ECOMP 7010: Cloud Computing

Directions: Investigate an example of cloud computing and gather the following information: cloud URL, service cost (if any), major features, assess with respect to the learning curve for teachers and/or students, and the potential uses for the classroom.

------------------------

Dropbox

------------------------

Website of application: www.dropbox.com

Free Version: A basic Dropbox account gives you 2 GB of cloud storage for free. You can upgrade to 100 GB of cloud storage at a cost of $9.99 per month, and 200 GB for $19.99 per month. *NOTE: Once you sign up, there is a “Get Free Space” section where you have several opportunities to increase your initial cloud storage space for free by completing tasks such as referring a friend, connecting to Facebook, following Dropbox on Twitter, etc.

Dropbox Web Portal

Features: Dropbox is a combination of cloud storage and file syncing and completes both tasks at the same time. First, they make it easy for you to take files and even whole folders and sync them up to the cloud. Once syncing to the cloud is complete, those same files and folders will be accessible from the web and any device you have also setup Dropbox on. Their web interface is accessible from all major web browser Apps, and is downloadable to both Windows and Mac OSX operating systems. Additionally, Dropbox provides support for several mobile devices including iPhone, iPad, Android, and Blackberry.

Learning Curve: The demo movie on the Dropbox homepage looks like it came from the people at Common Craft and does a nice job of explaining what the service does and how. It takes just a few minutes to create an account at Dropbox.com, and the application download is just under 22 MB in size. Once setup is complete, creating folders within your Dropbox folder is no different than any other place on your computer and adding files is as easy as drag-&-drop.

Some additional features include:

Dropbox on the iPad

• Dropbox will notify you whenever a file or folder has been added, removed, or modified when syncing to the cloud.
• You have the ability to share a folder within your Dropbox with other Dropbox users through an email invite.
• Within your Dropbox there is a ‘Public’ folder provided. Place a file or folder in this location, then right-click on the item to have Dropbox generate a public link that you can then share with users regardless if they are Dropbox users or not. This link gives them access to the file/folder and this item only. The rest of your Dropbox contents remain private and secure.

Potential Uses in the Classroom: 

• This is an easy and free option that will allow teachers to achieve the “Save in 3’s” recommendation for file storage (1 on your computer, 1 on an external device, 1 in the cloud).
• If you don’t have a laptop and wish you could access files from both your school and home computers then Dropbox says, “Problem solved.”
• If you were to pair Dropbox with the add-on DROPitTOme, then you now have access to a public file drop that students could use to turn in their assignments and they will immediately be sync’d to the cloud, downloaded to your computer, and accessible from your mobile device. I believe this service has huge potential for the classroom, allowing teachers to forgo passing around a pen drive or external hard drive except for large multimedia projects. Teachers could add a link to their DROPitTOme portal on their website, then students could turn in homework while at school or from home, as long as they have Internet access.

ECOMP 5004: Website Evaluation

The Awesome Highlighter

Facebook

Twitter

Site Description: 

The Awesome Highlighter, referred to sometimes as AH, was started by three guys from Florida. According to their Facebook page, the company was founded in February on 2008. There are no names provided for the founders or who maintains the site, only an online form to request support.

Classroom Use:

This web tool gives students the ability to use a digital highlighter on any webpage of the Internet. Students can highlight text as well as pictures. AH provides a toolbar at the top of the page for students to add a virtual sticky note to the page, access their “Help” menu, and best of all: change their highlight color. 

Once a webpage has been highlighted, students then click the “Done” button on the toolbar. They are taken back to AH and are shown an overview of the information they have highlighted. Students may then choose to email the notes, copy them to the clipboard, or share their notes via variety of social networking tools such as Twitter and Facebook. Students may also copy the unique URL provided at the top of the page for later access. There is also an option beneath the summary for the student to return to the page to add additional notes and/or edit the notes they have already highlighted.

AH can also be used by teachers who would like to point students to important and/or specific information on a webpage. Teachers could use the sticky notes tool to instruct students on what they need to do with the information on the webpage. Here is an example of AH in action: http://awurl.com/3zTmJLYRh

State Standards Connections:

Maine Leaning Results (MLR)

English Language Arts

A. PROCESS OF READING
MIDDLE GRADES 5-8

7. Summarize whole texts by selecting and summarizing important and representative passages.

H. RESEARCH-RELATED WRITING AND SPEAKING

MIDDLE GRADES 5-8

7. Use search engines and other Internet resources to collect information for research topics.

Recommendation:

With the presence of technology in schools and the classroom today, using the Internet as a research resource has become a common occurrence. In fact, when given the choice many students will turn to the Internet before accessing more traditional resources. In my school, the current standard operating procedure is for students to print out the Internet resources they find. This translates into a lot of printing and a lot of wasted printing supplies, since webpages often do not print neatly onto an 8 1/2 by 11 inch piece of paper. Awesome Highlighter gives students the ability to pick out the important pieces of information on a webpage and refer to those notes for use later when they write their reports. If students are working collaboratively on a research project, AH allows team members to easily share their web notes with one another.

I think this is a great tool for teachers who want to move closer to working completely within the digital environment. Awesome Highlighter makes it easy for both student and teacher to takes notes on webpages and then save those notes for later reference or for sharing with others. The add/edit tool, in tandem with the different highlighter color tool, could also be a vehicle for collaborative activities. While the site does have a login so that you can save your highlights on their system, use of AH is free and does not require registration to use. 

However, as with any web-based tool there are a few glitches in AH that users should be aware of. For example, the “+ add a note” tool often takes several seconds to respond (I was having to wait upward of 5-8 seconds for the note to actually appear). In addition, when using the add/edit tool to return to the webpage your previous highlights are not displayed on the page save only the last item you had highlighted. This could create confusion for students and discourage them from using this service. There is an available AH add-on for the Firefox browser they may improve the performance of this web tool. The service also offers a feedback section to leave comments on their service, so I forwarded this concern to them in the hopes they will make this tool more robust and reliable.

ECOMP 6102: Final Design: a Performance Assessment Task

Part 1 - Performance Task Description
Part 2 - Description of Assessment Design
Part 3 - Create and Evaluate a Rubric
Part 4 - Self Assessment


Access product via Google Docs: click here

ECOMP 6102: Create a Table of Specifications

Standard referenced from the International Society for Technology Education (ISTE).

Grades 6-8 (Ages 11-14)  
5. Evaluate digital resources to determine the credibility of the author and publisher and the timeliness and accuracy of the content. (3)

Content	Knowledge & Understanding	Deductive Reasoning	Evaluative Reasoning	Total
Credibility	10	15	15	40
Timeliness	10	20	20	50
Accuracy	15	20	20	55
Total	35	55	55	145_