All,
One final thanks to everyone for your participation in last week's workshop. Our ad hoc planning group from the Mellon Center, Ames, and IT have already met once to discuss how we can continue the conversation. We've got a plan for the summer, anyway.
In the short term, we plan to maintain the wiki as a repository of resources on instructional technology and pedagogy, including links to tools or articles that might be of interest. For those who need cyber-directions back to the wiki, here is the url:
http://iwu.wikispaces.com/
We have also created this blogspace as a venue to be used for comment and discussion. The IWU Teaching Blog will also be the place to post your plans for any new pedagogy or assignment that are incorporated in a course as a result of the workshop. You might remember that the Mellon Center will offer an additional $100 stipend for submitting a brief description of your curricular innovation. The blog posting need only be 250 words long.
To emphasize a conclusion we reached on the last day of the workshop, by "innovation" we mean one aspect of one course. For example, a single assignment or a structured component of the course's participation grade will be sufficient. Large-scale curricular revisions are great, to be sure, but certainly not expected or required for the nominal stipend.
One way to ensure that you get any new information from the workshop would be to subscribe to an RSS feed from our blog. You might remember that the RSS feeds can be delivered directly to your email client or web browser. If you have problems or questions on how to subscribe or on the options for subscription, please let us know.
Finally, some logistical details. The $250 stipend for participation in the workshop will appear in your July paycheck. Later in the summer, we will post an additional $100 for your blog posting that includes a description of your new pedagogical approach or assignment.
More later,
Frank
4 comments:
I'm willing to help anyone set up software to pick up this RSS feed - once the "team" blogging begins you can have content delivered right to your desktop!
Hey Frank,
Thanks for the info. But, am I missing something regarding how to contribute to this blog beyond a comment once we have our new curricular innovation to share? I swear I was paying attention during the workshop. :)
Natalie Smoak
Rick,
I'd love to use the RSS feed. Can you tell me how? thanks, Lynda
Preservice Teachers’ Blogs
I will use blog for my Teaching with Technology class. The goal of this course is to prepare elementary, middle school and high school preservice teachers to learn and teach using technology. Students will be required to maintain a web blog during the entire semester. They will blog their own learning experiences as they learn skills, discuss issues, and study trends in using technology in teaching K-12 curriculum. Most research in technology integration recommend to include documentation of preservice teachers’ value formation when in comes to technology integration. By keeping a blog students will be documenting their own learning experiences, inhibitions, dispositions and goals in integrating technology in teaching.
Students will be required to blog: (1) reflection of their learning experiences as they learn how to integrate technology in teaching; (2) their reactions to questions related to issues and trends in technology integration; (3) their reactions to activities and projects we do in class; and (4) their disposition towards technology integration.
I chose web blogs over the other web tools because web blogs can archive the learning that we will experience in class. Web blogs can facilitate reflection and analysis of these learning experiences. Also, blogging supports different learning styles. Through blogging students will be given the opportunity to share their ideas in writing and can take ownership of the material they create.
One of the major goals in this course is to document students’ disposition and value formation when it comes to technology integration. As future teachers, I would like my preservice teachers to be informed users of technology. Their web blogs will be used to inform my teaching as well as document their own learning experiences in technology integration.
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