I choose a presentation titled Online Student 2.0 e-remite or e-xhibitionist? by Eva R. Fahraeus. Through her presentation she discusses the expectations students have of teachers and librarians in the web 2.0 community. She also discusses the potential risks with working with 2.0 sources including false sources, inaccurate sources, and sources which might not be available for access at your school. The presentation explains that it is the responsibility of the educator to inform students about the risks of technology and to inspire the students to create their own original dialogue. Many of the tools we have used in class are discussed in this presentation including blogs, wikis, rss feeds, social bookmarks, and virtual worlds. The presentation concludes with the statement that it is the responsibility of the teachers to excite and explore these new tools. I liked this presentation because it had a positive message and it offered further suggestions for using these technologies in the classroom. I also thought the creator of this presentation was an interesting person because she has conducted research in the field of information technology and has published several articles and books.

The article I choose to read was titled “Fostering Self-Efficacy through Time Management in an Online Learning Environment”.  This article was written by Krista P. Terry and Peter E. Doolittle.  The authors were interested in the self efficacy and self regulation skills of high level learners.  They wanted to determine if a study could be conducted where participants in the study could use feedback as a form of reinforcement to enhance their self efficacy and self regulatory abilities.  It was very important to the authors to use high performing students for the study.  Thus of the 64 students involved in the study 55 of them were graduate students.  The participants of the survey were asked to document how much time they had planned to spend sleeping, studying, working, and for personal matters.  Then once, the allotted day had passed that the participants had planned for they had to document whether or not they had met this goal.  As the participants documented their progress they received feedback concerning how well they had served their goal. 

As the study progressed the participants did report that the use of their time became more easy to manage and they began to track very closely to the predetermined goals they had established for themselves.  The study did not conclude that the feedback offered by the authors had assisted these students in a positive way.  Thus the feedback provided in the study did not change the way the students felt about themselves or their performance even though the students did achieve growth in their time management skills. 

I believe that it was perhaps a mistake to involve graduate level participants in the study as the majority.  If I were conducting a study on self efficacy I would want to include secondary and beginning post secondary students in my study.  The authors reported that the average age of survey participants was roughly 31 years old.  Students who have reached graduate school and have reached this age are typically very aware of their self image. If the study were to use younger participants who are perhaps more susceptible to feedback and criticism, I believe that the feedback would have been more influential on the student’s self image.

Chapter six discusses the effect of administrators on school technology.  Administrators decided what technology schools can and cannot have access to and fight for funding to have multiple technologies in the classroom.  Many school administrators are excited about creating school blogs or wikis where teachers and parents have more open communication.  Teachers are able to instantly inform all students and parents of upcoming events or assignments due to publishing updates to all users.  These tools help support school pride and successes through keeping students and parents informed and active.  The biggest strain on administrators concerning technology advancements is the cost.  Not only can the initial price of implementing technology be quite costly for a district but, these tools cost money to maintain into the future as well.  The text suggests investing time into researching open source technologies as a potential solution.  However, they do caution that this is no easy task and much self training and research is necessary to be successful at implementing these sources. 

I think it’s awesome that teachers are able to display student work on school websites for all parents to see.  So often kids go home and their parents ask them “what did you do in school today?” and the student responds with minimal effort and will groan at the question.  Creating a way for teachers to continuously update and show parents what is going on in their classrooms pulls the parents into the experience.  It creates a channel for parents  into your classroom and this can buy you favor as an educator in the eyes of the parent.  When the parents see projects and updates on their children, they will feel curious, proud, and vested in your classroom. 

I feel it is equally important for administrators to reach out to their local businesses for technology advice and support.  The purpose of schools is for the betterment of society and the establishment of a competent workforce.  Schools are often on the laggard end of adapting new technologies and it is important for administrators to make connections to improve this trend.  Schools are a business themselves and it is always important for businesses to understand their industry.  By creating a technology advisory panel composed of local tech-savvy business officials, administrators will have a source to use for direction, advice, or feedback on specific technologies that might be worthwhile to adapt in their own school system.