Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Adding Posts to Our EDU102 Reflection Journals

Today students in EDU102 copied their intial reflections from their ANGEL LMS reflection journals to the new blogs they created last week at blogger.com. Students were ready and eager to add to their blogs. I gave them simple guidelines for pasting their reflection journal entry into the html editor after clicking the New Post link in their blog. Then I briefly explained how they should revise the wording to their entries so that it makes sense on the web. This meant that for example, if they referred to ISTE or NETs-T, they should explain in what context they are discussing the information. They should also then add hyperlinks to these types of resources to give credibility and definitions to enhance their blog/journal.

Labels:

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Introducing the Standards for Teachers & Students

Last class, students got to know each other, this week I got to know them. I created a Google form where they filled in some information I requested such as their major and the type of computer and Internet connection they have at home. I also had them create g-mail accounts at Google so they would be able to use Google docs and other useful tools found there. Next week they will sign up for weekly "Share & Tell" presentations in a Google spreadsheet.
In preparation for their teaching career, students were introduced to ISTE NETS for teachers, and they compared NETS-T with NETS-S.

Labels:

Wednesday, September 09, 2009

Getting to Know Each Other

The second day of class, syllabus information has been discussed so it is time to move on to the "icebreaker". Today's plan was to have the students meet a class partner. The purpose of a partner is so they have someone in class they can contact when they cannot reach me. Also some of our class activities will allow for working in pairs, so they are already paired up and familiar with the person they will work with later on.

I partnered them by having them choose numbers I had written on strips of paper because I forgot to bring the candy bars ( I owe them). Usually I would use the mini chocolate bars like Hershey's that come in different flavors. I would put two of each in a container and have the students each pick one, their partner is the one who chooses the same flavor. Then they get to know their partner by filling out a form with useful and random information.

Shortly after class began, ANGEL (our LMS) went down. I had planned for students to download the icebreaker document from ANGEL and print it out to use in class. They would get to know each other a little bit and then take each other's pictures for uploading into their ANGEL profiles.

Students were prepared for class today even if ANGEL was not, they brought their digital cameras or camera phones, and the USB connector necessary for getting the digital images they would take of their partners onto the computers, so we ended up doing that part first. After some technical difficulties, students had optimized their pictures and uploaded them to their ANGEL profile for viewing in our class roster. Then they got to know each other after I was able to download and print several copies of our partner activity icebreaker.

Labels: , ,

Tuesday, September 01, 2009

Intro to Educational Technology

The first semester of EDU102 began today,Tuesday, September 1, 2009. The course is being run as a special topics course this semester and next. If it is popular and the objectives are achieved, it can be submitted as an official course for the future.

Our first class was an introduction and we went over the course information/syllabus and I introduced the students to our course in ANGEL. Each weeks' lesson is outlined in ANGEL that way students can access information at any time. They will take short self-tests to check their understanding of the readings and then reflect on their learning in their own reflection journals created in blogger.com - but that is to come in a few weeks.

I enjoyed meeting my seven future teachers who are all eager to learn how to integrate technology into their classrooms.