Thing #19

Thing 19

1 -Plan to extend my classroom. 

I have been working on extending the reach of the Freshman Library since I started over 10 years ago, extending is a work in progress with the tools and opportunities changing and improving.  Because of this class I plan to reach a little farther, try some activities again with new tools, and speed up some of my plans. 

I will continue to put my handouts on project web pages but I am increasing my use of videos for directions.  In the past I have had some videos available at school for video, audio projects and directions for the library catalog but I’m now adding more videos for directions to classes that I lead in the library.  I’m working on creating the videos to cover library orientation and the citation class that goes along with orientation.  I’m also using Jing and screen cast to house and link to the videos so that students can access them from home.  Posting more online will allow students to work on their own at school or from home.  The videos of our online classes reminded me of the importance for students to be able to review information, even after attending an online class I have found it useful to scan back through the posted video.

Creating the videos improves my teaching by forcing me to be really organized and consider carefully what I want to cover, say and show to students.

I have also increased my use of and a few of my teacher’s use of Google Docs with students, I plan to increase the use of Google Docs.  I am working with teachers to help them use it to improve projects and make it more effective for them to keep track of the students work.

The different lessons and activities that are being posted online give the students the opportunity to work on and create their projects more at their own speed, giving the students different tools and approaches to use to successfully complete their projects.  Using tools like Google Docs increasing communication and collaboration. Creating activities that use different resources increases  opportunity to learn and use new resources and adapt to the new tools available.  Helping students learn to use new tools hopefully increases their opportunity to learn how to learn and adapt on their own to the changing electronic world.

The more tools I use and post for students the more the staff I work with will try.  If I can show how online tools help me and the students, more teachers are willing to give new tools a try.

2- Navigating the Land of Online Learning.

Students will need to make sure they understand the requirements of the class they take, that they can schedule time to work online and can seek technical support when needed.  Students will need to be motivated to work on their own and be mature enough to understand the responsibilities of online class work.