Interim

I'm so excited; I finally got a new laptop after the flood in my house. It makes posting to the blog so much easier.

On Friday, 12/11, Samantha taught our 1st class. It was pretty crazy. As I expected we had way more material than we could cover. Everyone including Samantha and I were a little shell shocked after we went through practicing using Google Translate (including how to install it from scratch). Between the two of us we had made screen shot handouts in English and Spanish. Samantha said hte ladies really liked them. I had made them with 1 screen shot to a page, but after using them, I want to revise them so that English and Spanish are on the same page instead of having 2 separate handouts. I was constantly having to switch between the two.

Since much of the 1st lesson helped new computer users set up computer and internet protections for free, I thought we should cut out the part we weren't able to finish; however, Samantha again said we shouldn't change it since she felt the ladies really wanted to know how to find and use free internet software.

On Friday, 12/18, I was really ill so Samantha did a review of the previous week's material and helped the ladies practice installing and setting up virus protection software. Samantha said they seemed to enjoy it. She said she's pretty sure that they don't understand the difference between firewalls, filtering and virus protection. We talked about a fun way to try to help convey the difference and why each is important.

Everything has been very "hands on" since the beginning so I'm revising the 2nd class for after the holiday break so that there's more work that the ladies can actually do rather than just taking or having discussions.

We had originally planned to have the police come talk to the group; however, political and legal problems have come up (refer to House Bill 2008 references in earlier discussions). I think it would put the ladies in an uncomfortable position.

Tomorrow we plan to deliver Christmas goodies to the ladies.

Week 2

This week we had a group discussion about whether internet safety is important. I provided a few statistics to get everyone started. It was slow starting, but once we got past the initial awkwardness, everyone had lots to share.

They agreed that internet safety was important. I asked whether it was any more important than teaching their kids about any other safety matters. The consensus seemed to be that it was at least as important, if not more important. It seemed that the one thing that stuck out for the women was that their children could access more people and more things more easily with the internet, than if they didn't have it. Everyone seemed to be very concerned about their children meeting someone offline that they'd met online - and that it would be unsupervised.

They all knew about the experience with the youngest woman's sister posting to her MySpace account that she was 23, when in reality she was 15. We had a discussion about what we would do if we found out our kids were doing something online that we didn't think was appropriate. They all wanted to know how the mom had handled the mistruths on the MySpace account. Apparently, the young woman had been confronted, but had told her mom that one of her friends had changed her age. I was surprised that the mom, sister and other ladies in the group believed her. Perhaps I'm just too cynical - cause I didn't. However, it brought up a topic for the class - don't share passwords.

As the discussion progressed, we came back to this example several times. It turned out that the girl was meeting someone offline that she'd met online. All of us were surprised. We asked if there were any repercussions for this and there didn't seem to be any. This was a little bit of an eye opener - cause they knew this young woman (or at least they knew the mom and the sister.) Everyone seemed to be of the same opinion that this wasn't OK. One lady pointed out to the woman with the 14 year old that her child would be in high school next year - and what would she do if her son started doing this.

We discussed chat rooms and whether MySpace was similar or different than chat rooms. They all agreed that they were. Samantha had them go into a Spanish chat room. One lady said they were totally ignored until she said something with a sexual overtone and all of the sudden she had lots of "friends." It seemed that the ladies had the same opinion about chat rooms that many of the teenagers expressed in surveys - they're icky.

We discussed cyberbullying. They couldn't understand why kids wouldn't just ignore people who were mean online. I explained that it probably has to do with the child - some probably don't care, but others are really sensitive. I also suggested that this becomes permanent and anyone online can read it which makes the problem "bigger" than something that might be contained in a classroom. We also talked about how most of the friendships online are also friendships (or acquaintances) offline. This probably compounds the problem. The ladies liked the MySpace feature that allowed people to block folks they didn't want to talk to.

At the end of the 1.25 hour chat, we asked for things they'd like to see in a class that they thought would be helpful. The ladies specifically asked for us to give them specific examples of the consequences of unsafe internet experiences. The suggestion was made that we need to teach them all about how to access things online because they thought familiarity would help them teach their kids.

