5/11/2010

Wow! This class has been a challenge for me, but I am feeling much more comfortable with things. I had to go way out of my comfort zone.

Looking back over the semester, we started with the webquest. I had done one years ago and had really forgotten how to do it. It was like starting from square one- but I did it.

We had our instructional website. That was a long drawn out disaster. :) It was painful. I used an online site where I could design my site. I kept hitting a button while i was typing, (and I'm not sure which), that kept deleting entire pages. I was having a heck of a time. I started many pages over and over!! -however, I did it!!

We had our podcasts. I had no idea what to do mine on. I actually fouund this very enjoyable and I think that I am likely to use this in the future. I liked using audacity. I had fun with this. I did it!

We also created classes on moodle. I thought this would be very difficult, but I enjoyed this one as well. I had a hard time figuring how to use it with my kindergarteners,so I planned a 5th grade class. I would use this agian as well. I did it!

The wiki was my least favorite assignment. I really had no idea what to add and how to contribute. I felt that the people I was working with did a great and complete job. I did not realize that so much work had already been done when I went in to work on it. I think that was the biggest problem. I waited too long. However, as bad as I felt it was, I did it. :)

We created blogs and participated in many discussions. We used secondlife and the palace. I found a lot of tools and sites and articles that I want to go back to try out, use, and read. I am maybe even looking forward to another of these classes in the future...maybe! :) As I have said many times, I did it. I may not have felt as comfortable as I am used to feeling, and I may not have done as well as I am used to, but I took a leap, and tried soemthing new. For that I am happy.

5/3/2010

Today we are on second life for our group synchronous discussion. So far I have to say that I am not that impressed with seoondlife. It is really hard to figure out and nothing is marked, or if it is, it's hard to read. Dr. Ingram said to meet at Kent State, but I ran into Lee and we had no idea what to do or where to go. I don't think it's something I'd use, but we'll see after the discussion.

So a strange tech thing happened today. I was on facebook today and soemone sent me an invitation to a group that had teh name of an old friend with her birthdate and the day she died. This is how I found out that she passed away on Saturday. Wow! Things have changed. Anyway, I found that to be an odd use of facebook (as well as a sad one).

May 2, 2010

Today I got to work on the wiki. I have to say that it looks really good. Everyone made it a great resource. I want to go back and check out some of the links when I get a chance. This was my first time with a wiki. It was an interesting experience. It was difficult to make changes to what others had written. I didn't want to change their line of thinking or insert other ideas. It was a very different experience than traditional editing because with pen and paper editing, the original words and thoughts are still there and the writer is able to decide if what the editor changes is better or more appropriate. With the wiki, however, when I edit, the original words are replaced. I didn't like that part of it. Also, as an editor, I like to reread more than once what the writer wrote, as well as what I have changed to be sure my edits are what we actually want. I wish there was a way to use editing marks first before making the final changes. (Perhaps there is and I don't know it yet.) I don't know if I'd use a wiki in my classroom. I have found a lot of technologies that I am excited to work on and become more proficient in, but I don't think a wiki is for me.

April 28, 2010

I FIGURED OUT MOODLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ok...I got that out of my system. :) As I said, I figured out moodle (or at least I think I did). It really didn't take long to do my moodle project at all. I think I am going to turn it in tonight. I was proud of myself for figuring it out. I was unsure of how to use it in a kindergarten classroom though, so I went back to my days in 5th grade. I did my project on 5 topics in grammar. I think it went well. I think that moodle could have been a little more user friendly, but overall, it was ok.

Now I need to do the wiki and that is actually the one I have been dreading. I am not sure what to write or add. But, it's the last one. (Yay!)

I got feedback on my site last night and I was fairly happy with how it went. As the overachiever I tend to be, I kept going over things with my husband. ("I should've....) He finally said, "You did good on soemthing you had no idea how to do. You're fine." I guess he's right. I'll be settling down now. :)

When does the class actually end? I am leaving for Florida May 15. Hopefully everything will be wrapped up by then. I need to check that out today.

Have a great one!!

