CEDO 599 Week 4 - Final Reflection

It wasn't log ago that I took some time to read my blog from the beginning of this program and review everything that I had learned, reflected upon, questioned, etc. While completing my electronic portfolio, my blog was one of the tools that really helped me through that process. I was able to look back and remember how I was feeling, the things I was learning, and the thoughts I had for that particular class or project/assignment.

When thinking back to the start of this program, I certainly have come a long way. My passion for instructional technology began about a year before I decided to pursue my master's degree in it. A good friend of mine is an amazing library media specialist who knows so much about instructional technology, and she taught me so much and inspired me to know/learn more. At the beginning of the program, I felt like much of what I was learning were things I already new about from my friend or my own exploration/resources gathered from Twitter. As the classes progressed, I felt my learning also progressed. Of all of the classes in this program, the one I enjoyed the most was the leadership class. The text that was required for that course opened my eyes to the many ways that teachers can assume leadership roles besides just going back to school to become a principal or other administrator. It also was frustrating to hear about what things could be like vs. what they really are in many schools in regards to how leadership roles are filled (non-administrative leadership roles are what I'm referring to).

The one area that I really wish I knew more about is copyright. With so many of the tools we are using professional, personally, and asking our students to use have us publishing our work to the Internet. We touched on copyright in one course but I feel it was so surface-level; having a solid foundation and understanding of this important issue will make teachers feel better prepared to take on this huge responsibility of teaching our students what they can/cannot do.

I'm so thankful to my husband for being so supportive of me throughout this entire master's program. With two little kiddos, it is difficult to find time to work on projects, have group meetings, and even to attend class for one hour uninterrupted but he was a super star and took it all on.

I see my role at my school changing and evolving into something really exciting. I've been asked to be part of several committees and initiatives that I probably wouldn't have been 2 years ago, and it is because of my passion for and knowledge in instructional technology. Education as we know it is changing so quickly and being able to embrace and use the tools that we have are going to be the key to the new way of education. Thank you, Cardinal Stritch, and all of the instructors for helping me on my journey. I appreciate it all!

CEDO 599 Weeks 2 & 3

I'm not sure where the time has gone and realized that I missed my blog post for Week 2 so I'm doing double duty with this post. Since the last post, I've been working hard on my project. I first had to coordinate a date with administration to do my Family Tech Night. After a few emails back and forth, we have set the date for November 8th. I have created a wiki that will house my resources for the night. I also created a Google Form for people to fill out to register for the event. That way I'm able to see how many people I can expect that evening and how many handouts I need to prepare, etc. I've had quite a few emails of questions (especially regarding the ability to sync Google Calendar with iPhones). I don't have an iPhone so I started doing some research on this so I'm able to explain this to participants on the 8th. I'm glad those individuals emailed me ahead of time so I'm able to do the research/work ahead of time and be prepared. So far I have 20 people registered. All of the principals K-12 have put it in their weekly newsletters, a Constant Contact email announcement will be sent out next week, a note put in parish bulletins, as well as a press release to the local news paper to help advertise the event. I'm excited to see the interest from people! The Director of Admissions also sent me an email today letting me know that many parishes had responded back to her asking if I would do a presentation on Social Networking, specifically Facebook & Twitter. I'm guessing that some of them would like to start utilizing these tools but don't know exactly where to start. I am in the process of setting a date for a social networking (Facebook & Twitter) presentation like the one I'm doing on 11/8 for Google Docs & Google Calendar.

The planning of this project is taking much more time than I anticipated. I am spending time responding to emails, and as you can probably expect, the time to respond is much more than if I were able to talk to someone on the phone or face to face because it takes so much time trying to figure out how to word something so that it will make sense to the person on the other end, especially the parent emails that I've had so far.

It is also such a CRAZY time right now, with only 2 days left of our term and finals around the corner on Monday and Tuesday of next week. I feel like I don't have enough time or energy to get everything done that needs to be done. I know I can get all of the work and preparation done prior to the 8th when the Family Tech Night is being held but feel so much pressure to get things done by the end of this class. Right now I feel like I'm not being very good in any of my roles - teacher, wife, mom, student, parent volunteer at my son's school, church volunteer, etc, etc, etc. ....If only there were a few more hours to each day OR an option to freeze time for at least 24 hours but the ability for me to still continue to get my work done. :)

CEDO 599 Week 1

I couldn't make this week's class meeting due to "Preview Night" which is one of our large recruitment nights for perspective students and families. I had to represent the Business & Information Technology Department and show off our courses and related student organizations. After viewing the class recording, it is just what I had expected the class to be. I'm excited about the planning and implementation of my culminating experience. This year has been full of staff development in regards to technology but for my culminating experience I want to expand my audience beyond the staff I work with on a daily basis. I want to reach the parents as well as students who I don't have in class to share some of these great technology tools. The first tool I'd like to share information on is Google Docs. Our system adopted Google Apps for Edu this year and I've been slammed with questions from students as well as emails and phone calls from parents who aren't familiar with Google Docs and some of the other Google tools like Calendar. By providing some training to parents and students who I don't see in my classes, I'm hoping the students and parents can be more educated and use the tools to the extent that they can be. I'm also excited about sharing some other Web 2.0 tools with the teachers besides the tools that I am able to share during my visits. I'd like to highlight a tool that can be used as well as give examples (real classroom ideas and examples) of how the tools are being used so teachers can see the application and hopefully inspire those "ah ha" moments. I can't believe this program is coming to a close. It really does seem like yesterday that the first course started.

CEDO 565 Week 6

How has your definition of leadership altered or been reinforced? Your definition of teacher leadership?
My definition of leadership hasn't been altered but instead reinforced. According to dictionary.com, leadership is defined as "a person who guides or directs a group" which is what I view a person in a leadership position to do. The book, "How to Thrive as a Teacher Leader," describes the essential characteristics of an influential leader, some of which include being honest and ethical, organized, empathetic and supportive, resourceful, fair, accepting, and forward-thinking. When picturing a positive leader, these are all characteristics that I would hope the person would possess. My definition of teacher leadership has changed throughout this course. I had mostly viewed leadership with the educational setting as a principal or other administrator. The text pointed out many positions that teachers can take on in leadership roles without going into administration like a grade level or subject area leader, mentor, peer coach, host teacher, technology leader, and many more.

Has your opinion of your leadership potential changed?
As discussed in other previous blog posts and forum discussions, I think the way many schools select their teacher leaders might not be the best way, as also described in the text. Many department chairs get that title from having the most seniority and not necessarily because they would be the best person for that role. With all of the various ways teachers can take on leadership positions, each can find a role that will best fit their interests and capitalize on their skills.

