Jason's shared items in Google Reader

Sunday, March 22, 2009

Course in Review

I have to admit, I enjoyed the beginning weeks of the class more than the last two. The first weeks were all filled with new toys to play with, Diigo, Empressr, Zoho, Nettrecker, Spreadsheets, etc.. This was great fun and I was entertaining myself, and even sometimes my students with new tools and ways we could use them in class.

The last two weeks were not nearly as fun, but now in writing this I'm kicking myself because without the last two weeks the first few are wasted. The technology implementation plan, the technology integration strategies, as well as the final chapters in the book on supporting students creativity and production were really the meat of the class.

I know I've mentioned this at other times in my blog, but I'm a little frustrated in starting this program in the Spring, when time is of the essence, patterns have already been established and kids start peeking at summer break. It is hard to get these new ideas into the fold. I too have begun to look to summer, not as a break, but as an opportunity to reshape the structure of my class and to find ways to blend in what we have learned so far in the program.

Next year to do list includes:
1. Get all the kids on Google Docs
2. Diigo groups to share notes/sites for class
3. Getting rid of paper assignments
4. Real/Regular collaboration on class assignments
5. Target student technological independence by year's end

Some of these will be easy, but others are going to require some long term strategies that I think our discussions, assignments, and readings have helped develop.

Just a quick observation, entirely unintentionally, my to do list has mirrored my impression of the class, toys at the front, meat at the end.

1 comment:

  1. I had not thought of things in the way - the toys to the meat. I like the idea - it really allowed the class to be constuctivist - with the new applications you were able to construct how you can implement in your class and learning/teaching environment. Great insight!

    ReplyDelete