EDL 518 Final Post

The activities I enjoyed most about class are:
1. Learning how to make an video with MovieMaker
2. Learning how to make a Podcast
3. Having time to research sites
4. Having time to work on projects in class.
5. Excel activities done together was very beneficial.
I know that this course is going on-line, but I think one of the most beneficial aspects of the class was working on projects during class time and being able to have access to Dr. Closen and other members of the class for assistance.
Thank you for an enjoyable final course.

5/6/10

Although this blog is dated Thursday, it is actually a comment for 5/2/10, post-last class of EDL 518. I learned how little I know about technology in this class, but I also was forced to use it and to try it out. One of the best things was the time to explore and the time to collaborate with other teachers/future administrators. I learned of a lot of websites from my colleagues of where to get information that I need (via the Scavenger Hunt) so that is definitely part of the course to keep - the Scavenger hunt not only had us look for stuff but also sharing our two faves with the class helped me see a whole lot more. Wendy form Moline provided me with priceless information about ESL for which I am grateful. Jenny from Galesburg told me a lot about Reading Recovery, and made me which I was trained so that I could have been using it all year with one of my ELLs who is dyslexic (undiagnosed officially) and is an extremely low reader (Kindergarten level but in the 7th grade). Dr. Closen, you are a great instructor for many reasons. However, I am most grateful for a) your dry sense of humor, 2) your patience when we have technological difficulties and your willingness to help, and d) your easygoing manner. Thanks everyone for sharing.

Sunday 5/2

I really enjoyed this class mainly because most everything done in class I can use immediately. I think that the multimedia and scavenger hunt will be the most useful short term. I would like to see this class use prezi or spicynodes for a presentation to turn in. This, in my mind makes more sense for this class than a research paper. Overall, this is one of the more valuable classes I have taken in term of affecting the way I do my job. Thanks Dr. Closen.

5-2

I loved the Blog assignment!!  I think that this will be one of the most useful things for me.  I'm not looking forward to scanning all my assignments (the ones that I didn't create), but once that work is done, it will be so easy from then on.  I hated the wiki.  After talking to other people, it turns out that those who love wikis hate blogs and vice versa.

I'm with Dane on the research paper and the IIRC paper.  The point of the IIRC assignment seemed to be to prove that we could cut and paste, and couldn't the podcast replace the research paper (of course I'm also with Dean as my paper isn't done yet and the podcast is).   

While I was hating the webquest assignment while I was doing it, I also understand the value of doing an assignment like that.  Each web site is so different and trying to find the information that you need is often difficult. 

Overall I really enjoyed this class and learned a lot!  Thank you for a great 3 weekends!

Suggestions

I think that the huge list of websites we explored the first weekend was a cool thing to do. However, I'm not sure what that would look like in an online format.

I do not think the research paper is a worthwhile activity. (that may explain why mine is not done!) I'm sure that is an NCATE thing, but that's what I think.

Wiki, Blog, multimedia, podcast = cool
Why don't we do a Prezi. Learning that new system would be fun.

Great class. Really enjoyed it.

Dane

Class Overview

I found the wiki page and blog assignments to be very useful. There are a lot of ways administrators could benefit from using excel. I thought the webquest could have been shortened. During the class I was hoping to learn how to create a video and transfer it into something such as movie maker.

My suggestion for putting this online is to give very detailed directions. It really helped me to read the handouts you gave. The rubrics were very helpful. I was not sure how long some assingments should be. You might want to add this to the syllabus. Overall, I thought the class incorporated projects which benefited both teachers and administrators.

Sunday

I enjoyed the opportunity to see the various presentation and websites. It would be very nice to have an infinite amount of time to look at and for the various sites.
I look forward to developing and using some of these tools for my class. Students definitely learn differently than when i first taught in 1979.