Thursday, December 8, 2011

Week 15: Is it Really Over?

I'll admit that I'm a little sad that this is our last class together.  I have really enjoyed my Thursday evenings this semester.  To see all of the amazing work you have created makes me proud.  The other reason that I'm not very excited to reach the end of the semester is that I have to grade all those TaskStream narratives ;-)  However, I know that you will all do such a great job with them that there will be very little revision necessary, right?  Right?
Yesterday, I started at the first assignment and worked my way up.  That way, I was able to regrade any revisions.  I still have to finish Journals 6-10 and the PLN assignment.  You all still have to complete your iMovie PSAs, emerging tech checklists (Yes, you need the physical checklist!!), your short reflection in Attendance and Participation, Sybaloo Webmix of NETS narratives, and, alas, your final TaskStream narratives.  We will take a few minutes in class to go over the checklists and Symbaloo.  I hope we can embed the webmix into TaskStream!
The majority of class time tonight will be either completing/revising work, or writing your TaskStream narratives.  I will try to touch base with each of you to see if you have any questions about the narratives.  I realize that the majority of you are not really looking forward to writing these, but I expect that you have had enough support to complete the narratives without too much trouble. Before you leave this evening, I expect the blogs to be complete and the Symbaloo webmix to be on your blog and in TaskStream. We also have to discuss the course evaluations, which should have been mailed to your CSUSM email a week or so ago.  And, and, you will be leaving this class with some mad tech skill that no one can ever take away from you. . .So you got that goin' for you, which is nice!

Final Question:  What is the best thing that you will take away from this class?

Thursday, December 1, 2011

Week 14: Almost to the Top of the Mountain!

Here we are approaching the end to a fairly awesome semester.  I have been truly fortunate to have had you ladies in my class this semester.  All of your hard work is going to pay off when you become the tech guru of your future schools!  As such, I am really excited to do yet one more ground-breaking activity to show your proficiency in technology.  Now is when you will use you newly acquired Symbaloo certification to highlight your work for TaskStream.  I have created a webmix for my EDUC 578 course at USD that contains student blogs as well as the tools we used and some other exciting products the students created.  It was not only fun, but the end product is very cool.  Here is a link to the webmix: http://edu.symbaloo.com/mix/educ578
A few amazing things about Symbaloo as a portfolio tool:  If you use a Google Doc as a tile, it will show without having to leave the page (e.g., your TaskStream narratives).  If you add an RSS feed of your blog, the center of the blog will show your latest posts.  The Twitter tile will function in the center as well.  You can name tiles and put pictures or screenshots of your own work on a tile.  And lastly, we will be able to embed the finished product into TaskStream!!
As far as this evening goes, you will be working on your iMovie PSAs and any other work you may be missing.  I will discuss the final TaskStream narratives as well as go over the Symbaloo webmix that will be an impressive portfolio of some of the work you have completed for this class. I also want to apologize for being behind in grading your assignments.  I have been a bit overwhelmed this semester with multiple classes and it has put me a behind in my grading.  I will do my very best to get everything graded by the end of the weekend so you can fix anything that may need to be revised. Please do not hesitate to discuss any assignments that you may need help completing or are not quite understanding.  I can create some time next week to come to campus on a separate day if I need to, but does this required communicating with me.


This Week's Question:  What has been your favorite assignment this semester and why?