Final Exam

The final exam tonight was more difficult than I expected. Our group worked very well together, came up with a great idea pretty quickly and came up with what I think are great activities. Time was a challenge for us for some reason - we're the last to leave the classroom!

The assignment was definitely a good way to demonstrate what we've learned through the semester. We integrated technology, 21st century skills and collaboration along with our content areas.

thanks to my group members! We rocked!

Nick Donofrio

As a speaker, I thought that Mr. D'Onofrio was as good as I've seen - he was dynamic, entertaining and made perfect sense. I especially identified with the concept of education resulting in "T-shaped" people as opposed to the "I-shaped" people who have been the norm for so long. After working for so many years with Engineers, I can absolutely see that we tend to know a whole lot about very little. In our 21st century world, we need to know a lot about some things, but at least a little bit about a whole lot of things! What I took from the lecture was that we need to change that focus - I just would have liked to hear some suggestions on how that can be accomplished, especially with the constraints of time, space and budget that teachers are faced with!

Last Class

Unfortunately, this is our last actual class. I am so glad to have had the opportunity to take this class - it not only taught me about technology that is available, but also sparked my interest to continue and explore technology that may be available in the future. I said in my reflection in class that I would love to be able to take similar classes throughout my teaching career to see the newest technology as it emerges.

Although we kind of skimmed over it quickly, Wordle really got my attention. I told my son (a 7th grade English teacher) about it because I thought it would be a great tool for students to write something describing either themselves or something that they read or discussed, and see it turned into a work of art!

Copyrights, etc.

I had no idea how much was involved with copyrights and what can and can't be used in classrooms! I guess I was one of those people who thought that whatever was on the internet especially was fair game and am shocked to learn otherwise. I know that many of my kids' teachers have certainly fractured a rule or two, probably without even giving it a second thought. It will certainly make me more careful in the future.

On another note, I was interested in the Second Life part of the class. Before I started this class I had no idea what Second Life was or how it could be used in an educational setting. Then I did an article review about it and learned a bit about it, but was still skeptical about using it in school. The lesson this week made me see what opportunities are available like exhibiting student work. I'd certainly like to learn more about it.

Inspiration

I enjoyed this week's class - it was great to see everyone's presentations and the differences in how technology is being used in schools. I'm hoping that some of us who end up in the schools with less technology available can be creative enough as a result of our class to come up with ways to expose our students to new ideas.

I really liked Inspiration too - it is a tool that makes it easy to organize ideas, either as a teacher or with the entire class. It can help the class be part of learning, which makes it more likely that they will remember what they learn. Thank you to Liz for learning the program and teaching it to us - you made it very clear and easy to learn!

Digital Storytelling

I had a lot of fun tonight - teaching my classmates about Photo Story 3 and learning about Windows Moviemaker. I checked out everyone's photo stories on the Discussion Board and I have to tell you I was so impressed with not only the quality but the imagination and variety that were displayed! I really enjoyed all of them!

I'm looking forward to spending some time playing with Windows Moviemaker and getting comfortable with it. I think it can be fun, and another tool to help students express what they have learned.

Rubrics

I know that Prof. M-G said that we didn't have to blog for tonight's class, but I just wanted to say that I never realized how much work went into creating a rubric. Our group tried to be as specific as we could, but there is so much to think about! I'm hoping that it's one of those things that you can get better at with practice.