Do you agree with our textbook's assertion about "improving education from within"? If so, what will you do to help?
I think improving education from within is certainly a fine statement to make. The administration and the teachers they lead are what make the school run. If changes are going to be made and made to stick, they are going to need to happen from within with the teachers' support and buy-in. Within the past year, I've really taken the initiative to be the technology leader for our system. I am serving on the technology committee as well as the technology coach for the system. With the tech coach position, I am able to carry out professional development opportunities for the teachers to learn more about technology and integration into the classroom. I will also continue to serve on our 1:1 initiative committee as our system is researching the best options to fit our needs. I'm excited to be part of this fast-paced, always changing area of education!

CEDO 565 Week 5

The part in Chapter 6 that I could relate the most to was "Map the Curriculum". "You were hired right out of college, obtained a job a few weeks before the school year started, and were told that you would be teaching 9th & 11th grade. You were given copies of the state and local objectives, teacher editions, and maybe even paired with a mentor. But when all was said and done, you needed to develop lesson plans, activities, and assessments for a curriculum that was largely unfamiliar to you." This scenario was actually more than I was given as I started my teaching career. I was given the very rough, incomplete lesson plans from the previous teacher for one class and nothing for the other 4 classes I was responsible for teaching. I had to contact the textbook publishers so I would at least have a few teacher editions and student textbooks so I could pull resources and ideas from. It was very scary. Now that I have a good handle on the content for each of the courses, I have been able to put together a curriculum map for each course. Like the book said, I think of it as a working document. It isn't something that I feel pressure to stick to exactly in regards to doing the same activities but I do cover the same objectives each time I teach the course but how I get from A to Z sometimes varies.

Another key point I pulled from this chapter is "Make work meaningful." That is SO important. I hate feeling like I have to do an assignment just to do something or fill time and I don't want my students to feel like that. By making the material something that the students can relate to on some level makes it come alive and the learning is brought to a whole new level.

Finally, the last two points - "communicate frequently with parents" and "involve the guidance department" are two things that are very much stressed at our school. It is expected that as soon as we see a dip in grades, motivation, behavior, etc, that we contact parents, as well as copy the guidance counselor, learning services, and the associate principal on the parent email. The idea of customer service and parent communication is one of the key foundations for us as teachers at our school.

CEDO 565 Week 4 Reflection

Boy, did the break in class come at a great point. With school starting it was so chaotic and I can't imagine having to thinking about Stritch homework/responsibilities as well as the start of school responsibilities. Things are still pretty crazy but hopefully starting to settle down here soon.

Thinking back to the last week of class, the simulation/game was interesting and frustrating. Our group worked really well together and had some thoughtful, meaningful conversations when trying to make our decisions. We thought we were on track and then would get slammed with negative feedback. It was frustrating to say the least but definitely simulated many examples of change in real life. The process in the simulation seemed to go so slowly. When I say that, I'm not referring to how quickly/slowly Louis got around to each group to give the feedback but I'm talking about the order of steps/actions taken to move each of the individuals from the beginning to the end. It was a lot of prep work, awareness building, communication with all of the stakeholders (to get them informed and on board), team building, and training. It certainly parallels real-life, that's for sure!

Our group was able to move many of the individuals about halfway through the "change" process. It seems like we would have needed double the amount of time to get everyone where they need to be. Now that we know the beginning steps needed in order to advance, we might be able to move a bit faster from the start but I really wonder how you could get everyone from A to Z in only the 3 year time period. Has any group ever been able to do so?

CEDO 565 Week 3 Reflection

Starting class this past week, I felt so anxious and nervous. I read over the materials related to the simulation but didn't quite understand exactly how everything was going to work. It wasn't until we were broken into our groups and starting talking about what each person understood and what to do that the pieces of the simulation started to make sense. Our group had a rough start in the beginning of the simulation and weren't quite sure how to get going. It finally clicked that we needed to take a step back from trying to figure out our successes and challenges and needed to first gather information from our school community and talk to some of the school community members. After the simulation class session was done, our group chatted for a bit to talk about our next steps and how we want to approach the start of the next class. I am excited about where we are going and what we are going to attempt in the simulation next. :)

I also really enjoyed the "Who Moved My Cheese" video and slideshow for this week's assignments. I haven't read the book but am looking forward to it. The Leadership & Management course taught in our department has this book as one of the required readings (obviously I have taught that class yet:) ) As discussed in the "Tune In" discussion board, I was frustrated with the generalizations of the Millennial generation as talked about in the article. I'm sure every generation gets frustrated with the generalizations and stereotypes.

Finally, this is a great blog to follow in regards to leadership, change, technology, and 21st Century learning/teaching. Here is a great post called This is Not Optional Anymore talking about teachers embracing (or not embracing) technology in teaching...and as it says in the blog post title, that technology use in the classroom isn't optional anymore but a must! Check it out!

CED0 565 Week 2 Reflection

For class this week, one of our assignments was to read the next two chapters (ch. 2 & 3) in our text, How to Thrive as a Teacher Leader. I loved reading Chapter 1 as it described many leadership roles that a teacher could select besides the one role that most teachers think they must choose to be in a leadership position - administration. Chapter 2 was more difficult for me to be really excited about like I was in Chapter 1; Chapter 2 was all about "assembling your team" which really boils down to finding and interviewing candidates. The author really stressed making sure that teacher leaders are part of the interview team and even suggests that the teacher leader(s) should run the interview. The analogy that Gabriel uses is this: "The front office and ownership make suggestions, and many of them can be fruitful, but it is the coaches - who are not as distanced as management because they are on the field with the players day in and day out and best understand what must be done - who make the logical personnel decisions" (Gabriel, pg 26). I could really relate to this analogy, and it drives home the importance of teachers being involved in the interview process since the teachers are the ones who will be working with the newly hired individuals the closest. The next part of the chapter is where I started to question if this is completely relevant in today's economy and teacher career environment...the part about "expanding the applicant pool". Is it necessary, in order to get enough and a variety of applicants to apply for a position, to go out and recruit for applicants at places as the author suggests - practicum & student teachers, professional memberships and conferences, churches, bazaars, & community events, etc? Any friend or colleague that I've ever talked to about the applicant pool when he/she would send in a resume for an opening says that there are always SO many applicants in the running. A few years ago a friend of mine who teaches at the elementary level, said that she was told that there were 300 applications put in for ONE position! That leads me to think that "expanding the applicant pool" might not be as necessary as Gabriel makes it out to be. It seems like posting a position on WECAN, DPI, the school website, and maybe an email out on a professional organization listserv will probably do the trick of getting the word out to more than enough people. Am I off base when I say this? Again, on page 41 Gabriel starts off his "Placing Your Hires" section with this: "With such high turnover in education..."; is this true? I don't see the education field like this.



