Program Reflection

I still laugh about my initial experiences/feelings 4 and a half years ago when I started back to school. I was absolutely terrified by terms that are now VERY familiar. I need to remind myself that some of my teachers have these same feelings about technology. I have found that enthusiasm for what technology can bring to the classroom, along with offers of help in lesson planning, has been helpful to overcome some of this trepidation. This program has helped me learn how to extend my comfort zone of the social studies classroom to really see how to help other content teachers utilize technology effectively. The opportunity to discuss projects and tools in a variety of different age groups and disciplines has been extremely valuable. My two favorite parts of this cohort were the Digital Storytelling and the individual project. I really felt that I learned the most in the digital storytelling class. The textbook was fantastic. I loved learning more about the power of a good presentation. This was a skill that I felt I had once been very good at. However, interestingly enough technology had made my presentations much more flat. I had fallen into the "death by powerpoint" trap. Instead of using technology to make my presentations better and more interactive, I was allowing them to become mere bulleted lists. The individual project allowed me to spend some time focusing on a topic that is really interesting to me. I have been intrigued by the potential of gaming in education to truly extend a student's learning by reacting to and dealing with real world scenarios to really apply their knowledge. I still wish I knew more about the actual workings of a computer. This an area that I often find frustrating. I know how things are supposed to work, and can use them when they do, but I often don't know what to do when things go wrong. I could use more troubleshooting tools in my toolbox. This is something that I will need to continue to work on individually.

Educational Leadership

This topic is incredibly important to my school right now. My current principal has only been there for 4 years - and yet we have had 2 culture/climate surveys in that time and have set up a building wide committee to deal with much of the perceived tension. While the current leadership is very political, she appears to be much weaker in some of the other areas (specifically human resource). I have found the reading so far to be interesting and am looking forward to further discussions. I truly feel that a good leader can do more to further your organization than anything else; and, in contrast, a bad leader can bring it down just as quickly.

On-line learning week 5

I believe that on-line learning is going to continue to grow and flourish. I don't think that it will replace brick and mortar schools entirely, but I can certainly see more blending for all students. On-line learning really does provide the ability to differentiate learning for all students by providing help and support to those students who struggle and extended learning options to those more advanced students. A district that utilizes the power of on-line learning will be very successful because of this differentiation and the ability to offer courses that they couldn't before because of staffing and classroom space. I see a lot more student portfolio work as a culminating graduation expectation. These e-portfolios will contain artifacts of learning that allow a student to prove that they have the skills and abilities to thrive in their chosen field.

On-line learning week 4

I know that I have skipped week three - but I feel that I need more time to reflect on that topic in order to post effectively. Therefore I am going to move on to week 4 to talk about formative assessments. I'm not exactly sure what the author's point was to the article about using web2.0 tools for formative assessments. A formative assessment can only be successful if the teacher uses it properly. This has so much more to do with the teacher than the tool they are using. A blog can easily be as effective as a written journal if the teacher takes the time to comment and provide feedback. I have known many teachers who just mark down that the students turned in their notebook - how is this effective formative assessment? A good teacher will make use of the tools provided to give substantial feedback and allow their students to grow and improve. A teacher can use discussion posts, google-docs or blogs to evaluate and comment on writing. They can use clickers or google forms to get a quick sense on what the class understands (or doesn't) to determine whether or not they need to reteach or which concepts they need to review. Pixton could be used to evaluate understanding as well. Each of these tools can be revised by the students based on teacher feedback in order to improve.

On-line learning Week 2

Facilitating Online Learning Week 1 post

I love the convience of on-line learning. With 3 kids and a full time job I appreciate not having to spend the extra time commuting to/from class. When I was taking classes at Oshkosh over the last 2 years, I would regularly spend at least 2 hours a week in the car. This is time that could be much better spent:). The biggest drawback to me has been the classroom interaction. My library classes at Oshkosh contained most of the same students each term (similar to this cohort) and we became really close because of the chatting that takes place before class and during the breaks. We didn't have any group work, but I still feel closer to those people than I do to my current classmates. I also feel that students are more likely to participate when sitting in front of the instructor. I think most people find it much harder to stay quiet when the teacher is right there looking at you. Overall, on-line learning was the best fit for me at this point in time but I don't know if I would chooses it over face to face classes if my circumstances were different.

