Well, after a frustrating first week, I'm off and running again. I have always been someone who is easily excited by new technologies and this class for me is like a kid in a candy store. I just hope that I can remember them all when we are done and will be able to navigate back through them all and select the ones that I will truly use frequently.
The video process is one that I find to be exciting because I see great possibility for this when I'm gone from school. I am currently in the midst of changing our lab from what was a drafting board only room into a $60,000 computer lab. In addition to this, I have spent much time away from school researching curriculum options and meeting with colleges to discuss transcripted credits. If this isn't enough, I'm also the head softball coach and miss some school due to games and conferences on that end. With that being said, I think this may be a way for me to provide information to my students while I'm gone, or at the very least to the sub. I do not expect my subs to walk in and have the first clue about how to use Pro E or Solidworks, however, if I give a demo and explain the curriculum through a video, I would think that the majority of the work could be done.
I also have many students who like to "experiment" at home. Being an engineering teacher, I teach a lot of problem solving curriculum in which my students must build a project to meet demands. We've done T-shirt launchers, automated rocket launchers, Rube Goldberg projects and many more. My students, however, like to go home and put this wonderful knowledge to use doing things that I can't allow in school. As long as it's safe, I try not to stifle their creativity and I think this may be a way that they can show their fellow classmates their exploits when not able to necessrily bring it to the classroom. For instance, I had a group of five students last month who built a 6' tall trebuchet that launched a pumpkin over 100 yards. Obviously they could not bring this to school, however, I think my other students could have gained a lot by seeing these students work and hopefully excite some of the others to do the same kinds of things. If they could have made a video and used one of our newly found technologies to store their video on they could have brought it in that way, we got by with them burning their video to dvd and watching it but obviously not all of my students have the ability to create dvd's of their own.
I certainly hope that I find this weeks curriculum to be less time consuming than last weeks as I spent a lot of time working on classwork last week. Thank the Lord for Thur and Fri off. I know that things are new and they will come easier as I start to learn more about the info and for that reason I'm looking forward to begining this new round of research. Of course, it would pry help too if I did the assignment right the first time. Well, I'm off to dive into skype and learning about the wonderful world of online storage. Wish me luck!
Ryan
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Ryan,
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like you have your hands full. Now you've even added a Masters Program to your list of stuff to do. Take it easy on yourself and make sure that you save time for just you.
Remember... technology is great until it stops working. This can make your whole world fall into shambles. This can add to the amount of work that you already have. Make sure you have a back up plan because technology has yet to be infallible.
Now that I am done preaching...:) I wanted you to know that the storm is AWESOME!!! I have a two year old who throws it all over the place and I drop it on a daily basis. I think that you will be happy with the choice to upgrade.
I will definately look into the Storm and thanks for the advice. It was not actually my original intent to join this years class as I didn't want to be starting off at the same time Softball was starting, however, when informed that it started every year at the same time I figured it might as well be now as opposed to once I have kids in the mix as well. As for the time constraints, I don't know how to do things any other way. I can't sit still and have to be doing something at all times so having a lot on my plate keeps active and feeling useful. As for the technology, I'm way to aware of technologies imperfections but hope that through this class I can learn how to be more diverse with my teaching strategies so I can be better prepared for their failures. Thanks again.
ReplyDeleteRyan
Ryan,
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like you have an amazing opportunity with your new computer lab. What a perfect way to test out some of the things we are learning in class with your students. With the pumpkin launcher that you mentioned, a video is a great idea. When I read what you described I instantly thought of how excited my own students would be to see their classmates work on a video and be able to share it amongst their class. I think that we have such an opportunity here to really get our students using the technology they love while also making our classes a more authentic and meaningful part of the students' lives. I hope that this week's work went well for you!
Technology can fail but a good teacher seldom does - you're learning and moving forward - great beginnings!
ReplyDelete