The major lesson learned this summer session was that it takes a considerable amount of time to remain current on technological innovations. Considering the amount of time I spent researching Twitter to determine how the service would impact and potentially benefit students, it is impossible for me to do that with all the technologies being seemingly developed on a daily basis. The benefits gained by taking this class has been to realize what can be gained by participating in forums with my peers to share knowlege via wikis, blogs and other forums.

There are several of the technologies currently being updated in the wiki that I want to try to implement over the next year. These include google apps, social networking sites and Twitter. I would not have been able to even begin to see the big picture of how all these technologies can be used within an academic setting to engage students and enhance learning without this course. Most of these technologies however seem to be somewhat more asynchronous in nature. I did enjoy using Wimba to interact with the class. I think this type of conferencing technology does enhance the distance learning experience by allowing real time, synchronous interaction among two or more individuals. This is a distinct advantage over chat format type interaction. Wimba allows the flexibility of distance education (DE) while providing audio, video, and chat to build deeper relationships than a fully asynchronous distance ed course is able.

While DE is the wave of the future, I believe that the relationships developed between classmates and teacher-student are vital for authentic learning and student success. The technologies we reviewed this semester provides a platform that can be integrated to meet the needs of most students.

-David

The most beneficial aspect of this course, and what I have learned the most from, is the other chapters that everyone has been working on. It has been great to see what technologies are out there and how they can be used for education. It is hard to keep up with everything, but even more, sometimes hard to remember what all is out there or know how to use it. I was already familiar many of the technologies, but didn't know how to use them in the classroom, or see a possible application for them.

As for what I will do with what I have learned, I really don't know. My teaching arena is limited; the format is a bit prescribed. I have tried to incorporate technological aspects into my classes, but it has been very frustrating because a lot of my students have no computer skills, and many have no desire to learn. Even getting them to type a paper is difficult - and very intimidating for many of them. I am going to try and use more technology, but in a supportive, not required manner, such as using a blog for reviewing, links, reminders, questions, etc.

Another aspect of this course that I believe will continue to be a good resource is the lesson plan section of each chapter - having more of a list of links with brief descriptions of good lesson plans would be a great tool.

-Rebecca

I think what I learned from the course is, that after my year and half hiatus, technology moves quickly, and continues to build up steam. I am a geek, to the core, and even being in the computer education field, there is quite a bit you miss. I’m glad to a part of a collaborative again; a group working closely toward a common goal. Although teaching should be a collaboration of minds, many times it’s not. I miss the gathering of minds that took place in this class. We all feed off of each others’ strengths and weaknesses.

With the work that Rebecca McKinley put into her Google Applications section of the wiki, I am, once again, going to push for its adoption at our school district. I agree that it is an amazing tool; inexpensive and useful beyond words.
As far as sharing new technology, my hats off to David for bringing Twitter back from the dead. I introduced it to some new friends and some old ones as well. They haven’t stopped. It’s highly addictive and fun. I am forcing myself to keep from re-opening my account.

David,

I agree that it just takes so much time to stay current; it doesn't really seem possible to stay current and teach and grade and have a life. I am a fan of Wimba, as well, but as with all technologies, there are limitations. I used Elluminate with high school students and it wasn't possible to coordinate schedules to have synchronous classes. It was difficult to even get students to sign on to talk to teachers one on one. Finding a way to get the students to sign on, and to incorporate it into the teaching was always a challenge. Collaboration and ideas from other instructors, as this class has done, is one of the top resources I can have as an educator.

-Rebecca

David,

I think you're dead on about teacher-student and classmate relationships being vital. And one of the things I've been most pleased to learn in this class is how some of the technologies show real promise for establishing and promoting those relationships--way beyond my expectations. Wimba, for example. Hadn't used it before last month (okay, hadn't *heard* of it before last month) and now I feel like I could do an ad for it.

Then, too, I've learned at look at technologies from the point of view of an educator--something I hadn't done before. It's been seriously instructive to me to hear how folks in education think and feel about these technologies and how they might be used in real-life settings.

-Emily

Rebecca,

Totally agree--keeping current on this stuff is a job in and of itself. When this class ends, it'll be back to the grapevine for me, I suppose.

Oh, if only there was an RSS feed out there somewhere that delivered sound-byte descriptions of new technologies in an educational context...

-Emily

The major lesson I learned from taking this summer course is a new method of learning. I never thought in a million years I would take part in writing a book. Well, somewhat exaggerating here, but it was interesting, time-consuming, and a challenge in working on this project. Now I really feel for writers and admire them for their work. This wasn't the first time I've worked with wiki, but it was the first creating pages within my assignment. The frustratration I had, and due to my part, was researching the topic I selected. If I knew that it didn't have that much to offer to education, I would've selected a different topic. On the other hand, I've sincerely enjoyed communicating with my peers. The feedback was very helpful in completing the tasks required.
I think what I would take from this class and try to use more often are the tools that were researched within this course. Some programs can be useful and with further research and use I think can implement one or two tools. What was exciting during the whole research was the new technology tools that are being developed for teachers. For example, Yahoo is creating a site for teachers called Yahoo Teachers. I ran into this site searching for lesson plans for my tools and glanced through the site. If anyone is interested in evaluating this site, here is the address: http://teachers.yahoo.com/. This summer course was different from my other courses but I enjoyed the time communicating with my peers and gathering their thoughts and also experiencing their learning methods.
Veronica Baca

