Now that you have seen what other people did in creating their units, is there anything that you might do differently if you were to redesign your own unit?
Overall I'm pretty happy with my final project. I have to fight my natural teacher instincts to plan every minute - I think I added to many content lessons because I had a lot of the materials. The teacher in me can't let go because I need to have everything planned each day, every minute. With that, I wish I would have spent more time exploring some of the web 2.0 tools. I tried using some (ie Voicethread) but I think the knowledge of other tools might be more useful for the future. I did like using Canvas and I would definitely use it again - easy to navigate and it looks good.
Perhaps I could have used more "virtual visits." One group used a museumbox, another uised the Met, and I think this a great use of online tools that we can't use in the classroom. Maybe I could have incorporated a virtual visit to the Natural History Museum. Living in NYC makes me forget that not all classes have access to all these resources on just the subway. Online courses are great way to cross distances for students who are not near such spectacular resources.
Wednesday, March 30, 2011
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
Project time!
What are you most concerned about as you embark on creating a curriculum unit?
I am definitely most concerned about using all the Web 2.0 tools - I am a little overwhelmed by all the suggestions people are posting on the discussion forum! I'm not that concerned about the content. Though I'll need to convert a lot of it into new formats I feel very comfortable with my teaching and my subject. That's why when Donna posted saying she had lots of Web 2.0 skills and wanted to share I jumped on board!
I'm also a little worried about the coordination. I am super busy with my job right now (I'm directing the school musical that goes up in two weeks) and though I can find time on my own to work I think it could be hard to coordinate that work time. It makes me think more about how students can do partner work in an asynchronous course.
I am definitely most concerned about using all the Web 2.0 tools - I am a little overwhelmed by all the suggestions people are posting on the discussion forum! I'm not that concerned about the content. Though I'll need to convert a lot of it into new formats I feel very comfortable with my teaching and my subject. That's why when Donna posted saying she had lots of Web 2.0 skills and wanted to share I jumped on board!
I'm also a little worried about the coordination. I am super busy with my job right now (I'm directing the school musical that goes up in two weeks) and though I can find time on my own to work I think it could be hard to coordinate that work time. It makes me think more about how students can do partner work in an asynchronous course.
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
Week 6
Did you change anything in the Google spreadsheet? If so, what? Has your view of the schools you chose to research changed from the first week you looked at them? If so, how?
I didn't change anything in the Google spreadsheet, but I wish there was a column even further to the left for Virtual Virgina. After reading about all the ways that students can interact with each other and how important that interact with each other I realize how little Virtual Virginia does. It makes me believe even less that VV is providing a quality course to its students. As far as Insight goes, it is still hard to tell. I see that it uses chat rooms as a mode of student-student interaction but is that enough? The problem is that Insight's website provides very little. So I hope that Insight uses other modes of communication but they don't want to share much about it! I do know that every student is issued a headphone/speaker for their computer so hopefully there is some checking in/interacting going on that way? So, I didn't change anything but in some ways I wish there was a column for almost no interaction and one for "not enough information."
I didn't change anything in the Google spreadsheet, but I wish there was a column even further to the left for Virtual Virgina. After reading about all the ways that students can interact with each other and how important that interact with each other I realize how little Virtual Virginia does. It makes me believe even less that VV is providing a quality course to its students. As far as Insight goes, it is still hard to tell. I see that it uses chat rooms as a mode of student-student interaction but is that enough? The problem is that Insight's website provides very little. So I hope that Insight uses other modes of communication but they don't want to share much about it! I do know that every student is issued a headphone/speaker for their computer so hopefully there is some checking in/interacting going on that way? So, I didn't change anything but in some ways I wish there was a column for almost no interaction and one for "not enough information."
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)