Schools may block Google!

Many schools block social networking sites. After one day of playing with Google+ and seeing how connected it is to all other google apps when we are signed in, I am worried that in an effort to block google+, schools will just block google.  I am looking for answers on this topic.  I assumed it would be a standalone piece, and it may be if just using google and never signing in, or if using google apps for education.  My fear is that not every school technician understands how important the google apps are to educators, they may block google+ and wind up blocking google.   I myself am usually signed in when I am working in schools, and now that I have google +, will I not be be able to use all my documents and calendars?  Anyone out there have any insights?

You know what to do...

All that for nothing!

I wanted the google+ button on my posts and they just wouldn't show up no matter how many times I refreshed my blog.  Since I have + they should automatically show up under my share area with all the other sharing icons.  It was not showing at all.  I read a few tutorials and actually went in and edited the HTML code, which is not normally a problem for me, but I swear the code I was looking for was SOOOOOOOOO buried.  I did this with both blogs, put in the code for + and then when I saved, I noticed that my share bar HAD REFRESHED to include the +.  Give me a break.  My eyes did not appreciate that little 1/2 hour exercise at all. Now I have TWO buttons at the bottom of each post.  Too bad, I am not going back in after the code now.

The Innovative Educator: Google+, Facebook, Twitter, and Blogs - When and W...

The Innovative Educator: Google+, Facebook, Twitter, and Blogs - When and W...: "After week one I shared my thoughts about “ What Google+ Means for Education .” I’m on week two now and the big questions are: Do I really..."

Experience can go a long way- or it can get stuck in the mud

Not all skills translate over from one job to another, some fields are very specific and so are some skills.  I feel bad for some of my adult learners because it is not always possible to draw a personal or direct analogy to the technology they are facing to give them a frame of reference for understanding. Today, for instance, I spent a long period of time with one teacher and we were not speaking the same language.  She wanted to save some links and some documents she had saved on a jump drive to her own computer.  I was teaching her how to update her website and her jogtheweb.com sites. (That was the objective) Couple the lack of communication with internet troubles and we had a fun time trying to unstick ourselves from the mud.   She understands favorites, she thought they would also exist on her google site.   I was trying to show her how not to lose her data, and was uploading her documents to her google docs and linking them to her site pages.   She does not understand documents in a cloud, so we had to go back and save them on her computer.  Funny thing, her computer was hating us all day long. It would not stay connected to the internet, and we were all a little frustrated with it. She kept trying to use another person's computer to achieve her ends.  She understands favorites, but doesn't understand where they live.  She was trying to save favorites and documents to my computer and her friend's computer,  not understanding that they would not be accessible on her own laptop.

How did all this happen?  When a workshop is planned for  a specific topic, such as google sites, that does not mean that all learners are ready to learn that topic, they may have questions and goals that are important to them that are PART of the objective, but are really not the focus of the day.  It is hard to unstick oneself if there are other concerns dragging one down. She was not ready to move past her own goal to the class goal even though it was related.  She was also trying to transfer her knowledge of favorites to another function, documents - not everything will translate over that easily.  I could have shown her diigo or delicious, but that would have been like me speaking Martian to her.    She needs bookmarks in the cloud, and we will get there, today she did learn that bookmarks are the same as favorites. Baby steps and lots of laughter saved the day...

Epals post ( Guest Blogger)

Hi! I read your epals post and viewed your blog.  It is wonderful!
I am Missy McCoskey in Missouri.  I teach high school at risk students, which
means that I work with students who are at risk of dropping out of school or who
have already dropped out and are returning to try to get their diploma.  I am
working on my masters degree on integrating technology in the classroom.  Last
year I also taught one hour of math and was able to integrate technology in
innovative ways.  It was wonderful.  This year, I am focusing only on the at
risk students.  They have a prescribed agenda to follow and it leaves me with no
outlet for my technology learning.....However, I have also moved rooms and will
have a smartboard for the first time.  This is wonderful and I will play with it
and learn about it, but using it in my classroom will be a little difficult. 
Since my students have a prescribed way to achieve, the smartboard is not part
of that, I will have to be creative.  When my students finish recovering their
class, I want to have them work on projects for the school, like redesigning the
website, etc. I also want them to skype and email students in other countries. 
I am open to ideas!
Last year I loved having my students start wikis.  I created a wiki to organize
the wikis.  Students created wikis for fractions, graphing, etc.  They found
websites, games, etc. and posted those on the wiki.  It was a very good
experience. 

