When first we met...

When first we met...

Course Participant Make Up

This is my first time teaching a course at this level and although I have lead professional development for years, I wanted to see what I was up against. So, I asked that everyone answer a few questions about themselves and their level tech savvy. This will prove to be very useful to me as I plan for the course sessions and assignments.

Describe Yourself as a Technology User

Using a Google Form for the survey I was able to quickly find out that less than half the participants are currently teaching and the group ranges from undergraduate through post graduate. Sixty percent viewed themselves as proficient users, thirty percent as developing users and a few as emerging users. The data collected about varying categories of applications yielded some interesting information and did not exactly line up with my assumptions about the participants in this course. 

As we spent some time introducing ourselves to the rest of the class there were varying backgrounds and experiences. This provides for some diversity and will allow us to learn from and support one another throughout the semester. I look forward to some unique and meaningful projects and outcomes.

" " From the Participants

~ Now being a public school teacher, we embrace technology so I want to learn as much as I can to use in my classrooms now/future!

~ I am often reluctant to use certain applications because of not knowing how to use them and not having the time to learn how to use them myself.

~ I am particularly interested in using ... technology to support something I started in my classroom last year called the Curiosity Project where students try to find out more about something that interests them and then share what they learn with the rest of the class.

~ I hope to be able to feel more comfortable using technology within the classroom. I also want to use technology more and I don't want to feel like it is too difficult and not worth the effort of learning.

I wasn't able to pull direct quotes from all the submissions but all mentioned something about the desire to learn new applications, become aware of the volume of new tools for teachers and learn themselves how to learn technology. 

EdTech Proficiency is the Learning Goal of this Course perhaps one of the strategies to put in place in achieving that goal might be learning to learn EdTech. IF each of us asks good questions, IF each of us shares what we know, and IF each of us follows our curiosity, emerging and developing users will become proficient and those that are proficient may just become power users.

About My Own Practice

Video Conferencing

Zoom is a new tool for me and I am figuring it out as are many of the participants. It took us a few minutes to all get into the video call and get the screen arranged so we could both see and be seen. It always takes a little practice to figure out muting microphones and cameras at appropriate times.

I need to ask everyone to use their full name when signing on for the session as that will help me put faces to names and names to faces. This will be particularly important as I begin to more closely monitor participation and contributions to the discussions.

I also have to figure out how to better manage viewing participants while sharing my screen. When I shared my screen I lost most of the participant tiles and had to scroll to see people. I also lost the chat window and that is an important feature to capture questions and comments. So, the teacher has some homework as well.

I am going to try to utilize a variety of tools during the course online meetings to allow for modeling and demonstrations of the tool being used during that particular class. This past week I used Zoom, of course, Google Forms as mentioned earlier and also introduced EdPuzzle for the Blogger tutorial. 

I was a little nervous at the start but once the session got under way I felt pretty comfortable. I am looking forward to reading the first blog post from each of the participants and also to the course meeting and discussion this coming Tuesday.