Stats By Any Other Name - Week 5

Okay - I'm almost caught up. I don't know why I find it so hard to keep up on the blog posts. It's not that I don't think about the class, and I certainly get my other work finished on time. I just seem to have some sort of mental block when it comes to actually typing these posts. I have the same problem with my other blog http://mrsdanen.blogspot.com/ where I was supposed to write reviews of the books that I have been reading this year. I challenged myself to read 100 books. I have currently read 67, but if you looked at my blog you would think that I stalled at number 27 in September. I have read the books and I certainly have opinions on them, why does it seem to be so hard to complete that next step?

Anyway, about stats....This week we were looking at Google trends. I actually had a hard time with this assignment. For some reason it seems that google trends is getting blocked by my school's filtering system. I kept getting an error message every time I tried to do a search with google trends. Luckily my group members were able to share their screens with me on our google hangout so I could see what they were talking about. We were also supposed to look at a number of data resources. Talk about information overload...Most of these sites were full of information, some usful and some not, but were hard to search. It really felt like being buried in a sea of facts and figures (so much data, so little time). I found the information to be reliable, but I also found it hard to find specific data that might be helpful to me.

Stats By Any Other Name - Week 4

This was another one of those weeks where the terminology got in my way. I was confused about standard scores and z-scores. I thought that the standard score was the number on the table axis, and that the z-score was the number that you would find in the table itself. This would explain why my group was getting the same answers for the percentage questions, but different z-scores. Once we got this straitened out everything made a lot more sense. Again this week was more about the interpretation of the data, which is a lot more interesting than just crunching the numbers.

I found the videos on Bill Tancer to be intriguing, if not just a little bit frightening. It's amazing to me how much information can be gained just from analyzing peoples search inquiries. As long as the information remains anonymous, I think people should be able to use anything that's out there. If my personal information starts to get shared, that's when I feel it crosses over into an invasion of privacy.

Stats By Any Other Name - Week 3

This week our groups were supposed to start creating our own survey. We had a number of ideas, among which were the surveys that Zac and I were both working on for our respective districts. Zac's was smaller in scope (fewer questions and fewer people involved) and we thought it would be easier to analyze once we got the results. This is the part of stats. that is actually interesting, being able to interpret the data once you have it. It's funny that none of my other stats. classes in college really focused on this aspect. Isn't this the main reason that we do surveys in the first place?

Stats By Any Other Name Week 2

I'm not bad at math, I've actually always done pretty well. This class however, has been a struggle. It's not that the work is overly difficult, or the amount overwhelming. I find myself having a hard time with definitions. Words that I have used often with a fair amount of certainty as to their meanings, no longer have the same definitions. Take for instance the word "sample", I had no idea there were so many different types of samplesm and the word "statistic" more often I have actually meant "parameter" when I used this word. Once I can wrap my mind around the definitions, the actual math hasn't been that hard. Having said that, it still has to be my least favorite subject so far. I still think that's why they tried to disguise the name by calling it "Decision Making Using Data Collection & Analysis" and hoping that none of us would notice.

Week 5 Facil Collaboration

This week we were working on our Google Site. I created a wiki 2 years ago (I used it as part of my resume to get my current job), but I haven't done a lot of work on it since then. I decided to try a google site this time to see if there was a lot of difference between the two. I found that the google site was very easy to create and I liked the different layouts that I could use for each page. I am trying to find a way to present some of the information that I want my students to use in a more visually appealing way. Currently we each have a "webpage" on the district site. However, these pages all have to use the same size font, design set-up, etc. and allow for no creativity. I also have many of the same links on the Library Catalog home page, but that too is not visually appealing. I am learning that I can embed some things, but I have to know HTML code in order to do this. Alas, I am HTML illiterate. So I have my wiki site. However, that is just one more place to put all of the information and for students to have to find. I really want to be able to put all of the relevant information in one place, but I want it to be engaging and user friendly. Is this really too much to ask? Although the google site, like my wiki, is easy to use...again it is just one more place to make my students look....