Chapter 3, entitled "Interpersonal Leadership - Communicating Your Leadership" was a lot of the same principles that I teach my Intro to Business students about softskills/employability skills. One of the first paragraphs of this chapter talked about work-related email being formal in nature and that the format should reflect that (Gabriel, 47). In regards to this statement, I couldn't agree more. When sending a work-related email I think it should always start with a greeting and end with a signature. It is a HUGE pet peeve of mine when an email is sent when the email just jumps right into the message without evening saying my name or "hi" in the beginning or when it just ends promptly without the sender saying his/her name. The text goes on to talk about being a responsive leader and responding to emails within a 24 hour timeframe. This is what is expected of us at school. With so much of the communication taking place between people taking the form of email or some other digital medium, the expectation is that the messages should be professional and timely. I look down highly upon messages that are so obviously sent without much thought, time, or respect for the recipient(s) but instead in haste. It is all part of the job to be an effective, respectful communicator 100% of the time.

The last part of the chapter talks about setting goals and creating a mission statement to help provide some direction to the leadership of the group/department/committee. This suggestion is such obvious advice but something that I would really like to bring to my department as well as to the Tech Committee and the 1:1 Committee. Especially with the Tech Committee, I felt like we were spinning our wheels last year without a whole lot of leadership, guidance, or direction. It was difficult to feel really productive after leaving the meeting; we always would have really good discussions but it would often end at that. Establishing three SMART goals and drafting a mission statement would definitely help this group of people see the end in mind and then be able to create some action steps towards attaining the goals. We have a meeting on Tuesday so I'm excited to suggest this to see what their response is. Whenever we are talking about a topic, money is usually the driving force behind whether we do it or not. If we wouldn't focus on the obstacle but instead on the goal, we can then put together an action plan of how to make the goal attainable.



Keyboard pic: http://www.sxc.hu/photo/1208426
Football goal pic: http://www.sxc.hu/photo/241906

Reflecting on Today - Day 1 of Teaching Tech Grad Class

Today was day one of two teaching a grad course for UWGB on technology integration. After 8 hours of learning new technology tools and applications, many of the individuals taking the class were completely overwhelmed. With about a half hour left in the class for the day, I could see them starting to have a complete meltdown...without saying anything, I could see it on their faces that they couldn't handle learning or thinking about technology for even one minute more. I have been there and can sympathize with feeling overwhelmed when faced with something new...kind of like how I felt at the start of CEDO510 (Computer Systems & How They Work) and CEDO540 (Decision Making Using Data Collection & Analysis). When trying to think of a lighthearted video to start tomorrow (day 2) out with, this is what I've come up with. I think many of the people in the class will be able to relate to the dad in the video but will hopefully come tomorrow with a good night's sleep and a fresh outlook and ready to learn more with an open mind.

Leadership Lessons from Dancing Guy

I thought this YouTube video was applicable to the Leadership course I'm currently taking. I've used this in inservice presentations before but just remembered it and thought I'd share. During the inservice presentations on technology, I said this to my audience "Are YOU ready to be the "dancing guy" in your department or school in regards to technology integration? Come on...Let's all join in!"

CEDO 565 Week 1 Reflection

I really enjoyed the first chapter of our text, How to Thrive as a Teacher Leader, by John G. Gabriel. While reading the chapter, I tried to relate what Gabriel was saying to my school environment and culture. I found it very interested when he said, "Leadership roles should not be determined by seniority. Therefore, if standardized results are marginal or a teacher's leadership is questionable, a change is warranted. Don't be afraid to make changes; change, along with its potential for struggle and conflict, is often an essential ingredient of success." (Gabriel, pg. 4). In our school, as far as I know, the department chair is given to the person with most seniority. I agree with Gabriel's statement that it should automatically go to the person with the most seniority but instead to someone who has shown the skills and characteristics of a positive teacher leader.

As the chapter goes on to describe, there are many other leadership roles besides being an administrator or department chair that teachers can jump into. One that is of interest to me is the "Peer Coach", which is "similar to a mentor except that with this pair, both teachers - not necessarily novices - function as mentor and as protege." (Gabriel, pg. 7 ). Instead of doing a traditional student teaching placement, I opted to do an internship during my undergrad work. While I was still technically being supervised by a veteran teacher, I had my own classroom and classes 100% on my own. I didn't have the opportunity to observe my supervising teacher or have her observe me to get tips & tricks, best practices, etc because we taught classes at the same tim as each other. I feel like I missed out on some important mentorship because of this. I would love to find a partner to do some Peer Coaching this year; I have several teachers in mind who I'd like to do this with. I look forward to talking to a few to see if they want to try this out this year!

One last quote from chapter one that stuck with me is "Obstacles do not slow down a good leader; they are opportunities for him to flex his problem-solving muscles" (Gabriel, pg. 17). I love it! :)

This past year I really felt like I spread my wings and became much more active within my school system. I was an active member on many committess including the Technology Committee and the 1:1 Initiative Committee, as well as several professional development orgranization committees (WI Business Education Association District 3 Rep and Convention Planning Committee). I've always enjoyed being in leadership positions, even as far back as high school student council & class president. During my first few years of teachers I felt quite overwhelmed with all of the new things that come along with starting out in the teaching profession, and last year I finally felt confident in my performance and like I had a handle on all of the different aspects of the job that teachers juggle so decided to get actively involved with the committees mentioned above. At the end of the school year at our faculty end-of-the-year cookout, my principal thanked me for being an integral part of many technology initiatives going on in the school and system. For him to say "thank you" to me spoke volumes and boosted my confidence in being a leader in the area of technology.

My Tech Coach position also allows me to serve in a leadership role and help others learn about technology tools and resources. I LOVE this part of my job and hope someday that it turns into a larger % of my contract. I really enjoy helping the teachers learn something new and see the enthusiasm they have after learning about a new tool that they can use in their classroom or have their students use. To see them re-energized gives me a boost of energy and excitement as well. I often lack that excitement from my high school students when I teach them about Gross Domestic Product so to get that feedback from my teacher students makes me smile! :)

Picture source: http://www.sxc.hu/photo/904406

CEDO 555 Reflection #3

After meeting with Kris via Skype for our one-on-one chats, I felt much better about my Culminating Experience Proposal project idea. I was really struggling with what to do it on, but then it was like a lightbulb went on and I knew exactly where I wanted to go with the project. I've decided to really focus my project on sharing my instructional technology knowledge with parents, students, and staff. I am going to posting weekly to my blog about a new technology application that teachers can use in the classroom as well as hosting a parent/student technology night once a term. I'm excited about both parts of this project and look forward researching it and implementing the plan.

