I have completed all of my tutorials, I have linked everything to my Ning, I have documented all of my work on my E-Portfolio and I am now officially DONE!!!!!!! I can't ask for a better B-Day present than to be officially done with this program. Not that it wasn't enjoyable because it actually was, but I'm so looking forward to going back to improving other areas of my life and having the time to devote to these improvements. Tonight I'm treating myself to a B-Day present of going to Menards and purchasing paint, a new entry door, and all of my wood for my new deck as this weekend I begin the fun and excitement of ripping out all of my shrubbery to begin completely relandscaping my yard. In about 1 and 1/2 months time I should have a new deck, all new floor beds, all new shrubbery, a new rain garden in my backyard, a new front porch, a new screened in patio, a new entry door, and freshly painted trim work on my house. I can't wait because I'm pretty sure this is shaping up to be the most painful month and half of my life but it will look awesome when I'm done.
As for my culminating project, everything went relatively smoothly and I managed to complete everything within the alloted time frame. I think the final project will really impact my classroom and will greatly enhance the experience for my students. The one thing that I did encounter when completing my culminating expereince, however, was that I made the decision to switch over from Ning to Grou.ps because of the pricing plans of Ning. Originally I was just going to pay for the Ning but as I started counting up the space required by my video tutorials I realized that I would need the mid level version and at $19.95/month times 6 seperate nings for each of my classes, I wasn't about to pay $120/month to have a nice site for my students. I know, I know, I'm cheap. Really I found this Grou.ps site that was every bit as productive as Ning and it's still free so I am currently in the process of moving everything from my Nings over to Grou.ps. The beauty is that Grou.ps was designed to scoop all of us former Ningers up because it provides step by step procedures for transfering information from the Ning to the Grou.ps network. I've gotten 3 of my six networks done and will continue to work on this as the school year approaches.
It's been a blast learning from you and working with many of you. I hope to keep in contact with you guys and bounce ideas off you as this has been extremely rewarding for me throughout this experience. Thanks again to all of you who have had to put up with me throughout this program.
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
CEDO 599 Blog #2
I chose to use Jing to create my video tutorials and I must say it was a pain in the butt. Not because of Jing but because of all the unforseen things that happen when creating a screen capture. During my screen captures I had a phone call, cell went to silent mode as I restarted, I had my dogs barking at people walking by, the house got closed up so the dogs couldn't see anyone, I forgot to click save when done as I was excited to start the next tutorial, I had to remind myself to slow down, and most predominately my mind was moving way too fast for my mouth and fingers and I'd foget a step and have to start over. I did create screen cards for me to follow but I found that I just wasn't smart enough or proficient enough to flow back and forth between my notes, my program, my screen capture, and what I was trying to accomplish so I took the approach of doing a test run with my notes and then going back and completing a screen capture after my review. This process seemed to work best for me and once I got on a role these went pretty easily. That is after I figured out how to avoid all the other pitfalls.
I created a screen capture of my Pro E water bottle tutorial for my Exploratory Technology class, a Pro E Model Rocket tutorial for my Drafting and Design class, and a Solidworks Oven Rack and Loft tutorial for my Principles of Engineering class. I linked each of these tutorials to my Nings for each of these classes and have provided an area where my students can access them from home or school.
In addition to my screen casts, I have also created a tutorial for my students to create their E-Portfolio. I intend to have each of my students create an E-Portfolio that they can use to document their artifacts in my classroom so they can show others their accomplishments within my classroom. We use extremely expensive drafting software in my classroom so very few people have access to this software. Because of this, just saving their work to a disk does not suffice for documenting their work so by providing them with an E-Portfolio my students will be able to save images of their work and share this with others without the need for the software.
I really enjoyed this process despite all of the little obstacles I encountered as I love the fact that this is going to be productive for my classroom. I can't wait to see how my students respond to these tutorials and how this improves my classroom.
