So, this week was really hectic for me. I felt like I was really far behind with the construction of my website, and then the district decided to move our Moodle site to a new server. When I went to log into my course on Thursday, I found that it was under maintenance. So, I then created a word document to look like my Moodle course and set up the links through it.
https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B5dsHcqLjk9SV3h4cTFrbkxOQnc/edit?usp=sharing
This is the link to the Course Template, which is temporarily a word document. You should be able to get to all of the website resources and documents that are linked through here. The only thing I could not get done was the introduction video. My plan was to use Screenomatic, but something was not working right for me. I recorded the video but I had problems posting to You Tube. I will try again this week and hopefully have that available for y'all to view soon. I am really happy with my course. I think it all turned out really well. Of course, with a lot more time I know that I could make it better - and I plan on working on it a lot before the school year begins.
Please review it and let me know what you think! :)
Sunday, June 30, 2013
Sunday, June 23, 2013
Week 5 Thoughts
The webinars this week were very informative. I enjoyed Monday's webinar on the synchronous learning environment. I am in the M.Ed. program that Virgil heads. I actually just finished the 3-week Calculus summer course with he as my instructor. I liked being able to put a face with the voice. Although my course that I am creating is not synchronous, I did enjoy learning how strategies that these instructors use in their synchronous courses that they teach. I agree that it is important to use different activities and strategies to keep students engaged. I have to say that all of my instructors so far have done a great job of keeping their courses interesting and engaging.
Thursday's webinar was also very informative. She did a great job explaining MOOCs and how we could use them to teach our students. It really went a long way to help me understand what type of class I was in and I better understood the importance of blogging and tweeting in this course.
This week I worked a lot on setting up my modules in my course and labeling the parts of each module. I am really interested in seeing what many of my peers have done with their courses. I am hoping to get some good ideas for my own course. I feel like I am really far behind because I have not begun to create my assignments for my class. I am going to work really hard on completing my course this week as I do want to use it in this upcoming school year. I have read some of the other students blogs and it is getting me excited about Monday's webinar. One such idea is Gary's use of videos to explain how to use the site and to go over the course syllabus and expectations. I am curious to see what my peers are using as their technology tools for teaching.
I have finally gotten the login information for my course so that y'all will be able to view what I have so far - which does not seem like much :(
www.lksdonline.org
login id: oltak674
password: bportie
once you are logged in - click Brandi Portie's section in the column on the right...this will bring you straight to my course.
Thursday's webinar was also very informative. She did a great job explaining MOOCs and how we could use them to teach our students. It really went a long way to help me understand what type of class I was in and I better understood the importance of blogging and tweeting in this course.
This week I worked a lot on setting up my modules in my course and labeling the parts of each module. I am really interested in seeing what many of my peers have done with their courses. I am hoping to get some good ideas for my own course. I feel like I am really far behind because I have not begun to create my assignments for my class. I am going to work really hard on completing my course this week as I do want to use it in this upcoming school year. I have read some of the other students blogs and it is getting me excited about Monday's webinar. One such idea is Gary's use of videos to explain how to use the site and to go over the course syllabus and expectations. I am curious to see what my peers are using as their technology tools for teaching.
I have finally gotten the login information for my course so that y'all will be able to view what I have so far - which does not seem like much :(
www.lksdonline.org
login id: oltak674
password: bportie
once you are logged in - click Brandi Portie's section in the column on the right...this will bring you straight to my course.
Sunday, June 16, 2013
Week 4 Thoughts
As I am taking both EDET 628 and 674 (both being taught by Lee) this summer, I keep getting my schedules confused. I even have the calendars for both classes scheduled! But there is so much going on during my summer vacation that I am lucky to keep up with anything - a tree fell on my carport at the house I been trying to sell and my daughter is having eye surgery soon so been going to dr. appointments for that. I am leading into the fact that I missed Mondays webinar and now I cannot find the recording link that Lee sent. I really wanted to see that one too because my course is a blended-asynchronous course.