Working on the portfolio has also been going much better than I thought it was going to. I do still wish this project would have been explained at the beginning of the program so we could at least keep up with the course reflections as well as thinking about which artifacts to be included for each course in the portfolio. It has been challenging to think back to some of the courses that were taking over a year ago and remember all of the projects to choose from.

I'm excited to use my MEIT portfolio as a model for my PI34 portfolio. Using Google Sites has been much easier than I thought it was going to be as this is the first time I'm actually building a site with this application myself. I'm also excited about sharing my experience and my portfolio with my administration so they can see how I've used these web tools to build my portfolio. We (the system I work for) are looking to have students complete eportfolios but we haven't been really sure what form we want these eportfolios to take. Last year we adopted Google Apps for Edu so using the Google Tools like Docs & Sites would be perfect, especially at the middle and high school level.

CEDO 555 Reflection #2

The question for reflection this week is "What big picture issues related to ePortfolios are you still missing?" While thinking about it, I'm having a difficult time coming up with anything that I'm struggling with or have questions about. I guess that's a good thing, right? The main struggle/frustration right now is having to think back to each class and come up with a reflection as well as figure out what assignment(s) to put down for the artifact. I would have really appreciated a general overview of this portfolio experience during the first day of the first class (or maybe that orientation class we did before we actually started with our first class) so we would have a general idea of what was going to be asked of us at the end. It would have been WAY eaiser to do a course reflection & select an artifact upon completing each class rather than try to sort through everything and come up with a reflection months to a year later. I don't think the quality of these reflections are as great as they would have been if I would have completed them immediately upon completion. Anyone else feel the same way?

I am also feeling so lost in the "Culminating Experience Proposal" assignment. I think and reflect on it every day and I'm still not really sure what to do....mostly because I don't truly understand what is expected of this project. I feel like I'm going at this one blind, and it is such an important assignment so that is adding more stress on top of an already anxious feeling. If anyone would like to bounce ideas around, I'd be very open to that! Sometimes that best ideas come out of a bit of collaboration. Let me know!

CEDO 555 Reflection #1

How have you or your schools utilized ePortfolios? I haven't utilized an eportfolio yet but am excited to create my online portfolio using Google Sites. I've started working with Google Sites to lay out the outline and rough draft of my eportfolio. This is the first time that I'm actually creating a site in Google Sites. At first I was really nervous about the tool; I was having a difficult time finding my way around. After making a few errors and figuring out how to undo them, I think I now have a good handle on the basics of Google Sites. I plan to watch some tutorials online to learn about some of the intermediate/advanced features of Google Sites that I might be able to use for my eportfolio as well. My school system is currently researching student eportfolios so this course comes at the perfect time. I'll be able to share my firsthand experience with creating an eportfolio with the Technology Committee and provide guidance with this new endeavor that we are trying to implement K-12. The portfolios would be for students to demonstrate their mastery and experience with ISTE's NETS for Students. This is a huge shift for our system from assessing very specific technology objectives (like "copy" and "paste") to 21st Century skills that the NETS identify.

Reflect on the applications shared and whether they are applicable to your situation.
So far, I like how Google Sites is taking shape for my eportfolio. A few other applications that I could see fit well with eportfolios include blogs and wikis. There are so many different gadgets that can be added to a blog to make it more functional that just basic posts. Also, a wiki could be created to act like an "online binder" with various categories that would house artifacts, etc. I have the most experience working with wikis as I use them for each of the classes that I teach as well as any professional development sessions/workshops that I put on but I'm excited about having this course opportunity to "force" me to use Google Sites so I have experience with this tool.

CEDO 550 Week 6

My students are gaining 21st century skills by . . . completing authentic assessments that don't allow for a yes/no, true/false, multiple choice answer but instead require the students to be creative, collaborate with classmates, and think critically. By integrating technology into these authentic assessments, the students are learning in a hands-on, exploratory manner and are demonstrating the NETs standards in their work.

I understand the Virtual Schools Legislation in Wisconsin and am excited about . . .the opportunities virtual schools provide for students who don't excel in the traditional classroom setting. Virtual schools certainly aren't just for struggling students but for any student who will excel and learn more in a non-traditional classroom setting as well as students who are disciplined and will take responsibility for their own learning. The VS Legislation provides some basic "definitions" that clearly spell out the layout of this type of schooling. I find it encouraging that all teachers must complete 30 hours of professional development in order to be certified to teach an online class. I'm glad that part of the legislation was included!


My system involvement in online learning includes . . .
We are currently exploring the option of offering the required personal finance class as an online class so all students will have experience with this type of course prior to graduating. I am excited to be part of this process and research. I think once the personal finance class is up and running and students/parents/teachers see and experience the success, more and more courses will be offered in this format.

During the module I was excited to learn about . . .I was most excited (and nervous) about the synchronous facilitiation that I was responsible for this week. I had no idea what to expect as I had never done anything like it before. It was a nice, safe environment to practice some of the skills that we've seen our instructors demonstrate and use over the course of the term.

Shift Happens Narrated Reflection

Well, after spending a good amount of time on an assignment, I am realizing that I don't think I needed to do it. There isn't a place for me to submit the assignment or a discussion board for it anyway so I'm guessing I could have skipped it but I'm not totally sure. Because I don't want to think I just spent some time on an assignment that isn't going to get looked at, I'm going to share it here just to make myself feel better about the time spent on it. :)



Striking content, data, or statistics:
•India & China – more honor students than we have students in USA

•Today’s learner will have 10-14 jobs by the age of 38. 1 out of 4 people are working for a company that they’ve been employed by for less than a year. 1 out of 2 people are working for a company that they been employed by for less than 5 years.

•Top 10 in demand jobs in 2010 didn’t exist in 2004 & we are preparing students for jobs that don’t yet exist.

Implications for Teaching & Learning:
•Most of these statistics are interesting but not surprising with how quickly the world is changing. The one fact that really put things into perspective for me was the first one listed above regarding the honor students in China & India being more than the total number of students in the USA. The USA has always been so highly regarded in so many areas but it is somewhat frightening to think about the USA falling behind many countries in regards to education, innovation, etc. What do we do about this? Give our educational system a complete overhaul? What are China & India doing differently? Maybe we need to take a peek at what they are doing and consider making some changes on our end to keep up?!