Week 4 Facil Collaboration (Social Bookmarking)

I was introduced to Delicious three years ago and absolutely loved it. I loved that I could bookmark the sites that I had been looking at for research and be able to easily find them again no matter where I was, and what computer I was using. I also learned that adding people to my "friends" list made it easy to benefit from their research as well. If I was struggling to find some information, I was pretty sure that someone else from my class had found something useful. The one thing that I didn't pick up on right away was the importance of tagging and notes. I would bookmark a site, but I wouldn't put a lot of thought into the tag. Then when I would go looking for it, I would have to wade through a lot of other bookmarks to find the one that I wanted. I also realized that a good note as to why I had chosen this website could be equally important. Last year Delicious was sold and I eventually moved my bookmarks to Diigo. One thing that I like about Diigo is the ability to annotate the sites that you bookmark. This makes it much easier to find the relevant pieces of information when you finally get back to it. The social aspect of these bookmarking sites is becoming more and more important to me. I get much more productive search results from searching the bookmarks of people who work in similar fields, than just doing a random google search on the same topic.

Week 3 Collaboration Using Web Tools

This week we were looking at RSS feeds. I love RSS feeds. I barely have time to check my own e-mail somedays, there is no way that I would be able to keep up with the blogs that I like to follow. RSS feeds allow the new posts to be sent to me, all in one location. It makes it a lot easier to check the posts once every few days and know that I haven't missed anything. It also makes it easier to quickly glance through and decide what I would like to read, and what I can save for later. I have gotten a lot of really valuable information this way. The blogs that I follow have varied, I've dropped a few - only to pick them up again later - and added a couple of others, but it really makes the whole process a lot easier to keep up with (I love one stop shopping). I have tried getting my staff to use these without a lot of success. The ones who like the feature were already using RSS feeds when I started last year. Those who weren't using them yet, really haven't seen the use yet. I did manage to convert a couple of teachers last year, and I hope to grab a few more this year. Maybe the word of mouth will finally get the rest of them to crack. Those that have switched love how much easier it has been to get good information. They have it sent to them, instead of having to go looking for it!!!!!

I think one of the problems that I had with Twitter the first time that I used it, was that I was following basically the same people on Twitter as I had RSS feeds for. Therefore, I really felt that I was just getting the same information twice - in different formats. This time around I am trying to follow some different people of Twitter and I think that it will actually be really beneficial.

The other topic we were supposed to be looking at this week is photo sharing sites. Good, Creative Commons and/or copyright free image sites are really important. However, my students have run in to a number of inappropriate images on Flicker. They had typed in very innocent search terms and pulled up some disturbing pictures that weren't being blocked by our system. I have created a list of other sites that they can use as an alternative to google, ones with either Creative Commons or copyright free images, but Flicker is not on the list.

Blogs, Wikis and Twitter Oh My

I know that I am a week behind with this blog but I will try to make up for it. It's funny to me how much harder the writing part is than the reading. The same thing is true for my reading challenge blog. I have read close to 50 books since I began the challenge, but I have only managed to blog about 27 of them. Why is that? It really makes me stop and think about some of the work we ask our students to do - and why they sometimes have difficulty getting it done.

I have to say that this class (and the last) became even more relevant to me this week while at the TIES conference in Minneapolis. Bernajean Porter (of DigiTales fame) was one of the featured presenters, most of the sessions had to do with blogging, on-line discussions, wikis, etc. and you couldn't go anywhere without seeing a tweet!!!

I had been following a few people on Twitter before, but I found that I was getting a lot of overlap from the information on my RSS feeds. It seemed that people were tweeting about things they were reading on these blogs and I found that I got more information from reading the blog than the tweet so... I guess I will give it another try. Maybe I need to find different people to follow. I think I will start with some of the fabulous presenters at the TIES conference. (Can you tell that I loved this conference? The only bad part is coming back down to reality when you return to work. I would love to see all of these innovative ideas implemented TODAY but I will be patient and try to keep taking the little steps that will get us there in the future.)

The readings this week have motivated me to make some changes to my Reading Challenge Blog (and to work on updating my postings) and to make some other changes to my wikispace. I am considering switching to Weebly, we'll see. All of my reading over the past 2 weeks has really convinced me that we are on the right track with My Big Campus and some of the other wiki's and blogs that are being used in my school. I will continue to push for some of the more reluctant teachers to at least try blogging themselves in order to see how effective it can be and to follow some other educators on their blogs. Rss feeds are a perfect way to build you personal learning network and continue your education every day. What a great way to connect with fellow educators/experts from around the country and around the world. I have said it before to my staff, but I think it's worth another push.

