We are in Week # 4!

The summer and this course has passed me right by! We are in the fourth week of the course already! I am amazed and excited how quickly time has flown. I have learned quite a bit in this course in a short amount of time. I have gained experience creating a WebQuest, a website, getting to know Moodle (from the instructor perspective) and creating a presence for myself in a online community.

This course has afforded me with knowledge and skills that I can and will carry into my professional career. I have become knowledgeable of new technologies from my classmates that I did not know existed. I am grateful for the diversity of our class - teachers, non teachers, trainers, etc this has allowed us all to present different ideas or suggestions on the discussion board. I think that is quite beneficial for ALL students. I will take a great deal away from this class and I am glad I chose to take this course.

Tina

Clarification

Well we have received clarification on our website design assignment. I am still a bit hazy on this, but with the teacher's response I think I have a firmer grasp on this concept that before. I am a bit more confident that I understand what is expected - he will also attempt to post sample assignments which will be very useful.

I think that I will use Excel for the table capabilities and I will go ahead and play around with Gliffy to see how it can be beneficial for this assignment. At least at this point I can begin to start on the assignment with and understanding of what is expected. I am glad however, that I was not alone in my confusion - other students stressed the same confusion as I.

We will see how this goes...

Tina

Website Design

This week we are working towards a website design assignment. To say the least I am completely baffled as to how to begin. I understand the requirements for the assignment, but I am not quite sure how to present them. I am not alone, other students in the course has posed the same question. We are awaiting Dr. Ingram's response.

On a happy note, the semester is winding down and I went to Grad Fair today. It doesn't seem like it has been two years already but it has. The time has flown! I am very excited and yet nervous because I don't know my next step in life. Maybe I'll just sign back up for school, but we will see.

Back to the website design assignment...maybe if I begin by creating objectives and goals I may get an idea of the next step. We will see.

to be continued....

Moving Forward

Now that we have gotten past the webquest assignment I can breathe a little easier. Even though the assignment was time consuming, I got a lot out of it. It helped me to reflect on the importance of creating a diverse environment as well as becoming very methodical. It makes one think ahead in order to create a truly effective assignment for students.

The webquest assignment is one that teaches us how to teach others. It breaks up the monotony of traditional lecture based teaching and gets students involved. It allows students to take some ownership of their leanings - which could increase their engagement, especially if it's a topic that they have a great deal of interest in. Students can take from this probably more than a lecture can offer. Utilizing other teaching methods will keep the classroom interesting as well as create a climate of inclusiveness. I think in all the assignment was much needed and important in developing each students skills.

Webquest Assignment

So I have finally completed my webquest assignment using Quest Garden. It took a whole lot more work than I thought it would. I assumed that because the template was already created that plugging in the information would be quite simple. I found this quickly to not be the case - plugging in the necessary information was quite time consuming and difficult for me. Knowing exactly what was too much and what was too little; when to include graphics and when not to; how to relay information for elementary school students, etc. The process became a bit overwhelming at times, but I just had to work on other assignments and come back to it.

Now that I am finished with it and I am looking at the finished product, I am quite happy with it. It turned out the way I expected it to, it looks aesthetically appealing and is written to speak to 3-5 grade students. I believe that the webquest will do a lot of good in helping those same students become comfortable with cultural differences and be able to put there thoughts into respectable words for future discussions on the topic. I hope that the assignment is well received.

Tina

Classes for me have been very busy! I have spent a great deal of time creating a Webquest and locating tools that will not make them look so boring. I ended up using Quest Garden which was very user friendly, but there was some technical difficulties with the site quite a bit. It became very important that you work ahead of time if you are faced with a deadline because the site is continuously experiencing difficulties.

After getting started on the Webquest I decided to teach to elementary school learners which was very different for me. The projects that I usually create are for college students, so that was new to me. I found myself having to return to various sections and simplify the wording in order for a elementary school student to be able to understand it.

In the end I think that it will be very successful and encourage students to become culturally competent. Students will be able to understand why each person looks differently and even speaks differently. It will help them understand and appreciate each other uniqueness.

Tina

Webquest Assignment

I have been considering topics for my webquest and have decided on the topic of "requesting transcripts". As I have mentioned I work full time in the Registrar's office on campus and deal with students, employees, alumni, etc. The question that has been asked over and over and over has been "How do I request my transcripts?" I have come to the conclusion that either no one likes to read or the Registrar's homepage is not thorough enough.

It amazes me how many times a day I receive that very same question and I have to give the information out over and over. I figured by creating a thorough step-by-step webquest would decrease the number of times I have to repeat myself, at least than I could direct them to the Webquest. My audience is one that I know well and the Webquest would work because it allows one to update information quickly, link multiple pages, create user and instructor manuals and easily accessible.

I am hoping that the Webquest will allow me to regain my sanity. Otherwise I will just record myself recitng the instructions and just play that every time someone ask me "How do I request my transcripts?"

To be continued...