EME_discussion

Review courses 1-11:

• Likes/dislikes,
• How they apply to your capstone project,
• How they apply to your phases.
• How did they help change your practice or environment?
  

I don't have many dislikes. I would have liked to have one course link open for all twelve months that outlines the CBR and Lit Review. This way I could have seen what was coming up and worked ahead as I had extra time in some months and not enough time in others. This would have also informed us of all aspects of the program instead of having some surprises along the way (like applying to present). 

My likes have been the abundant. The two classes that have been the most applicable to my capstone project were the Game class and the Learning Management class. They have been essential to the development of my classes for the 2011-2012 school year. My class content will have XP, levels, quests, etc and will be 100% online with a LMS. 

Every class has been beneficial in some form, often surprising me with usability and applicability to real life. My theories on education have been strengthened and transformed through this program. Personally I have also learned time management skills and personal strengths throughout each class! 

Week4_Wimba

WOW! What a great bunch of classmates! Everyone was super creative and worked really hard!

I'll need to review the archive to catch all the hints for next month, but I appreciate all the heads up we get every month. I like to look ahead and see what's coming.

I learned about data protocols which Mellissa will be sending me more information on that. I've felt that my CBR project lacked a lot of numerical data and percentages. Maybe learning more about this process will help future phases.

Photostory may also be a tool that I could implement into the classroom. Student's would be able to work on their pronunciations by reading selected texts. Wonder if I could put a story together and send it to the student to record their voice for each picture. Will have to play with that and see where it goes.

There is more to Google Apps, and I need to delve into them.

New publications to check out are JTATE and AACE.

PublicationLeadershipProject

As I'm finalizing my decision, I've posted this blog to keep all three together. The two blog entries and my link to my presentation.

Think out loud blog entry #1.

Think out loud blog entry #2.

Presentation.




Blessings,
Jenney

Wk4 Publishing/Leadership project part 2 of 2: WHY

So where o' where should I present?

Option 1: Well my top choice is ISTE. There is a South Dakota regional Technology In Education (TIE) every year. April 15-17, 2012 in Sioux Falls, SD. But since this is at the state level, it probably won't count. I'll probably still apply as it would be a great excuse over my birthday to go back home!

Option 2: But of course it would be fabulous to present at the annual ISTE conference which will be in San Diego in 2012 (June 24-27).
--- There is a student showcase section that would be great to bring a few students to show their work with Language classroom and technology.
--- Presentation of Research papers (peer-reviewed).
--- Model Lesson would provide an opportunity to show attendees how to students learn in my classroom with Web 2.0 tools and distance learning of language.

The Theme of my presentation could fall under one of these:
--- School Improvements
       --- educational visions
--- Digital Age Teaching & Learning
       --- Achieving the ISTE NETS for students
       --- Differentiated Instruction
       --- Games & Simulations (ideally in the future once I get the game completed)
       --- Language Learning
       --- Multimedia/Video/Digital Storytelling/Newscasting
       --- Podcasting
       --- Technology Integration
       --- Virtual Environments/Virtual Reality (ideally in the future once I get the game completed)
       --- Web 2.0/Web/Internet
--- Virtual Schooling/E-Learning
       --- Developing/Locating Digital Content/Learning Objects
       --- Distance Learning
       --- Instructional Design
      --- Student Engagement/Collaboration/Support
      --- Virtual Learning Technologies
      --- Virtual School Programs

Option 3: AACE - Advanced Computing in Education. October 17-21, 2011 in Honolulu, Hawaii! Well, dang! Who wouldn't want to go to Hawaii! Sign me up!
1. Sector or Application Domains: Informal Learning & K12
2. Major topics relating to or technologically supporting E-Learning.
        Content Development
        Implementation Examples and Issues
        Instructional Design
        Standards and Interoperability
        Tools and Systems
3. Specific Topics Examples:
         Accessibility
         Asynchronous Learning
         Authoring Tools
         Building E-Learning Architectures
         Collaborative Learning
          Developing, Integrating, and Delivering E-Learning Solutions
         Distance Learning
         Electronic Publishing Tools for E-Learning
         Human-Computer Interaction (ideally for the game)
         Multimedia-based E-Learning Systems
         Simulations (ideally for the game)
         Virtual Classrooms (ideally for the game)

