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.
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
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.
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
CEDO 540 Week 1
STATISTICS!!!!! Oh how I love that word. NOT!!!!!!! Ok, well at least that would have been my reaction 5 years ago. Now that I've gotten in the "Real World", I've learned an extreme appreciation for the field of Statistics. I am very cognizant of the benefits of stats in the daily world and therefore am excited to revisit this subject.
I have always been good at math and have always been good at manipulating information to get what I want, so I would think that naturally I should be good at statistics and I do believe I am, however, it just has never really excited me. Tie it to something that I want, however, and that could be a whole different story. Three years ago after my first year at the Grove, I decided that the whole Drafting and Architectural program needed an entire makeover to become relevant. In order to complete this makeover I was in need of around $60,000 for hardware, software, and furniture upgrades. In order to get this money I new I was going to need to convince the board that this was relative and was indeed a necessity. In addition to this, I also knew that PLTW was going to be the boards idea of the way that was desired for us to go to get some of the funding for this. It became my task to present the figures I had researched to the board in a manner that would allow the board to see that first of all the change was without question necessary. My secondary objective was to convince the board that my way was better than the PLTW direction and thus we should do it my way, however, as a fallback option PLTW was still better than what we currently had.
To begin my presentation to the board, I compiled an overview of what we had and where I felt we needed to go as I firmly believe that without understanding the past you can never foresee the future. Once I had this accomplished I provided the board with a data set that demonstrated the demand for engineers in our society. In addition to the demand for engineers in our society, I also documented the amount of companies using 3D drafting software as well as the amount of universities teaching a form of 3D drafting software. Once I had established the need for us to go in the direction of teaching a STEM related curriculum, I had to identify why it was better for us to utilize my plan and not PLTW's STEM initiative. I achieved this by compiling a compare/contrast chart that documented the total costs of each in regards to the total funding received from PLTW to identify that my way was cheaper even after funding received. In addition to the monetary documentation, I also compared a pie chart documenting the amount of users using Pro E, Solidworks, and Inventor in the industry, higher education, and high schools. I showed that high schools use Inventor because that is what PLTW requires and that was the natural progression from AutoCad which had cornered that market a long time ago. I also documented that Pro E and Solidworks had all but eliminated a need for Inventor in the industry a long time ago which showed the relevancy for us being forward thinking and teaching to the industry rather than following other schools into a dark hole.
What came out of all these statistics that I put in front of the board. Well, I got my way first of all. We received $62,000 in funding to put in all new Workstation computers with updated graphics cards, new tables, new high def projector and all new software. In addition, I received a workstation laptop to be able to work from both home and school with all standalone software and money to put into prototyping materials. I did not have to go through the PLTW training and most importantly do not have to teach a standardized curriculum to meet the demands of PLTW and instead can produce a curriculum that is individualized to my students and our community. The results have paid off as over the last 3 years I have sent 23 students on to college for Architecture or Engineering and have increased my class sizes to the point where now the administration wants to add 6 more computers to my classroom so they can fit more kids in here. I was hired to grow the program and the statistics helped me accomplish that goal.
I am really looking forward to gaining a better grasp on exactly how to clean up my statistics and present them in a more alluring and aesthetic fashion so as to enhance the power of my statistics and make my efforts more efficient and relevant and this time around may actually stay awake long enough to learn something from our education as I see correlation now for why I need to know this stuff.
I have always been good at math and have always been good at manipulating information to get what I want, so I would think that naturally I should be good at statistics and I do believe I am, however, it just has never really excited me. Tie it to something that I want, however, and that could be a whole different story. Three years ago after my first year at the Grove, I decided that the whole Drafting and Architectural program needed an entire makeover to become relevant. In order to complete this makeover I was in need of around $60,000 for hardware, software, and furniture upgrades. In order to get this money I new I was going to need to convince the board that this was relative and was indeed a necessity. In addition to this, I also knew that PLTW was going to be the boards idea of the way that was desired for us to go to get some of the funding for this. It became my task to present the figures I had researched to the board in a manner that would allow the board to see that first of all the change was without question necessary. My secondary objective was to convince the board that my way was better than the PLTW direction and thus we should do it my way, however, as a fallback option PLTW was still better than what we currently had.
