final course blog reflection - kwl

I decided to answer the blog questions this week as they are written in the course wiki:

What did you know?

Nothing (relatively)

What did you want to know?

Everything (…or as much as I could)

What did you learn?

A lot

How will you use what you have learned in this course to further your technology integration into your own classroom?

Well, getting away from the one word (..ish) answers I gave above, let me go into a little more detail with this answer. Maybe I will even go a little deeper into the previous three questions:

I really did not know much coming into this class.  I thought I knew quite a bit, but I came to find out that regardless of what you know (or you think you know), new technology and new ways of teaching are becoming available seemingly by the minute. So, while I wanted to learn “everything” I came to learn the most important lesson of all: learning everything is impossible.

I feel I learned a lot; maybe more than I expected.  Although, that being said I do not believe I have even scratched the surface.

So, how will I use what I have learned in this course? I plan to use and expand upon my PLN and utilizing Google Reader more I will be able to stay on top of things as they are happening and transfer this information to my students. As I learn about links and blogs I feel my students they should be paying attention to, I will pass them along.  As they graduate they will still be in my network passing information back to be so I can keep future students informed, and so on. More directly I will have my students’ blogging in lieu of writing journals and make sure they are following each other and ski resorts and businesses in the snowsport industry. In addition I will welcome the use of cell phones and smart phone in the field as a way to access their blogs to get more real time reactions to what they are learning. The list goes on and I don’t think any of this would have come to mind had I not taken this class.

Thanks Kim.

P.S. Here is one last video about where I work by some graduates.  Well, they weren’t graduates at the time.

wk 8: chapter 5 thoughts: continuing forward

It is good to know sites like Tapped In are out there. Although like the authors of Web 2.0 mentioned “it is important to recognize that this community, just like all communities of practice, has to work to maintain user motivation and interest” (p. 107). It seems any social network can be utilized for the collective learning and the need to stay current; Facebook pages, LinkedIn, etc.

It made me feel good to see the use of blogs and podcasts referenced at the end of the chapter as I feel these tools extremely valuable ways to keep a large amount of professionals moving forward collectively. And while I do not have any immediate plans to use Wiki in my class, I can see it in my future. Obviously the use of webinars such as those found on PBS Teachers are immensely beneficial and are an obvious choice in using technology in keeping everyone current in technology.

As a college professor, I hope the schools and teachers can keep up with technology because the stronger student are in their technology literacy, the more I can concentrate on moving forward with my curriculum.

Solomon, G., & Schrum, L. (2007). Web 2.0: New tools, new schools. Eugene, Or: International Society for Technology in Education.

wk 8: PLN's and safety in numbers...or...joining the herd

I am control freak. There. I said it.

Sometimes that need for control manifests itself in different ways.  One way is, like a lot of people, if I am not in control, my fight or flight tendencies kick in; I don't get it so I will argue its value or I don't get it so I will avoid it.  In the world of web tools I need to fight these tendencies.  After all these tools have been put into place to help, right?

Building Personal Learning Networks is one example of why I need to fight these tendencies. Why go out and find something on my own if others in my network have already done it for me?

After watching the video below (I know, I know, if you have been following this blog, I am a bit of a YouTube junky) I feel have barely scratched the surface in taking advantage of PLN's.

Warning: keep your finger on the pause “button”; this video goes by pretty quick!

The speed of this video mirrors my opinion of web tools in that everything is going so fast.  In a post on Wesley Fryer’s blog Miguel Guhlin referenced a panic attack he incurred in July of 2005 and said, “I realized that the world is changing faster than I can keep up.” I often feel that way.  But like in nature PLN’s can help us through safety in numbers.

week 2: back to the future…and chapter 1

Well it would seem in my haste at the beginning of this term I missed a post.

Chapter 1 of Web2.o was an interesting read for a couple of reasons.  First of all, it introduced me to a lot of information that I either did not know r already knew but just never thought about.  It gave me a view of the roots of the internet and the fact that, sadly, like many technical advancements in our world the seed of the internet was planted by the military. Now when I say that, I do not say it as someone who is emphatically opposed to the military and all it stands for; because I am not.  I understand the need for the military and its role in the safety of the American people.  I am just saying it is sad that it seems many of our technical advancements in today’s society can find their roots in some form of paranoia.

