New blog start

After being insoired by a week of ed tech speakers and seesions, I'm thinking of starting to blog again.

The future of my blog

This has been a real learning experience, but, frankly it might be difficult to continue posting. Once school starts, I'll be very involved in our school website and the blogs and wikis I have set up for my classes. Actually I might continue to follow some of the other blogs that got started in this course. I got really into some of them - and you know who you are!

Internet Safety Webquest

I like using a webquest similar to this one especially as a beginning activity for middle schoolers. For my kids, I'd tweak it a little and have the groups post their work in Edmodo, which we have used before. The final product could be a PSA podcast or a poster on Glogster.

Pod and Vod casting

We have been using video in our schools since we got a subscription to Discovery Education (United Streaming). I really liked the "Room 208" podcasts and it's clear the students are really into it. The video productions are going to be a challenge for my school because the computer lab is limited to only 3 webcams. I gotta figure a way to use the few we have as a resource for small groups. .

Viewing the chat that I missed

I was sorry to have missed the chat (tech diff) but glad that I could go back and see it. Maryann mentioned Gcast and I think I want to explore that more.

Session 2

I really liked Mr. Coyle's 8th Grade blog. It was pretty clear that these students have been blogging for a long time and the organization structure works. It intimidates me but I really want to try it with my incoming 8th graders.

Beach Thoughts

Spending time down at the seashore thinking how it all connects. I very much hope that the way I use Web 2.0 with my middle school students will allow them to be the doers, not just the receivers of "stuff" on the web. So many time, they just get a topic and then google it, then copy and paste whatever they find and submit it.

That's dull and illegal and so missing the opportunities (sp?) the web really offers.

I also love watching my dog leap in the surf with about 20 others during "dog" time!