Friday Post Saturday, Jun 20 2009

I almost forgot to post tonight.  I absolutely hate second life, but I can see some educational benefits to that type of environment.  I would hope second life will eventually (as it loses popularity) start catering to an education friendly environment.

I have loved, loved, loved the class and have been thinking and talking about it all night long.  A light flipped on for me today and I realized how passionate I am about creating quality instruction.  What I love most about my job is teaching and coming up with new learning opportunities for my associates.  I see a light now, at the end of a long dark tunnel and I can’t wait to graduate and move onto new opportunities.  Good times!

I was almost sad this afternoon that we didn’t get to have our distance education discussion.  This is a hurdle Deseret Industries will have to overcome to propel themselves forward to the next level.  At the same time, thanks for teaching us the tools and providing flexibility with the entire course.  Look forward to seeing more of you!!!

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Is it already Thursday? Friday, Jun 19 2009

I spent a bit of my evening tonight walking around campus and taking in all the changes since the days I originally went to school here.  For all the tout about how USU is Utah’s Distance Education Campus, I was amazed at how much brick and mortar has gone up.  My old library is gone, in it’s place a grassy field, and the engineering library is now the school libary, but the most shocking changes have all been on the west end of campus with a new science building, a new elementary school, and new IT building, and a new student living center.  I would guess 30% of the campus is new since my days 12 years ago.

I think what I liked best today was the using Jing because I can see some real application in my work.  For next year, I probably wouldn’t teach moodle at all, trusting that everyone who goes through the MEd program will have to use Moodle in Doug Holton’s class.  I still think there is something to “Death by PowerPoint” but I did learn some new features today that make me think it’s not so bad.  It just can’t be the only thing teachers use.  Slay me!  🙂

I’m a little sad to be heading home tomorrow.  There are so many tools I wish we had been able to cover.  In particular, mind mapping, because it’s a tool I’ve not used and not yet made time to figure out.  I hope when I get home to create a few links to some of the tools we did not cover in class in case people wish to learn about them at a later date.  It’s 10:45 PM and I keep waiting for someone to come in and kick me out of this computer lab.  All the hall lights have been turned off and someone has tried to get into this classroom but I didn’t let them in.  I’m a huge advocate for occasionally participating in face-to-face activities.  Sometimes learners just don’t know what they are missing.

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Playing around with Jing Thursday, Jun 18 2009

Now that I’ve captured some video using Jing, I want to see how easily I can place it in my blog.

Here is a link to the video.

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Mid-week Reflections Wednesday, Jun 17 2009

I have officially hit overload.  I woke up this morning literally sick and comletely exhausted.  It came as a huge shock because I felt great yesterday.  Unfortunately, my not feeling well really affected my ability to learn and absorb what was being taught today.  At 30,000 feet, I can see that Google Docs is a cool application, but I am not in love with the tool.  I can see me using it in the future, but not in my present profession.  I’m curious about how I’ll feel about the tool tomorrow.

I liked learning about Flickr, but found myself frustrated because most of my family is using Picassa.  I can see myself using Flickr to design presentations, etc.  I was irritated with GMail and with Yahoo for creating photo apps that required you to use their email to access the application.  I like GoogleSites but hate needing to use GoogleDocs with GoogleSites.  I like PBworks because it collaborates so freely with other free apps that are on the internet.  I use Wimba, but I’m not a super huge fan because of how fickle a friend technology is.  I can see how helpful Skyp could be when trying to coordinate group work.

I’m looking forward to whatever comes tomorrow, but I am quickly learning to accept I won’t absorb all of this in one sitting.  I will have to do as Kristy advised and move forward implementing one tool at a time.

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Grand Canyon Wednesday, Jun 17 2009

Grand Canyon

Originally uploaded by Fundenburg

This is one of the coolest pictures of the Grand Canyon I’ve ever seen. I’d be curious how it was manipulated to create that effect.

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Grand Canyon Wednesday, Jun 17 2009

Grand Canyon

Originally uploaded by Fundenburg

This is one of the coolest pictures of the Grand Canyon I’ve ever seen. I’d be curious how it was manipulated to create that effect.

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Reflections on Day 2, INST 6105 Wednesday, Jun 17 2009

I’m glad today is over.  Presenting in front of my peers was crazy hard because I have such profound respect for all of them.  Already in two days, I’m really enjoying the class and the new friendships I’m making.  I do absolutely love wikis and was so excited to let my peers touch and feel it.  It was super cool to hear them telling me in one-on-one conversations how they were planning to implement it and which tools/features they liked the best.  And, I also liked learning about the other tools.  I’m afraid I only caught about half of what Joey said in his presentation and so I’m glad I get to review his notes, slides, etc. at a later time.  Podcasting is a super-cool, super trendy way to stay in touch.

I felt completely overwhelmed with Twitter, not so much because it is hard, but because it is a ton!  I believe Kristi when she says it is the wave of the future and so I’m trying to embrace it.  But each time I Tweet, my biggest fear is that I’m wasting people’s time.  Gratefully, no one has to follow my Tweets except my peers this week.

As I was talking with Jill, a business ed teacher, I was surprised at how seriously she was considering using Twitter in her classes and a way to keep the students multi-tasking (a must in this day and age) and still be able to teach her lesson.  Even in this class, people are doing multiple things on the computers at once.  It does feel a bit overwhelming to need to Tweet while listening to a presentation.  I’m not as avid a multi-tasker as others.

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Reflections on Day 1 Tuesday, Jun 16 2009

After day 1, I am worn and weary.  My roommate feels the same and we are planning to sleep soundly.  I signed up for this class because last year my friends took the class and raved about it.  They learned about a variety of different tools and couldn’t wait to impliment them in the classroom.  When I saw the list of tools we were covering for this class, I had experience with blogging and that was it.  Since blogging was quickly picked up, I selected wikis.  I had heard about that tool in particular from one of those friends and wanted to learn more about it.  I’m happy to have learned so much and only wish I had picked up this tool earlier.

I am definitely more excited about the tools than I am the class discussion, but I am convinced there is much I need to know about both.  For example, I don’t really understand copyright laws and have habitually shied away from using graphics, images, videos, etc., that I find for fear of that copyright infringement.  I now realize I need to take a more enlightened approach to utilizing and teaching with these tools.  An absence of use hurts me and those who I am trying to help.  I am passionate about adult education, because those are my learners.

I don’t feel that I learned anything new about blogging.  I am struggling with how to use such a tool in my present work environment.  Delicious is an exciting new option.  I know I will need to flex this muscle for a while to become familiar and at ease with this tool.  For certain, no matter which tools I use, I know I will need to become more proficient in tagging.  I pay little to no attention to it, and that needs to change.

I have little more to add to my day 1 reflections.  I look forward to seeing how my presentation turns out tomorrow.  I’m also exciting to learn about the other tools that are going to be presented, especially Twitter.

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Wikis Monday, Jun 15 2009

My distance learning tool this week is called a wiki, which is short for wiki-wiki, which is the Hawaiian term for “quick.”  My favorite place to create a wiki is at PBworks.

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INST 6105 – My Classroom Blog Monday, Jun 15 2009

As part of my training on Distance Education Tools, I am learning about blogging.  I’ve only used blogger in the past, but I’m trying wordpress out to see if I like it better.  Later, I will be adding reflective commentary about the class.

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