I did however make the Thursday webinar and I really enjoyed it. Matthew was a great presenter and I was excited about all of the information that he gave. I especially enjoyed the example that he showed us toward the end of the session. I recognized a few of the schools that participated in the course and enjoyed going through all of their video news. I tried to see how this could help me with my math classes and have yet to come up with something similar.
I started to create my course through my districts Moodle site. I emailed one of my district technology specialists to set up a guest account so that y'all will be able to view my course. I hope to have that at the beginning of this upcoming week and will blog and tweet that information to everyone. At the moment, I am setting up my modules and links for information that I already have available. During this upcoming week, I will begin working on creating more assignments and materials for each module. I cannot begin to express how exciting it is to take my ideas and actually being creating something my students will be able to use. Please reply with all your thoughts and ideas on how to make my course better!
I did however make the Thursday webinar and I really enjoyed it. Matthew was a great presenter and I was excited about all of the information that he gave. I especially enjoyed the example that he showed us toward the end of the session. I recognized a few of the schools that participated in the course and enjoyed going through all of their video news. I tried to see how this could help me with my math classes and have yet to come up with something similar.
I started to create my course through my districts Moodle site. I emailed one of my district technology specialists to set up a guest account so that y'all will be able to view my course. I hope to have that at the beginning of this upcoming week and will blog and tweet that information to everyone. At the moment, I am setting up my modules and links for information that I already have available. During this upcoming week, I will begin working on creating more assignments and materials for each module. I cannot begin to express how exciting it is to take my ideas and actually being creating something my students will be able to use. Please reply with all your thoughts and ideas on how to make my course better!
Saturday, June 8, 2013
Week 3 Thoughts
I want to start off by saying that I am really bummed I missed Thursdays webinar. It was unfortunate that I could not make it and I was sad to learn that it was mistakenly not recorded. However, I believe I learned a lot from the other events of this week. I really enjoyed the process of creating my course structure and outline this week. I learned a lot through the readings posted on #OLTAK and the attachments from Mondays webinar. I understand the importance of the expectations of me as an instructor and I hope that I am able to help my students learn in an online environment. I really think this could be a great experience for my students and something different that will engage them in meaningful learning.
There were a few of things that I took notes on and absorbed prior to creating my course structure. I took to heart the expectations of the facilitator in the document titled "Participating in Online Community." I saved a few documents, including the Blended Learning Syllabus and Module Template, from the Blended Learning Toolkit. My most informative piece of reading was the Analysis of Organizational Approaches to Online Course Structures, where I most enjoyed the ten components of an online course. It was very basic components that I often see in my own online courses through UAS. However, the one document that most helped with the creation of my course structure and outline was The Defining Dimensions of Blended Learning Models chart in the iNACOL K-12 Course Design Structures. I went through each component and decided on what my expectations for the course would be. This was so helpful!
So attached is my course structure and outline. Please scan it and let me know what you think. I accept all constructive criticisms as I want my course to be a great learning experience for my students. Thanks!
Course Structure/Outline
There were a few of things that I took notes on and absorbed prior to creating my course structure. I took to heart the expectations of the facilitator in the document titled "Participating in Online Community." I saved a few documents, including the Blended Learning Syllabus and Module Template, from the Blended Learning Toolkit. My most informative piece of reading was the Analysis of Organizational Approaches to Online Course Structures, where I most enjoyed the ten components of an online course. It was very basic components that I often see in my own online courses through UAS. However, the one document that most helped with the creation of my course structure and outline was The Defining Dimensions of Blended Learning Models chart in the iNACOL K-12 Course Design Structures. I went through each component and decided on what my expectations for the course would be. This was so helpful!
So attached is my course structure and outline. Please scan it and let me know what you think. I accept all constructive criticisms as I want my course to be a great learning experience for my students. Thanks!