At least two of the women are considering purchasing computers for their home. We discussed whether they would have internet access and they both hoped to. They wanted us to teach them about filters and how to set them up. We talked about using anti-virus protections to keep the porn problem to a minimum. We also mentioned one of the best practices suggested by almost every internet safety tip provider - keep the computer in a family place, not a bedroom.

The quietest woman is very reflective and kept saying that parents need to have a good relationship with their children and this should prevent problems. They all supervise their children well so think this will help prevent undesirable internet experiences. I brought up cell phones and sexting and asked how they're going to monitor this. This brought us back to the 15 year old and whether the mom should be constantly checking her MySpace account. The woman in our group (who's her sister) said that the mom doesn't. They all thought they would insist that their child provide them with their password. Although this sounds good, I thought that they might be in for surprise when their kids have more than one account.

Samantha suggested that they do some homework and talk to others about their thoughts. The comedian of the group said she was going to go talk to the mom of the 15 year old for her homework. She said she also thinks that this is the lady she needs to teach about internet safety.

Report for school

Where I am now - 1st Report

I'm ready to start on lesson plans.

Progress made since last report

During the 1^st week, I have met with all of the ladies as a group. We discussed the study - our expectations - their expectations. We met with the ladies individually for 30 minutes to an hour depending on the person. Some ladies were much more willing to speak in this interview than others. (Please see 11/15 blog post for week 1 for details.) After the interview, they took their computer use assessment. All of them passed very easily. I was very impressed with the ladies who were willing to try speaking English with me on the individual interview.

This past week we did another group interview to have them get a feel for what they were all thinking about internet safety. It started slowly, but they quickly warmed up. (See blog post for 11/22 for details.) I thought it was interesting that none of them tried to speak English at all during the group session.

I think we have some solid ideas for lesson plans.

Potential Problems

Trying to cram lesson plans into 1 week.

We are still unsure how AZ House Bill 2008 is going to impact residents of public housing, and thus how it could impact this study. This bill requires all persons receiving public benefits (except those of an emergency nature - in other words, we wouldn't deny police or fire protection) to provide specific documentation to prove citizenship. My feeling this week is that management is trying to minimize the impact on 11/24 and possibly spread it out as each person recertifies their income and documents for a new lease. Other AZ public housing authorities say it doesn't impact public housing; however, our attorney and the state housing authority's attorney disagree.

Although so far, the ladies have found babysitters for the kids, this may not last.

Ways I plan to solve the problems

The lesson plans aren't a problem - it's the research. Without my laptop (destroyed in flood caused by defective plumbing), I'm having some issues; however, I'll just try to stay later at work, borrow my sister's laptop or something like that. The problem with using the Mac for research is that it is not currently in a comfortable location (flood issues) and causes my neck and back to hurt.

I think that all of my ladies are safe from imminent repercussions from HB 2008 - at least for the time being. It still looms, but isn't as threatening as the last time I reported.

Samantha and I have been prepared for kids ever since the 1st time the ladies brought them. We have explained to them that if it becomes necessary to bring them - we'll just deal with it. We've got a stash of toys and crafts ready to go. It will be distracting - but it's life.

Help I need

I'm not sure I need help right now. We'll see how next week goes.

Where I am going next

Next week, we won't meet with the ladies. We did ask them to bring us any ideas they had, but we'll have a very short week so may not hear from them until the following week.

Instead I plan to work on lesson plans.

Week 1

We've made progress. There were two meetings with the identified women this week. I met the women for the 1st time on Tuesday. It seems like they were pleased to be asked, but were very hesitant. I can certainly understand that as we didn't really know each other although I had seen at least one of them at a recognition ceremony the year before.

There were 3 young kids with the ladies, two of which belonged to the oldest woman. The youngest child was as determined to keep away from his mom as his mom was to keep him with her. We didn't have any toys and I hadn't come prepared with stuff to keep the kids entertained. I should have known better. The kids' behavior was making the mom ill at ease and she said she wasn't sure she could participate because of the kids.

They asked a few questions, particularly about who they had to teach the information to. We explained that they could teach a friend or neighbor. They were comfortable with that info.

They all signed the consent forms. Samantha had prepared an initial calendar for them about when we'd meet which we passed out. They agreed to meet for their interview and skills assessment on Friday.

