My idea for class tonight was to take time to tie up some loose ends from the first few weeks: technology and process writing, digital stories in the classroom, Logo and problem solving and TPACK (technological pedagogical content knowledge). Though this seemed like a good idea to me, I think the evening turned into a series of somewhat unrelated topics. If I had it to do over again, I would have presented the topics in a variety of ways and worked for more student involvement.
Highlights of the evening included Dou Dou and Mike's resource presentations. Both presentations were well-organized and each presenter was clear in his/her description of the resource.
I was also pleased with our Logo and problem solving small group discussions---each group added some specifics to our knowledge of how Logo can assist in the teaching/learning of problem solving. Most groups agreed that Logo is a valuable tool for teaching students to solve problems through learning from mistakes. I added the idea that Logo can help students learn to define problems and to divide problems into small pieces.
We will meet online next week and we will also be using the new class wiki to record ideas on pros and cons in the 505 experience. I look forward to learning from student comments.
I have been meaning to learn about SurveyMonkey but never took the time. Thanks, Mike, for the lesson. Also, I think the night went just fine and while it may have seemed disorganized, it really made the night fly by. PLUS - I think the discussion groups were great for the reading.
ReplyDeleteSurveyMonkey is a great tool, thank you Mike. Thanks go to Dou Dou as well for the introduction of Sitman. It for sure can play a part in the language learning classroom. Unfortunately though, most of you in class probably will encounter some barrier downloading the software because the direction is written in Chinese. I'll be happy to help if you are really interested taking a peek at it. Last but not least, I enjoyed the group discussion and sharing in class. It gives me a chance to reflect on what I have read and also learn from others' perspectives. Inspiring!
ReplyDeleteMike's presentation came just in time--I got a Doodle invite to help schedule a movie night with some fellow grad students yesterday. I don't know how Mike did it, but his timing was perfect for me!
ReplyDeleteI've been thinking about Dou Dou's presentation a great deal, as well, and have been wondering about the possibilities it might have for assisting struggling readers in English. I could certainly see it assisting students who struggle with literacy, even in English as a native language.
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ReplyDeleteAnother survey service to consider is AskItOnline.com. It uses an intuitive drag 'n drop survey builder interface - there is almost no learning curve!
ReplyDeleteYou can take a look at it here:
http://www.AskItOnline.com
I especially liked the Survey Monkey presentation as I am doing some survey research for my Master's Degree...too bad Tuesday night was the first time I heard of it. I was wondering about the data analysis capabilities of the program. My surveys asked a lot of demographic information and I have to have someone in the Statistics department analyze the distribution of answers based on background...anybody know the full extent of analysis capable through Survey Monkey (the advanced package)?
ReplyDeleteAnn has previously talked about how multicultural our class is and this became very clear on Tuesday night...every single person at our table represented a different country! I think it is fantastic that we can discuss teaching strategies with input from different backgrounds and cultures.
Thanks to Diana. She mereminded me that I offered a Chinese download address, which cause inconvenience to our class. I apologize for my fault.
ReplyDeleteI spent some time to find out a platform to upload these two software, and I have done just now. Here is the new download address:
Sitman: http://www.rayfile.com/files/9348d5a8-0859-11de-82be-0014221b798a/
Draft: http://www.rayfile.com/files/1d3605d4-0859-11de-b1ff-0014221b798a/
P.S. You can choose English vision on the top.
Dou Dou and Mike, thank you for your presentations!
ReplyDeleteTo add to the list of sites that can be used for creating surveys, I would like to share the following link: http://www.zumerang.com/
I haven't used it myself, but I know that the free version is limited to 30 questions and 100 responses per survey.