What did I know, what do I know and what will I do? Until December, my professional development consisted of taking classes in education and in my content area, for the purpose of making me a "better teacher." While scanning the course schedule for PSU, I happened to notice a course entitled, Teaching and Learning in a Networked Classroom, which sparked my interest as my classroom had been fitted with an infocus and we were encouraged to change our teaching style. I had never taken a technology class before but the thought of blogs and podcasts intrigued me. I had heard of them but really hadn't a clue what they were; still very much a Web 1.0 mentality, I decided to jump in and what a road it has been!
The first week I was in such a panic, downloading, audacity, skype, creating a blog, signing up for google e-mail and setting up an rss reader! Then the ice storm hit, no power, skype phone call with Kim, while sick with bronchitis; I thought I must have been out of my mind to sign up for this class. But, just as Jeff said, by week three, we would be on a roll, and on a roll I was!
The readings were informative, the process challenging and exciting. Blogging was becoming easier and I had learned how to import videos from Teacher Tube, You Tube, images from Flicker and Google, create hyperlinks and my information was flowing to me in my google reader. I had so much information flowing to me and so many new web sites, I was beginning to become over whelmed, but enter my new address book - delicious; perfect.
I became so excited with all that I was learning, I found myself engaging others in conversation about technology and Web 2.0 and where we needed to look toward in educating our students. My students were producing projects that including technology and I created a blog using Edublog to communicate with my students parents. I had a lot of fun creating valentines for my husband and children with Animoto.
My greatest learning curve came when I had to create a podcast. I searched for every tutorial I could find, held my breathe and jumped in. It took a couple of trials to record using Audacity and many to upload to Podomatic correctly. It was so easy to miss out a step between Audacity to my blog, but podcast I did! My son discovered my blog on line and was so impressed.
Where am I going? I have a blog for communication with my parents and plan to produce a weekly podcast by my students. I plan to create a wiki for collaborative projects and become more of a facilitator than a director. Oh, and by the way, I am signing up for another technology class! I'm not sure where this road is taking me, but I'm on my way....learning and relearning.
Thank you.
Hi Gretchen,
ReplyDeleteI want to copy your blog and post as my own ;) because I think I have had such a similiar journey. I sent my blog to my mom who didn't really understand any of it, but thought it was 'cool". I enjoy the imagery you include in your blogs! Keep in touch!
Fantastic!
ReplyDeleteI know this course has a steep learning curve those first couple of weeks. My teachers here at my school are taking a similar course and are just as frustrated...it's a lot in a couple weeks to learn how to Blog, how to edit a wiki, what an RSS reader is and how to use it, and then just stay caught up. The issue is these are all new skills for most people....and skills take longer to acquire than information.
I do hope you continue to blog professionally as a reflection of what you are doing in your classroom. We need good teachers telling their stories.
Best Wishes,
Jeff
Hi Gretchen,
ReplyDeleteYour reflection is very thoughtful. Sharon and I felt anxious a lot and we are very experienced with technology. For me, part of it was information overload between work and the course.
Your posts are always a pleasure to read and are so well written and thoughtful. I learn from them too. Thank you.
All the Best,
Paul