Final Thoughts

At the start of the semester, I didn't like that there was a lack of direct communication between the participants in this class. As the semester continued, however, I came to look forward to the efficiency of having to choose my words a bit more carefully (didn't always do it though!).  I realized that when words are made permanent through their posting in the digital world, people (usually) think a lot more before they write! Words are displayed for all to see; ideas are can be reviewed and evaluated by more than one participant; opinions can be revisited at any time.  The same notion can be applied to the final artifacts that we have all posted to our blogs.  Once an artifact is published, there is often no going back, unlike a face-to-face power point presentation for which you might scribble down some notes to be discarded soon afterwards.  Thus, the online format strongly encouraged us to do our best, which benefited both creator and viewer alike!  Our permanent  artifact archive served as a powerful collaboration tool--communication wasn't necessary: I became a more active participant in the class through what my colleagues were doing!? I learned from my classmate by example, and this was incredibly useful.

I liked the hands on aspect of learning the new technology.  I didn't like that "hands-on" meant putting in a lot more time than would be necessary in a live class and in some cases, at the expense of better competence. Putting it in perspective, the time "wasted" trying to figure out some new technology probably does not even come close to the time I would have dedicated to a traditional class. Most of the tools we used I can still navigate efficiently enough and apply in a learning context because I had to do it myself the first time around.

At times, I had difficulty getting used to the lack of teacher feedback. We've been conditioned to anticipate  the positive, and receiving little in the way of formal response sometimes lead me to think I wasn't fulfilling the requirements of the assignment. But as Dr. Erickson has pointed out, we know better than anyone what has been learned and more importantly, what from this can be applied.  The question is, Can we be honest with ourselves?

My answer to this is a resounding "yes!"  I know that I have a cache of new tools, ideas, and strategies acquired through my participation in this class. In my future classs, I'm certain that my students will benefit from what I've learned this semester. I've gained a lot from all of you, and I thank you for the ideas, opinions and projects you've shared with the class.

As a final thought, if I were to teach a class like this, to me the perfect way to introduce each week's task would be to present it using the same technology tool that the students must master for that project!

Technofied Lesson and Presentation

Below you will find the link to my "technofied" lesson and final presentation.

TECHNOFIED LESSON

TECHNOFIED LESSON PREZI PRESENTATION

Webquest

Here is the webquest I created to help my students explore the words attributed to Jonas, the protagonist in The Giver. Aside from my inability to modify the appearance of my webquest using the appearance editor function, creating this webquest was a fun and worthwhile process. I hope to use this webquest with future Level 4 Reading and Vocabulary classes.

The Words of The Giver

Prezi Presentations

This is a short Prezi tutorial on creating puzzles with the puzzle generator Puzzlemaker. I'd thought I'd practice using Prezi in a sort of useful way.  It's a free site that allows teachers to create challenging but fun puzzles in minutes. I just learned about this site from a colleague, so I thought I'd use the creation of this presentation as a chance to make a real puzzle for my class. It was also my first time using both Prezi to create a presentation and Snagit software to capture web page images (thanks Rebeccah!).  Despite the boring nature of this presentation, I really enjoyed using Prezi, and I plan to use Snagit again before my free 30 day trial expires. I recommend watching the presentation at full screen.

Prezi Puzzlemaker Presentation

Here is a presentation on whether technology and the "materials light" Dogme English Language Teaching (ELT) approach can be compatible.  I used Prezi again after doing the short presentation above and found it to be a fairly user-friendly presentation tool. It offers much more dynamism than MS Power point. I'm thinking about creating a technology enhanced Dogme lesson for my final "technofied" lesson; doing the research for this presentation gave me some ideas on how I might go about doing that.

Integrating Technology into a Dogme ELT Approach

Personal Tale Rubric and Personal Story 2

Here is my personal tale rubric:
Personal Tale Rubric


Personal Story 2

After hours of unsuccessfully trying to solve a complicated problem , the simple solution was to store my second digital tale in my box.com folder and post the link here. I apologize that this is so late.

The Alder Tree

Friendly Reminder Podcast

Force the Gift of Music!

This short public service announcement didn't take long to throw together once I got on a Mac.  I wanted to intersperse photos with the video, but apparently one can only have a movie track or a podcast track, not a mix of both. Maybe photos would have been more engaging; instead, you get my unshaven face. The piano music is nice. And if I had a Mac and cache of music tracks, I could come up with another podcast within minutes.

"Derby City Rag Piano" taken from www.flyinghands.com

Bull Trout: A History of Life

Google Earth Tour

Here is a short tour of places I would like to visit in my students' countries. I look forward visiting all of these countries someday. Until then, Google Earth will have to take me there.

Google Earth Tour

Diigo: An Online Collaborative Reading Tool

Diigo is a online tool that I am looking to integrate into my reading classes in order to encourage tech-savvy non-readers (students who show little enthusiasm for reading) to read more. Perhaps more importantly, I want these student to engage in the reading process.   In Diigo I see quite a bit of potential for text sharing, highlighting, and collaborative discussion. Because my learners may struggle with not just general comprehension but also new vocabulary and challenging sentence structure, Diigo could be an invaluable class resource in that it offers a reciprocal exchange of questions, comments, feedback, and discussion on any given article.  I also like that Diigo does not leave text selection exclusively in the hands of the teacher: students can also share articles of their choosing with their teacher and classmates.  Anyone who has not had the chance to use Diigo should find all the information they need to get started in this brief tutorial. 

Galapagos Story

This is a poorly edited story about a memorable experience on the island of Santa Cruz in the Galapagos.

Post #1

I'm somewhat excited to find out how I can integrate technology into my classroom more efficiently and effectively. These days, the amount of new technology available is quite overwhelming, and there are times when I'm not sure what to take, what to leave, and when to stop. While the access provided by Web 2.0 has revolutionized the way teachers share, develop, and innovate, wading through the number of resources out there sometimes seems like more trouble than it's worth. How can I evaluate the never ending stream of free resources on the web? Which applications are best suited to meeting my students' needs and interests AND my curriculum objectives? In what ways can I ensure that my students are receiving maximum benefit from a resource and not just making themselves feel good because they are using some new technology? When are new technologies definitively superior to traditional instructional resources? In what ways can I more effectively take advantage of the applications that I already use in my classes? How can I help my my students be prepared to confidently navigate the various tech. resources they will encounter upon entering the university? How can I use technology in my classes to promote independent learning among my students? I look forward to exploring these questions and many others during the spring semester. Perhaps most importantly, I’d like to know how I can keep up with my students when it comes to new technology!

While I currently use blogging, voice thread, and various Microsoft applications in my classes, I still feel that I am somewhat illiterate when it comes to technology. In general, my tech. confidence is quite low!

Right now I teach English as a second language at the English Language Institute here at UM. Ultimately, I’d like to teach ESL and Spanish at the secondary level, which is one of the reasons I applied to the C&I graduate program. I’ve been teaching English (and a little Spanish) for approximately 8 years. In that time, I’ve taught in Nebraska, Ecuador, South Korea, and Montana.

I recently took an online quiz that tests whether you’re a “native Montanan.” I got over 60% of the questions right (some were really obscure!), which the site claimed was pretty high. The fact is I hope to spend the rest of my time in the U.S. here in Montana, but I’ll always be from Nebraska.