Lena + Midterm!

Molly reviewed an interesting program called Language Environment Analysis from the LENA Foundation, a program that is designed to capture very young children's language environments. Her description of the program was exceptionally clear and well-organized and introduced the class to an innovative technology use for young children.

We spent the rest of the evening taking the midterm quiz---three questions asking students to integrate theory and practice for classroom technology use.

For this week, students will begin to think about the topic for their final paper and post their idea(s) for the paper on our wall in Facebook. Each student will also comment on one or two of their colleagues' ideas.

A Rather Eclectic Evening........

Our face to face reunion after two weeks online featured a variety of activities: digital story awards, midterm review ideas, Stefan and the Promethean Board, Board Maker from David, and the creation of podcasts. The thread that connects all these activities may involve teaching for understanding, metacognition, creating learning environments that include learner, knowledge, assessment and community centeredness, constructivism and even TPACK. Each of our evening's activities could be analyzed using these big ideas......

I enjoyed the creativity and enthusiasm that students brought to the podcasting activity. Given that we were all at the end of a long day, it would have been easy for students to say, "You want us to do What in 10 minutes?" Instead, each duo created an interesting, informative and fun interview. I thought that Evrim's idea of introducing Garage Band after students had their initial podcast recordings worked well. Be sure to listen to your colleagues creations.

Nest week is midterm week. The midterm will include three questions that will ask students to bring together the learning theory and technology applications that have characterized the course. Chapter 9 in Bransford will be useful in thinking about categories of technology use as they relate to learning theory. Students should also review big ideas from Papert, Facebook posts, WebCT discussions and work to tie together big ideas from the class. Evrim and I are available for questions as you review and I will place a review question on Facebook.

Both Evrim and I are enjoying 505 this semester. We have a lively, intelligent group of students who embrace innovation and some of the ambiguity that goes along with innovation in education. The diversity of backgrounds in our 505 community also adds to the learning in the class.

We are Moving Online......

We will be trying our first online experience for class next week, with students participating in two discussions: podcasts and technology supported learning environments. I am also hoping that students will share "delicious" pieces of the readings on our Facebook page. Taken together, all of these activities will help prepare and review for the midterm on Oct. 27. The midterm will focus upon integrating the course readings and the course technology activities.

We viewed some effective and powerful digital stories in class this week and each story provided new insights into the experiences that class members bring to our community. We are asking all students to view and evaluate the remaining digital stories (Dave, Sarah and Julia) online as part of our online week.

Bridget provided a useful overview of resources offered by Adobe and a comprehensive list of Adobe products for different educational levels.

Using the "setup" from Julia's resource review on podcasting from a few weeks back, Evrim introduced the idea of podcast and provided ideas for how to search for podcasts for next week.

I am eager to see how our online adventures turn out over the next couple weeks.