This was an interesting and disappointing venture for me.  I located the LoTi Survey at lotilounge.com, signed up, and took the survey.  After answering the 38 questions I have been determined to give High Priority to Student Learning and Creativity, Medium Priority to Professional Growth and Leadership, and Low Priority to Digital Age Work and Learning and Learning Experiences and Assessment.  The overall LoTi Level was 2!  I was shocked.  I thought I would be at least a 3, but now for the soul searching.

I must admit that in past years I have done more with technology than I am doing this year.  Many of my current student say that they do not have a device which they can bring to school to use as internet access.  I am beginning to see more smartphones since the holiday season so I must investigate this again.  In previous years my students have all or nearly all had their own devices.  So there's that obstacle to over come and I have not been diligent in moving students to the computers (2 only in my classroom.  I frequently hand over my laptop and iPad, but that only makes 4 devices.  Sitting here I am considering why I am not using these for small group activities.  This would make sense!  I can do better on this.

I also need to get into advanced planning mode and sign up for the computer lab, the laptop cart, or the iPad cart more often.  These students need to be comfortable, but they do seem complacent, and I have let them be so.  I must redirect my thinking on this too!

HUMMMMM....seems that the problem could be ME not the students.

I think that my flipped classroom in social studies will boost my score for the short term, but the changes in me must be lasting changes.

Projects to do with my students

I am been working on the two online certificates for 3 semesters and love the things I have been studying.  Integrating technology in a more meaningful way is so exciting for my students.  During the past couple of years I have heard some random chatter about flipping a classroom.  I thought someone might come into my room and turn the desks upside down and scatter all my belongings!  But, low and behold, I have discovered that flipping the classroom is a wonderful way to increase student engagement and cause the students to accept additional responsibility for their learning.

The major project for this course is to use technology in a new way and to create an online environment - a class - which can be taught!  With my awakening to the idea of students accepting more responsibility for their learning (I firmly believe in this!) I have decided to use my current 7th grade social studies class, select a portion of the curriculum, and develop the materials required to flip the classroom.  I also plan to use this material with my students. 

Stay tuned as I work toward this goal!

Lj

Friday, January 17, 2014

What a week this has been!  Teaching school in the public domain, in middle school, becomes ever more challenging.  My students are wonderful, but it has been a challenging week.

I am taking two classes in EDIT this semester: 7500 and 7520.  I am so please that Dr. Orey is the professor of record for both!  He is so very organized and his delivery is just to my liking.

Today, I returned from school early as I was under-the-weather!  I have been able to wrap up and get some work done on the computer!  I am told that I am a "Type A" personality.  I know I like for things to get done in advance as I never know what will turn up right as an important submission date comes up.  All the instructors which I have encountered during my Ph.D. studies have been grand about life experiences getting in the way of study, but I hate to be late, no matter what the reason.

I worked on my syllabus which is the first segment of a project in 7520.  I have that well in hand and ready to review with my peer team on Monday afternoon.  If you don't have a great group of peers to help review you work, seek one or two.  It makes life so much more enjoyable, helping them and them returning the assistance.

I got a burst of energy and decided to tackle the Cool Tools project for 7500.  I as I looked at the first selection I made, I decided that it really wasn't as cool as I first thought, so I pick another!  I hope that this will be okay.

My first Cool Tool is in CoolTools.net.  I created an arcade came.  It was really easy.  First I determined the topic for my game questions.  I selected geometry as that is what my students are currently studying.  After reading the directions, I decided that instead of typing in my questions and answers at the site, I would create a Word document, then cut and paste the text.  That went fine with one minor drawback.  In Word, I used superscript to make the degree symbol.  When this symbol was pasted into the games area, the "o" fell into place as a letter instead of a degree symbol.  I will study how to fix this when I feel better!  I went ahead and practiced making the game and then just had to play the five!  That was a shock!  I got five games for the effort on 1!  Sweet!

I pulled up my free copy of Screencast-o-matic, and after about 6 trials, got an acceptable version for the project.

Then I moved on to my second selection, CaptionTube.  As online educators we must be sensitive to the fact that some of our students may be hearing impaired and YouTube videos, and perhaps even PowerPoints if they are narrated, are of little use if you can't hear them.  So I worked and worked with CaptionTube.  I finally learned it well enough to demonstrate it.  The Screencast has been uploaded to YouTube and also posted in the dropbox.  Don't worry, I will not be so early on every assignment.  One task down, but really, I may search for some other things.  This part was really fun.

Have a great weekend and see everyone in class on Thursday.