Skype

I had such an amazing class on Monday!!! I had fun. The students had fun. So what did we do, you ask? :) We Skyped w/a successful entrepreneur in San Francisco, CA. While looking on Inc Magazine's website, I saw an article called "30 under 30: America's Coolest Young Entrepreneurs." I emailed one of the listed entrepreneurs & she got back to me. I thought it would be neat to connect with a young entrepreneur for my students to ask questions, hear her story, etc. They so often read about entrepreneurs but are usually years, if not decades, older than they are right now. Anyway, I arranged to Skype with Kyle Smitley, who created barley & birch, an organic environmentally friendly, made in the USA company. :) We spent over an hour talking with Kyle via Skype & the students LOVED IT! They actually seemed to like it more & were more engaged than if I actually would have had a "real live" person presenting to them in the classroom...strange. It was a great class. I left excited about my Skype connection and also excited that the students especially enjoyed class. Also, an article is being written for the local newspaper about it....so I'm excited to see/read the article about my Skyping session! I will definitely continue to use Skype in the classroom. I am going to be working with another colleague this summer to put together a list of XHS alumni who are now around the country/world who will be willing to Skype with other teachers about various topics. Hopefully by doing some of the upfront work of finding people, the teachers will then take advantage of the wonderful opportunities that they can provide their students by Skyping (or another videoconferencing too).

Tackled 2 tasks & I'm feeling great

I have 2 items checked off my "to-do" list, and it feels great. I completed the traditional word processor vs. Google Docs assignment earlier today and just got done with the web browser assignment. I've used Google Docs for a few things & collaborated with others but on a very limited basis. Tonight's web browser assignment was the most I've worked with Google Docs regarding collaboration. It really is a neat thing...to be miles & miles apart from the other person and feel like you are sitting right next to each other. To actually be able to see each other using the Tokbox through our class Ning made the experience seem even more lifelike versus a virtual meeting. I look forward to using this more professionally and in my classroom. I currently teach a computer applications course which examines Microsoft 2007 & its features so I'm not sure I'll get a ton of use out of Google Docs in that class. However, I have Intro to Business & Entrepreneurship classes which I will be able to use Google Docs to have the students turn in assignments. This will be a neat, "green" way for my students to turn in assignments. I usually have them email me assignments but by using Google Docs, it will eliminate a few steps (like opening the email attachment, adding comments, saving the document to my computer, attaching it in the email reply, and sending the email). This will certainly save me a few minutes which really adds up when you have larger classes! That's all for now. I have hours of grading to do which I neglected over this weekend that was filled with beautiful weather...I will now pay for it by being up for a few more hours. Oh sleep...I miss you!

And it begins...

Tonight was the first meeting for my Master's program in Instructional Technology. At the moment I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed as I'm trying to imagine how I'm going to accomplish all of this work on top of my already busy workload. I knew going into this program that it wasn't going to be a "walk in the park"; once I get into the groove & figure out a good routine I'll be fine. It is always difficult in the beginning of something new but that's what learning is all about.

The topics tonight included Google docs, browsers, social bookmarking, Nings. Luckily, most of the information tonight was a review. This past summer I took a class on technology integration which opened my eyes to many of these technologies which I've been able to implement into my teachings. I have every student of mine create a Google account/gmail account which allows them to collaborate on documents, communicate with each other & me quickly, and allows them to save their documents directly to their Google "sky drive" so I NEVER AGAIN have to hear the excuses like, "My printer ran out of ink", "I forgot my flash drive at home", or "BLAH BLAH BLAH!" :) My students then also use this gmail account to sign up for the various Web 2.0 tools that I use in my classroom. I also use Google docs professionally with my colleagues. Because I am part time along with another colleague in my department, it is sometimes difficult to find common meeting times to discuss department issues. We use Google docs to communicate and conduct a "virtual" department meeting; we all collaborate & add to one Google doc which can then be reviewed, edited, and finally submitted to our administrators in a quick fashion.

I also use social bookmarking daily; I have an amazing PLN on Twitter where I gather so many valuable resources. I can easily save and categorize these resources using social bookmarking sites. I use Delicious to bookmark interesting/useful websites, and I use Diigo to bookmark interesting articles or blog posts. I used to save everything to "My Favorites" on my computer but that never seemed to work out. I'd find something at home & save it to "My Favorites" to then go to school the next day & realize I forgot to email the link to myself...well....you know that story. Once I started to use Delicious & Diigo, it simplified keeping track of resources. I also recently joined some groups in Diigo which allows me to get daily email updates when people bookmark new resources within those groups. I have found some amazing resources this way...and the neat part is that I didn't have to do any work to find the resources - they all came directly to me! I highly suggest using Delicious &/or Diigo. My #1 recommendation would be to use lots of "tags" so you can easily find the resource/website later.

The one part of tonight that I don't know much about is the different types of web browsers. I usually use IE but just downloaded Firefox on my computer at school. I'm interested in completing the compare/contrast document to see how they are similar/different. And finally...It is fun learning more about Nings. I belong to the Classroom 2.0 Ning but haven't utilized all of the applications within the tool to the fullest. I think it would be neat to create a Ning for my new Web Tools 2.0 class that I'm teaching next year. I think I'm seeing some possibilities here...

Looking forward to this journey in obtaining my Master's degree. It is always something that I've known I've wanted to do. The timing seems perfect right now & I'm so glad that I have a supportive husband who is backing me up 100%. From the course descriptions I can see that I am going to be able to implement so many of these applications into my lessons almost immediately. I'm excited to see how this is going to transform my teaching and the students' learning.

That's all for now. I'm exhausted...Good night!