New Member

[Vanessa Hamilton]

Hi I am a new member to WSI IT and MACUL. I am currently a masters student at WSU in K-12 Instructional Technology.

[LINDSEY BREWSTER]

What have you found challenging?

[Vanessa Hamilton]

Probably discovering all the different technology and uses for technology in the class room. Before starting this program I thought of the computer has just a time filler where students could play games when finished with their assignments, now I try to use it more as an educational tool. Another challenge for me is finding the time to incorporate the technology into my lesson plans. I like the idea of designing powerpoints and curriculum webs for my students, but working full time and going to school plus home life leaves me little precious time to do this.

[Jennifer Gorsline]

I agree, but once we are done with school, I hope to use that extra time to start integrating more things into my class. In my experience, it is easier to pick 1 or 2 things a year to focus on trying to integrate in, rather than trying to do everything at once. Two years ago my focus was on using Moodle. Last year, it was doing more things using The Geometer's Sketchpad. This year, it was integrating in a new graphing calculator (The TI-Nspire) and Wikis.

[Brent Falke]

You are absolutely right. I think incorporating technology should be taken at incremental steps. Otherwise, teachers will burn themselves out with all of the stress. My favorite thing students use is PhotoStory3. It's fun to hear that they go home, put it on their own computers and use it in their spare time.

Are you on the Moodle site? I joined that one because I'm interested in what Moodle can do for our school. However, no one uses it, so I'm not even really familiar with it.

[Tim Zdrodowski]

Brent, if you want to see how I am currently using my Moodle site, go to:
http://epark.pccs.k12.mi.us
Click "Science"
Click "Biology I - Zdrodowski, Tim"
Choose to "Login as a guest"

[Andrew Birt]

Thanks for sharing, Tim. I wish I could be organized enough to do something like that! I am lucky if I have the full weeks plans finished before Monday morning.

I need to contact my school's IT department and have them install Moodle on our server...

[Leslie Shellie]

Jennifer,

How did you incorporate Wikis?

[Ramiah Qasem]

Wikis is a great form of communication instead of e-mail. You can edit a document, save it for others to see and leave comments for your group as well. It is similar to google docs.

[Vanessa Hamilton]

How did you like the Geometer Sketchpad? I was thinking of integrating that also into my class. I agree, it is best to slowly integrate and become proficient in one area before moving on to another.