Friday, September 25, 2009

Entry 1 for blog

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.

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