new things! Google labs is being brought into gmail. I also got a closer look at Priority Inbox.

One thing I did notice was that most of what goes to my email is non-personal emails (list serves, mailing lists) and notices from my social networks like twitter and Facebook. I don’t really use email for personal correspondence…I do it mostly through Facebook.

Cypris Chat and Typewith.me

Erin — Sun, 03 Oct 2010 09:18:04 +0000

New blog post at http://breefairlady.wordpress.com

Back in the (former) USSR…

Erin — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 10:29:51 +0000

Ok Ok, I know it’s been a while…here goes:

I went to the Ukraine. I visited Viktor and Caroline Yevpak and their little one, Mykola.

Flight to Kiev

On the 14th, I flew to Kiev. I bought the ticket from AeroSvit for less than $200. That’s pretty good considering a train ticket is the same price and 40 hours more travel. I somehow managed to get the exit row! Here’s the extent of the instructions I got.

Caroline met me after I exited customs. Customs consisted of them x-raying my suitcase.

She had come with a car and driver. Much easier than taking a journey through Kiev on public transportation to the train station. Then there would have been a 3 hour train ride (in 80+ degree heat!) So we had a nice long chat during our 2.5 hour drive with one stop along the way. We pulled over to a gas station where we saw these horses getting “filled-up.”

Well, I thought it was funny.

Darn Back!

On my third day of being in Cherkasy (Friday,) I woke up with a horrible spasm in my lower back. I thought it was just from the hard, European bed and playing on the floor with Mykola.

So I went to see the only chiropractor in Cherkasy. Fortunately he spoke very good English. He also only charged $10! Gotta love that! So I spent the next few days treating my back with a bag of frozen green beans, ibuprofen, and short walks around their little garden. By Monday, my back was well enough to make our trip to Kiev.

Trip to Kiev

We spent 2 nights in Kiev. I had never been to Kiev before, so I was excited to see another new city! We started out with a metro ride to the city center. We rode the funicular up a hill to a beautiful church! We walked around a bit, and to get out of the heat, we found McDonalds. Viktor said it was the first one in the Ukraine.

After a quick snack and check of email on free wifi, Viktor took Mykola back to the flat for a nap and so Viktor could do some work. So, Caroline and I went to the World War II museum. It was a very interesting place. All the signs were in either Russian or Ukrainian, so it was really just a visual experience for us both.

Flight Back to Budapest

I woke up at 4am to get to the airport. Viktor arranged for a taxi to take me and help me get a cart for my suitcase. After waiting for about 45 minutes for the check-in counter, I met another American while waiting to check in. Is name is James and he’s from Chicago. He was really nice and helped me lift my bag. What a blessing!

The flight was hardly full. The plane was an Airbus 320. Six seats (3 on each side) and thirty-something rows. There were only 17 people on the flight. SEVENTEEN!!! No wonder I got such a good deal on the flight! I wonder if the airline is government subsidized.

So that was my trip to the Ukraine….in a very small nutshell. There were so many other memories, but I was a lazy blogger and didn’t write them down soon enough. I’ll take them with me always.

What a difference (or not) a year makes!

Erin — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 14:56:21 +0000

Hey folks!

I’m back in Budapest after a year of living back in the States. In this entry, I’m going to give my first day impression of what it’s like to be back. What things are new. And what’s exactly the same.

What’s new?

Starbucks! I went there this afternoon. For years there were rumors of it coming. Today I saw proof! Exact same menu, but higher prices…naturally!

The 6 tram has English announcements. “The next stop is ____. You can transfer to ____.”

The Airport Minibusz is now the Airport Shuttle. The signs are all different. I had a hard time finding it at the airport.

There is a little new construction, but not much.

Money! 200 forint coins; 200 forint was paper…now they just look like bigger 100 forint!

What’s the same?(some I had forgotten about)

People making out in public. Yep…some things never change in Hungary.

You have to ask for ice in your drink at McDonalds!

Smoking is allowed everywhere (well almost.)

You have to go to a pharmacy to buy band-aids!

It’s been a while since I was here in July (2004) so I don’t remember this heat! Staying cool without AC in most homes is going to be a challenge!

