End of Course/ Final Blog for class

I have learned alot during this course and am looking forward to trying new things out this year. I do think the week with the screencasts, voicethreads, and powerpoints may have really been 2 weeks worth of work; there was a lot to absorb for me that week.

I think that is important for teachers to continually be students as a way to ensure they have empathy for those they teach. I took 2 grad classes and 3 district training this summer; in some things I felt like the smart kid in class and in others I definately was the slow kid. In this class I was definately the slow kid but I learned a lot from my peers and was so impressed by so much of what everyone did. There was so much that was new to me it will take time to really absorb it all and find places to use all this new info in my class. I think that the three things I chose are modest goals but good starts.

I did start a wiki, and have a place where I can list wikis I want to keep up with, so some of you may see me spying on you. I hope you don't mind, I am just interested in seeing how the projects grow in your classes.

Thank you all for a great learning experience.

Updated Guiding Principals for Technology Use

Technology is not something to be used merely as a device to grab attention and interest, though it may do that. Technology has the power to give students opportunities to explore topics in depth in interactive ways, to enhance learning through imagery and visualization, and to promote student-centered, inquiry based learning.

Another aspect of technology that I did not fully understand before this class was the way in which technology can turn students from consumers of knowledge into active collaborators and creators. Anything that encourages students to be more active in the pursuit of their own education is worthwhile.

With these ideas in mind, I will consider the following as I introduce new technology into my classes;

1) Is the technology enhancing student learning?
2) Does the technology help students achieve greater understanding of the material?
3) Does the technology lend itself to inquiry learning?
4) Does the technology encourage students to be more than consumers of knowledge and promote higher level thinking?

If the technology I am considering does not do any of this, I may reconsider whether the tool would be worth introducing.

My Projects

I have learned so much during this course and am certain to incorporate many things into my work throughout the school year. Some things I will not be able to implement right away, like using Google Earth for a class activity, because I will have to check out what resources will be available to me this year. Additionally, knowing that about 25% of my students do not have computer access limits how much I can ask them to do. With that in mind here are a few things that I will be able to do at the start of this year;

1) I took a webinar on setting up a class wiki and began one through wikispaces for an AVID class I will be teaching. AVID (Advancement Via Individual Determination) is a class that prepares students for college. I am hoping this wiki will be a place where they can share ideas about colleges, the application process, and work on projects together.

It is in a very rough form right now because it will be a few weeks before I return to school and access the curriculum for this class, but feel free to take a look and offer any ideas for OsmansClass wiki

2) I also attended curriculum training this summer and have been asked to help explain how to navigate the new district curriculum site. I used Jing to create one screencast for this so far and intend to create at least one more. I will try to work with the editing tools to improve the one I created and plan to share them at the district inservice in August. My Screencast

3) Last spring I started an account with Teacherweb but did not really use it very much. I decided that I would incorporate what I learned to maximize the use of this site.

I started by having a blog page be my first page so that I could blog about what is happening in class in an effort to get parents involved and serve as a way of letting kids who were absent know what they missed. I also embedded a video to share at the beginning of the year.

I also updated the calendar for the year and included many relevant links for the kids.

Take a look at my Teacherweb

My Webinar Experience

I was starting to panic because I had not found a webinar t oattend yet. Then there was one posted on the NSTA site today that I attended called GuidedWikiWalk

It is a two part course that helps you navigate wikispaces. So, I decided that this would be great because one of my ideas is to start a wiki with (at least) one class this year to see how it works.

It was done through Eluminate. WOW! It was like having everything at once! The intructor was on video at the beginning, people were able to speak on the mics, discussion was on-going through a chat box, and there was a powerpoint as she talked. She was also able to show us different screens as she was talking. You could also raise your hand, and vote on things. It was so cool.

Are all webinars this interactive?

end of week 6 reflection

This was by far the most difficut week for me. Power Points, Screencasts, and Voicethreads!

I always felt a little behind the times because I did not know how to do a power point, but I really had no need to before. My school really doesn't have much in the way of technology and I had no way of showing them, so I never invested time learningTHis year, we are all supposed to have ELMO's and projectors, so I am considering buying a new laptop (which after the past week, I need) so I can incorporate more media into my presentations this year.

Screencasts were also fun. I will be using that skill at a coming inservice and can see using it for students as well.

Voicethread- wow. It's like an interactive powerpoint. I would like to use this but am not sure if it will really be possible since not all of my students have internet access. Definately something I am going to keep in mind and try to think of a way to use it.

Hopefully, this is my voicethread embedded...

Week 6 Part 2-screencast

I made a screencast showing how to move around on the LearningFocus website. This is a curriculum mapping program that my school adopted and I was trained in last week. I will be presenting information to my peers and thought a screencast could be helpful.
I tried embedding the video but it does not show the whole screen, so I am including a link instead.

ScreenCast for LearningFocus

It was very difficult to say just what I wanted. I must have done 30 "takes."