Pictures from Class

I also posted the link for the class picasa album. Take a look:

Evrim

505 Spring 2009

We are getting there.......

I think that the size of this class makes discussion a little more challenging.  Since reading discussion is an important part of this class, I am going to try some different ways to get a little more participation.  Next week, I will have everyone take a minute and write down their "delicious" piece of the readings at the beginning of class and then we will use these in later discussions that evening.  I also plan to try some smaller group discussions with Evrim and I moving around a little and some online discussions.  We will just keep working at this until we find what works for this group.

Evrim shared some interesting ideas and valuable resources for our work with blogging.  I am hoping that students will be able to add some resources to the online discussion on blogging this week.

Morgan got us started with podcasting and also shared some resources on this topic.  I believe that we will have a follow-up session on podcasting from Andrea that will focus on elementary applications.  Since Morgan is in secondary science, this will be a good combination.

Major topics for the evening included why Logo?, blogging in education, and metacognition.  Taken together, these topics suggest the focus in this class on active, learner-centered computer applications.

I am enjoying the group and the opportunity to get to know students from different disciplines.  I am confidant that we will continue to form a community of technology using educators.

Highlights from our Second Meeting......

For me, the resource presentations were the highlight of our meeting tonight.  Both Ryan and Russ did an excellent job of choosing and presenting their resources, wikis and Moodle.  Each of them actually used the resource in the presentation, which was very effective.  Each presentation was well organized and clear.  I am always pleased when the first software presentations are successful, since that sets a high bar for everyone else!

It seemed a little difficult to get discussion going this evening.  I am hoping that the group will relax about speaking up and I need to work on techniques to stimulate discussion.  I think that the lecture presentation may have discouraged discussion and I will work on a different approach for next week.

Our Turkish visitors made for a very large group tonight and that may have inhibited some of our discussions also.  We can keep working on discussions together and perhaps our online discussion this week will help get in class discussions rolling also.

Our first night!

When I looked at my class list before class, I was somewhat concerned when I saw that we had 21 students in  this graduate class.  Since I like to emphasize discussion and interaction in my classes,  having a class this large seemed rather daunting.  In fact, I was feeling nervous about the size of the group as the evening began.  After a few minutes, however, I began to feel that this diverse and motivated group of students was going to form into a cohesive, interactive whole.  As the evening progressed, I became more convinced of this as we began to discuss and interact more and more.  The Logo session was active and fun and by the end of the evening, I was even pleased at the size of the class.

Having Evrim Baran help with the class will be an important part of our success and our ability to continue to interact and work together.

Somewhat ironically, we will have some visitors from the Turkish Student Project next week---so our group of 21 will turn into a group of more than 25.  I think, however, that we are ready for that.