I’m so glad to welcome you all to the second “Pierce Learning 2.0″ program! I’m going to be finding more about what drew you to this program but my basic assumption is that you’re interested in knowing more about the new technologies out there — both for your own information and because you’re curious about implications they might have for education and your teaching.
Here’s what I’m planning/promising to offer with this program:
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A fun exploration of the different technology tools. Because these many of these things are social in nature (that’s why they’re called “social networking” tools) I promise to interact in all of the tools I introduce and any others you find and want to try out.
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Support as you work through the exercises. We’re not going to meet as a group in person but I’ll absolutely make house calls or talk you through something on the phone. I also want this group to help each other out.
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To try and offer balance and options. You’ll notice that we’ll be playing a LOT with different Google products. They’re doing a lot of cool stuff. But there’s usually another (or many) other freely available technologies that will do the same or similar things. I don’t care which things you use — just that you try!
Here’s what I can’t promise:
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A linear experience — I’m going to do my best to create clear activities but there isn’t exactly a logical progression so at times it might be MESSY. That’s okay — that’s kind of what some of this stuff is about anyway — slightly organized chaos.
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Same experience for everyone — You will bring different experiences to this program. Some of you may be used to reading blogs and others may still be fuzzy on what a blog is. Some of you will LOVE the photo sharing tools and others will find wikis more exciting. You might think some of things we try have no immediate application to your life. That’s REALLY okay. You might never find a use for certain things — sometimes it really is enough to “get it” even if it doesn’t rock your world.
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To be an expert. I’m an enthusiast. But we’re not trying to become experts – just active amateurs.
Here’s what I want from you:
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Spirit of Adventure – jump in and try it all
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Interact with me and the other participants — that’s the fun of “social technologies”. This is really important!!!!!
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Keep up — I’m going to try and keep the activities realistic to our busy lives. I’ll probably have an activity or two that I’d like everyone to try as well as some “extra credit” activities for people with the time and interest to go further. It will be more fun if we’re all kind of doing the same stuff at the same time.
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Give me lots and lots of feedback – you guys are the guinea pigs of this program. Tell me along of the way if I’m giving you too much or too little to do. Tell me if I make too many assumptions about what I’m asking you to do (i.e. I ask you to send me a screen shot and you have no idea what that means). This way, it will be a successful program for you and an even better program this Spring!
Whew!!! That’s almost it for now!
Hi Lynn,
Since I’m the first to comment, I get to be the first to congratulate you on your marriage!! Here’s to many years of happiness! (And I probably speak for all of us when I say we’d be quite disappointed if you sent us emails from Mexico rather than focusing on more important things).
As for what I’m hoping to get out of this “course”, I think you summed me up pretty weill in your opening paragraph – I’m simply curious as to what might be out there that I could use, either personally or with a class.
Ted
I am very interested in learning about the new technologies that will be fun and useful for my classes, both face to face and online. I am always interesting new tools and toys and this is no exception. I was always kind of a game nut and consider learning the new tricks a lot like gaming. When I was younger I spent alot of time and money playing contract bridge and couldn’t afford a computer and computer games for a long time. Now I have a lot to make up. So maybe I overdo it sometimes.
Hello everyone! I’ve been looking forward to this all year. I’ve dabbled (fairly minimally) in some of the things we’ll be looking at, and know nothing about others. I’m mainly interested in just learning more about what’s out there and how it works. I don’t necessarily plan to use them directly in my teaching, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see some possibilities as I learn more. In addition, changing technology and the constant re-negotiation of “the rules” around that technology are topics we regularly discuss in my classes, so the more I know about them the better. Most of all – this sounds like it will be a lot fun!
I just want to know what my daughter and her SO are talking about!
Hi! I’m interested for a number of reasons: 1) I take my ESL students to the computer lab every week to get their computer skills up to par with a typical Americans’ skills, and anything that’ll hook them would be really useful; 2) I just took a workshop in podcasting last week and I do want to integrate that into my teaching, so more practice and support on that would be great (even though it seemed really easy!); 3) gotta keep up with my kids; 4) this stuff sounds really fun, but I always think I don’t have time–the solution to that, as I well know, is to take a class!). Congratulations on getting married, Lynn! Hey, I was in Mexico over the break celebrating our 25th wedding anniversary, and I wish you the same happiness we’ve had!
Well, I’m one of the librarians here, and there are lots of web 2.0 applications that would be neat to incorporate into library services, whether its on our website or in the library instruction we provide for students. Plus, most of my librarian friends have facebook accounts, and I’ve resisted so far, but figured I’d explore and sample a few things before I commit….
Like others who have already posted, I also would like to try to keep up with my students and add to my repertoire of new technologies. I do get frustrated with the amount of time I sit in front of the computer these days, but I am fascinated by the online tools that are now available. This program sounds like a fun and interesting way to learn new skills with colleagues.
Hello Lynn,
I too would like to congratulate you and wish you many years of marital (not martial) bliss. As for my reasons for joining, I pretty much wanted to just hang with the beautiful people, learn some of those cool condensations of perfectly good words or phrases in common cyberusage (such as SIP in the Pierce subuniverse) and find ways to better communicate/diseminate information with by students.
lol (whatever that means)
I’m interested in learning about how these technologies can be used in teaching credit courses or library instruction. Since I don’t get much computer time at home, maybe this will be a time and space for me to do the playing that I want to!
Sasha and I went to visit my parents, but one of the nicest parts was driving from Crescent City to Medford, through icy, deserted mountain scapes with dramatic cloud and sunshine effects, listening to Vivaldi the whole time.
I appreciate this opportunity. A growing number of my
students have personal blogs or work for businesses that are
using blogs to complement existing websites and intranets.
I have also been fascinated by the introduction of blogging into
several high school projects around the country and in particular, Colorado.
Blogging has tremendous potential and I want to gain a better
appreciation for it from both the student and the instructor perspectives.
Well if there is a person that is technologically impaired it’s me. I’m trying to learn more about the sites the my grandkids use on a daily basis. You will probably get real tired with all my questions. Have a great trip and congradulations.
Randy
Since I teach online, I want to learn some things to augment my courses there as well as develop blogs as adjuncts to grounded classes. I’ve been so busy for awhile that I’ve gotten behind the technology curve so want to catch up. It’s a bit embarrassing when you can’t unravel something a student asks or sends because you don’t know the technology that they do. I definitely second the need to actively partcipate, ask questions, add comments, etc. ; these are what make for a good class. I took an online course where there was zero interaction & it’s the worst class I’ve ever taken despite the fact that it had good content.
Congrats on your wedding and best wishes for a lifetime of good times. As for the break, I finished a quilt, got hired to make one for a quilt shop which I’ve almost got done now, & started working on my garden. SC
This was a spontaneous last-minute decision – to join in this class. I teach fully-on line classes in ECE, and I think I am an instructor’s worst nightmare – a student who signs up late, logs in late, is resistent to learning.
Lynn, something about your intro hooked me – a bit. (At least I got this far). I guess if I login (show up) I have an opportunity to get something out of this… I am curious. That is a good place to begin. Keeping up with weekly assignments is something I EXPECT my students to do, so I may even develop some insight into how challenging that can be sometimes.
Let the learning continue…
Hello All,
I’m a bit behind everyone who started this course at the beginning of the quarter, but I wanted to leave a quick note and introduce myself to the other members.
I teach Level 5 ESL on campus to many students who want to transition into college level classes, and since alot of college classes are now online or have online components, I want to learn about how I could start incorporating some fun and interactive technology pieces into my classes. I’ve never been much for social networking online, but I’d really like to learn more about how I could connect with students who are passionate about using these features.
It’s been a few weeks since break, but I tried to catch up on some reading and spend some extra time cooking and reconnecting with friends who I haven’t seen in awhile.
Looking forward to learning with all of you!
-Kristin