April 25, 2010

This was not a productive week!!! I planned to get a lot of work done this weekend but sadly, that did not happen!!! I just spent the last half hour or so reading thru the discussion boards and responding to them. I hoped to be halfway thru my moodle by now. ugh! Now I have some of that panic sneaking back in. I need to get down to some serious work now. Night all. :)

April 18, 2010

What a productive week!!! I turned in my website assignment the other day and today I did my podcast. I was surprised at how easy it seemed to be. I would like to take an online tutorial to see what all audacity has to offer, but I think I did an ok job with what I figured out on my own. It was really easy to do. I sent my husband and kids on a few small errands so that I could have some peace and quiet. :)

Today I also wrote my wrap up of my discussion and started poking around with moodle. I also got caught up with the discussion boards and am actually doing a blog post on time. I guess this crummy weather has helped! At least it's good for something.

Have a great week everyone!!

April 13, 2010

YAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYY!!! I finished my website. Tonight I'm going to go through and double check that all my links are good and then it's outta here! Feels good to be done with that one.

My little guy is sick right now with the flu and is clinging to me. It makes it really hard to get anything done. Oh well- he comes first.

I missed the synchronous chat last night. I had stayed up till 1:30 the night before learning second life and then couldn't download or log on to Palace correctly. I tried over and over. I tried again today because I don't like when I can't figure something out, but still no luck. :( Would've been hard/impossible with a sick baby anyway.

Anyway, I feel like I've got a handle on this finally!! Just a few projects to go! Have a great day everyone!!

April 2, 2010

Oh wow! I'm starting to feel like I'm getting somewhere in the class and it's a really good feeling. Now my issue is that it is 84 degrees outside. I don't want to do work!!!!!! :) That's the kid in me coming out.

I am just about done with the website. I did a large chunk last weekend. I plan on wrapping it up this weekend. Maybe Sunday if it rains like it's supposed to....

I have worked out what I am doing my for my podcast but haven't done it yet. I think I am going to create a podcast for parents that could be posted on the class webpage that teaches some of the songs we do in the classroom. I think I will do this one on the spanish songs we do for the days of the week and months of the year. I will also give pronunciation of the words so that parents can practice at home with their children.

March 16, 2010

Last night we had our first synchronous discussion. Wow! I have to say that I wish I had the guts Gerald and Whitney have. They did a great job leading the discussions. I missed the wrap up at the end. The kids were fighting and screaming. I think my husband was hiding somewhere else! :) They're fine by the way- just looking at each other wrong. Ugh!

I just wanted to comment on Wimba. I felt a bit overwhelmed at the beginning. I wasn't sure how to use it. As more poeple came on, it became a little confusing and I was glad that Gerald switched to text only. The talk function was a little jarring and distracting. Voices were delayed and we didn't know who was talking. I don't think it's a tool I could see myself using in the future.

However, once again, great job to the presenters!

March 15, 2010

Well I thought about the article from my last post quite a bit and I have come to realize that I don't like the idea at all. The cost can be staggering when you count the number of buses and the monthly access fees. I don't think it's a good idea to let kids roam free on the internet without adult supervision. I think that it is unfair to provide this extra study time to students who can afford to buy laptops and net books and leave those without the means to sit without it. I think that would build resentment and cause other troubles.

I also just finished my asynchronous discussion on using socail networking sites in the classroom. The general consensus was that it is not a great idea. People in my class tended to think that there were more issues that positives with using them in the classroom. Of course, we touched on the need to keep students from accessing other pages within Facebook. The biggest issue though, seemed to be the teacher/student relationship boundaries. I hadn't really given much thought to that angle before the discussion. That really made me see that social networking sites do not have a firm place in education, unless it is in higher education, where all parties involved are mature enough to use the site correctly. Working with kindergarteners has kept me from thinking about those types of issues, but they are very important to consider when working with teens. I think that there are other types of sites more appropriate for classroom use.

Have a great week everyone. Are you seeing the light at the end of the tunnel yet? Still not very bright over here. :)

March 1, 2010

I just turned in my website design!!!!! Be still my butterflies!!! I hope it looks ok to Dr. Ingram. I can't wait to neve read another word about butterflies!!!!

So I saw an interesting news item today. A school district in Vail Arizona installed wi-fi on its school buses to create a rolling studyhall. It is commonplace there for students to take long bis rides and they often became rowdy and violent. The bus drivers are saying that they wifi has improved the students' behavior. They stated that the boxes cost 200 and monthy service ran 60.