Kerry,
As a computer teacher, its not going to be that difficult using several of these tools that were researched. Do you have any ideas how you will implement them?
Veronica Baca

Rebecca,
I agree with you that it will be somewhat difficult to implement several of these tools within our classes due to the limited skills students have or the resources provided. I'm a physical educator but I still would like to implement one of these researched tools into my health session. I'm also happy that we are including lesson plans so we can view the variety of ways to include with our classes.
Veronica Baca

Veronica,

Perhaps you could use some of these tools to keep your students thinking about nutrition and education outside class time. Perhaps sending Twitter updates on their sporting/exercise activities outside school hours and sharing nutrious recipes/snack ideas via a wiki or blog? i think one of the best benefits of the tools is to create collaborative student communities that can continue to learn because they stay connected.

David

Kerry,

I think your students would benefit from a project much like the one we are doing in this course. Every semester have your students conduct research on what the latest technological tools being developed and used. It can be as easy as just a setence or two describing the tool to more in-depth depending on the level of the students. It would be interesting on what they think is the "killer" new app.

David

David,
I"ll take your suggestion in the upcoming school year. I would like to do something different this year. I'll take great interest during your presentation on Twitter and evaluate the tool more. Thanks again.
Veronica Baca

All,

I came across this eLearning blog and thought I'd share it with you: http://elearningtech.blogspot.com/

It's put out by the head of an e-learning development firm who seems to have a bunch of creds... I found it while researching a different project, but it's got a ton of stuff related to what we've been talking about in this class, especially the e-learning 2.0 stuff (wikis, sns, etc.) The blog seems to be updated pretty frequently, and there's a feed available, too.

-Emily

I would definitely say that this class has been an eye-opening experience for me. This is the one of my first two classes towards my Master's and I feel I have already learned so much. I took what I have learned about wikis and implemented wikis in a collaborative group project in my other class. As far as blogging is concerned, I never knew how easy it is to use them in a classroom setting. I can't wait to set up an account and introduce them to my campus this coming Fall. I'm sure I'll have to ask my ISD if they already have a preferred blogging website and if they already have a parental permission form that I'll probably have to translate for my classroom parents.

What I also found amazing is how much one interacts with classmates even more so because this is an online course. I know in the past, I have sat in class a whole semester and if not assigned a group project, I know I had not spoken to anybody there. Yes, I'm a bit shy so for me, I feel it has been much easier to communicate via online than in person.

The only drawback I see to implementation of all of these great emerging technologies is whether or not they are blocked by the school distric's filtering software. I know that MySpace and Facebook are a definite no-no in my district, but I'm sure there are ways of using them from home.

-Paola

Just going through and searching for lesson plans led to page after page and ideas and other technologies. It really can be overwhelming to try and keep up with everything out there. I think as an educator, there are a lot of criteria to evaluate, and I think price should be one of the top factors. There are so many great free technologies that we have just explored, it doesn't make a lot of sense to look for solutions that cost.

Rebecca

Here is a high school that incorporates a lot of technology - they have won two Webby Awards. http://voice.paly.net/

Everything was interesting for me. I had heard of VoiceThread and registered for an account but hadn't done anything with it past that point. I am so glad that I chose VT for my topic. After having done so much research and plain searching for information, I was excited to actually meet the two co-founders at NECC in San Antonio. It is easy to tell that they are still two people trying to provide a service that they really believe in. They are in constant development trying to improve their product, especially for the education sector. I will definitely be using VT this coming school year.

As for the other chapters in the book, I am still learning so much. As everyone has said, there is so much out there and plenty of information but not enough time. I've already started using and understanding social bookmarking sites. I had looked into the idea of using blogs in my classroom at the end of last school year, so I will definitely be going to Paola's section as I am doing my planning. Twitter is another technology that I didn't really see the purpose of but wanted to try. I think I may have posted 2 'tweets'; I had never considered that it could be used in the classroom - something I definitely plan to look into this fall as well. I have already been sharing this link with others in the ed tech field; I have heard great feedback so far.

Overall, I just love this junk! This is just my second semester in the program, but it's already so much more than I expected. I was quite worried about DE - getting things done on time and being completely on your own. However, like Paola mentioned, the interaction is an added benefit. The brief bios w/pics and Wimba meetings add that personal feeling.

So much new information to keep up with!

Courtney

Paola,

I think that student interaction has to be one of the best thing about these courses. It's nice to see the collaboration between minds and watching an idea take form and grow, much like our wiki. If this is only the second class going towards you masters, you have tons of interaction on the horizon...it's fun.

David,

I love the way we have all become experts on our piece of the wiki. From learners, to experts, to salesmen. Lol. I will be back to Twitter soon, and I blame you. Thank you...sincerely.