Friday was a really hectic day and it took me awhile to settle down. We were prepared for kids. I had brought a wooden train set from home - usually keeps my Sunday School kids occupied for a long time. We had also bought some toys for our computer lab that just happened to be delivered the night before. We were ready - but no kids. The moms had decided to take turns watching the kids while the others were being interviewed.

I had prepared several questions to guide the interviews, but knew it would take awhile before they'd answer in more than just one or two words. I wanted some basic questions since I wanted to try to understand their Spanish with only a little translating. That part went better than I expected and they seemed pleased that I could understand at least a little. One woman talks too quietly and fast for me though, so that whole interview had to be with Samantha interpreting.

The three women have been in ESL classes at the computer lab and all have taken at least 2 basic computer classes. One lady is on the 4th level of Rosetta Stone. The two younger women spoke to me at times in English. Their time in public housing ranged from 2 months to 9 years. Number of kids ranged from 2-5. Only 1 woman had a teen. The others had oldest kids in the 10-12 year old range. I had been told by Samantha that all the women are very protective of their children - to the point of checking with Samantha to make sure they're really at the lab.

I first asked them to tell me about themselves. There were some amazing stories. All had been in the US for a number of years - all coming when they were teenagers. Two had been in school for 9 years in Mexico. One had finished 6 years. One went to high school for a year in the US, but then dropped out because she needed to watch her sister's 5 kids while she went to work. One woman made the trek from Mexico to Phoenix through the desert. She was 13 and 5 months pregnant. She only went to school for a few months after she came to the US because her baby's daddy wouldn't let her go.

Two of the women talked about getting their GED. They both said they needed to know more English first.

The next question was about their computer experience. None of them had computers in their homes and none of them appeared to have friends or relatives with computers. All of them said the only computer experience they had was there at the computer lab. The youngest woman has a cell phone with internet access. All of them have at least one child who has taken classes at our computer lab. Their kids' computer experience seemed to be restricted to the computer lab and school.

I asked about their dreams for their kids. All of them want their kids to do well. One specifically mentioned that she wanted her kid to be a professional. We discussed colleges and scholarships. One woman said she wanted her children to be good people and love God. What better goal for our kids could there be?

Finally we discussed internet safety. They mentioned some of the top concerns - chat rooms, talking with people they don't know, pornography and other inappropriate content. All of the women knew that we had filters on our internet connection in the lab. One woman asked if schools had the same thing. I explained that they were required to. I asked the women if they knew what their kids did with computers. One said her child plays games, another said her child is very curious so looks up things on the internet. I asked if they knew what their kids did at school on the computer. They didn't know. One woman mentioned that her child was not doing her homework. I asked if she could access her child's schoolwork reports on the internet and she said, "no." I asked if they had something like that, would she? She said, "of course." I loved that. I think sometimes school districts think that just because their parents don't have home access, that they won't use internet tools - but parents who care will take the time.

They all took the basic assessments and did great. When asked to send Samantha an email, one woman responded to an email of Samantha's. Samantha told her she was cheating (jokingly). I said she was just being smart. Samantha used English terms for computer parts. She said that since they probably don't know the Spanish word, that it's just as easy for them to learn the English words. I thought that was a good idea.

Next week, we'll meet again on Friday to have a group discussion about internet safety.

It begins

It is with all good intentions that Gail and I continued this blog (it was started as a requirement for a class), but to date, there's only 1 post that has nothing to do with school work...

and the school work continues.

Intro

This blog will now journal work on a research project about internet safety for families who live in public housing. The project culminates my years working on a Master's Degree in Bible and Educational Technology at Johnson Bible College in Knoxville, TN - a truly lovely venue.

Earlier this week I was given permission by my graduate school advisor, Dr. Chris Templar, to move forward on the project. I am already two weeks behind based on the timeline in the JBC Graduate Handbook so started looking for ways to "catch up."

The project will use a case study approach and follow 3 Hispanic women as we move through the development and implementation of an internet safety curriculum. There are elements of a participatory model as we will interview them to gain insight into their perceptions of internet safety and their ideas of what is important for them to learn. There is also a component of a train-the-trainer model in that the initial trio will teach at least one other person. Success, as defined in the original proposal, will mean that the 2nd generation of women are able to create and use a MySpace page.