Course Structure/Outline
Sunday, June 2, 2013
Week 2 Thoughts
Unit DescriptionUnit TemplateI was really upset when I heard that this week's webinar presenter could not make it. A few years back, I took a moodle class through UAA. Our district runs a moodle site and gives teachers access to the site to create courses of our own. I really liked the moodle set up and enjoyed creating a class. My class was not much of a class, but more of a place where students could go to keep up with assignments and exam dates, and ask questions or set up after-school appointments with me. I did this for a year. It worked well for most of the year and participation dwindled as the end of the school year approached. I believe the next school year started off slow for me, as I was on maternity leave until November and I just never started up the moodle site again. In conclusion, it has been a while since I have used moodle and was hoping this week's webinar would be a great refresher for me.
However, I did enjoy the reading and videos on UbD. It is one of those concepts that you read about and say, "Duh! Of course it works. That just makes so much sense." With the amount of standards that we have to cover in our curriculum and the short amount of time with which we have to accomplish this task, it just seems smart to determine what you want your students to know and to be sure to build your instruction and activities around that understanding. Throughout the year, it seems there is always something that pops-up that takes my students away from the classroom - MAPS and Aimsweb testing that happens 4 times a year, LEP testing, someone from the district wants to meet with the sophomores and juniors this week, our school is hosting an NYO tournament this week and we need the team to help prepare and set up. It takes away from the little time that we do have to cover all that we need to cover. UbD allows you to cover those important concepts that your students cannot succeed without. Once you have your essential questions established, then you can build in those meaningful activities that are going to engage your students and give them something to think about and discuss.
Finally, understanding understanding was an eye opener for me. I enjoyed the puppet show which did a great job of summarizing what Chapter 2 discussed. I can always tell when my students understand what I have taught by the way they tackle extended assignments that I give them. There are the group of students that start tackling the problem and then there are the students that read through the problem and automatically say - this is too hard. My students have also never understood the concept of studying, and they are not really good at recalling information. Therefore, I can always tell the students that understand from the ones that don't because they can still work problems about a specific concept a month down the road. They understood the concept, therefore they remember how to solve the problems. Unfortunately, I find that this does not happen often enough, which makes me think I should really work on creating some great meaningful activities for my students this upcoming year - I am hoping I will be able to do this using more technology.
Unit Description
Unit Template
However, I did enjoy the reading and videos on UbD. It is one of those concepts that you read about and say, "Duh! Of course it works. That just makes so much sense." With the amount of standards that we have to cover in our curriculum and the short amount of time with which we have to accomplish this task, it just seems smart to determine what you want your students to know and to be sure to build your instruction and activities around that understanding. Throughout the year, it seems there is always something that pops-up that takes my students away from the classroom - MAPS and Aimsweb testing that happens 4 times a year, LEP testing, someone from the district wants to meet with the sophomores and juniors this week, our school is hosting an NYO tournament this week and we need the team to help prepare and set up. It takes away from the little time that we do have to cover all that we need to cover. UbD allows you to cover those important concepts that your students cannot succeed without. Once you have your essential questions established, then you can build in those meaningful activities that are going to engage your students and give them something to think about and discuss.
Finally, understanding understanding was an eye opener for me. I enjoyed the puppet show which did a great job of summarizing what Chapter 2 discussed. I can always tell when my students understand what I have taught by the way they tackle extended assignments that I give them. There are the group of students that start tackling the problem and then there are the students that read through the problem and automatically say - this is too hard. My students have also never understood the concept of studying, and they are not really good at recalling information. Therefore, I can always tell the students that understand from the ones that don't because they can still work problems about a specific concept a month down the road. They understood the concept, therefore they remember how to solve the problems. Unfortunately, I find that this does not happen often enough, which makes me think I should really work on creating some great meaningful activities for my students this upcoming year - I am hoping I will be able to do this using more technology.
Unit Description
Unit Template
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