Last night was my first night teaching a course for students with learning disabilities of different descriptions, and their parents. The students paid for the course, but the parents attend for free. My reasoning was that parents have always been the strongest advocates for their children, their best teachers, and their greatest source of support. I was overwhelmed by the response to the course, and pleased to see that every child had a parent in attendance.
Our learning intention was to establish what the course objectives were, and then to begin talking in the language of computers and the Internet.
Our course objectives are to find common factors between programs so that we can learn them more quickly, to learn some basic file management ideas, and to get comfortable navigating the computer folder system for future assignments.
Our next assignment will involve graphics and art. I took all the kids pictures with a webcam, and they moved them into folders. Now we will learn some basic graphic skills, and make "disguises" with those pictures. Then they will use their pictures to plan a story, using an online story planning tool which creates "bubble diagrams." These bubble diagrams are better done on a computer than with pencil and paper becuase you can change their organization, cut and paste parts of your plan, share your plan with other students, and then save it in different places (a document, or a blog) so that you will not lose it. And its free. I will write more on this series after Wednesday. And if any of my students from the course are reading this - how smart of you....now go do your typing homework!
Showing posts with label workshops. Show all posts
Showing posts with label workshops. Show all posts
Tuesday, April 8, 2008
Friday, February 15, 2008
Oh crackers - I talked to long again!
I gave my first district level workshop on Friday. It was for people to get started using SharePoint websites. SharePoint websites offer students the ability to add things to websites, and work collaboratively, while still being held accountable for their actions. Because everything a student does or says is tagged on the website automatically, they have to be socially responsible in word and deed. Also, because it is password protected, the wrong kind of people can't go onto my virtual classroom website, and access my students' work or their pictures.
There were so many people in the first session, and I was really pleased that some of them had already started creating virtual classrooms with SharePoint version 2. There were many things that didn't go according to plan:
I lost temporary access to the internet (couldn't be helped though, and it always came back)
I was asked some questions I couldn't answer, especially about SharePoint version 3. Same-same, but different.
One computer booted up, and the desktop was upside down, and the mouse was oriented backwards.
One computer didn't bootup at all. Argh.
It was nice to share what I find most exciting with other educators that think the same, and see the same educational opportunities. Some people had new ideas that I might be able to use in my own classroom. But, I had lots to share, and didn't give enough time for people to just play (only 20 minutes). In the future, I must stop giving examples sooner, and leave more time to play. I talked as long as I did however so that people could see a variety of ways to use SharePoint websites for educational purposes.
So what is more valuable - the examples to get people thinking about their own classrooms, or the playtime to practice learning the skills?
People seemed to like the presentation, but will the slideshow that I published online using google documents be helpful? That's the beauty of google docs and working with teachers. If I get some feedback from a teacher who wants me to alter the directions on the slideshow on working with SharePoint, then I can edit it in it's published state. It becomes a living document, but not like a wiki (where the community controls it). I welcome feedback, but I still want to retain editing control over my workshop materials.
I hope this leads to me working with small groups of teachers who are interested in creating virtual classrooms.
There were so many people in the first session, and I was really pleased that some of them had already started creating virtual classrooms with SharePoint version 2. There were many things that didn't go according to plan:
I lost temporary access to the internet (couldn't be helped though, and it always came back)
I was asked some questions I couldn't answer, especially about SharePoint version 3. Same-same, but different.
One computer booted up, and the desktop was upside down, and the mouse was oriented backwards.
One computer didn't bootup at all. Argh.
It was nice to share what I find most exciting with other educators that think the same, and see the same educational opportunities. Some people had new ideas that I might be able to use in my own classroom. But, I had lots to share, and didn't give enough time for people to just play (only 20 minutes). In the future, I must stop giving examples sooner, and leave more time to play. I talked as long as I did however so that people could see a variety of ways to use SharePoint websites for educational purposes.
So what is more valuable - the examples to get people thinking about their own classrooms, or the playtime to practice learning the skills?
People seemed to like the presentation, but will the slideshow that I published online using google documents be helpful? That's the beauty of google docs and working with teachers. If I get some feedback from a teacher who wants me to alter the directions on the slideshow on working with SharePoint, then I can edit it in it's published state. It becomes a living document, but not like a wiki (where the community controls it). I welcome feedback, but I still want to retain editing control over my workshop materials.
I hope this leads to me working with small groups of teachers who are interested in creating virtual classrooms.
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