Questions for the Media-Rich Lesson Plan Reflection

Here are the things that you need to address in your reflection:

1. Summarize an article on using technology effectively in the classroom (see the link in an earlier post).

2. Discuss how your lesson plan does or does not exhibit characteristics of effective technology integration as outlined in the article. Be specific.

3. Describe the implementation of your lesson plan. What went well, what didn't, what did you learn from the experience, etc.

4. Identify one NETS standard for teachers for which this lesson plan demonstrates your growth as a teacher. Be specific about how this artifact corresponds with and shows your growth in that standard.

5. Identify one NETS standard for students for which this lesson plan will help your students. Be specific about how this artifact corresponds with and helps your students grow in that standard.

6. Evaluate your progress regarding technology use over the course of this semester. How has this lesson plan changed your beliefs about technology use? Name two specific areas in which you still need to develop and cite some specific ways that you might improve in those areas.

This Week

Welcome back! This week, you should have:

1. Your technology interview

2. Your tech interview reflection (blog)

3. An idea or, preferably, a script for your digital story

If you have not given me your blog address post-crash, please do so as soon as possible. I'm trying to get grade reports up for you but need the blogs to get those done.

Some people asked for more ideas for the digital story, so here are some resources where you can find some that other people have done:

Educational Uses of Digital Storytelling

Center for Digital Storytelling

DigiTales

Hope those give you some good ideas. Remember that you can use children's stories, poems, songs, etc. as well as works of your own creation as long as you cite where you got everything and, if possible, ask for permission.

I'll see you on Thursday!

Hard Drive Failure

Hey, all. As you may or may not know, my hard drive crashed and burned a few weeks ago. I need each of you to send me your blog addresses again as soon as possible.

Thanks!

Dr. Cox

Article for your lesson reflection

I promised to give you an article to help you with that your lesson reflection paper, and here it is. Though the article is geared toward teaching science, the principles are the same across all disciplines. Your reference for the article should look like this:

Irving, K.E. (n.d.). Effective and appropriate uses of educational technology in science classrooms. Retrieved date (fill the date in), from: http://www.ohiorc.org/cor/student_learning/Effective_and_Appropiate_Uses.pdf

You should cite it in your paper like this: (Irving, n.d.)

Read the article and then critically evaluate what you did for your lesson using the principles introduced in the article, including focus on curriculum rather than tech for its own sake, the use of appropriate pedagogy of which technology is a part, using the unique features of technology, active learning, etc.

Let me know if you have any questions!

Dr. Cox

WebQuest and Digital Story Rubrics

In case anyone is interested, here are the grading criteria for the WebQuest and Digital Story.

Writing the WebQuest

In our discussion today, you all agreed on the following:

Good things to include in your WebQuest:
- Clear instructions and concise information
- Lots of white space
- Good links
- Sufficient guidance
- Engaging activities
- Lots of good resources
- Eye-catching/pleasing
- Adaptable
- Good Navigation

Things to avoid:
- flashy animations and colors
- clutter
- TMI
- Redundancy
- Bland, repetitive visual design
- Bad links
- Long and boring text
- Biased information

Now, your homework is to write your introduction, task, and conclusion, and to start finding the resources that you will include in your Quest. Use Google Docs so that you can all collaborate on it. My PowerPoint may help remind you what to include in each part, so I've included it below. Have fun!

Picasa Web Album

This is what it looks like as a link: http://picasaweb.google.com/cox.uvsc/FamilyPics2007#

This is what it looks like embedded:

Family Pics 2007

And here's the slideshow:

Posting a Google Doc

To post a Google Doc, click Share and then Publish as Web Page on your document. Publish it and then copy the web address. Paste it in here: http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dc7d3btp_27gpcqs6jp

Introduction to WebQuests

It is time to start the first assignment for your portfolio. A WebQuest is an inquiry-oriented lesson format in which most or all the information that learners work with comes from the web.

Here's the original article that started it all.

Once you know what a WebQuest is, complete the WebQuest about WebQuests we'll have a group discussion.

Your assignment for this week is to perform the backward planning for your WebQuest including choosing a core curriculum standard to base it on and writing 2-3 student objectives. Next week, we will begin writing the actual content of the Quest.

Revisions to this week's assignments

I understand that you weren't able to get to everything in class on Thursday with Dr. Hudgins, so your revised assignments are these:

1. Embed a Google Calendar in your blog (make sure it's your own or a public calendar)
2. Invite me to be your friend on Google Talk (username: dr.suzycox@gmail.com)
3. Publish a Google Doc and post a link to it on your blog.
4. Post a reflection about how you can use the tools you learned about in class to improve communication and instruction in your future teaching.

This week, we will do a bit of review on the Google tools and hit a few things that you didn't get to, then we'll do the introduction to the WebQuest assignment that goes in your portfolio. If any of you have questions or concerns at any time, please don't hesitate to contact me.

Dr. Cox

The Wonderful World of Google Tools

Hi, everyone. Click "Play" on the message at right to find out where I am this week! I really feel badly about missing class, but felt that I needed to be at this committee meeting. So, Dr. Hudgins will be teaching you about Google Tools and here is a list of your assignments:

1. Embed a Google Calendar in your blog (see mine to the right)

2. Embed a Picasa web album in your blog (see mine below)

3. Invite me to be your friend on Google Talk (username: dr.suzycox@gmail.com)

4. Post a reflection about how you can use the tools you learned about in class to improve communication and instruction in your future teaching.

Good luck and have a wonderful time! Please let me know via talk, text (801.361.0750), or email if you have any questions or problems.

Dr. Cox

Ch- ch- ch- ch- changes

Welcome, everyone! Sorry for the confusion and crazy changes. I hope that we can recover quickly and move on to do some GRRRRRREAT things this semester! Here's what you need to do this week:

1. Get an account with Google and create a blog at http://www.blogger.com.

2. Write an introductory message that includes the following:
- Your background and interests
- Your background and current skill with technology
- Your beliefs about the use of technology in the classroom. Back up those beliefs with good solid reasoning.

3. Create another post that has 2-3 goals that you have for improving your educational technology skill. You may want to use the NETS standards for teachers as a reference for those goals.

4. Play with your blog. Add some gadgets including a list (e.g., your favorite movies or books), a link list, a picture, a video bar (it has to make me laugh) and a great quote in a text gadget.

5. Send me your blog address via email, google talk, or text.

6. Have fun! This tech stuff is an amazing ride and we'll do some great things!

Suzy

How to Create a Blog