EDLD 5364 - Week 1 Reflection

I watched the videos and completed the readings, and had one of those moments where I said to myself, I want to try that in my classroom.  I brainstormed some ideas that I want to try with my students.  The article by Sprague and Dede was good in that it gave us two teaching styles, one that most teachers use and another that is the new way of teaching, but also showed us the fears associated with it.  Teachers sometimes are concerned about such shift; they worry about losing control, not fulfilling their role, or being seen as less effective by parents, principal, or supervisors (Sprague & Dede, 1999).  That is why we are afraid of change. Teaching has undergone very few changes and just in the last twenty years technology has made us look at the style we use to teach.  The videos were informative and a bit scary.  The Cyborg video got me thinking on how close we might be to living in a Matrix type world and teachers might not be need anymore. I think that constructivist theory is good, but it relies on the past experiences of the students to grasp the information.  We have all this technology at their fingertips, but most of my students have never been to the places I teach.  They don't understand what is going on in the real world.  They know what the harlem shake is, but if  I ask them where Harlem is, could they tell me.  We have to teach them how to use the technology the right way.  It is more than just a social meeting place or a collection of dumb videos.  There is content out there to help them learn, we just have to help them use it.  




Sprague, D. & Dede, C. (1999). If I teach this way, Am I doing my job: Constructivism in the classroom. Leading and Learning, 27(1). Retrieved from the International Society for Technology in Education at http://imet.csus.edu/imet9/280/docs/dede_constructivisim.pdf

Warwirk, K. (nd). Cyborg Life [Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RB_l7SY_ngI

EDLD 5364 - Week 1 Web Conference

I find the web conferences to be an important of the online learning process.  Other online courses I have done in the past, we never got to interact with the instructor, we would have to use email to communicate.  The web conferences allows us to interact with others in our course as well as the professor.  You can ask questions about upcoming assignments and also find our information about the entire program and where you should be concerning other courses or administrative information.  The web conferences also gives us a chance to find group members for our collaborative projects.  I also like that they are recorded and we can view them later.  This has been important to me because of coaching duties on the days the web conferences are schedules.  One thing that the last two courses have been sharing is PowerPoint presentations, and I find those very useful for the information they contain. 

Course Embedded Assignment Reflection - EDLD 5366 Week 5

When I look back at this course, it will be much more than creating a poster, logo, animation, and website.  This course actually got me to think about how much more I could do in my classroom using the information that I learned.  I have created a Google site and a blog for previous courses but with the knowledge I gained from this course I am able to apply it to my previous work and teach it to others. 

From the first assignment I learned techniques that I can use in my classroom to help my students create projects that will enhance their learning.  With the knowledge I gained from week one, I can teach my students that too much color or fancy fonts does not make the project better.  Using the resources from week one by Robin Williams and the YouTube Video by Barry Jahn, helped me learn the basic principles of graphic design.  This is something that I have never thought about when creating content for my classes.  I had designs in my mind, but by using the graphic design principles, I would make the necessary changes to my project to follow those guidelines. 

The week two and three assignments were a lot of fun but the most important lesson was about personal branding.  Your personal brand should be authentic—it should reflect your true character. It should be built on your dreams, purpose, values, uniqueness, genius, passion, specialization, characteristics, and favorite activities (August 2007). Personal branding was something that I never thought about and how important it is. I really liked the article by Marshall Goldsmith especially the quote and it will be something that I will share with others. 

I really enjoyed the group website; I was involved with four great people that worked hard on the project.  I really learned a lot from them and by creating our website.  It allowed us to use all the things that we learned in the course and put it all together.  It was great to share ideas and learn from each other the different resources that we included in our project. 

Learners do not just receive information only at the time it is given; they absorb information in many different ways, often after the fact, through reflection. The most powerful learning often happens when students self-monitor, or reflect (Zemelman, Daniels & Hyde, 1993) (ETE, 2005) (Gerstein, 2011).  This was the most important lesson; it is something that would be beneficial to me and my students. It is a tool that I will use immediately in my classroom for my students and for my own professional growth. 

Robin Williams: The Non-Designer’s Design Book, Third Edition.

Jahn, B. (Producer) (2007). Retrieved from http://youtu.be/mF_mWi6r-9I

Goldsmith, M. (August 2007). Authentic personal branding. Retrieved from http://www.businessweek.com/managing/content/sep2009/ca20090929_228578.htm

Zemelman, S., Daniels, H., & Hyde, A. (1993). Best practice: New standards for teaching and learning in america's schools... Portsmouth, NH: Reed Publishing.

ETE. (2005, April 28). Reflecting - the reflecting student. Retrieved from http://www.cotf.edu/ete/teacher/reflect.html

Gerstein, J. (2011, August 16). Where is reflection in the learning process? Retrieved from http://usergeneratededucation.wordpress.com/2011/08/16/where-is-reflection-in-the-learning-process/

EDLD 5363 - Final Video

http://youtu.be/qaXZEgief9g

Web Conference Blog Journal

The web conferences were very informative and answered all my questions.  I was a little upset that a few were cancelled with any notification.  I am a coach and have basketball games on Tuesday and Friday and was not able to attend those held on those days. The other courses had their conferences on days that were good for everyone.  I noticed only a handful of students attended these conferences,   I did attend those that were on Mondays, Saturday, and Sundays,  .  I attended the conferences on December 16, December 8 and 9.  My questions were always answered and I learned alot from my colleagues.  They were short and sweet and to the point.

Week 5 Reflection

The video was great.  Glad to have this assignment finished.  I didn’t know what to expect at the beginning of the class. I had used video editing software before, but only the very basic. I made video just for fun to see what i could do.  This class introduced me to a lot of things that i will use in my classroom from now on.  from Dropbox, Google Docs, and Audacity, are very useful tools that I will use from now on.  I was a bit worried at the beginning of the group project, how are we going to get together to complete this project.  The tools that  I was introduced to in this course made our jobs easier where everyone could share their ideas for everyone to see.  Everybody in the group did a great job gathering information and doing their parts and getting it to the right people.  Thanks to Jessica for setting up the google doc to share our ideas and serve as gathering place.  Amanda did a great job getting the actors together and filming the scenes.  David chose the music and added narration.  And thanks to Elenor for putting everything together and making a great video.  This was a fun yet stressful project.  Hope everyone enjoys their break.

Week 4 - EDLD 5363 Reflection

I did the narration for scenes 2,4,7 and shared them with the rest of the group using Dropbox.  I recorded my narration using Audacity.  It is a great program and something that I will try to use in my class.  Dropbox is another program that I was afraid to use, but made it easy to share my audio files with the rest of the groups.  I now linked all my devices to dropbox.  This class has just flown by and can’t wait to see our finished product.