I created a screen capture of my Pro E water bottle tutorial for my Exploratory Technology class, a Pro E Model Rocket tutorial for my Drafting and Design class, and a Solidworks Oven Rack and Loft tutorial for my Principles of Engineering class. I linked each of these tutorials to my Nings for each of these classes and have provided an area where my students can access them from home or school.
In addition to my screen casts, I have also created a tutorial for my students to create their E-Portfolio. I intend to have each of my students create an E-Portfolio that they can use to document their artifacts in my classroom so they can show others their accomplishments within my classroom. We use extremely expensive drafting software in my classroom so very few people have access to this software. Because of this, just saving their work to a disk does not suffice for documenting their work so by providing them with an E-Portfolio my students will be able to save images of their work and share this with others without the need for the software.
I really enjoyed this process despite all of the little obstacles I encountered as I love the fact that this is going to be productive for my classroom. I can't wait to see how my students respond to these tutorials and how this improves my classroom.
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
CEDO 599 Blog #1
I have to say that I'm really looking forward to this assignment as this was the reason that I decided to pursue this particular Master's program. For my culminating experience I am transferring three of my tuturials to screen capture tutorials. I'm doing this because in my current position, I am asked to attend numerous professional development activiities for advancing my curriculum and thus my students are left to complete assignments without my assistance. My subs do not possess the knowledge or experience with the programs my students are operating to assist them through any questions they may have. Because of this, it was my desire to create screencasts of my completing the assignments so my studnets could have a detailed idea of exactly how to complete the assignment. By doing this I have not only made my sub days more efficient but have also taken away some of my stress of being gone as well as the stress of my students and sub. If the students don't get how to complete the assignment, they will begin screwing around and cause issues for the sub but if they are able to get through the assignment they will remain busy and thus everyone remains happy.
In addition to transitioning my tutorials to video tutorials, I am also in the process of writing a tutorial for my students to create a personal e-portfolio of their own. I am doing this because in my particular field, the ability to show your experiences is essential and that isn't always easy to do without the use of a computer with the programs already loaded on it so this portfolio will allow my students to post screen capture images to document their work and demonstrate their knowledge and abilities to future employers or professors.
My biggest fear in this assignment isn't the process of completing the assignment but rather finding the time to complete all of the assignments. Like with most things I'm sure there will be speed bumps along the way and with my tight schedule I don't have a lot of time for mistakes and redo's so I'm hoping that my pre-planning will allow me to utilize my time to max efficiency and allow me to complete everything in a timely fashion.
In addition to transitioning my tutorials to video tutorials, I am also in the process of writing a tutorial for my students to create a personal e-portfolio of their own. I am doing this because in my particular field, the ability to show your experiences is essential and that isn't always easy to do without the use of a computer with the programs already loaded on it so this portfolio will allow my students to post screen capture images to document their work and demonstrate their knowledge and abilities to future employers or professors.
My biggest fear in this assignment isn't the process of completing the assignment but rather finding the time to complete all of the assignments. Like with most things I'm sure there will be speed bumps along the way and with my tight schedule I don't have a lot of time for mistakes and redo's so I'm hoping that my pre-planning will allow me to utilize my time to max efficiency and allow me to complete everything in a timely fashion.
Saturday, June 12, 2010
CEDO 565 Week 4
Go Broncos!!! Well my schedule will have to stay crammed for one more week as we managed to take Sectionals and are now on our way to the State Tournament. Hopefully, the delay in my relaxation time will be rewarded with a good showing at Madison but for right now I'm just really proud of my girls.
As for this week's class, I found the game to be very interesting and fun but at the same time very frustrating. I didn't really fully understand the way we were going or what the problem was that we were trying to solve and this made creating a plan of attack very difficult. With that being said, I think the experience really highlighted a lot of the problems that our Administrators face when implementing change as well as the difficulties we will face in the future as we try to implement change. The time constraints seemed to be very accurate as change seems to take forever. In addition, the feeling of not knowing who is going to get on board and who isn't seemed to very accurate to me because everyone has their own agendas and you can never really fully predict who is going to come along and who isn't.