Today, I’m trying to overcome the jetlag before flying to Kiev tomorrow. My friend Caroline is going to meet me at the airport.

I’ll try to keep posts about my trip coming!

New phrase?

Erin — Tue, 11 May 2010 15:40:51 +0000

I’ve been having a bit of an identity crisis. Marc Prensky (2001) has coined two phrases. Digital Natives and Digital Immigrants. The idea behind these titles is the fact that students of today are not learning to use technology like students of the past. They have grown up with technology and it’s not as foreign to them as it is to their parents.
Like I said before, I’m having an identity crisis. I’m 37 years old. I started using a computer in 1982 at the age of 9. My mother was heavily involved in technology, specifically educational technology, from my elementary school days. I was the kid in 5th grade that the teacher used as a “computer buddy” to help her with the computer. I had an early, and deep involvement with technology. However, it was not “from birth” like Digital Natives.
But I’m not really a digital native, according to Prensky. However, I am pretty fluent in “digital-speak” and can speak without an “accent.”

According to many Alaskans, a “sourdough” is an Alaska Oldtimer. So, how about a “Digital Sourdough;” someone who has used technology for such a long time, and to such an extent, that it is difficult to hear an accent.

Well, Mr. Prensky…what do you think about that?

Prensky, Marc (2001) http://www.marcprensky.com/writing/Prensky%20-%20Digital%20Natives,%20Digital%20Immigrants%20-%20Part1.pdf

Istanbul, Turkey

Erin — Tue, 11 May 2010 15:28:43 +0000

Mom and I have been in Instanbul since Monday working at the Enka Schools. The purpose of this trip is two-fold. First, we’ve been presenting to the 4th and 5th grade teachers about interactive e-portfolios. In a pilot program several years ago, they used PowerPoint as the ePortfolio presentation tool. The students loved it, but the teachers and administrators were annoyed by the “bells and whistles” of PowerPoint. We hope that by using WordPress (which they’ve installed on their own server) they can use it as more of an interactive portfolio, rather than a scrambled effort at the end of the term to make Power Point presentations. Of course, like any change, it comes with fear and the “unknown.” But hopefully, the teachers will be able to make a smooth (ha-ha) transition to using WordPress as an interactive portfolio tool.

The second purpose of our trip was to do a workshop with a small group of students on digital storytelling. Eight students were selected by the technology teacher to do an intensive, one-day workshop using Windows Movie Maker. The students were instructed to write a personal story; “All About Me”, “My Best Friend”, “My Favorite Holiday”, etc. I was able to record the 4th graders on Wednesday, so their voiceover was ready for the workshop on Thursday.

(I didn’t finish this entry)

Good Morning, Sunshines!

Erin — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 05:52:07 +0000

I just finished the three-day digital storytelling workshop for educators at the Center for Digital Storytelling in Berkeley, CA. It was a good workshop. I was able to put together another (#3 for me) story. This one was a letter to my students in Hungary. As I say in the video, I said “Good Morning, Sunshines” every day as I walked in. It’s a memoir of things that were said and experienced in our class. I used a lot of hungarian in the story. Since it’s meant for the students, I don’t think some of it needs translation.

I haven’t shared it with them yet. I’ll probably upload it to Facebook and the Ning.com site that one of the classes has.

I don’t know how much I really learned during this workshop. But I did like the collaborative environment of the workshop. Some great ideas came from the other participants. I pretty much knew the application. I even used garage band to create a drum beat for another lady’s story. There were 6 of us in the workshop. From all over the country. In higher ed as well as secondary. We really seemed to enjoy each other.

There was also some good discussion about using DS in schools, as an alternative or addition to research papers and essays. It will be interesting to see how this workshop will be helpful in the future.

Digital Storytelling for Educators

Erin — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 05:46:13 +0000

I’m in Berkeley, CA for a three-day workshop on digital story telling for educators. Follow the link to read more about it. I’ll be updating about the workshop and the process.

I think I want to do a story about my “ah-ha” cell phone moment with students in Hungary. Or I could just do a reflective piece on my teaching experience in Hungary. I’m leaning towards the “ah-ha” but we’ll see. Part of the workshop includes a story circle where we will talk about each others’ story ideas and process and feedback about them.