Moodle

I am discovering that it takes a long time to create even a mini-lesson in Moodle. As my husband says to me often, "Hon, you might be over-thinking this a little." That being said, I have many of the documents and information I want to use already created, so that helps. Editing is simple and I really appreciate that since it gives me more time to focus on what I want students to learn and do in the class and how I want them to show me what they have learned. The class I am creating is more futuristic or perhaps something that might happen if there is some kind of health epidemic where the nations children would have to stay home because I don't foresee a middle school class being done completely online unless the school is a private school or something.

Mapping with Mind 42

Here I am just practicing to see how I can get a Web 2.0 application I am playing with into a blog. I plan to create a blog for the online class I am creating with Moodle and I want them to put their created maps into the blog and write about the process.

My Dad

Thinking about Technology and Parent/Teacher Conferences

I have been thinking a lot this week about my future as an educator and what the parent/teacher conference will look like for me and the parents and children I serve. I heard a discussion on NPR the other day and one educator mentioned that they do student led conferences, where students present their best work to their parents after reflecting on their strengths and weaknesses. Obviously with younger students, this would not work without much help from the teacher, but for older students I can see this being extremely beneficial. It's similar to what we are doing in the Computers in Education course where we learn via various technology projects and develop a portfolio of our work. I envision a combination of elements where the student led conference showcases the work of the student, addresses areas of concern, and allows the student to present in a way that suits them. Students can use as much or as little technology as possible, doing e-portfolios or paper portfolios and present their information live, via video, via audio, or via text. I haven't done any online research on this yet since I am busy with other homework, but it's fun to consider breaking away from the traditional format where parents and teachers talk about a child when they aren't present. I think having the student there can solidify the notion that parents and teachers are working together in support of a child's education. Requiring reflection on the part of the student empowers and creates an environment where learners are active participants in their own learning. I look forward to learning more and incorporating low-tech and high-tech components into my idea of student led conferences.

Google Forms

This week we created a survey with Google and generated a spreadsheet from the survey. I appreciate the ease of creating documents and getting back information in different formats...spreadsheets, charts, and graphs. We learned how to create formulas and do some basic computing to turn the results of our survey into a "living" grade book. Unless I find something better, I will definitely be using this in the future.

Creating a Jing Instructional Video

Jing makes it so easy to record, cancel, and re-record a "lesson". One thing I didn't realize until after I was done is that because my video was about creating a Voki, it took a while to upload and open once clicking on the URL. My internet speed is a bit slow at times, so perhaps that was part of it, but Voki uses Flash, so I think that was part of the issue as well.

Sometimes all it takes to keep student's attention is a change of pace. I was thinking about how boring it must get to watch the same speakers every day. Creating a "teaching voki" and changing them often, might be enough to get and keep the attention of the class for shorter lessons or concepts. I could even create a Voki based on a character that we read about in a book, give some clues, and we could have a "name that Voki" contest. It could be done in reverse, too, with the kids creating what they think a character might look like based on descriptions in a story.

It would be wise to test this out with kids first to see how they feel about it before getting too elaborate. Sometimes what us "old folks" think is cool isn't so cool to younger kids, but this is definitely worth exploring.

Web 2.0 Voki

More on Google

I decided to switch over from Keynote to Google Presentation for doing my Final Portfolio. I couldn't believe how easy it was to import the slides I did from Module 4 into my new presentation. I am really digging the Google phenomenon. Google should pay for me for all of the promoting I am doing. Grin. Most of the time I think their products speaks for itself, so who needs promoters.