To begin my presentation to the board, I compiled an overview of what we had and where I felt we needed to go as I firmly believe that without understanding the past you can never foresee the future. Once I had this accomplished I provided the board with a data set that demonstrated the demand for engineers in our society. In addition to the demand for engineers in our society, I also documented the amount of companies using 3D drafting software as well as the amount of universities teaching a form of 3D drafting software. Once I had established the need for us to go in the direction of teaching a STEM related curriculum, I had to identify why it was better for us to utilize my plan and not PLTW's STEM initiative. I achieved this by compiling a compare/contrast chart that documented the total costs of each in regards to the total funding received from PLTW to identify that my way was cheaper even after funding received. In addition to the monetary documentation, I also compared a pie chart documenting the amount of users using Pro E, Solidworks, and Inventor in the industry, higher education, and high schools. I showed that high schools use Inventor because that is what PLTW requires and that was the natural progression from AutoCad which had cornered that market a long time ago. I also documented that Pro E and Solidworks had all but eliminated a need for Inventor in the industry a long time ago which showed the relevancy for us being forward thinking and teaching to the industry rather than following other schools into a dark hole.
What came out of all these statistics that I put in front of the board. Well, I got my way first of all. We received $62,000 in funding to put in all new Workstation computers with updated graphics cards, new tables, new high def projector and all new software. In addition, I received a workstation laptop to be able to work from both home and school with all standalone software and money to put into prototyping materials. I did not have to go through the PLTW training and most importantly do not have to teach a standardized curriculum to meet the demands of PLTW and instead can produce a curriculum that is individualized to my students and our community. The results have paid off as over the last 3 years I have sent 23 students on to college for Architecture or Engineering and have increased my class sizes to the point where now the administration wants to add 6 more computers to my classroom so they can fit more kids in here. I was hired to grow the program and the statistics helped me accomplish that goal.
I am really looking forward to gaining a better grasp on exactly how to clean up my statistics and present them in a more alluring and aesthetic fashion so as to enhance the power of my statistics and make my efforts more efficient and relevant and this time around may actually stay awake long enough to learn something from our education as I see correlation now for why I need to know this stuff.
Monday, November 9, 2009
CEDO 535 Week 4
OK, so last week I was a little turned off by the assignment but this week I'm in love with it. My students have said I have a tendency to be a bit bi-polar and maybe they are right. I can't express enough how enthralled I am with nings and wikis as well as screencasting. This is the mecca for me as to the reasons I chose to pursue a Masters in Instructional Technology versus all else. I am not an organized person by nature and this has been a life-long struggle for me and I'm always looking for ways I can better myself in this so as to provide a more meaningful and eficient education to my students without my shortcomings getting in the way. Here lies the reason I'm so excited about nings, wikis, and screencasting.
First of all I'm going to go ahead and drop the wiki from this post as I've chosen to create a ning. I think the wiki is great and deserves to be classified with the ning as a great tool, however, since I'm not using it I will focus my energy and limited time to discussing the application I am using in the ning. I started creating my ning early last week and became so engrossed in it that I actually tweeted that I was going to need an intervention to get me to quit or at least back off for awhile. I created a ning for our department, www.broncotech.ning.com, I created a ning for my own personal page which can be accessed through the department page as well as created sub-nings for each of my classes that I teach so as to keep the information sepearate and significant for each of my classes and students. OK so I haven't completed all of my classes yet but if I don't stop soon, I will have a ning created for every class in the schoool. I love the fact that I can create a site that will allow my students to be more organized than I am. I like the idea that if the student is unable to attend class due to illness, vacation, doctors appt., etc. they can simply access the information covered via the internet. This will greatly reduce the amount of time that I spend going back through what was covered yesterday and re-handing out assignments as well as reduce the amount of time I spend rehashing what the original assignment was and when it is due. In addition to these features, I have encorporated a blog directly to the website that I will be implementing in each of these classes as well. I get so frustrated with trying to convince my students to take out their notebooks and take notes that it makes me want to scream at times. By encorporating the blogs, I intend to ask my students to write reflection posts on the information covered in the lectures. I think that by doing this it will provide incentive to my students to pay attention and take notes, it will provide them with a means of restructuring the information in a manner that is meaningful to them, and it will provide an archived data set that can be easily retrieved when needed for studying for a test or quiz. In addition to these features, I also think the added bonus of getting to see what other students are taking from the lessons will expand their knowledge and provide incentive for them to strive for greater understanding.
