Summer of eLearning

This was the beginning of my journey into technology. In April I began the "Introduction to Blended and Online Learning" class. It was offered through 5 Star Academy and was FREE with PGP points. How awesome! I was apprehensive since I hadn't taken a class in several years and never a class completely online.We started slowly with introductions and were told to setup a Blog. That went well - you are reading mine now. With my feeling of success in the online class I enrolled in the Greencastle TechCon 15 this summer and have been following new Tweets, Chats, and Blogs. Exploring PLN's beyond the Family and Consumer Science community. This is my summer of technology exploration and eLearning!

This has been a true learning experience. Our class moved at a good pace, even while we were completing our school year . I was encouraged to try new pieces of technology over the 9 weeks, but not all at once. I was able to use those technologies to better understand how they worked and to see if they would be helpful in classes for next year.

Our school is not going to be 1:1 for a few years. We are first upgrading the structure of our facilities (buildings, hv/ac, wiring). In the meantime I will use the computer lab, media center computers or the Computer on Wheels (COW) so that my students have access to the technology. This encourages me to plan ahead and make the reservations for enough time to complete projects.

I liked the ideas shared about using technology as a collaborative tool. When groups are working together, the gathered information is always accessible to everyone. Students can also do research beyond the walls of the classroom and media center.  Presentations can go beyond the hand drawn poster. Students are moving into the 21st Century and using the tools available to them.

Thanks for reading my Blog! Have a great summer!!! Becky

Curating Resources

Susie and I share a common problem. One problem that I am trying to overcome:

Where and how I store the “cool” resources I have gathered, collected, and curated each year?

First I believe it begins with my learning more about Google. My school adopted Google as our email in January. I need to spend time this summer cleaning up the filing of my documents from the 3 years at North Putnam High School, including several mass downloads.  Each year I begin with such good intentions. 

It really scares me to think about schools that are going paperless or to 1:1 technology. I am so dependent on notebooks, paper worksheets and paper in file cabinet drawers! That’s my old school know how. I am working to improve my use of technology in my teaching. I think it is vitally important for students of the 21^st century. They will be expected to have a working knowledge of technology to join the work force or to continue on to advanced learning. I would like to be helping them achieve this knowledge. 

That means I need to be aware and knowledgeable. I’m looking forward to experimenting with Glogster.com in hopes that it will be a good way to gather and store information.

I’m hoping to read everyone’s blog and learn from the classmates that are more fluent in using technology. I know they will be able to help Susie and me!

IBOT Blog Assessment

Question:  

Do you believe that authentic assessment is possible in every subject area? Can students at every grade level demonstrate mastery through authentic assessment? Why or why not? Is it practical to ask teachers to complete these types of activities in the current, high stakes testing environment?

Reflection:

I believe it is very possible to use authentic assessments across the curriculum levels and in all subject areas. Coming to education by way of Family and Consumer Sciences I was taught to use real life, hands on evaluations. These show students true understanding of knowledge and skills. It also shows independent thinking while students are preforming assessments.

I also use traditional assessments of multiple choice, true-false, completion and matching along with essay questions to evaluate knowledge gained. I think it helps assure students have both the factual and practical knowledge needed for life beyond the wall of high school.

I use  MyFitnessPal   and SuperTracker in Nutrition and Wellness classes so that students can track their daily food . It is available on the web, iOS and Android. Students must create an account so that the app can follow your entries. Students that have a mobile device are able to enter foods as they consume them, whereas students using paper to write the items down have a more difficult time. Using the application helps students chart and monitor their calorie, nutrient, water, and exercise on daily terms. We can then do analysis of their eating habits and create goals for improvement. The applications take the place of charting manually with paper and pencil. It creates a much easier way to track and record your food intake. It will store the information for you to use at a later time. You can make decisions about your calorie consumption and calorie burn during the day and make alterations as you go. Students can create reports for viewing.

1. Where would you rate yourself in each area?

At this moment I would rate myself at the adaptive phase with students working toward collaborative. Students work on group assignments and prepare presentations to the class. Students were able to select the mode of presentation: power point, Prezi, or poster.

I feel that some of my inability to move forward is the fact that I have limited use of technology in my FCS classroom. In order for students to be able to use technology I reserve the computer lab (available on first come first serve reservation) so they can use technology to complete assignments.

2. Where do you think you could reasonably be at the end of the next grading period?

By enrolling in this online class I am struggling to gain information for my own knowledge. This is in hopes that North Putnam will be adding additional technology in the near future. Or that I will be able to use this information to create more interesting informative presentations for my classes.

3. What steps will you need to take in order to make the growth happen?

I will need to learn the art of filing documents on my computer. I will need to be more consistent is remembering log on information so I can return to web sites. For now I’m switching between school and personal so that I can access a variety of websites that may be blocked at school. More lists.

Why Teachers Should Blog

This being my first Blog ever led me to read the article written by Shelly Blake-Plock. She stated, "to blog is to teach yourself what you think." As I set out on this new adventure of blogging I'm hoping to learn to use technology as well as learn what I think about the use of technology in the classroom. How can we use technology to help students learn? How can we incorporate the use of technology without the computers being readily available to students?