I look forward to round two of this experiment and hope that a better sense of what is going on will help alleviate some of the feelings of frustration. In the end I think that this whole process will lead to a better understanding of how exactly to approach change in the future.
As for this week's class, I found the game to be very interesting and fun but at the same time very frustrating. I didn't really fully understand the way we were going or what the problem was that we were trying to solve and this made creating a plan of attack very difficult. With that being said, I think the experience really highlighted a lot of the problems that our Administrators face when implementing change as well as the difficulties we will face in the future as we try to implement change. The time constraints seemed to be very accurate as change seems to take forever. In addition, the feeling of not knowing who is going to get on board and who isn't seemed to very accurate to me because everyone has their own agendas and you can never really fully predict who is going to come along and who isn't.
I look forward to round two of this experiment and hope that a better sense of what is going on will help alleviate some of the feelings of frustration. In the end I think that this whole process will lead to a better understanding of how exactly to approach change in the future.
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
CEDO 565 Week 3
Whoever decided that it would be a great idea for me to complete my Master's while also serving as a Union Rep and Head Coach of a very successful softball team should be shot. Oh wait, that someone was me! Ok so maybe not shot just severely beaten. I apologize to all for the tardiness of this post but right now there are so many other issues that are taking precedence that there isn't enough hours in the day to do everything. With that being said, I just keep telling myself that in 4 short days things will die down tremendously, and hopefully in 2 weeks the softball season will be over and hopefully not before that 2 weeks because that will mean we will be bringing home another State Championship!
Now that I've got my venting out of the way I will get to the real reason I'm posting here. Week 3 Work! I must admit that I felt Week 3's work was a little repetitive for me because I feel that one thing that I do really well in life is understand the leadership role and it's implementation. Because of my position in life and the experiences I've had, I feel I really understand systems and how they operate and how they are beneficial to success of a whole. I think this is one reason that my softball teams have been tremendously successful and I also believe it is the biggest reason that I have been successful in the classroom.
One thing that I did find really interesting though was the tune in and mindset information. I always felt that I didn't necessarily fit-in with my age bracket and that my personality matched up better with people who were older than me but this really cemented my belief in that. I have always been someone who liked older music, things done hands on my way, and internalized things and applied them with a realization of the affects of the whole rather than the individual. I also have always been someone that once I decide to do something it is going to get done no matter what. I may want to switch or do something else but my personality won't let me move on to anything else until that task is completed. I know I also have some characteristics that fit my age group as well like my desire for acceptance and to be patted on the back as well as my affinity for new technologies and new methods. With that being said, however, I feel I better fit in the Gen X'rs than I do the Millenials.
Now that I've got my venting out of the way I will get to the real reason I'm posting here. Week 3 Work! I must admit that I felt Week 3's work was a little repetitive for me because I feel that one thing that I do really well in life is understand the leadership role and it's implementation. Because of my position in life and the experiences I've had, I feel I really understand systems and how they operate and how they are beneficial to success of a whole. I think this is one reason that my softball teams have been tremendously successful and I also believe it is the biggest reason that I have been successful in the classroom.
One thing that I did find really interesting though was the tune in and mindset information. I always felt that I didn't necessarily fit-in with my age bracket and that my personality matched up better with people who were older than me but this really cemented my belief in that. I have always been someone who liked older music, things done hands on my way, and internalized things and applied them with a realization of the affects of the whole rather than the individual. I also have always been someone that once I decide to do something it is going to get done no matter what. I may want to switch or do something else but my personality won't let me move on to anything else until that task is completed. I know I also have some characteristics that fit my age group as well like my desire for acceptance and to be patted on the back as well as my affinity for new technologies and new methods. With that being said, however, I feel I better fit in the Gen X'rs than I do the Millenials.
