Well, I finally was able to post my first full lesson to Google video for my Pre-cal Math class. I told my students to check and see if it is easy to follow with the notes and if it helps them to understand what we learned. I am looking forward to the feedback from my students. There were two students away today, so hopefully they check the blog to get the notes and watch the lesson. Sometimes we have to realize that success with technology is not an instant thing but sometimes may take weeks to work out all the bugs and glitches.
Nov
06
Success!
14 Comments
Nov
03
My father was a mechanic so I have always grown up with tools. I can swing a hammer, turn a wrench, build a nuclear device. Wait….sorry I cannot do that last one. I have always been good at working with my hands. But the tools we are currently involved with involve a different skill set. When I was a kid I got my first computer, a Apple II plus with a whopping 16k of ram. I used to do all my programming in Hex and Dos. Things have come along way with all the new Web 2.0 tools out there. You do not need to have and Engineering Degree in Computer Science to do amazing things on a computer, all you need is access to some very user friendly software. I have been trying to do new and exciting things with the information provided in this course. Yesterday I finally got my test video up and running. Now I will be able to post all of my Pre-cal lessons for my class….so cool. Today I added a new widget (isn’t that also the plastic thing they put in a can of Guinness to make it foam up?) to my blog. One of the only ones left to add was Flickr, so I created an account, uploaded some pictures and voila there it is. A friend of mine has a Flickr widget on his blog and it works much nicer than mine. It shows a group of his pictures and it rotates through them, I am going to email him and ask him how it works.
I find that I am spending a lot of my time each day working on my blog, checking gmail, looking at other blogs, and commenting on items that come up. What saves me a load of time is using my Bloglines account. I have feeds from everyone’s blogs. I only look at their blogs and comment when changes have been made. It has been a huge time saver. One of the best things about this course is the interaction with the other students in this class. I don’t have the time sometimes to explore all the different software out there, but reading peoples blogs and getting their opinions on software has been a great asset. Often I am using software that may not completely suit my needs. Reading about what other people use has allowed me to change to other software that fits my needs.
Glen, if you are not getting the response you want from this course then you may have to quantify the activities. Most of the participants are probably meeting your quotas while others may have to step up to get it done. It is a hard decision since we are all adults and should be taking an active role in our education. Sometimes teachers make the worst students (chuckle), but this is self-directed learning. It comes back to the engagement issue of technology. How do get students interested in using and applying technology and how do we reward their efforts. My drive and reward for this course is an easy one, I love technology so I love finding new and exciting ways of exploring it.
I love having tools in my tool chest. These tools happen to be electronic, but they help me to express myself on the Internet, they help me to further my education and they help me to become a better teacher. I say this all the time with my students, I can give them the necessary tools but they have to be the ones to use the tools or they will just rust. Okay, enough of the tool analogies, time to work on my paper.
Nov
02
I think I am finally able to put my video lessons on my Math Blog. I was able to get around the block on Google Video and upload my lessons. I put a link to the video on my blog. The only problem will be is that the students cannot look at the video at school, they will only be able to view it at home. This is not really a problem since the purpose of the video lesson is to help the students who missed school and the lesson in the first place. Click on this link – Test Lesson – and tell me if it works for you. It was something I recorded a couple of weeks ago to see if my Smart board was working properly. You may have to change the size of the video so that it comes out clearer on your screen. Please give me some feedback so I can improve what I am doing…thanks!
Oct
30
I just had my first Yugma session with Glen. It runs through SKYPE and allows the users to create a session where you can see what the other is doing on their desktop. It is easy to use once you get it set up. One possible advantage to this is that if you needed to show someone how to do something (set up a wiki for example), you could talk about it on SKYPE and show the other person on their screen how to do it. Completely amazing. My Yugma account is set up and ready to go. If anyone wants to try Yugma, just let me know and we will give it a shot.
Oct
28
Well I just set up my first wiki! I am so proud, just like a father whose son learned how to open a door before trying to walk through. If you get a chance please visit my wiki and leave a comment or feel free to add to the different lists.
Oct
28
I just created a short podcast to see how the bells and whistles work. It is tricky to play in this case. If you just click the highlighted text, it will only play for about 5 seconds. But if you move your mouse over the link, a window will pop up, then if you press the play button you get the whole podcast. I am not sure why you have to do it that way. Any suggestions that will help me figure this out? Give a listen to see if it works.
Oct
27
Just a little takeoff on the popular song. Just finished with the SKYPE conference…what a wonderful tool to get together and to talk and discuss the concepts and tools used in the course. After a few problems at the beginning getting everyone into the conference call, things smoothed out and went tickettyboo. It was nice hearing that other people were having some of the same problems that I was having….we are not entirely alone when it comes to the downfalls of technology. I was able to get a few more ideas for my paper. I will share them with you all. I would appreciate any comments or suggestions that you have about them. Right now they are just a mis-mash of brainstorming ideas.
Brainstorming:
- Security – how is technology violating or protecting personal security?
- Collaborative learning – between peers – How do you encourage collaboration and support so they keep at it.
- My math class blog – What is the effect on student learning?
- Technology and implementation
- Curriculum and ICT – how is this going to apply to current and future curriculum?
- Muddy questions
- Rewarding online learning
- How do you build momentum? – staying power – it is always changing
- Voice communication software – VOIP – What is it’s effect on distance education?
- Impact of 2.0 web tools on education
- Students engagement in the course content.
- Wikipedia and it’s effect on student research – good or bad
- How do you build a community of learning within a school
- How do you set up a research project (introduction to ICT in K-12) – questions, data and analysis
- When is technology a better way to teach something?
- What is the financial burden of this technology in the schools
- Digital divide – some have access and some don’t.
- Bridging the gap between personal and school usage – blocking sites etc. – Teaching the skills for proper usage.
- Using Adobe flash player to develop podcasts.
- The use of tools to manage all the information coming across the board – it really helps control the flow, especially when it comes to time constraints.
- How do you assess and reward online learning?
Well time to get on that paper and see what I can unlock from my brain, sometimes it makes sense and sometimes it is just ramblings.
Oct
25
Cool, I just added the RSS feed widgets to my blog….hopefully that makes it easier for anyone who wants to subscribe to my blog.
Oct
25
I had forgotten about this web site…..it is one of the best sites for free software. Take a look and tell me what you think. Giveaway of the day
