CEDu-510 Top 10 List

To summarize my class experience, here is my Top 10 list of favorites during CEDu510:

10. NING. Loved it. Louie did an excellent job setting up this social network for our reference. Expectations were clear and everything was well organized.

9. Graphics Programs. It was fun to play around with a variety of graphics programs. My creation of "Statue of Giggety" using Face in Hole is a keeper for me.

8. Google Docs. I can't believe I had never even heard of Google Docs before! I love that my husband is on the technology team at his school and has to make a presentation to his entire staff on Google Docs and HE came to ME for advice.

7. Blogger.com. I like being able to say that I blog. It makes me sound hip.

6. Spreadsheets. The lessons we used to practice with spreadsheets (college expenses, address book, and recipe conversion) were fun and practical. It was nice to use what we learned to create something of our own.

5. On-line Class. What a great experience! Loved the interaction and I was thrilled to be able to participate.

4. TED Talks - Sir Ken Robinson: Do schools kill creativity? Very interesting and entertaining. I would like to listen to others from outside of the US speak on issues in education.

3. Class format. I enjoyed the combination of face-to-face contact with Louie and our class, study group time, and on-line communication. It was a pefect mix.

2. Mac use. I've never touched a Mac before this program. After getting past my initial feelings of discomfort, I really enjoyed learning new things. I was forced out of my comfort zone and was able to grow because of it.

1. All of the above. I am looking forward to using everything I have learned and bringing it back to my classroom or sharing it with my co-workers. Good stuff. Thanks.

CEDu510 - Week 5 - On Line Class, Evaluating Technology

This week class was held on-line but by the wonders of technology, we were still able to hear each other and see Louie, our instructor. Fortunately for me, one of my group members, Megan, has a Mac laptop and is comfortable using it. In addition, our group still met and we were able to have dinner together during class. It was a fun, valuable, and stress-free experience for me. As a class we took the time to watch an on-line video. The speaker had some really interesting points and it was interesting to be able to discuss it with my classmates immediately following the viewing. After my initial fascination with the fact that I could talk into my phone and a second later hear my comments being echoed out of the computer speaker, I was able to put together a couple of appropriate remarks to share about the video. Ha.

In addition, much of the class and homework this week focused on how to effectively evaluate educational software. I think this was a beneficial subject to learn about because as we become "technology experts" for our district, we will be called upon to help out in this area. It was interesting that one of the individual assignments was to complete an evaluation of some software because that is something that I have had on my "to do" list for the past three weeks at school. I was provided with a free 30 day trial of Speak Q and was asked to evaluate it. If it hadn't been an assignment for class, I may not have completed the evaluation in time!

CEdu-51- Class 4 - IN TIME

This week we were asked to check out a new site called IN TIME which carries the tag line of "Integrating New Technologies Into the Methods of Education". It is based on a model called Technology as a Facilitator of Quality Education (TFQE) that we reviewed in class. To be able to sort the lessons through a multitude of different categories made it simple to find a lesson plan that worked for me. The lesson plan that I chose was created for grade levels 9-12 and focused on career exploration during a keyboarding/computer applications class. In reviewing the lesson plan, I realized I would easily be able to incorporate it into my Communications 3&4 course. I liked that the stream lined videos were taped in real classrooms throughout the United States. This lesson was created by a teacher in Kansas. I found this site beneficial and plan to take the idea of having the students create a multimedia slide show on the career they researched and add it it to my current lesson plan on this subject area.

CEdu-510 - Class 3, Spreadsheets

One of the focuses of this week during class was spreadsheets. Somewhere in my past life I recall having to learning Excel. Whether it was while working at M&I Mortgage Center and processing loans or in the accounting department at Charter Steel, spreadsheets had been used. However, none of that knowledge was retained and I stumbled through our lesson on creating a simple spreadsheet showing monthly college expenses. But- I did complete it successfully and felt pretty confidently while doing the recipe assignment. As for incorporating spreadsheets into what I am doing at school, I am planning a unit on "Life After High School" and will be able to introduce my students to spreadsheets with a similar assignment to the one Louie gave us on college expenses but it will be geared toward the monthly living expenses of my students upon graduation.

CEdu510 - Class 2

Unfortunately, I had to miss last week's class due to parent/teacher conferences. Not that I don't enjoy conferences, I would have just preferred learning about search engines and word processing in our classroom environment rather than at home alone. The presentation on search engines proved to be interesting. There were more vocabulary words that I had never heard of that needed to be learned, for example: boolean, truncation, and computer robot programs called spiders. I found the article on choosing the best search for your information need to be something in which I will reference in the future. In addition, I am going to try venturing away from Google and use Yahoo! and Ask more frequently or in conjunction with Google as my primary search engine. In reviewing the overview on word processing, I realized that I don't know as much about word processing as I should. I would like to learn more of the intermediate editing functions, such as merge printing and creating an index. I also realized that I really need to teach my students how to use the writing aids to enhance their work. Sometimes I assume that they know how to use these features because they are juniors and seniors in high school. I have learned any kind of assumptions based on age can be proven incorrect, especially when working with EEN students. Another chunk of time outside of class was spent on reading and completing work for chapters 3 and 4 of the text. Both chapters were important because they focused on how to help our students become engaged learners by using technology to guide communication and critical thinking.

CEdu510, Class 1

While in class we spent some time checking out graphics programs. The list of possibilities to survey included the following: Roxik, Offtype, Draw Greetings, Queeky, Zoooo Draw, Toon Doo, Toonlet, Image Chef, Zcubes, Shidonni, Mr. Picassohead, Face in Hole, and Go Animate. After not being able to get Shidonni and Go Animate, I spent the majority of my time on creating a Face in Hole shot that I titled "Statue of Giggety". It is my face on the Statue of Liberty. (Giggety is a name some of my senior students call me.) I'm considering using this program with my communications class, only hesitating because of some of the inappropriate options that my be chosen by my class of all boys.

Time was also spent in class reviewing presentation programs. I found this to be especially interesting because I never imagined there were so many options to create presentations! The list we were given included Empressr, Google Apps, SlideBoom, 280 Slides, My Plick, Slideroll, Author Stream, Slide Share, and PreZentit. I started creating a slide show on PreZentit and after getting a bit frustrated I switched to 280 Slides. The program itself seemed easy to creat with, however, I had much difficulty doing the most basic of activities on the MAC platform. As a result, my presentation is of poor quality. This was a very beneficial experience for me because it reminded me that my students who do not have computer access at home may not be comfortable with the basic operations that other students have acquired with daily use. I must be careful not to assess student's based solely on their product.

Reading and reviewing Chapters 1 and 2 of the text was the focus of the time spent studying outside of class. Overall, I found the chapters to contain useful information. It was a nice introduction to how and why technology should be utilized.

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Wow! I just took an Introduction to the Internet class through Cardinal Stritch. How hard could it be...I use the Internet every day. No problem. Little did I know that I had so much to learn. Words I had never heard before were being thrown around so quickly that I felt new compassion for my EEN students who struggle with language used daily in their high school classes. It's not fun to feel uncertainty, confusion, and that the entire class is zooming past you as you travel at glacier speed. However, by the end of the second night I was starting to "get it" and found the class to be of great benefit. I could link the new vocabulary to something I previously learned and could visualize the concepts....now, I just need to start putting these neat new tools to use!