When I first got the syllabus printed this seemed like an overwhelming amount of work and when I saw that I had to create the google, blog and facebook accounts I really cringed. I had heard the horror stories of facebook and really didn't want to put myself out there - my neighbor says that's all she does is check her facebook account to see what all her friends are up to - I knew I didn't have that kind of time in a day to be checking all of these other accounts along with my home email account, school email and the Clarion email for both of the Fall classes. I do have to say that I have managed the transition and it's not as bad as I thought it was - I am also starting the required entries for this class on the blog.
I didn't want to rewrite all that I had rewritten on my discussion board responses, so I decided to focus on the activities that are required for each week and go from there.
The google account I had already had from a previous class but didn't use it much and wasn't sure what to do with it - Now that I've had a chance to see the how/why of it it makes more sense but I'm not sure that I personally would keep it going since I have other avenues within my own district in which to post information
Same goes for the blog - I do see the advantage of it, but through my district we have the ability to post items on our school's home page (with parental access) and that could also give me the same amount of freedom in which to post information for my classes. Teaching sixth grade in a rural area I do find that not many students are given access to the school's site (parental involvement good/bad???) and when I do write/post items on my specific page, no one (or not many) do anything with the information. I tried posting something for extra credit once and the only ones who actually read it and submitted the extra credit were the students that were already making A's - they just wanted to be sure they were getting the 100% ! So that kind of backfired on me, so I stopped that for lack of anything better.
I also signed up for the Listserv - ED Tech - I had trouble with this as well - I couldn't find one that really interested me, then when I did, I didn't know that the email back to allow me to subscribe would take a day or two - I ended up signing up for 5 listservs, but eventually found my way back to the ED Tech listserv, which I frequently get emails - It's a pretty interesting site to be a part of - I think it will be good to continue to be on that listserv (as well as some others, maybe when I'm finished with all the Clarion classes) to just keep updated and allow others to help in the field of technology.
The Facebook account was very simple to set up as well - I have also found some of my high school classmates ( one that actually lives 2 miles from me - didn't know) and it's interesting to read their posts, as well as the Clarion classmates. I feel kind of silly to just write 'stuff' on the facebook pages - I don't feel that the things I do in a day warrant writing it down for all to see - for instance I was on this morning and one of my colleagues from my school district said he is driving to Harrisburg - again, is that important enough to post? Just my opinion.
I also signed up for the discussion leader for the week of October 4 - I chose that date for a few reasons - the weekend of October 9 my husband and I are going to Las Vegas - it's a belated 40th birthday present for him - and then the weekend of October 24 we are driving to Amish country in Ohio to buy a puppy. Another scary time in my life - never owned a dog before, but I promised my kids (Nick, 11 and Stephanie, 8) a dog - we are getting a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel - we haven't seen it yet it person, but I have the pictures and he really is cute. I'm ready for it so I wanted to be sure to have this portion of this class finished.
I like how the discussion leader assignment is going. I read the chapters that are assigned, then look forward to looking at the powerpoint and printing the outline. I'm hoping that they will help when I have to complete the rest of the projects for this class.
Finally, my chapter- 4 - VolP - I had no idea at first what it meant, but after reading the chapter it makes much more sense. It's kind of a long chapter and I got a bit nervous, but I've read it a few times and feel that I will be able to create a workable outline for the class. I had also never completed a powerpoint before but again managed to find out how.
References:
http://www.google.com/support/blogger
Educational technology Listserv - I joined the ED Tech Listserv.
www.facebook.com
I created my page at facebook and was able to access the group LS589.
Friday, September 25, 2009
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Questions
Not much going on today - trying to keep current with the readings/assignments for both of the online classes. Will be getting ready for the information for next week. I guess my only question for this class is that I'm assuming there will be no tests/quizzes? Our assignments are the discussion leader project, a term paper and a few other items from the syllabus -
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Engaged Learning - Unit 3
Well, another day in the life of - I am checking my Clarion email, my facebook and completing this blog. I am understanding the whole idea of all of this - thank you Professor for clearing up the confusion on the blog information - I guess I was feeling overwhelmed that I needed to keep up with everyone's blog - Now that I know it's just mine I need to maintain, I feel a lot less pressure.
