And…. That’s a wrap!

“Time flies when you are having fun” sure pertains to this semester. I was so hesitant to start back to school after being out of college for almost 7 years and I was even more scared to take an online class. It turns out that I was ok and didn’t really need to be that worried. I did learn that I took for granted the extra time I had when I was in school. It was a challenge to figure out how to work a full-time job, a part-time job, go to school, and pay attention to my home life. I am finally getting the hang of it all after 15 weeks and now it is changing again and I am going to have to figure it out again with all the new classes.

This class definitely taught me so much valuable information that I am sure I will use once I get in the classroom. At times I wished that I was actually in the field so I could practice on my kids to make sure I was coming up with ideas that were actually interesting to them and at other times I was glad that I didn’t have kids that really needed the information because I struggled on a few of the modules. I also think that it would have been helpful to have some kind of teacher guide or a text book to look at when figuring out what information to use for each module. I had the grade level indicators and benchmarks to go off of but it would have been nice to see exactly what the kids were being taught.

One of my favorite assignments was the interactive power point module. I made a jeopardy type game where my students needed to give an answer to the questions and I was actually pretty proud of the way the final product turned out. I went to work and showed my boss and he was really excited to learn how to make it interactive. I also really liked the webquest module. It was a lot of work coming up with the ideas and finding the proper resources but actually making the webquest was pretty easy. If I am lucky enough to end up teaching a 7th or 8th grade earth science class I might actually be able to use it. This would definitely meet all the GLI’s that are required for identifying types of rocks.

This class was very informative and very time consuming. I am glad that I spent the time needed and did the best I could on every project. The modules will definitely be revisited and I hope to be able to share them with some of my other teacher friends who have never heard of some of them before.

THANKS!!!!!!

You Tube… Not for me!

Oh my goodness… this last module was terrible for me! It took me so long to figure out what I was going to make my movie on that I was frustrated by the time I even started the actual process. I am not sure if I became paranoid about copyright issues or if my concerns were actually legit. I had originally wanted to do an educational video on diamond mining and blood diamonds but as I was trying to figure out what I wanted to include I came across issues. I read very carefully on each website where I was gathering data from about the copyrights and if I had permission to use the data for educational purposes. More often than not, I found that the data was fine to use in my presentation and the pictures were not. It seemed that the pictures were from other sources and required permission from them for use. I became very overwhelmed and ended up doing my video on landmarks in London. I knew that I would be OK with the copyright issues because my husband and I took all the pictures ourselves. I justified that this topic was ok because London is hosting the Summer 2012 Olympics and I thought students would like to see some of the landmarks where events would be held. Did anyone else have as much trouble or anxiety over this module? I really hope that I will get over my fear and use this video making process in the classroom because I do believe that it is really neat and relatively easy to make. I am sure my future students are already pros at this and can do it in their sleep J

7 weeks.....

Well…. It has been 7 weeks since I started back to school. The semester seems to be flying by and at the same time seems to be so long. EDCI 505 is a very interesting class and I really enjoy all the modules but find them a bit challenging. I have been out of college for 7 years now and the technology part isn’t the hard part but the content part is! I find it challenging to start the modules because I can’t remember all the information that I should be teaching. I think that the class might be easier for students who have had a little refresher in the content so that when they start the module they can focus on the creative side rather than trying to figure out the material and then try and be creative. I loved the Inspiration project but found that one to be the most time consuming and content heavy module. I think it actually took me longer to figure out what I needed to teach and all the links than it did to make the web. I love the idea behind it and will for sure use it in the classroom, but getting to the final project was a challenge to say the least.

Recently, we switched over to using software that we were more familiar with and figuring out how to use them in the classroom. I have to admit that I never knew about Google docs until the last 2 modules. I am still hesitant about using the Google docs spreadsheet because I am an excel girl at heart. It seems pretty similar to excel but has some features that frustrated me. For example, I found it irritating to have to wait for the computer to catch up on saving. I noticed that it would save stuff all the time and wouldn’t let me continue to type. I do like the fact that you can access the form at anytime and anywhere without having to carry a flash drive around with you. Google docs form might be my new favorite software to use! I absolutely love the online quiz and have big dreams of using it as a pre-assessment for my lessons in the classroom. I love how you can set it up to grade for you and then have it give you all the data in a spreadsheet. This is just PERFECT for teachers!

Now, on to how to make power point more interative and fun :)

Oh my goodness...what is all this?

About 4 weeks ago I thought I had a good idea of how to use a computer and what kind of technology was available. Boy was I wrong! I realized quickly (as soon as I did the survey for EDCI 505) that I wasn’t even familiar with the names of the new technology and became overwhelmed about how I was going to figure it all out. I was anxious because I had never taken an online class and I had no idea what SymbalooEDU or Glogster were. As I started working on my webmix on SymbalooEDU, I found it challenging but very rewarding at the same time. What a neat way to organize your favorite and most helpful websites! I have to say that I was very proud of the way my Glogster interactive poster came out. The focus of the poster was on rocks which coincided with what we were discussing in Geology at the time. I actually presented the poster to my classmates (most of whom are pursuing careers in education as well) and got great feedback and a few even took ideas to use in their own classrooms. As much as this class stresses me out, I take from it a challenge and can’t wait to see the final product. Below you will find links to my latest projects.

http://edu.symbaloo.com/mix/integratedscience7-12

http://ashleyndulinsmith.edu.glogster.com/geology-rocks/