Sunday, May 23, 2010
CEDO 565 Week 2
So this week we've been asked to review statistics for our individual schools. I have had to do this in the past for grant applications and I must say that prior to my introduction into the world of education, I never knew that the State kept track of such things. I find it truly amazing all the stuff that the State keeps track of and feel that we as teachers should be required to review these stats more frequently. Every time I look at these stats I learn something new and this really helps to identify just what it is that I'm dealing with in my student body.
I have to admit that I haven't had time yet this week to complete my assignments as we had a rainout, a game, a three game tourny, and my NA test for my dog. I just got home a little while ago and this is my first chance to sit down so I will get on the assignments tonight. I do, however, sincerely look forward to completing these assignments and gaining additional insight into my student population.
I have to admit that I haven't had time yet this week to complete my assignments as we had a rainout, a game, a three game tourny, and my NA test for my dog. I just got home a little while ago and this is my first chance to sit down so I will get on the assignments tonight. I do, however, sincerely look forward to completing these assignments and gaining additional insight into my student population.
Saturday, May 15, 2010
CEDO 565 Week 1
I have to apologize for the tardiness of this post. It's been a hectic week with rain cancellations and makeups, a game last night, and three today. With that being said, I hope this finds you all well and enjoying the rapidly approaching end of the school year. I for one know I can't wait for my schedule to die down.
As for this weeks learning. I find leadership to be an extremely valuable characteristic in our profession. I can't imagine being a teacher and not a leader. I can't believe that one can be a poor leader and a quality teacher because I believe it is our responsibility to lead young people as much as it is to teach them x's and o's. I, myself, work very hard to be a quality leader within my school and I believe that my commitments attest to that. I am the varsity head coach of our softball team, the treasurer for our union, trap shooting advisor, SKILLS USA advisor, chair of our union scholarship committee, and personal advisor for students. I work extremely hard to not only lead by example for my students but also to make myself available at all times to mentor my students. I think my strongest trait as both an educator and an individual is my ability to lead individuals. I have always been this way and I attribute a lot of this to my years in athletics but also my desire to see others accomplish more than I have.
I'm looking forward to learning additional ways I can continue to improve upon my leadership skills and learning how to improve leadership amongst others. I sincerely look forward to seeing where this class takes us and seeing what I can take from this class to improve my own skills and those of my studnets.
As for this weeks learning. I find leadership to be an extremely valuable characteristic in our profession. I can't imagine being a teacher and not a leader. I can't believe that one can be a poor leader and a quality teacher because I believe it is our responsibility to lead young people as much as it is to teach them x's and o's. I, myself, work very hard to be a quality leader within my school and I believe that my commitments attest to that. I am the varsity head coach of our softball team, the treasurer for our union, trap shooting advisor, SKILLS USA advisor, chair of our union scholarship committee, and personal advisor for students. I work extremely hard to not only lead by example for my students but also to make myself available at all times to mentor my students. I think my strongest trait as both an educator and an individual is my ability to lead individuals. I have always been this way and I attribute a lot of this to my years in athletics but also my desire to see others accomplish more than I have.
I'm looking forward to learning additional ways I can continue to improve upon my leadership skills and learning how to improve leadership amongst others. I sincerely look forward to seeing where this class takes us and seeing what I can take from this class to improve my own skills and those of my studnets.
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
CEDO 555 Week 5
It's week 5 and another class is nearing the end of the line with me scrambling to try to get caught up from a busy stretch. I finally got my culminating experience proposal written up and off to the Instructors and am now awaiting a response. My proposal consisted of creating screencasts that would link to my Ning and thus allow my instruction to continue on even on days where I am unable to be in the classroom. It was for this reason that I chose to take a Master's in Instructional Technology so I feel it only fitting that this be my culminating experience. Upon entering this program I was quite aware that technology could be of assistance to me in helping me be more prepared and more efficient with my instruction but I didn't have enough experience to figure out just how that would be. This program has given me plenty of insight on different ideas for doing that and this screencast is just one major example of that.
