Course Take Aways

This is such a crazy time of year for teachers, but then again it is always crazy for teachers.  At the start of this course I wasn’t sure how I could manage especially when we had to postpone and then restart.  But once we were on a roll I began to look forward to what I would learn each week when the next Module was unlocked.  I really feel I learned a great deal about a number of new resources that I can use in my classroom and share with my colleagues and students.  The most valuable resources were SAMR and the Technology Integration Matrix.  I feel that of all the resources provided these are tools that I can use for a long time as I work to integrate technology through 1:1 in my classroom.  My principal has always said, “Now I don’t want these devices to become just an expensive textbook.” And although I knew what he was saying I didn’t have a complete picture of what not being an expensive textbook would look like.  Now thanks to this course, the resources and the collaboration I feel I am much better equipped to make sure that the device is just a tool to use in order that so much more can be done.

On a final and separate note, I probably should have put this in the survey, but I will share it now, I wish there would have been a little better chance to collaborate.  I know we all work at different paces.  Some like me try to get things done early and others wait until the last minute.  I wonder if putting a group of students into a cohort of 5, 6, or 7 might have been a better way to be sure that everyone got feedback from others.  I will be honest.  I didn’t read as many discussions and blogs at the end of the week and so I didn’t respond to them.  I don’t know I'm just “thinking-writing” out loud.  It’s made me think about how I would have a class of 30 interact.  I could see kids always wanting to give feedback to their friends and never to others.  I think even this concern provided me with an opportunity to learn about how I might want to do things differently.  I know it is important to give students freedom and I know collaboration is key in digital curriculum, but for me some structure might have provided a little more interaction and thus learning.  That being said, I learned a great deal and moved out of my comfort zone of thinking and that it good.  Thanks.

The Jury is Still Out On Facebook and Twitter in the Classroom

As we have discussed in this class, one of the best parts of digital curriculum is the opportunity for students to collaborate.  However, as we consider digital citizenship we must be sure that we are providing safe environments for this collaboration.  At our school we are allowed to use Twitter with our students, but not Facebook.  I’m not sure what my personal opinion is at this point.  I’m excited that we will be using My Big Campus next year which will allow for a Facebook like interface that is for school only leaving an opportunity for collaboration, but a safe environment just for our students.  I know this sounds like a cope out, but I just don’t feel safe enough to let my students out on Facebook just to be on Facebook.

My Big Campus to Curate

In our middle school science program we use science notebooks.  This becomes a document that the students take great pride and ownership in.  One of the biggest challenges for our department has been how to move this document to a digital format allowing students to archive all work while allowing us to grade and give feedback in a digital format.  We began using OneNote and with Skydrive and we had a very dynamic way to duplicate a pencil and paper tool to digital.  However as we move to iPads a useful version of OneNote is not available.  We spent some time with Evernote feeling that it was the best option, but after some trial runs feel that the time spent in development and the difficulty in sharing 150 notebooks with the teacher did not seem to be the best choice. So to answer the blog question, we are looking to My Big Campus and its bundle capabilities to create notebooks next year.  

I know there are a lot of tools available, but since we have decided to use the My Big Campus platform as a corporation we feel that using a uniform way to create a science notebook would be the best option.