Final Paper

During the last half of November and early December, we will be working on final papers.  The final paper is a piece that students write for a practitioners (Usually teacher) journal, such as Leading and Learning with Technology/.  The article may be about a specific technology application (such as blogging or podcasting) implemented in a classroom situation.  The article could also be about a particular approach to professional development in technology or a position paper on a topic like digital equity or the challenges of a young teacher working to integrate technology in his/her classroom.  The audience for the paper  should be teachers (or perhaps museum practitioners) and the paper should include specific examples.

Typically, practitioners journals publish articles that are from 2500-5000 words, so the completed papers should be in that general range.  Pictures, graphics, charts can be included.

Previous topics have included, "Blogging in a Fifth Grade Math Classroom," "GIS as a tool for Social Studies Teachers", "Connecting Technology to Literacy Professional Devlopment in an Elementary School" and "Using a Wiki as a Collaborative Writing Tool in a Middle School English Class".

Your first step in creating your paper will be settling on a topic and a title and running this past me.  We will work on this the week of Nov. 24, so now would be a good time to start thinking of a topic.

ITEC 2008----a few new ideas!

Having attended hundreds of conferences over the course of my career, I have learned a bit about how to approach professional conferences.  Here are a few of my rules for myself:

*Always attend the keynote speeches---keynoters are carefully selected for good reasons and are often the highlight of conferences

•Work to have informal conversations with colleagues

•Try to bring at least a few NEW ideas away from the experience

I am pleased to say that I followed by own rules at ITEC and that I encountered a few ideas/approaches that were new and valuable to me.

As I mentioned in our discussion section, Alan November's keynote was centered on the idea of using students to do meaningful work in the classroom---work that contributes to the classroom community.  November commented on the "farm kids" phenomena and suggested that farm kids tend to develop a strong work ethic because they know that the family needs the work they produce.  Many farm kids are a vital part of the family economics.  In a similar way, teachers can organize classrooms where children are contributing to knowledge construction in the classroom.  Like farm kids, they are doing real and valuable work.  And, of course, technology can contribute to making this type of work possible.  Podcasts, interactive white board presentations, wikis, using google docs are all ways that learners can create authentic products that share their knowledge.

November's idea of real work is certainly similar to ideas we have discussed this semester, but his comparison to farm kids was a new idea for me.  And perhaps it will be useful for some of you.

Taking a Bit of a Break!

We are now more than half way through our semester together and I suspect that students are heaving a sigh of relief upon the completion of the digital story assignment.  In honor of this completion, we will slow down assignments and activity by pushing this week's assignments and discussions into next week.  I think it is a good time for all of us to take a bit of a breather....

Thus, Week 8 of CI 505 will look a lot like Week 7, with the addition of a software review and a chapter in Bransford.

Interestingly, the students in CI 505 at a distance have a better record of submitting high quality assignments on time than most of my typical on-campus 505 classes, and the record for this particular group has been outstanding.  I also know that almost all of the students in this class are working full time.  So I hope that a little break will help us all catch up and be ready for Week 9 with renewed enthusiasm.

No video this week......the attached photo booth picture will substitute.

The Weekly Videos---For You or For Me?

Every Thursday morning at 11 am, Clyciane brings her camera equipment to my office and films our brief weekly video.  Generally, we film quickly and ignore some of the minor imperfections---the phone ringing, my stumbling over words or repeating myself.  Occasionally, we have to do a re-take if I get the information wrong, someone comes to the door, or I just lose it and start to laugh.  All in all, I think we both enjoy doing the videos and we have become  efficient at it.

For me, the weekly video episode is an important part of my teaching.  Each Thursday morning, I construct the agenda for the following week, review goals and assignments for the week, review the weekly readings, check discussions and blog comments and generally prepare as I would for a face-to-face class.  It turns out that this preparation time is important for me.  the structure of the weekly videos forces me to take a little time to reflect each week on where we are in the course, how things are going, and what I want to have happen the next week.  When we finish a video, I always feel as though I have talked with you all and had the chance to address issues and focus.

Thus, the weekly videos are an important part of structuring our experiences together for me.  I wonder if I am using an outdated model when I include these videos and if I could communicate the same information to you without the video.  For now, however, the weekly videos are an important part of our course for ME.

I am interested in the usefulness of the videos for YOU.  Please feel very free to be open and honest here.  I am curious to better understand how this approach works or doesn't work from the student perspective.  From the teacher perspective, I think I will always need my Thursday morning experience, whether or not the planning and reflection results in a video.

Thanks for thinking about this with me.