Final Project : Part Deux et demi

Alright-y now. I think I have things under control, at least until the I find out I don't. I was able to tweak my project and now feel pretty good about it. I still need to add a few actitities for the kiddies for there will always be those kids who finish early *g* I am excited to try it out.

My project itself can be seen here:
http://www.nfdc.net/home/sinak/middleages/golden.html

The paper describing my thoughts about the tools chosen for the project can be found here:
http://middleagesgoldena.wetpaint.com/

I'm pleased with that. I saw Wetpaint used to a good advantage on some classmates projects. I wanted to try it and then thought, hey, why not with this project? I could have just attached my paper as a .doc (nothing wrong with that) but this gave me a good excuse to play with Wetpaint. I tell you, either I'm getting good at setting up blogs and wikis, or this one was a total nobrainer. I had it up and running, WITH the paper in less than 1/2 hour.

Now onto my next project! *g*

Peace, ya'll

Final Project: Part Deux

Its done! Sort of. Kind of. Almost. Actually it may never get done because there just is not enough time. I was ill and lost some time, but even though I tried to make up the time, I don't think it will be possible to finish this. I keep getting more and more ideas of things to try, things to have to work around, finding out more things I can't do in my school district so I feel that this project will always be evolving and changing and will never really get "done".

I know that I still have to add a few more "quests" to my project, but I wanted to get it turned in before it became way to late for anyone to take a peek at it. I'll keep ya posted!

Final Assessment

I was and still am looking forward to my results of this final project. However, I was hit hard with the flu bug and still am not back to work. I've worked a bit on it here and there during lucid moments and I'm psyched! I can't wait to try the project with the kiddies. With luck, that should only be a couple of months from now. I'll let you know when I'm done *g*

Mod 6 Reading Thoughts

There was quite a lot to digest this week, but I think the one thing that really stood out was the table on page 5 of Applying Instructional Systems Processes to Constructivist Learning Environments by Bill Brandon. The table was called SIDEBAR 1 Attributes of meaningful e-Learning and is about "The primary goal of constructivist design is to engage learners in meaningful learning, which has five interdependent attributes. Technology — e-Learning — should support these same attributes.".

For me, its a concise, practical chart that I can use to keep focused on my intents with the courses I might design. I can see it being easy to integrate with learning objectives, state standards, and individual learning styles.

Are you smarter than a 5th grade pageboy?

I just made my first survey for my Middle Ages unit. The questions were fun to design. I can't wait to see their answers *g*

Are you smarter than a 5th grade pageboy?

Try it... you'll like it!

Bloom's Taxonomy

I was very glad to see the topic of Bloom's Taxonomy in our course. I see so often at the secondary level the big push to get the kids to be higher order thinkers, without realizing that you have to start slow and concrete, working your way up to abstract thoughts. Even with more mature students, if the topic/knowledge area is unfamiliar, start slow and concrete.

What a sense of accomplishment!

I've worked collaboratively with many people in the education field for many years. This was the first time I've worked this way in a NOT face-to-face situation. The project was done completely online, using old tech, new tech and it doesn't work tech. Margaret and Katie were a hoot to work with and we had a few giggles along the way. The adrenaline rush towards the end was no slouch either: and it became apparent that one of the team members tried to have a life! *g* Its now late. To sleep, perchance to dream...about the upcoming thrills of the FINAL!

Quiz & test builders

Well I'll be dashed... as in my hopes. I was thinking that this assignment would bring to light some new and innovative ways to do online quizzes, but that was not to be the case.

On the other hand though, I did find out that the service I am using now, PROPROFS is very, very good especially considering it is a freebie. I've changed my mind in light of what I now know, and have decided that it will be worth my while to tweak it just a bit more. I have also begun to notice that the age/maturity level of your students makes a difference in which tool you can use and how you want to use it. My middle schoolers take great delight in seeing how many ways they can mess up things. I have to design things as idiot-proof as possible. Even then, the little sweeties have found ways to try and beat the system. Gotta luv'em!

Mid-term project

I'm glad to have the chance to examine other online test and quiz builders as assessment tools. I just recently tried one at my school with some 7th graders. It did not work out as well as I had hoped, so I hope to discover what the weak link might be. It might be the actual program I used, it may be something inherent in any online testing program or it may be a flaw in the design of the lesson. I would like to find the answers soon, as I have high hopes to try something like this again in a few months. This should be interesting!

Mod 3 Concept Mapping

After I finished my map, I realized that perhaps I did not really want to make it concentric. I wanted to show the topic (PSP12) and 4 outcomes and 3 tools to use to post/share the outcomes. It is fairly easy to move things around using Inspiration, however I just ran out of time. Where have we heard that line before? *g*

Week Two of Assessments

Howdy all,

I'm in week two of Assessments of E-Learning and now have the joy of doing a weekly reflection. I'm not a blogger by nature so this blog can be said to be very unnatural. But I did read the assignments for this week and have a few thoughts. Here goes.

