This class has been the best professional development I have done over my last eleven years of teaching. I feel like I'm a kid in a candy store and I don't know where to start, so I'll just dive into everything. My students have even shown their appreciation of me taking this course and have commented that the things I'm now using in class and having them do is helpful for them and I'm seeing quiz scores increase here in the last month. Thanks for the great course and I'll certainly be marketing this class to my colleagues.
Thing 15-21 Capstone
Thursday, December 16, 2010
Monday, December 13, 2010
Thing 21 - Screencasting
Video to show how to upload content to our school's sharepoint site:
I've been trying to use screencasting for nearly a year now. I started to apply for a grant to Camstasia and went to our computer teachers and they told me that they had a site license that I could use. The software was installed at the end of the school year last spring so I never had a chance to use it.
This fall I went to use it and due to a changing of the guard in our technology department, I was unable to load it. I've tried several times to get this changed but to no avail. But, then this class introduced me to Jing and I started using it in class right away. I did a series of videos detailing the requirements of the big project we do in biology class as well as a few videos to show some other things. The video above is a 2nd generation of one I already used in biology, but am now gearing for my physical science class. In fact, I'll be posting it to my physical science blog as soon as I'm done with this posting :)
Screencasting is great for giving students an opportunity to watch a presentation multiple times. I also have students who are absent watch the screencast videos I have made to help get them caught up. If I had the Camstasia suite setup up like it is supposed to be in my room, I'd be recording every presentation that I do and posting it publicly so parents can also see what is going on in their child's class.
I've had multiple students tell me that this is a nice feature to have and that it helped them out at times when they didn't think they could get help.
I'm our district "expert" on ExamView and I present PD several times a year to staff in our district and I will be using screencasting to record a series of short videos that walks people through a task in ExamView. I recently was able to send a video from home to a colleague showing him how to import his classes from Powerschool into Examview Manager.
I've been trying to use screencasting for nearly a year now. I started to apply for a grant to Camstasia and went to our computer teachers and they told me that they had a site license that I could use. The software was installed at the end of the school year last spring so I never had a chance to use it.
This fall I went to use it and due to a changing of the guard in our technology department, I was unable to load it. I've tried several times to get this changed but to no avail. But, then this class introduced me to Jing and I started using it in class right away. I did a series of videos detailing the requirements of the big project we do in biology class as well as a few videos to show some other things. The video above is a 2nd generation of one I already used in biology, but am now gearing for my physical science class. In fact, I'll be posting it to my physical science blog as soon as I'm done with this posting :)
Screencasting is great for giving students an opportunity to watch a presentation multiple times. I also have students who are absent watch the screencast videos I have made to help get them caught up. If I had the Camstasia suite setup up like it is supposed to be in my room, I'd be recording every presentation that I do and posting it publicly so parents can also see what is going on in their child's class.
I've had multiple students tell me that this is a nice feature to have and that it helped them out at times when they didn't think they could get help.
I'm our district "expert" on ExamView and I present PD several times a year to staff in our district and I will be using screencasting to record a series of short videos that walks people through a task in ExamView. I recently was able to send a video from home to a colleague showing him how to import his classes from Powerschool into Examview Manager.
Thing 20 - Visual Learning
All of the visual learning things available online now are great! With our district placing heavy focus on Marzano's content literacy strategies and Doug Fisher's work, these things lend themselves well to our district initiative. My IDP this year has two focus areas - improved technology usage and more use of word/concept mapping and similar tools so this is the jackpot for me. I've already used cmap and have had students do so as well, but the brainstorming maps would have been helpful several weeks ago when we started our formal lab writeups in biology class. I will also show mywebspiration.com to my students as they all learned how to use inspiration software in middle school and unfortunately we did not renew our license. I'm hoping the students will be able to effectively use it based on their prior knowledge.
Thing 19 - Virual Classroom
Plan for extending the classroom:
I am currently using blogging and sharepoint on a regular basis in my classroom and the students are using this on a regular basis (1300 hits since early October). I plan to continue using this, but am considering going to a more wiki heavy delivery so its easier for me to organize.
I am currently in the process of evaluating dimdim with a math colleague of mine and we are piloting this to see if it might be a worthwhile thing for us to invest in. Those of us more tech savvy individuals are also talking about (with our administrators) setting up some classes through teleconferencing and using a hybrid concept (similar to this class) for some elective courses. I am one of the people helping with this.
I am also planning on taking the moodle course by the end of the summer so I can start using a true learning management system for my classroom. The same colleague I referred to above uses this and I'm intrigued to do so as well. Due to my various commitments in my district, I am absent often for this meeting and that meeting, so having a learning management system would decrease the need for me to assign obligatory busy work on days when I am gone.
Extending my classroom will increase the availability of the resources in my classroom outside of the walls of my school which is a big step ahead of where I am now. Using this style of learning will help make it easier for every student to fulfill the MDE requirement of an online course requirement without it having to be a traditional computers class.
