Saturday, October 25, 2008

Become a DEN Star and Teach to the Stars!

I cannot help it! I LOVE to learn and explore. I got an invitation to a FREE online conference on Discovery Educator Network (DEN) website. It was intriguing and promising! All about teaching with Technology. I immediately signed up and joined the conference from 9:00 AM till 3:00PM. I was listening to  the great, enlightening presentations and participated in the chat room with other 200 participants from all over the world. Teachers were sharing their experience with the Web 2.0 tools, their projects, etc. DE provided some flexibility in attending the DEN Virtual Conference - online or in-person at one of many regional events hosted by the DEN Leadership Councils. Here is the conference Flyer. I found out that the conferences happen every week and they issue Professional Development Certificates. What a generous gesture and opportunity for my teacher candidates!
Today's conference featured presentations from Discovery’s own Hall Davidson, Steve Dembo, who spoke about the powerful tools for teachers and students; Jannita Demian and Matt Monjan lead the discussion about the development of the research of H. Garnder on Multipple Intellingences and introduced the different types of Mind (Disciplined Mind, Synthesized Mind, Respectful Mind, and Ethic Mind) and the tools that could be used in the classrooms to feed and stimulate each type. Scott Kinney's presentation was about the Net generation from the point of view of the research on the brain. Fascinating and all presentations were masterfully designed with powerful images and convincing data. Participats were flabeggastered with the shcoking presentation of  Lance Rougeousabout the use of cell phones in the classrooms. All the presenters were involving the audience in their discussions and used tools to demonstrate the polling or surveying tools with the immediate results or video-streaming, etc. I do not regret I registered and spent half of my day on learning and interacting with the DEN stars. Do you want to become a DEN star? Go and explore the Discovery Educator Network site, filll out an application and challenge yourself to learn and prepare yourself for teaching to the Net generation - Digital Natives. Become a DEN star and teach to the stars!

Sunday, October 19, 2008

Test your Knowledge about SIM!

Test your knowledge and understanding of Social Interactive Model (SIM), cooperative and collaborative learning. The Quiz has been created with the Web 2.0 tool My Studiyo.

Sunday, October 5, 2008

The Importance of Feedback

It is amazing how differently students react to the course content and design, how differently reflect on the assignments. When the students are given an opportunity to voice their opinions and express their feedback on the course design and implementation, some of them use this chance to complain, get frustration out of their chests; but the majority seem to be glad to share positive feelings, excitement about the new learning; many develop understanding of how much technology brings to their personal and professional lives. Confidence and tolerance are the outcomes of this process. Most of the students stop being overwhelmed, feeling scared of using the Internet, stop being afraid of trying new technological tools, opening new accounts, joining new social networks.
I am grateful to my students for their sincere comments, insightful reflections, and constructive suggestions for the course improvement. I am open to this kind of feedback. It makes my teaching better. Isn't it the way to go? Isn't it the way to improve your course design and teaching? I will definitely use my students' constructive suggestions and re-design the rest of the course accordingly.
I am very proud of my students who opened their hearts and minds to the new learning. It will be reflected in their new ways of teaching. Here are some podcasts from the course:
Teaching with TecnologyHa3
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TwT MIDTERM,
PodOmaticTake2,
MidtermReflection, , I am sure more podcasts are coming.

Wednesday, October 1, 2008

Follow my Example!

I am experimenting with the podcasting tools. There is an assignment to create one in my TwT class. I assigned my students to create first a PPT and record their comments to the slides and for High Achievers (HA) the challenge is to sign up for a podcasting site and create a podcast using the same content they created for the PPT. Not all my students were clear about the assignments.
So, I created a podcast just to show that is it possible and does not take too much time! Here is the link to my podcast. Follow my example!