Edublogs as an online assessment tool

Martindale and Wiley [9] argue that tools like HTML editors and FTP clients have made web publishing available to many teachers and students. However, the challenge of learning to use these tools has been a barrier to web publishing for
many. They further suggest web logs reduce the technical barriers to effective web publishing significantly. “Blogs used for education, dubbed edublogs, are rapidly emerging as techno-savvy teachers embrace the instructional potential of this online tool” [11].

If they are so techno-savvy then why can’t they learn how to use HTML editors and FTP programs, huh?

Benefits of Cooperative Learning in Weblog Networks 2005

First of all the date was not readily found on the article we read, so I found the original in ERIC and saw that it was published in 2005. The guidlines for current issues is that the info not be more than 5 years old. The article itself is within that range, but most of the research this is based on is now too old to be valid.


Besides, as shown in Table 1, most of them (93.3%) expressed their gratitude for this chance of learning a new online communication technology, weblogs, and more than half (71.1%) of the participants indicated that this communication tool helped them to get ideas of how to learn outside classroom. The results was consistent with previous studies (Usuki, 2001; Wenden, 1991) that autonomous learning takes place when the external environment (inside/outside classroom) gives affirmative feedback for learners. Hence, the learning would be stimulated towards the plus cycle.

It took 18 years to figure this out? That’s a whole generation of students from k-12 ! Sheesh That’s a whole generation of students from k-12 ! Sheesh Just about any teacher knows that if the technology is new, the students will gravitate towards it like moths to a flame.

Face-to Face-Interaction: Although using weblogs did help the student in learning, most(91.1%)of them still felt that face-to-face interaction promoted each other’s success.

What about now? I'd like to see a current survey now of students who regularly use online tech for their learning goals. I think that when this particular study was done, the tech was so new that students wanted that F2F as a "lifeline". Today I would think that students feel the need for face to face interaction less. I hypothesis that for many of today's students that online communication/socialization is almost second nature taking into account the popularity of online communities like MySpace and Facebook, and texting as a means of personal communication.

Assessment in E-Learning

Greetings one and all,

Welcome back. Yes...its been a while, but since I only use this blog for my classes, as in the ones I take to develop and improve my mind, it's not going to have too many entries, hehehehe. But seriously, blogging is very simple to do and I like this particular site for its ease of use. (Now can I have my money?) I'll be posting more when I finish reading all the directions and see what I'm supposed to blog about. Otherwise, I just might blather on, but that's OK, because what's the name of my page? RAMBLINGS!

Introduction to Miss Katie

Hi all,

Let me introduce Miss Katie. This would be Ms. Katie L. Wagner Roberts. Miss Katie is a very kind and understanding lady, based on the fact that I was not able reply to her email in a timely fashion and she didn't tell me to bug off. But she is also a go-getter, based on evidence that she solicited a man with whom to do her “interview”. Uh…can I say solicited here in the forum?

Anyway, as this kind lady and I emailed, it became obvious that she has fantasies. One of them revolves around being Brenda Starr. For you youngsters in the audience, Brenda was hot stuff in reporter land. Armed with a buff bod, brains, and a head of red hair that wouldn’t quit, she out-wrote, out-adventured, out-scooped any guy in the newsroom. On top of all that, she managed to keep the twinkle in her eye.

Miss Katie also has visions of being Stephanie Plum. And I quote “I would love to be Stephanie Plum in Janet Evanovich's books (less the getting shot at) because she is just fun and sassy, but has a cool bounty hunter career :)” Hmmmm…what would the kiddies at 4-H have to say about that huh? I have the feeling they would say that Miss Katie is a very fun person.

Although Miss K. would love to live in the middle of nowhere in Ireland or Scotland, she would settle for rural Wisconsin. I guess there’s something to be said about all those cows in the fields making that famous cheese.

As part of our interview, I asked her if she had any bragging rights. Being the very modest person she is, at first she demurred. I had to put the pressure on (eat your heart out, Barbara Walters) and Miss Katie let slip that her face has graced the small screen. Yes! We have our very own TV star. Turns out Miss Katie had a TV show while she was in college. Imagine that!

When asked about a career choice if money was not an issue, Miss Katie replied that she would love to be a Mom and be able to have a whole houseful of adopted kids, the kids who so much need love. A minivan of kids in not in the cards right now, but she has the Mom part down and I would have to guess that Miss Katie’s biggest thrill is to brag about her daughter. They adopted her from China and it will be three years ago this March. Yoo hoo!

So there is Miss Katie. She may appear to be a 4-H Youth Development Educator for University of Illinois Extension in McHenry County, but underneath the facade she is a dynamo. Watch out for this Wonder Woman from Wonder Lake.