After reading this, I'm super excited! Maybe I am smart! Maybe I am worthy to present! However, my big fear is that I'll get up there and hear "that was dumb, pointless, boring, worthless, etc". Guess I shouldn't feel that way since I've already had one HUGE South Dakota company ask me to speak to their researchers about online, distance learning. Guess its the pesky shame-based horrible voice in my head. I think the BEST thing that happened this week was listening to a successful Hollywood actress say that she deals with "the voice" as well. So how do we shut up the voice? Guess maybe continuing to step out of my comfort zone and to keep doing what I'm passionate about. It's my life afterall, and I've already wasted 34 years to this stupid voice! One movie quote (sorry can't remember the movie or the exact wording): if you don't feel like a *** then act like *** and soon your feelings will follow. "fake it til you make it" or "act as if".
***disclaimer: No I am not hearing actual voices. No need to call my counselor aunt nor my counselor friend. No blogger was hurt in the writing of this blog.***

***UPDATE*** As I was preparing some videos to input into my powerpoint, I ran across this option for Second Life. I sure wish the under 18 version was still around. Maybe at some point there will be an educational version for schools. This would be a good venue to talk about how to use Virtual Reality in classroom and how to incorporate worlds into the language learning classroom. This will be on my list for next year.

Wk3 Publishing/Leadership project part 1 of 2: WHERE

Publication versus Presentation

Well, I am leaning towards a presentation. I do not have time to write another paper worthy of publication.

With the advent of voice in powerpoint, I'm wondering why we need to type more words on a project? Also with the advent of YouTube or Viddler, couldn't we submit a link to our PowerPoint screen flow or actually "present" to our video camera and post it? Often my brain works faster than I can type, and believe me I can type pretty fast (80+ wpm when I get going). Also with typing my English/grammar cop comes out, and I tend to fix things as I type instead of waiting for a re-write. (I just fixed a missing comma in my compound sentence!)

So what am I going to present? Well, I wish that I was able to obtain some student work to show what they created in Creaza, but I was not thinking ahead and did not get copying of their user name and passwords. Also with Creaza, there was  no publishing option.

Guess I'm left with my data.

Slide one: Problem...in my humble opinion, what is the state of language classroom?
Slide two: Brainstorm...solutions, what are some of the solutions that I see, or have researched.
Slide three: Implementation...what did my CBR project show? How did students react? Phase 1.
Slide four: Implementation...what did Phase 2 show?
Slide five: Future...where do we go from here? What is in the works for my classroom? Game? etc.

Week3_Comment2

Quoting the original Angela Dixon: 


"...because one of her lovely teacher cast a dark shadow over my daughter's head and told her "if you become a doctor then everyone will die!"  My daughter never told me what that teacher said until years later for the fear of what I may have done.  In the book of The Art of Possibility it talked about a child is an exquisite attention-getting device.  (p. 82).  A child relies on strong leadership to help children to discover who they are and achieve their goals.  However, when that leaders or role models shatter a child’s dreams it affects them.  In adulthood, unless the child has a strong will, they grow up not fulfilling their goals and live their life in a box..."


I said: 


Oh Angela, I cringed when I read this. As a teacher, I'm amazed at how much "power" our words have! Most of the time I don't think my students listen to me, but then there are a few things that  they bring back a few days, weeks, months later! They were listening! Far too often, we (I) forget that students DO listen! What a sad day it is when a teacher dismisses the dreams of his/her student(s). Maybe this is where Zander mentioned the "giving an A" would change the perception the teacher had of his/her student (your daughter). It saddens me to think of what could have been if (ONLY IF) the teacher had given your daughter and A that day! 


Zander also asked, "Who am I being that my "people's" eyes aren't shining?" Your daughter's eyes were not shining that day! 


I just pray that your daughter has worked through that devastation and can follow her dream (original or new). 


 I like the Rule Number 6 “Don’t take yourself so seriously” because I spent most of my life trying to fit in or live my life to someone else expectation. During my undergraduate days I tried to be an overachiever and constantly let myself down.  I had to do a calculating self and ask myself “Why am I not aiming for my goal and what can I do to change this problem?” Once I stop taking life so seriously that’s when I was able to aim for my goal without stressing myself out.  I changed the way I thought of myself from the scarfs of my childhood life and realizing only I control my path.

Week3_Comment1

Directly quoted from Mike Skocko's blog:

"My week 2 posts have revolved around chapter one of The Art of Possibility and I don’t want anyone thinking that I considered myself an expert on the subject. The primary impulse behind this post was to reinforce my motto: You teach best what you most need to learn. Words I live and breath by.

Finally, for anyone who reflexively scoffs (myself included), and for politicians everywhere, a deep and profound truth from the amazing William Blake:

The man who never alters his opinion
is like standing water,
and breeds reptiles of the mind."

I shared: 

"great moto, Mike. One that kinda fits my situation as well. Also the William Blake quote is very apropos. With our Wimba discussion on school districts this week, it made me think of all those "in power". Guess they aren't breeding reptiles as they are altering their opinion, just not in a way that most would agree with."