I'm exploring Podcasting for my next MAET course. After repeating the same text many times, I think I'm starting to like the sound of my voice, ha!
You can listen to me by clicking here.
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Saturday, March 12, 2011
CEP-811 Grand finale, some reflections...
Another MAET course finished! Now some last thoughts about what I've learned and the new goals ahead:
What are some things that you have learned about effective teaching strategies when integrating technology?
This course helped me a lot with my teaching skills. Learning about instructional design principles and UDL made me understand how to create better and more effective classes that integrate technology. I felt really comfortable using technology after studying Computer Science, but I still needed to learn much about instruction and learning, you might say how to improve in the scholarship of teaching. The instructional design template will be a great reference for future lesson planning in my courses and in my school. I will also have UDL very present when I decide to try new technologies at my school.
How did integrating web-based technologies help you think about and evaluate uses of technology?
Web-based technologies are for certain essential in today’s education. I got to analyze these tools not from a technical point of view, but from their educational or pedagogical potential. I found some great resources in Merlot, some useful Webquests and got to experiment more with Wikis. We are definitely using all of these Web resources and tools at my school. You also don’t need a big budget to take advantage of all the technologies, so there is no excuse for using them if you have internet access.
How have you met your own personal goals for learning about technology integration?
I feel that with this course I acquired a more guided view of how to include technology in the classroom. I learned how to evaluate with better judgment all the material and tools that are available on the Web.
Do you have any new goals? What are your plans for reaching your new goals and your long-term goals after this course is over?
Yes! I want to improve the instructional design of our school lessons and think about how to help my teachers have UDL more present in their classes. We haven’t used Wikis that much, so I will try to incorporate them in some school projects. I want to create more StAIR projects with my teachers, tell them about the concept and make more lessons modules on our Moodle platform that I’m sure will be useful for the years to come. I enjoyed participating in the TPACK Webquest, it could be a great activity to include for the teachers workshops I have to give at the end of the year.
What are some things that you have learned about effective teaching strategies when integrating technology?
This course helped me a lot with my teaching skills. Learning about instructional design principles and UDL made me understand how to create better and more effective classes that integrate technology. I felt really comfortable using technology after studying Computer Science, but I still needed to learn much about instruction and learning, you might say how to improve in the scholarship of teaching. The instructional design template will be a great reference for future lesson planning in my courses and in my school. I will also have UDL very present when I decide to try new technologies at my school.
How did integrating web-based technologies help you think about and evaluate uses of technology?
Web-based technologies are for certain essential in today’s education. I got to analyze these tools not from a technical point of view, but from their educational or pedagogical potential. I found some great resources in Merlot, some useful Webquests and got to experiment more with Wikis. We are definitely using all of these Web resources and tools at my school. You also don’t need a big budget to take advantage of all the technologies, so there is no excuse for using them if you have internet access.
How have you met your own personal goals for learning about technology integration?
I feel that with this course I acquired a more guided view of how to include technology in the classroom. I learned how to evaluate with better judgment all the material and tools that are available on the Web.
Do you have any new goals? What are your plans for reaching your new goals and your long-term goals after this course is over?
Yes! I want to improve the instructional design of our school lessons and think about how to help my teachers have UDL more present in their classes. We haven’t used Wikis that much, so I will try to incorporate them in some school projects. I want to create more StAIR projects with my teachers, tell them about the concept and make more lessons modules on our Moodle platform that I’m sure will be useful for the years to come. I enjoyed participating in the TPACK Webquest, it could be a great activity to include for the teachers workshops I have to give at the end of the year.
Monday, February 28, 2011
Online Learning
For this next post I have to talk about how I could use one of the technologies that qualify as an online experience with my students.
I have to say that I've never designed a complete online course, but I have been a great fan of blended learning for three years now. I'm used to using Course Management Systems (CMS) or Learning Management Systems (LMS) as a fundamental part of my Computer Science classes and as repositories for different types of resources for EdTech integration for my teachers.
What content could this help you teach?
Online resources can be a great help for learning new concepts. You can rely on all the types of multimedia to aid student's understanding. In my particular subject, Computer Science, online learning helps me to teach the theoretical part of the course so I can focus on the practical part in class, where students apply the new concepts to solve actual problems in a creative way.
As Technology Coordinator, online learning has allowed me to create courses where I can put EdTech resources in an ordered manner for my teachers according to their subject and grade level. These online courses sometimes include forums, surveys and wikis which help me receive feedback from them and improve what I’m doing.
What type of pedagogical strategies might you use with your students?
Non-lingustic representations: Online learning can give you so many choices of how to represent different concepts! From charts, concept maps, animations, presentations, podcasts, timelines, etc.
Objectives and feedback: I really like to put my objectives, calendar and rubrics on my online courses. They can be a very good guide to help students in their learning process. I also like to include surveys and forums to get some feedback from my students and tell me if they are getting the class.
Cooperative learning: It is really easy to collaborate online with all the new Web applications available. Students really enjoy learning with others and I find it very interesting when it's with students from other schools or countries.
What technologies do you think would be harder to use with your students? Why?
When it comes to online learning the biggest problem is that there are still some teachers and students that don't have Internet access at home. Another disadvantage is that we aren't a 1:1 school for the moment, in some cases all of the computers are being used so Real-time Online learning would not be as effective because many would be left out.
I also think that making podcasts or videocasts would be harder to implement, mostly because culturally we are not used to broadcasting ourselves. Also many don't want to participate in these kinds of media because of security reasons.
Educational gaming could also become a challenge for my Elementary School students, since most of the good games are in English and they still don't feel that comfortable with the second language as the older kids do.
I have to say that I've never designed a complete online course, but I have been a great fan of blended learning for three years now. I'm used to using Course Management Systems (CMS) or Learning Management Systems (LMS) as a fundamental part of my Computer Science classes and as repositories for different types of resources for EdTech integration for my teachers.
What content could this help you teach?
Online resources can be a great help for learning new concepts. You can rely on all the types of multimedia to aid student's understanding. In my particular subject, Computer Science, online learning helps me to teach the theoretical part of the course so I can focus on the practical part in class, where students apply the new concepts to solve actual problems in a creative way.
As Technology Coordinator, online learning has allowed me to create courses where I can put EdTech resources in an ordered manner for my teachers according to their subject and grade level. These online courses sometimes include forums, surveys and wikis which help me receive feedback from them and improve what I’m doing.
What type of pedagogical strategies might you use with your students?
Non-lingustic representations: Online learning can give you so many choices of how to represent different concepts! From charts, concept maps, animations, presentations, podcasts, timelines, etc.
Objectives and feedback: I really like to put my objectives, calendar and rubrics on my online courses. They can be a very good guide to help students in their learning process. I also like to include surveys and forums to get some feedback from my students and tell me if they are getting the class.
Cooperative learning: It is really easy to collaborate online with all the new Web applications available. Students really enjoy learning with others and I find it very interesting when it's with students from other schools or countries.
What technologies do you think would be harder to use with your students? Why?
When it comes to online learning the biggest problem is that there are still some teachers and students that don't have Internet access at home. Another disadvantage is that we aren't a 1:1 school for the moment, in some cases all of the computers are being used so Real-time Online learning would not be as effective because many would be left out.
I also think that making podcasts or videocasts would be harder to implement, mostly because culturally we are not used to broadcasting ourselves. Also many don't want to participate in these kinds of media because of security reasons.
Educational gaming could also become a challenge for my Elementary School students, since most of the good games are in English and they still don't feel that comfortable with the second language as the older kids do.
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