I have to collaborate online with other teachers for my masters degree and am
looking for someone to email or skype.  Are you interested?  It looks like your
schedule is already full and busy.  Great job on your blog!


RESPONSE!

Missy, we would love to collaborate with you and possibly your class. We have new 6th and 7th grade classes starting up in September- let us know what time of year you are interested in and we can schedule it according to what works with your curriculum. April and May are tough for us, that is when we test, but we are available the rest of the months, September to June. I also have access to some high school teachers who may be a better match for you... They will see this blog post and let me know. I will be in touch through epals, thank you for being a guest blogger here!
Missy

Reflections of Adult Learning

A picture does not always paint a thousand words, sometimes an explanation IS needed. This is what I learned this week in class. We each created an exhibit on the characteristics of adult learners. By themselves, just as pictures, we could infer a great deal, but it was the explanations that each member of our class added to the pictures that made them come alive.

For instance, this dog could represent an adult learner who is satisfied with himself, or it could be a trainer keeping a close eye on a learner.It might even be a proud teacher witnessing her/his class take charge of the their own learning. We figured out this week that our take on a situation is based upon our individual experiences and backgrounds. The connections we would automatically draw are going to be different for every one of us. It was difficult looking at exhibits from an earlier class and trying to figure out what the graphics meant. I personally had a lot of trouble understanding until I had to build my own.

Pedagogy and Andragogy

History of Pedagogy on Dipity.

NOTE TO SELF

I guess the biggest realization I came to tonight was that I only had class one day per week until now. Guess I was spoiled, because I do not have two days in my week and time to do homework along with all my other obligations.  NOTE TO SELF- only take classes that actually meet ONCE a week.  I do not know if that goal is even achievable- It may take me a few years to complete my MAIT degree that way- but I am stressed right now, so this is my rant.    Everybody needs a piece of me right now and I don't have any extra pieces to give.   I think the projects we will work on in class will be interesting and very helpful to me in what I do, which is train adults, so I have to get past the stressed part and down to the learning.    I also have to remind myself that people new to wimba and Blackboard have it way harder than me.  SO I need perspective as well. (This is me yelling at myself for pitying myself) Don't feel sorry for me, because I am just whining here and not being constructive.

New class-New Year and Newbies!

I noticed tonight that no matter what class I take, we are always starting from square one. There are always newbies in each course that may not know how to use all the tools we are familiar with.  I noticed this particularly tonight because  I am spending my summer preparing teachers for next year's classes.  We are starting from square one again with new learners who do not have the technology skills our students developed over the last year.  I think I would prefer to loop with a class, rather than start all over every year.  I think of all the skills our students have learned and how other teachers will benefit from that next year and we will be "stuck" with the "toddlers."  It is not a fair thought, or even a nice one, but it is honest.   I am excited over the prospect of thrilling a new set of students with empowering tools, but the thought of starting from how to turn off a laptop correctly is a little exhausting.  I also have a new group of teachers who have not used smartboards or laptops with students, because the ones I trained retired and took their skills with them to the golf course. I can only hope that we can plan better for next year knowing all the missteps we may have made this year.   As I start this new course, Adult Learning, I have to remember that we have some new students amongst us and they may need time to learn all we know already about wimba and blackboard. I am a total newbie to the concepts being presented in this course, I haven't even heard of  Andragogy before!

  I loved listening to the newbies from our last class totally take lead in this class tonight.  Their growth is a testament to their strength and tenacity. Of course, I did not enjoy hearing them try to get me to go first.  I think they are trying to throw me under the bus...

We asked, you answered! 15 more brilliant ways to use Edmodo

We asked, you answered! 15 more brilliant ways to use Edmodo

QR codes

As we were walking around ISTE we kept running into the qr codes everywhere, so I was inspired to make my own using the KAYWA site,  I can now read them too, thanks to the app I downloaded on my Blackberry.  It is pretty darn cool that I can just take a picture and my blackberry browser goes right to the site that is associated with the code.  I have to try it out for contacts.    I wonder if I take a picture of my own and save it if I can just display it on my Blackberry screen for someone else to scan it.  hmmmmmm.   I DO know that I can scan it from my computer screen, I did try that already.  It doesn't to be printed out.  Here is one I created for the new band booster website.  The website is still under construction, but enjoy trying my qr code anyway.

