Reflection - EIT Class

If I could put the week in one word it would be WOW!! I learned so many things that I will be able to integrate into my curriculm that my students will enjoy but most importantly will learn.

The activity that I think will benefit my curriculum the most will be NING. I think there is so much that I can do for faculty, students & parents on this. Being able to invite parents to the NING so that they can be caught up on what we are doing, assignments, and when tests are will be a great advantage! Students will thoroughly enjoy the social networking and like I have said before I think that more student involvement will happen. Some students feel "Safe" when communicating online and I think it will allow them to have a voice in class discussions. Hopefully as I integrate this other teachers will take the "plunge" and do the same thing. Clipart courtsey of schools.clipart.com

I have one Mac computer in my room that is used once a year. But as I went through this class I was opened up to so many things that kids can do with iMovie & GarageBand. I am going to try to incorporate more projects and involve this computer in the process. I believe that I can check out Mac laptops also to help me out with availability.

Many of the things that we learned this week I will be able to incorporate into my classroom. Right now, the only one that I do not see helping my curriculum is Second Life. But I think in time as SL develops we will be able to integrate it into our curriculum.

Day 5 - EIT Class

We spent a couple of hours this morning working on our project. We took a little break to talk about widgets. Widgets are mini applications that you can add to your blog. WidgetBox is a great website to find many widgets.

Dr. Zeitz suggested we join ISTE (International Society for Technology in Education). One of the benefits of the membership is you get a subscription to "Leading & Learning with Technology". This sounds like a great magazine.

Dr. Zeitz wants us to remember to "Live with Courage, Teach with Vision!"

E-Portifolios was briefly discussed. Theressa suggested that I do this as I go do not wait to the end :-). Thank you Theressa!

Becky & I finished our video this morning. You can find a link below to see our video:

After lunch, we started our presentations. The first presentation was about Digital Citizenship. This group did a wonderful job. What a wonderful resource for other teachers! I am always looking for ways to teach the kids about copyright. Many do not understand the rules that go along with copyright.

Our presentation went pretty good. Again our presentation was about Authentic Writing with Digital Tools. There are many things that we talked about within our group that can be integrated into what I do in my classroom.

The last presentation dealt with using Social Networking specifically Nings. Again something that will benefit tons of classrooms. I would love to get this going by fall for my classrooms.

A good day again but I am ready to go home and see my family.

Day 4 - EIT Class

Today was very busy. We worked in our groups today. I think our project will be interesting. We learned about iMovie today. I have used iMovie a couple of times before but I learned some new tricks! iMovie is very fun and kids really enjoy creating videos. We have a Video Production class that is taught at Estherville Lincoln Central and the class is always full. The students get so into it and so creative. J

Becky & I created a short video on how to use VoiceThread. I think that it will be a nice tutorial for students and adults.

We also toured Team Technologies. The tour was very interesting but some of what was discussed was over my head. I am more into the software side of technology instead of knowing the hardware and how that all works.

My brain is starting to overflow. We have been introduced to so many things that will be awesome additions to our classrooms. I am excited about what I can do with my classes in the fall.

One more thing that I am excited about is being able to see David, Jaydan & Jersie tomorrow. It has been hard to be away from them for the week.

Day 3 - EIT Class

This morning we started class time to work in our groups! This was much appreciated. We needed time to work on our project: Authentic Writing with Digital Tools. I believe our project will help not only myself but all teachers wanting to integrate digital tools to their curricular area.

Theressa and Seth introduced the class to VoiceThread. They did a wonderful job showing us the capabilities of the program.

Below you will find the podcast that Becky & I put together.

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Podcasts was the topic of discussion this afternoon. COOL, COOL, COOL! I recently purchased an iPOD and just love it. I have subscribed to a few podcasts, some education related, some personal interest. So, I was familiar with listening to Podcasts and using iTunes to find podcasts but we actually learned how to create them. We used Garage Band which is an application program used with Apple computers. Some of my students have played around with Garage Band in my room (I have one Apple computer) so I knew a little about it. I worked with Becky and she was a great partner. We had a lot of fun creating our podcast. The topic for our podcast that had to supplement our project was Examples of VoiceThreads used in Education. We posted our podcast using Podbean. Recording my voice made me nervous but as I did it, I felt better about it. Kids would absolutely love using podcasts for projects. I think I would be able to incorporate this into my Marketing class. Students could do this for our advertising unit and talk about how advertsiting affects us everyday.

Today was another very beneficial day. I am looking forward to looking at iMovie tommorrow. I have a little experience with it. There is also a chance that we may be taking a field trip! I will fill you in tommorrow.

Day 2 - EIT Class

Today was Day 2 of my Emerging Instructional Strategies class. We spent most of the day playing with Second Life. Dan Power from UNI Business Department, came in & talked to us about Second Life. I still am not sold on Second Life mainly because you have to be 18 to use and I won't be able to incorporate into my classroom. Although there are good informational tools out there for us to use. It was fun to learn & see some of the different things you can do in Second Life. It just astonishes me on what it can do.

Steve Hargadon talked to us this morning about Nings via Skype. The graphic to the left is the Skype logo, click on it to go to the website. Skype is really cool. I am going to try to incorporate this into my Marketing class and hopefully some others along the way. Marketing is a class that I teach that is hard for me to teach because all we have ever done is out of the book and I hate it. I want to change how I do things and I think using a Ning, Wiki, Blogs, and hopefully bringing in a guest speaker via Skype would be great and I think that I would enjoy teaching the class more. I like the subject but just don't like how I or the others before me have taught it. BORING. Nings are cool and I think they could be very valuable for our classrooms. Nings can be set up to be private and I like that idea.

