Tapped In Chats

Hey all while unfortunately I have missed the last two chats I have certainly been visiting Dr. Lowell’s office and catching up by reading what you all discussed. I think Dr. Lowell was referring to me about the projects as I am currently working on the one he discussed and have been emailing him back and forth for suggestions and comments. I am looking forward to working on a project versus a paper because I really want to show what I have learned and be able to pass it on to others. I feel with a personal project goal I could certainly do that versus writing an intensive paper. I see we are all pondering over our ideas and any suggestions are appreciated I will certainly review over the ones who posted and place some ideas as well. Good Luck all!

April P.

My Project…

I noticed a few others have been listing their project ideas. I have been working with Dr. Lowell for a little bit on my own project as well. I am working on preparing an extensive tutorial for picking a blog engine, how to write a blog, rss and how to use it, picking an aggregator with different types, listing important resources and uses of the tools in various settings. I think this will be a difficult project at first but once I get myself going I think I can really do well on this project. I wanted to focus on something that would have really helped me at the beginning of this course. My only question right now is what type of format to place it in as I certainly do not want to use power point. =) Any suggestions?

A comment on commenting…=)

After the last few weeks I realized I hadn’t received many comments under my posts and began to wonder if anything I was saying was being read (as in am I saying anything that is useful to anyone in the course). Because of course I know we are all reading the posts. But I noticed that some of us comment more than others. I am definitely at fault for my lack of passing on a comment half just being lazy and half just trying to do my own posts. I hope that by improving my commenting skills maybe I might receive some feedback as well. Comments are always welcomed to my post positive or negative and are certainly appreciated!!…So please feel free to let me know what’s on your mind =) Keep on typing all…=)

April P.

Course Objectives…

I think course objectives can be a fact of life given that the instructor develops reasonable and obtainable goals within the objectives. If a teacher were to list more than six to eightobjectives for a six month course I think this might make some of the objectives wishful thinking.  As some objectives may take longer to reach or may even be unattainable for certain students. I think you should put great effort into choosing course objectives because they define what you are trying to teach and if you are unable to reach them then you may have planned your course design poorly. I have had quite a few classes that chose so many objectives that many were left uncompleted and made the students feel that the teacher didn’t adequately prepare their lessons and remain on task just as we are asked too. Everyone in a course has their responsibilities including the teacher or instructor. We all have to work together to fulfill the objectives if we want to really gain everything from a course that we can.

Designing a course…

I think this one is a little tricky. I think depending on the course you choose to design you may wish to use a lot of tools or just a few. If I were going to teach Freshman English and had the tools I use readily available for them as well I would have quite a few to use. I think designing a plan that involves as many tools possible can enhance their learning experience. But I also realize that too many tools might bog down what I am trying to teach as well. When I was working with schools I used a few of the tools from my toolbox when I taught lessons but not as many as I would have liked too. Do you all use a lot of tools in your courses?

Choice of Design

After reading over my two toolboxes I realized that my toolboxes focused more on on-line or distance courses than teaching in the classroom itself. While I did list a few things that you could use in a classroom I neglected to mention things I might need for my handicapped students or those with IEP’s. While this may not seem important to some I feel it is important that my knowledge and skills cover every area of my teaching. I definitely need to rethink my toolbox and include more things that would encompass all areas and aspects of teaching in and out of a classroom. What do you all think?

April P.

Whew…

OK!! I caught up! I can’t believe it! I feel like I’ve been typing for days. I can finally breathhhhhh…I hope you are all doing well this weekend and have gotten your posts completed as well. I have to say I haven’t been able to catch up on reading all the posts but I will tomorrow and I will try to make some comments as well. (SMILES brightly! and heads to sleep)  =) 

Advanced Toolbox..

A few tools we didn’t discuss but that I  would certainly add are Simulations and Desktop Video to my toolbox if I could afford them.

Simulation:

As our book notes, “Simulations are based on a model of a specific system–mechanical, electronic, chemical, industrial, biological, or social. The student is presented with a system state that provides a number of choices; the choice made determines the next state of the system” (Kearsley, 2000, p.40). These simulations if used with computers can help students get the opportunity to practice until they become comfortable and then allows them to move on to the next simulation. An example of simulations would be the ICONS project at University of Maryland (http://www.bsos.umd.edu/icons).

Desktop Video:

As our text describes, “A desktop video system is basically a chat system that uses video images instead of text messages. The video images (including audio) are captured by a small digital camera that is connected to the PC” (Kearsley, 2000, p.33). I think a desktop video would be great in the classroom because it would allow you to connect to other classrooms all across the country and experience how other students work without traveling to wherever they maybe in the United States and even other countries. An example of desktop video would be CU-SeeMe (http://www.cuworld.com/)

Lecture-Ware

Lecture-ware from what I researched is a new way to use technology in the classroom where they can be connected to Internet, Cd’s, etc while class is going on as well.  An interesting site I found was called http://tlt.its.psu.edu/projects/ETS_catalog/completed/music/music.html, it is a site on Pennsylvania University site that shows how they are using Lecture-ware inmusic classes. Are these beneficial in classes especially the usage of Internet? I think in college courses these would be very beneficial for certain classes but in a high school classroom it would be more of a deterrent than a learning tool. I think they would be more interested in searching online than working with the lecture-ware. Just my experience about using the Internet and high school students.

April P.

Audio/Visual Sites are they effective?

After looking over the sites listed Skype, Gizmo, and IM voice/video sessions I decided I think these audio/visual sites may be effective for distance learning but not within classrooms.

Skype and Gizmo offer free PC to PC calls and cheap PC to phone calls over the Internet while yahoo.com and AOL.com offer IM’s with file shares, voice, phone, video, and pictures.

Now personally I am not a fan of Skype I have used it before and it reminded me a lot of Vonage Internet phones there is constant static if you can even get a connection and its more of a pain than it’s worth. Not to mention when I downloaded from the skype site I got a virus which when I installed my updated virus protector it was detected and deleted. I’ve never used Gizmo but if it is effective I think it would be a great way for students to communicate with others without worrying about phone bills etc. As for yahoo and AOL I have used most of the stuff they offer on their ims and think they would be great to use with other students as well because you could get a better feel for the people you are chatting with not to mention you could share files easily without emailing.

April P.