Summative Reflection on course.
I am going to start with the latter part of the question that was directed to students that were new to this masters program. I biggest frustration was just becoming acclimated with the Blackboard itself. This is the first online course I have taken and there were many things I didn't know about. I wish I would have known earlier about the session I could have gone to to familiarize myself with the Blackboard and my WMU account. I didn't even realize I had an email address with the school until the wiki assignment. I couldn't figure out why I could make changes until I was chatting online with someone. I went to school the next day to ask my TI instructor at school. She thought that the blackboard mailing system was my email. When I went back to my account later, I saw the WMU mail and clicked on it to see what would happen and then saw the invite email. Now that I have figured out the Blackboard system, the course is going much smoother.
Blog:
I have really enjoyed the using the blog. My husband has had one at blog spot and I have watched him develop his, but really haven't had the time to create my own. The blog we are using for the class is similar to one that we use for my school. My web page is: Ballard Boulevard
I have found it a great way to share information with parents. It has also allowed relatives from out of state to be a part of their grandchild, niece/nephew school experience. The photo gallery has been very popular!
Photo Sharing:
I found this lesson to be exciting and frustrating at the same time. I did not like the Flickr program that I used, but enjoyed reading every one's ideas on how one could use this. I am thinking about using a photo sharing site next year with my parents. I am going to talk with my principal first to see if there are reasons he might not want this. The idea of photos being online may make some uncomfortable, but I am sharing them now on the web page. The difference would be two fold. The way I am sharing them now is for viewing only. Parents do not have the ability to download the image. The other difference is parents cannot share photos with me or with each other. I would like to think more about this idea because I think parents and students might enjoy a way to share photos with one another. We will see what happens.
RSS Feed:
We have this capability and use it in our Schoolwires account. I would like to hold a parent meeting at the beginning of the year and allow people to set up the account to my web page. This would allow me to make changes and they would be notified automatically. Currently, I am emailing everyone when I make a change. This is working, but makes more work for me.
Wiki:
I found this to be the most frustrating! I think it was mostly because of the email invite. As a first grade teacher, I didn't really find it all that useful. I suppose that in classrooms where kids are older it may be useful for group projects. Obviously, it helped us create a group project without physically being together. My learning style however, craves the human element! :)
Google Map/Inserting an Image:
I love this website! I have used in my classroom for a variety of things! Inserting the map and an image was not difficult. As I said before, it is very similar to what I do in Schoolwires. I haven't yet created a map, but am anxious to explore this lesson. Part of our first grade curriculum involves map reading and making. I am curious to see if it will meet the needs of first graders or if it will be too difficult. I will let you know.
Podcast:
I am very interested in creating my own podcast. Unfortunately, I did not have time to do this for this assignment. I have not spent much time researching podcast that I am interested because of the lack of time I have right now. I hope to investigate this further this summer. I hope to learn how to create a podcast so I can incorporate it in my classroom next year. I was thinking about having kids read their animal reports on a podcast and doing book recommendations also. I will have to do this toward the end of the year when they have grown some! I found this lesson easy and useful!
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5 comments:
I agree that throwing blackboard at someone is tough. I used the blackboard for one of my classes for the first time this year and it would have been much more difficult for my students if I wasn't in the classroom with them.
I know a lot of people that use blogs to communicate with their family. It's cheaper than sending out paper newsletters in the mail :)
I think that you are wise in your photosharing comments that you would be the only person that would post, and that it's purpose would be for viewing only...if people want a particular picture posted, they can e-mail it to you and then you can simply add it.
I also like what you have for the RSS feeds...I never thought of people subscribing to your website and to be notified that way about changes. That is something I will look into myself! Thanks.
--Laura,
I’m sorry that you too were frustrated with blackboard at the beginning. It is so useful now that I know better how it works.
Your idea to have the parents sign up at the beginning of the year for your web page sounds great. I think it would be much more beneficial to higher level teachers who have so many more students. I wouldn’t be able to send e-mails to all (300+) students I have.
I too love Google Maps! It is a great way to share things with students. I love being able to show a general map and zoom in more and more to show students pictures, geological features, etc. Comparing and contrasting to what they know makes it so much more relevant than looking at a book.
Donna
It was a bit tough to get the hang of blackboard and an online course. My biggest fear in the beginning is that I would simply overlook a big assignment. My fears have pretty much calmed down as I have gotten the hang of it. I hope you feel the same way. I like how its broken up into weeks and also the schedule that has when everything is do. I agree the blog is fun. I like your classroom sight also. Your podcast idea is really neat to. I am sure the students would love it. They could tell all there family from far away to listen. Good luck if you decide that thats something you want to do.
Tony Vitto
I completely understand where you are coming from. The first time I ever used blackboard, it was for my first online class, and I was lost. Luckily for me I was still in my undergrad and had lots of time to figure it all out. Its tricky at first, but as you know you get used to it.
I'm glad to see that most of the activities were fun for you and not to frustrating. I think the wiki was also the most frustrating. My problem was that there were four people trying to make a wiki page and the only interaction we had was through email. I'm kind of surprised that everything worked out as good as is it did.
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