Fear of Falling

Tomorrow I will be making a presentation to RASCALS on the topic of Ed-Tech for the first time. While I suspect that all will turn out ok, right now I am imagining all the things that can or may go wrong. I suppose that I am experiencing what my students feel when I ask them to present their work in front of the class in a foreign language... It's the fear of falling -- on my face and being embarrassed. Oh well, one can only hope for the best and know that if you don't try - you can't succeed.

First, there was the idea

I have been thinking about how and why someone would do something new and I have come to the realization that nothing is possible until you have and accept an idea. You have to imagine it and think that you can/might be able to/ do it. Seeing someone around you do something helps you to imagine you can do it too. Being the first in a group to do something because you believe (stubbornly) that you can/should/must/ do something is more difficult. There is an incredible feeling of warmth and good feelings that come with achieving something like that. There are generally no bad feelings to not succeeding right away. Try something. You'll feel better. See: How to Find and Do work you love. Scott Dinsmore TEDx Goldengate

Finding Clarity

I just wanted to say that there is nothing that forces you to learn more that the need to explain something to someone else. The first thing you need to do is to identify the audience so that you can tailor your message to them specifically. This exercise forces me to put myself into my audience's shoes and see what I am doing through their eyes. As I review the information that I could present I am overwhelmed with the sheer amount of it and how quickly it seems to be shifting. So, now I need to look at each program, each app, each site and each blog with an eye to evaluating their pertinence, ease of use and importance to teachers and students. I hope that I can live up to expectations and deliver the definitive must-know presentation that I imagine in my head....

Bread Crumbs

When Hansel and Gretel went into the forest, they left a trail of breadcrumbs so that they could find their way back. That is what I intend to do, but not in order to find my way back. Rather, it is for other teachers and people interested in doing what I am doing to use as a way to follow my lead and to get where I am... until such time as they no longer needed my guidance. --In fact, this set of bread crumbs comes with the ability for them to question and comment on my journey into the deep dark forest of tech. While I don't pretend to know all the answers ( certainly not! ) I may, however, be in a position to point them in the right direction(s). I have recently signed up to give a (potential) presentation at this year's (2013) RASCALS in June to be entitled E-literacy in Education: How to Get There from Here that is meant to be a beginner's "How To" guide and introduction to technology for teachers who don't know where to start (but secretly want to) from the point of view of a self-taught digital immigrant (me) who needs to teach to up-and-coming digital natives (my students) in the way in which they have become accustomed to learning. In this presentation, I intend to leave the participants with addresses, links, examples and a blog that will allow them to begin the journey (well-armed)... when they are ready. As well, I intend to show them what I have done and how I have done it. I want to explain to them why they need to connect with tech and how to do it step by step. I will touch on programs and concepts like Facebook, Twitter, PLN's, MOOC's, crowd-sourcing,and others, in a general way and MOST IMPORTANTLY, leave participants with a list of links of useful applications and games they they can use. I will show them what I do with them in my classroom and ALSO where they can go for most answers -- in the event that they did not understand all the first time (because they are suffering from information overload and jargonitis. ---In other words, I would like the presentation at RASCALS to be the beginning of their journey and not the end of their involvement with ed-tech. There will be a question and answer session at the end of the presentation.

Back again-with a vengence

I have been away for a long time, but not idle. At school they have changed from Moodle 1.9 ( which caused me some frustrations) to Moodle 2.2.3 I have had to re-learn some of the things that I thought I knew... All in all, though, it has been a good experience. Since my last post I have done many things. 1. I have put together an Google sites page that features grammar with explanations and links to screencasts and videos and then I have reworked it to make it more visual and easier to use. This site plugs into Moodle and allows me to feature content that I will not have to redo every time I change classes. 2. I have made my Moodle front page and homework pages much more visual and standard so that the students won't get too confused from week to week. 3. I have discovered how to make a short answer self-correcting quiz in Moodle that I am very proud of. It took me a day and a half of talking to teachers, watching YouTube How To videos and the reading Moodle docs on moodle.org to figure it out. I am anxious to include some visuals of what I have done as a record and for you to see the reslults of my work. I will do so in the next post. I am also looking at some new programs that will allow me to screencast with no time limit and that will also allow me to use my web cam in this endeavour... More later.

New Sight.

I have decided to include a web site in my Moodle where I will stock all the PowerPoints, Help sheets, and web links that I come across. Subsequently I will reorganize and label the links and other to be more helpful to the students. I like the layout options that I get with GOOGLE SITES. Here is a link to my site. https://sites.google.com/site/intunebasicenglishgrammarhelp/

Booo!

I made a quiz on Engrade and discovered that I could not get an embed code and put it into Moodle. Disappointed. The search continues.