What have I learned through taking this course? Well, because of Paola’s tremendous work, I learned about blogs and their potential impact in education. Veronica’s chapter was so enticing that I created a facebook and a myspace account. Because of Rebecca’s exceptional work, I learned about all of the different applications that Google has to offer and their tremendous potential in education. Because of Kerry’s invaluable work, now I know what the orange button in my browser is for and can use RSS feeds to keep me abreast of the news and topics of my interest. Courtney’s work was also very enticing to the point that I will try to incorporate voice threads this year in my curriculum. Emily’s work with Creative Commons as well as Dawn’s work with the Grid were also invaluable to me. And I am certainly going to encourage some of the English teachers in my school to try to incorporate the use of Twitter in their curriculum because of David’s extensive work on this topic and his suggestions on how to incorporate Twitter in education. However, the one topic that I cannot wait to share with my colleagues is the tagging and social bookmarking topic. I admit, I am being biased. But I sincerely feel that creating social networks among educators can have a tremendous impact in education. Can you imagine how much can be shared among educators rather seamlessly? Surely, our students will be the ones reaping the benefits from an exchange of information by educators through social bookmarking.

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In echoing David’s response, I also feel that it takes tremendous work just to keep abreast of all of the innovations to technology. Before this course, I was not aware of any of the topics that we are collaborating on. I cannot imagine trying to learn all of these topics on my own. The collaboration involved in this course has taught me to not be afraid to participate in blogs, forums, discussion boards, etc. Having to learn all of these technologies from the exceptional work that my peers have done was a tremendous benefit in taking this course. This was a great course. I enjoyed it tremendously.

Time and resources! So little and so few.

The wiki made course collaboration always imminent and pervasive, at times, almost intrusive. Because so much is possible, more is required. Think about it. In a traditional class, we would never have submitted the volume of data we submitted online and in a few weeks. So, what does this mean? Because the course is online, you actually have more time? You can assume that it's not time but access. But do you always have access any time?

My first online course was in 2001 and I was using dial up. The major benefit was that I could participate in the course on my own time. As technology advanced, online course requirements picked up: discussion boards, papers, chat sessions, presentations, and added deadlines. Time evaporates quickly.

Currently, I am taking a second online course. The instructor is located in China. Now I must contend with time zones. Keeping track of work, family and online course schedules is manageable but just barely.

Time to learn new technologies - well, there in lies a bigger problem. However, in this course, I was forced to discover new technologies. I had a surface knowledge of grids, and still do. But I am able to discuss them with others and debate their benefits to education. I also made myself apply Twitter, Ning, and tag clouds in my technology practices. I would not have done this before this class.

Paola mentioned the interaction in this course, and several people echoed the sentiment...

I have to agree that there's something unique about non-face-to-face communication. In a way, it's harder, because I'm big into body language. ("Am I boring people? Are they laughing? Are they interested? Do they look like they believe what *they're* saying?" etc., etc., etc.)

But there's something beautiful about having a few minutes to completely compose a thought, rather than just chat off the top of your head. And so powerful! I was thinking about this during Marco's presentation on tags & tag clouds--the power of that technology is a lot of people who don't know each other face-to-face are willing to help each other out by expressing their opinions. As I recall, that's what catapulted Amazon to the top of the heap so quickly--they were one of the first to jump onto the ratings bandwagon, which is the same kind of thing.

Anyway--I had never looked at asynchronous communication in this light before this class. Thanks, y'all...

-Emily

Dawn,

You're so right about the pervasiveness of the wiki work! I imagine it's the fact that you know other people are (could be) looking at your work--not just the instructor and your classmates-- so you want to put your best foot forward. But there's also something addictive about calling up the wiki to see what other people have added... See what's new... And to be able to participate in 15-minute snippets throughout the day (and night) is incredible. But yeah--it's like there's never an "off" switch: there's always something you can be adding and improving, and adding to and improving a wiki chapter is somehow more enticing than other assignments...

-Emily

All,

Dr. Butler mentioned Ning in last night's class. I had heard "Ning" but didn't know anything about it (so close to ping and png and ...) But check out this link: http://education.ning.com/

Apparently it's a social networking site (like MySpace/Facebook) but for some reason it's really resonating with educators, to the point where they're considering an ad-free version just for education. This class has really opened my eyes to the Net as educational tool.... I will never view it as primarily a business/personal tool again.

-Emily

Emily -

Ning is a social network but much more intuitive. It's very similar to working on a Share Point server or listserv. I use it for ad hoc committees on campus and discussion groups between our campuses. What makes Ning so popular is that it's very easy to set up a meaningful and interesting site. And, it can be private, which is what we do for our committee work.

I've used and developed several opensource/free blogs, wikis, listservs, learning management systems (Drupal, Moodle, etc.) and web applications (dotnet, etc.). I think the best blog is Typepad, but it's not free. I'm seriously thinking about moving my stuff to Typepad.

I also subscribe to enotes.com. It's possible to spend lots of money on the net. So, you need to be a very discriminating shopper of Internet resources.

~ Dawn