Everything Turned In - CHECK

     The home stretch is upon us, well for me anyway. My sense of being overwhelmed has subsided and a sense of calm has replaced that anxiety.

A lot has happened along the way, from learning a ton of new tools and some historical background in Instructional Technology. But for me the one thing that has happened most is the bonding and collaboration that has happened in these past few weeks and months. ----- PRICELESS!!

Thanks everyone and I am looking forward to anouther session in the Fall.

Could the Internet spell the end of snow days?

Hey all, school has been canceled due to inclement wheather.

        Are you upset, or do you have a sigh of releif? Is this really what you wanted ... an extended weekend or shortened week? That will ultimatley lead to a shorter summer and extended year? So many thoughts and emotions in the single thought or experience of getting that phone call or information that your services wil be postponed or extended ... depends on which side of the fence your standing on.

Here is a great article that is writen very open-minded. What's your take?

My own perspective is this: The main point the article makes is that not everyone has access to a computer or even the Internet. Even though MOST do, you can not penilize the under-privaliged. With that said, their shortcomings could be made up at a public place like the library. BUT it's a snow day, so they are closed.

My second thought is, yes a lighter load on a particular week is nice, I've always thought and experienced that, it's a little more work preping for a day off, but more so, sorting through what the sub didn't do and how you have to reteach everything anyway, that maybe that day off just wasn't woth it at all.

Again ... my thoughts .... whats yours???

Monday 5/09/11

Another class has come and gone again. Tonight we had two tool presentations. Colleen did Cacoo and Jane did Flashcards from Proprofs.com. Both did an excellent job. We also had the first IT History presentation done by Darlene, Danyl and Jason. Again they also did an excellent job both in content and presentation.

I started a Wiki called Southern Maits. It is hopefully a site in which everyone will post their favorite or popular WEB2.0 tools. Some place for all of us to collect and library all these new cool tools we are discovering. I have a picture of Jing up because I completed my first Jing video of how to add a tool to the Wiki and was impressed if I have to say so with the results. Pretty cool instructional tool that has many ways it could be incorporated into an on-line teaching accessory.

Well it's going to be a busy week for sure. Finishing up our IT History presentation and continuing to work on the contract items incomplete. Thanks for visiting!

Monday 5/02/11

Well another night in the books as they say. Time really flew by tonight. We worked in our groups, collaborating on information, presentations, tools to use for, and individual responsibilities. Shana had a great idea about extending the IT History project back a week to give us more time to pull together. Having had 2 weeks off in a row, the class felt a little overwhelmed and that everyone agreed.

Looking at some WEB2.0 tools for timelines and story-boarding, we came across a cool site called CACOO. Colleen tried it and found it very easy to use and work on. It's collaborative friendly so our group can help add or edit material. The end results are pretty impressive as well, very professional looking and aesthetically pleasing to the eye.

We also talked about our Tool Time Presentation. It was brought to our attention that this "Tool" doesn't have to be a WEB2.0 Tool, but then again as cool as they are, why wouldn't you?  :-)

Monday 4/25/11

Was feeling a little under the weather this Monday. Ended up leaving around 6pm to head off to the Dr. He said I'll live and got me back on my feet! :-)  While I was on, we were trying to get some of our other classmates up to speed as far as using Wimba and some of it cool features. The main feature we were trying was sharing our screen as instructors. We even helped some people who were not seeing the correct screen on their computers, by showing a collaborators screen and actually watching them, cursor and all, walk through the process of where to click and what screen they should be seeing next. We then each talked about what we have accomplished and where we were heading as far as planning goes.  Then some of us broke off into breakout rooms and worked on group collaboration and what-have-yous.

Welcome to my Blog

Hey there fellow MAIT'ers. Took me a while to get this up and running, but better now than later :-) Last day of our break today. Relativly pleased with what was accomplished and with down time. Definitly recharged and anxtious to finnish up the school year!



The Dutchmans

 I bartend at The Dutchmans Brauhouse Resturant as my summer employment. Although, I do start there Friday and Saturday nights starting mid March and continuing throught the fall till around the first week of December. This year they are considering extending their open season a little longer. Details to follow.

One thing that I do have to say is their German beer is outstanding. To boot, everyday they are open, from 4 - 6, they have Happy Hour with $2 draft DAB's and half price appitizers. Very popular with the locals, because one thing they don't do is advertise it. So I'm letting you in on a great little secret! Come out and enjoy!