Week 15: Was Sisyphus a College Student in Disguise?

Yipee. . .you have made it through another semester. . .almost ;-)

I have graded darn near everything. . .There is only the movie, Inspiration (which we'll grade in class tomorrow), and your TaskStream narratives (and of course the attendance and participation, which is almost exclusively based on attendance as everyone participated fully).

Wed: I will be in the lab as soon as a can. I have a meeting in SD which I will not be able to leave until 3pm at the earliest. Depending on traffic, I should be in the lab around 4:45/5:00 to help anyone with their movies. We will also be briefly discussing TaskStream and sharing out on Inspiration. . .and lastly, we should watch all of your amazing movies (I have confidence in advance).
Note: Don't forget to do the project reflection for the movie assignment!

Please check your grades to ensure everything you have turned in has been graded or fix and resubmit if anything is being returned. . .FINISH ALL MISSING WORK. . .PLEASE.

This week's Question: What are you going to take away from this class? I hope you have learned more than just a few technology tips and tricks.

Thanks to everyone. . .peace!

Week Fourteen: Are You a Trypto Phan?

I hope no one is still sleepy from the Thanksgiving Feast. Well, two weeks left and you still have some work to do! I really hope some of you were able to get some film shot as it will save you a few trips back to the university! The goal for next week is to ensure we have all of your artifacts loaded for TaskStream and then we will watch the cool movies you made!

What is still due: Inspiration & Journals 6-10 (to include the web 2.0 evaluation), edTechProfile-Post, TaskStream (finish narratives for II-VI), iMovie Software proficiency (if you haven't already turned it in) and your social justice group movies.

I was successful in securing the Pub Drive for this class. When you are on campus, do this:
1) Do Go > Connect to Server
2) Enter "afp://afp1" and click OK.
3) login using the info above(using your CSUSM password). You'll see a list of shares.
4) Choose the jheil share and click OK.

This way, everyone can store movie files and anyone in the group can access the content. As this is public, please ensure you title your folders specifically, so no one accidentally gets into your content!!

I will also try to come to campus next Monday to help anyone who might need assistance with things past due. . .


This week's Question: What has been your favorite assignment to date and why? Feel free to do the same for your least favorite!

Week Twelve: Almost . . .Finished!

I'm sure the craziness of the last few weeks has made it hard to make Ed422 a priority in your life; however, we are almost finished. Don't lose steam or become frustrated now. . .you've gone to far. The time off didn't affect the fact I was going to ask you to work on Excel and Inspiration on your own. . .so nothing has really changed, you've just had more time to stress ;-)

On a positive note. . .my wife completed the 3-Day Breast Cancer Walk! They raised over 12 million dollars this year!!!!!!!!!!!!

This week: I will introduce the social justice movie project, discuss what we have left, and give you some time to work on your software proficieny assignment.

Still Working: You have the Excel assignment, Journal's 6-10 (to include the web 2.0 assignment as a journal entry), and the Inspiration/Kidspiration/InspireData project. I added some new instructions about saving the projects (making the journal entry optional). For Inspiration/Kidspiration I would like you to export your assignment as a .jpg, which makes it easy to share. For InspireData, it seems you can only export the data table. So, if you do InspireData, perhaps you can take a screenshot/printscreen pasted into a Word document to share with your peers. Don't make this harder than it has to be. . .it's more about becomming a student who is exploring a new technology tool.

Journal's 6-10: you should have plenty of options. . .the new L&L, Web 2.0, or other sources.

This week's question: I have noticed that a few of you have been forgetting to comment on the question. . .please don't forget! For this week, I want to know what your all-time favorite book is (or your current favorite)! Why is it your favorite?

Week Eleven: Back to Normalcy?

Halloween is over, the candy is waning, and I hope that y'all are ready to get back to work. Hopefully, everyone has been working independently and keeping up with our workload.

This week: I am going to go over how to to use iMovie and everyone is going to create what could be your first video masterpiece!
If time permits, we will also discuss the actual movie project that you will be completing in small groups. If you haven't requested your v-drive, please go to the link from the last entry and request a v-drive. This will come in handy as it will allow you to work on any computer on campus to work on video. Without it, you will be forced to work on the same computer you began editing on.

Journals 7-10: I gave you an assignment in week 8 for journal 6; for 7 & 8, you could choose an article from the November issue of L&L. Also, I would like you to pick a technology from the Classroom 2.0 website, choose a link from the tools list on the right hand column for a technology that interests you, and follow a discussion or two that relates to your technology. In the title bar, put journal 9 follwed by the technology you have chosen. (For example: Journal 9: Microblogging). In the journal, I would like you to define the technology and then report out on what you learned from the tool discussion and read and comment on at least three peers who have chosen a different tool. You reporting out should contain the 200-250 word minumum, but you do not need to ask and answer questions. In the assignments section, you will submit your peers names.