As for my portfolio it coming along slowly but surely. I did in fact have dump the aesthetic appeal of applying pictures and various layout formats as I eluded to in my previous blog, however, I still tried to make it as functional and pretty as I could given my time constraints. I did learn a thing or two about setting things up and linking stuff together but again with the time constraints didn't have enough time to go back and change everything as I didn't figure this out until most of it was already posted. Again as I eluded to in a previous post, I will be going back and making this into a personal portfolio that I can link to my Ning and I can't wait to create a site of my own to represent me as an instructor.
As for my portfolio it coming along slowly but surely. I did in fact have dump the aesthetic appeal of applying pictures and various layout formats as I eluded to in my previous blog, however, I still tried to make it as functional and pretty as I could given my time constraints. I did learn a thing or two about setting things up and linking stuff together but again with the time constraints didn't have enough time to go back and change everything as I didn't figure this out until most of it was already posted. Again as I eluded to in a previous post, I will be going back and making this into a personal portfolio that I can link to my Ning and I can't wait to create a site of my own to represent me as an instructor.
CEDO 555 Week 3
Ok so I'm struggling to find the time to create my portfolio but I have been able to get layout done. Unfortunately I'm affraid at this point in time I'm going to have to abandon my aesthetic's goal and shoot for a grade goal of just accomplishing what is required and getting a grade. I hate this approach but with 13 games in 7 days and this just being midseason with very little end in sight, I don't know what other approach I can take at this point.
The beauty for me is that I totally see the value in a process like this and fully intend to complete this after the class. I'm not going to lie, I will likely change this portfolio to be a personal portfolio rather than a Master's portfolio, however, I love the idea that much of it will already be done for me. I will pry include a lot of my artifacts and class work into my curriculum vitae, and will likely use much of what I learned in looking at other sites to put together what I feel is not only a true representation of who I am as a teacher but also as a person. I can see linking this portfolio to my school website so my students and parents can get a sense of what I have accomplished and who I am outside of the classroom and I feel that this will benefit in the long run. You also never know when you may need something like this and should I be in need of it, I'm sure the time will be stressful enough without having to add the stress of creating a portfolio at that point in time.
As for the site itself, I must admit that I'm not totally comfortable or don't necessarily like the tools and mechanics of the site, however, I'm hoping as I get an opportunity to use them more, they will grow on me. I certainly look forward to the completion of this site and look forward to the completion of my culminating experience and maybe, just maybe, a couple of days where I can relax and take time for me.
The beauty for me is that I totally see the value in a process like this and fully intend to complete this after the class. I'm not going to lie, I will likely change this portfolio to be a personal portfolio rather than a Master's portfolio, however, I love the idea that much of it will already be done for me. I will pry include a lot of my artifacts and class work into my curriculum vitae, and will likely use much of what I learned in looking at other sites to put together what I feel is not only a true representation of who I am as a teacher but also as a person. I can see linking this portfolio to my school website so my students and parents can get a sense of what I have accomplished and who I am outside of the classroom and I feel that this will benefit in the long run. You also never know when you may need something like this and should I be in need of it, I'm sure the time will be stressful enough without having to add the stress of creating a portfolio at that point in time.
As for the site itself, I must admit that I'm not totally comfortable or don't necessarily like the tools and mechanics of the site, however, I'm hoping as I get an opportunity to use them more, they will grow on me. I certainly look forward to the completion of this site and look forward to the completion of my culminating experience and maybe, just maybe, a couple of days where I can relax and take time for me.
Friday, April 9, 2010
CEDO 555 Week 1
I have to first admit that I have been dreading this class for months upon months. It isn't the work that I'm dreading, well in fairness, it is but only because I'm in the beginning of the season when I'm busiest and there is a lot of work required for the class so things are stressful. With that being said, I am truly looking forward to the end results as I fully and completely understand how beneficial the documentation and illustration of my work.
