The Take-Away

I guess you could say the very medium by which I'm communicating is a "take-away." I've never had a blog before and am very impressed with this method of demonstrating reflection. Other take-aways include a heightened awareness of the new, formal standards for evaluating online learning, and a renewed interest in leveraging the power of digital communication and information sharing in the classroom. I am left really interested in developing online course content despite the technical drawbacks at my school which is technologically quite poor.

Twitter and Facebook at School

Since our school does not have a learning management system, students and teachers alike must reach out to the available free tools. Our clubs all have fb pages, and many teachers use fb to curate their course materials. The only drawback that I've experienced is that fb is so addictive for some kids that they refuse to use it or their parents refuse to let them use it. In general, I have found fb to be a very useful tool for keeping track of students and disseminating information.

I haven't quite made the leap to Twitter and so can't speak to that!

Curation Tools

I really liked the polish of MentorMob, but I think I'll focus this post on my desire to integrate more video into my mathematics classroom. Hence, my curation tool of choice would be YouTube because that would allow me to curate my own videos, and it also provides a source for video created by others.

I currently keep class webpages on Google Sites, and this is fairly easy to work with as a classroom resource center. I used to use Wikispaces, and I cannot speak highly enough of this as a classroom tool. Not only does it allow you to store content, but it also allows students to create pages within your site, and it provides an easy-to-use discussion forum. I've embedded a Google Group in my Google Site for students to post questions, but my Google Site does not allow students to create their own pages as Wikispaces does. I left Wikispaces because I could not control the look of the site, but I have not really found anything to beat it in terms of content.

I have just revisited MentorMob and feel I must revise my first paragraph. I think MentorMob has the power to archive resources for an online lesson that integrates video, sound, weblinks, even quizzes. Thus, I am picking MentorMob as my tool of choice because it has the power to house an online learning module with various activities for students.

What E-Learning Concepts Are Most (Least) Useful?

All of the concepts the course has treated thus far are useful. I appreciate being introduced to the "canon" of standards by which to judge online learning. I will use many of the tools that I have been introduced to. Just today, I was completely captivated by the power of VoiceThread to personalize the online experience. I am thrilled to have been inspired with the vocabulary to describe authentic assessment.

I cannot think of one concept that I would not potentially use as I work to integrate technology into my classroom.

Tools

As my blog-mate, Laura, pointed out, this week has really added to my Symbaloo tiles. I remain concerned about the tenor of the question posed to us, "Should teachers be allowed to take baby steps" with regard to technology. On the one hand, I have very little patience for teachers who do not check their email or who do not update their online grades. I have very little patience, too, for students who do not check the class facebook page, the class website, the class twitter feed, or who do not check the class email list for updates. On the other hand, deciding that teachers must use technology pedagogically in their classrooms seems odd to me, if not impossible in our particular school. We don't have computers for every child; we have wireless access for about 36 computers, on a good day, and even then, we have to send kids to different parts of the building if they want to use the internet. And forget watching a video online! We simply do not have an environment that is supportive of technology and are not ready to require teachers to use it in their classroom.

Module 3, "Matrix"

This matrix is huge, and it is easy to get lost in all of the resources linked to it. I have not clicked on every example of every math lesson, but I've viewed enough of them to understand that technology plays a mid-level role in my math classroom, and that is all that can be hoped for, I'm afraid, until we achieve a one-to-one environment with reliable access. To the best of my understanding, I and my classroom are at the Adaption/Constructive level, occasionally stretching to the Infusion/Constructive level. Thanks to math software and graphing calculators, my students are not just passive recipients of technology. I frequently ask students to explore ideas using software. And thanks to the internal assessment required by the International Baccalaureate, at least twice a year, my students are required to explore an idea and to express their conclusions using a technology of their own choosing.

In module two, I am struck again by how completely behind I am in the world of technology integration. I love the idea of using Quizstar, for example, to assess students away from school, and I am intrigued by the language of the technology standards. They make me think about my expectations for student engagement in a whole new way. With their emphasis on critical thinking and creativity, however, they also remind me about  the danger of confusing teaching with technology and teaching course content. In my math classroom, technology will only ever be a means to an end. As I enter the Web 2.0 world, I need to keep that in mind and to stay focused on the place of technology in my classroom: it's just the tool; it's not the treasure. I often ask students to explore topics using technology, and twice a year (thanks to the International Baccalaureate Internal Assessment) I have asked my students to pick an technology they think appropriate to express their own ideas.

I have been working through the first module of the eLearning course and in doing so have become enchanted with Symbaloo. I don't know why I find it so much more exciting than the ordinary bookmarks, but I do. Perhaps it's because the tiles are spread out for all to see and not hidden away in a hyperlinked list that unfolds pieces of itself only when clicked.

I am also intrigued with this particular exercise, blogging to reflect learning. I've never blogged before, and I have quite limited experience with others' blogs. All in all, the course has already launched me on new adventures, well worth remembering and therefore in need of documenting via media like Symbaloo and Blogger.

Is there a special word to describe the odd circularity that documenting and reflecting on my eLearning adventures are themselves eLearning adventures?