Sunday, February 6, 2011

Class #2 Homework

I thought a lot about what I really wanted to learn from this class or "get" before Spring Break.  There are so many things, so in the spirit of being "realistic", I have narrowed it down to three things: Google Docs, creating a slideshow/movie (with music) to show at Back To School Night, and Podcasts.  I got the podcast idea after sharing with our Director of Technology that I was thinking of filming staff using the Flip Video and emailing it out as a way for peer coaching to occur without the teachers having to get sub release time to observe each other.  She suggested that I use the IPOD touches to film and then downloading it to Itunes and creating podcasts???  YIKES!  I have no idea what I am getting myself into but it sounds pretty cool so I think what I'll do is take on both - Flip Video/email and Ipod touch/podcast - and then compare and decide which is easiest, most effective, best quality etc.

As for looking through our district's technology plan...Sherwood's current plan was written in 2009 and goes through to 2012.  I was pretty impressed by the entire document.  I thought it was very forward thinking/looking.  The section I chose to share was regarding "communication".  The objective that is written in the plan is "Provide staff and students with reliable online communication and collaboration tools".  Evidence of progress was stated as, "Open source curriculum management and blogging software has been installed to provide on-line collaboration (ex: Moodle, Drupal, and Metadot)".  "The district will provide collaboration software to all students as determined by the tech committee (Google Docs, Gmail, blogging)".  It was obvious to me why this was "forward looking" since it was written in 09 and as I sit in February of 2011, I know little of Drupal or Metadot and am just learning about Google Docs and blogging!  Maybe it's just me that's a little behind.  Hmmmmm...  :)

1 comment:

  1. I fully support the plan for your project. You'll do fine. Remember, only the newest iPod Touch devices have cameras, but they're amazing! Who needs a $700 video camera to do what you can do (and a lot more!) with a $229 iPod. Good for Sherwood to be ahead of the curve. Moodle and Drupal are relatives in the open source world. Metadot I don't know much about.

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