Professional Development Tracker
This site tracks professional development credit earned by participants of the K-12 Online Conference. Please create an account and post your reflections to earn your credit. Reflections may be linked from a blog or other post created on another site or entered into our form here. All reflections created on this site are publicly-visible.
- Posted by Rob Moran on 2008-05-28 09:50:39
For me the point that stood out the most was just start! In that the focus should start off with me. I need to be a model for the students and work slowly into the blogging as a class concept. By modeling I'll be able to demonstrate the guidelines and expectations that the kids will be using.
A second point I took away is how the concept of blogs follows Bloom's Taxonomy, as well as a student centered experience. Blogs encourage the students to work together and use their creativity in their everyday writing. I think this forum provides those students who are not as vocal or outgoing in class an avenue to express themselves where they are comfortable.
- Posted by Michele Calloway on 2008-05-22 16:04:03
I really liked this session. I felt that there were quite a few "takeaways." Blogging is a way to get meaningful conversation going between all students, even the quiet, shy kids. They often have great thoughts but are reluctant to raise their hands and speak in front of a whole group. Blogging promotes reading, writing, and reflecting on ideas or opinions that may be different from ours. I also like the fact that the kids can get responses from people outside of our class setting, making it important for them to think about what they are writing. Anne's WebQuest is pretty cool and is probably a nice place to start.
- Posted by Mitch Fowler on 2008-05-13 06:27:34
Patrick's session was great and to the point. Some of his main points were managing the hardware environment, collaborating and coordinating with administration, effectively structuring teacher PD, and collaborating with the teacher. Built within these main points I found other themes. For example, it is vital to understand the school's demographics to identify the amount of instructional challenges that lie ahead. In addition, Patrick notes that when approaching teachers with technoloyg, one must create a direct link to the instructional value of the technoloyg. In other words, don't just inroduce technology for technology's sake, show the teacher how it can help them teach in the classroom. Finally, I loved what Patrick said about PD. He mentioned that it is your job to present OPPORTUNITIES for PD, not to FORCE people to come. People who choose not to take advantage of the opportunity should be dealt with by administration not youand should get last priority when it deals with technology.
- Posted by Mitch Fowler on 2008-05-10 11:47:32
One of the main points that I enjoyed in this session was the "Teachers helping teachers" portion. I really liked the idea that there were TTL (Technology Teacher Leaders)and SWAT (Students Working to Assist Technology)people to assist in the building. While I am a classroom teacher and not part of the tech. staff, I can see how this extra set of hands could really help expedite the Help Desk process.
This session also hit home with the idea that you can have all of the technology in the world, but that doesn't mean you'll have kids learning differently. I see this all of the time, and sometimes am guilty myself; teachers get a new "gadget" or site, but don't use it to change how they teach. The tool is simply a piece of technology, not a new means of improving teaching and learning.
I loved when he said that in his district, teachers who use technology get it more than teachers who don't. I completely agree with the rationale that those who use technology to improve teaching and learning should get it before those who do not use it.
- Posted by Mitch Fowler on 2008-04-12 14:39:21
Dean did a great job of making the point that a student presentation requires several aspects; transition, white space, meaning, and simplicity. Above all I was really impressed with the topic because I have never thought about student presentations through the lens of a designer. It is interesting because I regularly watch design shows on TLC or HGTV and never thought about applying some of the same principals to student work.
As mentioned, transitions were discussed as a main emphasis for student project creation. Dean made a great point when he mentioned that he wasn't just talking about default transitions on PowerPoint or movie maker, he was talking about using audio and pictures too.
Next, Dean noted that the use of white space is a topic that students need to learn to wrestle with. He used great, overdone, PowerPoint slides to illustrate the point that it is alright to leave a little blank space on one's presentation. He also mentioned that the use of white or "negative" space is important to use when highlighting an image within an image.
Finally, he really drove home the point that presentations and projects can be simple. He likened asking students to create a 5 minute video for a first project is similar to asking an 8 year old to write a novel. Dean really made good points about asking kids to cut and edit their work in order to determine what is really essential to their message.
- Posted by Mitch Fowler on 2008-02-18 14:02:05
I really felt that there were two main points to this presentation: 1. In order to blog effectively, one needs to present and model the blog slowly to the kids 2. Blogging requires several levels of Bloom's Taxonomy to be meaningful and worthwhile.
The first main point that I took away (modeling and presenting first) was one that I really need to work on as a teacher who uses blogs. For the past two years I have been so excited to get kids creating, collaborating, sharing, and commenting, that I think I've flown over some main points of blogging. In her presentation, I thin Anne's Webquest was amazing. I think I will have my kids work on this next year before we start. I think the time that could be spent working on this Webquest would definitely outweigh some of my introductory blogging activities. In addition, upon completion of the Webquest, I think the kids would understand how the blog is built upon the same foundations of our writing class as opposed to simply a fun way to post what you're thinking about.
The second main point (using Bloom's Taxonomy) really struck a chord in me. During the summer I corresponded with several teacher who use blogging. One of our main conversations was about how to take blogging to the next step. How do we get our kids to do something with the blog that they couldn't do in class... or don't do in class. One of the answers to this question may be using Bloom's Taxonomy more often in constructing questions and posts on the blog. I really liked the ribbons that Anne had on her Rock You slide show on the Bloom's Taxonomy wiki. I think that I may try to recreate these ribbons for my class.
- Posted by Cara Baker on 2008-02-11 08:14:54
Using a blog in the classroom is not just another form of writing, but a way to get a conversation going and being able to use listening skills and respondng in a mature and meaningful way. You have to be able to read a blog posting and respond to it in a way that keeps the conversation going, not with something superficial. The whole classroom needs to reflect being able to blog well.
- Posted by Cara Baker on 2008-02-11 07:59:02
The main takeaways that I got from this session were that there are so many things to do in the classroom and technology can make it much more interesting to complete them. I got some really great websites to check out to do some really fun stuff that kids can get really into. I especially liked the toondoo cartoon website. (I like that the presenter also gave different grade level websites as well.) I can't wait to get into the classroom and try some of these out.
- Posted by Alice Barr on 2008-01-21 14:08:27
- Posted by Erik Sanchez on 2008-01-17 09:57:55