This week we continued to explore google sites, wikis, and twitter. I have continued to work on my google site for the girls basketball team and I am now following 41 people on twitter. Twitter continues to be a great source for new resources and interesting articles. We also discussed screencasting and facebook.
Screencasting is something that I have done before. One of my goals is to eventually create a flipped classroom. This means that the majority of the instruction occurs outside of the classroom and in class time is devoted for group work, activities, and labs. Some of the screencasting services that we checked out are: Screenr, ScreenJelly, Vocaroo, GabCast, Eyejot, Yodio, JingProject, ScreenCastle, ScreenToaster. I have used eyejot, and jing before. I currently use quicktime's screencasting feature. After recording a screencast with quicktime, I typically upload it to schooltube. I am excited to check out the other services as well.
Facebook is a familiar and popular social networking tool. I like the idea of creating a page for MEIT students and graduates so that we can continue to stay in touch and collaborate about educational technology.
I wish I was able to be assured that the majority of my students either have access or would access something outside of school for school purposes. Most of my students see the school day as something to be endured so that they can enjoy real life later. Many of my students fundamentally do not understand the point of going to school, and do not value the education that they would be able to get if they chose to participate constructively during the school day. These same students also do not understand that if they are engaged in the classes, the school day won't seem as long and they would be less bored. While I applaud you on wanting to have a "flipped classroom" would you have the student buy-in to be able to actually do it? Personally, I am pretty sure that the students I serve in MPS would not buy in since it would effectively extend their school day and they feel that they "waste enough time in school" to do anything outside of it. And yes, I have asked, "Then why waste your time in school, and participate and learn?" This question is usually answered by a blank stare.
ReplyDeleteI'd love to hear more about how you are implementing your Google site for Girls Basketball. I coach the swim team and would love to know what you've found that works and does not work with an athletics website.
ReplyDeleteI love the concept of the flipped classroom and I would like to know how you plan to address the access issue. At my virtual school, every student has a computer to access the podcast, but we don't have the classroom element so it doesn't really apply.
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