What is necessary to be successful as an online student:
Based on my visiting of the Navigating the Land of Online Learning, I feel a student needs to have the following skills to be successful in an online learning environment:
I am currently using blogging and sharepoint on a regular basis in my classroom and the students are using this on a regular basis (1300 hits since early October). I plan to continue using this, but am considering going to a more wiki heavy delivery so its easier for me to organize.
I am currently in the process of evaluating dimdim with a math colleague of mine and we are piloting this to see if it might be a worthwhile thing for us to invest in. Those of us more tech savvy individuals are also talking about (with our administrators) setting up some classes through teleconferencing and using a hybrid concept (similar to this class) for some elective courses. I am one of the people helping with this.
I am also planning on taking the moodle course by the end of the summer so I can start using a true learning management system for my classroom. The same colleague I referred to above uses this and I'm intrigued to do so as well. Due to my various commitments in my district, I am absent often for this meeting and that meeting, so having a learning management system would decrease the need for me to assign obligatory busy work on days when I am gone.
Extending my classroom will increase the availability of the resources in my classroom outside of the walls of my school which is a big step ahead of where I am now. Using this style of learning will help make it easier for every student to fulfill the MDE requirement of an online course requirement without it having to be a traditional computers class.
What is necessary to be successful as an online student:
Based on my visiting of the Navigating the Land of Online Learning, I feel a student needs to have the following skills to be successful in an online learning environment:
- Highly productive w/out the need of somebody continuously "thumbing" you (self motivated)
- Ability to both learn collaboratively & independently
- Ability to communicate through written medium in a clear, unemotional manner
- Ability to take responsibility for ones own actions and learning
- Patience
- Ability to use reading strategies to learn material printed online
Thing 18 - RSS
I've been interested in this for a long time, but have been tentative to do so due to my personality. I am the type of person who can easily get addicted to things like TV & video games & computer things, so I've stayed away thus far, but now I'm in. I see this being a great thing both personally and professionally. I'm a huge sports nut so now instead of scouring all the big sports sites, I can just check this one place. Professionally, it will make it easier for me to follow people's blogs and keep up with their posts. I also subscribed to the Advance newspaper that is written in my school district as I often miss articles that are about my students. Let the addiction begin!
Thing 17 - Research
InfoTrac Junior v. InfoTrac Student Database
Venn Diagram made at http://www.gliffy.com/
I chose to evaluate the Educator's Reference database at http://mel.org. I found it interesting that the database is meant for teachers and parents (which makes sense). I liked seeing the lesson plan portion of the class and can see this to be helpful for both audiences, but the research piece appears pretty difficult to sift through unless you are knowledgable in that particular content area. This would be a good source for getting more technical information about science topics I teach, but its pretty boring at the same time. My search of genetics turned up 1758 academic journal results alone, thus credible sources. I once again like having the lexile reading level available in the short citation to help if I were to have students sifting through this.
Citation Pieces:
MeL:
I looked at an article titled "Teaching literacy in context: choosing and using instructional strategies: to help students become proficient with expository text, educators need to focus on how to choose and use the most appropriate instructional strategies for their students"
Citation:
Miller, Mimi, and Nancy Veatch. "Teaching literacy in context: choosing and using instructional strategies: to help students become proficient with expository text, educators need to focus on how to choose and use the most appropriate instructional strategies for their students." The Reading Teacher 64.3 (Nov 2010): 154(12). Educator's Reference Complete. Gale. Library of Michigan. 13 Dec. 2010
http://find.galegroup.com/gtx/start.do?prodId=PROF&userGroupName=lom_accessmich
Other:
Venn Diagram made at http://www.gliffy.com/
I chose to evaluate the Educator's Reference database at http://mel.org. I found it interesting that the database is meant for teachers and parents (which makes sense). I liked seeing the lesson plan portion of the class and can see this to be helpful for both audiences, but the research piece appears pretty difficult to sift through unless you are knowledgable in that particular content area. This would be a good source for getting more technical information about science topics I teach, but its pretty boring at the same time. My search of genetics turned up 1758 academic journal results alone, thus credible sources. I once again like having the lexile reading level available in the short citation to help if I were to have students sifting through this.
Citation Pieces:
MeL:
I looked at an article titled "Teaching literacy in context: choosing and using instructional strategies: to help students become proficient with expository text, educators need to focus on how to choose and use the most appropriate instructional strategies for their students"
Citation:
Miller, Mimi, and Nancy Veatch. "Teaching literacy in context: choosing and using instructional strategies: to help students become proficient with expository text, educators need to focus on how to choose and use the most appropriate instructional strategies for their students." The Reading Teacher 64.3 (Nov 2010): 154(12). Educator's Reference Complete. Gale. Library of Michigan. 13 Dec. 2010
http://find.galegroup.com/gtx/start.do?prodId=PROF&userGroupName=lom_accessmich
Other:
Hofstein, A, & Lunetta, V. (2004). The laboratory in science education: foundations for the twenty-first century. Science Education, 88(1), doi: 10.1002/sce.10106
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