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!
Rebecca, I am completely understand your concerns about your time and completing the program. This is a great example of why I rolled right into my Master's. If you need any encouragement or help, I would be happy to help!
ReplyDeleteI too use one web browsers, Infinite Campus; however, to me most web browsers are familiar in one way or another. Don't be intimidated once you know one program, the others come 2nd nature.
Becky,
ReplyDeleteI too feel overwhelmed and not sure how I am going to handle this, but I know I can do it. It will just take a little time and patience.
I have also added a website to "my favorites" and then go to look for it and then it's not there. "Oh that's right, that was my other computer." I am looking forward to learning more about Social Bookmarking.
I'll be talking to you, especially since we are a group for the first group assignment. =)
Thanks to you both for the encouraging words. Nice to know there is such a great support system in place so we can all lean on each other. Looking forward to this experience with everyone
ReplyDeleteI think we're all feeling overwhelmed at this point (I liked Shawn's comment on Wed. night - we need to accomplish all of this by WHEN!?). It sounds like, though, that you are already very accomplished with most of things that most of us are just learning about. Perhaps you could serve as kind of a mentor for some of the more tech-challenged!
ReplyDeleteNew things tend to overwhelm us, but I think as we change how we do things they slowly become incorporated into a daily routine. Sometime you will look back and wonder how you ever did things in a different way.
ReplyDeleteCongratulations on already using Google docs and Social Bookmarks - that's wonderful! You can share what has worked and has not worked for you.