Pecha Kucha Take 2

Okay, I was wrong. In my previous discussions about the Pecha Kuchas, I had indicated that I thought they would be too long. Actually, it wasn't long enough. I really tried to limit what I said about each book and I tried to talk as fast as I could while still being understood - and I still ended up about 10 seconds too long on each slide. I am continuing to tweak it but I'm not sure I'll be able to get it down to 20 seconds per image. I know that's hard for a lot of you to believe, since I am always at a loss for words!!! Overall it was a lot more fun than I thought it would be. This would definitely be a interesting project for students to force them to be as succinct as possible. I think they would enjoy it.

PREZI!!!

I love Prezi. I have used it for a number of presentations and I think it is fantastic. It can have a tendency to have too much movement, and make the audience sick, until the creator gets used to using it more effectively. I feel that I use more of the principles of Presentation Zen when I use Prezi. I am less likely to resort to bullet points or writing out my whole presentation. It forces you to really focus on the important points and highlight them by literally zooming in on them. You need to be more organized and have a more well thought out "story" to use Prezi effectively. I think my audiences, mostly students, think it's pretty cool too.

Pecha Kucha

When I started writing my post for this week - I realized that I had missed mine for last week. So....I have to say that thus far, this is my favorite class. I think that the ideas and sites are the most applicable to what I do everyday and I can easily see how they could be used with my students. I love Animoto. I have used it a number of times before, and I have had my students use it on a number of occasions. I like that it is easy to use and still gives you a very professional looking product. The one thing that I'm a little hesitant about is the Pecha Kucha. A first you think that 20 seconds isn't that long for a slide, but you don't really look at one image for that long in most presentations. I tend to do a lot of mini-lessons in my job and don't usually talk for close to 7 minutes straight. I'll have to see how this works as I get started on my storyboard.

Digital Stories in the Library

I actually use digital stories often in the library. I love to use book trailers when I do book talks for classes. The visual images, in combination with music and words, can "sell" a student on a book much better than my description alone. When I talk about books, I usually have a combination of trailers and those without. The books with trailers always get checked out first.

Book talks is only a portion of what I do. I can see that digital stories could really add to the actual lessons that I teach as well. It's reminding of when I used to teach high school social studies. I used to try hard to make the "stories" come alive to my students by painting a word picture, and talking in a conversational way that pulled them in. Why then have I started doing all of my library lessons as power points with bullets? Wouldn't these lessons be impacted just as much by "stories"? I have tried some things, but there is really so much more out there that will really allow me to impact my students more.

Digital Storytelling

I am really looking forward to this class. I think that I'm in for a lot of work, but the content seems interesting. These are skills that everyone needs to improve on, and if I can make my presentations more effective and entertaining, I will be able to make a larger impact on my school community.

I am also a little worried about this class. Typically, creativity is not one of my strong suits. I have never enjoyed creative writing and I am artistically challenged. (My stick figure don't even look like stick figures) Hopefully I can learn some skills and tools that will help my struggling right brain. I have used some tools, like photostory and microsoft movie maker to make "book trailers" and as an assessment tool for a health class project. (The students create a photo story as their final presentation for a unit on diseases - some of these were very personal and powerful)

I am actually currently seeking an alternative to Photostory. Our district upgraded to Windows 7 over the summer, and chose not to purchase the compatible upgrade to photostory. Therefore we need to come up with something else for the health classes to use before these projects begin again in January.

Course Reflection

Whew! This has been the toughest of the classes so far. Apparently my life has a very delicate balance and I can function when all of the pieces fit where they are supposed to. But when one of those pieces slips out of place....watch out.

Actually, I can keep everything together when I stay on top of them, but I managed to get behind in this class and it made it very hard to keep going. That being said, I really enjoyed the class. These are important concepts to effective teaching that sometimes get forgotten in the push for "content". It is necessary to reflect on the different ways that we can impact our students, and to develop an arsenal of strategies to have at our disposal. Isn't it funny how sometimes the simplest concepts (such as feedback) are the ones that we tend to forget, yet they are also the ones that can provide the biggest "aha" moments?!