Personal Technology Project

I decided to use adventure learning for my project. I created a site using google sites that links to lots of other websites that contain primary documents or are good secondary documents. With adventure the idea is that the students are supposed to visit my website and then visit other websites and come to their own conclusions.

In my adventure learning website I pose the question: who or what started WWI? I think adventure learning could be a great way to engage students more especially in an online class.

Here is my website. https://sites.google.com/site/causeofthegreatwar/home

Personal Technology Project Progress

I think my Personal Technology Project is coming along well. I decided to use the adventure learning. I set it up so the students could go through my website on google sites to look at what were the causes of world war one. On my google site I have a home page so I could explain what their assignment was and then I create pages so I could have links to original documents and links to other webpages that describe the original documents.

This is my website. I think I am making good progress.

http://sites.google.com/site/causeofthegreatwar/

Class Website Link

Here is the link to my class website.

http://sites.google.com/site/mrswilcoxclass/

Class Website and Blogging

This week I have been working to finish my class website. I feel like I have learned a lot.

First, I learned how to create a new page on google sites. Using the create new page made it really easy. However I actually had to look around for a little while for the button that probably should have been obvious. For some reason, I thought I would have to edit the side bar to create a new page.

I learned how to make a google form and then embed it in a website. I used the instructions on the voice thread and a link to more instructions on a group members blog. I was excited to see the spread sheet that was attached to the quiz. I tend to be disorganized especially with loose leaf papers. Having all the students work all togather on-line would probably relieve a lot of stress for me.

I also learned how to embed a video from YouTube. It was convenient that YouTube keeps their embed link directly under the video. I never really noticed it there before but then when looking for it, I was able to find it in seconds.

Lastly, I learned to appreciate blogging so much more. I had never done blogging before this class. I figured I didn't want my personal life on the internet. During this class I learned that I could make a blog private - awesome! I could record my private life online without any one seeing it. Also at the beginning of the year, I made a goal to write in my journal everyday. I have found though that by the end of the day when I get home from school I want to relax not write in my journal. I have found that by blogging my journal, I can make an entry any time during the day. That makes it really easy to just take a second at my convenience to make an entry.

I can usually be a bit of a pessimist about technololgy. I have this inherent belief that most technology is not worth the trouble of learning how to use it. However, I have found that learning what I did this week wasn't that bad. The work I have speant on learning this technology will be worth the convenience of using it.

Voice Thread

I have the spiritual insight for the upcoming week so that forced me to learn how to use voice thread a bit better so I could upload my power point presentation and record my comments.

I wanted to write about this technology because of the positive experience I had with it. So often I get so frustrated with technology when it doesn't work or can't figure out how to make it do what I want. It's like I'm speaking English to some program and it only understands German. Anyway, uploading my power point, recording my spiritual insight, and sharing the thread was not like that at all. It was super easy. I didn't know exactly what I was doing so went to the my voice tab and it had a little tutorial. It showed me exactly what to do perfectly. The best part about the tutorial was it was only a minute long. I was able to get the information I needed super quickly. I learned that all I had to do was go to the create tab and upload my power point from my computer. Then all I had to do was record individual comments for each of the slides. I liked how it seperated out the recording to each individual slide; that made it way easier to record. After recording, I pressed the share button and highlighted Dr. West and Danny and then pressed the invite button. As I was leaving the thread a pop up asked me to name, describe, and label my thread. Creating a voice thread was super easier than I was expecting!

So often you only her negative stories about technology. I lost my 20 page research paper on the night before it was due or my computer crashed again or all sorts of other stories. Because there are so many people that do have negative experiences with technology I thought it might be nice to share my positive experience.

Reaction to Week Three

Week Three Voicethread Reaction

During the voice thread Dr. West discussed communication. I enjoyed reading all the students comments on how they communicate with their professors and peers. Many said they communicated to their professors through email. I agree, I like to communicate with my professors through email too. You can really get a fast response. I enjoy being able to shoot my professor an email at before bed and have it answered by the time I wake up. A lot of people said that they enjoy communicating with their peers through text messaging, facebook, on the phone, and webcam.

I think as teacher, I would like to try to make myself as available as possible to my students. I want to especially be available by email because that can be a very convenient method of communication. I also want to be available over the phone, facebook, webcam, and text. I want my students to be able to access me any through any method they find convenient.

I feel that websites for classes are really valuable for students to. It allows them to access the syllabus, their reading assignments, and homework assignments whenever they need it. I also plan to post my lecture slides on my website. I feel like it is important to do this so students can focus more on listening and taking supplementary notes during the lecture instead of copying down the lecture slides.

Since I will soon be a teacher, I decided to find websites and blogs that will help become a good teacher. One thing that I think will be difficult about being a teacher is preparing lessons. I have already prepared lessons in an education class I am taking and I have found that lesson preparation can be very time-consuming. I was able to find a website though that should help me prepare lessons faster. That site is Classroom Lesson Plans: Helping Teachers Teach History.

I expect that classroom management is something I will struggle with. For that reason I found multiple sites that discuss classroom management strategies. Those sites are Effective Classroom Management, My Classroom Management, and Top Five Classroom Management Strategies.

I also found some other websites that should just help me in general as a teacher. Those websites are So You Want To Teach, Teach Effectively, and TeacherTube. TeacherTube in particular, looked like an interesting website to keep up to date on. TeacherTube basically posts videos that gives teachers ideas of how they can teach better and ideas of lessons. One of the videos I looked at even was on how to incoporate technology into the classroom.

I am minoring in Computer Science Teaching as well so I wanted to find a website on how to teach Computer Science. I found Computer Science Teacher. This is a blog written by a man who taught Computer Science for 8 years. In it, he gives advice to other Computer Science teachers. I think this site should be particularly helpful because the education classes I am taking have mostly been focusing on how to teach history instead of how to teach my minor Computer Science.

I am subscribing to one of my group member's blogs. The other person in my group doesn't have their blog link on the classroom website. I am also subscribed to my sister's blog and my parents blog.