Scripture to Ponder

This is the day the Lord has made; Let us rejoice and be glad in it!

Psalms 118:24


Monday, August 30, 2010

Digital Storytelling Reflections:

Digital Storytelling is a great tool to use in any class. I enjoyed learning how to create a personal digital story. I had several ideas to use as my topic and ended up using the topic that was suggested by my daughter and a close friend. I think the process is a form of therapy and helped me get my thoughts and feeling on paper as well as in a story. The process made me realize that there's a story in everything you do. I think I will use this new skill to help me capture some memories of my father. It's been three years since he passed away, and I think it will help me in my grieving process. One suggestion I would give to someone tackling this would be to familiarize yourself with the software before creating the story. I used Photostory 3 and became frustrated when I typed all me script that I wanted to say in the available boxes. I did not realize that you lose it all if you do not record the narration before closing. I think using Photostory is simple, but it took me some time to learn the software. I wanted to add music, but I felt it took away from the voice narration. I hope to do many more stories, and to share this with teachers in my district.

Web Conference EDLD 5363 (Week 1)

I entered the EDLD 5363 Web Conference on August 26, 2009.  When I arrived, the conference had begun or I thought it had. I could see that many members were already in and there were about 4 participants successful with their cameras. It did not take me long to realize that the sound was not working and the chat room was all a buzz.  Dr. Abernathy tried her best to adjust her equipment and ask the members to be patient. I participated in several web conferences before, but do not consider myself an expert by no means. Once I was able to get my camera to work, but that was with the help of a friend on the board stepping me through it, telling me what to click.  This particular event, was frustrating because Dr. Abernathy could not get everyone's attentions to start the conversation. The members were asking each other questions and trying to set up their group work. Members were asking Dr. Abernathy a zillion questions at once. I confess that I did not stay on very long, especially after Dr. Abernathy regretted allowing so many to join at once.

I do know that when working with technology, it is apparent that there will be times when equipment will not work. The chat room was another way that they could participate. I think though, we assume that the proper conference etiquette is known by all. Maybe we should be assigned an article to read about this before this happens again.

Like I stated above, I have been involved in web conference with other courses, and they were very helpful and informative. In fact, this is why I participated on this assignment.

Life's Journey...Expect bumps along the way


I created this personal digital story for my assignment in EDLD 5363. This was my first one to create and I was able to gain a deeper understanding of what producers go through to create movies. I hope you enjoy it.

Sunday, August 15, 2010

We Interrupt 5301 Research

Brooklynn Grace & Braden Jeffery Hale

We arrived at 10:01 and 10:03 on Friday, August 13th
We made our Granna travel to Austin 'real' fast so she could make our arrival on Friday, even though she had her last assignment due by midnight. Brooklyn weighed 5lbs. 7oz. and Braden weighed 5lbs 13 1/2oz.

Saturday, August 7, 2010

Education Technology: Making Grades and Upgrades: Posting a Data Table in Blogger

Posting a Data Table in Blogger: by Matthew Kitchens: "Since I published my Action Research Plan in a table last week, I've received several emails from colleagues and classmates who wish to know..."

Thursday, August 5, 2010

21st Century Concepts

I have listed seven 21st Century skills that educators should be integrating:
  1. Creativity & Innovation
  2. Communication & Collaboration
  3. Research & Information Fluency
  4. Critical Thinking & Problem Solving
  5. Digital Citizenship
  6. Technology Literacy
  7. Growth & Leadership

Site Mentor Meeting

This is our 4th week in the Research course. I have started back to work and we have been busy! So much change is going to happen this year and we are getting positive support. It is exciting. I was able to meet with my site mentor and discuss the action plan. She had questions that I was able to answer easily. First one being who was going to partcipate. I really think she thought I was going to do the entire district! I could never tackle that magnitude on my first action project. Not even an entire campus. She was relieved when I told her that I would select the teachers and students from our technology committee. She shared a survey and self-assessment that we could use for the first task. After we got that cleared up we were in agreement with the entire plan and she spoke about the importance of this type of data. I am now excited and will soon be able to launch it! Of course, I am still open to any ideas and will make any changes if needed.

Tuesday, August 3, 2010

My Action Plan

I tried posting my plan, two separate ways, but it took too long for it to download. I will provide a link to it on Google Docs after a brief explanation and steps to accomplish my Action Research project.
Goal: Discover how the integration of 21st century skills impact student achievement and how to motivate teachers to create this environment in their teaching and learning.
Sample Group: 8-10 teachers and students from our technology committee (various grade levels and content areas)
  • Survey/Self-assessment (on Atomic Learning) "What are 21st century skills? How confident are you with integrating them?"
  • Identify the 21st Century concepts and skills (that is another post)
  • Assess BOY Technology proficiencies for teachers and students
  • Best practices for professional development (face-to-face trainings, PLC's, video-conferencing)
  • Training workshops for Atomic Learning and Easy Tech
  • Ongoing technology support in classroom
  • Walkthroughs, interviews
  • Create class blogs to track progress of project
  • Digital pictures; video of each teacher modeling a 21st century technology lesson
  • TAKs scores, benchmark scores (compare last year to this year)
  • BOY and EOY Technology exams for students and teachers
My Action Plan on Google Docs