Summary

What changes do I see in my teaching that have arisen from this class? Lots...I hope. This class have given me the confidence (and practice) to try new things technologically. I feel capable of keeping up websites for my classes that will allow me to present content in new and more engaging ways. I feel that I can more easily assess my students' knowledge in a variety of manners, both formally and informally. I feel that I can have better communication with parents what we are learning, and better show them evidence of their student's learning. I also feel that I can link with other educators and students around the world to form collaborative learning groups. Some of the tools that I have enjoyed most have been Prezi, Google Sites, Wallwisher, and Diigo. All of these tools will find their way into my daily teaching in some form or another. I think what I have gained most is the knowledge to keep using these tools sustainably. I feel that so many of the tools I have learned and tried in the past, I never learned well enough, or thought out the use enough, to keep up. I strongly feel that I can sustain the tools that I have created, as long as I keep it simple to start and gradually add new tools. And that is where I am struggling. I will be keeping sites for two of my five preps, and would lreally like to create some for the other classes, but realize that as of now, it will not be sustainable...especially with the action research process. But, as comfort and efficiency continue to increase, then more can be added. Thank you all for your help and guidance through this course. I have enjoyed sharing blogs with you all and seeing the great tools that you have created and are using.

Attempts at Podcasting

I've been trying to wrap my skills around this podcasting idea. I like the idea of being able to archive lectures, and tried this a few times last year, but have yet to really make it work. The file sizes always seem too big to attach to webpages, so I'm trying to find new ways to make this work. I took one of my lectures that I have saved on my computer from last year and imported it into audacity hoping that it would make the uploading better, but my file was still too big. I do like how easy it is to use audacity though. I have tried using Garage Band with my Mac last year and that is really hard, though it does allow for addition of music and sound effects (not that I have had time to do this). I guess I just need to create a short audio recording, maybe a tour of my greenhouse, that I can upload to audacity and then try to import. It seems like a great tool, I just need to figure out how to fit my "lectures" into it.

Guiding Principles..part 2

In looking at my initial guiding principles for web technology in the classroom, I can’t say that I would change much, but I feel that I now have a much better understanding of what I wrote. One of my key guiding principles was that the web would allow for better collaboration. Through using the tools we have explored, like blogs, wallwisher, google forms and others, I now have a better understanding of the multitude of ways in which the students can collaborate and share information. Another key guiding principle is using web tools to organize and present information in appropriate ways. Students should never feel limited to presenting information in a poster, or even using powerpoint for that matter. Many more tools exist that allow them to reach different audiences, which prepares them for life outside of school. I think the biggest guiding principle that I need to remember is that the web technology must be intuitive and not take away from content learning. I have found through this class that it is easy to spend A LOT of time playing around and not always having a lot to show for it. The technology needs to work as seamlessly as possible to have the greatest effect. My final key guiding principle is that it needs to be safe to the student. This needs to reflect the tools they use, where they publish to, and the copyright limitations. The students really are vulnerable, much more so than I thought prior to this class, and the tools used need to protect them, yet not limit their ability to discover and explore.

Final Project

I think I finally played around with just about every key tool and found the ones I plan on using through the year and those that I still have bookmarked, but will probably not jump right into yet. For my final project I decided to create class websites using Google Sites. I created one for my Biology class and one for my Ag Bio class. Within each site I have linked to blogs I am using, wallwishers, Google Forms, have embedded videos, created a Google group for discussion, and a host of other tools. I've had a lot of fun with them, and it is getting easier and faster to use the more I play, helping to make it more feasible.

Joe Genius

Not sure if anyone else has checked these out, but I just stumbled across these videos hosted by Discovery. There are only 2 episodes available now, but more to come.

Class Project

I've still been playing with my class wiki sites and will hopefully have more to post about those once I'm done traveling back home (it's been 2 days in the process and we still have 2 more after stopping to see both families and picking up our puppy that we haven't seen in 1 month). I took the Ecology of Trout Streams class this past week and had the wonderful opportunity to work with a great group of guys on a final project. We had to create a "lesson" that could be used with our students and we settled on creating a webpage-based project. Here is the link to our site. I still would like to spend some time on it, as we pieced this together in about 3 hours time. This did teach me some limitations and things to think about with using Google sites and how to embed and add interactive options. I'm still trying to play with a page that allows students turn in the assignments to keep it paperless, anybody have success with that yet?

Class Wiki

So I've decided to try keeping a wiki site for my biology and ag biology classes this coming year. I used Google sites last year to keep a web page for my biology class and decided to create a wiki through google sites for both of these class; it seems easier to keep everything in one place even though some of the other sites seem more logical to use. One thing I really like about the wiki over the blog is that I can have students work on it as well. They can more easily post information and participate in discussions. I also like how the wiki presents itself more like a webpage with more options for placing content and links. What I can't decide now is whether to keep my web site for the biology class or just run it through the wiki. I need to see if there is a way (I'm sure there is) to control actions on the wiki so the kids can't change everything. All I know now is that hours can easily be spent putting these resources together and my eyes are now tired and the caffeine is wearing off. Here is the link to the beginnings of my biology wiki page. I still have much more to add, but need to be home where I have more of my resources.
http://sites.google.com/site/rfhsbiology/home