Our arrival at ISTE

Sent on the Sprint® Now Network from my BlackBerry®

Just arrived at ISTE!

Very excited to be here, I am planning my day and have already managed to trade my free laptop case for a free iPad case. Since I borrowed my son's iPad for this day he will be happy I am bringing him back something cool. I will update as I go along. Right now Sheila and I are setting our strategy.

ISTE UNPLUGGED

How incredibly cool is it that I can be at ISTE 2011on Monday when I am not going to be there in person until Tuesday?   Illuminate sessions of unplugged presenters are available with archives at this link.

I couldn't be more thrilled because I am only going to be at ISTE 2011 for one day and I was worried that I would miss out on a lot of PD options if I really explored the floor.  These sessions remind me of the From My Classroom To Yours Conference at Stockton. They are definitely shorter, but everyone appears to be offering resources to help us use the applications they are showcasing.

Blogs as Showcase Portfolios

Blogs as Showcase Portfolios

Archive madness

Since I left early last week, I was trying to catch up with the archive and understand the military timing, it has been awhile.  Looks like I missed a great wiki show by Ann.  I am so pleased that she was able to make this tool her own this semester.  There is a new commenting feature that the other talent 21teachers and I plan on using the coming week before school ends.  This gives an almost blog functionality to us that we were missing and we are excited by that.  Wikispaces has been the most successful tool for me over the last few months.  Since we only have so much room in our  teacher websites, this extension of our digital world has been priceless and we can make them as content specific as we like and leave them until next year after this year's class is done without maxing out our webspace.  Thank you everyone for the warm comments in the aha's!  I think you are all amazing people too!

Loving this service!

I had a project that I needed completed right away, it was all transferring text from one format to another and I just didn't have the time.  This service is great, I posted a job and within 5 minutes, I had nineteen offers from people willing to complete the job. I selected my assistant  at 11pm at night and the work was done by 6am the next morning.   Great way to make extra income if you like to work from home and have skills.  Awesome way to get a digital assistant.  I made sure I emplyed someone from the United States because we need jobs in THIS country too.

Learning from each other...

We are so lucky to have the chance to share resources, everyday I get the chance to learn something new from another teacher. The wonderful technology blogs, the shares on diigo, delicious and twitter, and the products that my classmates post in our discussion boards are the ways I stay on top of my game.  It doesn't matter it someone is new to the graduate program or has been in it for a while, everyone has something valuable to give to each other.

Starfall: Teaching Through Song and Games (Guest Blogger!)

This is a guest blog post from my epal Genesis in Guatemala. Her blog is fabulous and I have been following her for a few years now. We have yet to skype, but this was a good solution since she is always on her computer in the middle of the night.


I never intended for my kids to start school so early, but when my oldest, Dorian, was 2.5 years old, he was fascinated with the computer. I did a little searching to find some kid-friendly sites and Starfall.com was one of the first that I came across and Dorian loved it!
It didn’t take him long to master the mouse movements necessary to play his favorite songs and I would let him play on the laptop while I worked on my desktop in the mornings. His baby brother, Dante, would climb up beside him and hum along to the songs. Pretty soon, both of them could belt out most of the tunes on the alphabet section of the site.
When Dorian was 3, he really wanted to learn to read. He would offer to read the bedtime story, then say, in a rather angry tone, “Oh, right, I can’t, because I can’t READ yet!” Obviously, he was ready!
I started with teaching him the letter sounds . . . but it turned out he already knew most of them, thanks to Starfall. What he lacked was the knowledge to put the sounds together so he could actually read a sentence. It was pretty easy to teach him to read, because he already had the basics down, just from playing online! He’s already well on his way to a Grade One reading level (he’s 5) and his brother Dante (4) is close behind him, all thanks to their time on the computer.

More Search Sites for Middle School Students

Middle School Reference sites for students

Urgent Reply Needed .

 Ok, I put out the call to my epal forums for guest bloggers to participate on my blog. I was looking for teachers using technology in their classrooms to contribute.  I gave the email address for the blog post to appear, but it was supposed to go to draft.  I did check my blogger settings on this matter.  Since I had weekend troble with blogger,  I am assuming the the settings need to be reset because this is what came through.  Danielle is right that we have to be vigilant, even with the moderated epals site, because sometimes the crazies get through.

SEE CRAZIES BELOW!


