Reflections so far

The first month of this semester has been a whirlwind of information. Trying to keep all this information straight is going to take a lot of effort and it will certainly test my teaching sanity at times. I've been exposed to tools that seem useful, I just haven't figured out how I'll have my students use them. I'm not even sure how I'm going to use them. But I think when I see some examples of what some other teachers have done with these tools in my subject area, those ideas will fall into place. Still, at times, it gets to be a bit overwhelming.

I think the most eye-opening thing I've come across this semester has been using and working with Google Docs. At first I was a bit skeptical as to the application's use. I was quite comfortable working with Word and PowerPoint. It wasn't until I had more experience working with Google Docs collaboratively that I saw it's potential. This can certainly be used as a way for students to submit their essays and projects to me and for me to provide feedback. My plan for next school year is to get my AP and accelerated students to sign up for gmail accounts and submit some of their work via GoogleDocs. While I don't look forward to more time staring at a computer screen, the thought of being able to TYPE my feedback/comments will definitely cut down on time writing out comments on my students' work.

There have been times this semester when I don't feel as secure as I would like to be in my work. This design document project has been challenging and confusing at times. But I suppose that's to be expected during the first time going through anything. I'm hopeful that by the end of this process I have created a unit of instruction that I can continue to build and improve on. I'm also hoping that this unit that I'm working on will solve a few of the headaches that I've had teaching AP World History (let's just hope they don't create new ones).

I think the thing that I would like to see more of during our online sessions is more of a walk-thru on the process of coming up with a design documents. The examples/templates for each step have been scant and confusing at times. I feel a lot of time has been wasted fixing technical issues (which is to be expected given the nature of an online course) or figuring out the objectives of some of the group work that has been thrown at us. I've always been a better learner and performer when I see more examples of what a good finished product looks like. The other frustrating thing has been trying to figure out where to look for exactly what is due on any given week. Sometimes what it says in the syllabus, the moodle, and on the weekly PowerPoint slides doesn't exactly coinside.

On a side note, I think establishing some sort of protocol during group work would help make our time spent on such activities more efficient. Having everyone talking, typing, or playing around with the whiteboard at once is enough to drive anyone crazy.

I look forward to completing my presentation on the mindjet mindmapping tech tool. I use mind maps a lot for my classes. I haven't had the chance to really use all of its features, but I'm hoping that it might be something that I can use. I haven't yet found anything that the software can do that I can't do in other programs such as iWork or Inspiration. But I must say, I tried using it to create a mock up of my concept map and it did it pretty quickly. At first I thought this was an online tool that you could just log in and use. When I found that I had to download a "free trial" version I became a bit suspicious. The last thing I want this presentation to be is a commercial to help someone hawk their product. We'll see. I'm eager to see what the others in my group have found. Hopefully it's something useful.

Until the next time I blog, the EDTEC adventure continues.