•Because students have been born into this digital age, most have been connected at such a young age. They are used to the instant gratification that is part of using technology and being connected. They’ve been brought up hearing, “You can do whatever you want and be whatever you want.” I think we need to proceed with caution with students feeling the sense of constant connectivity and “I can do whatever I want” mentality. Maybe this is contributing to people bouncing around to so many jobs. If they don’t feel that instant gratification, they move on too quickly to the next opportunity without using some of those 21st Century skills like problem solving, teamwork, cooperation, creativity, etc. ??

•The last stat listed above talks about preparing students for jobs that haven’t been created yet. Interesting! I think it goes to support the idea of getting away from so much memorization of facts and moving toward teaching 21st Century skills which can be applied to any future.

CED0 550 Week 5

In reflecting on my teaching experiences to date, I would say that the proportion of teacher centered versus student centered lessons has been …

Most of my teaching experiences during my first year of teaching were very much teacher centered but since then I've really focused on making my lessons student centered. I think my first year I was in survival mode, which I'm sure every teacher can related to during the first year. So much is new - the content, the classroom management, the grading, lesson planning, not to mention all of the other non-classroom related things to learn, monitor, be responsible for. After getting a few of those variables under control, I felt much more relaxed and able to give up some of the control in the lesson delivery as well. There are times when lecture is important to give the material and teach key concepts but I really try to be the facilitator and let the students guide their learning process in an hands-on manner whenever possible.

I was able to identify more than one authentic assessment to measure mastery of a single concept lesson when I …

For the assignment this week, I only described one authentic assessment to measure mastery of the lesson but with a bit more time to think about it, I could come up with multiple assessments for the students to choose from to demonstrate the mastery of the learning objectives. Time to develop these ideas and corresponding rubrics is always the issue.

The rubric I created for my lesson clearly defined expectations and scoring for the lesson so that my students could …

Easily understand the expectations of the assignment. As with all assignments with rubrics, it gives the students basically a checklist to use during the creation process as well as prior to submitting the work to make sure all key concepts and elements have been covered and included in the assignment/assessment.

While working on this module I had success/difficulty while doing something new involving …

This week I've been spending much of my time developing and going over my synchronous facilitation which I have tonight. I'm very nervous about it, especially after trying to get into the virtual classroom early to get files loaded, breakout rooms set up, etc to find out that Elluminate is now been purchased by Blackboard, right? The log-in screen looks different with "Blackboard" on it. I hope the interface of the virtual classroom isn't different that that of the room that I practiced and played around with in our small groups. In addition, I don't have the moderator privileges yet to be able to upload my presentation, etc. Deep breaths...everything is going to be fine...and what doesn't go as planned will be a learning experience. :)

CED0 550 Week 4

While I haven't taught an online course, I have used many of the elements in my face-to-face classes, especially my Web Tools course which has a natural fit to organizing the course in this type of manner. Many of the classes were exploratory time working with the various web tools as well as putting together projects. As I continue to teach this class, I will modify how the content is organized. While still having the students in my classroom, I hope to organize the content in a way using some sort of LMS so I can transition more into a facilitator rather than the teacher.

So far I haven't had any problems navigating the course management system and utilizing the discussion boards. In the beginning of the course, I did have trouble accessing a Google Doc but after contacting the instructor I was able to open it up. Since then, I haven't had any issues but know that if I do, the instructor is only an email or phone call away which takes away any anxiety of encountering tech issues.

I can imagine using Elluminate Live! for a web conference in order to meet for various committees and groups. I am part of the WI Business Education Association and we meet a few times a year for an executive board meeting. It becomes pretty costly for the organization because they pay for mileage for everyone to travel to attend the meeting. If we could meet virtually with a tool like Elluminate, we could accomplish everything that we need to. There are sub committees but even those could meet in breakout rooms and then bring the conversation back together as a whole group. I know there is a cost associated with Elluminate with over 3 users but it would be interesting to do a cost analysis to see what the subscription fee would be in comparison to the money spent to cover everyone's mileage/lunch cost to attend the meetings.

I tried something new while working on this module and it made me think that . . .I sure have a lot of work and research to do on online learning but the resources shared in this class have been very valuable. In fact, many of the sites and resources I've also shared with my principals who are forward-thinking and interested in online learning. I wish I could dedicate more time to doing the necessary research to set up an online class/program but there are only so many hours in the day!

CED0 550 Week 3

What is the greatest challenge that I have encountered as an online teacher/facilitator and how did I manage it? (If you have not yet taught online what do you think would be the greatest challenge for online teachers/facilitators?)

Because I haven't been in the online teacher/facilitator role yet, I am going to predict what might be the greatest challenge. I predict that finding a way to keep all students actively engaged and on task is going to be the greatest challenge when facilitating the online synchronous class. While reflecting on this challenge, it actually isn't that much different from one of the challenges of face-to-face instruction.

Some things that I feel are really important to consider about synchronous and asynchronous facilitation as I prepare to facilitate my threaded and web conference discussions are. . .

Posing an open-ended, thoughtful, well-written discussion prompt (asynchronous) and trying to think through/prepare for whatever might happen during the synchronous class. Because this is the first time through doing this type of facilitation/instruction, I don't really know what to expect. The key to it all for me will be the reflection piece after I'm done with my facilitator role to really think about what went well and what I'd change/do differently next time.

I choose my particular discussion topic because . . .

I have been asked to get creative in the way my department can offer classes to students, especially those classes that don't typically get enough enrollment each year to run a traditional classroom section. I am going to try to have some students working independently and using an online class format so I chose the topic of "Starting an Online Program" because I'm faced with doing this research right now/over the summer for my job anyway.

One thing that I thought about when developing rubrics for the 2 different discussions is. . .

"Why recreate the wheel?" When looking at the rubric that we are graded with each week for our synchronous class, I thought it looked pretty good and applicable to my topic, etc. Then when meeting with some group members, another example was shared and I REALLY liked it. Instead of wasting time trying to come up with a few synonyms to make the wording a bit different, he said I could use his rubric for one of them that we had to create. I did create one of my own but like his much better! I also thought about modifying the wording a bit and using this rubric for my face-to-face class participation. So many of the things I do in class are hands-on activities/simulations/etc that don't always produce something for me to grade but grading them on their active, thoughtful participation using an objective rubric would be very helpful.