My Dear Friend,
My name is Reginald Cole, who is diagnosed with oesophageal cancer. To cut the long story short, I have few hours left to live, depending on my surgery which will take place soon. Although I am rich, but it doesn't matter anymore.
I want God to be merciful to me and accept my soul and so with that reason I decided to give what I have to charity and I never had children. I want this to be one of the last good deed on earth. I now give you the authority to dispatch my last funds to any charity of your choice.
I have Nine million pounds in a financial institution. I want you to keep fifty percent of this amount for yourself and time, while you keep the other fifty percent to any charity of your choice. May God be with you as you carry out this task.I believe with this,
I can now be free to depart peacefully. You can then contact my lawyer who will assist you in getting the funds to you when I pass. He would give you more details. His name is Barr.Lawrence Walter, and his email address ( Barrlawwalter@aol.co.uk ) He would guide you through receiving the funds.
Lot of Love
Reginald Cole

Blogger having trouble this week

Both of my blogs disappeared this week. Thank you Ann for alerting me.  There was suspicious activity on my account, so the blogs become temporarily unavailable.   They do not give us this message though, they say they have been removed.  It is a good idea to back up your blogs by exporting them.  Since I have been blogging for many years, I almost had a heart attack when I saw that all my blogs were down.  It also helps it you change your password from time to time. 

Techy Things Teachers Should Try: My Avatar Editor

Techy Things Teachers Should Try: My Avatar Editor: "My Avatar Editor is a free online site where you can create and edit avatars. Gender, height, size, hair and eye color, along with other ph..."

Everyone is coming along in class

Only mild technical difficulties last week- we did lose Brandy's Tooltime.  I think when she was sharing in wimba some of us received that error message about the archive and thought it was our own screen.  Uuughh!  I was impressed that Steve performed on the spot for us with a very interesting tooltime on Comic Life 2- I will be upgrading to that version for sure!  I am loving all the jings the class is creating and can't wait to share them with my grant team on our moodle. On another note, I am also enjoying working with Brian, our graduate assistant.  Just like old times!  It was the first night that I felt everyone had finally settled into a groove.  There were minimal technical difficulties, good participation from the group and the tooltimes and related discussions  were comprehensive and extremely helpful! Everyone has come so far in such a short time- I only hope that this summer will be a time of reflection on how to integrate these tools into  the normal school year.  I predict that when the computer lab sign-up sheets get posted, these teachers will hog as many spots as they can for their classes in the coming year.

How to use Yodio for easy Podcasting

Myriam was good enough to share this site with us and I found a helpful tutorial that shows us how to use the Yodio site.

Wondersay fun!

made on Wondersay - Animate text with style

New Tools!

Last week was much more fun for me, I love it when people in the class present new tools that I have not used yet. I am excited to try them out and see if they can work seamlessly into some of the curriculum my teachers have to meet. The problem with technology is that there is always a learning curve for teacher and students and this presents a problem; we only have so much time to teach our subjects. In light of that kind of problem, I am always on the lookout for the easiest and most creative tools than I can find to keep the students engaged.

Informants Post Quiz

The Informants Post-Test » online testing

Passed the test for the Informants.

Pre-Quiz: The Informants » Online exam software

Using Windows Live Movie Maker

Our students have been creating ecology powerpoints and wanted to publish their movies on the web on our schooltube.com channel. Once published their were able to share their links with their epals. Otherwise the file sizes were too large to email. I made a series of screencasts using Screencastle and/or Jing to talk them through the process of using Windows Live Movie Maker and the Sound Recorder in connection with work they had already done in PowerPoint.


Saving PowerPoint Slides as JPEGs



Importing Pictures to Windows Live Movie Maker




Adding Titles and Credits to Windows Live Movie Maker



Adding Narration to Windows Live Movie Maker


Adding captions and Using other tools in Windows Live Movie Maker




Adding Transitions To Windows Live Movie Maker



Saving Projects as a Movie to ready it for uploading to Schooltube or Youtube.




Uploading Movie to Schooltube.com

Wimba on Crack and what is a chat anyway?

Last week was challenging to me because I was teaching some tooltimes and attempting to help students in the class at the same time.  I had to keep leaving the computer I was demonstrating on and I am sure having a snowball mike would have helped.  We have many different levels of proficiency in the class right now, and those most proficient are at home on wimba.  I felt pressure to keep up the dialogue for them at home and still assist the students in class with their problems.    I know when I was home on wimba for the first time, there was a lot of dead air, like a radio station, that was not a good scenario so I tried to avoid it.  Another thing I noticed is that this class does not use the chat window as much as previous classes, so it was hard to track who was on track at home and who wasn't.  I was disappointed when I realized the last two demonstrations of diigo and delicious were not archived.  They are useful tools and I could have used those archives with my teachers, guess I will have to make jings.  I am still learning how to keep it all flowing together without dropping any balls.

