#13 - wrapping up

EDMD 7216 was one I was apprehensive about!  Though I was an ed tech specialist for an elementary school in the late 90's and early 00's...  MUCH has changed and I was leery!

However, this class was a refreshing and invigorating experience!  I enjoyed the varied assignments and discovered many new tools for my professional toolbox as well as many I can pass along to my faculty audiences!

I've been stretched and challenged by this first semester in my program to complete a Ph.D. in early Childhood Education.  This process will certainly be worth the time invested as I revamp my pedagogy and derive new strategies for more effective instructional processes.

Thank you, Dr. Jung Won Hur!

haiku deck

Though most classrooms have access to PowerPoint in today's techno environment, Haiku Deck is also an easy format for presentations.  This web-based format is free for the basic package and makes the process of building a creative presentation more feasible by offering a plethora of free images.

I found this tool to be worth the time of my faculty and will use this for future professional development training.  I especially like the fact that students can begin a piece in the classroom and log on from home (even if they have an Ipad and no Word pkg) in order to build upon and expand the project.

This is also the tool I will use for one of my final assignments for this course.  I find this "find" to be valuable and pertinent to today's classroom.

https://www.haikudeck.com/p/0cd20bd638/edmd-7216

makers

I enjoyed the info and sites on the "makers' move".

Two years ago I attended Southern Makers in Montgomery.  This is not an education event but, rather a festival with exhibitors from all over the state of Alabama who "make" something...  soap, tshirts, cards, candy, jam, furniture, honey.

At this event I realized that we don not teach our students ot "make" anything under the current structure.  This was a turning point in my personal pedagogy as I began to push towards this objective.  Thus, the inofmation presented this week was especially intriguing to me.

The video I appreciated was the young man who soldered and created electronic.  He was inspirational is all he had created but moreso for his willingness to teach peers these skills.

What an extraordinary environment we could create if we could steer education, not just isolated pockets, in this vein.

How do we?  

Now, I'm pondering.  

Hmmmmmmm.....

Note: the following video clip is for Southern Makers...  the inspiration I spoke of above:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=48BeVL_vMYQ

Padlet

This was new technology for me and certainly one that I will incorporate for my personal teaching experience!


I sampled both Padlet (for the copyright assignment for this course) and Lino (for an online collaborative presentation for a CTEC course) and found that I preferred the tools in Padlet.

This is a nice piece for putting all resources in one location for a class lesson on a topic and a great way to archive info for reteaching the same lesson. I also find the collaborative feature useful as I was able to create a class presentation with another student easily.

This was something I shared with the CTEC students as a possible feature for their usage, also.

http://padlet.com/charlenewoodham/copyright

copyright

Copyright is an area where I feel ownership as I own a copyrighted screenplay: The Road to Natchez. Historically, I have been protective of other's copyrighted materials since I know the value of the created product.

That being said, I learned much from the material in this week's assignment.  For example, the transformative projects were surprising to me.  I am presently reading and scouring the info on Fair Use and examining educational usage of copyrighted materials.

The one area where I have stood firm is in not allowing teachers to show full movies for entertainment/reward only.  That seems to hold up and I am glad of that.

Back to the literature...

coding

I approached the coding assignment with trepidation.  This is not an area where I am familiar and did not feel confident as I don't consider myself a math person and have always associated the latter as necessary for success in the former.

Choosing Angry Birds helped me to feel a bit more confident as the format was that of a video game and yet had a puzzle/logic format.  I was surprised at the ease of the process due to the user freindly tools and I quickly adapted to the pattern of repetitive movements required for an animated character to arrive at the required destination.

Before this I would not have approached using coding with my elementary aged students and now I have a differing view.  The gifted program (WINGS) at my most recent campus will be using this for an upcoming unit on logic.  This is a site where I was an administrator and have recommended the site to the two educators in charge of these students.

I believe it to be appropriate for the regular education and yes, special education populations, also.  However, this site has been historically resistant to change and knew that my gifted ed teachers were my best shot at having this implemented in this school year.  Once they can report success then I will be able to use their positive reviews to encourage other educators under the same roof to participate.

Many, many possibilities...  hmmm...

evernote

I used Evernote in creating a research file for my lit review for an upcoming assignment in this course.  Cyberbullying was my chosen topic and this tool proved to be an effective way to bank the articles I chose and work through the research elements.

As I have several other research projects in process I am now using this storage system as a method of gathering/keeping useful info.  I believe it will prove more helpful to me as I learn to use the tools more effectively.

The web clipper was a bit difficult for me to maneuver...  I need to force myself to use that feature so I can become more confidant in the application.  I'm thinking that it could prove to be one of the most useful features once I become more comfortable with it!