Week six is right around the corner.

In week five the students worked on their research papers and classroom web pages and set up blogs. How cool is it for me that I was able to be the one to guide them/require them ;-) to try this new technology. Blogs are actually not a new technology - having being around for close to 15 years, but in education I can remember going to conferences during my PhD where the buzz word was BLOG.  It is also interesting for me to see the results of the poll. Although only a handful say they blog regularly, I'm sure if I also asked how often they post on FaceBook or My Space the results would be regularly. Facebook is in fact a form of blogging. Web logging is journalling - so when people share their thoughts and actions on FB, they are in fact Blogging ;-).

I am guessing that given that several of the blogs for 'me' really have a more personal purpose, students will quickly be creating their second blog ;-)
Students - remember that web based communication tools,  such as your classroom website must have a clear purpose and be appropriate for the target audience. 

This week it is time for students to share their classroom web sites. I am very much looking forward to seeing them. Students - make sure you share on the discussion board as well as submit the mockup and a narrative to the Assignment Dropbox. The weekly expectations give you due dates.


Their other tasks this week are to work on the research paper - Most of these students are at the end of their program and are therefore 'old hat' at writing papers. I have high expectations for the quality of these. Students - make sure you look at the rubric and examples.


Finally - we will be working on looking at copyright and the Internet. The students will be reading some literature on this and then adding to a shared document/presentation on this issue. We have already looked at plagiarism - to make sure students don't breach it on their research papers, so now is time to make sure we are familiar with copyright to ensure it is adhered to during the web development assignments for the course. Students - I have shared with you a google presentation - please check your gmail documents. I did not send an invitation, but you should see it on your documents list.


I will be completely unavailable on Tuesday and Wednesday as I am spending those two days reviewing CTAP grants. I will be able to check email and the course in the evenings only.
It is going to be a rainy weekend. I plan on spending it working on my writing and hopefully doing some grading. I'm sad I won't be outside running or biking, but oh well - everything in moderation.

Research topics and blogs

Well  I have just finished reading student's research paper proposals. I am very impressed that as a group, the students really have a good sense of how tech something we use to teach and not something we teach! Their topics are good examples of ways tech can be used for parent communication, literacy instruction, meeting the needs of all learners, enhancing the core curriculum and so on.

I have also spent time looking at student blogs. So far so good! Looking like this is going to be a fun task!

Welcome!

Welcome to my blog as I teach EDEL 522 in Spring 2011.
The purpose of this blog is for me to reflect on my teaching and more importantly student learning as we work on our EDEL 522 course.
So far we have looked at some of the issues of web design and have come up with a good list of things that we feel should be included in a classroom web site. These include:

• easy navigation
• clearly identifiable sections - parents and students
• information about the teacher
• information about classroom events and curriculum (spelling lists,...)
• student showcase (but remembering safety of students)
• images
• links to homework help, learning units,..

Of course the most important consideration is a clear purpose  and a layout that is appropriate for the intended target audience.

I am looking forward to seeing how the students do at creating their own web sites. They definitely had some grand plans in their mock-ups!