Need a sponsor!

Ok, here is my offer. While I LOVE Jing, I suspect I will love Camtasia way more, so I am seeking a sponsor to pay for it for me.   I accept all serious offers and will provide a series of screencasts in exchange for your sponsorship, so long as you select some tool I actually know how to use.

Quizlet.com Tutorial

Good Friends on Good Reads!

Last one is a rotten egg!
No seriously, the last one is my epal from Guatemala

My epal from Guatemala is finally on Goodreads.com.  I am thrilled!  With all the social networking going on out there, I cannot seem to get my friends to join easily. I know we all read books, maybe they don't all read as voraciously, but they do keep up a respectable pile by their beds.  I have sent out invites a few times, and they slowly trickle in. After a whole year, I am now up to a whopping seven friends.  Ugggh!  I hope if you are a reader, you will take the time to participate.  I have found some good books my friends have suggested to me this way, and I always know what they are reading.  I LOVE talking about books more than technology.  I tell my students about this web 2.0 tool, I want them to track what they are reading while they are young.  Hopefully it will stay free as they grow up.  Yeah Goodreads.com.

Epsilon System Hacked: Has Your E-Mail Been Stolen?

I know mine must have been, I received eight different emails from various companies that my email information was exposed due to the Epsilon hacking incident.  I wonder how many of you got that same message? United retail group, Best Buy, Target and College Board all sent me Epsilon warning notifications in one day.   We use a specific email just for any online transactions, but it doesn't help.  Ultimately, we cannot have a throwaway email.  We actually need some of the  information companies send when we buy stuff online.  For instance, at the Apple store, they email us our receipts, well, I need those receipts.  I need the entrance ticket to the SAT test for my daughter, I need the concert  tickets and boarding passes.   There has to be a secure email associated with my banking and shopping where I can receive notifications if there is a problem.   This past month, I have received three emails from friends that were clearly not from them, they were hacked and now I have changed all my passwords again in case they start getting some from me.  I send out  quite a few emails, I know that may be weird in this world of texting, but it is how schools get work done.  I do not need people scared to open my emails. I have  eleven email accounts and have started just opening them all on my phone, rather than on my computer, I can handle a virus on my phone easier.  The sprint store is closer than the Apple store. Haha!   Meanwhile, I just keep changing my passwords and trying to stay ahead of the hackers.

Helping each other through many channels

I am so glad that Ericka jumped right in a showcased Prezi for us tonight, I just couldn't get a handle on it the last time I used it, which was last week. Apparently it is all in the framing. I must have missed this in their tutorial, Ericka's was much better. I use them on my interactive boards all the time, But I am using the ones other people created, now I want, no, I NEED to make my own and master this tool.

Tonight's class was rewarding on many levels, even though I could feel the frustration emanating from a few people, they have no idea how much they upped their game tonight. In my first class, we did not do the wimba/blackboard work they were doing for a few weeks. I heard others making plans to meet together and finish it, and that made me extremely happy, they have already picked up on how to work together to solve problems. It is important to get their cell phone numbers and skype names in our address books right away just so we can help each other. Tonight, I was able to call Kevin to get in to the building, Brandy was able to call me to get the dial in to phone wimba, and Ericka skyped me to get into skimmer when she locked herself out. Amy texted in to get someone to let her in, Ann texted in to class to find out if we were still working, it just goes on and on, including the butt dialing in of my husband twice, who has no idea he was there.

The point is, we will all make it through if we stick together and are willing to be there for each other. I am glad we had the chance to showcase a few quick tools. Hopefully people play with them and hit us with feedback on how they would use the tools in their classes with students.

NY Tech Meetup-

I was looking for a free talk-radio solution so I could host my own show and I may go with this solution.  While exploring, I found this wonderful channel on Livestream.

Watch live streaming video from nytechmeetup at livestream.com

Cacoo! Cacoo! Cacoo! No birds here...just good partnerships

Our Cacoo!