This week's question: I want to follow-up on last week's question. Many of you seemed to accept that tracking is a valid way to sort children in schools. (I am very sceptical as to how people get classified.) What I want to know is why is it, in San Diego County, that White and Asian students are overrepresented in GATE (a greater percentage in GATE than they represent in the school population), while Latino, African American, and Native American students are underrepresented in GATE (lower percentage in GATE than they represent in the school population)? Is it the classification system, innate intelligence or something else?

Week 10: No More Tricks!

Well, in some way, I'm sure everyone has been affected by the recent firestorm. I sincerely hope that everyone's lives are coming back to as close to normal as possible. While we still have a lot to do, I don't think that we are in jeopardy of missing out on anything uber-important. We will still have a virtual class this Wed to allow the parents to trick-or-treat with the kids! I still think we can get through everything. . .I'll just combine a few things and hope that everyone can work on her/his own for the next week.

Assignments in progress: Copyright (due Nov 2), Spreadsheet/Excel (Nov 9), Journals 6-10 (Nov 23), and TaskStream Narratives (NETS II-VI, due Dec 3). I really hope that, given any normalcy, everyone is taking advantage of the time to work on the TaskStream narratives. I have already given comments to those who submitted the narrative for NETS I. Please check TaskStream to look for my feedback.

Journals 6-10: You should receive your first L&L this week! Feel free to scan it to select an article (or two or three) for the journals. Also, the October issue of Edutopia revolves around environmental issues . Feel free to select an article from this issue.

Please obtain a V-Drive: go to the following address, v-drive, and sign-up for your very own v-drive. This will allow you to work on video from multiple computers, which will be very important when we begin our movie projects (next week)!

New Assignments: Inspiration/Kidspiration/InspireData. . .Check webCT for instructions!! Also, I would like everyone to use the Classroom 2.0 link and sign-up for a free account. This is a very-cool social networking site for teachers! We will incorporate this website into a future journal assignment!

This week's Question: Do you believe in tracking? Assuming it was in place, would you rather work with at-risk or GATE students? Would you put your kids in a GATE class if it were offered to you? Explain your answer.

Week Nine: Fires Suck!

As we all know or are discorvering, the fires have closed the campus for the week. Our primary concern is for our individual class members. I haven't heard from anyone who has been displaced, but I haven't heard from everyone. I hope that we can all support every class member as she/he works through whatever level of stress this fire requires. Please offer any level of support you can.

This week: well, we won't be completing any in-class assignments, I expect that you can work on two thing: your journal and your TaskStream narratives. I have graded all of your journals. . .well done! Feel free to choose your future journal articles and get them completed in the next week (hopefull thinking); also, you can use the samples I provided and complete as many of your TaskStream narratives as possible, which will make your future ed422 life easier. . .not a traditional tack, but something that we can easily do with some effort. Email me if you have any questions.

I'll post some additional lesson ideas later in the week!

This week's Question: Why do you want to be a teacher? Who or what inspired you?

Week Eight: Is the Class Half Empty or Half Full?

I believe that we have completed over half of the course! You should all be proud of the work you have accomplished so far. I know y'all are going to be the next wave of educators who incorporate technology into the curriculum. Hey, at least everyone has been able to exist in a web 2.0 environment . . .it's not your mother's Internet. Speaking of web 2.0, I noticed that I only had about 13 comments on last week's blog. Please don't forget that commenting is not only a way to build community, but to earn some of your precious attendance and perticipation points ;-)

This week: I believe that I have graded all of the resubmitted and/or tardy past assignments. Please check the "my grades" section of webCT. All I have left to grade is the wiki assignment, which I hope to have finished by classtime tomorrow!
I hope everyone has been working on the TaskStream narrative for NETS I. I had asked that you use Google docs to collaborate. We will spend some time discussing the narrative(s), Google docs, and introducing the copyright assignment. I have also posted the spreadsheet (excel) assignment that you will complete for Halloween.

Journal #6: This is from the current issue of L&L, which I was able to log into and access (I hope you can too. . .) The article, "The Threat of Security", by LeAnn Robinson, Abbie Brown, & Tim Green highlights some of the current issues that are fueled by administrator's fear of lawsuits.

This week's Question: Does our Education Institution's hyperfocus on grades kill instrinsic motivation? In other words, would you try just as hard in this class if the grading was pass/fail? Why or why not?