Where I am now - Initial Report

I met with the computer lab facilitator who will work with me most closely on this project on Thursday afternoon. Her name is Samantha and she's 2 credit hours shy of having her AA in computer technology with special certificates in networking and web design. She's bilingual which is almost a requirement for direct service providers who work with low income adults in Arizona. (I am a monolingual supervisor for social services programs offered to participants in Phoenix assisted housing programs - with limited direct service contact.) I have suggested that Samantha ask her school if she could do an independent project in conjunction with my project.

Samantha and I also explored several websites that are dedicated to helping parents learn more about internet safety. Some information was already translated into Spanish. Samantha showed me how to use Google Translate for other articles. She's very patient as I try to read Spanish to see if the info is important or relevant. She also suggested that many of her parents love Web MD so we checked out internet safety and found several good articles on Web MD. This could be a good place to have them start.

We also discussed having someone from law enforcement speak to the group for about 20 minutes. Research shows that persons tend to find the information more reliable if it is given by someone who has some type of credible authority. We decided that if we can find someone to do this, we would videotape them for use with future groups.

Progress made since last report

NA

Potential Problems

Project is already 2 weeks behind.

We have a significant issue with consistent attendance so that, and some basic computer experience are the main factors for selecting candidates.

Samantha and I discussed whether the implementation of AZ House Bill 2008 will have any impact on us and the participants. Although this legislation is supposed to begin on 11/24, the Housing Department and its attorney have not decided how to interpret and put into practice its requirements. There is considerable speculation that HUD programs would be exempt; however, if it is determined that the Housing Department must comply, we would be required to report all non-citizens in Housing Department programs to some unnamed legal body. Consequences for non-compliance could be an arrest for a Class 2 misdemeanor. I am hoping for a resolution early next week. The interesting part is that almost all of the parents who participate in our programs are most likely non-citizens. It has been my experience that they are more motivated learners - especially if there's a willingness to bridge the language gap.

Ways I plan to solve the problems

At our meeting, we reviewed the basic timeline and decided we will attempt to accomplish the 1st 2 weeks of activities identified in the proposal next week even though there's a holiday in the middle of the week. We also decided we could probably condense some things over Thanksgiving break. I also found out that Samantha had already translated the consent form into Spanish which was a great relief.

We hope to address attendance prior to the start of the project, by identifying persons who are more reliable and interested. Samantha has identified 3 prime candidates for the project based on their attendance, experience and interest. Two have attended classes at the computer lab for 1-2 years. The other woman is much younger and newer to the program, but has been attending regularly. All are Spanish dominant and all may be non-citizens. (The fact that their children were born in the U.S. makes them eligible to live in public housing - although the portion of the rent that is for non-citizens is not subsidized.)

Unfortunately I cannot solve the 2nd problem myself. This will have to await direction from counsel. Samantha and I discussed whether there is the potential for finding citizens to participate, but they just haven't proven very reliable. I want to wait another week before I decide whether this will become critical.

Help I need

NA

Where I am going next

Next week, we will explain the project, have consent forms signed, have participants take the screening test on Tuesday, and have the 1st individual interviews on Friday.

We'll see how it goes...

XO Laptop

Last holiday season I participated in the Give One, Get One campaign by the folks at One Laptop Per Child (OLPC).  This is the famous $100 laptop (that costs $200 right now), conceived by Nicholas Negreponte and designed by the Media Lab at MIT to offer learning experiences for children in developing countries.  Through my donation to OLPC, I became the proud owner of a colorful, small XO laptop and felt altruistic because I funded one laptop for a child somewhere.  

Until now, I barely used it.  While it may be perfect for kids, its tiny keyboard makes it pretty difficult for adults to use - especially adults who have many years of experience with a full-size keyboard.  

This summer, however, I took a hardware class at Johnson Bible College taught by Mr. Bob Chambers, the person who had introduced me to OLPC.  As part of the hardware class, we had to complete a final project for this class.  It could be either a traditional research paper or a project.  

I decided that exploring the features of the XO laptop would be my final project.  I have researched, recorded, and edited for hours.  I am certain that a paper would have been much easier and much less time consuming, but I wouldn't have learned nearly as much.

The operating system for the XO laptop is based on Linux and is called Sugar.  Sugar Labs was recently started by Walter Bender.  As with other technology, the software entity for the XO is now separate from the hardware.  The learning activities and interface are based on the constructivist approach.  Sugar (and constructivism) requires learning through doing; its activities focus on learning how to learn, and learning more efficiently and effectively.