Tonight I was lucky that Erica decided to  Chat with me on Skpye to talk about our contract items.  We decided to do a Cacoo together, since I had never made one before and she had never collaborated on one before. Since she had experience using the tool, this was helpful for me, but she was also able to use it in a new way.  I had no experience with the tool, and it was helpful to have someone with me as I practiced my Cacoo skills.  We initiated a Skype phone call and used the chat feature in Cacoo.  I could see how this would be wonderful to use with a class.  I have to investigate some more to see how many users can be on one Cacoo at the same time. It is very easy and both of us were able to edit at the same time, which is an upgrade from webspiration.  It doesn't turn our mind maps into outlines though.  It had some amazing features, is perfect for a project or idea where people get to put their heads together in different locations.  It is amazing how the collaborative web 2.0 tools allow students that cannot sit next to each other in class to still work in groups across a room from each other. Below is our quick Jing on Cacoo- you can hear us talking through Skype.

Yeah- I did it!

Tonight I came home after class (Integrating Technology into the Classroom)  and successfully exported my 7 year-old personal blog to this site and published only the tech posts I wanted here.  It took me only 5 minutes to move over that many years of work.  I cannot believe it. My normal blog has EVERYTHING on it, book and theatre reviews, recipes and family events, the DDR (Ask me what that is) as well as all my tech stuff. Since I would like to keep my techie and school stuff separate from my personal blog, I am so pleased I was able to do this. HOW did I do it you might ask? I googled it, just like we shared with everyone tonight in class. No one knows how to do anything until we google it, or YouTube it, but we have to look to find the answer. LOOKING IS KEY!   Now I am off my soapbox and onto enjoying my new techie blog space.

 I am so excited to fit in another course before the year is out, and this    one looks to be another zinger- we will be using more tools I haven't yet tried and I am sure that will only increase my effectiveness as a Technology Integrationist.  For my wild card options I will pick  tools I haven't used before, so I can gain as much new knowledge as I can.  Since I have used many of the mentioned tools with my students already I have to be careful to challenge myself.  I am also excited to help out the other students in our class, I am sure the three of us who have had Amy before will be able to be of some use to the rest of the class, and they in their turn will help the next class they are in.  It is a beautiful system.

Here is the voki I created tonight to introduce myself, some of them my  classmates made were quite funny.  My students loved it when I used voki for instruction and we had a lot of fun in our last class using avatars to introduce our Instructional Theorists. we did have some trouble with voki freezing up on a few computers.  This frustrated a few of us and when I got home and logged into my account, the voki I made in class was gone.  I had to create another one.    The application also froze up a few times at home.  We are lucky we have other avatar web 2.0 applications to choose from in case this happens.   Amy said she would post them all in blackboard for us and I did view at least three of them in my last class.

Digital summary of Synectics

I have officially exceeded my cognitive load

Cognitive Load Quiz » quiz

Who knew learning Spanish numbers 11-20 would be so stressful for me? Perhaps this is the way our students feel everyday. We should slow down- wish we could, we should have more fun- wish we could. It makes me reflect on how busy we all are and how Sundays aren't sacred anymore and how much we need to project a balanced mood in our classrooms. In this class I am taking right now- there is a lot of pressure, there are many intelligent people who constantly keep us on our toes. The stakes feel high, otherwise, why would I be worried about ten little numbers? I was though, and so grateful for the handout- or I would have failed. I guess I need more time (as our students frequently do)with concepts that challenge me.

 I need a break, Seriously!

Connectivism Lesson quiz

Connectivism Quiz » Create A Quiz

Research Reflections

I was grateful for our time last week with the librarian. It reminded me of how much my students enjoy a guest speaker.  Although we had taken a library tutorial last semester, I definitely benefited from the reinforcement and I was glad she reminded us to remove the "Noise Words." Since we are doing so much research right now, this was just-in-time learning.  I also benefited from the folder conversation. I finally found out what went wrong in 2005, during my senior seminar with Professor Tompkins. All my Northrop Frye research disappeared from my folder after a long night of research and I had to do it all over again. The discussion of  the Interlibrary loan (ILL) was lively, especially since one of our classmates is so far away. I hardly think it would be cost- effective to ship books to Panama, but it is nice to know we can get what we want when we are on campus. I did take advantage of this on a number of occasions and was happy with the result.

