Thinking differently...

Last week in class was a lot of fun for me! I thoroughly enjoyed the debate activity and thought it was very appropriate for what the group was talking about! I originally thought that our Team! got the short end of the stick on what we had to debate but I actually ended up convincing myself while trying to win (competitive much?!). We argued that it is better to force students to use technology that they are not currently using and I now truly believe that. I knew that this class would push me out of my comfort zone (which is extremely small) when it comes to technology, but I also knew that in order to stay current and keep moving forward, I needed to expand my knowledge and students need the same thing.

The other team discussed synchronous teaching and I currently have very strong feelings on this! Our whole degree is done with synchronous teaching and I think there are pros and cons that come with this. On the positive side, it makes the education more available to the greater population and can be more flexible than a face to face class. On the other end, it seems there is always some type of issue with Wimba kicking someone out or the camera not working, or someone's chat bar not working. I think that it would be cool to use Skype or something like that in my classroom if I wanted to have a guest speaker that was from my home state.

The Facebook Fast is going surprising well! The only time that I am tempted to log back on is when I have extended down time. However, my time spent on Pinterest has increased significantly so I don't really know if I'm being more productive.

Until next time...

First Team Tech Talk

Last week I participated in my first TTT! I thought this was a great experience. I learned more about flipping the classroom by teaching it to someone else that I did when I was just reading about it. Some things that I learned about it is that there can be a LOT of down time for the teachers if the students do not need any help. I don't know about the rest of my team but this kind of caught me off guard! Despite being sick that day, I had a lot of fun with my team and I look forward to being able to work with them again on our next TTT on Twitter :) On another technology note, I have recently given up Facebook for Lent and it is KILLING me!!! Since last Wednesday (when Lent began) I have found myself on Pinterest much more. I guess Pinterest is now my number one way to waste time. :) Tomorrow will mark one whole week without Facebook and I think I do fine as long as I say busy. Anyway, I guess I will post progress reports for myself on here until Easter!

What a week!!

So this is my Tech Talk Team! is presenting for the first time and we are really excited! Our subject matter is flipping the classroom and I feel like I have learned so much. It's a crazy week in every other class I have as well so I'm ready to start knocking things off of that to do list! It has been a joy to work with my fellow group members on this project. On the plus side of this week, it is Valentine's Day on Thursday and I get to spend the holidays by helping others show love to their significan others by working at the florist!!

BoOkMaRkInG

Now here is a topic I can get into, PINTEREST! Sometimes when I find these time-sucking sites I wonder what we did before there were such things to waste our time on. :) For the class that I am teaching now, I think bookmarking could become a small part of the class. The students have to participate in a service learning project of their choosing. I thought it might be neat to use pinterest for the service learning projects that would allow them to implement something crafty with what they are doing. Like if one group chooses to work with children in some capacity, this would be a great opportunity for them to find some bookmarks on Pinterest and use them when they are working with the kids. Obviously this idea is not fully developed but I think this would be a great way to incorporate some of the things we do in every day life, like "pinning", into the classroom and learning environment.

When I think about teaching with technology...

... I think about being frustrated. It unnerves me to think of all of the potential problems there could be when teaching with technology. As an educator, I try to not rely, solely, on technology and to always have a back up plan if things are not cooperating that day. On the other hand, I think that technology is a great way to bring the "here and now" into the classroom and with the incorportation of social media into the curriculum, we can help bridge the gap between the students' lives in the classroom and out of the classroom. I am excited to get to work with a great group of people when it comes to our team tech talks and learn more about flipping the classroom and twitter. I think our class can all learn from these topics and it will be fun to work with the group of people I have been assigned to.

EDHI 9040

So I will be completely honest, I am totally new to blogging and am not comfortable with most technology. I enrolled in this class in order to hopefully become more comfortable in the technical world in hopes to improve my teaching and become a more marketable individual on the job search! I am a native of Arkansas and am happy to be in Georgia furthering my education. I'm not quite sure what else to put on here but I hope to improve as a blogger as the semester progresses.