I thought the idea of the "rolling studyhall" was a good one on the surface. I thought. "hmmm...interesting...." but as I fixed dinner and thought about it more, I found issues with it.
1. cost. 200 per bus and approximately 600 per year per bus in service fees. That's 800 per bus per school year. How many buses in this disctrict? It seems like a lot of money as an extra.
2. monitoring. How will the students be monitored? How do parents/teachers/admins know what is being viewed? Certainly the driver can't monitor. Even with parental controls and such, things get through. Are we letting busloads of students run free and unmonitored on the web?
3. have v. havenot. We have discussed again and again about students who don't have access at home to computers and technology. Are those studenst being left even further behind? Are they on this bus without a laptop or smart phone or other device? Are they even more excluded? But on the other hand, if there are computers available- is this giving them more time to have access if they don't have it at home?

I am still not totally sure how I feel about it. I keep thinking more as I process it further. Any thoughts from anyone else??

Take care and have a good day!!!

February 25, 2010

Things are looking good for the website. I think I've got a handle on the site itself. I just need to get approximately 15 extra hours in my day. :) I am just trying to work out how to do the assignment for next week. I'm not sure about how to do the story boards. I am not sure what exactly he is looking for. I've done a few pages on my site. I think I am on the right track.

I am behind on my blogs right now. I missed last week's. I don't know how I feel about it yet. I don't feel that I have much of value to discuss here on my blog, especially things that haven't been said in the discussion boards- by myself or others.

Anyway, have a great week!

February 10, 2010

The WebQuest is going well. I think it's about done. Think being the operative word...

I work at the Y one night per week. I was there the other night and we had a meeting scheduled for the next day. We were all complaining about coming in during the middle of the day for less than an hour. I started laughing and said we could do a podcast and listen to the meeting on our regular shifts. I just thought it was funny to have it come up. Actually not a bad idea.... :)

Thanks to everyone who commented on the last post. I appreciate knowing that I am not alone in this confusion. I also appreciate the ideas and tips more than I can say! I'm just going to keep plugging away and do my best. It's really all I can do.

February 1, 2010

The discussion boards in Vista have me feeling muddled. There are so many discussion going on at once, I am not sure where to reply and most of what I have to say has already been said. I wish that we had one discussion per week rather than trying to wade through five discussions at once. I am better able to focus on and expand on one discussion at a time. Am I the only one feeling this lost? If so, I am in the wrong class....

The WebQuest is underway and off to a decent start. I'm very happy to have changed my focus for the assignment. Butterflies is working much better than bears. So far so...ok. I don't know- we'll see. :) I worked on it for about 6 hours last night.

The webpage is a different story all together! I have no idea where to take that one. I just looked over the assignment page again and I am at a complete loss. Around 1 am last night, I was wondering why in the world I wasn't working on the assignment that was due first. I decided that I just needed to make a dent in something...anything.

I just read over the discussion boards in vista. Everyone has a lot of great ideas for using wikis, blogs, and podcasts in their classrooms (and in business). I really liked the idea about using pseudonyms with discussion boards in the class. The teacher would be the only other person to know the pseudonym. This would allow the students to have some anonymity while discussing various topics with their peers, yet would still hold them accountable to the teacher for any inappropriate comments.

Inappropriate comments has actually been a worry that a number of people have expressed. I think that the teacher needs to be closely monitoring what is being posted as well as discussing expectations before beginning as well as reviewing those expectations often.

Wow! reading back over this post, I sound like Debbie Downer from SNL.
Hopefully can paint a rosier picture later in the week. Perhaps after I figure out my website proposal????? :)

January 25, 2010

So last week when I turned in my proposal for my web quest, I was feeling hurried and came up with a topic (bears) just to turn in my proposal. After thinking it over this past weekend, I came to the conclusion that I chose the wrong topic. Bears is not a topic that I would find useful in my classes. Instead, I hope to be able to change my topic to The Life cycle of a Butterfly. I would definitely use a web quest like this in a classroom. I hope that I am able to change my topic at this time.

I have created a web quest in a previous class. It was a fun experience for myself and I think it would be a fun thing for the students. It would allow them to have fun while learning and also insert technology into their everyday learning. When I was teaching, I liked to teach material thru a number of methods in my room. I enjoyed doing thematic units with my stdents on topics and creating lessons across all the disciplines that related to that topic. This allowed me to incorporate a number of technologies and ways to present the information so that I could reach teh widest range of abilities and inteligences. I think it is a great idea and teaching tool. I look forward to creating a usable web quest for my own classroom, for when I return to teaching.