Reflection 3/8/11

Some random thoughts here...

RSA Animate was fascinating.  I wonder how that would go over at a staff meeting?  Todd, have you ever tried?

I really enjoyed the "collaborative" learning experience today.  It reminds me that we need to keep engaging staff and students in meaningful ways.

I'm extremely excited about the new learning tools that I have taken away from this class.  On the other hand, I'm frustrated as well.  Technology is not embraced and supported within my school.  Honestly, it's not a district priority at this time either.  How can we be so far behind?

I hope I will have the opportunity to share some of the wealth and knowledge gained in this class with students, staff, and my administrative colleagues.

Great experience all around Todd!  Thanks a million!

Class Reflection 2/12/11

I love learning about technology!.  Thanks Todd!  However, I felt a little behind today.  Class went a little fast for me.  Heavy sigh!  I feel like I'm learning at lightening speed and there is still so much to learn.  When I feel like I can't keep up, I get frustrated.  I'm not frustrated with the class itself (I love it), but rather the challenges of not knowing how to do certain things and make them work.  For instance, I created a new gmail account for ease of access, but found I can't change my blog address (or simply don't know how to).  Now I have to go back and forth from one gmail account to another.  Minor issue, but now I have to figure out how to resolve the problem.  I tend to fall back into bad habits and "just do it for me" attitude.

Technology Survey

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TED Video Response

Using computers to teach children with no teachers.

This video reminded me of my experience visiting a school in Mikuni village in S. Africa.  A few years ago I traveled to S. Africa with my best friends, most of them educators.  The trip consisted of many different locations and attractions.  One of them being Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe/Zambia.  During our stay (at the secure American gated community hotel) we were able to plan a visit to a local village.  They informed us that our request to visit a village was not a usual one.  When we arrived, we had the full tour of the village from one of the village residents.  After the tour, we requested to visit a school.  The school reminded me of the slums in India.  There was no technology.  Just a chalk board, a few books, and paper. What fascinated the children was the digital camera.  They were craving the technology.  They wanted to see themselves.  They wanted to explore and play with the pictures.

Survey

https://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?formkey=dDdCbmZIdkxfMHhJMGdJREY5OHJUUXc6MQ

Good Evening

Hi All,
Well, it's been a crazy week.  But here I am trying to wrap my head around technology.  Over the last week and a half I have been exploring the technology in my school.  This is only my second year at my current school, so I have a lot to learn.  I did some research and found that we do NOT have a technology plan for the school.  However, we do have a comprehensive technology plan for the district.  The plan consists of 27 pages of dense technical mumbo jumbo. Seriously???  I presented it to our technology committee at my school and they immediately ran the opposite direction!  It is overwhelming.  I plan to organize and simplify the information to I can relay the "jist" of the district plan to my colleagues.  Once that is completed, I would like to propose creating a technology plan for my school.  Does anyone have a technology plan for their school?  If so, would you be willing to share?  I'm most interested in your top priorities and the "appropriate" use of technology at the middle school level.

Changing subjects, I wonder what others are thinking about for their final project.  I am considering the following options:

1.  "Technology Plan" for my school.
2.  Staff/Student/Teacher Surveys (survey monkey)
3.  Incorporating "Technology News" section in our school newsletter/website/staff meeting
4.  Movie - I'm thinking something similar to what Russo did at Reynolds.

I would welcome any suggestions, feedback, templates, or other documents to share.
Thanks everyone!

EDAD 536 Day one reflection

First of all, I want to thank Tim for intellectually stimulating our minds on such a beautiful sunny day!

Our class discussion raised more questions for me than answers;

1.  How can we provide a world class education for all students given the inequities of technology in our schools?
2.  How do we balance the use of technology in schools?  What is middle school, high school appropriate?
3.  How much is too much technology?
4.  What's the difference between a blog, twitter, facebook, my space, etc?  Why so many?
5.  Technology grants.  What's out there?  How can we access them?
6.  What WEB based programs are available to students?
7.  What technology tools and resources are available a little or no cost for classroom use?

This is my first blog ever.  The more I learn about technology, the more I realize I don't know.  Technology can be very intimidating!  Just sayin'.