Wednesday, May 18, 2011

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, May 9, 2011

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, May 2, 2011

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?  :-)