In my first week I researched several different educator's portfolios and I was amazed at the diversity I found. I found many sites that just didn't make much sense to me and didn't really elecit much thought or feeling that these instructors had trully worked hard to demonstrate their skills and their knowledge and it therefore gave the impression that they were not trully great teachers despite the fact that I'm quite sure many of them are. In addition to the negative portfolios I found, I also found many great examples that blew me away. Because of these findings, I have become even more determined to create a quality portfolio of my own. I work very hard to provide my students with quality and meaningful instruction so to drop the ball on my documentation of this and make myself appear to be a subpar teacher makes little to know sense to me.
I look forward to creating a site that not only identifies my passion for teaching but also depicts my students successes in the classroom. I strive for this goal as I am firm believer that with any good instructor their is a certain amount of pride in their own work yet any self-service is secondary to success of our students. I believe that like any good employee we are only as good as our product and as educators our product is dependant upon our ability to reach our students. It is my fullest intent to allow this portfolio to be my documentation of this, my success as an educator.
In my first week I researched several different educator's portfolios and I was amazed at the diversity I found. I found many sites that just didn't make much sense to me and didn't really elecit much thought or feeling that these instructors had trully worked hard to demonstrate their skills and their knowledge and it therefore gave the impression that they were not trully great teachers despite the fact that I'm quite sure many of them are. In addition to the negative portfolios I found, I also found many great examples that blew me away. Because of these findings, I have become even more determined to create a quality portfolio of my own. I work very hard to provide my students with quality and meaningful instruction so to drop the ball on my documentation of this and make myself appear to be a subpar teacher makes little to know sense to me.
I look forward to creating a site that not only identifies my passion for teaching but also depicts my students successes in the classroom. I strive for this goal as I am firm believer that with any good instructor their is a certain amount of pride in their own work yet any self-service is secondary to success of our students. I believe that like any good employee we are only as good as our product and as educators our product is dependant upon our ability to reach our students. It is my fullest intent to allow this portfolio to be my documentation of this, my success as an educator.
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
CEDO 550 Blog Review
Before I get into the meat and potatos of this blog, I must first admit that I truly enjoyed the challenge of this class. We covered a lot of information in a very short period of time but did so in a mannner that allowed for much retention. I can't say that I will ever truly utilize this particular portion of the curriculum in my curricular area but you never know. With that being said, I must say that I still found the curriculum to be of interest to me and worthwhile.
Now, to answer the questions that were posed to us:
I will use what I learned in this course over the next 30 days by . . .
I'm not going to lie and say that I'm going to run out and create an online course and start implementing it immediately or anything like that but what I may do is demonstrate to my students the power of Elluminate to provide an example to them of some alternative ways they can collaborate together on their group projects outside of my classroom walls. I found the Elluminate tool to be extremely useful and think that this could be an extremely beneficial tool for my students.
I will use what I learned in this course over the next year by . . .
Again, I'm not at the stage of my career where I'm going to go out and start making an online curriculum for my engineering courses, however, I will certainly utilize some of the things I've learned from this course. First, I will definately use Elluminate as a means of providing my students with an area to meet and collaborate outside my classroom walls. We do a lot of collaboration projects so I'm always looking for ways to create more realistic and beneficial collaboration skills. Second, I intend to create screencasts for all of my classes so on days like today when I'm sick, I can provide those to the sub and they can play them. The skills I learned in facilitating online instruction will certainly carry over into this area. In addition, I am looking at the possibility of linking in on Elluminate so I could answer questions through text on days I'm out sick. I have the ability to see all of my students computers so if I can setup an Elluminate session with a link to a screen cast I could realistically teach class from home with a sub in the room to act as a babysitter.
After completing this course I would like to learn more about . . .
I hate to be redundant but at least you will truly know what interested me the most. I would love to know more about Elluminate and how I may go about implementing this into my classroom. I enjoy what I teach and how I teach it so I'm not looking to go into the online instructional realm anytime soon, however, I do believe that this is coming in the future and having these skills will be helpful to me down the road. In addition, if I can implement some of the technologies I feel are most critical for my students, I think my instruction increases as a whole.