Another, and semi-related, reason I found the first chapter interesting is the way web tools create change. Specifically, I found the stories brushed upon on page 14 were particularly interesting; how bloggers are affecting media.  I found the video below very interesting.  It is a segment of Digital Age where the panel members discuss “Rathergate” and other ways blogging is affecting mainstream media.

A third aspect of the first chapter is what is not discussed; Facebook is nowhere to be found.  What this says is in the short time since this book was published in 2007 an enormous social media site that has taken over the world has been born and grown to what is today.

webinar: PBS's Teaching about Place with Ken Burns's "The National Parks: America's Best Idea" recorded October 7, 2009

I viewed an archived webinar on pbs.org that was informative and entertaining.  Due to my love for the outdoors and my history working in Yellowstone I chose the webinar Teaching about Place with Ken Burns's"The National Parks: America's Best Idea" recorded October 7, 2009.  The age of the webinar did not concern me so much due the content.

The webinar began with an introduction on how to participate in the webinar complete with a visual on where the tools are on the screen and how, when and why to use them:

The webinar continued with one of the moderators taking the time to learn where everyone was from. He did this by having the participants use the appropriate screen tool to point out their location on the map.  As you can see below participants were spread out all over the US:

The moderators then took a moment to introduce the presenters and we were o our way!

I was impressed by the way the presenters and the moderators were able to open windows for all to see.  Although what surprised me was how the window they opened was live for me even thogh the presentation was a recording.  I was able to move the YouTube window around and when I tried to close it I was informed with a error box that only the moderators could close the window.

I was also impressed by the functionality of the real-time surveying that was done during the presentation so the presentors could get a “show of hands” when they asked questions regarding the information they were going over during the presentation.

The session was concluded with a question and answer period where participants had the opportunity to ask the presenters questions directly about the information covered during the webinar.

And of course there was about five minutes of PBS-related advertising!

Overall, I was impressed by the functionality of the whole webinar experience.  I have taken part in webinars in the past, but they have mostly been more akin to sitting in a classroom watching a PowerPoint lecture.  I will keep an eye on PBS.org and look forward to being a participant in one of their webinars in the future.

week 7: Brian Crosby = great tools = great work...where to next?

The Brian Crosby video was inspiring regardless what level you teach.  I say it was inspiring because he proves there are no boundaries in using technology. I was impressed by the balloon project and I was moved by the way he included his young student who was too ill to physically come to class. Something as impactful as either of these two things creates excitement in the kids in his classroom and, in turn must create excitement in the community.

I think about the young 4^th-grader who runs home after a day at school excited to tell his or her mom and dad about what happened at school and have it be completely positive! There is a lot to be said for that.

Here is a video about some older kids at High Tech High (HTH):

I think I missed out in something when I was in fourth grade...and again when I was in high school.

week 7: The Mummified Chicken, Mutant Frogs, Rockets to the Moon and what PBL means in my world

After watching The Mummified Chicken, Mutant Frogs and Rockets to the Moon I thought project based learning (PBL) will loosely relate to the final projects my students will be working on in one of my classes this semester, Introduction to Ski Area Management (ISAM).  The reason I say it loosely relates is because like in The Mummified Chicken, Mutant Frogs and Rockets to the Moon, most of the information I have found has the students working mostly alone, whereas in this class they will be working very closely, as a group, throughout the semester. Due to the fact that I teach at a college that is very heavy in practical, experiential education, variations of PBL is a lot of what I do. 

The students will have a project that will grow as the course moves through the semester, because much of what they will be doing is building a fictional ski area from the ground up as they learn about the different aspects of ski area management.

Example: They will learn general information about snow making: equipment needed, power, water source, payroll needs, etc. and then they will add this to their final project; most likely within their capital plan.

At the end of the semester they will be asked to present their final project to “board of investors” made up of fellow faculty and industry professionals to sell their plans and they will be graded accordingly based on the board’s responses and the boxes they circle on the rubric.

During the course of the project they will be asked to periodically fill of the following Project Report Card designed to expose any challenges the groups might be having:

Oddly enough, the following video is not only almost exactly what I am talking about (substitute viruses for ski areas) but it showed me what I am doing at the college is PBL after all: