Group Leadership Project Part A

My group chose to focus our project on how to create a blog.  The technology that we will be using to teach about blogging is Camtasia. 

1.            What web conferencing tool did your group use?

The web conferencing tool that our group chose to use was Yvew.  This was the first time that I have used this tool and found it to be very useful. 

2.            What were the advantages to using the web

conferencing tool to discuss this project?

There were many advantages of using this tool in order to discuss the project.  One advantage was it was free to use.  One person from the group set up a meeting and sent the link out to everyone else.  When we arrived in the “room” we had the choice to use video, voice, or a chat feature.  We choose to just use the chat feature for this meeting.  Another advantage to this tool was that everyone could edit the document that we created during the conference.  Each person was able to add to the document and participate in creating the way to present our information.  I found this conferencing tool to be simple to use and very effective for our purpose. 

3.   What were the disadvantages to using the web conferencing tool to discuss this project? 

One disadvantage that I found when using Yvew was when I was exporting our entire conversation and the pages we created.  Some of the formatting changed and it was unreadable.  In order to solve this problem, I had to copy and paste our conversation into a word document. 

 Here is a summary of what we talked about during our meeting:

Here is a link to our entire conversation from our meeting.  

Wicked Problem Project: Part A - Description of Need or Opportunity

Here is a link to the description of my Wicked Problem Project.  

Video Bio

Here is a link to my video bio. 

Reflection

Effective teaching strategies:

         I have learned that technology integration has to be deliberate and meaningful.  It is important to thoughtfully integrate technology in order for it to be effective.  Learning about the UDL principles has really helped me to think more deeply when lesson planning.  Thinking about all of the principles has helped me to create successful lesson plans. 

 Integrating web-based technologies:

        Integrating web-based technologies in this course has really helped me realize how I can use technology with my students.  Web quest are one way to first graders can begin to use technology.  The variety of technology that I was introduced to has really opened my eyes to what is available and how different technologies can be used for different things at different times. 

Personal Goals: 

        I have met my personal goals.  I wanted to become        familiar with webpage’s and wiki’s.  During this class I have learned how to create and use each effectively in my classroom.  I plan to continue to develop and explore both. 

New Goals: 

         My goal continues to be to develop my website.  I want to have a    complete website created at the beginning of the next school year.  I want to keep it updated and use it for communication with the parents in my class.  

Online Learning

I think that one technology that would be cool to use with my first grade students is an electronic portfolio.  First graders grow and learn so much throughout the year it would be great to electronically see their growth.  Two things that I think would be great to include in an electronic portfolio are their reading and writing.  I would like students to record themselves reading at the beginning of the year, in the middle of the year, and at the end of the year.  They would be able to hear how much they have grown as a reading over the course of the year.  In first grade we also “publish” a few of their Writers Workshop stories.  I would love for their writing to be saved electronically so they could see their growth. 

It would take a lot of practice and modeling in order for first graders to be successful with an online portfolio.  I think that it would be a great ongoing project to do with an older grade.  First graders could have a “technology buddy” from an older grade to support and help them with this project. 

One technology that I think would be difficult to use with my students is online research.  It is difficult for first graders to complete online research.  Finding information that they can read and understand is difficult.  Students need to be giving specific sites to visit and finding these sites can be hard.  Research is a difficult thing for first graders to complete on their own.

Online learning is a great way of learning for students to become familiar with at a young age.  

Wiki

This week we learned about Wiki's. When I searched for my school on Wikiepdia, there was not a a page created. I went ahead and created a paged and added a fact to the page. Here is a screenshot of the page I created:

I also created my own wiki that I think will be great to use in my classroom and for communication with parents. Here is a link to the wiki that I have started: https://nancywilson5.wikispaces.com/

UDL Checklist

After learning about the Universal Design for Learning, I used the checklist to analyze the lesson plan that I created. The lesson that I created was introducing and using Photostory with my first grade students. Here is a link to the UDL checklist that I used to evaluate the lesson.

UDL Checklist