Photo by pxlpusher
Yesterday was a day of frustration for me, I was trying to get technology to work for me, and it was not cooperating. Some folks had the same frustration with their presentations. Sometimes life feels like we are swimming upstream, which brings me to Task Stream. I got on to the Task Stream site and have been working on finding my way around. I made some mistakes, and I thought that maybe I could be of help to my fellow classmates. Task Stream looks looks a powerful tool, but I found it intimidating. There are some tutorial manuals, but I could not find them readily. The site uses frames, and there is no option to remove frames, so I cannot even give you specific sites to go to for help.
I had already signed up for Task Stream and paid for three years, and you have to start by doing that. When I log in I am on a page called Programs and Folios. Make sure you go to “self enroll” and put in that number that was given to us. This is where I wasted time. You have the ability to see course resources and send assignments, but you cannot see these unless you enroll. On the Programs and Folios page you will see, My Programs/DRF and below it you will see M. S. in Instructional Technology Overview and Resources: View. That takes you to a page where there are tutorials on using Task Stream. I built my web page, and moved everything from my wiki or blog as best as I could. Be mindful that Task Stream has a limit of 900 characters per page. A space counts as a character, so if you single space, you can get more on a page. I had to split some of my wiki pages into two Task Stream pages. I put some assignments on my web page, but the exemplar is considered a keystone assignment, so it has to be submitted via the called “Directed Response Folios” or as it is seen around the site DRF. The area called “Directed Response Folios” has a blank outline of all the keystone assignments we will submit over the months to come for all courses. I submitted my exemplar, but be warned. Once you hit “submit” the work is locked, you cannot take it back. I found out the hard way when I went to tweak my exemplar. I clicked on it to open it about 20 times, and realized that there was a little tiny picture of a small padlock next to my file for a reason. I have been relaxed about tweaking assignments on my wiki and blog, fixing typos, adding sentences, and rephrasing things. You cannot do that here.
Here is a link to a tutorial on Task Stream Beginner’s Guide for Students and this is the form we need filled out for our field experience Field Experience Documentation Form. Student Guide to Submitting Work is the tutorial I wished that I had found before submitting my work into Pete. Any tips for using Task Stream you all want to share with me please do so by comments or email. We are all swimming in this together, sometimes I feel like there is so much information that I am going to drown, lets help each other get to shore.
I thought I was the only one frustrated by the internet filter at school. Talking to several teachers I found that was not the case. Some teachers said that they do not bother trying to get sites unblocked, they just find other sites to use. I spoke with the computer lab teacher’s assistant, and he said that there is an override code that can be used. He has the code and has used it, but then he gets an email from the head of technology questioning his use of the site. He also said that it was going to become a union issue, as teachers on the secondary level find that they are particularly hampered with new sites being blocked every day. I plan on contacting the union to see if we can form a committee to discuss this further, and come up with a workable solution. I also need to find out exactly how sites get blocked in the first place, and the procedure for a staff member to request that a site get unblocked. I want to support the Weight Watchers group in my building, and I need to come up with a good argument for getting access to the WW site, especially since it is not strictlty related to student education.
If I want to see things change, I will have to look at sort of like going on a diet. Things did not get this way overnight, and they will not change dramatically in a day. I will educate myself on the right things to do, translate that into little things I can do regularly, get together with like-minded people who are also trying to improve the state of things and watch progress take place.
Since I started taking EDIT 603 I found numerous resources on the internet that have endless possibilities for stimulate learning and improve productivity. I am beginning to think of ways to use them today. I thought that the School Nurses could use a wiki to collaborate on revising department policy manuals without having meetings, share websites via delicious, and use a blog to give tips on dealing with day to day issues. Last week at lunchtime I went on my computer at work to update my delicious account, wiki and blog. I found that the school’s filter blocked these sites. I knew that I would not get into my flickr account since recently the district blocked all Yahoo sites. There is an automatic message to contact the head of tech for access to these sites. I know better than to try.
Last year a staff member told me that she had tried to access the Weight Watchers website from school and it was blocked. She emailed the IT dept to say she had just formed a WW group at school, and needed access to the site for information and inspiration. The head of tech emailed her back a picture of a seagull and said to use that for inspiration instead because the WW site was not going to be unblocked. When I heard this story, I thought there was a misunderstanding. I emailed the head of tech and explained that in accordance with the district’s wellness policy, we were starting a WW group at my school, and would like access to the WW site. She emailed me back to say that the site was going to remain blocked. Period. Apparently the district’s policy is to block any site that had a bulletin board, chat, forum or ability to email.
I know we need to keep the district’s network secure, and students and staff safe while on the internet. Isn’t this an overreaction? How are teachers supposed to incorporate Web 2.0 applications in the classroom if so many if them are blocked and censored? Getting sites unblocked is literally fighting City Hall.
There will be some teachers who will be able to have specific sites unblocked, however the majority of teachers will still be unable to access many of the sites they want. It is easier just to keep sites heavily filtered and blocked. The district policy of blindly blocking any interactive site is going to hamper innovation. For web 2.0 to succeed in our district internet policy needs to be re-evaluated.
