Blogs and Wikis in Education

This was another fun and informative week in our course. My opinion of blogs and wikis in education really evolved quite a bit this week. I was a little bit hesitant and skeptical about using either in the education field, particularly K-12. My mindset change began early in the week with our assigned reading. Will Richardson joked in the text that some readers may be thinking, "This isn't appropriate for education" or "This will never work in my school." He went on to explain the ways that it CAN work and IS working.

I loved the section on Wikipedia. As I mentioned in my post, I came to understand Richardson's philosophy and perspective. I think the phrase that struck me most in the reading was, "...everyone together is smarter than anyone alone." I realized what an excellent collaborative tool a blog or a wiki can be. And my security fears were put at ease with some of Richardson's suggestions about security for K-12 blogs and wikis.

I also very much enjoyed the "Blog Hunt" discussion. I love the discussion topics where we find and share resources. I was able to view many educational blogs that were posted by my classmates. I have bookmarked several and plan to return to them often.

It has been another great week, and I look forward to the upcoming week of coursework.

Until next time...

CBT Course Evaluations

This week's assignment regarding the evaluation of CBT courses was a lot of fun. I enjoyed exploring some of the resources out there, especially for educators. I decided to evaluate two specific lessons from two great websites for educators: http://www.atomiclearning.com/ and http://www.internet4classrooms.com/.

I also found some wonderful new resources through some of my classmates' evaluations. Some I have decided to explore and perhaps utilize in the future are: http://www.brainpop.com/, http://www.howstuffworks.com/, and http://www.computerlabkids.com/. I look forward to more classmates' posts to see what they have found.

I'm taking most of the day off tomorrow (from school work). I will be attending the homecoming festivities of my alma mater with my father and my son. Three generations, how fun is that?

Until next time...

End of week 2

I have really enjoyed the readings and assignments this week. My Bachelor's degree is in psychology, and my Master's degree is in education with a counseling emphasis, so the readings on learning theories were a pleasant review. I have also taught several courses relating to various components of learning theory, so reading some of those specifics again helped me feel more comfortable with this course's subject matter. Now if I could just be more confident with the technological components!

My parents are both educators, so I often discuss topics and readings from my courses with them. I read them the section of the Richardson text about "digital immigrants." We joked that they carry the three "accents" mentioned.

I sent invitations to my blog, and I am pleased to see that so many classmates have accepted. I have a few comments - very positive about my blog, and also giving me some needed encouragement. Thank you!

I have enjoyed some IM communication with classmates and Dr. Green. I use IM quite a bit in communicating with other faculty at my institution. I also train new faculty, so I always give them my IM ID during training so that they can contact me with any questions that arise. It has been fun communicating with some of my friends in this class, and I look forward to that continuing throughout the term.

I'm looking forward to week 3 and our readings, research, and discussions on CBT & WBT.

Until next time...

Blog Title

For those of you who may be wondering about my blog title, it seems to be my daily mantra. Whether I'm contemplating my ability to jump into so many new technological challenges for this course, continuing my PhD program while working full time and trying to be a good (single) mother, or teaching a new course with all of its demands, I tell myself "I can do this!" on a daily basis (at least!). I decided it seemed to fit me pretty well - determined, optimistic, with a touch of humor.

Until next time...

Back in the swing of things

Quite honestly, this has been a rough couple of weeks. I lost a very good friend whom I had known since we were four years old. When we returned home from his service, we had a voice mail message that my grandfather had passed away. We will be traveling for his funeral this weekend.

There have been several times when I thought that dropping this course may be the best option for me. I decided that I wasn't REALLY that far behind, and would try to work at getting caught up. I am so excited for the subject matter - I know it will be a lot of fun.

Until next time...