As for the screencasts, I have always wanted to learn how to do these. I have always implemented tutorials and screencasts created by others into my instruction but have always wished that I could do this so I could more effectively create specific and individualized instruction that would be focused to the needs and demands of my students and classroom. In the past I have struggled to overcome the shortcomings of some of the tutorials and at times have made more work for myself because of this. Now that I have an idea of how to create these, I can easily see myself becoming as addicted to screencasts as I am to creating nings. I love the idea that I can create a screencast and if a student has missed a day, they can pull up the screencast and have access to my teachings without me having to delay the instructions of others to review the information they have missed. In addition, I like the idea that I can now be absent for a day and have instruction continue with only my digitized voice and instruction. In my field of Engineering and Architecture, to find a sub capable of coming in and running with a lesson is virtually not possible without relying on a book. I reach my students by minimizing the books and providing them with personalized instruction so by asking them to turn to a book totally throws the educational process out of wack. My students may not like to hear it but these screencasts will, for me, effectively end the need for movie days and the jockying of curriculum to overcome a planned absence for me. Sorry students, but your education just got a whole lot better because of this.
First of all I'm going to go ahead and drop the wiki from this post as I've chosen to create a ning. I think the wiki is great and deserves to be classified with the ning as a great tool, however, since I'm not using it I will focus my energy and limited time to discussing the application I am using in the ning. I started creating my ning early last week and became so engrossed in it that I actually tweeted that I was going to need an intervention to get me to quit or at least back off for awhile. I created a ning for our department, www.broncotech.ning.com, I created a ning for my own personal page which can be accessed through the department page as well as created sub-nings for each of my classes that I teach so as to keep the information sepearate and significant for each of my classes and students. OK so I haven't completed all of my classes yet but if I don't stop soon, I will have a ning created for every class in the schoool. I love the fact that I can create a site that will allow my students to be more organized than I am. I like the idea that if the student is unable to attend class due to illness, vacation, doctors appt., etc. they can simply access the information covered via the internet. This will greatly reduce the amount of time that I spend going back through what was covered yesterday and re-handing out assignments as well as reduce the amount of time I spend rehashing what the original assignment was and when it is due. In addition to these features, I have encorporated a blog directly to the website that I will be implementing in each of these classes as well. I get so frustrated with trying to convince my students to take out their notebooks and take notes that it makes me want to scream at times. By encorporating the blogs, I intend to ask my students to write reflection posts on the information covered in the lectures. I think that by doing this it will provide incentive to my students to pay attention and take notes, it will provide them with a means of restructuring the information in a manner that is meaningful to them, and it will provide an archived data set that can be easily retrieved when needed for studying for a test or quiz. In addition to these features, I also think the added bonus of getting to see what other students are taking from the lessons will expand their knowledge and provide incentive for them to strive for greater understanding.
As for the screencasts, I have always wanted to learn how to do these. I have always implemented tutorials and screencasts created by others into my instruction but have always wished that I could do this so I could more effectively create specific and individualized instruction that would be focused to the needs and demands of my students and classroom. In the past I have struggled to overcome the shortcomings of some of the tutorials and at times have made more work for myself because of this. Now that I have an idea of how to create these, I can easily see myself becoming as addicted to screencasts as I am to creating nings. I love the idea that I can create a screencast and if a student has missed a day, they can pull up the screencast and have access to my teachings without me having to delay the instructions of others to review the information they have missed. In addition, I like the idea that I can now be absent for a day and have instruction continue with only my digitized voice and instruction. In my field of Engineering and Architecture, to find a sub capable of coming in and running with a lesson is virtually not possible without relying on a book. I reach my students by minimizing the books and providing them with personalized instruction so by asking them to turn to a book totally throws the educational process out of wack. My students may not like to hear it but these screencasts will, for me, effectively end the need for movie days and the jockying of curriculum to overcome a planned absence for me. Sorry students, but your education just got a whole lot better because of this.
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