I'd like to take a fianl second to thank our instructors for their professionalism and a great model of what quality online instruction is. I felt both Greg and Ken did an excellent job of providing immediate feedback and keeping us on track throughout.
Now, to answer the questions that were posed to us:
I will use what I learned in this course over the next 30 days by . . .
I'm not going to lie and say that I'm going to run out and create an online course and start implementing it immediately or anything like that but what I may do is demonstrate to my students the power of Elluminate to provide an example to them of some alternative ways they can collaborate together on their group projects outside of my classroom walls. I found the Elluminate tool to be extremely useful and think that this could be an extremely beneficial tool for my students.
I will use what I learned in this course over the next year by . . .
Again, I'm not at the stage of my career where I'm going to go out and start making an online curriculum for my engineering courses, however, I will certainly utilize some of the things I've learned from this course. First, I will definately use Elluminate as a means of providing my students with an area to meet and collaborate outside my classroom walls. We do a lot of collaboration projects so I'm always looking for ways to create more realistic and beneficial collaboration skills. Second, I intend to create screencasts for all of my classes so on days like today when I'm sick, I can provide those to the sub and they can play them. The skills I learned in facilitating online instruction will certainly carry over into this area. In addition, I am looking at the possibility of linking in on Elluminate so I could answer questions through text on days I'm out sick. I have the ability to see all of my students computers so if I can setup an Elluminate session with a link to a screen cast I could realistically teach class from home with a sub in the room to act as a babysitter.
After completing this course I would like to learn more about . . .
I hate to be redundant but at least you will truly know what interested me the most. I would love to know more about Elluminate and how I may go about implementing this into my classroom. I enjoy what I teach and how I teach it so I'm not looking to go into the online instructional realm anytime soon, however, I do believe that this is coming in the future and having these skills will be helpful to me down the road. In addition, if I can implement some of the technologies I feel are most critical for my students, I think my instruction increases as a whole.
I'd like to take a fianl second to thank our instructors for their professionalism and a great model of what quality online instruction is. I felt both Greg and Ken did an excellent job of providing immediate feedback and keeping us on track throughout.
Monday, February 1, 2010
CEDO 540 Week 5
I have to admit that upon beginning this week I was dreading it. Like I've stated in previous posts, I'm not exactly turned on by statistical data that doesn't really directly assist me in my daily life and I viewed this weeks assignemts as right up that alley. Sure information on health and education is great and all but until I need to use it I don't necessarily find it to be sexy.
Man was I wrong!!! Well in a way at least. The health stats and educational stats didn't exactly rivet me, though, I did find then interesting. I did, however, discover an employement site that I could use to help assist me in my everyday education. My students are sometimes hard to convince that the information that I'm presenting to them is relavent to their lives, however, when I can put statistical data in front of them that physically spells it out for them that the information will assist them in garnering extra wages, it makes my job way easier.
What started out to be an assignement that I was dreading turned out to be one that will change the way I teach for good. It's pretty amazing how things work out.
Man was I wrong!!! Well in a way at least. The health stats and educational stats didn't exactly rivet me, though, I did find then interesting. I did, however, discover an employement site that I could use to help assist me in my everyday education. My students are sometimes hard to convince that the information that I'm presenting to them is relavent to their lives, however, when I can put statistical data in front of them that physically spells it out for them that the information will assist them in garnering extra wages, it makes my job way easier.
What started out to be an assignement that I was dreading turned out to be one that will change the way I teach for good. It's pretty amazing how things work out.
CEDO 540 Week 4
In week 4 we reviewed Bill Tancer and his Hitwise site. I found that Mr. Tancer is an extremely intelligent individual who has developed a highly intelligent method of gathering information.
