I had a great albeit frustrating time learning about technology. I think that just the nature of technology makes it difficult for anyone to continue to know everything about technology, since it changes every second. The course content taught me a variety of software and internet tools to use in my classroom. Instead of entering into teaching wondering how I'm going to create a cute web site for my classes listing all the homework, I know how to do this. I also know how to do this quite professionally.
The instructor gave us very thorough instructions which I tried to follow carefully. In team projects this was more difficult to do, but I tried my best to find a way to follow the directions. I think with the video project there were some direction issues. 1) Students should be strongly encouraged to buy computer sticks with 1+Gigabytes to make their movies portable. 2) The reflection document submission instruction is incorrect. It says to use WebCT mail when the instructor wants it submitted through the assignments submission area.
In regards to the Blogs, the instruction to "respond to 2 classmates blogs" is unclear. This statement does not state "respond to 2 current classmates blogs." I got docked a few times for responding to older blogs, since few classmates had done their blog for the week when I was responding to blogs. If all the classmates do their blogs at 11pm on Tuesday, how is it possible to respond to "current" blogs which actually is never stated, accept verbally. I think that this response requirement needs to be restated more clearly and rethought about the feasibility of it.
With all things considered, the instructor did a marvelous job of teaching. She generally had excellent and specific instructions to follow. The above are just areas that could be improved upon. I was also amazed at how responsive the instructor is to our questions via WebCT e-mail. I'm impressed. She really puts her heart and hard work into her teaching. Cheers to a great technology class!
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5 comments:
I also learned a great deal with this class. I definitely agree that technology changes everyday. I guess it is up to us to keep up with it. It only makes sense that we were supposed to respond to 2 current blogs because Erika doesn't have the time to look at every blog we did since the beginning of class to see if we went back to respond to them. But, I agree that the directions for the video project submission was a little unclear.
Once I read your response I agree with having a deadline for the blogs. That would definetely have helped. I would try to respond to postings but when I attempted to a lot of people had not yet posted anything. I would later forget to go back and respond and got points off as well. I also think that it should be specified that you must respond to different blogs. This especially applies for jr high and high school. We wouldn't want anyone to feel bad because nobody responds to their blog. It was fun though, I learned a lot!
I know I've been one of the worst violaters of the blog rules, but I too feel that an earlier deadline would have helped. I know that I put everything off to the last minute (rather like I am right now), and having a deadline on Monday would have helped me be a better classmate.
As long as you do not give up, that is the point. With practice we all will and have gotten so much better and learned so much more:) We will be better for the sake of our students.
I bet this video summarizes quite a bit of what you learned in this class:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=6gmP4nk0EOE
Pass it on,
Vada
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