CEDO 550 Week 2

My experience with online communities has been …
Before answering this question, I am going to clarify what I think "online communities" refers to. At first my mind immediately went to "online classes" but online communities certainly also speaks of social networking online communities as well. My very first experience with an online class was during my undergrad program at UW-Whitewater during my freshman year. That online class was very "sterile" with essentially no communication or interaction with the professor or my classmates. As the student, I basically read from the textbook, answered some questions to a forum that nobody ever read, and took a true/false & multiple choice timed test at the end of the chapter. My experience with online classes at Cardinal Stritch has been much different. In fact, I feel like I know my cohort classmates better than I knew my classmates in other grad classes I've taken prior to starting the MEIT program. My first experience with social networking was 4 years ago, actually just a few months after my son was born. I was sick of trying to send emails with attached pictures to my family and having the emails get bounced back. My sister, who is 4 years younger than me & then still in college, showed me her Facebook page and suggested that I create an account so I could post pictures and share them that way. I cautiously did and have been hooked ever since. Since then, I've been able to connect not only with family members who live hours and states away, but also with classmates and long lost friends. It is a neat way to keep those connections with people who you'd normally lose touch with over the years and miles. In fact, I'm planning my class reunion for this summer and Facebook is the main method of keeping all of my classmates up to date as well as finding out where some of them are.
I believe the biggest benefit of collaborative groups is …

I believe the greatest challenge is/would be …
From a teacher's perspective, I can only speculate since I haven't been in that role yet with online teaching...but I think my greatest challenge is going to be organization. In order to keep track of all of the students and their assignments, it is important to have the class procedures structured as well as how students turn work in. The rubrics need to be spelled out easily so students know what is expected of them as well.

My thoughts regarding the social development and socialization issues are …
I touched on this in my forum post but to sum that thought up, I basically stated that with online classes, some of those social development & socialization issues might not be as apparent as they are in a traditional class. Students probably aren't going to be as quick to make the snap judgments about the other classmates in an online setting because they aren't all physically together in a room. They aren't going to be able to see what people are wearing or how they wear their hair or other nonverbal cues. I think the collaboration and group dynamic in an online setting is neat. By having students work together in groups for certain activities, they are able to learn about each other and socialize with those that they might not do so on their own, similar to in a traditional classroom.

CEDO 550 Week 1

I have no experience teaching an online class but certainly have some experience from the student perspective since starting this MEIT program. I did take a few online classes during my undergrad but they were very sterile and not interactive at all. Basically those classes were this format - read your text, take a quiz/test online, participate in a few forum posts, and that was it. The format of the CS courses is so much different. They are still the online format but now I feel like I know my professors and my cohort colleagues. I've never met any of them but I feel like I have. If I ever have the opportunity to teach an online class I hope my students feel like they know me just as they would if I were standing in the classroom with them. With the Internet and technologies changing at such a rapid pace, the interactivity, communication, and collaboriation certainly will continue and improve the entire online learning experience.

Reflection points:
Identify at least two synchronous and two asynchronous online learning tools that would be appropriate for your targeted online learners.
*Target audience: high school students
*Synchronous online learning tools: Elluminate & Skype
*Asynchronous online learning tools: Blogs & wikis

List four different types of activities that you might use with your targeted online learners and identify an appropriate online tool to use in implementing that activity.
*Reflection – blog
*Discussion – forum
*Group project (paper) – Google Docs
*Group project (presentation) – Voicethread

Is my initial contact warm and inviting? Are there things I did particularly well or could do better in the future? Is my initial contact clear and concise and yet user friendly? What are some strategies that help to format your contacts to make them as clear and concise as possible?

I tried to cover all of the suggested points when scripting my initial contact email draft (Brief introduction of the instructor, Contact information for the instructor, Broad Overview of the course, Supplemental resource information, Course schedule or pacing, and General expectations for the course). Just like when responding to parent emails, it is difficult in this email script to write it in a manner that comes across as warm and inviting since they are just black and white words on a screen. However, I really spent some time choosing my words and hopefully they come across as warm and inviting as I intended them to be. If I were teaching this online class to high school students, I would want to also have a videoconference with each student and at least one of the parents/guardians prior to the start of class to serve as a brief introduction to me and the class as well as go over the expectations of the course and questions from the student/parent(s)/guardian(s).

In regards to making the initial contact clear and concise, I also tried to do this. Instead of giving all of the information, I asked the students to go to the class wiki where much of the class information, expectations, syllabus, instructor bio, etc were housed. The students would be able to explore this information prior to the first class and send any questions they might have to my email or call me on the number provided.

CEDO 540 Week 5

This week I had to check out a few websites that contained statistical data on a variety of topics. I prefer this type of research and analysis of information much more than figuring mean/median/mode and standard deviations of sets of numbers! :) I have my students use two sites on a regular basis that collect data/information. They include the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the CIA World Factbook. In fact, my students are currently doing a project on research varioud countries and examining the economic, cultural, and business etiquette factors. The main resource for the economic data is the CIA World Factbook. I like that this source provides the information (like unemployment, inflation, GDP, etc) but then also compares that country's information to the other 265 countries that it gathers information for.

Google Trends & Google Insights are neat tools to examine to check out the search trends for topics. The results can be broken down regions, cities, languages, etc. Here are the results I got from the Google Trends on "Brett Favre" - it is surprising that you can see the huge peaks in searches for him. These were most likely the times when he was announcing his retirement....unretirement....retirement....unretirement....etc. :)

CEDO 540 Week 4

Here is my last 2 1/2 weeks in a nutshell...then I'll tie it all into statistics. My son was in the doctor 2 1/2 weeks ago with strep, then had the flu, followed by a double ear infection = 2 doctor visits and many, many calls between visits with the nurse(s). My daughter also followed a few days behind her brother with all of the same symptoms, therefore leading me to believe that maybe she had the same outcomes = 2 doctor visits for her as well and many, many calls between the visits with the nurse(s). Yesterday she walked into the corner of a tv cabinet door that was open and caught the corner right between her eyes = over an hour on hold/talking to the nurse(s) for them to tell me to go to the ER since they weren't comfortable looking at her/dealing with it since the laceration is on her face. Great...Packed up the 2 year old to spend 3 hours in the ER waiting room with a bunch of crazies while waiting for a room to open up. Finally, got into a room and had some numbing gel applied to the wound and had to wait another hour. FINALLY, the doctor was able to come and put in 4 stitches while I had to lay on top of her as she was wrapped in a blanket to prevent her from swatting at the doctor as the nurse held her head still. I hope I don't have to do that again. On top of that, the ER doctor discovered that she does now also have an ear infection. Super. There's the background...now let's talk stats.