Hitwise is a site that offers companies the ability to see the statistics of their customers usage of their site and others. The site follows the keystrokes of random people on the internet and identifies what they are looking at and what they are using.
I think the Hitwise site is certainly usefull to companies to see what is working on their site and what isn't, however, I also think they need to complete additional surveys to gain a more in-depth and detailed analysis of what the customer feels. I find this to be usefull to find who uses the site and how frequently and thus it would identify who to poll to get the best information. I don't like the fact that companies can use this to steal information from other companies as to what is working for them and what isn't as I feel this is immorral and flys in the face of maintaining competitive balance.
Ultimately, I feel that if used properly, this site can be very usefull to companies and increase the buyer/distributor relationship for all of us.
Hitwise is a site that offers companies the ability to see the statistics of their customers usage of their site and others. The site follows the keystrokes of random people on the internet and identifies what they are looking at and what they are using.
I think the Hitwise site is certainly usefull to companies to see what is working on their site and what isn't, however, I also think they need to complete additional surveys to gain a more in-depth and detailed analysis of what the customer feels. I find this to be usefull to find who uses the site and how frequently and thus it would identify who to poll to get the best information. I don't like the fact that companies can use this to steal information from other companies as to what is working for them and what isn't as I feel this is immorral and flys in the face of maintaining competitive balance.
Ultimately, I feel that if used properly, this site can be very usefull to companies and increase the buyer/distributor relationship for all of us.
CEDO 540 Week 3
In this week we were asked to formulate a group and create a survey to solve a given problem. The group that I had thought I was a part of apparently got busy and forgot who was all a member of the group. Because of this, I chose to create a survey that would identify my students likes, dislikes, preferences and changes to the class that they had just completed.
In the past I have done a similar survey with my students but it took forever to weed through the results and in the end I ended up just tossing them as there were way too many papers to file and organize. With this sytem, the results are immediate and I can save them as a document so I can access them at any time. If I need to vouch for my instruction I can easily gather statistics from my instruction throughout the years and detail what I have done and what worked and what didn't and then identify how I've modified it and how that worked.
I found this excercise to be very usefull and will benefit me for years to come and is well worth the money spent.
In the past I have done a similar survey with my students but it took forever to weed through the results and in the end I ended up just tossing them as there were way too many papers to file and organize. With this sytem, the results are immediate and I can save them as a document so I can access them at any time. If I need to vouch for my instruction I can easily gather statistics from my instruction throughout the years and detail what I have done and what worked and what didn't and then identify how I've modified it and how that worked.
I found this excercise to be very usefull and will benefit me for years to come and is well worth the money spent.
CEDO 540 Week 2
Ok so I've gotten way behind in this so now we are going to do some serious catching up.
In week 2 we reviewed numerous sites that offered the creation of surveys and formulation of the data. I never found myself to be someone who would ever use such a site or have any interest in it. What I found though, was that these can greatly assist me in my daily life. I actually chose to subscribe to Survey Gizmo and have used this already in my classroom. In addition to the use of this in my classroom I have also used it to poll our union on next years work schedule and will use it again on negotiation issues. Likewise, I intend to use this on the union scholarship award to help us tabulate who we feel is most deserving of the award.
I love the customization of this tool and the automatic tabulation. I'm an extremely busy person and this helps ease my time constraints while maintaining the level of information I've become accustomed to.
In week 2 we reviewed numerous sites that offered the creation of surveys and formulation of the data. I never found myself to be someone who would ever use such a site or have any interest in it. What I found though, was that these can greatly assist me in my daily life. I actually chose to subscribe to Survey Gizmo and have used this already in my classroom. In addition to the use of this in my classroom I have also used it to poll our union on next years work schedule and will use it again on negotiation issues. Likewise, I intend to use this on the union scholarship award to help us tabulate who we feel is most deserving of the award.
I love the customization of this tool and the automatic tabulation. I'm an extremely busy person and this helps ease my time constraints while maintaining the level of information I've become accustomed to.
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