We also worked on our final project for the class. My group is focusing on authentic writing digital tools. Very cool and useful for when I return to my school. I created the survey for the students (who are actually teachers in this case). Tommorrow we are learning podcasting. I already subscribe to a few different podcasts but after Wednesday I will know how to make one. Becky & I are in charge of doing a podcast for Voice Thread. Voice Thread will be introduced in class on Wednesday but some of my group members had already used it. Very cool. You can post a question and have people respond by voice. They can actually call from their cell phones to post comments. Our group also talked about Jing. Very useful tool also. I will be able to use Jing to show students various steps on how to perform tasks.

Another great day & I look forward to tommorrow.

Day 1 - EIT Class

Today was my first day of Emerging Instructional Technologies class. I learned so many different tools that I can use in my classroom. I am really excited about how this will impact my classes. What I worry about is the tech department at my school. They are so against these types of things. I will have to do my best to show them the educational value in these tools.

I loved Google Docs. The following video is taken from YouTube and is an introduction to Google Docs.


I think there are so many things that can be done with these. I am thinking of doing my Student Information Sheet with a form. At the beginning of each semester I have the kids fill out a sheet with name, parents name, etc. I also put in things like do you have a computer at home, is it Internet accessible, etc. I think I could set up a google page and then embed my form there. Fun, Fun! The kids will LOVE it!

Only disappointing thing today......Parking Ticket. Being new to the UNI campus, I didn't realize there was a staff parking lot. Guess what? I parked in A (staff & faculty parking). I didn't even know there was a difference. Anyway I went and got a parking permit at noon. I went back to my car to put the sticker on and there was the bright orange ticket. After class, I ran up to the Police/Parking place and appealed my ticket. The lowered the ticket from $15 to $12 but I still am trying to appeal. Who knows? Appealing wasn't going to hurt me but could help me! I will know after June 30.

Anyway, looking forward to a good day tom with Dr. Z!

Second Life Experience.....again!

WOW! I am just amazed how SL works. Again on Thursday night we met in 3 venues for my EIT class. We were in the chat room, MeBeam, & SL. As we met in SL we went to virtual Iowa. This was so weird to me. The guy who acutally made the world was there and he talked to us. We sat in chairs and listened to him. I am still confused on how this all works. Mr. Powers (I believe was his name) talked about the cost and hoping to increase tourism, etc. Is this real? I keep wondering if this is actually is his job? What a job! We also went to the Wild Rose dance club. Again mind blowing to me. They actually have streaming audio and live (so to say) bands playing!

After visiting Iowa, we went to a place to get free clothes. I got totally lost and then exited off the program. I am still amazed how this works.

I did learn that you have to be 18 to use SL. I am sure there are some freaks out there. So as I posted earlier, I wouldn't be able to use this at the high school level because seniors turn 18 at different times throughout the year.

edublogs

While searching through educational blogs I came across edublogs. This blog talks about the some of the same things that we are talking about in my Emerging Technologies class. The latest post is about being TwitterSnoozed. It also touches on Plurk.

"We don't know what we are going to discover......." is the title of another posting. Very interesting. This blog talks about how it is hard for some teachers to change.

On the right hand side of the blog, there is a list of categories of different blogs that have been posted. Many things that we have dicussed in our EIT class. One of the links I found was to Bill Mackenty, he is very much in favor of gaming in education.

There is a wealth of information on this EduBlog.



http://edu.blogs.com/edublogs/wiki/index.html

A little off topic but INTERESTING

Thursday night's chat was out of this world!!! It all started in the chat room where my classmates, instructor, Dr. Z & I were talking about our Emerging Technologies class. I also signed on to MeBeam. I just love MeBeam, it is so nice to see the people I am talking to. Lastly, some of us went into Second Life. All I can say about Second Life is WOW!!! Amazing to me how that all works. For those of you who don't know, Second Life is a virtual world where I can meet & chat with my classmates or pretty much anyone.

I was definitely an immigrant on Thursday night. It was hard to multitask and carry on 2-3 conversations at a time. I found myself sticking with the chat room at the beginning because that was "safe" for me. At times I can feel somewhat of a native but many times I find myself an immigrant. I love to learn new technologies though. I did venture out into Second Life. I did find it somewhat difficult to move around in Second Life but I learned. I think it will just take practice. I don't play any video games, but I think students would love this and would move around just fine!

I love the chat room. I wish (and maybe I will figure it out) I could incorporate this into my classroom. I beileve that more students would type what they are thinking because they do not have to speak out loud. You could certainly get more people involved in class discussions this way.

MeBeam is wonderful too. Not sure yet how I would incorporate this into the high school setting. Something would have to be done at night to get this to work but could be really neat once you would get it going.

Second Life I am not so sure about. I think students would enjoy it because it is similar to video games. Again something that could be beneficial but not sure how to incorporate it yet.

Beginning of Class

The beginning of class is important to a class period. At our high school we have 43 minutes with the students so time is crucial. There are 3 parts to the beginning of class:

1. Agenda for the day. Your agenda for the day should be posted everyday before the students enter the room. It should not be a secret of what is going to happen within that class period. Students no longer come into our rooms asking us "What are we doing today?". The agenda can be as detailed as you wish or could just say "video" if that is what you are doing for the class period.

2. Objectives/Outcomes. You should have objectives posted for the day. What are the students going to learn? This will help the students get more focused as they walk into the room and get them to start thinking. One to three outcomes a class period is typical. When writing an objective, we always put these words in front "By the end of the class period, you will be able to ...........

3. Bell Ringer. This is a little job for the student to do when he/she walks in the room. The bell ringer should be based on previously learned material. Some teachers use the bell ringers as questions on their tests. Many teachers have the students write them down everyday and keep track of the questions & answers.

When our administrators walk in the room, they are looking for these 3 things on our boards. Beginning of class is very important and these things help to get class rolling each day.