I'm thinking about the 4 doctor visits and 1 trip to the ER and trying to estimate the mean, median, and mode regarding the $$$$$$$$$$$$$ it is going to cost me. In addition, I can look at how many hours I spent on the phone talking to a nurse in the last 2 1/2 weeks and try to figure out how many minutes, on average, I was on with each call. Now let's talk standard deviation....I know the ER trip is going to be much more expensive than the other regular doctor visits. Let's see how many standard deviations it is away from the regular doctor visit bill average....We can also look at the prescriptions I've paid for between the strep throat and 2 sets of ear infections. We could probably manipulate that data to figure out the mean, median, mode, and how many standard deviations the Augmentin is away from the average of the other amoxicillin prescripts.

I've found a real-life application for stats....not sure I like the numbers though! $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

CEDO 540 Week 3

I'm about to meet with my group in just a few minutes to go over our survey questions. I had a really difficult time coming up with a topic so I'm glad I am in a group with someone who is decisive and can make some decisions! Thanks Bill! :) I think we have a great topic for our survey and now it is time to hash out the actual construction of the survey questions. We have the general idea of the questions but it is now time to decide the format of the questions that will lead us to the most valuable and accurate data. Do you have open-ended questions or forced choice questions so you can group the data easier? I think for most of our questions we are going to have to re-work them to be forced choice questions with the "other" option for people to add their own answer if one of the supplied options doesn't fit their situation. Otherwise, we are going to have such a wide range of answers which will make the data analysis very difficult. Well...I guess we'll see what comes out of our group meeting. :) That's all for now.

CEDO 540 Week 2

This week we were to research a few survey tools, both free and paid applications. I've used a few of the free versions for informal polls and surveys in my classes but haven't used one for any statistical purposes yet. The free versions of these tools fits the purpose I need/use them for (polldaddy, polleverywhere, surveymonkey). I did send out a survey at the beginning of the year to assess people's knowledge and interest of various technology applications/tools and did so by creating a Google Form. It might my need just fine. I didn't need to take the results and do any sort of high level analysis besides just looking at who knew how to use what tool and what tool(s) each person wanted to know more about. I'm not sure a paid survey tool would have benefited my purpose.

With that said, like I mentioned in our group response this week when comparing survey tools, it is difficult to really compare the paid vs. free versions of survey applications. It is sort of like comparing apples and oranges. Many of the free versions we checked out had an upgrade; with that upgrade, those applications were basically the same price and had the same features as the other paid versions we looked at. It was "fair" to compare the free versions to the other paid tools because they weren't the same. Also, it is really difficult to make a recommendation for one or two tools because each tool will fit a different purpose. I wouldn't go out and spend $200+ per year to conduct surveys/polls in my classroom but it might be a decent investment for a district/system to do so when conducting a research study or trying to gather information for a larger purpose.

CEDO 540 Week 1

As you read this post, please don't read it with a disrespectful tone/mood as that isn't my intent. As my mind is trying to understand this "foreign language" called stats, I'm also really trying to understand why this course is part of our requirements for the ME in Instructional Technology. As I was getting more and more frustrated and wondering "why!?!" I went to the syllabus to try to find some answers. Here is what I found...

"Course Description
Today using data is required throughout the educational and business communities to support decision making and to formulate projections and plan future directions. This course covers the fundamentals of technology-based data collection, analysis and subsequent use of the results to support informed decision making. The course also addresses use of data resources and data collecting on the Internet.

Background
Drawing upon the technology-based tools including available survey instruments and Internet resources, the intent of the course is that students will develop facility with basic descriptive and inferential statistical measures to learn how to interpret data meaningfully."

I've read it over many times and am still struggling with this course being a three credit course in our program. I know...I don't make the rules for this program and am sure there are great supporting reasons why this course makes up 10% of our required credits for the instructional technology program. Maybe I just need someone to explain the reasoning a bit more because I'm not seeing the clear connection. With all professional development, it sure helps when trying to get the "buy in" from the participants if they can see a clear connection to how it is relevant and will be used in the future. I'll try my best and put in my 100% effort but it really would help my attitude get an adjustment if I could see that connection.

CEDO 535 Week 6

The application that I will continue to incorporate into my professional life is...drumroll please...Twitter! I am choosing this application because I know it will continue to be extremely beneficial in my ongoing professional development and learning about technology, active learning strategies, and collaboration with and learning other best practices from teachers around the world.

SMART goal: I will continue to gather and contribute resources via Twitter once a day (weekdays) throughout the school year and at least two times a week during the summer months.

Specific - see specific goal statement above.
Measurable - This is either a "yes" or "no" evaluation if it was done or not.
Attainable - This goal is attainable as I have access to the Internet via my laptop & wireless as well as at least 10 minutes a day to scan through the tweets from the day (save as "favorite" if no time to save/tag on Diigo).
Realistic - This is doable...something that can be done over lunch or to start out my day while I'm reading emails and getting ready for the day.
Timely- This is an ongoing goal that I will continue to do.

CEDO 535 Week 5

This week for class we were to explore a new Web 2.0 application/tool that hasn't been brought up in class yet. I decided to research and explore QR codes since I've bene quite intrigued by them but didn't know much about them. QR (Quick Response) codes are 2D bar codes that can store much more information than the tradition bar code that you see on products at the store. Now that I know what they are and how to create them, I am looking at how I can use them in the classroom. I've seen blog posts from people explaining how they use them in the classroom - to share answers to worksheets with students, more information about a particular topic, a link to a YouTube video, create a scavenger hunt around school, and so much more.

The other assignment that is coming due next class is to create a Google site or a wiki. I have many wikis for my classes as well as my tech coach position where I share information/links/resources as well as my embedded Google calendar to let the teachers know where I will be & when. Instead of creating a new wiki or site, I have been spending my time re-vamping my existing wiki to make it more user-friendly and easy to navigate. It is always difficult spending time on something that you aren't sure is going to get used by other people but even if other people aren't utilizing the resources/information, at least it is helping me stay organized and definitely cuts down on the prep time for me when I have to give presentations or inservices on various tech related topics.

CEDO 535 Week 4

This week in class we are looking at social bookmarking, podcasts & screencasts, social networks, & microblogging (Twitter). I've been using these tools for quite some time now. I look at social bookmarking & Twitter as going hand-in-hand. While I'm on Twitter, I'm not sure how I would keep track of or organize all of the resources I gather in just one hour on Twitter. I mainly used Delicious but recently have exported all of my bookmarks to Diigo after the talks of Delicous's possible demise and/or sale by Yahoo! I just wanted to be safe so I imported all of my Delicious bookmarks into my Diigo account. I've been using Diigo since mid-December & it works just as easy as Delicious.