Tech Quiz

MAIT Technology Quiz - Michelle » funny quizzes

We were asked to post our quiz results here, and for now it will clutter up my blog. While not immediately valuable to me, I did see that some people in our class learned how to grab an embed code for the first time to post various assignments and assessments to their blogs. I can see the value in this when working with my own students and asking them to post their results. This works only if the quiz locks them out after the first try and if the students are comfortable posting their grades in an online forum. Hmmmmmm... food for thought. I am conflicted because I KNOW that I have students that would be horrified and some students that wouldn't care a whit. I know I took the quiz a few times just so I could post my best score. If the quiz is being used to LEARN, and not as a FINAL assessment, it could be valuable to post the score certificate, such as " When you score an 80 or above, post your quiz certificate." Another observation I had is that I would ask students to use their first names or nicknames so their full names would not be published on the certificate.

Bit of a control freak here

I now have a direction for our lesson, but I am not inspired to write much about it here yet. I am still digesting this upcoming lesson for tonight's class, it should be interesting to create a pln graphic using only text. I was a little confused by the directions because we were supposed to be able to work on something we wanted to work on, but if we are in groups maybe we will be arranged according to the topics we selected. Anyway I created my own for tonight in case we have more rough snowstorms- here it is.

Perhaps I need some coffee to get motivated- I was up all night waiting for a snow day to be called or not called for kids and myself- amazing that I can never sleep when a snow day may occur. I am glad my partner and I got together for our project- I always feel unsettled with things that are not certain. I get anxious, just like the snow day thing. I guess I am a bit of a control freak. Since many people in class exhibit these tendencies- because we prefer to work alone rather than give up control, I thought I would share this picture...

I hope they are all headed in the same direction...

Who wants to follow them?

After tonight's lesson in class, I  am so much more aware of how the stakes have risen.  A perfectly executed lesson is a hard act to follow.  I particularly noticed how the assessment quiz related to the instruction and with the flashcards. The end result was tied in with the actual lesson, and if I took more time I would have aced my quiz, as it was I got a 60% because I kept selecting what I would do rather than what Gagne would do.  I would dissect at least part of frog to gain student attention rather than show a video clip, but that is just me.

I already have too many flashcards, but I can narrow them down to 10  assessment questions easily.  In fact, I think I may have already done this without knowing.  Let me explain, the quizlet application creates quizzes as well as flashcards- so I really just have to copy and paste 10 of the best into proprofs or word.  I can see if I can use quizlet to give me a link for others to take the kind of quiz I want them to take. Of course, Brian was going to do that part so we may have to shift roles yet again and trade jobs. We will see. I was so glad Dustin and Erin used the notebook software, not only because it is my favorite software and so much fun, but because it worked in WIMBA!  Finally, something works in the Wimba window the way it is supposed to. I learned some new things tonight about teaming up in the wimba environment.  Clearly the chat window was always being monitored by at least one of the presenters.  They handled the whole environment very well.  The bell ringing and little horn were nice touches.  I am glad Dustin and Erin used the people in the room to their advantage to assist them in making it such a great lesson.

I have to remember to put it all in one place!

Theory presentation notes:
A jog may work,  I have been using Dave Dimmerman's tool since last semester with a vengeance!  Here is a sample of some jogs I have created for various content areas.  I think for Brian and I, we may have to put everything in one place to present.  We run the risk of people running ahead- but it will save time in opening files and avoid the whole sharing nightmare that I had before in Wimba.  Last semester, I pre-loaded a powerpoint- and then once I hit the archive button,  it wouldn't load properly in the screen.  I hate the lag of presentations in total share mode, it just gets annoying for me.  Therefore, I must stick to my guns.  Other questions remain--- what lesson to teach?  Which Synectic strategy to use?  I do not want to over-think it, nor do I want to leave anyone confused as to the application of Synectic theory.  Last semester was definitely simpler, but I am grateful that Brian and I do not have to present first.  I made the powerpoint too long last semester- so I am glad Brian will do our digital summary.  He is bound to get right to the heart of the theory.

Reflection on class:
I was kicked out of wimba a few times- that means Brian and I each have to have total access to everything we are creating- so we have a back-up plan.  I felt bad for John and Ryan, because they did not have the benefit of watching some of us struggle last semester with Murphy and his "anything that can happen, will happen."  I thank them for paving the way.  Can't wait for next week, the avatars are my favorite elements of the presentations so far.  I want puppet avatars.

School Tech: 6 Important Lessons From Maine's Student Laptop Program

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Since we are involved in the Talent 21 grant in NJ, I thought I would share this article.