Final Thoughts

This class went by so quickly! I can't believe we're nearing the end of the semester already. I've learned a lot, though, in the short amount of time, and I know that I will be able to transfer the knowledge gained into my classroom. Here's a summary of the assignments and some final thoughts about them:

Pageflakes Assignment: This assignment was pretty fun. I felt like I was making a digital bulletin board for my class--one that would be the "go to" site for all my students. It was easy to create, and once it's created, I can see how it would be easy to maintain. I foresee using this as the portal through which students could view Web Quests, hypermedia tutorials, etc.

Newsletter (word processing): I was so proud of this assignment! It really took some work getting Word to do what I wanted it to in terms of design, but I was really pleased with the finished product. The nice thing about working like in Word is that you don't have to know some of the more technical design elements and techniques to create an attractive newsletter for parents or students.

Blog: I was born to blog. I love blogging. I will blog until the day I die. A blog for my classroom or for parents is no exception. I think I will always maintain one. It's an easy, fun way to share what is going on in your classroom.

Inspiration: Another cool teaching tool. I enjoyed creating an interactive web for students to use as a learning tool and a model for creating their own. I think this program probably has a lot of additional uses that we didn't get to explore. I'd like to learn about those, too. My main complaint was the art you could use from was really dated looking. To update it, you'd have to have images stored elsewhere and import them to the program. That's not hard to do, but one-stop-shopping is best.

Google Docs: This was a project I wasn't too excited about at first. My experience with Google Docs was that it had less features and was more cumbersome than Word. However, the ease of being able to work on the same document from anywhere and the possibility of multiple people being able to share changes to a document make it an excellent tool for daily life and classroom life.

Hypermedia: I was really excited about this project. But I was also really disappointed with my results. I wanted the project to show the numerous ways to "read" a poem. I think I posted another hypermedia poetry project created by another teacher on my blog. He did a much better job creating an artistic experience for the viewer/reader. I'll keep playing around with this idea though. It has a lot of potential and I'd like to perfect it.

Wiki Page: This assignment was neat. I like the idea of being able to allow multiple people to access and edit a site. I also enjoyed learning about different technologies. I was especially excited to discover and research Wordle. I've been playing around with Wordle ever since.

Podcasting/Desktop Movie: I liked this assignment. Unfortunately, it was another example of being disappointed with my results. I wanted to do more with the music and sound and make that the focal piece of the movie, but just couldn't master it in time to turn it in.

Web Authoring: Creating a Web Quest lesson was fun. As I said on my last blog post, I wasn't sure about the value of a Web Quest until I started describing it to someone. The one-stop-shop assignment seems so much easier to use than stacks of handouts. Additionally, the teacher can lead students to appropriate resources.

Overall, I learned so much through this course. I almost, ALMOST, wish it could be longer so that we could spend more time on these projects and others. I can't wait to apply what I've learned to my classroom.

My Web Quest Experience

Visit my web quest page to see a lesson I designed for a high school language arts class. I have to tell you, this was TIME CONSUMING! And at first, I didn't see the benefit of a web quest at all. Couldn't I accomplish the same thing with handouts? But, as I described what a web quest was to a friend of mine, I found myself listing some of these important features:

• Links to APPROPRIATE web pages for research
• All resources are available at all times--students can't "lose" the information about the assignment
• Links throughout allow students to see how evaluation ties in with standards or process
• Parents can see exactly what was assigned, so there is nothing lost in translation
• etc.

I used Quest Garden to create mine. All the built in guides and resources were incredibly helpful. I used the 30 Day Free Trail, but I would gladly pay to use this web host, at least as a new teacher who might still need some guidance from time to time. The site had a tendency to be really slow, but the resources made the bugs worth it. At least for me.