Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Reflections on 11 Tools Assignments

For your final 11 Tools post, answer these questions:

1. What are your favorite tools you now have in your personal technology toolbox? Briefly describe a particular activity that you will plan for your students using at least one of these new tools.
I'm not sure there is one favorite as they are so different. I liked Google docs as I think it will prevent us from using countless back and forth emails in planning and scheduling. I LOVE the Jing thing that makes it so easy to embed pictures/videos into communications. The Google reader is probably the thing I've already used the most. I can see that, later when I have time, I can use it to organize the blogs I read on different topics to keep current with literature and research.
I have already used Google docs with several teams to plan a meeting for this week and next week. I am thinking about how I can use it for meeting agendas for team leaders and the campus improvement team.

2. How have you transfomed your thinking about the learning that will take place in your classroom?
I'm overwhelmed with thinking about how this can transform what happens in the classroom - and I don't have to implement it in a classroom!! I hope that teachers will take it slowly, choose one or two new things to learn well and get control of those in a productive way before moving on. My fear is that we will just wily nily begin to use things without purpose and intent. We will be discussing this as a faculty.

3. Were there any unexpected outcomes from this program that surprised you?
Yes - everything I said in #2 - how this could so easily take over with little purpose but lots of time used up by students and teachers.

This has been a very interesting and new way of learning for me. I miss the social aspects of a class as opposed to being at home working in isolation. I'm hoping for follow up with face to face so I can learn from others.

3 comments:

Mrs. Manchester said...

Robye--In regards choosing to learn something well, before moving on...there may be an app for that!

Karen said...

I so agree with you and so appreciate your leadership! It is important that these tools be tied to learning outcomes. Thank you for participating and I look forward to working with you and your campus this fall!

Mrs. Lewis said...

Technology for technology sake is not always best. We've got a huge responsibility to keep ourselves exposed to new technology and then implementing those that are worthwhile. Somehow this must be done within the same timeframe as teaching. It's a daunting task but must be done. I'm sure MWE admin/faculty/students will figure this out!