I read the chapters for this week - and most of the information - excluding Hendron - I am familiar with as a classroom teacher - I enjoy completing the 'real world' activities with my students and I am always looking for new and exciting ways to bring technology into my world and my students. My only problem with the technology side of things, is that our technogy person (we have one, plus he has an assistant) doesn't seem to maintain the computers in the computer lab or the smartboards that we have - Many of us weren't properly trained for the smart boards, so it's a hit/miss kind of thing and when things go wrong there is no one to turn to other that my teammates or hallmates that are also in the dark about the smartboards. That is of course a budgeting issue, but I guess my concern is that if the district is willing to stick their necks out to purchase these items or the technology, they then need to go the extra mile and keep up with the maintenance of those items and also train more than one or two people to be competent on it. The more people that know how to problem solve a situation where technology is concerned the better the technology (and the teacher!) can be.
I read the chapters for this week - and most of the information - excluding Hendron - I am familiar with as a classroom teacher - I enjoy completing the 'real world' activities with my students and I am always looking for new and exciting ways to bring technology into my world and my students. My only problem with the technology side of things, is that our technogy person (we have one, plus he has an assistant) doesn't seem to maintain the computers in the computer lab or the smartboards that we have - Many of us weren't properly trained for the smart boards, so it's a hit/miss kind of thing and when things go wrong there is no one to turn to other that my teammates or hallmates that are also in the dark about the smartboards. That is of course a budgeting issue, but I guess my concern is that if the district is willing to stick their necks out to purchase these items or the technology, they then need to go the extra mile and keep up with the maintenance of those items and also train more than one or two people to be competent on it. The more people that know how to problem solve a situation where technology is concerned the better the technology (and the teacher!) can be.
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Tuesday 9/14
Today I must work on the project for my other class - the assignment 1 to catalog the textbook - I am still in the process of figuring out the different methods and am glad to have this extra time of not working to get it finished.
For this class, LS 589, after getting caught up with the readings so far, I think I am finally at a point that I understand the whole 'blog' thing - I thought it was much harder to maintain and wasn't sure why to do one - I can see the advantage, being a teacher or librarian, to keep the students/patrons up-to-date with the news of the class/library. As with all things new this class seemed daunting with all the 'stuff' but I think I'm in a better frame of mind now to understand it all.
For this class, LS 589, after getting caught up with the readings so far, I think I am finally at a point that I understand the whole 'blog' thing - I thought it was much harder to maintain and wasn't sure why to do one - I can see the advantage, being a teacher or librarian, to keep the students/patrons up-to-date with the news of the class/library. As with all things new this class seemed daunting with all the 'stuff' but I think I'm in a better frame of mind now to understand it all.
Monday, September 14, 2009
Clarification of information
I have the clarification of class LS589 for the blog - I got nervous - I had seen on the syllabus that we had to maintain a blog but didn't know we were required to keep it up to date with the readings for the class. The professor emailed me to say that towards the end of the semester he will have us send him the blog (?) so that he can grade it.
There is alot of back/forth with this class - I am either on the Clarion email, Blackboard, or the facebook account or the blog. It's confusing, since I also have a home email that is pretty busy on a daily basis as well as my school email that I maintain.
I have been working on these classes daily M-F and trying to not work on the weekends since we are pretty busy with soccer practices/games as well as family time and this morning I got on the DB for LS589 and I had to read 60 entries - it was a bit overwhelming - what's more overwhelming is to try to respond - I hope no one feels slighted if I don't respond - I do read all the entries, and will attempt to respond to a few.
Thanks!
There is alot of back/forth with this class - I am either on the Clarion email, Blackboard, or the facebook account or the blog. It's confusing, since I also have a home email that is pretty busy on a daily basis as well as my school email that I maintain.
I have been working on these classes daily M-F and trying to not work on the weekends since we are pretty busy with soccer practices/games as well as family time and this morning I got on the DB for LS589 and I had to read 60 entries - it was a bit overwhelming - what's more overwhelming is to try to respond - I hope no one feels slighted if I don't respond - I do read all the entries, and will attempt to respond to a few.
Thanks!
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
Hello all- I am finding the information for the LS 589 class to be a bit confusing - not sure if anyone else is experiencing the same - I know with this class and the other one I'm taking (Cataloging/Classification) there is a ton of reading - I guess we've switched gears, so to speak, from some of the other classes - there was more paperwork involved, these classes seem to focus more on the reading aspect of learning about the available technology.
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