I've also used Facebook (social network) in order to keep in touch with family and friends across the miles. Actually, the main reason I joined Facebook was to share pictures of my son when he was born (instead of emailing pictures, etc). My brother lives in Florida so it is a great way for him to see pictures of the kids since he only gets to see them a few times a year (and thank goodness for Skype as well!) :). There have been talks about teachers using Facebook for school purposes as long as the teacher has a separate school & personal Facebook account. I'm still on the fence with that issue. I totally see the value in teachers connect with students to share news, assignments, etc since they practically live on Facebook anyway but I want to see a policy in place to lay out the guidelines, etc before I'm jumping on board with that. I know our school has a general Facebook profile that is mainly used by alumni to stay in contact with fellow classmates & get any school updates that relate to them.

The last two applications, podcasts & screencasts, I have the least amount of experience. I've made a few "how to" videos for a teacher who was leading a committee and wanted to set up a wiki and an etherpad for group collaboration. I couldn't be at the meeting to explain the tools so I created a screencast for a few "how to's". I didn't use an official "screencast" application but simply used my Flip video camera to record myself going through the steps as I narrated as well. I also used the Windows 7 Problem Steps Recorder to show teachers how to create a Custom Google Search. It turned out really neat; it took a screenshot of each step I did in the process as well as the narration below each image. It was super easy to use! To find out more information about it, go here.

I'd love for my students in Web Tools to create podcasts & screencasts of various Web 2.0 applications that they explore so they can be shared with teachers as they have questions about that specific tool/application. It would be neat to have a wiki full of "how to" tutorials that are student created. I think I'm going to add that to my list of activities for that class...

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CEDO 535 Week 3

This week one of the main applications explored was RSS feeds. Five years ago I worked for an entrepreneurship website in its beta stage gathering entrepreneurial resources. In order to find the latest articles and resources I set up RSS feeds (first I started using Google Alerts but then migrated over to using RSS feeds because then all of the resources were in one place & I could quickly scan through them to see if they were "post worthy". Since leaving that position I haven't used RSS feeds much but now that I'm reading more blogs on a regular basis I've decided to re-establish using this tool. I like the idea of the updates all being in one place rather than having to go to each site individually to see if any new changes have been made.

Many people worry about adding one more thing to their plate & often say, "I don't have time for (you fill in the blank)" when it comes to new tech tools/applications. I can't tell you how many times I've gotten that response when talking to teachers about Twitter..."I don't have time for that!" If they only new how much time it saves me, just like RSS feeds, because the information/resources COME TO ME! I don't have to do any work finding the resources....zero time spent researching. It only takes me time to quickly determine if it is something I want to read through in more detail, "favorite" to read in greater detail at a later time, or take a few minutes to read through at that moment. I don't quite get it...if it is something that is going to make your life easier, why not take the hour (if that) to set up your account and subscribe to some sites/blogs/etc? The amount of time it takes to set up the account will quickly be made up in the time you will save finding resources later since you don't have to find them....they find you. :)

CEDO 535 Week 2

This week we were to examine some more resources and information on blogs, wikis, photo sharing, and Twitter. I've used blogs, wikis, and Twitter personally and professionally but haven't done much with photo sharing. The main method I use to share photos with my family and friends is via Facebook. I'm not sure how I would integrate photo sharing into my content area or why I might use this tool with students. I can certainly see this being integrated very nicely into the arts but right now I'm stuck with how I might use this tool in my business classes.

As mentioned before, I've used blogs with my students but would like to use blogs in more of my classes. Right now I only use the tool in my Web Tools class but could see it fitting nicely especially in my Intro to Business class. One topic we cover in that class is investments, specifically stocks. It would be cool to have a weekly blog discussion about the happenings of the economy and the effects on the market, current events that discuss the market, or news bits about specific companies.

This is my second year using wikis as my online tool for all of my classes. My school subscribes to a service for all teachers to have a webpage but it is very limiting. One can only have 30 documents, 30 links, 30 pictures, and a few more options. It is extremely difficult to embed any Web 2.0 application unless one can stumble through turning on the source code and working with the HTML code. Instead of putting up a few documents for each class at a time on my teacher webpage and then having to delete the documents to free up space for new documents (and having to do this over and over through out the year), I have created a wiki for each of my classes, put basic information on my teacher webpage, and use the wiki as my main resource to organize all of my class content. I post all of my handouts digitally so the amount of copies I have had to make since I've started using wikis has been cut down tremendously. I used to go in over the weekend to run copies or spend hours a week at the copy machine. It would be really neat to get a report on my usage from this year and last and compare it to my first 4 years at Xavier to see how much paper I'm saving. :) In many of my classes I will have my students do an online poll or a Wallwisher as a KWL or something like that. I'm able to easily embed these other applications right on the wiki so the students can easily review what was created. By having it embedded right on the wiki, they don't have to remember a link to the other application which is nice. I also have a Google calendar embedded on each wiki so I can quickly and easily update what was covered each day, plot test dates as soon as I know when they will be, etc. This makes it easy for the students to plan ahead and also know the basics of what they missed if they are absent.

Finally, after being introduced to Twitter 2 years ago, I thought the same thing that many people probably think....First, I don't have time for this. Second, I don't care to know if people are going to coffee or walking their dog. After hearing so many good things about Twitter from a friend I finally decided to sign up and see what all this talk was about. I can say with confidence that Twitter is the tool that has changed my professional development and learning of new technology applications and ways to integrate it. I've realized that I don't have to have time for Twitter....There are times that I'm on Twitter every day during a week but there are also times that I don't get to go on Twitter for a few weeks because life is crazy. Twitter SAVES me time because the resources come to me; I don't have to seek out the resources so in the end it saves me time! Also, the wonderful people in my PLN (personal learning network) are so generous and share so many valuable resources or helpful tips. If you are new to Twitter, I have 2 tips for you. Find 2 or 3 people that have similar interests/content area/etc. All you need to do is find 2 or 3 good people to follow; from there, just look at the people they are following and branch out to follow some of the people they are following. Second, develop a method to organize all of the resources that you are going to get. I used Delicious (social bookmarking) but they are no longer. I also have an account with Diigo (another social bookmarking site) so I've now imported all of my bookmarks to Diigo. For those new to social bookmarking, think of it as your online version of "My Favorites". The wonderful benefit of organizing your resources with a social bookmarking site is that they are stored online and not to a specific computer. I can access my Diigo bookmarks at home or work or wherever I can access the Internet. Also, if something happens to my computer I know I won't lose all of the resources I've gathered because they are stored online & not to that specific computer. For those new to Twitter, don't be scared off....It isn't all about knowing where the Hollywood stars are going for coffee or if someone chipped a nail. This used to be the reputation Twitter had but educators have figured out its potential. I hope you do as well... See you in the Twitterverse! :)