The Fourth Day- Becoming a Tech Wizard Master!

Local Vision

Big question: What will you do with the skills and information you have learned in the course?

I think I'm going to build a website for all of my courses. I think this is a really good way to help students stay up to par in classes and setting the example for other staff. I really like the model that Todd uses with setting up personal blogs and using them for note-taking and student responses. I think this is an excellent model for the Success Seminar Class that I will be teaching in the Fall. My Art Courses could really benefit from having a hub with all the video resources that I share.

Brian talked about setting up a Wiki for his staff about "What they learned this Summer." Interesting idea.
Rob reminded us to focus on the "Why" with ourselves and our staff. I liked his point about spending more time on the "Why" with staff. I have been in consensus model conversations where I could tell the admin had an opinion about the direction we should go. If that Admin. could have just presented the "Why" and done so convincingly, we could have saved a lot of time.
Good conversation about "landing." Do we want to land? Will life get boring? Will we lose our own personal visions and passions? These are the thoughts that scare me about becoming an administrator. There are parts of me that never want to be stuck in meetings talking about the current trends and having to pretend that I think they are important. Is that a sell-out? I'm still not sure.

                              Is the landing is the most boring part of space exploration?
                              Will landing be the most boring part of my career life?
                                                                    Sure hope not.

RS Animate- Sir Ken

That was awesome! I was inspired by the art work. It looked great. The ideas presented are completely in line with my own educational philosophy. I have struggled so much with having to push standardized testing. It's built-in. The kids don't graduate unless I do. At the same time, Art teachers are nearing extinction because the Elective Classes that our school has now are all focused on how to take standardized tests. Lame-sauce! I hope the pendulum starts swinging back towards the arts.

Wicked-awesome movie, though.

iTunesU, MOOC's, Online Learning

There are courses on iTunes? What? Dang! There's a lot of them. I've been wondering how to incorporate the use of ipods into my classrooms. This will help! Very interesting! I'll need to spend some time browsing for good stuff.

What's a MOOC?

                                               I immediately think of my deceased pet fish 
                                                    that I had in High School, Mookie.

 Massive Open Online Course. MIT, Stanford, other organization. No credit offered. Here's the link for MIT's page: http://ocw.mit.edu/index.htm Stanford's: http://www.mooc-list.com/university-entity/stanford-university
I just noticed that  a lot of the course material on iTunes U and both of the MOOC sites are from Saylor.org. Maybe I need to check that site out.
Ethics issues? Can a teacher use the curriculum and then award credit? Questions, questions, questions.

Online Learning

Someone thinks that current online learning is better than conventional learning? I'd love to see that data. Great conversation on how to make sure students are getting appropriate services in the online schools. This is a fantastic question and definitely a bottom line for online schools. I think its an option that should be available to students who the model fits. One size does not fit all, and the online model is effective for some kids. I don't think its a solution for shoving all struggling learners into. I was happy to hear what Tigard is doing. I think they are handling it very responsibly. Good job, Noelle!

Amazing Web Design

User-focused Navigation

Make the site easy to navigate. People look to the upper-left first. Place something interesting up there. Making sure that a website is usable can be enlightening. Having Usability Studies is helpful.

User-Engagement

Be simple, and concise. Make pics big and keep navigation slick. Don't overload with info.

Presentations

Make sure that you use good graphics and pro-style photos. Don't over do with bullets and text. Don't be afraid to leave blank space to focus on main concepts. Todd likes Keynote. I am definitely more comfortable with PowerPoint. I'll have to check it out. I know that I need to check out Prezi. Dan Pink talks about the importance of Design in A Whole New Mind. Garr Reynolds is another great resource for Design fundamentals. I need to check out his website.

Reflection

Another jam-packed day. I understand why I have heard such great things about this class. It really expands your practice and gives you up-to-date tools to use. I can see some students being uber-excited as I add these tools into my classes. I heard some great things that I am going to implement today as I work on my website.
Todd just said that this is our final reflection. That's kinda sad. I just have to say that I'm sorry if I talked too much. Every day I would think to myself, "Don't talk today. These people have more experience than you. Listen and learn." Then, we would start talking about something that makes me passionate and I could not stop myself. So, sorry.
I also wanted to thank everyone. When I was listening, I learned a lot from each of you. It is fantastic to be among educators and exciting to learn together. I feel like i made some new friends this week. Always a bonus!
Lastly, Todd, what a fantastic class! Thanks so much! I will be figuring out how to implement this learning for the rest of the summer. I feel like I have been given a new bunch of tools and I don't know how to use them or what to use them for, but I know that I'm going to have fun figuring it out.

Thanks again everyone! Stay awesome!