Jul 27 2007
Final Project Post
Note, fellow EDC500 class members, I didn’t get to this until late today so if you commented on my “Project Update” I’m sure that Alice will count that as a comment on my Project. CW
Why do this project?
I undertook this project in an attempt to compile the web pages, wikis and blogs that I have created or may need to create. In the past I have had web pages hosted at a variety of addresses that even I couldn’t find, let alone someone else who might have common interest. This blog (http://yestech.edublogs.org) is designed to host my links to school sites, courses I teach as well as my professional portfolio. I needed to spend this week focusing on blogs as a tool for me before I knew enough to follow up on my ideas about ways teachers and students at school could use blogs. My work this week has confirmed what I have read in several blogs about having to write and create a blog for my own purposes before I could offer any guidance to others who might want to try this form of learning reflection for themselves and/or their students.
What is my project?
My project is essentially this blog- Learning & Teaching Using Technology: How can our students share what they have learned? I still have much to learn about fine-tuning this blog to make it the web presence I want it to be.
How have I done this project and what will I continue to do?
I have spent most of the week on this blog and the sites that connect to it. The blog will grow and change as I continue to work on it. In the next few days I will be connecting this blog to other work I have at other Internet addresses and and playing with how the design works and feels. The blog site itself has much more complexity that I haven’t yet fully utilized (e.g. In what areas would images help a reader understand? What about posting videos would be most powerful? Podcasts?) I am not a “journaller” or person given to frequent written reflection so the dates on the last posts of this blog may serve to push me to keep it current. We’ll see!
What will it change in my practice?
I love the idea of having my resources connected to one place that is interactive. I’ve been intimidated to make things so ‘public’, but I’m getting more comfortable and look forward to the feedback it will allow. I hope that several teachers at school will want to develop classroom blogs and we collaborations across classes and schools in various settings.
How is it collaborative?
This project is a big step for me in moving to new ways of collaboration and connecting with other educators. The comments posted have been great and I hope that during the school year the content will be interesting enough to engage teachers at school in online conversations. I see this as a chance to open my work up to parents and students in a new way as perhaps they too will comment and react. If I can interest teachers in blogs for their classrooms that will give me a new connection to what students are learning and writing.
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Hi Cathy,
What a great idea…to construct this blog to keep track of all the other blogs and sites you have out there. I am looking forward to keeping track of your blog…I have already tagged a couple of links you have here for myself!
Thanks for all your insight and expertise this week. We were all fortunate to have you and your skills in class! And it was good having lunch with you! Good luck with your blog!
Julie
Cathy, I think organizing all the info we’ve gained is a good plan. I feel (happily) inundated and look forward to time to go back through and organize and revisit what we’ve done. I found that funny that you feel intimidated,no way, you’re so knowledgeable about all this stuff! You’ve been very helpful to me.
Thanks for your insights. I hope the lab room behaves for you next week!
Chris
I echo Julie’s comment and add this, I’ve just completed the 5th class in a series of 5. I look at your blog and some of the others for this class and I look at the shopping bags full of unfiled notes–well, I would do it differently now. I would set up a blog page for notes and assignments, homework and reactions and I think I would be feeling a whole lot better about my mud room. Thanks Cathy for the offer to allow audit. If I stay on this end of the state next week, I would like to stop in.
You are very well versed in this material and showed this throughout the week. It does seem scary to put things out into the public. I really like the idea of having everything at one site to click and go, its like keeping a well kept filing system.
I’m still trying to wrap my head around all of the different things a blog can do-it’s really overwhelming! And SO EASY! I uploaded my enhanced podcast to my blog and there it was, very simple. Then Mike A showed me how to connect it to iTunes for people to subscribe to. So instead of having to go to 5 different places to access stuff, it can all be held within your blog. Very cool!
I really enjoyed our conversations this week. I hope that we can find a way to help our kids connect online this year. Considering our similiar class situations, I think that it makes a lot of sense-plus it will help us to further develop our web 2.0 skills!
Talk soon,
Steph.
Hi Cathy,
I would be very interested in connecting to your blog later on to find out how you have been able to help the other K-4 teachers you work with find interesting ways on how they can use blogs in the classroom. I struggled this week with finding useful and appropriate ways to use the web2.0 at the younger grades. Any ideas or resources will be great! Thanks, Joyce
Cathy,
Looking over your blogs and sites, as well as those of the others in our class last week, makes me realize how much I still need to know and understand about the Web 2.0 world. (I’m still working on getting comfortable with the Web 1.0!)
I’m glad I am able to take your class next week and have a chance to learn a little more about all these tech things. I hope you have a nice weekend and I’ll see you Monday!
Nancy
Cathy,
It was great to reconnect with you and tell Jessica to stop by and say hello sometimes. Your blog looks great. I think that your blog will be a help to elementary teachers, I know in our system there is certainly not enough support for the elementary side and I see students with a wide array of skills and lack of skills in others. Keep fighting the good fight and I will recommend your course both to elementary and middle school teachers. Thanks for your help and kind words,
Steve
Obviously I’m impressed with the professional look which is something that I need my blog to resemble although being mostly for students, mine needs to be more spicy. Perhaps a cartoon or a silly drawing might do the trick. Yours seems to be able to do several things for you in a way that is clear and concise. I particularly like “great links for kids’ and “resources for Rowe School”. Next year my site will have twitter and meta (once I figure out what they are)! thanks for your help Terry
Cathy, I agree that we have to try things (such as blogs) ourselves before asking others (teachers and/or students) to utilize them! Experimenting helps us to become familiar with the features and to anticipate possible stumbling blocks. You have done a great job of integrating other tools into your blog. The convenience of having everything linked from one space ought to help you keep up with blogging when the school year gets hectic! Have a great school year! –Karen
Cathy,
The success of a project like yours is good planning and follow through. You excel at both of those skills. You have set up a good starting point with your blog. You have a clear understanding of what you want to do with it. Now you just need to fill it with the quality, compelling content you know will make teachers come to it. I’m sure this blog will become a great resource for teachers at Rowe, YES, and well beyond.
Cathy,
I appreciated all of your help and expertise last week during class. I have looked at your blog to get some ideas for my own! I think it will be a great resource for your teachers throughout the school year and in the future. Have a great school year!
Cathy,
I love the comment that you had to make a personal blog before a professional one. This class made me try a lot of new things and now I’m excited about getting other teachers at my school to try some of these. Your project seems like a great extension of the class. Good luck — and I think I’ll subscribe to your RSS to see how it goes.
Jane
This is great and I look forward to hearing how you use it during the year! Great job and thanks for all your thoughtful conversation in class!
Cathy,
I’m an elementary school teacher in Louisiana. I, too, have been hesistant in going public with my blogs and website. I just attended our state educational technology conference. Everything was Web 2.0. I decided to name my new blog Kindergarten 2.0. Global collaboration is the name of the game now.
I have only read a few lines of your blog, but am ready to tag it for future reading. Thanks for you input to the profession. It is truly a new generation in education.
Four years ago I attended the NECC convention in New Orleans. I heard the terms wikkis and blogs for the first time. I was already behind then. Now I realize that social bookmarking is the key ingredient. Hooray for freeware.
By the way, I found your blog because of a question you posed to the Edublogs folks.
Good luck in your class.
Martha