One of the really cool things Sugar Labs has done in recent months is to offer the whole operating platform for download onto a 1 GB (or larger) flash drive.  Called Sugar on a Stick, most computers can now run the Sugar platform.  Mr. Chambers (my hardware teacher) and I had a difficult time getting it to work at first, but finally managed to download it so that it would boot.  A couple of hints - make sure your computer is bootable from a USB port and that the USB drive is higher in the boot order than the hard drive.  Even though my flash drive was a FAT file system (required for Sugar), I reformatted my flash drive.  I don't know if this actually makes a difference, but after the reformat the download finally worked.

It is so much easier (at least for me) to navigate through the Sugar operating system and use its learning activities when I'm using a full size computer.  In fact, if this project weren't for a hardware class, and therefore (at least in my opinion) should be focused on hardware, I would have explored the activities for my project.  I have used many of them and I find many of them  intriguing.  

On to hardware...

The XO laptop is rugged.  It's plastic case resists water and dust.  Almost everything is sealed.  OLPC decided that it would have no hard drive because hard drives fail frequently.  Instead it has flash memory.  Its unique design minimizes energy usage.

It's LCD screen, the brainchild of Mary Lou Jepsen, pivots and can be rotated and laid flat against the body of the laptop so it can be used as a text reader.  In computer mode, it has a color display; as a text reader, the display is black and white.  It can be read in full sunlight for students who are schooled in outdoor classrooms.  A special chip allows the display to be used while the processor is not active.  (Ms. Jepsen has founded a company called Pixel Qi to explore the commercial potential for her screen design.)

I cannot do the XO justice so please take a look at the XO hardware and spec sites.

Below is a link to a series of videos showing and demonstrating various features of the XO.  I have much more video footage of various Sugar activities, but I needed to try to remain true to my hardware oriented goal.  The next two YouTube playlists are of me taking apart and putting the XO back together.  

I watched a video of a lady who, in 15 minutes of unedited video, disassembled and reassembled the XO.  I so wanted to emulate her.  It took me 2 hours.  Although I had watched her video twice and read the directions multiple times, I was still fearful.  I stopped several times to reread directions and view various portions of the video again.  I want to thank this anonymous lady (probably named Andrea) for her expertise.  

Once I figured out various techniques it was fairly easy.  Also, all the cables were much easier to release after they'd been removed the first time.  I have edited out most of the real bloopers and there were quite a few.  The major one was not taking out the battery first.  All of the warnings in bright red boxes did not stay in my brain.  I was and am highly embarrassed.

Putting it back together was pretty easy until the last step.  That white plastic screen cover did not want to go on.  There is still a slight gap on the side, but I cannot make it close.  I have watched the OLPC video and the video of me taking it off, and I cannot figure out where and why it is not fitting right. 

If perchance, a major component of the XO fails, new keyboards, touch pads, screens and batteries can be purchased from I Love My XO.

A number of ideas for the measure activity used homemade sensors using the microphone jack.  I really wanted to make one or more of these, but did not have the time or the technical expertise to know exactly what I needed to buy.  I have my son saving "dead" headphones so I can have the connector and wiring if I ever feel confident enough.

I did, however, come upon a cool video microscope to make at instructables.com.  I had the major parts necessary - an old microscope and webcam - so put it together.  It works; however, not with an XO laptop.  I tried every software and hardware trick I could think of, but finally found a website that said the internal webcam of the XO can't be overridden by an external one at this time.  Someday I may take the time to put the video together of that adventure.

Finally, I need to thank several people.  Mr. Bob Chambers gave me the confidence to attempt the deconstruction and reconstruction of the laptop.  Ms. Samantha Hernandez faithfully taped me and admirably refrained from trying to take over when my clumsy attempts at working with hardware failed.  Mr. Galen Smith assisted with my YouTube endeavors (it is dreadfully boring to upload video) and getting the videos linked efficiently to this blog.

I have included a bibliography of the various sites visited when researching this project.   I would suggest that everyone start with the OLPC wiki.  It has an amazing breadth and depth of information, though I discovered that it seems that sometimes articles about topics aren't fully realized.

Now if you have time, take a look at the videos...