Time went ...fast

The road to an online teacher certification was a long and winding one.  As I look back I am struck by a few things, call them ahah moments..
First thought is that I have only scratched the surface of what is available to share with my students.  My job as an online facilitator is to guide, motivate and inspire my charges to learn.  With everything else pulling on their time I need to put together a program of learning that guides, motivates and inspires.  A gargantuan task at best.  Little by little I can build my online toolbox much like I built my traditional classroom tool chest. I will succeed at times and fail at others.. such is the nature of teaching.
My second thought is that as a life long learner I am in awe at everything I can learn by searching for material for my classes.  How can one not want to learn using the material at hand?  If we tailor a class to specific learning needs and build in different levels so different learners can be success across a broad spectrum we have hit the learning jackpot.  Easier said then done.  I am not naive enough to assume that this is going to be easy.  My hope is that I am given the time and scope to be successful.
I was exposed to so much, now the job of building my online course can begin....

Reinventing the Wheel

This course I am taking has forced me to look at things through a different lense.  As I develop new and innovative class activities I am looking at a vast amount of online material and wondering how do I compete?  I am not a web designer, I have never shot any video, nor am I interested in editing anything for the classroom.  I have never made a podcast.  But have spent countless hours watching other casts and videos.
How do I keep my students interested.  I have a full spectrum of students in my classes.  The material and Power Points I use is AP need to be different then the ones I use in a regular class.  As I update material I try to incorporate as much new material as I can.  Using new video, or existing websites I don't have to start from the ground up.  There are many useful sites to get information from.
As educators we need to teach students how to navigate this  "sea of information".  At times it can be an undaunting task to navigate information and present it in a way that our students can digest.  Now add to this the development of an online class.  From first hand experience I know how many hours are needed to develop and maintain an online class. 

Using the Cloud

I tried something new this week...  I have been uploading my PowerPoint presentations, my study guides and any lab or other activities to the cloud.  My District is using Window's live sky drive to replace the servers the District maintains.  By the end of the year we have been instructed to move files because they will be wiped out after June.  So I have been moving the most recent ones to the Sky drive.  I gave my AP biology students non editing rights to the AP folder.  I made sure test and quizzes are in a different folder.  When we were in the computer lab I had the students access the folder and open the document with the activity instructions.  Everyone got on, got the document opened and were super excited.  It was a great educational experience.  They now have access to the lecture notes, lab activities and related materials.

Social Bookmarking-What's in it for me

I spent hours looking at the different website on social bookmarking.   A few years ago I took a course on Web tools 2.0.  I signed up for a Delicious account, used it for the course and forgot about it.  I was unsure how I would use it in the classroom.  I was going to use it for my resource only.  Things have changed..  I really like Diigo.  I have consolidated all my bookmarks from home, school, and Ipad.  

Not being a digital native does not mean I am digitally naive.  It just takes a while for me to transfer the social technology to classroom use. I must admit I have spent many hours “Stumbling” on the Ipad for entertainment.  I am sure my students have spend countless hours doing the same.

What uses can social bookmarking play in the education world?

1.  Consolidation of bookmarks from different machines.Teach in more then one room or building, no problem, your bookmarks sit on a website

2.  Organizing my bookmarks to be used by different classes.  The bookmarks I want my Biology students to use for web-quests or other research will be somewhat different from the bookmarks my AP biology students will use.

3. Set up of a bookmark sharing system. For example, I want to set up a bookmark sharing with my AP Biology students where we share bookmarks on a current topic of study. With the description and tagging capabilities this could be a great  resource.

4.  The ease by which others can comment or edit makes these sites truly “Social”, it did take me a while to realize this.  One of the 21 century skills is collaboration.  Social bookmarking is a perfect way to practice collaboration.

I am open to uses of technology but I have not fully embraced the social side of it.  Most of the sites allow for links to Facebook.  People can share information easily, but at what cost?  Are we becoming “overinformed”?  Is there such a thing as having too much information?  As educators we have the job of helping students sift through this information.  Teaching them fact from fiction, truths from half truths, collaboration  for mindless banter.

On the quest to online certification

Hopefully through this course I will be able to tap into the resources available for 21st century learning.  Most of the students I work with have been labeled "digital natives".  What does this mean...? It could mean that they are well versed in using the digital media available to them.  Learning and sharing the knowledge they gain.  It could also mean that they plunder around in cyber space carelessly posting this and that, not really learning anything but wasting an awful amount of time.
I want to find a way to use social media, blogs, the web, ....... whatever is the digital buzz word du jour to enhance my Biology teaching.  Most of the educators I talk to have no real insight into how to use this new tool.  I want to start somewhere.  Outside of using YouTube videos, down loading pictures for PowerPoint presentations or finding podcasts this is my extent of using Web tools.  I believe I am missing out on many tools available to me to add to my"digital tool belt".

For this class I will set up a Google Docs page for students to post current event articles relating to topics covered in biology.  I have used Google Docs before and was not impressed.  I used the spreadsheet version with better success.

I would also like to teach my AP biology class at least part on line using the Moodle format the District has provided.  I worked on the design and implementation of the Hybrid Biology course currently being taught at Central and Hale so I am hoping this is possible. Most Colleges offer classes online and this would be a great way to give my students a taste of digital learning.